Allegrezza

Chapter 2: Allegrezza

After an evening of quiet reading, Octavia sighed softly to herself. She had a cup of warm tea and was relaxing in the living room. Things were perfect. Too perfect.

Where's Vinyl?

She looked up at the clock that read 11 o'clock. This was later than Octavia normally stayed up, and she was expectant of her roommate being home hours ago. She found herself worried, but wasn't sure why. Why should she care in the first place? Vinyl works at a nightclub for Celestia's sake; of course she'd come home late. She thought that was good enough reasoning to go to bed, and did as her mind urged her to. She walked across the creaky floor that had driven her insane since she moved in. She remembered the gorgeous spiraled stairs she used to have that led to her large room, how the window lined perfectly with where the sun rose every morning and illuminated her room. She recalled how high the ceilings were, and the huge dining room and kitchen, and how clean it had always been kept by the help. How tasteful the décor was, the soft carpet under her hooves. There was not a single creak anywhere, and the house was kept up with regularly.

As that thought came to mind, she also remembered something else. How Mother and Father made her practice every day, how she was forbidden from eating sweets, how the tutors that came over daily were so rude and forced her to learn things exactly the way they wanted. She remembered how lonely it was. Her mother bragging about her being a musical prodigy over the phone, later yelling at her for not trying hard enough. "Standard. Do it again." She would always say, making her repeat the song until her hooves hurt. She was eventually molded into a robot, only following the rules and doing what others told her. Never anything she wanted.

Octavia found herself standing in the middle of the hall for far too long and tore herself from the memories, continuing into the shared room. One bed on the far right, one on the far left. She hated that this old, shabby house didn't even have two rooms. Yet, she was lucky to afford it at all, barely able to keep up her half of the rent. She sat on her bed and pulled the covers over herself. She stared at the wall for what seemed like forever. She couldn't sleep. She picked up her phone, which she rarely used beyond work purposes. She still had Vinyl's contact in it. She just studied the picture absentmindedly while thinking. She just needed to talk to somepony, to keep her very sanity. She didn't know why she felt so terrible. Maybe it was a realization. She thought it was pathetic to call her, but she ran a check through her other contacts and found nopony else whom she was actually on speaking terms with. With a sigh, she pressed call.

It rang for a few moments before her eardrums were blasted with loud music. She winced and held it away from her ear. "V-Vinyl? Are you there?"  She asked quietly, starting to regret her decision. Her question was answered by a few giggles in the background, followed by a familiar, rough voice.

"Yeah, yeah..." Vinyl said, followed by some shuffling. "Hello?" Octavia smiled softly, then frowned again when she realized she hadn't actually planned out what she was going to say. After all, you couldn't just start a conversation so easily. She stayed quiet for a few moments before deciding on what to say.

"Hello, Vinyl," She started. "I was just wondering when you were coming home." That was far from the reason why she called, but as she considered this, she couldn't think of the real reason.

"Oh, hey Tavi! Uh, I dunno...it looks like this party's gonna stay alive until at least 8AM! Can you hear this madness?!" There were several ponies yelling things Octavia couldn't understand.

"Wait, are you serious?! You're staying that long?!" She asked, shocked.

"Probably not that long, chill." Octavia could practically hear her rolling her eyes. "I got some time to talk if you wanna. What's up?"

She perked up at that, getting excited. "Splendid! Perhaps we can-" She was interrupted by a loud sound on the other end.

"Oh crap...Look, Tavi, I actually gotta go, OK? Later!" With that, the phone hung up. Octavia's smile fell and she curled up with her pillow. The steady beeping of the phone remained for several seconds until she hung up also. Something about hearing Vinyl's voice made her feel better, maybe it was because she never had a friend she could call. Maybe it was time to open up...this was an opportunity. Vinyl could be her friend. Her first friend.