"What's your problem?" The pony snapped. "Kicking Octavia out, sleeping with random stallions-"

"Woah, hold up," I snapped. "Octy moved out on her own, and I haven't slept with any stallions," Recently, I added in my head. Lyra scoffed.

"Yeah right. I ran into Bee on the way over here. She said you had a stallion in your room. He stayed the night."

"He slept on the couch. I didn't sleep with him. Since when are you and Bee all buddy buddy again?" Last I heard, Lyra and Bee had gone their separate ways because Bee had decided to get herself a nice little beard. Lyra was supposed to hate the stupid Earth pony and be happy with Bon-Bon.

"We're not," Lyra muttered softly. "She just mentioned it when she walked by. She thought I was over here for...something else." Lyra shuddered. I wrinkled my nose, but didn't say anything on the topic. Lyra and sex didn't really go together in my mind.

"So why're you here, besides accusing me of things I didn't do?" I said quickly, changing the subject. "I know Octy didn't send you. She's too proud for that."

"Octavia isn't even on campus," Lyra said with an eyeroll. "She went into the city for a few days, to be with her dad. She's helping him get settled now that he's moved out. Didn't she tell you?"

"Octy doesn't talk to me much these days," I grumbled.

"Oh. Well yeah, no, I'm only here because...well, because of Bee. I'm not friends with her or anything, but you're starting to act like her. A coltfriend, Vinyl, really?" I couldn't figure out what she was talking about for a second. The events from the day had been whirling in my head, making focus practically impossible. After a few seconds, it clicked.

"Lights isn't my coltfriend. He's not even my friend anymore," my heart ached at the thought. Just because I'd never been in love with Lights didn't mean I hadn't cared about him. He'd been one of my best friends - my only friend.

"You know this makes you look bad? With Bee it's not too bad because nopony but me, you, and Tavi know that she's whole campus knows you're a fillyfooler, and now you're suddenly all over a stallion. You look...not good."

"What does Bee have to do with this?"

"She talked to me a few days ago," Lyra admitted. "She misses me, but I have Bonnie, so we just talked. She had a lot to say about you."

"Like what?" I asked. Nothing Bee had to say could be good. Lyra shook her head.

"You have to ask her that. You should talk to her. I...I actually understand her now that she's talked to me. I feel bad for her even," I snorted loudly.

"Feel bad for Bee? No chance in hell," I laughed at the thought. "I'm more likely to become a Princess of Equestria."

"Just talk to her, will you? You might learn something. You can at least figure out why she hates you so much."

"She's a bitch, that's why." The chances of Bee talking to me and telling me all her little secrets were slim. The chances I would want to hear her reasoning were nonexistent. Nothing that Bee Bop had to say interested me in the slightest.

~XoXo~

I raised a hoof and knocked three times on the door. I was tempted to run, but I knew Lyra would just march me right back here the first chance she got. The door swung open after a full minute and the mare standing there looked confused.

"What do you want, Scratch?" Bee asked, her eyes narrowing. I thought about turning around and planting my back hooves in her muzzle, but I figured that would just make everything worse. I ground my teeth together when I answered.

"I want to talk, no strings attached. Pure privacy, just lay everything out without worrying that it'll be spilled all over school." I said the words in one breath, but Bee seemed to get it. Her expression changed to one I'd never seen on Bee's face before, even before she hated me.

"Lyra told you I talked to her, didn't she?" She asked. I nodded and Bee opened the door wider. "I won't spill your secrets this one time," Normally I wouldn't trust the mare, but there was sincerity in her tone. I nodded again, my throat catching. I didn't want to say anything to this pony unless I absolutely had to.

Bee led me through the messy apartment that she currently shared with her coltfriend, Money Shot. I figured he was out somewhere as Bee led me into a bedroom. I kept my guard up as she sat on her bed. I opted for the floor and stared directly at Bee, searching her pink eyes for any sign of treachery.

"How much did Lyra tell you?" Bee finally asked. She seemed to be trying to stare at my eyes, and I was glad I'd worn my sunglasses.

"She didn't tell me anything," I shrugged. "She said she would leave all of that to you, if I decided to come down here," I left out the part about Lyra marching me halfway across campus before I chose to come here alone. Bee looked a lot more relaxed and I wondered if I would've gotten more out of her if I had lied. As much as I hated the pony sitting in front of me, I wanted to know what she could possibly have to say to make Lyra feel bad for her.

"I guess I'll start from the beginning then," Bee sighed as if the thought bothered her.

"Wait, you're actually going to talk to me?"

"Of course," Bee seemed shocked. "Why wouldn't I?"

"Oh, I don't know," I said, feigning cluelessness. "Maybe because you hate me?" Bee smiled a sad little smile and shook her head.

"I don't hate you, Vinyl. I'll explain if you're willing to listen. It's a really long story," I regretted sitting on the floor, but it was too late to get on the bed now. I just nodded, trying to adjust my limbs so I was more comfortable. Bee waited until I'd stopped fidgeting to start her story.

"Remember when we met back in like, the seventh grade? We started hanging out all the time, before everypony was putting labels on each other, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember. You told me you thought you were gay and I said that if you were gay, I'd be gay so you weren't the only one." As much as I hated Bee now, it was still nice remembering how close we'd been.

"Well, that's when this whole mess started. After that conversation, when we got together,"

"We got together in like, 9th grade," I knew that she knew, but I felt the need to comment. Octy had said something about it once. A com-something need to butt-in.

"I know," Bee inhaled and started again. "Anyway, we didn't really go out that long. You know that part," I nodded. I'd wanted everypony to know I cared about Bee, she didn't want to come out. We fought over it for months and she dumped me. It was all over by 10th grade. By senior year, she had Lyra.

"After that?" I asked.

"I went out with Lyra. I wasn't really happy with Lyra. She's a great mare, but I didn't love her. I wanted so badly to be straight, like every normal pony. That's why I'm with Money Shot. I figure if I'm with him long enough, I'll be interested in him. I'll be straight,"

"It doesn't work that way, Bee," I thought about Lights. Sure, I was only with him for a week, but no amount of time could make me love him the way he had loved me. I could prove that it really wasn't a choice. You were stuck with it, whether you liked it or not.

"I know that, but it's easier for me if I hope. If I can make myself believe that I'm in love with him, maybe I will be after a while. Anyway, back to my story. After we broke up, I did a lot of thinking. I could come out and be with you again, or I could experiment and see how ponies reacted to being gay. I outed you. It was harsh, but I thought that if everypony loved you, I'd be free to love you too. I told everypony you were a fillyfooler.

"Obviously, that didn't turn out the way I thought. Everypony hated you, and it was easier to hate you too. I made myself hate you because it was easy. I was scared, of course. I realized later that you could make my life just as miserable. I waited for the day that you decided to turn things around and force everything on me, the way I'd done to you.

"For some reason, you didn't. You took the abuse I forced on you and you were actually proud of it. You didn't care that everyone hated you. You did well for yourself. You got yourself into this school. I respected you, but I didn't know how to show it. Instead, I kept trying to ruin your life. It was easier than apologizing, and it seemed better than just dropping out of your life forever. I wanted to be part of your life, Vinyl, I just didn't know how to be."

Bee paused for a while and waited for me to say something. I didn't know what I could say to any of that. The silence settled around us and I coughed, unsure of what came next. I couldn't forgive her. She had ruined everything for me. Forgiving her wasn't an option. Hating her wasn't one either. If I left here hating her, I would feel like a bigger bitch than she had been. I realized what Lyra had meant about feeling bad for Bee. I wasn't that far, but I felt something for my ex-marefriend.

"I'm sorry," Bee said after a long while.

"Yeah, I know." More silence. Bee's eyes never left me, and she didn't seem to be blinking. I tried to look anywhere but at her. The curtains were a disgusting shade of grey. The floor was scuffed by years of hooves walking over the surface. The bed Bee was sitting on was sagging in the middle from years of use.

"I understand if you still hate me. I'll still pretend to hate you in public if it makes it easier,"

"I don't hate you," I said quickly. "And you could tone down on the hating me thing a bit. Stop putting me in the papers,"

"I could do that," Bee replied. I finally looked at her and she was visibly less tense than she had been when we came into the room.

"And lay off Octy, too." I added, remembering the visit from Octy's mother.

"I never wanted to hurt Octavia," Bee said quietly. "I knew you liked her. I was trying to get to you." I rolled my eyes. Had every single pony on campus known I liked Octy except for Octy herself?

"I guess it all worked out in the end," I said, trying to figure out what one said in this situation. "Her dad is leaving her mom. I guess it sounds bad, but her mom's a homophobic-"

"I don't wanna call anypony names," Bee said quickly. I snorted and the mare looked down at the bed sheets. "I don't want to call anypony else names," she corrected. Bee looked up again, catching my sunglass-covered eyes.

"This is all between us, right?"

"Of course," Bee said, shaking her head eagerly. I blinked and inhaled.

"I can sorta see why you're such a terrible pony all the time. I don't forgive you, but I don't totally blame you either. It's easy for me because I was forced to get used to it. You didn't go through that, so you wouldn't know. But you saw how they reacted to Octavia. They didn't care nearly as much. Ponies now are a lot more open to this sort of thing. They weren't as nice when you outed me. If you came out now, they wouldn't care as much. Everypony still hates me because they hated me coming into school. Besides, I've made friends. You'd make friends too, if you lost any."

"I don't have any friends," Bee whispered.

"Of course you have friends," I found myself smiling, despite the back of my brain screaming that I should throw things and run.

"I lost all my friends when I outed you. They all hated you, but they hated me too. They knew what I did was uncool. I had Lyra, when we got to this school, but I lost her too. Money Shot isn't even my friend. All he wants from me is something I'm not willing to give. Name one friend I have, Vinyl."

I looked at Bee, still smiling. Every part of me screamed that I was being stupid. I wanted to tell her she was right, and that everypony hated her, then get out of there faster than Spitfire could fly. Instead, the tiny, Octy-inspired part of my brain urged me on.

"You have me."