Before I Forget - Chapter 1
**Chapter 1 - Photograph
"Look at this photograph, every time I do it makes me laugh"**
"Ah shit. It's raining again." Tala grumbled over her coffee. It made a nice change from alcohol and Zaphira had to admit she was happy to see her friend on the road to recovery. The past few months had been hell for the two of them, for a number of different reasons - Tala had a sudden crisis of self, had a breakdown and turned to alcohol as a route of escape before leaving the porno company that she previously worked at, and Zaphira had to reshoot Sadistic Bondage Babes 4 all over again thanks to Tala's mental breakdown half-way through production. Zaphira turned to face the window and sighed, her green eyes glazing over somewhat.
"Do you ever miss it?"
Tala took a deep swig of her coffee, "miss what?"
Zaphira's eyes darted back to Tala, although her head didn't move. "Getting fucked by another girl. Namely me." Rolling her eyes the grey wolf decided against giving Zaphira an answer and instead took another swig from the white cup. Zaphira looked away and sighed again, her head now resting on her palm. The sound of the rain beating against the small slightly grimy window made the cat instantly bored, and she swished her tail in mild frustration. It was a cozy little coffee shop that she had accidently stumbled into one day whilst exploring the back streets of the city centre, tucked well away from the bars and pubs that may entice her lupine companion to enter and drink herself into another stupor. A vibrating from her handbag suddenly snapped Zaphira back to reality and, after some digging around, she managed to unearth her phone from the bag only to scowl and put it back while it was still ringing. Tala shot her a look which didn't need to be explained to her. "Was someone at the studio. Probably asking where I am. Well they can get fucked, I booked this day off." Tala nodded and downed the last of her coffee. She'd taken her sweet time about it, but it was better late than never. A chubby male squirrel came over and picked the empty cups up - Zaphira had finished her tea a while ago - and as both girls stood up to leave he suddenly spoke up.
"You gonna pay for those drinks before you leave, then?"
"Excuse m-"
Tala butted in, pulling a wallet out from her leather jacket pocket. "How much?"
"£6.40" He folded his arms expectantly, half-challenging Zaphira to metaphorically scratch his eyes out. Without a word Tala put a £10 note on the counter and turned to leave, not waiting for change. Zaphira threw the squirrel one last glare before following her companion out.
The walk back to Tala's apartment was unnervingly quiet, with the two only breaking it occasionally for some small talk. A passing alsation wolf-whistled the two of them, and a balding bear approached them asking for autographs on his moobs - apparently he was a huge fan of Lesbian Hot-tub Party - but other than that it was almost painfully uneventful. The corridor along to Tala's room had a woman - Zaphira could only assume she was a mouse, but couldn't see her properly - slumped outside a door, off her tits on what smelled like Carlsberg. Zaphira grimaced at the poor soul who was half-mumbling whatever lyrics she could remember from Summer Lovin' from Grease, but Tala seemed unfussed by it, carrying on to the far end of the corridor and stopping outside a red door. Taking the key out of her pocket and unlocking the door, she stepped aside to let her guest in first. It didn't come as much of a suprise to Zaphira that Tala's home was fairly simple, with wooden flooring and cream-coloured walls. A number of CDs and DVD's lay stacked up on the floor between the TV and the CD player and her well-used couch had an empty bottle of Jack Daniels resting on a cushion. The cat scowled, but Tala payed no mind and walked past, taking her jacket off and throwing it in a dark room - Zaphira assumed it was her bedroom. She grinned at a picture on the coffee table that Tala clearly hadn't had enough time to put away. "You in this picture?" Without waiting for a reply she picked up the photo, recognising it instantly as a school picture with the whole year group. "It's weird seeing you in school uniform and not having a dude behind you putting his junk in your a-"
"Yeah, yeah." Tala sighed, throwing herself on the couch and making the Jack Daniels bottle bounce. "I had to dig it out anyway. Making me a photo album."
"You? A photo album?" She put the picture back down and took a seat next to Tala. "Doesn't strike me as a hobby you'd take up."
Tala shrugged, picked up the bottle and put it on the table so it was out of the way. "I never thought of it as a hobby to be honest. More a memoire than anything else." She leaned back, turning to face Zaphira. "I've already got just about all the pictures I need, I just want to get that picture photocopied and then I'm going to stick it in."
There was a long pause before Zaphira broke the silence. "Mind if I have a look at the pictures?"
Another long pause. Tala's expression was still and she stared at Zaphira as if she were staring through her, but eventually she leant forward, put her hands under the couch and after a little bit of rumaging pulled out a rather thick black folder. She handed it over and watched as her friend flicked through the pages fairly rapidly. She stopped at one page at the front, scanning one picture in particular up and down for a while before moving on. Her expressions changed from worried to cheerful so suddenly that Tala was having trouble keeping track of exactly what the cat was looking at. Suddenly there was a roar of laughter from Zaphira, who picked up the album and shoved it in Tala's face, pointing at a rather geeky looking chihuahua girl. "SASHA BILSBURY?! YOU WENT OUT WITH SASHA BILSBURY?!"
"You know her?"
"Know her?! CHRIST! The girl's only the biggest loser ever to grace my secondary school!" She laughed some more, snorting occasionally which made Tala grin. "AND YOU WENT OUT WITH HER?!"
Tala cringed, pinning her ears back and blushing slightly, "Hey shut up! It was a desperate time and she wouldn't piss off until I went out with her!"
"Yeah, ok Tala. I believe you," Zaphira wiped a tear of laughter from her eye, "thousands wouldn't."
"Shut up! If you're just going to rip the piss then give me the album back." Tala snarled, trying to hide her embarassment. Zaphira quickly calmed down and returned to flicking through the pages. After a while she went back to the first page and Tala raised an eyebrow at her. "What are you doing?"
"I want you to talk me through this. I didn't bring it up before, but I saw a picture with you and some other wolves. You've never told me about your family." She looked back up at the wolf, her green eyes flashing with genuine interest. For a moment Tala was silent, then she leaned forwards and pointed at a picture of a small family of wolves.
"My mum, dad, older brother and younger sister. Oh. And me of course..." She took the picture album off Zaphira and placed it in between the two of them. "My sister was a pretty sickly as a cub, and to be honest we weren't expecting her to make it past two, but she surprised us and actually started to get slowly stronger. Unlike you I didn't come from a rich family and both of my parents worked in dead-end jobs. Often they didn't have enough time for us, but my brother - Sloan - told us that they did care really, and the reason they didn't have much time to spend with us was because they were working so hard to make life as comfortable as possible and to give us a good start in life. This was just before Peaches - my little sister - was born. I was only really young at the time - no older than six or seven, I reckon - so I didn't really understand what he meant. I guess I do now." Tala paused again and stared at Zaphira. "Why do you suddenly want to know my life story anyway? It's getting on."
Zaphira shrugged. "It's something you've never talked about, and I guess I'm just really nosey. Anyway, I've got nowhere to be tomorrow, so I've got plenty of time to listen if you'll take me in for the night."
Knowing that her feline friend wouldn't take no as an answer, Tala agreed - albeit rather begrudgingly. "Well buckle down... This may take a while..."