“Thanks for walking me home but, I think I’m alright now Flame.” Steely adjusted his hat on his head.
“Oh yeah! I should just let you pass out in the middle of the streets.” I replied sarcastically and kicked a pebble. “And I’m not 'walking you home’ I’m making sure once you get home you are going straight to bed.”
A soft smile appeared on Steely’s face. “Thanks.”
“It’s nothing.”
We walked in silence for a while, till I decided to speak up again.
“You never told me what the argument was about this time. You know, you and your dad?” I turned my head to look at him.
Steely looked away and pulled his backpack a bit higher. “The usual.”
“I thought so.” I looked down. It really was a shame that his father hasn’t softened up after all this time about Steely’s decisions. “Don’t worry, It’ll be alright.” I punched him in the shoulder.
“Ow.” Steely jumped and bit his lip.
“Oh, sorry, I forgot about the burn.” I hit my forehead.
“It’s… alright.” He whispered as he rubbed his shoulder in pain. “Anyway, what happened to your situation?”
“My situation?” I raised an eyebrow at him.
“Yeah.” Steely nodded. “Your situation with your dad.”
“Oh, yeah well.” I rubbed the back of my head. “I did talk to him. And It went way better than I expected.”
“I’m glad you listened to me. Really, like I knew Mr. Flame would list—” Steely patted me on the back.
“It wasn’t just you.” I cut him off. “Do you remember that day I told you that Sunset Shimmer was the one tutoring me?”
“I think I—” Steely rubbed his chin. “Yeah I do. What about it?”
“She saw my memories and suggested that I talk to my father too.”
“Huh.” He looked down. Didn’t say anything else for a while and left the only sound to be heard be our footsteps.
“You really think we should forgive her after what she did?” I shook my head, looking down.
“Who?”
“SUNSET SHIMMER, STEELY! SUNSET SHIMMER!” Three up my hands in exasperation.
“OK. OK. I got it.” He pushed me off. After letting out a sigh, he continued. “I think- I think we should give her another chance.”
I shook my head. I didn’t know whether It was that I couldn’t just do that or that I simply didn’t want to. Before I could share my opinion on the idea, I realised we had gotten to Steely’s place.
“OK. I can take it from here, you can go.” Steely smiled and stood in front of me.
“No can do.” I pushed him aside and walked up to their door. “Somewhere deep in my gut I know you aren’t gonna put your head on the pillow by yourself.”
Steely grabbed my hand and yanked me back.
“Woah, what gives?”
Steely looked away. “I-it’s just that I- uh- I really don’t think there is a need for you to-”
“C’mon now Steely, you know you can’t fool me like last time that you said you’ll sleep but instead finished like a five hundred episode season in a night. Besides, I haven’t seen your mom for a while.”
We went to his home without wasting anymore time. Thankfully Ms. Clean was home and I could be relieved that there was someone who could look after Steely and make sure he rests.
Ms. Clean thanked me for walking Steely home but unlike always she wasn’t very keen on me staying. In fact she asked me to leave which I found rather odd coming from her but I saw she was busy cleaning the dishes. So I walked to the door to leave and not be a burden but, as I opened it, Steely’s Father was standing outside.
Marshalled Papers locked his gaze at me, frowning. A dim flash sparkled in his glasses as he stepped inside.
“H-hi Mr. Papers.” I said. I was a bit startled to see him then.
He narrowed his eyes instead of responding and turned his head towards the kitchen. “What is he doing here?” He shouted.
Ms. Clean stepped out of the kitchen with a wide smile. “Sweetie, Flaming Star was leaving, now come yo-”
“I asked, why is he here?” Mr. Papers pointed at me.
Ms. Clean let out a nervous chuckle, “Sweetie,” she widened her eyes to give him a signal.
It was then that I got the feeling Mr. Papers wasn’t interested in having guests. “Uhm, anyway, nice to meet you sir and If you excus-”
“Listen!” Before I could step out, Mr. Papers grabbed hold of my wrist and pulled me back. “Let me make this clear, I don’t want you walking around my son. Because of you, he left the best school in town to join you on your reckless, unplanned decision. Because of you, he is losing the best chance of succeeding in life and wasting the time he should be spending studying, with you. ” He pierced my chest with his finger.
“What?” I pushed his hand to the side.
“Do us a favor and leave my family alone.” He pulled my hand and threw me outside. “Goodbye!” And slammed the door shut.
When I got home, I called Steely to talk to him about what happened but up until now that I’m writing this down, Steely hasn’t answered any of my calls. I hope he calls soon.
The pencil was lifted from the paper. Flaming Star took a glance at his phone and decided he didn’t want to continue writing in his diary. He unlocked his phone in hope of there being a message from Steely Armor. But there was nothing.
“DARKNESS! DARKNESS!” a squawk came from the corner of the room.
Flaming Star stepped out of his bed, walked up there and took the fabric off the birdcage.
“I SEE! I SEE!” The scarlet macaw squawked once again.
“Hey, I thought you were asleep.” Flaming Star chuckled and sat down in front of the cage.
“HELLO, HELLO.”
“Yeah, hi…. Sorry, I haven't been taking care of you like I should have been recently.”
The parrot twitched her head a little and remained silent.
“Things have been... Complicated. I’m not sure about what I’m doing anymore or what I should be doing. What do you say Beaky?”
“STEELY!” Beaky opened her wings for a brief moment.
“He is… Going through a lot right now. IHe is not even answering me. I hope he just fell asleep watching Code Phase.”
After hearing another squawk from Beaky, the blue and balack haired teen continued. “Maybe that’s why he was taking Sunset Shimmer’s side.”
“SUNSET! SUNSET!”
“Oh yeah. She and her weird memory seeing abilities. I thought she was… ‘helping’ at first but now…” Flaming Star paused, looked around and then opened his mouth to finish his sentence. But he couldn’t. No matter how much he disliked Sunset Shimmer and how furious he was, he couldn’t bring himself to say she deserved what happened last night.
Just then Beaky started messing with her feathers and it was then that Flaming Star realised he was talking to a bird on top of the fact that she needed a shower. But it was then that a thought jumped in Flaming Star’s head.