Up To Scratch

Octavia didn't make any stops en route to Vinyl's place. She wanted to get this delivery over with, or else she knew she would end up putting it off, or perhaps not going at all. She wasn't looking forward to dealing with Vinyl again, but there would be no pleasantries; she would give her the box and leave.

Octavia was now climbing the stairs of the apartment complex Vinyl lived in. It really was nice, and all of it appeared to be well kept, unlike many other downtown apartments. There were only three floors, and Vinyl's room was on the top, according to Laureate. Room 3A, so it should be the room closest to the stairway.

The box wasn't exactly small, it was a foot or so long, and half as wide. It was light though, and felt like it had several small objects in it. Though she could have, she hadn't opened it, and didn't particularly care to. All that really mattered about it was, it was her ticket to landing another performance.

She was at the door now, apartment 3A. She sighed, then knocked, trying to ignore the feeling of impending doom she had. It took a while for someone to answer, Octavia was about ready to knock again once the door finally opened.

“Who are you? What the hell do you want at this hour?” It was a man, in a pair of boxers and nothing else.

“This hour? It's two in the afternoon.”

“Oh...” Octavia held up her wristwatch for him to see. “Shit.”

He hastily retreated back into the apartment, leaving the door wide open, and also leaving Octavia bewildered in the doorway. He had rounded a corner, and all she could see was what appeared to be an unoccupied living room. “Hang on, does Vinyl Scratch live here?” She had said it loud enough, so he could probably hear it. All of the furniture she could see looked to be expensive, and there was a huge flat screen TV on the wall, along with enormous speakers and other pricey looking technology.

Luckily, the man seemed to have caught her question. He called back, “Yeah, she's here!”

Octavia stood there for a minute, contemplating leaving the box at the door. She didn't know what was inside, it could be something valuable... and even if it wasn't, there was still a chance it could get stolen. Laureate wouldn't be happy about that. Maybe she could leave it at the door and watch it from a distance? That sounded like a good idea to her. It was better than waiting around for Vinyl Scratch.

Just as she was about to set it down, Vinyl came into view, entering the living room. “Bowtie!”

She said it like Octavia... 'Bowtie' was an old friend, who she was extremely happy to see. She was struggling to keep her balance as she put on a pair of jeans in the living room, though she was still grinning at Octavia. She looked like she had just rolled out of bed, but at least she was wearing a shirt, along with her purple tinted glasses.

“That's not my... nevermind, I have this for you.” She tapped the box, and Vinyl frowned.

“The hell's that?”

“I'm not sure, Laureate asked me to give it to you. So I am. I'll leave it here.” She started to set it back down on the floor, but Vinyl interrupted.

“Nah, I don't want it. You can take it back.”

Octavia groaned. “He wanted me to give it to you, and I made the trip down here, so I would appreciate it if you just took it, all right?”

“Nope.” Vinyl had managed to get her jeans on, and another woman walked past her and disappeared into a different room. At least she was fully dressed, though. “You can find another way to kiss his ass. It's not difficult.”

Octavia threw her head back, her aggravation growing. But she calmed herself and decided on another tactic. “He said this belonged to your parents.”

“Oh, my parents! In that case, fuck no.” Vinyl was starting to walk into another room, but then turned to Octavia. “You just gonna stand there, or you wanna come inside?”

“I just want you to take the box!”

“Hmm...” Vinyl leaned against the doorway she was in, looking contemplative. “How about you keep me company while I have breakfast, and after that I'll take that box. And tell Laureate you're a saint, or whatever you're going for.”

Octavia was glaring at Vinyl, who simply smiled in return. “Fine.”

“Sweet!” Vinyl skipped over to Octavia and grabbed her free hand, “We're gonna be pals, Bowtie!”

She allowed Vinyl to drag her off to the kitchen, which looked to be renovated. Octavia couldn't imagine an apartment complex keeping such nice appliances, cabinets and counters for all of their tenants. Vinyl was probably loaded, thanks to her parents, so she could afford those sorts of things.

She was released once they reached the fridge, and took a seat on a stool beside the island counter, setting the box down as she did.

“You do know it's a bit late for breakfast?”

“Yeah, but I'm a wicked cook when it comes to breakfast.” Despite her claim, all she had grabbed was a jug of milk, then a bowl, a spoon, and finally a box of cereal.

Octavia found herself rolling her eyes once again, but Vinyl caught her.

“Hey now, it's a delicate process! The cereal to milk ratio is more important than most people think.” She was now pouring the milk over her cereal like she was some kind of mad scientist.

The man and woman she had seen earlier walked by the kitchen, the man angrily mentioning something about having missed his shift at work.

“Are those your roommates?”

Vinyl was taking the seat at the island counter, and smiled slightly at Octavia's question. “Nah, playmates.”

“...Charming.”

Vinyl shrugged as she started to eat her cereal.

“So are you a butler or something? You were dressed like one the other day.”

“Butler??” Octavia's tone was indignant, “That was the uniform I wear when performing in my string quartet. I'm a cellist.”

“Oh, sweet. I'm in the music business myself.”

“Wonderful.”

Octavia was clearly fed up, so Vinyl swallowed her last spoonful of cereal and stood. “All right, I'll humor you.” She grabbed the box from the counter, deciding to spare Octavia from staying any longer. “My parents had a lot of junk. Tons of stupid little trinkets from traveling, maybe worth something, but useless to me. People keep sending me their shit.” Vinyl popped open the two clamps on the front of the box as she leaned against the wall. “This is probably a carved totem or something. I got four of those.”

When Vinyl opened the box, she looked confused, then disturbed. She quickly walked out of the kitchen, returning to the living room and plopping down on the couch. Octavia hesitantly followed her, and watched from the opposite side of the room as Vinyl started removing sealed envelopes from the box. She pulled out three, though there looked to be more. One of the three seemed to have a small bulge in it, though Vinyl opened one of the flat ones first. Inside was a card, as well as several hundred dollar bills. She read the card out loud.

“Happy ninth birthday, Vinyl. We wish we could be there, but we are still thinking of you. We hope you are having a great day. Love mom and dad.”

She set the card and the money down and opened another envelope, the one with the bulge.

“Happy fifteenth birthday, Vinyl. We wish you were here with us, so we could all celebrate together. We thought these earrings would suit you. Love mom and dad.”

The earrings in the envelope were miniature vinyl records, though they were made of gold. Vinyl looked them over, and then threw them on the floor.

“They didn't even write these. This isn't their handwriting.” She began sifting through the other envelopes, “I bet they fucking hired someone to write me letters. But then they forgot to send them.”

Vinyl began ripping up the cards she had just read, shredding them into as tiny pieces as she could, then moved on to the envelopes. Octavia was feeling rather awkward, like she shouldn't be here... like this was some intimate moment Vinyl was meant to be experiencing alone, and she was intruding. But she couldn't bring herself to walk away.

“Bit of a fucking flaw in your plan, assholes! Wonder if the writer picked the gifts, too?

She was shouting now, and the woman, Vinyl's 'playmate' shouted from the next room. “Shut up Vinyl!”

“You shut up!”

She looked ready to burst into tears. Before she could think it through, Octavia had sat beside Vinyl on her couch, though she didn't seem to notice. She had just picked up a new envelope to begin ripping up, but Octavia took it from her, and pulled her into a hug.

Vinyl froze up, but Octavia didn't let her go. She seemed to be fighting back her emotions, though it didn't work, and she ended up burying her face in Octavia's shoulder as she was overcome by her tears.

Octavia wasn't sure how long it lasted. A while. Vinyl was crying herself out, and half way through she had tightly returned Octavia's hug. By the end it had become more of a desperate cling. Octavia didn't speak at all, unsure of what to say, so she decided on silence.

The man and woman had left her apartment during the waterworks, not even acknowledging Vinyl or Octavia at all.

Vinyl pulled away when her sobs finally died down. She rubbed her eyes as she caught her breath, and Octavia spotted Vinyl's purple glasses, which had fallen into her lap.

“I hate crying...” Vinyl did look like a mess. Though she had managed to dry her face, her eyes and cheeks were still a bit puffy and red. “It's humiliating.”

“No, it's not.” Vinyl didn't seem convinced, still looking embarrassed. Octavia picked up the glasses and put them back on her. “There. Like it didn't even happen.”

Vinyl smiled, though it wasn't anything like the confident smirks she had been giving earlier. It was humbled, even timid, and appreciative. Octavia couldn't help but smile back.

“If you think that's bad, get this... when I was six, they forgot my name for two weeks -two weeks- before my aunt asked why they kept referring to me with pronouns. Then she reminded them.”

Vinyl's mood had lightened considerably, and even though she had been sharing stories about her parents for nearly an hour now, they were being accented by laughter and jokes. Octavia wasn't exactly a psychologist, but she thought it was good Vinyl realized her parents' behavior was ridiculous enough to laugh about. She seemed to grasp that they were simply neglectful and selfish, rather than thinking it was something about her.

Octavia was sitting in a swivel chair that was shaped like a half circle, and made of some sort of fuzzy, comfortable material. She had been turned away from Vinyl, who was sitting on her bed, but after the story she had turned back to face her. “But I'm sure they could name every fine wine under the sun, right?”

Vinyl laughed, “Yeah, actually... did you meet them?”

“Oh thank Celestia, no!”

Vinyl moved to the edge of her bed, and pulled out the bottom shelf of her nightstand, rummaging through whatever was inside it.

“I know we are expected to respect the... dearly departed, but I'm finding it a bit difficult with your parents, Vinyl.”

“Good. I hate that 'respect the dead' bull people throw around.” She had found what she was looking for, and pulled out what seemed to be a ring box. “Everyone thinks people are more worthy of respect once they've died. I say they get the same amount, dead or alive. They were assholes when they existed, and we'll remember them as assholes now that they're gone.”

Octavia couldn't help but laugh at that. It made sense, or at least, more sense than celebrating the life of someone who didn't do anything to deserve it.

“Anyway, check this out.”

Octavia got up and sat beside Vinyl on her bed. It was funny to think that earlier today she detested her, but now they were getting along pretty well. Granted, most of the discussion between them had been related to Vinyl's parents, but she wasn't behaving anything like the trouble making, power cutting woman she had originally met. She had even abandoned the Bowtie nickname earlier, and asked for Octavia's real one.

Vinyl opened the small box and withdrew a gold ring, which she handed to Octavia. “Read the side of it.”

Octavia held up the simple gold band, to read the large inscription it bore. “Love waits?”

“Yeah, it's a purity ring. They gave it to me when I was sixteen. People were saying I was sleeping around, so they tried to make me wear that thing, to save their image.”

“How thoughtful of them,” Octavia shook her head in disbelief as she handed the ring back to Vinyl. Or tried to. She wasn't taking it.

“You want it? I never wore it.”

Octavia raised an eyebrow. “What would I do with it...?”

“I dunno. Wear it to keep guys away at bars. Pawn it. Melt it. Whatever you want.”

“Vinyl, I can't take this...”

Vinyl nudged her, “Take it! I really don't want it.”

Octavia looked down at the ring in her hand. It looked like it would actually fit her. “Well... thank you.”