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Resolutions (Part 3)

March: Birthdays and Parties

By Al Song

March 23rd, 2015

I had a great time hanging out with my roommates and Nathan during Valentine's Day. The rest of February went by pretty quickly and Nathan and I spent a lot of our free time together. We went to a couple art museums and had discussions about the installations and pieces. At first we'd talk about how bizarre some of the art was but then we'd actually try to figure out what it meant. Some guy in a tattered suit told us that we were being senseless and ignorant by trying to interpret what a burnt piece of toast was trying to represent and to be honest I thought it was ridiculous at first but the caption next to the installation said it was about how we create more than enough food for the world yet there are so many people starving.

At the beginning of March Nathan and I really had to buckle down and study harder since our finals were on the last week of class and we had French papers due on the actual week of finals. Nathan also had an engineering project due on finals week and I had a presentation for Italian. It was a hectic and busy month for us but we finally made it through with the help of one another. Well... he doesn't know Italian and I don't know anything about engineering so it was mostly us doing French and then telling each other to concentrate. I mean, it worked for us.

Nathan's birthday is on the twenty-third of March, which fell on the Monday of spring break and I was so excited to give him his present.

"Do you think I should wear the blue or the green hoodie?" I asked as I stepped in front of Arvin and Geo's doorway.

"Ah, now the otter cares about aesthetics," the deer chided and I rolled my eyes at him.

"Are you going to be wearing that t-shirt?" Geo asked gesturing to my 'Sun Dried Sundries' shirt. They're a band that Nathan and I discovered when we went to an old record shop.

"Yeah," I said and ignored Arvin playfully sticking his tongue out at me.

The kangaroo then replied, "Hmm, maybe go for the green hoodie. You're already wearing blue jeans and green looks good on you."

"Thank you for the actual advice, Geo," I said and Arvin tried to throw a sock at me but I deflected it with their door.

"Have fun wolf chaser," the deer teased.

"Have a good wonderful night," the kangaroo said kindly.

At least Geo had let me off easy. I threw on the hoodie, grabbed the present, looked into the mirror, and headed out the door.

I hopped on my lime bike, which Nathan called 'Limed Lightning' and rode off towards his apartment.

There was the muffled sound of techno coming from one of the upper apartments and I ran up the steps. I knocked loudly on the door and eventually it opened with the birthday wolf standing on the other side.

"My favorite otter!" Nathan exclaimed and then gave me a big hug. I hugged him back with the small box awkwardly held in my paw's grasp.

"And this is for my favorite wolf," I said and handed the blue and green wrapped present to Nathan after we released each other.

"Aw, that's sweet of you I'll put this away with the other gifts. I need to make some more drinks too, so go and mingle."

"Uh, sure thing," I said a little nervously looking at the crowd of people in the living room but then I spotted two rabbits in my French class talking to each other.

"Hey Simone, hey Sharon!" I said as I walked over to them.

"Hey Wes," they said in unison.

"How are you two doing?"

"I'm good," Sharon said.

"Me too," Simone replied. "There were a couple other people from our class here earlier but they had to leave. We've got a double date tonight so we're going soon too."

"But we can chat and hang out with you before we go," Sharon said with a smile.

"Sure," I said. I wasn't exactly certain how to respond to that.

So we mostly talked about the final together and we all got good grades from the class since grades were posted earlier that morning. We also talked about next quarter and the classes we were going to take. The discussion didn't last too long before they had to leave me in the dust.

I walked to the kitchen to try to find Nathan but I saw him making out with a vixen and for some reason I turned around really quickly and walked back out. My face felt hot and my ribs were constricting my lungs. I bit my lower lip and winced at the pain.

I then took a breath and headed back to the living room where a couple people were standing around in a circle talking and another otter and a raccoon were talking to each other in the corner. I took my chances with the smaller group and nervously walked up to the two.

"Hi, I'm Wes. I'm Nathan's friend from his French class."

"Hey," the other otter said and started talking to the raccoon without making eye contact with me. They took a few gulps from their red cups between sentences and they kept gossiping about the other guests standing in the circle. I wasn't sure if I should have notified the others that they were talking smack about them or not.

I silently slipped away to the group standing in a circle. They were talking about a reality show that had engineers and scientists trying to solve everyday problems and competing for money. I tried introducing myself but they seemed like they were in their own world. They laughed together and talked about stuff that I had no idea about.

At that point I was frustrated and lonely and I had kept getting drinks from the various punch bowls. They were pretty strong drinks. The music was getting louder and the bass was ringing my brain like a bell. I turned down the stereo so I could try to hear them better. I was glad that no one berated me for turning down the volume.

I saw the other otter was motioning at me and he called me a gay, creepy hipster and the raccoon started laughing.

"Hey, what did you say?" I shouted at them.

"We're not talking to you, homo," the raccoon said.

"Go drink some kombucha, ya flamin' fairy," the otter said after him.

Something in my brain snapped. I growled and then I threw my drink at them without any caution.

They then walked over to me and pushed me down and I felt a kick to my rib and punch to my cheek. The others tried to stop them while someone futilely started to chant fight.

A second later I heard Nathan shout, "Out of my house!"

I sat up and saw him pick up the raccoon and the otter and tossed them out of the front door. Everyone else followed suit and he knelt down next to me to check out if I was okay.

I told him my chest and cheek felt sore.

"From the smell of your breath and the slurring, I'm guessing that you're kind of drunk?" he asked.

"Yeah, a little," I replied.

"What happened? Why were they hurting you?"

"They called me a fairy and homo and gay and then I threw my drink at them," I said and scowled at the door.

"I'm done with these people," he said and smacked the ground. "Being in a class with a ton of students there's bound to be a couple jerks. I'm sorry, Wes. I'm just trying to make more friends but I don't want to be around people that want to hit my best friend."

"It's okay, it's not your fault everyone either tried to ignore me or make fun of me. I guess I'm not too good at making friends either. It's easier when there are people I know but Sharon and Simone had to leave early and you were kissing the fox in the kitchen."

"Oh, you saw that. Well funny thing. It turns out she has a boyfriend and I have some explaining to do to him if I ever get the unfortunate chance to meet him."

"I'm sorry for messing up the carpet and sorry that you had a terrible birthday."

"It was a clear drink and all of that's nothing compared to getting hit by a couple of homophobes. Again, I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I just need to lie down," I said and closed my eyes.

"Here, I'll take you to my bedroom and you can rest on the bed. Does that sound good?"

"Sure, oh and you need to open the present."

"Alright," he said as he lifted me up and put me on his bed and he placed a pillow under my sore head.

He took the box tore through the wrapping paper. Inside there was a small cardboard box. He opened up the top flap and pulled out a beaker in the shape of a mug. There was also a tiny bottle of chocolate wine in the mug along with necklace with a piece of toast on the end and one with a square of butter. The two lockets had stuck to each other which looked like a mini piece of buttered toast.

"You said how much you loved owning the art snob at the museum after we read the description to him," I said as I closed my eyes again and then I took a deep breath before continuing. "I got us the lockets that you thought were cheesy but cute. Yours is the toast and I'm the butter. They're also magnetic."

Nathan opened them up and the toast locket had a picture of him and the one with the butter had a picture of me. The inscriptions said, 'You're the toast to my butter,' and 'You're the butter to my toast,' respectively.

"Thank you so much!" he exclaimed and hugged me tightly.

'You're welcome," I said and my voice was muffled with my muzzle to his chest.

"It's all so personal and I love all of it," he said gently to into my ear.

We continued the hug in silence and I held onto him and listened to his heartbeat. He was so warm and I was so tired. His breath was soft and calm and I felt his chest and stomach rise and fall. He was also rocking me back and forth gently.

"This is nice and you're definitely warm," I said and then sighed. "I really don't feel like biking home in the cold, but I know I need to."

"Do you want to stay over?" he asked and I heard his big, fluffy tail bouncing against the mattress in a quick beat. "You can take my bed and I can sleep on the couch. I don't want you biking while you're drunk."

"I'm just buzzed... Okay, I'm more than buzzed," I admitted, "but I don't want to take your bed. We can stay in it together and put a pillow between us if you want. Is that weird?" His voice became quieter and it changed in pitch.

"I'm the gay one here. I should be asking you that," I said and smiled while still on his chest and I heard the wolf chuckle.

"I don't mind," he replied.

"I don't either," I said matter-of-factly.

"My roommate isn't here for the week so he won't know."

"Alright."

After our hug Nathan gave me a pair of his pajama pants to sleep in and he lent me some mouthwash and gave me a cheap toothbrush. Nathan texted my roommates to tell them that I'd be staying over at his place due to me getting drunk. Geo said that he would pick me up but he and Arvin had been drinking wine together.

The next thing I knew I was awake with the glow of morning caressing my face and the sound of a handsome wolf gently snoring near me with his paw on my arm. I smiled at the sight before me.

-To be continued...