Blaze's eyes snapped open. She stared at her still dark ceiling and sighed.

Great, of course. On top of everything else, I can't fall asleep, and then I wake up early.

She grabbed her phone off her nightstand and checked the time.

5:14 . . . Well, might as well get up.

She sighed and pulled herself up and out of bed. She was dreading school today for multiple reasons. Friday Fatigue, a lack of sleep, and having to face Shadow and, more importantly, Selena at school tomorrow. Or, well, today now.

Blaze took an extended shower and then proceeded with her regular morning routine. She kept her look simple today, consisting of a white shirt with black stripes, grey jeans, and black slip-on boat shoes. She added simple stud earrings, and then with her extra time, decided to apply some light makeup to boost her confidence. It semi-worked.

Once that was done, she headed downstairs, where she encountered her aunt preparing lunch for herself.

"You're up early," her aunt remarked, stacking apple slices into a bento-style container.

"Yeah, went to bed early," replied Blaze semi-truthfully, pouring herself a bowl of frosted flakes.

"Well, since you're up early, I'll let you pack your own lunch. There is leftover chicken in the fridge if you want to take it," Blaze's aunt told her.

"'Kay," replied Blaze, mouth full of cereal.

Blaze took her time eating breakfast, allowing herself to have a second helping. After she finished, she quickly tossed some food into her lunch bag and hurried upstairs to brush her teeth and put on her lip makeup (clear lip gloss). When Blaze was finished, the time was 6:35, a whole 15 minutes before she needed to be out the door. She sat in her living room anxiously, trying to decide when to leave. She didn't want to encounter Shadow on her walk to the bus stop for what felt like the first time in her life.

She decided to leave five minutes earlier than usual. Hopefully, she thought, Shadow will just turn right out and won't even notice me standing at the corner. I can always hide behind that tree nearby . . .

She took a deep breath, slipped on her shoes, and headed out the door. She quickly walked down to her bus stop. Unfortunately, she left at just the wrong time.

Oh shit . . . Of course, Shadow had to leave at the same time as me today of all days.

She slowed down ever so slightly out of habit and out of wishful thinking. She kept walking and watched as Shadow got into his truck, started the engine, and pulled out of his driveway.

Blaze kept her head down as he slowly started to roll down the cul-de-sac, but she couldn't resist lifting up her head as he passed. As she had done every single day that school year, she lifted her hand in greeting.

Shadow drove straight past as if Blaze were invisible. He didn't even look her in the eye.

She sighed sorrowfully and hung her head as she continued her death march towards her bus stop, trying to hold back her emotions.

I should've guessed . . . she thought. So, this is the new normal, huh?

Shadow sighed, turning out of his neighborhood and continuing on his usual way to school. He had hoped that blowing Blaze off would relieve his conscience, but . . . it didn't. To say he was dreading school today was a massive understatement. He had no idea how he was gonna manage Selena, handle the crowds at school, or face Blaze or her friends. At least Selena hadn't asked for his phone number.

Oh fuck, he realized. Selena must've forgotten, but she'll undoubtedly ask me for it as soon as I arrive at school. I can't let her have it. She'll message me nonstop no matter what.

"Shit!" he shouted as he stopped at a stoplight. "God fucking dammit, I can't believe I'm in this mess!"

He exhaled aggressively. Well, I'm almost to school, better think of a plan and quick . . .

Then an idea hit him. He gave a small smirk to himself.

It's better than nothing . . . he mused.

Shadow finally pulled into his designated parking spot at school and was displeased to almost immediately see an eager Selena hurrying over to his truck.

He quickly finished setting up his plan and then got out. Selena beamed.

"Heyyyyyy, Shadow," she cooed. She reached up and hugged Shadow, trying to plant a kiss on his cheek. He gently nudged her off of him.

He rolled his eyes. "What do you want, Selena?"

Selena looked indignant. "What do I want? You actually thought we were gonna date in secret? Ha!"

She held out her phone, the "add contact" screen open. "I can't believe I forgot yesterday. I want your phone number."

When Shadow didn't move, she crossed her arms and scowled.

"Your number now, or the deal is off!" she demanded.

Shadow groaned and held out his hand to accept Selena's phone. He punched in the number she wanted, added his name, and handed it back to her. Selena gleefully accepted it and immediately sent him a text message. His phone buzzed for the first of what was almost undoubtedly innumerable times.

"Yay!" Selena cheered. She extended out her hand. "Now, take my hand and walk inside," she ordered.

Shadow sighed but reluctantly took her hand. She quickly linked arms with him and chirped, "Let's go!"

The walk across the parking lot and up the main steps to the front entrance felt like a mile-long hike. A few people saw them, and two girls turned and started whispering to each other. He internally groaned in anticipation.

As soon as they were through the school's main entrance, Selena wasted no time dragging him around to her various friend groups. She would then proceed to brag about the two of them "finally getting together." Shadow pretended to go along with the whole thing, giving small smiles and nodding. He hated what he was doing but needed to seem like he was a part of the entire thing if he wanted Selena to hold true to the agreement. Shadow got some jealous stares from many girls, as well as some utterly baffled looks from guys he played sports with. He briefly passed Sonic, who was talking at Amy's locker. When he saw them past, he tried to get his attention, mouthing, "Dude, what gives?" Shadow pretended to not notice him.

Selena kept dragging him around for almost all morning. Shadow glanced at his watch and tapped Selena on her shoulder, hoping to have her break away from her ceaseless gabfest.

Selena perked up and turned to face him. "Yes, babe?" she responded sweetly.

Shadow choked back the snarky retort he wanted to say to her and told her, "It's 7:20. We should get to homeroom."

Selena glanced at her phone. "Oh yeah, I guess so." She hugged his arm tight. "Will you walk me to homeroom, babe? Room A106."

Shadow sighed. "Sure," he agreed. He promptly was met with a sharp pinch. Selena glared up at him.

"Call me 'babe' too!" she hissed. "Or whatever pet name you want, but you better call me something!"

"Bitch" is the only name you deserve, he thought to himself. He sighed. "Sure . . . Babe . . ."

"Eeeeeeee!" Selena squealed. "Let's go!" she cheered.

While they were walking, Shadow saw the familiar purple hair of a certain girl . . .

Oh no . . . Blaze . . .

Blaze glanced up briefly and saw them. She immediately turned away. Shadow felt horrible, but Selena looked quite pleased with herself. She gave a smug smile and wave to Blaze as they passed. Shadow nudged Selena, and she looked up at him.

Once they rounded the corner and were out of Blaze's earshot, he leaned forward and muttered, "Hey, leave Blaze out of this, okay? You got what you wanted. Leave her alone." Selena replied with a bored, "Whatever."

Once he dropped Selena off at her homeroom, he quickly made his way to his own. Blaze's passing image and the hurt on her face were burned into his memory. He hoped she would forgive him.

Blaze slowly entered the cafeteria and was almost immediately drawn to the table where Alysha, Selena, and Fiona were sitting. There was Shadow, sitting right next to Selena, who was giggling as she fed him bites of something. She felt her cheeks burn with indignation and what felt like shame. She glanced over at the lunch table where her friends were sitting and realized it was almost directly in view of where Selena and Shadow were sitting.

Heart heavy, she silently exited the cafeteria. She needed some space by herself.

She made her way to the school library, which was a much quieter and more secluded place to eat. She found an empty table near the graphic novel section, took her seat, and opened her lunch bag. It felt weird eating by herself, but it was also oddly soothing. She didn't have to face the truth that had made her distracted all day: Shadow, a boy she had trusted and was infatuated with, was dating one of the girls that made her life hell.

She stared at the fake wood tabletop, focusing on her food to distract from her emotions.

"Oh, there you are!" a familiar voice spoke.

Blaze, mildly startled, looked up. It was Silver, holding two Ramune brand sodas, with a concerned expression on his face.

"I thought I might find you here. Mind if I sit with you?"

Blaze shook her head. "Go ahead."

Silver pulled up a chair. "I brought you a strawberry Ramune," he offered, handing her the glass bottle filled with red liquid. "I figured you could use one."

Blaze gave a small smile. "Thanks, I could use some sugar," she remarked. She pulled the plastic plunger off and used it to push the glass bead into the soda, which fizzed. She took a small swig.

Silver took a breath. "Hey, I uh . . . I heard about Shadow and Selena. Blaze, I'm . . . I'm really sorry. That was a really mean thing for him to do, and I know how much you liked him."

Blaze sighed. "Yeah . . . I couldn't believe it. I thought we had a small spark, at the very least." She shook her head in disappointment. "Guess I was wrong. And you wanna know the worst part about this? I still have feelings for him! Even though Amy and Sally both told me that he wasn't worth the heartache over, I still really, really like him. I'm mad, but I still wanna be with him." She sat back wistfully. "Guess that's never gonna happen now, huh?" she commented.

Silver made a subtle motion with his arm as if he was going to reach out, but he quickly pulled back. He scratched the back of his head. "Well, I don't have any experience with this sort of thing," he started, "But from what I've heard, you'll get over him eventually. I guess just think about how bad his taste is. He went rummaging in the trash for scraps when there was a . . ."

He paused, trying to think of an analogy. He snapped his fingers and pointed at Blaze. ". . . A roast chicken dinner right in front of him." He blinked, suddenly realizing what he said, and his face morphed into an expression of embarrassment. Blaze giggled.

"That's not a bad metaphor," she snickered, smiling at him. Silver relaxed once again and laughed as well.

Blaze sat back, this time smiling. She looked at Silver again, this time smiling. "You know, dude, I thought I wanted to be alone for lunch today, but I'm glad you came to look for me. Thanks. You do make me feel like a roast chicken dinner." She beamed, laughing, and Silver had to suppress the beating in his chest. He looked away in case he was blushing, trying to slow his breathing down. While looking away, he happened to notice a familiar figure enter the library.

He leaned over to Blaze. "Hey, don't look now, but Alysha just walked in."

Blaze groaned. "Shit! What's she doing?"

"Don't worry," Silver told her. "She's going over to the help desk." He waited in silence, ears peeled, listening to her conversation with the staff member.

"Sounds like she's got a vital project to print out," he said back in a hushed voice. "And it needs to be in color, or she'll lose points."

He turned to Blaze with a mischievous grin on his face. "I've got an idea," he said. He beckoned for her to get up, and she did. The two of them slunk past bookshelves, Alysha at the computer station, and up to the photocopier and printer.

Silver clapped his hands together. "This is the only printer in the library that does color," he told Blaze. "If it goes down, Alysha won't have a project to turn in." He smirked at her. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

Blaze laughed in surprise and amazement. "Are you nuts!? What if we get caught?" she asked.

Silver shook his head. Don't worry, we won't," he reassured. "Just watch. It'll be worth it, trust me."

Silver quickly tapped a few buttons on the touchscreen readout of the printer. He then opened a side panel on the machine, revealing four toner colors: black, magenta, cyan, and yellow. He quickly opened them and removed all of the color toner from the printer. He then stuffed all of the cartridges into the nearby recycling bin and covered them with loose pieces of paper.

"Don't worry," he told Blaze, closing the toner drawer. "They'll find it eventually."

He then opened up the paper tray and pulled out the plain white paper, stuffing it behind the machine. He grabbed a neon orange paper stack in a nearby drawer and placed that into the printer, closing the paper tray. He tapped a few buttons on the display, confirming the lack of colored toner.

"And now, we exfiltrate," he said, hurrying himself and Blaze away from the printer areas back to their lunch table.

A few moments after sitting down, they saw Alysha hurry over to the printer to see her print job, which had started to come through. Alysha stared in horror at her project, printed in splotchy grayscale on the nasty orange paper, with smudged and almost illegible text. Panicked, she hurried back over to the computer center to run another job, only to get the exact same results. To make things worse (or better for Blaze and Silver), the printer then received an error message indicating a jam. It made a horrible clunking noise and began to chime. Alysha shrieked in panic, much to the amusement of Silver and Blaze.

"C'mon, let's get out of here," Silver said. The two of them quickly gathered up their things and scurried out of the library, leaving a flustered Alysha to fend for herself. Once out of the library, they started to giggle. Their laugher grew as they walked. Soon, they were roaring with laughter to the point where they had to stop walking and sit down in the hall.

Blaze held her aching sides. "Oh. My. God! That was so satisfying to watch!" she laughed.

Silver took a moment; he was having a more difficult time stopping his laughter. He hiccupped and sighed. "Told you it was worth it." He almost immediately started laughing again

Blaze giggled. "I've never seen her look more terrified than that! Her eyes were practically popping out of her sockets!"

"Right!?"

The two of them laughed for a bit longer before finally exhausting themselves. Blaze and Silver sat in silence for a moment, reveling in their victory. Then, Blaze turned to look at Silver.

"Dude, thanks again for coming to sit with me at lunch. I really appreciate it."

"Of course," Silver replied. "What're friends for, right?"

Just then, the bell rang. Blaze stood up and dusted herself off.

"We should get going," she told him. "I've got PE."

"Oh, right." Silver quickly stood up as well. He turned to look at Blaze, and his eyes fell upon her face, which seemed practically glowing to him at the moment. Her perfect smile was only making things worse for him. He felt his heart rate pick up, and his palms suddenly felt a lot sweatier.

He turned away, coughing into his fist. "Well, I'll see you around then," he said, trying to act as casually as possible.

"Oh, yeah," Blaze agreed. "Hey, wanna play Terraria sometime tonight?" she asked. "I've been enjoying our Friday night sessions."

"O-oh," Silver started. "Yeah, of course. I'll message you on Discord."

"Okay!" Blaze chirped. "See ya, Silver!" she waved and hurried off to PE, a smile on her face and a slight spring in her step.

Silver exhaled and leaned up against the wall, relieved.

Ah, shit, she's so fucking cute . . . he thought, a sheepish smile on his face.

He slapped his face a couple times. Snap out of it, man! You gotta wait! She's still not over Shadow yet.

He slowly started his walk to his next class, trying to get in the headspace for it. He couldn't. Her smile, her face, her laugh . . . they were all so perfect. And distracting.

How am I gonna be able to wait this long? I want her so badly!

It was Saturday, and Silver was standing behind the counter at Mystical Melodies Coffee, his mother's coffee shop. For a Saturday, it had been pretty slow, and he had just gotten back from wiping down the tables and sweeping the dining area. At the moment, he stood blankly, staring into space. He couldn't get Friday out of his mind. More specifically, he couldn't get Blaze out of his mind.

The sudden sound of crashing behind him caused him to jump. He wheeled around, only to see his older sister, a peach echidna, sheepishly sitting on the floor, with boxes of cups and lids strewn about around her.

"Christ, Tikal, you really scared me!" Silver remarked. He heard his mother's voice boom out from the back room of the shop.

"Silver! Tikal! For God's sake, be careful with the merchandise!"

"Sorry!" Tikal called back. She stood up carefully, brushing herself off. She then quickly started to pick up the dropped cups and turn the boxes she dropped upright. She brushed a dreadlock, which had slipped out of its hairnet, back underneath the net and readjusted her hat.

The 20-year-old turned to face her brother, who she still happened to be taller than. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you, Silver," she said. She grabbed the boxes of cups and lids and began to restock the dispensers.

When Silver didn't move to help her, she paused and turned to look at him. "Something on my little brother's mind, isn't there?" she probed, giving him a teasing look. "I've got the sister instincts on lock. Mark my words, they still work even though we've got different parents!"

He sighed. Tikal always seemed to know what he was thinking. "Yeah actually, it's about . . ."

Tikal turned to look at him, excited. Silver could tell by the way she was looking at him that she already knew what the subject was about. ". . . It's about Blaze. And her crush on Shadow."

"Aha, I knew it," she responded with a wise look on her face. "Well, spill the tea, bro. What's up? You tell her yet?"

Silver shook his head. "Well, I was sorta planning on doing so, but, uh, there's been a complication. See, Blaze still likes Shadow, but he ended up dating a different girl."

"Uh, seriously? That's a complication? Hello, dumbass, this is your chance!" Tikal said indignantly. "See if you can get her while she's a bit sore. You can be the band-aid she needs!"

"Uh, yeah, no offense Tikal, but I know Blaze better than you do. Trust me, right now is not a good time to make a move. See, Shadow said he was gonna take her home Thursday, but he ended up ditching her for a girl that actively gives her shit," Silver explained.

Tikal nodded understandingly. "Ohhhhhhh. Yeah, maybe not then. Give her some time to recover from what was essentially this 'Shadow' character stomping on her heart. Damn, that stings. That guy sounds like an ass. I'd have kicked him in the nuts had that happened to me," she commented, getting fired up.

"Honestly, it's understandable why she is upset," he continued, ignoring his sister's outburst, "But I just want her to move on. I can't contain my feelings for her anymore. I'm afraid I'm gonna say something that gives it away and then have that ruin the good thing we've got."

Tikal nodded, taking in her little brother's worried thoughts. "Look, dude, I haven't met Blaze, but she seems really nice. I doubt she'd cut things off with you if she found out, even if she didn't want to date you."

She filled the last of the cups into the dispenser and closed it. She turned to face Silver and grabbed his shoulders, making direct eye contact. "Here's my advice for now: give it two weeks. Then see how she feels about Shadow then. If she's still hurting over Shadow, give her another week or so. Then go have some fun together and then confess when you feel ready."

Silver blushed at the thought of telling Blaze he liked her. Tikal chuckled and ruffled his hair.

"Aw, my baby brother's got a crush," she said in a sing-song voice. Silver rolled his eyes and threw an empty foam cup at her, which she swatted away, laughing.

Just then, an older white hedgehog came out from the back. She looked at her two children and shook her head. "Okay, you two, I'm not paying you to throw cups at each other. The shop's empty, but that means there's more to do in the back, so hop to it."

"Okay, mom," Silver replied, and Tikal nodded in agreement. Silver and Tikal's mother disappeared into the back once more. Tikal gave her final thoughts on the subject they were discussing before.

"Silver, dude, you're gonna be fine. Have some confidence in yourself. You're a really cool guy, and Blaze is an excellent friend. She's not gonna snub you or be mad, even if she rejects you. You gotta shoot your shot at some point, for both your sanity and mine." She shook her head. "Like, bruh, the suspense is killing me. I need to know what happens next!" Silver laughed in response, to which Tikal smirked, satisfied that her joke landed.

She continued. "Give Blaze some time, and then just treat her like a friend and tell her how you feel. See where it goes," she said, looking affectionately at her brother. "You've got this."

Silver smiled. "Thanks, Tikal."

Tikal turned around. "Don't thank me yet! Help me unpack the beans that just came in!"

Silver groaned. "That's so tedious, though. Can't I do something else?"

"What, like dishes?" Tikal smirked.

Silver shrugged. "Touché," he responded, following her into the back.

⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤ END ⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤