Hey, witches!

Sorry for the delay, I've just been really busy getting my life in order with grad school. But I have today off, so I wanted to put at least one chapter up. There's some stuff I want to work out real quickly in the next two chaps, but those should be up tomorrow or at least by Wednesday. I really appreciated what you all had to say in the last few chaps and I'm eager to hear more of your thoughts. I hate to sound desperate, but I LOVE reviews because they really allow me to grow as a writer. However, please feel free to recommend stories or ideas. Fan fiction is a unique medium that really depends on author-reader interaction, and I appreciate that.

Anyway, I'll let you get on with this chapter. Enjoy!

Chapter 14

I blocked out my thoughts and feelings as I knocked on yet another door for the night.

An arm pulled me in before I could reach fifty.

"You do know that I have toddlers sleeping in here?" Concern for her children vanished as Rouge sized me up. "Sloppy clothes. Midnight. What, are you Shadow's mistress?"

"Shadow isn't dating anyone." My voice was dull, scratchy from the crying on my way here. "I don't think we would have almost slept together if he was."

Rouge's eyes widened before she nodded. ""Shadow and Mina are in a relationship, but I can't say how committed it is. We had a mission to prevent the Grand Mobius Music Hall from being bombed last year. She's been taken with him ever since, though."

That would explain what she said at the hotel. I shook my head; it didn't matter anymore. My attention focused on Rouge, who had already taken a seat on the living room sofa.

"Then why did you lie to me?"

"A bat's gotta entertain herself somehow." She was smiling slyly; it was hard to tell if it was filled with any animosity. Or if I should have been filled with it. "But you weren't honest either, Sugar.

"If you told me what went down with you and Shadow three years ago, I could have told you how to deal with him." She started playing with her nails. "Barging into his house and forcing him to love you was a bad idea. Even by my standards."

Part of me wondered if she attached some sort of listening device on me. I hadn't told her anything. But I was guessing my presence spoke for me.

"Shadow's an observer," she continued, resting a hand on her huge belly, "He only takes part in things when it's absolutely necessary. However, he's a lot more sensitive than he cares to admit. He feels guilty about things pretty easily." Her glance fell to the fireplace. "Especially now."

"What do you mean by that?"

"The fact that you don't know sort of illustrates the issue…" Rouge pursed her ruby lips. "…Shadow's difficult."

"No duh." I folded my arms. "Then why the hell did you encourage our relationship?"

"Because I thought you'd be good for each other." Rouge brought out a bottle of sparkling wine from under the table and took it to her lips. Sighed in relief. "I mean, we weren't."

My eyes widened. "I thought you said you two were casual?"

"Yeah," she admitted. "But he's also my best friend behind Knux."

"Is that why you chose Knuckles?" My voice had lowered to a whisper. "Did you want to be with Shadow?"

"Yes and no." She took another sip. "I mean, yes Shadow is sexy and stoic and—"

"Can totally hear you!" A voice called out from the kitchen. Knuckles.

"Just questioning Amy's attraction to Shadow," Rouge called out. "Love you!"

"Love you, too." Knuckles popped into the room to toss a bag of kettle corn at Rouge. His eyes hit mine, and he looked amused. "Hey, Amy."

"Hey," I replied slowly, trying not to feel embarrassed. "Um, thanks for having me at this hour."

"No problem." He kissed Rouge on the temple before disappearing in the hallway.

"If that isn't love, I don't know what is." Rouge offered me the corn before taking some. "I didn't even have to do anything."

"That's great. But I don't know if your advice is going to help." I shook my head. "He wanted me, yet he restrained. Said he'd never be able to make me happy." I clenched my fists. "Then why am I so miserable without him?"

"I hate to say it, but he's right," Rouge said matter-of-factly. "You're the kind of girl who wants a prince. A fairytale. And you can say that you're fine without one, but he knows there's a strong possibility that you'd be happier with someone else."

"Then why did he make a move before?" I said, rubbing my temple. "What? Is he the only one that gets to change his mind? Why is he even humoring Mina?"

"That was before he saw you with that Parker guy. Face it, he's probably a better match for you," Rouge decided. "As for Mina...she's some rock star that he barely sees. And I don't think they're trying to marry each other."

"So you're telling me that Shadow's trying to be the bigger person?" I closed my eyes, tried to rationalize this. We could be together, but Shadow was against it. He had decided what a union between the two of us meant, and was against it.

He was against us.

"Then I guess it's really over." I was surprised I had no tears. I was just numb. But I knew it was a defense mechanism; if I thought about it too hard, I'd breakdown. If I hadn't already.

"I really want the two of you to be happy." Rouge rubbed my back. She was suddenly a mother and the friend I had neglected for far too long. I tried to soak up her reassurance, but I was too tired and depressed. And the most depressing thing was that I didn't know how to fix this—I couldn't fix this.

"But unfortunately, he's going to disappoint you," she said. "And he doesn't want that. Look what Scourge did."

I glared at her. But her teal gaze remained undeterred. "Why does everyone act like I am so weak?"

"Do you remember how many times you almost got yourself killed when we were kids?" I scoffed.

"No one thinks you're weak." She hugged me. But the sentiment of the moment was dying fast. "You just need to stand on your own feet."

"For how long?" Everyone had moved on by epic proportions. I mean, Rouge was a mother for Pete's sake. Rouge.

She only smiled. I wish it made me feel better.

"Until you don't need anyone to lean on."

I spent the night on her couch. Morning came too soon, but I guess we had spent most of the night talking about how pathetic I was. Which is why I got stuck dropping Ruby and Opal to daycare. They were as adorable as they were prodding.

"Why do you look so sad?" Ruby, a peach bat-echidna asked from the back seat. "Did someone hurt your feelings?"

"You have no idea." I replied. "Adults get sad sometimes, but I'm fine."

"Why do adults get sad, Auntie Amy?" Opal, her identical twin, then asked. I fought the urge to roll my eyes.

"Because adults aren't as nice and smart as you too." I had said. "See how you are asking how I feel? Not all people care about other people's feelings."

"Does someone not care about your feelings?" Ruby interjected again. "Is it a boy?"

To this, I really rolled my eyes. Leave it to four-year-olds to read me completely.

"It's always a boy."

By the time I reached home, I could smell something delicious cooking in the apartment. The idea perked me up as much as cheering up the dead could, until I realized Clarissa was in there.

And she probably wouldn't let me have any of it.

With a groan, I opened the front door. My stomach lusted for the eggs sizzling on the stove. I breathed it in as I passed the foyer. Then I regretted coming here.

Clarissa was sitting on the kitchen counter. Edged between her legs was none other than Parker.

I blinked at the sick dream before me. This had to be a sick dream.

And because I was a pervert, I just stood there and watched them.

They had clothes on—sort of. Clarissa's silk robe had slid past her shoulders. But she was still wearing a bra...which was also slipping. And at least Parker was wearing pants. But it looked like they were having sex. Wait.

Were they having sex?!

"Parker." Clarissa's moaning filled the air as ran her hands through Parker's back. He grunted before kissing her neck. She squealed. "You're making me—"

Okay. I knew I had to leave. There was nothing more mortifying than having an intimate moment interrupted. Unless it was interrupted by the very person you were going at it with. I clenched my fists. I would give anything to suppress all thoughts of last night.

"YOUR EGGS ARE BURNING," I then said, because I was a bitch. Clarissa's eyes snapped open. Parker spun around.

"AMY?"

"AMY?"

I turned off the stove. "Sorry for interrupting. I just didn't want the apartment to burn down."

"The eggs aren't burning." Clarissa scoffed, jumping off the table. She combed a hand through her ash fur. "And I'd believe you were sorry if you weren't smiling." She scoffed again. "Sicko."

Sicko?

"You do know we eat on that table?" I retorted. But I couldn't hide it. I was grinning.

I had officially gone insane.

"My apologies," Parker said, turning to me. His brow lifted lightly, and suddenly I felt mortified. I forgot about my random appearance in all of this. My random, rumpled appearance. "Um, is everything alright? I'll be honest, we probably should have notified you that we are seeing each other. It's been a few weeks."

"Well, Clarissa and I haven't been on good terms for a few weeks," I notified him. "So there's no harm. You know, once I burn the image you two doing it from my brain."

Parker laughed. "Okay then."

"Not okay then," Clarissa said, eying me up and down. "Rouge said that you were spending the night at her house. So what brings you here looking like you were hit by a train?"

"Yesterday was a busy day," I began. "Had a lot of cases I had to look into. Rouge wanted to talk. Took longer than I anticipated, so I stayed the night. She insisted that I shower and change, but I told her I'd just do it at home." I tried to keep my voice leveled as I lied to them. But between the lawyer and the doctor, I didn't know how much got through to them. I moved to the pantry, made myself a cup of coffee.

"That's it?"

"I also made up with Cream," I replied, ironically adding some cream to the coffee. I took a sip. See? Normal people drank coffee. I could be normal.

"Then—"

A classical ringtone filled the air.

"Sorry," Parker said, pulling out his phone. "I have to get to the hospital. C-section in three hours." Within moments he was dressed and ready.

"Make sure you two make up." He pulled Clarissa into a kiss. Patted my shoulder like the bros we apparently were now. Then he disappeared.

And I was stuck with Clarissa. Selfish bastard.

"Hmm, that would explain what Phil said," I said, taking a seat by the island. Clarissa's eyes widened.

"W-what did he say?"

"That Parker looks happier," I replied. "When you were in the hospital, we put a close on any unresolved feelings. But his dad thought he was still holding out for me. Glad to see he's moved on." My eyes hit her's. "Even if it's you."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"I'm just joking." I shrugged. "Am I not allowed to do that anymore?"

"Wanna tell me what's really up?"

I frowned. "Why? I thought we weren't talking."

Clarissa hissed, "You left early from work yesterday. I had to call around to see where you were . You should have at least told me. I was worried sick."

"Not worried enough to not fuck Parker's lights out." I rose to my feet. "Look, if I knew what I was getting into coming home, I would have stayed with Rouge."

"Just tell me why you were really with her." Clarissa spat. "I know you—you close yourself off when something's really bothering you. I know I shouldn't have thrown the party without your consent. I also know that I shouldn't have started dating Parker without it, either. But you can be impossible, you know that? People want to help, yet you reject it." She shook her head. "Why can't you be happy?"

I shot her a look, but immediately regretted it. There was so much compassion and concern in her eyes. She was right. Everyone was right. Even Shadow.

Especially Shadow.

I shrugged my shoulders in a slump. "I-I don't know." Tears were swelling my eyes, but I couldn't cry. I couldn't do anything. I was always powerless in this game of love.

"I-I just feel humiliated." I hated how pathetic I sounded. But that's what I was. Pathetic people couldn't decipher what was truly important. I was abusing the relationships around me, yet pretending that I was the one being abused. I was destroying myself. What would having a guy do if the real issue was me and my twisted priorities?

Clarissa's expression fell. "Don't tell me—"

"Shadow doesn't want me." My throat was burning. "And the worst part is that I don't blame him."

But this wasn't like Sonic or Scourge. I had nothing real with the blue blur; and Scourge wasn't a good guy, maybe not a bad guy, but I had tricked myself into believing he was good for me.

But Shadow...

I shook my head. "I need to move on."

"I agree," Clarissa said, rubbing my arm. "And I'm so sorry. But it doesn't make sense."

"Nothing ever makes sense."

"I mean it," she pushed. "I'm not an idiot. I can tell you two had a moment."

"We didn't have sex," I sighed. And we never would. We'd never date. Never get married. Never have children. Never. That would be the theme of my life, dreams never actualized.

My gaze turned to the ground. "Oh, and I lost my job. That's why I wasn't at work." I narrowed my eyes. "But that doesn't explain why you're not at work."

"I don't have to be in till noon," Clarissa replied. "And don't change the subject."

"Then what do you want me to do!" I didn't know why I was yelling. I wasn't angry at her, or anyone really. I just wanted to crawl underneath my bed. Emerge only for work next week. Or I could just die.

Dying sounded nice.

"I'm also sorry about the job, but you were just transferred to the other division, right?" Clarissa asked. I nodded. "I mean, it's outside of town, but family-law is much more fulfilling than corporate stuff anyway." She shrugged. "Just less money."

"Yay."

"It'll take time to feel better," Clarissa began, bringing me into a hug. "But you did say you worked things out with Cream, right?"

"Yes-ish." I doubted Cream wanted to go for mani-pedis, but she was done glaring at me. And I was done glaring at her...if she stopped talking so much about the Dream Boat that is apparently Tails.

"Good-ish." Clarissa clasped her hands. "But you know what would make things actually good?"

"You not fucking Parker on the kitchen table?" Clarissa glared at me.

"No." She jumped out of her chair and moved to her bedroom. Then she tossed a gray scarf at me.

I inspected the knitted accessory in my hands, considered keeping it for myself until I realized whom it belonged to. My eyes widened.

"No."

There was a devilish look in Clarissa's hazel eyes.

And I knew defying her meant death.

I wonder who owns the scarf? Please review!

KB