Chapter 10
Brad began to stir awake after his rest. Unsure of his surroundings, he waved his left arm; only for it to hit the wall next to him.
'Ow,' Brad thought, still half asleep, 'What'd you do that for, wall?'
He opened his eyes to find the offender; a purple wall right next his face.
'Right,' Brad began to think, 'I'm just in my room. Nothing crazy happened yesterday.'
His thoughts were interrupted by the soft snores of someone behind him.
'Except for that,' Brad remembered.
He turned to look at the source of the soft noise. He saw Sonata still fast asleep; facing Brad. She was slight bobbing up and down, and her hair was quite messy. She looked very peaceful, however, and was smiling in her sleep.
'Dear God,' Brad thought, 'She's gotta be trying to kill me. That is too much adorableness for one guy to take; especially in a morning.'
Sonata began to stir slightly, grunting as she was becoming more and more awake. Brad simply stared at the scene, not wanting to bother her. After a few turns and arm stretches, she ended up facing Brad, and slowly opened her eyes. Upon doing so, she yawned.
"Um...morning," Sonata quietly said.
"Morning," Brad responded, "Sleep well?"
"Yeah...oh," Sonata remembered, "I, did I fall asleep last night?"
"Yeah, don't worry about it," Brad told her.
"But," Sonata began, "it was your show, and..."
"Sonata," Brad interrupted, "Don't worry about it."
"OK," Sonata said.
"Um, do you have any idea when you dropped off?" Brad asked.
"Huh?" Sonata responded, confused, "I thought I at least stayed on the bed."
'You act like such a blonde sometimes,' Brad thought. "No, it's just a way of saying you fell asleep."
"Oh, I see," Sonata understood, blushing slightly, "Sorry. I guess it was around ten-ish. That's when I last looked at the clock, anyway."
"I understand," Brad told her, "You must have been tired after everything yesterday."
"But I thought I was sleeping on the sofa," Sonata said, confused.
"Well, you looked so peaceful," Brad explained, "So I just let you sleep there. It is a double bed after all."
"Oh," Sonata responded, blushing, "Thanks."
"It's alright," Brad told her. 'Damn, that is adorable.'
The two continued to lay there for a moment, neither really wanting to make a move. However, Sonata decided it was a good idea to make one.
"Um...should we get up?" Sonata asked, still slightly blushing.
"Uh, yeah," Brad responded, "good idea."
Sonata took off the fleeces over her, and got off the bed; stretching once up. Brad followed suit; also stretching. He looked at the clock, which read 9:33.
"You wanna get some breakfast?" Brad asked.
Sonata's stomach responded for her, with a growl that matched a lion's.
"Uh, yes please," Sonata answered, red as a rhubarb.
Brad made his way downstairs; Sonata following. Once downstairs, he noticed a note on the table in the dining room.
'What's that?' Brad thought.
He picked up the note and read it in his head.
'Me and Robbie have gone out to football for a bit. We've got food sorted, and we'll make dinner. Didn't want to wake you. Get in there, Brad! ~Josh. Really? Sleep with a girl one time and everyone think you date. Ugh. But at least that explains that, then.'
"What's it say?" Sonata asked.
"Uh..." Brad began, shoving the note in the back of his pocket, "Just that those two have gone to football, and will be back to cook dinner."
"Oh, OK," Sonata said, "What are we having for breakfast?"
"Uh, toast sound good?" Brad offered.
"Sure!" Sonata exclaimed, "Do you have any strawberry jelly?"
"Uh...jelly?" Brad asked, confused, "Why do you have jelly on toast?"
"Oh, do you not have jelly on toast here?" Sonata asked, disappointingly.
"No, not really," Brad explained, "Do you want some strawberry jam?"
"What's that?" Sonata asked.
"Well, it's like mashed up strawberries that you put on toast, like a spread," Brad explained.
"That sounds just like jelly!" Sonata exclaimed.
"Huh?" Brad asked, confused once more.
"Could you show me it, please?" Sonata requested.
"Uh, sure," Brad agreed.
He went to the fridge, and looked for a moment. After scanning the somewhat empty fridge, he saw the jam, and took it out; showing Sonata.
"Yeah!" Sonata exclaimed, "That's jelly!"
"O-K then," Brad said slowly, still a bit befuddled.
"Could I have some with my toast please?" Sonata asked politely.
"Sure, no reason why not," Brad told her.
"Thank you!" Sonata said, "I love jelly, but Adagio never let me have any."
"I like a lot too," Brad agreed, "To be fair, I'm usually the only one that has it."
"Really?" Sonata asked, "Josh and Robbie don't like it?"
Brad put the bread in the toaster. "Yeah, those two prefer having cereal in a morning a lot of the time anyway. I prefer toast in all honestly, but the jam really make it's brilliant."
"I agree," Sonata told him.
"So, what do you wanna do today?" Brad asked, "Anything you wanna do in particular?"
"Um..." Sonata pondered. 'I don't really have anything to do, now that he said something. I don't have a job, or do everything Aria and Adagio told me to do.' "Sorry. I can't really think of anything."
"No problem," Brad reassured, "I'm sure we'll think of something. I find things to do around here; even if I don't go out."
"And Josh and Robbie do?" Sonata inquired.
"Yeah, they like playing sport like that," Brad explained.
"Really?" Sonata asked, "I couldn't imagine they'd be very good. They're quite small for that kind of sport, aren't they?"
"Well, I've heard of short football players..." Brad began to trail off, "Wait a minute."
"Huh?" Sonata asked.
"What happens in a game of 'football' to you?" Brad asked curiously.
"I...don't really know much," Sonata began, "I just know lots of big, burly men run at each other trying to get a ball from one side of the field to another."
"Do they carry the ball?" Brad asked, "You know, in their hands?"
"Yeah," Sonata told him, "And they run with it, and everybody else tries to take them down."
"OK, now the last ten minutes makes way more sense," Brad concluded.
"Hang on, what?" Sonata asked, very confused.
"You said you like 'jelly' on toast, right?" Brad asked her.
"Yeah," Sonata replied.
" 'K," Brad continued, "and think football is people carrying a ball and running with it, right?"
"Um, I think so anyway," Sonata said, "I never really paid much attention to sport."
"Neither do I," Brad agreed, "But I know this. A lot of the culture of where you're from seems to be from America."
"That country you said yesterday?" Sonata asked, "The whole, big and powerful one, right?"
"Yeah," Brad confirmed, "you see, that game you described was 'American Football'."
"American Football?" Sonata asked.
The toaster popped.
"Yeah," Brad explained as he took the toast out, "the thing is, we have our own football in Britain that Americans call 'Soccer'."
"Really?" Sonata asked.
"Yep," Brad continued, "I have no clue why they changed the name, but oh well. The thing is, they have things with different names than the British." He looked at the jam. "Take this for example." He picked it up. "I'm pretty sure they call jam 'jelly' in America, though I can't quite remember. If they do, then it's another example of that."
"But why do they change words for things?" Sonata asked, "It's just confusing!"
"I don't really know, to be fair," Brad answered honestly, "Might be something to do with their history of not liking the way we talk, or mocking us for it. They use the excuse sometimes that it shortens their speech, when most of the 'shortening' makes it all longer anyway."
"So, what's the point of it?" Sonata asked.
"No idea," Brad finished, "You ready for toast?"
"I thought you'd never ask!" Sonata said excitedly.
Sonata took her plate from the side, and began eating immediately.
"Mmmm, so good," Sonata moaned with her mouth full, "It's been far too long since I've had some of this."
'That is absolutely what she said,' Brad thought. "You've really taken a liking to everything I've given you. Did I get lucky, or what?"
"Well," Sonata swallowed, "I never really got much food back at Canterlot High, or even before that. I kinda got the leftovers, and it wasn't really that great."
"Oh wow," Brad said in surprise, "I know they were cruel, but really."
"Yeah," Sonata said sadly, "It wasn't really too great back then."
"But, you're better now?" Brad asked.
"Yup," Sonata answered, "You've been so kind. Kinder than Adagio ever was."
"I'm glad to hear it," Brad told her. 'But the million pound question is what she wants to do? Does she want to try to get to Equestria, or stay here?'
"That was delicious," Sonata said, dreamily, "Thanks, Brad!"
"No problem," Brad told her, "You wanna get dressed?"
"Um...I don't have any other clothes..." Sonata trailed off.
"Oh, um ,right," Brad stuttered, "Sorry, completely forgot for a moment the situation. Well, at least that gives us something to do today; get you some more clothes, I guess."
"Really?" Sonata asked, "You'd do that?"
"Well, I couldn't ask you to borrow clothes forever," Brad told her, "Especially not mine. I don't have much of a fashion sense, to be fair."
"Oh, um, what should I do for now, then?" Sonata asked.
"Well, I'll lend you some clothes for today," Brad explained, "But then we'll go to Town and get you some new clothes. Sound good?"
"OK," Sonata agreed, "Um, what should I do while you get ready?"
"How about you take a shower?" Brad suggested, "Um, no offence. I-um, I mean, you don't smell, but, er..." 'Damn it, why am I so awkward?'
"No, it's OK," Sonata told him, "I haven't had a shower in about a week now anyway."
"Right," Brad began, "OK, then. I, um, we'll go upstairs and I'll get you some clothes to put on. Take them into the bathroom with you so you can get, er, dressed and what have you and then we'll head out to get you some clothes. Sound good?"
"That sounds great!" Sonata said excited, "Thank you!"
"No problem, I'm just doing what I can," Brad told her. 'Which, in all honesty, isn't a lot. It's gonna be a trip to Primark, unfortunately. I can't exactly pay for a designer wardrobe. I do only work about 20 hours a week, now. Not really something that is gonna be the best to help look after someone else.'
"Um...you OK?" Sonata asked.
"Sorry," Brad apologized, "Spaced out again. So, shall we head up?"
Sonata simply nodded. As the two made their way upstairs, she began to think about what Brad had done for her.
"It's been incredible,' she thought, 'I was a complete stranger, sort of, and he just let me live here? I can't believe it! He's feeding me, letting me stay here, but when will it end? He can't do this forever. But can he? I don't know...'
The two had made their way to Brads' room when Sonata snapped back to reality. Brad looked in one of his wardrobes, and went through his clothes. After consideration, he pulled out a plain purple t-shirt, a black hoodie, and a pair of jeans.
"Will this do OK?" Brad asked, "Sorry I don't have much. I usually just go kinda plain stuff. And I don't really have any of the...you know...other stuff..."
"No, it's fine," Sonata reassured.
"OK," Brad said, "If you wanna take these then, and I'll quickly show you how to use the shower."
"Sure!" Sonata agreed.
The two made their way into the bathroom at the other end of the hall. Sonata took the time to look around the bathroom she had been mopping in last night. It was quite bland; beige as far as the eye could see. The bathroom was only brightened up by the stained window and the blue towels on a metal rail. The sink she cried in was on her right; a mirror above it. On the left, the bath was tucked against the wall and a shower-head hovered above it. Brad leaned towards the shower-box.
"All you've gotta do to turn it on," Brad explained, "Is turn the dial. The hotter you want it, the further you turn it. Use any of the towels; I personally use whichever is driest anyway."
"OK, thank you," Sonata said.
"I'll go get ready myself," Brad told her, "And I'll meet you downstairs after, OK?"
"Sure," Sonata responded.
Brad took his leave, and Sonata closed the door behind her. Brad made his way back to his room to find the clothes he was to wear for the day. He looked in his wardrobe once more.
'Hmm, no shirts I fancy wearing today in here,' Brad thought, 'Guess I'll try the other one for once.'
And so he made his way to the end of the bed; where the other wardrobe sat.
'This has all the clothes I said I never would wear again,' Brad thought, 'ones I thought were too small, or ones I just hadn't sold yet. Let's see if we find a gem. Unlikely, I look in here all the time, but never once have I brought anything out to wear. Perhaps I should give all these to Josh and Robbie, but then they'll just end up on the floor like the rest I suppose.'
He opened the doors to find a wide variety of shirts and trousers, along with formal wear and jeans. He began to scan through the clothes; listing their flaws.
'Too chavy, too small, chavy again, way too small, chav, chav, chav,' he thought as he scanned through the abundance of clothes, 'small, small, ugh why do I even still have this, no, no, no, football? Oh hell no, nah, er no, wait. Hang on, that isn't...'
He stopped at a particular jacket. It was one he recognized well, a lilac jacket. As he pulled it out, he looked at it and smiled; noticing the pink star on it.
'My Twilight jacket,' Brad thought, 'I haven't seen this in ages. I must have just put this in here because it was a bit small. But I wonder if still seems OK...'
He tried the jacket on, and was pleasantly surprised.
'It fits?' he thought, 'But I thought this was a small!'
He looked in the back, but it was a medium; along with a note.
'What's this?' Brad thought, 'Another note?'
He took the note, and read it to himself. The writing was beginning to fade slightly.
'Hi Brad. Listen, thanks so much for what you did today. It helped me and Robbie so much, we couldn't even begin to thank you. We don't know when you'll read this, but when you do, know that we still care for you no matter what. Because you saved me and Robbie today from the biggest mistake of our lives. We didn't know how to thank you, and then we saw you disappointed that this jacket was too small. So me and Robbie swapped it for a bigger one so you could where it again. Hope it puts a smile on your face, as you did to us. ~Josh.'
Brad began to tear up slightly.
'What did I do?' Brad asked himself, 'I can't remember when I helped them so much that they would go out and do something like this for me...but thank you.'
He put the note on his desk and took a random shirt out of the wardrobe; ended up being a t-shirt with a Monster Energy logo on it. He took the shirt he was wearing off, and shoved the t-shirt on. He then looked at the jacket once more.
'This jacket defined who I was once upon a time,' Brad thought, 'and it gets to do so once more!'
He took the jacket, and put it on. The sleeves fit to perfection, and the jacket ended below his waist. He pulled the jacket closer to himself.
'Thank you, Josh and Robbie,' Brad thought, 'Thank you.'
Sonata stood in the bathroom alone, ready to get in the shower. As she turned the dial to the shower, her mind began to wonder about the day ahead.
'Now that I think about it,' Sonata began, 'I've never really been clothes shopping; or shopping at all really. That was left to those two mostly. I just wore those clothes because it was all I had.' She looked at the clothes in question on the floor before getting the shower. 'But now I get the opportunity to pick? I don't think I can. I've never even picked what I want to do for...well, ever. Brad's been so kind, I just hope this luck doesn't run out.'
She began washing herself, and began to remember times of the past.
'Hehe,' she chuckled to herself, 'I can remember when I stayed in the shower for so long my hands were so wrinkled that I couldn't even pick up the towel. Then Aria had to dry me like a baby. I guess we did have good times; I suppose. But, what if I wanted to go back?' She stopped her thoughts. 'Could I go back? And would I? I've never been treated so well, but Brad said about those...er...thingies, that it could be bad if I were to stay. How would I get home?'
She looked down at her hands, and then to her feet.
'I shouldn't even have these,' Sonata thought, 'Maybe that's how it should be. But then again, I've got a place to live. I'm going to get a line of clothes. And I got a friend who truly cares about me for the first time in my life. I guess Aria and Adagio cared about me enough to keep me around, but, not as much as this. He does try, but something's bothering him. I might not be as smart as Adagio, but even I can tell something's not right with him. I just don't know if he wants me here or not, or if he's just trying to get me ready for the world. It would make sense; get me some clothes, have a meal and a wash and bye. I wonder if that's what he plans. Maybe the whole radio thing was a warning. To let me know there are people out there that will try to hurt me. Maybe it is goodbye soon.'
As she finished her thoughts, she turned off the shower and began to dry herself.
'Thank you for what you've done, Brad,' Sonata thought, 'But I suppose this is goodbye...'
Brad sat downstairs, waiting for Sonata. He looked down at his jacket and smiled once more.
'I'm in such a good mood now,' Brad thought to himself, 'That's really brighten up my day. And those two even cleared up the mess in here before they went out. I'm actually not feeling as scared as I was to take Sonata into Town as I was.'
Sonata appeared in the doorway, looking at Brad. Brad noticed her, and couldn't believe what he saw. Sonata stood there in the attire he had given her, but her face was red.
'Either she had the water too hot,' he thought, 'or she's been crying again.' "Hey, Sonata..."
"I'm fine!" Sonata screamed. She immediately covered her mouth in shock.
Her legs began to shake. Brad got up to help her.
"I'm fine!" She screamed once more, her voice welling, "I'll be fine!"
"Sonata what's wrong?" Brad asked reassuringly, "Why are you acting like this?"
Sonata broke. Her legs collapsed on her, and burst into tears. Brad was taken aback, and unsure what to do.
'What on earth is she so upset about?' he thought, panicking, 'And how do I try get her stop crying? What's wrong? What do I do?'
"Bwahahahaha," Sonata cried.
"Sonata, what's wrong?!" Brad asked in a raised voice, "I can't help you if you don't tell me!"
"You wouldn't care!" Sonata cried, "You're gonna leave me anyway!"
Brad stopped.
"What?"
"You're," Sonata said through her tears, "You're gonna leave me, aren't you? Send me off once I'm ready. You can't look after me as well. I'm a waste, I can't help, I-"
"Sonata," Brad began to tear up, "You thought I'd leave you?"
"Yeah," she replied, "I thought...oof."
Sonata was interrupted by a hug tackle from Brad, and he began crying into her arms.
"Sonata," he began, "I'm not leaving you. I'm not ditching you. I don't want you to go. You've given me a joy in my life, and made me smile. Please, don't go..."
"Really?" Sonata asked.
"Really." Brad answered.
Sonata began to smile, and returned the hug.
"Then I won't go," she told Brad, "If you want me here, then I'll stay."
"But I thought you wanted to go to Equestria," Brad said, "What about that? Or the other Sirens?"
"I'll miss them all," Sonata responded, "But I'd rather stay where I know I'm loved."
The two of them stayed in each other's arms for some time. Then they leaned back slightly, and looked at each other. They were both red in the face; both from crying and blushing.
"Thank you for this." Sonata said.
"For what?" Brad asked.
"Everything," Sonata told him, "You've let me live here and let me start a new life. You've helped change me."
"Well, I should thank you as well," Brad said, "After all, you've already helped settle arguments between me and those two like my parents couldn't. And you've made me so happy being here. I'll admit now, it won't be easy." He paused and looked at Sonata straight in the eyes. "But it's something worth fighting for."
The two continued to hug each other, enjoying the company of each other. The two leaned back once more, and both stood up.
"So, shall we get cleaned up?" Brad suggested.
"Yeah," Sonata agreed, "We still going shopping?"
"Of course." Brad told her.