CHAPTER 22: Friends

As Rouge sat waiting for her laptop to boot up(she'd just hooked it up again), she couldn't help but notice her eyelids didn't try to droop and she hadn't yawned for at least an hour: obviously, this meant that damn drug was wearing off.

"Finally I'll be able to sit for five minutes without yawning or having to drink a cup of coffee again," she said to herself. As her laptop finished booting up and she began a game of FreeCell, someone knocked on the door. "Come in!" she called out. The door opened and in came Amy.

"Hiya Rouge," she greeted. "Haven't seen you for a little while. How you been?"

"I've been doing pretty well," Rouge replied, setting her laptop aside. "Come on and sit down, we gotta talk a while. How've YOU been?"

"Ah, same old same old," Amy said. She sat down on the couch beside Rouge, who looked at the clock out of curiousity. It was 3:00 in the afternoon. "Been busy with work, you know. I ran into Sonic recently, and we've gone out a couple of times since then."

"How'd you bag him?"

"Looked him in the eyes, asked him if we could wipe the slate clean and forget all the times I clubbed him with my hammer, then asked him out. Not too hard."

"I told you it would work!" Rouge exclaimed with a bit of a laugh. "So, where did you two go?"

"Well, the first time, we went out to eat." Amy grinned as she added, "Sonic said he told Tails before we went out, and Tails said it was kind of ironic, since we were about to go to one of my competitors for dinner. He was right, wasn't he?"

"Sounds like it," Rouge said, also with a grin. "Where else did you go?"

"Well, the last time we went out, we went and saw Terminator. Decent movie, but it had machines in it. Leave it to me and Sonic to pick a movie about robots, huh?"

"Yeah. Hey, what's wrong?" Amy's face had darkened considerably when she mentioned the theater, and Rouge had seen it right away.

"Well..." Amy was a little hesitant to have to relive Espio's murder, but she started from the beginning, about hiring him, the first attack, and the events up to the murder. Before she finished, she broke down into tears, and Rouge pulled her into a hug.

"I'm so sorry," she said in what she hoped was a comforting tone. "I shouldn't have asked you that. I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault," Amy said, still sobbing. "You didn't know what I was going to say. Anyway, I'll be okay in a few minutes. Why don't you tell me what you've been up to lately? I've been doing all the talking so far."

"Okay," Rouge said, letting Amy go. "Well, from what I pieced together, I found the Master Emerald about a week ago, but Knuckles stopped me from reaching it, then he forced me to sniff some kind of shit that screwed my memory up. I really haven't forgotten much, as far as I can tell, but it DID surprise me when I couldn't remember if I liked bacon and eggs. But anyway, something showed up in my dreams and told me where to find him, so I went and tracked him down. We had a little talk, and it turns out he saw the same thing, and it told him I was coming."

"Creepy," Amy said, wiping away the last of her tears.

"No joke," Rouge agreed. "Anyway, we talked a little more, and I found out he likes me. I kinda like him too, actually. We went out to eat the other night."

"Where'd you go?" Amy asked with a sly grin. "Didn't go to one of my competitors, did you?"

"Yeah, actually," Rouge confessed, scratching the back of her head.

"Well, just this once, I'll conveniently forget that you didn't look us up first. Anyway, did you kiss him?"

"No, no kissing. Oh, that reminds me, did you and Sonic kiss?"

"Yeah, we did," Amy said, blushing slightly, even though she had no idea why. "I'm no expert on the subject, but I'd say he's a good kisser. I wonder if he hasn't had someone to practice on..."

"Nah, doesn't seem becoming of him," Rouge said. "Then again, I haven't seen him for awhile... Or Tails, for that matter. How is he?"

"Oh, he's okay, at least at home. From what I've seen, he's having a rough time of it with the other kids at school. Swirlies, locker stuffings, he even got knocked out playing a game of football he didn't even want to play in the first place. The school can't do anything about that, either." Amy sighed and Rouge shook her head.

"Kids these days," she said, disgusted. "They can't get their kicks from something decent anymore. Now it's all drinking, partying, bullying, and sex."

"You forgot drugs, but I know what you mean. Course, look at me, I'm not much older than most of them."

"Physically you're not. As far as maturity goes, hell, you're years ahead of them!"

"Thanks. Anyway, I went and picked up Tails when the school called me, and I talked to him about his applying for a job at my restaurant."

"He applied at your place? Do tell."

"Yeah, Graham gave me his application several days ago. Didn't even get around to talking to him about it until today. Right now he's probably at home laying down."

Tails gulped down a glass of cool water on his way to his room. Once there, he cranked his stereo, sat down at his desk, and started work on a new blueprint for a subatomic energy converter he planned to build for the science fair later on in the year.
"Anyway," Amy went on, "he said he still wanted the job, and he starts on Friday. I hate to tell him he'll have to come in on Sundays."

"Yeah, those church groups are massive, huh?" Rouge said. "Still, least people are saying good things about you, even if it means everyone at that church down the road from your place has to stop in all at once."

"Yeah, you're right about that. Least we make a lot of money. Did I tell you I was thinking of opening in a second location?"

"No you didn't. Bet it won't curb the church groups, will it?"

"Probably not, but still, it'll have it rewards later on down the road."

"Yeah, I can imagine... You still offering Cream part-ownership when she hits eighteen?"

"Yeah, I am. Call it favoritism if you want, but hey, my place, I can do what I like with it. At least, anything within the law, and I see no laws against that."

"Nice attitude." Rouge got up and headed into her kitchen. "You want something to drink?"

"Please," Amy said. "I think we'll be needing it, because we've still got a lot to talk about, don't we?"

Mkay, sorry I took a little longer with this one than the others, but I've been feeling a little out of it lately. Plus I had some trouble thinking of some idea for a chapter. This one's basically here as a filler, just to kinda sum up events, but it also serves the purpose of showing that Rouge and Amy are best good friends. R&R please. I hope this was a nice reprieve from all the killin' and bad stuff happening.