Rosa

by awf

Chapter 32: The Truck Stop Gang

"Ow!" Rosa whimpered.

Quietly, of course, because loud noises meant pain. Actually, the mare corrected herself mentally, loud noises meant Pain, with a capital P. Waking up had been a mistake. Her mouth tasted like she had eaten a sewer rat and washed it down with some sewer water.

Rosa knew she was not great at metaphors right at the moment. It hurt to think.

Despite her queasy stomach, painful head, blurry vision and unsteady hooves, Sky Light was dragging Rosa all the way across town, or at least that was what it felt like. She insisted it was only a couple of miles, but Rosa assumed they must have walked about halfway to Africa by then. Well, that was her estimate based on the sheer suffering of the trip.

She was not about to admit that walking and fresh air were helping. Rosa wanted to be miserable for as long as possible. "Can we stop. Please?"

Before she got an answer Rosa simply let her rump hit the pavement. There was no way the pegasus could physically drag her, after all.

"Come on, Rosa, it's just around the corner!" Sky Light insisted, giving her friend a nudge with her hoof. "It's your own damned fault." She sat down in front of Rosa and brought her face close. Even through her bleary vision, Rosa could see she was not mad. Well, not exceptionally so. She just seemed annoyed. "You puked all over us both and now we need a shower," she explained matter-of-factly. "The only place I know we can do that is the trucker stop. You can't fly and I sure as hell ain't carrying you, so walk."

With a small groan Rosa struggled up to her hooves again. "Fine, let's just get it over with."

Wine had been a mistake. She decided she would never drink again. It had been fun for a while and the world had seemed a better, funnier place. Rosa had enjoyed that part. Not this bit, though. A hangover was absolutely foul.

"D-Do you have my, uh..." Rosa began asking, but then blushed when she remembered where the object had came from. "Toothbrush..." you finish lamely.

Sky Light patted her saddlebag. "Right here," she said testily.

Rosa felt like she had to clear the air between them. "I'm sorry-"

Sky Light rounded up on her before Rosa could even finish the sentence. "Just- drop it, okay?" She whirled back and walked a few paces before stopping. Her ears sagged and she slowly exhaled. "I should have known. It's my own fault. You're just a kid, what do you know about money? About surviving on the street?"

However hard Rosa tried to bite down, a sniffle escaped her. There was truth in her friend's words. Rosa had never been on her own. She had never had her own money. Maybe if she had more experience she would have known to keep hold of it.

The sound brought Sky Light back, but she was no longer frowning when she put her hooves around Rosa. "I'm sorry, sweetie," she said more gently. "It's not your fault."

Rosa opened her mouth to say that yes, it was, but a wing feather across the lips hushed her.

"It wasn't that much money. I'm just disappointed, Rosa. It's fine. I guess I expected a little more from you."

The younger mare nodded a little against Sky Light's neck. She was also disappointed in herself, especially with how bad she felt physically. Maybe she deserved it. "I'll- I'll make it up to you," Rosa promised tearfully.

There was no immediately answer, but after a few seconds Sky Light spoke gently: "Look, you don't have to. We both earned that money, so it was yours too. At least now you've learned, right?"

Rosa extracted herself from the embrace and bobbed her head again. "Uh-huh," she sniffled.

Sky Light looked at her for a moment before letting her hooves slip from Rosa's withers. "You mean that about making it up to me?"

That sounded ominous and Rosa was suddenly afraid. Sky Light was taking her to the very place where she- It didn't even bear thinking about, so Rosa settled for: 'did favors for money', but even that sounded dirty. Surely Sky didn't expect Rosa to repay her in that way?

The other mare caught Rosa's expression and smiled gently. "No, nothing like that, don't worry. Sheesh, I'm not going to whore you out for cash, Rosa. I'm pissed, but I'm not a monster!"

Rosa immediately relaxed and gave her a tentative smile back. That was a huge load off her mind. "Thanks," she murmured. "Yeah, I guess I meant it. As long as it isn't... that."

Sky Light pulled her back up to her hooves and nudges Rosa along. "Okay, then you're gonna finish one of my deliveries. How's that sound?"

That was a lot better than what Rosa had been fearing, so she quickly nodded, eager for the opportunity.

Her friend kept explaining: "I'll let you have my FedEx vest. It's got holes for wings, but we can put saddlebags over them so people won't see. You'll look just like an official delivery mare."

Rosa remembered the pegasus promising her a uniform, but she guessed that this wasn't it. The plan sounded like it should work, except for one problem. "Uh, I don't know this city." Rosa blushed and corrected: "Any city, really."

Sky Light shrugged a little. "I'll show you on a map. It's not hard to find, and you can always ask for directions. You'll be on 'official duty', remember?" She had signed the quotes around the words with her hooves. "Come on, let's clean you up and get a cup of coffee in you first."

That sounded good and Rosa followed the mare around the corner, where she quickly spotted the place Sky Light had meant. There was a patch of overgrown, grassy surface and then a huge parking lot, right next to the highway. There weren't very many trucks, but Rosa saw a few people moving about. Some were inspecting their rigs, others were sitting on foldable chairs and eating, still others were lounging against the vehicles in small groups and talking.

At one side of the parking lot there was a couple of small structures. A sign proclaimed one to be a general store, bar and shower. The other she recognized as some kind of storage. Sky Light's truck stop, Rosa guessed. A patch of color caught her eye and she spotted a strawberry red pegasus sprawled on one of the truck's cabins, sunning himself. A few moments later Rosa noticed a group of four ponies lying in the grass beside the buildings.

"Well, that's it," Sky Light announced, as she pushed through the last of the bramble. "Come, I'll introduce you to the gang."

Rosa followed after her, only a bit apprehensive about meeting those free ponies. If the pegasus trusted them, then Rosa supposed she could, as well. In any case, no one seemed to be paying Sky Light any mind as she headed for the buildings with Rosa in tow. A couple of humans glanced her way, but without much interest. The ponies they had seen stopped talking and watched, but they didn't move from their spot. Rosa saw that one of them had a plastic cup between her forelegs on the grass. She leaned down to stick her tongue in while Sky Light led Rosa their way.

"Hey guys," she greeted. The gang - all earth ponies - grunted something unintelligible in reply. The mare with the coffee lifted her head and looked directly at Rosa.

"Who's she?" came the question.

Rosa examined the group as discreetly as she could, all the while feigning nonchalance. In fact she was trying to copy Sky Light's attitude. The mare who had spoken up was yellow, with a green mane and tan, almost sand-colored eyes. To her right was a stallion with such a vividly-green coat that it almost blended into the grass. The brown mane completed the camouflage nicely. Right in front of Rosa and Sky Light, the pony who had been lying down climbed to his hooves to face them. He was dark red, almost burgundy. What could be seen of his mane under a baseball cap looked green-ish, if a little less poignant than the other stallion's coat. The last pony, also a stallion, was giving Rosa a fixed smile which she found slightly uncomfortable. Maybe the reason it felt weird was that his mane almost completely covered his eyes. It was black, just like Rosa's and went nicely with his indigo coat.

She might have found him quite handsome, were it not for his fixed grin creeping Rosa out. In fact, all four of them were staring at her by now. Luckily Sky Light knew what to do and put a wing around the younger mare. "Guys," she said, "I'd like you to meet my new friend Rosa." Then she used her other wing to point out individual ponies. "That's Velvet, Bluegrass, Pepper and Butch."

Rosa tried to commit them all to memory. Velvet was the mare, that part was easy. Strangely, the green stallion was called Bluegrass for some reason. The red one was Pepper and the one with the creepy grin was Butch. Rosa quietly repeated their names while she was looking at the faces, which helped her keep them in mind. She smiled, if a little nervously.

"Uh, h-hi!" she volunteered.

The group didn't move, but the mare turned a very insolent grin on Sky Light. "So," Velvet asked, "is she your toy or that human's you hang out with?" Her words made Rosa blush a nice, bright pink, which the other four found incredibly amusing.

"Tell me, Sky," the creep, Butch, said quietly, staring at Rosa without blinking from under his mane, "what's she taste like?"

The implication made Rosa 'eep' slightly and shrink back, trying to hide behind her pegasus friend.

Sky Light just chuckled a little and waved a dismissive hoof. "It's not like that, guys. We're just friends."

"Oh yeah?" Velvet piped up. "Which one of you got the other one drunk, then?"

"W-What?!" Rosa squeaked in alarm.

The yellow mare laughed pleasantly and came up, leaving her cup of coffee on the grass. "You can't deny it, sweetheart. I could smell you two across the parking lot."

That was right! Rosa had slept in it so she barely noticed it anymore, but both she and Sky Light stank of puke and stale wine.

"Tell us everything!" Butch demanded.

Sky Light shrugged. "Nothing to tell. Keep your dick inside, Butch. Rosa just got drunk as hell then threw up all over me when I was putting her to bed."

That was exactly the wrong thing to say and two of the stallions whistled in appreciation. At least they stopped with all the questions.

Velvet gave Rosa a wink and one of the sultriest smiles the young mare had ever seen. "Next time you want to get drunk, come pay us a visit. We're all very... mmm, social."

She didn't answer, but Sky Light came to her rescue. "That's enough, guys. We both need a shower and then we have work to do. We'll stop by for a chat another time, okay?"

The ponies settled back down, though there were still one or two suggestive glances thrown Rosa's way. Bluegrass and Pepper picked up their previous conversation and Butch stretched out his legs and rolled to his back with a luxurious sigh. Unfortunately that brought... 'him' into full view. Rosa only caught a brief glimpse before hurriedly lowering her eyes. Fighting the blush was all but impossible.

"I'll be looking forward to our... ahem, 'chat'," Velvet said, the quotation marks falling clearly in place. She came closer still, grinning at Rosa's mortified expression. Was every free pony a complete lunatic? Well, except for Sky Light, of course.

"Umm," Rosa mumbled.

The mare took pity on her embarrassment and let her smile slip. "Don't worry, we're just joshing you. Rosa, right?"

Rosa managed a nod.

"We're just a bunch of jokers, us. Don't pay us any mind, dear." She patted the younger mare on the back, then went back to her cup. It was a huge relief. Rosa didn't find those jokes all that funny, but it was good to see that ponies could be reasonable if they wanted to. Except that Butch - he worried her a little and Rosa decided never to be alone with him if she could help it.

"Okay, now that's settled, come on," Sky Light said and set off to the store. Rosa was grateful for that and quickly followed her, doing her best to appear calm and nonchalant.

"Don't mind the guys," the pegasus explained. "They'll give you hell until you stand up for yourself, then you'll be one of the gang. Just don't let them push you around, okay?"

Rosa nodded, but then realized Sky Light wasn't looking. "O- Okay."

The door slid open automatically and the two went inside. It was a small convenience store, but Rosa still stopped to look around in wonder. All the colors and the smells! She hadn't been in shops or malls often, so she knew about them mainly from movies and from the rumors at the School. They were magical places were she could get absolutely anything for money. Well, maybe not anything, but the selection of fizzy drinks, candies and potato chips looked pretty much complete. There was also a stand with sandwiches which caught her eye. Rosa wondered if they'd be willing to make her a plain tomato and lettuce sandwich with extra salt.

The short walk and the embarrassment outside had helped her nausea immensely, she realized. Now Rosa was getting hungry. There were a few packets of sweets back at the van, but she had promised them all to Sky Light as a small token of apology. Rosa had also let her have the rather stale sandwich in the morning.

Sky Light noticed Rosa's stare and grinned. "Wanna get something after shower?"

Rosa nodded most enthusiastically, which made Sky chuckle. "Okay, but that'll put you further in my debt. You sure you want that?"

That particular thought, of how much Rosa owed her, made her muzzle scrunch up in worry, but Rosa was starting to feel very hungry. "Yes," she said sadly, ears down.

"Don't worry," Sky Light said kindly. "Do the delivery for me and we'll be even, okay? Then we can go mooch after, so you got a bit of your own cash. That sound okay?"

It was not the nicest proposition, but at least it was not prostitution, Rosa guessed. She gave the mare a nod.

"Good."

Sky left her in the middle of the store and went to the counter, where a middle-aged man was watching them both impassively. The mare rummaged briefly in her bags and brought out a clean, crisp ten-dollar note. She reared up so she could drop it on the counter.

"Two for shower, please," she said politely.

The clerk looked from the bank note to the pony. "It's six each," he said in a very disinterested, bored tone of voice. His eyes focused on Rosa for a moment, then he went back to staring idly out the window. He hadn't even made a move to take the money.

Sky Light shrugged a little to herself and went back to the bag. In moments she added two more notes. "There," she said.

The man finally stirred into what probably passed for action with him and nodded toward a door. He didn't say anything further, but Sky Light knew what to do.

"Come on," the pegasus told Rosa and nudged her lightly with a wing. She led the way and held the door open for her friend. "Showers are through here," she explained.

The room ahead was tiled and there was a powerful smell of chlorine and mold. It was not the cleanest of showers, but right in that moment it was all Rosa could have hoped for. She ran her eyes past a row of what looked like small rooms. Each had a door, a small chair and a shower cabin with a curtain. Rosa was wondering about that for a moment but then realized how it worked. The humans probably undressed in the outer area - of course they'd need privacy, hence the door. Then there was the curtain to keep their clothes from getting wet as they splashed around.

Sky Light extended a hoof. "Pick any. I'll bring you the shampoo once I'm done with it."

In that moment Rosa realized there weren't any soaps or anything like that in sight, but it sounded like her friend had come prepared. She decided to do exactly as Sky Light said and went into one of the rooms, where she gently pushed the door closed. It took a bit of an effort to slide the small metal bar across, but then Rosa was as locked as she was going to get. It was a good thing the place seemed deserted at the moment. Rosa didn't think she could ever relax enough to take a shower if the room had humans in it.

To her side Rosa heard the water start as Sky Light began washing. It reminded her and Rosa quickly pulled the night gown off herself. She wondered for a moment if she could clean it there, but it was silk and water would undoubtedly ruin it. It looked like it would just have to do, for now.

She left her gown on the chair in the smaller area, then stepped into the shower and pulled the curtain closed. After that Rosa had to rear up to reach the tap, but she was used to that from the Boone house. It would be nice to get clean, she decided. She could also get her new toothbrush and paste from her friend's saddlebags and freshen up her mouth a little too. Not a bad start to the day, despite the hangover and the weird ponies outside. At that particular moment her money troubles didn't seem as bad. Rosa would even get a sandwich for breakfast out of the whole affair, she remembered.

The thought cheered her up nicely.

Comments

[valforwing]

As a special needs person I’m really invested And hope Rosas skills get used. Also I hope that Boone gets comuppance for damaging ADA staff