Can't Deny It --- OMORI Suntan

Hanging Out

The air was chilly, but that didn't bother the duo. Kel and Sunny walked down the pathway off to find their pink haired friend. Sunny observed the area as they made their way, everything was the same in Faraway, well, he shouldn't have expected much. Faraway had barely changed in four years, why would it change in only a month?

Soon, the two came across two familiar voices, and it turned out to just be their luck. It was THE MAVERICK and Angel, the rest of the hooligans wern't with them. The two were sitting on a bench nearby Faraway park, Angel was playing with a handheld Gameboy. Kel walked up to them, gaining their attention, well, not much of Angel's attention anyway... "Hey, Angel, Mikhael, have either of you seen Aubrey around?" He asked, putting his hands into his pockets. THE MAVERICK faced him and Angel didn't look away from the screen. The so-called blonde got up from his seat and his face turned the slightest bit red out of anger, "HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU? MY NAME IS THE. GOD. DAMN. MAVERICK!!!" He screamed, Kel sighed with a fed-up look, "Don't start Mikhael. We just want to know where Aubrey is."

"MY NAME IS NOT MIKHAEL." He stomped, his fists clenched. Kel wondered when he would ever get over this. "She's at home, she didn't come out today." Angel said inattentively, not taking his eyes off the screen. Kel's smile returned, and he nodded. "Okay, thanks, Angel. Cya!" He thanked, and gave a small wave goodbye, and returned to Sunny's side, and the duo continued their journey.

They passed the well known streets of Faraway and finally made it to Aubrey's house, it was still just the same like everything else. Kel walked over to the door, hesitating before loudly knocking on it. The place was still covered in empty beer cans and rotten fruit. The place was a state, and the inside was nothing different. Aubrey opened the door, fully clothed, and with her bat in one hand, she stepped outside and closed the door behind her, she looked tired, no, she looked exhausted, but nobody mentioned it, she had a poor home life. Who could blame her for her exhaustion? But Aubrey had she learnt to accept things that she probably couldn't change, there was no point getting upset over anything like that anymore, such as the death of her sister figure, 4 years was enough. And now she was continuing to visit church, she had to look up to the bright side too. And she knew it would make Mari happy, and that's what she wanted most. "Hey, Kel..." A small silence paused her sentence. "Hey, Sunny...how are you guys doing? Haven't seen you in a while."

The delinquent looked at them with her neutral expression.

"Oh, we're good! We just wanted to see if you would come to hang out with us, Sunny is staying over at my house tonight!" Kel said with his signature bright smile.

"Ah, alright...Hey, how about we head to the park? I heard it was empty today due to some good bargain at Faraway Center or whatever, so we can have some chill time."

"YES! That's a great idea! Last one there's a rotten egg! Come on, Sunny, let's go!" Kel grabbed Sunny's hand and he took off running across the sidewalk, Aubrey groaned, "HEY, THAT'S NOT FAIR." She yelled, rushing after him. Surprisingly, Sunny managed to keep up. Aubrey and Kel's bond was just as before, squabbling, arguing and joking. But despite on how much they disagreed on things, they were still great friends, and this didn't mean that Aubrey hadn't matured, she was just a bit childish sometimes. Kel and Sunny had arrived at the park a few seconds before Aubrey, he did a lot more running than she did anyway, though, Sunny barely did any running at all, so he flopped on to the floor, trying to catch his breath. "HA, YOU'RE THE ROTTEN EGG!" Kel laughed, pointing at his pink haired friend.

"I MAY BE THE ROTTEN EGG, BUT WE'LL SEE WHO THE SMASHED EGGS GONNA BE!"

Aubrey lifted her bat, in attempt to look intimidating, she could never hit anyone with this bat, so it was just to scare people. Kel put his hands up in a defending pose and he stepped back, "Jeez, I won fair and square!" Kel had to admit, she was such a sore loser. Sunny got up quick enough to get to Aubrey and pull her arm down, signalling her to stop. "Ugh, fine." Aubrey groaned, rolling her eyes playfully. "So, you guys wanna play good ol' basketball?" Kel asked, smiling as he threw his basketball up and down. Sunny looked at him, "Yeah, sure." He nodded. Aubrey shook her head, "With you, never." She grinned and she walked off. The boys shrugged and went over to the basketball court. Aubrey took a seat at the bench nearby. It felt so nice to be out again, away from all the filth that surrounded her place she would stupidly call home. "Okay! I'm gonna start with some dribbles!" Kel yelled to Sunny who was on the other side of the basketball court. Sunny gave a thumbs up, and before he could put his hand down Kel bounced the ball directly at Sunny, rushing to the ball, he took it out of Kel's hands and he began dribbling himself, though it was a little bit off track, of course, Sunny wasn't the sporty type. Kel didn't want to tell Sunny he was playing incorrectly, so he congratulated him on his speed. "Woah, that was great! You're getting so much better at this! Hopefully, I'll see you on the team next summer!" Kel joked and gave a chuckle, Sunny squinted his eyes and aimed high, throwing the basketball toward the hoop and it fell straight through the hole. Kel stood there with a bit of shock, he wasn't expecting that. "Nah, I'm too good for the team..." Sunny joked, breaking his cliff faced expression with a small smile. Kel returned the smug attitude, and put his hands on his hips. "Only because you learned from the best."

After about what it felt like forever, the two stopped to take a rest on the old bench where Aubrey was enjoying the peace of the bird's tweets in the far trees, Kel grabbed an Orange Joe can right out of his pocket, still fresh and cold, he slapped it open, gulping down can, and when swallowing the last drop, he got his sleeve and wiped his mouth clean. "I still don't know how you can drink that stuff..." Aubrey stared at the empty Orange Joe can. "Oh c'mon, Aubrey, it's really good! And when you're a basketball player, you'd do anything for a bottle of water after 5 minutes if you didn't have one. But luckily, I have orange joe!"

"Well now you don't, you've finished it." Aubrey pointed at the empty can, rasing her eyebrows, unamused. Kel looked at the can, "Oh." He said, making a face that looked a lot like this - (・▽・)

Aubrey shook her head jokingly and got up from her seat attheàe wooden bench, "I almost forgot, I promised Basil I'd see him later, and since you guys are here, you wanna tag along?" She said swinging the bat over her shoulder as if its weight had no effect. "Sure! I haven't seen Basil since he got released from the hospital, I hope he's doing well." Kel put a finger to his chin, and he turned to Sunny, the raven haired boy nodded at them in agreement, seeing Basil might have been the best thing to do after all the drama. Or...maybe not? "Well then it's settled, if you don't mind, I'm gonna pop by my house." Aubrey said, looking to the side, what she was actually going to do, was feed her pet bunny, BunBun. "Sure! We'll wait outside!!" Kel said giving the pink girl an enthusiastic thumbs up.