Stuck In Paradise

A mini break

They ate breakfast in silence, each person happy with their own plate except Kel who was jealous of Aubrey getting more bacon than him.

It felt nice. Like they managed to find a clearing in a storm.

Hero knew the storm wasn’t over yet. Nothing was ever that easy.

When everyone finished breakfast he washed their dishes and neatly put them away inboxes. After that was finished he turned to face the group who seemed to be waiting for him.

“Do you guys think we should check on Basil? He might be home by now.” Kel pointed out.

“Maybe...we probably should go check.” Hero agreed.

He wanted to make sure Basil was okay. The poor kid doesn’t seem like he was getting a break at all.

Once everyone agreed to go see Basil they made their way out of Sunny’s house. A walk during the day was actually way calmer than the one they took last night. That might only be Hero though….

Making their way to the street however they saw an odd sight. Basil’s grandma was standing in the middle of the road. Once she noticed them, she gave a small smile and waved before disappearing.

“...Um, I wasn’t the only one who saw that?” Aubrey asked.

“Nope. I saw it as well.” Kel confirmed their suspicions.

“That...That doesn’t seem like a good sign for Basil’s grandma….” Hero muttered.

“We should probably go,” Aubrey stated, making her way across the street. The others were quick to follow behind her all the way to Basil’s house.

Hero walked forward and knocked on the door lightly. A few moments later Polly popped out but it looked like she just woke up. Either that or she was highly stressed and in that case, he could relate to her.

She yawned before giving a small smile, “Let me guess, you wanna check on Basil?”

“Yeah, is he home?” Hero asked.

“Unfortunately his grandma is going to stay in the hospital for her final moments. He’s already there because he stayed the night. He should be back by noon.” Polly yawned again.

“Thank you, Miss Polly. We’ll be back later!” Hero gave her a polite smile.

“Hm, Basil is so lucky to have such good friends.” She grinned as she waved goodbye to them.

The moment she shut the door, everyone let out a groan. Basil wasn’t going to be back until later so that means they have a ton of time to kill.

“Oh shit, I just remembered something!” Aubrey suddenly spoke up, startling everyone.

“What?” Kel asked.

“You know how Basil’s photo album is missing some pictures? Yeah, that’s sorta my fault. I have the rest of the photos at my house. We should probably grab them.” Aubrey groaned into her hands.

How did she manage to forget that?

“Oh! Well, in that case, lead the way.” Hero nodded.

So she did.

It wasn’t that far of a walk to her house, though when he saw it he immediately felt concerned for Aubrey.

Her house looked like a mess. There were loads of trash outside plus traffic cones and a…

“Why do you own a stop sign?” He asked, pointing to the sign.

“Huh? Oh, that? I...dunno.” She awkwardly looked away.

Something told Hero that she did know and just didn’t want to admit she stole a stop sign.

“Anyways! I’ll go get the photos! You guys can wait here!” Aubrey nervously chuckled as she ran inside her house.

Hero let out a sigh as the others sat on the ground, patiently waiting for her return.

That was until they heard the sound of a scooter pull up.

“Hey nerds, is Aubs home?” A girl wearing a blue hoodie asked.

“Yeah, but we only stopped by to get some photos from Basil’s photo album,” Kel informed her.

“Huh? What? Is she finally returning that thing?” She asked.

“Eh, it kinda belongs to Sunny now since Basil said he can have it. We’re just grabbing the photos she took out of it.” Kel explained.

“Oh. Huh, never expected that...hey can I ask something? It’s kinda important.” The girl nervously twiddled with her fingers.

“Uh, sure?” Kel nodded.

“Is...Is she doing okay? I saw she was online last night and I texted her. She said she had some important things to do and not to bother her if we saw her with you guys.” The girl looked more nervous than before.

Hero doesn’t know her but he can tell she is a great friend to Aubrey.

“Yeah, we have just been on this huge emotional rollercoaster recently. Things have been rough but they are getting better.” Hero smiled.

The girl smiled back, “Alright, as long as things are getting better then I suppose I don’t need to butt in just yet. Though if really bad things happen you better let me know Kel!”

“Yeah, yeah Kim we got it.” Kel gave a thumbs up.

Kim hopped back on her scooter and began rolling away, “See ya, nerds!”

Aubrey walked outside just as she left and shot the others a confused look, “What was she doing here?”

“She just wanted to check up on ya, nothing else.” Hero grinned.

“Eh? Damn, wish I got to talk to her. Oh well, I got the pictures. We can put the album back together at Sunny’s house.” Aubrey held up the photos for them to see.

“Neat! What are we waiting for then? Let’s fix the album!” Kel grinned.

Hero smiled at the warmth coming from the group. The mood is way better from last night.

He let out a tiny sigh.

Perhaps things were gonna be okay.