Tangents

"[Octavia] saw Vinyl alone in an alley behind a bar, calling her number and getting no response as the night grew older and the snowfall heavier."

DawnFade - "Vinyl and Octavia: University Days"

She was sitting alone in Blues' Tavern, nudging an empty shot glass with a dirty hoof. She didn't remember drinking it, but the proof was sitting right there in front of her. At least it was working. She looked around to get the attention of the bartender.

The bar never seemed as bright as it once was. She found herself dwelling on things that she had never noticed before, like the grime in the ice sink and the persistent layer of dirt in that one corner that somehow never got swept. There he was, serving drinks to a table of infuriatingly happy first year students. She caught the bartender's eye as he made his way back to the bar, and got a tight lipped nod in return.

"Not that it's any of my business," said the bartender as he poured a brown liquid into her shot glass, "but why do you keep coming here? I know what this place means to you."

She swallowed the shot with a noisy gulp, and placed it back on the bar, purposefully close to the bottle. She vaguely remembered it being harder to swallow at the start of the night. The bartender made no move to fix this most recent empty glass issue.

"It's not your job to understand why I'm here, just to keep this from being empty while I am."

He filled it again silently, not even trying to hide his disapproval, and moved off to clean the other end of the bar. She lifted the glass once again, but was only able to guide about half of it into her mouth. She was wiping her face with her foreleg when a curly haired stallion sat on the stool next to her.

"Jesus, Vinyl, you look terrible. How long have you been here?"

"I don't see you here very often." she replied through gritted teeth, trying her hardest to remain civil. She'd rather not get kicked out.

"I don't come here very often, but I've been trying to get a hold of you and your classmates told me that you're here most nights."

Vinyl was aware of his efforts to reach her. She had been not picking up his calls for the past two months.

"I was hoping you would have come to see me," he continued, "to talk things through."

"Why on earth would I want to talk to you?" The civility was becoming increasingly harder to maintain.

"I understand I may not be your favourite person right now, but I still think I can help."

"Help?!" she said forcefully, “I've seen what your 'help' looks like. Don't you think you've fucked up my life enough yet?”

“You have to understand, Vinyl, my hooves were tied. If Lapis had just come a day later I would have been-”

“Save it” she interjected. “I'm sure you 'tried your best', you were probably reporting back to her from the start. Just another part of this sick game you've been playing for your own amusement.”

“You know it isn't like that”.

He looked hurt.

Good.

Maybe he could feel a sample of what her life had become recently.

“Do I? All I know is that you were the one who forced us together, and by ratting us out, you became part of what tore us apart. You knew Oct-” her throat jammed closed. How could it still hurt so much to say her name? “You knew Octavia, you knew how she would react if her mother got involved.”

“I understand how you must be feel-”

“You have no idea how I feel!” she screamed, her voice breaking.

She made her way towards the door; she just couldn't stand being in the same room as him any more. He was following, but she stumbled around the corner into an alley just in time to see him trot past.

The alley was far less well lit than the main street, and very cold. There was a row of skips down one side and dark brown puddles covering half of the pavement. She leaned on the nearest bin, slowly sliding down. Standing had been proving to be a fairly difficult task. It wasn't until she she was lying on the floor that she realised that this particular bin had a rather large puddle at its base.

Why do you keep coming here, Vinyl?

She wished she knew. If she was drinking to forget, it was a terrible location.

She took out her phone and started typing.

[O]

This was a terrible idea.

[C]

Octavia's number appeared in the autofill bar.

[Y]

Fuck.

Probably for the best, it really was a terrible id-

She hit backspace, the call button and then held the phone against her face. It rang twice before someone picked up.

“You can't keep doing this, Vinyl.” said a soft, sad voice.

'Why?' she wanted to ask, but she knew it was the truth.

“I miss you.”

“I miss you too, Vinyl.” said Octavia, sounding exactly how Vinyl felt.

This. This was the answer, this was why she had to stop calling, how much it hurt to hear that voice.

“I can't stop thinking about y-”

“Vinyl. Stop it.” said Octavia, now sounding close to tears. “Stop spending every night drinking. Stop calling me. This is hard enough already.”

“Babe-”

There was a quick sob on the other end of the line, then a click. Vinyl hit the redial.

She stopped counting rings after the eighth. The will to keep the phone in the air left her and it fell with a small plop into the puddle. It rung once more before dying.

Vinyl felt sick, and it wasn't just the alcohol. She tried to stand, but again found the task to much for her current condition. She thought back to the last time she was in this position, but there was no one to rescue her tonight.

She laid her head down on the wet pavement. The alley was spinning.

It began to rain.