Colorful Roses {OMORI}

Chapter 3 - Broken Friendship

{KEL}

You and SUNNY walk towards them, and you can finally make out who they were. They were two of your best friends, AUBREY.....and....BASIL!? AUBREY barely changed, but BASIL was a whole new person. He had green-ish blue highlights along with his dull, blonde hair. He looked a lot more aggressive than before, and you only recognized him mostly because of his hairstyle, although it was more messy. His clothes were a lot worse though. You can't even describe it yourself...

"what are they arguing about?" You ask. SUNNY shrugs, and you both start to run towards them, and before things got violent, he grabs BASIL, and holds his arms behind his back.

"What the.... Wh-what are you doing!?" BASIL shrieks, with tears in his eyes. SUNNY tried to him still, but BASIL managed to kick him and free himself. You run to see if SUNNY was okay, but BASIL blocks the way, with AUBREY on the ground. She must have gotten scared when he almost slapped her. Tch, how rude. "BASIL... What have you done? Can't you see you've hurt SUNNY!??" you shout at him, not caring about the other kids staring at you.

"Well, if he hadn't grabbed me, he wouldn't have gotten hurt!" BASIL replies with a louder scream. He then turns to SUNNY, and finishes him with a small kick to his leg. Now he's really done it. "why would you do that!? You were never like this. And why are you even arguing with AUBREY!?" you shout.

"That's none of your business, KEL. And it's been four years, you think everything would be the same just because SUNNY hasn't changed?" he replies. SUNNY got on his feet but still looks a bit in pain. Did BASIL hit him that hard?

You became ENRAGED.

"You know what? It IS my business. Even though I wasn't here for four years doesn't mean we aren't friends." you want to keep going but you remember why you all split up.

It was YOUR fault. If you didn't... If HERO...

Never mind. You stay silent after that, and SUNNY and AUBREY run up behind you, with AUBREY at the back.

"what? Cat got your tongue?" BASIL says, while mocking you. You grit your teeth in anger. As you look closer, he looks as if he were about to cry. You realize BASIL hasn't changed at all. He's still the same crybaby you once knew. But you know he'll never admit it.

"Cmon, still silent? Wow-" before he can finish, SUNNY suddenly walks towards him and slaps him. "shut up." he mumbles.

"What did you just say!?" BASIL immediately takes offense. "shut....Up...!" SUNNY repeats himself.

SUNNY became furious.

BASIL became sad.

What was happening? You've never seen SUNNY like this. You wonder if you should stop them. You turn behind you to see AUBREY worried. "are you okay?" you ask. Before she could respond, you hear people whispering as AUBREY hides behind you again. Was she afraid of crowds? You didn't know, you never cared to ask.

You look forward again to see BASIL and SUNNY arguing. Well, not really, because it's mostly just basil screaming at him, about to cry. You hold AUBREY's hand and walk towards them. She looked worried, so you plan on keeping her from getting too close to them. Sigh...

"BASIL, SUNNY, stop! You're making a scene and scaring AUBREY!" you scream. They both go silent and so does the crowd. Most of them look like they're leaving, so that was good. SUNNY slowly walks towards AUBREY and hugs her. "...... Sorry." he whispers. She returns the hug and says, "it's okay, I know you didn't mean to."

BASIL just stood there in silence, and decided to run away. He looked as if he regretted what he did. SUNNY grabbed both you and AUBREY'S hands gently and looked like he wanted to take you somewhere, so you let him lead you there.

He ended up taking you both to his house, and knocked on the door. Noone answered, but the door was unlocked. You all go inside and were greeted with the old house you remember from 4 years ago. Nothing really changed, except that there were more flower pots and the lamp was replaced. You run to the couch and saw the same stain on the carpet from the orange Joe you spilled.

"this house really hasn't changed at all..." you say. SUNNY nods. "hey SUNNY...?" AUBREY says. SUNNY looks at Aubrey in confusion. "is it okay if I... Stay in your house tonight?"

You remember that AUBREY tries to stay away from home for as long as possible, but you don't know why. You know SUNNY doesn't too, because he would have told you.

SUNNY nods in response, and says, "we should ask MARI." You agree, but then you change the subject and ask, "hey, AUBREY? If it isn't too much to ask... What were you and basil arguing about?"

AUBREY replies, "well.... Uh... I-I'll just tell you later..." She looked nervous, so you didn't want to force her. You would usually argue all the time, but you guess she wasn't in the mood right now.

You go upstairs to SUNNY's room and slowly open the door, only to see MARI taking a nap.
"She must have had a headache. We shouldn't wake her up." SUNNY whispers.

You and AUBREY nod and go back downstairs. He was right. MARI would usually clean up after you and SUNNY if you made a mess, so it's better we don't disturb her sleep.