\n Jake put his arms around me and pushed me to the bed so he could force himself on me. I was too stunned to fight back. Jake broke and then looked really embarrassed.

\n "Um.... Yeah."

\n "That was... different." I said quietly. I was stunned. I mean this was my best friend to find out that he's gay for me... was mind-boggling. "Fuck!" I screamed. "Fuck! I mean.... Just... Fuck!" Jake looked really hurt. "What the fuck was that? You know I'm not gay so why would you- I mean... Surely there's a better way to do that."

\n "I was just... I mean..."

\n "I mean, tongue and everything!"

\n "I got a little carried away."

\n "I still just... I mean... Why the fuck?"

\n "Yeah. So. I've really liked you for a while."

\n "You don't say..." I was furious. "How long exactly?"

\n "Few months."

\n "How long have you known that you we-"

\n "Gay?" I nodded, I wasn't sure if he'd find it offensive if I said anything. "I've known for about a year now."

\n "A year? Why didn't you tell me? I mean, really? What the hell? I'm your best- Your only friend, and you chose not to tell me? I mean, that's something pretty big to hold inside yourself for that long."

\n "Damn it Brent why the fuck does everything have to be about you?"

\n "I never said-"

\n "Man, don't play that shit on me. I'm your best friend, I know what you're thinking. And I mean, it's true though. The second Haley comes around, you have to completely leave me."

\n "Jake, I didn't do anything like that."

\n "Yes you did. And you know you did, I mean, I'm happy for you and everything... but don't forget me."

\n "Jake- I can't ever forget you." I lifted my shirt sleeve and showed the scar from when we pulled a shelf full of paints and tools on top of us when we were eight. "I mean, you're pretty memorable." Jake smiled at this, I think he might have been touched by the nolstagia fairy though...

\n "Thanks." The silence was piercing, but... not awkward. There was so much unspoken apologies that filled the air.

\n "How did you find out that you were actually gay?" I asked him.

\n "I..."

\n "Porn?" I was blunt and to the point.

\n "Porn." He confirmed, laughing slightly. "And dreams..." I really didn't want to know that.

\n "Man."

\n "What?"

\n "Nothing just..." I exhaled a long breath. "It's different you know? I mean, this changes things."

\n "It's not supposed to. I mean. I know that you're not gay and everything and I think it's cool, but... I don't want to lose you. I love you so much." I must have had a look on my face. "Not like that I mean. Like a friend. A brother. You're the only person who's ever really understood me..."

\n I felt really touched when he said that. Okay.... that sounded really gay. Wait, can I say gay? I mean... Huh... that's something I should probably figure out.

\n Jake scooted up close and leaned against me. "I'm sorry man." He nearly whispered.

\n "For what?"

\n "For.. making things aw-"

\n "Dude, you're my best friend, I don't want to lose you either." He smiled. He wrapped his arms around me and squeezed tightly. I put my arm around him and encouragingly gave it a squeeze. "I'm here for you if you ever need me."

\n "Thanks Brent."
\n "But I'm not gay, so if you could please... not make this weird, that'd be great." Jake nodded and grinned widely.

\n *****

\n I got into the car with Jake. We figured if we were going to ditch we might as well do something fun. We sat in the food court of the mall, eating lunch together. Jake was thrilled to be allowed to be himself around me, and not have to put on the chauvinistic facade.

\n "It gets really old, y'know?" He said, looking at some twenty-something's ass.

\n "Can you even stop doing that once?" I asked, chiding him gently.

\n "I'm an animal man, I see, I howl, I conquer."

\n "You're not a wolf yet!"

\n "I will be soon." He said suddenly.

\n "Jake, are you telling me..?"

\n "September 10th, we got it scheduled and everything."

\n "Oh man! That's so cool!" He smiled.

\n "Yeah, I mean... This is so great. This is my dream." I tried to imagine my best friend of twelve years as the grey wolf he so longingly imagined himself being. I pictured him taller, with bright eyes that would look hungrily for prey. It was kinda funny actually.

\n "One question though." I knew he wasn't going to like this question, but I had to ask him. "Are you absolutely sure that you want to do this? I mean, this process is irreversible." There had been a few furs that had tried to revert back to humans, regretting the change and what it did to their social life. They all regressed and degraded until they died from complications. Your body can't take the change twice. And those born furs were stuck with it. They tried a few times, this still being a new procedure.

\n "I'm more sure of this than I am of anything else." He said, closing the matter completely.

\n "How do your parents feel about it?"

\n "They don't have any problems with it. They just want me to be happy." I was really surprised by that because they weren't always the most... accepting of things like that.

\n "Speaking of that, have you told your parents about your-"

\n "Obsession with cock?" I think that's what I really was happy about. Jake didn't change himself since coming out.

\n "I wasn't going to say that..."

\n "But you were thinking it..."

\n "Whatever man."

\n "Actually, I have. I mean, they have no issues with it. I was expecting my dad to beat me, my mom to break out into tears. Do you know what happened?" He took a drink of his soda.

\n "What?"

\n "Dad looked over to mom and straight up said, 'I told you.'"

\n "What?"

\n "I'm serious. And then Mom took a twenty out of her purse and gave it to him."

\n "They bet on your sexuality?"

\n "Yup." Jake had every right to be upset over it, but he was hysterical. "Dad bet mom that I was gay. I couldn't figure it out, I mean, I thought I hid it well enough. I asked them how they knew. Dad just looked at me and said 'You haven't brought a girl home in years, your only friend is a fox and you're constantly at his house.'"

\n "Wait-" I interrupted him. "What does my being a fox have to do with it?" Jake shrugged.

\n "Dunno, but so he just could tell. Mom thought it was a phase though. When their computer broke, I let them borrow my laptop, and I thought I cleared out my history, but there was a bookmark. She knew right then."

\n "What was the bookmark?" Jake shrugged.

\n "Dun' remember."

\n "Well still, I mean, that's cool though. They're not freaking out over it or anything."

\n "Yeah."

\n "Yeah..." I trailed off and slowly finished my food. A thought was still nagging me. "Do you like me?" Jake looked at me, and his eyes were peering over me.

\n "A little."

\n "Enough to kiss me?"

\n "Oh that... That was just... I still hadn't had my first kiss until then."

\n "Seriously? I'm your first kiss? I feel both honored and..."

\n "Aroused?" Jake asked, smiling ear to ear.

\n "Shut up." I gave him a hard shove. He just laughed.

\n "You get a callback from one of the places you interviewed?"

\n "The teashop called me back."

\n "That's awesome!"

\n "Yeah."

\n "When do you start?"

\n "I go in to train tomorrow."

\n "That's cool man!"

\n "I know. I'm excited.You working today?"

\n "Yeah."

\n "What time?" I glanced at my watch.

\n "Two hours or so."

\n "You wanna head back to my place and mess arou-"

\n "Dude! I thought I told you I wasn't gay!" Jake looked at me, and even though I was playing it completely straight, he knew I was joking. He still punched me though.

\n "I was talking about playing some games or something."

\n "Let's do it." We stood up and headed off to the Doomsday.

\n *****

\n I strolled into work and looked at the place. It was deserted and empty, the tables were spotless and wrapped in paper. The blinds on all the windows were closed. "Hey Erica?" I called out. There was no answer. I looked around for her. Huh... that's weird. I looked in the kitchen and saw her standing there waiting for me.

\n "Hey Brent."

\n "Hi... What's going on. Where is everyone?" I still hadn't seen anyone there yet.

\n "I have to tell you something."

\n "What?"

\n "You need to start looking for a new job." I felt like I'd been punched in the face.

\n "What. You- You're firing me?"

\n "No. Brent, God no."

\n "Then what?"

\n "I just can't keep the business running anymore."

\n "What?"

\n "The debt is too big."

\n "But we had that one big night."

\n "One night doesn't mean we'll stay afloat."

\n "You can't know what will happen."

\n "Brent. Damn it." She was nearly crying. "I didn't want to have to do this. I had an offer to get this place taken off my hands. I took it." I felt shocked.

\n "So we're already closed?"

\n "Yup. Show's over kid."

\n "Shit." I said under my breath. I wasn't sure who I felt worse for, me or Erica. I mean, this was her family's place. She was giving it all up. I felt like this was all my fault for some reason. She was in tears by now, and I had pity on her so I wrapped my arms around her and squeezed.

\n "I'm gonna miss you." I told her honestly.

\n "I'll miss you too, kid." She pulled out a letter for me, and I knew this was my final paycheck. I didn't want to take it; because that'd mean I'd have to leave her, and the job, behind forever. She pushed it on me again. "Just take it." I grabbed it from her.

\n "See ya later Erica." I couldn't do goodbyes.

\n "See ya Brent." She brushed her hand against my face and simply said. "Have a good life." She turned around and went back to sweeping up the remnants of her family's business and livelihood for the past forty years.

\n I walked out and felt confused. I mean, what was I supposed to do now? I had nothing to do, nowhere to go. I was now financially screwed, but that wasn't even the worst. I mean, poor Erica. I went home and waited for a bit. Mom should be getting home with Sophie at about 3:30, and it was 3:20 then. I put my face down on the couch and relaxed. It was a long day, and I still had to tell Mom why I was gone the whole day, so she could excuse the absences. I stared quietly at the nothingness of my eyelids. I was nursing a headache when Mom and Sophie came in through the garage.

\n "Hey Brent." Sophie ran over to me and pounced on top of me. I just laid there and let her. Mom was putting her stuff on the counter in the kitchen so she could get organized.

\n "Why weren't you at school today?"

\n "Jake asked me to take the day off." I still felt his lips on mine.

\n "Why?" I sat up and Sophie fell off me giggling profusely. I walked over to the kitchen and calmly told her what happened. Her eyes set back into her head. "I knew it." She finally whispered, after what felt like ages.

\n "Seriously?"

\n "Brent, he's always looked at you in a very certain way." I didn't know how to feel about that. I mean... this was my best friend we're talking about. "It's the same way I look at your father."

\n "Oh God! Mom!"

\n "What?" She acted defensive but I saw the lust in the back of her eyes, still prowling around.

\n "I don't want to think about that." On my Tenth birthday, my parents gave me a card that said, and I quote. 'Do you know why you're here?' and when you opened it up it read, 'Your parents had sex!' That was. The single most nauseating card I've ever received.

\n "Well, I mean, this isn't going to change anything between you does it?" I wasn't really sure. I mean, I knew that it was never gonna be exactly the same, but I had doubts it would change things forever... would it?

\n "Hey Mom I've uh... Got some bad news." Mom hesitantly looked at me.

\n "What?"

\n "Well... I kinda...."

\n "Brent." She sternly told me to get it out in one word. The powers only a mom could have.

\n "I'm unemployed."

\n "Wonderful. Why did Erica fire you?"

\n "Mom... it's not like that."

\n "We've had discussions about you controlling your anger there before."

\n "Mom, you're not listening. The store is closed. Erica's debt was too much. She couldn't go on, and someone offered her a chance to get out of there and she took it. It's not the best... but, it's what happened." Mom just looked at me. She saw the truth in my eyes, the sadness over the job loss and the relief of it at the same time.

\n "Maybe now we won't have to go to the hospital as much." Mom joked. I pushed her lightly but was happy that she wasn't upset.

\n *****

\n I lay in bed that night waiting for the match to start. Jake and I were playing online as usual. I was talking with him through the voice chat in the game.

\n "So your parents are okay with it?" Jake asked me. I don't know what he was expecting, I mean we're a family that was used to persecution from people so it's not like we were going to openly persecute him.

\n "They're completely fine with it. Mom already knew, but Dad was a little surprised. Sophie doesn't really understand it terribly well."

\n "She'll understand it well enough sometime."

\n "True." The game started and the conversation died a little. I ran immediately to a gun locker and picked up a machine gun and a few moltov cocktails for the zombies. Jake's character moved closer to mine so we could defend the position as best we could. The timer started and the first wave a zombies came out. We joked around and killed them with a ease.

\n "So Haley wants to have dinner with your folks then?"

\n "Yeah. I managed to talk the rents into it, which wasn't easiest task. I had to pretty much promise to be their slave for eternity... which means it's the exact same situation I'm in now."

\n "That's tight." I shot the explosive zombie and watched as it lit up, taking a plethora of its allies with it.

\n "Yeah." Jake and I were climbing a ladder to another level so we could defend ourselves a bit better. I grabbed a grenade and threw it down below to destroy some zombies. I heard the screams from those below as we reached the top. "Hey, you wanna do something tomorrow?"

\n "I got training." Jake reminded me.

\n "Oh yeah. I forgot about that."

\n "Better get used to it."

\n "That'd be too easy." I quipped. We played for a while, mostly losing matches against the zombies. It wasn't easy with just two people when they outnumber you 5 to one. After a few hours of it, Jake was pretty tired so I said goodnight to him, and pressed my way into my pillow, letting its softness comfort my thoughts to a nice sleep.

Hey everyone, I''ve had a busy few days, like getting my braces taken off and such. I was really careful about the post-kiss scene. However, I really don't have much planned for Jake. I had some thoughts of giving him someone, but I still think there should be some more awkward parts with Jake and Brent, but I wanted to know what you thought. Thanks in advance, Kergiby