Summer Days

by Alex The Lone Wolf


Day 4 - Love

We had been spending the days preparing for the day of the competition, but I never did tell you about one of the real reasons I started working out with you. Yes, I did also want to prep myself up for when we'd compete, but there was something else that motivated me to be more active. That, however, is for another chapter of our story.

During one of our training sessions, you were surprised to have a sudden visitor. Rather, it was an admirer who had been doing some admiring from afar as you worked out.


"I think that's good enough for today." I shared, wiping the sweat off my forehead and extremely willing to dunk myself into a cool pool of water.

"I'm starving." Athena mentioned. "Let's see what we can find in the fridge." She proceeded to turn in the direction of our home until she appeared to be suddenly caught off-guard by something. "Oh!"

Taking a glance at what had caught her attention myself, I noticed a creamy-coated mare standing by our street watching us. As soon as we had noticed her, she immediately appeared to grow flustered and began fumbling around as if she was trying to disguise the fact that she had been observing us.

"Is that Coco?" Athena's excitement back to rise. "Coco! Hi!"

As Athena and I began to approach her, Coco began messing with her hair. She appeared to brush and straighten it out until we were in front of her. "Oh…um…hi." She glanced at me every now and then, but she mainly looked towards Athena.

"We didn't get to see you afterschool the other day." Athena remembered. "Did you have to go practice again?"

"Yes, unfortunately…" Coco lowered her head downwards as she answered. "It'll be our graduation before we know it, and my parents want me to be prepared when I start working towards my career…"

"So, you're really settling with dressmaking, huh?" Athena asked.

"I like the idea of creating new types of things that ponies will hopefully use." Coco bashfully bumped her hooves as she said this. "It kind of feels like cooking in a way, but I'd rather there not be any kind of chance of giving somepony food poisoning with my cooking."

It sounded like a joke, but Coco Pommel wasn't really a jokester to begin with, so I was afraid that it might have been a serious comment.

"You're always so serious about your work." Athena mentioned with determined eyes. "You're bound to make it big. I know you will!"

"Thanks." Coco shared a small smile. "Oh! And look what I got." She began shuffling through her schoolbag that she had for some reason. "I was so lucky to come across this! These things are hard to come by, and there was only one more left in the shop!" She revealed a rainbow-colored spool towards us. It was definitely something we didn't see everyday. Perhaps, it was the first and only time we've seen a spool like that. "I'm going to wait and see what kind of design I can come up with to use this on."

"It looks cool!" Athena eyed the spool for a while until she oddly looked my way. I suppose she realized I hadn't been talking much, so she decided to drag me into the conversation. "Right, Alex?"

"O-oh, yeah…" There was a reason I hadn't been really talking, and that was because Coco was right here in front of us.

Coco switched her look over to me and revealed her timid yet absolutely adoring eyes. I was stuck staring silently at them until she embarrassingly smiled and broke our gaze by looking away.

"Thanks…"

"By the way, what are you doing here, Coco? I didn't expect to see you around these parts." Athena asked.

"I came back from doing a little shopping." Coco explained. "I haven't really seen or spoke with you two in a while, so I thought I might…well…stop by."

"Aww. That's so sweet of you! We should really hang out some more, Coco! It's summer break, after all!" Athena encouraged.

"I really want to, but my parents have been kind of pushing me to focusing on my work." I didn't get what was up about Coco's parents. I guess they really wanted her to succeed at her dreams, but she seemed a little too…restricted. I could see in Coco's eyes that she shared Athena's enthusiasm, but the thought of her parents was keeping those eyes of hers from being too expressive about it. "I'll try though! I'm sure I could squeeze some time with you two!"

"If there's anything we can do to help, let us know!" Athena appeared to fully reclaim the energy we had lost from our morning routine. "We've got all summer, so we should make the most of it!"

Coco's smile stretched, and she nodded as if she was motivated by Athena's words. "Yeah!" Unfortunately, it appeared she had forgotten that she was in the middle of doing something important. "Oh, sorry, guys. I should probably get going. I don't want my parents wondering where I'm at."

"No problem!" Athena immediately stretched out her hooves and hugged Coco with all the love she could spare. "See you soon!"

Coco was slightly surprised by Athena's gesture, but she easily accepted it nonetheless, having been the victim of Athena's hugs multiple times already. Once they pulled away, she shyly looked over to me and lightly waved with a bashful smile. "Bye."

"Bye…" I raised my hoof to wave her back, but I had suddenly been pushed towards her. Both of us grunted in surprise when our chests somewhat forcefully collided, and I had immediately began feeling heat surge through me when my forelegs hung around her for support. It took me a few seconds to pull away and immediately apologize. Honestly, it felt more like minutes or even hours. "Sorry!"

Although her face was red hot as if she had just finished a marathon, she shook her head quickly and responded to me. "D-d-don't worry about it! B-b-bye!" She turned and immediately began walking off in a fast pace.

I already knew who the culprit had been. I turned to face the one who intentionally pushed me and began to question her actions with a rather unintentional glare. "What was that all about?!"

"I wanted you to hug her." Athena simply explained. "And I knew you weren't going to do it on your own, so I decided to give you a…push." She proceeded to lightly giggle at her comedic expression.

I only sighed and wiped my face in frustration. "And because you did that, she probably thinks I'm a weirdo now."

"Oh, Alex." Athena shook her head as if she was my superior. "You can be so dumb sometimes. Who was the one that got you two talking in the first place? Who was the one that encouraged you to say something and stopped you from ignoring her every time you two walked past each other?"

"Geez. You make it sound like I hated her or something." I scrunched my face up from her description of a past memory.

"No, but maybe she thought that? Maybe she wanted to talk to you, but she was too shy too?"

"Alright, alright." I had enough. "So, what was forcing a hug going to do?"

"Oh, Alex." She repeated as she faced me with half-lidded eyes. "You need to start trusting me a little more. A girl knows what a girl wants."

With those words, she left me to walk back towards the house. Sometimes, I wished she could stop being such an enigma and tell me things straight up, but I guess that was just a part of her personality.