Intertwined - Chapter 4
Sky pushed his brother through the doorway of the home
Sky pushed his brother through the doorway of the home, still angry about his sneaking around. That moment, maybe his only moment, with Vince was completely amazing and perfect; he was furious that his brother ruined it. The only thing that outweighed that fury was his fear. The fear that Damien would tell his parents about it all scared him to death.
"That didn't look like a girl," Damien said, not believing a word of what his older brother told him.
"Well he was. I- I mean she was," he replied.
"That didn't sound like a girl either, Skylar."
"Well it was. Now go back to bed before I tell mom you're up way passed your bed time."
"Well you're up past yours too!"
"I'm older, I'm allowed to."
"So? At least I'm not out kissing boys around the neighborhood, sick-o!"
"I told you, that was a girl. I wouldn't kiss any boys. That's gross."
"Whatever." No matter how hard Sky tried, Damien wasn't taking any of it.
"Go to bed, Dame." Sky turned, walking away from his nosey little brother and back to his room. He attempted to shake the thoughts out of his head as he lied down on his soft, feathery pillow. So many ideas were cluttered throughout his mind. Was this the beginning of something new? Was this a onetime only situation? Was Damien going to tell his parents? He had so many questions, but not a single answer.
His eye lids were shut, but he did not sleep. His lips still tingled from the fresh contact and he'd bite his lip every so often to try to keep the feeling there. Sky was a dreamer, and he knew that clearly, but this time he knew his dream wouldn't end the moment his eyes saw reality.
[http://www.sofurry.com/view/386048]
Blake ordered the papers nicely into a small stack and smiled. He loved the way they turned out and he was happy to see his hard work pay off. He slowly shut his locker door and leaned back against it, waiting patiently for Alex to show up.
Blake gave little thought to the kiss that they shared. It was usually a memory stored in the back of his mind, where it wasn't reached easily. The only time it flooded his brain was when Chris did something really sweet or loving; it made the guilt pour in like a waterfall. No matter how bad he felt or how much guilt ate away at him, Blake always kept his mouth shut. He figured as long as Chris didn't know, he wouldn't be hurt. It was a philosophy that seemed to lead his mistakes in the relationship.
The Beagle approached Blake quickly and excitedly. He held the straps of his backpack firmly and smiled as he grew closer to his friend. "Hey Blake!" he called out.
"Hey Alex, any idea what we're doing today?"
"Probably a free day. Auditions are after school so the theatre teachers are probably busy preparing. Are you nervous about auditions?"
"I never get nervous at auditions. Just speaking to an empty room is easy, it's the show itself that gets into your nerves."
"Oh my god. I didn't even think about that."
"Are you auditioning?"
"I prepared an audition, but I'm kind of second guessing the idea now." Blake stopped walking, but it took Alex a second to realize his friend wasn't beside him.
"Why?" Blake asked, "Are you going to back out?"
"Well, I was thinking about it."
"Don't bail the audition just because you're nervous about performing." There was a very serious look in his eyes. "Do you think anyone would be able to achieve their dreams or goals if they backed out whenever they got nervous?"
"Um, I guess not."
"What's the point of living if we're not ready to take risks? What's the point in succeeding if we didn't give it our all? What's the point of trying new things, if we're not courageous enough to face our nerves?" Alex stood in silence. "Don't quit the audition because you're nervous. Go show them what you're made of whether or not they're ready to see it."
Blake pressed on towards the theatre, proud of everything he said. Alex followed closely behind, slightly inspired and slightly intimidated. He knew Blake was passionate about theatre, but that was a little scary.
Blake walked through the metal doors of the theatre hall, made his way to his seat, and sat in the middle of the fourth row. Alex took the seat directly next to him, being almost a shadow. The remaining students filed into the room loudly and bell sounded to indicate the start of third period.
"Good day class," the theatre teacher said as she flowed onto the stage. Her heavenly outfit was a bright shade of purple and was made of a light, feathery material. It draped from her neck to the bottom of her feet, covering her entire body and giving a floating illusion to her step. "As you all know, after school today we will be holding auditions for our school's upcoming play, Down in the Dark. I hope to see many familiar faces there, hopefully organized and prepared. Now although the renown playwright Theodore Franks tends to write more depressing sagas, I assure you that there will be a few comedy role to be portrayed. There's someone to fit every role, but not enough roles to fill everyone, so do your best and beat the rest. Are there any questions?
A few hands went up, but as the tiger called on her students to hear the questions, Blake and Alex zoned into their own dialogue. Blake reached through his stack of papers and pulled one out sharply. His eyes glanced down at the bright pink paw print that he stuck on each individual paper. 'Something to give it a personal feeling,' he thought.
"Hey Alex," he whispered as he handed the paper over. Alex took hold of it and examined it thoroughly. "I'm having this huge get together at my house this weekend. There will be music, dancing, alcohol, and plenty of hot guys. You down?"
Alex nodded in compliance as he continued to study the invitation. The paper was designed with many pictures, light effects, and witty phrases such as "be there or be a quadrilateral with equal length sides and four 90 degree angles". He laughed and looked back up at Blake. "I don't have to drink do I?"
"Not if you don't want to. It's mostly there to get the guys hammered so they're easy to take advantage of; not everyone is fond of gay guys hitting on them." They both chuckled quietly and turned their attention back to the teacher.
"So just stay low to the ground and all should be fine," the tiger finished as they boys began to focus. "Oh, and one last thing. As you may have noticed, the theatre 1 tech students are working on the set today. So please, stay out of their way. They have a lot of work to do before the auditions today."
Blake looked around the room and the technical theatre students. Most of them were the same year after year, but he was always excited to see the new faces. After all, when he's on stage acting, the tech kids are the ones who back him up with the lights, sounds, and effects needed to make his character come to life. His heart nearly stopped when he laid his eyes on a familiar face.
Up on the catwalk that suspended high above the audience, he saw the fox that knew his little secret. The red and white scoundrel was in his view and Blake knew that he had to shut him up, or the words of his betrayal could spread to his boyfriend. He gripped his paw tightly on the armrest, eager to jump out of his seat. Waiting and waiting for his teacher to release him from the authoritative chains that held him to his chair. Finally, the words he was waiting for.
"Well, that's all for now," the teacher announced, "You all can have the period to yourselves, just don't bother any of the tech students." The kids in the class celebrated their lack of work as Blake jolted up from his seat. He weaved his way between the excited students and ran for the door that led to the control booth. He pulled the door open, quickly skipped up the stairs, and pushed his way through to the catwalk. As he walked carefully on the suspended metal walkway, he kept his eyes locked onto the hooded fox.
"Hey, you!" he shouted out. The fox was too busy working with the stage lights to respond. "Hey kid, I'm talking to you!" he yelled louder. The fox flipped off his hood and turned around.
"Can I help you?" he asked.
"What's your name?" The fox's eyes grew wider as he realized who he was speaking too. "I asked you a question."
"Vince."
"Well, Vince, I think we've got something that we need to sort out." His voice was loud and powerful.
"I don't know what you're talking about." He began to turn away to continue his work on the lights, but Blake hastily grabbed his shoulder and ripped his body back around.
"You know damn well what I'm talking about." They stared at each other for a brief moment before one of them decided to speak up.
"What do you want?"
"I want you to keep your mouth shut and your eyes turned away from me at all times, got it?" Another pupil showdown.
"You don't have anything on me," Vincent spoke quietly.
"Oh, don't I? You think Alex will be happy to see the kid who snuck into his house to do god knows what? I'm the only person who saw you; I'm the only one who knows who you are. If you say anything about what you saw, you can be sure that Alex will know who you are and the police will come knocking on your door to find out what you were doing there. Are we clear?"
Vincent bit his lip. He wasn't one who was threatened easily, but the Dalmatian had a point. He nodded in agreement.
"I'm glad we're on the same page."
[http://www.sofurry.com/view/386051]
Skylar couldn't help but stare out the window and get lost in his own thoughts. The class he sat in was boring, useless, and overly easy. All that home economics consisted of was cooking, sewing, and other handicrafts. Skylar wasn't only bad at all three subjects, but found them completely distasteful. He took notes when he needed to and worked on projects when he needed to, but besides that, he found more entertainment staring into space and imagining a different world.
'Well, what if we were?' He continued to repeat those words throughout his head. Sky remembered those words as the last words that soared out of Vincent's mouth before they shared their unbelievably surreal moment of intimacy. They were the words that led to the fulfillment of one of his deepest fantasies. He shared a moment with his friend, his protector, and his mind wouldn't let it go for second. The only doubt left in his mind was: where would we go from here.
"Skylar, what do you think?" his teacher called out, "Skylar, are you paying attention?" His ears perked up tall and he turned his head to meet the gaze of his home economics teacher. The teacher was a young, good looking Collie, no older than 24. He was very attractive for his age and fit the look of a gym teacher more than a home economics teacher. "Do you agree with this argument?"
"Uh, yea," Sky lied, still regaining control of reality.
"Can you tell me why you agree with it?"
"Um, it's a valid statement." He guessed like a kid playing pin the tail on the donkey. The class chuckled quietly.
"Well, of course it is," the Collie laughed, "why else do you agree with it?"
"Because it makes more sense than the other one." The teacher shook his head and the class chuckled a little louder.
"See me for a moment after class, Sky." He turned around and pointed at the white board. "The reason most people agree with this statement is because it's easy for us to relate to. When Henry Homes stated 'The difficulty is not that great to die for a friend, the hard part is finding a friend worth dying for,' he spoke directly to each individual person because everyone has one of those friends they would consider dying for."
Sky tried to focus on the teacher to prevent any further trouble, but was interrupted as he felt a slap on his shoulder. "Psst!" someone hissed inconspicuously behind him. He felt another tap on the shoulder. As he slowly averted his eyes to the boy behind him, the man began to wave a paper in his face. "Grab it; tell your friends." His paw gripped the paper swiftly and he pulled it quickly to his desk, trying to keep his head pointed towards the teacher. "Don't worry about Mr. Scott; he's a dick all the time."
"Hey Blake," The Collie called out from the front of the room, "You can see me after school too." Blake gave the teacher a taunting wink, forcing him to silently laugh. The giggle was exactly what Blake had hoped for, because it caused Mr. Scott to lose his "authority figure" frame. He shrugged the laughter away and continued to teach his lesson.
Skylar inched the paper slowly to his lap so that he could get a good view of it without his instructor noticing. The paper was deep purple with a bright pink paw print and covered with amusing mottos such as "We'll party 'till the police come". It was dated for after school this Friday.
About 30 or so minutes past before the bell rang and the students were released from the educational prison. Sky quickly gathered his books together, stuffing the paper into the front of his notebook. He zipped his backpack shut and swung it over his shoulder, wrapping both arms into the straps. Blake bumped him on his elbow as he walked to the back of the room where his teacher's desk was stationed. Sky followed closely behind.
"Sky, you really need to start focusing in class," The Collie spoke up as the boys approached his desk. "The school year's barely started and you're already failing. I don't know if you have problems with friends, or family, or whatever, but leave it at the threshold when you walk in or you're not going to get anywhere. You may not like the class, but you need the credit and it's only going to get harder from here." Sky stared at his paws. "Your parents sent me an e-mail the other day telling me to let them know when I catch you not paying attention. I really don't want to do that to you, but I will if I have to, understand?" Skylar nodded.
"So what about me?" Blake asked, "Can you hurry up and lecture me, I'm on a tight schedule." He gave the instructor another wink.
"Blake, we both know you're one of my favorite students, but you need to stop distracting other people."
"Distracting, I'm just getting to know them a little. Am I not allowed to have friends?"
"Save it for after class. If you keep distracting everyone I'll just have to call you by your real name. I've learned from the past few years how much you hate that." Blake's jaw dropped.
"You wouldn't dare."
"Oh I would. Now get out of here you two. Go vandalize something or do whatever you kids do these days." Blake and Skylar turned around and began to make their way towards the door. "Hey, Raphael?" Blake turned around and showed his fangs a bit.
"What?" he growled angrily.
"Oh, nothing. Just curious on how you'd react. See you tomorrow."
When the boys reached the halls, they made a quick left and began to walk outside and into the center of the school. "Blake, I've got a quick question," Sky said before they parted ways, "How come Mr. Scott never gets mad at you?"
Blake laughed. "I've had a class with him all four years I've been at this school. He knows he can't escape me, so he doesn't even try. Next time he starts to pick on you, just flirt with him a little, he's weird like that."
Sky stopped walking, not sure if Blake was being serious, or just messing with him. Blake turned around and pointed a finger at him. "You better be at my party this weekend," he called out, walking backwards.
"I'll try!" Sky yelled. As Blake disappeared into the crowd of students, Sky turned in the opposite direction and headed for his locker. He walked through the emptying halls and towards the back exit of the school. When he reached his locker, he hastily twisted the lock and pulled open the flimsy metal door. Exchanging a few books with the metal container, he made sure to pull the invitation out of his home economics notebook and safely into his backpack.
Sky heard laughter beside him and quickly jerked his head to the left. He saw a tall German Shepherd standing hand and hand with a short Husky. Both of their eyes were lit up with life and the Husky's long tail was wrapped around the Shepherd's back. It reminded him again of his moment with Vince and he bit his lip happily with the thoughts in his mind.
The feelings he had were flushed from his body as he heard his locker door slam in front of him. Next to it stood Rodger, the mischievous Retriever that gave him the drugs that feared him so. He was grinning widely and was holding a bag of weed in his hand.
"Didn't I tell you to hold onto this punk?" Rodger shoved Sky forward and cracked his knuckles. "Instead, you go off and ask big brother Vince to come and talk to me for you. Big mistake boy-o. You see, I call the shots around here, not him. You got it? Just cause you two are good pals doesn't mean you don't have to listen to me. So let's try this again."
Rodger cocked his fist back and released it quickly, making severe contact directly to Skylar's right eye. Sky fell hard on his back, the punch pushing him off balance with ease. It all happened so fast, he didn't even have a chance to block. Sky lifted his hand up and cupped it on his eye. He pulled his hand away and saw the blood that covered it. He could feel it begin to swell. Rodger threw the bag of weed onto Sky's chest and spit on his shirt.
"Now, you're going to hold onto that for me, got it?" Sky was shaking in fear. "Got it?" he yelled. Skylar nodded his head violently. "Good." Rodger lifted his foot and crashed it down hard on Sky's hand. He could feel something crack or shatter beneath his heel. He leaned his head down next to Sky's slowly as Sky let out a yelp of pain from the pain in his paw. "If you tell Vince about any of this," he whispered, "I will kill you." He pulled his foot off of Sky's paw.
[http://www.sofurry.com/view/386052]
Sky quickly retracted his arm and held his hand close to his body to comfort the pain. Tears were rolling off of his cheek and his heart was beating faster than it had in his whole life. He was lost, he was confused, and he didn't have anyone left to turn to.