The Room Mate
Well, here is my third story in Yiffstar. I wrote this one a while ago, but I think it's my ebst ever. Enjoy!!
The roommate
By Neptune Wolf
The interrogation room . . .
"Tell us what happened. . ."
I remember it like it was yesterday. I just graduated from high school but didn't get accepted into any college. But, two months earlier I got a job at this new factory making 14 bucks an hour. Not bad for a 18 year old. I saved every penny. I wanted one thing and one thing only: to get away from my parents. You see, every since I was a pup, I couldn't stand my parents. My father was a grey wolf. In his good old days he took nothing from no one, that is until he met my mother, a Siberian Husky. She literally beat the dominance out of my father. After a while they had me, Valdez pearl. After a while they had my brother and sister Ichiago and Bari. Man, My mother had an iron grip over all of us. I was more than happy to be the first one to leave that house and break free. I found this house that was looking for a roommate so I checked it out. It was a steal at only 200 a month! At the time, I didn't know the guy who was to be my roommate, but me being a stupid teenager I only saw the 200 a month for this excellent house. I had no Idea what I was getting into.
The house was great, more than I had expected. I packed my bags, said my goodbyes, and left home for good. My new roommate had already given me the key to the house. When I first stepped into the house, I noticed my roommate sitting on the couch. He was a tall, thin, red fox. He grinned when he saw me and stood up.
"Oh, you must me Valdez right?" he said with his hand out for me to shake it. I put my bags on the floor in front of me. He was looking at my hair. I had dyed it blue that morning. I also had hazel colored contacts that matched my brown jeans. My hair matched my blue button up shirt. I shook his hand and he continued to speak, " I'm Boris, Boris Love." I politely spoke back to him, " It's nice to meet you. I'm Valdez pearl." My mother taught me a lot of things and one of them was manners. I got a good look at the fox in front of me. He has kind of on the thin side, but it was hard to tell under all of that fluffy, pure white chest fur that poked though his red V-neck shirt. He had on some really tight blue jeans. His big bushy tail was all red except for the white tip that matched his chest. I knew he was gay but I didn't care, this was a great deal! "let me show you around." Boris said as he picked up my luggage with a grin on his face. "I'll show you your room first." He said.
I followed him up the stairs to my new room. I shouldn't have trusted him. My parents always told me never to trust a smiling fox. They always had an angle against you. But at the time, a fox had never tricked me before, so I just pushed that thought to the back of my mind. My parents couldn't always be right. Right? He took me to my room. It was really big and open. There was already a bed, a dresser, and some other furniture there. He put my two suitcases on the bed. I had a look around. The room has spacious; the closet was a nice size, but the main thing I noticed was the window. There was some mini blinds covering them so I opened them up and looked outside. The view was beautiful! The house was near a lot of trees and there was a fountain in the back yard. "You like, no?" Boris said in a fake Russian accent. I knew he wasn't a Russian fox so I said, "Yeas it tis." In a fake Russian accent too. We both laughed. We walked out of the room and into the hallway. He showed me the bathroom, the spare bedroom and an upstairs music room. The house more than I could ever afford by myself. It was immaculate and lavish. Coming from a poor family like mine, just having a room to myself was a luxury. He was walking down the hall in front of me explaining some of the paintings on the wall when I noticed another room. The door was cracked and Boris had his back turned, so tried to take a peak inside. Boris stopped me before I got a good look, "Stop!" he said as he grabbed my shoulder, "There will be rules in this house and rule number one is 'Never go into my room' You got me? You understand?" He said in a hostile, dominating voice. I felt like a little kid. I just said, " Alright."
We went down stairs. The fox showed me the living room, dining room, kitchen, game room, downstairs bathroom, and the backyard. When we were outside, I got a good look at the house and noticed a small window near the ground. "There's a basement?" I asked. "Yeah, Its where I do my work. You are free to go down there, just not when I'm working. I use it as my . . . office."
That day I set up my room. I put up a few posters, put my clothes in the closest, and put up a few pictures of my family on the dresser. I felt sleepy so I decided to take a nap on my new full sized bed.
I was awaken by a knock on the door. "Yo, I don't mean to bother you and all, but I just wanted to let you know that I'm having a little get together with some of my friends. Your welcome to come down If you like, just let me warn you that my friends may be a little . . . colorful for your taste." Boris said. I only perked my ears up to listen. The music was up really loud. I could hear it from up here. I waited a little while before going downstairs. I had fallen asleep fully clothed on my bed so I didn't change. I walked downstairs into the living room. The first thing I noticed was that there were only foxes. There was about ten of them. Some were on the couch watching T.V. Some were playing poker with Boris at the table in the kitchen, others were just partying to the music and doing freaky things I never seen before. They were all gay. I walked through the crowd over to Boris, who had just stood up because he lost a hand at poker. "Damn!" He said as the other fox next to him picked up a stack of hundred dollar bills. He looked over at me. "I see you decided to come down, Valdez. I want you to meet some of my friends." I followed him over to the couch. Three furs were sitting down with drinks in there hands watching an off road race on T.V. A Mitsubishi was in the lead.
Boris said hi to all three and said, " Hey every this here is Valdez Pearl, my new room mate. Valdez, this here is Kenny, Mellow, and Davidoff, some of friends from work." I just shyly said hi to them. The guy in the middle then said, " Looks like old Boe got himself a new toy." Boris laughed. "Believe it or not the wolf here is straight." I felt really uncomfortable being the only wolf there, the only straight person there and the youngest. Back then, I was only 18 and Boris and his friends were like 25. I was about say goodbye and go to a club downtown but then this guy bumped into me. "Here, have a brew." The guys said. Boris turned around as he heard the voice. "Hey Valdez, this here is one of my best friends, Rafello Chance. His parents own Chance Inc downtown." I took the beer he offered me, and thought, " Might as well stay here, at least the beers free." A guy came up behind Rafello and put his arms around him and kissed him on the cheek. "This here is my boyfriend Eli Colman. By the way I didn't get your name." I just said, "Oh, I'm Valdez Pearl, Boris's new roommate." "Oh, so you're the new one." Rafello said as he felt on my thigh. I stood back away from him. "No, he's not gay. He's just moving out of his parent's house." Boris's friends laughed. I blushed a little and walked away. I drank my beer and had another then had some vodka. I decided to party with them for a while. I was an open minded kind of guy. I drank, smoked, and partied to the music all night. It had been a while since the last time I went to a party. I needed to relax like everyone else.
I woke up the next day. I still had my clothing on and no one was next to me, which was good. Then I looked outside. It was Sunday night. I got up and took a few aspirin and headed downstairs. Boris was sitting at the kitchen table eating a bowl of something. He had the newspaper next to him."Hey Boris." I said
"Oh hey! I see you finally got up. By the way you don't have to call me 'Boris'. Everyone calls me 'Boe'. Here, have a seat." he said as he pulled me out a chair, "I'll fix you a plate." He went over to the pot and got me a bowl of what he was eating. I looked at it and took a sniff. It smelled pretty good.
"What is it?"
"Just some beef stew I cooked up earlier." Boe said
I laughed a little and said, "So your and average Wolfgang Puck, eh?" he laughed a little at my comment.
"No, no, I just take classes every once-and-a-while."
Boe sat down. I took my spoon and tasted it. It was good, better than I had ever had at any restaurant. I looked around the kitchen. It had bright white paint on the walls. He had a translucent, dark blue vase on the table with some tulips in it. I looked over at Boe. He had a cup of coffee in his hand. I couldn't help but ask,
"So, why the coffee?" he looked at me and took a sip of it.
"Oh, I work midnights. I have to be leaving soon." He said
"Where do you work at?" I asked, forgetting about rule number two.
". . . Don't ask about my work, O.K.. That was rule number 2." The fox said calmly, but clearly aggravated.
Boris was wearing a white turtle neck and black slacks. I still had on the same clothes as yesterday. After a short awkward silence he said,
"I hope my friends didn't keep you up last night. They love to party."
"No, it was alright. . . I think."
Boris looked up at the clock on the wall behind me that matched the blue vase on the table. He said,
"It's about time for me to get to work." He got up from the table with his bowl and cup in his hand.
"See you later." I said.
He put his bowl and cup in the sink and grabbed a pair of keys from a basket on a shelf. The fox walked out to the garage through the back door in the kitchen and opened the garage door. I saw the headlights come on then I saw his car pull out. Boris Love drove a SL 500 Benz, Black, fully loaded. I didn't have a car back then. I couldn't stop looking at it. I was mesmerized by it. I stayed up all night watching t.v. I was fully alert.
The next morning I had to go to work at the plant. Boe was already at home and in bed, so I left without saying anything. I rode the bus as I always did. It felt good to be away from my parent's house. The freedom was overwhelming! I didn't even have to put in on the bills! I was young back then and didn't take the time to realize that there was no such thing as a good deal, especially like the one I had. EVERYTHING had a price.
When I got to work that day, I told everyone about my new house and my gay roommate. I got a little quiet treatment, because everyone thought I was gay because I had a gay roommate.
"Hey, believe me, you would give your right arm to have the deal I got. I don't care how gay Boris is, $200 a month for that house is a deal any day." I told my friend Shelby at lunch. I was a bigger man than they were. I didn't care about the superficial properties of other furs. That night I worked late and got off at 9, a 12 hour shift with 2 lunch breaks. I needed a car and I was willing to work for it.
When I got home Boris was sitting on the couch in the livingroom watching T.V..I could smell something cooking in the kitchen.
"So your finally home Dez." Boris said. He sounded as if he was my wife.
"What's cooking?" I asked.
"Just a recipe I learned from my father for jambalaya. He was a chef you know. Taught me everything I know. . . How was your day?" Boris said sweetly.
I sat down next to him and sighed, " I have to work late all this week. I'm trying to buy a car."
Boris reached over to the glass table in front of him and picked up his key ring. He took off a pair.
"Here ya go. This is to my Monte Carlo. Think of it as my gift to you. OK? You shouldn't work yourself to death all the time. You'll grow up to be a mean old rich man." Boe said as he passed me the keys.
"No, I can't accept this. It's way too much."
"Come on you deserve it."
I felt weirs accepting this gift from another guy. . . but I did. I didn't know how to thank him so I just simply said, "Thanks!" . We sat up for a while and talked. Boris asked me a lot of questions about my boss, mr. Tuneious Wolfram. He was a Wolf like myself. Me and mr. Wolfram, along with only 7 others, were the only wolves at the plant. The rest were either vulpine, ursine, or feline. We talked about my job all night. The plant mainly made specialty machines for major business. I didn't ask too many questions about it. I just did my work and prayed for a promotion. I went up to my room took off my clothes and went right to sleep that night.
I woke up the next morning at 7:30. I had to be at work at nine. It felt good being able to sleep a little late, not worrying about the busses being late. I took a shower and got dressed then walked down the hall to Boris's room. I knocked on the door. He wasn't home yet, so I went downstairs and made me a bowl of cereal.
It was 8:30 when I heard Boris come through the door. I went into the livingroom to greet him. This is where things got weird. He was wearing a full-length leather jacket that covered his clothing. Only the collar of his shirt could be seen. I noticed a something red on it.
"He Boe." I said cheerfully.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." He said to ignore me and stumbled up the stairs. He seemed drunk or hurt. He slammed the door and turned on a recording of one of Chopin's works. He turned it up really loud. Me, being nosey, went up to his room and put my ear to the door. He was moving around a lot and I could tell he was on his cell phone.
"Now look here, we can catch this sick bastard. . . What? I know he made his move already. I was there you ass, the son of a bitch shot me and he killed Zell. . . yeah I got help, I'm ok, I just got to change my shirt. . . look I think my client has more info on our suspect. . . I'll need to meet you tonight at our usual place at the usual time. Don't be late man. I think I got this in the bag." Boris said. He slammed the phone down. I took off downstairs. I went to the garage and pulled my new Monte Carlo. The fox was doing some kind of gangsta shit, and I didn't want my noise in it.
I drove to work with a smile on my muzzle despite what I had heard. It felt good to have a car of my own. I got to the factory with 5 minutes to spare. I got home at 6pm. Boris was there. I knew he had to leave for 'work' soon. He was on the couch reading a book. I got a good look at it. It was one of my favorite books, "Call of the Wild" by Jack London, a human. My father used to read me that book to me when I was a child. It was about how an average dog had 'evolved' into a wolf status, which rarely happened. I wasn't much of an arrogant wolf, but I knew we were on a whole different level than dogs.
There was a cup of coffee on the table. Boris picked it up and had a sip.
"What's up Dez?" The fox said in a cool voice as if nothing happened that morning.
"The car drives great. Thank you, again.
"It's no problem. Just have some fun every once and a while. OK? Don't fucking kill yourself over a job.
I could tell that Boris grew up in a privileged home. He had more money than I knew of. The question is: Why would he need a roommate? He had lots of money and close friends that would love to live with him. I thought about that all week until Saturday. I got paid on Friday and put some money in the bank downtown. On Saturday, I just wanted to rest. I was 18 years old and worked like a sled dog. I slept until 12:30pm. I got up and got dressed. I fixed me something to eat and sat down on the couch and watched T.V. all day. That is, until Boris's friends came over for another party. Boris was your average party guy.
Every Saturday for the next month was the same way. Boris was a question, wrapped in an enigma, surrounded in a cloud of mystery. His personality constantly changed. One day he would be your best friend, the next he was as cold as ice while listening to classical music really loud. The day after that, he would be a fantastic cook and father-like on Friday's he would be a sex machine and on Saturday's he would be a party animal. But every day, he went into the basement to do something and ever day he would ask me something new about my boss, mr Wolfram.
I got tired of it. I had to get answers. I had to know what was in the basement. I had to know what was in his room. I had to know what we did at night. So last Tuesday, I took the day off from work, but I left as though I was. I parked the Monte Carlo around the corner and walked back to the house. Boris was there. He went into the basement and closed the door. I went over to the back of the house and peaked into the basement window. The fox was sitting at a plain table looking through a file cabinet. He pulled out a beige folder. It had my boss's picture on the front. Boris glanced up at the window. I ducked out of dodge. I stayed away from the house until 6:15. I drove into the garage and went into the back door in the kitchen.
"I'm home." I yelled.
Boris was sitting at the table reading a paper. The front page had a picture of the bank downtown. It was a pile of rubble.
"16 million gone . . ." Boe said in an angry voice, "20 dead and 30 injured." he continued. "When did this happen?"
"This morning at around 11am. Look, I have to go to work early today. OK. It's really important."
I nodded, "OK."
The thin fox got up and got into his Benz and drove off. This was my chance. I went to the basement and had a look around. It was hard to see because there was no light. It was my first time down there and I couldn't find the light. I just felt around. It was useless so I went back up stairs. I went to his room next. It was very clean and organized. It was similar to mine, no bigger no smaller. It was really blank though. No pictures on the wall, no posters. The bed was white, the walls, the curtains, everything except for the dresser, which was of a dark hardwood. I looked in his closet and found a bloody shirt with a hole near the collar where he got shot. On the floor was a wooden box. I took it out and put it on the bed. I pried the lock open and looked inside. There was two 9mm, a sawed off shotgun, a rifle and a lot of ammo. I was really scared. I took one of the 9mm's and two clips. I took it to my room and put it under my pillow. I went back to his room and tried to look for one of his friend's phone number's. I couldn't find anything, no cell phone, no phone book, not even a picture of his mother. I put the box back to here it was and turned the light and left out.
I went to sleep and woke up the next morning at my usual time. I got dressed and went down stairs. The fox was there at the kitchen table putting fresh tulips in the vase.
"Hi." he said.
". . . uh, hey." was all I could say.
"There's something I have to say. I think you shouldn't go to work today."
I laughed a little, "Why?"
"I just have a bad feeling and I don't want you to get hurt. OK. Now sit down and have something to eat."
I could tell something bad was about to happen. I put the gun in my pocket before I came downstairs. There was something wrong, I could smell it. . . literally! It smelled like motor oil right hear in the kitchen and he tried to cover it up with the smell of breakfast. Boris was turned around standing over a pan on the stove when I got up out of my chair and put the gun to the back of his head.
"I want answers!" I yelled.
"What are you talking about?"
"What do you want with my boss."
"You're boss? What are you talking about?"
"Don't play with me. I saw the files downstairs in the basement. I saw the guns in your closet. Are you planning to kill him? WHY?" I shouted.
"Now look here. You don't want to do this."
"I want answers! Tell me what you do for a living."
"I can't tell you."
"What the hell do you mean I can't tell you?"
Boris then grabbed the hot pan and hit me with it. I stood back not expecting that. The fox then pulled out a gun from out of nowhere and pointed it at me. There we were. Face to face each with a gun in our hand.
"Tell me what you do." I said.
"PUT THE GUN DOWN!" he yelled.
"Will you tell me what I want?" I asked.
"Put the gun down." Boris said again in a less harsh tone. I did not do what he said so he aimed the gun slightly lower and shot towards my foot but missed. I thought he was just a bad shot. I didn't know that it was a warning shot. This is when I instinctively pulled the trigger. It was self defense! But I shot him in the head. I stood there with my mouth open, not realizing what I had done. I had murdered Boris Love. I didn't know what to do so I wiped the gun clean of my fingerprints and threw it next to the headless corpse. I ran out and to the garage and got in my Monte Carlo and drove to work. My clothes were clean.
When I got to work, no one asked me anything. I worked until I felt a sort of calm in the air around me. Something told me to get out of there and go where no one could find me, but today was payday. I wanted to get my check before I left. Just then at 4pm, about ten black police cars pulled up. The rushed in and told everyone to get down on the ground. I did as I was told. The place was swarming with armed men and women. The burst through my bosses office door and dragged him out.
"You have the right to remain silent. . ." one of the police officers said to mr. Wolfram as another cuffed him.
A German Shepard approached me in his swat uniform.
"Hey good to see you Mr. Pearl. I hope you didn't mind us pumping you for evidence about your boss do you?" I just looked at him with a dumb look on my muzzle.
"What?"
"Boris Love. He was the undercover agent. He looked you up as an employee for mr. Wolfram. We saw that you were looking for a place to stay so we gave you an offer you couldn't refuse. 200 bucks a month I think and a new car I do believe. Mr. Love was an excellent actor. We had to make it so that he was close to you, but you were not close to him. So we had him play as a gay guy with varying attitudes. The good thing is since we got enough evidence to catch him, you get to keep the car and the house to yourself. Boris has a family he hasn't seen in a while you know. But for some reason you still showed up here. I'm sure he warned you to stay home"
"Uh yeah about that. . ."
"Here, let me get you out of here."
* * *
"And that's how I ended up here officer."
"So you mean to tell me that you killed a FBI agent?"
"But see, you don't understand, I thought he was trying to kill my boss."
"Its still murder. You should have never taken that gun from his room in the first place. It's your fault, mr. Pearl." The German Shepard FBI agent said. He stood up and walked towards me with some papers in his hand. The stood right above me. I was handcuffed to the chair. He threw the papers at me. They were pictures of Boris without his head. "Explain this. I thought you said it was self-defense, mr. Pearl."
I gasped. I never knew how it felt to kill a hard-working man. To see his brain and skull scattered across the kitchen really woke me up. I was going to jail.
The day of the trial. . .
"GUILTY! For the murder of the prominent FBI agent Boris Love, loving husband and father for two. I sentence you to death mr. Pearl. . ."
I heard my mother cry out.
They sat me down in the chair. My hands and feet were tied down to the chair. The sponge was moistened and put upon my head along with a metal cap.
"Do you have any final words?"
The only think I could think of to say was, "What did Mr. Wolfram get sent to prison for?"
The audience gasped, "He doesn't know?"
"Mr. Tuneous Wolfram the 3rd was convicted of treason, Mr. Pearl. The parts you guys were making at his factory were sent to Saudi Arabia to a still unknown terrorist. No one knew about it, not even his workers. He recently hired 5 guys to rob the bank downtown. I guess he was running low on cash. He recently broke out of prison, killing 10 police officers and 5 pedestrians. But he was caught, by a shotgun shell that is."
I didn't know what to think. I then got a blindfold over my eyes. I managed to yell, "Mom, dad I love you!" Then it was over . . .
THE END