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“Daydreaming” by Dirt Coyote (read by B. P. Rugger)
A wolf with a crush and an overactive imagination searches for the perfect scenario to ask out his cheetah classmate.
Today’s story is “Daydreaming” by Dirt Coyote, who, when he isn't causing all sorts of trouble on Twitter, works on various writing projects including a novel, a novella, and short erotic furry fiction. Follow him at DirtCoyote on Twitter for future updates.
Today’s story will be read for you by B. P. Rugger, the ineffable Moo Moon.
Transcript
You’re listening to The Voice of Dog,
Speaker:and Today’s story is
Speaker:“Daydreaming” by Dirt Coyote,
Speaker:who, when he isn't causing all sorts of trouble on Twitter,
Speaker:works on various writing projects
Speaker:including a novel,
Speaker:a novella, and short erotic furry fiction.
Speaker:Follow him at DirtCoyote on Twitter for future updates.
Speaker:Today’s story will be read for you by B. P. Ruger,
Speaker:the ineffable Moo Moon.
Speaker:Please enjoy “Daydreaming” by Dirt Coyote Being a mixed bag of weird was waning on Brian’s sanity.
Speaker:Alright, a little dramatic,
Speaker:but what was he supposed to be feeling?
Speaker:His heart was pining for the most gorgeous cheetah in the whole world,
Speaker:and yet they couldn’t be more distant from each other.
Speaker:Well, again, a little dramatic.
Speaker:After all, Louis was sitting in the desk right in front of him.
Speaker:There he was, just scribbling away in his notebook as if he knew not how he lit the wolf’s soul on fire.
Speaker:Actually, well, he didn’t know because Brian didn’t know how to say it.
Speaker:How could he say what he wanted to say?
Speaker:Hi, I’m Brian. We’re both juniors.
Speaker:You’re on my mind all the time and I like you.
Speaker:See how dumb that sounds?
Speaker:What a stupid suggestion.
Speaker:Alright, it wasn’t stupid,
Speaker:but what did Brian have to offer to the most gorgeous cheetah in the whole world?
Speaker:Here he was, a wolf that’s a few inches shorter than the cheetah,
Speaker:a little bit hefty (a
Speaker:very little bit), with a 2.8 GPA,
Speaker:no sports to speak of,
Speaker:no extracurricular activities at all,
Speaker:and a friend group that was good for smoking weed and getting buzzed on his dad’s natty light.
Speaker:Does that sound boyfriend material?
Speaker:Didn’t think so. Fine, that wasn’t really fair.
Speaker:His friends were alright,
Speaker:but everything else felt so damn true.
Speaker:Louis was a french foreign exchange student that felt so sophisticated.
Speaker:Between jotting down words in his notebook,
Speaker:he was sipping at a latte he brought in every morning.
Speaker:Steamed milk and espresso lofted over the lupine’s sensitive nose
Speaker:and he took it in like a gift on his birthday.
Speaker:In this cool winter weather,
Speaker:it just seemed so inviting.
Speaker:Brian wondered where he got it and the plan started to come together right before his eyes.
Speaker:Before class would start,
Speaker:he would sit at every coffee shop in the entire town until he found the one that the cheetah would get his latte from.
Speaker:It wasn’t that big of a town
Speaker:and there weren’t that many coffee shops that he’d have to stake out.
Speaker:In less than a few weeks,
Speaker:he’ll have gone into every cafe and found the right one.
Speaker:The wheels in his head began to turn.
Speaker:Listlessly following the christmas lights wrapped elegantly around the plastic evergreen,
Speaker:Brian waited for his future boyfriend to arrive.
Speaker:Arranged invitingly in front of the empty seat across from him was the hot latte waiting to break the ice.
Speaker:In his own paws was a cup of hot cocoa,
Speaker:but he wouldn’t admit to that.
Speaker:Coffee was a little sensitive for his canid senses,
Speaker:but if he said that he’d look like a little whiny pup.
Speaker:A jingle from the bell lifted the wolf’s muzzle excitedly.
Speaker:He’d been sitting there all morning and just when he thought to grab his bag and leave,
Speaker:Louis walked in. His matching green scarf and beanie looked hand sown,
Speaker:more like a gift from his grandparents than something that could actually keep him warm.
Speaker:A cloud white tuft of fur protruded from his chest when he pulled his scarf loose while inside.
Speaker:Rubbing his paws,
Speaker:he stepped inside and cupped them over his muzzle to breath out some warmth.
Speaker:It was there that he noticed the brown and black wolf sitting at the table. An empty seat
Speaker:and two cups were waiting there just for him.
Speaker:Nervousness kept Brian frozen in this extremely unsettling smile,
Speaker:one that he couldn’t break nor escape from.
Speaker:It made him look like a lunatic,
Speaker:but he couldn’ wipe it away.
Speaker:Rattled, but not totally put off,
Speaker:the cheetah walked towards the line not thinking much about the crazy looking wolf.
Speaker:Desperate, not wanting this chance to slip away while he was so close,
Speaker:his arm flipped into the air.
Speaker:Mostly, it looked like a stiff piece of wood raising as if strings were attached to it.
Speaker:Not that it would be totally off because Brian didn’t even feel like it was his choice to wave his paw.
Speaker:It still felt like he was being controlled by an entirely different person,
Speaker:and yet, if he was,
Speaker:he would thank them
Speaker:because it got Louis’s attention.
Speaker:A little hesitant but curious
Speaker:he strolled over and sat in the open seat.
Speaker:“Alo. You are the wolf boy that sits behind me in, eh,
Speaker:Math, no?” he asked in his sexy thick french accent.
Speaker:“Math, yeah, you remembered,”
Speaker:Brian replied with one paw scratching the back of his head.
Speaker:“Ugh, yeah. Do you wanna to share a table?”
Speaker:Maybe it was because the wolf’s long lupine grin was silly to look at,
Speaker:but a smile slowly began to creep contagiously across his own short golden muzzle.
Speaker:The feline’s whiskers lifted and a red tint cut through the white of his cheeks.
Speaker:That smile, those dangerously long fangs baring as his muzzle split into a grin,
Speaker:all made Brian’s tail wag faster than his heart was racing.
Speaker:Their dumb expressions held each other for a second before Louis nodded at the offer.
Speaker:Seeming to not make the connection though,
Speaker:the cheetah pointed a claw towards the line and dipped his muzzle politely,
Speaker:“Sure. I am just getting my latte first.”
Speaker:“Oh, actually,” he started, reaching across the table and inching the hot cup forward.
Speaker:“I got this for you.”
Speaker:Concerned would probably be the best word to describe the way Louis’s brow sunk.
Speaker:Eyes darting between the steamed milk leaf atop the cup and the still beaming wolf,
Speaker:his smile unravelled bit by bit until he was left with nothing but a frown.
Speaker:Brian noticed the cheetah’s sharp turn in attitude, but before he could say anything,
Speaker:Louis cut him off with his question first.
Speaker:“Are you stalking me?”
Speaker:No matter how hard he tried to will it away,
Speaker:Brian’s smile was not going anywhere.
Speaker:Struggling, his muzzle twisted and his expressions looked more ridiculous every second.
Speaker:Whatever benefit of the doubt that he had was quickly evaporating the more he failed at not looking like a complete psychopath.
Speaker:His maw opened and shut several times until he just blurted out things on his mind.
Speaker:“No, not following you. I mean,
Speaker:I wasn’t stalking you.
Speaker:More like, ugh, you know,
Speaker:staking out different shops until you came to the right one. Actually” —He lifted a paw, noticing the cheetah’s eyes widen— “No, no, trust me. It’s funny.
Speaker:I actually bought a latte at every coffee shop I went to for the past week and a half just hoping that you would walk in so I could give it to you.
Speaker:Thinking about it though,
Speaker:I might’ve accidentally overdrafted my bank account.”
Speaker:Letting that last bit hang,
Speaker:Brian shrugged his shoulders in a “whatcha gonna do about it?” way.
Speaker:He had sworn that the story was at least four to five times funnier in his head than when it had floated out into the air and nosedived in the cheetah’s fluffy ears.
Speaker:Each of them twitched, a sense of fight or flight flurrying about him before he shot a palm up right into the wolf’s face.
Speaker:“Thank you, but no thank you.
Speaker:Please, piss off.” He grabbed hold of his scarf and tossed it around his neck,
Speaker:twisting his entire body just as it curled around his throat.
Speaker:Time froze. Brian’s stomped on heart shattered into microbial fragments.
Speaker:One last chance to make things right,
Speaker:he scooched back his chair so loudly that it grabbed every muzzle in the cafe.
Speaker:Everyone took witness to the cheetah catching the wolf rising from his chair,
Speaker:his lightning reflexes reacting in a blur,
Speaker:paw wrapped around the cup,
Speaker:and the last thing Brian seeing was the hot latte come splashing straight towards his face.
Speaker:Brian jerked so hard that it rattled his desk.
Speaker:Students around him flinched, turning their attention to the muttering wolf.
Speaker:Sarah Myles, a preppy raccoon sending daggers his way,
Speaker:scoffed and shook her head in disapproval.
Speaker:Still a little frazzled from the daydream,
Speaker:he shot back a squint at Sarah and mouthed,
Speaker:“Eff’ off.” before trying to catch up with the lecture.
Speaker:A single finger salute was her parting gift to him before returning to her paper.
Speaker:Well, that didn’t go well.
Speaker:Whose plan was that anyways?
Speaker:In front of him, Brian could see the two round dishes on top of Louis’s head flicking around trying to discern the commotion.
Speaker:Red hot embarrassment flushed over the lupine’s ears and muzzle,
Speaker:but thankfully he didn’t turn around.
Speaker:Trying to regain some focus,
Speaker:he turned his attention to his notes only to realize he’d yet to write anything all day.
Speaker:Shoot! He scrambled to figure out what the goat upfront was talking about,
Speaker:trying to work out where he was at in the problem against what he knew.
Speaker:Working backwards from where his teacher was at was, well, pretty hopeless.
Speaker:The numbers, symbols, slashes, and arrows made little sense without knowing any order in which they appeared.
Speaker:He would have to concentrate on the next example before he could move forward.
Speaker:That cheetah was running laps around his mind in seconds, and all this for a boy that he didn’t even know was interested in other boys.
Speaker:Brian didn’t make it a secret,
Speaker:not that anyone other than his friends had bothered to ask.
Speaker:He just knew that he liked boys and boys were cute.
Speaker:The ones that he had been introduced to in the GSA were all fine in their own little ways,
Speaker:but he only went once.
Speaker:There was this cross fox boy,
Speaker:a sophomore that was a bit round and fur so long and loose, he looked to be feather soft.
Speaker:Then there was a lion,
Speaker:a senior with glasses and his mane braided tight to give him an aura of seriousness.
Speaker:After that was a donkey,
Speaker:Dustin, a junior just like him,
Speaker:and just like him, he seemed to be fairly average.
Speaker:Catching him around school with his own pack of losers,
Speaker:never quite interested or interested in,
Speaker:they would give themselves coy smiles and sometimes an acknowledging nod in passing.
Speaker:He always wondered why it never clicked.
Speaker:Well, maybe it was because the cheetah was chasing all the other boys out of Brian’s mind.
Speaker:Everything that Louis did seemed to be so perfect in comparison to anyone else.
Speaker:Like, the way that he wrote poetry versus how he would write when he was filling out a math problem.
Speaker:Brian could see that the cheetah was doing it now.
Speaker:Instead of the sharp exact lines he would make normally,
Speaker:his entire arm and shoulder would roll with the pen as if he was conducting the words onto the sheet.
Speaker:Often, Brian would try and sneak a peek over Louis’s shoulder to see what he was writing.
Speaker:Sarah would catch him though,
Speaker:coughing and making noise to get attention sent her direction and force the wolf to mind himself.
Speaker:She really did have it out for him!
Speaker:Getting clever though, he’d ask to be excused and in those brief seconds of standing, he could see everything that the cheetah would pour into his notebook.
Speaker:Most of the poems were in French and
Speaker:though he had no clue what anything said,
Speaker:he loved the way that he was writing them.
Speaker:Poems would be structured into shapes like cups and cars,
Speaker:raindrops and rivers,
Speaker:planes and plates.
Speaker:Brian wished so hard that he could understand any of it just so that he could have something interesting to say about it.
Speaker:Or maybe, he could reach out in his own way.
Speaker:The wheels in his head
Speaker:began to turn. Every night for weeks were spent pouring through Suess,
Speaker:Frost, and even Shakespear.
Speaker:After a couple failed attempts,
Speaker:he felt confident enough to try his paw
Speaker:at poetry. Brian wanted to catch the cheetah before school,
Speaker:but he decided that lunch was more fitting when he didn’t have any
Speaker:hot beverages on him.
Speaker:Being sticky from lemonade tossed in his face seemed much more appealing if this went tits up.
Speaker:Notebook wrapped tightly against his own chest,
Speaker:he pushed past the double doors of the cafeteria.
Speaker:Most of the tables were already filled with students and plastic trays.
Speaker:It took Brian ten minutes to stand outside trying to work up enough courage to follow through his commitment,
Speaker:and was now taking another five to get his feet to work the rest of the way.
Speaker:Nobody knew what his intentions were,
Speaker:but as he walked between the tables,
Speaker:he could feel eyes analyzing his every move.
Speaker:Walking right past his own friend group,
Speaker:ignoring them asking where he’d been or what he was doing,
Speaker:he kept true towards the back.
Speaker:Every step was effort.
Speaker:His cement shoes dragged against the floor,
Speaker:but he couldn’t waiver now.
Speaker:He could see Louis sitting in the back with the same rat and marten that he’d sat with every day.
Speaker:Even though it was only a few yards away from him,
Speaker:it felt like it took hours to close the gap between him
Speaker:and his love. Then, all in
Speaker:an instant, he went from being an impossible distance from the table to standing right in front of it too quickly.
Speaker:The three at the table had been mid laughter when the wolf showed up awkwardly holding onto his notebook.
Speaker:Their laughter died down when they noticed him,
Speaker:confused at the wolf’s sudden appearance and patiently waiting for him to say something.
Speaker:In fact, all of the student body seemed to hush themselves,
Speaker:sensing something was different about today.
Speaker:All of the words that he had prepared in his head,
Speaker:his sly introduction,
Speaker:his quirky joke, and the request to speak to Louis privately vanished on the spot.
Speaker:Only fragments of the joke came to mind and
Speaker:when he started to speak the portions he remembered, they just came out as muffled mutters.
Speaker:The boys at the table tried leaning in to understand what the hell the wolf was saying
Speaker:and when he finished,
Speaker:they were left more baffled than when he started.
Speaker:“Is he okay?” Louis asked the marten, hoping to get an answer,
Speaker:but he only received a disappointing shake of his muzzle.
Speaker:Trying again, Brian coughed for attention and fumbled with the notebook until it was firmly in his two paws.
Speaker:He flipped through the pages, trying to be as quick as possible
Speaker:knowing that the patience he was allotted had long since dried up.
Speaker:Loose leafs came floating to the ground until he found the right page.
Speaker:One last glance up at the audience and no more chances to mess this up,
Speaker:he took one last breath
Speaker:and read the words true off the page:
Speaker:My dear feline from Trigonometry
Speaker:I have a poem that you must see
Speaker:It might be rough
Speaker:and hard to weather
Speaker:But can we please be gay together? Brian
Speaker:finished his poem with a gentle smile,
Speaker:letting the last few words trail until it felt like a genuine question.
Speaker:Louis sat jaw wide open the entire time.
Speaker:There were several points where he looked towards his friends to confirm what was happening was actually happening.
Speaker:His friends sat equally perplexed,
Speaker:shifting looks amongst themselves until the wolf finished up his recital.
Speaker:All Brian could do was gnaw on his lip
Speaker:and pray for a miracle. Louis’s
Speaker:muzzle clapped shut
Speaker:and flopped open several times before he opened it one final time,
Speaker:looking to say words and instead letting out a, “Hnn.”
Speaker:and holding his paw to his muzzle. Brian
Speaker:wasn’t sure what that was
Speaker:and leaned in quizzically.
Speaker:Again, the cheetah tried to say something and all that came out was another restrained gag.
Speaker:He shot up to his feet,
Speaker:mumbling, “excuse me.”
Speaker:before racing away from the table.
Speaker:Flying out of the cafeteria like a speed demon,
Speaker:he watched the boy disappear like his tail had just been set on fire.
Speaker:Before he could even ponder what the hell that was,
Speaker:the rat clarified it for him as he too jumped up out of his seat.
Speaker:Not nearly as fast as his friend, the rat managed to only make it to the nearest wastebasket before hurling hard into the trash.
Speaker:The marten didn’t even get a chance to leave the table,
Speaker:grabbing hold of his own backpack and hiding his muzzle shamefully as he upchucked.
Speaker:Only then did he realize that his poem was so god
Speaker:awfully revolting
Speaker:that it had literally made anyone who heard it
Speaker:physically ill. As if the entire cafeteria had been listening in,
Speaker:soon Brian could hear people losing their lunches behind him.
Speaker:Pandemonium erupted as students from all species raced out of their seats towards the nearest wastebaskets.
Speaker:They clambered over each other as they tried squeezing through the cafeteria doors all at once to get to a bathroom.
Speaker:Soon the entire place had become filled with the sounds of screaming, crying,
Speaker:vomiting, windows smashing, tables upturning, and helicopters hovering overhead
Speaker:fighting to bring peace back to Hilltop High School.
Speaker:Okay, he might have let his imagination get a little carried away with that one,
Speaker:but that poem seriously sucked.
Speaker:The students around him must have noticed that the wolf was daydreaming again.
Speaker:Out of his peripherals,
Speaker:he noticed muzzles slightly turned towards him on either of his sides.
Speaker:While the jackal had always seemed to tolerate Brian’s murmuring,
Speaker:Sarah was not quite as accepting.
Speaker:She finished writing on a torn piece of paper before sitting it on the corner of his desk.
Speaker:Brian took the note graciously,
Speaker:bowing his head before opening it up and nodding in agreement.
Speaker:SPAZZ was all she’d written
Speaker:and that seemed to be a fair assessment.
Speaker:She gave him another glare,
Speaker:annoyed that she couldn’t get a better reaction from him.
Speaker:When he shrugged her off,
Speaker:the raccoon stamped her foot on the ground in defeat.
Speaker:There was nothing that she would know how to do to torture him more than the cheetah
Speaker:already did. Class was almost over and he hadn’t taken a single note.
Speaker:Everything on the board might had well have been in French,
Speaker:though, it was Math, so would that be very different?
Speaker:Maybe the metaphor doesn’t work,
Speaker:but that wasn’t the only thing he was messing up.
Speaker:No matter what plan he tried to come up with,
Speaker:they all seemed to backfire on him.
Speaker:Did this mean they were never meant to be?
Speaker:Beaten and worn, Brian’s ears remained folded against his head as he walked down through the halls.
Speaker:PE was next and he really didn’t feel up for it.
Speaker:Well, he never felt up for it;
Speaker:it’s freaking PE. Another class with Louis though was going to kill him
Speaker:and he contemplated turning to the nurse’s office to complain about an upset tummy.
Speaker:With the knots twisting his guts around,
Speaker:it wouldn’t actually be a lie.
Speaker:No, he didn’t want to live in fear of rejection any longer.
Speaker:Stepping into the locker rooms with his chin up and ears perked,
Speaker:he weaved through students changing with only one boy in mind.
Speaker:Though they shared the same row, they were almost on opposite sides of the room.
Speaker:Between them were only a few students,
Speaker:most kids already changed into their uniform and out onto the field.
Speaker:Louis was down to his chonies:
Speaker:bright blue briefs that formed to the agile cheetah’s slender form.
Speaker:Should he wait until he’s fully dressed or
Speaker:should he at least remove a few items himself?
Speaker:Brian rushed the combination into his lock before swinging the locker open and ripping off his shirt and jeans.
Speaker:He stuffed them into the locker before pulling out his gym clothes and changing into those whilst attempting to get closer to the cheetah before he could head out.
Speaker:Thankfully, unlike his speedy nature,
Speaker:Louis was taking his time as his muzzle disappeared under the grey t-shirt he put on.
Speaker:As he tried walking and changing,
Speaker:Brian would lose his balance, almost knocking into the other students around him.
Speaker:He excused himself as politely and quietly as possible,
Speaker:not wanting the cheetah to catch him acting like a goof.
Speaker:No good. By the time that he was almost there, the cheetah was watching him blatantly,
Speaker:studying him as the wolf pulled his blue shorts over his boxers.
Speaker:All of the optimism and energy had been sapped right out of him from the cheetah’s troubling stare.
Speaker:Lips drawn back to bare some fang challengingly,
Speaker:Louis twirled his raised whiskers in one paw while he waited for the now sheepish wolf to speak.
Speaker:Why was he the one that always had to say something?
Speaker:All of this was so nerve wracking and he was already a basket case as it was.
Speaker:Couldn’t he get a free pass just this once and Louis could be the one to confess his feelings for him.
Speaker:Brian would be the one with the power to reject or accept him,
Speaker:and he already knew his answer would be yes a million times over.
Speaker:That really wasn’t the reality of it though,
Speaker:was it? Tail tucked between his legs, Brian slowly turned away from the other boy.
Speaker:All of the courage he thought he had was spent just getting this far.
Speaker:Before he could actually get a full step though,
Speaker:a paw grabbed his shoulder and spun right back around.
Speaker:There, with Louis’s beautiful orange gems staring deep into his own,
Speaker:he froze the wolf before saying,
Speaker:“I have noticed you.”
Speaker:“I—ugh, you have?” Brian stuttered, taken aback.
Speaker:“Yes,” he said, remaining stern.
Speaker:“You look at me.” Oh Gosh.
Speaker:An eerie stillness enveloped the room,
Speaker:engulfing Brian in its dread.
Speaker:This was all happening so fast and words were coming out more shaky than he intended.
Speaker:“It’s that, just, sometimes I look at you and just...,”
Speaker:he trailed, sputtering like a car out of gas.
Speaker:Louis, a little annoyed and frustrated, straightened himself out and asked,
Speaker:“You want to fight me?”
Speaker:A choked laugh erupted from his chest,
Speaker:enough to startle the feline.
Speaker:Though his fur was prickled and his stance was defensive,
Speaker:Louis listened as Brian spoke. “No,
Speaker:heh, I don’t think I’ve ever been in a fight.
Speaker:I—just, I think you look nice.”
Speaker:A pause hung in the confession.
Speaker:It wafted in the air like noxious gas and was received just as well.
Speaker:Louis nodded his head flippantly up and down before looking around him and calling out,
Speaker:“Oh, I get it. This a classic American prank?
Speaker:Make fun of the french kid ‘cause all the french are sissies or something?
Speaker:Haha, you are all very funny.”
Speaker:He looked around for some audience to pop out and laugh at him.
Speaker:None came. Confused, but now just trying to calm down the frantic cheetah,
Speaker:he held up his paws and spoke,
Speaker:“What? No. There’s no prank.
Speaker:It’s that.” Brian licked his chapped lips, took a breath,
Speaker:and leaned in. “I like the smell of your coffee.”
Speaker:Louis’s eyebrow cocked and his ears perked, listening to him almost as if for the first time.
Speaker:Gradually, his paws went down as Brian continued,
Speaker:“I like the way that you write poetry.
Speaker:I like that green scarf you wear sometimes, though it doesn’t look like it keeps you very warm.”
Speaker:Pointing up to the cheetah’s head,
Speaker:he let out a little snicker.
Speaker:“I like the way your ears do that little dance, like right now, when you’re confused about something.
Speaker:Heck, I just like everything about you”
Speaker:Flustered, but disarmed,
Speaker:Louis’s expression wavered between smile and boyish embarrassment.
Speaker:Abashed, he was now the one left fumbling for words to say.
Speaker:The white in his ears flushed and sweat broke from his forehead.
Speaker:When he did manage to find anything to say,
Speaker:it first came out in French, before he found what he wanted in English.
Speaker:“You like me?” As he spoke, he pointed towards the wolf and then back at himself.
Speaker:Brian cut through the barriers, stepping forward and gently grabbing hold of the cheetah’s paw.
Speaker:He didn’t fight him,
Speaker:allowing the wolf to interlace his muddy brown fingers between his own.
Speaker:The white and yellow fur blended perfectly, making their clasp look like little eclairs.
Speaker:Maybe that would be a cute little nickname.
Speaker:They could decide that later as Brian tilted his muzzle
Speaker:and closed his eyes.
Speaker:Leaning in, Louis’s small snout drew closer until it was just inches away from his own lips.
Speaker:BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ Brian lunged into air and opened his eyes.
Speaker:Like grasping at smoke,
Speaker:Brian tried his best to conjure back the fantasy, but an event that never happened was hard to remember.
Speaker:First period just finished and he was still sitting at his desk in his math class.
Speaker:Shaking himself back to the real world,
Speaker:things began to piece themselves together.
Speaker:Students were finishing packing and the desk in front of him
Speaker:was empty. Frenzied, he jerked his head around trying to figure out where the hell his cheetah went.
Speaker:A spotted tail was all he caught as Louis headed off to PE.
Speaker:At first, he felt bad that everything was just his overactive imagination.
Speaker:None of the things that he had been thinking about were true and most of them ended badly for him anyway.
Speaker:At least, this one seemed to work out better than the rest of them had.
Speaker:Actually, this scenario was the closest he’d ever got to kissing him.
Speaker:It dawned on him, that out of all the hundreds and thousands of ways that he imagined things could end,
Speaker:this one worked. Standing up, he retraced all of his steps exactly as he imagined.
Speaker:No more daydreaming.
Speaker:No more letting his imagination run away with him.
Speaker:This was going to be it.
Speaker:This was going to work.
Speaker:It had to because he believed in it so hard.
Speaker:Everything lined up perfectly and when he saw the cheetah in his bright blue briefs down the row of lockers,
Speaker:he knew it was going to be perfect.
Speaker:Stripping down to his own underwear and pulling out his gym shorts,
Speaker:he made his way across around the benches, dodging the other students as he walked.
Speaker:He was awkward and he tumbled about trying to put on his t-shirt and shorts while he moved.
Speaker:Just like before,
Speaker:Louis had seen him approaching and was already in his stance.
Speaker:His pace crawled and he just before he could let out a single thing,
Speaker:Brian saw something else.
Speaker:Dustin, the donkey in the GSA who never seemed to have any interest in him,
Speaker:was standing at the lockers against the wall behind Louis.
Speaker:At least, he thought he wasn’t interested in him.
Speaker:There, the wolf caught it.
Speaker:Dustin had been watching Brian walk as well,
Speaker:just with his muzzle slightly cranked to hide that he’d be eyeing him.
Speaker:But his eyes were solidly on him,
Speaker:not Louis or anyone else in the locker room.
Speaker:He’d been watching him,
Speaker:studying him, and,
Speaker:from the slight gape of his maw,
Speaker:admiring the wolf. Razzled, Dustin turned back to his locker and tried to focus on changing himself.
Speaker:Nervous though, he couldn’t stop from glancing back at Brian and turning redder and redder as he did it.
Speaker:The pink blush travelled from his neck upward until it pushed through the white tips of his tall equine ears.
Speaker:Every time that Dustin tried to focus on the inside of his locker,
Speaker:he just got drawn back into the wolf,
Speaker:then fought it enough to stare an awkward second longer inside of his locker again
Speaker:only to glance back at him again.
Speaker:Caught in some feedback loop,
Speaker:he looked like such a dork and
Speaker:probably felt like one too.
Speaker:“I have noticed you,”
Speaker:Louis started, trying to confront Brian.
Speaker:Brian took his attention off the donkey for a second and straightened himself.
Speaker:“Oh, uh huh?” Taken aback by the sudden disinterest,
Speaker:Louis stumbled for a second before waving himself off,
Speaker:“I, uh, thought I noticed you looking at me.”
Speaker:A little unsure of himself now though,
Speaker:the cheetah walked back his statement.
Speaker:“It must have just been my, eh,
Speaker:imagination?” Dustin,
Speaker:finally able to break himself free from the spell the wolf unwittingly put on him,
Speaker:stormed off out of the locker room while trying to hide his face behind his hooved paws.
Speaker:He was smiling stupidly,
Speaker:unable to wipe away his own grin.
Speaker:Brian watched, feeling his own stupid smile growing
Speaker:but turned his attention back to Louis.
Speaker:“Oh, yeah, sorry. I drift off sometimes.
Speaker:I hope that didn’t bother you.
Speaker:I’m Brian.” He extended a paw
Speaker:and the cheetah, still a little confused about what was happening,
Speaker:took it cautiously and gave him a nimble shake.
Speaker:“Louis. We share math.”
Speaker:Brian nodded his head up and down, his smile, though not for the cheetah anymore,
Speaker:still felt genuine as he exchanged it with Louis’s. “Yeah, we do. Actually, I’m probably gonna need your help if you don’t mind a study partner.”
Speaker:The two of them walked each other out towards the fields,
Speaker:getting comfortable with one another as they spoke cordially.
Speaker:They exchanged numbers and talked about hanging out after school.
Speaker:That wasn’t so bad.
Speaker:Louis was great, and was going to make out to be a good friend.
Speaker:As they got to the field though,
Speaker:Brian seeked the donkey.
Speaker:He caught one glance at Dustin and passed a grin his way.
Speaker:The wheels in his head
Speaker:began to turn. This was
Speaker:“Daydreaming” by Dirt Coyote,
Speaker:read for you by B. P. Rugger,
Speaker:the ineffable Moo Moon,
Speaker:who you can also listen to on their rugby podcast,
Speaker:Propspectives. You can find more stories on the web at thevoice.dog,
Speaker:or find the show wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker:Thank you for listening
Speaker:to The Voice of Dog.
