Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The first thing I heard as I gained consciousness was the sound of my best friend crying on the floor. Slowly, I opened my eyes, and saw my three other friends standing around the hospital bed that I was trapped in. They were all staring at Sunny, whose face was covered in tears. It took me a few seconds, but I came to realize what just happened. Sunny told them.

I was jolted out of my thoughts by a loud sound. I opened my eyes all the way and hear Aubrey yell. “You… you fucking psycopaths! How could you do that to her!” Aubrey clenches her fists and grits her teeth. She steps towards Sunny, defenseless on the ground. She stares at his face, covered in tears, before she realizes that she herself is crying. After a moment of hesitation, she slams the door to the hospital room wide open, and then escapes down the halls.

Kel is the next to act. He takes a few steps forwards as if he intends to pursue Aubrey, but stops short of the door. Kel glances back at Sunny. Kel is frowning, which makes me think about how I’ve rarely seen him without a smile on his face. He was the only one I was able to talk to in any friendly way over the past four years, although we stopped really talking after about 2 years.

Kel turns around to see Sunny. 

He stops for a second, just a second, before he walks over, and hugs Sunny on the ground. “It’s… it’s okay sunny, I’ll forgive you. You’ll always be my best friend.”

The four people in the room remain silent for almost a whole minute. Hero seems deep in thought. I don’t think anyone’s realized that I’m awake.

Hero calmly walks towards the door. “I need a bit to think about this.”

Hero gently opens the door and leaves. Kel breaks away from Sunny shortly after. “Hey uh… sorry to do this to you, but I should probably go help him out, he seems a little upset. Seeya… Sunny.” Kel quickly follows Hero out of the room.

Sunny doesn’t leave the floor or the room. He stops crying, but he doesn’t get up. Not even 10 minutes after I woke up, I end up falling back asleep. That was certainly eventful.

I had to stay in the hospital for three weeks after I got in. I don’t remember all the details of that night, it was really blurry to me… but according to the doctors, after I had stabbed Sunny’s eye out, I had proceeded to stab myself in the stomach. They would’ve been able to let me out after 1 week, but psychological evaluation certainly took up some time.

They didn’t tell me when Sunny was released. I’m pretty sure he was let out before me because his only significant injury was to his eye. He lost it, but there were no other complications.

I was sitting in my bed, waiting to be released, when a nurse entered my room, with Polly close behind. After some boring clinical talk, they let me go back home.

One Week Since Release

I was doing… okay back at home.

I made a point to leave the house at least once every day, even if it was just to go check on my flowers that were in front of the house. One of these days, I decided to stop by the park and ran into Kel. We made some small talk (which was really hard, but I did at least a little! Baby steps!) and then moved on to a more serious topic… how everyone was doing.

 Apparently, Aubrey and Hero definitely haven’t been taking things well. Kel says that Aubrey has only gotten angrier, and lashed out at him. He showed me a pretty big bruise he got. I wasn’t sure what to say.

Hero was back into his catatonic state from after Mari’s death. He still occasionally got out of bed to cook, and he was keeping up with studies, but he spent all of his free time in bed, thinking. I felt bad for him, but then I thought about how I was pretty much solely responsible for that. At that point, I tried to weasel out of the conversation. Kel caught on to what I was doing. He didn’t want me to go, but he let me off anyways.

I haven’t ran into Aubrey at all. I really hope I don’t, because she might bash my skull in with her bat. And I will deserve it.

But even with all of these things happening around me, I felt like life was getting… boring. Other than the day I talked with Kel, each day was basically the same. So I decided to start something new.

It had been a while since I bought a new planter. I could fill it with nice flowers, something good for autumn, since that was coming up rather soon.

I looked around my room, and saw that there was no space for a planter box. I checked outside, and there was no room on my shelves. I could put it just in the driveway, but that would be dangerous. The driveway rarely gets used, but just the idea that someone could run over my flowers made me sad.

I got a little anxious thinking about this. If I didn’t have any safe spaces to plant these flowers, then what would I do until school starts again?

School. Still 5 weeks until we go back. I really don’t want to.

Well, it almost physically hurt me to do this, but I decided to buy the planter and the seeds now, and figure out where to put it later. I grabbed my thin wallet, and headed out to Fix-It

It’s a short walk to Fix-It, but the fear that I would run into someone was tearing me up. I didn’t have a reason to be afraid of anyone but Aubrey, really, but it still felt… terrifying. I noticed Kel playing basketball with some of his new friends over at the court, but he didn’t notice me. I was thankful.

The clerk at Fix-It was pretty familiar with me. The shop had plenty of seeds and plants in the back, so it was a frequent stop of mine. I never talked to the clerk for more than maybe… a minute at a time? Despite that, I thought we were pretty good friends. I waved to him on my way in, and then went to the back of the store.

To my surprise, someone else was there. A somewhat tall girl with light blue hair and a pink hoodie was browsing the aisles. Her hoodie had a lighthouse printed on it, and there was a small blonde spot near the top of her head. I passingly thought that she was kind of pretty, and then continued on to the seeds section.

There were plenty of seeds of all types here. I looked for something that blooms in autumn. My eyes stopped as I found chrysanthemums. The most well-known autumn flower. I grabbed a packet for the seeds, and then I started to go look for a planter box.

I turned to the left to walk out of the aisle I was in, then I suddenly felt a sharp pain on my head, and stumbled backwards. I looked up, and realized that I had just bumped into someone.

“A-ah… sorry” I mumbled. It was the girl I saw not two minutes earlier.

“Ah! No, I wasn’t looking where I was going, I’m sorry for that!”

I realized now that I had dropped the seeds. I bent over and picked them up. The girl looked at them. “Oh, chrysanthemums! My name’s Cris, I think my mom mentioned once that she thought about those flowers when she named me.”

“O-oh… I’m… I’m Basil.” I silently facepalmed, upset with my double stutter, which was combined with how slow I was to say my name.

“That’s cute!” She said in a chipper voice. “So uh… do you know a lot about flowers? I’m trying to decorate my room with some flowers but I don’t really know how to take care of them.”

“Yeah… I guess I do… uh, do you want to grow them yourself or do you just want some flowers? I w-wouldn’t buy flowers from a store personally, but if you don’t have a lot of time, it makes sense to by already grown plants.”

“That would make sense… but it’s more fun to grow them yourself! I think! I haven’t exactly done this before.” Cris had a determined look on her face as she said that. I blushed a little. She was cute.

“Well I guess I can help you pick something.” I immediately regretted saying that. I would prefer to get out of the conversation as soon as possible, but at this point I had trapped myself into giving her advice.

“Awesome! So… where to start?”

“So um, first you’re going to need to pick what kind of flower. There are a lot of different types, most of them don’t really make a difference to people but…” I started to blabber on about different types of flowers, their biological differences and how that affected their growth, I went on to talk about why different flowers bloom at different times and… oh shoot. I hadn’t even considered it. There was someone else here, and I was just ranting to myself about flowers.

I suddenly shut myself up, and my face turned a little red. “Oh umm… sorry if I bothered you. I j-just… know a lot about this stuff.”

“No, it’s fine! So based on that…” Cris looked over the seeds. “You mentioned these would bloom in fall, so I guess I’ll take them.” I didn’t see what she took, but it didn’t really matter. I was a little surprised that she actually used my knowledge in her decision, at least if her words were anything to go by. She started to head over to the front of the store.

“A-ah, wait! Unless you have one already, you’ll probably need a um, a pot.”

“Oh shoot, I didn’t even think about that! Thanks!”

Cris turned around and walked back over to me. I took a second to look at her. She was taller than me by about 5 inches. I turned a little red as I looked up at her, then turned around and motioned for her to follow me. I went to the section where pots and planter boxes were stored. I grabbed a simple pot that already had soil in it, and handed it to her. I looked around a little bit and found a planter box similar to the ones where I kept all my other flowers.

Together, we walked up to the front of the store. She checked out first, then I bought my seeds and box.

Once we were outside of the store, she stopped me. “Hey basil, I still don’t really know how to take care of a flower even if I have the seeds and stuff… so maybe tomorrow, we could meet at the park and you could teach me some of that stuff?”

“Um… sure!” I responded, without thinking, despite the pause.

Oh god… I just trapped myself into that, didn’t I. What if Aubrey shows up while I’m talking with Cris? What if Kel shows up and sees me hanging out with someone I’ve never met even though I was avoiding him the other day? This can’t possibly end well.

“Awesome!” Cris’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts. “Well then, I’ll see you tomorrow!”

“Y-yeah…”

Cris turned around and bounced away. She seemed to be pretty happy about these plans.

Well I’m certainly not… I might die tomorrow if Aubrey finds me and she’s in a bad mood.

I started on my way back home. I left for Fix-It pretty late, so the sky was orange with the sunset now. I started to think about Cris, and what I should teach her tomorrow, and my heart felt a little bit warmer.

Maybe this isn’t bad after all.

Wait, is that going to be a date? Did she ask me out? Am I overthinking this?

My face turned red as a tomato. I ran the rest of the way home.

Chapter Text

I got home from Fix-It as the sun was beginning to set. When I opened the door to my little house, I was greeted by my caretaker, Polly.

“Welcome back Basil! You took your time there.”

“Ah… yeah, I met someone at the store.”

“Good to hear you’re talking to people again! 3 Weeks is a long time to be gone. Dinner will be ready in about 5 minutes, so do what you need to do and then we can eat!”

“Alright,” I said, heading to my room. I set the planter box down on the ground in front of one of the tables with other boxes. The placement didn’t look good at all. I would find a place for it soon… maybe Cris could help with that.

I shook my head at this thought. Geez, I’ve only known her for like, half an hour and I’m already thinking about letting her help me organize my room! Slow down Basil!

It was a funny thought. Is this how Sunny felt about Aubrey when we were younger?

Sunny…

Anyways, I proceeded to place the seeds inside of the box, and looked around my room. No good spots for this, as I noticed earlier.

I also had my old flip phone laying on my desk, next to my camera. I got it 3 years ago, for my 13th birthday. I don’t think I’ve used it at all. I also haven’t used my camera in quite a long time. It’s collecting dust.

I went back out to the kitchen, where Polly was setting the table. I pulled out a chair and sat down. Soon afterwards, Polly began to set down the food, and then sat down in the chair opposite me.

Nothing too special for dinner. Soup and biscuits. On the outside it seems bland, but Polly always manages to make bland looking things taste good despite the exterior.

I started eating, and Polly did too. She seemed like she wanted to talk, and I kind of wanted to also, but neither of us knew how to start a conversation. She took the lead anyways.

“So Basil, who did you see at the store today?”

“Oh, um… a girl named Cris. She seems… cool.”

“I don’t think you’ve ever mentioned her before, is she new?”

Of course I haven’t mentioned her, I haven’t really talked to you about my friends at all before, I thought to myself. Polly’s been taking care of me for 2 years now. Better late than never that I start trusting her and talking about stuff like that.

“Yeah, this was my first time seeing her. She was looking to buy some flowers and I gave her some help on what to get.”

“Well that's nice! Did anything else interesting happen?”

“Not really… oh, yeah. She wants to meet me at the park tomorrow so that I can tell her how to take care of her flowers.”

“Really? Sounds like you made a new friend without even thinking about it!” She made a somewhat smug face.

“Haha… I guess.”

After that, we continued to eat in silence. 3 minutes later, I was done. I got up and washed my plate, then walked into my room again, plopping straight on to the bed with my arms spread. I fell asleep soon after.

I woke up to my phone buzzing. I glanced at the clock, 9:30. Wow, I slept for 2 hours, but a phone buzz wakes me up?

That’s odd, though. What’s on my phone?

I sat up and then looked at it. Sure enough, there was a notification. “hello” it read. I quickly responded.

[8:51 PM 2025550181 > You]

2025550181: hello

[9:31 PM]

Basil: Hello? Who is this?

2025550181: sunny

I stared at the screen for a few seconds. It made sense that he would be texting me, but I still didn’t understand. I quickly tapped on the number and added it as a contact, called Sunny. The only other contact I had was Polly.

Basil: This is Basil. How are you doing Sunny?

Sunny: nightmare

Basil: You’re still in the same time zone, right? I don’t think you would be the type to sleep before 8:30.

Sunny: iim vampire

Sunny: sleep day awake nihgt

Basil: Haha, I guess that works.

Sunny: stop using capitals

Sunny: no periods

Sunny: no grammar allowed

Basil: Why not?

Sunny: texting

Basil: Oh, this is my first time ever texting anyone. Sorry?
Sunny: still usign grammar

Sunny: stop

Basil: ok is this better?

Sunny: question mark
Sunny: not allowed
Basil: but it’s a question???

Sunny: angry

Basil: should i just not use any punctuation marks ever

Sunny: actually no 

Sunny: looks wrong

Sunny: go back to grammar

Basil: AAlright? Is this good?

Sunny: better

Sunny: typo is good

Sunny: dont fix those

Basil: Okay, I’ll trust you on that. You seem more experienced here.

Basil: Why don’t you use grammar though?

Sunny: gramma rsucks

Basil: I think it’s helpful, it keeps sentences clear

Sunny: apostraphys

Sunny: no

Basil: Okay.

Basil: Anyways, you said you had a nightmare?

Sunny: oh yeah
Sunny: scary

Sunny: lots and lots of hands

Basil: That does sound like it would be scary.

Sunny: it was

We were both quiet for a few seconds.

Sunny: uhhhhhhh idk what else to say now

Basil: I don’t really either

Sunny: apostrapsoehepea again

Basil: If I’m going to use proper grammar, why should I exclude apostrophes?

Basil: And that’s how it’s spelled, by the way.

Sunny: nerd

Basil: >:I

Sunny: WOAH

Sunny: TEXT EMOJI

Basil: Yeah?? My phone has them.

Sunny: out of character

Sunny: not a basil moment

Basil: A Basil moment?

Sunny: yeah

I didn’t know how to respond to that, so our conversation went silent for about a minute and a half.

[9:57 PM]

Sunny: im tired again now

Sunny: gn

Basil: What is “gn?”

Sunny: good night

Basil: Okay, you have a good night too.

Sunny: i will send you all of the letters in the morning

Sunny: the ones like gn

Sunny: idk the fancy word

Basil: Acronyms you mean?

Sunny: yeah

Sunny: gn for real now

Basil: Gn.

I stared at the screen for a few more seconds, looking over our conversation. I then flipped my phone shut, and slipped under my sheets. 

Wait, how did he get my number? Also, wasn’t he being a vampire? Why did he go back to sleep? If he can’t remember the word “Acronym” how well is he going to do when he gets back into school?

It was something that I would have to ponder tomorrow, because I fell asleep quickly.

In the Morning

I wake up in the morning feeling pretty groggy. I guess I was really tired last night.

Speaking of last night, I immediately checked my phone to see if Sunny had texted me the acronyms he said he was going to send. There was a little symbol showing that I had a message from someone, but it was very unhelpful as it didn’t say who. I could figure out who it was by myself, at least. Not many people texting me lately anyways.

[3:26 AM]

Sunny: ok i woke up early

Sunny: here are the acronyms

Sunny: gm good morning

Sunny: thx thanks
Sunny: lol laugh out loud

Sunny: uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[3:43 AM]

Sunny: wtf what the fuck

[4:21 AM]

Sunny: btw 420 means weed

Sunny: one minute off ;(

Sunny: could you grow weed? not asking you to just curious

[5:59 AM]

Sunny: ig i guess

Sunny: idk i dont know

Sunny: smh shaking my heda

Sunny: head

From the looks of things, he was awake through the night. I made a mental note of the different acronyms and… 420. Certainly, I would have to get used to this texting thing.

[9:41 AM]

Basil: Thank you!

Oh, it’s already past 9:30. I must’ve slept pretty hard…

I almost forgot! I have to meet up with Cris at the park today. Uh… did we specify a time? I don’t think so… I’ll just go down soon with some of the stuff I might need and hope that she didn’t mean to meet up very late.

I had slept in my clothes from yesterday so there was no need to change… actually I probably should anyways. I did that quickly, putting on a simple outfit consisting of khaki pants and a green t-shirt with a sunflower printed on the center. I put my flower in my hair and grabbed my best plant encyclopedia. It’s a heavy book, but it goes over just about everything about gardening. Most of it is about how to actually garden, but it has sections on the history of different styles of gardening, and flower meanings. Surprisingly, gardening has some big history with it. Makes sense. Before I left my room, I quickly grabbed my phone.

Because of um… that night and also the fact there was a new room available for… reasons, Polly had moved into the house now. She’s been taking care of me longer than my actual parents, so it makes sense, and the hospital also wants someone to be close by at all times in case I “try something” again. Anyways, she usually wakes up around 10 o’clock, so I wrote a note to tell her where I was, and then headed off.

The walk to the park was short. I didn’t really know where I would be meeting Cris, so I took a seat on the table to the right of the park entrance. I scanned the area for the signs of anyone I recognized. Nobody. In fact, there were barely any people around, except for the preacher.

Still, it probably wouldn’t be long before Kel showed up. He was always an early bird, he would be up before even Hero at all of our sleepovers. Sunny was quite the opposite, he could stay up as long as he wanted, and he slept very soundly in the mornings. We all thought it was impossible to wake Sunny up, and that he would just have to wake up on his own.

I’ve been in between. I like to be up in the mornings to water my flowers, but the nights are always better for reading. I mix days where I stay up late and days where I wake up early at a pretty good ratio, in my opinion.

My thoughts were disturbed as I noticed Cris was walking down the sidewalk, heading towards the park. I turned and waved to her, and she soon waved back.

After a little bit, she was in the park. She sat opposite me on the table. “Hey Basil! Uh, sorry if you had to wait too long, I realize now that we didn’t really figure out a time.”
“O-oh, no worries. I only got here maybe 10 minutes before you.”

“Phew, okay. Glad I didn’t keep you waiting. Anyways, how are you?”

“Good I guess. I um… talked to one of my friends for the first time in a while.”

“Awesome! Who would that friend be?”

“Sunny…”

“Hm… I think I recognize that name…. Oh! Kel said they were moving away, right? I talked to them before they left.”

“O-ok… wait, you know Kel?”

“Yeah, he goes to my school. We have a class together. I don’t talk to him that much though.”

“Ah, well he’s… one of my friends.”

It felt wrong to call everyone friends still, considering I am still responsible for… just about everything.

“That’s cool! So, to the point. What kind of stuff should I start out doing to take care of my plants?”

“Well, unless you already planted your seeds, that’s probably what you should do first. What did you get?”

“I think they were called… starflowers?”

“Okay…”

I opened up the encyclopedia, and started looking for the flowers. I found them pretty fast.

“Alright… that’s a good choice! 2-3 feet tall, kind of big for a pot, but they work well in autumn. So…”

I went into plant talk mode, starting with watering and fertilizing, talking about how much maintenance the plant needs (not much, usually you can just leave them be), and all other sorts of stuff. I think I went off topic by a fair bit a few times, but Cris didn’t seem to care. Cris actually seemed somewhat entranced by my motormouth, she moved her elbows on to the table and rested her chin in her palms. She quickly asked,

“Hey uh, should I be taking notes right now?”

“Oh! Uh, not really, as long as you remember the general gist… you probably will only need to water the pot once you have the seeds planted. Ah, um… sorry if I was talking for too long.”

“No, it’s fine! It was cute, you look a lot less anxious talking about plants than you do normally.” She smiled.

I blushed a little bit when she called me cute. I didn’t receive a lot of compliments very often.

“U-uh, thank you?”

She giggled a bit at my hesitant thanks.

“Your welcome!”

“Heheh… well I guess that’s all I have to say. I should probably start heading home.”

“No, stay a little longer! I like talking to you.”

My face turned even redder. I was starting to stand up, but I sat back down.

“Uh, I don’t really know what else we can talk about though.”

“Hm… I don’t have as much knowledge about the sea as you do about plants, but I did a little bit of research into it when I was younger. A few books here and there now that I’m older, too.”

“Really? That sounds… neat!”

“Hm, where to start… oh I know! So you know tide pools, right? There are some pretty cool things in there…”

Cris began to go into her own little rant. She started out talking about tide pools and some cool things that could be found in them. She didn’t have a lot to say other than her opinions on the creatures, but at the very least it was nice to hear. I was happy to just hear her talking about something that she liked, and look at her face as she talked. She really was quite beautiful.

She moved on to general ocean life, starting out with sharks…

“Oh yeah, I’m a really good swimmer if you didn’t know! People at my school compare me to a shark sometimes because of that… hey Basil, can you swim at all?”

“Oh, uh. Not really.” I said bluntly.

“Dude, I gotta teach you then!” Her eyes lit up at this, and she slammed her hands on to the table, standing up to look over me.

“A-alright… just know that I really can’t do anything. Like, at all. In the water.”

I thought back to the time I almost drowned when Aubrey pushed me into the lake. That was a really scary moment for me, but I had also submitted myself to death as soon as I went underwater.

“That’s ok Basil! I’ll teach you everything, starting from the very basics.”

“So I g-guess that’s settled… When should we do that?”

“Oh, good question. Um, how about 4 days from now? Wait, no, I’m busy that day… hm… Actually, I don’t really know when I’d be able to do that, since my family has a lot of plans for the next week or so. Could I uh, get your number so that I can text you when I’m available?”

“Uh, yeah, sure!” I flipped open my phone and put in the password, started making a new contact, then handed it to her.

“Wow, this is a pretty old phone now.” She tapped away on my phone, taking a while. I looked down at my lap and twiddled my thumbs, and then I heard a flash. She handed me my phone back.

“Alright, I’m in there now! Ah, give me a second…” She got her phone out of her pocket, a much newer one. She quickly snapped a photo of me while I was looking at my phone. I jumped a little bit and looked up at her. She had a big smile across her face.

“This is a really cute picture! Thank you Basil!”

“Haha… your welcome I guess!”

I looked back down at the contact she added to my phone. The picture she used as the icon was a selfie she took on the spot, she had one eye closed and her tongue sticking out a little bit. It was cute, and now that I think of it, the only picture on my phone at the time. These pictures reminded me of my camera. Maybe I could use it now that I had someone else to take pictures of.

Our conversation had lasted a while, it was 11:00 now, and the park had all of the regulars now (minus Kel, strangely). I stood up from the bench and looked around. I was more than glad that I came here today.

That might change soon , I thought, as my eyes locked with those of a girl with bubblegum pink hair, riding her bike towards the park with her scooter gang close behind.

Chapter Text

My pupils shrank, and I wanted to run. Things had been bad before she learned the truth, and now… I can only imagine things are worse.

Images started flashing through my head of what would happen to me. I vividly pictured being knocked to the ground by a single swing of her bat, and then having my skull cracked open by a golf swing to my head. I could imagine being dragged by my shirt and thrown into the lake, without any chance of being saved this time.

Except the thing was… I had a very good chance of being saved this time. I remembered that Cris was here, just across the table from me.  I looked back to her, and she seemed confused.

“Uh, Basil, everything alright there?”

“O-Oh!! Yeah, I’m, uh, fine.”

“Hm…” She didn’t seem to believe me. I saw her eyes glance over to the swiftly approaching hooligans.

“Oh, sorry I didn’t notice. Yeah, those guys are pretty scary. I haven’t seen them actually hurt anybody, but I hear the rumors.”

“Y-yeah…”

I quickly glanced back at the gang. There was just a crosswalk and a short fence separating me from them. If I was fast, I could just go on the other side of the street and make it back home. Aubrey doesn’t have the photo album anymore, so there’s no reason for me to stay around if they’re coming.

“W-Well, I’m going to head home now! I hope to see you soon!”

“Alright! Stay safe!” Cris responded. She sat back down at the table. I guess she didn’t have anything else to do that day.

Without a second to lose, I quickly got out of the park, and to the crosswalk on the opposite side of the road from the hooligans. As they began to cross, I also crossed the road, avoiding them almost completely.

Aubrey though… noticed this. I looked over at her as she drew her thumb across her neck. Suddenly, I became much more glad that I escaped the park before they got there.

I speed-walked the rest of the way home, and breathed a sigh of relief when I got through the door. There was… a complication, but it was one that I managed to avoid. I had gotten good at avoiding people over the years, for reasons I’m still not happy with myself about. It’s just… easier to run than to face things, so until I really don’t have a choice but to act, I won’t.

I greeted Polly and made my way to my room. It’s time to actually start planting the flowers in my planter box I bought yesterday.

I grabbed the box, along with the seeds, soil, fertilizer, and a trowel. I filled the planter box with soil and an appropriate amount of fertilizer, then patted it down with the trowel. I spaced the seeds out and planted them in the box. It would grow three flowers overall.

With that, I just had to find a place for it. Which was… not easy. I had a thorough dedication to keeping my room clean and organized, so I had to find a good spot for it, not just an okay spot.

There were none. I hate to do it, but I decided to just find a place later.

From there, I put on my gardening gloves, grabbed some other tools, and began to work on my other flowers. First, I went through all of the flowers in my room and around the house, watering them. It’s nearly impossible to get weeds in isolated containers like pots and boxes, so watering and fertilizing is all of the work that needs to be done on indoor plants. I usually manage fertilization about once a week, and today wasn’t a day for that, so I moved outside, with a trowel and a weeder. I looked through all of the flowers outside and found a few weeds, which I quickly removed. From there, I just watered them and that was gardening work done for the day.

I checked the clock, and it was 1:30. I decided to read, and then went over to my bookshelf to look at what I had.

My bookshelf was packed almost entirely full. One shelf was dedicated to non-fiction, and it was split down the middle into plant books and books about other things. The rest of the shelves were for fiction, including a shelf for just crime books. The “crime” genre overall was probably the one thing that I could always enjoy. I had mafia stories, murder mysteries, and all sorts of detective books. I’m still not sure if those all count as their own genre, or if I’m right to classify them all under one umbrella of the “crime” genre, but it worked well enough for me to use that categorization.

I had the Sherlock Holmes books at my eye level, because they were what got me interested in the genre. They weren’t my favorite books, but they had a special meaning to me.

Beneath that, everything was organized by author, except for a set of four books. When I was released from the hospital a week ago, Polly bought me this series. I had already finished the first one, so I grabbed the second, and sat on my bed to start reading.

The book was about a boy and a dragon. Apparently, the boy was destined to be a dragon rider, and he was the last of all the dragon riders, and the dragon was the last of all the dragons. The boy found the dragon in the forest around his village, and took care of it until an old wizard found the boy and the dragon. Then, the three of them took off on a grand adventure, where the boy learned magic and all sorts of cool stuff.

I never really liked fantasy books because they just felt too… fake. I recognize that there’s a lot of effort put into building the worlds, but I always thought that none of them after the Lord of the Rings had their own ideas, and that they just copied Tolkien instead. I also just think that it’s hard to relate to these people who live in a completely different world. I think that’s why I like the crime books so much, because they almost always take place in the real world, without any sort of magic or stuff. It’s all realistic, and it could probably happen, if it didn’t already happen.

Anyways, I shook my head out of my thoughts, and got to reading.

~~~

Just like that, I can snap away 5ish hours of time, because soon afterwards, I heard Polly calling me to dinner. I placed my bookmark on my page, about a third of the way through the somewhat beefy book, which closed with a thump. I went out and took a seat at the table. Dinner today was a steak and some peas. Yet again, simple but delicious.

I cut into the steak and took a bite. I didn’t have very sensitive taste buds, so all I can say is that it was good. Polly also seemed to enjoy it, though that’s a given, since she cooked it.

“So, how’s your day been, Basil?” She asked me.

“Uh, it’s been pretty good! I talked to Cris again, and I read the second book in the series you gave me.”

“Neat! That series was one of my favorites when I was growing up, I hope you like it too.”

“Yeah, I think it’s got some pretty good ideas and stuff, but it just… feels like it’s copying Tolkien. Like, the dwarves are the exact same as in Lord of the Rings. There’s no difference.”

“Well, if it isn’t broken, why fix it?”

“Because… hm.” I hadn’t really thought about that before.

“Well, I just think it feels wrong to be using someone else’s ideas without really changing them at all. In the end, it’ll probably feel a lot like the thing that the idea originally came from, so why wouldn’t somebody just read the original?”

“Hm, that’s a good point… well, I guess a lot of fantasy worlds are the same, but the plot is always different!”

“I guess that makes sense…”

We continued our conversation for a few minutes until I was done with my food. I cleared my plate, and then went back into my room.

I picked up my book off of my bed, and was about to start reading again, until I noticed a notification on my phone, next to my bed.

[6:54]

Cris: heyy basil! im gonna be over in the city for a short vacation from thursday to saturday, so if you’re good with it, i’d like to do our swimming lesson on wednesday!

Seems like she texted me while I was eating. Wednesday was… three days from now.

[7:08]

Basil: Sounds good! Sorry for not responding fast, was eating dinner.

Cris: alr sounds good! dw about that btw

Oh god, I didn’t know what dw or btw meant. What if it was something bad? Was she asking me a question? No, there wasn’t a question mark and I think she would use one if it was a question. Uhhhh, WTF! Right! So btw probably had “the” in the middle and… what at the end? Maybe she was asking a question… oh god I should just ask Sunny, I don’t want her to think I’m stupid.

[7:09]

Basil: sunny sunny sunny what does dw mean

Basil: and btw

No response.

Basil: sunny

Basil: sunny i need your help

Still no response for 2 minutes, until I finally got a text back from him

Sunny: ok ok ok

Sunny: dw is dont worry

Sunny: btw is by the way

Basil: Thank you!!!! You saved my life

Sunny: ok your welcome… yw

Well, I had taken the exact opposite of her advice. At the very least, it wasn’t something that I needed to urgently respond to, so I dodged a bullet. I think. 

I switched back over to the text conversation between Cris and I, to find that it was 7:12. I figured my window to respond was already past, and even if I was faster, I didn’t really know what to say. I flipped my phone shut, and placed it on my nightstand, next to my camera.

I picked my book back up and read on into the night. The dwarves and the elves were working together with the main trio to defeat the forces of the evil king. There was a big battle, where the evil king revealed another dragon that was still alive. The main character fought well and survived, but lost his sword.

I read on until there was about a fifth of the book left, when I put my bookmark between the pages, and then drifted off into sleep.

Chapter Text

The three days leading up to my swimming lesson with Cris went by in the blink of an eye. It wasn’t the first time that a set of 3 days seemed to go by in seconds, but this time, the days felt un-eventful, instead of hyper-packed. I was grateful that I got to have at least one boring day.

I woke up at about 9:45 in the morning on wednesday, and I immediately noticed a notification on my phone.

[9:23]

Cris: theres a little lake hidden behind some bushes over behind the park

Cris: meet me there at 11:00 with swimming stuff

After reading the messages, I put on swimming shorts and a swimming shirt, from when I was younger. They were a little small, but they fit. I put on some light clothing on top of that and went out to the living room to hang around until Polly had breakfast made.

I switched the channel to one of my favorite detective dramas. I preferred reading, but detective shows served as a good way to pass the time. This channel was almost always running some sort of detective show, so it was one that I trusted pretty well to have something worthwhile on it.

At about 10:00, Polly walked out into the living room, wishing me a good morning, then getting to work on breakfast. Polly cooks pretty fast, so after not even half an hour, she called me over to come eat breakfast.

We don’t really talk when we eat in the mornings because there’s nothing to talk about. Last night’s discussion was trapped in last night, and nothing has happened today, so we eat fast in the mornings.

I’ve never really been swimming before, but I heard that it wasn’t a good idea to eat before you got in water, because you would vomit, apparently. That’s okay, I thought, I’ll only be in for a little bit, and I doubt Cris is going to have me do anything fancy.

I glanced at the clock, which told me that it was 10:34. I went back into my room and grabbed my phone, sitting next to my dusty camera. On a whim, I decided to grab the camera too.

“Alright, I’m off!” I called out to Polly.

“Be home by six!” She responded.

“I don’t think it’ll take that long, but ok!”

After that short exchange, I walked out the door, to the sun blazing in my eyes. I brought up an arm to shield myself, and then started down the street towards the old hangout spot. Although… Cris wasn’t aware of the meaning that little lake had to me.

Hm… on that thought, did it count as a lake? I don’t really know what else I could call it. It’s definitely too big to be a pond, but aren’t lakes like, really big? Maybe Cris would know, she does seem to know a lot about water and stuff. Although I guess that wouldn’t be her area of expertise…

I was walking on autopilot as I got lost in my thoughts, when I was snapped out as I reached a crosswalk. I looked both ways and crossed, then quickly made the rest of the way to the park.

No Kel today , I took note of, as I passed through the park.

I cleared away the branches and bushes to make my way over to the old hideout spot.

It looked... similar, but not the same. The biggest difference I could note from my childhood was the color of the picnic basket and blanket, and also, the girl with bright blue hair standing on the dock.

Cris probably heard me shuffling through the foliage, because she turned around once I was done with my thoughts. She was wearing cargo shorts and knee-high white socks, along with a white t-shirt that had red trims. Her hair was the same as normal, reaching down to halfway between her shoulders and her elbows.

I guess I’m lucky that someone this pretty happened to take a liking to me, I thought. Well, I don’t know if she’s really, 100% taken a liking to me, but I wasn’t well versed in this whole romance thing, so I figured it was a good guess.

She waved me over  to the dock that reached into the lake. I had already taken off my normal clothes so I was just in my swimming gear, but I still had my camera.

“Heya Basil! How’re you doing?”

“I-I’m, doing good!!” I responded.

“Me too! I’m glad to see you again, it’s been a little bit. So, let's get to it! Uh, just to get used to the water, you should probably dip your toes in a little bit. It’s been really sunny lately, so the water won’t be that cold.”

“Ok!”

I did as she said, and sat down on the dock, dipping my toes in the water. My foot caused a small ripple in the water, and I recoiled from the sheer cold. After some hesitation, I put both of my feet in, and tried to get used to the cold. Cris sat down cross-legged next to me.

“So uh, I don’t plan on getting in at all today, but if you start drowning I’ll be ready to save you. Also, um, should probably set down your camera.”

“Oh, uh, yeah! First though, hehe…”

I held the camera out in front of me and leaned on Cris’s shoulder, before snapping a photo.

“It’s been a while since I’ve used this camera. Good to be making new memories!”

“Yeah!”

I waited for the camera to print out the photo that I took. After a few seconds, it made some mechanical sounds, and rolled out the picture. I set the picture down underneath the camera, which I set down behind me.

“So, you think you’re ready to go now?”

“Um, sure!” I declared.

I lifted myself up by pressing down on the dock, and then inched slowly forwards into the water. The cold began to slowly consume me, first my shins, then my knees, and then my thighs. I kept one hand on the dock, and jumped the rest of the way in, plunging my body in the cold.

I panicked for a second, but I still had my hand on the planks of the dock. I was very incompetent at swimming, so I just held on to the dock, kicked my legs a little bit, and did nothing else. Cris began to instruct me.

“Alright, so the first thing you need to do is just tread the water. Make your hands flat and keep your fingers together, then start moving them back and forth to help keep yourself up.”

I did as she said, and began to feel myself move up a little bit.

“Alright, if you’re confident with that, then take your hand off the dock and try to just float like that on your own. Should be pretty easy, since humans naturally float.”

I hesitantly released my grip on the dock, and began to tread the water on my own.

“Alright, that’s good! So um, I guess… just keep doing that for a minute or two!”

I continued to tread the water in silence for a minute. The silence felt… strange. Cris noticed too.

“Well, uh, I guess this is a little awkward.” She said.

She seemed a little nervous for a second, and then asked me a question.

“So uh, once we’re done with this, do you think we could head over to Gino’s? Well, if you dry off first.”

“That, uh, sounds good to me! I’ll tell Polly when I get back.”

“Awesome! Um, who’s Polly though?”

“She’s my… caretaker. My parents aren’t around that often, so she usually cooks meals and everything.”

“That’s neat!”

“Y-Yeah, I guess i-it is!”

“Anyways, you’ve been treading long enough now, I think you’ve got the hang of it. So first, you’re going to want to move so that your back is facing the sun, then lift your arms above the water and…”

She started to tell me how to swim. Some simple techniques, just for moving around in the water.

About an Hour Later

After an hour of teaching, I was back at the dock, treading water next to Cris, who was still completely dry, despite all of my splashing.

“Alright, I think that’s good for today! You’ll get the hang of it!”

She reached her hand down into the lake to pull me up. I grabbed her hand and a part of the dock, then pulled myself up. Once I was up, I sat down cross-legged on the dock right next to her, but not close enough to get her clothes wet. I realized that she hadn’t let go of my hand.

She set my hand down between the two of us, still holding on to it, and began to talk.

“So, do you think we could do this at the same time next week? It’s fun!”

“Th-that sounds good to me!” I said, blushing.

“I look forward to it!” She stood up, and helped me stand up too.

“So, I’ll walk you home and you can go dry off, and then we can head on down to Gino’s!”

She pulled me along by the arm, sneaking through the foliage to get out of the park after I grabbed my things. As normal, I glanced around the area, and neither Kel nor Aubrey was there.

“You lead the way from here!” Cris said.

“O-okay…” Was she going to be holding my hand all the way until I got home?

She did, in fact, hold my hand all the way home. I led the way to my somewhat small house on the south-most street of Faraway. When we turned left on to the correct street she chuckled a bit, then pointed out my house.

“I’d guess that one’s yours?”

“Hehe, it is! How’d you know?” I said sarcastically.

She let go of my hand when we got to the door. I knocked on it twice, then walked in.

“Polly! I’m back!” I called out.

Polly was sitting on the couch, reading. She wore a simple pair of reading glasses.

“Oh, welcome back Basil!”

Shortly after, Cris walked in behind me and greeted herself.

“Hi Polly, I’m Cris, one of Basil’s friends!”

“Ah! Nice to meet you Cris, he’s been talking about you!” I turned a little red.

“Haha… um, anyways, would you mind if I took Basil to Gino’s for lunch?”

“Of course not, sweetie! I’m glad that he’s getting out of the house.”

After this, I went into the bathroom and grabbed a towel, then dried myself off, and changed into a normal outfit. I put on blue jeans and a simple grey-ish green shirt on.

I walked back out to the living room to find Cris sitting next to Polly on the couch, watching the show that was on. Apparently Polly hadn’t changed the channel since this morning, since it was still the same show. I sat down next to Cris, and joined her in watching the show.

I set my hand down on the couch next to me, and Cris placed her hand over mine again. We both turned towards each other. She tilted her head and gave me a smile. I smiled back.

After a few minutes of sitting together on the couch, Cris stood up.

“Alright, let’s go down to Gino’s now!”

“Ok!” A smile was across my face. As we walked down to Gino’s, the smile stayed.

We entered the parking lot of Gino's, when suddenly I got a little scared. The hooligans frequented the place, so what if they were there? There wouldn’t be a way to get around them…

Before I had time to come up with a plan, Cris had pulled me along and opened the door. We walked up to the counter and got in line. There was only one other person in line. Kel.

The clerk walked up to the counter with a bag in his hands, and handed it to Kel. Kel took the bag and gave him five dollars in exchange, and then turned around. A look of surprise flashed across his face as he saw me.

“Woah! Basil! What’re you doing here! Oh, you too Cris!”

“U-Um… just getting something to eat,” I responded

“Yup!” Cris added on.

“Wait, together? I didn’t know you guys knew each other!”

“I only met Basil a few days ago! He’s cute!” My cheeks turned red.

“Well, that’s cool! I gotta get home now, before this sandwich gets cold!” he said.

“Alright, seeya around!” Cris responded.

Kel left with his sandwich, and began to walk down the Sidewalk.

I’ve known Kel for a long time. He’s not the brightest when it comes to school, but he’s observant, and he at least thinks he has a good understanding of people. He probably wanted to talk to me, but I’m sure he decided to let me have my, um… well, date, I guess.

Chapter Text

Cris moved forwards to the counter, and after quickly looking through the menu, she turned around to me.

“Are you alright if I just order a small cheese pizza for us to share?”

“Th-that sounds good!”

She ordered the pizza quickly, then moved over to a table. I sat down across from her.

“So, you do anything lately? Other than today, of course?”

“N-no, not really… just taking care of my plants.”

“Nice! How many plants do you have, anyways?”

“I don’t really know the exact count… I think around 40? Probably a-a little more...”

“That’s a lot! I guess you did have a lot of shelves full of planters outside.”

“D-do you have anything cool?”

“Hm… oh, I have a few medals from swimming meets that I won! I don’t really show them off, though. And I don’t think they’re as cool as your flowers.”

“Hehe, thank you! They take… well not a lot of work to maintain… but they aren’t easy!”

“Yeah, I guess it’s different when you have a lot of them.”

“Definitely! I also have to worry about weeds and bugs.”

“That does sound like it would be difficult…”
We sat in silence for a few seconds.

“U-um, you mentioned you’re going to be gone to the city? Uh, do y-you mean… Nearaby?"

“Yeah! I have some family over there, so my mom wanted us to visit soon.”

“O-oh… that’s, neat!”

Sunny had moved to Nearaby. I don’t know why I was surprised that was the city she was visiting. There aren’t a lot of cities near Faraway, and Nearaby is the biggest one. On that note, I’m not sure why I was nervous at all about this. It’s a big city, she probably wouldn’t see him, and it’s not me seeing him. Wait, why am I nervous to see him?

Cris’s voice snapped me back to reality.

“Have you ever been there before? This is actually going to be my first time over there, so I don’t know what to expect.”

“N-no, I’ve never been… actually, I don’t think I’ve ever been that far out of Faraway before. The f-furthest I’ve been is probably over to the high school in Medistance…”

“Oh, you go to MS High too?”

“U-uh, yeah!”

“That’s great! When we get our schedules for next year, we should see if we have any classes together! You’ll be a junior next year, right?”

“Y-yeah… what classes are you taking?”

“I think I’m in English 5-6, US History, AP Biology, and Trig/Pre-Calc. My electives are… PE and Psychology, and then I have a free period.”

“Hm… W-we have AP Bio and English 5-6 in common. I hope that we’re in the same periods for those!”

“Hopefully! What electives did you take, Basil?”

“W-Well, I took Home Ec, Health because I need the credit from it, and then I also have a free period! I’m hoping to get it for seventh, because then I can go home early and take care of all my plants.”

“Those are good choices! I was hoping to get it for fifth period, so that I can have more time  for lunch. God, lunch always feels so short! They should make it longer.”

“Haha… yeah…”

“What do you usually do during lunch, Basil? I don’t think I’ve seen you around school before, like, at all.”

“O-oh, I have a pretty good secret spot that I usually eat at. It’s just me…”

“Dude, when we get back in school you should come sit with me and my friends! I’m sure they’ll be welcoming!”

“Really? Th-that sounds great! U-um, where do you usually sit?”

“We sit in the courtyard, in the uh… the corner that’s next to the 300’s entrance. Oh! Last year, the jazz band had a performance in the courtyard and it was pretty cool. If they do it again this year, you gotta be there with us for it! It was a pretty good performance!”

“O-oh, the jazz band… I haven’t heard our school’s band play other than during assemblies… they aren’t really that good, are they?”

“Heh, I guess the main band isn’t. For real though, the jazz band is good! They’re also like, a fourth of the size though, so I guess there are less people to make mistakes.”

“W… Wouldn’t having less people make it harder? Because if one person makes a mistake, then it’s much easier to hear, right?”

“Well… I guess, but that would just mean that they have to practice harder! In a bigger band, if someone messes up, then the director might not notice because they were harder to hear, so they probably make more mistakes overall in larger bands.”

“That’s t-true, yeah…”

“Hmm… do you know anyone in the band?”

“N-no… I uhh, know someone who used to be in orchestra, but they quit…”

“Aw, that’s sad. I think it would be fun to play an instrument! I don’t have any time to practice though, to be honest. Well, at least not during the school year. I have plenty of time to do whatever right now!”

“Yeah, there’s a lot of time on our hands…”

I’d like to spend a lot more of it with Cris.

“Oh yeah, about that, do you have anything else to do today? I was thinking maybe you could come over to my house! I know, a lot of stuff happening, but it;ll be fun!”

“...That sounds g-good!”

“Alright! It’s a plan, then!”

Conveniently timed, our pizza was now done and served. We began to eat.

I ate two slices and Cris managed to eat three. She picked up the box and began walking out, motioning for me to follow her. I stretched my arms and legs as I stood up from my seat, and then caught up with her.

I started to walk side-by-side with her. She walked a little faster than me, but it wasn’t hard for me to keep pace. She grabbed my hand as we left the parking lot. I got a little red, but at this point, I was used to holding her hand. 

I was told by my friends that I usually had cold hands. Cris’s hand felt warm in mine.

“Y’know Basil, you’re really cute,” She said.

Not only my face, but I think my whole body turned red. I wanted to say something, but I was at a loss for words. She gave me a smile to show that I didn’t need to respond. I felt really warm and fuzzy inside. Is this how Hero and Mari felt? ...And with just that thought, the fuzzy feeling in my stomach was replaced with a pit.

After a little more walking, she crossed the street at the second crosswalk of the T-intersection. We walked south for about a minute and then she walked right when we got to the intersection. Suddenly, my heart started to beat a little faster for two reasons: One, I remembered the fact that I was going to be in Cris’s house on our second… date? She also called me cute earlier… the fuzzy feeling returned to my chest. Two, Kel lived on this street, and Sunny used to live on it too… I still get a little anxious when I see that house. A lot of good memories and one really bad memory. Fuzzy feeling is gone again.

Luckily though, Cris pointed out her house, which was the second one on the block. There weren’t any houses past Sunny’s anyways, but I was still glad that we wouldn’t have to pass by it.

Cris’s house was pretty simple. It had a nice blue roof and white walls, and some bushes out front. Bushes weren’t really my specialty, but I at least knew some things about them, and I could trim them to make good hedges. Cris was neighbors with Kel, and someone that I didn’t know. I did, however, see a scooter parked outside of their house, so I assumed it was a member of the scooter gang.

Cris opened the door to her house to reveal an equally simple exterior. I noticed a man that I assumed to be her father sitting on the couch, watching TV. She said hello to him, then motioned for me to follow her upstairs. I walk up and she brings me to her room, on the right. As with seemingly the entire house, it’s a very humble and simple room. I see her flower pot, with no visible plant yet, but I know that there’s a seed in it that will soon turn into a beautiful flower. There’s also one thing that surprises me: she has a small aquarium! I’d estimate the dimensions to be about 1x2x1 feet. There are some simple decorations in it, like seaweed and a little hollowed out log, and there are a few small fish populating it. Cris notices that I’m looking at the aquarium.

“Oh, that! I got that pretty recently with some money I made doing some part time jobs. I want a few more decorations for it though…”

An idea strikes my head. I’ve wanted to grow a water flower for a long time, and this seems like a great opportunity.

“M-maybe I c-could try growing a, um… a lily pad for it?”

Cris’s eyes light up immediately at the idea. “That would be great! Good idea Basil!”

The warm, fuzzy feeling from earlier returns to my body. “Th-thanks! I’ll uh, look for some later… it shouldn’t be too hard to grow them, but th-they need some special stuff. I’ll work on it though!”

“Awesome, awesome! So, anyways… uh… what were we gonna do again?”

“U-um…”

It seems both of our minds had blanked on what we were going to do.

Cris flopped down on her bed, and I sat down cross-legged on the floor.

“Hmm…” she seemed deep in thought. “What do you normally do to pass your time? I don’t think that taking care of plants would take a whole day.”

“I-I usually just read books on the couch or…” I was about to add “hang out with my friends” but I realized that it was something that… I didn’t exactly do that much anymore.

“... sometimes I help Polly cook. I a-also occasionally go to the park and read over there.”

“Sounds nice! Usually I’ll just text my friends or go hang out at the park… honestly, summer is kinda boring for me because there’s no school. Even if it’s stressful, at least school is something to pass the time.”

“Yeah… I-I feel that too… I’m glad that I can spend this time with you, though!”

At this, I saw a rare sight: Cris was blushing, instead of me.

“Oh, that’s so sweet! You’re really nice Basil, I’m glad I can spend time with you too!”

And immediately the blush was passed back to me.

“Th-th-thanks!”

We sat in silence for a few minutes. Cris then stood up from her bed, and sat down on the floor next to me, brushing up against my shoulder. 

“Do we really have to do anything right now? I’m happy to just sit here with you.”

“M-me t-too…”

I began to lean on her shoulder. She reached an arm around me, placing it on my shoulder. 

I’d be happy to just stay like this for a few hours, if not forever, I thought. I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

Chapter Text

I woke up very slowly from a long nap. I was curled up on the ground, with my head resting on somebody else. As I began to boot up, I recalled that I had fallen asleep on Cris’s shoulder, and I could feel my phone buzzing in my pocket.

I stretched my arms far above my head as I rose up to sit straight. Cris was looking at her phone, texting someone whose name I didn’t recognize. She wrapped her arm around me now that I wasn’t resting on her shoulder, and I drew my phone out of my pocket to check who was messaging me.

[4:42 PM 2025550453 > You]

2025550453: hey bro

2025550453: hey basil its kel sunny gave me your number

2025550453: basil

I shook my head a little bit to make sure I was seeing right, and it definitely was Kel. I quickly tapped on his number and added him to my contacts, without a picture.

[4:44 PM]

Basil: Hi Kel!!!

Kel: yoooooooooo

Kel: ok ok i was wondering

Kel: maybe in 2 days would you be down to meet up at hobbeez?

Kel: its been a while since weve actually talked so we should do hat

Anxiety washed over me. What if he asked about that day? What if he hated me for what happened? My finger hovered over the letter N, when I felt a nudge in my side.

Cris turned to face me.

“You should totally go! I don’t know how close you two are, but he’s a really nice guy!”

“Y-yeah… I’ve known him since… third grade I think… but some stuff happened lately so it’s hard to talk to all my old friends…”

“Aw… wait, third grade? You’ve known him way longer than me!”

“I-I guess… wait, how long have you kn-known Kel?”

“Well, we met in 8th grade. Oh! You probably know already, but Kel and I used to be dating. We decided later that we were happier as just friends, though.”

“R-Really? I-I guess I can see that…”

Now that I thought of it, Kel does have some of Hero’s charm. I don’t think he’s dating anyone right now, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he was.

“Well, I’ll uh, agree to this then.”

Basil: Sounds good! What time?

Kel: uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh high noon

Basil: High noon specifically?

Kel: yknow like 12 AM

Basil: That’s midnight.

Kel: ugggghh you know what i mean just meat me there

I decided not to comment on his usage of “meat” instead of “meet.” It seems Cris was paying attention to our conversation, because she giggled a little bit after Kel’s text was sent. I closed my phone now that the plan was made, and then snuggled back up on Cris’s shoulder. The friend she was texting was named Emily. They were talking about their upcoming classes for the new school year. I started to drift off to sleep, but Cris shook me to keep me up.

“Hey, probably shouldn’t fall asleep again. Polly said you needed to be back by 6:00, right?”

“Yeah…”

“Hm… well, we don’t really have anything we can do here. You ready to go back home now?”

I nodded my head and then stood up, my joints creaking from being on the ground so long. Cris stood up quicker than me, and lent a hand to pull me up.

From there, we both put our shoes back on. Cris waved to her parents as we walked out the front door, and then she walked with me all the way to my door. “See you when I get back!” she said, waving goodbye. I waved back, and then entered my home.

As I walked through the door, Polly greeted me. 

“Welcome back Basil! You sure took your time.”

“Hi Polly! I guess I kinda did, hehe...”

“Dinner will be ready in about an hour!”

“Alright!”

I head to my room and flop onto my bed. I get my phone out and begin typing.

[5:11 PM You > Sunny]

Basil: You gave Kel my number?

Basil: Also I forgot to ask, how did you get my number in the first place?

I stared at the screen for a few minutes without a response. I didn’t expect one very soon, so I grabbed a book off of my shelf and began to read.

I had been reading for about 20 minutes when I saw my phone shaking on my night stand. I placed my bookmark and then looked at the message.

[5:35 PM]

Sunny: ,magician

Sunny: never reveal secrets
Sunny: also yeah he was being rly annoying about it so i gave him ur number

Basil: That’s fine!

Sunny: he said u were on a date with his ex
Sunny: basil this could be ascandal i need to make sure this is not true

Basil: It is true but I’m pretty sure they broke up on good terms?

Sunny: interesting

Sunny: still scandal

Sunny: also i cant believe ur straight

Basil: You are too??

Sunny: evidence

Basil: You used to have a crush on Aubrey and I’m not sure that’s gone away.

Sunny: u win

Sunny: btw is aubrey nice to u now

Basil: Not really. I think the truth made her hate me again.

Sunny: ???????

Sunny: i still text her occasionally and she isnt mad at me

I stared at the screen for a few more seconds. We were getting into a topic that I’m not entirely comfortable talking about. At the very least, Sunny is the only person that I can talk to about this. I’ll just steel my nerves and talk with him, even if I can’t discuss this with anyone else, really.

Basil: You made a mistake. I made a calculated decision. It would make sense for her to not see us as the same.

Sunny: well

Sunny: still rude

Sunny: will tell her to be nice to u

Basil: Thanks…

Sunny: why u type in the pause

Basil: Because it makes sense!!

Sunny: anyways

Sunny: dont lose ur virginity b4 me

Basil: Shut the fuck up

Sunny: WOAH

Sunny: BASIL SWEAR

Sunny: WHAT WHAT HWAT WHAT

Basil: I’m almost a junior in high school, you know.

There was a pause for about a minute. I thought that maybe I shouldn’t have sworn, but then Sunny responded.

Sunny: ugghghghgh

Sunny: education

Basil: Oh… how far behind are you?

Sunny: i will graduate one year later

Sunny: but i have to do a lot of stuff over this summer and also next summer

Sunny: pain

Basil: That must suck.

Sunny: i tdoes

Sunny: hm

Sunny: 4 weeks until school again

Sunny: i visit in 3 weeks?

Basil: You’d be coming to faraway?

Sunny: yes

After yet another short pause, I respond.

Basil: sounds good

Sunny: are u sure

Sunny: u didnt capital or period that

Basil: Yes, I’m sure.

Sunny: it will be ok

Sunny: i promise

Basil: Thank you

Sunny: … ima talk to aubrey now

Basil: 1. You typed out a pause too!!! 2. What happened to your anxiety

Sunny: ran out of it

Sunny: anxiety well is dry, still occasionally rains tho

Basil: I see.

~~~

[5:57 PM You > aubey]

snuy: are u still bullying basil

snuy: dont do that

aubey: no?

snuy: he says he thinks you hate him again

aubey: ohhhh ok ok

aubey: yeah still do

aubey: i’m not gonna actually hurt him tho so don’t worry about that

snuy: do not hurt flower man >:I

aubey: i literally will not

snuy: distrust

aubey: i’m not listening to you anymore

snuy: raage