//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7: Homecoming 
// Story: Street Dreams 
// by DJDJ 
//------------------------------//

	I waltzed into the kitchen to find my dad cleaning up after his dinner. I approached bashfully, feeling like a big jerk for the way I treated him that morning. He caught my glance and froze in place, waiting for me to make the first move. “Hi Dad,” I sighed.

He leaned onto the counter separating us. “Hey Son.”

I shrugged and looked at the ground in shame. “I’m…sorry about all those things I said this morning. You didn’t deserve any of that.”

“I’m sorry too. For opening those wounds and for giving you such a hard time,” My dad walked up to me and we embraced each other. “You’re my only boy, I don’t want to lose you to another stupid mistake.”

The next day at lunch, soda in hand, I made my own way to the Dazzling’s table knowing they would sweep me up if I didn’t. I sat down across from Adagio as usual, however Aria and Sonata were sitting on either side of her. When I sat down, Adagio got up and reseated herself to my left, wrapping both of her arms around my left arm. “Like I was saying girls, this handsome gentleman kindly agreed to help us.”

Sonata gazed at me from across the table, her chin resting on her folded hands and said wishfully “You’re such a sweetheart.”

Aria looked at me with the same longing gaze as Adagio and Sonata. “Adagio told us you would race for us. We’re lucky to have such a good friend like you.” She cooed.

The rest of lunch, the Dazzlings fawned over me praising me for being such a good friend, asking me how often I’d race for them. I thought they were being grateful, trying to make me feel like I wasn’t being taken for granted. I hadn’t thought of what they were really doing, just being around them clouded my judgement. The longer I was around them, the more I wanted to stay with them. By the time the bell rang I’d pretty much forgotten about AJ and her friends.

After a few classes my mind was clear, after school before I met up with AJ, it dawned on me that the Dazzlings had a hold on me. I tried to dismiss this epiphany; I even managed to convince myself that without their magic they were harmless. I pushed the thoughts to the back of my mind so I could hang out with AJ on the farm as usual. I stayed for dinner and mercifully Granny Smith didn’t try nearly so hard to plump me up.

When the time came for me to head out, AJ followed me to my car as usual and today she ended up taking the seat next to me while we said our goodbyes. “Headin home for the night?” She asked innocently.

I kept the smile on my face but looked away as I said, “Yeah, maybe watch some TV with the old man.” I looked back to her.

AJ kissed me on the cheek “I’ll see you at school tomorrow.” She stepped out of my car and waved goodbye. She stood waving for at least as long as she was in view of my mirrors. I sighed in relief and after wasting a few hours out on the town, I arrived in front of the Dazzlings’ house. 

I sat staring at the house, in contemplation of what I was about to do. If I pick them up and take them to the races tonight, these girls wouldn’t let me out of it. Everything about this was just screaming bad idea. Then out comes the trio, I would have driven away if I didn’t know I’d just have to deal with them at school the next day. I was ready to tell them off until they all piled into my car. Something changed in the air, I couldn’t take my eyes off them, I’d forgotten all about the races and school and Applejack. I locked eyes with Adagio until Aria, who was sitting in the seat behind me punched my head rest and snapped me out of my trance. “Let’s go, we have to hit up those races before the cops break it all up.” 

With Aria’s gentle encouragement, I took the ladies to Luna Drive while other drivers were still arriving. I parked up by the sidewalk when Adagio turned to me and grabbed my chin to make me face her. “You need to go win us some races.” She said as the other girls climbed out of the car. Adagio popped her door open and before getting out, she leaned into me and cooed softly to me, “Don’t worry, we’ll be here to cheer you on.” She slowly closed her eyes and I closed mine expecting her to kiss me. Instead she let me go and climbed out calling out to me “Do good enough out there and there’ll be something extra in it for you.”

As I lined up for my first race of the night, I looked to the sidelines to see the Dazzlings waving at me. Normally when they’re not so close, I don’t feel so vexed, but I couldn’t get Adagios enticing words out of my mind. My thoughts swirled around what she could have possibly meant. I kept coming back to something intimate until the sound of screeching tires and the roaring engine of the car next to me snapped me back to the race. Trixie was already pointing at both of us and I had to get my head in the game fast. Before I could put myself back in the moment, Trixie dropped her hands and the other driver pulled out an early lead. It was a long ten seconds, even when my turbo had fully spooled up, I could only barely catch the other driver before our quarter mile was up.

Thankfully over the rest of the night the Dazzling’s hold on me started to fade after the first race. By the time I was done racing for the night, I had almost even forgotten they were waiting for me. Of course they were waiting for me, a point Aria was quick to remind me of when it was time for me to take them all home.

I stopped in front of their house, just as I had that night I first raced for Adagio. This time, I had much more time for driving thus I made even more cash. The girls didn’t say anything, Adagio just held out her hand. This time I counted out $400 for them and when I handed it over to Adagio, all the girls including her, reached for another $100 each. This totaled about a third of my night’s winnings but before I could protest Adagio made a suggestion, “I bet your dad will have words for you once he finds out you’ve been racing again. You should stay with us tonight.”

With my engine still rumbling I stared into Adagio’s magenta eyes, too lost in them to notice her nefarious smirk. Nefarious or not, she was right, when my dad found out I’d been racing again, that was a conversation I wanted to put off as long as possible. I turned the keys to shut down my car and climbed out with the girls. Adagio led me inside by the wrist; the inside was recently and generously furnished.

The girls pulled a leftover pizza out of the refrigerator and while they were warming it up, I sat down at the table. As their dinner warmed up Adagio and Aria joined me, Adagio sitting next to me quite cozily. We sat around silently, I wanted to break the ice but I just had no idea what I could say to them. Eventually Sonata arrived with three servings of pizza which she placed in front of Adagio, Aria, and herself. At that time, I felt a small pang of hunger but I didn’t say anything. I figured they had a hard enough time affording food in the first place, and I wasn’t exactly wasting away. Sonata finally broke the silence in addressing me, “So…” I snapped my attention to her. “…if you’re going to be racing for us, does that mean you’ll be staying with us a lot?” She beamed with an eager grin on her face.

I shrugged, keeping my hands in my lap. Adagio put her hands on my shoulders and spoke for me “Don’t worry about him Sonata.” She leaned into me and purred into my ear “I’ll be keeping him very close.” Sonata’s grin grew wider and I thought I heard her squeak.

The girls finished dinner in silence; I occasionally glanced at Adagio until she would inevitably catch me and wink mischievously. When they were done, Aria ordered me to clean up the kitchen and after some batting of Adagio’s eyelids I obliged. By the time I had finished, the girls called it a night, except of course for Adagio.

“Good work stud.” Adagio cooed as she was sitting atop the counter I had just cleaned, she hopped down and wrapped her fingers around mine. She gazed into my eyes lustfully and I was powerless not to gaze back. “Now, for that something extra I promised. I’ll show you to your…accommodations.” She whispered seductively. Hand in hand, she led me to the couch and lay me across it. She climbed on top of me with that lustful look in her eyes, with one hand on my chest; she reached over the side and pulled out a blanket. The lust gave way to indifference; she pushed the blanket to my chest and climbed off. “Sleep tight Handsome, we’ll need a ride to school in the morning.” She chimed as she disappeared into the dark hallway swaying her hips in her typically dramatic style.

To say the sofa was uncomfortable would be to put it lightly. The cushions were stiff and my legs from the knees down were hanging over the edge. Eventually exhaustion gave way to a dreamless slumber. A slumber shattered by shouting and pushing. Without opening my eyes I could tell it was Aria trying to wake me up. Despite my sleeping arrangement I really didn’t want to get up. Until I heard a loud WHACK and felt a sharp sting on my cheek. 

I sat up cupping my cheek in one hand and turned to Aria. “Come on it’s time for school.” She groaned at me. Since I went to sleep still dressed I didn’t need to change, when I stood up, there was Adagio and Sonata on the other side of the couch. To my surprise, Sonata tossed me my keys. In my shock, I tried to feel around the rest of my pockets to see if they had taken anything else, before I could thoroughly check, Aria was ushering me out the door.

We piled into my car, Adagio took the seat next to me, as I started the engine, she pulled down her sun visor to find the picture of me and AJ I was keeping. Adagio smirked and pulled the picture, “Awww that’s just adorable,” she chimed. I tried to snatch it back from her but she was too quick. She turned over the photo to see the message on the other side. “Oh look girls, she even wrote him a little love letter.” Adagio passed the photo back to Sonata and Aria, both of whom started to snicker. I was able to snatch the photo back from them and put it back where it belonged and replaced the passenger’s sun visor. Adagio put her hand on my shoulder gingerly “Don’t worry, we don’t mind you seeing other girls. Just remember who your real friends are.” She smirked at me.

Throughout the week, I would have lunch with AJ, I even hung out with her at the farm a few days. When the sun went down however, I would take the Dazzlings to Luna Drive. I was on a winning streak and each night they would take more and more money from me, and each night, instead of facing my dad, I would sleep on their couch. Until Friday that is.

Friday afternoon, after school I was taking AJ back to the farm to hang out with her. Whenever I drove with AJ, I was driving with precious cargo on board. We were just out of the city on the road to the farm, AJ and I were chatting when she asked if I had been up to anything interesting. I shook my head and replied “Nope.”

I don’t think she believed me, least of all because she followed up asking “What about the Dazzlings? Ain’t you been tryin to make friends with them at all?”

I nodded and replied “Sure, I been chillin with them after hangin out with you sometimes.” I lied again. Even though I knew she didn’t believe me, I thought she would just be furious at me anyway if she knew I was driving for them. She told me to make friends and that’s what I was doing. I didn’t think she would understand that they needed my help and racing was the only way. At least that’s what I had convinced myself.

The rest of the drive was spent in stone cold silence. Mercifully, we warmed up to each other again as we spent time on the farm. We had both forgotten about the Dazzlings when we settled into a rhythm while moving hay bales. As we heaved bale after bale we got to polite conversation, which quickly gave way to uncomfortable silence, at least I found it uncomfortable. I’m sure AJ had lost herself in her chores but something was still bothering me.

With a grunt, I heaved one last hay bale and after AJ had done the same, I placed my hands on her hips and gazed deeply into her emerald green eyes. “You know I love you very much Applejack.” I grumbled to her, slightly exhausted from our hard work. 

She reached over my shoulders and closed her hands around the back of my neck. She closed her eyes and put her ear to my heart and whispered back to me “I love you too, and I trust you.” I closed my eyes and sighed softly, slightly relieved. I wrapped my hands around her slender hips to bring our tired sweating bodies closer to each other and rested my head in her damp blonde hair.

Neither of us wanted to let go of each other, despite we were hot tired and sweaty from working. Eventually though, we pulled back and found each other’s eyes again. Slowly we leaned into each other for a kiss. It was much like any other kiss, the way our lips fit together, her firm mouth, but this time we were both hot and sweaty, which made it my favorite kiss so far. She tasted like hard work, it suited her so naturally.

The day faded away and I found myself before the Dazzlings’ house again. I checked my phone to find my dad had called and left me a message. He did this at least once every day since the second night I spent at the Dazzlings’ house. Normally I would delete his messages without bothering to listen to him chew me out. Tonight though, I decided I owed it to him to at least check in with him, even if I was planning on lying.

I played the message and held my phone up to my ear to hear my dad’s voice. “Hey Son, it’s Dad. I’m just calling to check up on you again, you must think I’m mad at you but, by now I just want to know you’re okay. Please call me back as soon as possible. I’d love to have you home again.” I kept my phone to my ear staring straight ahead, my mouth slightly agape. With my free hand I wiped a tear from my eye and put my phone down in my lap. I breathed nervously as I folded down the passenger’s sun visor and admired the photo of me and AJ, lit only by a nearby streetlight shining into the cabin.

Tonight was the first night since I started driving for them that I decided to ditch the Dazzlings. I started my car back up and roared away, back to my own house. At the time I knew the girls would hear me leave them but I didn’t care about the consequences in that moment. The whole way home my phone was blowing up, but I wouldn’t answer.

When I parked in front of my house I could see that the lights were on. Even though my dad used to constantly wait up for me at night, he normally did so in the dark. I cut the engine and rushed inside. “Dad…” I had found him slumped back in his chair at the kitchen table. He looked like he hadn’t slept for days.

“Son…” He stood up, he looked like he was about to fall over but I kept him standing in a tight embrace. “…where have you been?” He whispered. I didn’t bother trying to lie to him, he didn’t deserve it.

I said nothing until I led him back to his room and lay him on his bed. “I’m sorry Pop.”

I got up to leave the room but my dad grasped my hand firmly. “Don’t push away the people who love you.” He grumbled. I nodded my head and he slowly released my hand as he found sleep. My mind was swirling with guilt, until I lay down in my own bed. I felt so relieved being back home where I belonged and I enjoyed the best night’s sleep I’ve had since I agreed to hang out with Adagio almost a week ago.