Chapter 38
Fox was laying in his bed on the Thursday morning of his Fall break. He remembered telling the guys that they should take the next few days to recover from the scuffle they had with Wolf's group. He was half awake at 11 that morning, teetering on the edge of his bed when the door flung open and he heard a loud, "WAKE UP!"
He nearly faceplanted falling out of his bed and just mumbled to himself a little bit as he lifted his head up looking around trying to see what it was that was so loud, then he realized the covers were still over his face.
He took them down to see his dad standing there in the doorway. "You're up, that's good." Fox just squinted his eyes not knowing what was going on, "Why'd you get me up?" "Well because it's almost noon, that's all." Fox just groaned to himself at his Dad's joke and stood up as his dad walked out laughing to himself a little.
He made his bed and sat down at his computer chair, wondering what today and the rest of this break had in store for him.
"This has sure been a weird break, first the football game, then that thing with going to the mall with Krystal, the brawl we had with Wolf's gang, and now today. Who knows what's next in line with how this has gone so far." Then he thought that maybe lazing around with the day wasn't as good an idea as he thought. 'The guys have likely told their ladies that we're out of commission for a couple days, so I'm probably gonna hear from the guys only, if anyone. Does Krystal know? Surely she doesn't know why if she does know, we made sure to not let the girls know why we're out.' He thought to himself.
'So then what do I do with these free days? I can't just sit around doing nothing, besides schoolwork at least. Hmmmmm.' His thoughts were interrupted by a call on his phone, from Krystal. 'This could mean anything' He thought to himself.
"Hey Fox! What's up?"
"Well not a whole lot, being a little lazy and just got up about ten minutes ago is all."
She sighed, "You can't be more lazy on breaks can you?" She said as she laughed a little bit. "Well anyways, I just wanted to know if you're doing anything today is all."
'So she must not know anything, that's probably best' "Nah not really anything today, schoolwork maybe if I feel like it today." He could feel a little bit of vigor raise in her voice, "That's great! How would you like to go see that movie you've been talking about? With me and Panther? He wants to go see it too, and I know you wanted to too, so I thought maybe this'd be good since you guys haven't talked a whole lot and all."
Fox seemed a little alarmed at this was nice and all of her, but maybe he and the others have hid that they're not extremely fond of Panther. 'If we didn't like him before my memory loss, doesn't she know this? What's going on with her? If we didn't like him before, then why….' "Fox? Something wrong?"
He'd been thinking to himself a bit longer than he'd realized. "Uh! Um, nothing's wrong, I'm fine. Well uh, no idea. I'll think on it and try and get back to you later." "Alright that's fi- he hung up that fast? Weird." She said as he abruptly hung up.
He exhaled loudly as he sat in his chair. 'He's not right for her, that's all I know right now. He must be hiding his true self from her, no way that she'd date a guy that'd try beating up her friends while she's not looking.' He put on some shoes, but he wasn't sure why. He walked through his house to the front door and his mom asked him something, but he didn't know what it was.
'I don't know her all that well but, I think I know her better than this. This just, doesn't seem to make sense.' He was walking down his street, not knowing his destination. 'Nice girl, and he's kind of a jerk, when she isn't around at least. How does that happen? She's too happy to be in pain from anything, I can tell that much.' He ran into something, a mailbox, a mailbox with a familiar set of numbers and words.
It took him a second, then he saw a somewhat familiar vehicle, as well as two familiar figures cuddling through a window. 'Uh oh, I need to get outta here, and fast, before they see me and something possibly bad happens.' He took off running and as he did, he noticed that Krystal spotted him. He could read what she said out of the corner of his eye as he bolted.
He knew he couldn't just run down the street, he'd be spotted and she'd know that she saw him. He quickly hopped the nearest wood fence and hid behind it, hoping that she, or they, could hear him breathing.
"I could've sworn I saw Fox out here, then run away. Panther, did you see him?" Panther looked around, here and there, "I didn't see him through the window, and I don't see him now. How about we just go back inside and finish what we started?" Fox could hear and feel the cat snicker a little bit, and hear Krystal snicker back and hug him around his waist.
Fox let his breath out once he couldn't hear them any more. "I'm gonna hope that was a joke, otherwise I've got something on him, if that's what he's in it for." He peeked through the wood to make sure they were inside and he turned around to see the owner of the house behind him.
"Excuse me young man, but can you explain to me exactly why you're standing in my back yard, a stranger's back yard?" Fox just heated up a little bit and tried to explain, while trying not to laugh,
"Uh, heh heh, well you see ummm…." Without finishing his statement he just vaulted himself over the fence and took off towards his house.
He walked into his house and his mother asked him something again, and this time Fox noticed. "Oh! Um, well I apparently just went for a little walk. It wasn't anything too major, just a little thinking on some things. Is all." He retreated to his room and he decided to call Falco.
"Hey dude, are you actually hurt or sore or anything?"
"Nah not really, just wanted a break, I doubt the other two are hurt or anything too. What's up?"
"Well, I want us four to meet up somewhere for something, I wanna talk about something." Since the memory loss, and before then, Fox never really wanted to get together randomly and "talk" about something, especially in this fashion.
"Er well sure, I'll talk to the other two real quick and see if we can't get together for a bit today. Text ya in a bit." The bird hung up and Fox collected his thoughts again in his chair. About ten minutes later he got a text from you know who, 'We're good to go, we'll meet at the café in about an hour.'
"Good, I like that place."
The hour passed and they were all there just as they had planned. This time they didn't sit at the bar, this time they took a table in a far secluded corner.
"So what's up? You're not usually like this, so I'm guessing this is something important." Slippy told his friend.
"Hm, well thing is, Panther. On more than one occasion I've seen him and Krystal, you say that we don't like him and all, and there's something about him that just rubs me the wrong way. Think you can tell me exactly why we don't like him?" His friends thought momentarily to ensure they gave the right answers only.
Bill spoke up first, "For starters, you know what happened the other day. And it started even before then." Falco nodded along,
"Last year they got into a fight with us in the school lobby, and it wasn't just to go along with what Wolf was doing. Panther came for you on more than one occasion in that fight."
"Not to mention when you and Krystal were together, he was always giving you nasty looks, and he tried stealing her from you once when you guys had a fight." Slippy added along.
"I see, so then have you guys talked to your girlfriends about anything like this?" They all nodded no. "I figured, and so I'm assuming that all of you are feeling the same way as me?" They all nodded yes this time. "Well then, I don't think he's right for her, it just seems like there's something else going on there, something he's hiding. Maybe I'm just paranoid."
Falco just shrugged. "We should just keep this to ourselves, if the girls catch wind of it then there's no telling what'll happen." They all nodded in agreement.
"I don't want to break them up, but if something is found that means they need to, then we'll have to do it. Keep your eyes peeled for any sign of anything." Fox told his trusting friends. They all nodded along and ordered a pizza.
Apologies for being gone so long, if my followers return to see this. Life happened and I lost interest for a while, hopefully I'll be back for a decent amount of time.
