I hadn’t seen my dad in so long. It was almost as if I would be able to see him for the first time in my life. I had no idea as to what sort of condition he would be in, just that it would ultimately be hard to see, regardless of what kind of relationship we had in the past. I didn’t know what I should have expected. Chemotherapy would likely have taken away his hair, something I could never have imagined him without. He would be weak, hardly able to move a muscle, let alone have the ability to speak to me.
I stood up. Pinkie simply watched as I stood there, staring at the label on the door. I reread it over and over again, ensuring it said what I thought it had.
I could still remember how I found out about my father’s illness. I was in class, doing nothing productive, and I felt my phone buzz in my pocket, which was odd, seeing as I didn’t talk to many people who weren’t in school with me. I pulled it out and saw that Jane, my step-mother, had sent me a message. In the text, she had simply told me that my dad was in the hospital with cancer. That was it. We never directly talked about it.
Luckily, I was at least able to visit him once in the hospital, right after I heard about everything that was going on. He had still looked normal then, just like he always had. His hair was very short, almost buzzed completely off, and black. He also had a short beard and mustache, which I had never seen him go without. He was a bit tan, and his hands were rough and always dirty from his work as a carpenter. He would always come home with injuries from his work, but continually insisted that they weren’t a problem, and continued his work as usual. Once he even cut the majority of his toe off after he had dropped a buzzsaw. The doctors were able to re-attach it, but he refused to take the time off of work that he was allowed.
The only times I saw him after that first visit were when he was allowed to leave the hospital for about a week or so, and it was never for longer than that. Every time he got out, he took me somewhere, or we did something together. And he would always get me a present, no matter what it was I wanted.
His condition worsened over the past year, and he was put into a constant chemotherapy cycle, going in as much as his body could handle. After that, he was never allowed to leave the hospital, and Jane didn’t care enough to let me visit him. Every time I questioned her about it, she would shrug me off and change the subject, or give me some ridiculous reason as to why we couldn’t be bothered to drive the half-hour trip to the hospital he was staying at to see him. Once she even told me that he might have been on some powerful medication, and that it would have been a waste of everyone’s time if that were the case.
But now, after just over a full year, I would be able to see him again. There was nothing more that I wanted in the world than to see my father, even for just one last time before he was gone. I raised my fist to the door, allowing my knuckles to rest against the hard wood of the door. I squeezed my eyes shut, then tapped against the door once, twice, then a third time before I twisted the knob.
Inside, the room was dark, with the only light leaking in through the shut curtains of the window. The air was still, as if nobody had been in or out of this room in the longest of times. I began to feel a knot twisting and turning in my stomach, begging me to leave the room and never turn back. But I knew I couldn’t do that, not now that I was already in there.
Then I saw a figure underneath the sheets on the bed. It was small, almost puny. As I inched closer, I could see his head poking out from under the covers, resting gently on the pillows. The closer I got, the more I thought this man to be someone else. He looked nothing like my father ever did. My father was strong, but this man had almost no muscle on his bones. My father was tan, this man was as pale as the rest of the hospital room. No matter how I denied it, I couldn’t help but understand that this was my father, and he could never be the same as he once was.
I stopped beside him, looking down at his face. His eyes were closed, and he was breathing softly. “Dad...” I whispered quietly. If he was awake, surely he would have heard my voice.
His eyes twitched for a brief moment, then slowly opened. He squinted against the almost nonexistent light in the room before turning towards the sound of my voice. “Hey, Boy...” As collected as ever, almost as if we were just having a normal conversation. “I ain’t seen you in a while...” He sounded weak, like it was a strain for him to even be talking to me. I could only stare on, trying to comprehend who this man was, and why he was pretending to be my father.
“Yeah, I’ve... just been busy, that’s all,” No matter who this man was, the last thing I wanted was to worry him. He had enough issues to deal with at the moment. I didn’t want my problems to be any of them.
It took him a moment to continue. “I wish you’d have visited me sooner, Boy. We might have been able to do something...” I felt something catch in my throat, and I clenched my teeth together. “But now, they’re tellin’ me I can’t even get out of bed...” He returned his attention to the ceiling, and shut his eyes once again.
“It’s okay,” I managed. “I just wanted to see you.”
He opened his eyes again and turned his head back in my direction. But something caught his eyes, and he looked just behind where I was standing. “Who’s that there...?”
I whipped my head around, unsure of what to find. I quickly realized it was Pinkie, who I hadn’t even noticed until then. “That’s, uh...” I turned back towards him. “She’s just a friend of mine...”
His mouth twitched, before one side of it turned up. “She’s cute...”
I smiled, then turned back to Pinkie, who smiled as thanks, though I doubted he could tell. “Yeah...”
“Whatcha wearin’ that for, Boy...?”
I turned back towards the sudden voice, then looked down at the hospital clothes that I was still dressed in. “I just... messed up my elbow at school, during basketball in Gym class...”
He sighed. “I told you to be careful with them kids... They’ll hurt ya’...”
I smiled again. “Yeah...” I didn’t know what else to say. To him, this all seemed like a normal, everyday conversation a father is having with his son. But in reality...
“Jane ain’t here...?” I heard him mumble just under his breath.
“Ah- No... No sir, she’s not...” The day I read the letter replayed itself in my mind. Her betrayal, my fury... Applejack.
Dad took a deep breath before continuing. “That’s good...” I felt my heart leap into my throat. The last thing I expected him to say was that he was happy she wasn’t around. He was always admiring her. I always thought that love truly is blind. “I’m glad she visits me so often... But she can be a damned pain when she wants to be...”
The words slipped out before I had meant for them too. “She visits you? Every time I asked, she would always give me some excuse, that there was no gas, or she had to be somewhere, or you might not even-”
“Hush, Boy... I don’t want to hear none of that...” He spoke as matter-of-factly as he was able. Still, his point got across, and I shut my mouth almost instantly, almost regretting what I had said. “How’s school goin’...?”
“Fine...” I couldn’t help but be a little down from being called out. “I told you I made some friends,” I nodded my head back towards the third presence in the room.
Dad turned his attention back towards her. “I can see that... Be sure to take care of him, now...” I heard Pinkie giggle from behind me in a polite tone, rather than a cheerful one. “He ain’t very good with people...”
“Don’t worry,” I turned towards Pinkie’s voice, staring as she spoke to him. Before that moment, I could have honestly said that I didn’t think any of the girls would meet him. “We’ll keep a sharp eye out for him,” But I was happy that Pinkie did.
I heard my father let out a dry chuckle before turning back in his direction to see him gently drop his head back onto the pillow below it. “That’s good to hear...” He closed his eyes, only for a moment before a soft snoring came from his throat.
I looked back at Pinkie, who merely glanced at me before she understood. We both began towards the door, which I was hardly aware had even shut behind us as we stepped out into the hallway.
I turned the corner and began towards the direction I had thought my room to be, leaving Pinkie to push the empty wheelchair behind me. If she had attempted to persuade me to sit in the chair again, I hadn’t heard her. In all honesty, I didn’t care at that point. I was able to walk, and that’s what I intended to do.
We had made it to my room within a few minutes, and gone inside, me sitting back on the hospital bed and Pinkie taking a seat in her chair. After a few moments, Pinkie wondered if she should still have called Mr. and Mrs. Cake to ask if they would be able to bring us anything to eat. “I’m not hungry anymore,” I told her.
We sat there for a long time, neither of us saying anything to the other. I was consumed with what I had just witnessed, and I could only assume Pinkie was trying to give me the time and space that I needed. After a while, though, she had apparently decided that enough was enough, and aimed to put an end to my moping by changing my thoughts. “When do you think they’ll let you out of here? It shouldn’t be too much longer, right?”
I convinced myself to at least humor her. If anything, I thought that it might relieve the tension in the room. “I have no idea. I once heard something about a guy get shot with a shotgun, and he was out in five days.”
I saw Pinkie cock her head to one side out of the corner of my eye. “Do you think you’ll be getting out that soon?”
I turned towards her. “I hope it’ll be sooner, but better late than never,” I hadn’t meant for my statement to have such a somber tone, but Pinkie didn’t seem to catch on. “But I doubt it’ll be today-” A knock on my door interrupted me, and I announced that whoever this interruption was could enter.
The doctor walked into the room, glanced at Pinkie, then back down towards the clipboard that he held in his hand. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware you had a visitor. But it’s no matter,” He stepped towards the side of my bed that was connected to the many machines in the room. “If you don’t mind, Miss, I’ll have to ask you to step out into the hallway for just a moment. I need to take a look at Sky’s wound to see how it’s healing,” The man dotted something down on his clipboard as Pinkie rose to her feet, heading towards the exit with a nod.
I turned back towards the doctor as he finished his notes. “Did she really have to leave? You’re just looking at my side, right?”
He dropped his clipboard on the nearest surface, the end table, and turned his attention towards me. “That has nothing to do with it. If I find something, then I’ll tell you right away. If she were in here when I did, it would violate doctor-patient confidentiality, you see,” His grim tone made me think the worst was happening, but I convinced myself that he had possibly just been in a very serious situation, as doctors tend to be in. “Now, let me see your wound.”
I lifted my shirt, feeling his cold, gloved fingers press against my side, sending shots of pain through my body. He had tried his best to avoid touching the wound directly, but he often got close enough to send a jolt of pain through me, causing me to wince and jerk a bit. He apologized each time it happened. “All right,” he finally straightened himself and removed his glove, which had a distinct lack of blood. “It looks to be healing normally. If you’re ready, I think we’re ready to let you go. I’ll prescribe you something for the pain, of course, but after that-”
“Wait,” I interrupted. “You’re letting me go now? After just a couple of days? I was shot! Shouldn’t you at least perform an x-ray? Or something?”
The doctor smiled. “An x-ray is for bone damages, and no, we don’t need to perform any other tests. Your torso seems to be healing quite well, and you should be back in school by next week, so long as nothing else happens between now and then.”
I was still in disbelief. How many days had it been? Two? Three? A bullet had gone through me! Shouldn’t they watch it until it healed completely? “What am I supposed to do now, then?”
He laughed. “You go home, get some rest, and don’t do anything too laborious. You’re still very weak, and heavy lifting could injure you permanently at this stage,” The man glanced down at his wristwatch, apparently having been late for another meeting somewhere, as he quickly grabbed his clipboard and headed towards the door. “I’ll have a nurse come soon with your prescription and discharge you. I’m sorry, but you’ll have to ask her any other questions you have,” And with that, he was gone.
Pinkie walked back into the room afterwards, staring at my still-shocked expression. “What happened? What did he say?” Her voice was concerned, almost as if she believed the worst was happening.
I turned towards her, my face hardly changing. “I’m going home today.”
---------------
The nurse was there a bit later than I had expected her, though I didn’t mind much. I was just happy to be out of that awful place. After signing some papers and receiving my prescription for some rather powerful medication, along with my belongings, Pinkie called Mr. and Mrs. Cake and asked if they would be able to come and pick the pair of us up.
“Do you want to stay at the bakery until school is out?” Pinkie had asked me as I was being wheeled out of the front doors. “We can bake some cupcakes for the front! It’ll be fun!” I agreed, and told her that I would love to, especially since I would have been stuck with Granny Smith again if I had gone back to Applejack’s house, which wasn’t bad, just boring.
Mr. Cake had come to pick us up. He was a tall, almost lanky man with orange, short hair. I noticed that he was still wearing his apron and paper hat, I assumed from working at the bakery, but decided against pointing it out.
The ride consisted of Mr. Cake asking me questions about where I’m from and what I like to do; just general “who are you” kind of stuff. Pinkie seemed interested as well, and I realized that I hadn’t really told her much about myself.
The pair looked nothing alike. Before, I had thought that Mr. and Mrs. Cake were Pinkie’s parents, but after seeing them next to each other, I couldn’t tell. Maybe Pinkie takes after Mrs. Cake? That notion was quickly discarded after I stepped through the door to Sugarcube Corner. Mrs. Cake was significantly shorter than Mr. Cake, a little shorter than average height, and had blue, almost swirling hair.
“Oh, hello there!” Mrs. Cake greeted me, almost like I was any other customer. “You must be Sky, right?” She stepped around the counter, despite the fact that a couple of people were looking around the shop, to properly introduce herself. “I’m Mrs. Cake. It’s wonderful to finally meet you!” She reached towards me with an open hand, so I grabbed it and shook.
I forced a smile. I was never good at greetings. “Yeah, it’s nice to meet you, too.”
“Excuse me, Mrs. Cake?” A customer had made her way to the counter in the time it took us to make our introductions.
Mrs. Cake turned around. “Oh, of course!” She turned back towards Pinkie and me, while Mr. Cake quickly made his way towards the back of the bakery, where I could only assume the kitchen was located. “Pinkie Pie, why don’t you give Sky a tour? I’m sure he’d love to see everything.”
“Okie dokie lokie!” Pinkie exclaimed before grabbing my hand and pulling me away towards a set of stairs.
“Ah!” I shouted as Pinkie tugged at my arm. “Pinkie! My side!”
She immediately let go, smiling as if she had forgotten. “Oh, sorry!” She quickly continued her way up the steps, and I followed as quickly as I was able.
There I was met with a hallway, which bore several doors and another set of stairs leading up. “This,” Pinkie began, drawing my attention back towards the pink-headed presence, “is Mr. and Mrs. Cake’s room. I’m not allowed in there,” I could have assumed as much. “Next,” Pinkie moved on to the next door in line, “is the bathroom,” She tip-toed towards the last door in the hallway. Her voice became a low hush instead of its usual, high-pitched tone. “This is the baby Cakes’ room. It’s their nap-time now, so we have to be quiet.”
I smiled and nodded. How could the Cakes handle running a bakery and raising children? Pinkie moved towards the stairs, and I followed. The door at the top of the steps was bright pink, with several colored balloons glued to its surface. “This is my room!” She threw open the door before I had a chance to respond. Inside, the room was bright and colorful. The walls were a light pink, with several colored decorations hanging from them. Her bed was a much darker pink, with blue sheets that were striped with yellow. A couple of objects were scattered around the room as well, like a ball or two, balloons, and a small, blue cannon. I had no idea why Pinkie would ever need a cannon, but I wasn’t about to ask.
Pinkie stepped inside, grabbed a ball, and tossed it in my direction. I was barely able to smack the thing away in time before it hit me. “What was that for?”
“How’d you like my tour? It’s not much, but it’s home!” She flopped down on her bed and stretched her arms out.
“Well,” I began, stepping into the room with some final glances, “it’s small, but cozy, I guess. Didn’t you say we were going to make cupcakes, though? Where’s the kitchen?”
Pinkie sat up. “Oh, it’s downstairs. But I don’t think we’ll be able to do any baking, not right now, anyway. We might get in Mr. Cake’s way.”
“Oh, alright,” I looked around the room once more. “So, what are we gonna do then?”
Pinkie fell back again, her face scrunched in thought. “Hmm... Oh, I know!” She jumped from her bed and rushed towards her closet. She opened the door and began rummaging through some of the things inside. After a moment or so, she stepped back, holding a white box. “We could play Monopoly!” She instantly looked to regret her choice, though, looking down at the box with a curious expression. “Hmm... actually, I don’t like this game,” She tossed it to the side and continued her search.
After about ten different games, including Chutes and Ladders, Risk, Candy Land, and some other family games, Pinkie finally decided on Battleship, since there were only two of us. We set up the board, me putting my ships in random places. Pinkie, on the other hand, had apparently thought long and hard about her choices, as she took about five minutes longer than I did to place her ships. “You’re going down, now! You’ll never find my ships!” Pinkie exclaimed after she had placed her final ship on the board.
“B-5,” I stated simply.
Pinkie instantly looked defeated. “Aww, you hit my battleship...”
---------------
We worked our way through a couple of other games, all of which I won. I may have gotten a big head without meaning to though, because the next game Pinkie pulled out was Twister, and I had completely forgotten about my injury, as did she.
Whoever was able to was in charge of flicking the spinner, which was generally Pinkie. She was much more flexible than I was, which isn’t saying much in itself, but she seemed to be made of rubber. My hands and feet were seemingly as far apart as they possibly could be, and I was having trouble. Pinkie, on the other hand, seemed to be having no trouble at all, as she was unintentionally showing off. Every time we had to flick the spinner, she would somehow manage to work her way around me in ways I never thought possible.
Eventually, we were both hardly able to move a muscle. My leg was under her’s, even though I was standing like a table, my back towards the ground, and she was forced to move under my body to get her hand on red. The next spin told me to do the same. I tried to reach around and place my hand on any open red spot, but by that time, the medication had apparently worn off, and I was beginning to feel the pain in my side once more. It was growing with every stretch, and I couldn’t hold on any longer. I collapsed on top of Pinkie, who fell to the floor with a thud.
My attempt to reach over my own body had put my stomach towards the ground, and Pinkie was laying under me, facing the ceiling. She began laughing, and I did the same. “I finally won!” She said, reaching an arm across the floor.
“Only because my side started hurting!”
She rolled her eyes. “Excuses, excuses... you’re just sad that I’m better than you at Twister,” We laughed for a little more before the moment passed, and we were simply left in each other’s presence, both of us looking at the other.
I had never noticed before, but her eyes were a baby blue color. They were bright, and very pretty. She had a cute nose too, small, but cute. Her lips were similarly sized. They looked smooth, and a bit plump at the same time. And her expression had quickly changed, as I noticed. It wasn’t a laughing, happy one anymore, but rather a blank slate. Her eyes were wide, and they were staring directly into mine.
I didn’t know what to do, or what I should have done, but my neck was getting tired, so I began lowering my head towards her, and she moved towards me as I did her. It was almost as if neither of us were moving at all, but I knew we were. Our faces were growing closer and closer, and it was almost as if time was standing still around us. As our lips inched together, I could feel her warmth on my mouth. The rest of my body suddenly felt colder, and I wanted desperately to feel the full warmth of Pinkie’s lips against my own.
I don’t know when our lips touched. All I knew was that I had made contact, and I closed my eyes at some point. She was warm, and I wanted nothing more than to stay there for the rest of my life, with her. I felt my body suddenly tense, then quickly relax. Underneath my body, I felt Pinkie’s do the same. The rest of her body felt just as warm as her lips did, and I found myself longing to wrap her in my embrace.
My eyes shot open as a knock on the door stole my attention. Pinkie’s eyes were just as wide, and we looked at each other for a moment before the disruption began speaking. “Pinkie? Are you two alright? I heard something fall.”
I scrambled off of Pinkie, and soon found myself sitting on her bed, my arms by my side, and my legs crossed on the floor. The door opened afterwards, allowing Mrs. Cake to enter the room. “What happened?”
Pinkie turned to her from her seated position on the floor. “I-It’s nothing, Mrs. Cake! I was just, uh...” She quickly glanced around the room and found her stack of board games near the closet. “I was looking for something in my closet, and I dropped something.”
Mrs. Cake glanced towards the pile of games near the closet door, then looked back towards the pair of us. “Oh, well be careful then, Pinkie. I don’t want you two getting hurt again, okay?”
Pinkie smiled. “Okay! We’ll be careful!” And with that, Mrs. Cake left, shutting the door behind her. The room was quiet for a few moments, as we waited to ensure that she wouldn’t return.
Pinkie and I finally looked at each other, her expression just as confused and worried as mine. I still wasn’t fully aware of what had just happened. I had never kissed a girl before, and I got the feeling Pinkie’s situation was similar, just by looking at her. How are you supposed to act after it happens? Does everything go back to normal? I didn’t know, so we sat there, neither of us saying anything for a long time.
Eventually, Pinkie rose to her feet, straightened her skirt, and began towards the closet to begin setting everything back in their proper places. I began folding the Twister mat and organizing the box. Then after a while, I began worrying. Had I done something wrong? She had leaned in towards me too, or I thought so. Could I have been mistaken? “Sky,” Pinkie broke my train of thought. “I’m sorry. I knew I shouldn’t have, but I couldn’t help it...”
“No, it’s okay. I just... don’t know what to think... is all...” Things were quiet again, and I finished packing the box, handing it off to her to place inside the closet. A glance at my phone showed that it was only a little after two o’clock. We had only left the hospital about three hours before, and school wouldn’t let out for another hour. I tilted my head in Pinkie’s direction, who had found a spot beside me on the bed. “Should we... talk about it?”
She only sat there. “I don’t know... I’ve never kissed anyone before... I don’t know what to think...”
I turned back towards the ground. “Me neither...”
After a while of sitting together in silence, Pinkie suddenly rose to her feet. “Well, why don’t we make those cupcakes now? Mr. Cake shouldn’t be too busy in the kitchen!”
I rose after her, happy that the situation was finally over. “Alright, sounds fun,” I followed closely behind as Pinkie made her way back towards the bottom floor of the bakery. I constant thought was nagging at the back of my mind, though. Why can’t things just go back to the way they were...?