Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Founded on the principles that existence was merely a concept of comedy to whoever was in charge, The Loser Committee was born. 

“Sunny, hand me the pink marker.”
“Pink? Why does it always have to be pink?”
“Shut up, Kel.”

After years of uncertainty that led to, what a surprise, more years of more uncertainty, the general public (consisting entirely of five individuals), opted to create a club that would mitigate these woes. 

“Okay, that looks good. Can you pass me that sparkly tube?”
“Sparkles too?”
“You bought them!”

Seriously, everything was kind of a huge pain. 

“I forgot to glue these on, can you grab the sweeper?”
“How do you forget to put the glue on? Now it’s going to go everywhere. And why do I have to grab it?”
“Sweeper. Now please. Or I’ll dump this entire thing in your backpack.”
“I’ll dump the entire backpack on you then.”
“HERO, can you please go get the sweeper? Kel’s wasting too much time.”
“I’m going, geez. Where even is it?”

It was especially terrible when they realized the group they had spent so long trying to find a name for revealed there weren’t really any action plans set in place that would do anything other than put a name to an already existing friend group. It was just them… but in style. 

Sunny watched as a small spider began twisting itself in the corner of the attic, Hero unsuspectingly standing right below it. He wouldn’t tell him, in fact, it was better to imagine it didn’t exist at all. 

He figured it should also be noted he would not be spending a lot of time in the attic of Basil’s house.

“What’s he doing down there?” Aubrey sighed. “We’re so close to finishing this thing.”
“Probably looking for a sweeper.” Hero said. “You didn’t exactly tell him where it was.”
“Just ask Polly! It’s not rocket science!”

Hero thought for a moment and checked his watch. “She might have already left, she’s supposed to meet Basil’s parents.”

“Oh yeah. Them. Think they’ll be mad about my sweet new bedroom?” Aubrey smirked. 

The bedroom Aubrey described as sweet really wasn’t sweet at all, Sunny thought. He glanced around, avoiding the judgment that had tried to form on his face. Better? Sure. Awesome and amazing? No. The summer would be terrible as the heat made its way upward and there was always the potential of bats. Small, crawling enemies crept alongside the cracks, the window had this thin ratty curtain that swayed from a vent and looked super creepy, and there were hardly any outlets making it terribly dark in there. They were fortunate it was only past noon this Sunday or else they’d be in trouble. Her lamp really didn’t do the best job of illuminating the whole space.

“I wonder if they’ll even notice.” Hero replied, stepping aside as Kel lifted the vacuum into the attic. As if carried by fate, the atmosphere in the warm room shifted suddenly as everyone began to scramble in the midst of an attack from the cat that had plopped down in the center of the poster.

“I’m glad there’s at least pull down stairs.” He huffed. “It’s plugged in down there.”
“Kel! Hurry and sweep them up!” Aubrey shouted, swiftly bringing the cat into her arms despite the glitter sticking to its fur.
“What? You’re the one who dumped them, you sweep them up.” He shot back. “Make the guy with a broken arm do all the work, I see how you do things.”

She shrugged. “If your arm works good enough for basketball and those weird dance moves you were doing, then I’d say it works good enough to sweep.”

They didn’t get far in their argument until Hero had grabbed the sweeper and began using the hose to pick up the mess. His services went unthanked as the other two began to continue their bickering.
“You know just as well as I know that Daniel sucks so bad. I bet he’s cheating. You know you want to see him get completely humbled.” Kel said.
“Dude, he just doesn’t have a life, that’s the only reason he has the high score. You know, we could always get our hands on his lucky shirt and see if that changes anything.”
“It’s just a shirt…”
“Yeah, a shirt that gives him too much confidence.”

Sunny, watching Aubrey swing the cat as she spoke, had no choice but to grab it when she dished it towards him. It didn’t enjoy being held and squirmed out of his grasp, jumping from the ground and back on the poster and down the stairs.
They resumed their hard and laborious work on the masterpiece, gluing, shading, bedazzling, all the works, and when it was complete, it was hung with a great sense of accomplishment on the wall. 

“We should sign our names.” She popped open the cap of a pink marker and swifty signed hers at the top. Kel joined in, his signature looking a little less neat than her swirls and placed even higher than hers, which elicited a sigh on her end. Then Hero, with his ‘doctor signature’ firmly on the side, and finally, Sunny. He scribbled his on the bottom left corner, unsuspecting and out of the way.

“Anyone know when Polly will be back?” Aubrey asked. She sat down on her bed, the frame emitting a sore noise. She had moved her furniture over the week during the cleanup, everyone stuffing flowers in pots and having little to no idea how to properly care for them. Her old furniture wasn’t in the best condition, but she seemed alright with it. The wall had her Captain Spaceboy poster, to which Kel happily remarked he had the same one, her rabbit was close to the window so it could “have a nice view”, and Polly had brought up a large blue rug from the basement that curled at the ends from being folded for years.
The thing about it, that Sunny couldn’t wrap his head around, was why she wouldn’t just want a normal bedroom. There was one that she technically had claimed already downstairs and ready to go, no crawlies, sufficient heating and cooling, outlets, all sorts of things. 

“No clue. It’s killing me though.” Hero said. 

“Same here.” Aubrey agreed. “They need to hire her back. They already fired the other guy.”

Given that nobody but Aubrey knew this information before she blurted it out, everyone’s attention was strung towards her. 

“They did?” Hero asked. “How do you know that?”

She looked puzzled with the situation as she spoke, as if she was thinking one thing and saying another. “Polly told me. They don’t know what they’re doing.”

Hero shrugged, the devil’s advocate growing horns on his forehead. “Well, I wouldn’t go that far. It’s a pretty big deal when your kid… you know. But they don’t know the inner workings of all of this though and that’s on them.”

Kel nodded, glancing across the room to read everyone else. He met Sunny’s eyes and pulled his mouth down into a dramatic frown but remained quiet. 

“I guess that’s true.” Aubrey said, breaking the silence. “Welp. I’ll keep an eye on him.”

It was a relief to know that she’d be there but also terrifying at the same time to know it would be her. She wasn’t exactly the best at dealing with her own emotional outbursts let alone the instability that often accompanied their mutual. He wasn’t sure if she knew just how scary he could get when he was at his worst or if she’d know what to do when he’d inevitably start to resent her. It wasn’t that Basil would even be doing it intentionally as it would be the pile of stress he’d pick up and sling over his shoulders.
Or perhaps Sunny was just thinking too deeply about it all. For all he knew, they could be the bestest of friends after this.

But really, who was he kidding? It was going to be a complete disaster. 

Which, speaking of disasters, his grandpa was still at their house and wouldn’t quit talking about the local hot dog shop. Every. Single. Day. He had been forced to the Dog House, ordered chicken tenders or occasionally a hot dog if he was really feeling thematic, listened to his grandpa gripe about politics that he didn’t fully understand, and then died painfully as he talked endlessly to the waitresses until it was clear they were busy and he was holding them up. His dad, chronically uneasy both from the circumstances of last week and his dad’s presence, had found the perfect scapegoat to avoid all of this.
Which was his son.

His mother adored his grandpa, she made him punch earlier and he hated it. So she made him a new batch and marveled in glory at her triumph to create something he’d like. The two of them watched the morning soaps together, grandpa pretending to hate them while simultaneously revealing he was aware of the entire plot.
“Why doesn’t Clarise just smack him? That’ll get the point across? She needs a hobby. She’s got no life! This guy sucks!”
It all seemed alright, but Sunny couldn’t get the echoes of his dad’s words out of his head from the night everything went down. He loved mom. Mom did not love dad. Well, as she put it, there would always be a sort of love, but she had zero interest in him. She’d taken to letting him down softly by calling any man she saw on the television hot, and when she’d have her hair back, she’d be sure to find them and sweep them off their feet. It seemed to work at first until his dad caught on and began doing the same thing. The weird tension was a constant issue that always lingered in the air at his house.

On the good side, although he was sure his parents both were still uncertain about Basil, they’d caved in pity and given the go to join everyone on vacation. It would have been weird without him anyways, Sunny would have just not gone at all.
Still, a trip to the mountains surrounded by the freshness of fall air sounded so peaceful, and he knew Basil would love it, there was so much nature out there. Perhaps then, his parents could understand that he wasn’t psychotic as they’d been led to believe. He wasn’t any worse than what they were already living with. His mom would be tougher to convince though, she always favored Kel and now, with the prosthetic and all, Kel was her all time favorite. He was so ‘unproblematic’ as she’d put it.

It was an overwhelming topic, he figured he’d think more deeply about it once he got the whole daily hot dog thing under control. 

Chapter Text

There was this thing they did that was particularly disturbing. When they brought out food, they’d have it in a plastic platter like a fancy waiter revealing a gourmet meal, the only difference was that it was hospital food… in a plastic platter.

This wasn’t to be confused with making the bold claim that it all tasted horrible, it was actually pretty good, it just felt weird and inappropriate given the circumstances.

The first day he left the hospital, he was able to finally let out a breath of relief to be away from everyone for a moment, as scary as it initially felt. There was something that was unbelievably embarrassing about a failed attempt and every time he had tried to regain some memory of everything or to even just think about it, one of his friends would burst through the door and interrupt that thought with another pie, pleading, or some insane story. He was thankful he wasn’t alone but running parallel to these thoughts was the introspection and curse of self-awareness. Cemented across their eyes and plastered in their arms with crazy glue, there was a shadow of pity and obligation.

He placed the top of the platter to the side, his stomach completely messed up and head pulsing. It was only the second day there and he had already spent an absurd amount of time avoiding the others. This hospital didn’t allow phone calls, the point of the entire thing was to completely distance oneself from the outside world. Whoever had decorated seemed to know what they were doing at least, the library was definitely the best part. They had fake fireplaces with paper flames, paper mache dragons, deep blue rugs and burnt orange walls. It was a stark contrast to the sterile rooms they stayed in.

Oh, there was one more thing, there was this kid that was also very quiet, and he’d scribble angrily on any scrap paper he could find, and one time he shot a glare at one of the girls when she shared she had been teased about her parents. Further inspection proved he had no clue who she was outside the place.
Another girl that was in there seemed like she had it all together but was in there for, surprise, the same reason as the rest of them. It was odd because she’d given everyone advice and had even run something of a temporary choir, one that he didn’t participate in.

Then there was this one guy and he was incredibly funny but it was clear he had some kind of disturbances.
There was also another girl who was in something like isolation because she’d pick up the chairs that had been filled with sand and toss them at people. From what some of the other’s said, she had actually been really sweet and had dropped out of school to take care of her siblings due to neglect on their parents' end. The staff wasn’t good to her.

He poked at the meatloaf that rested sadly on the tray with the plastic fork provided. These things were like currency out there, no one ever left with their silverware, they always had to do checks. He did get to witness someone with one once, but had arrived too late into the room to fully understand the commotion. The sketching guy sat at his table too, a little island of people who really didn’t want to talk. 

They just typically didn’t have a choice.

“Hey fellas.” The one who was certain he was funny sat down, intertwined his fingers together, and cracked something in his hand. He tucked the napkin into his shirt and began scarfing away what lay on his tray.

“You know her over there?”

Basil went to share a look with Sketchbook but he was too involved with pouring coffee creamer on his green beans. Slowly, he turned his head to make sure he was acknowledging the right person. 

“Yeah, her. We’re dating now, isn’t that cool?”
“In here?” Basil asked before thinking about it fully. Inside, he was screaming at himself, as it sounded a little curt, but outside, he gave a small smile and began to drink from his water bottle to wash away the lack of communication skills.
“Yeah, I like them crazy.” 

He had to hold back from choking on the water. “Ah… yeah.” He replied.

“You too?”

There was no reason he should have given that response, and he knew this, and he was equally as confused with himself as the guy was confused with his expressions. “I… I don’t know.” 

The guy laughed. “Let me explain something super simple with you. Normal girls, bad. They judge you too hard. Crazy girls? They’re great! Can’t freak out when you get upset because they do the same.”

He had zero knowledge of what to say to that. He nodded shortly and resumed poking at his food, but the guy kept talking.

“So, whatcha in here for?” He asked as though they had been sentenced to prison. 

He was going to answer, but considering the short sleeves situation he was currently in and the fact they were in a literal psychiatric hospital, he again was speechless.

The guy was unperturbed though and continued to ramble. “You know, one of the girls has a slit in her slipper she’s been hiding contact information in. You should give your number to her so we can all keep in touch.”

“That’s okay.” He whispered, the meatloaf now completely perforated. 

“What? Do you not like us?” The guy laughed. “Come on, you’re nothing new here, no need to be nervous. Me and my girlfriend are going to play volleyball later, wanna join?”

The next two days, after having not joined the volleyball tournament during their hour of ‘exercise time’, the people who had grown close over their time spent together began to act differently towards him, or at least he thought they did. There was certainly a chance it was all in his head, but there was just this different air that surrounded them.  He was positive that they probably thought he was being cold or brushing them off, but the reality was they were just completely different people and he wasn’t in the mood to make new friends. It really made him miss his own friends though, and even with tension, there was still that fundamental root of safety and comfort that seemed to emit over shared laughs or conversations that seemed to lack any meaning. At the core, he realized it was a real gift to be able to talk about nothing with someone and still feel somewhat comfortable around them. 

Day four, he was growing more annoyed with the way the showers worked and the fact he couldn’t shave his face without someone staring deep into his soul as he did. Of course he’d neglected to do that for a solid amount of time, but being blond had its perks and those perks were invisible mustaches for the most part.
Day five, he’d walked down the hall during a thunderstorm and listened to the rain as it slapped the windows, the bright colors on the walls feeling hushed and the rooms falling silent. He’d made his way into a room far too large for two people, and sat down across from a psychiatrist who was hellbent on using the term ‘linchpin’, which he later found out was synonymous to ‘pinnacle’. It was an interesting word, so he didn’t fault him.

“Hello, Basil.” The man, whose name was Andrew, said. He always looked so professional and was so jolly. His face was always smiling and the tip of his nose and his cheeks were always red. “On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your day?”

These questions always made him overthink because no day spent in captivity with the weight of embarrassment and shame hovering an unknown distance above your head was particularly enjoyable. Then again, if he were to rate it honestly, they’d keep him there longer and it would take forever to finally get home. Five was too normal, too average, it was like guessing ‘C’ to every question on an exam. Anything under than five meant danger, and anything too close to ten meant suspicious.

“Seven.” The safe number, the best number. There was no better solution. In an equation where Hospital was less than or equal to Normal Day, but Normal Day was less than or equal to Home, he’d be right in the middle of normal and Home.
He was also without a doubt in the world going to hate the catchup work he’d have to do when he returned. 

“Alright, care to share why?”

Now, as he had done every day since he got there, he’d have to come up with a reasonable answer that somehow made seven an abstract symbol, representing that this particular day was better than the average ‘meh’ but slightly less than a perfect day.
“We had grits this morning, that was nice.” He mumbled, drawing himself closer to the table, then further back when he realized he could see the doctor working on his form.
“Are grits enough to make your day a seven out of ten?”
He nodded. “I love grits.”
“Butter?”
“Sugar, no butter.”
“That’s interesting. I’ll have to try that. Waffle House always just puts butter in them so it’s hard to imagine what they’d taste like. Popcorn. I always felt like they tasted like mushy popcorn.”
“That’s terrible.”
“Indeed, indeed.”

He also loved that word.

“Alright, so we’ve been discussing what brought you here, I’m sure you’ve had to repeat that more times than you’d like, but there were some more questions that I do need to ask you. Are you feeling well enough to answer them for me?”

He nodded, seeing no other choice. 

Andrew cleared his throat and began through a list. “First off, any thoughts of harming yourself or others today?”

“No.”

“Alright. That’s good. These next questions will help us narrow down things.”

The next questions were always too deep, too embarrassing, and incredibly odd, but he got used to staring at the table and avoiding eye contact with the guy. If he could just pretend he was talking to a television or the mirror, it was easier. At the end of the session, the man snapped his notebook shut and excused him. He spent the remaining hours reading a random book he’d selected from the library about a mysterious house and ring and going in and out of sleep. Whatever the medication was they’d given him, it made him drowsy.

Day five, they had art and watched a Russian pop singer sing a song that involved, for some strange reason, the exploding of fish bowls. Macaroni art, as it turned out, was a very relaxing topic. It was that day, that the joking guy, who he now knew as Luke, slid back towards his side.

“Me and my girl are having troubles.”

Basil traced a poorly executed drawing of a cat with glue. “You are?”

“Yup. I think she likes that Jeremy guy.”

The two of them looked over, and to no surprise, she was sitting next to him as he created a macaroni masterpiece.

“I’m sorry to hear that. I don’t think there’s a lot you can do now.”

“Yeah,” Luke sighed. “Maybe I’ll luck out and he will turn out to really like playing with noodles… Your face! You always look so disturbed when I say things like that.” Luke laughed. “Loosen up man, none of us will probably ever see each other again anyways.”

He stuck a couple pieces of macaroni on the paper and watched as they quickly settled into their new permanent spots. Forever sealed by fate to a random piece of paper. “I thought you said you wanted everyone’s contact.”

There was a slight shift on his face before he hummed, “Right! Good thinking, what’s your number?”

Day six, they were allowed outside which was where the terrible events happened. Apparently, his new temporary-somewhat-friend was quite the go-getter because his alleged girlfriend found out another girl was flirting with him, and she promptly threw her off of the playset everyone was sitting on despite her fascination with Jeremy. He was thankful to be sitting by the tree during this which gave him the benefit of missing out on most of the conflict. Luke’s girlfriend jumped on the girl but was held back almost immediately and threatened to be tased, which was the first time he found out that was even a thing.

Luke was gone by lunch, it was apparently the end of his stay at the hospital. He was gleaming the entire time, excitedly telling everyone how he was going to call them as soon as he could.
That evening, he had another meeting with the psychiatrist where they informed him they’d continue the medicine treatment and bribed him with the idea that it could be a temporary thing if he did what he was supposed to and went to therapy. 

“It helps you with the nerves,” Andrew had said. “It will be so much easier for both you and your therapist to talk if you can get them under control. Therapy is only as beneficial as you’re willing to make it. Find a good therapist, find someone you feel comfortable with.”
He almost sounded like he had a transatlantic accent even if the accent itself wasn’t real.
“Alright.” He replied, getting up to leave.
“Ah-bu-bu! We’re not done yet, sit back down!” The man said. “Don’t run off, we’ve got some more work to discuss.”

He shifted back into the chair. 

“You should be good to go by tomorrow, the medicine doesn’t seem to have any immediate bad effects on you and you’ve been marked safe. If you feel like this isn’t the case, make sure you talk to a nurse. There is a sea of help out there and we have countless floaties to make it easier.” He grinned and leaned back. “You’re way too young and smart. Keep your head up.”

Day seven was worse because on day seven, it was revealed they had called his parents numerous times and they hadn’t picked up. They were also confused why their phone numbers indicated they were in a different country.
A specific kind of anxiety, the one that seems to make its return periodically, had picked back up, slipping in between corners and melting through the tiles on the walls. He sat alone in his room, clutching his pillow between his arms and his chest, and began to worry. All it would take was one simple CPS investigation to realize that they were not entirely presently living with him, though, it could be canceled out by reason of there being a caretaker.

Andrew thought it was great though.
“The more floaties, the more of a chance you will learn something helpful.” He said, trying his best to be optimistic. “We did finally get a hold of them. They’re flying in, but they probably won’t be here until Sunday.”

Then, the weight of expectations, his friend’s worry, attention, school, the house, the cat, the suffocation of living and the loneliness that often accompanied everything came to a bloom.
The remaining two days couldn’t have moved quicker.  

He left Sunday evening, checked out with a folder worth of prescriptions, coping mechanisms, macaroni art, and the same feelings he arrived with still boiling under his skin.

His parents, as expected, were waiting for him with Polly and he found himself incapable of reaching their eyes.

“There you are,” His mom said gently, she swayed from her chair and towards him, pulling him into something that resembled a side hug. His dad patted him on the shoulder.
Parents doing parental duties that they didn’t know how to do with a person they didn’t even know. He kind of felt bad for them in this situation because if he were in their shoes, he’d be just as lost.

Polly was different, she grabbed him as if she had been in football her entire life and squeezed until he couldn’t breath. He patted her on the back hoping she’d let go quickly. It was hard to hug a person when he didn’t know where she stood in his life.

“Alright… let’s get you home.” She said, her voice wavering. He hated seeing her like that and hated even more so that it was his fault. The doctor had already been out to discuss everything to empty air, told them in great detail what he’d discovered, and had told them apparently with tight lips how important it was that the medication regime was followed or he’d be sent back.

In the car, the chill of mid February slipping through the thin gap of the window, the radio turned silent, the three of them rode together back towards his house. He was just happy to see anything that wasn’t the same scenery from the fourth floor of the hospital. The drab street, lack of pretty architecture, the hum of the same songs repeating from an old radio speaker, was finally over. 

“Your new caretaker will be meeting with us this evening.” His mother said quietly from behind the wheel. “I know you only have a year left until you can live by yourself, but this lady seems very nice. I’d appreciate it if you gave her a chance.”

He didn’t reply and didn’t really want to think about it. Rather, he watched as the road became familiar and houses that he recognized began to sprinkle the streets. 

She hadn’t spoken much before and she didn’t speak much after. When she spoke, he was nervous, but when it was quiet, anticipation flooded the air for the next time she’d say something.
Finally, they had arrived back at the house and he opened his door and began to step out.

“Basil. Hold on a second.” His mom said, turning to look at him. He studied her for a moment, wishing to know exactly what she looked like. Fair skin, blue eyes, blonde hair, it was pretty obvious who he looked like the most. 

“You know you can always call us if you need anything.” She said, beginning to cry. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

He nodded his head and sat back down for a second, searching for a rational reason that wouldn’t worry them.

“I just overdosed trying something new.” He smiled. It faded when he heard it come out of his mouth, realizing that it probably was going to make her freak out more over the blatant lie. In theory, it was supposed to help her not think he was having any mental health issues. In action, it just made him look like he had more issues than he’d led on. Though, truthfully, the experience had made him think for a moment, complete relief in his final minutes before the lights were shining in his eyes.

“You what?” She asked, face twisting. “What do you mean by that.”

He had to backpedal. “I had a bad headache.”

“Don’t lie to us dear, it’s okay.” She said, reaching an arm out. He recoiled at first but saw the hurt form in her eyes and let her provide a small pat of parenthood.  

Chapter Text

With the heavy feelings lingering over everyone’s head as a car pulled into the back of the house, he smiled in an effort to get his friends to lighten up.

“Let’s go get him!” He said, already heading towards the attic entryway. He turned around when no footsteps followed. They were still huddled around the window and peaking through the curtains.
“Let’s wait.” Aubrey said with her back turned to him. “Oh God, it’s his stupid parents.”
“Huh?” Kel pulled himself to join them, throwing open the curtains and drawing the attention of the people in question. Presumably Basil’s mom, who he wasn’t even positive he had seen before, though, maybe he had once, lifted an arm and turned to who was probably his dad, and pointed at them.
“Kel!” Aubrey snatched the curtains closed. “Way to blow it, don’t you have any tact!?”
“What? Why are we hiding? Are you planning on jumping out and scaring him?”
She narrowed her eyes, her voice growing louder. “No, I just thought we should be more mindful!”
“Well it’s better he knows what to expect if you ask me!”
“Guys.” Hero sighed. “Not now, can’t this wait?”
“Do you really think Basil would want us all to flood his house right when he gets back?” Aubrey said.
Kel, now growing genuinely irritated, stepped closer to her. “You’re not his only friend, if you ask me it’s better than not knowing we’re here.”
“I never even said that.” She snapped back. 

Hero muttered something but he’d have to wait, they were too far in this. 

“You alluded to it.” Kel replied.
“If the shoe fits.” She shrugged.
“What?”
“GUYS.” Hero stepped towards them. “Cut it out, where’s Sunny?”
Kel turned around and looked towards Aubrey’s bed where he had been sitting just moments prior. Now, the attic door was opened and he was gone.
“So we could have gone down this whole time if you just listened?” He muttered loud enough for her to hear.
“If I had just listened? You should have listened!”
“Or…” Hero began down the stairs but looked back at them. “If both of you had listened to me, you would have known sooner.”

He began his descent from the stairs, the wood on the ladder sketchy in some areas and creaking as he stepped off. Aubrey went after him and he held on to the railings in case it were to fail. When she had made her way down, he softly punched her shoulder and followed his brother into the living room.

The warm shades of green and cream had a golden hue as the door opened and the sun shone through the opening. A family of three walked in, Basil following behind them with eyes tracing the floor.

Sunny was already by the entrance. Having not expected him to be right there, Basil turned quickly and smiled at seeing him.

“Oh, hi Sunny!” He said, giving him a quick side hug. “It’s good to see you. And Kel? Hero?” He said as he looked across the room with confusion at everyone else. He stopped on Aubrey and gave her a small wave. “Hi everyone. You all cleaned up.”
He examined the plants they had stuffed back into containers. 

Little did he know some of the money they used to buy the new pots were from his own piggy bank. Most of the money. Kel had taken all of it but was currently a fifth of the way into paying it back.
“I hope it looks alright.” Hero chuckled as he stepped slightly in front of one of the plants that didn’t look entirely great.
“It looks great. Thank you.” He said softly. “I hope whoever did it hasn’t given you all any trouble.”

At hearing that, Kel shared a look with the others to see if there was some information that had been left out. As they had cleaned up the house, cutting their hands on the broken shards that lined the floor and sorted the flower’s roots from damaged soil, they had done so with the idea that Basil was the one that had destroyed them. There were definitely theories that he wasn’t the one who did it, but there was also the knowledge of rash decision making that often followed a complete meltdown. Sunny was hellbent that Basil didn’t destroy them, Aubrey believed it was someone and had sent her friends to gather information through the week, but Hero had figured there was a mental breakdown involved that caused a psychotic break. Kel was in between, uncertain of what to believe. In the end, Aubrey had begun to understand Hero’s point of view on the matter and Sunny just remained quiet. 

“You didn’t do it?” Hero asked.
Basil shook his head lightly. “No.”
“Who did it then?” Aubrey said, she sat down on the couch with a disgusted look. “When I find them. They better… Ugh, Lord you better give me patience because if you give me strength… someone’s gonna die.”

As they spoke, it was hard for Kel not to stare at Basil’s parents in the kitchen. They were listening to the conversation, sharing glances with each other, and his mother was tapping her fingernails off of the counter.
“You could always come stay with us.” His mom said. “We can sell this house and you can use that money for school!”
Basil twisted his head sharply towards them and didn’t hesitate in answering to their curiosity. “No thanks.”

His mom looked shocked as she huddled closer to her husband in response.
“Well,” He said as he inched towards the hall. “I’m sorry to cut this short, but it’s been a long…” He paused and glanced upwards. “I’m tired.”
“Get some rest!” Kel said. He turned the corner and trapped him into a hug and squeezed as hard as he could. Basil froze up but hugged him back so it ended up being alright, Kel thought. As long as he knew they were all there. He stepped away from him and pointed to the attic.

“Mind if we stay for the night? We won’t bother you!”
Basil nodded. “Yeah, of course.” 

And when he said that there was a moment of trust that unveiled itself from the room, like a feather that had fallen had finally come to a rest in its movement. He disappeared from the living room and shut his bedroom door behind him, though, his parents began to stir and whisper to themselves, eventually ending with his mother making her way through the hall. 

In an effort not to snoop in a private conversation that was heard clearly enough, Kel began to speak to try and distract the others from listening too.
“You know, er.” He paused, the thought of not listening leading to thinking about listening and ultimately listening distracted him. “Oh! So, I am so excited because I’m supposed to meet the new coach soon!”
“Oh yeah?” Aubrey said, catching on relatively quickly. It didn’t matter though, they all knew the conversation in the hall was about the door being closed.
“Yep! Plus, now that the season is almost over, it’s time for me… I mean we to get a summer job.”
“That doesn’t make grammatical sense.” Aubrey said with her brows raised. She examined her nails as she insulted him, completely unaware at the hair tie that he had pulled back. He released it and watched in what felt like slow motion as it connected to her neck. She clasped herself and coughed.
“WHAT THE HELL!?”
He flinched as a pillow was beamed directly at him though the impact wasn’t anything to worry about.

“So are you in or not? Because they aren’t gonna hire all of us. You know, I think I’d rather work with Sunny and Basil anyways.”

She pushed her hair behind her ears, a grown out mess of split ends and straggles. “Okay Kel. Well while you guys do your little worker bee things, I guess I’ll just be enjoying the summer.”

“Broke as a joke.” Kel shrugged.

There was a thud from the other room and they all turned their heads to see Basil’s mom walking hastily from the hall.
“He’s mad I think.”
“What did you say to him?”
“I didn’t do anything! He just was so short with me!”
“Did he throw something? What was that?” His dad had already begun towards the hall.
“I kind of slammed the door.” His mom winced back. 
His dad stopped and turned towards her. “What? Why!?”
“I didn’t mean to! It just happened and now he probably thinks I did it on purpose.”
“Did you bother telling him it was an accident?”
“What if he doesn’t believe me? If I bring more attention to it he might just think I’m purposely trying to not look guilty of something I’m not even guilty of.”
“You think too much.”

They bickered in the hall for what seemed like forever. Finally, when it was clear they weren’t going to stop, Aubrey stood up and stretched her back. “Welp, I’m going upstairs. Does anyone care to join?”
Hero shot up like a bullet from a gun. “Yep. Right behind you.”
"Yeah, this is weird.” Kel accidentally said out loud. He clamped his jaw as they pulled the stairs down. 

“Where are you kids going?” Basil’s mom asked as Aubrey began to take her first step onto the stairs. Kel glanced over to her since this was more of her business than his and she looked pissed.
“My room? Why are you here?”

Hero’s jaw fell and Kel gripped his hand tighter. Leave it to Aubrey to make any situation tense where it didn’t need to be. 
“I beg your pardon?” His mom said in disbelief.
Kel had to look away, the second-hand stress was a killer and the woman looked like her feelings were genuinely hurt. On a totally different note though, he couldn’t help but notice Basil looked more like her than his dad. His dad had somewhat tall, dark features, but his mother had light and soft features. He’d have to remember to tell him that later because it was similar to his family. He looked more like his mom and Kel looked more like their dad but Sally was the outlier. She looked like no one.

“It’s just it’s not really your house to make rules. Plus, I thought you told him he couldn’t have his door closed… why did you shut it then?”

His mom swiftly cracked open the door with furrowed brows and by the time she had looked back up towards them, Aubrey had already disappeared into the attic. 

The hours they spent upstairs seemed to drift by, games of Clue, Go Fish, and Uno filling up their attention. The sun had sat long ago and a chill often stretched from the window and onto their shoulders. Aubrey had a blanket wrapped around her as did Sunny who was still shivering, and Hero was now in the corner flipping through a random book he had found stashed in a pile of boxes in the corner. 

For being a room with so little furniture and remnants of its previous days as a storage room, it felt so cozy.
“Whatcha reading?” Kel asked as he examined the front of the book.

“It’s an old yearbook actually, look, I think those are his parents.” Hero pointed to a black and white photo of a girl on one page and flipped a few pages forward to find presumably his father.
“Oh. That’s cool. So, are you on for another game of Uno?”
Hero shook his head, still buried in the book. “I don’t think your friendships can handle another game Kel.”
“It’s not my fault Aubrey cheated!”
“Once again. I didn’t cheat, you’re just a sore loser.” Aubrey returned. “Plus, Sunny’s the one who cheated.”
“I give him the golden passage to do that.” Kel said, a tear nearly forming in his eye at such a sacred statement. 
Aubrey sighed. “So what you’re saying is as someone who cheats at games himself, but somehow can’t beat Daniel at the arcade, is accusing me of cheating because it didn’t go your way?”
“You can’t beat him either!”
“The only reason I’d want to is to crush his ego.”

There was a silence as everyone nodded to themselves. Valid point. It was during this silence that the sounds of downstairs could be heard clearer from where he was standing. Basil’s parents were still talking at length about the door situation which was frankly incredible. How they could keep a conversation like that going and still not run out of things to say was mind blowing. Aubrey stirred in her spot, pushed the card deck away from her, and tugged at Sunny’s blanket.
“You should go see if he wants to come up.” She muttered. 

Sunny nodded and sprung to life and pushed open the attic stairs. Kel watched from above as he rounded the stairs and knocked on Basil’s door. It opened and instead of Basil coming into the hall, Sunny was grabbed and pulled into the room, the door shutting quickly behind them.

“I think Basil just kidnapped him.” Kel reported back to the main station.
“Well.” Aubrey shrugged. “I guess it’s just us three then. What do you all want to do?”
“I know exactly what I want to do.” Kel inhaled and made his way downstairs. He crept past the parents who sat on the couch talking in whispers and grabbed the landline. Now that it was in his hands, he darted through the hall and up the stairs.
Clicking a familiar number sequence, he set the phone to speaker and put it between him, Aubrey, and Hero.

“Gino’s Pizza this is Tom.”
“Hey… I’m so sorry I can’t make it in tomorrow.”
“Who is this? This better not be you Zac.”
“I’m so sorry…” Kel said as he tried his best to cry. “I just got my wallet stolen, my dog just ran away, and what’s worse? I broke my microwave and can’t even have dinner tonight.”
The guy on the other line seemed so fed up. “I really don’t need to know all of this. You’ve called out twice this month already. You know, if you keep doing this I’ll have to take you off the schedule.”
He swallowed, it was getting a little too real. Hopefully Zac would explain it was all a prank when he found out some random person pretended to be him and in Kel’s defense he never said it was him.
“No! I really need this job. Foofoo won’t feed herself! I-”
“Tom, what the hell!? ” The owner said from the line. He sounded distant though. “What the… Who is this!? You think it’s funny to cl-”

He hung up the phone quickly and was finally able to laugh with the others who had been having a difficult time holding it in. 

He was halfway through ringing in a gas station’s phone number he had memorized only because it was the same digit most of the way through when the others began moving from their spot and towards the attic opening.

“There you two are!” Hero said as he gave Sunny a hand up the steps. Basil began to look around the room, a glow from the multicolored Christmas lights forming in his eyes. 
“It looks so nice in here. I’m glad you made yourself at home.” He said quietly as he examined the poster.
“Here.” Aubrey handed him a green marker. “You have to sign it too. It’s not official until you do. Well, you and my other friends but you have to sign it before they do.”

He grabbed the marker and finally, the poster felt complete. 

Chapter Text

How long would she have to live in misery?

The first night was alright. They all hangout, shared some laughs, and no one really brought up anything about what had happened because when they did things would get weird and quiet and it was determined unanimously that it would probably be best to wait a few days until they had a sit down with him. 

The second night, everyone went home to tend to their own things and it was mentioned when they returned they’d have a new group member who needed to sign the poster, that person being Sally. Sunny had tried his best to get out of going home, even going as far as to pretend to be incredibly deathly ill, but had failed the moment he realized his grandpa was there to pick him up and not his dad. 

Speaking of dads, the misery part at that exact moment she was in now, four days post Basil returning home, was his parents.

They were completely insufferable. There was definitely a reason they had dumped him here, not only were they pretty young, which in itself wasn’t the issue, it was that they were young and still irresponsible. They had no idea what to do with the knowledge that they had a son and they were supposed to do something about it. They were supposed to leave two days ago but had managed to postpone whatever meeting they were going to attend until another three or four  days. She couldn’t remember, she hadn’t listened very well. 

What she did listen to, and at great lengths, was what they’d say under their breaths or when they thought no one could hear. That was where the juicy information was. Hidden between their false persona of being adults who had everything figured out and had their lives put together were cracks of two individuals who had no clue what was going on and no knowledge of how to figure it out.

There were times she emphasized with them, like the night she hid in the living room until they’d gone to the back bedroom and she heard the cries of a mother who wasn’t really a mother but who wasn’t just nobody either. The regret of not spending enough time to even account for a bond, the knowledge that regardless of what she did now, it was too late, she had already screwed up.

Other times, she downright resented their ways of thinking and it reminded her of why he was left there in the first place. Their priorities were not in check and they wanted to sell the house. Their voices would always grow so quiet when discussing the issue as if they were worried somebody really was listening, which they were. She was. Apparently, their business was perfectly fine and healthy and all that, but they wanted the money that came from selling a house to invest into greater things. The school thing, as it turned out, was only an umbrella term for essentially creating someone who would one day take over the company.
Which was gambling and some entrepreneur stuff she didn’t quite catch. There was a tight feeling they were in more financial trouble than they let on, but it was incredibly heartless for them to try and even think about taking away the only thing he really had for their own benefit. 

So she made it her life mission to bring up at every opportunity how lucky he was to have a house when they were all in the same general area together. It elicited a few odd looks from him considering he didn’t know about what she had overheard, but it was worth it to see his parents attempt at masking an uncomfortable stance. 

She didn’t have the heart to tell him, he wasn’t going to sell it anyway, it was too sentimental to him and she doubted he’d want to tackle having to buy a house in the future. She also didn’t have the heart to tell him Polly wasn’t coming back and neither was whatever his name was Nathan or something. Tom? He was too short of a stay. The truth of the matter was his parents had no idea what to do because not only was he close to being 18 but he was insistent on bringing Polly back. Polly, however, was more of an elderly care worker and he didn’t have social security to pay for her like his grandmother did.

This whole crappy situation got her thinking about her own as she laid in an unfamiliar room at night. The attic kind of felt like home, it was an attic. It had walls and critters and even a chilly window like her old home. The difference was insane though. Rather than cockroaches skittering across the crumpled wrappers downstairs and finding their way into her room, rats scratching the inside of the walls, and the occasional mess that came from maggots infesting the food her mom kept sealed away in trash bags leading to clouds of gnats and flies, there was cleanliness. It wasn’t the kind of pristine cleanliness that would be found in a home with those decorative peppers in their jars or a kitchen island or the refrigerators that had an ice and water machine in them, it was the kind of cleanliness that was warm and lived in. There weren’t insects but here and there a moth would slip in and try to attack the lights above her bed, or maybe she’d hear a bird trying to get into the roofing, and there was a small sheet of dust over the ceramic and glass figurines of cats, bears, and birds. 

It felt so cozy and clean that she felt sloppy and out of place. 

The sun had gone down and she laid in her bed staring at the ceiling. She wondered if her mother even noticed her absence. She had to admit she felt guilty leaving there but there was no way she could go back, her house was uninhabitable. However, even with that being so, she also didn’t want to infest the house she was currently in with her presence, slowly ruining any friendship she had with Basil or losing her friendships with the others because she’d done something or gotten angry or whatever. 

She let out a huff as she rolled on her side and pulled her blanket closer to her chin. Every night since she’d found out who had been bullying him, she’d daydream at length about giving them a good old fashioned smack in the face with a bat, her hands, flicking a rubber band at their eye and kicking them in the groin. Screaming at them and making them cry. Then, she’d go to school, and she wouldn’t see them. Tomorrow, she’d hunt for them and she’d find them. 

Basil had skipped the first day back working on makeup work and just existing in the house with the two strangers he called his parents and she went, eyed everyone, and waited for a moment to strike. The moment never came.

Her alarm woke her up from her sleep and she slapped the snooze incredibly unexcited to start the day. When it went off again, she wondered if snooze only lasted fifteen seconds. Dragging herself out of bed, she decided if she was going to kick ass, she’d better look cool doing it, and selected her outfit based on this. Black tights, dark washed shorts, this black turtle neck thing that actually looked super cool with her jacket, and combat boots. The perfect ass-kicking kind. 

She sat down in front of her mirror, clipped her hair back, and began applying her makeup. As she rubbed in her foundation with her hands Basil’s voice trailed from downstairs. 

“Aubrey? Are you awake?”

“Yeah, come on up.”

The attack door opened and the stairs came downward. He popped his head up from the hole in the floor and rested his head on his hand, arm resting on the floor.

“We have to leave in a minute if we want to catch the bus.”

“Alright, I’m almost done, I just need to brush my hair and teeth.”

“Okay.”

She continued to do her makeup but when she realized he was hoisting himself up to likely begin his snooping thing again, she began to quickly apply eyeliner. This was his graceful way of rushing her. 

“Multitask, do you know how to braid?” She asked.

“Can we do it at school? I really don’t want to be late when I go back.” He said with a tight smile.

“Fine.” She threw her hair in a bun, grabbed her backpack, and he followed her down the stairs. They rolled it back up to the attic and she excused herself to the bathroom. Plucking her toothbrush from its container she brushed quickly and examined herself in the mirror to make sure she didn’t look too much like a dork. A braid would fix it all.

Out into the cold they set off towards the bus stop. The bitter February air nipped at her legs and she stuffed her hands in the pocket of her coat and looked off into the distance just in case someone was watching so they’d know she meant serious business.

Then, like a horror movie, there was this flash and pop. She spun to her right and he wiggled a piece of film between his fingers. 

“Sorry about that.” He tucked it into a small book and stashed it into his coat pocket only to find it didn’t fit and it would have to go back in his backpack. He fumbled as he fought to put it away and she had to fight an urge to smile in case, once again, an enemy was lurking nearby. 

“I’m glad you’re doing that again.”

“Are you mad.” He muttered.

“No?”

“You look mad, I just… I don’t know I guess I thought waiting at the bus stop would be a good way to start a new album.”

“It’s a great idea, especially because I’m in it. I’m just trying to keep cool in case the enemy lurks by.”

“The who?”

“The enemy Basil.”

“Oh. The enemy. Got it.”

“You have no clue what I’m talking about do you?”

“Chris?”

“No not Chris. The people who wrecked your house!”

“Ah. I see. It’s okay.”

She looked over at him and he seemed fine, he was just swaying there and watching the road for the bus. 

“It’s really not though.”

“It’s okay, really, you all fixed them all up.”

“They broke into your house. What are you on?”

“Nothing.”

And that was all that was said in that conversation because after he answered her he began absent-mindly humming a tune to some song. 

In the fog, two large lights blossomed in the distance and grew in size as it approached them. With a great wheeze, the bus opened its doors and they got on together. He sat down in his usual seat and she took hers behind him and with Kim.

“Hey Basil!” Kim said as she leaned over the seat. “How are you doing?”

He looked back at her and it was as if his friendly demeanor had crumbled up and died. He gave her a thumbs up and smiled, but it was clear he was scared of something. Shy, Aubrey had supposed, shy and non-confrontational for the most part. It made her feel kind of special though, that her and the others were at least close enough that he was open with them.

When they finally got to the school, she walked with him to the cafeteria where Kel was already waiting with a very special someone named Chris with an H. They sat across from each other as he showed off his “skills” (as he had been calling them) with finger skateboarding. The amount of amusement in her eyes told a story of how she didn’t find the skateboarding finger thing exciting at all but rather the person showing it to her. 

“Alright.” Aubrey said as she took her seat. She opened her backpack and handed Basil the brush. “Braid time.”

It was bittersweet as it reminded her of when they were so little, but sad in a way she couldn’t describe. He had no idea this braid was about to be the confidence that would break the nose of a certain Nate.

“Aubrey,” Kel said, leaning in. “Not to alarm you but your hair is so dead you need to stop dying it.”

“No one asked you Kel.”

“It looks like sandpaper! Basil, is Aubrey’s hair all dry and dead?”

She wasn’t amused when there was a silence from behind her. Kel laughed. “See! Even he agrees. You need to stop dying it so much, give it a break for a little bit.”

“I’m going to beat your ass, stop.” She shot back. In her defense, if he got punched, she had warned him.

“I’m just trying to help, it’s still pretty, but you’re frying it.” He relaxed back into his seat, satisfied with himself and his bluntness… and his unwanted criticism.

“It’s not that bad,” Basil said. “Just… maybe skip a couple dye sessions. I can trim it up for you later if you want, that will get rid of the split ends.”

She rolled her eyes not wanting Kel to be validated anymore. His head was growing in size by the second. 

“I think it’s fine the way it is.” She lied.

She checked the braid in the mirror before class a few times, dragged strands down by her face, and began the hunt in the locations she was familiar with. Through the halls, in the unused classrooms, listening outside of the men’s bathrooms and changing rooms, and in the field house. There were no signs of any of them but it was alright, she had no issue with going to their houses.

Just as she was about to give up having spent the majority of the first period searching, she heard from down the hall and into the field house the voices of The Enemy and his Posse. Wondering why she didn’t bring Kim along or perhaps a bat to make life easier and scare them a little, she left no second unused and marched her way straight to the source. 

He exited the door heading towards the side street left of the school. She followed them, slamming the door opened behind them. Nate spun around at hearing her and cocked a brow at her.

“What?”

There wasn’t a lot of time to think about what she was actually going to do now that she was in the situation. The cold air didn’t bother her, the fact they were directly in front of a windowed door didn’t either. The grayness of the air stood still around her as she clenched her fists tight enough for her nails to dig into her skin and swung at him, missing him entirely.

“What gives?”

“What do you mean what gives? You just broke into someone’s house, are you nuts?”

He smirked to his friends. “Listen. I have no clue what you’re talking about. You should go back to home ec and go cook your troubles away or something.”

“Excuse me?”

He didn’t look too sure of himself, in fact, he looked kind of scared when he took a step back from her.

“What do you want?” He asked as he raised a lip. 

“Why are you doing this? Because I swear next time you see me, you’re going to have to talk through a straw.”

“What does that even mean?”

She did feel like the crazy one with the way her words sounded as though they were placed into a speaker turned to max volume and how muffled his sounded by comparison. Either way, it was worth it. She wore her ass-kicking boots and confidence braid for this.

“You’re so sick in the head, why are you bullying Basil?”

When the words slipped out she slipped back, the same sentence bouncing off of her head and into a time where someone had asked her the same exact thing. She gripped her fists tighter. 

“Oh, I remember you now. Dude he’s weird, he creeps everyone out and people were tired of it so I stuck up for them. Plus, from what I’ve heard, he’s a nutcase. The violent kind. I just don’t feel right letting him get away with screwing around with people or like, whatever they’re saying. Weird things with de-”

He didn’t get very far because by then all of her emotions, the anger, disgust, hurt, it had all found its way into her fist. She swung at him, clocked him in the jaw, and didn’t stop, shoving and scratching, hitting, elbowing. He fell back, nose a mess of blood that stained the pavement, and continued to scoot back.

“Get her off of me!” He shouted at his friends as she drew closer. They grabbed her and she squirmed to get them off.

“I’ll leave him alone, just stop!”

“He didn’t do any of that! Do you even care?” She screamed back at him. 

“I don’t care, I don’t care, just stop you psycho.” Nate rushed back up to his feet and backed up, wiping his nose on the back of his sleeve. “God you’re a bitch.”

“It’s your fault.” She said, ripping her arms away from his idiot friends. “It’s your fault and I swear if I find out you do one more thing to him it won’t be like this next time. I’ll break your teeth.” She cried. She didn’t realize it, but the emotions she’d pent up continued to poke at her stomach and pull at her eyes. “He almost died because of you. You’re going to regret this.”

Though, in a way, she was saying it to herself as well.

“The hell does that even mean?” Nate whined. “I literally don’t get it. Sure I shoved him around but I didn’t outright try to kill him, the fuck?”

“You destroyed his plants, you pushed him around and you’re telling people lies.” Her tears felt as though they turned to steel and hardened her face, hands clenching again and wanting to fly. 

“Look I’ll be so real with you.” Nate said. His eyes were confused and his mouth grew a deep frown, nose crinkled. “I quit picking on him for the most part after I saw something and I haven’t done much since. I get it, I’m an asshole and I’m fucked up. His responses are hilarious and I think it’s funny as hell. I do one thing and he cries. I didn’t break into his house though are you serious?”

She looked at him, still angry and even angrier he saw her cry. She was supposed to be a badass but as it turned out, it was a lot easier to do that when her friends were around to have her back.

“You’re lying.”

“But I’m not. I didn’t do anything. Did he tell you I did that?”

She raised her hands as she grew frustrated with this conversation. She was supposed to be knocking his teeth out not conversing with him. “No but that’s not the point-”

“Then why do you just assume I did it? It literally could have been anyone. People bully him. Ask someone else. Sorry.”

“No stop.” She walked closer towards him as he began to turn away. “I’m not done talking to you.”

But he only continued to walk, ignoring her and leaving her behind.

Chapter Text

He yawned as he drug his mouse over the submit button. Today was the day he was finally going to submit his application to the school and jump back into classes, this time in the summer.

He had thought at length about it all. The way he felt as he hovered over the oven and the warmth that would brush the tip of his nose when he went to pull a perfect pie from inside. The way that it had brought so much joy to the ladies at the competition and the confidence people held when they told him you can totally make it happen Hero. You’re just that kind of person. He thought about saving the elderly man from choking to death on pie and the EMTs who had saved his friend from an overdose. The way that all of it added up to a grand belief in that he could help people with both.

Obviously, it was going to require drowning- no not drowning- plummeting to his death taking on both majors at the same time, but wouldn’t that just be something? Hero the baker and Hero the doctor. 

Hey, I have Doctor Montoya too! Did you know he also owns the restaurant downtown? His brother works there with him! Yep. Yep his parents do get free meals whenever they want. Isn’t that so sweet?

He could see it now, saving lives by day and by night cooking up the best meals in town and bringing in people from all walks of life.

There was a downside to this though, something that made him stare at the hazy white screen and hover over the button. If he was going to do this, it would only give him a few more months with his friends before he’d have to take a step- no a leap- back into his studies. He sighed, leaning as far back as the chair would let him, and closed his sore eyes.

“Do I really want to do this?” He muttered under his breath.

“Do what?”

“Kel!?”

“What?”

He turned around in the chair and watched as Kel slowly began putting his leftovers back into the fridge.

“There’s no way you thought you were going to get away with that… right?”

Kel shrugged. “It was worth a shot. It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission anyways. Plus you work there, you get to eat it all the time!”

“You know that’s just wrong… so wrong.” Hero replied, turning back to the screen.

“… You’re probably right.” He answered quietly in a way that didn’t sound sincere. “So are you finally going back to school?”

“Yeah, I guess spring really did go by fast. I thought I would have done it sooner.” He said as he made highlighter squares on the screen. “I’m just trying to find more motivation for it.”

Kel cracked open a can of what could only be presumed to be Orange Joe and moved to stand by him. 

“You? Not motivated? You can’t full me with that. What’s really going on?” 

Hero smiled and shrugged. “I couldn’t tell you actually. I just feel like if I leave and come back, I’ll come back to everything being the way it was the last time I guess.” 

Kel waved his hand. “Don’t worry about us Hero, you need to do this. Otherwise you’ll be in school forever and mom will keep asking you every day when you’re going back. I’ve got it all under control!”

“So Basil and Aubrey are living together now?” Hero said, twirling his pen on the desk. Anything but hitting that button of doom. He couldn’t even begin to imagine how awful that would end up.

“Yep. Kind of weird but kind of cool. Now I can go see both of them at the same time!” Kel replied. “Plus maybe she can keep a lookout.”

“How do you feel about all this?” He asked, hoping that deep inside they were feeling the same way. When a silence crept over the room and was hidden by a long sip of soda and a deep ahhh afterwards, he looked over to his brother. 

Kel was examining the contents on the can. “Did you know this is 160 calories? I drink like five of these a day.” 

“And when was the last time you went to the dentist?”

“Like a month ago. Anyways, back to what we were talking about…” He swished his mouth around and stared deeply into the can as if it was a homemade moonshine and he was an old mountain man about to speak on one of his great childhood adventures. “I don’t know. I try to make sure Sunny is good but then Basil starts falling about but then when I try to make sure Basil is doing alright Sunny starts acting weird. And sometimes it feels like I annoy everyone. I know you said it was good, what I do. I just don’t know if it always is. I’m always worried if I’m not with one of them then something bad happened.”

Hero nodded, pleased that to an extent they were on the same page. “Well. I know you will take care of everyone when I’m gone. Just do what we did last time… keep me in the loop and call me. You pretty much have the job at Rosso’s when I leave so make sure you keep me updated about there as well.”

“Jeez…” Kel laughed lightly. “You’re making it sound like you’re leaving forever. You’ll be back and plus you still have a long time before you even leave.”

“Yeah… I guess I’m just trying to think ahead.” 

The next day, as anticipated (Who would have guessed) Kel returned from school out of breath and ready to talk. Sunny followed close behind and four of them sat down at the table, Sally finally having one of her first moments of being a part of the group.

The house was a little extra warm that day with Kel having left the thermostat alone for more than an hour and the smells of their mother’s vanilla cupcake candle wafted through the air. The overhead light left orange streaks and shadows under everyone’s eyes as the curtains grew less useful as the sun began to set.

“Yeah, he’s pretty upset about it. Aubrey tried to talk to him but was I guess a little too forceful and now she’s banned from his room unless stated otherwise.” Kel, who was poking the table with his pointer finger said. 

“Well, I wouldn’t really want anyone in my room if I had one all to myself without being invited either.” Hero said. He dreaded this already and wished he could help her find a place of her own. It just sounded terrible, the whole idea.

“But that’s not the point, now he’s upset that she told me about it because apparently he-”

“KEL!”

The interruption stirred the table as everyone’s attention was directed rapidly to their mother. She stormed into the kitchen, a mother’s rage flashing in her eyes. “And don’t think just because he’s here you’re going to get away with it.” She said, gesturing to Sunny. “Explain to me why your coach just informed me that you were hiding milk cartons in classrooms.”

Kel went silent for a moment, a look that was undeniably guilty pulling at his eyes. He looked towards Hero for support but in that moment, there truly wasn’t anything he could do.

“It was for science?” He said, his eyebrows raised high and eyes squinted. Hero placed his head into his hands.

“Science? Tell that to your D in that class.”

“I’m sorry! I just thought it would be funny! I don’t even know how they found out it was me! Plus, technically I did that months ago…”

The door opened letting a gush of cold air into the kitchen.

“Now who’s here?” Their mom, who was at her limit, looked into the hall with her arms crossed. Aubrey and Basil had apparently also been invited during this convenient day. As they sat down at the table, their mother sighed and rubbed her hair out of her face.

“Kel. To your room. Now. Kids, I’m sorry but you’re going to have to go home.”

Hero got up as well, grabbing his keys and swinging them around his hand. “I’ll drive you guys.”

“What? What happened now?” Aubrey asked as Kel did the walk of shame to his room.

Hero shook his head trying to hide the fact he was amused. “Oh, just Kel hiding milk cartons and stinking up rooms.”

“That’s disgusting.” Aubrey said. “How did you deal with that?”

“Oh, he did that at school.”

“That’s amazing.” She reflected with a nod of approval.

It was kind of awkward having to shovel everyone into the car after Kel’s bedroom exile because Kel had led them all on the false narrative that they’d watch a movie and have an awesome time and play games when in reality he had been completely aware the entire time that their mom knew and that she was going to be very unhappy. Coach wasn’t happy about it in the slightest, apparently it reflected bad on the team. Kel agreed to this but his mouth wouldn’t stop curling as he fought back the laughter at the thought of it.

Chapter Text

The breath of creativity had formed invisible rubber bands around his fingers that only he could see. Each color reflected a new goal, a new anxiety, a new expression. He would look at them whenever he felt nervous and wondered if he should put real ones on there so that he could remember to try them out. Though, he was sure he’d forget after so long or they’d come to represent something different and would change enough that in the end, they’d represent nothing.

“When will you get the diploma?” His grandfather asked in a hoarse voice. He was kind of disappointed he was once again at a hotdog shop instead of playing games at Kel’s with the others. He had tried to hangout with Basil and Aubrey but of course, as fate would have it, his grandfather had jumped on the fact he returned.
The good news? Basil and Aubrey were invited and were currently sitting with him.

“No clue.” Aubrey said as she swirled her straw in her drink. Sunny wondered if she was even actually answering the question. Being that his grandpa was a Japanese native and as a result spent the majority of his time speaking in Japanese, there were a few times he’d jumble his English and it would be difficult to understand him if you weren’t used to that kind of thing. It did make for some funny moments though like when he tried to find the word for the corn on the cob stabby things and he described it as corn poke. In his defense though, Sunny didn’t even know if they had a name. Corn Pokes it was. It was impressive how good his English generally was though, and it was almost inspiring to the point the idea of learning another language would be a neat idea.
One thing his grandpa loved, as he put it, was ‘American Food.” Hotdogs were at the top of the list. He had spent some of his time living in New York as an editor, met some pretty ladies, move back to Japan for a few years, then back to America, then finally settled in Japan when he met Grandma. Due to this nature of moving between countries, his son, Sunny’s dad, had decided as a young man that he wanted to attend college in the United States and find work. Then he met mom and the rest was history.

“Okay. Do you brush your hair?” He asked Basil who glanced at Sunny with a look of both confusion and horror. He nodded a head of what did look like unbrushed hair. Grandpa grumbled something from under his breath that sounded suspiciously like serious need of a haircut. No one asked him to repeat that.

They ate quietly, no one wanting to inspire the older man to talk because when he did, it was either incredibly judgemental without him seeming to realize (or care) or he’d go on a tangent about his life. This backfired immediately when the waitress reached the table.

“How is everything?” She asked as she refilled his coffee.

“Why is there no honey mustard?”

“I’m sorry?”

“Honey mustards. Nowhere has it.”

She looked puzzled and grew red in the face. “I’m not sure sir. I’ve got a lot of requests for it but the owners won’t order any.”

“Okay. What is your name?”

She pulled the coffee back and smiled. “I’m Lindsey.”

“Okay.” (He was definitely going to ask for her every time. There was only so long until Lindsey would know about the differences between types of clay and information on Japan’s politics.) 

She watched him, as did they, everyone expecting him to say something else, or perhaps terrified he would, but when he resumed eating his french fries, Sunny felt the weight of the table settle back in. ‘Lindsey’ walked away, unscathed. 

“Do you like reading?” Basil, who was now the table’s enemy for doing that, asked. Sunny glared at him. He didn’t want to ask that question he knew he didn’t want to ask that question, so WHY did he ask that question?

“I read many books. Your generation doesn’t read enough.” Grandpa grumbled. “Look at Sunny, always whining, never reading. If he read more he would have the diploma.”

Basil, whose jaw had dropped, nodded and looked away, opening and closing his napkin. Shameful.

“Yeah Sunny, you idiot. Read more.” Aubrey, the traitor said, swatting him.

“No, he knows his diploma is coming. You don’t know.” 

Humbled.

Sunny still felt horrible for her but Basil, be it out of shock, second-hand embarrassment, or maybe even just because he was the current enemy of the table began to laugh before quickly covering it up with a cough.

“What’s funny!?” Aubrey snapped. “You’re the one failing two classes.” But she was laughing too. 

“Failing?” Grandpa said. “Sunny… these are your best friends?”

He nodded dumbly as a response, feeling like a poorly drawn stick-figure in his grandpa’s eyes. They didn’t know it yet, but his grandpa did love messing with people. The issue was when he was truly being judgemental, it sounded just like a joke. Nobody ever knew. Not even Sunny.

That evening after everyone had gone home and he was nestled in the living room of his own home since ‘his room was too dark and he needed to be downstairs’ thanks once more to grandpa, he leaned back into the comfort of the couch. Dread had formed in his heart and weighed on his chest, yet, his parents were not arguing and his grandfather was peaceful as he stared into the wall on the other side of the room. His mother had placed three blankets around him, brought him a hot chocolate, and had bought everyone matching house shoes. Even his dad was sporting them which seemed to have a requirement not to be high strung because if he tried to be high strung in fuzzy house slippers he’d look like an idiot. 

“You have nice friends.” His grandpa finally said. “Very nice. They have weird hair.”

And that was likely the biggest compliment they’d ever likely get from him.

“How’s your studying?” His mother asked softly. “You’ve been spending a lot of time up there.”

He nodded hoping it was the correct answer. Looking at his dad, it was the wrong one.
“He doesn’t know how to solve for X still.” Which wasn’t exactly true, he just didn’t like when the square root or complex fractions were involved.

“Aweee…” His mom chuckled. “Who needs to do that anyways? I bet I couldn’t do it!”

“I met you in Algebra two.” His dad replied with a raised eyebrow. 

She got an embarrassed look but shook her head. “The math these kids are doing now is so much harder… poor thing.”

“And it’s my responsibility that he can make it out there.” He took a chug from his beer. “Afterall, I am the o-”

“You never were good at math.” Grandpa added with a senile smile. This time, Sunny could tell it was fake. Old people got away with so much but in this instance, it was appreciated. “Remember when Eddie beat you at the competition?”

“Dad. I was in fifth grade that’s completely different.” 

“You can’t even draw a good picture for physics. Remember the formula right? The velocity distance and time?”

“What? What are you talking about?”

His point had been made and the TV had been turned up louder. Sighing, his dad sat down and joined in on the terrible soap opera that his mother and grandfather watched too often.

The days rolled by and he grew more restless and more bored of his textbooks. His dad would do his usual testing and now his grandpa would chime in, shocked that he was so behind and yet had a way of not making him feel dumb in the process, which could be explained by the fact he already thought he was dumb. They worked with him for hours and at one point he nearly cried over one math problem that seemed impossible to solve. Which happened to be around the same time his dad decided to reveal the book was for two years into his future and he probably wasn’t ready for that. His legs screamed at him to move around, leave the house, and his head begged him to lay down, just for a little, and his heart, burning with a  resentment  that formed from so much time studying and so little time being with his friends, was growing quick and unsteady.  Especially when he thought about Basil who he now worried about constantly. 

Staring at the words in a history book, eyes scanned the page but the brain did not pick up on what was being read. It bothered him constantly why he hadn’t just told someone, spoken to anyone, tried to give a warning. He was so rash, so quick to just drop everything, and in a way Sunny understood it perfectly but in another way he was so confused. Then, when he returned home, it was as if nothing had ever happened and he eerily snapped back into a previous persona. It was all messed up and regardless of how hard he tried, it was so difficult to pick back up on the depth of a friendship that had been permanently tainted from the stains of the past. It made him not want to leave his house while simultaneously never leaving his friend’s side. Was he part of the cause? Or was the cause because he wasn’t there enough?

His stomach stirred with the thought and he scooted in closer to his desk to try and reposition the worry away.

It was only past two which meant there was an entire hour before Kel was supposed to come over which also meant an hour of reading about mesopotamia. It would be so much more interesting if Mesopotamia was a town… Some kind of town that was accessible only after wandering through a flame that looked like a normal fire, but one that never went out and wouldn’t burn you. Once the few who noticed you could enter the flame did enter, they’d be immediately transported to a world from the past but one in which they operated as if they were at constant war with something like… the bunnies. Yes, it would be more interesting especially if they were suspicious of outsiders but very welcome once they found out the individual entering was smart enough to get through the flames.
When the random image of brand-name cat litter flashed through his head, he lifted himself up and realized he was starting to fall asleep on his book and the cat, Ollie, had jumped on the desk to inspect its contents. He rubbed his head, chin, and the back of his ears as the animal swirled around letting out small meows. 

He needed to talk more to everyone. He just didn’t know how to say the words right or whether or not they were worth saying at all. There was also no one to practice with other than… grandpa.

Debating with himself and putting off this mission took a good deal of strength and time but finally, after he had paced his room thinking of conversational topics and statements, he felt not ready but a little more at ease (not really.) 

Trinkets, photos, and plants greeted him as he walked down the stairs, gripping the smooth wood on the rail and turning the corner into the living room. His grandpa was there in the chair that he had claimed with the remote in his hand and a blanket over his legs. Instead of entering the living room, Sunny found his legs taking him to the kitchen. He opened the cupboard and poured himself a glass of water from the refrigerator pitcher and took a long drink as he looked at the calendar on the counter. Mari’s birthday, three days into the future, a permanent age fixed. He looked away quickly and sat the glass down, hoping that today would bring better things.

The living room was quiet when he sat down on the couch. His grandpa peered at him over a book with an expectant gaze.

“You stare a lot.”

Sunny scrambled to find something to say to that. “I know.” He muttered as he looked at the ground. 

“Your hair is too long.”

Again, he had not prepared for this. It was supposed to go, hello, how has your day been? Want to get some hotdogs? Kel? Who is Kel? Is she nice? Oh that’s a man. Weird name for a man. Not whatever this was.

His grandpa continued, shutting a feather in the book as a placeholder. “Your dad, terrible at math. I’ll help you from now on. He needs a break he gets all…” He waved his hands in the air. “High strung. Plus, he sucks at it and has no… creativity when teaching it.”

Sunny nodded as if this had been a military command. 

Grandpa continued. “You can do art very well. They have good schools for that in Japan. You should consider studying abroad in college. It’s one of the best. For one of the best.”

He blinked. It had gone from insulting his behavior and hair to offering to help him with his studies and then flattering him about a hobby he didn’t even think he was all that good at.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t get a big head like your father.”

Later that evening, Kel hadn’t bothered to knock when he came by, just ran up the stairs and threw himself into the room.

“Sunny! Sunny!” He said with excitement that was too much to contain. He picked up a mug that sat on the dresser and examined it and sat it back down. “Dude it’s crazy at school. I’m telling you what. So this girl that Aubrey apparently hates is being annoying so she got mad at her and then at some point I think Basil pulled the fire alarm, it’s speculation Jordan told me, and the whole school had to evacuate and stand outside and I ended up missing this exam that I didn’t study for which is pretty awesome.”

Things were only interesting at that school when he wasn’t there. It was a great story but terrible considering he had been trapped in his room the entire time. Though, he was capable of saying this all out loud instead of just staring at Kel so he opened his mouth to speak but Kel didn’t notice and continued talking.
“And Kim, you’re not going to believe this, did you know she knows how to sew? She sewed my button back on after it ripped, see? It’s because of patches. Pretty neat. And Cris! Well, let’s just say things are going smoothly. I haven’t asked her out yet, but I might soon. What do you think?”

He was going too quick, Sunny once again tried to speak but Kel furrowed his brows. “But… how will I ask her out. I’m not a smooth talker like Hero and he is holding his secrets hostage and giving me vague advice that could apply to any situation! How would you ask someone out? Probably draw them a picture right?”

He actually didn’t know the answer to this one and shrugged. Kel nodded. “Right… right. I should get a guitar. Yeah… imagine, just me and her under a tree and I serenade her with a little tune just for her!”

Sunny smiled as Kel began to run through ideas, each one more ridiculous than the other. 

“Horses! But in a funny way, if I’m too serious I could risk looking weird. Know any horse people who would lend me one?”
Sunny shook his head because instead of assuming he didn’t know anyone with horses, Kel seemed genuinely intrigued.
“Oh, dang it. I was going to say I could take her to a movie but all the movies that are showing are lame right now. How many more Sweetheart movies are they going to make!? It’s supposed to be in tomorrow and I’m so over her stupid posters. I have some thinking to do. Until then, how are you today?”

He paused to see if Kel was going to talk again but when he didn’t, he muttered out that he was good. Kel grinned and crossed his arms. 

“Awesome! Good to hear! So are we gonna play this game or what? Are the others coming?”

He gathered himself, on the bright side, Kel was a safe space. He never dug too far into things but was kind enough to find importance in them. “I don’t know.”

“Oh. Hmm. I’m sure they’ll come. Let’s go ahead and get started though.”

What Kel didn’t seem to realize was there was still an enormous contempt between his family and Basil, though it had lessened. The issue wasn’t even that they wouldn’t allow him to come over as much as it was that he was uncomfortable in the house. Deciding that if he didn’t come, they’d just go get him anyways, he let himself relax in a well deserved hangout.

Chapter Text

Reading Music (Spotify-Loop)

It was starting to get a little sad seeing the plants that he had spent so long caring for start to droop. Root rot. At least they tried. On the bright side, he wouldn’t have to water any of them for a very long time. 

“Hero’s here.” Aubrey said, stepping into the living room. He dipped his head away, not wanting her to see the horror that had formed on his face. He hoped she wouldn’t take offense to him having not gotten used to her living there at all.

“Ah, that’s great!” He replied, fidgeting with a plant as if he was actually going to do something with it. The leaves were mushy. “Are we going to their house?”

“No, Sunny’s.” She said. He stayed in his spot and began filing through the cabinets of excuses. 
“Are you okay?” She asked after apparently having waited for a response. 

He glanced up at her and sat the plant down. It was odd because he had no memory of even picking it up. “Yeah, I’m fine, I might sit this one out though.” He smiled and swayed in his spot as a silence grew. The eye contact lasted way too long, and it was no secret that behind it laid an intense determination. “What?” He asked, looking away to break it.
“Why wouldn’t you come?” She was always so upfront about everything, which had its perks… and cons. Plenty of cons. Of no offense to her of course, but it was slightly unnerving when she could see right through everyone. She sighed and glanced out the window and back towards him.
“Is there something wrong?”

Was there something wrong? Now that she had mentioned it, he hadn’t really even considered whether or not he was going, he just kind of jumped to saying no. Though, there was the entire idea that since he had come back home, there wasn’t one second he had been left alone and the others were starting to get creative with their excuses. Just the day prior, when Aubrey had to attend something with Kim, Kel had ‘spontaneously’ realized he had left his Pet Rock on the kitchen counter and just so happened to have found one at the thrift, which then led to a conveniently timed Rock Battle between the two of them and Sunny.

“You’re not staying here.” Aubrey pressed. “Here, here’s your coat, and oh look, shoes. How perfect. Is this a scarf?” She pulled it off of the hanger and dangled it in her hand. “Very nice. ”

He didn’t want to argue with her, so he grabbed the scarf, reluctantly put on his coat, and smiled at her briefly, if only to appease the situation, and followed her out of the door. The sidewalk was frosted, patches of ice covered in a dusting of sparkles. He walked slowly behind her, a chill sweeping through the air and combing his hair with a late winter brush. There was a gloom in the sky, the dottings of stars mostly covered by a thick sheet of clouds. The moon shone just bright enough to illuminate the details on their shoestrings and hair, and when they entered into the car, a blanket of warmth came to take the place of a frigid town. 

“Alright you guys.” Hero said when they got into the car. “I have good news and bad news, which do you want first?”

“Bad.” Aubrey said. “Did Kel break the TV again?”

“No… when did he break a TV?”

She frowned deeply and scrambled with her seatbelt. “What’s the bad news?”

Hero pulled out into the streets, houses flashing by, each one looking empty in the dark. “So… okay Aubrey you’re going to need to elaborate on that later, but the bad news is that Kel is in a bad mood. Which just happens to coincide with the good news.”

“Why?” 

“Sunny’s grandpa apparently wanted to share a documentary about small towns in poverty that he said was important for everyone to watch. I happen to think it’s interesting, but Kel is mad because he’s been shushed numerous times.”

“So…” Aubrey, in the passenger seat, stared at him for a moment. “You’re telling me that Kel is mad because he had to watch a documentary… and that you guys are… watching a documentary? I hope you never look into news reporting, you’d be so terrible at it.”

“Oh, I’m not done yet. Also, for the record, I’m sure I’d be an amazing news anchor. Now reporting on Channel Seven, Hero Montoya wins Faraway Town’s Annual Pie Competition and Saves Elderly Man From Choking. ”

“More like Der, I’m Hero, Linda won bingo at the town hall tonight. Her prize was a childhood photo of her pet dinosaur. ”

“That’s not how bingo works…”

“You’d be the one to know.”

He grew more nervous as they approached the house and that nervousness only festered as they approached the door. It meant a lot that they all cared enough to have him join in or to spend the time, but it was also equally uncomfortable, the knowledge that everyone knew what had happened and how it had happened, the belief he was a risk, and the attention that came from that. Not to mention Sunny’s parent’s and the shame that came with that. In time, he hoped it would disappear, but couldn’t find it in himself to hold irritation from the very people who were only trying to help.
He took a breath as the door opened and pushed these thoughts back, ready to focus on everyone else.

The home was warm, and-

“COME IN!” The elderly man belched from the depths of the living room. Hero chuckled and headed straight for the television, and in his path, a shadow crept in the opposite direction and towards the front door. 

Basil reached a hand out to shake but quickly pretended he was fixing his sleeve when he realized shaking your best friend’s hand at random intervals was odd. Sunny ignored this and peaked behind his shoulder before turning back and letting out a small sigh. Then, he stared, really stared. It wasn’t the kind of stare Aubrey had, or even Kel when he would deny his failing vision, it was more of a distant yet incredibly close kind.

“Hi.” Basil said nervously after a moment of this.

Sunny’s face did not change, not a single muscle moved, only the ones in his arms and shoulders as he lifted a hand. Basil reached his hand out and took Sunny’s into his and they promptly engaged in a handshake. 

“What are you guys doing?” Kel asked, joining Sunny’s side.

“Kevin! Where did he go?” The grandpa said in the distance. It meant nothing to Kel. Or ‘Kevin’. 

Sunny let go of the incredibly timed-out handshake and reached one out to Kel. Kel jolted his hand out and shook Sunny’s hand with so much brute force, it looked as though Sunny had been turned into a wave.
“Howdy do?” He grinned. He then reached his hand out to Basil and it was starting to get really weird but he accepted the handshake against his better judgment. 

“Hiya Basil! Don’t worry, I just washed my hands, they’re super clean! Actually… it has been awhile…”

With that information, he headed towards the bathroom to wash his hands. When he had finished cleaning them from mysterious Kel germs, he was tasked with an even worse battle. The towels were so neat and folded in their little hooks, and yet… was he supposed to use them? Would anyone notice if he had used the decorative towels instead of the normal hand towels which were nowhere in sight? He examined it a little, but it had honestly looked as though it had never been used. Crisp folds, undisturbed textures, bold patterns. He wiped his hands on his pants in the end and returned to the living room. Sunny had again swiped the chair so he tentatively squished himself between Hero and Kel, since both Kel and Aubrey had a need for the armrest. 

“Shh, Kevin.” The grandpa said, eyes glued to the TV. 

Kel threw his hands up silently, having said nothing to begin with. The television roared with a man screaming in the corner of the room and a bottle of beer nestled in between his hands.
“I told you! I told you we’d have a good time.”

“He dies in the end.” The old man said from his chair. “Sometimes a good time is only good for a moment. Sometimes. I tried cocaine once.”

Everyone in the room turned to look at him, but he just continued watching in silence, both cats resting on his lap. There was no further conversation about what he had said but there were plenty of side-eyes.

“Man. That was the worst four hours of my life.” Kel said after all was said and done. He leaned back on Sunny’s bed and stared at the ceiling. “This mattress is nice.”

“Then that rant…” Aubrey groaned. “The documentary wasn’t that bad… but that rant was too much.”

Hero leaned against the doorway. “He just cares about you all. Can you believe that documentary was shot only a couple hours from here?”

“WHAT?” Kel shot back up. “It was?”

“Yeah,” Hero said. “It’s just past the outskirts of the city. It’s like that everywhere though, you just don’t see it in town that much because you all don’t hang around people like that.”

“My mom has friends like that.” Aubrey shrugged. “One of her best friends actually got shot by her cousin by mistake when he had some huge freakout from what he was using.”

“Really?” Basil asked. “That’s terrible.”

“Eh, I didn’t know her. She’s okay. I’ve heard worse though.”

“One time I saw one of the homeless guy’s in the park just unzip and… well I guess he just really had to go. The smell was…” Kel shuttered. “It took me a couple days before I could go back.”

“What?” Hero narrowed his eyes. “When was this?”

“Yesterday!” Kel said.

“Then… it hasn’t been a couple days.” Aubrey smirked.

“Well at midnight it will be, technically.”

“Not really.”

“Hero, can you tell mom I’m staying over here tonight?” Kel asked, leaning back and ignoring Aubrey. Basil shifted a little, somewhat bothered that he himself couldn’t find it in himself to ask to sleep over. Nor would he want to cause any issues as a result of asking with Sunny’s parents.

“She’s not going to like that, you still haven’t done half of the chores she asked you to do.”

“That’s not true! All I have left is sweeping the floor and dusting the fans. And laundry.” 

Hero looked like he was going to roll his eyes, but seemed to find some kind of strength in avoiding it. “That’s all she told you to do…”

“It’s already late so she’s going to be mad anyways. Sunny, are we doing this or what? We’re going to smoke Aubrey.”

This led to the three of them playing a game while he stayed back and watched. Sunny always won when it came to these types of things, and Aubrey was growing heated because usually, she was in last place. This would then lead to her claiming Kel was cheating and Kel reinforcing the fact that she was actually pretty terrible at it. She did her best though, and it was always more entertaining when she and Kel were competing.

“Hey, Basil. Can you come help me with something for a minute?” Hero asked quietly. He nodded, silently wondering what it could be that he could possibly help with. They left for the door, their friends excitedly discussing the game behind them, voices growing softer as they grew farther away. 

“We’ll be right back.” Hero called out.

He led him to his car and hopped in, Basil joining in the passenger side with sweaty palms. 

Hero turned down the music and let out a breath. “How are you doing?”

“I’m alright, thank you…” He replied, now realizing what was happening. “And you?”

“Oh I’m good. Just typical trying to find a career I want to spend the rest of my life doing sort of thing.”

“Ah, that sounds stressful.” 

“It’s not too bad. I get to try out all sorts of things. Apparently not journalism or news though.” He chuckled. Basil smiled to himself and looked out the window, nerves creeping through him as if they had their own heart.
Hero continued, a casualness tied into his voice. “You know, we were all very worried about you. Kel didn’t eat anything for probably two days and Sunny, he kind of freaked us out a little bit too while you were gone. He didn’t seem like he wanted to talk to anyone but we all stayed near.”

Now he felt worse knowing he had upset everyone without proper cause. He nodded and muttered an apology, the conversation too awkward to have a normal tone.
“Don’t be sorry! Point is, we care a lot about you, I don’t know exactly what led up to all of that, but just know I have open ears if you ever need to talk. We all do. And I know Kel can be a bit… much sometimes, but you have to give him some credit, he notices a lot more than he puts off. Has living with Aubrey been okay?”

His stomach began to swirl and his skin felt like the upper layer was going to shred itself. “It’s been good, we mostly keep to ourselves. Sometimes we talk.”
Hero nodded. “That’s really good to hear, I was worried about that. Not…” He paused. “That sounded bad. Not because of any particular reason, but you know. Having roommates is hard, I’ve had my fair share. My current roommate leaves his socks everywhere.”

Kel. 

“It’s just really good to see you and Sunny out and about, doing your own things. Even if we don’t get to talk that much, it really feels great knowing you’re around doing your thing. It might not feel like how it used to, but that doesn’t make what we all have going on now bad. Just, if you’re ever in a spot like you were, please talk to at least one of us. Even if it feels weird or uncomfortable, I promise you’ll feel so much better after.” 

He carried those words throughout the night and into Monday when he had dragged himself from his bedroom and towards the front door. 

“I’m telling you what Basil, if Kel tries to bribe Kim one more time, I’m going to kick his ass.”

“Huh?” He must have missed whatever context went along with that but she waved it off. It would have to be something for later. The two of them made it outside, the darkness of the early morning only just having started to let up.

“So, is anyone still giving you crap?” She asked as they walked towards the bus.

“Not really… no.” He replied. “You?”

She let out a small, confident laugh. “Me? No one gives me crap. They know what will happen. But, thanks again. That was awesome.”

“I panicked.” He added softly.

“Now don’t go saying stuff like that. Just say you pulled it and leave it at that, otherwise people are going to think you’re a wimp.”

“They already think that.” He smiled.
“Don’t say that. Just remember what I said, if someone picks on you, give them a good old headbutt or something and you won’t have to worry anymore.”

He wasn’t going to headbutt anyone, and it looked kind of ridiculous the couple times he saw her headbutt people however effective it was. Not to say he thought she was ridiculous, it was just an odd tactic as opposed to more orthodox approaches like punching or kicking. 

School went by slowly, as it often did, and he found that he had spent the entire class focused on the material that by the time herpetology rolled in, he was too tired to focus on the video they were watching. He rested his head on his backpack and felt his mind wander into uncharted territories. His body jolted awake when someone nudged him as the class was leaving.

“You have a nice nap?” She asked, he was pretty sure her name was Amanda. He nodded and she laughed as she swung her bag over her shoulder.

“I can tell, you have lines on your face now.”

His later classes had been quiet with only a couple snickers in them, some of which he wondered if they were directed towards him or not. There was still a mass gathering of evidence from Aubrey’s friends that was discussed when they thought he wasn’t listening on who broke into his house. Truth was, he could hear her on the phone every night talking about it from his room. 

Even that night, as he laid in bed, the twinkling of gold Christmas lights pulsing in the room, the low murmurs of a conversation he wasn’t supposed to hear leaked through the ceiling and flooded his ears. Lucky was someone who had people who cared, unlucky was someone who had them but took them for granted. That night, he couldn’t tell if he was lucky or unlucky. Whether he had given them a proper friendship and had been a good person, or if he had been selfish and pushed them all away. 

Upstairs, Aubrey had gotten up and he listened as she made her way across the room, down the ladder, and through the hall. Then, there was a knock on the door. 

“Come in.” He said, sitting up and against the wall. She pushed the door open and slipped in, her eyes a deep brown. It was always odd when she’d go back and forth with her contacts because when she wore them, it felt like she couldn’t actually see him. Then she’d take them out and look completely different. 

“Hi, I’m bored.” She said, grabbing the chair and sitting down across his bed. “And I’m pretty sure there’s a freaking bat up there.” 

“You can stay in the other room. You’ve always been allowed.” He said. “It’s probably… a lot more comfortable. And there’s no bats.” 

He hoped he didn’t come off like he was insulting her attic-setup, but she would definitely be more comfortable downstairs. The attic seemed to attract small animals constantly and he and his grandma never figured out how they were getting in there.

“I know, it just feels weird to me. I’ll trap it later.”

“W-What!?” She was going to do it. “No, I can call someone or something.”

“No way, that’s a complete waste of money that I don’t even think you have… which, now that I think about it, we probably need to get jobs. Do your parents send you money or something?”

He frowned, realizing she was completely right. How were they going to pay for necessities? He tapped his fingers on the bed as he worked circles in his mind. “Oh. Um.”

“It’s fine, Kel’s been begging me to work at some restaurant for ages now. Plus it’s money every day so we don’t even have to wait for a paycheck. You should work there too.”

He met her eyes and then wandered back into his hands. He had never worked a day in his life, even Sunny had apparently worked. 

“Okay… Yeah.”

He didn’t even know how to make food, though perhaps he would be the guy that washed the dishes or cleaned off the tables or the host.

“We’re going to make for some good servers!”

“Servers?” He said, air leaving his lungs and heart dropping into his stomach. “I-I’m sorry, but I don’t know about that.”

She crossed her arms. “Kel said a bunch of old people eat there and you’ll probably make more money than me if that’s the case. Old people always make fun of my hair.”

He was still shaking his head as she spoke. “I’ll just wash dishes or some-”

This was interrupted by more laughter. “Basil. You’d never survive working in the kitchen. Ever. That’s not even possible.”

He studied her amusement. “Why not?” 

“You’re way too soft for the kitchen. Trust me on this. You’re perfect for serving. It shouldn’t even be that hard. Just give it a chance, I know you’ll do good.”

In his silence, she had stirred in her seat a little, flicking her hair back and bouncing her leg. “But, I think it might even just be better for you to wait a little bit. You’re letting me live here for free and that’s really cool of you. I’ll work so we can have groceries and stuff and you focus on getting caught up in your classes.”

“No, that’s not right… it’s not fair. I’ll do it.”

She smiled and stood up. “Let’s just hope I don’t get fired. I might not be the best at customer service but let's face it, I’m not tough enough for the kitchen either. But if anyone else asks, you never ever say that I said that.”

She went to leave, but he called out her name, to ask a question that had been bothering him for years that he had never even asked about. It had finally hit clarity.
“Why do you do that?” 

“What?”

He shrugged lightly. “You pretend to. Well, you… Acting tough.” He finally got out.

Her face softened before immediately hardening. For a second, he was worried she was angry with him, but she returned to her seat and looked at her hands in thought. “I don’t know actually. I want to have everything under control and if someone has the upper hand, I no longer have that control. People are unpredictable and my other friends depend on me to be who I am.”

“I’m sure they like you for who you are.”

“They do. Don’t tell anyone that though. Seriously.”

“I won’t.” 

She looked up at him and smiled. “Thanks. I’ll be in the other room I guess. Night.”

“Night.” He said as she shut the door behind her. 

He laid back down and pulled the blanket over his shoulders, this time actually feeling a little bit better.

Chapter Text

Kel drug his pencil across the lined paper, it was his fourth or maybe even fifth time attempting to write a poem. Maybe. Maybe it was even his ninth.

Dear Cris

You swim with fish.

I play basketball 

And you made me fall something something. Not love because that’s too much. Fall. No. The pure adrenaline that forms in my lungs when.

Let us embark on a journey between our two skills to reach a crossfire between…

(Insert something here that sounds really cool)

It sounded better in his head, he wadded this one up too. Meanwhile, that Wednesday, everyone had actually gotten to school on time and was watching him as he worked on his masterpiece. 

Another sheet.

“How many of those are you going to write?” Aubrey asked as she reached for one of the wads from the growing pile. He slapped it away before she had the chance to see it. An abomination in the name of love. A true disgrace, horrific, even. Still, it was better than anything she’d write, so maybe there wasn’t really anything to think about. On a serious note though, he wished he had the skills needed to make this easy. Hero always seemed to effortlessly charm anyone he wanted. The same was not the same for Kel, who grimaced to himself the more he thought about it. Why was he concealing all of the secrets? Was it a hair thing? A voice thing?
“It has to be perfect! You can’t rush perfection!”

“Why are you writing poetry anyway? Just ask her if she wants to see a movie or something.” 

“Yeah,” Kim joined in, always on Aubrey’s side. “Don’t do something lame like that.”

“Imagine, writing soppy poetry.” Aubrey laughed. “Can you get any softer than that?”

Truth be told, she was probably just mad that no one had written her a poem yet.

He now was faced with two choices. Double down and try to convince everyone at the table that poetry was a good idea and that he was definitely not suffering through every second it took to write, or that they were right and this was a terrible idea. He decided on the latter when he looked up and saw their faces. There was no winning this battle.
“Yeah, you’re probably right. But what movie?”

Kim looked confused at his compliance, her face dripping with silence. 

“Go watch Sweetheart!” Aubrey said. 

“EWWW, sweetheart? Don’t take her to that! Take her to see Fast Curtis!” Apparently she could disagree with her.

Mikhael, who had his terrible yellow wig on again, leaned forward. “The mouse? That movie is terrible and for some reason, everyone at home keeps watching it repeatedly. They just don’t know the difference between a masterpiece and a sad excuse to a story. If you were to ask my opinion, I’d recommend Gregor’s Lost Travels.”

“You can literally see the microphone like three times in it!” Kim shot back. “You’re the one with crappy taste in movies!”

The group began to argue, and in their arguing, a genius idea came to him.

“Why don’t I just let her pick the movie? I mean, we all like different things, maybe that way I won’t have to worry ab- Oh! Hi Cris!” 

He felt his ears run hot when she approached the table and sat down at her usual spot across from him. For weeks now she had been doing this, and for weeks he had been praying she wouldn’t think he was weird because of what everyone usually talked about. The other day, Mikhael and Kim got into an argument about what brand of socks he was wearing and why they were stupid. He had to admit though, the time had seemed to move quicker in the mornings now and he was starting to see their appeal.

“-And I told Aubrey that it didn’t matter what the heck she said, Ember clearly doesn’t know anything about a good combat boot. Her shoes are marketed towards stupid people.”

“You’re cool for that.”

“I know…”

“Hi Kel! Guess what my parents surprised me with yesterday?” He snapped back into reality and met the eyes of Cris. 

“What? What did they do?” He asked eagerly, ready to absorb any information she was willing to provide. She laughed and tucked a strand of washed out blue behind her ear.

“We added three starfish to the tank yesterday! They’re so cute but they’re so small! They’ll get bigger after a while though. I guess I must have been talking endlessly about my old school again.” 

“WOW! That is so AWESOME!” He said, genuinely thinking that but wondering why he had to say it the way he did. She seemed unphased by this, but Aubrey had to hide her laughter in the neckline of her hoodie.

“Yep! You’ll have to come by and see them sometime!”

“Oh yeah! Definitely, that way I can see the difference from when they’re small to when they’re huge! I heard they can regenerate their limbs! ”

She shook her head, but then nodded. “They’ll get bigger, but not huge. Sorry to disappoint! And yes that’s true! I don’t plan on them losing any limbs anytime soon.”

His eyes widened and his fingers went numb. “No, that's completely fine! All starfish are cool! No disappointment here!”

He winced as he heard Aubrey and now her friends trying to conceal their laughter. 

The bell rang and he begrudgingly left the table and headed towards homeroom with Basil and unfortunately no Sunny.

“Was it really that bad?” He asked him quietly. 

Basil thought for a moment, but was quick to speak. “No! I don’t think so.”

“Then why was everyone laughing?”

“Oh… well Cris wasn’t. Aubrey probably just found it amusing that you were trying to talk to someone you like. I wouldn’t think too much about it.” 

He sighed a breath of relief. Thank goodness. He wished he could be nonchalant like that, all oh it wasn’t that big of a deal. No worries here. 

His soul was tortured the longer he spent in the classrooms. Algebra was starting to require more attention to detail and his graphs never looked like his classmates who actually seemed to have a grasp on things. Then health was boring as they worked from the book and copied down definitions for a grade. Over at Home Ec, he had failed to realize that now he’d have to listen to Bebe talk at length about Mikhael.

She didn’t that day though, she just sat quietly in her assigned seat, putting together a birdhouse and etching small carvings on the side of it. He figured she was probably just focused that day, typically she had plenty to talk about. Before he left though, he did tell her that her birdhouse looked good.

Lunch he played basketball as he did every day and Chemistry he continued to pretend he knew what he was doing while Jordan did all of the work. He was thankful for this.

Then there was English and finally, spanish.

He sat down at his desk in a room that was oddly quiet. Seeing the strange man with an odd tie gave him all the information he needed. Their teacher was absent that day and they now had to likely once again copy down definitions from the book. In other words, he had a free napping period.

When he woke up, he hunted down his friends before practice. The hall was congested but it almost felt like a game. Try to get to your destination without accidentally tripping over someone. He was almost successful until he shoulder checked some poor soul just trying to get through the staircase.

“Oh! Sorry!” He called after them. 

Bouncing down the stairs and skipping the last two steps with a leap, he sprung up behind Aubrey who was watching out the glass doors. 

He pulled lightly on her ponytail and leaned against the wall, shielding from an attack of her hand.
“Do you have to do that every single time?” She asked. “It’s so annoying.”

He had to have gotten her at a bad time because typically, she’d just hit him back and that would be the end of it.

“Geez, what’s got you so annoyed?”

“You.” 

“What did I do?” He asked. He leaned deeper into the wall just in case he’d have to shield again. She sighed and held her head.

“Nothing. Just. Can you and Hero give us a ride home? I don’t want to be on the bus today.”

“Sure.” He shrugged. “I have to be back soon though, they’re going to start practice any minute now. Hero’s probably already on the way to work.”

“Oh, okay. Thanks.” She turned around and scanned through the halls. “Where is he?”

“Maybe he got held up at his locker. Sometimes I forget my combination.” Kel said. She shot him a judgemental look. “I’m just saying! I don’t even use it that much. It’s like when you forget a word you already know.”

“Sure Kel. Let’s go find him.” She said, waving off his defense. 

They walked together back up the stairs, stone carvings along the wall following their path towards his locker and the clocks that suck out on metal ledges ticking closer to when he was supposed to be in the gym. They rounded the corner and just as Kel had thought, he was at his locker, fidgeting with his backpack and shoving loose papers from the floor of his locker inside of it.

“ There you are.” Aubrey said. “What are you doing?”

“Hm?” He held his backpack closer to his chest with one hand and shut the red door. “Oh, sorry, I was just cleaning out my locker.”

“It’s all good!” Kel said. “You know what I always say, a clean locker is a reflection of a clean mind and a clean soul!”

“I’ve never heard you say that once in my life.” Aubrey muttered.

“Maybe you should listen more.”

“Me? You’re the one who-”

“Guys,” Basil dipped past them. “It’s fine but… we’re going to miss the bus.”

Kel felt like a real savior in that moment, even if he was going to be late to practice. “The bus you say? Don’t even worry about that! You’re riding with me!”

Basil was’t matching the energy, he was all sleepy looking and devoid of life. Despite this and although Kel had signed up to play basketball and not cheerlead, he knew something and that was that backflips were only a part of the gig. 

“Your hair looks nice today. Do something different?”

His friend shifted uncomfortably but then smiled but was so RUDELY interrupted by Aubrey.

“Yeah, he has a clip in. Idiot.”

Kel gave her a dull look. “I wasn’t asking you. Basil, have you tried coffee?”

“Y-Yeah? What?”

“Kel what are you doing, you’re going to be late.” 

“What? Wait, why are you giving us a ride then?” He began to step back and deeper into the hall. “I don’t want to make you late, I think…. Well I’m going to hurry downstairs, thank you though!”

“Oh! I’m skipping practice so it doesn’t even matter!” He said, making that decision as it came out of his mouth.

“You’re what?” Aubrey said. 

He’d rather hangout with them anyways.

After stuffing everyone into the car, he turned the volume up and prepared to blow both their minds and ears with the newest songs he had burned. The noise filled up the car as they drove, and he was sure to keep an eye on his speed given that his body would subconsciously cause him to speed to some of these songs. Something about the hardcore beat just pumped him up.

They pulled in alongside the street and parked, remnants of last fall still in the front yard.
“So, has it been alright without a person here?” He asked them as he got out. 

“I guess.” Aubrey said. “His parents keep ignoring our calls so we have to get jobs to keep food in the house.”

“Huh?” He stopped just by the front door but Basil and Aubrey headed inside, the door left ajar for him. Both of them disappeared into the back of the house before he had even had the chance to step inside.

He shut the door behind him and crept over to the refrigerator. There were a few things in there, like milk, condiments, jams, and orange juice, but there wasn’t anything that would be useful for making dinner. He shut the door quietly and opened a cabinet. Green glasses were set perfectly inside, none of them having been used. This prompted him to open another cabinet, coco wheats, oatmeal, and saltines. It wasn’t really a good mix, but they at least had something. Still, it was kind of sad. He didn’t really think about where they would get things like food and necessities without a caretaker.

“What are you doing?” 

Guilt stretched into his hands when he shut the cabinets swiftly and saw Basil was watching him. He didn’t seem angry though, instead he smiled and sat down at the table, gesturing to the kitchen. “You can help yourself to anything, sorry we don’t have much.”

“Why didn’t you guys tell me this sooner? You gotta eat!” Kel sat down across from him. “Plus, if you want to survive, you can’t let Aubrey get all hungry and angry. It’s a dangerous emotion she has.”

He shrugged and ran his hand through his hair, his fingers getting caught in the clip. “She’s been alright. I need to do more though. I had some money in one of my coats and got cat food and litter, but…” A puzzled look passed through him. “I thought I still had birthday money and stuff in my piggy bank. Ah, maybe I spent it. I don’t really remember.”

Kel rolled his lips in and slowly looked over to the window as if that was going to help him somehow attain the money he’d taken from Basil. 

“Is that place still hiring? The restaurant?” He asked. 

“Rosso’s? Yeah, definitely. They just bullied another server out of there.” Kel said. “Hero keeps telling me all about Samone. Don’t worry though, you’re a guy. She’ll probably just get creepily obsessed with your interests and leave you alone. Apparently it’s girls she tends to go after.”

After saying that, he realized he probably shouldn’t have because now Basil looked terrified. The look disappeared after a couple seconds though and he lightened up. 

“Well. If Hero’s there that might make it a little better. Plus Aubrey is wanting to work too. Seniors can get half-days at school if they work so that will be good for next year.”

“They open at three though, so you probably won’t get away with that. Trust me.” Kel said. He himself had tried that avenue but if it didn’t interfere with work then you wouldn’t be able to get those hours removed. 

“Oh.”

“DANG IT.” Kel leaned back into his seat, disappointed. “This is so unfair. You guys can’t just go work there and leave me out of it!”

“But… you were the one who told us to?” 

“I know. You all grow up so fast…” Kel wiped a fake tear from his cheek. “I can’t believe I’m going to miss out on all of this. Maybe I could work here and there like an on-call guy until basketball is over. Hey! We should go ahead and call now and get you an application before they hire someone else!”

“Oh, no no… no. That’s okay, I’m sure we will get… We’ll take care of it. Don’t worry!”

“No you won’t. You guys said that last time.”

“We did?”

“Well… Aubrey did. I think. NO TIME TO PONDER!” He stood up as though he were a politician in the early 1800’s who was ready to share the greatest speech of his life. “It is time Basil. Don’t worry, I’ll be right here the whole time!”

“Whole time for what?”

Kel lunged for the phone, though there wasn’t really a real reason to lunge, he just wanted to be dramatic for an epic moment that was sure to go down in history. He pressed the phone to his ear and waited… and waited.”

“Dang it.” Kel sighed. “Do you have a phone book?”

“No.” Basil said a little too quickly.

“Darn it.”

“... Yes. Sorry.” He sighed. “It’s in the drawer right below you.”

“COOL! Why’d you say you didn’t? You aren’t getting cold feet right?” He narrowed his eyes at the target. The target began to laugh.

“Yeah. I guess I was.”

“Don’t overthink it. You guys are going to do great. Hero says that working both sucks but is awesome. Plus, think of all the cool things you can buy!”

“Yeah.” Basil said softly, eyes watching the table and hand resting on his head. “It will be easier.”

Thankfully, considering Rosso’s was an important staple of the town to anyone who was older than sixty years old, it was on one of the first pages as an advertisement. Kel dialed the number and leaned back on the counter, watching a future waiter smile nervously to himself.

“Rosso’s.” A lady, presumably Ellen, said from the other line.

“Uh hi! It’s Kel!”

“What do you want Kel?” She asked, slightly amused but with a hint of speculation in her voice.

“So I have… so Hero and I have a couple friends who really, really, really, really, really, reaaaaally really, need a job!”
“Kel!” Basil whispered from the other side of the room. “Seriously?”

He nodded. “And they are exactly what you’re looking for!”

“Okay. Do they have experience?”

“Er… no.” He said, heart dropping.

“Alright, well have them put in an application.”

His heart then soared into the sky. “Alright! Yeah! We’re coming now!” 

“Huh? Kel! Ah… I-”

He briefly ignored Basil’s panic as he began scrambling. “SWEET! Thanks Ellen! See ya in a minute!”

The phone was promptly sat on the receiver, the time still reading an hour behind. Proud of himself, he gave a big smile. “Put Hero down as a reference and you got the job!”

“I wasn’t ready to go yet! I- My hair… I can’t wear… what do you wear? Oh geez, Kel…” A jaded look crossed his eyes. “You’re telling Aubrey.”

“I stole your money.” Kel nodded, poker faced.

“Huh!?”

“I’ll pay you back though I promise! And… Hero will buy your dinner!”

“What? What is happening…” Basil paused for a second, staring at the ground. Broke. Sad. Jobless. He stiffened up as Aubrey walked into the room in pajama pants, the knowledge that she was going to murder someone sweeping over both of them.

“You need to change.” Kel pointed. 

“What!? You can’t just come in here and tell me what to wear! I don’t go into your house and tell you to shave off your unibrow?”

Did… was it true? He figured he’d have to look into that later but until then, he’d have to assume it wasn’t there.

“I don’t have a unibrow! Now hurry up and change. We don't have a lot of time!”

“Time for what? Is there enough time for you to shave it?” She crossed her arms. 

Basil pulled his hands together and nervously spoke through his teeth. “Um so Aubrey…”

“What.” She looked like she was going to bite someone’s head off. It was actually kind of funny because she looked so out of place. The whole house was so warm, gentle, calming. And then there was Aubrey, a chaotic pink mess. It was one of those things that made her so interesting and so much fun, so long as she wasn’t angry.

“So…”

“Kel. What did you do?” She spun towards him, ignoring Basil’s attempt to talk to her. He wasn’t going to say anything anyways. Now, Kel was the target, and Aubrey had good aim. Actually no she didn’t, she was incredibly clumsy whether she liked it or not. 

“ You and Basil have an interview! I think. Yeah probably. Either way you’re filling out an application so you better go get rea-”

“YOU TELL ME THIS NOW?” She groaned as she turned around. “I’ll be right back.”

Basil sped through the hall. “Me too!” 

And man did they take twenty years to get ready. Neither of them even looked all that different either. Aubrey had put on a black dress and thrown a jean jacket over it and Basil did whatever it was Basil did to get ready but was now wearing a black jacket over a dark green button up shirt. How he didn’t just throw on shorts and tee shirts was beyond Kel. They were way comfier. 

“Let’s go!” Kel said, already starting towards the door. 

“Wait. Stop rushing me.” Aubrey said from behind him. 

He let his limbs fall to his side as he grew annoyed at the wait. They didn’t see it now, but all he really wanted was to be sure they had what they needed to live on their own. If they didn’t get it taken care of immediately, he knew he’d worry about it constantly until it was taken care of. Plus, it would get both of them out of the house more, especially Basil. He needed it. Now if he could just find a way to get Sunny on board. 

“Can you brush my hair?” Aubrey asked as she handed a hair brush towards Basil. He nodded and they sat down and took the longest time they physically could have to braid hair. Seriously, could they go any slower. At this rate, Kel was just going to go over there and do it.

“Can you hurrrrry up?” Kel pleaded. 

“It’s literally been like fifteen minutes since you told us. My bad, I didn’t know I’d have an entire INTERVIEW TO GO TO.”

“It might not be an interview.” Kel shrugged. 

“That’s not even the point! Ugh, you’re hopeless.”

He laughed to himself as Basil finished her braid, twisting the hair tie at the end. Aubrey might pretend like she was unhappy about it, but he could tell she was excited. It was all in the way she went to get ready so quickly and how much effort she was putting into her appearance. 

“AH!” Kel shot back as the music he never turned down slapped him with its impenetrable sick beats. 

“Turn that down!” Aubrey shouted, reaching for the stereo. She didn’t turn it down though. She turned it off completely. He was crying on the inside. It was the best song on there. “So. What kind of questions do they ask if we are getting interviewed?”

“I dunno.” Kel said. “I’ve never worked anywhere, you can ask Hero though. Even Sunny!”

“Sunny?” Basil said.

“Yep. He has worked like three jobs before!”

“What? When?” Aubrey said. 

“Well, one time he delivered pizza for Ginos. I sat outside and talked to some strangers while he did it, it was a pretty good time. Then some lady at the grocery store told him to go around and smack flies. Oh! He also had to organize all kinds of tools. He hated that one though. I could tell. It paid the best though.”

“So… he volunteered to help a few times.” Aubrey said. “Huh. That’s kind of cool actually. I wouldn’t have expected that from him.”

“Yeah, plus, with us working at Rosso’s, I’m sure he’ll make his way over too!” 

“Do you really think so?” Basil leaned in. 

“Definitely! It will help him talk to people more too. He needs practice.”

“Yeah…” Aubrey agreed. “He does. I’m glad he’s okay, he’s been looking a lot healthier lately.”

“I noticed that too!” He turned the wheel into the parking lot and parked just outside the back door. “I’m happy for him. I hope he comes back next year. Well, are you guys ready?”

The answer was no. Aubrey was trying to look confident but there was definitely a hint of worry in her voice and Basil was shut down entirely. Kel patted them both on the back as they entered through the front door. “You’re gonna do fine you guys. It’s just a job. It’s no big deal. Soon, you’ll know everyone here!”

“Is that a threat?” Aubrey asked.

“Good luck!” Basil said, leaning over towards her. “I believe in you!”

She gave him a weird look, something like bewilderment or perhaps it was just confusion. Either way, they were now at the counter, Ellen cashing out a customer.

“Yeah, Candy is excited about this antipasto. She’s been pretty sick lately, but this salad does seem to bring her some joy.”

“Alright, tell her I said to get well soon and we will see you all in here when she feels better. Take care.”

The older man waved to her and slowly walked out of the door, one hand gripping on the ramps ledge and another holding a pizza and a paper carryout bag. 

“Here they are!” Kel said, showcasing Aubrey and-
“Where’d he go?”

He spun around and let out a breath of relief. Basil hadn’t run off, but was instead helping the older man carry out his dinner. He’d do fine there, he had a soft spot for the elderly.

Aubrey… on the other hand… it would be a miracle if she wouldn’t get herself fired. At least not until they got to work together.

“Thank you!” She said, sliding the application towards her.

“When can you work?” Ellen said. 

“Oh, what?” Aubrey looked up. 

“That’s an interesting hair color.” 

She hunched over a little more as she continued writing on her application quietly. “Yeah.”

“I like it. Hero said a lot of good things about you. Aubrey right?”

“Yeah, I’m Aubrey. And thanks, but I think I’m actually going to stop dying it for a little while.”

“Oh. Well it’s very pretty.”

Kel rolled his eyes and handed Basil, who had finally decided to rejoin them, his application. Pink hair looked goofy no matter what anyone said. But. Then again. It was hard to really judge her for it now when he remembered why she dyed it that color in the first place. 

“Thanks.” Basil said, now suddenly a lot more chipper. He placed the paper down next to Aubrey’s but suddenly went pale in the face. “Um, sorry to bother you… do you have a pen?” 

Ellen slid one of the gray pens towards him. The reject pens as Hero called them. They were spotted everywhere in the restaurant except for in the server's aprons. They only used Pilot G2 and if you didn’t, you were an outcast. 

“Thanks.”

“Are you Basil?” Ellen leaned over towards him, her shortness giving her the advantage to snoop on their applications without it looking suspicious.

“Yep!” He replied, holding his pen to his chest. “Nice to meet you!”

“Nice to meet you too. I’m Ellen. When can you work?”

“Oh… uh.” He paused. “I can work after school and on weekends.”

“No I mean when can you start working.”

“Oh! Sorry! I’m sorry, I can start… whenever?”

“Okay. And you?” She looked not at Aubrey but at her application. 

“Same as him.”

“How’s tomorrow?”

Both of them were silent for a moment. Kel kept on the lookout for Hero as even his nerves were beginning to grow. The two of them were contagious.

“Sounds good, we’ll be here.” Aubrey said. 

Kel grinned. Heck yeah, it was on.

“Great. Black shoes and pants. We’ll give you shirts and aprons. Here, follow me.”

He lingered through their process until they reached the top of the hallway’s ramp and he saw his brother and May by the stand.

“Hi sweetie!” May said, rushing over to him as fast as her 70-something year old legs could take her. She gave him a wet kiss on the cheek. “How’s school?”

“Great!”

“That’s good! And basketball? Are you kicking butts?”

“Many! We’re actually doing way better than the last few years!” He beamed. It was true, too. They had all worked so hard to get to that point.

“Yay! Are those your friends?” She asked. He glanced over at them, shirts and aprons held in their arms.

“They sure are!”

Hero, who had completely and utterly ignored his amazing and wonderful younger brother, was already by their sides.

“Tomorrow? Darn, I’m off on Wednesdays.”

“Yep!” Kel said, pretty much levitating behind him. “And also you’re paying for their dinner tonight.”

“Alright.” Hero said, seemingly perfectly fine with this. He didn’t even flinch or stop to question it, just outright agreed. Was that the secret to charm?
“You guys will want to try the menu anyways. Can’t sell something you’ve never tried!”

Chapter Text

In Beverly Hills? How could a bunch of hillbillies possibly buy a mansion like this?

She peeked into the living room, the laughing track of the show taking up all of the peacefulness that often associated itself within the halls. She didn’t join him, she knew he was likely trying to find a way to distract himself from the whole getting a job thing. That being said, he was showing no signs of getting off of the couch to answer the door. Aubrey waited for a second before deciding she had no choice. She crossed the living room swiftly and twisted the nob, a young lady standing in the frame.

“Hi! Kel told me you had no food! Why didn’t you call?” Polly asked, surrounded by grocery bags. “May I come in?”
She glanced behind her at the couch, but Basil was completely lights out, slumped alongside the arm of the couch, blanket swallowing him, TV still running its laugh tracks. 

“Um… Yeah. He’s sleeping though.”
“No worry, I’ll try not to be too loud.” She said as she began to put the bags on her arms. Aubrey tried to help, but by the time she had knelt down, Polly had already picked them all up and was struggling to the counter. 

Aubrey trailed the counter, stiffened by the awkwardness that often joined kindness. She wondered how someone could be so kind, even if they weren’t an actual parent. Just a normal person who just really seemed to care.
“So I assume they never hired anyone else?” Polly asked as she tried to subtly glance towards the couch. 

“Nope.”

“It’s a shame they’re always working.” She mumbled, already putting things away. “And I heard you both got jobs.”

She turned when she heard a rustling from the other side of the room. Basil rubbed his eye and paused before slowly looking towards the kitchen, worry painted on his face. 

“I’m sorry, did I wake you up?” Polly asked as she rushed towards him. 

“Ah, don’t worry! Um…” Aubrey began to grab groceries when he looked over at her. This mushy kindness sweetness was too much, too eugh. She began to put the food away, already hungry for the grapes that were bought.
“Are you excited to start your new job?”

“Oh yeah, definitely. I can’t stop thinking about it.”

“I’ll have to come and see you!”

He was so lucky and he didn’t even realize it, she thought as she shoved the bread into its home in a little box. So lucky to have someone like that. Yet, even if it was all sickeningly sweet, she was disappointed Polly wasn’t his caretaker anymore. All thanks to parents too dumb to realize what they had done in a weird attempt to help mend an invisible situation. It was like they couldn’t see what the actual problem was, like they were too afraid to admit the reality that had presented itself directly in front of their face. 

She stayed through the night, but Aubrey didn’t. She took it as time for herself, something she had longed for since moving in. Everything was too stable, too quiet, too unfamiliar. There was a lack of something yet she had everything. 

The stars rested above her in their permanent homes in the sky, the same stars that her ancestors once looked up at and made stories about. The same ones that were there even before they existed, and the same ones that would be there after she was long gone. She pulled her coat closer to her despite the stillness of the air. 

Soon it would be spring, soon crickets would chirp and trees would blossom. Thunderstorms would return and bring with them rain which in turn would create rainbows on the road where oil had leaked from the cars. They used to drag sticks through them and create swirls and attempt to dip flowers inside only for the creation to be anything but beautiful. Still, they’d be dried with hairspray, set in a cast, and strung up somewhere like the treehouse or at one point, Sunny’s backpack. 

Her footsteps were constant and grounding, her hair dragging behind her, heavy and scorched. In the windows of houses and the toys in the lawn, she searched for an answer but only felt the weight of emotions pile onto her shoulders.
Could it be that difficult to love a child? Was she that bad? What was the reason that mom had been stripped of her empathy for so long and why did she let that happen? What was the reason that despite resenting it, it had turned contagious and consumed herself? Was there anywhere that truly felt like home?

She wondered if maybe Sunny felt the same. His home must not have felt like home after Mari had passed away. Her birthday was tomorrow and despite the bouquets made in preparation, the snacks Hero had baked, and the anticipation of visiting her grave as a group for the first time without the plans falling through due to everyone else’s lives, it wasn’t going to be the same. It was the same problem Basil had when he always tried to force things to return to the way they were and was thoroughly disappointed to find out that they could never return. She wondered how they had even managed to stick together, how they managed to like each other and find understanding, and how Kel had tried so hard to keep everyone happy and together, but how it had failed repeatedly only to somehow still work. 

The park was vacant but she stepped in anyway, sitting on one of the swings and backing up, then letting go and welcoming the breeze as she swung lightly. One question had followed her all the way to that point, a distant catalyst. Who was she really?

She wondered as she looked at the street, the houses in the distance with their roofs resting underneath a sky criss-crossed with powerlines, if where she was staying at now, Basil’s, had the potential to feel like home. Everywhere she went she felt like she was taking up space and bothering those who actually lived there. It didn’t matter what they said or did, it was just a feeling that she was an outsider and didn’t belong. With this job now a thing, she felt more at ease that she could at least help out. 

Footsteps came from the distance and she shot her head upwards to look. She groaned under her breath as she saw her idiot roommate walking towards her. That was the end of this walk. She stood up and joined his side, both of them walking in the direction of his house.

“Are you okay?” He asked quietly as he wrapped and unwrapped his hands from his scarf.

“Yeah? Why did you come all the way out here? Did you follow me!?” She asked, suddenly feeling mentally violated.

“N-No! Well, kind of? You just kind of walked out of the house.”

“Huh? No I didn’t?” Did she? She must have gotten too into her head to even realize.

“Oh… well, I’m sorry if I bothered you!” He smiled. 

“You did, but it’s fine.”

“Ah! Sorry. I’m…Well I just wondered if may-” 

She felt bad when he began to fight for words. “I was kidding. Is Polly still there?”

“Mmhmm!” He nodded. “She’s making dinner right now and said she’d give us rides tomorrow.”

“It’s so late though.”

“It’s only eight.” He shrugged. 

The conversation died for a while, but she was alright with the silence. It was better than a laughing track haunting the halls. 

“Um… Did you guys ever congratulate Sunny on winning that art competition? It seems like it was a pretty big deal!”

“He’s pretty good, in a scribble kind of way. I know his grandpa is proud of him. Oh God. Are we going to have to wait on him?”

“Not if Hero’s there!”

If there was any worse thought than that, it didn’t present itself while they got ready for work after school the next day. It was all she could think about.
“You really think Sunny might join?” Basil asked, dragging a brush through her hair. “I… think that would make it better.”

“Probably not.” She said. “You don’t actually see him waiting tables… right? I’m surprised you’re even doing this. OW! What? Why’d you do that Basil!?”

“Quit moving your head!”

“You can’t just slam your brush down!”

If he wasn’t careful, he’d have to spend the next three hours crying because he got beaten to death with hair tools. He finished her braid and stood up.

“All done!”

“Thanks.” She said, feeling the back. 

Polly, who had spent the night with them, began putting on her coat. “You both got nonslip shoes, right? I forgot to have you check.”

They exchanged glances, neither of them having actually checked. “I guess we’ll find out.”

“Just. Don’t push me, please.” Basil smiled, already moving to put his coat on. She watched him with a sharp glare, shocked he’d say that. In fact, she didn’t even know how to respond. He looked back and frowned. “Sorry, I was just kidding. I promise!”

She was still in complete bewilderment and all she could offer was an expression of whatever it was her face was telling, she wasn’t even sure. 

They got into the car that first day of March, this one not hoarded with water bottles and Kel’s ‘mystery bags’ as he called them, which were just old fast food bags. They smelled like that too. Polly’s was so clean and tidy, it was a nice change and she wished they could always be in her car.

“Rosso’s, huh?” Polly said. “Did you know the owner used to be the mayor?”

“Really?” Basil asked. He had for some reason opted to sit in the back, but Aubrey wasn’t complaining, that meant she got the front seat. 

“Yes! He was a good mayor too! Be prepared for jokes that you’re working for the mob though.”

“What?” She was now intrigued. Her friends, specifically Mikhael, would eat that information up, regardless of the truth.

“Well, you know. It’s been around for seventy years, Police Room, Italian food. The hidden basement, stuff like that.”
“There’s a hidden basement?”

“Did you know that?” She continued, “My parents used to eat there a lot. Apparently back in my grandparent’s day, he threw a table! He’s a boxer, or was. He’s in his eighties now, so there probably isn’t any table throwing. His father was apparently even worse, but he did run a good restaurant!”

“Why do you know all of this?” Aubrey asked, not realizing how rude it sounded until it came out.

“I asked all of my family when I heard you two would be working there.” She said simply. “Plus, everyone in town eats there.”

“I heard it was all old people.” 

“Well, that might be something.”

The time finally came when they had to get out of the car. She hopped out, energized and ready to learn. Basil was not so much. He looked sick when he climbed out, pale in the face and the likes. 

“Call me when you two get off, I’ll give you a ride home!” She called after them. 

“Thanks!” Basil called back hesitantly. His voice cracked though and Aubrey had to fight with everything in her not to laugh.

The front door led into a carpet hall, ROSSO’S printed on a rug leading to the second front door.

“You ready to kick some ass?” She asked Basil. His eyes widened. 

“W-What did you say? Sorry…”

“I said are you ready to kick some ass?”

“Oh… Yeah, um… sure.” He muttered. She hoped he wouldn’t walk out. If he did, she’d find him and drag him back inside by his hair. There would be NO leaving her behind in that place.

Though, she had to admit it, she felt terrible for him. He was so scared of everything now. The fact he was there at all though was impressive. 

“Come on, we’re new together.” She sighed, trying to be helpful. He walked stiffly beside her as they went through the door, which was incredibly frustrating because the doorway was narrow and he clearly didn’t comprehend that before squishing himself between her and the frame.

“Dude, chill out.” She whispered. 

“I’m fine, Aubrey.” He whispered back, obviously not fine. 

“This place is creepy…” 

“Mmhmm.”

“Why do they have so many pictures of people… maybe it’s their victims…”

“Stop…”

Ellen, the lady from the front counter, whisked over to them. “Hello!” She said with a grin. Aubrey wasn’t sure what it was, but this woman, was terrifying.

“Hi, we’re supposed to be here at five?”

“Well, that’s the time I wrote isn’t it?” She gave her a stern look which despite her height made Aubrey feel like an ant. Then, she laughed, slightly, and began up a ramp. Rooms branched off to either side of them, large rooms. Photos covered the walls and lights were positioned facing them, showing clear displays of their town and the surrounding areas, each picture representing a period of history. The floor, carpeted, was a deep blue with some kind of burgundy floral pattern chasing down the middle. The brick and wooden look of the walls and dim lights almost made the place feel like a dungeon and the astronomical amount of mirrors gave the illusion it was much larger than it actually was, which wasn’t to be mistaken with the fact the restaurant was humongous. 

“Alright.” Ellen stopped at a wooden surface with cheese and pepper shakers, napkins and silverware. “This is the Setup Table. This is where you will grab your silverware for your tables. The bussers will seat the customers and lay out the amount of silverware needed and mark what room they’re in. Just grab it and go.”

“N-Now?” Basil asked. 

“No Basil. When a table comes in.” Aubrey answered for him. It was then that she realized she was working two jobs that evening. The first being Rosso’s and the second being Keeping Basil From Embarrassing Himself Out Of His Own Fear And Twisted Internal Monologue. 

Apparently pleased with the answer, Ellen skipped to her next topic. “I’ll watch you two with your first table and you should be able to go from there.”

And then they waited. In complete silence. Next to their boss. No words spoken. No thoughts shared. No customers walking in. Only the sound of Basil not being able to control his breathing and the coughs of customers. 

Then, it was as though a light shone through the door. A customer.

“Brace you-”

“Sunny!”

And he was gone. Basil had run into the light and never returned, disappearing entirely by his own stupidity to keep it together.
Only, that wasn’t what happened. Aubrey leaned back against the surface, relieved he had at least found one reason to be happy that day. Sunny, and her worst nightmare, his grandpa, walked in slowly. 

“Does he want that table?” Ellen asked her as they watched him wrap his arms around his friend.

“Definitely.”

But. You see. This presented its own pile of problems.

“Aubrey…” He said, shaking as he looked down at his notes. “I… I told his grandpa he could get a hotdog but we don’t sell those but I already told him yes because I panicked and now he’s expecting one I can’t go back and tell-”

“Alright.” She groaned, already walking towards the table. He followed behind her, still rambling. 

“No, you don’t get it, maybe someone can run to the store or-”

“Are you out of your mind?” She laughed. “You can’t be serious. We don’t sell them here, it’s going to be okay. It’s your first day and truthfully I was glad you took them.”

He stopped dead in his tracks.

“What?” She asked, his Deer-In-The-Headlights stance freaking her out a little.

“They’re right there.” He whispered, pointing into the room.

“And?”

“I don’t want them to hear us talking about this.”

“Basil. I swear.” She huffed, having to pretend like she herself was totally fine with breaking Sunny’s grandpa’s heart. She rounded the corner, Sunny with his head in his hands, eyes wide. His grandpa was relaxing, staring off into the distance.

“Um hey.” She waved her hand in front of him. He snapped out of it, literally, and gave her an analytical look. She furrowed her brows. 

“Have you seen my waiter?”

“You know his name…” She shook her head. “Not the point. I’m over here because we don’t serve hotdogs.”

His grandpa tried to conceal his laugh. She crossed her arms. There was no way in hell he just did that.

“That’s messed up.” 

“I thought I would give it a shot. Give me a hamburger with cheese.”

She looked over at Sunny, the life draining out of her with every second. He too looked like he had his soul sucked out of him.
“Alright.” Unbelievable. “Want anything on it? I don’t even know how we make them here. Do we sell burgers?”

“You don’t know the menu?” His grandpa asked. “Wow.”

She was going to throw a fork at this man and his smugness. “And Basil spent all night memorizing it so I don’t know why he’s shocked there’s no hotdogs.”

“Basil. Get Basil.”

She spun around, flashing a quick eyebrow raise to Sunny, who only put his head down in response, and returned down the hall. Before she had the chance to reach him, one of the other servers practically jumped out in front of her.

“Hi! I’m Violet!” She beamed. “Nice to meet ya! I tried asking your friend if he was okay but he told me he was fine. He’s definitely lying so you should go give him a pat on the back or something. Or you could sing to him. I do that sometimes and it makes them die of secondhand embarrassment and cures their personal embarrassment. Also sorry if I spooked him! Lemme know if you need any help!”

Her eyes were huge when she spoke, that or they were just freakishly big to begin with. She then did some kind of dance move and vanished. Aubrey took a moment to process what just happened before finally getting to Basil who was doubled over at the computer stands behind the set-up table.

“He said he wants a cheeseburger.” She said, poking his shoulder. He just continued to stand there. She waited for a response, but none followed. “What? What is it?” 

He looked at her slowly, the color so drained from his face it was going backwards. “Some… girl just told me.” He covered his mouth, eyes watering.

“What? Was someone mean to you already? Who was it!?”

“I don’t think she was trying to be mean.” He whispered. He laughed but then covered his mouth again. She couldn’t tell if he was crying, laughing, or experiencing a mental aneurysm. 

“Dude, you look like you’re in pain. Just answer me.” She said, growing impatient. Another set of customers had entered the building and she was running low on time. That and Ellen was lurking again.

“She said my skin… looked like it would be a nice candle.”

“HUH!?” 

He laughed again, this one more nervous, and after hearing that, she was in the same boat.

“Dude, was that a threat?”

“No… she said she was just kidding. What does that mean?”

“Go ring in your order before Ellen kills you.”

“Oh, right.” 

Two pieces of silverware were set on the table and marked Sherwood. She grabbed them and Ellen directed her towards the room. It was right off the main hall, and to Aubrey’s surprise, there was a room that was even further than this one. Sherwood held four tables and featured an enormous stained glass light that hung overhead. There were obvious signs of dust lingering in the archway to the other room. She sat them down at a table who didn’t have silverware and the elderly couple smiled up at her like babies in a crib.

“Hi. I’m Aubrey. What can I get for you?”

“What was that honey…?” The old lady looked to the older man for help.

“She asked how you were doing.”

“Oh, I’m alright sweetie. How are you.”

Was it a trap? Were all old people like Sunny’s grandfather? She swayed on her foot for a moment, but at seeing Ellen spying on her through the mirror (which was insanely creepy and uncalled for) she doubled down and spoke louder.

“I’m doing GREAT!” She roared. “How are you? I mean, what can I GET FOR YOU?” 

The couple smiled blankly at her, nodding their heads. She could feel her palms growing hot. All she really wanted to do was yell “FOOD? YOU WANT?” But Ellen’s presence was near. 

“Well.” The old man broke the silence. “I’ll have spaghetti and meatballs.”

“Okay. Salad dressing?”

“What was that?”

“She said your SALAD DRESSING DALE.” The woman replied.

“Oh, what do you got?” 

She frowned, realizing she had no idea.

“Um… I’m actually not sure, but I can ask.”

“No that’s okay. Honey mustard.”

Wasn’t that for chicken nuggets? They sold chicken there, so maybe they did have that. 

“Okay. And for you ma’am?”

“I want a diet pepsi.” She said.

“Oh. Er, what do you want to drink sir?” She asked. He stared at her, like completely and utterly stared. Then he squinted his eyes slightly. 

“Hmm. Uh… Mmm… Diet pepsi.”

“And what are you eating ma’am?”

“Thank you sweetie.” She nodded. Aubrey twisted her head and glanced at the menu. The woman exhaled and turned the page.

“I think I’d like to have… The…. The eggplant parmesan…. House dressing.”

She was so fast to get out of there, dropping off their drinks and reporting to the kitchen.

“Just butter the bread!” Ellen said to Basil as he cried over buttering bread. “You can just slap it on, it doesn’t have to be perfect.”

She tried not to laugh because it was genuinely sad that he was so scared, but it was also funny he was getting told how to butter bread . She figured she’d have to make note to remember this moment to poke at him after the jitters had worn off. Following not in his footsteps, she slapped on some gloves, dug the butter knife into the large tin of butter, and began slapping it on the bread, drenching it in garlic. Two per order, four for a table of two. She joined him at the grill.

“Alright. Come get me if you need me.” Ellen said, wandering off.

“Aubrey!” Basil hissed. “She just left!”

“At least you had help. My table couldn’t even hear me and she just watched!”

“You’ve been thrown to the wolves.” The violet person said, randomly deciding to butt into their conversation. “Don’t worry, you haven’t even spilled an entire drink tray on someone yet. It’s nerve-wracking at first but soon you’ll do great! Also I like your hair!” She said, gesturing towards Aubrey.

“Oh… thank you!”

Basil looked even more petrified, if that was even possible. She looked back at Violet who was setting her bread on the grill too.

“Did you threaten to turn him into a candle?”

Her face lit up and she coughed away a laugh. “Oh God I’m so sorry I was trying to break the ice and it had the reverse effect!”

“How is that breaking the ice!?”

“I don’t know!”

“Not the candle thing again.” Another server joined them at the grill. “Vi, come on. Not everyone wants to be a candle.”

“Their loss. My gain. Which is their loss of flesh and my gaining of flesh.” Samone laughed and Violet looked over for approval only to be met with the disappointment that Aubrey had intentionally strewn on her face.
“I did it again, I’m sorry, I’ll stop, I was really trying to make that work.” She laughed. “You have nice hair too, sir!”

He grabbed the tongs and placed his bread in the basket and stood to the side without a word.  Aubrey checked her bread, found that it was properly browned, and threw it in a basket of her own. The salad maker had already dressed their salads and she was relieved to find that there really was honey mustard. 

“Um… is this dressing already on it.”

“Yep! Yep we toss that. House always comes on it. Hey you’re new here right?” He smiled. He was tall, had dreadlocks, and some very… unwashed, teeth. A decent smile though, despite this. 

“Uh yeah, me and my friend.”

When she called him, or Kel, or even Sunny her friend, there was always some warmth behind those words that she didn’t intentionally place there. She wondered if it was her past self, finally relaxing after years of absence.

“Oh okay, cool, cool. How old are you?”

“Sixteen.”

“Oh wow, you’re still a kid!”

He was creepy, she decided. They carried their trays up and parted ways. Basil to what was presumably a death sentence, and her to the sweet old people who couldn’t hear a single thing she was saying. When they met back up, they had time to relax by the Setup Table. 

“How are you doing?” She asked as he buried himself in his notes. As Violet had suggested, she gave him a really weird pat on the shoulder and then promised herself she wouldn’t do that again because she felt like a middle-aged dad who enjoyed golfing and was telling his son he was proud.

“I’m… I’m alright. You?”

“I’m good. The people here are weird.”

He chuckled. “Yes, they are. Hero seems to really like them. If that’s anything.”

“Hero has questionable opinions sometimes.” She shrugged. 

Somehow, both of them made it out on the other side. The elderly couple had tipped her generously, well, ten dollars on an order of thirty dollars, and she had found herself happy. Basil, meanwhile, had turned down table after table, only able to take one at a time, and by the end of the night, she had taken three. Still, he had managed to make more than her on account of the pity tip brought to him by Sunny’s grandpa. She supposed he deserved it, he needed some kind of motivation to keep working there. She finalized her last order, the clock ticking closer to eight, and smiled to herself. It wasn’t that bad.

“So Sunny…” Basil began, joining her side.

“Woah,” She jumped, not expecting him. “I thought you were still in the bathroom.”

“Ah, nope! I’m uh. Anyways, Sunny put in an application! I saw it on the counter!”

“WHAT!?” She spun towards him, confused. “Are you making shit up?”

He shook his head. “No, no I really mean it! He really did!” 

He looked so genuinely happy at that moment, and honestly, she was a little pissed off that he wasn’t that happy when she went into work with him, but, at the end of the day, it was so nice to see him smile. She just hoped it wouldn’t be too much for both of them, after all, in her opinion, the two of them needed space. She couldn’t deny she wasn’t excited though, she’d get to work her first job with some of her closest friends.

Now, instead of two jobs, she’d have three. One at Rosso’s, another helping Basil come out of his shell, and a final helping Sunny learn to coexist with other humans. 

Chapter Text

It was beautiful, the way his brother was completely incapable of sorting his laundry.
“Heroooo, none of these are cleannnn.” He complained as he threw a handful of socks into his basket. Hero grimaced knowing what to expect.
“Can I please borrow a pair of yours? HERO PLEASE!?” 

“They better be at the foot of my bed the second you get home. I’ll know if I’m missing a pair.”

“Sweet! Thanks!” Kel sprung to his feet and tore open Hero’s dresser but frowned when he looked inside. “Don’t you have any normal socks?”

“Er… Yeah?” He replied, confused on what that even meant.

“What is all this?” Kel asked in disgust. He pulled out a nice clean bundled pair of socks, a personal favorite of Hero’s. They had the perfect flexibility-to-compression ratio and never changed their shape. The plaid blue and orange were muted so that they matched almost everything while providing a little fun in the wardrobe. 

“Pick another pair.” He said. There would be no risking losing such a nice pair today, not after the horrors Kel’s own socks went through on a daily basis.

“Why?”

“Because I said so and they’re my socks.”

“ BeCauSe I SaId So AnD ThEy’Re MY sOckS.” Kel mocked, shoving them back in the drawer and fishing out a plain black pair. “Are these also weird and special?”

“No. Those are safe.”

“Safe. Got it. I didn’t know you had both kinds in your drawer.” Kel nodded. “Just so you know, now is probably a good time to tell you that I stole from your drawer consistently while you were in school. Are some of these dads?”

Hero, deflated despite already knowing since Kel didn’t know how to organize sock drawers either, began to pace. “Don’t. Do that. We own a washer and dryer. Also no, they’re not dad’s. Why are you making fun of my socks?”

“Yeah but I’m a busy guy. My schedule is always so full and a guy like me doesn’t got time for things like that.” Kel said, ignoring the question. He pulled the socks up, falling on his back on Hero’s bed as he did so. 

“Then I guess you’re too busy to work in a couple weeks. Did you hear they’re going to let Sunny work one day a week?”

“Huh?”

He waited for Kel to say something else, but it seemed Kel was waiting on Hero to say something simultaneously.
“Yeah, Ellen told me. She’s worried we have too many servers now.”

“WHAT?” Kel jumped up, sliding on a pair of sandals. With socks. For the winter. Hero tightened his jaw in an effort to not say something. 

“Why didn’t he say anything to me? That’s so cool!”

“I just hope he can handle it.” Hero said. The two of them left the bedroom and began down the stairs, the low hum of the television indicating their dad was watching some kind of cooking show.

“Why wouldn’t he?” Kel asked. “You, Aubrey, and Basil will all be there.”

He didn’t realize how rude that sounded until Kel had asked him to elaborate. He thought for a moment before speaking, hoping his words wouldn’t come off harsh. “He’s just… Sunny has a lot he’s been trying to do and I’m worried he’s biting off way too much. Plus, he’s not the best… when it comes to… well, you know. Talking.”

“You just gotta pay attention and you’ll know what he’s trying to say!” Kel said, apparently not knowing how working a customer service job worked. “And anyways,” He continued as he picked Sally up into his arms. “Maybe this will be good practice for him.”

It was an angle Hero hadn’t even thought about. “That’s actually… a good point! And you’re right, he has all of us there, we’ll keep an eye out on him. I hope Aubrey and Basil had a good time tonight, I’ve been worrying about it all day, I’ve messaged May like crazy!”

“BYE MOM!” Kel called out. Hero called out his farewells too, grabbing his coat and bundling up. It was going to be cold. He picked up a basket, the wood uncomfortable in his hands and the weight threatening to separate the handles from the base. The three of them trekked the driveway and got into the car, Sally getting buckled in her carseat.

“These things are so complicated.” Kel said from behind him, still trying to get the seat just right. Hero peered into the mirror and frowned.

“Kel. How many times have you rode in mom’s car?”

“Huh? My… ohh. In my defense, the people who make these make them impossible to install.” He spun the car seat around so that Sally was now facing the back and continued to thread in the actual belt. 

There ya go! Nice and cozy.” He cooed, hopping into the passenger seat. He slumped back and laid his feet on the dash and exhaled. “Can I play my C-”

“No.”

“Fine.”

He turned right at the stop sign and took a left at the next, the arches of the church growing clearer in the dark sky. 

“This is going to be a weird picnic.” He mumbled, the slight nervousness of arriving beginning to bite him. The car clanked as he dragged it into park and got out. They grabbed Sally and the basket and headed towards the back, his heart hanging like Christmas ornaments on his skin. Cemeteries always felt so full yet so empty. What lived inside them were a collection of assorted memories clad in stone and flowers. The trees still having not gained their leaves stood still and dark around them, frozen grass crunching beneath their shows.
Already at the grave, a brunette sat quietly with his back turned towards them. The field was as still and quiet as he was, undisturbed and frozen.

His ornamental heart turned cold when he noticed there was more movement, this one from a taller person. In the dark, he hadn’t noticed them, but now that he grew closer, he realized it wasn’t just Sunny at the cemetery. 

“Is that Sunny’s parents?” Kel whispered. “I didn’t know they were coming.”

“It’s her birthday, I guess it would make a lot of sense that they’d be here.”

Sunny turned his head when Hero sat down the basket and sat down next to him, too uncomfortable to roll out a blanket.

“Hey Sunny, sorry if we’re late! I made some snacks.” He smiled. Sunny watched him, eyes scanning his face, then returned to watching the grave. His mother, frail and small, sniffled as she rubbed the top of the headstone. 

“Thank you all for coming.” She said, her silhouette wiping its eyes. “She was so loved. Should we light the candle?”

His dad reached into a bag and pulled out candles that almost looked like the silver obelisks around them, tall and narrow. He handed them out, even giving Sally one. She waved it in her hand, her soft voice cooing nonsense into cold. Then, one was lit, and a candle was tilted towards another. His grandfather tilted his candle to Sunny, and Sunny lit Hero’s.

“Don’t light Sally’s.” He whispered to Kel.

“I wasn’t!” He whispered back. “Where’s the others?”

Hero looked behind him but nothing had changed. The treeline was still dark, the grass laid still, and emptiness still lingered. 

“They’re probably on their way.”

The flames were beautiful, golden wax dripping towards his hand and brighter than the moon that hid in the sky. They were thoughtful, lightened up the dark spaces, and they were as perfect as they were transient. 

“They’re here, Hero.” Kel whispered, nudging his shoulder. He didn’t have to turn around to know, he could hear their footsteps begin to slow. They too likely didn’t expect a family turnout, but it would have been selfish to assume they would be the only ones to be there. Like Sunny’s mother said, Mari was loved by many. Flowers, an assortment of freshly cut blooms, had been wrapped into a bouquet, tulips, roses, and even a cactus, as well as many others. Basil passed them to Aubrey and she sat them down in front of the grave with a solemn look in her eyes. Standing back, her head was lifted when she was handed two candles.

She pulled a thin pink hoodie tighter against herself as she watched the stone throughout the night, quiet and distant.
Mari would have killed him if she had known he’d sat there and let Aubrey freeze, so he unzipped his coat and pulled his arms through the warmth, and walked over to her, draping it over her shoulders. She jumped and was snapped out of her trance as she gave him a confused look. 

“Sometimes,” He began, speaking quietly so he wouldn’t garner any attention, “I think I’ve convinced myself she’s only moved away. Far away.”

Aubrey didn’t have a response for him. She only looked down and back to the treeline as Sunny’s parents said a small prayer, hushed by the emotion in their throats. The gold that danced on her face showed the red that had formed on her cheeks and in her eyes, but she moved her hair to obscure it, a mess of pink with an unmatched purple.

“ Amen.” And the light and warmth of the candles had disappeared leaving them empty handed and empty hearted. 

His parents, having seemingly been there for some time already, left Sunny with the rest of the others, a group of three walking slowly towards the front of the church, weight heavy on their shoulders. 

He found it hard to look at the stone, a constant reminder that she really was gone and that life really had continued to move at a terrifyingly quick rate. Numbed to the cold, he drew his eyes towards it and read her name. A name that should have still been written on college assignments, that should have popped up on social media, and that should have been signed on the poster in Aubrey’s room. 

“Sometimes I forget what she looks like.” Aubrey said quietly. “And I feel terrible.”

He patted her shoulder as he fought an urge to watch Sunny and Basil. He knew his pain too well, but he wondered how theirs differed. It was quiet in the group when he turned his head and nothing had really changed. Kel still sat with Sally wrapped in his coat, Sunny still sat like a statue anchored to the ground, and Basil had joined his side. 

“I do too.” Hero said finally. He moved from her and opened up the picnic basket, setting out cookies, pastries, and sandwiches. The others had grown awkward, watching him but not speaking. 

“Come on,” He said, smiling to himself but not really wanting to smile. “She wouldn’t want us here hungry.” 
Everything he laid out, he sat out with the intent to do something for someone. Every time he reached into the basket, however, he knew he was reaching inside of it alone.

Chapter Text

As selfish as it was, he wanted to be as far from his house as he could after the visit. He couldn’t bear to be around them knowing that at the end of the day, she could still be alive and things could still be normal.
Even as he walked back to Hero’s car with Basil he felt sick, a burden placed onto him at the result of his own hands. Everyone was screwed up, and somehow, some way, they were all still together. There was just always the sense of missing one.

The heat took forever to radiate into the back of the car, and there was really only room for five of them, but with Sally’s carseat, he and Basil had to squish on one side and Aubrey to the other. It was only a short drive to their house though.

No one was speaking and he wondered for a minute if they were all angry with him. Reasonable, he figured, perhaps it would be wrong to think they weren’t. They wouldn’t be the only ones. 

In the midst of it all though, in the grief and the pain of being alone, there was one person who he knew didn’t hate him, and he was thankful for it. 

The Great Unpacking, as Kel had called it, occurred when they stopped by the Montoya house to drop Sally off. The carseat was removed and she was carried in by her brothers leaving everyone else in the warmth of the car. Aubrey scooted down and Basil followed, the space created allowing for everyone to sigh a breath of relief. 

“Are you staying tonight?” Aubrey asked. Basil peered over at him and answered for him.

“He said he is.”

“Alright.” Her hand was on the handle of the door and for a moment he thought she’d leave, walk towards the house, distance herself from him. But then, her hand fell into her lap. “How are you doing?”

Basil didn’t answer for him this time. There was nothing to relay. 

The others returned to the car and they were set off to Basil’s house, the humble abode without any adults to spy on them. Peak freedom and exactly what he felt he needed at the moment. 

“Wipe your shoes off before entering, please!” Basil said. Sunny stuck his hands deep into his hoodie pocket and followed behind everyone, the stars in the sky reminiscent of a certain voyage he once took part in, a landscape of creatures, weird plants, and sentient muscular planets.

“Hey… Hey do you have any socks I can borrow?” Kel whispered, somehow suddenly appearing next to him despite being in front of the group only a moment prior. “Basil’s not going to let me borrow any. Last time he got kind of upset when I ruined him… then again that was four years ago. Do you have an extra pair on you?”

Sunny frowned and shook his head solemnly. He did not. Unfortunately today was not the day he carried around random extra pairs. 

“OH WAIT! AUBREY! HEY AUBREY!”

And off Kel went, poking the bear. He got attacked.

When they were finally inside, and Kel’s wet socks and sandals were left outside to protect everyone’s olfactory senses, Basil disappeared into his room. Apparently he was feeling forgiving that day and agreed to let Kel have custody of his socks. It would be a fatal error in time to come, but Sunny was sure he knew that already.

“So, are you excited for work?” Hero said from the couch. Sunny turned to look only to find he was looking right at him. He gave him the prompt physical lie of a nod. He was, in fact, not excited. The only reason he was doing it to begin with was because he saw how horrified Basil looked when he waited on him and his grandpa and to get out of the house and away from algebra. If even one day a week, it was better than seven.

“We’ll take good care of you.” Hero smiled. 

“Go long!” Kel cheered, raising his hands. Basil hesitated before throwing a pair of boring socks in Kel’s direction. It smacked off the table though, which was probably five feet to the left of where Kel was standing. 

“My bad…” Kel said, taking the blame for a poor pitch. 

The phone, whose message alert had been blinking a small red, began to ring causing everyone to stir. Basil wandered over to it and frowned for a moment before smiling and picking up.

“Excuse me, I’m going to take this real quick.” He said, once again going to the back of the house.

The room settled down in his absence. Sunny sat down on the couch next to Hero and Kel flopped onto the ground, Criss-Cross-Apple-Sauce style. He wondered how he was able to even do that, the form was always so uncomfortable when he had to do it, and yet here his friend was, choosing to do it out of pure will. 

“So there’s no room for me?” Kel asked, sadly looking at him. He had no clue what he was talking about and stared back. “Is that true?” He continued, still being vague.

“Kel I already told you this.” Hero sighed. “You’re going to have to wait.”

“How come I’m the one who told everyone and now I gotta wait?”

“You’re in basketball, someone’s bound to quit sooner or later.” Hero said as though he had recited the same lines more than once.

“Just sucks. Oh, do you guys wanna go to the arcade tomorrow? We can hit Hobbeez first and see if they got anything good, maybe grab some pizza, then go ham on the machines.”

“I can’t.” Aubrey shrugged. “Basil and I work. Where’d he go?”

“Phonecall.” Hero said.

“Oh come on. Can’t you just call off for one day?”

“Kel!” Hero shook his head. “You know they can’t just do that. You only call off when you really need to!”

He shrugged in guilt. There was knowledge in his eyes that said he definitely knew he shouldn’t have asked them to call off to go to the arcade, but the little glimmer that laid inside of them also suggested he simply didn’t care.

Basil returned, sat the phone on the receiver slowly, and spun around. Then, at seeing everyone was watching him, he smiled uncomfortably and sat down away from them at the table.

“Whacha doin’ over there?” Kel asked. 

“It’s just a comfortable chair.” Basil shrugged.

“Wanna play Pet Rocks?”

Sunny wanted to play Pet Rocks. He began to pull it out of his pocket but when Aubrey announced it was a stupid game, he slowly tucked it back in.

Then, the curse of being in a house with little to no electronics other than a TV, a phone and perhaps a broken laptop settled in. This paired with no one having any plan on what they were actually going to do opened the door to the infiltration of silence. 

Kel was tapping his hands off his knee, Hero was spacing out, Aubrey was silently judging everyone, and Basil had his head in his hand.

“Who called by the way?” Aubrey asked.

He answered her but it was hard to hear what he said because he was clear on the other side of the room. 

“What?”

“My…” Again, it was too hard to make out.

“What did he say?” She asked Hero who was the closest to him on the couch.

“Huh? Oh sorry, I was somewhere else.”

Frustrated, she pointed to the floor next to Kel. “Can you come over here? No one can hear you.”

He did as she asked and sat down not in Criss-Cross-Apple-Sauce style. “My parents.”
“Oh, what did they want?” She continued, a disgusted look forming on her face and weighing her brows.

“Um… so it’s a little weird but… they asked how the caretaker has been.”

“The what?”

He laughed a little and pulled himself closer together. Sunny began to feel the tinge of secondhand embarrassment. For who? He didn’t know. But he felt it.

“That’s kind of what I said. So… apparently there was supposed to be someone here.” He began to smile. “And… they’ve been paying some random no show since they left.” 

“Wait so there was supposed to be a caretaker here this entire time!?” She asked. “Did you tell them we don’t need one? I don’t want some random person in here.”

“Ah… about that.” He winced but the color had returned to his face. Sunny watched intensively, curious to see how this was supposed to play out. “I uh… I told them that we got jobs and stuff and although mom is happy about it, she did say it’s illegal to not have someone here.”

“Oh God. So what are they going to do then? Do I need to talk to them!?”

“Nono! No, that’s alright.” He said softly, plucking the fuzz out of the carpet. “I… if Polly doesn’t have a job I think they mi-”

“POLLY IS COMING BACK?” Aubrey said, her cool-girl facade fizzling out as she leaned forward. She seemed to have caught herself though and leaned back into the couch, raising her brows and looking at her hands. “I could tolerate that.”

“Me too.”

Hero looked nervous, fidgeting with his nails. “You all aren’t going to quit the restaurant… are you?”

Aubrey shook her head. “Heck no! Having money is awesome! I made like fifty bucks last night and barely had to do anything.”

“Good job!” Basil cheered. 

Fifty dollars. Sunny thought for a moment. Fifty. Dollars. The things he could buy with fifty dollars. Once a week? Fifty dollars? That was probably three games a week, endless slurpees at the arcade, a movie at the theater and loads of popcorn. 

“Yeah, but we spent it all on cleaning supplies.”

“Yeah, it smells pretty good in here.”
“You’re right next to the oil diffuser, Kel.” 

“Well Aubrey…” He looked like he was thinking about a comeback but whatever he planned to say, he was struggling to say it.

Throughout that night, they spent a good portion of the time discussing dull things like school, work, and at that rate, he was surprised taxes weren’t brought up. When it was time to go home, he was excited, not because he wanted to go, but because he was falling asleep on the couch. 

His house was dark when he unlocked the door and shut it behind him. The television had long since been turned off and a digital clock in the kitchen to his right read an ungodly hour. The documentary they had watched was definitely overkill and everyone would be regretting it tomorrow when they had to wake up. Everyone but him. He got to sleep in a little later. He slipped his shoes off and tried to avoid looking too far into the house. Stepping on the stairs, he gripped the banister and let out a breath. His foot, trying to find the next step, found something squishy instead, and he shot back, the skittering of a cat dashing away from him. He clutched his chest, moving unnerved towards the top.
It looked wrong, entirely wrong, the way it cascaded into a far reaching void. The steps, elongated and steep twisted with a sharpness that led into corners unseen. Heavy and dry air pushed on his lungs, nine point eight meters per second squared, a force pointing downward. Or, perhaps since he wasn’t home, it was six point six seven, ten to the negative eleventh newtons… meters… mass? He felt weightless though, or maybe he was too heavy. Perhaps something had twisted, or time had bent. Perhaps the thing that-

“Sunny, what the hell are you doing?” A light turned on and he paused, the stairway having vanished entirely. His dad, bundled in a bathrobe and plump pajama pants stood at the top of the stairs. “Are you asleep?”

Was he? He looked around him and saw he had only made it up three steps in total. Returning to look at his father, he shook his head and continued up the stairs. His dad stepped down and grabbed his arm, sighing slightly. “You scared the crap out of me, I just went to get some coffee. I told you that you can turn on the lights. I thought you were sleepwalking up the stairs again.”

He opened his room door for him and remained in the doorway as Sunny took off his coat and sat down on his bed. “Goodnight, I’ll see you in the morning.”

The next morning, he woke up and his legs were sore because he had gone to sleep in jeans. A true crime. What was worse? He didn’t wake up of his own volition. When he had opened his eyes, his grandpa was staring down at him.

“You going to sleep whole day away?” He asked. “Time to get up.” Then, the windows were open flooding a freakish amount of light into the room. Sunny rubbed his eye not wanting to get up but being forced to.
They spent the day again for some reason studying physics which had literally nothing to do with any of his classes, but at his dad’s and grandpa’s insistence, was “briefly covered to show how math applies to the real world.” He had learned nothing.

It was only later that he had begun to get ready for work. He slipped on a black pair of jeans and his black dress shoes, a black button up long sleeved shirt, and combed his hair. Stepping into the hall feeling pretty darn proud of himself, he turned to the bathroom and brushed his teeth. As he drugged the toothbrush along its usual route, he noticed something horrifying. Leaning closer into the mirror a brown dot had formed on one of his back molars.
He decided to keep quiet about that for now.

He raced downstairs, something that felt like excitement but showed itself more as anxiety flooding his veins. His grandpa grabbed an umbrella and was about to open the door when he froze, slowly turning his head.

“Sunny. What is that?” He asked, looking at his shoes. He looked down, confused on what the problem was. They were nonslip and looked decent enough. “Go change, you can’t wear white socks and black outfit. What’s the matter with you?”

Annoyed, he returned to his room and opened the sock drawer confused why socks had been such a big deal the last two days. There he saw his opportunity to test the limits. He grabbed a black sock and a bright blue sock. Returning downstairs, he was hoping he’d get away with it as they were barely visible as it was. He did not get away with it.

“Do I have to teach you what a black sock is? Go get the black sock!” His grandpa cried. Once again, he returned to his room and opened the drawer. This time, he chose a black sock with a blue tip. His grandpa would have no idea. 

Though, of course, there was yet another issue with his choice of socks.

“Sunny.” His grandpa looked so fed up and disappointed. “Now you have one sock that is long and one short.”

He had to admit, he didn’t really consider that and his grandpa was completely right. He walked away in shame.

Eventually, he had managed to either please his grandpa’s wishes or just cause him to give up and they were on the way to the restaurant. How he had gotten hired was beyond him, Ellen just said he was so polite but truthfully, he didn’t remember saying a single word throughout the entire interview. Now, like his friends, he had sold his soul to the great Shark.

Chapter Text

There was something to be appreciated during the night. If the stars could sing, he imagined they do it softly, that perhaps they’d sound like the light ringing of bells or deeply hollowed wind chimes.
But right now, he wouldn’t be able to hear them, and that was because Kel was talking with an obscene level of volume. 

“Can you believe it!?” He shouted, scrunching his face into a disgusted grimace. “Mr. Peterson. Weird Mr. Peterson. Gnome. Mr. Peterson. Is our new assistant coach.”

“So?” Aubrey replied, raising a brow. She sat on the ground with a pop can nestled between her hands. 

“ Soooo, we’re toast! Listen, he came in an entire week late from when he was supposed to show up. I was so pumped about this, then we get this old guy strolling in.”

“Kel, you really need to cool it.” Hero sighed from the couch. “He’s probably not as bad as you think. Who even told you this stuff about him?”

A small glance was flashed from Kel’s eyes towards Sunny. Sunny did not say or do anything in response. He was proud.

“You can’t believe everything you hear.” Hero said having followed the glances. “How would you like it if someone did the same to you?”

“Don’t give me that Hero. You only get compliments from people all day, how am I supposed to take you seriously?”

Hero shrugged. “Be as amazing as me?”

A groan wasn’t verbally executed from the group, but there was a physical one. The way everyone’s shoulders slouched a little and the general atmosphere dropped just a hint. 

In the midst of the brief silence, Sally, who had become a new member of the group, jolted awake from her spot on Hero’s lap. 

“Sleepy?” Hero asked her softly. He brushed the red strands out of her eyes as they fluttered shut, then open for a moment, and back to shut again. “We should get her home.”

“Oh come on.” Kel whined, already getting up anyway. “We just got here like two hours ago.”

“Yeah, but you all have school tomorrow and mom’s not going to like that we stayed out so late. Plus Sunny’s first day of working is tomorrow, he needs rest.”

Kel mumbled something under his breath but it became more muffled as he fought to get a hoodie over his head. Basil leaned back from his spot on the couch, suddenly feeling cold. Aubrey had been stealing all of the living room blankets as of lately which was mildly irritating but he didn’t say anything, he just hoped they’d find their way back to their respected spots. Someday. 

Taking Sunny with them, everyone left, and he stood up, ready to go to sleep now that the house was empty. It had been a chaotic day at work and he was afraid to admit he still didn’t have it all down nor was he enjoying it all that much. Just today, he had asked a lady, “What would you like to drink?” And she replied with “Pepsi.” And instead of saying perfect, he had been cut off by her changing her mind to Root Beer and apologizing for the hassle. This in turn made him slip up his usual routine of speech and say “You’re perfect” instead of “Perfect” Or “You’re fine”. Cue four apologies and three older ladies giggling, and he had not only made a pretty decent tip off of them, but also thoroughly embarrassed himself in the process.
There was also the incident of the pizza mess up which caused discomfort in the pizza hole among the workers and the incident of Fast Curtis, the restaurant's mouse zooming from one end of the room to the other. The owners had put down sticky traps to put a permanent end to Fast Curtis’ journey and he realized he was unable to even acknowledge the trap because it felt so inhumane. When he told Aubrey this, she had named the mouse. They conspired to remove the traps but it would be at the risk of the people eating there, so just ignoring it was easier. Somewhat. 

“You’re going to bed already?” Aubrey asked, still on her spot on the floor. 

“Ah,” He paused, in the frame of the hall. “Yeah, it’s going to be a long day tomorrow.”

“Oh, alright. You know, not to sound mushy or anything but sometimes I wish I knew my sister.”

“Your sister?” He turned around, confused at this. “I didn’t realize you had one.”

She gave him a puzzled look but a thought must have crossed her mind because she wore it on her face. “Oh. Yeah, I found out not too long ago. I haven’t really talked about it. It’s not something that I really like to think about because it kind of pisses me off.”

“Oh, why… is that?” He trailed the couch and sat back down. She yawned and pushed a strand of faded pink hair behind her back. 

“Because I only recently found out. Dad left and has a whole other family. No one even told me and she’s like three or four or something. I think he cheated on my mom and just left to be with this other woman.” 

She said it with such a lack of emotion that he didn’t know how to emphasize with her. 

“I… I don’t really know…” He shook his head. “How. What to say to that. Actually.”

“It’s fine.” She shrugged. “We adapt and we overcome.”

He chuckled, but it was honestly more of a nervous laugh than a fill-in-the-silence type of thing. “So. How did you find out?”

“Oh. Chris randomly handed me a note when I was at school. Hero drove me before he went to the pie contest and had to witness me freak out on the guy. I do wish I kept his phone number though. I guess despite everything, it still feels wrong to not at least take advantage of the situation and get to know my sister. She didn’t do anything wrong.”

He nodded. It was true, the child didn’t ask to be a part of that situation. She was smart to overlook the whole thing, but he could tell she was forcing herself to say that. She didn’t fully feel it, but she knew what was right and what wasn’t.
Then, it was like someone had taken one of those bell stars and slammed it against the wall. He realized now why she had made that face earlier. She had found out on the day he had lost his mind. 

“Sorry I wasn’t there for you that day.”

“Huh?” She looked up at him but he looked away before they could make incredibly awkward eye contact. 

“Welp.” He did what they did in the shows and slapped his knee. It was a sign of leaving and it always worked. “I better get some sleep. You should too.”

“Well it’s already pretty obvious what day it happened.” She said, “There’s no reason to pretend like that day didn’t…” She threw her hands up trying to find the words.
“Basically what I’m saying is first of all, don’t be sorry. If anything I should have been there for you. Second of all, if dad didn’t send me into a complete meltdown then I wouldn’t have been there to see what happened and you would have just been missing from my perspective. If I didn’t forget your gift though, I could have been there sooner and I think about that constantly.”

He scrunched back but smiled politely, not wanting to put off that he wasn’t grateful for her thoughtfulness. “Ah, it’s all good! Well, goodnight!” He forced out. He didn’t linger in the doorframe, quickly making his way to his room and shutting a door he wasn’t really supposed to shut. Then, a mountain of quests fell on his shoulders. Find warm pajamas. Take them to bathroom. Shower. Brush teeth. Brush hair. Maybe.
He sighed, having no energy for none of it, but knowing he would because he didn’t want anyone to think he was a slob. 

The following day there was no school, and he was free to wake up at a time he deemed good. This time was one in the afternoon. A little later than he had anticipated but there wasn’t much to do. The plants still definitely didn’t need watered. If anything they needed to dry up quicker, their leaves were looking sad and droopy.
He laid in bed for a little, still thinking about what he could even do other than get dressed and sit aimlessly on the couch until work, when an idea sprung into his mind. It quickly dulled itself, flaking away into boring gray chips and leaving him with the sensation that if life was supposed to feel as empty as it currently did, then perhaps there wasn’t much more he needed to do but float around to save everyone else the presumed grief. Or embarrassment on his end. He hadn’t thought a whole lot about that day until Aubrey had brought it up in the living room the night prior. He remembered the initial shock, the feelings that regardless of what happened, pain would always be a threat hanging by a string above his head, and the worry that his friends were tired of it all just as he was.
He remembered also, in vivid detail, how when he had taken all of that medication, how these issues had seemed to vanish, if only for ten minutes or so before he met the ground with a crack to the head. Or how there was a spot he had to get stitches. Sometimes when he looked in the mirror, he was embarrassed because he wore these issues on his face very literally. Scars from the freakout with Sunny, a patch from where they had stapled his skull on the side of his head. Fortunately, his hair was long enough that it mostly covered it up. It was troublesome though. It was like he was just parading around everything from all of this. 

They still didn’t know who was responsible but it didn’t matter to him. The names of the people who had done it were just people who wanted to be funny at someone else’s expense and since that point, school had been awfully quiet for the most part. Even Nathan had a hard time looking at him. 

He rolled over on his side to face the room and avoided opening his eyes because when he did, he knew he wouldn’t fall back asleep.
The hospital had prescribed medications to take and he’d have to take them before Aubrey let him do virtually anything else. In a weird way, these ones seemed to make him feel worse. Tired, lethargic, drained. Still, regardless of this, he knew he wasn’t the only person in the world with issues, or the only person who had to make things up in his head to feel better about himself and the things he put himself into. 

Finally, when he opened his eyes again, it was two. This time, he was awakened to the door being pushed open gently and pink hair poking through the frame. He didn’t realize what was happening at first and shot up. Having inhaled too deeply, he laughed away the embarrassment of being frightened. 

“You should get up.” Aubrey said. “You slept the entire day away!” She looked annoyed.

“Y-Yeah.” He breathed. “You’re probably right. About that.”

“I tried to make pancakes.” She said, closing her eyes and frowning. “But I don’t know how to make them and now they're just all mushed up in a pan. They still taste good though, so you better eat some.”

He rubbed his eyes not feeling entirely hungry for scrambled pancakes. “That’s alright, sorry. My morning stomach fights against me.” He said.

“Wow. I see how it is.” She replied. “I go through so much effort to do something nice and all you have to say is some excuse for why you wont even try them.”

“N-No! That’s not it at all! I-”

“I’m just giving you a hard time. Chill dude. I’m only halfway joking.” 

He felt really uncomfortable talking to her when he just woke up because he had chosen the route of not brushing his hair and he knew it was a nightmare. She watched him for a moment and opened the door a little wider. This was a tactic she did that he was certain was specifically designed to get him up. She’d always come in if he slept in too late, walk around the room saying nothing for an uncomfortable amount of time, pick things up, examine them, put them back down. Today she had picked up a photo of his parents and him that rested in a white ceramic frame on his dresser. She smiled slightly and sat it back down. He watched her how she would handle everything so gently yet her demeanor would be so hardened. 

“Alright. I’m going.” He sighed, finally standing up.

“Huh? Oh I was just looking around.” She shrugged. “When did you take this picture with them?”

“Hm? Oh, I think that was probably… You know I really couldn’t tell you. Maybe five or so years ago? Six maybe?”

“Were they ever around?” She asked him.

He smiled as he looked at the photo. “Not really, no. They send a card every holiday though. Never miss a beat. They had me pretty young, I don’t think they were ready for all that. Grandma wanted them to start their life. The problem is they never really came back. They’re successful though, and that’s a lot of work.”

She nodded but raised her eyebrows too, frowning in a peculiar way. “I see. Do you feel anything for them?”

“What do you mean?” He asked, moving past her and grabbing the hairbrush. 

“I don’t know, do you feel like you ever miss them or anything?”

His hair was a mess. It was everywhere, how she wasn’t laughing at him he wasn’t sure. In all honesty, it was definitely time for another haircut too. The strands were reaching an uncomfortable length and was getting to the point hairclips weren’t going to keep it out of his face.
“Sure.” He said, brushing lightly over the stitches area. “They’re my parents. I guess I don’t feel super close to them though, not like my grandma. In a way, she feels more like a parent to me than they do. Maybe even.” He paused, feeling weird about the next part, but forced it out anyway. “Even Polly I feel closer to.”

“I knew it! I knew you liked her.”

“Did… did I say otherwise?” He asked, hoping he hadn’t come off that way.

“No, you just came off that way sometimes.” She said, completely and utterly validating his fears.

“Oh.” 

Work had begun sooner than either of them anticipated and Hero waited outside for them as he put the last strands of peach hair in a braid. It had begun to fade quickly and he realized why she had dyed it so much to begin with.
“Thanks.” She muttered, grabbing her server book and pens and sticking them into her apron. “Are you ready for this? Let’s show Sunny how to kick ass at work!”

“Um… yeah!” He cheered with her. They locked the door behind them and ventured out into the car, taking the backseat. 

“This is so exciting!” Hero said from the front. “All of my closest friends and all of you are going to work with me… It’s just so… sweet.”

“Are… are you crying?” Aubrey asked.

“...No. Okay, I’m tearing up a little. This is just so cool.”

“Awe, He…” Aubrey trailed off and cleared her throat. “Softy.”

“Sunny, you’re going to do great! Just know if you need anyone’s help, we’re all here! You can come to me and ask anything you want! I know the ins and outs of that place! Did you know that I even helped prep before? That’s right! I know so much about the food, how its made-”

“Do you know the head cook Mike?” Aubrey interjected. 

“... Mike?” Hero asked. 

“O’Wave?”

“Aubrey.”

“What? We literally microwave so many things there.”

“Yeah… but the stuff we microwave outside of sides are all homemade!”

She relaxed a little, smirking as they grew closer to the store. 

“Sunny…” Basil leaned forward in the car. Sunny turned his head slightly. “I’m here if you need me too! It can be daunting at first, but I know you can do it!” 

Sunny smiled slightly and Basil settled back into place, hoping Sunny would come to him if he needed any kind of support.

But.
He didn’t.

Basil was at the drink station when Sunny had gotten his first table. As he walked out with a Diet Pepsi and a water with lemon, he witnessed it. Sunny, standing at a table of old people.

“WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DRINK?”

Basil’s jaw dropped miles, Sunny’s voice booming through the rooms. He wanted to help him, to tell him he didn’t need to talk so loud, that the entire restaurant could likely hear this in their own rooms and over the music. Everyone had turned to look at Sunny, but he stood so firmly, so confidently. How??

“WHAT DO YOU WANT TO EAT?” Sunny continued to scream. The customers, two older women, seemed so unphased by this as well. Sunny jotted it down in his notebook and locked eyes with them again. Then, without another word, he turned away and headed right to the drink station and began filling the drinks. By this time, Hero had heard the commotion and was heading up the ramp straight towards them.

“Hey… Hey Sunny.” Basil said, whatever embarrassment Sunny lacked finding its way to him. 

Sunny looked at him. Took a deep breath, and whispered. “Did I do okay?”

Now feeling like he’d be an awful person to tell him the truth, Basil backpedaled slightly. “Oh… oh yeah! No that was good! Very good. Just uh-”

“Sunny! Hey!” Hero said, squeezing in. Cynthia grumbled as she tried to get to the water but Hero was too into the situation to notice. Basil filled one up to her and handed it to her with a sorry.

“Excellent job on asking questions! You might want to be a little quieter next time you talk to them though. And make sure you thank them and smile! Oh, and always ask for appetizers-”

“They don’t want those!” Aubrey said, now clogging up the room even more. Violet had came in with a grin.

“What was that?” She asked, oblivious to life’s situations. “Why did you scream at those poor ladies!?” She laughed.

“This is a personal matter.” Aubrey said. Violet sighed and began getting her drinks. 

“Alright, but can you guys do this out there? You’re taking up all the room!”

They migrated to the private room behind the drink station so Hero could continue passively reprimanding poor Sunny.

“Aubrey, you don’t ask your tables that?”

“I do if they’re waiting on people but otherwise most people just want dinner and to leave. We’re not a bar. We serve people in their eighties. Plus, you’re putting too much on him!”

Sunny this entire time was trying to follow but was growing more frustrated by the second. In an effort to make him feel at least somewhat better, Basil tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention and smiled. 

“You’re doing so, so good, Sunny! Those ladies didn’t look bothered at all! It wasn’t as bad as you think. Just tone your voice down a hair and you should be good!”

They watched him drop off the drinks. He did the lock-eye stare again and muttered something so quietly they now couldn’t hear him.

“What, honey?” One lady said, leaning in and pushing her glasses closer to her eyes. He muttered it again and the ladies exchanged a look. Then, just when they thought he’d walk away, it felt like everyone had to look away because he was going to do it again.

“THANK YOU SO MUCH. I’LL BE RIGHT BACK!”

The ladies smiled and thanked him, mentioning how he was such a polite boy. Basil looked to Hero who was completely awestruck. 

“Well, I guess it works for him.” Hero said.

Later that night, after Sunny had screamed at many customers, most of which were taken aback but maintained a polite nature, they were all rolling silverware when Simone announced she had made over 200 dollars. Counting his own, he was pleased to have broken 100 himself, though it wasn’t anything like Simone. 

Aubrey had made closer to seventy and Hero had a terrific day and beat Samone which seemed to make her wilt a little. Sunny counted his and had made ninety. After screaming at everyone.
It was incredible. 

“Good job!” Basil beamed at him, patting his shoulder a little. “I’m so happy for you! You did better than me on my first day!”

“Thank you.” Sunny said back. “It was.” He paused, thinking. “Nice. It was alright.”

Later, as everyone began closing their jobs and sweeping their rooms, he had been blessed with an easy job of filling up the cheeses. This meant he finished before anyone so he decided to be helpful to Sunny who had to do the bathrooms. Basil tied the last trashbag and began to head towards the dumpster, swinging the bag over his shoulders and stepping into the night. The air was growing warmer at night and this evening, there was a significant lack of clouds in the sky, but the stars were interrupted from the lights of the corner of town Rosso’s was situated on.

“Hey, Basil.”
He turned quickly and saw the dishwasher, Pat, wave him down. He looked to Pat, then the dumpster, and back to Pat.

“One sec!” He cheered, throwing the bag inside and walking towards him. When he got near, Pat grew quiet.

“You got five bucks I can borrow?”

“Oh, yeah, sure… here.” He replied, fishing a five from his server book. 

“Thanks man. You know I just got no friends around here.”

Basil gripped his hands on the sides of his apron, confused to what Pat was trying to say. 

“We aughta hangout sometime, you seem cool. Do you smoke?”

“Oh, no… I’m sorry.” He chuckled nervously, now realizing what was happening and what the five dollars was likely going towards. Pete had likely asked more than just him for a ‘simple five dollars’.

“Oh it’s alright. Why not though? You ever smoked before?”

“N-No, no. It’s not really my thing.” He winced. “Sorry…”

“You apologize too much. I’ll tell you what. It’s harmless, it doesn’t hurt ya. But if you ever need anything just let me know you know. I’m a chill guy.” He looked him up and down. “And I know you’ve been ‘round the block. I’m just lookin for some friends or people who may know someone who I can hang with. I just moved here from Ohio and I got nothing better to do. You know where Cincinnati is?”

“Oh… no.”

“It’s like probably twelve hours or so south from here.” THEN WHY WOULD HE KNOW WHERE THAT WAS!?

“Ah, I see.”

“Yeah, I got the nieces down there. Haven’t seen them in awhile. I’ll show you a picture tomorrow. I gotta leave my phone here. The old lady gets all weird so I told her I broke it.” He laughed. “Say you know I might need a ride tomorrow from work do you work?”

He thought for a moment. Ellen hadn’t really given him a schedule yet. “Yes, I think so.”

“Alright. Maybe you can stop by I’m cooking some ham. I do it for the neighborhood, you feel me? Me and my old lady cook for all the kids that run around and whatnot. I’m always trying to get some people from here to stop by but they never turn up. Where you from? Are you from here?”

He nodded. 

“That’s kinda what I thought. You seem the type. I know everyone, you know I was the head cook down at Locomoes for a while. This job is so easy and for the same pay. And the boss doesn’t suck.” He laughed again and there was a wave of alcohol floating in the air. “Well make sure you come tomorrow, when are you off?”

He had a feeling he probably shouldn’t actually tell him that answer but it was too late, he was already spilling information from panic. “Um, around eightish.”

“Oh cool, cool. Me too. Hey tell you what. Bring you and your friends over tomorrow if you can give me a ride anyway, just chill out there for a little. We got a nice back yard.”

“O-Okay…” He stuttered.

He was really confused on where any of it was coming from as well as the block statement. Though, there was a curiosity that had taken precedence over his head. He bit it back, thanked Pete for… his offer, and headed back inside. It felt like one of those “ Hey kid, wanna buy some drugs.” awareness commercials mixed in with “Stranger Danger!” public service announcements. Restaurants. This was one thing Hero didn’t warn him about working there.

As he returned inside and washed his hands, he wondered if the curiosity would wear off and if perhaps he could just somehow settle back into something like normality. The pale fluorescents above him hummed with life as he wandered back up the stairs, stiff and uncomfortable.

Chapter Text

He grimaced as coach Peterson walked in. He had a lazy eye and that made his presence worse, by the way. Way worse. Kel could never tell if he was watching him or the wall on the other side of the gym. In fact, sometimes coach P would remind… hold up.
There would be none of that, no nicknames. Nicknames symbolized friendliness, a level that this man would never reach. He was too suspicious.

Or at least, it was hilarious to treat the situation that way. Hero told him he needed to chill out because their mom was beginning to groan every time he brought up the new assistant coach. 

“You all did pretty good today.” Coach D said, wiping his dirty hands on a rogue cloth. 

“But.” Coach Peterson butted in. “There was a lot of tomfoolery occurring during the third quarter.”

They had played a mock game to show Coach Peterson where they were at with all their practicing and skills. Coach D seemed impressed, almost tearing up. Coach Peterson did not. His face was so stern that his wrinkles looked like they were made out of steel. 

“Seniors. You lost the big game this year. There was an improvement, so you should be proud. You’ve left your brothers with hope. Let's not lose that during the break from practice. Next year, we’re going to win. It’s been too long. Nobody even seems to go to these games anymore.”
Some guy was crying while looking straight ahead, that some guy being Jordan. Kel couldn’t tell if it was because he was disappointed in himself or, if by some weird twist of events, he was inspired by these harsh words.
“Work hard during the break. Drink lots of water, aim for a gallon a day. Run in the mornings. Eat healthy meals. I better see you all practicing. Have a good break.”

He left the school feeling slightly demotivated but he wasn’t sure why. For a solid forth of the season he had to sit out with a broken arm, then he returned to a new structure. He prayed the fun wouldn’t be stripped from this. It was exactly what had happened in soccer. For a while, soccer was fun, exciting, and rewarding. Their team was pretty good too, beating out a lot of the smaller schools and a couple of the bigger ones. They never did beat the South end nor did they ever beat the city people. Then, when he moved to high school soccer, it all changed. The guys were jerks, most of them, the couch didn’t care about the freshman at all, and it seemed like joking around was a sin. No one in that department had any sense of humor.

“Hey Kel,” Jordan walked over to him, his green eyes bulging. “You’re not going to believe this.”

“What?”

“Another new principal.”

Kel shrugged as they walked together. “Oh yeah, I heard that already. That’s been a thing for awhile now.”

Jordan seemed deflated after hearing his news were stale. “Hmm. Alright. What’s ya got going on tonight?”

“I was trying to see if Sunny wanted to come hangout but his grandpa is apparently too passionate about a documentary again. Sunny said it’s driving his dad insane.”

“Oh okay, that’s good. Mind if I come over for a little bit? I don’t have anything going on tonight.”

“Sure.”

The mood lightened when they got in the car and away from the school. The day had dragged on horrifically. First he had gotten there too late to hangout with anyone, then on his way to second lunch, he’d been caught and sent back into Home Ec, then Bebe, who was apparently on good terms with Michael again, began sharing details about some date he took her on (that his mom definitely paid for), and then at the end of the day he third wheeled to Aubrey and all of her friends who seemed to excited about something for him to really barge in. He tried asking Basil but he was just as lost.
Then they had to go home and he had to go to practice with none other than-

“Mr. Peterson seems awesome! I don’t get why you were so freaked out.” Jordan beamed.

“Get out.” He said, pointing at the passenger door.

“Huh?”

“I’m joking.” Kel laughed. “He’s not that bad actually.”

“I think he’s rough and tough enough to get everyone to focus. That’s a good thing at least. Maybe now Cale will stop being annoying.”

“Definitely. And yeah, it’s starting to get old.”

“Oh definitely. Maybe we will even luck out and they’ll boot ‘em. We don’t need guys like him.”

Kel pulled into his driveway. The lights from the windows poured out onto the cement of the driveway and coated them in orange.
“So Jordan, when you get inside, do you mind if you ask my mom for something to eat? Like a dessert or something?”

“Um… sure, why?” Jordan asked, not seeming too concerned about it at all. 

“Because I want dessert and she’ll tell me no.”

“You can’t just like, go grab it yourself?”

“ Pleaaase? ”

“Fine.” He huffed.

Their door was always left unlocked and when he stepped inside, Hero looked over from the couch and raised a finger to his mouth. Then, Jordan slammed the door behind them which caused some of the glass on the side table to rumble. Wincing, Hero let out a shush and pointed upstairs.
Sally’s sleeping, he mouthed. 

“The baby is asleep.” Kel said to Jordan. “Let’s get upstairs. Hero.” He redirected his attention. 

“What?”

“Can you make me something sweet?”

“What? Er. Sure?”

They crept up the stairs and Kel softly shut the door behind him, stomach ready for whatever Hero was going to make. Their mother was likely in the room with their dad and Sally relaxing so there wouldn’t be a lot of worry about her grumbling about how he’d forgotten ( conveniently) to do the dishes.

“What’s that?” Jordan asked, inspecting a trophy on the wall.

“Hot dog eating contest.” Kel nodded as he sat on his bed and kicked off his shoes without untying them. “I participated.”

“Oh, that’s cool.” Jordan muttered, eyes tracing to the game system.

“Wanna play? That one’s Sunny’s, he let me borrow it. Pretty neat isn’t it? It’s one of the newest additions! His parents are both trying to buy him over I think, he’s got something new every time I see him.”

“Really?” Jordan asked. “Wish that were me.” He wouldn’t if he only knew. “They’re a bunch of sticklers.”

The thing was, his parents were definitely not a bunch of sticklers. Jordan had his own workshop, bedroom, and bathroom, they had a kitchen island with a sink in it, their house had an elevator, a pool table room, and a poker room. The only thing lacking was a swimming pool but they made up for that with the hot tub in the main suit. The issue was more that Jordan was a little spoiled. Still, he always seemed bored by everything. Kel wondered if he had everything, if he’d be bored too. Sunny wasn’t like that. He was so grateful but he never really showed it on his face. It was just a vibe. A feeling of sorts. 

“So is he coming back next year?” Jordan asked as he turned on the gaming station.

“Huh?” Kel said, still wrapped in his head. “Oh, yeah I think so. It seems promising though to tell you the truth, his dad is better at keeping him focused and his grandpa is better at inspiring him. At least that’s what he told me.”

“Oh. Okay.” Jordan said, not super invested in the conversation. Still, Kel wanted to talk about it. 

“But yeah, I think he’ll be okay.”

“I’m sure he will.” 

“His grandpa is pretty proud of his art. It’s nothing insane, as Sunny puts it, but it has a unique style to it. I think that’s what got him to win.”

“Eh. Yeah probably. Not many people do that kind of art competition thing anymore in the schools.”

Mildly annoyed at the downplay of Sunny’s achievement, Kel plopped down and silently selected his character. Today, he was going to be Bowser. Jordan played as Toad. They ran around the track together, fighting for first place, but losing to the machine in the end. 

“So did you ever hear anything back about your friend’s house?” Jordan asked, the screen reflecting off his glasses as he searched for a different map.

“No.” He replied. He was actually disappointed about that. This whole time they had been focused on so much that they’d all but forgotten to really look into who did it. Deep in everyone’s chest, they knew who, but Basil was weird about it. He didn’t want to do a thing in response to it. The cops had been there but he had decided not to open a case or press any charges. It fizzled out completely and just weighed on everyone in the background while they focused on what was in front of them. Which was a lot.

“Oh that sucks.” 

The numbers counted down from three. Two. One.
They were off, speeding through the lanes. Kel had gone too fast and blew out almost immediately. 

“Yeah. It really bugs me. I just don’t how someone could go and do that to him.”

“Mmm. Yeah. I think it was one of the yearbook committee girls.”

“Huh?” Kel took his eyes off the screen, Mario no longer an interest. “Why do you say that? Do you know something?”

Jordan maintained a fixed gaze on the TV. “No but I know they all pick on him in there. I have classes with a couple of them. Does he lie a lot?”

“What?”

“Like lie, a lot. You know? Like something will happen and he’ll tell you a completely different chain of events.”

“Um. Not really, I’m.” He paused, confused. 

The door swung open and Hero sauntered in with ice cream. “Sorry it took me so long. Mom’s got me hooked on this show.”

The same show he’d watched after work almost daily. 

“Ew. You’re still watching that garbage?” Kel asked, taking a bowl of ice cream from him. There were fried churros on the side. The best part. 

“You’re just upset you missed the last three episodes.” Hero taunted, handing another bowl to Jordan.

“Thank you.” 

“You’re welcome. What are you two doing?”

“Just playing a game.” Jordan answered for him, though he made it sound like it was the most boring activity of his life. Kel wondered why he wanted to come over in the first place.

“Well don’t stay up too late, you have school in the morning.” Hero said, looking mainly at Kel. 

“Thanks mom.” Kel groaned. 

“You’re welcome son. While I’m in here-” Hero began to pinch his cheek which brought on a whirlwind of embarrassment.

“Stop! What’s your deal? Why do you always gotta do me like that?”

Hero gave him a very unapologetic frown. “Goodnight, I’ll be up later, the commercial break is probably done. Night night!”

He had to sit with himself for a moment after that nightmare. Hero never ceased to be the most embarrassing creature to walk the Earth. 

“I’m pretty sure I got an A-”

“So back to-”

“Oh.”

“Sorry, go ahead.” Kel sighed, not caring at all about Jordan’s A in class. He only half listened, but was listening more for room to return to their prior conversation. Fortunately, Jordan didn’t seem to take notice of this. 

“... What were you gonna say?”

“We were talking about Basil and the girls from journalism?” He said.

“Oh yeah. That’s pretty much it.” Jordan shrugged. 

“Huh? I’m so confused.”

“Me too.”

“Let’s start from the top. You said they pick on him. Why?”

“I dunno.” Jordan shrugged. “He’s pretty quiet but he mutters to himself sometimes which, not to be rude or anything, but it’s kinda off putting.”

“I’m going to have to say something…”

“I wouldn’t.” Jordan shoved another spoonful of ice cream into his mouth. “You guys are always blowing it way out of proportion. That’s why it just gets worse. It’s drama, everyone wants to be a part of drama.”

He was in complete shock at that sentence. If it was just drama, it wouldn’t have turned out the way it did. Breaking into someone’s house wasn’t drama, that was crime. Literal crime.

“Most people don’t got a problem with him. He’s just kind of on the sidelines you know?”

“You know something.” Kel narrowed his eyes, suddenly growing frustrated. “What are you hiding, Jordan?”

“Nothing.” He frowned. 

“Come on.” He kicked his legs in front of him and leaned back to look at the ceiling. “You know, they’re all good friends. All of them. Even Aubrey. They all seem to do so much for each other and I want to do just as much.”

Jordan sighed, sat his bowl down, and took off his glasses. “Look man. I’ll tell you but it’s not much and don’t go making a scene because my girlfriend will kill me-”

“Carrie knows about this!?” Kel asked, his face bending inwards. 

Jordan rolled his eyes, clearly annoyed. “I told you Kel, if you say anything I’ll literally kill you. I mean that. Anyways, if you must know, Carrie asked me if you were friends with him because I guess they were all giggling about something right before it all happened. I don’t know, she said they were talking about how so and so was weird and deserved it because of what they did. Apparently something someone spread around. Know anything about that?”

“Why did you not tell me.” He asked, a wave of sadness crawling towards him.

“That’s why I am here now.” Jordan replied, not seeming to feel the weight of everything. “What did he do? Who is they?”

So that was why he came over. 

“You seriously came here just to do that?”

“Do what?”

“Dude, go home. He didn’t do anything. Sunny didn’t do anything. Tell Carrie that too. If you actually care about not making things worse or whatever.”

“Huh?” Jordan was taken aback. “I’m not just here to get information. Jeez dude.” He put his glasses back on and began grabbing his stuff. “All I’m saying is I’m worried, you know? Either he’s nuts, your nuts, or they’re nuts. I’m sure they just thought they were being funny. No one would have done something like that if they knew he was going to do what he did.” He paused, face contorting as he looked into the ground. He opened his mouth to speak but must have thought better about it because he muttered goodnight and left the room. Kel listened as his footsteps wandered down the stairs and as Hero asked him what was up.
Jordan lived on the other side of town. It was likely Hero was going to be roped into being a taxi.

He felt back later on when he went to bed about doing that to Jordan. He didn’t mean to grow frustrated that quickly, but the height of the situation had reached its peak and Jordan’s weird interest in gathering information constantly had no business within the confinements of friends. Though, looking back, Jordan did spend a lot of his time talking about other people a lot. Still, he hadn’t actually actively done anything wrong. He was curious, just as anyone else would be. Though one thing he had said did make Kel wonder. When he mentioned everyone wanted to be in drama, was he saying that because that was the way he, himself, thought? When he was upset to talk about what Carrie knew but then spilled everything, was it out of friendship and trust or was it all just a way to pretend?

He had no clue. That was what Aubrey was for. He’d ask her.

Chapter Text

“Are you dumb?” She asked, genuinely wondering. The look on his face solidified it. Any moment now she was sure he’d start drooling with an empty look in his eyes.

“What? Come on Aubrey, I'm not playing around.” Kel shot back. The two of them stood in the hall just outside of the cafeteria that afternoon. 

She rubbed her face, forgetting she had put on eyeliner. “God does it ever end? Ever? I was just going to ask you how Sunny’s doing, he hasn’t called in a few days.”

“He’s alright,” Kel answered. “Apparently his family has kept him busy. He told me he tries not to pay them too much attention because his dad now thinks he’s running a bed and breakfast.”

She nodded. “He said all that?”

“Yeah? Well, kind of. He mostly just mumbled it all.”

They began walking back together, opening the heavy doors into the cafeteria and heading towards the table. Next to them, classmates were bustling with morning energy, talking, laughing, screaming. 

“How come he talks to you? I usually only get a couple words out of him at most. I don’t even think Basil’s been able to have a full conversation with him in weeks.”

Kel shrugged. “I dunno. We just talk. How’s he been at work?”

“He’s only worked with us once and he was either screaming at the customers or mumbling so quietly they couldn’t hear him.” She replied as they sat back down at the table. That reminded her, she’d have to work today. 

“Who? Sunny?” Basil chimed in. 

“Yeah.” She answered shortly. She wasn’t sure if he’d even want to be a part of the conversation.

“He’s doing pretty good at work!” Basil hummed. 

“Yeah.” She accidentally repeated.

She glanced at him and he was watching her carefully. Clearing her throat, she now wondered if perhaps a lot of things he said really were fabrications of the truth. Not wanting to think about it on the chances it would show on her face, she moved to another topic.

“So, are you guys all excited for that trip Sunny’s dad was talking about?”

“Huh?” Kim asked. She’d forgotten that the vast majority of people sitting at the table weren’t invited. 

“Oh, just something with Sunny.” She said, brushing that topic off too. 

They never really told him anything, not to keep him out of it, but because he seemed like he was fine without knowing. Weirdly enough, it actually seemed like he didn’t want to know. She had tried briefly bringing up the topic, but he had no interest in it. Just said everything was fine at school now and things were good. 

A couple of months had rolled by, and for the most part, she figured things were better. That everyone was still getting along, that Sunny had somewhat started speaking a little more, and that Basil and Kel had even started hanging out, sort of. It was nice to see such a sudden change, though she hoped it wasn’t a temporary thing. Even though everything was alright, she had found herself unable to sleep at night, even after an awesome time with any of her friends. She could be at the movies with Kim and Vance but worry about returning home, or she could be at the comic shop with the others and wonder how long things were going to stay that way. The sky was growing bluer every morning, birds had returned to build their nests and sing to the heavens, and flowers had started to bloom in patches around the neighborhood.

The mornings were dewey, cold, and cloudy, but by afternoon the sun would shine and warm everything ever so slightly.
At the end of the month, May, it would be her birthday. 

Aubrey dragged the brush through her hair that morning, the balls in the bristles having broken off and left behind a sharp edge. Even then, it was a hassle every morning getting it to go through her hair. The roots of her brown were trinkling to her temples now and she had to fight the urge to dye it daily. 

Work. It was supposed to be fun, but now it just felt dumb. Distracting.
Money was needed though. There’d be no bumming in this house, she’d had enough of that garbage.
She left the bathroom and entered the kitchen, reminding herself to water the plants. She’d been watering them every week or so and it didn’t seem like Basil had been taking good care of them. She filled the small yellow watering can with lukewarm water and pulled a chair from the table to water the one on the fridge. She stood up, the legs wobbling unevenly below her and began to pour the water in.

“Um… Aubrey.” Basil said from behind her. 

“Hold on, can’t you see I’m busy?” She sighed, more at herself than at him.

“We… Well yeah but… what…” He was stammering enough that she lowered her arm and glanced over at him. He was watching her with uncertainty, eyeing her, the can, and the plant. Growing mildly irritated that he was even trying to say anything given he hadn’t even done anything to help the plants in general, she threw her arms up.

“What? What is it now?”

He paused and looked around, lost. “Why are you watering that?” 

“Because? It never gets watered?”

“How… how long have you been doing that?” He asked, rolling his lips inward. 

“What? I don’t know, a few months? Since I moved in? You don’t water them.”

He glanced at the ground, looking a little hurt on being called out about Plant Neglect. “Yeah… I’m sorry. But.”

“Basil what is it?” She was growing impatient. 

“That plant. On the fridge.”

“Yeah?”

He spoke slowly, gently. In one of those annoying kind of ways. “It’s fake. It’s a fake plant. It’s not real.”

“Huh!?” She spun her head back to inspect it as he snickered. It certainly looked real. Why did he have fake plants anyway? They had so many real ones, what on earth did they need a fake one for? She wanted to touch the leaves but was too proud. 

“Oh. Okay. Yeah, I see it.” She said, not actually seeing it. He held the chair as she got off and took it back to the table, still smiling to himself as if he had just cracked some kind of ancient code.

“Thank you though. For taking care of them.”

“Yep.” She was so embarrassed she couldn’t even bring herself to take his appreciation. That had to be one of the worst moments since moving in. It was almost as bad as when she tried to kidnap the TV and he got all worked up about moving stuff but didn’t say anything for a month until it slipped out. Or when he started griping, passive-aggressively at that, about the hair ties she’d swiped that he didn’t even need or use.

Then again, she had been bothered by his weird habits too. Like the whole house slipper thing or the having to keep all of the blankets in the ottoman in the living room at all times thing.
Ah. Roommates.
She had tried hard the entire time to be a good roommate, to not be a huge pain in the rear since she kind of just invited herself to move in, but truthfully, it was impossible to tell when something irritated him because he wouldn’t tell her until it had bothered him for ages.

“Braid?”

“Um… so I can’t find any hair clips. Aubrey.”

“I just gave them all back to you! Plus all you need is a hair tie.” She crossed her arms, now growing incredibly irritated. If he had just asked her earlier she would have looked for them. “You’re the one wearing them around the house.”

“I always put them back.” He said proudly. “In the drawer.

“I can guarantee I’d find them in your room. Not mine. I don’t even wear them!”

He gave her a solemn look. “I put them in your hair yesterday before work.”

“ Fine. I’ll go look. You don’t have to braid it I’ll just throw it up.”

“N-No! It’s alright. I don’t mind.”

But what if he did? What if that was going to be another one of those things that he’d harbor a deep hatred for but would refuse to actually do anything about?

“Just make sure you hurry, we only have a few more minutes until Polly gets here.”

She went to her room and rummaged in her bag for any evidence of hair pins. Upon opening it, she’d made a mistake. Sure enough, there they were. Some in the pockets, some just laying out. One was even in her server book pocket when she unzipped it. 

“Damn it.” She muttered. She wondered if she should just hide them in his room so he’d feel like an idiot blaming her for taking them all. He’d have no idea.

But. She wasn’t going through the hassle to do that. Grabbing a hair tie and swiftly collecting the brush from the bathroom, she sat down on the couch and handed them to him. 

“So.” He said, grabbing a strand and brushing through it the best he could. “Kel’s picking us up?”

“Hero doesn’t work on Wednesdays.” She answered. “He wanted to come over for a bit tonight. Bring Sunny with him and all.”

“Oh, I see.” There was silence as he tucked her strands back. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Shoot.”

“Do you think Sunny likes Kel more?”

She frowned, though he couldn’t see her. “What? Basil what’s wrong with you? Why are you asking that?”

He chuckled. “I was just wondering. Is all. They just seem to always hangout and stuff.”

She couldn’t tell if this was one of those moments where she needed to let down her guard or if she needed to build it up. 

Building a response took effort. In a sense, she was worried either way would lead to disaster. 

“Well, we hangout together more than they do, and that doesn’t mean I like you more than them. We’re all friends.” 

Ughh. What was that? That just made it sound like she didn’t like him at all. Like a ‘well I spend a lot of time with you but you’re just a guy.’

“That’s true.” He said pleasantly, which was more hurtful than reassuring. She laughed, the ridiculousness of the situation making no sense.

He finished her braid and stepped back. “It looks nice.”

“Thanks.” 

Sunny didn’t work Wednesdays. Hero didn’t work Wednesdays. It was just her and Basil against the entire community. 

“What’s wrong?” She asked as he slapped butter on the bread at an ungodly speed.

“This lady is upset because she wanted it toasted on both sides but I forgot. But now she said the whole table…” He paused as he threw them on the grill. “...Wants refills and this guy keeps drinking all of his unsweet tea when I get back to them and she keeps glaring at me. Then they said more bread because they’d happily eat it all and I’m happy to get it but they just keep asking about it nonstop.”

“What drinks do you need?” She pulled out her book, not being particularly busy. Basil had gotten a table of fifteen but she had the one guy that always comes in and coughs on everybody. 

“Um… I… I don’t know. I’m busy, can we talk later?”

“I’m trying to help you. Idiot.” 

“Aubrey I really don’t know.” He was throwing the bread into the basket now and all she could do was watch as he sped out of the kitchen and to his table.

“I hate that lady.”
She turned around, it was Sarah. Her long brown ponytail was perfect, and not pink and crunchy. “She’s a bitch. She made Mia cry the other day.”

“Huh!?” Mia walked over hearing her name. “Talking shit?”

“No, I was telling her about that lady with the bumps on her face.”

“Oh yeah. Fuck that bitch.” Mia nodded. She was around Aubrey’s age, but went to South after being kicked from the closer school. 

“Oh God. And Basil’s got her…” Aubrey said mostly to herself.

“Good luck with that. ” Sarah laughed. “She called in today I guess and demanded where to sit and asked for two servers. For a group of 15!”

“Oh jeez.” 

“Yeah! Rudy said hell no. Imagine being that entitled!”

Sarah was very passionate about this, almost seeming pleased to go on about it all. Mia was a little dramatic herself, but it was obvious she didn’t take it as seriously. She just laughed and hyped Sarah up the entire time.

“Well, I’m gonna go find him I guess.” She said, motioning for the doorway.

“If you need anything let us know!” 

He was in the drink station, tight jawed, and filling an entire tray of drinks.
“Are you busy? Can you help me carry this?” He asked frantically, root beer overflowing onto his sleeve.

“Dude, why don’t you pull those up, they’re going to be sticky.” She motioned for his sleeve but he jumped away and grabbed cups off of the shelf.

“Here just. If you have time can you please fill these. Sweet tea and Dr. Pepper. One Pepsi WITH lemon. Please don’t forget the lemon.”

She met him back at the table where she came face to face with the lady. Outside of the dining room a doorbell was heard from the numbers that hung above the locker closet. Dinner was ready.

She sat the tray down and went back into the hall, picking up an empty salad bowl from the coughing guy as she went. It was, as anticipated, her number that was on. 

Quickly, she grabbed the spaghetti, plate hot.

“We had to microwave it.” Dorothy said. “Otherwise he’ll just send it back and say it isn’t hot enough.”

“Oh, thanks.” Aubrey said, throwing it on a tray and going back into the hall. The lights were dim as she traced her way to his table, the mirrors that lined the walls in their little window shutters making it seem like an endless journey.

They tipped Basil generously in the end, though it wasn’t really worth the emotional downpour it caused. She made four dollars off of coughing guy.

They stood in the back after work, the night not cold enough to warrant having to wait inside.

“Keeeeel, where are you.” She grumbled, peering around the corner. 

“A-Aubrey.” Basil stammered, almost whispering. 

“Yeah?”

“Can you… forget, what all I said. Earlier.” He smiled, but still looked a little sad. “I was overthinking things.”

“Sure.”

“Oh. They haven’t caught Fast Curtis yet.”

“Who? Oh, the rat.”

“Yeah. I look every time I’m there. No signs of him.”

Kel pulled up moments later, his music blaring through the closed windows. They scrambled into the back seat, Sunny already waiting for them.

“Sorry I’m late.” Kel said, screaming over the music instead of just turning it down. “Hero over here just had to spend an hour getting ready.”

“ No. You and Sunny wouldn’t get off the game.”

“Way to blow my cover.” 

“Seriously.” Aubrey said.

Hero nodded from the front. 

They piled into the living room and Kel extended his arms. “Gee Basil, you’re so lucky. You guys don’t got any adults here telling you what to do all the time.”

“I guess.” He laughed, slipping off his shoes and heading towards the back of the house. “I’m going to go change. Do you all mind taking off your shoes?”

“Oh, er, yeah. Sorry about that.”

She went to her own room, slipped into some comfortable sweatpants and a hoodie. Begrudgingly slid house shoes over the fuzzy socks, and headed back into the living room. Already, Kel, Sunny, and Hero were laying out snacks and messing with the TV.

“You ready to have your mind blown?” Kel asked. Sunny made a small explosion gesture.

“What.”

“Get ready for…… NIGHT OF THE LEPUS!!”

“The what?”

“Just sit down.” He pushed the tape into the VCR, motioning for everyone to gather. 

“Wait, aren’t you going to wait for Basil?”

“Oh yeah. BASIL HURRY UP IT’S MOVIE TIME!” He called out, pausing it. “Sorry, I just know you’re gonna love this!”

Chapter Text

“I don’t miss it. Not in the slightest.”

Hero was sitting on his bed, speaking more about college than he truthfully was about high school. Kel sat across from him, on the floor for some reason, arms stretched behind him as they spoke.

“I can’t wait to graduate.” He said, shaking his head as he stared past him. “It’s driving me nuts.”

“Yeah.” 

Hero pushed his hair back and cracked his knuckles which created a chain reaction as Kel cracked his as well. Kel would like college. It was less stress of friendships, less worrying about girls, and more freedom. That was, if he didn’t get involved with a ton of people. People in college were different from high school. No one wanted to sit three hours through a lecture so when it was over, people were prone to either milling off until their next class, running to lunch, or going home. Everyone was tired, overworked, overscheduled, and on the weekends, they’d let loose and enjoy drinks with their friends.
Not Hero though, he wasn’t much of a partier. There was truthfully no time to even do that. Between clubs, tutoring, studying, not having the money to buy a pizza, wanting to sleep, needing to shower, needing to exercise, dealing with Steven, messy dorm, and standing outside for an hour every couple of week because someone pulled the fire alarm, he had found himself with no extra time for hanging out.
It had its pros. People thought he was amazing, smart, gifted even. How was he able to juggle it all? He made great grades too. Now, whenever he even thought about it, his stomach dropped and he’d find himself dreading the next time he had to step foot in there.

Which coincidentally was over two months ago. He didn’t drop out. He just didn’t go.
As far as their mother knew, he had taken time to restructure himself because spring was the worst time to join due to the weirdness of graduating in the spring instead of the fall.

And every day he looked at her. When she’d smile or pat him on the back and ensure she was just so proud, he’d feel that emptiness swarm with guilt and hang low in his gut.

Which was why he was going to try to make up the homework and somehow pass the classes. Which wasn’t going to happen. He only had three days.
Then he’d just have to take summer classes. Maybe squeeze clinicals in with-

“Earth to Hero. Hello?” Kel stared at him expectantly. “Did you hear anything I just said?”

“Not a word. Sorry.” He smiled.

Kel sighed. “I said, do you have any money I could borrow. I have to go get Aubrey something for her birthday. Should I get her a gift card to a hair person or something?”

“That’s so insulting. Why would you do that?”

“Yeah… yeah you’re right.” Kel nodded in agreement, somehow not realizing what that was implying. “I don’t even know what to get her. She’s so weird. She doesn’t really play games… so no games. She doesn’t read, she doesn’t garden. She just likes to like. Dye her hair… and gossip… and paint her nails and stuff.”

“Yeah… she’s a girl Kel.” Hero laughed. “Why don’t you get her something like a pair of headphones or… hey! Let’s get her a phone!”

“Those are expensive.” 

“Not really, not the flip ones.”

“Oh, right. What’s she going to do with that? Oooh… She does like to talk a lot.” He grinned, knowing this time what he was saying. 

“Oh… kay, just don’t say that to her when you give it to her.”

And so they were off, browsing the phone section, minding their own business, when out of the blue, Kel began losing it.

“Hero, we gotta go. Code red… CODE RED.”
And without any further statement, comment, or hint as to what was happening, he took off towards the sewing aisle.

And, truthfully, Hero didn’t think anything of it until a familiar figure turned the corner. 

“HEY! Hero!”

No.

NO.NO.NO.

It was none other, than their cousin, their dreaded cousin who lived in literally Arizona, Bruce.

Now Bruce wasn’t a terrible guy. In fact, he was incredibly nice and very caring to the people around him. The issue with Bruce was that he couldn’t read the room, dominated conversations, and when you would try to escape or end the conversation… or GOSH even get ONE word in, he would just talk louder at an uncontrollable pace.

“We came in to visit you guys! Don’t tell your mom though, it’s this huge surprise. Haha! She’s gonna freak out! Looks like you got yourself a new roommate for a little bit, good thing your house is so spacious! I thought I saw Kel? Was he running?”

Of course he’d be in this situation. Thanks Kel. Thanks.

“Oh, he was really excited about… the… Sewing! He’s really gotten into sewing lately. You should ask him about it. Immediately. The second you see him.”

Bruce clenched his brows, as confused as anyone would be when someone was lying straight to their face, but shrugged it off and began trailing the phones. “Yeah, well hey! Did I tell you that I graduated!”

Oh yep. There it was. Cousin Bruce. Always winning. Even if his degree was in-

“Yep. It’s actually really hard to find a job with my liberal arts. Like I went to school for two years. I learned a lot of stuff man. I might go back though, I thought this would like, help me do something cool like publishing or something. I don’t really like the idea of working for anyone, I want my own company! You should get in on it man. It’s going to be awesome, I’m going to have people around town right stuff or make stuff then I’ll sell it for them. They don’t even gotta pay me a whole lot. But as it turns out, to run a business, you need hella money. Hey! You’re gonna be a doctor, you should lend me some!”

He continued to talking, but Hero could feel the conversation wade in and out despite his best attempts to follow through. The guy had told him so much in only the fraction of a second. 

Out of he corner of his eye he watched Kel peak his head from one of the aisles and begin gesturing to run. He snapped back at Bruce who was still speaking at lengths, trying not to find the hilariousness in the situation that was unfolding.

Lord, what if Bruce was going to try to infiltrate all of his plans? He’d have to make sure that wouldn’t happen. No one likes the new guy, even if he’s only there for a moment. Plus his hobbies were weird, no offense to him. They guy liked to party too, though that was also four years ago and he wasn’t really drinking, he was just downing Khool-Aid and pretending it was alcohol. He also really, really, reaaaally, was way too into the video making thing. They weren’t even funny, either, but he thought they were something. It was just painful, and his mom used to love those things. He’d post them to Facebook, get a couple likes, take that as a sign he was a misunderstood artist, and continue.

“You got a judgemental look on your face.” Bruce said.

“Huh. No, it’s not that,” He lied, again. He was really becoming terrible with it now. “I just have to use the bathroom really bad. Real fast, how long are you going to be in town? It’s good to see you! Also your idea sounds really neat, you’ll have to tell me more about it.” He said, not wanting to hear more about it. 

“Huh, oh yeah, trust me I’ve got this whole thing planned out.” He replied, not answering the most important part of what Hero had said. “I kind of want to work downtown. I want it to feel like when you walk in, some kind of old smoker guy lives there. There will be advertisements all over the windows and it will cost five bucks to keep it up there a month. Cheap, but with enough I’ll make a killing. I’ll even put companies I really like up there for free!”

“That’s really awesome!” Hero said, now desperate to change shifts with Kel. This was so unfair. Kel was over there dancing now and making complete fun of his misery while he had to listen to the dreams of someone who actually seemed to have an idea of what he wanted to do with his life.

And who would be sleeping in his room for an undetermined amount of time. 

“Why is he doing that?” Bruce asked. 

“What?”

“I can see him in the reflection. Is he okay?” 

Kel. Sweet Kel. There he was, indeed, on the round  security mirror on the pole.

“Oh! He’s fine. Wave to him and he’ll come over. He’s just going to try and sneak up on you later and freak you out. I kinda blew his cover, he wanted me to pretend like he went off to college and wasn’t home!”

Bruce waved. Kel missed this entirely and continued dancing. “Oh, that’s a good one. Is he in college?”

“No, he’s a junior. He’s getting close though. Makes me feel old.” Hero chuckled. “We’re just here to pick up a phone for our friend.”

“Oh, that’s nice of you.” He tightened his bun and began to scan them. “This one isn’t bad. I had to use it for a while when I broke mine. Well, actually mom broke mine, she threw it. I threw the house phone first though. She’s crazy when she’s mad.”

“Must run in the family.” He grabbed the one Bruce recommended, it was cheap and seemed to get the job done, and the wandered over to the counter. He slid it to the cashier who silently rang it up, probably because BRUCE was HOGGING THE AIR. 

“We’re just grabbing a few things then we’ll be over. It’s crazy how you can recognize someone so easily when you haven’t seen them in forever and you don’t see their face. You just realize it somehow. It’s like some kind of connection that draws you in.”

“You should write a book.”

“Working on it! I’ll have to tell you about it later, it’s not the best but I’m pretty proud of it… Is he going to come over here?”

“I’ll finish up here if you want to go talk to him.”

“Alright.”

He waited a few seconds, throwing the money on the counter and watching the mirror intently. Kel went to jump back in but it was too late. He’d been spotted by Bruce.
The unfortunate thing was that he likely would have enjoyed Bruce if it hadn’t been for Hero himself complaining about him. That seemed to influence him terribly because ever since he was a child, he’d hide and run away. Not even in a shy way, he was so obvious he was just trying to avoid a threat that it was insulting. 

“Thank you, have a nice rest of your day.” The sales associate said. 

“Ah, this is great.” He grabbed the back, smirking to himself. It was cruel and unusual, but funny all at once. Plus, it was important for Kel to form his own opinions without Hero jumping in the middle of it. It seemed he relied on him a lot for advice, which he realized looking back. From calling about his friends, talking about Cris, or even just running from Bruce in the middle of the grocery store, his opinions and view through life were put into what he believed were the trusted hands of his big brother.
He felt a little terrible that he’d created this weird mess, but he figured he could fix it easily. It would just require not growing irritated with Bruce throughout the entire however long.

“OH! YOU’RE HERE!” Their mom screamed, jumping from the couch and to her feet. “You should have told me, I’m in my robe and slippers! I don’t even have my lipstick on!”

“You look amazing as always!” Her sister, their aunt, said, rushing to her arms. 

“Come! Come see Sally! She’s got her grandpa’s red hair!”

“Alright! Alright I’m coming! We brought some groceries so we can have a good meal today!”

“Oh did you? Wow! Kel. Clean the dishes!”

Kel threw his hands in the air, not knowing why he was being targeted. She said it so sharply too, only to go back to smiling and cheering. 

“Let’s go.” Hero said, already starting to the kitchen. “Good things require work sometimes.”

“Yeah. I guess. Or you could just do them and I won’t have to do anything but eat good food!”

He slapped the back of Kel’s head. 

“What? I’m just sayin!”

Chapter Text

Reading Music

No one even bothered telling Sunny that music was the gateway to Heaven. Seriously, he could sit there for hours listening and imagining a full music video to go with it. Vivid details, aerial silks, full militias, battling between life and death.

Anime was the same. The same thing. 

However. This came with its own string of issues.
The first issue, was now he had to miss something when he was slamming his head into schoolwork.
The second issue was he was avoiding his friends not out of hatred but because it felt so good to relax with some good media.

The third issue was the worst though. Now, he found it nearly impossible not to stay out of his head. His characters had all powered up, monsters became way more fascinating, powers that suspiciously resembled Dragon Ball or Hunter x Hunter began to creep up, and now. Well now, to put it shortly. He was screwed. 

What had once started as a misdirected attempt at coping (and damaging one in hindsight), had turned into a hobby. Though, perhaps that wasn’t much different than it was before.
Now, he got off the phone sooner so he could just go back to wherever. Now, his dreams when he did fall asleep were more vivid than they had been in the last six months or so.
Almost a year. Insanity.

How would one not want to pretend they were the coolest nen user or the strongest fighter? How would they not want to imagine different planets, befriending their favorite characters, fighting alongside the likes of Captain Spaceboy himself, or Gon, or even Ging. Heaven’s arena? Its top floor creeping upwards towards Otherworld, creatures lurking there now having a new place to try out their abilities, make some money, or even swoon over some of the ladies.

He even saw on one of the online forums that there was an arc the author was working on where the characters went inside of a video game. Literally, Heaven.

The mix of media made it possible to separate himself from the lingering memories of the previous world. The one where nothing changed. Where Captain Spaceboy wouldn’t stop chasing after a deformed donut. The one that always brought him right back to where he started it all. 

His friends, all aged up, crazy powerful after grinding and murdering weird bunnies.

He jumped when a knock rasped at his door. 

“Sunny? You in there?” It cracked open, his father not waiting for a reply. “Oh, there you are. It’s so quiet in here.”

That was supposed to be a joke. Obviously. He grinned.

“Hey, I thought you were going out tonight.”

He stopped grinning. Not a joke. That was not a joke.

“Oh, yeah.” He murmured, remembering speech was an option after a moment of awkward silence. 

“Okay… what are you doing then?”

“Sitting here.”

“Exactly. Take a shower and go.”

So he took a shower and went. Kind of. Now he was outside and confused. How did that work so effectively? Why was he just standing there? Where was he going?

“Sunny, what the hell?” His dad barked out the door. “Go!”

“Where!?”

“To. The car. Why are you in the middle of the street?”

On second thought, maybe consuming copious amounts of TV and music and then daydreaming about them for hours wasn’t Heaven. He got in and his dad joined him. 

“Are you alright? What’s going on with you?”

He thought for a minute. There was no way to say what the issue was and even if there was, he wasn’t going to say it. Fortunately his father picked up on this fact and sighed. 

“I’m just glad you finished your schoolwork. At this rate you're ahead of your classes. We’ll keep going until you graduate, if you go at this pace you might get out before your friends even do.”

What his dad did not know, was that Sunny’s phone came in great handy when it came to cheating on assignments. What his dad also did not know, was his grandpa also helped him cheat on pretty much everything. Another thing his dad didn’t know about was Sunny hardly understood what he was learning. He had a vague idea, but if that was enough to get out of the school system he wasn’t going to complain.
You know who was going to complain? Basil.
Basil was absolutely going to murder him if he didn’t join him senior year. There was no doubt about it. He would find some kind of way to get him cornered into a room and pour acid on him or something. No doubt, not one. It was actually kind of scary. 

“Basil’s again, right?”

He nodded. 

But what the hell. It was fine. He was sure it would all patch up. Somehow. Probably not actually. There would likely be a grudge there for eternity if he didn’t find a way to tell his dad he wanted to go to regular school and pass regular school. 

“I want to go to regular school and pass regular school.” He said.

“Why? And why did you say it like that?” His dad laughed.

Great. Another question. This man was an enigma. Why was it he could convey what he meant so easily? On another note, did he even really want to go back to that? Absolutely not. Not in a million years. He would though, he’d stick it out for his friends. Plus, seeing them was really the only reason he’d even want to go there in the first place. 

“The experience.” He decided on. He felt it was actually a pretty intelligent response. It sounded like something some kind of wistful character would say in the rain when someone asked them why they chose some life-altering journey that ended up almost killing them.

“I don’t know Sunny. I don’t know if you can handle it. Do you think you can? If you do, I’ll let you.”

He put on his best confident face and nodded violently, which hurt his neck a little. There was truly no hope for him.

“...Alright…” His dad said, weirded out. 

He was so lucky he had friends. If he had moved, he wondered if that would have even been possible.
Or maybe, it would have been easier. 

It didn’t really matter though, he was where he needed to be. 

They stopped in front of the house and he jumped out, waving goodbye at his dad. In his hands was a little pink bag with a bow attached to it. His mother recommended a real bow, one she could wear in her hair. 

The warmth of spring had won over the heart of the soil, which felt like a sponge when he stepped on it, the mud sinking into his converse. Never wear converse after it rains. 

“Bye.” His dad said.
Only he was going to watch him the entire time until he got inside. Then he’d sit there for an equally uncomfortable amount of time until he would eventually decide he needed to drive off. For how weird he thought his son was, he was really weird himself. 

“Bye.” Sunny called back.

The end of March. How about that. 

It was also the last week Kel and Hero’s cousins were in town. They had not realized the plot of land where that family parked their cars was cursed. They were hoping their car would be fixed by the end of the first week. It was now going on almost a month. 

Hero wasn’t very happy about it, but Kel had actually seemed pretty excited. 

When he stepped in, everyone seemed happy to see him. Aubrey was in high spirits and ran up to him, wrapping her arms around him briefly before removing herself and throwing whatever she was holding in her hand at Kel. 

The house was completely decked out, confetti, ribbons, cake, and… people. So many people.

“Kim! Let’s take a picture! Basil, will you take a picture for us?”

Basil gave a little wave towards Sunny before awkwardly stepping around the cat and table to take the photo. 

He wasn’t sure what he was expecting. Hospital Birthday had to be the worst case scenario if he could ever think of one, but a ton of people in the house, some who used to be bullies, was a pretty close tie. 

Today was Aubrey’s seventeenth birthday. She held herself with her chin up, but Sunny couldn’t help but notice she looked a little sad. Her roots had grown out, reaching almost her cheekbones. She wasn’t wearing her contacts still, so the darkness of her eyes seemed to show a lot more depth than the coldness of the blue.
The picture was taken, but now she called out to others who began joining in for another photo. Kel barged in, nearly taking out Angel who was about to throw a fist until Kim caught it. Michael was once again wearing that disgusting wig and leaning in perhaps a little too close to comfort to Bebe.

“Sunny! Get in!” Aubrey said. Threateningly, by the way.

He really didn’t want to though. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy the thought or didn’t want to be forever ingrained into a memory with his friends, but rather that he had forgotten A.) To brush his teeth and B.) He knew he looked like a nightmare. His hair had begun to grow out, the longest strands tickling the back of his neck and his nose. He couldn’t seem to put on any weight so his clothes hung from him like rags, and he still hadn’t taken off his muddy shoes.
All the while he sat and thought, he didn’t realize until the last minute that he had actually just stared at everyone. He unlaced his shoes, kicked them off, and headed towards them. They began to move, making space for the perfect shot, but he wasn’t planning on getting in there. Instead, he figured he could be the one to take the picture. That way, Basil could be in it which he likely would want to be, and he himself could stay on the complete other side. This went against his favor though because he didn’t tell Basil the plans and Basil became territorial over the camera. 

“W-What? Do you want to take the picture?” Basil hesitated, almost letting go of the damn thing but then doubling down. “You should get in there, Sunny.”

Sunny gripped tighter, the weight of his life and self-respect resting in this one moment. Basil held on tighter, laughing nervously as the crowd began to cry out.

“What are you guys doing? I need to hurry, I gotta get something from outback!” Kim shouted.

“I can’t keep smiling like this for long!”

“Sunny, just get in!”

“DANG IT JUST LET ME TAKE IT!” 

It was Bebe, who was now marching towards both of them at a pace one could only describe as aggressive. Basil stood his ground… at first. As soon as Bebe neared, he freaked out a little and nearly threw it at her.

“Are you sure? Don’t-”

“Get. In. The. PICTURE.”

Sunny followed Basil to where everyone was standing, both of them complete losers in this scenario. Or all of them.
Probably all of them.
He wondered if in every universe they were always losers. 

“One… Two… Three! Say Cheese!”

“Cheese!”

The photo came out simply, though the act of getting to that point wasn’t simple, nor was leaving that point. Kel had taken off too fast, tripped over Angel who he already was on thin ice with, tried to apologize before immediately revoking the apology, and set off a dominoes effect of everyone arguing and tripping over each other. This was made worse by the fact that someone had brought a cupcake from the counter with them which landed on Mikhael’s wig. Cue screaming. Lots of it. 

Basil was the first to fully evacuate, grabbing Sunny by the arm and leading him to the hall. Together, without a word, they walked to his room, both of them exhaling when the door shut.

“It’s been like that the whole time.” He said. Sunny studied him. There was this weirdness all of a sudden. Where there was typically some kind of melancholy or sleepiness, instead he had this amusement about him. “Which is why it’s going to be great when I slip these into the candy dish. I brought you in here to warn you. Don’t eat the jelly beans.”

Where Basil had magically spawned nasty jelly beans was anyone's guess. For all Sunny knew, he grew them himself. Either way, they quietly agreed that it was for the best. He had even thought of a way to frame someone.

“I hid the box in Hero’s bag.”

“Good.”

“Yes.”

It wasn’t every day he got into one of those moods, so Sunny would take it. Plus, seeing people gag over the fact they ate an earwax-flavored threat disguised as a treat would be the highlight of the night.

“Plus, I also figured it would be nice to get some peace for a moment. Her friends aren’t really that bad. They’ve been over so much that it doesn’t feel as weird anymore. Not that it really matters. It’s in the past and stuff. But I think talking to them is easier now that we actually have things to talk about. Charlene likes gardening too!”

Sunny nodded, wishing he felt the same. The last time he had even really talked to Kim had to be at school during lunch. Or maybe it was after school on the days he’d wait for the bus with everyone.

It felt so foggy now. How everything that had happened had somehow happened. How he was somehow in a photo with everyone again. How there were even more people. How finally, it seemed everyone was happy again and together. He was definitely going to go to normal classes. He couldn’t miss out on that experience too. Maybe then, he too could talk to Kim and Charlene, maybe even Mikhael.

“But also, sorry if I’m. You know, being weird or something.” He continued. “But is everything okay? You don’t come out as much.”

Once again. Couldn’t tell people about anime, music videos, and the hostile mixture it made with maladaptive daydreaming. Which apparently was a thing, according to the therapist.

He nodded and threw his hands out for a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. Basil played him back, picking paper for some reason.
Which was bad. Sunny picked rock knowing most people pick scissors. 

“Well, I guess we better spike the candy.” Basil said, pretending to sound bummed about it. “We just need a way to distract everyone. Got any ideas?”

Dead silence. Did he? What on Earth would distract every single person in the room while one single person was by-

“I know! You stand in front of where the jelly beans are, I’ll let Kel mess around with the camera, and then I’ll slip it in while everyone is distracted.”

So calculated. It was so… cold. But entirely worth it.

They crept out into the living room, ready to begin their evil biddings when Basil was grabbed instantly and pulled into the Void of No Return. That is to say, he was forced to explain why Kim was not allowed to bring a snake into the house.

“It doesn’t even have teeth!” Kim said, holding a snake that was really trying to get away from her in her hand. It was kind of terrible, actually, the way it flopped around. “Can you get a picture of this?”

“Uh… Um yeah, I guess. But can you bring that back outside? I don’t want the cat to get it.”

“Repulsive creature… Pure evil.” Mikhael was cornered as Kim began approaching him. He wasn’t acting either, he was really about to lose it, whimpering and crying out that that’s enough, stop. I’m serious stop! That sort of thing. 

“Uh, hold on a second…” Basil wondered back to the bowl, doused it with beans, but then acted like he was just grabbing a handful. Sunny watched in horror as his friend gave him a pitiful look and proceeded to stuff them into his mouth. What a trooper. 

“What are you doing? I have a snake! Now is NOT the time for jelly beans!” Kim screeched, the snake getting angrier by the second.

“Where did you even get that?” Angel asked, poking its tail. “Is it poisono-”

“VENOMOUS. Not poisonous. And no, its a garter snake. It doesn’t even have teeth to bite you. You all are a bunch of wimps!”

“I didn’t say I was scared of it! Let me hold it!”

“No way! I’m going to drop it!”

“Just take it outside! I’ll take a picture!” Basil said. It fell on deaf ears though. 

It was probably the fact he was so soft spoken by comparison. How was it Kim was able to attract all the attention? No one was even paying attention to him while he tried to head towards the door. 

“Where’s my camera?”

“I dunno.” Kel answered even though the question wasn’t directed towards him.

“Where’s Hero?” Someone else asked.

“I dunno.” Kel answered again for some reason. “I’ll go find ‘em though!”

Aubrey stood on the couch and cleared her voice. “KIM BASIL WANTS YOU TO TAKE IT OUTSIDE SO HE CAN TAKE THE PHOTO!”

Kim looked shocked. “What? It would look so much- Angel stop!”

And just like that, a snake was released into the house and everyone was jumping on furniture. Sunny scaled the table, chairs falling from behind him, candy spilling all over the place. 

“DANG IT ANGEL!”

“I DIDN’T DO THAT!!!”

“YES YOU DID!”

The snake slithered HORRIFIED against the wall and disappeared under the couch. Basil, defeated, just kind of stared in justifiable disbelief. 

“I’ll get the cat.” Aubrey sighed. 

“I’ll get the door.” He sighed in return. 

“IS IT GONE YET!?” Hero’s voice screamed through the halls.

“Found him! He’s hiding in the attic!” Kel said proudly as he rounded the corner. He looked around, confused at why everyone was suddenly laying on tables and standing on top of couches. “Floor is lava?”

“Angel made the snake get loose.” Kim said. Kel winced and joined the others on the couch despite it being cramped, Angel pleading his innocence. Sunny watched the couch impatiently as Basil ushered everyone off. He held a broom tightly in his hand and a tupperware container in the other.

“Please try to be calm. It can’t hurt you.” He chirped, moving the couch without warning. That thing went berserk and bolted towards the other side of the room. Sunny held himself tighter, feeling awkward he was now the only person on the other side of the room. Everyone else had taken to going to the other rooms other than Kel.

“Well, guess we can snack while we wait.” He said, reaching for the pile of jelly beans that had scattered across the table. He began to chew as Basil began rapidly trying to catch the snake. 

“These… it tastes kinda funny. Try one, do they taste weird to you?”

Sunny shook his head, torn between watching Kel get his hopes and dreams destroyed and watching Basil try to chase down a snake while simultaneously knocking everything over in the process. 

“Where’d it go?” He asked them, eyes alert. If anyone had soleless eyes, it was definitely his. In this moment, specifically.

“Basil do these taste weird to you?”

At his limit, Basil ran his hand through his bangs and couldn’t seem to decide on which topic to tackle first.

“DID YOU GET IT YET?” The others began crying out.

“NO! NOT YET! WE LOST IT!” Kel answered back.

“YOU WHAT!???” Hero screamed.

“I SAID WE LOST IT!”

“HOW!??”

“Stop screaming! Please, I’m trying to catch it. I can’t focus.”

Kel reached for more beans, curiosity being his main drive. “I bet it’s the green ones…. No? …No these are sour apple. The blue ones?”

“There you are!”

“Ach!” Kel began coughing, borderline throwing up. “WHAT IS THIS!?”

“You just scared it!” Basil said, rushing after it with the broom. He got pretty close to catching it but it went towards the hall. 

That’s when the screaming happened again. No one bothered to close the room they were in and apparently it took them by surprise the loose snake had infiltrated their sanctuary. 

“Can you guys help me?” Basil pleaded, his shoulders falling and eyes saying I give up. It’s all over for me now.

“I’m not going near that thing…” Kel said. “You got a spare toothbrush?”

“What?” He breathed, not seeming to register the question.

“No worries, I’ll find one.”

There was also no chance in hell Sunny was going to go near it. It was creepy enough watching it bolt through everything. Even if it couldn’t bite, it looked like it. Basil eventually went forward, clearly not wanting to but doing so anyway.

“Seriously? You all went in my room?”

“Your door was open! We had no other choice!” The crowd cried out.

Where’d it go?”

“Under the bed!”

Sunny minded his own business, deciding now was the perfect time to consume a cupcake while no one was looking. He reached over for it but stopped when he saw her birthday cake. It was rectangular, with white frosting, and pink edible glitter was piled on top. Edible glitter really didn’t seem right, or something he should put in his body, but that wasn’t the point. The point was, it was homemade and it was clear who had made it judging by a prettier, smaller cake in a carrying container. 

She really was lucky to have them. They’d gone through all kinds of effort. 

Chapter Text

Listening Music

If he didn’t do evil things, there wouldn’t be a freaking snake in his bedroom. 

He felt really on the spot too, with everyone watching him. It was kind of nice, the fact they were cheering him on, calling him brave, that sort of thing. It made him feel useful in the way he hadn’t really been useful before. He hovered over it with the plastic container and brought it down.

The snake was faster. It wiggled violently, only part of it in the container, the other end being clipped. He gasped, almost letting go of the entire container, but lifted it up just enough to let the creature get through.

“You got it!” Kim cheered, everyone else joining her. He numbly nodded, pushing the container with the snake towards the front door. He felt terrible that as it slid, the poor snake was just moving along confused, pushed by some unseen force.
Sunny was still at the table, eating a cupcake that he quickly hid. There was no reason to be ashamed, they were pretty tasty. He’d have to save a few to give to him later. 

He focused back on the container, everyone following a distance behind him as he brought it closer.

“I’m going to shut this so it doesn’t get back in.” He said, gently pushing the door behind him.

It was so quiet outside, the leaves rustling with the small spring breezes and an occasional chirp of a bird, but when the others began to look out the window, he wondered why he even bothered shutting the door in the first place. It wasn’t just so the snake wouldn’t return inside but also because he felt terrible for hurting it and wanted to hide that. He could see where blood had begun to form lightly over the delicate scales. 

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.” He whispered, afraid someone would hear him and start laughing. “Poor thing.”

It was so terrified as he looked in from his spot on the porch. Cursing himself for being so soft and for tears forming in his eyes, he sighed and opened the door, still sitting in his spot.

“Can... Will one of you bring me the lid and a screwdriver?”

“Huh? Why?” Kel asked. 

“I hurt it, I don’t want it to die.”

“Can I have it when it’s better? How’d you hurt it?” Kim asked, jumping outside. She bent over with her hands on her knees and peered inside. “Oh I see.”

He was relieved she didn’t make fun of the whole thing, granted she didn’t see the whole tearing up over a snake ordeal, but it was still nice. 

“Where’s the screwdriver?” Aubrey asked.

“Under the sink.” He said softly to the snake.

“What? I can’t hear you!”

“HE SAID UNDER THE SINK!” Kim screamed back.

“Geez, you guys don’t understand volume control….”

And so, now they had a snake. He named it Scetti, keeping the trend of pasta dishes. Scetti stole Aubrey’s show though, with everyone wanting to see him now that he was contained (except for Hero and Mikhael). 

“I thought you all would never catch it.” Hero said, chuckling, albeit nervously.

“Well, we have a pet now.” Aubrey said. “And you have to be nice to him or else.”

He spent a good portion of her birthday party trying to find a way to help the poor thing. The only thing he could really do was leave it. Protect it from birds or other prey. It didn’t seem like anything was broken but rather that he had accidentally cut away at its body. He had placed a small amount of warm soapy water soaked into a towel and hoped the snake would want to cuddle it for warmth. He’d have to bring it into school and hope his teacher had some kind of idea.

When he finally returned into the living room, everyone had calmed down for the most part.

“Ready to sing?” Hero asked, lighting candles on one cake. Kim lit another. 

“HaPpY bIr-”

He sang along, grabbing his camera off of the counter and snapping a shot as she made her wish. She beamed, her eyes bright and the whites in them turning a shade of pink. She looked up, as if she was going to cry, but straightened herself out and crossed her arms.

“Thank you all so much.” She said, not looking at anyone but somehow looking at everyone. 

Later that night she opened her presents, ate her cake, and began adding everyone’s number to the phone Hero and Kel had generously given her. He stayed on the sidelines, watching everyone, wishing he had the guts to take more photos. There was just something so awkward about it still. It felt so out of place or faked. 

He did find himself a little bummed out when it was revealed Kim was going to stay over for the night. He didn’t mind her and he wasn’t bothered by it, but a part of him preferred hanging out with her one on one rather than with a group of people. It was easier that way, and she always acted a lot warmer. He wanted to ask her about her party, which cake was really the better one, to look at the photos together, and hopefully to also clean the apartment together. 

Her friends weren’t heathens though. They cleaned up pretty good, though most of it was Hero and himself.

“Hey, since Kim’s staying, mind if we crash over here?” Hero asked as they washed the empty dishes.

He stifled the urge to sigh a breath of relief and nodded. “Sure!”

“Alright awesome!” He said. He draped the last dish over the wrack and spun around. “We’re good Kel.”

“Oh, sweet!” 
Basil smiled back before realizing this now meant he had to find a way to entertain everybody for the next few hours until it was time to retire. 

“Um… so…” He said, slowly tailing to the other side of the room, avoiding at great caution the popped balloon carcasses and confetti… and Angel’s entire leg. “What do you all want to do?”

“Can I stay too?” Angel said, springing back to life from the floor. 

He didn’t expect to ever find himself in a position where he’d have to tell someone he barely knew they couldn’t stay over. Plus, with it being Aubrey’s birthday and with her being his roommate, was there truly a way to say no without hurting his feelings?

“Er…”

He looked at the others, their time running low. If he remained indecisive for too long, it would really look like he didn’t want him to stay the night. It was the truth, he truly did only want to spend time with those he was closest with, but all at the same time, he understood how it felt to be on the outside, always looking in. 

“Sure, you can st-”

“ALRIGHT!” Angel cheered. “So. What are we gonna do?”

He paused, hoping, praying, that Kel would have something in mind. Or maybe Hero. Anyone but him.

“Arcade.” Sunny said, simply. 

“YES! YES!” Angel jumped, his eyes brightening. 

Perfect. It was the perfect idea. The force of him having to find things to do at his house was gone. There would be no more worrying about being boring, running out of things to say, or worse.

“Should we see if Aubrey wants to go?” Hero asked. He was already heading towards the room further cementing the plans. 

Then, a head poked up from the other side of the couch. Mikhael straightened his wig and yawned. “Oh hey guys. Did you say we’re going to the arcade?”

“Yep!” Kel said. “Are you coming too?”

Mikhael looked off into the distance. “Hmm… well, I do have a lot of things to do today. I’m a pretty busy guy, after all. Let me call some of my… uh, the people I have plans with, and I’ll get back to you.”

Kel raised a brow but held tight. “Can you have an answer in five minutes?”

“Oh, we’re going right now?” 

“Yeah, they close in a few hours.”

 “Well! Aubrey, Kim, and Vance are joining us. Where’s Charlie? And Bebe?” Hero said, the others behind him.

“She went home.” Aubrey said, already throwing on a jacket and heading towards the door. “She doesn’t usually stay out very late. As for Bebe. She’s got a curfew now thanks to that one.”
Mikhael rolled his eyes, starting to say something, but was cut off.

“Gotcha. Also, just curious.” Hero looked towards the front door, confused.

The question he had in mind was how everyone was going to get there. His car held up to five people where there were nine of them. The question was somewhat answered when everyone piled into his car. 
Squished entirely in the backseat, he fought for room to breathe. They put Angel up front on a made up ‘front middle seat’, then Aubrey called shotgun and Kim joined her. The back was the terrifying part. Vance took up most of the room, was constantly being told by Mikhael to scoot over, Sunny was pushed as far as he could go against the window, and Kel was on the other side of Basil constantly moving and pulling things out of his pocket.

“I’m serious, it’s these ones Sunny.”

Basil glanced down as Kel attempted to hand Sunny a jelly bean amidst the chaos. 

Sunny eyed the bean, fear flooding his eyes.

“Try it! I have to know I’m not crazy!”

“He doesn’t seem like he wants it.” Basil laughed. “If they’re gross why-”

“HEY!” Kel screamed, deafening everyone for a moment. “Oh. I mean. Why did you take that? I was gonna eat that!” 

Angel, who had swung in from the front threw the jelly bean in his mouth and began chewing. And then vomiting.

“OH MY GOD…” Aubrey held her face, Kim beginning to move to the other side of the front seat. He held his breath, glancing at Kel. Kel’s cheeks were bloodshot, eyes nearly bulging out of his head as he tried to contain laughter. 

Hero pulled over instantly and everyone jumped out, patting down their clothes or avoiding touching them all together.

“Are you okay?” He asked Angel, white in the face. 

“....No.” He replied, sitting down on the sidewalk. 

“It’s okay, I shouldn’t have put you all in the same car. Let’s… We’ll get this cleaned up.”

“This isn’t fun.” Angel said, his eyes beginning to well up. “Kel gave me rotten candy.”

Hero shot a disapproving glare in his brother’s direction who threw up his innocent hands. 

“I was explaining they were bad when he-”

“Kel, it’s okay.” Hero hushed his voice as he got closer. “He’s just a little embarrassed. Why don’t you run home, grab your van, and take him home. I need to run home to clean this up. I’ll meet you over at Basil’s later.”

“Sorry, I really did try to tell him. I'll go get that now, good thing we didn't get too far.” He took off, running towards his house.

“I’m going home.” Kim shrugged. “I have puke all over me. I’ll be over later.” She groaned, her brother following behind her. "Don't worry Angel, it happens to the best of us."

“Oh… okay, see ya.” Aubrey waved back. She sat down next to Angel despite the mess he wore. Patting his back, she told him she was unaware of his abilities of projectile vomiting. It seemed to cheer him up as he nodded and smiled slightly.

Feeling guilty, Basil wondered if he would have to confess to his crimes. 

“So what happened?” Aubrey asked.

“Kel had candy. It was really, really gross.”

“Cursed…” Mikhael whispered loudly.

“You think he cursed me!?”

“Mikhael.” Aubrey snapped. “What’s wrong with you. Idiot. Kel, what was the candy?”

“Just a jellybean. I noticed them when I was camping on the table earlier with Sunny. Did I not?”

Sunny shook his head but shared a side-eye with Basil. 

“Why’d you do that?” Aubrey asked, as he had made it pretty obvious.

“Hm?” It was barely audible.

“You?” She shook her head. “Nevermind. I’m sorry Angel. That really sucks, you can come back when you’re all cleaned up.”

Angel shrugged, his small frame hunched over and hands holding his stomach. “I hate that when you throw up you just want to keep puking.”

“You’ll be alright. If a jelly bean takes you out, then that’s going to be prettttty embarrassing.” 

“You’re right…” 

Kel arrived shortly after, preparing to take a sick Angel back home and inspiring Mikhael to head towards Bebe when he mentioned they’d probably just stay in for the night. In a way, it did feel like a forced comment on his behalf. He wondered if there was a chance Kel only wanted to hangout with the usual friend group as well. 

They hopped into the van, which would have been the perfect vehicle to take initially, and dropped Angel off, no one daring to mention the smell that had infected the car. He felt terrible that this was all a direct cause of a simple prank gone wrong. Angel’s embarrassment felt so heavy and vulnerable. It wasn’t a position he’d ever want to find himself in. 

Later that night, Aubrey had once again left everyone in favor of Kim, something about talking garbage on someone but not wanting to jeer just yet. He found himself alone with Kel and Sunny in the living room, the palms of his hands sweating from fidgets. 

“But yeah, I don’t really know.” Kel said, pointing at a map. “What do you think? Should we make a new one?” He asked, looking towards the other end of the couch. 

“Hmm…” He thought for a moment despite knowing his answer. “Seems like fun. Should we wait for the others to join in?”

“Yeah, definitely! That doesn’t mean we can’t get started though. Sunny, you draw the town, just make it legible, and we’ll begin naming places when Hero’s back.”

Sunny took the paper to the table and Basil headed towards his room to grab markers.
His slippers crossed the threshold of the living room and the hall, the walls that had become narrower brought with them a peacefulness that only grew the closer he was to his bedroom. He pushed his door open, grabbed the markers from his drawer, and brought them back to Sunny. It felt like his room was pulling him back in as he left, a force so strong that after dropping off the coloring utensils, he felt a strong urge to return.
Unable to fight it off, he excused himself, shutting the door and sitting on his bed.

The days had become longer and the summer solstice grew ever closer. A promise for longer days, no homework, and trips to the beach.
The branch outside of his window had already began to bloom the blossoms of maple. Dogwood, pawpaw, sweetgum, red oak, and beech trees had slowly opened up when they began to approach spring. Now, their vibrant and bright hues that had once lit up the streets had turned into a soft palette of warmth. In the fall they would be just as beautiful as they were in the spring. In the winter, they would look like bones, unable to bloom color in the grayness of the chill.

He let out a breath, tired, but happy. There was only one week left worth of school, and after that week, soon after, he would make the vacation they all had spent planning his. He’d prepare, ensure that it would be a time worth having for those around him. Strings of worry would be put on hold for the time and he’d make sure of it, even if it killed him.
The drawer in the middle of his dresser seemed to stand out more boldly now, and he knew there was a price to pay and a consequence. There were always roads choices went down, and sometimes, the price was too steep or the path was too weathered, but, as he had told himself, even the consequences could wait. If it meant coming close to reaching a goal of stability, it was a risk worth taking. Just one good week, one week where everyone had fun was the chance to reverse the negative impact he’d left that had soured everyone’s attempts at balance.

It was always so odd to him how things could be so beautiful yet so painful at the same time.

A knock came lightly from the door and before he had a chance to answer it, Sunny slipped in, shutting it behind him. 

“Ah, hi, Sunny.”

“Hi.” He sat down on the bed with him. “How are you?”

He blinked. “I’m alright. Sorry, I’m just a little worn out. I stayed up all night worrying about the party. And stuff.”

“Me too. How’s living with her?” He asked, watching carefully for the answer.

“Oh, it’s good. We mostly keep to ourselves but she helps out and sometimes we’ll hangout.”

He wished he could just tell him the truth, but something warned him from inside that it wasn’t a good idea. There was no sense in placing the burden of knowledge onto someone who would benefit better from not knowing. The truth was, it was uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable.

It was really hard going from living in a house by himself with a caretaker or his grandmother to living with someone his own age who now knew all sorts of things about him. He couldn’t even say his house anymore because it wasn’t, it was hers too. Sure most of the bills were paid by his parents, but groceries had to be bought by each of them, cleaning supplies, and random things no one even thinks to buy like fridge magnets and wood polish. His stomach always twisted when she bought things too, like he should be the one taking care of it since it was his house or that by her purchasing something for them, he was indebted to her in some way. By allowing her to do that, it was now, for the time being, their house. It was like putting on a constant act even when he was home now. It was no fault of her own, and he felt better knowing she was happier living at his house than her own, but there was always that unspoken awkwardness of yes, I fucked up, on both of their sides that remained constant and unchanging. 

He snapped back into reality but was pleased to see it appeared Sunny, too, was lost in his thoughts. He watched the floor with such certainty that whatever he was thinking about had to of been clear. It always was that way though. He seemed to understand so much without ever just saying it and there was comfort in that knowledge.

“Are you excited for vacation?” Basil asked, hoping it would stir a nice conversation. It wasn’t often Sunny would start trying to talk more, convey his thoughts, or speak his mind. Often, he’d shut down and try again later on. The last few months felt so different, if even by a margin. 

“Kind of.” He smiled, sort of. “My dad is taking us. It still feels weird. I can’t really… explain it.”

“Can you try?”

“HEY, HERO’S BACK!” Kel called from the other side. He wondered how long he’d been standing there. There really wasn’t much to eavesdrop on. As far as he knew they were just sitting there in awkward silence exchanging a few conversation starters and hoping for a bite on the hook. Which, was to say, exactly what was happening. Sometimes, he wished he was more like Kel. He was able to keep everyone together, was funny and good at sports. Whatever it was he did, he did it right.

They both got up and returned to the living room. Kel, who had taken a marker from the table, was already trying to measure himself. Hero sighed and took the marker from him, potentially saving the wall from a scribble nightmare.

“Quick! Let’s compare!”

“You’re… exactly the same!” Hero cheered, stepping back.

“This game is rigged.” Kel sighed. “Well, there’s always next year I guess. Step right up!” He pointed to the wall then pointed at Sunny who didn’t seem very excited about it. Drawing a line, Kel excitedly announced that finally, a lot last, Sunny had grown a little bit taller. Not by much, but it was something. Hero was the same, and when Basil had to stand against the wall, he too had grown but by a small margin. 

“Look at us…” Kel said, wiping a fake tear. “We… we grew up so fast.”

“Yeah,” Hero agreed. “We definitely did.”

“You know,” The younger brother slumped down on the couch, kicking his legs up. “I’m really glad we’re all here. I think this is the most fun I’ve had for a long time.”

It felt so nice hearing something like that. A validation of the sorts, something that wasn’t subtle but out in the open, to be heard by everyone.

“Me too.” Hero was looking closely at the height chart. “You know it's true friendship when despite the hardships and obstacles, we can always find our way back here.”

Basil glanced at Sunny to see if he was just as touched by their sentiments by him, but was surprised to find Sunny was watching the door intently. 

“Something wrong?” 

“Someone’s at the door.”

Chapter Text

It.

Was terrible.

AWFUL.

“Why is HE here!?” He said, running to the other side of the room. “Quick, Sunny, open the door and lie to him!”

“Kel, come on.” His brother began rubbing his temples for the third time that day. “Can you stop acting like that?”

“WHAT?” He was shocked. “You’re a traitor, Hero. Plain and simple.”

“What? What’s happening? Who is that?” Basil was trying to keep track of things, unknowing as to who he should trust in a situation like this. He was growing ever closer to the door, now his hand was reaching for the knob, no… he was turning the kn -

“OH!” Bruce popped his head in just in time for Kel to duck behind the couch. Candy wrappers lined the wall. One wrong move and it was all over.

“Your mom gave me the address.” He heard him say. “Are we still going to the city tomorrow?”

“The city?” Aubrey’s voice piped up. “Can I go?”

“Sure.” Hero said a little too simply. 

“Can Basil go too? What was it you wanted to pick up?”

“No, it’s okay, I can stay home, I don’t want to intrude.”

“No, we all should go. It would be nice to have you there.” Hero said, continuing to make things worse.

“Sunny too.” Aubrey continued.

“Sunny too, yes.”

“Is this your friend?”

“Cousin.”

He was growing awfully bored behind the couch. So many things to interject on, so many things to do and say… and yet… he was there.

Nonchalantly yawning, he stood up.

“Oh, hey Bruce.”

“Hi Kel.” His cousin didn’t seem to notice or really care about the lengths he went to avoid him. In his honest defense though, it was Hero who had drilled in his head since he was a child that Bruce was to be avoided at all costs.

“You want to be held hostage and forced to learn about stringrays for an hour, Kel?” Hero had said one night after an encounter. His arms hung in front of him as if he had just run a marathon. “Then don’t go by Bruce. He also blamed me for the cups he left sitting in the room. And you. Mom said we have to do the dishes for the rest of the week now. Which means I’ll be doing them.”

That memory had been burned ever since that moment. Together, he and Hero would intentionally run to Sunny’s treehouse for cover, or camp out at Basil’s, or even wear disguises to Hobeez and put magazines in front of their faces like in the movies. Granted, it had been several years since they’d even seen him, but the general atmosphere of his existence still remained. Plus, it was kind of fun to avoid someone. Especially someone who didn’t care they were being avoided. 

Bruce swung back and forth in the middle of Basil’s living room, hands deep in his black sweatpants. “So… it’s a birthday? Whose is it?”

“Mine…” Aubrey replied, confusion splashing on her face. 

“Oh, happy birthday.” He nodded. “Do you mind if I have some snacks? Hero over here and his family only keep food in the house you actually have to put together and cook. Needless to say, I’m starving and don’t know the first thing about cooking.”

“... Sure… I guess.” She eyed him as he approached the snack table. That was when the best idea sprung to Kel’s head. The nasty jelly beans. He was sure to end up falling prey to the easy-to-grab disgusting snacks.

Before he sat down, he reached into his hoodie pocket and tossed her a small wrapped box. “Figured I shouldn’t crash a birthday without a gift.”

It was incredibly weird for the next few minutes. Aubrey held her wrapped gift in her hand, irritation looming over her, Basil was just standing there in awe, and Sunny… 

“Hey where’s Sunny?” Kel asked. Basil lit up with an enthusiastic shrug.

“Ah! Good question! Let’s go look for him!” 

And so they were off. After looking through the entirety of the house and finding nothing, together they stood outside next to the small shack that held the gardening equipment. He was so glad it was short sleeves weather, it was far more comfortable to exist outside without needing a coat or jeans. He looked around him. That’s right. It was nice outside.

“Well. He might have walked somewhere. It’s a beautiful day out.” Kel said. 

“W-Walked!? Where? Why?” Basil was beginning to panic so Kel gave him a good, solid, slap on the shoulder. 

“Listen up my cardigan-wearing friend. WE WILL FIND HIM!” He beamed into the distance hoping the light-heartedness would ease whatever tension had formed. 

“Yeah but-”

“NO BUTS! Let’s start off by… wait I know, let's go to my house, get my car, and drive around for a little bit!”

He was a little more used to talking with the others than he was with Basil. He felt he even spoke more to Sunny than him which was insane to actually think about. Sensing that needed to change, Kel sighed a breath of relief at the circumstances that had brought them to this point.

“We should hang out more.” 

He expected a response but didn’t get one. Just a blank stare. Fortunately, he was completely immune to that type of thing due to being around Sunny so much.

“Oh did you say you needed to pick something up in the city? Why didn’tcha say so earlier? We can always make a quick day trip up there.”

“Thank you, that’s really nice of you.” He smiled. “Aubrey and I have been talking about getting driving licenses and stuff. Is it scary driving? I’ve always kind of worried about that.”

“Nah. Crazy enough, when I was in the car wreck, coincidentally it just felt like bumper cars! Not trying to inspire you to wreck a car though.”

“Really?”

“Well… you were there too, remember?”

“Yeah. I got thrown against the front seat.”

“Oh yeah. Being in the front can definitely change things! Oh, also make sure you know how to parallel park. One time, I couldn’t get into a parking spot because of course, right after I got my license, I had to go downtown and they’re probably the only area in the entire nation that requires you to parallel park. I had to let some complete stranger park my car for me!”

“You let a stranger drive your car!?” The sheer shock on his face was hilarious.

“Yep. He was in a suit so I trusted him.”

“... Right.”

“That and I would have been there forever trying to get it done.”

He unlocked his car and climbed in, quickly throwing the empty water bottles from the front into the back. Basil climbed in looking a teensy bit nervous.

“Hey dude, it’s gonna be fine just breathe. He didn’t say anything to you?”

“No, not a word.” 

“We’ll check his house first since that’s the furthest. Then we’ll work our way down.”

Just as he checked his mirrors and prepared to pull out, the Hero’s car door opened, a suspicious shoe stepping out.

“Sunny!?” Basil was already out of the car in the blink of an eye. “What were you doing? Why were you in there? We were just about to go look for you!” 

“Sleeping.” Sunny said, possibly still asleep. Kel gave him a good pat on the back, accidentally patting too hard and sending Sunny to almost trip over himself.

“Time to wake up! I was thinking about bringing over some games. Is that alright with you all?”

“Oh, yeah that’s fine with me.” Basil replied. Sunny nodded as well.

Kel headed towards his house alone, figuring it would only take a second. The moment he walked into the door proved otherwise.

“KEL!” His mom was walking towards him at full pace, sports mode. “Why didn’t you and your brother invite your cousin to that party? You know he’s a guest. You can’t just leave him all to himself here. He’s trying to start a business.”

He didn’t have an actual answer for that. Well, he did, technically have an answer, but she wasn’t going to like it. 

“How long is he staying again?” Kel asked incredibly casually. His mother did not take this casually, it was instead seen as a threat.

“What? Don’t even try to push him out again. You and your brother are better than that.”

She had her usual stress wrinkle at the creases of her eyebrows.

“Mom you can’t just invite him to someone’s birthday party he doesn’t even know at someone’s house that he also doesn’t know.”

She just didn’t get it. At all. “It’s up to you to introduce him, Kel. You don’t even know what’s going on at their house right now.”

“Huh?”

“Your aunty is trying to surprise him with something that takes time to build.”

“He’s so spoiled.” He muttered, kicking at nothing. “Why does that have to fall on me?”

She let out a heavy breath. “Family helps family. One day you might get that. Just because something doesn’t appear to be your problem, that doesn’t mean you can’t do something to make it easier on a person.”

“Yeah. Alright.” He too, sighed heavily. He hadn’t exactly thought about the chance there were other things going on, and just because Bruce was completely spoiled, had everything practically handed to him, and was praised by everyone around him, and fell victim to every trend that came out, that didn’t mean he wasn’t deserving of common courtesy. In fact, as he gathered up his belongings in his room and threw them into a TJ-Maxx bag, he wondered if the weight of her words could stretch and if they could hold meaning to other areas and aspects of his life. For so long, he had tried to stay out of things, never knowing what to say to make things better or what to do to fix really anything. It had made him a lot of friends, oddly enough, but those friends never felt incredibly deep such as the ones he had spent most of his life with. It had its cons when it came to them. So often, he’d be tasked with wanting to talk more to Sunny, to ask him questions and offer some solid advice. He’d want to really talk to Aubrey about how she was doing with the knowledge of her father and sister as well as how it felt to live with a mutual friend she had bullied for four years. He wanted to be able to help Basil whenever he needed, be it in the garden or mentally. Most importantly to him, he wanted to be someone his older brother could both rely on and have trust in. 

Yet despite this epiphany, he found actually doing it a lot harder than thinking about it. In his mind, when he returned to the party, everyone would still be picking on Bruce and he would stand up for him, regurgitating whatever it was his mother said, and creating a stronger bond. He couldn’t have been further from that when he stepped into the door.

“I guess I need to learn to expect the unexpected.” He muttered as he locked the door behind him. 

Everyone was listening deeply to what his cousin was saying, even Aubrey who had the attention span of a literal walnut. 

“And so yeah, it’s insane. I thought that axolotls would have really cool lives but it's literally a dog eat dog world for them…”

“I don’t even know what that is.” Kim said.

“Oh, check this out, I have a picture of one. My buddy has a tank with a couple of them in it. They’re chronically smiling.” He pulled out a camera and began shifting through photos, which seemed to excite everyone. 

“Woah, what’s that?” Kim said.

“Zipline at the zoo! You guys should check it out sometime, it’s pretty cool.”

“Yeah we should!” Kel bent down next to him to look at the photo. “Where’s that at?”

“Clear in Arizona! We got family down there though, you can always visit.” 

His mother, as it turned out, and as it usually did turn out, was correct. The guy was so cool. 

Chapter Text

The party had gone well, she felt special the entire time. The random guy that spontaneously appeared was kind of weird, but it didn’t bother her too much. The next day, they had all gone to the city, lost Kel for an hour, found him talking to some old guy at the bench where they had last seen him, and returned home tired and fulfilled. 

“So many… so many. ” Basil muttered to himself as he examined the books he had bought. There was this old used bookstore that he was apparently very excited to visit, which just so happened to be the main reason Bruce really wanted to go. Something about Learning about my competitors.

Basil had also been fooled by numerous street vendors, feeling too bad about saying no to their random offers of CD’s, art, and food that he’d give to Kel. Once she caught on to this, she took care of it.

Sunny had followed like a ghost virtually everywhere, but seemed to grow at least a little bit excited about the pretzel shop.

Hero was awfully quiet, that was until they crossed this dishware store where he pretended to not be intrigued by the shiny pots and pans. He later was seen carrying around a very conspicuous looking bag.

Herself, she found all sorts of neat things, but at the risk of looking too childish, she was forced to pretend like she didn’t want to go to Build-a-Bear or the craft shops. Regret followed her home.

“OH NO!” Kel cried, shooting up from the couch in the most irritating way. 

“What is it now?” She huffed, secretly curious.

“HE’S FREAKING DEAD!”

“What?” She watched him carefully, the whole room falling silent. Then, the uproar occurred. 

“MY… my tamagotchi Carl… I… must have forgotten to feed him. HIS LINEAGE IS GONE DUE TO ME!”

“Seriously.” She sighed, the tense nature of the room crumbling. 

“You wouldn’t get it Aubrey, I’ve raised him since he hatched out of his egg. He had a really cool design too.” 

He sat back with a dejected gleam in his eyes, studying the egg-shaped game in his hand. On the note of animals, real or fake she presumed, the cat had taken a liking to jumping up on Bun-Bun’s cage. What started as cute started to stress her out. She had initially planned on keeping him free-roaming and trying to train him with the litter box. However, her killjoy roommate had informed her that due to Dandy’s nature as a previous stray, it would be risky letting the rabbit out without first allowing a slow and smooth introduction.
It was as disappointing as it was true and had this way of putting horrible images of the rabbit getting harmed in her head. If that were to happen, she’d be the one to blame. In Bun-Bun’s small life, she had taken care of him since he was a baby, and his whole life was tied to her. 

“Sorry about Carl.” She said, though it was too late. They had all already begun talking about something completely different.

“I told him the exact same thing.” Kel shook his head. “I said Brett, you can’t go around telling people that, they’re going to think you’re bragging and rubbing it in their face.”

“Yeah, that’s true.” Basil agreed. 

“Sucks he’s still doing that. Sorry about that.”

“It’s fine, it just caught me off guard.”

Aubrey stepped in. This Monday evening felt so quiet compared to the chaos of the last few days. She hadn’t worked during the weekend and the restaurant was closed on Mondays, which had unofficially become the day for everyone to get together. “What are we talking about?”

“Do you know Brett?” Kel raised his arm, then lowered it a little. “About this tall, wears cowboy boots, smells kind of like mustard but not in a bad way.”

“That’s… disgusting…”

“Well, I guess he took this IQ test and he keeps going around and telling everyone about it.” 

Basil shrugged. “I didn’t even know him. He just came up and told me.”

It was a little anticlimatic, she had to admit, but that’s what watching reality TV would do to a person, she thought. As of lately, she’d taken to liking this new show that was on air about teenage mothers and their struggles… and drama. So much drama. It was like a trainwreck, she couldn’t look away. Then, after all of that, she had grown attached to them and now she couldn’t just stop watching it. Every night she looked forward to tuning in on the reruns that she had missed and on Mondays, that was to say, that very night, the new episode would air. The issue was, it was always airing at 8 and she’d have to kick everyone out for that hour since Kel had plenty of things to say about it that she didn’t want to hear.

“How’s journalism going?” 

“It’s alright. I haven’t gone for a month.” Basil smiled blankly.

“HUH? Won’t you get into trouble?”

For a moment, she wondered if the thought had even crossed his mind. He didn’t even tell her he was skipping that class.
“No, the teacher doesn’t really care. I don’t care if I fail it, it’s not like I’ll have to retake it.”

“Fair.” Kel nodded. “I wish I could skip Home-Ec. Right now I’m being forced to learn how to file taxes… I don’t get it, everything else pretty much has been fun. I even mastered sewing! This though… I don’t know, do you think the government makes us do taxes as a way to slowly chip away at our self worth and will to live, banking on the idea that as we drown ourselves in numbers and reminders that we are broke, we will continue to play the dark game that is working until our death?”

No one knew the answer to his question, she was just glad everyone else stared at him just as she did. Even Sunny seemed taken aback, as if Kel had reached some dark recess of his mind.

“Eh, well, probably not. Besides, who doesn’t like money. You can buy it all with money.” And then, their awe was gone.

Later that evening, when the boys had gone back into Basil’s room to continue hanging out, she turned the lights off in the living room, blanketing herself in movie-theater-esc lighting. The quilt was warm on her legs and the popcorn threatened to turn her fingers into a buttery disaster. Before reaching into the bowl, she grabbed the remote and tilted her wrist to where the screen would receive it. There it was, already on the channel in need. She turned the volume up a couple notches and sat back, ready to hear what insanity was brewing this week.
The first ten minutes were great, she was fully invested, Jamie was going haywire but it was so hard to feel sympathy for her mother because she, too, was a nutcase.
Then, just as the commercial break started, she remembered her now cold popcorn and began to shovel it in at a rapid pace. 

“Woah, slow down.”

“KEL!” Embarrassed at her animalistic popcorn devouring behavior, she glared at him in the hopes he would go back to the bedroom. Instead, he just stood there like some dumb creature who didn’t know where he was. 

“Hey! Watcha watchin’?” He sat down next to her which only made her angrier. Now, she was going to miss the entire thing. Once the Chia-Pet commercial finished, it was over. All she’d have would be a promotion for the channel's new show and Teen Mom would be back on.

“None of your business. Why are you here?”

He had a really weird look on his face, sort of like he was impersonating a professor. “Ah, well, I came here today-”

“Why are you talking like that?” She cut him off.

He cracked a smile. “Sorry, I thought it would work.”

“Thought what would work? Kel come on, the show’s going to be back on, you’re going to make me miss it.”

“It will only take a sec! I think… Anyways, so I had this realization the-”

“So help me God if this is about Carl-”

He gasped. “Don’t speak mean on the dead! That’s rude.”

She rubbed her head, the promotional video beginning. “What do you want?”

“Well, if you had let me finish-” The glare she gave him made him cut to the chase. “I was just wondering how you’ve been. How living here has been. You know, like, are you having a good time?”

What the hell? She must have worn her confusion on her face because he quickly began to fill in the silence. 

“It’s not weird? Or anything?”

“Why would it be weird?” She asked, already knowing that yes, it felt weird. She watched him carefully to see if his true intentions would sneak in. It was odd enough he was asking her these questions but he had also just come out of Basil’s room so there was always the chance he was freaking out about it and Kel had tried to help.
“Did Basil ask you to ask this?”

“No! No he really didn’t. I just felt like we never really get to actually talk and stuff. Just wanted to do that. You know? We’re best buds, it’s important to confide in your friends during times of need or distress!” He smiled deeply after saying the last sentence, something Hero had probably told him at one point. 

She couldn’t help but laugh at his absurdity and his eyes lit up, shoulders falling more relaxed. She hadn’t even realized that she had worked him up the entire time… or that she was missing her show.

“Sure. We can talk when this is over. We’ll go on a walk, alright?”

“Okay! I’ll see you soon!” He jumped off the couch and started towards the hall but stopped. “Oh, I should probably grab a water, I told them I was getting a bottle.”

After a successful watch of the show, she had kept her promise to walk and talk. The other two stayed back leaving just her and Kel to chat. She hoped he would bring it up again because there was no way she was going to get all sentimental and weird on her own free volition. 

“I’m glad you’re getting your grades back up.” He said as they walked past the park. “It took me forever to get my history grade up but I wouldn’t have been able to play basketball if it stayed the way it was.”

“It wasn’t that bad. They weren’t really all that bad to begin with.” She said. 

He was wearing his typical sports shorts and tee, the orange of which seemed neon under the streetlights when they passed them. Insects fluttered freely around the lights and crickets chirped their cries of loneliness in the distance, life engulfing the small block they wandered on. 

“I’m glad it’s not freezing anymore.” She said, trying to keep up with his hurried pace. 

“Me too! It sucks when it’s that cold.”

“Yeah.”

“So, have you seen your mom lately?”

The question itself was simple, but the way it made her feel wasn’t. “No. I haven’t in a while.”

“Oh. You should try to keep in contact.”

“I don’t want to, truthfully. I feel like I'm less of an angry person the further away I am.” 

He frowned a little, but ultimately nodded. “I get it.” Only, he didn’t ‘get it.’ He was lucky enough to have a family that remained together, a brother he could confide in, a built-in best friend basically, gifts on the holidays, gifts on birthdays, and most importantly, support.
It used to piss her off so bad. How someone like him could act like he was so above her and be so clueless to the real world.
It took a lot of time to realize how wrong she really was. If anything, he knew how to handle it better. 

“How’s Hero? With his classes, I mean.”

“Oh he’s fine. I guess.” Kel stopped to sit on a bench. Not wanting to sit, she leaned against the hill’s stone fence that separated the sidewalk and the residential houses. It was a neighborhood that was so close to where they lived but almost seemed unreal. No one had ever walked the streets that led back there and she knew no one who lived there. Just five or so houses that could be seen from the street and a small white church.
“Honestly, I think he was enrolled last semester and didn’t go. His motivation doesn’t seem as strong. He’s slowly working his way back though. A couple classes here and there, but he’s going full time in the summer to make up for it.”

“Wait, is he going on that trip with us?”

“Trip? Oh shoot… oh you’re right. He might have forgot, I’ll remind him tonight.”

“Yeah, don’t forget, it won’t be the same without him.”

“You got that right. So about what I asked you earlier.” He began with that weird professor face and voice again. This time, she was equipped with the knowledge he was fooling around.

“Oh. Yeah, I forgot.” She had not actually forgotten, but she did want to make it seem like it wasn’t that big of a deal. “I don’t know. I don’t miss being at home, that’s for sure. It is kind of weird though. We don’t really talk that much, kind of keep to ourselves type of thing, but it’s really fun when both of us want someone to talk to. There’s always someone there and that person isn’t going to throw things at you or scream at you. It’s peaceful. Sometimes I feel like I’m taking advantage of him having a house though.”

“I see. I see.” Kel paused. “Yes. Okay, go on.”

She wanted to call him out on still talking weird but figured now was as good a time as ever to have an actual conversation about it. Like the show, it too felt like a trainwreck, only the train was still at the station and the track was unknown. She pushed herself up on the stone ledge, the navy blue of the night seeping into the grass. It was uncanny on that road, lights just far enough to create a dim atmosphere but bright enough to shine off of the trashcans and windows. Most of the houses on the street put the fake candles in their windows, a sentiment she couldn’t help but find comforting. 

“Why are you asking me this?” She tried not to stare at him like she was threatening him, something he seemed to appreciate. 

“Well, like I was trying to say earlier, my mom told me that it’s my duty to make sure my family is taken care of and helped whenever they need it. Turns out, Bruce isn’t that bad. You’re my family too, all of you are. Now, I dunno if I can actually help you or not, but I can try.”

He was such a ray of sunshine that it was kind of hilarious. The thing he said, about being family, seemed to touch something in her heart. The pinnacle of acceptance that always seemed so distant had suddenly become so close. 

“You’re so embarrassing.” She sighed. “But alright, I guess that answers it.”

“Do you still think about those years?”

“Hm?”

He was swirling his thumbs and watching the distance intently. “Not to sound mean, but about what all you did to him?”

She wanted to be angry, in fact she almost smarted him off. However, seeing his intensity about the question and his kindness moments prior, she thought about her answer first and found herself answering more openly than she would on a normal day.

“Well, yeah? All the time. I feel like a lot of it is my fault, why he is the way he is. It just sucks, I wanted so badly to be in the right but the entire time I completely lost myself. It’s weird, looking back I feel like I was a completely different person when I met you all, then again when I started bullying him… then again now. It’s like I don’t have a set identity I’m just doing and saying things without an actual purpose.”

“You mean like the taxes thing?”

“Huh!? What? Well… actually yeah, you’re completely right.” The similarities helped bring the weight off and she found herself smiling. “Like I don’t know if even now I’m doing the right thing, I keep trying to just do things but sometimes even that turns out to be some terrible thing. I thought I had good morals but it’s insane how twisted you become when you bury yourself with hatred and anger. Towards the end, I couldn’t even bring myself to try and understand him or even you guys, it just angered me so much. I kept thinking about why is everyone telling me I’m doing something wrong when all I’m trying to do is keep a memory alive. It was senseless to me, why would someone blur out those photos and avoid me constantly. It was like he didn’t want anything to do with me, same with you and Sunny. It still blows my mind that Sunny was the one who did that the entire time.”

“Yeah, even I don’t really get it, but I try not to think about it.”

For the first time, she wondered why the two of them hadn’t spent more time actually talking. He was the only other person save for Hero that she could talk to about it without hindering Sunny and Basil’s attempts to move on.

“Yeah. Me too. I kind of wish he had cussed at me or just hated me or something. It would have made more sense. The way he is now doesn’t make any sense. Living with him does help me worry less though, but I can’t say the same for Sunny. I don’t even know what to think about him. I just want him to be happy.”

“He seems happy.” Kel said. “Don’t get me wrong, he still has plenty to work through but I think his family is a big part of that. Mari may not be able to come back, but at least he has his mom and dad… and grandpa I guess.”

She laughed, her eyes beginning to well up. There was no way she was going to cry in front of Kel, she’d never defeat the softy allegations and he would end up punched in the mouth. “Why is he even here?”

“Oh, I actually know the answer to that question!” Kel beamed. “Sunny’s dad told my dad who told Hero who told me! I love when that happens. Anyways, I guess he doesn’t have that much longer to live so he wanted to come up and spend it with his family!”

“That’s… holy. That’s really freaking sad actually.” She hadn’t been expecting that. “Does Sunny know that?”

“I don’t know, if not I really don’t want to be the one to tell him. I’m sure they’ve talked about it though. He’s not really the type to say much, but it does seem like he has an idea. His mom’s doing a lot better at least. He does still sleepwalk sometimes, like a week ago, I woke up to him just standing over me again. It’s so creepy when he does that.”

“Basil’s been up at all hours, sometimes it’s hard to sleep because he’ll be doing something and I’ll hear it and get worried. It’s stressful.”

“So we have a friend who either sleeps too much or one that doesn’t sleep at all!”

“And one who snores so loud the others don’t stand a chance.”

“I know you didn’t just say that.” He narrowed his eyes but they bolted open a moment later. “Oh, did you know Basil was skipping journalism?”

“I didn’t actually. He never said anything to me about it. Which is weird because usually I condone that kind of thing. In fact, I celebrate it.”

He didn’t laugh on her cue but rather furrowed his eyebrows and hunched over a little. “Okay… I asked him about that class because Jordan said someone in the class was responsible for breaking into his house and breaking his stuff.”

“It was definitely Nate dude. They’re just trying to get you off his ass.” 

“I don’t know. I don’t disagree, but it does seem like one of those things that people do because they do it in a group. Like, have you ever been with a group of people and one minute you do something that’s kind of funny, but then everyone starts doing it together and it becomes like this whole thing and next thing you know it you’re getting chased out of the mall or something?”

She nodded. “Actually yes, I completely get that. One time, me and my friends went to this store where this weird guy worked. We kept taking turns asking him for the same made up thing and by the time poor Charlene got to him, he didn’t even wait for her to say something, he completely wigged out and we got banned. Granted we all were jeering from the other side of the store, but still.”

“Right. I don’t know, I think that maybe he’s just kind of bullied in general and someone went too far with it all and then because he was an easy target someone probably went to do one thing and everyone went nuts. It’s just a theory though, I’m just trying to make it make sense. Sorry if that seems dumb.”

“It’s not dumb. I still want to figure it out too actually. I think it's partially my fault though with the rumor that got out and stuff about Mari. Someone probably took it to heart and felt justified in it. Remember that time everyone started acting out in Mr. Johnson’s class because they thought he was involved in some murder case?”

“...No.”

“Oh. Well, basically no one would listen to him and make sly remarks. Turns out the guy was just there at the wrong time. He only had a rumor because he had to be questioned since he was nearby the incident. Still, before anyone knew that, they all felt like it was fine because after all, he was supposedly involved in a murder.”

“Are you positive you told Chris all that stuff?”

“Hm? I mean I’m pretty sure I told him a little bit. I seriously don’t think I told him everything, just like as vague as I could make it without giving enough away for him to have a clue what I was talking about. Then again I was drunk.”

“See, Hero seems to think that he did look in the files but blamed you because he didn’t want to get his uncle in trouble. Don’t you think it’s kinda weird he began blaming you after he said he looked in the files?”

“Yeah but he said I proved it because I admitted to saying it which means I had to have said it.”

“That or your fear of possibly saying something made him think it was true. I doubt his uncle wrote everything down too which is why part of his story is wonky and there’s next to no details. It just happens to align more with Basil and what he did than about Mari herself, which Hero thinks you’d focus on. This is all from his brain, not mine, mostly. I take credit for the you saying something to make him think it was true part.”

“I never thought about that.” She rubbed her arms, the night chill beginning to make itself known. “Either way, I shouldn’t have even mentioned it. I still want to punch him in the face too. Or maybe stomp on his hand or something. I’m so glad Sunny’s not in school with us, they would have gone after him too.”

“Probably. Don’t doubt him though, he can hold his own most of the time. One time I watched him take out… well, they were your friends, but still, you gotta admit, that’s impressive.”

She chuckled, but this one felt more fake. At first, the conversation had felt so cathartic, now it only filled her with dread. “Yeah, it is. They’re a tough bunch. We’re a tough bunch. I don’t know, I think you and me should find out who did this and put an end to it. He still gets picked on, you can tell. It’s my fault too, so I should do something to stop it.”

She jumped when she felt a pat on her back. “Don’t be so sad about it. You definitely had a role to play, no offense, but he’s kinda been picked on since forever. They see flowers and photography and think ah, that’s the perfect person to pick on. Now that he has this rumor attached to him, he’s practically a walking punching bag. Not that this is his fault, just that people suck. Besides, he seems really happy now. You’re partially to thank for that.”

She wasn’t fully convinced despite the truthfulness in his words. Still, a part of her longed for an identity that wasn’t just being a bully or a close friend, she wanted to do what was right without worrying if she was doing the wrong thing in the process. 

Chapter Text

There were so many things he was good at.
In the window of his first steps to when he had graduated high school, he had already accomplished so much. The trophies that once hung on his wall and overlapped each other on shelves were a reminder of such. Now, the only one that hadn’t been packed away was the pie trophy, the one he had given to Kel for his efforts.

He had always done excellent in school, exceeding both his teachers and parents expectations, participated in a variety of recreational activities and programs, helped with tutoring, and got invited to parties constantly.
Yet despite all of this, there was an emptiness that had been pried open the moment he had returned to Faraway and experienced his friends reuniting. What had at first felt like an ambitious yet entirely possible goal had unfolded itself into something deeper and more disturbing.
He still had a hard time looking at the neighbor's house.

“She’s around my age, probably a year younger.” Kel said, already going through his run down after stalking them. “Clarise. She’s kind of weird.”

“She probably thinks the same about you.” Hero shrugged. “You have been staring out your window a lot.”

“In my defense I’m gathering intel. Kind of important when your best friend moves out of there.”

“You’re right. What’s so weird about her?” It was in the middle of the night, but it wasn’t uncommon for them to talk relentlessly at this point. Kel’s Monday sleep schedule was awful and Aubrey was always sneaking him back inside after they’d all inevitably stay out for too long. The result of this was a contagious habit that Hero had contracted. 

“Well. For one, she’s really mean.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. Cris and I went and introduced ourselves and she kind of just brushed us off.”

“Maybe she’s shy.” Bruce said from the floor. 

“I forgot you were in here.” Hero whispered. 

Well, it’s just…” His younger brother went silent for a moment, but resumed factually. “She’s definitely not shy. She’s just mean. I thought maybe I did something wrong but nope. She’s just mean. Naturally Aubrey sees her as an enemy even though she hasn’t met her yet.”

“You shouldn’t bring her into this, who knows, maybe this girl was busy and didn’t want to be talked to.” Hero yawned.

“You never get it Hero. Some people really are just mean.”

The next morning as Kel left for school, he woke up in his normal terror. One more week until he was going to leave for school, fix the damage he had done to his GPA, hopefully manage to get back into the mindset he previously held, and pray that an internship wouldn’t be difficult to find given his absence.
The thought of returning, though making him completely miserable and running a sickness in his head, was at the same time relieving.
No more worrying his parents about when he’d graduate, no more worrying he was wasting time and on the brink of being a washed-out burn-out, and no more worrying that after everything, it had amounted to nothing.

Chapter Text

Well, that isn’t good, he thought to himself as he lifted his head off of his pillow. He had gone to bed fairly early that particular Tuesday, and by fairly early, he meant he lied to his dad claiming he was sick and went to his bed at four in the afternoon. It was now somehow nine in the morning. Granted, it was a decent time to wake up, but that only applied for having not slept over eight hours. Or twelve. 

His head felt full of liquid and heavy, as if his neck had suddenly become too weak to support its weight and although his eyes were sore every time he tried to shut them, he kept them shut anyway and went back to his pillow.

The thing that kept him there was simple. There was a plot, great music, a lack of responsibilities, and a ton of missions to complete. He knew it wasn’t the best thing to be doing, but it was so difficult with all the new content… a mental update in a way, the biggest one in years. Now there were more characters, less terror (a little), and when he woke up, he knew he still had his friends and family. 

Regardless, that didn’t help the odd hours floating by, his room washing in gold from the morning, turning amber in the evening, and ultimately blue at night on repeat.

Forcing himself to sit up in an attempt to flush away the intriguing thoughts, he wondered what that Tuesday would bring in store for him. Everyone was either going to be at school, work, or both that day which led to little time to hangout, if they would at all. Since starting jobs, he didn’t get to be around everyone like he used to be. He had only worked a handful of shifts and even on those days they couldn’t really talk. Aubrey was too quick and scary when she was in Work-Mode and Hero acted like some kind of political corporate entity when he was on shift, which was horrifying in every way possible. That kind of too-polished, plasticky, too-nice type of deal that he typically saw from door-to-door candidates or in the commercials where CEO representatives tried to be relatable. The customers ate it up though, and in an effort to be like Hero, he had tried it out a couple times. That was always when he got the worst tips. Basil had even pulled him aside to ask if he was alright. Apparently the deep political smile was too much. On the topic of Basil, Sunny had just tried to distance himself from him a little at work. It went like this. Either his friend would glue himself to him and neglect his tables because he was trying to talk about something that was incredibly time consuming, or he would be spiraling into an anxious mess because he was ‘in the weeds’. 

Aubrey said it was best to try and just focus because otherwise, none of them would get their tables taken care of.

Unfortunately, he didn’t work Tuesday which meant no Dairy Queen runs after work either, he’d have to find a way to slip the idea of it into his grandpa’s head. His dad had already left for work and his mother was supposed to go to an old friend’s house that afternoon.



He brought himself to stand up and stretched a little, dread slamming down on his shoulders with the weight of a semi-truck. He often wondered what he was doing there and why he was there. How it had come to be that there was an opportunity to stay despite it seeming impossible only moments before his dad had even pulled up beside him.
Now he would be going on a family vacation in a matter of weeks and spending that time with his friends who he had only recently realized he’d still have. 

He trailed his hand on the railing of the stairs, photos that had recently been hung up hanging lightly beside him. It was when he passed a certain photo that he had paused to look at it, tracing every detail of it in his mind.

“Sunny, is that you?” His grandpa said from the bottom of the stairs. He continued towards the living room, leaving the image behind him. 

He had learned that in order to convey what he really meant, he would have to learn an art that most learn when they are infants. That is, the art of speaking.

“Ice cream.” He blurted out, before sighing at himself. “Can we go?”

His grandpa nodded inquisitively. “Ice cream you say? What do you want that for?”

He clenched his fist that laid in his hoodie pocket. He had no idea how to respond to that.

“I like ice cream too.” His grandpa continued. “Did I ever tell you about your dad and the dog?”

He shook his head, still trying to think of a proper reasoning to get ice cream. 

“Well, long ago, back when your dad was a boy, he was told that if he did very good on a test he would get ice cream. He studied day and night, even read books that weren’t assigned by the teacher. Well, test day came and he passed with flying colors! We took him to the best shop in town, taking the dog too. When we went back outside, your father enjoying the ice cream, he tried to share it. The dog took a bite, but the bite was too large. He cried and cried but didn’t get another ice cream.”

Confused on how that had anything to do with the current situation, or even the meaning behind it in general, he smiled and nodded. 

“I don’t feel like driving. Maybe if you pass your classes.” And then the old man winked. A straight up kick in the chest.  

Pouting, as an unlicensed individual would do when not granted a right to leave the area, he found himself wanting to just imagine eating ice cream and sleeping the way away out of pure spite. 

He never did get his ice cream that night, and his dad came home late and began drinking which resulted in him singing off-key to the radio and screaming at anyone who told him to knock it off… which was to say everyone in the house. Sunny didn’t even have to say anything, just his look alone had apparently given his dad the idea that it was awful and needed to stop. He went to bed that night imagining a life where the house was loud but in a way that was fun, like a piano playing softly or reruns of the television with the soft laughter of his friends. 

When Wednesday rolled by, it came like a storm. He was definitely going to be put on trial when he came back home, but for now his dad was likely still in the garage doing God Only Knew. He had snuck out, walked down the street, been picked up by Kel and Hero, and was shipped off to Basil’s. 

“Oh, that’s kind of weird.” Hero said as he pulled to the side of the road. 

“Is that Polly’s car?” Kel asked. It was in fact, her car. He remembered how her license plate had butterflies on it and the small gem that hung from the mirror. 

The answers to all of their burning questions were immediately shown when the three of them stumbled in, the women sitting at the table reading through a small pink book.

“Hey Polly, I didn’t expect to see you here!” Hero greeted, side-eyeing Aubrey. “Are you visiting?”

She wasn’t. How Hero had forgotten already that there was supposed to be a caretaker since day one blew his mind. He kept this to himself. 

“Yes, just visiting.” She smiled. 

He looked at her to see if she was kidding. There was no way she had just stopped in. It had been months since anyone was able to reach his parents, but surely by then she had to have heard something. Aubrey was sitting across from her at the table, the small light that hung over them creating an illusion of warmth where he felt there was only chill.

“Oh, well it’s great to see you then!” Hero pulled up a chair. “What have you been getting into?”

She smiled softly and fidgeted with her bracelet. “Well, I took on a job a few months ago taking care of this sweet old lady. Her name is Rhoda, she really loves Patsy Cline. That’s really been it, but I do miss it here a lot.”

“Of course you do!” Kel cheered. “We’re pretty great, how could you not?”

“You’re absolutely right.” She chuckled. “I was supposed to come back, and I would have too, but by then I was struggling to pay my bills so I picked up this job. I can’t just leave her, she’s had too many terrible caretakers in the past. Really, really bad caretakers. I’ve recently been getting involved with the AEA, which has really put things into perspective.”

“What’s that?” Hero put his fist in his cheek, a sign he was intrigued. 

“They’re the Advocates for Elderly Abuse. It’s so heartbreaking seeing what’s happening. I promise I would have come back had I not picked up this job, I really wish they would have called me before I did, it really weighs on me, so I like to check in off and on.”

Aubrey groaned, frowning when she looked at Sunny. He looked away quickly, unable to hold her gaze.
“I wish they did too. Do they just not care or something?”

Polly looked behind her, presumably to see if Basil was listening, but he wasn’t in the room. “I don’t know how to answer that, Aubrey. You should really try to get him to call them though, you both need someone here. There’s no reason for both of you to be working and going to school with everything you have going on. It would be nice for you both to have someone to look after you, to make dinner, and importantly, to keep you both safe.”

“Eh… I don’t really care about anyone else, they all usually suck. Rhoda sounds like she’s a lucky lady.” She replied with a shrug. 

“Well…” Polly grinned again, but Sunny could tell she was sad. “That’s very nice of you to say, but I’m really nothing special. There are plenty of good caretakers. I’m actually more oriented to elderly care anyway, I’m not really specialized when it comes to teenagers.”

“I thought you were good.” She said, more quietly this time.

The absence of his friend had started to bother him, so he snuck out of the conversation just as they were beginning to discuss what-ifs and maybes. Creeping down the hall and to the right, he knocked lightly on Basil’s door. It wasn’t latched and slowly swung open revealing a lump on the bed. Lurking over, he watched, debating on saying something to the sleeping figure.
It had been a personal goal to talk more, to use words to help make hard situations easy, but so far all it was doing was making easy situations hard. Take in consideration, this exact moment, as he stared at Basil trying to say something but unable to find any words.

“He…llo?” He whispered, nudging him slightly. Basil stirred before shooting up, a shriek escaping from him.

“Ah! Sunny, hi! What… are you doing?” He asked, eyes locked on the only eye he could make contact with. 

“Why are you asleep?”

“Oh, you know that feeling… the one where it feels like there are hot circles around your eyes and your head is pounding? I have that.” He explained stiffly. “S-Sorry, I told Aubrey to send the message along, well… I thought I told her. Maybe I forgot.”

“Ok.” Sunny nodded, turning on his heel. He was proud, he had received an answer and had asked the question as well. It was a job well done, until it wasn’t.

“Wait, what’s wrong?” 

He turned his head, confused on how whatever he said seemed to show that he was angry or upset. “I’m fine.” He settled on. Short, simple, got the point across. 

“That’s what upset people say when they’re not fine.” He smiled at him from his bed. “It’s alright, you can talk to me!”

Grimmacing on the inside at how hard it really was to say the right thing- even if it felt like he was saying the right thing, he realized he had now trapped himself and would have to find something to complain about, otherwise Basil would think there was something going on.

“My dad keeps making wooden dolls in the garage and I think it’s creepy.”

Basil’s face dropped, the darkness of his room doing little to conceal the confusion. “O-Oh… Um… does he force you to compliment them and tell him he did a great job while screaming at you?”

Great. Now they were both confused. He sighed at himself, there was no way he had created this. 

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry, what’s wrong?”

“Not you, me.”

“What?”

“Sighing at myself.”

“Oh, alright.”

He felt his soul crush itself under the weight of awkwardness that had now formed. Was he supposed to continue? Was he supposed to just walk away?
Then, the answer to his problems spawned when he remembered something his grandpa always did that always felt so natural and casual. 

“Whelp. I better head off.”

Basil paused but nodded, seemingly accustomed to his exit strategy. “A-Alright… I’ll see you later!”

“Later.” Sunny said, using that line from a movie about some cool kids that he couldn’t remember the name of off the top of his head. Now he was both cool and casual. And incredibly awkward and weird. There was always that side of the coin.

Emerging in the living room, Aubrey was saying her goodbyes to Polly, and Kel and Hero were attempting to make a blanket tent with the wide range of quilt options.

“Aubrey, dang it.” Kel said. “Can’t you invest in some decent hair ties? These ones suck!”

“Can’t you invest in your own hair ties?”

“You won’t need them soon anyways if you keep dying your hair…”

“Do my roots looked dyed to you? Idiot.”

“I forgot what your natural hair color is.”

“If you don’t cut it out you’ll be the one bald.”

Their threats remained steady and constant throughout the evening, even in the warm glow of the battery-operated lantern under the quilts. As the three others spoke with each other about things like work, school, and sports, he found himself unable to join in. His eyes grew heavier by the minute despite it only being six.

Although it was senseless, almost an insult towards his friends as they currently were, a strong part of him longed to fall asleep, or at least to be given the opportunity to close his eyes. Though they were real, and he cared deeply for them, there was something that was so different from how they lived in his head.

For months he had taken careful attention not to fly back in his head. It worked at first, the events and drama that had unfolded throughout the previous year taking up enough room. Now that it had somewhat diffused, he was left with his brain aching for a story, crying out to grab something that wasn’t there. It was ironic, the way that he could be doing what he’d dreamt of doing for so long, yet still missing the people had either never met or would never meet again.

“Whatcha thinking about, Sunny?” Kel asked, then, suddenly everyone was looking at him, waiting for an answer. 

His body shrugged for him and his chin found itself tilting slightly to the side before his words could have a chance to come out. 

“Gotcha, sucks Basil can’t be out here. I was hoping we could all get into the nitty gritty of work. I should be there soon so I need all the information and juicy secrets I can get!”

Aubrey rolled her eyes. “There’s nothing that juicy there anyways. It’s just a bunch of middle-aged people getting mad at each other over stupid things.”

She was correct with her answer, despite him only having worked a handful of shifts. The last time he was there, Samone straight started talking about Violet unprompted. Violet even walked by a few times but that didn’t stop Samone from ranting and raving about something so miniscule. It would only be a matter of time before she targeted someone in his own group that he was certain things would go down. Especially if that person was Aubrey, she’d jump down that woman’s throat. Kel would probably not care that much because wasn’t the type to let things get to him, but if Samone targeted one of his friends, he’d probably get mad. 

It was so hard to tell. He hoped he wouldn’t have to experience that. 

“She’s been talking about how Basil isn’t taking enough tables.” Hero shook his head, much to Sunny’s horror.

“She what?” Aubrey furrowed her brows. Kel leaned in closer too, intrigued. 

“You’re kidding me, they’re gonna pick on him? Isn’t Samone like fifty?”

“I wouldn’t worry about it too much.” Hero said casually. “She does this all the time and no one really takes her seriously.”

Sunny pulled himself closer together, but tried to move as little as possible to avoid putting any attention on himself. He hadn’t really thought about what he would do if the hate train had crossed an intersection with him. There wasn’t really anything he could do anyways, he was too quiet and too cautious.

Aubrey groaned. “Why does it always have to be like this. He didn’t even do anything to her.”

“Actually he did.” Hero said, frowning. “I can’t remember what he said but it was passive aggressive. See, with most people they accept the passive part and get a little annoyed but brush it off. Samone takes it and runs with the aggressive part. She was being accusatory about something and he kind of brushed her off. She’ll forget all about it as soon as she makes another enemy though.”

“I’m passive aggressive with her all the time.” Aubrey said. 

“I don’t know, I’ve been keeping an eye on her though.” Hero said. “She knows better than to talk anything bad on any of you to me, but that doesn’t stop her from going to the others. I wouldn’t be surprised if she said things about all of us, which is kind of a good thing. It means she’s talked so much garbage on everyone that no one really cares about her opinion anymore.”

“I’ll show ‘em.” Kel said, flexing his muscles. “Don’t worry you guys, I got this.”

“She’s even mad at me.” Hero laughed. “She said I suck up to the bosses and take all the parties from her.”

Kel smirked. “ You? Suck up to bosses? Please. That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life. You would never!”

“Well… it can’t be that bad…”

When it had gotten late enough to go home, Kel and Hero had again given him a lift. They dropped him off at the end of the road again and he walked quietly down the sidewalk towards his house. His stomach began to churn at the thought of returning, the lights in the house dim in the resting sky. He slipped through the front door, quietly shut it behind him by holding the knob and releasing it slowly, and began to creep up the stairs. He didn’t make it very far when his father emerged from the shadows at the top.

“There you are, where were you? You didn’t answer anyone’s calls. You can’t just sneak out like that.” His dad demanded, wrinkles forming on his forehead. “You’re in trouble now, and completely behind on your schedule. If you want to keep your freedom, you have to follow the rules.”

“Sunny!?” His jaw tightened as she ran behind him, clutching the rail for support. “Where were you?”

Needless to say, he spent the remaining night in bed doing just as he had set out to do since he woke up. To close his eyes and drift off, experiencing connections where they had been severed.

Chapter Text

Reading Music (Spotify)

When Hero left the next week, a goodbye party was held both at home and at the party. On both of these accounts, he had smiled the entire way through, on one, he had cried.

“Come on, you miss us already?” Kel jokingly slapped his brother’s back. The day was warm and they had taken refuge at the old hangout spot. A light breeze kept Basil on edge as he watched the two brothers slap each other’s hands away. 

“Well, yeah, I kinda do.”

“We’ll be right where we left off. Hey, you know what’s crazy. Last time you came here, we…” Kel glanced over at Aubrey and Basil looked down at his hands to avoid the secondary embarrassment. 

Prior to attending the gathering, he had tried to take an edge off noting that it was important. Hero’s last day in town before leaving needed to be a good one, no one should seek to make any scene, freaking out about some subtle cut. What was perhaps the most insulting part of the equation was that he hadn’t particularly felt terrible prior to or even during his salutary confessions, but rather afterwards.

“Do you have to bring that up at every opportunity?” He heard Aubrey snap. “Jesus.”

“I wasn’t thinking!”

“That wasn’t even the last time anyways you moron.”

“Yes it… oh. No it wasn’t.”

“Is the punch…”

For a moment he was certain that someone was watching him, but when he turned around, slowly so as not to alert the watcher, he was met with an emptiness in the woods. 

Just as he thought he was safe, something jabbed his side and he pushed himself back with a gasp.
Embarrassingly, he realized his overreaction when Sunny, with a finger sticking out, jumped back as well. He stared at him, the darkness of his pupils seeming hostile. 

“Okay?”

“...Okay.” Basil nodded, confused.

“No, are you okay?”

“Certainly!” 

It was the warmth of knowledge that had taken him in and had only left behind small portions of uncertainty afterwards. Still, he couldn’t help but notice a slight difference in himself that caused him to grow uncomfortable. It was, maybe, the disaster of self-awareness.

“Hey, Basil. Get a load of this.” Kel rolled onto his side, head resting on his hand and elbow stuck like a stake in the ground. “Can you get this as a photo? I know you have your camera on you.”

Like an automated response, he reached inside his bag and looked at the camera. Suddenly, his heart began to pound and the machine started to look more complex and unordinary. 

“Um. Sunny, I’m doing this right… right?” He smiled, pressing the screen to his eye. 

Another sharp jab and he glanced at him. He gestured for the power button and Basil rushed to turn it on, hoping no one noticed such a blunder. The photo was snapped and the camera spit out the film which he rushed to put in his bag.

“Why are you putting it away?” Kel asked, sighing a breath of relief when he got out of his pose. 

“The sun.” Basil answered. “It will mess up the quality.”

“Oh, alright.” He nodded, though seeming a little dejected that he wouldn’t be seeing it right away.

It was at that moment he realized that everything was wrong. What he had planned to happen was a lapse in thought, a type of gap that would silence one side of the internal monologue and replace it with seemingly obvious solutions. Now, it seemed as though he had upset Kel by simply handling the film with care. For whatever reason, though he didn’t think it usually would have, he found himself mildly irritated. 

“Well everyone,” Hero stood up from the blanket, silencing the group. Aubrey’s friends had come along, spending most of the time tormenting Kel or screaming at each other. They too stood quietly, waiting for him to speak.
“Thank you all very much for planning this for me. Truthfully, I didn’t want to go back because Kel was right, I was going to miss you all. I can’t begin to express how… well, how happy it makes me that we can all be together. Sometimes, I feel like the luckiest guy in the world for having such great friends.”

“...Gross.” Aubrey coughed.

“Softy.” Kel muttered.

“So I’m going to go back to school and do my best so I can get out of there sooner! I’ll see you all next Summer!”

“That’s a whole year!” Kim shouted. “Why would you want to go to school full time, are you nuts?”

He chuckled. “I have to make up for lost time. Besides, college isn’t so bad. If I wasn’t drowning in debt it would probably be even more fun!”

The crowd chuckled but there was a slight waver to Hero’s disposition. Whatever it was that had caused it seemed to disappear when he continued to talk. “So watch out for each other, take care of each other, and Kel’s got my number if any of you ever need to talk. I think I’m sticking to the medical field, but I sort of want to study psychiatry. I guess we will have to see if I can handle it!” 

“Oh, that’s kind of cool,” Angel said. “Isn’t that like, where you become a school counselor?”

“Um… well, not exactly.”

“Angel, you idiot.” Kim rolled her eyes. “It’s where you study people’s brains. You know, like crazies. They study stuff to help people.”

“Oh. OH. I knew that.”

“Sure you did.”

He wondered if it was just a figment of speech or if there was a chance that she truly thought that people who attended therapy services really were crazy. It was a question he had wondered about himself, though whenever it was brought up be it through passing or during a chilled night in a bedroom, he had started to fake optimism.

The rest of the evening was spent with snacks and Aubrey and Hero had walked towards the pond, the stars of the night watching over everyone beneath their glimmer. He watched for a moment as they pointed outwards into the water and the way they spoke with their hands.
Sunny had fallen asleep against the tree and Kel was on his way to falling asleep too. It had been a very good night, though one with its consequences. He could feel it.

When he and Aubrey retired for the night, they both went their separate ways silently in the hall, neither one of them exchanging a word. He shut the door quietly behind him and sat down on his bed. It had grown late while they were out there, but regardless, he knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep.
Still, there was plenty to do. The garden needed a complete makeover, he had neglected it in March fearing for another frost, then he needed to pack for the vacation they were supposed to take, though he couldn’t remember when that was. Then there was the work clothes that needed washed, the counters that needed wiped, and the floors that needed mopped.
Seeing as it was Monday night and there was only a few days left of school, it would likely be better to wait it out.
Then again, somehow, mostly thanks to his friends, he had passed junior year and made it out alive. If it hadn’t been for a workaround regarding his psychiatrist lamenting to the teachers about letting him turn in late work, he also probably wouldn’t have made it. What this ended up doing was giving him an outlet to procrastinate, something he had gotten into a terrible habit with.

He brought himself back up and decided he wouldn’t be able to rest if the kitchen was a disaster and made his way to the room. Unfortunately, when he opened the cabinet under the sink to fetch out the cleaning supplies, it was a total disaster. He hadn’t noticed it before, but there was little to no structure and everything was kind of everywhere. 

Though after he had pulled every object out, scrubbed the boards, and then began to scrub the cleaners that went in there to ensure everything was cleaned and essentially set back to square one, Aubrey had emerged from the hallway to give him a weird look.

“Dude. It’s four in the morning, what are you doing?” Her pink hair spilled out of a loose ponytail and her face seemed too tired to look fed up.

“Huh?” He glanced at the microwave, heart dropping. It had just been eleven, there was no way. “I haven’t been out here that long.”

“Please. Go to bed. You’ve been keeping me up all month doing this.”

“I’m almost done.” He said, more to himself than her.

She groaned but in the moment, it sounded more like a stab in the ears. “Basil. For the love of Christ go to bed please. We have to get up in like two hours.”

“I can’t just leave all of this here.” He said, raising his eyebrows. It should have been obvious, cleaners and creatures didn’t mix well together. “I don’t… I- What do you want me to do about this?”

“...Put it… in the cabinet? Why are you cleaning the Febreze anyways?”

He wanted to ask her why she wasn’t cleaning the Febreze… or the counters… or the floors, but stopped himself, knowing he didn’t have the backbone to say it.

“Are you going to answer me?”

He was certain she could hear his annoyance as he put the cleaners back into the cabinet mildly aggressively, and softly slammed the cabinet door and only slightly swung his door shut.
What she couldn’t hear were the thoughts that ran in his head asking why he was so angry in the first place and what was causing this reaction.

The next day they stood at the bus stop once more without any conversation. The uncomfortable thing was, she kept looking over at him then back down at her shoes. 

“Are you alright?” He finally asked after the fourth glance.

“Yeah. I’m cool.” She shrugged, looking forward. 

And that was the end of the conversation.

All throughout school she continued to act strange, but not entirely mean by any matter. Even Kel had begun to act suspicious. Always jolting around and laughing, there just seemed to be something off that he couldn’t pinpoint.
He trudged through the trenches of class, heavy minded on this situation when he found himself at the door of the journalism classroom. Having spent the better half of the last many months avoiding it, he wondered what had brought him there that day. Perhaps it was muscle memory, or maybe another automated response that occurred without him noticing. Regardless, everyone had seen him and it was too awkward to just walk away.
He took his seat and quietly wrapped his hands around his backpack on his desk and waited for class to begin.

“Long time no see.” Lauren beamed, rushing to a metal cabinet. “You never got your yearbook!” She slid it over to him and he pulled it back towards him, wondering if there was a hidden motive of announcing that so loud. The cover was a nice deep green hue, but he didn’t want to open it in front of everyone. One movement could bring on massive amounts of attention he didn’t need or want. 

“We’re not really doing much.” Lauren said, taking a seat beside him. “There’s only a few days left and I sent some of the others out to get some celebratory photos for the spring magazine. It’s not going to be printed and handed out until next year but it keeps us busy. Where have you been? Are you doing alright?”

With the rumors that had circulated across his group of friends, he wondered what kind of rumors or even actions had been taken by the journalism group.
“Sorry.” He muttered, not knowing what else to say. “I guess I just wanted to focus on my other classes. I got behind.”

She laughed, but it was the simple kind of laugh that didn’t hold malice. “You’re fine. I think I know the real reason. I wish you would have come back sooner though, so I could tell you whatever you’ve been hearing is not true.”

A few others had shuffled in, one of which being Cris. She noticed this and lowered her voice, but it still felt like she was screaming. “We’ll talk later, kay? Meet me at… Oh, just pop over by Gino’s after school and I’ll be there.”

He relayed this information to Aubrey so that she knew where he was going after school and she had responded by insisting he let her follow him. Somewhat relieved, he agreed.

The wind was still chilly, sweeping through their hair and cradling the branches of the trees.

“So, Nate still giving you a hard time?” She asked, kicking the rocks in front of her.

“Not really,” He answered. “Just small things but it doesn’t bother me much anymore, I got you guys.” He smiled, knowing it sounded cheesy.

“So, what is she planning to tell you?” She asked, ignoring the sentiment.  

He glanced over to see if he could read her expression but drew a blank when he didn’t see any notable emotions. 

“Oh, I guess about my house getting broken into. Or, I don’t know.”

“I’m surprised you’re going to talk to her. Gotta give you credit there, six months ago you would have avoided her.”

“Well… I don’t know.” 

They rounded the corner into the parking lot, reality smacking him in the face. “Can you stay out here?” He asked, turning to her suddenly.

“What? Why? Can’t I just pretend like I don’t know you?”

“Ah, well… it just feels awkward. It’s already going to be weird and with you there and knowing you’re listening in. You know?” He smiled, hoping she’d get the point. Her nod and heavy sigh told him she’d go through with it, even if it was something she didn’t want to do.

The dining room felt so much lighter than Rosso’s, though he could attribute that to the pop music that peeled out from the speakers or the neon signs that flashed like fireworks on the walls.
Sitting in a booth closest to the JukeBox, he noticed Lauren leaning over the table and waving towards him. Sanity escaped his grasp for a moment, the subtle madness of what he was approaching drilling holes in his knees. Regardless, he smiled and walked over to her, successfully fooling her into believing he was laid back or confident. 

“Hey there, sorry to drag you all the way out here. My dad gets off in an hour or so, so I usually come here to do my homework.”

“Oh, he works at Gino’s?” Basil asked, feigning interest. It was always easier to get someone to talk about themselves and people loved talking about themselves. 

“Yep! He owns this shop, my brother is Cesar! We have another store on South Side too.”

He nodded, having no idea who Cesar was. “That’s pretty cool!”

“Not really.” Her face fell flat and for a moment he was embarrassed until she laughed it off. “Just kidding, it’s awesome. We have some really awesome regulars but we have a pretty hard time keeping staff.”

“Why?”

“Well, a variety of things. One, my dad is pretty hard to work for. He’s got that Italian rage you know? Next, Cesar has the worst handwriting so when he leaves instructions out for newbies, they can never read it, then back to issue One, my dad gets mad. It’s an endless cycle of hire and fire.”

“I see.” Now that he thought about it, Kel had mentioned Sunny worked a couple jobs. He wondered if he had ever encountered a scary pizza man.

“Anyhow, I brought you over here for a specific reason. The first, you’re going to fail journalism, but I am guessing you already know that.”

He realized at that moment he hadn’t bothered to make any eye contact which he was certain she had picked up on. He forced his eyes up to her, nodded, and quickly looked back down at his hands. It was truly something worth studying, how Kel or Aubrey… even Hero could just lock eyes with a person and feel nothing about it. “Yeah… you’re right.”

“I don’t mean that in an insulting way, I do hope you will join again next year. I won’t be there, but that also means some of the others won’t either. All I wanted to tell you is that I’m really sorry about what happened! I know rumors have been floating around and stuff, and I won’t lie, everyone was intrigued. People love drama. It died out pretty quickly though.”

That was anothering a lot of people seemed so keen on doing. Instead of reaching straight to the point, they went on stories, buffers in a way. He couldn’t deny his guilt in the same, often neglecting to even cut to the chase at all, but it was nerve-wracking waiting to hear what someone was trying to really say.

She continued, “I didn’t break into your house. I don’t really know you that well and I’m not risking my background check to play some stupid prank. In fact, that rumor got so wide-spread that I was questioned about it by the school. Whoever did it clearly didn’t want you in the classroom though, and I think I know why. As you know, our team loves to search for stories and things not just for the school newspaper, but also for our own time. Being a part of journalism helps aid us in getting information easier. Would you be more prone to trusting a high schooler asking for random information for seemingly no reason, or a high schooler in journalism trying their best to be responsible? I’ll let you answer that on your own time. Point is, I think there’s a good chance that Chris is probably involved in this one way or another. He skips constantly so we never know where he is, and it might be circumstantial, but he wasn’t in journalism during the day your house got broken into. It’s important to me we find out who did it. Not just for your sake, but my own.”

He knew he probably looked dumb. She sat with her perfect posture, her written work glowing with highlights, shirt pressed and ironed, hair combed and falling like silk from her head. He sat across from her an antithetical and blotchy mess. Unkempt hair, haplessly sitting scrunched up and awkward. 

“Why do you think he did it? If you don’t mind me pressing.” He asked, hoping she’d have more to say.

She brushed her long hair behind her shoulder. “Well.” Then she sighed, almost as if she was ashamed of herself. “There was this pretty crazy rumor going around. Chris started talking about how he found some things but he wouldn’t tell us exactly what they were until he and your friend broke up. That’s when he got petty and started a string of things. You know how he is. He talks to a girl, gets her feeling special, leaves her randomly, talks a lot of trash. Ridiculous. I bet he took it out on you because you and his ex hangout a lot. Probably grabbed Nate along too.”

“Truthfully.” He put his fist on his cheek, already exhausted and completely burnt out from the conversation. “I don’t really think about it much anymore. I’m pretty happy with how things are right now, so whoever did it, I hope they find peace.”

“That’s good.” She smiled. “Well, in the way that forgiveness is good. Take care of yourself, alright?”

“Alright.”

Aubrey was frantic when he left through the front door, a peremptory tone racing through every sentence she strung together.

“Tell me, you have to tell me every single word she told you. Go into story-mode. I need how she was sitting, what she was doing, how many times she blinked in a given minute.”

“Sure!” He couldn’t help but feel somewhat relieved someone was willing to listen to him replay the entire events. “Let’s wait until we’re home though… just in case someone overhears us.”

Chapter Text

Kel tightened his shoe laces, muttering obscenities under his breath as Coach Peterson screamed from the distance. 

“YOU CAN DO ANNNYYTHINNGGG!” He would say it repeatedly as if it was meant to put them into a trance. He ran alone that day, though someone was quickly catching up to him.

“Last practice, huh?” Jordan joined his side looking forward. “You playing next year?”

“Yeah. You?” He asked. 

“Yeah.”

They ran in silence for awhile, the tension of the previous months starting to lower. “Sorry.”

Kel looked over at him noting there was no display of mischief on his face. “For what?”

“I really meant it when I said I didn’t come over just to talk crap. I really did want to hangout with you. I hope we can still be friends, I didn’t realize how it came off until later that night. I should have trusted you enough to tell you about all that.”

He laughed, picking up his pace as they grew closer to the final lap. “You’re good man, sorry I got worked up about it too. Sensitive subject.”

“I get it. Hey, did you see Cris today?”

“Huh? No what’s up?”

It was only after he began describing what she was wearing that he realized he was talking about one beautiful woman and not some cruddy lunatic.

“Blue does suit her!” Kel said. “It really brings out her eyes… and her hair!”

“You should ask her out.”

“HUH? No way. If we break up she lives right next door to me.”

“But if you date her… you live right next door to her.” He wiggled his eyebrows. 

“Oh true… true. You always have had good perspectives.” Kel said. “Maybe I will. And by the way, of course we’re still friends. I never thought otherwise.”

“ Sweet. You should come over to my place when you can. My dad’s got a really cool workshop and we have a disc golf area out back. It’s pretty fun… a whole lot funner than regular golf.”

“Regular golf is so boring. I’m convinced people only play that to get sunburns.”

“You’d be completely correct.”

After practice had ended, he found himself unable to step away from Jordan and sense the same feeling from him as well. It had truly been too long. Practice for the general year had technically ended, but with a new coach in line, he seemed to be antsy to start his nonsense by hosting a weekly workout. It was more of a club than anything, but anyone who wanted to do good in the sport went. He supposed that was another reason he was so intrigued by Jordan even showing up at all.

“Carrie says that she thinks Cris likes you as well.” He said suddenly as they walked to Kel’s car.

“She’s out of her mind. There’s no way.”

“Why not? I mean sure, you smell bad and need a new pair of shoes-”

“Hey, that’s funny coming from you.”

“Just gotta make sure your head doesn’t get too big.”

Spring was finally there to stay, the sky was split into two, the summonings of a rain storm heading their way, sprawling across the blue sky. 

“Well, I better get rocking and rolling.” Kel said, swinging open his car door. “I’m going to swing by Sunny’s for a few. Everyone else is lame and has to work.”

“Gross.”

“I know right.” He said, silently crying that he was still unemployed. 

“Well I’ll catch you later. 

That evening, it was just after five, he knocked on the front door of his best friend’s house. The door opened some time after to a disgruntled old man.

“Who are yew?” He asked. Just as Kel was going to answer, the old man coughed and had to push his dentures back into his mouth. It was a surreal experience. 

“Um… it’s me, Kel…” He said, shocked Sunny’s grandpa didn’t recognize him.

“Boy, you need to cut that hair, you look like a woman.”

He was promptly shoved out of the way but Sunny who motioned for him to step inside. He did, now feeling slightly self conscious about his hairstyle. Was it true? Unfortunately, he couldn’t trust any of his friends to give him a reasonable answer. Especially Aubrey.

“Hey Sunny! You look nice today!” He said, walking past him. Since his mom had moved in, the rooms had so much color and felt far more vibrant. “I’m still thinking about something for us to do. Maybe we can just walk around town for a while? It’s been a long time. You never know what’s out there!”

He spun around and Sunny was already walking towards his shoes. A promising sign. 

The sun had become a beacon of warmth in that month, spraying the surrounding area with a convivial atmosphere. Dogwoods had lost a lot of their white blossoms, now unfolding into a lush green, the sidewalks were bright and…

“Angel…” He sighed at the familiar Kel Stinks! Statement that had been scribbled in orange. “I’m gonna get him one of these days.”

“Yes.” Sunny said.

It was always great when he spoke, it was as uncommon as finding remaining holiday chocolate and as sweet as such too. After months of hardly hearing a word from him, it had seemed he had grown more comfortable with expressing his thoughts, even if he was short with his words and quiet with his stance. 

“Ha… Aubrey and Basil are working. How lame.” He laughed, pleased for what felt like the first time he was left out in the employment sector. “You know, crazy thing happened.”

Sunny glanced up at him inquisitively. 

“So, you’re not going to believe this. Mom said I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone but you don’t count. Bruce is no longer my roommate… he’s Hero’s. Hero has no clue Bruce took off to school as well, I don’t know why everyone’s hiding that from him. I think I’ll call and tell him anyways though. If he doesn’t already know. Mom seems to think Hero will be happy about it. I think otherwise. Hero’s pretty good at putting on a face, he’s horrible when it comes to actually saying how he really feels.”

Sunny nodded. “True.”

They crossed over to the park, but Kel didn’t want to go there. Instead, they continued to walk past the Othermart plaza and through the parking lots filled with crushed fountain drink cups and cans. “Man, we should pick some of this up. That trash lady might still be there.” He said, the idea suddenly crossing his mind. 

It was the perfect day for some hard labor, lemonade, and ultimately, Dance Dance Revolution. As they threw the trash in Othermart bags, conversing of their day to day grievances and excitements, the sun continued to dance in the sky.
He was unprepared for orange to begin to sweep across them and bounce off the windows of the vehicles around them. The air had grown somewhat chilly by this point, and the moon had began to creep up from the horizon. 

“Let’s go see if she’s there!” Sunny nodded, wiping sweat off of his forehead. On this particular day, he had decided to wear his eyepatch.

Which stirred up trouble with Mikhael. 

“Well, well, well.” THE MAVERICK said from the fountain, scaring the both of them. 

“Oh no…” Kel muttered, already feeling the effects of Mikhael’s unnecessarily cringy aura. 

“What?” He tilted his head.

“Nothing. What’s up?”

Mikhael stretched… or it looked like he was stretching at first. No one was prepared for him to throw his arm out, wrist bent back, and wooshing sound effects to fill their ears.
“What do you think? Angel’s gonna have a blast with that one, we’ve worked really hard on it you see. Do you have anything to compare to that?”

Kel blinked, confused. “Um… What are we comparing?”

The wigged-being let out a long and dramatic sigh. “Kel… Kel.” Then, he laughed a proud and pretentious laugh. “Just as I expected. I see you have your eyepatch back on.” 

He redirected his gaze to Sunny.

During school, it had occurred to Kel that Sunny was slowly warming up to talking to everyone, something that required practice no doubt. What hadn’t occurred to him was the fact that practice was really only good if it was consistent. He was in no way prepared to deal with Mikhael’s antics on that day. 

“He’s missing an entire eye, Mikhael.”

Sunny stood there silently, watching THE MAVERICK who was growing antsy. 

“W-Well. That’s cool. I guess. But not as cool as mine. Hold on.” He began to fish in his pockets.

“We’re good… wait.” Kel squinted his eyes. “Do you seriously carry one around in your pocket!?”

Mikhael paused, a look of embarrassment stretching across his face. It seemed he didn’t want to be perceived in such a way, but ultimately, he doubled down. 

“Well yeah? I’m always prepared Kel, you should learn something from me.”

“Alright. Well, we’re leaving-”

“No wait! I mean… Look, I know it’s weird that someone like me is asking someone like you for help, but I need your help. Lend me five dollars.”

“What?” He bent his head back, wondering what he had done that was so bad to fate that it would put him in this predicament. The arcade wasn’t going to stay open all night. “No way, clean up some trash and that lady at the park will give you money.”

“...What?” He looked suspicious. “That’s kind of creepy.”

“No it’s not?” Kel shot back, confused on how that would be remotely creepy. “She cares about the environment. Recycling is a concept and litter is for losers.”

“Okay, okay, whatever. Look, I just need five dollars and I need you to tell Aubrey to come over tonight.”

“She’s at work.” 

“I know she’s at work she’s my friend.”

“Then… why don’t you tell her?”

He felt a poke from his left, Sunny slowly nodding his head towards the park.

“That’s none of your business.” Mikhael replied, flicking his wig hairs back. 

“Then… why would I-”

“PLEASE!” Mikhael pleaded. 

He sighed, knowing full well he was going to help him out. “Alright fine I’ll tell her.”

“And make sure she stops by alone, it’s a sacred conversation, one that other ears mustn’t hear. Evil lurks everywhere.”

“Alright I’ll tell her.” 

It took awhile before they were able to actually walk away, but when they did, both of them let out a breath.
“Man, that guy is a dork. Remember that time he tried to get us to fight him?”

There was something that resembled a smile that had formed on Sunny’s face. It was light, just short of what it takes to go from expressionless to the start of a grin. 

Getting him out of his house was objectively the most important thing, and since the first day he had managed to get him to leave his front door, he had tried to continue that. Not only because of the importance of their brotherhood, but because of the importance of being a good friend.

The lady was there! It was a total relief to hand her the gross bags and look proudly at the crisp five dollar bills.
“We’ve done good for ourselves.” Kel said. “You know, I still owe you twenty dollars I think.”

“I already got it.” Sunny muttered. 

“You did? Huh, guess I’m better at paying people back than I thought. I still owe Jordan like fifteen from when he ordered pizza.”
That was a relief. For some reason he had always assumed he was chronically indebted to his friends. Seeing that he had remembered only served to make him more confident for future endeavors. 

The first hints of rain began to drip from the sky, poking his head with its cold dribble, the light of a tired sun laying to rest behind the gray clouds.

“Shoot, so much for walking outside.” He groaned as Sunny held his hand to catch the drops. Having not thought about grabbing an umbrella before leaving the house, it wouldn’t be long until his shoes were soaked and his hair became a frizzy nightmare. 

“Let’s head back to my place.”

They walked quickly, hoping to avoid as much rain as possible. Puddles inside of potholes began to grow and branches swayed lightly around them. He saw something move quickly and grind to a halt in the corner of his eyes. When he spun around to look, it was only a deer taking shelter underneath a tree. It watched him intently, any sudden movement threatening to run it off.

“Look dude, it’s a deer!” Kel said, perhaps a little too loud, as the animal had began to run further down the road. 

“Isn’t it weird they look just like horses?”

“Very.” Sunny agreed, stopping to watch it. “Stupidly dangerous.”

“Huh? Oh, yeah you’re right. I almost hit one not that long ago.”

“...Really?” He looked up at him, jaw clenching.

“Yeah.” Kel laughed. “It was back when I was still going to practice- actual practice not this crazy Peterson practice, and well anyways, I was driving to the gas station to get a milkshake when one just jumped out into the middle of the road. I slammed on the brakes and it just stood there! My ankle hurt for a couple days, you’d be surprised how much tension you build up from that. That deer and I became sworn enemies from then on.”

“I see.”

"You're talking more today, that's pretty cool! Way to go!"

Sunny gave him a confused look, one that had a hint of embarrassment to it. Realizing he had been a little forthcoming with his kindness, Kel backed down and continued the walk to his house. They had a vacation to talk about.

Chapter Text

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Reading Music (YouTube)

She just needed a peaceful, quiet walk.

“I just don’t get why these people insist I toast it on both sides. It tastes the exact same! It’s like they do it on purpose just to piss me off.” She grumbled to anyone who would listen. The only person who really paid her any mind was the creepy dishwasher who was stacking plates behind her under the warmers. 

“People are assholes.” He chirped, his weirdness gaining a scowl from Dorothy. “I always wonder why they come in here at the last minute every night.”

“Because we’re open until eight?” Dorothy said, raising her lip. “We take customers until eight, not seven-thirty.”

“Whatever.”

The kitchen was a land she felt in tune with. It was either the chaotic nature that felt so familiar or the bad-assery that Dorothy evoked that called to her. In her fifties, Dorothy was a lady of a tough build, short auburn hair, and the snarkiest shirts. She had worked at the restaurant for over thirty years and there was no doubt she was in charge back there. 

Slapping the bread on the grill, she leaned against its side, angrily watching as the butter began to bubble from underneath.
She hadn’t made much of an effort to meet the other coworkers, but she was alright with a few of them. Samone was an ass, always making some kind of point in harassing her or anyone else she randomly had decided she didn’t like. Aubrey was certain Samone didn’t like anyone except for the boss. She’d come in with her random earrings and makeup all done up, shirt unbuttoned a little too far, and an attitude that managers could hardly keep up without getting an entire group of people to hate them. Then there was Violet, who she was cool with. She was a little odd, but was genuinely kind and didn’t enjoy drama. There was Emily who loved drama but pretended like she didn’t, and there was Sarah who was outspoken about her beliefs which always causes drama. The restaurant as a whole was split into roughly eight factions. 

Kitchen Faction- Those who liked and respected Dorothy and those who didn’t. Those who were transients. That was three factions.

Server Faction- Those who liked drama, those who hated it, and those who played neutral while secretly person-hopping. 

Bus Faction- These people would usually fall into a server faction, but normally fell into the faux neutrals. 

The eighth faction was one she still needed to bring up to Basil, because it was him who had organized everyone. The eighth faction were the people that aligned with the owners or who had worked there long enough to know the dangers of winding up in factions. Cynthia and Ellen were notable for belonging in this new spot.

She scooped out her bread and threw them in the basket.

“Three dollars on a thirty dollar check.” May mumbled as she began preparing to make her own bread. “Can you believe that? I’ve waited on them for five years, and they still tip me like that.”

“That’s ridiculous.” Aubrey said, her anger now channeling towards May’s regulars. “You need to stop giving them your time, they aren’t worth it.”

“I ran three times for more bread for them too.” May sighed. “But isn’t that just insulting?”

“Very. You should throw hands with them.” She replied, picking up her tray.

“Yeah! My big muscles will show them who’s boss!” May laughed. 

“You got it!”

She sat out the salads and the double-sided bread to her table of two and excused herself to Private Dining, a room they usually congregated in. Basil had beaten her to making it in there, and he was absent-mindedly shuffling through credit card receipts. 

“Make any money today?” She asked, sitting across from him. There was only one table in this room, a long dining table with a red and cream picnic-style tablecloth and a deep cream placemat in front of every chair.

“Not really.” He said, running his hand through his hair. “But I do have this one table that used to be Hero’s regulars.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.” He looked up at her, sheer horror in his eyes. “They’re terrible, Aubrey. They keep trying to swindle me on the prices and one even went up to talk to the manager.”

“Oh shoot, are you in trouble you think?”

His eyes widened. “I hope not. All I know is they’ve paid and all, they’re just sitting there now finishing their beers. I don’t think this is the job for me, it’s too confrontational.”

“What?” She laughed. “Well one, you’re kind of stuck here now, you can’t leave me here by myself. Two, this is probably good for you. You need to grow a backbone.”

He laughed, “You’re probably right.”

One thing Aubrey always appreciated from the world was occasionally, in fact occasionally enough it was considered a rarity in her eyes, there would be this instantaneous validation that would prove a point she had been trying to make.
It manifested itself easily that night when the two of them had decided to walk home. It was a decent enough night out and after running around all night, she had too much energy to sit in a car only to sit in a room and wake up to repeat it the next day.

Basil and her had been talking at great lengths about the importance of decorating and how some people had taken to minimalism. It went against everything they believed and garnered a rather passionate discussion that was loud enough to wake the neighborhood.
One of these individuals was none other than the grotesque creature of the swamps, Ember. 

“Is that who I think it is…?” Basil had seen her first, creeping over towards them from the corner of the house on the ledge she and Kel had sat at only days prior. 

“No way.” Aubrey sighed, feigning hurt feelings. As horrible as she knew it was, she was grinning deeply beneath this frown, the thoughts of another entertaining moment slipped with justifiable anger.

“Um… what do we do?” His eyes grew wide when he looked at her. Confined in his sentence was something concealed, something he was unaware of. What would we do?
It wasn’t so much that she wanted to drag him into her personal drama, however, given that he had naturally been inclined to be a part of a greater solution, she was more than willing to let this be a learning example. What do you do when someone treats their surroundings as trash? If one is surrounded by garbage, wouldn’t that make the chances higher that they themselves are trash? What truly qualifies as trash? Ember did, she was certain of it. 

Ember had been someone that had ran around Aubrey’s group, but never had joined. She was there, in the shadows, watching as her friends toyed with Pretty Boy, had laughed when Aubrey had cried in class nearly five years ago from a loss, and she was certain, had something to do with the break in. 

“We see you, you know.” Aubrey said to a tree.

“It’s not like I was trying to hide.” The creature stepped out from the tree, her long brown hair not in a ponytail and in a rather grabbable style. “Congratulations on having eyes, maybe use them to get some whitening strips.”

“You look like the type to develop wrinkles quickly if you’re going to get worked up about us walking.” Aubrey shot back into the darkness. 

Ember jumped down from the ledge to meet with the two of them. Basil was silent, this fear in his eyes. It made perfect sense to her why he got picked on. Who would be easier, someone like him? Scared, reactionary, no backbone, or her? Confident, aggressive, kind of mean. Cool pink hair.

“I’m just walking too.” She smirked.

“No, you’re standing here staring at us, actually.” Aubrey said. “You can leave now.”

Ember raised a brow, a scar from when she got her piercing ripped out casting a hilarious gleam in the street light.
“Hmm. No that’s okay.” Her eyes flashed to Basil. “Are you the one who pulled the fire alarm? I remember you, you’re the one that…” She started to gesticulate a dead person but she didn’t get far because Aubrey had clenched her fists and sent them flying, a perfect impact that had led the girl to backstep, holding her eye.

“What gives?”

“A-Aubrey, come on, let’s go. That’s not going to help.” He grabbed her arm and began to usher her away, but in doing that, had accidentally caused her to lose focus and catch a punch in the jaw. 

It was full brothel time. Without her bat, she wasn’t nearly as scary, sure, but when justice calls, she answered. 

She grabbed hold of Ember’s hair, the girl screaming as she threw her on the ground. 

“Aubrey! Stop it, please, come on!” Basil once again screwed up because Ember had grabbed his ankle and he fell forward. Thankfully, she was in the perfect kicking position. Aubrey threw her leg out, Basil jumped up from the ground, and he still was ushering her to run. The thing was though, whoever left this situation first would be declared the winner. 

“Dude, cut it out!” She snapped at him, rolling up her sleeves. “She deserves this, we’re not leaving until she does.”

For the first time in a very long while, he gave her a look that was closer to a disapproving grandmother than someone her age who was filled with anger. “N-No. Why are you fighting her, she wants to fight, isn’t that… that’s obvious isn’t it?”

She rolled her eyes. “Well, I guess. But if it’s a fight she wants. Go home if you’re so worried about it. Whose side are you on anyways?”

Ember crawled back up, coughing. “Wow Aubrey, you sure are nice, aren’t you? Careful, you’ll end up like your mom by treating people like that.”

As if a light had switched on her, her vision felt blurry and darkened by the area. Suddenly, the only person she could see was Ember, entitled, trash. 

“Excuse me?”

She couldn’t tell what she was mad at, but in that moment, it felt like everything. Mad that Ember had even the faintest idea of her mom, of what they had done, that Basil was just standing there trying to get her to leave, taking the ‘nice’ way out. Did no one understand the weight someone carries when they are filled with venom?

“What? Mad?” She laughed. “You gonna hit me?”

She took a breath in, wanting nothing more than to turn this girl into sidewalk juice. “I’ll talk to him however I want. You have no right to say I’m mistreating him.”

Ah, when she spoke, it became clear why she felt so much anger. She was angry because again, as if some trigger of the past had emerged, she had been told that she was responsible for somebody else’s feelings. Although this wasn’t something she felt she should be angry about, as in the worst way possible, Ember had a point, the mere fact she had something actually decent to say for once was somehow worse than anything horrible she could say. 

Then, just as she thought she would freak out and tear the girl to shreds, a hand was placed on her shoulder, pushing her towards the lone street light on the sidewalk. 

“Where are you going? Running home to cry?” Ember said, her voice growing further as the light grew brighter. 

The walk home was quiet, peaceful almost, except that she did feel like she had some unfinished business with Ember. 

“You know.” Aubrey said, suddenly feeling vulnerable the moment he’d removed his hand. She turned around, the streets having changed. “When I told you to grow a backbone, I didn’t mean to grow one to tell me what to do. I’m proud of you though, she almost became red cement.”

He gave her a shocked expression but ultimately smiled. “Ah, well.”

“It’s fine. Just forget it.”

Chapter Text

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Reading Music (YouTube)

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Reading Music-Spotify

His suitcase rolled smoothly on the tile behind him as he made his way towards his new home for the next couple of years. Situated on the second story of a historic brick building, the rooms offered the gentle charm of past educational ventures. Everyone (mostly) came here to learn, so he was in his perfect prime area! Top of his classes, usually, head of numerous clubs, style on point, hair always looking nice. This was his land and he was not ashamed of it and definitely and completely unashamed that some of his friends had already graduated in the year he spent doing absolutely nothing with his life!
The inside of the building was a little outdated, something other student’s had complained at length about. The bathrooms were small, utilities needed upgrades, the ceilings were awkwardly tall, the laundry room was creepy… the list went on.
He never really felt that way though. It seemed to remind him of his own home, cluttered and chaotic. It was familiar.
He smiled to himself as he opened the door to his new dorm room but it quickly faded when a sense of familiarity had become a curse.

“Bruce?”

“Heeeey Hero!” Bruce hopped up to his feet and quickly began grabbing the books stashed in Hero’s arms. “Whatcha think? Roomies! My mom called and set us up.”

“I thought you were done with school?” He asked, stunned as if he’d just been tazed. 

“Yeah, well, I changed my mind. Realized pretty quickly the best way to get clients is to have an insane background in the studies. Say, how much longer you got here anyways?”

He took in a deep breath, and let it out slowly. It couldn’t be worse than… Steven…

“Oh, I met your last roommate.” He said, as if he could read minds.

“You what!?” He spun around, flight or fight taking over. “Did you tell him our room number?”

Bruce tilted his head and raised a brow. “Dude, are you kidding? That guy’s wacko. He was my tour guide but I feel like I learned more about some chick named Amanda than I did the school. Do you guys even have fire exits?”

“No… tour guide… do you think he has a map?” 

Bruce shook his head. “I don’t know, that kind of sounds like a breach of privacy. Anyways, he mentioned you telling people to ask you about it if we didn’t believe him.”

“Ask me about what?”

“About Amanda and the car.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He began to stack his books on his desk to appear like he was too busy to think about Steven and Amanda and Amanda’s new boyfriend suffering the cruel fate of car insurance and how Steven knew her entire work schedule and moved his school schedule around just to stalk her.

“Oh, okay.” His cousin shrugged. “Did Kel tell you I was coming?”

“Kel knew!?” He spun around. His life was in shambles. 

“Well… yeah? That’s besides the point though, I told him not to tell you. It was supposed to be this big huge secret. I couldn’t wait to see the look on your face. Don’t worry though, I can be preeeeetty focused when I need to be. Like right now, my assigned reading is literally The Idiot. I didn’t know they still did things like that in these upper classes, but I guess it makes sense if you want to learn how to properly analyze. I do occasionally read out loud though, but don’t worry, I hear it’s a great book.”

He couldn’t tell if this guy was intentionally messing with him or was too oblivious to know that what he was saying seriously contradicted itself. 

“That’s fine, just make sure you let me do your work and don’t go out partying every night. I don’t want to have to babysit you drunk.”

“Oh! Do you think I’ll get invited to parties?”

He rubbed his temples realizing that was typically what he did when Kel went on his Kel things. Kel was cool though, like actually cool. Bruce was a dork.

“Sure.”

“Sweet! I’ve never been to a real one.”

He paused, meeting eyes with someone who had clearly never had a hard day in their life. “You… haven’t?”

“Nope! Have… you!?”

“Of course I have? I’ve been in college for years now.”

“ You?? Hero? Party?”

He smiled, albeit awkwardly. “Well, not all the time. Maybe here and there.”

Bruce began to laugh, leaning back into the bed. “No freaking way. I thought you were all cookie cutter straigh-edge.”

“Just don’t tell Kel, I don’t want him getting any ideas.”

“I got you, don’t worry. Hero, you are too serious these days, it’s time to break you out of that. That’s my goal. By the end of the semester, you will be looser than the girls at the parties!”

“Please… don’t say that.” He said, now realizing why Bruce was never invited to parties. 

“Truthfully, I was going to say the doorknobs at my mom’s house but I knew that was niche and wouldn’t have made any sense.”

“Just stick with the doorknobs.”

“What if someone thinks it’s some kind of metaphor?”

“I don’t know, you’re the English major aren’t you?”

“True… very true. Say! You should introduce me to your college friends!”

No way.

Though, it did happen. It had seemed that Bruce had some sort of social anxiety when it came to people he didn’t already know and specifically the people he wanted to look cool in front of. The result of this was him following Hero around during any and all free time available. 

On the first day, Hero had met up with Grace at the coffee shop. The two of them were enjoying Americano’s when Bruce bumbled over, slapped down a very surgery looking frappe, and began peeling through his career ideas as though it was a compulsion. Grace had one character flaw and it was her disgust for the liberal arts majors. This led to a bit of a dispute between them, and eventually, Grace ending the coffee date early.

On the second day after his first set of classes, he had begged Hero to linger for the next thirty minutes until his class ended so he could follow him to a small pastry shop a couple blocks from the school. The two of them sat down at one of the booths.
“I like their classic tile design. I wish more places had the same atmosphere.”

“Back home they hardly update anything. It’s like a time capsule.” Hero added, also admiring the tiles.

On this particular day, Miguel had been shopping for danishes as well, and joined their table. He had met Miguel in a chemistry lab two years prior and they quickly hit it off with their mutual love of food and science.

“Miguel, this is my cousin, Bruce.”

“Nice to meet you!” Miguel said, offering his hand to shake. Bruce quickly took it and shook it at speeds unrecognizable. 

“Thank you so much! So how do you know Hero?”

Asking people about how he knew him and bonding over a shared person seemed to be his new gateway and opening. For the next week he had officially introduced himself to a healthy amount of Hero’s friends and seemed rather excited at the premise of having ‘connections.’ He claimed it was important for business and truthfully, Hero couldn’t disagree. 

“So, are you taking time off to go on that vacation Kel’s been talking about?” Bruce asked him one night as they laid in their beds. The lamp was on in the center of the room, casting a small yellow hue on them. Already he had three major assignments, a quiz, and a lengthy semester-long project to work on. Bruce didn’t seem like he had much to do, he just laid there aimlessly, positioning his feet on the wall and head leaning off the bed. 

“No.” Hero sighed, already losing his train of thought amidst a nightmare of integration. “I wish I could but I took so much time off already… I feel so behind and if I leave for a week I’ll be behind for the rest of the semester. I haven’t broken the news to Kel yet.”

“Oh? He’ll understand. He’s a neat kid. Heart of gold, that one.”

Hero chuckled. “Yeah, he definitely is. I wish our parents would see that. Sometimes I feel like he’s so overlooked.”

“I kind of noticed that actually.” His cousin flipped to his stomach. “Does it ever feel weird being the Golden Child?”

“Huh?” He hadn’t been asked that question before and wasn’t sure if he was uncomfortable Bruce had been able to possibly read through him or if it was because of the weight in his words.

“You know, expectations this, do that, stay like this?” 

“Hmm.” He thought for a moment, whatever the integral formula for square roots was flying way out of the window. “You know, it does kind of feel weird now that you mention it… but I know mom’s just trying to do her best.”

“Yeah. I get that. I just wanted to know your thoughts. Seeing you with your friends back home it kind of feels like you parent them all. Guess that’s an oldest-child thing.”

“I suppose it is.” His heart soured when ideas of what could have been began to tighten the air. “I wouldn’t have it any other way though. Setting examples for others helps you to be the best person you can be. It definitely has its learning curves though.”

“Ah ha! So you do try to be straight-edge. Hero dude, you need to chill. Let college be a learning experience in more than one way. Then, when you get back home, you won’t be as stressed and can let loose a little.”

“That’s easier for you to say. I have too much work to do, plus I think I saw Steven haunting the hall outside of my classroom the other day. That in of itself is mental energy spent trying to avoid him.”

“He’s an issue? I’ll take care of him. Uncle Rocco owns this… com-”

“Do not call Uncle Rocco.”

“Alright, alright… jeez. You’re no fun anymore.”

The no fun thing kind of stung. He went to lectures, attended lab after lab, and it got to the point that there was only one day left before the vacation and he still hadn’t found the energy to break the news to Kel that he was not going. The weeks had gone by and they had numerous phone calls yet he couldn’t bring himself to commit to one thing. All the while he wondered if there was something he was missing.

One evening, as the two of them sat in their room, Bruce looked up from his computer. “Hey Hero, can I ask you a question?”

Hero glanced up, mildly frustrated that he’d have to restart an entire physics problem all over again. “Sure, what’s up?”

“I was just wondering, what would you do if your dad wanted you to do business but you really wanted to do something else instead? I don’t want to do business, well, not in the way he wants me to.”

He thought about it. “Well..” Images of a long white coat and stethoscope flashed through him. “I guess… well I know it’s great and all to want to make your parents proud. Sometimes it feels like the best thing you can do, or maybe the only thing. In the end though, you’re going to die.”

“Huh!?” Bruce laughed. “I’m lost. What?”

Hero shrugged. “Yeah… you’re going to die. It can happen so fast and out of the blue. So I guess what I’m trying to say is… you should live for yourself. They will be proud of you either way, and if they aren’t, they’re only trying to live through you or use you as a tool for bragging.”

Bruce scratched his head, his smile deepening. “Man. I didn’t expect that but… okay, I guess that makes sense.”

“Other times,” He continued, feeling rather generous with his advice that night, though not positive on if he was even right or not. “They just want you to be happy. To be successful and to never have to worry about money or finding a stable career. The road is longer in this case, but it’s more fulfilling. They’ll be happy with whatever it is you do so long as you are happy and fulfilled. You just have to find out what it is that makes you happy.”

Chapter Text

Reading Music (Spotify)

Reading Music (YouTube)

“WHA?! What do you mean Hero??” Kel had screamed from the middle of his room. Sunny continued to sip on an apple juice, a dastardly apple juice, watching as the world's greatest meltdown occurred right in front of his very eyes.

“No… NOOOOOO! It’s okay though. I get it. I just needed to really show you how much you’re going to be missed bro. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I’m glad to hear that man. Alright, I’ll talk to you later. I’ll tell them you said hi. Dude… it’s Aubrey who st… okay yeah… alright… Bye. I lOvE YoU ToO!”

He turned to Sunny, disappointment peeling from his eyelids. “Hero’s not coming anymore. Said he has too much homework and stuff. Man if he keeps working so hard though… he’s probably going to bald and he will not be happy about that.”

The two of them had packed, though he did note the differences in their packing styles.

Sunny

-Clothes were neatly folded (His mom folded them).

-Three pairs of comfortable pajamas

-Seven pairs of squishy fuzzy socks

-Seven sets of undergarments

-Three pairs of shorts

-Seven super cool and unique T-Shirts (TJ Max had a good sale… also his mom’s doing.)

-Mud boots, tennis shoes, sandals, and casual shoes

-One cozy hoodie

-One cozy zip-up

-Swimming trunks

-Amazing reading material (Nostalgia featuring Captain Spaceboy’s new reboot)

-One nice outfit in case they all went out for dinner

-Fishing hat

-GameBoy, Pet Rock, Candy Land, Uno (When he wanted to watch the world burn)

-One thing of Orange Joe for Kel, one Grape Soda for Aubrey, one Strawberry soda for Basil, and one Coconut Water for Hero who was trying to make healthy life decisions unlike the rest of them.

Kel

-A random assortment of clothes shoved into the suitcase that hardly had enough room to zip (none of it was folded)

-Pet Rock and beloved Tomagatchi

-Sandals

-Trunks

-Socks from Hero’s sock drawer (Poor Hero)

-Fake moustaches (Something about money laundering)

-Fake tattoos (Aubrey’s request)

-His entire boombox 

He also watched Kel debate for ten minutes on whether or not he wanted to bring a razor because in his words, ‘He wanted to be a Man of the Mountains and grow a beard for that week.’

Finally, when Kel had rounded the room a few times, he said his goodbyes to his family and the two of them piled the luggage in the back of the car. 

“Well, guess there won’t be much squishing.” His dad smiled from the driver’s seat. 

“Darn…” His grandpa complained. “I was really hoping to hear the arguments three hours in.”

Fortunately, they were in a van, so three people could sit wherever, though he secretly wanted one of the seats all to himself so he could sleep the majority of the way there. As of the last couple of months, his mind had expanded into a land larger than before, and this one featured some major upgrades, such as an alarm he had set beside his bed that once it went off, forced him to get off the bed and wander around the house for a while. It was the only way he was capable of not falling into old habits.

“Sunny, we should sit in the back. Basil gets carsick so he can sit up there.” Kel said, trying to be genuinely helpful. 

“Three seats…” Sunny whispered, his dad growing irritated they were taking so long to get in.

“OH YEAH! But then Aubrey gets the whole back seat to herself.”

“She gets carsick too.”

“Oh… so I- ”

It was his only chance, he darted in and claimed the back seat to himself, reaching in the back for a pillow and a blanket. 

“I see! Smart move Sunny.” Kel said, acknowledging his efforts.

The sky was clear when they began their journey to Basil’s, he and Aubrey lugging their belongings in the trunk and claboring into the front section of the van. She looked angry to begin with, huffing the instant she got up to the door.

“You sit by Kel.” She demanded, pointing to the dreaded middle seat. Both of them had glanced down at him by this point, but despite how awkward it felt being bundled up in the back by himself, he figured they’d soon forget once they began towards their destination. 

“What?” The back of Kel’s head shook. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re gross, that’s what!”

“It’s fine, I can sit there.” Basil said, taking a seat. Aubrey plopped down next to him and reached into her bag, pulling out a pretty sturdy pair of earphones. “Best part is, I can tune you out.”

“You sure about that?” Kel asked, reaching over Basil and flipping her headphones over. She sent a smack his way, Basil pressing himself firmly against the back of the chair. It would be a long ride for him.

“Alright, first up, it’s bright and early.” Sunny’s dad said, turning up the volume of the car. Sunny sighed knowing it would be hard to focus on his daydreams with a speaker right above his head. “That means it’s time for Pat and Bev.”

Not Pat and Bev… All they did was talk about things that were so unfunny it hurt… and Bev would always laugh so gleefully at everything… every morning… for years. It was the worst thing his Dad could have said too. Why he wanted to torture everyone was beyond his scope of realization.

It seemed to be a popular opinion because it wore every single person down in the car except his dad, who laughed along with the dry stories and prank phone calls. Even Grandpa would groan every so often. Small beats roared out of Aubrey’s headphones as he head fell deeper in her chest. Kel was already knocked out, head lightly bouncing off of the side of the car amidst his deep snores.

He closed his eyes and prayed sleep would find him.

In a realm known only to some as White Space, Sunny immediately noticed a stark difference from the last time he had entered. It was within this region that he realized he was completely alone. There was no OMORI and there was no Mewo. All that remained was a laptop, a box of tissues, a notebook, and a door. Where there had once been a lightbulb there was now a vacant spot and where there had once been a presence, there was this vast emptiness that loomed over him. An endless plane of existence that had once offered comfort had become distressing, no, sickening to stand in. 

Reaching for the handle of the door, it cracked open to a familiar room of lavender, plum, pinks, and pastels. The stairs glittered with such a radiance he felt a rainbow could have been trapped inside. What had once been an illusion had become something real and tangible, something he could walk on or brush his hand against. A sentiment to dreams and an insult to reality.

The human mind is capable of creating such mechanisms in an effort of coping, though most coping mechanisms can only go so far before they become an issue with a mind of their own. No one drowns themselves at the bottom of a bottle because of the side effects such a thing may have, but rather because the bottle answered some inexplicable question that the drinker doesn’t even know they’ve been asking. There is hardly any difference between the mental state of someone who uses unhealthy vices to compete with their mind and those who distract themselves endlessly to avoid the realities and ugliness of the world.

When he found himself in such a familiar environment, one that he had avoided with such effort, he was startled at first that he may sink back into a hole of blissful avoidance. This time, however, he had assured himself it was different. He banned anyone from these dreams that even slightly resembled his friends or family and instead replaced them all with creatures or characters from stories he enjoyed. It had benefited his feeling of missing out but had created a hole. A home that doesn’t exist. A compromised land built from the endless stretches of thought and creativity. 

He had awoken again, suddenly, when a car door shut. His head pounded as he sat up, his stomach disagreeing with the choice of sitting in the back where the van would shake the most. Kel was still asleep, but Aubrey had woken back up, exiting the car with Basil and his grandpa.

He figured it would be beneficial to take the bathroom break and also found the implication that if Kel were to wake up all alone in the car, it would be hilarious to wonder what went through his head. He slipped out with them and headed towards the rest stop. 

As he waited outside for his friends, he suddenly grew inexplicably tired, wishing to only lay down at that moment. The heat of the early summer sky only made this worse, and he felt his head dip further into his chest. 

“Sunny, are you tired?” His dad asked, stretching his arms out. “Your sleep test didn’t indicate your sleep cycles are messed up, maybe we should go again. Exercise is supposed to help. You should exercise with Kel instead of eating chips all day at the lousy television.”

He couldn’t really imagine himself going for runs in his free time instead of indulging in the immediate dopamine games provided. 

“Where the heck is Basil?” Aubrey asked, having walked back with his grandpa. “We’ve been waiting forever.”

Had it really been that long? He wondered if there was a chance he’d fallen asleep on the bench for a moment without even realizing.

“When you gotta go, you gotta go!” Kel said, appearing out of seemingly nowhere. “I thought you guys went out to eat without me, I was about to be pretty upset!”

“Cut your hair.” His grandpa muttered loud enough for everyone to hear. Kel ignored him and sauntered away towards the bathroom, Sunny wiping the dread off of his face.

It wasn’t until Kel emerged with him that Sunny and Aubrey had returned to the car. Seemingly, his friends had grown more lively since then, with Kel excitedly sharing his plans and Basil reacting with a frenzied excitement. The others didn’t seem to notice it, but Aubrey had kept her head down, returning back to the car with a conspicuous shade of white blurred on her skin. At one point, she had even made it clear he was moving too much, throwing his hands up about crawdads and s’mores.

“Basil, you almost hit me again. Can you chill? Whats your deal?”

He had noticed it too but was curious why Aubrey seemed so irritated by it.

He jumped in after her as the others continued to stretch their legs and as his grandpa continued to judge the landscaping of the surrounding area.

She didn’t look up at him when he moved past her into the back so he began to run through ideas.
Step One. Sit next to her on the rest of the ride home. This would allow him to keep tabs on whatever was occurring and they could play Tic-Tac-Toe or something. Furthermore that would keep Basil still in the front, and being that he seemed to have finally lit  up, they could talk.
The thing about talking though, is that oftentimes it leads to very little room for thinking. He learned this right then and there, unable to get to Step Two, talking to Aubrey, because by then everyone was climbing back into the car.

“Oh… Ah, Sunny, alright…” Basil looked puzzled by the change. “I’ll sit in the back!”

“NO BASIL!” Kel cheered as if he were a knight. “I’ll sit back there.”

He didn’t have time to argue because Kel was already pushing himself over top of everyone, using the front seat as something of a ladder to get to the back. Basil took his seat next to Sunny and shut the door.

Pat and Bev’s radio talk ended about two hours into the drive, classic rock taking its place. This did not change Aubrey’s decision in wearing her headphones, much to Sunny’s dismay as he could no longer embark on Step Two and had to instead switch gears. Talking. It couldn’t be that hard… Kel did it all the time, even with strangers. 

He leaned his head back and in doing so, saw a familiar string hanging out of Basil’s bag. 

“You brought that with you?” He asked, pointing to the back. Basil’s eyes widened and he stared at him for a moment, seemingly having no clue what Sunny was talking about. 

“What did he bring?” Kel asked, leaning over and getting a smack from Aubrey. 

“I… er…”

“Camera.” Sunny said, almost inquisitively. 

“Right… yes. I thought it would be good… to you know. Take pictures and things.” Basil nodded. Aubrey sighed.

Kel smiled, leaning back so hard the entire car seemed to shake. “No way! Are you really going to take pictures? We should stage some creepy ones…” He leaned back in and whispered. “And hide them in Sunny’s grandpa’s room.”

“I don’t know…” Basil said quietly. “What if it freaks him out?”

Disappointed, Kel nodded. “You’re probably right. Let’s give them to Michael instead.”

“It’s The Maverick.” Aubrey interrupted.

“You can hear!?” Kel asked, shocked. 

“My headphones died forever ago.” She sighed. “I only wore them so I wouldn’t be bothered the entire way up there.”

“That’s kind of mean.”

“ You’re kind of mean.”

“What?”

“You told me my hair looked like the outside of a wafer cookie. Don’t think I’m just going to drop that.”

“Oh, Kel…” Basil was finding it difficult to hide his laugh. “Maybe he meant because it’s pink and there’s a strawberry one? That one is everyone’s favorite t-”

“No… no I meant it was dry.” Kel said. “But I’m sorry, okay?”

Aubrey rolled her eyes and scrunched down further into her seat. “You could have just went along with whatever Basil was saying.”

“That would be lying. And on this holy Sunday-”

“It’s Tuesday.”

“It could be Sunday.” Sunny murmured, which caused everyone around him to stare directly at him. Not knowing why he said that outloud or how to carry on the joke, he took a very, very long drink of the Kool-Aid Jammer.

After all had settled and his friends began to quiet down, he glanced over towards Aubrey and thought about a good conversation starter.

It was at that exact moment something so cursed and so foul erupted from behind him in the back of the van. Kel, snickering, Aubrey, gagging, his grandpa, dementia screaming. He hid his nose in his shirt and looked back towards Kel who he could tell was completely embarrassed but was trying his best to play it cool.

“I thought it would be silent.” He laughed, tears from holding back streaking his cheeks. “It’s a perfectly natural body response!”

“You’re disgusting!” Aubrey snapped, looking frantically for a bag. “You’re so gross Kel, do you even know how repulsive you are!?”

“That’s pretty harsh coming from someone who-”

“If you bring up my hair one more time.” Her voice deepened as he glared at her. Her fist was already in the air but she held it steady. That and her thumb was technically in the wrong position to even throw one to begin with. Giving that was exactly what he was going to do, he nodded and ducked his head back down.

What Kel did not know was that he had just provided the perfect dialogue option for a struggling Sunny.

“Kel stole Hero’s socks.”

She looked at him as if he had just told her he grew three heads and was made of mustard. “Oh…kay?”

“Sunny! That was a secret! She’s a blabbermouth, she’s going to use it as blackmail!”

“Good idea, Kel! That’s blackmail now. You have yourself to thank.”

“He brought you a pop.” He continued, not meaning for that to turn out so bad.

“What?” She asked.

“No I didn’t, you brought her a pop.” Kel raised his brow. Growing sick from looking back so often, Sunny decided he had done enough socialization for the car ride.

It felt like ages until they actually arrived at the trailer. Two bedrooms, one with a bunk and one with a bed. The living room and its fold-out couch, and the newly built camper that hadn’t been there last his father took him to the mountains. It came to him like a shock to the heart the way the walls felt as though they were judging him, asking him why Mari was not close behind. He wondered if he ought to speak to them and tell them quietly one night she was away at college or spending time with Hero. The walls had seen more than he knew, however, from his father’s grief to the absence that occured over the span of five years. He continued to breathe deeply, the sprouts of a panic attack planting into his chest. He couldn’t believe they were all truly there or that his father of all people was the one to bring them. Or that his mother was alone at the house, recovering from a sickness. It all felt so real in that moment that he had realized he’d forgotten what real truly felt like. This entire time, everything leading up to this point, had been so flush with nostalgia and familiarity that he’d forgotten that he was truly living this life, and that everything he did and said had an impact. From the way the carpet felt to his own reflection in the mirror- they all felt so strangely fake, as if they had cheated reality and been stored there for his own interactions. A predetermined fate, a path of only one way.
He looked at the ground, horrified to know he’d be out of his hometown for an entire week. Every move would be monitored, every conversation would need focus, and all of his friends would have to miraculously get along without Hero. He’d be tasked with stepping out of the false world entirely, and he wasn’t sure if that was something he was ready for.

“Alright. Kids, you’ll be in the shed out back, it’s got five beds. Aubrey, you can sleep in the bedroom in the trailer. Dad, you get-”

“But I want the bedroom…” Grandpa interrupted. As his dad began to rub his temples, Sunny could have sworn a wink was thrown his way from the old man. “My legs… they ache so!”

“Okay. Okay fine. Aubrey you can sleep on the pu-”

“Nooo!” His grandpa cried. “I can’t sleep when someone else is making all sorts of ruckus.”

“It’s fine.” She said. “I’ll just stay with these losers.”

His dad shook his head. “No can do. I’ll sleep in here, dad you can have the room I guess… I’m calling the seniors home… Aubrey, we have bunks back there.”

And so it was set that Aubrey would be separated from them throughout the week. It was a huge bummer because he had thought they would all be in the camper. Now, he worried she’d have to hear his dad’s cries in the middle of the night or him flipping out and losing his mind over not being able to find a common household object.

The smell of the trailer was one that brought with it memories of a previous time. When he was young, once a year they would travel here for the peacefulness that was the mountains. Oftentimes it rained, and the cable television only picked up a few Christian children’s channels and Judge Judy. Zaboomafo? Was that the name?
It was always quiet here, games, toys, and neighbors replaced with coloring books, sticks, and strangers. There was a bar that sat just a few hundred meters from them whose music played all throughout the night, and between the two pinetree lines on either side of the yard, was a gravel road that led out to the creek.
Crawdads, rocky sand that wasn’t soft without shoes, and a surprising amount of fishing tackle were always spread alongside the water. Mari was brave, she’d try to bribe him into swimming to the other side with her, but that was something they never got to do. It was impossible to see the bottom of this creek, and someone in his childhood had told him about giant catfish that lurked at the bottom, some bigger than he was. Even now, he was sure they’d be larger than him, given that he was now unfortunately the shortest of the entire group. Kel would have fun swimming, but he’d have to swim alone because there was zero chance Sunny would be swimming in that creek with potential man-eating crawdads. Basil didn’t even know how to swim, and Aubrey… He glanced over at her, she looked bored. She’d probably be the one on the giant floaties they kept in the shed.

Fresh chemicalized water was now turned into this horrendous well water that turned all porcelain a rusty red color, which explained the crimson rim in the toilet and the stain at the drain of the shower. 

The living room was mixed in with the kitchen, a small hangout area, and down the hall and to the left were two doors. One being the bedroom and the other was the bathroom. At the end stood the very bedroom he had spent so much time in, blankets always not smelling like his own and the beds always too stiff. On the right hand side, there was the backdoor that led to a porch where bees and wasps communed, mostly around the swingset. Past this was the giant rhododendron bush and finally, the firepit next to the walnut tree.

A sound close to a voice snapped him out of a transe that had led him to staring at the rotary phone on the bookshelf. He turned to his side, meeting with Basil’s smile, though this one felt a little off in a way he couldn’t put it.

“Are you alright?”

He nodded, scratching out what words to say back in the process. “You?”

“I’m pretty good, this place is really nice!”

It wasn’t all that nice. The sink in the kitchen leaked still, ants would go on heists getting any and all food they could from the pantry… In fact one he had tried to eat leftover donuts and ate a handful of them in the process. Clenching at the memory, he nodded and headed towards their new room with his belongings. 

It was so weird, now that he really thought about it, that his friends were seeing a place they had never seen before but which was so familiar to him. They all had shared so much time together that it was strange to think none of them had ever been to the trailer.

As they stepped outside, he was unsurprised to see that it had begun to rain. The clouds didn’t appear all too heavy, but there were plenty of them, like a light smoke in the sky.

“Alright, it rains.” He said, walking past the swinging bench and down the stairs to the new shack. 

“That’s a bummer.” Basil said from behind him, joining his side once they reached the door. “Is this where we’re staying?”

He nodded, opening the door to where Kel had already claimed his bed.

“Well I learned that the top bunk is not all that. It’s a pain to have to crawl up there every single night.”

They turned their attention to them and Kel bounced off the bottom left bunk. “Care if I claim this one?”

He shook his head, figuring he’d claim the one above his. What Kel hadn’t taken into consideration was the privacy that could be gained from a top bunk or the ability to see the entire room. He climbed the ladder and sat one of his belongings on the top to mark his territory. 

“Oh, I’ll sleep here then…” Basil said, creeping over to the other bed, seemingly disappointed he didn’t have a bunk mate. 

“OH, I was meaning to ask, who’s watching your pets?” Kel asked. The rain had started to fall even harder now, each drop like cymbals on the metal roof. 

Sunny watched as Aubrey looked away, messing with her pink ponytail. Basil glanced at her and turned around. “Oh, well. Kim said she could… you know, stay over th-”

“KIM!?”

“I-I don’t know!” He shot back, still eyeing Aubrey to say something. “We’re paying her so I doubt… I hope nothi-”

“It’s going to be fine Kel, jeez, it’s not like she’s the antichrist. You scared of her!?”

He narrowed his eyes. “ No? It’s just an odd choice is all, couldn’t you have asked Polly or even Charlene or anybody else?”

“Let me get something straight here.” Aubrey said, taking a moment to take a breath. She leaned against the bunk with her arms crossed. It was the perfect opportunity to see how Kel would get himself out of this one.

“Polly takes care of the elderly, Basil was an exception. She needs money… what do people do when they need money?”

“Okay, okay I get that.” He was growing frustrated at this point, face dropping very subtly into real annoyance. 

“Next. Charlene is awesome. But what happens if someone tries to break in? Do you think Charlene is going to fight them off on her own? Would you want her to have to do that? No. Lucky with Basil and me, Kim’s at her dad’s this week so she was the perfect option.”

“...If you say so.” He gave Basil a look of bewilderment but only got a smile back, probably because he was as lost as Sunny felt with the whole thing. 

Throughout the night, cramped in a room with yellow curtains blocking out the moon and surrounded by snacks, they all spoke. Aubrey still seemed down, irritable almost, but otherwise happy. It also seemed Kel picked up on people’s emotions rather quickly too, he had noticed. He just didn’t think about them in such a deep way, but was always there to try and lighten the mood and make the room laugh. Basil was quiet, mostly, but when he had a story he would tell it as though he were reliving the entire experience. As for Sunny, it was impossible. He was alright with that too. It felt so natural in that moment to just listen and observe, despite the want to interject at different times.

Crickets sang from the trees as the night fell into a period of slumber. Aubrey had thought about sneaking and staying out, but ultimately felt too tired and went back to the trailer. It left the three of them in that room. The snores from the bunk below alerted him it was time to try and get some rest, yet he found it excruciatingly difficult to fall asleep. For years, if not his entire life, he had fallen asleep to extravagantly detailed daydreams. It was routine story-telling and far more enjoyable than any movie or book could ever try to be. Now, knowing that regardless of how hard he tried to not slip back into a state of a maladaptive existence it would always drown him, he felt empty and sad. Very sad, as though it was a part of his life he had truly experienced and lived through. As though his friends inside of his head would miss him, would cry out to him and he wouldn’t know because he had shut off the part of him that cared for them. It was paradoxical in the way it made him question if it also meant he was cutting off a part of him that cared for their real counterparts.
He’d try to not imagine them, but they’d sneak in. Perhaps from a shadow in the corner or in the back seat of a theater, whispering to themselves if it were really him. He’d try to create them closer to how they were now, but Basil and Aubrey were always too scary and caused too many issues. This made him wonder if he felt a sort of way about them really, if they thought he was completely insane or if they even believed he’d come far enough to create a lasting friendship. This kept him quieter than he’d like, too worried about the strength words carry and what they could lead to if he used them wrong.

In the middle of the night, he had noticed Basil sit up and slide himself against the wall, tapping his knee. 

He gathered himself, pushing himself to say something. “ Psst.” He whispered, immediately collecting the other’s attention. “You should sleep.”

“I’m not that tired.” Basil whispered back. “But, thank you… though.”

He wanted nothing more than to ask him to go on a walk, maybe down to the creek where they could look out into the water as they spoke, but the words couldn’t find him because for some reason, he was still mildly nervous being around him alone. It wasn’t fair and it wasn’t something he enjoyed, but the truth was, they had grown so far apart yet had been stapled together by an unwilling experience shared between. If anyone had anything to truly be afraid of, it was in fact his friend. It was just too uncomfortable to be around someone who had so little emotional regulation, and he resented that he felt so strongly. The hate itself came more from a place of not knowing how to help, or perhaps, never being able to in the first place. 

He laid back down and turned around, a door in his mind opening, watching, screaming.
It was truly impossible at that point to save what had been ruined. Such unwillingness and inexperience had brought upon him nothing short of doom.

Chapter Text

Reading Music (YouTube)

Reading Music (Spotify)

Reading Music (YouTube-nighttime scene)

Reading Music (Spotify-nighttime scene)

Ah, a mistake had indeed been made.
It was one that surpassed even his own expectations of himself though he couldn’t deny that the reality was always there.
For one, an addiction was formed when something seemed to fix something that had not been there prior. It wasn’t anything he was proud of, but it was something he’d grown increasingly more aware of as the days stretched on.
The second part was the most terrifying, and that was that he was very similar to a rat tasked with either killing itself the moment some food, or dopamine for this instance, presented itself. It was a cruel world, one where you either choose happiness and freedom without easy access to things that bring joy, or where fate brings you to death under the guise of an easy fix.

He grew uncomfortable with himself on the first full day of the trip. Kel had woken up full of energy and ready to look for crawdads beneath the rocks and stones of the creek in the woods. Sunny wasn’t willing to get out of bed, so he stayed in the room. Basil too laid in the bed, telling himself he’d get up when Sunny got up, but it was to no avail. His best friend’s father did not seem too pleased with the idea of bringing a bunch of teenagers to the mountains just for them to sleep the entire time.

“Come on, you’re going to sleep the entire day away. The entire day!” His accent was always thicker when he was angry, Basil noticed.
Both of them sat up, though he sat up slowly and Sunny more so jolted. It was this simple observation that made him wonder how common it was for him to be awoken in such a manner. When his dad shut the door behind him, still muttering to himself about lazy children, he let out a breath of air he had been holding and glanced over to his friend. 

“Oh, wow.” He sputtered out, still not entirely used to an entire eye missing out of the other’s face. “Are you wearing your prosthetic today?”

Sunny shook his head and said nothing more to continue the situation. This led to the first feelings of an uncomfortable day. Not only did his head feel like it was caving in and that he could potentially sleep for another four days, but that he had an issue keeping his head up in the first place. Holding it with his hand, self awareness made another comeback which only amplified the knowledge that he was frustrated that Sunny didn’t seem to have any interest in having an actual conversation with him. It was weird and kind of ridiculous that Aubrey was the one he was the closest to at that point, when it never should have been that way. 

The cabin shook with a thunderous clip of the door, Kel and Aubrey wandering in. Then, it shut again, only to crack slightly. 

“Sorry! Are you guys awake? Decent?”

“We’re awake.” Basil said, pulling himself against the wall. 

“Awesome!” The door once more opened, cool morning air finally settling in where the warmth once was. “Make sure you wear some mudding boots!”

“Said the guy wearing sandals.” Aubrey said, pushing past him and sitting on Kel’s bunk. Once she realized whose bed she was on, she pretended to be disgusted and stood back up.
“You sweat a lot, Kel.”

“And you drool all over the place.”

“Here, we’ll wait for you guys out there. Hurry! It’s going to be the day of reckoning. Plus…” He leaned in as Aubrey showed herself back outside. “Aren’t you guys excited to chase Aubrey with the crawdads?”

Basil grinned, meeting Sunny’s concerned face. “That doesn’t seem very nice, what if she falls?”

Kel laughed, holding his stomach as he did. “That’s amazing, don’t spoil the fun. Hurry!”

After they both got dressed, the outfit today being denim overalls, boots, and a tee shirt for him and cargo pants and a hoodie on Sunny, they met up with the others. He swiftly pulled a cardigan from his bag, slapped it on, and nearly plummeted face-first out the door.
Miserable.

They all walked down a path led by Sunny who had acquired a walking stick from the yard. The sky wasn’t exactly blue, but a foggy dusty gray that seemed to permeate everything around it.

“YUP!” Kel said, stopping in the middle of the past with his chin in the air. “Smell that fresh mountain air.”

“It is kind of nice.” Aubrey agreed. 

“We’re walking in a mountain fog.” Sunny said quietly, still walking the path. 

“What!?” Kel joined his side. “That’s so cool. You mean like when we were driving here right? And there was fog wrapped all around the mountains like little fires?”

Enjoying the peace that walking in the back brought him, he walked a little slower. Small houses with large porches seemed like the ideal style around these parts. Thick evergreens and gardens sprawled deep into the yards, woodlands all around, gravel paths and fences made of sticks and wires. It was still out there, the quickest movements usually coming from the birds who seemed to bounce from tree to tree with such little effort.

“So, did you sleep?” A voice interrupted his peace. He knew who the owner was and why they were asking a question. It seemed only polite, small talk nearly, to bring it up. However, the others didn’t, and didn’t need to, know about a particular argument that had ensued over the previous couple of days. He wondered what had tipped her off or had made her so sure of herself that she had the confidence to nearly antagonize him over her theory. He knew she knew, but he didn’t know how. 

“Soundly, thank you. Yourself?” He returned. 

He could feel her glaring at him, but remained looking forward as if he had no idea or memory of the underlying situation. He gripped the one hand she couldn’t see to relieve the mental pressure.

“Oh, alright. I was just curious because you were so… so energetic and excited yesterday that I nearly forgot who you were. Plus considering you haven’t slept in four days-”

“Huh? I sleep every night. W-What do you mean? What are you…” He glanced towards Kel who had taken notice of the conversation and was smiling like a crazed man who had just found his first rare plant.

“What’re we talkin’ about?”

“Private.” Aubrey hissed. 

“Woah…” He paused, raising an eyebrow. “Are you alright?”

She frantically ran her fingers through her hair, but ultimately, her voice softened. “Yeah I’m fine… I’ll talk to you about it later.” 

Basil looked over at her sharply as Kel turned back around. “What do you mean by that?”

“I know what you’re doing. I’m not stupid. Do you think I’m stupid?”

“Look… Whatever it is… Aubrey please, can we just hangout this week? All of us? Enjoy it?”

“Are you implying I’m the one ruining it?” She said, this time louder. He paused, a little hurt by her remark and terrified that the others were now walking back towards them.

Kel stopped short of them and crossed his arms. “Basil, what’s the deal?”

“Basil?” Aubrey scoffed. “Seriously? Do you guys always have to do this?”

He wasn’t able to bring himself to look at anyone but swayed lightly where he was standing. “It’s not her fault.” He ultimately mumbled, almost indistinct from his breathing. 

“Oh, then Aubrey, what’s the deal?”

“I don’t even want to talk about it anymore. Let’s just go to the stupid creek.”

And so they set off to the Stupid Creek. Avoiding Aubrey with every bone in his body, creeped out by her ability to be so confrontational and doing everything to avoid it, he stuck closer to Kel. 

“Basil, get a load of this!” He said, holding up a rock. “It’s a freaking fossil!” 

“Oh…Ah it is! Can I see it?”

“Sure, buddy! Here!” 

He traced over the intricate designs with his thumb. It truly was a fossil, the bumps and ridges of shells covering it.

“Forbidden pizza.” Kel nodded proudly. 

“It does look like a slice.” Basil agreed. “Are you going to keep it?”

Kel grabbed it back from him, a little harshly, but he was just incredibly excited. “Heck yeah! I’ll have to show this to Hero when he gets back. He loves these things.”

“He does?” He asked, having never heard that.

“Sure does! It all started with GeoCaching. He found one in a crate by the river back home and ever since then he always tries to find them. How do you think I found this one so fast? I bet this river is covered in them!”

This caused everyone to start reaching for rocks and digging them out of the icy water. His hands were completely numb by the end of it, and though Aubrey kept staring at him expectantly, he made sure to pretend she was just a tree in the distance. Not in a rude way, but in the way that he physically was disturbed by the thought of having to talk to her about whatever it was she was angry with him about.
He stepped into the water a little further out, water flooding his boots, and picked up a rock that looked suspicious, though when hunting for fossils, they all kind of looked suspicious. His heart raced when he saw the familiar markings on the heavy stone in his hand.

“I found another!” He called back, but his moment of accomplishment was interrupted by an abrupt scream. Turning around, almost stumbling into the water, Aubrey was racing across the edge of the creek, jumping over rocks and hills of sand to escape Kel, who had found his first crawdad. 

“AUBREY IT JUST WANTS TO… NATHEN JUST WANTS TO BE YOUR FRIEND!”

Nathan didn’t make it home with them when they left, entirely because no one knew how to properly care for him. The walk home had them sloshing and shivering, but once they changed into normal daywear and the threats of earlier had been seemingly forgotten, a newfound comfort had washed over them. 

“So…” Sunny’s dad said as he walked around the living room where they all sat. The news played softly in the background of a town no one knew and the smell of coffee filled the warm air. “I’m going fishing tomorrow. We will wake up at four thirty am. Be ready, when we finish, we will go to the hatchery.”

And so they spent the rest of the evening complaining to each other about having to wake up so early. Sunny took it like a death threat and Aubrey seemed like she was already tired. That still left one person though who seemed to have an overall positive outlook on things.

“Aubrey, wanna place bets on who can catch the most fish?”

She thought for a moment but then nodded. “Oh yeah. It’s on.”

The night was quiet, much like the mornings in this small sanctuary. The hum of the bar felt like a heartbeat in something that felt so tranquil. To him, it felt like he had been there his whole life.
Alone in the small cabin behind the trailer, he listened as everyone made their final s'mores and laughed with one another. Had he been any less exhausted, he’d be out there too, enjoying the same stories they had shared for years.

When the others joined him, they went quickly to bed in anticipation for the next day, Kel snoring within minutes and Sunny moving every so often.
It was when he himself had fallen asleep that he was awoken by a jostle in the night. He shot up quickly, gasping when it was revealed to be an angry girl with pink hair.

“Shhh! Idiot. Come outside, it’s time for you to talk.”

He glanced over to the others, but Kel was still fast asleep, arm hanging off the side of the bed.

“I don’t want to.” He whispered back, smiling so that it didn’t seem as though he was being rude.

“I don’t care. If you don’t come outside I’ll wake up this entire cabin and then you can talk to all of us.”

She had pulled that card, which meant he was putting on his shoes, throwing on a coat, and following her silently outside. 

“This way.” She said, rushing to the treeline and eventually through its trees.

Hoping it was a nightmare, he followed her into the darkness, a chill sweeping through him. If he could only run quick enough or be in a location that was at all familiar, he might have had a way out. Unfortunately, he was stranded in the middle of the mountains and in a heap of issues. 

When they met up, the pine needles sticking to his hair, he took a breath and decided that perhaps it would benefit him if he allowed himself not to think they all secretly harbored a deep hatred of him.

She crossed her arms, a furious look scratching over her face. “So, what’s your deal?”

“What do you mean?” He asked, hoping she was just in one of her moods. 

“You know exactly what I mean. Are you stupid? Or maybe… it’s that you think I’m stupid?”

“No, no I don’t think you’re stupid.” He said, giving her the world’s most awkward pat on the shoulder. She sounded so hurt by her own words that he now didn’t know if he was supposed to be arguing with her or comforting her. 

“Okay, then tell me the truth.”

“The truth about what? You… haven’t really told me what I… what is it?”

She groaned, her mood shifting back from sad to angry. Nervous, he backed up slightly but pretended to be admiring the sky for a brief moment. The lights from the bar cast long silhouettes of their dilemma deep into the night, shadows dissembling the true costs.

“Dude.” She leaned back into the trees, though due to the nature of trees, was leaning back a little far. This didn’t seem to bother her, but it did bother him, because to him that meant she was not comfortable in the slightest which further meant there was deceit. An unknowingness between them. “Tell me why I keep hearing stuff at work. Do you realize that I live in the same house? What’s the deal with you? Why are you up all the time and acting weird?”

“Acting weird? I’m…not.” He winced a smile, wanting nothing more than to get out of the conversation entirely. 

“Basil so help me, if you’re lying to me I’m going to be pissed. We’re friends, you’re supposed to tell them things you know.” She said, this time sitting down.

“The…the grass is wet.” He warned, though it was too late, she was already making herself comfortable in the mud. 

“I’m not a wuss. Sit down.”

“We have to be up soon.” He said, though his body was already moving to sit. Fortunately he had another pair of pajamas to change into. 

She gave him a very cold look and he pretended like he didn’t notice, picking a piece of wet grass and rolling it between his thumb and his fingers. 

“All I’m saying is it’s making me uncomfortable and from the looks of it it’s making other people uncomfortable too.”

“You’re still mad about the argument.” He said softly, which only made the air tighter. 

Unable to see her expression, he listened as she confirmed she was. She had a theory that she was led to believe was true, but had she only considered that it was not an issue, at least not yet, she’d be able to sleep and he would too. The dilemma he now faced himself was that he had, in a sense, lied to her completely, but was unable to determine if that was something he’d be able to mend on his own and in private. It had never been something he’d see himself involved with, nor had he figured he’d ever do anything of the sort, but when a mouse is given something that fills such an important need, it will do anything to attain it. For him, he knew it was a temporary fix to a prolonged issue, but if used within the realms of moderation, there was a chance the trap wouldn’t snap back at him and destroy what exists around it. For the betterment of those surrounding him, it was only necessary. For a trouble had created yet another trouble that only the trouble could fix. A perilous cycle indeed, but one that wouldn’t last a lifetime. If only for a few seconds to create a strengthened bond with everyone, a boost in a way.

“Dude, you’re freaking me out, and I’m going to be honest with you.” She rubbed her face. “I’ll ask you again and I’ll believe your answer. If I find out you lied to me though, I swear…” She paused, agitation building between both of them. “I’m literally going to. I don’t even know, just know it won’t be good. I respect you as a friend and I care about you but I also have to take care of myself too and sometimes I feel…” Her words slowed, but each one felt like a stab in the chest knowing he was the cause. “I don’t know, I feel like you’re unpredictable and it stresses me out because I feel like I can’t. I don’t even know how to say this without sounding mean but I’m really trying not to come off that way.”

“It’s fine.” He said, wishing she’d cut to the chase, the atmosphere was burning with anticipation that she’d admit that she just really wanted him gone.

“I just feel like I have more genuine conversations with the others, even Sunny sometimes because you aren’t honest with me and I really have started to feel worse because I sometimes feel like I worry so much about whatever you are doing… same for the others truthfully, but that I can’t focus on my own stuff. It’s driving me crazy. I know it’s my fault we aren’t close anymore, but every time I feel like we get closer I realize we aren’t.”

He pulled his legs closer, searching for options or a way to help in some way that would get her away from the source of her issues. “You don’t have to stay at my house, you’re welcome to leave any time.”

“You want me to leave?”

He looked over at her, confused on how she reached that conclusion. “Huh? N-No! That’s not what I’m saying. I’m just saying if it stresses you out so mu-”

“Dude, can’t you just listen to what I have to say but actually listen.”

“Aubrey, I am, please. I’m sorry.”

The crickets were loud at this time of night, some were close too. Frogs in the distance and the steady beat of the music from the bar in front of them. These elements seemed to make their distance more apparent. 

“I’m serious, if this keeps happening I’m going to bring the others into it.”

“Why!?” A rush of annoyance fled through him, but he tried to push it out. “What for?”

“I just think we all need to sit down and talk, not just you. You know it’s not exactly easy all of this. I know you know that. You and Sunny know that better than anyone. That being said, I wasn’t saying that as a threat, but I’m not playing around here. Let’s go, it’s cold.”

She waited for him to stand up and that was how the night ended. When day broke through, though the sky didn’t say, he was woken up with only an hour’s worth of sleep.

Chapter Text

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ReadingMusic (Spotify)

Reading Music (YouTube)

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Reading Music (YouTube)

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Reading Music (Spotify)

Reading Music (YouTube)

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It was the perfect day. He had sufficient sleep, his stomach was a little sore from s’mores, and now he and his friends were going to go FISHING.

Though, there was one issue.

“I guess I’m staying then.” She grumbled, immediately throwing a glazed donut down her throat. “I don’t trust ‘em. Catch a big one for me. Oh, and on your way back can you grab me a coke?” She said through chomps

“What? What do you mean you’re staying?” Kel asked, leaning back into his chair. “Is there something wrong? Why are you saying that?”

He looked over to Sunny to see if he shared the same feelings about it. Absolute craziness, fishing was for cool people. On Sunny’s end there was a blankness, but he was sure deep inside, there was also a frown. 

She shrugged, stretching her arms out and sighing, pink hair spilling over her shoulders in tangles. He interrupted her before she could speak, hoping he could convince her otherwise.

“You’re going to miss out on the entire thing. We’re not just going fishing you know, we’re supposed to get lunch, go to the hatchery, oh, and we were also thinking about going to the water-”

“Kel, I already know all of that.” She said, her patience wearing thin in her typical Aubrey-manner. “Do you think he’d like staying here all by himself!? No… do you trust him to stay here alone?”

Guilty, Kel shook his head, though the shake was meant for the first part of her question. He had no idea what she meant by the second part. “That’s not what I’m saying, you know. Can’t we try to convince him? You always overthink things Aubrey.”

The room went silent when the back screen door entered and their missing friend blearily wandered in, bundled up from the mountain’s cold air double-jacket style. Kel noted that later he’d surely have to convince him to join in on the beard-growing adventure. Sunny had protested, but he’d eventually give in for sure. Otherwise he did have the fake mustaches if things were to go south. Regardless, he tapped his fingers on the table to signal to his serious self that now was not the time to plan facial growths. 

Happy and energetic was contagious, so he threw it out there. “Basil! We’ve got donuts! Sunny, eat yours, don’t let that go to waste!” He said, catching him in the act of trying to subtly dispose of a perfectly good boston cream. Sunny did not listen and proceeded to toss it out, pointing to the box. Confused, Kel looked down. To his horror, a stream of ants had somehow already found their way inside. Aubrey let out a scream, throwing her second donut back towards the box, efficiently knocking the entire thing off the table.

“Ah dang it Aubrey!” Kel said, rushing to the mess. 

“There were freaking ants in our food Kel!”

“Extra protein.” He returned, scooping the now sad and dusty donuts back in. They sat it back on the table, no one wanting to explain to Sunny’s father why the donuts were thrown out. Ants would not be a good enough excuse, Sunny had assured them.

Basil joined them at the table and Kel began to rapidly prepare a speech that was so persuasive and convincing he’d have no choice but to agree. However, the speech never needed to be said on account of the parental figure overhearing the news.

“You all have to come. I am responsible for your safety this week.” Sunny’s dad reached over grabbing a Bavarian cream. Kel looked away, the pain of the floor donuts were too great and his best friend’s father had just fallen victim. 

“Guess it’s settled then.” Kel shrugged.

Chomping happily and completely unaware of the violation that had occurred to the pastries, Sunny’s father pointed at Basil. “You. Go to bed earlier.”

Basil nodded rapidly.

They had all gotten to the car, and by the thirty minute mark, most everyone had already fallen asleep. Everyone except himself and Aubrey.