OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH FUUCCCCCCCK. Her claws found their way to my soft, vulnerable back and I folded like a house of cards onto the floor. Beforehand I had clambered on top of HER for a change and she found it appropriate to sink her claws into my poor man flesh. "OH FUCK I'M SORRY!" She just sorta' hovered over me while I sat there, trying my best to not squirm like a bitch. My hand covered the scratches that resided on both sides of my lower back, right above my ass. "I-I’ll go get something!" Stella panicked out loud while standing back up. I nodded while gritting my teeth from the sharp pain. I felt a tiny amount of blood seep too. She got me real fucking good. But hey, it's whatever. I've been through worse. We both sat on the wooden floor in a semi-intimate manner. Our failure to have sex was met with a few giggles from Stella as she rubbed a bit of na-na-na-neo-na-na-na-na-sporin on my battle scars. "I have… no idea what got into me," she said, kissing my nape. Her arms had found their way around my body into a sort of hug from behind sort of deal after she got the bandage stuck on me. "Got THAT excited huh?" I quipped back, again taking her by the hand. She blushed at the notion. We were both ass-naked on the floor, so honesty was in abundance at that point. "I've never really had a guy on top of me before… I guess I really couldn't help it." "That's pretty cute, and I'm glad I could be the first one you really tear into." Like a complete nut job, she found it appropriate to give my shoulders mocking love bites while she made dog noises. "I can't help it! You are like a chew toy to me." She let out in between bites. I uh… only had Fang to compare to, but Stella’s teeth felt more herbivore than carnivore. I wonder why. "Maybe we should go to my bed, Anon… it's been a long day." "Yeah, honestly I wouldn't mind hittin' the hay at this point… Sorry we keep getting distracted." I laughed out loud. "Actually, I think it's funny." She laughed back. "I'm uh… still sorta nervous I think…" "Well we can take our sweet time with this really. No need to rush." I reassured her, climbing back up to my feet and helping her up in the process. We embraced each other's naked bodies in another hug. I gotta see her in the pale moonlight but damn, her body was really, really hard to pull away from. It's obvious she had gained a tiny bit of weight since school ended but it all went to her hips and chest. Curves in all the right places. Add in the new hair color and, if it wasn't for her snoot, she would be unrecognizable. She was cute back then, she's beautiful now. I made sure she understood how I felt about the subject as soon as we slipped into bed. It's a weird thing to be horny and sleepy at the same time, but I felt like that's how we both were. We cuddled under the covers for a bit till I got the bright idea for… something… Jesus, I'm actually tired. Awake. Alone. In the room of a woman I hardly know. Pretending I am finally whole, or however that one song she told me went. Actually, where did she go? I woke up with a headache in her frilly bed sheets, a bunch of plushies watching me from across the room on a shelf. Looking down at my naked body, judging me. Getting my eyes open fully was a task all its own, I was up way too late, again. Uhh. My clothes are in the other room. Gonna have to… walk around Stella’s apartment naked. I'm sure people do stuff like this all the time so… we ball. It actually seems she's not here. Crazy. I checked my phone and saw I had a few messages. One from Reed, one from Stella. Huh. Reed just said if I was up to hang out and drink at his house with his new crippled friend named Balthazar. Balthazar, what a name. Stella was called into work early. She apologized for the early abandonment and said she had a wonderful time last night, along with a bunch of heart emojis. God she's perfect. And Fang's message… I didn't wanna read. So I didn't. I put on my clothes and left without looking. I needed time. It felt bad that Lucy was still just 'Fang' in my contacts. It's like a ghost was still kicking around my phone. Just hanging out till it randomly wanted to haunt me. I rang up a rideshare before I even started to contemplate looking at her message. It couldn't have been too bad, after all, our conversation the other day went well. But… I'd gotten so close to Stella… What would she think about her friend being anywhere as close to me as she is? It was such a messy situation that I had to navigate with a broken compass. Sitting in the back of some random dude's car? I slowly opened up my text messages… Fang: hey I know it's sudden but do you wanna get coffee soon? … Uh, how soon we talking? Soon meant about a week later. Go figure. Time just sorta dilates around me at this point. I guess it depends on what's happening in my life. In the time between me sitting in this nice little coffee shop, and my date with Stella, literally nothing happened. Well, that's not entirely true. I've started trying to get my ass fired from my job at Wac's to earn some unemployment cuz why not. Joey got back to me; he said I could have the job, so I guess everything is going okay in the finance department at least. Me and Stella still text every day, though the subject of our relationship status has never been broached. Which is weird right? I'm weird. I'm too afraid to ask, I think she is too. It's not like we're exactly being pursued by other suitors, so we can actually just take our time figuring stuff out, but FUCK sometimes I wish she would just say what we where, or what she wants, outside of just the physical stuff. Is she scared of something? Like sure, my last relationship ended… the way it did, but we all grew up right? I mean, I'm meeting my ex at this trendy little cafe now, and I'm not exactly a repeat offender. I haven't even touched the bottle in… … …a day. Reed and his friend did indeed come over, and holy fuck I fell off the wagon. Balthazar really was wheelchair bound. It was hell getting him up those stairs but we figured it out. It sure would be a funny story to tell Fang if I wasn't intoxicated during the event. Might open up some wounds. I tried not to focus on that and instead watch the cafe door like a hawk, Waiting patiently for Lucy. This place was actually kinda nice. Cute little wolf themed place, nothing too special. There was animal memorabilia everywhere. Pictures of the damn things on the walls, the works. Tiny, cozy place not too far from the pharmacy she worked at. Must be a regular here. I picked a table set up with stools in a corner to camp out in. A bookshelf full of self-help rag paper sat beside me. The establishment owners must really understand the clientele. She said she would probably be late. Maybe this was a girlboss thing? Psychological warfare? But why? She seemed so jovial about the whole ordeal, so I had no real reason to believe she was just fucking with me, but my broken brain just couldn't get over the idea that she was trying to… punish me for something… ..I held my head in my hands as I spotted her walking right through the door. Picking myself up, I waved at her, and her face actually lit up with what seemed to be some kind of joy, or at least contempt. She headed straight towards me. Despite everything, a fuck-huge knot swelled up in my throat. "Hey Anon!" She was wearing a turtleneck with a purse slung around her shoulder, same long hair, still a shade of red that seemed unnatural to me, despite it probably being completely natural to her.Fucken' wild, this was all wild; I was surprised I could even contain my nervousness around this completely normal looking dino girl. "H-ey there Lucy! How have you been?" I stumbled over myself as she placed her bag on the table. "I'm just uh, busy as always. Had to stop by my parents' place; that's why I'm late." Oh fuck, her parents. Glad to hear they were indeed still in the picture. It seemed up in the air last I knew. "It's cool, no rush." I'm not entirely sure of anything, but I did feel a bit of warmth when she sat down across from me. She seemed happy, a sort of comfortable smile bestowed across her face. "Mom and Dad wanted me to check in. Despite everything, they are still terribly worried about me," she laughed casually. "Yeah… but at least they care, ya know?" I spouted back, sorta salty about having folks who fucking hate me. "True… and I'm really glad they do, but sometimes it's overbearing." "Eh, whatya gonna do." I shrug. "You should've seen how my mom reacted when she saw my hair without any dye in it for the first time in YEARS." She snickered. "I can only imagine." I lied through my teeth. I still didn't know what the fuck was going on there. "They were happy about it, but worried that like… I was morphing into some sort of immobile hermit. When really, I just didn't wanna keep up with it anymore." "I didn't know you were keeping up with anything relating to that. I just assumed you had silver hair like your mom." She laughed. "Oh God, no. My mom is just old, blessed with beautiful gray-silver-ish hair though. I guess subconsciously I wanted what she had." "That's crazy to me. Why didn't you tell me you dyed your hair?" "The subject never came up I guess." The fact her voice sounded so… familiarly happy made that knot go away real quick. It's like we were back in highschool. A good time in highschool even. "Well I personally like it. It's a really deep shade of red too. I just assumed you changed from silver to this." "Nahh I actually think I got this from my dad's side. Like, grampa was a ginger, but my mom's side had like, really dark black hair. So it just sorta resulted in this." She pointed her thumb at her head with all the charisma that I would expect from her back then. "And uh… you did your eyebrows too?" "Yeeep. I was a dedicated little brat." "That's insane, but I respect the commitment." Her giggling was infectious. Glad to see she hadn't lost her colors… despite her hair and eyes having different colors… whatever. "I can rest a bit easier knowing I don't have to stain a bathtub every few months just to look a bit different, what can I say." We both got up to put in an order, still chuckling to ourselves about hair, and how I don't have hair. She got an ice vanilla, surprisingly not a funny pumpkin spice whatever, with a blueberry muffin. I just got black caffeine water, and a muffin. “It goes with my black jacket,” Lucy joked. "So…" the winged beast spoke up as soon as we returned to our corner. "How have you been? Generally?" "Eh, things have been fine. Got a new job I haven't started just yet. Spending time with friends. The works. How have you been?" "Great, actually! Aside from general dumbassery I have to deal with at work, I'm more than okay." "What kind of dumbassery?" I ask timidly. "Mostly just old people not understanding how our archaic systems for distributing meds work." "Ah, sounds like fun." "Yeah it's great. Actually, I really wouldn't trade it in for anything." Interesting, her voice didn't match the enthusiasm of the words this time around. "I gave up an opportunity to work at a church daycare to work at a pharmacy and sometimes… I do think I made the wrong decision. The money is better, and Stella made sure to remind me of the fact, but I don't know." She shrugged, taking a long sip. I found it funny that it was Stella who egged her on, I wouldn't have guessed. "Church?" I asked open endedly. "Yeah I went to church a few times with Mom and Dad after school was over. I don't think I ever got the whole 'God' thing, but it was nice being around people who aren't sociopaths." I almost spat my burnt coffee out but was able to hold on. Hope that wasn't directed towards me. "I get that." "Ah dude, did you hear what happened to Naomi?" "No, not at all." "Naser dropped her ass right before he went off to college and she got the fuck outta' here. I even heard she shaved her head." "Wow. How did that happen?" "Well from what I know, Naser just… got smart, or grew some balls, and just sorta snapped at her. Secretly, I think he was inspired by me." "How so?" "Well me dealing with Trish after prom was… oh God, I haven't even TOLD you about that huh?" She seemed really eager to tell me literally everything I didn't ask for. I'm here for it. "Do tell." "It just… it felt like two roads split from our situation, and I was horrified by the idea of my life going on in opposite directions. I confronted Trish on the rooftop and things sorta exploded. I think at some point we both threatened to jump off at some point." “God,” I thought to myself, “me too.” "I poured my heart out about everything. Even' got to tell her the whole double bass thing was really fucking stupid. Like, what even was the deal with that? Like I get being scared that no one was gonna care about our band but that shit had no chance of ever sounding good, considering how we wrote songs, and our general sound, ya know." For the first time in my life, I understood. I nodded and kept listening silently. "She just… went about things completely wrong and I couldn't take it anymore. It felt intentional but… I still can't be sure. All I knew, I wanted it to end. And that's where it ended. On that damn rooftop." The muffin was fine. Nothing special, but the crumbs got everywhere. "She made a few more attempts to contact me, I threatened a restraining order. That shut her off for good I think." "I'm glad that's all it took." I said in between bites. "Yeah me too, although I'm kinda bummed Reed never reached out after. Apparently he sorta' removed himself from the situation entirely. Trish left, Reed stayed, and apparently you two are buddies?" She pointed at me for the first time in a while, wanting my input. "Uh yeah, but that was only because I reached out first. He helped me keep my head on somewhat straight. Now we hang out every other weekend." "Sounds tight." She began to finish her drink. "Yeah you could say that. Did you know he's into… computers and stuff?" "I had a hunch when he started bringing up seed oils at lunch." We both snickered. Lots of laughs despite everything. "Reed's fine. Cool even. Granted, I need my time off from him." I continued. "The parties. The stupid parties he invites me to, no, drags me to, is the real drain. I've met too many shady dudes in the past month; it's starting to affect me." "Then why stick around?" She asked. "It uh, for the longest time, was my only solution to the 'getting out of the house' problem. I was kinda messed up after school. I had to work really hard to convince my landlord to extend my stay at my place; it was rough. I managed." She nodded back. Now I was telling my stupid story. "Don't get me wrong, I love the new freedom afforded to me, but damn dude, I feel like I went through a lot." "We all did…" "True." I scoffed back. "But I mean… seems like we're making it work now." "Mhmm… right " was all I could muster up on the subject. I watched her slowly finish her snack. A moment of silence was needed. This was the first time I had ever seen her not furiously devour a meal; it took me a while to get used to it. "Ugh… still hungry. Fuck." She mumbled out loud. "I'd get another but… I'm fat already and I don't wanna get up." I scoffed at the notion. "Uh, you definitely are not fat. In fact, you look like you lost weight since school." She huffed. "Yeah well, I don't wanna GET fat." "Lucy, you look fine, really. I will go get you another one myself." Just then she gave this… cocky smile towards me. A facial expression that I had seen before… ohfuck. "Really? For me? Well if you insist." Fell for the queen's gambit. "AND I'll finally forgive you for what you did on the beach. We have a deal?" I roll my eyes. "Deal." As I got up for the second time, I visited this coffee shop. "Blueberry, if you don't mind." I've never been bothered by you… … …oh God. Fuck that look she gave me. My heart began to race inside my chest as I asked for another stupid blueberry muffin. Damn it Anon, you're pretty much taken by another girl, you CAN'T be feeling this towards an ex. “Dude, you are so fucked up,” I schizo'd to myself. This feels like I'm betraying Stella. But really I'm not? “Like bro, it's not like we're dating,” I think as I hand over my card. We had like two nights together, lots of people do that, it doesn't mean anything. Yeah sure, I THOUGHT it meant something at the time but… that's just my brain seeing a naked girl and thinking stupid thoughts. Like, me Caveanon, we went over this before. It's cool, play it cool. It's not like Lucy feels the same way either. That's cope. Everything about this is cope. Cope cope seeth cope thank you I'll take my fucking muffins now I bought two cuz' I'm fucking fat cope cope seeth seeth. When I got back to the table I watched as Lucy does this overly dramatic hand posing thing. "Oh LORD I'm just DYYYING of starvation over here!" I once again roll my eyes through the pain I feel deep inside me as I deliver the goods right in front of her. She then picks the damn thing up, throws it up in the fucking air, and snaps it into her maw. A thing I've only ever seen her do with Dino Nuggets. It was a big muffin too, God damn. "FUCKthat'stoogood." She said with a mouth full of baked goods. Made me feel quite inadequate as I nibbled off mine. She was in high spirits; I was on the verge of a heart attack. Nothing seemed out of place really. She finished her snack and continued. "And thank you for telling me I look good. I've been meaning to get into the gym more often." "You a gym rat now?" "Been trying my best to get in when I can. Busy with work and stuff." "That's fair. Have you still been playing guitar?" "On and off. I never really quit, it's just… I don't have the time. I feel like I keep repeating that…" For the first time in a while she seemed a bit dejected. "...but in return, at least I'm healthy. I'm sure I'll pick up the ol' ax at some point." "Well I mean, it has been a while since we last sat cross legged on the floor… Why don't we spend some more time together doing that?" Damn it feels good to be stupid. Wait- She bites her lip and… blushes a tiny bit. "Oh gawwwwd Anon, but what if I'm not very GOOD at it anymore?" She spoke in that same melodramatic tone as before. "I'm sure you'll be fine." "Well then, I actually do have my acoustic guitar in my car. How about we go back to your place and reminisce further?" There's that knot again. Missed you old buddy. "I mean sure, I got nothing else I have to do today." "AND I'll make the deal a bit sweeter." "Uh, how so?" "I wasn't kidding about the gym thing. I'll give you a sneak peek of my abs!" [POST-NOTES] Life will change. More to come.