Sunny 🌞
Chardell
The light in Pop’s shed had been flickering for three fucking days.
I kept telling myself I’d change it.
Hadn’t.
Every couple minutes, it buzzed overhead, dimmed, then came back.
I bent lower over the chain in front of me.
The clasp was fucked.
That was fixable.
Most shit was if you had steady hands and enough patience.
I had both.
Usually.
Tonight, I couldn’t get my fucking fingers to stop shaking.
I dropped the pliers.
“Fuck.”
They bounced off the table and hit the floor.
I sat there staring at them.
Didn’t pick them up.
My phone buzzed beside me.
Sunny 🌞
I turned it over.
Couldn’t look at that shit.
The door opened behind me.
Cold air rushed in.
“Why you ignoring me?”
Fuck.
I closed my eyes.
“You supposed to knock.”
“Since when?”
“Since always.”
“No, I’m not.”
She shut the door behind her.
I finally turned around.
Sunny stood there in a cashmere Burberry peacoat her grandmother gifted her. Scarf wrapped around her neck. Hair pressed straight, ends curled under.
Looked like she’d just stepped out of a luxury catalogue.
Pretty.
Always fucking pretty.
She had a shopping bag hanging from one hand.
“I called you four times.”
“I was working.”
“I can see that.”
She walked closer.
“What are you working on?”
“Nothin’.”
She looked at the table.
“That’s clearly something.”
“Sunny.”
“What?”
I rubbed both hands over my face.
She got quiet.
That was the thing about her.
She could talk my fucking head off when she wanted to, but she knew me.
Knew when something wasn’t right.
Her eyes narrowed.
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“Chardell.”
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“That shit where you start interrogating me.”
Her face changed.
“Okay.”
She set the shopping bag on the corner of the table.
“I won’t.”
Now I felt worse.
She unwrapped her scarf.
“I brought you something.”
I stared at the bag.
“What?”
“Open it.”
“Sunny...”
“It’s not your Christmas gift.”
“I didn’t say it was.”
“Your Christmas gift is better.”
She smiled.
“I’m taking it with me so you can’t find it while I’m gone.”
I looked at her.
“Gone where?”
She frowned.
“My grandmother’s.”
Right.
“You forgot?”
“Nah.”
“Daddy already bought my ticket. I leave the eighteenth.”
She leaned against the workbench.
“Grandma wants me there through New Year’s, but I’m coming back before then.”
Something tightened in my chest.
“I told her I have plans.”
Her eyes moved to me.
“With you.”
I couldn’t fucking breathe.
She smiled a little.
“My birthday was trash because somebody waited until the end of August to get his act together.”
I sighed.
“I’m just saying.”
“You still got your birthday present.”
“Eventually.”
“And you liked it.”
“I did.”
She smiled.
That fucking smile.
We’d lost most of the summer being stupid.
After graduation, we had the biggest argument we’d ever had. Said shit neither one of us meant. Stopped calling. Stopped coming around.
I spent June and July acting like I didn’t give a fuck.
She’d apparently done the same.
Then August came.
I saw her.
That was that.
Couple days before her birthday, we were right back where we’d always been.
Me and Sunny.
Like the summer hadn’t happened.
Except it had.
“Sunny.”
“Mhm?”
“I gotta tell you something.”
Her smile faded.
“Okay.”
