Friendship?

The next thing I know, my eyes are open and a dim light fills my eyes. I flinch and close my eyes again, letting out a groan. Feeling slowly travels through my body and all I feel is pain. I groan again, slightly louder.

“She’s awake!” I hear somepony say happily. I open my eyes, let them adjust and squint around the room trying to find who it was.

I’m in a small room, with a window, tucked into a bed. I quickly realize I’m in a hospital. My memories flood back into my head, giving me a headache. I look again and see that there are only two other ponies in the room. A nurse with a white coat and pink mane and tail pulled into a bun, and another stallion, about my age. I had probably seen him around school at some point. Both his mane and tail were black, and I couldn’t see his cutie mark from this angle.

I wasn’t sure which one of them had originally said “She’s awake,” because they were both staring at me like a miracle had just been performed in front of them. I looked back and forth between the two of them.

“Oh good, you’re awake,” the nurse said. She then turned to the stallion, “I’ll just check her vitals and then you can talk to her.” She said. Her voice was soft and sweet, nothing like the voice of who had declared me awake, who I now guessed was the stallion. He nodded at her and she walked over to me, checking a screen next to my bed, jotting down information on the clipboard she held with her.

When she finished, she nodded at the stallion. “She’s stable enough to handle a conversation.” Then she left the room.

The stallion stood and walked closer to my bed. I tried to sit up, but he stopped me. “You shouldn’t sit up, you’re too weak.”

I wanted to protest, but as I continued to try and sit up, I felt the fatigue and I gave in.

“My name is Incatasi.” He said. “I go to school with you. I’ve always wanted to approach you and become friend with you, but I was just too shy. But I heard what everypony was saying at school today, and I felt bad for you, so I wanted to make sure you were alright. I saw you running home, and you were crying so much, I just really wanted to make sure you were going to be alright.”

He paused here and looked down at me, cocking his head. I stared up at him. His eyes. He had gorgeous blue eyes that stood out among his black coat. And now that I had a closer look at him, I could see that his mane had a red tint to it. He was handsome. I couldn’t stop myself from staring at his gorgeous features. He then continued.

“I know I should have asked, but I was just so worried about you and I had this feeling in my gut that if I knocked, you wouldn’t answer, so I came in, and I called for you. But you didn’t answer, I looked for you and when I found you, you were covered in blood, and it looked like you had passed out, so I brought you to the hospital.” He said. That seemed to be the end of his story, because after that, he just stopped and stared at me.

And the look he gave me… It wasn’t a look of pity, or sorrow. He didn’t look like he felt sorry for me. He stared at me like he thought I was beautiful. His eyebrows weren’t curved down in worry, his mouth was set straight, maybe even a slight smile. He sighed and forced himself to turn away.

Then, out of nowhere, he started talking again. “Lavender…. I’ve been where you are.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but he continued, speaking louder.

“I know you don’t think so, but I have scars hidden beneath my fur. I’ve been hospitalized twice. I’ve tried to hang myself, I’ve tried overdosing on pills, I even tried to jump off a cliff,” He paused, smiling slightly.

“Tried?” I asked. “How do you manage to fail jumping off a cliff?”

“Well, I jumped, but I landed on a pegasus that brought safe and sound to the ground.”

I stifled a laugh with my hoof, but just the small gesture sent waves of pain throughout my weak body and I winced and groaned.

“Careful,” Incatasi said, reaching out his hoof. He then continued. “I was hoping that we could be friends. I could try to lead you away from all this,” He gestured to my forelegs.

“Well… I was a little mad at you for saving my life, but I suppose we could build a friendship out of this.” I said. He couldn’t help but laugh.

I smiled at him. I felt a lot better just talking to him. Eventually, my parents came to visit me. They were surprised to learn that I was a cutter and immediately set up an appointment with a shrink to get me put on medicine. Slowly, but surely, with the help of Incatasi, depression floated away from my life in a little blue balloon, and happiness took it’s place.

I stopped cutting, I smiled a lot more. I cut my mane so that it didn’t hide my face. Starflare, Tempest, Blaize and Silvermane tried to come back to me and become friends with me again, but I didn’t let them. They had deserted me when I needed them most, and I couldn’t trust them anymore. But I could trust Incatasi with my life, since he had literally saved it.

Incatasi and I grew extremely close. We hung out with only each other, almost all the time. One day, we were at my house after a particularly good day at school and we were watching a movie on the couch. He suddenly paused the movie and turned to face me.

I was completely oblivious to what he was feeling at the moment. By the expression on his face, I thought something might be wrong, but I was wrong.

“Lavender…..” He said softly. His eyes shifted downwards towards his forelegs, and then sideways at the wall.

“What it is?” I asked.

“I just….” He took a deep breath and looked me right in my eyes. “I wanted to tell you that I think you’re an amazing mare. You’re smart, artistic, beautiful and…. I love you….. And I want to be with you….” He said. His black cheeks slowly grew a crimson and I blushed as well.

I had never noticed my feeling for him before, but now that he had said this, I realized that I want to be with him too. “R-really?” I asked. “I mean…. I…. I want to be with you too.” I forced myself to look at him, both of our cheeks glowing red.

He smiled at me and I sort of smiled back a little awkwardly. He rested his hooves over mine, and I looked down at them, and just a second later, his lips were on mine. I was astonished, completely startled, but I was happy. Before I could kiss him back, he pulled away. We stared at each other, and then I leaned forward and kiss him. This time I could tell he was surprised, but then he kissed me back.

He pulled away again, his cheeks redder than anything I had ever seen. “Lavender….. I love you.” He said.

I smiled and tears boiled in my eyes. “I love you too, Incatasi.” We then hugged each other. “I always thought everything was going to suck, I never thought anything would change to make it any better.” I whispered into his ear as we hugged. I felt his grip tighten around me, and I continued. “But then you found me, and you fixed everything. I’m so lucky to have you.”

At this point, I was so happy that tears rolled down my cheeks and dripped onto his back. He pushed me away from him gently, and looked at me. “Why are you crying?” He asked. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m just so happy,” I said, smiling through my tears and then wiping them away. “I’ve learned that life does get better.”

Incatasi smiled at me and hugged me again. “Of course it does.” He whispered. I couldn’t see his face, but I knew he was crying too. We finished the movie, cuddling with each other the rest of the way through it. He left right after so he could get home for dinner.

The smile on his face was so big when he told me that he was going to tell his parents about me. I smiled and wiped away the few tears remaining in my eyes and we kissed once more before he left. My parents came home and I told them everything. Before, I couldn’t talk to them about anything, it always seemed like they didn’t want to listen. But ever since my incident, we’ve been having dinner together and talking, like a real family.

They were so happy for me, they hugged me and kissed me. We finished dinner with smiles and laughter. When I went to bed, I made a mental note that this was the best day of my life.