Chapter 3: Getting Vinyl Settled In
I was rudely awakened by my alarm clock, bright and early in the morning. I grumbled as I shut the alarm off and climbed out of bed. Too lazy to get changed I went downstairs in just my gym shorts.
“Now let’s see…what sounds good this morning?” I mumbled to myself as I perused my selection of breakfast foods. Cereal, pop tarts, cereal, some fruit, more cereal, a half empty box of granola bars...
Well, I guess cereal will have to do for today.
I reached into the fridge and pulled out a jug of milk. To my slight dismay the jug was nearly empty. Guess I’ll have to make a trip to WalMart or something to get more soon. Except…wait, wasn’t I already planning on going out today? My sluggish thought process grappled with the question for a few moments before I mentally shrugged the thought off and set the jug on the counter next to a bowl.
I poured out some Cheerios and drowned them in what milk I had left before tossing the jug into the recycle bin and putting the box back in the cupboard. Taking a seat at the end of the table I looked out through the glass door at the back yard. The far side of the yard was lined with spruce trees, and in one corner next to the shed was a dirt patch that used to be a garden that my dad would plant stuff in every year. There was also a plum tree that was supposed to not bear any fruit but suddenly one year started putting out plums like there was no tomorrow. A few years ago it had even spawned an offspring at the edge of the large wooden deck. Go figure. The grass was green and was mostly covered with morning dew that reflected beautifully in the morning sun. It was a sight that I used to love growing up but for a few years had switched to a more night-oriented schedule. It took a good while to force myself to become a morning person again, and even then I still had issues from time to time.
Absentmindedly stirring my Cheerios for a few moments I savored the sight before I began to eat. I can’t say I’m a huge fan of Cheerios, but they’re still pretty decent, especially when I’m not in a particularly picky mood. I was about halfway through my meal when I heard the distinct sound of a door opening and shutting and then footsteps upstairs.
‘That’s strange.’ I thought to myself, eating another spoonful. ‘I don’t recall having any guests ov-‘
And then all of yesterday evening’s events rushed into my new fully awake state of consciousness.
I nearly choked on my food as I remembered that I now essentially had a roommate who used to be a pony from some other world or dimension or something but now ended up here because she felt like she was unappreciated and somehow being here would change all that…I dunno. Regardless, I now had someone else living here with me and, while I didn’t like to think about it now, I guess that meant that I somehow needed to find a way to financially support myself and Vinyl.
Oh, and I had promised to take her out to get new clothes and stuff today. Fun.
I heard Vinyl head down the stairs as I finished my breakfast. Getting up from my seat I grabbed my bowl and turned around just in time to see her arrive in the kitchen wearing only a shirt and panties.
I stopped, taking in the sight before me for a brief moment before raising an eyebrow at Vinyl, who simply gave me a confused look in return. “What? See something you like?” She asked.
I rolled my eyes. Guess I should probably get used to it. “Hungry?” I asked in return as I put my bowl and spoon away in the dish washer.
“What do you have?” She asked, looking around the kitchen.
“Granola bars, pop tarts, and fruit.” I replied, leaning against the kitchen counter and pointing at each item or items as I named them. “I’d also say we have cereal but unfortunately we seem to have just run out of milk. Unless you happen to like like dry cereal.”
“Hmm…” Vinyl tapped her chin with a finger as she considered her options before looking down at herself for a brief moment. “Would this be too much?” She asked, pointing to her current attire, or perhaps the near lack thereof.
“Don’t you mean too little?” I said with a smirk, and Vinyl rolled her eyes at the bad joke. “I suppose that’s fine. I’m just not used to living with someone in my own house of the opposite gender who isn’t a family member, and even then none of them ever did this.”
“You live here alone then.”
“I do…or rather, did, since you’re here now.”
“I see…well if this makes you uncomfortable then I can go fix that.”
I shrugged. “I’m actually gonna go slightly back on something I said last night. I actually don’t particularly care if you’re in the buff in this house. If being totally naked is more comfortable for you then go right on ahead and wear nothing, so long as there aren’t any other guests here. And no I’m not saying that just because I’m a guy. I’m going to let you in on a little secret: I’m what we humans call ‘asexual’. That means that sexual appeal in regards to either gender means squat to me because I’m simply not mentally wired to like that kind of stuff.”
Vinyl blinked. “So you don’t really care if a girl looks good?”
“I do still have standards.” I replied. “I do have a certain set of standards that I like to keep to when I consider potential girlfriends. But I don’t really consider anything in regards to sex or other related factors because I’m just not into that kind of stuff.”
Vinyl smirked and tried to stifle a laugh. I blinked and then I realized what sort of pun had just flown from my mouth.
I deadpanned and continued. “Anyways, I’d much rather have a partner who is somewhat attractive and has a really good personality and a certain level of intelligence than someone who is insanely attractive and great in bed but leaves much to be desired when it comes to intelligence, personality, or both.”
“Well I guess I should get used to being clothed all the time anyways…” Vinyl walked over to the fruit basket and pulled an apple from it. “So…” She turned the apple over a few times. “…what do you think of me?”
I wasn’t exactly expecting that kind of question, but given the conversation so far I suppose I should have. “Well, I certainly can’t say that you aren’t attractive…” It was true; Vinyl wasn’t skeletal thin but certainly wasn’t even remotely close to being any degree of ‘fat’. She had a really attractive face and her magenta eyes contrasted quite well with her electric blue hair. “…but I can’t say I know you well enough as far as everything else goes.”
Vinyl continued to inspect the apple for a moment. “I appreciate the honesty.” She said with a small grin.
I shrugged. “I’ve got no reason to lie.”
“Sure you do.” Vinyl said. “I’m a total stranger to you, and honestly I have no right be living off your generosity, but you’re here allowing me a place to crash, food, and other things I’m going to need to survive in this world, and heck for all I know you could have decided that instead of going to get me clothes you’re just going to take me to the middle of nowhere and leave me there. There’d be a few ponies back home who’d offer some spare bits and maybe some food to somepony in my position, but none of them would show the same sort of hospitality that you have.”
“I guess you could say it’s just in my nature to be nice when I can.” I shrugged.
Vinyl fell silent for a moment before taking a bite out of the apple. “Do you have a girlfriend?”
“I thought we agreed that we were going to avoid this territory.” I replied.
“I know.” She took another bite. “I’m just genuinely curious.”
Figuring that she was just genuinely curious, I responded, “I’m single at this moment. My last relationship didn’t end well and I haven’t exactly been rushing to get into a new one.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Vinyl replied and finished the apple, core and everything, before tossing the stem into the trash bin.
“Eh, in retrospect it was for the best.” I said. “Well I’ve got granola bars and pop tarts if you want to give those a try.”
“Actually I’m still kinda full from last night.” Vinyl said sheepishly. “I don’t normally eat that much food in one sitting.”
“Alright then.” I said. “I suppose we could head out now and beat the mid-morning store traffic.”
“Sounds good.” Vinyl said. “I’ll go get my shoes…and I guess putting my pants on would be a good idea.”
“Yeah that would be.” I couldn’t help but laugh a bit, and Vinyl laughed some as well as she headed back upstairs. I followed shortly behind and headed to my own room where I quickly changed into a fresh set of clothes. Grabbing my wallet, phone, and house and car keys I headed back downstairs to find Vinyl waiting for me by the front door, now fully clothed. How she managed to tie her shoes I wasn’t sure, but I figured if she could manage then kudos to her. On my way out I grabbed my iTouch from my desk.
Outside I locked the house up and unlocked the car as I climbed into the driver’s seat and buckled up. Vinyl still seemed to have slight trouble with the door handle but figured it out soon enough. I turned the car on, plugged my iTouch in and began to search for a song to play.
“Hey Matt?” Vinyl said.
“Hmm?” I continued flipping through songs as I looked up. Vinyl was pointing at the seat belt, which had somehow gotten all twisted around. I reached across to correct the issue, careful to not invade Vinyl’s personal space too much. Just because she didn’t seem to care too much doesn’t mean that I wasn’t going to at least try to respect it, but reaching across her from the other side of the car to mess with the seat belt certainly didn’t make that very easy. After struggling with the belt for a moment I eventually got it sorted and helped her buckle up.
“Can you play that song again?” She asked as I returned my attention to the device in my hand.
“Which one?” I asked.
“The one you played when we were coming here from wherever it is you found me.”
“Oh that one, yeah I can play it.” I flipped through the massive library until I found the song and selected it. The steady beat of the trance song quickly filled every inch of the car’s interior. Not that I was playing it very loud.
I put the car into gear and looked behind me to see if the road was clear to back up. “Oh, I hope you don’t mind that most of your clothes are probably going to come from a thrift store, which probably means that a lot of what they have will be second-hand.” I commented before backing out of the driveway.
“Nah.” Vinyl said. “I’m honestly not that picky, and not just because I’m used to not wearing anything. I just never really cared for looking very good.”
“Okay then, let’s go.” I switched into drive and took off down the road and headed to Main Street. “Oh, and try not to use ‘somepony’ or anything like that while out in public. Most people will think you’re nuts, unless they happen to know who you are and in that case we’ll draw a lot of unwanted attention from a lot of people who we really don’t need to know.”
“Gotcha. But what about my name?”
I made to say something, but realized that she had a valid point. “Umm…we’ll think of something.”
When I got to the exit of the neighborhood and checked my peripherals for traffic, I noticed that Vinyl was listening very intently to the song.
“You like this song?” I asked, pulling out onto 9th and heading west.
“I do.” Vinyl replied. “It actually reminds me of a lot of my work, specifically the work that led to my being here.”
“Ponies back home don’t like trance too much?” I asked.
“It’s not that they don’t like trance…” Vinyl said. “…I think it just wasn’t what they expected from me. Nearly everything that I had put out before was slightly faster paced than this, and sounded more distorted. I don’t know if humans have a similar genre, but back in Equestria we called it ‘Heavy House’.”
“Hmm…” I thought for a moment. “Well I don’t know if it’s exactly the same thing but here we have a genre known as dubstep. It focuses a lot on bass wobble, electro effects, and is somewhat fast paced. It’s become fairly popular in recent years, though I’m not sure why. Whenever I hear it I usually just hear a lot of the same noise, even between different artists, so I can’t say it’s a genre that I personally care for that much. I’ve got a few songs that could be classified as ‘dubstep’ but nothing that’s just pure dubstep.” I stopped in the turn lane at the red light on Main Street, blinker flashing.
“Huh.” Vinyl said. “Do you have a favorite band or song?”
“I’ve got a favorite band, sure.” I replied, turning north onto Main Street when it was clear. “As far as a favorite song I’ve got two contenders.”
“Can you play them?” She asked, looking out of the passenger window at the passing buildings.
I quickly flipped through the song list until I found ‘Blackout’ by Linkin Park and selected it. Vinyl and I listened in silence as the song played through the intro and first few verses. When the song reached the bridge, I said, “This part is not terribly far from being dubstep, but it is cleaner and more structured.”
“I like this song.” Vinyl said.
“Just wait until you hear the second part.”
The bridge ended and the song mellowed out considerably into an electronic rhythm. When the second vocalist began to sing, I glanced over at Vinyl, who appeared to be quite intrigued by the sudden change.
“Not really what you’d expect huh?” I said, stopping at a red light at Mountain View Avenue.
“Not at all.” Vinyl replied.
“When this song first came out three years ago it immediately became my favorite.” I said. “It’s unfortunate that the album wasn’t well received by critics or fans.”
“What do you mean?” Vinyl suddenly became very interested.
“This band is known as Linkin Park.” I replied hitting the gas as the light turned green. “Their first two albums had a much different sound than this. The guy who sang is known for his rapping and the guy who pseudo-rapped and screamed is known for singing and…well screaming. They started changing their sound with their third album, and people hoped that they would stop experimenting after that. Well then this album came out and it was totally different. It was far more electronic based than any of their previous work, but still retained a lot of what made Linkin Park originally famous, but people just focused on the electronic bits and called it shit.”
“That’s crap.” Vinyl replied.
“Tell me about it.” I replied. “Their last album that came out last summer was a combination of everything they had done so far, plus some minor influences from dubstep and traditional folk music. The other song I’m going to play is actually on that album and features some of that folk influence.” As I said that I switched through the song list and selected ‘Castle of Glass’.
Vinyl listened carefully as the song played. By the time the song was over we had reached the local Goodwill store in the north part of the town.
I paused the song right as it ended and stashed my iTouch in the middle console and turned the car off. “Another thing that they weren’t originally known for was guitar solos, which that song clearly had.”
“These guys are pretty talented.” Vinyl replied, unbuckling herself and climbing out of the car.
“They’re my favorite for a reason.” I said, also getting out of the car and locking it. “I’ll also play some stuff from their other albums so you can understand just how they’ve changed.”
“Sure thing.”
I started to head towards the store but noticed that Vinyl was too busy gawking at the 1st Bank building across the street.
“Wha’cha looking at?” I asked, standing beside her.
“It’s so tall!” Vinyl said.
I could barely contain my laughter. Sure this bank might be one of the three tallest buildings in town, but it only stood five floors high. Not exactly what I could classify as particularly ‘tall’.
“What’s so funny?” Vinyl asked.
“Nothing particularly tall back in Equestria?” I asked, attempting to regain my composure.
“Not even in our largest cities did we have many buildings over three or four floors.” Vinyl replied. “Except for Canterlot castle of course.”
“Heh, I oughta take you down to the state capital sometime then.” I commented. “What you’ll see where will blow your mind.”
Vinyl gave me a look that told me she wasn’t quite sure how to interpret that statement. I shook my head and motioned for her to follow me inside.
Once inside I pointed towards the clothing section. “Women’s clothes should be over there.” I said.
“Lead the way.” Vinyl said, and so I did.
Fortunately the store was mostly empty at eight in the morning. Vinyl took a moment to gaze across the warehouse store. From her expression I guessed that Equestria didn’t really have anything like this either. We headed to the women’s section and Vinyl began to look through the racks. “What should I get?” She asked.
“Well the hottest part of the year is about to arrive.” I said. “So as far as shirts go I’d get a few t shirts, like the one you’re wearing right now, for everyday use and maybe a plain one you can use when you’re working on something potentially dirty or messy. The weather here tends to be pretty unpredictable so we’ll try and find a jacket for you as well. Colorado can get really cold during the winters though, so maybe grabbing a sweater wouldn’t be a bad idea either.”
“Nopo…nobody controls the weather here?” Vinyl asked, pulled out a plain blue t shirt and looking it over.
“Nope.” I replied. “The weather here controls itself, and some days it can be a fickle fiend.”
Vinyl pulled out another shirt and inspected it. “What kind of pants should I get?”
“I’d get a pair of gym shorts like the pair I had on this morning, then a few pairs of both short and long pants, plus a pair you can afford to get dirty or scuffed.”
We walked up and down the ranks of clothing and Vinyl picked out what she thought looked nice enough and would fit. She even found a jacket that was her size.
“Alright then, I think I’m ready.” Vinyl said with arms full.
“If you’d like you can use the changing room right over there.” I suggested, pointing to the end of the clothing section.
“I guess that would be a good idea.” Vinyl replied and headed over to an empty booth and managed to open the door before looking back at me. “You coming?”
“I’d get into some trouble if I went into there with you.” I replied, taking a seat next to the booth. “Besides, it’d be really cramped.”
Vinyl looked inside the rather small both. “Yeah I guess it would be cramped.” She stepped inside and closed the door. I heard a latch that indicated she had locked the door.
I spaced out for a moment, just letting my mind wander wherever it wanted. Each thought that came to me either wound up leading back to Vinyl and the fact that she was now my roommate, which was a reality I still wasn’t sure I believed just yet, or how I was going to be able to afford having her as roommate. While I wasn’t exactly poor when it came to what I had in my savings, not having a steady source of income made things interesting sometimes.
A few minutes later I heard the booth door unlock and Vinyl stepped out, holding the clothes she had decided to keep. It looked like it was enough to last at least until the colder months set in.
We headed to the checkout counter and the cashier began to ring up the total.
“You’re in luck.” She said. “All of this is half off.”
“Really now?” I asked, pulling out my card. She pointed to a sheet of paper that stated “All green tags are 50% off!”. It just happened to be my luck that all the clothes bore green tags. “Sweet.” I said, and handed the card to the cashier. Goodwill was already pretty cheap compared to…well pretty much anything else in town, but I wasn’t about to argue with a half off sale that pertained to what I was buying since it meant I paid just under twenty as opposed to nearly forty.
Once the transaction was complete I pocketed my card and thanked the cashier. Vinyl took the bagged clothes and we left the store.
“Okay, so what about shoes or socks or these undergarments?” Vinyl asked as we headed to my car.
“Buying second hand underwear, bras, or socks is gross.” I replied, unlocking the car and opening the rear hatch. Vinyl watched as the hatch door opened and stayed open. “So I’m going to make sure you get new pairs of each. Your shoes look like they’ll last while, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get a second pair and maybe some sandals.”
“Where are we going to do that?” Vinyl asked, setting the stuffed bag down in the back of the car.
“Here in America we have a superstore chain called WalMart.” I said, shutting the hatch and heading to the driver’s seat. “This store has damn near anything you could possibly want.”
“How far away is it?” Vinyl asked, getting into the passenger’s seat.
“There’s one just up the road on the edge of town.” I said, starting the engine and pulling my iTouch out. I thought about which song I should play next and decided on the one that originally drew me to Linkin Park.
“What’s this song?” Vinyl asked.
“This one’s called ‘In The End.’” I replied, and backed out of the parking space. “This song is on their first album and it’s what really made Linkin Park famous over a decade ago, and it’s what the band is originally known for; rapping, sung or screamed verses, some dee jay scratching…it all comes together in a genre known as nu metal. Unfortunately that genre died a few years ago, and most of the bands known for being a part of that genre have faded, gone their separate ways, or just went with something completely different. Linkin Park may have experimented with their sound over the years, but they’ve always kept to a few basic things that made them who they are.”
Vinyl didn’t say anything but instead leaned back into the seat and listened, eyes closed. To say that listening to this particular song brought back memories of when the radio still played good stuff and when I was first really starting to explore rock and metal more was an understatement.
I turned north into Main Street and headed to the WalMart at the end of town. With my luck I got stopped by red lights at all four controlled intersections between Goodwill and the WalMart, but it was enough to let the song play in its entirety before we arrived and I had found a parking spot.
“I think I’m really starting to like this band.” Vinyl commented as we both made our way into the WalMart.
“I’ll have to let you peruse through my large library of albums then.” I replied. “I’ve got several hundred albums by dozens of bands spanning all kinds of genres. Most of it is metal or rock but I’ve got some other stuff as well.”
Vinyl grinned at the thought of getting to listen to so much new music.
“Okay, so I’m going to head to the electronics department at the end of the store.” I said as we crossed the threshold of the massive store.
“Where am I supposed…to……go…?” Vinyl asked but her question slowly trailed off as her jaw dropped at the size of the super center. “This place is massive! Are all WalMarts this big?” She asked.
“Most of them are these days.” I said. “Now you should head to the clothing department in the middle of the store and find an employee. They’ll have a dark blue shirt, khaki pants, and a name tag. Tell him or her what you’re looking for and they’ll help you find everything you need. Meet me at the electronics section when you’re done.”
“Underwear, bra, socks, shoes…got it.” Vinyl said to herself and then headed off. I went back by the entrance and grabbed a cart before heading off to my destination.
It didn’t take me long to browse through their music and movie selection, and before long I was simply staring at whatever was playing on the dozens of flat screens against the wall. I placed my hand in my pocket and realized that I had put my iTouch there. I pulled it out and checked if I had a wifi signal, and once I had seen that I had I pulled up a browser and logged into my bank account to check my account balance.
I stared at the numbers in both my checking and my savings accounts for a few moments, mulling over what I should do. I had several thousand saved up for emergencies and several hundred still in checking. Eventually I decided to transfer half a grand into my checking before logging out. ‘That should be more than enough…’ I thought to myself as I pocked the device.
Some amount of time later Vinyl came walking up to me with everything that she had decided to get. “Where’s the shoe department?” She asked.
I gestured for her to put her new clothes into the cart. “Just over here.” I said and we walked over.
We arrived at the correct aisle and Vinyl began to look at the shoes on display. “What should I get here?” She asked.
“Well first we need to figure out what your shoe size is.” I said. “Do your current shoes feel comfortable?”
Vinyl nodded. “These fit perfectly.”
“Take one off then.” I said. Vinyl gave me a slightly confused look but slipped one off and handed it to me. I peered inside and read the tag. “Looks like you wear a women’s size eight shoe.” I commented and handed the shoe back.
Vinyl slipped the shoe back on and started looking for the right size shoe. So I guess she didn’t even bother to untie them. “So now what?” She asked.
“Well I’d find another pair like the one you have now and a pair of sandals, like these.” I pulled a pair of blue sandals off a shelf that were a size eight and handed them to Vinyl. “Try these on.”
Vinyl took them and sat down on a nearby stool and proceeded to slip her shoes off and the sandals on. “These are comfortable.” She commented, wiggling her toes.
“Normally people don’t wear socks when trying on sandals, but if you’re happy with them then I’ll get them for you.” I said.
Vinyl took the sandals off and handed them back to me. I took the box that they came with and packaged them up before setting them in the cart. Vinyl pointed to something on the opposite shelf and asked, “Can you hand me those?”
I took a look at what she was pointing at: a pair of black athletic shoes. I took a box and gave Vinyl the shoes after removing the stuffing inside. She slipped them on.
“These a little loose.” She commented, sounding slightly disappointed.
“Tie them up first.” I said, pointing to the laces. Vinyl looked down and took a lace from one shoe in each hand.
“How do I do that?” She asked.
I kneeled down in front of her and took the laces from her. She watched as I slowly tied a bow with the laces, and then proceeded to do the same with the other shoe. “How does that feel?” I asked when I was done.
“Much better.” She said, standing up and taking a few steps. “Yeah, I like these.”
“Alright then I’ll get them for you.” I said. Vinyl took the shoes off and slipped her old ones back on before handing me the shoes. I repackaged them and set them on top of the box with the sandals.
“Anything else I should get?” Vinyl asked.
“Aside from basic hygiene products I can’t really think of anything at the moment.” I said. “But we can grab those on our way to the check out. There’s some minor grocery shopping that I need to get done.”
It only took a few minutes to grab what I needed: milk, some wheat bread, a few bags of potato chips, a new twenty four pack of soda, and some stuff to make a vegetarian chili and corn bread tonight. I was going to force myself to adapt to a new lifestyle where meals with meat of any kind at the house were rare or nonexistent. If at some point Vinyl decided that she was going to eat meat then I’d change my eating habits accordingly, but for now I’d respect the fact that she was vegetarian.
As we approached the front of the store I made a quick detour to grab a toothbrush, toothpaste, some deodorant, dental floss, a bottle of shampoo, and some other products I knew she would need. I added these items to my cart and made my way to the self-checkout stands, which were fortunately empty.
Checking out didn’t take very long and once everything was paid for we made our way back to the car, and packed everything in the back. As I put the cart into a nearby corral I checked my watch. Not quite time for lunch yet, which meant that I could take Vinyl to our next destination.
I climbed into the car. Vinyl was already waiting for me. “So by my count you still have two more songs to play from this band.” She said as I buckled myself in.
“I do.” I said and turned the car on. “Their second and third album.” I pulled out my iTouch and switched to the music app. ‘Meteora is full of fantastic songs…’ I thought to myself as I looked over the album’s track list. ‘…I’ll go with this one.’
“Okay, so their second album sounded a lot like their first album, only it had slightly more electronic influence, but only slightly. But even back in their earliest of days they were experimenting and ended up releasing this song, which is among their most popular.” I selected ‘Breaking the Habit’ and made my way out of the parking lot and back to Main Street.
Vinyl definitely didn’t expect the canon at the very beginning of the song, evidenced by the fact that she jumped a bit when it sounded. It took some self-control to keep myself from singing along to the lyrics, but I managed to keep quiet as she listened.
“That was…wow.” Vinyl stated as the song ended. We were about halfway to where I wanted to take her.
“The music video for this song is also different than everything else they’ve done.” I added, flipping to the next song. “It’s entirely animated like a cartoon, as opposed to having live shots of the band.” The next song, ‘In Pieces’, began to play and I let Vinyl listen to it as we headed down Main Street.
Vinyl listened in silence as the second chorus played through, and as it ended the otherwise mellow song kicked into a fast paced and high energy guitar solo. As the song ended I pulled into the parking lot of Mister Money, a pawn shop at the edge of downtown across the street from a construction site.
“I think I can understand why their third album might not have been so well received.” Vinyl commented as we exited the car. “What’s that?” She pointed across the street.
“That’s going to be a brand new apartment complex.” I said. “It’ll be the most modern-looking building in Longmont. Right now we’re in downtown, and most of these buildings were originally constructed nearly if not more than a century ago.”
“Huh.” Vinyl stared at one of the cranes.
“Shall we head inside?” I suggested.
“Sure.” Vinyl replied. “But what are we doing here?”
“You’ll see.”
We headed inside the pawn shop, which had just opened a few minutes ago. Inside an entire corner was dedicated to musical instruments. Guitars of all makes and styles hung from the wall, pianos stood on stands next to a full drum kit. There was a smaller section dedicated to brass instruments, and two shelves were filled with albums and movies.
“Wow…” Vinyl mouthed as she stared at all the instruments. “This is so cool!”
“This is where I bought both my guitars.” I said. I wasn’t here for the instruments though. What I wanted to look at was on display at a counter.
I walked up to the cashier and asked to look at the two laptops they had. The cashier opened the display case up and pulled them both out for me to inspect. Fortunately both looked to have minimal wear and tear. I powered them both on and proceeded to check for any broken keys or if the mouse pad wasn’t working properly. One of the laptops had slightly sticky keys.
“Hey Vinyl, c’mere!” I called over to her. She put down the guitar she was looking at and walked over.
“What’s up?” She asked. “Ooo, what’re these for?”
“I’m buying you one.” I said. “You’ll need it.”
“Which one?” Vinyl began to get excited.
“I think…this one.” I indicated the laptop without the sticky keys. The other laptop had slightly better specs, but I was on a budget and sticky keys could point to other problems I couldn’t check for here.
“Matt you are awesome.” Vinyl said, hugging me. The cashier put the other laptop away, making a comment on how ‘cute’ of a couple we were.
“We’re not dating.” I replied and pulled out my card with a grin.
“No?” The cashier said, ringing up the laptop. “Maybe you should start.”
Vinyl let go and while I didn’t look her way I’d imagine she was turning slightly red.
After paying for the laptop we headed home and unloaded the car. I began to put the food stuffs away and Vinyl was busy digging through her new belongings.
“Hey Matt?” I heard her call my name as I was putting away the milk.
“Hmm?” I shut the fridge and turned around to see Vinyl holding up one of the ‘other’ products I had picked up.
“What’s this for?” She asked.
If I hadn’t been prepared to have that conversation it would have been really awkward. I waved for Vinyl to follow me to my desk and I booted up the laptop. I opened up Chrome and did a search for female reproduction. I pulled up an article that had basic explanations and illustrations and began to explain what was in the article.
Vinyl read the article as I talked, and when I was through she sat in the chair for a moment. “So let me get this straight…humans don’t go into heat but instead reproduce all year long, but once a month a female’s nethers just decides to give us these nasty cramps and then bleeds for days on end?”
“Pretty much.” I said, closing the browser.
Vinyl looked at the product in her hand as she began to understand what its purpose was. “That’s gross.” She said.
“Yeah it is.” I replied and went back into the kitchen to finish putting the food away. “You want some help carrying everything up to your room?”
“That would be awesome.” She said.
We dumped everything of hers onto the bed. “Okay, so I’m going to leave you to put everything away as you want. There are hangers in the closet that you can use to hang stuff on and a small dresser for everything else. You can put your toothbrush and stuff in the hallway bathroom, and your laptop can sit on the desk. There’s a plug down underneath the window that you can plug the power cord in. I’m gonna go downstairs and get you a hamper of some kind for you to put your dirty clothes in and a radio.”
“Alright.” Vinyl said, but hugged me again before I could leave. “You really didn’t have to do any of this.” She added.
I smiled and hugged her back. “I know, but I did anyways.”
I left and went to my laptop, opening iTunes and setting a playlist to play. Then I went downstairs and dug around for a basket or something. After some digging I was beginning to wonder if I only had one, but fortunately I found one buried under a mountain of paper towels and tissue boxes. Grabbing it I went to the studio and took the spare radio and power strip I kept down there and headed back upstairs.
I got to Vinyl’s room and found he had already changed into a fresh set of clothes and had most of her stuff already put away. I set the basket down by the closet and put the radio on the desk next to her laptop. I plugged the power strip into the socket and then plugged the radio and laptop into the strip and turned it on.
“Okay, so you should have pretty much everything you should ever need for now.” I said. “How about some lunch?”
“Lunch sounds great.” Vinyl said.