//------------------------------// // July 25th. Coming Clean // Story: Seven Days in Sunny June: Innocence Lost // by FlashFrame //------------------------------// July 25th, Wednesday.         Jumpy didn’t even begin to describe Sweet Pea: her phone’s text tone issuing out, caused her to nearly jump out of bed and cling to her ceiling fan. Her eyes large and worried as they darted around the room before picking up the phone and looking at the offending text. M.R: Hey S.P, I hope things are okay, I’m set to leave SF today,back to L.A. 5pm flight. are we cool? Sweet Pea’s eyes scanned over the single line of text, and she groaned, flopping back onto the bed, it was still early, she had an hour before she needed to be ready for classes, but she was debating calling in, not that it would be a good showing being her second day of classes and already calling out, but she had a feeling Administration would understand when they learned about...him. Typing out a quick message, she assured her friend that they were indeed cool, and that she’d go meet her at the airport after class. Pea sighed, she’d been hoping to make up with Melancholy Rose before she left, but now she knew that was unlikely. She’d squandered the days her best friend was here, and now she had so much on her plate. “Gah… guess when it rains, it pours.” She says with a grumble, getting up and heading to the shower… which resulted in a blood curdling scream as she ran, covered only in her towel, from her personal bathroom. “BUCK!!!” In an instant her brother was at her side, having run nearly the entire length of the house. “What, what is it!?” Sweet Pea pointed into the bathroom… there between the glass of the sliding door that lead to the shower, was a large wolf spider, stuck between the panes of glass, which caused Buck to laugh while his sister hit his arm and ran back to her room, slamming the door until Buck could take care of the offending arachnid. “TODAY FUCKING SUCKS!” was the answer Buck got when he knocked on her door a few minutes later, the spider dead and Sweet Pea even more freaked out than she’d been upon awakening. “Language, Pea, but yes, I gotta agree.” Buck sighed, running a hand through his hair as he returned to getting ready for work. After all, life didn’t stop just because your sister was in possible danger. Rose looked at the return text from Sweet Pea with relief, before dialing another number, the tone rang twice before there was an answer, as well as a light sound of a hand grasping to get a hold of the phone itself. “Melancholy Rose, good morning dear.” The voice punctuated the statement with a slight yawn. “Oh goodness, forgive me Rose, but I’m afraid I did not sleep that well last night, is everything okay?” Rose chuckled slightly. “I’m fine, Rarity, I just wanted to let you know your idea of giving her some space worked, Pea says we’re on good terms, and she’ll be seeing me off tonight.” There was a slightly approving sound from the other end, as Rarity smiled. “Oh that’s wonderful, though, you really should sit down with her when you get the chance Rose, I’m sure it’ll be worthwhile.” Rose nodded and sighed. “Yeah I know I can’t just not tell her, but now’s not the right time for it, the distance will be an issue and all, and I personally couldn’t handle that.” She felt a little better admitting that again. “Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you, and, sorry if it’s a bit early for a call like this, but, you were right to have me give her some space.” Rarity giggled. “Oh it was nothing, darling, really. Just don’t forget about us while dealing with all those stars out there in the City of Angels dear.” Finishing the call and saying their goodbyes. Melancholy Rose found herself unable to stop smiling. Her friendship with Pea was intact. She looked over to the small CD collection the girl had gotten her, and smiled, toying a finger over the cover of Parried Moves greatest hits album, before returning to packing up for the afternoon travel to come. The day had only started, and Sweet Pea was still on edge. She’d nearly knocked Sugarcoat for a loop when the girl came up behind her and scared Pea out of her wits. Of course, Coat was able to block the hit, but she demanded an explanation about what happened to get Pea so worked up. Thankfully lunch came fast enough and the girls found themselves at a table alone, and a good distance from everyone. “So spill girl, you’re as twitchy as ChibiUsa on a sugar high.” Tart said, motioning to Pea as she jumped at the sound of a rather loud tray hitting the table a few tables down. “I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to go through this with you guys, but given what’s happened…” Sweet Pea winced a bit to herself and looked down at her own lunch for a moment, the school hamburger sitting on its plate, she poked at it lightly, trying to figure out where to start. “Oh, I don’t know, why not start with how big of an absolute whore you were,” the everpresent voice from within taunted, and Pea ignored it as best she could. She closed her eyes tight, and took a deep breath. “You know what, fuck it, you girls have been great to me, and I trust you both, so….” she breathed out, taking a moment to compose herself before she looked to Sugarcoat and Lemon Tart. “My life has been complete shit up until about half a year ago.” She dropped all pretenses of politeness, as she got it off her chest finally to her newest friends. “When I was born, my mother died in childbirth, she was a sheriff's deputy out in Dodge Junction, South Dakota; my father, unable to deal with the loss of his wife, blew his own brains out in the car with me sitting next to him… I was found hours later by some of my mother’s co-workers, and placed to live with my uncle, Tripwire. Tripwire served in the Marine Corps back during Operation Desert Storm… he used to tell me stories about the fights.” She let out a laugh, that was anything but pleasant, as she looked down into the plate of food. “In fact, one of the most memorable times he told me a story like that, I was ten… and he was drunk… talk about a bad combination.” she took a slow breath. “That was the day I lost my virginity to my own uncle – he took it from me – and continued taking what he wanted for nearly half a year. How could I fight back at ten years old?” she asked, more to herself than anyone else, as she clenched her fists on the table, forcing herself to continue. “But I was a smart kid, and I got out, I ran away, and was quite good at hiding and scrounging food… at least, until I got to Canterlot.” She looked to the other two girls. “For several years, I lived with a guy that called himself Sly Dreams. Wasn’t his real name, and for years I went by the name Amelia.” She looked around carefully, making sure no one was looking her way, before lifting the long sleeve of her right arm, the looks of horror on her friends’ faces was enough as she showed the track marks there before lowering the sleeve back into place. “I was literally a whore, an underage prostitute for five years, between Sly Dreams and Stone Cold, who killed Sly just to get me as one of his girls.” She looked down at the table surface, unable to face her friends. “Sly was my first pimp, and Stone my second. I did all sorts of things: you paid, and I’d do it – just about anything. Sometimes I didn’t know what was coming, though: you think the track marks from the drug use is bad… should see the rest of my body.” She looked to Tart, whose eyes were wide, and shining with tears. “T..that’s why you wear stuff that covers you so much?” she asked, reaching out to rest a hand on Pea’s arm, who gently drew away, not really wanting the touch at the moment. “Yeah… maybe one day I’ll show you the other stuff, but right now, this is hard enough.” Her jaw set and she continued her story. “It was around Christmas last year, that my fortune changed. I ran into a cop named Shining Armor. I figured he was as corrupt as the others I’d dealt with and propositioned him; after all,most of the time I just had to offer up some sex and you could get out of everything. Not with Armor though.” This time her laugh was a bit more real, with some actual emotion to it. “He didn’t want that, and I found out why: He was about to get married, and his girl’s a literal knock out... Well, that and he had some actual morals unlike some of the others I’d encountered. Instead of taking advantage of me, or taking me to Social… he risked his job for me, and contacted some friends of his who were looking to adopt.” A real smile found her lips. “That’s how I met Buck and Lemony, my brother and sister, they’re really more like my adopted parents, but I’m old enough that they figured a sibling relationship would work better, but for the first time in my life, I found people that actually cared, and were not out to just use me as an object.” She stopped long enough to take in the faces of her friends, Coat was just staring at her and Tart looked on the verge of bawling and wanting to just hug Pea silly. Nodding Pea sighed. “As part of the agreement, I helped Shining start an internal affairs investigation of Canterlot PD.  His fiancee, Cadenza, helped catch my uncle – she’s a public defender back in Canterlot.” “How’d he get caught?” Coat asked.  “Sounds like he’s the kind of guy who would cover his ass to make sure he didn’t get nailed by the cops.” “he’d taped one of the nights he had with me, and when I ran, I took the tape with me,” Pea explained.  “It was enough to get him tossed in the county jail, awaiting trial.  The trial was supposed to be later this year, and my family and I were going to go to make sure that he was put away for a long time.”  She nearly buried her face in her hands as she added, “But that’s not going to happen now.” “Why not?” Tart asked. “Well, as of last night, that bastard of an uncle escaped Dodge Junction Correctional, killed an inmate on his way out, and vanished into the high desert, He’s currently armed, dangerous, and according to what Lemony and Buck told me… it sounds like he’s been blaming me for ruining his life… as if the bastard didn’t ruin mine.” Unable to hold back, both girls wrapped Sweet Pea up in a hug. Sugarcoat finally finding words. “That story is absolutely insane, but, guess it’s so crazy it’s true huh?” she asked, receiving a nod from Pea she nodded back. “Well, you’ve got us, too.” Lemon Tart nodded in agreement. “Exactly, we’ll do what we can to keep you safe too.” She smiled, wiping away her tears and hugging Pea a bit tighter. “I’m so, so sorry all that happened to you Pea. No one should ever have to go through that kind of stuff.” Pea had been so sure of that voice in the back of her head, that dark cackling that had been laughing it up through her entire story, however, at the response of her friends, it had quieted down, as if beaten back by the showing of support for the moment. “I’m broken goods, girls.” she said gently, squeezing both back. “But, I’m trying to move on; it’s just...with him out there, all my worries and insecurities, which I thought I was finally getting back into check after the last issue… they’re back at the forefront. I still have nightmares about him attacking me, taking me, using that damned nickname he came up with.” She sniffled, and tears she hadn’t realised she had welling up, finally spilling as she hugged her friends for support. Sugarcoat smirked. “Let him try – I’ll kick his ass.” That made Sweet Pea laugh lightly, “I hope so Coat, I really do.” she took up her napkin and wiped away the tears that had spilled. “Thanks girls, for understanding.” Tart shrugged, “Hey, you’re a friend: so you had a rocky past, we didn’t know you then right?” Sugarcoat smirked. “Exactly, and you seem pretty alright in my book.”   San Francisco International Airport was a place bustling with activity, people went here and there, rushing between various terminals. There, outside Terminal 12 for the flight to LAX , stood a lone teen, long midnight blue hair flowed down her back, kept back out of her face with a ponytail, and pink eyes scanned the people filtering through the terminal. The girl had her bag packed, a single, large luggage piece that had carried her clothes and a few other things she’d needed. She sat scrolling through her phone, almost missing the call out of her name. “Rose!” Looking up, her eyes fell on the form of her best friend, wearing a...school uniform? She noticed the other two girls with her, a rather cute Asian girl and a tall, somewhat imposing African-American girl. Getting up, she met Sweet Pea with a tight hug as the girl came running over and hugged her tightly. “Rose, I’m so sorry about the other day, forgive me?” Rose chuckled softly. “I already did Pea, I’m sorry myself… I know you wanted me to stick around, but, life calls, ya know.” she squeezed the slightly shorter form of Sweet Pea before letting her friend go. “Thanks for seeing me off.” She looked past Pea and motioned to the girls. “Oh, yeah, uh, Melancholy Rose, meet Sugarcoat and Lemon Tart, two of my friends from Cornerstone Academy.” Pea motioned to them who both walked over. “Hey good to see she’s got some more friends.” Smiling brightly, Rose shook each one’s hands, making note of Coat’s quite firm grip. “Hey it’s cool, Pea’s totally awesome.” Tart smirked, the sound of her music heard through the over the ear headphones that were around her neck currently, obviously blasting the music, but still hard to hear over the noise in the terminal. Coat gave a nod. “Exactly, and I’m glad we could become friends.” she admitted, releasing the elder teen’s hand. Rose nodded. “Well, my plane’s leaving in about ten minutes, so I really should get aboard… but thank you again, Pea, for seeing me off.” Unable to hold back, she gave Pea another tight hug. “We’ll talk more soon okay? You’ve got my Skype.” Pea nodded, her eyes shining with tears, she’d had one hell of a day. “Before you go Mel, you should know… Tripwire escaped, a couple of days ago, killed a guy, and, so far as I know, is coming this way.” Rose’s eyes nearly bugged out. “What? Seriously? Sweet Pea...” she covered her mouth. “Just, stay safe, okay?” She gave the girl one last hug, before glancing at the time. “Look, when I get home, I want you to give me all the details.” Pea nodded, and let the other teen go, as she headed for her flight. Leaving a somewhat saddened Sweet Pea and her friends as she watched her retreat further into the terminal. LAX was hugely busy, and all the incoming and outgoing flights had the terminal’s filled with people. It was 7:45pm by the time flight 15 from San Francisco International landed and its passengers disembarked from it’s depths. Sitting at one of the small deli shops, sipping a coffee, dressed in nondescript clothing, with a blue ballcap over his short military cut, was Tripwire, enjoying a sandwich. He’d neither notice, nor be noticed, by the teen who’d just arrived back in her home town. Looking up at the television, the news was fairly quiet on his escape. He’d seen a couple of reports, but for the most part, he was blending in perfectly. He’d done a quick search for Sweet Pea’s name, and gotten a hit on her Facebook page, listing her as living in San Francisco; while it was a huge haystack, Tripwire knew finding this needle would be anything but difficult… after all, his little girl was quite the unique looker, if her facebook profile picture was any indication. He checked the ticket he held, Flight 45, out of Terminal 15, leaving in two hours for San Fran. Nodding to himself he finished the sub sandwich he’d been eating, savoring the taste of the peppers included. He was getting closer to his ultimate goal, he’d make her pay, of course, he’d have a little fun first. Pulling out the small phone he’d picked up, he brought up the Facebook app, and went to her page again, studying the details of the cute teen pictured there. She’d be sixteen now, and perfect for what he wanted from her. He wondered if she’d be better lay now that she had some time to ripen. Hell, he was getting excited just thinking about it.