WingWard Side

Chapter 2: CakePop's House

     All that was 6 months ago. Tori wasn't getting better, a lot worse actually, and one day Bulldog barged in his home where we were all hanging out and told us she didn't make it. That was one of the worst days of my life. Yeesh, how much we all cried that day. But Bulldog took it the hardest. Almost killed himself if Roger hadn't been there.

    That brings us to 6 months later. The day that Roger came home with a black eye. We were all at my house, my parents were both gone at their jobs. Pluto and I were playing cards, Raptor was talking to Gabby and Egghead, and Roger had just gone out for some pop. But then he stumbled back into the door like a drunky and looked up. His right eye was purple and swollen. He smiled at us, his quirky, full of himself smile. "So I didn't get the pop..." he started.

    "Roger, what happened?!" Pluto ran up and yanked his head down to inspect the wound. "You look horrible!"

    "The ShadowHeads didn't jump you, did they?" Gabby raised an eyebrow at him, looking pretty angry.

    "Might have been the Angels, they just got more land and we border 'em now." Egghead pointed out.

    "Nah wasn't any of em." Roger said, pulling away from Pluto. "Bulldog got a lil' angry." He chuckled a little.

    "Bulldog did that?" Pluto paused. "Why?"

    "He was at the corner drinking maybe his fifth bottle of beer. Lousy dog, looked homeless. I tried to drag him to my car, and he punched me right across the face like I was some stranger." Roger slid his hands into his pockets and leaned forward. He shrugged. "Still got 'em home though. He's probably sleeping his head off now. Passed out right away." Roger laughed again and sat on the couch. Pluto crossed her arms.

    "He shouldn't be throwing punches. Sure he's going through somethin', but that was 6 months ago. He's gotta calm down." Pluto shook her head and walked to the bathroom to get some ointment or something.

    Egg shook his head. "Guy's gotta lay off the beer. He started smoking again last week." Egghead walked over to the couch and sat down by Roger.

    "Poor guy." Gabby mumbled. Pluto came back in with a bottle and some wet paper towels. She shoved Egghead over and started dabbing Roger's eye. Roger looked real annoyed and kept pulling away, but then Pluto would grab his jacket and keep him still.

    "So he's at his own house right?" I asked.

    "Yeah." Roger said with his eyes closed. "Sleeping on his bed. I'll check on him again on my way home."

    "I was planning on heading over there anyway." I shrugged. "I'll come with."

    "Not so fast, Cakepop." Roger opened his eyes as Pluto reached for a dry towel. "I don't want you to see him. He ain't doing well. I don't know what he'll do to you, ain't got much reason in his head anymore."

    I growled. "I can see him if I want. He's like a brother to me. He wouldn't do nothin'."

    Roger chuckled and closed his eyes again as Pluto started dabbing his eye dry. I hated that Roger treated me like I was 10. I was as old as Raptor, and he didn't treat Raptor like that. Heck, he didn't even treat his own younger sister like that. Why was I the kid brother? I could be as tough as any of em. But this seemed to happen a lot, with all our members. The only one that treated me well was Pluto, but how could she treat me like a kid? She was younger than me.

    "Now don't touch it, rub it, nothin'. It'll get infected or worse, got it?" Pluto let go of Roger's jacket, and he slowly opened his eyes.

    "Ok ok, I'll touch it once everyday and rub it a lot until it hurts." He said sarcastically and smiled at her, and she lightly punched his arm.