Love of mine
This isn't the first story I've written, but it's the first I've submitted. Please excuse any minor spelling or grammatical errors, and I would really enjoy some comments.
Interesting note, most of the ending was inspired by Death Cab for Cutie's latest album.
Edit: Just as an experiment this was written in a female perspective, sorry if it creeps someone out.
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It was a normal day. I was in my first class talking about whatever had happened yesterday. Mrs. Black was going through her normal routine of putting up whatever we were going to do that day on the board. The bell rang and I stopped talking and turned to the front to get the usual ramble from the old cat. She turned around and began to talk. I tuned most of it out until she started to get my attention.
"Well class, today we have a new student. Now, I hope you can all give him a warm welcome."
We all turned to the door expecting to see someone walk in.
"Charles? Could you please stand up?"
There was a squeak from a chair being pushed back. The whole class turned around to look. No one had seen him when they came in. a few of the girls gasped. He wasn't that short but not really tall, had longer greasy looking hair, and seemed shy or nervous. He wore a pair of beat up jeans, a pair of thick framed glasses, and a tee shirt of some band I had never heard of, in general he looked kinda weird, but the real kicker was that he was human.
He just stood there looking at the desk in front of him as the class slowly broke its silence and began to whisper amongst each other. Humans were a rarity, and they all tended to live in the same places. Congress had started to break down the separation laws that prevented furs and humans to mix in society.
Mrs. Black just stood there with a dumb smile. Acting like it was no big deal, which it was, half of the cubs in this class had never seen an actual human, and a few of them looked scared.
"Charles?" she said again, he was just staring at the desk, as if to get away from the reality he was there. "Would you like to say something for the class?"
He mumbled a soft "...no..." and tried to sit down, but was stopped by the teacher who never let a new student get away without an introduction.
"Oh come now, you must want to say something... where your from, what you like, what you hope to do here?" The class had become silent as Charles just stood there, finally taking in a deep breath.
"My name is Charles Erikson, and my family moved here from Midland Michigan when my dad is a lawyer and was transferred because of the new integration laws." He then quickly sat down before Mrs. Black could object. That was the first time I saw Charles, I knew it wasn't going to be my last.
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Charles was also in my history, programming, and my gym class. Personally I didn't see the big deal everyone made him to be, it was really hard to find out anything about him. He only spoke to teachers and only when they directly asked him a question. I can't say I didn't see how people treated him. The jocks were always ganging up on him, surrounding him, all the cliché things would happen. First the name calling, there's too many names to remember; shedder, half-ape, patches, the list goes on (I never said they were clever). Every encounter would end with the group kicking the crap out of him, and he just took it, didn't even try to fight back. After they where done he'd just lie there for a while, no one would help him. For a while I never really cared anything about him, but that changed really fast.
I'm not big into computers, the only reason I'm even in a programming class is because my dad is a programmer and thinks I should be too. I understand most of the stuff but in the end I can barely put together a sorting program. The only way to get by is help from Stacy; the only friend I have in the class. She explains everything to me so I can understand it, but she's the only reason I can finish assignments. Mr. Fox, our teacher, used to let us choose our seats but when Charles came, he had to make a "random" seating chart so anyone would sit next to him. It changes every week, and the week he sat next to me, Stacy got the bird flu that was going around (being a parakeet she was out for nearly a month.) Fox had put a dropped a huge project on us the day after Stacy got sick and I knew I was screwed. I couldn't understand anything about it, and there was no hope I could even get a passing grade.
I had put together what I could but it was obvious it wasn't working. It was due in two days and I couldn't do anything about it, at this point I collapsed on my keyboard and gave up. There I was lying on my keyboard and almost out of nowhere I hear "Your variables are being deleted by you sub-routine."
I look over to see Charles pointing at a line of code. He had completed his program a week earlier, before anyone else in the class, perfectly I might add. He was supposed to help others with their programs but no one would let him give advice so he would just be on the web or chatting with his friends back east.
"What?" I looked up.
"Your sub-routine, its deleting the inputted variables." He spoke in a soft voice. "If you move the deletion part of it outside the loop it should clear it up." I don't know why he chose to speak to me. Turns out that the code was the problem and I was able to get through the program with some more help from him. I think it was then that I started to want to get to know him.
I've never been what you would call extremely popular, but I guess I'm good around others. Before Charles had come I had broken up with Chris Phillips, it wasn't the best of relationships at all. I was nothing but a trophy girl to him, and he just dated me to piss off his parents who were all against "a respectable young zebra like himself, mixing with wolfs..." I finally had enough and broke up, but it was really messy. He never seemed to let it go. He was a jock and more then often was one of the ass holes beating up Charles after school. I don't know when I really started liking him. Probably after the mix of sympathy and gratefulness I had for him, he seemed more and more likeable. After a while I had to admit to myself I had a bit of crush on him.
I'm not perfect; I was kinda scared what everyone would think if I were to start being with Charles more. Humans were so different, its not like furs mixing where there are a lot of common features that can tie different species apart. Humans are really different, and looking back that's one of the reasons I liked him.
The seating chart in our programming class became less random once Mr. Fox saw that someone enjoyed being next to Charles, and I frequently was next to him. When Stacy got back things between us changed a lot. She hails from a really uptight family that's really against human integration. We had a few arguments that were more like fights and we slowly drifted apart. Charles felt really bad, he thought it was his fault, but I just told him it was Stacy who should feel bad. Things kinda got worse after that, people talk, and word spread really fast that I was spending a lot of time with him. At the time Charles and I weren't anything more then friends, but as time went on we became closer, did more things together, and slowly fell in love.
I'm in the school band, which means that I have to be in the marching band and the pep band for almost every single school funded game. Charles came to every game I was in, no matter the weather, what he had to do, or what sport the game was. He told me that he really hated organized sports and the only reason he shelled out 3 bucks for every one was so he could see me playing in the band.
I remember that Friday far too well, it's likely it will stay with me till I die, and I never want to forget. Our varsity basketball team had made the playoffs and the pep band followed them around to every game. Charles had come and sat near me on the bleachers so we could talk. After the game went into triple overtime we decided to sneak off, god I was so in love with him. We found a room that we knew wasn't going to have anyone walking in on us. It was so romantic, the thought of being caught, the crowd of people in the gym. We started making out to a rendition of "Smoke on the water" courtesy of the band still in the gym; it was a bit awkward at first, what with my muzzle and all. One thing led to another and we started going all the way, he had protection and we spent a glorious half hour in passion for each other. We were in love, but I'll never know how far it would have gone. When we were finished, we walked back to the game holding paws, getting quite a few looks all the way.
Our team lost and everyone else was pretty angry, we couldn't care less. As we walked with him to his car I heard a familiar voice behind me, it was Chris. He had to be at least ten feet away from us but you could smell the cheap whiskey on him. Around him was the rest of his jock gang equally drunk. He babbled on about how I was a slut for being with Charles. He waved a switchblade around in a drunken fashion, threatening us. Charles talked to him, but he may as well been talking to brick wall. After a while we knew there was no way getting out of it with talk, so Charles and I made a dash for his car, hoping to get in before Chris could catch up, we were wrong. I was able to out run him, but Charles never stood a chance. Chris jumped him, and rolled around the pavement as they fought each other. I screamed louder then I ever have, trying to get people to help. I could only watch as Chris eventually over powered him and stabbed him in the neck. I screamed again, tears running down my face I as I rushed to him, gasping for breath as blood bubbled up. Someone had seen the fight and called the cops, they got to us as Charles was stabbed and called an ambulance. I was with him all the way to the hospital, just holding him crying. When we got to the E.R. a nurse wouldn't let me go with him into surgery. I just sat in the waiting room and cried for what seemed like hours. The television just entertained itself as a stared at my shoes, hoping some how he would pull through.
The nurse came in. I help my breath, bracing for the worst possible news. She told me Charles was stable and there was a good chance he would make it. I begged and pleaded with her to let me see him but she refused, then an alarm went off, his blood pressure had dropped even more. After a few hours the nurse came back to me, this time sadness was the only thing I saw, the hospital didn't have blood compatible with humans and Charles was slowly dying from internal bleeding. There was nothing that could be done; she let me see him that one last time.
I walked into the room and immediately felt tears rise again, there he was, laying on the bed, gauze at least six inches thick on his neck all stained red. His skin was so pale. I got close and his eyes fluttered open, he smiled at me and in a forced and whispery voice told me how much he loved me. At this point I just couldn't hold back anymore, I burst out crying. I held him, and he held me as best he could, trying to comfort me, saying death was a part of life just as beautiful as birth. I didn't believe him, but just held him, trying to keep him warm, he was so cold. A few hours later, he coughed, blood trickled out of his mouth, and he looked at me with those big eyes of his. His skin was whiter then the sheets on the bed, he tried to speak. He made the motions, but didn't have the energy. I kissed him, over and over again, and he tried so hard to do the same. I remember his eyes closed, his monitor fell flat, and there I was. Sitting alone with the only person I had ever loved, now cold and dead, and I was cold and alone.