My Savior - Suntan

Chapter Seven

Upon awaking, Sunny was groggy. His eyes felt heavy from sleep, and he tried to reach out to Kel, however he wasn't there. Sunny shook himself, sitting up, feeling cold instead of Kel's comforting warm body beside him. Once his eyes focused, he noticed a little sticky note that had managed to be stuck on one of the fort walls, and it read, in somewhat sloppy handwriting:

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Hey, Sunny!                      |
                                           |
Sorry I won't be there    |
when you wake up,        |
I went to do something  |
with Hero - how about   |
you meet me at the         |
old hangout spot at         |
10:00am??                        |
                                            |
Hoping to see you           |
there!                                |
-Kel                                    |
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _|

Sunny checked the time. It was 09:43am. Shit, Sunny thought, panicking as he crawled quickly out of the fort, hitting his head on his desk in the process. He cursed silently again, rushing to grab some clothes, a pair of black trousers and a plain black long sleeved tee. He threw them on quickly, not brushing his hair and threw his pj's on his bed in a crumpled mess. He checked the time once more, which read 09:50am. He sighed, praying that he could manage to get there in ten minutes, slowing down slightly on the stairs as he dashed out his door, still locking it despite the time loss.

Meanwhile..

Kel paced anxiously as Hero smoothed out the checkered picnic blanket.

"Do you think he got the note?" Kel asked, his voice a little unsteady with nerves.

"Kel, I'm sure it'll be fine," Hero said, smiling up at his younger brother. "It's sweet that you decided to make him a picnic.."

Kel looked over at this brother, noticing Hero was looking down with a wistful smile and tears in his eyes.

"Sorry for asking you to help, Hero," Kel apologised, crouching  beside Hero and hugging him tightly, "you didn't have to."

"It's fine," Hero said, calming himself and focusing on the task at hand. Hero checked his watch, "it's 10:07."

"Should I go check around and see if he's coming?" Kel asked, his heart feeling like it was rattling around in his ribcage with the amount of noise it was making.

"Sure," Hero smiled, getting up himself, "I need to get going anyway."

Kel nodded, exiting the hangout spot with Hero and watched as he walked off into the park and made his way towards the town. Kel tried calming himself down, leaving the park and started to walk down the street when he hadn't even gone six steps when he saw Aubrey yelling at someone. He wondered who it was. He approached quickly from behind, wondering what poor soul had become a victim of Aubrey, but when he got closer he realised Aubrey was actually passed, yelling properly and not in a joking manner. Kel frowned, inching to the side slightly to see a smaller boy in front of her. A smaller boy with black hair... and a monochrome color scheme...

"Mari would still be here!" She screamed in Sunny's face, who seemed to be frozen to the spot, breathing hard, "You're such an attention seeker, Sunny! None of us have gone off and tried to off ourselves because of what's happened! And it was your doing!"

As Aubrey yelled she seemed to be dimming on her anger, seeming sadder as her voice cracked, "It's all your fault!"

Sunny still just stood there, his body shaking. Kel understood that Aubrey was upset, knowing that she blames everyone in their friendgroup for The Accident, despite screaming at Sunny that it was his. Kel knew that she just needed someone to blame, but that didn't stop him from getting angry at her. By this time, Sunny was heaving for air, no longer feeling safe outside, he turned and ran off down the street, but Kel barely noticed as he marched up to Aubrey and shoved her.

"Hey! What the heck-" Aubrey started, spinning around to see Kel standing over her, "Kel-"

"Keep your shit to yourself!" Kel yelled, shoving her again, making her stumble backwards slightly, "You know we're all struggling all over again, we're all trying to find it in ourselves to forgive Sunny and Basil for what they did, but at least me and Hero don't go antagonising them and making them feel even worse about it!"

"Whatever, Kel!" Aubrey yelled, "You may have forgiven the murderer and his little assistant, but I haven't!"

And with that, she mounted her bike and cycled off, disappearing after cycling through a few parked cars, leaving Kel standing there fighting with his own frustration and sorrow. He looked around for Sunny, but then realised he had disappeared. Kel went back to the hangout spot, but the picnic was left there untouched and there was no sign of Sunny, Kel sighed and tidied up the picnic blanket and basket, tucking it between a few trees. Kel then grew slightly nervous without the distraction, but shrugged it off as he went to check the town, and then came to the realisation that Sunny wouldn't be there, so set off for Sunny's house.

When Kel arrived, all the lights were off and the curtains were closed. Kel knocked on the door, expecting Sunny to answer. When he didn't, he became slightly anxious, knocking again and louder. Sunny still didn't answer the door. Kel then banged on the door.

"Sunny?" Kel called, backing away from the door to see if he could see Sunny in his room, "Sunny, you there?"

Kel got no response, so he pressed his ear to the door. Inside, he heard some quiet crying and slow, cautious footsteps going up the stairs. He knew Sunny was in there. He just wouldn't let him in.

"Sunny!" Kel called again, a little more frantically, trying to keep himself calm, "Sunny, it's me, Kel!"

Kel stood there for ten minutes, waiting, hoping, praying that Sunny would open his door. When Kel finally realised that Sunny wasn't going to let him in, he yelled a goodbye and went back to his house. His mother seemed surprised for his return and Kel just said that he was going back tomorrow.

He entered his shared bedroom and flopped down on his bed, Hero was already sat on his bed and was reading his book, then watched him as he entered and dropped onto his bed.

"How did it go with Sunny?" Hero asked.

"It didn't," Kel retorted, his voice muffled in his pillow, "Aubrey got to Sunny before I could and berated him for the accident."

"Then?" Hero asked, putting his book down and was starting to feel bad for his brother, seeing how distraught he was.

"Sunny ran off to his house and won't let me in," Kel said in a dead voice, before turning his head to Hero, "That's not stopping me, though! I'm going back tomorrow, I know he'll let me in eventually."

And with that, Kel dove under his covers and watched the setting sun from his window, promising himself that he would never let Sunny go again.