I was lingering at my locker before the lunch bell, hoping to catch a glimpse of Twilight Sky. The stallion didn’t even take the entrance exam, but he got to come to Celestia’s school on some scholarship deal because of his fancy parents, and not to mention, I’ve liked the hottie since I first laid eyes on him. I didn’t know Sky, really—except that he hates being called Twilight because of this so-called, “famous purple unicorn” in ponyville. I mean, I see him in the halls between classes or trotting down the sidewalk when he delivers the morning paper, but that’s about it. We’re in the same grade but take completely different classes. We aren't even friends.
But I liked his cold, blue eyes, the color of his mane, and the shape of his lips. If I were braver, more popular perhaps, or maybe just more self-confident, I would have crossed the fifteen lockers that separated his locker from mine and talked to the stallion already, but I couldn’t. I mean, what would I have said?
So, all of the sudden down the hall, I heard Sky laugh, a sharp sound slicing through the noise of the other students. My heart quickened and I caught a glimpse of Sky’s spiky, blue hair, a moment before I heard my own name shrieked in my ear.
“Graphite!”
It was Royal Ribbon, the most popular mare in the school. She fell back against the locker next to mine with a giggly sigh. “There you are. I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
I doubt it, I thought. Royal Ribbon may live next door to me, but in school, she usually acted like I didn’t even exist. With her bouncy, blue curls sprayed into place, glitter glossed on her lips and eyelids, she gave me a smile that said “she knows she’s pretty.” Too bad I wasn’t interested.
“What?”
She giggled again, such a distracting sound. She looked past me down the hall, and I followed her gaze, but suddenly there was no pony between my locker and Sky’s. The cutie stood at his locker, rummaging through notebooks as he looked for something. Celestia, that hair! I felt the urge to sigh, but Royal Ribbon was right beside me, remember? I pressed my lips together and frowned into my own locker, I felt the warmth of my cheeks growing. “Go away,” I growled.
She’s still looking past me, and from the corner of my eye, I saw Sky glance our way. Sweat beads on my neck and dampened part of my mane. Royal Ribbon gave a little wave that, at the time, pissed me off.
When I realized she wasn’t leaving, I tried a different tactic. “What do you want?”
Her smile cranked up a notch. “I wanted to know when you plan on asking me to the Hearts and Hooves dance.”
“I—” I was about to respond when her words sank in. Confusion replaced my irritation. Why would I ask her? More importantly, why would she go with me? “What?”
“It’s only three weeks away,” Ribbon said. She spoke matter-of-factly, as if we were going steady and she wanted to know what time I planned to pick her up, because she already knew was going to ask her out, and she would say yes. “I know you haven’t asked anypony yet. So why—”
“Because I’m not going.” I shook my head in disbelief.
“Graph-ite,” she said with a breathless laugh.
“Is this some kind of joke?” I wanted to know. She couldn't be serious. “Why me? You’re just wasting your time.”
“No, you’re wasting my time,” Royal Ribbon snapped.
I remember looking around and seeing we had attracted a crowd; worse, Sky was still at his locker, watching this. Watching me.
Ribbon continued. “I have a dress all picked out, but we have to match. What color are you going to wear?”
“I’m not going,” I said. Again.
Somepony laughed, but I didn’t find this very funny. Even Ribbon was grinning, the little bitch (excuse the language). I got it then, my cheeks flushed with embarrassment. This was some sick joke. Let’s pick on the homo—get the most popular mare in school to ask him out then laugh when he says no. And hey, while you’re at it, let’s do it in the hall between classes where everypony and her brother, who is the hottie the geeky queer squees over, can have a front row view!
Angry, I slammed my locker shut and glared down at Ribbon. “I’m not taking you to the dance.”
I stormed off at that point, shoving my way through the crowd amid catcalls and giggles. It’s wasn’t until I reached my classroom that I realized Sky’s signature laugh wasn’t among those following me down the hall.
Somehow, I made it through the rest of the day without running into Royal Ribbon (the harasser, Miss meanie hooves, the annoying little-) again. But word got around my school pretty easily and by my last class, I had two more mares ask me to the dance. What? Just because Ribbon noticed I’m alive, then everypony else clued in that I actually existed?
Everypony but Twilight Sky.
***
After school, I went home to an empty house. There was a note on the fridge from my mom saying she ran out to the store to get something for dinner. Why they couldn't keep food in our house, I never figured out.
As I searched the cabinets for something to snack on, the front doorbell rings. I groaned—it was probably Ribbons, back to pester me again. Why the buck does she insist on tormenting me? Maybe if I don’t answer, she’ll give up and go away. I held my breath and waited, but five seconds later the doorbell rang again, longer this time, persistent. Whoever it was knew I was home.
Damn.
I waited for the third ring before I flung the front door open, pissed all over again. “What the buc—”
The string of inappropriate words were stuck in my throat as soon as I saw Twilight Sky standing in the doorway .
I took a step back. “What,” I tried speaking again, but no logical words popped in my mind to say to him. My mouth was hanging open, forgotten, until I realized how stupid I must look. I cleared my throat and tried to sound casual, but all I managed was to stammer out, “Sky. Hey.”
“I’m collecting for the paper,” Sky said, matter-of-factly.
The unnerving way he looked at me made me self-conscious, and the faintest hint of a smile tugged at one corner of Sky’s mouth.
“Collecting what?” I asked.
The smile strengthened. “Bits?”
I simply stared at him. “For what?”
“The paper?” When I didn’t respond, he flashed me a quick smile that kicked my hormones into overdrive. “I came to get your payment for the newspaper.”
“Oh.” Of course, the paper. I can’t believe it took me that long to get it—I should’ve known. The stallion of my dreams is a bill collector. My voice trembled slightly when I admitted, “My mom isn’t home.”
Sky watched me, silent, waiting.
My cheeks flushed as I tried to explain, “Um, she has the bits bag with her. She should be here soon, if you want to come back—”
Sky cut me off. “Can I wait?”
“What?” My heart skipped a beat. “Here?”
With a shrug, he says, “If you don’t mind.”
“No,” I assured him. “You want to come in, or something?”
I stood aside to let Sky into my living room—he’s here, my mind whispered. In my house, here with me, ALONE. Suddenly, I felt as though the whole world stopped, yet was moving at hyper speed.
As Sky took a look around, I searched for something to say, but all I came up with is, “Are you thirsty?”
With a shrug, Sky turned his smile my way. “What do you have that I might like?”
My mind went blank. “I don’t know,” I said, which made him laugh, a delicious sound
I wanted to capture and listen to over and over again. “I’ll go see.”
When I moved toward the kitchen, I tripped over my own hooves like a dork, but a strong hoof caught me mid-stumble. “Careful,” Sky said with a grin. “I haven’t been here two minutes and you’re already falling for me.”
Oh jeez. Was it really that obvious?
I tried to pull away but Sky held on tight, steadying me. “I’m fine.” I mumbled as I tugged against Sky’s grip.
Sky’s hoof seared against my fur. I wondered what would they feel like on my face, his chest, lower? Like a lit match, I thought I would go up in flames. What a lovely way to burn.
Sky wouldn’t release my shoulder. He looked at me, willing me to meet his gaze, but I kept my eyes downcast and didn’t dare look up. Softly, his voice low, Sky asked, “Graphite?”
He knows my name, I thought. The moment stretched between us, unreal. Then his hoof loosened on my shoulder and ran down my foreleg, catching my hoof. “So, no dance for you, eh?”
I tried to jerk away, but Sky didn’t relax his grip. So that was what this was all about. I could have stabbed Royal Ribbons with a scalpel at the time. “Very funny,” I growled “Let go.”
“It’s sort of my fault,” he admitted.
I twisted my hoof to try and break free of Sky’s grasp,but I was surprised to find I couldn’t. The guy was probably twice as strong for Luna’s sake. “What?”
Sky gave me a sympathetic smile. “I’m really sorry.”
I stood there, dumbfounded, “How’s it your fault?”
Outside I heard hooves clatter on the gravel pathway, then they disappeared as a door creaked open. I was all too aware of the hoof in mine and the warmth it brought throughout my body. In a barely-there whisper, I said, “My mom’s home.”
Talking fast, Sky told me, “Last Friday, after the exam? The whole grade went over Shining’s to celebrate because his parents weren’t home, even some of the teachers. At some point the stallions sort of divvied up the mares and snuck away until it was just me and Ribbons sitting there, staring at each other like idiots.”
“What, did she not have a hot stallion to get to?” I asked.
I heard my mom outside, messing with those flimsy bags she got from the market. I tried again to pull my hoof from Sky’s, but it was a half-hearted attempt and I didn’t succeed.
“Let me finish.” Sky said. I wanted to enjoy the moment but couldn’t, just in case it turned out to be some sort of joke.
Out on the path, my mom hollered for me to help out, but when my gaze flickered up to meet Sky’s, I couldn’t move, couldn’t look away.
Seizing on the moment, Sky whispered, “No, but I did have a chat with her. About why I didn’t go off with a mare.”
Why? I wanted to know.
Before I can ask, Sky added, “You know why.”
Suddenly I got it and nodded—I knew. It was the same reason I turned down the prettiest mare in the school, and why, at that moment, my heart thudded in my chest like a furious bass line because Sky was so damn close. Why I liked this stallion for the past four years, an eternity in school, and why I had dreamed of that moment over and over again, a million different scenarios that would lead to something I hadn’t quite dared to think about until then. It involved more than Sky’s hoof in mine, though, and Celestia knew his mother was not about to barge in.
Another step—we were so close now. I could smell the cherry-flavored bubblegum on Sky’s breath.
On the sidewalk leading up to my porch, my mother called my name again, strident. When she drew her breath to holler again, her voice brightened. “Royal Ribbons!” she called. “How nice of you to give me a hoof.”
“Did she freak out?” I asked. Another moment and Royal Ribbons would have been in my house. I could have gotten the answer from her, but I wanted to hear it from Sky. I wanted to know the truth from him alone. “What’d she say?”
His hoof pushed against mine. “She said she knew,” Sky said, flashing that smile again. “said my secret’s safe with her, but only if I told her who I like-liked that was in our grade. When I mentioned you, she was all, ‘No way!’” Sky’s voice raised an octave in eerie imitation of Rubbin’s preppy shriek.
He made me laugh, which made Sky’s smile linger, and his chest brushed mine when he moved nearer.
“She said you weren’t like that, she would know, she’d lived next door to you since kindergarten, and I said I thought she might be wrong. I hoped—”
“She’s wrong,” I barely breathed.
Something in my chest loosened at the admission—it felt so good to tell somepony, finally, somepony who understood. Somepony who felt the same.
In the kitchen, the screen door squeaked open and Ribbon’s loud voice drifted toward us like a cloud. “It’s no problem, Mrs. Moon. You know I like to help.”
From the corner of my eye I saw her, framed by the archway separating the living room from the kitchen. She looked just like she did when she leaned against my locker this morning, not a hair out of place, despite the bags she was carrying. My mother was still outside, struggling with the screen door. When Ribbons sat the bags on the kitchen table, she sensed something that made her turn.
In that instant, Sky leaned in and pressed his lips against mine with a sweet, damp crush. If it weren’t for the hoof holding my own and the foreleg suddenly around me to bring us together, I would’ve melted to the floor.
I barely heard Royal Ribbons frustrated cry that day, but I remember, most vividly, the feel of my lover’s first kiss that he choose to share with me.
And that wasn’t the last we shared.
~The End~
