Rarity and Fluttershy arrived far sooner than I had expected them to, barely giving me enough time to get dressed. I watched them as they pulled into my yard. Fluttershy began to make her way out of the driver’s seat and towards my front door. After sliding my phone into my pocket, I decided it would be better if I met her half way, as my house was a mess and I refuted the thought of either of them laying eyes on it.
“Oh,” she peeped as she looked up from her shoes and met my eyes. “Are you ready to go?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I just had to get dressed.”
We walked back towards her car, a small-ish looking thing that hardly had enough room for the three of us. It was a dull blue color, something I would never have expected Fluttershy to be driving around.
I found the car to be much more comfortable than looks suggested, having room for all of us and possibly even two others, if nobody brought any “carry-ons.”
I heard shuffling and looked towards the source. Rarity was very awkwardly sliding around in her seat in order to turn to me. “Are you excited?”
I casually raised an eyebrow at her question. “What, exactly, are we doing?”
She giggled as Fluttershy shifted into gear and began the chore of driving. “Oh, right. I haven’t told you yet! First, we’re going to go to this lovely hair salon. I’ve heard wonderful things about it!” I assumed as much. “Then, we planned on doing some shopping at the mall!” I supposed that wasn’t as bad as sitting at the salon for an unpredictable amount of time. “And, after that, we haven’t quite decided. Do you have anything in particular you’d like to do, Sky?”
I thought a moment. Was there? I didn’t think so, and I told her as much. “I guess I’m just more of a home-body.”
Rarity smirked. “That comes as no surprise.”
I smiled. “And just what, exactly, is that supposed to mean?”
She shrugged and returned to her normal position in her seat. “Oh, nothing, Darling,” I would have been a fool to believe that, but I left the matter be.
Throughout the twenty-minute drive, Rarity did the majority of the talking, which neither she nor her companions seemed to mind in the slightest. And I had to admit that Fluttershy’s driving was a bit on the cautious side, but she handled the vehicle seemingly well, not that I had doubts, of course. In fact, it wouldn’t shock me for her to tell me that she was too focused on driving to fully engage in conversation. But, it was all too easy to attribute that to her natural personality.
“They seem a little busy...” Fluttershy mumbled on the sight of the building. Though there did seem to be a few others there, it hardly seemed busy.
“Nonsense, Fluttershy! They should have plenty of room for the three of us,” Rarity exclaimed, grabbing my attention in the process.
“Huh?” I, almost immediately, interjected, “I don’t really do this kind of thing. I thought it was just going to be you two, then I’d go shopping with you, or something.”
Rarity smiled at me. “Oh, come now, Sky. It’ll be fun! It’s my treat, and I refuse to take ‘no’ for an answer!” And with that, she practically dragged me out of the car, giving Fluttershy hardly enough time to come to a stop.
I decided there was no point in arguing, as she had me by the wrist and didn’t seem interested in letting me go. I simply sighed and walked alongside her, Fluttershy nearly being left behind.
As we walked inside, a small bell rang above the door, and we were instantly greeted by a pair of twins, which wasn’t very difficult to notice. One had pink hair, similar to Fluttershy’s, but a bit darker, and wore a blue top with blue-jeans. The other wore almost the opposite, with blue hair and a pink top, along with similar-looking blue-jeans. “Welcome to Lotus and Aloe’s Hair Salon!” I could only assume that one was Aloe, and the other was Lotus.
“Will it only be the two ladies today?” questioned the pink-haired woman.
I opened my mouth, but was quickly silenced by Rarity’s voice. “Actually, we would all like a wash, if you please.”
The twins smiled. “Of course!” They spoke in unison, which would have been strange enough without the fact that they were twins. Each of them then proceeded to grab for separate towels, but the blue-haired one grabbed an extra for me. “This way, please.”
We followed behind, with me in the very back, looking around at the small shop I managed to find myself in on a day that was supposed to be just for me to relax, but I supposed that fate had other plans. The place was quite small, with only, it seemed, enough chairs for the three of us. It wasn’t until we got farther back that I noticed the other voices coming from farther down the hallway. But before we could make our way all the way to the back, the twins stopped suddenly, nearly causing me to crash into Fluttershy, and directed the three of us into one doorway, which had three special chairs. Well, they were special in the sense that they weren’t normal chairs, anyway, but I suppose they were typical for a salon. They were leather, burgundy in color, and they also had pedals on the bottom for lowering or raising them.
The twins left us alone for a moment, simply saying that they would return shortly. Nearly as soon as they had left, I was the first to speak. “Well, this is turning out to be an interesting day.”
Fluttershy then spoke up. “Oh, are you not having fun?”
I quickly retaliated in an effort to not hurt anyone’s feelings. “It’s not that. It’s just that I hadn’t expected to be spending my Saturday in a hair salon. If it isn’t obvious, I don’t really come to places like this too often.”
“Well then, you’re in for a real treat!” Rarity, on the other hand, took no offense at all, and even seemed to be proud of herself for helping me experience this, though I still wasn’t quite sure what “this” was.
The twins walked back in, this time with a much larger man standing behind him. He had blonde hair and a strong face, almost to the point of it being unnerving. We had already taken our seats, so they simply walked to each of us and began work. Of course, I ended up with the wall of meat, himself.
The first minutes were practically torture, with this man grinding my scalp to the bone with his fingers, trying to work in the shampoo. With muscles like his, this job didn’t quite suit him as it did the twins. After only a few minutes more, however, I came to realize why they realized this man. His work was painful at first, but after a while, it felt as if my worries were melting away. It was simply that relaxing.
As he began rinsing my hair and preparing it for conditioning, I glanced to my right, seeing Rarity, her head still coated in shampoo, who was chatting away with the pink-haired twin, who happily conversed with her. Fluttershy hardly spoke at all, however, and the blue-haired twin didn’t seem offended in the slightest. In fact, I would have gone as far as to say that she was enjoying the silence.
I turned my head back to face the man washing my hair, who seemed to have a sculpted face, as his expression hadn’t changed since I first saw him. He glanced at me, and I quickly looked away, suddenly finding my position strange. I decided to simply sit there and enjoy the rest of my wash, mostly to keep from coming across any more awkward circumstances.
The last stage, drying, was my least favorite. I hated when my hair blew into my face, and now it was happening and I could do nothing about it. After the minute or so of hot wind, I was able to look in the mirror, and I was actually happy with what I saw. My hair fell in a way I had never seen it before. The dark brown waves covering the sides of my head and the top of my forehead, and it all looked shiny, smooth, and clean. Of course, I washed my hair regularly, but never this extensively.
I looked towards Fluttershy, who seemed to be finishing up as well. Rarity looked to still be getting conditioned, though. Her hair was thicker, though, and I’m sure she had a specific way she wanted it done.
Fluttershy and I were simply asked to wait in the front waiting room, which still seemed to be just as empty as when we entered the place. I hadn‘t noticed it before, but she wore something different from her usual school outfit. It was a similar yellow color, but she was wearing a simple dress that fell to her knees, with three small, pink butterflies dotting her hip. I redirected my eyes, mostly to avoid any more awkward encounters. “That wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be,” I said, if only to keep the inevitable silence from coming upon us.
“Oh, no. It’s very relaxing,” Fluttershy then sat there, allowing the silence I had tried to stop to envelope us.
I tried once more. “Do you do this often, or did you just decide to come with Rarity?”
She turned to look at me, her teal eyes questioning my intent. “Oh, I’ve done things like this before with my, um... friends... back home,” She turned away, allowing her hair, which beautifully reflected the light, to drape over the side of her face.
“Hmm,” I sighed. “Do you miss your old friends?”
She turned back to me with wide eyes, apparently caught off guard by my question. “Well, I, um...”
“Are you two finished already?” I nearly jumped around at the sudden voice, only to find Rarity with a slightly confused look across her face.
“Yeah, we were just waiting on you,” I replied, forgetting completely about my earlier conversation.
“I’m sorry! Just let me pay and we’ll be off,” She turned to the pink-haired twin who had been doing her hair for the past half hour or so, and gave her some cash. “Thank you, Lotus. You did a wonderful job,” Lotus simply smiled and waved to us as we stepped out the door.
“Alright, next is... shopping, right?” I asked, walking alongside the girls back to the car.
“Yes, and don’t worry, we’ll stop by some shops you might like as well,” Rarity stated as we climbed into Fluttershy’s small car.
It was odd that I never thought about it sooner, that I was going shopping with a couple of girls, which likely meant I would be walking through Victoria’s Secret, or wherever it was women typically shopped at, getting stared at for being some type of pervert. “Great,” I sighed to myself, mindful of my volume.
Our trip to the mall wasn’t terribly long, only ten minutes or so. I decided to count the bit of money I brought along, sixty dollars. It wasn’t much, but it would do for the small things I would likely be interested in, I hoped.
As soon as we stepped into the place, we were hit with the musty air that had been filled with people for, surely, the past several hours, if not longer. It wasn’t my kind of thing to do, but if the girls wanted to do it, I had no problem with it. “So, where to first?” I asked no one in particular.
“I’m not quite sure,” Rarity replied. “I don’t very well know what is in here- Ooh! Let’s try there!” She pointed, wide-eyed, and I followed her gaze. It was a small shop, and looked as if it sold jewelry. Through the window I could see a few jewels hanging on pendents or attached to small rings.
“Alright,” I said in vain, as Rarity had already been heading towards the shop in her hypnotized state. I turned to Fluttershy and shrugged. We then made our way through the people behind Rarity and into the store.
---------------
It had been nearly two hours since we arrived, and Rarity had, by far, bought the most out of the three of us. In fact, I hadn’t bought anything, and Fluttershy had only a small bag from the first jewelry store we stopped at. Rarity hadn’t bought much, but it was enough to fill a couple of bags, which I offered to hold for her, but was beginning to regret.
The three of us stood in line at a clothing store, where Rarity saw a skirt that she just “had to have.” I didn’t mind walking around with her, but buying something from nearly every store was going a bit overboard. On top of that, this particular store was possibly the most popular in the entire mall. I groaned, looking around for an excuse to get out of there. I sighed as I saw a soda machine just outside of the store.
“Hey, Rarity,” She turned to me. “I’m going to get something to drink. Do you want anything?”
She raised her hand. In it was a small bottle of water. Smiling, she said, “No thank you, Sky. I’ve still got my water.”
“All right. You want to come with me, Fluttershy?” I figured she would probably want to get out of the crowd just as much as I did, if not more.
She turned to me, almost shocked I had addressed her, and said, “Oh, um okay.”
We left the store and headed for the machine, which seemed to be devoid of any people. “Alright, so what do you want?” I asked as I dropped Rarity’s bags and pulled a five from my wallet.
“Oh, you don’t have to... I mean, I can get my own,” Fluttershy began to pull out her tiny, pink pocket-book, but I insisted.
“It’s fine, really. I’ve only got a five on me anyway,” I slid the bill into the slot and asked once more. “So, what’re you in the mood for?”
Her eyes went wide, but slid away her wallet and said simply, “Oh, um, water... please.”
I turned back and made the selections; a water for her and a cola for me. After handing her the water, I turned back towards the shop where we left Rarity. The line seemed to have hardly moved at all. I looked back at Fluttershy with a sigh, but she was looking in another direction entirely. I followed her gaze to what looked to be a small pet shop. It didn’t look to be very popular, though, as the only people in there looked to be the employees. “You know,” I started, grabbing Fluttershy’s attention, “I don’t think Rarity would mind if we looked in there while she waited in line, do you?”
Fluttershy turned back at Rarity, who seemed to have made connections with another customer standing in line behind her. “... I...”
I didn’t think I would get a straight response, so instead, I waved to Rarity, catching her attention. I pointed towards the small shop, and she smiled and waved us on. “See? Come on,” I grabbed Rarity’s bags, took a step, and Fluttershy, although hesitant, followed behind.
This was one of the few shops with a door, the others being more “adult” stores. The bell rang as soon as we entered, and we were greeted by a surprisingly cheerful boy, not much older than myself. “Hi! Is there anything I can help you with today?”
I smiled and returned his greeting. “Thanks, but I think we’re just looking around for now.”
He nodded and proceeded to clean the small area around the cash register. The store wasn’t very big. As such, the only animals inside looked to be ones in cages, like birds, mice, snakes, and baby rabbits. I turned to Fluttershy, who looked like a kid in a candy store. She was going from display to display, smiling at each of the animals we passed by. “So, you really like animals, huh?”
She turned back to me, happier than I had ever seen her, more confident too. “Oh, yes! They’re all just so adorable!” She turned back to the cages and continued to watch mice scamper around their little home.
I, on the other hand, wasn’t very interested in watching small rodents scratch about their cages, and headed towards the back of the store, where some of the larger animals were kept. There were only two, however, and they were kittens and baby rabbits. Many of the kittens were sleeping, and the ones who weren’t didn’t look like they were too far from dozing off themselves, so I took to watching the rabbits run around their significantly larger cage.
One of them, being much smaller than all of the others, tried ever so desperately to play with two of the other rabbits, but was almost immediately pushed away. I thought of how I had been alone throughout most of school, pushed away by the cooler, more popular students. The tiny one, however, didn’t give up, and instead fought even harder to play with the others, even pushing one of the larger rabbits over just by rushing into it. “I guess that’s where you and I are different...”
Upon hearing footsteps behind me, I turned to see Fluttershy stepping up behind me, never breaking eye contact with the rabbits. “Aww, look at the little guy,” There was only one she could be talking about, and I turned back around to see that the two larger rabbits were pushing him around, not being at all phased by his aggressiveness.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “He’s trying so hard, isn’t he?”
Fluttershy nodded. Eventually, the little guy gave up, and went towards the water spout to get something to drink. Afterwards, he simply went into a corner and curled up all alone. I turned once more to Fluttershy, who seemed to be digging through her pocket-book for something. “What’re you doing?”
Without looking up at me, she replied, “Well, I can’t just leave him here. He looks so sad,” I looked up at the price tag; thirty dollars. Suddenly I heard a sigh from Fluttershy. “I knew I shouldn’t have let Rarity talk me into that necklace...”
She didn’t have enough. I thought a moment, then stood up. “Hang on a second,” I said, leaving Fluttershy, who looked saddened to tears, alone. I returned a few moments later with the boy who greeted us at the door. Pointing at the small rabbit, I said simply, “That one.”
Fluttershy nearly jumped back to her feet. “Oh, but Sky, I don’t have enough money...”
“I know,” But I did. The boy handed me the bunny, who looked at me with wide, frightened eyes.
The boy suddenly spoke. “I’ll have you ready when you finish up, sir,” I smiled, thanked him, and watched as he walked back down the aisles. I immediately turned to Fluttershy and turned over the fuzzy thing. She slowly took him from my arms, and the rabbit, almost instinctively, stopped squirming and got comfortable in her arms.
Fluttershy looked back up me. “Sky, you really don’t have to-”
I cut her off. “Think of it as my thanks for getting me out of the house for a while. Now it needs food, right?” And with that, we continued on to the food pellets. Fluttershy looking ever-so pleased with my gift, and me feeling great about having given it to her. It was a small favor, but one that will go a long way.
---------------
Eventually, we finished up with all of our shopping. I think it had something to do with the fact that many of the stores wouldn’t allow Fluttershy in with the rabbit, so Rarity and I began to feel bad about constantly leaving her outside as we went in and shopped.
We headed back to the car, after grabbing something quick to eat, and decided to call it a day. “Alright, Angel Bunny, you’ll have to sit with Sky while we go home, okay?” Fluttershy had only recently named him, after verifying his gender to the slight dismay of those around us, but she didn’t seem to notice. Angel didn’t seem to thrilled with her plans, however, and noticeably shook about in her hands.
“I guess he doesn’t like me very much,” I joked, but Fluttershy ignored me entirely.
“Oh, it won’t be that bad,” She handed him to me, and he stared at me, only for a moment before squirming around, trying to break free. I held him long enough for Fluttershy to get comfortable in her seat, at which point he broke free, making a mad dash to the front seats, where he found Fluttershy and curled up in her lap. Fluttershy looked at him and smiled. “Alright, you can stay up here with me. Okay, Angel?” Angel, satisfied with himself, dropped his head and closed his eyes, preparing for a comfortable sleep.
“Well, this was a fun day,” I said as we exited the parking lot.
“I couldn’t agree more!” Rarity agreed. The pile of bags beside me confirmed that she had had fun. “And next time will be even better!”
I froze a moment. “What? Next time? How often do you do this kind of stuff?!”
The girls apparently thought it funny, as they began laughing at my outburst. Even Angel seemed to mock me as he glared at me from Fluttershy’s lap.