Chapter Text
“I have to tell you something.” None would’ve expected nor believed the revelation that came after and to be completely honest I’m still having problems processing all of it. A couple months have passed since that fateful day in the hospital, Sunny left Faraway town the day after he was allowed to leave the hospital. I’ve known near to nothing about him, none of us really did.
That whole situation was just too much, the accident and especially what they did afterwards… Everything felt so surreal and yet it made perfect sense, explaining every little doubt we had about what happened to Mari, but that doesn’t mean it's not horrifying.
Before I could dive any further in my thoughts, a familiar voice pulled my mind back to earth, snapping me from the debate taking place in my head.
“Hey Aubrey, whatcha thinkin’ about?” Kel asked lightheartedly “You spaced out there for a moment.”
“Oh, it’s nothing Kel.” I said, slightly surprised.
I’ve been hanging around with Kel a lot more since the truth, although it's more like he just tags along whenever I hang out with my gang, maybe trying to keep what’s left of the group together.
“Let’s just finish this game.” We were playing Monopoly at his house, Vance and Kim were also playing but they quickly went bankrupt and started playing cards waiting as we finished this round, the rest of the Hooligans joining in other games, except Mikael who insisted in, and I quote ‘Narrating the events of this once in a lifetime tournament of power.’
It was surprising that Kel wasn’t the first one to lose, he wasn’t that much of a fan of board games. “...Even though we both know I’m gonna win in the end.” I teased, picking up a friendly fight.
“¡Hey! I’m not that bad at this.” He defended pretending to be mad.
“Is that so?” I pushed a little more “Then let’s see if you can win this.” and that's how, with only two sentences, a friendly game of Monopoly suddenly became a matter of life and death.
“Oh, you are on to a fight!” Kel competitively let his voice echo all around the room, we both couldn’t help but laugh. I almost never tell him, but I missed having him around.
The rest of the evening went as expected, Kel and I fiercely fighting to see who could cause the other to fall to a fake economic disgrace, it was tough but it was sentenced at the very moment he picked up a Chance card that made him advance to the nearest Railroad and pay twice the price, unfortunately for him, I owned all 4 of them.
“Dammit! I was so close!” Kel said frustrated.
“Better luck next time Kel.” I winked at him teasingly, my way of celebrating this small victory, he didn’t pay attention to it though and quickly changed the topic.
“¡Hey guys!” he called, drawing the attention of everyone in the room, “Do you wanna order some pizza from Gino’s?” Everyone’s eyes, mine included, lighted up as a wave of affirmative responses commenced to overwhelm the otherwise calm place that was Kel’s house. “Alright! So… it would be two big pizzas for us…2, 4, 7?”
“There’s no way that’s enough with you in here Kel.” I was quick to point out laughing, my friends being quick to follow.
“What is that supposed to mean?” Kel’s face was priceless, he wasn’t annoyed by any means, he was just going with the flow of things saying just what I needed to clarify my point.
“I’m just saying that last time we ordered pizza you ate an entire pizza yourself.”
“Oh, right.” He stood there for a while letting us wonder if I actually broke him. Just as I was about to ask him if he was alright he excitedly announced, “Then two big pizzas and one medium one for me!” To be fair, that sounded like a plausible solution so I'll give him credit for it.
“That sounds much better but you’ll have to pay for the extra pizza.”
“Aw man...” He sighed.
After a while, we decided to order the classic pepperoni pizza, simple but delicious. After a while, the delivery arrived and Kel rushed out of the room after grabbing the cash we left for the pizza to open the door. After a short while he came back with the same enthusiasm screaming at the top of his lungs, “Ayo the pizza here!” Everyone laughed as his cheerful voice welcomed us to grab a slice.
“Do you really have to crack the same joke every time we order pizza?”I asked sarcastically standing up to get something to drink.
“Everyone laughed, right?”
“Fair enough. Does anyone else want a drink?”
“Some good ol’ Orange Joe please-” much to Kel’s surprise, the sugary orange-flavored drink was already there. “Oh, thanks Aubrey!” I still couldn’t believe he still was a fan of that disgustingly sweet beverage but I have given up trying to convince him otherwise long ago.
“I would like some Coke” Kim kindly requested
“My drink of choice would be a fantastic Fanta.” Mikael added cringey as always.
They all continued as one by one I served all of their respective drinks for them to come to collect, it took way longer than what I expected but everyone looked satisfied.
Finally, I could sit down and enjoy a couple of slices of the greasy but great pizza Gino’s has to offer. The living room was still as lively as ever, talking about everything and nothing at the same time. one thing caught my attention though. “Hey Kel, your hair sure has grown quite a bit.” It was now almost past his shoulders.
His eyes shifted from the pizza he was devouring all alone to me. “Yeah, I’ve thought about cutting it since it has become kind of difficult to handle.”
“Wait, No!” I shouted “Lemme try something first”
“I am NOT letting you cut my hair Aubrey!” The slight alteration on his voice told us he was not joking around but I couldn’t help but laugh at Kel being so defensive.
“I’m not doing that Kel.” rolling my eyes and facing Kim (who was still enjoying that greasy goodness) “Hey Kim, do you have a hair tie?” giving me a nod, understanding what I was up to. She quickly finished her pizza and after both of us washed our hands, she handed me a black hair tie that seemed oddly familiar.
“It was yours, you left it in my house a couple days ago.” She explained
“Thanks Kim. Now let’s go, I really wanna see Kel’s reaction to this.”
We walked back to the living room, everyone curious about what Kim and I were planning, probably expecting it to be some kind of prank, but for once, I was doing something just to try to help a friend.
“Kel, can you please turn around for a bit?”
He did as I told him and I sat beside him beginning to tie his brown locks swiftly into a half ponytail. Everyone else was just observing, waiting for the results. When I finished, Kim handed him a mirror. “This way you’ll keep your hair under control and you’ll look decent, what do you think?”
“In my opinion it fits you really well, nerd” Kim tried complimenting Kel for a change… sort of, it really suited him though. but it was on him to decide if he liked it or not, it was his hair after all.
“Ohhhhh” Kel seemed amused. “I love it Aubrey, you gotta teach me how to do it on my own someday!” He looked... excited? He really liked it huh, that's good.
“What about now, since we are already at it?” Kel was quick to agree with his typical wide grin “Though it’s really easy, you’ll pick it up quick.”
The rest of the evening was really chill, one by one leaving to go to their respective homes as time passed, not before helping to pick up all of the board games we used. Eventually it was only Kel and I so we just played some video games in his room.
It was getting pretty late, the sun was beginning to set so after finishing the match we were in I decided I needed to go, after all I still had one more stop before heading home “Kel I think I need to get going.”
“Home?” He looked a bit worried when asking, but was quick to look up and smile again with enthusiasm. They all knew back at my place wasn’t exactly the best of and were understandably worried that something bad might happen but, I was managing, besides it wasn’t my destination for the time being.
“I actually have to go somewhere else first.”
“You are gonna visit Mari, right?” Kel quickly catched, everyone knows I visit her grave regularly so it wasn’t a surprise. “Mind if I tag along?” He asked. I certainly didn’t expect that, but I figured there wasn’t really a problem, it’s Mari after all.
“I guess, but we need to go get some flowers first.”
“Sure thing!”
After Kel got permission from his parents to go out, we began our walk to the flower shop north of town. It is just a small shop past the hardware store into the gardening area. I’ve always thought it was a weird place to grow plants, like, don’t they need a good amount of sun and stuff? Then again, I’m no expert on the matter, maybe Basil-
No. Don’t think about that bastard, after all it was his idea to… “Ugh!”
Kel obviously took notice of that sudden reaction, cutting whatever small talk to face me, “Aubrey, what happened?” once again snapping me out of my thoughts.
“It’s nothing Kel, sorry for that.” I apologized looking away. An awkward silence filled our little trip to the plaza, thankfully, Kel being himself didn’t allow it to last long.
“Anyways… What kind of flowers are we buying?”
“They probably got a small bouquet with a lily. We only need to go and pay for it.”
“Oh, you already reserved one?”
“Not really, I just visit Mari’s grave a lot so I’m kind of a regular in the flower shop. At some point they asked me if I wanted them to prepare a little something in advance and I agreed.”
“Oh, that sounds convenient.”
“It really is.” At that moment a brilliant thought just crossed my mind and I’m not letting the opportunity slip past “What? You want me to get some flowers for Cris?” Kel’s reaction was once again priceless, blushing madly as I was holding back a chuckle.
“Aubrey you know it’s not like that!”
“Yeah sure Kel.” I teased, finally letting out a chuckle. I was only half joking though, Kel really likes Cris and she liked him back, but both of them were surprisingly shy to admit it, let alone confessing how they feel but it was only a matter of time if you asked me.
Our little chit-chat came to an end as we arrived at Fix-It just in time before they closed, we rushed to the gardening section where we were greeted by a member of the staff, “Oh if it isn’t Aubrey, we got a small bouquet ready for you.” she quickly looked around searching for the bouquet then handing it to me. It was pretty simple, a single white lily wrapped in white kraft paper decorated with a couple more leaves so it doesn’t look empty, all tied up with a purple ribbon. It looked really pretty. “Is this good enough?” She kindly asked, looking for reassurance.
“It’s amazing, thanks!”
“That would be 2 dollars.”
“That's really cheap-” Kel added. I do have to agree with him, it’s pretty cheap.
We handed the money and exited, making our way to the graveyard.
The graveyard was pretty far from the flower store so it would be a pretty long walk.
”Hey Kel, how’s Hero doing?”
“He’s alright, can’t say he’s exactly the same since that day, but he’s definitely better. College is the thing killing him right now, medicine sure is tough. He’s also not getting vacations anytime soon so he’s not coming home for a while.”
“Oh… I’m sorry to hear that, tell him I wish him luck.”
“Sure thing! You can do it yourself though, you have his number.”
“I guess you are right.”
The conversation trailed aimlessly, ranging between school or how Kel finally managed how to dunk consistently, making him a decent basketball player at last.
We stopped at the doors of the church, the graveyard was on the back and the only way to go there is to enter and go through, but there would be no sermon going on at this time.
“Do you still come here Aubrey?”
“To church? Yeah, I did have to apologize for that fight we had here though but don’t worry I can thrash you wherever else if you like.”
“I'm good, thanks.” Kel seemed genuinely scared even though he knew I was joking.
We stepped in, greeted the head of the church and through the back door to get to the graveyard.
There it was, the only grave still illuminated by the scarce light of dusk with the inscription 'To our dearest Mari, the sun shined brighter when she was here.’ I would be lying if I said just reading those words got me emotional.
I walked up to the tombstone placing the bouquet just in front, taking a deep breath, I started talking. “Hi Mari, it’s me again, sorry I took so long. Y’know I’ve been doing well lately, hanging out with Kim and the rest of The Hooligans, even with Kel. Speaking of him, he came with me to visit you this time. Hope you are doing great wherever you are. I still miss you a lot.”
I kneeled and offered a small prayer. The church really helped me to find some kind of peace of mind, but what actually happened to her… it was despicable.
Kel also dedicated some words, not exactly of the melancholic side, rather if he was just visiting a friend he hasn’t seen in a long time. Then he turned to face me with a rather serious face.
“Yo Aubrey, y’know next week is my birthday, right?”
Oh I sure remember, he wouldn’t shut up about it for what felt like an eternity.
“Sure Kel, I think you let everyone in town know.” I let out a small chuckle.
“Heh… right” It was weird to see Kel acting all serious while talking about his birthday, he’s usually the soul of every party no matter if he hosted it or was invited.
“Why all the gloom, aren’t you excited?” It was genuinely preoccupying seeing Kel like that over his birthday, in past years he’s known for his excitement for this kind of events.
“Well you see, I want to just make something more of a private reunion with old pals instead of a party.” For some reason I don’t like where this was heading “Just you, Kim, Cris, hopefully Hero if some miracle happened and...” He took a deep breath before continuing, “Sunny.” He finally let out.
“What?!” I sourly said, clearly annoyed.
“Listen, we all used to be friends and-”
“No Kel, after what he and Basil did I don’t wanna know anything about them.”
Once again Kel took a deep breath, he knew this was no time to be fooling around as he would normally do when I got mad, this was a rather… sensitive topic to touch upon, “Listen, you know that was an accident-”
“That accident is the reason Mari is dead!” I was clearly not in the mood for this conversation, why couldn’t they end their day nicely for once. “Besides, it’s not only that but what they did after, don’t tell you forgot.”
“I could never forget about it, but that happened almost 5 years ago, they were 12!”
“If anything, that makes it even more messed up!” I tried to storm out of where I was, but Kel held me by my arm stopping me right on my tracks.
“Aubrey, you can’t just ignore what happened forever, you gotta face it eventually.
You have been spacing out an awful lot since Sunny told us the truth and I bet that is the reason why, can’t say I can blame you, it’s still tough and to tell the truth myself, I’m still a bit insecure about meeting up with him even now, but we need to face him and see what we do from there, forgive him or not, but at least we gotta face him.”
“Kel, maybe you want to face him but I’m not willing to and you can’t force me.”
“That’s true, but from all of us you can sympathize with him the most!”
“What the fuck is that suppposed to mean, Kelsey!” I just wanted the earth to swallow me this instant, anywhere would be better than here right now, even home.
“You pushed Basil to the lake and Sunny tried to save him, but they both didn’t know how to swim!” Kel was clearly annoyed now, “If it wasn’t for Hero both of them would be dead Aubergine!” That was a low blow Kel, a really low blow.
“That was an accident-”
“And so was what happened to Mari! the only difference was that there was no Hero this time, only two 12 year-old boys that didn’t know what they were doing!”
“They staged manslughter as suicide Kel!”
Kel froze for a moment, he for once, got nothing to object, (or so I thought) finally letting go of my arm which was red at this point, it also hurt a little.
“It was all Basil’s idea...” I have never heard Kel speak in such a venomous tone, not even in the heat of the argument we were currently in. “If you want to be mad at someone, be mad at him.” The apparent coldness in his words was somehow more intimidating than his rage.
“But he went along with it.”
“Yeah, maybe because he was and probably still is deeply traumatized for what he did, he didn’t even realize what he was doing until it was too late Aubergine. He thought it was all just a terrible nightmare, and he would wake up at any time and everything would be alright again!”
“And how the fuck do you even know that-”
Kel was now furious, to say the least, his eyes were cleaved on me as if they were daggers “Oh I don’t know Aubergine,” the spite on his voice was immeasurable, “maybe because he told us how he felt about it.” he shouted “But knowing you, you probably stopped listening right after he confessed what he and Basil did!”
I was left speechless and just limited to get out there, just as I did back in the hospital.
Kel just stood there for a while, now alone, before turning back to Mari’s grave.
“Sorry you had to witness all that Mari.” and walked back to his home.
As if my day couldn’t get any worse, my next stop was my house. As I entered I said hi to my mom but she was too busy laying on the couch almost hypnotised by some stupid reality show to even notice me, so I just walked past the hallway to the attic that was my room.
I couldn’t really sleep that night, meditating on the recent argument I had with Kel, ‘...but from all of us you can sympathize with him the most!’ ‘You pushed Basil to the lake and Sunny tried to save him’ ‘If it wasn’t for Hero both of them would be dead Aubergine!’ As much as I hated to admit it, there was truth in his words, I couldn’t imagine where I would be standing if Hero hadn't appeared to save them.
a sensation of guilt crawled up my spine, it felt terrible even if nothing happened in the end. If it felt like this for her, she couldn’t even start to think about how they, how Sunny felt, having to carry the guilt of something like that. It didn’t excuse them by any means but it was still tough.
That was the last thought that crossed her mind before she took a trip to the dream world after a long night, finally managing to get some sleep, she did get to attend church tomorrow.