If only he didn't.

CHAPTER 17, HOME I (SUNNY POV)

Sun shining through my window. The sun, shining brighter than ever. The sun fortunately not doing that until evening. 

Everyone's awake but me. MOM was cooking. I was able to smell SPAM MUSUBI. Even if I was numb, even if I was transparent, even if I was unknown, that strong feeling of childhood, it made me forget I was alone without MOM. 

Wish I wasn't so lazy. My body, stuck on the bed. The feeling of never-ending comfort, it hurt my head. The clock stared back at me. New or old, it looked the same no matter how much I looked or when I looked. 

It's no worries, I've got nowhere to be, but HOME. AUBREY didn't plan anything, she didn't tell me, at least. KEL talked to me, about school, about his trip. My old school is having a sports trip, going through our city. HERO never talks to me, he stopped talking to me. BASIL who?

Life moves so slow, when you're at HOME. The clock, slowly ticking. The frustration of my MOM failing to make perfect shapes, it turned into silence. Slow and unpredictable footsteps became louder, the sound-waves indicating MOM's steps. 

"SUNSHINE!~ Are you awake yet? It's MOMMY. I know you know it's me! Come-come!" MOM knocked on the door twice. Then, once. Then, twice. Then, I heard her sigh. 

"MOM." I slowly, very slowly stood up. I walked to the door and opened it. 

MOM sat on the floor, she was sitting criss-cross-apple-sauced. She looked tired, more tired than yesterday. I sat down next to her.

"SUNNY. You don't have to do that. The floor is cold, you don't have your socks on anyways." She stood up "Well, you're awake! So, let's go to the kitchen. I know MOMMY doesn't...Cook as well as she used to...EMMA dropped off some food, though. Isn't that fun? You like EMMA, don't you?" EMMA is my MOM's friend's daughter. EMMA is 11, she reminds me a little bit of AUBREY when she was younger. 

"EMMA? What did she bring?" I went after MOM.

"She brought CHICKEN SOUP. She worries you're sick. Her mother made it, though."

"Adorable." I sat down in the chair and looked down

"Not that adorable! She's growing up, you know! She's less adorable than when YOU were 11. Oh, so innocent, so sweet, so quiet." MOM shed a tear and wiped it with her handkerchief. 

"Also, I had both of my eyes."

"You had both of your eyes...Speaking of eyes, it was embarrassing, you promised you would wake up at the right time last SUNDAY. We were supposed to go to a meeting to get you to a special needs school. Guess who didn't go because they didn't want to? His name is SUNNY, he has black hair, one eye, likes steak. All eyes on the mother of SUNNY, they were all eager to see him, too..."

"Is it me?.."

"Bingo!"  MOM handed me some SPAM MUSUBI, looked better than I expected. A bowl of CHICKEN SOUP too.

"Have you used MARI's recipe?"

"Oh...How'd you know? I used a piece of paper she wrote on when she was 6. Beautiful handwriting at that age, I tell you. Well, I better go tell CAROL that you came out of your room, I told her she shouldn't have bet that. Also, MARI was better at baking and not cooking, wasn't she? If she was, be careful." MOM handed me the piece of paper and left the kitchen. 

Life moves so slow... I read the paper and chewed on my food. How amusing, the CHICKEN SOUP tasted like CHICKEN. I stared closely at the paper that gathered dust, the paper I haven't seen in so long.

"Hi! My name is MARI TAKAHASHI. I'm 6 currently. I have a little brother, his name is SUNNY. SUNNY's so cute! He's 3.  MOMMY told me that I make SPAM MUSUBI very well! I believe her, very much. I've been taking hand-writing classes, see? I wrote down my recipe. Also, I'm planning to bake cookies for my MOMMY's friends and her. I think they'll be yummy. What MOMMY usually does when I ask her if I can help her with cooking is that, she takes the SPAM out of the can and slices them into 8 pieces. But, it doesn't matter how many pieces you want, MARI. She turns on the stove and puts all of the slices onto a pan, she also puts the pan on the stove but I think that's obvious. If future MARI ever reads this, do we still have that pan? Also, are we a music prodigy? Anyways, MOMMY sometimes kind of toasts up the NORI, she says it gives it a fresher taste, she toasts the NORI slightly. You need to look at the SPAM slices carefully and flip them when each side looks golden brown, except golden is already brown. As the slices are glazing and look absolutely beautiful, you can add a little sugar, that's MOMMY's recipe, I don't taste the sugar though. After the sugar is there and dissolving, add soy sauce to the pan and kind of bathe the slices in the soy sauce. Again, turn the slices over and get the sauce all over the slices so that it would be even. It smells really good, honestly! Future MARI, you better cook this for someone or I'll be very disappointed.  Apparently, MOMMY's supposed to have a mold around somewhere but she never uses it, because she has MOMMY powers. Turn off the stove while you're at it. I think you wet the cutting board or something so that the rice doesn't stick. Also, we have rice! You have to have sushi rice properly done, or else DAD's gonna be really mad. So anyways, put the rice on the cutting board and gently pat it down into a rectangle, and then push it down while holding the other sides to hold its shape. Take that beautiful rectangle and put it on one of the ends of the NORI. You can put like, sesame seeds on the rice if you want! MOMMY loves to put sesame seeds and FURIKAKE. Oh right, the SPAM! Take one slice of SPAM, put it on top of the rice gently. Then, you fold it nicely, it's important to get it as tight as possible or else it'll be RUINED and a CATASTROPHE and A DISASTER and A DISAPPOINTMENT!! The RCDD is the worst. If the NORI isn't co-operating, add a little water, and it's going to feel like it's alive again, and co-operate. Repeat the process until all slices are gone and...You're done! Yay! You did it! We did it! Future MARI, I'll really be disappointed if you don't cook this for SUNNY (your little brother) or like...Your future boyfriend! Imagine that...Also, GRANDMA, or known as MOMMY's MOMMY actually makes MUSUBI the most!" I imagined MARI's young voice, ringing in my head. The memories of something. Of something. I also imagined how MARI was able to write for that long as a 6 year old. I suppose she didn't know anything about paragraphs, too. 

I'm so tired. My bowl of UNFINISHED CHICKEN SOUP and crumbs of MUSUBI sitting on the table. 

From doing nothing at all. I stared at the food, for a second, the food looked back. Then I quietly walked back to my room, I caught a glimpse of MOM sitting on the floor, calling someone. She sounded really tired, I think she was talking to someone that I used to know.

Wish I wasn't so lazy. I laid back in my bed, I looked at my phone. One text from AUBREY. 55 calls from KEL. 1 call from AUNTIE TINA. AUBREY's text was a rant about BASIL. KEL's calls were about how he got stuck in a basketball hoop, somehow. AUNTIE TINA asked me if I was still alive, I responded with just a bland Yes.

It's no worries, I've got nowhere to be but HOME.

Life moves so slow, when you're at HOME.

Life moves so slow.

HIEE!! IT ME!! LEAF!! I hope yall enjoyed this chapter, so sorry for not being active. Also I've noticed something, we've gotten really high in tags! Thank you all so much! I love you all, and I hope you all love this piece/fanfic. This was a sort of filler chapter. Also I'm planning to revolve chapters around the album Vibes And Days by Vacations! Love that album. Anyways, if you wanna, please comment whatever you want! I can take any suggestions you want in any new chapters! By the way, what is A Lemon??