The Lonely Rabbit and Broken Thief

Chapter Twenty-Three

Warning: mentions of child abuse, pedophilic undertones

Mistakes have been made.

Shifty was in the back, leaning on his locker while he took a five minute break from work. They had sex several times yesterday and he had to come in in the morning.

Goddamn you, Cuddles.

He sighed and looked at his phone. Cuddles had been sending him incessant messages again since he left the house. He had gotten a package, but he was already running late. So he had Cuddles put it in his house before dropping him off at work to go home and do his own things with friends. He checked his other messages to see Jingles had texted him about some new Lego set he was getting and saw one from Lifty.

His heart stopped a bit as he opened the message to read it.

TwinCoon: hi shifty. how r u today?

Shifty stared at the message before he worked up the nerve to respond.

FedoraBrat: i'm fine. thanks.
FedoraBrat: what are you doing?

Lifty responded almost immediately as soon as he hit the send button.

TwinCoon: im great! im hanging out with Splendont today.
FedoraBrat: thats nice. i need to head back to work. talk to you later.
TwinCoon: ok! <3

Shifty smiled a bit as he put his phone away. He thought it would have been awkward to send Lifty a response. But after their talk yesterday, it felt nice. He was talking to his brother again.

"Hey, Shifty, your table needs you!" Dandy called out as he grabbed his book.

"I'm coming."

The rest of the night went by smoothly. He was in a better mood than before and he didn't have to fake being nice today like he usually did. He supposed even the other staff noticed it.

"You're smiling a lot today," Frank commented, watching Shifty make some more salad mix.

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't in a good mood today." Shifty responded as he wrapped the containers up. "Lots of good things happening lately."

Frank stared at him before nodding and going back to work. Shifty appreciated his presence mostly because he was unproblematic like the other staff, besides Dandy and Jingles. Speaking of which, the two kids have been hanging out a lot together since Shifty suggested it. He could, quite literally, see the hearts circling around them whenever they talked.

Teenage love. How nostalgic.

The best part about all of this, was that he hadn't seen heads or tail of Dreamy. Life was finally coming together and, this time, he wasn't so willing to fight the new changes. The medicine really did do wonders for his attitude lately.

Damn... if only I had it sooner...

He felt a hand on his shoulder when he was heading to the bathroom and stopped to look. Dandy stood there smiling at him. Shifty made a face before poking his cheek.

"What now?"

"Jingles asked me to invite you and Cuddles over tonight. We're doing a movie night."