A Horrible Way to End the Week

Friday, July 23rd

	“But kitten… Why…,” the puppy inquired.  He was sobbing, but he did not know it.  He couldn’t identify the sound that escaped his own muzzle.  The cat he was talking to, his mate, or rather his ex mate now, was also sobbing.  “This isn’t healthy puppy… This isn’t even fair… We haven’t even seen each other for half of our relationship…”
	“But…”
	“No buts’ puppy.  I have to do this.  You have to finish school and be strong… To be successful.  It’s time for you to be a big pup now, Elliot.  Time to be strong, not for me, not for anyone but you.”
	“But… Bret… Does this really have to be this way…,” asked the Spotted Hyena.  
	“Yes,” replied Bret simply.  He was a handsome looking panther.  All white, except for the black on the tips of his ears.  Bret had vibrant green eyes that shone, almost burned, with the intensity of thousands of tiny jewels at once.  The green was so brilliant that it almost hurt to look at; and at night, they seemed to glow.
	“But…,” Elliot sighed heavily and wiped the tears from his eyes on the back of his paws, “There’s nothing I can say to change this, is there…?”
	“Sorry…”
	“Sure… I have to get back to class… I’ll be here if you change your mind… Which you won’t… What’s the point anymore? Really.  You just took away my reason to exist… My drive… I trusted in you.  You promised you would always protect me… You lied… Again…”
	“I have to go now El… Bye… I’ll come back when the time is right… I promise…”
	“Just like the promise to protect me, right?”
	“Fuck off,” click.  He hung up.  
	Damnit all, thought Elliot, I knew this was coming after our conversation yesterday… Why… Forget it.  I hate crying in public…
	He rounded the corner of the building he had been hiding behind and carelessly threw his hat onto his head.  He had been in there quite some time, pleading with Bret not to leave him.  Whatever.  It was over now.  This should be a good thing! I am finally free to do all the things he would never let me do! Yes, but now you’re alone…; a tiny voice in the back of his mind seemed to whisper.  So much for trying to be happy.  This was going to suck, and he knew it.  He was so preoccupied with all this that he failed to notice the strange looks he was getting.  Furs around here weren’t used to seeing males cry; especially not a six foot, lightly muscled, broad-shouldered hyena.  He didn’t care what people saw of him, though.  He was in a bad mood, and the first fur to give him any shit for being gay, or crying, would end up with a bloody nose, and more than a few teeth missing.  He was furious.  How dare that stupid cat leave him now, of all times.  He knew what was going on with him and his parents.  It didn’t matter to Bret.  Nothing mattered to Bret except himself.  Okay, fine.  I don’t care either.  I can live without… Bret… I miss you already kitten...  This is going to be harder than I thought.

Later That Day

	“Hey El,” shouted Cassie, a small Miniature Pinscher that was about two-thirds Elliot’s height.
	“Oh… Hey hun…,” replied Elliot.
	“What’s wrong,” inquired Cassie, a puzzled look infecting her petite features.
	“Nothing much… That stupid cat left me over a phone call… Wait, no, it was a text…”
	Cassie’s jaw dropped and she stared at Elliot, shocked.  “Are… Oh my… What…,” she whispered before finally giving up and starting to growl.
	“He what,” she exploded.  “That spineless bastard! I can’t believe him.  I’m gonna break his neck! He promised he would protect you no matter what, and then he does this!”
	“Cassie–,” he reached out to put a paw on her shoulder, trying to calm her.
	“I’m going to kill him–,” she moved swiftly away from Elliot’s paw.
	“Please, its fine.”
	“No, it’s not Elliot.  He didn’t just end a relationship with you; he broke your engagement.  You two were engaged, Elliot.”
	Elliot sighed heavily, “Yeah, I know that, Cassie.  Just leave him be though.  It’s not worth your time or mine.  Just let him be.  Whatever.”
	“El… That’s a year and a half and someone that you loved very much that you will never get back… And you’re just going to let it go?”
	“What more can I do? I already tried to convince him to stay… He said he needed to do this.”
	Cassie looked at her foot-paws and sighed heavily, “Alright.  But it’s still not right for him to dump you like that; or right now of all times.  When he knows what’s going on with you and your parents.  It’s not right.”
	“Yeah, I know.”
	“Well, there’s only one thing left for you to do, hun,” said Cassie, a small flame flickering to life in her eyes.
	“Yeah? And what’s that,” questioned Elliot, so much sarcasm in his voice that it nearly sounded hostile.  Cassie ignored it completely and continued on with her reply.
	“It’s simple.”
	“Nothing about this is simple,” interrupted Elliot.
	“Hush pup,” Elliot rolled his eyes and huffed; Cassie continued, “It’s simple: You look pretty good.  I’m sure you can do better than that asshole Bret.  Me and you, girls day out.  We’re going shopping and fur watching.”
	“But–”
	“Is Saturday okay with you?”
	“Cassie–”
	“Saturday it is.”
	Elliot sighed and rolled his eyes, knowing that there was no arguing with the miniature pinscher.  
	“Hey Cass, I couldn’t help but notice that you said girls day out.”
	“You know what I meant.  Besides, you’re my best guy-friend.”
	“And you’re my best gal-pal.”
	Elliot smiled weakly at the tiny canine; it was the first he had done so all week.
For the rest of lunch, Elliot hung out with Cassie and her group of friends.  Her friends were good if you needed a distraction.  They did everything that could possibly keep a fur from thinking; they were loud, always cracking jokes, and would not let Elliot stop talking, since he was fresh meat for the group.  The bell that signaled the end of lunch rang all too soon and Elliot felt instantly lonely as he waved good bye to the group and began to trudge to his next class.  About half way there, his brain went into zombie mode and stayed that way until the last class of his day was over.  Finally, I can listen to music again!
	Elliot grabbed the huge headphones that hung from his neck and slipped them over his ears before pulling his iPod from his pocket and pressing play.  The soft melodic beats of trance filled his head.  His tail swaying side to side with the beat of the music, he started on the one mile walk from his school to his house.  On his walk, he concentrated on his breathing and his music, trying as hard as he could not to think about the events of the day.
	A short time later, probably about twenty-five minutes, Elliot guessed, he was walking though his front door to a darkened house.  All the blinds were drawn shut and it was dead silent.  As he walked in, he checked the kitchen table, the unofficial place for leaving notes in his family, and sure enough, there was a piece of lined paper.  He picked it up and looked it over.  The writing was unmistakably from his mother’s paw.  The note read: Hey El, we’re out running errands and grocery shopping.  Be back soon.  Luv!
	Good, they’ll be gone for a while.  That gave Elliot some alone time; something he’d needed all day.  He walked through the living room, up the stairs and entered the first door on the right; his room.  It had gotten the nickname “El’s Den” from some of his friends one day, his parents over heard and the name had stuck ever since.  This room was also dark, as it always was, due largely in part to the black curtains that hung over the window.  There were a few things hanging on the walls such as baseball medals, pictures of him on his quad, belts, wallet chains, his spare collar, a glass etching of a wolf done by Cassie and some other random things.  He flicked a switch on the wall and the ceiling fan above immediately began to turn, creating a nice breeze in his room and circulating the smell of fresh vanilla from the diffuser set on his tall dresser.  Elliot dropped his shoulder bag and sighed as he pushed the door closed with his foot-paw.  He began to look around his room, evaluating it as if seeing it for the first time.  Several boxes for storing school papers in sat directly to his left, next to which was a rolling plastic cart with three drawers.  The cart had a blue frame and each of the drawers were a different color, the top being red, the middle yellow, and the bottom green.  He had always disliked looking at it, simply because it reminded him of a traffic light.
	Next to that was his bed, a queen pushed into a corner, with a few inches between its left side and the wall to accommodate for the one hundred-fifty watt bass speaker.  The bed itself was dressed simply with dark blue sheets and a matching blanket.  Right across from the foot of the bed, about two and a half feet away, was a short dresser cluttered with electronics.  A twenty-one inch flat screen, a six hundred watt base unit that was connected to each of the speakers on either side of the dresser.  On top of the base unit was his Xbox 360 and on top of that was a small docking station for his iPod.  He walked over to his stereo and hit the power button before pulling the iPod from his pocket and unplugging his headphones from the jack.  He placed his iPod on the dock and pressed down gently to make sure it was connected.  He then turned the knob slowly to the right until his music was at a suitable level and his room was filled with the soft melodies of ambient rock.  He kicked off his shoes and flung himself backwards onto his bed in one swift motion, his head coming to rest perfectly in the middle of his pillows.
	Elliot, now starting to think about the day, sighed heavily as his eyes filled with warmth, several tears spilling over and staining his cheek fur.  He closed his eyes and continued to cry quietly to himself.  In a few minutes, he had fallen into a restless sleep, his mind still trying to comprehend what had happened to him that day.  Keeping his mind off of the break-up had taken almost all of his energy.

Several Hours Later

	Elliot opened his eyes to a pitch-black room, with the exception of the light from the display on his stereo where his music still played softly.  He turned his head to the side, looking at his alarm clock.  9:02pm.  He blinked several times while he took this in and laid back down to rub his eyes.  After he was done he blinked a few more times and realized that his head hurt.  Ouch, what the hell? Did someone stab me between the eyes or something?
	Elliot sat back up slowly, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed, making sure that his paws were making solid contact with the floor before standing on them.  It was common for Elliot to lose his balance easily when he had bad headaches.  He shuffled over to the door, yawning and rubbing between his ears as he stretched out his muscles.  He turned the door knob and pulled the door open before walking across the hall to the cabinet where all the medicinal things were kept.  He flipped on a nearby light switch, illuminating the end of the hallway.  He looked over the bottles until he found the ibuprofen.  Picking up the bottle and twisting off the lid, he shook four of the reddish-orange tablets into his paw.  Damnit.  Now I have to go down stairs to get… Hey, is that the TV?
	He walked down the hall towards the stairs, flipping off the light switch as he passed it.  Elliot was still half asleep and not in the mood to be extremely quiet; upon subconsciously deciding this, he half hurried, half stumbled down the stairs.  As the hyena reached the landing, he shoved his left paw into his jeans pocket and released the tablets before withdrawing it.  A second later, he was walking into the conjoined living room and kitchen area.
	“Hey sleepy head; how was your day,” inquired Elliot’s mother, also a hyena.
	Excellent, they’re in a good mood; for now, anyway.  After taking note of this, he began to speak.  “My day? Oh.  It was total shit.”
	His parents both turned to look at him in surprise.  Elliot rarely swore.  Or, at least he tried not to swear excessively.  He didn’t like the way it made him sound.  It made him sound illiterate.  Outside of pillow-talk, he kept a close watch on his language.
	“What happened, son?” His dad.
	“Watch your mouth, Elliot!” His mother.
	His dad turned to face his mother, and began to speak, “Nikki, leave him be.  Can’t you tell he hasn’t had a good day?”
	“I don’t–,” his mother began to turn, but cut herself off as her eyes fell upon Elliot.  “El, you look like hell.  What’s wrong? What happened?”
	“That stupid cat happened.  You know, Bret?”
	“Of course.  How could we not know him,” replied Matt, Elliot’s dad.
	“Well, he broke up with me today.  I feel like I was hit by a train; I have a horrible stress headache too.”
	For a second, all was silent.  The very next moment, however, everyone was trying to talk at once.  Elliot was only able to catch tiny fragments of sentences in his half conscious state.  Although, the just of what he heard was Nikki.
	“…told you not to talk to him anymore! He’s a bad influence and…,” that was his mother.
	“I’m sorry, son.  I’m sure you can find better than him, though,” his dad.
	“…act like an ass around him too,” his mother finally finished her rant.  Elliot then looked over to his mother again.  “You know,” he began, “you aren’t particularly nice, either.  In fact, I don’t even want to look at you sometimes.  Before you reply, just don’t.  I’m getting a glass of water and going back up to my room to sort through my feelings without you trying to force your opinions in my head, Hitler.” With that, Elliot walked over to a kitchen cabinet, opened it, selected a glass and began to fill it with ice from the freezer before walking across the kitchen to the sink for water.  Then, as he turned the faucet on, all hell broke loose.
	“Elliot Mason Fletcher! Apologize now! That was rude and disrespectful!”
	Elliot was about to open his mouth to reply, but was cut off by Matt.  “Nikki,” his dad started in, “leave him be.  He didn’t do anything wrong this time.  Just give him a bit to cool down.” Elliot looked over to his dad, shocked that he had stood up for him, but kept a straight face and gave a slight nod of appreciation.  His mother was equally shocked.  Elliot took the opportunity to make his escape; he slipped out of the room without a sound and padded up the stairs.
	Once he was safe inside of his room, he dug the pills out of his pocket and popped them into his muzzle, taking a sip of water and swallowing them as if they weren’t there.  Afterward, he pulled out a pen and a notebook, and began to write out his feelings.  He wrote for a long while as he thought and listened to music, before one song in particular caught his attention when it came on.  At first, he was paying no attention to it, but when the singer started singing, he listened to the lyrics and analyzed them, and then he realized that the song was about him, about his life.  He clicked a button on the remote for his stereo to illuminate the screen on his iPod.  The band that had composed the song was Staind, a band he could not remember downloading or putting on his iPod, and the name of the song was Outside.  Elliot started the song over again, just so he could listen to the lyrics again, and really determine what they were saying.  He wrote them down in his journal as he listened, and wrote an entire entry on how the song reflected upon his life, and how the lyrics made sense to him.
	An hour later, he was done.  He had written almost eight pages, and he felt a little bit better now.  Elliot was tired again, however.  So he stripped himself everything he was wearing, tossing it into the hamper in the corner of his room before grabbing some fresh clothes from various drawers after which he headed to his bathroom.  Elliot had the privilege of having a private bathroom, so he didn’t really have to go anywhere to brush his teeth in the morning, or to take a shower at night.  After opening the door of his shower, he turned the water up until it was steaming hot, just the way he liked his shower, and got in, enjoying the feeling of the warm water soaking into his fur.  Elliot closed his eyes and took a deep breath, relaxing his body and mind, letting all of the horrible incidents that had happened that day leave him with the exhale of that breath.  Soon, his shower was over, and Elliot was clean and in his bed, more than ready to go back to sleep until when ever his body decided to wake up the next day.

The Seemingly Endless Nightmare

Saturday, July 24th

	Elliot awoke the next day at four in the morning and shivered.  Why is it so cold in here? And why am I drenched in sweat? Then it came to him.  Last night he had one of the most terrifying nightmares he had ever had.  He didn’t have this particular nightmare often, maybe once or twice in his entire lifetime.  The only difference between this time and the others was that when he woke this time, the nightmare didn’t stop, but instead, got worse.  Elliot’s dream last night was of Bret leaving him.  Not just leaving him, but the entire world.
	“Elliot, help me!”
	Elliot stood by helpless, watching as Bret lay dying, smashed between two pieces of rubble from a fallen building.  “I can’t help you Bret… I’m sorry… There’s nothing I can do…”
	Bret’s dying words to Elliot were, “You’re worthless, Elliot.  You always have been.  I tried to change you, but you refused to change.  And now you stand there helpless and doing nothing as I lay here, dying right before your eyes.  Goodbye… Elliot…” With that, Bret drew in his dying breath and exhaled, his movements ceasing forever.
	Normally, Elliot would have called Bret after having this dream, but only seconds after waking, the painful thought of their breakup being the second on his mind, with the first being his appetite, he didn’t want to.  Elliot couldn’t eat yesterday; for he was too distraught to even consider it.  Now, that was a different story.  Even though Elliot was still in an incredible amount of emotional pain, he still wanted something to eat.  He sighed and looked around his room, slim rays of pale moonlight shining through the cracks in his blinds.  The moonlight gave the room an eerie, supernaturally cold feel.
	Yawning and wiping several tears from his cheeks before they had the chance to soak into his fur, he weighed his options.  On one paw, he could wait until everyone got up to go downstairs to make his breakfast.  On the other paw, he could go downstairs now and risk waking up his parents in the process of making his breakfast, which sounded extremely dangerous after the harsh words exchanged between him and Nikki last night.  On the third paw, he could try to go back to sleep now, and risk having the nightmare again.
	The choice was almost instinctual: go downstairs and get breakfast.  Elliot got up and stretched out his muscles before padding over to a dresser and withdrawing a pair of thick wool socks to keep his foot-paws warm.  After slipping them on his feet, he flexed his toes and stood back up and padded over to his door and was about to turn the knob to exit when his phone went off.  Who in world is texting me at four in the morning…? He turned around and padded back over to his bed, where his phone lay charging on the nightstand.  The screen was lit up, and the words on it read: New txt message from: Bret (stupid cat).  Elliot closed his eyes and sighed heavily before turning around and walking out of his room.
	Once the hyena was in the kitchen, he began to prepare a simple but rather large breakfast, always making sure to keep as quiet as possible.  After fifteen minutes in the kitchen, he rushed back upstairs to his room with two plates.  One had eight eggs over easy, three pancakes, and twenty strips of pepper bacon.  The other, smaller plate was piled high with pieces of toast, already plastered with butter and strawberry jam.  He began to dig in, seeing his phone out of the corner of his eyes.
	Elliot put his food down and picked up his phone, a tear coming to his eye, a sigh to his muzzle as he read the message; Hey El… I’m sorry about yesterday; the way I hung up was kinda uncalled for.  My decision still stands, though.  I’m sorry.  Bret was starting to upset him again.  He always said stupid things like this when he knew what he was doing was wrong, but chose to keep doing it anyway.  It had always annoyed Elliot, but he never said anything, due to his love and kindness for Bret.  This time would be different, though.  He had little to no patients with Bret, and his emotions were torn apart and strewn around him.  Bret, I appreciate your concern but… You are really just starting to annoy me.  You know I hate it when people say things that are blatantly untrue, yet expected to be believed anyway.  If you were really sorry, you would stop saying you were sorry, and stop breaking me and my life! Leave me be, Bret, if only for a few days! Elliot hit the send icon on his phone and put it back on his nightstand, continuing on with his breakfast as if nothing had happened.
	A short time later, Elliot had finished his meal, and he sat on his bed, rubbing his belly contentedly.  Of course, his semi-happy state could not last long.  Just when he was beginning to think that he had gotten rid of Bret for the next few days, his phone went off again, sending him back into foul mood.  He picked up his phone, hoping that it wouldn’t be Bret again, but who else? Don’t be a dick to me Elliot! I didn’t do anything wrong this time! I’m only trying to be friends with you so you don’t hate me… Oh, damnit, Elliot, why can’t you just be nice to me…?
	Elliot gazed at the message in disbelief, desperately searching his mind for words to explain his anger to the unfortunate soul who had provoked him.  Bret! You want to know why I’m not being nice to you right now?! Do you?! I’ll tell you why! Because you know me well enough, or do you, to know that when I am betrayed, I get angry.  What you did yesterday was a betrayal of my trust, the trust that I willing gave you time and again, against my better judgment, even after you proved yourself unworthy! That’s why I’m angry with you, Bret! You tossed me like a piece of trash, without the decency to even do it in person! Hell, without the decency to even do it over a phone call! I’m pissed at you because I was never pissed at you before! All the times I reacted calmly to whatever atrocity you presented me with is coming out now.  This is what I forced myself to deal with on my own, Bret, for your sake! I was nothing but nice to you since the day I met you! Now, please, leave me be! His breathing heavy with anger over the fact that he had been thrown back to hell, Elliot hit the send button with undue force before slamming his phone back down on the nightstand.
	Elliot now sat on the edge of his bed, face buried deep in his paws as he cried silently.  Why? Why did I trust him like that…? I gave him everything! And this is how I’m thanked… Tossed to the side again, where I will begin once more in my search t o find my true love.  In the midst of all of his anger and sorrow, Elliot found himself surprised that he was able to think this clearly.  Elliot truly hoped that Bret didn’t return his message this time, not out of spite, but out of concern for what he might say.
	Bret had spoken a fraction of sense in the slew of blasphemous outrages that composed a majority of his last message, and that pertained to the concept of him and Elliot being friends.  After all, Elliot didn’t and never could hate Bret, but he sure couldn’t handle being friends with him right now; not at the moment, and possibly not for a long while.  Elliot didn’t feel bad for what he had said to Bret just a second ago, he’d had it coming to him for awhile now, and he knew it.  What Bret didn’t know, and most likely didn’t suspect, was that it would come from Elliot.  Elliot shrugged as he thought it out, wiping the remnants of tears from his cheeks with the back of his paws.
	Left with very few options, Elliot decided to lie back down to see if he could go back to sleep.  His efforts proved fruitless after a few minutes, though.  Frustrated, he sat back up and gathered some fresh clothes, intending to go and take another shower, since his nightmare last night had made his previous shower nearly pointless.  He emerged from his shower several minutes later, steaming and dripping, towel wrapped around his waist.  After adequately drying himself and throwing his clothes on, he was left with nothing else to do except write or play Xbox.  Since it would be several hours before Cassie called him with plans for the day, he decided to kill the time playing Xbox, since it not only made it nearly impossible to think while he was playing, but it actually sounded like it might be a little fun.