Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“I have to tell you something.”

He surprised himself with the sound of his own voice. For so long he had never needed to speak to anyone, and even as of recently, he let everyone around him do the talking. Undeterred, he continued, keeping his eyes focused on his bedridden friend in front of him, who seemed to know exactly what was coming.

“It’s about Mari. She didn’t kill herself.”

He swallowed. His mouth was dry, and words were already becoming hard to form. Four pairs of eyes intently stared at him, each filled with a feeling of uncomfortable dread.

One pair of eyes belonged to his best friend. His skin golden, undoubtedly from all of the time he spent outside, practicing and playing basketball each day. His brown hair unkempt and uncut, though short at the front and sides, nearly reached his shoulders at the back. He towered over everyone else in the hospital room.

Another pair of eyes belonged to his childhood crush. Though they were contacts, they shined a light cyan hue, which contrasted greatly to her long, flowing, bright pink hair. She had a threatening aura to her, obviously rough around the edges due to her abusive life at home and the people she surrounded herself with.

A third pair of eyes belonged to his late sister’s boyfriend. Noticeably older than the rest of the group, he possessed dark bags under his eyes, most certainly coming from his late nights studying to be a doctor at college. His spiky brown hair was a dead giveaway of his direct relation to his younger brother standing across from him.

The final pair of eyes belonged to his partner in crime. Puffy from endless nights of pain and crying, his eyes glowed a vibrant teal. His blonde hair produced some short side tails, and his timid presence grew evermore relieved with each passing moment.

“I know you all remember the night of the recital. Mari and I were practising for hours. She had already perfected her part of the song. I was still messing up, though. She kept making me try it again, but I wanted a break.”

He could feel his skin getting itchy. He continued.

“She never let me stop. We started getting frustrated with each other, and we started yelling. I was crying, and started running to my room. She was faster, and blocked the door. All we did was scream and yell louder and louder at each other, and the next thing I knew, I threw my violin down the stairs, and it broke.”

His voice started becoming shaky, and his tone became darker, and quiet.

“I-I had never seen her that mad before. She screamed things at me that I never thought she would say in her life… I was scared she was going to hit me, and all I could think about was running, and getting out of the house. But when I turned around to go down the stairs, she ran in front of me and blocked my way down!”

Tears started flowing down his left cheek, and horrible pain started to resurface where is right eye used to be, but it stayed completely dry. He couldn’t maintain eye contact with any of the faces in front of him anymore. His voice rose.

“I didn’t mean to! She just kept getting closer to me! I-I-I pushed her!! I didn’t think she would fall back! It was a mistake! An idiotic mistake!! I pushed her down the stairs!!“

He completely collapsed, both mentally and physically. He couldn’t string together words properly without pausing to take tear filled breaths. He fell to the floor, throwing weak punches at what could only be deduced as his own shadow.

“I-I-I remember it s-so vividly, the t-terror in her eyes as she fell… a-a-and the blood curdling screaming… and the silence that followed after she reached the bottom…” He paused. His breathing became uncontrollable, yet he persisted.

“W-when she got to the bottom, I thought she was just unconscious!! I sat and looked at her, a-a-and.. then Basil came… and w-we took her to h-h-her bed to rest, a-and… we knew she wasn’t c-coming back. B-basil said he knew what to do, and I just did w-w-what he said! I d-didn’t want to—to get in trouble, so we…”

…

He thought about the look on Basil’s face when he found him sitting over his sisters corpse on the floor. Basil already knew she was dead. Why did he decide to do things the way he did?

“We staged her death!! We hung her on the tree! My favourite tree!” Basil… he told me not to look back, and that everything was going to be okay!!”

The aforementioned friend had a tint of guilt in his eyes, but didn’t dare interrupt now.

“I made the second worst mistake of my life by looking back at what we did! Now, her memory is plagued with constant nightmares and suffering!! There has not been one day where I haven’t thought about my stupidity!!”

He thought about how different things might have been if he had just owned up to it instead of doing what he did. Perhaps things would be better, or maybe he would have been rushing the inevitable. He also thought about how much different things would have been if he simply hadn’t murdered his sister. Someone who loved him unconditionally, someone who was such a big part of his friend’s lives. But he thought about that every day. Now was not a time to falter, as he only had one thing left to say.

“I’m so, so sorry!! I’m sorry I couldn’t just tell you all it was a mistake!! I’m sorry I let it go on for this long!! I’m sorry I let you live with thoughts that you did something to hurt her! You all never did a thing, and you still blamed yourselves!! I’m sorry Basil, that you had to live a fruitless life holding back years of pain just to protect me!! It all leads back to me! I’m so, so, so sorry!! I couldn’t live with myself if I kept it in any longer! I had to say it! I had to!!”

His voice finally gave out. A puddle of salty tears formed underneath his head, which hung low to the ground, pressing against the cold tile floor.

“I had to… I’m sorry…” he croaked.

…

The silence that followed after his last sound felt like hours. He waited for a reaction or response, but all he was met with was an eerie silence. He started putting his focus on his listening and found that there was a slight buzz in the light fixture that could be heard, as well as some distant hospital machinery churning, but a total wave of quiet washed over the hospital room after he finished his confession. He couldn’t bear the silence any longer, and finally mustered up the strength to look up at his friends. He wished he hadn’t.

Kel. He had a look of faint disbelief across his face, but the most crushing feature of his demeanour was the absolute horror he was displaying. Kel took a step back, nervously shielding himself as if the murderer in front of him was going to strike him next.

Hero. A face of pure disgust was plastered for the whole world to see. Not a soul in the room had ever seen a reaction that violent from him before, perhaps besides the day his lover decided to “kill herself”, but he conveniently just found out that wasn’t true.

Aubrey. Her expression didn’t give away how she felt at first. The information hit her all at once, and from the looks of it, was too much for her to handle, so she only stood frozen in a state of shock. It was only until a couple seconds later that tears started to well up in the corners of her eyes.

It wasn’t long before Hero took the initiative. He quickly walked over and gathered his friends, urgently gesturing for them to follow him.

“I’m happy you were able to get that off your chest, but we need a moment to ourselves. Kel, Aubrey, let’s go.”

Hero’s face was already back in a neutral position, although his furrowed eyebrows gave away his mental distress. He had always been an emotionally reserved person, but the people close to him had always known that his eyebrows told more about what he was feeling than his words did. It was a part of him that he couldn’t seem to hide, so he would only try to suppress it as much as possible. He and Aubrey quickly made their way out of the room, and Kel began to follow, but not before slowing down in the doorway and looking back. His expression softened and he spoke.

“They just need some fresh air, I think. A-and they don’t hate you, they probably just need time to think it through, y’know? Anyways, I gotta go talk to them now, so that means I’m going too, if that’s okay with you?”

“I understand, Kel.”

With that, the tanned athlete sped out of the room and began to catch up to the other two, leaving the culprits behind. After he finished composing himself, the raven haired boy stood up and made his way to the side of the bed. Both friends graced each other with soft smiles.

“That was a really brave thing to do… I’m guessing they won’t be talking to us for a while now, haha.” Basil forced a laugh.

A somewhat comfortable silence lingered, only for the blonde boy to break it again, his expression becoming more serious and genuine.

“You don’t know how proud I am of you for saying all those things, all at once. I know the others deserved that truth, regardless of how much it hurt us and them. But now, it’s finally off our shoulders, and we can rest easy and start over. Even if… it’s just me and you.”

“Sunny.”

Chapter Text

Sunny.

He found his name quite ironic considering his tendencies to bring himself and everyone he knows down. It’s not like it’s a common name either, and for it to be wasted on someone like him…

As he pondered aimlessly, he opened his phone to, surprisingly, 2 new notifications. Ah. The first one was nothing more than an alert to let him know one of his assignments was graded. 78%. He knew it was definitely not his best work, but as of late, it was the most he could get out of the energy he had. Countless nights of 5 to 6 hours of sleep had made each day of waking up insufferable, but he knew he deserved it, always staying up to 2 am each night to read or watch videos on his phone. On the topic of his phone, he remembered he still had one more notification. He opened it up.

[Basil] 4:35PM
You really think so? Personally I think the tulips look better in those ones!

Right. He forgot that he and Basil had been texting a little earlier in the day, near lunch time. Basil always puts his phone away during class time, so sunny presumed he had just gotten home and checked his phone. He strung together a reply.

[Sunny] 4:38PM
They’re your flowers right? Why ask me my opinion if you’ve already decided anyways?

Sunny put down his phone and started staring at the ceiling again. He readjusted his blanket a little. Night or day, his bed was his favourite place to be, just like always. Except this time, in a completely different room, in a completely different house, in a completely different city. It had been almost a year since Sunny had moved from Faraway, and life was starting to become normal for him. Though he barely made any friends at all, he considered his days much better spent now than he did locking himself up in his room for years on end. He had some passions, such as drawing and writing, and even picked the violin back up as a hobby. He enjoyed taking walks through the city and finding new things to do every week, and as tough as public school was for him, he could manage to get by only with a couple stares at his less than fashionable eye patch. He was trying to get used to his new life, but he still reminisced about days back with his best friends, and he certainly didn’t go a day without thinking about and regretting everything with his sister. As much as he tried to move past his old life, there was just one thing holding him back that just couldn’t get rid of. His phone vibrated, and he checked his screen.

[Basil] 4:40PM
Haha, since when do you hate talking to me? What’s the harm Sunny? Plus, an extra opinion is always nice to have.

Sunny chuckled to himself as he thought about Basil’s persistence in keeping the two from drifting apart. Sunny received his mobile phone a couple weeks after him and his mom settled into their new place, and only days after, he’s not even sure how, but was found and contacted by Basil. Ever since, the duo made an active effort to keep in touch by speaking at least once a day, and promising to always be open to each other about anything they ever needed to talk about. Nowadays Basil flooded Sunny’s notifications full of photos of his plants, always asking for approval and if anything needed to be changed. Sunny knew nothing about botany or the art of gardening, but was happy that they could openly share their passions so casually. They were comfortable saying anything, and frequently teased each other in friendly ways. Their relationship was the healthiest and strongest it had ever been, and Sunny was so grateful for it.

[Sunny] 4:41PM
Sure…
Say.
I’ve been meaning to ask for a while now, how are you doing, Basil? And I mean you, not your plants.

Sunny’s thoughts were interrupted by a call for his name.

“Sunny! Could you help me bring the groceries in from the car please?” His mom shouted from the front door. Rather than waiting for a response, she decided to close the door and head back to the car, not giving her son much of a choice in the matter.

Sunny hastily made his way downstairs and slipped some sandals on, and went out to go bring in some bags. His phone was left in his room face up, still on the messaging app that he used.

[Basil] 4:41PM
Honestly?

…

Sunny closed the trunk of the car and hauled in the last few bags from his mother’s shopping trip. He saw a couple things he liked, and some things that he didn’t. Sunny was not a picky eater, but he didn’t eat much of anything in the 4 years he spent locked up in his room, so he was still getting used to eating regular portions for a boy his age.

“How was your day today, sweetie?” His mom asked absentmindedly. She was putting all of the groceries in the right places, and gestured Sunny over to come help.

“It was alright. It was pizza for lunch today.” Sunny walked over to the counter and organized assortments of meats, cheeses, and vegetables. He never went into detail about how he felt with his mom, especially since they moved. He didn’t think she could handle his traumatic experiences on top of her own stresses, like keeping the house and supporting a growing boy on her own. It’s not like he wanted to dump it all on her anyway. As much as she cared about him, their communication had always been shallow, and neither of them put much of an effort in to build on it.

“That’s nice. How was Aiden today?” Aiden was the only person Sunny considered a friend in the city. He was rowdy, but he was a genuine guy. It also helped that he thought Sunny’s eyepatch was the coolest thing in the world.

“Oh. Aiden wasn’t at school today. He texted me about it.” Aiden frequently skipped school on Fridays to go to his cabin for the weekend, which Sunny envied.

“Oh, that’s too bad. Why don’t you invite him over some time? I’m sure you two would love to play some video games together.” His mom wrapped up what she was doing and placed a cylindrical container on the counter. “I also dropped by the pharmacy, so you should have enough meds to last you a while. Don’t forget them!” She made her way up the stairs and into her room. “I’m gonna take a nap, okay?”

“Okay.”

Shortly after his confirmation, he heard a door close, leaving him alone in the kitchen. He grabbed the bottle for himself and slipped it in his pocket. He had been taking some antidepressants and medication to stop his dreaming, as he would be in a world of pain without them. He reminded himself to take them before he went to bed, and looked up. Sunny forgot what he was doing. He stood still racking his brain for a moment before deciding to go on a walk. He didn’t have any school to worry about for two days and deserved something nice for making it through the week, so he was due for a little time to relax. He headed to his room to slip on something a little warmer. Soon after he put his hand on the door and looked back.

“Oh. Almost forgot my phone.”

Sunny was getting into a habit of talking to himself, but didn’t notice. He quickly took a stride over to the nightstand that held his phone and picked it up. He mindlessly closed all of the open apps and took a mental note not to leave so many apps running. He quickly flipped the light switch off and made his way to the front door. Slipping on some comfortable shoes, he walked outside.

Chapter Text

[Sunny] 4:41PM
Sure…
Say.
I’ve been meaning to ask for a while now, how are you doing, Basil? And I mean you, not your plants.

[Basil] 4:41PM
Honestly?
Things aren’t going well, Sunny.
I’m treated like garbage at school, Polly gets disappointed with me often, and I don’t have any friends here.
I think it’s because of the attitude I have.
I’m glad that we revealed the truth, and things are more clear with all the guilt now gone, but I thought it would change how my life was, and it ended up changing nothing and now I find myself sulking in my room.
Honestly the highlight of my day is talking to you and gardening.
But I wish it was more than that, sometimes I wish it would just go back to the way it was before…
Don’t you wish that sometimes?

Basil wasn’t the greatest with technology, but he definitely knew what “seen 22m” meant. Why did Sunny leave him on read? During a moment of weakness from him too… Basil only hoped that it was a mistake or Sunny had a good explanation. He put his phone down and looked up. No better time like the present to start watering.

Basil slapped on his gardening gloves and went out through his back door. There were many varieties of flowers and vines scattered across the back yard, which was devoid of any fences. Basil took a good look at the forest only a couple metres away from his yard. It had spread much closer to the houses, indicated by the young tree saplings and wild weeds appearing on everyone’s back lawns.

He wondered if he could ever take a walk through that forest again. He had gotten very lost in the trees the day everything happened. After staging Mari’s death, he told Sunny to stay in his room and then hastily left. He ran straight into the forest, as deep as he could. He panicked and got lost, and it was actually hours after Mari’s body had been discovered that he finally made his way back to his house, and heard the news. Never before had Basil lied straight to Polly’s face, who asked him if he knew what happened with Sunny’s sister. Basil recalled having to pretend to not know, and how disgusting of a feeling it was.

Basil snapped himself out of his trance and got to work. Tending to his plants was long and tedious, but he loved it. It made his house and his life so much more beautiful.

Water dripped out of the watering can onto the moist soil. All done in the back, time to move to the front.

Basil made his way around the side of the house and started working on the potted plants lined up along the exterior of the house.

What am I going to do this weekend? Maybe learn a new recipe? Or maybe even volunteer at Fix-it again? Basil thought to himself.

Basil had voluntarily came in to help out at Fix-it last weekend, specifically with the plant section. He enjoyed it fairly, so it was on the table. He thought on and on about trivial matters when a familiar sound caught his ear.

Thump, thump, thump, thump.

The sound of a basketball bouncing on the sidewalk drew closer. Basil knew this sound very well, deciding to move behind one of his flower bushes as soon as he caught wind of it. He didn’t want to look like he was hiding, he just wanted to be less noticeable.

The reason why he felt this way, a boy rather, walked casually on the sidewalk speaking to his friend after just coming out of an intense basketball one on one. He donned some sporty clothes and shoes, but they were no jersey and team uniform. The following months after Sunny left, Basil noticed the tanned boy’s wardrobe had grown more than jerseys and loose basketball shorts.

The friend that was tagging along had just come into earshot, and was in the middle of talking about some new video game.

“It’s actually sick though, how they let you choose what animations you want on your character! Which one were you thinking of choosing, Kel?”

“The dark one is awesome. I tried it out and my guy actually started levitating. I call dibs on it.”His voice boomed, just as it always had.

“What? No! I get that one! Dude, my character is literally named Shadow Overlord. I thought I told you I already had dibs on the dark one! I literally texted you, look!” Kel’s friend stopped in place to grab his phone out of his pocket, and start scrolling through the texts.

Why did they have to stop in front of his house? Why couldn’t they have just gone a little further?

“Here! Look. Right there. Riiiight theeeeere.” The jock pressed his device against Kel’s face, squishing his nose.

“I see it I see it! I don’t get why we can’t just both have it!”

“Because that ruins it, everyone’s gotta have a different one, man. You know the rules of the game right?”

The boys continued their walk, much to the relief of Basil.

“Oh, wait, hold on a sec, something I gotta do real quick.” Kel interrupted his buddy, and took a complete 180. “Gotta ask a dude I know for something. You go on ahead, I’ll meet you at your place. And make sure to put on some deodorant before I get there, ‘cause I KNOW you didn’t do that this morning.” Kel smirked.

His friend only gave him a glare and continued walking. Kel turned to face Basil’s house and travelled up the path to his door.

Basil screamed internally. What was he doing here? Did Kel want something from him? He had no time to think, and went back to his watering can and acted as if he wasn’t eavesdropping for the past two minutes. He was sure Kel would spot him.

“Oh, Basil! I didn’t see you behind that massive flower bush, dude! Nice garden by the way!” Kel still stayed enthusiastic, no matter who he was talking to.

“Oh! Uh, hi Kel! What do you want, er, need something? And thanks!” Basil mentally slapped his own face. Why did he decide to go with the more polite option AFTER he already said the first option?

“Uhhh… yeah! I was gonna knock on your door but you’re already out here, pretty convenient! I was gonna ask if you wanted to hang out and catch up? It’s been a bit, heh.”

He wanted to hang out and talk? Why? Kel did technically forgive Basil only days after Sunny moved, but since then they grew apart and didn’t speak at all during school hours or outside school. Why now?

“Umm, sure! I’m free for the weekend!” Basil nervously replied. He was a bit skeptical.

“Nice! How does tomorrow sound then? I’m a bit busy today.”

“Sure! Tomorrow works, yes. I’m free tomorrow.” Basil was still kneeling down at flower level. Kel towered over him.

“Cool beans, I’ll just come knocking at your door some time tomorrow afternoon then, ‘kay?” Kel started moving back towards the sidewalk.

“Yup!” Basil could muster no more as he waved, and watched Kel start sprinting towards his friend’s house. He was fast.

Basil finished watering his plants and walked back inside his house. The fresh cool breeze of the AC hit him, which he was always thankful for. The heat was always a sign that there weren’t many days until summer vacation, which meant finals were coming soon. For now, he was doing fine in school, and didn’t have anything to worry about in terms of homework. He spent the rest of the day lounging and talking with Polly, who at this point had pretty much become his mom.

Right before going to sleep, Basil checked his phone. His floral wallpaper glowed, bearing no notifications. He redirected himself back to his messaging app, and opened up his messages with Sunny. Still nothing. He tried shooting him a text, his concern apparent.

[Basil] 11:21PM
Hey Sunny, you okay? I hope I didn’t scare you off with those depressing texts earlier, let me know if you’re okay! Goodnight!

He stared at the screen for only a moment, half expecting Sunny to answer, but was met with nothing. He set his phone down on his nightstand, and laid awake for a while. He was curious and nervous about his plans with Kel the next day, but eventually drifted off into a deep slumber.

Chapter Text

Sunny debated whether he wanted vanilla or chocolate. He wasn’t big on exotic flavours but loved going for the occasional ice cream. Plus, his local ice cream parlour was only a ten minute walk away, which made it all the more convenient.

He was well into his walk in a part of town that was a little sketchy, but not nearly as bad as some other parts of the city. The street was empty besides a few university students coming home from some evening classes and some shady guys in hoods, one of which was heading in Sunny’s direction. They made eye contact. Just his luck.

Breathe in, breathe out.

This was nothing he hadn’t dealt with before.

“Ay. Could you give me directions to the nearest metro? I’m a little lost.”

Sunny knew how these kinds of traps worked in the city. A guy would usually come up to you and ask if you could take a photo for them or ask for directions; really anything that distracted you, while his friend behind you nabbed some valuable items from your pockets or backpack. This was not Sunny’s first time, but he stayed polite and slowed down, keeping his hands near his pockets.

“Oh, keep heading that way and turn left at that stop sign. Keep walking and you’ll see it eventually.” Sunny answered honestly, and sped up again. “Good luck.”

“Wait! Could you say that again? I didn’t catch it the first time!” The suspicious man appeared panicked.

“I said you keep go-“ Sunny felt an uncomfortable sensation in his pocket. It was lighter now. The pickpocket had gotten sloppy realizing his receding time. “Hey!” Using his elbow, he jabbed the arm of the man behind him, which surrendered the crook of his possession of Sunny’s wallet and phone. Maybe he shouldn’t carry them in the same pocket anymore…

The man winced and clutched his arm, withdrawing himself. Sunny took the opportunity to pick up his belongings off the ground and make a break for the nearest alley. He figured he could lose them there. The boy made sure to hastily walk as to not draw much attention and slipped into the maze of gravel roads. He made some good pace, just in case he had any pursuers, and attempted to navigate the winding alleyways. His walk was off to a rough start.

Sunny tried to find any kind of way out of the labyrinth of dusty streets. Each time he emerged from the alleys he would find himself in someplace new, and he never walked in places he wasn’t familiar with, so he would return to his search. After almost a hour of wandering, Sunny came to terms with how little he knew his way through the city, even after living in it for almost a year. Each turn felt like backtracking, yet he was only going farther. Sunny was so hopelessly lost that he needed to take a break and sit down in the ground and recollect himself. He silently vowed to never take an alley alone again in his life. He was tired of it and only wanted to return to the safety of his house. If only his mom bought him mobile data on his phone, he could’ve used a GPS to get himself out of there and to eat his ice cream in mere minutes. Instead, he was stuck in a corner of some dusty backstreet, and his only company was a stray black cat. Which looked… familiar?

Wait. Is that Mewo?

Sunny immediately darted up and examined the dark feline in front of him. It was grooming itself from what he could tell. It took a matter of 3 seconds for him to register that it was simply a random stray, but the damage was already done.

“I’m sorry kitty… I thought you were an old friend of mine.” Sunny sniffled. “Everyone loved her. I wonder where she is now…”

Sunny thought of the times he had with Mewo. He didn’t bond with her nearly as much as Mari did, considering it was technically her cat, but he and Mewo shared great love for each other. Hero and Kel gave her a hard time too, always squeezing and petting her to the point where they thought she’d pop. Soon after, his train of thought turned back to his childhood and it didn’t take long for the memories to start flooding. Memories of the treehouse, of basketball, of sunny days on the beach, of rainy days in the park, and of countless sleepovers with the people he cared about the most. So many memories he made with them, and now he didn’t have any of them. No matter how hard he tried to suppress it, he couldn’t escape his past.

I deserve this. I know I do. Yet, I still feel horrible. I feel like a fresh hot plate of garbage. Why can’t I just get over them?

Sunny wept silently to the cat for a little. He had learned to cry without excreting tears due to the sting in his eye, but he couldn’t hold them back for too long, thus he kept his outbursts short and sweet. The clarity of his predicament hit hard. Sunny viewed his surroundings and realized how pathetic that must’ve looked. He stifled back his sobbing and got back on his feet.

“Get a hold of yourself.” He spoke as if he was someone else. The boy dusted off his pants and watched the cat scurry off into a small opening. There was still a lot to think about, but there was no time. Ice cream was still waiting, and it was only a matter of time until the parlour closed.

…

After brute-forcing his way through the alleys (which was a 45 minute detour), Sunny finally found himself at the door of the parlour. There was no time to lose. The door swung open and a tiny bell rang, just like always. Sunny advanced to the counter and got the attention of the worker. He took his eyes off his phone and his expression brightened.

“Hey Sunny, I thought you wouldn’t show. Feeling adventurous today or are we going with ol’ reliable?” The older teenager behind the counter was no more than a year or two older than Sunny, and had a casual demeanour to him.

“Tom. It’s good to see you. I think I’m going to have vanilla today.” Tom and Sunny had gotten to know each other to a good extent from Sunny’s frequent visits, and Tom being the only employee at the building.

“Still not trying something new?” He chuckled. “Haha, maybe next week. Two scoops in a waffle cone coming right at ya.”

“Thank you. I promise I’ll get a new flavour in the future. I just wanted something I know I’d like today. Sorry.”

“Hah! Sunny, don’t be sorry. You really gotta learn to know when someone’s teasing you. You’re free to have whatever flavour you want. Oh yeah, and remember, you can use your phone to pay now. It’s funny how fast technology is evolving, isn’t it? Saves me the time of putting all your bills in the right spot.” The freckled adolescent quickly whipped up a tasty looking vanilla ice cream cone and glanced up at Sunny. “And try not to- Sunny, your nose is bleeding.”

“Oh. Is it?” He put two fingers beneath his nose as he held his phone up to the card reader. He felt around and removed his fingers from his face. A dark crimson hue discoloured his skin’s natural tone. “Could you hold onto my ice cream for me? I’ll just wash up really quickly.” The boy set his phone down on the counter and darted to the bathroom.

“You should get in more vitamin C! Or something! I dunno!” Tom shouted from across the little store.

He walked into the restroom and immediately was overcome with a fresh, but intoxicating aroma. Tom took really good care of the place but he was a little bit of a clean freak. Sunny wouldn’t be surprised if he had put air fresheners in the ventilation. Forgetting about the smell, he washed his hands and face, checking the mirror for any lingering red spots. After confirming he was clean, he held a paper towel up to his nose and waited for the blood to slow down. Having nothing better to do, Sunny stared his reflection down, top to bottom. He regretted it instantly. He realized who he was staring at. There was a murderer in front of him. One that he despised. He hated it, but he needed to keep an eye on his nose. It was a long wait. The more time passed, the more disgusted he became. It lasted to the point of the teen considering punching out the mirror. Assuming it was safe to remove the paper towel after about 5 minutes, he left the gas chamber of which was the washroom.

“Took you long enough! Your ice cream’s practically a milkshake now!” Tom gave him a disapproving look.

“Don’t worry, it’ll still taste good. I’ll just need to finish it quickly.” Sunny reassured.

“Oh, I don’t think you’ll be finishing it before it melts.” A powerful voice boomed from the door. “In fact, I don’t think you’ll be having it at all.” The two boys swivelled their heads towards the voice.

A teen Sunny’s age stepped towards him. Tom would have come to Sunny’s defence saying he did buy it and everything, but there was one small problem. The guy was massive. He was probably a good 4 or 5 inches taller than Sunny, and about 3 times as wide. His muscles filled out his shirt perfectly, and he certainly didn’t skip legs either. He was somewhat tan, had bright blonde hair, and brown eyes that were staring a hole through Sunny.

“I knew I’d find you here. You fell right for my trap. All it took was me texting you I was going to the lake, and to skip a day of class. You thought you were safe?” He was leaning over Sunny now. “Sunny, what did I say about cheat days?”

“Strong people don’t get cheat days.” Sunny answered dryly.

“And how many cheat days did I say you got?!” His already loud voice rose even louder.

“None.”

“And what does that make you?!” He was yelling.

“It makes me… a strong person.” Sunny finished. Tom watched in surprise.

Tom’s eyes darted between the two. “Sunny, do you know this guy? Or-or are you his enemy or what?! I am so lost here…”

Sunny just stood in silence.

“Sorry. I’ll be taking Sunny from you. You can keep the ice cream. He won’t be needing it anymore.” The boulder of a kid dragged Sunny by the arm outside of the building, and tossed him into the passenger seat of his car. He followed into the car soon after. They sat in silence for a while, until it was broken with the man-child’s startling laugh.

“BAHAHAHA!! You like that Sunny?!! How funny was that?! That tough guy act is pretty believable, am I right?!”

“Congratulations Aiden, you got your one awesome moment embarrassing me. Gloat while you can, because I’m gonna get you back when you least expect it.” Sunny sulked.

“Oh, guess I gotta keep my guard up then!” Aiden put on his tough guy face and hit the gas. He wasn’t actually mean or rough at all, but he sure could play the part. As intimidating as he was, he actually had a heart of gold. He and Sunny shared everything they did together at school, and hung out at random places on the weekends. He wasn’t dense either. The two frequently got similar scores on their tests. Aiden was likely the sole reason that Sunny didn’t get bullied at school, the main reason being his absolute mass, but he also had a way with words. He was everything Sunny wasn’t.

“Okay, but seriously, where are we going?” Sunny enquired. He did get dragged into this ride after all, so he figured he’d at least get to know the destination.

Aiden curled his arm into a bicep flex. “Come on, dude. Where do you think I got these?”

…

Sunny and Aiden worked out together several times in school for Phys. ed class, but Sunny never took it too seriously. He would usually curl a couple light dumbbells, do some cable exercises, run on the treadmill, and call it a day. Now here he was, being crushed by a barbell only a little more than half his weight. He reconsidered if his purchase of a one-time pass into the gym was a good idea.

“Come on! Push! Last rep! You got this!” Aiden cheered him on while being cautious and ready to pull the bar off of Sunny in an instant.

He struggled and struggled. He held his breath, causing his face to go beet red, his legs started flailing, and there wasn’t one thing good thing to comment about on his form. People around the gym looked at him with concern as he started shaking and making strange wheezing noises.

“ᵃⁱᵈᵉⁿ ﹒ ﹒ ﹒ ʰᵉˡᵖ ﹒ ﹒ ﹒ ᵒᵘᵗ ᵒᶠ ᵃⁱʳ ﹒ ﹒ ﹒ “

Aiden immediately grabbed the bar with an iron grip and lifted it effortlessly onto the rack. Sunny went limp with relief and did his best impression of a corpse. “Sunny!! You were so close!! Your form could use some work, but 7 reps of 65 pounds is a great starting point! Especially considering you’ve never used the bench before!”

Just as Aiden finished, the whole gym was alerted by a smash of a man finishing his set with 405 pounds on the barbell. Sunny looked back at the bar he was using and examined the singular 10 pound plate on each side.

Maybe it’s not such a great starting point.

Sunny wasn’t strong. But he knew this. After all, being 125 pounds and eating close to nothing for 4 years doesn’t exactly make your muscles happy. Perhaps getting more protein in and getting to the gym on a consistent basis might do him some favours. It’s not like he didn’t have time for it anyways.

“Hey Aiden, do you think you could help me get a gym membership?” Sunny knew his friend would be stoked, so he braced himself.

“OF COURSE!!! Let’s do that right now!!” Aiden grabbed him by the arm and dragged him to the front desk.

…

After a gruesome workout and a small amount of paperwork, the friends spent some time talking in the park. Aiden may have gone a little too into detail when he described his “quintuple flusher” to Sunny, but it was a fun time nonetheless. It had been dark for a while, so Aiden offered to drive Sunny home, which he graciously accepted.

“Thanks again for the help today!” Sunny yelled from his door.

“No problemo dude! Have a good night Sunny!” Aiden’s car sped away shortly after.

Sunny walked inside his house and sighed. Sure, it was his house, but it wasn’t his home. Faraway was his where he belonged. He missed everything and everyone in it. Feeling melancholic, the boy made his way past his mom to his room.

“Hey sweetie! It must have been a good walk if you took that long!” His mother chirped.

“Yeah. I’m tired, so I’m gonna go to bed pretty soon.”

“Alright! Good night!”

“Night.”

Sunny did everything he needed to get ready to sleep and plopped in his bed. He wasn’t lying about being tired. His day was a rollercoaster, at least for him. He couldn’t handle more than one activity besides school a day, so he was exhausted physically and socially. He just wanted to check if Basil had texted him at all before going to sleep.

…If he had his phone.

Which he did not.

Chapter Text

Tom let out a sigh. Short end of the stick as always. Sunny’s antics yesterday evening had left Tom responsible for his phone, which he conveniently left on the counter of the ice cream parlour before he got dragged off by that musclehead. Tom didn’t know Sunny outside of their shared experiences in the parlour, so he didn’t have any way of contacting him or knowing where he lived to return it. He just had to hope Sunny would come back to retrieve it.

He stared out the window.

Let’s just hope today is a cheat day.

…

“-el!”

A drop of saliva landed on the bed sheet.

“kel!”

He rolled over to his back.

“KEL!”

Kel woke up about as graciously as a bear emerging from a winter-long hibernation.

“Uaghhhughmm…”

“Kel! It’s 2PM! I already walked Hector for you! It’s high time you wake up! Didn’t you have something planned with one of your old friends today? Why don’t you get on that?” His mother rushed out of his room. “Either you do that now or you’re on diaper duty today, and Sally had two extra helpings of pudding for breakfast!”

Kel shot up wide awake. Not in panic of possibly making Basil wait several hours, but in fear of changing Sally’s diapers. He still planned on showing up, regardless of how late in the day it already was. Any alternative was better than spending the afternoon babysitting a toddler with a sour stomach.

He yawned and stretched his arms. No rush yet. Kel never made specific times for his plans, because if there was one thing he could not do, it was arriving to something on time. He had 90 instances of being late to first period in school, and the year wasn’t even finished yet.

No biggie. It’s just the grades that matter, right?

Kel hopped off his mattress, then proceeded to grab his phone. Something from Hero in the middle of the night as usual.

[Sir Shorteus Minimus] 2:39AM
Could you show mom how to do this exercise
I feel like it could do a lot for her back as long as it’s done properly and she doesn’t overdo it
{Image attached}

Hero and his health stuff. College turned him into a total nerd.

[Lord of the Court] 2:05PM
yeah of course i can
how many extra chapters did you have to read to unlock that piece of knowledge
have you ever considered socializing or are you too busy studying for that

His older brother instantly responded. He never left a message unanswered for more than ten seconds, unless he was in a lecture of course. He wouldn’t be caught dead with his phone then.

[Sir Shorteus Minimus] 2:06PM
Rise and shine sleepyhead
2pm wake up time has to be a new record!
And for your information I am going to a party some time within the next week
…I think

[Lord of the Court] 2:06PM
oh actually?
i guess youre not doing so bad after all
anyways i cant talk i have to be somewhere soon
ill see if i can call you later today
maybe we can even play chess

[Sir Shorteus Minimus] 2:07PM
Ah all good
Did you finally learn how the knight moves?

[Lord of the Court] 2:07PM
you mean the horse? yup
you better start practising again or else i might break your undefeated streak
okay gotta run!!!

[Sir Shorteus Minimus] 2:07PM
Sure…
Later! And don’t forget that exercise!

Kel scrambled around his room to get ready for the day ahead. He knew that today was important, and had to make a good “second impression” on Basil. He ate a hearty meal to not be hungry halfway during their meeting, picked out some nice casual clothes to wear, and even used soap in the shower. After Kel finished preparing, he put his hand on the knob of the front door and called out to his mother.

“Okay mom, I’m off! I’ll let you know if I’m going somewhere else for dinner!” Knowing that his mom probably wouldn’t approve of him staying any later than when he was supposed to come home for dinner, he shut the door without giving his mom a chance to respond.

Kel strode over to the sidewalk to glance back at his neighbouring houses. After all these months, there were still no buyers for Sunny’s place. The estate agent made sure the lawn was still getting cut, the electricity was still running, and the property was still being maintained, but it still didn’t seem to appeal to anyone. Kel’s family understood why. Rumours of a girl haunting the residence being spread around wasn’t exactly helping their chances. Although on the bright side, the homes front yard had been transformed into a beautiful garden by a person only known as the “flower bandit” by the locals. Of course, Kel had a decent guess on who it could be. Apparently no one cared enough to take any action towards the stealthy gardener, as the flowers remained colourful and vibrant, showing that they were watered and tended to consistently. He figured that was a good thing. Kel didn’t wish anything bad against the guy, especially not with the police. Kel wondered what he was up to right now.

Oh CRAP! He’s waiting for ME!

Kel immediately assumed a position close to that of an Olympic athlete and lunged forward into a full sprint.

“Give me two minutes Basil!! I’ll be there in less than two minutes!!!” Kel repeated to himself on his mad dash to Basil’s house.

Once he made it to his destination (in a minute and 41 seconds, as promised) Kel banged on Basil’s door.

“Basil, I’m here! Sorry for the wait!”

The door opened to a slightly bewildered Polly instead of the expected timid boy.

“Oh, hello Miss Polly! Is Basil home? I think he’s been, uh… expecting me for a while.” Kel awkwardly stood at the doorway, eagerly hoping Basil would come to meet him outside.

“He sure is! He never told me we were having company over! Well, I’m happy for him, he hasn’t spoken to kids his age in months. Come in! I’ll prepare you two some snacks, and you can go grab him from his room.”

“I can’t say no to free food!” Kel said enthusiastically.

There goes the plan of not eating. Ehhhh, who am I kidding? If it wasn’t this it probably would’ve been Gino’s.

Polly retreated into the kitchen to whip up some delicious food while Kel found his way to Basil’s room. Before he had the chance to knock, the door swung open and the two boys came face to face with each other for the second time in a year. Basil jolted up in shock of the sudden appearance of a 6 foot giant in front of him.

“K-Kel! What’s up! I’m ready for whatever you’ve got planned for us today!” Basil exuded his regular shy energy.

Kel immediately noticed the heavy bags Basil possessed under his eyes. He only remembered getting those if he studied late for a test or forgot to keep track of time when playing a video game at night.

“Hey Basil! Didn’t mean to scare you, sorry.” Kel examined him further.

The second strange attribute he noticed was the unusual clothes that Basil was boasting. Basil wore an oversized olive green sweater that looked a size too big, paired with a plain white t-shirt peeking out underneath. His sweats were faded, baggy, and hung over a pair of decrepit sneakers. It was clear to Kel that Basil wanted to look presentable and casual for their hangout today, but it was even more painstakingly obvious that he had no idea how to dress. In terms of clothing, Basil only wore old-school uniforms and cargo shorts almost everywhere he went. Kel couldn’t help but appreciate the effort Basil made, even if it made him look worse than he usually did.

“Sorry, but uh… are you good? You look like you didn’t get a wink of sleep last night. And what’s with the getup?” Kel inquired.

“Oh! I thought I’d wear something a little more suited for just hanging around.” Basil dodged the first question, much thanks to Kel’s forgetfulness. “D-Does it look good? I’m not really the fashionable type.”

Kel winced mentally. He wanted to be honest, but also knew that he was walking on eggshells and couldn’t afford to misstep in an already unstable relationship.

“The look isn’t booming right now, but I think it suits you…?” The tone of his voice rose when his sentence finished. “Anyways, let’s go get the grub your mom- er, Polly made for us, then we can head out.” Kel resisted the urge to facepalm in shame.

“Alright… I can just follow you then? I hope you’ve got somewhere we can go other than the basketball court. You’ve seen how bad I am in Phys. ed.” The boys continued their small conversation to the table where they filled their plates.

“Heh heh, don’t worry. For once I actually have a plan laid out for us.” He did not. He wanted to get closer with Basil again, but didn’t exactly know how. He took an opportunity to think of some activities to release the tension between the two of them while he stuffed his mouth.

“So, do you think you have an idea of who that mysterious person planting flowers on private property is? I heard the police are right on their tail.” Kel teasingly questioned in the most rhetorical way possible.

Basil swallowed nervously, while kel swallowed a second helping of spring rolls. After an uncomfortably long burp, Kel spoke up again.

“Nah, I’m just messing with you. I’m sure they would’ve done something about it by now if they had a problem with it. It looks really good by the way.”

“Thank y- oop.” The frail boy caught himself before he could admit to anything, then went back to playing with his food.

Polly joined them in their dining soon after, staying silent and letting the boys initiate the conversation themselves. Unfortunately, she sat down right as their small talk came to a halt. Kel had exhausted his options of things to say, and Basil never made the first move. He spoke only when spoken to.

As the three ate, they all stayed uncomfortably silent. The clinking of cutlery and plates made the atmosphere significantly more awkward. Even though Kel was no stranger to these types of scenarios, he felt socially strangled by just eating with these two. And he loved eating.

The air is so thick I could cut it with a knife. Gotta come up with something they can talk to each other about while I think of a plan.

Kel racked his brain for something he thought Basil would find interesting, but his efforts came out futile. He was narrowly saved by a knock at the door.

“I’ll get that!” Polly swiftly vacated the table to answer the door, leaving the boys alone once again. Their mouths remained unopened besides to occasionally take a bite out of a spring roll, which Basil wasn’t doing a lot of. The tension lingered, although the severity of it had dropped a little now that there wasn’t an adult looming over them. The sounds of back and forth negotiation could be heard from the room over, which was a lot more comfortable than pure silence.

Kel finally struck gold with his brainstorming. He figured he may as well make use of the situation they were in.

“Hey, since Polly’s at the front door, why don’t we take the back door and cut through the woods to Hobeez and Fix-it? You can show me all of the flowers in your backyard too!” Kel felt like an absolute genius for including activities they both enjoyed.

“Oh… okay. I hope you know your way around those trees though.” Basil added hesitantly.

Kel thought that Basil would have been at least a little more enthusiastic about the idea. He didn’t mind though, he was making progress.

“Did all those games of hide and seek in those woods not burn it into your memory? Don’t worry, even if we do somehow get lost, it’ll be fun! I think, heh.” The athlete scratched the back of his head.

It’s definitely better than being stuck playing ghost town around the table.

Downing their last bites of lunch, the pair made their exit through the back door to the garden.

“Here is the garden… J-Just let me check up on a couple plants first and we can go.” Basil walked off with a watering can, leaving Kel alone with the view.

His eyes glistened in awe of the sight in front of him, taking in the sheer amount of vibrant colours spread across the grass. Kel thought the flowers in Sunny’s yard looked nice, but this was on a different level, especially in terms of size. Since there were no fences dividing the backyards in the part of town closest to the forest, Basil’s flowers stretched all the way into the trees. There was no doubt it was the largest man-made garden Kel had ever seen.

Patterns of circles and rings took form in the grass through the warm and cool colours, making intricate designs that gave it a more unique look than any other garden in town. Sprinkles of pinks and purples littered the ground, making nice contrast with the bright sun rays that shined and gave the flowers life. Kel thought it was a work of art, to say the least.

It brought him back to a time his family embarked on a road trip to the west, where most of the land had looked undiscovered and just waiting to be explored. Mountains and forests brought the landscape to life, and made every day an adventure. On the last day of the trip, while his parents went out for a date, Hero brought him to hike a small plateau. It took nearly the entire day, but by sunset they reached the summit. At the top rested a prairie of lavender, spanning hundreds of meters in every direction. Kel vividly remembered their time spent there, lying down in the field, watching the sunset, and pointing at clouds. He also distinctly remembered it being the first time he spoke to his brother about life itself, though he never imagined Hero to be the philosophical type. They stayed there for a while, and got in a whole lot of trouble when they got back to their parents at one in the morning. Kel thought of it fondly.

A warm breeze swept across the fields. It swayed the plants side to side and snapped Kel out of his reminiscence.

How long have I been staring at this for? I can’t believe Basil made something this beautiful.

“Basil! Did you do all of this by yourself?” He shouted out, unsure of the gardener’s whereabouts.

After a few moments of silence, Basil popped out of a flowerbed and called back loudly, though his regular tone remained unchanged.

“Umm… yeah. I didn’t really have a lot to do besides garden in the years we didn’t talk, and I guess you’ve never been behind my house before.” Basil began his trek back to Kel.

“Well, it’s amazing! Have you shown this to anyone else?"

“…No, I haven’t. Besides my caretaker.” Basil made his way back to talking distance.

“Woah, really? You totally should! I think a lot of people would be impressed with it! Anyways, let’s get going. I have an idea of where we can hit first.” Kel began jogging towards the forest, waving Basil over to join him. “Let’s see if our memory is good enough to make it through without getting lost, come on!”

“Okay…” Basil followed cautiously, keeping a couple meters of distance.

…

Kel admired the scenery around him, but was having trouble navigating his way through the pathless woods. He most likely never went as far as Basil’s house when they played in the woods, so he was mostly relying on getting to an area he found familiar. As long as they kept walking in the right direction, he knew they would be fine.

“I haven’t been in the forest since high school started. Kinda makes you forget how pretty the trees can be, right?”

“Yeah…” Basil replied weakly.

Kel looked back at Basil. He was staring down, had his hands in his pockets, and appeared about as excited as a sixth grader going to his first day of school since summer break.

He looks pretty bummed out. Wonder if I can change that.

“Hey, you know where I think we should go? We should go get you some new clothes! You said you weren’t really good with fashion, so I can give you some pointers! And it’ll be on me! I know some stuff that wouldn’t hurt my wallet too much!

Basil slowed his walking down to a halt.

“Think of it as like a really late birthday gift. Or maybe a super super early Christmas gift! What do you think?” Kel turned around.

“Kel?” Basil called.

They both exchanged brief glances, but only Kel kept eye contact.

“Why are you doing this?” Basil finished.

He was taken a little by surprise from the sudden question. “Doing what? What am I doing?”

“This! Why are you taking me to hang out? Just a day ago we weren’t speaking to each other and now we’re friends again?” Basil spoke irritatedly.

Kel took a second to process. “I just wanted to catch up again! You know, like good ol’ times? What’s wrong with that?” He didn’t understand why Basil was stressed out.

“What about everything that happened between us? A-are you just ignoring that?” Basil’s voice rose, and a stammer developed in his sentences.

“What things do you mean? We never fought. We’re friends. Kel wasn’t sure where he was going with this.

“You know exactly what h-happened. You know why I don’t deserve friends.”

“D-dude? You don’t mean… I forgave you for that! Only a couple days after. It’s in the past!

“If it was in the past then w-we would have gone back to normal afterwards. You and I both know that y-you’re holding some kind of grudge. No one can forgive something that bad that fast.”

Basil looked down at the dirt beneath them, and took a deep breath.

We haven’t talked in a year, and it was fine, I understand. What I don’t understand is why you’re trying to be friends again!”

“Basil, you’re a good guy! Why wouldn’t I-“

“NO! I’m not! I’m not. I’m…”

Kel watched as Basil hesitated, stuttering. Then he put his words together.

“…a criminal.”

A long moment of silence fell. No wildlife could be heard, and the wind wasn’t blowing. Not even a breeze.

Kel steadily made his way to Basil and put a hand on his shoulder.

I gotta do this right.

“Hey. You were just a kid. Kids mess up. It’s not like we had any clue what we were doing back then. And now look at us, almost outta high school. I don’t even remember how many years it’s been since then!” Kel flashed his signature wide smile and scratched his head.

“You really think I can stay mad at one of my best friends for that long for a mistake?” His expression became more serious. “And I know, even though I told you I forgave you, I still stopped talking to you. I’m really sorry I did. I just… I didn’t know how to deal with it back then. I guess I thought if I forgave you right away, then… we could just move on. But it didn’t work like that.” His tone became softer, and he waited a moment to watch the natural beauty around them.

He took a deep breath, his hand still on Basil's shoulder. “I was scared too. Scared of what it all meant, scared of facing you, and… I guess I thought if I stayed away, it'd just go away. But that was dumb of me. I messed up.”

His smile widened once more. “But now, I’ve had some time to think, and I know for sure that we can be friends, for real. Nothing more to hide. I swear I will never bail on you again.”

Basil stared into the distance, his sad eyes looking at nothing. After seeing him up close, Kel recalled seeing those bags under his eyes a lot during school. Almost every day.

Man, why did I distance myself from him? Especially after finding out what he was going through. Ugh! Kel, you doofus!

“A-are you sure? You know that I-“

“Yeah, I’m sure! Don’t even think about whatever you were going to say. We’re going to stay friends and we’re going to get you some awesome new clothes.”

“You promise?” Basil let out a tiny sniffle.

“Promise. Now let’s get a move on!” He put his other hand on Basil’s other shoulder and shook him back and forth. “We still got the whole day ahead of us!”

Basil finally grinned lightly. “Alright!”

The pair of boys made their way through the forest and arrived at the store. After buying Basil some nice new outfits, It didn’t take long for them to start having fun elsewhere. After going out to eat, exploring neighbourhoods, playing at an arcade, eating again by Kel’s request, and playing a bit of basketball (to Basil’s dismay), they tired themselves out and parted ways late in the evening.

…

Making his way back home, Kel looked up at the stars. It was a nice cool night with no clouds, so the sky flickered with tiny white dots. Just as he focused his gaze to a constellation, a giant beam of light directly above him switched on, startling him.

“Ow! What gives?”

After his eyes adjusted once more, he realized it was a streetlight.

Oh, a streetlight.

Wait, a streetlight! A streetlight came on and I haven’t texted mom once! Shoot!

Kel stumbled his way home as fast as he could, tripping over his own shoelaces and faceplanting a couple times. Once he made it inside, he sneakily joined his dad in dish washing. His plan was foolproof: when his mom saw him doing chores, she would feel less inclined to reprimand him.

“Hey mom! Did you talk to hero today?” Kel focused on being as nice and cheery as he could.

“Yes, he’s doing alright. Would you like to join us for a board game once you’re done with the dishes?” Luckily his mother sounded calm.

“Sure thing! Just let me dry my hands off first!” Kel loved a good board game with his family. It was usually something old, but his competitive spirit couldn’t turn down an opportunity to win at something, even if he had to learn it as he played. Since Hero left for college, he had won every single game night they had, but in a couple weeks, it would be back to a 50/50 between the brothers of who would claim the crown.

After spending the night with his parents, and putting his sister to bed, he was finally tired enough to call it a night. Before getting into bed, he got one notification from his phone.

[Unknown Number] 10:35PM
Hey Kel! I just wanted to thank you for today. It’s been a while since I hung out with someone, and it was really fun. I hope this means we can be better friends again.

Kel smiled at the message. It was very much like Basil to find his number and thank him for something as small as hanging out. Kel thought for a second, then updated Basil’s contact info.

[Lord of the Court] 10:35PM
dude!!! dont thank me for this! were friends!
in fact i should be apologizing for letting us grow this far apart
from now on we hang out at school too
i can introduce you to my friends!

[Green Thumb] 10:36PM
Really? I’d appreciate some more company! Let’s take it slowly though. It’s hard to make friends this late in the year.

[Lord of the Court] 10:36PM
no my friends are awesome theyll love you
plus we need some help studying lol
oh and basil
you dont have to text like youre writing an essay for mr jonas no one uses periods

[Green Thumb] 10:37PM
Oh, can I use question marks and exclamation marks? (Sorry if I can’t)

[Lord of the Court] 10:37PM
its just periods
trust me it will be so much easier to text
anyways my mom says i cant miss walking hector again tomorrow morning so i gotta sleep early heheh
sleep well dude!!!

[Green Thumb] 10:37PM
Goodnight Kel!

Kel put his phone on his desk. He smiled with satisfaction.

Another day avoiding studying. I should sign up to be a professional procrastinator.

Kel tucked under the covers and got ready to conk out when a sudden thought came to his head. He jolted up and returned to his phone.

[Lord of the Court] 10:39PM
wait one last thing

[Green Thumb] 10:39PM
Sure!

[Lord of the Court] 10:40PM
i know this is a bit of a sensitive thing to ask out of the blue but
do you have sunnys number?

Chapter Text

It had been two hours since the rain started, and it didn’t look like it was going to stop any time soon. It tormented the roof of the building, making a relentless sound that would break the concentration of even the greatest chess masters. Despite the volume of the downpour, footsteps from a pair of high heels could be heard, making a steady rhythm that approached ever closer. Soon they came to a standstill.

“Hey sweetie, sorry to interrupt your reading, but I have to lock up the place now. I wish I could let you stay longer, but the alarms are set for nine on the dot. They will trip if we both don’t leave in the next couple minutes.” The librarian appeared sympathetic.

A girl looked up from the table expectedly. Her hair looked like it may have been dyed pink a couple months ago, but had since faded and lost a good amount of its colour. She wore a black hoodie and some long jeans, which looked like they had been through a tussle or two. Her white shoes appeared as if they had been worn every day for the past 5 years.

“Oh, alright. Thanks for letting me stay an extra hour today. I really appreciate it.”

The teenager stood up from her chair and politely pushed it back under the table.

“…and I’m sorry you had to stay and watch over me. I’ll try to find someplace new to go if it rains.” She began making her way to the door.

“Don’t say that. As long as I’m here, you can come here any time you’d like! I’ve been watching you, and I think you’re the only person that still comes to this place to read. Everyone else goes straight over to the computers.” The woman sighed. “Here, come with me. I think I have something in the back that might make the walk home a little easier.” The librarian began leading the girl over to another area.

“Okay, but I don’t need anything. I should be fine by myself.” She followed.

“Oh hush, hush. Say, I don’t believe I’ve ever learned your name?” The middle aged woman adjusted her glasses and continued towards the back of the library.

“Aubrey.”

“Nice to formally meet you, Aubrey. As for me: Mrs. Willow. As you can see by the name tag. You’ve been coming here to study quite frequently since the start of the school year, are you taking a special program?”

“No. I’m just trying to do really good this year, I guess.”

Mrs. Willow finally reached a closet and peered her head inside, looking for something amongst many spare items and electrical appliances. Her voice was partially muted when she responded.

“And to think that you were causing a ruckus with your little gang not even a year ago! How time flies!”

The girl directed her eyes toward the floor. “Yeah, I don’t really do that anymore. Sorry if I caused you any trouble when I did.”

“Well, I suppose all of us have to- ah, found it! Here you are, Aubrey. I knew we had one kicking around here somewhere.” The lady emerged from the closet and handed the ex-delinquent a surprisingly high quality umbrella. It was sleek and black, boasting a shine much like a modern sports car.

“…Are you sure you can give this sort of thing away? It looks kind of expensive.”

“Of course! What good was it doing in there? Come on now, the alarms will go off in minutes if we don’t leave.”

The two conversed scarcely while they made their way outside the building and said their farewells.

“Thank you again, Mrs. Willow!”

“Make sure you get home safe, alright? Enjoy your evening!” The woman sped off in her car, leaving the owner of a brand new umbrella standing alone in the rain.

Aubrey inhaled and exhaled deeply. Yes, she probably could make it home safe, but the status of that safety would be thrown into jeopardy as soon as she took a step inside. Who knows how drunk her mother would be?

It’s not like she had a choice. The library was the only public building in the area still open on Sunday evenings, and now that it was closed, she could either take shelter in her house or keep stalling outside. As much as she didn’t want to deal with her mother, she was already fortunate enough to get an umbrella, and would be wasting her luck if she risked catching a cough out in the cold, wet air.

Back home it was.

…

Shit.

Aubrey stood on her front door, simultaneously impressed and pissed off. She had to admit, her mom’s dedication to spiting her went to great lengths. The front door was locked tight, effectively sealing Aubrey out until her mother needed to leave the house, which was not often. She continued her fruitless pursuit and pounded at the door.

“Mom! Let me in! It’s freezing out here and I’m gonna get sick!”

No answer. Aubrey waited an extra moment or two before calling out again.

“If I got you a pack of beer would you let me in?”

There might have been some footsteps or a sound signifying her mother was listening, though any noise that may have been made was thoroughly washed out by the monsoon.

“Mom! Let me in. Please…”

She had done this kind of thing before, but never at this severity. Aubrey figured this was one of her mothers new amazing ideas to get her daughter out of the question, whether it be by starvation or something else. Just another thing to add to the list of crimes she would never have to pay for.

The shouting and banging continued for another couple minutes, taking long enough for any sensible person to quit. Being stubborn wouldn’t help her.

“Fine! Fuck you too then! Like I need shit from you.”

Aubrey gave the door one last kick and stomped off. Just her luck. As angry as she was, she knew there would be plenty of time later to sulk. As for the current moment, action had to be taken.

She knew there wasn’t any chance she could stay a whole night at a public building, or even get into them at all. She was banned from every building that had food in it. As hard as she was trying to change her ways, she still needed to eat, and she had ran out of money long ago. Calling a friend looked to be her only option. The problem was she didn’t have any friends, for reasons she didn’t want to think about at the moment.

After giving it some thought, Aubrey cut her losses. There was still one solid option left, as desperate as it was. She pulled out her phone and tapped on one of her contacts. Fortunately they picked up pretty quickly.

“Hello?”

“Thank god you picked up. Listen, Kim. I know we don’t talk anymore, but I’m in a bit of a slump right now. My mom’s locked me out of the house. I could really use a place to crash, just for tonight. Could I come to yours? Promise I won’t be a bother.”

A small silence occurred. Aubrey figured Kim was processing what she had just dumped on her.

“Uhh, of course. Sure. Yeah. Sorry about your situation, by the way. Sounds rough.”

“Thanks a ton. I’ll be there in a couple minutes, I’ll go wherever you have space, then you won’t need to worry about anything after that. I’ll be gone before you wake up.”

“…Alright. See you soon.”

Aubrey fumbled her phone around looking for the button to hang up. Once she was sure she wasn’t on the line, she took a sharp breath. It was awkward, but at that point she had to swallow her pride and be grateful she found a place that would let her spend her next day without a trip to the hospital.

As she turned around for a glance at her house, a familiar rectangular glow switched on from the window. It flashed through assortments of bright colours as the woman Aubrey still called “mom” mindlessly surfed through the channels.

Better get a move on. She clearly hasn’t changed her mind.

Aubrey unzipped her backpack carefully, as to not let any rain soak the contents. All the essentials were still there: Her school supplies, wallet, blanket, cans of preservable foods, and anything she could have possibly needed if she decided to take a bus out of town. She told herself she just had to finish high school, but somewhere deep down she wished there was enough courage in her to drop everything that instant, skip town, and start a new life somewhere else.

The unfortunate girl slung her backpack over her shoulder, propped up the new umbrella, and started walking. There was a long journey ahead - in more ways than one.

…

The walk wasn’t pleasant, to say the least. Aubrey was thoroughly soaked, not because of the umbrella, which actually functioned quite well. No, it was thanks to cars speeding through puddles next to the sidewalk. The first time, Aubrey shrugged it off as bad luck. By the third, she was throwing rocks.

Nevertheless, she finally had some time to rest and that was all that mattered. After a patient knock on the door, she was let inside. As soon as the door closed behind her, the deafening onslaught of rain became a low muffled hum.

“Um, Hi, Kim. Thanks, for letting me stay. I hope I’m not bothering anyone or anything.” Aubrey tried her best not to sound awkward.

Kim stood there, hands in her pockets as always. Ever since she started growing out her hair all those months back, Kim would come to class trying out new hair tricks every week, though she kept it short enough to call “tough” or “masculine”. This time however, she looked to have no styling whatsoever. Aubrey assumed she was in between one of her new phases.

Even with the variety she showed off in that regard, her sense of fashion had not changed one bit. She cruised around town usually in a red sweater, or occasionally her old blue hoodie, that lost any kind of saturation it once had. She also acquired a new pair of sharp black glasses, of which contained the eyes of a very lukewarm stare. She didn’t look happy, but she sustained a completely neutral tone of voice.

“Yeah, no problem. I suggest you take a shower before doing anything else, and don’t worry about a towel. There’s one in the bathroom for you.”

Kim then immediately turned around and rounded a corner. “My mom’s calling for me. I’ll show you your spot after you’re done.”

Aubrey gathered herself. She agreed, her body temperature was dropping, and could really use a hot shower. Kim knew Aubrey didn’t need to be told where the bathroom was, thanks to her plentiful visits back when they were friends, but of course, this time was different. Kim wasn’t letting her stay over to have a sleepover and have pillow fights, she was only giving her a place to sleep out of obligation. Two very different things.

When she arrived in the living room, she took a look around. Most of the exotic plants Kim’s family owned were missing. Instead, there was paper lying everywhere. Work documents, letters, court papers, taxes, everything. The house lost a big chunk of its personality, and made Aubrey question if there was some kind of big legal thing going on.

Hope it’s got nothing to do with what happened that day.

On way to the bathroom, Aubrey passed by Kim and her mother having a discussion in the kitchen, and tensions were high. She paid no mind, and took the steps up to the second floor, and over to the bathroom. Not her family, not her problem. Just a roof over her head.

Aubrey enjoyed her shower to the maximum extent. She had gone without warm water for weeks, so she savoured her time in there, perhaps more than she should have. She thought of all sorts of scenarios in her head. What would have happened if she didn’t do this, what if she didn’t do that. She thought about all of her regrets, and where it all went wrong. She loathed her mother for putting her in the situation she was in, but had to wonder if she herself could have made things different.

Who knows. Have to focus on the here and now.

Aubrey took a couple minutes to finish cleaning everything. When she turned off the water, the sound of Kim and her mother arguing became audible enough to make out through the thick walls.

“So why did you invite her?” The older voice questioned.

“How many times to I have to tell you? I didn’t! She asked! She called and asked!”

“And why did you say yes?! That is inviting her here! She is not welcome in this house!”

“…I don’t know! Maybe because she would have got hypothermia if I didn’t?”

Aubrey knew this was inevitable. It wasn’t every day you invite someone you hate to crash at your house. She hoped she could drown them out with her headphones after she asked Kim where she could sleep. She began to dry off, but kept her ears focused. Kim spoke again.

“You have to understand. I’m not friends with her anymore, and I get your concern. But if she doesn’t find a place to stay tonight she could be in serious danger! Have you looked at how hard it’s raining?!”

“We are in more danger with her in our house than she would be outside! You need to tell her to leave right now!”

This hurt to hear. The hospitality of the family that once took her in with open arms, fed her well, and bought her clothes was gone. All that remained was a debate regarding her mere presence inside their house. She put on some more comfortable clothing and walked down the stairs. The argument got louder as she got closer.

“Mom! This is the kind of rain someone can die from!”

Aubrey stepped into the living room, right behind where Kim’s mother was standing.

Kim’s mother made her final statement, oblivious to the extra person in the room. “Maybe she deserves to stand out in that rain then!”

The room fell silent, and clock made its presence known with a monotonous sound.

Tick…

Tick…

Tick…

The silence was alright with Aubrey. She heard everything she needed to hear.

“Don’t worry, I can take a hint.”

Aubrey collected her belongings and made a beeline for the front door. Kim made no attempts to stop or defend her.

“Thanks for the warm shower though, at least that was nice.” Aubrey articulated with a tinge of sarcasm. She didn’t expect a response, nor did she receive one.

She didn’t even bother giving Kim a glance before she set foot outside. She could clearly visualize what her expression looked like anyways.

Right before she closed the door, heavy footsteps raced down the stairs and caught her attention.

“Aub- ow!” The larger figure tripped over the last stair. “Aubrey! Wait a second!”

Finally, with heavy breaths, Vance emerged from the house, with a genuine look of concern on his face. Aubrey immediately noticed he finally stopped styling his hair to have those little “devil horns” he used to love so much, and had taken on a much softer body language, opting not to look like a total jackass for once. He still wore his checkered shirt and tattered jeans, but he had managed to lose a small amount of weight since the last time Aubrey saw him. Though she thought he had definitely left for college by now. She guessed wrong.

“Aubrey, Kim doesn’t… whew…” Vance held his hand up for a second and took a deep breath before continuing. “Kim doesn’t hate you. She never did. It’s been almost a year now, and if she still held a grudge, I don’t think she would’ve let you come here. It’s just… you know how protective mom- our mom is! If Kim told her you were back to being friends, she would warm up to you again. If you just apologized…” Vance stared at her expectedly. “You could do it right now.”

Aubrey was actually surprised with how much more mature Vance had gotten. Perhaps the hooligans’ separation gave him more time to focus on himself. In any case, Vance’s kind demeanour wasn’t going to convince Aubrey to do anything. She wasn’t going to get all gushy with Kim, especially after what just went down.

“Sorry, not happening. Close the door, Vance.”

The girl positioned her umbrella over her head, blocking the incident with Kim a year ago from her memory, and trudged off, past the street and into the woods. The light cast from the doorway behind her vanished with a quiet click, destroying her last opportunity at a good night’s sleep.

…

Aubrey wandered the forest as if she was a lost dog. Exhausted, she didn’t have the brain power to think of any place else she could sleep without being reported to the police or losing all of her dignity. She had no plan whatsoever. Hopeless, she checked her phone for the time.

1:25AM. About 7 hours until school starts. Fuck my life.

Aubrey advanced aimlessly, on and on. After being in the trees for so long, she could notice the little intricacies of her environment. She listened to the rain drops hit the lush leaves of the branches high above her, and felt the cool moisture of her soaked shoes creeping up her socks. Deprived of all energy, she kneeled down and gave herself a break from walking for a moment. She enjoyed the calming presence nature had, and took in the view of her surroundings.

That’s when she saw it. Not a hundred meters away — the treehouse she and her friends used to stay at when they were little. It was still standing after all these years. The window was completely obscured with leaves and decorations taped to the door were long gone, but the exterior was holding up pretty well. Aubrey shifted her focus down to her soaking wet shoes, and back up to the treehouse. It wasn’t a five star hotel, but it had a roof. Picking herself back up, she slogged over to the old ladder and climbed inside.

It was decrepit as ever. There was nothing of any value to her that remained in there. Water dripped from the ceiling and formed puddles of varying sizes on the floorboards, forming patches of rotted wood. Aubrey could piece together that it was probably less than ideal for sleeping in, even if she ignored the constant creaking and fear of the whole room collapsing on her. Still, it brought back some good memories, regardless of who they were with.

Her scavenging habits kicked in, and she took the chance to look through some of the cupboards that she used to find snacks in. As expected, she found nothing but old toys and various other things she considered junk. It was only until she opened the drawer closest to the wall did she stop searching.

She found only two items inside: A sticky note reading “ONLY FOR EMERGENCIES!!!”, and a key. Aubrey dismissed it at first, closing the drawer and turning around. Then it registered.

That’s a key to his house. He left a key to unlock the door.

The next couple minutes were a blur. Aubrey was too exhausted to recall the details, but she did remember grabbing the key, falling off the ladder down the treehouse, finding her way to the clearing in the trees, and reaching the back door of the house she knew all too well.

She was desperate. Frantic. Whatever excuses she made for herself were working. Breaking and entering wasn’t the worst of her crimes, right? She jammed the key into the lock, and turned.

Click.

And just like that, she was in. In a house she knew no one would check, because it just so happened to be that the previous owners had moved out about a year back, and no one else had moved in since. In fact, it was still on sale. Nobody had any plans of even touring the house, let alone living in it. Aubrey chided herself for not thinking of this sooner.

There were some things she needed to test before deciding where to sleep, all of which delightfully surprised her. Of course, there was no furniture. But she still tried turning on the lights, the tap, and the thermostat. By a stroke of extreme luck, they all functioned perfectly.

As the lights illuminated the house, Aubrey felt as though she travelled back in time. Memories of silly and happy moments materialized in front of her, playing out just as she remembered as a kid. She swiftly expelled those thoughts from her mind and flicked the lights off before anyone outside could have taken notice.

If she played her cards right, she knew she could stay for a long, long time.

“Sorry not sorry, Sunny.” Aubrey gripped the key. “Finders keepers.”

Chapter Text

“…They keep my muscles growing and my gains on track, and if I’m missing my macros they’ll always have my back! Uhh… The end!”

A small applause of no more than five or six students echoed through the room. Once it died down, a girl a little older than the rest of the group spoke with initiative.

“That was “Ode to Protein Shakes” by Aiden, and our last poem of the day. That is unless…” She directed herself towards the boy seated next to her and lowered her voice. “Sunny, would you like to go today?”

He shook his head as politely as he could, smiling. “Still working on it. Promise you guys it’ll be done for next time, then I can get back on track with my regular two per week.”

“Got it. No sweat, your last couple have been beautiful, so I’ll trust the process.” The girl finished before facing the group again. “We are good to head out! Thank you to everyone who shared, and make sure you don’t forget your bags! See you all after the break!”

The students in the room were quick to clear out, and the girl that lead the activity wasn’t far behind.

“Make sure you turn off the lights when you leave, alright boys?” She called out as she left their proximity.

“Got it. See you, Sarah!” Sunny and Aiden synchronized accidentally. The pair picked their bags up and got moving.

The few that had remained after school hours for the meeting in the classroom dispersed and exited the building, leaving Sunny and Aiden alone to roam the halls. They strolled side by side to the doors, in no rush to leave.

“I don’t get it man. Every time we come to poetry club, you always have some crazy long super-poem I can’t even comprehend. How come you came to the last couple empty handed? You scared my poetry’s already surpassed yours?” Aiden questioned.

“I write them all on my phone. Usually because the ideas come to me at random times, and it’s not like I always have a pen and paper ready, right? I’m sure you can piece it together from there.” Sunny answered.

A short moment of silence occurred, and Sunny shot Aiden an expectant look.

“…No? Why?” Aiden glanced back.

“Here, I’ll give you a hint. It’s the same reason I haven’t been answering your texts.”

“Yeah, why haven’t you been answering- oh right. Wait, your phone is still missing? Where is it?”

“I dunno. It’s about as lost as your mind if you think your poetry is even close to mine.” Sunny joked.

“Wha- Hey! This last one was pretty decent, you have to admit!” Aiden tried to defend himself.

“Aiden, you don’t say “the end” at the end of a poem. Or anywhere in a poem for that matter.”

Finally having reached the double door, the boys stepped outside to the pink and orange tones of the evening sun setting behind tall buildings, shining through gaps of skyscrapers not yet built.

“Going to your lake tomorrow, I’m assuming?” Sunny asked as he soaked in the view.

“Matter of fact, I’m not! I’m staying right here. Which means you and I are gonna have tons of fun together over the break!” Aiden answered enthusiastically.

“…Wait, really?” Sunny had to make sure. “You’re not going to your lake?”

Aiden grinned. “Sir yes sir! My parents are having renovations done in my cabin, so I have some time off I can spend here!”

Sunny was more than excited to hear that information. Though he disliked the city and felt homesick often, life seemed pretty bearable with Aiden. Even if it was during mundane projects in class or tirelessly training in the gym, Sunny was at peace when he was around him. It was time that his mind wasn’t clouded by horrible guilt or thoughts of shameful actions, rather it was filled with sarcastic quips and feelings of genuine happiness. When Aiden was around, he found the attributes of confidence, strength, and humour in himself that he used to think didn’t exist.

“That’s so awesome! What do you have planned? I’m willing to try whatever you want.”Sunny couldn’t contain his joy, as much as he tried to hide it. “We could try doing a PR day at the gym, or maybe that new game in the pet rock series?” He faced Aiden, eager for a response.

Aiden only stood with his hands on a railing overlooking the school yard, displaying a stoic expression that was too difficult to read. He stayed still for several seconds before saying anything. When he did speak, it was in the lowest and most remorseful way possible.

“Dude, all this talk about making plans for the break, yet you don’t have a phone to text me with.”

Sunny blinked, his excitement deflating slightly at Aiden’s observation. “I mean… yeah, I guess that’s true. But I’m sure I can still contact you, maybe through email, or-“

“Email?!” Aiden grabbed Sunny by both shoulders and shook him rigorously. “EMAIL?!? What century are you in, Sunny?! Should we start sending each other letters by carrier pigeon?!”

“Okay, okay! No email. What are we gonna do then?” Sunny asked with disappointment.

The look of stoicism returned to Aiden, though this time his head lied low and he gave the ground a stare-down.

“You said it was definitely taken by a pickpocket, right?”

“Well, that was the only way I could see it going missing, but I swore I got it back…” Sunny trailed off.

“What if we put up missing posters? Like people do with pets and stuff. Then when they return it, we’ll beat them, because the pickpocket would be the only one who would have it!” Aiden began to tread to his car, signalling for Sunny to join him.

Sunny’s eyes squinted, dumbfounded. “What kind of idea is that? I’m gonna pretend you didn’t say anything.”

When they arrived at the car, the two boys put their brains to work, attempting to come up with a solution to their hopeless situation, though their best suggestions were already behind them. In the midst of their brainstorming, a single ding of a text notification rang out.

Aiden scratched his nose. “Is that your phone or mine?”

Sunny said nothing.

“Oh, pfft.” Aiden facepalmed. “Keep pretending I’m not talking.”

Aiden searched the pocket in his sweatpants for a moment, then examined the message he had received. Sunny saw a glitter in his eyes for a fraction of a second, though it was rudely interrupted by his head turning to his side, searching for his seat belt buckle.

“Strap up, Sunny. We’re getting outta here.” Aiden put on his best tough guy face once again, this time opting for a smirk of an action movie character right before they did something cool and dangerous.

“That was so corny, but sure. Sounds like you got something interesting planned and I have nothing better to do. We’ll figure out the phone stuff later.” Sunny clicked his seatbelt shut.

Aiden pressed down on the gas pedal. “Activating hyperdrive!”

…

Arriving at their destination, Sunny felt a little disappointed and confused. Not only was it not something particularly interesting (like what Aiden’s sudden nonchalance prompted him to believe), but it was the ice cream parlour Sunny frequented, and had now been banned from visiting again, by Aiden himself.

“This was about the last place I thought we were headed to. I thought this was off limits.” Sunny muttered.

“Don’t worry, you’re gonna find out why we’re here in just a second. I can NOT believe how much of a coincidence this was.” Aiden exclaimed.

One inside the building (which was empty as always), a familiar sight graced Sunny’s eyes. His favourite ice cream vendor held the missing phone above his head, inviting its rightful owner to come claim it.

“I left it here?!?” Sunny exclaimed.

“You got here fast.” Tom walked over to the counter. “I guess tr-“

“Gotta hit the washroom, be right back!” Aiden interrupted, dashing down the hall out of sight. “Don’t buy any ice cream, I’m always watching!” The sound of a door slamming reverberated across the small business.

“…I’m going to guess that’s Aiden?” Tom questioned.

Sunny appeared unfazed. “Yeah. How do you know?”

“His name only popped up as a notification on your phone about a hundred thousand times. The sounds got so bad I thought about guessing the password just to tell him to shut up.” Tom ducked under the counter to grab something. “And I did. Turns out four zeros in a row isn’t a very hard code to crack. After that, I just told him to get you to come grab your phone, and now we’re here.”

“So you just kept it here and waited hoping I’d come back for it?” Tom handed Sunny the phone. “You are very kind to keep it safe, by the way. Thank you, a lot.”

“Pretty much. Anyways, you better check out your texts. It wasn’t just your jock friend trying to reach you.”

The front door of the parlour swung open and a young man entered.

Tom’s eyes widened. “Wow, someone who’s actually here for ice cream. Woulda never guessed. Be back with you in a minute, Sunny.”

Sunny sat down at a nearby table. He examined his phone, still intact in its black case, a tad weathered due to its age and frequent use. With a tap of the screen, the light blinked on and the device came to life, giving Sunny that last sigh of relief he needed. First he focused his attention to the icon displaying the remaining battery. It read a nice 99 percent, proving how well Tom had taken care of it while it was in his possession. Shortly afterwards Sunny realized the sheer amount of texts he had received.

“49 notifications, huh? Looks like someone’s pretty popular!” Aiden’s earth shaking voice abruptly boomed while he leaned over Sunny’s shoulder.

Startled, Sunny did a 180. Aiden had snuck up on him, with a stupid grin plastered across his face enjoying a double scoop cone of rocky road ice cream.

“What happened to no cheat days? Also, 31 of the notifications are from you, on several different apps I never use.” Sunny gave Aiden an unimpressed look.

Aiden’s smile remained true and strong. “Don’t lecture me, I totally just saved our break! And can’t a guy enjoy a celebratory ice cream? Plus, I’m bulking!”

Aiden began to blab about gym rat things like protein to calorie ratios and metabolism levels, but Sunny tuned it out pretty fast. He’d heard it all before, and was a little more concerned with the other 18 notifications he received. Two were from his mom, before he told her about his bad habit of losing his belongings, and 15 were from Basil, which Sunny expected. But what piqued his interest was a singular text from an unknown number, which contained a peculiar message.

[Unknown Number] Saturday, 10:45PM
Hey, is this Sunny Suzuki? Sorry if this is a little random, but I thought you should know, there’s been some trouble with vandalism at your old house you’re selling. I’m not sure if anyone’s contacted your family yet, but someone’s been messing with the garden out front. If you want the place to sell, you might want to get it checked out. Got your number from the property listing records. Figured you’d want to know.

Sunny took a second to digest the information.

“…which actually justifies me eating this ice cream. That clear things up?” Aiden finally finished.

Sunny ignored Aiden for a moment. “Hold that thought… you know how I moved here from a different town, right?”

“Yeah. What’s up?”

“Some stranger just texted me saying that my old house was vandalized. Something to do with the garden. It might be why nobody wants to buy it.”

“Huh? You sure it’s real? Ask them to send you a picture.” Aiden took another lick of his frozen treat.

Sunny typed up a quick response and disregarded the strange message. He had to let Basil know what happened before he did anything else. Sunny speed read everything Basil said while his phone was with Tom, and deduced that he was about 3 days too late to reply.

[Basil] Friday, 4:59PM
Hello?
Are you going to respond?
Also, something really bad just happened.
Let me know when you can talk.

[Basil] Friday, 11:21PM
Hey, are you okay? I hope I didn’t scare you off with those depressing texts earlier, let me know if you’re okay! Goodnight!

[Basil] Saturday, 4:35AM
Sunny, I’m scared and I can’t sleep.
Kel is coming over in the morning. Yesterday out of the blue he came to my house and said he wanted to catch up, but I know he wouldn’t spontaneously do that after all this time, and I’m worried.
I’m scared of what he’s gonna say or do, and horrible thoughts are flooding my mind. Please respond as soon as you can. I really need someone to talk to about this.

[Basil] Saturday, 9:57AM
Good morning. I’m assuming I’m on my own for this, right?
Kel is coming over soon. I don’t know what to do. I don’t even know how to act around him. What if he’s just saying things to drop my guard?
I thought I’d be happy about this, but I feel like I’m going to throw up. I can’t stop thinking about everything that happened. What am I supposed to say?

[Basil] Saturday, 11:14AM
My stomach hurts.
I don’t know if I’m ready for this.

[Basil] Saturday, 2:29PM

He’s here. I have to go.
Thanks for nothing, Sunny.

Oh no. Why did this have to happen now?

[Sunny] 5:10PM
I’m so sorry I couldn’t respond to you these past couple days. I lost my phone and just got it back now. Please text me or call me as soon as you can.
You also need to explain what happened with Kel. Did he threaten you?
One last thing. Has my house been damaged or vandalized? Specifically the garden?
Either way, please let me know if you’re okay.

Sunny tried thinking of more things to say but kept backpedaling. He squeezed his eyes shut.

“You done catching up? You’ve been typing rapidly for like, 5 minutes now.” Aiden popped the last bite of his waffle cone into his mouth. “I gotta burn these calories I just had. I’m thinking we hit the gym, ten extra minutes of cardio.”

Sunny forced out a heavy sigh. Maybe asking Basil about the condition of his old house right after all of that wasn’t the best idea.

“Sorry? Oh… sure. Okay.”

Aiden raised an eyebrow at Sunny. Surely because of his sudden mood shift. “Everything alright?”

The slim boy nodded. “All good. Let’s pump some iron.”

…

“Mom, I’m home.”

After a horrible underperformance at the gym, Sunny told Aiden he needed the rest of the day to himself, and that they could talk about their plans for the break the next day over the phone. Aiden very kindly and respectfully supported the decision.

“There’s something about the old house you should know… at least I think there is.” Sunny locked the door out of pure habit. He was good at locking doors.

“Hm? What would that be?” His mother asked from the kitchen.

Sunny travelled farther into the room to establish a more serious conversation. “Apparently it’s being vandalized. I got a text from an anonymous person claiming that the garden was being destroyed or something. Oh yeah, and I got my phone back.”

Sunny’s mom paused her chopping. “Well that sounds like some good news and some bad news. Where’d you find your phone?”

“Ice cream place. That’s not the main issue right now though. Did the real estate agent or whatever they’re called contact you?

“He’s been on vacation for a while, and won’t be back for another month, so he’s not checking up on the place. Did the person send you a picture of how bad it looks?”

Sunny pulled out his phone. “I asked for one, but my messages aren’t going through.”

“I see. So how are we supposed to verify if this vandalism is real?”

The family of two stopped speaking to think for themselves. Sunny didn’t dare mention waiting for Basil to check it out, because from her perspective he was a violent monster that took out her son’s eye. It’s not like he was doing Sunny any favours after the accidental ghosting anyways.

“Ah, I know!” His mother retrieved her purse from across the room. “How about you and Aiden take a little trip back to Faraway, and find out for yourselves?” She handed Sunny a sizeable wad of cash. “If the house really has been vandalized, no one will buy it before we get it fixed, right? That means you two can have your very first sleepover there, and you can have it for a whole week!”

Sunny stared blankly and his ears perked up. The idea of going back to Faraway coming from his mom was way out of left field.

“Me and Aiden? Why not you?”

“Sweetie, I have meetings all week. I would if I could, but you know how important it is that I keep this job.”

“And you seriously trust two teenagers to do this trip alone? Drive there, and everything?”

“Sunny dear, listen to me.” His mother took Sunny’s hands in hers and looked him straight in the eye. “Trust is all I’ve had for you since we moved. Since you… let out all of those nasty things you had kept inside. You’ve matured at twice the speed any other kid has in this last year, and you are continuing to. I already know that when my time comes, you will be able to prosper and live a beautiful and fulfilling life. Why shouldn’t I trust you with a simple visit back to your home town, hmm?”

For the first time in years, Sunny felt truly loved by his mom.

“Wow… Okay, alright. Yes, I’ll go. I’ll text Aiden right now, thank you so much, mom!” Sunny ran to his room as fast as he could.

“No problem honey, I know you’ve been missing it there, and this is the perfect excuse to go isn’t it?” She called.

Sunny felt as giddy as a child finding out there was a snow day in the morning. He could visit Basil and get things sorted out with him, and take Aiden to all of his favourite places in town.

[Sunny] 8:19PM
Aiden, I’ve got a great way to spend our break.

…

“Sleeping bags?”

“Check.”

“Full tank of gas?”

Aiden hopped over to the drivers seat. “Yup.”

“Both of our luggage?”

“Yes sir!”

“Money for food?”

“That was supposed to be you, I think.”

“Oh yeah. Check.” Sunny corrected himself. “That should be everything.”

“And you’re 100% sure you’ve got your utilities running? Especially your heater? I don’t want to freeze my sweet buns off, that’s all I ask.” Aiden inquired.

“My mom says she’s still paying for those bills for some reason. So yeah.”

“Then we should be good to go! Look at you, little man! You’ve got some gusto in ya, getting me to go on a trip with you with one night’s notice! I like this boldness!”

“Well, you’re still doing all of the driving, so don’t get too excited.” Sunny replied. “Come on, we don’t have all day.”

The boys got in the car, and Aiden pulled out of Sunny’s driveway with style.

“You really gotta get your license, dude.”

“You really need to stop copying my homework. Are either of us going to do those things? No. So let’s both be quiet.”

Sunny and Aiden both sat in silence for only a minute before getting bored.

Aiden tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. “Wanna play eye-spy? It’s gonna be a loooong 4 hours.”

Chapter Text

The midday sun hung high above the pool, its reflection fracturing into hundreds of irritating spots of unadulterated blindness. Kids and teenagers alike made a ruckus, splashing innocent bystanders in the crossfire of their splash battle. Chaos ensued on the pool deck, and no lifeguard was spared from the unfathomable horror that was the afternoon shift.

That was, but one. One that sat alone in the guard room, concentrated on his phone. His shift was over in 15 minutes and he had an off rotation, so it was smooth sailing until he was finally allowed to clock out.

He was mere moments away from victory on his online chess game, only having two or three more moves until he could deliver the sweet, sweet checkmate.

Tweet!

“Major! Spinal!“ a lifeguard called from the pool.

Such is the life of an emergency responder.

The young man set his phone down, effectively surrendering an undeserved win to his opponent. He hastily took a first-aid kit and an AED into his arms and dashed out onto the pool deck. It was eerily silent, other than the occasional shouts of his coworkers giving each other important information and maintaining the condition of a critically injured patron. All the swimmers had stopped their fun activities to watch the situation unfold. Sure, there was still sounds coming from other lifeguards, but comparing the noise now to what it was 30 seconds ago would be somewhat akin to comparing a pillow fight to a nuclear war.

He joined in on the yelling. “I need everyone out of the pool and into the changerooms, now!” He repeated himself. “Everyone must get out of the water and gather inside of the changerooms!”

The crowd of people immediately followed as told and left the pool deck barren. Not a single public swimmer was to be seen. Well, besides the unconscious one of the spine board.

He dropped off the things he was carrying near the other guards. Luckily he didn’t have to get his hair wet, but he could and would. With nearly two years in med school and 6 months of part time lifeguarding, he could operate in his sleep.

“How’s it looking?” He asked.

“Everything looks fine… no external bleeding.”

“Alright, anything else?” He slipped some rubber gloves on with precision and speed.

“No, we got extremely lucky.” His coworker answered. “Jacob’s calling EMS, they should be on their way soon. We just have to wait for them to arrive.”

“Are you sure? Why is the victim on the spine board if he’s not wet? Where did you find him?” He interrogated.

Another lifeguard answered from a distance. “He fell when he was climbing the ladder up to the diving board.”

The college student looked up with disbelief at his peers, all of which were older than him. “Did anyone bother finding out why he fell off?! Doing a pulse check!” He hunkered down next to the victim, his ear to their chest. Seconds later he started unpacking the defibrillator.

“What’s wrong?” A third lifeguard asked, finally done calling EMS.

His voice was urgent. “You all somehow forgot to do your primary assessment. He has no pulse.”

For the next 8 minutes, the young man performed CPR and used the defibrillator to restart the victims heart and breathing, completely alone. An ambulance soon arrived and relieved him of his duties, officially ending his shift.

As the paramedics took over, He finally stepped back, peeling off his gloves and tossing them into the nearest bin. One of the EMTs stepped forward, jotting down notes on a clipboard.

"Who performed CPR?"

"Me." The lifeguard replied, running a hand through his sweaty hair. The compressions were exhausting, especially considering no one offered to swap out with him.

"Name?"

"Henry."

The EMT nodded, scribbling it down. One of Henry's coworkers chimed in with an awkward chuckle.

"Yeah, Henry's the guy you want in an emergency. Used to go by Hero around here. Fits, right?"

“Henry is fine.” He stiffened.

The EMT looked too tired to care. “Okay Henry, you’ll be filling out an incident report next time you come to work, is that alright?”

He thought about it for a second. “I’m taking some time off this week, is it possible for me to fill it out right now? I’d rather do it while my memory is fresh.”

“Yes, if you’d like.” The EMT gave him the form and they spoke about the situation.

…

[H] 2:20PM
Flying home soon
In a day or two for sure, just gotta wrap up a few more assignments
Want to get one last chess game in before I come beat you in person?
Or we could just call

[Lil Man] 2:22PM
sorry hero hanging with a friend
were devising a super awesome plan youll see when you get here
try extra hard on those assignments though we need you here asap for the plan to work

[H] 2:22PM
Alright, have fun
You’re just postponing the embarrassment, we will play chess eventually
But I’m excited for this mystery plan!

Taking a step out of the elevator, Hero rubbed his eyes. Saving someone’s life really takes it out of you, apparently.

How many hours of sleep did I get last night?

Since his classes finished and May break had started, Hero finally had some spare time on his hands. Though from an outsiders perspective, it looked like he’d become even more busy. He picked up extra shifts for work and asked his professors for assignments early so he wouldn’t have to worry about doing them when he flew back from Faraway. The past few days he only ever left time to eat or sleep, a lot of which he traded for time to call Kel or clean his dorm, which his roommates constantly got dirty. Nevertheless, he managed to get it all done, leaving only a couple easy assignments that he’d saved for last.

He walked down the hall he’d been in a thousand times, passing doors of other students places, all of which had their own groups of roommates, who each all had their own interests and struggles. Finally, he arrived at the place he currently called home. Door number 1409.

Slowly, Hero inserted the key into the lock and twisted. Upon unlocking and opening the door, he yawned and called out to his roommates.

“Hello? Anyone home?”

With no response, he could safely assume he was alone, which wasn’t rare.

Guess I can work in peace.

Trudging into the living room, Hero made an astute observation. First, the place wasn’t a total mess, which was a pleasant surprise, and second, there was a blue sticky note stuck on the table. He picked it up and held it close to his face. It took a painful amount of squinting to read.

“Hey Henry,
We tried to keep the place as clean as possible. We’re all out prepping for our night at Josh Hallman’s, and you should too. All of us are going straight home afterwards for the break, so you’re the last one in the dorm till classes start up again. So make sure you take out the garbage and lock up when you leave. And about the party, you don’t have to have any alcohol. Just try to enjoy yourself. Remember — 8pm. We’ll see you there!”

Not even processing what he just read, Hero collapsed onto the couch, drifting into a slumber he desperately needed.

…

Hero stirred, wincing as a dull pain settled in his abdomen. His eyes fluttered open, recognizing the familiar sensation. He shifted on the couch, blinking drearily at the ceiling, trying to remember the last time he ate. Breakfast maybe? No, he’d skipped that. Lunch? He couldn’t remember.

He rose up from the couch at a snail’s pace, turning his head towards the digital clock on the stove. 5:31. Enough time for him to finish up stuff for school and pack up for Faraway before the party, but not enough time to cook dinner. Easy solution: eat at the party. That way he could skip out on buying groceries and letting them sit in his fridge for a week.

Hero then started to give the party some thought. It was something he had been dreading for a long time, only really agreeing to go because he wouldn’t hear the end of it from his roommates if he skipped out on it. It was supposed to be the biggest party in the school year — the one any student on campus could come to. That meant it was bound to be chaos, which Hero figured he had enough of in his life already. His plan was to simply to show up, mingle for an hour or two, find his roommates so he could say he came, then slip away quietly before the sun could even set.

Not giving himself the chance to dwell on it any longer, he reached for his laptop and flipped it open. The glow of the screen stung his tired eyes, but he adjusted quickly, already clicking into his unfinished assignment. With only a quick gloss over the instructions, he understood what to do, even in his disheveled state. He promptly got to work.

Minutes blurred into hours, one assignment turned into three. Hero barely noticed the shift in time. His tunnel vision took away his sense of surroundings and his concentration kept his mind occupied. His notes were organized neatly and his arguments were sound. It was only until a cramp in his stomach struck that he lost focus. Now with an absent mind, he glanced at the time displayed at the bottom of his screen. 8:43 PM.

He stared at the screen for a second, debating with himself.

It’s not like I really have to go, right? I’m already late, so maybe I could just stay here tonight, book my flight, and have an evening to relax for once in my damn life?

Then he pictured what would happen if he didn’t go. Endless berating from the people he knew here, Kel would ask how the party went, a lot of things he did not want. He needed to keep up his self image, so it would just be better to get it over with.

Hero folded his laptop shut. With a quick cup of coffee, hair gel, nice cologne and some casual clothes, he looked as approachable as he was when he graduated high school. He examined himself in the foyer mirror before he left the dorm and tried his hand at motivating himself.

“Remember, you’ve got the looks of a hero, now you just gotta act like one.” He adjusted his collar and gleamed his flashy smile at himself.

…

The drive there was longer than he expected. When he arrived, the clock was around 9:30 and the parking was about as bad as it could get. He had to walk about half a kilometre before he actually got to the house. Speaking of which, it was large — nearing mansion size, and the loud bass of EDM music thumping out of it told him he was in the right place.

The drums sounded more like gunshots when he finally made it inside. But even then, he couldn’t tell if the music or the screams were louder. It was beyond packed in every room. The amount of humans in the house had to raise the temperature by 10 degrees from body heat alone.

Hero used his most personable expression and started squeezing through people. If he could make himself look just right, he could appear as though he’d been there the whole time. If he did that, he believed he could get away with finding his roommates, talking, and getting out.

“Excuse me! Sorry! Coming through!” Hero weaved through bodies as politely as possible, and made it to the tables after some time, where it was a little less crowded. He poured himself a cup of… whatever was in the dispenser. It took a deep crimson hue and hurt to smell, which he’d rather pass on drinking, so he opted to just carry it around to make himself appear more casual.

As soon as he turned away from the table, he found himself in dangerous proximity to a girl in a bright blue dress staring him right in the face with a big smile. She was about a foot away, to be exact. She had ginger hair that went all the way down to her shoulders, and freckles that popped out a bit from her pale skin. She had to have been 5 or 6 inches shorter than Hero, so the fact that she was this close up to him meant she had some real courage.

“Hey! How’re you enjoying yourself so far? You like the music they have playing here?” She started the conversation.

“Oh! Uh, yeah! I’m loving the energy, but I would describe myself to be more of a jazz person. Or classical.” Hero was taken only a little off guard, but adjusted swiftly.

“Ah, gotcha. I also have to ask, have you been to the Vanilla Cafe before? I work there, so I think I recognize you.” She politely questioned.

Hero was taken aback. The Vanilla Cafe was where he went to work whenever his roommates were making too much noise. He also enjoyed their coffee. “Yes, I have been. I go there to study all the time!”

“I see. And you’re studying what…? Oh, I’m Michelle, by the way.”

“Henry, and nice to meet you. And to answer your question, a lot of things, I’m trying to get into ER. You?”

“Psychology. Now I’ve made myself look a lot less smart than you, haha.” She laughed with a self deprecating tone.

Hero didn’t like when people talked down on themselves. “Hey, I’m sure you’ve got lots of stuff in that brain of yours. Here, use one of your psychology tricks on me.”

“Hm, okay, let me try something.” She thought for a second. “You’re alone here, you listen to calm music, and you study hard. I’m going to take a wild guess and say you don’t want to be here.”

“Strange for you to assume so. What does it matter to you?” Hero immediately took the defensive.

“Well… maybe I don’t want to be here either. So maybe we could both leave, and find something more interesting to do together.”

Whatever tactics she used flew right over his head. “Perhaps I would, but I have to find some of my friends first. They’re two guys, both black hair, one’s really short, the other about my height. They both should be blackout drunk by now. Seen anything like that?”

“Ah, no. Sorry.” She replied with an expression of defeat.

Just before Hero could speak, the music cranked up another 10 deafening notches, and the roars of the partygoers grew even louder.

Hero had to yell just to be heard. “No worries, I shouldn’t have any problems finding them. Speaking of which, I have to do. I’ll catch you around, Michelle!” Hero pushed off the table.

“Henry, wait!”

Michelle caught his attention. She ripped a piece of a styrofoam cup off and found the permanent marker people used to write their names on their cups. She quickly scribbled something on it and gave it to Hero.

“Shoot me a call soon, please.”

Without any words, Hero slipped the styrofoam chunk into his pant pocket and disappeared.

…

Attempting to escape the crowd, Hero felt claustrophobic. He figured anyone could easily suffocate in this and they wouldn’t be found until the next morning.

He’d been searching for two hours, and had officially given up trying to find his roommates. They were probably off doing party animal things, and Hero was already fed up enough with that for the night. He just wanted out.

Navigating through every crack in the crowd he could find, he attempted to get closer to the door, but he’d gone so far into the house that he wasn’t sure which room was which anymore. He tried standing on his tippy toes, trying to find his bearings over the hundreds of heads in the house, when he was bumped by an unassuming person. With his lack of balance on his toes, he fell forward, spilling his mystery drink all over the back of another young man, permanently staining their white shirt.

“HEY! Who was that?!” He roared, turning around.

Hero froze. Realizing his dumb mistake, he began apologizing profusely.

“I am so, so, sorry, I wasn’t looking whe-“

A flurry of fists immediately bombarded Hero, along with the extremely “masculine” screams of the person delivering them. The punches, all unexpected, struck hero down to the ground, putting him on his hands and knees.

He remained silent for the duration of the attacks, not so much as making even a grunt. Before long, a big gap in the crowd had surrounded him and his aggressor, giving him the breathing space he was seeking not two minutes ago. Phones with their flashes on recorded every blow from every angle. So much for keeping his self image up.

Noises around him blended into each other, the muffled voices and the striking sounds becoming one and the same. His vision blurred, maybe because of the amount of fingers to the eyes he was receiving, or maybe his blood coursing through his body. He couldn’t tell. As for the pain, it hadn’t hit him yet. Adrenaline was doing its job as a hormone as he learned in class, increasing his focus and acting as a painkiller. From what his notes said, it didn’t last very long, so he had to act quickly.

All while he was still taking blows, Hero regained his composure and rose to one knee. He took a deep breath, as he had been taught to do in a fight by his numerous emergency situation drills, and recalled the tactics he was told to use, the first of which being de-escalation. He used his voice at a regular level, ensuring he was heard, but not loud.

“Get the fuck off me, right now.”

The punches continued. Fine by him. He moved onto tactic number two: Self Defence.

With a bolt of speed and strength, Hero rose to his feet and pushed his opponent off him in one motion. The attacker hurled backward, and the mob of people dispersed accordingly.

“Oh so you wanna go bro?! You wanna go?!” The young man shouted, beating his chest with one fist. “We can fuckin’ go!” He charged at Hero without hesitation.

Hero tried to remember the proper technique of a punch. He’d been taught many times before, and even practiced it on punching bags, but never applied it to a real fight. Luckily, it came to him right when he needed it. The shape his hand took, how he threw his arm with his hips, and how he used his legs as leverage. It all came together in an instant, happening almost naturally as his opponent came into range. With no delay, Hero sidestepped, and lined up his arm with the jaw. A sharp cracking noise shot through the air, piercing through all other sounds in the house.

A body fell limp and hit the floor with little elegance.

That was it. The rest of his senses came back to him, and Hero began gasping for air. Even the music had stopped at this point, and all eyes were on him. It was time to leave.

Walking with a sort of limp, Hero made a straight shot for the door, and everyone made a path for him. Nobody, in the hundreds of people watching him, said a word. After a minute, he finally took a fresh breath of air outside, and calmly closed the door.

Hero thought about nothing on the walk back to his car, besides how he saved a life and almost ended one in the same day. The pain had really started to settle in now, the impacts of each punch being felt everywhere in waves of what felt like electricity. He had to keep one arm clenched to his stomach and the other arm on his nose and mouth, to prevent any blood from escaping. It took him about twice the time to make the trip on the way back, and once he did, he only had the strength to sprawl out in the drivers seat.

His stomach growled louder than any lion could, pointing out how he still hadn’t eaten yet. Hero could only laugh at it, and choke up more blood. Eating at the party and finding his roommates were the two reasons he came, yet he accomplished neither.

Eating can wait. I still have to drive home and book my flight. Then… then I can relax. I just need a quick breather…

Hero took a second to catch his breath and closed his eyes. His breathing grew much slower, and the blood stopped flowing. Before he even had a chance to realize, he fell fast asleep.

Chapter Text

Fields of luscious grasses and farm crops stretched all the way to the horizon, and endless prairie hills rolled over distances far too long to measure. The valleys looked like they had come straight out of a dream. Unfortunately, Sunny found himself in less of a dream and more of a nightmare at the moment.

“Holy beans… dude… I can’t… even think straight…” Aiden wheezed.

“Just… keep your eyes on the road. We’re not far, I think…” Sunny reassured.

Turns out that the AC and the radio were both broken in Aiden’s car, and the car only travelled near half the speed it regularly should. Neither of the boys had been in the car long enough before to find out about this, since they lived only a maximum of 10 minutes away from wherever they wanted to go in the city. So what was originally supposed to be a quick 4 hour trip to Faraway was now a 6 hour death drive of heat exhaustion and pure boredom. Aiden said he wasn’t even sure if their gas mileage could even get them to the next gas station.

“Please… just let me turn the volume off…” Sunny pleaded in fatigue.

Aiden wasn’t having it. “No, the song gets better… trust me. It’s the… only thing keeping me going.” The song being the exact same guitar lick repeated over and over drowned out in radio static. Sunny was pretty sure it was the dvd player making the music, and the radio player was just incomprehensible buzzing noises.

Sunny stared out the window. “How… does it get this… hot in May?” He began fanning himself with a piece of paper he found on the dash, then continued. “Aren’t your parents… fairly wealthy? How did you get such a terrible car?”

Aiden conserved energy by remaining completely still. “My… parents didn’t… get it… bought… it… off my uncle… 300 dollars…”

Sunny feared for his life. His phone costed more than the vehicle he was currently in. Before he could make that comment to Aiden, the car ran over something and caught a millisecond of air time. The bump jolted the boys both back to full alertness.

“What was that?” Sunny twisted to look at the road behind them. He didn’t see anything.

Aiden wasn’t too concerned about what caused the bump. “Dude… I think I got heatstroke. My blood… feels like lava right now.”

Sunny turned back to face Aiden. His hair was drenched and his skin was blazing red. “Uhh… yeah, you might be right about that. We should stop as soon as possible. Whenever we get to the next place with AC and drinks, hopefully.” A seed of concern planted itself in Sunny’s stomach.

“Yeah… but if I die before then, there’s something… you really need to know.” Aiden sounded serious.

“You’re not going to die, so save it.”

“No, Sunny… this is actually… important... I need you to listen… Are you listening?”

“Aiden, shut up.”

“Sunny, please! Just… do this… for me.”

Sunny crossed his arms, conceding. He waited for Aiden to speak.

Aiden cleared his throat and spoke with a voice of pure sincerity. “So, the pedal on the left… is the brake, and the pedal… on the right is the gas… When you press on the brake-“

“Are you serious?!?!” Sunny punched his friend’s shoulder. The musclehead broke into hysterical laughter and wheezed so hard Sunny began to worry about his breathing.

“Wait, Sunny…. look…!” Aiden pointed straight forward after wiping a tear from his eye.

They were in the middle of literal nowhere. Yet, in front of them was a tiny building to the side of the highway, about as dingy as anyone would expect a gas station on the prairie to be. Though, it was no gas station. On the front of the building, big purple letters spelled out something completely absurd.

FORTUNE TELLING

Fortunately enough, the place did have drinks and probably air conditioning, from what Sunny could make out through the business’s front window.

“What kind of back road route did you take? Fortune telling? Really?” Sunny exclaimed with simultaneous irritation and relief. Aiden simply shrugged.

The car slowed down to a halt, and pulled over to the side of the highway. The instant he exited the vehicle, Sunny was blasted by a gust of hot, dry air. He stumbled around for a little, attempting to find his balance, but struggled to in the wind.

“You… okay? Aiden offered an arm despite his weak condition.

Sunny grabbed on and found his footing. “Yeah, let’s get in there before this weather kills us both.”

Once they made it inside, the duo found themselves surrounded by mystical decorations of all kinds. Lucky objects, figures, and charms were posted across the walls, hung from the ceiling, and filled every shelf. At the very very back of the building, a singular man dressed in an oversized blue robe stood behind a counter with his fingers interlocked, waiting patiently and smiling directly at his only two customers. The whole place was peculiar to say the least.

“That guy is so unsettling. I don’t like this.” Sunny spoke just above a whisper.

“Can’t back off now, dude…” Aiden said hoarsely. “We’re gonna… need one of these if you want me… to make the rest of the trip.” He reached into the cooler placed by the door and pulled out a large 2 litre water bottle.

Before reaching the counter, Sunny agreed to do all the talking so Aiden wouldn’t have a cough attack trying to buy a drink.

“Hello, just this please.” Sunny set the bottle on the counter.

The man didn’t change his off-putting expression. “Sorry sir, extra purchases must be made in addition to a fortune. Would you perhaps be interested in our two fortune-two drink combo?”

“Um…” Sunny shot Aiden a glance. The poor guy looked like he’d just ran a marathon across the Sahara. “Sure. One for us each, I guess.” He nabbed a small bottle of apple juice.

“Excellent. That will be six dollars, please.”

Sunny slid a couple coins over to the odd man. “Six dollars? How do you keep this place up with prices that low?”

Ignoring his question, the man draped his hood over his head and reached under the counter. He placed a spherical crystal the size of a bowling ball on a pedestal between himself and Sunny.

“I will seek out both of your fortunes, but the crystal will not communicate whose fortune is whose. I apologize, but I cannot alter how the crystal guides. Please be prepared for anything.”

Sunny nodded.

The man began to rub the ball with two fingers in spiralling motions. Aiden was too exhausted to think, but Sunny paid close attention. The fortune teller began to speak in a voice much different than before.

“A river runs deep, though it is unknown where it leads. With it comes a misconception, that its waters once plagued, have been rid of contamination. Yet, the toxins remain. It winds carefully, fearful of the land it once eroded. But time is a patient thing. Eventually, these lands will provide the minerals the river needs to rid itself of the disease. Still, its course will not be easy. A great flood will come, bringing new poisons. And though it will take much from the river, it will also carve a new path, which will lead to the river uniting with another. When these waters merge, both will be purified.”

The fortune teller winced, but kept his eyes closed. After a moment, he began the second telling.

“Another river rushes forward, swift and shallow, letting its current take it wherever it pleases. It is warm, light, and strong, spilling over every stone in its path without hesitation. But the river knows not of the waterfall ahead. The descent will come suddenly, without warning, and the valley will fall silent when the waters meet the abyss. And yet… even in the final drop, the river does not rage. It does not cry out. It does not fear the fall. Instead, it tumbles freely, glistening all the way down, until it becomes a light mist. It is with this mist that flowers at the bottom will bloom the brightest.”

His words finally stopped, and a tiny sound of water flowing began. Followed by loud gulps.

“Ah… speaking of rivers.” Aiden swallowed another sip of water. “I could use one in my mouth. Anyways, when are we getting our fortunes?”

He was met with no answer.

“Don’t tell me… that load of nonsense was our fortunes?”

“The crystal foretells in perplexing ways, my friend.” The psychic removed his hood. “You will find out what they mean soon enough.”

Sunny was still deep in thought, but knew there was no reason to stay. “Come on, we got what we came for. Let’s go.”

They hit the road once again, this time in a better mood. Aiden was finally cooling down and Sunny had something to think about.

“Pretty strange guy, don’t you think?” Aiden asked.

“Yeah.” Sunny barely replied, as his mind was busy attempting to decipher what the fortunes meant. Amidst his thought, he caught a green sign in the corner of his eye. Finally, the marker they were looking for.

Faraway Town 40KM

Not long now.

…

They made it.

They were running on fumes, but they made it.

It was pretty pathetic that they still had to use a map when they got there even though Sunny had lived there his whole life, but once they drove into the tiny area that Sunny did know, he excitedly told Aiden he could guide them to his house from there.

“That’s my elementary school!”

“Wow, that place has changed.”

“Lots of good memories here.”

“This is where I learned how to ride a bike.”

But as they got closer to their destination, different memories — more recent memories, of locations rose.

“That’s Othermart, and Hobbeez.”

“The park…”

Now they were in his neighbourhood. Where all of his old friends lived. He didn’t want to think about it. He promised himself he wouldn’t.

“You said your house is just up ahead, right? What kind of vandalism are we looking for again?” Aiden pulled Sunny out of his thoughts.

“Oh, right, the vandalism. They said the garden was being touched. I guess we’ll see.”

As they came up closer to the house, Sunny reassured himself. As long as he had Aiden along with him, he wouldn’t have anything to worry about.

Then he saw it. What was before a simple row of bushes and a trimly cut lawn was now an entire yard of the most beautiful flowers he’d ever seen in his life. The shrubs that hugged the house before were now fluffy rosebushes. Smooth and round stones made barriers for different groups of foliage, separating one species of flower from another, and pinwheels stuck out of the ground in multiple places. An arc of flat rocks to step on made a path to the front door, and rows of alternating tulips surrounded the path, changing colour with each respective step. The house was three times as appealing as it was when he left.

Aiden pulled the car into the driveway. “Hey, your garden looks really nice, dude! You sure it was vandalized? Doesn’t look that way to me.”

“Yes I… I suppose it wasn’t…” Sunny was astonished. Obviously, he knew who did this. But how? And why? He needed answers. Though he still hadn’t responded to his previous message, Sunny sent a text to Basil.

[Sunny] 7:48PM
Basil, you never told me about the garden you made in my yard.
It looks really nice, but I need you to talk to me about these kinds of things.
May I ask why you made it? I feel like I deserve an answer from you now.

Aiden got out of the car and made a manly groan as he stretched his arms and legs. “So Sunny, if there’s no real emergencies, we don’t have to be here right now then, right? This is just where we’re staying to sleep?”

“I guess so, why?”

“Because I am STARVING. We need food, stat.” Aiden continued his stretches, which were becoming more and more obscure. “Let’s go somewhere close though, I’m tired of driving, so you and I are gonna walk.”

Sunny got out of the car. He supposed he could leave the interior tour for another hour or two. “Alright, I think I know a place you’d like.”

…

“Holy cow… I had no idea Faraway cuisine was that good.” Aiden contently pushed the swinging door open, and a tiny bell rang, signalling their departure.

“Yeah, Gino’s never disappoints.” Sunny said, following Aiden outside.

“But! We can’t be having junk food like that again. It imbalances our macros. We gotta keep our guns big, so we’re going shopping for healthy groceries before we head back to your house.”

“Sure. Othermart’s right here. I can show you all the good brands my mom used to get me.” Sunny waved Aiden over.

The two of them strutted into the store and grabbed a shopping cart. For the next hour they journeyed through the building on an expedition for protein dense foods. They fought over what tasted better, took turns using the shopping cart as a scooter, and suggested exotic dishes they could attempt to cook.

Once they had paid (which was a nightmare for the cashier), they left the store with bags filled to the brim in each hand.

“I have no idea what a dragonfruit tastes like, but I am SO ready for whatever we’re turning it into.” Aiden swung the bags around in circles, using momentum to ensure nothing fell out.

“Knowing you, it’s probably going to be wasted on another protein shake. Oh protein shakes, you are so great, why can’t you replace every plate?” Sunny mocked Aiden’s poor attempt at poetry.

“Okay, you asked for it!” Aiden started chasing Sunny back to his house.

Sunny was pleased. Sure, there were some tiny concerns to be had, but he put those on the back burner. He was here for a good time, so he was going to try his hardest to have fun.

Sunny was gaining a lead on Aiden. “Maybe you shouldn’t have skipped cardio all those times!”

But something stopped him right in his tracks. In the park a couple hundred metres away, Sunny spotted someone he knew. Angel, one of the members of the hooligans that terrorized him in his last couple days in Faraway. Though this time, he was alone, and he looked a lot different. He wore a really thick and cozy looking turtleneck, and his hair was cut shorter and fluffier than it was before. Lastly, he was drawing on a little sketchbook, and had a colourful pair of headphones on. Super out of character for Angel.

The way he was sitting on the park bench reminded him a lot of Basil, with a more timid nature. The question was, why? Where was the rest of his gang?

Aiden was still barrelling towards Sunny. “I gotcha now, big boy!”

As strange as it was, it wasn’t his problem. His biggest priority was getting back to the house before Aiden caught up.

…

Sunny was quite proud of himself. He and his mother had completely forgotten that the house was locked when preparing for the trip, but it just so happened to be that Sunny still had his old house key on his keychain, (along with the only other key he had, and the keychain of a tiny plush that resembled Mewo). Sunny unlocked the door and Aiden bursted in.

“I can’t see a thing in here, dude! Turn on the lights, quick!” Aiden exclaimed.

Sunny navigated his living room in the dark by memory and found the switch. He flipped it on.

“Would you like a grand tour of th- what are you doing?” Sunny asked.

Aiden was bouncing around and pointing both of his arms downwards, as if he was on an invisible pogo-stick. “I haven’t taken a leak since we left the city, man! Where’s your bathroom?!”

Sunny understood. “Up the stairs, first door on the right.”

Aiden bounded up the whole way, 3 stairs at a time.

“Be careful up there!” Sunny yelled instinctively.

While he was waiting, Sunny got a notification on his phone.

[Basil] 9:55PM
You’re in Faraway?
Then come to my house tomorrow at 3PM
We need to talk in person

No response to any of his other texts, just that. Sunny was irritated.

Just as he was about to type out a reply, he heard a scream upstairs followed by a loud thwack. It was dead silence afterwards.

“Aiden? You okay?” Sunny called.

No answer.

Sunny rushed upstairs to the bathroom to see what the matter was. “Aiden?”

What he saw next burned into his retinas, ingraining deep into his brain.

The bathroom door was wide open, and Aiden was sprawled out on the floor in front of him, not moving. Standing above Aiden, bat in hand,

Aubrey.

And she was staring right into Sunny’s eyes.

Chapter Text

“W-w… w-what…” The boy in front of Aubrey stuttered.

Aubrey’s heart was still pounding. She messed up. Big time.

She looked beneath her feet at the guy on the floor. He was out cold for sure, but still breathing.

She had swung in the heat of the moment, thinking she was in danger. It was a horrible, horrible accident on her part. She was beyond relieved she removed the nails from her bat, or else she certainly would have killed him near instantly. But now wasn’t the time to dwell on that, because her worst nightmare was right in front of her.

Fucking. Sunny.

It was too dark to make out the details, but was him alright — eyepatch and all. Aubrey’s focus darted between the patch and his remaining eye. She remembered so clearly what his missing eye looked like that she couldn’t see the eyepatch, despite it being there. She was looking at the two eyes of a mortified, paralyzed Sunny.

Why was he here? He wasn’t supposed to be. He was supposed to be living far, far away from here, running from his crimes. Instead, he was standing right where he’d killed his sister.

The frail, seemingly innocent boy in front of her was the root of her problems. He was why she didn’t have any friends. He was why she grew up this way. He was why her life was miserable. She wanted nothing more in the world in that moment than to punch his face in, but beating a person in their own house didn’t sound like a good step on her path to redeeming herself from her past violence. What she’d done to Kim was far more than enough.

Sunny hadn’t moved. He just stood there, frozen like a deer in headlights. This was probably his friend.

Aubrey swallowed hard, letting go of the bat. The last thing she needed was a death she caused on her conscience. She put her hate for Sunny on hold, and diverted her attention to the person beneath her.

The boy was still breathing. That was the important thing. She didn’t mean to swing as hard as she did, but from her past experience, she knew that the power from her bat could cause serious problems.

Aubrey huffed, trying to steady her own breathing. This was bad. She needed to get the boy to a hospital as soon as possible.

“Aiden…” Sunny managed to put an entire word together.

But there was him. He was going to ruin everything.

His hand moved toward his pocket. Aubrey knew what he was doing. He was reaching for his phone.

“Don’t.” she snapped. “Don’t you dare.”

Sunny flinched, his fingers freezing just before they made it to his pocket. His expression of terror rose a degree.

Aubrey acted quickly and snatched the phone right out of his hand. She kept her breath steady.

Calm down. You can make it out of this without a trip to court.

“No.” she said. “No cops. No paramedics. I’ll take him to the hospital myself.”

Sunny’s expression finally changed to one of anger. “I-I’m not leaving h-h-him alone with y-you.” His attempt to sound firm was ruined by his quivering.

She was annoyed. “Look, clearly I didn’t mean to hurt anyone, or else I would’ve knocked you out too.” Wasn’t that obvious?

Sunny hurriedly grabbed the boy’s legs.

Aubrey furrowed her brow.

What the hell is he doing?

She scoffed. "Oh, no. No way." She moved towards him and took a hold of his friend’s wrist. "I can handle this myself."

Sunny didn't move an inch. He kept pulling, dragging the unconscious body closer to the stairs, albeit covering as much distance as an ant walking at a leisurely pace.

Aubrey gritted her teeth. "Let go."

"N-no." His voice was weak, but there was defiance in it. "I said I'm not l-l-leaving him w-with you."

“Get OFF him.” Aubrey grabbed Sunny by the shoulders and manually moved him out of her way. He immediately backed off as soon as things got physical.

Making haste, Aubrey took a different approach. She attempted to lift the limp boy from underneath his arms, but could only get his shoulders off the floor. As much as she tried, she made as little progress as Sunny. She’d heard before that human bodies were impossible to lift, but never knew how little of an exaggeration that was until now.

"...He's heavy." Sunny mumbled.

Aubrey let out a frustrated breath, still holding the upper body. “Yeah, no shit.” She was far from weak. But this monster of a kid was dead weight, and the stairs were going to be impossible.

She thought hard. Neither of them had any idea of how urgent his condition was. What if he didn’t need to go to the hospital? She could leave right now.

No. She had to bite the bullet. She had to do better.

“Okay… you are going to help me carry him.” Aubrey put extra intonation into her words. “Either that, or one of us drops him down the stairs. And you know from experience how amazing that goes.”

Sunny swallowed but didn't argue. Pointing a furious glare at Aubrey, he positioned himself at the lower half of the boy, wrapping his arms around both legs.

She sucked in. "Alright. On three."

He hesitated, but nodded.

"One… Two… Three!"

They lifted. Sunny was struggling — but between the two of them, they managed to get him upright.

"Okay.” She adjusted her grip. "Let's get this over with."

Both of them made their way down with extreme caution, and extreme discomfort. At the last stair, they set him down, leaning against a wall. No words were spoken at the bottom, besides what was absolutely necessary.

“You brought a car, right?” Aubrey looked out the front window and her question answered itself. “Where’s the key?”

“A-Aiden had it.”

Without hesitation, she dug through the pockets of the unconscious boy. Finding the key, she told Sunny to help get his friend outside and into the backseat of the car.

Aubrey slammed the door and jacked the key into the ignition. She’d never had a chance to drive a car before, but she knew how they worked. First, reverse out the driveway.

Thud.

Sunny sat down in the passenger seat, looking away from her. He sat as close to the door as he could, making as much distance from her possible.

Aubrey hit the brakes just as she pulled out in the street. She couldn’t let him come.

“Get out.”

Sunny flinched. “W-what?”

“You heard me.” She gritted her teeth. “Get out of the car.”

Aubrey slammed her foot on the gas for a second. The car launched forward, but she pressed the brake just as quickly, making Sunny jolt back into his seat.

"I said: Get. Out." she hissed.

"N-no." Sunny stammered, gripping the seatbelt. "No."

Aubrey was yelling now. "God, you’re so stubborn! What, you think I’m gonna throw him in a ditch or something?! You think I wanted this to happen?!"

“I-I-I have to stay with him. I care about him. You don’t. I’m n-not leaving.”

Oh my god. Just let me go alone!

If Sunny went with her, then he would be the one explaining things to the hospital. He’d tell them exactly what happened, and she would get in deep, deep trouble. Even if she tried twisting the story around, the people of Faraway knew her. They knew the kind of person she was, the type of things she’d done.

Aubrey wanted to hurt him. She could so easily knock him out and take him out of the question, making things so much simpler. But she couldn’t. As a result, she was stuck with him, he would rat her out, and she had no way to stop him.

Her breath stopped.

She had no way to stop him.

Shit.

Shit. Shit. Shit, shit, SHIT!

Her grip on the wheel tightened. She began driving instinctively. She made her way to the first intersection.

She’d messed up. She’d really messed up.

Aubrey’s breathing became harder to control. She pressed on the gas.

“S-slow down.” Sunny’s voice hardly registered.

The police were going to hunt for her. Now, she had nowhere to hide. Once they found her, they’d charge her for everything else. Everything she stole, everyone she hurt, every crime she committed, it would all come crashing down on her at once.

Aubrey started trembling. She was driving straight to her death. She’d get a criminal record. Her life would be ruined.

No. No, no, no, no.

She refused to let her life be destroyed over an accident. She thought about something she could do. Threaten Sunny? Beg him?

No. He’d rat eventually. He knew where she lived. She was out of places to hide, and she couldn’t run.

Her stomach twisted and turned. She felt sick. She needed to go faster.

“Aubrey, slow down!” Sunny was louder this time.

She couldn’t hear him.

Why am I even driving this right now? Don’t I value my own life over some random guy who’s friends with Sunny?

Aubrey saw the hospital. It was so tall. So, so tall. They were getting closer and she had nothing.

Her hands were shaking. Her vision was blurring. She felt like a bonfire started in her stomach.

I can’t fix this. I can’t fix this. I CAN’T FIX THIS.

She couldn’t think rationally anymore. Her heart was beating out of ears.

The red light came out of nowhere.

“AUBREY!”

She felt something collide with her, then everything went black.

…

“…believe so, no.”

“…quite lucky…”

Aubrey drifted in and out of consciousness, her mind fogged with exhaustion and traces of panic. It took a serious effort for her to crack her eyes open and find out where she was.

Those familiar white ceiling tiles. The annoying hum. She was in the hospital.

Great.

She adjusted slowly, raising her shoulders up and using her elbow as support to lift her dizzy head. Not having to squint so much anymore, she could finally make out what was in front of her.

First, she looked down at herself. She was outfitted in sleepwear that looked exactly like what she used to wear to sleepovers when she was a kid. For some reason it was the sky blue hospital gown she was wearing that reminded her of how she got there in the first place. She got into an accident in a car with an unconscious boy and Sunny. She didn’t know how bad the accident was, but if she was this numb from pain killing drugs, it was probably at least a little worse than a fender bender.

Speaking of which, she had no idea how injured she was. She pulled the (extremely thin and tight!) blanket off of her so she could see the damage, and to her surprise, it was looking a lot better than she thought. She had a lot of bruises and cuts everywhere — some of which were stitched up, explaining the numbness she felt, but she didn’t feel any severe pain from moving anything.

Next, she noticed what was around her. Next to her bed was a small table with a digital clock reading 2:53AM. Surrounding her were a lot of white curtains, giving her some privacy.

The last thing: Sunny’s voice. He and someone else — a doctor, she assumed, were speaking right outside the curtains. Close enough that she could see their shadows. They had been speaking the whole time she’d been awake. Sunny sounded mostly unharmed from the accident, but why he was in her room was a mystery.

She tuned in to their discussion, seemingly at the perfect time.

“…Yes.”

“Who was driving? We’ll need to know for legal reasons.” She could see the shadow of the doctor writing on a clipboard.

Shit! I crashed someone else’s car without a license! Fuck!

“Me.” Sunny answered.

What? What was Sunny saying?

A silence occurred, then the doctor asked another question.

“Why wasn’t your friend…” The noise of paper flipping replaced his voice for a moment. “Why wasn’t Aiden driving? He is the only one of you with a full license, if you weren’t aware.”

This was the very moment she feared. If she let him speak, her life was over. She wanted to object. Screaming, pulling the curtain, anything to stop him from talking. But she couldn’t bring herself to.

Why?! Why can’t I say something? Why can’t I move? Just let me do something! Anything!

“Um… he was too tired. I told him I could drive.”

Aubrey could only listen.

“Hm. Quite a big mistake. He’ll be lucky if he ever gets to drive again with that TBI of his.”

The doctor thought he got the TBI from the crash.

“Uhh, s-speaking of which, can I visit him now? I want to see how he’s doing.” She heard Sunny talk again.

“You may. But don’t expect him to wake up within the next day. He needs time to recover. Here, I’ll show you to his room. Your other friend here seems to be doing alright by herself at the moment.”

Aubrey heard a couple footsteps, then a door closed.

She sat up on her bed.

Sunny took the blame. Twice. He must’ve taken her out of the drivers seat.

But why? They were enemies, she thought. She hated him with every atom in her body. She knocked out his friend and he does that?

I don’t get it. What?

Whatever. What mattered now was that she got away scot-free and had a place to stay for the night. She could think about her next move in the morning.

Just as she was beginning to relax again, the doctor came back into the room, alone this time. He was halfway through a phone call.

“Yes, Aubrey is stable and her injuries are minimal. No. Yes, ma’am, we need you to come in and sign some papers. Ma’am. Ma’am, if you do not sign these, we’ll have to report you to the police for child neglect. You’ll come in? Wonderful. Sorry? Yes, we can allot you some private time together. Yes, thank you. Goodbye.”

Aubrey’s blood ran cold. They were getting her mom to get off her ass for her? Her mom wouldn’t get up if it meant going to the damn washroom! What was that about private time at the end? She knew exactly how private time with her mom went.

She had to leave. By any means necessary.

Aubrey laid her head back down on the stiff pillow, enacting her plan.

“Ughh… my head hurts…” She acted. “Hello? Where am I?”

The doctor pulled the curtain and approached her, his expression neutral. “You’re in the hospital.” he said, flipping through his clipboard. “You were in a car accident. Do you remember anything?”

Aubrey blinked and put her hand to her forehead. “Ugh… not really. Just… my head hurts.” She groaned for effect. “I feel kinda sick, too.”

The doctor nodded, setting his clipboard aside. “That’s not unusual after a traumatic event. You’ll be kept here for the night, but your mother will be here shortly.

Aubrey tensed.

She forced herself to sit up slowly, grimacing as if she was in pain. “Actually, um… I really need to use the bathroom. Can I go?”

The doctor had the slightest change in expression, the corners of his mouth pointing downwards by the tiniest increment. “I’d prefer if you waited until we checked you for a concussion.”

Aubrey let out a strained chuckle. “I think I’d know if I had a concussion.”

“Not necessarily.” He crossed his arms. “Symptoms can be subtle. You were in an accident, Aubrey. You need to take this seriously.”

“I am taking this seriously, but I also really need to pee.” She tried her absolute hardest to sound lighthearted.

The doctor sighed, clearly annoyed. “Alright.” he relented. “But I want you back in five minutes.”

“Of course.” Aubrey swung her legs over the bed and onto the floor. “Where’s the bathroom again?”

“Patient washrooms are to the left and at the end of the hall. Do you need assistance getting there?” He asked.

“No, I’ll be fine, thanks.” Aubrey shut that down quickly.

“Be quick, then.” He remarked formally.

Aubrey waited for the doctor to turn around and return to his work before she snagged her garments from the clothing hanger by the door.

Slipping out without a sound, she found her way to the bathroom (which was thankfully unoccupied), and changed back to her regular clothes. Though, she considered keeping the gown on from the sheer condition her original wear was in. They were scratched and torn beyond repair, and there was enough blood soaked into them to make her look like a psychotic butcher. Nevertheless, they were better than trying to get past the front desk with ER patient attire on. Aubrey imagined how that might turn out.

“Oh, I’ve got a meeting to get to! Don’t mind me leaving the hospital!”

Yeah. Pretty stupid.

Though, she probably wasn’t going to look much better in her current attire. She decided on leaving her sweater off, boasting her significantly less damaged shirt instead.

Navigating the corridors and watching the signs carefully, she found the elevator shortly. She wondered why the hospital was so tall, even having the emergency portion of the building stretch up multiple storeys.

Aubrey stepped into the elevator, pressing the button for the ground floor. She stuffed her hands into her pockets, keeping her head down. The faint hum of the elevator filled the silence.

She still couldn’t understand Sunny’s actions.

He had taken the blame for everything. Why? She didn’t know. But what difference did it make? She didn’t have any chance for a good future anyways.

The elevator doors opened, and she stepped into the hallway, walking at a deliberate pace. The last thing she needed was to look suspicious.

The hospital lobby was mostly empty at this time of night. The front desk lady looked occupied, a janitor mopped the corner of the room, and some people with minor injuries waited passively to be treated. No one seemed to care about her presence.

Just keep walking.

She pushed through the front doors, the cold night air slapping her in the face as she stepped outside. A light fog had descended upon her, making the dead of the night feel even more lonely.

She was out.

Aubrey exhaled, tilting her head back to stare at the sky. She could make out a couple stars through the layer of fluff carpeting the town. They calmed her, at the very least.

Well, that was it.

She had nothing.

Her backpack, her wallet, her phone — everything was gone. She had no money, no food, no way to contact anyone. Even if she wanted to call someone for help, who would she even call?

Not her mom. Not her friends. Not anyone.

She was alone.

Aubrey wrapped her arms around herself, shivering. She didn’t even try entertaining the idea of getting back on her feet.

Tears rolled down her cheeks.

Just 7 hours ago she was thinking about universities she could attend. Now she was wondering if she’d starve or freeze to death first.

She started walking, pressing whatever was left of her shoes on the pavement.

She didn’t know where she was going.

Maybe if she walked long enough, she could pretend she did.

Chapter Text

A distasteful aroma that smelled like dental floss brought Sunny awake. He looked around the room — he wasn’t alone. Plenty of other people were sitting in chairs identical to his, touching shoulder to shoulder waiting on loved ones.

He had slept in the hospital waiting room last night. It wasn’t like he had much of a choice, as his only means of transport was probably in a scrap yard by now, and his only friend was half mummified in an ER room. He was pretty surprised he wasn’t asked to leave, but came to a conclusion that it was probably not uncommon for non-patients to stay in hospitals overnight.

Wasting no time, Sunny carefully rose from his chair, and walked up to the front desk.

“Hello, I’d like to see my friend if I could. He’s still in emergency care, I think.”

The woman at the front asked him for the name of the patient and Sunny’s relation to him. He answered, specifically stating that Aiden had no one else in the town he knew.

The woman typed for a few moments, then frowned slightly. "He's been moved to a recovery room overnight. Room 414, fourth floor.”

Sunny nodded in thanks and turned away, heading toward the elevator.

His body ached not from the accident but from sleeping in that stiff chair. He had actually made it out of the accident unscathed, as the car that hit them made impact with the back-left side of the car, doing most of the damage to the passengers seats behind him. All it did to the front was just jolt the seats forward, and bend the drivers’ side door a little inwards. Since he had been wearing his seatbelt, Sunny felt nothing but a big push.

Aubrey had a different story though. Without her seatbelt on, she got launched straight through the front window, completely shattering the glass into hundreds of sharp pieces. She ended up rolling over the hood of the car and falling onto the street.

Aiden got it the worst, being the only one actually hit by the car. Sunny vividly remembered the moment he turned his head backwards, the sight of him squeezed in between the point of impact and the drivers seat. It was mortifying, but he was removed safely and quickly once the ambulance arrived.

Sunny was still in a state of shock since the night before. He couldn’t even fully encapsulate the severity of the situation, so all he could do was stay with Aiden as much as possible while he processed.

Stepping into the elevator, Sunny tapped the “4” button on the wall and waited patiently for the floor beneath him to begin rising.

He took out his phone and checked the time. It had cracks all over the screen (as a result of being in Aubrey’s possession during the accident), but he could still make out the numbers displayed. 2:28PM, he’d slept in hard. Now that he was awake and no one was in serious danger, he finally had time to think about the events that brought him there.

He had no idea how Aubrey got into his house. As far as he knew, the place was supposed to be on lockdown and people were supposed to be checking on it regularly. Instead, a garden was built without anyone’s knowledge or permission, and someone was living in there rent-free.

Because of the events caused by this unexpected “tenant”, any chance of Aiden having a fun spring break was out of the picture. Because of Aubrey, Aiden might have lost his memory, or even the motor functionality of his body. Re-learning how to walk could take months or even years. Sunny desperately hoped Aubrey didn’t hit him hard enough for that.

Yet… when she could have been held accountable for her actions, Sunny covered for her.

Why? He didn’t even know himself.

A soft beep rang overhead, and the doors opened to the hallway ahead.

A wave of air stung Sunny’s nose, carrying the scent of antiseptic. Pale ceiling lights buzzed above him. This was the part of the hospital he knew well.

He walked slowly, keeping his hands in his pockets as his feet carried him toward room 414.

His memory of the days he spent here following his confession felt as fresh as a memory would a few days ago. The day after his friends left, they kept him under observation. It was "for safety" they said. He was restricted from leaving his room or seeing Basil. They “weren't sure if he was a risk to himself or anyone else.” Sunny knew the implications of that.

They watched his every movement, asked him to explain things he had spent years trying to bury. He didn't say much. Apparently they did the same to Basil.

Even now, an ache stirred in his stomach just remembering the hours he spent alone. The silence. The stress. The boredom. He didn’t cry (mostly because it hurt to), but he remembered lying awake one night staring at the speckled ceiling, wondering why the confession didn’t solve all of his problems.

Sunny later learned that Kel visited Basil once. Basil said that he sat stiffly by the window and tried to have a conversation about things way too soon, and things were way too recent and sensitive for them to talk in any real length.

Sunny was awake for all visiting hours during his entire stay at the hospital. Kel never showed up to his room. Sunny was a little relieved, to tell the truth.

Aubrey didn’t come at all.

Neither did Hero.

Sunny hadn’t blamed them.

Basil was discharged 8 days before Sunny. When Sunny got out, he had to wait for hours before his mother arrived. They hardly exchanged any words the ride home.

Sunny shook his head with cringe.

I’d rather not think about this right now.

The smell of chemicals grew pungent as a nurse pushed a cart full of several bottles and supplies past Sunny. He looked at the door numbers.

408, 410, 412…

414.

A single chair sat outside the door, unoccupied. Sunny froze and looked at it for a moment, with doubt.

No. He had his time to think.

Carefully, he twisted the knob, creaking the door open. There was no one in the room.

Except, well…

Sunny moved to the foot of the bed.

Aiden was intact, hardly. He wore the same stupid robe that Sunny had to wear, and was just as wrapped up in bandages as he was the night before. The way he was lying was something Sunny hadn’t seen before. The bed was completely flat, different from the slanted beds that gave the head a little elevation. There were no pillows for Aiden’s head, but there were small tables on each side of his torso that his casted arms rested on.

Sunny could tell that both of his arms were broken. Besides that, he was clueless about what other injuries Aiden harboured. The only thing the doctors told him the previous day was that he wouldn’t be waking up for a while, but was in a stable condition and would be able to recover without impediment.

Sunny looked at Aiden’s face. There were some bruises and bandages near his hair, but more importantly, his expression was painfully neutral. He hardly ever saw Aiden like this. Usually, he was laughing, concentrated, or most of the time — making some exaggerated gestures with goofy faces. Never before had Sunny seen him so… impassive.

Is this what I look like?

Sunny looked around. The room was quiet. Aiden was breathing steadily. Everything was still.

The stillness was shattered in seconds by a nurse and a doctor swinging the door open. The doctor was holding a couple oddly shaped tools and the nurse was pushing a cart identical to the one he had seen the other nurse with a few minutes before. He could tell by the smell.

The doctor spoke first. “Sorry if we’re intruding on anything, but we need to run some tests. We’d like to ask you to kindly vacate.”

“Oh. Um, alright. Sorry.” Sunny muttered. “Uh… before I go, can I know if his parents have been contacted?”

The nurse started pulling out bottles from the second layer of the cart. “They have been, but there hasn’t been any response as of right now.”

Sunny’s face fell instantly, and the nurse took quick notice.

“But don’t worry, he’s in good hands. I assure you we will put everything into giving him a fast and healthy recovery.”

Sunny bleakly smiled before walking through the doorway, but it looked more like a sign of weakness than relief.

“Um… Thank you.” He said lowly without looking back.

Sunny took his steps slow when he walked back to the elevator. He thought about visiting Aubrey’s room, but shut the idea down just as fast as it came. It was very clear she didn’t want to see Sunny ever again, so he respected that wish. The only reason he was in her room at all the night before was to explain everything that happened with her before the accident. Turns out he couldn’t even do that properly, though.

Sunny took a moment during the long ride down the elevator to decide his next move. He didn’t really have a destination in mind, but continued out of the hospital regardless. Staying there made him feel sick anyway.

As he stepped out, he thought about checking in with his mom. Of course, he called her as soon as he had the chance after the accident, but she was probably still scared and confused about the details. He was due for another call.

Bzzzzt…
Bzzzzt…
Bzzzzt…

“Hello? Sunny?”

“Hi, mom.”

“Sunny dear, are you alright? Are you still in the hospital?”

“I’m leaving right now. And I’m fine. I already told you I had no injuries.”

“Yes, yes, sorry. How is Aiden?”

Sunny paused.

“Not good. Both of his arms are broken and he still hasn’t woken up. His… his parents haven’t been reached yet. But the doctors say he’ll be okay… I think.”

“Oh dear… at least there’s that.”

Neither mother nor son could put anything else into words at the moment, so Sunny could notice the quietest little static sound buzzing into his ear from his phone.

“…Sweetie, I’ll come get you, okay?”

Sunny replied without hesitation. “No, I think I’m gonna stay here. Aiden’s not gonna know what happened or where I went if I’m not here when he wakes up.”

“What? Are you sure? Do you think you could manage by yourself?”

“You’ve left me home alone for longer. I have food, somewhere to stay, and more than enough money to last me a week.”

“You’re absolutely positive?”

“Yes.”

Sunny could hear her sigh softly through the phone. She then began to reiterate the rules he needed to follow if he was staying alone, just like she always would before they moved. Stuff he had heard a million times before.

“Remember to eat double what you feel like eating, lock the doors at eight o’ clock…”

The small family discussed a few more things over the phone, such as the strange encounter with the fortune teller on the way to Faraway and his mom’s struggles at work. Their conversation relieved some of Sunny’s stress, especially once his mother talked about handling the legalities of the accident. Before long, they were saying their goodbyes, but not before she made him repeat her rules back to her, as if he hadn’t memorized them three times over already.

“Bye-bye sweetie, I’ll keep my fingers crossed for Aiden.”

“Thanks, mom. Love you.”

Sunny hung up just as he pushed the front doors open. Right before he slipped his phone back into his pocket, he checked the time. It was nearly 3PM, and he had nothing better to do, so perhaps he could actually follow through with Basil’s request to meet at his house. Sunny needed someone to talk to that wasn’t thirty years older than him anyways. He just had to figure out how to get there in a reasonable amount of time.

He figured taking a bus was the best transport he was going to get at the moment, so he made his way to the bus stop just across the street from the hospital.

Sunny was used to the fancy bus stops in the city, the ones with the little shelters from the weather and pictures of the bus routes on the walls. But this time around there was not much — besides a small sign and a bench, just enough to understand that it was actually a bus stop. Still, he’d used public transport a couple times before, so he figured it out without any problems.

After a couple minutes of waiting, Sunny got back to thinking. Thoughts that included:

Why didn’t Basil say anything for so long?
Why is he acting so mysterious?
What did Kel do to him and why didn’t he tell me?

Eventually a bus arrived, bringing some clarity to Sunny’s mind. He was about to visit a good friend, and he could finally wind down. No more disasters.

…

Sunny took a step onto the cement in Basil’s front yard. He was a little astonished that his lawn looked nearly the exact same as before, being that it was just filled with a bunch of potted plants, with the exception of a couple new flower bushes. The rest of the available space was crudely hogged by the driveway.

Sunny treaded carefully, weaving through pots of various sizes and shapes. Despite recent events, he would be lying if he said he wasn’t enthusiastic to see Basil. Sunny never received any pictures of him (nor did he send any, so he was also to blame), so seeing him face to face and talking things out would do wonders for them both, Sunny thought.

Once he reached the house, he raised a hand to knock, tapping the back of his knuckles against the door. He stepped back slightly and waited, eager to see if Basil changed any more than his front yard.

After a few seconds, the door creaked open to reveal Basil, who looked… different, for sure. Sunny took a moment to soak in the new appearance.

His signature pink flower remained, being pinned to the brown beanie covering his head, which Sunny appreciated, but everything else had changed drastically. His shoulders supported a baggy dark green jacket unzipped down the middle, revealing a beige cotton undershirt that looked quite warm. Below that he wore a pair of brown parachute pants and tan socks, completing the outfit with a very earthy vibe.

“You made it.” Basil said, his voice quiet, almost cautious. “Come in.“

“Hello. Yes, I did make it. It’s been a while.”
Sunny stepped inside and instantly took notice of how heavy the atmosphere was. There was more tension than he expected.

“Yes, It’s… good to see you.” Basil looked away.

Sunny internally winced. Basil was worried about something, just as his texts had hinted.

“Uh… your style in clothing got a complete makeover, I noticed. It looks really good.” Sunny tried to get a conversation going.

There was a pause. Basil closed the door, hesitating for just a second before turning toward the kitchen.

“Thanks… um… I made some tea. It’s in the kitchen, if you’d like.” he said in an obvious attempt to be polite.

Sunny nodded, stepping further in. “That sounds nice.”

Another pause occurred. Though this time it was longer, and Sunny was the one to break the silence.

“I um… just wanted to apologize about the misunderstanding over our texts. I truly did lose my phone.”

Basil turned around. “Oh. I’m sorry as well. For… overreacting about that. I don’t think you actually did anything wrong.” He started fidgeting. “In fact, I think I need to apologize for something else as well. I know you’re going to hate me for this.”

Sunny blinked.

What?

Basil took a step back.

“You can come out now.”

Then, out of nowhere, Kel walked in. He was about two or three inches taller than the last time Sunny saw him. He didn’t burst into the room or charge forward. He just… stepped into view from the kitchen.

Sunny froze.

“I know I didn’t tell you he was here, and… I’m really sorry. Please don’t be mad.” Basil stuttered.

“Oh.” Was the only thing Sunny could think of to reply with.

Kel raised a hand slightly, in a gentle wave.

“Hey.”

Basil shifted awkwardly beside him. “I thought it might be… good… For you guys to talk.”

Sunny stood still for a moment. His expression didn’t shift much, despite his internal panic. He hadn’t prepared for this. He thought it was just going to be Basil. That was the only reason he came.

His eyes snapped from Kel to Basil, then to the floor. Even if it was by only two people, he was still being stared at.

“I…” He hesitated. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know this was going to be a group thing.”

Kel’s smile faded slightly, the hand he raised lowering. “It’s not. I-I mean, it doesn’t have to be. I just wanted to-”

“I know.” Sunny interrupted quietly, trying to be as gentle as possible. “And… thank you. I appreciate that you want to talk. But I’m not ready. I was just in a car accident… and I’m still pretty shaken up. I… don’t think I can do this right now.”

The words came easier than he expected, but only because they were true. Still, he was fighting to keep his composure.

There was a pause. Basil stepped towards Sunny, guilt written all over his face.

“Shoot, I’m sorry, Sunny. I really am sorry.” He said in his typical apologetic fashion. “I just… thought it would help.”

Sunny gave a small nod. “It’s okay, I know you meant no harm. It’s really me who should be apologizing.”

Sunny sighed and stepped back toward the door, every movement deliberate and slow.

“I think I need a bit more time, but…” he took a deep breath in and out. “I promise I’ll talk to you in a couple of days.”

Kel didn’t try to stop him. He just gave a slow nod, his expression unreadable.

Sunny reached for the doorknob, then paused, without looking back. “Thanks for understanding. And for inviting me.”

He stepped outside, the fresh air hitting him like a slap of cowardice.

“Ugh…”

Now he REALLY had no one else to talk to. No more choices to make. All he could do was go home and sulk. Fortunately it wasn’t a far trip.

As he walked, he played the scenario back again in his head. He couldn’t help but feel guilty.

There they were, trying to make a safe and comfortable environment for us all to talk in, and I just go and shut everything down.

He couldn’t just go back there, as awkward as it already was, and ask to speak with Kel.

Ugh, that was my chance to talk with them both. That was so stupid.

With his head down in shame, he made the trek home.

…

Sunny shut the door behind him and climbed up the stairs, passing all of the luggage that he had yet to unpack. He glanced at the kitchen, noting that he hadn’t eaten since yesterday.

I can eat later. I’m tired.

Really tired.

I’ll just rest a little.

…and maybe have a tiny nap.

He barged into his room, ready for bed. At 3:30 PM.

He expected to see a barren room devoid of anything important but…

Instead was greeted by a bunch of Aubrey’s belongings.

He forgot she was freeloading here.

There was a ton of stuff lying around. Clothes, schoolwork, a cage, even some makeshift furniture.

Wait… why does she have a cage?

Sunny stepped a little closer to see what exactly was in the tiny metal crate, as there were quite a few plushies gathered in and around it.

He peered closer inside, and his heart dropped.

There was a living bunny nestled inside a tiny backpack.

And it looked quite hungry.