Second Thought
#2 of Team Players
Glassy eyes were the order of the day, Lucas observed, as he glanced around at his fellow students. History could be bland at the best of times, the bunny thought to himself, but grade 12 brought with it Mister Broadman, who took bland to the level of an art form. If they gave awards for boring, Lucas considered while watching the drool dribble down the chin of a dozing otter one desk over, the middle-aged horse at the front of the class would have a Nobel Prize.
The day's discussion was World War II, and as much as the actions of the Canadians in the war were fascinating and inspiring to Lucas, the way that Broadman delivered it â€" in a dead-voiced monotone and a heap of overheads â€" made him want to charge a line of tanks with a pointy stick.
"Hasn't even figured out Powerpoint yet," Lucas muttered to himself as Broadman continued to rumble out a description of the actions on Juno Beach during D-Day. The rabbit pondered taking a quick nap, but as he was settling in his cell phone gave the double-vibration that indicated a text message had come in. Curious who could be testing him at that time, he pulled out the unit and, keeping it safely hidden behind his desk, looked at the message.
"u awake over there?"
The rabbit flicked an ear curiously. He didn't recognize the number the message had come from, and the message was ambiguous enough to be impossible to pick out the writer. Furtively, he thumbed "yep, who's calling?" into a reply and sent it off.
It took only a moment to come back. "don't recognize me without a jersey or outside a shower huh? lol!"
Lucas grinned. "might recognize u without a jersey now"
"perv! Hey, what r u doin tomorrow? we got a pro-d day, u do too, right?"
"yeah we're out too. why?"
"want 2 grab lunch over here? u drive, right?"
"lunch sounds good, sure â€" where?"
"u know the home restaurant? meet at 11:30 or so?"
"ok, see u there"
"got it, see u 2morro"
"Ahem."
Lucas' ears shot straight up and he peered up at an equine face peering down at him. "Send back the word ‘Busted,' please, Mister Roberts, and then you can give me your phone until the end of the day."
"Uh..."
Traffic was reasonable, for once, as Lucas swung his baby, the relatively new Civic his folks had given him for managing to survive to be sweet sixteen, onto the Lougheed Highway and towards Maple Ridge. Fridays could sometimes be ugly, especially with a lot of the schools out, but leaving early seemed to make things work out for him. The bunny thumbed his iPod into life through the car speakers, and hummed along with some Halifax as he steered towards the restaurant.
He had a general idea of where it was but had never been there; thankfully, it was fairly easy to spot, and the parking lot was mostly empty. He pulled in and saw a familiar canine face under a ball cap waiting under the eaves of the restaurant, sheltering from the light drizzle that marked winter in the Lower Mainland.
A smile crept across Kelsey's muzzle as she saw the rabbit climbing out, and she waved to him as he scurried across the lot, ducking from the rain, his ears tugged down to keep them relatively dry. She looked different than he usually saw her, wearing a dark green hoodie and jeans rather than a Fishers jersey and helmet. It looked good, he thought admiringly as he grinned at the husky.
"Hey, Lucas." Her curled tail wagged lightly. "Glad you could come over."
He smiled back, his ears twitching. "How could I refuse? Sounded like you had something you wanted to talk about. Can't imagine what that might be."
"Yeah, well... Let's get this lunch thing going first, huh?"
Lucas twitched an eyebrow up at the canine's tone, and let Kelsey lead the way to the entrance. Not that it was a bad view, after all â€" the jeans looked good on her. A pleasant hostess settled them in a window booth, and delivered coffee quickly, leaving them with their menus. "So what's good here?" he inquired across the table as Kelsey took off her cap and set it aside, smoothing her short headfur back.
"Well, I like the Monster Burger, but I don't know how good you are with beef." She grinned â€" or at least showed sharp canine teeth. "They do great food all around, though."
The bunny smirked and pondered sneaking a double entendre into the conversation, but decided against it for the moment. "Yeah, I think I'll leave the dead cow for the carnivores." He flipped through the menu. "Oh, hey, the mushroom garden burger sounds tasty."
"You'll never grow up big and strong eating like that." Kelsey sipped her coffee and chuckled as the bunny flexed â€" pretty much pointless through his long-sleeved shirt, but a good effort nonetheless.
Their waitress returned and took the two furs' orders, refilled their coffees and left, and Kelsey settled her elbows on the table, sipping her coffee and looking at Lucas over the rim of her cup. "So."
"So?" He tilted his head curiously, regarding the husky with ears canted forward, one flopping down almost comically. "I get the impression you got something you want to talk about. We didn't really get the chance to talk after..."
"Yeah... about that." A sip of coffee, a pause filled by the quiet murmurings of other diners and the clink of cutlery. "I wanted to get together and talk about what happened last week."
Lucas winced at the husky's tone. "I kinda wondered. Look, I know..."
"Hold it." A paw came up, one finger lifted to stop him. "Let me start, okay? I've been thinking about this for a few days."
"Sure, Kels, go ahead." He smiled reassuringly and sipped his own coffee as she gathered her thoughts.
"Okay. First off, I've been thinking a lot about what happened between us... it's not that I didn't like it, or anything..." She frowned, swirling her coffee with a clawtip. "I mean, I liked it, but... it was kind of weird."
"You're telling me," Lucas murmured, his light chuckle cutting off as she turned deep blue eyes up at him, brows furrowed. "...sorry. Continue?"
"Thank you." The husky pondered again. "Listen, I had fun with that. It was a surprise, and I think part of it was shock and the relief of not being busted... the whole thing with trying to keep the whole ‘girl' thing from the team and all is really kinda stressful, and I get a little wound up sometimes. That was a good way to burn some of that off... but it's kind of out of character for me."
Lucas frowned a bit himself, ears flickering. "Oh?"
Her ears slicked back slightly and she shrugged. "It's not like I haven't, you know... been with guys before... but it's not something I usually do at the spur of the moment..."
"Believe it or not, coming from a guy, but I usually don't either. I mean, I'll do it with friends sometimes â€" I'm a rabbit, after all..." He grinned, an infectious smile that spread to the husky's muzzle tentatively, and shrugged. "But the whole concept of ‘instant sex, just add partner' isn't how I usually operate either."
Kelsey let go a deep breath. "So you understand where I'm coming from. That's good... I was afraid you might think it was something to do with you."
"Nah, it couldn't have anything to do with me. I'm awesome." Lucas ducked the little tub of creamer that the husky flipped at him and smirked. "Seriously, though... I'm sorry if that made you upset or anything."
"No, no, I'm not upset. Like I say, it was fun... it's just..." She shrugged and looked up as their food arrived, a steaming burger and heap of fries sliding into place in front of her, a plate not much smaller than hers arriving before the bunny. "... let's eat, huh?"
Lucas recognized the diversion, but shrugged an agreement with her suggestion. The two teens dug into their meals; he watched with admiration as the husky tore into the huge burger. His garden burger was just about right for a growing lapine, and the fries were as good as advertised; it didn't take long to polish the plates off.
"Ahh, that hit the spot." Kelsey burped, then flushed as Lucas grinned at her.
"You've been hanging around guys too long," he chuckled. She looked abashed. "Anyhow, you were saying...?"
The husky finished her coffee and wiped her muzzle, licking at a few spots of ketchup that marred the white fur. "Right. Lucas, you know... I kind of like you. You're funny, you're a good player, and you're cute. For a prey species."
"Kind of? Prey species?!"
She giggled slightly as he stuck his tongue out at her. "See, that's what I mean. But... I kind of feel like we're going backwards here."
"Huh?" The bunny looked confused. "Backwards?"
Kelsey nodded. "I'd like to get to know you better, but, well... we kind of know each other pretty well, in the Biblical sense, already. Do you think..."
"I think," Lucas said, holding up a finger and smiling, "that you're wanting to know if we can be friends after all that. Am I right?"
She flicked her ears and nodded bashfully. "Honestly... I don't have a lot of friends. Between school and hockey and training and things, it's kind of tough to make friends. It'd be fun, though, if you wanted to... I dunno, spend time with me doing friend stuff?"
Lucas brushed an ear from over his eye and chuckled. "You know what? I think I could manage that. I'd love to just hang out with you â€" I don't know you real well, but I get the feeling you're pretty fun to be around too... like, do you play Rock Band?"
"I'm pretty good on drums."
"Perfect! I suck at drums, but I'm good on guitar. 360 or PS3?"
"360. I like sports games, too."
"Even better! What's your favourite kind of music?"
"Mostly rock. I like classic rock and alternative. Emo gets on my nerves sometimes."
"Okay, so I'll stash some of my collection when you're around." Lucas grinned. "Well, we've got some common ground to work on already. Didn't take long, did it?"
Kelsey giggled lightly. "Nope. So... do you mind if we go back and start over with the whole ‘friends' thing? It'd mean no more of that... for a good while, anyhow..."
"Kelsey, I'd be happy to be friends with you. No strings, no expectations."
She frowned and tilted her head suspiciously. "Are you sure you're a teenage rabbit?"
"I have paws and know how to use them." Lucas was pleased to see a flush rise in the husky's ears at that, and grinned evilly. She reached over and swatted his arm as the waitress cleared their plates, the cocker spaniel smiling knowingly.
"One check or two?" she asked Lucas, but blinked when Kelsey replied.
"Two's fine," the husky said, smiling up at the waitress, who looked surprised but nodded in return and headed away.
"So, I've got nothing to do this afternoon â€" want to do something else?"
Kelsey smiled to the bunny and sat back. "How'bout you come by my place and I kick your fluffy tail on NHL 10?"
"Oooh, cocky AND cute! You're on, dog breath..."
"DOG breath?! Hey, at least I don't smell like I use carrot puree for toothpaste..."
The two furs scowled at one another for a long moment, then broke into laughter.
Second Thought (Team Players â€" Chapter 2)
© 2009 Tony Greyfox
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