Disclaimer: All of the Sonicverse characters and places inserted into this story are owned by SEGA, and used without permission. All other characters and places mentioned belong to me.
Sonic- 21 years
Amy (Paloma)- 19 years
Tails- 16 years
Knuckles- 23 years
Shadow- 22 years
Cream- 12 years
Rouge- 25 years
Chapter 6: Promises and Time
The cool ocean breeze rolled onto the sand and grass covered land. It was a great relief to finally feel the refreshing ocean breeze. All week there had been a heat wave. It was dry and made everyone in the area feel hot and sticky. The beaches were full and parking was no better during the summer months that open parking spaces became like a fairy tale. The once sleepy town now became a lively place to be once summer came around. All the restaurants were full of out of town customers, with some dressed in tacky floral shirts, cargo shorts, and sandals. Once in a while you could find someone from an old wealthy family strolling about the town in search of one of the newly built spas or local golf course.
Paloma stood on the cliff facing the ocean in the direction of the coming breeze. She had removed her shoes her feet were tired after standing for so long on them. It just felt so very good to feel the warm beach sand against her feet, soothing her tired feet. It had been three years since the day she came to this town from Station Square. She had created a brand new life for herself from her shattered hopes and dreams. She had indeed made a lot of new friends, but they were nothing like her old friends. Once in a while she would pick up a newspaper from the local deli or supermarket, maybe even turn on the television and find one of her friends on it. She would get riled up if she saw anything about Sonic.
Any picture she found of Sonic, she would tear up and burn it in a small fire in a sink. To this day she despised him for hurting her the way he did. Amy could still hear his ice filled words ringing in her ears each time she saw his shameless picture. She made a promise to herself that she would never love another person ever again. She just couldn't go on and live with the reality of getting hurt again. The phonies who claim they love her and then muck it all up by doing something to hurt her. Then again she was one. She barely loved herself anymore.
Amy had hoped that her new life would be filled with great promises. She wanted to start over again and delete her past with Sonic, but that seemed nearly impossible. Whenever she would think about Tails or Shadow for example, thoughts of Sonic were not far from behind. She couldn't forget her friends, but it seemed she had to in order to forget about Sonic.
Sonic the Hedgehog was the very first creature that she ever opened up to and would ever admire. Sonic the Hedgehog was the only creature that she would ever cause herself to wear her heart on her sleeve, and give her the strength to face her deepest of fears. Once he said all he wanted to say to her, it was as if he snatched all that she had dreamed away from her. He took away all of her hopes of having and making friends, of even trusting people. That also included the truly nice and kind ones.
A fog horn blew off in the distance snapping Paloma from her trance. She looked at the watch on her wrist to see that her time was up and voices from a distance were calling for her to come join the party. She placed her black half inch heels on her feet and proceeded to walk back. She straightened her now long rose pink quills to make herself more presentable before she made her way back to the refreshment table where she would pick up her serving tray again and serve the guest of this wedding party on the lighthouse grounds.
The summers were always hectic and busy, but it was the best time to earn money for the winter months. Supporting oneself did get kind of costly, especially when there are bills to pay. It wasn't unusual if someone took on a second or third job, just to support themselves. This happened to be Paloma's third job that she did on her days off with a local catering company. The pay was okay and was under the table. This was how she earned her pocket money, and was also one less stress she had to worry about when the tax man cometh.
When she used to live in Station Square, she would wait on tables or as cashier. She could get by then with holding down only one job, since the cost of living seemed like it was too good to be true. Now things were different, she no longer lived in Station Square. She lived in a place that only means of survival was counting on a heavy migration of tourists into her new home town. It was worth sometimes to know that when summer came around, that it was a chance to refuel one's savings for the long haul. Paloma was lucky to have a job period! Especially since she was lucky enough to find a year round job that gave her a place to sleep without any much of a worry of paying for utilities, things such as for telephone, water and heat. She never did get that job as the caretaker of the lighthouse. It would have been too good to be true if she did get it. The ladies that day had told her they wanted someone with historical knowledge, and she was under qualified for the position. They also didn't like the fact that she was a hedgehog, they never said that was one of the reason why they didn't hire her but you could tell that it was in their eyes it was.
Paloma worked at a local yacht club that was located on Lake Montauk in the harbor area. The Montauk Yacht Club had 107 rooms for all who came to enjoy the area. It had two outdoor swimming pools as well as one swimming pool that was located indoors and was heated. They had a gym with weight room and nautilus equipment. They even had a sauna. Each room came with a bed of your size choosing, color cable TV, a coffee maker, hair dryer, refrigerator, iron, and ironing board. She worked there as a housekeeper and at night when her shift was over; she would work part-time in the club's restaurant as a hostess. It was a miracle that she got any sleep. It was even more of a miracle that she would wake up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed the next day. She did get extra sleep on her days off and during the off season.
It was refreshing to her to mingle with different people, though she hated when any guy would try to pick her up. She was even more disgusted when married men who were dinning with their family tried picking her up. Her heart couldn't go through heartbreak, and she couldn't bring herself to date even if it meant that she may become "the other woman". She wasn't a slut, but some of her female co-workers were spreading rumors that she was one. They were jealous of her and how she treated everyone, especially the guys.
Station Square was hot and very humid for the past few weeks. Two summers have already come and went without much of a fuss. It just happened that this summer was disgustingly hot. Sure the thunderstorms would clear up the humidity, but you could always count on it coming back a few days later. Amy's old apartment had not been rented since the day she left. In fact the entire building had become condemned. The once cheery windows were bordered up. The front entrance had three planks that covered it, and the side entrance that led to the basement and into the building had a cast iron gate on it. If you looked up to the side of the building where Amy had once lived, the window that was in her bedroom was half boarded up and if you could get up to the old fire escape then you could notice that part of the window was broken. It was big enough to allow a person through it. Someone or something had removed it deliberately, considering the only way to get on that fire escape was to jump from the roof of one of the adjacent buildings, or fly, or even been born/acquire supper speed.
It seemed that the rest of Amy's old friends had moved on with their lives. Knuckles and Rouge had become more then friends over the past three year and were now expecting their first offspring. They didn't care what it looked like, who it would look like, or even its gender. Just as long as it was a healthy and happy baby, that's all that mattered to them. Rouge still worked for the government and with her help Angel Island became government protected reserve, with Knuckles giving his final word as it's still acting guardian. This would ensure the island's safety as well as safety for the emerald itself.
Amy had missed out on so many important events in the lives of her old friends. She had just cut them out of her life. Cream was growing up into lovely young doe rabbit, and had developed a crush on Tails. Her mother Vanilla thought it was just cute to see her little girl eyeing her first love. Tails on the other hand was trying to be just friends with her. He had learned his lesson long ago from watching how Sonic had treated Amy three years ago. That entire event was burned into his mind. He knew that eventually once Cream started high school that she would forget about him and move on with someone who was close to her own age.
Shadow had created a new life for himself. He lived the way he wanted to live, and he lived for both Maria and himself. He had come along way since being awakened, and had learned many things about life. He lived alone in a studio apartment that was located close to culture section of Station Square. No one would have thought that Shadow was as deep as he was. He was the exact opposite of Sonic. Whatever Sonic disliked whether it was the ballet or the museums Shadow loved. It wasn't hard to believe that they were opposites. They were different kinds of hedgehogs. One had patience and the other had very itchy feet. But what made them same was their connection to the Robotnick family.
He still hated Eggman for what he devoted his life to. It was hard to believe that he was related to his creator, Gerald. Sometimes he thought of them both like human version of him and Sonic. Amy was his Maria, and he would do anything to help her even protect her from harms way. If it wasn't for Amy, he would never have remembered Maria's true wish of making everyone happy.
Shadow sat down on a black leather sofa that sat under an opened window. The breeze felt so very good and was quite a change from the standard weather that they had been getting recently. He couldn't help but to stick his head out of window to feel the blessed cold breeze. Shadow couldn't help but to stare out the window and towards the direction of the setting sun. He couldn't help but wonder about Sonic and what he had been up to in the past three years. Sure, he saw him everyday, but something was amiss. He seemed as if he was searching for something, but didn't know what it was. He would still go on with his carefree lifestyle and he seemed much happier since Amy was long gone, but Shadow couldn't help but wondered if Sonic was subconsciously hiding something.
The first occurrence, that Shadow noticed, had taken place in Sonic's apartment about a year and half since Amy had left. He remembered a clear glass vase with pink roses in them when visiting Sonic. When he saw them and had ask Sonic about the new addition, he just shrugged it off by saying "I was tired of the everyday boredom of this place." Never did Shadow think that it was Sonic's subconscious trying to tell him something. The thought that Sonic had a subconscious was kind of funny for even Shadow to think about. Then again the roses could have been given to Sonic from one of the many girls he had been dating since Amy had left. Maybe it was a thank you for a good time on their date. Shadow just shook it off his mind and continued to watch the sunset till there was no longer color from the sun in the night sky.
Sonic still saved people like he always did and he would hang around all the cool hang outs, but he truly hated the V.I.P speech they would give him at every restaurant as a way to be grateful for all the time he saved the city and the world. They were just suck ups and ass kissers. Sometimes he wondered what if he wasn't a hero and was just an ordinary hedgehog. Would there be any difference from the way he was being treated now? It would be a logical guess that they would.
In the past three years for Sonic the Hedgehog, everything went well but it just seemed to him to get dull at times. The same routine, day in and day out for the so called blue hero. In the beginning of the first year since Amy had left Station Square, Sonic couldn't help but look over his shoulder. It was odd not to have the cheerful pink hedgehog chasing him or trying to suffocate him with her powerful hugs. Sometimes he wondered how such a dainty creature could posse such strength. It was not that he missed her at the time it was more like that it was conditioned...something that he should expect from walking the streets of Station Square everyday. He even almost missed those words "Marry me Sonic!" Was he truly wrong to treat her the way he did all those years ago? She was asking for it and since he said I, his life seemed to change for the better. Or did it? Why did he feel like something was going to happen that would change his life even more then before? Why did he have a strange feeling in his stomach every single time it rain would pour on his face? Why did it seem he was constantly searching for something the moment he woke up? Was he going insane? Was it hidden guilt because of what he did or the fact of what his friends said about not getting to know her at all? Whatever it was, it was getting old pretty quick.