Sunny returned home, a house that felt a bit smaller than his old one in Faraway, despite having more rooms. Maybe it was just because of it's closed floor plan, but it didn't matter. It felt smaller in a comforting way. He especially enjoyed the absence of a balcony over the stairs, keeping away the constant reminder of his mistakes.
He may complain about some things about his old house, but he did miss some things about it too. He missed the city it was in. He missed his old backyard, even though his dad cut down the tree his treehouse was in, it was still pretty with the flowers that he and Basil planted along the house.
Basil...
Allowing his thoughts to drift from his house to the boy, he remembered what he left Basil to. Aubrey probably going back to hating him, and most people in school probably being rough on him like they usually were.
People in his school made fun of a 9th Grader who reminded him of a younger Basil, due to the bright yellow flower pin in his hair. Of course, he never joined in, and sometimes defended him, but he would end up being called the same horrible things he called. He especially pitied him when he heard the 9th Graders yelling slurs at him as though they just discovered them days ago.
Sunny sometimes was made fun of for his name, but usually they were creative enough insults to make him laugh too. The millions of "no it's raining" jokes got old on the last two rainy days. He dreaded winter.
Sunny was never that religious, recently changing his position from agnostic to atheist. Though he did begin to "pray" to and for Mari. He usually would seek her for help when he was younger, and thinking of what she would tell him to do.
He would silently close his eyes. He didnt clasp his hands together, but would usually hold them on his lap. "Mari," he would think something like... "people keep bullying me at school, calling me an emotionless freak... what do I do?"
Sometimes, Mari didn't answer, and he came up with his own solution, but sometimes, Mari's voice would come to him, and tell him something like, "Sunny, they don't understand the way you express emotion sometimes, but don't ever let anybody judge you for it! They don't deserve your smile anyway!" and he'd feel himself smiling again, Mari made him feel better whenever that happened.
He remembered a day before Mari had died, before he even got his amazing violin. He adored the violin before he had gotten it, and always remembered fondly telling Basil how much he loved how they looked, and how they sounded. Basil was always there with him. He had gotten home right after hanging out with Basil, spending the day listening to him read, picking flowers, and talking to each other, when he heard his parents speaking to Mari.
He listened quietly, as his father scolded Mari for her selfish thoughts.
"Killing yourself is the most cowardly thing you can do Mari, if you ever embarrass my family name even THINKING about it, I promise you I will make your life a living hell." He heard Mari begin sobbing.
"I-I just... Why do you always do this? I only tried cutting myself because of the way you always act!" She sobbed loudly, then ran up the stairs, her eyes too filled with tears to notice Sunny.
Sunny closed the door quietly, then reopened it, with a loud "I'm home now, Mom!" pretending he had just arrived.
He heard something clang into the sink and the water turn on, and saw his mom washing the dishes in the kitchen, specifically scrubbing a knife.
"Oh, hi Sunny! Welcome home, I just started the dishes!" His mother claimed. An obvious cover for what he heard had happened. "How was Basil?" She asked. His father glared at him. He never liked Basil, called him too girly. Sunny didn't care, Basil was nice, and pretty too.
"We had a good time." Sunny replied, before walking away, announcing to the room "I'm going upstairs" in a quiet tone.
He walked into his room to comfort his sister, but she had already cleaned up her face and acted as though nothing was wrong.
"Hi Sunny!" She said with a faked cheery tone. It sounded real... she must have had experience covering up her crying, "Did you have a good day with Basil?" She asked, shining a surprisingly genuine smile at her little brother.
"I had a good day. I gave him a flower and he really liked it." Sunny said, unable to stop himself from smiling back at his sister.
Mari beamed. "I'm so glad! You two are so cute, I'm so happy that you had a good day!"
Sunny looked at a bandage on her arm. He looked at her face and pointed at the bandage.
"What happened, Mari?"
Mari looked like she had tears in her eyes, as she spoke, "I'm okay Sunny. I'm okay." she spoke with a solemn smile on her face. She accidentally shed a few tears as she spoke this last sentence, that always stuck with Sunny.
"Sunny, please remember, whatever happens, no matter what, I will always forgive you, and will always love you, okay? Please never lose your smile. Please."
Sunny shed a few tears at the memory, and got out of bed. His brain always started clouding with thoughts early in the mornings, and on the weekend he'd sometimes just let himself get whisked away with the daydreams. His mother probably thought he was sleeping in.
He walked downstairs to the smell of pancakes. He loved pancakes, fluffy and sweet from the maple syrup he always doused them in. His mom was Canadian, after all.
He was always a big fan of the maple flavour in general, his friends sometimes joking about his heritage.
Entering the kitchen, his mom greeted him warmly. "Sunny! Good morning! How's my boy?" she hugged Sunny tightly.
"I'm ok mom," he spoke with his usual expressionless face.
"I'm so glad to see you! Has your eye itched today?" She questioned with concern.
"No mom, as always, I'm fine." Sunny answered rolling his eyes. His eye hurt a bit whenever he looked straight up but other than that, the eye surgeries seemed like a success.
"Ok, I know, but I still have to ask. Doctor said-" His mother started
Sunny cut her off, "I know, I know, don't worry."
Suddenly, excitement hit Sunny. Today would be the day his glasses were to come in, having a special strength lense for his eye, also including an improvement to the vision to his other eye, which apparently was also slightly blurred, though Sunny hadn't noticed.
Sunny looked outside immediately before starting breakfast, the package already on the front step.
"Nearburgh Optometry" the package read, Sunny grabbed it and ran inside, into the kitchen. He slammed it on the table (gently, of course) and tore it open. Inside were a pair of glasses, with a shiny black rim. He thought he had ordered a pair with thicker frame, but the thin frame was still comfortable, and didnt look bad. He felt so happy.
Sunny ran to the bathroom mirror. He looked at his eye. Part of his eye had a red hue, only beneath and above his pupil, originally where the stab was, apparently. His ophthalmologist attempted to explain it when he was at the hospital post-operation, but he barely remembered it.
Something to do with the surgery method they used, talking about some weird new laser eye-suture method they were using.
He didn't mind, he had his vision, he preferred depth perception to weird looking eye.
Leaving the bathroom, Sunny saw pancakes on the table waiting for him, with a maple syrup bottle, practically begging to have it poured on them.
Sunny proceeded to drench his pancakes with syrup, and ate them with manic efficiency. When it came to eating pancakes, Sunny was not to be trifled with.
Filled with the fluffy goodness that came from heaven known as pancakes, he put his plate in the sink and rinsed it. He looked at the plant his mother grew in the window.
She tried growing a variety of herbs in her window, but she kept forgetting to water them.
The only ones who stayed alive was the basil plant. Sunny started watering it as well, to make sure his mom hadn't accidentally forgotten to water them. He didn't want to let the plant die.
Sunny remembered the cheerful boy from his memory. The suffering boy he met in his house that fateful night. Sunny felt an indescribable feeling inside thinking of him.
The phone began to ring, interrupting Sunny's train of thought.
"I'll get it!" He yelled in the general direction of his mother as he picked up the phone.
"Hello?" Sunny said, a bit more monotonously than he meant to sound.
"H-Hello?" A familiar voice on the other end of the line answered.
"Basil?! Is that you?" He asked with a smile on his voice. He hoped his voice was conveying the excitement he felt hearing his voice again for the first time in so long.
"Y-Yeah, hi Sunny..." Basil spoke anxiously, "my parents want me to move to Nearburgh... I just wanted to let you know if you wanted to avoid me..."
"N-No, no, I'd love to see you! Why would you think I'd try to avoid you?" Sunny worriedly asked.
Basil audibly took a deep breath, then spoke with some stammering. "Well, nobody here forgave me, so I just thought... I thought you wouldn't either..."
In disbelief, Sunny burst out into a defense for Basil, "If I didn't forgive you, I would be the biggest hypocrite on the face of the earth!"
Basil was silent on the other end of the line, possibly in shock.
"Everything ok in there, honey?" His mother asked in concern.
"I'm fine mom!" He responded in a loud yet flat voice, then returned to Basil, "Look, when you get here, please let me know, I really wanted to speak to you again. I-" he considered his words for a moment, then continued, "I missed you a lot, Basil."
"I-I guess I'll see you tomorrow then..." Basil said.
When Basil hung up, Sunny began to reflect on that night a month ago, when Basil hit his eye.
He wishes he didn't try to run. He was such a coward. In a twisted sort of way, he felt glad his trauma began to force himself into a corner. Better than abandoning poor Basil when he needed him most. He had so much to apologize for.
Basil looked so scared, and the thing I saw twisting around him and eating him up filled me with dread. I couldn't deal with it. I began hearing those words he spoke to me that day 4 years ago.
"Everything will be okay." He said. His sweet voice tainted by fear and doubt.
Shaking off his feelings from that night, he decided to look on the up-side. His birthday was just a week away, and Basil would be there for it the whole week.
Sunny felt something inside he could never notice until his trauma stopped hurting him when he thought of Basil's face.
He was so cute.
That thought sounded a bit gay, didn't it? But it's something straight guys probably thought about Basil all the time... who did Sunny think he was kidding. He was totally into Basil.
Sunny decided to try and push those feelings aside. Basil was normal. He would never like Sunny like that, anyway.
--idfk how end chapeter but it is almost 2000 word its time to stop