Hold Me Close

Chapter Five: Chrone

"Had a girlfriend." A familiar voice said from behind me. Both Jason and I whipped our heads around to see Alex standing there.

"What are y-you doing here?" I sniffled, wiping my eyes with the back of my paw. He didn't answer in words, no. What he did next shocked all of us. He kissed me. Not some short peck kind of a kiss, no. This one was deep. After a few seconds he pulled back, opening his eyes.

"I'm late for class. We need to talk. I'll swing by your dorm at six." He said before bounding off. Jason and I just looked at each other, shocked.
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-=Alex=-

I woke up this morning about twenty minutes early. So I decided to turn on the news and sit on the couch. Just some boring news stories and the weather, nothing seeming interesting until a red tab appeared at the top right corner of the TV screen that said BREAKING NEWS. I propped my head up and payed more attention to the spokeswoman otter who straightened a set of papers against her desk.

"Breaking news. A student has gone missing from the University of Connecticut last night, with the only thing left behind being a destroyed dorm room. Now before we show you the pictures provided by the SPD, I am required to advise you that they might be a bit graphic."

By now I was sitting up, leaning towards the TV. A couple of pictures flashed onto the screen, showing an unfamiliar dorm room with stuff scattered everywhere and spraypaint on the walls.

"Hateful words and phrases were graffitied on the walls, with some reading 'faggot' and 'you got what you deserved.' Other obsene pictures were also in the apartment. We will keep you all updated as the story continues." The otter said as the news logo flashed on the screen and commercials started. Chrone. It had to be him and his gang, that was their style. Everyone knew that they went around campus, terrorizing homosexuals, even the university knew, there just wasn't enough evidence to do anything about it.

I looked down at my phone screen, the time displayed faintly in the corner. Ah shit I'm a couple minutes late. I quickly got up and grabbed my stuff, jogging out the door and to my car.

-<☆>-

After I had eaten and finished everything up at the food court, I decided to walk to my first class. Nothing major, just statistics. I had one headphone in, listening to Pandora. (Pandora is better than Spotify, fight me.) The White Stripes came on, the upbeat vibes coming from the music putting a smile on my face for the first time in a couple of days. That was until my ears picked up on something. I heard two familiar voices coming from the path a little down the hill, one of them seeming distraught. I headed down silently, seeing that it was Evan and Jason. Evan was crying. For some reason I felt...angry that he was hurting, feeling guilty as well. I only heard a snippet of their conversation, but I gathered the gist.

"...he has a girlfriend." Evan said to Jason through a sniffle, still completely unaware of my presence. I don't know what came over me, a confusing mixture of sorrow, guilt, and some other warm feeling I couldn't pin a name to filled me. Ears to paws.

"Had a girlfriend." I corrected him from behind, alerting the both of them to the fact that I was there. He asked me what I was doing here, surprised by me. But what was really the surprise, to both him and me was how I answered. I couldn't possibly answer him using some combination of words, no. I answered him with a kiss. My first kiss with a guy in fact (That I remember ;). After a few seconds I broke the embrace, looking into his beautiful watery-blue eyes, both shock and confusion staring back at me. Deciding to not make a scene, I finished it up by telling him I'd come by to talk with him later tonight, and that I had to get to class. Which I guess wasn't really a lie, I was starting to run late.

During stats, while the proffessor (An old male dalmation named Mr. Stone) was droning on about correct ways to analyze and graph a certain type of data table, I noticed something. Two green dragons in identical black hoodies sat across the room from me, both giving me dirty looks. Wonder what their problem is. I thought to myself, deciding that it was probably nothing so I returned to taking notes from the white board up front.

After class had concluded, I walked outside of the main arithmatic building and down the stone steps along with the slew of other students, everyone talking about plans for the rest of the day and the dumb homework assignmemt that would be due next week.

"Hey faggot!" A snide voice came from behind me, a scaly hand grabbing my shoulder and spinning me around. There in front of me stood Rob Chrone and the two green dragons.

"The fuck do you want?" I asked in agitation, looking him dead in the eyes. He just continued to look at me, through my shield of confidence as he kept talking.

"Nothing, just wanted to say that I saw you kissing that new femboy fag earlier." I just turned, flipping him off.

"Fuck off." I said. Big mistake. The next thing I knew, my face was on the concrete and my vision turned dark.