Just another High School Story (3)
Just another High School story Scene 3 By Roofles
As the cold chill of winter set upon the school grounds and the chill winds blew through the stands, as flakes of snow fell from the heavens above on the audiance below, did Alan looked up at the world above him. At the endless flow of white that fell seemingly out of the darkness itsel high above the earthly plane of the world below. One of the few things that seemed to be able to connect the heavens and the earth together. How simplistically beautiful it was of it all Alan thought. Captivating even. Entrancing him in its cold wonder and glory and he truly knew how the nightmare before Christmas felt seeing such a sight.
He was snapped out of his delightful trance as the referee blew his whistle. His cool, powder blues eyes fell on the field where a crowd had surrounded a fallen player. The crowd parted just enough for him to get a glimpse at the fallen player. Blood covered one side of his face and he lay motionless, without a sound on the field. Alan covered his eyes with a raggered paw as images flashed passed before them. He shook his head and couldn't watch, couldn't stand the sight before him anymore. The game would be over in another minute and they were already in the lead. They didn't need him. And with that he made his way back to the locker room and away from the scene that haunted him so.
With bloodshot eyes he stripped and changed. In a flash he was in his old school attire and was ready to go. His eyes itched and he didn't want any of the others to see him like this. As vulnerable as he was, without that mask. He felt naked. Scared. Alone. Helpless. And terrified. Of them. Of what they may or might do if or when they found out. His deepest, darkest secret brought into the light and for everyone to truly be able to see him... that fear alone made him shudder and hug himself closing his eyes tightly for several seconds.
Shutting and spinning the dial on the lock for his locker he made his way to the mirrors still feeling ill; he went over to look at himself. To examine the fragile dalmatian in front of him. And the dog wasn't a pretty sight.
Bloodshot eyes, messy fur and heavy bags forming from days of little to no sleep had left him looking like a mess. Far better looking than most of the team and in the school but to him he could see the underlyng ugliness that he was. It was beginning to take its toll on his naturally good looks. Keeping his secret. Keeping everything hidden and the stress that came along with it. His fur was more lackluster than usual, his spots seemed faded and gray. Those eyes that reminded him of a tropical ocean reef were dried and lifeless.
Alan felt tired but every time he closed his eyes that scene would replay in his mind. And every time it did it made him sick to his stomach; to the fact that he was playing on the same team as those people that did that. If he could even call them people. To think that those around him could've done that, then come to school the next day. Laughing and grinning as if nothing had happened the night before. If he hadn't rushed him to the hospital... he couldn't even finish his thoughts as he cupped a paw to his mouth and tears began to run down his face making his eyes burn and sting with the pain that had brought those tears forth.
A noise behind him caught his attention and he turned with a tear stained face at who had made it. The tiger looked over at him rather startled himself that someone else had it in their mind to leave a winning game early. Already shirtless and rolling his neck, he stopped as he saw the dalmatian. Blinking his large bronze orange eyes several times. The roar of the crowd slowly dieing out as the door shut behind the large cat. The tiger just looked at him stunned as Alan looked back with those bloodshot, tear leaking eyes.
He wasn't sure why he did it, but seeing those colors. The orangeish red. The white. And that smug face of one of the football players clicked something inside of him, and Alan snapped. And he was shouting at him, cursing him. Biting his head off. Every nasty, cruel, hateful thing that came to his mind slipped from his lips as he spat them at the startled feline who took a step back from the smaller dog.
"Its your fault that he's in there! You fat, pig headed, heartless, fucking douchebag!" Alan finished with a vicious snarl. He was breathing heavily, his chest painfully rising and falling as he sucked air through his nostrils and out his mouth. Steam rose from his fur and fumed from his nostrils in the cold night air. Alan shoulders fell though and he was staring at the tiger's feet and not even at the even more startled cat.
He compased himself, turned and walked out without another word. Alan slung his bag over his shoulder feel the weight of it all finally leaving his shoulders if only a little bit. Arnold "Tony" Leibowitz looked around him as if he had been talking to someone else. He did not just say that shit to him. To him, one of the middle lineman of the team. The guy that was single handedly protecting the quaterback from the whole other team (at least to him that's how it seemed).
Alan was outside, halfway into the parking lot before his knees gave way and fell to all fours. And on all fours began crying. The pain, the agony and sorrow finally welling up inside of him and spilling over as his anger waned and died with the vicious outburst he had given an innocent bystander. His paws gripped at the dirty snow underneath them as tears ran down his muzzle. He cursed at this weakness, how pathetic he was and gruffly pushed himself to his feet wiping his eyes with an arm.
The cat stopped a few feet away watching the pitiful sight. He had been planning to follow him out and bash his face into the ground. But the site of the dalmatian on all fours crying like that was something he was not expecting. Watching as Mr. Popular got to his feet, covered in dirty brown car recycled snow, make his way further into the parking lot, stumbling and fall face first into a snowed covered trench. A truly pitiful sight the cat thought making his anger fade away. Maybe he'd let it pass, this time.
With heavy but quiet steps the tiger made his way into the parking lot, still shirtless, and over to the dalmatian laying in the snow. Tony, as everyone called him due to the nickname so many Tiger's were cursed with, was large for a high schooler. He was built like a truck and could easily handle even Douglas, the quaterback or the other two 'main' lineman Brock a bull and Jovie a reindeer.
"Need a hand?" He said gruffly not making eye contact as he bent down on his knees and offered one down into the trench that surrounded the parking lot. In fall and the summer days the small canal would be filled with water.
"Nope." Alan said flatly keeping his face buried in snow.
"You going to just lay there and die?" Tony asked shivering against the cold, mentally kicking himself for coming out here half naked. He liked showing off the body he worked so tirelessly to craft for himself but he didn't want to freeze his balls off for vanity's sake.
"Yup." Was all the snowed in dalmatian said giving him a thumbs up.
Tony groaned as he bent down, knee deep in the snow as he pulled the dog out by the gruff of his neck. "Tell anyone about this and I'll. Will. Kill. You." But as his eyes made contact he kicked himself inwardly feeling like an idiot. "Look, just..." he let the dalmatian lean against him awkwardly. "We all got shitty days. So I'll let the whole thing in the locker room pass. Hell I do it every other day, of course thats to my folks not a teammate or stranger or..." The tiger grumbled a bit more seeming far more downcast now at the thought of it.
Tony stopped as the dalmatians snow covered muzzle pressed against his chest. The cat shivered as snow fell from his whiskers against his bare skin and kicked himself mentally again for not wearing a shirt. Or bringing his jacket out at least. Then he could toss it over the freezing dalmation. These thoughts ran slowly through his mind like molasses as his bare paws made their way over to his car. "Just...here." Tony said as he fished for his keys in his pocket and cursed again as he realized they'd be in his locker. "Just. Stay here, I'll be right back."
The Tiger said letting go of the dalmatian, who just slowly slumped down the side of the car until he sat in the mucky water and stared off with clouded bloodshot eyes. Tony stepped back looking at him. "Well, yeah. Ok, that works." He admited and quickly made his way back inside. Hopping from one foot to the other as he crossed the snow covered asphalt parking lot that stung his numbing toes.
The other guys were already inside and changing. Tony sure in hell wasn't no small dalmatian and as he walked by the crowd in front of him moved at his leisure. Like a school of minnows would to a shark. Grabbing his clothes and roughly shoving them on or in his gym bag he piled his gear nearly forgotten on the floor into the locker and jogged back out to his car. He wasn't really surprised to see that the dalmatian hadn't moved. He really did seem to be out of it.
Unlocking the door, he wasn't sure exaclty how to manage this as he couldn't open the door with the dalmatian sitting in front of it. Nor could he move him and open the door. Laying down his jacket on the passenger seat he did the next best thing; run over open his own door and jog back around. Picked Alan up, carried him around and shoved him in through the driver seat door and across to the other side. He grumbled as the soaking wet dalmatian dripped over his car's cushions seats, forming a puddle where he sat.
"I'll bill you," Tony mumbled slamming his own door shut. "So...where too?"
The dalmatian slowly turned, his powder blue bloodshot eyes looking at him. The tiger wavered under that gaze. This was defiantly not in his comfort zone. And he still wasn't sure why he was doing this for the dog. Sure he was a teammate but the two had barely spoke two words to each other until today. Tony was a jock and Alan was the popular guy that just so happened to be on the team as well. The only thing Tony was worried about though was the reason for why his heart was beating so fast, his palms had grown sweaty and he felt light headed, butterfly's dancing around in his stomach as his throat had suddenly grown dry. All unable to understand why however.
"Hospital." Alan mumbled and Tony was all too glad to get moving, heater on full blast.
The dalmatian just pulled a chair up next to the sleeping golden retriever, brushing a paw across his scarred, stitchd brow. A breathing tube was wrapped around the retriever's muzzle, a patch covered one of his eyes, half of his ear was missing and his whole left eyebrow was stitched up. One leg and both arms were in casts. They were blank, bare of all writing except one tiny mark on his left arm. Reading in a black ink: "Get better soon," with spots all around it.
Alan just looked at him, rubbing his exposed golden furred chest and neck before resting his head at his side, against his arm and in the covers tears filling his eyes once more.
The tiger just watched the whole scene unfold and it was easy enough to connect the dots. No one in school hadn't heard about it. Even Micheal Wells, the blind, deaf molerat had heard about it. And to watch the loving touch, careful brush of his paw through that golden fur. How his eyes never left his scarred face even as he laid his head down. Even the tiger could grasp what was before him though a pang of guilt shot through his chest at the jealousy of the action.
"I'm sorry," Tony mumbled. "I didn't know." The large cat just looked at him unsure if he should stay. Go. Or pull up a chair.
"Me too." The dalmatian said. He pulled himself away, the strain of letting go of that paw made the tiger's heart sink. "And me too." Alan said looking at him. "For everything. Please...just please don't tell anyone." The dalmation eyes betrayed what he had hid so well the mask long since forgotten in the snowy trench of the school's parking lot.
"Ah, don't worry about that." Tony grunted as he shut the door. "If you want, I could go and beat the shit out of the guys that did this." He half joked trying to ease the tension in the room in the only way he knew how.
Alan hesitated as if he truly was going to ask him to but as he turned but to the Retriever he said something he thought he would never say for those who had done this to the man in the hospital bed. "An eye for an eye will leave the world blind," the dalmatian mumbled brushing a lock of that golden fur out of the sleeping dogs eyes. "One should only ever use violance to protect the ones they love." He said in a pained voice. "Even if you aren't able too." He said the last part with a heavy heart. The words weren't his own after all. If the man in the bed hadn't asked him not to, Alan wasn't sure what he would've done to those who had done this.
Tony shuffled his paws awkwardly before making up his mind. Dragging a chair rather loudly across the floor to sit next to him, the tiger winced at the sound looking apologitic as he sat down. The dalmatian looked at him annoyed, surprised and even welcoming. A mix of emotion poured through him. He wasn't used to this, talking to someone without his mask on. Or rather someone other than the golden retriever about any and all of this. It was a confusing ordeal for the dalmation.
Half of him excepted, wanting this very thing. A friend he could talk to about all of this. The other half of him was conniving and concocting one lie after another he could use against the cat should he ever blab about the details of this night. Rumors spread like wildfire when fanned properly and Alan knew how to, in his own way, ruin a man's life. A twisted mix of thankfulness and fear for his secret being discovered so.
"You don't have to stay. Your not opligated, your not responsible." Alan said though he didn't take his eyes off the cat who was feeling rather good about himself right about now.
The tiger just shrugged his large shoulders.
"Better than going home. Tell me about him." He said resting back folding a leg over the other as he placed them on the bed. The dalmatian even at a time like this couldn't help but admire the subtle way those large extrimities moved. With such ease and grace only a cat could manage.
"Well," the dalmatian started looking back at the dog with soft caring eyes. The retrievers still form just breathed evenly, as the machines beeped softly away in the dark room that had seemed so lonely and barren minutes ago. "His names Donald. Don't let his looks fool you, he's a big sports fan. I got into football because of him. Give him any play and he would..." Alan went on in great detail of the things he had never been able to say to anyone before holding the dogs paw in his own while facing the tiger next to him.