Beastars – Into the spotlight 2.0
Chapter 7 – The remains of Haru´s paradise (part 2)
POV Julian
Even though my evening had been going quite smoothly and pleasant so far, I really needed this bathroom break right now. I´ve been feeling a little unwell in my stomach earlier already, but I had managed to ignore it until now. This was not really something unusual since I normally followed a really strict diet of proteins and nutrients, having just a very few cheat days on which I didn´t care about fats and calories, but tonight it somehow kicked in even harder than normally. I had the feeling it could be from eating bugs every now and then. Someone had told me that they weren´t quite like real meat, but they were full of similar proteins nevertheless, and the taste wasn´t too bad either. So whenever I found one outside and no one was looking, I enjoyed them as a little snack.
But maybe I was just a little excited for tonight and that was what´s upsetting my guts.
Bailey was just such a treasure. I almost regretted that I hadn´t noticed it earlier, but I liked her even more than Lucy now. She was shy, but she wasn't all that innocent either. She wasn´t bothered about me coming closer to her, if anything I thought she even liked it.
At first, I had a feeling she was doing this for me, so I wasn´t feeling so bad about not being able to go with Lucy, but now I slowly but surely understood that she was doing this for herself as well.
She genuinely liked me. I wasn´t just a good friend to her, I probably was a serious love-interest in her eyes. I wasn't just a pretty fuck-boy in her eyes, like I was for some other girls and apparently also guys; she was not as shallow as that. And that made it feel even more special somehow, because we had been good friends right from the first day we met here at this school.
This just gave me so much more confidence, my spirits were boosted to a totally new level.
"Maybe I could even get a kiss from her tonight?"
I looked at myself in the mirror, I didn´t think I looked like a lonely loser anymore. I looked like someone who stepped over his shadow and made a good decision.
Bailey trusted me, and apart from Mark I couldn't think of anybody who has ever been this close to me on an emotional level before.
She even trusted me as much as telling me about her personal views on Leon and Lucy earlier. She felt a little uncomfortable talking behind their backs, but I was pretty surprised by what was going on in her head as well. Her thoughts where quite similar to mine as it seemed: Lucy just saw his daddies money and he couldn´t live up to it.
I had always known Leon wasn´t as strong and as confident as his father, but not being the only one seeing it like that made it even better.
It wasn´t just about the greatness, he wasn´t even able to seal the deal when she was so obviously flirting with him and giving him every signal there was. He was too chicken to close the deal, and now he was stuck in this very awkward situation.
It was not the same for Bailey and I. We had a genuine bond already, we were honest with each other and I could trust her. This night could only get even better in my mind.
I smiled into the mirror one last time, then I left the bathroom and went back towards the Ball-room.
I didn´t want to keep her waiting for too long after all.
When I got back into the hall though, Bailey wasn´t there anymore for some strange reason.
"Has she gone to the bathroom herself?" was the first thing that came to my mind.
I took another look around, I couldn´t see Lucy anywhere either. Leon was still talking to the same people he had been talking to earlier already, he didn´t even seemed to have noticed that the girls were both gone.
"Maybe they went to the bathroom together?" I kept on thinking about other possible reasons, "Girls to that sometimes, don't they? They´re dorm-mates after all…"
I decided to just wait a few more minutes, I was pretty sure she would be back any minute anyway.
POV Leon
At first I thought he was looking around like that just for fun, but eventually I realized he was scanning the room for the chocolate brown Labrador girl he had spent the entire evening with so far. I figured she might have gone off towards the Bathroom or something like that, but then I noticed that Lucy wasn´t to be seen anywhere either.
Julian had kept looking out for them for quite a couple of minutes, then he left the ballroom again altogether.
When the conversation I was involved in somewhat changed topics once again, I excused myself for a moment and pulled out my phone.
I texted Lucy if everything was alright, but she didn´t answer. It seemed like she didn´t even have her phone with her right now, she hadn´t even read the message according to the messaging-app.
Not knowing where else she could be, I went on my way towards her dorm slowly but surely.
"Maybe she had too much to drink and doesn´t feel too well? Maybe she just needed some fresh air and a moment of quiet?"
When I reached the dorm I had picked her up from earlier this evening, I turned out I had not been the only one with that idea.
"They´re not here" Julian told me dryly, "I´ve knocked three times already."
"But…" I sighed in slight puzzlement, "…where else could they be?"
"Don't know…" he said with a shrug of his shoulders, seemingly rather stomped about that as well.
I instinctively took a look at my phone once again, then I noticed that Lucy had answered in the meanwhile.
"There is a full moon party on the rooftop-garden" I told him after reading her message, "It seems like that´s where they are."
"There is a garden on the roof?" he asked in slight puzzlement, nevertheless getting on his way already.
"Never been there" I said, following him as I wanted to head into the same direction as him anyway.
While we walked, a lot of questions suddenly came to my mind. Questions I was pretty sure would interest him as well.
"Why would they just go to a different party without telling us about it?"
He shrugged his shoulders again, seemingly not sharing my concerns about that.
"You think they were bored at the ball?"
I wasn't quite sure why I was expecting a good answer from him, but what he said surprised me a little bit nevertheless.
"Bailey and I were doing just fine" he said dryly, "Not so sure about Lucy though."
"W-what? What do you mean?"
He now suddenly stopped in his tracks and looked right at me in total disbelief.
"You serious?" he asked, "You´ve been dodging her all evening and now you wonder why she might be bored?"
I was just so confused right now. I couldn´t quite tell if he was just trying to talk me down once again or if he was actually trying to help me. The latter would be quite uncommon in our relationship.
He just shook his head again and continued on his way up the stairs.
"She wants you to make a move you idiot. She´s waiting for you to man up."
That coming out of his mouth somehow confused me even more. He was actually serious about this, he didn´t even seem that pissed about Lucy going to the ball with me anymore.
"Wait" I said, "How do you know that?"
"It´s really obvious. Bailey just told me the same thing. She thinks she´s really desperate, and she is her roommate."
This just partly made sense to me. It was so hard to read the red fox sometimes.
"Desperate for what?"
"Jesus Christ!" he said, now a little louder, stopping on his way jet once again, "Your attention, your touch, your dick! Probably all of those! It´s really not that complicated, rich kid!"
His ears where twitching slightly when he told me that. I still couldn´t tell if he was mad at me for going with Lucy or because of my apparently really stupid behavior. A moment later he looked more relaxed once again though.
"W-what…" I asked, trying to cover my nervousness with a slight chuckle, "You really think that´s what she wants?"
"Nooo" he said ironically, "I really think she just wants your money and daddy´s fame."
"Oh fuck off" I muttered to that.
It annoyed me that he still wouldn´t let go of that topic, even though he wasn´t all that serious about it right now as it seemed. I had never bragged with any of those things, but he still liked to tease me about them.
"Don't be upset because you can´t give her what she wants, okay?" he told me in over acted amusement.
"Oh shut up. What´s that supposed to mean?"
"You´re lacking the confidence" he said while raising an eyebrow, "Probably because you´re not as hot as me."
Ironically or not, it seemed like he had quite a lot of fun bragging about this right now. He enjoyed my struggles.
"Yeah, sure."
This just made him smile even wider.
"The entire dorm is looking when I leave the showers. Don't tell me you aren't. Don't think I´m stupid."
"Your stupid muscles are not the only thing that matters, okay?" I sighed in annoyance.
As we found a door labeled "Cherryton garden", we now finally seemed to have arrived on the right floor.
"Oh, so you mean the red fur? Or the blue eyes maybe? My sense of fashion?" he kept on teasing.
"Yeah, whatever."
He now pushed down the doorhandle and tried opening the door, it turned out that it was quite heavy and needed a lot of force to open.
"Don't overdo yourself little man" I told him in an ironic fashion.
"You´re used to getting the doors opened befor you, aren't you rich kid?" he retorted dryly.
"Oh shut up already" I muttered, following him into the garden and letting the door fall back shut behind me, "Let´s check if they´re here or not."
POV Lucy
At first, I thought this place really was kinda cool, now I was just feeling very uncomfortable.
It turned out this wasn't this cool and totally awesome of an experience they had promised us, it was just a kinda interesting location where they could be alone with us.
They didn't care how quickly we wanted to get back to the main party, they just wanted us to come with them so they could get closer to us. That became more and more clear with every minute that passed.
Lucas and his friend Han now actively motivated us to drink more grain alcohol from a bottle with them, and when we refused, they drank more of the stuff themselves anyway.
Bailey seemed rather disgusted as well, but she had been on defense about this place to begin with. I could understand her quite well, so far her date had been going a lot better than mine after all. She didn´t have a need for an unexpected adventure when they told us about this place already, now it appeared she had been nothing but right about that.
We were sitting on a bench next to an old gardening shed that seemed to have been abandoned since quite a while already. The beets of this garden were mostly empty, some of them were covered in different kinds of weeds. It was dirty here, nobody had been taking care of this place in a long time as it seemed like, and now it appeared to be a hotspot for undercover parties.
Some of the other students up here were just gazing at the full moon, some of the others were having conversations, trying to yell over the music coming out of the Bluetooth speaker somebody had brought. The shed behind us seemed to be occupied by two other students as well, the dirty glass doors didn´t leave much of a view though.
The moon was pretty tonight, there was no doubt about that, but that was about the only good thing about our situation right now.
The two upperclassmen who told us about this place had totally different things on their minds anyway. One of them had just found one of the many bugs on the floor and trapped it between his hands.
"Whoa…" he said, "Wouldn´t it be so great to just eat it right now? I know it´s not real meat, but it should give us quite a rush nevertheless, right?"
I already didn´t like the sound of that suggestion. He seemed really drunk and reckless. Since eating real meat was illegal, I wasn´t sure what rule applied to eating bugs in that regard. Maybe they were treated similarly to sea food, but this certainly wasn´t the time I wanted to find out more about that.
I really wanted to get out of this situation in the meanwhile.
"Come on, Lucy" he told me, putting his arm around me and rocking my shoulders a little, "You want to try it too, right?"
"No, thanks" I told him dryly, although he clearly wasn´t listening to a word I said, "I think I might be going back to-"
"Oh!" Han now yelled over me in excitement, "I´ve found one too! Here bro, let´s eat one at the same time, okay?"
I took another look at the door to the roof, I saw Bailey was doing the same thing. She wanted to get out of here as well, she seemed really anxious and scared about being here too. I felt kinda bad I convinced her to check this place out with me. Maybe I had just been jealous of how her date was going after all. Maybe I really had done this more for myself than for the both of us after all.
"Wow, I feel so much stronger now! This feels awesome!" one of them said, celebrating himself way too much in my opinion, "Lucy, Bailey, you gotta try this!"
"No, thank you" I declined again, trying to get up from the bench now.
But the grey wolf sitting next to me actually held me back with a rather tight grip of his hands, feeling very confident in himself.
"Don't go" he said with a chuckle, "No harm in trying something new, right?"
I somehow didn´t have the voice to say something right now. He was a lot stronger than I and I had the feeling he could get aggressive rather easily in his current state of mind.
"Here!" he said showing me one of his arms, "Feel my arm! Can you see how strong it is? Pretty cool, right?"
I was really hoping Leon had received and read my message in the meanwhile.
I couldn´t really tell how long we´ve actually been up here in the meanwhile. Maybe it just had been ten minutes, maybe it was way longer than that already.
They were getting more flirty and touchy by the minute, and we didn´t like it. Not at all.
Even though my evening hadn´t been going as smoothly as I´d hoped, I still much rather wanted to go back to that right now.
But it somehow was not easy to tell them right now. They were loud and dominated every conversation just by talking over us, feeling like the biggest machos around pretty obviously.
I took another quick look at my phone again, it seemed like Leon had finally my message. Now I was waiting for nothing else but for him to open the door and come over towards us so we had a reason to leave this place. Bailey didn´t have her phone with her, sadly, I had the feeling it would be even more effective if Julian came to get us.
"Damn, I´ve found another one!" Lucas now yelled excitedly, nudging me with his elbow yet once again, "Here, try one as well, I promise you´ll love it!"
"No, I don't think so." I said coldly. I wanted to add more, but I didn´t want to upset him either. There was some kind of aggressiveness to their behavior in the meanwhile, this was just getting scarier.
Luckily, just in that moment the door finally opened, and even more luckily, it wasn't just Leon but Julian as well. It seemed like they´ve both come to the same conclusion where we are, and I was really glad they´ve found us in time.
Just when they arrived at the bench we were on, Lucas´ friend put one of his arms around Baileys shoulders as well, apparently trying to claim her as his girl right now.
"Bailey" Julian said in slight confusion, "W-why are you up here, what´s going on-"
"Who are you, little fox?" Han now asked him, obviously looking down on the younger student right from the start.
Bailey looked like she had sort of swallowed her tongue right now as well. I could tell that she wanted to get up and go leave this place as well, but the older wolf wasn´t letting go of her.
"Hey, where are you going babe?" he asked her, trying to sound sweet but actually sounding really creepy, "What´s the matter?"
Julian looked even more confused now, Leon didn´t know what was going either.
"I…I don't like it up here" Bailey said lowly, "I want to go, please let go of me."
"Come on, don't let that little fox ruin your night, you know you want this!" he told her.
I really had enough of this bullshit in the meanwhile.
"Let go of her" I told him loudly, "She clearly does not want this."
I tried standing up as well now, but Lucas held me back with his arms as well.
"Who the hell are you little cunts now?" Han asked loudly and with a dirty chuckle, "Piss off to where you came from. You´re not wanted here."
They both were clearly very drunk in the meanwhile and their judgement of the situation was totally off the tracks. I found that behavior really disgusting.
"We don't want any trouble" Leon told him rather defensively, I had been hoping he would find his balls and do something about the situation already.
"Let go of me!" I yelled at the wolf sitting next to me, creating a bit of a scene with that, "Right now!"
He now finally understood and I was able to stand up and get away a few steps.
Bailey still couldn't make her escape yet though. She looked even more scared now, her breathing was getting heavier too.
"Come on, Bailey" I told her, "Let´s get out of here."
She managed to get up from the bench this time, but the other two wolves got up as well now. They still seemed to be thinking that we were on their side, it appeared they still haven´t gotten the message. Their posture suggested they must be feeling superior and very self-confident, the way they grinned stupidly said that they must be considering themselves very attractive and desirable.
They just looked like drunk assholes to us, it was really pitiful.
"Come on, what´s this bullshit now" Han asked, getting a step closer towards Julian and pushing him aggressively, "Piss off you little bitch!"
The red fox immediately went into some sort of defensive combat pose. This whole thing got heated up way too much and way too quickly already.
Bailey stepped away and took cover behind Leon and I, Julian seemed too aggravated to let go of that clash right now.
"What´s the matter kid" Lucas asked him from above, "Wanna prove something to those little sluts? Wanna get your little dick wet and-"
In that moment he had heard enough already and punched the drunk wolf right in the face. What the fox delivered was so much more brutal than I had first anticipated, all that workout hadn´t been for nothing as it turned out. That punch came like a gunshot.
The people around us where looking really surprised as well.
Lucas stumbled backwards quite a few feet, holding his cheeks with one hand. Han immediately tried to punish him for what he did to his friend, but Julian managed to duck into cover just in time and take a step back. To his great advantage, the two taller students really were quite drunk and had a hard time to even coordinate their steps.
Lucas tried to attack him as well now, but Julian was faster yet once again and landed a second blow on his face, this time sending him right to the floor.
"Hey!" I yelled loudly, trying to stop them from killing each other, "Stop it!"
I believed Leon was even trying to step in between them right now, making use of his strong-wolf physique, but he just wasn´t fast enough.
Before anyone could react, Han had rushed towards Julian once again, this time shoving him with all his body weight and using every little bit of his size advantage over the red fox.
Julian wasn´t able to dodge that attack anymore, sadly, and he hit the ground really hard just a moment later. And he kept on lying on the floor, it seemed like he hit his head really badly.
All the other people around stared in shock at what was going on.
Lucas hadn´t gotten off the floor yet either, but at least he was trying to move. Julian just kept lying there motionlessly, I wasn´t even sure if he was conscious anymore.
It all happened so fast, nobody was able to react.
Han, still driven by his rage, went towards the red fox once again and kicked him right in the stomach with one of his feet.
"Stop!" Bailey yelled in pure fear and disturbance.
The wolf didn't listen and now even spat onto the unconscious fox. He just hit his shirt not his face with that big drop of saliva, but I´ve still never seen a more disgusting person in my entire live. I was just so ashamed of even talking to them earlier.
Just now somebody finally found the courage to do something. Leon pushed the other wolf away from Julian quite vigorously, putting himself in front of the red fox to protect him from any further unfair and reckless attacks.
"What about you, bitch boy?" Han growled at him, "Wanna end up like that other little cunt?"
Leon now seemed to have enough of this as well, as he now pulled his right arm back to prepare for a swing as well. Han stumbled towards him already, trying to shove him as well, but Leon hit him right in the face with his fist and the other sophomore ended up on the floor as well. He was too drunk and clumsy to stop himself from falling, Leon was totally in control of the situation as it looked like.
"Ah fuck" he groaned in pain, "You little shit."
For that comment I went towards him and decided to make him pay for that myself. I gave way to my rage and just like he did with Julian, I now kicked him in the stomach with one of my feet, giving him a taste of his own medicine.
"Pick someone your own size you asshole" I growled at him, "Disgusting prick."
Then he turned his attention to Julian as well, Bailey was already kneeling besides him in great panic.
I took a quick look around while trying to catch my breath, people were looking, people were filming with their phones. This would become big trouble for everyone involved, there was no doubt about that.
From the corner of my eye, I noticed how Lucas was trying to get back up on his feet. He was very shaky and drunk and in no condition to fight, but the attitude hasn´t really changed. He still seemed very angry and aggressive.
Leon already prepared himself to defend us again, but it didn´t even get that far.
Just when Lucas tried to open his mouth again, he got interrupted by a very loud and authentic sounding voice. It sounded like someone much older than us, and I was pretty sure I´ve heard that voice before as well.
"STOP WITH WHATEVER IS GOING ON HERE!" it thundered through the crowd.
A moment later the music from the Bluetooth speaker stopped and he emerged from the gazing people around us. It was almost dead silent all over sudden.
It was our principal, and he had appeared here way quicker than I would ever have anticipated.
"I´ve been informed about an absolutely illegal party up here, and it appears to be for a very good reason!"
"We need a doctor!" Bailey yelled, still in slight panic because Julian didn´t respond to anything.
The Siberian tiger immediately gave her his attention when he noticed. He squatted down besides the red fox as well and held to fingers to his neck to feel for his heartbeat.
"He´s just unconscious" he concluded soon later, "But his pulse is fine. How did this happen?"
"Those two freaks showed up and started hitting us out of nowhere!" Han suddenly yelled, "We just had a good time, it´s their fault!"
"What?" I yelled in pure disbelief, "You attacked him first you prick!"
The principal first looked at him, then at me and then at Leon.
"Oh screw you, you little princess bitch!" Han told me with a growl, "We just wanted you guys to have a little bit of fun tonight!"
"You just wanted to get into our pants you asshole!"
"Enough, both of you!" Gon interrupted us, "This is getting us nowhere."
"They attacked him first" Leon supported me loud and clearly, "Julian tried to protect us and beat one of them to the ground. That bastard pushed him so hard he hit his head, then he kicked him in the stomach when he was down already and then he spat on him."
The Siberian Tiger looked a little skeptical about all those accusations, but the other canine students around us all nodded to what he said.
"It´s true" one of the bystanders said, showing his phone, "I´ve seen it myself, it was just like he said. I recorded that last part."
He played that video for the principal quickly, Gon just nodded understandingly.
"I beat him down so he wouldn't hurt anyone else" Leon explained, trying to stay calm, "They´re both drunk and very aggressive."
Han and Lucas now finally kept their mouths shut, it seemed like the presence of the principal finally knocked some sense into them.
Gon thought about the whole situation for a little moment, then he nodded.
"This will have consequences for everyone involved, naturally. Also, you´ll all leave the garden now, I´ll lock it up after everyone has left. There is a nice party in the ballroom downstairs, we´ve put a lot of effort into it."
Everyone around now sighed loudly as this spot clearly was off limits to the students from now on. It seemed like we have messed for everybody indefinitely.
"It is what it is" Gon said loudly, "It´s sad enough nobody voluntarily wants to take care of this place anymore. Now everyone leave! The people involved in the fight stay here for now."
With that, the larger group began moving towards the exit and the principal gave his attention back to us.
"You two" he told the two sophomores, "You are going straight back to your dorms for tonight. You´ve caused more than enough trouble tonight and on earlier occasions as well, your parents are going to hear of this!"
"Oh come on" Han complained lowly, Lucas still didn´t seem to have everything in order. He was barely able to stand straight.
"Off you go" Gon told them calm- but clearly, pointing towards the exit. "I don't want to see either of you again tonight. We´ll resolve this later."
We shortly watched them as they trotted away, all of us with the same amount of grief and satisfaction. They were still looking rather pissed than regretful, but I didn´t care about that as long as I had them out of my side for now.
"Leon" the principal then addressed him directly, "I want you to carry your friend into the infirmary. I´m gonna inform an emergency doctor in the meanwhile, just to make sure everything is alright."
"I…I…" Leon stuttered in slight surprise, "He´s not really my friend, he´s just-"
"He is from your dorm after all" Gon interrupted him, "No matter if you´re are close to him or not, we need someone who´s physically able to carry him down the stairs. I´m 71 years old, you´re much more capable than me to do this task. This is about respect and camaraderie, not friendship."
Leon sighed very lowly, then he nodded. He respected the principals order, even if he didn´t like it.
POV Leon
Of all the things on my list of things I never wanted to do, this must be right on top of it. I never felt too comfortable with touching another guy in the first place, but with him it was even worse.
I didn´t want to get anywhere near to that show off in the first place, even less lift him off the floor and carry him somewhere.
But there was no other choice as it looked like.
"The girls will open all the doors for you" the principal instructed us, "I assume you know where the Infirmary is?"
Bailey nodded quickly, I was glad we at least wouldn´t get lost on our way.
Seeing that Julian wouldn't just wake up any second, I swallowed my pride for now and got down onto my knees next to him in order to pick him up. Being careful not to touch the sophomore´s saliva on his shirt, I got my left arm under his knees and my right one under his back, then I got back up onto my feet and lifted the unconscious fox into the air with that.
"Heavy" was the first thought that came to my mind.
He was heavier than I thought he would be. His fur was really soft, even through his clothes I could tell that, and the rest just seemed to be bones and muscles.
Still, as a wolf I was a lot taller and also stronger than a fox, so I could easily carry him all the way down to the infirmary.
Trying to focus on anything else but the physique of my usually rather mean and annoying dormmate, I started walking towards the door where we came from and the girls followed me.
When we reached the infirmary, the lights were already turned on and one of the teachers who had volunteered to overlook the ball opened the door from the inside for us. It seemed like the principal had already informed her.
"Just put him down on one of the beds" the elderly Zebra lady told us, "The doctor is on her way already."
We nodded and I laid the red fox down onto one of the mattrasses, not wanting to hold him any longer than absolutely necessary. My arms had started to hurt a little bit, carrying him through the staircase had been more exhausting than I anticipated it to be.
"Thank you, Leon" Bailey told me lowly, and it really seemed rather genuine of her. I guess I haven't just been doing it for the principal or for Julian after all.
I could tell she had been really scared earlier, and I could also see where she was coming from. I had been scared as well, this could have ended so much worse than it actually did.
I nodded with a little smile towards her, then I took a step back from the bed.
We waited with Lucy´s dormmate until the doctor arrived, and we also waited for the diagnosis. Lucy seemed to want clarity if he would be okay as well, and I couldn´t deny her that. I kinda wanted to know about it too.
But when the doctor gave us a confident smile and said he would wake up soon anyway, only having suffered from a slight concussion, we left the infirmary and left Bailey some privacy. It seemed like she wanted to be alone with him right now.
Outside in the hallway, Lucy just wordlessly took me by the hand and pulled me with her. I followed where ever she was leading me to, apparently that was not the direction of the ball-room or any of our dorms. We headed up a few sets of stairs, followed a long corridor for a bit, headed up a few more stairs and then she suddenly opened a door I´ve never seen before. It wasn´t locked for some reason, I guessed it was the same story as it had been with the garden earlier.
We were walking on top of an even higher roof now, and soon I realized that here was the pool located I´ve heard other students talk about already.
I followed her to one of the benches besides the water, then she took a seat, making sure not to get tangled up in her pretty pink dress. I took a seat besides her, then we both wordlessly stared at the water for quite a long moment of awkward tension.
"So that was the garden Haru had been talking about?" she then asked all over sudden.
I still wasn't quite sure why she brought me up here exactly, but I figured it mostly was because of the privacy. We were totally alone here.
"Uh…yeah, I guess so."
This actually was something that had me interested ever since Haru mentioned it, but right now that was by far not the most important topic on my mind.
Everything that had happened tonight confused me on so many levels.
I had so many questions right now, and I had a really hard time to figure out where to even begin.
"Why…" I began carefully, "…why did you just leave without saying anything?"
She now just looked at me with a little sigh. Her expression made it look like it was me who was to be blamed for all this.
"You´ve been sort of ignoring me all evening" she stated then, looking me right in the eyes, "Almost like you´ve been trying to avoid me."
"I…I…" I stuttered, "I have-"
"I didn't want to just leave, but I was getting a little frustrated seeing everyone else have so much fun. And then these two sophomores came up to us and told us about an exciting full-moon party in the rooftop garden and I thought: Couldn´t hurt to take a short look, might be cool after all."
I took a look upwards at the moon, it truly was a perfect circle tonight. There might have been some truth to what she said, but I wasn´t entirely convinced all this was my fault.
"…I wouldn´t have followed them if I had known they were such douchebags" she continued, "But at the time it seemed more exciting than just standing there all alone and watch you having small talk with anyone but me all evening long."
This hit even harder now. The way she said it made it sound kind of brutal, but it appeared she still had a point. Now that she explained it like that from her perspective, it seemed like the most obvious thing in the world. I couldn´t even blame her for thinking like that. I had been chickening out on her again, there was just no other word for it. I have been avoiding her.
It took me every bit of courage I had left to even look her in the eyes right now, I´ve probably ruined what she had anticipated to be a very exciting night after all. A tear ran down from my eyes and travelled down my cheeks, there was no doubt she had seen it.
"Why are you so scared of me, Leon?" she asked, taking my left hand with one of hers, "You´re not afraid to kiss me in the rehearsals…"
My pulse was getting even faster now. She nailed me down exactly on that topic I had been trying to avoid so desperately.
"I…I don't know" I stuttered, "I just don't know what you really want from me."
That statement made her chuckle a little bit.
"What´s so complicated to understand?" she asked with a patient sigh, "I´m young, I want to experience love, maybe just for tonight, maybe more than that. I thought I had been pretty clear about it. Don't you want that as well?"
"Y-yes, but…I was just not sure if you… …if you were actually being serious. Or if you just pretended to like me because of my dad."
"What?! No!" she said loudly and in great surprise, then she lowered her volume a little, "I mean…I´ve had so much fun at the birthday-party! And that´s mostly because of you! And now that we´re cool I have so much more fun at rehearsals as well! I…I really began to like you, Leon!"
She now rested one of her palms on my thigh, coming really to me.
"So…you really like me for who I am?" I asked, feeling a bit like an dumbass.
"Well of course I do you dumbass!" she whispered with a chuckle.
I practically couldn't stop my tail from wagging anymore at this point. I had been dreaming of it being that easy and uncomplicated, and now it turned out that it actually was. She really liked me too. Why did it take me that long to notice?
I gave her a sincere little smile now. She ironically rolled her eyes with a little smirk as well, it seemed like she´d been waiting for this moment since quite a while already.
"Stop hesitating and kiss me already you idiot!" she yelled impatiently, "Or do I need to throw you into the pool fir-?"
Before she could even finish that sentence, I leaned forwards and locked my lips with hers carefully.
She didn´t pull away, and when I gently put one of my hands around the back of her head, she didn´t dislike that either.
It was a genuine kiss this time, even if it still felt a little bit staged.
When we pulled away from each other afterwards, she smiled at me happily.
"See?" she asked, "Not that complicated, is it?"
I just nodded with a little smile, then I kissed her again.
"Oh, I like where this is going" she giggled. Then she suddenly got off the bench and shamelessly took a seat on my lap.
Her tail was wagging right into my groin, I was pretty sure this was a signal as well.
"Really?" I asked with a slightly nervous chuckle, "Up here?"
That made her giggle even more now. "Would you prefer making some dents into some drama-club lockers?"
"Pfff" I laughed, "Yeah, yeah. Good one!"
She now turned around on my lap a little bit so she could face me again.
"Any better ideas, Romeo?" she asked with a dirty grin.
In that moment I remembered something else I had already thought about earlier.
"I do, actually" I told her with a little smirk.
"Go on, I´m listening."
"My parents aren't home all weekend long" I told her lowly, "We´d be there in half an hour and we´d have the house all to ourselves. What do you think?"
Her smile immediately widened even more when she heard that suggestion.
"Does that sound like a plan?"
She just nodded with an excited smirk, then she got off of my lap and held out for my hand again. "Yeah! Let´s go!"
"Yeah?" I asked with a contented smile.
"The choices are our dorms or a castle all to ourselves?" she asked rhetorically, "That plan was sold the second you said it."
POV Bailey
Earlier today I had found him when he was letting out all his rage and frustration on a punching back in the sport hall gym-room, now I was standing beside his bed in the infirmary and waiting for him to wake up.
On one hand I thought he had been kind of an idiot to start a fight with two wolves, on the other hand he had done it to save me from them, and he kinda succeeded with that in the end. He cared about me like nobody apart from my family had ever done before, he even risked to get hurt for me, fighting two students who were older and also taller than him. And he came looking for me in the first place.
I felt nothing but flustered about it, even though it was a kind of odd situation for me right now. I was alone with him in the schools infirmary, waiting for him to gain consciousness again while the rest of the school was having fun at the party. I felt a bit silly still wearing that dress, but I still much rather wanted to be here with him than anywhere else at the moment.
This day just had taken so many confusing turns of events.
The doctor who had come to examine him quickly had removed the white shirt he wore and inspected the sore spot on his abdomen from the kick he received. She said there weren´t any serious injuries, she was pretty confident he would recover without any major issues. His muscular structure had saved his ribs from the impact, his pulse was fine as well. She suspected a slight concussion and said he would wake up from his unconsciousness within half an hour; and she left me her number in case he wouldn´t.
She remained correct about her prediction though; he woke up just barely ten minutes after Lucy and Leon had left the infirmary. My pulse began beating faster and faster when I realized he was beginning to gain consciousness again.
"B-Bailey?" he asked in slight confusion. I couldn´t talk but just smile at him. He was just so cute and handsome, still so much of a gentleman. "What happened?"
"Y-you had a slight concussion after getting pushed and falling on the floor. You hit your head, but you´ll be okay."
He took a short look around, then down his shirtless abdomen.
"Where are we?"
"The…schools infirmary. There was an emergency doctor here, she said you´ll be just fine apart from some sore spots. Does it hurt very bad?"
I pointed at the slightly bruised looking spot on his chest.
"N-no, it´s alright" he said lowly, shaking his head with great confidence, "Are you okay? Who were these assholes? …why…why have you left the ballroom without telling me anything?"
"I´m…I…" I stuttered, feeling very bad about it now that I got reminded about that again. "I´m so sorry!" I then blurted out.
He looked at me, but he didn't actually look disappointed in me. He just looked confused.
"They asked Lucy and I if we wanted to join them for the full moon-party on the roof-top garden quickly. I thought I would be back very soon, I didn´t know there were trying to…"
A tear was rolling down my cheek now, I had a really hard time finishing that sentence.
What those wolves did to us was not okay, and I now just fully realized that.
"…w-what did they do to you?" he asked with great concern.
"They…" I stuttered, trying to take a deep breath, "They were really drunk and really flirty. I wanted to get away but I was scared they would hurt us!"
"Oh no" he said, talking himself into a little bit of a rage, "I´m sorry we didn´t find you sooner! I´m sorry I couldn´t stop them! I…I…I was thinking Leon might help me! I…I was such an Idiot!"
I just now realized that I shouldn't have told him about this. I had encountered him in a quite unstable state of mind earlier today already, I should have known he would take the blame on himself for this.
I didn´t want that, my heart couldn't bear to see him like this any longer. I didn´t want to see him suffer any longer, I wanted to see him smile and I wanted the both of us to forget about all this trouble for a moment. I wanted to remember this as a fun-night after all.
Not knowing what to say in order to make him stop self-doubting everything he did, I just followed an instinct, leaned forwards and kissed him right on the lips.
He looked very surprised, but it immediately shut him up and he didn't stop me. Just now I noticed that I probably would never have done this under any other circumstances. But I was glad I did it. I had just trusted my gut and it worked out. He liked it, and therefore I really liked it as well. It felt nice on every possible level, it lifted our spirits and I´ve never felt so much in love ever before.
At first, he just embraced it, then he gently held onto the back of my head and pulled me even closer towards him.
"I´m glad you´re okay" I said when we carefully released each other again, "And I´m glad you stood up for us! That was very brave of you!"
He just smiled at me proudly, then he just kissed me again. It felt so peaceful and comfortable, almost like I´ve just averted a major crisis with this move.
I was so happy right now. We were all alone here, nobody interrupted us and nobody would come in here anytime soon either. This was actually a really cool place for a first kiss, I would probably never forget about it.
"You look so pretty tonight" he told me with a seductive smirk, looking really happy himself, "Makes me forget about the pain altogether."
I just noticed that I was basically lying on top of him right now, probably inflicting even more physical pain to his bruised body that way.
"Oh, I´m sorry!" I said, "I´ll get off of y-"
In that moment he already put his strong arms around me and hugged me really tightly.
"You don't have to go anywhere" he whispered into my ears lowly, "Thank you so much for this!"
He now carefully snuggled his head against mine, I´ve never felt more special, more loved or more comfortable in my entire life. This was just heaven.
I couldn't help but release a joyful little giggle right now, it seemed to be very contagious.
"Quite a convenient place actually, isn´t it?" he asked with a sly little grin.
I took another look around, I couldn´t find any reason to disagree with him. Even the automatic, motion triggered lights I the hallway outside have turned off in the meanwhile, it was just the two of us here. That anxiety from earlier was totally gone, being here with him just felt right, almost natural to me now.
"Very convenient" I agreed with a smile, snuggling myself into the fur on his chest a little more, "I think it´s the most convenient place in the entire school right now."
He pulled me yet into another kiss, I just totally embraced it once again. I wanted to spend the entire night here with him, nothing and nobody could take this from me.
Whatever Lucy might be telling me about her night when I would meet her again, my story would be just as exciting as hers. I wasn't even afraid of someone walking in on us making out right now, I´ve never felt this kind of confidence before. I just owned it now, and I wasn't ashamed about it.
"Wanna stay here for a while?" he asked me with a mischievous little smirk.
I nodded with a big smile. I wanted nothing else but to stay here with him, alone and unbothered.
"Thank you so much for being there for me" he told me lowly, "You made my day just so much better when you found me in the gym this evening!"
I couldn't help but look him right in the yes. I loved this vulnerable side of him, he was just so cute and adorable like that.
"I´m glad I found you too. Took me a lot of guts."
He smiled back at me, then he pulled me into another kiss. "This might be bold to say after one evening" he said, "But I think I love you, Bailey!"
My heart just made another little jump when he said that. I began to feel hot and cold at the same time, but it was not in a bad way. I could feel his heartbeat, I could feel that he was a little nervous right now as well; and there was nothing more than I could ever have wanted for tonight.
I kissed him again, then I smiled at him happily. "I think I love you too."
Here we are. Almost 18k words, hope it was worth the effort. Tell me what you think, I´m very thirsty for your feedback!
I have a lot more planned for this story, I hope it won´t take me too long completing it. Hope you´ll stay tuned for however long it takes ;)
See you later!
~furr