Low and behold, it was a very, very long week. Every day of rehearsal was the same. I would come in to work, I would fuck up my scenes, and I would be scolded and reprimanded for my failures. It was nothing as bad as the first day, but I was still performing like an amateur. Jake told me that this week, if I did as poorly as I did the previous week, I would be fired. So, I decided to get my shit together. As much as I loved Fluttershy, and couldn’t get her off my mind, I had to try. I needed my focus back. So, I tried my hardest to just keep my focus off of her, and put it into what was real and in front of me. For the most part, it worked.

As Monday morning arrived, I woke up with a new invigoration. I felt like all of the mistakes I had made in the past week would be forgotten by everyone, on account of how well I was going to perform this week. I had let them all down once… okay, maybe not once… more like twenty or so times… but I wasn’t going to let them down again! I went through my daily routine of the morning and set off to the theatre, with my spirits lifted and my head held high!

As I arrived at the theatre after the not-so-bad subway ride, everyone looked at me with concern. They were all probably worried for how I was going to perform this week, but I was going to knock their socks off! Jake seemed to notice my heightened spirits as he approached me.

“You’re looking well today Matthew. You’re not going to disappoint me again right?” he asked.

“Jake, if I fuck up today, I give you permission to fire me… okay, maybe not if it’s a small thing. But clearly, me saying that should demonstrate how confident I am!” I said with, well, confidence.

“Well alright then. Show me that you’ve got your spunk back and get up on that stage!” Jake ordered. I smiled at him, got out what necessary items I would need, and headed backstage. Technically this was onstage… kind of. The scene we were starting with didn’t require me.

As the day went on, I didn’t make a single mistake. If anything, all the mistakes came from everyone else. And those weren’t even mistakes. If Jake stopped us, it was to tell us what we could do better with the performance, which was quite common of him to do. And by the time the work day was up, we had been able to run through the entire show. Of course, we stopped here and there, but we still got through the entire show. Jake rewarded us by letting us leave early in fact, which was a relief, especially on a Monday.

As everyone left the theatre, I said my goodbyes and headed for the subway. But as I was walking, I heard a voice calling out to me.

“Matthew! Wait up!” At first, I thought it was Fluttershy, but when I turned around, I found Sophia chasing after me. I smiled and waved to her. When she caught up to me, she seemed to be out of breath. I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit.

“You alright?” I asked her.

“Yeah… perfect…” she replied through her staggered breaths.

“Weird. For a girl so physically fit, you seem to lose your breath pretty easily,” I joked. She punched my arm playfully.

“Oh be quiet. I just stay slim is all, I don’t work out,” she said. “Anyway, I was just wondering…” she started, but she stopped out of hesitation.

“Hmm?”

“Are you doing anything tonight, or rather, right now?” she asked. I was surprised at first, but then it sunk in that she was basically asking me out. I smiled at her.

“Well, uh… nothing really. Why?”

“I was just wondering if maybe you’d like to go get some dinner or something.” Now, for the past six years, I had been dating Fluttershy. And before that, I wasn’t much of a womanizer. Well, I was kind of one. I was able to get girls, but I was usually the one to ask them out, not the other way around. And, I wasn’t sure if I liked Sophia. She was beautiful in every way, but I was saving my heart for Fluttershy. But then again, Fluttershy was gone.

“I… You know what, dinner would be great,” I answered. She smiled and nodded.

“Well, it’s only about five right now, so we’ve got a little while before it’s dinner time. Unless of course you don’t really care about that,” she said.

“Hey, it’s up to you. If you wanna go eat now, we can do that. Or, we can walk around for a while and then eat,” I responded.

“Then… how about we walk around for a bit?”

“That’s fine by me.” We smiled to each other and started walking. We weren’t going anywhere in particular. We were just walking and talking. Although we had been working together for a while now, we didn’t really know each other that well. Now, we had time to just chat. I had fun explaining to her why I always would have my hood on, even when it wasn’t that chilly out.

“Well, it’s mostly because of my love for Assassin’s Creed,” I explained.

“Ugh, you like that game too? My brother is obsessed with it. All the time, he jokes that he assassinated me by stabbing me with those wrist blades. It’s so annoying!” she said. I couldn’t help but laugh.

“I didn’t know you had a brother. How old is he?” I asked.

“Eighteen. He’s going to be starting college pretty soon actually. He loves video games so much that he wants to go into graphic design as his major.”

“I was much the same way before I started acting. Your brother has made a wise choice in favoring the Creed though. Very good game series. You should try it sometime,” I joked.

“Yeah, right after I decide to start smoking pot,” she joked right back.

“Hey, don’t knock it till you try it.”

“You smoke?!”

“Absolutely not! That shit would crush my performance quality!” She pushed me playfully and we both continued to laugh.

“Thank God. Don’t scare me like that!” she said. We stopped laughing as we arrived at our destination. We were going to play it simple and eat at Five Guys. Hey, you can’t go wrong with Five Guys. Best burgers ever!

After we ordered our food and sat down, a quick question came to my mind for Sophia.

“Hey, how old are you?” I asked nonchalantly.

“Don’t you know that’s one of the questions you don’t ask a girl,” she replied playfully.

“Yes, I’m aware, but I’m curious. I don’t think you ever told anyone in the cast.”

“I’m 23, same age as you tough guy.”

“How’d you know my age?” I asked.

“I overheard you telling the others in the cast,” she answered. I rolled my eyes and smiled at her. When my number was called, I picked up our food and sat back down next to her. We ate silently for a few minutes, until she broke the silence with a very powerful question. At least, it was powerful to me.

“Are you dating anyone right now Matthew?” Sophia asked me. I looked up from my food in surprise for a moment. I didn’t know what to tell her. I obviously couldn’t tell her that I had been dating a yellow coated Pegasus with a pink mane from a cartoon show for six years, but I felt she should know I had been dating someone.

“Well, I had been dating a girl for a while, but we… just broke up. Or, rather, she had to leave New York, so we figured we would just stop dating.” Lying to Sophia like that hurt me. And it wasn’t even because I was telling her. It was because it wasn’t the truth. Yeah, Fluttershy had to leave me, but we didn’t necessarily break up. As far as Fluttershy knew, we were still together. But as for me… I couldn’t stand being alone anymore.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked,” Sophia said.

“Oh no, don’t worry, its fine. I have to get over it eventually don’t I?” I said. I felt a stab in my gut just from saying that. How could I get over letting Fluttershy go? I felt like I would never get over it. Yet at the same time, I knew I would have to get over it sooner or later.

“Oh, okay. Well… if you’d like… would you like to date me?” Sophia asked. I looked at her with a surprised yet calm look. I took a moment to think over my options, which were quite simple. Either say no and keep being a lonely sap, or date her and try to find happiness again. I chose the latter.

“I would like that very much,” I answered. She smiled the biggest smile I had seen in a long time and hugged me. I didn’t know what to do at first, but soon enough, I hugged her back.

When we finished eating, we left the eating establishment and headed home. Sophia’s home specifically. Being a gentleman, I of course offered to walk her home. She accepted. She never took the train to work. She didn’t live far enough to need it, so walking was what she chose. I liked it actually. Being in the city, I would usually travel around by train. I hadn’t taken a good walk in a while. Well, actually, I did, but that walk was just a walk I took because I was sulking in my own sorrow.

I took down a mental note that I would soon need to take a walk just to think about life matters. And not heart-cripplingly depressing matters either. I mean like real, interesting life matters. And if not that, I needed to just take a walk to just get some fresh air. I figured any day that week would be good. If anything, it would be sometime that month.

As Sophia and I arrived at her apartment, we let each other’s hands go. In one moment during the walk, we were at a loss of things to talk about. So, I smoothly took her hand in my own. It was quite sweet actually. Sophia walked up the steps to the door and looked back to me.

“So, I’ll see you tomorrow then,” she said.

“Yep, bright and early. And maybe after work tomorrow we can do something like this again. This was a great night, believe me,” I told her. She smiled and nodded to me.

“I’d like that,” she replied. We took a moment to just smile at each other. “Well, goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” I replied. I started to walk away, only to be stopped one moment later by her.

“Matthew!” she called to me. I turned around and looked at her. “Would you like to stay with me tonight?” she asked. I didn’t hesitate to answer.

“I would like that very much,” I answered. I walked back to her and into her apartment with her, hand in hand. And while I could go into great detail about how her place looked and how we fell asleep in each other’s arms, I’m just going to tell you this. That was the best night’s sleep I had gotten since Fluttershy had gone.

Author's Notes:

I'm just going to say this: If you don't know what Five Guys is... kill yourself. You have not lived if you haven't eaten a Five Guys burger.