The Backstage Raccoons Chapter 4
Written by Brother Ralph
Melissa woke up after a cold night on a sofa. She hadn't really slept, rather lay there watching the night shifting slowly into day. She felt her head pounding with the aftermath of the previous night and was thankful she'd stopped when she had. She was in Ralph's flat, and as she started coming round more fully she remembered glimpses of their journey from the club to here. She had been drunker than she realised and Ralph had barely been able to stand. She remembered half carrying him through the door and throwing him onto a bed. Standing up she moved slowly and stooped knowing that straightening up would send stabbing pains into the space behind her eyes. When she reached the bedroom doorway she saw Ralph lounged half on the bed, exactly where she left him.
As her shadow cast across him he jerked into wakefulness and then raised his hands to his temple. Obviously he was in much the same state as she was.
'Well, I guess we deserve this.' She said.
'Melissa?' he sounded surprised and opened his eyes. He seemed to take a few moments looking at her and looking round the room at the dishevelled bedding. After a few moments his eyes widened and he asked a little fearfully, 'Did we…er…well…did we, you know…'
'No!' Melissa exclaimed and winced at her own loudness. Leaning against the doorpost for support she explained more softly, as much for her own sake as his 'No, of course we didn't. It was all I could manage to get you to the bed; you were in no fit state for anything else.'
Ralph gave a sly smile at this, 'awww, you must have been so disappointed.'
Melissa snorted at him and walked away, leaving him alone in the darkened room. He stopped smiling, a little confused. She'd always seemed quite interested in flirting before. Perhaps it was the hangover, he reasoned with himself.
Ralph finally managed to drag himself out of bed and pull on some fresh clothes, and when he eventually emerged from his room Melissa was sat at his dinner table drinking a cup of strong coffee. There was one for him on the opposite side of the table and he sat down with it gratefully. Her expression seemed annoyed, perhaps with a tinge of anger mixed in, and Ralph started to think perhaps there was a bit more to this than just the hangover.
'Erm…are you alright Melissa?' he asked carefully, trying to sound as casual as possible.
She glared at him and if looks could kill Ralph would have been totally obliterated right there and then. She didn't say anything and let Ralph squirm under her gaze for a moment.
'Melissa? Did something happen last night? I can't remember much of it.' He continued innocently.
Melissa drank the rest of her coffee, disregarding how hot it was. She really felt like giving him a good slap, but she kept reminding herself he hadn't cheated on her because they weren't actually together.
She looked away from him, suddenly unable to meet his eyes. 'I'm going to take a shower. That club has made me stink of smoke and I don't have a change of clothes with me.' She left the table and turned away from him quickly and he watched her retreat to the bathroom in silence. He wanted to say something like 'can I come too?' but she didn't seem in the mood for joking around, especially not jokes like that. When the door closed and he heard the catch slide back he suddenly felt a pang of loss, and worried to himself that this great new friend he'd made just a few weeks ago might be slipping away from him.
Behind the locked door Melissa stood looking at herself in the mirror. She'd managed to turn away from the table fast enough that he hadn't seen the tears that had welled involuntarily from her eyes and run down through her fur. Pull yourself together girl! You thought he was different and he wasn't, big deal; don't let him do this to you! She thought to herself viciously, turning her anger against the other emotions battling for dominance within her.
Wiping the tears off her face she undressed and considered her nakedness in the full length mirror Ralph had put across most of the wall. She turned side on and stood as tall as she could breathing in as she did so. She placed a hand on her back and one on her abdomen and increased a little pressure on herself, pushing her tummy inwards about half an inch and adding a curve to her back. She still wasn't as tall as Lisa, or as slim.
Melissa relaxed and stood straight on to the mirror. The reflection staring back at her seemed painfully honest with the bulge of her wide hips and relatively short legs, accompanied by the knowledge that she could do nothing about those. Chubby little short girl her mind insulted her own body.
She turned away from the mirror in disgust and had her shower trying to think of nothing at all. On the small shower shelf she found a small horde of beauty products including skin moisturiser, fur softener, papaya scent and a shampoo for dry or damaged tails. She couldn't help but giggle to herself. There were more accessories here than in her own bathroom. At the moment she was angry with Ralph and didn't want to speak to him unless she had to, but she made a mental note to take the mick out of him for this later.
Outside Ralph was oblivious to the investigations of his friend, and was desperately trying to find clues as to what might have happened the night before to cause a rift between them. He had searched through his pockets and found nothing but an empty pack of cigarettes. It was a shame, he could have done with one of those round about now.
When he heard the shower turn on and was confident he had a few minutes before Melissa would be out he went to the phone and dialled Bert's number. He had to find out what was going on. It rang a few times and then made a clicking noise.
'Hello?' came Bert's voice.
'Hi Bert. I need to…' Ralph started but then was interrupted by Bert's uncontrollable laugh.
'Ha ha ha ha! Got you again! This is an answering machine! If you want to leave a message for the real Bert you'd best do so after the beep.' The message was quickly followed by a loud electronic beep. The message had been funny the first few times but these days it wore on Ralph's patience, especially as it caught him out pretty much every time.
'Bert, where have you got to? Listen buddy if you're there I need to talk to you.' Ralph waited for a moment hoping that someone would pick up. When he was answered by nothing but silence he said 'Look, I don't know what happened last night, but whatever it was you've gotta tell me as soon as you get this. Melissa is seriously pissed off and I…well…you know how I've felt about her ever since we met her. Geez man, I don't think I could have blown this more with a lorry load of C4! I'll see you later mate.' with this he hung up, a little confused as to why Bert wasn't home. Wondering whether the outgoing Raccoon had spent the night at the Vixen's house he turned back to his own troubles. For now he'd have to play things by ear and he'd start making up for his unknown mistake by making her a breakfast, noticing time stopped for no-one and they both needed to get to the studio in an hour or so.
After making a fried breakfast he sat down to wait for her. When she did come out of the bathroom she dashed across the room from the bathroom to his bedroom wearing nothing but a towel draped around her and her fur still damp and ruffled. Ralph couldn't tear his eyes away from her as she flitted across the apartment saying
'Ralph I'm going to borrow some of your clothes, mine smell of the club.' She felt rather than saw him staring at her as she went past. She was ashamed of how she looked and escaped out of his sight as quickly as she could wondering if there was anything in particular that had held his judgemental gaze or if it was just a general distaste for her shape. Her assumptions couldn't have been more wrong though, as out in the kitchen Ralph let out a long breath of air and concluded she was intentionally enticing him. She must be trying to show that she was a prize any man would be glad to have, and Ralph was no exception. He was still contemplating this when she came back into the main room wearing a shirt of his. She sat down and ate in silence, never thanking him for the breakfast or acknowledging his presence. Ralph thought he felt something very delicate shatter deep within his chest, but he didn't let it show and maintained the torturous silence. Ralph had learnt over the years that if a woman doesn't want to talk to you, it's best not to try. Let her calm down and speak to you in her own time.
The situation was so awkward that when the doorbell rang Ralph sprang up.
'I'll get it!' he cried, trying to break though this cold and icy wall between them.
When he opened the door he found Schaeffer in the hallway.
'Schaeffer! Hi, come in, join the fun.' He said the last bit under his breath.
'You look terrible Ralph! You three need to slow it down in the evenings! You were lucky only Bert was arrested, those police dogs could have picked you all up for the disturbances you caused!'
The two raccoons froze and Melissa dropped her fork loudly onto the plate.
'Bert was arrested?' they asked in unison.
Schaeffer shook his head at them. 'How much had you two drunk, guys? I'm surprised you made it home at all! Bert was taken to the police station for fighting and possession of drugs!'
Melissa put her head into her paws as she remembered more glimpses of the previous night. 'Yes, I remember, he fought with a bear.'
'A bear!?' Ralph sounded shocked 'we've only got an hour gang, let's get down to the police station and see what we can do for him.' The two raccoons quickly picked up their coats and hurried out, Melissa cursing Bert's foolishness.