What Tigers Dream Of - Chap. 8
#8 of What Tigers Dream Of
Here's chapter 8 for you guys. I'm not sure how I feel about it, but let me know what you guys think
The light finally turned green, but Slater didn't budge. Instead, he turned off the car, turned on the hazard lights and engaged the parking brake. He was crushed. Sure, they had only been dating for a day, but the saying "let's just be friends" means "I don't want anything to do with you anymore" as far as Slater was concerned. He sat in the car with his head on the steering wheel for a few minutes until he finally made the decision to keep going towards TJ's house. He started the engine and it roared to life with a hint of viciousness, reflecting Slater's mood.
TJ laid back on his futon and prepared to take an afternoon nap as he processed everything that his dad had told him. 'No way that's true...' he thought. He listened to his dad's story about his gay best friend tiger named Zack, but TJ just couldn't see it as being real. He shook his head as if to rid his mind from the thought of the events and he began to drift off to sleep
*TJ's dream*
TJ walked out of the bathroom of the expensive hotel and into the main room to get into the bed with the tiger of his dreams.
"Took you long enough." Slater said with a smile. He grabbed TJ's hand and pulled him into the bed next to himself.
TJ leaned his muzzle over to give Slater a kiss. "I like to keep you waiting." He said with a wink. "I think the wait is worth it."
TJ removed his shirt and pants and climbed under the covers with his beloved feline. He felt guilty about leaving home with all of Theo's money in his pockets but he didn't really care as long as he had Slater by his side. Slater rolled over to spoon TJ, and nestled his head next to his.
"TJ." Slater said in a sing-song tone.
"What is it Tony?" TJ called Slater that pet name just to annoy him and remind him that he has the same stripe pattern as Tony the Tiger.
Slater nudged TJ with his leg and huffed. "Nevermind now." He said. He secretly smiled on the inside.
"No tell me Slater!" TJ begged. He figured it was something good that he was about to tell him, otherwise, Slater wouldn't have said his name that way.
"Nope. I'm not telling you anything now." Slater said with a smile on his face as his beautiful green eyes lit up when TJ turned around.
TJ pressed his muzzle against Slater's with great force and seemed to surprise himself with that action. Slowly, they both parted their muzzles and explored each other's mouth as Slater began to stroke TJ's back. They were both lost in the sensation of the passionate kiss and Slater began to grind against TJ.
Slater broke the kiss and huffed. "Are we finally going to have sex tonight?" He said with a slight bit of enthusiasm.
TJ just smiled and rubbed Slater's chest. "Well, there's no reason not to now." TJ said. "We don't have to worry about getting caught and we have all the time we need."
With that said, Slater gave TJ a quick kiss before he flipped him on his back and got on top of the wolf. "Awesome. Where do we start?" Slater asked. TJ looked Slater in the eyes and moved his hands down to the waistband of the tiger's underwear. "Lose 'em" he said with a sly grin.
"Ok I'll ditch the boxers, but you have to do it too" Slater replied. Both he and TJ began sliding their boxers off and when they were done, Slater resumed his place on top of TJ. "We really shouldn't be seeing each other like this you know." Slater said with a smile and a faux English accent which made TJ giggle.
"You're such a loser!" TJ said in the middle of his laughter. He was happy that he had run away from home and he and Slater were on their way to California to go live with Slater's older brother. It seemed like everything was going his way for once.
"I may be a loser," Slater began with a smug grin, "But I'm your loser. And yours only." He planted a kiss on his boyfriend's cheek and looked him in the eyes. TJ simply laid back and let whatever was going to happen, happen. All of a sudden, time stopped, and everything seemed out of focus and shaky.
"TJ wake up! Wake up! WAKE UP!" TJ heard a voice yelling at him to wake up but he couldn't place who it belonged to. As he began to realize the dream was fading away, he let out a defeated sigh and tried to wake himself up.
*End of dream*
TJ squinted his eyes when he awoke because of the flashlight being held in front of his face. He was utterly confused about what was going on until his brother spoke.
"Damn, I thought you were never gonna wake up." Theo said with a hint of annoyance in his voice. "You have an angry visitor. I'll be watching from upstairs. Good luck." Theo walked away and then closed the door to his own room. TJ sat up and looked around his room to see that it had been cleaned up by someone. Everything was put up just the way it was supposed to be and that confused TJ even more. 'The only person who knows how my room is supposed to look is Theo, and he couldn't have done it...'
TJ put on a pair of shorts so that he could be halfway decent when he went downstairs to see this "angry visitor" Theo was talking about. Because TJ was still half asleep, he didn't look over the banister into the living room and was so shocked when he reached the bottom of the stairs, he jumped back a bit. Slater was laying across the loveseat in nothing but basketball shorts and an angry expression on his face. TJ made a slight movement to go back upstairs, but stopped when he saw Slater's ears perk up and acknowledge his presence.
Slater didn't greet TJ, he didn't make small talk, and he didn't even try to sound like he was okay. "What made you change your mind all of a sudden TJ?" he said, still laying down with his arms folded across his chest. "I thought we'd at least last a year. I know I shouldn't be feeling like this, but," Slater paused, took a deep breath, and continued. "I can't help but feel like I've known you forever even though we only met a few weeks ago. I don't know if you've noticed, but I don't have many friends because I distance myself from people so I won't get hurt. You were different. When I saw you, I felt like I needed to get to know you and be close to you, but now, I'm starting to regret it." Slater looked down at the floor as he realized he'd been raising his voice. "I thought you were special..." he trailed off and looked back up at TJ, waiting on him to speak.
TJ sighed and walked over to the side of the loveseat that Slater's feet were on, and sat down next to them. "Slater, earlier today, my dad told me about his best friend in high school named Zack who killed himself because my dad stopped talking to him. I honestly don't believe the story, but I understand why he told me it." TJ looked into Slater's eyes and put his paw on the tiger's muscular calf. "He told me because he didn't want me to risk having my heart broken at such a young age and I agree with him, I don't want my heart broken either but-"How would I break YOUR heart TJ? I let my own defenses down for you..." Slater interrupted. TJ rolled his eyes and continued what he was trying to say. "Look, why is it important that we date? Why can't we just be good friends?"
Slater sat for a moment, thinking, but couldn't come up with an answer. "I... I don't know, dude..." TJ smiled. "Exactly. Nothing would change. It's not like we've had sex or anything." At that, both of them blushed and looked away from each other. "Yeah... right..." Slater said timidly.
TJ shook his head as if to get rid of the thoughts in his mind and stood up. "So, friends?" he said gingerly to the tiger as he held out his paw for a hand shake. Slater sighed, sat up and obliged the hand shake even though he wanted to take TJ in his arms and kiss the wolf. "Friends." He responded in a business-like tone and headed towards the door. TJ opened it for him and smiled. "See you tomorrow big guy!" Slater quickly rolled his eyes and said "Yeah, I'm sure you will.", and continued to head to his car.
TJ watched as the tiger sped off down the street then, he closed the door. Theo was standing close behind him when he turned around and said, "So you really think dad's story was bull huh?"
TJ just shook his head and attempted to walk past his ever-annoying brother when he was grabbed by the nape of his neck and turned around. "Well, it's actually true." Theo began. "And to make matters worse, I've been to the graveyard with dad before. It's a real bummer. That guy's brother works with dad and still gives him shit about it." Theo put his brother down and continued to speak. "But if you don't want to believe the truth, go ahead. Doesn't matter to me."
TJ growled then exploded at his brother. "Theo, why do you have to be such a dick sometimes?" Theo looked at TJ disgustedly and retorted, "Why, if I may ask, do you always think I'm being a dick when I'm ACTUALLY trying to help you?" "Because you don't really mean it." TJ spat. His patience with his brother was growing very thin, very rapidly. Theo threw his hands up in an 'I give up' manner and side-stepped past his younger brother. "Look, you can believe what you want, but I wouldn't try to inform you of anything if I didn't want you know." He paused and turned back around to meet TJ's gaze. "I'm not THAT much of an asshole, you know." Theo continued his trot off to the kitchen and TJ headed back upstairs.
'What's wrong with you TJ?' the blue wolf contemplated. 'Am I really starting to not trust my brother?' TJ took a seat on the futon and looked at his now-clean room. He neglected to see the sticky note on his closet door in his half-awoken stupor earlier but noticed it now. It read: "Thank me later, bro." The note was obviously in Theo's handwriting and TJ just couldn't believe his older brother, who was seemingly bipolar, would do such a thing for him. "No way." TJ whispered. "I think he was telling the truth."
He ran downstairs to see Theo sitting on the couch, eating a rather large bowl of cereal, and laughing hysterically at old cartoons from the 60's. "Uh, Theo...." TJ began, feeling like he'd made a huge mistake before and was about to fix it. Theo immediately ceased his seemingly mindless cackling and turned to his brother with a stern look. "Yeah. What." Theo responded. TJ took a deep breath and continued with what he was trying to say. "I'm really sorry about not listening to you. I know you were telling the truth...." He trailed off and a grin appeared on Theo's face at the satisfaction of being right. "I guess I just didn't want to believe you..." TJ finished.
Theo put down his cereal and began slow clapping sarcastically with a perm grin on his face. "Bravo." He said. "You come up with that all by yourself?" TJ let out a deep sigh of anger. "This is exactly why I didn't want to apologize to you, Theo." He said dejectedly. Theo sensed his brother's annoyance and stood up. "I was just kidding. Jeez, man." He said as he walked over to his brother. TJ just stood there and looked at him. "I..... kinda...." TJ began, but he couldn't finish it. He felt too foolish to do so. "You kind of...?" Theo halfway asked. "Spit it out." TJ sighed and finally just said it. "You think you could take me to the graveyard?" Theo caught shivers in surprise and smiled at TJ. "You getting some balls finally? Why do you want to go?" he asked with authority. TJ looked down and his bare feet and replied "I just want to see for myself."
Theo was ecstatic that what he said had finally gotten through to his brother for once. "Great. We'll go tonight." TJ's eyes widened in shock and horror. "Tonight?" he gulped. "Tonight." Theo said with a smile. He returned to his cereal and vintage cartoons. "We're leaving as soon as dad's sleep."
TJ just stood still. He hated going to graveyards at night. But part of him was relieved that his brother didn't give him crap for it. "Well, I guess I could talk to Slater in the mean time..."