Broken Dreams and New Beginnings: Old Wounds Never Heal

By: Shagti2

Brock looked over to his friend, Ash. He was staring out of the window, silent and seemingly in thought. Brock sighed, and turned his attention back to the road. Ever since their confrontation with Gary and Duplica, Ash had seemed a bit introspective and withdrawn.

The morning sun rose in it’s brilliant glory, almost blinding Brock, making half scowl, half smile at the sight.

“Damned sunrise,” he muttered with a smile on his face. Ash nodded his head automatically, making Brock wonder if Ash actually was listening.

They traveled on for a half hour, before the next word was spoken.

“Misty,” Ash said suddenly. Brock looked at him questioningly.

“Urr…. What about her?” Brock asked.

Ash stopped staring out the window to look at Brock. “ She’s the reason this all happened.”

“Now where did you come up with that?” Brock asked, starting to wonder about Ash’s mental stability.

Ash stretched his arms a little. A faint, sad smile appeared on his stubbled face.

“You see, I had liked her. Way back when we were traveling together,” Ash said.

Brock chuckled softly. He would have to stop through a few towns on the way to pick up some money.

“What happened?” he asked, urging his companion on.

“ Tracey happened,” Ash replied.

Brock almost lost control of the station wagon. He pressed on the brakes firmly, causing the car to come to a screeching halt. Thankfully, both were wearing their seatbelts, and the fabric restrained them from causing their heads to crash through the windshield.

Ash looked at him, wild-eyed and incredulous. Brock snapped his head towards his frightened friend.

“You have so much filling in to do!” Brock practically shouted.

Ash tried to catch his breath. “Ok, ok! Just don’t kill me, man!”

After a few seconds, Ash told him about it.

“It’s rather simple. Tracey developed a crush on her, same as I did. Only thing is, he acted on it. He took the chance and asked her out. Misty most likely liked him, too. I couldn’t handle seeing them together, so I called it quits and I left them for a while.

“Then I met Duplica,” Ash said, almost gagging on his former girlfriends name. “You do the math.”

Brock sighed, not for the first time. “ I get it. You think if you never loved Misty, you would never have left the group and gotten together with Duplica.”

Ash nodded his head in agreement. “Right. I’m not blaming her, I’m just saying.”

Brock folded his arms. “So how come you never told her anything? At least to explain why?”

Ash sighed as the memories came back. “I did.”

Without another word, he raised his forearms and bared them. Across both, long, thin burn scars laced there way across them. Brock grimaced.

“Misty did that?” Brock asked incredulously. Ash nodded his head no.

“Tracey did it,” he corrected.

Brock swore under his breath. “Dammit, that must have hurt!”

Ahs shook his head. “You better believe it. They came from the iron he had in his hands when he went into the blind jealous rage,” Ash said, quoting the “blind, jealous rage” with his fingers.

As he folded back up his sleeves, Ash let loose a soft laugh. Brock cocked his eyebrow at him.

“What’s so funny?” he asked.

Ash looked at him, with a genuine smile on his face. “If I were in his position, I would have made sure I would have gotten him!”

Brock looked at him. Soon, both were laughing hysterically as the vehicle resumed it’s course on the highway.

The laughter died down, and for the first time since they began this trip, Brock saw the beginnings of Ash’s old sparkle in his eye.

They passed a large restaurant at the side. Ash looked at him, and then he heard it.

Ash’s stomach rumbled.

As he did when he saw the sunrise, Brock half-cursed, half smiled. The car once again pulled off the road, and they pulled in to the parking lot.

“Hey, Brock!” Ash called out, as he got out of the station wagon.

“What?” he replied, as he closed the door to his side.

Ash broke out into a run. “Last one there, pays for breakfast!”

Ok, people. Im working on a little prequel to this, so it would be a little bit more clear. Please, I enjoy your comments, and I would like to know what I’m doing right, and what I’m doing wrong. Send that to Shagti2@aol.com and send all of your flames to Shoveitupyour@ss.com! G’night Gracie!