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An Increasingly Useless Guide to Being a Background Pony

by Coukan

Chapter 14: The Towering Presence Of Someone Who Is Related To You

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The Towering Presence Of Someone Who Is Related To You

Another song playing on the radio brought back some memories as we passed through a familiar city. It had to be late, probably around 2-ish? I moved around in the backseat trying to get comfortable before just unbuckling the seatbelt altogether. Sighing, I stared out the abnormally large back window that this car had to offer.

“Heyhey, look who’s awake. Did you sleep alright? You were out for quite a while, there"

I turned my head to see the slightly scruffy man looking at me through the rearview mirror. “I’ve slept better, but it definitely wasn’t terrible. The seatbelt got a little annoying so I just took it off.” I smacked my lips. “I am a bit hungry, however. The last thing I remember consuming was a can of Coke, and that was ages ago.” Not quite sure how that related to me sleeping well, but it didn't null the point nonetheless.

He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel a couple of times before looking at me again. “I would be lying if I said I wasn’t peckish as well. We’re in Portland and it’s a quarter to three. You know anywhere to eat at this hour?” A chuckle crawled up his throat. Not sure if it was because he assumed I didn't know, or rather that it was quite obvious that there would be a place open.

I pondered this for a moment. Living in the Seattle area means you take weekend trips to Portland fairly frequently.

“Well, when I came here a couple years ago to see a band live, I remember eating at some diner after the show ended at around two. Roxies? Or something, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was still open now.”

“Sounds like a plan, then." It seemed like he knew the restaurant that was the topic. "Are you sure that the food they served there fits your, uh… food habits? Diet? I think that sounds a little more right.”

I answered without skipping a beat. “Yeah, I’ll be fine. They serve foods from all hours of the day. Eggs over easy sound pretty good. Maybe some hashbrowns too.” I licked my lips. “Yeah, that sounds really good.”

“So we’re all good to go?”

I nodded. “All good.”

We drove for a while longer before he flipped his blinker on, and after a few ticks and a short stop, he turned sharply to the left. He paralleled in front of the diner with the flashy pink lights blinding whoever dare look at it. Sean got out of the Pinto and started to walk towards the restaurant. He would have actually made it to the door if he heard my hoofsteps behind him, but unfortunately on my part, those were non-existent. I was still fumbling around with my mouth and hooves desperately trying to get this handle to work to avoid embarrassment. And just like my first fight with gravity, I could never win.

He came along and opened it with ease thanks to these things he has called fingers.

“Thanks,” I said, hopping down to the pavement. I’m still not used to the odd feeling of hoof-against ground and I’m not sure that I'll ever be. “Not quite used to this mouth and hooves yet, ya know?”

He nodded and shut the door. “No problem.”

I followed him inside and grabbed a booth spot. Booths seemed the most comfortable as I hadn’t figured out how to sit properly with the equine state that I was currently in. I sat up a slight bit, however, making sure I could sip the water through the clear bendy straw that perfectly matched the attitude of this restaurant. After sipping about half the water I lean back into the maroon cushions that showed their ware over the years.

I decided to break the silent conversation. “So. How’re things, Sean?" I didn't wait long enough for him to answer before asking another question. "Why’d you even bother to pick me up in the first place?” I take another sip of the fairly obvious tap water.

He ran a hand through his hair. “Things are good.” This time it was him who took a sip of water. “And you know, why not, right? I mean, you were at least 20 miles in either direction from any sort of civilization. Seeing a pony walking down that highway in that heat definitely wasn’t going to do great. Better to drop you off somewhere near something rather than to just leave you. So, like I said, why not?"

I scratched a spot behind my head and gave a little cough before responding. “Well, thank you for that. You’re right that I'm definitely better off with you picking me up rather than me trying to figure out my own way home. I don’t know where I would be right now. Maybe sleeping in a ditch somewhere? I dunno.” I went to take another sip but was rewarded with the gurgle of a pinch of water and a ton of ice cubes. “And, uh, thanks for actually being a good person. Now that I look back at it I realize just how bad of an idea I could have made. I mean, at least you weren’t driving a white van or a mud covered truck, but still.”

Sean weakly smiled before running his hand through his hair again. “Well, you’re welcome, and thanks for that awkward speech. Definitely… one to think about, huh?”

My face got a slight shade redder. “My bad. Kinda went off on a side bet there. Probably sh-“

I would've been able to finish my point if I wasn't rudely interrupted by a waitress. I guess I wouldn’t call it that rude, she was probably just anxious to take our order since we were here for quite a while blabbering away.

She put on a semi-fake smile and handed out the menus. “Can I offer any of you something to drink besides water?”

“You guys got Coke or Pepsi?” I asked, almost instinctively.

“We have Pepsi products here.” She said, as if she was slightly sorry for the answer she had given, and I don't blame her.

I sighed and twirled my hoof in a circle. “Just give me an iced tea then. No, wait. Make it an Arnold Palmer.” Sean made a ‘no-thanks’ sign with his hand, showing he was fine with just water. The waitress nodded and went away. I felt slightly bad for the attitude I gave and the lack of thank-yous, but honestly I’m just not in the mood to actually deal with anything at the moment. Food and a shower: that’s what I want.

I took a peek at the menu and noticed it was filled with a plethora of different food options ranging from breakfast to dessert. Flipping to the breakfast section it seemed nothing out of the average. Eggs, hashbrowns, waffles, bacon, pancakes, etc. I decided to just order two eggs and hashbrowns, whether that actual selection existed on the menu or not. Folding it back up, I pushed it into the center of the table and looked around at the scenery. Lots of LGBT pride, random things from the 50s, and some pictures of people on the wall. It fit the Portland theme that they had going for them quite well.

The waitress came back putting the iced tea-lemonade drink in front of me and looked at us both. “Ready to order?”

“I’ll take two eggs over easy and some hashbrowns. If it wouldn’t be that much trouble I’d appreciate it if you could put some ketchup over the browns and a touch of syrup on the eggs.” The waitress nodded. “That should be no problem at all miss.”

It’s not like she was going to say no, anyways. She looked over at Sean.

“And for you, sir?”

He tapped his fingers again and sighed. “I guess I’ll take the quesadilla. With extra sour cream, perhaps?”

The waitress smiled and nodded again. “No problem at all. I’ll go put the orders in now.” With that, she hurried back to the kitchen and left us two to be.

This time I tapped my hoof against the table. “So. Sosososo.” I thought for a moment. “What’re you heading to Seattle for?”

“Oh, you know, I got business to handle up there. You ever been there before?”

I squinted at him. I wanted to note on how he dodged my question but decided to just answer his. “I live up there, actually.”

He perked up slightly. “Really? Then what were you doing walking around in The Middle Of Nowhere, California?”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s a long story. The main plot leads to nowhere and the ending is here. Not really worth going into detail.”

“Oh. Gotcha.” He twiddled his thumbs for a bit before starting up the conversation again. “Where in Seattle do you live?”

It seemed like sighing was my strongsuit. Another fun fact about living in the Seattle area is that you can't actually say where you live to foreigners due to the obscurity of the towns. You just had to call it as they knew: Seattle. “Well, I guess you wouldn't call it Seattle, per say, but rather the Seattle area. My house is roughly 13 miles south in the town of Des Moines. It has a marina though, so that's pretty nice."

Sean was about to point out something but before he did the slightly plump waitress came out with our food. She repeated the plates of food quietly as she handed them out to each of us. Grabbing my fork felt strange. It felt... familiar, as if I had done this motion with something else for a long time. I brushed the feeling off and dug into my late night dish. Sean might have said a couple things but all I could think about was the lack of ketchup on my shredded potatoes and the excess of syrup on my slightly overcooked eggs. Maybe I shouldn't have been so rude to her earlier.

When I looked up I saw that Sean had taken just two bites out of his semi-ethnic food. "Why're you taking so long to eat, Seany?" Seany. That wasn't a bad nickname.

"You know it's barely been a minute, right?"

I breathed a bit heavily through my mouth. "Oh." Disregarding whatever Sean had to say in the matter, I took a fat sip of my semi-citrusy drink and continued to chow down on my food.

I think I heard Sean make a point or two, I'm not really quite sure. Finishing up my sub-par breakfast, I look back up to see half of a quesadilla with no Sean in sight. For a half-a-second I feel furious at the thought that he would desert me like this, but my common sense reminds me that there is a thing called 'the bathroom', and some people tend to use it as a break during meals.

I yawned and stretched out on the plush booth seat. It was rather cozy, making my eyelids get heavy as my blinks became slower and slower. Letting out a final yawn my brain drifted away into nothing.

Knock knock knock knock kno-

The door to the house swings open and a lady in the last year of her 30s towers above me

"You're not welcome here anymore"

"But, mom, I-"

"You're not welcome here anymore"

She repeats my name but all I hear is a blur of noises.

The door shuts and I fall back from the front step. The landing isn't hard as I usually would expect. It's... soft. Why soft?

Surge protectors start appearing around me, their wires trying to trap me down. Pulling free from the suffocating extensions I run out into the road. I hear a loud noise and to the left I see a gray F-150 barreling down, horn blaring

I awake with a loud scream causing Sean to swerve his car in and out of the other lane before pulling over.

"Jesus Christ! Are you okay?! Are you hurt?!"

I can feel the sweat droplets drip down the side of my face. "I-I'm f-fine. Just a b-bad dream, t-thats all." I take a few deep breaths as a shitty attempt to calm myself down. These trees, they seem... familiar? I blurt out a question before Sean can respond.

"Are we in Des Moines?"

"I, uh, yes. Is that okay? I mean you said you lived here so I thought you wanted to come here." The lack of a response caused him to perk up again. "If you want me to bring you somewhere else that's totally fi- hey! Where are you going!?"

I managed to open up the bean themed door and jump out, making sure that the navy blue hat was still atop my head and the door was firmly shut. I give a weak wave to Sean as I run off, cutting the scruffy-man-storyline from my life.

I take a couple more deep breaths and take note of my surroundings. Trees, a coffee shop, and... the QFC closed down? Bummer.

Walking in the direction of my old living space my hooves start to ache and throb as if each had their own little heart. I don't remember being this out of shape.

Cars whizzed past me as I continued to treck up this virtually sidewalk-free road. The slight grassy ditch to my left contained garbage, mostly burger wrappers from Jack in the Box and random cans of beer and soda.

Before long I take a sharp turn to the left and count the houses before I get to mine.

Her car was here

Trotting up to the double step to get to my door, I shake myself off and take a deep breath. Raising my right hoof I strike it against the wooden gateway.

Knock knock knock knock kno-

The door to the house swings open and a lady in the last year of her 30s towers above me.

Next Chapter: The Fact That No One Else Knows About This And If Anyone Found Out I'd Probably Kill Myself Estimated time remaining: 1 Minutes
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