The Journal: Chapter I
Preface:
This is a story of romance, experience, and understanding. It follows both a "present" time line and a "past" timeline. The past takes place withen a journal that the characters find and helps them to better understand their lives. Present chapters will have the chaper number and name while journal chaters will have the chapter number and the entry number. There is sex in this series that extends from the ages of 17+ (though no huge age caps). If highschoolers participating in sexual acts does not fit you then leave now before you get involved in the series. I apologize for this first two chapters being rather slow but the are set up chapters. If you can pull through the first two chapters of scene setting, I promise that chapter three will prove to be for the least, romantic and entertaining. And oh yeah, the story is gay.
Chapter I: A book by chance
Austin peddled on his bike down the street. The coyote was panting heavily with beads of sweat covering his clay-red fur. He zoomed down a hill and narrowly avoided smashing into a car, "Sorry!" yelled the canid as the wheels continued to carry him toward his destination.
The sun had become a dull orange by the time Austin reached the library. He locked his bike to the rack and walked down the sidewalk, through the double doors of the library. The cool air of the building felt to him as angel wings freeing him from the fire. Austin peered around the lobby of the two story library with his amber eyes and immediately found a familiar face. A raccoon, dressed in a suit that made him look quite distinguished compared to most of the others who where dressed in short clothes to accommodate for the warm weather, Austin included. Then again, the gentlemen was his teacher and a good one at that.
"Hey Mr. Clemmons, sorry I'm a bit late" laughed an embarrassed Austin to which the raccoon replied, "Nonsense. I told you earlier that I'm here as long as you need. Now what was it you needed help with, vocabulary?" Austin shook his head, "No sir, it's Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare confuses me." Mr. Clemmons smiled kindly, just as he always did. His face was one of absolute love and his eyes always seemed to reflect what was going on in his heart. In fact the only thing off about him was that a part of his right ear seemed to be missing for there was a large chunk gone near the top. Austin always found some irony that such a kind teacher could have a such a wound.
"Well Austin, what exactly is confusing you? Is it the story or the language that gets you?" asked Mr. Clemmons with a smile, resting his hand on the table at which he sat. Austin sat in the chair opposite of his teacher and shrugged. "A little of both really. The story itself seems so far from reality." Mr. Clemmons laughed, "How so?" The coyote got up and threw his arms to the sky, "But soft! What light what yonder window breaks?'" Mr. Clemmons mouthed sorry to the librarian who looked frantic now that the quietness had been broken. "Well Austin, seems you know the lines at least." The raccoon looked to be in thought for a moment before leaning forward and asking "Austin is something troubling you?"
The coyote looked puzzled at the question, "Why do you ask?" The raccoon sighed and looked at Austin dead in the eyes, "Austin, I am thirty nine years old and have been teaching for seven years. I know when a student it not paying attention in my class and lets not forget I was seventeen once too."
Austin chuckled and waved off the question. "Nah Mr. Clemmons. I'm as fine as beauty on the beach." Mr. Clemmons closed his eyes and rubbed his head. These kids came up with new phrases everyday it seemed. "Alright but should something come up, please let me know. Is that clear?" Austin sighed and fidgeted in his seat. "Alright sir" solemnly spoke the coyote before looking up and asking, "Sir, how did you come to get that scar?" The raccoon opened his eyes and the smile was gone from his face for just an instant, though the fact that Austin's question caused that hurt the coyote slightly but within seconds it returned. "That is not a question for today Mr. Ash. Let us get back on the subject of Romeo and Juliet. Now this is a story of forbidden love and passion. A tragic tale of heartbreak, irony, and loss." Austin simply groaned. "But it's so exaggerated! Things like that- they never happen in real life. It just doesn't work that way." Mr. Clemmons stood up. "Austin, I'm going to pull out some books that you may be interested in. Can you wait here for a few minutes?" Austin nodded and watched as his English teacher walked out of his sight and into the row of books.
The coyote looked down at the table. He felt bad for lying to Mr. Clemmons. The truth was that something was bothering him and even though he trusted the raccoon, even more than his own family, he could not bring himself to say it out loud. He could not even say it loud to himself. As his heartbeat quickened he rubbed his sweating palms on his shorts in anxiety and waited for his mentor to return.
Within a few minutes Mr. Clemmons had returned with a bag full of books. "I think these may help you. They are checked out under my name so be sure to return them to me when you are finished." Austin took the bag and looked to the door. "Thank you but I really should get going if I want to make it to Kyle's for dinner" said the coyote as he walked to toward the door. "There is a test on Monday Austin!" yelled Mr. Clemmons who immediately got shushed by the librarian as he watched his student exit the building.
It had taken another twenty minutes to bike all the way to Kyle Redwood's house but now Austin was standing just outside the front door and had already rang the door bell. As he waited for an answer he shifted back and forth on his feet for he was quite impatient. After a few minutes of a truly agonizing period of waiting the door opened and a grey lynx leaned in the doorway. He wasn't wearing a shirt and Austin could clearly see the black spots that speckled his body and he especially noticed his friend's abs. Kyle certainly wasn't the most in shape person in the world but that wasn't mean he didn't look in incredibly cute and those little tufts on the ears just completed the look perfectly. Austin blinked and shook the thought from his mind. What was he doing thinking something like that? And of his best friend even!
"Hey Austin, something on your mind?" asked the lynx, swishing his tale and smiling curiously to his friend. Austin shook his head and laughed while blushing though it was well hidden under his already red fur. "Nah," joked Austin, "just wondering what your mom's got cooking for dinner. Smells delicious even from here. Is it steak? No wait its pork. Ribs?" Austin smiled with joy the moment he heard Kyle's mom yell from the kitchen, "No, its barbeque. Now hurry up get out of that blistering hot weather!" Austin took the offer and took a step inside while smirking at his friend. "It's five hundred degrees outside and your mom makes barbeque. She always was good at driving home a point." Kyle giggled and pushed his friend the rest of the way inside. "You like it and you know it so just shut up Austin!"
The three of them made it into the dining room and sat around a large round table along with Kyle's sister and father. The daughter of the Redwoods was a of couple years older than the two boys and already in college. Austin had spoken to her before but had not seen her around a whole lot, mostly on holidays or the rare weekend when she would come and visit the family. From the few times that they had spoken Austin gleamed that she was the stereotypical and superficial college break out girl. She wasn't his favorite person in the world but he much preferred her to the patriarch of the household. Nelson Redwood was the classic stern father that everyone was afraid of and did not want to cross for fear that a baseball bat may come swinging at the back of your head. Hell this guy may actually let his victim see the blow coming, ravishing in the fact that nothing could be done to stop it. To make matters worse, Kyle was on the high school team so somewhere there was a bat in the house. Again, Austin shook the thought out of his head. Perhaps he was just too stressed out.
"Alright boys here you go," sweetly sang Mrs. Redwood while placing plates around the table. The mother was so different thought Austin to himself. He simply could not understand how such a wonderful women could ever marry her husband. He liked her and she seemed quite happy with her life. Actually the family was full of an odd kind of symmetry. The son and mother seemed happy with their lives while the daughter and father always seemed to be stressing from on situation to the next. The alluring smell of the food assaulted Austin's nostrils, interrupting his thoughts as he immediately started eating.
"Austin!" bellowed Mr. Redwood with an unpleasant look on his face. "Do you not pray before meals at your house or does your family not show any respect?" Setting his fork down, Austin apologized and looked down in the table in shame while Kyle led the prayer. He didn't pray before meals with his family, that much was true but he also felt a certain resentment to the question, seeing as how he never really saw his family during the day. His father had died when Austin was just five years old and he did not remember much of him. His mother had to take on multiple jobs to support him and herself and usually got home after Austin had gone to bed.
The Redwood family argued about politics the over the course of the entire dinner, though not in an unfriendly manner. Austin wasn't really paying attention for he already had too many things on his mind and not all his thoughts focused on how desperately confused he was about his thoughts toward Kyle. The question that Mr. Redwood has asked him reminded Austin that he had not prayed in a long time, for anything really. The coyote had not set foot in a church voluntary his entire life. It was not that Austin did not like religion or not believe in God, it was just that he had no motivation to try. The more he thought about it, the more questions arose in his mind that clawed at his heart. At one point during the dinner he felt a tear forming in his eyes but played it off by laughing pretending he had just remembered a funny joke.
"Sorry about my dad," apologized Kyle as he shut the door to his room, "he gets like that sometimes. I'm not sure why. He was raised hardcore strict." Reaching into the bag that Austin had placed on his bed and picking out a few books he questioned his friend, "So do you have any idea what we are going to do for our project?" Laying on the bed with his arms tucked behind his head, the coyote just yawned. "Nah man. Got no idea. I don't even understand Romeo and Juliet and the project makes even less sense. I can not believe Mr. Clemmons expects us to make a comparison to real life." "Speaking of which," broke in Kyle, "did you speak with him after school?" Austin turned his head to the side in a bored manner, "yeah but we didn't get much done. I was running late getting to the library. That's why he gave me those books to look over."
Sitting up, the coyote opened his mouth and began to ask his friend a question, "Hey Kyle, have you ever wanted to tell somebody something but you were afraid that you may be punished for it?" "What's this one?" Kyle asked as he removed a small brown book from the bag, completely oblivious to his friend's query and began flipping through the pages, "its all in pencil." Austin hopped off the bed and grabbed the book from his friend, opening up to the front page and reading a bit. "Hey, it's a journal. Listen to this"
'The stories contained in this book are based off of the lives of special people that have grown close to my heart. The entries are derived completely from the journals that each person has handed to me and trusted me to weave into a written work. When this project started many of the people in this book did not know each other, myself included, but over time they were bound together, just as the pages within this book are bound together for eternity. These stories are to the most part completely true and not simply works of fiction. As such, many of these stories detail intimate parts of the lives of the ones who experienced them. To that end I pledge that all entries in this book are kept to the utmost accuracy.
Signed, Andrew Clemmons.'"
Kyle bit his lip as Austin finished. He knew that the book had fallen into the bag by mistake and he knew Austin had the same conclusion. Still, Kyle noticed a curious grin forming on his friend's face. "Hey, maybe we should put that back in the bag. It wouldn't be right to read something that doesn't belong to us. I mean how would you feel if somebody read something you poured your heart into. The whole thing sounds pretty deep." "I agree completely," spoke the coyote, "that's why I think we should read it. I mean, who's to say we wont learn something from all this? I mean Mr. Clemmons is our English teacher. He would be cool with that if we gained something from it." Kyle shook his head. "Come on Austin..."
Austin knew it was wrong and once again he felt guilt that what he was doing could be seen as a betrayal to Mr. Clemmons but he had to read it, just the first page. To get into that raccoon's head, it was something he had wanted to do for a long time. He always seemed so full of joy and certainty and it was something that Austin was always envious of. Later he would reason that he unconsciously thought he would learn the secret to Mr. Clemmons' joy from reading the book and that his nervousness drove him to it but right now he just wanted a chance to get inside a teacher's head. Turning to the next page, Austin began to read aloud. "Entry one. Andrew stared at the clock with his bright blue eyes..."