Stuck in a Rut
beep beep BEEP...." ah Christ, not again" said Xavier as his cell-phone alarm clock went off. 6:20 am, same as always. As with every morning Xavier dreaded the horrid screech of the alarm, that dream killing bastard of a machine. Every morning was the same, wake up, say good morning to the family members that were awake and on their way to work and then go flop on the couch and try to sleep until 7. Well today was no different. Sleepily sitting up Xavier placed his face into his large paws and rubbed is face and maw trying to rub off the fatigue of his life. Finally after getting up the strength he stood up and turned off his fan. After turning off his fan he started to walk towards his door but on his way decided to stop and look at his reflection in the mirror. Xavier was a grey wolf with a red streak going down from his forehead and stretching all the way to the end of his tail. For his species he was quite tall, 6 foot 3 to be exact. Xavier had a look of quiet solace on his face that seemed to give him a quiet sensitive look that made him easy to approach. This was a good thing for Xavier though, because that look was one that perfectly matched his personality. One part of his anatomy that really seemed to attract attention was the fact that one of his eyes was a bright, almost acid green while the other was a beautiful bright sky blue color. Xavier had heard many things from both strangers and friend about his eyes. While many other furs also had multi colored eyes there was something about his in particular that really seemed to draw people in.
Finally after staring at himself and checking for any loose fur or problem spot of fluff he opened his door and headed upstairs.
"Morning" Xavier's mother said. "Sleep good?"
" Well it would be better if I didn't have to get up." said Xavier.
" Well your not alone on that. There's 10 dollars on the counter for lunch this week." "Thanks mom." said Xavier, fatigue still heavy in his voice.
"Well your father and I are off to work, so we'll see you tonight."
"Well bye mom and dad, love yah." he said as his parents hurried out the door and into the cold northern winter air.
Both of Xavier's parents were workers in a lab at the local hospital, and because of recent car trouble had to car pool together. Ever since his parents had started going to work together he had never seen much of either of them. When he was up, they were gone and when he got home they weren't home for another 3 hours so he had quite a lot of time to himself after school was over.
As described earlier Xavier flopped down on the couch and strained to get some final minutes of sleep while half listening to the local news. Finally 7 am came and he knew that it was time to finally get off his furry ass and eat breakfast, so that he could get to school on time. Being a typical 18 year old senior, Xavier was a bit of a slacker and was always late for everything. After getting up he started to rummage around in the pantry looking for something to satisfy his hunger. Nothing but a box of cereal that had been demolished into nothing more than crumbs and a box Pop-tarts remained.
"Well I guess that it's going to be cold Pop-tarts again" sighed Xavier.
Running short on time he quickly stuffed a pack of pop tarts into is maw and rushed downstairs to throw on some clothes that didn't stink too terribly. After searching quickly through a pile of crumpled up clothes he finally picked a black Battle of The Bands shirt with a pair of jeans with a bunch of holes in them. Lastly he threw on his usual hoody sweat- shirt and ran out the door and drove to school. Still in a bit of a drowsy state he opened the window and let the cold winter air rush in and wake him up.
" Oh man Im not in the mood for this today" he said to himself not wanting to spend another seven hours in that hell hole of a high school.
After the short drive Xavier reached the front parking lot, where he quickly snatched up his usual parking spot next to a storage building. That building was where they kept all the damn football equipment. Xavier, being the much more artistic type, never gave a damn about football. In his school all the extra money went towards the football team while his beloved art and music classes were scrimping every last cent that they could just to stay in the budget. Not wanting to waste any more time he quickly opened his car door, grabbed his bag from the back seat and walked towards the red side door of the school. He yanked it open and walked down the long hallway towards the music room where a group of his friends usually hung out. As usual Josh, a large bear and Troy, an emo looking fox with black hair were outside the music room standing and talking about their weekend.
"Hey guys what's up" Xavier said.
"Oh hey Xavier, Josh and I were just talking about how late you were AGAIN today." said Troy .
" Hey man, I see no reason to want to be here early, so I just don't rush my mornings." said Xavier snidely
" I know I'm just fucking with you" said Troy."
"So is Harris pissed about me missing the before school meeting for the seniors."
"Oh hell yes" said Josh. "He is really pissed."
"Well I guess that I should get in there before he kills some poor freshman." said Xavier.
He opened the door to the music room and there he was, Mr. Harris a tall, skinny, middle aged weasel with thick rimmed glasses.
"Damn it Xavier do you have any idea how important of a meeting you missed today." yelled Mr. Harris his small face turing red even through his fur.
"Sorry, I just lost track of time this morning."
"Well that seems to be happening a lot these days. I hope you know that I cant help you get a scholarship if you wont show up to the meetings."
" I know, I know it's not going to happen again. I promise."
While Xavier was a loner type and typically stayed out of trouble, he still liked to get old Harris angered once in a while. How couldn't he. The old weasel would get all flushed and bug eyed and it was just too funny to pass up. But he still loved his class so he never took it too far. The last thing he needed was to get harris on his ass constantly.
The next 5 periods dragged on mercilessly. Every minute felt like an hour. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, lunch came. Xavier sat at what was considered the "Nerd" table, which included him, Josh, Troy, and sometimes a female otter name Hope. Hope would always follow Xavier between classes and talk to him as though he was the only person on earth that would listen. To some extent Xavier liked it but sometimes she would do some pretty foolish things. Things that made him so embarrassed, you could see him blush though his dark colored fur. Lately she had walked into his chemistry class before the bell rang and yelled out loud
" I love your cute eyes woffy boy."
While he thought it was a nice thing, it just isn't something that you say out in public. Anyways, the usual group were eating their insanely over priced meals and talking about which teacher was being an ass, or who did what that got them a detention. Typical stuff. This is what was driving Xavier nuts, everyday was the same story. He only wished that something would change his daily grind.
"Are we ever going to talk about something interesting around here!" said Xavier in a very annoyed whine.
"What the hell's your problem Xav." said Troy.
"I'm sorry, I'm just so tired of the same old same old around here. Nothing ever changes, it's always the same day after day."
"Don't get all worked up about it man. Something will come up and then you can quit bitching. Until then stop complaining and let those of us not so bored keep talking.
Suddenly, out of the corner of his Xavier saw someone unfamiliar walking towards his table. It was a small orange fox, about his height and with a decent looking body. This was somewhat out of the ordinary for this small northern town school. Xavier noticed that he was walking right towards him. The fox walked up to him and said
"Hi I'm Zach, I just moved here from Florida. Do you guys mind if I sit at this table." said the fox.
" Yeah, sure we don't mind a new person sitting with us. Might be some fun conversation for the first time in a while. My names Xavier and this is Josh and Troy."
"Oh thank god. I was so worried that you guys were going to tell me to fuck off or something. I don't know what it was but something made me think that you would be cool with me sitting with you guys. I guess you guys just kind of give off that vibe."
" Well, I'm glad to hear it. We're a pretty accepting for people who come from this crap town."
"Well good." said Zach "Because Im not exactly the most small town friendly kind of fur around."
"What do you mean?" asked Xavier.
"Well if you haven't figured it out by now, I'm gay."
At that Xavier almost choked on his spaghetti.
"Really that cool man. I have never really talked to a gay fur before."
Xavier, though he had never admitted it, was Bi and interested in just about any fox he found.
"So why the hell would you move up from Florida to Maine?" asked Josh jokingly.
"Well at my last school I didn't really get along with the majority of the people there and my parents recently inherited an old house here so we decided to move up here. Nice change of scenery."
" Small town Maine is a hell of a lot different than Florida" said Troy.
"Yeah I know, but I have already made more friends at this table than I ever did at my old school."
Xavier couldn't help but look over at the fox. Looking at his small figure and cute face. Xavier stole a glance at the fox's figure when Zach looked away at the clock. The fox was absolutely magnificent. Never in his life had Xavier though this way about another male before.
"Well I"m going to head off a little early so I can find my study hall." said Zach.
"Hey I'll go with you. I know where all the rooms are around here." said Xavier in a squeaky nervous voice.
"Ok wolfy, I'd love to have some company." said Zach in a sweet toned voice.
Xavier bolted up straight bumping the table and making somewhat of a fool of himself in the lunch room.
"What the hell is his problem?" said Josh.
"I don't know man. If I didn't know any better I'd say he's got a crush on that fox." said Troy.
Xavier and Zach began to walk towards the exit of the lunch room. Zach had a lead and Xavier quickly trotted while wiping crumbs from his sweat-shirt and trying to catch up.
"Ah, so you are going to come with me. Nice to have some company." said Zach.
"Yeah, well, those guys don't really have anything interesting to say so I thought why not." said Xavier.
"Well, they seem nice though. Hell of a lot nicer then the people that I'm used to." sighed Zach.
"Oh yeah, those two are just about the coolest people that you can find around here. I've been friends with them for years." said Xavier.
"Well it's nice to meet a couple of people who are just decent. I've really had trouble making friends because of my situation." said Zach. "Especially you Xaviey. You seem like a really good guy. Pretty good looking too."
This caught Xavier completely off guard. He nervously searched for something to say. Sadly all he could manage to think of was" So your gay, right?"
Instantly he wished that he hadn't said that.
"Um... Yeah I am." stammered Zach.
"Im so sorry. That came out completely wrong." said Xavier
"Don't worry about it wolfy, I know you don't mean anything by it." said Zach with a forgiving look on his face.
"Well what I was going to say is, Im actually really glad that I met you. You see, Im Bi and I have never actually told anyone before. But, you know, I don't think you would want to hate on me for it." said Xavier. "Aww, your so cute wolfy. No I'm not going to chastise you for it silly. Come on, I'm gay it would be kind of stupid to hate someone who shares a lot of my same interests." said Zach.
All of a sudden Zach stopped in the middle of the hall, stepped in front of Xavier and dragged him off to the side of the hall next to a string of lockers.
"Listen hun" said Zach. "Like I said, you've been more kind to me in the last couple minutes than most people have treated me in my life. Plus like I said, your a damn good looking guy for a small town boy. I didn't even notice your cute eyes until now. But listen, if you ever feel like taking this whole Bi thing a bit further come talk to me. I'd love to try some stuff with you, you know, show you the ropes."
"Ah.. o...Ok." was all that Xavier could muster up to say.
"You look even sweeter when you start blushing woffy." said Zach. "Well i'll be seeing you later Xaviey."
As Zach began to walk away all Xavier could do was stand there with a dumb founded look on his face. He just kept looking at the fox as he walked away. Apparently Zach expected this because as he walked away he began to toy with his tail while looking back at him.
"Oh man, what did I just get myself into?" said Xavier.
to be continued