> Sour Sweet Friendship
>  by Nico-Stone Rupan
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Sour Sweet Friendship
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

The mother stirred from her sleep.

Thump.

She looked around for the source of the sound. Nothing was in her room. Her husband was sound asleep.

Thump.

She got out of bed and walked out into the hallway.

Thump.

Suddenly realizing the source was coming from the inside of her daughter's room, she quickly went toward it. She opened the door and flipped on the light switch.

There was her four-year-old daughter, a mirror image of herself, lying awake in her bed as she was repeatedly taking a blue ball, throwing it at the wall, and catching it in her hands as it bounced back.

"Little missy, what are you doing up?" the mother lightly scolded. "It's the middle of the night."

"I can't sleep," her daughter stated simply as she threw the ball, once more creating a thump.

Annoyed, the mother went over and snatched the ball. That action earned her a scowl from her daughter. Of course, she had to admit that she did enjoy getting one every once in a while. The little one was just too adorable when she was mad.

"Now try to get some. You have a playdate tomorrow, remember?"

Her daughter huffed. "I don't want to play with that girl, mama. She's weird!"

The mother put her hands on her hips. "She's not weird, she's just... different. Besides, her mama and I have been very close friends for a very long time, so I don't want to hear anything bad about her. Do I make myself clear, young lady?"

"Okay," her daughter groaned. 

The mother smiled. Her daughter could be a little brat sometimes, but so was she at that age. She went over and sat down on the bed.

"Hey, would it help you go to sleep if I told you a story?"

"What kind of story?"

"I want to tell you the story of how I gained my closest friend." She winked at her. "Maybe you'll learn a thing or two."

****************

FIFTEEN YEARS EARLIER...

Sour Sweet walked up to the entrance. She gulped as she read the sign: "CRYSTAL STATE UNIVERSITY". This was it, the next phase of her life. Her best friends, her fiancé, her parents... they were all miles away. 

She gripped her textbooks and took a deep breath. Taking the first step forward, she began her way across the campus.

Crystal State University was a very historic location, having been built just before the Civil War broke out. In fact, a battle was actually fought around it. Unlike much of surrounding city, the University managed to survive unscathed. 

It started as an all-female college, among the very first in the country. That fact was a factor that of course piqued Sour's interest when she was considering where to apply to. As time went by, it eventually went co-ed, ended up being converted (literally) into a religious institution devoted to one particular Christian denomination for many decades, before finally settling into the modern campus which she was now attending.

As she strolled along, her attention kept being captured by the people she passed. She saw a tall, bald man wearing thick, black glasses with a warm and genuine smile as he read from a poetry book. He had the obvious air about him of being a professor. Perhaps she would consider taking poetry as an elective at some point if the class was taught by someone as passionate about the subject as he clearly was.

She suddenly had to do a double take as she overheard a boy discussing his Marxist positions with some other students. He looked and spoke like a normal human being. You could actually be a Marxist without wearing a stupid purple beret and yelling "EQUALITY!!!" into a megaphone? Maybe she'll recommend CSU to Starlight Glimmer. She could take some pointers.

Every once in a while she would also spot evidence of the open-mindedness of modern academia. A woman wearing male clothing, complete with a false mustache. A weeb wearing a Sesshomaru cosplay to class. A girl leading along another on a leash. All in the open. No one batting an eye. 

Sour felt her anxiety beginning to fade, but not completely. She still had her first day of classes to attend. Plus, there was also the fact that she didn't know who her dorm mate was supposed to be. She knew that she was supposed to get one, due to the dorm having the luxury of having two separate bedrooms, but nobody else showed up the previous day as she moved in or even that morning. 

Sour shook her head. She didn't have time to worry. She had two classes to attend this Monday, one at eleven 'o clock and one at four thirty. There would have to be some getting used to coming from the uninterrupted eight to three days she had at Crystal Prep.

----------------

Sour Sweet's second class ended at six thirty and she headed straight back to her dorm. She inserted the key, only to realize that it was unlocked. Instantly going into paranoid mode, she slowly opened the door. She saw nothing out of the ordinary in the common room.

She suddenly heard a noise coming out of the second bedroom, the one she didn't pick to occupy. Sour's anxiety lowered a little bit. It must have been her dorm mate. 

Just then, the dorm mate in question came out. Sour's eyes widened. She knew that white hair and overuse of purple eyeshadow anywhere. 

"Gilda?"

Gilda froze, her own eyes widening. "Sour?"

An uncomfortable silence fell between the girls. It had always been uncomfortable between them since the knockdown-dragout brawl they shared back in their Crystal Prep days. They would've seriously hurt each other if Fluttershy wasn't there to radiate some "kindness light" upon them, something she admitted she wasn't even aware that she could do. The Equestrian magic was always throwing out something new. 

Afterward, they shared a short heart-to-heart where they discovered that they weren't as different as they thought. They both had father issues. Sour's had emotionally abused her by ignoring her for a couple years since finding out that she had schizophrenia, while Gilda's had physically abused her. Sour and her father's relationship had recently started to heal, but she had no idea what was going on with Gilda and her father.

Eventually, Sour decided to try to converse. "So we're dorm mates, huh? Why didn't you show up yesterday or this morning?"

Gilda shrugged. "Don't have Monday classes. I'll start tomorrow."

"Cool," Sour nodded awkwardly. "Hey, uh... want to go get something to eat somewhere?"

Gilda suddenly looked like a deer caught in the headlights. "Um, some other time, maybe. I'm going out by myself."

With that, Gilda quickly passed her and went out the door. 

Sour sighed. Well, she tried. After putting her textbooks away in her room, she left the dorm and found a Subway just across the street from the campus. Naturally, there were a ton of CSU students there. Sour smirked at the thought of how much money they must be rolling in from their perfect location.

After dining on her Chicken and Bacon Ranch Melt, she received a text on her way back to the dormitory. It was from her fiancé, consisting of only one word/question: "Skype?"

When she returned to the dorm, Gilda was still nowhere to be found. Sour grabbed her laptop and logged on.

"How's the prettiest college student in the world doing?" her fiancé greeted when his face came into view. 

"One day down, eleven more years to go."

"I'm really proud of you, you know that?"

"You should be," Sour teased with a wink. "And yes, I WILL make you call me, 'Doctor Sweet' when this is all over."

"Can't wait." Her fiancé smirked. "You think it'll make 'Playing Doctor' more interesting when one of us is the real deal?"

"We'll see about that when we get there, perv," Sour giggled. "Anyhoo, yeah, I think that I'm really going to enjoy my professors here. They have way more personality than the Crystal Prep teachers ever had."

"Well, I'm so glad to hear everything's going great, Sour."

Sour frowned. "One thing may not be, though." 

"What is it?"

"Gilda's my dorm mate."

Her fiancé’s eyebrows raised in surprise. "Really? Huh." He then grew concerned. "She hasn't gone back to giving you any trouble has she?"

Sour shook her head. "No, just pure awkwardness. I think she's just going to stay away from me the whole time."

"She must be still regretful of the ways she used to torment you. Keep trying to win her over. Show her that you forgive her."

The sound of the dorm door opening and shutting is heard. 

Sour smiled nervously. "Well, that sounds like her now."

Her fiancé gave her an encouraging smile. "You can do it."

Sour came out of her room to see Gilda putting away some groceries into the compact fridge which her father had bought and installed for her the day before.

"What's up?" Sour asked.

"Just bought some junk," Gilda answered, not even looking over at her. "Got a six-pack. Want one?"

"Someone like me shouldn't drink, I'm afraid," Sour chuckled.

That statement made was enough to Gilda look over at her with an uneasy glance. "Oh... well, more for me then, I guess."

"Uh, you do know drinking is prohibited in the dormitory, right?"

Gilda's uneasy glance quickly became an annoyed one. "What, are you going to be a dweeb and tattle on me? Come on, this is college."

Sour scratched the back of her neck. "CSU isn't really much of a 'party school'."

Gilda rolled her eyes. "Maybe it's time for someone to change that, then."

She grabbed one of the beer cans. Into her room she went, the door slamming behind her. Sour even heard the sharp click of the lock.

"That went well..." Sour grumbled as she returned to her room.

Sour soon completed her reading assignments and went to bed early. She had a class at nine in the morning, after all. 

Sour proceeded to sleep soundly until noises began to cause her to stir. Voices? The groggy part of her wanted to just blame her condition and ignore them by going back to sleep. That was before she recognized one as Gilda's. Gilda's along with a man's voice. An angry man's voice.

"And what the hell is that class on your schedule?" the voice barked. "Did you go back and change what I registered you for?"

"I-it's just one elective," an uncharacteristically timid-sounding Gilda defended. "I thought it would be interesting."

"I'm not paying all this tuition for you to be taking a bunch of crap classes. You're taking what I tell you to take."

"But, dad, I – "

SMACK!

Sour instantly flew out of bed and rushed out her door. 

There was Gilda, her left cheek freshly red from impact, with a man in a business suit whose hair was as white as hers. 

"What is going on?" Sour demanded, her eyes glaring at Gilda's father.

The eyes of Gilda's father narrowed at Sour. Clearly, he wasn't happy with having a witness. 

"Gilda, we'll talk about this some other time," her father growled. 

With that, he immediately went straight out the door.

Sour looked over at Gilda. She was stone-faced. Without a word, she went over to the fridge and grabbed another beer from inside.

"Sorry we woke you up, Sour," Gilda softly said as she started to make her way to her room.

Sour instantly grabbed her arm. "Gilda, wait. Are you okay?"

"It's nothing."

"'Nothing'?! Getting slapped around by your own dad is not 'nothing', Gilda!"

"I'm used to it. Just stick to your own business."

Gilda tried to go off again, but Sour once more grabbed her arm.

"Hey, anything going on with a friend of mine IS my business, Gilda!"

Gilda starred at her in almost... disbelief?

Sour pointed to the couch which came with the dorm. "Now, let's just sit down and talk."

Gilda hesitated, but ended up sitting down with her.

"Now, what was that about?" Sour asked, trying to calm it down a bit.

Gilda rolled her eyes. "My dad sent me here so I could get the education I need for when the day comes that he decides that he's too much of a lazy ass to personally run his company anymore, he can simply shove me right into the role to be like his puppet."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

To Sour's surprise, Gilda suddenly threw her head back in laughter. "Don't be! The day he puts me in there will be the day I finally screw him over. Would you believe the cheapskate hasn't given any of his employees a raise in years? Day one I'm in, everyone's getting double, no triple right in their pockets. That will piss him off so good!"

Sour cracked a smile. She had to admit, she liked how Gilda thought. She suddenly went serious again. "Until then, you can't let him just hurt you! Maybe we can alert campus security or – "

"You do anything, he'll cut my tuition off and my first semester here will be my last semester here." Gilda shook her head and gave Sour a pleading look. "Sour, just... just don't worry yourself about this, okay? This kind of thing has been going on my entire life."

"Does your mom know about it?"

"She's too much of a drunk to care," Gilda said as she took a sip of beer. "A role model if there ever was one."

Sour winced with sympathy. She tried to think of something to she could do. An unusual idea quickly hit her.

She gave Gilda an excited smile. "Hey, why don't you try what I do when I need to feel better?"

Gilda lifted an eyebrow and smirked teasingly. "You'd let me screw your boyfriend?"

Sour laughed. "Other than that. And it's ‘fiancé’, now."

"Oh, wow. Congratulations."

"Thanks. Now, wait right here."

Sour got up and jogged to her room. She soon returned with her laptop. She quickly logged onto a streaming site and pulled up a TV series titled, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

Gilda's brow furrowed with distain. "Is this one of those old shows? I'd rather go with the adultery idea."

"Hey, don't knock until you try it. Voyage can be really entertaining. It's sort of like Star Trek, but with a futuristic submarine instead of a starship. They'll probably end up rebooting it with a bunch of dumb LENS FLARES as well."

Gilda shook her head. "Shows from the 1960s were so unrealistic."

Sour shrugged. "Of course, it worked well for the time. The '60s was a turbulent decade. Did you know that for the next eight weeks after JFK's assassination, the ratings for The Beverly Hillbillies skyrocketed and became some of the most-watched episodes in television history? Sometimes people desperately need an escape from the darkness going on in their world. So why not turn to some silly TV show if it can help?" Sour smiled. "Binge watching is healthier for the liver than binge drinking anyway, right?"

Right then, it fully hit Gilda what Sour was getting at. In her own adorkable way, she was just trying to look after her. She was trying to be a friend. Another thing that fully hit Gilda was the realization that she appreciated it. 

She sat the beer can down on the floor and scooted in closer to Sour. Together, they spent the rest of the night laughing along with the outlandish adventures of the S.S.R.N Seaview going up against a flaming Van Allen belt, a young Leslie Nielson gone nuts over giant Manta Rays, and, of course, the Lobster Man from outer space. 

Naturally, they paid a price for it since they both fell asleep during their Tuesday classes, but they didn't care. Gilda forgot her troubles for a while thanks to Sour Sweet and her weird obsession with retro television. They grew closer that night and shared something that would last for many years to come.

****************

"How can a daddy be so mean?" 

"To this day, I honestly don't know, sweetheart," the mother sighed. "All I know is that you'll never have to worry about that. You have a daddy who loves you with all his heart."

Her daughter smiled. "I know."

"But you see the point of the story, right? A friend can be the light in the darkness if you ever need it. Who knows? Perhaps you'll even get to be that light for somebody one day."

"I guess I would like to do that."

The mother smirked. "Now, about that playdate?"

Her daughter huffed again, but reluctantly nodded. "Okay, I'll give Bitter Honey a chance."

"Get your sleep then."

The mother kissed her daughter and tucked her right in. 

"Good night, Gretchen," she said as she switched off the light.

"Good night, mama."

The mother closed the door as she exited the room. She then just stood there alone in the hallway for a moment, lost in her thoughts and reflections.

"You're going to have a happier childhood than I ever got to have, baby," Gilda uttered quietly. A tear went down her cheek, but a smile crossed her face. "I promise."

THE END