JaneLon

“Him? Really?” Amy twisted her hands in her lap, nodding. “Girl, the fuck—!” “I know!” “Do you, though!?” Genie had her hands out in front of her, and though she wasn’t standing, Amy knew she wanted to be. If it wasn’t for Loraine’s hand on her knee she might have, but as it was, the deer had a death grip on her girlfriend. “I—Genie, I don’t know what you want from me.” “To make good decisions for once, you dumb bitch!” Loraine smacked Genie hard on the shoulder, and Genie rolled her eyes as she slumped, letting her face fall into her hands. Amy swallowed, shaking as she turned to face Loraine. “I swear to chaos if I thought I could handle this on my own I wouldn’t tell you.” “See, that’s the bit that actually scares me.” Loraine shook her head, “You didn’t want to say anything. You didn’t trust us with this.” “I... I mean,” Amy gestured to Genie, who still had her head in her hands, and Loraine sighed. “She’ll get over it. You, on the other hand... well.”

The world was white. Amy watched from her cocoon of blankets, breathing slowly as she stared out the window and into an endless sky. Her eyes fluttered as she yawned, licking her lips and rubbing her face against the comforter to wipe the tears from her eyes. After a few minutes, a muffled phone alarm sounded out from under her pillow, and she shut it off. One hot shower later, Amy was in her car with a large thermos of coffee driving towards Never Lake. Amy didn’t watch the other people in their cars or listen to the radio. Instead, she focused on the heartbeat in the soft flesh behind her ears, the feeling of her eyes open just a bit too wide, and the way her teeth ached from how tightly she had clenched her jaw. It was just that this time of year always felt like the whole universe was just a bit too close. It seemed to shake, just a little, and in doing so, it shook her too. That wasn’t unusual, really, though Amy would have seemed crazy if she said that to anyone other

“It’s been two weeks,” Loraine said, not looking up from her work. “Have you talked to him at all?” Amy grumbled as she shoveled mac-n-cheese into her mouth, watching the news on the television. “That’s not an answer.” “No,” she mumbled, “I haven’t, okay?” “You were talking to him almost every other day.” “Yeah, and that was before he decided to be an absolute dick.” Loraine sighed, shutting her laptop. “Amy, if we stopped talking to each other every time one of us decided to do something stupid, none of us would be friends.” Amy didn’t reply. Instead, she turned up the volume on the TV as they switched to a report on oil prices. “It was also kinda your fault too, you know,” Loraine huffed under her breath. Amy whipped around to face her. “That’s fucking bullshit and you know it.” “You got so caught up in trying to prove him wrong, you didn’t even answer his questions.” “I was trying to answer him! Maybe if he wasn’t being such a jackass-” Loraine shrugged.

Shadow’s jaw was clenched. He watched the steam rise from the pizza sitting on the coffee table from where he sat, gripping the jam jar in his hands. His thumbs traced over the pattern that ran around the lip before he drank. Through the bottom of the jar, he watched the others enjoy the warm, winding conversation they had finally managed to slip into. Amy’s flat mates had finally calmed down once they were both in the same room. It was interesting watching how they leaned on one another, touched one another, just a little, like they were anchoring themselves in order to ease into the chatter. Rouge always did have the gift of gab but never the talent to get people to talk if they didn’t already feel like talking. There was something about how Amy seemed to situate herself between the two parts, aiding the conversation along so it happened in front of her, back and forth, that seemed to make it just happen. He had no idea how that sort of thing worked, hence why he was across the

By the time Sunday evening actually arrived, Amy was shaking. “It’s going to be great,” Loraine said as she typed away on her laptop, “Seriously. You’re working yourself up over this.” Amy glared at her. “Would you shut up? It’s going to be terrible. I literally had a panic attack where you’re sitting only four days ago when I first told you guys who he was, and now he’s going to be in the apartment with one of the scariest ladies I know.” Loraine’s eyes widened, smile firmly fixed to her face as she refused to meet Amy’s stare. “Yeees, but that was then. This is now, and now is fine. We’ll make it fine.” Amy sighed, thumbing the deck of cards in her pants pocket. “Please promise Genie won’t do anything stupid.” “If I could guarantee that, I would.” Amy groaned and flopped onto the couch. She could hear Loraine click her tongue as she gently slapped her until Amy lifted her face from the pillow it had sunken into. “What?” “The pizza will be here soon, but...do you think I

Amy checked the map on her phone as she walked, making note of the left turn coming up before putting her phone back in her pocket with a sigh. It really was a beautiful, perfect autumn day. The misting rain dripped from her umbrella and cast New Babylon in a silver fog. All of the leaves glistened in such a way that made them seem like they were cast from precious metals, and all of the clouds had that soft pearlessence look to them. Even the traffic lights shone like jewels, and Amy satisfied herself with imagining herself passing through a gap in the string of diamonds and rubies currently rushing down the road. She checked her phone once she got to the other side of the road, then clicked her tongue as she lifted her umbrella to read the dark neon sign of Club Rouge. Amy reached into her pocket and gripped her cards. Slowly, she walked around the building, and as she reached the alley behind it, she saw the open door of a garage bay, exactly where Shadow said it would be. She

Shadow hung up the phone. He stood still for a moment before slowly rocking back on his heels and allowing himself to slump against the back wall of the phone booth with a sigh. For a while, he hid there, staring at nothing, letting the rumble of the music that shook through the booth, through his spine, ground him. Eventually though, he had to leave. Pulling aside the curtain that separated the payphone from the rest of the casino, he made his way back to the front door, turning his earpiece on as he did so. “Thanks,” he mumbled. “No problem, honey,” Rouge’s voice sounded sickly sweet, and Shadow grimaced as she continued, “How’s Amy?” “Fine.” “You’re not going to share anything else?” “No.” “Rude. Omega, back me up.” There was a small beep as Omega switched channels and joined the conversation, “Negative. Based on current data, Shadow has not done anything by current local standards that would be considered, ‘rude.’ Is an update needed?” Rouge’s voice practically dripped

“Hey, we need you in the field today.” Amy blinked bleary eyes, trying to focus on the human figure by the door who she swore was her boss but, honestly, couldn’t be sure. “This request isn’t done,” she said, yawning as she did so and taking a moment to stretch. The figure waved a hand, “Ernie can do it. I need you at Aqua Lake. Seems like there’s an issue with zoning.” Amy sighed, pushing away from her desk and letting her chair roll towards the center of the room as she stood, cracking her hips, “Yeah, alright. Set me up with transport and I’ll be right over. Who’s my contact?” “Olive’s overseeing today, so head to her first.” “Awesome, that makes this a lot easier.” Her boss tossed two warp rings, which Amy caught. Without saying another word, she grabbed her jacket and made her way to the parking lot. At the back, near the trucks, there was a designated space for warp transport, where Amy activated the ring. She yawned again as her quills blew back and shivered, wrapping

Shadow stared at the phone in his hand, rereading the text. His brow furrowed as he scanned through it one more time, slowly rolling the socket between his fingers as he began to feel his pulse picking up speed, neck twitching. He sighed. Finally, Shadow got up from his bench in the garage and, ducking through the side door and up the narrow staircase, made his way to the loft of Club Rouge. When he opened the door, Rouge was sitting at the island by the kitchenette just to the left, still slowly sipping the same cup of coffee she had been nursing for two hours now. He tossed the phone onto the countertop and pointed. “Why does Amy Rose have my work number?” “Why do you have your shoes on in the house?” she said without looking up from her own phone. Shadow crossed his arms, nails digging into his elbows as he waited. Eventually, Rouge gave in, sighing as she placed her own phone screen down on the counter and rubbed her temples. “She asked for it, alright?” “That’s my work