I was flabbergasted. The bouncy girl that I had only a passing familiarity with was hugging me.
And what's more, part of me didn't want her to let go. And I wasn't one for unwarranted physical contact, even now.
"What...what're you doing?" I asked numbly.
"You looked like you needed a hug," she said, still holding me. I felt my arms lift of their own volition and almost wrap around her as well. "You're hurting."
But before they could, she pulled away, ending the embrace and sat down beside me on the steps of CHS.
"You have a lot of pain in there, Ari," she said. Her smile seemed at odds with her choice of words.
"How do you do that?" I asked.
"Do what?" She seemed honestly confused.
"How do you find it so easy to smile all the time?" I whispered. "Even after what we just went through. My sister is nursing a wound we can't heal and Sunset is gone! How can you be so happy? Don't you even feel anything?"
"Oh, Ari," she said, shocked. "I do feel, a lot. I feel that Sunset isn't gone. I feel sad that Twilight is crying. I'm upset that Dagi is hurt and glad that she's all right. I'm worried that you seem so depressed all the time. It's all on the Inside, but if I don't smile, none of my friends can find a reason to, either. So I smile through the pain, to show that it can't get me down. That it can't win so easily."
I stared at her. Her smile was an act of defiance? Then what she had said about me clicked.
"Depressed?" I squawked. "I'm not depressed."
"I can tell," she said. "You were having some dark thoughts and needed a distraction."
"And a hug was your go to choice?"
"Of course!" she said brightly. "Everyone likes hugs, and besides, I've wanted to do that for a while."
My cheeks burned. Huh?
I must have said it out loud because she tilted her head and grinned.
"You're cute, Ari," she said. "And maybe, just maybe, I can get you to smile."
She leaned in close, her smile changing slightly as she did. It was a smile I knew well, one so similar to the ones we had smiled when trying to take over the school not too long ago.
"Have any ideas on how?" She whispered.
I blinked, mind whirling. She liked me? I wasn't ready for this!
"We could try coffee, maybe?" I whispered hesitantly.
The smile blossomed into a megawatt grin.
"That actually sounds good right now!" she chirped and hugged me again. "This is going to be so much fun!"
She said more, but at the moment, I didn't care. I was hugging someone that cared.
I had proof that people other than my sisters cared about me.