Tavi...
Taaaaviiii...
OCTAVIA!!!
"What?!" Octavia yelped.
"Girl, you fell asleep. I was about to draw on your face and take a picture, but I decided that it'd be better to wake you up instead."
Octavia's eyes opened wide as she felt her face and discovered that she had been drooling. She turned pink as she realized how unladylike it is to fall asleep while sitting.
"You feelin' alright? It isn't like you to just crash like that."
"Well, the reason I crashed, Vinyl, probably has something to do with all the loud music you keep playing. It's cutting into my sleep schedule and it's finally catching up to me."
"Yea, sorry about that Octavia. You know how it is sometimes. I just get the music in me and I can't stop it y'know?"
"Well, our tastes in music differ. At least the music I enjoy can calm me to the point where I can relax."
"You need to perk up a little. Here, try this." Vinyl Scratch tossed a can towards Octavia.
"What's this?" Octavia glimpsed at the side label of the can to see that it was an energy drink, "Vinyl. I'm not going to drink this. I can't even fathom as to why you would even suggest this."
"Oh come on! I'm just trying to help. It's not bad at all, honest!"
"Not bad?! Are you joking? Let me read you the ingredients." Octavia cleared her throat and began to read, "Carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, natural flavor, maltodextrinm, guarana seed extract, taurine, pectin, sodium benzoate, sodium hexametaphosphate, D-ribose, caffeine, gum arabic, niacinamide, panax ginseng root extract, sucralose, calcium pantothenate, red 40, calcium disodium edta, brominated vegetable oil, riboflavin, and blue 1."
"Okay, I get 'Tavi." Vinyl groaned, rolling her eyes.
"Do you? If you truly understand then you'd know that you shouldn't be putting any of these ingerdients into your body!"
"Sorry. Guess I know better than to help someone out next time."
Octavia sighed, "Look, I know you mean well, but I have standards.
"Yea you do. I bet that this is why you'll never be able to have a boyfriend for more than three weeks."
"Excuse me?!" Octavia yelled.
"You heard me. I brought him up into the conversation."
"Of all the things you could possibly say. I thought you were better than that."
"You see what I mean? This is what I'm talking about! You're too tense and when you're tired, you get a bit cranky. So drink that soda I gave ya and lets have some fun."
Octavia was hesitant. She was aware that she was much more irritable when she was tired, but she knew that caffeinated beverages were terrible for you. Perhaps, she was right. Octavia has been on edge lately and she hasn't had much time for fun. With all the recitals and studying, she's been very busy.
"Octavia, because you're my friend, I'll do it."
"Atta girl!" Vinyl exclaimed with excitement.
Octavia pulled the tab back and heard the indistinguishable snap of the aluminum and carbon dioxide. She sniffed the contents to discover that it had a very sweet smell. She wasn't surprised of course, after reading the ingredients, she knew that it had a very high sugar content, thirty one grams to be exact.
"Well, go on." Vinyl said eagerly.
Octavia, having never consumed an unhealthy beverage before, was, to be frank, a bit scared of the idea of drinking something that has been known to kill people.
"I still don't know about this though."
"Come on, Tavi, I do it all the time. I practically live off of this stuff. It's what's shaped me into who I am today."
"Yea, that's what concerns me."
"What?"
"N-Nothing, Vinyl." Octavia quickly took a few big gulps of her drink. The carbonation tingled her tongue and coated her mouth with an extremely sweet grape-like flavor.
"So, how much do you like it? A lot or a looooooooot?"
Octavia smacked her lips, relishing the flavor, "It's... alright, I guess."
"You guess?! Come on, you love it! Admit it!"
"Vinyl, I'm not going to admit to anything. Especially if it isn't true." Octavia said, taking another sip of her drink.
Vinyl raised an eyebrow, "If that's so, then why are you still drinking it, huh?"
Octavia's eyes opened wide when she realized what she was doing. It was just a natural thing to do. When you have a drink in your hand, you drink it without even thinking about it, right?
It wasn't long before Octavia could feel her heart beating faster and her whole body felt like it was wrapped in a warm blanket, bringing her body to a temperature that was almost, but not quite, at the uncomfortable threshold.
Octavia also noticed that she was breathing at a much more rapid pace than her usual calm elegant self. A hearty laugh could be heard from Vinyl, who had undoubtedly noticed the effects the drink was having on her friend.
"So, what do you think?"
"It's very sweet, almost too sweet."
"Yea, I can see how a lady like you might not be used to sugary drinks. Trust me though, it's addicting."
"Oh, I'm not too worried about that. I am quite proud of my self-control."
Several hours later, Vinyl was fast asleep and Octavia was sitting in her chain fidgeting while trying to write a paper for her English class. After having five of those drinks, Octavia found herself unable to concentrate on what she was doing. Her heart was racing like it was being chased by a pack of rabid wolves and her head felt a bit light and numb from all the sugar.
"C-Come on, Octavia, you can d-d-do this." Octavia closed her eyes and began taking deep breaths hoping to steady her heart but to no avail. If anything, it made her even more anxious.
She just couldn't sit still. She rocked back and forth in her chair, she spun her pen around in her fingers, she played with her hair, she even ate some of her hair. Nothing seemed to calm her in any way. How much caffeine did each of those cans have?
Octavia turned one of the empty cans on her desk around to see the ingredients again and was shocked, but not entirely surprised to see that each can had about seven grams of caffeine.
"Damnit Vinyl." Octavia cursed under her breath. She looked at her desk clock, four thirty six. Octavia had Cello practice in two hours and she hadn't even finished her school paper.
Unable to focus on the current task at hand, Octavia began tapping her pen on the desk, uttering more curses. She didn't even plan to have more than one drink. It just sort of happened.
"Ugh, Vinyl just had to bring him up, didn't she? If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have been so easily dragged into this mess. Now, thanks to her, I can't sleep and I'm nowhere near done with this paper."
For her first hour English class, Octavia was supposed to write an analysis paper about the poet, Starswirl the Bearded and in the seven hours she would have spent sleeping, she had written nothing but random words and a crude drawing of principle Celestia with a mustache and a monocle. Needless to say, she had nothing to turn in.
"Maybe I should just lay down? Yea, I'll just lay down for a bit and see if I calm down." Octavia hopped out of her chair and shambled her way over to her bed. "Maybe I'll just rest for an hour and get to work in a little bit." She yawned, assuring herself of her plan.
Unfortunately, Octavia did not wake up from her nap as she had originally intended. Due to the lack of sleep, she slept through her Cello practice and the first three classes of the day. After frantically rushing to school and apologizing profusely to her teachers and principle Celestia, she vowed that she'd never take anything Vinyl says seriously from now on.
"Damn you Vinyl..."
Author's Note
I decided to take a break from my homework and see what I could whip up in an hour. This is the result.