A Story of Love (Among Others)

by TheMareWhoSaysNi

The Extra-Quick Lunch

This was the plan: tonight, I was going to be the sweetest, kindest, even the sappiest girl of the world with Thunderlane. He had to be in absolute self-confidence that his little schemes were working and that I was fascinated by his genius and athletic figure. "Don't let him know you despise him", Pinkie have kept on repeating me. Towards the end of the dinner, I was going to give him a taste of a dessert à la mode Filthy Rich with a copie of the contracts his recruits have to sign, talking about what were the risks in case of a scandalous leak, especially about a private matter. I also had made a few small researches of my own and found it I could arraign him as well, for violation of privacy.

None of us had a computer with them and so this had been a bit difficult to get the copy while in the school, but we didn't have enough time to make it once home. The computer room's supervisor kept staring at us, in case we would go to social medias, which was forbidden in the school. It was thanks to Fluttershy that we finally succeeded. Since everybody thinks butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, we often made her do things she would have been too shy or too polite to do otherwise. I like to think we helped her grow, in a sense.

I was at the restaurant with that moron of Thunderlane. He had dated many girls from the school but strangely, none of them were part of his bunch of crazy fans and I thought I started to understand why. It surely would have betray his legend.
I was bored to death, worse than in front of a movie by Nora Ephron (have you ever seen one? The epitomy of sap!) He really thought he had it all when all he was saying was uncool and cliché, his jokes were lame and his talking points were pointless. And I told myself that the guy couldn't read. Many times I said how excited I was to go to Paris. So the moron thought I would be pleased if he brought me to an English restaurant. Yes, he couldn't tell France from England and even told me it was the same anyway because it was in Europe. Yeah, and us Equestrian are Guamian, or why not Japanese? It's on the same parallel, after all. I wanted to throw my stack of paper at his face.

"You really like Ted Browning's movies, right? I've seen his most famous one, once, in High School. "Freak Show" or something like that..."

"Name's Tod Browning, not Ted. And it's just "Freaks", actually."

"Yeah, right. It was creepy"

Of course, you simpleton! It's a horror movie, it's supposed to be creepy!

Also... Lost! Buzz! My favorite director has always been and will forever be Orson Welles. I was seriously starting to think him illeterate. I knew I never said nor written that Tod Browning was my favorite director. I might have made a list and I was pretty sure he wasn't a part of it, obviously, since I haven't seen tons of his movies. But I decided to lie to him anyway, for if I kept on correcting him with my jaw clenched he would never think his plan was working and I were to forget about my boyfriend. Who knew my tastes by heart, at least. (And I know his, like his favorite director being Steven Spielberg and his favorite movie "Back to the Future")

"That's it! You're right," I said with a smile as sincere as I could.

"I was stunned to learn you liked old movies, I thought you were more into action flicks with CGI like it's in fashion now."

Spoiler alert: CGI movies are what I consider as the lowest form of art. Just my personal tastes. Which seemed to be as foreign to him as the lands in Africa. Meanwhile, he kept on talking and me on pretending I was listening, drawing lines in my mashed sweet potatoes.

"But I'm not really surprised, in fact, since a lot of the stories you write for that magazine happens in the 20s and everything."

"You've read my stories?"

"Not really. Let's say I took a look at the magazine's website and they were saying you wrote "vintage adventures"."

So, he took a look at a website and then thought he knew everything about me. Interesting. I was slowly starting to understand. It wasn't that he was an illeterate who couldn't read English but that he was so self-centered and confident about his charms and looks that he didn't make any efforts to be charming or nice. I had literally met my master, I should bow down to him. I know my ego takes a lot of room and that I am sometimes a little too self-absorbed but at least, I was really interested by what my friends thought or liked, not only by my reflection in a mirror. I was aware the whole world wasn't revolving around Rainbow Dash whereas that guy probably thought the sun was here exclusively to light up his face.

"I heard you plan on playing Brahms' Sonata n°3 for the gala... It's a little academic, don't you think?"

What I thought? Buzz! You lost again! I never intended to play Brahms' Sonata n°3 at all! The girls and I had planned on a version with piano and flute of Kodaly's Solo Cello Sonata opus 8, and it was enough work to transform that solo sheet into something for other instruments for me not to be mistaken on that neither.

I couldn't take it anymore. I had to get over with it as quickly as possible. The dinner wasn't over yet but something needed to be done. In order not to make him turn suspicious, I added honey and sugar to my tone and told him I needed to go to the ladies' room and I was eager to come back.

"Don't move, I have a little present for you. You're going to like it a lot."

It was important that I got together and didn't show too much excitement. Maybe he could mistake it for the excitement of being in his company but I had to be cautious. Hence the stroll to the toilets. I didn't need to pee, nor to powder my nose, like Rarity would say, I just needed to breath out in order to be calm and collected when the moment would come.

When I came back, I grabbed the papers linked together by a straple, but at the last moment, I decided to take a few more spoonful of my English dinner. I haven't noticed that there was a sauce blend with the mashed sweet potatoes and the vegetable steak of peas and carrots. Whatever it was made of, it tasted so delicious I almost ate it all.

"So... What's my present?" Shrek's Prince Charming asked impatiently.

"Now wait a minute. This sauce is awesomely good."

Really, I didn't know what this taste was but it added something exotic to the sauce. I never had eaten anything like this before.

"Can I get my present now?"

Suddenly, something changed. The sauce started to... be spicy. And my stomach bit me from the inside. I tried to act casually but it happened to be impossible. My stomach hurt too much, like I were about to throw up. Thunderlane noticed it finally and gave me a funny look.

"What's wrong? You're very pale. I mean, paler than usually."

"I don't know... I want to throw up... It's..."

No, not only this. My skin was itchy. I looked at my plate of mash sweet potatoes and steak. And suddenly, something stroke me. When I ordered, I asked not to have sauce.

"What did you do with my dish?"

"I did nothing. I just thought you'd like to taste this raisin and almond sauce, that's all!"

Almonds? To call this guy stupid would be an insult to stupid people! I've known sheep that could outwit him. I've worn dresses with higher IQs!

Among the food I could't eat because of my allergies, almonds and every nuts were at the top of the list. Strictly forbidden. I never knew why but it seemed like my whole body loathed nuts. They were my kryptonite, the music that made my brain explode. Not only was I highly intolerant but I was also allergic to it and it made my stomach reject it and my skin reject it and my mouth and tongue reject it and I would be lucky if I didn't die from choking on it.

And it did happen! I wanted to snatch my skin out of the rest of my body and I was feeling my tongue swelling. The want to throw up was stronger than ever. I couldn't keep on acting nice anymore, I had to scold him, as long as I could speak coherently.

"You're a dirty moron!! I'm super allergic to nuts!"

"I didn't know that! You could have told me!"

"I thought you've read my notebook entirely. Liar!"

Clearly, if he had done so, he would have known. It was written down many times, because Soarin always asked me whether it was okay regarding to my allergies when we were going to eat somewhere.

"What should I do?" he screamed, panic-stricken.

I was really starting to be gross. Writhing in pain next to the table, paler than ever, I kept on scratching my face though I knew it wouldn't help my condition. What was he waiting for? That I died?! Thankfully, there were costumers in the restaurant that approached us and asked whether I needed an ambulance.

"Say yes and make them call a doctor, you numbskull!"

Truth was, with my swollen tongue, it sounded more like this " 'ay 'e 'n' 'all a 'oc'or, ou um'sull" which was probably why he looked at me puzzled with a silent "what?". I knew I was going to throw up before anyone called a doctor or an ambulance. But it wasn't what worried me the most... I really started to believe I was going to die and a panic took over me. For the first time in ages, I had tears rolling down my cheeks in public, but not from mental pain, from literal physical pain.

Thunderlane scrouched and tried to make me lie down as advised by one of the persons around us. This was exactly when the drama happened. I gave him a present, like expected, though not the one he truly expected and threw up directly on his immaculate white luxury shirt. Just went to show that all things come to those who wait.

=============================================***====================================================

Call that a good year! I had been tricked with phone numbers, sent belittling text messages, I had a surprise miscarriage though I used both condom and the pill, I had been blackmailed and I almost died from suffocation on a disastrous date which had me back to the hospital!

I had a very bad night, ill as f*ck until they got me morphine. MORPHINE! As I woke up, my tongue was back to normal but my lips still had something very Angelina Jolie-like. But the most embarrassing detail of it all wasn't even that. It was the thousand of red dots that covered my face and my body. They might be less itchy but they weren't less visible. In short, I was a complete mess and still had no idea when I would be able to leave the hospital. It was the same than the one I'd been sent to during my miscarriage and they had to check a few things before they could let me go.

The first time, I had been lucky that, under my express begging, they hadn't told my father. This time I knew I wouldn't escape it. Someone needed to pay the fees and I obviously couldn't pay it for an undefined length of time. My luck would had been if Soarin texted me and told me he could see me only between six and seven at downtown Canterlot!

I was dwelling on it and mentally hitting on people since I couldn't do much physically when someone knocked on my room's door. All I could see when the door opened was a huge plate of pastries. From behind it suddenly emerged Pinkie's face. She was followed by Rarity and Fluttershy, who didn't say much but listened a lot, the way she always did.

"Oh, poor darling!" Rarity cried. "What happened to your pretty face?"

"Leftovers of Quincke's edema and well, obviously, pimples..."

Rarity looked mighty puzzled. Sometimes I tended to forget that people who had the chance not to suffer from allergies didn't know these medical terms.

"Extreme allergic reactions?"

"Yes, certainly," she answered with an embarrassed smile on her face, rearranging the pillow behind my back.

"Thunderlane's really an idiot!" Pinkie Pie claimed, sitting beside me on the bed. "Like my sister Maud would say, the light was on but there was nobody home!"

Fluttershy remained speechless but giggled with a hand hiding her mouth. She was so sweet my teeth hurt. No wonder Big Mac was head over heels for her. Sometimes I thought she really was like a pearl among peas when with us!

"Anyhow," Rarity continued. "We have a few good news for you, darling."

"And one maybe-not-so-good news," Pinkie Pie concluded. "Which one do you want first?"

"Good news, please! So I could still have hope about the future."

"Okay, so, first... Since you puked on him, Thunderlane's no longer in love with you and doesn't want to date you anymore!"

"He said he didn't want to date again with a sequel of "The Exorcist" movie," Rarity added.

"Yeah, especially as this one's movie's really bad!"

Maybe this was why I had dreamed of her on the night before Soarin stepped into my life. It had no relation with Soarin, it was in connection with what had happened with Thunderlane, like a warning two years too soon.

"Secondly, he won't sell your secret to anyone."

"We showed him the contract and explained him how much he could pay for "invasion of privacy". He didn't get the joke."

"Finally, last but not least, we have your notebook."

Fluttershy searched through her bag and got the notebook out of it. Instinctivly, I held it close to my heart from the moment I had it in my hands. While the girls kept on talking, I checked whether nothing had been stolen or taken away, in case of guarantee or just for the pleasure of asking me money, next time.

"And what's that maybe-not-so-good news, then?"

They looked at each other in a way that had nothing reassuring. Suddenly, my hands went damp and I swore I had a lump in my throat as big as a badly cut piece of potatoe.

"Well, if you can't get out of the hospital quickly enough, you... You'll probably won't be able to go to Paris."

"No, not this!" I screamed theatrically, with my hands in the air. "Why me? We worked so hard to have the best party and go there, I can't... It's like... Like working really hard to get an audition and on D-Day, you have sprain your wrist."

"Or like preparing your wedding and being dumped three days before," Rarity added.

"Or nagging your boss to get a promotion and having a positive pregnancy test on the day he says yes," Pinkie Pie concluded.

Fluttershy remained silent but shook her head as a sign of approval. I was glad I had her at least not to rub it in.

"This is why you're going to get better quick," she finally said. "And you'll be there for D-Day."

"Yes, exactly."

"Yeah about getting better," Pinkie intervened. "We met the nurse who gave you the antidepressants. She nagged us to make sure we would oblige you to take it if you're feeling bad. She wanted to check so I took care of it."

"What did you do?"

I could see that, suddenly, Fluttershy's face turned really grave and I even thought I saw what looked like tears in the corner of her eyes. It wasn't made to comfort me much. When Pinkie says "I take care of it",you know she could be up to anything, or almost anything.

"We gave them to wild cats that were hanging around the hospital, in cat's food."

The worse was that Pinkie seemed to be really proud of her silly decision.

"They kind of..." Rarity trailed off. "How would you say it? Blew a fuse."

"That was fun."

"It wasn't fun!" screamed an outraged Fluttershy.

I looked at them in disbelief... then I burst out laughing. Obviously, the situation wasn't funny for those poor wild cats but this wasn't what got me laughing so much. I just realized how much I loved this bunch of girls, though sometimes we fought and though sometimes they acted foolishly - I wasn't bad at it neither, actually. They gathered around me for a collective hug and I couldn't help thinking that, without all of them, I probably wouldn't be able to be where I was right now. I owed them so much and gave them so little in return.

But the strongest feeling was that, whatever could happen in the future between Soarin and I, I would always have a soulmate with me, for they were my true soulmates.

Author's Note:

There are some quotes from movies in this chapter... Have you recognized some?

Comments

[Midday Giggle]

Oh God, I laughed so hard

[TheMareWhoSaysNi]

9386686
Oh! Beware who you'll date, then!

[Aether Spark]

I've noticed that she casually talks about the miscarriage and doesn't even seem that upset about it.

If I were her if be at least a little (or most likely a lot) upset that a baby died in my womb.

[TheMareWhoSaysNi]

9396624
Well, she already said it felt awkward to her each time she thought about it...