Basil set down the phone he just called Sunny from.
Now he had to make a call he was less excited about. To his parents.
Basil picked up his phone nervously. He knew his parents wouldn't judge or be mean to him, it was just apathy. Regardless, he never enjoyed trying to call them.
"Hello, Basil, what are you calling me for?" His father asked flatly.
"Um... hey Dad, I just-"
His father cut him off. "No calling me dad anymore, you're 16. Grow up, I'm Heath to you now."
Basil frowned and looked down. "O-Okay... Heath... um... I need to get a birthday present for my best friend... a violin..."
"Great timing, then Basil. I had just bought a few Stradivarius violins as investments. I could spare one for your best friend. If that's all I'll be hanging up." Heath replied.
Basil felt tears form in his eyes. Even if it was anger, feeling anything come from his parents would have been an improvement. He decided to come out to his dad right there. Even if he disowned him, it would be an improvement on how he felt about him right now.
"A-Actually Heath, I... I'm gay, ok?" He said loudly into the receiver.
"Ok, Basil. Just make sure you adopt. Your mother's company won't end with you, understand?" He answered without even a hint of surprise. Not a sliver of emotion.
"That's all..." Basil said quietly.
Without even saying goodbye, his father hung up. Basil felt tears begin to stream down his face. Not even a reaction. His parents didn't care about him, they just cared about their stupid companies. Lining their pockets with as much money as possible. They even bought some violins, not for him, but because then they wouldn't pay as much tax as they sat their with their value climbing.
Polly came into the hallway, where he was yelling. He felt a wave of regret wash over him. She must've heard him when he was yelling that he was gay.
"Are you okay, Basil?" She asked quietly.
Basil couldn't help but sob.
Polly tried to hug him, but Basil ran into his room and began crying into his pillow.
Polly followed Basil into his room, and sat on his bed, next to Basil's feet. "I... I know it seems like they don't care about you, but..." Polly couldn't finish her sentence. They both knew that they didn't care.
"Basil, I promise, everything will get better. You will be okay." Polly said as she stood up, and rubbed Basil's back. "I'll let you cry it out for a little while, ok?"
Basil cried for what felt like hours, though had only been a bit over half an hour. He stood up, wiped his face, and walked to his window, looking down at the dirt patches where he planted the seeds. He needed to water the tulip seeds today, and any sprouting sunflowers.
Basil went downstairs and out his door, grabbing his watering can to fill up in the sink.
"Hey Basil, are you okay? Do you need anything?" She asked. Her eyes looked a bit red from crying.
"I'm okay... I'm just going to water the plants."
The faucet splashed at the bottom of the watering can, and slowly filled it up. Basil made sure it didn't go too high, and turned off the faucet when the watering can was full enough to use.
Basil walked out the front door, then inspected the left and right flower beds for any grass or weeds before watering them.
Basil looked at his bland front yard. No dandelions, no daisies, just short grass. Probably mowed and cleaned before the new family would move in, after all. Basil decided to water the lawn a bit, hoping some seed would receive the water, and make the lawn less bland. Basil looked at the occasional clover patch on lawn. and would water them too. They always looked so pretty, Basil loved clovers. His favourite non-flowering plant. A really specific category, maybe, but still, the top of it.
Basil set down the watering can at the end of the driveway, still half-full of water. He could use it tomorrow, better than wasting water.
Basil began to make his way inside, before a black car pulled into his driveway.
An older man left the car, and opened the trunk, before bringing a violin case, carrying it extremely carefully.
"Are you young master Basil?" He asked.
"Y-Yes..." Basil looked into his eyes, which were looking down on him judgementally.
"Can you confirm by telling me your father's first name?" he asked, looking at him with doubt.
"Heath..." Basil said, darting his eyes away from the man's.
"Ah, alright then, sorry for the trouble, young master Basil." The man presented the violin case to him, "both hands, young master Basil."
Basil stuck his hands out to receive the case, to which the man place the case into his arms, and then ran back to his car, and drove away.
Basil carefully brought the case into the house, and placed it on the table.
"What's that, Basil?" Polly asked curiously.
The sad face Basil wore earlier, became a bit happier, remembering who this gift was for, and how happy Sunny would be. "It's for Sunny's birthday, it's a violin!"
Polly opened the case while she spoke "What kind is it?"
"It's a Stradivarius!" Basil said with a smile to Polly.
Polly immediately stopped, and carefully closed the case, avoiding even breathing on the 10 million dollar violin. "Did you say Stradivarius?" Polly asked incredulous.
"Yeah, dad bought some of them apparently" Basil confirmed, "Why, how much are they?"
"These sell for millions! Basil did your dad really give you this to give to your friend?" Polly questioned
Basil was shocked. He expected them to be expensive, but not multiple millions expensive.
"Millions as in..."
"A week ago one sold for 8 million! The week before a set of three sold for 29 Million!"
That was... a lot of money. Basil looked at the violin case on the table before him. He shook his head. Basil owed far more than that to Sunny. This was barely a token of what Sunny did for him. He saved his life. Almost three times now. Basil decided he would always be there for Sunny from now on. Now he always will be there for him.
"Sunny deserves a violin like this. He deserves so much!" Basil smiled to Polly.
Polly couldn't help but smile back.
"Well, it's your parents who decided to send it here knowing you were going to give it to him." Polly said with a laugh.
"Yeah, da- Heath sent it over faster than I expected..." Basil said.
Basil carefully opened the case again. He carefully picked up the violin, and looked at it. It had a striking appearance. The wood felt delicate, but firm. The head of it had a beautiful curl at the top. Basil examined the chin guard. He didn't want it to be uncomfortable on Sunny's chin. It was hard, but the shape looked perfect for Sunny's chin, so Basil decided it would be ok.
Setting the violin back down into its case, Basil looked at the bow. It was a beautiful ornate designed bow, with a pretty little symbol on its side. Basil blushed when he noticed it was in the shape of a heart. Basil hoped Sunny wouldn't get the wrong idea from it... it looked like a coat of arms, so if he asked, Basil would just tell him that.
Basil placed it back into it's space in the case. That was enough examining Sunny's gift, the next time this case was going to be opened would be on Sunny's birthday. Basil noticed as he lifted up the case to move it, a shine appeared on the table.
The shine appeared to be coming from the violin case, Basil concluded after moving the violin case midair like an idiot to make sure. Basil looked below the case and saw a golden "Stradivarius" etched into the bottom. Basil hoped Sunny hadn't heard of the company...
Who am I kidding, he knows English better than me, and I was born in Australia!
Basil never had a great handle on English in Australia. Whenever he was getting taught, the caretakers would switch. When he was 5 they moved to China, and eventually he picked up on Chinese through school. Thankfully he fit in a bit more in that school, only having trouble with speaking, but fitting right in among the other 5 year olds, due to the complex nature of writing and reading in Chinese.
Basil could form basic sentences, but, according to Sunny, his accent was extremely strong, and he mispronounced some words.
Basil experimented with a sentence in English while he walked into the living room. "Hell-aw. Me namay iss... Lwaluh..."
He probably sounded fine.
He remembered what they called him in English... "Bay-sull" ..apparently a translation of his name, but Basil didn't hear the resemblance.
Pinyin was easier. Basil wished everyone would use it. It's simple, it shows you how to pronounce everything, why not?
Basil put down the violin in the living room. He didn't have anywhere else to put it, anyway.
Unfortunately, like most normal people, wrapping paper was not something that Basil or Polly took with them in the move. Wrapping paper-less, they decided to leave the gift as-is for Sunny.
I hope he'll accept it, even though it's super expensive.
Sunny never had been one to turn down a gift, but he also never had been one to receive a 10 million dollar violin. Basil waited a few moments, before turning on the TV. Nothing better to do, after all.