Chapter Text
Currently, Sunny was sitting with Vance and Angel at the pharmacy, getting Sunny's nose checked by the pharmacist. "Hmm, yep, that's broken. There isn't much that can be done about that sorry son." Sunny was currently just holding some toilet paper under his nose to catch the bleeding. "Dang, I didn't expect Kel to throw the ball that hard," Angel commented. Vance just nodded in agreement. Aubrey and the other hooligans walked into the pharmacy after a few seconds as Kim quickly walked up to Vance. "So, how is the new kid?" "Well, Kel broke his nose with his basketball, but besides that, he looks fine."
Aubrey quickly walked up to Sunny after hearing Vance tell Kim that Kel broke Sunny's nose. "Sunny, let me see." Aubrey lowered Sunny's hand a bit, which was covering his nose with toilet paper, to be greeted by a pretty ugly site of a swollen purple nose. Aubrey took a deep breath and swung her bat over her shoulder. Kim looked at her confusedly and said, "Aubrey, where are you going?" "Going to give Kel a broken nose," she responded, annoyed, as she started to leave Othermart before being stopped by Sunny as he grabbed her arm and shook his head.
Aubrey looked at Sunny for a few seconds before letting out a sigh of defeat. "Fine, I won't go after Kel, I guess." Sunny responded with a simple thumbs up: "Anyway guys, I'm going to go for now; see you all later." Aubrey grabbed Sunny's arm and dragged him along with her. "You're coming with me, Sunny." Aubrey wasn't sure why she decided to drag Sunny along to church; maybe she just wanted him nearby, or maybe she just didn't want him to go back to his house and disappear again. She probably wanted both. Aubrey had completely forgotten her bike at the park, but so had the hooligans with their scooters.
She would go back later for it; who would want it anyway? It was old and rusty and even too small for a teenager, but she didn't care; she could use it, so it was good enough for her. She looked over to Sunny, whom she was now holding hands with. It looked like his nose had stopped bleeding, which was at least good, and his shirt and hand were slightly red from the blood. She looked at Sunny for a bit longer, especially the hand, but quickly shook off the thought that Sunny was never a violent person. She couldn't even imagine Sunny ever getting somebody else's blood on his hands.
Sunny wasn't expecting the day to go this way, first Aubrey knocked on his door, then he got dragged to the park and met her new friends, he then met Basil and got into a fight with Kel or at least he got dragged into it unintentionally, then Kel broke his nose and now Aubrey is dragging him along again. He wanted to go back home to clean the blood off his hand and go back to bed, but he didn't want to leave Aubrey alone either as she seemed happy that he was around her, so he decided he will stay for today with Aubrey.
Sunny's thoughts were cut short when he noticed where they were going, and everything in his body screamed to stop and turn around. He saw the church; he didn't know why, but everything in his body just wanted him to turn around and leave to go back home and hide inside. He slowly followed Aubrey inside the church and was greeted by the preacher. "Hello, Aubrey, I see you brought a friend; well, they're always welcome here," the preacher said as he closed the church doors behind them and went to the front. Aubrey held Sunny's hand still and led him to one of the pews.
Sunny wasn't sure what to do here; he never went to church, so he kind of looked around confused and then at Aubrey, who was sitting with her head down and her hands together. Sunny looked at his hands and then back at Aubrey as he decided to do the same, mimicking Aubrey. Aubrey looked to her left to see Sunny put his hands together while taking quick glances at her from the corner of his eyes to see how she was doing it. She couldn't help but softly snicker at it. Aubrey scooted a bit closer to Sunny and whispered, "Hey Sunny, you don't have to actually pray."
Sunny looked up at Aubrey, a bit confused, and decided to stop what he was trying to do and just sit next to her in silence. Aubrey wasn't sure how to feel about these past few hours. At the start of the day, she still thought she hated Sunny's guts, but now that she saw him, she didn't feel any of that hate, but just worry. He looked terrible when she first saw him; it scared her a little, and he also didn't look completely there either, like he talked with people, reacted, and acted, but his eyes were dark and almost hollow, like the spark of life left years ago.
She was angry, sure, but she couldn't hate him, especially not after seeing him. She hoped that he would find some peace or happiness out there once he moved. Deep down, she knew she would even miss him. She had nothing left of Sunny except a few photos of him and Mari. Another reason she wouldn't give Basil his photo album back was that he would ruin the photos of Sunny and Mari again. What if he destroyed them beyond repair this time? She would then have nothing left of them; her sorrow and sadness quickly got replaced with anger and annoyance thinking about it.
Once again, Aubrey was brought out of her thoughts as she felt something against her shoulder. She quickly glanced over at Sunny, who had fallen asleep against her shoulder. It felt familiar—a sense of familiarity she didn't mind—something that had happened years ago—a car ride home from the beach. Aubrey closed her eyes, remembering that day as a good and wonderful day. She slowly moved her hand over to Sunny's head and began gently running her fingers through his hair, finding this interaction strangely calming.