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Chapter 3: Secrets Hurt

It's 3:20 pm and Physics class has just ended. I tell Dex that we are going to the library to study for the Physics test before our semester finals slam stress and anxiety of failing into our heads.

Dex elbows me in the rib and jokes, “So you going to be my cheat buddy right?"

I interject and spit venom back at him. “Never cheat, Dex! Like I said, I can help you study for this test." His eye roll of a response pushed some rather unpleasant thoughts into the front of my mind. Throughout the whole walk, I give Dex some advice about test-taking skills while we skim the notes taken about the different wave patterns of sound, radio, and infrared waves. I can see how he would want help with it since most normal people in the class mess up the sound and radio waves because they would assume the radio as the music projector instead of a set marker that sends out a signal. The ignorance of people makes me smile sometimes, especially if it's something quite as silly as that.

When we make it to the library, I notice some anthros and humans giving us strange faces, as if they seen something sickening. Oh God, I hope they didn't take what drunk Dex said seriously last night. In this situation, I could only hope for the best instead of losing it.

Dex leans in and whispers in my ear, “What's with the staring? Did I do something awesome yet totally disgusting last night?"

I say the vaguest thing that comes to my mind. “Well you did something surprising in front of everyone, but I wouldn't say it was good."

Dex seems like he caught on, but in reality, he probably just thought about him doing something stupid like flashing his junk to everyone.

In the library, I am surprised to see that all of the party decors had been cleaned up and/or thrown away so quickly as there is no trace of confetti, no lingering scent of whiskey, no damp stains on the carpet, just a room full of books. Jena told me when I got to the dorm that the party was over around 3 am. I guess they were dedicated not to get in trouble by the Student Council and the faculty for not having the building presentable before opening hours.

“Ahh, I can still smell some alcohol in here. Doesn't it smell welcoming James?" Dex says and puts his arm around my shoulder.

“Sure whatever you say," I unwrap his arm from around me and find us somewhere to study. I suppose his stronger sense of smell located the scent before I realized that he's a dog. I find us a table to sit near an outlet and two modern computers with outdated operating systems to use.

“Here should be a fine place to study," I tell him.

We sit down, and the first thing he does is get out his phone and check his Twitter feed instead of getting any notes from physics from the scrawny backpack of his.

Annoyed, I whisper, “Put your phone up! We came here to study not check your recent social media news. I don't care if it's some guy posting pictures of his food, we need to look over microwave radiation."

Before Dex put his phone up, he says, “Pfft! What I know is that you're also going to get yours out anyway."

Ignoring his comment, I get my book and laptop out and show him the notes I scribbled.

Dex, surprised from looking at my computer screen, says quietly “Holy fuck, James! Did you type every word the Professor said?"

I tell him, “No I just take notes of everything that's important to know, also I write some text from the textbook for reference."

Dex skims through some notes on my laptop. “No wonder you ace every test; you pretty much have the test in front of you!"

The librarian's assistant came and told us to quiet it down. “Shhh! Be quite! Mr. Zheal, control your friend," she says and walks off.

After she left, Dex and I get back to studying.

Some hours have passed since we began studying, and I feel that Dex is actually caring a little more about the class.

Dex is excited, the evidence being his tail wagging. “Man this makes way more sense now that you explained it."

I would blush at that, but my pigmentation kind of denies that request. “Sure no problem Dex anything for a friend." I smile.

Before I could say another word, someone pulls up from behind Dex and swings at his nose, his weak spot. Before I realize what is happening, I am grabbed and tossed from behind to the ground. Dex is standing and groaning in pain from his nose getting jabbed. I can see the crimson liquid dripping like gory molasses from his nose.

The attacker is a white male human, and he isn't as buff as Dex. However, scanning the damage he did from such a small swing, I see that he can certainly show what he's made of. The attacker grabs Dex by the neck with both hands and slams him into the desk, his eyes struggling to stay open.

“What do we have here? A fucking faggot I see," says the human attacker.

The person holding me taunts awfully close to my ear, “Heh, and I see he has his boyfriend with him!" I get a better look at his face and upper body as he did so. He is an otter with a store-bought varsity jacket and a mess of greased fur topping off his scalp.

I struggle and strain to get my captor off of me, and I give him the challenge to keep me locked. Dex rises to his feet growling, teeth bared and eyes wide and burning, and he throttles his fist towards the human. On instinct, the human either catches or dodges every one of Dex's potential blows. Aggravated, Dex started to get more reckless with his punching, knocking everything he can reach off the tables and into his hands to use as ammunition. That didn't help him much. Instead, this gives the human offender more opportunity to take advantage of him. While thrashing at a chair, Dex trips and was pinned to the ground by the nape of his neck. The attacker kneeled on his back and brought his mouth closer to Dex's trembling face.

“Look at you, a fag and a lousy fighter. I don't see how Cliff had any problem with you, even if you were both drunk," the attacker spits to Dex before lightly chuckling into his free palm.

In a moment of carelessness, my captor loosens his grip slightly. This is enough for me to shake him off. He tries to re-grab me by grasping at my wrist. Little did he know, I knew how to fight. I throw him to the ground by undercutting his legs and flipping his falling body over myself. My captor is on the ground holding his arm from me, twisting it while he fell. After incapacitating him, I advance closer to the human pinning my best friend to the carpet.

“Hey, how did you--" the human starts to say before I take the first move and try to barrel into his shoulder to take his arm down. I strike as fast as a rock from a loaded slingshot, but he manages to throw it off. While I am disoriented and trying to catch my stance again, he tries to kick my knee into a bend to bring me kneeling to the floor. As fast as he is, I manage to pummel my heel backwards with a swift and precise low kick to his foot. The human tries to do exactly what I am trying to do to him and throws me over his shoulder. Sadly I can't avoid this, and I spiral over his grinning, maniacal face. I gain some resemblance to balance midair and land on my feet. When I look up, he is already running towards me ready to swing at me. I block him midway through the race, punches and kicks from both sides are blocked and dodged at astounding rates. I manage to get an advantage and sweep him with my left leg while he plainly stumbles from my previous palm strike to the jugular. He hits the floor with a thud and lays there, clasping his throat.

I run up to Dex and pick him up by his shoulders to help him walk. I feel a potent sense of déja Vu from this escalatory double duel, due to last night's drunken brawl.

Dex groans a bit from his nose still bleeding and asks me with a shaky voice, “W-who the h-hell was that?"

I don't answer and just help him out of the library. I ask the librarian's assistant, Ms. Georgiana, if she would get my computer from the back desk and bring it to my dorm room.

“My God, what happened to him?!" she asks.

I tell her not to focus on Dex but instead focus on my stuff, so it won't get stolen by any more cronies. With a nod and a nervous gait, she travels to where Dex and I had been sitting and retrieves my belongings. Being the librarian's assistant, she is technically a part of the university faculty in a manner of speaking, so she has access to every student's dorm room number via the university database.

Outside of the library, I walk down the sidewalk and rested Dex on the bench.

“Dex, stay here. I will be right back," I tell him as I run back to the building. Thankfully the human and the otter that was there left by the time I passed over the same area, and Ms. Georgiana had already taken my computer and notebook. I jog to the nearby men's restroom outside of the library and get some paper towels and soaked them to help absorb the blood pooling in Dex's nostrils.

The intensity of the fighting and the overall adrenaline rush those two radiated over us parallel one particular event back in high school. My body goes into autopilot as my mind drifts into nostalgia.

Dale was getting closer to me while I was on the ground inflamed in pain from his persistent pummeling of me into the lockers. When I thought all hope was lost and accepted my fate,Dex was there to save me. He took on every one of the several bullies there and wiped them all out, sending most to cower or run for cover. Though he didn't know how to fight to the extent he does now, the bullies were awkward enough not to evade, so they took all of Dex's targeted hits. Beaten and humiliated, Dale was the only one left standing, or on this case slouching against the lockers, while Dex helped me up and dusted me off.

“Hey you doing alright, skinny man?" he asks me in an oddly reassuring tone.

I breathe a sigh of relief. “Yeah I'm fine. Thanks for the save."

I snap out of my small flashback to realize I am drenching the cheap brown paper. I squeeze out the excess, getting every extra drop out until the paper towels turn into a damp, wadded ball.

Back outside Dex is hanging his head down with his ears folded over, grunting in frustration. I come back with the towels, and his ears perk alert. Without me reacting in time, he gives me a hug and sobs into my shirt.

“I couldn't save you from getting hurt. I'm sorry I couldn't do anything," he cries.

I pat his back, clearly in more discomfort than was necessary. “It's okay. To be honest, I'm really returning the favor from when you saved me from Dale sophomore year."

Dex lets me go and chuckles a bit, wiping his dry eyes with his furred arm. “Har har, you still remember that?"

“Yeah, when I couldn't fight, except it happened not five minutes ago." As I guide him down onto the bench, I dab his reddening nose with the clump of wet paper. He winces slightly from the added sensitivity one gets around a “battle scar."

Trying to brighten the mood, Dex compliments me. “You kicked their asses, man! You need to show me how to do what you did back there."

“Oh, that? That was part self-defense and part green-belt karate I took before I graduated."

He appears lost in thought until he nearly gives me a heart attack by the sudden spillage of words. “Hey the human and the otter that attacked us? I believe they were friends of the tiger last night, I think Cliff is his name."

I could have sworn Dex blushed, but I don't see since he turns his head away in embarrassment, and his fur blocks the changes in skin color more so than my naked face.

“Uh, yeah, I'm sure they were just being pricks because I made fun of their friend," Dex lies to me.

I ignore his lie and continue to help him recover from the fight. His knuckles are still bruised from the scuffle, but I think he'll live.

“They must have some metal skin or something if your knuckles are bruised like this."

“Yeah, hurts like a bitch, but I'll heal. This is nothing compared to a concussion."

After I wipe off any last bloodstain, I use the towels as a bandage and wrap it around his knuckles haphazardly, so the contaminated air couldn't seep into the exposed flesh.

“Hey, you look really badass with the bandages on your knuckles. Like you're boxing for a living."

We both laugh, his demeanor loosening, and he begins to open up again.

“Hey James, I was wondering if we could eat outside of the campus tonight?" he asks, fidgeting with his fingers.

I really don't like going out to eat very often, mainly because of the incident at Katter's last year. We ended up banned from the lower echelon restaurant. I still feel a little humiliated after his attempt at drinking thirteen milkshakes failed in the restroom.

“I don't know, Dex, maybe something take-out like the Oriental Market or something?"

He gives me his whole routine of puppy dog eyes, quivering lip, and mock whining when I say no to something he really wants to do. Even though he is a muscular jock, he still is able to pull this off somehow. Jokes on him is that I had been getting used to his begging face.

After almost a minute he gives in, face straightened into a sneer. “Fine, I guess we can have takeout, I'm just tired of ramen and PB and J."

As I help him back to the dorm room, he starts singing a good childhood song. Though pitiful, it was nostalgic enough for me to sing along as well. “Horrid singing duo" would definitely be our title in a talent show entry.

We make it back to our dorm room, and I see a box on the floor outside of the door labeled “James Zheal". I take note of seeing it and bring Dex inside first. After I sit Dex down in a chair, I go back outside to retrieve the box. I set the box down on a small wooden table and focus back on Dex. I notice how clean the room is, and I am surprised that it looks relatively the same as this morning. Usually the room is dirtied with some food wrappers or clothes on the floor, but this time there isn't any trash present.

“Did you clean up the room?" I ask him.

He responds, “Yeah, I did. I felt like doing it for once. Shocker, right?" he laughs when he finishes his sentence.

“Aw, you do care about the room we share," I tease.

Again, I sense Dex blushing hotly through his fur. I can feel his embarrassment breathe down my neck, and it's enough for me to take pity on the flushed Dex I'm consoling. Dex eventually lets go of my shoulder and walks on his own to his room. While he is in his room, I pull out my smartphone, and I notice a couple of unread text messages, each were from different people. Jena and an anonymous number texted me at 3:18 and 3:24 respectively, around the time I had dealt with those two jerks in the library and was treating Dex afterward.

Jena: “OMG r u hurt? I saw the video posted online of you fighting those guys."

Wait, there is a video of me kicking ass online? This might not end well.

???: “Dude, Kev here, you kicked ass! Didn't know skinny humans could do that."

Wow, compliments from Kev? This must be a big game changer. What took my mind off the content and on the message itself is how he has my phone number. I then realize that Dex probably gave him my phone number since he probably wanted me and him to stay in touch. I'll have a talk with Dex about this, but for now, I have more pressing matters.

After I finish reading the messages, I check the link Jena gave me and watch the video. Sure enough, my fighting skills are on display for the world to see. Just great! The principal is going to find out, and I'll be suspended for sure!

I order the Chinese food: some kung pow chicken, some teriyaki chicken, and some fried rice, just to take my mind off of this. I hang up my phone after I give them the dorm room number and address of the university.

I head to my room, grab some casual clothes, and head into the shower. In the shower, I turn the water hot and high first to relax my muscles. While soaking and scrubbing off the dead skin from the scrapes, I think about the events of today. People actually took Dex's drunk rambling seriously, which sounds foolish in and of itself. I take note that those two guys at the library are friends of Cliff, the tiger from the other night. He must have remembered what Dex did, yet as long as I don't know what happened exactly, I can't help Dex talk his way out of this. Well, he must have remembered last night, or at least enough to know who Cliff is. He did turn his head away and blush when I mentioned the tiger. I will just have to ask him when I'm done bathing. I get out of the shower and grab a towel to dry the loose droplets of water off my bare body. When I walk outside into the “living room", I see Dex in his underwear, and he is looking at something on his phone. From the look on his face, he seems shocked.

“James, they have a video of you kicking ass in the library--" He stops and looks at me. Though I'm not entirely exposed, I am not wearing a shirt above the towel around my waist. He is blushing really hard, nearly hiding his face in balled-up fists, and I can't help but ask, “Is something wrong?"

“Uh, um, n-no it's just th-that you're going v-viral."

He changes the subject and looks away from me.

I walk to my room with basketball shorts and t-shirt in hand and change clothes. He is even reacting strangely when I was wearing no shirt. I'm going to have to ask him personally if he is indeed gay. I exit my room, and I don't see him in there. He is probably taking his shower since he was only in his underwear.

I sit in the chair he previously sat in, and I wait for the delivery boy to show up with our food. I hear the bathroom door open, and Dex is there with his towel on his waist, the end tucked in quite messily.

He asks, clearly trying to avoid eye contact, “Hey did they show up yet? Because I'm starving."

“They should be here soon. I should check down the halls for them," I say until I gaze at something that I thought would have blinded me. The tucked end of Dex's towel slips out, and it falls to the ground, Dex being surprisingly oblivious to the light breeze on his crotch. His fully naked body presents itself to me. I can tell that he just groomed his fur from head to toe pad. I try my best not to stare at his midriff, but I do skim down enough to see how chiseled he really is: sculpted abs and toned legs with the offending body part in the center of it all.

I drone, nonchalant, “Your towel fell off Dex, and your junk is just swinging."

He covers his genitals with his tail, his hands pushing down on it, and his strong stature shrinks into a standing fetal position. I can see the unsure grin of embarrassment on his face, and it looks adorable coming from a collegiate football player, but then it was just pitiful to see Dex in this position. I turn my head away and remark, “Put your clothes on Dex, and I'll pretend I didn't see anything."

He stutters, “Y-yeah, uh, tell me w-when the f-food is here."

He runs to his room, desperately trying to cover his nude glutes. Usually, when he takes his showers, he leaves the shower naked like you do, but I never really pay attention. This time, he was acting bizarre. He blushed whenever either of us were even partially nude and stuttered in Morse Code. What could have happened from just yesterday that made him act this way?

I check to see if my saved notes on the laptop are still there and if my handwritten notes from the textbook are still intact. Some time passed, and I hear a knock at the door. I get up from checking my notes, sure to leave them lined in a perfect stack. I open the door to see a skinny red fox holding a brown bag with the aroma of savory sweet and sour sauce flowing to my nose. The patch on his upper right chest displayed the familiar red and white-typed Oriental Market.

“Order for James Zheal?" he asks.

“Yes, I'm James Zheal," I answer with a nod, and he hands me the food in the grease-soaked paper bag.

“Enjoy your meal, and have a nice day." He tips his cap and leaves while I catch a few disgruntled murmurs.

When I bring the food in, Dex is fully clothed with a tank top and black sports shorts. He is sitting in his chair, and I can tell he was ready to eat. If the tongue panting and drooling and the tail wagging isn't enough to indicate his appetite, I'm sure his wide eyes staring at the bag is. I set the bag on the table, and he starts opening and setting out the food on the table.

“Hey, sorry about earlier with the towel. I must not have tied the towel correctly, and it slipped from my waist and it, ya know, fell," he says, rubbing his head in disappointment.

“Don't worry about it; stuff like that happens all the time."

I shake my head. We both start to dig into our styrofoam cartons, and by the slurping and slobbering sounds, we are both enjoying our food.

“Hey James? About today with the fighting. I think I remember why they were picking out a fight," he says out of nowhere.

I already know why, but I let him speak anyway just to confirm my suspicions. “Last night at the party I drank a lot, and I mean, a lot. I think I said some things that pissed him off, making his friends get back at me for doing so."

I can't let him be so oblivious yet secretive with this.

I stop eating my food and stand up from my seat. “Dex I have something to tell you."

His ears are perked, eyes off the food, and tail lying limp, paying full attention while sneaking in a bite or two.

“What is it, James?" He asks.

“Don't get mad, but I read the journal underneath your night table the other day."

He stops eating and stares into my soul. For the first time in all the years I've known Dex, he is truly frightened, not trembling but borderline convulsing. He isn't even breathing, flustering my heart into a rapid staccato.

“I'm sorry that I did, it was a total disrespect of privacy, but I was curious, you know?"

Dex turns his head to his food, eyebrows furrowed with a rare somber look in his eyes.

“I didn't want you..." his voice trails off as if he just now realizes what I saw. It was only a matter of time and patience until I finally ask him the burning question:

“Dex, are you...gay?"