Oh gosh, did I somehow retraumatize her? Sunny thinks, he stands up from the rocky fence and crouches down to meet her level. “S-sorry,” Maddie manages to hiccup. “For what? You did nothing wrong,” Sunny consults. Maddie shakes her head, "y-yea! Well, for some reason…I make everything around me go to shit!” She manages to say between tears. Sunny lays a hand on her back, rubbing it like a mother would do to their own scared child. “Why do you say that?” He gently asks, his voice trying to be soothing. “Because!” Maddie lifts her head and throws her hands up, “I-I mean, my mom thinks so, and school, even my friends, who aren’t my friends anymore.” She explains, scared and frustrated. Without a second thought, Maddie fist hits the grassy floor. Which she immediately regrets, shaking her hand, reminding her of the same pain she inflicted on herself when running away from the blue and red lights from that night. “An-and to add salt to the injury, I even got chased by the cops!”

Okay, that’s concerning, Sunny thinks. “Well, first you shouldn’t care about the opinion of people that don’t care about you.” Sunny advice. Maddie shakes her head in disagreement. “Yeah, including my mom.” She says ironically. “Don’t say that, I’m sure she cares about you.” He tells her, “I really doubt that…”

Her tone is sadly relaxed. I guess she got tired… Sunny thinks. His resting hand slides off her back. “Do you know why I say that?” A simple question, really, and one she couldn’t answer. Maddie wipes her tears and eyes him. “I can’t read minds…” She remarks. A puff of air comes out of Sunny, “Ah, fair.” He responds. “Have you ever heard of the story of Job, from the bible?” Maddie shakes her head. “Well, Job was a good man, followed God's rules and did everything he asked of him, but one day an angel, or was it an angelic creature?” Sunny pauses, questioning himself, making sure he has the correct information for his story.

“What’s the difference?” Maddie asks, tilting her head.

Sunny shrugs, “I don't know,” he replies honestly, “Anyways, it came up to God and questioned him, well, more like questioned Job. Its name was The Satan. He questioned God, saying that Job didn’t actually love God, that he is only a good person because God rewards him. If God took everything from him, his sheep, kids, and land, only then would he show his true nature. God agrees and allows Satan to inflict suffering on Job, but not to kill him.” Sunny recounts.

Maddie interrupts, “I don’t understand? Can’t God see the hearts of people? Like what they think and all.”

“He can, but doesn’t, because he respects us; he gave us free will after all. If he did, then that means we don’t have freedom,” Sunny answers. Maddie nods and does a hand movement for him to continue the story. “Job lost everything, and remember, he deserves none of this. God said so himself. Amidst the suffering, Job still praises God, for chapters 1 and 2, then Chapter 3 comes along, and we see how he really feels inside, devastated. Job's friends came along and told him and accused him of doing something wrong, because God is fair after all, but Job denied all the accusations, and promised he had done nothing wrong! At some points in the story, he’s confident that God is still wise and just, and yet in other moments, he’s doubting God’s goodness. Accusing him of being unfair and reckless, which was a BIG NOPE! By the end of Job's dialogue, he demands that God show himself.” Sunny’s narration of the story is very dramatic, but in a way that didn’t take away from it, instead encouraging it. “When God appeared, he was angry, or it seemed like it since he came in the form of a great storm cloud. Now, this is the confusing part of the story. God doesn’t tell Job anything about the test or answer his question; instead, he takes Job for a visual tour around the universe and questions him, “Are you even capable of running it, understanding it for just one day?” He shows him every detail of the world that we don’t understand, but God does; he knows it all intimately. Then to conclude, God shows him two beasts that would kill you in an instant, but they’re not evil, no, they’re actually a part of his great good world.”

Maddie sits there, wondering and confused. “What? That’s it?” She questions, Sunny shakes his head, and as he tries to talk again, he smiles, and a puff of laughther comes out as he mouths the word oh no. “While he never got his answer, this interaction leaves Job in a place of humility and peace. Plus, he got twice of everything back, not as a reward (because remember everything he lost wasn’t a punishment, so getting everything back isn’t a reward) but as a gift.”

Sunny sits down near Maddie’s curled up form, “The message really is, everything is going to be ok, because God knows it. It just takes time.”

“How long…” Maddie asks bluntly.

“I don’t know.” Sunny replies in the same manner. “But what are you going to do?”

“I was gonna go and live with my aunt-”

“I know, but what else?” Sunny interrupted, “What else were you gonna do if that didn’t happen? How would you maintain yourself, living outside, on these kinds of streets? What other plans did you have?” He stated. He’s being honest, carrying his words in such heavy weight that would make Maddie realize the heavy burden she would have endured if she went through with her plan. “You might not like it, but you have to go back.” Sunny stands up and brushes off any dirt or grass his pants might have picked up. “For now anyways...” He mumbles, then extends a hand to Maddie, but she doesn’t acknowledge it. “Not yet…” She murmurs. Rubbing her head across her arms, burying herself.

He doesn’t sigh, but his puff of airs at this point accounts for some. “Alright.” Sunny replies with a sympathetic tone mixed with a happy one. “Wanna get some ice cream?”

The air felt bittersweet, like grapefruit sorbet. Mmm, sorbet…Icecream is close enough, right?

“Yea sure,” Maddie replies.

Maddie stands up from the grassy floor, ignoring Sunny’s hand again. While dusting her pants, she noticed that green spots were imprinted on the bum of them. Maddie tsk at this, “so where are we going?”

“Jenis.” They both say. Maddie smirks at this, making Sunny blush a little, embarrassed…At least she smiled, Sunny thinks. “I’m kinda excited to taste this almond brittle you talk so highly about.” Maddie playfully mentions. Sunny chuckles to himself, which catches Maddie's attention. “What?”

“No, nothing.”

“No? Tell me, what is it?” Maddie demands, worrying that he notices her gray pants are now green.

“Vanilla flavor…”Sunny teases. His hand covers his face, though you can still see his sapphire blue eyes shining through them, his smile that shows his pearly whites, and the dimples that form with his smile. His laugh is contagious, she knew it, because her body started to shake as she tried to hold back laughter, “T-that’s not fair! I truly believe you like vanilla.”  

“Yeah~ I’ll choose to believe that.” Sunny replies. Something clicks in Maddie's head, a memory of her earlier conversation with him in the train station,  “Are your parents around?”

His reply has the same tone as when Maddie said her parents were in the bathroom. So he knew, way before I even gave him an excuse.

“Ah…”

“Hm? What are you thinking now?”

“Nothing.”

Sunny nods as he walks over to open the car door to the passenger side. “Ladies first~” Sunny playfully says, as he bows forward when Maddie comes by. “Why, you are such a gentleman.” Maddie ironically replies. Sunny smiles and closes the door, and swings to the other side.

Starting the car frightens Maddie, but there isn’t any other way to go to Jeni’s without going by car, so…You're not getting out of this one on foot. Maddie thinks as Sunny puts the car in drive.