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Chapter Ten.

They walked to the gym side by side, Jason in his letter jacket and Dox in Jason's extra shirt. It happened to be one of Dox's favorites, an outrageously garish tropical shirt with palm trees and hula dancers on it. It didn't look as good on him as it did on Jason, but it reminded him of the owner and that made him smile. It was also, he knew, instantly recognizable as one of Jason's party shirts, and seeing him wearing it would cause more than a few raised eyebrows.

The crowd around them began to coalesce as they approached the entry doors, and by the time they'd reached the girl in charge of taking the tickets, they were shoulder-to-shoulder with all the other couples. For once in his life, Dox experienced what it felt like to just be one of the crowd, the same as anyone else, and it felt great. For the first time at this school, he actually felt like he belonged.

Jason pulled their tickets out of his pocket and gave them to the girl seated at the table. Handing them a pair of blank ballots for the homecoming king and queen in return, she did a quick double-take, but then smiled anyway and wished them a good time.

"It's kinda fun blowing their minds," Jason said, sotto voce.

"I know, right?" Dox said, looking around the room at all the handsome couples dancing, talking, and eating their weight in marginally edible buffet food. "There's the chow line," Dox said, pointing it out to Jason. "Why don't you get yourself something to eat before you starve to death?"

Dox wasn't particularly eager to stand in a line that long for steam-tray food, so he set off to find them somewhere to sit. His first inclination was to seat them off in a corner somewhere, but out of consideration for Jason, he thought that maybe he could find a pair of seats nearer to the center of the action, where those who had seen the game could more easily congratulate the player who brought home tonight's victory. It would make Jason feel good, thought Dox, and he deserved every bit of attention he received.

"Dox! Over here!" Where did that voice come from, Dox wondered? It sounded familiar. Looking around, he saw to his chagrin that several people at the large table in the center of the room, the one reserved for players and their dates, were waving at him. He wanted to pretend that he hadn't heard them, but knowing that these were his date's friends, he knew he had no right to pull Jason away from them, especially on a night like tonight. Dread found its place in its reserved seat in the pit of his stomach as he did the only thing he could do. He silently gritted his teeth, changed direction and walked towards their table, trying his best to look pleased. What could they possibly be talking about that he would be able to contribute to?

"Have a seat, Dox!" Tony said, waving to a chair next to his date, a ravishing vixen that Dox had seen while walking through the halls of the school. She was so mature looking that Dox had occasionally wondered whether she was a student or a teacher.

"Is this your date, Tony?" Dox asked, knowing full well that she was, but giving Tony the opportunity to crow a little bit.

"Sure is," Tony said, a huge smile plastered all over his wide face. "Sophia, this is my friend Dox. Dox," he said in turn, "this is Sophia."

"Sophia," Dox said, rolling the name around in his mouth like it was delicious. "Like Sophia Loren." He looked at her analytically and nodded his head slightly. "It suits you."

"Thank you," she said, her voice carrying a trace of a foreign accent.

"You do know that you can do better, right?" he told her, inclining his eyebrows towards her date.

"Hey!" Tony protested, but his annoyance was short lived, fizzling out when he saw his date dissolve in a fit of giggles.

"You are so forward!" she said, flirting with Dox shamelessly. "I like that in a man." She enunciated each word carefully as she spoke, giving her words a sense of weight and depth.

"Back off, toots," Tony broke in, smiling at her, "he's already taken. And what am I, chopped liver?"

"You are the most handsome man in the room," she told him, "and you have nothing to fear." Turning back to Dox, she asked, "What position do you play? You can always tell the football players in a room, because their hair is still wet after the game."

Dox laughed and ran his fingers through his damp fur self-consciously. "I'm afraid I'm not on the team, I just had a little accident at the end of the game and had to wash my hair. But I'm flattered that you think I look that athletic," he said, quickly changing the subject. "You look like you're in great shape. Are you on a team?"

As it turned out, she was on both the girl's softball team and the swim team, and before he knew it, Dox was engaged in a discussion with her about the benefits and drawbacks of co-ed sports. Dox had rarely considered the matter, and was grasping at conversational straws when Jason approached the table with two plates heaping high with food. "Hey there, Sophia! You're looking wonderful, as always."

Jason put one of the plates in front of Dox, then sat down in the empty chair next to him and pulled it closer. Dox watched discreetly as Sophia's expression changed from surprise to wonder, and finally settled on what Dox might call 'bemused happiness'. She rested her chin on her fingers and looked at the two of them for a moment. "You two?" she asked, quickly picking up on the arrangement.

"Yep!" Jason said, proudly. "Us two."

"I had always hoped that you'd find someone nice to settle down with," she said, cutting her eyes to Dox. "It seems like you finally did!"

Her sweet smile made Dox's eartips burn with a self-conscious blush, and he squirmed a little in his chair, not quite knowing how to feel. He was intensely proud to be Jason's date that night, but that wonderful feeling was marred somewhat by the mental aftertaste that being outed always left. He hated that the events of his past could taint his enjoyment of a moment like this.

He wished that he could be as cavalier about his sexuality as Jason seemed to be. Dox was endlessly thankful that Jason hadn't ever been tortured because of something he couldn't change, that he hadn't ever been the object of ridicule, leaving his spirit undamaged and pure.

"Oh, you're blushing!" Sophia cried, reaching a graceful paw out and putting it on top of Dox's. "That is so sweet. Just like a little puppy!"

Dox had promised himself that he would try to pull out of his shell, but the thought of talking to a stranger, especially one as intimidatingly beautiful as Sophia, still made him squirm. Still, she seemed like she might not react badly. "I've seen you around school, Sophia," he started, tentatively, "you're an exchange student, aren't you?"

"In a way," she said, picking up her water and delicately drinking from it. "My father is a contract worker for your government, and he picked up a two year job here. I'm on a student visa, but not in an exchange program."

"Oh, hey, that's right," Dox said, warming to the conversation. "I think I heard something about that at the beginning of the year. Wasn't there..." he stopped for a moment, concentrating. "Yes! Now I remember. Someone's mother complained that you weren't eligible to play on the team because you didn't have the right paperwork, or something."

Sophia rolled her eyes. "Yes, yes," she said, "that was Jessie's mother. It was stupid, you know." She lowered her voice a bit as she confided, "Jessie didn't even have a problem with it! Her mother was afraid that I would take her position on the volleyball team, so she started the whole stink over a technicality."

While she was speaking, Dox nodded attentively and discreetly picked a fried lump from the plates that he and Jason were sharing. His stomach was grumbling, annoyed at his lack of attention, and even though he didn't have a lot of interest in the buffet food, he'd have to feed it something unless he wanted it to be gurgling all night long. He had no idea what the morsel was, but as far as food safety went, anything fried was probably a fairly safe bet. Where flavor was concerned, well, that was another matter. He cut the lump into smaller pieces and forked one into his mouth, chewing slowly.

"Your English is excellent," he said. "Did you study back in ... Where are you from, anyway?" He swallowed the food with no small amount of trepidation, and said, to nobody in particular, "Dear God, I have no idea what that was."

Sophia laughed at the expression on his face, and Dox imagined that it sounded like a cool morning breeze whispering through tiny silver bells. "My home is in New Delhi. English is actually quite common there." Taking a careful bite from her plate, she said, "My parents wanted me to grow up bilingual so I would have better opportunities, so I've spoken English all my life."

"You know," she said to Dox, "you're the only man in this group with good enough manners to eat with utensils. The rest of them eat everything with their fingers."

Dox looked horrified, and immediately dropped his knife and fork like they'd given him an electric shock. He quickly picked up an over-sauced chicken wing from the pile of food on Jason's plate and began sucking the meat off the bone. "Thanks, Sophia," he said between bites, "I forgot where I was."

Sophia put her delicate paws over her eyes and groaned. "Jason," she groaned, "you are polluting this wonderful young man with your caveman ways!"

"I like it," Jason said, beaming happily, "it gives me something to snack on later." He grabbed Dox's hand and made loud nomming noises over his fingers. "*nom* *nom* *nom* Oh yeah, they taste like wing sauce! *nom* *nom* *nom*"

Dox laughed, his heart lighter than it had ever been in a group of people, and gently pushed Jason's head away from his paw. He'd never had a group of friends where he could just be himself, and he certainly never dreamed about having friends who would accept this sort of joking between him and his lover.

Tony played along, acting as distressed as Sophia at Dox's depravation, not really minding that his best friend was nomming the fingers of a guy instead of a girl. It was a joke, right? Just like when one of the defensive tackles made a big show of trying to kiss him in front of everyone else in the locker room. He could go along with that.

When Tony looked over at the other guys sitting across from them at the table, none of them looked really upset, but some did have uncomfortable looks on their faces suggesting that they'd rather not have seen proof that their star wide receiver was gay. Sure, they'd heard about it, but to see it in real life was different. But Jason wasn't really acting any different than he did before...right?

One of the guys on the other side of the table turned to his friend and ducked his head, about to say something under his breath about Jason and his date, but was stopped in his tracks by a well-timed throat clearing from Tony. The look in the quarterback's eyes needed no interpretation. It said, "Zip it." As team captain Tony had established a few rules, one of them being that they supported their teammates, even if they didn't always understand why they did what they did. Making fun of Jason or his boyfriend wouldn't do anything good for the team.

"So can you cook good Indian food?" Jason asked Sophia, once he'd gotten his breath back, "Dox and I went to an Indo-Paki restaurant last week that was amazing."

Sophia looked at him with aloof disdain, and when she spoke her foreign accent was pronounced. "Why would you think that just because I am from India, that I carry aloo gobi around in my pockets? That is a stereotype." When Jason's ears started to droop a bit in embarrassment, amusement replaced disdain in her voice, and her accent went back into its hiding place, where she could apparently take it out for use whenever it suited her. "Okay, so maybe in this case the stereotype is valid." She looked pleased with herself as she said, "I'm not a bad cook, but my mother is much better. You and Dox should come over for dinner one night."

Dox tried to pay attention to what they were saying, but his attention was drawn to the conversation held by the guys on the other side of their table. Mark and Charlie, two of the big linebackers who had taken care of Joey after he'd slammed his helmet into Dox's face, were involved in an animated discussion that was growing louder by the second.

"Dude, that ain't right!" Charlie argued, "You can have just one foot inside the line, and the catch is good."

Mark shook his head sadly, as if Charlie were the dumbest thing to walk the earth on two legs. "No way. You've gotta have both feet inside. They had some big controversy about that on Monday Night Football last week."

"I asked my brother, and he plays for UCLA," the first one replied, heatedly. "He'd know, don't you think?"

Dox hated to see a good discussion devolve like that. Not only were they getting loud and making him feel uncomfortable, they were arguing over something that could be easily looked up. In this case, though, he didn't need to. Spending so much time around Jason had given him a few nuggets of football trivia to pull from, and this was one of them. "You're both right." he said, feeling a little special, the way he did when nobody else in the class knew the right answer.

Both defensive linemen looked at him challengingly. "Huh?" one of them grunted.

Suddenly Dox's mouth felt dry, the way it does when, after giving your correct answer, the teacher asks you to get up in front of the class and explain your work. What if he was wrong? What if he gave the wrong answer with Jason sitting right there? Would the other guys laugh at him, embarrassing both him and Jason?

He glanced quickly at his boyfriend, who had paused his conversation with Sophia and was looking at him calmly. Dox felt awkward. His backup was here if he needed it, but now it was his time to be in the spotlight.

Taking a deep breath, Dox threw his dice and hoped they came up seven. "You're both right," he repeated, more assertively. "In the NFL you need to have both feet inside the line to make it a legal catch, but in college you just need one. Neither one of you is wrong." Dox looked quickly to Jason for confirmation, "Right?

"Yep," Jason said, grinning proudly at his date. "Rule 2, article 2, section 7," he added helpfully, just to rub in the fact that Dox had known something that even the players hadn't.

"Danella wouldn't have known that," Mark grumbled.

"Huh." Charlie huffed at Jason, eyeing Dox with a new respect. The nondescript brown dog wasn't anything like he'd expected. He might be gay, but he wasn't the flaming little faggot that Joey had warned them about. And so far he'd treated all of them with more respect than they probably deserved, which was more than he could have said for most of the player's girlfriends, and that took him a long way in Charlie's opinion.

"Speaking of Danella, where is she?" Jason said, distracting attention from Dox.

"She's over there with the other girls," Mark said, hooking a thumb over to the corner of the room. Whenever they went somewhere as a group, the girls tended to cluster together and escape the incessant jock talk the boys engaged in. Mark's right ear began to twitch, and he fished his keys out of his pocket, using the longest one dig deep down and scratch the itch. "Why won't they even sit with us after we spend all that money on tickets and shit?"

"Beats the hell out of me," Charlie said, before letting out a heroic belch.

Mark surprised himself by being a little envious of Jason. The thought had crossed his mind that if he couldn't find a girlfriend who wanted to be around him and his friends, maybe having a boyfriend instead wouldn't be so bad. Being with Dox hadn't turned Jason into a fruit, and that was really what Mark was concerned about. He didn't want to do the gay thing if it meant he had to give up being a guy.

Silently, he wondered if Dox maybe had a friend...

"Would you like to dance?"

The question caught Dox off guard. He and Jason had been having such a great conversation with the other players, snacking at the plates of food between them and talking about everything under the sun, that Dox had barely noticed when Tony and Sophia had excused themselves and moved onto the dance floor. And now, with Jason looking at him expectantly, Dox didn't know what to say.

"I'm watching all these other guys take their dates out on the dance floor, and I'm kinda jealous, you know?" Jason said, a quiet smile on his ruggedly handsome face. "So what do you think?"

"I think," Dox said, sadly, "that I don't know how to dance."

"All you have to do is shake your tail and move your arms a bit," Jason told him, "Haven't you ever danced to the music on the radio?"

"Well, yeah," Dox said, "but not with everyone watching!"

"See all those people out there?" Jason asked, pointing to the dance floor where hundreds of others were swaying back and forth. "Every one of them is dancing in front of hundreds of people, right?"

Dox couldn't deny it, so he stayed silent, embarrassed by his lack of courage.

"Look again, puppy," he encouraged, "How many of them are pointing and laughing at anyone else?"

"Nobody." Dox admitted, hesitantly.

"See that guy over in the corner there?" Jason said, pointing discreetly, "The one with that bright purple shirt? He's not even moving in time with the music and nobody cares. There aren't any rules, so there's no way to get it wrong."

"I wish there were rules," Dox said, resenting the worry that was creeping into his voice. "At least then I could know that I was doing the right thing."

Jason smiled at him and put an arm on his shoulder. "You already know how to do the right thing, pup, I was watching you when we were walking through Sphinx, and I noticed that whenever a techno song came on, you were swaying to the music. You were practically dancing, right then."

"I was not." Dox said, uncertainly.

"Uh, yeah, you were," Jason confirmed, nodding his head. "And you've got great rhythm, too."

Dox looked out at the dance floor, and in the back of his mind, he wondered what it would be like to be in the middle of all those people, swaying to the same beat as everyone else. To be unafraid. He was so damned tired of living his life in fear.

That's what it was all about, Dox realized. That was why he was the one everyone picked on. He wasn't mean, or weak, or ugly, or dumb. Looking out on the dance floor, it was as if the veil had been lifted and he could finally see clearly. There wasn't anyone out there who wasn't worse than him in some way. The guy in the blue shirt was fatter than he was, and the girl in the yellow dress had a laugh like a braying donkey. And he was pretty sure that none of them had his raw intelligence.

In that moment, he accepted that he had been bullied because he didn't believe enough in his own worth to stand up for himself. And that, he decided, was going to change. Right now.

"Sure," Dox said, looking back at Jason with a confident smile. "Let's go!"

As they stood up, Dox caught sight of a small fox leaning against a support pillar about twenty feet away, right next to the dance floor. If he was in here, he must have been at least a junior, because only upperclassmen could get into tonight's event, but he looked five years too young for that. Blood red and fine-boned, except for his stature, he appeared well formed. Dox suspected that his size and slim build would have made him the butt of jokes.

Runt. Pipsqueak, small fry, short stuff.

Faggot.

The expression on his face was visible even in the darkened room. It was one of longing, like he was waiting for a loved one to return. And although his body was absolutely still, he was betrayed by the tapping of his foot. Moving up and down in time to the music, he stared forlornly into the crowd of people, close enough to touch them, but still miles away. Dox knew that expression far too well, having seen it in his own mirror for most of his life. He was afraid, too.

"Come on," Dox said, grabbing Jason's arm.

Walking through the obstacle course of tables and scattered chairs, Dox and Jason made their way to the dance floor. "Hey, where you going?" Jason protested, as Dox veered away from the closest entrance to the crowd of people. Even though he was confused, he dutifully followed his partner as Dox walked up to a tiny fox who he didn't recognize.

"Hey!" Dox said to the fox, raising his voice to be heard above the driving music. "I'm Dox, and this is Jason!" He stuck his hand out a little too abruptly, and the fox flinched slightly.

When the blow didn't come, the fox looked down to see not a fist, but Dox's open paw. Hesitantly, he took Dox's paw in his own and shook it. Jason, who was already larger than Dox, practically towered over this little Fox. Seeing how he'd reacted to Dox, Jason offered his paw slowly, bringing it out sideways from his body to be as non-threatening as possible. When the Fox took it, Jason thought it was like shaking the paw of a young pup, fragile and uncertain.

Up close, Dox could see that this guy was older than he looked from a distance. The tip of his bushy tail was pure white, and Dox was pretty sure that didn't happen until a fox was at least fifteen or sixteen. His eyes had an almost haunted look to them. "I'm Jerry," he said, pushing his hands into his pockets as far as they'd go.

Dox flashed him a big smile, hoping he was coming out on the right side of that thin line between friendly and creepy. "Me and Jason are going out on the floor to dance for a little while, Jerry. Will you join us?"

"I'm, uh..." Jerry stammered, "That's okay, thanks."

"Oh, come on," Dox said, "I saw your foot tapping up and down, and the look on your face said it all. You're dying to get out there! And more importantly," he added, looking around conspiratorially before moving a little closer to the fox, "I need your help. I have no idea what I'm doing out there and I'm kinda nervous. Can you help me so I don't look stupid in front of him?"

Jerry was quite still for a moment, then raised his hands. "Okay, okay," he said, "you talked me into it." Turning to the dance floor, Jerry added, in a voice that Dox almost couldn't hear, "But this is against my better judgment."

Turning to the almost impenetrable mass of people, Dox and Jerry were uncertain how to proceed until Jason shouldered his way past them. Bulling his way into the crowd, he cleared a patch of real estate for the three of them, and was rewarded when Jerry began to sway back and forth to the music. His motions were small and nervous at first, but soon began to smooth out as the infectious music worked its way into him. The kid's got rhythm! Jason thought, And some good moves, too. I just hope he doesn't mess up what I've got planned.

Jason had been told that he danced like a frat boy, but he didn't care. He threw himself into the music with abandon, tossing his body back and forth in a way that occasionally looked downright dangerous, but managed to never collide with any of the other dancers. In spite of his thrashing, he kept a careful eye on both Dox and Jerry, never moving more than an arms length from either of them. The last thing he needed, after working so hard to get his confidence up, was to have someone who wasn't paying attention slam into Dox and burst his fragile bubble.

Dox watched both of them for a short time, quickly settling on Jerry as the correct one to emulate. If he tried to move like Jason, he'd come away from the dance floor with broken bones! Mimicking the small fox's movements as best he could, Dox shifted his weight back and forth between his left foot and his right, swaying gently back and forth until he had a good feeling for what his body was doing.

Watching Jason go absolutely nuts on the dance floor made Dox feel a heck of a lot better about his own lack of finesse. He could have stood on his head and spun around like a top, and next to Jason it would have looked perfectly normal. Closing his eyes, Dox swayed back and forth and let the music soak into him. He had no idea what artists were playing, but he liked the songs. The driving rhythm was easy to latch on to, and although his brain was complaining that he didn't know how to dance, his body proved to him that he did. Safe in Jason's shadow, Dox let go of his insecurities and tapped in to the primal animal that lived deep inside every dog.

Jason might have looked like he was oblivious to everything going on around him, but nothing could have been further from the truth. Seeing Jerry's reaction to what Dox was doing, he slowed and paid close attention, just in case his pup was doing something that might later come back to haunt himself.

What he saw was anything but embarrassing. Eyes closed, Dox's body swayed in perfect time to the music, with rhythmic grace that Jason hadn't imagined him capable of. His arms and legs moved in a beautiful yet unpracticed synchrony that brought meaning to the music. Watching him move was, Jason thought, like hearing a woman with a beautiful voice tell a story in a language that you didn't understand. Knowing the meaning of all the words became secondary to feeling the emotions behind them.

Every now and then, with perfect, split-second timing, Dox would stand absolutely still, using the total lack of motion to cause a... a space in the brain, a pause in the story, and then he would pick right back up where he left off. Nothing about his dancing looked artificial or contrived; it was natural emotion, elegantly conveyed with a total lack of artifice.

Jason watched quietly as others around him turned to look at his boyfriend, not with rude stares, but in raw appreciation. It didn't take long before he even saw some of Dox's unique moves being imitated by others in the crowd. When they tried, they were just dance moves. When Dox did it, it was art. God damn, Jason thought, stunned, who knew?

Nothing lasts forever. When Dox heard the last thumping beats of the song fading away to silence, he slowly opened his eyes, as if waking from a light sleep. "That wasn't so bad," he told a smiling Jason. "I kinda liked it."

"Thanks," he told Jerry, turning to walk off the floor. "I don't think I could have done that if you hadn't been there."

"Are you kidding me?" Jerry said, stopping Dox and looking at him as if he'd just grown another head. "You've never been on a dance floor before?" The way it came out made it sound more like an accusation than a question.

Dox winced. "Did I make a fool of myself?"

"No." Jerry said, shaking his head. Dox could hear what he thought was anger in the fox's voice, but he didn't know why that would be. Had he done something wrong, or was just imagining it?

Jerry shot Dox a look that he couldn't interpret. "You're going to see your moves all over the floor by the time the night's over." Without another word, the fox turned and walked towards the door, leaving a surprised and very confused Dox in his wake.

"Oh," Dox said, completely not understanding what the fox was talking about. "Okay, then. Thanks..." He shrugged his shoulders and started back towards their table. Perhaps he had made Jerry angry, but he was determined not to beat himself up over something he had no control over. From behind him, a deep voice stopped him in his tracks.

"Where you going, pup?"

When Dox turned around to see Jason still standing on the dance floor, one hand extended out to him in invitation, he finally paid some attention to what had replaced the dance music that was no longer pounding out of the speakers. A shy smile grew on his face when he realized that it was now a slow ballad. A belly-rubber. Dox walked back and took the paw of his football hero, allowing Jason to pull him as close together as any of the other couples on the floor.

Swaying back and forth in time to the music, Dox wrapped his arms around Jason's bulk and snuggled up to his warmth. Dancing to the club beat had been fun, but this, to Dox, was pure magic. He breathed in deeply the peppery scent of his hero, and sighed out contentedly. For this one instant, holding himself close to the man he loved, his life was perfect.

Along with a dozen other people on the dance floor, Jason watched Dox's movements winding down to match the fading dance track. A few people quietly applauded but Dox paid them no mind, apparently thinking that the applause was meant for the DJ.

Jason's ringing ears couldn't discern what Jerry was saying to Dox, but he looked a bit agitated. The set of the fox's shoulders as he stalked off told Jason all he needed to know. Dox had upstaged him! Without meaning to, Dox had diverted any positive attention that Jerry thought he might receive and aimed it straight back at himself. Jason had to chuckle to himself a little bit. His little pup was full of surprises that night!

Anyone who frequented the club scene knew that the only reason the music stopped was if the DJ was going from one type of music to another. In this case, Jason knew that the next song would almost certainly be some sort of slow ballad, and he prepared himself. He'd been thinking about this moment for quite a while now, and the time had come. He was about to come out of the closet in front of God and everyone.

Even before meeting Dox, the little dog had changed Jason's life. Watching him from a distance for so long, Jason's feelings had gone from disgust to antipathy to admiration. Once the two had met, his feelings had blossomed to friendship, and then finally to love. Dox had never failed to astonish him with talent, his intelligence, his kind spirit, and his tenacity. Being around him made Jason want to be a better man.

For months, Jason had battled with himself about whether he'd ever admit that he liked guys. He'd gone over it in his mind a thousand times, but always came up with a slightly different answer. He'd just about resigned himself to living a life of either loneliness or lies, but after meeting Dox, his choice became crystal clear.

As it turned out, he'd had no choice.

From the first week they'd met, Jason felt compelled to have Dox in his life. To do less would have been to deny everything in the world that he valued. When he had discovered that Dox had felt the same way about him, it had been a bombshell. No longer were there doubts about his sexuality or about his path. Jason was gay, and he would make this amazing brown lab his mate. No matter what the consequences, no matter what the cost, it was as undeniable as the sun, and as irresistible as the tides.

And now, in the middle of his high school's homecoming dance, among all his classmates, his friends, teachers and teammates, he was going to silently and irrevocably announce that he was in love with Dox Rayburn, and his life would change forever.

He used to worry about what others would say when they found out about him, but now he simply didn't care. There were other things in life far more important than what other people thought, and no matter what happened to him from this point on, he knew without a shadow of a doubt that he could handle it, because he was no longer alone. He had Dox on his side.

Jason tried calling to Dox as he was walking off the floor, but managed to stumble on his words. Shaking a head at his foolishness, he tried again with more success. Thinking about how impossibly lucky he'd been to catch such a fine man put a hitch in Jason's voice that he hoped Dox couldn't hear. "Where you going, pup?"

Holding out his hand to Dox, Jason waited patiently as the other dog cocked his head slightly and became aware of the music. He then watched as the shy grin that he loved so much spread across his puppy's face, warming his heart to the core. He'd almost gone down the slippery slope of lonely bitterness and rage and become a twin to Joey's brand of self-hatred, but that trusting, innocent grin had brought him back from the edge. Dox had saved him.

Jason felt no shame taking his wonderful partner in his arms in front of the entire school, and he found none when he wept silent tears of joy into Dox's soft head fur, which might smell like hand soap tonight instead of its usual woody scent, but was still wonderfully soft.

Aware only enough to avoid bumping into the other couples dancing around the floor, Jason immersed himself in the wonder of the moment, closing his eyes to slits as he held his precious puppy close to him, rocking back and forth in unison under a twenty four inch mirror ball and the gaze of five hundred curious eyes. For a few moments carved out of his uncertain and tumultuous world, Jason had the comfort of knowing that he was precisely where he was supposed to be.