CoMari Au (Omori)

Pt 7

I wake up as SUNNY, in THE TREEHOUSE.

I'm startled to see BASIL standing over me.

"Hey, SUNNY!" He says to me, a smile painted over his face.

I rub my eyes. "BASIL?"

"Yeah... how about we spend the day together?" He suggests.

"That sounds great." I respond, sitting up.

I hop out of the treehouse, and he follows.

"I know where we're going first, but it's kind of a secret." He explains. "I'm going to blindfold you if that's ok."

"Yeah, it's fine by me." I say.

BASIL ties a piece of black fabric around my eyes. I feel disoriented and lost, but in no time at all, I'm relieved to find BASIL'S hand gently grabs mine. 

He pulls me through town, until the sounds of traffic die away. His shaky hands remove the blindfold from my eyes.

My face melts from a confused expression to a joyful one as I see our location. 

HIDDEN LAKE.

Our secret place our friend group would hang out at as kids. 

It looks as if he got the place ready before.

There's a picnic basket, a picnic basket, all in the signature red MARI always had.

I smile brightly, and BASIL does as well.

We sit on the picnic blanket until lunch, making flower crowns and talking. Everything seems so perfect.

Around lunch time, BASIL informs me he got HERO to make cookies, and that I have to at least take a bite. The cookies are big and the chunks of chocolate within them are massive.

I take a bite and-

MARI

These are MARI'S cookies.

Tears come to my eyes as my head is filled with memories.

But these are happy tears, not sad ones.

I finish the cookie.

It seems as though its been forever since I've finished a meal.

I don't care to eat  anything, but BASIL does.

"SUNNY?" BASIL asks me after I've finished my cookie.

"What?" I reply.

"Can I take off my sweater?" he asks. "It's really warm, but my arms are also... uh..."

"Its fine if you take it off." I respond.

He does. Underneath his baggy green sweater, he's wearing a still somewhat baggy but still a bit tighter white tank top.

And then I notice his arms. Red lines cover them, and they look fairly recent, done at least within the past week.

"BASIL? You'd talk to me before doing that, right?" I ask him, feeling tears in my eyes for the second time today.

He looks off before nodding.

The tears begin to fall down my face.

BASIL scoots closer to me, hugging me. Although it's a small movement, I notice him flinching the tiniest bit as he rests his arms on my shoulders. But even if it hurts, he doesn't show it.

"SUNNY, I love you. I love you, I love you, I love you. And I always will. No matter what happens to me." He tells me, his voice shaky.

I nod, biting my tongue to keep from crying.

After dinner time, we watch the sunset.

It's beautiful.

It turns dark, and BASIL informs me he has to leave.

We both head our separate ways. 

I'm woken up by a loud pounding at my door at 2 in the morning.

I rush downstairs to find it's KEL.

I open the door for him, and tears are streaming down his face. He looks worse than I've ever seen him.

"BASIL is in the hospital!" He yells.

He grabs my hand without a word from me, and pulls me outside and into HERO'S car. HERO is driving, while KEL and I are in the back seat.

I feel numb.

"Hey SUNNY." HERO greets me. Any little bit of life in his voice is now gone. He sounds empty.

He sounds the way he sounded after MARI'S accident.

HERO explains the whole situation to me as KEL hugs me and cries.

BASIL attempted suicide.

(603 words)