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The sound of a door slamming is loud enough to alert the whole neighbourhood of one thing, Basil is out and about again.
He is hardly outside anymore, staying in his own little house or in the backyard to tend to his flowers. Polly is normally the one doing grocery runs now, but the times that she is busy with other things (which is quite rare) Basil goes out instead. His appearance has changed drastically, without him needed to physically change much about himself.
His nice blond hair has darkened from the lack of sunlight he’s been getting, his clothes are wrinkled because he hardly cares to iron them anymore, he has taken to wearing rain pants and big tall boots so he can more easily care for the many new and diverse plants he’s started growing. Anything to take his mind off of reality.
As he walks bits of mud and dust fall off of his boots and pants, leaving a slight trail behind him. He also didn’t care too much about getting the mud off his boots and just kept them outside at this point.
Basil pulls a piece of paper out of his back pocket and scans over the list Polly had given him. they needed food and bandaids, simple enough. Putting the paper back in his pocket he keeps walking, but as he is about to turn past the park he runs into a pink haired girl. When basil regains his balance he makes eye contact with Aubrey, and his already sour mood becomes cold and enraged.
Aubrey wasn’t in the best mood either, she was looking for her missing rabbit after all. But when she realised it was Basil she ran into, she saw an opportunity to try and make amends with him. She didn’t want to lose her friends again. “Hey Basil, uh sorry about that. How ha-”
“Whatever.” Basil dismisses her attempt to converse. He wants nothing to do with his old friends, especially Aubrey. He tries to leave but then Aubrey grabs his arm “w-wait I think we should talk.” Basil sighs, trying to keep his anger from bubbling over. “What is there to talk about? You made your hatred towards me and Sunny very clear when you killed him.” he deadpanned. He knew that would most likely stop all of her thoughts of hope in their tracks. To his disappointment however, she was determined to try and speak with the boy. How annoying.
“I know I fucked up… like, really bad. But you also fucked up, we both fucked up this friendship and I want to try again.” “Really? Latching onto that still? I did that four years ago Aubrey, I’ve grown and gotten better. You grew and got worse. We are different in that sense, now let me go.” Basil tries to pull his arm away, but is painfully aware that Aubrey is still significantly stronger than him.
“I can’t lose you again Basil… I just want things to go back to the way they were before…” Aubrey pleads, she remembered Basil always looking back on the old times fondly, it’s why he took pictures so frequently after all.
“Well you certainly didn’t care to lose Sunny, I am giving you one last warning Aubrey. Let me go.” Basil glares, he doesn’t actually know how he’ll get out of the trap, but maybe blinding rage will figure it out for him. Aubrey responds to this threat by tightening her grip “Please… I just want to have a proper conversation with you.”
“Well I don’t.” Basil answers tugging his arm away with much more force this time. When that still doesn’t work he lifts his foot and kicks Aubrey's leg with all of his strength, which gets her to let go and fall down in pain. Basil swiftly turns around and goes on his way, leaving Aubrey on the sidewalk holding her newly injured ankle.
Basil doesn’t even spare her a glance, she had it coming in his opinion.
He takes a deep breath and opens the door to Other Mart. But not before kicking his boots on the floor to get any access mud and dirt off his boots so it doesn't make a trail inside the building. Basil may be sick of everyone, but he isn’t a douchebag. ‘Food and band aids… food and band aids…’ he reminds himself as he walks around the place. ‘...food…’ he grabs a variety of fruits and some tofu, then turns into the next aisle to get vegetables.
Once he decides it is enough food he makes his way to the cashier, pulling out his wallet and paying for the food. He pays four dollars extra for a bag to carry the food in and goes to the pharmacy just to the left of the building. Band aids were a much simpler thing to find as he could buy the right at the register, so he does that.
The boy finishes paying for the bandages and gets some extra patches just in case. It's always good to be prepared. He was about to leave the pharmacy when a worker tried to get his attention. “Do you need something?” he asks, remembering now that his voice sounds awful.
“You have a bit of uhm, blood on your boot. You might have stepped on something without noticing?” Basil looks down at his footwear, oh huh, he didn’t even notice. “Really sorry about that sir, if it made a mess I could help clean it?” “no no no! No mess, just wanted to make sure you were aware of it.” the man waved, leaving to continue his work.
Basil will be taking a detour to buy some cleaning supplies then. He leaves the mart and goes right next door to the tool shop, they should have what he’s looking for right?
The door rings as he enters, what a nice chime, and he is greeted by the worker at the cash. “Hello Basil! It has been a while since you’ve dropped by here? Getting any new plants per chance? We just got a shipment of many new kinds of seeds if you wanted me to get them from the back?” the man smiles, since Basil used to come here so often for flower related business the two became quite acquainted.
Basil waves “Hello, I came here for cleaning supplies actually, but I wouldn’t mind taking a look at the new plants!” This’ll be a good way to lighten up his soured mood he decides.
The cashier nods “What did you need cleaned?” “My boot, I must have stepped on something on the way over here because now there is a bit of blood on it.” He wasn’t going to tell this guy he’d just kicked and probably seriously injured someone, so he went with what that worker at the mall had assumed. “Alrighty then, I’ll go get something for that along with the new shipments!” He opens the desks gate and walks to the back of the store.
‘Pretty quiet at this time of day… It’s nice.’ the blond haired boy thinks as he glances around the store. The shelves were all messed up and disorganised. Basil hadn’t been taking the part-time job here anymore and neither had Sunny… obviously, so there wasn’t much extra help it seems.
Almost none of the tools were in the right spots… how can it get so messy in just a day? Basil is awoken from his thoughts when the worker from before returns carrying quite a few things. “Remember your wallet this time?” Basil gets his wallet from his wallet and shows it to the man. “Great, now…” he sets the cleaning supplies down to the side of him, and places the variety of boxes with flower pictures on them side by side at the front of the desk. “...Let me show you what we just got in.”
Pushing one box forward to get Basil's attention pulled to it, the cashier points at the label on the box. “I know you’re pretty knowledgeable on flowers already, but I’ll give you a reminder anyway. This is a ‘Widow's tears’ mixture. Should bloom into a plethora of colours on the cold side of the spectrum.” “They have that name because of the liquid that can come out of them… almost as if the flower is crying.” Basil adds on. “So I’ve heard! Though I have never seen it happen myself…” “I would hope you haven't, that would mean you’ve been squeezing flowers.”
The worker laughs and pushes forward another box, pointing at the next one's label. Basil is quick to recognise the name. “Pink Astrantias! Astrantias was one of the plants I was going to add sooner, but couldn’t find them here… I would’ve had to go into the city to get them.” “I remember you asking for them a few years ago, figured you’d be pretty stoked to see em’.”
“They are such pretty flowers… They symbolise strength and bravery, specifically a strong brave protector. I ended up getting gladiolus instead when I wanted them back then. But it’ll be good to have them now.” Basil says, remembering when he was working on his garden for his friends. He was stuck between a few different flowers to add, but is glad he chose what he did in hindsight.
When the cashier moves to push the next box forward, enjoying the conversation the two were having, the front door rings again. Basil turns to see who had entered the door and his smile immediately falls. ‘God damn it I already dealt with one of you, I can not deal with another.’ he thinks as his expression goes from shock to cold hatred and annoyance.
“I’m back! With my wallet this time luckily, I made double sure.” Kel waves his hand towards the cashier and the cashier waves back. “I swear, each and every one of you kids forgets your wallets at some point. Maybe they get it from you.” The man laughs turning to Basil as he jokes, but notices the hate filled expression.
Luckily this cashier is very skilled in the ‘change the subject before someone gets punched’ category. “Aaaanyways, I had to put your air pump back in its place so I could make room for these boxes, sorry.” he turns back to Basil “Did you want to continue looking through the plants or add more flowers to your garden another day?” He asks.
Basil is a little preoccupied giving Kel a death stare, this death stare does its job and gets Kel to walk away further into the store. ‘Looks like dumbass is learning, maybe Aubrey told him I broke her leg or something.’ Basil exhales with slight amusement, then turns to the cashier.
“I don’t mind continuing, it’s nice to talk to someone about this who shares the interest.” Basil’s smile returns “The feeling is mutual, now the next plant here isn’t exactly a flower, but is a Fairy Castle Cactus.” “Otherwise known as Acanthocereus Tetragonus. It has a ridiculous amount of names for just a cactus.” Basil remarks, it really does have too many names.
Kel was just a few aisle away holding an air pump, he wanted to wait until Basil was finished talking with the cashier to pay for it. He was buying it for Sally so she could use his old bike, and maybe buying it for himself so he could use Hero’s bike. He realised this was going to take a while and sat down, fiddling with the pieces of the tool.
About twenty minutes past and the cashier suddenly leans over the desk to check over the aisles. “Something wrong?” Basil asks, curious. “Yeah… I think Kel is doing that thing he did earlier.” He responds, sighing. “What do you mean that thing he did earlier”
“It still shocks me even though this is the fifth time he’s done it! Whenever one of the members of your little group is already here buying something, he just sits in the aisle and waits for them to leave. Honestly I have never seen him so antisocial… I thought it’d be different with you but I guess not.”
Basil tilts his head, also confused. “This is a shock to me as well, do you know why he does it?” The boy asks in response, he gets why Kel would want to stay away from him, he sent him a death glare the moment he entered the store, but Aubrey? Didn’t he decide to pretend she did nothing wrong?
“Well I don’t have much context to go off of, but given your stare from earlier I assume you lot had a falling out?” “We did before! So why would he do this now?” The cashier only shrugs in response, and Basil reminds himself this guy probably doesn’t even know all their names. How would he know why Kel is doing this?
So Basil takes it upon himself to investigate. He had been recharged in a sense by his nice conversation with the cashier, so he probably won’t be as sour towards Kel. And besides, curiosity only killed the cat, not the human.
Making his way over to where Kel presumably was, he sighs. His assumption was correct and Kel was in this aisle, so he walked over to the boy who seemed very focused on… uh… whatever he was doing to the air pump. Upon a closer inspection Basil realises he’s just fidgeting with it, using it as something to distract himself with. It works well too, he has yet to notice Basil standing over him.
Basil watches for about a minute and decides to stand in front of Kel to hopefully get his attention now. Which he does, Kel visibly jumps and is a little spooked by Basil just standing over him. Rightfully so, it is a little off putting to find the person who was giving you murder eyes is now standing right there in front of you.
“Why are you doing this?” Basil asks, and Kel is confused by the question. “Doing what?” “Sitting and waiting for me to leave instead of just paying for your stuff and risking a few judgemental glares? According to the cashier, you did it when Aubrey was here too.” Kel turns away, eyes glued to the ground.
Basil takes this as a reason to continue. “Since when did you care how others saw you? Last I checked you were an unmovable pillar of smiles, never took you for the type to be this anxious.” Basil taps his foot to make sure Kel was paying attention. “Never took you for the type to be so confrontational.” “Well here we are I suppose, why’d you avoid Aubrey of all people? I thought you forgave her on the spot?”
“I was worried for her, that doesn’t mean I forgave her. Do you guys seriously see me as that… simple?” Kel asks, turning his head to face Basil again. Basil can only cross his arms in response, giving Kel room to keep talking if he wanted.
He doesn’t say anything else though, so it wasn’t a rhetorical question. “Do you want me to be honest?”
“...”
“I did. Because you never spoke up for yourself, to my memory anyway. You never took anything seriously and laughed in the face of tragedy. You were immature, annoying, and a really really loud kid.” Kel seems to lose a bit of confidence from those statements, but then Basil keeps going.
“In a way, I envied you for that. That unbreaking joy and pride. The shameless excitement you kept. I realise now maybe I shouldn’t have put you on that pedestal.”
Kels eyes widened, lips pressed together tightly, holding back any sort of emotion he was feeling even after what Basil said. “You’re such an idiot, you forgot something so incredibly important again.”
“My wallet…?”
“No, your feelings. It isn’t a crime to be unhappy, you know. Someone very close to me taught me that.” Basil remembers the nights he and Sunny spent together, crying, yelling, being angry, being sad. Those nights they found comfort in being not okay… in a strange way.
Knowing it was okay to not be okay, that was a comfort in and of itself.
After those words, tears fell from Kels tired eyes. Basil let him silently release his emotions, but then remembered they were sitting on the ground of a tool shop. So, Basil reached out a hand for Kel and he took it. Standing up from the ground he sat on Basil wraps one of the boy's arms around his shoulder, taking Kel with him to the door.
Basil is then also reminded what he and Kel were doing here in the first place when he makes eye contact with the cashier. He leads Kel outside and motions for him to stay put for a moment, confusing the taller boy. His confusion doesn’t last for long when Basil exits the shop with multiple bags in hand.
“I originally went out to get groceries, so I need to bring these home. I could drop you off at your place or… if you wanted you are welcome over at mine.” Basil explains lifting the bags he was holding as a sort of proof of his words.
Kel wipes his eyes and ponders on it. Then nods when he comes to a conclusion. “I’d uhm, like to talk with you more…”
“My house it is then.”