Chapter 8: Unwrapped!
Stone Kole, goes to a Halloween Beach Party. Since the fox is once again almost flat broke, he has to get creative with his costume.
May I suggest the song 'Halloween' by Aqua.
3:00 a.m. November 1st
He was blurry-eyed and he seemed to be dizzy when he sat up in the darkness, the small fennec fox's mouth tasted like sandpaper and he was thirsty. Rubbing his paws across his face, Stone Kole tried to focus on the room around him. It was apparent that he had crashed on someone's sofa and it looked like he was inside of a typical condo's family room with a few overstuffed lounge chairs, a large flat-screen television, and a small table. His large ears could pick up the sound of the nearby surf, which to the small fox was a reassuring noise. Pulling the rough wool blanket from around him, he realized that he was wearing someone's bathrobe, and sniffing it, he caught a telltale feline scent.
Stone had to pee badly and so he wobbled to his footpaws, the room began to briefly swim around him and he stumbled forward to grip the back of one of the nearby chairs in an effort to desperately steady himself. Not thinking, he reached down with his right paw and scratched himself between his legs, hesitating when he realized that he was naked under the robe. "What the f…?" he slurred out in surprise.
Bathroom! Yeah, he needed to find a bathroom and pee before his bladder exploded. Launching himself unsteadily towards what appeared to be a dark hallway, with a slight grunt he bumped against a wall and used it to steady himself as he wandered down towards a door. Tentatively he turned the knob and swung the door open, almost falling muzzle-first into the room. A bright light came on, temporarily blinding him and causing him to cover his eyes with his arms. "Hey fox, wrong room!" a feminine voice laughed from the nearby bed.
Stone tried to focus on the sand cat who was under the bed's covers and at first, he thought there were two cats but once he concentrated there was only one. "I know you…" he mumbled before he desperately gripped the door frame to keep from falling but in doing so, he realized that the robe had begun to open and he quickly gripped the edges closed.
"Hey, Karen!" the cat called out. "Your drunken fox is roaming the hallway wearing mom's bathrobe!"
"Yeah…you're Karen's older sister!" he finally slurred while he gave her a stupid grin.
"Stone Kole!" a very familiar voice softly growled out from behind him and he turned to face yet another sand cat.
He wobbled a bit as he looked her up and down. She was wearing a pair of pink and blue checkered pajamas. "You look cute," he mumbled even as he stepped towards her with his arms outstretched.
"Stone, what are you doing?" she asked when his paws gripped her shoulders. He felt a tug on the robe and realized she had tied it shut.
"Peeeeee!" he muttered while he leaned into her embrace.
With a grunt, she held him up. "The bathroom is across the hallway, do you think you can make it?"
"Eeeeupppp!"
He lunged toward the room and blinked in confusion when she flicked the light on. "Don't miss the toilet!" Karen's sister called out.
Fumbling towards the toilet, he pulled back the robe and sighed as he released a steady stream into the bowl's water. "AHHHHHHHHH!"
"Next time close the door!" Karen's sister giggled from inside her room across the hallway.
9:30 a.m. November 1st
It was daylight when he awoke again, curled up on the cold hard bathroom tiles with a dark green blanket thrown over him. Sitting up, he winced because his head was throbbing and his stomach was roiling, unsteadily he climbed to his feet.
"Since I had to work late at the hotel last night and missed the Halloween Party, you promised to take me to brunch. I didn't know I would be the one making you a meal of coffee, dry toast, and aspirin instead." He looked up to see his girlfriend frowning down at him.
"What happened?"
5:00 p.m. October 31st Halloween
"Stoney, I don't think this is such a good idea!" the small wallaby sighed while he watched the fennec fox place two big rolls of oversized toilet paper on the table.
"Cooper, this is the only thing I could afford," Stone replied with a grin. "Trust me, it will work just fine!"
"Famous last words," another wallaby chuckled from where he sat in a nearby lounge chair. Stone looked over at Cooper's boyfriend, Billy, who just grinned back at the fox. Billy worked at the Carnival on the Boardwalk and he had even secured Cooper a weekend job taking tickets at the Haunted House.
They were inside Billy's small mobile home that was nested in a trailer park just a few blocks away from the beachfront tourist district which the locals have dubbed The Strand. Since the nearby city-run campground had closed at the end of summer, Stone had two choices on where to spend the night. It was either sleeping here in one of the wallaby's lounge chairs or on the sofa at his mother's apartment. Normally when he came over from his and Cooper's winter home in Seaside, he would crash on his mom's sofa but since his long lost father Finnick had returned, Stone didn't feel comfortable sleeping in the den while his mother and his father did god knows what in the bedroom!
It was rare for him and Cooper to take the long ferry ride back across the strait to Zootopia, they usually waited until after the chaos of college Spring Break had ended and just before the start of the surfing season, but there was a reason for them to do so this time…well, make those three reasons. There was a pretty sand cat named Karen, a handsome wallaby named Billy, and the fact that Stone was being paid to attend a beachside Halloween Party being held by one of his surfing sponsors, Ben and Jerry with Honey Brown Acorn Ale.
"Stone, let's bloody well go find some old clothes at the thrift shop and you can dress as a zombie," Cooper suggested to the thin fennec fox standing there in his white undershorts.
"Look, this will work!" Stone objected while he began to unroll some of the toilet paper. "We will just wrap the TP around me like bandages and when we get done I will look like a mummy, what could go wrong?"
"Oh, I don't know? You might catch on fire, someone might step on your fake bandages and tear them, or you might get wet," Billy sarcastically answered the fox's question.
"I'll be careful!"
"Famous last words, mate!" Cooper sighed while he helped wrap his best friend in the makeshift costume. "Just where did you get these rolls of toilet paper anyway?"
"I borrowed them."
Across town, a portly boar cursed while he sat on the toilet inside of one of the city's public restrooms when he realized that the roll of TP was missing.
It took several tries, but the three friends finally got the fennec fox all wrapped up. "See I told you it would work!" Stone proclaimed as he held his arms out in front of him and slowly walked forward with a limp, just like the mummy did in the old black and white movie. "Like I said, what could go wrong?"
"Plenty," Billy answered with a shake of his head.
10:15 p.m. Halloween Night
"Another!" Stone yelled to the bartender after he enthusiastically gulped down the frothy contents of the mug he was handed. The fox, who was dressed like a mummy, took the new drink passed to him and joined a group of his fans dancing on the sandy beach to the sounds of the band. The beach party was in full swing and the small surfer was the night's original party animal.
11:59 p.m. Halloween Night
Unsteadily balancing himself on an oversized surfboard the fennec fox gave a happy yowl while the board was passed over the heads of the partying crowd towards the stage. Reaching the stage, he joined several costumed dancers while they gyrated and moved to a song called the Monster Mash.
1:45 a.m. November 1st
There was a heavy pounding on the apartment door and with a yawn, Karen peeked through the peephole trying to see who was outside, but all she saw was a mass of dark blue clothing. Tentatively, she cracked open the door and stared up at the large police officer standing there. "Officer Vifaru, is everything alright?" she finally asked.
"I've got something for you!" the rhino grunted to the much smaller and very pretty pajama-clad sand cat standing in the doorway and then he held up the now passed out fennec fox who was cradled in his arms. "Either you take him or I will have to book him for public drunkenness down at the station and I really don't want to have to do all that extra paperwork."
"Where are his clothes?"
"When I saw him earlier tonight, he was dressed in toilet paper."
"Toilet paper?"
"I think he was supposed to be a mummy?"
"What happened to his costume?"
"Well, it seems that he got a little too blasted and ran into the surf."
"What?"
"Yeah, they told me that a mummy ran into the surf and, well, you know that TP starts to dissolve when it gets wet. A few minutes later a very drenched fox dressed only in his underwear stumbled out of the waves and fell muzzle first into the sand."
"Oh, dear!"
"Are you gonna take him or should I haul him downtown?"
"No, don't do that!" the sand cat answered while she rung her paws together in worry.
"I figured that was what you were going to say, he is a bit sandy and still wet, so maybe I should drop him in your bathroom. That way you can clean him up before you tuck him into bed," the officer chuckled.
9:45 a.m. November 1st
Stone Kole had his head between his paws while he stared with distaste at the coffee and dry toast on the table in front of him. "So Officer Vifaru brought me here?"
"He didn't know where Billy lived and your parents were not home, you didn't have a key, wallet, or your cellphone and he wasn't going to leave you propped up in front of her doorway."
"I left my wallet and cell phone at Billy's, but I did have some cash on me last night."
"Where did you keep it, you didn't exactly have pockets in that costume?"
Stone looked embarrassed.
"You kept it in your underwear!" Karen giggled at the look the fox gave her.
"Speaking of which, where is my underwear, and if I was all wet and sandy, how did I get washed off last night?"
It was his girlfriend's turn to blush.