Paul and Dawn: First Light

Chapter 43: Drama

Chapter 43: Drama 

The next day, Dawn called Zoey on her Pokegear from the hallway right outside our room and argued about how many people Zoey had blabbed to about her injury. It was very satisfying to hear Dawn standing up for herself and not take 'no' for an answer.  

"No, you can't ever tell Kenny anything that's happening in my life! If you tell him what I'm up to again, even if I tell you I had oatmeal for breakfast, I swear I'm not going to talk to you anymore. You know how much I hate him!" Dawn yelled. 

I told myself I wasn't listening in, but it was too tempting. Not to mention loud. She had a big mouth- I knew that better than anyone. 

"Dawn, he's not that bad-" 

"Not that bad!? He almost hurt my fractured wrist! If it weren't for Paul-" 

"Paul!? You're still with Paul!?" 

"YES, I'm with Paul!" Dawn shrieked.  

"Like... with with Paul or just with Paul?" Zoey was quieter, calculating. 

"Like with- oh, it's none of your business!" 

"Dawn, you're scaring me." 

"I'm scaring you? Seriously? Why don't you learn to mind your own business and stop asking me about my own private feelings!" 

"So you DO have feelings for him!" 

"I didn't say that." A defensive tone. 

"Dawn, Paul's a horrible person! You shouldn't-" 

"Good bye, Zoey." 

The conversation ended- Dawn had hung up. I put my book back up to my face as she stomped through the door.  

"Hi." I didn't look up, pretending to be immersed in whatever was on the page- I hadn't checked. 

"Your book is upside down," Dawn informed me, grabbing it with her good hand. Her intuitiveness grew every day just as mine seemed to slip away- an upside down book, really. Surely I wasn't becoming that weak minded.  

I sat up quickly, getting out of Dawn's way as she sat down roughly on my bunk and made herself comfortable. "So, what'd you think of our conversation?" 

She seemed pretty angry and I decided to play it safe with my answer, "I think you've really grown a backbone, Dawn." 

"Funny. I traded my wrist for a spine." 

"You should be proud." 

"I'm just... angry at Zoey." She frowned. "Why does everyone have to be so manipulative and have to think they know what's best for me?" 

I shrugged. 

Her face turned towards me. "You're never manipulative. You just let me do what I want. You give advice and you only ever order me to do something if it'll keep me safe. Like at Meteor Falls. You don't go around matchmaking and say you know what's best for everyone." 

I nodded slowly, wondering where this was going. Her mood was so different than normal. 

"Why can't everyone be like you???" Dawn asked loudly. 

"Because if everyone was like me, there wouldn't be kind, optimistic people like you to make the vast hoards of Pauls feel all kinds of irritated." I sighed, wanting to put my head in my hands and rub my face. I'd never really wanted to do that before. Strange. 

"What do you mean by 'all kinds' of irritated?" Dawn questioned. 

Oh, just that our growing collection of "moments" together kept resurfacing in my mind, making it hard to sleep at night, making it hard to even reply to what she was saying without feeling the need to-!