FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

This story and its characters are (c) it's creator and all that legal crap. No yiff yet, ya bastages.

*edited to help easier read and added 1 line: 3/06/8

The Apartment Complex : Chapter 2

The one thing my friends have in common is that they don't want to be themselves. This is the reason why each of us have a nickname very different from what we are. We all want to be something fantastic; but none of us have the capabilities. None of us have the resources. We all want to be something we aren't. And as of now, the opportunity has been taken from all of us.

Smoke filled my nostrils as I walked back into the living room from the balcony. I shut the door behind me and turned to look at what remained of my circle of friends. Zeke, the lazy cat of the crew was laying face-down on the couch by himself, holding the foil pipe I had made not ten minutes ago. Dustin, the runt of a pack of brown bears was sitting in front of the cinnamon-scented candle, concentrating on the flame. Amy, that filthy skunk, had her tail wrapped around her fuckbuddy Brian. That poor lab looked helpless, but there wasn't anything I could do for the guy. At least not now. How can you help anyone when you can't even help yourself? But there was one fox missing.

"Wolf! Where are ya?" I called out. "Crissy, you still alive?" I heard a whimper coming from the bathroom, followed by the sounds of vomiting. "Ya'll just stay here. Imma see what I can do for her." Noone said anything. Noone even bothered to look up and acknowledge my words. They all just sat there, silent, as if in mourning. I walked through the bedroom and closed the door behind me. After my eyes adjusted back to the dark, I pulled the hand-made Moroccan pipe from my dresser drawer and filled it up for just me and Crissy to share. A voluptuous vixen stumbled out of my bathroom, wiping a trail of saliva from the corner of her muzzle. "Ah, Wolf. Come, sit, chat. Since this is our last night together as a group, I want to speak with all of you indvidualy. That is, if it's not a problem." And we sat there, face to face, the light of the candle casting odd shadows on the wall. By this time, I assume Brian finally got Amy off his lap, because my acoustic was starting to sing from the living room. What perfect timing.

"You know I like you..." I finally told her. The silence was deafening. But she took the pipe from my hand and lit it up.

"Austin, you know I'd be with you if I hadn't met Dustin first." Her ears fell flat, much unlike the perky vixen I felt I knew. "But I love him."

"I know," was all I could muster. She handed me the pipe and I lit it up. "You know, if anything happens between you two..."

"It won't happen. Hon, you and him... you're the only two guys I trust. Since that whole fiasco with Tod." Her voice trailed off and she looked down, rubbing her stomach. Something was wrong, and we all knew it. "He got me pregnant." Bingo. I knew it. Dustin knew it. Everyone knew, but nobody had the guts to question... "Do you know how long into it I was?" Wait. Was? What does she mean by that? "Three months. I had this child in me for three months, and it wasn't even from my lover." Had? "There were these little white chunks and blood in my urine since last week. I had a miscarriage." My heart dropped. I was going to be a Godfather. Was.

"Does he know?"

"Only you, him, Rusty, and Amy know."

We finished off the bowl in silence. Then I opened the door and she stepped out.

"Eagle! Get your fat ass in here." The bear stood, came in the bedroom, shut the door, leaned against it, and just slumped down to the floor. "When were you going to tell me?" I couldn't look him in the eye as I said it. I just filled the pipe back up and handed it to him. He finished off half the bowl before handing it back, then he just let his head hang from his shoulders, taking a long, drawn-out breath.

"I only just found out yesterday. I didn't really plan on letting you know. I didn't want you to worry," was all he could muster. His words were barely a whisper as he spoke, but his whole body shook. And it wasn't until then that we both looked up into eachother's eyes. Tears were pouring from his eyes, leaving long streaks on his brown muzzle. He looked helpless, and maybe it's because he was. We both were. But if I had any more tears in my body to shed, we would have cried together. But I just reached for a towel nearby and dried his face off. Then I took the pipe back from him and finished it off.

"There'll be more chances. It wasn't yours anyway..."

"Just stop. Whether or not there'll be more chances isn't the point." Those words seemed to hang in the air, waiting to be completed, whether with confirmation or a rebuttal. But neither of us said anything; we just sat there for a while, letting the conversation just eat away at our souls. How could those words be so right and so wrong at the same time? A child had been taken from him, from her, from me... but is there not hope for another in the future? The sadness can only last so long. And in the end, we can either let ourselves drown in an ocean of sorrow and give up all hope or look towards the horizon and keep swimming through, knowing one day, we'll reach land.

"You know how I feel about her, right?" My gaze drifted down to the carpet as I said this, as did his. A giant, brown paw landed on my shoulder and he just nodded in affirmation to me. "Do you really think it's for the best? Me moving in with you two?"

"I don't know that. I only offered another place for you to stay. Though I have to say, anything would be better than this hell-hole. Only you can make your mind up on that. My mom is moving in sometime February, so you'll have to be in the living room by then. But my offer does still stand."

"Then I guess we're roomies." For the first time that night, we both smiled at each other. And with that, he opened the door and stepped out. Once he shut the door, the guitar stopped playing. It seemed as if everything had just come to a screeching halt, and I couldn't tell whether the silence was healing or painful. It was better than hearing those somber minor chords. But it was a deafening silence--the kind where all you can hear are your own thoughts, running at a hundred miles a minute. Seconds seem like hours, minutes seem like days.

A half hour had passed before I'd realized it. Noone moved, noone spoke in the other room. But I imagine they all felt the same way I was at that moment. Alone, sad, ashamed, helpless, wondering just how we all got into the messes we're all in, knowing there's no way to change the paths we're on quite yet... Regardless, a half hour passed before I heard my door creak open and saw a familiar black muzzle poke itself through.

"You could just come in, you know." With that, the black lab stumbled in and shut the door behind him. He then leaned against the wall and quite literally fell to the floor.

"You got any left?"

"Enough for two more bowls. You want?" Man, did his eyes light up. That boy gives the biggest smiles I'd ever seen in my life.

"One for you, one for me."

"Don't get greedy, now." I grinned back at him. I just couldn't help myself; he seemed to be in such a cheery mood, it seemed to brighten up the whole room, even if our only light came from a candle on the floor. "There's still Zeke, ya know."

"No... there isn't. He left a while ago, when Dustin walked outta here. Maybe next time..."

"You and I both know there won't be a next time, Brian. This is the last night the five--I mean six--of us will be together." I'd almost forgotten about his sextoy. "All of you are leaving for the winter break, only two of you are coming back at all, and only one of you are still in school. And you aren't either of them... And in the meantime, I'll have nowhere to go, noone to turn to. You know, I appreciate the whole getting-me-out-of-jail thing, but what the fuck am I supposed to do now? You guys are all I have... Look around you. This room, the bed, the dresser, none of it is mine. My playstation is busted, beaten all the gamecube shit, watched every one of my movies about 5 times. Fuck dude, I can't talk to my dad, I feel bad talking to mom, and my grandparents? Ha! Fuck them too. What do I have? Tell me! What is it that could bring me some possible moment of joy in this hellhole?"

It was at that particular moment that a particular skunk decided to leap from the doorway straight into Brian's lap. She writhed and crawled over his body, deciding to lick his cheek. With her tongue still sticking out, she gave one of those grins at me. You know... THAT grin. A knowing-when-something-is-wrong-but-tring-to-hide-behind-a-grin, kind of smile. She then tilted her head in the most cute, idiotic sort of ways you've ever seen and practically shouted "What's up?" to me.

"Goddamnit, Amy." I sighed and looked away. I couldn't bare to see them. A couple both knowing full well that they're just using the other for sexual favors. It hurt to see he was a couple with that skank of a skunk. In fact, it just hurt to see them as a couple at all. I didn't want to look at them; I didn't want to think of Dustin and Crissy. It was just making me sick to my stomach, watching her move over Brian's body. "You know... Firstly, you're interrupting a conversation. Second, you know it makes me uncomfortable when you're doing that."

"Well, excuse me. He's MY boyfriend, and anything you can say to him, you can say to ME." She barked. Rather convincingly, I might add.

"There's certain things I'm discussing with each individual here, if you recall. You were next in line."

"Well, then I'm tired waiting. I wanna go back to the dorms and have some 'real' fun." She looked at Brian. He looked at me with one of those looks. You know the look. The oh-God-please-help-me kind of looks.

"Ahem... Excuse me." And with that, I just left and went back out onto that cold balcony again for the second time that night. I slid the door shut and turned my back, but I know everyone was watching. I could feel their eyes burning on my back. And then I heard the door open. Brian...

"She sent you."

"Yes she did."

"Why?"

"To see if you were okay."

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm not really okay."

I lit up a cigarette and took a few drags. I wasn't expecting the words I heard next. It took every ounce of willpower I had in my body not to punch him right in the nose.

"At least you won't have a baby to deal with."

I threw that cigarette as far away as I could, slammed that door open, looked at Dustin, said to him "I will see you at the new place in a couple days, then," raised my hands, fell to my knees, shouted "MEETING ADJOURNED!" and finished with the good old, "EVERYBODY OUT!"

And they left.

The next two days passed slowly, packing what little goods I had, not bothering with the dirty plates growing mold in the kitchen. They weren't mine, after all. And with everything packed, I drove off. It wasn't a long drive, maybe three miles, but it felt good leaving the old place behind. The power was still out, the place completely reeked, it wasn't home. And maybe this one won't be either. But it'll damn sure feel more like it.