CHAPTER 39

Later on that night in a dark and seemingly dangerous alley, three figures stood around a rusty barrel with a fire extinguishing from it.

They all appeared to be teenagers and judging by their attire, they had looked homeless.

One of them was a white male bird. He was a parrot. He looked young but not over the age of twenty. He wore a brown leather jacket, blue denim jeans, a black t shirt, black boots, and black fingerless gloves. He appeared to be the oldest out of the two teens he stood next to.

Another was an orange dingo with red spiked hair. Her appeared to be around the age of eighteen. He wore a black leather jacket, a white t shirt, black leather gloves, fitted black jeans, and brown boots.

The last was a male red cheetah with black spots. His hair was black. He looked like the same age as the dingo. He wore a white leather jacket with a blue hoodie underneath it. He also wore blue jeans, and blue and white sneakers. He raised his hands up to the burning hot fire to warm them. "Another fucking freezing night", he murmured bitterly.

The dingo's eyes flashed over to the cheetah's. "I'm surprised you're not used to this beautiful weather."

The cheetah glared over to him. "Shut the fuck, Spitfire."

Before he could reply to him, the parrot had spoken up.

"Hey, guys", the parrot spoke. "He's late…"

Spitfire shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah? So?"

"…He's never been late."

The cheetah had chuckled a bit as he turned to him. "What's wrong, Ryder? You worried?"

Ryder made a small nod. "…What if something happened? What if he got caught?"

The cheetah shrugged his shoulders, "Wouldn't surprise me. He is some kind of cop isn't he?"

Spitfire had a worried look on his face, "Diego makes a point. What if he did get found out? What if he ratted us out? Aw man! I knew we shouldn't have trusted him!"

"Calm down", Ryder spoke. "Stop freaking out. Let's give him a few more minutes."

With uneasy looks on their faces, Diego and Spitfire continued to stand around the fire alongside Ryder.

Diego's ears perked up when he heard footsteps approaching them from the far end of the dark alley.

The group turned to see who was approaching them until they saw a male yellow and black bee walking up to them.

A relieved look had formed on Ryder's face. "Charmy, you made it. We were starting to worry."

The bee confronted the group with a smirk on his face. "Please! You thought I'd actually bail on you guys?" He took off the backpack he was wearing and unzipped it.

Ryder watched as he began to search through his backpack. "So what took you so long anyway?" His eyes widened when he saw Charmy tossing something small towards him. When he caught it, he looked at it and saw that it was a pack of cigarettes. He saw him also tossing over other packs of cigarettes to Spitfire and Diego.

"I was just picking up a few things for you guys", Charmy spoke while he zipped his backpack back up and tossed it back over his shoulders.

Diego eagerly ripped open the pack of cigarettes . "Charmy, you rock!"

The bee watched as the group opened their packs of cigarettes and began to smoke one from their packs. He watched as Ryder approached him.

Ryder took a puff from his cigarette, "You didn't have to do this for us Charmy."

With a small smile, the bee carelessly shrugged. "Yeah but I wanted to. You guys are like family to me."

The group made a small but warm smile towards the bee.

Ryder placed his hand on Charmy's shoulder. "We're glad you feel that way, Charmy." He took the cigarette out of his mouth and held it up at him.

The bee gave him a hesitant look, "You know I don't smoke."

He let out a small chuckle, "One little puff won't kill you."

He slowly reached out and took the cigarette from him. He placed it in his mouth and inhaled from it slowly.

After when he watched him exhale the smoke from his mouth, he took the cigarette from him and continued to finish smoking from it. "So about the pills…"

His heart raced as Ryder began to bring up the oxycodone pills. He really didn't want to tell him that Margaret had taken a bottle from him. "Oh, um…I did as you asked. I sold both bottles." He searched inside of his jacket pocket and handed him a white envelope.

Spitfire and Diego stood beside Ryder as he opened the envelope. When he did, he took out a good amount of money from it. Their faces lit up in excitement.

"Fuck yeah!" Spitfire shouted excitedly.

"Way to go, Charmy!" Diego spoke.

Ryder turned to them and gave them including himself half of the money. Afterwards he turned back to Charmy, "Good job selling the pills, Charmy. Did you enjoy the freebe I gave you?"

Charmy gulped and hesitated for a moment before he had replied to him. "Um yeah…for the most part."

Ryder arched an eyebrow and thought that something had happened. "What do you mean for the most part?"

He once again hesitated before he started to explain what had happened to the third bottle of pills he had gave him. "Well…I kind of dropped them and…Margaret found them…"

Spitfire gave him a look of disbelief. "What! Your fucking mom caught you?"

Charmy rubbed his head with hand in aggravation. "She knows I'm taking pills but she doesn't know I'm dealing."

"Oh that makes it better", Diego spoke in a sarcastic voice.

Charmy's eyes wandered down to the ground. "I didn't mean to be so careless…"

"…Does she know about us?" Ryder asked.

He paused and bit his lip. He had remembered that he had mentioned them but it was briefly. She still didn't know their identities. He slowly shook his head, "No, no one knows about you guys."

Ryder sighed in relief, "Good. Listen to me, Charmy. You gotta be more careful."

He made a small nod as he agreed with him.

"Spitfire, Diego, and I are out on these streets for a reason. As you already know, we all have something in common…"

Charmy slowly looked up at him.

"We're all orphans. We've all lost people who we once known and loved. We have to look out for each other because no one else will. We've been abandoned…betrayed…"

Spitfire sadly looked over to Ryder as he talked to Charmy.

Ryder continued, "Or just unfortunate…"

Diego sadly looked down to the ground while he smoked his cigarette.

Chrarmy knew already the reason why they were all just living on the cruel streets of the city.

Ryder had been abandoned when he was just a newborn baby.

Spitfire had been abused as a child by his father.

Diego's parents had died from an accidental house fire.

Ryder continued to talk with Charmy, "You are no different than us. You didn't even know your real parents. They were killed a little after you were born. And you just recently lost the one guy who you always looked up to as father am I right?"

He looked down to the ground sadly and made a slow nod. Every time Vector's name was brought up, images of how he had gotten killed would repeat in his head over and over again. It both saddened and angered him.

"We all feel the same pain of losing people we once loved. It's a cruel world, Charmy and it's hard to find people you can trust."

Anger had fueled back up inside of him as he pictured Shadow's image inside of his head.

"We have to look out for each other because no one else will."

Charmy turned to the parrot and made a small nod.

Ryder had then thought it was best to drop the depressing subject. "I know what we can do to let a little aggravation out." He turned to Spitfire and Diego. "You guys up for a little stroll around the city?"

Spitfire picked up a few cans of spray paint from the ground and shook them. Afterwards, he threw them back down to the ground. "Aw man! We're low on spray paint!"

Diego turned to Ryder with a smirk when he had picked up a metal pipe off of the ground, "Looks like we gotta get some more."

"Looks like we're taking a trip to the auto shop." Ryder turned to Charmy with a devious look. "It's your favorite spot right, Mr. Mechanic? Ready to tear some shit up?"

Charmy knew that Ryder wanted them all to break into the auto store and steal some things from them. At that point, wrecking and stealing things seemed like a great way to take his mind off of his depressing thoughts. A smirk had formed on his face, "Yeah let's do it."

In The Next Chapter…

Rouge: Just go be annoying somewhere else!

Nails: Hehe! Looks like someone's pissy cause she isn't getting any!

Rouge: Shut up!

Nails: Looks like I'm gonna have to make Shadow cave first…

Espio: What the hell did you do!?

Shadow: Espio, what the hell!?