Chapter Text
“Help me, by not being involved in my life anymore,” Sunny said walking away from her.
Mari stood up there, only seeing his brother walk away. She wanted to reach him, she really wanted to step and hug him, tell him that it was, her fault, but her feet didn’t move, her mouth never opened, only her eyes to see what she just did.
She sat on Sunny’s bed, looking down at her hands resting on her legs, admiring the infinite. Mari heard someone walking into the bedroom, she couldn’t even look up to see who it was, she was astonished at what just happened.
“Mari” Someone called her, shaking her shoulder. “Mari”
Mari was in her own thoughts, traveling on the moment where she was bowing and saw Sunny thanking the public, watching her parents and friends clapping in the front seats of the auditorium.
“My love” Hero’s voice echoed on her mind, coming back to herself, to the real world, she turned to her right, where he placed his hand on her shoulder.
Hero’s soft eyes looked at her with love, and he caressed her cheek, as soon as the touch of him was on hers, she started to cry, and she quickly hugged him, feeling again that safe place she had with Hero.
Hero hugged her back rubbing her back slowly, letting her cry and let out all her sorrows, Kel just saw them from the door, it was heartbreaking seeing Mari cry, she was always the caretaker of the younger ones, and seeing her completely devastated made Kel’s chest be pressed by some kind of guilt.
Sunny was walking outside his house, down the street, he didn’t exactly know where, but he just wanted to get as far away from Mari as possible. He could still hear the commotion from everyone’s families in his backyard as he walked in front of Kel’s house.
“Sunny wait!” Aubrey shouted, they were reaching Cris’s house by this point, and Basil was behind right behind them, trying to catch up.
Sunny was crying, wiping his tears with his hands, the cold weather was hitting him, if only he brought a sweater, or if he apologized to Mari.
“Wait!” Aubrey called, grabbing Sunny’s arm, stopping him from walking. “Please wait, we’ve been so worried for you, Sunny!”
Basil stopped once he saw Aubrey had intercepted Sunny at the corner of the street, the sun was already down and the sky was blueish with some stars, the wind was moving the trees and the grass. Sunny only heard those sounds when it was calm outside, he wanted his mind to be calm too, if only for a moment.
He felt Aubrey embrace him, everything was always better when Aubrey hugged him, feeling her arms wrapping him in a soft hug made him feel calm, it made him feel safe.
Sunny took a deep breath, a knot in his throat started to form, he wanted to be alone, to cry in silence. He didn’t want Aubrey to see him like this, he wanted to run away, but Aubrey wasn’t letting him go, he felt someone touch his shoulder, and he turned to see Basil, Sunny could see the worry on his face.
Then, Basil hugged him too, as Sunny kept crying in silence. Basil was always too connected with Sunny, they developed a deep connection that couldn’t break so easily, and they could even read their own feelings without a problem. Basil felt sad for his best friend, he was clearly suffering, and it was breaking his soul to see Sunny torture himself with his own thoughts.
Aubrey and Basil brought him to the park, and Basil gave Sunny his sweater, they sat on one of the benches in front of the playground, in silence until Sunny said something. Aubrey leaned her head on his shoulder and caressed his hair gently, Sunny was still crying in silence.
Basil saw him cleaning his tears and nose on his sweater.
“You’re gonna wash that” Basil tried to at least take a laugh from Sunny.
Sunny choked between crying and laughing, and he looked at Basil, even Aubrey giggled.
“I’m sorry,” he said, feeling he had failed his friends, he promised them he’d try to fix things with Mari, that he wouldn’t let his emotions overtake him, but everything came out at once, and now, he felt drained, “I- I’m so sorry...”
“There, there,” Aubrey said, rubbing his back, “let it out Sunny, let it out...”
“I just- she acts like everything is okay when it fits her needs, but when it’s about me and our band, she’s just so spiteful, I hate her!” he cried, feeling pain in his throat.
“No, you don’t,” Basil said, “you don’t hate her-”
“Yes, I do!” Sunny cried, his emotions choking him in his own misery, “You heard her, she only cared about that damn duet half a decade ago, rather than our gig in half a year!”
“Sunny...” Aubrey began, “Mari said she would take time out of her schedule to come to see us play, then you just kinda, left, we didn’t know what was up, and when we got upstairs, we heard her asking if you were okay... she cares about you, Sunny.”
“Why did you rush out?” Basil asked, looking concerned at Sunny.
"Wh-when Mari said she’d come to watch... I don’t know, I felt like throwing up...” Sunny answered, Basil and Aubrey looked at each other.
“Do you not want her to see us play?” Aubrey asked.
“No, that’s not it... I just, I don’t know, she said she’d come to watch and I felt sick... it felt hard to breathe, my stomach hurt, my heart started racing... I don’t know... maybe Hero would know.”
“No need,” Basil said, putting his arm around Sunny, “I know what’s going on.”
“Y-you do?” Sunny asked, looking at Basil, his expression was no longer concern, but empathy.
“You had an anxiety attack...” Basil said, his voice filled with sorrow, “You just feel like you can’t breathe, you feel everything is happening at once, your heart races, your stomach turns, you sweat, you tremble, and then you feel weak, even tired afterward.
Sunny stared at Basil, his memory went to the times he would talk about his feelings of insecurities, his afraid of losing a friend, and not being comfortable with change... Sunny knew Basil had issues with anxiety and abandonment, but he had never felt an anxiety attack before, and Basil never talked to him about having these attacks either. Aubrey must have been thinking the same thing.
“Basil... do you have anxiety attacks?” Aubrey asked, looking concerned for Basil, but still embracing Sunny.
“Yeah...” Basil sighed, looking more tired than earlier, “But this isn’t about me right now, Sunny, what were your thoughts when you thought Mari was going to come to watch?”
“I- I felt... I felt like we’d fail...” Sunny began, “like we’d play the wrong notes, or Aubrey would forget the lyrics, or Kel would forget his drums... or you’d be too scared... but most of all, I thought I’d mess up, that I’d just forget how to play the guitar or something... and I thought what Mari would think? Like, she’d be right about this being a waste of time, and I’d embarrass you guys to find that out...”
“Yeah... that sounds about right...” Basil said, patting Sunny on the shoulder, “You said the other day that you want to perform in front of everyone to show how far we’d come, but it’s only one person who you want to perform for, isn’t it?”
Sunny sat there for a moment, then nodded, Basil hit the nail on the head, Sunny wanted Mari to watch him rock on stage more than anyone else, he wanted Mari to see his efforts.
“You don’t want to perform in front of Mari to show her up, do you?” Aubrey asked, hugging Sunny, “You want to perform in front of her because you want her to praise you, don’t you?
Sunny tears came out a bit more, Aubrey was right, of all things, Sunny just wanted Mari to praise his work, to be happy about all he’s accomplished, and the idea that she’d scorn him or be smug if he failed terrified him, he didn’t know what to think, he was afraid of playing, but he felt he had to, for himself more than anything. He only was able to nod his head, Basil was right, Sunny felt weak and tired.
“Listen...” Aubrey continued, “I told you I don’t want to get in the middle of your fight with her, but if you want to play your heart and soul out not to rub it in Mari’s face, but to hope for her to praise you, then I’ll play my heart out with you, okay?”
“Yeah, me too,” Basil added, “and I’d bet my bass guitar Kel’d say the same thing if he were here with us right now... we’ll follow you, Sunny, as long as you do this for the right reason, okay?”
“O-okay...” Sunny said softly, wiping his tears from his eyes, “I love you guys... thank you...”
Back at Sunny’s house, Mari was calming down, she was wiping her tears with a napkin Kel brought her from the kitchen, Kel didn’t have much else given how urgent Hero told him to grab napkins for Mari.
“Mari, can you tell me what happened?” Hero asked rubbing her back as they sat on Mari’s bed now.
“Sunny… and me…” She said but she couldn’t contain her tears and she started to cry again. Hero was worried for her, it was the second time he asked, only for Mari burst into tears, Kel sat next to her and looked over towards Hero, hoping he knew what to do.
“Sunny said h-he wanted me out of h-his life,” Mari said in tears, she cleaned her nose and she was wiping her tears with her sweater.
Hero and Kel kept their mouths shut, they didn't know what to say, Kel only had the conversation between Basil and Hero he listened in on to go off of while Hero really didn’t get much out of Mari when he tried to passively ask what happened. It’s like everything started to go downhill at the end of last year and no matter what, nothing seemed to be getting better.
Mari tried to breathe deeply, she wanted to do something, but she was so lost and she didn’t have an idea of how to fix things, maybe there wasn’t a way to fix it, she thought.
Once she calmed completely, she stood up, and she walked away from the bedroom, Hero followed behind her worried about her, she just went to wash her face, trying to fix her makeup.
“Mari? Are you okay?” Hero asked, worried about his girlfriend, he put his hand in hers and started caressing it, “Look, we don’t have to go back to the dinner, we can stay here and say it was way too cold to be out”
“It’s okay, Hero, I want to be there, I want to visit with my parents, and yours too. We barely see them during the semester, I want to eat with them” Mari said, and she sighed, she hugged Hero again.
Hero smiled, and he hugged her back tightly, and he kissed his head, as he brushed her hair to comfort her, despite the silence, the ambient was starting to get better, at least for Mari.
Kel was just out of the bathroom, trying to not interrupt them, and he saw Cris walking upstairs.
“H-Hey Kel, is everything ok?” Cris asked walking to him. “Our parents were asking for you guys… where’s Sunny?”
Cris peeked over the bathroom to see Hero comforting Mari with a hug, and Kel closed the door for them.
“Everything is… okay... let’s go back to the dinner, don’t worry about the others, I know they’ll handle it,” Kel said in a different tone of voice compared to how he usually talks, he was soft and calm.
“Are you sure? You can tell me if something is wrong,” Cris replied, looking concerned.
“Yeah... it’s just... drama... I’ll tell you about it later, let’s just... go enjoy the rest of Thanksgiving, okay?”
“Okay Kels, we should probably tell my parents about you and I...” Cris said, looking towards the door.
“Oh great, can’t wait to tell everyone...” Kel said sarcastically, wrapping his arms around Cris and heading downstairs with her.