"Trixie is NOT lonely!"
She said it over and over again every time she was asked. Her actions said the opposite. Wanted every little bit of attention and affection she can get. Trixie really shouldn't have spread that rumor about herself; now everyone thinks someone has a crush on her.
Now she has to lie. Only she can see her crush in the mirror, no one else feel a thing when they see her reflection. Valentine's Day is in... how long? Trixie knows the rumor only spread further with no one to blame but herself. The ears that listened and minds that believed are accompanied by eyes that expect the crush to reveal himself —or herself— on Valentine's Day.
They want to know the conclusion to this; Trixie doesn't.
If only they'd forget, so Trixie can forget that she's alone. But the show must go on. She eats lunch far away from everyone to avoid conversation. She might skip school on the long awaited day. Why didn't she just not celebrate Valentine's Day like every other year? Now her loneliness is going to hit even harder than all the other times.
~
Now it's the day before. Trixie can hear herself breathing throughout the whole day. Her heart beats in her ears, her mouth dry.
No one stands next to her. And this is probably how it's going to end up tomorrow. Trixie's crush was here all along, standing in her shoes. Only able to kiss her lover when there's a mirror in the room. It would be embarrassing to just bring a mirror tomorrow and try and play it off as having been a joke all along. Mirrors and reflections don't write love letters, not even fake ones.
Fake people write fake love letters. Trixie doesn't want to be fake in front of everyone. They think someone loves her, but they don't know that it's not someone else. Everyone's waiting; Trixie wants to leave early. Maybe never come back. Yes, over something as silly as this.
Trixie doesn't leave school after the day ends, let alone leave early. She did manage to get a bunch of attention from the rumors. It's not the kind she wanted. Everyone wants to interrogate her. "Who is it?" "Are they gonna ghost you?" Trixie gives nothing and no one a straight answer. Not even herself.
She hides away in any way she can... to any extent she can. No more singing or performing in front of others. The crowd frightens the girl. Even a one person crowd. Anyone who can discover the truth.
What in the world happened to Trixie's confidence? All she did was tell a lie and get everyone to give her attention. It might feel just as bad for each individual person finding out than it does for Trixie getting a cold, hard look at how desperately lonely she truly is. Who even does this? Values themselves this excessively much...
It's going to take the other students a while to completely clear out of the school. These after school clubs and activities really started to pick up recently. No one is in the theater right now; Trixie uses the spare keys to the door to backstage she always had for so long to get in. No one will ask her if she's lonely in here. No one will ask her if she knows her crush. She doesn't have to say no to both, only one of them being a lie at this point.
Trixie hunkers down, puts her knees to her chest and hides her face in the dark room. No one seems to be around to hear her begin to quietly sob. Though, Trixie can't hear the footsteps very well over her own sobbing.
"Is someone in here?" A familiar voice says.
Trixie perks up and plans what she's going to say and how she's going to keep her voice from breaking. She knows who's going to come around the corner.
"Oh... hey girls." Trixie greets Fuchsia Blush and Lavender Lace as they approach her with a wave. "What have you been up to recently?"
"Talent show. It's coming up next month." Answers Lavender. "We signed up a week or two ago."
"Oh... you did?" Trixie's voice isn't even close to it's normal tone. "That's great to hear. Glad you're doing your own thing now."
Lavender looks over to Fuchsia, giving her a concerned look. Trixie knows why.
"So uh, Trixie supposes she'll be on her way, then."
"Wait." Lavender prompts.
"There's something we wanna ask. It's about the talent show." Fuchsia brings up.
"It's... not really about the talent show, is it?"
"Oh, but it is." Fuchsia responds with a friendly gleam. "You're the reason why we're entering the talent show to begin with."
"...Really?"
"We really liked working with you." Lavender starts to show some awkwardness in her tone as Trixie inches towards the door.
"In fact." Fuchsia thinks to herself a little. "Would you like to join us? It would be like the... musical showcase we recently had." She words the name of the event carefully. "I know this sounds cheesy, but you sort of inspired us."
When did Lavender get to standing between Trixie and the doorway?
"Sooooo, we were wondering if you wanted to join the next event with us."
Trixie can't think of an answer. As soon as she sniffles, the other two girls start to look a little more worried.
"We really mean that." Reinforces Lavender. "It's true. We'd love to be your teammates again!"
"Look..." Trixie isn't going to be able to contain herself anyway; this offer of friendship is giving her a comparison between what she has and what she wants, making the gap more apparent to her thoughts. "Trixie isn't lonely. Okay?"
There's no comment on that in response. "No no no, you could like, lead us again! We haven't really put together many main ideas for a performance. We're kinda disorganized without you, to be honest."
These words pry their way to Trixie's heart with ease. The sudden surge of emotion overtakes Trixie on the inside and makes her lips quiver.
"What do you say?" Fuchsia asks, trying to pretend she doesn't notice Trixie's eyes welling up.
But it has to be addressed sooner or later, and Trixie herself chooses sooner.
"Trixie knows you came here for a reason. It's clear you think she's lonely and you want to cheer her up." Croaks the magician girl. "I j-just... I'm sorry..."
An awkward moment of Trixie crying out loud is incoming. Lavender puts a hand on Trixie's shoulder in hopes it will help more than it hinder the situation.
"If there's something else you want to say, anything else, just get it over with and say it." Says Trixie with a hand wiping a tear away. "Just say whatever it is."
And she guessed it right too, none of these three girls are blind to the situation here.
"Okay, okay." Fuchsia takes a long and deep breath. "We also want to know what's been getting the best of you lately. Because you normally talk to people more and want to, well, show off a little more than recently."
"We know you, Trixie. And you haven't been acting the same since you've gotten that love letter in your locker." Adds Lavender.
"Yeah, you're more confident than this." Fuchsia now puts her hand on Trixie's shoulder. "What's going on? It's okay to tell us. We'll keep it a secret for you."
Lavender nods in affirmation.
Trixie's on the borderline of breaking down, but does what she can to hold it together in the presence of her friends. "Well, I-" She gets a little choked up before she can finish.
"Just say it. We asked everything now, so just get it out, it's alright." Fuchsia pulls Trixie into a half-hug with Lavender following suit.
"The letter..." Confesses Trixie. "Trixie wrote it. The crush was made up, Trixie wanted to make everyone think that someone l-liked her..." Her mouth bends into a sharp frown and she silently loses it in the arms of her friends. "I'm so sorry."
Lavender and Fuchsia calmly shush Trixie, momentarily telling her they won't say a word to anyone.
"Trixie..." Lavender suddenly starts. "Trixie, listen to me."
Trixie gives herself a few seconds to breathe before blankly staring at the other girl.
"Listen, Trixie." Fuchsia joins in. "We did it."
"W-what?" Trixie furrows her brow with a new tear in her eye having yet to be wiped away.
"We wrote the letter. You didn't write it, we did." Affirms Lavender.
It takes Trixie a second or two to register what this means, but once she understands, her eyes shut with new tears coming on and she begins to sob a little more loudly.
"We'll tell them all tomorrow that we wrote it." Lavender swears. "Promise. You can count on it."
Trixie's breathing becomes stuttered, and the arms of the other two girls wrap around her as she's sandwiched between them. Now anyone walking by in the hallway can be able to hear Trixie.
The weight flutters off of Trixie's shoulder as she sits there on the floor sandwiched between her friends. She thanks them in a few mumbled and jumbled words, embracing them back with tears rolling down her face. She doesn't want to wipe away tears of sudden happiness.
"Okay... okay. Thank you." Trixie must have said this a thousand times. "Thank you so much."
She moans quietly as her friends keep hugging her.
"So you gonna join us?" Asks Fuchsia. "We'll be the best assistants you could ask for."
"You can count on that too." Says Lavender.
"Mhm." Fuchsia pats Trixie on the side of her arm. "What do you say?"
"Trixie wo- I'd love to..." Sighs Trixie with a wave of warmth traveling through her body. "I'd absolutely love to do stuff with you girls again. I liked it too."
"Aww..." Lavender and Fuchsia hug their leader a little bit tighter.
"One thing, though." Trixie adds. "I'm not, uh, you don't think I'm too obsessed with... myself, do you?" She anxiously waits for them to answer.
Lavender softly chuckles. "Heh, what? Of course not!"
"C'mon, don't kick yourself for being confident." Says Fuchsia with a smirk. "Loving yourself is totally fine."
"That's one of the things we really like about you, Trixie." Lavender says. "You're confident and you really know to love yourself. We know the real you, and she's amazing. She's powerful and great."
Trixie forces a quick little giggle. "So..." She trails off for her friends to say something.
"So..."
"Heh, so... you gonna be okay?"
Trixie closes her eyes and tilts her head towards the floor.
"Well..." She begins. "I guess I will now."
The other two 'aww' again, laughing together with Trixie for a brief moment as the mood lightens.
"Hey now, if you love yourself, then we sure love you just as much, Trixie." Proclaims Fuchsia. "And if you have times when you don't so much, we'll keep loving you until things get better."
"You bet!" Agrees Lavender.
"Are you sure you're okay with everyone thinking that we're... you know." Asks Trixie.
"Well now that we've been wording it that way..." Fuchsia begins to blush as Lavender's eyes dart around the room. "Well, it could be interpreted that way, sure."
"It was a love letter." Lavender points out. "But hey, it'll just be a silly rumor at best. We're still doing this save for you, and ya can't stop us!"
"You mean it?" Trixie's pupils dilate.
"Best assistants you can ask for, right?" Lavender turns to Fuchsia.
Fuchsia nods in response with certainty.
The three snuggle together playfully for the next few minutes before getting up and going to Trixie's house together to start to plan how they're going to attack the talent show.
~
Valentine's Day has arrived.
Fuchsia and Lavender had entered school early today. They felt as though there was something they needed to let everyone know. They manage to make eyebrows rise from what they have to say.
Some say “oh, that’s so sweet!” and others say “wait, really?” with an awkward blush of confusion.
Word spreads quickly; the more students enter, the faster it gets around. Trixie’s name is mentioned throughout all of the school hallways, and those of her friends are right there with hers.
A rare occurrence: Trixie sheepishly walks up to the school and tries to draw as little attention as possible. Wondering why everyone is smiling and waving at her. They seem so unusually friendly. It takes her a second to process this.
She walks through the doors.
Through the doors and straight into the arms of the greatest assistants she’s ever had. This is followed by a chorus of cheers and clapping from all of the students, as though the three were on stage once more.
Her smile is a wide as a cantaloupe, her cheeks turn a rosy red with joy while she proudly walks down the main hallway surrounded by classmates cheering her on and congratulating her. It’s clear what a number of them are thinking, but Trixie just happily basks in the presence of her Illusions.
Her closest friends locks arms with her, almost like they’re pretending the hallway floor is the Yellow Brick Road. This lasts the whole day; the entire school finding out who Trixie’s secret admirers were. All of the dreading Trixie had done leading up to this day has faded away.
Her friends stay by her side, helping her keep the loneliness at bay. They’re going to be together like this for a while.
The End.
Author's Note
Apologies if this sequel to "Trixie's Valentine" turned out to be another one of those sappy Valentine's Day stories. This short story was mainly to get me warmed up for writing a longer but entirely different story that will be a sequel to this one and that I will begin working on soon. I've been writing a lot of other stories that I don't enjoy creating at all lately, and I've been told that I should consider worrying about writing for myself and what I enjoy or really feel within me, so I'm going to do just that up next.
Finally, I want to say that this story and the next one coming are both very very heavily inspired by Uotapo's recent Trixie And The Illusions art. https://derpibooru.org/1627315
(And the rest of the set that came with it.)
