You had no idea how much Arden agreed with that last sentiment. Or, at least, had been raised to do so.

"It's good," she said. "But it's hard. Which is one of the things Ellie and I talked about when we were talking about that grandmother." As opposed to the other one, who also sounded pretty awful, but mostly in a generational-trauma-fucks-us-all kind of way. "Family is...very complicated."

Unconsciously, the fingers of her left hand came down and brushed over her inner right elbow, where there were three odd-looking scars descending from the crease, and when she realized they had, they slid to touch something tucked into her tanktop before her hand fell back to her side again.

"Manages to be complicated even when you don't have a family to begin with," she said with dry humor.