“How can someone be so /stupid/??” Lydia said, fuming as she sat herself down on a bench outside the room next to her older sister Cindy.

“Sam?” Cindy guessed. “What did she do?”

Lydia paused, then slumped, posture crumbling. “I don’t even remember,” she admitted at last, crossing her arms loosely.

Cindy hummed thoughtfully, then put a hand on her arm and turned on the bench to face her fully. “Are you okay?”

Lydia exhaled carefully. “…Y-yeah,” she said. “I’m alright. Today has just been a bit…draining.”

“Did something happen before this?”

Lydia sighed. She nodded but didn’t elaborate. Cindy didn’t push her, just putting an arm around her and pulling her closer.

After a few minutes, the door opened. Lydia straightened, leaning forward to see past Cindy.

Sam came out, seeming subdued. Their eyes met, and then Sam’s gaze moved to the floor and Lydia leaned back against the wall behind the bench.

A moment passed. Then, Cindy stood up. “I’ll let you two talk,” she said with a small smile. “I’ll come back in a few minutes — if you need anything, I’ll be right outside.”

Lydia watched her leave, then looked back to Sam.

Sam seemed to make an aborted attempt to walk over before thinking better of it.

Then Sam sighed.

“I’m sorry,” Sam said quietly. “I shouldn’t have been yelling.”

“Yeah,” Lydia answered. “I’m sorry too. I’m usually better at resolving things like that — I was just in a bad mood and took it out on you.”

Sam looked up from the floor, and Lydia smiled at her a bit. Sam hesitated for a moment before walking over and collapsing onto the bench next to her.

“Same here,” Sam told her. “I heard some people talking about me earlier. They were theorizing over my love life again — that always annoys me. I guess it just got to me today.”

Lydia laughed with a frown and leaned her head back against the wall. “Yeah,” she sighed, “I heard them talking about me when I came in too. Some guys were saying we’d get together — they were placing bets on how long it’d take.”

Sam looked at her, face seeming vaguely horrified. “They were placing /bets?/“ she asked. “That we would get together?”

Lydia turned her head and grinned tiredly at her. “Don’t sound so scared,” she joked. “I might get offended.”

Sam smiled back. “It’s not you,” she said. “I mean, we did get off to a bad start, but — I don’t like anyone like that.”

Lydia raised an eyebrow. “You don’t?”

Sam seemed a tad tenser now. “No, I uh — I don’t. People think it’s weird, but I never have…” Lydia sat up straighter and turned to her, and Sam hastened to say more. “I’m not upset about it though, it’s just how I am, so—“

“No, I get it.” Lydia cut off her rambling. “I don’t feel anything romantic towards anyone, either.”

Sam looked at her, eyes wide. “…I didn’t know that anyone else…”

“Me neither,” Lydia said. “Everyone else is so obsessed with romance, and even my friends who weren’t liked someone at some point. I just accepted I was the only one who…but…”

Sam seemed to be almost vibrating, all of a sudden. She reached over and took her hands, and if they were in a cartoon, Lydia thought she’d have stars in her eyes. “This is amazing,” she practically squealed. “There’s someone else like me…”

Lydia smiled back at her, quietly sharing the sentiment.

After a moment, Sam seemed to settle down. She looked at Lydia, and it looked like her eyes were brimming with tears. “I’m not alone anymore…”

She felt tears rise up in her own eyes, but stubbornly kept them down. Without consciously thinking about it, Lydia pulled Sam into a hug.

She’d always been careful not to do anything that could be interpreted as romantic in the view of cameras, wanting to avoid as much drama as she could. She didn’t want to deal with people assuming she was dating her friends or her family assuming someone had finally managed to “fix” whatever about her they thought was broken. But despite the cameras outside the window — and the knowledge of what this could surely seem like to some of them out of context, since they didn’t have the audio — she didn’t have it in her to be bothered.

None of that mattered — because for the first time, Lydia finally felt understood.