The one thing that he hated most about having any form of an injury was how he always woke up uncomfortable and in some form of pain. And despite Sonny’s tough exterior and when he inflicts pain to others, when it came to dealing with pain himself, he was, as Drea would call him, a big baby who can’t handle a little pain. He usually would disagree, but boy-oh-boy, Sonny was not in the mood this morning to deal with anything but the other side of his pillow. Anything else could fuck off or wait until it was a little later.
Coming from the bathroom, the sound of a flushed toilet in the distance, Sonny walked rather casually, clad in Pikachu boxers and a Nirvana T-Shirt, he was halfway to his room when he heard the sound of his mother call out to him. She must have heard him wake up, or maybe she saw him and he didn’t see her. Whichever the case, he was at the crossroads where he could pretend he didn’t hear her and hope that he was just hearing things or he could do the responsible thing and go see what she wanted.
Sonny stood in a blind spot from the staircase that led downstairs to the foyer and where his room was. After taking a minute and hearing his mother repeat his name, Sonny let out a sigh and went back to his room. If it really was so important she see him, she could come to get him herself.
Now back in his bed, no more than a minute later as Sonny was finally comfortable, in came his mom - or so she thought she was. Little did she know, he locked his door. A mistake Sonny would soon pay for.
“Jackson Torvald Drake Jr!” Viola Banks screamed, banging on his door until it forced a now somewhat worried Sonny to crawl out of bed.
As he groaned, he unlocked his door. He came to the sight of his mother’s livid face. He scratched his ass and just looked at her with the most annoyed expression he could muster. “Yes, mother?”
“Did you not hear me calling you?”
Pretending he didn’t, Sonny shrugged. “It was hard to hear when you didn’t say anything. Why? What’s up?”
“Marisol’s parents are downstairs.”
“Okay. And..?”
“They want to know where their daughter is,” Viola clarified, resulting in Sonny's complete understanding of her urgency.
Before he said anything, Sonny wasn’t given the chance. The only thing he was able to do was to be forced out of his room in the little clothing that he had on. He didn’t think his mother was actually going to allow him to come downstairs, but something interesting happened. His mother’s sense of urgency had, as Sonny saw, a desperate factor. Like she was more worried about Marisol and whatever her parents were going through more than she cared about how her son looked to company. Luckily for her, he grabbed his silk robe before she yanked him out of his room.
When they reached downstairs and they went into the family meeting room where a somewhat worried Soleil Castillo and a more obvious distraught Marco Castillo sat, Sonny’s father, to the boy’s surprise, was actually home. “Amazing. You’re not out and about.” Sonny managed to say before he felt the pinch of his mother’s finger on his arm. He gave her a nasty look before she gave one of her own. “What can I help you two with?” He asked as genuinely as he could, given the circumstances.
Sonny was plenty cranky and in a lot of pain. Not a good combo when he’s expected to be helpful.
“What the fuck happened to you?” Soleil asked, seeing Sonny’s nasal fracture.
Whether it was his sleep-deprived mind or just the general lack of familiarity he had with Sol (or lack thereof), Sonny found himself not quite prepared for her bluntness, yet he smiled at it nonetheless. “I imagine you know how it happened more than anyone. I lowered my guard and a cheap shot was thrown.” What they didn’t know was Salem actually caught him off-guard, but the hell he was going to let Soleil, of all people, know that.
“My boy, you need to take better care of that face of yours,” Jackson said, shaking his head.
“It won’t happen again, that I can promise you.” That was the absolute truth. Sonny wasn’t going to ever to let Salem Rivera get the better of him again.
“Anyway,” Viola interrupted the men and tomboy of the group and looked at Marco. The older man was well on his way of crumbling and bringing on the waterworks. “Marisol’s parents are worried about their daughter. They wanted to--”
“She didn’t come home last night!” Marco interrupted Viola, looking at Sonny. “Did she say anything to you? Like who she was staying with?” Marco asked.
He scratched his head, looking over to his parents. He couldn’t say it out loud, but they knew what he was thinking and the shrugged at him. “Well, I and Marisol aren’t on speaking terms, as you might know. And if not, well now I’m telling you: her and I aren’t on speaking terms,” he admitted to them, not mincing any words, it seemed.
“But you must know something?!”
“Well…”
“Go on, Sonny,” his mother said to him, the familiar voice she often spoke with when she was about to punish and or berate him.
As he sighed, he found some comfort in Sol and Marco’s gaze. Guilt overtook him as he saw Marco who, for all of his bizarre weirdness, was a good guy. A bit goofy like his own father, but Sonny found his weakness in seeing him in pain. “I don’t know where she is, but you might want to ask her homecoming date, Salem Rivera.” Somewhere deep down, Sonny knew namedropping Salem was a low blow, but he didn't’ give two shits about that freak of nature. “If anyone can tell you where she might be, it’s him.”
When he had told them that, Sonny saw a bit of light return to Marco’s eyes. It was at some point he had stood up and brought the little Drake teen into a hug. Sonny let out a grunt from the sudden embrace but also how his nose scrunched up against Marco’s broad shoulders. It was only a moment, but Sonny swore he could see The Light. Or maybe that was from the chandelier hanging above them. Either way, as soon as Marco realized what he had done, he let Sonny down.
“I’m so sorry, Sonny. Are you okay?” Marco asked, concerned for Sonny's weakened well-being.
The teen gave him a thumbs up. “I’ll be okay. I hope you’re able to find her.” If nothing else, Sonny didn’t want Marco to come over to his parent’s house on the verge of crying again.
As Sonny and his parents saw them off, Sonny waved to Marco, though Soleil didn’t join her husband quite yet. “I know you didn’t ask me, but I’m going to give you my advice anyway. You and Marisol go so far back. Fix it so you don’t lose that friendship for good.” Soleil advised him, her usual bluntness showing a rare, supportive form.
And Sonny just smiled at her. He didn’t know what else to do. It wasn’t like he had the words ready, though it made him start to think. Even as he closed the door and started to head back to his room, Sonny still wasn’t sure what to do. Was he really so stubborn that he couldn’t try and make amends with Marisol? Of course, there was a lot that their parents didn’t know. And his mother had tried to get him to do the right thing. Now, Marisol’s mother was doing the same.
As he closed his bedroom door and laid back-first on his bed, Sonny just stayed like that for about ten minutes. His phone was near him. He glanced at it and he still had the photo of the lake where he and Marisol had their first time. That made him go through his photos and saw so many pictures of them from their Junior year. They were so...stupid. The expressions she made and the ones he made him cringe, but also made Sonny laugh.
“So stupid,” he muttered to himself, tossing his phone onto his nightstand and turned to his side. And then Sonny suddenly propped up. Somewhere between almost falling asleep and thinking too hard on some things, he couldn’t very well stay in bed.
So Sonny got dressed. He kept the shirt he had on, traded his boxers for something less cringy and put a pair of jeans on and got his signature orange hoodie. In less than fifteen minutes, he was rushing down the stairs and brushed past his father. “Whoa, where’s the hurry, Flash?”
“Gotta make something right.”
“Oh, okay be sure to tell your--” Before Jackson could get the rest of his sentence out, the door had closed and Sonny was gone “--your mother where you’re going.” And it fell on nobody’s ears but the family dog who was sitting in front of Jackson, whining somewhat. “Fine, you must be hungry.”
Meanwhile, halfway on the road, Sonny drove in his truck on his way to the mall, though as he came to a red light, he pulled out his phone and dialed Marisol’s number, though it went straight to voicemail. “I know you’re ignoring me, but we need to talk. I don’t care how mad you are, but if I meant anything to you, you’ll meet me at the mall.”
As he left that, Sonny took off, speeding towards The Gardens Mall. Whether Marisol showed up or not was up in the air. At most, he could get some quality thinking time.