It was cold for July, but Octavia didn’t mind. Vinyl’s jacket covered her shoulders, blocking out the chilly night air. Beside her, Vinyl was going on about how excited she was for the upcoming weeks. She had changed since middle school, and it seemed Vinyl was prepared to fully embrace the ninth grade.

“It’s going to be an amazing year,” Vinyl promised, looking Octavia in the eyes. “We’re going to have a perfect first year of high school. Understood?”

“Of course,” Octavia replied with a smile. “We’ll be together.” They’d only been together a few short weeks, but Octavia was happier than ever. Around them, thunder rumbled and rain began to fall. Vinyl laughed, pulling Octavia close and leaning forward so their foreheads touched. The light wind brought a whiff of Vinyl’s perfume into Octavia’s face, and she smiled.

“The best year ever. You and me, Tavi.” Octavia didn’t get a chance to respond as Vinyl closed the distance, touching her lips to Octavia’s in what Octavia knew as the first of many kisses.

It was the same street. The same lamp post. The same cracks in the sidewalk. Even the weather was the same, the storm clouds rolling in and darkening the sky. If Octavia hadn’t known any better, she would have been expecting Vinyl to walk around the corner, shades in place and headphones hanging around her neck.

But this wasn’t the summer before freshman year. That time was long gone, and the mares who had met here four years ago were older now, and wiser to the ways of the world. It was hard now to remember a time where life was simple, and love was in their grasp. It felt like lifetimes ago, but Octavia could still remember the feeling of Vinyl’s breath on her cheek as they kissed...

Octavia shook her head. She couldn’t think about that now. In a few weeks, she’d be heading off to Germaney for college. She’d leave her old life behind her, and that included Vinyl. She couldn’t afford to think about her now. She’d never see Vinyl again, and that was for the best for both of them.

“You too, huh?” Octavia jumped at the voice, surprised that Vinyl, one of the loudest ponies she knew, had sneaked up on her.

“I was just taking one last walk around the town. I leave in a few weeks.”

“Somewhere in Prance, right?”

“Change of plans. I didn’t get in there. I’m going back to the Uneighted Kingdom for a while, to visit family, before I go to Germaney.”

“I only got into the community college. No surprise there, though. Everyone knew I’d just be another deadbeat.”

“You’re the one who wasted all that potential.” Octavia scolded.

“I get it, alright? I heard it from my dad, and I heard it from my mom in her letter this morning when she called to tell me why she wasn’t at graduation.” Vinyl shrugged. “Not like I missed her or anything. You know how she is. It’s better that she wasn’t here. She was trying to get me to move to Manehattan with her, but that’s obviously not happening anytime soon.”

“You could still visit,”

“What, and have her bitch and moan at me the whole time about how I’m wasted potential? No thanks. At least Dad doesn’t give two shits what I do, as long as he’s not paying for it. He’ll pay for college, but that’s about it. He actually kicked me out right after graduation,” Vinyl pointed to the window above the bakery. “I’ve been living up there, with the bakery owners and that Pinkie chick. She left yesterday afternoon, for some culinary school in Coltifornia.”

“That’s awful,” Octavia offered, but the unicorn shrugged.

“They pay me to help them out in the bakery, so I’ve pulled together enough to get my own apartment. It’s a shit hole, but I’ll live.” Octavia didn’t know what to say. She hadn’t spoken to Vinyl in so long, she had almost forgotten how easy it was to get involved into a conversation. But now, it seemed as if Vinyl were a different pony altogether. The blue was almost entirely washed out of her mane, bits of light brown showing at the roots. She’d ditched the shades, and she’d given up the red contacts. She was nothing like the mare Octavia had kissed here four years ago, and yet, she was still the same old Vinyl.

“I’m sorry,” they said at the same time. Vinyl shuffled her hooves and smiled sheepishly, nodding for the earth pony to go first.

“I shouldn’t have left like that,” Octavia admitted. “It was too much, too fast, and I just...I didn’t know what to do, so I just...left. I was young, and I wasn’t thinking, and I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry for letting you go,” Vinyl replied. “I should have fought harder. I let you leave when it was more than possible to try and convince you to stay.”

“Would it have changed anything?” Octavia asked, looking towards the lamp post. Ratted flyers advertising sales that had long ended and flyers with faded pictures of dogs long since found fluttered in the warm storm wind. The wind brought the scent of Vinyl’s perfume and a wave of memories from that rainy night so many years ago. Octavia didn’t understand what was happening. She’d managed to go so long without putting much thought into the situation with Vinyl, but here, now, it was hard to remember why she’d gotten over Vinyl in the first place.

“It could have changed everything,” Vinyl whispered, touching her cheek to Octavia’s. They both knew there was nothing else they could do but imagine a life where they hadn’t given it all up. But now, that was all the could do. Just imagine. Octavia was leaving for at least four years. She couldn’t expect Vinyl to wait for her, just as Vinyl couldn’t expect Octavia to wait either. The thunder rumbled around them and Octavia longed for the simpler times, when they could embrace and forget the world.

“We can’t go back and fix things, you know that,” Octavia felt her throat closing up, and she swallowed back tears. “And we don’t have the time to fix them now.”

“But we have today,” Vinyl looked at Octavia, their eyes meeting, just as they had all those years ago. “We have today, and tomorrow, and every day for the next week or so. We don’t have forever, but we have now.” The rain picked up slowly, but neither of them cared. Vinyl rested her forehead against Octavia’s, and right then, it didn’t matter if they had weeks or years. They had now, and now was all they needed.

Octavia closed the distance, and their lips meeting as the rain began to pour around them.

Author's Notes:

6/31. I'm on a role. Haven't missed a single day so far.