Scratch One Off - Chapter 7

 Three loud knocks resonate throughout your apartment, followed by a voice that clearly belonged to Sunset saying "Would you let me in already?!". You groan and roll over in bed, wondering why you actually bothered to lock your door last night.

    "Vinyl..." you say, patting the bed next to you. Instead of a naked woman, you find empty sheets. "Vinyl!" you say, this time louder.

    Vinyl only manages to groan from her position on the couch from the other room. From the sound of it, she isn't going to be getting up any time soon. You begrudgingly pull yourself out of bed, rubbing your head with one hand as you reach for your phone with the other.

    After a quick check as you head out of your bedroom, you find out it's closer to twelve than it is to eight. Whoops.

    Sunset knocks on the door again hard enough to make you wince. "Are you serious? How do people sleep for this long?" you can hear her say from the other side of the door.

    "Hold on, I'm coming." As soon as you turn the lock and open the door, Sunset shoots in, her cheeks bright red and frustration clearly on her face.

    "You are so infuriating sometimes!" she says narrowing her eyes at you.

    You put your hands up and feign innocence. "Hey, you're the one who's late."

    Sunset puffs her cheeks out and gives an adorable little stomp of her foot as the anger inside of her builds. She points a finger at you in her usual lecturing stance. "Oh... Don't even start with me, mister. I already tried at eight this morning to wake you up! All I got was a grunt out of her," Sunset says, motioning towards Vinyl. "People saw me, you know. I'd appreciate at least a little punctuality, especially if you're going to parade me around in this..." Sunset says, trailing off into some of her usual upset banter.

    You sigh and deal with the brunt of her nagging. As much as you'd like to ignore her, this is kind of your fault anyway, so you kind of brought it on yourself.

    "...and she fell asleep when we left last night! How does a person fall asleep then and stay asleep until noon the next day?"

    "Noon?!" Vinyl says, suddenly jerking upright. "You're joking right?"

    "Nope, you were definitely going on around fifteen hours last night," you say, looking down to your phone to verify.

    Vinyl shoots up off the couch, stripping her maid outfit off of herself and looking around her bag for some appropriate clothes at the same time. The end result is her hopping around the floor with half of one outfit still on while she's trying  to slide on others around them. It might be funny if you didn't end up so confused.

    "You got somewhere you need to be, Vinyl?" you ask with a raised eyebrow as she continues to tear through her bag.

    "Yeah! That gig I told you about yesterday. I should've been there to set up like an hour ago," Vinyl hurried out. She pulls her jeans up over the stockings and yanks a tank top over her head without even bothering to put on a bra.

    "Oh, well you need me to--"

    Vinyl cuts you off by sticking her hand in your pocket and grabbing your keys. Before you can manage to stop her or even get another word out, she's already opened the front door and has started down the stairs.

    "Gotta go! It starts at eight so I'll see you guys there!" she yells up the stairwell as her voice gets increasingly distant, being overpowered by the sound of her boots quickly hitting the steps below her.

    "Well I guess I'm riding with you then," you say to Sunset as both of you stand there, perplexed.

    "Did you seriously just let her steal your car?" Sunset says, more in amazement than anything else.

    "I don't think I really had a choice." You sigh and close the door behind her, leaving you and Sunset alone in your apartment. "Oh well. I doubt she'll do anything too drastic too it."

    "Like scrape it with something metal?" Sunset asks.

    You raise an eyebrow at her.

    "I saw that scrape on the back of your car. I doubt that was any sort of minor accident."

    "Oh, that," you say, faking a laugh and positioning yourself over Vinyl's open bag so Sunset might not get a view of the pistol in it. "We just ran into a little trouble getting some of Vinyl's stuff back. No big deal."

    Sunset narrows her eyes at you again, obviously seeing through your attempt to hide something. She takes a step forward and moves you out of the way with one arm, kneeling down to take a look at whatever you didn't want her to see.

    "Okay, don't freak out, but Vinyl has a--"

    "What the hell?!" Sunset says, picking up the shiny metal firearm out of Vinyl's bag. She looks up to you in bewilderment as she holds the gun out in front of her with two fingers like it's covered in smallpox. "Why does she have this?! Why did you let her in your house with it?!"

    "She has a carry license for it. It's no big deal."

    "No big deal? She shot your car!" Sunset says as she stands up, holding the gun out like a piece of evidence condemning you of your crimes. She looks more concerned than angry though, if that is any consolation.

    "Well, she didn't actually shoot at my car, her boyfriend did. We were... uh..." You give Sunset your best innocent smile as you gently take the gun out of her hand. "Well, nobody got hurt and I can promise you it won't happen again. Just calm down, okay?"

    "She's the most irresponsible person I've ever met! How can I calm down when I know she's carrying around that thing?!" Sunset says, pointing at the gun in your hand. Her eyes widen and she looks away from you, one hand resting against her temple in some sudden realization. "Oh my god... all those fights we had... She could've shot me!"

    You toss the gun back into Vinyl's bag and make sure to zip it back up as Sunset watches you with an expecting frown. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Once you get back to your feet, you notice Sunset has her hands firmly planted on her hips and is expecting some sort of response from you.

    Instead, you pull out one of your old tricks: hug her until she's not mad anymore.

    "Wait, what are you--" Is all she gets out before you wrap her in a tight embrace. Before she can manage to resist you already have her in your grip, gently petting her head like she's a scared child.

    "Shhh. It's alright, Vinyl's not going to be stupid with it. You don't have to worry."

    "Would you--" Sunset tries to wiggle out of your grip, but soon realizes she's not going anywhere and lays limp against you. "Ugh, I hate it when you do this."

    Finally Sunset just resigns to laying her head against your chest in defeat. "Are you calm now."

    "Yes, I'm calm. Now would you please let go of me?" Sunset says, her voice still carrying a bit of frustration, but it's enough to convince you she won't fall back into a rant.

    You let Sunset go and she takes a step away from you, a blush beginning on her face. She turns away to try not to make direct eye contact, though it still looks like her gaze is set on the bag.

    "Sunset, really. It's not big deal. You don't have to worry about it. I know Vinyl might seem like--"

    Sunset raises her hands up to stop you. "I know, I know. I'll believe you. I just don't like the idea of you getting shot at."

    "You and me both," you say with a laugh.

    Sunset takes a deep breath, then finally looks back up at you with a smile. "Well, I suppose I'd better start lunch then, huh?"

    "That definitely sounds good to me."

    You take you seat on the barstool as Sunset makes her way into the kitchen. Your grumbling stomach definitely likes the idea of some of Sunset's amazing cooking right now. As she gets some of the pans and ingredients out though, you can tell her mind is elsewhere. The concerned look on her face coupled with the fact that she doesn't seem too invested in what she's doing is a dead giveaway that her thoughts might still be on other matters. You can only guess the fact that a gun is sitting in a bag a few feet away from her is still bugging her.

    "So, I was thinking about what we were talking about last night," you say to try to get Sunset's mind off of her worries. Sunset actually jumps slightly at your words though, and drops a pan loudly onto the countertop.

    You wince at the noise as she quickly and awkwardly tries to make up for it, turning around with a strained smile. "O-oh yeah? What about it?" she asks, her worry managing to stay on her face.

    You raise an eyebrow at her. "Yeah... I was thinking about what you asked about Vinyl. If we were going out or not. The more I think about it, the more it'd make sense that she might think that."

    "You think so?" Sunset says, turning around to go back to cooking.

    "Yeah, I mean, she was comfortable enough with me to sleep in my bed naked, she's super jealous of me being around you, and she obviously doesn't seem to think borrowing my car and apartment are problems. Plus, she had no qualms about blowing me twice completely sober."

    "T-twice?" Sunset asks, her voice cracking slightly. She still doesn't look up from her position over the stove though.

    "Sort of. It's a long story. Anyway, I'm really not sure how to handle this situation now that I think she's convinced we're together."

    "Just, you know, tell her you're not interested in her like that. Tell her having sex was just a one-time thing and that you're just trying to be a good friend," Sunset says, turning her head and looking you in the eye sparingly as she does.

    "Well, that's the thing. I'm not sure if i really want to just brush her off like that. It might be cool to have a steady girlfriend for once. Like you said, I'm sure Vinyl could use some stability in her life too."

    Sunset doesn't say anything, but for some reason her grip around her various utensils tightened visibly.

    You can feel your friend getting tense about the subject. You knew she'd be touchy on the topic of Vinyl, but if there's anyone you know you can talk to about it, it's her. "She's not that bad, and I could definitely get used to the free drinks around the clubs she might work."

    "Don't you think that's a little shallow? Going out with a girl for free drinks? When there are other girls that could treat you so much better?" Sunset says in a low tone, frustration building in her voice yet again.

    "I didn't mean it like that. I mean, I don't love her right now or anything, but I wouldn't mind getting to know her. I could definitely get used to dating her."

    "Sure," Sunset says, obviously fed up with this conversation.

    You stare at the back of Sunset's head with concern. Something about the idea of going out with Vinyl is definitely bugging her. The last thing you want is to lose her over some bitch problems.

    "You know just because I'm going out with someone doesn't mean we can't still be friends. I don't want you to think I'm just going to forget about you if I get into a relationship. You know our friendship means a lot to me."

    Sunset audibly sighs and droops her shoulders. "I know..."

    You adopt a cocky smile. "You wouldn't happen to have a crush on me too? I could always arrange a mud wrestling match or something if you two want to fight over me."

    Sunset goes stiff as a board at your first sentence, dropping a knife into the pan in front of her as it involuntarily falls out of her hand.  She turns around with a bright, sheepish smile and a very heavy blush.

    "O-of course not! I... I just want you to end up with the right girl is all. You know how much of a bad influence Vinyl can be. I just don't want to have to get you out of even more shit than I already do, you know?" Sunset says, trailing off with a laugh as she turns back around. You almost catch the beginnings of a wince as her face leaves your view, but you ignore it.

    Sunset pulls a various seasoning bottles out of your cabinets and puts the finishing touches on her latest dish. You had no idea what she lays out in front of you--definitely something italian--but it tastes amazing all the same.

    Sunset leans on the counter beside you. Her occasional glance and worried expression tells you something is definitely eating at her, but she never actually opens her mouth to say it. Finally, she drops her head in defeat against the countertop with a quiet thunk, letting out another deep sigh.

    "Why the long face, princess?" you ask, nudging her with an elbow.

    "Oh, I, uh..." Sunset pulls her forehead off of your counter and tries to look as dismissive as possible. "Just dreading having to clean up anymore of that room. I don't know how you managed to make that big of a mess in the first place."

    You push your plate away, having finished off the last bite with a satisfied groan. "Years of practice."

    You notice the vacant expression on Sunset's face and decide to take the opportunity to have a little fun with her. "Now..." you say, easing your hand over her back to prepare for some sensual groping. "How about we use that lingerie how it was meant to be used," you say sensually, sliding your hand down her bare lower back, making a point to slip a finger under her waistband.

    Once you look back up to Sunset's face you can't help but bite your lip as you feel the chuckles coming on. You don't think you've ever seen Sunset so red: her cheeks are bright crimson and you can feel her entire body freeze at your touch.

    You pull your hand away from her to cover your mouth as the laughs break through and you can hardly contain yourself any longer.

    "Haha, damn, are you gonna make it?" you ask her through your wide smile. Sunset can't even bring herself to move as her blush grows darker by the second. You might've broken her this time.

    "I-I have to go to the bathroom!" she says, snapping up from the counter and hurrying into your bathroom like she just wet herself.

    "Jesus, Sunset, I was just kidding!" you yell, still laughing at her reaction.

    "Shut up!" she yells back quickly, doing whatever it is embarrassed girls do in the bathroom.

    After a few minutes of addressing whatever situation she was having, Sunset finally emerges with her blush showing no signs of dimming, but instead of embarrassed, she narrows her eyes at you and crosses her arms when you make eye contact.

    "Too much?" you say with a smirk.

    Sunset pouts and shakes her head, seemingly too mad to actually give you a lecture. You just continue on with your streak of laughter instead. She is so cute when she gets like this.

    Once the embarrassment of the mid-afternoon drama wears off, the two of you go through the usual motions of a regular day, albeit without Vinyl this time. After this morning, you can take the hint that Sunset doesn't really want to talk about her any more. You definitely want to iron out things with those two if you're going to stay with Vinyl, but you know Sunset likes to take things slower anyway. You reassure yourself that she'll come around to the idea of hanging out with her more and maybe turning your duo with Sunset into a trio. It was her idea after all.

    As the clock winds down, you and Sunset make preparations to go out to Vinyl's gig. You take a shower and put on some clothes that you didn't actually sleep in, and Sunset follows suit. Instead of her usual leather jacket and skirt, Sunset opts to wear jeans tonight instead. You raise an eyebrow at her as she walks out of the bathroom without her trademark skirt on.

    "What, you're not going in your maid costume?" you ask her with a playful smirk.

    "Easy mister, I am the one driving you after all," she says, shooting back a look that says you better be on your best behavior. "Come on, let's go."

    She waves you along as the two of you make your way out the front door and to her car.

    "I'm digging the jeans though. Nice change from the usual setup," you say casually as the two of you walk down the stairs.

    "Oh, really? Thanks," Sunset says, a tiny blush forming on her face yet again.

    "Form-fitting is always nice," you say with a playful wink.

    Sunset gives you a roll of her eyes and a slight smile. "How about we cut down on the sexual harrassment for the night? I had enough when I first came over."

    You smile and bump her hips with your own. "You know you love it. Besides, that's all the interaction you're going to get at that club, I feel like you'd rather get it from me than some random junkie."

    Sunset looks over to you, some slight concern on her face. "Wait, are they really like that?"

    "If you'd come with me every now and then maybe you'd find out."

    Sunset stops and raises an eyebrow in agitation.

    "Okay, okay," you say, raising your hands up, "they're not all like that. But a pretty girl like you? You could get free drinks all night."

    That put a smile and a slight blush on her face. "Really? That's--"

    "When you're not grinding on me of course," you say with a playful nudge.

    Sunset gives you a small push back as the two of you walk up to her car. "Oh, shut up already."

    "Hey, if you're not grinding on me someone else is going to seize the opportunity. You really want some strangers dick all over you?" You say as you open the door to her car.

    Sunset rolls her eyes as the two of you settle into the seats and she puts her keys in the ignition. "I'd rather have no one grinding on me if I can help it."

    Your smile widens and you nudge her again. "We'll see if we can change that tone after a couple of drinks."

    "I think at this point this could be considered sexual harrassment," Sunset says with a slight grin.

    "Oh you know you love it."

    "So, where is this place at anyway?" Sunset asks as she backs out of your parking lot.

    You open your mouth to say something before you realize Vinyl never actually told you where this place was in the first place. You can see out of the corner of your eye that Sunset definitely notices your lack of an answer, and her expression has already turned from a slight smile to a dissappointed glare.

    You give her a sheepish smile in response. "Hey, there are only like six clubs in this town, and we've already been kicked out of one, so..."

    Sunset sighs and lets her head fall into one of her hands in a defeated facepalm. "You two are hopeless."

    "All a part of the charm. Come on, it shouldn't take that long."

    After a good hour of jumping between the local nightclubs that actually hire a dj for their music, the two of you finally arrive to the club Vinyl was playing at. She's already up on stage bobbing her head to the beat with one hand on her headphones and the other on her table, letting her music pour out of the speakers and resonate through your bodies. The music is so loud you can feel the vibration rock your heart and the vibration pulse through the floor.

    You look over to Sunset, who seems to be a little disoriented. She obviously never goes to this kind of thing, but hopefully after tonight you can show her it isn't all that bad.

    You look up to the stage at Vinyl, and somehow in one of her glances across the crowd she notices you as well. Her smile widens and she gives you a little nod to acknowledge your presence.

    Knowing that there would be no way Sunset could hear you over the crowd and the music, you take her by the hand and pull her towards the bar without her consent. She lets you drag her without a struggle with an unsure look on her face. As you look back at her, she almost seems like a kid who lost her mom in the grocery store.

    You figure that's nothing that some alcohol won't fix. After a little convincing and a couple of shots at the bar, you drag Sunset out onto the dance floor to actually have some fun.

    As you traverse through the crowd, you hear her voice behind you, but can't make anything of it because of the music. You turn your head to give her an encouraging smile and pull her deeper onto the dancefloor. You can tell already by the look on her face that she's feeling tipsy; drinking maybe three times a year will do that to a girl. Now that you think about it, your vision is starting to blur around the edges as well, so you can't even imagine what it's doing to her.

    Once you find a decent spot close to the stage, you turn around, letting your body move to the music. You were never much of a dancer in the first place, but in a large crowd where everyone is basically just jumping up and down to the beat, it's not like it really matters. Sunset looks around nervously as strangers continously bump into her. You've seen her dance around the girls before, but she's definitely out of her element now.

    As adorable as it is to watch her squirm against the crowd, the last thing you want is to have your best friend missing out on all the fun. Since the size of the dancefloor is no where near large enough to accommodate the current amount of people on it, Sunset is already pressing up against you and awkwardly avoiding eye contact.

    With a cheeky grin, you snake your hands around Sunset's hips and pull her tight against you, forcing her body to move in tandem with yours. You can see the sharp gasp she makes as she turns towards you, surprise in her face at the sudden forwardness. You just keep smiling and hope she eventually catches on.

    After a song or two, Sunset finally decides to at least look like she's having fun. Slowly but surely, a smile starts to form on her face and her body loses the initial stiffness she walked in with. You guess that the alcohol has probably caught up with her enough, since she's actually jumping to the beat as well. At one point she actually turns around and grinds on you for a few seconds before turning around and letting out an embarrassed laugh.

    Sunset wraps her hands around you once you put yours back on her hips. The music slows down for a moment as the two of you come face to face and lock eyes. Along with the beat of the music resonating through both of you, you can feel Sunset's heartbeat and warmth as she presses up against you. The softness of her hair against you and the beatiful sight of her bright blue eyes put you in a momentary trance. Without even thinking, you let your head move down closer to her level...

    ...And then your lips meet. Like a shock moving throughout your body, the feeling of her lips pressing up against yours stuns you as you feel the warmth spreading around you. You feel like you could stay like this forever as you hold each other in a tight embrace, lips locked and simply enjoying each other's presence. That is until you both realize what you're actually doing.

    You both pull away at the same time, looking at each other with the same expression of utter shock at what just happened. You open your mouth to try to say something, but you can't properly put together words. For the first time in what feels like an eternity with her, you can actually feel yourself blushing as well. You pull your hands away from her as you feel her body go stiff. After a few more seconds of awkward eye contact, you both look away from each other. You feel so odd still being pressed up against her, but have no idea what to do about the situation.

    As soon as it feels like the world might just end from the awkwardness, you hear Vinyl's voice call your name over the music. You turn around to see Vinyl on stage waving you up with a massive smile on her face. Somehow she must've not caught what you and Sunset just did, or maybe she did. Either way, you give Sunset one last apologetic glance before you push your way through the crowd and up onto the stage.

    Sunset can't even look back at you. The blush on her face as dark as you've ever seen it, and her entire body is locked stiff. You rack your brain trying to think of ways to fix this situation, some way to not make things awkward between you as you climb up onto the stage.

    Vinyl seems completely aloof to your current predicament. She grabs you around the waist with a massive smile on her face and gives a wave to the crowd as her song gets to its most intense. With her usual lack of inhibition, she grabs you by the collar and pulls you into a deep kiss, eliciting a collective "oooh" from the crowd. You inwardly wince and scorn whatever gods decided you deserved this twist of fate. Vinyl's kiss lasts a few moments longer than your previous one, making sure that everyone in the crowd had ample time to witness the two of you.

    After a few more seconds of Vinyl rubbing her lipstick across a good portion of your face, she breaks away and throws a hand back up to the crowd.

    You put on a half smile, trying to look excited about it, but once your eyes turn away from Vinyl and back towards the crowd, your gaze automatically locks back onto Sunset.

    You can see the hurt in her eyes, plain as day. You can't entirely tell from the distance, but it seems like she's almost shaking in anger. The mixture of pain and frustration in her face hits you like a spike of ice directly in the heart, and guilt overcomes you almost immediately. You can't tell if Sunset wants to cry or yell, but either one makes you wince at the thought.

    Before you can even give her an apologetic look, Sunset turns on her heels and forcefully pushes through the crowd, making her way right out the front door without stopping to look back once.

    You close your eyes and silently chastise yourself. This is going to make tomorrow very difficult.