No Matter How Hard You Try
"Are you sure you're okay, Miss Drops?"
Sweet Breeze could hear the smile on the other end of the phone. "Yeah, I'm good. Thanks for continuing to call me, Breeze. I know you're not allowed to make follow-up calls but... thanks."
Breeze smiled into the speaker that sprouted from her head sets. "Of course, Miss Drops. You're getting better, I can hear it in your voice." She levitated a pen to her notepad and scribbled down her observations on Miss Raindrops' progress. After doing that she crossed her forelegs and rested them on her desk. "I know it's only been a week, but any progress is good progress. We can get through this together."
"I don't know how to thank you, Breeze."
Sweet Breeze paused. Raindrops had sucked in breath to say something, but seemed to be hesitating. "Miss Drops?"
"Well... it's just... I kind of told my sister about how you've been following up with calls and everything and she wanted to meet you. Would you mind dropping by sometime?"
Breeze smiled as she levitated her pad to her eye level. She flipped over Raindrops' chart to a clean sheet and readied her pen. "I just need your address."
"Yo, Sweet Breeze!" The grey Unicorn looked up at her name to see her two friends, Melody Flow and Playwrite, walking out the door. "We're gonna stop by Frosty's." Playwright announced.
Melody Flow smiled as she adjusted her saddlebag. "Would you like to join us?"
Sweet Breeze was about to agree before her phone rang. She shook her head as she picked up her headsets and placed them on her head. She waved to her friends, who rolled their eyes before walking out. Breeze pressed the button the side of her headsets before speaking. "Hello, you're talking to Sweet Breeze." She waited for an answer, but all she heard was slow, ragged breaths. She frowned and pressed her phones closer to her ears. "Hello?"
"He-help."
Sweet Breeze leaned forward. Sounded like a teenage mare. She'd received plenty of calls from them. Parents being parents, stallions being stallions. Although these problems didn't appeal to her, problems were problems. "Tell me, sweetie." She answered softly.
There was silence for a long moment before the young mare spoke again. "I don't wanna live anymore." The last word broke into several drawn-out syllables as the mare began to sob.
Sweet Breeze bit her lip. The other teens she'd spoken to hadn't sounded like this. They'd been mad. This mare sounded desperate. "Why is that?"
"I... I can't tell you."
Breeze shifted around in her seat trying to get comfortable. She was gonna be here awhile. "That's okay, let's just talk. Would you like to do that?" She waited patiently and smiled when she heard a soft "mhm" come from the other line. "What's your name?"
"Su- Sunny Days."
"That's a pretty name."
"I guess."
Breeze smiled and turned a new page in her pad before writing down her caller's name on it. She set down her pen as she spoke again. "How old are you?"
"Sixteen."
"Sixteen. Wow, I remember being that age. It was... weird."
Stony silence answered her. "Sunny, are you with me?"
"Yes."
"Good. How are you feeling, try explaining to me."
Breeze heard a soft scoff come from Sunny Days. "I doubt you'd understand."
Breeze shifted around. "I could try."
"Okay," Shifting drifted through the speaker, followed by the rustling of bed sheets. "I feel... I dunno, scared.
Sweet Breeze wrote down the word in her pad. "Mhm."
"Hopeless."
Scribble
"Rejected."
Scribble
"Tired."
Sweet Breeze looked up at that. She slowly put her pen down. "What are you tired of, Sunny?"
"Everything," Sunny sighed again before continuing. "Not being good enough, hating myself, being weak."
"Why do you feel weak?" Breeze asked her. She took a sip of her water glass as she waited for her to answer.
"I feel weak, because... because I can't build up the nerve to... I can't..."
Breeze waited patiently. She started when she thought she could hear something in the background. She strained her ears and leaned forward. Was that... yelling? "Sunny, do your parents fight a lot?"
"Yeah."
Breeze wrote that down before circling it several times. Her lavender eyes searched the words time and time again, hoping to see something that she might have missed. Teens got depressed over a lot of things. Peer pressure, low grades, low self-esteem. But nothing could ruin them like problems at home. Something in Sunny Days' voice was telling her she wasn't telling the whole truth.
"Is that all they do?"
"What?"
Sweet Breeze frowned. "You said you were scared, you said they fight a lot. Do they--"
"No! They don't hit me."
"So.. they just fight?"
"Yeah-" Sunny was cut off by something that happened on her end. Sweet Breeze's eyes widened as she heard retching and what sound like liquid spattering to the floor.
"Sunny, did you just...?"
"Yeah, a- a bit."
"Are you sick?"
"No, not really. This is... it's everyday."
"Sunny, what do you mean?" Sweet Breeze held her hooves to her headsets. "Is this usual?"
"For the past two months? Yeah."
"Two months..." she murmured to herself.
Sunny must have heard her. "Yeah, I'm kind of pregnant."
Sweet Breeze blinked in surprise. She'd never gotten a pregnant teen call before now. "Oh." She thought for a moment. "Are you angry because your boyfriend doesn't want it?"
"No, I don't have a boyfriend."
"Was it a one night thing?"
"No."
Breeze raised an eyebrow. "Friends with benefits?"
"Can... we just drop it?"
"Honey," Sweet Breeze sighed. "If you want me to help you, I need to know."
"No, I can't..." Sunny Days said before she started sobbing again. Breeze could hear her ragged breathing as she tried to suck in air to breathe through her crying.
"Sunny?"
"The foal..."
"What about the foal?"
"I CAN'T HAVE THE FOAL!"
Sweet Breeze flinched at the sudden rise in volume. "Calm down, Sunny. Why can't you have the foal?"
"'Cause, what if... The foal is my dad's, okay?"
"What?" Sweet Breeze breathed out the word. "How is it your dad's, what did-"
"He raped me." Sunny sobbed the three words out and Breeze's ears were once again full of the sound of her pain.
"He raped me." Did Sunny really just say that? What kind of father, no what kind of sick pony could do that to his daughter, to leave her with that burden?
"I don't wanna live, Sweet Breeze! What if he does it to my foal? What if every time I look at the foal I'm reminded of what he did to me? If it gets raped, it'll be my fault! It's my fault, everything is my fault!"
Sweet Breeze recognized the tone in her voice. She was nearing the point of no return. "S-sunny, you've gotta listen to me, you're gonna be fine, okay? You're going to-"
"No, no I'm not! He's gonna hurt my baby, he's gonna ruin it like he's ruined me!."
"Sunny, please!" Tears were starting to spill from Sweet Breeze's eyes. She stood quickly, causing her chair to fall. "We can put your father behind bars, he won't be able to hurt your foal!"
"He'll just get out, they all get out!"
"Sunny, please. We can get through this."
"All my fau-halt."
"This isn't your fault, this is your father's fault!"
"I'm so weak." Sunny's voice was high and it cracked every time she spoke. "I hate my life, I hate myself! I don't wanna live! I can't have this foal, it's my fault!"
"Sunny!" It was then that Sweet Breeze realized that she was screaming into her speaker. She looked at one of the other operators. "We need a patrol at..." She squinted through her tears at her screen. "..2185 West Hoof."
The operator nodded. "Patrol at 2185 West Hoof."
"Don't bother, I'll be long gone." Sunny gave a dry humorless laugh.
"Sunny, don't say that. You're gonna be fine. We're gonna get you out of there, you and your baby will be safe and away from your father!"
"No, it's too late. I already drank it..."
Breeze felt her blood turn to ice. She leaned against her desk. "Wha-what did you drink?"
"Rat poison. I added some soda to it so that it wouldn't taste as bad." Sunny laughed again.
"No, Sunny! Please tell me you're joking."
"Thank you for listening Sweet... Sweet Breeze." Her speech was slurred.
"SUNNY!"
"My fault."
Breeze jumped at a loud crash and thump on the other line followed by shallow wheezing. Then silence.
"Sunny?" Breeze whispered. "Sunny! Sunny Days, answer me! SUNNY!"