ɪᴍᴘʟɪᴇᴅ/ʀᴇꜰᴇʀᴇɴᴄᴇᴅ ꜱᴇxᴜᴀʟ ʜᴀʀᴀꜱꜱᴍᴇɴᴛ ɪɴ ᴏɴᴇ ᴘᴀʀᴀɢʀᴀᴘʜ (ᴛᴏ ᴀᴜʙʀᴇʏ'ꜱ ᴍᴏᴛʜᴇʀ)
𝒾'𝓁𝓁 𝓉𝓇𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊—𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝒿𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝑜𝓃𝒸𝑒!
┊ ┊ ┊ ┊
"ᴏᴡᴡ!"
"Maybe if you stopped moving so much, it would hurt less!" Aubrey glared at Kel while she threw the remainders of the cactus spikes away. "It's over now anyway, so don't be such a baby."
Aubrey and Kel were in Basil's living room. They were there to hang out with Basil, and the others would come if Sunny didn't have violin practise and Mari and Hero didn't have to stay at their high school for whatever reason. Kel, for some stupid reason, thought it would be a good idea to hug a cactus despite its spikes being right there. Basil realized they would need more first aid supplies, and his grandmother remembered she had to do some other needs, so they both had gone. That left Aubrey and Kel alone.
Aubrey flopped onto Basil's couch and frowned when she looked at Kel. He was sitting on the floor with his back to the couch, his knees close to his chest and his arms wrapped around them. He had bandages on his arms, but they needed more. She couldn't see his entire face, but he looked annoyed enough, playing with his fingers.
She sighed and asked, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," he grumbled, glaring at the floor.
"If it's nothing, then stop looking so grumpy. If you don't, I'm going to think it's something ."
"I said it's nothing."
Aubrey refrained a sigh. She knew better than anyone that forcing people to try to share something they didn't want to was really annoying, so she wouldn't try to. If he was so grumpy, then she wouldn't try to talk to him either. To while the time away, she turned on Basil's TV. She found Kel's favourite TV channel and stayed on it in hopes to make him feel a little better, but he kept his eyes on the floor. Still, she stayed on the channel.
Aubrey laid down on Basil's couch, resting her head on one of the couch cushions. She didn't mind watching TV, but she did feel bored. Couldn't Basil and his grandmother come back now?
After a few minutes of the only noise coming from the TV, Kel said, "Aubrey, since we're friends—"
"No."
"I didn't even ask you anything yet!"
"You only call me your friend when you want something from me. That's usually something I don't want to do, so no."
"Just hear me out!"
She sat up to look at him. She kept her frown but didn't say anything.
Kel sat up straighter. "Okay, you know how me and Hero are going to Nearby City to visit our family, right?"
Aubrey nodded. Kel and his older brother Hero were going to Nearby City for a family reunion. She wasn't sure what the occasion was, but she knew it meant she and the rest of their friends wouldn't see them for the next week.
"Okay, so I need you to have a medical emergency—"
"Why would I agree to that?"
"Hear me out! I need you to have a medical emergency that needs me to stay home because I caused the medical emergency, and I need to be punished for it by being grounded and doing chores and stuff. I can't go to Nearby City if I'm grounded, so I can stay!"
"Why don't you want to go?" If it was her, Aubrey would love to see her family. She wasn't even sure if she had family outside of her mother and her father, but if she had any, she would love to meet them.
"Do you really have to know?"
"Yes because you're asking me to get hurt!"
"You don't have to actually get hurt. You can fake it!"
"Why do you want me to fake getting into a medical emergency?"
"You can fake twisting your ankle! It still works! I'll still get grounded!"
"Just tell me why, Kel! It's not that hard!"
Kel scowled, but he turned away and stared at the ground. His scowl vanished, and his voice was quieter when he said, "Whenever me, Hero, and my parents visit the rest of our family, everyone always compliments Hero. He can be doing nothing, and they still find something about him to compliment him about. It gets annoying..."
That didn't exactly answer her question. Aubrey was Hero's friend, so she knew he was loved by everyone . He always got compliments, whether he wanted them or not. She wasn't sure why Kel found it a problem when he was complimented by his family. They were his family, so they were bound to compliment him.
Unless Kel didn't get complimented by his family?
Aubrey had a frown as she looked at Kel. Now that she thought about it, she didn't hear a lot of people complimenting Kel, despite knowing him for a few years now. Then again, he always found a way to annoy people, which made people not want to compliment him. But compliments were always nice. Everyone liked compliments, and that included Kel. Maybe he wanted people to compliment him too, but Hero just got way more.
Yeah, that made sense. But did that mean she was going to have to compliment him?
She looked away from him when she realized she probably had to. She never complimented Kel, and he never complimented her. Even she would admit, but not out loud, that their friendship was teasing each other and getting into dumb arguments. If she started complimenting him, he would think something was wrong, or she was being forced to say it. She never complimented him anyway.
But there were a few things she knew she could compliment him about. He was really good at basketball, he could be really funny, he had a funny smile and laugh—in a good way—he was really caring about his friends, he was really skilled at video games, he was really good at practising doing the things he loved, he was really encouraging... That wasn't a few, was it?
Aubrey thought he should go to see his family, so she took in a deep breath, keeping her eyes on the TV still playing in front, and said, "Kel, I think you need a haircut."
That wasn't a compliment. She could feel his confused eyes on her, but she didn't dare look. "Okay...?" he said.
"Yeah." She quickly added, "But it's fine if you don't get one or something. Your bangs, they, umm...they fall over your eyes...and it's, uhh..." She lowered her voice when she said, "It's cute."
His eyes were still on her, and she felt her face heat up. Why did she choose to compliment something physical? She should've complimented how funny he could be, or how good he was at basketball, or something! Complimenting something physical was weird! It made things weird! But she couldn't compliment something else now, or else it would look even weirder and make it even more awkward!
After a silence that was going to eat her up, Kel laughed and sat down beside her. He poked her cheek as he said, "Aww, you think my haircut is cute , Aubrey? Really? I'm going to remember this for ever! I won't ever, ever, ever change my haircut now!"
She sighed and pushed his hand away, still not looking at him. "Don't take it seriously..."
Kel continued to laugh. Aubrey was really starting to regret complimenting him, but it did make him less grumpy.
. . .
ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴀʏ ʙᴇꜰᴏʀᴇ Kel and Hero were to leave for Nearby City to meet their parents, Aubrey and Kel were hanging out with the rest of their friend group. Mari had wanted a picnic, so they were all having one in their secret hangout spot. Basil was talking about something with Hero, and Sunny was asleep on Mari's lap. Aubrey decided to ask Kel to explore the forest surrounding their secret hangout spot.
Once they were a bit far from the others, Aubrey turned to Kel and told him, "Remember how you asked me to fake a medical injury?"
Kel slowly nodded. "What about it?"
"You owe me after this." Aubrey sat down on the ground and pulled one knee to her chest. She held onto her ankle and screamed, "Oww, what was that for, Kel? "
Kel, startled, stepped back when she started yelling. His face quickly turned from confusion to worry when she started crying loud enough for the others to hear. They found them fast and saw her crying on the ground with her "twisted" ankle. Basil and Sunny, who seemed incredibly tired, helped her up back to the picnic blanket. While she hopped on one foot and wincing from the "pain", she turned back to check on Kel. Mari and Hero were quietly scolding him, and he looked down at the ground.
Kel glanced up and met her eyes. Aubrey smiled at him through her fake tears, and he looked away fast. With that, she continued faking being in pain.
. . .
ᴋᴇʟ ᴡᴀꜱ, ᴀꜱ expected, grounded. Basil's grandmother offered to watch over him while his family went to Nearby City to see their family. It was a success—if you excluded how Kel's parents were mad at him; Hero wasn't too mad, but he wasn't happy either.
Aubrey waited near Kel's house for Basil's grandmother to leave since she knew she was going to have to take Basil and Sunny to a park outside Faraway Town they for some reason wanted to go to. Once she left, she knocked on the door and waited for Kel to open it. When he did, she stepped past him and went inside.
"How's being grounded?" she asked him as she closed the door.
"It's okay, but it's way better than being with my family." Kel's eyes went to her ankle.
"I'm okay," she said before he could ask. "I didn't twist it or anything. I'm just a great actress. Plus, I've pretended to twist my foot before."
"When did you do that?"
To give her mother an excuse not to talk to the "friends" her father brought over. He would bring over five men, and then he would leave, for some reason. When Aubrey was five, she saw them with her mother and saw how uncomfortable she looked. They were touching her in weird places like her chest and her inner thighs, and even though she didn't know why they were doing it, she thought she needed to help her mother. The only thing she could think of doing was pretending she hurt herself. When her mother took her to her bedroom, she explained she only pretended to twist her ankle to make her have to "take care" of her, meaning she had to leave the guys alone. Even though Aubrey and her mother weren't close, she always did this every time her father brought over his "friends."
"No reason," Aubrey replied.
Kel nodded and then smiled. "Thanks, Aubrey. I know there were probably better ways for me to not go visit my family, but thanks for going along with how I wanted to do it."
Aubrey's chest felt warm after seeing his smile. She turned her head away and said, "You never told me why you wanted to get grounded."
"It's the easiest way. I get grounded a lot, too, so it's no big deal."
As his friend, she knew he got grounded a lot, but she made her wonder how many times he got grounded. When she asked him, he said, "This is my 67ᵀᴴ time getting grounded."
Her eyes bugged out of her head. " 67ᵀᴴ? Kel, you're 11."
"So?"
"So, you shouldn't be grounded 67 times!"
He shrugged. "If it makes you feel better, most of them are like this when I pretend I did something bad."
"Why? "
Kel looked away.
Aubrey sighed. "You know what, if you don't want to tell me, don't—"
"I want to tell you." Kel said it so quickly, and it turned his face an adorable—she never thought she would ever use that word with him—shade of red when he realized it. She felt an urge to keep staring at his face even when he turned away and hurriedly said, "I-I mean...you're my friend, and you just helped me a lot, so I should probably, like, return the favour or something. Tell you something you want to know about me. Or something. Whatever you want."
Something about the way he quickly said the words made her heart flutter and put a smile on her face. "You can tell me some other time. Right now, do you know how long you have until Basil's grandmother comes back?"
He relaxed and looked at the clock. "She should be back in an hour."
"Do you want to hang out until then?" she asked "You had some new video game you wanted to show me, right?"
Kel grinned and took her hand. It was rougher than she remembered, but it was also nicer to hold than she remembered. He had more energy than she remembered him having as well, and that alone made Aubrey smile. She had no clue why he thought grounding was the best way to not go to his family reunion, but if it meant seeing him smile, she would take it.
- - - -
𝚆𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝙺𝚎𝚕'𝚜 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟹 𝚋𝚒𝚛𝚝𝚑𝚍𝚊𝚢 𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚛𝚎𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎𝚍, 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚜𝚊𝚒𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚑𝚎'𝚍 𝚋𝚎 𝚑𝚞𝚐𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚞𝚜. 𝙸 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚠𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎 𝚒𝚝, 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝙸 𝚠𝚊𝚜𝚗'𝚝 𝚜𝚞𝚛𝚎 𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝙸'𝚍 𝚋𝚎 𝚐𝚘𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚊. 𝙶𝚘𝚘𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙸'𝚖 𝚊 𝚙𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚜𝚎𝚛, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙸 𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚜𝚑𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜! 𝙰 𝚖𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚑 𝚊𝚏𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝙺𝚎𝚕'𝚜 𝚋𝚒𝚛𝚝𝚑𝚍𝚊𝚢. 𝙸'𝚖 𝚜𝚘 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚍𝚞𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚟𝚎!
𝚆𝚘𝚛𝚍 𝙲𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝 (𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚕𝚞𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙰/𝙽): 𝟸𝟷𝟻𝟸