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December 24th. Sunny looked out the bus’ window, watching cars pass by amidst the snow. His friends had invited him to spend the holidays with them in Faraway, so for the next week or so until new years he would be staying at Kel and Hero’s place. He was looking forward to it, they hadn’t spent the holidays together since before Mari died.
The bus would arrive at Faraway eventually, and Sunny was greeted with Kel waiting for him at the bus stop.
“Hey, Sunny!” He said with as big a smile as ever.
“Hey,” Sunny said, before looking at Kel in confusion. “Why are you wearing summer clothes? It’s like, 20 degrees out.”
“Is it? I feel fine. Besides, I didn’t walk here, the car’s over there.”
Sunny sighed. Kel being the type of kid to wear shorts in the middle of winter shouldn’t have surprised him. “Nevermind. Is Hero here? I don’t see anyone in the car.”
“Nah, he doesn’t get home until later today.”
“So who drove?”
“I did,” Kel said.
“Since when could you drive?” Kel behind a wheel wasn’t something Sunny had ever really thought of. Conceptually it was terrifying, but he’d be fine if Kel managed to make it here with no problems. Probably.
“I’ve had my license for a while, there’s just never any reason to use it when you could walk anywhere in town.”
“Makes sense. Can we go to the car now? It’s freezing.”
“Oh, yeah, my bad.”
The ride back was surprisingly smooth. He didn’t expect Kel to be a bad driver per se, it’s just that Kel is somewhat unpredictable in most things he does.
“See, I told you I was a good driver,” Kel said, looking vaguely proud of himself as he pulled into the driveway.
“Surprisingly so,” Sunny retorted.
Kel just laughed, having grown used to Sunny’s deadpan humor and delivery at this point.
The two walked into the house, and after getting Hector to calm down they went to Kel’s room to drop off Sunny’s things.
“I see you already set up the pillow fort,” Sunny said.
“Yup. Pretty nice handiwork if I do say so myself.”
Sunny had to admit, Kel was right. If he were to rate the fort like he usually rated beds, it would probably get at least an 8 from appearance alone.
Sunny put down his things and spread out across the fort. It was better than he thought it’d be. “You really outdid yourself this time. We gonna be sleeping up here then?”
“Yeah, my parents don’t want us to stay downstairs cause of Sally. She thinks that if we were down there, Santa wouldn’t come.”
“Makes sense. Kids put a lot of thought into the logic behind things like that,” Sunny said. “So where are Basil and Aubrey? They gonna meet up with us later?”
“The plan was to meet up with them when you got here, so we should probably go do that.”
Sunny sighed. He really didn’t want to get up from the pillow fort, but seeing his friends came first.
The two left the house, and it didn’t take long until they reached the split in the road that led to Aubrey’s house on one side, with Basil’s on the other.
“So should we meet Aubrey first since we’re already on that side of the road?” Kel asked.
“Why not go separate ways then meet in the middle? I could get Aubrey and you could get Basil, it’d make things faster.”
“Oh, good idea. See you in a bit!” He said before running off.
Sunny then walked towards Aubrey’s house. As much as he loved Kel and Basil, he was glad he thought of that excuse. in truth he just wanted to have as much time with Aubrey as possible, preferably alone.
With Aubrey’s house being the first one on that side of the street, it didn’t take long for Sunny to arrive. Aubrey had said before that she didn’t like it when people knocked on the front door due to her mother being so close, so Sunny did the only rational thing and threw a small rock at her window.
He heard some muffled yelling from the other side of the window.
“Kim if that’s you again I swear to go- Oh, Sunny!” She said as she opened the window. “What’s with the Hooligan greeting?”
“I remember you saying you didn’t like people coming through the front once.”
“Really? I don’t even remember mentioning that to you. You really do remember the most random things,” Aubrey said through her smile. “Give me a minute to grab my stuff and I’ll be right out.”
Sunny went to the front of her house, and shortly after Aubrey came out. She had a bag with what were presumably her clothes, and a gift for the exchange that would be happening the following day. What stood out however, was the fact that she was holding Bun-Bun.
“What’s with the bunny?” He asked.
“Kim offered to watch him while I’m with you guys so I don’t need to keep going back to my mom’s house every day to feed him, so I gotta drop him off first.”
“Makes sense. Is he gonna stay at her dad’s or her mom’s place?”
“Her mom’s, so it’s not exactly on the way. Would probably only add five minutes to the walk, but still.”
“Sounds good. Anyway, the plan was I’d get you and Kel would get Basil then we’d meet in the middle, so we should probably head there.”
With that, the two began walking. It took all of a staggering two minutes until they got to the end of the sidewalk and saw their friends.
Aubrey looked at Kel with a confused expression. “Why are you wearing summer clothes? It’s like, 20 degrees out.”
Sunny laughed to himself .
“I don’t feel that cold! Why is everyone asking me that?”
“Probably because it’s below freezing and you’re wearing basketball shorts,” Aubrey said. “Even I’m wearing more than I usually do.”
As Kel and Aubrey started bickering, Basil and Sunny started talking.
“Hey Sunny! It’s been a while since you’ve come over.”
“Yeah, been busy with school and work. I still don’t understand I’m gonna graduate the same year as you guys after missing 4 years of school.”
“I’m not too surprised,” Basil said. “You always were pretty smart. It probably that a lot of school is memorizing stuff too.”
“I guess,” Sunny said.
There was a pause in conversation before Basil spoke up again.
“So should we stop them or?” He said as the two looked at Aubrey and Kel still arguing, the topic being something entirely different from the initial conversation.
“Probably. I’m just surprised Aubrey can bicker like that while holding Bun-Bun.”
Sunny walked up to the two and asked what they were fighting over this time.
“Kel doesn’t understand that Bun-Bun is a good name for a bunny!” Aubrey said.
“I’m not saying it’s bad, I just think something else would be cooler, like… Hector!”
“That’s just your dog’s name,” Sunny said.
“And it’s a good name!”
“For a dog!” Aubrey said.
“And for my pet rock.”
Aubrey sighed. “I’m not naming my bunny after a rock.”
“You two done now? I’d like to get inside sooner rather than later,” Sunny said.
“Yeah, fine. You guys can go ahead, I’ll go drop off Bun-Bun at Kim’s.”
“I’ll go with you,” Sunny said a bit too quickly.
Basil gave him a look he recognized. The same look he got when they were kids and he asked to see a picture of Aubrey. He wasn’t looking forward to what that implied.
“You sure?” Aubrey asked. “It’ll only take like, 10 minutes at most.”
“Yeah, I don’t mind,” Sunny said.
“Alright, see you guys in a bit. I’m gonna go see my dog with a real name,” Kel said.
Aubrey just rolled her eyes at him. “Let’s go Sunny.”
Basil and Kel watched the pair go down the road until they were out of earshot.
“I’m surprised to see Sunny actually try ti get with Aubrey ,” Basil said. “When we were younger he’d just be even quieter than usual when he was around her.”
“Yeah, he even came up with the idea that we pick you guys separately and specifically said he’d get Aubrey.”
Basil looked at Kel. “20 bucks says they’ll get together before the new year.”
Kel grabbed his hand and shook it. “Deal.”
As Sunny and Aubrey were walking to Kim’s, Aubrey was mostly ranting to Sunny about Kel’s most recent annoyance.
“Seriously, how does he not get that Bun-Bun is a perfectly fitting name for a bunny? It’s not the same as naming a dog or other pets. They’re delicate! Fluffy!”
Sunny was mainly listening, responding only in small laughs or smiles. He was glad that even after those four years apart, he was still Aubrey’s designated “ranting friend”. The fact that he was still trusted enough for that meant a lot to him.
“How do you two manage to find new things to argue about every time you see each other anyway? I feel like it’d get tiring at a certain point,” he said.
Aubrey shrugged. “It’s not really that big a deal. I kinda like how stupid they are. Don’t tell him I said that though.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Sunny said. “Don’t wanna cross the woman who owns a bat with nails sticking out of it.”
She laughed. “Honestly, I forget that I have that sometimes. The whole “gang leader” thing was dropped a while ago.”
“I guess I missed out on the whole rebellious teenage phase thing,” Sunny said.
“Huh, guess you did. You weren’t missing out on much there though,” she said.
“Yeah, you’re probably right. Anyway, isn’t that Kim’s house?”
“Oh, yeah. You can just wait here while I drop Bun-Bun off, it’ll only take a minute,” Aubrey said before going to the front door.
Like she said, it wasn’t long before she was back.
“Carrying the cage around for that long was not the best idea I’ve had,” she said. “My arms are tired as hell.”
“You could’ve asked me to carry it for a while if you needed a break,” Sunny said.
“Nah, it’s fine. Anyway, Kim invited us and the others to a party on New Years. Apparently her mom isn’t gonna be there, so it’ll pretty much be us and the Hooligans. You wanna go?” She asked.
“If the others are fine with it I don’t see why not,” Sunny said.
“Alright then. Let’s hurry back and ask then.”
The two then went on their way to Kel’s house, talking about anything and everything that came to mind.
“Sup losers!” Aubrey said as she and Sunny walked into the house.
“Shh!” Kel whisper-yelled. “Sally is trying to sleep.”
“Oh, my bad,” the girl said as she sat on the couch, Sunny trailing not too far behind and taking the spot next to her. “Where’s Hero? Or your parents, actually.”
“Hero should be here pretty soon, and my parents aren’t gonna be here for a few days. They always have some anniversary thing going on around this time of year.”
“Is that why we only ever did Christmas at Sunny’s place?” Basil asked.
“Huh. I never really thought about that,” Sunny said.
The four talked for a while longer, until Hero made his typical sitcom like appearance.
“Hey guys, sorry I’m late. There was a lot of traffic on the way here,” he said, setting some of his bags down and putting what were presumably groceries in the fridge. “What’ve you guys been up to?”
“Not much,” Kel said. “We were thinking of going upstairs to play some games before you got here.”
His stomach also very audibly growled. “And we were also talking about getting food…”
Hero looked at his watch, and it was about 1:30 in the afternoon. “You guys wanna order Gino’s for lunch?”
“That sounds good,” Aubrey said. “I can pick it up, I get a discount from working part time.”
“I can go too,” Sunny said. “I still get discounts from when I worked there for like, three days.”
Basil gave him that look again. He chose to ignore it.
Hero smiled. “Alright then, I’ll order it now if that’s okay. Does one cheese and one pepperoni sound good?”
With that, the food was ordered and Sunny and Aubrey left, Aubrey telling him about how the delivery handwriting hasn’t gotten any better.
“Now that they’re gone,” Hero said, “what are the odds they’ll get together before the new year?”
“Kel and I actually made a bet on that already,” Basil said. “He’ll owe me 20 bucks by the end of the week.”
“Did you bet against them getting together, Kel?” Hero asked.
“If they still haven’t realized they like one another by now, what’s one more week?” He said. “Besides, they do kinda have a lot more to think about for a relationship than most people because of… everything from last year, really.”
“That… makes sense actually,” Basil said. It was easy to forget Kel was probably the most emotionally mature of the group sometimes.
“You do at least have the 20 dollars though, right?” Hero asked.
“That doesn’t matter if I’m right!”
“We need to make sure you never go to a Casino,” Basil said. “Seriously though, those two need to just get together already. They BOTH talk to me about how much they like the other! It’s cute, but resisting the urge to just send what they say to each other takes a lot of effort.”
“You weren’t here for the other two times Hero, but that was like the third time today something like that happened,” Kel said. “First Sunny said he should get Aubrey while I get Basil, then he tagged along when Aubrey went to drop her bunny off at Kim’s, and now this.”
“And you bet against that?” Hero asked.
“I’ve lost 20 dollars to worse decisions,” Kel said.
The three continued to talk for a half hour or so, until Sunny and Aubrey returned with the pizza. None of them failed to notice Sunny being more emotive, at least compared to his usual self with Aubrey, nor how Aubrey was softer, in a way, with Sunny.
They did rub off on each other a little too much sometimes however. “Sup losers,” Sunny said. Aubrey laughed at him trying to imitate her, but with his own monotone voice.
Kel gasped. “Aubrey! What did you do to Sunny?!”
“Hey, it was mostly his idea,” Aubrey said between laughs.
“I just thought it’d be funny,” he explained.
“It was unexpected, that’s for sure,” Hero said. “Anyway, I’ll go grab plates. You guys want anything to drink? I bought some stuff I know you guys like on the way here.”
Sunny, Aubrey, and Basil all asked for cola, with Kel of course asking for Orange Joe, earning a side eye from Aubrey. Hero brought out the paper plates and the drinks, and everyone save Hero went back to the living room.
“Are you guys not gonna eat at the table?” He asked.
“Why would we? Mom and dad aren’t home and the tv is in here,” Kel said.
Hero sighed. “Just make sure you don’t make a mess. Make sure Hector doesn’t get into anything too.”
Hero joined everyone in the living room, and the group threw on an old Capt. Spaceboy Christmas special that had been collecting dust inside a dvd player.
Sunny was mostly quiet, as he tends to be in group settings, and he thought about how much he missed this. The casual conversation as a group, the banter, spending the holidays with everyone, it had been ages since the last time they had done so.
There was a thought creeping in the back of his head though, one telling him he didn’t deserve to have it back. One telling him that he was the reason everything fell apart in the first place. He had learned to not listen to those thoughts for the most part, but there was one that stuck out to him.
Because he spent 4 years inside his room, in his head, he missed out on so much. He had thought about it before of course, but something about it this time felt more real. He missed out on 4 years worth of these parties, 4 years of birthdays, 4 years of his life.
It wouldn’t have been noticeable to most people outside of the immediate friend group, but his expression changed in a way that showed he was thinking about something like this. Aubrey happened to be the one to look at him while he was thinking.
“Hey, you okay?” She asked, quiet enough so that the others wouldn’t hear her.
Her voice broke him out of his stupor, something she managed to do a lot. “Yeah, I’m fine. it’s just…”
“Hey, how about we go to the swings later tonight? I can tell you have a lot on your mind.”
Sunny gave her a smile that would be hard to see for anyone else, but she understood. “Yeah, that sounds good.”
After the special was over and all the food was eaten, the group decided to finally go upstairs to use the console in their room.
“What’s the sleeping situation gonna be like?” Aubrey asked.
“Well, the fort Kel made seems big enough for all of us, but if you want your own space you can use my bed,” Hero said.
“Nah, it’s fine. If theres one thing Kel is good at, it’s making pillow forts.”
“Thank you. I take my craft very seriously,” Kel said.
Aubrey rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Anyway, is that your console? Did you get a new one or something?” She asked, pointing towards a cube of sorts. A game cube, if you will.
“Yeah, it’s my Christmas gift for this year. We do gifts a few days early since our parents are gone for their anniversary. I only have enough controllers for two people though,” Kel said.
Though not visibly, Sunny was excited. He had asked for one for Christmas from his mother, but he had yet to actually get it since he was in Faraway for the holidays.
“Oh, is this that Smash game I’ve heard people talk about at my college?” Hero asked, holding the up the game’s case.
“Yeah, it’s like the only multiplayer thing on the console,” Kel said. “But more importantly, who’s going to fight me first?”
“I’ll go,” Sunny said. “Some kids at my school have talked about it, it seems fun.”
The two started playing, and Sunny quickly picked up the mechanics of the game. He had always been better than the rest of the friend group when it came to video games, and it was one of the few things he actually got competitive about. The fact that whenever he wasn’t asleep during the four year isolation he would be playing games didn’t hurt either.
Before long, Sunny won the first round. Kel had done fairly well, and demanded a rematch. Then he lost by a slightly wider margin, and demanded a rematch. This repeated another two times until the gap became wide enough to be very noticeable.
“Well, there goes our only chance to beat Sunny,” Basil said.
“I thought I had him this time!” Kel said. “The game is only like a month old!”
“Hasn’t he always been unnaturally good at this stuff anyway?” Hero said.
“Just think of it like me with gardening or Hero with cooking. It’s just his thing,” Basil said.
“Yeah, I’m just better,” Sunny said, making Aubrey laugh. Hearing Sunny be more outright snarky instead of sarcastic was always funny to her.
“Hey, what are you laughing at Aubrey!?” Kel said. “Play me right now and we’ll see who wins.”
The girl shrugged. “Why not,” she said before getting the controller from Sunny. She knew she probably wouldn’t win much if at all, but she couldn’t admit that when it was Kel. She had an image to maintain.
They started playing, and it was actually fairly even. Kel was a bit better, mostly because he had already played a few rounds. Aubrey ended up winning a few of the games, but Kel won one more than her.
From then on, the entire group took turns playing. They cycled through until every combination of people had played at least once, and the results were to be expected. Sunny never lost, Kel and Aubrey ended up with the same number of wins, and Basil and Hero were mainly just playing for fun.
The process had taken them most of the night, and by the time they were finished Hero decided he would make dinner for everyone. Dinner had gone largely the same as lunch had, though to Kel’s delight Hero had made more than enough food for him to get seconds, thirds, or however many plates he wanted.
It was fairly late by the time dinner was over, so Basil suggested the group retire to the room and watch a movie or two before going to bed for the night.
“So, what are we watching?” Kel said.
“What are the options? Basil asked.
“Let’s see… there’s a spaceboy movie… spaceboy tv special… spaceboy crossover… did we always have this much spaceboy stuff?” Hero asked.
“I’m not sure,” Kel said. “Whenever we hung out it was usually at Sunny’s. We haven’t used our own stuff in forever.”
“Do you seriously only have spaceboy stuff?” Aubrey asked. “We already watched some today.”
“Well these ones are different,”Kel said.
“But it’s still spaceboy,” Aubrey said.
“So what? It-“
“ Before this turns into an argument, I found something that isn’t spaceboy to watch,” Hero said. “Santa Clause. You can’t go wrong with that.”
“Do we have Home Alone?” Kel asked.
“Yeah, I think so.”
“Let’s watch that instead then.”
“Why would we watch that? Santa Clause is better,” Aubrey said.
“What? No it isn’t,” Kel said.
“Yes it is!”
“How? Home Alone is like, the Christmas movie!”
“Actually that’s probably Christmas Story,” Hero said.
“Shut up Hero!” Kel and Aubrey said at the same time.
“I’m just saying!”
“Alright, let’s vote then. Basil, what do you wanna watch?” Kel asked.
“Uhh… probably Santa Clause?”
“Betrayal…” Kel said. “What about you Hero?”
“I’m feeling like Home Alone.”
“Yes! Now, Sunny. You have a very important decision to make. Home Alone or Santa Clause?”
“Something like Home Alone happened to me once,” Sunny said. “But I wanna watch Santa Clause.”
“Don’t tell me you just voted that because Au- wait, what? What do you mean it happened to you?” Kel said.
Sunny didn’t elaborate, and Kel would never know if he was being serious or not. They started the movie after he refused to answer, and even Kel stopped pretending to dislike the movie halfway through. By the end however, only Sunny and Aubrey were still awake.
“Hey,” Aubrey whispered. “Thanks for choosing the better movie.”
“No problem. I liked it.”
“You better,” she said.
There was a lull in the conversation, before Aubrey spoke up again.
“You wanna go to the swings now? I didn’t forget about that.”
Sunny laughed a little. “I didn’t expect you to. We can leave now, yeah, we just have to be quiet.”
The two got up, and left the house as quietly as they could.
The walk to the park was mostly quiet, the only sound to be heard being the crunching of the snow beneath their feet. It was snowing again, which added the nice feeling of stepping on a fresh coat.
The walk wasn’t very long, much like any other walk in Faraway. The two brushed off the swings, and took the same spots they always did.
“So, what’s up?” Aubrey asked. “You looked off earlier.”
Sunny sighed. “It’s just… today’s been great. I missed spending time with everyone like this, it feels like it’s been forever since we’ve been able to just relax. But earlier, I just thought of how much of this I really missed.”
“What do you mean?” Aubrey asked.
“It’s like we were talking about earlier. Because I locked myself away for so long, I missed out on having one of those regrettable teenage phases, but I missed out on a lot more too. I missed four straight years of all of our birthdays, holidays, everything. I missed 4 whole years of my life because I decided to shut myself away. And I don’t have a lot of chances to make up for it in the city since pretty much everyone I’m close with lives here.”
Aubrey nodded. “I know what you mean, kinda. I’ve come to terms with everything happening the way it did by now, but still, after Mari died it felt like I was missing out on everything too. We all drifted apart, so it’s not like you actually missed any birthday or holiday parties. I know that’s not what you mean, but you get what I’m saying. But all that means is we have to make up for that time now. It’s our last year in high school, what better time to make bad decisions?”
Sunny laughed a little at what she said, finding it hard to stay upset in her presence. “I guess you’re right.“
“So,” Aubrey said. “What’s something you feel like you missed out on that you wanna make up for this year? It’s almost New Years, so now’s as good a time as any to set some goals.”
Sunny thought for a moment. When he really thought about it, he didn’t have a lot of concrete ideas for things he missed out on; emotions were illogical like that a lot of the time. One thing he could name however, was that he’d have probably tried asking Aubrey out by now if things hadn’t gone the way they did.
“Well…” he began. “I’ve kind of wanted a girlfriend for a while now.” His face felt flushed. Even if he were still unsure about confessing, there wouldn’t be a chance to back out now.
Aubrey looked at him, clearly surprised. “Really? Do you like someone from your school or something?” She asked, sounding slightly hopeful and disappointed at the same time.
“No, I don’t. I… did I ever tell you about the dreams I had when I was shut away?”
“Yeah, you’ve mentioned them. You dreamed about everything being okay, and all of us going on adventures right?”
“Yeah. Well, the thing is… I liked you a lot when we were younger, and that was clear in those dreams. I dreamt that you liked me too, for four years. When I finally came out of my house and we patched things up, I kind of felt the same. After I finally came to terms with the truth and was thinking more clearly, I tried to decide if I really did like you, or was just holding on to how I felt in the past. It turns out that now, I just like you even more. It’s been over a year, so I know that it’s not just my old feelings getting in the way. I like you a lot, Aubrey.”
Aubrey looked just as red as him, which Sunny hoped was a good sign.
“Can I tell you something too?” She asked.
“Yeah, go ahead.”
“The dream Aubrey thing? Honestly, it wasn’t far off from the truth. I liked you when we were younger too. I kind of went through the same thing when you came out, thinking about if I was confused with my old feelings or if I really did like you. And, it ended being up the same for me. Even now, I still really, really like you.”
After awkwardly avoiding each other’s eyes during their confessions, they finally looked at one another. They saw genuine happiness in each other’s expressions, but what was more prominent was love, a feeling that they’ve held towards one another for so long.
“You know, we can start making up for lost time now,” Aubrey said.
“What do you mean?” Sunny asked. “Sorry, I’m still kind of processing the fact that you like me too,” he said, laughing through the joy.
“Well, we’re a thing now, right?” She asked.
“I guess we are, yeah. It doesn’t really feel real yet, but I definitely won’t complain.”
“And both haven’t had the chance for our first kiss yet, so…” she said, playing with her hair to calm her nerves.
Meanwhile, Sunny’s brain short-circuited. In the span of about two minutes, the girl he’s liked since he was a child said she liked him back, and was now asking to kiss. “I… that would be nice.”
Aubrey laughed. “Your long-time crush asks to kiss you and you say ‘that would be nice’?”
“Am I wrong?” He asked.
“No, I guess not,” she said.
The two looked at each other and started leaning toward one another, slowly. Their movements were nervous and awkward, as most firsts are.
When their lips finally met, a warmth enveloped them that held off the cold winds surrounding them. The only thing that mattered to them right know was each other. They forgot about the world around them and anything holding over them for this moment. It their minds it had been a long time coming, and they would savor every second.
When they did pull away, they opted to kiss again, this time more confident. The awkwardness disappeared entirely, and they could each feel the genuine love behind held within the other.
When they pulled apart for good, they pressed their foreheads together and took in the bliss they were feeling.
“Merry Christmas, Aubrey,” Sunny said. “I.. I love you.”
“Love you too, dork,” she said. “Merry Christmas.”