Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A boy slept peacefully in his bed. It was a dreamless sleep, but the only time the boy’s thoughts could be considered peaceful anymore was when they were absent entirely. Unfortunately, this break from awareness never seemed to last long enough.

Senses slowly returned to Basil. First, the sound of the bathroom door opening followed by light footsteps told him that Polly must be in his house. His next inhale presented him with the smell of pancake batter, which made him either hungry or nauseous. He couldn’t really tell the two apart anymore.

Finally, one eye cracked open and his way-too-bright bedroom slowly came into focus while the other eye stubbornly refused to budge. Basil went to rub it, but an intense, dull pain shot through his eye socket the second he made contact with it. This reminded him of the bruises still covering his body.

Awareness now fully gripping him, Basil’s face contorted in anguish under the relentless assault of painful memories: the fight with Sunny, the hospital… Mari. Guilt wrapped itself around his chest so tightly he couldn’t breathe. His vision now heavily blurred by tears, Basil could almost make out a few figures standing around the foot of his bed. Two taller ones, one pink, and behind them all, jet black with a white streak. Or was it a bandage?

Basil was no longer in his room. The sickeningly sweet smell of cooking pancakes disappeared, along with all color from the walls. All that was left was Basil, a hospital bed, a completely sterile white room, and his four former friends.

Basil is just waking up. Sunny is apologizing. With words! His voice sounds raspy and his words are slurred in a way only years of disuse can accomplish, but he’s talking! Why is he asking for forgiveness? He did nothing wrong, did he? Suddenly, the jet black head of hair drops as if Sunny’s legs gave out and he’s fallen to his knees. Everyone who was standing is now huddled around the collapsed figure, telling him things like how it’s not his fault and that what he did was an accident and that they would forgive him.

Aubrey is obstructing Basil’s view of his best friend, so he tries to lift his head up to get a better look. A sharp crick in his neck foils that plan, though, and his head lands softly back on the pillow with a tiny whimper. Hero’s ears perk up. His head turns almost imperceptibly toward Basil for a second, then immediately back to Sunny.

“Come on,” Hero says, “let’s get Sunny back to his room so he can rest. He’s been through so much.” He says the last sentence quieter with a glance directly at Basil. The eye contact is short-lived. So short, in fact, that Basil isn’t entirely sure it happened. It throws off Basil’s train of thought so badly that by the time he realizes that everyone is leaving, they are already halfway out the door.

“Wait!” Basil tries, but all that comes out is a guttural noise from the back of his throat. Hero either doesn’t hear it or ignores it as he turns the corner with Sunny in his arms. Aubrey goes stiff for a moment before her stride widens and she’s quickly out of sight. Kel is the only one who turns fully toward him, but Basil wished he hadn’t. Basil had never seen such a hurt look on Kel’s normally smiling face. It conveyed a single word. Why?

Then, like the rest of them, Kel left.

Basil was yanked from the memory and thrown back into his bedroom. The smell of pancakes was suffocating. Light burned the retina of the only eye he could open wider than a squint. Basil couldn’t catch his breath. They knew. They had to know. What else could cause reactions like that? What else would Sunny have to apologize for? The secret must have come out. Everything Basil had been working toward these past four years to keep everyone together was for nothing. No, worse than that, it’s been actively pushing everybody apart.

If not for Basil’s bright idea, Sunny wouldn’t have hidden himself away all those years. Their friends would have forgiven him like they did in the hospital. It would have just been an accident. It wouldn’t have weaved itself into a web of lies with Basil and Sunny trapped in the middle. It would have been painful for a while, then everyone would have talked it out and stayed together instead of letting the pain fester and push each other away. The only thing that Basil framing Mari’s death as a suicide had accomplished was making the situation exponentially harder for everyone involved. Especially Sunny.

He just wanted to make everything okay. He just wanted Sunny to be okay.

He should have comforted Sunny and been there for him as he grieved the death of his sister. What he shouldn’t have done was tell Sunny that the way to make it all go away was to-

And now Sunny was in a different city, Granny was dead, Mari was dead, and the rest of his friends almost certainly hated him.

Unable to stay idle in his bed any longer, Basil threw off his blanket and stumbled to his closet for a comfy pair of overalls. He nearly knocked over a wilting peace lily when he caught a glimpse of one of the photos scattered around his room. It was a blurry picture of Aubrey trying to catch a grasshopper. She had pounced right as Basil took the photo, so there was just an Aubrey-shaped smudge in the foreground. Basil cringed at the once-pleasant memory and turned back to the closet.

Basil used to be afraid that once Granny was gone, his parents would have him move out of Faraway. Maybe they’d find someone else for him to live with, or maybe they’d even let Basil live with them, wherever that was. It used to terrify him, that one day he might have to leave his friends behind.

Fully dressed, Basil took one more glance at the blurry photo on his way out the door. There might not be anything here for me to leave behind anymore, he thought.

Each step toward the kitchen reminded him how sore he still was. Sunny could hit surprisingly hard for how small and adorable he was. Basil remembered the bandage he thought he saw in that brief moment at the hospital and hoped he hadn’t hurt Sunny too badly. That night was so hazy in his memory that he really cou-

“Oh, Basil!” Polly’s voice interrupted his thoughts. “I was just about to call for you. I made chicken and waffles!”

“Thank you,” he said softly, “I thought I smelled pancakes. It looks really good.”

Polly’s face lit up at the compliment. “Well, there’s some batter left over. I could make you some pancakes if you’d rather have that.”

“No no, waffles are perfect.” Basil made a plate and sat down, trying to suppress his nausea enough to take a bite. He wouldn’t want Polly to think he didn’t like her cooking.

“How are you feeling today?” Polly asked, “any better?”

Basil considered for a moment before answering. “A bit, yes. It really only hurts anymore when I move quickly or touch the bruises.”

“Good,” Polly said between bites of waffle, “you looked like you were in a lot of pain on the ride home from the hospital yesterday. I hope they re-pave that road soon.” Just the memory made Basil’s ribs ache.

“Yeah. Thank you for driving me, by the way.”

“Any time!”

The two fell into a comfortable silence occasionally broken by clanking silverware. Basil mostly just poked at his now-soggy waffle. He hadn’t even touched his chicken strips. Polly must have noticed because she stood up and walked around the table to grab his plate.

“You’re finished with this, right?”

Basil nodded. “Can you please save the chicken though? I might want it with lunch,” he said, knowing full well it would probably just end up going to waste anyway.

“Of course!” The caregiver smiled. Basil wasn’t usually this talkative. Maybe he was finally opening up to her? Or maybe he just missed his grandmother and wanted somebody to talk to. Either way, Polly was happy to oblige. “Do you have any plans for today?”

Basil looked down at the empty table and muttered, “not really.”

“That’s perfectly fine! You need your rest anyway.” Polly quickly interjected. “And besides, your friends will probably come check on you at some point. They’re always so considerate like that.” The boy stayed silent, so Polly continued. “Did they visit you while you were in the hospital? I saw one of them in the hallway when-”

A sob interrupted her. She nearly dropped the container of chicken she was holding as she whipped around to look. Sure enough, Basil was crying. Hard. Throwing the container onto the counter, she ran up to the wailing boy and started gently rubbing his back.

“Basil, honey, what happened? What’s wrong?”

The only answer she got was a heaving sob that looked just painful. What could possibly have set this off? Everything was fine until she started talking about…

“Is it your friends?”

Basil nodded. Polly was almost speechless; she didn’t expect to get a straight answer. Every other time Basil cried like this, he would just lock himself in his room. At least she might be able to help this time. “Is this about your friend that moved away?”

Hot tears continuously dripped onto the table as Basil tried to steady his breathing. He held up his hand with his thumb and index finger close to each other. Polly took that to mean ‘a little bit.’

“A little? What’s the rest?”

Basil looked up. He was tired of having nobody to talk to. He couldn’t keep it bottled up. Even if this was just some nursing student his parents paid to pretend to care about him, she was the only person he could talk to anymore.

“They all h-h-ha-ate me now.”

Polly, for her part, was more confused than anything. Surely he wasn’t talking about the kids that slept over just to make sure he was alright, the same ones that saved him from drowning in a lake and carried him all the way home. Although, she never did ask what happened that night to land two of them in the hospital.

“What makes you think that they hate you?” She asked carefully.

Tears started flooding back to Basil’s eyes. Polly quickly hugged him before the sobs started wracking his sore body again. It must have worked at least a little bit, because the crying was much less violent this time. She slowly started rocking back and forth in a soothing motion while she waited for the tears to dry up again. Eventually, they did. Several minutes of silence passed with Polly taking deep, deliberate breaths and Basil trying to breathe in unison with her. Neither separated from their hug.

Finally, Basil broke the silence.

“I lied to them,” he rasped “for f-four years. I made them believe something terrible. I soiled the memories they had of someone beloved to them. I… I practically ruined Sunny’s life by making him carry the secret!”

Polly had no idea what he was talking about. Deceiving friends and ruining lives are two of the most un-Basil-like things she can think of. And how does one “soil” somebody else’s memories, anyway? She was at a loss about how to proceed, but she couldn’t just stay silent after Basil poured his heart out like that.

“Nobody likes being lied to,” she began, “but even if they’re really, really, REALLY upset with you for lying to them, They’re not the kind of people to abandon their friend.” Basil removed himself from the embrace and stared at the ground. Polly continued. “Those friends of yours are special. They all care so deeply for each other. They care so deeply for you. If they don’t want to see you right now, that’s okay! It doesn’t mean they never want to see you again. They probably just need some time to come to terms with the truth. You can’t give up on them so quickly.”

A tear-streaked face looked up at her. It was the first time since she took this job that she’d seen that much hope on the boy’s face. Polly couldn’t help but smile.

“Talk to them next time you see them. If you don’t see them around, reach out. Let them know how much they mean to you. Let them see how much you’ve grown. I’ve only known you for a few months and I see it clear as day.” Basil turned away then with the tiniest hint of a blush on his face. He was never good at receiving compliments. “And write a letter to Sunny. He’s the one that moved, right? I think he’d love to hear from you.”

Basil kept looking off to the side as he nodded. “I don’t have his address, though,” he mumbled.

Polly giggled at that. A confused Basil looked back to see a triumphant-bordering-on-smug grin on her face that almost reminded him of Mari. “I asked Kel for his new address the night we ate dinner together,” She said happily. “You seemed so upset about the move, so I thought I would ask for you. He wrote it on a slip of paper and stuck it to the fridge.”

Basil just kept looking at her with one wide eye as he processed what he'd just heard, then he bolted to the fridge. Sure enough, on the back of a crumpled up Hobbeez receipt was Kel’s chicken scratch handwriting.

7740 E Birch St
Apt 4
Nearby City

He could hardly believe it. Moments ago, Basil was convinced he would never talk to his best friend again. That scrap of paper, combined with a new sense of hope that maybe things aren’t entirely hopeless, sparked a feeling of determination in his chest that he didn’t know he still had.

Basil turned to Polly with a wide, genuine smile for the first time in, well, ever.

“Thank you thank you! This means so much to me, you don’t even know!” The boy with dried tear tracks down his cheeks ran back and hugged his caregiver as tightly as he could. Polly just laughed lightly and patted his head. She'd never heard so much passion in his voice before, even when he talked about his garden. She wanted do everything in her power to see this side of Basil as often as possible.

“Any time.”

Chapter Text

Basil dropped the chewed-up pen he was fidgeting with onto an unfinished letter and turned back to his garden. He had already watered, pruned, and fertilized all the plants that needed it during the previous seven breaks he’d taken since he’d started writing, so there was nothing left to do but watch the bees drink from the flowers. Upon closer inspection, though, Basil noticed that bees weren’t the only bugs snacking on his daisies.

“Oh no, I hope those aren’t aphids,” he mused to himself. Ever since his grandmother became too sick to tend to plants with him, the garden had been almost too lonely to bear. Talking to himself was one of the ways Basil learned to bear it.

A quick scratch of the plant’s stem easily removed some of the tiny yellow blobs and revealed that they were, in fact, aphids.

“Damn it,” he muttered.

He looked back to the piece of notebook paper sitting on the patio table. The pen was barely heavy enough to keep it from blowing away in the wind. Basil sighed. “I’ll have to deal with them later. I NEED to finish this letter.”

Walking back to the table, he quickly skimmed over everything he had written up to that point.

Hi Sunny,

Has the move been going okay? What do you think of the new city? It must be such a culture shock to move there from a town as tiny as Faraway. Don’t worry though! It’ll just take a bit of time to adjust. Pretty soon you’re gonna be a true city slicker and we’ll probably all seem like country bumpkins to you, haha! Basil cringed and wondered if he should scribble out “haha.” He decided not to.

If you’re ever feeling homesick, you can always visit us in Faraway! Polly said she wouldn’t mind giving you a ride if you ever need one. I’m sure the entire town would be super happy to see you. People always ask me how you’re doing. I guess you left a really good impression on everybody the last few days you were here!

Basil chewed on the end of his pen as he thought of how he could end the letter. His mind drifted through those last few days before the move. It was hard to think about. And so much had changed since then. Basil wiped off his pen and brought it to the paper.

You still have the photo album, right? I hope it’s making the transition at least a little bit easier. There should be quite a few empty pages left at the end, so let’s make some new memories together!

Your friend,
Basil

With that, he finally put the cap back on his poor pen and carefully picked up his finished letter. He re-read it a few more times before gently folding it. “Now to just get this to the post office and-”

“I can drive you there if you want.”

"AAAAAAAAAH!!” Basil jumped a foot into the air, dropping his letter. The wind caught it. Fortunately, Polly was able to snatch it back before it blew away.

“I’m so sorry! I thought you heard me open the door! Are you okay?” She rubbed Basil’s back in a soothing motion. It took the startled boy a moment to stop hyperventilating.

“Y-yeah, I’m okay,” he said a little shakily, “and no thanks.”

Polly looked slightly confused.

“About the ride,” Basil clarified. “I think I’d rather walk if that’s okay.”

Handing Basil the folded notebook paper, Polly smiled. “It’s a beautiful day today. I bet the whole town’s out and about! Here, let me get you an envelope for that.”

Faraway Park was unusually empty for how nice the weather was. There were a few children running around when Basil passed it on his way to the post office, but on his way back it was pretty much deserted. Curiously, Basil made his way to the back of the park. The sound of voices made him hesitate, but their familiarity kept pushing him forward.

As he made his way through the brush, the voices became clearer and the trees thinned out. A lake came into view. Basil instantly recognized Aubrey and her gang, but it took a few more seconds for him to spot Hero and Kel sitting around with them. A familiar tightness wrapped itself around Basil’s chest. He couldn’t breathe.

It was too much, too soon.

Thorns and sharp twigs left scratches on Basil’s skin as he fled. He was much too preoccupied to notice though, his mind racing through various rejection scenarios. The worst of them ended with him being pushed off of a dock. Basil choked back tears. It didn’t take long for the real voices to fade away, but the venomous ones in his head stuck around until Basil found himself at the front of the park.

Trying to ground himself, he took deep breaths and looked around the park. A small family had shown up for a picnic while he was gone. A monarch butterfly fluttered from wildflower to wildflower on a gentle breeze.

Basil’s heart rate began to steady. He looked up to a clear sky where a crescent moon was about to set. It’s so pretty in the daytime, he thought.

Somebody was walking toward him. Thankfully, Basil was calm enough to not run away again, even when he realized it was Hero.

“Hi Basil!” Hero waved with a smile. “I saw you peeking in and thought I’d come talk to you! Don’t worry, I don’t think anybody else noticed. That big group is probably a bit overwhelming, huh?”

Hero talked as if nothing was different between them. It was a huge relief. “Yeah, it’s just a bit much right now.”

“How are you doing?” Hero asked. “I’m sorry Kel and I couldn’t make it to the funeral. Sally had a really bad sinus infection yesterday and we had to take her to the city.” Basil felt a little guilty about how little he remembered of his Granny’s funeral. There was just so much to think about and it was hard to stay out of his head.

“It’s okay,” Basil said softly, “and I’m okay. I actually just sent a letter to Sunny.”

“That’s great! I’m so glad you guys are keeping in touch! He needs his friends right now.” Hero’s smile dropped just slightly. “We all do.”

For a moment, the only sound in the park was a particularly noisy blue jay.

Basil broke the silence. “Hey, Hero?”

“What’s up?” Hero didn’t flinch. Basil took that as a sign to keep going.

“About what happened at the hospital…”

Hero took a deep breath and looked around to make sure they were alone. He looked more concerned than upset. In a lower voice, he said, “Yeah, we should probably talk about that.”

Basil was barely keeping it together. “I’m so sorry, Hero. Everything was happening so fast and I couldn’t think of anything except what would happen to Sunny. I just… I had to do something and didn’t think it through and I-”

“Shhhhh, Basil it’s okay.” Hero put a hand on his shoulder. “I understand. It’s hard to think clearly in those situations. You were so focused on one set of consequences that you couldn’t see any others.”

“But I made you think th-”

“Basil,” Hero interrupted. “It did open up an old wound when Sunny told us what happened, but I’ve already learned how to carry this grief with me. If anything, it’s kind of a relief to know that I didn’t miss any signs while she was with us.” A pause lingered. “I wish everything had gone differently. I wish I had been there for everyone. But all we can do is learn what we can from the past and be better moving forward.”

Basil hugged Hero tightly and bawled into his shirt. Hero rubbed Basil’s back. They stayed like that until the sobs died down. Right after Basil caught his breath and separated from the hug, a familiar voice rang out through the park.

“Hey, Hero,” Kel yelled from the edge of the treeline, “I thought you were getting me an ora-” He cut himself off the moment he saw Hero and Basil. Neither had time to react before Kel turned around with an empty expression and walked right back into the trees.

Basil was speechless.

“Huh,” Hero mumbled, “he wasn’t like that when we were talking at the hospital.” Basil wiped the tears off his cheeks. “Anyway, you shouldn’t worry too much about that. Those two just need a little more time, I think. We all made a promise to be there for each other, no matter what. They’ll come around.”

The conviction behind Hero’s words comforted Basil. “Thank you, for everything. I should probably be headed back home now, though. Polly’s probably wondering where I am.”

“That’s what friends are for! And I should probably check up on Kel, too. I’ll see you around, Basil.” Hero turned around with a wave and made his way to the back of the park.

“Bye, Hero!”

That had gone way better than Basil thought it would. Even that moment at the end wasn’t enough to ruin the optimism he’d picked up from Hero. Looking both ways to cross the street in front of the park, an idea came to Basil.

Maybe one quick detour, he thought as he turned and walked toward the plaza.

Basil came home with an Othermart bag around his wrist. Polly wanted to know all about his day, so he didn’t hold anything back.

She smiled affectionately. “It sounds to me like things will be back to normal in no time! Look at you doing all these difficult things!” Polly pulled the boy in for a hug. “This is all going to pay off soon. I’m so proud of you.”

Basil had never felt so much unconditional love from anyone but Granny. For the first time since her passing, he felt as if he had a family.

That night, Basil gently set the Othermart bag on his bed and rummaged through his closet. It didn’t take long for him to find a dusty Polaroid camera. Blowing the dust off, he carried the camera to his bed.

Memories of simpler times filled Basil’s head as he opened the compartment on the bottom of the camera and carefully popped in a new film cartridge from the bag. The camera whirred to life and ejected the film cover, indicating that it was ready to use.

Chapter Text

A loud knock startled Basil. He was home alone. Polly wasn’t supposed to be there for at least a few more hours. He stepped away from the pile of clothes he was folding and hesitantly walked to the front door, throwing it open before he could psych himself out. Cool air whooshed out of the house while hot summer air flowed in to replace it.

A handsome, albeit sweaty face with a gentle smile greeted him. “Hey Basil, did you miss me yet?

It’s just Hero. Basil released the breath he was holding with a sigh that turned into a giggle. “It hasn’t even been a week. Don’t flatter yourself, you’re not THAT charming!”

Hero guffawed. “I guess I’ve been slacking, then!”

Still laughing, Basil stepped back from the door and led his friend inside. Hero looked around at all the blooming flowers in admiration.

“It always smells so good in your house,” Hero mused, “and it looks straight out of a fairy tale. I couldn’t even keep the succulent in my dorm alive!”

“What?” Basil was astonished. “How do you even kill a succulent?”

Suddenly, Hero’s smile looked a lot more sheepish. “Well,” he started, scratching the back of his head, “I kinda saw a spider on it and uh, didn’t touch it for the next, y’know… few months.”

Basil’s laugh was laced with genuine concern. “That’s… Maybe you should talk to somebody about that.”

“Yeaaaaah, probably. Anyway I haven’t seen Polly, is she not here?”

Totally not changing the subject or anything. “No, she has class on Wednesday mornings.”

Hero looked like he just smelled something rotten. “Yeesh, summer classes? I don’t envy her. Do you know when she’s supposed to graduate?”

“Sh-she’s trying to graduate in December, I think.”

“Oh really? Is she gonna keep being your caregiver during her last semester?”

“As f-far as I know? Can we talk about something else, please?” Basil understood that as a med student, Hero was probably just curious about how her schedule worked. That didn’t make his tenuous living situation any easier to think about.

“Of course,” Hero looked sheepish again, “I uh… Well the main reason I came here was to invite you to lunch at Gino’s with me and Aubrey. I think Kim and Vance will be there too.”

Basil couldn’t tell whether Hero sounded unsure about the invitation or just felt bad about making him uncomfortable. “What about Kel?”

“He said he had to ‘practice basketball’ when I asked him.” Hero definitely sounded unsure that time. “But I know the others would love to talk to you!”

I hope that’s a good thing. “Yeah. Pizza sounds good. Let me just grab something first.”

The walk to Gino's was miserable. The air was punishingly hot and humid, and Basil could've sworn the pavement was starting to melt the bottoms of his shoes. Hero looked to be in a particularly rough state. Basil wondered how long he'd been out in the heat that day.

When they arrived at Gino’s, the three hooligans were sitting around a pizza that was already a third of the way eaten.

“You already ordered? I thought we were going to wait for Basil,” Hero sounded a bit like an exasperated mother.

“Well, you were takin’ too long!” Kim said loudly while grabbing another slice.

“Don’t worry,” Aubrey added at a much more reasonable volume, “it’s got mushrooms on half for you two.”

“Yeah,” Vance interjected with his mouth half full, “We ruined half of a perfectly good pizza for y’all! Come sit!”

Basil was kind of surprised that Aubrey not only remembered his favorite kind of pizza, but also split half of her pizza when she didn’t even like mushrooms. It calmed his nerves a bit as he took a seat and a slice of pizza from the untouched half.

“So Basil,” Kim started, “I, uhm, hope there’s no hard feelings between us. I know we were kinda… uh-”

Vance finally swallowed his mouthful of pizza and interrupted. “What she’s trying to say is that we’re sorry. We shouldn’t have pushed you around and talked down to you like we used to. I hope you’ll forgive us whenever you’re ready, but in the meantime you can hang out with the gang any time you want. Just if you want to. We’d love to have you around.”

Kim looked between her brother and Basil. “Yeah, what he said.”

To say that Basil didn’t expect that would’ve been an understatement. He thought Aubrey’s gang would feel neutral about him at best.

“Oh. Um, there’s really no hard feelings. I think it would be nice to start over with you guys,” Basil stared down at his pizza slice while he talked.

Aubrey was silent.

Hero finally approached the table with a large, half-drunk glass of water in his hands. “Aww look, we’re already friends!”

The group ate in sort-of-awkward silence for a few minutes before Hero spoke up again, frantically. “Oh crap, I completely forgot! I agreed to help Mrs. Swanson move her television at noon!

Vance looked down at his watch. “It’s only a quarter ‘till twelve. You can make it if you leave now.”

That didn’t seem to calm Hero down. “Okay, but it’s a really big TV and there’s no way I can move it by myself. I hate to ask this on such short notice, but can you two come with me? I’ll owe you one.”

“What?!” Kim nearly screamed, “Why did you agree if you couldn’t do it yourself? Yer not pullin’ me away from this pizza. Just take Vance, he’s strong enough.”

“Kim,” Vance said calmly, “if it’s really that big, we’ll need someone to spot us as we carry it. Plus, think of all the candy we can convince Hero to buy us after this.”

That seemed to shut down all of Kim’s protests. “Fine, whatever, but you’re buyin’ us a whole bag of tootsie rolls.”

Aubrey finally cut in, “Wait, this isn’t what we-”

“Thank you so much! I’ll buy you guys two bags of tootsie rolls! Each!” Hero looked elated.

Kim shot up from her chair. “Now yer talking!”

Hero started walking to the door with Kim and Vance in tow while Aubrey stared in disbelief. “Sorry, Aubrey,” he said, not even turning around to face her, “Lunch is on me next time!”

Just before Vance crossed the threshold out of Gino’s, he glanced over his shoulder at Aubrey with a grin. “Have fun!”

The door shut, leaving the restaurant completely empty except for Aubrey, Basil, and a clerk that looked like he was going to fall asleep any minute. Awkward silence dragged on.

“hAvE fUn,” Aubrey mocked.

Basil couldn’t think of anything to say.

Aubrey let out a deep sigh. “So like,” she started, “you know I don’t hate you or anything, right?

He, in fact, did not know that. “That’s good to hear.”

The air between them was filled with uncertainty. Aubrey was getting sick of it. “It’s just… every time I see you, I can’t stop thinking about…”

A beat of silence. Basil sniffled.

Aubrey eventually found the words she was looking for. “I think about what could’ve been. Even without Mari. Things didn’t have to be this way.”

“I know.”

“And I’m just so tired of thinking about it. I’ve spent way too long thinking about it. I just want things to go back to how they were, how they should’ve been. Can we just, like, agree to put all this behind us and go back to being friends?”

“Well, n-no that’s not quite right.”

Aubrey looked a bit shocked but stayed silent for Basil to continue.

“You’re right that we shouldn’t obsess over the past, but we can’t just pretend that nothing happened.” Basil’s soft voice slowly picked up more conviction as he kept talking. “Things will never be the same, and it hurts a lot to think about, but that’s why we have to be each other’s comfort.”

The two made brief eye contact for the first time since they started talking.

Aubrey crossed her arms defensively and stared down at the pizza crust in front of her. “Ugh, but that means we gotta actually talk about our feelings and shit.” As unaffected as she tried to sound, she couldn’t keep the edge of anxiety out of her voice. Deep breaths from Basil filled the silence.

“I thought I was going to die,” he nearly whispered, “in the lake that day.” Basil didn’t dare look at Aubrey as he let himself remember. “I got water in my lungs and it made me cough, but that just let more water in. Eventually I gave up trying to breathe. I just accepted that I was g-going to die. The last th-thing I remember though…” His body was shaking violently, fighting against his every word. “I-it was Sunny splashing and coughing too.”

Absolute silence.

“I… don’t w-w-want to be scared of you,” he mumbled, “but w-when you lock your feelings behind that cold f-face…”

Neither knew who started crying first, but the small restaurant was soon filled with loud sobs. Basil moved his chair closer to Aubrey and wrapped his arms around her trembling shoulders. She let out a string of incoherent apologies that Basil quickly accepted. The clerk pointedly looked away and hummed to himself to give them at least some semblance of privacy.

“God, I didn’t know how much I needed that,” Aubrey sighed after ten whole minutes of crying and took a good look at Basil for the first time since he walked in. “Oh, you have your camera!”

For the first time in years, Aubrey just sounded like Aubrey to Basil. Not like the tough delinquent, but like Aubrey, his first real friend. He was so absorbed in the thought that he didn’t even notice her take the camera from his lap.

“Say cheese!” she smiled, holding the camera out in front of her and turning it to face them. The flash nearly blinded them from that close.

A photograph ejected from the camera with a mechanical whir and slowly revealed the image of two teenagers in a side hug with more genuine happiness on their faces than Basil had seen there in a long time. The picture was off-center and a little blurry, and it was obvious by their red, puffy eyes that they had been crying, but it was perfect.

“You should send that to Sunny,” Aubrey said softly. “I’m sure he would like to see it. You’ve been writing to him too, right?”

“Yeah, I sent him a letter earlier this week,” he replied, still smiling.

“Good. Also, uh, do you wanna come to the hangout spot with me and some of the hooligans this Saturday? Hero and Kel will be there. I think Hero’s bringing those kick-ass ham sandwiches he makes.”

Basil finally looked up from the photo to see a soft expression that almost looked out of place on the pink-haired girl. “I would love to.”

Polly’s car was in the driveway when Basil got home. He walked through the door and was startled when his caregiver suddenly appeared in front of him like she was just waiting for him to get home. She was smiling in that way that meant she had good news.

“Hey Basil! Something came for you in the mail today.”

Basil’s head snapped to the corner of the table where Polly always put the mail. Sure enough, there was a simple white envelope sitting on the top of the pile with familiar handwriting across it. Basil sprinted the three steps to the table to confirm. It was from Sunny.