Summer Days

by Alex The Lone Wolf

Day 7 - Trio

What happened the day before was a real bummer, but the most important thing was that we still had each other. I could see there was still a little blue in you, and I was hoping I could fix you up in the next few days. However, it turned out that whatever little blue was left quickly began to melt away when she came along.

---

Summer had begun to quickly turn into a bore. Apparently, no pony still seemed to have a job for us. We were still broke, and there didn't seem to be anything that we could do for free. I almost wanted to scavenge the town for some kind of job, but the idea of doing that sort of ticked me off. Athena and I were still pretty young, and ponies our age were hanging with their friends during this vacation. Why did we have to be so different from everypony else?

Athena and I had been lying on the grass outside staring up at the clouds. It was almost as if we were trying to tan our coats or something. We silently remained lying by each other until we unexpectedly heard another voice by us.

"Hey, guys…"

The two of us nearly threw ourselves upwards.

"Coco?" Athena questioned the sight of her. "What are you doing here?"

"Um…" She appeared hesitant to reply. "I don't know… I thought that maybe we could hang out…"

"Of course!" Athena immediately beamed with happiness. "That'd be amazing, right Alex?!" She slyly nudged me.

"Y-yeah." I agreed. "We aren't really doing anything though…"

"That's okay." Coco walked over to us and took a seat right next to me. My heart definitely skipped a beat. "I've been having to be by myself for so long. It's nice to just be around others."

"Working on your stuff?" Athena asked.

"Yeah." Coco returned a sheepish grin. "Things like that."

"I'd like to see your work sometime."

"Oh!" Coco reached around herself, pulling out her schoolbag that she had brought along again. "I've actually got some sketches. You want to see those?"

"No way!" Athena suddenly threw herself in front of me, leaning over to take a closer at Coco's sketchbook. "You draw too?"

"Well, I design dresses…" Coco returned with a semi-heavy blush. "I don't do portraits or anything like that."

"Still, it's so cool that you draw!" Athena carefully grabbed a hold of her sketchbook and began looking through it. "I like to doodle every now and then, but I really wish I had more art supplies. I've only been able to make due with ordinary pencils and a notebook."

"Oh, really?" Coco responded with a hint of intrigue to her voice. "I think I've got some extra sketchbooks and pencils around. I can give you some of the supplies I don't need or use."

"Really?!" Athena's face lit up in a flash at the sound of this. "That would be awesomesauce!"

"I'll bring them tomorrow." Coco revealed a warm yet bright grin at Athena's reaction.

I couldn't help but notice how easy it seemed to be for Coco to talk to Athena. I kind of wished we would talk the same way as well.

"Wow, Coco! This dress looks amazing!" Athena pointed at a particular design.

In return, Coco leaned over to take a look and suddenly grew unexpectedly close to me. It didn't seem that she noticed as she had been focused on what Athena had been talking about. I tried so hard to ignore it and not make such a big deal about it, but the fact that her coat was brushing against mine made it nearly impossible. Unintentionally, I believed I was able to sniff out a sweet scent coming from her mane. I wondered if it was her shampoo or something.

I felt that it had been wrong to be so close to her, even though it wasn't my doing. I tried to make some room between us, but I suppose my sudden shift in movement caused me to accidentally bump her and make her evidently aware of how close she was to me. With a heavy blush, she immediately pulled away and returned to her spot. She remained extremely quiet and if she had been suddenly struck mute.

I turned towards Athena, feeling as if I had been dying with embarrassment. However, Athena only gestured her head as clearly as she could without making it too obvious. She mouthed me certain words through clenched teeth. I didn't quite grasp them until she was forced to whisper them.

"Talk. To. Her."

What the hay am I supposed to say?! Especially after something like that?!

"Com. Pli. Ment."

I sighed as silently yet heavily as I could. I really didn't want to risk making things worse, but I was pushed to make that risk.

"Um…" I finally awkwardly said. "I really like your hair, Coco."

It was the first thing that popped up in my mind, and I was so close to making that compliment into a hesitant question.

Coco glanced over to me in surprise, and I could notice that she was getting even redder. She held a hoof to her mane and slightly brushed it. "T-t-thank you…"

To make matters worse, I wanted Athena to do or say something to really break the ice open, but she actually proceeded to make things much more difficult between us. "Oh, yeah! I'll be right back! I think I forgot to do something back in the house!" It was obvious to me that she had been lying. I tried to reach out to her, but she planted a hoof in front of her and demanded I stayed with her expressive eyes. Afterwards, she began to skip away, but I assumed she hid somewhere nearby and proceeded to watch us from afar.

For what felt like long agonizing hours, I could only sit there desperately trying to think of something to make conversation with, but I couldn't think of anything satisfactory.

"So, how have you been?" I finally blurted out. I just wanted the silence between us to disappear already.

"G-good…" She responded very softly while rubbing her foreleg repeatedly. "…y-you…?"

"Same…" I rubbed my head anxiously.

Why couldn't I talk normally with her?! Honestly, she was really just a girl! A sweet one at that… So why couldn't I just have a normal conversation as I would with Athena?

"I saw you yesterday…" I barely heard unexpectedly. "…you were…really cool."

"Yesterday?" I paused to remember. "You mean that ice cream event?"

She lightly nodded. "I was hoping you'd win, and I really am glad that you did."

"Thanks." I replied, beginning to feel a little sad as I began remembering what had happened afterwards. "In the end, it didn't turn out as great as I had been hoping for, but…" I was almost going to start rambling, but then I suddenly realized something about what Coco had been saying. "Wait. You were there?"

"Mm-hm." She answered, picking the dirt below us with her hoof. "I didn't see much, but I did get to see you win. I wanted to stop by…but you and Athena were already kind of in the middle of something. I didn't want to bother you two, and I was in the middle of getting back home anyway."

"Oh, I see." I remained silent for a moment. There had been some kind of feeling inside me for her that I wanted to express so bad, but I knew I obviously couldn't. "You should really hang with us a lot more, Coco. I'd really like that, and I know Athena would too."

"Really?" Coco's ears slightly perked up.

"Yeah." I nodded. "I wanna…know you more." For a second, I almost worriedly deeply if that was too much to say. "You seem like a really cool girl, too, and it feels like only my sister knows that side of you."

"You know…" Coco mentioned as she stared at her hoof on the ground. "I think maybe I could hang out with you guys every day. We're out of school right now, after all, so the only kind of work I need to do is with my dressmaking. I can probably come over right after I've finished a day's work. Hey…" She tapped her hooves in loveable embarrassment. "Maybe when I'm done…I can…show you?"

"Yeah, of course!" I almost felt energetic with glee. "That'd be really cool."

It appeared she finally grew comfortable enough to smile softly. "I'll try to come over and hang out with you guys more then."

At that point, I really wanted to hug her. I couldn't tell if it was due to excitement or happiness from the thought of her being with us or more, or if it was something else even more embarrassing. There were many more things I wanted to get into with Coco, but I decided I was lucky enough for all that we had talked about up until now.

Athena eventually returned, and I had to guess that she would have been purposely gone for way longer, but Coco probably would have gotten worried and ask her questions on what had been going on. Nevertheless, she continued to hang with us a little while longer.

I wished she would have felt completely comfortable with staying with us, but because of her parents, she couldn't stay as long as she wanted. Either way, as long as we got to see her more often, I was more than happy to wait for her.