Mr. Handprick’s pre-calculus class was not set up to be a warm and enjoyable environment. While the posters of animals acting cute with big, decorated words telling readers encouraging messages might have fooled some, they didn’t get to most of the aging instructor’s students.
The desks were always in nice, straight rows set up so that all of them faced the same direction and provided ample space for a larger, teacher’s desk at the back of the room. Even the clock wasn’t very student friendly; covered in black in white, it was difficult to read and it was in math problems. Each number had to be calculated individually if they reader hadn’t already memorized the clock face.
Mr. Handprick himself was a very simple, uninteresting man who constantly droned out his rather dull subject. He would sometimes try and throw in an uninspired joke that usually drew more groans than laughs.
Most of the time, Stephen could stay awake. It was after all, the last class of the day for him and he was juiced about going home. But today, he couldn’t quite resist the pull of gravity as well as he usually could. His head swayed here and about for a couple of minutes before finally, it came to rest heavily on the desk. The familiar falling feelings of his freshman year came back and he snapped his head up. Mr. Handprick’s mathematical sermon filled his ears and caused his eyelids to sink back over his clear-sky-blue eyes and he laid his head down once more.
This time instead of trying to sleep, he let his mind wander about. At first it stuck to the more pleasurable things—a TV show he watched, a book he was trying to read, a movie he wanted to go see—but then it began to sink deeper into the shadowy depths of the things that worried him. He began to wonder whether his car would work when he went to the parking lot after school let out, whether he’d be able to survive college, whether he’d be able to finish some difficult homework from another class, but those seemed silly in comparison to a darker, more haunting concern.
Something floating around in his subconscious began to bubble and stew and rise into his waking mind. Initially, the edges were rough and the image of the problem was foggy and unclear, but his mind began to focus on it. The trouble began to come into view. It slowly began to take the form of a single, solitary word. Eighteen.
He was eighteen, and that was cause for alarm.
In his life, Stephen had never been in a relationship with a girl. He’d never gone to jail, nor had he been in a fight. He’d never raced cars at midnight nor gotten smashed at a party. He’d never done anything. Now he was eighteen.
Seventeen years sat in the waste bin and collected dust. He knew now the cause of his troubles; his life was dull; maybe even as dull as Mr. Handprick’s lecturing ability.
“…take the numbers, divide by three and add that to your third integer and…”
OK, maybe not quite that dull, but it lacked substance. It lacked backbone and memories. It lacked any reason; any purpose at all besides taking up space and resources.
He sighed and looked back at Mr. Handprick who was hunched over a detailed explanation of some equation that looked challenging. He took out some notes, but just couldn’t push himself to write out the numbers of the formula. He shoved the notes back under his desk and briefly scanned the room. Most of the kids were pure humans, but three furs sat off to one side tucked away close to the door.
The furs were human, but at the same time, they weren’t. Part animal, part human, they were a strange bunch that most just avoided when they could. Stephen had heard all sorts of explanations for their existence, but the scientific one seemed to be that it was a cure for some obscure disease.
Stephen watched them a moment. One, what looked to be a puma boy, cut logs on his desk through a soft-pink nose. Another, clearly a bird man of some kind, stared at the wall to his right and tried to take notes based on what he heard rather than saw. Stephen wondered if he’d gotten the formula. He might be able to ask the bird man for it later.
The third one was a female grey wolf. Her ears were razor sharp and without the shag he’d grown used to seeing on her kind. She had a perfectly round muzzle that was neither too wide nor too thin, nor was it too long or too short. Her fur, the short, pure stalks looked warm and inviting to his hand that had felt little more than the hard plastic of a videogame controller. He wanted to touch her face and feel the soft carpet of her hair on the palm of his hands as he ran his fingers through the roots.
She sat in her seat and watched Mr. Handprick with an inhuman attentiveness. From his seat, Stephen sat in awe of her ability to stomach the drool-inducing, repetitive nature of Mr. Handprick’s lecture.
She copied down the formula, but then something seemed to be wrong. She stopped and chewed on her pencil in thought a moment before turning to consult the bird seated next to her. He snapped his head around and looked at her notes. He shrugged. She eyed him with disappointment and raised her hand to ask Mr. Handprick.
He looked right at her and just kept walking by. Rebelliously, Stephen raised his own hand and caught Mr. Handprick’s attention.
“Go ahead Mr. Pryor,” said Mr. Handprick.
“I think she has a question,” Stephen said, pointing to the wolf.
The entire class turned around and looked at him with stunned expressions. For a moment, he met their eyes and regretted raising his hand in the first place. Then Mr. Handprick addressed the wolf.
“What it is Ms. Mitchell?” he said in a spiteful tone.
The wolf was just as surprised as everyone else in the classroom. She stuttered a moment before pointing to something in her notes and stringing out a question about it. Stephen wasn’t paying attention any more. He let his head sink back down onto the cold wood of his desk and bitterly wondered if his car would start up.
The bell rang and the classroom emptied out into the hall. Stephen jumped in his seat and began packing his things into his bag. He hurried off into an emptied hall and ran down towards the stairs.
He went straight out to his car. It was parked a ways off because he’d been late that morning and hadn’t gotten the good selection of parking spaces he was used to. The rest of the parking lot cleared out until only a handful of cars were left scattered about. One of them, a blue compact, belonged to Stephen.
He unlocked automatically it as he was beginning to get closer. The car’s lights flashed and the automatic lock whirred. So far so good. He got into the car and turned the key one click. The dashboard lit up and the air conditioner came on. He took a deep breath and made a silent prayer to the main gods of every major religion. Then, with only hope going for him, he turned the ignition. The engine grinded but stopped. He waited, and then tried it again. The engine grinded a couple of seconds and kept going this time—“YES!”—and then promptly died a few seconds later.
“Oh you piece of…” Stephen cursed.
He popped the hood and got out to take a look at it and see if he could somehow fix the problem. The car was rusty under the hood. It had been used when Stephen bought it with some of the money he’d earned working a summer job, and it had been a pain since a few weeks after the school year started. Now, at the end of the year, he finally became frustrated with it. All it had to do was hold together until school let out and he could get another summer job and ultimately, a new car. But it was beginning to look like it wasn’t going to be able to even do that much.
He looked around; there was nobody there to help him out. He felt like he was going to die. Tonight was Thursday night. It was the night his parents went off to go and see his grandparents. They were probably gone by now and there was no way for him to get home.
He slammed down the hood in frustration and then hit it with his fist.
“Car trouble?” Someone asked from behind him. He spun around to find the wolf from Mr. Handprick’s pre-calculus class.
“Yeah.”
“Have you tried holding down the gas pedal?”
“Um, I think I did.”
“And nothing happened?”
“Nothing good.”
“Do you need a jump?”
“No. I don’t think the car could take it.”
The wolf thought for a moment. She put her hand under her chin and stroked her fur impulsively. She looked down at the ground in the awkwardness of the moment, and then back at Stephen.
“Do you need a ride?” she asked finally.
The offer surprised him. He hardly knew this girl besides being in the same room as her for an entire school year and yet already she’d offered to drive him home, regardless of the situation. He averted his eyes to think. There was another awkward silence as the consequences were weighed twice over in his mind. Finally, he found an option he liked. He looked her square in the eyes and his lips formed a nervous smile.
“No,” he said hesitantly.
She looked at him with surprise, but then drew back into a cocky smile and stared down at him from past the bridge of her sizeable nose. He had to look away again.
“Yes you do,” she said.
“You wouldn’t mind?” he said.
“Not at all.”
Stephen thought it over a second more before he finally caved in.
“Alright,” he said. His shoulders were slumped over a little and his back bent forward in an embarrassed fashion.
He shut the door of his own car and locked up. The automatic lock still worked when he pressed a button on his keychain. He followed the wolf over to where she was parked just a couple of rows over in a section in front of the practice football field. She drove an old sedan from the early twenty-hundreds, but it looked well taken care of. The car still had its original paint job and chrome shone brightly under the sun. Everything about this car said it was well taken care of except for a single blemish; someone had run a key down the right side of the car to spite its owner. The line of missing paint was only made more visible by the spectacular condition the rest of the car was in. It looked more like a scar than a scratch in the heavenly glow of the afternoon sunlight shooting out from over the bleachers of the school’s football field.
Stephen ran a finger over the blemish as if he could fix it by sheer will power. The locking mechanism inside the car clicked and the lights flashed. Stephen grasped the handle and slipped open the car. The wolf was waiting inside when he sat down.
She started up the car and it roared to life immediately. The engine sounded fierce and tuned; it had been just as well taken care of as the outside of the car.
“Your name’s Stephen, right?” the wolf asked as she put the car in drive and released the brake.
It occurred to Stephen that he’d gotten into a car with a fur who he didn’t even know the name of. He considered turning down her offer and getting out, but she started driving before he could make that decision.
“Yes,” he said after a couple of seconds of delay.
“Wow,” she said in a light, playful sort of sarcasm. “D’you have to think about that for a second?”
He laughed. He wasn’t entirely sure why he did, but when she laughed too, he decided it didn’t matter.
“So what’s your name?” he asked once the laughter stopped.
“Adriana,” the wolf replied.
The car rolled out of the parking lot and they were on their way. They chatted casually for a couple of minutes. Their conversation started out primarily about school, but slowly, it progressed to favorite kinds of music, food, TV shows, and other informal topics. Not once did Stephen feel unwelcome. The environment was warm and he enjoyed it thoroughly.
During a lengthy discussion about a confusing but popular television sci-fi drama, Adriana’s phone rang. She answered it.
“Yeah…OK… I’m on my way,” she said into her cell phone.
She shut it and slipped it back into her pocket. Turning to Stephen, she explained the call.
“That was my brother,” she said. “I need to pick him up before I can drop you off at your house.”
“Ok,” Stephen said, hoping to resume their conversation, even if it meant sacrificing their old topic. “What’s his name?”
“Green.”
“No, his real name.”
“Green.”
Stephen began to catch on.
“His real name is Green?”
“Yes.”
“That’s… um… That’s an odd name.”
“Well he’s an odd person.”
“So it fits him?”
Adriana glanced down at the dashboard, and then she looked back up at one of the mirrors and used a lane change as an excuse to continue the silence.
“You’ll just have to meet him.”
Stephen could have sworn he heard a heart monitor sound the alarm somewhere nearby. The discussion had been backed into a corner and had drawn its last breath. As much as he would have loved a second opinion, the risk of being obnoxious was the price of talking again.
They drove in silence to an establishment of alcohol that had a wall listing on one side as a ship in perilous sea might. There was a lit sign on top that read The Watering Hole, only it had a few bulbs burned out and actually read more along the lines of The Wateing Ho.
There was a well-built, at least one hundred-eighty pound anthropomorphic wolf sitting on a bench out in front of the bar in an industrial-grey denim vest and a pair of old, ratty cargo pants with stains on the legs. He looked a lot like Adriana; he had sharp ears like hers and virtually no shag to his hair. His soft, hazel eyes were locked on the ground in thought as the car pulled up.
He smiled as he heard the sound of Adriana’s car pulling to a stop. Releasing a death grip on the bench, he walked over to the driver’s side of the car. Adriana rolled down the window. He laid his arms down on the opening in the car door and rested his head on his intimidating biceps.
“It sounds like you’ve got another problem with your transmission sis,” he said. “You better let me have a look at it.”
“There’s nothing wrong with my car, Green,” Adriana said. “You just want another excuse to get under the hood and play around.”
Green laughed. His bluff had been called.
“C’mon,” he begged with a smile. “Please? Five minutes, that’s all.”
“Get in the car Green,” Adriana began to get agitated. “I’m burning fuel.”
He dragged himself off her window and jogged around behind the car. He got into the back, scooted directly to the middle, and laid out lazily on the backseat. Stephen could smell the alcohol on his breath in the compacted space of the car.
“So who’s this?” he asked about Stephen.
“Oh,” Adriana said, having forgotten that there was anyone else in the car. “This is Stephen from school.”
“Pleased to meet,” said Green. His tongue was growing tired from the effort of drinking so much booze and he was already starting to have trouble talking. “To what do I owe your company?”
“Car trouble,” Adriana answered for Stephen.
“Really now. What’s wrong with it?”
“The engine won’t start,” Stephen said. “It’s the battery I think.”
“New battery?”
“A couple of months.”
Green rubbed his chin thoughtfully for a few seconds, and then he looked at Stephen again. There was a silent moment that lasted only until Green broke it a couple of seconds later.
“You’ll have to let me have a look at it,” he said.
“I really don’t want to trouble you,” Stephen protested.
“Nonsense. I enjoy working on engines.”
That was it. In Green’s mind, the decision was made and he had found another auto to tinker with. Stephen was less confident; he wasn’t sure how his parents would react to Green as close minded as they tended to be. He tried to change the subject.
“So what college do you go to?”
“College?” Green said, lazily twisting his neck to look at Stephen.
“I’m sorry. I… didn’t know.”
“Didn’t know what? That I’m a drop out? It’s ok man, you don’t have to apologize.”
“It’s just that-“
Green laughed hardily in the backseat.
“Damn you know how to find them sis,” he said, still laughing. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say this kid was trying to be polite.” He settled down a bit and tried to explain. “It’s ok. I’m not upset that I dropped out, and it isn’t that big of a deal. Pity is nice to have some times, but to be honest, I don’t need any myself. If you really want to say sorry that bad, just let me have a crack at that stubborn jack-ass of a car you own. That would make me feel much better than a three-syllable word ever could. Now if you don’t mind, I’ve had a bit to drink and I’d like to just rest my eyes.”
He settled back and let his eyelids fall and block his view. Before long, Adriana’s sedan was on the freeway with Green passed out in the back.

***

Stephen’s house was in an attractive suburb about as far from the likes of The Watering Hole as it could be. Most of the houses were elegant, two-storied monsters who cast their shadows over the more humble, one-story homes. The local flora was, for the most part, limited to small or medium sized shrubs that dotted the front yards of every house like leaved guards in single rows before the layers of bricks.
Iron fences cold and disheartening stood to line the properties of their masters and cast doubt into the minds of potential thieves or other people of roguish nature. The bars were wedged close together and blocked the sight of the neighborhood’s backyards from the street.
As Adriana’s car sailed deeper into the suburb, the iron fences slowly became less elegant and finally were replaced all together by inviting, homely, wooden fences.
“Take a left up here,” Stephen instructed Adriana. “My house is the third one on the left.”
Adriana nursed the steering wheel into a gentle turn. The car ran smoothly around the bend and then glided forward a few feet before Adriana brought it to a stop before the third house on the driver’s side. The house was one-story and none too impressive. A simple symmetric design balanced the architecture and gave it no small measure of charm that was lost in the shades of the grander houses around it.
“Thanks for the ride,” Stephen said. He grabbed his bag and opened the car door. Stepping out of the cramped air of Adriana’s sedan, he took a deep breath and stretched his back.
“You’re welcome,” said Adriana. “I’ll see you at school tomorrow.”
“Anytime,” Green said warmly from the backseat. His eyes were still closed. “Just follow Adriana home tomorrow and I’ll fix up your ride.” Stephen didn’t have enough time to protest. Adriana started the car and shut his door. The sedan about faced and then sailed off down the street leaving him to stand staring after it until it disappeared back around the corner.
He waited a few seconds after the car disappeared and then he wanted to go in, but couldn’t seem to. The thoughts from back in Mr. Handprick’s pre-calculus classroom resurfaced. A crushing depression squeezed at him until all of his emotions became repressed and he was unable to fight back. He stood on the sidewalk in front of his house and stared for a moment before he regained control over his willpower and managed to get moving up the driveway.
Once inside, he set his things down by the entranceway and went directly to the internet. He checked his email; the inbox was empty.
Defeated, he logged off and went to a room away from the entrance. He grasped the handle and threw open the door to a dark room lit only by a small, slit of a window that bordered the ceiling. He hit a switch and a light flipped on overhead.
The room had two bean bags piled up in one corner just a ways away from where a TV was hooked up to a white gaming console with a green logo. Steven turned on the TV and pressed in the logo of the console, but had a change of heart and turned it off. Indecision caused him to turn it back on again almost immediately, but he hit the button a fourth time and heard the system shut down again. He pressed the button a fifth time, but the system flashed warning lights around the logo, so he had to turn it off again.
“Great,” he said morosely. “Just great.”

***

Adriana pulled into the driveway of an old, two-story house. Most of the plants in front of the house were dead and the grass hadn’t been mowed for some time. The house itself peaked out from behind the overgrown mess of the front yard. The front two windows on either side of the door looked pathetically nostalgic. It was as though it were dreaming of better days when its roof was never cluttered or damp and its gutters were always clear. The house dreamt of a time when its garage doors still had their original luster and the door never creaked when it was opened.
Adriana shut down the engine. Green woke up to the engine’s shuttering as the power was shut down. He burst from the car alive and full of energy and walked at a pace border lining a jogging speed as he made his way to the door.
His hand dipped into the emptiness of his pocket when he reached the door. The barkeep had made him hand over his keys before leaving. He waited impatiently for Adriana to grab her things and drag them along with her feet up the driveway.
“What’s got you all excited?” she asked as she reached the entrance.
“She’s coming over tonight,” he said, spiting the words like lead from a machine-gun. His eyes lit a little as he said it and the excitement hit Adriana like a strangely pleasing odor. She smiled.
“April?” she asked, beginning to return his enthusiasm. She forced her key into the lock and turned it a good one-hundred and sixty-five degrees. The door swung open for her.
Green nodded. There was no point in Adriana’s asking who it was coming over; April and Green had been together since they’d met in their senior year of high school three years ago. As far as she knew, there were no real problems and they rarely fought. Then again, she’d sometimes find bruises and claw marks after a spat, but Green always reassured her that April was just angry. It wasn't that common an occurrence anyway, and they usually made up pretty quickly.
Green walked through the door brimming with energy. He was up the stairs and in the master bathroom before Adriana even put up her school stuff. She heard the shower start upstairs and then the door creak loudly in the silence of the house.
He hadn’t seen April in a couple of weeks; she had just gone through a tough time with tests and that sort of thing at her university. This break in the schedule for her had gotten Green more excited than Adriana had seen him in a long time, and he had been making plans all week.
Adriana’s stomach growled. The meager school lunch they served wasn’t enough to satisfy her and her rapid metabolism. She slipped into the kitchen and fixed herself a sandwich.
She felt tired after the weary day at school and she sat down in front of the TV to eat her sandwich to one of the shows she had discussed with Stephen during the car ride. Green was out of the shower a few minutes later. He smelled as though he was wearing some “Old Spice” to cover up the smell of the bar. By the strength of the scent, Adriana guessed he’d gotten over excited and used up a good chunk of the bottle.
He disappeared into his room at the base of the stairs for a moment and came out wearing an old t-shirt that barely fit him anymore and some pants with an elastic waistband.
“What do you think,” he said. “Too obvious?”
“I think that she already knows what’s going to happen,” Adriana told him. “Otherwise she wouldn’t be coming over.”
He rolled his eyes and went back in his room. She heard him punch in April’s number. There was a moment where the entire house was silent and even the TV show was in a part of the story that was quiet and hushed. When the tension couldn’t seem to get thicker, Green finally spoke.
“April,” he said. There was a pause. “Ok, when are you coming over?” There was another pause. “Ok then. I’ll see you then.”
Adriana thought she heard the phone click. Green appeared again in the doorway beneath the stairs. He was grinning with his eyes fixated on the diagonal wood floor.
“She should be here any minute,” he said. He didn’t seem to mind when Adriana turned her head and went back to watching her show. He just walked out towards the kitchen and got some water.
“I don’t know if I should eat anything,” he thought aloud.
“Well,” Adriana said, trying to help. “You’ve been going around all week talking about how you wanted her to be the pred this time.”
“I know but…”
“What?”
“Well… what if she wants me to?”
“What if?”
“I haven’t seen her in a while.”
“So?”
“I don’t want her to get upset.”
“She won’t get upset.”
Green walked out of the kitchen and sat down on the couch next to Adriana. He relaxed and tried to watch the show.
“So are you going to eat anything or not?”
“Naw.”
Adriana rolled her eyes. Her brother was a romantic; she had no doubt of that.
Turning her attention back to the glow of the TV screen, she ignored her brother and his complaining stomach. She’d only just begun to really allow herself to become wrapped up in the plot again when the chime of the doorbell graced her ears.
Green got up and opened the door to a cat-woman. She had dirty-golden locks ringing her head and then sinking off into stripes down her arms. There were blotches of the same color dotting her exposed, white torso. On her back was a matching shade of orange that seemed like an artist’s touch where it filled in the space along and around her spine and then framed her tight stomach.
She was not a small woman, but she just about disappeared with Green standing in the way. If size was all that mattered, she was perfect for him; he had only about a foot on her and they were about the same width, but she was more delicate and thin in the details.
“Hey,” said Green, as nonchalantly as he could.
“Hey,” she said, softly.
He leaned forward and they kissed for a second. When they parted, he invited her in with a simple gesture of his hand.
“Oh hey April,” Adriana said as though she’d only just noticed the tall cat.
“How are you?” April was polite and smiled, though only on the surface level. The two of them had their differences, but it was unlikely that either of them would admit to it.
“So, uh, April,” Green said eagerly. “Would you like anything to eat?”
She looked around a bit, and then back at him. She gave him the eyes that she knew made him melt every time.
“I’ll take you,” she said.
Adriana began to feel sick listening to them. She tried to ignore them, but the whole romance of the moment was beginning to get to her.
Fortunately, the two of them were too eager to begin to stand around for a half-an-hour making innuendo. They retired to the room beneath the stairs with April tucked securely in the crook of Green’s arm.
Adriana flipped off the TV and grabbed her keys and cell phone off the wall. She set out into the cold night and wondered what she might be able to do. That night, all of her friends were off doing other things in other places that she didn’t feel like going to.
As she thought about what to do, she took a walk around the block and went over a few options in her mind. Her mind eventually drifted back to the day. She’d had three tests and then Mr. Handprick’s pre-calculus, snooze-worthy lecture. It was certainly a day she would have loved to forget, but then she remembered Stephen was home alone. Surely he wouldn’t mind if she dropped in on him for a couple of minutes.
In the end, she sighed and decided not to go. She backed out and resolved to just cruise around for a bit.

***

Back inside, Green and April had settled on the wolf-man’s bed and were locked in a passionate embrace with April resting naked atop Green’s bare chest. It ended reluctantly after a few minutes had gone by without either of them moving or speaking.
April rolled off of Green and sat up. Green stayed where he was, though he began to speak to April.
“So I was thinking. Maybe I could be the prey tonight.”
“Oh, I just had this huge supper a couple of minutes ago,” she said. “I don’t think you’d fit.”
“C’mon. That’s not what you said on Thanksgiving.”
April blushed, though the color of her cheeks was invisible beneath her thick coat of fur.
“Yeah well,” she said. “I was drunk. Besides, I spent most of the rest of Thanksgiving on the toilet remember.”
Green sat up and put a hand on her soft stomach. He ran it up toward her ribs and breasts, brushing aside the fur as he went.
“With me in there,” he added to her previous statement.
April shifted her eyes and cocked her head back at an angle. She looked down at him slyly.
“You can’t tell me you’re not hungry,” she said. “I saw that look in your eye when I came in. Don’t lie, I can tell.”
“I’m not hungry. Really.”
His stomach grumbled not a second after he’d said it. April smiled victoriously as she put one of her golden hands on his torso just above the elastic pants and stroked his stomach fur lightly.
“You hungry big guy,” she said, more to his stomach than to Green himself. “I’ll be there in a moment.”
With her other hand, she slid up his arm to his shoulder and then eventually to his mouth which opened slightly at her touch. He felt her palm run across his tongue and down the back of his throat. Slowly, carefully, the rest of her arm and then her shoulder followed into the dark cavern that was his maw.
He felt her pushing open his throat and moving behind his chest as the sensation of her fur indulged his tongue. As he reached the base of her chest on one side, she stood to continue her descent. The other shoulder slipped into his lip and he realized that he’d passed the hardest part of the entire act of swallowing her.
The cat’s torso slipped between Green’s jaws without much effort and he rode the momentum back until he’d reached her calves. April was very fit and ran often; the muscle in her legs refused to be constrained. The friction caused a bit of a delay, but Green overcame the tiny obstacle and finished her off to her bare feet.
He slurped the final bit of her in and there remained no more of her on the outside of him. The small bulges of her form disappeared from his throat into the fleshy chamber of his stomach. She settled in and shut her eyes tight, unable to stay awake amongst the powerful fumes of alcohol from earlier that day.
Green leaned back and shut his eyes. Though he’d wanted to be the prey that night, he was very much content with the way things had played out. The fullness and the weight of his bloated stomach tugged against him a little, but he was far from uncomfortable.
Finally, he slipped away as inside his stomach, April nodded off to the sound of his strong heartbeat.

***

It was dark out when Green came to. His throat was sore. He rubbed it gently for a moment and glanced around the room. April was busy getting dressed at the fore of his bed. He watched her a moment without speaking as she pulled her shirt over her head. He must have made some sort of noise because she glanced around to find him awake and staring at her.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “It’s late.” She paused and looked to her feet. “I didn’t want to wake you, so I’ve already had a shower.”
Green nodded and ran his hand through his hair in thought. They’d been planning this all week, and yet here it was, over already with her about to leave. He had to say something, but no words seemed right. He nodded again as if forgetting he already had just a second before.
“I’ll be able to drop by for a few minutes tomorrow Green,” she said, “Before I drive back to see my parents. I promise.”
Green rolled out of bed and threw his shirt on. He followed her to the door and they had a quick kiss before she left, waving from the front seat of her truck.
When he could no longer see her, he wandered back inside the dark house where he spotted Adriana dozing on the couch. He shook her awake.
“What is it?” she said sleepily.
“Have you had anything to eat?”
“I had a sandwich earlier.”
“Are you still hungry?”
“No.”
Green left her alone and went into the kitchen. He turned on the light and went to the fridge to find something to fill his growling stomach. He chose some left-over pasta from when one of the neighbors had felt sorry for them and made them dinner one night.
When he shut the fridge door, Adriana was standing behind it looking troubled.
“What is it?” he asked.
“I want to talk to you about mom and dad,” she said. “Today’s the second anniversary and all. And I just thought...”
“Can it wait until I’m finished eating?”
She looked down at her feet. Green glanced off to the side, feeling a little guilty for having brushed her off like that. He placed the pasta in the microwave, punched in a time and started it, and then he turned back to Adriana.
“OK,” he said. “What is it that’s bothering you?”
“It’s not anything that’s bothering me,” she said. She crossed her arms and took a step back. Looking into her brother’s eyes again, she continued. “It’s just that… well. I don’t know. What would they say if they saw us now? You know, if they saw us like this.”
Green was lost for words. He opened his mouth but nothing came out. He thought for a moment, and decided the reason he could find no words to say, was because there were none to be said. Then he saw the tear on her cheek. The worry in her eyes. The shortness of her breath.
He understood immediately; she was badly upset, worried about the future, and panicking for both reasons. She was going to fall apart right in front of him if he didn’t do anything.
He reached over and slipped his arms under her shoulders. He pulled her into his chest where she began to sob.
“They’d want us to survive,” Green said softly. “You’ve got to remember that.”
He felt her nodding into his chest. He rubbed her back gently, feeling something similar to her. He had nothing he could really do.
“All we can do is move on,” he continued. “See if we can make this work. We can’t look back now. And you know what? One day, it’s all going to come together for us. You’ve just got to believe the storm will pass.”
He felt her nod again. She started to move back and he released her. She looked up at him. Her checks were still wet and her hair was a little messed up. Still, she was stable again. She took a breath, standing there for another minute, and then she made her way up stairs. Green watched her until she was out of sight.
The microwave beeped causing Green to jump. He’d all but forgotten he was cooking something. He opened it and took the pasta out, shooting a glance at the clock; it was a little past ten. He turned around and walked back to the table. He could hear the upstairs shower start. He smiled painfully and stared at the wood. He got up and opened a drawer, retrieving a scratched up fork and returned to his meal. He ate it slowly.