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It was midnight. We'd played video games so long that we couldn't think properly, and the party was still going strong. Or at least it sounded like it, because the music was just as loud as when we'd started. We were all super tired and kinda afraid to leave the dorm while the music was playing, so we just let the others sleep here.

It was a little weird, since Daniel and David just held eachother and slept on the couch, while Zane was with Ted in his room, and Isaac was with Alex in his room, leaving me with X. X is impossible to be in the same room with when he's sleeping, and he hadn't gotten to take his pain meds, so he was wimpering a little. I finally got sick of it around two in the morning, and shook his arm to wake him, finding he was already awake.

"I'm... I-"

"It's okay. Just come with me, we're gonna go get your pain meds."

"Sure?"

"Yeah." I helped him up and we left the dorm to see everyone else had crashed with the music on full volume. I told him to go get his pain meds while I hunted down the stereo and turned it off. I felt kinda bad for the floor below ours. I later had to hunt down X, and found he had tripped over someone, who had grabbed him and was holding him close to themselves. They were Rick, and he seemed very guilty about it.

I whispered, "Rick, let go of him, or I'll tell the others your gay."

"Please don't tell anyone. I don't want them to hate me."

"And they won't, X just needs his pain meds."

"Pain meds?"

"He had his tonsels out."

"Oh. Only if you guys promise not to tell the others."

"Will you try not to bully us?"

"I'll try my best. Please don't hate me, I didn't want them to tease me..."

"We won't." Rick let go of X, who bolted for his room and came out a minute later with a small prescription bottle of pills. Rick got up and stopped me before I left.

"Thank you." [Rick]

"No problem-" He wrapped his arms around me and held me close and tight, crying softly into my shoulder. His scales felt weird against my fur, and he finally let go a minute later. I went to the dorm where X was waiting for me to unlock the door. I opened it and let him in, and saw Rick standing behind me.

"I'll make sure no one tries to get to the door, okay?"

"Okay, it's locked anyways."

"Oh please, you seriously think none of them know how pick a lock?"

"Good point. Thanks."

"Any time."

I closed the door, and heard a soft thud against it as me and X went back to my room. He downed a pill and laid his head back, and after a minute or so, he was snoring softly. I had a fell asleep pretty quickly too, but still didn't get enough sleep for the morning.

I woke up around three because someone flushed the toilet, and it wasn't even in our dorm. I glanced down to see X curled up in a little ball on the floor and felt bad for him, so I got out of bed and grabbed a blanket. I carefully laid it out over him, and even tucked it underneath him a bit, then climbed back into bed.

Around five, a siren went off in another dorm on the other side of campus, and it woke up everyone. X was confused by the blanket on him, and I winked at him. He smiled and I handed him a pillow. Instead of taking it he got up and laid down on the foot of my bed, balled up in a blanket. I didn't mind, he didn't take up much space, and it was nice to know he was comfortable. I felt really bad and realized I should've just given him the bed.

I finally got a nice five hours of sleep and woke up at ten with X curled up in a ball in my arms. The sun was beating through the window, warming the entire room. I squeezed X a little bit, and he woke up slowly. He turned his head around and smiled when he saw me, then buried himself deeper into my arms. I squeezed a him again and fell asleep.

I finally woke up to feel something on my toes. I opened my eyes to see Alex standing over me, tickling my feet, which poking out of the blanket. X was still asleep in my arms. I squeezed him a little and he woke up slowly. He jumped nearly a foot when he saw Alex, and grabbed onto me when he did. I let go of him, and he scrambled out of bed, slipping and banging his head against the wall, then slipping back into my arms. I grinned guiltily at Alex who just laughed at the whole thing.

"You guys know it's like noon, right?" [Alex]

"So?" [Me]

"So, we need to register our classes, and we need to do it soon."

"Why?" [X]

"You sound better."

"Pain meds." X gestured to the bottle laying on my desk.

"Oh, so that's why you guys got up in the night. Okay. May I then ask why Rick was blocking the door and is actually being nice to us?"

"Eh, I'm not telling." [Me]

"Uh uh, secret." [X]

"Damn, you guys look cute together." [Alex]

"Oh, come on. We're not a couple." [Me]

"Yeah. Just slept." [X]

"Then why are you clinging to Seth?" [Alex]

"He's soft." X buried his face into my chest fur, which was exposed because... actually I don't know why it's exposed. I sleep with a shirt on, I'm confused.

"Wait, why aren't I wearing a shirt?" [Me]

"Star, is cute." [X]

"You sound like a child with your two and three word sentences." [Alex]

"Fuck you." [X]

"Wait, you just took my shirt off in the night?" [Me]

X nodded and smiled. He was still really groggy from the pain meds, so his smile was a little silly looking.

"No regrets." X buried his face into my chest again, rubbing into the glowing pentagram. His ears were soft, and the air did feel kinda nice on my chest. Especially since when he breathed he ruffled my fur a little.

"Okay, you guys are totally a couple, don't deny it." [Alex]

I heard Zane call from the other room, "Who's a couple?"

"Seth and X." Zane came in and saw us, and X pulled the blanket up over himself, hiding away from the world.

"Go away." [X]

"I agree. Get out of my room." [Me]

Alex and Zane just laughed as they left my room, closing the door behind them. I pulled the blanket away from X's head.

"Hey." [Me]

"Hey."

"We... We aren't together, are we?"

"Maybe."

"I mean, I'd be okay with it, if you were."

"Yeah, same here."

"Just, not sure if it's right."

"Yeah. Same here..."

"But, I do like you. Not necessarily like that, but-"

"I know. ... Same here."

"You don't actually love me?"

"Maybe. I... Don't think so."

"Well... I don't love you either."

"So..."

"We aren't together."

"Right."

"I... Just cold."

"And I only had one other blanket."

"Too small."

"Yeah."

"Right."

"So... Can you get up now?"

"Yeah." X got up off of my chest, and stood up. He grabbed his bottle of pills as he went, and I put a shirt on before leaving the room.

"I hear you guys are a couple." [Ted]

"We don't love each other, so we aren't." [Me]

They all stopped. It sounded really harsh, even I thought so.

"Well, not gonna waste time with joking I see." [Isaac]

"Personally, having another relationship might be good for the group. Isolate the chances of who our boyfriends are." [Zane]

"Right, because all eight of us are gay." [Ted]

"You're the only one who isn't." [Daniel]

"I'm not." [Me]

"You slept with X, and you're saying you're not gay." [David]

"Well when you put it like that-"

"Even so, you know it's true. 'Cuddling' all night with each other is still a pretty sure sign that you're gay. X admits to it." [Isaac]

X blushed and turned away, "Seth's not gay."

"Oh, good for you, Seth. You broke his heart." [Zane]

"It's bad enough he had his tonsels out, now they're gonna have to perform open heart surgery, as well." [Alex]

"Stop. Don't tease him." [X]

"But you do have a crush on him." [Alex]

"Don't you?" [X]

Alex blushed and laid down on the couch, putting his head in my lap. "Why can't you be gay?"

I hesitated. I had no response. I wouldn't choose to be gay, nor would I choose to be straight. They didn't understand! I'm just not interested in... any one, actually.

"Alex, leave him alone. He's like me. We don't know why you people think like that. We don't understand what's so great about having a boyfriend or a girlfriend. It all just seems like a big waste of time." [Ted]

"It's not a waste of time." [Daniel]

"Not in the least." [David]

"Well to us, it is. Leave us alone about it. We'll come around to it when we come around to it. Got it?" Ted is officially my hero. I would've just given in and kissed Alex. That'd be a wonderful first kiss!

"Fine." [Alex]

"Although the pentagrams are pretty cool looking." [Zane]

"Oh yeah, it's like a personal night light." [Isaac]

"Well, may I ask why it's cool?" [Me]

"What do you mean?" [David]

"That's a compliment." [Daniel]

"I know, but... I've gone my whole life afraid that anyone would think I'm a freak or a satanist, or what ever, just because of them. And now I get here, and you guys just think it's cute! What gives!?" [Me]

"Just cool." X shrugged as he said that.

"Yeah, we're teenagers. We either hate you for it or we love you for it, and since we're gay, we might as well love you for it because there's a high chance you already hate us for being gay." [Zane]

"You're not a freak, Seth. You're just cursed with something... terrifying." [Isaac]

"You guys really think they're cool?" [Me]

"Totally!" [David]

"Absolutely." [Daniel]

"You already know what I think." [Alex]

"They're cute?" [Me]

"Fuck yes." Alex sat up, "Now, we need to register for our classes. Who's all coming?"

Everyone just raised their hand a little bit. When we left the dorm, we noticed Rick leaning against the wall. He seemed sad, but cheered up when he saw us.

"Regi... stering." [X]

"Oh, can I come?" [Rick]

"No, of course not!" [David]

"You stay away from us!" [Daniel]

"I... I just-" [Rick]

"Guys, come on. Give him a chance. Trust me." [Seth]

"We do. It's him we don't trust." [Alex]

"Please..." Rick was on the edge of crying, and the others noticed it.

"Wait, you actually want to spend time with us?" [Zane]

"Yes! Please! I'm one of you! The others-... Please..." [Rick]

X stepped forward and gave Rick a hug, who gave in and began to cry softly. I stood a little close to Rick so that if one of the jocks walked by they wouldn't see Rick.

"It's okay." [X]

"Uhh, how did you guys know?" [Isaac]

"He grabbed X when we going to get the his meds." [Me]

"So, he's..." [Alex]

"Yeah." [Me]

"Huh." [David]

"I don't trust him." [Daniel]

"He had to act like he wasn't gay or the others would find out and-" [Me]

"What're you fags doing?!" Carter came out of his room and glared at us.

I pulled off my beanie and tipped my head so he could see the pentagrams. His eyes widened so fast it was amazing they didn't fall out. His jaw dropped to the floor and he cautiously slunk back into his room.

"Well, there's another reason they're cool." [Isaac]

Rick pulled out of X's hug and gave me a questioning look. "You... You have pentagrams on your face?"

"Actually, they're all over my body, but they're natural. I'm not a satanist, just athiest." [Me]

"Oh... They look like they glow."

"They do." [Alex]

"Cool."

X bent down and picked up Rick, cradling him in his arms, and Rick just laid his head on X's shoulder. We walked down to the library like that to register for our classes.

The library itself was huge. Like, you know that scene in the second National Treasure movie where they show the Smithsonian Library? Like that, but with egyptian gods painted on the ceiling, but I only know that because Ted was blabbering on about it when we got there.

"The problem is that the egyptians wouldn't have actually painted their gods onto a ceiling, they only did wall carvings and stuff." [Ted]

"My god, could you shut up?" [Zane]

"Gee, and you called us nerds." [Alex]

"Oh, shut up! My mom believes in egyptian mythology, what do you expect?" [Ted]

We just stopped and starred at him. How... what? That doesn't even make sense!

"What? My dad's christian, my sister's pagan, and my mom's ancient egyptian. I told you, I don't really care about other people's religions."

"Yeah, because sunday nights were a fucking holocaust." [Daniel]

"That family's all kinds of wrong." [David]

"We get along pretty good, actually. Me and my sister have always been pretty close, and my parents go on dates every other friday." [Ted]

"That's a miracle in and of itself." [Zane]

"It's a cool love story." Rick was still laying in X's arms, who was pretty strong for his size. I was actually surprised he could even lift Rick, being that he had to weigh at least a hundred fifty pounds. He wasn't fat, but he had a fuck ton of muscles, so seeing this scrawny little wolf holding a massive lizard in his hands was kinda silly looking.

"See?" [Ted]

"I guess. It's just weird." [Isaac]

"Yeah, my parents can never meet your family." [Alex]

"Well if you think they couldn't handle their own son being a gay athiest, I'm surprised they can handle living around here." [Ted]

"They don't. We lived in Chicago for a while, but they're thinking of moving when they get back."

"To Amberstone City?" [Me]

"Yeah, why?"

"That's where mine are trying to move."

"Oh, right! I forgot about that!" [Ted]

"So why don't you think they'd like it at Amberstone City?" [Alex]

"There's just a lot of gays and lesbians. Everyone there tries their best to be themselves, there's no hiding who you are. It's actually kind of nice."

"Sounds like something from a fantasy novel." [Isaac]

"The place looks like something from a fantasy novel." [Ted]

"It does." [X]

"You live there too?" [Me]

X shook his head, "Vaca."

"Oh." [Me]

"Did you go to Amber Beach?" [Ted]

X nodded, "Cool place."

"Where's Amber City?" [Rick]

"AmberSTONE City." [Ted]

"It's about an hour away from here. South... west, I think." [Me]

"Yeah. I had to look at a lot of maps to figure out exactly where it was." [Alex]

"Oh." [Ted]

We finally were at the registration booth for Sophomores after waiting in line for like... three minutes. It felt like longer. After we registered for our classes we all went to get lunch, and sat back in our corner room.

"This is where you guys eat?" [Rick]

"Had to avoid the jocks some how." [David]

"Yeah, jocks like you." [Daniel]

"Daniel! Don't be so rude." Alex was too late, the insult had already gone through Rick's head. He pushed his food out of the way and buried his face in his arms. He started sobbing, and it made me realize how easily someone can be bullied. God, I hope I don't act that rude.

"Why shouldn't I?! He bullied us because we were gay- yesterday in fact- and you're telling me that I need to be nicer?! Fucking bullshit." [Daniel]

Rick lifted his head and had tears streaming down his face, "I'm sorry, okay?! I'm sorry! I already feel bad enough that I did it, I don't need you shoving it in my face! Do you see this?!" He lifted up his left hand, exposing long scars along his wrist, "This is what I've been doing to keep my mind off of what a sick fuck I am! I'd commit suicide if it weren't for the fact, that the only normal thing about me, is my fear of death!!"

The room fell silent. Everyone was starring at him sympathetically, even Daniel, and especially Alex. X slowly stood up and grabbed Rick, holding him in his arms.

"It's okay... It's okay..." Rick just toppled over and fell apart in X's arms, crying like a little kid and clinging to X for dear life.

The room was pretty silent for the half hour we were there. No one spoke, or even thought about it. The only sounds were us eating and Rick crying. Rick didn't even have lunch, he was so upset. It was actually kind of sad, and I made sure to pat him on the back as we went back to the dorm.