Chapter Text
There were a lot of times when Basil wanted to tell the truth about Mari’s death, but every single time he thought deeper about the consequences of the truth, he ultimately decided against it.
However, now Sunny had told everyone. Without consulting Basil. Without asking how he felt. Without thinking about what would happen.
And what happened? What Basil thought would happen, of course. He’d imagined thousands of scenarios in his head about how their friends would react, what unfolded was hardly shocking.
Aubrey walked out without a word. Hero and Kel stuck around, asking a few questions, but Hero ultimately had to leave the room before Kel, apologizing for not being able to believe that kind of story. Kel then had to apologize for Hero, letting Sunny know that likely wasn’t true and Hero just had to go process it first.
Sunny asked Kel what he thought about it.
“Me? Well… I mean…” Kel’s eyes darted to the corner of the room and he nervously scratched the back of his neck. “I believe that you believe it, I just… were you really capable of something like that, Sunny? You and Basil? And when you were so young?”
Sunny shook his head, clarifying that this was reality, not some kind of trauma response where he blamed himself.
“R-Right…” Kel was beginning to look more uncomfortable, because the more Sunny persisted, the more undeniable it was that he was sane and telling the truth. The truth wasn’t as easy to digest as a simple tragedy, it wasn’t something that could be turned into a cautionary tale or a retold as a sad memory.
The truth was more real than that. Messier. Unforgivable.
After reassuring Sunny that he’d still be there for him and that any calls or messages were more than welcome, Kel left the room.
Now, the only person for Sunny to face was Basil, still unconscious in the hospital bed. He stepped closer, his heart pounding, until he noticed the slightest hint of movement on Basil’s face. Slowly, Basil’s eyes fluttered open, and for a moment, their gazes were instinctively drawn to each other. To Sunny’s surprise, a faint smile broke across Basil’s face.
“Is… Is it over?” His voice so fragile, like he was afraid to hope anymore.
Sunny swallowed hard, his own emotions tangled in his throat, but he still found it in himself to smile back.
“Yeah.” The future still held unpredictable uncertainties, but Sunny fought to stay confident that these were the starts of new beginnings. He nodded. “It’s over.”
And in a way, he was right. It was over. For the first time in forever, Sunny’s words weren’t filled with doubt. He didn’t know what the future would hold, he didn’t have a single clue, but for this moment, the door had finally been closed behind them.
It was over.
Their friends knew the unfortunate truth of what had split them all apart, what they chose to do after knowing the truth was in their hands. Even if they ultimately couldn’t accept Sunny and Basil after knowing the truth… Well, Sunny would have to live with it. There would be other people in his life. More opportunities, for bigger and better things. He was moving to the city, after all.
But Basil had to stay.
Basil’s smile faltered, but he quickly forced it back. He would stay here, in this small town, facing people closest to him that might never forgive him, the consequences of a truth he never wanted to reveal. One that he had been trying to cover up since the beginning.
Still, Basil fought to look hopeful. Sunny could see the effort it took to maintain that smile with the uncertain future seemingly already pressing down onto him. He glanced at the open closet on the opposite side of the room. For long staying patients, some of the hospital rooms had board games stored away in the closets. Mostly to bring families together during the more solemn hospital stays, but once Sunny also caught where he was looking, he side-glanced Basil with a little smirk.
“Wanna play a game?”
Basil exhaled a quiet laugh. Good to know Sunny, despite everything, was still Sunny. “Y-Yeah, I’d love to.”
They spent the next week in a sort of fragile peace. Every day, Sunny would return to Basil’s room, usually carrying a board game or a deck of cards. They’d talk for hours, sometimes about nothing, sometimes… about everything. For a moment, they could pretend things were just the way they used to be, before everything shattered, but underneath it all was the knowledge that things weren’t the same, nor would they ever be.
Things were so different, they were sixteen now. No longer the kids they’d once been. Sunny grew somehow more quiet and withdrawn than he had ever been before. Basil was always one snap away from falling apart, like something holding inside of him was just barely holding him together.
Yet, in those small moments, as they played games or talked about the world beyond the hospital walls, they both felt something familiar.
A connection that somehow survived all this time.
So, exactly one week later, the day Sunny was being discharged from the hospital, Basil couldn’t help but clutch his chest through his hospital gown. A knot tightened in his chest, a familiar ache he’d come to associate with the pain of goodbyes.
“You’ll…” Basil spoke quieter than he meant to be. “Y-You’ll come visit, right?”
Sunny paused, his hand midway through brushing his air out of the way from the white patch covering his eye. For what felt like the hundredth time after years of abstinence, he glanced over at Basil, and their eyes met. “Yeah. Of course I will.”
But they both knew it wouldn’t be quite the same. The two of them would always hold onto the memories that led them to this hospital visit, and Basil would be stuck in the same small town Sunny was leaving behind, left to face the aftermath alone. They were on different paths now.
Sunny stood by the door, his mother waiting for him in the hallway. He waved his hand, making sure to leave Basil with one last smile to hold onto. “I’ll see you later.”
“R-Right.” His heart panged, but he still gave a small, shaky smile in return, lifting his hand to wave back as Sunny left his hospital room for the final time with his mother. This would be the last time they’d see each other for a while again. “See you later, S-Sunny...” Basil echoed Sunny’s words, his voice soft. Uncertain.
As the door closed behind them, Basil’s smile fell. His hand dropped to his chest, clutching the fabric of his hospital gown as if he could keep the ache in his heart at bay.
Nobody was able to replicate just how safe Sunny could make Basil feel. Like he wanted to spill every secret and every emotion he’s ever felt, pour the deepest contents of his heart upon him. Watching him leave hurt worse than any of his sustained injuries that hadn’t fully healed. Sunny was gone, and Basil was left alone again, just like he’d always been before. He knew he had to stay at the hospital for another week, only rubbing salt in his wounds even more. After knowing what happened last time Sunny disappeared from his life, he couldn’t imagine how it would go this time.
Luckily, the two of them were old enough to own their own cell phones and computers. They made sure to swap emails and phone numbers by writing them on each other's arms before they left to keep in touch.
Basil smiled, looking down at his arm and rubbing his thumb along where Sunny wrote his name in ink. It smudged a bit due to the oils on his fingerprint, but the name was still legible. It gave Basil some comfort, a small reminder that Sunny wasn’t disappearing forever. Not this time. Even if the ache of their separation still lingered.
Basil glanced out the window, watching the sun lower in the sky, casting a soft orange hue over their town. He sighed, drawing his knees to his chest. He foolishly let himself get so used to Sunny’s daily visits, and now it was just him again. The silence made his thoughts grow louder, and despite his best efforts to remain positive, a gnawing, anxious feeling ached in his chest.
Would their friends ever forgive him? Could he ever forgive himself?
Aubrey stormed out without a word. It stung, but Basil expected as much. She wasn’t one to listen to things like that, and she had been through so much herself. Hearing the truth about Mari’s death must have been too much for her to handle right now.
And Hero… Basil could only imagine the pain in Hero’s eyes before he left the room, as if part of him wanted to believe it, but couldn’t bring himself to. Basil hardly blamed him. Sometimes, he wanted to walk out and believe it never happened too. How could anyone really understand what had happened? It was a tragedy no one could easily make sense of.
He tried to focus on what Sunny told him. That this was the start of something new. Maybe, with time, things would heal.
Maybe.
Basil’s eyes wandered to his arm once again. Right above where Sunny’s name was written, an IV drip was connected to his arm. He tried not to focus on it too much. Once more, he traced Sunny’s name with his index finger, careful not to press too hard and smudge the lettering any further. He’d check his phone later, add Sunny to his contacts and send a message, but for now, he let his eyes close, breathing in the quiet air around him and trying to let go of the tension in his body.
Even if things were uncertain, even if the future scared him, there was still something comforting knowing that he and Sunny were past the worst of it now.
The room was quiet now. Much quieter without Sunny there. Only the electronic whir of hospital machines remained. Basil leaned back against his pillow too quickly, cringing from the slight pain he still felt from doing so. He couldn’t predict the future, but there was one thing he could hold on to. Their friends knew the truth, and with that, held the chance for something new.
Maybe, just maybe, things could heal.
The day after Basil discharged from the hospital, immediately he was already back to his first day back at school. The fight that landed him and Sunny in the hospital happened just five days before the school year started, so now he was getting a late start. Far from an ideal first impression, but he hoped it wouldn’t matter in a week or two.
Basil sat near the back of the school bus, gazing out the window as the early morning sunlight flickered between the branches of the trees. The seat beside him was empty, despite the bus packed with teenagers around his age. Not that he minded, he preferred to sit alone than with a stranger.
Still, a knot tightened in his stomach.
Throughout the normal chatting on the bus he tried to ignore, he could make out whispers. They were hard to ignore—faint, but unmistakable, weaving throughout the bus in a low murmur. Students leaned towards one another, talking in hushed voices, darting their eyes towards him at moments they thought he wouldn’t notice, but certain words managed to stand above the background static.
“Basil… Fight…”
Basil shifted uncomfortably, his fingers twisting and picking at the bandage wrapping around his wrist as he tried to redirect his focus on the familiar route outside. He didn’t want to think about the whispers, he didn’t want to entertain the possibility they were actually about him.
It was easier to believe it was all in his head, just his nerves. He was no stranger to being convinced people were talking about him, when in reality, likely nobody even noticed his presence. Maybe he was imagining it. Maybe it wasn’t about him at all. How would any of them even know about Basil and Sunny’s fight?
But then, he caught a few words. Spoken a bit more clearly this time.
“… Sunny and Basil…”
“What really happened…”
“I heard that he…”
Basil pressed his forehead against the cold glass of the bus window, watching the trees and buildings blur together. His pulse drummed in his ears, louder than the whispers on the bus, but he caught the words—his name, Sunny’s name, they were the hot topic on everyone’s tongues right now, but the more he tried to block it out, the louder it seemed to ring in his head. He squeezed his eyes shut.
It was just his nerves, it had to be.
As the bus jolted to a stop, Basil felt a wave of relief wash over him. Maybe this was just a thing on his bus, maybe he walked weird or had something on his face everyone was staring at, and his delusions were filling in the blanks. He grabbed his backpack and shuffled off the bus as quickly as he could, keeping his head down. As he walked past the people in the halls, he felt their eyes boring into him, and heard how they went painfully silent when he got too close.
Whatever. It didn’t matter. There wasn’t any way anyone knew the truth, the only people Sunny told were Aubrey, Hero, and Kel. They weren’t the type to go spreading that type of information around.
Thankfully, his first period class was math, a subject that didn’t require all that much talking. He hoped he could fade into the background and try to piece together what was going on. As he stepped into his first class of the day, he watched with horror as all the heads turned towards him.
Everyone had been talking about him.
“I heard that…”
“… At the hospital…”
‘They know something more.’ A story about him had gotten out one way or another. He just didn’t know how much of what had been shared, or what people actually believed. Thinking about it being that secret made him almost trip over his feet. He slipped into his seat near the back of the class, grateful for the semi-isolation provided by the last row of desks. Trying to bury himself deeper in denial, he busied himself by pulling out a notebook, hoping to avoid any awkward glances. He’d just focus on the lesson, keep quiet, and get through the day.
Yet, just as the bell rang, he heard it once more. The talking. A few rows in front of him. They were hardly even trying to whisper and keep it private anymore.
“Did you hear what happened? About him?” A girl gestured vaguely in his direction, trying not to be too obvious.
As the teacher began her lecture, Basil kept his gaze lowered like he didn’t even care. He pretended to focus on the notebook in front of him, his hands shaking slightly, but the whispers didn’t stop. They were getting louder.
Bolder.
“He was in the hospital, right?” The girl to the right of the other responded, her voice oozing with curiosity. “I heard he got in a fight with that guy from middle school, Sunny, right?”
Basil could feel the anxiety bubbling up inside him. How much did these people know?
“Yeah, but that’s, like, not even the worst part.” The girl to the left talked with the cadence like it was just a show she saw on television last night. “You remember Sunny’s older sister, Mari? My brother’s friend heard Basil was somehow involved in Mari’s death. Like, really involved.”
Basil’s fingers gripped his pencil harder. His breath hitched as reality hit him with full force.
‘They really do know…’
Or at least, they thought they knew. They shouldn’t know that. There was no way they knew the details about Mari, right? How could they possibly know? How much did they know!? He felt his cheeks flush, his hands trembling as he tried not to let it spread. He wanted to disappear, melt into the background and fade out of existence.
“What do you mean?” The girl to the right leaned in closer to her friend, her voice a little too loud for comfort. “I thought Mari… I mean, didn’t she, y’know…”
“Nah. I heard Basil killed her.” The boy behind them whispered harshly, his eyes darting over to Basil. “Like, it wasn’t an accident or anything. He might’ve even done worse.”
Basil’s heart might as well have stopped.
He dropped his pencil in shock of what he’d just heard. Surely he hadn’t heard that correctly… Surely no one believed that, right?
“No way… Really!?” The girl to the left gasped, a morbid fascination in her voice. She leaned back to playfully shove the boy on the shoulder. “Come on, that can’t be true, you guys are so full of it!”
“That’s what everybody’s saying.” The boy shrugged and continued, as if it were the most casual thing in the world. “He pretended to be all messed up after, but now that it’s coming out that he was the one who did it, some people are saying Sunny’s been trying to cover for him all this time.”
Basil could barely breathe. His heart was pounding, breath barely coming in through short bursts, and the blank notebook in front of him blurred in an out of focus. His name—His and Sunny’s name were being thrown around like some kind of urban legend. Ripped apart and stitched into some grotesque version of the truth. He blinked hard, fighting the dizziness. What did they mean that he killed Mari?
“They’re saying he’s not even sorry about it.” Another person around the three people talking chimed in. “That’s why he was in the hospital. He freaked out on Sunny after he confronted him or something.”
“Ugh, I can’t believe they haven’t kicked him out of this school yet,” The girl to the right said with a sneer. “I mean, he has the total school shootery kinda vibe, you know? Like, something’s seriously off with him! Gives me the creeps.”
Basil’s fingers tightened around the edge of his desk. The room was closing in on him, the walls pressing down, constricting the air from his lungs.
He wanted to stand up, to scream that it wasn’t true, everything they were saying was a lie, that Sunny had told the full truth about everything, but none of these people were even there for the full truth to be heard. This never should have crossed their minds at all! Only five people should have known the truth. Sunny, Basil, Aubrey, Hero, and Kel. Not these strangers who’d never even mentioned Basil’s name before. Not the entire world.
Somewhere along the way, the truth had to have been leaked, twisted through sources like a sick game of telephone, and now, it wasn’t just whispers about their fight, or even just rumors about the accident. People believed he was responsible for Mari’s death.
“God.” The girl to the right groaned, tossing her hair over her shoulder. “I swear, if I have to sit through the rest of the year with him here, I’m switching classes. I don’t care what my parents say, I’m not risking being around someone like that.”
He clenched his jaw, forcing himself to take deep breaths, to not cry, to calm down. He had to figure this out. Who told everyone? Kel and Hero wouldn’t have done it. There was no way they would let something like this get out. Aubrey maybe, but would she really stoop that low? And Sunny… Sunny would never let the story leak like this.
A cold wave of nausea swept over him. His heart pounded so hard it felt like it would burst out of his chest. He couldn’t take it anymore. The whispers, the lies, the twisted stories that made him out to be some kind of monster. His face flushed with humiliation and he bit down on his lip to stop the rising panic.
The teacher's voice seemed so far away, drowned out by the quiet chattering that seemed to surround Basil entirely. He tried to ground himself, reminding himself that the truth, the real truth, was out there. Sunny knew what happened, their close friends did too, and that’s all that should have mattered, but it was no use. The lie had already taken root, and people were running wildly with it.
Another wave of nausea surged up his throat, he gripped the edge of his desk, his vision blurring as he tried to keep it together. His stomach churned violently as the words around him grew louder, buzzing like flies in his ears. His hands shook as he dug in nails into the wood. He couldn’t take it anymore. The lies. The gossip. The way everyone stared at him like he was some sort of freak. He tried to just keep his head down, focus on anything else.
But then, he made the mistake of glancing up.
For just a second, his gaze met with the boy who had just spoken, the one who claimed Basil was a killer. Their eyes locked for a moment—Just long enough to see the beginning of a smirk twitch at the corner of the boy's mouth.
Like he was being deliberately messed with, in the most inhumane way possible.
The sound of snickering filled their little group and Basil managed to catch one last bit of their conversation. “I heard he snapped on Sunny tried to killed him too. You think he looks beaten up? You should’ve seen Sunny’s injuries. No wonder he’s freaked out.”
Basil’s stomach twisted violently, like the drop at the end of a roller coaster. Even if he tried ignore them and their chatter, his ears couldn’t block out the disgusting, slanderous things they were saying. His breath quickened as he felt the panic building inside him, brick by brick. He knew what was coming. The nausea hit him at full force, a third wave so strong it left him gasping for air, he couldn’t hold it back any longer.
“I don’t care if he’s messed up in the head or whatever,” The girl to the left continued, her tone low, but harsh. “He should be in jail, not sitting next to us. You’d think he’d be too ashamed to even show up.”
Before he even realized what he was doing, Basil shot up from his seat, turning the heads of many, knocking over his pencil to the ground.
He could barely hear the rest of their words, he hardly could care at this point. His hand shot up to his mouth as bile rose in his throat and his mouth grew watery. He tried to hold it back, but it was no use.
The whispers followed him as he bolted towards the front of the room, stomach lurching. His vision tunneled, and the classroom gossip had dissolved into a single, high pitched ringing in his head.
He barely made it to the trash can before doubling over and vomiting, his whole body heaving violently as tears blurred his vision. The sound echoed throughout the classroom, followed by a chorus of disgusted gasps and murmurs, but they were still distant. Like it could have all been a bad dream.
“Oh my God, is he throwing up…?”
“That’s disgusting!”
“Seriously, what's wrong with him?”
“I told you something about him wasn’t right.”
The students closest to him recoiled, scooting their desks away as far as they could, watching and whispering. Basil wiped his mouth with the back of his good hand, his face burning with humiliation. His legs felt so weak, but all he wanted to do was run out of there. As he turned his head to face his peers, his vision blurred with tears he refused to let fall. The whispers around him were now louder than ever. A reminder that no, this was not a dream. He couldn’t wake up.
“He’s totally losing it. Maybe he really did kill that chick.”
“What a freak.”
Unable to bear it any longer, Basil ran out of the classroom, leaving behind his belongings and pushing through the door without looking back. The teacher no doubt called out to him, but her voice was barely audible over the ringing in his ears. He ran down the hallway, his vision blurry from tears of humiliation. The only thought on his mind was to escape, to get as far away from this school as possible.
He stumbled out of the building and into the cool morning air, gasping for breath as buckled under the weight of his knees. He stared at his hands holding his body weight up, and then back to the school.
This new beginning he was promised was shattered in less than a day, and here he was. Running away from the whispers, the stares, and the rumors that had twisted his life into something unrecognizable.
Slowly, Basil rose up from his spot on the ground, tripping over his feet into a full blown sprint back to his house. He didn’t care how far away it was, he only knew he needed to get there. The nausea still lingered, and he could taste the bitterness in the back of his throat, but even as his stomach churned, he forced himself to keep going.
His mind ran through the same thoughts over and over again.
‘They know.’
‘They think I’m a killer.’
‘They think I killed her.’
Basil didn’t stop until he reached his front door, panting heavily and feeling as if his legs would give out beneath him. His heart hammered in his chest and his throat felt dry his entire sprint home.
Fumbling with his keys, he managed to unlock the door and stumble inside. Polly was probably out for her morning errands, leaving Basil alone with his spiraling thoughts. Without another thought, he leaned his back up against the wall and slumped down. His chest heaved with efforts to catch his breath and his trembling hands clutched his heart.
For a moment, he sat there, just staring at the floor, all his thoughts a chaotic mess. The waves of humiliation washed over him again and again, his cheeks became hot to the touch as the stares, the whispers, and the snickering flashed over and over in his mind. Nausea threatened to come back up again, but he forced himself to breathe slowly.
‘I need to calm down… I need… to…’
Basil shakily reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, flipping it open, hoping to distract himself with anything. His fingers hovered over the buttons for a moment, unsure of what to do or who to talk to. He thought of Kel, Hero, and Aubrey—But no. He quickly pushed those thoughts away. If there was a possibility the truth got out through any of them, he couldn’t stand to face them right now. Especially after all the events this morning.
Then he noticed a notification.
A notification from Sunny.
Basil’s breath got caught in his throat. He stared at the notification, for a moment, his heart skipping a beat. Sunny had messaged him—It was hardly surprising, they promised to keep in touch, but now, seeing the message on his screen, Basil was hesitating. What would Sunny say if he knew what happened today? Would he even care? What if Sunny had already moved on with his new life, far away from this town and the mess they’d left behind.
Still, Basil’s hand trembled as he opened the message
Sunny: Hey. How’s your first day?
Basil stared at the words, his mind completely drawing a blank. He swallowed hard, trying to think up any kind of response, but his mind was still a tangled mess. His fingers hovered over the screen, shaking as he typed and deleted, and typed and deleted again.
He couldn’t tell Sunny the truth, could he? About how his first day was a disaster, about how their secret was out to practically everyone at his old school. About the rumors that had been spread. About how everyone believed he was a murderer. About how he had thrown up in front of the entire class. Finally, he settled on a vague response.
Basil: It’s fine, I guess.
Basil: A little overwhelming, but I’ll be okay.
He stared at the message after sending it, feeling the hollow weight of the lie. Sunny didn’t need to know the truth. It was too much, too soon. Basil chewed the skin on his lip, guilt eating away on his insides. He’d never been good at hiding things from Sunny, only hiding things for him. Maybe it would be easier once they got used to being apart again.
His phone buzzed again, pulling him from his thoughts.
Sunny: I get it.
Sunny: It’s always hard at first, but it’ll get better.
Sunny: Just wanted to check in. Let me know if you want to talk later.
Basil’s chest tightened once more. There it was, Sunny’s quiet support, just like always. Even from a distance, he was trying to reassure Basil, but as much as he appreciated it, Basil couldn’t help but feel the gap between them widening more than ever before. Sunny was out there, moving on with his life, and Basil was stuck here, drowning in the aftermath of their shared pasts.
He clenched his phone tightly, staring at the words on the screen. He desperately wanted to believe that Sunny was right, that things would get better with time, but right now, it felt like everything was spiraling out of control, and Basil wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold on.
With a heavy sigh, he placed his head in his hands as he tried to calm the storm of emotions inside of him. He couldn’t keep running forever, sooner or later, he’d have to face reality. The consequences of what Sunny revealed.
But for now, he just wanted to disappear.