Gym Buddies II: Part Seven
#7 of Gym Buddies II
Gym Buddies II: Part Seven
"Er..." Damnit! "Well, erm," I struggled to find an answer.
"Yes?" Tom pushed.
"Well... he would say that, wouldn't he?" Tom shot me a confused look, eager to see where I was taking this. I was looking forward to finding out, too. "Because... he's not out. He wants everyone to think he's straight, so... he would say that." It wasn't too shoddy an answer to say I'd only come up with it in the past few seconds. Keeping up the facade, I looked at the floor sadly. "Please don't tell anyone about this; he'd kill me if he knew that I told you." I deserved an award for this performance.
"That's it? That's the story you're sticking to?" I nodded. "See, here's the thing, Luke," Tom said, a rather nasty smile building on his face, "I think I'm more inclined to believe Dan. You two look as if you could be related, you have the same mannerisms, you even sound the same sometimes."
"What?!"
"Like that same little whine you have," he said, pointing at me. I swallowed heavily. "I'm trying to wrap my head around why you'd want to hide the fact that you were brothers."
"We're not," I stayed defiant, "he's my boyfriend. He was lying because he isn't out." I didn't need Tom's chuckle to tell me how nervous I looked. Nevertheless, he was more than willing to give it.
"Then why would he say you were brothers? The difference between the two seems like a very big leap."
"I-I don't know why he'd say it," I lied, "honestly."
Tom sighed heavily. "Thanks, Luke. You can leave now, please," he said, offering me the door with his paw and picking up a few forms to make some notes - more than likely about me. The matter was over, and I had a question niggling away at my mind.
"I haven't got the job, have I?"
"I haven't made my mind up yet," he said, "once this mess has been sorted out, I'll let you know." I nodded and made my way to the door. "But there's something more to this whole thing - I'm sure of that. If there's something you want to tell me, it might keep you in with a chance."
"There's nothing," I said flatly before leaving the room and finding Dan. He was still talking to the leopardess, so I pulled him away from her by the arm. "Dan, what were you and Tom talking about?" He looked at the floor as if he was ashamed of what he'd done. He didn't deserve an award - he wasn't acting. "What's up?"
"Don't get mad," he whimpered.
"Is everything okay?" Pippa was standing beside us, so I let go of his arm and smiled to her.
"We're fine, everything's fine." After a moment, she saw that we needed to be alone. I looked into Dan's eyes, which were adamant to stay off mine. "I won't get mad, pup, you know that."
"But I think I really fucked up!"
"Why, what happened?" The husky sighed heavily before attempting to answer, his whimpers already thick with holding back tears. "Dan, don't cry here. And we can't go home or they'll think something's up." He nodded.
"I know. Well, he was telling me that he'd been talking to Pippa. And apparently, she told him that you were treating me like a kid that you were close to, so I said-"
"That you were my kid brother?" He nodded again. From what Dan was saying, Tom forced this answer out of him the same way he did with me, letting us think he already knew. "Pup, I don't blame you for that," I assured him. "In fact, I'm quite sure Tom wanted us to say that."
"Why would he?" I racked my brains for a moment, but no answer came. Tom had hated the two of us since we arrived with no apparent reason - so why the sudden interest? My gaze crossed over to the leopardess and he instantly knew what I was thinking. "You think she complained?"
"You didn't see how determined she was, Dan," I said, unable to think of any other reason Tom would have for calling us out. Every time I saw Pippa she was talking to the tiger - even now, probably giving him information on how strangely we were acting.
"But why wouldn't she have said we were boyfriends? Why was he trying to push the brother answer out of me?" None of this was making sense. The more I thought about it, the more my head and stomach somersaulted.
"I don't know. I really don't." I could feel eyes burning into us from every direction, and my tail curled lightly. My little brother was starting to rub off on me. "Listen, we should get on with the exercise. If we don't, something's gonna look off." He nodded and solemnly made his way to a treadmill. I took the one next to him and we started running. In my mind, we were running away from the gym, running away from Tom.
Running away from the world.
*
Three sports drinks and a sweat-drenched towel later, Dan and I were sitting in the relaxation suite and discussing the rest of the day. Neither of us were in the mood to exercise - we were both too anxious to know what was going through Tom's head.
"So how about we do some chin-ups, a little bit of a cool-down then stretch before we go home? That'll get us nice and relaxed."
"Uh-huh," Dan said rather unenthusiastically.
"Pup, we'll be fine. Okay?" He looked up at me with bloodshot eyes. I wasn't sure if they were form his crying or from the vigorous work out. Either way, I gave him a comforting smile.
"What are we gonna do for work, though? I mean, if you don't get this job..."
"Pup," I repeated, "we'll be fine." He seemed to accept this answer, which cheered me up a little.
Before we got up to finish the day off, I noticed a coyote walking into the men's room. Al had been avoiding us for the past couple of days, and I could hardly blame him. Still, I wanted him to be all right with Dan and me. After telling the husky to start without me, I went to the bathroom and waited outside the only occupied cubicle. When the door unlocked, two emerald eyes met me and instantly hit the floor.
"What do you want?" What sounded like spite in his voice stung.
"Just to talk, Al. That's all." He sighed and went to wash his paws in the sink. "Can we talk, then?"
"I don't want to talk to you," he insisted. There was something behind his quivering vocals which I couldn't quite put my finger on. He didn't sound altogether angry, but he meant the words he was using. "Please leave me alone." He lingered over the sink.
"Al, I don't think we should just ignore this. Something's really upsetting you." Al sniffled sharply as he held back a tear. "Please, Al." He shook his head.
"Not here. Can we go out for a drink tonight? Just you and me - I don't think Dan should hear this - not form me, I mean," he hastened to add, perhaps in response to my furrowed eyebrows. "There's this quiet bar, I'll tell you everything there. I promise." It seemed like an acceptable request, so I nodded my head and smiled. Al started towards the door, then turned his head to face me. "I'm sorry, Luke." Before I could turn to respond, he was gone and I was left alone in the bathroom.
Dan was certainly getting better at chin-ups, and swore to me that he had just completed his fifteenth in a row.
"That's not bad, pup," I smiled. "Listen, pup, I want you to go home early, all right?" His ears dropped to the side of his head. "I've got to talk to... someone," I decided to leave out who, "about gym stuff." He nodded.
"Okay. Will you be long?"
"I don't know, maybe an hour?" I suggested. "The keys are in my bag, so I want you to-"
"The car keys?" the husky interrupted excitedly.
"Yes, the car keys." His smiled beamed widely, and I could tell he'd been looking forward to driving it alone. I'd given him a few lessons in the past, but he still had to apply for his license. "No driving like an idiot, though," I said. It was a stupid thing to mention considering how mature he really was, but I worried that if he was caught, it might bring up more questions.
"When do you want me to go?" I looked around quickly.
"Go now, okay? Don't let anyone see you, though." He nodded and went to the bags that we left by the treadmill. It was the place everyone kept their bags, so we felt safe leaving our stuff there, too. "Oh, before you go," I said, causing him to stop in his tracks, "I... I'll tell you later," I smiled, remembering our code from a couple of days before. Obviously, he hadn't forgotten it.
"I'll tell you later, too." When I climbed up to the chin-up bar, I caught a glimpse of Dan trying to surreptitiously take my keys from the bag. I smiled as I thought about how Dan would make a bad secret agent. His walk was similar to a cartoon burglar, wide and slow strides. It didn't take a great stretch of the imagination to see the words "SNEAK" appearing with each step.
When I dropped down from the bar, Tom was waiting for me. "Evening, Mister Martin."
"Hi, sir," I responded. I hadn't called him 'sir' before, and never really liked using the name. Right now, though, I figured he had a real issue or two with me. "Is everything okay?"
"My office, please," he said, demanding rather than suggesting. I noticed everyone around us was leaving and I only just realised that the music had been turned off. I followed the tiger into his office and let him close the door behind us. "Sit." Again, I waited for this instruction. I had a pretty good feeling that Tom had made up his mind, but wanted to stay in his good books just in case.
"Er, how've you been today?" I asked, trying to keep the conversation light. His smile led me to believe he might actually be persuaded.
"I've been good, Luke," he said. "I've been watching you and Dan, though," he started. This didn't take him long at all. Here I was expecting at least a 'how do you do'.
"Y-you have?" Tom nodded and played with his thick whiskers. "I haven't got the job, have I?"
"Like I said, I've still to make my mind up." This surprised me a little, so I opened my maw to speak, but he raised his hand to indicate he wasn't done. "However, you two seem to have been very uncomfortable today, which isn't something I want. I'm trying to sort it all out, okay?" I smiled and nodded. "Come on, then, let's go." We both got up and made our way to the door, which he offered me first. I opened it, and all the lights had been turned off.
"Can't see a damned thing," I said jocularly to the tiger. As my eyes adjusted to the light, I noticed a few figures standing there. A panther, an otter and a cheetah were waiting in the room. I squinted to see their faces, which were all contorted with anger and disgust. I heard Tom lock the door behind me, so turned to face him.
"What's going on?"
He glared at me, two white dots gleaming from his pale yellow eyes. I didn't need the full light to tell that he was snarling nastily. "I thought I told you..."
"...I'm going to sort this mess out."