Vinyl watched the bus leave, thinking about everything that had happened this day. She was a girl of action, but right now, she needed a break ; it was too much. She let her thoughts flow like a melody vibe in the air, while a silly smile was taking shape on her face.
"Wow dude, you're making that face again. The one you do when you skip your morning energy drink."
"Oh yeah, that's right, Lyra's here too. But she looks in waaayyy better shape than I do. Guess beating up that bitch got a bit of adrenaline flowing in her body."
“Boy, today was crazy! Okay, maybe kinda scary at first, with the whole P.E class and taking Octavia to the infirmary… But then, with your brother -super cool guy by the way- and the bar, Discord… I guess… and finally kicking the shit out of this self-proclaimed queen of the school! I’ll remember this!”
Vinyl paused for a moment. She wondered how Octavia was feeling at this very moment. Obviously she had a tough life outside of school, and even though she was smiling with joy only a few minutes ago, now that she was away, the smile most likely had faded.
“...”
“Yeah I’m worry about her too… From what she told us, her place isn’t exactly the “home, sweet home” type. Must be tough to switch from eating snacks with us to going back with her butthurt folks.”
“...”
“Don’t worry, she’s gonna be alright.”
As Lyra was pronouncing these words, she got closer to Vinyl, taking the DJ’s hand in her own.
“I thought you were supposed to be the chill one.”
Vinyl’s lips met with her friend’s, her hands holding Lyra’s hips, as the two girls shared a long and passionate kiss. It was certainly unexpected, but the blue-haired girl’s negative emotions suddenly drifted away, as she enjoyed the physical contact with her friend.
After they broke contact ; Lyra, clearly proud of her good influence on Vinyl’s feelings, looked at her in the eyes before asking:
“Hey,... You think we should tell her? And also Bon-Bon? About us two?”
Vinyl emitted an embarrassed sound. She didn’t know the answer. They had known both Bon-Bon and Octavia for only a couple of days, and the last thing she wanted was to make the atmosphere awkward.
“Plus, Tavi would probably ask me how it is possible to date another girl, and I do NOT want to explain that to her. Not yet.”
“I mean, I’m probably telling Bon-Bon one day or another. She’s super cool and all, so I don’t really want to keep any big secret like that to her. And I wouldn’t mind a three-way relationship.”
Vinyl punched her friend’s shoulder, laughing at her dumb jokes. No, she wouldn’t tell Octavia. Not now, not before this whole shitstorm with Sombra is solved, at least.
She grabbed her car keys from her pocket, waving them in front of Lyra’s face.
“Oh, bringing me back home and stuff? You’re the boss! Let’s go, dude!”
Vinyl sighed: Lyra’s place wasn’t exactly on her way home, but she had a day free of any classes, and felt brave enough to face the girl’s jokes during the trip. With a sign of the hand, she invited Lyra to follow her to the school’s parking lot.
Once they reached the car, Vinyl opened it with a slight press of a button, and sat in front of the wheel. Lyra grabbed the two sides of the opened door and hopped in the passenger’s seat, almost crushing the gear stick in the process.
“So, we’re going or what?”
Vinyl smiled and turned on the engine, while Lyra was rampaging through the glove compartment, throwing everything she didn’t need in the back of the car.
Finally, she waved a shiny blue disc labeled “compil 3.” at the DJ, proud of her discovery.
“Hey dude, look at this! It’s that time when you recorded me playing the lyre and mixed it into that sweeeeet tune! Wanna listen to it?”
“Well, why not. I’m kinda proud of this actually. Never thought Lyra’s instrument could sound so good when remixed.”
Vinyl gave a nod of agreement, while backing up the car to exit the lot. As the tires were rubbing against the cold pavement, Lyra inserted the CD in the small player her friend had installed in her car, and shouted in glee once she heard the first notes playing:
“Awwwww yeah, it’s on! Let’s go, dude! Drive!”
}--oO0Oo--{
Finally. Home. It had been a pain to find the fastest way to get to Lyra’s place, but now Vinyl’s car was parked in front of her apartment, and she was more than relieved by the perspective of jumping on her couch and staying still for the remaining of the day.
That’s when she noticed her brother’s car, parked next to her. A fine red compact car, with one broken wing mirror. The sight of the car triggered something in her head, and she rushed to the entrance, ran up the stairs, unlocked her door and looked in every corner of the living room.
There they were.
Her turntables. The real ones, not the portables she carried around in school. Some big, incredibly heavy material, surrounded by two gigantic black speakers with blue woofers, as well as a fuckton of cables and adaptors. Finally she could get to work, shit was gonna get real.
She then went in her room to leave her bag before installing everything, but someone was waiting for her:
“Heeyyy Vy! How’re you doing?!”
Vinyl smiled at her brother. She had almost forgotten that Volume Bass was staying here for a few nights. What she didn’t forget was that she asked (well, forced him really) to bring some of her stuff along with him, using that nice ride of his. She jumped into her brother’s arms, thanking him for his help by moving her hands from her lips in his direction.
“See? I didn’t forget! That stuff is heavy as hell, but my friend Zephyr Breeze helped me carry everything up here, in exchange for, well, some of the stuff in your fridge…”
Vinyl looked at Volume in surprise and ran to the kitchen, opening the fridge: everything was gone, except for some lettuce and butter. She turned around to face her brother’s mocking smile, with a look that didn’t require sign language to be understood and feared.
“Relax! You were planning on buying some groceries anyway, right?”
“No.”
Vinyl shook her head in disbelief, and smiled. Having her music material was well worth getting out to fill her fridge again. Seeing that his little sister wasn’t actually angry at him, Volume Bass smiled back, grabbed a couple of beers from his bag, and handed one to Vinyl.
“Hey, promise you won’t tell mom and dad about this, ‘kay?”
Vinyl smirked and swiftly edge-opened the bottle on the kitchen table. She loved her brother: always here for her, always the right words. He was kinda like her, minus the whole DJ-thing, although he played the guitar. They had always had a more “best-friends” than “siblings” relationship, and she didn’t mind that at all.
“Oh, by the way!” yelled the said brother from the living room, “I’ve ordered a little something for you, from mom and dad! They gave me some money for it and it should arrive any minute now!”
As he pronounced these last words, the doorbell rang. Vinyl, raising an eyebrow, opened the window and looked down, only to see a giant truck labeled “Crafty Crate Company”, surrounded by two big guys, one of them at the door.
Vinyl didn’t have time to say “Who the fuck are you?” that her brother rushed out of the apartment, grabbing his keys and leaving the door opened behind him.
As the DJ was starting to wonder what Volume had planned that he reappeared in the stairway, holding multiple large-sized cardboard boxes, with the help of the two truckers.
Once everything was placed in the middle of Vinyl’s room, the two guys handed a paper to Volume Bass, and left as soon as he signed, waving at him and his sister.
“STOP. What the hell is going on?”
She shook her hands from left to right, an expression of pure questioning stucked on her face, as her brother was smiling proudly in front of her.”
“Oh? That? It’s your new bed, of course! You didn’t think we’d let you sleep on a mattress for more than a few days, did you?
“What?!”
The disbelief was now widely tainted with excitement. A new bed? From her parents?
“Yeah, they knew you’d want a queen size, now that you’re on your own, and also yours back home is now being used as a guest bed, soooo I chose one for you, they paid for it and now there it is! I’m kinda jealous, actually.”
Vinyl couldn’t believe it: her parents bought her a queen-sized bed? These things were kinda expensive, and she was planning on using her first salary to afford one. She knew that her parents loved her, but that was unexpected.
She smiled at her brother ; a true, sincere smile she wished she could express in many words. Sign language was good enough for a lot of things, but thanking people had always been a bit awkward. Instead, she gave one more hug, her blue hair tickling her brother’s neck. She then grabbed her phone, and started typing, her sibling watching over her shoulder.
}--oO0Oo--{
As Music Wind was calmly watering her plants on her terrace, she gazed at downtown Manehattan’s buildings, only a few streets away. Suddenly, her phone buzzed, with her daughter’s face appearing next to a small text:
“WOW! MOM, DAD! Thx soooo much for the bed! Its so awesome, just what I needed! :D Love u both so much!”
Vinyl’s mother smiled at the message, and started typing back:
“You’re welcome sweetie, we didn’t want you to spend your first salary on some basic life tools, go have fun with it instead! You should also thank your brother for choosing the model and ordering it! Hope you're happy with the deal you two made!”
“What deal?”
“He didn’t tell you?”
“WHAT DEAL”
“Kisses, sweetie <3”
She put down the phone and giggled. She was glad to see that Vinyl was having a good time with her brother.
“Honey! It was Vinyl!”
“Ow! She received the bed yet?”
“Yup.”
“How’s Volume?”
“Good, but maybe not for long.”
}--oO0Oo--{
Volume Bass was hiding in a corner of the living room, terrified as his sister’s magenta eyes were staring at him in sheer anger.
“Hey relax, Vy! I only told them that since I ordered he bed, I had the right to sleep in it for the time I’m at your place, no?!”
Vinyl shook her head, hitting repeatedly her brother’s shoulder and arm as he was laughing at his maneuver.
“RAAAAAAAAH!! How could he do that? That’s my bed, and he wants to take it hostage for the next two days?! No way!”
“Come on -ouch- Vy! I’m gonna -ouch- build it myself to compensate if that makes you happy!”
Vinyl stopped her every moves at this proposition. Spending three hours building the bed wasn’t a idea she was enjoying, and despite not wanting Volume to use the new bed before her, him building the furniture wouldn’t only spare her some body aches, but also give her time to install her turntables. It was a hard decision, but she made her choice.
She got up, helped Volume do as well, and used her right hand to do two simple signes: O.K
“Great! Perfect! God, you hit hard, sis! Imma leave you to your electronics, and I’ll do the manly work! I can’t wait for my bed to be built! I mean, your bed, of course!”
Vinyl ignored her brother’s mockery, giving him the universal sign for “fuck off”. She then went to the living room, stood in front of the gigantic speakers, and exhaled in happiness.
“Oh boy… Here we go.”
}--oO0Oo--{
After a good hour of work, Vinyl took a step back to contemplate the results, wiping a drop of sweat from her temple.
It was beautiful. She knew a good setup when she saw one, but her own was above average. It didn’t seem cocky to say that in her opinion, given the time, money and efforts she had put into this over the last years: every month at least, finding a better component, changing it, boosting the speakers, adding more options. If this version wasn’t perfect, it was really close.
Volume Bass had also brought some of her acoustic foam, along with four background supports to hold the whole thing together. She didn’t want any problems with the neighbours, and since she was planning on exercising every week (at least), she couldn’t allow noise complaints.
“That looks awesome as fuck. Good job, dude. We’re going to light this city up!”
That reminded her of that Pinkie Pie girl’s party this Saturday. She, Lyra and Bon-Bon had already accepted, but they’d have to make Octavia come one way or another… Wasn’t going to be easy with these parents of hers.
“Yo! Vy! Come check that out! I finally finished building the bed!”
Vinyl opened the door to her room, and found herself facing the most beautiful piece of furniture she had ever seen.
Well, not really, it was just a normal bed made of black particleboard, with four giant drawers serving as its base, but for Vinyl, this was everything. She had always dreamt of sleeping in a queen size, arms and legs spread to occupy the maximum space. The DJ had thousands of glittery stars in her eyes, as she was admiring what could only be a life changing element of her existence.
“Sis?”
“...”
“HEY! VY!”
Vinyl turned her head towards her brother, only to notice that he was covered in sweat, with some of his fingers slightly bleeding from what she assumed was a badly placed screw. But he looked happy of his work. She had to admit, he did some good work, and only in one hour.
“Not bad, uh? I’m pretty excited by the thought of spending the night in this.”
She ignored her brother’s sarcasm, and pulled him by the sleeve to bring him in the living room.
“Wow Vy! Nice job on your setup! Looks even bigger! And as we both know, bigger is…”
Vinyl smiled and put her right hand on the mouth, before giving a thumbs up.
“Better! We’re so mature.”
“That’s what I’m talking about! Now I’ll be having dinner at a bar with some friends, so you can use your hellish machine to bring down the building. Just wait until I leave the place.”
A few minutes later, once he had taken a shower and chosen new clothes, Volume Bass kissed his sister goodbye, and left the apartment. Only a few minutes later, after finishing some connections, Vinyl stepped behind her turntables.
As soon as she turned everything on, the woofer went glowing with an electric blue color, the turntables illuminated with the colors of the rainbow, and a small vibrating sound came out of the machine. Vinyl plugged her laptop into the turntables, pressed a few keys, adjusted some settings, and finally picked her blue headphones and placed them on her ears.
“Ok. Now let’s up the tempo.”