Note: Elythia the Lynx belongs to me.

Chapter Ten

I was stunned. "Wh... What...?"

"Will you go to the ball with me?" he repeated.

I stared at the rose in his hand. It was a really pretty shade of pink and it had a pleasant scent. Then I looked back at Sonic, who was looking anxious again. "I... um... wow. You really caught me off guard."

"Haha... sorry..."

I took in a deep breath and smiled. "No one's ever asked me before... I'm flattered."

"Never?" he asked.

"Nope. I usually go with the gang anyway," I explained.

"Oh." He looked crestfallen. "I see."

He started to turn away. Realizing what my response sound like, I grabbed his arm. "Wait!"

He stopped and looked at me. "Yeah?"

"I didn't mean... oh, never mind. I'd love to go with you!" I beamed.

A huge grin blossomed on his face. "Really?!"

I nodded eagerly. He let out a "WOOHOO!" of excitement and then gave me the rose. I twirled it between my fingers and inhaled its sweet scent. Sonic looked really happy and relieved. "I'm glad you said yes, Robyn."

"You looked really panicked," I chuckled.

"Ever since the teachers told us about it, I knew that I wanted to ask you. I... I just wasn't sure if you would say yes," he admitted.

I stepped forward and hugged him. "I'm glad you did. I feel honored."

He returned my hug. "No problem. Um... I would love to stay and chat, but I have a ton of stuff I have to do."

"That's okay. I have something that needs to be taken care of," I said as I patted the keychain in my pocket.

"Cool. Well... see ya."

"Later."

He took off in a flash of blue. It kicked up a bit of wind that ruffled my hair, my shirt, and the petals on the rose. A smile curled my lips as I looked at the flower. "I guess I should find a vase for you."

Leaving the door open, I went inside and found an empty vase in the cupboard. I washed it out before I put the rose inside and took it to my room. As I set it on my nightstand, I heard a motorcycle outside. I looked out the window and saw Shadow in his driveway. I grinned and ran downstairs, nearly tripping on the front steps. "Shadow!"

He waved to me. "Hey."

"ETA?" I asked as I came up to him.

"Any minute now. You ready?" he smirked.

"Oh boy..." I paced around for a couple seconds, suddenly nervous. "Um. Yes."

"Deep breaths, Robyn. Deep breaths." He put a hand on my shoulder. "Everything will be fine."

I did as he suggested and took a deep breath. "Okay."

Down the road, a white Jeep appeared. I recognized the vehicle as Nina's car. I tried to fight my sudden urge to bolt. This was my best friend I was dealing with. I had to let him know that he was still my number one.

The vehicle slowed down and then parked on the curb. I saw Nina in the front seat looking around for something. The passenger door opened, and then Chaos came around the front. His eyes fell upon me and he stopped short. "... Hey."

"Hey." I put on my best smile. "Can we talk?"

"... Can we talk later? I JUST got home."

My smile fell. Shadow gave Chaos a stern Look. "She's been waiting since school let out to talk to you. I nearly ran her over when I got here."

I looked at him, slightly confused. He gave me a slight sideways "Go-along-with-it" look. I looked at Chaos again and nodded. "Yep. I sped straight home and then sat here. He scared me because... I was kinda dozing off when he showed up."

Chaos raised an eyebrow. "Uh... huh."

My heart fluttered as I got a good look at him. He looked... really good. He had a bit of a tan on his face and he seemed to have an air of confidence about him. He was wearing black cargo pants, a plain white t-shirt, and his usual shoes. To my delight, the wristband with the date of our first meeting was still on his wrist. A closer inspection revealed that he was wearing a unique pendant of some kind. It was a silver star on a thick black thread.

"Your face is red," Chaos pointed.

I felt my face- it did feel warm. "Huh."

"Go have a chat with her," Shadow said, ignoring my blushing cheeks.

A weird expression came over Chaos. Nina rolled the window down. "Come on, Chaos. Listen to what she has to say."

He sighed. "All right."

I was internally cheering. On the outside, I kept my composure. "Awesome. Let's go."

I took his hand and we started walking down the street. After several seconds he awkwardly removed his hand from mine. "So what do you want?"

I stopped short at his tone. It made me feel like he wanted to be anywhere but here. My hands shook and my lower lip trembled. I heard him tap his foot impatiently. "Well...?"

"... I'm sorry! ! !" I wailed as I turned around and tackled him.

As soon as my face hit his chest, the tears started falling. I was full-on sobbing. "I'm s-sorry I've been such a-a terrible friend... I w-wasn't here when you needed m-me and y-you have no idea h-how awful I feel about t-that... I w-wanted to apologize to y-you sooner but y-you were gone all w-week..."

There was a brief pause from him. I tried to steady my breathing but I just couldn't calm down. Then I felt Chaos put his arms around me. "Oh, Robyn..."

I felt like I was crying even harder. "I'm s-s-sorry..."

"Shh." He gently petted my hair. "Shh."

I hugged him tightly and accidentally hiccupped. His hand moved down to my back where he patted me. "Don't die."

I giggled through my tears. We had an inside joke about telling each other not to die if we had something happen to us (like hiccups). "I'm not..."

He hugged me close. "... I've missed you."

"I've missed y-you too... I'm still r-really sorry. I've been a terrible friend," I hiccupped.

"Shh. Stop that."

"But it's true. When you needed me, I wasn't here. I abandoned you."

"Robyn, stop it. We can't change it now."

I frowned sadly. "That doesn't change the fact that I feel awful."

He sighed. "I know you were busy."

"Chaos, you know I would've dropped everything to-"

He put a finger to my lips. "Shh."

I looked into his eyes. He looked back at me through a half-lidded gaze. For a long moment, we just stared at each other. Then he cleared his throat and took a step back. "So... you hungry?"

Right on cue, my stomach growled. "... Yeah. I am."

"Okay. I'll take you to dinner. There's this new place that opened up on Seventh Street."

"What kind of place?"

"They have a bit of everything. You'll like it."

"Okay. Let me text my siblings first to let them know."

I dug out my phone and opened the group chat I had for my family. It had been Zoey's idea the day we all got our own phones so that we could tell each other important things and have everyone know at the same time, instead of telling just one person and then that person having to tell the other two. In this instance, I would have told Tails where I was going, and then he would've told Zoey and Alustriel. With the group chat, however, I could tell all three of them.

Robyn: Hey. Going to dinner with Chaos. Probably be back in a few hours.

Tails: Cool! Where ya going?

Robyn: Some new place on 7th street.

Zoey: Ooh! I went there for lunch the other day. It's really good!

Robyn: Shouldn't you be working, Zoey? :P

Zoey: I'm on break, doofus.

Robyn: Rude.

Zoey: Love ya. Have fun.

Alustriel: Don't be out too late.

Robyn: It's Friday, Ace.

Alustriel: ... Oh yeah. Never mind then.

Tails: xD

Alustriel: Don't laugh. I'm just now getting something to eat. My brain hasn't been functioning all day.

Zoey: I told you to eat before you left this morning.

Alustriel: Yeah, well, I was in a rush.

Robyn: We noticed when you nearly ran over the mailbox.

Alustriel: -_-

I chuckled and looked at Chaos. He raised an eyebrow. "Good?"

"Yep! Just some shenanigans going on. I'll let you read it if you want," I said.

He took my phone and read the conversation. His lips quirked up in an amused smirk. "What's up with Ace?"

"... Oh yeah, I haven't told you... Ace has a second job. She's a doctor," I said.

He looked surprised. "Really?"

"Yeah. It's why she's been working so much..."

"Huh! That's... that's great. I imagine it's stressful though."

"Yeah..."

As we arrived back at his house, I noticed that Nina and Shadow were conveniently absent. I smiled to myself. Chaos seemed oblivious as he walked into the garage and took his motorcycle keys off a shelf. He tossed me a helmet. "Ready?"

"Yeah," I grinned as I put my phone back in my pocket.

-xXxXx-

Chaos' POV

The restaurant I took her to was called "Divine Cuisine". She got a chuckle out of it, but when we actually sat down and got her food she mentioned that she could see how the restaurant got its name. She ordered, and I quote, "the most delicious chicken biryani I've ever had". I had an excellent (and massive) pizza with pepperoni. The food tasted like it came straight from their respective countries. It was also very reasonably priced. Our waitress was a college girl named Elythia and she was wonderful. She was an auburn lynx with pretty blue eyes, and after some conversing we found out that she was a regular at the beauty salon Zoey worked at. Zoey had given her plenty of awesome experiences. It made me happy to know that Zoey was considered a success.

I watched as Robyn chatted excitedly with our waitress. I really dug into my pizza while they talked about Zoey. It was an excellent pepperoni pie with the right amount of cheese and sauce. Robyn had pretty much devoured her biryani already; there were only a few spoonfuls left. I smirked slightly to myself- typical Robyn.

As I took another bite, Elythia adjusted her notepad. "Can I get the lovely couple anything else?"

I nearly choked on my pizza. I hadn't heard a statement like that in ages. Robyn's face turned pink. "Oh, we're not a couple."

"Really?" Elythia looked between the two of us. "Hm. My mistake then."

"It's okay. Chaos, you want any dessert?" Robyn asked.

"An Oreo milkshake," I said once I swallowed my bite of pizza.

"That sounds good... make that two. Only I don't want whipped cream on mine," the fox said.

"Okay! So two Oreo milkshakes, one without whipped cream. I'll get those out for you," Elythia smiled.

She walked away with a sort of spring in her step. I watched her go absently- she was pretty, I couldn't deny that. I glanced back to Robyn and she was grinning. I raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"I saw you checking her out," she smirked.

I squinted at her. "I was not."

She gave me her "Cut-the-bullcrap" look. I rolled my eyes. "Yes, she is pretty. I will not deny that-"

"Ha!" she exclaimed as she did a fist pump.

"-but I wasn't checking her out," I finished.

She pouted and finished off her food. Then she looked at me again. "Why did you seem so surprised when she asked if 'the lovely couple' wanted anything else?"

"It's been a while since I've heard someone refer to us as a couple," I said.

"Oh..." She looked down at her plate. "Fair enough."

I watched her for a moment. She looked a bit worn out. Her dark green shirt was also a little loose on her. "Are you okay...?"

"Huh?" She looked up and blinked at me. "Yeah. Why?"

"You look tired," I pointed out.

"Do I? Huh. I mean, I guess I am a little bit... I didn't sleep much last night," she said.

For a second I felt like she was just trying to pacify me, but then I remembered that Shadow had been texting her a lot last night. So I lost the urge to tell her she looked like she was losing weight. "Ah. Okay."

Clearly eager to change the subject, she cleared her throat. "So... something interesting happened today."

I took the last bite of my pizza and licked the sauce off my fingers. "Oh?"

"Sonic asked me to the Winter Ball," she said as a smile curled her lips.

I froze. My brain took a long moment to process that information. "... He did?"

"Yeah. I said yes."

"Oh. Huh. Congrats."

"Thanks. I was really surprised."

"I don't see why. We all knew he wanted to ask you."

She gave me a Look. I smirked at her. "You can't deny it now."

She rolled her eyes. "I think you're still full of it."

I laughed, feeling a familiar emotion fill my chest. I had missed this. I missed teasing her and watching her face scrunch up in annoyance. How every time we were together, we always had things to talk about. How we were able to just sense what the other was thinking. To put it plainly, I had missed this girl, regardless of the fact that she had ditched me for Sonic.

"Well then, Miss I-Got-A-Date... any idea what you're going to wear?" I asked.

Yes, I discussed clothes with my female best friend. Sue me. It's what I got for growing up around her and Zoey.

"Not yet. Wanna help me decide?" she asked.

I chuckled. "I can try."

She smiled. "I value your input."

Just then, Elythia came back with our milkshakes. "Here you go!"

Robyn drooled as the giant milkshakes were placed in front of us. "Holy moly."

I smirked. "Dig in."

As she stuck a straw in her milkshake, I looked at Elythia. "We're ready for the check as well."

She nodded. "Sure."

With that, I attacked my milkshake. It was a perfect blend of ice cream and Oreos. From the look on Robyn's face, I knew she agreed. "Oh my god."

"I know," I said.

We drank the milkshakes eagerly. By the time we were almost finished, Elythia came back with the check. "Here you guys go."

"Thank you!" we chorused.

She beamed and walked to another table. I grabbed the check and looked it over; the total was around $25 after the dinner special discount had been applied. I signed the restaurant's copy of the bill, and then I pulled out my wallet and took out a fifty dollar bill. Robyn raised an eyebrow at me, but didn't say anything. I placed the money on top of the check and waited for Elythia to come back.

When she did, I smiled. "Keep the change."

Her eyes wandered to the money and then they widened. She looked back at me with a single tear slipping down her cheek. Her voice was quiet. "Thank you...!"

I smiled and waved a hand. "You're welcome. I applaud people like you, who work and go to school at the same time."

She emitted a watery chuckle. "Thank you..."

She picked up the money and the restaurant copy of the receipt. "Enjoy your night guys. I hope you'll come in again."

"Don't be surprised if you see me in here almost every single day," Robyn joked.

Elythia laughed. "I would look forward to it."

With an even bigger spring in her step, she walked off. Robyn turned her attention to me and raised an eyebrow again. "That was nice of you."

"What can I say? I'm in a good mood," I said as we stood up and got ready to leave.

She smiled faintly and headed towards the door. I started to follow her, but was stopped by someone calling out to me. "Um, sir?"

I turned around to see Elythia running towards me. "What's up?"

"Um… I normally don't do this, but here's my number. Feel free to text me sometime, okay? I can let you know about specials ahead of time," she said as she handed a piece of paper to me.

I glanced at it briefly before smiling at her. "Thanks. Uh, is this limited to only specials?"

"Oh, not at all! If you ever want to talk about anything, I've been told that I'm a pretty good listener. I can always offer advice if you need it."

"Okay, cool. See ya around."

"Bye!"

She quickly walked off again, presumably to serve another table. I ran outside and found Robyn waiting by the front door. She was grinning widely at me. I facepalmed. "Tell me you didn't-"

"See that whole exchange go down? Yes I did," she grinned.

Oh boy. I rolled my eyes. "She only gave me her number."

"Chaos, my friend, you are clueless when it comes to girls," she said with a roll of her eyes.

"She was just being nice. Besides, she said she can text me specials ahead of time so when I come here, I can have an advantage."

"Mmhmm."

"Oh whatever."

"… Did you just 'whatever' me?"

"Maybe. Whatcha gonna do about it, fox?"

"Oh you're asking for it, hedgehog!"

With a laugh, I took off running down the street. I heard her squawk in disbelief before she started running after me. Normally I would have been miles ahead of her, seeing as I'm much faster than she is, but since we were in town I couldn't leave her behind. I kept myself at a nice jogging pace to the point where I could still turn around and see her coming.

She ended up chasing me right into Station Square Park. I was still laughing when she somehow managed to launch herself at me and tackle me to the ground. With an "Oof!", we both fell over and ended up wrestling each other, trying to emerge victorious. After a moment or two, I managed to pin her down. Basically we were both like five-year-olds, giggling nonstop and rough-housing with each other.

She was nearly gasping for air from laughing so hard. "Man… I haven't had this much fun… in a while…"

"Me neither," I wheezed.

Our laughter slowly began to die down. I rolled to the side and sat up. She sat up as well, grinning with wild amusement. We both stared at each other with stupid grins on our faces. I searched her face, noticing the gleam in her emerald eyes and the color in her cheeks. A weird feeling came over me as I noticed the curve of her lips and absently I wondered what it would be like to feel that curve.

Before I knew what I was doing, I kissed her.

-xXxXx-

Robyn's POV

Screech!

Miss Hallins sighed. "Start again from the beginning."

I grimaced as I removed my violin from my shoulder. I put both my instrument and my bow down before grabbing a pencil. "Hang on..."

Kelly watched me curiously. I made several marks about notes, shifting positions, and tempo. Miss Hallins smiled as I put the pencil down. "Ready?"

"Yeah," I said as I picked my violin up and placed it on my shoulder again.

As she lifted her baton, the music started once more. I internally started counting down before she gave me the cue to play. Then I was off in my own world feeling the notes vibrate in my fingers. Kelly was humming the vocals of "Shatter Me". Zoey was leaning in the doorway listening to me play. A smile curled her lips...

Screech!

I winced. Kelly and Zoey both jumped. Miss Hallins lowered her baton and stopped the music. "Perhaps we should take a break?"

"Yeah," I muttered as I lowered my instrument again.

"You hungry?" Zoey asked.

Kelly jumped to her feet before I could answer. "Starving!"

My sister laughed. "I ordered pizza. The guy just delivered it a few minutes ago."

"Awesome!" Kelly took off with a grin.

Miss Hallins chuckled and looked at Zoey. "It's lovely to see you again Zoey."

"You too Piper! It feels like only yesterday when you were my calculus tutor in college," she said.

"Yet it still took both Alustriel and myself to get you a passing grade," Miss Hallins pointed out.

I shook my head. It was still weird to know that my sisters and my music teacher knew each other from college. Granted, Miss Hallins was only a few years older than them.

"Alustriel should be home soon so you'll be able to say hi," Zoey continued.

Miss Hallins nodded. "I'd like that. In the meantime, I'll enjoy that pizza."

She looked at me. "Are you hungry Robyn?"

"N-No. I'll eat later. I'm gonna look over the notes again," I muttered as I grabbed my music.

Not wanting to be questioned, I hurried outside. I sat on the back porch and stared down at the sheet music. I tried to focus on the notes, but they started to blur together. Then my mind wandered to the events of the previous night: the way Chaos had pulled me in, his eyes focused on my face...

...and then the kiss.

I shivered. The memory was vivid. I could still feel his lips on mine. Compared to the kiss that Sonic had given me the night we'd played Truth or Dare, this kiss was more... I couldn't think of the right word. Intense? Passionate? Memorable? I mean memorable was definitely true, but it wasn't the word I wanted to use. The other thing that made it memorable was the way Chaos had reacted once we pulled away from each other. His eyes had been as wide as saucers and his face was an interesting shade of red. Without saying a word, without explaining why he had kissed me, he had gotten up and taken off running again. He never came back for me.

Yes, I'd had to walk home from the park. Alone.

"Robyn?"

I jerked out of my thoughts. Miss Hallins was leaning against the sliding glass door. "Are you okay?"

"Uh... yeah. Fine." I turned back around. "Are we starting again?"

"Not quite yet." She walked over and sat next to me holding a plate of pizza. "I wanted to speak with you first."

"What about?"

She gently picked up my sheet music, which I hadn't even realized I'd dropped. "You don't seem fine. It's evident in your playing today."

I took the music from her and stared at it absently. "I guess so."

"What's wrong?"

I blinked and turned to look at her. She looked genuinely concerned. "You know you can talk to me about anything."

"I know. I... I'm just trying to come to terms with something," I said quietly.

She frowned. However she knew when to back down. "Okay. But I do want you to eat something. Zoey said you've barely eaten anything today."

She held the plate out to me. The pizza did smell good. It was from one of my favorite shops, East of Chicago. I smiled slightly at her. "Okay."

She smiled with relief. "Thank you."

She got up and started to walk back inside. For a split second, I felt extremely conflicted and I put the plate down. "Wait."

She turned back to me. "Yes?"

I paused for a second. Then it all came tumbling out: the rift in my friendship with Chaos, Sonic's supposed feelings for me, and how Chaos had acted the night before. Then I told her about how he had kissed me, and how I couldn't stop thinking about it. How I didn't know what to feel.

When I finished, I took a bite of pizza. Then, to my surprise, Miss Hallins started chuckling. I looked at her oddly. "What?"

"I was wondering when this was going to happen," she smiled.

I tilted my head. "When what was going to happen?"

She came back and sat next to me. "Robyn, I have been your music teacher for almost eight and a half years. I've known you and your siblings for nearly ten. I've watched you grow up with Chaos, both in music and in age. If there's two things I could say to anybody about the two of you, it would be this: you two create wonderful music together. He brings out the musician in you, and you allow him to bring out the best the piano can offer. You complement each other beautifully."

I couldn't help but feel proud. That was high praise. "And the second thing?"

She smiled knowingly. "Chaos is in love with you. He has been for a very long time."

Of course she'd say that. "So I've been told."

Her eyes gleamed. "Because it's that obvious."

"Yeah, yeah... I've heard the same thing when it comes to Sonic."

She chuckled again. "Ah, Sonic... yes. He does have feelings for you. But he's not in love with you."

"... How do you know?"

"Because I've been in your shoes."

My eyes wandered to her left hand, where her engagement ring glittered in the sun. "Oh?"

"Like you, I grew up with a boy as my best friend." I nodded, thinking of her fiancé Mattias. "Mattias and I were inseparable. We did everything together. However, I had another guy friend that I was very fond of. His name was Conrad."

Conrad... "Interesting name."

"Yes. He was... I think half Cherokee? Anyway, I found out after I started dating Mattias that Conrad had a crush on me. He was angry that I chose Mattias and started acting out."

The light in her eyes dimmed as she reflected on her memories. "It all came to a screeching halt at our senior prom... or rather the following day. I lost my virginity to Mattias after prom and somehow Conrad found out... he showed up in my front yard screaming bloody murder."

My cheeks turned red at how casually she shared the fact that she wasn't a virgin. "Oh...?"

"He was waving a knife, crying about how I could do this to him," she said quietly.

My eyes widened. "Wh...-"

"Mattias came out and they started fighting. I screamed at them to stop and they wouldn't listen..." She shivered. "Long story short, Mattias blurted out that he had been in love with me for a long time, and Conrad was so stunned that Mattias was able to take the knife from him."

I sat there processing the information. "... So how does this apply to me?"

"Your roles are a little switched around. Like Conrad, Chaos is realizing his feelings for you. Only instead of acting out, he's being distant. Sonic is claiming all your attention, whether you realize it or not. It's waking Chaos up to the fact that he could be losing you to someone else," Miss Hallins explained.

I felt conflicted. "... Sonic asked me to the Winter Ball."

She raised an eyebrow. "He did?"

"Mmhmm... I said yes," I said.

"Hm." She shook her head. "Give it time. Chaos will come around."

I stared down at the pizza again. She patted my shoulder as she got up and went inside. As the door closed behind her, I felt the familiar loneliness creep up on me. I felt just as conflicted as I had the night before on my way home.

What was I going to do?

What COULD I do?