Catch a Glimmer of Your Star

Liar

A bump in the road sent a jolt up Basil's back. Sunny slept with his head resting softly against Basil's shoulder, his breathing slow and steady even when the ride wasn't.

I think Sunny is becoming a little more like his older, quiet self again.

What Basil wished for, the world liked to take away.

The world granted his wishes for a short time. Like when he wished to have friends—Aubrey met him at the gardening shop as they both reached for the same flower seeds, and introduced him to her friend group and Sunny. Just when he thought he had everything he could've ever wanted, their group shattered into tiny, irrecoverable pieces in the span of a single night.

Like when he made a wish to see Sunny again—Sunny came back for him after four years apart, only to reveal that he was moving away in three days.

Basil silently wished for Sunny to live a good life that night grandma died, and Sunny lost an eye.

He wished to protect Sunny when he found out that they were going to be living together. Instead, Sunny got his nose broken, ending up in the hospital again.

With this track record, should I wish for Sunny and everyone he loves to find happiness...?

Mrs. S drove their car. Sunny sat with Basil in the car's back seat, taking an afternoon nap. The snow covering the trees and the electric poles dotting the sides of the highway felt quiet, inexpressive. A tense calm hung over their mood.

Basil wanted to believe that this time, his wish would stay true.

He saw happiness in the smiles on their lips as they held hands and locked fingers. He saw the happiness in Mrs. S's eyes whenever she noticed how her son smiled as he held his boyfriend's hand. He saw happiness inside his own heart.

But he couldn't shake away the feeling that this happiness seemed so fragile, like a porcelain flower vase that could break if mishandled even slightly.

Maybe Sunny is getting ready to face a disaster, by being so quiet.

Basil did not want to see Sunny become a shut-in again. He'd watched Sunny's steady improvement over the past few months, how he put himself out there at school and at volunteering, the hard work and strides he'd made into getting back into the rhythm of regular life. But since stepping into the family car to return to Faraway for Christmas, Sunny had turned all sullen and reserved. In one regard, this might be more of a return to his true personality. Sunny had been living a lie (again) over the past four months. Being so open about his feelings, being so talkative—it felt like an artificial personality Sunny put on just to strengthen his own fictions. Basil recalled how this more expressive Sunny intelligently avoided the topic of his lie every time it was brought up, by explaining everything away under the guise of having told the truth.

Some of those changes may have been genuine. Some, Basil appreciated. He could never forget Sunny taking the first step in opening up their feelings for one another by the sealing of their lips.

He truly appreciated Sunny's efforts. But he would rather have an authentic Sunny than an artificial one. And happily for them, ever since they began their new relationship, Sunny had let himself cool down a bit. Sunny became more reserved, just like the Sunny that Basil remembered.

Except Sunny had now cooled down to the temperature inside a freezer.

I guess if he showed up to our friends' house with a totally different personality, it would just bring up even more questions...

Basil gazed at Sunny. His sleeping figure was just like the way he'd slept curled up against his friends in those happy days from their memories so long ago.