A Change (of heart)

The End... Or The Beginning?

"Yo-you kn-n-now James, your fu-fu-fur is really fluf-fy, it ma-made a go-good bed"
These are the words I woke up to. And as soon as I opened my eyes I saw a beautiful young girl who was blushing as red as a tomato. And as soon as I realised how long I was staring for, I began blushing too.
"Th-thanks..."
Man, things are still awkward between us, even after... everything.
"H-how was yo-your sleep?"
"Much better than the night before, thanks"
"D-do you wa-want to talk ab-bout yo-your d-dream yet?"
"No. No thanks"
Not much else was said for the rest of the morning, we had breakfast, packed up, then continued on our journey back.
I'm not saying back home for a reason. That reason is I'm not sure if I can go back home, I've been gone for, I don't know, about two weeks and when I left, it wasn't on good terms, I'm just not sure if I should go back. I haven't told Chelsea this yet, I'm hoping to maybe stay at her place for a couple of nights instead, and go from there. Of course I miss my family, but they didn't tell me the truth this whole time and I'm not sure how much I can trust them.
"J-james!"
Ouch! She was pulling real hard on my ears (we had been traveling for a bit).
"What was that for?"
"L-look inf-front of yo-you!"
And I did, and I was a couple of metres away from running off a cliff.
"Oh, ops, thanks"
"H-hey, I was sa-saving my butt, not yo-yours" she said with a cheeky grin on her face.
"Ha ha, very funny, now we've got to go around this gap, more distance to travel!"
"D-doesn't seem like that mu-much"
"Says the girl who isn't doing any of the work"
"F-fair en-nough. What we-were you thinking about?"
"Nothin' much"
"Ok-kay"
It turned out that the cliff wasn't that far from our destination and I soon had to ask Chelsea if we could go to her house to start with.
"Wh-why would you wa-want to g-go there?"
"I, don't think I'm in my family's good books, and vice versa. I'm not entirely comfortable with seeing then just yet"
"Oh, sorry. B-but I'm in-n a similar si-situation as yo-you, I'm not sure if I'm able to meet up with my Nan any time soon"
"Chelsea, what happened?"
"N-nothing, an-nother t-t-time"
"Well, there's only one thing I can think of. David also lives in this town. I'm going to have to meet up with him, tell him everything. I hope he'll understand"
"Yo-you sure?"
"I don't have any other options"
We then went to a local opp-shop, bought some cheep clothes to cover my fur and face, and headed to David's house. Chelsea decided to talk to his parents to catch up with David unannounced. She could convince a starving canine to give it's first meal in three months to her. It must have something to do with the innocence about her, she's just so cute!
"James!"
"Yes? What? Huh?"
"Come on!"
"Yes, right"
As we walked over to his bedroom (they had just finished breakfast and he was gaming, some things never change) Chelsea began to whisper in my ear.
"his pa-parents were acting kind of odd-d, as if they didn't kn-know who you were. They weren't go-going to let you in"
So I whispered back, "that is strange, what did you say to get me in?"
At this she blushed
"I so-sorta, t-t-told th-th-them that yo-you w-were m-m-my b-b-boyfr-fr-friend"
She really struggled to get that out. To be honest, I wished it was true. So of course I blushed too when she said that.
Entering into his bedroom, it was exactly as I remember it the night I ran off. Gee, that feels like so long ago.
"Creeper!"
And still playing the same games as I remember. I was about to get his attention (by cleaning my throat) but Chelsea beat me to it.
"Aww man!"
With a dead meme, that is apparently not dead.
At this David paused the screen (but he was on a server. Serverception?) and took off his headset.
"Chelsea! Back from the dead! Where have you been?"
"I f-found J-james!"
Somehow he only just realised that I was in the room. I don't know how, I was the tallest one there.
"You brought back a boyfriend?"
Both Chelsea and I were in very similar situations here. We were both blushing but not as hard as before, I don't know Chelsea's reason but mine was because of how, off, that statement was. That's not a David joke, he meant that seriously. Surely he remembered me. How couldn't he?
"David, we're not actually-"
"I'm going to stop you right there buddy, why are you here? Chelsea hasn't even told me she has a boyfriend, I wasn't expecting her to bring one into my bedroom! I-"
"David! He is not my boyfriend! Why-"
"Did you bring a stranger into my bedroom?"
"I'm no stranger! It's me, James! You know, the kid who spent the last three years in all the same classes with you! Who went to your house and you to mine at least once a fortnight! Tell me you don't remember that!"
"I don't. Because it never happened. I've never met you before, and I'm not interested in meeting a new person when they're a complete emo with their hood and everything"
I've never met you before, that comment killed me. It grabbed my insides and blew them up and twisted them so tightly, I felt like I was about to pop and shatter into a million pieces.
"Come on Chelsea, time to go"
We had walked three houses across the street before either of us said anything.
"Y-you alright?"
"Yeah"
"Don't you lie to me"
"No. Better?"
"No, b-because I don't know what to say"
"Do you think that none of my other friends remember me?"
"Do you w-want me t-to find out?"
"How?"
"I st-stole David's phone"
"You what?" I shouted, probably a bit too loud for me to be out in the open.
"Look, I'll m-make some calls to your oth-ther fr-friends, then I'll put it his ph-phone on his l-lawn, make him think he'll ha-have lost it hims-self, then we'll d-decide what we're d-doing. OK?"
"Okay"

(A/N)- Sorry, just had to put it in there. I couldn't help it :)
"N-no one r-remembers. I'm so sor-rry"
"It's not your fault, so don't apologise. Let's go to my house"
The trip there was quiet. But I wish I didn't go. I won't go onto details but there were tears (lots). None of my own family members remembered me, not even my own parents who raised me since birth. I bolted, accidentally forgot about Chelsea but couldn't bare to go back so when she caught up I asked her to go back and grab some of my most precious possessions and supplies just in case. But when she got back for a second time, she only had the supplies. All my possessions were gone, so there were more tears. At least I still had Chelsea.
"L-let's go to my place"
"No, I c-can't le-le-let you do that t-t-to your-yourself"
"James, w-we don't have any other options"
Should have listened to my advice.
When we got there, I didn't go in, there was no reason to. Plus her Nan couldn't remember me, she never met me. But even outside it was 100% audiblely clear (for me at least) that there was a lot of shouting, crying, more shouting, and even some screaming. Before I knew it Chelsea was running out of the door and straight onto me, saying something that was extremely muffled and hidden by tears. Once she recovered she finally talked to me.
"We should just run, get away from here, go where the wind takes us, there's nothing left for either of us here"
"Are you sure? You still have school and work and all that, do you really want to abandon it all?"
"Yes. Especially for you. But yes. I want to be with you, nowhere else"
So that's exactly what we did. We hid. We ran. We went mile after mile. Stopping at each town for a while, then heading off again. We manage to survive, I get most of the food (as expected) but Chelsea does basically everything else. It's been three weeks like this, I actually half enjoy it but I keep having some niggling thoughts in the back of my head, like the dream that I had, or what actually happened to everyone who forgot me. But I try to forget that, leaving it behind me. One thing I regret leaving behind is Shell, I'll never forget her, what Wever did to her. Sometimes, when I'm not doing anything with Chelsea, or hunting for our next meal, I'll look back on the times when life was normal, when I was a human, I went to school and had close friends, when I had a crush on Shell. Oh, and Chelsea and I are dating now, so yay! Now, to have this journal up to date, this is my final thought for everything that's happened; life happens, whether you want it to or not. Now, you may not go through as major changes as I did, almost certainly not. But we all have those stages where things didn't go to plan. But we just have to stick through it, and come out the other side a better person (or anthropomorphic), no matter what the struggle or fight, no matter what the time, day or night. We all have our own individual journeys, starting in ways you didn't think of but the result is always better. Mine seemed to have started with a change of looks, attributes. But I was wrong, I had a start, with a change of heart.