First Impressions ~Chapter 5 Heart of a Lion~
Dusk took off, Danny was quiet the whole way, strangely. Dusk started to wonder what had been going on with the wolf in front of Danny's apartment. He wanted to know what Danny was thinking. Dusk was not bringing Danny back to his house, but to Danny's family's house. Danny would be welcome there still, he'd never been kicked out, and had been asked to return several times. He knew whatever trouble Danny was in, Danny's family would be able to help much better than Dusk could. Danny sat slumped over in Dusk's passenger side seat, with Dusk's coat covering him. His face fur was a little matted, like it had had something sticky in it, and had been cleaned up hastily and not thoroughly.
Dusk pulled up in front of a two-story brick house which looked like almost all the others near it. It was Danny's parents' house.
"Here we are." Dusk announced.
"This isn't your place." Danny replied, not noticing his surroundings very well.
"No, this is a place where you can sort out what is going on better than with me." Dusk replied. Something in the way Dusk said it made Danny pay attention. Danny sat up and looked out his window, realizing immediately where he was.
"I'm not staying here!" Danny yelled. Dusk's coat fell off of Danny. Dusk calmly recovered Danny, and laid his hand on Danny's shoulder.
"Listen Danny, I don't know what happened earlier, but I've got a pretty good idea. You are heading down a road you can't turn back from. You've been hooking up with strangers of all sorts, you're just asking for trouble. I can't help you with that, I brought you here because I know your family can." Dusk paused for a moment letting it sink in. "I'm going to come out here to pick you up in a couple of days. Until then you're going to have to manage with your family." Dusk finished, and unlocked the car doors.
Danny was speechless. He got out of the car.
"Trust me Danny, a few days here just relaxing and thinking, away from the rest of your life, you'll figure some stuff out." Dusk called out as he drove away. Danny walked up to the house and knocked on the door.
This is stupid, no one will be up, it's like 4:00 in the morning. I should just find a nice guy to give me a ride back to my place, and screw Dusk for-
"Hello?" An old panther's voice asked from inside.
"Dad, it's me, Danny." Danny replied quietly. The door unlocked and was thrown open, moments later a tall old male panther flew through the door, wrapping his arms around Danny.
"You've come home to us!" Danny's father exclaimed. "And what good timing, Dominique came home from college two nights ago! She's here for another week or so." Danny's father talked to Danny like not a moment had passed since the last time they spoke, like Danny hadn't abandoned his family so he could live closer to the clubs, like Danny hadn't had given a blowjob to a random wolf earlier the same night. Still in his dad's arms, Danny began to cry, his situation overwhelming him.
"Danny what's wrong son?" Danny's dad asked. Danny couldn't find the words to reply, and just kept crying. "You look like you've had a long night. Your old room is waiting for you, just like you left it. Your mom and I have been hoping you'd come back. Come on, get to bed, we can talk tomorrow."
Danny laid down in his old bed, feeling much more at ease after seeing his dad. Tomorrow, tomorrow is the first day of my life. Danny thought as he fell asleep.
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The next morning......
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Danny woke up to the sound of his sister's voice.
"Hey Danny." She whispered.
"Hey Dom." He replied while rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
"How are you this morning? I heard you showed up in the middle of the night crying." Dominique asked.
"Better...better." Danny replied.
"Good, are you planning on doing anything today? Like meeting up with your old friends?" Dominique asked. The thought had never occured to Danny, but he was now much closer to all of his friends, Devon, Tyler and Andrew all lived on the same side of town, while Danny had lived on the opposite side.
"Yeah, I think that sounds like a good idea. Can you bring me the phone please?"
Dominique returned a couple minutes later with Danny's cell and a local phone book. She then left the room so Danny could talk in private. Danny fingered through the back pages, looking for numbers he had written down a long time ago. He couldn't find Tyler or Devon's numbers, but he did find Andrew's. Danny punched in the numbers.
"Hello?" Replied a tired Andrew.
"Hey Andrew, it's me Danny."
"Oh! Danny how are you, I haven't spoken to you in...years!"
"I'm good, hey would it be okay if I came over for a little while, I just wanna talk." Danny asked.
"Oh, sure sure, come over anytime." Danny and Andrew said goodbye, and Danny got ready for the day. Danny didn't have a ride though.
"Dom, could you do me a favor?" Danny asked.
"What?"
"I don't have a ride right now, could you bring me over to Andrew's?"
"Sure." Dominique replied quietly. Danny could tell there was something wrong when he mentioned Andrew's name to Dominique, but he figured he'd not press on about it.
Danny got in Dominique's car. Andrew's house wasn't too far, but it was far enough to not be walkable.
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Dominique seemed uneasy. Halfway to Andrew's house, Danny decided he couldn't stand it any longer.
"Did something happen between you and Andrew?" Danny asked. Dominique's eyes went wide for a moment, then returned to normal.
"N-no why?"
"Don't lie to me sis, you know I can tell when you lie to me." Danny replied.
"It's none of your business."
"Come on, when have you ever not told me things?" Danny pressed on.
"When they're none of your business." This made Danny worried, she didn't want him to know something.
"Dominique." Danny paused to look into his sister's eyes attempting to make his message sink in better. "You're making me worry." His sister's resilience caved.
"Last night..." Dominique continued to recount what had transpired between her and Andrew the night before. "...but I'm worried because...he sleeps around a lot now. Ever since last night, I've felt weird, and it's not just my conscience, I think he may have given me something." Dominique concluded, tears welling up in her eyes. Danny was shocked, was this really what had become of his friend? Quietly, Danny replied.
"I'll talk to him about it."
"No, please don't. Please please don't." Dominique begged.
"Someone has to, he might have something, you might have something, everyone he's slept with might have something!" Danny replied. After several minutes of bargaining, Danny finally talked his sister into believing it was the right thing to do.
They pulled up at Andrew's house, and Danny got out.
"Pick me up in about an hour."
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Devon sipped at a cup of full strength coffee. James had made it for him when he woke up. James had also cooked them breakfast. Devon was still somewhat in a fuzz over the night before.
"Do...do you want to know what happened?" Devon asked James.
"Not until you're ready to tell me." James replied. Devon attempted to tell him, but couldn't bring himself to say the words, instead he told James something else.
"I'm gay." Devon said bluntly.
"I know Devon. You've told me before."
"That's why I'm living here...that's the short version. I won't be able to go home, my parents are homophobes." Devon finished.
"Oh. Well you're welcome as long as you want to stay." James replied, he didn't like prying into other people's lives.
"Last night...I...I don't...I don't want to be gay!" Devon yelled as he slammed his cup of coffee on the table. James looked at Devon.
"Devon, you are what you are. There is no changing that. Gay, straight, bi, whatever you are that's just it! Whether you want to be or not, you are." James replied.
"Thanks. James?"
"What?"
"I...it started four years ago, on a sticky summer night..." Devon told James about that night, the night which first made him question himself, and his sexuality. "...and as Tyler, Danny and Andrew went to sleep, I laid awake, thinking about...well what it meant."
"I see. And then you...?" James' interest had been piqued. Devon heaved a sigh.
"About a month and a half ago I thought about Tyler again, about that night again. I thought that he could be like I was...gay too. I called him and we caught up. I went over to his house and..." Devon recounted the tale of his and Tyler's first kiss and about how Devon slowly realized he was falling in love with Tyler.
"It sounds like you two were really in love. How wonderful, but I assume it doesn't end there, since you're here." James commented when Devon paused. Devon took a deep breath as he prepared to tell the most tender part of the story.
"Over the last month, we've seen each other countless times. We'd gone on dates 4-5 times a week. We made out constantly, we shared our most intimate secrets. Last night we were on another date..." Devon, between spuratic fits of sobbing, retold what had happened the night before. When he finished, he felt much better.
"That's horrible." James replied, he had gotten sucked into Devon's story as he told it.
"The worst part is, I don't know what would have caused him to freak out so horribly." Devon sniffed.
"It sounds to me, like he wasn't actually used to the idea of being gay, and when he was truly confronted by it, just snapped." James replied, acting more like Devon's predicament was a math problem than an actual problem. James, realizing he had been acting more calculating and logical than sensitive and rational suddenly jumped. "Oh I'm sorry! I didn't mean to make it sound so..."
"No I understand, really it helped." Devon lied, James was socially inept sometimes, but Devon didn't want to hurt the moose's feelings, besides he knew James was just trying to help.
"I'm sorry, I get a little robotic sometimes." James frowned. "I can't help very much, but I can offer you to stay here as long as you want. I'll help you find a job if you want, and I can borrow a car from my brother for you if you want."
"Thanks thanks. I think the car may be a little far, seriously you're helping me a lot." Devon replied.
"Oh wait! I know what I can do for you! You don't have any of your own clothes or anything, why don't we go to the mall, it's close by!" James shouted excitedly.
"No no, you can't waste your money on me."
"No it's not a waste, it's the least I can do. Besides we can pick you up an application so you can pay me back later." James replied hastily. Devon was flattered by his friend's generousity, but he knew James would do that for all of his friends if the opprotunity arose. Devon also knew that James had no intention of letting Devon pay him back, and was only saying that to make Devon feel better about taking the gifts.
"Well, you get cleaned up I'll wash the dishes and we'll head out!" James announced. Devon happily headed for James' shower. Devon knew James would take care of him while he was there, James was a very generous and caring fur. As Devon warmed up the shower's water, he thought about a night a year ago, the last time he was in James' apartment.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ One year before, outside James' apartment......
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Devon knocked on the door of apartment 314. A large tiger opened the door.
"Hey Devon." The tiger greeted Devon happily.
"Hi Ken, is everyone here yet?" Devon asked the tiger, Ken.
"You'll be the last one, besides James of course." Ken replied.
They were throwing a surprise birthday party for James at his apartment. Devon entered the apartment and scanned the room. He saw several of his friends, first being Ken followed by Travis, Drew, Melanie, Sarah, Arty and Ally. Besides his friends were several people he'd never met, whom James had most likely helped out of a tight spot. It seemed James always had money, a room, some clothes or anything to spare, even when he didn't. James' apartment was decorated wonderfully, it appeared to have taken hours, they had to have started as soon as he left for work.
A couple of minutes later, the warning that he was coming was sent out. Everyone hid behind something or someone. James opened the door and flipped on the light.
"SURPRISE!!!!!!!!"
A couple of hours later, Devon was still at James' relaxing on his couch. Now only Devon and James were left, everyone else had gone home. Devon's ride wasn't going to show up for another 15 minutes or so, and Devon and James decided to just watch tv while he waited.
"So did you have fun?" James asked Devon.
"I should be asking you that, this party was for you after all!" Devon laughed. James was always thinking about other people. "You need to relax and think about yourself from time to time Jamie."
"Hey, you know it bothers me when people call me that. Besides I do think about myself, in fact I love helping people out, you could saying being selfless is the most selfish thing I could do." James laughed at his own joke, he was very corny.
Devon laughed along. Devon inched ever so closer to James as they sat there on the couch. James seemed not to notice. Devon was now sitting right next to James, and began leaning towards him, intending to kiss him.
James, still watching TV said, "There's a time, a place, and a person to share your first kiss with Devon. And you'll find none of those here." Devon stopped dead in his tracks. Those words from James seemed so cold. James turned to face Devon.
"You...you know I'm gay then?" Devon asked.
"Without you telling me that, I knew. And without me telling you, you should know I'm not." Once more James seemed so cold and distant. Suddenly James seemed to snap out of it. "Uh, sorry, I didn't mean to be so...tactless and blunt." James apologized. A knock at the door caught them both by surprise, it was Devon's ride.
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Present......
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As Devon stepped out of the shower and dried off he remembered his failed attempt at making a move on James. From that day on he learned that although he felt a certain way, it didn't mean someone felt that way back. His friendship with James oddly benefited from that night, at least he knew where they would always stand. Devon heard a knock at the door.
"You ready yet Devon?" James asked.
"Yeah, I'll be out in a second." Devon yelled as he ran a comb through his mane.
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"Oh Danny, you're here!" Andrew exclaimed. Danny could easily detect some sort of alcohol on Andrew's breath. In fact the entire house reeked of booze. Danny realized Andrew was in a very sorry state, and had apparently been there for quite a while. "So what was it you wanted to talk about?" Andrew asked.
"Andrew did you have sex with Dominique?" Danny asked calmly. Andrew looked confounded.
"No, why would I?"
"Now Andrew, I'm going to ask you again, and no matter what you tell me, if it's the truth, I'll remain calm." Danny stated calmly still. "Did you have sex with Dominique?"
"No, what gave you that idea?"
"Andrew, Dominique drove me here, I know you had sex with her, just tell me the truth." Danny replied. "Andrew, did you sleep with my sister?" Andrew seemed to sober up a bit.
"Yes. I did, last night." Andrew finally answered truthfully.
"Andrew, have you had sex with anyone else before that?" Danny asked calmly.
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Did you have sex with anyone before that?"
"How is that any of your business?"
"I think you might have an STD, and you might have given it to my sister." Andrew was floored. He had never thought about the consequences of his constant one night stands. "Andrew, did you have sex with anyone before that?"
"Yes."
"How many?"
"A couple a week." Danny was stunned. His friend was a sex addict. Danny wondered how he and his friend could be so drastically different, Danny still being a virgin and Andrew being...
"Do you really want to live your life worrying if you've just given that meaningless one night stand herpes, or if that one passionate night made you sterile for life?" Danny asked. Andrew couldn't reply.
"Do you hate me?" Andrew asked.
"No Andrew, I'm worried about you. and I think you should get checked out by a doctor." Danny replied
"I'll do it." Andrew replied. "I'll get checked out, and if I have anything...I'm going to have to live with it." Andrew replied sullenly. This time Danny couldn't reply.
"Andrew."
"What?"
"STDs aren't the only thing you have to worry about. Everytime you haven't used protection..." Andrew knew what Danny was getting at.
"Will you help me?" Andrew asked.
"Yes. No matter what happens, I'll help you out." Danny replied. "We're still friends. Speaking of which, I need to get a hold of Tyler and Devon." Andrew stood up, grabbed his cell and returned to the table. "What's that for?"
"There's a voicemail you should listen to on here." Andrew stated as he handed Danny his cell. Danny put Andrew's cell to his ear, a male moose's voice spoke.
"Hey, uh, Andrew? This is James, you probably don't know me, but I'm one of Devon's friends. I know it's late but...Devon just showed up at my place sobbing. I called Danny and he didn't pick up, uh, I think you guys need to be here. My address is..." Danny hurried and wrote down the address. "Please, come over soon, I think Devon needs you guys. I...I don't think he can go home." The voicemail ended.
"I listened to it but...I figured that Devon wouldn't get much help from a booze hound like me." Andrew replied.
"I'm gonna need your help with this one Andrew. You're gonna have to come with me." Danny replied.
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Devon walked out of the dressing room wearing tight faded jeans, and a brown casual dress shirt.
"Nice, this one looks even better!" James exclaimed.
"I don't know, it's a bit expensive."
"I wouldn't have let you pick it out if I couldn't afford it." James replied.
"Why am I getting so much dressy stuff?" Devon asked.
"Well, I think you need to get out and find another date." James replied guiltily.
"It's only been one day! Not even one day!" Devon refused.
"I know but... I'm afraid you'll stop dating all together, and that won't help you at all. The best thing to do after you fall off a bike is to get right back on." James argued.
"No...."
"Come on, I can hook you up with a guy from my work...he just went through a break up too so..."
"...Fine!" Devon agreed.
"Yes! You won't regret it!" James exclaimed as he pulled out his cell and began dialing someone's number.