What Tigers Dream Of - Chap. 7
#7 of What Tigers Dream Of
It's not much, but it keeps the story moving. It shows true feelings and such. I hope you like it. And I hope someone gets a few tears from it too :P haha Enjoy! :3
TJ didn't realize it, but he'd fallen asleep at some point during his thinking spree and he woke up with a sticky note stuck to his forehead. He groaned and pulled it off of his head slowly without looking at it. It was 9:34 am and TJ just smiled to himself. 'Dad should be gone by now' he thought, a little bit of hope in his heart now. He headed for the bathroom to take a shower but he felt that something was wrong.
TJ went over to his pile of dirty clothes in the corner and picked up the jeans he'd worn the day before.
He took his phone out of the right pocket and looked at it. His alarm had gone off a million times, but he didn't hear it and he also had a few text messages. He opened his inbox and saw that all of them were from his brother and he just put the phone back down. 'That bastard...' he though and he walked back towards the bathroom.
TJ started the shower and looked in the mirror. He had been crying in his sleep and he never knew what the cause was until now; he felt like he was alone in the world. He closed his eyes and sighed as he held his head back. 'I'm going to have to do something about this...' he though as he took off his clothes and stepped in the shower.
TJ stood under the rushing, warm water, thinking about how he'd basically been shunned by his father the night before. 'That's totally unlike him to do that...' TJ thought. He continued to wash his fur thoroughly, enjoying his day of playing hooky. After he'd finished rinsing off, he got out of the shower and brushed his teeth, then he heard his phone ring. 'Who could that be?' he thought.
TJ left the bathroom and put on some black and yellow boxers and went to go get his phone. When he picked it up and looked at who was calling, he was frozen with a mixture of fear and shock for a few seconds; it was his dad. He decided to answer to keep whatever his dad had to say from getting out of hand.
"Hello?" TJ spoke in to the phone with his heart beating a thousand times a minute.
"TJ." Robby began with great regret in his voice "I know you didn't go to school today."
TJ screwed his face into a look of confusion 'Of course I didn't go to school today. I just answered my phone at 10:30 in the morning' he thought.
Robby continued, "Look, I'm really sorry for the way I acted last night. I was already mad at your brother and stressed from work."
TJ stared blankly as he listened to his father apologize. When TJ was a small pup, he remembered his father telling him to never apologize for any reason. And to think he was talking to this same man now...
"I'm going to be home in about an hour and I just want to talk to you about this." Robby waited on TJ to respond. "Is that cool with you?"
"Yes sir." TJ replied immediately.
"Ok. Well I'll see you when I get home" Robby replied.
"Alright dad, Bye." TJ said and hung up the phone.
He felt a hell of a lot better now that he knew that his dad didn't mean what he did the night before. He decided to read the texts he had gotten from his brother that he'd ignored earlier. He frowned as he read them. The first one said "Dad wants you to call him." The second one: "Dude, call dad." The third one: "I'm not kidding. I know you're up."
TJ sighed and decided he should clean up his room before his dad got home. So he dug through his drawer for a few minutes to find clothes to put on. He finally decided to go with some faded jeans and a black Nike t-shirt. "I hope he doesn't complain about this too..." TJ said as he pulled the T-shirt over his head.
TJ began picking up his room and putting things in the wash to keep himself occupied while he awaited his father's arrival. He found many things that he thought he had lost forever like his old iPod, a Playstation memory card, and a large, framed guitar pick that was signed by all of the members of Phantom Planet and The Aquabats. TJ smiled at the small thing that meant so much to him. He'd gotten it when he was just pup and went to a concert with Theo. They ended up sneaking backstage, getting caught, and then saved by one of the bands; they stayed backstage until 3 in the morning and went outside of the arena to see that their father had called the police.
'Good times' TJ thought as he sighed. He hadn't realized the purple wolf standing in the doorway until he spoke.
"I remember when you boys went to that concert." Robby began, "I felt like a terrible father when you guys didn't show up at 10:30 like I told you to." He chuckled and sat down on TJ's futon. "Come one Teej. Have a seat."
TJ looked at his father with a blank expression on the outside, but a very vile one on the inside. He was angry at his father for not managing the stress and letting his anger show, but TJ couldn't do anything about it now. It was over and done with and his ribs were already bruised a little.
TJ sat down next to his dad and stared at the wall as he waited to be insulted and pushed to the ground again, but it never happened.
"TJ, I'm going to be honest with you," Robby began, "There's a reason I don't want you to be gay." He paused and looked at TJ; he was still staring blankly at the wall. "TJ look at me." TJ didn't budge. "Trevor James Jordan, you look at me right now." Robby said with great bluntness and tone. TJ hated his real name so he knew if his parents called him by it, they needed his attention, so he turned to face his father.
"TJ when I was your age, I had a friend named Zack. Zack was a huge tiger, he was on the varsity football team, a real ladies man, and he was my best friend my whole life up to the last few months of senior year. He decided to come out of the closet to me on prom night and I flipped shit. He said he wanted to be with me and that I was the only person he'd ever truly love..." Robby took a sigh and started to stare at the wall the same way TJ had . "We had gone to the prom as a duo - NOT a couple - and he took it the wrong way. We were in his truck, because I had no car at the time, and he told me about how he had dropped subtle hints that he really liked me but I never paid attention. I stared him directly in the eyes for a few minutes, that seemed like an eternity, and he started kissing me. I couldn't get him off of me and I was shocked that the big brute would do something like that to his best friend." Robby sighed again and laid back a little in the more-than-comfortable futon and began again. "So, like in all of the high school movies, we stopped talking after that. A few days before graduation, I went to Zack's house to see how he was doing and clear up the things between us."
TJ looked at his father in awe as he saw tears silently running down his face. TJ almost wanted to cry himself, but he didn't know why.
Robby took a deep breath to keep himself from sobbing and continued with the story. "I knocked on the door a few times and his older brother answered and hit me square in the jaw. I didn't know why until his dad came outside and picked me up and looked me in the eyes and said, "It's your fault our boy is dead. He killed himself for a sniveling faggot like you and you couldn't even show up to his funeral. You're fucking pathetic. I should kill you myself, but I know Zack wouldn't want that. Get off my property before I press charges." He threw me across the street and they both went back into the house. I sat there and cried my heart out for two hours in same spot. The only guy I could call a true friend was gone, and I hadn't even known about it. I went home and your grandmother, god rest her soul, was standing next to the kitchen holding the phone." Robby stopped to wipe his eyes and he looked at TJ. "She said, "I've been wondering where you were Robert. I've been worried sick!" she stopped yelling at me and saw that I was crying. "Not to add insult to injury," she said. "But there's someone that wants to talk to you." I picked up the phone and simply said 'hello' then Zack's mom replied, "Go look in Zack's truck under the seat. He said there's something there for you." I went over to the house around midnight and opened the truck. Luckily for me it was still unlocked. And I reached under the driver's seat, and there was a half sheet of notebook paper with Zack's handwriting on it. It read, "I'm sorry it had to end this way, but if I can't be your friend, I'm better of dead. I wish you good luck in the rest of your life because I'm done with mine." I climbed in truck, and cried all night."
Robby rubbed his eyes again and began to sob. TJ had never seen his dad like that before. Robby pulled out a silver flask with 'Memento Mori' inscribed on both of the flat sides and took a long swig of the alcoholic liquid it contained. He threw it on the floor and continued his story.
"TJ, the whole point of me not wanting you to be gay, is that I just don't want to see you hurt or kill yourself over someone like Zack did. I know you're probably thinking 'shut the fuck up dad you don't know what you're talking about.' But I just want my son to be safe. A girl couldn't break your heart that badly. I think you should at least give girls a try Teej. That's all I'm asking. There are millions of girls out there and so many different species, you'd have no problem snagging a hottie. If she makes you mad or upset, BOOM; on to the next one. Fuck 'em and duck 'em until you meet that special someone."
TJ looked leery-eyed at his dad and hugged him. He'd try. Just for his dad. He knew it pained his father to tell him that story, so he wouldn't have told it for no reason. "Ok dad. I'll try, just for you." TJ said as he spoke into his dad's shoulder.
Robby sighed and smiled as tears still ran down his purple face. "Thank you, son. You don't know how much that means to me." Robby said as he hugged his son closely.
TJ was the one to break the hug and he looked at his watch. 'Theo should be home by now.' He thought. 'I wonder what's takin' him...'
Theo stood next to the red Trans Am and looked at his watch as he waited for the dismissal bell to ring. 'I hope this is his car...' Theo thought as he continued to stare at his watch for a few minutes.
"And... 3... 2... 1..." as soon as Theo finished his countdown, the dismissal bell rang and the rest of the students that didn't have an off period, like him, fled out of the building.
Theo smirked deviously as he saw the large, and rather attractive, tiger approaching the car. Slater looked at him with first confusion, then disgust, then finally pure anger.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" Slater said with a growl through half clenched teeth.
"Simple." Theo replied coolly. "I just wanted to talk to you about yesterday."
"There's nothing to talk about, now get off of my car!" Slater roared at Theo and didn't even realized how angry he was getting. It was all subconscious.
"Look, uh, Slater right?" Theo began. "My brother is a little confused about himself as a person and his body and he just doesn't need a relationship of any kind right now." He stared at Slater to see if the was any defiance or protesting coming from the tiger; there was none.
"I'll say this nicely. Don't do anything stupid and don't try to force him into anything. He's way smaller than you and I hate seeing my little bro hurt." Theo cleared his throat. "And since I know you're a faggot, the revenge'll be that much sweeter if you DO try anything. Got it kitty?"
Slater tilted his head back and blew out a massive amount of air. He hated when anyone called him kitty especially people he didn't like. He decided against acting on his instinct, which was to beat Theo into a pulp, and nodded at Theo's words. "Now move you fucking mutt." Slater growled and Theo laughed a deep, but short, hearty laugh. "Ok then big guy. I'm glad we understand each other."
Slater stared at the jet black wolf as he entered his own car and the engine revved to life making Slater cover his ears because it was so loud. Theo shot him a smug grin and sped off out of the parking lot. Slater sat in the car and stared at his huge white paws for no reason in particular. Anger washed over him in an instantaneous wave and he slammed his large fists on the dashboard, cracking it. 'Damn it! I should've asked him where TJ is.' Slater thought. 'And why did HE, of all people, come to my car to start shit? This is getting weird.' Slater started the engine with a roar and began his journey home.
After 20 minutes in traffic due to an accident, Slater finally made it home. He dropped his backpack in the usual spot and looked to the left. There was a full bodied vixen sitting in the loveseat next to the bookshelf. Slater recognized her as the last girl he'd had sex with but thought of her as nothing more; now, anyway. He looked at her the way you might look at a living soda can or a 3 legged frog.
"Ummm.... Melissa, right? What the hell are you doing here?" Slater asked with a slight growl to his voice.
"Oh my god." The vixen said, "You couldn't even remember my name? YES, I'm Melissa. You know what happens when a certain gay tiger boy doesn't wear a condom when he has sex with a girl don't you?" she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
Slater stood there looking at Melissa as if to tell he to finish what she was trying to say.
"Ugh, moron. What HAPPENS is that whoever that gay tiger boy had unprotected sex with, gets pregnant. Because he filled her with his cum twice in one night." Melissa said violently. He eyes seemed to be burning with hatred towards Slater.
"Bitch that wasn't me." Slater spat. " We had sex like, 6 months ago."
Melissa shook her head. "Two months sweetie. I'm 7 weeks pregnant, kid."
Slater's mind went into panic mode. He couldn't be the dad. He had sex with her in the spring because it was mating season... He stared at her for a good 7 minutes before she finally cracked. "Ok I'm kidding. It's not yours, but I just wanted to stop by and let you know."
Slater's face went blank with anger and rage and he opened the door forcefully. "Get out." He mumbled.
Melissa got up slowly and gleefully trotted to the door. She stepped out and turned to say something, but Slater immediately slammed the door in her face.
"Man, that shit was crazy." Slater said as he walked to the kitchen.
"That WHAT is crazy?" yelled a voice from the master bed room.
"Oh hey mom. Nothing's crazy. I didn't say anything." Slater retorted quickly trying to cover up his faux pas.
"Don't let me catch you cursing again young man. Do you hear me? You'll be part of the circus if you keep acting like this. First you turn out gay, and now you're cursing in my house." His mom was furious and Slater knew better than to interrupt her when she was like this. She had been drinking and he didn't need any problems with her.
The tigress pointed to a picture that was hanging on the wall next to them. "and in front of the Lord himself at that! Boy, there's no hope for you. You're hellbound. Enjoy the ride." She stormed off back in the room.
'Why is shit so weird today?' Slater thought. He decided he'd go see his boyfriend. So, he hopped back in his car and sped off down the road. As he approached a stoplight near his school, he got a text message and, since the light was one of those that stayed red forever, he decided he'd read the text.
The message read:
TJ (334)-664-7736
3:31 pm
I'm sorry Slater, but we can't date. I like you and everything, but I really shouldn't be dating anyone right now. Well, guys anyway. I hope it's ok with you, but I just want us to be friends for a little while and see if anything else develops.
Reply
Home
Slater looked at his phone and read the message severalt times, ignoring the now green light until it turned red again.
"What the fuck?" he said. "How do I fix this shit!!?" Slater roared in frustration and threw his phone at the floor of the passenger side of the car.
"Fuck my life...."