The Gaps in F r i e n d s h i p

by Arcanum -Phantasy

Ch. 33 Balancing Acts

Bonbon hummed a happy tune to herself as she walked through the mall, smooth jazz flooding her ears through her earbuds as she window shopped. Thanks to all the preparations made for Christmas, the Sweetie Drops had more candy then it knew what to do with. As a result, the whole family had a lot more free time then they knew what to do with. While not work addicts per se, the lack of something productive to do did make most Drops a little antsy by nature. While her mother kept herself busy going through the shop's finances, Bonbon used the opportunity to try out her gift from Sunset as she headed out to the mall to kill time.

She giggled when she remembered the look on her mother's face when her daughter's light-blue vest turned into a thick winter jacket the second she stepped out of the shop's front door. Now dressed in a light-blue sweatshirt, she perused the storefronts with mild interest while her music helped her tune out the crowds around her.

Pretty calm today, she mused as she stared at a gaudily dressed mannequin standing in a store's front display. I wonder if there are any special deals today.

She shrugged to herself as she went on her way.

As she passed a bookstore, a familiar head of red and gold caught her eye. She paused before she did a quick double-take to make sure she saw who she thought she saw. Sure enough, Sunset was standing in one of the store's front aisles just behind the store's front display windows. She watched as the girl frantically scanned through a book clutched tightly in her hands, seemingly oblivious to the world around her as she scowled at the pages before her.

Curious, Bonbon took out her earbuds, stepped into the store, and approached her friend from behind. The sheer lack of true stealth proved just how absorbed Sunset was in her reading as she let out a startled yelp when Bonbon tapped her shoulder and spun to face her.

"H-Hey," she stammered, snapping the book shut. "What's up?"

Bonbon raised a brow at her friend's stiff demeanor before she said, "Not much. I was in the neighborhood and thought I'd say hi. Are you okay?"

"Yes," she said quickly, then wilted as she groaned, "No. I don't know."

Bonbon sighed, then gave her friend a concerned smile as she placed a hand on her friend's shoulder.

"Want to grab some shakes? You look like you could use one."

Sunset nodded, flashing the girl a tired smile as she placed her book on a nearby shelf.

"Yeah, that sounds really good right now."

Sunset let out a faint sigh as she walked past her friend towards the store's entrence. Bonbon was not far behind, only pausing long enough to read the title of the book that held Sunset's attention so tightly.

Mending Bridges: A guide to fixing damaged relationships?

A hint of dread filled her gut at the implications as she quickly followed her friend.

***

Sunset sighed in her seat, eyes staring unseeingly at the table she sat at in the middle of the mall's noisy food court. Though said noise meant nothing to her as her thoughts continued to run at a million miles an hour. Chief among these thoughts were what she was going to say to her former friends this weekend. She had already sent the text earlier that morning and ever since, her mind felt like it was working double time trying to help her think of what to say when she met them. A part of her wanted to yell at them, call them stupid for falling for such an obvious frame job. Another was simply tired of everything and just wanted to move on. Both sides knew that things could never be the same, but that didn't mean that they couldn't have something similar. As much as she wanted to yell at them, she also wanted to hug them. She missed them. She wanted to forgive them. She wanted to give them the chance they gave her back when she was at her worst. She was just afraid of what she would say when she had them sitting in front of her. Naturally, she told Derpy and Lyra about her thoughts and while her girlfriend seemed a little nervous about her talking to them, both let her know that they had her back if things went south.

"Maybe Mom or Aunt Luna can help me figure all of this out," she groaned, resting her head on the table.

"I'm back."

Sunset slowly rolled her head and smiled tiredly at Bonbon, Two drinks held in her hands as she returned a small smile of her own.

"That was fast," Sunset sighed, sitting up as Bonbon took a seat across from her.

"The line wasn't that bad," she shrugged as she slid her friend's drink over to her.

"Thanks," she sighed as she caught the drink and took a small sip.

Bonbon eyed her friend's haggard demeanor cautiously as she enjoyed her own milkshake. After a few wordless minutes of slurping their drinks, Bonbon decided to make the first move.

"Is everything okay between you and Derpy?" she asked.

Sunset took gulped down a mouthful of milkshake then gave her friend a raised brow as she asked, "Yeah? Why?"

"I saw the book you were reading earlier," she said, an understanding smile forming on her lips.

Sunset's eyes widened then she burst out laughing as she started to figure out what Bonbon was getting at.

"Nah," she chuckled, waving the question away with her hand. "We're still good. Trust me."

"Then why were you reading that book?" Bonbon asked, confusion coloring her features.

Sunset's smile melted into a frown and with a sigh she told her what she and Octavia talked about the previous day. When she mentioned the text and meeting for the weekend, she was surprised to see relief show itself on the candy maker's face. When she questioned it, Bonbon told her about what happened a couple days ago at the card shop and the state her cousin was in during the conversation. Sunset groaned into her hands as the weight on her shoulders seemed to double at how important this weekend had become.

Bonbon gave her friend a tired smile as she said, "You need to relax."

"I can't," she groaned, palms slowly rubbing her eyes. "What if I say the wrong thing? What if it turns into a big fight?"

She let out a frustrated groan as she let herself fallback in her seat, hands bonelessly sliding off of her face to her sides.

Bonbon let Sunset stay like that for a few seconds, then with a flat expression said, "Be blunt."

Sunset blinked then gave her friend a confused frown as she asked, "What?"

"You need to tell them how you feel, but you don't want to be malicious or cruel, right?" she asked, taking a sip of her shake.

Sunset nodded.

"Then be blunt. Tell them how you feel and what you want, but make sure you hear their side of things too."

"I-I don't know if it's that simple," Sunset wilted.

"You'd be surprised," Bonbon shrugged. "Sometimes you need to put it all out there to move past a problem. You can't fix something if parts of it is hidden, right?"

Sunset stared at her mostly finished milkshake as she processed what Bonbon said. Little by little, she started to see that she had a point. At this point it was clear that The Rainbooms were sorry for what happened and were willing to move past this. Pussyfooting around the problems between them won't fix them properly and would just lead to new issues in the future. She was going to need to be direct this weekend if she truly wanted fix this.

A soothing breath slid past her lips as her tension dropped to manageable levels.

She gave Bonbon a shaky yet confident smile as she said, "I think you're right. Thanks."

"You're welcome," she smiled, slurping the last of her shake. "Want to head to the arcade on the way out?"

"Sure," Sunset chuckled, polishing off the last of her shake.

***

The Game Corner was one of the last few arcades left in the city, the last bastion of a bygone era before games had evolved to the point that such establishments began to become obsolete. A wild cacophony of synthesized sounds and flashing lights filled the fifty-by-fifty dimly lit room as various game machines dominated all of he space in organized clusters. Classic arcade machines stood back-to-back in seven long rows at the center of the room while more diversely shaped machines like Air Hockey tables and Skeeball stands owned the wall space not taken up by the front doors or the prize counter and token dispenser machines on the opposite side of the room.

Sunset and Bonbon make a beeline for the rectangular token dispensers as soon as they entered the arcade, bobbing and weaving through the energetic crowd with practiced ease as they closed in on the machines.

"Do you come here often?" Bonbon asked over the surrounding noise.

Sunset shrugged and made a so-so gesture with a hand.

"I had to wait for my friends to invite me or ask to come out here when I had the money to spare."

Bonbon flinched a bit at that as she collected her tokens from the machine's deposit tray. Sometimes Bonbon forgot that Sunset was homeless less then a month ago. Granted, the girl did a really good job at taking care of herself, but that didn't make the knowledge any less tragic to her. Sunset ignored the pause as she put her own five into the machine. She tried not to dwell on how things used to be before Derpy saved her life. That chapter of her life was over and she was more then willing to move past it.

"So, what do you usually play?" Sunset asked as she pocketed her tokens.

Bonbon smirked as she made her way towards the games at the middle of the room, secretly thankful for the distraction from her grimmer thoughts. A few seconds later, the two girls stood in front an arcade game with two laser reader guns serving as its controls connected to the machine by a thick black cord on its bottom of their handles. Bonbon hummed happily as she popped three tokens into the game's coin slot and grabbed a gun controller as she hit the start button. Sunset shrugged as she fed a few of her tokens to the machine, grabbed the other controller gun, and pressed the start button. Not even a second after, a bunch of zombies shambled onto the screen towards them. Sunset took aim, but before she could pull the trigger all of the ghoul's heads exploded. She blinked in shock while the scene on the screen shifted as if she was looking through someone else's eyes as they ran to a different location, then turned her head towards her pink and blue haired friend. Bonbon just gave her a cocky smile as she blew imaginary smoke away from her gun. Sunset's eyes narrowed as a smile spread across her lips, a look that was shared by her friend as both girls turned shifted their attention back towards the screen. For the next half hour the two girls fought against hoards of undead horrors, both trying to beat the other's score just as much as the game itself. When the final boss let out its death wail and exploded in a grisly display of gore, the two girls waited to see their final scores. Sunset let out a frustrated growl and crossed her arms while Bonbon smirked as she did a little victory dance.

"Yeah, yeah, yuck it up," Sunset grumbled, rolling her eyes.

Bonbon chuckled good-naturedly as she placed a hand on Sunset's shoulder.

"Come on, don't be like that," she smirked. "Let's play something I haven't played a million times."

"Fine," Sunset sighed, then smirked as he lead the candy maker towards one of the nearby Air Hockey tables.

After Sunset slid some of her tokens into the table's coin slot, it hummed to life and the game was on. At first, the game was pretty even with both girls doing a fairly decent job of reading their opponent's movements, but that didn't last as a wicked grin formed on Bonbon's lips. Sunset slammed her mallet into the disc as hard as she could, eager to score her seventh and final point with a high speed angled shot. Bonbon casually moved her mallet to the left side of her goal just in time to block the shot. Sunset grimaced as she moved her mallet into position to knock back the disk as it ricocheted off of Bonbon's. On the next shot she tried to go for a direct shot only for Bonbon to not only block her at the last second, but score a point as well. Sunset blinked, then grimaced deeper as she fished the disk out of the return slot. To her frustration, this was how the whole game continued to play out. Sunset would try to fake out Bonbon by making more elaborate shots only for her opponent to calmly place her mallet into just the right place to not only stop her from scoring, but score a point from the rebound. Sunset let out an irate groan when Bonbon scored her seventh and final point and the table turned off.

"Damn, I thought I had you there," Sunset grumbled.

"Maybe at the next game," Bonbon chuckled.

Sunset blinked owlishly at her, then glared as she growled, "Oh it is so on!"

***

Sunset sulked as she sat on a bench outside the mall's front entrence, the frigid night air nipping at her in spite of her thick coat. A grinning Bonbon sat next to her, humming a happy tune to herself as she stared up at the clear evening sky as she waited for her mom to pick them up. The humbled girl glared at her basking friend as she tried to figure out how she managed to beat her at every game they played. Granted, it was always close, but that didn't change the fact that Bonbon beat her each and every time. Even games of luck failed to bring the pink and blue haired girl down.

She sighed, then flatly said, "Be straight with me. You used magic in the arcade, didn't you?"

Bonbon just blinked at her, then burst out laughing before she said, "What? No, nothing like that."

"Then how?" she asked, gesturing in the general direction of the arcade visible from the mall's glass front doors.

Bonbon rolled her eyes and said, "Simple. I just calculated the odds and acted on the best result."

"Huh?" Sunset blinked, tilting her head in confusion.

Bonbon sighed and stared at the ground as she continued.

"See, since I was little I've always been good with numbers. Don't get the wrong idea. I wasn't born with super math powers or anything like that. Math just really sticks with me is all. Anyway, after a while I started being able to apply what I knew to real life."

"What do you mean?"

"Like when we were playing Air Hockey. It looked like I was reading your mind, right?"

Sunset nodded.

"Well, all I was doing was using basic geometry to guess where the disk was going to go and how to get it to ricochet into your goal."

Sunset's jaw dropped at that. Even for someone as sharp as her, there was no way she would've been able to make those kind of mental calculations as quick as her friend was implying. To do something like that was a rarity even among the most talented of Unicorn scholars. Bonbon glanced at her friend's reaction and chuckled before she continued.

"Yeah, it's pretty cool sometimes, but a huge pain the rest of the time."

"Why?" Sunset asked, shaking off her shock.

"Simple," she shrugged. "I have a hard time turning it off."

"Oh," she cringed.

Bonbon sighed as she turned her eyes towards the sky again.

"Seeing the world in numbers is such a migraine, but its a useful trick at home. I can calculate the exact amount of ingredients needed to make a batch of candy in a matter of minutes and how long it needs to cook to get the best results. I can help tutor everyone when they fall behind. It's not all bad. Just a little annoying."

"How do you make it work?" she asked.

She shrugged then, still staring at the sky, reached into her pocket and pulled out a pair of earbuds.

"If I keep my mind busy then it won't start analyzing everything. Music helps, so if I'm alone in a public place I'll pop these in and listen to something. It also helps if there isn't a lot of things around me to analyze."

As she said that she returned the earbuds to her pocket. The two sat in silence as they enjoyed the clear night sky and the company. All the while, Sunset tried to put herself in Bonbon's shoes. To be stuck seeing the world in numbers sounded like a rather stiff way to live life, regardless of all of the benefits such an ability could provide.

"I could ask my mom if there's something she could do to help," Sunset mused, her hand drifting to her lava rock pendant as she stared at the sky. "Maybe she knows how to make a charm or a spell that can help you turn it off."

"Thanks," Bonbon smiled. "But I'm good."

"Are you sure?" Sunset asked, blinking in shock a she raised a brow at her friend.

Eyes still locked onto the sky, Bonbon smiled as she nodded.

"It's like a lemon drop, you have to take the bitter with the sweet. Right now, I've found a way to keep the bitter from overpowering the sweet and I want to keep it up for as long as I can."

Sunset nodded then frowned as she said, "Alright. But if things get too bitter, let me know and I'll do what I can to help."

"Sure," she chuckled as she shifted her attention back to her friend. "You too lover girl."

"Shut up," Sunset blushed, giving the girl a playful shove.

The two girls shared a laugh at that.

"By the way," Sunset smiled. "Do you have any plans for New Years?"

"Not really," Bonbon shrugged. "Why?"

Sunset's smile grew as she said, "Do you think you and the girls would want to come to my mom and Aunt's birthday party?"

Comments

[Arcanum -Phantasy]

9951381
Fair enough.

[Venerable Ro]

9951385
For what it's worth, I never drew any such conclusions. Perhaps it's some sort of a cultural thing?

[Danger Noodle]

Just wondering, what kind of lemon drops do you eat? I don't think I've ever had a bitter one. Sour, sure, but never bitter.

[Vaguely Demented]

I’d think geometry would help you more than algebra when it comes to air hockey.

[DavisSentoV5]

I don't know what's more impressive, Bon-bon's impressive gaming skills or wise words of wisdom

[Hotel_Chicken]

"Well, all I was doing was using basic geometry to guess where the disk was going to go and how to get it to ricochet into your goal."

Bullshit. There isn't a world where a concept like, "basic geometry" exists, even in fiction! Geometry is a distorted mess of numbers that uses dark magic to act like it can be something created by people!

[Tania tokustar]

10535560
FACTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!