Title: Trash

Author: AishiteSubete

Rating: T

Summary: "You spent eons telling us how important that hat was, and then you just threw it away...like a lot of things." You just threw it away...like me. Prompt: "abandoned" implied Ash/Misty.

Trash.

The letter in my hand was just that-trash. Well, if you would have given it to me a year or so ago, I would have cherished it, and it wouldn't have been trash. But today is different from a year ago, and I'm a different person now than I was then. I was more mature. I was stronger, more intelligent, and a much better Pokemon trainer than I had once been.

I just wish he could see that.

The sheet of yellow stationery paper (why the hell did he carry stationary paper with him, anyway?) was written in his familiar, nearly-unintelligible handwriting, and evoked emotion in me that I didn't know I could feel. I felt like crying, I felt like smiling, and I felt like ripping up the letter and watching it burn in my fireplace. It read:

Dear Misty,

Guess what? I've done it! I've gotten all of my badges from the Johto League! :D I'm going to be coming back to see you soon, so save a battle for me when I get there! I want to see how much better you've gotten since we've been apart!

Much love, Ash Ketchum.

He had enclosed a picture of himself-new and updated-with some other girl that I didn't know. Just seeing her made my gut wrench in agony, and I felt so entirely jealous. I didn't know the girl, and I already hated her. I looked closely at the photo, and noticed something-Ash's signature baseball cap wasn't on his head. Instead, it was replaced by some solid black one, one that I had never seen before.

"You spent eons telling us how important that hat was," I mused to myself, putting the photo and the letter back in the envelope, and laying it on my desk, "and then you just threw it away...like a lot of things. Like me."

I took the envelope and shoved it under my oversized computer monitor-somewhere I would never see it again. I stood, brushing the dust off my denim shorts, and went back into the arena of the Cerulean City gym. My Pokemon were down there, waiting for me; some immediately perked up when they saw me walk by.

I'd have to make sure the gym was closed the day he came into town.