I walked back and forth across the dorm room, glancing at the clock whenever I could. Ever since the Club Canterlot incident with Thunderlane, I didn’t trust Octy to be out by herself. She wasn’t used to the rough streets like I was. If anything happened to her, she couldn’t protect herself.

The thought of Octy in an alley with that creep, Concerto, hovering over her made me want to run out and find her, but I figured she would just be pretty pissed if I did that. Instead, I paced. My hooves clicked and clacked against the floor, driving me insane, but at least I was concentrating on something other than Octy.

You know she doesn’t love you, a voice at the back of my mind taunted. She may be into mares, but she doesn’t love you. She probably wants Lyra.

“Lyra has that Bon Bon filly,” I said aloud, trying to push the thoughts out of my head.

Then maybe she wants Bee Bop.

“After what she tried to do to Octy’s reputation? I don’t think so,” I scoffed. I tried to ignore the fact that I was talking to myself. Octy always said that talking to yourself meant you were going insane. I stared at the walls, the doors, and even the carpeting in the bedroom. I did anything to keep my mind off of Octavia.

The door creaked and my ears perked up, twitching for the sounds of ponies.

“Octy, is that you?” I called out, even though I knew it was Octy. Nopony else had the key to the dorm. I didn’t wait for a response. I just bounded over to the door, pushing the negative thoughts out of my head.

~XoXo~

I sat on the couch, waiting for Octy to just open her mouth and tell me what was going on. I had a pretty good idea of what she would say; it was just saying it that was the problem. She would tell me that she knew I was in love with her. I would counter with some sarcastic joke about her flank. She would tell me to be serious. I would shut my trap. She would tell me that she was honored, but she didn’t feel the same way and she probably never would. I would act chill, and then cry myself to sleep.

“Octavia, are we talking or not?” I snapped impatiently. If she was going to break my heart into a million pieces, she could at least be respectful and do it quickly instead of stringing me along. The grey mare looked up at me, her lavender eyes twinkling in the dim lamp lighting. Her dull grey and black coloring made her eyes look even brighter, and for a second, I didn’t care that she was about to ruin my life. She smiled an adorable little half-smile and looked up at me.

“Never mind.”

I looked at her, my face screaming ‘what the actual buck’. At first, I thought I was missing something. She might have said something while I was busy staring at her eyes.

“Come again?” I asked, tilting my head to the side.

“Never mind,” Octavia repeated. “It’s not that important anymore.” I wanted to hug her and kick her at the same time. She wasn’t rejecting me before I could even ask, but she had scared the crap out of me.

“Octy, please tell me you’re bucking with me.” I wasn’t in the mood to be messed with. Octy had made this talk sound like the most important thing since the invention of dubtrot, and now she was acting like we were discussing something lame, like science.

“I am not, and I would appreciate you not using that foul language. If you’ll excuse me, I would like to go to bed. I’ve had a very…complicated evening.” Octavia’s eyes darted to the door.

“This isn’t cool. You said we were going to talk, so let’s talk.” Octy made her way to the bedroom and I concentrated really hard. In a flash of blue, Octy was right above the couch, covered with a blue bubble…thing.

“Vinyl Scratch, you release me this instant!” Octy yelled.

“I would, but I have no idea what I’m doing,” I taunted. “Now, let’s talk.”

“There’s nothing to say, really. I just thought I should tell you that…” Octavia looked around the room, her lavender eyes settling on my flank. “I want to know about your cutie mark!” she blurted. I looked down at the backwards bridged eight notes stamped on my flank and heard a soft ‘humph’ as Octavia fell to the couch.

“You want to know about my cutie mark?” I asked, disbelieving. My cutie mark story was probably the most boring cutie mark story in all of Equestria.

“Of course,” Octavia smoothed down a stray piece of her mane. “Seeing as we’re very good…friends, I would like to know how you found your special talent. I’ll tell you my story, if you’d like.”

“It’s nothing interesting, honest.” I shrugged. “I’ll tell you tomorrow, I guess. I mean, it’s late and I’m tired and you’re tired and...” I stopped myself, biting my tongue to keep from rambling on.

“That sounds lovely.” Octavia avoided making eye contact, her eyes lingering on the bedroom door. “If that’s all…”

“Yeah, I guess that’s it. We can go to bed now.” We both looked at each other as what I had just said sunk in.

“Well…um…”

“I mean separately! We’ll be in our own beds…alone…by ourselves and not together!” Octavia’s nose crinkled as she held back a laugh.

“I knew what you meant, silly filly,” Octavia smiled. “The phrasing was a bit funny is all.” I bit my tongue to keep from replying and Octavia made her way into the bedroom. I followed behind her, trying not to watch the way her flank swayed as she walked. I tried to ignore the sweet lavender shampoo smell that wafted off her mane. I tried to ignore that weird fluttery feeling in my chest as I watched her curl up into bed, adjusting her covers so that every inch of her body was warm.

I love you, Octy. You don’t know it yet, but I love you, I thought as I curled up into my own bed. My eyes drooped and before long I was asleep, my dreams dancing with images of the cellist.

Author's Notes:

Wheeeeee~ It's done! The first chapter is finished! This is actually about the time I had originally wanted to post this, but because of computer issues, I thought you wouldn't get it until March. So here it is you wonderful amazing people!