The Wallflower Blush Experience

by King Genesis

Rookie: Bruise

Volume 1 - Chapter 6 - Rookie - Bruise

Mrs. Cake is with me, alone against the man in the kitchen, who is now washing his hands in the sink. He took off his sunglasses and cap and is now trying to seem like a sane person, with his wet short hair and empty eyes. He slowly touches his nose with a finger and grins. "Nice smell."

The lady boss does not even have a smile, however. She's crossing her arms, looking at him. "What do you want?"

He's still holding the mysterious bottle in his hands. "I tried to talk to your husband... but I'll summarize my situation for you, miss. For the past few days, my pockets have been trembling. I can't make ends meet and I don't have anything else." His eyes look like they're breaking apart. "I have been trying to swallow your husband for a whole month after he ran away and disrespected me at a poker game in the casino, but right now he is the only one that can..." he stops to look at me. "...offer me help."

Mrs. Cake puts her arms over a table and looks at the fridge. "You're literally dreaming, sir." Her fake smile is gross, then she looks at me. "Do you really think something my husband told you in a poker game has to be taken seriously?"

"I told your waitresses what am I last night, miss..." he stretches his hands, trying to justify himself. "I am a gambler, and I take my game seriously."

"Why don't you get a job and shut your mouth up for once?" Finally, someone asked him that... his face screams unemployed. She shakes her head and Caballeron's face breaks like glass. "You are making me, someone who works every day, every night, mad because of a stupid card game I don't care about."

He shakes his head, trying to be sad. "I've been unemployed for a year, you've got to understand."

"From what I see, I can notice that you are not looking for a job. Are you interested in doing it, at least? Because what I'm looking at right now is someone that makes me want to cry because of how dirty and gross he looks."

Caballeron does the same as her and puts his arms over the table. "What you said actually hurt me." He feels weaker. I'm not looking at him with the same eyes. He tried to be tough at first, but now he is falling and revealing his true, weaker, face. "I've been fired from my old job and I'm right now unemployed. I haven't looked for somewhere to work for months. My lucky side is on this, you know? I've lost many times but mostly I win... and I paid all of my debts, solved my bets to be a good man walking."

"You want my husband to give you this bakery's profits for a year because you are a good man who lost some other bets and paid them?"

He stretches out his arms, letting himself out of the guilt. "He said it. I didn't order him to do it for me. He brought that topic to the table by himself."

"I recognize that," she nods. "He was an idiot for telling you that, but that doesn't mean I'll actually give you what you want." Now she heads to the sink. "If I give you a number, will you get out of here and never come back?"

She opens the tap. I haven't even moved from my position and I don't even hear anything from outside. I also haven't heard Coco's voice yet, is she here or not?

The only good thing I could say about this is that most clients that come in the morning enter here at 7 or 7:30. We could get rid of Caballeron on time and not let them see... this. "Depends on how much." He is putting his head over the table... actually trying to sleep?

Mrs. Cake is washing her hands on the sink. "How much do you think I'll give you?"

He's now kneeling on the floor, resting, with his head laying against the table and playing with the bottle. "Well, I'll be honest..." he nods while I'm trying to understand what he's doing. "If I can't have the trophy I was supposed to receive... I would like to have, um... a grand."

My legs begin to move like an earthquake. Did he actually say he wanted a grand? To come out of Sugarcube Corner with $1000? Our thousand bucks? Mrs. Cake doesn't blink while I fastly take a look at the kitchen door. It's barely opened, but I can see that both Mr. Cake and Pinkie Pie are listening to our music in silence. The husband is playing with his hair while trying not to see anything. Pinkie, on the other side, is trying her best to take a look at the kitchen... but she is not saying anything to me. I think she is looking at me. I think.

I can see no signs of Coco, though. Wasn't she supposed to come to work today?

"Wait," suddenly says Mrs. Cake and she opens a big white cupboard that is next to the ovens. "You said a grand?"

Is Mrs. Cake actually going to give him $1000? "Wait," I say. "Are you actually going to give him a thous--?"

She raises a finger at me, silently telling me to shut up. I do it so quickly that I even cover my mouth. "I want a thousand," suddenly says Caballeron, still kneeling on the floor.

"I'm not going to give you a single penny if you don't stand up." Caballeron slowly does this with his back and ankles trembling. He has to be drunk, waiting for his money like a child waiting for his favorite toy. I can't believe this is happening... Mrs. Cake takes out something from the cupboard and there's something I don't understand. Caballeron also looks at me confused.

She is now holding a long and narrow black box and crouches to leave it on the floor. That box looks more like a baseball bat... Why would she store money there? Wait, does she actually have money in it, in the first place?

The gambler, confused, takes a sip of his elixir. "That's a pretty weird place to store money. It actually looks like something else."

Mrs. Cake stands up and crosses her arms again. "Like what?"

Caballeron stays silent and dares to take another sip. "I don't wanna say it."

She slowly crouches again to grab the weird box. "Well... I'll give them to you." The object is put on the table, and Caballeron only raises his shoulders while she opens the box. Both he and I find something covered by a big dirty white cloth.

I don't know what that is, but it is definitely not money. That must not be money. "You alcoholic fool." Mrs. Cake grabs that mysterious thing and takes the cloth off it.

... she's now holding a shotgun.

My eyes are about to come out and I cover my mouth just in case. I feel how the orange juice I drank this morning is getting nearer my throat. "Woah..." I fastly raise my hands and my body begins to fight against me. "My god, Mrs. Cake! Put that down!"

"You think all of us are stupid, you fool." Mr. Cake fastly enters the kitchen but stops when she looks at her holding that. I fastly head to the kitchen's trashcan and open it, getting prepared for the ejection. I barely look at Pinkie standing behind Mr. Cake. "Do you actually think that I'm going to give you a thousand bucks because my husband said something to you? You don't even have a job, you can't order me to give you money if you look like a homeless cockroach!"

"Cup!" Mr. Cake shouts while I put my face in the trashcan. "Wait!"

"What did I tell you minutes ago?" she is flying off the handle. I can easily imagine smoke coming out of her ears while holding the gun. "Get out of here right now. This is private." I'm praying for the clients to not appear at this moment.

"And that shotgun is fake," instantly says Caballeron, shaking his head. What? I get my face out of the trashcan and I look at his now sober face looking cleaner than before. He left his bottle on the table and is wetting his hair again with the sink. He felt dead for a second, being threatened by a lady with a shotgun... maybe that's why he's looking normal again. "I may be unemployed but I'm not a freaking idiot... I can easily see the grip is made of second-hand plastic." I look at the gun's grip, which I admit it looks like a toy. "It pretends to be the wood of those old shotguns my farmer uncle used to have, but it's actually a pretty bad knock-off of that." Mrs. Cake pulls down the gun and everybody looks at her. The opened kitchen door reveals to me that no clients have arrived yet, thankfully... but where is Coco? "Most importantly..." he grabs the shotgun's barrels with a hand and slowly lifts it with no effort, shaking his head. "This doesn't have any weight at all, it's not even metal... it's pure plastic."

Now we know, she knows, she screwed it up. This only delayed and worsened everything else, so she throws the fake shotgun away which hits the floor, sounding like a little toy falling... and then looks at her husband with hellish eyes that make him fastly get out of there, also grabbing Pinkie by her shoulders. The three of us are alone again.

Her face is darker and eye bags begin to raise in her cheeks. "For God's sake..." she sighs, thinking about what she has just done. "What are you even freaking drinking?" she asks. "Whisky?"

Caballeron looks at the bottle of what he is drinking. It doesn't have any tags that can tell him what is it. I think it's whisky because of its dark color but... I don't even want to know if it's actually that, it looks horrible. "I think it is." He raises his shoulders.

Both Cup Cake and I look at each other. "You don't know what are you drinking?" I ask him.

"It was the first thing I took from the bar."

She facepalms on the table. "Look, if you want me to be honest, I feel pity when I look at you. I can't take you seriously with your gambling addiction and your pathetic hobo look..." She puts the fake gun inside the box with the cloth. "I'll give you $100 if you get out of here right now."

He keeps drinking that. "$300 and I don't come back ever again."

She forces a smile that's hiding pure anger. "A hundred."

"Three hundred."

My eyes look at them as if they were playing a tennis match.

"$100 and that's it."

Both of them stay in silence for a second and start again. Caballeron first. "Maybe we can--"

"A hundred and that's it, I say... I could give you more if you actually had the will to get a freaking job."

"We can end up in $250 and I swear I'll try my best."

"You don't have to promise anything to me. I'm not your mother."

"What about two hundred?" he raises a hand. "Not your price... but it is also not mine. I won't come back ever again, not even walk around the sidewalk if you hand me two hundred bucks."

Her sight stays blank for four of five seconds and then she navigates around the kitchen. Caballeron and I don't say anything until she, several seconds later, points at me. "This guy did something to you? Or to Pinkie?"

He didn't try to attack us, at least. He didn't even put a finger on us... but sounded menacing while talking... I shake my head in silence. "He only talked to us... and left." I try to say nothing about those boys who appeared later. That would be worse and it doesn't have anything to do with this problem. However, what calls my attention is that Caballeron neither said anything about them.

"You see?" he points at himself, trying to be kind. "I'm a good ma--"

"Shut up." Mrs. Cake shushes him and opens the kitchen door. There's a client already being attended to by Pinkie and that calms her down. She puts her apron back, takes a breath, and calls for Pinkie Pie with her fingers, ignoring her husband.

Pinkie Pie points at herself and Mrs. Cake nods her head, then she turns back to look at the gambler. "I haven't said yes yet, so don't do anything. I'll go to the client and talk to my husband about this." She is now looking at me. "I want Pinkie and you to keep an eye on him."

Come on, not again. "Us?" suddenly Pinkie says, pointing at herself again. The sequel of the night.

"You," she opens the door. Mr. Cake is already talking to the lonely client, despite his blue mood. "If something happens, shout at me and I swear he's gonna cry. Now, I'll talk to my husband about what happened... I swear I'll come back in minutes."

She fastly closes the door, and Pinkie and I are standing in the corner while having Caballeron at the opposite. She is trying to hide behind me but I don't let her. I'm shocked, not because of Mrs. Cake holding a fake shotgun, but because there's something I don't understand. Nobody of us mentioned the not-so-small detail of two boys actually being the cause of Caballeron leaving this store at night... and there's only one here that knows what that boy said. "You didn't say anything about those two boys that almost threw you away from the store yesterday." He stops drinking his weird bottle, leaving it aside again. Pinkie is now looking at me, surprised. "Why?"

Caballeron only shakes his head. "Those picky noses have not anything to do with what I want. It's unnecessary for your bosses to know and learn about them. They won't care." He looks at the small bottle one more time. "Besides, I already know they are not even employees or classmates of yours. I understood where they were from when that boy..."

"When that boy whispered you?" I say. "What did he tell you?"

Caballeron only looks at me in silence and raises his eyebrows. "Why do you care about that?"

I cross my arms and confront him, approaching his face. "Because I want to know."

"Why?" he is now raising his shoulders. "Why would you want to know that?" and chuckles. "You wouldn't understand."

"Why wouldn't I?" I put my hands on the table. "What would make a guy like you walk away from the store like that? You clearly didn't like that boy, what did he tell you to run away from him?"

What I said makes him angry, and frowns. "I didn't run away," he points at me, madly. "I didn't."

"You literally walked away," interrupts Pinkie Pie. "You turned your back on us and you walked out of--"

"I did what I had to do at that moment."

I am now smelling his essence of alcohol and sweat while getting nearer to him. "What you had to do?" Now I am the one who squints its eyes. "Walk away was the best thing you could have ever done?"

"Don't even try to interrogate me." He gets further from me, approaching the door. "You are a freaking waitress, not a cop. Besides, what could I have done at that moment? Your boss, the man I wanted to see, was not there, and I couldn't stand any of you... what could I do?"

"I don't forget you called him orange-haired fuck after he whispered to you."

He chuckles while standing against the wall. "Fine... do you want to know what he told me? You two want to know?"

Pinkie raises an eyebrow. "I... I don't know if I want to--"

No time to lose. "Pinkie also wants to know."

"Wait," she crosses her arms. "I haven't made my decision!"

Gosh, this girl will make me sick one day. "I want to hear this, Pinkie!" I shout. "What did he tell you?"

The gambler sighs while touching his forehead. "Let me tell you something, detective." He is pointing at me and using his nickname again. "You don't have to know everything, girl... not only it's unnecessary to do that, but also it can affect you in several ways."

"Tell me." I'm tired. I want to know.

"Sure..." he nods his head and prepares himself for what he has to say. "He told me he was a friend of a woman I know."

... Is that it? Just that?

Why would he walk away? Who's that woman? "A woman?" says Pinkie Pie, now standing next to me. She's getting interested.

"A woman." He nods his head. "One of the best gamblers I've ever seen. I spotted her lots of times at the casino and played poker, blackjack, and every kind of game with money with her..." His face looks like he is talking about a goddess. "Excellent technique, an indescribable charm, and a great talent for lying, cheating, and playing. I can easily consider her an artist."

"You like her?" asks Pinkie Pie, sitting over the table, way more interested than me.

He laughs. "She's way out of my league."

So... Thorax told Caballeron he had a friend. A friend who is a woman and also an excellent gambler. He said that he considers her as an artist... just the exact way Thorax talked about himself that night. "Do you know the name of this woman?"

"Of course," he replies. "Everybody who spends most of the week inside the casino of Canterlot knows about her. She's like a myth."

"Who is she?"

Caballeron sighs and rolls his eyes. "That's what I'm talking about, girl..." he stretches his hands, laughing. "Why do you care about that? Why? Have you ever stepped into a casino?"

"I want to know what's going on!" I raise my hands to him. I'm getting tired of mystery. What is this? A noir novel? "I want to know who are those boys!"

"Why? Personally, I don't know and I don't care about them," he replies. "Sometimes you don't have to know everything about others, right? You don't have to care about what they do... think about yourself."

That... is actually hurting me. I'm feeling bad. I didn't expect this.

Sometimes you don't have to know everything about others. I suddenly remember my younger self stalking people to know things about them... I remember erasing their memories using the Stone. I was so mad at everybody that I... I learned about all of them.

Think about yourself. That's what I do every single day. I tried my best to appear in a group picture in High School, and I failed every single time. It just doesn't work. My function was not able to succeed. I thought about myself when I was younger... what did I have? Nothing.

My hands start shaking and intrusive thoughts of me holding the Memory Stone invade my mind for a second. I calm down when I look at the one man who told me that. "You are telling me..." I'm stuttering. He knows I'm not OK. "You are telling me to think about myself?" I'm gaining fresh air again. "Look at you. Mrs. Cake is absolutely right with you. Look at yourself in a mirror, I don't think that's an appropriate image of self-care, I..."

I want to keep talking to him but somebody else opens the door. "What is going on here?" asks Mrs. Cake.

He looks at us for a second. "They were talking about how gross I look," he replies while observing me with disappointment.

She smiles. "They are not wrong," says, putting two $100 bills on the table, making Caballeron's head to turn into a baby face. "$200 from our income. I'm only giving you this because I seriously pity you and I don't want you to come back here ever again. I'm doing my part of the deal, I expect you to do yours." She points her finger, almost touching his eyes like a bullet. "You are permanently banned from this place. If I see you walking around my sidewalk, I'll call the police."

"You may also come out with a fake shotgun." He smiles at her, but none of us reacts to what he said. Mrs. Cake looks at the bills on the table.

"You said that again and you'll get out of here with your ass kicked and zero pennies." She taps the table and Caballeron grabs the two bills. Then, surprisingly, Mrs. Cake puts her hand inside her apron's pocket. "Take this. Buy a deodorant and soap for your own good."

She takes out six pennies and throws them over Caballeron's hands. He counts them, one by one, but shakes his head. "$6, no. I don't want your money. These six pennies are yours, not from the income, miss."

She snorts at him and replies back. "Where do you think those six pennies came from, dumbass? Take your bottle and get out of here now."

I get out of the sink and he takes his bottle without looking at us. He didn't say the woman's name, and I beg him to say it... but I can't ask him that now.

I'm losing my opportunity to know it and Pinkie sees that. He hides his bottle, putting it inside his pants and covering it with his t-shirt, and he puts his sunglasses and his black cap on again. My mouth is trembling. He's not saying anything else, he's walking out of here with $206 in his pockets.

I approach him, trying not to call Mrs. Cake's attention, but he fastly walks out of the kitchen. I observe him putting his hand over Mr. Cake's shoulder for a second and then waving it. I still don't know that name. I can't say anything and I look at Pinkie.

She only shakes her head at me before I observe how Caballeron opens the door to leave while Mrs. Cake is watching him, not taking her eyes off the figure.

I should have stopped him, told him something, asked him the name... I shouldn't have cared about Mrs. Cake.

Sometimes you don't have to know everything about others.

Think about yourself.

I don't know. I don't know. We've got rid of one man but the heat in the kitchen is the same... and I'm more confused than before. This morning is already ten times worse than last night.

And Coco hasn't arrived yet.

Who in the hell is this woman he talked about?

---

18:45 PM - Day X + 2

I have just arrived home. My aunt, logically, is not here.

Nothing else happened after he left the store. I stayed in the kitchen doing what Mrs. Cake told me to do, and the only thing that confused me after the previous events was the fact that Coco was not present. Didn't she tell Mrs. Cake she would come to work today or not? Where was she? I try to worry about her but I can't. My mind is busy doing something else.

I've been processing what Caballeron told me.

A woman.

Thorax is the friend of a woman who perfectly gambles and is considered a legend in casinos. Anyways, I can't understand why is that a justification to run away. The only hypothesis that comes to my mind to answer that is that this woman is something else that Caballeron didn't tell me. Why would he walk away? Is he a friend of hers?

... or is he an enemy?

I have taken off the blue dress and now I am in my untidy bed, in my underwear once more, looking at the orange card in my hands. I read it again and again.

COOL TICKET!
STUNTMAN
96-33622-XX

Shall I call this number? Would Thorax answer me? I don't even know if this number is from him... it does not say his name. It just says Stuntman.

He considers himself an artist, what if Stuntman is actually a pseudonym of Thorax? Maybe he calls himself a stuntman too. I'm holding the card with the phone next to me. The only thing I need to do to find out who is the Stuntman is getting into my contacts list to call that number and wait for an answer.

Wait, something else stops me... what if this Stuntman is not actually Thorax, but someone else?

... What if Stuntman is actually this woman Caballeron talked me about? What would I do? What can I do if she answers the call?

Maybe Caballeron is right... I don't have to care about this. I'm literally drooling a bit. I think about that at the same time Thunderhooves' phrase strikes my mind.

"We are people who share a dream."

"Leaving the town."

Am I sharing the same dream with them? Do they also want to get out of this shit?

... What can I do to join them in that? I'm holding the phone, looking at its screen right now. The number is right there for me to call.

KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.

I heard it.

I leave the phone and the card on my bed. Tell me she's not here.

KNOCK.

It's here. Somebody's knocking on the door... my aunt arrived this early? She didn't say anything to me... besides, she was on Saddle Lake...

"Hello?" No. That's not my aunt. I can recognize that voice. I don't hear it often but I know who he is. I can't forget that specific accent of his.

Stripes, the caretaker.

What is he doing here? I can't open the door in my underwear, so I dress up with the first clean clothes I see. I grab some old grey shoes (I think they are actually called espadrilles), long blue pants, and a striped brown sweater. Classical.

"Photo Finish, are you there?"

He wants to see my aunt. Shall I answer the door or wait for him to leave? What can I say to pretend I am her dog's babysitter when there is not even a dog in here?

Shall I say the dog is sleeping, just in case? I don't want to hear his voice again.

"Photo Finish, are you there? I need to talk to you immediately, please."

Immediately.

What's going on? Did something happen?

Is something happening in the building?

KNOCK. KNOCK.

No, wait. He's still knocking.

KNOCK.

Uh, come on!

KNO---

I reveal my face... I haven't seen him for a long time. I almost forgot about his height (as tall as Thunderhooves), his purple mustache, and those sports clothes he always uses. In this episode, he's wearing all blue with black shoes. He looks at me and a smile appears on his face.

I don't like that smile of his.

"Ha, ha," he jokingly says. "I was looking for you."

"Me?" Well, it was about time for him to ask me what I'm doing here all time, I admit it, but... why now?

His voice rises when he enters the apartment. "Somebody at the entrance called me and asked for Wallflower Blush." What? Who? "And I didn't have any idea of who that was until... she, the visitor who wants to see you, described to me what Wallflower Blush looked like. Once she said you had long green hair, I remembered about you."

A she? It's not a he who is visiting me.

... Is she the woman? No, it can't be. "Who is at the entrance right now? Who wants to see me?"

Stripes, however, is getting along with something else. He looks around the apartment. "I can see no dog here." He shakes his head while looking at the kitchen. "Weren't you supposed to look after a dog?"

I have a white lie in my mouth but I don't know what to say. I'm speechless. "Who told you my name?"

"No, no, no, firstly..." he sits on a chair. "I want this to be quick, I have a question. This is Photo Finish's apartment and I never ask her about you because she always tells me you are her dog's babysitter and blah, blah, blah..." he moves his hands and calms down. "... but you actually seem something else that I don't know. You are here every day, I can see you. People can see you... you always come out of here at 6 AM, the same time Photo Finish leaves and... I don't know, if Photo Finish's dog is mute or does have a problem with sleeping, I apologize for not knowing that but... I never heard any bark or dog sound from here."

My throat is getting closed. "What do you mean?"

"The second floor has a chihuahua that makes me sick. I hate chihuahuas, you know that? Don't you hate them? They are always barking..." he nods his head. "... but if you ask me if I ever heard a single bark of a dog in this apartment... never. And now, this lady is asking for you immediately because she did have neither your phone nor your apartment number."

"What?" I say. My legs start trembling again... no, I won't run away. I won't.

"Who are you?" Mr. Stripes is really serious right now. He is frowning. "I can't hear no dog now... and if you take care of the dog while she's not here... why do you leave at the exact time she does the same?" What can I say? What can I say? "Are you stealing something from here?"

NO. I am not a thief. "I am her niece." Fuck. I told him the truth, unconsciously.

Mr. Stripes instantly raises his eyebrows. "What?" he says, pointing at his ear. "What did you say?"

"I am her niece. You can call my aunt Photo Finish and check it out..." I fastly nod my head. "You'll find out it's true." He slowly stands up and I raise a finger. "Wait a minute." I fastly go to my aunt's room and turn on the lights. I can see that next to her bed and in the middle of all of her clean white furniture filled with pictures and journals, there's a small drawer that I head to and open.

"Don't take too long," he says, getting in the bedroom. "Your friend is waiting for you... and she didn't have a nice face."

I stop. I look at a small sketchbook filled with pictures of my aunt when she was younger. She didn't have a nice face, he said. "Who is waiting for me?" I ask while grabbing it.

"A young girl with pink hair," he said. "She presented herself as Pinkie Pie and told me you had to talk to her right now at the entrance."

Pinkie?

I suddenly remember what Thunderhooves told me. Did he also talk to Pinkie Pie? That's why she's at the entrance waiting for me. What does she want to tell me?

Luckily I find that picture on time. It's me, as a child. A picture from a photo booth I took with my aunt when I was seven or eight years old, I don't remember. I can see myself, forcing my smile. That was... just months after I found out the truth. I was uncomfortable. I look at the sight I had at that moment. It was blank, I feel it like that. My aunt is behind me, smiling and putting a hand over one of my shoulders. She's still wearing those sunglasses. Such a weird picture. "This, look at this." I give the picture to Stripes. "That's a picture my aunt and me took on a photo booth... more than ten years ago."

He looks at them and I calm down when I see that he believes in what I'm saying. He observes the picture for two more seconds and shakes his head, looking at me with confusion. "This doesn't make any sense. Why didn't your aunt tell me you were her niece and that's it?"

I've got to be real on this. "I told her not to say it... because I don't want anybody to know I'm Photo Finish's niece."

He chuckles. "You are stupid, I'm sorry... do you know that pretending to be something that you are not, leaves you as a stranger? Nobody is going to criticize you because you are Photo Finish's niece. Your aunt almost killed a man because of what he said to her... because of you acting as a stranger... do you remember?" He is now looking at me as if I was his daughter. "Do you remember what that man told your aunt? It was something really horrible."

I nod my head because I know what is he talking about. The prostitute thing. I remember my aunt beating that man up with a frying pan she actually broke into pieces and I try not to laugh. "Yes, I do."

He sighs, leaving that picture on her bed. "Your friend is waiting for you, but this is not over." He points at me. "I'll call your aunt later and we'll have a chat about this. This is serious... and remember that nobody will tell you anything because you are somebody's niece."

"I hope not," I tell him and I get out of the bedroom. "Thanks, Stripes!"

"Wait!" he turns the lights off. "Are you really going to come out wearing that?" he shouts. "You look like a senile grandmother!"

"I don't care!" I only shout while opening the door. Right under me, Pinkie Pie is waiting to tell me something... the question is, what?

I try to close the door but Stripes passes by me, shaking his head. "I promise you and your aunt that we'll talk later," it's the only thing he says before he disappears, getting on the staircase and walking downstairs.

Goddamn, why did he say that aloud? Now everybody knows I'm Photo Finish's niece.

---

19:00 PM - Day X + 2

I get out and I can see her while the sun is setting down. The night is getting prepared to appear once more. She's standing at the entrance gate with her car, turned on, behind her. Her face does not show happiness at all, but concern. Her hair is still poofy, though. "Pinkie?" I say. "What's going on?"

"I tried to call you but... I don't have your phone number, so I came here and called for the caretaker and he told me..."

"It's a long story, Pinkie," I told her when I open the entrance gate. "I barely speak with the caretaker, he doesn't know my name. What happened?" I close the gate and she touches my shoulders and I look at the sidewalk. I imagine Thunderhooves walking next to me in the morning. "Did someone try to talk to you about what we saw yesterday?

She shakes her head. "No, no, nobody." She opens the car door for me while heading to the other side. "Nobody came to me. It doesn't have anything to do with what we saw last night."

I get in the car and close the door... looks like we are about to take another ride in the Pinkiemobile. "Then what is it? What happened?"

She gets in the car and fastens her seatbelt, pointing at mine. "Fasten your seatbelt."

I roll my eyes. "Come on, Pinkie. Where do you want to take me?"

"Fasten your seatbelt, Wallflower."

I do it and I ask again: "What is going on?"

"Coco called me..." After two whole days, I have news about her. We finally have news... "She didn't sound happy at all."

... "Why?"

"I don't know. She told me to pick her up at the bus stop on Meadowbrook Street, and I want you here with me because..."

She doesn't say anything else. "Why, Pinkie? She called you, not me."

"But I want you to see her too... don't you like her?"

Uh, come on. "Pinkie..." She steps on the clutch and the car begins to move. She's driving faster. "I told you I don't like her. I like her as a friend."

"We haven't seen her for two days and she suddenly called me... and she wasn't happy. I also want you to know what's going on with her."

"And why didn't she sound happy?"

She shakes her head. "I don't know! I also don't know what to expect."

Thoughts of her boyfriend begin to attack my brain once again. "Come on... these two last freaking days have been..."

I look out the window and we are already next to Meadowbrook Street's bus stop... I haven't even blinked twice. How fast did Pinkie Pie drive? The streets are now darker because of the night and not all of the lights have been turned on yet, but we can see a black figure rising from one of the dark bus stop's seats to get nearer the car.

The nearer it is, the better we can see her. It's Coco, but she's absolutely unrecognizable. She always uses clear-colored clothes, mostly white and yellow, but this time she's wearing a big black fur trenchcoat that is covering all of her body. She is suspiciously covering her face with a scarf, big round sunglasses, and a small hat, also black, over her beautiful light blue hair. Then, I observe the last thing about her that makes me feel goosebumps: she's barefoot. Why isn't she using any shoes or trainers? Why is she barefoot? I instantly get out of my seat and open the door. "Coco!" I shout, almost panicking. "Why are you barefoot?"

"Oh!" she shouts and hugs me. "Wallflower Blush! What a surprise!" I always felt her body as something warm, a cozy feeling... but this time she was really cold. Not only because the street right now is getting chill without the sun, but also because there's something different in her and I don't know what. This hug from Coco Pommel felt different, but I hug her back. Despite I hate fashion, I've got to say her fur trenchcoat is really nice. "I thought you wouldn't come here for me," she says. "I'm sorry... I'm such a mess."

"No, you are not," I say while Pinkie Pie gets off the car. "What happened?"

She leaves me to hug her friend Pinkie, and every time I see her bare feet touching the sidewalk and the street... something inside makes me want to vomit... but I resist.

"Girl, Coco..." Pinkie says, surprised, pointing at her feet. "Where are your shoes?"

The smile she had when she hugged the both of us instantly disappears while taking off her hat. I disagreed with her when she said she was a mess, but her short light-blue hair does make me think a bit. It's disheveled. "It's a long story, girls... I want you to take me to Sugarcube Corner. It's still open, right?"

Pinkie and I look at each other for a second. Sugarcube Corner is usually open at this time of the evening (almost pure night), managed only by Mr. Cake and his wife... but I honestly don't know what happened today after 6. Did Mrs. Cake actually close the store because of this problem? Does Coco know something about what we went through? "I think it is," says Pinkie. "Which long story do you need to tell us, Coco?"

The three of us get in the car. I tell Coco to sit where I was before but she denied it. She wanted to take the backseat... I didn't discuss it. We sit, fasten our seatbelts and Pinkie starts driving. Coco, however, begins to touch her forehead while still having her scarf and sunglasses on. "Why don't you take those sunglasses off?" asks Pinkie. "You are inside the car and it's almost night, there's no sun."

She sighs and shakes her head. "I would really like to take them off but I shouldn't do it."

Pinkie and I are in silence. She looks at me, I look at her. I don't like where this is going. "Why don't you take the scarf off, Coco?" I tell her while looking at Pinkie. She also doesn't like this. "Pinkie's car is not so chill after all."

I look at her through the mirror. She touches her black scarf, softly pressing on it. "If I do it... will you promise me not to get mad? I mean, I know it may be something hard to..." she stops for a moment and starts stuttering. "... s-see but I have a-an explanation."

Right now, after hearing what she said, I don't care about the Pinkiemobile's rules. Pinkie suddenly stops the car in the middle of the street and I unfasten my seatbelt to turn around and look at her without using a mirror. "What is going on?"

She is scared. "What?" she stutters. Pinkie fastly parks the car somewhere, near the sidewalk. We don't even know if we can actually park here... but right now we have something to solve. "What do you mean?"

Pinkie also turns around but doesn't unfasten her seatbelt. "You are alone and barefoot at a bus stop, wearing all black, hiding your face from us. What is going on, Coco? Which long story do you have to tell?"

She sighs and touches the scarf again, taking it off her neck. I can easily see a small purple bruise over her beige skin.

... No.

No.

"Take off your sunglasses," I fastly order her. My skin feels like fire right now. "Take them off now."

She bites her lips and begins to sweat. "Wallflower, please--"

"Now, Coco!" I shout. I begin to lose control and Pinkie touches my back. Her hand feels like a knife stabbing me. "Now!"

She fastly takes them off and we can see her. Her right eye is bloodshot, surrounded by purple.

She has a black eye.

No.

No.

Not her, no. No.

This isn't happening.

I grab my head, trying to tear out the skin of my face and I fastly turn around like a missile and smash one of my fists against the glove box in front of me. Coco jumps from her seat for a second and Pinkie doesn't say anything to me. She is as shocked and mad as me. "What the hell happened?" she asks. "Who did this to you?"

"Let me summarize this, uh..." Coco stutters and I can barely hear her. I'm putting my head against the backseat. She was joy, hope, a purpose. I'm looking at her falling apart. This can't be. This can't be fucking true. "Yesterday I had a meeting with a designer, uh... she was one of the best in the country..." I turn around again, trying to hide my face of fury, and she covers her black eye with her hand. "... but she didn't invite me alone, she wanted him and all of his family to be there too."

... This can't be real. "Him?" I instantly say. "You mean..."

She nods her head. It's confirmed. "His family from United Cavalry is pretty well-known in that world."

I sigh and shake my head. "Tell me he didn't do this to you." She's silent. "Coco?"

"What?" she says.

"Please tell me he didn't leave you here with a black eye."

Pinkie's eyes are shining, about to cry and hides behind her seat. Coco shakes her head again: "Everything started because there was one man in that reunion that he admires a lot... he's a playboy, a rich babyface, Fancy Pants."

He is in this too? Fuck me. My whole skin freezes when I hear that name. I'm about to blow up... I didn't hear that name for how long, man? My daddy? "Y-Yes," I stutter. My throat feels like a plane about to crash. "I-I know who... who is he."

"He tried to call his attention every time he could, and he even decided to leave me alone while exposing some of my work to this designer. He left me to go to one of Fancy Pants' country houses and play golf with him all night long."

"And you..." Pinkie appears again. "And you complained about that?"

She nods. "I told him today, hours ago, that I didn't like that at all. It was something disrespectful and horrible of his. He tried to defend himself saying that he had no idea I was there to show my work, when in fact I told him that the previous day." She raises three fingers. "Three times. I told him that three times... and then, the discussion got worse, I shouted, he did the same... and then things went out of control and... we started fighting." A second of silence. "Physically, I mean. Physically."

"I understood, Coco," I say. I can't calm down. I just can't. I feel like a timebomb... and there's not much time left for me to blow up. Why her? Why did she have to go through this?

"You had a fight?" asks Pinkie. "You hit him?"

"He started," she replies while grabbing her sunglasses. "He slapped me, I slapped him back... things got worse. It wasn't until he hit my eye that I realized everything was getting out of control. I couldn't believe what I did, I tried to attack him... then I realized he was trying to hurt me really bad. He..." She begins to stutter again. "He tried to grab me by my neck for a second, but I pushed him back and ran away. I took off my high heels and left his house barefoot. I didn't have time to grab my things so... I basically stole his mother's coat, hat, scarf, and sunglasses and ran away with them in my arms."

...

We don't say anything for a minute.

Pinkie only turns on the car again and leaves that place while we don't say anything.

I find out tears are coming out of my eyes. I'm feeling lots of things right now... and I don't know what to do or say. I just can't even express how angry I am about this using my thoughts. It's... I have no words.

"I can't believe that I..." Coco stops and finishes the sentence. "I can't believe that I slapped him back... I didn't want to harm him. I am not someone that uses violence to solve things."

"He treated you like shit," I instantly reply. "That son of a bitch deserves more than a slap." Then I look at Pinkie only looking at the road, not saying anything.

"I don't know, Wallflower," she replies to me. "He attacked me, yes, but I don't want to fight violence using violence."

I turn around again... I didn't fasten my seatbelt again. She looks at me with eyes of anger and my face of sweat. "Somebody has to bring that asshole back to Planet Earth. Back to Canterlot... somebody has to, Coco." Pinkie turns on a corner and I see a shiny sign attracting my eyes in the dark.

24/7 GROCERY STORE

I need something.

I can't calm down and behave like someone with a conscious mind that thinks clearly if I don't have it in my hands at this right moment.

It's calling me back.

"Stop."

Both Pinkie and Coco look at me. "What?" Pinkie tells me. "Why? Now?"

"Stop right here... I want to get something at the grocery store."

Pinkie blinks. "But... Wallflower..."

"I need that to calm down, OK? Please, Pinkie. Stop here, right at the corner. It won't take me more than two minutes, please. Freakin' please."

At the exact moment Pinkie lowers her speed, I open the door in the middle of the street and run to the store. I even forgot to close the car door.

Everything goes in slow motion around me. My skin, covered in sweat, feels like lava burning. My eyes are two volcanoes in eruption.

I'm done.

I'm fucking done with this town. With its inhabitants. I will never forget what you did to her, to Coco Pommel.

I'm walking slower by the time I get into the store. I find out nobody is there, except for an assistant next to the cashier. She begins to show concern once she looks at me. "You feel alright?"

I fastly turn my head to her while cleaning my face filled with sweat drops. I think I know her... I saw her at School, but I don't remember her name. She obviously doesn't even know who I am. I think she had a friend named Sweetie Drops. I approach her green skin, concerned face and I squint my eyes while my whole back trembles. I only ask her one thing:

"Do you have cigarettes?"

I've got to go back to work.

Comments

[FreshlyBakedSuit]

From one drama to the other. Poor Wallflower Blush and Pinkie Pie can't catch a break.