Chapter 3: A Heartfelt Apology
"What?" Piers was surprised and confused by Jimmy's sudden apology.
"You heard it right. I feel like what I did to you all these years was honestly a low blow and I would like to apologize. But, this apology in no way means that it'll be the end of me picking on you, since that would adversely affect both of us. If I do that, they'll not only pick on me but you too. So, I guess I can only promise a slightly loose picking on you. This way, your friends could get a chance to save you and I'll get to save my ass as well." Jimmy replied.
"Oh, I get it. Don't worry about it. I too think it's the best method to go by. So, yea. Go for it. And apology accepted." Piers smiled brightly, although Jimmy couldn't see the smile under his elf mask.
After this, the work went as usual. And the Santa event was a moderate success and everyone involved were extremely pleased by this, including Jimmy. Upon receiving the pay for doing this shtick, everyone including Piers went to change clothes, while Jimmy stayed back.
Piers noticed Jimmy still wearing the Santa costume and approached him. "So, why are you still in costume? Are you gonna go home wearing this?" He asked.
Jimmy, who was deep in some thought, suddenly woke up from it upon hearing Piers' question. "Ah… Yea, I guess? Seems like I have to do that, since somehow my clothes still haven't dried up yet. But, since the manager here gave me permission to wear it to home, it's fine!" He replied.
"Oh, that's cool. Look, I'm gonna go home now. So, if there's something you want me to do, do tell me. Like, I can walk you home or something." Piers put forth his suggestion.
"Nah, that would be slightly embarrassing. But thank you for offering though. I'll go to my home by myself." Jimmy replied.
"I see." Piers walked to the entrance of the mall. Jimmy followed along. "Well, if that's the case, we would walk together until we have to separate! How about that?" He said as he pointed to the direction that he was heading to.
"Hmm, that would mean that we just walked that walk. I gotta go in the entirely opposite direction." Jimmy replied, pointing to the opposite direction.
"That sucks. You know, someday we can walk together to your house so that I can meet your parents and all! I'd like to clear the misunderstandings that they might have of you being a delinquent or something." Piers spoke.
"Well, that's not exactly a misunderstanding though!" Jimmy chuckled.
"Maybe… Maybe not… People do crazy shit to survive. I'd like to believe you did that to survive too." Piers replied.
"Sheesh, don't make it seem like I'm a good guy or something." Jimmy felt slightly embarrassed as he spoke.
"You are good, though! Well, at times." Piers laughed. "Bye, Jimmy."
"Bye, Piers. See you after a month, I guess! Until then stay away from all sorts of delinquent gangs." Jimmy warned.
"Yup. I'll make sure to." Piers replied as they walked in the opposite directions.
#
"Is he gone?" Jimmy looked around and checked if Piers was truly gone. He lied to Piers about going back to home. If Piers knew about, Jimmy felt like that guy would actually invite him in. And that would make it awkward for both of them and Piers' parents. Imagine what will go through their mind when their son brings in the person that bullied him to their Christmas dinner. But from what little he learned about Piers that day, he knew that he would invite him to his house the first chance he gets. Even the ones Jimmy calls "friends" wouldn't do that for him.
Since Piers was gone, Jimmy went inside the mall where the two elf employees opened a room at the back for him to drop in. They actually helped him above and beyond and Jimmy was thankful for that action.
So, he hung his wet clothes to dry and jumped into a couch lying there and tried to sleep. Maybe it was because it was because the couch wasn't his bed back at home, he couldn't sleep an eye in there. Therefore, he stayed on the couch with his eyes open. He thought of doing something, but the room literally had nothing other than the couch and a cupboard.
Bored of staying in the room for more than one minute, Jimmy got up and decided to stroll. He kept his Santa beard on so that no one would actually recognize him. The stroll was peaceful. It was kinda snowing heavily, so the lack of people around made it really soothing. However, this peace didn't last long as Jimmy heard human voices in the back of an alley.
Originally, he really wanted to walk away and continue with his walk without concerning himself with whatever was happening in that alley. But for some reason, he stealthily walked into that alley. Maybe, it was because he was such a curious cat. Anyway, the scene he saw before him was totally unexpected. Piers, who was supposed to be home by now, was surrounded by a bunch of people. Upon close inspection of their faces, Jimmy noticed that they were the members of the delinquent gang, the ones just a rank above him in hierarchy.
One of them grabbed Piers by his collar. "You have a lot of guts to just walk around the streets when you are the primary reason that our friend got suspended." He spoke.
Jimmy scoffed. He distinctly remembers calling each one of these people to crash in their house and they rejected him one by one saying that they were busy. However, by the looks of it, they clearly aren't busy! And they were threatening Piers, the one person who actually offered to do something for him. He wanted to go out there and smack them in their faces so badly. However, considering their numerical and awakened advantage, he decided to stay back and observe instead.
"Huh, what are you hiding there?" Another one asked as he forcefully took Piers' hand from his pocket and took the money inside. "Oh, look what he's got! He got a butt load of money!" The guy showed the money to the other members.
"Please don't take it! I worked hard for it!" Piers begged them.
However, the guys looked at him with a pissed off expression instead. "What are you talking about? You think what we do is easy stuff, huh? Tell me, pipsqueak!" One guy raised his hand to punch him, but was stopped by another guy with a crazy smile. He seemed like he had a plan brewing.
"Ah, you see. Jimmy called us a few hours ago. He said that he's thrown out of his house and he has neither a place to crash to nor money to spend." He spoke.
"This guy!" Jimmy was about to go ballistic, but kept himself quiet.
However, Piers couldn't keep him quiet. He was shocked. "But… He didn't tell me anything like that!" He mumbled.
The crazy smile guy heard him though. "Of course not. Why would HE tell YOU? He hates you, after all! Anyway, you get what I'm saying?" He asked.
Piers thought for a while. "Not really." He replied.
The crazy smile got annoyed by this. However, he didn't show the annoyance in his face. "Well, what I mean is… Why do you think he was kicked out of his house?" He asked.
"Because he punched me?" Piers asked.
"Exactly. On top of that he got suspended. Now, he wouldn't have got suspended if a certain someone's friend kept his silence. And if he wouldn't have gotten suspended, he wouldn't have gotten kicked out of his house. So, who do you think is at fault for him getting kicked out of the house?" He asked.
"Me?" Piers asked back.
"Oh, look! The little guy's smart! So, who do you think will offer that poor soul some money as a form of compensation?" He asked.
This time, there wasn't any sort of indecisiveness in Piers' answer. "Me! I will give him the money! Excuse me, then." Piers then thought of heading towards the X-mall. He believed that Jimmy would be hanging around that pace since he has nowhere to go now. So, he thought of directly giving to him.
"Hey, where are you going?" The guy stopped him and asked.
"Huh? I'm gonna give it to him." Piers replied.
"Oh, no. You don't have to. We will give it to him. We know where he is." The guy replied, even though he had no idea where Jimmy was.
"I see. Give it to him then." Unaware of this fact, innocent Piers gave the money to that guy.
Upon receiving the money, he turned his back on Piers before looking back at him. "Hey, don't you think you deserve some sort of punishment for putting Jimmy in this tough position?"He asked.
"But I gave you the money!" Piers replied.
"Ah, yes! But, that alone wouldn't make Jimmy happy. I think he'll be happy when he hears about how we beat you with a baseball bat." The guy smiled and signaled the one beside him. That guy handed a baseball bat to him and smiled. It was as if a beat down was planned all along. A lone Piers seemed to be in a lot of trouble at that moment.
#
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
The_Chimp
The_Chimp What're you doing, Jimmy? Save poor Piers!
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone