Sunny's first thought waking up was pain.
Not exactly his favorite way to wake up, but at least he slept well.
But, something that made it all worth it was waking up in the arms of Aubrey. For whatever reason he felt so comfortable
While his side was in pain, he didn't want to move and wake up Aubrey, so he endured.
He felt the warmth radiating off of her and he felt so comfortable, he could stay like this forever. He lay there in warmth, he was enjoying this. Her skin felt soft and smooth to the touch.
He felt a little movement coming from her though, he was afraid that this wasn't going to last much longer.
She started to stir for a moment. After a little bit she opened her eyes.
She groaned slightly then she realized where she was. She immediately let a smile on her face.
"O-oh, Good morning Sunny." Aubrey said, waking up.
"Good morning Aubrey." Sunny said grinning.
Neither of them wanted to move, they felt so comfortable. They both wished that time would never pass and they could just stay there forever.
Then Aubrey remembered something.
"How's your side Sunny?" She asked.
"It still hurts like hell, I'll be alright though." He replied.
Aubrey didn't want to move but she was worried about him.
"Here, let's check on it." She said.
"Seriously, I'm fine." He said.
"C'mon you're getting up, and we're gonna check your side." She demanded.
Sunny didn't want to get up but he knew there was no escaping this.
They shifted the covers to the side and got up. They made their way over to the bathroom.
They walked in and turned the light on.
Sunny sat down and Aubrey checked his side again.
She started to take the gauze off him.
It wasn't bleeding, but it was still bruised badly.
He grunted from the pain.
"Sorry, didn't mean to." She apologized.
She re-bandaged him and they left the bathroom.
"Do you want breakfast?" he asked.
"Sure!" She responded cheerily.
They walked down the stairs and into the kitchen.
Aubrey sat down while Sunny once again found himself looking through the pantry.
"Hey, do you want some eggs and bacon?" He asked her.
"Yeah sure that sounds good." She replied.
Sunny grabbed out everything he would need and he began to cook.
"So, uh… how'd you sleep?" He asked while cracking eggs.
Aubrey's face turned a little red.
"O-oh uh, I slept fine." She replied.
"How about you?" She asked in return.
"Other than my side it was good." He replied as he stirred the eggs.
Aubrey sat there in silence thinking about last night. Something in her felt strange.
She felt something she hadn't before. Like a missing part of her was finally within her grasp.
She didn't quite understand it, but she didn't dislike it. She felt almost… satisfied?
She felt happy, for whatever reason.
"Here you go, all done." Sunny said, handing her food.
Aubrey wasn't paying attention until now.
"Huh, oh! Thank you." She replied startled.
"Yeah, sorry I was spacing out." She answered.
She picked up her fork and started eating.
Sunny sat down beside her and ate along with her.
"When did you get good at cooking? I always thought of that being a Hero and Mari thing." She asked.
"Well it was usually Mari cooking for everybody, I've been able to cook for myself for the past few years." He answered.
"Well, I suppose that makes sense." She responded.
They finished up and cleaned their dishes.
"So, what are we going to do today, Sunny?" Aubrey asked, stepping out of the kitchen.
He followed her out to the living room. "Not sure, do you have an idea?"
"We could just sit around and watch stuff." She suggested.
"I've done that enough in a lifetime." He replied.
"The only other thought is the park." She mentioned.
"Yeah, why not?" He said.
"Ok then, it's settled!" She replied smiling.
"We should probably change into something fitting this weather." He mentioned.
There was a nice breeze outside so warm clothes were a necessity.
They went upstairs to change one at a time.
After they changed they walked out the door.
"So, what are we gonna do at the park?" He asked.
"Oh, uh… didn't think that far." She said, awkwardly.
Sunny tried coming up with a plan. He thought for a moment.
"Wait! I have an idea!" He thought to himself.
"Aubrey, I thought of something, head over to the old hangout spot, I'll be back soon." He said.
"Huh? Where are you going?" She asked, confused.
"I'll explain it later." He said.
"Oh, ok… be safe Sunny." She said.
She walked into the park alone. It was pretty dead, nobody was there.
She tried to remember where their old hang out spot was.
"Should just be by these trees right?" She thought aloud.
Eventually she shifted a branch and saw some signs.
"Oh there it is!" She said excitedly.
She stepped past the signs and saw the most nostalgic sight she had seen in a long time.
She looked around and memories flooded back to her.
"Kel! Give it back!" A voice yelled.
"Come and get it!" Another voice said.
"Hey, everybody say cheese! A soft voice directed.
"Hero! You should have been more careful! Sunny could've died! You guys stood there and watched!" An upset voice yelled.
"Maybe not all memories were good ones…" Aubrey thought to herself.
She looked around for anything familiar, she saw old toy cars, rusty jacks, broken sand pails, a deflated rubber ball, among many others things.
She noticed a checkered blanket with a picnic basket on top of it.
"Wow, how is that still standing?" She thought, looking at the old picnic spot.
She walked over to the blanket and brushed some of the dead leaves off it and sat on it. It was still dirty from years of bad weather and dirt, but it was still intact.
She remembered all the picnics they used to have, she missed them. Maybe one day they would all sit down here again, maybe she would make new memories here.
"Why did we stop doing this, was there a reason? Did we start growing apart?" She thought to herself. "Did we grow up?"
She felt her stomach churn. She felt like she was growing up too fast. She could remember the days where the worst of their problems was school, now they had to deal with people, the real world, and money.
She didn't like the change, she wished everything could go back to the way it was.
"Well, maybe not everything has gotten worse." She thought. "My friends have never been better, Kel grew up, Sunny learned to be more social, Mari and Hero got together, Basil hasn't changed, but he was fine in the beginning anyway."
Aubrey was tired of feeling down, so she continued to think about the good things.
She lay down on the blanket and looked at the sky. It was kinda cloudy out, so it wasn't too bright. She sat there thinking, not about anything too specific, but she was thinking.
"Ok, this is everything." Sunny said to himself.
He walked into the park with his groceries and looked for his old hangout spot.
"Should be by these trees." He thought to himself.
He pushed some branches out of the way and made it to the signs.
"Yup, this is the place." He said.
He walked past the signs and made it to the spot.
"Sunny! There you are! I was getting worried. She said getting up and running over to him.
"Yeah sorry, the check-out was packed." He said, gesturing to the bags.
"What did you get?" She asked, curiously.
"We are going to have a picnic." He said. "Unless you don't want to?"
"I was just thinking about the old picnics we had!" She squealed.
"So, is that a yes?" He asked.
"Yeah! Of course." She said with a smile.
They walked over to the basket and sat down on the old blanket.
"So what did you get?" Aubrey asked.
He pulled out fresh and warm bread from a bag.
"Just some sandwich stuff, I kinda came up with this on the fly, so nothing too special. I hope you don't mind." He said.
"Not at all, I love the bakery in Othermart." She mentioned.
They made their sandwiches and started to eat.
"I missed this, Sunny. Next time we come here we should bring everyone." Aubrey said, still reminiscing.
"Good idea. I missed this too." He replied.
While they finished eating they talked about all the old memories they had, and how much they missed them too.
"I remember how pissed Mari was, that's the only time I can remember her being upset." Aubrey said giggling.
"I thought they were going to break up, so I talked to Mari. I made her promise that she would calm down and apologize to Hero." Sunny replied. "I will always take credit for those two staying together, I will hear nothing else."
They finished up their food and they just sat and looked at the sky.
"What now?" Aubrey asked.
"Kinda done with adventures for the next couple of days." He said tired. "Let's go home."
"Sure, I can agree with that." Aubrey replied.
They got up and cleaned their mess. They'll be back at some point soon.
Then two stepped out from behind the trees, it was now the afternoon.
The park was now filled with little kids running around.
They looked so happy, so free… they missed that sense of freedom.
They left the park and crossed the street.
Suddenly a car sped up right next to them.
"Aubrey!" Sunny yelled while they jumped to the side.
They both barely missed the car. The driver stopped the car and rolled the window down.
"Get out of the road, you cunts!" He yelled.
They both got up and yelled back at him.
"Pedestrians have the right of way dipshit!" Aubrey screamed.
"You shouldn't speed through here! There are children here!" Sunny yelled.
"Get out of the way stupid fucking children!" The driver yelled.
Sunny was fuming, so he went over and kicked his car.
The driver looked at him, he was pissed.
He floored the gas and aimed to hit Sunny.
He stepped out of the way fast enough to miss it.
"Are you a-" Aubrey started.
She was interrupted by the screech of tires.
They looked where the car had gone to see it slide into another car.
"Holy shit" they both said.
They ran over to help the victims.
"That car looks familiar." Sunny thought to himself.
The smoke had covered most of the crash up.
They made it to the crash site.
The driver that tried to run them over was unconscious, but probably fine.
They rushed to the other car, just barely through the smoke Sunny could see a face.
He rushed to the passenger seat because the driver side had been blocked by the other car.
They noticed Hero was with her, they pulled him out and sat him on the ground.
Sunny crawled through the passenger side to get Mari, it appeared she was only unconscious.
He unbuckled her seat and tried to pull her out.
He noticed blood was trickling from her head. He started to panic.
He couldn't pull her out, she was too heavy.
"Sunny, get out here! I have an idea!" Aubrey called to him.
He got out and walked to her.
"We can try to move the car out of the way. We'll push it out of the way just enough to open the door." She suggested.
"Yeah, ok." He replied, trying to calm himself.
They moved to the driver side and tried to push the car, but they severely underestimated the weight of the car.
"Wait, help me get the other driver out." Sunny said, coming up with another plan.
They opened the door and pulled the driver out. Sunny hopped into the car and reversed it slowly.
They moved it just enough to pull Mari out of the seat.
All three just appeared to just be unconscious.
Aubrey remembered that Hero had a flip phone.
She reached into his pockets and found it. She dialed 911 and explained what happened.
Sunny sat by Mari and Hero the entire time until the ambulance arrived.
When the ambulance arrived they told them that nobody was in critical condition, but Mari had it the worst out of them all.
"The female appears to have a concussion." They said.
Sunny instantly felt horrible, he immediately turned to blaming himself.
Aubrey looked over to him and immediately knew what he was thinking.
"Sunny, don't you even think about blaming yourself." She said, trying to console him.
The ambulance started to drive off.
"But it is my fault! I should've controlled myself!" He said arguing to her.
"You didn't drive the car into them!" She returned.
"But I provoked the person who did!" He screamed.
Aubrey started tearing up, the screaming reminded her of her mother.
Sunny realized what he did. She started to cry.
He didn't know what to do, he tried to move towards her but his body wouldn't let him.
He started to back up, then he ran off.
Aubrey sat there for a couple of minutes, she wasn't paying attention to the world around her, she just sat on the sidewalk and cried.
Eventually she gathered herself and looked up for Sunny.
But he was no longer there.
"S-sunny? W-what? Why did y-you leave me?" She said as she started to tear up more.
She stood up and looked around.
He was nowhere to be found.
"Where did he go?" She thought to herself, trying to keep it together.
She walked around in search of him.
She checked all over Faraway.
There was no sign of him anywhere she checked. It was as if he just disappeared.
There was one last place to check, Sunny's house.
She walked along the sidewalk, she passed Kel's house, she realized that they didn't know about what happened. She couldn't say it to them, not alone.
She walked over to his house, but before she went inside she checked to see if he was on the roof.
She climbed on top and he wasn't there. She was kind of surprised.
She climbed back down and opened the door.
"Sunny? Are you here? I've looked all around for you." She called.
She walked up the steps to check his room.
He wasn't there. There was only one last place in Faraway that Sunny could possibly be.
Aubrey walked down the stairs and into the living room. She made her way to the glass sliding door and opened it.
The sun had started to set, it was getting colder and darker out.
There she was, looking for Sunny.
She walked forward, past the old toys, past the flowers, past Mari's favorite tree.
She walked through a few trees and she saw a familiar sight.
There a tree house lay, it hadn't been used in a few months, but it was still in good condition.
She saw the ladder sway with the cool breeze.
She grabbed onto the ladder, after all these years somehow it managed to stay sturdy.
She climbed up hoping that he would be there.
She had no clue what she would say, or what she would do if he was there.
Sure enough, as Aubrey had hoped, there he was.
She climbed onto the treehouse and walked over to him.
Sunny didn't say a word, he refused to look at her.
She sat down on the other side of the table and looked at him.
"Sunny, I checked this entire town for you. I'm sorry for everything today." She apologized solemnly.
He sat there a moment, he looked up at her.
"Why… are you apologizing to me? I yelled at you… I'm a terrible friend." He said, tearing up.
"No you aren't, you let your emotions get to you in the heat of the moment, it happens to everyone Sunny." She replied.
He paused, he couldn't find the words to combat Aubrey's.
There was a short silence.
He rested his head on the table and started to sob.
Aubrey moved next to him and hugged him.
She felt bad for him. She wished that she could help more than a measly hug.
He moved his head from the table and rested it on Aubrey's shoulder.
Aubrey started to tear up too.
"I'm so fucking sorry." He apologized sobbing into her shoulder.
He kept apologizing profusely.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, god… I'm so sorry." He let out.
"You're ok Sunny, I won't hold this against you. You made a mistake." She said.
They sat there for a while, it felt like time would never pass for them.
"There's one last thing we have to do." She said. "I haven't told Hero's family about what happened yet. We need to tell them." She mentioned.
"Ok… Thank you Aubrey, for always being there for me." Wiping his face with his sleeve.
They climbed out of the treehouse and walked to the house.
Aubrey opened the sliding door and walked through to the front door, Sunny followed right behind her.
They opened the front door and walked to Kel's house.
Sunny walked up to the front door and knocked.
After a minute the door clicked and Kel showed his face.
"Hey guys, what's up? Why the long faces?" Kel asked.
"Kel, we have Something to tell you" Sunny started.
