p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="center"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"Part 4: Just Desserts./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="center"br /br /p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" Aubrey, locking up Othermart for the night, pulled the key from the door. The lights automatically dimmed themselves, and she was left staring at her reflection in the automatic glass door window. She felt her heart beating, and her breathing hastened as her face twisted. Facing the door, she slid down to her knees. There were no tears left to cry, nor screams of anger to let out. She wept in a dry silence before she turned around slowly, sitting to hug her knees./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "/span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"emIt's… it is what it is/em/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"," she mumbled to herself, alone./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" Or at least, she /span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"emwas/em/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" alone, until you two sauntered up to her to break her concentration./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "Waagh!" She shouted, startled./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "Whoa!?" Kel shouted back, recoiling from her scream. Unaffected by the two, you looked down to Aubrey, waving./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "...You two again?" Aubrey grumbled, wiping her eyes. "What, haven't you had enough yet? Or did you want to fight outside of my work hours?" She stood up to her feet, removing her ribbon from her hair./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "Nonono, wait! Aubrey!" Kel attempted to pacify her, standing in front of you. "Hey! Snap out of it!"/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "Kel, I'm warning you right now—get out of my life and leave me alone!" She looked right past him and directly to you. "And you… I don't know why the hell you're back here, but you have /span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"emquite/em/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" the nerve showing your face around me after what you did, you mu—"/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "Hey, chill out with that!" It was the first time in a while you've heard Kel shout like that. You knew he meant it, and all you could do was pinch your lips together and exhale./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "...You know what happened to me today? Because of your little stunt, Kel?" She only paused for a moment, but had zero intention of giving him time to answer. "I got written up. I'm on my /span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"emsecond/em/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" strike now. One more and I'm /span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"emstrongfired./strong/em/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;" You get me?"/span/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;" "You think I meant to get you into trouble?" Kel folded his arms. "I just wanted you to apologize for hitting Sunny earlier. I was trying to back you up, but your supervisor is—"/span/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;" "A tightwad," Aubrey finished for him, "which means I have to be on my best behavior if I want to keep working here, and you're the only idiot that can get under my skin!" Finally, the tears came. "Don't you get it yet!? I/span/span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"emspan style="font-weight: normal;" have/span/em/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;" nothing else! If I lose this job, I…I…!" She sniffled, reaching an arm to throw a punch to Kel's face./span/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;"Swing and a miss. Kel didn't even have to move. Instead, he caught her by her arms to keep her from falling. She sobbed into his shirt, and started pummeling his chest with no effect. Her strength left her./span/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;" "That's not true, Aubrey."/span/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;" Those were your words. You spoke straight from your heart rather than your mind—almost as if you were in disbelief that you said it./span/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;" "What…?" She said through shaky words, as she stop hitting Kel./span/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;" You repeated yourself, stating that she was not truly alone—in fact, you returned for her and everyone else, in spite of what you did./span/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;" "That's right, Sunny," Kel nodded, standing Aubrey upright. "Basil helped them come back so that we could, y'know… hang out like old times. Even if it's just for a couple days!"/span/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;" Her red eyes glared directly at you, wiping away the torrent of tears that strolled down her cheeks. She couldn't straighten out her face, just as much as you couldn't help but apologize to her. You instinctively reached up to fix your eyepatch./span/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;" "I'm getting this out of my system right now," she exhaled./span/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;" Kel interjected, "Hey, Aubrey, don't you think about hitting him—"/span/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;" You lifted your hand up to stop Kel from covering for you. Immediately, he stood back, shrugging his shoulders. Bracing for the worst, you stood face to face with Aubrey, staring at her dusty work clothes, her aubergine pin, and finally, the grimace painted on her. You swallowed, but she did not lift a hand against you./span/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;" "You are a liar, Sunny." She spoke through her teeth. "You are a murderer. For four years, you made us believe a lie we were /span/span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"emspan style="font-weight: normal;"forced/span/em/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;" to bite down on like bitter medicine." She took a step towards you. You wanted to take a step back, and refused. "For how I felt… I should have killed you in that hospital."/span/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"Kel looked directly at you. For the first time in seemingly a long time, he bore a long frown on his face. He was itching to intervene—to save you—but he knew that Aubrey's feelings could not be denied all the same. After all… he was affected just the same./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" You stood your ground, and remembered how to forgive yourself. /span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "I wish I could have brought her back," you sighed. "But if dying was what it took to get her back… you'd die a thousand times over to ensure she'd stay." From your response, she clenched her teeth, and shoved you unexpectedly. Her strength surprised you as you fell onto your back on the concrete parking lot, scraping your elbows on the ground. You supported yourself with your arms./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "Aubrey…!" Kel called out to her./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "Except we /span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"emcan't/em/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" bring her back. So we're stuck with you." With those words being filtered by her teeth, she turned away from you and walked past Kel, making no contact with him. With his sneakers scraping the small rocks beneath him, he turned around to face her./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "So, what? You're just going to leave like that?" He asked, and after three steps, she stopped./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "Sunny," she shivered. You helped yourself up to your feet, brushing dirt and pebbles off of your arms. "If you give a damn about anybody but yourself, you'll come over to my place. Tomorrow. /span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"emAlone./em/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"" She hugged herself and left in silence soon after. Not even a sniffle./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" Kel stood beside you and sighed, "Well… there she goes. Again." You couldn't respond. "...It's already really late. We should get back to Basil's so we don't make Polly worried." /span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"br /br /p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" - /span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"emBasil's House -/em/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "...I see."/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" In the living room, Basil finished bandaging up your scrapes against your will. You stared at him with a plain look on your face. You had already told him about what happened the conversation between you and Aubrey./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "...Kinda bummed that she's not even willing to cut them the slightest bit of slack," Kel /span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"sighed, as he paced back and forth./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "Of all the people that's changed, it's her," Basil frowned. "She's been… angry. Always has been. But she wasn't always like that, at least not all the time. We just have to bring that out of her!"/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"Kel sighed, /span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;""/span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"Dunno if 'we' can do that. The last thing Aubrey said before leaving was that she wanted Sunny to go to her place on their own." You nodded, and Basil twisted his mouth./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "I don't know if that's a good idea," he cautioned. "It sounds like Aubrey is… incredibly unstable. She could hurt you." Kel stopped pacing and folded his arms./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "With the way she's been pushing and shoving you, Sunny… I don't think you should go."/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" You weren't listening. Preoccupied with your own thoughts, you zoned out./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "/span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"emLet's go exploring together… Just the two of us!/em/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;""/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "/span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"emBe sure to visit once in a while… after you've moved away. Okay?/em/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;""/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" You cringed, fearing that your return was a mistake. You gripped the couch to pacify yourself. Clenching your teeth, you stood /span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"up from the couch, wanting to head to the bathroom to get ready to sleep. /span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"Kel, mouth agape, looked outside./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "/span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"Oh shoot! I gotta /span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"head back home! Mom's gonna freak when she hears I've been away for too long, and I gotta make sure Hero's okay too!" With that, he slid over to the door, snagged his shoes and tugged the knob. "See ya!"/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" You and Basil wave wholeheartedly to him, and he gently shut the door on his way out. Before you could turn into the hallway, Basil stopped you by clearing his throat./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "Uhm, Sunny… just a quick question. It's not about Aubrey." You turned over to face him, a peculiar expression lining your face. "/span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"Are you… feeling well? Feeling better, even?/span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;""/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" Confused /span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"at the sudden concern/span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;", you /span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"nod your head and assure him that you feel new./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "Oh… okay, just making sure." He scratched his head. You were far too tired to inquire about what he meant about the question and resumed onward, heading into the bathroom—clean as a whistle, smelling of fresh soap. You retrieved your toothbrush from a plastic baggie and before even reaching for the sink handle, you look into your reflection./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" There was nothing but your determined star/span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"e./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "Friends…/span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"em are supposed to be there for each other./em/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;""/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" You were bound and determined to visit Aubrey tomorrow./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="center"br /br /p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" Aubrey, locking up Othermart for the night, pulled the key from the door. The lights automatically dimmed themselves, and she was left staring at her reflection in the automatic glass door window. She felt her heart beating, and her breathing hastened as her face twisted. Facing the door, she slid down to her knees. There were no tears left to cry, nor screams of anger to let out. She wept in a dry silence before she turned around slowly, sitting to hug her knees./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "/span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"emIt's… it is what it is/em/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"," she mumbled to herself, alone./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" Or at least, she /span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"emwas/em/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" alone, until you two sauntered up to her to break her concentration./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "Waagh!" She shouted, startled./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "Whoa!?" Kel shouted back, recoiling from her scream. Unaffected by the two, you looked down to Aubrey, waving./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "...You two again?" Aubrey grumbled, wiping her eyes. "What, haven't you had enough yet? Or did you want to fight outside of my work hours?" She stood up to her feet, removing her ribbon from her hair./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "Nonono, wait! Aubrey!" Kel attempted to pacify her, standing in front of you. "Hey! Snap out of it!"/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "Kel, I'm warning you right now—get out of my life and leave me alone!" She looked right past him and directly to you. "And you… I don't know why the hell you're back here, but you have /span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"emquite/em/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" the nerve showing your face around me after what you did, you mu—"/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "Hey, chill out with that!" It was the first time in a while you've heard Kel shout like that. You knew he meant it, and all you could do was pinch your lips together and exhale./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "...You know what happened to me today? Because of your little stunt, Kel?" She only paused for a moment, but had zero intention of giving him time to answer. "I got written up. I'm on my /span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"emsecond/em/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" strike now. One more and I'm /span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"emstrongfired./strong/em/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;" You get me?"/span/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;" "You think I meant to get you into trouble?" Kel folded his arms. "I just wanted you to apologize for hitting Sunny earlier. I was trying to back you up, but your supervisor is—"/span/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;" "A tightwad," Aubrey finished for him, "which means I have to be on my best behavior if I want to keep working here, and you're the only idiot that can get under my skin!" Finally, the tears came. "Don't you get it yet!? I/span/span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"emspan style="font-weight: normal;" have/span/em/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;" nothing else! If I lose this job, I…I…!" She sniffled, reaching an arm to throw a punch to Kel's face./span/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;"Swing and a miss. Kel didn't even have to move. Instead, he caught her by her arms to keep her from falling. She sobbed into his shirt, and started pummeling his chest with no effect. Her strength left her./span/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;" "That's not true, Aubrey."/span/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;" Those were your words. You spoke straight from your heart rather than your mind—almost as if you were in disbelief that you said it./span/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;" "What…?" She said through shaky words, as she stop hitting Kel./span/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;" You repeated yourself, stating that she was not truly alone—in fact, you returned for her and everyone else, in spite of what you did./span/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;" "That's right, Sunny," Kel nodded, standing Aubrey upright. "Basil helped them come back so that we could, y'know… hang out like old times. Even if it's just for a couple days!"/span/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;" Her red eyes glared directly at you, wiping away the torrent of tears that strolled down her cheeks. She couldn't straighten out her face, just as much as you couldn't help but apologize to her. You instinctively reached up to fix your eyepatch./span/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;" "I'm getting this out of my system right now," she exhaled./span/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;" Kel interjected, "Hey, Aubrey, don't you think about hitting him—"/span/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;" You lifted your hand up to stop Kel from covering for you. Immediately, he stood back, shrugging his shoulders. Bracing for the worst, you stood face to face with Aubrey, staring at her dusty work clothes, her aubergine pin, and finally, the grimace painted on her. You swallowed, but she did not lift a hand against you./span/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;" align="left"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;" "You are a liar, Sunny." She spoke through her teeth. "You are a murderer. For four years, you made us believe a lie we were /span/span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"emspan style="font-weight: normal;"forced/span/em/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"span style="font-weight: normal;" to bite down on like bitter medicine." She took a step towards you. You wanted to take a step back, and refused. "For how I felt… I should have killed you in that hospital."/span/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"Kel looked directly at you. For the first time in seemingly a long time, he bore a long frown on his face. He was itching to intervene—to save you—but he knew that Aubrey's feelings could not be denied all the same. After all… he was affected just the same./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" You stood your ground, and remembered how to forgive yourself. /span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "I wish I could have brought her back," you sighed. "But if dying was what it took to get her back… you'd die a thousand times over to ensure she'd stay." From your response, she clenched her teeth, and shoved you unexpectedly. Her strength surprised you as you fell onto your back on the concrete parking lot, scraping your elbows on the ground. You supported yourself with your arms./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "Aubrey…!" Kel called out to her./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "Except we /span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"emcan't/em/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" bring her back. So we're stuck with you." With those words being filtered by her teeth, she turned away from you and walked past Kel, making no contact with him. With his sneakers scraping the small rocks beneath him, he turned around to face her./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "So, what? You're just going to leave like that?" He asked, and after three steps, she stopped./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "Sunny," she shivered. You helped yourself up to your feet, brushing dirt and pebbles off of your arms. "If you give a damn about anybody but yourself, you'll come over to my place. Tomorrow. /span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"emAlone./em/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"" She hugged herself and left in silence soon after. Not even a sniffle./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" Kel stood beside you and sighed, "Well… there she goes. Again." You couldn't respond. "...It's already really late. We should get back to Basil's so we don't make Polly worried." /span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"br /br /p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" - /span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"emBasil's House -/em/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "...I see."/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" In the living room, Basil finished bandaging up your scrapes against your will. You stared at him with a plain look on your face. You had already told him about what happened the conversation between you and Aubrey./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "...Kinda bummed that she's not even willing to cut them the slightest bit of slack," Kel /span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"sighed, as he paced back and forth./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "Of all the people that's changed, it's her," Basil frowned. "She's been… angry. Always has been. But she wasn't always like that, at least not all the time. We just have to bring that out of her!"/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"Kel sighed, /span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;""/span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"Dunno if 'we' can do that. The last thing Aubrey said before leaving was that she wanted Sunny to go to her place on their own." You nodded, and Basil twisted his mouth./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "I don't know if that's a good idea," he cautioned. "It sounds like Aubrey is… incredibly unstable. She could hurt you." Kel stopped pacing and folded his arms./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "With the way she's been pushing and shoving you, Sunny… I don't think you should go."/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" You weren't listening. Preoccupied with your own thoughts, you zoned out./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "/span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"emLet's go exploring together… Just the two of us!/em/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;""/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "/span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"emBe sure to visit once in a while… after you've moved away. Okay?/em/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;""/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" You cringed, fearing that your return was a mistake. You gripped the couch to pacify yourself. Clenching your teeth, you stood /span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"up from the couch, wanting to head to the bathroom to get ready to sleep. /span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"Kel, mouth agape, looked outside./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "/span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"Oh shoot! I gotta /span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"head back home! Mom's gonna freak when she hears I've been away for too long, and I gotta make sure Hero's okay too!" With that, he slid over to the door, snagged his shoes and tugged the knob. "See ya!"/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" You and Basil wave wholeheartedly to him, and he gently shut the door on his way out. Before you could turn into the hallway, Basil stopped you by clearing his throat./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "Uhm, Sunny… just a quick question. It's not about Aubrey." You turned over to face him, a peculiar expression lining your face. "/span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"Are you… feeling well? Feeling better, even?/span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;""/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" Confused /span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"at the sudden concern/span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;", you /span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"nod your head and assure him that you feel new./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "Oh… okay, just making sure." He scratched his head. You were far too tired to inquire about what he meant about the question and resumed onward, heading into the bathroom—clean as a whistle, smelling of fresh soap. You retrieved your toothbrush from a plastic baggie and before even reaching for the sink handle, you look into your reflection./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" There was nothing but your determined star/span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;"e./span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" "Friends…/span/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"em are supposed to be there for each other./em/span/spanspan style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;""/span/span/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;"span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-style: normal;" You were bound and determined to visit Aubrey tomorrow./span/span/span/p