Chapter Text
Miss Smith, mother of Sunny Smith, was furiously rifling through her purse as she parked her car on the side of the road. Her breathing fast and uneven as she tried to stave off a minor panic attack.
She had messed up. She had thought that she had everything under control, but her memory had slipped and now she had to find a way to solve the issue while keeping the obligations of her job.
It was something that should have been minor, something that any family would have been able to normally deal with, but her family of two was no longer normal. She had forgotten to restock the groceries, and she would be gone for the next few days, leaving her son alone with almost no food. Her son that seemed incapable of leaving the house.
She breathes a quick sigh of relief as she grips her cellphone tightly in her hands. Frantically proceeding to unlock it and tap to her contacts list.
"C'mon, c'mon, pick up!" She chants as the call tone begins.
However, in her haste, she doesn't realize that instead of hitting the contact number for Kel and Hero's parents she hit the number for someone else.
Aubrey's mother.
Pipipipipipipipi~
At first, Aubrey doesn't quite realize what the sound is. She thinks that it's just noise from outside or something from the television.
Pipipipipipipipi~
However, after turning off the television so she could hear more clearly, she realizes that the noise is coming from her mother's cellphone on the counter. She briefly looks between it, and the direction of her mother's room.
She sighs, walking over to the offending object and picking it up, debating what exactly to do.
Pipipipipipipipi~
In all likelihood, it was just some telemarketer or some political call. Her mom didn't get many friendly calls lately. Though, there was still the small possibility that it was an important call that shouldn't go to voicemail. But, if she woke up her mom from her nap and it turned out that it was just some junk call then Aubrey knew she would get in trouble.
So, that meant the safest course of action was for her to simply answer it.
Pipipipipipipipi- Click
"Hello?"
"I- Aubrey? Is that you?" The voice sounds surprised to hear her.
Aubrey blinks in equal surprise, immediately jerked out of her expectations of a junk call as Sunny's mother spoke through the other end in what seemed to be a panic. "Misses-" No, not misses Aubrey reminds herself. "Miss Smith?"
"Aubrey, could you pass the phone to Kel's mother or father since you're at their house?"
She scrunched her forehead at that. "Um, this my mom's cellphone."
"What!? Oh, damn, I must have clicked the wrong contact." The older woman sighs. "Listen, Aubrey, I-I have to get back to driving as soon as I can so I need you to take a message to Kel's parents for me, can you do that?"
Aubrey nodded, then stopped when she realized that Sunny's mother could not actually see her. "Uhhh, yeah, sure. Lemme get a pen..."
Luckily, there was a scattered pile of sticky notes and a pen nearby on the counter.
"Okay, tell them I need them to buy food for Sunny, enough for about three days or so-"
Aubrey pauses. "Huh? Can't Sunny do that?" He's sixteen just like her, so Aubrey wondered why he wouldn't be able to do so. He was just a shut-in, he should be capable of doing something that simple.
"Aubrey please," Miss Smith's voice sounded pleading. "Just- Just tell them that there's a spare key taped under the welcome mat-" A little stereotypical, Aubrey thought. "-and there's some emergency cash in the picnic basket in my room."
Aubrey frowned as a bygone memory of happier days flashed through her mind. "Alright, I'll be sure to tell them-"
"Make sure they just get ready-to-eat meals or things that are easy, like milk and cereal. Don't get anything that needs to be in the oven for more than twenty minutes." She continued. "That- That should be it, did you get everything?"
"Yep." Aubrey said with an audible pop when she reached the p. She idly twirled the pen as she finished writing the important bits. "I'll be sure to tell em'."
"Oh, thank you so mu- Oh no it's that time already!? I'm gonna be late!"
Click. Beep. Beep.
With that, Aubrey was met with a dial tone as Sunny's mother hung up. She stared at her mother's cellphone for a few seconds before clicking it shut and putting it back into the purse.
"Alright... just gotta talk to Kel's mom and dad..." She said to herself.
She pursed her lips. "Although... I don't really have any plans right now." And it would be nice to get a reason to leave the house, she mentally added.
Things were awkward with Kel right now, and she wasn't sure she wanted to risk him being at home when she went over. Plus... it would give her an excuse to see what Sunny was doing. She hadn't seen him in years.
"Key under the mat, spare money in the picnic basket. Easy food, nothing that has to cook for too long..." She wasn't really sure why that last stipulation was there. Sunny helped Hero cook a few times, they all did, so it wasn't as if he was illiterate in the kitchen.
"...I'm sure I can handle it." She nods to herself, stuffing the note she wrote into her pocket. Surely Sunny's mother wouldn't mind, right?
She's hit with a lot of mixed feelings as she enters Sunny's house for the first time in four years. Nostalgia being the foremost of them, followed by melancholy and longing.
The first thing she notices is the absence of the large, gilded family portrait that used to hang by the chimney and greet anyone who entered through the front door. The entire atmosphere of the entrance room seemed to shift completely now that the smiling faces of the Smith family were absent. The absence was a grim reminder about how much had really changed these past four years.
In general, the house looked and felt a lot less lived in as she wandered through the rooms on the bottom floor. Several items seemed to have a thin layer of dust, been packed into boxes, or shuffled into the large storage room by the stairs. This was no longer a house of four with two children, and the three friends who frequently visited. It was now the house of a working mother and her shut-in son.
For a moment, she pauses in front of the door to the backyard, before shaking her head. She couldn't get caught up with that, she always had the church.
A quick check of the fridge shows that it was pretty much cleaned out aside from a couple of eggs, a near-empty jug of milk, a half stick of butter, and a lonely bottle of Orange Joe sitting on a shelf.
The pantries had a similar showing, one slice of stale bread and an expired bag of granola.
"Sunny?" She idly called out as she walked to the bottom of the stairs from the kitchen.
No response.
She grunted. He either didn't hear her, or he was just ignoring her, the latter of which seemed pretty stupid since for all he knew she could be a robber.
...Albeit a robber wouldn't call out his name.
As she climbed the stairs she decided that she would just grab what she thought would cover three days worth of food for Sunny at Othermart. Then she'd see if she could get Sunny to help.
Sweat matted Aubrey's dyed pink locks as she huffed and puffed her way towards Sunny's front door with plastic bags in each of her clenched fists. She had severely underestimated how hard it would be to haul three days' worth of groceries from Othermart all the way to Sunny's house. Even while taking a conservative approach to how much she thought Sunny would eat.
She did certainly feel better about getting that six-pack of soda now.
"Gaaaaaah..." She grunted as she unclenched her stiff right fist, letting the groceries fall into a heap on the ground as she fought through the pain and reached for the doorknob. And once that was finished, she had to put her poor arm through the ordeal of picking the groceries back up and shuffling inside for the final sprint of her journey.
To say she was relieved to drop both bags onto the wood floor of Sunny's house would be an understatement. Her back popped and crackled as she straightened herself from the half slouch hauling the bags had put her in.
"Sunny!" She yelled as she slammed the door shut with her foot. "I got groceries for you! Help me put them away!" After all, food needed to be put away into its proper place, rather than being put alongside with the clutter.
She paused, waiting for a second and straining her ears for the sound of a door opening, or steps on the staircase. There were none.
She growled in frustration. "Okay, okay, maybe he just didn't hear you..." She grumbled out as she stomped towards the stairs.
"SUNNY!" She called again, this time from the bottom of the stairs.
Anger began to bubble inside of her as, yet again, there was no response. There wasn't any way he could have not heard her unless he was knocked out, or ignoring her. It was like he was just confirming everything she thought about the lazy shut-in. Content to just sit around doing who-knows-what at home and abandon his friends when they needed him.
"SUNNY!" She stomped onto the first step. "Get your ASS down here or I will bring it down!" She angrily yelled as she stomped up the stairs.
As no sign of a response came, the anger gradually bubbled down into something else:
Worry.
Unless Sunny was wearing earmuffs there was no way he would have been unable to hear her. So why was there no response?
Something cold clutched her chest. Maybe it was because of whose house she was in, but now her mind was conjuring up images of various home accidents that could occur in a short time.
Or worse, she was reminded of how Mari's death came as a surprise to everyone.
She quickened her pace up the stairs. Her heart thumping in her chest as she tried to stay calm.
She gave the door to Sunny's room a quick rap with her knuckles only to realize that the door was unlocked as it creaked open.
"Sunny?" She said again, quieter this time as she walked into the room.
Instead of any of the worrisome images her mind conjured up, what she saw in the bedroom was Sunny sitting up in bed staring blankly at the wall.
Her face went red as she grit her teeth. "SUNNY! WHAT THE HELL!? Why didn't you answer me!?"
To think he was just sitting here, ignoring her entirely while she worried herself into thinking something had happened to him! Even after she did an errand for his mother that he was completely capable of doing on his own! The selfish prick!
...And yet, despite the clenched fists, the yelling, and the snarling face, Sunny did not react.
The cold in her chest returned.
"...Sunny?" She asked, tentatively as she carefully stepped over to his bed. "You... You can hear me, right?"
Nothing, he just stared blankly into space.
She shook her head, the beginnings of a panic forming in her heart as she walked towards him. "Sunny, if this is a prank then it is not funny, okay?"
He didn't even blink.
"Sunny? Sunny! Are you okay!?" She closed the gap and began to shake his shoulders as if her life depended on it. "C'mon! Sunny! Answer me!"
Certain things that his mother said now made more sense. If he got like this then leaving the oven on for any extended period would be a hazard. She felt guilty for thinking of him as some sort of lazy shut-in earlier, this... this was far more serious than she imagined.
"AH!" She breathes a sigh of relief as Sunny jolts from his trance with a yelp, shaking her shoulder off.
"Sunny-" She's cut off as he presses himself up against the wall behind his bed, eyes locking with hers.
SUNNY feels AFRAID
In particular, she pauses as she sees the glint of a steak knife in his right hand.
"Wh-Wha-Who-Wha-" He mumbled out, looking around the room like a wild animal caught in a cage.
Aubrey realized something very important: Sunny had not seen her in roughly four years, and likewise had no idea she dyed her hair or wore contact lenses. He might have no idea who is in his room right now
She puts her hands up in a placating position. "Sunny- Sunny i-it's me Aubrey."
He squints at her, a brief look of confusion as he continued to mumble. "Wh-I... A-Aubrey?"
It hurt her, it really did, to see him like this. She knew that Sunny is sixteen, and yet he looked as vulnerable and afraid as a child. How could she have assumed he wasn't taking Mari's death as hard as anyone else? Even harder than she was.
She nods, hoping that he was calming down. "Yes, listen to my voice. I know it's changed in four years but it's me, Sunny."
He gulps, calming down a little as his eyes fill with recognition. "A-Aubrey... Wh-What are you... Why are you..."
She mentally finished the rest. "I-I'm here because your mom asked me to do a few errands." A minor lie, but the whole truth would have taken too long and the situation demanded brevity. "Th-There's some groceries downstairs."
"O-Oh..." The panicked look in his eyes dies away as he takes several deep breaths. His arms and chest relaxing as he leans forward. Now, though, mild confusion replaced the panic.
Aubrey licks her lips, still eyeing the knife that he clutched in his hand.
Sunny blinks, following her eyes to where she was looking.
"Ah." He suddenly lets go of the knife as if it was hot. As if he had not realized he had it, and it falls uselessly onto the wood floor.
...
Neither of them really knew where to go from that.
"I, uh," Aubrey coughed awkwardly. "You... wanna help me put groceries away." She jabbed a thumb towards the bedroom door.
"...Sure."