Chapter Text
Kel sighed as he stumbled out of his bed, tumbling onto the floor after his legs got twisted in his blanket. He landed with a thud, and after a minute of simply sitting there, he thrashed out of his blanket. He had woken up later, much much later then usual, but at least he got some sleep.
Kel stood up, and grabbed his binder that was sitting on the edge of his unkept bed. He put it on as he walked out the door of his and his brothers room, stumbling downstairs to go make some homemade orange joe, as he didn’t have the money to pay for the stuff himself. He had not much on his mind, which was rare these days after Sunny.. admitted to the truth. Kel shrugged, trying to keep it out of his mind. His fingers tapped against the counter as he waited for his coffee to brew. It was out of order, messy, he could never keep it in the right order like his mother when she was impatient and mad at him.
Kel mixed the orange soda and coffee together, to combine and have a makeshift orange joe. He walked over to the couch to drink it, rather gulping it down, as his version of the drink always tasted weird, no matter how much he tried to make it accurate. He figured he could just read the ingredients on the can, but he was far too lazy to do such a thing, so he instead was stuck with a gross Walmart version of the drink, and that was that.
Kel finished drinking the ‘orange joe’ and put the cup in the sink, not bothering to wash it. He then went upstairs to get dressed, today was a hot day so he figured he could just wear his basketball uniform again, though it did kind of stink… oh well, another thing gross about him like people thought. People were always quick to say he was too loud or annoying, and while it bothered him he figured to just leave those people alone, after all, he was the one annoying them.
Kel put on his clothes, and went downstairs again to put his sneakers on. They were orange and dirty, a splinter or two in one of the shoes. He figured today he should go on a walk, before his parents could yell at him for never doing anything around the house. So, he opened the door, the morning sunlight hitting him hard, and stepped outside.
He breathed in the fresh early morning air, while it wasn’t six AM per usual for him to get up, it was eight, and that means he was still early. So as he stepped into the driveway of his house, he realized he didn’t exactly have a game plan for the day, sure he could always hit up Aubrey for some.. things, but he figured she wouldn’t even be awake right now. Maybe he could stop by Sunny’s old house for a bit, surely the people who bought it hadn’t moved in yet?
Kel walked over to Sunny’s house, right next to his, and opened the door to it. No car at the house, that was a good sign. He stepped into the house, observing the… emptiness of it.
It was cold, he noticed. It was surprising that the house even had air conditioning right now, shouldn’t it have been shut off? Kel shrugged, walking into where the living room would be, but it wasn’t, it felt.. strange. Suffocatingly so. Kel walked to the screen door, opening it, getting hit with a wave of heat from the outside. He rubbed his eyes, and then spotted Sunny, sitting in the fetal position on the grass, eyes locked on the stump.
Kel was taken aback, a bit shocked Sunny was still in faraway. It was strange, as if Sunny wasn’t really there and Kel was just hallucinating or something like that. Kel tried to leave Sunny alone, stepping back into the house, but before he could manage to do such, Sunny looked at Kel, and he froze.
“Sunny..?” Kel managed to croak out, bewildered that his best friend was still here. Hadn’t he moved away already? Obviously not, but Kel felt like he must of been hallucinating or something, as how could Sunny possibly be here, in faraway town, a week after he was supposed to move.
“Er- Hey..!” Kel blurted out, awkwardly his gaze turned to the side towards the tan grass, dead by having not been taken care of in a while. “I.. uh, I’m sorry- I can go..” Kel mumbled, whilst fidgeting with his fingers.
“...No, its okay.” Sunny finally responded, his quiet voice seemed to echo into Kel’s ears.
Kel didn’t really know what to say in response, so he hesitantly sat by Sunny on the grass, looking at the tree stump in Sunny’s backyard that Sunny had been looking at earlier, before Kel opened the door, interrupting him.
Kel’s eyes avoided the tree stump, not a fan of it due to its history. Whilst Sunny had his eyes locked on it, as if he was scared of the thing.
Finally, after what felt like hours, the silence was broken between the two. “So uh..” Kel paused. “Do you want to get something to eat maybe?” Kel asked, turning his head towards Sunny. He hated how he was so.. Friendly with Sunny, even after all he’s done. But, he didn’t really have any other choice.
Sunny looked at Kel, breaking his gaze on the tree stump. After looking at Kel for a minute, he nodded, and started to get up. Kel followed Sunny inside his house.
The two of them walked into the kitchen, and Kel looked around, eventually opening the refrigerator door.
Kel looked back at Sunny in confusion. “Hey man uh.. Do you only have leftover steak in your fridge..?” Kel asked, but it was more of a rhetorical question.
Sunny looked away awkwardly, he was definitely embarrassed.
Kel continued looking in the fridge, for anything to cook that wouldn’t either poision them, or possibly risk the chance of Kel burning the house down. Kel wasn’t.. The best at cooking to say the least, and Sunny wasn’t particularly that great either.
“Yo uh.. Its alright, I probably have some ramen cups at my house.. Um, I can just slip inside and grab some for us.” Kel suggested, after all the two of them were neighbors.
Sunny looked back at Kel, before shaking his head. Kel bit his lip in response, he knew the exact reason Sunny didn’t want to be near Kel’s house.
“Alright uh, well we could go to Gino’s then for some pizza. How about that?” Kel asked, avoiding the fact that the reason Sunny didn’t want to go to Kel’s house wasn’t even home.
Sunny nodded rather hastily. It was apparent to most that Sunny wasn’t the one for talking. Kel knew the real reason though, it was because Sunny was diagnosed with selective mustism a while back. A lot of people just assumed he was shy though.
“Alright, lets go then.” Kel waited for Sunny to get out of his seat, before making his way to the front door of the house, and opening it for Sunny.
Kel and Sunny walked down the street, Kel kicking some rocks in the road as they did. The street was rather empty this morning, but that was typical in a place like Faraway. Not many people lived here, and Kel kind of preferred it that way.
So as Kel and Sunny walked and no words were exchanged, the two felt a sense of comfort in the fact that no one could see them. No one could bother them, and all they had was each other.
Kel opened the door to Gino’s, the smell of grease and pepperoni filled the air. Sunny and Kel sat at a two person table, and Kel smiled at Sunny.
“So uh.. I’m assuming I should order for you, do you know what you want?” Kel asked, he had a feeling he knew what Sunny wanted, but four years had passed, maybe Sunny’s taste buds had changed.
“Um.. I’ll have a cheese pizza, and a soda..” Sunny murmured, just loud enough for Kel to hear.
“Alright! I’ll be right back sunshine.” Kel grinned, and got up from his seat, walking to the counter to order. Kel was right, Sunny’s taste buds hadn’t changed after all.
Sunny waited for Kel to come back, as he repetitively tapped his foot on the ground. Sunny was nervous and well- confused. Why was Kel being nice to him? Even after all he’s done? Sunny shook his head, trying to focus on something else other then his own thoughts.
Sure, SOMETHING had gone away, but Sunny’s guilt was still here, lingering, as if he could never shake it off. Sunny partially wished, for just a moment- that he never told the group about the truth. Maybe that way, he could of left Faraway, but now he was stuck here for the summer, all because he felt he needed to stay in this place, just to leave his friends so soon after he hurt them so much. He was selfish, truly the most selfish person on earth. He got to let go of the guilt, his friends? It came rushing back to them.
Sunny buried his head in his arms. He hated himself. He wished he had succumb already-
Kel put the plates of Pizza on the table, and gently shook Sunny. “Hey uh.. Are you alright..?”
Sunny put his head up, and looked at Kel, before looking away. “Yeah..” He mumbled, glad that Kel had come back.
Kel sat back down in his seat, a nagging feeling of worry in the back of his brain. “Uh.. anyways! Dig in I guess..” Kel smiled nervously at Sunny, hoping Sunny was fine.
Kel took a bite of his pizza, it had extra pepperoni on it, along with cheese coming from expired packets on it, and a few drops of tabasco. Just how he liked it, though Sunny would say the tabasco made it too spicy. Kel didn’t care though, he liked the flavor it gave to the pizza.
Sunny’s pizza consisted of cheese, and more cheese, and even more cheese. Kel would say that even though he was the type to love cheese, that was a bit too far. But Sunny didn’t mind, he liked how all the cheese covered the weird greasy feeling the original cheese had on the pizza.
Sunny stirred the straw in his soda cup, watching the soda’s carbon fizz up due to the motions of the straw. The way Sunny watched it was like the average football fan watching the superbowl, eyes locked on and ready to scream if something went wrong. Sunny liked how the bubbles reminded him of stars.
By the time Sunny looked up again, Kel had finished his pizza, and was now chugging his Orange Joe, another kind of soda that mixed up coffee and orange soda- most thought it tasted bad, but to Kel it was the best drink ever.
“Hey uh, Sunny.. Why do you always wear your old school uniform..? You do know that its summer, right?” Kel giggled a bit at the last part, though it was partially serious.
“Um.. I don’t know..” Sunny murmured, he didn’t really like talking loud, even if he was talking to Kel. “Its.. comfortable I guess…”
Kel nodded. “That makes sense, Basil likes to wear his school uniform too. It kind of makes you two look like your matching.” Kel added, smiling at Sunny.
“Kel..” Sunny spoke up, looking at his soda. “I’m.. sorry..” he looked back up at Kel.
Kel was a bit caught off guard, before he laughed it off awkwardly. “Yeah uh.. Its fine man.. We all make mistakes haha..” Kel scratched his neck.
There was an awkward silence between the two. Yet to them, it felt loud, as if the silence was screaming in their ears. It was desperate and angry, crying out. Yet to them both, they chose to ignore it. Trying to forget its cries for help.
“Um.. Do you want to visit Basil in the hospital?”