Chapter 19: Replace


     "So you guys have stopped arguing?" Vicky asked hopefully and I
grinned at Nathan. It was so great to have Nathan acting like himself
again.

     "Yep!" he answered cheerfully, and he put his arm around my
shoulder. The Beautiflys in my stomach were working overtime. My best
friend was back, and he gotten back to being the guy who I had fallen
for. 

     "This is the first time I've ever seen you happy," Zach remarked
and that made both Nathan and I laugh. 

     "When we first met, I was the quiet one and he was the loud, happy
one," I exclaimed, answering the bewildered looks from Vicky, Sam and
Zach. Josh had seen Nathan act normal. They hadn't.

     I was so relieved to hear Nathan's laugh again, and I had even
forgotten where we were going. Oh yeah, to Petalburg so I could battle
my Daddy! I wondered what the next city was...

     My thoughts were answered when I saw the tall buildings, namely,
the Devon building.

     "Oh, no, not here," I moaned and Vicky, Zach, Sam and Josh gave me
an odd look. Me and Nathan had failed to tell them about what Taylor had
done the last time when we were here, getting our first badges. It
seemed like so long ago...

     "I wonder if they've set up a new Pokemon Center," Nathan thought
aloud and I grimaced.

     "Yeah, did you guys here about the fire that went on there about
two months ago?" asked Sam conversationally. Two months?! It hadn't
seemed THAT long ago. Nathan and I exchanged a look, neither of us
knowing how to respond.

     "Yeah, we were staying there when it happened!" I told him. I
searched through my bag until I pulled out the key from the room that we
had stayed in. Room 301. I would never forget it, simply because that
was the place where Nathan and I had almost kissed.

     "Wow, that's scary!" Zach exclaimed. I knew that I would never
tell, as would Nathan, that we were about to kiss when I had first smelt
the gasoline. They had had enough excitement for the day.

     "Yeah," I said unexcitedly and my mind turned to the memory of the
kiss that should've been. If it had happened, would Nathan and I be
going out? Or would we have already gone out and broken up? Scary
thoughts...

     I began to fall behind the group and Nathan fell behind with me.
"Do you think we would be going out if it had happened?" he asked me. I
knew exactly what he was talking about. The almost kiss was in his
thoughts, too. 

     "I don't know. Don't you remember how you would always say that you
could never picture us together?" I reminded him.

     "I lied. I can actually picture us going out, but it's hard to
believe it would ever happen," he said thoughtfully.

     "I can picture us, too, but you know, everyone always asks us if
we're together anyways," I said.

     "Are you saying that we should try going out?" Nathan asked me with
a suspicious look.

     "Well, no, I was just bringing up that fact." Damn! I had blown my
chance! "Well, look we're here... At the new Pokemon Center," I said,
abruptly changing the subject.

     I gripped Nathan's hand as we walked through the door. I don't
think the other one was too old, and it looked exactly the same. "Hi,
can I help you?" asked the nurse on duty.

      "Yeah, we'd like three rooms..." I said unsurely, hating that we
were staying there.

     "Here are your keys. You all have rooms 301, 302 and 303."

     "Thank you," I said with a smile, but my heart was plummeting on
the ugly carpet. Room 301? But that was my room last time, where Nathan
and I had almost...

     "Jenn? Bunk with me?" Nathan asked. I smiled at him. 

     "Sure, why not? INNW?"

     "There you go with that damn INNW thing..." he muttered.

     "Here, Jenn," said Vicky, plopping a key in my hand. It was for
room 301.

     I thought I was about to faint, but I didn't. I simply smiled at
Vicky, told everyone good night and then fell on the bed once we go
inside. 

     "This is where it all started," Nathan said unbelievingly. 

     "Everything looks exactly the same." I don't know why we did it,
but Nathan and I simultaneously leaped off our spots on the bed and the
couch and leaned against the bed. It was where we had sat before. Very
bizarre. 

    We tried to sit there and talk, but it was too strange. I knew it
wasn't exactly where we sat, the place where we had sat was ashes now,
but it was so similar and brought back so many memories. Eventually, we
went to bed and I wondered what tomorrow would bring.