Heavy Rock

Chapters

Track 2: Louder Than Hell
Track 3: I Want Out
Track 4: Heeding The Call
Track 5: Turn Up The Night
Track 6: Between The Hammer And The Anvil
Track 7: Still Life
Track 8: Hot For Teacher
Track 10: Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?
Track 11: Fight ‘Em ‘Til You Can’t
Tracks 12 & 13: My Road / Bring Heavy Rock To The Land
Bonus Track: Fat Bottomed Girls
Track 1: Slave To The Grind
Track 9: Seek And Destroy

Track 2: Louder Than Hell

Limestone and the small crowd of cafe-goers clapped politely as a trio of freshmen girls stepped off the stage at the far side of the long, darkened room. She turned to Pinkie, who sat with her at the small square table and sported a perplexed grimace beneath pink curls. “You know, that one girl could kinda sing, but I don’t think those other two are gonna go far with it.”

Pinkie’s features contorted with what Limestone recognized as the effort of finding something nice to say about the aural travesty they had just experienced. “Gosh are those girls trying hard to find what they’re good at in life, y’know?”

“Sure.” Limestone glanced at her watch for what felt like the millionth time. “Well, apparently one thing they’re good at is running long. Maud should’ve had the mic five minutes ago.”

Pinkie shrugged. “So can we finally order now? Please?”

Limestone sighed. “Fine. Whatever.” She picked up a menu and flipped it open. Her eyes settled on the prices of the entrees before she even processed what they were.

The sound of a raucous screech from an electric guitar interrupted her mental beratement of the overpriced cafe food. She brushed a strand of her grey bangs out of her eyes and squinted at the stage. There, spotlights illuminated a young guy with spiky blue hair and a leather jacket who was squatting on a stool and throttling his guitar like it had committed a crime.

The guy shifted from aggressive strumming to some kind of pure feedback-y noise. Limestone joined most of the rest of the crowd in hunching down and covering her ears. She looked at Pinkie, who was doing the same. “Who’s this idiot?!”

Pinkie winced. “It’s Flash from school… but I’ve never heard him play anything like this before. This song sounds like the end of the world!”

Limestone frowned. “Wait… Flash? Isn’t that the kid who Maud kept going on about a while back?”

“Sure is,” Pinkie shouted over the racket. “It’s really weird that he would be up there when she’s supposed to be!”

As if in reply, Maud plopped down on the chair opposite Pinkie. “There was a mix-up,” she said, setting her spiral-bound notebook down on the table. “I’m sorry. They wrote my name on the walk-in list instead of the pre-registration list when I called earlier.”

Limestone studied Maud’s face, spotting hints of stiff-lipped disappointment. “Well, why didn’t you make it clear to the cafe people that they should make it right since they screwed up?”

“They have a stringent policy of following the list.”

“Yeah yeah, but they screwed up. Why couldn’t you at least explain that to this nimrod who’s stealing your spot?”

“Because…” Maud shook her head. “I couldn’t.”

Limestone gave her a flat look. “Yes you could, Maud. I don’t care if you used to think he’s hot or something—”

“No.” The word was heavy. Final. But the look on Maud’s face was one of defeat rather than anger, however subtly expressed. “I really wanted people to hear this. But now I don’t know if I’ll even get the mic tonight.”

Limestone’s lip curled into a snarl. She wanted to tell Maud that it would do her some good to finally talk to this boy she’d spent however long not talking to. She also wanted to say that it didn’t matter anyway; that her poems were never any good, and that it was ultimately merciful to everyone—herself included—that the reading wasn’t going to happen.

But then she remembered what she’d said to Maud earlier about the reading, and about the boy, and she felt bad about going even as far as she had. And that made her angry.

“They will,” Limestone barked.

Pinkie blinked. “Will what?”

Limestone stood, then snapped her fingers at Maud. “Notebook.”

Pinkie and Maud looked at each other, then at Limestone. Pinkie took her hands off her ears for a moment, but winced at the sound of the boy’s horrible guitar. “Sis, whatever you’re thinking…”

Limestone growled. “I’m thinking this loser picked the wrong open-mic night to stage his little thrash-noise revival. Maud, give me the notebook.”

“Here,” Maud said, flipping it open and handing it to Limestone. “It’s actually an epic poem of sorts…”

“Whatever!” Limestone took it in a death-grip and set off toward the stage. She threaded her way between tables full of displeased-looking teens and young adults, some of whom were gathering their things and trying to hail a waiter so they could pay their check and escape the cacophony.

As she approached the stage, Limestone noticed the actual mic-stand had been set off toward the edge; the kid’s guitar was plugged into the restaurant’s sound system, and he wasn’t singing. Limestone’s lips curled into a grim smile as she hopped up next to the kid, grabbed the mic, switched it on, and looked down at the notebook.

She scowled at Maud’s “epic poem,” and rued her forgetfulness that for a mousy, rock-obsessed introvert, a surprising amount of what Maud wrote seemed pretty unmistakably phallic.

After a sigh of resignation, Limestone breathed deep and made her scratchy voice belt out:

Come and tear my heart asunder
With your drill of magic wonder
I don’t care if we both funder
I just wanna feel your thunder

Long and hot and running hard
Come split my earth and leave it scarred
And sink it deep and disregard
To e’er withdraw your jagged shard…

Limestone turned her eyes to the floor as she forced herself to scream the whole ungodly thing. At some point the music stopped, but Limestone kept on going until the end.

She looked up, breathing heavily from the exertion of belting out the “epic poem,” and met Flash’s eyes. He sat on the stool, cradling his guitar, and smiling.

“What?” Limestone shouted at him.

His grin deepened. “That was awesome!”

Limestone raised an eyebrow and sneered. “You’re kidding, right?”

Flash shook his head. “No way. You’re the real deal. The voice, the stage presence, and those lyrics! Can I get your number? We gotta jam sometime!”

She blinked, and stared into Flash’s eyes. They were a clear light blue, and they twinkled from the sheer force of the smile plastered across his face.

Despite her better judgment, the thought that he was cute crept in.

A strange feeling washed over Limestone as she turned and looked out at the crowd. Most everyone who hadn’t already been trying to leave was now doing so. Only Maud and Pinkie sat motionless… until Pinkie saw her looking, smiled back, and gave her two-thumbs-up. Somehow she just knew.

Limestone snarled audibly as she dispelled the thought of Flash looking cute. Then she advanced on him with an outstretched finger, walking right up to him and giving his chest a thorough, vociferous poking. “No. You know, on second thought you don’t get to tell me what to do here. You think you’re going to pull your pretty-boy act and charm me out of being mad at you for stealing my sister’s spot? ‘Cuz if you do, then let me tell you something: I’ve got some thoughts about where you can shove that guitar, and how deep to shove it, and which-end-first to shove it!”

A shadow of doubt flickered over his face, but then he chuckled. “Did you just say I’m pretty?”

“I just warned you what I’m gonna do with your guitar!” she shouted. He smiled deeper, which infuriated her; her nostrils flared, her breathing deepened, and she reached forward, gripping the guitar by the neck and tearing it out of his grasp. She swung it overhead, aiming to bash it on the edge of the stage—

A strong hand stopped the guitar before it could make contact. Maud. Limestone saw a mixture of panic and disappointment writ across Maud’s very slightly narrowed eyes and almost imperceptibly tightened lips.

“What are you doing?” Maud all but hissed.

Limestone loosened her grip. Maud lifted the guitar up and away from Limestone, one-handed, from a disadvantageous angle. Her eyes carried the unspoken message that this was an intentional reminder of her very great strength.

“Wow,” Flash said, looking at both of them in turn.

Limestone turned a tight-lipped rage face on him and sucked in a huge breath, ready to give it to him with both barrels. But Maud pre-empted her, saying: “We’re both very sorry about all of this. My sister got excited by your music. It’s time to get her home.”

“No, it’s cool,” Flash interjected. “I’m serious when I say that it’d be great to jam with you. You’ve got killer pipes for punk rock, or hardcore…” He paused, cocking his head. “Maybe even death or screamo. Oh, and then there’s the lyrics!”

Limestone looked down at the fallen notebook. “What about them?”

“Metal,” Flash said quickly. “Utter metal.”

Limestone met Maud’s eyes. “Yeah, well, you realize that—”

“My sister is a deep and unappreciated soul,” Maud interrupted. Limestone gawped at her, but Maud continued unabated: “Not all of her lyrics quite capture the same energy as the tour de force you heard tonight, but I know that she has stacks of other notebooks that she’d love to share with someone who appreciates them. Believe it or not, not everybody does.”

“Okay, hold on Maud…”

Flash nodded. “Sure, I can understand that. I didn’t expect anyone to really care about what I was playing tonight; I just did it for myself.”

Limestone watched as Maud and Flash shared a smile. The look they shared was… unexpected. Hard to read, especially in Maud’s case. Maud had been part of her life for as long as she could remember, but she’d never seen that look on Maud’s face.

She raised a finger. “Uh, so what exactly am I doing here?”

Maud gave her a subtly exasperated look. “My dear silly Limestone, you’re going to go and sing with the nice boy.”

“I… am, am I? And you’re…?”

Maud smiled. Visibly. “I’m going to listen when you tell me how it goes.”

Author's Note

Track 3: I Want Out

Limestone blocked-out most of Pinkie’s litany of questions on their drive home, preferring to wait until the morning to go on the warpath. Consequently, she slept poorly, and had dreams involving far too much of herself and a shirtless blue-haired idiot.

In those dreams, Maud invariably watched the goings-on from a less-seen vantage point, but Limestone somehow knew where she was every time.

The net result was that, when morning made itself known by the high-pitched chirping of her alarm clock, Limestone was both tired and angry. The feeling made her smile, as she had long since learned that this could be an even more incendiary combination than just being angry by itself.

She started by pounding on Maud’s door, which was next to hers; but Maud had clearly anticipated this and wasn’t there. She then thumped down the stairs, wondering belatedly if she should’ve put something else on other than her black tank top and red flannel jammy pants.

“Daughter,” Igneous Rock said from the dining room. “Surely thou art not going out wearing that.”

Limestone sighed, then turned and headed toward him. She found a large skillet full of eggs and potatoes on the table, along with a small stack of plates and utensils, and a half-empty pitcher of water with some glasses. Someone had clearly put a dent in the food, but there still looked to be enough left for at least one person.

“Maud did this,” she said, pointing an accusing finger at it.

“And why wouldst thou say that, daughter?”

Limestone scowled at him, but plopped down in a chair, grabbed a plate and a fork, and started scooping. “Maud’s not exactly subtle, Dad.” She paused, then gestured at her face. “Well, except for the whole… you know, Maud thing.”

Igneous gave her a small, amused grin, and took a sip of his coffee.

“No, she clearly set this up for us to talk about the boy she wants me to go out with for her. And before you get started on me, I want you to know that this whole thing is Maud’s idea. I want no part of it, and I wouldn’t have agreed at all if she hadn’t practically had me at gunpoint.”

Igneous’ eyebrows quirked upward. “Gunpoint, daughter? I heard thou wert the one who nearly smashed the boy’s guitar.”

She frowned deeper, then took a bite of eggs. “Figuratively speaking. You know how Maud is.”

“Verily, I do. And I know how thou art, as well.” He reached across the distance between them, and set his hand on hers. “And I would encourage thee to date this boy in good faith, for thy sister Pinkamena speaks well of his character.”

Limestone choked on her food, started coughing, quickly filled a glass for herself, and downed it. She came out spluttering a single, forceful word: “Date?!”

Igneous looked around nervously, then leaned closer and dropped his volume. “Now, let us not excite thy mother… but yes, daughter, I have long felt thou wert holding thyself back unhealthily. Recall that, by thine age, thy mother and I had met each other, married, and had brought forth both thyself and Maud.”

Limestone sat back in her chair. “Oh my… Dad, come on! I’m twenty, not eight hundred! I’ve got time!” She shook her head. “Not that I care, anyway. I’m busy! Who do you think’s gonna keep this place running if I’m out running around with… boys.” She scowled, and took another sip of water. “Besides, this is a high schooler. It would be weird.”

“Pinkamena says he is eighteen and-a-half,” Igneous said, giving a quick waggle of his eyebrows. “Do not forget, thy birthday was just two months past…”

“Dad. Stop. I don’t care if you’re my flesh and blood; I’m going to hurt you if this doesn’t end. Now.”

He broke into a huge grin. “Daughter, I would like to see thee try. Although, perhaps sometime after thy date, out of deference both to thyself and to thy man-friend.”

She shook her fists in front of her. “Dad, do you know how messed-up this all is? It’s Maud who really likes this kid, and… somehow I guess he kinda has a thing for me? Tell me how that’s going to end well.”

Igneous’ look became serious. “Limestone, thou art well aware of thy sister’s great anxiety. She and I have long discussed her fears about dating, and I judge that doing it even vicariously is a step for her.”

Limestone gestured indistinctly toward the hall. “Why can’t it be Pinkie or Marble who go set some big example for…” She paused. “Well, okay, I know it won’t be Marble…”

“Pinkamena has not found ‘the one,’ or so she tells me. But I have every confidence in her. Thou knowest Pinkamena; wild horses could not hold her back once she has set her heart to loving something.”

“Yeah, but… I don’t know, aren’t I just going to let this kid down in the end? How’s that fair to him?”

“Well, well. Good heavens. Look at that.”

Limestone scowled, and looked down at her shirt. “What, did I spill or something?”

“No, daughter.” Igneous’ eyes twinkled. “Thou hadst a charitable thought about someone, and placed their feelings before thine own.”

She stared daggers at him. “Dad, you make me sound all heartless and terrible.”

He shrugged, and took another pull of coffee. “I don’t think thou art half as heartless as thou pretends to be, daughter.” He chuckled. “Nor am I half the invalid thou seems to think I am. I can run the quarry perfectly well if it means my eldest daughter has a chance to go be young for once.”

Limestone gave him a low growl, then set about eating again, venting her frustration through the sheer force of her chewing.

“Lousy Maud,” she grumbled.

“The boy will be fine,” Igneous said. “Though Pinkamena tells me he has been somewhat unlucky of late. If thou dost not click with him, try to make thyself known gently.” He smiled. “Or, take it as a challenge to get him and Maud together, if thou hast the guile to do so.”

The two sat looking at each other in silence for a long moment. Eventually, Limestone sighed, looked away, and scooped more food onto her plate.

“This is actually kinda good,” she said.

Author's Note

Track 4: Heeding The Call

Most of school passed by Flash unnoticed. All he could think of was the last bell of the afternoon, and the wink he knew he’d get from Pinkie Pie after it sounded.

At long last, the bell came, and the wink followed. And while most kids either left the campus or headed out for sports, Flash instead made his way to the music room, and started getting things set up. There wasn’t much to do, really; he got out amps for his guitar and a bass, then went and hunted down a spare bass from the storage rooms. Plugging those in shouldn’t have taken half as long as they did; but then his mind wasn’t half as focused as he might’ve hoped for.

A clicking sound from elsewhere in the school echoed through the halls, and made him jump. It was a door. He looked over at his setup and frowned. “Mic stand, idiot! Drums! No, maybe we shouldn’t really try to play…”

“Hey there,” a familiar voice said from the door.

Flash turned, grinning. Then the grin fell from his face.

It was Sunset.

“Oh, uh… hey,” he said, trying to hide his blush.

She smiled at him. “I was doing that volunteer thing off campus today, but I heard through the grapevine that your show went well the other night.”

He gave her a sheepish grin. “Heh, yeah, you could say that.”

“Well?” Her smile seemed to brighten the room, and it had a marked effect on his blood flow. “Aren’t you going to tell me about her?”

Flash cleared his throat. “Come on, Sunset. Don’t you think that…”

“No,” she said, suddenly much closer than he realized. Her smile melted him a little, as it always had. It was gentle and infectious, and it was like he could feel the heat radiating off her body. Or at least his own temperature seemed to be rising.

“Flash, I want you to tell me,” she said.

“Well…” Flash put a hand on the back of his neck. “She just came up out of nowhere, shouted me down during my set…”

Sunset chuckled. “Oh, you really have a type, don’t you?”

Flash shared a laugh with her. “I guess I do. Or something. I dunno. She really does seem… interesting. Bold.”

“Passionate?” Sunset asked with a wink.

“Very funny.” Flash turned away, rolling his eyes.

Sunset stepped past him and studied his gig setup. “Does she play?”

“I don’t know.”

“So she’s really into rock music?”

Flash sighed. “I guess I don’t know that, either.”

“Look, I’m sorry for the questions. I just know things haven’t gone your way lately.” She gave him a look of compassion. “I just want you to know I care.”

Their eyes met. Flash felt his heartbeat quicken. “Sunset…?”

“Hey,” she said quietly, holding up a gently reproachful finger.

A noise from the door made both Flash and Sunset startle. “We’re here!” Pinkie shouted, bursting into the room. Limestone trailed behind her, looking around with trepidation.

Pinkie bounded up to Sunset. “Sunset, meet my sister Limestone. Limestone, this is Sunset Shimmer, recovering evil-demon-queenie-pony-thing, and a daily reminder that personal progress is possible for anyone. Isn’t that right, Sunset?”

“Real subtle, Pinkie,” Sunset said.

Limestone focused briefly on Flash before turning to Sunset. “Oh. Uh, nice to meet you.”

Flash watched as Limestone and Sunset met each other’s eyes and shook hands. Pinkie stood just to the side, pumping her fists.

The awkwardness was palpable.

After a moment, Pinkie gasped, and looked at each of them in turn. “Oh, Sunset, I just remembered! I need you to come with me for a few… lots of minutes! Definitely not just so these two can be alone or anything! Come on!” And with that, Pinkie grabbed Sunset’s wrist and dragged her from the room.

Flash and Limestone met eyes for a moment, but then Limestone looked away, fuming. “I see how it is.”

“W… what?”

Limestone gave him a flat look. “You asked me over here so you could dangle me in front of your hot ex you’re trying to get back with.” She turned toward the door. “Look, if you wanted help with something dumb like that, you should’ve just asked Pinkie. Girl’s smarter than she looks; I’m sure she could’ve come up with something.”

“No! I’m serious, it isn’t…” He paused, mentally replaying her words. “Did… you just say that Sunset’s hot?”

She shrugged. “Didn’t say I’m batting for that team, but seriously, you must have been pretty dumb to let her go.”

He looked away, frowning. “It’s not that simple. And that really isn’t fair!”

“Tough nuts, Charlie. Neither is life.” Limestone flipped him an obscene gesture, then turned and walked out out the door.

Flash stood stunned as he watched her go. He tried not to let his thoughts linger on how her butt looked in her jeans as she walked away from him, especially since anger and frustration were actively vying for the top spot among his emotions. But after a moment, an odd admixture of attraction and the other two feelings spurred him to follow her.

“Wait a minute!” he called as he entered the hallway.

Limestone stopped, turned around, and stalked back toward him with an upraised finger. “I have better things to do than screw around with high school drama. I have a job, kid; actual responsibilities. What do you have, other than your… good hair, and questionable guitar skills?”

His mouth dropped open in a half-formed response as he first stared into her narrowed eyes, then studied her set jaw and flaring nostrils.

Seconds later, he began to laugh.

The effect on Limestone was electric. She jerked back as though she’d been slapped, and her eyes went wide. “S… stop it!” she shouted.

Flash didn’t. His shoulders shook with unrestrained laughter. He slapped his knee, and doubled over, letting the hilarity flow through him.

“I’m,” he managed, struggling for breath. “No, I’m sorry, it’s…”

Limestone balled up her fists, gritted her teeth… but ultimately just stared at him.

Flash brought himself back up with a big smile underneath his shining blue eyes. “Look, Limestone, I’m sorry. It’s just… that’s how you do it, right? You get people all worried about making you mad, and they end up doing whatever you say. Right?”

She took a deep breath, but didn’t answer.

He pointed at her eyes. “But there, right there, I see it. Remember what you said about ‘good hair?’ Every so often, you let this whole… thing drop. And when you do, you’re pretty cool.”

“I’m ‘cool?’” she said stiffly.

He shrugged, maintaining his smile. “I don’t know. You seem cool, when you aren’t actively trying to push me away.”

Limestone stood silent and motionless. The frown on her face carried none of its usual anger, but something much more pensive and uncertain.

Flash pointed a thumb back toward the music room. “Do you want to head back and start jamming, or maybe we should just relax a little first? Don’t take this the wrong way, but you look like you could use a pick-me-up.”

Her eyes narrowed. “What do you have in mind?”

He chuckled, holding up his hands. “Don’t worry; nothing funny. Why don’t we go hit the juice place across the street? I’ll buy you a smoothie.”

Limestone’s gaze fixed on him. “What are you playing at?”

Flash shrugged. “Maybe making this a little more like a date and less like just a straight-up jam session?”

She raised her chin. “You seriously want to… get a smoothie with me?”

“Sure.” He grinned at her. “Why not? We’re both single, and we have some stuff in common, right?”

“…Do we?”

He rolled his eyes. “You just have to make this as difficult as possible, don’t you? ‘Cuz otherwise you’re worried… what? That you’re being too easy?”

Limestone furrowed her brow. Her features tensed. Then the unthinkable happened: a tight, messy smile worked its way across her lips.

She snorted. “‘Easy.’ Me.” Then she met his eyes, and the smile overtook her cheeks. Flash felt a bit of trepidation at the sight; hers was clearly a face unaccustomed to smiling. And yet…

“You look nice when you smile,” he said, immediately following that up by squeezing his eyes shut and sighing. “Not to say you don’t look nice all the time. Maybe call it a rare pleasure.”

The proverbial clouds obscured Limestone’s smile once again. “It’s gonna take more than charm and a smoothie to get anywhere with me, Charlie.”

He smiled and nodded. “Well, let’s start with that, at least. Right this way.”

They walked through the hall of CHS together. Limestone looked all around, seeming to drink in every detail of the place.

“What is it?” Flash asked as they approached the main doors.

Limestone looked at him and frowned. “No, it’s… interesting, coming here.” She stared at a case full of trophies and framed pictures of sports teams that they passed by. “So many people; so much stuff. I guess I see why Pinkie likes it here, and why Maud kinda didn’t.”

Flash nodded. “Yeah, Pinkie’s lots of fun. I remember Maud, too. Always very quiet and intense. You didn’t ever go here, right?”

He stepped ahead slightly as they reached the door, pushing it open and holding it for her.

“Thanks. And no.” She took a breath. “I was homeschooled, like my youngest sister, Marble.”

“Wow, I can’t imagine not going somewhere. I don’t know what I’d do with myself.”

Limestone tensed. “I did okay.”

“…Sure, no, I didn’t mean anything. Sorry. Does Marble like it?”

She shook her head. “I don’t think she could handle a real school. Pinkie’s Pinkie, and Maud’s Maud, but Marble, well…”

He grinned at her. “Is Marble?”

Limestone snorted again. “Well Captain Obvious, isn’t it just looks, brains, and everything with you?”

Flash rolled his eyes and shook his head, but smiled. “You’d better stop stroking my ego before I get entirely the wrong idea.”

She stopped right in the midst of the main walkway leading out to the sidewalk, staring at him.

“What?” he asked after a few moments.

“You don’t care, do you?” She gestured indistinctly. “That I’m trying to piss you off about ninety percent of the time? You really don’t care.”

He shrugged. “As you were so kind to point out, I used to date Sunset. What you don’t see now is how she used to be. I mean, we broke up for a reason.” He went quiet for a moment. “And that reason was because she was borderline abusive.” He looked up. “But that was a long time ago. My point is that I get it about being with someone who’s got an acidic sense of humor. It isn’t quite my thing, but I can dig it.”

“Base.”

“...what?”

Limestone gave him another unpracticed smile. “Lime is basic, not acidic.”

Flash pursed his lips. “I bet you’ve been waiting your whole life to make that joke, haven’t you?”

Author's Note

Track 5: Turn Up The Night

Limestone and Flash returned to the music room with half-drunk smoothies and recollections of more than a few traded verbal barbs. Both were smiling, though Limestone still felt somewhat uncomfortable.

Her smile faded as they approached the guitar and bass set up by the wall.

Flash looked at her, then cleared his throat. “I should’ve asked if you played. I’m sorry. I guess I just assumed that with your singing skills, you’d totally be able to shred too.”

Limestone gave him a sidelong glance. “I have at least one confession to make, Charlie: I’m not actually a huge music buff.”

“No way.” He blinked and shook his head. “You’ve got a killer voice, and your lyrics are pure metal.”

“There’s that word again,” she said. “I didn’t sing about metal; I sang about rocks.”

He waved a hand. “Well, whether it was metal or rock, it was heavy. I just…” he stared at the instruments. “I dunno, I just wanted to kind of capture that again.”

She gave him a skeptical look. “Why?”

He looked away, then shrugged. “I dunno. That kind of music picks me up when I’m down, I guess.”

Limestone folded her arms. “You know, you’re awful moody for a guy on a first date.”

Without missing a beat, Flash smiled and winked at her. “Says the girl who’s awful moody for anything ever.”

Limestone gave him an uncomfortable half-smile. “I think I get it, about you and Sunset. You’ve got this whole nice-guy thing going on, but you know how to give as good as you get, and I think you like doing it.”

He held up his hands. “Hey, guilty as charged. I still say I’m a ‘nice guy,’ though. I don’t actually want to duke it out or piss people off.”

She nodded. “Well, I guess that’s a difference between you and me, then. I don’t mind mixing it up when I have to.”

Flash gave her an inquisitive look. “So… you get into fights? Like, where? I thought you were homeschooled, and you aren’t twenty-one yet…”

Limestone hesitated. Her pulse pumped harder. “Well, I mean, I don’t get into many fights, I just wouldn’t care if I did.”

“So do you know how to fight?”

She fumed. “Keep on asking and you might find out!”

Flash’s shoulders sagged. “Please, don’t do that.”

“Sometimes I don’t like the whole twenty-questions routine, okay?”

He nodded. “Sure, I get that. I can stop, but please just tell me if you need me to stop doing something, all right? It’s okay.”

Limestone furrowed her brow, trying not to blush. Then she turned and looked back at the instruments. “So… do I need one of those?”

Flash chuckled. “Not if you can’t play, I guess. I can just play some chords if you wanna do your vocal thing.”

She stepped over to them and looked down with curiosity. “How hard is it to learn?”

“Actually pretty hard,” he said, stepping next to her. “I’ve been playing guitar since I was a kid, and I’d say I’m still only just okay at it.”

Limestone gave him a wry grin. “But then, ‘since you were a kid’ was only, like, last year, right?”

He rolled his eyes. “Ha ha. Well, that’s just the guitar. The bass…” He bent over it, examined it, then finally picked it up. “Heh. ‘Base.’ Like your lime thing.”

“That joke was barely funny when I said it.”

“No, but seriously, bass can be a whole lot easier. I mean, you can do some really cool and impressive things on bass if you get good with it. But at its easiest all you really have to do is just strum it and do a simple fingering or two. The bigger issue is keeping in time.”

She looked at the black bass with narrowed eyes. “You’re sure it’s easy?”

“Sure I’m sure! Here, put it on.”

Limestone took the bass by its neck and held it out before her for a moment, as if considering whether it might try to wriggle out of her grasp. Then she gripped the long strap in her free hand and raised it uncertainly over her head. It settled heavily onto her shoulder, and she grunted as she adjusted to its weight.

“Well, so far so good,” she said. She raised her hands up to it. “So what do I do now?”

“We’re going to need a tune.” Flash raised his hand toward the frets, but then paused as his fingers brushed against hers. “Ah, sorry. Tell me about what you brought this time to sing.”

She reached into her back pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. “Here, it’s fresh.”

He unfolded it and spent a few moments staring at it. A smile worked its way across his face. “Yeah! This is cool. This is gonna sound great. Have you thought about riffs or a melody for it?”

Limestone frowned. “Not really.”

Flash folded his arms for a moment, but then reached over and picked up the guitar. He turned up the gain and set about noodling around. It took him a bit of experimentation before eventually settling on something simple, mid-tempo, but heavy. “How’s this?”

Limestone shrugged. “Sounds fine. Do you want me to play over it?” She strummed the bass uncertainly, emitting a mishmash of twangy low notes.

He smiled and set the guitar back down. “No, let me show you.” He raised his hand up to hers on the frets again, and met her eyes as she recoiled slightly. “I’m not going to bite you,” he added, deepening his smile. “Just get your index finger here, your middle finger here, and third finger here…”

She furrowed her brow as she tried the fretting. “You mean like this?”

Flash laughed. “No. Look…” He stepped back, looking at each of her sides in turn. “Okay, there’s a way that I could show you, but you’re totally going to think I’m just making a move.”

Limestone raised an eyebrow. “Are you?”

He stepped around behind her, chuckling. Limestone stiffened as he moved his body into gentle contact with hers. His left hand curled around her own as he looked over her left shoulder. “Put your fingers like this.”

She did. Flash nodded. “Good! Now put your right hand down here, by the pickups.” Again, he took her hand in his, and guided it into position.

Limestone brought her head around far enough to get a partial look at him. “Speaking of pickups, don’t think for one second that I’ve missed how blatant this one is, Charlie.”

“Come on, pluck the strings.” He guided her through the movement, and she smiled at the decent-sounding notes that came out over the amp. “Okay, now do it again. And again. Now get into a rhythm with it.”

He let go of her hands and stepped away. Limestone’s first thought was of how his warmth on her back had been nice, but that was quickly replaced by a strange sense of pride at what she was doing. “I’m playing,” she said, stepping over the cord leading from bass to amp as she turned to face him. “I’m really playing!”

Flash rolled his eyes, but smiled. “Bass players. Always think they’re Harmony’s gift to music when they sit there hanging on a couple of notes.”

Limestone gave him a look that was half-sneer and half-smile. “You know, I never did get to finish smashing your guitar earlier.”

He picked up the guitar and nodded his head to be beat she was setting. “Yeah, well, maybe wait until we’ve actually jammed a little.” His hands moved over the strings without strumming them. “Okay, I’m gonna jump in here. Don’t lose the beat. Whatever you do, just keep doing it.”

Flash started playing. It was just the riff he’d worked out earlier, but Limestone’s eyes widened as she reflected on how much better it sounded with a beat behind it. Her beat.

“You’re slowing down,” he said. “Try to stay consistent.”

She gritted her teeth and focused on the beat. The fingers of her left hand hurt from keeping them motionless, but the tips of the fingers on her right hand were calloused from years of work in the quarry and had few issues with plucking the heavy strings. Her mind wandered as she maintained focus, and for a moment she was reminded of what it was like to use her favorite jackhammer, and how it could be an experience replete with both numbing discomfort and immense satisfaction. Metal splitting earth; muscle guiding metal; mind controlling muscle… in some ways, it was just the same experience.

“Yeah!” Flash called. “You’re getting funky now. Get into it!”

She did, letting her legs bend and her head bob with the beat she strummed.

Flash’s melody shifted. Their eyes met, and they both grinned, and Flash stuck his tongue out, working his way out of the main riff and into a solo. He walked over to his amp and raised a foot to the dials along the front of it, groping for something.

There was a small clicking sound, after which the distortion on Flash’s guitar ascended to unholy levels. He grinned through gritted teeth, still maintaining his spiraling solo, and raised his foot to her amp as well. It took him a few moments of batting at knobs, but eventually he dialed her volume up so high that she could feel the beat reverberate in her sternum.

The two of them continued playing, sometimes staring into each other’s eyes with deep smiles, and sometimes just closing their eyes and letting the sound flow through them.

Their ears rang. Their fingers ached. Their hearts soared with the simple, heavy groove that they forged through their music.

Though they were two, they played as one.

And as one, together, they rocked.

Author's Note

Track 6: Between The Hammer And The Anvil

Limestone couldn’t resist cracking a smile as she sat down on Maud’s plain grey comforter. “It was great. There was this crazy energy. I mean, we just played two or three things, and I might’ve played a total of four notes through it all, but what a rush.”

Maud sat in the swivel-chair next to her small upstairs window, and had her legs folded up across her knees. She glanced out at the clear, starry night, and gave one of the bigger sighs that Limestone could recall hearing from her.

Limestone smothered her nascent grin beneath a lifetime of instinct in frowning. “Come on Maud, this is what you wanted, right? I hung out with the boy. I played music with the boy.” She paused, and fell back into a quiet smile. “The boy even touched me a little.”

Maud’s eyes went wide. Like, actually, legitimately wide.

Limestone’s eyes went wide as well. “What? Are you alright?”

“I’m very sorry,” Maud said, regaining her composure. She took a deep breath. “I think I wasn’t quite prepared for how you phrased that. I imagine you chose your words to get the biggest rise out of me that you could. I applaud your success.”

“Not really,” Limestone said, squirming a bit despite herself. “Okay, maybe a little. But he guided my hands through playing the notes, and he got up right behind me to do it…” She shrugged. “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t kinda nice. I mean, he’s nice and all, but he’s got enough edge in there to not just be a total toolbag. Y‘know?”

Maud looked at the floor. “And… my lyrics?”

Limestone frowned. “He looked at them, and really seemed to like them, but we spent most of our time just hanging out or playing. Sorry?”

“I understand. It sounds as though you really hit it off.”

“Maud, stop. I told you this was weird for me, and what you’re doing, right now, isn’t making it any less weird. So what if Flash is a fun guy to hang out with, and he’s got surprising amounts of body heat. You’re the one who’s nursed a crush on him for however long.”

“Just a couple years,” Maud said quietly.

Limestone sighed. “And why didn’t you go for him when you had the chance?”

“What chance? He was with Sunset.”

“Oh, please. I’ve seen you crush rocks twice her size without even breaking a sweat.”

“No,” Maud said, just a hair more intensely than Limestone was expecting.

Limestone shook her head. “Maud, please, I may be a pain in the butt but I don’t want to actually get in your way here. I don’t have to see him again. You can tell him I’m PMSing or something. Harmony knows it’s true enough, right?”

“You and I both know it’s not that simple. The heart wants what it wants, Limestone. And again, you two hit it off.”

“I’m trying to help you out here!” Limestone laid back on the bed, and rubbed her temples. “Okay, what if we try honesty. We can tell him that you wrote the lyrics. Then he’d have to think about what matters more to him. Right?”

Maud was silent for a moment. “I don’t know if forcing him to make a choice like that is fair to anyone.”

Limestone growled. “Come on, Maud! At a minimum, I would feel better if I owned-up about the lyrics instead of just deflecting the question every time. He really likes them, you know.”

Maud smiled. It was subdued and tiny, but it was there.

“There! Look!” Limestone pointed an accusatory finger at Maud’s face. “You care about it! I caught you actually caring about it!”

The smile faded. “We should proceed with an abundance of caution. I don’t want to make things any more complicated than they already are.”

Limestone nodded. “Sure, but how do we do that? I don’t think you or I are exactly relationship experts.”

Maud straightened in her seat. “No, but we know somebody who is a Flash expert.”

The sisters’ eyes met. Limestone sighed. “This is about to get weird again, isn’t it?”

“Two college-age sisters seeking the assistance of a high school girl to help them peacefully compete for the affections of that girl’s ex?” Maud cracked a small, wry grin. “Not weird at all.”

Author's Note

Track 7: Still Life

Limestone looked out the car window at the late afternoon sun, then turned to study Pinkie Pie head-bobbing in time to the high energy dance music she had on.

“Do ya like it?” Pinkie asked, grinning. “It’s DJ’s latest mix!”

“It’s not really my style,” Limestone said, grimacing. “No, I just was thinking about how I keep needing you to drive me into town. Like… I don’t know.”

“Sounds like someone shoulda got her driver’s license when she had the chance!”

Limestone frowned and looked out the window again. “I never needed one. I mean, Mom does all the shopping, and the buyers at the quarry bring in their own stuff, and the Diamond Dog family takes care of hauling away what we don’t sell…”

Pinkie tittered. “Silly Limestone, never thinking that she’d want to date a boy.” She paused, looking reflective. “Actually, you know, you could ask him to pick you up sometime. That’s totes traditional, right?”

“Right.” Limestone’s gaze become less focused. “Pinkie, what am I doing?”

“Uh… going to talk to Sunset about how to straighten things out with Maud and Flash, right, silly?”

Limestone glowered at Pinkie. “Yes, I know that’s what I’m doing. But like, what am I doing with my life?”

“Working the quarry? Taking care of our parents in their old age?”

“Thank you! That’s exactly what I told Maud!” Limestone scoffed. “I’m doing what I need to do, right? Focusing on the essentials.”

“Yep! You’re doing all that stuff, and definitely not nursing a crippling sense of self-doubt and fear of rejection that keeps you from putting yourself out into the world!”

Limestone choked. “P… Pinkie!”

Pinkie shrugged. “Hey, if the shackle fits, wear it, amirite?”

Limestone focused on the feeling of anger that simmered in her brain. It was a lot more comforting than the other mass of feelings dancing around in there.

“Because, you know,” Pinkie said, intruding into the silence, “it’s really easy to look at Maud and Marble… especially Marble… and judge them for their struggles with that.” Her smile faded, and a rare look of worry crossed her face. “And it’s a whole lot easier to do that than to focus on yourself and get up every day and try to fight the knot of loco in your coco that keeps you looking at the world from a distance and wondering how you can be a part of it.”

The sisters met eyes for a moment, but then Pinkie broke the gaze for the sake of keeping her eyes on the road.

“Is that what you do?” Limestone asked.

“Sure I do.” Pinkie’s voice lost much of its usual floof. “If you want me to be honest, sometimes it gets kinda dark up here in casa de Pinkie Pie. I’m just a whole lot better at hiding it than the rest of y’alls are.”

Limestone nodded slowly. “I wonder if it’s genetic.”

“Who knows! …Although, I kinda hope not. Someday there are gonna be some little Pies who hopefully won’t get whatever all of us seem to have.” Pinkie gave Limestone a huge wink. “Maybe sooner than later, if you keep that boom boom workin’!”

“I will break you in half if you don’t shut up.”

“But you can’t drive!” Pinkie sing-songed.

Limestone growled and balled her fists, but she couldn’t deny a certain feeling of comfort at knowing her struggle wasn’t unique. Still, the thought raised more questions than answers for her.

“So what do I do?”

“Whaddaya mean, silly?”

“For driving. Or whatever. Putting myself out there.”

Pinkie smiled. “Kinda seems like going out with someone is a first step! Oh, and driving’s easy; you just call a driving school, and then bribe your favorite little sister into taking you over there. Couple of months later, you’ll be driving!”

Limestone nodded. “...Why put yourself out there at all?”

Pinkie’s look became serious. Deathly serious. “Because you know what’s in there when you’re all alone, sister. You may not like it, but you know it’s there. And it’ll drive you crazy if you don’t let someone in to help you with it.” She smiled again, and the effect was like a terrifying sun of positivity breaking through storm clouds. “Besides, don’t you have something you’ve always dreamed of doing other than just working for Dad?”

“Kind of?” Limestone’s lips tightened. “Honestly, I like working the quarry. I mean, I could actually see myself doing that for a big chunk of my life, and being happy with it for the most part.”

“And the part that isn’t most?”

Limestone sighed. “Come on, Pinkie. I know I’m not always the easiest person to get along with, but I’m not actually made of stone. Finding a boyfriend, or a husband, or whatever, could be nice.”

Pinkie gave her a toothy grin. “Thinking marriage already, eh? Go get ‘im, tiger!”

“No. No, no, no! Look, Flash is nice, but I don’t know if what I really want is nice. I don’t know what I want at all! I’m new to all of this.” She looked back out the window again. “Besides, Maud has an interest in him, too, and I don’t care what anybody says, Sunset’s still gotta be in the picture somewhere.”

“Not really,” Pinkie said. “I don’t know what Sunset’s thinking in the whole dating department, but I’m pretty sure ol’ Flash is permanently in her friend-zone. Or ex-zone. Whichever’s worse!”

Limestone thought in silence for a few moments. “I don’t know, Pinkie. I guess I should want something more, but the truth is that I like working the quarry. But if I just do that, what happens if I get injured, or just old? And how am I ever going to meet someone?”

“One thing at a time, silly! Let’s go talk to Sunset and work on disentangling this web of lies!”

“For Harmony’s sake, it’s not a web of lies. It’s one omission.”

“Are you sure that’s your position?”

“Well… yeah, I guess.”

Pinkie broke into a tremendous grin. “So you and Flash are doin’ things in the o-missionary position?”

Limestone groaned. “You know, if I pull the emergency brake before I throttle you to death, I can probably take my chances with spinning-out or whatever. This thing’s got airbags, right?”

“I love you too, big sis-o’-mine!”

Author's Note

Track 8: Hot For Teacher

Limestone’s pulse quickened the moment she sat down opposite Sunset in the small cafe. It wasn’t just that she was pretty; Harmony was she pretty though, and Limestone briefly wondered just how sure she was about Flash, or about being straight in general, because the only thing more impressive about this girl than the sense of calm confidence she projected was the glow of her skin in the light that streamed through the nearby window.

“Limestone?”

“Wha… yeah, sorry.” Limestone took solace in the anger she felt over having been caught staring. “Thanks for meeting.”

“Pinkie said you needed some advice about Flash.”

Limestone sighed. “Yeah, well, whatever Pinkie told you, just forget it. She seems to think our next stop should be for kinky nighties over at Platinum’s Secret.”

Sunset took a sip of her coffee, visibly stalling for time to process Limestone’s words. “You know they just sell regular underwear too, right? And comfy clothes. Actually half of what I’m wearing right now comes from them.”

Limestone fought down a blush. “Okay, so maybe Pinkie was just trying to get me to freshen-up my wardrobe a little.” She paused. “Actually, thank you; that makes most of what she said on the way over make a lot more sense.”

“No problem,” Sunset said, smiling. “So what can I help you with?”

Limestone looked down at her own cup of coffee, gave it an experimental sniff, and set it back down. She looked back up at Sunset and tried her best to muster-up irritation at the girl’s warm smile, but found herself failing utterly. “I think I screwed something up with him, and I’m not sure how to make it right.”

“Flash is a pretty understanding guy. I’m sure that whatever it is, he won’t freak out, and you guys can probably work it out together.”

“Well, it’s kind of big.” Limestone took a deep breath. “He thinks I wrote the lyrics that I’ve shared with him.”

Sunset nodded slightly. “Who did?”

Limestone failed to hold her blush at bay. “My sister, Maud.”

“Hmm.” Sunset took another sip of coffee. “I’m glad that you want to be honest with him. It’s the right thing to do, regardless. But what’s the big deal if you wrote the lyrics or she did? He’s interested in you.”

“Well, yeah, but that’s because he thinks I wrote the lyrics.” Limestone sighed. “He likes them.”

“Limestone, I’m pretty sure he likes you, and the lyrics are secondary.” Sunset smiled. “I don’t want to pry, but has he tried pulling any grand spontaneous gestures yet?”

“I don’t think so?”

“Well, you have that to look forward to.” Sunset chuckled. “He’s a sweetheart, but sometimes he can overdo things when he likes someone. Just saying.”

Limestone nodded. “Okay, sure, but I haven’t gotten to the worst thing yet: Maud likes him, too.”

“Oh.” Sunset’s smile faded. “Ohhh.”

“Yeah. Now you see it.”

Sunset's face pulled tight into a look of uncertainty. “Well, Maud really isn’t in the picture, is she? You like him, and he likes you.”

Limestone frowned. “Do I?”

Sunset blinked. “Limestone, please don’t lead him on if you’re not sure about him. Flash is a really great guy, and his heart has been through some tough stuff over the past year. The last thing he needs is…”

“I don’t want to jerk him around.” Limestone squeezed her eyes shut. “In all senses of the word. Look, I don’t know, Sunset. I don’t really date, I don’t know what I’m doing, and I certainly wasn’t looking. He just came out of nowhere, and we jammed, and it was nice.” She shrugged. “I don’t know what any of that means.”

“Well, I’d say that could be the start of something.” Sunset smiled. “It sounds like you guys are still really early, which makes sense. You’ve got some surface attraction, which helps start things; now you’re starting to think about when and how to take things deeper.” She took a drink of her coffee. “I think your instinct about wanting to be honest about the lyrics is a good one. I don’t think it’ll be a problem, but the longer you let that go, the more of your relationship will be founded on an untruth, which isn’t good.”

Limestone nodded. “What about Maud, though? I feel like I’m going to squish her heart flat if I actually go for him.”

Sunset frowned. “I know that makes things complicated for you at home, but Limestone, it isn’t healthy for you to hold back on this just for the sake of what she might do.”

“Honestly, I’d rather just let her have him if I could get her to actually go for him,” Limestone said.

“Why?”

“Because you don’t know Maud,” Limestone sighed as she took a sip of coffee. She immediately regretted this, as her face puckered at its bitter taste. “Oh, I hate that stuff. No, like… I’ve never seen her act like this before. He means something to her. And I don’t want to take that away from her if she really wants him.”

“It’s not that easy, though. Relationships have got to be a two-way street, otherwise you can go through all the motions and they don’t mean anything.” Sunset leaned closer. “It’s like the way you’re thinking about Maud here; it doesn’t matter if you want to put your feelings aside to let her have a chance with him, it matters what she’s ultimately willing to do now, in the moment, now that Flash has maybe got a thing for you. And how she’s willing to treat you, now that you’re starting to be attracted to him.”

“I don’t get it.”

“Let me try it like this: You’re willing to put your feelings aside to give her a chance to be happy with Flash, right?”

“Right, I guess.”

“Well, relationships don’t work that way. What Flash feels for you right now isn’t something he can just put on the shelf while he tries it out with Maud. I mean, I’ve heard stories about people breaking up and getting back together later after being with other people, but I wouldn’t bet on that as a general thing.”

Limestone sat back in her chair, frowning. “So what you’re saying is that I’m going to have to let her down.”

Sunset shrugged. “I’m sorry. You may want the best for her, but she has to be willing to take steps to start things with people if she wants to find someone. It sounds like maybe that’s hard for her, but it wouldn’t be any different for you or anyone else.” She smiled. “You’ve gotta open yourself up a bit if you want to achieve intimacy.”

Limestone blushed. “I don’t think I’m quite ready for that…”

“No, I mean intimacy in the sense of really sharing things and building the relationship.” Sunset winked. “Maybe save the other kind of intimacy for once you actually have a committed relationship, or at least once you know your way around Platinum’s Secret.”

Limestone’s blush grew hot and intense. “Okay, is it weird for you talking about Flash like this with someone else?”

“Not really. If you weren’t serious… yeah, maybe. But I can tell you’re serious.”

“How can you tell?”

“You really aren’t asking me for much. You care about the people in your life, and you want to find a way to preserve their feelings even though you know that someone isn’t going to end up getting what they want.” Sunset took a breath. “And you’re way too eager for that someone to be you, but not like, in the martyr sense of it.”

Limestone nodded, then broke into a small, sideways grin. “You make me sound so good.”

Sunset gave her a warm smile. “I’m sorry, but it looks like you might be good, Limestone Pie.”

Limestone froze. “This isn’t flirting, is it?”

“W… what?”

“Good.” Limestone forced herself to suffer through a long pull of her dark, bitter coffee. “Very good.”

Author's Note

Track 10: Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?

~ \m/ ~

Want to talk. Please come
back to the house.

Talking with dad

Need to talk.

Yes

When are you coming
back to the house?

Maud give it a rest or
ill shove this phone where
the sun dont shine

Why would you put your
own phone there?

YOU KNOW WHAT I
MEAN

It was just a weird thing
to say.

IM COMING BACK

I’m down in the basement.
Please keep your phone to
yourself.

MAUD I WILL END YOU

~ \m/ ~

Wood creaked underfoot as Limestone tromped down the stairs to their home’s basement. She squinted in the dim light that filtered down from around the corner to the kitchen upstairs.

“Maud?” she called into the darkness.

“I’m in the workshop,” came a muffled voice from deeper in the basement.

Limestone worked her way down the central hallway until she came to a turn and another short hallway. At the end of that one, she saw light leaking from around the frame of a closed door. She walked over to it and knocked. “Maud, come on. What are you doing down here?”

The doorknob turned, and Maud pulled the door open. She stood before Limestone in a comfortable shirt and jammy pants.

“Thank you for coming,” Maud said, stepping aside and waving Limestone into the room. Though it had never been drywalled, it was swept clean, and it had several tables filled with various heavy tools and equipment such as a pair of drill presses mounted next to each other. There was also a table off to the side that had a desk chair next to it, several small drawers full of tools, and a heavy fluorescent light hanging above. A number of tools and small stones were laid out on the table.

Limestone walked over to it, then looked back at Maud.

“I still find it soothing to do small-scale stone cutting and gemological work from time to time,” Maud said. She walked over and picked up a tiny but breathtaking blue-and-white striped stone. “Have a look at this lace agate I’ve been working on today.”

“It’s good.” Limestone frowned at Maud. “But we’re not here to talk about rocks.”

Maud gave her a flat look. She stayed quiet, forcing Limestone to make the first move.

Limestone sighed. “Fine. Okay, listen, I don’t think this is such a good idea, having me date Flash and tell you about it. It’s pretty clear that you have feelings that are going to get stepped on if we keep going like this.”

Maud looked down. “What did Sunset say about telling him about the lyrics?”

“She told me I should tell him, so I told him. And he didn’t care.”

“He…” Maud blinked. “Not at all?”

Limestone shrugged. “He said you were a really good writer. I dunno, I didn’t think he’d be so cool about it either, but he seemed glad I was telling him even when I did.”

“I see.” Maud looked at the project table. “I shouldn’t have asked you to do this.”

“Nobody made you.” Limestone sighed. “I know I wasn’t sure about this at first, but now I like him. And I’m pretty sure he likes me too.”

“Mom and Pinkie put your flowers in a vase up in your room.”

Limestone blushed. “Maud, what am I supposed to do here? I don’t want to hurt you; I really don’t. But now I actually like him. How do I reconcile those two things?”

Maud shrugged. “You have to choose what matters more to you.”

“No. I don’t want to choose between you guys, Maud. Because I love you, but I also want to give this dating thing a chance, I guess.”

“I understand,” Maud said. “But bear in mind that what this situation does is force us to compete.”

“Except it isn’t much of a competition, is it? He went out with me, and he wants to do it again.”

Maud’s facial expression stayed frozen but her eyes spoke volumes about her inner turmoil. “It does seem like you hold all the proverbial cards here.”

Limestone pointed at her. “Say what you want now that you see how it’s going, but just remember, you’re the one who put me up to this. I could’ve just flipped him off and walked away!”

“That’s certainly true,” Maud said. “I suppose I forfeited my right to complain when I orchestrated this whole situation to begin with. My biggest mistake was failing to anticipate that it would go so well.” She paused. “I’m sorry that I bet against you actually being able to start a relationship with Flash.”

“Look, it’s all right,” Limestone said. “I mean… it’s not all right. It’s…” She looked down at the table and picked up the lace agate. “Okay, bear with me on this, but I bet it took years for this to form under the pressure of the earth, right? And even when you dug it out, it probably didn’t look like this; you had to spend hours cutting and polishing it.”

Maud gave her a slight smile. “So you do listen when I talk about geology.”

Limestone pursed her lips. “Sometimes. But it's kind of like us kids, right? You know the kind of pressure we grew up under. I think Pinkie’s gonna do all right for herself, but the rest of us need polishing.”

“I… suppose.”

“Well, you spent years getting polished by your time in a real school, even if you didn’t always like it. And now you're working on the next step with your whole geology thing. It’s like… you already know where you’re going with your life, and you’re on your way there. That’s a whole lot better than I’ve been doing.”

Maud’s expression became even flatter than usual. “Limestone, you’re stretching this metaphor to its breaking point.”

“Yeah, well, I ain’t done yet. Look, I know that dating isn’t everything, but it’s giving me new kinds of thoughts about my future. Stuff you’ve already figured out, y’know? Like I’m actually thinking more about what I really want to do instead of just doing the same things I’ve been doing for years.” She paused, and shrugged. “I guess I feel like my gemstone’s finally getting polished here. That’s a good thing, metaphorically speaking.”

Maud blushed. “Saying you and Flash are polishing each other’s rocks could carry other kinds of metaphorical significance.”

Limestone sighed. “Come on, Maud. Fight me if you’re gonna, but don’t snipe at me.”

Maud looked at the ground. “You’ve made an argument that I can hardly refute, much as part of me still wants to.” She paused. “I suppose it would make sense, then, to establish new parameters for us regarding Flash.”

Limestone narrowed her eyes. “Why do I get the sneaking suspicion that I’m not gonna like where you’re going with this?”

Maud gave her the faint hint of a smile. “I’ll keep letting you and Flash use my lyrics for your music. I’ll even write you more. But if this is having the benefits that you describe, then I would like to see you continue to get serious with him. Really serious.”

“I don’t know, Maud. If you’re already this upset about him bringing me flowers, I don’t want to see what you’d do if he sticks his tongue down my throat.”

Maud gagged slightly. “I don’t mean ‘serious’ like rushing physical intimacy for the sake of letting me watch your relationship unfold from a distance. That would be disturbing.”

“Thank you, I was worried for a minute there.”

“What I mean is that I want you to actually figure out what you want to do with your life, and see what he says about that too.”

Limestone frowned. “Dad pretty much said the same thing.”

Maud blinked. “You know, he has some good advice, and he’s surprisingly good to talk with aboutー”

“Please let that sentence end where it just did.”

The sisters looked at each other in silence for a few moments. Then Limestone stretched her right hand out. “All right, I’ll get serious with Flash and see where things go.”

Maud shook her hand, then blushed again. “You may be right; perhaps that isn’t the best way of saying it.”

Limestone growled in reply, but let the issue drop.

Author's Note

Track 11: Fight ‘Em ‘Til You Can’t

~ \m/ ~

Hey

Hi

How bad was it after I left?

Spent half the night talking
my family down off a ledge

Sorry. I’m a dope.

Good thing you're cute

:-)

Thought you were gonna call

Stuck helping with a study
group. Haven’t been able
to get away. OK to plan
over txt?

I guess

You like spicy food?

Yeah

Got us a table at a burrito
place next to a club we
can jam at. Owner’s going
to let us in off-hours.

Fancy place?

Sorry, no

Good

Pick you up at 7?

No ill meet you there

You sure? It’s no trouble

You can drive me next
time Charlie

~ \m/ ~

Limestone clutched the open car door in the fading light. She studied the exterior of the burrito place; it was run-down, at least as much as the streets surrounding it were. It didn’t look nearly as well-kept-up as the club next door. It did smell pretty good, though.

She looked down at her clothes, and grimaced. Each of her sisters had had an opinion about what she should wear, and they’d each offered part of the ensemble she’d ended up in, partially because she didn’t own any clothes that seemed presentable. The bright periwinkle pants were Pinkie’s; Maud had given her a thick grey belt; and most mysterious of all, somehow Marble had produced a really comfy and snug long-sleeved brown cashmere shirt. The only downer was Limestone’s own work boots underneath the whole thing, because she had the biggest feet of all of them.

“You okay?” Pinkie asked from behind her.

“Yeah. Just thinking.” She glanced back at the burrito place. “Why here?”

Pinkie scrunched up her face into a thinking look. “Well, it’s pretty close to CHS, so it’s popular and Flash might’ve been here before. And it’s cheap enough to fit a student budget. And it’s an easy walk to that club where you’re going to play.”

Limestone frowned. “None of that sounds terribly… romantic.”

Pinkie gave Limestone a wide-eyed look. “You care about romantic?!”

“What? Romantic could be nice.”

“You’re silly. Are you so worried about what it might not be that you’re afraid to find out what it is?”

Limestone slammed the car door. “Are all of you taking relationship advice classes behind my back? Because you sound like it.”

Pinkie giggled, put the car into gear, and drove off.

Limestone shook her head before walking to the burrito place and pushing through the door. A small bell jingled overhead, and soon the smell of spicy meat and hot tortillas washed over her. She closed her eyes momentarily to savor it.

When she opened them again, she saw a row of scratched wooden tables lining a room painted a dingy, fading yellow. People filled the tables—likely students, judging by their youthful, acne-filled faces. As she stood there, she attracted several curious looks from the patrons.

“Oh, hey Limestone!” Flash called from a table near the back, standing and waving at her.

A brief hush rippled through the conversations at the various tables, and for an uncomfortably long moment all eyes turned to study Limestone. She felt naked standing there under their gazes. Soon enough they looked away, returning to their fellows with quieter but more intense whispers.

Limestone felt heat rising in her cheeks, then in her chest as well. They were talking about her. Some still looked at her. It wasn’t like it had been at the open mic night, when she had been riled-up and on the attack; that had given her all the advantage she needed to face a room full of strangers. No, this time she was caught off-guard. All the anger in the world couldn’t save her from their looks and whispers.

So she did the only other thing she knew would release that pressure: she turned and bolted out the door.

Crisp evening air filled her lungs as she set off down the sidewalk. She struggled to keep her mind from playing-back what had just happened and instead focused on listening for the one sound she knew might help to make it better.

It finally came: the telltale metallic push of a door, followed by the jingling of a small bell overhead.

“Limestone, wait!” Flash called after her.

Her retreat faltered. She looked to the side, seeing an alley that ran between buildings. She ducked into it and stopped, feeling her arms and legs shake as she waited near the mouth of it. Limestone tried to steady her breathing as she waited. She listened as she heard the sounds of Flash breathing and his shoes on the concrete.

He came around the corner and stopped. “Hey, what was…” He paused, watching as Limestone fought to keep from shaking. “Limestone?”

“They were looking at me,” she said through gritted teeth. “Talking about me. Making fun of me.”

“No, it’s not like that,” Flash said, taking a step toward her.

Limestone drew back a step. “Don't you get it? I’m this really old basket case who doesn’t know the first thing about dating, and I get mad all the time, and I…” She paused, took several deep breaths, and loaded another proverbial round into the chamber. “What do you want out of life?”

Flash furrowed his brow. “What?”

“You want something. Everybody wants something. I want to know what it is.”

He put a hand on the back of his neck. “I suppose, but if I tell you, will you tell me too?”

“Maybe.”

Flash sighed. “I don’t know. I guess I’m sort of doing what I love right now: going to school, hanging out, maybe jamming with you?”

She gave him a low growl. “No, not school stuff; I want to know something real!”

He shrugged. “I mean, honestly, this is what I like doing. What’s wrong with liking what you do?”

Limestone pressed her eyes shut. “Believe me, I know how that feels.” She opened them again. “But that’s not good enough, right? Especially not for you. I mean, I like what I do at the quarry, but then I’ve got a real job. You’re just a high school kid.”

He frowned. “‘Just’ a high school kid?”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh come on, you know that you’re living in a bubble right now and it’s going to pop someday. What’s your plan for when it does?”

Flash frowned at her. “To be honest, I don’t know if I should share if that’s how you’re going to play things.”

“What do you mean?”

“You… basically stand me up at the burrito place and fly off the handle at me with all these questions when I’m just trying to find out how you’re doing and if everything’s okay…”

“Well, maybe things aren’t okay!” She scowled and pointed at him. “Don’t try to change the subject!”

“No, I think I want to know what’s going on here. At least if you’d come out and tell me, I would know what I’m up against.”

Limestone fumed. “I’m not against you.”

He pointed at her. “Well, you’re the one who’s leading a merry chase on what’s supposed to be a dinner out together. What am I supposed to think?”

“I don’t know, but hopefully you’ll think more than you did last night when you embarrassed me in front of my whole family.”

Flash huffed. “I told you, I apologized! Was it really that bad, though? I mean, are you embarrassed about the surprise or embarrassed about me?”

Limestone threw up her hands. “Pick one!”

“Limestone…” Flash stuffed his hands in his pockets. “I can’t do this. I think there’s something actually bugging you, but we’re not going to get anywhere if all you do is attack me.”

She took a few breaths, and felt some of the anger begin to subside. “I just… I don’t do crowds. Well, maybe I do. Sometimes. But only on my terms.”

He nodded. “Okay, look, I’m sorry about the burrito place. Doubly sorry ‘cuz it’s actually pretty good and I’m hungry. I had no idea that it was going to be a problem for you.”

Limestone looked down at her heavy work boots. “I’m not embarrassed about you. Well, maybe I am. But it’s not you. I mean, it’s not who you are.” She met his eyes. “So far, I think I actually like who you are.”

Flash gave her a small smile.

She leaned back against the wall, then looked at him. “I feel old, Flash. And I don’t know what I’m doing, either at dating or at life. I missed all this stuff when I was your age.” She paused. “Harmony above, I’m saying things like when I was your age.”

“Limestone, I don’t care about that. In some ways you’re kind of where I am right now; you’re trying to figure out what comes next. Besides, I mean, it’s not like you’re thirty or something.”

She gave him a half-smile. “So that’s your weirdness threshold?”

He shrugged. “I think it’s more like a case-by-case basis thing. And you’re not old, Limestone. You’ve got time to figure out whatever you need to.”

Limestone frowned. “Do I?” She slid down onto her bottom, holding her head in her hands. “Flash, people I trust, people I love, are telling me that I need to figure out more, and I… I think they’re right.”

Flash took a step toward her, but then paused. “Is that what’s really bothering you? Well, I mean, other than the burrito place thing.”

She nodded. “I think, honestly, I really like you. But I’m not going anywhere in life! I just get up, go to work, come home, go to bed…”

He smiled as he squatted down before her. “That kind of sounds like the way I’ve heard people describe adult life.”

Limestone raised her head and gave him a flat look. “Come on, you know what I mean. Flash, what are you going to do after high school?”

He blinked a few times, and furrowed his brow. “I don’t know. I guess I was going to try to figure that out sometime this year?”

“But you don’t just know?”

“Do you?”

She opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it again, and buried her face back in her knees.

After a moment, she felt the warmth of his hands close around hers. She looked up, finding his smiling face very close to hers indeed.

“They say that you should do what you love,” he said quietly.

She raised a hand and touched the back of his head, at first gently, but then fully enveloping her fingers in his hair. “But what if I’m not sure if what I love is good enough?”

He gave her a smile that filled her world with the light of his blue eyes. “Would I sound totally lame if I asked whether you get to choose what’s good enough for you?”

“What if I’m afraid of what everyone else is going to think about me?” She paused. “What if I’m afraid of what I’m going to think about me? What if I’ve never really thought about it before, and now I can’t stop thinking about it?”

Flash gently reached up and took her hand in his. “Look, this is where I’m probably supposed to tell you to be true to yourself, or some kind of happy crap like that. But I don’t know, Limestone. Sometimes you don’t see the whole picture all at once, and that has to be okay, right? Because what else are you going to do?”

“What if that’s not very satisfying?”

He sighed, settling into a long-suffering half-smile. “I’ll tell you what, how ‘bout if we deal with hunger for the moment.”

She squeezed his hand tighter. “I don’t wanna go back in there.”

“Okay, I can go get us something.”

Limestone squirmed slightly, giving him a plaintive frown.

“It’s all right, I don’t really want to leave you either,” he said. “Why don’t we hit the club, start rocking out, and just order in from the burrito place? I think they can deliver a couple hundred feet.”

She smiled. “Now you’re talking.”

Flash helped Limestone up to her feet, and they walked back out to the street, then down a couple doors. They stopped at a plain tan door that didn’t have a knob on the outside. Flash pounded on it a few times.

“You know the owner?” Limestone asked.

Flash smiled. “I know he lets people in sometimes if you slip him some cash and promise not to wreck things.”

The door pushed open and out poked the head of a heavyset man with bright white skin and whose hair and thick mustache were blue-and-white-striped.

“Ah, is you. Come,” he said in a thick accent.

“Thanks, Mr. Stripes.”

The man let them into the club’s dark backroom, let his gaze linger on Limestone for a few moments longer than seemed appropriate, then shrugged and headed off down a hallway.

“Nice guy,” Limestone said, gritting her teeth.

“Come on, you can beat some manners into him later. I already dropped off my stuff. Let’s get you set up with your bass so I can call in our order.”

They walked out from the backroom into the main floor. Limestone shivered as she looked around at the darkened rows full of tables with chairs stacked on them. The stage at the far end of the room provided the only source of illumination: a single canister light from up above.

Flash looked at her and seemed to sense her trepidation. “What is it?”

She slowly looked all around the place before settling back on him. “It’s not like it was at the cafe, you know?”

He nodded. “Yeah, the crowd gives you a certain energy.”

She sighed. “No, I mean, what am I doing here? I had a really good time, but am I just trying to recapture that feeling? Shouldn’t I be…”

“I thought we were taking this one step at a time,” Flash said.

Limestone turned from him and walked down the long row of tables, stopping at the foot of the stage. She saw Flash’s guitar and the black bass set neatly on stands, with the vague outline of a drum kit at the edges of the pool of light from above. With a deep breath she stepped up to the stage and took the bass in her hand.

“I’ve always liked using my jackhammer,” she said, apropos of nothing.

Flash moved up next to her, looking alternately at her and at the bass. “That isn’t a jackhammer.”

She frowned at him. “I know it isn’t a jackhammer. I just… do you know why I like my jackhammer?”

He smiled. “Because you’re the kind of buff chick who could break me in half without even trying?”

Limestone snorted. “No. It’s the vibration.”

“Whoa, now.” Flash threw his hands up and took a few steps backward. “This is starting to sound like more than I need to know.”

She gave him a look that was half-smile and half-stink eye. “Maybe I should break you in half.”

“You better watch yourself.” He winked at her. “It might turn out that I’m into that sort of thing.”

Limestone cracked up laughing. “You know… I was going to be all deep and meaningful about how playing bass has given me a connection back to something I know and love, but also forward to something new and interesting. But thank you, because it’s much better if we keep this at the level of innuendo.”

His smile faded a bit. “I’m sorry. You just seemed like you could take it.”

“Don’t be. I can.”

They stood smiling at each other for a moment.

“Well?” Limestone said. “Aren’t you going to… plug me in?”

Flash laughed, then reached down to the floor and picked up a cable. He plugged it into her bass and walked over to a small soundboard at the side of the stage. “There. You should be live.”

“Good. Now go make that call. I’m hungry, too.”

“Know what you want?”

“You said they had spicy. Get me big and spicy.”

Flash pulled out his phone to call in their order. Meanwhile, Limestone plucked the strings of her bass, sending a low note echoing throughout the room. She frowned, turned up her volume knob, and strummed again. This time the depth and magnitude of sound made even the windows rattle.

Limestone closed her eyes and played the handful of notes that she knew, savoring the rumbling intensity of each. She felt them, almost as much as she heard them. And as she lost herself among them, she couldn't believe how amazing they felt.

Eventually she felt a hand on her shoulder, and she stopped, opening her eyes to see Flash standing before her, holding up a white paper bag.

“Sorry to butt in, but food’s here.”

“...Sorry.” Limestone blushed, turned down the volume knob, and set the bass back on its stand. “Kinda got into it.”

He grinned. “I noticed. You know it gets better if you actually learn how to play.”

She looked down at the bass, then back at Flash, and finally she set her jaw. “All right, then. How do I learn?”

“Well, there’s lots of ways. You could get a book from a library or watch videos online, but of course at some point you’re gonna have to sit down and practice for a bunch of hours. Maybe a few every day if you’re serious. And it helps to have a goal.”

Limestone grinned. “Hey, I’ve got a goal. How’s this: I want to play a show again. With you.”

Flash’s eyebrows climbed. “You… mean like a real show?”

Limestone nodded. “Yes. A real show. Real songs, real audience. Kinda like the first time, only planned. And with me playing.”

He lowered the burrito bag. “I don't know, Limestone. It takes a lot of practice to get ready for a proper show; probably a couple weeks’ worth minimum to learn a few songs well. Plus, we’re just guitar, bass, and vocals; we’d need to pull in a drummer and maybe write some original music if we really wanted to get real. But then we’d have a band, and that's kind of a commitment on its own…”

Limestone shook her head, smiling. “Well if you’re scared of commitment, why don't we just play a couple easy cover songs? You can pick whatever you think would sound good for us.”

He looked around the stage pensively. “If I could get one of my friends to drum with us, it might be fun to play some classic metal songs as a three-piece. We could substitute Maud’s lyrics, too. I bet nobody under forty would know the difference. It might get kind of awkward having the third wheel, though.”

“You know what, let me handle the drummer.”

He looked at her askance. “You can get us a drummer?”

She gave him a huge grin. “Well, she’s definitely the well-meaning, moderately annoying third-wheel type, but I bet she would jump at the chance to back us up.”

Flash gave her a serious look. “All right, but I don’t want this to be all we do. I still want to go to dinner with you, Limestone. I want to take walks with you and talk about… the future, or whatever.”

She put a hand on his arm. “All right, let’s just make this our side thing. Pick us out a couple songs where I don’t have to play anything too complex, and me and Pinkie can just work on them together at home.”

“Cool.” He opened the bag and handed her a big, wrapped burrito. “No, this could be fun. I really do like playing with you. I just want us to keep talking. As much as some of the questions you’ve asked are uncomfortable to think about, the truth is that you’ve got a point.”

They sat down together on the edge of the stage and started unwrapping their food. Limestone studied her burrito’s red-tinted flour tortilla before looking back at Flash. “I do, huh?”

The question caught him in mid-bite. He hastily chewed, swallowed, and gave a quick cough. “Well, yeah. I mean, I really haven’t got things figured out for after high school. And I can say I’m planning to work on that, but the truth is that I’ve been saying that for a year or two now, and I’m not a whole lot closer to figuring it out.”

Limestone took a big bite of her burrito. She ended up sucking in a deep breath as her mouth felt a fiery explosion of spicy beans, rice, cilantro, and peppers.

“‘S’gud,” she managed.

“Told ya,” he said, smiling.

After working her way through the bite, Limestone set the burrito down and put a hand on his shoulder. “Well, okay, post-school life. Do you have any ideas?”

He hunched his head a bit. “I’ve got plenty of ideas, but nothing solid. I mean, I like music a lot, but it’s hard to make a career out of that. I like studying, helping with stuff, hanging out with people… but that’s no kind of career either, right?”

Limestone shrugged. “Sounds like you could be a teacher, or a counselor, or something. Maybe a cop?”

Flash paused, then frowned. “I don’t know. That’s not really a job, right? You’re pretty much committing yourself to being that.”

“Depends on what you do with it, I guess.” Limestone eyed her burrito again. “What’s more important: finding some ‘real job,’ or finding something that you actually like doing?”

He looked at her. “Well, what about you? Still just want to work the quarry?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I could buy it off my dad someday, let him retire, hire on a bigger crew…”

“Sounds like you’d need to know some business stuff to do that.”

She nodded. “Well, it’s like you said: you gotta figure it out one thing at a time sometimes, right?”

He smiled. “I did say that, didn’t I?”

Limestone took a deep breath. “Flash, there’s still one other thing I haven’t told you. About Maud, and the lyrics… and me.”

“Hold on. Let me get a couple more bites in on this thing before you blow my doors off.”

She rolled her eyes as he wolfed down half of his burrito, then gave her a thumbs-up.

“Look Flash, the thing is, I wasn’t really sure about this at first. It was Maud who had a really big crush on you, and she put me up to doing this whole thing.”

Flash smiled. “Yeah, I know.”

“You… what?! How?”

He shrugged. “Like I said, I remember when Maud was an upperclassman at CHS. She keeps pretty quiet, but she’s got some ‘tells’ that you can read if you look closely. Kinda like with you, where right below the pissed-off surface layer you’re pretty much an open book, and a lot more anxious than angry.”

Limestone shook her head slowly. “You know, Charlie, it’s a shame that you and Maud didn’t hit it off. Sounds like you’re one of the few guys out there who would get her.”

He smiled. “Maybe, but I like the fact that you speak up and come right at me; I don’t think I could handle the silent treatment. Now are you gonna finish that burrito so we can get on with jamming?”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

Author's Note

Also, the burrito place is an homage to pre-reader extraordinaire Soufriere's Burritoverse stories, which are worth checking out!

Tracks 12 & 13: My Road / Bring Heavy Rock To The Land

Limestone’s days passed in a blur of work at the quarry, practicing with Pinkie in the basement, and seeing Flash whenever possible. She hadn’t felt so busy in years. But as days turned to weeks and eventually became a month or more, she also found herself brooding less over the minor setbacks in her day-to-day life than she could remember in a long time, if only because she didn’t have time enough to focus on them.

Somehow things only got busier when Flash booked them a spot in an amateur music night at the club where they had practiced. Limestone felt good about having a concrete date and a couple more weeks to work on the one complex bass line Flash had given her, but the date still came roaring up on them faster than she could prepare. In fact, their final practice session on the night before the show eventually descended into a debacle of frustration and thrown burritos, followed by some shamefaced mopping of the club.

Very late that same night, Flash and Limestone talked briefly over the phone, expressing their regrets for how things had gone and looking forward to seeing each other at the show.

On the morning of the show, Limestone stood alone on the back porch of her house, holding a steaming mug of coffee and staring down the sunlit road to the quarry. She startled as she heard the back door open, and she turned, raising her eyebrows with surprise at who approached her.

“Marble?”

Her youngest sister shrunk back at the attention, as if trying to hide behind her own coffee mug. She was dressed in the same sort of shapeless potato-sack outfit as usual, and Limestone couldn’t help but think that she’d look like some kind of homeless waif if it wasn’t for the mug and her new pair of tennis shoes.

Limestone frowned. “Well, are you gonna say something, or are you just here to invade my private thinking time?”

Marble seemed to give this a great deal of consideration.

“Ugh. What is it? Can’t you see I’ve got a lot to think about here? Everything’s changing for me. I’m hanging out more with Pinkie and Maud so we can get the songs down, I’m letting Dad cover more shifts so I can practice bass…” She took a swig from her mug, savoring its bitterness. “I’ve even got to decide if I’m going to enroll in community college in the Spring, or next Summer, or Fall. And the show’s tonight! So I’m busy, Marble. Do you mind?”

The girl cracked a tiny, timid smile.

“What? What’s that supposed to mean? Why can’t you just say something for once?!”

“I’m proud,” Marble whispered.

Limestone stopped. “You’re… proud of me?”

Marble nodded, and her smile grew deeper. “Mmm-hmm.”

Limestone shook her head. “So it doesn’t matter that I’m a walking train wreck half the time, and I have no idea what I’m doing with my life? I mean, where are Flash and I going after this show?”

Marble looked down at her coffee and took a small sip.

“Or maybe I do know,” Limestone said. “Or I can guess. He’s a good guy on the edge of some big changes in his life. I guess I’m really not so different. I don’t know if those changes are going to keep us together or split us apart. We’re both still trying to make up our minds about what we’re doing.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

Limestone eyed her sister. “Well, what about you? Maud’s got her college thing, and Pinkie’s Pinkie, and maybe I’m getting my act together, but where are you going?”

Marble shuffled a couple of steps closer. Then: “Watching.”

“Marble, I don’t want to scare you off, but you’ve gotta do more than just watch at some point in your life. I mean, so what if you’re not as determined as Maud is, or as Pinkie as Pinkie is? You have to do something if you want something different to happen. You…”

Limestone trailed off. Marble’s smile deepened.

“You’re watching me,” Limestone said quietly. “Because I never have been like Maud or Pinkie. Because I went through homeschool too, and I didn’t really do anything but hide myself away from the world once it was over.” She raised her eyebrows. “And maybe you and me are a little more alike than we’d like to admit.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

Limestone took another bitter swig of coffee. “Well I guess I’d better make good with this boy, then. And we’d better play a decent show!” She hesitated. “Do you want to come tonight? I mean, do you even like the sort of stuff we play?”

Marble gave her a cautious smile and a nod. “You guys rock,” she whispered.

On the night of the show, Limestone and Pinkie drove together to the club. Pinkie’s drum kit took up most of her back seat, so Maud offered to drive everyone else.

The two of them parked on the street outside the club, hauled Pinkie’s kit up to the back entrance, and knocked. Mr. Stripes let them in and eyed the girls as they lugged the heavy instruments, but declined to offer help.

On their way through the backstage area, they passed a few musicians who Pinkie seemed to know: one girl tuning a good-sized cello; a couple girls bickering next to a full-sized keyboard on a stand; and even one girl with large, poofy hair, who seemed to be practicing guttural growls to whatever she was listening to on her earbuds.

Eventually they found Flash tuning his guitar while sitting on an amp at the edge of the stage, which had been curtained-off by heavy black drapes hanging from a track near the ceiling.

He jumped up and set his guitar down. “Oh, hey guys, do you need a hand?”

“Not now,” Limestone grumbled, half-dropping Pinkie’s kick-drum to the floor.

“Hey! Watch it, sister!” Pinkie shouted. “That’s a genuine Pasty!”

Flash gave them a plaintive frown. “I’m sorry; I didn’t hear you guys come in.”

Limestone pointed at his amp. “Maybe ‘if it’s too loud, you’re too old?’”

The two of them locked eyes for a long, tense moment, before both of them chuckled and broke into grins.

“That was lame,” Flash said.

“It’s all I’ve got right now.” She looked over at the curtains. “How many people do we have out there?”

Flash pointed his thumb toward them. “Check it out if you want. It’s not a bad turnout for an amateur music night, and it’ll only get bigger; it’s still a half-hour till they kick things off.”

Limestone walked over and poked her head out between the curtains. She frowned as the first thing she noticed was her family sitting front-and-center near the stage. Maud and her Dad gave brief nods, Marble gave a timid wave, and her Mom gave a weary look that was consistent with Pinkie having coerced her into coming. But Limestone looked past them and estimated that the place was about half-full; mostly with a mix of CHS students and kids from the community college.

“I guess we’d better not screw this up,” Limestone muttered.

“We could,” Flash said, directly behind her. Limestone jumped, and pulled her head back behind the curtain. “Sorry,” Flash said. “I just mean… this is for fun, right? No pressure if it doesn’t go well. It doesn’t say anything bad about you. Or about us.”

Limestone frowned. “I need to do this. I don’t care if you fret half your notes wrong, or if Pinkie screws up the time; I need to play my best tonight.”

He smiled, and took her hand. “I know. I can’t tell you that I totally understand, but I know.”

She squeezed his hand. “Thank you. For making this happen, and for calling me out when I go off half-cocked about dumb stuff. I…” She looked away. “At some point we should really figure out what’s coming next for us.”

“I know.” He let go of her hand. “I mean, I don’t know. I guess it’s what we want to make of it. But don’t give up on it until we find something we can’t deal with together. I’m not.”

Limestone grinned. “You sound pretty serious there, Charlie.”

He rolled his eyes. “One of these days, I’ve gotta get you to stop calling me that.”

“That one might cost you.” She followed-up her words with a wink.

Flash smiled. “You gonna tell me what it costs?”

“I will if we can pull this off tonight.”

“All right then, Limestone Pie; we have a deal.”

They shook on it, and smiled, and each held on for longer than a business handshake would require.

The first act to go up on the stage was the poofy-haired girl, who bellowed, groaned, and shrieked along to a couple of tracks she put on over the club’s sound system. Watching from off to the side of the stage, Limestone couldn’t deny that the girl had killer stage presence and seemed to know what she was doing, but it was like she simply couldn’t sing, and was doing everything she possibly could to draw attention from that fact. Worse, Limestone watched as her family ended up covering their ears and looking at each other with disapproval. All except Maud, who sat impassive as always.

The girl with the cello went up next, and even though Limestone found her music boring, she felt much more comfortable watching her family’s reactions to that one. Her mom even started bobbing her head in time to the music.

After several minutes of the cellist’s short set, Limestone felt a hand on her arm. She turned, seeing Flash leaning close to her and looking serious. “We’re next,” he whispered.

Limestone felt a surge of adrenaline and nervous energy. She gave Flash a smile and a nod, then put her hands on the black bass slung around her neck.

“Limestone, even if this doesn’t go well, I…”

Maybe it was the nerves that got the better of her, or maybe it was the anticipation of going out and playing in front of her family that emboldened her—but either way, Limestone very quickly reached up with both hands, gripped the back of Flash’s head, and pulled him down into a brief kiss. And the watchword here was brief, because no sooner did it happen then they heard the crowd begin to applaud, and Mr. Stripes was upon them, separating them and shooing them out toward the stage.

Limestone and Flash staggered out into the crowd’s sight, blushing and looking at each other with wide-eyed uncertainty. They seemed to notice the crowd only as an afterthought, and it took several seconds of standing there motionless for Limestone to realize her dad had stood up and was applauding them loudly.

Oh Dad, if only you knew, she thought to herself.

Pinkie bounced out from backstage, gave them a big wink and a grin, then headed over to her drum kit. She started a drumroll…

...and that was the thing that brought Flash and Limestone’s concentration back. They smiled at each other briefly before Flash headed over to his place at the other side of the stage. That left Limestone to step up to the microphone at the front of the stage, gripping her bass hard.

Pinkie ended the drumroll with a cymbal crash. Limestone licked her lips, then thumbed her bass’ volume knob all the way up.

“Tell them our names!” Pinkie stage-whispered from the drum throne.

“I’m Limestone,” she said into the mic, savoring the way it made her voice boom through the club. “He’s Flash. She’s Pinkie.” She paused, giving the room a look that fit somewhere between a smile and a snarl. “And we’re here to rock!”

Flash opened with a divebomb that gave Limestone goosebumps; Pinkie came in with a strong midtempo beat; and Limestone hammered out a series of deep notes that made the whole building shake. Adrenaline coursed through her veins as she sucked in a deep lungful of breath and started bellowing the song’s lyrics, some of which still would’ve made her blush if she hadn’t been overwhelmed by the deafening sound and thunderous vibration of their music.

She and Flash locked eyes, and he moved closer to her, bobbing back and forth while giving her an overly-theatrical “mean-rock” grimace. Limestone smiled as much as she dared while fighting to make sure her aching fingers kept in time with Pinkie’s relentless beat.

They blazed into their second song without a break. It was even faster than the first, and its staccato riffs taxed Limestone’s weary arms. She was sweating bullets by the time it soared into the homestretch with a short, frenetic solo by Flash, and she resigned herself to plucking out a couple of recurring notes while struggling to catch her breath as she let Flash and Pinkie finish up the heavy lifting.

They ended with a bang, and found themselves standing in silence, watching the quiet audience’s stunned faces.

Then the whole place lit up with cheers and clapping. People jumped to their feet, pumped their arms, and roared at them for more. Limestone watched in shock as her family joined those standing. Maud grinned, Dad whistled and cheered, Mom gave a polite clap, and Marble…

Well, Marble whooped and hollered louder than anyone, throwing her hands up in the air and clapping, and joining the chorus screaming for more.

Limestone turned to Flash and found him smiling wide. “Not done yet,” he said over the din of the room. “Still got one song, right?”

“Yeah, but first, one thing.” She gave him a deep smile. “That kiss really sucked.”

Flash laughed. “Oh yeah. Totally.”

“Wanna try again?”

He winked at her. “Practice makes perfect, right?”

“Shut up, Charlie,” she said, letting her bass hang low across her chest, and pulling him in for a longer, warmer, and much more electric kiss than their brief travesty before. The feeling it gave Limestone was nothing like the bone-shaking sensation of her jackhammer or bass, but nonetheless it stirred something within her that she found just as compelling.

For their part, the crowd roared even louder at the sight.

“Hey! We’re trying to play a show here!” Pinkie shouted, jarring them back to attention.

Flash looked sheepish, and put his hands back on his guitar. “She’s right, you know,” he said with a smile.

Limestone smiled as she rolled rolled her eyes. “Always so serious with you guys.” She turned back to the crowd. “All right, we’ve got one more in us. Are you ready?”

They shouted that they were in no uncertain terms. Marble in particular seemed ready to come tear it from them if they would not give it willingly.

“Pinkie… hit it!”

And she did, kickstarting their sonic declaration of life, of hope—of a romance that defied all expectations.

For once again, as one, Limestone and Flash rocked.

Author's Note

At last we come to the song(s) that inspired this. It has just as much slow burning buildup as the story does, but I encourage you to check it out; IMO it's the perfect coda to the story itself. Just be sure to crank the volume at 2:40!

Also, the ever-talented Bluegrass Brooke has created something for your viewing pleasure in hand-drawn and digital versions! :heart:

Bonus Track: Fat Bottomed Girls

Late afternoon sunlight lanced through the quiet music room at Canterlot High, casting heavy shadows as it played across a head-high stack of plastic chairs that had been left near the window.

But the silence was broken when a boy in jeans, a T-shirt, and a black jacket kicked the propped-ajar door fully open. Flash Sentry bopped and strutted into the silent space with a gait whose unevenness likely owed to balancing a white coffin-shaped guitar case in his right hand, and a smooth black smartphone in his left hand. A long white cord connecting the phone to a pair of earbuds he was wearing flailed through the air as he alternately pumped his limbs and headbanged. Yet still the only sounds in the room came from the squeaking of his sneakers on the aging tile floor.

“Aaaaaare you gonna take me home toniiiiiiiight,” he suddenly belted at the top of his lungs. A moment later, he stumbled over a cord that hadn’t been taped-down to the floor, breaking both his verse and his confident swagger. He steadied himself, shot a dirty look at the cord, then turned his gaze to the shelf of tools and equipment next to the window. After glancing back at both his guitar case and phone, he set the case down next to the offending cable, placed the phone down upon it, and unplugged his earbuds.

A growling—though clean—guitar riff chased all vestiges of silence from the room, accompanied by steady but powerful drumming, all supported by a thick bass undercurrent. After smiling and seeming satisfied with this state of affairs, Flash strutted toward the equipment shelf, hand already reaching towards the gaffer tape. And again he picked up with the chorus: “Fat bottomed girls, you make the rockin’ world go ‘round!”

Flash turned back, gaffer tape in hand—and shrieked as he caught sight of the two figures who’d been sitting in the low-lit silence of what he must've assumed had been an empty room.

In response, Limestone Pie deepened the furrows on her brow, gave her sister Pinkie a look, then nodded toward the light switch.

Pinkie got the lights. Flash paused his music. Limestone settled into a glare.

“Harmony on a stick, guys,” Flash panted, still catching his breath. “What, are you trying to make sure I get my cardio in even though it’s a band practice day?!”

“Ooo, that’s a good idea,” Pinkie chirped. “I mean, no, we just got here early and thought we’d use the time to study a few of the tabs you gave us last session—but come to think of it, the keyboardist from Rammstallion walks on a treadmill while playing live sometimes, so maybe we could have you do that, too!”

Both Flash and Limestone looked at her with furrowed brows.

“What do treadmills have to do with anything?” Limestone growled.

“You listen to Rammstallion?!” Flash gawped.

“It follows from what Flashie said—and of course I do, silly! We’re trying to play heavy, right? Well, I went and did some homework on what ‘heavy’ means these days!” Pinkie gave Limestone a huge wink. “And it sounds like I’m not the only one who’s brushin’ up on what’s thick and heavy, if ya know what I mean?”

Limestone’s cheeks flushed with embarrassment at Pinkie’s crack about her bottom—to say nothing about what Flash had just belted out! She turned her eyes down toward the bass tabs resting on her lap, as if she might find answers there. But all it did was remind her how difficult one of the songs was, which led her on a short trip from frustration, to general anger, and to specifically being mad about the lyrical indecency that she’d just heard.

She sneered at him. “What kind of immature crap is this, shouting out how much you wanna go home with a girl just ’cause she’s got a… a…”

“Fat bottom?” Pinkie offered.

“Right!”

Pinkie shrugged and cocked her head to the side. “Well, I mean, if you were gonna go home with someone, wouldn’t you kinda want some meat on their bones?”

Limestone turned a look of wide-eyed incredulity on her.

Flash tensed, but after a moment’s hesitation, he grabbed one of the chairs off the stack by the window and sat down, straddling it. “Look, I’m sorry that I didn’t notice you guys when I came in. I guess I got into the music. I mean, you heard the riffs and beat, right? It’s pretty much one of the catchiest rock songs ever.”

“So being ‘catchy’ makes it okay to go around singing about how much you want to do it with random fat girls,” Limestone snarked. “I mean, I think the whole ‘objectifying women’ thing gets overused sometimes… but the shoe fits, Charlie.”

Flash pursed his lips. “Say, Pinkie—”

“Giving privacy!” she shouted, already halfway through the door. It slammed behind her with a rattling reverberation that made Limestone’s teeth chatter.

“Limestone—”

“Don’t you ‘Limestone’ me, that was weird and you know it. What’s that song even called, anyway?”

Flash chuckled. “It’s literally called ‘Fat Bottomed Girls.’ And for what it’s worth, it’s probably one of the all-time classic rock songs. Great old band, great old song… heck, I bet your dad would’ve sung along to it back in the day… if he ever sang along to anything. No offense to your dad, I just mean… y’know.”

Despite the undercurrent of uncertainty she felt about the lyrics, Limestone couldn’t resist chuckling at the mental image of her dad bombing down the road in his old blue pickup truck, blasting his radio as loud as it would go, and bellowing “FAT BOTTOMED GIRLS!!!” at passers-by.

“And look,” Flash continued, “I know this whole dating thing is still really new for us—”

“You mean for me,” she interrupted.

“All right; sure, I mean for you. But I also mean for us. Because without you, there is no us. And I want there to be a you, and an us. I like how it’s going, and I want to keep it going.”

Without really thinking about it, Limestone squirmed a little in her seat. “But then… why sing stuff like that? I mean, you’re not some big horny rock star, right? It’s not like you go around just… like…” She gestured indistinctly with her hands.

“Doing it with random fat girls?” he echoed with a smile.

“Right. I mean… right?”

“Definitely not. That isn’t how I roll. And for what it’s worth, I don’t just mean the size thing… I like to think I’m not so shallow that it’d make a difference one way or the other. What I’m really looking for is the right girl in my age range; someone who I can make a real connection with.” He gave her a wink. “Or I was looking, until recently.”

Limestone felt heat rising in her cheeks and chest. She quickly turned her thoughts back to the lyrics themselves, seeking something that would help her to stay angry—and therefore in control—in the face of his disarming charm.

“Well… but… then, why listen to it or sing it at all? Why would you associate yourself with something that’s contrary to what you really want… and frankly antisocial? I mean, it’s not like someone couldn’t take it the wrong way if they didn’t know the song.”

“Clearly,” Flash deadpanned. But after a few moments of thought, he shrugged. “Because sometimes it feels really, really good to throw your head back and shout something ‘antisocial?’ I mean, it’s kind of freeing, y’know? Like have you ever been out driving on your own and just shouted whatever crazy, random stuff you felt like at the top of your lungs, safe in the knowledge that no one would hear you?”

Limestone gave him a deeper frown.

“Okay! Sorry, bad example—I forgot that you don’t have your license. But do you know what I mean? Like think about some of Maud’s lyrics… I don’t think she would actually want to have some of the stuff she writes about happen to herself or anyone else.”

“Heh. Yeah. You wanna talk about someone who’s actually super-horny…” Limestone paused for a moment, losing herself in thought. It dawned on her that she could share a relevant example from her own life, though the words seemed to catch in her throat—it was difficult trusting them with anyone else.

She locked her eyes on Flash’s, and saw both affection and acceptance returned in them. The quiet of the room and the fading light gave their conversation an almost hallowed, or confessional, air. And from that familiar feeling, Limestone felt a desire to open a part of herself to the boy who had shown her so much care and understanding, even in the relatively short time that she’d known him.

“I say things in the quarry, sometimes,” Limestone almost whispered. “Like when it’s early in the morning and everybody else is still asleep up at the house… I go out with my coffee, I pick up my pickaxe… and sometimes I swing it a couple times first, and sometimes I don’t… but I talk to it, like it’s my friend. I tell it how I’m feeling, or what I really want to do. Because I know it’s always got my back, no matter what crazy things I say to it.”

Flash blinked silently for a few moments. “Okay, that’s… pretty hot. But yeah, there you go. So I could get after you for talking to yourself—”

“To the pickaxe.”

“Still hot! Or I could guess that sometimes just getting the words out can help you decide how you feel about them, right? Well, it can be the same way with the music. Sometimes it’s more about going with the feeling of the words than what they’re really telling you. And I know not everyone gets into it that way, but for me… when I’m alone and I crank that up, pretty much the last thing on my mind is actual girls or their actual butts. For me it’s all about cutting a little bit loose and having some room to be free. And same with a lot of other lyrics in a lot of other songs—it’s not like I actually want to overthrow society, or celebrate a monster rampage.”

“Yeah, I guess we’re starting to get a few of those now that magic seems to be more of a thing,” Limestone said slowly. “I can see how it’d be good to think about that sort of thing through singing, even if you sing about the rampage itself.”

“Right. And clearly you can take it to an extreme, but that’s not really what it’s supposed to be about. Right?” Flash gave her a tentative smile.

Limestone nodded, but then blushed, smiled, and scoffed. “Some boyfriend. Singing about other girls' butts…”

Flash stood up from the chair, approached her, and took her hands in his. The warmth and strength of them brought even greater heat to Limestone’s chest, and a feeling of butterflies to her stomach.

“Limestone, first and foremost, I appreciate you for your intellect and personality.” He gently massaged her palms with his fingers, sending little tingles of sensation through her hands and down her arms, which intensified the heat she felt within. Then he leaned closer, winked, and whispered: “I'll confess, though, that I do think you have a nice bottom. Not a ‘fat’ bottom, but a bottom that looks strong and firm while sacrificing none of its curves for the muscles within. Certainly a bottom that would bear all due appreciation someday by a lucky fellow in a strong, committed, meaningful relationship with you… and your bottom.”

He pulled away, smiling subtly, and seemingly in complete control of himself. But for her part, it was all that Limestone could do to contain the raging heat and sweatiness that his words had inspired in her.

“I’ll go get Pinkie,” he said with another wink. “Wouldn’t want to miss practice with you, or your…” He simply left the words hanging as he turned away.

Limestone slumped back in her seat, fanning herself desperately with the music tabs. And it occurred to her that maybe—just maybe—they should think about adding that song to their repertoire.

Author's Note

This was a request for AandWguy and Darkstarling, who separately requested: "Anything with Flash and Limestone again," and "Human Flash rocks out to Queen."

Track 1: Slave To The Grind

For the third day in a row, Flash Sentry stopped short as he turned to step away from the cafeteria counter. His grip on the tray full of alleged food was tenuous, enough so that an apple tumbled over the edge.

He didn’t notice it. He was too busy noticing her.

Twilight and her friends sat at a table on the far side of the busy cafeteria. Only it wasn’t Twilight; it was someone who looked like her, and sounded like her, and smelled like her, and had the same friends…

He squeezed his eyes shut, turned, and set his foot down on the apple.

Flash landed hard on his butt. He had barely a moment to register the pain before he saw his tray heading skyward. A few kids on the lunch staff screamed and tried to dodge the globs of foodstuff flying toward them. The sound drew everybody else’s attention. Then the splattering began; all over Flash and the surrounding area.

Someone laughed. Then someone else did. Pretty soon the whole room had joined in.

Flash climbed to his feet, cast one last glance at Twilight’s table—Fantastic, she noticed—shoved his hands into his pants pockets, and made a beeline for the nearest exit.

The laughter climaxed as he neared the door. He threw his weight against it. An earsplitting alarm sounded as he pushed through and stumbled out into the parking lot.

“Well that’s just great,” he muttered under his breath, finally noticing the emergency exit sign staring him right in the face. He looked back and watched as the teaching staff began to herd the horde of laughing teens toward him. He resigned himself to looking like an idiot and rested his back against the door, holding it open.

Every single kid at Canterlot High passed him, looked at him, and continued laughing as they made their way to the designated emergency meeting spot at the other end of the parking lot.

...Until the ones he dreaded most came out as well. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Sunset Shimmer, and painfully-not-Twilight filed through the doors. They lingered near him in a cluster, all giving him similar looks of uncertainty.

He sighed and decided he’d better say something before one of them did. “It was an accident. I’m sorry. I’m just… not all together lately. I’ll be fine.”

The girls exchanged looks he couldn’t read. Sunset Shimmer turned toward him. “Flash…”

He shook his head. “I don’t want to do this, Sunset.”

She frowned and turned back to the others. “Give me a minute here.” They each nodded, glancing at Flash Sentry again before walking toward the rest of the school kids.

He rubbed his eyes. “I said…”

He opened them and saw that she was standing closer to him than he’d expected. She looked up at him with those light-blue eyes that he’d always found hard to resist.

She smiled. It was friendly—only friendly. “Come on Flash, I know you. It seems like you’re still hung up on Twilight even though we talked things over at Camp Everfree?”

Flash shrugged. “I know, but it’s not that easy to let go.” He chuckled a little. “And it’s still kind of awkward, you and me talking about me and her.”

Sunset rolled her eyes. “What could be awkward? We dated, we broke up... we were on opposite sides of an attempt to mind-control the student body…”

He laughed. “You’re right. What’s awkward about that?”

Her smile faded. “Flash, you know she isn’t your Twilight.”

Flash kicked at the ground. “It kinda seems like I don’t have a Twilight.” He met Sunset’s eyes. “What? I mean, she’s cute and all, but she has a life on the other side of the statue. Mirror. Whatever.” He sighed. “And whatever that is, it kinda seems to keep her busy.”

Sunset nodded gravely, before breaking into a grin. “Plus, you realize she’s a horse, right?”

Flash smiled back at her. “Yeah, well, I guess I’m zero-for-two on the whole horse-woman thing.”

She gave him a playful slug on the shoulder. “The term is mares, you dork.” She pursed her lips. “Do you remember when we broke up? How you’d go and play those awful death-rock-punk songs really loud, over and over?”

He furrowed his brow. “How do you know about that? I did that after hours at school, all alone...”

Sunset cleared her throat. “I may have been a little stalkerish at times.” She looked at the ground. “But that’s all behind me now.”

Flash started to reach a hand toward her, but then stopped. “So you’re saying I should do that again? Just hole up and rock out on my guitar until I feel better?”

She shrugged. “Being alone isn’t always the best way to get better. You might want to try something a little bit different this time. They do an open mic night at the cafe down by the community college most Fridays.…”

He laughed. “Oh sure, I bet the college kids would love to get a chance to hear some high school senior crash their party with a solo-guitar rendition of obscure rock and metal songs that are older than either them or us.”

Sunset smiled. “Well, when you put it that way, who could resist?”

Limestone lowered the jackhammer into position on the long vein of granite. She paused, spat in her palms, then tensed her bare arms against the sides of her overalls.

She threw a quick glance back at the rest of her “team.” Limestone’s terracotta-skinned father stood next to the jagged face of the quarry pit, wiping rock dust from his hands onto his rough jeans and red flannel shirt. He looked up, met her eyes, and gave her a confident, stiff-lipped nod.

Limestone’s youngest sister, light-grey of both skin and hair, slouched next to him. Her shoulders drooped as she pressed her hands tightly over her ears, making her long, featureless dress look even more like a potato sack.

Limestone sneered. “Useless Marble,” she muttered before gritting her teeth and thumbing the jackhammer’s starter. A bone-shaking sensation of sinew versus stone traveled up her arms and rippled down her body. Limestone snarled with joy as she watched the flecks of stone begin to fly. She leaned harder on the jackhammer, pressing with all her strength, even letting it caress her stomach for a moment as she drove it through the rock below.

Limestone startled at the sudden feeling of a hand on her shoulder. The jackhammer punished her momentary loss of concentration by kicking up and out of the small hole she’d cleared. Her grip slipped, and the tool juddered upright for a moment before falling to the earth, still chattering. She vaulted over the fallen jackhammer and began a stream of curses that continued flowing several moments after she’d managed to turn it off.

Limestone slowly looked around, noticing her father’s look was edged with disapproval, and spotting Marble curled-up in a ball on the ground. She also realized that the newcomer who’d put a hand on her was Maud, her immediate-younger sister, who sported a mid-length, plain denim dress. It was representative of her sense of style, which might be charitably considered ‘unique.’

Limestone bared her teeth. “What are you doing here, Maud? Can’t you see I’m in the middle of dealing with a problem?”

“I wouldn’t call finding this much salable granite in one place a ‘problem,’” Maud said.

“Yeah right, like I’m going to run a side business doing kitchen counters.” Limestone spat into the vein. “I’ve lost the better part of two days trying to work my way around this crap, and I’ve had it. I’m cutting through.”

Maud cocked her head. “I don’t think that’s going to work. The relative hardness of your cutting blade isn’t enough.”

“What?! Of course it is! This blade is pure carbide!”

Maud bent down and studied it. “This is carbide-coated steel. You can see the coating starting to wear down at the tip.”

Limestone didn’t bother to look; she knew Maud wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t true. Instead, she roared and threw her gloves down at the jackhammer, then turned and stomped off down the mile-long gravel path from the quarry proper to the family’s two-story home.

There was a sound of crunching rocks beside her. Limestone scowled at her sister. “Don’t you have college to be dealing with?”

“I always come home on the weekend.”

Limestone hesitated. “It’s Friday already? Ugh, where’d the week go?!”

Maud said nothing, but nodded back toward the quarry pit.

The two walked silently for a time; Maud at first exerting herself to keep up with Limestone’s angry march, then falling into step more naturally as Limestone’s breathing and pace gradually returned to normal.

Limestone gave Maud a sidelong frown. “Well, aren’t you going to lay into your sales pitch about how ‘awesome’ college is?”

“If you like,” Maud said as they stepped into the house’s shadow. “It’s pretty much the bomb.”

“You wouldn’t know a bomb if it hit you straight between the eyes,” Limestone muttered.

Maud blinked. “Of course not. I would probably be dead.”

“Maud, just… stop, okay?” Limestone clenched her grimy hands into fists, then paused, and wiped them on her rock-dust-laden overalls. “This place has everything I need. I’ve got food, shelter, a good job, and I can keep an eye on our folks as they start getting older.”

“They married young. They just turned forty.”

“Whatever!” Limestone trudged up to the door. “So you’re here for the weekend. Why do you have to come out to the quarry and bother me when you know I’m busy?”

“You and Pinkie said you’d watch me read my poetry when I was ready.”

And there it was; most people probably wouldn’t notice the change in Maud’s demeanor, but Limestone knew the telltale signs and read them loud and clear: the eyes cast ever-so-slightly downward; the mild rounding of her shoulders; and the almost imperceptible tightening of her lips.

Limestone sighed. “What do you need us for? They’ve got shrinks on your campus, right? If you don’t ‘feel’ like you can share your ‘art’, then why don’t you go talk to one of them?”

Maud met her gaze. “On the off-chance that I did happen to suffer from anxiety or a related disorder, that’s possibly the least sensitive way that you could talk to me about it.”

“Yeah, well, remind me how all that denial helped you ‘fake it til you make it’ with that boy you had a crush on in high school.”

There was a long and uncomfortable pause. Maud took a deep breath before answering: “He was unavailable. And I’m not the one of us who’s living in denial.”

Limestone gritted her teeth. “Yeah, you’re the one who’s going off to college and living your dream, or whatever. Someone had to stay behind and help Dad run the quarry! And I didn’t exactly see you volunteer!”

Maud’s gaze was impassive, as always. “I asked him if he wanted me to stay.”

Limestone’s tirade faltered. She took a breath, trying to recover her momentum. “And?”

“He said no.”

“I…” Limestone stared back down the path to the quarry, tensing her fists. “I didn’t know that.”

“You didn’t ask.”

“I guess… I just assumed.”

There was a subtle shift in Maud’s jaw. “I think you like to make assumptions because you’re afraid people have bad intentions, and you’re even more afraid to find out if they really do.”

Limestone opened her mouth, but then sighed and closed it again, stuffing her hands into the oversized front pocket of her overalls. “Yeah, well, since when did you turn into a psych major? I thought you were going for geology.”

“I don’t have to declare until Spring, so for now I’m embracing a classical liberal arts approach to my education.”

Limestone sighed and looked down at herself. “All right, you quit rubbing it in and I’ll come to your dumb reading.”

Maud’s lips curled a few millimeters upward. “Thanks, big sis. You’re the best.”

Author's Note

Track 9: Seek And Destroy

Limestone and Pinkie drove back home in relative silence, with Limestone contemplating how to talk to Flash based on Sunset’s advice, and thinking about Sunset as little as possible, and generally deflecting Pinkie’s questions with monosyllabic answers.

She was, therefore, caught totally off-guard when they rounded the corner into the driveway and found an unfamiliar yellow car with blue trim parked there.

“Hey,” Pinkie shouted, smiling. “That’s Flash’s car!” She leaned over and elbowed Limestone. “Looks like someone’s beau has come a-courting!”

Limestone’s face worked itself into a wide-eyed grimace. “Flash is here, now?”

“Yep,” Pinkie said, craning her head over. “And it looks like he’s talking to Mom and Dad. Oh, and Maud’s there, too!”

“He’s talking to them? Right now?!”

“Well, duuuuuh, who else is he going to talk to?” Pinkie frowned momentarily. “Probably not Marble…”

Limestone turned a look of pure panic and ferocious rage onto her sister. “Sunset warned me he’d do something stupid! Look, I need you to get in there and get Maud out here so I can talk to her before things get any worse.” She sucked in multiple deep breaths, trying to fight back the sensation of lightheadedness that threatened to overtake her. Two seconds later, she bared her teeth at Pinkie. “Why are you still sitting here? I told you to get in there, now!”

Somewhere in the midst of Limestone’s tirade, Pinkie’s hair had lost much of its volume, and her features had contorted into a look of slack-jawed, frozen terror. But with the latter outburst, she sprang into motion and bolted from the car to the house.

Limestone watched her for a moment, but then looked down at her own legs as she struggled to control her breathing. She briefly contemplated how pleasant it would feel to vent her rage on Pinkie’s car, but she still needed it, at least for the moment. And she could visualize her dad saying that it probably wasn’t sisterly or something.

She breathed and focused, trying to let the swell of anger she felt soothe her jangling nerves. Flash was inside. He had come here. He…

A knock at the car door broke her out of her thoughts. She looked up with a scowl, but then froze when she saw who it was: Flash, grinning broadly and holding a small bouquet of white and red flowers.

Limestone’s eyes focused on the flowers for a moment, then turned back to Flash’s winning smile. In the background, she watched as Pinkie skipped out onto the porch with a plastered-on grin that Limestone knew from experience was Pinkie’s “I’m-sorry” look.

“Hey Limestone,” Flash said, his voice muffled by the door.

Her parents followed Pinkie out onto the porch. Then Marble came out, too. Then Maud, whose face bore an expression of hurt, betrayal, and jealousy. If you knew how to look for it, that is.

Limestone’s heart skipped a beat. “What are you doing here?” she managed.

Flash held the flowers a little higher, and shrugged. “Do you want to come out? It’s kinda hard to talk through the door.”

Limestone took another worried glance at Maud, then fumbled for the door handle and pulled. Flash took a step back, and Limestone slowly stepped out, keeping her body close to the door, using it to separate her at least somewhat from Flash.

“I’m sorry,” he said, looking serious. “I know this has to be kind of embarrassing. I just wanted to give these to you, and I didn’t know where else I’d run into you, so I figured…”

She looked at the flowers again.

They were beautiful.

As she looked closer, she could start to notice tiny spots of black on the edges of one of the roses embedded in the small bouquet, and a slight brown crinkled tone to one or two of the white flowers. She could even see the ripped-off corner of a price tag sticker on the side of its cellophane wrapping, though it didn’t give her many clues about the price beyond it ending in ninety-nine cents.

But they were still beautiful.

Limestone furrowed her brow. “No one’s ever given me flowers before.”

Flash raised his eyebrows. “Really?”

Limestone looked back at her family, feeling a growing tightness in her chest as she took in all of their expressions. Her mother appeared stern; her father bore a look of amused curiosity; Pinkie sweated through the strain of maintaining her fake smile; Maud’s expression looked as dark as she could ever remember seeing it; and Marble…

Interestingly enough, Marble’s look was of intense focus in Flash and Limestone’s direction. The girl was leaning forward slightly, and her hands were at her sides for once instead of being clutched together or stuffed into her pockets.

“Marble, you and me are gonna have a little talk later,” Limestone said under her breath.

“Sorry, what?” Flash asked, smiling.

“Nothing. Look...” Limestone paused, looked back at her family again, and felt an overwhelming sense of embarrassment at having her emotions paraded out in front of them. Who was this boy to make her do that so publicly? The outrage that she felt began to stoke an old, familiar fire in her gut. As it built, her blood flowed faster and her nostrils flared.

“How dare you,” she hissed.

Flash’s smile faltered. “What do you mean, Limestone? I just thought…”

“Yeah, well you thought wrong, Charlie!” She stepped out from behind the car door and slammed it like a thunderclap. “I don’t know what kind of floozies you’ve dated in the past, but if you think I’m gonna jump in your car, your pants, or anything else, just because you brought me some dirt-cheap gas station flowers on your way over to darken my doorstep, you’ve got another thing coming!”

Flash winced, then looked back at her family, where Pinkie and Igneous were dutifully trying to shoo the others back into the house. He turned back with a look of anger on his face as well. “Come on, Limestone, you know it isn’t like that, and I don’t appreciate you saying that it’s like that in front of all them.”

She scoffed. “You don’t appreciate it? How do you think I feel?! You’re not the one who has some guy coming and skeezing around her house!”

“I’m not skeezing. I thought… just… why are you doing this?”

Limestone set her hands on her hips. “I think it’s perfectly obvious why I’m doing this. You aren’t welcome here!”

“I guess… if that’s how you feel…” His hands tightened on the flowers, crinkling the cellophane. “No. No, I don’t buy this, Limestone. Look, I may have overstepped here, and I'm sorry... but I get the sense from you that this isn't the real problem; that it's just part of your thing you do.”

“I don’t have a thing!”

“Yes, you do. And right now it’s like you’re trying to push me away.”

She growled. “Ding ding ding, it looks like we have a winner! Now how’s about we give you the grand prize: One free all-expenses paid vacation to get off my property, with promotional consideration by my boot up your tailpipe if you have any problems with that!”

Flash took a step back, gritting his teeth, visibly fighting down a wellspring of his own anger. “Okay. You want me gone, I’ll go.” He pointed the flowers at her. “But for the record, I don’t buy it. You’re a cool person in there under all the posturing you do. I’d like to get to know that person better. And maybe I’m a dork, but yeah, that feeling made me want to buy you flowers and surprise you with them.” He went quiet for a moment. “And even now, if you’d just drop the schtick and tell me what’s really bothering you, I’d still feel the same.”

Limestone fumed, breathing deeply and balling her fists, but she neither moved nor said anything for several long moments. Eventually her face settled into a deep glower, and her breathing started to slow. “Okay, yes, there’s actually something.”

Flash exhaled, relaxing his shoulders and letting his whole body slump a little. “Thank you.”

She squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to think of how to broach it. “It’s kind of messed-up.”

A pause. “Okay, well… whatever it is, it isn’t going to get better unless we actually talk about it.”

She took a deep breath, then opened her eyes again. “I didn’t write the lyrics. Maud did.”

Flash furrowed his brow, but nodded. “Oh.” He shrugged. “Well, that’s cool. She’s pretty good at writing, you know?”

“So you don’t care that I didn’t tell you?”

He shrugged again. “Should I? I mean, you’re telling me now.”

Limestone stood staring at him, poleaxed by his lack of a reaction.

“So that was it?”

“Uhh… no, there's a little more to it,” Limestone said.

Flash took a tentative step toward her. She tensed slightly, and he paused. But then he took another step closer, and Limestone felt a knot of something start to unwind in her chest, and the great wave of anger that she’d been riding a few moments before suddenly deserted her. The feeling made her deflate; her shoulders sagged, and her breath ran out of her.

Through all the tangle of emotions she found herself struggling with, one clear thought stuck out: I should talk to Maud first, before I just up and tell him that she has a crush on him.

This was accompanied by the thought: Oh crap, I just told him there was more to it, didn’t I?! Stupid, stupid, stupid!

“Are you alright?”

Limestone looked up, letting the tension in her mind contort her face through a series of uncertain half-expressions. Eventually she sighed again and closed her eyes. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to be a jerk, but that’s as far as I can go right now.”

She felt something warm on her left hand, and she opened her eyes. Flash’s hand was on hers, and he was smiling again, and Limestone couldn’t put a name to the feeling that his smile gave her, but she bit her lip and set about trying.

“Well, I’ll tell you what. Maybe we could get some dinner sometime and talk about it away from prying eyes? I’m really sorry about barging in like this. It was boneheaded of me; I see that now.”

Limestone blinked. “Are you serious? I lied to you about the music, I can’t play bass to save my life, and I totally just blew up at you. You want to see more of me?”

He gave her a wink. “Hey, all I said is dinner. Seeing more of you doesn’t seem like the right thing right now.”

She blushed ferociously, but smiled. “That sounds nice, but if I can be honest with you, I think I’d like to jam with you again, too. I don’t know what you felt when we played last time, but it was… I don’t know.”

Flash blushed a little. “Yeah, it was pretty metal.”

Limestone gave him a sidelong smile. “You keep calling it that, but I've worked with metal tools and I don’t hear the connection. But then again, I’ve never been much into heavy metal. Or music in general, if I’m being honest.”

He scratched his chin. “Yeah, I guess you’re more into rocks around here, aren’t you? So you think it’s rock?”

She shrugged. “You tell me, music-boy.”

“Well, I’m telling you it’s heavy metal, but I guess that isn’t good enough? So how about we compromise and call it ‘heavy rock?’”

Limestone snickered. “That’s a stupid name.”

“I don’t know, I’m told that compromise is an important part of a relationship, right?”

Limestone’s look became serious. Flash’s grin faded, too. The two of them looked into each other’s eyes for a moment, and a feeling of tense uncertainty built between them.

After a moment, she broke away from his hand, and raised her other hand toward him. “I’d like to take the flowers now. Please.”

He handed them to her. His eyes sparkled with a faint hint of a smile. “Well, I should probably… you know. I’ve done enough damage here for one night.”

Limestone glanced at the house, and at the silhouettes of Marble and Maud staring out at them from two of the windows. She sighed, then met his eyes again. “No, I’m glad you came.”

Flash smiled. “I’ll call you tomorrow, if that’s okay. We can figure out when we want to jam again.”

She nodded stiffly. “I’ll look forward to it.”

He took a step away, but then hesitated and turned back to her. He gestured toward her with his arms. “Limestone, could I…?”

She closed the distance between them and hugged him. He gasped at the force that she put into it, but then weakly returned the hug. And awkward though it was, Limestone felt a sense of sheer amazing warmth permeate her skin from him.

Limestone made herself step away sooner than she would’ve liked, then gave him a tight, thin-lipped smile, and set off toward the house.

She took a moment to smell the flowers as the made her way up to the porch. Their odor was faint, but coupled with the recent memory of Flash’s body heat, they were intoxicating.

A car door slammed behind her. Her steps faltered for a moment, but she didn’t look back. She was far more worried about what lay ahead of her.

She opened the front door, and walked into a living hurricane of confetti, streamers, party-poppers, and other sundries, courtesy of a cheerfully-squeeing Pinkie Pie. “Ohmigosh, Mom, Dad, did you see that?! Limestone did it! She got a boy! She totally got flowers! Oh, are those daisies? Or posies? Ohmigosh, let me get a vase!”

Pinkie vanished somewhere in the house, the only sign of her departure being the clattering racket she left in her wake.

That just left Limestone standing in the doorway, covered in colored paper and holding a bouquet, and trying to bear up under her parents’ gaze. Her father smiled faintly, but then glanced at her mother, whose face was much more stern. He hastily cleared his throat and affected a similar look of uncertain displeasure as the one she bore.

“Limestone Pie,” her mother Cloudy Quartz said, eyes narrowed behind her thick circular glasses and under her tight grey bun. “Verily, thy father and I are concerned about thee and the physical extent of thy relationship with this boy.”

“Uh. Mom, Dad, Flash is… uh…”

“Thy father hath told me Pinkamena’s words about this boy,” Cloudy Quartz said. “Verily he sounds honorable enough, though not a follower of our way. As such, thy father and I wish to speak with thee about our expectations for thee as thou embarkest upon this… courtship.”

Limestone swallowed hard. “Please, Harmony, do not tell me you’re going to give me the sex talk right now.”

Cloudy Quartz tensed, and her eyes went wide. “Igneous! See to thy daughter’s tongue!” She paused. “And, while thou art about it, mayhaps certain discussions would in fact be in order, given the circumstances.”

“Yes, dear,” Igneous said. “Perhaps if thou wouldst be so good as to take our daughter’s flowers?”

Limestone handed them to Cloudy Quartz, who held them at arm’s length, looking at them as though they were some kind of dangerous weapon.

“Dad…”

“Let us take a walk, daughter,” he said, gesturing toward the door.

They stepped back outside, and Limestone was amazed to see how quickly sunset had faded to twilight; now even twilight was beginning to give way to starlight. She looked at Igneous. “Dad, please, whatever it is, I need to talk to Maud now. I was coming back to talk with her before Flash showed up.”

Igneous glanced behind him. “Yes, but if thy mother hath said we should go and talk, then we had best go talk at least a little while, for the good of all.”

Limestone snorted. “Man, I guess I know who wears the pants in this family, even if they’re hidden under a floor-length skirt.”

“And I know how much my eldest daughter loves to provoke the biggest reaction she can get out of a person, regardless of her circumstances.” He gave her a wan smile. “Come, let us walk down toward the quarry and talk a bit. Thou canst text thy sister when we finish.”

They set off down the path in silence, save for the sounds of the chilly evening breeze and the crunching of small stones underfoot.

“You’re not actually going to talk to me about sex, are you?” Limestone blurted.

Igneous considered this for a moment. “Wouldst thou like me to?”

Limestone gave him a nervous half-frown. “Maybe?”

He nodded. “All right. Limestone, daughter… please do not have sex with this boy.”

She furrowed her bow. “That’s a bit different than how I expected ‘the talk’ to go.”

Igneous stopped and turned to face her. “Limestone, thou art new to dating. Thou art learning much, and learning it quickly, and thou wilt surely find thyself beset by feelings that thou hast little hands-on experience with. In sooth, I cannot tell thee what to do or not do; thou art an adult and thou hast thy own mind besides. But I urge thee, look to him for the qualities of his heart and mind, not just his great handsomeness.”

Limestone blinked. “Heh. You noticed that.”

He shrugged. “Come, daughter; whatever I may be, I am not blind.” They set off again in silence for a moment. “I cannot know if thy relationship will long endure, but I daresay it will do thee good to try at one with someone honorable. And that is part of why I urge thee, do not rush to take things farther than they might go of their own if thou dost give them time and focus on the fundamentals.”

She nodded. “Like, talking?”

“Yes. And thy futures. What dost thou know of this boy’s aims in life? What does he know of thine? And do these things mesh?”

“So is that how it worked with you and Mom?”

Igneous smiled. “With thy mother and I, these things all fell into place so quickly. When we found each other we were both at our lowest points in life, but we had similar dreams.” He stared up into the starry sky. “I am a lucky man, Limestone; so lucky that I can hardly dispense useful advice about how to take the longer road, as I never really had to.”

Limestone frowned. “You know mom’s kind of pushy, right?”

He gave her a wry grin. “Sayeth the queen of tactfulness herself.” He sighed. “No, Limestone, I cannot pretend that our relationship hath been perfect. There are things we’ve both given up for the sake of keeping the peace and staying together. Most of them are fine, but some doth leave their scars.”

They walked in silence for several minutes, each seemingly afraid to speak next. Eventually, Limestone felt a buzzing in her pocket. She stopped, pulled out her phone, and frowned. “It’s Maud. She says she wants to talk when we get back.”

“We needn’t be much longer,” Igneous said quietly. “I suppose I owe thee some useful advice, and perhaps even about sex, if thou wouldst hear it.”

“Okay,” she said, tensing her jaw. “Lay it on me.”

“Sex is not about thee alone; it is about both of thee. It should reflect something that exists apart from both of thee, but that would not exist without both of thee. And it should nourish and sustain that thing, and add new aspects and dimensions to it.” He paused, breathing deep. “It needs trust, great affection, and respect. And it ought not be a thing divorced entirely from the reality of procreation, for that is part of it as well, even if one takes steps to keep that from happening.”

Limestone pursed her lips. “Yeah, like you guys had the four of us in a span of three years, right?”

He blushed. “Yes, and a vasectomy soon after. But think how old thy mother and I are now, and how long we hath been together, and how much longer both our lives might be.”

She gave him an uncertain look. “Okay?”

“That is why I say to take thy time. Choose once, and choose wisely, and thou hast the rest of thy life to reap the most enjoyable benefits of thy wisdom.”

Limestone nodded, even as she tried to purge her mind of the specifics of that image. “Yeah, but not everything works out, right? Like you said yourself, not everyone gets to have the kind of story you and Mom did.”

He shrugged. “Thou art likely to find many views, and much advice, and thou must choose what rings true for thee in thy life. I can only share what I know, Limestone. But I share it freely, and with love.”

They stood together, looking at the stars. Then Limestone’s phone buzzed again. She looked at it and frowned. “This thing with Maud is going to be a problem.”

Igneous sighed. “Perhaps not all of my advice is as sage as I might hope. I had thought it good to let her see thee dating, but perhaps it is a burden for her after all. Dost thou know what thou plans to do?”

“I think so. I don’t like it, though. It’s going to hurt her.”

“Sometimes there is pain in love, my daughter. But rest assured that I will walk with her as well, and talk with her, and be there for her as best as I can.”

She nodded, but then paused, and narrowed her eyes. “So… has she asked you about sex stuff too?”

Igneous chuckled. “Daughter, tell me what thou knows about thy sister Maud, and how she cloaks the depth of her true feelings in her silence.”

Limestone grimaced. That would be a big yes, she thought to herself.