Mari's return

Aubrey

It was another peaceful day for Mari. With Sunny and their mother out looking for a suitable therapist for her brother, she found herself with nothing better to do than traversing the empty park of Faraway. It felt tranquil, with the bright sun shining down upon her face, the cool wind blowing through her hair, and the sound of birds singing, it was more than she could ever ask for. Especially since she could feel it all without hiding behind her beloved mask after eventually explaining her return to her fellow denizens of the town.

As she ventured, Mari found herself at a nearby swing set. Caressing her hand against the cool metal bars that upheld the structure, she found herself reminiscing about the time she would spend playing with her friends before everything changed. When she would watch as Hero would try to stop Kel from eating sand while Basil photographed the chaos, or as she would sometimes find both Sunny and Aubrey sitting side by side on these very swings, just chatting away about their day. Sometimes Mari would find herself thinking about how things would play out between the two of them, after all, she was aware of her brother’s crush on the girl. If only things hadn’t changed…

*Ploosh* Suddenly her thoughts were interrupted as a few loud splashes could be heard near the park’s lake. As she approached the old spot, Mari soon spotted a girl with pink hair throwing rocks towards the lake. “Take this!” cried the delinquent as she placed herself in a pitcher’s stance, and attempted to skip a rock against the water’s surface.

‘Good form, but...’

Soon the stone plummeted into its depths without bouncing across whatsoever, “Guh!” cried Aubrey in frustration out of the fact that she couldn’t even skip a single rock. “Motherfucker! I’m the best at skipping rocks, so why won’t these fucking things just bounce!?” The girl then squatted on the ground with her head in her hands.

Deciding to make her entrance, Mari picked up a stone herself and launched it right past the delinquent’s head. The stone skipped right to the other side of the lake, and even past the water’s edge, continuing into the vast forest behind it. Legend has it that that stone is still skipping to this day. Seeing as how she had Aubrey’s attention, Mari made her way to greet her friend. “Hey, Aubrey, long time no see!”

“H-hey, Mari, yeah it’s been a few weeks huh?” replied Aubrey who was red as a beet. “You didn’t hear or see any of that earlier though, right?”

Aware that Aubrey was referring to her failure and outburst at rock skipping, Mari decided to spare the girl from her embarrassment. “See what? I just got here and saw you crouching.”

A wide smile grew on the girl’s face upon hearing the lie, “Oh that’s good, since nothing happened! Anyway, what's up?”

“Well Sunny and Mom are busy looking for a therapist,” answered Mari. “So I’ve just been walking around town.”

“So Sunny’s getting therapy, huh? That’s good,” responded Aubrey as her smile faded while she clutched her right shoulder. The same shoulder that Sunny slashed with a knife.

“How’s your arm feeling? If it still hurts I could take a quick look at it,” offered Mari, who felt guilty that her own brother hurt their friend.

“It’s… It’s fine, it was just a scratch anyways,” replied the delinquent. Although from Mari’s time interrogating demon soldiers, she could tell that Aubrey was lying. Yet she decided to ignore it and play along with her once again.