She faked a smile as her friends sat down with their respective coffee-based beverages. They all greeted each other, asking the same boring questions about how life was, how family was, and Vinyl did her best to tolerate it. It was just small talk. It was a social norm she didn't understand, but it was a norm nonetheless.
They sat at a metal table, with Vinyl sitting in one of the two spots within the shade provided by the table's umbrella. Derpy took the other spot in the shade to Vinyl's left, while Lyra and Bon Bon sat in the sunny spots. Vinyl pulled her hood down as her friends sat down, but only because she had the shade. Derpy had forgone coffee, and had gotten herself a blueberry muffin instead. Lyra had gotten a regular black coffee with no cream or sugar, and Bon Bon had gotten herself a smaller version of Vinyl's drink.
Bon Bon turned to Vinyl and asked something that Vinyl assumed to be a simple "how are you?" She answered that she was fine and slipped back into her thoughts, sipping absently at her mocha frap. One by one, the rest of the group turned to stare at her. All of them had looks of curiosity and concern, and it took a minute or two for Vinyl to finally notice.
"What?" she asked.
"I asked when your anniversary with Octavia is," Bon Bon said, pursing her lips and looking away awkwardly.
"Oh. Sorry, I was a bit zoned out. Octy and I broke up," Vinyl answered, turning away and sipping at her coffee in hopes that she would get a lethal case of brain freeze.
"Wait what?" the entire group responded.
"What happened?" Derpy asked.
"Yeah," Lyra concurred. "What the fuck?"
"Guys, give her some space. Breakups are hard enough without you badgers," Bon Bon said, trying to calm the other two down.
Vinyl just sighed, her head faltering and tilting down, and her gaze falling down to the ground beneath her. Her mind began to spin but failed to move. She tried her hardest to minimize herself and get the gazes off of her, but her friends stared on.
"Are you okay?" Derpy asked softly, placing a hand on Vinyl's shoulder.
The DJ didn't answer, and everyone understood. At least, they understood the meaning of the action of not answering. They didn't understand the pain. They couldn't. How could they know? How could they comprehend having someone so important to her very existence, her very soul, tear herself out of her life? How could they even begin to understand that? How could she put that kind of pain to words? To music? The loneliest piano solo, nor the saddest violin, nor the most angry screamo rock could convey what she was feeling.
"Is there anything we can do to help?" Derpy asked. She set her muffin down on the paper bag it had come in and shifted her attention in its entirety to Vinyl. Such a gesture, though small, was not lost on the DJ.
"Not actively," Vinyl answered. "Just the usual. Coffee, company, conversation."
Derpy and the others nodded.
"So what's the latest musical project of yours, Vinyl?" Bon Bon took it upon herself to ask. "How big is your stack of projects?"
Vinyl shook her head a bit and sipped, "Still around seventy projects in total. Don't have any new ones aside from the album I've been working on since last April."
Lyra chimed back in, "How close to done are you with that?"
"Just reached half," the DJ replied.
And so the conversation continued in such a fashion, and for a brief couple of hours, Vinyl was glad to be numb.