Pink Triangle

by Briny Rivers

Chapter 2 - Cold Dark World

The fact it was a weekend did little to soothe Wallflower’s nerves. She spent the entire morning laid in bed, unmoving. Now, she was sitting at her desk, completely unaware of how much time had passed since waking up.

Everyone deserved happiness, right? But what if the source of that happiness would be wrong? Was it selfish to continue a relationship when your feelings have changed for the worse?

All these questions ran through Wallflower’s mind as she sat at her desk. Her world had humpty-dumptied and shattered into a million pieces, never to be put back together. All because of her stupid feelings.

For another girl. Her friend. Someone who trusted her.

Her hand was aching. Looking down, she realized she was still gripping the empty packet of red chrysanthemums with a white-knuckle grip.

Red chrysanthemums, a symbol for love.

Wallflower let go of the packet like it was on fire, pushing it away and off of her desk. Of course Aria picked these flowers. Without knowing of their significance and how much it was paining Wallflower just to think about them in the greenhouse.

No, not everyone deserved happiness. These feelings would only lead to pain and sadness and all other sorts of nasty words that Wallflower couldn’t think of at the moment. The only solution was to firmly grasp those warm, fuzzy feelings, shove them into a lead box, and bury the box deep inside of her.

It was the best possible thing to do. Both for her own sake, and Aria’s. It was never fair to her, and it never would be. Just thinking about continuing to be friends with Aria—knowing what her feelings towards her meant—made her feel sick.

Her phone buzzed, quietly clattering against the desk.

Wallflower was suddenly ripped from her thoughts and grounded back in reality, her eyes now fixated on her phone with a notification on the lockscreen. Hesitantly, she picked up her phone—which was a few models old at this point—and scanned the text message she just received.

Wallflower’s stomach dropped when she saw it was from Aria. Of course, Wallflower saved her contact as ‘Aria✨.’

For a moment, the notification sparked a tiny flicker of joy. But her heart was beating harder, and the warm and fuzzy monster inside the lead box was already coming out again.

Against her better judgment, she opened the text.

Aria✨ [12:23]: Hey.
Aria✨ [12:23]: Where are you? We’re hanging out today.

Wallflower’s knee hit the bottom of her desk. Aria wanted her to be there. Of course she did, Aria was always insistent about their hangouts in the past. Now, it felt different. It felt like those days were years ago, from an abstract point in time that definitely happened but not quite comprehensible.

Her thumbs moved before she could think.

Me [12:24]: Sorry
Me [12:24]: I got busy, I’ll be there soon. K?

Wallflower smiled as she reminisced on the time Aria got surprisingly upset at her grammar. Back then, Wallflower constantly typed without any capitalization or punctuation and Aria hated it.

Aria✨ [12:24]: You better.
Aria✨ [12:24]: I think I threatened you yesterday. About if you didn’t show up.

Me [12:24]: Something like that
Me [12:24]: I’ll be there soon
Me [12:24]: Gotta take the bus

For a moment, everything felt like it was normal again. And then, Wallflower thought about the smirk Aria would probably make once she made it to her house—and the feelings it would invoke—and felt awful again.

Wallflower buried her face in her hands, rubbing her palms into her eyes. Normally, thinking about Aria always made her somewhat happy, but knowing why it made her happy just made the pit in her stomach feel even deeper. It was a deadly combination when mixed with the fuzziness in her heart.

“I-I’ll..get over it. Definitely. I have to..” Wallflower mumbled, talking to herself in hushed tones even though nobody else was home.

Maybe it was selfish to continue being friends with Aria, even if she was subconsciously pining for her. Even with this in mind, Wallflower was preparing to head out. It was especially cold out today, yet all Wallflower put on was the usual sweater and jeans. The rest of her winter clothes were too old.

The house was eerily quiet as she made her way downstairs, but it wasn’t unusual. Uncle only had Sundays off, and his work schedule filled most of the day well into the night. There were days where they never saw each other—usually because Wallflower went to sleep before it got too late.

Wallflower made it to the bottom of the stairs and began walking to the door, yet stopped in her tracks and froze. Her eyes fixated on the crucifix hanging just by the door, staring as it was staring right back.

Her uncle must have asked a thousand times if he should take it down for her sake, aware of how things were when she lived with her parents—It was the entire reason she was living with her uncle in the first place. Every single time, she would reply with a ‘no.’ Because there was nothing in this world that could get her to look her uncle in the eyes and tell him to take that crucifix down.

In a daze, Wallflower quickly made it to the door and pushed it open to be greeted by the cold breeze. There was a light snow, which firmly cemented her plan of taking the bus.

“Just..don’t think about it,” Wallflower mumbled once more to herself, her head low as she walked to the bus stop, “She’s just a friend. She won’t love you. Not now, not ever. We’ll be friends and stay friends, and eventually I’ll die, and we’ll have always been just friends.”

Wallflower forced a smile and nodded her head, probably looking like a total dweeb, completely sure that the solution to her totally unreciprocated crush would be completely ignoring those feelings. How hard could it be?

Wallflower sat down at the bus stop, her nerves now settled.

“—Oh, the bench is wet..”

---

Wallflower neglected texting Aria to let her know of her arrival, instead knocking on the door of the house. After a few seconds, she heard footsteps and the shifting locks on the door until it opened. The sudden wave of warmth from the inside of the Dazzlings’ house made her flinch, but only for a moment.

Aria stood in the doorway, wearing an outfit similar to what she always wore when they hung out at her place. A t-shirt and sweatpants, which was far more casual than her usual outfit—when it wasn’t a hoodie.

“About time,” Aria said, a twinge of annoyance in her voice. Still, she did the little smirk that Wallflower loved to see. Just seeing her made her completely forget about any plan she had made to ignore the fuzzy feeling she got around Aria.

“So, you gonna come in? You’re getting snowed on.” Aria reached over, ruffling Wallflower’s messy hair to shake off all the snowflakes. “Makes you look nice, but it’s gonna get everywhere inside..”

Wallflower’s breath hitched as Aria’s hand sat on her head, momentarily dazed by the sudden touch. It took her a few moments to come back to reality, more snow having collected in her hair by the time she was back. “—Yeah! Yeah. Sorry. Uh..”

A strange scent wafted into Wallflower’s nose, causing her to sniff. “..is that lavender?”

Aria’s eye twitched. “Nope. Now come inside already, or I’ll punch you.” Without even waiting for an answer, Aria pulled her inside by the collar and threw her towards the couch.

Wallflower tumbled onto the couch on her stomach, landing head first into a pillow lying against the arm rest. Being thrown into the couch was Aria’s usual greeting to Wallflower, part of the status quo that was always set in stone prior to Wallflower’s revelation yesterday.

Now, she clung onto that former status quo for dear life.

Aria sat down across the couch, the space between them being pretty small—Wallflower never noticed how small the space was between them until now. Aria once mentioned that buying it was Sonata’s choice to buy it, because it fit all three of the sirens comfortably when they all sat at once.

Aria wordlessly began to prepare their game, tossing a controller into Wallflower’s lap as she did so. She hardly noticed, her eyes fixed on Aria as she fiddled with her own controller.

Sure, the source of her woes were all linked to how she felt about Aria, but it sure felt nice to indulge. She might’ve felt like shit for all of last night and this morning, but everything felt..decent, now. The dark and ugly thoughts felt so far away now, for better or for worse. Now the only thing Wallflower could feel was the fuzzy vice around her heart.

Wallflower frowned. How could she ever think like this? It wasn’t at all fair to Aria. She didn’t deserve it, especially when there was no way she could ever feel the same. How betrayed would she feel when one of her only genuine friends was thinking of her like this? Besides, Wallflower was sure there was no way Aria could ever love—

“Wallflower!” Aria snapped, shooting her a scowl.

“Huh?! Oh..” Wallflower jolted, coming back down to reality. Aria was giving her a rather cute yet annoyed look, and the game Aria decided to play was ready and on the huge flatscreen in front of them. Wallflower always wondered where they got the money for all the extravagant things in their house.

“You space out way too much lately,” Aria grumbled. Now her scowl was replaced by a tiny smirk. “You look pretty silly when you do. All wide-eyed and stuff. Like a puppy.”

“A puppy?” Wallflower took a moment to think, not spacing out this time. “I’d be a pretty ugly puppy..”

“Snrk..nah, not even,” Aria choked back what sounded like it would be a giggle, her foot jutting against Wallflower’s stomach—wait, her foot?

“You’d be kinda cute, probably. A green puppy would be a little weird, but..I dunno, cute,” Aria trailed off. Wallflower was too busy looking at Aria's legs splayed out on her lap. Right there. Just up against her stomach. And did she just call her cute?! Well, she said puppy Wallflower would be cute, but still!

Did the cuteness of Dogflower translate to the cuteness of Wallflower?

By now, the game had already started, but she could hardly pay attention. Cutting down bug people from a top down perspective inside of a mech was always good fun, but Wallflower could hardly focus—she already didn’t really focus entirely on the game since it was a little boring and only played it for Aria’s sake—her mind cluttered up by Aria casually leaving her legs across her lap. And being indirectly called cute! On top of all that, a ridiculously enticing smell of lavender kept wafting up into her nose.

And it was hot. As in, Wallflower was sweating. She tugged at her sweater collar, the heat that had enveloped her only now being obvious to her. “Is, uh, the thermostat up in here?”

“Huh?” Aria glanced over to face Wallflower, her eyes widening a bit, “Shit, you’re more red than green now..” she commented. “Uh, yeah, Sonata turned it way up because of the snow. I swear, she thinks we’ll freeze to death. Can’t touch it either, because she knows when we do.”

“Oh, alright..” Wallflower sighed. At least it was a good cover for how hot her cheeks were right now. “—speaking of, uh, where are they? Sonata and Adagio?”
“Ugh,” Aria groaned, her annoyance more than obvious. It was impressive how she could pay attention to the TV while rolling her eyes, too. “In their rooms doing work for classes or something. They started getting more homework, but they just procrastinate on it all week and save it for the weekend. It’s so annoying.”

Right on cue, the stairs began to creak as someone began to bound downstairs. Wallflower jumped a bit at the sudden noise and would have turned around, if Aria didn’t immediately speak up. “Adagio, put some clothes on!”

“Oh, calm down, I already did! Besides,” Her footsteps grew closer, Wallflower suddenly feeling oddly on edge as Adagio was now suddenly right behind the couch (she was indeed wearing clothes,) “I knew you were bringing your girlfriend over, so I had no choice but to dress modestly.”

“She’s—..” Aria cut herself off, instead resorting to scowling at the TV and Adagio’s faint reflection on the screen, “Just..drop it. And tell Sonata to let us turn the thermostat down, we’re burning up.”

“Hmm..” Adagio suddenly cupped Wallflower’s chin, angling her face up to get a closer look at her. Wallflower must have made a stupid face, because even though her sight of Adagio was upside-down she could tell she was smiling. “I’m thinking she’s just blushing, Aria. Prooobably because of you, hm?”

Aria’s scowl intensified, her legs suddenly swooping out from Wallflower’s lap as she stood up and abandoned the game. Now her scowl was directed right to Adagio. “I already told you to quit it! Plus she’s wearing that big stupid sweater! Could you just try to convince Sonata to turn the heat down?!”

“Oh, come on, it’s just some fun teasing! But you can’t deny, you’d be cute together, wouldn't you? Aria and Greenie!”

“I’ve already told you a thousand times, she’s Wallflower, not Greenie. And your teasing is getting pretty damn annoying right now!”

“Please, ‘Ria, I’ve been down here for less than two minutes and you’re making a scene. Could you just go back to cuddling your girlfriend already?”

“ADAGIO!”

Another set of footsteps came bounding down the stairs. “Why are we yelling?”

“Oh, Sonata! Don’t worry, Aria was just overreacting again.”

“SONATA! Turn the fucking heat down!”

“But it’s coooold!”

Too many noises. Too much yelling. Each shout sent a terrifying jolt down Wallflower’s spine, and it just kept getting warmer and warmer.

She was suddenly grounded back to reality as the game over screen came up on the TV, Aria having left her controller unattended while Wallflower had completely tuned out. Without even thinking, she shot up and let the controller fall out of her lap.

“IthinkIshouldleave!” Wallflower blurted out, immediately rushing to the door. She went through the motions of opening and going through and closing it and walking out in what felt like seconds.

There was no more shouting, no more yelling, no more fighting. Was there even any fighting? Whatever happened, it made Wallflower’s heart feel like it was beating out of her chest.

“..Damnit..” It was all Wallflower could say. Of course she ran out, all because of some loud yelling. Of course it was because of such a tiny little reason.

She only looked back to their house for a second, quickly making her way to the nearest bus stop. God forbid any of them, especially Aria, opened the door or peered through the blinds to see her.

Everything felt normal when she was with Aria. Her feelings were still very much there when they were together, if not at their strongest, but it felt fine. Like being around Aria was what grounded her. But now, everything was wrong again. It was cold, and dark, and Wallflower wanted nothing more than to run back inside and be all warm and jump into Aria’s arms—

No. It was fine. It was okay. This would all blow over, and they might even laugh about it. Wallflower would try harder to ignore the fuzzy warmth she got when she looked at Aria, and things would be normal.

But was it really going to be okay? Would Aria think less of Wallflower after running out like that, or was she just overthinking things and Aria would think nothing of it? No, of course their friendship wasn’t over! Why would it be, this hardly called for something as drastic as a friendship breakup, as much as Wallflower’s mind was telling her as much.

Wallflower looked up, taking in the dark and cloudy sky. The sun had already set, and the air smelled crisp and cold. The way Wallflower liked, so much so she’d keep her bedroom window open at night to let that smell in.

It reminded her of Aria.

In that moment, Wallflower wanted nothing more than for the ground to open up beneath her and swallow her whole or for her guardian angel to swoop down and make her stop feeling. But even as she shut her eyes tight and hoped, neither happened. Because the ground would never take her and angels weren’t real.

“..I should really go home.”

Now wanting to get out of the cold and head back home, Wallflower made her way to the bus stop. Uncle was probably home, and it was for the best if she got home to cook dinner for the two of them before he ate any of those awful microwave dinners. Warm soup sounded good. Maybe with some kind sandwich.

Warm soup, sandwiches, and Aria. Wallflower was fine with those being her only thoughts for now.

But before she could indulge in two of those three thoughts, she had to wait for the bus stop. Her legs were tired—she was a wimp who couldn't walk for very long—and the bus would take a while. And so, she sat down.

“..oh, the bench is wet..”

Author's Note:

I guess it's early-mid December right now? I don't know, it's snowy because of plot reasons and also because I've been going through a blizzard/snowy weather for the past few days now. Just don't question the anomalous weather of Canterlot, especially when the weather drastically changes soon.

I have a lot of ideas that take place during wildly different weathers, because I guess I'm really crazy over weather. It just sets the mood, y'know?

Comments

[Advisability]

Aria's 100% Gonna misconstrue this as wallflower not being comfortable hanging out around her, isn't she?

[Briny Rivers]

11516685
Surprisingly, this wasn't the first idea I had when I planned out the story and not entirely what I'm going with. Maybe it's just me, but misunderstandings that snowball into something much worse always irked me. Communication is key!

[Thought Prism]

Finally got around to reading this, and it's compelling so far. I think I understand what your version of poor Wallflower has gone through. Hopefully Aria and her sisters don't make things worse. They're not bigots, but they still not super delicate, haha.