{A/N: Hello lovelies, sorry for the late chapter update! Anyways, enjoy!}
The sun shined brightly overhead on a cool autumn day. Mari had already set up the picnic and was sitting in the cool shade, watching everyone else have fun at their hangout spot. Kel laid down next to her with two Orange Joe's already in his system.
Kel turned his head away from the sun and was face to face with Basil's camera. He stared at the lens, deep in thought, before he sat up and pulled out Basil's photo album from the picnic basket.
"Kel, what are you doing?" Mari asked, diverting her attention away from the scenery. He didn't answer, mumbling incoherently under his breath. When he got to the last page he stopped and glanced back at Mari.
"Where's Basil?" he finally spoke.
"Basil and Sunny are chasing Hero with a bug." Mari motioned over in the distance where Hero was cowering on the ground with the two younger boys above him. The two watched as the grasshopper in Sunny's hand hopped off of him and onto his victim. Hero froze completely, unable to move until Basil quickly picked the grasshopper up again. Basil's plan to have Hero get over his fear of bugs was becoming futile. He'd have to rethink his plan.
"I'm gonna go to the bathroom," Basil called out to everyone, giving the grasshopper to Sunny and walking out of their hangout spot. Without guidance, Sunny stood there with a grasshopper in his hand, only moving when Aubrey walked up to him and Hero.
Perfect. They're distracted.
Kel turned around and grabbed the camera, fumbling with the buttons on it.
"What are you doing?" Mari asked again cautiously, eyeing the camera.
"I'm gonna take a picture of myself, duh."
"But Basil only likes taking pictures of people-" Mari was cut off as Kel finished her sentence.
"-when they aren't paying attention so it looks natural. I know that already, but Basil takes more pictures of you guys than me."
Mari cocked her eyebrow.
"I'm pretty sure he takes more pictures of Sunny than he does of all of us. Did you even count how many times everyone was in his album?"
"Yeah... well, no. You know I'm not good at math!" With that confession, Kel stood up and held the camera out with the lens facing toward him.
"Kel, you're going into seventh grade...," concern laced Mari's voice at his inability to count.
"Let's not talk about that."
Kel spun around in a circle as the camera flashed, taking a photo. He smiled brightly.
"Now I'll just tell Basil that I took it by accident. No one can even tell I took it on purpose!" Kel explained triumphantly.
"I'm pretty sure everyone can tell," Mari admitted, humored by his behavior.
"No they won't," Kel denied, "Just you wait, Mari. One day, there's going to be more pictures of me than of you!"
===
Hero stopped his car in front of Aubrey's house, unlocking the side door.
"Are you sure you want to be home right now?" Hero asked, worried that she'd be alone in her thoughts with this newfound information. "You can come back to our place if you want."
"I'll be fine," Aubrey muttered, her head kept down low, "Thanks for the ride."
She left without another word and went back into the house void of compassion and life. Whether or not her mom noticed she was gone for an extended period of time was unknown to them, but they definitely had their guesses.
Without another word, Hero drove off. The concern that once painted over his face for Aubrey switched back to a blank expression. It was like someone flipped a switch on him. One moment he's the charming boy next door that's always in a good mood. The next he's silent with a thousand words begging to be spoken behind his lips and a thousand emotions swirling behind his eyes.
It didn't go unnoticed.
"You're doing it again," Kel spoke quietly, just enough for Hero to hear him. His brother glanced at him through the rearview mirror. A beat of silence passed before he responded.
"It's not like we can act how we're feeling right now."
"Yeah, I get it with Polly, but with Aubrey? That's not like you at all."
"And killing Mari wasn't like Sunny," Hero snapped back without thinking about his choice of words. Kel shut his mouth, not knowing what to say as he stared as his brother with pleading eyes. Eyes that wished Hero wouldn't have thought so harshly about Sunny, even though he knew that he was right.
The rest of the ride was silent as they drove back home. Neither of them were ready to keep talking about the reality they were in. Instead they chose to start slowly sinking into their never ending thoughts: Asking questions that may never be answered and wishing that this was all just a terrible nightmare.
Hero pulled up into their driveway and immediately went inside, not waiting for Kel to catch up.
Inside, they were greeted by two incredibly worried parents that pounced on their sons the moment they walked through the door.
"What happened? Are Sunny and Basil okay?"
"Are you guys okay?"
Hero put his hands up, clearly overwhelmed by the sudden attention. He flashed his parents a nervous smile much to Kel's distaste.
"We're fine and everyone is okay," Hero answered, dispelling his parents' concern. Relief seemed to wash over them, but they weren't yet satisfied by his response.
"Sunny's mom called and told us that he lost his eye! I thought everyone was sleeping over at Basil's house. How did that happen?" His mother asked, causing Hero to go silent.
No one knew what happened between Sunny and Basil.
===
A heavy thud shook the house.
Hero was the first to wake up. Peering into the darkness, he noticed Sunny's disappearance.
"Could he have gone to the bathroom?" he thought to himself. "No, it's way too quiet."
He tried to think nothing of it, but the gut feeling inside of him told him that something was wrong. Despite being a light sleeper, it was obvious something had woken him up. It felt like he had woken up from a nightmare, not knowing that he might just be living in one.
Gaining his bearings in the dark living room, he silently walked around his sleeping friends and entered the hallway. His eyes immediately locked onto Basil's door.
"Maybe Sunny got through to Basil?"
It was a lie, and he knew it. With each step he took, his heart seemed to sink deeper into his chest. It was almost as if he wasn't going to like what he saw.
The door knob felt heavy in his hands. Nevertheless, he opened it.
Blood was the first thing he noticed. Two teenage boys covered in blood, lying on the ground. If it wasn't for their chests heaving up and down with breath he'd have thought they were dead. Even in the darkness he could notice the scratches covering their arms mixed with shades of red that would soon turn into blues and purples.
Hero didn't move. He didn't know if he was capable. His mind was moving fast, trying to wrap his head around what had happened that he couldn't think clearly.
The moonlight from the uncovered window shined down into the room, causing something to glimmer under its light. Narrowing his eyes at the shining object, he recognized its shape.
Basil's gardening shears. The object was mostly covered with blood, and it lied directly in it's owner's hands. Alarms blared through Hero's head.
Quickly, Hero scanned Sunny's body, zeroing in on his face. How could he not have noticed it before? The gash across his eye that continued to bleed, joining the growing puddle on the floor. Only then did Hero seem to gain control of himself. His thoughts came to an immediate stop.
"Polly!" Hero cried out, running straight over to her room.
By now, everyone had been startled awake by the sudden commotion. Kel slowly opened his eyes, disoriented by the disruption. Blinking a couple of times to get used to the lack of light, he listened to the voices around him and shot up into a sitting position.
Something was wrong.
Kel turned to look at Aubrey on the couch, who was already sitting up. They shared a look before running into the hall, following the voices to Basil's room.
The moment they saw their friends lying on the ground in puddles of blood, they froze. Neither of them noticed Hero calling for an ambulance, or Polly desperately trying to tend to their injuries. Everything around them blurred, only focusing on the scene in front of them. Aubrey thought for a moment that they might have been dreaming, but when the smell of blood hit her nose it dawned on her.
This was reality.
===
Hero tried to give his parents as much information as he trusted them with. All his parents knew was that something had happened between Sunny and Basil. What that was, no one knew for sure, but Hero, Kel, and Aubrey didn't stay at the hospital long enough for them to wake up. So, the three headed home. His parent's finally dropped it once they were satisfied with Hero's answer.
Instead, their attention turned to their youngest son, who hadn't spoken a word since he'd come into the house. His eyes stared off into the distance, lost in his own world of never ending thoughts.
"I'm sorry, Kel," his mom spoke, "you two shouldn't have had to go through that."
She pulled her sons into a hug, squeezing them tight, causing Kel to snap out of his thoughts. The boys returned the hug before Kel abruptly pulled away.
"It's okay. It was scary, yeah, but everyone's okay now. I'll be fine," Kel rambled, trying to assure his parents that his mental state was not currently spiraling. "I'm just gonna go shoot some hoops. You know, get my mind of things?"
Without waiting for their reply, Kel grabbed his basketball by the front door and left his house. Despite having a basketball hoop of his own, he didn't want his family coming out and trying to talk to him. So, with that, he headed straight for the park.
He never took his eyes off the scenery around him, trying his best to keep his mind afloat. Sinking into negative thoughts would do nothing but hurt him.
When he got to the park, he headed straight for the basketball court which was, thankfully, empty. Right as he was about to step onto the concrete, he stopped. His eyes became fixated on the grass under his shoes. There grew a little weed, a common daisy. He thought back to the flower he and the others brought for Sunny and Basil. Basil only received the one from Kel and the others, but Sunny was given one from practically everyone in Faraway Town.
How could someone be so universally loved but still commit murder?
Kel shook his head, desperately trying to get rid of the thought. No. The Sunny he knew would never- Who was he kidding? The truth was he didn't know Sunny. The Sunny he knew was different than the Sunny that Hero, Aubrey, Basil, and Mari knew.
He stepped onto the court and started dribbling the ball over to one of the nets.
Scoring points.
That was all he was going to focus on. Nothing else. He needed to clear his head and not think about anything else. If he pushed his thoughts down, just for a little bit, maybe he could get over them faster.
How hypocritical of him.
Standing on the freethrow line, Kel dribbled the ball a few times before taking his first shot. He watched as it hit the backboard and bounced off the rim of the hoop. Missed.
Sunny's parents knew what they did.
He stopped in his tracks, startled by the intrusive thought. Taking a moment to recollect himself, he continued going after the ball.
This is why they chopped down the tree.
Kel picked up the ball.
They were covering up the crime.
His eyes started to water. He didn't want to think about this.
"I'm only sixteen. Sixteen year olds don't go through stuff like this," he whispered to himself, as if being any louder would cause him to burst into tears. Wiping his tears away, he dribbled back onto the court.
After Mari died, Kel put on a pair of rose-colored glasses. He didn't know how to cope with loss, so he chose to cover it up. It wasn't like he was denying the lack of Mari's presence, more like the glasses didn't make her death seem as bad as it looked. Now, staring at the basketball hoop, the realization hit him.
He lost the glasses. He lost them the moment Sunny walked into Basil's hospital room. Kel could now see everything in it's true colors. It made the light shine brighter, causing the darkness he had been hiding from to finally become visible.
Kel took another shot. It rolled on the rim of the hoop before falling in.
Sunny and Basil did a terrible, down right horrendous act. Kel knew this. He also knew that one bad action didn't make a bad person, but this was something that couldn't be forgiven easily. Hero and Aubrey were so quick to jump on the hate bandwagon, but Kel trusted that it was how they'd grieve. For them to turn on their friends so quickly would be hypocritical.
After what Aubrey almost did-
Kel caught the ball before it hit the ground. The air felt cooler around him as a small gust of wind blew his way. He gazed upward and noticed the clouds starting to form overhead. The sun was slowly disappearing, no longer able to form the warm colors of the sunset.
It was time to start heading back. He started walking toward the half-court line.
People always told him he seemed to be so chipper, like he didn't have a care in the world.
Kel aimed for the basketball hoop. A three pointer. It was unlikely to make it, but not impossible.
What people didn't know was that he chose to live in an ignorant bliss. Wanting nothing more than to keep his childlike optimism without realizing what he was sacrificing in return. Reality.
He shoots.
Everyone made the mistake of separating from one another in a time when they needed each other most.
He scores.
Friends... Friends are supposed to be there for each other. Kel would be damned if he let his friends suffer the same fate again. The last thing Kel was going to do was throw Sunny and Basil under the bus. If they trusted him and the others to make the right decision, then this was his.
The first rain drop hit his hand, which was still posed in the air after shooting the basketball. He gazed up and watched as the clouds grew darker. He needed to get home, fast. Quickly, he grabbed his basketball and started racing home, hoping to beat the rain before a heavy downpour began.
He slowed as he neared his house, hearing Hector barking vigorously, begging to be let inside the house.
"Well that's strange," Kel thought to himself. "How come no one let him in? There's no way they couldn't have heard him." The moment Kel opened the front door he realized that there was, in fact, a way.
Hero and their parents were standing in front of the TV in a heated argument. Sally was crying in the background but no one seemed aware of it. Kel's heart dropped to his stomach.
"Did Hero tell them the truth?"
===
The front door slammed shut, leaving Hero and his parents confused.
"He'll be fine. You know how Kel will always bounce back," Hero reassured, not wanting to stay on this topic any longer. Truth be told, all of this smiling wasn't stopping his mind from racing.
"Well then, let's sit down. We haven't seen you in so long. How's college?" His dad asked, finally changing the topic, but Hero was already done with talking. He didn't want idle chit chat; he wanted to go through what he discovered. Nevertheless, he sat down with his parents, hoping to get this done and over with.
As time passed, it appeared that Hero wasn't going to be able to leave as soon as he wanted to.
"What about your studies? Still an A plus student I hope!" his mom asked
"Um... It's been good, I guess. If you don't mind, I think I'd like to-"
His mother cut him off. "Oh, how exciting! I can't believe that one day you're gonna come back here as a doctor!"
"Who knows, I might change-"
This time the cut off was by his father. "Yup, that's our boy for ya. He's always aiming high. Soon, you'll have a nice job and settle down with a good wife and kids."
"We're really proud of you, Hero. We're glad you decided to go into pre-med instead of culinary school."
It was stupid. It was a stupid reason to yell. He never acted on his emotions like this before, but in that moment all he could think about was Mari. Hero was always the charmer, always doing everything he could to help others. Yet, the moment he wanted to help himself, something had to get in his way.
It was irrational. It was stupid but, right now, he didn't seem to care.
"I never wanted to go into pre-med!" Hero snapped, standing up from the couch. "I wanted to go to culinary school. I never got to decide anything!"
His mother's eyes widened, shocked by her son's sudden outburst. Sally could be heard fussing in the background. "Hero-" she called out to him.
"No, I don't want to hear it! I could have been so much happier if I didn't do what you wanted me to do." He shouldn't be taking his anger out on them. He just wanted to be left alone.
Raindrops began hitting the window harshly, slowly drowning out the sound of Hector's barking, who was begging to be let inside. Sally's fussing had started to grow into a full cry.
"Where is this coming from?" his dad demanded, not focusing on the noises around him. "Hero, this isn't... this isn't like you."
In a sense, he was right, but at the same time he was wrong.
The Hero his dad knew was different from the Hero his mom, his brother, and Mari all knew. It was obvious to some that pre-med was Hero's choice of major. He helped people on a day to day basis so this was taking it to another, profitable, level. Others saw the boy who gave so much to the point that he was handing away parts of himself. A person whose kindness could easily be exploited. They saw a boy that was clearly happy doing what he was passionate about but, of course, people wanted to take that away from him too.
Very few knew Hero as the boy who could never truly get over the death of his loved one. The hardworking facade he created was meant to fool everyone, including himself, yet that didn't seem to work.
"I shouldn't have done this to myself. Why didn't I listen to her?" Hero muttered to himself under his breath.
Someone cleared their throat.
All heads turned to the front door where Kel stood who was now slightly soaked by the rain. Hector had hopped onto the couch, not able to recognize the tension in the room. It was only then that Kel's mother went upstairs to tend to Sally.
"Hey bud, you feeling better?" their dad asked, shifting the conversation once again.
"I-I'm doing okay. What were you guys yelling about?"
"Don't worry about it, kiddo." His dad waved his hand in emphasis, trying to brush it all off as no big deal. He turned to look at Hero one last time, "We'll talk later, okay?"
Reluctantly, Hero nodded, bringing his head down.
"Good." His dad left the room.
"Hero?" Kel called out to his older brother. Hero didn't respond and made a bee line to their room with Kel following suit. "Hero, what's going on?"
Hero sat on the edge of his perfectly made bed with his head in his hands. He heard Kel close the door behind him. No longer wanting to wait in suspense, Kel finally asked,
"Did... Did you tell them what Sunny and Basil did?"
Hero froze, making Kel fear for the worst. It felt like an hour until Hero lifted his head up.
"No," he finally responded, "but maybe I should have."
A blanket of panic wrapped around Kel, growing tighter by the minute. The anger that Hero had had started to crash, his eyes began to gloss over.
"Oh god," he whispered, ignoring his previous comment, "She didn't kill herself. All this time... it wasn't her." Tears began dripping down his face and he made no move to stop them. He had cried for days after her death, wondering what he did wrong. Wondering how he could have missed the signs not knowing that there were none. He wondered if maybe it was the stress of the recital, maybe the thought of their future was too much, maybe she wasn't happy with her life, wasn't happy with him.
Never did he think that maybe it was nothing.
He blamed himself every day, believing that he was a horrible friend and boyfriend. He could never move on from her, and in truth, he never wanted to. Scared that his next relationship could end up like his first.
"Hero..." Kel called out to him, not knowing what to do. How do you drag someone out from the depths of their thoughts?
"She could still be here if they hadn't... if they hadn't..." Hero couldn't bear to finish his sentence. Saying it would only shove the truth further into his face.
"It... It was an accident." Kel spoke as if he wasn't entirely sure of himself.
"Was it?" Hero glared at his younger brother, cocking a brow while the tears continued to drip down his face.
"No," Kel said, his eyes widening, "don't say that. We can't just throw away all of our trust in them."
"How could you say that? Even after what they did? You constantly acted like Mari's advocate whenever we did something you thought she'd disagree with and now you're going to say this?" Hero wiped the tears off his face.
"We both know that Mari loved Sunny, and Sunny loved her back! Do you really think that Sunny would do that on purpose? Tell me!"
Hero stayed silent. Truthfully so, Kel was the only one who seemed to look at the gray of the situation. While Hero and Aubrey dived head first into the black of the matter. With Hero's silence, Kel continued,
"I know that what they did was wrong, everyone can agree, but they were twelve. If you had done that to me when you were twelve, how do you think you'd react? What do you think everyone else would say if they find out? I may not know Sunny or Basil that well now, but I know they aren't cold blooded killers!"
Silence enveloped the two of them. Hero's head was facing the ground again. Kel continued to stare at his emotion-driven brother.
They had been here before.
After Mari died, for a whole year the brother that Kel knew for twelve years had disappeared. He had turned into a depressing mass that lived most of its days on a bed. It was an argument that brought him out of that state, but now Kel was worried this one was going to sink him back in.
Hero had switched so quickly. From a troubled boy to the charming boy next door. From a depressed teenager to a hard working honor student. It made Kel wonder how many times was Hero real with himself. Where he put down the workload he assigned himself and dealt with the load of trauma he kept hidden? No matter what, Kel couldn't let Hero lose himself again.
They had come so far, they couldn't give up on each other now.
{A/N: Thank you for reading this chapter! If you enjoyed it, please leave a star and a comment, I'd appreciate it! Also, sorry about the really late update. I have another fanfiction that I've been working on, so I'm going to switch back and forth between updating the two fics. Thanks again for reading. Bye!}