Unlikely Angel

Unlikely Angel

Written by Amethyst Mare (Arian Mabe) for Luster Unicorn

The buck grimaced as he sprawled on his bed, cloven hooves kicked over the edge of the rumpled sheets. The only clothing he wore was a pair of red boxer shorts, seeing no need for anything more as he was in perfect solitude with the campus being closed. When the time for students to buy duvet covers en masse had come, he had chosen a blue duvet cover for his first semester of college. He would have preferred green. The blue duvet cover had been heavily discounted, however, so he had had no choice in the matter.

He scowled at the scholarship paperwork on the desk; it was piled neatly enough, its presence a sore spot. It should have been a source of pride that a buck from Cody's background had been able to scrape together enough scholarships to study Advanced Physics; it was a high honour and one of the proudest days of his life to receive the acceptance letter. In sleepless New York, Binghamton accepted him as a student where winter snows sent chills through his coat of short, brown fur. Cody grumbled. He did not grow a thick enough winter coat to ward off the cold, especially when the heating in his dorm room was turned down to zero.

A second single bed resided a couple of metres away, allowing the individual roommates some sleeping privacy, with the sheets made up pristinely. He snorted and shook his head, being of an untidier breed to his roommate. He had little to actually make a mess of when it came right down to it, but there were countless arguments. The bay Shire horse groomed his surroundings until they gleamed but forgot to maintain his own appearance, leaving his mane a mess and feather in a scraggly rope. At least he did not forget to shower.

The buck muttered under his breath as he kicked himself to his hooves, rocking his body upright in a lithe spring of motion. His fingertips danced along his forearm as he halted halfway across the room, leg outstretched as if the energy to complete the motion suddenly left his body. Paw falling, the buck frowned. What was he doing, getting up, anyway? What exactly did he think he was going to do? He couldn't do anything. He'd had enough walks around campus to last him a lifetime and, with everyone home on Christmas Eve, there was not even anyone to hold his interest.

Listlessly, he pawed at his chest of drawers, tucking a stray shirt back amongst its fellows. There was no point in doing anything else, nothing to do and nowhere to be. Cody sighed. There was no one to be nowhere with either. That would have been nice.

The fuck am I meant to do? Cody thought, scuffing a hoof over the carpet where he'd worn a line through the fibre. Every day's the same. Sure, study is great and all that jazz, I know I'm lucky, but where's the rest of it?

He huffed and shook his head.

Everyone gets to have fun...why not me? I got here, didn't I? Don't I deserve it too? Just a bit?

Cody's ears drooped to either side of his head.

A friend? Maybe?

Money was the currency of college and, while even the most strained of students could usually afford to sit in their dorm with filched drinks, Cody did not have that luxury. Dorm and student fees sapped so much that he was lucky if he had enough left to feed himself. And even then he pilfered from free buffets at the college and discount food from the supermarkets, wherever he could traipse at closing time to find the cheapest sustenance. Hell, once he'd even gone to a food drive where they dished out meals to the needy. That had been his only hot meal that week.

Frowning, the buck lifted a blue, simply designed shirt to his muzzle and took a sniff. His eyes widened and his arms shot away from his body, holding the shirt at arm's length as his muzzle contorted. It could not have been that long since he had done a load! The buck grumbled, crumpled the shirt into a ball and tossed it on the floor, quickly checking the stash of coins atop his chest of drawers. He had a few quarters left, just enough for what he needed.