Author's Note: Almost forgot, this story has some Angst in it as well and this chapter happens to be very deep since it mentions Anorexia/Bulimia and Self-Injury.
Also, I do know about the animosity between Sonic and Scourge in the canon-world, but for this one, let's just say that they declared a truce and they decided to end their antagonism right before the story happened.
Hide and Seek
School is done for the day and Sonic's football practice went well. As she promised, Amy made it there; she was sitting at the bleachers and watched the jock hedgehog perform. Sonic was really focused and powerful on his endurance and on the other hand, he was occasionally distracted by Amy cheering him on (and the way she shines under the sunlight), but he won't let his distraction interfere with his athletic abilities. Nevertheless, at least Sonic got the encouragement he deserves.
After the practice, both Sonic and Amy are on their way to a nearby pizzeria, where they will be meeting the rest of the guys. As the two hedgehogs walk into the doors of the pizza place, they start another tête-à-tête,
"Wow, Sonic, you were amazing back there!" Amy optimistically comments about the practice, "I never knew that you were that agile."
"Yeah, thanks." Sonic remarks, "I've been training a lot lately. They don't call me 'The Speed King' for nothing." He tosses his football up in the air and catches it.
She giggles at his arrogance, "And I know I shouldn't be laughing at this, but I kind of find it funny how one of your teammates was hit in face with the ball and he nearly got out cold."
Sonic returns the laugh, "It's true. Jet really needs to learn how to keep his eye on the ball. And Knuckles sure can tackle down anyone; it's great to have him in the team."
After the talk, the two find the rest of the group already sitting at the booth (that can fit for six people), waiting for them to come. Scourge is texting, Manic is drumming onto the table with his drumsticks, Silver is reading a book, and Shadow is listening to heavy metal music in his headphones.
"Hey, guys," Sonic greeted them. The four stopped what they were doing and gazes at the pink and blue hedgehogs.
"Hey, bro! How's practice?" Manic cheerily asks while Sonic is putting his ball away into his backpack.
"It was great," he remarks as he and Amy sit in the booth together, with Amy sitting in between Scourge and Sonic, "thanks for asking."
"Hey, everyone," Amy begins, "thanks for inviting me over. I could use some socialization after the first day." She takes her bag off her shoulder to set it behind her.
"Don't mention it, Rose," Scourge smirks at her.
Soon, Sonic removes his varsity jacket; Amy sees this as he sets it behind his back. Due to the warming heat inside the pizzeria, she wanted to remove her own jacket—but she can't reveal her entire arms. Instead, she just pulls down the top part, so that only her shoulders are showing and the sleeves are just covering her forearms. It looks appealing to the guys, though it feels somewhat uncomfortable albeit it's the only way to keep herself cool—only for her.
"Amy, don't you want to take your jacket off?" Silver asks her, "It's pretty warm in here, you know."
She tries to come up with an excuse. Impulsively, she says, "No, thanks. I'm good. I'm kind of used to the heat anyway." She attempts to let out a smile after a little lie.
Sonic then changes the subject, "So, did you guys order yet?"
Shadow answers, "Yup, but we weren't sure what kind of toppings Rose likes, so we ordered a large, half meat and half plain." He looks at Amy, "is that okay?"
"Yes," she instantly answers, "plain's fine for me. I don't like toppings anyway." Inexplicably, anxiety is starting to build up inside Amy. Without letting the others know, she's trying her best to ease herself down—or else.
She fixes her eyes on the jock, "So, Sonic," he gazes at her back, "I don't mean to take this personally, but," she pauses for a quick second, "how did you and Sally break up? You don't have to answer if you don't want to."
"Actually, I do," Sonic replies, "I broke up with Sally because I realized that it's not going to work out between us two, so I told her that I think it's better off if we see other people. And besides, ever since she joined the cheerleading squad, she suddenly turned into a demanding—bitch."
Amy is surprised. "Really?"
"Yeah, I would never date anyone who would change from an angel to a devil. But I'm not alone," he grins and points out to the others, "they had girl troubles before too."
She looks at them and they nodded, "What happened?"
"Fiona was my girlfriend before but I caught her cheating on me and then she wrecked my good motorcycle," Scourge says.
"Rouge is a narcissistic stalker who wouldn't leave me alone," Shadow stated.
"Mina has a crush on me and she is annoying the hell out of me," Manic says.
"And I like Blaze and all," Silver notifies, "but her infatuation for me is getting on my nerves."
This came to realization for Amy. "Seriously? Then, she quietly tells herself, "So that explains the coldness I've been getting from them."
"What?" Scourge asks.
"Nothing," she instantly answers.
"You said something about them giving you the cold shoulder," Sonic informs, "are the girls bothering you, Ames?"
"If they are," Shadow finishes off, "we can help you—"
"No, that's okay," she cuts him off, "I don't need that much help, really. I can save myself. I appreciate the offer though."
Right after their conversation, one of the servers shows up with their pizza. He sets it onto their table in the very center and then, he disperses.
"Oh, good, it's here!" Manic shouts out. He, along with the others, takes their first slices.
"Oh, finally, I'm starving!" Sonic shouts out as well before he takes his own piece.
Amy is the last to take hers; her anxiety is rising again and it's averting her from eating. She slowly takes a plain slice and only little by little, she takes her time consuming her pizza.
10 minutes later…
"And then I yelled out, 'Bro! Heads up!' and I threw it right into his face and he totally got knocked out in seconds, right onto the field!" Sonic exclaims with a haughty laugh and he even demonstrates with an imaginary ball in his hand. Everyone in the table is laughing at his story. He persists, "I swear to God, he was like seeing stars or something!"
"No way!" Manic responses.
The entire group is still laughing, but not everyone. Amy apparently is being distracted by something else. She's gazing at something down underneath the tabletop.
"And Amy saw the whole thing," Sonic points to the female, "right, Ames?"
"Huh?" she snaps back into reality, "Oh, yeah. I did. That was pretty uproarious." And then she fakes a laugh.
"Feeling okay?" he asks her as he's attempting to hold back his laughter.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Then, Amy gets up while holding onto her bag, "will you guys excuse me for a moment? I need to use the girls' room."
"Sure thing," Sonic scoots aside, so he can let her pass.
With Amy out of the way, she walks straight to the restrooms and she can still hear them having a conversation, loud enough for the entire pizzeria to hear.
"You know," she heard Manic beginning, "this reminds me of something back in the school's band room…"
The conversation fades away as Amy enters the women's restroom. The voices and laughter are still being heard, but the tone is fainted behind the closed door.
The female strolls up to the sinks; she sets her messenger bag down onto the floor, and then she looks at herself in the mirror. Her facial expression is completely different from before. Instead of her usual cheerful smile—she has a gloomy frown, along with her eyebrows furrowing in melancholy.
Still looking at her reflection, Amy takes off her jacket and sets it on top of her bag. With the sleeves completely off, both of her wrists and forearms reveal—self-inflicted scars. Most of them are completely red and discolored.
She looks back earlier today when she ran into Sally and the girls,
"…I don't mean to ask you this, but may I ask what happened to your wrist?"
"Oh, I just got into an accident…"
Accident… accident…
The word echoes inside her head as she stares at her marks. In reality, every time whenever Amy feels stressed, depressed, emotionally hurt, or even anxious—she would relief herself by self-mutilation. She keeps a little plastic bag of razor blades inside her messenger—just like the one that was fallen onto the floor right in front of the girls—in case she needed them. She's meticulous enough to make sure that no one in the school would know that she brings them to the building; otherwise, she may undergo serious consequences. Amy is also forced to make up some lies whenever people ask her what was wrong with her skin. The more lies she tells, the worst she becomes.
It's not just that. While still looking at the mirror, Amy elevates her top up a bit to reveal her midriff. After all that pizza she just ate, she's beginning to feel—guilty. She examines her own stomach by feeling down and around the abdomen. Despite that she's already slender—something doesn't feel right to her.
"My God," Amy whispers to herself as the pressure kicks in.
Quickly taking her bag and jacket with her, she runs into one of the stalls and then locks herself in, setting her things aside onto the floor. She gets down on her knees with her head near the toilet bowl. Amy then jams two of her fingers down her throat—and she vomits right into the toilet.
The sounds of gagging and retching are audible, but at least she's alone in the bathroom. She repeats the process until she feels like nothing is inside of her anymore. Unfortunately, the pain is unbearable for her to handle, both emotionally and physically. Emotionally, all of the self-pressure she's having is killing her; and physically, she's suffering severe weakness and abdominal pain.
A couple of minutes after purging, Amy moves away from the toilet and she leans her back against the stall-door. Normally, she would fast or starve on prolonged times or eat only very limited amounts of foods. At times, albeit not every often, Amy would start binge eating and afterwards, she'd self-induce vomit.
Sadly, the guilt, shame, and anxiety are still persistent. She can't handle the pressure to stay thin and she doesn't even know how long she will have to keep wearing the mask of lies—she's forced to fake her happiness when in reality, she's miserable.
Suddenly, Amy goes into her bag and she digs through inside to look for something. She already took out her bag of razors; she opens it and then takes out a clean one. After that—Amy places the sharp object onto her left wrist…
One minute later, she comes out of the stall with her bag over her shoulder, her jacket in her arm, and a large handful of toilet paper in her right hand as it compresses onto her left to stop the bleeding. Amy hurriedly runs back to the sinks. She discards the now-blood-stained toilet paper into the garbage bin. Then, she turns on the faucet in one of the sinks.
When her freshly-cut wrist is underneath the warm running water and blood is being rinsed away, Amy hears a male voice calling out from the outside of the women's restroom. He knocked on the door and asks,
"Amy, are you okay over there?" It's one of the guys, but she can't tell who it is behind the closed door.
"I'm fine!" is all she can answer. She lies again, "Sorry, I had an upset stomach. I'll be out soon!" She can hear him walking away; she sighs in relief and resumes her quick treatment.
Amy uses the foamy soap from the soap dispenser and washes the cut before she rinses her wrist. As soon as the blood is completely gone, the pink hedgehog dries it off with paper towels from the dispenser. She then takes out a tube of antibacterial cream from her messenger bag and quickly applies it before she exits out of the restroom. Amy steps out of the doorway and puts her jacket back on, so that no one can see her cuts and scars.
On her way back to the booth, she can still see that the guys are still there, waiting for her before they leave. Although, Sonic, Manic, Silver and Shadow seems to be covering Scourge as he is doing something.
Amy stood closer to them and she begins, "Sorry I took so long," and then she lets out a 'smile'.
"It's no big deal," Sonic says.
With a closer look, she sees Scourge behind their backs and he's laughing inaudibly. In his hands are two plastic bags filled with two different spices, one that is garlic powder and the other chili flakes. Another hint is that the two spice shakers on the table are completely opened.
"What are you doing?" she asks with a chuckle, thinking that this might be some kind of prank they're pulling on the servers.
"He's stealing some spices," Shadow says in a quiet tone while snickering, "and we're covering for him. Don't tell anyone."
"Why?" she asks again.
Scourge answers while screwing the lids back onto their appropriate shakers, "Because I like to add some spiciness on my foods and they're free here, one for every table. So why not take some home instead of spending five bucks on chili flakes from the store?" The rebel hedgehog stuffs his bags of stolen seasonings in his jacket pockets.
"He's also a cheapskate," Silver tells Amy. She responds with a giggle.
"Alright, let's go." Scourge says as he gets up.
"All done?" Sonic asks and he nods. "Ok, let's get the hell out of here."
Everyone gathers their own belongings. Soon, all six head out to the door.
Shadow, Silver, and Scourge exchanged goodbyes to one another as they head to their own separate directions. This leaves Amy alone with Sonic and Manic. The two brothers decide to walk her home since they live several blocks away from her.
"Now, that was pretty fun, wasn't it?" Manic comments.
"We should do this every Friday after school." Sonic responds. "What do you think, Ames?" he looks at her.
"I'll think about it," Amy replies after a second of silence.
While walking behind them, about two inches apart, Amy looks down on the ground, attempting to hide away her pessimism. Some irrational thoughts are coming back to her, regarding to her eating disorder and self-injury.
She knows that she cannot keep playing hide and seek every day whenever she's around with her friends.
One day… they're going to know her true self…
Somehow.