Scratch One Off

You wake up to the sound of one of Sunset's signature sighs. With your senses not muddled by a hangover this morning, you notice warmth on one side of your bed. You look over to find Vinyl sleeping next to you, completely naked. This is not how you remember going to bed last night, though you kinda wish it was now.

"Could you really not have waited to at least get to know her?" Sunset asks, slightly annoyed.

You sit up and rub your eyes, trying to give Sunset a better presentation of yourself. Once your vision fully returns, you get an eyeful of Sunset in all of her glory, wrapped in the thin lace of the maid costume yet again. You choke up for a moment as you stare at her body. Those maid costumes don't leave much to the imagination, and you can't say you mind seeing your old friend in one. You cough to try to shake away the sudden heat building up inside you.

Sunset noticed you staring at her, and looks away from you, trying to pull down her tiny skirt, seemingly embarrassed. "Hey, I didn't sleep with her." You cast a glance towards Vinyl; in the most literal sense that statement was false. "Well, not like that anyway."

"Whatever. At least you didn't throw up on her this time," Sunset says, agitation still clearly in her voice. "So what are we supposed to do today?"

You scratch your head, still trying to wake up. "Well I guess since you two did a pretty good job on everything else yesterday, you can start on breakfast."

"Both of us, or are you going to be busy with her while I do all the work?" Sunset asks. You sense a little anger in her voice, but after how they've been getting along, you aren't really surprised.

"Nah, she's still contractual obligated too." You lean over and nudge her naked body. She's face down in one of your pillows, but the disastrous state of your blankets around her only covers her upper body, giving the entire world a view of her ass. Classy as always. "Vinyl. It's eight. Time to get dressed."

Vinyl groans and digs herself deeper into the pillow. "Ugh. Two more hours, please."

Sunset walks around to her side of the bed. "I'll take care of this."

With a quick yank of Vinyl's arm, Sunset drags her right off the bed and onto the floor. Vinyl lets out a quick "woah!" before she hits the carpet.

Vinyl sits up, rubbing her head with one hand and propping herself up with the other. "What the hell, man? Do you really have to be a bitch this early in the morning.

Sunset scoffs down at her. "What? We both have to do this. Just because you don't--"

"SO," you say, loud enough to cut off that argument before it started, "what exactly were you doing in my bed in the first place, Vinyl?"

Vinyl perks up. "Oh, it got cold in the other room and I figured your blankets were warmer."

Sunset puts her hands on her hips and cocks them. "So you just crawled into his bed naked without him ever noticing?" Sunset asks, not really believing her.

Vinyl shrugs. "Hey, he didn't seem to mind."

Sunset rolls her eyes. "Yeah. I'm sure he didn't." With that, Sunset makes her way towards your door, supposedly heading for the kitchen. "Just get dressed. We've got work to do," she says before making her way out of your room.

Vinyl brings herself to her feet, grabbing her maid outfit to put on. "Jeez, man. What is her problem?"

You give her a shrug. You really don't know yourself. Sunset hasn't really acted like this towards anyone ever since you can remember. You chalk it up to conflicting personalities and leave it at that for now.

Vinyl finally gets dressed and goes to help Sunset in the kitchen. Only a few minutes pass before the muffled bickering starts up again. It never seems to reach the point it did yesterday, so you never go to investigate. You emerge sometime later at the promise of breakfast, and you're presented with two eggs, a piece of toast, and an apple. As you sit down at the counter to eat it, you notice the stark difference in quality in how the eggs were done compared to the lazily slathered and slightly burned bread.

You dig into the plate anyway, feeling like you need to make up for yesterday's lack of sustenance. "Oh man, these eggs are great," you say, mostly ignoring the toast once you get a taste.

Vinyl crosses her arms and looks away, while Sunset beams with a hint of pride. "Thanks! I thought they turned out pretty well," Sunset says. Vinyl rolls her eyes at her. Sunset takes notice of this, and her smile quickly falls off of her face. This isn't going to be good.

"Just because you can barely make a slice of toast doesn't mean you get to scoff at me," Sunset says, getting snippy.

"I'm sorry I didn't go to culinary school. I've got more important shit to spend my time on," Vinyl says, still not looking at Sunset.

Breakfast and a show. Great. "Like what? I bet you've never cooked a single meal for yourself that didn't involve a microwave," Sunset says, looking pleased with herself. You're starting to notice it in Sunset's voice. This is more attitude than you've seen out of her since the whole demon debacle.

"I spend my time on my music and doing what I love. What's it to you, anyway?" Vinyl says, agitation growing in her voice.

"Well all those years of fast food and frozen burritos certainly aren't doing you any favors."

Ouch. Vinyl's mouth hangs open in shock. You honestly can't believe that just came out of Sunset's mouth yourself. You can see the anger start to build up in Vinyl. Any more and she might do something drastic. "You fucking--" she starts to say.

"Okay!" you say, standing up from the bar. "I think it's about time I get my car out of whatever impound lot it's sitting. Sunset, you mind giving me a ride?"

Sunset snaps out of her arguing mode and looks at you. "Oh, sure. You want to leave right now?"

"Yeah, sooner is probably better than later."

Sunset walks out of the kitchen and towards the bathroom. "I'm just going to change into my other clothes and we can go," she says before closing the bathroom door.

You look back to Vinyl, who is clenching her fists and it looks kinda like her eye is twitching with rage, but you can't really tell under her glasses. Once Vinyl catches you looking at her, she takes a deep breath and puts her hands up. "I'm cool, I'm cool. But don't even think about pinning that one on me."

"Nah, Sunset definitely started that one. I guess she really doesn't like you."

"Seriously, what the hell did I ever do to her?"

You sigh. "I don't know. She really doesn't usually act like this, not since high school anyway. Just try to be nice to her, I'm sure she'll warm up."

"I can promise I won't deck her in the mouth, but I don't know about being nice."

You shake your head and give her a smile. "Fair enough, I guess."

Sunset comes out of the bathroom, her maid attire gone, replaced by her usual leather jacket and skirt. "Alright, I'm ready. Let's head out."

"Sure thing," you say before looking over to Vinyl. "And you can scrub the stains out of the carpet or something until we get back."

Sunset grabs your wrist and drags you towards your door. "Remember, no fires. You promised!"

Vinyl puts a hand next to her mouth and curls her lips up into a devious smile. "No, I just said I wouldn't burn it down!" she manages before you shut the door behind you.

You and Sunset make your way down to her car to set off. You notice Sunset has more of a skip and her step and doesn't feel quite as agitated when you're walking, a lot like before Vinyl ever came into the picture. As the two of you get settled into her car, you break the silence.

"Know where we're going?"

Sunset starts the ignition and pulls out of your apartment's parking lot. "Not a clue."

"Here, give me your phone. I'm pretty sure I know where the impound lot is in that town."

Sunset tosses you her phone and you put the address into her navigator as she silently drives. You have other plans about this trip, however.

"So why exactly is junior year Sunset coming back around Vinyl?" you ask her.

"What? It's not that bad... is it?" Sunset puts a hand up to her mouth as worry grips her. That was alway one of her worst fears, turning back into how she was.

"No, I guess not, but you haven't really been trying to make friends with her either."

Sunset sighs and props one arm against her armrest and rests her head on it. "I'm sorry. I don't know why. Just looking at her irritates me." A few moments pass as you watch her, expecting more than that. "Well, she isn't easy to get along with either. I mean, have you seen her try to clean something up? It's like she's never actually been in a clean apartment in her life."

Your memory flashes back to her kicking around trash in your living room. "Yeah, I guess. Just try to lay off of her, alright? As much as I like seeing two hot girls in maid costumes go at it, I'd rather not have the mess that comes after in my living room."

Sunset gets a light blush on her cheeks and starts to twirl her hair in her fingers at you calling her hot. "Okay, I'll try. I might still just be upset I lost and I'm taking it out on her."

"Did you really think you had any chance at winning? You, who's probably never gotten drunk more than three times in her life?"

"All three of which involved you, by the way," she adds.

"I'm not entirely sure why you even agreed to it."

Sunset smiles. "I guess some of that whiskey may have gone to my head pretty quickly."

"Vinyl said we had one hell of a night. Apparently we almost got mugged."

Sunset put a hand up to her mouth in sudden realization. "Oh my god I remember that. George stabbed that guy right in the groin." Sunset thought for a moment, then scoots away from you slightly. "You didn't keep that fork he gave you, did you?"

"No," you say, much to Sunset's relief, "but Vinyl did." Sunset's relief immediately died, disgust plain on her face.

"She so would."

"Easy now. Trying to be more friendly, right?" Sunset gives you a half-hearted nod, then rests her head back on her arm, focusing on the road. "How do you remember all of that anyway?"

"Oh I stopped drinking right after I threw up. I was too drunk to drive, but I guess not blackout drunk. Seriously though, next time listen to me when I say we should not be in that side of town," Sunset says, pointing a stern finger at you.

You put your hands up. "Alright, alright. Just don't start calling me fat or kick me in the nuts or something."

"That was really mean, wasn't it?"

You let out a laugh. "You should have seen her face. I swear she was about to reach for one of the steak knives," you say with a smile on your face.

The two of you laugh at the would-be murder. The ride to the next town was a long one, and you and Sunset had plenty of time to bullshit with each other. You trade stories from high school and talk about the things you used to do together. You smile and laugh with her like you always do when you were alone, throwing around whatever subject came up next. You always throw in a few joking advances that she casually brushes or punches you playfully in the arm for.

The entire time you wonder where the hostility in her is coming from. Vinyl really is missing out: Sunset is a really fun person to be around. She's usually always friendly to most people, and since she changed in high school, she's been nothing but kind to most people. You can understand about them having conflicting personalities, but you haven't seen Sunset go out of her way to insult someone like this morning since her less than perfect years in high school.

Those thoughts and questions never come forward, though. You figure now might not be the best time to stir her out of such a great mood. Besides, by the time the thoughts really come to your mind, you're already at the impound lot.

The impound lot looked more like a junkyard, with a lot of the cars falling apart, most of the lot nothing but dirt, and a good amount dogs that didn't look very kind barking away. You instantly regret parking on what was probably the curb that night. This isn't going to go well.

You and Sunset walk up to the little booth outside of the gate; inside sat a fat, middle aged man in a greasy jumpsuit, reading the latest issue of hustler with his boots up on his desk. This really isn't going to go well.

You get your debit card out and ask the man about the make and model of your car, preemptively wincing about how much it was probably going to be. He gives a half-hearted glance at the listing book on his desk and then turns his eyes back to his magazine.

"Sorry, kid. Nothing like that here."

"What?" you say, annoyance starting to build up inside of you. You look beside the booth and through the chain link fence into the lot. After only a few seconds, you spot your car not far away from the gate. "Dude, it's right there," you say, pointing towards the vehicle in question.

The guy looks both of you over for a moment, probably sizing you up to try and figure out if you could actually afford a lawyer. Once he settles his mind on whatever he was thinking, he goes back to his magazine, flipping to another page. "Nope. Must have it confused with something else."

You pull the keys out of your pocket and press the alarm button. Sure enough, the horn on your car blares its annoying sound throughout the lot. "And just why do my keys work on the car that isn't mine?"

The guy shrugs. "Dogs probably chewing on the cars again. Happens all the time."

You sigh. It didn't go well. You turn around and run your hands across your hair, trying to think of something to do while not letting the stress get too much of a hold. Sunset, on the other hand, narrows her eyes at the guy in the booth. She walks past you with purpose in her step and venom building up on her tongue. You suddenly feel very sorry for whoever gets in her way.

Sunset slams her hands down on the hand counter of the booth, snapping the guy's attention directly to her. "Listen here," Sunset pauses for a moment, looking at the guy's nametag, "Harvey. Just because you dropped out of high school and can barely make a living wage doesn't mean you get to sit there in that shitty booth and abuse what little power your boss mistakenly decided you could handle. Screwing people out of their hard-earned money isn't going to help your inability to speak to women or your little dick, so get your fat ass up and do your fucking job before I call my father's lawyer and make sure you and anyone you're involved with is in debt for the rest of your life."

Harvey's magazine slips right out of his hands once Sunset finishes, completely shocked at the barrage he just had to endure.

"Well?!" Sunset yells at him.

He pulls his feet off the desk and puts his hands up, wary of catching any more of Sunset's wrath. "Alright, alright, lady! Just calm down already. The tow is three hundred dollars."

Sunset swipes the card out of your hand and throws it to him. "There better not be a single scratch on that car." The guy quickly runs it through the system and opens the gate before carefully handing it back to Sunset.

Sunset puts on a show of stomping over to your car, supposedly to check it for the aforementioned scratches. You jog to catch up to her, stunned by the sudden display. "Jesus, Sunset. Where did that come from?"

Sunset glances back towards the booth, slightly worried. "I... I'm not sure. It just seemed like the only thing that would work."

"How did you know that..." you trail off, not really wanting to recall every detail.

Sunset hangs her head slightly, looking ashamed of herself. "A lot of practice, I guess. I've gotten really good at picking out insecurities and making people feel bad about them..."

You hate seeing her sad like that. You know how much she hates thinking about what she did in high school. You wrap a comforting arm around her and pull her close to you, putting on your best reassuring smile. "Well I for one think it was awesome. If it wasn't for you I probably wouldn't have gotten my car back and it would've been spare parts within a week! Just, uh, never do that to me, alright?"

Sunset settles into you, a smile returning to her face. "Wouldn't dream of it."

Sunset pulls away from you, a light blush on her face. She coughs, trying to clear her throat of the sudden awkwardness in the few moments of silence. "So, I'll meet you back at the apartment I guess?"

"Yeah, see you there," you say, watching her as she turns back around to her own car, leaving you to fend for yourself against the dogs and dusty lot workers.

______________________________________________

The two of you arrive back just in time to see Vinyl fast asleep on top of a bucket. Said bucket is dripping with with bubbly water, and most of your house now smells of detergent. Looking around the living room, it seems she did manage to scrub away a few stains before giving up.

Sunset rolls her eyes at the display. She walks over and gives Vinyl a nudge with her boot, knocking her off the bucket. Vinyl spasms for a second before she realizes where she is. "What? No! I'm awake! Carpet is clean!"

A quick scan of the floor proves this to be a lie. She may have started but she sure didn't actually finish. Sunset opens her mouth to say something, but then looks to you and thinks better of it. "I'll go get dressed and start dinner I guess." Sunset turns her eyes from you to the soapy mess that is Vinyl. "And can you at least dry the carpet off? It was like walking into a swamp."

Vinyl sits up and rubs her head, trying to shake the last little bits of sleep from her mind. "Yeah yeah, whatever." Vinyl waits until Sunset closes the bathroom door to look back up to you. "So did you cure her of her bitchiness yet?"

You take a deep breath and put your fists on your hips. "I have no idea."

Vinyl turns back to the bathroom and sighs. "Man, that girl needs to get laid."

The rest of the evening passes without much incident. Sunset eventually leaves, leaving you and Vinyl to your own devices. The two of you don't do much other than watch tv together as the night draws to a close. A few pieces of conversation come up, and you laugh and joke with her, slowly becoming friends as well. She's so much more volatile than Sunset is, with her constant, irresponsible impulses bringing about some of the most entertaining stories you've ever heard. Soon she starts talking about her passion in music, and various complaints or joys she's found in her latest song. The talk brings out an entirely different depth to her that you've never really imagined. Once she takes her glasses off, you can really see the passion in her ruby eyes. Give her a few years and you wouldn't be surprised to see her name up in lights.

Eventually she falls asleep in your lap, exhausted from cleaning, napping, and talking most of the day. Before you can crawl into your own bed for the night, Vinyl strips herself naked yet again and crawls in with you, figuring now that you knew you wouldn't really have a problem with it.

With another day on the horizon, you drift off to sleep yet again, avoiding Vinyl's deathly snoring before it can begin.