Chapter 16: The Amora Crescendo (Part 3)
I stare off into space for a little while, trying to process everything that’s happened today. My job was fine, nothing new outside of a few routine changes and yelling at some relatively new recruits. Nothing I hadn’t done dozens of times before.
Coming home, however, was a different story. I’d somehow gotten used to my housemates by now, and I knew they were moving out tonight, or sometime today. I expected them to either be leaving, have left, or, knowing Vinyl, be throwing some kind of three-pony farewell party. I almost expected to be able to hear wubs from the street corner.
But when I got home, the house had been really very quiet. Almost too quiet. My first thought was that they’d left already and I’d find a note or something. Then, thinking about it more, I came to the conclusion that Vinyl must be hiding somewhere from me, waiting to spring out and say goodbye.
Both of those thoughts had been vanquished when I saw the pile of luggage and equipment at the base of the stairs. Still not hearing hide nor hoof of my two “roommates”, I started running through other possible scenarios. Maybe they’d gone out to dinner as a last hurrah. Maybe they were out shopping, getting me a farewell present. I felt a little egotistical at that last thought, but I still considered it. Part of me wondered if they were arguing with some kind of moving company or grabbing a cart to haul all of their stuff.
Then I found them. Octavia and Vinyl, huddled on the couch together.
Once again, I ran through possible scenarios. Doing my damnedest to avoid the obvious, jealousy-driven fantasy in my head that they were cuddling or doing something romantic, before I flipped off the handle and started accusing them, I ran through some observations. It was still very quiet, although, straining my ears now I could hear very tiny sobs coming from the couch. I wasn’t sure who it was that was crying, but I was certain of one thing.
Something must have gone wrong. I edged my way around the couch, approaching from a wide angle so that I didn’t surprise the two of them. Vinyl noticed me first, as Octavia’s face was scrunched and very red. Vinyl looked like she’d done her fair share of crying, herself. “Hey, Spitfire.” No nicknames, no jumps at me or sexy remarks. Just a “hi”.
“What’s wrong, Vi?” I leaned forward and laid a hoof on her knee. She reciprocated the gesture by laying her hoof on top of mine.
“Spit... it’s our home. The... uh... the apartment complex Tavi and I were living in, it’s been... it’s been closed down.” She took small gasps of air around her words as she tried not to cry again. “When they were doing the reconstruction on my room, and the rewiring, it turns out they found a whole bunch of building code violations. They shut it down days ago. When they called letting us know we could move our stuff, they were talking about moving OUT, not back IN.”
The more she explained the more I understood. Why they hadn’t gone anywhere despite all of their bags being backed. It certainly explained the crying. “Do you... are they letting you go back for all of your stuff?”
Vinyl smiled lightly, and nodded. “Yeah. We worked some stuff out with the ponies clearing out the place. They’re letting us drag everything out tomorrow. I’ve got a storage locker picked out. Octavia, too.”
Octavia seemed to choke around her quiet sobbing. “I-I’ve never b-be-been homeless be-before...” I looked from her, back to Vinyl, and sighed.
“Well, it’s not like most of your stuff isn’t already here. I’ve got a bunch of room in the basement you guys can use, within reason. So don’t feel like I’m kicking you out just yet.” Of course, as soon as I said them I knew there would come a time when I’d regret doing so.
Vinyl’s reaction was about what I expected. Or, half of it. She made an attempt to leap out of the couch to tackle me in an appreciative hug, but didn’t get very far as she realized mid-motion that Octavia was still hanging onto her. So all I got out of her was a small lurch, and a grateful smile. “You’re the best, Spits. I promise we’ll find someplace new soon enough. You hear that, Octavia? Spitfire’s letting us stay.” She patted the grey mare’s head lightly.
Who, in turn, leaped out of her seat and shrieked, “No!”
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I landed at the end of the couch as I jumped, slightly panicked. The thought of spending more time in such close confinement with Vinyl seemed like a very bad idea, especially given my small revelation earlier this evening. Seeing both of their downtrodden faces, I hastily added, “I mean, no, I couldn’t. We’ve imposed for far too long and...” I tried to think of something, any excuse as to why I’d oppose so vehemently. “I just want to sleep in my own bed again!”
Vinyl seemed to mull this over, and find it acceptable. For about the half second it took her to turn it into a joke. Quickly changing gears and feigning over-exaggerated heartache, she flung herself over the back of the couch. “Oh, for shame! You don’t want to sleep with me anymore! Such scorn, such heartbreak!”
Despite the torrent of panic, sorrow, and other rather negative emotions, I still found room to laugh. “Well maybe if you didn’t snore like a Hydra being run through a wood chipper I might be more amicable.”
Spitfire, who it seemed had spent no time dwelling on negative emotions, chuckled slightly. “That’s fine, too. We’ve got options, Octavia. Since both of you have beds you can contribute I’m sure we can turn at least some of the ridiculous amount of space in here into another living quarters.”
Well, that just wouldn’t do. She was shooting down my carefully thought out and brilliantly executed logic! I had to think fast. “But surely you can’t want us to hang around forever?” I asked, almost pleadingly.
She waved off my concern with a lazy hoof. “Please. It’s not that bad. and as long as you guys are looking for a place to stay, or places, whatever, I’m good. You both have paying jobs and lives of your own. I don’t exactly expect you to spend all your time freeloading.”
Stop being so nice and smart, you... you... benevolent pegasus! “No, really, I just want my own space as soon as I can.”
Vinyl raised an eyebrow at me. “Look, Octavia, the way I see it, you’ve got five options. Option one: you stay here and suck it up till you get your own place. Option two: homeless. Until you get your own place. Option three: you get a hotel, until you get your own place. Option four, you crash with another friend, until you get your own place.”
“...what’s option five?” It couldn’t be anything good.
“Fancee Foreign Legion.”
Spitfire laughed. “Until you get your own place. Come on, Octavia, either way you’re going to have to do something until you can secure a home for yourself again. Why not go with the most obvious, easy, and immediately available option?
“I...” I looked back and forth between Vinyl and Spitfire, honestly defeated. I couldn’t come up with any proper excuses without telling them the truth. Which was the last thing I wanted to do. But, as my counselor has told me frequently, the last thing I want is usually the first thing I should do. To get it out of the way. I heaved a great sigh, and climbed off of the couch. “Spitfire, could you come with me for a moment? We need to talk.” I motioned for her to follow me, and led her into the kitchen.
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I trotted after Octavia, letting her lead me into my kitchen. Whatever it was she had to say, she seemed to not want to say it. Which meant it probably couldn’t be good. She pulled up a stool and took a seat, leaning forward on the counter. I sat opposite her, so I didn’t have to turn my head to look at her while we talked. “So, um, what’s up?”
She looked ready to say... something, for a moment, then stopped. This process repeated itself a few times, her opening her mouth to speak, then closing it, as if finding the best way to say whatever it was. Finally, she just seemed to let it out. “I think I’m falling in love with your marefriend.”
Which, by the way, is nowhere even remotely close to the ballpark of what I thought she’d say. I thought it was going to be like, some unfortunate habit that one or both of us had that she just couldn’t stand and didn’t want to be rude about. Or something about her lifestyle or something that she couldn’t avoid but didn’t want to talk to us about. I was starting to get the feeling that I should just stop trying to predict anything ever. I seemed to be really bad at it. “...what?”
“Well, maybe not love, but something like it. It’s not like I can’t stop thinking about her or something cheesy like that. But whenever I do it’s... well, rather inappropriate. Especially since this morning,” She still was not really meeting my gaze.
I still hadn’t found anything unique or intelligent to say. “What happened this morning?”
She smiled guiltily and rolled her eyes away from me like she had a dirty secret. Then she explained everything that had happened this morning. How she’d watched me and Vinyl have sex. How she’d tried to ignore it and go upstairs and play her cello. And how she tried to kiss my marefriend. MY. Marefriend. “She backed away before I could, though, and we just kind of waved it off as a heat of the moment thing. That’s all I thought it was, too. Not having had... any kind of romantic interlude for a while, I figured that stumbling upon you two... doing that just drove me over the edge or something. I was rather, ooh, what’s the phrase, ‘hot and bothered’? By it all. So I packed up my things, and called a friend to go to lunch, and let myself forget about it. But then lunch happened.”
I was doing my best to remain very steady while she spoke, and most of what she said made sense. She hadn’t actually kissed Vinyl, and had moved on and been nice and polite like she always was. And Vinyl seemed to just laugh it off. So no real damage done. “Ok, so what happened at lunch?” My voice spiked a high note at the end of my sentence, as I tried to keep myself steady and failed.
If she noticed, she was polite enough not to say anything. “Well, I was having a conversation with Beauty Brass at the time...” and she talked about her verbal slip-up, and how she’d spent the whole time telling her friend, and Latte, about how she didn’t have feelings for Vinyl and they weren’t doing anything untoward. “We even had a laugh about Vinyl’s snoring, actually. She’s a rather nice lady. But then we walked home, and Beauty Brass was still convinced I had feelings for Vinyl. So we talked, more like argued, actually, the entire way home. And, I mean, she did make some sense, but I was convinced it was just an amicable slip of the tongue. I mean, saying ‘I love her’ in polite conversation isn’t a confession of emotions, it’s an appreciation of character! But then I got home, and talked to Vinyl a little, and realized that maybe Beauty was right. I mean, I don’t love her, that would be absurd. But I can’t help but acknowledge that I’m attracted to her, and it’s only been getting worse since we started living together. I’m afraid of what will happen if I stay too close to her.”
I didn’t really know what I should have been feeling at the time. Jealousy, sure. That was there. I was also a little angry. But it’s not like she’d done anything bad. In fact, telling me as soon as she thought it could become a problem was actually the appropriate thing to do. So I tried not to be mad at her, and instead discuss things rationally. “Ok. I can see why you don’t want to stay here. So how about this: you hang around long enough to get your stuff into storage, and call some of those friends of yours. I’m sure you can find someplace to stay while you look for an apartment, and from what I understand you have a decent budget to work with. That shouldn’t take you long.”
Octavia nodded. “Thank you. For... listening, and not getting mad.”
“Oh, I’m plenty mad. You tried to kiss my marefriend, and you’re sitting here telling me you’re attracted to her? I’m more than a little peeved. BUT,” I added, as she opened her mouth to defend herself. “I’ve been spending all day yelling at recruits, and have no energy left to yell at you. Especially since you’re basically homeless right now. You’re also handling this very responsibly. So as long as you don’t try anything else, and find someplace new, I can move past this. You’re a good pony, Octavia. I like you just fine. Vinyl thinks of you as a friend. And there was no actual kissing involved, so I don’t think there’s really any damage done. Now, I’m going to go up to bed. You and Vinyl do your best to get yourselves independent again, and we’ll look back on this and laugh. But right now? I need to sleep.”
Octavia nodded, thought about saying something else, then thought better of it. “Thank you, Spitfire. Goodnight.”
“Good night, Octavia.”
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I looked up from the couch, mostly composed by now, as Octavia walked into the room. “So, what was that about?”
She looked up at me in mild surprise, as if forgetting I was there. “Oh! Nothing special. Just some... work stuff I’m dealing with that might make our arrangement... difficult. I didn’t want to talk about it too much, it’s kind of embarrassing. But I figured she ought to know before I... before she extended the offer to stay.”
“So are you gonna?” I laid myself out on the couch lazily while she took up an armchair.
Octavia shook her head. “Mmm. Not too long. Just enough to get my stuff into storage. I’m going to try to stay with a friend of mine for a while. It just makes things easier on... me. And other ponies.”
I nodded, slightly bummed we couldn’t hang out more, but that’s life. “So where’s my amazingly sexy marefriend?”
“Oh, she said something about going to bed early. It’s been a long day for her.”
The cogs turned in my head. “Going... to ... bed?”
From upstairs: “VINYL!”
Octavia leveled a disapproving stare at me. “Ok, maybe this time it is my fault.”