Chapter Text
The stage lights shone down on Sunny, dressed crisply in his black suit and bowtie. The murmurs of the audience in front of him died away. He couldn’t see them in the glare of the lights, but even if he could he wouldn’t have noticed them. When he stepped on stage and the violin came to his neck, his consciousness started to detach from his body, floating into the realm of the aural rather than the physical. Mari always said that music was a gift, and that they were both lucky to be able to enjoy it like they did.
The piano started behind him: a few bars alone before Sunny joined in. From the moment the bow touched the strings, he was away, his eyes closed and his body swaying to the music. He hadn’t needed sheet music for performances for a while now.
Tonight they were playing Chopin’s Ballade no. 1 in G minor, arranged for piano and violin by Mari herself. It was a Mari pick, not a Sunny pick. They usually alternated in who got to pick the repertoire, since they both had such radically different tastes. Sunny liked grand architecture in his pieces: cerebral, perfect forms and structural coherence. Brahms and Bach were his favorites. Mari, on the other hand, was all about the melodic with a touch of boastfulness: she was a Liszt fan. She liked to tease him sometimes by calling his taste ‘boring goth’. But bantering like that was for before the show. When they were on the stage, music was music, and Sunny played it and loved it.
Right in the middle of the piece, just as they were about to switch into A major, Sunny heard a note of dissonance from behind him. Mari’s finger must have slipped. Then she lingered on the dissonant chord, repeating it a few times. One corner of Sunny’s mouth threatened to twitch into a smile. His sister always did this. She could never just be content with moving on from the little mistake. She had to turn it into a whole thing and make it look like it was deliberate all along.
He listened out for the idea Mari was going for, and chimed in with some quick, sawing notes as Mari ran up the piano. As she hit the top and cascaded down again, Sunny predicted every note she was going to play on the way down and joined in until they crashed triumphantly into A major as planned, continuing on with the piece. That got a few claps from the audience, although any decent musician probably would have seen through it. Classic Mari.
As the final chord rang out across the hall, strong and harmonious, the clapping began – also strong, but not quite as harmonious. Sunny took the violin away from his neck, holding it and the bow in the same hand, and faced forwards. Mari stepped up next to him, radiant as always in her black dress, beaming at the crowd. As they always did, she offered out a hand and he took it before they bowed together, bringing the applause to a deafening volume. Then they walked off stage…
…and back on again. This part always made Sunny feel a bit silly. Mari loved the fakeout, though. They bowed again, walked off stage…
…and back on again. Once again Sunny found himself fighting to keep a smile off his face. Another bow. Another walk off the stage…
…and back on again. Wow. Three times. Mari’s piano run must have bewitched the audience. Or maybe she’d planted some supporters in the crowd. It seemed like something she’d do. The lights started to dim, and the audience became visible. Sunny scanned the crowd, looking for four people. He knew they wouldn’t be there, even if he hoped for it a little. Or a lot. It was just force of habit by this point. It had been a long time since he had been with those four.
When they walked off stage (for real this time), Mari turned to him and wrapped him in a crushing hug. “That was amazing, Sunny!” she gushed. “Oh, you’re so talented!”
“You were okay,” Sunny replied, a cheeky smile forming on his face. “I did have to save your butt.”
Mari crossed her arms and pouted. “It was a moment of inspiration, Sunny. You can’t prove anything.”
“Uh-huh. And yet you instantly know what I’m talking about.”
She sighed dramatically. “Oh, my little brother is so mean to me. What on earth have I done to deserve this?”
Sunny rolled his eyes. “I’m literally the same height as you.” Which he still wasn’t quite over. Looking straight on at Mari instead of up was weird. And he was only fifteen, which meant he was almost definitely going to end up taller than her. Then he could lord that over her forever.
“Not with these heels on,” Mari replied, grinning. Unfortunately, she was right. She ruffled his hair.
“Cheating,” Sunny objected.
“Weeell… nobody’s stopping you from wearing heels as well, are they?”
Their parents appearing saved Sunny from having to think of a witty response to that. Mom was eye-catching in a sparkly red dress, while Dad was dressed exactly the same as Sunny. Dad didn’t usually smile – again, like Sunny – but he was smiling now. He always smiled at the recitals. He walked up to Sunny and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Excellent work, Sunny. That was beautiful.”
Sunny nodded slightly. “Thank you, Dad.”
“What a way to cap off our last night in Faraway!” Mom said, pulling out a small digital camera. “We have to commemorate the moment. Smile, kids! That includes you, Sunny.”
Ugh. Camera smiles were the worst. Nevertheless, Sunny tried his best, while Mari jammed her face right next to his in that way she always did now. She thought it would embarrass him or something like that, but honestly Sunny didn’t mind. It was nice.
“Beautiful,” Mom pronounced. “Now, we’d better get home and get a good night’s sleep. Big day tomorrow!”
“Don’t know how well we’re going to sleep on those air mattresses,” Mari replied with a smile. The beds, along with pretty much everything else in the house, had already been moved into the new place over the past few days. The last things left inside were a few boxes of personal stuff and the air mattresses, which once upon a time were used a lot but had been sitting and gathering dust for a few years.
“I’m sure we’ll be fine,” said Dad. “Sunny, pack your violin away and let’s go.”
Once Sunny was ready, they left the concert hall and walked to the car. Mom and Dad occupied the front seats while Sunny slipped into the back right seat, which was reserved for him. Mari, on the other hand, took the middle seat next to Sunny and grinned at him. That meant she was in a touchy-feely mood, which sometimes could be annoying. Today, though, Sunny was fine with a bit of physical contact.
On the way home, Mari started showing him pictures of the campus of her new college on her phone, which she’d done about a billion times before. Sunny nodded along and pretended that he hadn’t seen all these photos already while Mari waxed lyrical about the ‘neo-Gothic architecture’, whatever that meant. He had no idea why Mari was so excited to do her undergrad degree when it would be years until she would be able to do what she actually wanted to do (law school, because of course it was), but that was just how Mari was: always curious, always learning, always striving for higher things. Sunny would never ever in a million years say it to her face, but he found that inspiring. If only he could match her confidence for the future.
As the great golden arches appeared ahead of them on the side of the road, Sunny leaned forward and tapped Dad on the shoulder. He let out a heavy sigh, but pulled into the drive-thru.
“We would have been happy to take you out to a real restaurant, Sunny,” Mom tried. “You don’t have to do this every time.”
Sunny shook his head. “Burger. And fries.”
“You won’t have one, will you, Mari?” asked Dad.
“Nope.”
“Good. Sunny, if you spill anything on your suit, you’re cleaning it.”
“Yes, Dad,” Sunny said. Mari looked at him and rolled her eyes, making him smile. It was part of their special little language for when their parents got weird.
Once Sunny got his burger, along with enough napkins to make sure not a single crumb went anywhere it wasn’t meant to, they were back on the road again. As Sunny munched down, he felt his sister’s eyes on him. He knew she wouldn’t try anything right now, but once there was just a mouthful or so left she might try a trick…
Mari gasped, pointing out the window. “Sunny, look! A shooting star!”
Sunny stared back at her, dead-eyed. It was embarrassing enough that he’d fallen for that one once. He had zero intention of doing it again.
“A dinosaur! A unicorn! A… Captain Spaceboy!”
“Not happening.”
“Sunny, did you remember to check the backyard for any old things lying around out there you wanted to keep?” Mom asked. Sunny’s attention immediately focused on her and away from his conniving sister. Within a fraction of a second, the last bit of his burger went straight from his hand into Mari’s mouth.
Mari smirked. “Well, did you?”
Glaring at her, Sunny made tickling gestures. Mari squealed and tried to shunt away from him as he went after her.
“Stop,” ordered Dad, making both of them freeze. “Mari, you’re an adult now. Sunny, you’re nearly an adult. This childish bickering is ridiculous. Now answer your mother’s question.”
The two of them shifted back into position, facing straight ahead. “Yes,” said Sunny. “I checked outside. I didn’t take very much, though.”
“You checked the treehouse as well?”
“Yes.”
“The treehouse I spent a small fortune and hours of my time on and then you barely used,” Dad grumbled. Sunny couldn’t really argue with that. All of them – even him – had put loads of time and effort into the treehouse. Then school rolled around, and things happened, and by the time it was the holidays again nobody was really getting invited to their house anymore.
As they entered the suburbs of Faraway, Sunny took the opportunity to really look around: after all, tomorrow he’d be leaving all of this behind. Goodbye to Fix-It and Othermart and Hobbeez and Gino’s and the park and the old hangout spot by the lake and all the rest. When they pulled into their driveway for the final time, Sunny’s gaze momentarily flickered to the house next door, the one he hadn’t been inside for years. But only for a moment.
They all piled out of the car, Sunny making sure not to forget his violin. Dad unlocked the front door and they went inside, to be greeted by bare rooms and blank walls. Seeing his home like this was surreal. The only indication that anyone had ever lived here at all was the little faded stain on the carpet in the living room where an old friend had spilled his juice. Otherwise, the place was barren. Even Mewo was already at the new place, getting accustomed to her new home. Sunny wandered over to the sliding door that led into the backyard and looked out into the darkness. How many old toys and games were lost out there, abandoned to their fate? At least a dozen, probably. But time marched on.
Mari, as was her right as the elder sibling, got to bathe first. While he waited, Sunny sat on his mattress in their shared room and peered around. This time next month, this would be somebody else’s room, and all the people and the memories and the experiences would be different. Maybe the room would remember him somehow. Maybe it had some kind of spirit. Sunny liked to think that his and Mari’s stay here had been memorable.
After way too long (as usual), Mari vacated the bathroom. Sunny was planning on taking way too long in the bath as well, of course, but at least nobody was waiting on him while he was doing it. He’d miss this weirdly big bathroom and the bath, especially the window right above it that people kept leaving open. He sat in the bath and let his consciousness float for a while until a bang on the door and a sharp “Sunny!” from Mom let him know that he’d lost track of time.
Once he was out of the bath, he walked over to the mirror. He saw a thin, kind of pale teenager staring back at him. There was a big zit on his forehead that looked nasty. If he sucked in his stomach, his ribs were clearly visible. He slumped a little. Mari always teased him about ‘getting girls’, but at this rate he’d be single forever. Even he had to admit the athletic kids at school were good-looking, especially…
That thought shut itself down before it could fully form. Instead, Sunny put on his pajamas and returned to the bedroom, where his sister was already lying on her mattress with the lights out. Mari always conked out after concerts, which made sense: she got so stressed before them, even now that they’d done so many, that Sunny sometimes wondered if she was going to pass out.
He got under his own blankets and stared up at the ceiling, listening to the crickets chirping outside. This was it. The last night. It hadn’t really settled in for him before now – not when Mom first told him they were moving, not when he came home from school to find random people looking through the house, not when Dad took him to the new city to look around the high school he’d be going to. He was leaving Faraway. And something buried very deep inside him felt very, very wrong.
God, this was going to be so embarrassing. But he had to do it, or he wouldn’t be able to fall asleep. Surely this was an extraordinary enough occasion for it not to be weird.
“Mari?” he asked.
“Mmmmhm?” came the sleepy reply.
“Can I…” He felt the blush coming over his cheeks and squeezed his eyes shut, fighting back the urge to growl at himself.
“Can you…?”
“I…” Sunny tried, but he couldn’t force the words out. But Mari figured out what he was trying to ask her. She got to her feet, yawning and stretching her arms, before getting under the covers next to him.
“And here I thought my little brother was too cool for this now,” she said. “It’s been a long time since we last did this, huh?”
“It’s just tonight,” Sunny replied. “I’m feeling… weird.”
Mari sighed. “Yeah. It’s crazy to think that tomorrow all of this will be gone. But it’s a new adventure, right? The new city is a really cool place. It has a massive mall, a big arcade thing, and loads of amazing places to hang out! And, of course, it’s got a high school with a very good music program.”
“I’ve got my own personal music program,” Sunny replied.
Mari giggled. “You sure do! But it can’t hurt to learn from some others as well. As great as I am, there are people better than me.”
They lay there for a moment. Was it weird how comforted Sunny felt by having his sister next to him? He didn’t know anyone else who felt like that. Then again, he didn’t really talk to people at school very much. Maybe it was better to get a fresh start. Maybe that was why he’d felt a tiny sense of relief when he’d first heard they were moving away.
“You played so well tonight, Sunny,” said Mari. “You’ve grown into such a good violinist. I can’t wait to see where you go from here.”
“You were really good as well. Sorry for not saying that earlier.”
Mari laughed. “I don’t mind, Sunny. You keep me humble! Besides, I have a few I can throw back at you. Remember the first time we did a recital, when you freaked out on the day?”
Sunny rolled his eyes. “Hard not to remember when you bring it up so much.”
“Don’t give it if you can’t take it, little brother. It was lucky that Basil was there, though. Otherwise you might have done something you’d have regretted later.”
Basil. Sunny still saw him around school sometimes, usually with Aubrey or her other friends. He looked like he was doing okay. But Sunny always hoped Basil wouldn’t notice him.
“The first recital was the best one,” he said, not realizing he was saying the words before they left his lips.
“Why do you say that?”
Well, he was committed now. “Because everyone was there.”
“Everyone…? Oh, right. You mean Basil and the others.”
They had clapped and cheered Sunny and Mari to the echo when they finished their first recital. Sunny hadn’t played that well, but that feeling of warmth and contentment afterwards was unmatched. That was the first and last recital the other four had attended.
“Do you miss them?” asked Mari.
Sunny took a moment before he spoke. There was a strange feeling, deep in the pit of his stomach, that the answer he was about to give was the wrong one.
“Yes,” he said.
Mari hummed thoughtfully. “Well… you still see Basil, Kel and Aubrey at school, right? Not now, of course, but before. You didn’t speak to them?”
He hadn’t spoken to any of them, not for years. When he passed one of them in a hallway, he looked at the ground and pretended he didn’t see them. When he had a class with one of them, he made sure to sit far enough away from them that they wouldn’t acknowledge him. When he was leaving the house to go to school and saw Kel leaving as well, he hid inside and waited a few minutes before following. There was a leaden weight in his stomach every time he did it, but… it had just been such a long time, and it would be so awkward, wouldn’t it? Better to just stay away.
“Things got weird,” he said. “After you and Hero… you know…”
This was a touchy topic. You had to be careful what you said, lest you get unexpected (if sometimes very funny) results. Sunny loved his sister to death, and thought she was talented and amazing and a great role model, but when it came to the man next door she really did plumb the depths of insanity sometimes.
Luckily, Mari didn’t react. “Yeah,” she said. “Things did get weird.”
Lying in the dark where his sister couldn’t see, a cheeky smile twitched across Sunny’s face. Maybe he could push his luck a bit here.
“Have you seen Hero since graduation?” Sunny asked, making sure to sound as innocent as possible.
“Sunny,” Mari warned, “I will go back to my bed if you’re going to be a brat.”
“I’m not being a brat!”
“You can’t fool me. You’re trying to get a reaction out of me. But it’s not going to happen. And the answer to that question is no, by the way.”
“Okay, okay. Got it.” But the smile remained on Sunny’s face. Mari’s graduation day had been beautiful. She had been elected student council president for that year, beating Hero in a one-on-one matchup (which she had been very smug about). Unfortunately, there was a long-standing tradition at Faraway High that the student council president would present the valedictorian with their trophy. So, when Hero pipped her to the valedictorian spot…
Oh, it had been glorious. Sunny had actively needed to try not to laugh in the audience when Hero strutted out on stage, looking glamorous as ever, and Mari, smile frozen on her face, had to give him his trophy. He could practically see the steam coming out of Mari’s ears. When they got home afterwards, Mari had wrapped her face in a pillow and started screaming. Honestly, Sunny was impressed that he’d been able to restrain himself from laughing. But it had been a few months since then. He could safely rib her over it. At least until she threatened to go back to her own bed.
Mari’s breathing began to slow. Sunny found himself thinking of Hero. Before he became the co-protagonist of the world’s stupidest teen drama, Hero had been someone Sunny had basically worshipped. Even now, Sunny still heard stuff about him all the time. Last summer he had run some kind of community cleanup thing where people would go around and pick up trash. And he’d aced his SATs (ten points better than Mari). Sunny didn’t see him very much, since by the time he got to high school Hero and Mari were already seniors.
But he did want to say goodbye to him now. Him and the others. But… it was too late for any of that. What would he even say? ‘Sorry for not talking to you for three years, now I’m leaving’? It felt wrong to just go without saying anything to anyone, but his response to awkwardness was always to stay silent. It would just be torture.
He let out a deep breath, tried to focus on the warmth of his sister lying beside him, and closed his eyes.
A warm breeze drifts through the open window across my face. My eyes open. I’m in my room. My bed. There’s no school today, so I can wake up as late as I want. The sun is already pretty high in the sky. I yawn and stretch.
In the bed next to mine, Mari hears my movement and puts down her book. She’s always reading when I wake up, but if I want to stay here with her for the day we can do whatever we want.
Today, I want to visit my friends.
“Good morning!” Mari chirps. Her purple hair shimmers slightly in the morning light. “Did you sleep well?”
I nod.
“Good! So, what’s it going to be today, little brother? Are you going to stay in here and keep your sister company?”
I shake my head. I haven’t been to see my friends in a while. They might miss me.
Mari’s pout is almost enough to make me change my mind. “Aw. Well, I suppose they’ve been wanting to see you. Go on and have some fun. But remember to keep me company soon! You know how lonely I get without you…”
“Okay,” I say. I’ll stay with her tomorrow. It’s a fair trade. Besides, there is a new board game I’ve been wanting to try out. Mari always likes playing new board games with me.
I open the door to my room, and step into the treehouse. The walls are a warm, light brown and varnished to a sheen. There’s a TV in one corner and enough toys lying around to make it dangerous to step anywhere without looking. A baseball bat leans against the cupboards on the far side of the room. On top of the cupboards are a working toaster and a purple plushie.
Sitting around the table in the center of the room, playing cards, are my friends. Kel, jiggling in his seat, sticks his tongue out in concentration as he stares at his cards. To his left, Aubrey squints at her cards, then at the pile in the middle of the table. Across from her, Hero, his hair sticking up in odd places, strokes his chin in thought. Lastly there is Basil, his bright teal hair contrasting with everyone else’s deep purple. He’s the first to spot me.
“Hello, Sunny!” he says.
Kel immediately drops his cards, leaps out of his chair, and sprints up to hug me. I don’t feel it.
“SUNNY!” he shouts. “Man, we’ve been waiting for aaaaages. I’ve lost so many rounds of cards. But now we can get going! Right?”
I look at Hero. “Is there anywhere we need to go?” I ask.
Hero shrugs and smiles. “Nope. We can go wherever you want.”
As I go to the entrance to the treehouse and look out at the vast forest below and the purple sky above, everyone picks up their weapons: Hero his frying pan, Aubrey her Mr Plantegg, Kel his basketball, and Basil his trowel. I pull my knife out of my pocket and study it. You never know what strange creatures you might encounter in the forests. Best to be prepared.
The others are lined up behind me. We’re ready to go on an adventure.
I climb down the ladder.
***
A knock on the door roused Sunny from sleep, blinking slowly. “Up and pack your things!” Mom called through the door. “We’re leaving in twenty minutes!”
So this was it, then. It was finally happening. Mari was still asleep next to him, so Sunny got up and let the air out of her empty mattress, rolled it up, folded her blankets and put them in a nice pile. He took one last moment to survey their barren room before poking her gently in the shoulder.
“Ugh,” she said, sitting up. “Tired. Oh, you already packed up my mattress. Thanks, Sunny.”
“No problem,” Sunny replied. He gathered up the blankets and the rolled-up mattress and carried them downstairs to take them to the car, which was idling in the driveway. Mom and Dad had already cleared out most of what was left in the rest of the house. As Sunny passed the kitchen, he saw Mom unlocking and pocketing the lock on the cutlery drawer.
Dad was outside scouring the front lawn for any discarded items. “You haven’t forgotten anything, have you?” he asked as Sunny approached. “Toothbrush? Deodorant?”
“Packed,” Sunny replied. He walked over to the trunk and started jamming everything inside, which was a difficult task given how full it already was.
Dad sighed. “Is your sister up yet?”
“Yes. She’s just packing her things.”
“I’ll go and make sure she’s not dawdling,” Dad decided, marching off inside. Sunny finished cramming his things into the trunk and leaned against the side of the car, looking back at the house. Would he ever see it again? Would his new home ever feel as much like home as this did?
Did this feel like home anymore?
“Hey! Sunny!” a voice called. Sunny’s head snapped towards the sound.
On the footpath behind Sunny’s front fence stood a lanky boy wearing a basketball jersey and carrying a basketball under his arm. Whenever Sunny saw him at school, he was smiling and laughing with his friends. This time, he wasn’t smiling, and for the first time in a very long time he was looking Sunny straight in the eyes.
Sunny’s heart sped up a little. “K-kel,” he stammered, his voice cracking. He kicked himself mentally. One word. Just get through one word without… without…
Kel walked up the driveway towards him. Sunny felt a primal urge to flee, but forced himself to stand his ground. He couldn’t run from Kel, not when he was finally, finally talking to him…
“So… today’s the day, huh?” said Kel. “You’re moving.”
“Um… yeah.”
Kel licked his lips and scratched the back of his neck. “I… saw the sign outside your house a while back. Saying it was up for sale. I didn’t… yknow, say anything to you. I thought it might be… weird? I dunno. But I wanted to say goodbye, still. Since we used to be… yknow.”
He was tall now: a bit taller than Sunny, and he looked like he wasn’t about to stop growing anytime soon. Back in the day, he’d been the shortest and skinniest out of all of them. Now, though, there were defined muscles on his arms and legs, which were starting to sprout cactus-like hairs.
But that wasn’t what Sunny needed to think about right now. “Okay,” he said. “I… wanted to say goodbye too.”
“Will you miss me?” Kel asked. It was meant to sound like a joke, but it didn’t.
“Yes.”
Kel averted his eyes for a moment, his lips pursed. Then he gasped a little, and his eyes lit up. “Wait. I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere.” Then he sprinted back down the driveway and into his house.
Sunny realized his mouth was hanging slightly open. His face was a little warm. Kel had actually talked to him. He couldn’t count the number of times over the past couple of years he’d snuck glances in Kel’s direction at school, hoping against hope that Kel would come up to him and say something. Anything to bypass that awful fear and apathy inside him that meant he could never say anything to him himself.
His thoughts were interrupted by Mari swearing as she nearly tripped and fell walking out the front door. She was carrying her own air mattress and blankets, and looked angry. “Did Dad get you up?” Sunny asked.
“Oh yes,” Mari replied, letting out an aggressive sigh. “I… told him I was just about to come out, but no. He had to come barging in and make sure I wasn’t ‘goofing off’. Sunny, when the hell do I ever goof off?”
“Rarely.”
Suddenly, the front door to Kel’s house opened again with a loud bang. In a well-practised maneuver, Mari dived for cover behind one of the trees that separated the two houses. Sunny rolled his eyes.
Kel sprinted straight through the trees towards Sunny instead of going down to the sidewalk, nearly kicking Mari on the way. He screeched to a halt in front of Sunny, reaching out for one of his arms. Sunny paled and his eyes widened…
…but it was his right arm that Kel took. Kel was carrying a marker in his mouth, which he uncapped and proceeded to draw on Sunny’s arm with. It had been a long time since somebody had drawn on Sunny. It left a strange tingly feeling that gave Sunny goosebumps. Kel had moved in very close to Sunny to be able to write on his arm. His grip on Sunny’s arm was gentle, and he was sticking his tongue out in concentration as he scrawled numbers across it. Sunny’s breath hitched a little.
When Kel was done, he stepped back, wearing a slightly sheepish smile. “It’s my house’s number! You can… uh, call me sometime. If you want. No pressure. But I’d be happy to talk to you. I just didn’t know if you remembered the number for my house.”
Sunny hadn’t remembered. Now he felt a pit opening up in his stomach.
Luckily, he was saved from having to figure out something to say when Kel noticed his sister, who was still cowering behind a tree. “Oh. Hi, Mari. Uh… Hero isn’t here, by the way. He left for college a couple of days ago.”
“Oh, okay.” Mari stood up and dusted herself off. Her nightgown was now wet and stained from leaping into the dewy grass, as were her blankets. Dad would probably get grumpy about that.
The three looked at each other in silence for a few moments.
“So… how have you been, Kel?” Mari asked.
“Okay, I guess? Just… doing school stuff. I almost got into the school basketball team this year. The coach told me I’d almost definitely get in next year once I was a little taller and stronger. And Hero’s gone now, which is a little… weird…”
Huh. So Kel was also careful when mentioning one ex in the presence of the other. That meant Hero also probably harbored some strong emotions. That was weird. Sunny had never thought of Hero as the type to hold grudges. Looking at their conflict from the perspective of a Mari insider, Hero had always seemed like the saintly one while Mari frothed at the mouth trying to one-up him, but obviously Sunny wasn’t seeing the whole story. Although, that being said, Mari had accused Hero (only to Sunny, of course) of a lot of things over the years, including but not limited to bribing students in student council votes and wheedling teachers for inside information on tests and quizzes. Maybe at least some of those accusations were true? Although Sunny never understood why Mari got so righteously enraged about that given that she was doing all of those things as well.
More silence. Then Dad walked out the front door, caught sight of Kel and narrowed his eyes. That was his cue to leave.
“Call me,” Kel said, turning to Sunny. “Even if it’s just once. Please?”
“Okay,” Sunny replied.
Then Kel was off, racing through the trees back to his house. Dad watched him all the way back, his eyes chips of flint. He didn’t say anything.
Mom came out next. “What are we all hanging around out here for?”
“Kelsey Montoya just graced us with his presence,” Dad told her. “I hope his brother isn’t going to show his face as well. I don’t want my morning ruined.”
Sunny pursed his lips and clenched a fist behind his back. Dad’s dismissive tone pissed him off, but he knew that arguing with him about it would be fruitless. Dad hated Hero almost as much as Mari did, and Kel was tarred with that brush as well, whether he liked it or not.
“He was a nice boy,” Mom said, gazing off towards the Montoya house.
“A bit airheaded,” Dad countered. “And loud.”
“He was a good friend,” Sunny cut in, unable to restrain himself anymore.
Dad shrugged. “Well, he hasn’t been over here in a long time, so in my eyes the right choice was made. Anyway, enough about them. In the car, everyone. I don’t want to get stuck in traffic on the highway.”
Everyone got into the car. Mari knew not to sit next to Sunny when he was in a mood like this, so she took her usual spot on the other side of the car. As they pulled out of the driveway and into their street for the last time, Sunny found himself staring, not at his old home, but at Kel’s.
I’ll call you, he promised silently.
And away they went, leaving Faraway a long way behind them.