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“Sooooooo,” Basil started.
He stared across the table at Sunny, who was loudly slurping from his milkshake.
“Uh,” Basil continued, “my therapist said I should try… asking you questions about, uh, your life. For a change. You know.”
Sunny continued to slurp.
“You know. ‘Cuz I’ve always been venting to you, my whole life, and all. About myself. And uh, I never really, stopped, to, uh, ask about you.”
Sunny stopped slurping. “Mhm.”
“So… uh… what has it been like, for you? These past few years?” Basil asked. “I’m sorry I, uh, never visited or anything. I figured you, uh, wouldn’t want to see me. Ever. Again.”
Sunny went back to slurping.
“I could have, you know, asked you yourself and stuff. But I didn’t, so, uh, what have you been up to?”
Sunny slurped some more, but was mostly just getting air. He looked down into the glass to see what the problem was. Lo and behold, the milkshake was empty.
He looked to the left. A bunch of people he didn’t recognize were seated in the booth across from them. He looked to the right. The scenes of the busy city he had just moved to played out before him. He thought he might have seen a wormhole wandering around. Or maybe it was just a cat.
He looked ahead of him, at the blushing blond boy staring awkwardly into his eye that was not covered by gauze. Oh yes. There was a conversation happening.
“Uh,” Sunny mumbled, “I dunno. I’ve been sleeping? Playing some video games on the computer? Uh, not really much else.”
“And that’s all you were doing for four years?”
Sunny looked into his empty glass. That eye contact had lasted too long. “Pretty much.”
“Oh.”
Basil looked off to the side, concerned. Sunny continued to look into the empty glass.
Basil began tapping on the table.
Sunny continued to look into the empty glass.
Basil continued to tap on the table.
Sunny looked slightly above the table to see a completely untouched milkshake in front of Basil.
“Are you, uh. Are you gonna drink that?” Sunny asked.
Basil looked at Sunny. “Oh, uh. You. Can have it.”
Sunny looked at Basil. He looked at Basil’s milkshake. He grabbed the milkshake, and moved it to his side of the table.
Sunny began slurping on the milkshake.
Basil continued to tap on the table.
Sunny continued to slurp on the milkshake.
“You know,” Basil said, “If I was Aubrey, or Kel, or Hero, I would have asked you, ‘didn’t you get bored doing nothing all that time?’”
Sunny slurped on Basil’s milkshake.
“But, I’m not them,” Basil continued, rising from hus seat. “I know what it’s like. It’s never boring. Not for a second. It’s always terrifying. Knowing that your every waking second is constantly filled with the knowledge of what you have done, of what a horrible person you are. That knowledge, constantly chasing you. Constantly consuming you. Constantly making you take every ounce of willpower in your body to reassure yourself that everything is going to be okay.”
Sunny slurped on his milkshake. “Yup.”
Basil sat back down. “But now that the truth is out… well, at least Kel was willing to talk to us about it. It feels… really strange to know that even after all that, someone could still look us in the eye and want to talk to us. About something else. It really feels like we’re beginning to move on, doesn’t it?”
Sunny looked up. “Eh.”
“Well at least I feel that way. But then, uh, what are you feeling?”
Sunny stopped slurping. He hadn’t really thought about that.
What was he feeling? Hope, maybe, that things could get better? No. The look in Hero’s eyes after he spoke the truth… that wasn’t hope.
Fear? Of what? Everything he had ever feared for the past four years had just happened. What could possibly be scary anymore?
Happiness? Sadness? Anger? No, none of that. Nothing at all? No, there was definitely something there. Something that was looking back at the massive mountain he had just climbed down the other side of.
He looked at Basil. “Tired, I guess. Maybe a little relieved, too. I don’t know. If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past few weeks, it’s that I really don’t know how to process my own emotions.”
Basil scowled. “What do you mean?”
Sunny laughed. “Just… the way I processed everything was a bit… unusual. Trust me, you don’t want to know.”
Basil leaned over the table. “Of course I want to know! I just said I thought you should tell me more about yourself.”
Sunny blushed and looked down, but he was acutely aware of the blond boy smiling at him from across the table. Why did this make him feel so uncomfortable? He had been separated from everyone else for so long, and even in the past few weeks, he had mostly been helping others. It had been many, many years since someone wanted to know how he felt.
And now, someone was… genuinely interested. In him.
It was scary. But, maybe that was a good thing. Going outside with Kel was scary. Jumping in the lake to save Basil was scary. And telling everyone the truth was the most terrifying thing he had ever done. Sunny had been taking risks he never could have imagined for the past month, and they had all, somehow, worked out.
Maybe it was time to open up a little. But probably not in a milkshake parlor.
“Not here,” Sunny said, getting up, leaving Basil’s unfinished milkshake on the table. “Let’s go back to my place. Then… I’m gonna tell you all about Omori.”