Catch a Glimmer of Your Star

Let's make some new memories together

Sunny was not ready to hear this.

"What did she say?" he asked, incredulous.

"Yeah, that's what mom told me," Basil said. "Mrs. S asked my parents to take me with her to live with you."

With several blinks of his eye, Sunny decided to take a seat down on the nearest hospital bench to do a thorough reevaluation of his mother. This piece of news dropped on his head harder than a brick.

He couldn't think of a good reason for her to want to take Basil with them to the city. Sure, having her son and the friend whom he just beat half to death live together might offer a chance for them to make up and reconcile, but why force that difficult situation, and possibly further trauma, onto them? Wasn't the point of moving away to help Sunny leave everything behind and start over anew?

Maybe she felt sorry for Basil.

Maybe she didn't think her son would be able to make new friends easily and wanted someone he knew to come along to keep him company.

She's right on that front.

Maybe she knew he'd been lying to her all along and brought Basil along just so she could find a way to exact revenge on him for taking out her son's eye.

If Basil's mother was telling the truth, Sunny couldn't believe that his mom would lie to them for all this time. Perhaps it canceled out his own lie; maybe it'd been foolish of him to assume that he was the sole puppet master. Still, it felt like such a horrible thing for her to do, to take someone else's son to live with her without asking him if he actually wanted to.

I'm in no position to call anyone horrible after all the lies I've told.

At least he was already getting punished for his own mistakes, in a karmic sort of way. He couldn't expect to be able to keep lying to everyone and get away with it without some sort of retribution coming his way. He just didn't expect it to happen in the shape of another lie.

Lies built upon lies, creating a world where neither he nor anybody else could keep an actual handle on what was real anymore. The only way out would be to topple the whole foundation. He had to get to the bottom of this, starting by confessing the truth himself.

"I gotta tell mom the truth," Sunny said.

Basil nodded solemnly.

"Before that...did you ask your parents where you could live if, y'know, my mom got mad at you, Basil?"

"She gave me an extra couple thousand dollars," Basil replied with a sad smile. "If I get kicked out, I could just stay at a fancy hotel."

"Figures that's what she'd do. No offense."

"None taken. My parents are like that."

Sunny buried his face in his hands. Just like that night where he'd admitted the truth to Basil, his only option was to rip the band aid off with a direct confession. He had to get this over with before it spiraled out of control any further.

"I want to ask my mom about this tonight," Sunny said. "And that means I'll have to confess my lies to her, too."

Basil didn't appear the least bit troubled. "Go for it, Sunny. I'll be there for you."

What did I ever do to deserve love and support from someone as kind as Basil?

"Thanks, Basil. I'll do it."

"No problem. I should come with you after all to tell her about...what I really did..."

Sunny would never forgive his mom if she did something as cruel as kick Basil out. He would never forgive himself either for setting up this horrid situation.