After leaving Gino's with exhaustion and a new set of bruises, Kel was feeling better! His Mom is gonna kill him for ruining his appetite with that picnic though...

Ah whatever! We'll deal with that problem when we get there! Gotta focus on the here and now, or more specifically, WHO is in the here and now.

Kel, currently walking a certain someone down the streets, looks over to her, grinning from ear to ear. He'll be honest, he hasn't been this happy in a while, not since he managed to get Sunny out of his house.

She smiles back at him, and his mood only raises further, - speaking of his best friend, with the kind of mood Kel has now, that name might be better suited to him than the quiet raven-haired city boy. (Sorry not sorry!)

Nevertheless, he should definitely give him a call later. He wonders if anything's changed, or if Sunny is still being his usual shy self...Probably the latter, he supposes.

It was hard when he told the Truth, he remembers everyone's reactions - including his own, as Sunny just, let it out. Becoming a sobbing, just-coherent-enough-mess.

He remembers Hero's completely silent stare of...Well he couldn't describe it as anything more than darkness. You could swear every negative thought and feeling a human has ever felt was present on Hero's face at that moment, and he had the will to hold it all in, put a hand on Sunny's shoulder, and tell him: "I will forgive you, but not now." Before walking away.

He remembers trying to give chase after his brother, but...But he paused, looking back to his best friend.

He remembers Aubrey, looking as if she was about to blow a whole new fuse, a single hand raised as if to slap him, to beat him, tears streaming down her cheeks as he sees Sunny's expression swallowed in hopelessness, in guilt, in pleading eyes begging her to just beat him to a bloody pulp and get it over with.

Kel felt ashamed of himself in that moment, because he could feel that he might have just sat there, and watched as she ended his best friends life before his very eyes.

But she never did.

Instead, she did the mature thing that he wasn't expecting her to do.

She walked away, leaving him there. Not a single word spoken.

Kel remembers himself, walking over and crouching by the raven-haired baby of their little friend group which had only got back together just yesterday. He remembers telling him that eventually, they'll come around, that all of this will be put behind him.

He feels ashamed now because all of that was 100% faked, and to be honest he was barely holding himself together.

He was just thankful his best friend said nothing in response, letting Kel leave to do what he always does whenever something like this happens.

Distract himself, put on a happy face, and cry himself silly when he finds the chance.

One day however, he couldn't make it all the way home after the school bus dropped him off, so he collapsed on a porch which he thought was his own, trying to be as quiet as possible.

And that's when Cris found him, having a meltdown right outside her door.

His tragic smile, back in the land of the living, calls attention to his loving girlfriend, who immediately asks what's wrong. Kel responding with a hand squeeze and a thankful smile.

Everything is going to be okay.

3 days after the Truth.

A bed with a lump under the bedsheets in a college dorm room, barely shifts, pulsing with the intensity of someone breathing.

4 days after the Truth.

"-ude, dude! Are you even alive under there?!" A dorm-mate shouts to the lump under the bed sheets, which has now frozen.

5 days after the Truth.

Loud music has engulfed the dorm room, before the bed sheets rip themselves up, a figure who hasn't changed his clothes for days, nor taken a shower - rises from the fortifications against the world.

"SHUT THAT SHIT OFF!"

1 week after the Truth.

The door to the dorm room slams open, stumbling in drunk, clinging to his dorm-mate and giving a slurred speech about how grateful he is.

His dorm mate says nothing the entire time, only waiting till morning to say a single thing to him.

2 weeks after the Truth.

The figure stays in the dark, praying to anyone who will listen, on his knees, his face pressed against the bedframe, as his body is wracked with shaking. Begging.

2 months after the Truth.

Hero opens the door, saying goodnight to his friends and giving a good-hearted laugh, before shutting it. Standing at the door, un-moving. Before he begins to rapidly tremble, now falling against the door as he lets out painful sobs.

3 months after the Truth.

He stumbles around, picking up items, it doesn't matter what it is, he just wants to smash things, breaking them apart.

As he finishes picking up a trophy and using it as a makeshift club, it slips out of his hands as he turns his head to the ceiling, and lets out an agonizing-

"AAAAAAAAAAAAA-!"

5 months after the Truth.

Sitting on his bed, he stays curled up in a ball, dark circles under his eyes, as sleep evades him yet again.

6 months after the Truth.

He stares at himself in the mirror, his dorm-mate playing some Call of Honor in the background, swearing over Zbox live.

Hero simply clenches a fist, putting it to his forehead, as he looks in the mirror with new found determination.

7 months after the Truth.

He looks at a picture, the only one he has of them all together, tears falling down onto it as he holds it to his face, apologizing over and over.

He'll make it up to you Sunny, he swears it.

8 months after the Truth.

It's almost time. He's gotten his life back on track...Mari...Mari would be proud. He just knows it.

He feels bad for Mom, for Dad, for Kel. He hasn't been there for them, especially during this little episode of not interacting with anyone.

But he's sick of feeling bad for himself, he's sick of feeling like he's the only one who was going through this, this is the exact complaint Aubrey raised, and he's done the exact same thing to her again.

God, when he looks in the mirror sometimes, he understands how Sunny feels, how you suddenly feel the need to vomit at your own presence. As if your very existence is a disturbance.

He's been such an ass as of late, and while he's mended his relationship with his friends here at College, he still has back home in Faraway to worry about.

Sunny, oh God, Sunny. There's no telling how badly his condition has worsened overtime, how Hero not giving him the forgiveness he's owed has been taking a toll on his psyche, he has no idea if Aubrey or anyone else has forgiven him for what he's done, how life in the city's been, he's been paying attention to none of it.

Hero looks in the mirror now, and feels the revulsion towards a hypocrite, a liar, a bad mentor, and a terrible friend.

He realizes now how much Sunny's looked up to him, how all the kiddos did. To him and Mari both.

He...He needs to amend this, and after this final year, that's exactly what he's going to do.

"Just wait a little longer Sunny, big brother Hero's coming back to fix everything."