//------------------------------//
// Ch. 2 - The Sunset Over Suburbia 
// Story: Teenset Shimmer Gets Stoned In The Woods And Makes A Friend 
// by Violently Irrelevant 
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The long moment spent watching the clear stream cut its way through the moss is not yet over. The stump of the more moderately sized joint lies dead upon the lush ground. The two girls sit in a silent haze, just watching the singing stream and listening to the forest around them. A few beer-cans and a cider-bottle left empty as some manner of mark that they were there. This moment was theirs and it will never come again. Whatever happens from here on, this is where something sprang to life.
 
Riot fumbles about for her cigarettes and Sunset does not even acknowledge that she is moving at all. It is first when the spark of fire from the lighter burns the cancer-stick that she turns her head to look. Riot blows smoke and grins for her.
 
"I think sunlight's gonna start fading soon. Outta beer, too."
 
Sunset blinks slowly. Riot is strangely articulate for someone of her meagre size who has had that much weed and what, six-seven beers? She nods, the only form of communication she can manage right now. Walking through this primeval labyrinth is not going to be easy. But her sense for adventure has definitely been heightened. Sunset casts one last look down the rivulet and ponders a second about the water, where it will end up and the fact that it will never, ever pass this place again.
 
Riot rises slowly, unlike her usual bounce, all the while erupting cigarette smoke. She brushes herself off, without much effect. The moisture from the moss has crept into their clothes, Sunset had not even noticed until also she stands up. She takes a step, almost instantly looses her footing and topples over. In a panicked attempt to save herself, she grabs onto Riot, who is  completely oblivious to the entire predicament. They both crash in a flailing mess of limbs, back down into the soft moss. Riot bottom first, almost as if she is attempting to sit down on a chair that is not there. Sunset follows face-first, she cannot avoid knocking her head into Riot's. Forehead against forehead, Sunset's vision goes dark. She comes to just a second later. A very long second. She is unsure where or perhaps even who she is for a few moments, her stoned mind unable to deal with the sudden impact. 
 
"This is nice and all but could you please get off me?"
 
Sunset scrambles to push herself up and look around, who was that voice, why does this moss feel like cloth... And... Breasts?
Sunset looks down, both her hands are pressed against Riot's chest. The mohawked girl is wearing a sharp, face-splitting grin.
 
"You move too fast, Sunset Shimmer, I'd at least like a candle-lit dinner first."
 
Sunset just lets out an unintelligible little screech and dives to the side, rolling over onto her back in the moss. She lays still for a moment, head swimming from the smoke, drink and light trauma. Trauma from the hit, not from the breasts. Riot is chuckling heartily, apparently enjoying her own joke. Sunset attempts to focus on some spot in the mighty thicket above but her vision is soon obscured by Riot. Her face hovers very close to Sunset's.
 
"Hey, Sunset Shimmer, ever kissed a girl?"
 
Sunset looks profoundly lost. Has she? No, not that she can recall. Has she had the desire to? No, not really. Has she even had the opportunity to? Probably but she did not notice, apparently. As she explores her own thoughts, Riot disappears from her line of sight.
 
"Come on now, little miss deep-thought, daylight's burning and we only have two bottles of cider."
 
Sunset groans as she sits up. Riot helps her to stand.
 
"Besides, you never answered my question."
 
Sunset gives Riot a bewildered look. Right, she was busy thinking about the kissing thing. Is Riot just messing with her head again?
 
"Never... No... Um, I mean, never really thought about it."
 
Riot shrugs and smiles while taking Sunset's hand to start walking.
 
"Well, you oughtta try it sometime. Girls kiss better than guys. Come on now, no more tumbles."
 
Sunset swallows as she feels Riot's hand in hers. All of this is way more physical contact than she has had in what, months?
She allows Riot to lead her, out of the dank, gnarled grove and back into the clearing they started off in. The sun is indeed soon to begin its final descent. They follow a little bread-crumb trail of beer-cans and cigarette butts out of the forest. As they reach civilisation again, the sun has dropped so low that the world is bathed in an amber glow. Sunset drags her feet down the street, marvelling at everything in this twilit majesty. A boring old suburban neighbourhood like the most exquisite art-piece. Riot happily skips along, stops, waits for Sunset, repeats. She alternates a cigarette and one of the last bottles of cider. Shouldn't she be ridiculously drunk by now?
 
They close in on the well-manicured house with the trashed garage. No signs of anyone being home in the house. Whoever owns it is a mystery, a mystery Sunset is not going to try to solve now. As they walk up the drive-way, she takes one last look around. As her eyes fall on Riot, she notices the mohawked girl is basically crackling with energy. She tears open the garage door and steps inside. She places her empty bottle on the already full-packed table and puts out her cig in an ashtray so full the tray itself cannot be seen. Sunset follows slowly and looks around, the garage sure is a different place from the world outside.
 
Riot hurries over to the far end of the garage and a second later, the whole place lights up. Naked light-bulbs on hanging wires, a few multi-coloured christmas lights, a half-leaked lavalamp. The dark garage turns into a dimly-lit, multicoloured mess. Flags all over the ceiling. Anarchy symbols, what a surprise. Bands Sunset never heard of. She looks around at the glorious chaos in awe. Just like outside, in here is more simple beauty. Riot roots around in the back for a while, then throws another switch and presses a few buttons. Sunset watches her every move and puts on a broad smile of her own as Riot walks over carrying a beat-up electric guitar. Cracked, taped, packed with stickers and very shoddily stringed. Just what she would expect from the punk girl. Riot hands it over as if it were a ceremonial sword and Sunset unknowingly accepts it in a similar manner. As Riot goes to fiddle with the amp, Sunset examines the guitar, finds a pick, strums the strings and lets out a satisfied sigh, almost all at once. She has been in need of this feeling for hours. Riot turns to her and speaks.
 
"Let's hear what you've got, cute stoner."
 
Sunset huffs, still a big smile on her face. The broken amp screeches out feedback for a moment and Sunset's mind snaps right into place. She drags the pick over the strings. Hot and heavy, if a bit strained. It only takes her a few seconds to get into the groove of things. Nirvana's "Negative creep", as good as a stoned teenage girl plays it, blares out of the busted amplifier. Close enough to the real thing. Riot looks both surprised and pleased. Sunset grinds on for a bit but eventually just begins playing around with the sound. She handles the instrument rather skilfully, playing a little solo before letting it chug on like something out of classic rock. Riot waltzes over to sit down on the arm-rest of one of the sofas. She watches Sunset like a cat eyeing some reflection of dancing sunlight. Sunset is completely lost in the guitar. She plucks, strums, drags and picks. The distorted, beautifully broken noise fills the room like a musical fog. Riot absent-mindedly goes for her packet of cigarettes, changes her mind, stands up and bounds over to her discarded backpack. She rifles through it, finds what she is looking for and bounces back towards the sofa. Sunset plays on, she only stops for a second as Riot decides to clean the table in the crudest way possible. The mohawked girl simply sweeps her arm against cans and bottles, sending them crashing to the floor. A cascade of clattering. Sunset makes the guitar screech and Riot laughs loudly. Riot brushes some stray ash off the table as well before she begins the same rolling antics she did in the woods. This time, she prepares a pile of green stuff and several papers. Sunset walks over, while still playing, to observe. Given this setting, a table and out of the wind, Riot is like a joint-rolling machine. Fold and roll a filter, perfect S-shape in the middle. Measure up the green, fold, roll, lick, twist. She moves on to the next one. Just a few moments later, she has made six almost perfectly cigarette-shaped joints. 
 
Sunset is in awe of the seemingly useless but still impressive skill. She slowly finishes her improvised jam and sets the guitar down, leaning it against the sofa. She then goes to sit down next to Riot. Almost as soon as she sits down, Riot flies up. Sunset follows her movements with her eyes as Riot bounces around the room again. Even attempting to jam with Sunset will have to wait. She is in the mood for music.
 
"Can't have silence after that awesome guitar-reverie. How about sooome...?"
 
She trails off as she starts tearing through a large plastic tray, filled with a myriad different CD's and some very well-used vinyl records.
 
"Varukers? No. Goober Patrol? No. What do I want...?"
 
Sunset tilts her head to the side as Riot mutters band-names to herself. She takes a deep breath and rubs her eyes. They feel like they are full of sand. Feels like sand in her mouth too, for that matter. Her eyes wander over to the ice-chest. How many drinks did she have already? Three? One more couldn't hurt. She staggers up and over to the cooler, opening it to grab a bottle while Riot swears to herself. Just as Sunset opens the bottle and takes the first sip, Riot exclaims triumph and holds up an album.
 
"Perfect for the current mood, Mad Caddies."
 
Sunset looks at the album with a blank stare. She does not know the band. Then again, she is just about to. Perhaps not the most epic of first-time experiences but a first-time experience none the less. Riot puts the disc into her large, once-upon-a-time expensive stereo. Just like seemingly everything in the garage, it has seen better days and is seemingly held together by tape and glue. The music starts. Gigantic speaker-towers roaring alive by the sound of something Sunset did not expect. Brass? Some kind of trumpet. No, multiple different instruments. Then, a bit more expected, comes fast drums and a melodic but undeniably punk guitar. Ska tunes. Lots of brass and shifting speeds. Not a style of music Sunset usually listens to but in this moment, it is absolute ear-candy. 
 
Riot seems pleased with her own choice and Sunset's reaction alike. She saunters back over to the table, grabs one of the weed-cigarettes and flops down in the sofa. Sunset drinks absent-mindedly, still standing, actually enjoying the music quite the bit. The tiny combustion of Riot's lighter draws her attention for a second. While she more or less knows how many drinks she herself has had, she is unsure about how much either of them has smoked. Strangely enough, her brain might be fuzzy beyond anything she has ever experienced but she does not at all feel tired. A bit hungry perhaps but not the usual jelly-legged sleepiness. Could be the quality of the weed, perhaps the company, the music and maybe even the alcohol. Standing around thinking  for longer than necessary, she apparently draws Riot's attention.
 
"Mulling over any nuggets of wisdom in that adorable head of yours? Perhaps you need something to take your mind off... Well, whatever really. I could turn on the TV."
 
Sunset snaps out of it and looks at Riot, a bit confused. There is no TV in the garage, even if she wanted to partake in braindead programming, how would that be possible?
 
"I don't see a..."
 
She begins but soon falls silent as Riot gets up out of the sofa. The mohawked girl steps over to the garage door and yanks the handle. The crooked metal groans but eventually folds up. Sunset is about to follow Riot but she does not step outside. She turns and raises her arms.
 
"Reality TV, free, unfiltered and without commercial breaks. Now help me with the sofa."
 
Sunset's jaw drops, then she laughs. She should have guessed. Could she have...? Possibly. She goes along with Riot and drags the nearest sofa out onto the driveway. Darkness has not yet settled entirely, stars are visible in the last light of the sky. Riot flops down in the sofa and Sunset joins her. The quickly-dying joint is passed back and forth until it does just that, dies.
 
"Look at that."
 
Riot motions with her arm over the suburban landscape all around them while exhaling whitish smoke.
 
"Hundreds, thousands of things happening all around us that we never notice or care about. A car rolling down this quiet street. Who is the driver? Where is he going? What is his goal? We don't care unless he is some kinda celebrity, or we're told later he did something horrific. Which also makes him a kind of celebrity. Plenty of axemurderers from suburbia."
 
Riot looks from the empty, still street to Sunset's contemplative face. Riot is right, the world lives in the details of things. The hidden machinery, both man-made and nature alike. No magic, perhaps a very sparse dash of mysticism. Mostly it is just people. Good people, bad people. Sunset glances at Riot, she instantly breaks out into her trademark smile. Sunset scooches closer to her and slowly, delicately puts a hand on her knee. She looks to the ground for a moment but soon looks up to answer her smile with one of her own, albeit not as wicked.
 
"Riot, you are a good person."
 
Riot croaks out a sharp, short, bark-like sound and then quickly slings an arm around Sunset's shoulders to pull her close. Some manner of half-hug.
 
"I just like an audience while talking to myself is all."
 
Sunset pats her knee a few times and breathes out in a long exhale before relaxing in her grip.
 
"I'll gladly listen, anytime, anyplace."
 
So that is what that feels like. Making a friend. Sunset lets out a satisfied little sigh and does not mind at all as Riot twirls a strand of her hair around her fingers.
 
"Great, it's a deal then. Stars are out now, the night sky is just as interesting as our little slice of suburbia. Do you know any constellations?"
 
Sunset looks up to the stars in the clear night sky.
 
"Not in this world, no..."
 
Riot looks down from the cosmos above while snickering.
 
"Little lady, you did get fucked up after all."
 
Sunset just sighs again and lets her head rest on Riot's shoulder. The sounds of night mix with the muffled ska-punk from inside. The unknown, unchanging celestial dome above draws little of her attention. At last, she feels tired. Riot is a fairly comfortable pillow and her being company helps as well. Sunset feels... Safe. Strange but true. She listens to Riot talk about astronomy, or well, an enthusiastic hobbyist's tall-tale version of astronomy anyhow. Sleep tugs at her. Riot does not seem to mind or even notice.
Sleeping in a sofa on a driveway is not how Sunset Shimmer thought this day was going to end.