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Grovedale High's green and white lunchroom was crowded as ever. The circular tables for eight were nearly packed to the brim with high school furs noisily chatting about -activate southern hillbilly accent- WHATEVER THE DANG KEEDS OF MY GENERATION 'ER UP TO. My lunch table was of course part of the 'jock colony' section of tables (varsity jackets, varsity jackets everywhere), which is why I found it highly strange that a certain socialite Squirrel in a long sleeve pink shirt and mint-green dungarees was at my usual table today.

"What are you doing here?" I asked Allie suspiciously, after I dropped down the tray holding my freezer-burned school lunch.

She didn't even bother to look up from her phone as she answered. "I'm multi-tasking between texting and playing Cookie Clickr. My cookie-baking grandmas are joining the cookie-illuminati, so I have to crush that before it gets out of paw." Allie was sitting in Jayce's usual spot across from me, so now he was in Marty's usual seat which moved him over to the extra seat on my right, which means I had to sit next to Marty today. Thanks to her, the whole balance of power of the High School lunch table network was all out of whack!

I narrowed my eyes at her weird comment as I took my seat (her addiction to mobile games is going to be the end of her one day), "No, I mean 'what are you doing here at our lunch table?', and while we're at it, why is Jayce moping like he's just had his entire anime figurine collection destroyed?" I pointed to a downcast and moaning Iguana whose face was planted into the table. He hadn't even opened his thermos of tea or neatly packed Chinese-American lunch yet.

"Oh, that? No clue, he must just be having an off-day, yup, that's gotta be it," she said as if she was trying to hide a massive pile of shit under a rug. She then took a moment to look at me with a pouty expression and a paw placed to her heart, "Why Rob, based on the way you're grilling me, I'd say you think you're too cool to have your dear friend Allie join you for lunch. I'm hurt," so said in a clearly not-hurt tone. I noticed that Chris, who was on Allie's right, seemed particularly nervous and fidgety whenever the Squirrel talked. It was rare to see carefree Chris on edge about anything; I had a hunch as to what this is about.

"Chris, is she blackmailing you guys?" I asked the blonde Wolf who was fidgeting with his earring.

Chris' ears jetted up and he started panicking, "What? Blackmail? Noooo that's ridiculous. We just figured we'd invite our good friend Allie to eat with us today..." He said with a strained laugh. "Although, hypothetically, if she were blackmailing us and told us not to let anyone know, that is the exact sort of answer I'd give, ha ha, heh.... Uh..." Allie starting tsking to herself, to which Chris shrunk back in his seat.

"Okaaaay..." I said as I took my seat and started munching on my crispy chicken sandwich. Even *I* wasn't dense enough to not pick up that something fishy was going on there, but it was probably best not to address it while Allie was nearby... Better let that one slide for now.

With that, the vibe at our table today was a little bit... strained: both Toru and Scott weren't here yet, I was mentally preoccupied preparing myself for my dreaded confession, and the awkwardness whatever the hell was happening between Jayce, Chris and Allie was the cherry on top. At least Marty was enjoying himself; the Bull was just happy to be able to chow down on his massive thirty seven dollar school lunch. Jesus, that guy can eat...

So there wasn't that much talking at our table for the time being, but that gave me plenty of time to go over the little details in my head.

Setting parameters...

Admit to not having a girlfriend: Affirmative.

Admit to hanging with Daren: Affirmative.

Admit to going on a date with Daren: Negative.

Admit that Daren is gay: Affirmative if relevant.

Admit that I am gay: Hell no, I'm not ready for that shit.

Yeah, this is probably for the best. The main goals are to just dispel the notion that I have a secret girlfriend, and to let them know I've been hanging with Daren. I didn't need to do more than that today. There was no way in hell I was going to come out while a gossip like Allie was here.

Imagine if word got out to the whole school... Who knows what that'd do to my social status? Not to mention if Sean and his crew found out! I might experience honest-to-God bullying for the first time... Oh God and football practice would get sooo awkward, especially changing in the locker room. So coming out is off the table, but I might possibly try to vaguely hint at being gay so it doesn't come out of nowhere when I do bring it up... but not outright admit it, nah, they can slowly piece it together.

What else... I guess it's okay to mention that Daren is gay, right? He more or less told me he was openly gay on our first date, even if he wasn't a fan of labels. I mean, it's probably going to come up, right? Otherwise I'd have no reason to hide that I was hanging with him. Yeah, that should be totally fine, without any sort of future consequences whatsoever! Cool.

After a good five minutes of awkward eating and listening in on conversation so bland it made skim-milk seem flavorful, I finally noticed a certain Polar Bear in the far off lunch line with a laden tray. "Oh there he is, took him long enough..." I muttered, with a flutter in my voice and a slowly increasing heartbeat.

What's this? Why was I getting so nervous? It's not like I was planning to fully come out or anything, I was just going to admit that I didn't have an imaginary girlfriend...

I felt myself gulp down heavily on my last bite of undersalted French Fries.

...Still though, Allie _was_here today... if the rumors were true, that girl had quite the nose for anything homoerotic. Maybe she'd press me on the issue more than would be comfortable. Uh... maybe I really should back off today and just wait for a better time...

*Activating internal motivational speech in, 3, 2, 1...*

DO IT!

_ _

JUST DO IT!

_ _

Don't let your dreams be dreams. Yesterday you said tomorrow so JUST DO IT!

_ _

MAKE YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE!

_ _

JUST DO IT!

Ah, dammit, that stupid Shia Lebouff meme was right! I told myself I was going to do this today! C'mon Rob, man-up! Or... gay-up I guess, whatever! JUST DO IT!

Right as I mustered my resolve, Allie spoke out, "Oh, speaking of Scott, I have a funny video to show you guys."

Marty's sideways ears perked up curiously. "Ooh, a video! What's it about?"

"Grapefruit," Allie responded with a sly grin.

Womp womp wooomp, went the trombone in my head.

...Well, guess we're getting sidetracked again. Figures. Not like anything in my life has any goddamn cohesion anymore anyway. Ugh, maybe I'll at least learn what the fuck this stupid grapefruit thing is about...

Allie started the video on her phone right around when Scott was paying/low-key flirting with one of the lunch ladies by the register, and the other four of us at the table huddled over by Allie's phone with trepidatious faces.

The video was titled 'Grapefruit Technique', and it starred a somewhat heavyset Doberman woman. It was about...pleasuring your man with a grapefruit. The Doberman woman was demonstrating how to tenderize the grapefruit with your paws, how to cut off both ends, and then how to cut a hole in the center to make it fuckable... Wow, okay.

"Why was I born in this century?" Jayce bemoaned before planting his head back down on the table: the first casualty of war.

I started rubbing my temples and shaking my head in discomfort as the lady started explaining how to trick your unsuspecting man with a blindfold and promises of 'somethin' a little freakier'.

"Now you have to get his penis erect, so what you're gonna do is just, suck his dick. Just like you said you were gonna do."

The Dobberman lady then took out a big black... what the hell am I watching?!

"That is one big dildo..." Chris mentioned, blushing.

"What the fuck?!" was all I could say, as the Doberman Lady started making horrendous slurping sounds straight from my nightmares as her muzzle bobbed her head up and down the dildo's shaft.

"Now he's nice and erect, what you're gonna do is replace the grapefruit, from your mouth... You're gonna twist up and down on his shaft and suck the head at the same time" SLURPSLURPSLURPITYSLURPSLUUUUUUURP

_ _

There was nothing but horror and disgust on Chris' and my face, to the sadistic delight of Allie. And Marty... loveable, gullible Marty was fascinated by the video, his mouth pursed into an 'O' shape.

_ _

"'Sup guys! Oh, hey Allie!" Scott chirped as finally walked on over to our table with his loaded lunch tray. "What're you guys watching?" He asked before arching forward to get a view of the video.

"Now ladies, remember: grapefruit is actually a fat-burner, so you actually losin' weight while you suckin' his dick."

It took half a second before recognition exploded in his face like a massive cumshot. His muzzle dropped, along with his tray, which went straight down on the ground. "OH SWEET ARCHIE GRIFFIN, GET IT AWAY FROM ME! KILL IT, KILL IT WITH FIRE! SAFE SPACE, SAFE SPACE!" He dropped down to the floor like woah, and covered his head with his varsity jacket, his booty and short tail visibly shaking. The second victim of war.

Allie started cackling like a goddamn Captain Planet villain. Chris looked at her, clearly concerned for our hapless grapefruit victim of a friend. "I think you just triggered Scott... And I don't think I've ever used that term non-ironically before."

"Yeah, oops lol," she said with a shit-eating grin, not the least bit remorseful.

Marty, apparently still high off of Pixie dust from Grapefruit-dildo land, looked at Scott with the most sincere starry-eyed look on his face, "Did Katie grapefruit you, Scott? D-Did it feel good?" he completely bought into the video... Dammit Marty.

"IT FUCKING STUNG, MAN!" Scott yelled out from under his jacket/shelter from the horrors, the pain of past experience evident in his voice.

"Citrus fruits _are_acidic..." Jayce said in a muffled voice, not bothering to lift his head back up from the table this time.

I could tell that the conversation was only going to get stupider from here, so I slapped both ends up my muzzle to remind myself what I intended to do in the first place.

Goddammit, I've had enough stupid bullshit today! TIME TO GET SERIOUS!

"Anyway, if we're done giving Scott war flashbacks," I said with a firm clap of my paws, projecting my voice to gather everyone's attention. "I have an announcement to make." Everyone at the table looked at me curiously as I went back to my seat, suddenly all serious. "It's about uh... why I've been so busy recently." Scott peaked out nervously from under his jacket to look at me. It didn't take long for his expression to do a complete one eighty. "Oh, sick, I've been wondering about that shit for weeks!" he exclaimed. Picking up his still in-tact lunch tray off the ground, he quickly scrambled over to his seat next to me with.

Guess interest in snooping into my personal life takes precedence over sex-related trauma, alright...

Everyone's attention was on me. Especially Scott's: the Polar Bear rested one arm on the table and started nudging me with the other. "Soooo. You got a new gal-friend you want to tell us about, bro?"

Jayce raised his head from the table in angry protest, "Scott, we already know it's not that! Figuring that out was the whole reason Chris and I got into this mess with Allie, Thanks to you and your stupid-"

Wait, what?

"-Eyyyy Jaycee, Rob doesn't need to know that detail," Scott interrupted, nonchalantly. He continued before I had a chance to question about Jayce's comment, "Anyway, maybe it's not a girlfriend per say, but what, or who have you been doing brah?" he added with a few suggestive wiggles of his brows.

But wait, what was that about... ah whatever. Here it goes...

"No, see, I've just been hanging out with a new friend... Uh, Daren actually. After our little debacle a few weeks ago." Once the words come out of my mouth, I knew there was no going back; the racing of my heart signaled as much. My desire to play everything off as a joke and avoid the topic forever was burning strong, but I suppressed it in my gut.

Scott's wide grin petered out immediately. "Wait, that's it? You were just hanging out with a friend? Ugh, that's lame-boots as fuck, brah!"

Lame-boots?

Chris, who previously looked eager to hear my confession, slumped down too, "Not gonna lie, I'm pretty disappointed too. I thought you'd at least be involved in some sort of scandalous romance or something..."

I had to mentally stop myself from going 'Uhhhhh' at Chris' strangely on-point assumption.

"Why did you even bother to keep that a secret?" Scott demanded in an exasperated tone.

I heard Allie give a sudden light giggle. What's with that timing? I felt a shiver run down my spine.

I began nibbling my lips and rubbing them together. "Well the thing is... kind of... the reason I didn't talk about it was..." Oh boy, here comes the 'G' word... "Maybe don't go blabbing about this, but uh... _Daren_is uh... sort of... openly gay..."

Scott furrowed in brows in slight disbelief, "For real?!" he exclaimed. Chris mouthed 'woah' and then covered his mouth with one paw. The others reacted far less significantly. Jayce was too busy moping to be invested in the conversation, Marty kept his usual vacant expression as he looked at me curiously, and Allie... wait, why wasn't Allie excited to hear that? She was smiling to herself smugly as she went back to playing around with her phone, but it was a relatively muted response. I mean, a big brawny Rottweiler turning out to be gay? She should be eating that shit up? Did she already know? There's no way she already knew that, right?

Scott's eyes suddenly expanded wide open. He eyed me intently, "Wait, you're not saying that you're also-"

OH SHIT!

_ _

_"_ga-"

IT'S THE 'G' WORD! ARM THE FUCKING JOKE CANNON!

"OH, you know me, total fucking butt-pirate, gotta love them... semen milkshakes, mmmmm!" I joked back in an over exaggerated gay lisp, rubbing my belly. Scott snorted, and then cracked up. Phew, dodged a bullet there. Marty soon followed suit because he's a whore for peer pressure and started lightly chuckling. Chris didn't seem to find it all that funny, and Allie started looking at me with one eyebrow raised, which made me feel super uncomfortable. I forced out a quick laugh or two to seal the deal that this was just a joke.

It's a strange phenomenon. The flip side to what Scott does (confidently doing gay shit without acting faggy = confident in one's heterosexuality), is momentarily going so far down the fag spectrum that everything you say comes across as a joke, making it the perfect shield to sidestep any actual accusations of being gay. Basically, you just blur your sincerity until it's meaningless: that's my specialty! Although doing this has ironically turned me into a gay man pretending to be a heterosexual man pretending to be gay. Some Inception-grade shit right there.

But I was trying to be at least a little sincere about this whole thing, so I dropped the joke and continued in my normal voice, "But for real though, it's just, the whole situation was really awkward and hard to explain. Basically I just didn't want you guys to start thinking I was gay or something because I was hanging out with him, so I kept it secret." Ultimately, I felt a little guilty for once again joking about my own sexuality, but technically I did admit to being a butt pirate so... progress?

Scott blinked a few times, letting the information sink in for a moment, "...So, when we bumped into you at the movie theater, you weren't on a date with some chick, you were just... hanging with Daren?"

I nodded, maybe a bit too fast. "It's a long story, but basically he roped me into going and I went along with it. We just hung out the whole time... that's basically what I've been doing..." Yup, that's all it was: no gay face sucking or buttsecks or anything, whoops, except there totally was. "He's actually a really cool guy, and since he's new here so he doesn't have a lot of friends, so I figured I'd show him around and stuff and... it just sort of happened like that."

"Oh... well good on you, I guess..." Scott said with diminishing interest, the tension in the air dying down as well. We reached one of those awkward moments where the conversation reached a conclusion, but still felt incomplete. Thankfully Chris thought of a good follow up, "So wait, is he in B-lunch then? You could invite him to sit with us. Even with Allie, we still have an extra seat open."

Scott's expression lit up slightly, "Hey yeah, you should totally invite him to sit with us! I talked to Daren a bit in Physics before. He seems chill, even if he looks like an angry WWE wrestler."

I shook my head, "I would have invited him, but I think he mentioned that he had A-Lunch."

Chris tilted his head, his left ear licking upward. "Does he though? He's in our AP World history class fourth period, which is only for B-lunch students. "So he should definitely have B-lunch..."

I was grateful the focus conversation shifted away from the whole 'gay' thing, but Chris' comment sat oddly with me regardless. Daren was in B-lunch? But I definitely remember him saying he had A-lunch. Something with this scenario wasn't quite locking into place. "That's weird. I'm pretty sure he told me he was in A-lunch... "

"It's true that I've never seen him in the cafeteria for B-lunch though..." Marty mentioned. Thank you for the helpful comment, Marty. You're so helpful.

"Any ideas, Allie?" I asked. If anyone here would know, it'd be her. She did help me figure out where Daren went after school, after all.

She tilted her head. "Hmmm... I've got a hunch. Just let me double check his profile on Socialite"

By the by, 'Socialite' was the name of the app that Flippy had showed me earlier today, with the popular student rankings on it. But outside of its role for the rankings, Socialite functioned as a basic social media app, except it was limited to information about one's student life, like class schedules, grades, whether you have a car or not etc. It was made by the programming club in Grovedale High for the student council's use, and was, as of now, used exclusively by Grovedale high students. Basic information for any student, even those without an account, could be added in by admins (I.E. student council members), so even though Daren didn't have a smartphone he might still have info on his profile.

Allie nodded to herself a few times as she finished reading Daren's profile. "It's only been updated once, so there's not much... But his schedule definitely says B-lunch, and also it looks he doesn't have a car, so he's probably not eating out for lunch, so I'm guessing he just doesn't eat lunch and goes somewhere else."

Just going somewhere else, huh? I guess that seemed likely enough. But where? It would have to be a place that I almost never have any reason to go to during lunch, but also a place where Daren would be comfortable spending forty five minutes on his own...

...an idea struck me.

Disembark on Journey?

_ _

Yes_ No_

"Hey guys, I'm actually going to go see if I can find him. Be right back."

---

Ah, the library. The fateful location where all this 'gay' stuff suddenly started inundating my life. I was never big on reading, but I've especially been avoiding this place after my first conversation with Mrs. Grevenieks. That Parrot makes the worst of the Cleveland Browns fans seem like normal functioning people. *shivers*

To my relief, the terrifying Parrot was not in the befittingly quiet library once I went over to check Daren's usual study spot... not only was the Rottie not there, but there were hardly any kids using the computer stations, or even the reading tables (also known as old chewing gum depositories). There was some class going on over in the far off computer lab section, although most kids in the class were just playing old First Person Shooter games on emulators... The teachers here really need to figure out how to disable that... I took a brief gander at the aisles between the towering bookshelves. It really was an impressively large library... Even if half the books were older than my Grandma and organized by a drunk, dementia-struck lunatic... and I'm only half joking about that.

Sadly, my search of the aisles was to no avail. Maybe Daren wasn't actually here? As I headed back over to the reading area, something colorful caught my eye: there was a strangely green poster on the Library's bulletin board. I walked up for a closer look. The poster had pictures of... people reading while smoking cannabis joints?

Dank weed? Why not, Dank READ?

I felt my soul shrivel up a bit at reading that. I felt unclean... but oh, it was only the beginning.

Suddenly I became aware of a presence by my side. A chill ran down my side, and it felt as if all the marrow in my bones had suddenly been sucked out.

Oh no... it's her.

"WhY hElLo RoNaLd, hOw ArE YoU dOINg On tHiS fInE ApOcAlYpTiC dAy?" Mrs. Grevenieks half-shrieked at me, her voice shrill enough to cause stage three cancer or a miscarriage. She was holding a box full of what looked to be a new stock of Young adult dystopian novels. "hAiL ThE eNd TiMeS!" she proclaimed, her lazy eye spasming like a spider dying from poison.

I understood maybe half of what she said. "It's... Robert, actually." I corrected reflexively. Considering who those was, I probably should have just taken what I could get...

"Of CoUrSe, I'D nEvEr FoRgEt yOu RoNaLd, CoNsIdErInG HoW yOu'Re NaMeD AfTeR mY fAvOrItE pReSiDeNt!"

"...your favorite president was Ronald Raegan?" I immediately regretted my decision to humor her odd statement.

"RoNaLd mCdOnAlD! hE sUrE HeLpEd uS InTeGrAtE WiTh tHoSe pUrPlE NuGgEt pEoPlE! SePaRaTe bUt eQuAl mY TaIl FeAtHeRs!"

What the fuck kind of enchanted universe does she live in? A world with races other than walking talking animal people? That's just ridiculous! No, dammit Rob, don't question anything she says! You'll just unnecessarily extend the conversation! "That's great, Mrs. Grevenieks... Look I'm just looking for Daren Williams... He's a big Rottweiler, have you seen him?"

Her intensely creepy stare softened and her shrill voice dropped to something still high-pitched, but almost normal, "Oh, Daren? Yes, yes, he comes in here at around this time every day. Such a sweet young man. He should be planning for the end times in Conference Room 1. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to finish stocking these new arrivals."

That... was strangely articulate of her. What the heck? "Okay, thanks so much..." I said to her as she started walking over to the bookshelves. I spent a few seconds marveling at Mrs. Greveniek's unexpected (relatively) normal behavior. Then she spotted a black electric tablet on one of the reading desks.

"WhO tHe FuCk LeFt ThEiR pIeCe oF sHiT e-BoOk rEaDrR In mY lIbRaRy?!" ...aaaaand guess that spell of normalcy was over. Alright, back to what I came here for.

I headed over to the Conference Room 1 door nearby the reading tables. No windows meant that the interior was completely out of sight, so I didn't even think to look inside of these. It was strange that he'd be in a conference room though... why not just work at a computer station like he always did?

I opened the door to the cozy interior, and lo and behold, there was my big muscular Rottweiler, working on some complicated looking physics problems at the large twelve seat conference table. He had his cheap-looking headphones in, listening from his outdated mobile mp3 player.

His eyes peeled away from his homework and widened as if his grandma has just caught him in the middle of jerking off. He yanked his earphones off. "Oh, Rob, yo... What you doin' here?" he said unevenly, clearly taken unawares.

I walked over to his side, giving him a dubious stare. "I could ask you the same question. Why are you in here, 'Preparing for the end times'?"

Daren looked at me shyly, his open mouth expression somewhere between a frown and a smile. "Ah... she mention that? Honestly, going along with Mrs. Grevenieks' delusions is the best way to get a room for yo'self."

Well that explained the mystery of how he got a whole conference room for himself. "Gotcha... but more importantly, I thought you said you had A-lunch?"

Daren paused for just a brief moment. "What? I ain't ever say that..."

"Yeah, you did! I have proof too!" I said, digging out my phone from my pocket. I opened up a certain website and pulled up a certain passage from a certain chapter from a certain story, and pawed it over to Daren.

"Sofurry.com, Clueless chapter 5 'A Nice Guy'..." Daren read out loud suspiciously. He then started reading the passage,

"But what about you though, what classes you takin'?"

_"Oh, I'm taking AP literature, regular Physics, Weight Training, AP Psychology, regular World History, precalc and uh... I have B lunch! What lunch do you have?" _

"Uh... A-lunch..." Daren said after a strangely long pause." Daren tensed up upon reading the passage. "Ah, dammit!" he finally exclaimed.

Haha, cornered like a rat (is that expression racist?)! Good thing I conveniently knew about this website with a story that chronicled my life! Yup, no further explanation needed for that paradox.

Now was the time to turn up the heat. "You gonna fess up why you lied to me?"

Daren flinched. "It ain't anything big, really, just that lunch here be too damn expensive, so I ain't ever go to the cafeteria. I'd rather get some homework done someplace quiet anyhow." I raised an eyebrow at him, to which he let out a frustrated huff. "It embarrasin', aight? I just hate bein' reminded 'bout that every single day, and didn't wanchu to know 'bout it..."

"Okay, so then what's the deal with the conference room?"

"Well... It's completely outta sight. If you ever happened to walk in the library durin' B-lunch, I didn't wanchu to see me an' realize I was lying to you..." He muttered.

There was a good deal of hard truth in Daren's words, but his explanation only seemed to scratch the surface. Money is relevant, sure, but as a kid who once went from being a nobody to a popular jock, I knew very well that there was a lot more to lunchroom politics than just the prices of the food. I had a hunch that this really about something deeper than that, "But don't you get hungry? Isn't there anything cheap you can just bring yourself to eat? Heck, my friend Jayce does that every day. You realize that you're missing out on a lot of chances to socialize with others, right?"

"..."

Clearly there was something else going on here.

Daren looked at me through the side of his eyes, some uncomfortable words surfacing from a place deep down in his gut. He let out a deep, labored sigh, "...I ain't got no friends to sit with for lunch..."

Oh...

_ _

His defeated comment tugged at one of my empathetic heartstrings, causing me to immediately regret my pushiness. Here I was coming at him like the fucking Spanish inquisition about something minor as where he was for lunch period, when he was just finding his own way to deal with not having any friends. I've been there too... being shy and having no friends to be around was pretty much the story of my early childhood. I was lucky though: that all changed during middle school when I joined the football team and became friends with Scott.

Daren normally came across as tough and menacing, but right now his humiliated expression made him look more like a scared pup than anything. I knew I had to do something for him. "Well... what about me? You could sit with me and my friends," I offered as I placed a paw on the big Rottie's shoulder, trying comfort him. "They sort of want to meet you, actually."

His eyes widened in a mix of uncertainty and surprise. "Meet me? Why? What, you come out to them and tell 'em we fucked or somethin'?"

I felt my facial muscles tighten up, and an embarrassed heat developing in the tips of my ears, "N-NO! I mean... not yet, but I'm working on it. For now I told them that we've been hanging out is all... I figured introducing you would be the next step to admitting that I'm gay, or something..."

"Ah..." was all he said back. He seemed a little disappointed. I let out a few awkward chuckles.

"...So how about it? Even if you can't afford a lunch you could still sit with us. C'mon, it'd be fun!"

Daren crossed his arms and stared on his physics homework. He then let out a low rumbling groan, clearly uncomfortable with the idea.

I gave a slight frown, "What? Do... do you not want to meet them? They're good people." Even if they drive me fucking insane half the time. "I'm sure you'll get along with them!"

Daren shook his head and starting scratching his left cheek. "It ain't that, I just ain't wanna go 'Cause... 'Cause... 'Cause I'm... I'm kinda... there's sorta this... I can be sorta... it's just 'cause... well, it's like..."

This pattern continued for a while. I probably would have rolled my eyes if I weren't trying to be supportive. Halfway in I even checked my phone to see what time it was.

"I can be... How should I say it...? It's just... It's like... I'm, y'know... it's sorta... I-I'm sorta... it's... 'Cause I'm..."

'Cause you're what? Too busy? Constipated? Purple?! Spit it out!!

_ _

After tugging down on both of his floppy ears he finally managed to say it with closed eyes, cringing, "'Cause I'm shy..."

(´???`)

My heart practically exploded from a lethal injection of gay cuteness. I was reliving the most embarrassingly adorable moments of all my gay-drama and comics at once. Hearing this massive Rottie say that was so fucking cute I wanted to hug him and poke him in his cheeks.

_ _

"You're shy?!" I exclaimed, still not entirely convinced what I heard was real.

He gritted his teeth at me before he retorted, "Y-Yeah, so? What, you think I be spendin' all this time alone 'cause I wanna look like a sexy loner?"

Kind of, actually.

"But you were so fucking smooth on our first date!" I insisted.

He let out a frustrated 'hrmmm' and shook his head. "Talkin' one on one ain't the same; it's large groups I ain't work well in! It take time gettin' used to people, and gettin' through the mutherfuckin' forced introductions, I can't stand that shit..."

Part of me wanted to pull 'a Scott' and hug Daren and grin at him and be all like, 'aww it's so cute that you're shy!' but I had no doubt in my mind that that would piss him off something fierce. "But how are you going to make friends if you don't even put yourself out there?"

_ _

"It ain't that simple! I still new at this school! Most kids my grade already had three years to be makin' friends here. It just gon' be a lot of me tryin' and failin', and remind me that I ain't fit in here... What's the point in makin' friends if I just gonna leave for college in seven months anyway?"

...There it was again. His defeatist attitude that he showed me after telling me about his troubled love life. It's so easy to get wrapped up in Daren's strong, sexy appearance that you forget that he doesn't have everything figured out himself yet, either. "...Well you're glad you became friends with me, right?" I said after a brief pause, giving my best attempt at a warm smile.

He flinched, and then his features softened. He sighed, "Yeah..."

I was relieved that he agreed with me. Part of me was worried he'd dig in his heels and insist that he didn't really care about me. Trying to be encouraging, I increased the intensity of my smile, "You never know what might end up being worth it! Come on, I think you'll be really glad to make some new friends at school!"

Daren looked incredibly conflicted, as if several of his emotions were at war with each other. "I dunno Rob, I really ain't good with that shit..."

"Well there's only like, fifteen minutes left of lunch or so. It wouldn't be that long. You could just say hi." Still no definitive response. "C'mon, please? It won't just be for you either, I'm actually trying really hard to try to come out here, and I think if they meet you first it'll really help!" He continued to look at his homework uncertainly. His lips started peeling open slowly.

I leaned over close to Daren's muzzle and tried to smile as cutely as possible. "Please?"

He looked at me, cringed, and spoke out in a soft demure voice, "A'ight... maybe I can... m-meet them or somethin'..." he looked nervously at me, and then starting blushing irritably. "W-What?"

I couldn't blame him because I was looking at him with a slack jawed expression like a drooling fan boy. "Sorry, that was just really fucking cute."

His right eye twitched angrily, though his continued blushing made me think part of him enjoyed hearing it. "You ever say that again and I'll wreck yo' ass."

"As long as it's not with a grapefruit," I said with a soft casual laugh.

Daren blinked a few times, my seemingly random statement taking the edge off of his embarrassment. "...The fuck does that mean?"