Chapter 8: Wake Up Bitch! You're My New Best Friend. -Douglas “Swish" Reamer

Jason awoke to Bryan gently shaking his shoulder. The wolf groaned as his eyes slowly opened. Jason squinted as his vision adjusted to the early morning sunlight streaming in through their windows. Bryan was standing next to his bed, fully dressed and holding several large books. Books that the wolf realized belonged to him. They were his coursebooks.

"Uhhhh, come on man- It's Sunday…" Jason protested, his voice still thick with sleep.

Bryan's ears twitched with amusement. "Exactly. Perfect day to start getting you caught up on all the classes you've been skipping."

Jason buried his face in his pillow, muffling another groan. "Can't we start tomorrow?"

As the wolf slowly regained more of his faculties, he began to feel aches and pains throughout his body. There was a dull throb in his head and his mouth was dry.

"Nope," Bryan said, dropping the books onto Jason's bed with a satisfying thump. "You've got a lot of catching up to do. Now come on, I went downstairs and got us some coffee."

Jason's fur bristled as Jason spoke, the wolf's mind flashing back to the same words being said by Coach Martinez as the cougar yelled at him in his office. As Jason replayed the rest of the night in his head. Most of it was a blurry haze, more feelings than memories. The wolf curled up slightly and hugged his pillow tighter, almost wrapping it completely around his head.

Then the wolf's nose twitched. There was the faint smell of mint and roasted coffee seeping through his pillow.

“Coffee…" He heard Bryan say again in a soft sing-song voice.

Jason's ears perk up slightly. He lifted his head, curiously glancing out towards the rabbit.

Bryan was crouched right next to his bed. The rabbit held out a large styrofoam cup of steaming coffee in front of him and was softly blowing the vapors towards the wolf. Jason's heart rate sped up. Jessica had done the exact same thing once while they had been having coffee the other day. Her lips, his lips, softly pursed together blowing sweet smelling air towards his nose.

Jason buried his face back into his pillow and tried to push his head further down into his bedding. He huffed again. He just didn't want to do it. He didn't want to deal with it. He didn't know where to start.

“If you don't begin, you'll never finish. Come on, I'll be right here with you. We'll do it together. One step at a time" Bryan said softly as he put a paw on the wolf's shoulder.

Jason flinched at the touch but then relaxed. Bryan's paw was warm from the residual heat of the coffee cup. It was soft and comforting.

The wolf let out a groan, "You're not going to let this go, are you?"

Bryan shook his head, a small smile playing at the corners of his mouth. "Not a chance. We're going to get you back on track."

With a dramatic sigh, Jason pushed himself up into a sitting position. He reached for the coffee cup in the rabbit's hand, grabbed it, and took a long sip before speaking again. "Fine. But I'm not changing."

Bryan hesitated for a moment, unsure of if he should call Jason out or if the wolf was bluffing.

"Deal," Bryan said, walking over and settling onto his own bed with one of Jason's textbooks. "We'll start with Business Analytics. You remember anything from the first week?"

Jason's blank stare was answer enough.

Bryan let out a sigh and opened the book to the first chapter.

Over the next several hours, Bryan patiently walked Jason through the basics of the course. To his surprise, Jason found himself actually engaging with the material. Bryan had a way of explaining things that made them click in a way the professor hadn't.

"So wait," Jason said, leaning forward with interest, "you're saying we can use these formulas to predict stuff like consumer behavior?"

Bryan nodded, his eyes lighting up at Jason's enthusiasm. "Exactly! It's all about patterns and probabilities. Kind of like how you read the field during a game, but with numbers."

Jason sat back, running a paw through his headfur. "Huh. That's... actually pretty cool."

As the morning wore on, they fell into a comfortable rhythm. Jason would ask questions, Bryan would explain, and slowly but surely, the concepts started to make sense. As lunchtime rolled around, Jason had filled several pages of notes and was feeling more confident about his classes.

"Alright," Bryan said, stretching his arms above his head, "I think we've earned a break. Want to grab some food?"

Jason's stomach growled in response, making them both laugh. "Definitely. But uh, maybe we could eat here? I'm not really up for running into the team right now."

Bryan's expression softened with understanding. "Sure. I can run down to the cafeteria and bring something back. Any requests?"

"Anything with protein," Jason said gratefully. "And maybe something with electrolytes. Those veggie shakes aren't actually that bad."

Bryan raised an eyebrow. "A wolf eating vegetables willingly? Gasp- What will the team think when they find out."

Jason threw a pillow at him, but there was no real heat behind it. As Bryan ducked out of the room, Jason found himself smiling. Maybe this tutoring thing wouldn't be so bad after all.

The wolf turned back toward his bed and reached out to his nightstand, grabbing for his phone. It wasn't there. Jason frowned and then stood up. He went over to his discarded uniform. The clothing reeked as he patted them down. Still no luck, his phone wasn't there either. The wolf crumpled the uniform and threw them into a pile of dirty clothes he had started to accumulate in the corner of their room. He'd have to do laundry later.

Then Jason remembered, he had put his phone in his gym bag. The wolf turned to the bag on the floor and ruffled through its contents until he pulled out the device. A small battery symbol blinked on and off on the screen, indicating that the battery was dangerously low. As Jason unlocked the phone, a torrent of text messages streamed across the screen. Some were from his teammates, which he glanced past, but the vast majority were from Jessica. Her texts ranged from concern to anger at having been ignored all night.

Jason cringed, took in a deep breath and hit the contact icon for the cat on the screen. As he held the phone up to his ear the cat picked up on the second ring.

“Jason! What the hell babe? You storm off, you don't answer your texts. Are you alright?"

Jason paused, the memories from last night making his chest feel tight.

“Yeah— I'm, I'm okay." He said as he flashed back to Bryan sitting in his lap, the rabbit's arms tightly wrapped around his chest. A shiver ran up the wolf's spine as he cleared his throat.

“I'm just, dealing with a lot right now."

The cat's harsh and concerned tone on the other side of the phone softened," Oh baby, I know. It's not your fault okay? Everyone knows that. Look, come over here- let me take care of you. Whatever you're going through… we can do it together, I'll be right there with you, okay baby."

Jason's voice caught in his throat as he quickly looked around the room. From where he and Bryan had spread out on the floor, textbooks and notes mingled with snack wrappers, pillows, and empty cups. He had made more progress in the last three hours on his coursework than he had in the last week. Jason was even enjoying studying. With Bryan it didn't feel like such a slog, it was— easier.

“Baby, you still there? Jason?" Jessica's concerned voice coming from the phone brought Jason back out of his thoughts.

He still didn't know what to say. Luckily his phone beeped, a last desperate warning that it was about to run out of battery.

“Hey look… I gotta go. My battery is about to die. We'll, I'll call you later okay…"

“Okay? But Call me back. I—" Whatever else the cat was going to say was cut off as Jason's phone chimed and powered off.

Jason looked down at the now black and lifeless screen in his paw as his thumb ran across its surface. He reached back and set it on top of his nightstand, not plugging it into it's charger. Then Jason rubbed his arm. As he sat there in his boxers, he suddenly felt very exposed. Jason got up from the floor, went over to the closet, and put on some clothes.

Down in the cafeteria, Bryan stood in line for the food buffet. He held two styrofoam containers in his hand as he tapped his foot. The cafeteria was especially crowded today and the rabbit was practically waiting at the cafeteria's main entrance. Bryan reached into his pocket for his phone. As he did so, his fingers brushed against a piece of paper. The rabbit paused and then pulled the crumpled paper out of his pocket. The front of it was a receipt for a diet soda from the stadium concession stand. On the back though, scribbled in sharply lined numbers, was Dreo's phone number.

Bryan looked down at the piece of paper and bit his lip. With a sigh, the rabbit pulled out his phone in his other paw, typed in the digits to his messenger app, and quickly sent a simple text message to the oncilla.

“Hey. It's Bryan. Saving your number."

To Bryan's surprise, he got several responses back nearly instantly.

“Bryan!

Good to hear from you.

What you doing?

Want to come check out the clubroom?

We're about to grab lunch.

Well it's just me and Chase.

The others are excited to meet you!" Dreo's texts came in short rapid fire bursts to his phone.

Bryan cringed and glanced around as his phone chimed over and over again in his paw. He moved forward with the lunch line as he typed out his response.

“Sure, but not today. Tutoring my—" Bryan paused unsure of what he should write. He deleted that last part, replacing it with “Sure, but not today. Working on a personal project."

He received another almost instantaneous response.

“Hmmmm…sounds fun!

That's fine.

But first meet is this Thursday!

Pride hall. Room 116 630pm.

Don't be late!

Call me with any questions!"

Bryan put his phone notifications on silent to keep his phone from sounding like a broken music box. The oncilla was definitely passionate. Also, a room in Pride Hall— for a Pride club. Bryan had to admit that was an ironically fitting location. While Dreo could be annoyingly persistent, Bryan had to admit that the oncilla also had a sense of humor the rabbit appreciated.

“Sure, see you then." Bryan shot back as he put his phone back into his pocket.

When the rabbit finally got through the food line, he had loaded up two to-go trays of food, grabbed some drinks. Bryan paid and then marched back up to his dorm room. As he opened the door, the food trays and drinks balanced precariously on one paw, he paused. Jason was sitting on his bed, fully dressed, and was looking down at a book that rested in his lap.

Bryan stepped into the room and closed the door behind him with his foot, careful not to drop anything. Jason looked over at him and nodded an acknowledgment before deciding he should get up and help. The wolf quickly got to his feet, sat his book down, and grabbed the drinks the rabbit was balancing.

“Thanks for grabbing food. Next ones on me." Jason said as he turned back toward his bed.

“Yeah. No problem. And don't forget, you still owe me a coffee." Bryan replied lightheartedly as he went over and sat back down on the floor.

Jason glanced over at Bryan and then went back to looking at one of his textbooks. The rabbit wasn't sure if he should bring up Jason's new outfit or the subtle change in tone of the room. Maybe he was imagining it? Or worse, maybe he was getting used to seeing the wolf mostly naked all the time. Or better? The rabbit hadn't decided yet. Bryan handed Jason his box of food, and Jason passed over Bryan's drink. Then the two quickly dug into their meal.

As the afternoon wore on, they settled back into reviewing Jason's courses. At first, Jason found himself distracted but Byran slowly guided him back into focus. The wolf was finally starting to understand his classes for the first time since arriving at Hightail. He still had a long way to go, but with Bryan's help, it no longer felt insurmountable.

That night the two talked again like they had over the last week. Their conversation wasn't about anything deep or emotional. It was actually a heated debate about football plays. Bryan had been strangely eager to share his 'new' strategies with the wolf. The ones he had invented while watching Jason's last game. Jason for his part, mostly laughed and kept having to explain the actual play names and when they should and shouldn't be used.

Over the next several days, Jason found himself settling into a new routine. An earlier gym session kept him busy most mornings, but immediately after he would head straight to his classes. If he was running ahead of schedule or had time then he would swing by the campus cafe and get him and Jessica a coffee, dropping hers off to her on his way to class.

Jessica had not been too happy with him for ignoring her all day. But Jason had played the wounded puppy card and the cat had eaten it up. The tactic also allowed Jason to skip their first inevitable fight and go straight to the makeup phase. As the days flew by, Jessica would occasionally leave her paw subtly on the wolf's leg or find ways to brush up against him. Jason knew where things were heading and he was planning accordingly. But those plans and his meetups with his girlfriend were done around the schedule Bryan had laid out for him.

Jason's afternoons, when he wasn't busting his ass at football practice, were spent with Bryan doing study sessions. Most of the time it was in their dorm room. But occasionally Jason would go to the learning lab and sit with Bryan as the rabbit worked with him and others. The wolf would catch himself watching Bryan's paws as the rabbit explained complex formulas, admiring how confidently they moved across the room's whiteboard.

Getting his late assignments from his professors had also been a lot easier than Jason had anticipated. Whether it was because he was on the football team, or if the teachers took pity on him for their game loss, or they just allowed late work to be turned in with a penalty - Jason didn't know. The mountain of work had, at first, been intimidating but he and Bryan knocked it out in two afternoons. Just those small changes were enough to allow him to be passing his classes again. He still wasn't quite where he needed to be, but Jason felt like he was within touchdown distance.

The wolf's grades weren't the only thing that was showing improvement, he had also redoubled his efforts out on the field. While there had certainly been some on the team that blamed him for the game loss, most of the team was more critical of Derek for calling the risky play in the first place. That being said, Coach Martinez still made their lives a living hell. The coach forced the team to run that particular play over and over again. They ran it until their muscles ached and burned. Some players even began to stumble and trip out on the field from exhaustion. It was intense but it was a good intense. It helped focus the team.

As for Bryan, the rabbit found himself developing new habits too. He started timing his showers and meals when Jason was busy and not around. Though the rabbit told himself it was just about efficient time management more than anything else. Bryan enjoyed explaining things to Jason. While the wolf while not book-smart, Jason had an intuitive grasp of practical applications that impressed Bryan.

During his student worker shifts, Bryan would catch himself scanning the aisles for a familiar white-furred figure. When Jason would show up, it would always put a bounce in his step and a grin on his face. However, there were downsides to the rabbit's new 'personal project'.

Bryan's grip on his own course load had begun to slip. It wasn't anything he couldn't manage, he had worked ahead— so he had a bit of a buffer. Yet the strain of having to do his own work, tutor in the library, and then tutor Jason privately had also started to make him a bit irritable. But again, as long as he kept going he was fine. He was fine, everything was fine. He had only snapped at the one student who just could not stop tapping his pen against the desk as the rabbit had tried to explain basic algebra once. Okay, maybe he had snapped a few times. He had apologized. It was fine. Maybe? The student hadn't come back for another session.

Anyway, none of that mattered because every time the rabbit saw Jason he felt relaxed and at ease. The wolf's smile was a soothing balm to his fraying nerves. Also, Bryan hadn't heard any of the rumors about him all week. The campus gossip train had clearly moved on to other stations. His and Jason's relation— friendship, was going great. Everything was just great, at least that is what the rabbit kept telling himself. But if everything was so great, then why was Bryan feeling more frustrated and angry with each passing day?

It was Thursday afternoon as Jason walked into the learning lab. Bryan was leaning back in his chair, staring at the ceiling and letting his head relax. In the rabbit's outstretched hands was his phone, silenced to mute the excessive number of text messages the rabbit had been receiving all day. Bryan had already responded five times to Dreo that he did in fact remember the club meeting that evening, that he knew where Pride Hall was, and that -yes- he was taking into account the correct time zone for where they lived.

Jason cleared his throat and Bryan opened his eyes. The rabbit looked over at his friend and smiled.

“Looks like you've had a rough day?" Jason said as he walked over to the table.

“Not too bad," Bryan shrugged, “few engineering majors who needed way more help than I could give."

“Woah, someone stumped you. Now I've seen everything." Jason shot back with a smirk.

Bryan rolled his eyes, “Contrary to popular belief, I don't know everything. I know a lot- almost everything. Just not everything. There's a difference."

“Truly, us mere mortals are not worthy."

That reply got a chuckle out of Bryan as he sat up and stretched, his joints popping audibly. “Anyways what's up?"

Jason shifted his bag on his shoulder, his ear flicking in a way that Bryan had come to recognize as a sign of nervousness. "Nothing much. Just on my way back to the dorm and swung by. Wanted to see if you were still going to that thing this afternoon."

Bryan looked over at the wolf curiously, trying to read between the lines of Jason's question. "Yeah, I am. It's just an extracurricular, nothing too long. Something to pad the resume with, you know?"

The rabbit had been intentionally vague about his plans for this afternoon over the last several days. Bryan still wasn't sure exactly why he felt like he had to hide it. But he was just getting comfortable at school, and this club felt like a change. Plus, Bryan was uncertain how Jason would react, so he may have omitted a few - really all - of the details.

"That's good then," Jason replied, then paused, his tail twitching slightly. "Hey, listen, if you like... finish up early, then just text, okay?"

Bryan's ears perked up, his curiosity piqued. "O-kay. Why? Is everything alright?"

Jason shrugged, trying to appear casual, but there was a hint of excitement in his voice. "Well, Jessica is coming over and things may get a bit... serious. Don't want you walking in on us. So I'm gonna need the room for a bit."

Bryan froze, his heart skipping a beat as the implications of Jason's words sank in. He felt a sudden tightness in his chest that he couldn't quite explain - or rather, didn't want to explain.

"Cool?" Jason said, oblivious to Bryan's internal turmoil.

"Cool...," Bryan replied through gritted teeth, forcing a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

Jason's phone rang, and the wolf pulled it out of his pocket, glancing at the screen. His face lit up in a way that made Bryan's stomach twist uncomfortably.

"Cool, anyways thanks man. I owe ya one," Jason said, already putting the phone to his ear. "Listen, this is Jessica. I'll talk to you later... after your extracurricular thing."

Jason turned and walked out of the room, his voice fading as he spoke excitedly into the phone about his plans for the evening. Bryan remained seated, his fists clenching and unclenching as he tried to process the sudden wave of emotions washing over him.

The rabbit took in a deep breath, trying to calm himself. Why was he so angry? He knew why, even if he didn't want to admit it. He was starting to see things that weren't there, just like in high school. Bryan thought he knew better than this, but he had walked himself into having feelings for a straight guy yet again.

Now what? The rabbit had his first real friend in college, and? Was he going to ruin that just because of a stupid crush? Bryan ran a paw through his headfur, frustration evident in every movement.

His phone vibrated on the table, breaking through his spiraling thoughts. It was a text message from Dreo.

"Group Meet in T-30. See you all there!"

Bryan cursed under his breath as he began packing his belongings into his bag.