Phytoremediation

I'm not "that guy" anymore, and I made damn well sure he's dead.

"I-It's nothing, my back began to hurt a bit. Just needed to move, y'know?" Sunny tried to say cooly.

Maybe too cooly, because Basil got an expression of pity. "Are you having back pain? If you want I could massage you..."

Sunny's legs grew a bit weak.

Probably the worst thing you could've said just now.

Basil moved from his crossed legs sitting position to walking over on his knees. He knelt down next to Sunny.

"Just lie down, I can do all the rest!" Basil said with a voice of confidence.

You're killin' me here, Basil.

Sunny complied though, secretly tucking his... you know... in his waistband, and laying on his stomach.

Basil began giving Sunny a back massage, rubbing at knots and cricks Sunny could never seem to get rid of on his own. Sunny felt so much relief, and felt more relief when he noticed the hardness underneath him went away.

A loud crack interrupted his thoughts, Sunny felt a wave of relief over his body.

"Woah... are you ok?" Basil said, a bit concerned over the noise.

Sunny turned to face Basil, a bit of drool on his cheek, and tried to say "yeah" but making more of a "mguuuh" noise.

Basil stifled a laugh, but still giggled a bit after Sunny turned around. Sunny loved Basil's laugh, if he could he'd try and be some class-clown type for him. Just to hear his laugh.

Should've checked out a joke book, maybe... next time I guess.

Sunny wiped the slobber from his chin, and sat up normally.

Sunny adjusted his pants before he forgot. He wouldn't want to accidentally expose himself like some contrived plot point in a smut fanfiction.

Basil glanced down at Sunny's pants as he adjusted them, then back into Sunny's eyes.

Sunny felt a self-consciousness grow into a blush, as he dodged Basil's eye contact.

"If you want I can still read to you..." Basil suggested. He blushed a bit more than usual.

Before Sunny could answer, Basil got a look of realization. "I forgot! Polly is going to be here any second! I have to go I'm sorry Sunny!"

He ran off as Sunny yelled "goodbye" after him.

Stupid body. Control yourself in front of Basil!

As if out of spite, blood began rushing to that spot again.

He rolled his eyes, and looked out the window to distract himself from... that...

Outside was Basil running down the street, nearly at his house again. He looked so cute. The more perverted part of him began looking at his lower body. He stopped himself.

That's your best friend. Basil. Don't think of him like that.

His brain seemed to ask a "Like this?" Before showing him and Basil in... positions.

Sunny decided not to think of his crude brain, and thought of something else. Like, Kel, he's the opposite of Basil. Unshaven, rowdy, frequently sweaty, and by consequence, somewhat smelly.

Damn it, that just made me think of Basil's clean shaven thighs. I am such a pervert.

"Yeah, pretty much." A voice agreed with him in his mind.

Sunny remembered that voice. Omori's.

What are you doing back here?

"I never left. I just left you alone for a while. Nice to see when I leave for just a month, you end up nearly jacking it to thoughts of your best friend fellating you." Omori answered.

You can't just... I wasn't going to do that!

Sunny may not have been able to see Omori, but the way his eyes rolled permeated human senses.

"Sunny, I think I'll leave you alone for a while longer. I don't really want to know what you're doing in the bedroom on your own time."

Sunny threw his palm at his face out of irritation. No matter how annoying Omori was being upon his return, he did make him go soft.

Sunny made his way downstairs to the living room. Watching TV would get his mind off of things, and his mom being around usually made the weirder puberty urges go away.

"Sunny, what happened to Basil?" His mom asked.

"Polly just is about to come, and I think he went to help her unpack and stuff." Sunny responded while picking up the TV remote.

His mother nodded, then went around the couch to sit next to Sunny.

"So how was Basil?"

Soft... uh... wait...

"He seemed happier than last time I saw him." Sunny said as he turned on the TV.

Stupid puberty. Can't even talk about him without thinking like that about him.

"I'm glad to hear that, Sunny!" she said, smiling at him. "You haven't smiled like that in so long, so seeing you like that, I knew I had to let Basil be your friend again. I may still have my doubts but... if you forgive him, then I won't get in the way of your friendship."

Sunny watched his mom walk away, then flipped through channels for a short time. They never had anything good on during the week, even though it was summer and everybody would be home from school.

The business practices of the TV network were as boring to think about as the shows themselves. Sunny turned off the TV.

He eyed the landline, thinking of calling Kel, but then remembered Hero was there. He should wait for thr next time Kel will call him first. If Hero could pick up instead of Kel, it was too risky.

Kel was the forgiving type, maybe a bit too much so since he forgave Sunny, but he wasn't going to complain.

He considering calling Aubrey. He still had her cell phone number, but never really tried calling her after she ended up crying and storming off in the hospital.

The only one who came back to check on him and Basil in the hospital the day after was Kel, so he assumed Aubrey was still mad.

Have you heard of the boredom experiment? People would be left in a room with nothing but a button that hurt them, and would be informed as much. People would eventually, over the course of only 20 minutes, end up hitting the button not just once, but more than once.

We prefer pain to boredom. Sunny proved that experiment correct as he proceeded to call Aubrey.

The answering machine was all that answered.

"𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚘𝚗 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚊𝚌𝚝: uh... Aubrey Jalbrin. How do I stop the 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚞𝚗𝚊𝚋𝚕𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚙𝚑𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚗𝚘𝚠. 𝙿𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚊 𝚖𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝚊𝚏𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚝𝚘𝚗𝚎." It read out in a robotic voice, before a beep.

"Uh... hey Aubrey... it's me... Sunny... hope you've been doing well... you can call me back at 827-359-■■■■. Hope everything's been going good for you... uh... see you around, I guess." Sunny pressed the end call button, then cringed at how stilted he sounded.

Sunny felt bored again, and decided to go back up to his room to play some game on his PC. He looked at the date in the bottom right, giggling at the y2k he saw all over the internet just a year prior.

The new end times date was apparently in 2012, so he'd have to wait a while before he saw crazy people declaring the end of the world again.

He looked at his Blackjack game's icon. Sunny found it a lot more boring in comparison to games he found online.

Sunny opened his browser, and typed in the name of a website which people shared games using a thing called "Adobe Flash." Sunny was still unsure how to pronounce the name, but he enjoyed playing the games. They were rudimentary usually, but rudimentary original games is a bit better than playing the same game over and over.

Sunny opened some game with a red ball on its thumbnail, and played.