February 20
I woke up at the first light of dawn, even though it had been kind of a late night last night. I guess I'm still on a more Equestrian schedule. I can't decide if I like that, or if it would be better if my internal clock shifted a bit later.
Aric was pressed up against my back, curling against me for my body heat and maybe something else, since he was hard against my rump. I hoped he wouldn't try anything from this position; my tail would get in the way and could get sprained if we got too enthusiastic.
But then I realized he was still asleep, and I rolled onto my belly, carefully so not to disturb him too much. He grumbled a bit in his sleep but adapted to our new arrangement.
I stretched my wing out over his side, because he'd pushed the covers back some and I thought he might be cold, and I put my forehead against his to let our breaths intermingle. Then I dozed back off again.
When I woke for the second time, he was running his hand through my mane. It felt really nice, and I didn't open my eyes right away because I thought he might stop if he saw I was awake. But my tail probably gave me away: I couldn't help it. My body knows what it wants even if my mind tries to slow it down.
I tucked my head up under his chin and contented myself with letting him run his hand over me. He knew that I was awake, though, and pretty soon he stopped and said that we ought to get up before too long. I told him that I didn't think that there was any real hurry, especially since we weren't being interrupted by telephone calls.
He chuckled and said that I had a good point.
We snuggled for a little bit like that, then he said that his other arm was asleep and rolled onto his back and I put my head down on his chest and reached a hoof just a little bit under the covers and lifted up the blanket.
Aric pushed it back down and asked me what I was doing, and I told him that I wanted to see and I wouldn't touch unless he wanted me to. He said that I was being silly but after a little bit he finally took his hand off the blanket and told me that I could.
I flicked my tail eagerly, but I'd made a promise and I meant to keep it, so I just lifted the covers up high enough to get a good look. It wasn't quite the same as a stallion's, but it was pretty close. Certainly close enough to work.
When I was finally satisfied with my inspection, I let the covers drop back down and nestled up against his chest and let him run his hands over me for a while. He really liked playing with my wings and I let him, even though he was messing up my feathers a little bit.
Eventually we got up. I sat on the bed and preened my feathers while he took a shower and got dressed, and then we drove to a wooden restaurant called Cracker Barrel.
It was a bit crowded and confined, and I probably would have been uncomfortable if I wasn't with him. But the food was good, and we had a good breakfast talk. He was a little more relaxed than he'd been in the morning.
We had to kind of rush on the way back because there was a matinee performance of the play on Saturday before the night showing, and he said that he was running a bit later than he wanted to, especially since he had to fix one light that had stopped working during yesterday’s performance. So he drove to the theatre parking lot and we kissed and he went off to work in the theatre while I went back to my dorm room to get my vest so that I could fly around a bit and work off some of the tension in me.
I didn't land until it was nearly dinnertime. Peggy was in our room doing homework when I got back and she said that she'd missed me. Then she asked if I'd had a good night with Aric, and I said that it could have been better, but we'd had breakfast at Cracker Barrel and gotten a lot of stuff worked out and hopefully next time would be my night. I told her I was a bit frustrated by the slow progress, but she said that maybe that was for the best. It wasn't what I wanted to hear, but she was probably right.
Ugh, I hate it when things get complicated. I just want to have some fun with someone I like.
Peggy and I went to dinner together. It was Italian again, and this time I avoided the noodles and just stuck with salad.
After dinner, since I didn't have any other plans, I went back to Christine's dorm room with Sean, and watched some more Star Trek. There was one episode I thought was particularly cute that had little furry things called Tribbles, which reminded me a lot of parasprites. There had been an infestation of them in Fillydelphia when I was a foal, and there was a little while where we really had to stretch our food because of everything they'd eaten. So I saw right away that they were bad, but the crew of the Enterprise didn't realize it as quickly as they ought to have.
Then we started hearing sirens outside, more than was normal. I picked up on it first, and then Christine said something about it too, and checked her telephone to see if it knew what was going on.
While she was looking, Sean said that the police department also fights fires in Kalamazoo, and there was probably a big fire somewhere in town, and that's where they were all going. He said that if he wanted to rob a bank, he'd start a fire on the other side of town first.
Then Christine said that it wasn't a fire, that there had been someone who was driving around town shooting people and nobody knew who he was or where he was or why he was doing it but he’d just shot two people at a car dealership on Stadium Road, which ran right by campus.
That made me really nervous, but Christine said that it was probably safe here. It really put a damper on the mood, though, and none of us felt like watching any more Star Trek. I said that I ought to go back to my dorm room to make sure Peggy was okay and they thought that was a good idea and offered to walk with me.
I thought that might make it more dangerous for them, and said that I'd be fine because I could fly and they couldn't. So they walked down with me to the front door and we looked through the windows to make sure that there weren't any strange cars waiting nearby, and then they opened the door and I took off almost straight up to get some altitude.
I relaxed a little bit when I got back to Trowbridge. I could see Peggy through our window, so I dropped down and went through the front door and then galloped up to our dorm room.
She didn't have any idea what was going on, so I told her and she got really pale. She checked to make sure that our door was locked while I was sending a telephone telegram to Christine to tell her that I was alright, and I sent one to Aric too, even though I knew he probably wouldn't see it until after he was done with the play.
Peggy found a news video on her computer and we both sat together on her bed watching it and trying to get a sense of what was going on. It kept getting worse, and unlike a rampaging monster that's pretty easy to find and avoid, nobody knew who was doing it or why or where he might strike next.
Then we just huddled together in her bed, because there was nothing else we could do.