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2

Lack of Communication

Why put a label on it? My mom was right, I was way too young to think I could be in some sort of romantic relationship with anyone, let out someone of my same gender. And sometimes, during my time with Gerald, I didn't want to believe that I was falling for another boy. Denial was my only way to escape the truth I feared, and the one I enjoyed the most. We both kissed, yes, many times, but I'd keep telling myself that it meant nothing at all; just as my mother told me, I was exploring, experimenting, she always encouraged me to do just that; but she wasn't quite pleased to find out that my exploration had gone far enough to develop feelings for another boy, and so were not Gerald's parents. . .

I can say that I was happy to simply have his company, since he was one of the few ones who really understood me and held me up during a period of. . . 'Forced' adaptation. But I liked to consider him as my best friend, not quite my boyfriend; I refused to admit to myself that I had a boyfriend, even though I did use that word once in a while, but no matter what, the soft touch of his vulpine lips against mine would always shut me up, at least for a while.

*

The next morning, as I brushed my teeth, I could see the other fox in the mirror once again, looking straight into my eyes with a focused stare. He examined me very closely, almost glaring viciously as he frowned with a toothbrush in his mouth; judging my sloppy selection of clothes, an old aquamarine shirt and some tattered jeans. He put the toothbrush down on the sink, making the anger on his face more noticeable, only that it wasn't anger what emanated from his face, it was more like bitter disappointment. "How not to be disappointed?" I sighed to the fox in the mirror, trying to force a smile, "When you don't have these weapons to show off?" As I said that, I rolled up my sleeves almost entirely, and flexed both arms in front of him. Realizing I only looked ridiculous, I lowered my arms and my ears as disappointment grew on the other fox's face again. I frowned, and violently rolled down my sleeves as I stalked out of the bathroom, that's when the doorbell rang.

"I heard it!" I yelled to my mom before she had the chance to, and as always, I picked my school bag from the doorframe of my room, rushed back downstairs, picked my lunch bag and opened the door to see Alex standing in the porch as always; only that it wasn't Alex the one who stood before me, but his mother, Caitlin, giving me an usual warm smile as soon as I opened the door for her. Mom was the first one to say, "Good morning, Cait." Crossing her arms and smiling back at her.

"Hi, Alma, hi, Kryne." Said Caitlin, linking her paws behind her back as she looked at me, "Go on to the car, honey, I need to talk to your mother for a sec." Mom and I exchanged an inquiring look, each raising a brow. She smiled and kissed my cheek before saying, "Go, baby. Have a nice day."

"You too, mom." I smiled back at her, and made my way towards the car.

I mindlessly got in and said hi to Alex, which he didn't reply. His eyes were closed and also wore a pair of headphones connected to an iPod resting in between his crossed arms. It probably enabled him from hearing me, as I was more than sure he was awake; I gently poked his arm and said "Hi there," once again, only to get him to wave a paw carelessly at me. Well, fuck you, too.

I sat back to my spot, and glared at the shepherd with my arms crossed.

"Sorry about that, guys." Caitlin said when she got back to the car, then, with a frustrated sigh, she asked, "Did he even say hello, at least?" I just shook my head, getting a little worried about the sudden bad mood of my friend. The rest of the trip was no better.

*

School that day was less than spectacular, it felt just plain and grey and with no real excitement in the air, at least not for me and my friends. We gathered again in the cafeteria to have lunch, and just as the day before, I'd keep struggling to remember who in the face of Earth that cat in my dreams was. But this time I was thinking more about other things. . . About Alex, and mostly about my mother; the previous night we might have had been close to start a fight again, and I didn't want that at all. I could feel the tension building up in her voice as we touched upon the topic of. . . Romantic relationships at my young age. . . And I've always hated to see my mom being upset, it killed me that in that time, the reason for that tension was me. In previous times, Isabelle and I were the only ones who could bring up or calm down our mother in moments of distress, but I couldn't do anything this time.

"S'up, Kryne?" I heard Alex say lowly as he patted my shoulder from behind, before sitting by my side on the cold, metal bench. I kept my eyes lost in the void.

"Oh, look who's talking now!" I replied very self-righteously, not even turning to stare at him, "Where's Trevor?" I asked, arching a brow and slowly turning to him, and there's where I saw him biting his lower lip while his ears fell flat and his brown paws lying linked awkwardly and fidgeting over the table as he seemed to be breathing a little heavily. "Gosh, what's wrong?" I quickly straightened my back as well as my ears as I carefully put a paw over his shoulder.

He forced a smile and turned his sight to me, apparently now willing to talk, "Nothing," he shrugged it off, obviously struggling to hold back the forming tears in his ochre eyes, "Just Dad and his usual bullshit. . ." I wasn't the only one with family issues, it seems. I twitched my nose and let out a sigh, before asking, "What now?" It must've been really bad if it put tears in Alex's eyes; he had never been much of a sensitive guy, and it took a lot of effort to put tears in such a strong dog's eyes. Sadness didn't suit him at all. . .

"Alex, please, don't be upset." I heard Trevor say as he sat on the other side of the table. I switched my eyes to him, and asked again, "What's wrong?"

"Guys, really, just let me be." He waved a paw at us, looking away and reaching for a cereal bar from his pocket.

"I just don't know, Kryne." Trevor stated, shaking his head, "He won't tell."

"You've been like this all day! Please, tell us what's wrong." I said as I tried to form a sympathetic smile on my face. Alex then immediately turned to me with a dead look in his eyes that obliterated the smile on my face, and firmly said, "Seriously, not now." That response made me back away a little bit, and with my ears still down, I asked, "Was it really that bad?"

He dried off some tears from his eyes with his forearm as he stood up, "Yes." He stated flatly, "Now just leave me alone, both of you." After that, he left the cafeteria, stalking quickly along the tables until he walked out of the door, leaving Trevor and I very worried and confused about what might've happened to him, given the very sudden reaction.

"Darn it," Trevor gave an annoyed sigh, "Did he say anything to you?" He asked me with a very low and cautious tone.

"I. . ." I looked around to see that some other students were looking (Not very discretely) at us as they murmured to one another several things that I didn't bother to listen to. "He said it had to do with his dad." I whispered.

"His fa- what!?" He snapped as he became close to hit the table with his palm, but stopped in the last second; he also noticed the attention we drew. "Seriously?"

I nodded my head, and looked down to the table, thoughtfully, "That's all I got."

"What could his father have done to him?" Trevor asked to himself.

"I don't know. . . Maybe he grounded him?" I looked up to him, arching a brow in the process.

He considered it for a second, "Unlikely, he said that it was real bad, Kryne. You know that Alex never makes a big deal about such things as getting grounded."

"I know." I sighed, and put my right paw over my forehead, "And you noticed that his eyes were a little watery, didn't you?"

"I did. . . It must've been something really bad." The worry in his eyes grew as he placed his right paw on his chin, and I tried to think about what might have happened, and many different scenarios flooded my head, but all of them seemed very trivial, given the shepherd's latest behavior, but then the worse came to me with a gasp. "W-what if his dad . . . beat him up?" I bit my knuckle anxiously as the thought of Alex's dad beating on him went through my brain.

The Dane looked at me with a shock in his stare, "Kryne, don't say nonsense!" He ordered, "That's simply ridiculous! Mr. Farley is not like that."

"It was just a thought." I explained uneasily, since I- we knew that Ronald Farley could get to be a very. . . Stern man.

"A ridiculous thought, besides, he didn't look hurt. . . Not physically, for the least." He dropped his ears, actually considering it.

"Trevor, he knows how to hide pain really well, and maybe that's why he was crying, don't you think?" I insisted, wanting to rush out after the shepherd.

"I hate to say this, but you actually might be right." He whispered bitterly, looking away to the doors that Alex came out from.

"Should we go after him?" I asked with hope in my voice.

"Do you really need an answer?"

Ignoring all of the eyes surrounding us, Trevor and I stood up from the table, and went in search of Alex, and luckily enough, he didn't make it very far into the east wing; we found him sitting on the floor, with his back against the cold metal lockers as he held his Blackberry with his right paw, and a cereal bar in his muzzle.

His ears twitched in our direction as we approached him, "I think I told you two to leave me alone." He stated firmly as he tapped something in his phone while managing to keep the bar in his muzzle without dropping it. Heck, he didn't even turn to look at us.

"Alex, please, we just want to help." I said as we walked closer to him.

"There's nothing you can do about it. What's done is done." Alex kept his eyes locked on the screen but his paw stood still.

"Maybe, but we can help you getting through it." Trevor affirmed as we finally reached for him, and sat by his sides; Trevor on his left while I sat on his right.

Alex remained silent and unmoved to that, he was petrified in front of his phone. "But first, we must know what happened." I pressed, looking directly into his eye.

He finally lowered his phone, and lifted his head, but his response was pretty much what I expected, "You wouldn't understand." He said low as a whisper.

"Try us." I titled my head as I gave him a warm smile. He briefly turned to me, but then looked away, and with a long and heavy sigh, he finally said, "Listen, I just don't want to talk about it, okay? I'm sorry if I was rude at you back there, but. . . I'm just not in the mood."

I took my eyes away from Alex, and looked over to Trevor, he just shrugged; we didn't know precisely what to do, but Trevor broke the silence after a couple of seconds, "Don't worry, and just remember we're here for you." He carefully placed his right arm over the shepherd's shoulders, and I came up with something to see whether or not he was physically hurt; I leaned closer to him, and wrapped my arms around his body, making sure not to make much pressure in case he was indeed injured, but I got no negative reaction, just another heavy sigh, which encouraged me to squeeze a little more, and again, no negative reaction. "Always, Alex." I whispered confidently, now knowing, luckily, that my speculation was mistaken.

"Thank you, guys." Alex finally said, with what seemed to be the glimpse of a smile.

The three of us ended up eating lunch silently in the hallway, it was better just to make Alex some quiet company instead of pushing him into something he just wouldn't tell us, and after the bell rang, the two dogs returned together to their classroom, as I did to my own. The period after recess was Spanish, by far the easiest subject in eighth grade. (At least for me)

I sat down on my place in the bottom right corner of the classroom as I waited for the lesson to begin, which was a different environment to the one I was used to, as most of the time I sat near the teacher's desk. Anyway, the tables were arranged in pairs, and with good reason in that particular day. Crap, I almost forgot today's Valentine's Day. Yeah, even though the walls of the classroom (And presumably the whole school) were adorned with several paper-heart decorations of various sizes and shades of red; and most of them with some sort of 'motivational' or corny quote written on them. Also the fact that some girls had with them some kind of present that some boy had given to them, such as stuffed toys, flowers, cards, and even chocolates; that, too, reminded me of the chocolate that Trevor gave to me the previous day. I'd make sure to give it to Alex, dark chocolate was his favorite after all.

As I bent down and looked inside my bag for Trevor's chocolate, my seat partner arrived and sat left next to me. He was just Oliver, a panther that happened to be in the basketball team as well. We never talked too much to each other, only when we had to, which was in matches and some other group projects in the past. Good guy (And very fit, not even mentioning good looking), though he lacked of some exercise in one particular muscle. I looked up to him to see that he wore a white V-neck, a pair of gray sweatpants and nothing more; he usually dressed very casually, though most of his style came from his constant echoing of Sam. "Hey, Ollie." I lowly greeted him, lowering my sight again to my bag, also trying to ignore his rather sweaty and unpleasant musk.

"Hey, Rose." And there's another thing he copied from Sam. "What are you doing down there?"

Moving away a pair of notebooks, I finally caught a glimpse of the candy, and with a smile I left it where it was, and went back up. "I was just looking for a notebook."

"Cool." He said flatly, as his attention was far off in another place. Heck, knowing him, I could tell that he was thinking about a girl he had done. . . 'Things' with. And I had my way of finding out (The whole basketball team) that he was one of the few ones in the class who had done it. It seemed inappropriate to me, but his personal life was none of my business.

We remained silent for a couple of seconds, before he nudged me and said, "Hey, check this out."

"What is it?" I asked as I looked to where he was watching. "Oh, shit." I said almost immediately as I got to see Emily and Glenn sitting together at the opposite corner of the classroom. I couldn't see them very well, but I could hear that they shared a couple of delighted laughs. Enter the cheesy sound effect.

"Weren't you going after that girl over there?" He asked, crossing his arms and leaning back on the chair. I glared at Glenn for a moment, considering an appropriate insult to amuse us both, but instead, I did the same as Oliver, and with a shrug, I said, "Meh."

"Really? Huh, I could've sworn you both were on that road."

"Not really. I mean, she's cute and all, but she ain't my type, you know?"

"Nah? What's your type, then?" He turned to me with a grin.

"I don't really know, but for starts, if she's there with Glenn, then she's got a questionable taste in boys, don't you think?" I grinned back at him with some evident amusement.

That got me a snicker from his part, "True that, that mutt's a dick."

"I just hope he doesn't hurt her feelings." I flattened my ears slowly at the thought of Glenn breaking the poor creature's little heart.

"Or shall he face the Rosenthal Rage?" He said mockingly. The fuck's with this guy?

"No, I just care for her. . . She's my friend." I said lowly before he snapped his fingers, and with a big, toothy smile on his face, he said, "Now I get it! You got friend-zoned!" That made me flicker my ears.

"Yeah." I admitted, shamefully, "But I think it's for the best, maybe she wasn't the right one for me."

"That's good, accept your defeats, my friend." He patted my shoulder almost feeling sympathetic, before asking, "But hey, by any means you know what's wrong with Farley? I saw the whole shit back there in the cafeteria."

With a long, annoyed growl, I said, "Trevor and I tried to talk to him, but he just won't tell us." I was about to tell him that it had to do with his dad, but Alex didn't need any rumors floating around about him, so I stopped myself before letting anything slip out.

"Perhaps some girl shot him down." He suggested.

"That's _very_unlikely. He would never get upset about it." I said with a snort.

"Who knows? What if he's got a broken heart?" He kept pressing the thought.

A broken heart seemed likely on that situation, but it was more than just that. I so wanted to tell him he was wrong, and that he wouldn't understand, but I realized that I didn't understand either, but in any case, Alex told us one thing: it was his father.

"That's not the reason." I affirmed confidently as the teacher finally entered the classroom.

*

Four hours later, once classes were over, I had to go out to the cold outsides of the parking, and look for Alex to wait for his mother to pick us up, And after a couple of minutes, I could see Alex sitting on a metal bench near the street, and sitting right next to him was Sam. I could see the leopard's arm resting around Alex's shoulder as he spoke to him and Alex nodded slowly with his ears down. I didn't approach them, as it seemed that Sam got to finally make the stubborn shepherd speak, and I didn't want to break the moment for them, they seemed to be letting it flow very nice and peacefully. And after they were seemingly done, Sam patted Alex's shoulder twice before standing up and leaving for the bus. That was my cue to step in.

"Hi, Alex." I greeted tenderly as I sat right next to him.

"Hey, man." He replied, perking up his ears and curving his lips into a wiry, but mostly forced smile. His eyes also seemed a little swollen and red, he probably teared a little during his talk with Sam.

"How you doing? Better?" I asked, looking for the chocolate inside my bag on my lap.

"Uh, a little, I guess." He said lowly, and remained silent for a moment, before I said, "I saw you talking to Sam." Now that made his ears stand up. "You did?"

"Yep." I said, getting my paw out of the bag with the chocolate in it.

"Oh, um. . . And did you hear-"

"Nothing." I cut him off, "I heard nothing, it's okay."

He looked rather surprised at me for a few seconds before forcing himself to say, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you guys before."

I shrugged and moved closer to him, "I think you just needed some help, I get that. . . And if comes from Sam and not. . . Us. Then, whatever floats your boat, man, as long as you can vent it out."

He gulped as I leaned over to his tense body, but then relaxed with a long sigh, "Thank you." That's all he said, but I got greedy, and I wanted more.

"But Alex, Trevor and I are always there for you, maybe if you just told us, we would find a way to work it out. . . I mean, if it is about family, you know I-" Before I could even finish the sentence, he cut me off flatly, "Don't push it."

That made my ears fall once more, so I just placed the chocolate over his lap, and said softly, "This is for you."

The way home from school was more quiet and uncomfortable than what I would have expected; Caitlin and I only shared a "Hi" at the beginning of the trip, and a "Goodbye" at the end. I don't even think that Alex said anything at all during the whole trip; the atmosphere in the car was tenser, grayer and fuller of grudge than the morning trip, but at least Alex waved his paw as I got off the car, that comforted me just a little bit.

"Darn it." I said to myself with a sigh I was saving up in my throat, as I waved my paw to the leaving car. And after the car got out of sight by turning around the corner, I walked up to the wooden porch of my house, and rang the bell. Just a few moments later, the door was opened, and old Mrs. Jefferson greeted me with an "Oh, darling, why took you so long?"

"Hello, Mrs. Jefferson; I'm sorry, there was a lot of traffic on the way here." I said looking up to her brown, tired eyes. And well, even for her advanced age, she was still quite taller than me. Them tigers.

"That's all right, come on in and wash your paws, hon. Dinner is almost ready."

I did as she told me, and got to the warm kitchen right after, sniffing the faint smell of grilled chicken and potatoes. "That's smelling real good." I said, delightedly, but struggling to catch more of the scent.

"Grab a seat, it's almost done." She turned at me with a smile as she maneuvered with the chicken on the sizzling, frying pan. "So, tell me, how was your day?"

"Hmm, not that great to be honest. . ." I said with my ears low as I sat down in the kitchen table, "Alex is feeling pretty bad and acting strange for some reason, and he just won't tell us a thing."

"Oh, well. . . Maybe it was something too painful for him to tell, don't you think?" She replied while bringing with her a pair of dishes with grilled chicken and mashed potatoes on them.

"I know," I said with my ears down, "But wouldn't it be easier if he just told us so we can help him through?" I was about to tell her that he was having some trouble with his dad, but same as with Oliver, I didn't want much people speculating about it.

"Honey, everyone needs their own time to take in and think through whatever wrong that was done to them, only then they can reach out for the help they want and need." The smile on her face didn't disappear for anything, not even when the phone on the wall began to ring all out of the sudden. "I'll get it." I stood up abruptly and sprinted towards the phone. "Hello?" I said as soon as I picked up, trying to stop my tail from moving uneasily.

"Hi, baby," said Mom from the other side of the line, keeping her voice calm, and added "good thing you're back from school, I need to talk to you about something".

"What's going on?" I asked, fixing the phone on my ear as I saw Mrs. Jefferson staring at me with a worried look and flat ears.

"It's about Alex. . ." Oh my goodness, she knows something. "Did you notice him being a bit upset today?" Hah! Just a bit?

"Um, yeah, Trevor and I tried to talk to him, but he was just, uh, hermetic the whole day." I waited for her response for a couple of seconds, until I heard her sigh, and say, "Ronald, his dad, he. . . He destroyed Alex's guitar last night." I almost dropped the phone to that, I felt my eyes widen, my throat tighten and my ears flatten as my tail curled around my right leg.

"The Resonator?" I asked, only to make sure it was the one guitar I've had always heard him play in such a symbiotic way that I sometimes wondered if that instrument wasn't already a part of his body. "The one he got from his grandfather, yes." My mom assured, sounding a little frustrated. I laid my left paw over my forehead, suddenly feeling my chest overwhelmed with fire by the many things I wanted to lash out about Mr. Farley, but all I could get was a shaky and lame, "Why?"

"Caitlin told me a bit of it in the morning, she called me later a few hours ago, but anyway, so it seems that Alex has been failing some recent tests and assignments. . . Mostly the history and literature ones."

"What?!" I arched a brow and frowned at the nonsense my mother had just said, "Okay, let me repeat that, 'Alex failing a history test.' Mom, that sentence doesn't even sound right! It is impossible that he had done something like that, he has identical memory!"

"I know that perfectly, and so do Ronald and Caitlin." Mom stated, staying perfectly calm. "He's been doing this lately to upset his father, Caitlin tells me. With what purpose, that's beyond me, but right now, son, I just ask you to be patient and empathetic with him, and help him through this in any way you can. Even if he doesn't want to talk about it as you tell me, at least let him know he can count on you whenever he needs. Can you do that?"

I didn't even need to think that through, "Of course I can. I've already had." That got me a relieved sigh from my mom, which made me sigh as well and relax, too. "Okay, son," she said, "I'm glad you have. . . But now, would you mind passing me to Mrs. Jefferson? I need to talk to her."

Once Mrs. Jefferson finished talking to Mom, we finished our meals together, sharing about what we did the previous day that we didn't see each other. The talk was mostly done by her, about her meeting with her sister and how good she had been doing with her new job up in the north. I could notice a bit of jealousy in her way of speaking, but I was sure it was nothing but a bit of friendly rivalry between siblings, not much different than those little arguments I'd have with Isabelle when we were younger. I never really realized how much I'd miss those as soon as she went away for college.

Half an hour later, back in my room, after helping Mrs. Jefferson with the dishes and mostly finishing my math homework, I heard a beep coming from my phone, which laid beside my notebook on the desk I was working on. I flipped it open and saw a text from Trevor, which said, -I need to talk to you, call me!-

I arched my brow to that, and just dialed his number, and waited for him to pick up. I didn't have to wait for that long before he said a very agitated and deep "Hey, Kryne."

"Hi, Trevor, what's going on?" I leaned back on my chair, and waited for him to go on.

"Mother told me what went on with Alex." He said very anxiously.

I scratched the side of my muzzle, and gave an uneasy exhalation, "I know, Mom told me, too." He kept quiet for a couple of seconds, most likely trying to wrap his head around what happened. He just snapped out a frustrated "Can you believe that?!"

I dropped my right paw over my desk, "I can't. I- I simply can't. But is it true? Has Alex been failing tests lately?"

"His performance has been decreasing, yes, but I haven't seen him actually fail anything. . ."

"Hmm, I think the keyword right here is seen, Trevor." Both of us kept quiet for a while after that, hearing each other's breathing through the phone, analyzing the situation, and how well has Alex come to hide things from us. But to be fair to him, he wasn't the only one.

"I have to say, I'm really going to miss that Resonator." Trevor finally said with more calmness in his ever-deep voice.

"Same here," I exhaled again, "damn, he must be crushed." I said lowly as my eyes shut closed.

"I still can't believe Mr. Farley did that. . . Now I sort of get why he didn't tell us."

"Yeah, I mean- His dad's always been pretty strict, but this? This is pretty messed up."

Trevor exhaled from his own side, and with great frustration in his voice, he said, "It fucking is. And I will not stand this being done to him!"

"And what are you gonna do?" I asked, arching a brow.

"What 'are we' going to do, you mean. We will help him through this, we will be his support and make sure this doesn't get any worse. We may not see the full picture right now, but we shall help with what we have got at the time, hell, he might only need us as ornaments, sitting there and doing nothing, but if that is what is best for him, then we must do it."

I remained silent for a couple of seconds, sinking in Trevor's words; I just tilted my head, and smiled to myself, "Bet on it."

"Yeah, uh, also," He said uneasily, almost forcing his words out, "I think you should tell Gerald about this all."

The smile I had on my face immediately disappeared, almost turning into a flat line as I rolled back my eyes, and said displeased, "What does Gerald have to do with any of this?"

"Kryne, whatever he did to you. . . Was it really that bad?"

I didn't answer to that, I just kept my eyes locked ahead, out of the window, staring right to the trees in the backyard, and their few brown and orange leaves move and some fall with the winds of late winter. The wind and our breathing were the only things that could be heard, and just faintly, until he cleared his throat and spoke, "I get it, I get it, today is not Valentine's Day, but Keep a Secret Day. . . Listen, you know that he and Alex were pretty close, and just maybe, he might be able to bring him some moral support, too. I think he deserves to be aware." I stayed quiet again, and long enough that he cut me off before I had the chance to say anything. "I can tell him if you want me to."

I finally cleared my throat, and tapped my finger against the notebook beneath it, "No. . . It's fine. I'll do it, I think I'm bound to, right?"

"Whatever he did to you, I am sorry, but same as with our very stubborn shepherd, I cannot help you if I don't know what happened."

"Well, same as with our very stubborn shepherd said, don't push it."

"Do whatever you want, I will see you tomorrow at school."

"Goodbye, Trevor." That was all I could say before he cut the call, leaving a series of uncomfortable beeps in the middle of silence. I flipped the phone shut, and kept it in my paw for a moment as I glared at it, and muttered the word "Pendejo." Before tossing it over my bed, and landing over the pillows. Right after, I slapped both paws against the desk and set free a frustrated growl from the bottom of my throat. I tapped all my fingers repeatedly against the wood for a while, before forcing myself to stand up and leave for the computer in my mom's bedroom. It was completely engulfed by her musk, with a faint tingle of perfume, too. I reached over to her desk's chair, sat on it, and turned on the old system; I considered to turn it off again, while it was at it, but I had to stay firm. Just a conversation with my ex that is kilometers away. I kept that thought in my head while I logged in on Facebook and looked for his profile to open a chat. Why didn't I block him in time? I asked myself as I typed the word_, -Hey.-_ But just when I was about to delete it, my quick fingers tapped the enter key, and it was too late to back down, so I just leaned back on my mom's chair, and waited for the worse to come as my feet fidgeted under the table. Perhaps he won't read it now. I held on to that thought for a couple of minutes of staring straight to the screen, and seeing no change being made, made a wiry smile form on my lips, but that was short lived, as that faint smile faded as soon as new words appeared on the screen. -Well, if it isn't Kryne James Rosenthal! Now THAT is a surprise.-

I didn't want to believe how fast he had answered; reading those words sent shivers down my spine, as I imagined his witty and deceitful voice deep inside my overdramatic head, making my whole body feel cold and my fingers numb as they reached for the keyboard once again, and typed as fast as I could. -And Gerald Pratt strikes back, so it seems.-

-So, tell me, how have things been going on down there?-

I didn't want to make the conversation go longer than it needed to be, so I just went straight into the point. -I wanted to talk to you about Alex.-

-What happened?-

-His dad broke his guitar for failing something. Trevor thought you should know. You know, for moral support.- My whole body felt awkward with every tap over each key, I wanted to finish it as soon as I could, and the memory of his breath against my muzzle didn't help to calm my nerves, neither did the feeling of his paws invading my back and the rest of my body. I needed it to end. I needed to understand that he was gone.

-Well, first off, I'm terribly sorry about that, and I'll make sure to see that through. Thank you for telling me.- Just for a brief moment, I thought it was over; I would just go back to my room, wrap myself in covers and maybe get to sleep it off, but then another message appeared, -But how are YOU, Jim?-

What happened right next was nobody's fault but mine. . . And only mine. I typed back.

-Well, I suppose.-

-Still having troubles with your mother?-

I frowned with displeasure, and twitched my nose as I typed my next message, which was, -I don't wanna talk about it. - But instead of pressing enter, I deleted it, and wrote something else.

-Not as much as you do.-

-Har! Har! You kill me, Jimmy.-

-You started it yourself.-

- I'd die to stay away from her. And dad.-

I frowned again, and sighed it away,-Please, don't say that.-

-Easy for you to say, you don't have my family.-

-You could be more understanding with them.-

-Would you rather please say that to THEM!?-

I groaned and rolled my eyes back again, -You are capable of speaking yourself. You aren't particularly quiet either.-

-I might be capable of talking but they are not capable of listening.-

-Again, you're not particularly quiet.-

-They'll listen to me in time, you'll see. Everyone will.-

-Is this another of your evil plans to conquer the world?-

-No, I'm saving them for later, they will come soon enough.-

Fortunately enough, I ran out of things to say, and I was ready to say goodbye and end it; but unfortunately enough, a tingle in the back of my head made me type again. -And how's Vancouver?-

-Oh, it sucks. But it ain't so bad, it's got some neat landscapes, we're moving to Chicago in a few months.-

-Really? Your dad is getting transferred again?-

-Yeah! Can you believe it!????-

-Must be tough.-

-Again, it ain't so bad.-

-I hope so. - After sending that, I began to tap my finger against the desk, making sure to click with my claw, and thinking what to say. -I'm being called for dinner. I have to go.-

-Farewell, my fellow. This was one lovely talk, I'm looking forward to do it again.-

That last thing made a snort come out so naturally. I moved the cursor over to the X to close the chat, but before that, there was one last message on screen that made me frown and shiver at the same time. -Happy Valentine's Day!-

And it was over.

*

Drying my fur had never felt so soothing before; being engulfed by the warm shots of air coming from the tubes in the drying booth in the wall, running throughout my entire bare body along with my paws, making the leftover water of the shower come off in a delightfully pleasing way, and with it, my worries of my latest conversation. And after being done with it, and getting dressed once again, I came out of the bathroom to hear that my mom was just arriving from work, so I walked over to the stairs, and greeted her, "Hey, Mom." To which she answered back with a tired smile on her face, "Hi, baby." And proceeded to ask me how my day had gone as she walked up the stairs, and kissed my cheek after she reached me. "It was okay, well, save for Alex, of course."

"I know, Caitlin is really pissed at both of them." She replied to me with a tired exhalation, and shook her head slowly. "But I really don't want to talk about that right now. And Mrs. J?"

"Wouldn't be surprised if she's asleep in the living room watching a repetition Grey's Anatomy."

She just grinned to that, and maybe let out a very minimalistic snort before starting to walk over to her room, "I might as well join her, I'm very tired and my feet hurt." She said as I followed her.

"Want me to make fruit tea?" I offered, keeping my distance, and she turned her head to nod.

Now back with a mug of sweet-smelling fruit tea in each paw, I returned to my mom's room, to find her sitting on her bed, still with her beige dress on, and now with her laptop over her lap. She lifted her head, flickered her long, brick-brown ears, and smiled as she gently said, "Thanks, baby." I only smiled back and gave her the mug. She took a tiny sip of it right away, not caring about how hot it was, and then left it over her night stand and turned back at her computer.

I cleared my throat silently, after taking a sniff of the warm steam while forcing myself to speak out, "I talked to Gerald today."

Her eyes kept locked on the screen, but she tilted her ears to me, "And how did that go?" She said calmly.

I kept my stare focused on her blue eyes, but there was no regard towards me, "Hmm, It was all right." I said doubtfully, "we mostly talked about him. . . And you know, Canada."

"And how is he doing over there? And his family?" She asked, pretending almost successfully to be interested. I sighed, and formulated my sentence, "Same as ever, I think. Still. . . Sore." And now she turned to me, giving me an arched brow, but turned back almost immediately. "Sure." She said, "Well, I'm glad you guys still talk." Now that was honest, "It must be a little difficult for him to adapt to a new environment."

"Yeah, tell me about it." I said a bit too cocky, and that got me a quick glare from my mom.

"It wasn't the same." She said firmly.

"I know it wasn't." I sighed again, and then followed an uncomfortable moment of silence from the both of us. The only sound in the room was the clicking of the keyboard of her laptop. "Anyway," she said at last, "did you do your homework?"

"Always." I replied flatly.

"Okay," she tilted her head, and turned to me once again, but now I got a tender and warm smile from her, "homework done, shower done; do you want something else to eat?"

I smiled back, and shook my head, "The tea will do, thanks." And then, my ears twitched with a faint sound from downstairs, so I turned around, and went on my way, "I'll see if Mrs. Jefferson wants some tea."

*

Waking up the next morning was tough, as it had been one of those restless nights, with millions of thoughts overwhelming your head all at once, and not being able to find peace, almost no matter what. But in the end, I performed all of my morning rituals, but one. "Listen to me, you big pile of shit," I demanded to the other fox in the mirror with a finger pointed directly on his direction. He had a very serious look in his blue and violet eyes, as most days for the past three months, but this time, it was different, the seriousness in his glare shined with determination, passing on to me, making me grin confidently at him, and him back at me, "for one day in your entire fucking life, you will not be a sack of sand for people to be carrying around all day, no sir, today, you'll be a pillar, the strongest of pillars I tell you! You'll be an unbreakable support not just for yourself, but also for our friend in need. He needs us, you hear me? And we'll be there at all time, all right?" And suddenly, the pointed finger turned into a thumbs-up, which only widened my grin into a toothy smile, "Then let's fucking do this."

And now out of the warmth and comfort of my house, I stepped into the stark cold of the outdoors, only to step into the warmth and comfort of Alex's mom's car, and now prepared to be received with a silent grudge from certain German shepherd, I got quite surprised for the better when he actually said "Hello." When I entered the car, and of course, I replied, too, and I found him not wearing any earpieces at all. Oh yeah, I thought for myself as another grin appeared on my muzzle, this is gonna be a good day.