FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Joel's alarm went off first this time. I opened my eyes slowly and looked over at the stirring lump that was the cheetah. He reached out a yellow hand and slapped the alarm clock silent. He had showed up at Natalie's as well last night claiming that he had gotten sick and was too embarrassed to hang around the gym. I didn't mind. He was too cute when he was nervous for me to be angry at him. Natalie's choice of movies was understandably girly, but I didn't mind that either. Romantic movies had always been a guilty pleasure of mine. I pretended it was just Joel and I in the room instead of Natalie and her three human friends from Michigan; like the evening was a romantic date or something that he and I alone could share. I learned from the twitter of conversation that Natalie wanted to be an actress once, but the fascination with space travel won out over the possibility of not having any money after graduation. Her friend Toby was going to the nearby NYU for an acting degree and he insisted that he was straight whenever the other two humans joked about his sexuality. From his "light red" button down shirt and tight chino pants I was pretty sure he was lying. He wasn't my type, though; too skinny. But he still had trouble taking his eyes off of me throughout the night. If I had been hornier, and he was more muscled, I would have probably gone for another fuck with him.

The morning sun trickled in through our closed blinds. Joel had rolled over in his bed and the lump was now breathing, moving up and down rhythmically.

"JOEL!" I shouted and he lifted his head quickly in alarm.

"I'm up! I'm up... fuck..." He looked down at his sheets when he swore and I couldn't help but grin.

"What was the dream this time?" I asked.

He blushed.

"None of your business," he sulked as he crawled out from under the covers and walked towards the shower.

I cursed the fact that he was wearing those black, silk boxers and there wasn't even a hint of morning wood. Then again, if he had been wearing nothing, I might have jumped on him right then and there.

"You had no problem telling me about those amazons. You know, you really should get laid," I chided. "It would stop that from happening again."

He flipped me off as he went into the bathroom. The gesture in itself wasn't attractive, but the way the muscles in his arm flexed when he did it was enticing. I reached under my sheets and rubbed my sheath as I thought about him under me. I gripped my cock as it emerged and I stroked it roughly. I didn't let myself completely fall into fantasy. It would have been really awkward if Joel walked out of the bathroom and saw me so clearly having a wank. My erection drooled precum down the shaft, lubricating it for me. I stroked the throbbing meat furiously, trying to cum before Joel's shower finished. I felt the familiar tickle in my nuts and let a groan escape my lips. I wanted that cheetah so badly. I stood up from my bed and walked over to his closet, still stroking my hard cock. I kept an ear out for the shower turning off as I opened Joel's top dresser drawer. I sifted through the underwear and socks that lined the drawer, but most of it was pretty ordinary. Hardly any briefs at all. I kept my rhythm going as I knelt to open Joel's laundry bag. I wanted a used pair. As soon as the bag was open I glanced inside. What I saw made my hand stop moving from surprise. A white jock strap lay on top of the pile of clothes. I gently removed it, my other hand resuming the swift pace on my pulsing and dripping member. My heart thudded in my chest as I brought the jock pouch to my nose, inhaling slowly. Oh fuck, it smelled heavenly. Joel's natural scent assaulted my senses. Sweat and musk filled my nose, dredging up images of tall grasses and spears, watering holes and discarded loin cloths. I walked back over to my bed and took a deeper breath. The shower was still going and I felt my sack tightening against my groin. I let another, louder moan leave my lips as I let the jock hang from my nose, moving my free hand to one of my erect nipples. I squeezed and pinched the nub of flesh as I breathed in Joel's musk. My cock suddenly let loose and I turned to the side quickly to let it fall to the tile floor instead of painting my bed. I shuddered as the shockwaves of pleasure flowed through me, pearly white ropes of my thick cum flying free from my erection as my heart beat furiously in my chest. I stroked a bit more as the last of my climax left me. I shuddered again from the aftershock, Joel's jock still hanging from my muzzle. I took it down and hesitantly licked the inside of it. There was a taste of his dried ball sweat and... something else, something primal and familiar. Why hadn't I smelled it before? Was his musk scent that overpowering? Joel had stained this jock with cum. Even though I had just shot a load my bear meat stood at full attention once again and ached from that knowledge. I licked the inside of his jock again; more slowly this time. Fuck, he was delicious! I heard the shower turn off and quickly stuffed the jock strap under my covers. I closed his laundry bag with the drawstring and wiped up my seed from the floor with my dirty gym towel. Then I pulled a pair of red briefs up my legs as he came out of the bathroom. I imagined the bulge in my underwear was painfully obvious, but Joel didn't even acknowledge me as he walked towards his closet.

"Shower's free," he said coldly. He must have been angry at me for the dream comment.

It wasn't until he turned away with a fresh uniform from the hanger that he noticed the smell that my pungent essence had left behind. I was already on my way into the bathroom with a clean towel.

"Dude, why does it smell bad in here?"

I shrugged.

"I dunno. You were the one who messed your sheets last night, not me," I grinned at him as I closed the bathroom door.

"Yo, fuck you!" He called through the wooden door after me. If only he would let me...

When Joel and I arrived at Enterprise Hall after breakfast that morning I noticed something odd. There were no humans in the crowd of students that gathered in the Western Wing classroom. All of us were animals. The room was large to accommodate the seven-hundred and fifty students in Leo group. It was also set up in the lecture style, with gray colored tables that ran along the length of each row of blue tiered seats. Joel and I sat together in the front row again. The rows of seats went around the room in a circle, like a smaller version of the main hall where we had first met the day before. As I opened my laptop on the desk I caught a glimpse of gray fur out of the corner of my eye. Ben was sitting across the room from us in the second row. I turned my attention to the monitor in front of me, lowering my head a bit. The room quickly filled with students, not a human among them. Natalie sat next to us as well, this time on Joel's side.

"No humans," she said. "Are they segregating us on purpose?"

I rolled my eyes and concentrated on my screen, pulling up the completed questionnaire that had been our homework. It was a basic interest survey probably used to better place students at the end of the course. Professor Hugh entered the room and stood in the center following a group of students who hurried into some open seats. Hugh was wearing the same clothes he had the day before and he looked like he hadn't slept. He walked up to where I sat and I sucked in a breath as he approached. He was even more handsome up close. He dropped the brown suitcase he had been carrying on the floor, leaning it against the short wall in front of us. I noticed how his golden chest fur brimmed over the top of his red Hawaiian shirt. The fur was unusually long for a lion. I wanted to reach out and run my hand through it. Hugh looked up at me and smiled. Christ he was gorgeous even if he did look exhausted. I began imagining having Joel and Professor Hugh alone and naked. My bear meat throbbed painfully in my tight pants and I managed to smile back at the lion professor. He winked and turned away, walking back the center of the room. The students in the room were chatting excitedly all around us. I took a quick glance over to where Ben was sitting and he was staring at me. He turned away when my eyes met his, though and he started doodling something on an open notebook in front of him.

"Silence, please!" The Hugh's voice was amplified somehow. Whether by technology or the round room's acoustics I couldn't tell.

"I'm glad to see that you are all on time," he said as some stragglers came into the room. "Most of you anyway."

A trickle of laughter ran around the seated students.

"So let's get right down to the heart of things, shall we?"

Hugh held his hand over the near middle of the circle he was standing in and a metal baton telescoped upwards from the floor. He gripped the base and tapped the smaller end in his free palm as he strolled around the perimeter of the circle, looking his eager-eyed class over. Joel and I both had our fingers at the ready over our laptops, blank word processing documents open to take notes. Natalie held a pen over a blank notebook page. The entire room fell silent in anticipation.

"Physics-" Hugh said as a groan rumbled around the room. "Oh stop grumbling. If it weren't for physics this academy wouldn't even be possible." He stopped at the left side of the circle and tapped the table in front of a young looking arctic fox. She looked up at him with a disappointed look on her face.

"I suppose you only want to hear about the Universal Expansion Program, hm?" He said as he looked down at the fox.

A resounding "YEAH!" filled the room.

Hugh chuckled and shook his head.

"Well I was going to save the best for last, but since you all insist..." He walked back into the center of the room. He stepped on a panel in the floor and a projected keyboard lit up in front of him. He tapped a few of the virtual keys and it vanished. "Understand, though, that the remainder of this course is going to be extremely boring if we get the exciting stuff out of the way."

The room cheered as a holographic projection of the solar system appeared above Hugh's head.

"The universal Expansion Program was started by Professor Elise Caldwell ten years ago in an attempt to give students like you an opportunity to see and study planets and stars up close. Caldwell was instrumental in the beginning stages of the program in making sure that the method of travel would be completely safe and risk free. She brought together the other schools at the academy in an unprecedented fashion to start construction on the first ever Aerospace Exploration Vehicle or AEV."

Natalie raised her hand as Hugh finished introducing the program. I had a feeling I knew what she was going to ask.

"Yes, Miss Camden?"

It was a bit surprising that Hugh knew her name, but Natalie didn't even flinch. Maybe they had met before class. If they had, I envied the female rat.

"Professor, I was just wondering; and please forgive me for the gross change of subject, but why are there no humans in Leo group?"

A few of the students around us murmured in agreement. The professor just smiled.

"The intro class is split up in an attempt to make the students more comfortable," he said, sounding like he was reading from a script.

"But then why doesn't the school split us up by gender then? Or sexuality?"

Hugh laughed.

"Grouping you all in this way certainly makes no sense to me, but that is the policy for the moment. I am in the process of trying to change that policy. Though, in the past, an entire group of animal students like you would have been taught by a human professor, which does not make any sense at all."

The room rumbled in agreement.

"Now, while I appreciate inquisitive minds, please try to hold the rest of your questions until I ask for them."

Hugh tapped the image of our solar system that hung in the middle of the room with the metal baton and it shimmered, changing into what looked like a helicopter without rotors. Instead, the thing had wide wings on each side. A clear canopy covered the front of the vehicle and seating for six could be seen through it. The craft was colored silver with red streaks on the wings. They were the Academy's school colors.

"This is the AEV prototype image," Hugh said. "Actual construction of the vehicles, as I have recently scheduled, will begin next month in September. The AEV runs on an experimental engine called the Microwave Space Drive. I will go into more detail on how this engine works when we reach the physics and technology portion of this course."

I was furiously typing down all that Hugh said. I didn't want to be caught unawares should a test arise. Joel was going almost as fast as I was, but Natalie just tapped her pen on the page. It seems as though she wasn't even listening to Hugh. I briefly wondered what was wrong, but then I decided I didn't care.

"There will be ten of you," Hugh continued, "chosen from the entire three thousand that will be able to join the Universal Expansion Program. Those ten will be picked based on their results after they take the UPAT or Universal expansion Program Aptitude Test. I'm sure many of you have questions about this test, but the only thing you need to know about it is that a high score does not necessarily mean you will be accepted into the program. Think about that when you take the test."

Gasps and fragments of conversation filtered through the tiered seating behind me. I ignored it. Joel leaned over to me.

"I wonder what he means by that." He breathed on my neck again as he spoke and I shivered.

"How should I know? I've never taken the UPAT."

"I wish I had a brother or something in the program who could tell me what to expect," he said.

"If you had a brother in the program they probably wouldn't let you in as well," I replied.

I didn't even notice that the room had fallen deadly silent. Joel cringed and shrunk back in his seat as I looked up to see Professor Hugh staring down at me.

"Are you finished chatting, Mister Dunham?"

I gulped and nodded. How the hell did he know my last name?

"Good. I would like to see you after class."

Hugh turned away and I glared at Joel. The cheetah shrunk back even further in his seat, trying not to meet my gaze. I supposed it wasn't all bad, though. At least I would get to meet with the Professor in private.

The rest of the class was spent through Hugh talking about the history of space exploration. It was rather boring if, like me, you had studied those things before. Joel seemed to drink all of the information in like he was a dried out sponge. Natalie started paying attention again after Hugh started talking about the first lunar landings and how the very first one had been a hoax. The class finally ended and Natalie and Joel left me in my seat. I waited for all of the other students to filter out of the room. I closed my laptop and put it in the black carrying case I had bought for it. Ben was the last to leave and he smirked at me as he left. I wanted to teach him a lesson about mocking his superiors. Hugh was standing near the door, waiting for me with his leather suitcase. I approached him like a dog that had done something it knew was wrong.

"You wanted to see me?" I said, staring at the ground.

"Walk with me, Mark," Hugh said as he opened the door of the classroom.

I saw Ben outside the door, scurrying away as we stepped out of the room. He had been spying on us. That little shit. Hugh ignored the wolf and we walked in the other direction. We walked outside of the building in silence. I was really getting worried. Finally, when we were outside and walking towards the student center and cafeteria, Hugh spoke.

"Are you hungry, Mark?" he asked.

"Um... sort of," I replied.

"Let's grab a bite, then, shall we?"

"Sure... ok."

I had no idea where Hugh was going with this. I thought I was going to be in trouble for talking during class. I was definitely not expecting him to ask me to lunch. My heart fluttered. Maybe he felt the same way about me as I did him. Nah. That would be way too cliché for real life. It had to be something else. We bought our food. He had two hamburgers and I ordered a turkey club sandwich. It wasn't easy to find a place to sit in the cafeteria, but after a while, a table was emptied and we sat down together. Hugh took a large bite of one of his hamburgers and I sat there staring at my food.

"Go ahead, Mark. Eat," he said as he took another large bite. I had a feeling he knew what he was doing.

"How do you know my name?" I asked.

He chuckled.

"Well each professor is supposed to remember their students' names as good practice, but seven hundred and fifty is a lot to memorize. So I cheat a little bit."

He leaned towards me and opened his left eye wide, pointing at it with a finger. I looked into the deep blue and could barely make out what looked like computer windows.

"What the hell?" I asked. The sight was a little disturbing.

"It's called Oculus. It's a very small personal computer interface that is implanted in the eye and projected holographically just in front of it. I use it for lecture notes and to keep all of you guys in order. However, you are a special case. I know your name because I knew your father."

I had been about to take a bite, but I stopped and stared at him. He noticed and chuckled.

"I take it you don't get along with him either, eh?" He jabbed me playfully in the shoulder. "Robert Dunham is not the easiest mathematician to get along with. Bless Mary's heart for putting up with his crap."

"Where did you meet my dad?" I asked. I had never heard of James Hugh before the first intro class.

The lion chuckled.

"We worked together on a few government projects just after he and your mother were married. Er... I should clarify; he was my boss on those projects. I was the young, naïve, new recruit. He was the older, disillusioned bear you probably know very well. It probably would have made a good sitcom."

I looked down at my sandwich and finally took a bite, feeling more comfortable about my situation now.

"So what were those projects?" I asked after swallowing.

Hugh shrugged and waived a burger-filled hand dismissively.

"They were nothing special really, but I still can't talk about them. Top secret and all."

I wasn't sure I believed him, but I figured he had his reasons for keeping quiet about it. We sat in silence for a few moments, eating. I glanced over at him every now and then to marvel at his figure and features. He didn't look as old as his story suggested.

"How is your mother?" He asked suddenly as he polished off the last of his burgers. I was still working on the first half of my sandwich.

"She and my dad separated, actually, just before I came to the Academy. I knew it was going to happen sooner or later with the way he treats her. It's like he doesn't care about anything except his work. He stopped calling her by name, you know. He would only say, 'Hey you' to get her attention in the last few months. My mom thought he was cheating on her too because he was always out of the house all day."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Hugh said, but he said it as if it was expected.

"The thing is, they didn't even fight at all that I can remember. They never raised their voices at me or each other and it was the same way in the end, too. My mom just announced at dinner one night that she was leaving him. He hardly blinked. He just nodded and told her to bring the divorce papers by so he could sign them. Neither of them looked sad or anything."

Hugh sighed and leaned back in his chair. I noticed him reach down to presumably loosen his belt. That sight got a jolt from my groin, but I tried to ignore it.

"Your dad was always kind of an odd duck. I wouldn't call him dedicated to his job, he was obsessed. But I don't think that's the reason he stopped paying attention to Mary."

"Do you think he was cheating?" I asked. I didn't really care. My old man was an asshole as far as I was concerned.

Hugh shrugged.

"He could have been. That at least sounds more like him than being too engrossed in work to notice his marriage slipping away. He's never been a very happy person, though, married or single."

I finished my sandwich and wiped the crumbs from my hands and mouth with a paper napkin that had been sitting on the table.

"Well I don't care, really. If he becomes happy, then yay for him. He was a jerk throughout my childhood so I doubt I could feel any pity for the old bastard."

Hugh looked at me with a look of almost sadness on his face. It was touching in a way.

"Bastard or not, he is your father, Mark. You should at least feel a little pity. In any case, I didn't ask you to have this chat so we could reminisce about your family. I wanted to let you know that just because I know your father and mother does not mean that I will be giving you an advantage in the UEPAT."

I frowned.

"Oh. Well to be fair, I didn't even know you knew my parents until just now so I wasn't expecting an advantage anyway. I'm not even sure I want to be in the Universal Expansion Program, honestly."

The lion laughed heartily. I wasn't sure whether to be insulted or not.

"Oh come on, Mark. Every kid in your class of three thousand wants to be in that program. You can't deny that the prospect of exploring space is a tempting one."

I shrugged.

"I just don't want to be horribly let down. If I get my hopes up and strive for the program, but fail, then it'll be much worse than not trying and failing."

"If you don't try, though, what will you think of yourself with the knowledge that you could have succeeded?" Hugh asked the question as he stood from the table, picking up his trash and throwing it away in a nearby receptacle.

I didn't have an answer to his question. I didn't think he expected me to either. I threw my trash away as well and we left the cafeteria together in silence. As I thought about what he had said, I took the opportunity to look at his fingers. No wedding band. We parted ways outside on the quad. He mumbled something about going to bed early and I waved as he walked away towards the faculty parking lot. My desire for him had not diminished from our conversation, in fact the things he said about my father made me question my old man's motives instead. I hurried back to my dorm room. I expected Joel was there and I had some homework to do.

***

The proximity alarm for my door jolts me from my quiet meditation. My energy reserves are full, but something is wrong. My reserves shouldn't even be a quarter full yet. I must have made a mistake in the transfer protocol. Curses. The elders probably sent someone to investigate. I cut my connection to the core quickly as there is a banging noise on the other side of my green door.

"Centurion! Let us enter immediately! You are under investigation by the council of elders!"

Borealis speaks on the other side of the wall. They have sent the elite protectors of the core. I can't let them catch me or I am a goner. Besides, I would rather exile myself than have them choose where to send me.

"Centurion, we are entering your domain with or without your permission! Your sentence will be greatly reduced should you voluntarily allow us inside, however."

"I apologize, Borealis, but I have places to be," I shout back. "I will see you all again should my experiments prove successful!"

There is a humming sound and the wall turns from green to purple and then to silver as the guard shuts down the energy flow that holds the wall in place. Borealis is in the lead along with six other Sol class entities. I do not recognize any of them.

"You have nowhere to go, Centurion. Give yourself up and the council will be lenient with you," Borealis would have held out a hand if he had one.

"I'm afraid you and the council have underestimated me," I say.

I activate my escape parameter. I had created this room with escape in mind should something like this occur. My energy reserves are full. Borealis and his lackeys' reserves probably are not. The floor turns silver quickly under me and I sink through it as Borealis surges forward. He narrowly misses me as I descend through the floor and the dust re-solidifies behind me. I pick up speed for the nearest star. Slingshotting around a star is the only way to break light speed. Traveling faster than light will also conserve some of my energy. The trip to Earth would not be a short one. I activate my database's autopilot and sit back to enjoy the ride.

***

Joel was not in the room when I arrived. I was kind of disappointed by his absence. Deciding to kill some time, I set to work on the assignments for class the next day. Unlike the interest survey, the assignment for that night was not easy. We were supposed to write up our own version of an AEV prototype vehicle, accounting for all of the possible risks and dangers of space travel. Then we were to program it into a three dimensional holographic model to be tested in class. I had no clue how Hugh was going to test all seven hundred and fifty models in one class period, but I wasn't about to slack off in hopes that he didn't choose to experiment on my prototype. The fact that he knew my parents meant that he was more likely to pick me over anyone else in that class.

I had been working on the prototype model for a good four hours and I was just about finished when Joel burst into the room suddenly. He was clearly drunk and struggling to stay on his feet. I jumped up to help him, but he pushed me away awkwardly.

"I... I'm fine..." he managed to say after much effort.

I watched him stagger over to his bed and flop down belly first onto the sheets. He belched unattractively and rolled over a few moments later.

"Do you want some water or food?" I asked.

"No..." he replied after a brief pause. "I'm... fine."

I looked at the clock on my laptop and my stomach rumbled at the mention of food. It was eight pm.

"Did you do tomorrow's assignment?"

"It's on my lap... pee... top." Joel looked as if he was trying to remember the right words to use. I wondered how many drinks he had downed.

I flipped open his laptop and was met with an "insert ID card message."

"Give me your ID," I said.

"Why?" He asked.

"I'm trying to help you. Just give it to me."

"Uh... ok." He handed me his ID card and I inserted it into the slot on the side of the laptop.

The modeling program was already opened when the protection window disappeared, but his prototype was only three quarters done.

"When did you start drinking?" I asked partly from curiosity, partly trying to distract him while I finished his work for him.

"Er... about..." He started counting on his fingers. "Three hours ago."

I whistled.

"How many drinks are in you?" I wanted something of mine to be in him right about now.

"I dunno... People just handed me stuff and I drank it."

I stared at him.

"Dude, what if one of those drinks had been drugged or something? You could have been dead or robbed by now."

He shrugged.

"Natalie was there... her friends too. They wouldn't let anything happen to me."

I rolled my eyes.

"You may be right about Natalie, but you give her friends too much credit."

"You don't like humans much, do you, Mark."

I shook my head.

"Not really, no."

"Why?"

"Remember when I told you I was the only animal in my schools as a kid?"

"Er... yeah."

I wasn't sure if he did, but at least now he was focused on our conversation and not the fact that I was doing his homework for him.

"Well I was made fun of. A lot. My very first car was trashed by a bunch of bigoted human football players even though I was on the god-damn team. So no. I don't like humans at all."

"You..." Joel sat up on his bed. "You can't let one... or a small group... rule your thoughts of all of them."

He was speaking slowly to make sure he could be understood. At least he knew he was inebriated and not trying to deny it. I scoffed.

"I sure as hell can. Every human I've met has looked down on people like us at least in some way. Most of them don't even realize that a lot of us didn't choose to be like we are."

I clicked the render button in the modeling program and turned away from Joel's laptop. I clicked the render button on my own computer and folded my arms, looking at him. The cheetah was staring at the floor as if fascinated.

"You have a... troubled past," he said. "I wish I could... fix it for you. You're too nice... to be so cynixal."

He meant "cynical," but I understood him. I was touched by the fact that he seemed to care that much about where I came from, but I told myself it was probably the alcohol talking.

"I'm going to get something to eat and some water for you," I said. "Don't touch your laptop until I get back."

He nodded and laid back on the bed, putting an arm over his forehead and a hand on his belly as he took several deep breaths. I walked down the hallway outside of our room, passed the lounge where some students were staring intently at their laptops, and out the doors of the building. I remembered that there was a convenience store just off campus, so I headed there. I wondered if there was a reason for Joel's getting trashed. I wondered if he was happy at the Academy. A thought crossed my mind, stopping me in my tracks as I held out my hand to push the turnstile that was a campus exit. Maybe this was what I had been waiting for. It would be so easy to take Joel right now. He probably wouldn't remember it in the morning either. I shook my head. He wasn't something I wanted to force my way into. It would destroy any chance of a real relationship with him and, while I did want him under me and moaning, I preferred a genuine connection that could lead us to that point. I liked him too much to put him through what I had done to Ben. I hoped I never saw that wolf outside of class again. His eyes boring into me from across the room gave me enough guilt to last forever. Whatever. At least it didn't seem like he had told anyone about it, which meant he probably enjoyed it.

I approached the convenience store and pushed the glass door open, picking up a bag of chips and two bottles of water as I sauntered through the store. I was in the middle of paying for the food and drink when a hand fell on my shoulder, making me jump. I looked in the direction of the hand, but quickly looked the other way when there was no one there. As luck would have it, Ben was smiling back at me. It was sort of a relief that he was smiling, but it was also kind of creepy at the same time. The wolf looked down at what I was buying and then back to me.

"Getting a snack?" He asked.

"Yeah," I replied. I didn't want to have a conversation with him.

"I missed you at the gym, earlier today." I wondered if he was trying to get me to admit my transgression.

"I wasn't there this afternoon," I replied curtly as I turned away from the counter with my food.

Ben followed me unfortunately.

"Why not? We had a good time there yesterday."

"Did we?" I asked, half heartedly.

"Sure, man. We spotted each other on the bench press, remember?"

"Sorry," I said. "I think you have me confused with someone else."

Ben laughed as we walked from the store.

"Oh I get it. It was just a game to you, wasn't it?"

"Look I really don't know what you're talking about, buddy," I lied.

"You fucking asshole!" He snarled. "You don't give a rat's ass how I feel do you?"

I looked around us and, seeing no one, I took a risk.

"I know exactly how you feel," I countered. "You're confused; maybe a little freaked out, but the real rub is that deep down inside, it turns you on whenever you think about it. You feel just like I did when it happened to me the first time. You'll get over it. Just stay the fuck away from me or I will make you regret it."

I turned around and walked away from him, having rendered him speechless for the moment. He stopped following me and I headed back to my room, wondering if saying that to him had been a wise choice. Joel was still lying on his bed when I returned, but his breaths were rhythmic and he was clearly asleep. I went over to his laptop and saved the rendered prototype model. I hoped it was different enough from my finished product that Hugh wouldn't notice. I saved mine and opened my chips, surfing the web as I ate. I turned around occasionally to see if Joel was alright. It would be so easy, but I stopped myself from doing anything stupid. I had no desire to ruin what little friendship we already had. After the chips were gone, I threw the bag in the trash can next to my desk and looked at the clock. It was ten. There was no reason for me to go to sleep that early, but I had nothing better to do. I stripped out of my clothes completely, throwing them in my laundry bag. I stretched, absentmindedly facing towards Joel as I did so. My bearhood poked from my sheath as I hopped into my bed, but I ignored it. I really wasn't in the mood. I kept thinking about Ben and hoping that he would actually leave me alone. I didn't want to have to make good on that threat. I slowly drifted off to sleep.