Cream's eyes sparkled brightly as she ingested a forkful of Amy's pie. She had never tasted such a delicacy before and her taste buds exploded in sensation making her mind run wild in inspiration to create her own variation of the delectable desert. "Amy, you made this?"
Pride overwhelming her as both Vanilla and Tails happily munched on their slices, Amy sipped her tea delicately so as not to burn her lips. "Of course I did, who else can achieve such perfection?" Her voice swelled enormously with pride as she fought the urge to laugh.
"She's got quite the nice situation going on," Tails set his plate down onto the coffee table as he turned to face Vanilla, "Amy makes these pies at the little diner she works at." The mentioning of the diner made Amy shiver a bit. She hadn't expected to be thinking about her abysmal job until after her vacation.
Curiosity hung heavily in the air as the two rabbits eyed the pink hedgehog oddly. "I wasn't aware you had a job Amy, why didn't you tell us?" Vanilla sipped her tea politely while eyeing Amy for a response. Though Amy knew better, the look in the older rabbit's eyes made it appear that she was almost insulted at the lack of knowledge.
"It just never came up I guess…" Amy's heart beat raced as she mentally tried her best to steer the conversation clear of the topic of her job.
Never one to be left with questions unasked, Cream quickly followed the pink hedgehog's response with her own question, "Do you like it? Being a chef I mean. I pictured you more as a waitress than a cook."
"Actually, I am a waitress; the pies are just something special I do on Fridays. I like it though; it's a good gig…" Her uneasiness was practically obvious at this point. So much so that even the normally dense Knuckles caught onto it.
Worry weighing his brow down, Tails decided that now would be the appropriate time to bring up the issue that had been festering in his mind for days. "You sure about that; cause I swear I thought I saw you leaving in a hurry the other day?" The fox had spent several hours pondering what it was he saw. He hadn't gone after Amy that day due to the uncertainty that lay within him as to whether or not he actually saw what he thought he saw.
Amy's face froze in fear as she found herself on a tight rope of a secret. Any movement she made would reveal the truth to those watching. She didn't want this; Amy didn't want her friends to know what work was really like for her. However, Tails had to go and be annoyingly observant at times that it wasn't necessary. He had found her out. Even if she could convince him that he was mistaken, Vanilla would worry continuously for Amy. The fox had opened Pandora's Box and all the pink hedgehog could do was to be honest.
"Well…you see…my boss…he's a bit of a…well…a…" Worry creased Amy's face as she looked sorrowfully at Cream, she didn't want to risk harming the rabbit's innocence with details.
"Pervert?"
Everybody turned to face Knuckles as he finished Amy's sentence with a growl that seemed to make the very walls tremble. The look in the echidna's eyes was fierce, more so than she had ever seen him before. His violet eyes danced with flames of repressed rage at the information. Fear gripped the hedgehog as she struggled to understand the echidna's sudden anger.
"Oh Amy, I'm so sorry you have to deal with that. You don't have to though," Always one to comfort someone in need, Vanilla abused her angelic tone of voice to try and calm the hedgehog, "You can always come live with Cream and I if you need to. Nobody should have to put up with that kind of person just so they can pay the bills."
"My door is always open too Amy. I've got a guest room that is all yours if you want; free of charge." Tears welled up in Amy's eyes as she felt how much everybody cared. Vanilla and Tails were offering her homes while Cream was clearly fighting back tears at the thought of what Amy had to go through. The most surprising was Knuckles; his eyes were absolutely inflamed with controlled anger. He had never cared this much before so Amy was taken aback by the emotion.
The prospect of living with Vanilla or Tails was more than promising, it was practically a dream come true. Tails' house was huge, he was rarely home so it would basically just be her house, and Cream lived just down the street. Amy wanted to take the offer immediately; she desired greatly to get away from her current life. However, she couldn't do it; Amy had very good reasons for living her life. "I'm fine guys. Trust me; my boss isn't all that bad. He's easy to ignore. Plus, I need to do it on my own. I need to prove it to-"
"Sonic?" Amy's eyes bulged in shock at the aggravated snarl that accompanied the name of her hero from the lips of the now fuming echidna. She had honestly never seen Knuckles so furious at something so suddenly.
In her frail attempt to offer a rebuttal to Knuckles' accusation the pink hedgehog stuttered helplessly, "N-No…I n-need to p-prove-"
"The hell you have to prove anything to anybody, least of all that rat Sonic! Do you honestly think that if you prove to Sonic that you can take care of yourself that he'll come back? He won't, he never will. That jackass is gone because he's a coward! He doesn't want to face his mistakes and absolutely nothing will change that!" In his rage, the crimson echidna brought himself angrily to his feet with his fists balled tightly. Cream clung to the arm of the couch in fear of Knuckles' sudden reaction. She even knocked her pie to the floor in reaction. Vanilla could only watch in fear as the furious echidna unleashed his pent up rage. Similarly, Tails shook frightfully as he realized that if Knuckles were to become frenzied in anger, only Amy would be able to stop him with her hammer and the poor girl was frozen solid by the power of the Guardian's words. "Forget about him! You're better off without him anyway, we all are."
Noticing the level his anger was reaching, the echidna quickly stormed passed Tails and almost barreled through the front door without opening it. Luckily for Tails' house, the echidna managed to make it outside without destroying any furniture.