It was a beautiful, chilly evening. The sky was a dark orange, caused by the setting sun. It would've made for a great picture.
"I hope Basil finishes his interviews soon. It'd be a shame if he couldn't get a picture of this," Aubrey commented.
Practice had ended, and Sunny and Aubrey were walking home. Basil had come to watch and interview some of Sunny's teammates about the upcoming game. He finished some of them, but he had to wait for the practice to end to finish the rest. He told them to go ahead without him and that his grandma was going to pick him up.
A breeze blew through, making the young couple shiver.
"Thanks for giving me one of your jerseys."
Aubrey didn't have a jacket to wear because it rained yesterday, and she didn't have a way to dry it at home. Sunny told her she could wear one of his jerseys because they were like a sweater. Aubrey didn't hesitate to put on the red one. Sunny had to admit that she looked cute in it.
Aubrey took hold of his hand, and he could feel her cringe. She traced a finger over every cut and blister on his hand. They were worse than any blister he had before. He wouldn't be surprised if he had blisters on his blisters.
Mari had been working him hard the past couple of days. As the recital grew closer, the practices became longer and more intense. Mari dedicated a whole hour for him to practice his part, which made Mari angrier when he messed up when they played together.
"I just need to g-get th-through tomorrow, and it'll all b-be over," Sunny said before Aubrey could voice her concern. He was also talking to himself when he said that. After the recital, he would lock away his violin in the chest in his house's closet.
The young couple soon came up to Aubrey's house. Unlike the other times when Sunny walked her home, he could see the lights were on in the house. He could also hear two people arguing through the walls. He felt Aubrey cringe every time a woman's voice broke through the walls.
Sunny squeezed Aubrey's hand to show her support. She didn't return the gesture, making Sunny worry. He looked at her to see she was staring blankly at the house as if she were in her own world. He squeezed her hand a little harder to break her out of her trance.
"Thanks for walking me home," Aubrey said emotionlessly. She slowly walked to her front door and turned to Sunny. He saw so many emotions behind her eyes. "I'll see you tomorrow. I can't wait for your recital."
Before she could open the door, Sunny raced up to her and grabbed her hand. The yelling got louder, but he only paid attention to Aubrey, giving her a pleading look.
"Y-You don't have to g-go in there. You can s-sleepover at m-my h-house, or you could s-stay in the t-treehouse for t-tonight," Sunny told her. He watched her think it over, and he felt his hopes rising when it appeared she would listen but were quickly dashed when she shook her head.
"I can't. My dad's taking me to get a haircut in the morning," she said before releasing her hand from his. The sound of glass shattering made the two jump, but Aubrey did her best to put on a fake smile. "Don't worry, they don't notice me when they get like this."
She opened her front door, making the argument between her parents more audible. They were so loud, and Sunny wondered how none of the neighbors came out to check what was happening. Aubrey entered her house, and Sunny reached out for her again, but she closed the door in his face.
He didn't move. He listened intently to the argument to hear if they noticed Aubrey. It remained the same pace with no dips in the volume or a third voice joining in the yelling. It wasn't until Sunny saw Aubrey through her bedroom window that he knew she was safe.
He gave her a wave goodbye before leaving.
During his walk home, Sunny tried not to think about what had happened, but he couldn't. It was horrible. He's heard his parents argue, but they never yelled loud enough to be heard through walls. They've also never broken anything when they argue.
Then, there was how Aubrey reacted to the whole thing. She tried to put on a brave face, but he knew she was scared, especially every time she heard her mom's voice. He wondered how she was able to handle that for who knows how long because he couldn't take a few minutes hearing the screaming match.
Sunny felt horrible because there was nothing he could do. He wanted to tell his mom, Mari, or anyone really when Aubrey first confided in him, but she begged him not to. He didn't want to break her trust, so he listened, but he'd regretted that promise since he made it. There has to be something he could do to help.
Sunny thought about ways that he could help her during his walk home. He was so deep in thought he didn't hear Kel or Hero calling out to him. It wasn't until Kel jumped in front of him that he broke free from his mind.
"We need to talk," Kel said in a serious tone that was out of character for him. Sunny allowed his friend to lead him to Hero, who was standing in the driveway of his house.
Hero appeared worried but was trying to maintain his composure. It didn't help calm Sunny's nerves with how his two friends were acting. He could feel the tension in the air.
"Hey, Sunny, we're very excited to see you and Mari perform tomorrow," Hero said to break the ice. Sunny gave him a blank stare. He knew Kel wouldn't be acting the way he was if Hero was just going to say he was excited for the recital. "I hope you practiced hard for it."
"Just tell him, Hero," Kel urged his brother to get to the point. Hero sighed before swallowing hard.
"Fine. Kel and I were at your house earlier because I had a feeling Mari was going to be stressed out about the recital."
"He wanted to see if they were still going on a date," Kel butted in. Hero gave his brother an unamused glance before continuing.
"Anyway, when your father let us in, Mari was a mess."
"Her face was covered in zits, and her hair was so greasy and all over the place!" Kel added, and Hero gave his brother an annoyed look.
"Kel."
"Like her hair looks worse than mine did when I didn't wash it that one summer."
"Kel!" Hero said louder. His irritation was more obvious.
"And she has more zits than that kid in our math class," Kel continued, oblivious to his brother's agitation.
"KEL!" Hero shouted. He glared at his brother, and Kel meekly backed away. He then took a deep breath. "Back to what I was saying; Mari was a mess. Not only that, she kept muttering to herself about how you weren't perfect."
"It was horrifying. She didn't even notice we were there," Kel spoke back up.
Hearing this made Sunny shiver. What Hero said didn't surprise him because he was used to Mari acting like that during practice. What did surprise him was that she acted like that when Hero and Kel were there.
She never let her negative emotions get this bad around her friends. Even when she let her appearance go or was more upset than normal, she always acted as close to normal Mari as possible. His poor play and the recital were getting to her. Which made him worry about something else.
When he tells her about him playing hockey, would she be mad? The answer should be yes. He has been causing her so much stress about his poor play, and she thinks he's been practicing with his orchestra teacher this whole time. She'll be furious when he tells her the truth.
"Calm down, Sunny!" He heard Hero tell him. He must've been panicking from the way his friends were giving him concerned looks. "We're going to help you."
"Yeah, we already have a plan!" Kel said, back to his usual excited self. "You can stay at our house. It'll be so much fun too. We'll play video games, and Hero will make us nachos!"
As enticing as that sounded, Sunny declined the offer. With how Mari's acting, him disappearing the night before the recital wasn't a good idea. He also needed to perfect his part to lessen Mari's ire when he tells her his secret.
Turning down the offer again and promising to stay safe, Sunny went inside his house. It was shockingly quiet. The TV wasn't on, and he didn't hear anyone talking in the kitchen or dining room. What surprised him the most was not hearing Mari playing the piano. He thought for sure she'd be practicing from the moment she got home until dinner.
She also didn't run up to him and dragged him to the music room the second she heard him come through the door. His dad didn't come to him either to scold him for coming home late. No, they were both sitting on the couch staring at the blank TV screen. Sunny wondered if they were waiting for him or if he interrupted them while they were having a conversation.
He walked up to them, and what he saw made his spine shiver. His dad looked angry, while Mari… he didn't know. Her hair covered her whole face, except for one of her eyes. It scared him to no end.
"And where were you?" His father's voice made him jump.
"I-I w-was w-walking A-A-Aubrey h-home," Sunny managed to stammer out. His dad glared at him, and for some reason, this felt different than the other times he glared at him when he was in trouble.
"And how was your lesson with your orchestra teacher?"
"I-It w-was g-good," Sunny coughed.
"That's strange because I called your school, and they told me that you've never even asked about extra lessons," his father then stood up and towered over him. Sunny had never felt so small before. "Mind telling us what you've been doing after school these past two months?"
Sunny looked over at Mari for help, but she remained stationary. She still had that same expression as before.
"ANSWER ME!" His dad shouted. Sunny flinched and teared up a little. It was so loud that Sunny wondered if Kel and Hero heard it. Part of him hoped they did so they could come and save him.
His dad then grabbed Sunny's arms tightly and shook him a little.
"SUNNY! SAY! SOMETHING!"
He wanted to, but he was so scared. He cried, hoping for anyone to help him. But no one did. Hero and Kel didn't kick down the front door, his mom was at work, and Mari didn't move.
Mari not doing anything hurt the most. He always thought she would be there to protect him. Now, she watches him suffer because he lied to her.
Sunny's dad lifted him off the ground, carried him to the music room, and threw him to the ground. Sunny landed hard, causing him to groan in pain. He saw his dad standing in the doorway. He was fuming mad.
"You are gonna stay in here and practice for the lost time. That means no TV, no video games, and no dinner! And for lying, you'll be grounded until next year!" His dad yelled before slamming the door.
Now alone in the dark, Sunny cried. He did his best to quiet down his whimpers to not bring his father back. His arms stung from where his dad grabbed him. He wouldn't be surprised if there was a mark.
He saw his violin case on the piano chair. He knew if he didn't start playing soon, his dad would come back. He opened it up and got straight to playing. Just like every time he played by himself, he was perfect.
The door opened again, and Sunny expected his dad to come and yell at him again, but instead, it was Mari. She didn't say anything, she didn't practice the song, she didn't really do anything. All she did was stare at him with her one exposed eye.
Sunny ran his hands through the cold water in the bathroom sink. It made his burning hands feel better after practicing for so long last night. His blisters had gotten worse, but he didn't mind. After today, it'll all be over.
Today was the recital, and he was excited. He was a little nervous, but Sunny hoped the day would fly by. He wanted to put an end to his months-long torment and for everything to go back to normal. All he needed to do was get through today.
"Just get through today," he quietly whispered to himself. He grabbed his denture and put it through the running water before slipping it on. It felt a little loose, but he could worry about that tomorrow. It's not like he was going to talk much today.
Sunny left the bathroom and went downstairs. He met Mari in the living room, who had cleaned herself up. She still had a bit of acme on her face, but her hair didn't appear as greasy as it did yesterday. She still held an emotionless expression.
"Mom and Dad are out shopping for the party after the recital. They'll be back in time to take us to the high school," Mari said. From the tone of her voice, she didn't sound like someone who had been looking forward to this day for months. She sounded broken. "Go eat some breakfast because we'll be practicing non-stop until we have to get ready."
And the way she dragged her feet to the music room. Sunny felt horrible because he had caused this. He expected her to be mad when she found out he hadn't been practicing, but this was somehow worse. It's as if she's broken.
After having a quick breakfast, Sunny joined his sister in the music room. She was already playing, and the song sounded beautiful. Even when she wasn't in the right mind, she was perfect. Sunny took out his violin and joined her.
The first hour was oddly calm. Sunny still made mistakes, but Mari didn't react. She kept on playing without missing a beat. Sunny wondered if Mari had given up on making him perfect and paid more attention to being the best pianist at the recital. She didn't have to practice too hard to achieve that.
In the second hour, Sunny had managed to stir some type of reaction from Mari. It happened after another one of his mistakes. It was very subtle and almost drowned out by the music, but he heard her take a quick breath.
It wasn't until the third hour when all hell broke loose. He made another mistake and got ready to start over again. It was then he heard Mari say something from under her breath.
"You wouldn't be making too many mistakes if you actually cared to practice."
Sunny was taken so off guard that he wasn't able to bite his tongue.
"Sorry," he said in response. He thought that would be the end of it, but Mari stopped playing and gave him a mean look.
"Are you? Because If you were you wouldn't have lied to me for months," she shot back. She then started playing the song, but instead of lightly pressing the keys, she was slamming her hands on them. "This whole time, I thought my dear younger brother was taking the initiative and trying to get better. How stupid was I for thinking that!?"
Unlike the other times when Mari got angry, Sunny wasn't scared. No, he was angry. He felt a burning rage bubbling inside him. Rage that was built up from months of abuse.
"M-Maybe if you w-were nicer…" Mari didn't fully hear him over the piano, so she stopped playing.
"What was that?"
"I-I s-said that i-if you were–!"
"'I-If I-I w-was' what?" She mocked him, making Sunny angrier. "You can't even talk right. I should've known that you wouldn't be able to play a simple song."
"Th-Then why don't you play by y-yourself?" He shot back. He felt his denture coming loose, so he fixed it with his tongue. Mari was too angry to notice.
"Because it's too late now!" Mari screamed. She started slamming the keys harder, making her mess up the song. "I can't believe my stupid brother is going to ruin my recital."
"O-Our recital," Sunny said bluntly, and Mari shook her head.
"Nope, it's mine. This whole thing was for my college transcript. You were just an add-on."
Sunny froze and thought of everything he had gone through. All those months of verbal abuse. The time he wasted practicing when he could've spent it with his friends. All the aches and blisters on his hand.
He went through all that, and Mari saw him as nothing more than an extra. He sacrificed his time, energy, and health to spend time with her and make her happy. He was skipping a game because he thought he was making her happy. Well, he's done doing that.
Sunny stopped playing his violin. It took a while for Mari to notice, but once she did, she let her emotions be heard.
"Sunny…" She said through gritted teeth. "Now's not the time to be playing around."
Sunny glared at her defiantly and placed down his violin. She gave him a glare of her own.
"Sunny, stop acting like a brat, pick up your violin, and play. We don't have time for you to be fooling around."
Sunny shook his head.
"N-No, I'm done p-playing. My h-hand hurts," he said and showed her the blisters on his hand. She didn't leave her bench, but she did squint at his hand. She put on a fake teary expression as she looked at it.
"Oh, does the wittle baby have a boo-boo? Will a kiss from big sis make it better?" She said as if she were talking to a baby. She then waved her hands around. "My hands get sore from playing, but you don't hear me whining."
Sunny gave up on any hope of reasoning with her. She didn't care about his injuries and even mocked him for it. He wasn't going to stick around and help someone who didn't care about him. She can do the recital by herself for all he cares.
He looked at the time and saw it was almost 12. His teammates will be meeting up at the Center and getting ready to go to their game. Even though he said he wasn't going to be able to play, Sunny wondered if they'd allow him to go. Even if it meant he'd only be watching the game.
Sunny tried to leave, but Mari wouldn't allow it. With a few quick strides, she was out of her bench and holding onto his wrist. He tried wrestling it away from her, but she had a death grip on it.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"I-I'm leaving."
"No, you're not. You're staying here until you get your part right," she said as she started pulling him toward his instrument. She tried forcing his violin into his hands, but he crossed his arms in an act of defiance. Mari was seething mad. "Sunny!"
He took it a step further. He went limp and crumbled to the ground, which caused his denture to become looser. He didn't care how childish he was acting, as long as he broke Mari enough to give him a chance to escape. It was working, too.
She had her arms crossed and her brows furrowed.
"If you don't stop acting like a brat I'll tell Dad, and he'll ground you for all of next year too," she threatened. Sunny didn't care. He contemplated throwing a tantrum, but he wasn't that shameless yet.
Mari then had an idea. She took his violin and dropped it on his stomach, knocking some wind out of him.
"If you're going to be like this, you can play on the floor. I'm not playing games, Sunny."
Sunny responded kindly by sliding the instrument away from him. Mari gave him the dirtiest glare she could muster before getting his violin and dropping it on his stomach again. He, once again, slid it across the floor. He added a tiny cheeky grin to make Mari angrier.
She then got his violin, forcefully pulled him up, and somehow got the instrument in his hands. She gave him the biggest death stare he had ever seen. It was unnerving, to say the least.
"No more games, Sunny. We don't have time to fool around."
"B-But I don't w-wanna!" Sunny whined.
"I don't care! As long as you're able to play your violin you're going," Mari angrily told him.
Sunny then did something stupid. He raised the violin over his head and brought it down against his knee, snapping it in half. Time froze at that moment as Sunny slowly realized what he had done. He had broken his violin.
He had broken the culmination of his friends' hard work. There was a chance that it could be fixed, but that didn't matter. His violin would never look, and maybe never sound the same. There would be an obvious scar.
Then there was Mari. She looked broken as she did earlier that morning.
"M-Mari, I am s-so sor–!"
"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!"
This was the angriest Sunny had ever seen his sister. Her face was red as if she were sunburned, and the fire he saw in her eyes was akin to the flames people would use to describe the fires of hell. She was grinding her teeth so hard that Sunny thought they would turn to dust. And if looks could kill, Sunny would've been six feet under before he could realize what was happening.
Mari fell to her knees and picked up his broken instrument. She placed the two broken halves together as if that would fix it, but all that accomplished was breaking it even more. She then shot up and got in his face.
"Do you know how hard we worked to buy you that!?"
Sunny started tearing up. He knew how hard they worked to buy him his violin. It's why he was so torn up about it. He had spent months fantasizing about breaking it, but now that he did he regrets it.
"I-I'm sor–!"
A loud smack rang out in the room, followed by a light clatter on the ground. It was deathly quiet. Sunny's cheek was stinging, and he was sure there was a red handprint on his face. He was hurt, scared, and most of all, he felt betrayed.
Mari was no longer angry. She had a look of realization and regret for what she did. She held her hands over her mouth as she tried not to cry.
"Sunny, I'm so sorry," Mari said while tearing up. She reached out a hand to him, but he swatted it away. She tried it again, but he backed away from her. "Sunny, please…"
Sunny ran out of the room and out of the house as fast as he could. He almost ran into someone at his front door, but he dodged them. All he wanted to do was get as far away from home and as far away from Mari as he could.
He was still shocked that Mari had hit him. He never thought she would stoop so low. No matter how bad things got during their practices, she had never raised a hand at him. That was the only thing that gave him hope that his real sister wasn't gone.
But now, the real Mari was dead and had been replaced by a monster.
He ran as fast as he could, not caring who he had bumped into. He didn't slow down until he knew he was a safe distance from his house. It was then he realized he had run to Aubrey's house. It was perfect timing too because he saw her walking out her front door.
Her hair was noticeably shorter, but it still went past her shoulders. She still wore her signature pink bow as well. She was also wearing a formal pink dress. She really wanted to look nice for the recital.
She had noticed him and excitedly ran up to hug him.
"Sunny! Did you come to pick me up…?" Aubrey had slowed down when she noticed how upset her boyfriend was. "Are you OK?"
"I-I'm not going to the r-recital," Sunny said bluntly. Aubrey's eyes became wide, and she gasped.
"Why? What happened? Is everything alright? Why aren't you wearing your denture? And why is your cheek red?" Aubrey rapidly fired her questions, making Sunny both miserable and uncomfortable. Aubrey raised her hand to touch the injured cheeks, but Sunny grabbed it. He didn't want anyone to touch it.
"I-I don't want to t-talk about it. Can y-you g-get my hockey s-stuff?" Sunny asked and Aubrey nodded. She raced back into her house and shortly returned with his bag slung around her shoulder. The two then raced to the Center hand in hand. Aubrey didn't ask any more questions about why they weren't going to the recital to respect Sunny's wishes, but she was still worried.
They made it just in time to see both Coach B and I loading the bus with the team's gear. They raced up to them, catching Coach B by surprise.
"Woah, what are you doing here, Sunny? I thought you said you weren't going to make it to today's game," Coach B said.
"S-Something c-came up, and I was a-able to come," Sunny said, and Coach B laughed.
"Well, that's great! Hop on the bus and we'll take care of your bag."
Sunny nodded, and Aubrey handed him the bag. The two then walked to the bus entrance, and Aubrey pulled him into a hug. She wouldn't be able to join him on the ride, but he hoped she'd still be able to make it to his game.
"I'll go tell the others where you went. Good luck," she told him before breaking off from the hug.
Sunny walked onto the bus, and luckily, no one had noticed him yet. They were all talking, but they would notice him if he stayed in the aisle. Most of the seats were taken, but he did find one next to Wyatt. He quickly rushed into that one before anyone could spot him.
Sunny was glad Wyatt had the open seat because he wouldn't have to talk to him, and right now, he didn't want to talk to anyone. All he wanted was to forget about the last hour.