Look At Me & Gift

Look At Me, part 1

Ika opened the door as she and her friends walked into class. It made a small creak, followed by the talking of her friends. She sat down on her chair. The pegasus craned her head to catch up on the conversation.
"...he's just a dreamy!" Rifah cooed.
     The rest murmured their agreement and support. They all turned to Ika. "What about you, Ika?" Aleeya asked. "Anypony special?" Ika could sense a little friendly teasing in her voice.
     Her thoughts whirled back to Mai. The unicorn's strawberry-pink eyes made her heart beat. Her soft voice whenever she talked to the young pegasus filled Ika with happiness. Ika had been seeing Mai a lot lately. She felt like she could count on the unicorn every step on her way.
     "Uhh...," Aleeya waved a hoof on Ika's face. "Ika?"
     She snapped away from her thoughts. Her friends where looking at each other. Rina and Lina had teasing looks on their faces. "Well...," Ika's face went bright red. She scratched the back of her head with her hoof as if thinking of what to say. Her eyes drooped down, not wanting to make eye contact. "Mai is nice...." She shuffled her hooves together.
     When Ika looked back up, the teasing looks in her friends eyes was suddenly replaced with concern and confusion. Their expressions change so quickly that she thought she was seeing things. She blinked once...twice. But their expressions remained.
     Finally, Aleeya spoke up. "You take her seriously?" Her voice was harsh but concern flitted in her eyes. "Don't you know she's just using you?" The others nodded slightly.
"She knows you like her you know," Tasha said. "She could be using that as her advantage."
     Ika felt like her heart skipped a beat. She tried to pay attention and nodded a few times. But her mind whirled with so much questions. U-using me...?

     Later at class, Ika tried her best holding in her tears. "Is she really using me?" she whispered to herself. "She does know I like her...." The more Ika thought about it, the more it made sense.
"Ika!"
The pegasus snapped her head and looked up at her teacher. She was looking at Ika with a serious look while tapping her hoof on the floor, as if waiting for an answer. Ika shrunk back to her seat, not knowing what to say. Some of her classmates chuckled.

As class ended, Ika flew to her dorm immediately. She shoved her bag down somewhere, not caring where she had just threw it. Her purple mane was messy when she made it to her bed. Ika stuffed her face on her pillow and started crying.
The door creaked open. "Ika?" Tasha called. "We saw you left class in a hurry. Is everything alright?"
Ika looked up to see her friends. They were shocked at the mare's state. She wiped the rest of her tears away with her hoof. "I...thought she was my friend," she blurted out.
Aleeya came to sit next to her. She stretched her hoof and laid it on her friend's back. "It's alright, Ika," she comforted. "You don't need Mai, she's always been like that."
"That's right," Rina nodded.
"You deserve someone so much better!" Lina added.
As her friends said more bad things about Mai in hopes to make their sad friend feel much better, Ika sat there quietly. Her heart ached listening to these rumors. She wanted a hole to appear in front of her so she could jump inside and disappear.

     Mai walked along the hallway. The rumors her friends had told her still clung at the back of her mind.
     "Have you heard about Ika?" one of them had asked Mai. "I heard she's cried in her dorm last night. What's going on with her, Mai? You're friends with her, you must know!"
     "I...don't know," Mai had been too shocked to answer properly.
     Now she was heading to the doors that lead outside her school. She looked around. Mai recognized an orange pegasus dragging her hooves on every step. "Ika," she called her over. "Can I talk to you?"
     Ika looked shocked at first, then hesitantly walked towards her friend. Mai beckoned Ika to sit with her on a bench. "I heard you cried last night," she began gently. "What's going on, Ika? You're usually a very happy pony. Knowing you cried doesn't sound like you at all...."

     Ika stiffened. Is she really using me? She struggled to find the right words. If she is, she thought. She wouldn't have dragged me all the way here to talk to her, wouldn't she? The pegasus looked up. Mai was still patiently waiting for an answer. How can I tell her what happened when the problem's right in front of me? Ika lowered back her head back.
     "I...," her purple eyes darted from side to side, thinking of an excuse. She couldn't just tell her what her friends said! Ika was surprised to find herself so angry. Why is this problem making me so upset? "S-something's just happened with my fam. No big deal," she added quickly, trying to sound cheerful.
     Mai nodded thoughtfully. "Alright," she said. "You know if you ever need someone to talk to, I'm all ears."