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Faraway Town already had its July 4th celebration days ago, but that didn’t mean throw away all those fireworks yet. July 20th was also the celebration of Faraway Town’s inception as a full-fledged town, so of course, fireworks and festival party items were still in stock at Othermart to enjoy the holiday.
It was also Sunny’s birthday. He was finally turning 17.
It had been quite some time since Sunny moved out of Faraway Town following… everything that happened. Reactions to him revealing the truth were surprisingly okay, even with the few days of a breather between the group to recoup from the information. It’s a miracle things sorted itself out, really.
That didn’t stop Sunny and his mom finding a decent enough vacation home to rent in Faraway, near the beachside. It was a nicely built pier house near a bunch of hotels and tourist attractions, including a pier carnival. Think Disney World if it was big enough for a dock. How the town was able to afford it was beyond Sunny, but he was best not to think about it too much. Business was business, he guessed.
Sunny and his mom arrived at the house in question, completely furnished right out of the gate, and dragged their luggage into the living room. The living room window was a perfect view of the shore, as a lot of people were lined up and having fun at the beach. It helped there was also a stairway to a pool, just in case the beach was too wavy for you.
It had been a while since Sunny ever been to the beach. The last time he went there was when Mari took the group when they were kids. Nowadays, it was just one more reminder that what he did still lingered in his mind to some degree.
Snapping him out of his cobweb of thoughts was his mother exaggeratedly plopping right on the couch in exhaustion. She sighed longingly at her comfort, like a lost lover. “Glad that drive is over…”
Sunny lightly snickered. “Guessing you don’t like driving 250 miles on the highway?”
“No… no, God no…” His mom hyperbolically answered back, stuffing her face into the couch pillow as if she was a cat with yarn.
“You think Mewo would’ve complained?” Sunny giggled, now that the thought was on his mind.
“Mewo’s easy to please. Thank God I found that pet day care for an easy price. It was already costing me my whole life’s savings to get this $96,000 vacation house…” She pretty much collapsed clean on the couch. “I’m gonna take a nap, sweetie. I trust you to stick close to the pier and beach, and you have the birthday money to do whatever it is you want. Stay safe, okay?”
Sunny became HAPPY. “Thanks, mom. Get some rest.”
As Sunny left the house, he heard his mother reply back drowsily. “I will, I will.”
It was a meek 82° outside, and mercifully, Sunny wasn’t dressed in his traditional black vest, white t-shirt, and khaki shorts. Instead, he wore a tie-dye t-shirt with a black tank top underneath and grey sweatpants. Topped off with swim shoes that allowed him to walk in the beach water without trouble. He even wore a Speedo underneath his clothes just in case he ever did go down to the beach. You never know, right?
The time read 10:51 AM, and the beachside marina was his to explore. Gift shops, markets, villas, it was like Hilton Head Island on crack.
Sunny entered this one gift shop called “Easy-Alec’s Beach Goods”, which was filled to the brim with toys for kids, clothes, seashells, and all sorts of beach paraphernalia. He walked around, trying to see which one piqued his interest, even if maneuvering through all the shoppers were giving him slight shyness, his usual response ever since he was much younger.
After he took a gander at a pearl necklace and bought it, he could’ve sworn he heard a familiar set of voices.
“Kel, just because Orange Joe’s got an ice cream soda now doesn’t mean it’s a national holiday!”
The voice was definitely Aubrey’s. Sunny already felt his face flush up a tad, and it wasn’t from the heat outside.
“Uh, yeah it does, Aubrey. Have you not looked online?”
“Who looks online to find out if it’s a holiday or not?!”
Kel’s voice. Definitely another one of Aubrey and Kel’s daily headbutts.
“Hey, c’mon… you two…”
Hero’s, front and center.
“Nothing like another day of these two bickering, hehe… At least it makes a good photo for the album.”
Basil’s voice followed by a camera shutter noise.
It was the group, no doubt about it. Sunny was both flustered and excited to see familiar faces.
Sunny saw them pass by the shop he was in, and knew he had to catch up to them. He hadn’t seen them since moving out of Faraway, and he was determined as ever to make up for everything.
He left the shop after paying for the necklace, hid it in his pocket, and quietly tailed after the group amidst the flock of tourists and vacationers. The crowd was enough to rival the busiest of downtowns in the country. He could’ve sworn he either lost them in the commotion or was right ahead of them somehow.
Eventually, he reached the pier, and luckily, the group was just a bit ahead of him, right by the arcade. How an entire arcade was able to be held onto by the pier was anyone’s guess. It’s a miracle the pier supported an entire amusement park instead of crashing through the supports into the ocean floor, but he digressed.
He saw them enter the arcade, and followed suit shortly after. The receptionist smiled at him. “Hello, welcome to Spaceboy’s Galaxy of Games! Is this for just one person or more?”
“Maybe I can surprise them, make them not even think I’m following them.” Sunny thought, a slight smirk lining his lips.
“Just me, ma’am. Though my friends just passed by. Figured I’d surprise them.” Sunny answered and handed a bit of cash to her.
The receptionist, who looked no older than 25 and had a name tag that read “Nico”, along with a transgender pin on her uniform, smiled and tapped away on the screen, and out printed a very small receipt. Sunny got lucky, it barely even cost two bucks. “Here you are, have a great time!”
Sunny smiled and nodded. “Thank you, miss.”
He then went on his way to the arcade plaza, and even he was surprised at the amount of games they had lining the lobby. They had House of the Dead, Street Fighter II, the Fast and Furious game you saw in every arcade, that Terminator Salvation game you saw everywhere, which was nice and all, but then there were some big ones that you never expected a smaller arcade to have, they had a Star Wars arcade game where you flew around as an X-Wing shooting down TIE Fighters, a straight-up Mario Kart GX game, the list went on and on.
And the cherry on top? They were playing Toto’s “Africa” on the radio. Objectively one of the best songs ever.
Sunny saw the group split-up to tackle completely different games, with the one he noticed the most, Aubrey, waiting right by the House of the Dead game.
Perfect.
Truth be told, he had no idea if the group would recognize him. Part of it was the different clothing than what he was known for, but another part of it was a more serious one… he had been away from the group for some time, and that’s not just because of the move. Four years in isolation due to… that… no doubt threatened to tear them apart nearly permanently. It was a stroke of pure magic that it didn’t, and that’s not even counting what he had to admit to them that day.
He even slightly heard that confession in the back of his mind as he got closer. It was as if his stomach was going to churn in fear.
Maybe he should leave them be? No. He made it this far. It’d be suicide to miss this chance.
But what will they say? Will they be uneasy around him? Sunny. Trust them. Give them a chance to prove you wrong.
But what he did was awful. One of the worst things you could ever do. It’s in the past. It’s hard, but you can let it go. Don’t let it tear you away from healing.
Will they forgive me? You’ll know. Hey.
Hey.
“Hey. You gonna join in?” Aubrey asked, waiting for him to join in on the second player gun controls.
Sunny snapped back to reality, a tiny bit embarrassed he got caught in thought like that. “Oh, sorry. Spaced out for a second there.”
Aubrey smiled empathetically. Something about this guy seemed very familiar, but they had a game to win. “It’s all good.”
While it should’ve been a bummer that he wasn’t immediately recognized, Sunny figured he could use this to his advantage. He stepped right up to the second player controls, and Aubrey popped in 25¢. The game launched up without haste.
Sunny and Aubrey set themselves up, and pulled the trigger to start the game. They both readied their light guns, and as soon as zombies started coming in on the map, they started blasting.
It was cheesy as hell, and they both groaned cheekily at the bad voice acting and how flamboyant the zombies acted upon death, but it was so tongue-in-cheek that they didn’t even mind.
Several zombies on Sunny’s six started charging at him, and Aubrey made short work of them. She was quite the sharpshooter, managing to get headshots almost with ease despite the limited range of movement with the light gun.
Sunny returned the favor by killing a couple on her right. Six bullets were all he needed to cleave through them like a hot knife through butter.
They both reloaded, and started firing away again. Being an on-rails shooter, obviously the story and movement played itself, so Sunny and Aubrey both were readying in anticipation for anything that came next.
What they didn’t expect was the difficulty to ramp up upon reaching stage two. Or, at least, to them it seemed more difficult. Admittedly, Aubrey was having her focus dwindled by deciphering who the boy playing with her was that she got more swarmed than she’d like to admit. Sunny too got a tiny bit sidetracked by Aubrey… being Aubrey, that he failed to see some zombies ganging up on him.
Unfortunately, it got them a game over. But neither of them seemed too bothered by it.
“Damn… they’re fast.’ Aubrey moaned, collecting the tickets from the machine, before looking right back at Sunny.
“It has been a while since I played this… sorry.” Sunny apologized again.
That right there was the kicker. Aubrey got a moment to ask him, “I feel like I know you. Forgive me if the answer’s obvious and I’m not catching it, I just have a gut feeling and it’s itching at me.”
Sunny knew what to do. “Remember that time we sat by the swing sets when we were kids? Just the two of us?” He was nervous, never usually this forward, but he had to try and get out of his comfort zone.
The lightbulb finally went off. “…Sunny?”
Sunny smiled back sweetly. “Hey, Aubrey.”
Sunny, internally, was bracing himself for her to punch him as recompense for everything, doubly so for this out-of-nowhere surprise. And given the other big surprise from him in her life before, it wouldn’t be out of the picture.
Instead, she hugged him. Tightly.
“Oh my god…! It’s been so long! I missed you!” She caught wind of how uncharacteristically she was acting, though, and was just about to pull away a bit, flustered.
Sunny was also in shock, but considering what his intrusive thoughts were making him think, this was a nice change of pace. “I missed you too…” He almost felt a tear try to trickle out of his eye.
They hugged each other for what felt like a minute, before realizing just how long they were doing it for. “Oh, uhm, hehe… Sorry…” Aubrey giggled shyly, again unusually for her. By this point, she had street cred with the Hooligans and was as toughened-up as you can get. But even she had to admit, something about Sunny made her… drop her guard.
Sunny blushed as well. “Heh… it’s nothing. It has been a while…” He stuttered with a mix of a giggle. They were both dorks when the spotlight came on them. “Where are the others?”
Another lightbulb lit up in her head. “Oh shit, I should probably let them know you’re here, huh?”
“Yeah, maybe…”
Aubrey then got an idea. “What say you keep up the surprise act one more time, eh?” A playful grin spread to her left cheek.
Sunny smiled back. “I like that idea.”
He waited behind the machine, as Aubrey went to round up Kel, Basil, and Hero. Even with her not there for the moment, Sunny was borderline hiding his face and how red it was from their moment of intimacy. Did she…?
“So you got a high score on House of the Dead? Okay, but not many people played it here, that can be a bit of a low bar, no offense.” Kel’s voice started to catch Sunny’s ear. Aubrey responded with a slight punch to his arm.
“It may not be the best score, but it’s more than what you got on air hockey.” She snarked back.
“Hey! Not my fault Hero’s got big arms!”
“…are they really that big?” Hero nervously chuckled in a moment of insecurity.
Basil giggled sweetly. “It’s big enough to give the warmest hugs at least.”
Aubrey snickered. “Basil, you are too pure for this earth.”
At least that put Sunny’s worries about Basil and Aubrey being together at ease. They must’ve forgiven him too. Good, good. Nothing dragging them back.
All four of them reached the station, and Kel was the first to comment. “I mean, that’s impressive, but who’s the ‘SUN’ player name under you?”
Aubrey did a snap of her fingers behind her back, queueing Sunny to reveal himself. “Oh, y’know, someone that you guys should know.”
Sunny walked from behind the arcade machine, and smiled shyly but earnestly at the rest of the group, who could only stare in shock for the time being. “H… Hey guys…!”
Basil was the first to practically dive bomb Sunny with a hug. “SUNNY! I missed you so much!”
Kel and Hero followed suit. Kel was a tiny bit tight, but that’s athlete’s grip for you. Hero was much more gentle and careful. Sunny was definitely happy to know Hero held no grudges on him for what happened to Mari. “It’s so good to see you again, Sunny.” He said truthfully, almost like a father welcoming their kid home from college.
Sunny couldn’t hold back the tears any longer, and wept happily in quiet towards Hero. Kel was the first to notice. “I think this calls for a group hug photo!”
Basil readied the camera, and Aubrey joined in the hug, her cheeks almost nuzzling against Sunny’s. It had yet to be seen if it was on accident or not. The camera flashed for a moment.
The gang continued their romp through the arcade, trying out almost everything they could, with Basil there to capture the moments.
One photo read, “Kel and Sunny test their luck in Street Fighter, with Sunny picking Blanka and Kel picking Guile! Who knew Sunny knew how to play fighting games!”
Another one read, “Hero and Aubrey try to see if their hammer can ring the bell. Hero tried his best, but Aubrey’s the most experienced with stuff like that!”
The next couple of photos even went as far as to happen outside of the arcade. One read. “Kel attempts the Orange Joe and Big Kahuna Burger challenge. Hope his stomach doesn’t explode!”
The next one followed up on that. “He… somehow pulled it off. Kel even said he had ‘burgers on his mind’. Hmm…”
One big photo came up soon after Kel’s masochistic challenge, this one much more eye-pleasing. “Sunny and I try to shoot the moving targets. Kel could’ve sworn for a second the clerk was cheating, but that didn’t matter, since Sunny got the bullseye!”
Hours passed and photos were taken, and after their recent one, they relaxed on the beach in the starting sunset. Hero rested under the umbrella while Kel and Basil tried volleyball not too far from here.
That just left Sunny and Aubrey walking amongst the wet beach sand, Sunny’s soaked beach shoes creaking against the sand softly while Aubrey settled for flip-flops, all while the water crashed onto the shore and onto their feet.
“So, how’s your new home, Sunny?” Aubrey asked sincerely. “Everything going okay?”
Sunny replied earnestly. “It’s alright. The neighbors are nice, and it’s not too loud at night, but…”
Aubrey tilted her head. “But what?”
“It just… doesn’t beat this, you know what I mean? I know not everything went the right way for me here, but… I do miss you guys a lot. It aches at me a little bit that the last time I was there with you guys was at the lowest points of my life. I’m really just trying to make up for it now while I have the chance.”
Aubrey looked at him sympathetically. Yes, the reveal of Sunny accidentally killing Mari was a bitter pill to swallow at first, but it was clear as day he was remorseful for it. She could see it on his face. “You don’t have to repay us anything, Sunny. The past hurt, yes, but now we can build something new out of it. I’m sure Mari’s happy for you that you’re trying. It’s sometimes the best we can do in trying times.”
She gently held his hand unconsciously, with Sunny reciprocating.
Sunny looked towards her. “Before the night’s over, I want to take you on that Ferris wheel near the end of the pier. Just you and me.” Even he was shocked those words actually came out.
Aubrey blushed pretty hard. You’d be forgiven for thinking it was a sunburn on her cheeks. “I’d love that…” She whispered back. The sparks were beginning to show.
They hugged again for a bit, but as soon as they let go, Aubrey splashed some water on him, before running away into the water, giggling. “But you gotta catch me first, slowpoke!”
Sunny smirked in response. “Oh, it’s on!”
The two got into the water, only up to their waistlines, and practically opened fire (opened water?) on one another. Sunny was getting really into it, doing moves like that water-bending girl from that one show on TV. Aubrey couldn’t resist doing similar things back.
Truly a war for the ages.
More hours passed, and the gang got all cleaned up from all the water and the sand. Basil actually beat Kel at volleyball, and Hero actually got a decent nap in. Back into their day clothes, they got back onto the pier, and while Kel, Hero and Basil went for the bumper cars, Sunny and Aubrey went for the Ferris wheel.
Sunny checked his pocket one last time for the pearl necklace. Yep, still there.
“Two for the Ferris wheel, please.” Aubrey asked the receptionist, and shortly, the gate opened for them, as they hopped on one of the carts.
The Ferris wheel’s carts were sealed with glass, almost akin to full-blown cars in that respect, and the pier supported the weight of said Ferris wheel the most, because it went pretty high up. Mercifully, you wouldn’t look down to see how high up you were, all you’d see was a carpet floor in the cart. You’d really only see the skies and the town out the windows.
That was at least somewhat of a relief for Sunny, notorious for not quite enjoying heights.
Once they were settled in, the wheel got moving, and just in time too, because before they entered, they heard word from the pier PA about a fireworks show beginning momentarily. Looks like the pair got the best seats in the house.
As they began their ascent, Sunny looked to Aubrey for but a moment.
She looked beautiful amidst the lavender glaze of the evening sky, with her pink hair contrasting the beginning nightfall. Her eyes happily looking at Sunny with the gleam of at least a thousand stars in the solar system. Her smile would melt down even the hardest steel. He was bewitched to see her. He was hers. All hers. He wouldn’t want it any other way.
They reached about halfway up the pier’s biggest Ferris wheel, when Sunny felt his pocket one last time. Now was his chance.
“Aubrey, there’s something I wanted to give to you.”
“Hm? Sure, what is it?” She asked curiously.
Slowly, he pulled out the pearl necklace from his pocket. Not one ounce of its shine was lost to fingerprints. It still was as gorgeous as when he saw it. Aubrey visibly gasped and put a hand to her mouth in shock.
Sunny motioned to put the necklace on her, and she nodded whole-heartedly, if red in the face. He gently scooted towards her, wrapping his arms around her as the necklace got hooked around her neck. Tears trickled down her eyes. She was in utter amazement at how touching it was.
The pair looked at each other’s eyes as the moon started rising behind Sunny. The first firework boomed nearby, sparkling the sky with its radiance.
“I love you, Aubrey.”
She immediately embraced him, locking his lips with hers and never letting go. More fireworks erupted close by. They were inches away from the top.
“I love you too, Sunny.”
The pair locked each other in their embrace for as long as the Ferris wheel ran. The glimmer of the beach town and the fireworks were like candle lights for the pair’s attraction. Not a speck of them left each other. More fireworks went off.
Mari likely was watching them from above.
She was so proud of her little brother.
The End