The Lonely Rabbit and Broken Thief

Chapter Thirty

Cuddles wasn't the same after they returned to Shifty's home.

He was quiet. He didn't say or do much unless he had to go out and fulfill his social obligations. Shifty could only watch because he didn't know what to do for him. After the confrontation with his parents, Shifty couldn't even give him consolation.

I'm still going to therapy. I have to take pills to get back to normal. Do I even have a right to give him an ear to listen?

"Hey, Shifty? You okay?"

Shifty sat in the back of the restaurant building. They had closed an hour early today, and he was just waiting outside because he didn't want to go home. Cuddles was out partying with Toothy and Sniffles tonight. He was still mostly on text-exchange with Lifty, but tonight his brother was supposedly out on a destination date with Splendont.

Shifty looked up to see Dandy standing by the back door, "Frank is done. You wanna head home?"

Shifty glanced down at his phone, where he had spent the last thirty minutes trying to figure out what to text Cuddles. He only got so far as to try and bring up the issue with Cuddles' parent and got stuck on how to console him.

"Sure..."

Shifty got up, adjusting his bag before following Dandy back inside where they linked up with Frank to walk home. It was still a little strange not to have Jingles at their side, but it looked like Dandy was finally okay without his "boyfriend."

"You seem rather chipper again, Dandy," Frank commented as they neared the neighborhood, "feeling back to your old self?"

Dandy smiled, "Jingles finally sent me a batch of letters and one specifically about where he's at now. I finally sent all the letters I've been writing up until now."

"That's good. You were sad for a while because he had to get a new phone number." Shifty said, nudging Dandy.

Dandy smiled, "Yeah. Who knew he'd already run into trouble with some girl. He's such a flirt."

Shifty watched him curiously. He didn't seem jealous or sad. In fact, he seemed at ease, content. While he wasn't explicitly told, it was obvious that Dandy and Jingles dated. They were still dating.

How can he be so happy when Jingles is so far away?

Thinking back, his heart only ever ached being away from Cuddles, when they were dating and when they weren't. While it was dumb of him since he had broken it off, all he could think about was how fast Cuddles had probably moved on. There was always gossip about how Cuddles got together with someone new ever few weeks.

Our time together was probably really fickle... nothing at all to him. But now he acts as if it was always something important to him.

"See you later, Dandy." Shifty waved him off as they passed his house.

He didn't even realize they had already gotten passed Grandpa Po. He walked together with Frank to his house. Cuddles' truck wasn't there. Shifty didn't really want to be in the house by himself. He stole a glance over to Frank, who stood there watching him passively.

I forgot... he had also been there that night... I don't think I ever thanked him.

"H-hey, Frank?"