Lunchtime, Friday, since I don’t get too hungry in the middle of the day, I was enjoying my usual can of cold cola. I was making my way to the Rainbooms’ table to sit with AJ, having just expressed our feelings for each other the night before, none of the other girls knew how we felt, but I’m sure they’ll be excited when they find out. Although it seems like that would have to wait as I feel a familiar grip around both my arms. I sighed “I was wondering when you’d want to hang out again,”
Aria tugged my left arm and huffed “Just be glad we’re still talking to you after how much you’ve been ignoring us,” Aria and Sonata sat me down at a familiar table across from a familiar golden face. I set my soda down on the table and folded my arms
“I told you ladies I can’t help you. Whats up now?” Adagio smiled at me and reached across the table. I thought she was going to try to hold my hand again, to my relief, she just grabbed my soda, to my irritation however, she just grabbed my soda!
“Don’t worry, we don’t want anything like that…” She was about to take a sip of my beverage but stopped long enough to clarify “Not today anyway.” After taking a generous gulp she set the can down on the table. “You know, you’re our one and only friend at this whole school.” I raised an eyebrow at her and glanced at the two sitting beside me, keeping more distance than last time thankfully. “We noticed you getting pretty cozy with Applejack lately. Whats that all about?”
“It’s about her and me, not y’all,” I snapped, Adagio had herself a nice chuckle.
“I don’t think he trusts us girls. Alright, I’m going to reach out to you here. We really don’t have any other friends here, no one at this school has talked to us for weeks. That is except…” She giggled playfully and reached out to brush my nose with her finger. “…you,” I sat stone faced and unflinching in an effort to look like I wasn’t moved by her charm. The truth is, I was so absolutely vexed I couldn’t move. “I just want to spend some quality time together. Is that so bad?” She fluttered her eyelashes at me; I unfolded my arms and rested my hands on the table. “Pleeeeaaase,” She pleaded, reaching across the table to hold my hands. Her hands were so soft to the touch. I couldn’t help myself, I wrapped my fingers around hers, it felt wrong in some way but in that moment I didn’t care.
“Yeah. I’d love to hang out with you this weekend.” I answered, Adagio smirked, I felt someone reach into my pocket, Aria pulled out my phone and handed it to Adagio. I sat quietly while she fiddled with my phone, after a minute or so, she leaned into me, sliding my phone along the table until our faces were less than an inch apart. She gazed deep into my eyes and I into hers, for what seemed like years. She batted her eyelashes at me seductively and sat back down on her side of the table. I looked at my phone to see what she had been doing. It looked like she sent herself a text message which read:
You’ll be hearing from me very soon. Until next time Stallion <33
Adagio winked at me playfully and slid my soda closer to me with a smirk on her face. I pushed it back to her side of the table. “Help yourself.” I grumbled and got up to go sit with AJ. When I left the Dazzlings I got that feeling of having been enchanted again. I shook my head to clear my thoughts, those girls’ really knew how to push my buttons, especially Adagio, something about the way she sways her hips when she walks, her voice was so tantalizing and the way she talked to me…I shook my head again, harder this time to snap myself out of a trance as I sat down next to AJ.
“There you are…” She beamed. “…what was it they wanted?” She gestured to the Dazzlings who were now leaving the cafeteria. I held her hand, clasping my fingers between hers, I couldn’t help but notice how much rougher her hand was to the touch than Adagio’s. I blushed lightly feeling like a jerk for comparing them.
“Adagio wants to kick it this weekend. I just about told them to kick rocks but…” I rubbed the back of my neck with my free hand.
AJ spoke up before I could finish my thought. “You shoulda, we told you them Dazzlings was nothing but trouble.” She squeezed my hand.
Sunset Shimmer spoke up. “Maybe not Applejack…” She pointed at me. “…hes the only one at this school who would even give them the time of day. Maybe they’re making a genuine effort.”
Rarity looked at me and chimed in. “Well you’re the one who talks to them, what do you think Darling?” Suddenly I noticed all eyes on me, AJ squeezed my hand again and smiled at me reassuringly.
“Well…uh…they’re for sure making an effort, it’s just…”
“Just what?” Rainbow dash demanded.
I looked down at my lap as if I would find the words to help me below the table. “I dunno, I mean…the way they’re doin it. Everything about thems just…hypnotizing.” The girls all exchanged glances between each other. “Whats up?” I shrugged.
AJ replied, “So you agreed to spend time with them this weekend?” I nodded and thought about showing her the text message but decided against it, she might take it the wrong way. “Maybe I should go with you, just to be safe. They’re mighty crafty, they might still be up to something.”
“I don’t know Applejack,” Sunset interjected. “After the way we humiliated them, we must be the last people they want to talk to.”
AJ sighed and looked at me with concern filling her eyes. “Just…be careful around them. Who knows what tricks they might pull.”
“Don’t sweat it AJ, I’m already onto their game. I’ll be fine.” Just as I kissed her on her cheek, the bell rang, everyone in the cafeteria dispersed and I lead AJ to her next class.
Early Saturday afternoon rolled around; I was working on my dad’s car with him. It was a foreign sports coupe, he got it new about two years ago and we were working on restoring it. We were installing a twin turbo system on the V6 when my phone started to vibrate in my pocket. I pulled it out to see Adagio was trying to call me, I sighed which made my dad look up; he motioned for me to take the call. I hit receive greeted my caller with my best indifferent “Hello.”
“Hey Handsome…” She chimed playfully in my ear. “…remember when you said you would hang out with us?”
I started meandering out of the garage into the driveway, while my dad got back to work. “I do. It was yesterday at lunch,” I paused expecting her to say something back. “Did you want to kick it today or what?” I demanded.
“Oh that’s so sweet of you to offer. The girls and I would love to meet you at the mall as soon as possible.” She chimed enthusiastically.
“Arite…see you soon.” She hung up the instant I finished my thought. I turned to my dad “Hey, Pops, I gotta go,” My dad stood straight up and turned to me.
“I hope AJ doesn’t get too jealous, I like her,”
“Man I sure hope so.” I turned around and made my way to my car parked by the curb, twirling my keys on my finger.
Since Adagio and I neglected to organize a spot to meet, I spent about ten minutes wandering around before she found me. She grabbed my arm from behind me and spun me around. She was looking at me lustfully and I was so ensnared by her gaze, I didn’t even notice the absence of the other two until she said. “Aria and Sonata couldn’t be here today. So it’s just us,” She pulled me up to her side and wrapped both her arms around mine. She mused “If they don’t want to share, that suits me just fine.”
I looked down at Adagio hanging from my arm. “So whats up? You make any plans or what?” Just then my stomach grumbled. My dad and I had been working on his car since after breakfast, we may have neglected to take a lunch break.
Adagio chuckled softly “Sounds like we’ll be having a late lunch.” She patted my stomach gingerly and led me to the food court.
We sat across from each other at a small table once we had our food. I had ordered a few slices of pizza, while Adagio had herself a foot long sub. I dug in and Adagio started the inevitable conversation. “So, how are you enjoying your weekend?” She asked almost disinterestedly. I slowed my chewing down and stared at her. She stared back at me expectantly, I didn’t expect her to even pretend to be interested in me, it really caught me off guard.
“It’s different for sure,” I said with my mouth half full. Adagio rolled her eyes at my poor table manners.
“Don’t imagine you expect to make this the highlight of your week,” I slowly took another bite of my pizza and shook my head slowly. Adagio looked down and took a bite of her sandwich creating an uncomfortable silence until she swallowed her food. “I meant what I said yesterday you know,”
“What?” I asked with food still occupying my mouth.
“About you being the only one who talks to us. You really are the closest us three have to a friend. I dread to think what that country-bumpkin girlfriend of yours told you about us,” She rested her head on a balled up fist.
This time I swallowed my food before speaking up. “Who says shes my girl,”
“Oh please, the way you two are constantly holding hands and making googly at each other. Even I could figure that one out from all the way across the cafeteria,”
I chewed and swallowed another bite before answering. “Fine. If it makes you feel better, she told me y’all were some singing sirens sent from a magical unicorn kingdom.”
Adagio sat up wide eyed. “And you believed her?”
“Naw,” I rolled my eyes. “Not til she played some music for me with her friends and they turned into magic rainbow pony girls.”
Adagio sighed and took another bite of her sandwich. When she finished she spoke up “Well, it’s all true. So aren’t you scared of us? That we’ll cast our siren spell on you?” She teased.
I shrugged. “Your magics gone. You harmless.”
Adagio smiled at me mischievously “I persuaded you to spend your day with me didn’t I?” She chimed playfully. Unsure of how to answer her, I stuffed more pizza into my mouth to stall for time. “Just because we’re not magical anymore doesn’t mean we aren’t absolutely charming.” She set down her sub and gazed at me with her seductive eyes. “It just makes it so much harder to make people do our bidding for more…nefarious purposes.”
Without breaking her gaze I answered. “Right. Luring some guy y’all just met and y’all know nothing about just to kick it with you cuz no one else will. Pure evil.”
She giggled at me softly. “About that, I did say I wanted some quality time. How did someone like you end up at CHS?” She cooed she continued to stare at me longingly.
Finally I broke eye contact and looked at the ground for a moment, then back to her. I shrugged. “It was Moms. She uhh…” I looked down at my food tray, I was almost out of food. “…a car accident…with my dad.” After literally pouring myself out to AJ it was much easier to tell Adagio or maybe I was trying desperately to keep my guard up.
I was surprised when I saw Adagio looking sympathetic. “Oh…I didn’t realize…well, now you have us.” She reached across the table to me. I’m pretty sure she was just acting nice, if she was, she was good at it.
I glared at her. “And AJ,” I snapped at her, she withdrew her hand and looked away dejectedly. For some reason this made me feel a little guilty and I sighed. “Y’know I blamed my pops. Ever since we just be yelling at each other and…I couldn’t stand him.” Well, whether or not she was being genuine, she got me to let my guard down. I hadn’t even told AJ about any of this yet. “So I started staying out late. Hit up the local racing scene, started spending every night out there, sleep through class and all. Got to the point where just bein in the old house was too much.”
Adagio finished her sub as she patiently listened to me open up to her. “Nothing’s changed though has it? You still stay out and race and you still drive like a maniac.” There was that M word again. Even though things have changed, I have stopped driving in such a way, it still hurt.
“It has changed. Since I started hanging around AJ, I’m home before ten, I don’t break a hundred anymore. I definitely stopped hitting up Luna Drive.” I paused for a while, staring at my almost empty tray, and then looked back to Adagio. “She done right by me.”
Now Adagio looked really impatient with me. I didn’t blame her, she must’ve been so sick of hearing about how great Applejack is. We finished our meals and spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the mall until the sun went down, then we sat outside in the cooling evening air. This time I started the meaningful conversation. I was sitting with both my arms up, elbows hanging over the back of the bench and looked at Adagio. “So what about you?”
She had been looking at her lap twiddling her thumbs until I spoke. She looked up at me curiously. “Hm?”
I shrugged. “How’ve you been holding up since…y’know,”
Adagio looked back down into her lap “We’ve been getting by, only barely. Everyone else hates us, and even you don’t trust us,” I stretched out my arms across the back of the bench without thinking about it. So I was surprised when Adagio scooted closer to me grabbed my arm and wrapped it around her shoulder. “Until now, we could always fend for ourselves with our magic. It’s so much different now. So much harder.” She looked up at me pitifully.
I’m not sure what compelled me to do so, but I pulled Adagio closer to me and let her rest her head on my chest. I took in her scent, a pleasing aroma of vanilla. Compassion compelled me to tell her “If you’re for real about changing, they’ll warm up to you, things won’t seem so bad no more,”
We sat in silence until the stars came out, by then Adagio had fallen asleep on my chest. I nudged her and called to her softly. “Hey…” She carefully opened her eyes and sat up, I unwrapped my arm and scooted away from her. “Come on, I’ll give you a lift,” I led her by the wrist back to my car, I opened the door for her and helped her climb in. When I got around and climbed into my seat, she was already asleep again. I was slightly bewildered at what could make her so tired. When I started the car, even the sound of the engine roaring to life in the cabin didn’t make her stir.