Five State Drive

Prologue

You give the deli floor one more pass with the squeegee, if only to satisfy the unrealistic expectations of your boss. As far as you’re concerned, you got most of the water, and the rest will dry before the store opens tomorrow. Or actually, today, considering it’s currently 1:30 in the fucking morning.

Back in high school, they would have never made you stay this late for fear of breaking some sort of state or federal underage worker law. But alas, it’s been a year since high school, you're 19, and you’re not a kid anymore.

Well, that’s debatable.

You may not feel like a kid anymore, but you sure as hell don’t feel like an adult either. It's hard to feel like an adult when your parents are still breathing down your neck.

Anyways, you shove the squeegee back in its hole behind one of the rotisserie machines and head over to the time clock. You punch in your digits and finally clock out. Just short of 2 am. Good thing they don't have you scheduled for tomorrow.

As the time clock confirms your punch with a little jingle, as if on cue, your boss, an older rat anthro, pops her head out of her little broom closet of an office.

“Thanks for staying late, Anon,” she says. “Are you sure you don’t want to come in tomorrow for overtime?”

Fuck. That.

But you can’t say that to her, because that would be “unprofessional”, so instead you thank her for the offer but decline, saying that you have plans tomorrow.

You don't have plans. You never have plans. Shit never changes around here.

“Aw, alright Anon, enjoy your day off!”

You give her a forced smile, the same smile you give to everyone who walks up to this god-forsaken deli counter, and head out.

You walk through the huge sliding doors of the chain grocery store and into the parking lot, removing your apron in the process and untucking your shirt.

Why is it this fucking hot at 2 in the morning? It's September! Jesus.

Walking out from the air conditioned grocery store and into the Florida heat was like opening a dryer that had just completed its cycle, except everything was still slightly moist.

You were getting real tired of this shitty weather.

It was fairly easy to locate your car in the parking lot, considering you’re basically the only one left in the entire plaza. You pull out your key fob and start the car remotely, just so the AC will be cold by the time you cross this ocean of a parking lot.

You’re so glad your dad ended up getting that raise at work, only because he used the extra money to upgrade his daily driver and ended up giving you his old one.

It was a nice car, a sedan the size of a boat. It was fully loaded, GPS, satellite radio, power seats with massage, heating, AND cooling (not like you would ever need to use the former in this fucking state). Not bad for an almost 20 year old car.

As you trudged through the heat and humidity of this wonderful subtropical morning, you felt your phone buzz in your pocket.

Looks like your friend Alex messaged the group chat.

Sk8rb0i: Hey fucker, u off work yet?

You type out a response as you climb into your hand-me-down luxury barge.

TheGirth: ye whats up

Sk8rb0i: Can u swing by and grab us? Blake is having 1 of his episodes again.

TheGirth: gotcha

You stick the key in the ignition and shove your phone back into your pocket. You pull out your little book of CDs, flipping through your catalog of music before settling on some Gorillaz. You shove the CD in a disk player attached to the inside of the glove box and after a few mechanical whirs and zips the music starts playing through the car's upscale audio system.

Alex and Blake are your childhood friends, you’ve known them both ever since preschool. You and Alex were the same age, but Blake was a year younger. He started school a year early because he had the brains for it.

Anyways, the three of you had always stuck together like glue, largely sharing the same interests but having enough individuality to keep things interesting.

The three of you lived in different neighborhoods but luckily they were all in the same town so you didn’t have to drive far. Plus, you’ve been over their houses so many times now that you could practically navigate to them blindfolded.

The first stop would be Alex, since he was closest.

You pull out of the parking lot and onto the vacant streets. Streetlights paved the roads in a familiar orange glow. Strip malls and plazas pass by your window in a blur. The huge neon signs of open-late fast food restaurants litter the sides of the road as frequently as the streetlights. You’ve driven through this town so many times that you could probably recite the location of each McDonald’s and Burger King from memory.

After a quick 10 minute drive, you pull up to the local trailer park and continue down its dusty neglected streets. You pull into the driveway of a familiar blue mobile home that you’ve seen a million times before and pull out your phone.

TheGirth: here

Sk8rb0i: Yeah I could see u coming a mile away in that fuckin thing.

Sk8rb0i: Be out in a sec.

You throw the car in park and sit back. You look over at Alex’s little mobile home and take a trip down memory lane.

You’ve spent a lot of time here, probably more than you’ve spent at Blakes house. You've definitely gotten into a lot more trouble here than at Blakes house, too.

You remember when you and Alex were really young and you tried skating down the wooden ramp that led up to his front door, but hit a raised plank and ate shit and busted right through the railing. His mom was pissed.

Or that time when the two of you almost lost an eye one Fourth of July after sticking firecrackers in glass beer bottles just to watch the glass explode. That one was objectively a dumb idea, now that you think about it.

Speaking of which, soon enough you see the front door to his home open and the man himself appears.

He's a tallish Opossum anthro, maybe standing at 5’11. He’s dressed in standard Alex attire; worn jeans, crazy black combat boots, and some punk band t-shirt that you've never heard of before. He’s always been on the skinny side, in all the years you’ve known him, but lately he’s been putting on some weight, particularly in the lower body.

As he makes his way down the ramp and over to your car, his septum and ear piercings glisten in your car's headlights. His tail hangs lazily behind him. A short crimson red mane/mohawk trails from the top of his head all the way down to the base of his neck and then dissipates into his natural cream colored body fur.

He must’ve dyed his hair again, yesterday it was green.

He opens the car door and plops himself in the passenger seat. You look at each other for a moment before he speaks up.

“Have fun slaving away for your corporate overlords, Anon?” He asks with a shit eating grin.

Oh yeah, all day every day. Livin’ the dream.

He laughs. “You’re such a capitalist cuck, dude.”

That was sarcasm, dumbass. You’d rather eat dirt than be at that fuckin’ store for 8 hours a day.

“I know, I know, I’m just messing with you. Let's go get Blake.”

You throw the car into reverse, back out of his driveway, and head back onto the city streets to go get the third musketeer.

So, speaking of which, you ask Alex if he thinks Blake is alright. This is like, the fifth or sixth time we’ve had to calm him down this month.

“Honestly dude,” he says as he pulls a pack of cigarettes out from his pocket. “I don’t know. It's kind of concerning. I think he needs a shrink. Can I smoke in here, by the way?”

You tell him sure, just crack the window. If your parents find out, they’d kick your ass.

He takes the disposable lighter that was strapped to the back of the pack and lights one up, rolling the window down in the process.

You glance over at Alex and see him looking straight ahead with the ciggy hanging from his lips. The streetlights pass by the car, casting a brief light over his cream-colored fur. He puffs out some smoke every once in a while and you occasionally catch a whiff of a familiar smell. He’s been smoking that brand ever since he was 15.

Yeah, a shrink might be for the best. Whenever Blake has one of these panic attacks, we’re the first ones he messages, but he never tells us what’s wrong. He just says he wants to hang out and that it makes him feel better.

Eventually you guys pull into a very boring suburban neighborhood. It's one of those pre planned neighborhoods where all of the houses look exactly the same, even down to the mailboxes. Good thing You've come to recognize the details that set Blake’s house apart from all the others.

His parents were very strict, and his mom in particular likes to keep a very elaborate, and very specific garden. It was the pride of the whole neighborhood, something you could see from all the way down the street.

His father was huge on maintenance and he always kept the house exterior clean with zero clutter. That meant no exterior accessories on the house or the lawn.

Between these two aspects, You've pretty much memorized the specific look of his cookie cutter house.

Speaking of his parents, despite Blake being a legal adult, his parents still controlled every aspect of his life and would certainly not approve of this outing. As such, You've learned to park down the street in the lot of the neighborhood park in order to avoid suspicion.

You pull into a random parking spot in front of the park and let the car idle.

You pull out your phone and send a message in the group chat.

TheGirth: blake we’re here, get ur ass out here

CosmicDefender98: Omg I’m so sorry guys, I’ll be out in a second! Thank you so much <3

As you wait, Alex fiddles with the disk drive in the glove box and ejects your Gorillaz CD, replacing it with a Green Day CD that he keeps in your CD book.

Man, remember Green Day? Things were better back then. Such a shame what happened to them.

“What the fuck are you talking about, dude? Green Day is still touring and making albums…” he says.

Kids these days won’t know. They really missed out.

“…You’re fucking with me, aren’t you? You're such an idiot, Anon,” he says with a chuckle. He finishes his cigarette just in time for Blake to come around the block.

Blake is a short mouse anthro, only standing about 4 '9 on a good day, maybe topping 5 feet if you include his big ol’ ears. He's got fluffy blonde hair and snowy white fur. He likes to wear oversized clothes to hide his figure. It's something he's really shy about, but even though he’s a little on the chubbier side he’s always had a bit of a girlish figure, even when you were kids. He used to get bullied a lot in gym class about it.

Luckily for him, he had two older friends willing to fuck up anyone who unwisely made the mistake of talking shit about him to your faces.

Anyways, he approaches quickly and nervously, almost like he’s afraid of getting caught.

It looks like he’s wearing a black hoodie that's at least two sizes too big, as per usual. It drapes almost down to his knees so you can’t even see what kind of shorts he’s wearing.

He grabs the rear passenger side door and quickly enters the car and buckles up.

You see him adjusting his big round spectacles in the rear view mirror.

Alex turns around in his seat to face the nervous wreck of a mouse.

“Hey Cheezit, you ok?” He asks. That was an old nickname for Blake. Was it fucked up to assume that just because he was a mouse anthro that he liked cheese? Yeah probably. But Blake actually said that he liked the name, but only when we use it.

“Y-Yeah,” Blake stammers. “I just n-needed to get out of the house, haha…”

Blake has always had a pretty bad stutter, even when you were kids. It's actually gotten slightly better over the years, but he still has a lot of speech therapy to do before getting rid of it.

Well, mission accomplished then. Where to now?

“Man, I’m fuckin hungry, let’s hit up Mickey Ds,” says Alex as he turns back around in his seat.

You could go for some shitty fast food, honestly. What about Blake?

“O-Oh, I d-didn't bring any m-money…”

You tell him not to worry about it, you'll cover it. You know, since you’re the only one here with a JOB, you say, looking at Alex in particular.

“Hey, fuck you buddy. I just got accepted into trade school, so pretty soon I'll be payin’ for your meals!” Alex responds. “Oh by the way, thanks for payin’ for my meals, I appreciate you.”

He looks at you with a faux-appreciative expression.

“Y-Yeah! Thanks Anon, y-you're the best!” Blake chimes in.

You back the car out of the parking lot and head over to the nearest McDonald’s. Well, actually not the nearest, the second nearest. The one by Blake's house has this one guy that only works third shift who’s super creepy. He tries to get Blakes number every time we go, and there’s only so many times you can stand to hear him use the same cringey pickup lines.

The second closest one was actually down by the beach, which was perfect because a nice relaxing morning by the water is exactly what you need after your shift.

The three of you enjoy the ride all while listening to various punk rock CDs, courtesy of Alex. You don’t mind, considering you like all types of music, but you feel like Blakes preferred genre of weird ambient pop would be more appropriate for a midnight drive.

Driving during this time is always great because you don't have to share the road with any of the other unhinged and suicidal native drivers of this state.

You roll along, passing by a multitude of the state's most prized possessions; palm trees, condos, and strip malls. Eventually you reach a McDonald’s on the corner of some unassuming intersection and of course it’s as empty as a graveyard.

You ask everyone for their orders.

“I'll do a McChicken with a medium fries and a medium sprite,” says Alex.

Got it. Cheezit?

“May I have a 20 piece chicken n-nugget with a large fries and a large Dr. Pepper, p-please?” Stutters Blake.

Damn, where does all that food go for such a small mouse? But yeah, sure.

You end up just getting the same thing Alex ordered. Once you retrieve your midnight snacks, you head on down to the beach.

Normally you have to pay for parking if you want to have the “luxury” of simply existing at the beach but if you park far away from the boardwalk and all of the shitty tourist attractions, the cops won't go that far out of their way to check the meters.

You pull up to a secluded stretch of beach and park in the most inconspicuous spot you could find. You grab all your shit and head out.

Even though it was still unreasonably hot and grossly humid out, you had at least some reprieve in the form of a cool ocean breeze.

The sand sunk underneath your feet and the salty smell of the ocean filled your nostrils.

A little ways down the shore was a shitty old wooden lifeguard shack that stood on equally shitty and old wooden stilts. Of course it would be unoccupied at this hour; technically the beach is closed.

The three of you decide that it would be the perfect place to enjoy your meals, free from the messy sand.

You hop up on the wooden deck and look out over the ocean. Ships of various sizes are sailing to and from the harbor and in the distance you could see the faint lights of gargantuan cruise ships sailing off into locations unknown.

The ocean was relatively calm tonight; small waves crashed along the shore but it wasn’t anything too crazy.

All in all, it was a nice little view. The moon was full and bright, and the clouds were sparse. You could see each other under the moonlight without having the need for any extra illumination.

The three of you enjoyed your meals and each other's company, talking about nothing for the better part of the next few hours.

Alex complained about the tyrannical oppression of capitalism and how the first thing he would do when he started his career as an apprentice carpenter was join the union and fight for workers rights all over the country.

Blake talked about a new game that recently came out and that he wanted us to play together. He talked about some of the streamers he watches and about the latest anime season. He even went on a little tangent about the discontinuation of his favorite tv show.

All in all, it was a pretty standard hang out for all of you.

You didn’t say much. You had a lot on your mind but not really much to talk about. Well, that was until Alex brought up careers again.

“What about you, Anon? Are you planning on working at that shitty grocery store your whole life?” Asked Alex.

God you fucking hope not. You’d rather someone kick you in the balls every day for the rest of your life then spend your whole life working there.

“So then what’s next? College? You gonna inherit your parents' company? That’d be fucked up if you became a CEO, dude, I dont want to have to fight you when the class wars start.”

Nah, you didn't really wanna do that either. You don't know what you want to do, honestly. You didn’t get the best grades back in high school so any hopes of going to some fancy university are dead. But even if you could, you don't even know what you would study.

“Pffft, well maybe if you had gotten a full-ride scholarship to MIT like Cheezit over here,” Alex says while pointing a thumb to Blake, “you’d be more motivated.”

You look over at Blake and he’s looking at you two through his big coke bottle glasses, sadness plastered all over his face.

“Speaking of,” continues Alex, “congrats on the scholarship, dude! You deserve it for being the smartest lil’ guy I know.”

Blake doesn’t say anything, he just stares at the two of you. He takes off his glasses to wipe his eyes. He looks pretty upset.

“…Hey Cheezit, you good? Sorry dude, was it something I said?”

He sniffles a bit before responding.

“N-No, it’s ok, y-you didn’t say anything wrong! I j-just… I've been having a hard time with my p-parents lately. T-They're mad at me because I d-don't want to go to MIT…” he says.

Well thats fucked up! If he doesn’t want to go to MIT then that’s not their call! It's his future, not theirs. Plus, Blake could probably get into any college he wants with the grades he has.

“Y-You don’t understand, Anon… they want m-me to go to an Ivy League university out of state, but I don't want any of that…” he continues.

At this point, Alex chimes in.

“Anon is right, that's not for them to decide. But why wouldn’t you want to leave the state? This place is kind of a shithole…”

Blake takes off his glasses and takes a deep breath before wiping his eyes again.

“I-It’s stupid, I shouldn’t have said anything…”

Nah, dude, his future isn’t stupid. He needs to make a decision that'll make him happy. Whatever he decides to do, we’ll back him up.

“Yeah!” Exclaims Alex. “If we gotta go over and talk some sense into your parents, we will!”

Blake’s lip begins to quiver and he takes off his glasses yet again.

Unexpectedly, he lunges at you and wraps you up in a hug.

“I don’t want to leave you guys!” He exclaims into your shirt. “Y-You guys are my best friends, w-what if I leave and never see you guys again!?”

In all your years of knowing Blake, he’s never actually hugged you before. You always thought he was too nervous for anything physical so you never tried.

Alex scoots over next to you two.

“Aw, Cheezit, you know we can still talk online, right? Even if we’re across the country.”

Blake lets go of you and looks at Alex, eyes full of tears.

“B-But it’s not the same,” he says. Blake takes another deep breath before wiping his face with his oversized hoodie sleeves. “Ugh, I k-knew this was stupid, I s-shouldn’t have brought it up. I-Im sorry, guys.”

“I k-know part of g-growing up is letting go and m-moving on, b-but I was just hoping that maybe we could all stay close as adults. I w-want to spend the rest of my l-life with you guys…”

Is this why he’s been so anxious lately and why he’s always been wanting to hang out? It all makes sense now.

If you were going to be honest, you weren’t looking forward to the day where Blake packs his shit and leaves us behind. The times you’ve spent with both Alex and Blake are some of the most cherished memories you have. You're not sure what you want to do with your life, but you were hoping that the three of you could still stay together regardless.

You look over at Alex who places a hand on Blakes head and gives him a sweet little pat.

“Well, I don't know about Mr. nepobaby here, but I’m not in the business of leaving friends behind,” he says nodding to you.

You dont even know what that fucking means. You’ve never used nepotism to fuck over your friends.

He chooses to ignore you.

“…And if it means that much to you, Cheezit, then I guess I’ll just have to follow you up to Massachusetts.”

Blake looks genuinely shocked. His little hazel eyes are wide and his mouth agape.

“R-R-Really!? Y-You would d-do that f-for me!?” He stammers out. His stutter gets really bad when he’s surprised.

“Fuck it, why not? They have trade schools up there, right? Plus, I've been wanting to get out of this dump for a while. I just didn’t want to leave you two,” he says with a shrug.

Blake leaps over and wraps Alex up in a surprise hug. Alex pats him on the back and looks over to you.

“What about you, Anon? You’re coming with us, right?” He asks, Blake still pressing his face into his chest.

Woah, woah, woah. Hold on there, guy.

Blake detaches himself from Alex and they both look at you. Alex seems skeptical and Blake looks like he’s about to cry if you say no. But honestly, Blake looks like that often so that isn’t really a new look for him.

You love them, you really do, but it’s not that easy! Moving somewhere on a whim is hard! Plus, where would we live? How would we pay for it? What if you can’t find a job? There’s a ton that could go wrong!

“If we all room together in one apartment and me and Cheezit get part time jobs while you hold down a full time job, surely that’ll be enough to cover rent, right?” He says as if he was also trying to convince himself.

Blake just looks between the two of you expectedly.

That’s fucking nuts. But… you would hate to get left behind while your two best friends go off on an adventure…

Plus, what do you really have to come home to here, anyways? Your parents are barely home as is and it’s not like you’d miss working in the deli.

…Fuck it, sure, why not.

Blake absolutely beams. He launches himself from over by Alex and literally knocks you on your back. He nuzzles your chest so hard that it feels like he’s trying to press his face through your body.

“Holy shit dude, I actually expected you to pussy out!” Alex says.

Yeah, yeah, whatever. It's not like you have anything better to do anyways.

Blake looks up at you from your chest and brings his face INCREDIBLY close to yours. You dont think you’ve ever been this close to him before. He kinda smells vaguely of Dr. Pepper.

“D-Dont worry, Anon! I'll g-get the logistics all figured out! Ooooooh, t-this is going to b-be so exciting!”

“Hell yeah it is. Now let’s get you home before sunrise. I don’t want to get into another screaming match with your parents,” says Alex as he starts collecting all of the McDonald’s wrappers scattered around the deck.

You pick up all your trash too and chuck it in a nearby garbage bin before heading back to the parking lot.

Man, is this a good idea?

Chapter 1 - The Last Hour of the Last Day

There’s something strange about the last day of something. Whether it be the last day of school or the last day of work, you've found that both bring with them a peculiar melancholic feeling.

You couldn’t explain why, though. For school it made sense because the final bell on the last day represented so many different things; the end of an era, the snap of a ribbon at the finish line, the last time you may ever see your friends.
But why the hell do you feel this way now, about your first job?

You don’t particularly like any of your coworkers and somehow, even though you’re getting paid, the experience of working here is objectively worse than going to school.

It’s something that puzzled you throughout the entirety of your last shift. As you enter your employee number into the time clock for the final time, after a year of slaving away behind a counter for multiple precious teenage years, you realize that you’re finally free.

Your uniforms are turned in. Your boss pulled some strings and got you your last paycheck early. You’ve tied up all your loose ends.

You attempt to walk through the swinging doors of the deli backrooms, but are stopped in your tracks by your now ex-boss.

Debbie, the middle aged rat anthro, calls out to you from her office.

You might as well give her a farewell hug or something.

As you enter the doorway, you find her sitting at a shitty office desk, her company computer open to the scheduling spreadsheet for next week.

“Trying to leave without saying goodbye, Anon? That’s cruel,” she pouts.

You tell her that you’re sorry, you have a lot of packing to do before you hit the road this afternoon.

“It’s alright Anon, I understand. I just wanted to thank you for all these years you’ve been with us. It was nice seeing you grow into the young adult you are now…” she says in a motherly tone.

It had slipped your mind, probably because you’ve always treated her as your boss and not a mother, but you remember that she had a few kids of her own. It was one of the things she loved to yap about.

“Just be safe out there, ok? I couldn’t imagine any of my sons leaving home, especially moving that far away! Your parents must be terrified…”

Actually, they really aren’t. Your father thinks it’ll be a good opportunity to “broaden your horizons” and your mother is hoping that it’ll teach you some valuable life lessons, whatever she means by that.

“Oh, I could never think that! My boys are precious, they can learn all they need about life from their mom!” She says proudly.

Wow, what lucky kids to have such a caring mother, you tell her with a hint of sarcasm.

Anyways, you thank her for the experience and tell her that you hope to see her again someday before making your way outside. Do you hope to see her again someday? Probably not. That's just one of those things people say because it sounds nice, not because they actually mean it.

The afternoon sun practically flash bangs you as you cross the threshold between the parking lot and grocery store, with the midday humidity immediately enveloping you from all angles.

You immediately fish your phone out of your pocket and text the group chat.

TheGirth: im free

TheGirth: gonna pick up the trailer in sec

TheGirth: prepare urselves

Almost immediately you’re met with a reply.

CosmicDefender98: Ok! Be sure to get the right trailer Anon, Alex says that if it’s too big it might damage your vehicle O.O

TheGirth: im gonna get the biggest one

CosmicDefender98: Noooooo, Anon! Don’t joke around, this is serious!

Sk8rb0i: U better fuckin not

Sk8rb0i: If u fuck up our only way outta this state im gonna kick ur ass

CosmicDefender98: Alex, he’s just joking, right, Anon?

You dont reply, smiling as you drop your phone back into your pocket. Yeah, you’re not dumb, you’ll get whichever trailer your car can handle.

When you get to said car, you take a moment to skim through the owner's manual to see if it says anything about how to tow in this thing.

Sure enough, it looks like there’s a whole section on towing! Score!

…it’s just a tiny section that says towing is not recommended.

You toss the book back in the glovebox. Bah. What do they know? You’ve seen plenty of other cars, many of which being smaller than yours, tow those U-Haul trailer things. What's the worst that could happen? Plus, Alex went through all the effort of installing that trailer hitch on the back of your car. What's the point of doing all that if you can’t use it?

You throw the car in gear and head over to the trailer place.

The process of picking it up was actually pretty easy; you just walked in, showed them your receipt, and then they just hooked the thing up right to the back of your car. See, if the uhaul people didn't say anything against towing it, then it must be fine.

Now to see how this puppy drives with all that extra weight in the back!

You carefully drive out of the parking lot, making note of how the trailer acts as you turn and weave.

As you drive down the road on your way to Alex’s house, you can't help but notice that everything seems pretty normal. Your car doesn’t seem to be struggling and the steering is the same as it's always been. You have to take your turns a bit wider than usual, but other than that, this is pretty easy!

It's a sunny day here in your home town, and as you drive by all the familiar buildings, places, and people, you can't help but notice that the feeling you felt in your chest earlier today at work hasn’t gone away.

Will you miss this place when you leave?

That’s a hard question to answer. You have a lot of good memories here thanks to your friends, but you also have a ton of bad ones too. You wouldn’t mind getting to start over somewhere new.

You were stuck in your head for so long that you didn’t even notice that you had autopiloted your way to Alex’s house. You decided to pull up along the curb instead of backing into the driveway. You don't think you have the skills to pull off that kind of maneuver.

Alex was already waiting for you, sitting atop the railing of his home's entryway ramp with a litany of cardboard boxes gathered around his feet.

You kill the engine and get out.

“You’re such a fuckin’ liar Anon, you got the small one after all!” He says as he hops down on the yard below.

You ask him if he really thought you would fuck up your car just for the bit?

“Ha, nah, you’re a lot smarter than you pretend to be,” he says as he nudges you in the arm.

He circles around the back of the car and gives the tow hitch a light kick.

“Hopefully this shitty junkyard hitch lasts us all the way to New England!” He says.

Wait, he found that at a junkyard? Why didn’t he just buy a new one!?

He rolls his eyes.

“Not everyone’s made of money, Anon,” he says as he makes his way behind the trailer.

After deploying the ramp, you help him load all of his boxes into the trailer. It was only about 10 or so, some small, some large. The large ones were heavy, presumably containing his vast record collection, music equipment, and game consoles. Speaking of which, he also brought out his electric guitar, all wrapped up in at least 100 layers of bubble wrap, before wedging it securely between some boxes.

After helping him with the guitar, he stands behind the trailer with one hand on his hip.

“Welp, that’s about it!”

…he’s not gonna bring any furniture? Or like… a mattress?

“Nah, I’ll just get a bed or something when we get there. Or sleep on the couch. I don’t care.” He says dismissively.

Alright, if he says so. You ask him if he wants to say goodbye to his mom before we head out.

“Already did. Mom had to work a double shift so she’s not here.” He explains.

Damn. Hopefully one less person in the house makes things easier for her financially. She’s gonna end up working herself to death.

“Yeah, that’s what I'm hoping for. The financial thing, not the “her dying” thing,” he clarifies.

Yeah, you too.

Anyways, now it’s onto Blake’s house.

Of course, packing took 20 times longer for Blake than it did Alex.

Not because Blake had a ton of stuff, but because you had to deal with his parents.

Both his mother and father took the whole day off just to say goodbye to their son and they continued to do so even while he was loading boxes into the trailer.

They constantly interrupted the loading process to give him some piece of advice for living on his own. “Make sure he cleans the house twice a day”, “meal prepping is an important aspect of saving money”, “don’t spend all of his money on video games”, blah blah blah. They also had advice for you and Alex, which the two of you promptly ignored.

After finally loading his massive computer setup into the trailer, along with at least three large boxes full of anime and video game paraphernalia, you were able to escape his parents.

As you pull out of the driveway, both of his parents wave goodbye.

“T-Thanks for helping, g-guys,” stutters Blake from the back seat.

“No problem, Cheezit. I’m just glad we got out of there without starting another fight…” replies Alex.

Yeah, hopefully Alex’s arguments with Blake’s parents are a thing of the past. You always appreciated how he was always standing up for the mouse boy, but tact was not his specialty.

Anyways, the last thing to do was to get your shit from your house.

Your parents wouldn’t be home to interrupt anything, considering they were both out on a business trip somewhere in California right now. You offered to call them to say goodbye, but they said they were booked with meetings the whole day and that they would fly out to come see you for Christmas.

You didn't really have a lot of stuff either; just your PC setup, some boxes full of clothes, toiletries, cooking utensils, and some keepsakes from your childhood.

As the three of you stood behind the trailer, Blake squeaks up.

“Um, d-did nobody b-bring any furniture?” He asks.

…You thought they would be the ones supplying the furniture.

“Bro, none of my shit is gonna fit in this new apartment, I told you that,” replies Alex.

“N-Neither will any of m-mine,” squeaks Blake. “W-Well, except my c-computer desk…”

That makes three of you without furniture, then. Guess we’ll just have to buy stuff when we get there.

“B-But what if we g-get there late and the s-stores aren’t open?” Cries Blake. “We’ll have t-to sleep on the floor!”

Alex puts a paw atop Blakes head.

“Don’t worry, little man. We can just go to Walmart or something and get a few air mattresses. We’ll be good,” reassures Alex.

Blake looks up at him with a tentative smile.

Whatever, what’s an adventure without a little improvising? We’ll figure it out when we get there.

You ask if anyone wants anything for the road before we head out. It's gonna be a loooong drive.

Blake looks at you with pleading eyes.

“Anon, c-can we stop for smoothies b-before we go, p-please?”

Sure, smoothies sound pretty good right about now, why not?

You don't really feel like trying to maneuver the car around town with the trailer still attached to it, so you opt to leave the car and the trailer parked in your parents driveway and walk to the nearest plaza.

The three of you were very familiar with this plaza. Whenever Alex and Blake would come over to your house and hang out, at some point you would end up loitering around the parking lot until the cops kicked you guys out.

Eventually, once you started making money, the three of you were able to actually go inside some of the stores instead of just loitering outside like a bunch of bums.

One such store was a smoothie cafe. Alex never really cared for smoothies all that much, but it was something that Blake really enjoyed so he would tag along.

You walk alongside Alex, with Blake just slightly behind in the middle. Your feet step over the same cracks and in the same sidewalks that have been here ever since you were kids.

After finally reaching the plaza, you guys acquire your smoothies and decide to sit down on the parking bumpers in front of the shop and watch the cars drive down the road just beyond the parking lot.

People went about their days, walking behind the three of you into any random assortment of stores that lined this little strip mall.

Alex pulls out a cigarette in lieu of not choosing to partake in the smoothies and lights up.

You sip on your vanilla, strawberry, banana, whatever smoothie.

Blake eagerly slurps on his, but then turns to Alex.

“I t-thought you said you were g-gonna quit…” says Blake, sounding pretty disappointed.

Alex blows a puff of smoke in the opposite direction of Blake before turning to respond.

“I still am! It just takes a little time,” he says with a shrug.

“D-Do you need help? I c-can look up clinics when we g-get to Massachusetts…”

Alex looks down at Blake and smiles.

“Thanks, Cheezit, but I think I'll be alright. Appreciate you looking out for me, though.”

Hey, how come is it that when you’re nice to Alex, he always thanks you like a sarcastic asshole, but when Blake is nice to him, he gets a real thank you?

Alex leans back behind Blake and blows a puff of smoke in your direction.

It mostly dissipates before reaching you, but it's the attempt that matters.

“Maybe because you deserve the sarcasm, dickhead,” he says with a smile and a wink.

Pffft, yeah right. You look at Blake to see that he’s grinning from ear to ear, enjoying his smoothie and the friendly banter.

You jokingly say that it’s probably because he likes you and he just doesn’t know how to express his feelings.

Alex gives you a side eye and puts on a huge shit eating grin before taking another drag from his cigarette.

“Ha, you wish, dude. You can only dream of landing a guy like me,” he says.

Damn, he must think your standards are super low if he thinks you dream about hooking up with trashy anthros who smell like cigarettes and probably taste like bottom shelf liquor.

“Ooooooooh,” Blake coos.

At this point Alex is smiling ear to ear, eager to fire back.

“Oh, so you admit that you’ve thought about what it's like to like to kiss me!” He says. “That’s pretty fuckin’ gay dude, I always knew you had a thing for guys!”

Blake looks back to you and says, “Y-You kinda played yourself with t-that one, Anon.”

Fuck! Why did you say that!? That sounded gay as shit! No, what you meant to say was-

But it was too late, Alex knew he had one over on you and cut you off before you could defend yourself.

“Dude, all you have to do is ask me out on a date, I promise I’ll let you down easy!” He says.

Blake is giggling like a girl at this point and you're just trying to cope with your defeat by sitting there and sipping from your smoothie. He got you this round. But he better be careful, you’ll get him back.

He leans towards you, still wearing that mischievous smile. He narrows his eyes and takes a drag from his cigarette before sending another cloud your way.

“Go ahead, humie, I look forward to it.”

Chapter 2 - So Long, Astoria

The three of you had finished your smoothies and were eager to get some miles in before nightfall. On your way back to your car, you took in the look of your boring little neighborhood one last time.

It was kind of sad. Everyone you used to play with when you were little had grown up and moved onto bigger and better things.

Well, except for you three.

Your neighborhood stood in a weird generational limbo; a state of being where everything was quiet and inactive because all the kids had grown up and moved away, and the new generation had yet to move in and take their places.

Everyone has moved on, and now it’s your turn.

As you get back to the car, Blake swipes shotgun from Alex, quickly hopping into the passenger seat before he has a chance to react.

You jump in the captain's chair and buckle up, turn the key, and make your way out of the neighborhood.

Blake rummages through the pockets of his oversized hoodie and produces a cassette tape with an aux cord sticking out of it. He shoves it in the slot above the radio and connects his phone to the cord.

After a few taps of his little fingers, his music starts playing through the speakers.

Once he’s properly settled in, you ask him if he can punch in the apartment's address into the cars navigation system for you.

“Oh, s-sure Anon! Hmm…” he says, before leaning over to the radio.

After a bit of fiddling with the car's ancient touchscreen, he managed to get everything entered and the car had begun to do its calculations.

22 hours and 42 minutes until our destination.

Welp, let’s get on with it then.

You step on the gas and take the nearest ramp onto the highway.

After a few minutes, the original song that Blake had put on started to fade out and a new one started. It was some sort of pop-punk song. You didn't know he was into that kinda thing. Maybe Alex had started to rub off on him.

What really surprised you, though, was when he started to sing along to the lyrics. Blake never really liked to talk all that much because of his stutter, let alone sing. You've heard him sing maybe like, three times in all the years you’ve known him.

“So long, Astoria, I've found a map to buried treasure!
And even if we come home empty-handed,
We’ll still have our stories of battle scars, pirate ships, and wounded hearts,
Broken bones, and all the best of friendships!”

You didn't know this song, but it was oddly appropriate for the circumstances.

What's crazy, though, was that not only did Blake not stutter a single time during his little karaoke session, but holy shit did he have a great voice!

Once he was finished, the song died out and Alex stuck his snout between the two front seats.

“Damn, lil’ dude! I didn't know you could sing like that!” Said Alex.

Yeah, you're surprised too. That was great.

Blake sunk further into his seat and his face was flushed red.

“N-Nah, I have a p-pretty gross voice… I just d-don’t get to sing v-very often, haha,” he squeaked.

You tell him that he’s gonna have to sing for us more often, because damn that was some real hidden talent he has!

He covers his eyes with his big ears, looking as if he would melt if someone gave him another compliment.

You grab the aux cord and swap out Blakes phone for yours and try to play some of the most popular sing along songs you could think of. You pull up some Billy Joel, The Beatles, David Bowie, ELO, and all of the most popular boomer tunes you hear on the radio.

Alex even chimes in with some of his favorites. Blake also wanted in on some of the action and wrestled the aux cord back from you, playing all sorts of hip hop and pop hits from the early to late 2000s, most of which you haven’t heard in at least 10 years.

After a while, the inside of your car sounded like an Irish pub on New Year’s Eve at midnight. It was fun to sing out loud like a total buffoon, no doubt about it, but you really just wanted to hear Blake sing some more.

Eventually, the sprawling urban landscape gave way to flat plains of swamp and tall grass and the sun began to set over the horizon. Your car's interior lighting dimmed to match the fleeting daylight outside and soon your automatic headlights kicked on as if to let you know that it's now officially dusk. The three of you were all tuckered out from singing and yelling like a bunch of idiots and Alex had fallen asleep in the back seat, leaving only you and Blake.

You guess Blake had been getting a little warm because in a rare display of trust, even among his best friends, he had removed his oversized hoodie, revealing his T-shirt and shorts for once.

He was wearing a black T-shirt with a big orange lambda logo on the front, a logo that you recognized as being from a game series the two of you used to play a lot when you were kids. He’s had that shirt for a while now. You've seen it once before, many years ago, but looking at it now you can tell by his pudgy tummy that he’s probably due for a replacement.

Other than that, he’s just wearing regular dorky cargo shorts with way too many pockets. They only reach down to his mid thighs, probably because they’re stretched wider than they are longer, if you had to guess.

All in all, he looks pretty alright when he’s wearing normal clothes. You really have no idea why he got made fun of as much as he did when you were in school. Fuckin teenagers, man. They just wanna make people feel bad.

You look over at Blake to see how he’s holding up, but as soon as you fix your eyes on him, he quickly turns away as if he didnt want you to catch him staring at something.

That's kinda weird. You ask him what’s up.

“D-Do you really like it when I sing, Anon? B-Be honest, please…” he says.

Hell yeah! You had no idea he had that much range.

You could see a little smile start to tug at his cheeks.

“P-People always said it w-was annoying when I s-spoke, so I k-kinda hate my voice. Remember when B-Brad called me out in Mrs. Espinoza’s when it was my turn to read Of Mice and Men? He said.

Fucking Brad, that guy was always a piece of shit. Blake shouldn’t worry about anything that comes out of his mouth. Plus that was a really fucking low blow, talking shit in front of the whole class like that.

“…Everyone laughed, s-so I guess you were the only o-one who thought that,” he says as he rests his chin on his hand and looks out the side window. You glance over and see the visage of a very sad mouse in the reflection of the glass.

You get his attention by sternly saying his name.

Fuck what all those losers thought back in high school. They were all just stupid teenagers who didn’t know shit about the real Blake. Plus, they were probably all just jealous because he always smoked the whole class when it came to grades. He’s a smart guy who’s a blast to be around. Honestly, you’ve always been confused as to why he chooses to hang around with us idiots.

“Y-You’re not an idiot Anon! Don’t sell yourself s-short,” he says rather defensively.

Alright, you wont call yourself an idiot as long as he works on his self esteem.

“Hey, t-that's not fair! Y-You’re actually really cool, and I’m j-just-“ he tries to respond but you cut him off.

Nope! Whatever he’s about to say is wrong, unless it’s about him being awesome as fuck. Hell, you tell him that once he starts his college classes next semester, people will start realizing how amazing he is, now that you’ll be alongside actual adults and not snot-nosed, zit ridden teenagers.

“Y-You really think I'm a-awesome, Anon?” He says, adjusting his spectacles.

Yup, and you’ll keep reminding him about it until he finally realizes it himself.

You glance over at him for a second to see that he’s got ahold of his tail and was rolling it around between his fingers while grinning from ear to ear.

Seeing him so happy actually brought a smile to your face as well.

He didn’t respond right away, but after a moment of driving in silence, he squeaked something out that you couldn’t quite hear.

What did he say? You didn’t catch it.

“N-N-Nothing! I, um, just c-coughed,” he stammers out.

Man, what a nervous wreck. Hopefully college will bring him out of his shell a little bit more. You think he actually has a decent shot with the ladies if he just grew a little bit of a spine. It's not like he’s a bad looking dude.

You’re not saying that because you’re into dudes or anything, you’re just stating facts. As a guy, you can tell when other guys are attractive or not, that’s all.

…

Anyways, the conversation kind of dies down at this point, and the sun has completely set below the horizon. You can still make out its faint warm aura just above the tips of the sawgrass, but the road ahead was now pitch black, more or less.

You still had about another 6 hours of driving before you handed control over to Alex.

As you kept on rolling along, every once in a while when an old pop song came on the radio, Blake would sing to himself, just loudly enough for you to hear.

Chapter 3 - Finer Feelings

Eventually, after hours of driving and thousands of centerlines, you and your two friends finally make it out of the state.

It wasn’t as… grand as you expected it was going to be in your head. There was no big sign or indication of your accomplishment, nor was there any fanfare from your two buddies. Both Alex and Blake were fast asleep by the time you crossed state lines. In fact, the only indication that you had left the state was your car's ancient GPS loading a new section of map from its CD.

It was pretty late, and you could feel your eyelids getting heavier and heavier. It won't be long until you start dozing off behind the wheel. Alex still hadn’t woken up yet, but nevertheless, you couldn’t keep driving in the state you're in.

You eventually come up on an isolated truck stop in the middle of buttfuck nowhere and pull over.

It was a single small building in the middle of a giant parking lot with a few trucks parked diagonally in designated parking spots. The parking spots for regular cars were devoid of any other travelers, which was good because it gave you ample room to park your car without having to detach the trailer.

You selfishly took up multiple spots, but honestly you were so tired that you didn’t really give a shit.

You turn off the car and turn back to Alex, who had fallen over on the seat at some point and was lying face up with his arm draped over his eyes.

You jostle him awake and he opens one eye.

“Uuuuuugh, where are we…” he groans.

You tell him that we’re at some rest stop somewhere in the boonies and that it’s his turn to drive.

“Fuuuuuck, alright.”

He sits up and stretches his arms up over his head, pulling his shirt up in the process, exposing his lithe cream-colored fuzzy tummy.

You tell him that you’re gonna go piss real quick and ask if he wants anything from the vending machines.

“Check if they have that new brand of energy drink, the ones that taste like jolly ranchers,” he says, rubbing his eyes. “If not then just get whatever they have.”

…You don’t drink energy drinks so you have no idea what the fuck he’s talking about, but you tell him that if any of them say “jolly rancher flavored” on it then you’ll grab it.

The streetlights barely illuminate the tiny building and once you get up to it you realize that it's just a big set of bathrooms with some vending machines out front. The bathrooms are actually decently maintained and have air conditioning, a rare sight for rest stop bathrooms this far away from civilization.

You decide to piss first and get Alex his drink second to avoid contaminating it with piss, although the thought of having Alex drink a dirty can of piss energy drink is kinda funny.

After you finish your business, you wash up and scope out the drink vending machine. Of course, you don't see anything even remotely close to whatever drink he was talking about so you just get him a generic default flavor of monster energy. Seems like something he would drink.

As you wait for the machine to spit out your can, you notice that someone had climbed out of one of the big rigs parked on the other end of the lot and was making their way over to the bathrooms.

It was a young female fox anthro, maybe a few years older than yourself, dressed in a short skirt and a simple low cut blouse that showed off her substantial bust. She was carrying around a small purse and the clack of her heels echoed off of the old parking lot blacktop.

She glanced your way before heading straight into the woman’s bathroom. She looked pretty tired.

You didn't think too much of it and headed back to the car with Alex’s drink.

When you got back to the car, Alex was in the driver's seat with the window rolled down, smoking a cigarette. Blake had woken up as well and the two were talking.

“Hey Anon, you see that chick go into the bathrooms?” He asked as you climbed into the back seat and handed him his drink.

Yeah? What about her?

“Cheezit here thinks she’s a truck driver. You wanna tell him, or should I?” He says, blowing a puff of smoke out the window.

“T-Tell me what?” Asks Blake.

Oh, Blake, my sweet summer child. That was a lot lizard.

He takes a moment to ponder before responding.

“…She looked like a f-fox to me t-though…”

Alex laughs and pops open his energy drink.

“Oh, precious Cheezit, so innocent,” Alex says as he tags a swig from his drink.

You tell Blake that “lot lizard” is slang for a prostitute who hangs around truck stops and provides their services to truckers.

“O-Oh!” Blake squeaks in surprise.

Alex takes a sip from his drink and says to you, “we need to protect him from the sins of this world, Anon. He doesn’t know about sex.”

Blake quickly turns to face Alex and proclaims, “I know what s-sex is!”

Well, he DID date that Elizabeth chick for like, a few months towards the end of senior year. He had to have gotten past first base with her, right?

Alex took the cigarette from his mouth and tapped some ash outside the window.

“Yo, Cheezit! My man! You never told me you went all the way with that girl!” Said Alex, his expression like that of a proud father.

“A-Anon, stoooop! W-We never did anything!” Cried Blake as he hid behind his big circular ears.

Not even kiss?

You hear a muffled “no” from behind his ears.

“Well it’s alright, Cheezit,” Alex says as he flicks the spent cigarette out the window. “You’ll find a nice girl in college.”

Alex starts up the car and pulls out of the truck stop, meanwhile you hear a muffled response come from the front passenger seat.

“What was that, buddy?” Asks Alex.

Suddenly, Blake parts his ears away from his face and, in a seemingly random bout of frustration, exclaims “We n-never did anything because I d-dont like girls!”

Alex just looks at him with a surprised side eye and you actually had to put your phone down to give him your undivided attention.

Blake is gay? That’s news to you. You guys never really discussed your sexualities before, but regardless you just had assumed they were straight.

“A-And just because I’ve never had a-sex myself doesn’t mean I d-don't know what it is, ok?” He says.

Well that’s true. You’ve seen the types of websites he visits, despite our jokes, Blake is probably the least innocent person out of all three of us. Even if he is a little naive sometimes.

Alex takes another sip from his drink and says, “wait, what web-,” but is quickly cut off by a flustered Blake.

“ANON!” Cries the mouse.

Alex gives a quick glance over to Blake before turning his attention back to the road. You caught a glimpse of a mischievous grin beginning to form across his snout.

It's true. Every once in a while, when you were hanging out with Blake in a voice chat and he wanted to share his screen, you caught a glimpse of some interesting tabs open on his browser.

“No way! What’d you see Anon? I’ve always wanted to know what goes on in the mind of our little friend here!” Says Alex, enthusiastically.

Blake fully turns around in his seat to face you, and pops his head around the headrest while sitting on his knees.

If he could be any more embarrassed, you would swear that the fur on his face would be dyed pink just from how intense his blush was.

He looks at you with a stern expression, the kind of expression you would see on an angry chihuahua, and says, “Anon, y-y-you better not t-t-tell him!”

“Wait, why is Anon allowed to know, but I’m not!? Best friends don’t keep their kinks from each other,” Alex says, tone laced with sarcasm.

Uh, pretty sure that'd be kind of weird, actually.

“Nah dude,” continues Alex. “I’ll go first. I’m super into humans.”

…Is that even a kink? That just sounds like a preference, that doesn’t count!

“No, dude, you don’t understand. Like, SUPER into humans. You have no idea how fuckin’ nice is feels to have their smooth, warm bodies pressed against your back…”

Blake is looking over at Alex in disbelief and you’re just sitting there with your phone in your hand, speechless.

Is it because we’re all tired, is that why everyone’s getting so weird and personal right now?

Also, wait, “pressed against your back?” How the hell would he know what it’s like to have a human on top of him like that? That sounds pretty gay!

“Anon, people are allowed to be bisexual in this day and age, calm the fuck down,” he responds.

Blake turns back around in his seat and says, “Wait, y-you’re gay too Alex!?”

“Half gay,” he responds, taking a sip from his energy drink. “Although, it’s more like 40/60 for me. Guys get bonus points if they’re humans.”

This is unreal. You’ve known each other for this long and had no idea that both of your friends swung for the other team. So did all of those gay jokes and playful banter have a bit of truth to them this entire time, and you just never picked up on it? Are you really that clueless?

“Alright, Cheezit, I went, now it’s your turn,” Alex said nonchalantly.

Blake shrinks into his seat and grabs ahold of his hairless tail.

“O-Ok, I guess it's only f-fair. I also like h-h-humans, but e-e-especially when they’re really d-dominant…” he squeaks out, almost in a whisper.

Well that’s not really that surprising, honestly. Blake has to be like, the least assertive guy you know.

“I can be assertive! J-Just when it c-comes to… certain things,” he says.

This is crazy. BOTH of them have the hots for human guys specifically and now they’re going to be living with one.

You honestly didn’t know how to feel about this. Would they try and hit on you? Would things get really awkward if you told them that you weren’t interested? So many different thoughts ran through your brain. You never thought about guys like that before, but honestly, if they were both girls, you wouldn’t mind the idea of dating either of them. You guys get along really well, and you know for a fact that we would all have each other's backs, but you just… never thought about dating guys before!

But those thoughts aside, Alex and Blake continued to talk about their human obsessions for the next few hours, and you dozed off in the back seat.

You don’t know how long you were out for, but you were eventually awoken to the morning sun cresting the rolling rural hills of whatever buttfuck nowhere state you were in. The early morning sun's radiant beams were laser focused directly into your sleepy eyes, pulling you back to the land of the living.

The radio was playing some hardcore punk station that Alex must have tuned into and besides that, the only other noise in the cabin was the monotonous drone of rubber on concrete as you continued down the highway.

You rub the sand out of your eyes and notice that Blake was looking back at you, but quickly turned around once you opened your eyes.

…Weird.

You stretch your arms and ask how much longer until we get to the hotel.

“Morning, sunshine! You’re just in time, we’re actually about to pull off the highway now,” he responds.

Sure enough, you feel the car slow to a stop at the end of the highway's off ramp and then continue down an arterial road.

Whatever town you had stopped in could only be described as depressing.

It wasn't run down or anything like that, but it was pretty obvious that the majority of what this place had to offer was accumulated on the side of this giant stroad that you guys were driving down.

Fast food chains, gas stations, shopping plazas, and other miscellaneous stores littered the side of the stroad, including your destination; a chain hotel building, its cookie cutter architecture familiar to anyone who’s ever traveled somewhere for a middle-class vacation.

Luckily for you guys, the hotel had specific parking for travelers with extended vehicles in the back, so that’s where you parked.

Alex brings the car to a stop and almost immediately opens the door and steps out.

He brings his arms up and over his head in a big stretch. Blake is the next to follow and does the same. Fuck it, you even stretch too.

It takes a second for you to get used to the feeling of not being in a moving vehicle, and you sort of have to remember how to use your legs again. But after everyone gets their bodies recombobulated, you grab your suitcases from the trunk and head into the lobby.

The inside of the lobby was cultivated and sterile in a familiar way. No matter where you were in the country, you could always count on this hotel chain to provide an experience that you’ve seen a million times before.

The three of you approach the front desk, which was manned by a middle aged human woman who looked like she had just finished her 12th cup of coffee before starting her shift.

“Good morning, gentlemen! Are you looking to check in?” She asks.

You tell her yes and that the name should be under your parents. Unfortunately, lots of places don’t like giving out hotel reservations to people under 21, but you got around this by simply having your parents book it for you using their credit card.

“Alright, looks like we have the one room with two beds! May I see an ID?”

You give her your driver's license, she confirms it, and hands it back to you along with a small plastic room card.

After going through the whole spiel about room service, checkout times, and whatever, the three of you head to the nearest elevator.

Once you’re inside, Alex nudges you in the shoulder.

“Alright, I vote that Anon sleeps on the floor, and we get the beds,” he says.

Yeah, right. That’s not happening. If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t even have a hotel to sleep in.

“Y-Yeah, Alex! Be more appreciative,” Blake chimes in. “P-Plus, she said t-two beds, right? We can all fit.”

Alex, seemingly having a perpetual look of mischief on his face, shrugs and says, “Alright, well if you guys are gonna force me to share a bed with Anon, then I guess I gotta,” he says nonchalantly.

Actually, if you had to pick, you’d much prefer sharing with Blake. He’s smaller, so that leaves more room for you.

You actually see the smile run away from Alex’s face as the sarcasm and smugness leaves his body. Meanwhile, you see Blake’s ears perk up slightly.

“Whatever, more bed for me,” Alex responds.

The three of you eventually make it to the room, insert the card into the reader on the handle, and the door unlocks with a click.

You step inside to see that it’s a pretty decent size. Two king sized beds, a giant window facing the highway, a fairly modern TV, and a spacious bathroom. Thanks mom and dad.

You drop your suitcase by one of the beds and sit down. Blake does the same and hops up next to you. Alex puts his stuff over by the other bed, takes out a pack of cigarettes, and walks towards the door.

“I’m gonna go have a smoke. Don’t have too much fun without me,” he says with a wink.

You roll your eyes and grab the remote for the TV. As he walks out the door, you turn on the TV and start flipping through the channels.

Blake, on the other hand, hops back off the bed and opens his suitcase, taking out a change of clothes and some toiletries.

“H-Hey Anon, do you m-mind if I shower real q-quick?” He asks.

Without looking away from the TV, you say sure. You might take one after he’s done, actually.

As he wanders into the bathroom and starts the shower, you could hear the pitter patter of running water fill the room. You don't know why, but the sound of showers and someone getting themselves ready in another room always reminded you of something about your childhood. It was a peaceful sort of white noise.

Eventually, after combing through the limited channel list, you settled on the science channel which was playing that one show about how common items are made. This episode was about pencils. Exciting.

After getting weirdly engrossed in the process of making pencils, you heard the water stop and the glass sliding doors of the shower roll open. A few moments later, the bathroom door cracks open ever so slightly and you hear Blake call out from across the room.

“H-Hey Anon, could you get me my towel? I-It’s in my suitcase…” he asks.

Huh, guess room service forgot to place some in the bathroom.

You grab his towel, and head over to the bathroom door.

It was cracked so slightly that you couldn’t even look inside, let alone hand him a whole towel.

You tell him that he’s gonna have to open up if he wants the towel.

“O-Oh uh, j-just leave it there, I’ll get it once you leave,” he says.

Bruh. We’re both guys here, no need to be weird about it. You’ve seen guys naked plenty of times in the high school locker rooms. You’re not gonna make fun of him or anything.

At first he doesn’t answer, but then eventually says, “I k-know Anon, I j-just don’t like showing people my b-body…”

Fair, you wouldn't wanna go around greeting people butt ass naked either, but like you said, you’d never make fun of him. He’s in good company.

After a very long moment of internal deliberation on his part, much to your surprise, he actually opens the door a bit wider and peaks around from the backside of the door.

You smile and hand him the towel. He’s soaking wet, his normally fluffy hair absolutely drenched and matted, along with the rest of his fur. You couldn’t see anything besides his head and arm, but as he receded back into the bathroom and shut the door, you caught a short glimpse of the bathroom mirror.

While it was foggy from all the steam, you could still clearly make out his entire form from the reflection.

He was pretty tubby, as expected, but his proportions were absolutely wild. It looks like all of that extra weight either went to his stomach or his thighs, the thighs seemingly being the primary destination. You've never gotten a good look at the shape of his body on account of his proclivity to wearing oversized clothes, and he was never a fan of swimming so it’s not like you’ve ever seen him in a swimsuit or anything, but you managed to finally find out what he was always so ashamed of. He had the figure of a chubby hourglass.

Not like you were ogling over his body or anything, you were just curious about your friend, that’s all. You went back over to the bed and continued to watch TV.

As you turn up the volume, you hear the sound of a blow drier.

…But you couldn’t focus. You kept thinking about what you just saw.

Goddamn, if you saw that body on a girl, you’d probably go nuts. It was such a perfect amount of chub to see on a person. Enough to form a cute little pudgy tummy, and the rest around the ass and thighs. Plus with his silk white fur, it was extremely aesthetically pleasing.

Damnit, Blake, why couldn’t you have a vagina!

Just as you finish that thought, you hear the door open again.

“H-H-Hey Anon, do you mind if I j-just wear a t-shirt and underwear? I-It’s how I normally s-sleep…” he says, voice laden with embarrassment.

Same, honestly. It’s objectively the best way to sleep. You tell him that you don’t mind at all.

He nervously steps out of the bathroom with his dirty clothes covering his crotch, even though he was wearing underwear, and makes his way over to his suitcase.

He bends over to place his dirty clothes away and you catch a glimpse.

GodDAMN, boy, he thick!

Jesus Christ, what an ass!

Fuck, ok, stop it. Not only is this your best friend, but also a GUY. You AREN'T gay, so STOP looking at his ass.

It takes every fiber of your being to focus on the TV right now.

Blake finishes doing whatever it was he was doing and hops back on the bed and takes a position next to you, propping his back up on the headboard.

Your heart was beating a million times a second and you didn’t dare rip your eyes away from the screen to look over at him.

Fuck, where was Alex when you needed him to diffuse this awkward situation?

Wait, you have an idea. A cold shower, that’s exactly what you need right now.

You hop off the bed, telling Blake that you’re just gonna take a quick shower.

“O-Oh, ok! I l-left the towel in there, y-you can use it if you want,” he says.

You tell him thanks, and you start stripping down to your underwear.

You could hear a squeak behind you as you pull your shirt off.

You turn around, and see Blake staring at you with wide eyes and crimson cheeks.

What? Does he want you to do this in the bathroom?

“N-N-No!!” He exclaims. “I m-m-mean, you can do it here, I d-don’t mind!” He says with a strange smile.

Oooookay? You finish taking your clothes off and grab some replacements before heading into the bathroom. Right before you close the door, you look back at Blake, who is sitting in a very silly position with his hands resting on his lap.

What a strange little guy.

You head inside and you find everything still covered in a thin layer of moisture from your friend's previous shower. You strip naked and start the water.

Sticking your head underneath the cold stream instantly woke you up. Any fleeting homosexual thoughts, as well as any other thoughts, were immediately ejected from your brain as all synapses started firing off, telling you to increase the water temperature.

But you didn’t, you needed to clear your head. What were you thinking, thinking about Blake like that? He’s your best friend, it’s fucked up to check him out like that, right?

What would he think of you if he knew you were dragging your eyes all over his bubbly ass? Or thinking about running your hands over his voluptuous thighs? You bet he would be pretty grossed out.

Well… he DID say that he liked guys. Human guys. Plus, he was acting pretty weird around you after that whole conversation in the car…

Did… did he like you?

Fuck, are you interested in him??

This is all sort of overwhelming. You need a bit to think about this. You never found human guys attractive, that's for sure. But… you guess you never really thought about anthro guys. If anthro guys could be stacked like Blake, then fuck… maybe you WOULD be gay.

If Blake DID like you, then maybe… maybe you could ask him to help you explore this side of yourself? Would he be ok with that?

After spending about 30 minutes in the shower, you decide that it’s probably time to come out, considering the shriveled state of your fingers and toes.

You shut off the water and grab Blake’s towel.

Starting from the head and working your way down, you catch a whiff of Blake as you dry yourself off.

It was a musky smell, not entirely unpleasant. It kind of reminded you of the smell of his couch whenever you would sleep over at his place as kids.

It was… nostalgic, actually.

You throw on some clean undies and a t- shirt before coming out.

You see Blake laying on his stomach, playing on his Nintendo DS. The natural curve of his body made his butt stick out enticingly. Great.

Still no sign of Alex, either.

He turns to you and says, “Anon, are y-you ok? You were in t-there for a while…”

Yeah, you were just… uh, thinking.

Blake sits up, crisscross applesauce, and puts his DS down before looking at you with a sheepish expression.

“Thinking? About what?” He asks.

Uh, well…

You walk over to the bed and take a seat next to him. You look over at him to see that he’s giving you his undivided attention. He adjusts his glasses.

Man, you might as well break the ice and get this conversation over with.

You take a deep breath and ask.

Does he like you?

He seems shocked, if his wide eyes are anything to go off of, but responds very quickly.

“U-Um! I d-d-don’t know! I mean, d-d-do you want me t-to like you, Anon?!” He stammers out.

Well, look, you want to be honest with him. You were having some thoughts, ever since that conversation we had in the car, about the two of you being into guys, and you never really considered yourself interested in guys like that, but you might be open to… finding out.

Blake just sat there with his mouth open and his face burning red before stammering out, “w-w-with me?!”

Fuck it, why not? You tell him that you caught a glimpse of him while you handed him that towel and it may or may not have made you question your sexuality.

Blake looked like he was about to faint, the poor guy. But he managed to spit out a single, unexpected question.

“Can I kiss you, Anon?” He said, with zero stutter.

Uhhhhhhhh…

Your brain was hazy and you couldn’t think straight.

Sure?

And like that, your fate was sealed. Blake quickly pounced on top of you, knocking you back onto the pillows that had been perched up against the headboard.

He was laying on top of you at this point, with his soft pudgy belly resting on top of your own, and his snout was nearly a few inches away from your face.

You didn't know where to put your hands, so you just brought them up to his sides and gently rested them on his midsection.

His eyes were still wide and he didn’t even bother to take his glasses off, but you were now becoming intimately familiar with Blake’s finer features.

You never noticed this before, probably because this is the closest his face has ever been to yours, but his light hazel eyes actually had specks of yellow scattered throughout.

You were on autopilot at this point, and you could feel both your heart and his threatening to beat out of your chests.

Just as he was moving in for the kiss, the door to your room beeped and clicked as Alex walked in holding two fast food bags.

“Hey guys, did you know that Taco Bell has breakfast? I sure as fuck didn-“ he stops mid sentance upon seeing Blake pressed up against you.

Chapter 4 - Hot Thoughts

Alex just stands in awe at the entryway into the bedroom for a moment.

Both you and Blake are looking back at him, saying nothing. Blake, however, is shaking like a leaf.

“Uh, you guys know I was joking, right? About the “don't have too much fun” thing?” He finally says.

You honestly don’t know what to do. Do you push Blake off of you? Do you crack a joke to diffuse the situation?

In the end, you say the first thing that comes to your overwhelmed mind; did he get you anything from Taco Bell?

“Uh… yeah, I got us all some breakfast burritos and shit,” he says as he puts down the two bags on top of the TV stand. “But I don't think you guys are gonna want any right now if you’re about to start a make out sesh,” he says with a slight grin.

At this point, Blake rolls off of you and back onto the bed before taking a seat at the edge and letting his legs hang off the side.

“Alex, I-I’m really sorry!” He stammers.

Alex gives Blake a sympathetic smile and makes his way back to the entranceway.

“Don’t even worry about it, Cheezit. You beat me to him fair and square,” he says, turning around to face the door. “He’s all yours.” You could hear a bit of disappointment in his comment.

Wait, wait. Hold on. You thought he was apologizing for making things awkward, what’s all this about Blake beating him to you?!

You could see Alex’s little possum ears twitch atop his head as he paused and turned around, leaning against the bathroom wall.

“Damn, dude, you were really conked out in the car, huh? Me and Cheezit had a whole conversation about how the first person to woo you over would get to keep you,” he explains. “Looks like our little buddy here won.”

WHAT?! You could practically feel your stomach drop like a sack of bricks.

The two of them were going after you like some sort of competition?! That’s fucked up!

Not because you thought it was weird or anything, honestly you’re pretty flattered all things considered, but it was fucked up because of how this could effect your friendships!

You didn’t want this whole thing to turn into some weird love triangle, especially when the three of you are about to live together! What about the person who doesn’t end up in a relationship? How are they gonna feel about all this, huh?

Alex averts his gaze and rubs the back of his neck nervously, meanwhile Blake looks at you with tears welled in his eyes.

Seriously, guys?! We couldn't all just sit down and talk about this? You two had to turn it into some sort of game?

You find yourself actually getting kind of heated. The whole premise of this thing is kind of ridiculous.

Alex looks back at you with a stern look on his face. “We did talk about this, dickhead! It’s not OUR fault you fell asleep halfway through the conversation!” He rebukes.

DUDE. You had just driven over 12 hours nonstop, sorry if you couldn’t keep yourself awake!

Alex scoffs and looks away. “Not like it fucking matters anyways, dude. You made your choice.”

YOU DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THERE WAS A CHOICE TO BE MADE!

Alex rolls his eyes and stops leaning against the wall, now standing up straight to give you the full effect of his argument.

“Oh, and how did you think this was gonna go, dick-for-brains!? We would all just sit down and let you choose who you wanted? Like that would make the loser feel any better!?” He yells.

You don’t want there to be a loser! You didn't even know this was a thing that was happening!

“G-Guys! Stop yelling, please!” Blake squeaks out from next to you.

You both turn your attention to the mouse boy, who, at this point, had tears streaming down his face.

“Anon is right, Alex! C-Can we p-please talk about this?” He says through labored breaths and sniffles.

Alex looks between the both of you and, as his eyes meet yours, you look away on instinct. His tail was swishing violently behind him and he looked as if he was about to storm out of the room.

But he didn’t. Instead, without saying a word, he walks over to the opposite bed and takes a seat.

“I don’t know what there is to talk about,” he says dismissively. “Anon obviously likes you more, Cheezit.“

Dude, why is he being so dramatic? You JUST said that you didn’t even know this was happening.

Alex scoffs again and says, “what, you’re telling me that your decision would change now that you know? This is ridiculous,” he says, standing back up.

But before he could even round the end of the bed, you grab onto his thick hairless tail, keeping him in place.

Sit the fuck down, Alex. Stop acting like a fucking asshole and talk with us. You’re not normally this aggressive, but you feel like the situation warrants it.

He looks back at you with a surprised look on his face and the hint of a blush on his cheeks. He wordlessly sits back down.

Alright, so let’s start from the beginning. When did this all start?

Alex, of course, rolls his eyes again and says, “are you dumb, dude? We JUST told you that we talked about it in the car.”

No, fuckface, you meant when did the two of them develop this crush on you? How long has this been a thing?

You look between the two of them, and they both look too embarrassed to say anything. But eventually, Blake breaks the ice with an explanation.

“I-I always sort of liked y-you, Anon… ever since 1st grade w-when you threw sand in Mark's eyes f-for tripping me on the p-playground,” he says.

Yeah, you remember that. The class was playing kickball and that shithead mark would follow him around base to base and try and trip him every chance he got. That kid was a little fucker, he got what he deserved.

Blake smiled and wiped his eyes from under his glasses.

“Y-You’re always so nice to me, a-and I always love it w-when we play games together and hang out. Y-You make me feel safe…” he continues.

…You had no idea Blake felt this way. You mean, you always sort of suspected that he hung out with you guys because it seemed like we were the only ones not willing to bully the fuck out of him, but you never realized he had caught feelings…

“God, you’re so oblivious, dude,” comments Alex.

Alright, fucker, thanks for ruining a sweet moment. Now it’s his turn.

He takes a deep breath and exhales. When he speaks, he doesn't look you in the eyes.

“I don't know how you’ve never noticed, dude. We were always hanging out every other day after school in middle school. You were the only one who didn’t think I was some kind of deadbeat loser…”

He finally makes eye contact with you.

“Whenever you would cover for me or made sure I didn’t miss out on my school work when I skipped class or came late because I was high as fuck, I dont know, it just… I really appreciated it. Nobody ever gave a shit like you do.”

Well, yeah! Which is why you’re having this conversation! You care about both of them and you don't want to lose either of them!

You decide to tell Alex about how you and Blake ended up in that position earlier. You explain that you were unsure if you were actually interested in guys, but after catching a glimpse of Blake coming out of the shower, you kind of asked him to help you… experiment.

For the first time since Alex came back to the hotel, you actually see him smile.

“Dude, right? Cheezit over here has a killer fuckin’ bod. Enough to turn the straightest guys gay.” He says.

You look over to Blake and he’s hiding behind his ears again.

Wait, how does Alex know!? Now you just feel left out!

Alex just winks at you and shrugs.

What the fuck. Unreal.

Anyways, you’re not gonna choose between the two of them. They both equally mean just as much to you in their own ways.

After a second or two of awkward silence, you say that if you are gonna experiment with guys, then you’ll only do it with both of them.

Alex looks over to Blake and then they both look at you. Blake actually looks ecstatic whereas Alex just looks confused.

“…How is that a better solution? What if one of us gets jealous?” He asks.

Your brother in Christ, he’s already a jealous little bitch! He was about to walk out of the room because he couldn’t stand the sight of his best friend kissing his crush!

Alex crosses his arms and looks away, embarrassed.

“Fuck you dude, like you wouldn’t do the same,” he says.

Well now you won't have to, because you are willing to kiss either of them whenever they want.

“What if I wanted the first kiss, dude!? You didn’t even ask!” Cried Alex.

Oh my god, why is he such a bitch? You two didn’t even make it that far before he interrupted!

Alright, fine, if he wants to be such a whiny little bitch about it, then you'll give him what he wants.

You abruptly stand up and quickly close the gap between the two of you. Alex looks up at you from his sitting position with two wide eyes.

He opened his mouth to say something, but all that came out was a muffled “oomph” before you locked lips with him.

You had never kissed an anthro before, and honestly it showed. You kind of just smashed your lips into his snout. His septum piercing smacked into your cheek as you tilted your head to find the right angle to accommodate the differences in face geometry.

The kiss felt like it lasted forever, but in all reality it was probably only a few seconds. As you pulled away, you caught a taste of Alex.

He tasted like cigarettes and sugar.

You kept your eyes locked on him as you backed away and sat back down on your bed. Blake just stared at you, wide eyed. For a moment, nobody spoke, but then Alex let out something in between a chuckle and a laugh.

“You’re such a terrible kisser!” He says.

Well fuck you too, asshole! You turn to look at Blake. Could he believe this fuckin’ guy? You decide to do something nice for him and he insults you. Unbelievable.

You see a smile tug at Blakes cheeks, and soon he starts giggling.

You have to get a second opinion, you don't trust Alex’s for shit. C’mere, Blake.

Blake suddenly stops giggling as you look over him, closing in for the kill. He locks eyes with you and he falls over on his back in resignation. You place both arms besides his head and look down at him.

His mouth is slightly parted and his entire face is flushed beet red.

You lean down and connect your face with his, minding the anatomy of his snout. This one was a lot better, you felt. You slowly meshed your lips with his and didn't run into his mouth like you did with Alex.

Before you have a chance to pull away though, two small fuzzy hands wrap around your midsection and pull you down on top of him. He had locked you into position and seemingly had no intention of letting go. He closed his eyes and pressed himself into your face.

You were starting to get dizzy from holding your breath and so you tug away as best you could before Blake finally lets you go. You lean back and hold yourself above him, propped up with both hands beside his head. You look down at him.

His eyes are half lidded and his tongue hangs lazily out of his mouth while he pants like a dog on a hot summer day. He tasted like mint toothpaste.

Jesus, dude, is he ok?

“Yeah…” he moans, breathlessly.

“See! It was so bad, you almost killed him!” Mocks Alex.

Whatever, dude. Like he could kiss any better.

“Oh, I bet I could,” he says before standing up and making his way over to you.

You pull yourself into a sitting position with your legs over the edge of the bed in order to face Alex.

He walks over to you, and in one smooth move that makes your heart skip a beat, he puts his knees on either side of you and lowers himself onto your lap.

He wasn’t particularly heavy, so you could easily support his weight on your lap. Along with that, his rear had a surprising amount of plush and softness to it, even through his jeans, so him sitting like this was actually fairly pleasant.

He rests his arms on both your shoulders and looks down at you with a smug expression before going in for another kiss.

His technique was much more gentler than yours, and he made sure to accentuate the softness of his lips by only barely and carefully pressing his mouth to yours.

After a second, his tongue started to poke and prod your lips, beckoning for an invitation inside. You oblige, if only slightly, but that was enough for him to force entry into your mouth.

His long, slender tongue started exploring your mouth and intertwined with your own. It was significantly longer than yours, and when he wasn’t rolling it over your own tongue, he was trying to shove it down your throat.

Alex continued to assault your mouth for what seemed like hours, producing soft moans every once in a while. You hate to say it, but you started to get lost in his kiss. Your mind was fuzzy and you couldn’t think straight. The only thing you cared about in this moment was your friend's strangely enticing tongue and his soft and supple lips.

Alex decided that enough was enough, though, and eventually pulled away, leaning back to give you a better view of his handy work.

His long tongue was on display as he held his mouth open slightly, the only thing connecting you two at this point was a long string of saliva. He licks his lips, severing the connection, and then dismounts you and sits back on his respective bed before wiping his mouth with his arm.

You sit there in awe for a minute, trying to catch your breath.

“THAT’S how you kiss, humie,” he says, words laced with smugness.

Jesus Christ.

You look over at Blake, who at some point had sat back up and was staring at you two intensely with his hands over his crotch.

Alex notices this and pipes up.

“See, I bet your kiss didn’t make Cheezit pitch a tent like that,” he says mockingly. “Jeez, buddy. I had no idea you were such a hornball.”

“S-Sorry guys, that was just r-really hot…” squeaks Blake.

Alex leans back, propping himself up with his arms, an aura of smugness surrounding him.

“You’re a lucky guy, Anon. I don’t do that for just anyone…” he says.

Honestly, you were speechless. You were so nervous right now that you didn’t even have a comeback for that. Between the intense make out session you just had and Blake being blatantly horny next you, you feel overwhelmed. Not in a bad way, just… overstimulated.

Noticing your hesitation, Alex turns his attention back to Blake and asks, “…need help with that, bud?”

Blake’s eyes go wide and he looks to Alex with shock.

“W-What do you m-mean?!” He exclaims.

“That problem in your shorts, want me to take care of that for you?” Alex clarifies.

You couldn’t believe what you were hearing, and you didn’t think your heart could beat any faster. You just looked on with morbid curiosity at the scene unfolding before you.

“U-Uhm! I-If you want to, I-I-I guess!” Squeaks Blake.

“Say no more, little buddy, just sit back and relax…” coos Alex.

He gets off the bed and approaches Blake, who has swung his legs off the side of the bed.

Alex gets down on his knees, bringing his face level with Blake’s crotch. He still had his handpaws over his privates, much to Alex’s dismay.

“You’re gonna have to move your hands out of the way if you want me to do this, Cheezit…” says Alex, looking up at the flustered mouse boy.

“R-Right, o-o-ok,” he says as he slowly lifts them away, revealing a cute little tent in his boxer briefs.

Alex slowly sticks his snout into his crotch, presumably taking in his scent. As soon as his nose made contact, Blake let out a surprised “eep!”

After a moment of dragging his snout all over his genitals, he brings his hands up to Blake’s waist and hooks his fingers under the elastic fabric and slowly pulls downwards.

The briefs get stuck briefly on Blake’s aching hard cock, pulling it with them for a moment before springing back up and hitting his pelvis with a smack.

He wasn’t very large, maybe reaching 4 inches if you were being generous, but it was a very cute looking dick, you have to admit. His balls were actually quite sizable and were perfectly encapsulated by the same silky white fur that covered the rest of his body, meanwhile his penis was hairless and smooth, being the same pink as the inside of his ears. Right above the base of his cock was a tuft of white fur that was slightly longer than the fur covering his body.

Blake, seemingly unsure of what to do with his hands, brought them up to his snout and held on as if he was afraid it might fall off. His cock throbbed and pulsed, sending little spurts of precum down his short length.

Once Alex pulled down his underwear to his ankles, he returned his hands to his ample thighs and slowly dragged his dull claws through his snow colored fur.

“Damn, Cheezit, what a cute package you’ve got here,” he says in a low sultry voice.

He again sticks his snout into his crotch and lets Blake’s sizable coinpurse rest atop his nose before dragging it up his length and hovering it above the tip of his cock.

Blake looked like he was about to pass out from embarrassment and pleasure, meanwhile you just looked on as if it was the first time you had ever seen porn in your life. You were absolutely captivated by the scene unfolding before you, and you had to say, it was really really hot.

Alex let out a few husky breaths onto his aching member, eliciting some squeals and squeaks from Blake.

“A-Alex, I-I’m-“ Blake squeaks out.

“Hehe, alright, I’ll stop playing aroun-“

But before he could even finish his sentence, Blake immediately tenses up, his hips bucking slightly as his balls lurch in his sack. He starts letting spurt after spurt of sticky white cum erupt from his aching cock.

Alex, caught completely off guard, tries to figure out what to do before settling on sticking his nose right back into his crotch.

Blake continues to let out a series of squeaks and squeals as his seed spills forth, shooting rope after rope into Alex’s snout, face, hair, and even onto his back! You've never seen someone cum that much, even in porn! This was crazy!

He had to have shot at least 15 ropes onto Alex’s face before finally sputtering out and flopping onto his back, exhausted.

Holy. Fuck.

Alex, once he saw that the coast was clear and he wasn’t in danger of getting a stray shot to the eye, immediately gets to work cleaning the remaining dribbles of cum off of his cock, causing Blake to squirm on his back.

Alex swallows the remaining cum and stands up.

“Cheezit, buddy, you gotta lay off the soda and junk food. Your cum tastes like fuckin’ battery acid,” he says.

Blake doesn’t even respond. He just lays there, completely stunned.

I-Is that how that worked? You had no idea, you didn’t even have time to think about it, you were still in shock from what you just witnessed.

Alex then looks down at you with a sultry smile, before using his tongue to lick off some of Blake’s cum from his snout.

“If I could make Blake cum without even touching him, think of what I can do for you, humie,” he says in a low voice before turning around and heading into the bathroom.

Once Alex disappears into the bathroom and shuts the door behind him, you look over at the spent mouse boy next to you. His eyes were closed and the expression on his face could only be described as pure bliss. His tongue hung lazily from his mouth and his breathing had steadied. One arm was draped over his pudgy belly and you watched it rise and fall slowly with his breathing.

Your eyes drifted downwards and settled on his junk.

He was still at half chub, but he was obviously spent. Every once in a while, his softening cock would twitch and throb as if he was still experiencing some kind of stimulation.

He looked like a total mess, but you couldn’t help but fail to suppress the butterflies in your stomach when you looked down at him.

He looked incredibly cute. You… kind of want to make him feel like that yourself.

After a second or two, Alex comes back out of the bathroom shirtless.

Maybe it’s because of the intoxicating effects of the scene you had just witnessed, or some sort of sexual awakening, but Alex looked fucking hot.

His lengthy slim upper body formed into a shapely hourglass figure with his hips being substantially wider than you remembered. His jeans complimented his form nicely, accentuating the curves of his lower body almost as if they were skinny jeans.

His tail swung lazily from side to side, and you couldn’t help but notice how incredibly soft his fur looked.

He had cleaned the cum off of his face and went over to get the now-cold Taco Bell off of the TV stand.

He tosses you a bag and sits across from you with his own bag.

“Anything good on TV? I could go for a movie and a meal right now,” he says.

Chapter 5 - Just Shy of Sure

The three of you were now on one bed, watching TV. Blake was to your left, Alex to your right, and all three of you were propped up with your backs against the headboard. Alex was still shirtless and, in an amazing display of charisma, managed to convince Blake to keep his underwear off.

Good thing the window in your room was facing the highway, otherwise the denizens of this fine town would be getting a free show right now.

Everyone had finished their room temperature breakfast burritos and Blake was sipping on a large bottle of Baja blast.

You guys had managed to find a channel playing reruns of old 80s and 90s shows, and Blake almost lost his shit when he saw that they were playing reruns of Star Trek: TNG.

“Wait, so the black dude is blind?” Asks Alex, in reference to the show.

“Y-Yeah, but his visor lets him see s-stuff that normal people can’t,” answers Blake in between sips.

“But if they have all this crazy technology, why can't they just give him new eyes?”

“They explain t-that in the movie.”

“But not in the show?”

“I t-think they mention it in o-one episode.”

“…That seems like it would be an important bit of lore.”

“B-But it’s not the focus of the s-show, the p-point is the metaphors and allegories of e-each episode. The fine d-details are just extra flavor.”

“…What was the metaphor behind the bearded guy wanting to fuck that alien?”

“Uh, I think he just really wanted to f-fuck that alien.”

“God, same.”

Eventually, the two of them got really engrossed in one of the episodes, to the point where Blake put down his drink and flopped forwards on his stomach to get closer to the TV which left his bare ass facing you guys in full view.

You tried to focus on the show, you really did, but your friend's ass was also really enticing. You were kind of upset whenever his tail would wag around and land in between his cheeks, depriving you of a wonderfully lewd view.

Either way, it was Alex’s turn to conk out and within a few episodes he had dozed off and fallen asleep, his head resting on your shoulder.

You try to stay still, so as to not wake your possum friend, but every once in a while you have to shift around to get more comfortable. Every time you do, though, Alex nuzzles further into your body.

Eventually you settle on actually lying down flat on the bed so Alex could rest on your chest, which he gladly did.

Apparently, the channel started playing some of the less interesting episodes because Blake dismissed the TV, eventually turning around and crawling back up next to you.

“Aw, A-Anon, he looks so sweet,” he says looking down at Alex who was now drooling all over your chest.

…Sure, we’ll call it that.

Blake’s eyes were getting heavy and you could tell that he was starting to get a little sleepy.

You wave your hand lazily at him, beckoning him to come lay with you and Alex.

Of course he obliges and snuggles up on your left. As he presses himself up against you, you wrap your arm around his body and he lays his head close to your shoulder.

Never in a million years did you imagine you’d have both of your best friends snuggled up on your chest. Honestly, you were still coming down from the high of seeing your two friends get it on.

But you could finally think clearly enough to evaluate the situation.

Blake and Alex like you. Let’s deal with that first.

Do you like them back? Well, hell yeah you do. They're great friends, anyone would be lucky, dare you say blessed, to have friends as good as them. But do you LIKE them? That’s hard to say. You were never really attracted to guys before today, physically speaking. You just didn’t think there was anything about them that you found cute or sexy or hot. But that changed when you caught a glimpse of Blake’s naked and Alex’s half naked bodies.

Was that ACTUAL attraction, or lust? You don't want to commit to this if it all just turns out to be a result of your horny ass wanting to get laid! Ugh, this is so hard. You don't even know what love feels like! You've never been in a real relationship before!

But… as you lay here, with both of them resting on your chest half naked, you feel something other than lust. You feel… whole. Like everything is right with the world. Like if the only thing you had in life were these two guys right here, then everything would be ok.

Is… is that what love is? Fuck.

As your mind races in every random direction, you start to doze off.

You dream of your childhood. The choices you’ve made and the events that led you up to this point. You dream of all the special moments you’ve shared with your friends, but also the not-so-special moments, too. Jokes taken out of context, insults you didn’t really mean to say to each other, stress-induced mood swings. You know, the normal teenage crap.

But regardless of how many times you’ve hurt each other's feelings, you’re all still here. And you’re so very thankful for it. For them giving you direction in life.

When you wake up, the sun had started to set over the highway and streams of late-afternoon sun beamed their way through your window, bathing the inside of your hotel room in a nostalgic and melancholic orange. The TV was still playing quietly in the background, and you could faintly hear the sounds of phaser fire from the USS Enterprise as they battled some sort of strange alien race.

You had flipped over on your side at some point, and pulled Blake into a warm embrace with you being the big spoon. One of your arms draped over his midsection, your hand coming to rest lovingly on his belly where his shirt had risen up slightly. His fur was incredibly soft and his body was equally as plush, and it felt like you were cuddling a giant plushie. His tail was curled around one of your legs while he was still fast asleep in your arms.

Alex, on the other hand, had woken up and was scrolling through some website on his phone next to you, still shirtless.

He notices you stir and puts his phone down.

“You two look gay as fuck,” he says with a grin.

You roll over and look at him, rubbing your eyes in the process.

Whatever. He’s just jealous that he didn’t get any cuddles.

Now that you are on your back, Alex takes this as an opportunity to position himself right up against you, resting his head on your shoulder and pressing his body up against your side.

He brings up a hand and starts tracing circles around your chest with his dull claws.

“You’re cruel, dude. You didn’t give me ANY attention all day,” he purrs.

You bring a hand up behind his head and run your fingers through his dyed fur, eventually moving your way over to his soft ear and start massaging the base of it.

He lets out a sensual sigh and closes his eyes.

Looks like you hit a sweet spot.

You continue to softly run your fingers over his fuzzy semicircular ear, tracing along the triple piercings that run along its border.

Eventually you ease up and bring your hand down to his cheek and caress the soft fur on his face, even throwing in some scritches under his chin, which he seemed to really appreciate.

“Oh yeah, that’s the stuff~” he says in a sultry tone.

Damn, if you knew this is all it took to make Alex not act like an asshole, you would have scratched his ears for him a long time ago.

“Nah, I’d still be an asshole,” he says. “You missed a spot, by the way…”

He cranes his head up ever so slightly, suggesting where he wants you to rub next.

Man, he’s such a little princess. Always acting all tough but melts under your touch as soon as you get him in bed.

“Fuck you dude, I got you Taco Bell, you owe me this,” he says with a grin.

Oh, your apologies, your liege. Doth thou require anything else of this humble servant?

Alex chuckles. “Look at Mr. Funny Guy over here. Yeah, there is something you can do for me…”

He catches you off guard by dragging a finger down your chest, past your stomach, and onto the bulge of your underwear.

The tingling sensation of his touch sent an electric shock throughout your body. He continued to drag his dull claw around your bulge for a few seconds before he softly cupped it with his handpaws.

“Why don’t you show me what you're packing down here, Anon?” He coos into your ear.

His low and husky voice sent shivers down your spine and instantly elevated your arousal to half-chub.

You were about to speak up, but then you remembered that Blake was still asleep right next to you, his back practically touching your other arm. You look over your shoulder to him and then back to Alex.

“Don’t worry, we’ll be quiet…” he says. “Well, I’ll definitely be quiet. You might want to cover your mouth~”

Alex then hooks a thumb under the waistband of your underwear and pulls them downward just enough to free your eager cock from its fabric prison. You were only at half mast, but that didn’t stop him from wrapping a handpaw around your shaft.

“Damn, dude. You're packing some serious heat! This thing is pretty thick…” he whispers into your ear.

You never considered yourself to be particularly large, but it's not like you had anyone to compare it to. Glad to see SOMEBODY likes it.

He slowly starts dragging his hand all over your cock, quickly taking it from half chub to full hardon. His soft pawpads glide effortlessly over your cock, a sensation you consider vastly superior to using your own hand.

Soon, your excitement becomes increasingly apparent, as displayed by the little dribbles of precum that only further lubricate Alex’s already soft hands.

Besides the quiet sounds of the TV, the room is now filled with the soft squelching of Alex’s handjob. He makes sure to explore every part of your crotch with his hand; starting with cupping your balls, he drags his hand up your length and then wraps his pointer finger and thumb in an O at the base of your head while then using his thumb to lightly draw circles on the tip of your penis.

“Fuck, I just love humie cock,” he whispers into your ear. “I’ve been wanting to get my hands on yours for a loooong time, Anon~”

Holy fucking shit, you can definitely see why Blake couldn’t last more than a minute with Alex. This dude might actually be a succubus.

Where did he pick up on this shit?

“Hehe… wouldn’t you like to know, gay boy?” He teases.

You feel your cock pulse and throb with every pump as you begin to reach your climax, but that was interrupted by a firm squeeze at the base of your dick.

Alex looks at you with half lidded eyes and a sultry smile.

“Not yet, humie. You don’t think I’m going to let you blow your load on the sheets, do you?”

Wha-?

As soon as he says that, he rolls off the bed and starts unbuckling his belt. Your aching hard cock throbs in anticipation as to what’s coming next, sending dribbles of pre down its length.

Alex turns around and drops his jeans and underwear in one tug, presenting his bare bubbly ass to you.

It may not have been as voluptuous as Blake’s, but to say it was flat would be criminally incorrect.

It was perfectly round and curvy, meshing quite well together with the extra weight he had put on in his thighs. He raised his tail to give you a better look, and just below a beautifully inviting hole was a nice symmetrical coin purse shaped set of balls attached to an embarrassingly long cock.

His fur around his lower body actually transitioned from a lovely cream white to more of a gray, and it made you feel like seeing it was some sort of secret reward, seeing as how there was no indication he had any other colors on his body except for the cream white of his fur and the black of his hands and feetpaws.

He then wordlessly mounted you, throwing a leg over your chest and almost stepping on Blake in the process, taking a seat on your chest and facing your bare crotch.

You felt him drag his hands up and down your thighs before lowering his face down to your crotch, sticking his ass in your face in the process.

You couldn’t see what he was doing, on account of his bubble butt blocking your view entirely, but you could definitely feel what he was doing.

You felt his snout probe and proud various places on your crotch as he basked in the scent of your sex. Meanwhile, you had no choice but to enjoy the view of his pretty pink hole only a mere inches away from your face.

Should… should you lick his ass? You have this burning latent desire to do so…

Just as you were about to go in for a taste, you felt Blake stir from his sleep on your left, and as he rolls over after putting on his glasses he lets out a surprised squeak.

The two of you just stare at him, Alex staring from behind your rock hard cock, and you peeking out from behind his ass.

You and Blake are flushed red in the face, meanwhile you suspect Alex is down there looking as smug as ever.

“Mornin’ Cheezit,” Alex says casually. “Wanna help o-“

“YESPLEASE,” Blake interrupts.

Alex could only chuckle before saying, “alright then, get over here, lil’ buddy.”

Blake quickly and enthusiastically crawls over to your crotch and, with zero warning or hesitation, plants his snout down all over it.

The sensation of both their snouts combing over every inch of your sex almost sends you over the edge, but luckily Alex stops Blake just before you blow.

“I’ve got him close, Cheezit. I’ll start, and when he starts cumming I'll hand him over to you, ok?” Instructs Alex.

You can barely make out the sight of Blake from behind the curvy possum ass on top of you, but you were able to see him nod eagerly in response.

As soon as he gets the confirmation, Alex plunges his head down on your cock, swallowing it all the way down to the base in one smooth motion.

The feeling was unreal; your body immediately tensed up and your hips bucked upwards, causing your dick to mash into the back of Alex’s throat.

You couldn’t refrain anymore; your mind had gone full coomer. You grabbed the base of Alex’s thick tail and shoved your mouth right into his tight asshole.

The only response you got from him was the vibrations on your dick from a deep moan.

Somehow, every part of Alex’s body smelled faintly of cigarettes, including his asshole. You guess that’s what happens when he smokes multiple cigs a day ever since he was 15.

You didn’t mind the smell. In fact, the smell of old cigarettes mixed with his natural earthy scent made your heart flutter. As you lapped away at his most intimate hole, you found yourself in complete bliss.

Almost seconds later, the concept of the whole situation had sent you over the edge, and as you clench your ass and buck your hips, two things happen. The first is that Alex slams his ass onto your face, pinning you between his plump rear and the pillow, and the second is you feel him release your cock with a wet pop, and almost immediately afterwards felt a smaller pair of lips take his place, albeit only going as far as to cover your head.

You release a ground shattering orgasm and borderline yell out in ecstacy, the sound completely muffled by Alex’s ass. You feel yourself shoot rope after rope of your messy seed into, presumably, Blake’s eager mouth. You don't know how many times you shot, but regardless Blake made sure to catch every last drop.

After what felt like an eternity of the single best orgasm you’ve ever had in your entire life, your balls eventually ran dry.

Once you gained even the tiniest bit of consciousness back, you realized that you couldn’t actually breathe very well under Alex’s butt.

You tap him a few times on the thigh and he rolls off of you onto your left, just in front of Blake. You looked down at the mouse boy and he still had the tip of your cock in his mouth. After the two of you made eye contact, he released you with a wet pop and opened his mouth, revealing your white handiwork spread generously all over his tongue.

He closes his mouth and swallows with a big gulp, and lets out a sensual sigh while still maintaining eye contact from half lidded eyes.

Just the sight of this made your heart skip a beat. You felt light headed. You let your head fall backwards with a muffled smack.

You were in such a daze that you couldn’t even tell someone your name if they asked. Hell, you didn’t even know what planet you were on right now. All you could do was lay there, breathing heavily.

Out of the corner of your eye, you see your friends looking down at you.

Alex offers Blake a fist bump. He takes it.

God, what a bunch of dorks.

You feel Alex roll off the bed and watch him come around in front of the TV with Blake in tow.

“Cmon, Cheezit,” he says. “Let’s wash up. Anon owes us dinner.”

“S-Speak for yourself. I already g-got my dinner,” replies Blake seductively.

“Jesus, dude. Since when did you become such a slut?”

“J-Just now, but only for Anon.”

Jesus, Mary and Joseph, these guys are gonna suck the life straight out of your body.

After a few showers, a good half an hours worth of recovery, and copious amounts of air freshener and deodorant to mask the smell of gay sex, the three of you managed to make yourselves presentable again.

Ready for a night out on the town, and by that you meant a night at the nearest Applebees, the three of you grab your wallets and head out.

Alex was, of course, dressed in his everyday clothes consisting of a pair of ripped second hand jeans, an old nirvana T-shirt, and his titular combat boots.

Blake’s outfit, however, surprised you. He opted to go out without his big oversized hoodie and instead go with jeans and a T-shirt as well!

He actually looked great; the jeans were tight, accentuating his amazing curves, and his shirt was a nerdy Legend of Zelda tee that really completed his little dorky aesthetic. All in all, between his clothes, his poofy messy hair, and his glasses, you just had to tell him that he looked absolutely killer.

Of course, when you told him that, he completely melted into a stuttering mess.

As you made your way out of the lobby, it became apparent that the three of you had lost track of time.

It was pitch black outside and the stars were plentiful and vibrant against the night sky.

Hopefully Applebees was still open.

You check your phone and yeah, it’s only 7 o’clock, you’ve got time.

You look at Alex, who was busy lighting up a cigarette and then over to Blake, who was already looking at you with a big dopey smile on his face.

Once Alex lights up and puts his lighter away, you grab both of their hands and drag them along through the parking lot.

Blake, of course, is loving every second of it, meanwhile Alex is averting his gaze while puffing smoke.

“Do you have to be this gay in public, dude?” He asks.

Oh don’t pretend like he doesn’t like it. You bet he’s been dreaming of having a “humie” drag him along like this in front of everyone.

You can see a blush form on his creamy cheeks.

“Whatever, dude,” he says nonchalantly.

And as the three of you make your way down the street to the restaurant, you can't help but notice how those butterflies you felt in your stomach back in the hotel haven’t gone away.

Chapter 6 - Gaming with the Boys

It was a decent walk over to the restaurant, and, since you had finally gotten out of that humid hellhole of a state and made it a decent distance up north, the weather outside was actually quite pleasant.

It wasn’t hot or chilly, and there was a nice breeze that would occasionally pick up and blow around various pieces of detritus as you walked down the street of this loathsome little town.

On the way there, the three of you decided to talk about the elephant in the room.

Sooooo… are we all like, officially a thing, or…?

Alex was the first to respond. “Sure. We can be whatever you want to be. Labels are for posers, anyways,” he said, taking a drag from his half burnt cigarette.

Ok, but like. Are we in an open relationship, or-?

This time, Blake chimes up abruptly with a startling, “NO!”

The both of you looked over at him, inquisitively.

“I-I mean… I don’t think I’d be ok w-with that. I like y-you guys too much, I want you all to myself!” He exclaims as he grabs onto your arm and presses himself up against you.

“Damn, dude, ok! Getting a little possessive there…” Alex says with a grin.

“Oh, g-gosh I’m sorry, I d-don’t want you guys to feel-“

You cut Blake off and tell him that he’s fine, and that… you actually kind of feel the same way. You gave it some thought earlier and you think that if they wanna start like some sort of weird three way relationship then you'd be down to try.

You look over to Alex and he just smiles and rolls his eyes.

“Normal relationships are for tools, anyways. Plus, getting stuck with you two isn’t the worst thing I could think of…” he says sarcastically.

Uh huh. You nudge him in the shoulder and scoff. He always has to play hard to get, huh?

“Y-Yeah, Alex. C-Could you be sweet to Anon for once?” Asks Blake.

He looks over at Blake, expression blank.

“I sucked his dick and let him lick my asshole, how is that not sweet?”

“T-That’s not what I mean,” Blake pouts.

Alex just chuckles and takes another drag of his cigarette. “If Anon wants compliments, then he’s gonna have to force them out of my mouth,” he says as he gives you a surprise slap on the ass.

This fuckin’ guy.

You glare at him. He better be careful what he says. You’re a patient man, but even you have limits.

“Uh huh, sure, big guy. Tell me about it later tonight,” he teases with a wink.

Blake giggles, and you immediately turn to him, faking a stern look.

Oh, he thinks Alex is funny, huh? Well maybe you’ll teach him a lesson too, after he’s done with his possum friend here.

You expect for Blake to just fall apart from your pseudo-threat, but, boy, were you wrong.

Instead, he looks at you with narrow eyes, cheeks flush with color, and a big shit eating grin that reveals his two cute buck teeth and stutters out with as much confidence as he could muster, “T-Try it, humie.”

Your eyes widen in genuine shock; never have you EVER heard him talk like that, not even during intense gaming sessions!

You fling your head over to Alex, who is just absolutely elated with what he just heard.

Did you do this?! Did you teach our innocent mouse to speak like this?!

Alex just laughs and responds by saying, “dude, you missed SO much in the car. Blake is one of the freakiest dudes I’ve ever met.”

You look back at Blake who has his head held high and a smug grin on his face.

Jesus. What have you awakened in this boy?

Eventually the three of you make it to the restaurant. It’s about 7:30pm on a Tuesday, so unsurprisingly there aren’t many people here.

The waitress, a young border collie anthro, got you a booth towards the back of the restaurant pretty quickly.

You take a seat first, and, of course, Blake eagerly plops himself down right next to you. Alex sits across the table.

After looking over the menu for a bit, you just decide on a burger and fries. Blake gets some sort of chicken tender basket and Alex just gets some nachos.

As you wait for the food to arrive, the three of you make small talk. You and Blake talk about how there’s a Micro Center in Massachusetts and that you’ll take him so he can pick out parts for a new computer.

“Oh d-dang, the last time I’ve w-went to a store like that was back before C-Comp USA went out of b-business…” he says. “I’d l-love to go with you Anon, but I c-cant really afford anything right now, haha…”

You tell him not to worry, you’ll cover the cost.

“Huh!?” He exclaims. “T-That would b-be so much money, Anon!”

It’s not that big of a deal, you’ve got a decent amount of money saved up for stuff like this. Plus, once his classes start, he’ll probably be spending a ton of time on the computer anyways. Considering he’ll be majoring in computer science, and all that. His current setup is really starting to show its age. It'll be a good investment, you think.

Blake grabs onto your arm and looks up at you, mouth agape.

“A-Are you sure, Anon? I-I don’t want to seem like I’m taking advantage of you…”

You ruffle up his fluffy blonde hair and offer a reassuring smile. Anything for you, Blake.

He practically throws himself into your chest, and you can hear a muffled “thank you so much!”

You hear Alex make a noise from across the table and you look over to see him looking at the two of you with one of his signature smug expressions.

“Wow, picking favorites already, Anon? You seemed to be pretty fond of me earlier when you were assaulting my asshole with your tongue,” he says teasingly.

“A-Alex!” Squeaks Blake. “We’re in p-public,” he says in a hushed voice.

Just because he’s decided to let you smash doesn’t mean you’re gonna stop giving him shit. Calm down, Princess, you tell him. You'll buy him something, too.

“Dude, if you call me ‘Princess’ in front of another living creature, I’m kicking your ass,” he says with a stern expression, however the faint suggestion of a blush was very apparent on his face.

Oh, so save that name for the bedroom, got it.

“N-No!” He quickly responds, his embarrassment now very noticeable. “I mean, don’t-“

Blake was giggling at this point and you were quite proud of yourself for making him flustered this easily. Who knew that all it took was giving him a pet name? Blake had one, now he needs one, too.

Alex crosses his arms in resignation, a nice crimson washing over the creamy white fur on his face. “Whatever, dude. Do what you want.”

Not long after that whole exchange, the waitress returned with your food. It was the consistent type of ok quality that you had come to expect from a chain restaurant like this. Same as it was back home.

The three of you continued to tease each other for the rest of your meal, enjoying each other's company and banter.

Eventually, the three of you had run out of food and the check was delivered to your table. You covered the cost of the food while Alex covered the tip with what remaining cash he had left. Blake insisted on paying you back for this meal, as well as all of the other times you’ve paid for him. You knew that the likelihood of that happening before he manages to graduate and start a career are very slim, but it’s the thought that matters.

As you guys mosey back to the apartment, the question of what to do next popped up. You guys had just woken up a few hours ago, and even though it was pretty late into the evening, none of you were particularly tired. Plus, checkout was at 11am tomorrow so you had some time to kill until then.

“I have an idea,” Alex said.

Once the three of you got back to the hotel, you helped Alex open the trailer and dig through his boxes.

Once he had located the box he was looking for, he opens it up and pulls out a Wii, some controllers, and a few games.

He shoves the console, plus a bundle of cables, into your hands.

“Hold these for me, Anon,” he says before turning to address the two of you. “You guys have played Mario Party before, right? I’ve got a fun idea…”

He walks back into the trailer and rummages through another box before pulling out a glass bottle containing some clear liquid. He wiggles it a few times and says, “here we go, boys! Mario Party with a twist!”

Blake looks at the bottle inquisitively.

“W-What is that?” He asks.

“Absinthe,” he responds before shoving the bottle in his pants.

He had that in the trailer this entire time!? What if we got pulled over and they searched us? We’d get our cocks slapped SO fucking hard!

Alex just smiles and rolls his eyes. “Calm down, Anon. It’s just one bottle. Just don't drive like an idiot and they won't have a reason to pull us over!”

Unbelievable.

Blake looks at Alex in horror.

“A-Alex! Anon is right, we need t-to get rid of that!” He squeaks.

Alex closes the trailer door before walking past Blake, ruffling his hair in the process.

“Oh we will, Cheezit, trust me.” He says, walking towards the hotel.

You and Blake just look at each other. Blake looks like a nervous wreck.

It’s fine, you'll all be sober before we start driving tomorrow, you promise to keep everyone safe.

“WE’RE G-GOING TO D-DRINK IT?!” Blake yells.

Luckily there was nobody in the parking lot to hear his little outburst.

Well, that’s what you assume Alex’s intention is.

Blake produces a noise that's somewhere between a moan and a whimper.

You tell him that it’s fine, we’ll be responsible.

You balance the game console in one arm and grab Blake’s hand with your free hand. The three of you make it into the lobby without drawing too much attention and then eventually back up to your hotel room.

Alex produces the bottle from his pants and sets it down on the nightstand between the two beds.

You set the console down in front of the TV and Blake helps you hook everything up. Luckily the TV was just about as old as the Wii so it had all of the required ports.

Alex pops in the Mario Party disc and pairs the three remotes.

“Alright,” he says while tossing each of you a remote and sitting on the bed. “Here’s the deal. We’ll play the game like normal, but every time you lose a star, take a shot of absinthe.”

Blake just looks at him, utterly confused.

“T-That’s it?” He asks.

“Yup,” responds Alex.

“H-How much is a s-shot?”

“Since we don’t have any shot glasses, just a sip.”

“…C-Can I try it first?”

“No.”

“Oh.”

Blake obviously doesn’t understand the gravity of the situation. At least one person here is going to be absolutely wasted within the next few hours, and honestly it probably won’t be him.

Your bet is on Alex. He doesn't game nearly as much as you and Blake do, so you guys have the upper hand.

Alex starts up the game and the three of you choose your characters. Alex goes for Waluigi, you Luigi and Blake chooses Yoshi. The last player spot is, of course, taken by the computer.

Everything starts off well enough; nobody was going too far out of their way to fuck anyone over yet. A lot of the minigames in this iteration revolved around using the motion controls in various ways; jumping by swinging, balancing by tilting the controller left and right, turning a vehicle by tilting, etc.

Although something about Alex’s play style was actually worrying you; he was actually really good at this game. Whoever got paired up with him during the 2v2 minigames usually ended up winning, with the other two getting absolutely clobbered.

Blake was naturally good as well, considering he was extremely competitive when it came to video games.

When it comes to you, though… let’s just say you weren’t the best at competitive games. You much preferred co-op games, the reason being that the competitive nature of other types of games always got you salty.

Both Blake and Alex must have figured this out pretty quickly, because pretty soon they were doing everything in their power to make sure you were the first one to take a shot.

But you weren’t gonna let that happen. Through some extremely lucky rolls and some defensive playing, you actually protected your stats for a decent amount of time!

…you never managed to get any more than Blake or Alex, though.

The first person to lose a star was actually Blake.

“Damnit, Bowser!” He cried. “Uuuugh. O-Ok, what do I do?”

Alex passes him the bottle and Blake grips it tentatively.

“Just take a sip. Don't savor it, just swallow it down as fast as you can,” instructs Alex.

Blake unscrews the cap and takes a quick sniff. His nose scrunches up and he quickly pulls away.

“It smells g-gross… like really spicy l-licorice…” he says.

The two of you just watched in anticipation.

He looks to the both of you before bringing the bottle to his lips and taking a swig.

He slams the bottle on the carpet before breaking out into a coughing fit, letting his tongue hang from his mouth.

“BLEEEEEH, it burns!” He cries as saliva drips from his mouth.

“AYYYYYY, good job, Cheezit! You handled that like a pro!” Cheers Alex.

Meanwhile, Blake’s face looked like if it could scrunch up anymore, it would implode. His eyes were watering and a crazy amount of saliva was being produced by his mouth, as if his body was trying to reject the poison he had just consumed.

He immediately stands up and hurries over to the leftover bottle of Baja Blast he had on his nightstand and takes a swig.

He turns back around to us and says, “Alex, this is horrible! W-Why would you make me drink that?!”

“It’s part of the challenge! Now get back over here bud, the game’s not over yet.”

As the match went on, Blake became increasingly more aware of the stakes. He put on his gamer pants and locked in. Over the course of the next hour, Blake only lost one other star. Alex had lost one as well, and you had lost… three.

Damnit.

Even after three short swigs of that absinthe, you felt yourself getting flush in the face. One of them must’ve turned the heat up, too, because man were you sweaty. Towards the end of the game, you had to take your shirt off because of how hot the room had gotten. You don't know how the other two could handle it with all that fur…

Eventually though, the game had ended with Alex being the clear winner. He had only lost one star the entire time, while Blake had lost two and you three.

You’ve drank a few times in the past with Alex but you never really drank enough to know your own limits. Tonight it felt like you were gonna find out, because MAN were you tipsy. You could still coordinate yourself alright, as long as you didn’t make any sudden movements.

Blake, however, was the very definition of a lightweight. He was a complete mess. His whole face was flushed red and he was practically crawling all over you by the time the game had ended.

“Anoooooon, put your body away, you’re making me nervous, haha…” cood Blake in a surprising display of vocal clarity.

Alex leaned over and put an arm around your shoulder.

“Don’t worry, humie,” Alex says with a playful tone. “You can’t win ‘em all,” he says as he voluntarily takes one more swig from the bottle.

Hey, he won, he doesn’t need to drink any more!

“I just wanna make sure we’re all on the same page, buddy!” He says before standing up and placing the bottle in his suitcase.

“Speaking of which,” he says as he turns back to the two of you sitting on the floor in front of the bed.

He pulls his shirt over his head and tosses it towards his suitcase, once again gracing you with his beautiful creamy lithe figure, and then wanders back over before sitting down in front of you.

He’s sitting crisscross with his arms propping him up between his legs, staring at you with a big smile.

“I just didn’t want you to feel like you’re the only person here without a shirt,” he says lazily.

Wow. You just couldn’t get over how great he looks. Does he use any special product in his fur?

He blushes and shrugs off the compliment.

“Naaaah, I’m just naturally this good looking,” he responds with a wink.

“Gosh, I wish my fur was that nice…” whines Blake.

Hey, shut the fuck up Blake, his fur is amazing too. They're both really pretty.

“Nooooo,” cries Blake. “I wish I was as handsome as Alex! I'm gross! I'm all pudgy and short and I wish I had a dick as big as yours!”

He dramatically flops onto his back, making his nerdy Zelda T-shirt ride up on his pudgy belly, exposing the beautifully silky fur of his midsection.

“Anon, please explain to Cheezit how wrong he is,” Alex says plainly.

He’s right! Blake is really fucking hot, but like, in his own way.

“That’s a lie! Who would want a fatty like me?” He cries, grabbing his tummy.

You lean over Blake, looking at him from above, and force him to look you in the eyes.

You’re actually pretty serious right now. You focus on him with the intention of setting your friend's mind straight.

First off, YOU want him because he’s adorable and funny and smart and a really nice person.

And second, he’s super hot! His ass literally made you question your entire sexuality.

Blake just stares up at you, mouth slightly open and awestruck at your confession.

He doesn't say anything, so you instead decide to drive your point home by pressing your lips against his. He was wide open for you; your tongue easily slipped over his and began wrestling it for dominance. Using some tips you picked up on with Alex, your second kiss with Blake was a million times better.

You pull away, leaving a thick strand of saliva between the two of you.

You wipe your mouth and tell him that you don’t want him to EVER think that he isn’t good enough for you, understood?

He wordlessly and eagerly nods in confirmation.

Good boy.

You get off of Blake and sit back down, and Blake, in turn, sits back up.

“Damn, Anon! You got him all worked up, look how red he is!” Says Alex.

It's true, he honestly looks like he’s about to have a heatstroke.

You crawl around behind him and wrap your arms around his midsection and bring your mouth up next to his ear. You tell him that it’s selfish of him to keep that gorgeous body all covered up.

You could feel Blake vibrate nervously as you pressed yourself into his back. His condition only got worse when you hooked your fingers under his T-shirt and pulled upwards.

He offered no resistance and even lifted his arms up to make things easier for you.

Soon, all three of you were shirtless.

“Mmmm,” Alex scanned over Blake’s body with seductive eyes. “I don't know Anon, he still looks a little hot. Maybe you should help him take off his pants, too…”

You pressed yourself back up against him again and asked him if he wants you to help him with his pants.

He simply nods eagerly, completely stricken silent by embarrassment.

What do good boys say when they want something?

“P-Please Anon, could you help me?” He squeaks out.

Anything for your favorite mouse.

You crawl back out in front of him, and see that he looks like an absolute mess right now. His eyes are wide, pupils dilated, and you could feel his heat radiating from almost a foot away.

You lean over him and start unbuckling his jeans. Again, he brought his hands up to his adorable snout, holding it in place as you unbuckled his pants.

Once they were unfastened, Blake was very eager to get them off because he didn’t even wait for your assistance before tugging them straight down, underwear and all, and throwing them to the side.

There he was in all his glory; a beautiful shortstack of a mouse with chub in all of the right places, a wonderfully aesthetic pair of heavy balls and the cutest cock you’ve ever seen.

While you were admiring your friend, you felt another pair of fuzzy arms draped over your shoulders. Alex presses himself against your back and coos into your ear; “your turn.”

Blake leans forwards on his hands and knees to grab your pants as well. He very easily unbuckles them and pulls them off in the same way you did his.

Once you were fully nude, you turned around to look at Alex, who obviously wasted zero time also undressing. He was sitting on his ass with his legs spread wide. This was the first time you’ve gotten a good look at his package and, man, did it not disappoint.

He was only at half chub, but, if you had to guess, must be about 8 inches long. It flopped backwards over the inner crevice of his thigh and if he had pushed it over slightly it probably would’ve gone up past his belly button. Complimenting this beast was a beautiful coin purse shaped set of balls that hung low enough to rest on the carpet. And, as if completing his whole punk aesthetic, he had a complete frenum piercing with at least five rungs running down the underside of his length.

“Hey Anon, lets see who’s bigger,” he says with a sly grin.

You already knew the answer to that one, no question, but apparently you're pretty decently endowed too, so it’d be a nice comparison.

He scoots over to you and places his legs over yours. The both of you are practically chest to chest with his thighs on top of yours and your cocks only millimeters away from touching.

He brings a handpaw in between your half erect cocks and cradles them side by side from underneath.

He had maybe an inch over you, but the both of you actually came pretty close in terms of girth.

It’s not a fair comparison though; he’s obviously harder than you so it’s skewing the data.

“Oh, good point bro, here, let me get a better comparison…” he says as he pushes both your cocks vertically and wraps a single hand around both before slowly pumping up and down.

He looks you in the eyes and gives you a sultry smile.

Meanwhile, Blake had crawled around to get perpendicular to you two, claiming a front row seat to the show. He’s sitting back on his ass, legs bent and cock out, slowly pumping himself as he watches. His mouth is open and his tongue is hanging idly from one side. His eyes are completely fixated on your two cocks.

You look over at Blake and get a great idea.

You ask Blake if you could borrow his mouth for a second.

Without having to even explain, he leans towards you, still pumping away, and opens his mouth.

You stick a few fingers into his maw and gently scoop around, making sure to gather up as much lubrication as possible.

Once you feel that it’s enough, you bring your messy, slippery hand down to your cocks and start lathering Blake’s spit all over.

The feeling is divine, and even Alex throws his head back in pleasure. You run your messy hand all over your members; from the tip all the way down to the base, you make sure everything is coated evenly.

Then, while using whatever lube you have left, you pick up where Alex left off.

After a moment of sensually massaging your cocks, Alex starts getting pretty vocal, producing some “fuck”s and “shit”s whenever you touch a particularly sensitive spot. It won't be long until he gets sent over the edge, and you’re not far behind.

Blake, on the other hand, is just about at his limit. He’s stopped jacking off at this point and has resorted to using his hand like a fleshlight; bobbing his hips upwards into his fist. A substantial amount of precum has leaked out at this point, and his fist is basically entirely coated in the stuff.

You have another idea. The type of idea you only get when you're drunk on absinthe and jacking off with your friends.

You grab Blake’s attention and ask him if he wants to be a good boy and give us some more lube. You nod down at his crotch, hoping he understands your intention.

Again, without even saying anything, he scoots closer to the two of you and takes aim as best he can.

Your heart flutters in response to what’s about to happen.

Blake lets out the girliest moan you’ve ever heard a guy make before absolutely exploding all over your cocks. Again, just like last time, he shoots an ungodly amount of cum all over your crotch, your legs, the carpet, everywhere. His balls lurch and churn, trying to pump out as much ‘lube’ as he can for his humie master.

Alex still has his head hanging back in ecstasy, but when he feels the hot sticky mess coat his cock, he immediately brings his head forward to investigate. He could only spit out the phrase, “oh fuck, Blake!”

You feel his monster of a cock start to pulse and throb in your hand. You use the palm of your hand to massage the tops of your dicks before grabbing on and giving a final, long stroke down to the very base of your members.

That seemed to have pushed your possum friend over the edge, because he let out a grunt before shooting a load that would put even Blake’s orgasm to shame. It was like a pure eruption of cum; most of it got all over his chest and face but a lot of it landed on your crotch, legs, and even belly. Just watching your friend pump out such a crazy amount of cum sent you into an orgasm as well.

Soon enough, all three of you were absolutely covered in each other's cum. You couldn’t even begin to tell who’s cum belonged to who. It didn't really matter though. The three of you collapsed on your backs, panting in complete and utter bliss.

Maybe it was the alcohol, but once you closed your eyes, you didn’t open them until the next morning.

Chapter 7 - On the Road Again

When you woke up the next morning, the only thing you could feel was pain.

Before you even opened your eyes, you felt the consequences of last night's actions throb and ache violently in the back of your head.

It takes every fiber of your being to force open your eyes.

That was a mistake.

As soon as the mid morning light from outside finds its way through your hotel window and directly into your retinas, you’re overcome with a wave of nausea.

In a panic, you force yourself to your feet and rush into the bathroom. You barely make it to the toilet before you start puking your guts out.

After your body has rid itself of last night's dinner, you try to regain your composure by flushing the toilet and leaning against the shower door.

As you sit there, panting like a dog and staring at the wall, wondering why you ever let Alex convince you to drink, you notice that you’re still naked.

Also, there are large blotches of dried something all over your lower body.

…Oh yeah. The cum.

You try to stand and turn on the shower. Even though your brain is still pounding in your skull, you definitely feel better after clearing your stomach.

You turn the knob and wait for the water to run hot before stepping inside. In the meantime, you decide to wash the puke taste out of your mouth with some mouthwash that Blake had brought in.

Speaking of, as you’re waiting for the shower, Blake limps into the bathroom looking like he had just been drug 10 miles through the dirt.

His hair was all fucked up, both on his head and the fur all over his body. His tail was dragging lifelessly behind him, and he wasn’t wearing his glasses, nor clothes.

“Uuuugh, g’morning, Anon. C-Can I join you?” He says, his voice harsh and coarse.

Sure, you barely manage to say.

You stand up and slide open the door, getting a feel for the water. It’s warm enough.

You step inside and Blake follows behind you.

You stick yourself under the water stream and let the warmth of its embrace wash over your entire body. Blake shimmies over to you and simply joins you by pressing himself up against your stomach. You wrap your arms around him and he rests his head on your chest.

Between the warm water and the softness of Blake’s fur, you already felt a million times better.

You didn’t move, and nor did you want to.

You and Blake just stood there in each other's embrace for a while.

All good things must eventually come to pass, sadly, and you start remembering things. Things like your checkout time for this morning.

You ask Blake if he knew what time it was.

“A little past 10,” he mumbles into your chest.

Alright, so you have time.

You lazily grab the bottle of multi-purpose shampoo that he had left in the shower the other day and squirt a glob into your hand before running it through Blake’s fur. You start with his big ears, gently tracing your hands around their entire area before moving to his neck and shoulders. You lazily draw patterns in his fur, scrubbing away all the knots and matted areas throughout his upper body.

As you did, you elicited some occasional moans and sighs from the mouse.

When you thought you had gotten everything you could reach by standing up, you crouched down and started working on his lower body.

You scrubbed away, dragging your hands through his short fur and plump thighs before reaching his rear. You spent extra time around there, obviously to make sure he was clean of course, before reaching his tail.

Unlike Alex’s, you could almost wrap an entire hand around the base of it. You grope it at the base and run one pass down the entire length.

Meanwhile, Blake just closed his eyes and continued to coo and moan while you treated him to a sudsy massage.

Before you finished, you made one more pass over the front of his body before accidentally brushing a hand over his erect cock.

Well, You've been treating him to a nice massage so far, why not finish it off with a happy ending?

You sit down on the shower floor and tell Blake to take a seat in your lap.

He looks at you quizzically for a moment before following your instructions.

He sits down in between your legs and you lean yourself back a little bit so he could recline comfortably on your chest.

Once he seems comfortable, you start tracing your hands over his chest and stomach while whispering sweet nothings into his ear.

You tell him how cute he is as you slowly drag your hand down to his crotch.

You wrap a soapy hand around his small aching cock and elicit a shudder from the mouse. You notice that you can almost bury his entire dick in your fist.

Youve never jacked another guy off before, but you imagine that it can’t be any different from tugging on your own dick, right?

You just think of the things that you like to do when jacking off and apply it here, easy.

You use your wet soapy hand to lubricate Blake’s entire length and slowly start massaging his cock just by using the viscosity of the soapy water to slide your fingers up and over his dick.

It’s a strange way of getting someone off, but as you glide your fingers around his throbbing member, you elicit various moans and whimpers from Blake.

God, he’s just so precious. His little squeaks and moans are just melting your heart. You would do this every day for him if it meant you got to see him squirm like this.

You speak in a low and husky voice into his ear and tell him how much of a good boy he is, and how happy he makes his humie. You rub his chest with one hand while cupping his massive swollen balls with the other.

While massaging his beautiful sack, you ask him if he’ll be a good boy and cum for his humie?

As if he were a robot receiving a command, he immediately starts bucking his hips as you feel his balls churn in their sack and start pumping out ropes of his jizz that land with a faint plap on the linoleum shower floor.

You pull him back into a tighter embrace with one hand while continuing to motivate his balls with the other, all while telling him how much of a good boy he is for giving his humie what he wants.

After, and you actually counted this time, a whole 12 full spurts, he runs out of ammo and collapses back into your embrace with only the occasional shudder.

You kiss him on the neck and tell him that he did a great job.

He could only respond with a faint squeak. You hold him in your arms until he’s ready to get up.

Eventually, he gently snuggles his head into the crook of your neck and speaks up.

“T-Thank you, Anon… my head actually f-feels a lot better after that,” he murmurs.

Anything for your sweet mouse. Glad at least one of our headaches is better. Yours is still bothering you, but it’s a little better than when you woke up.

The two of you stand up, and you use the shower's detachable head to give yourselves one last rinse, as well as making sure you wash all of Blake’s cum down the drain.

You dry each other off and continue on to make yourselves look as presentable as possible. You brush your teeth, comb your hair, help Blake brush his fur, etc.

When you two finish, you mosey back into the bedroom to find Alex sitting impatiently on the bed.

“Hooooly shit, guys, I’ve been needing to piss for like an hour,” he says as he gets up and quickly rushes past you into the bathroom.

Woops.

You continue getting dressed and packing up all your stuff; you unhook the Wii from the TV and wrap up all the cables. You make sure that the bed isn’t a complete mess and tuck the sheets as best you can.

Really, the only unfortunate thing about your stay here was that now somebody had to clean copious amounts of dry cum from the carpet…

Whatever, they make machines for that, right? It's not that big of a deal. Probably.

Anyways, after the sound of a flushing toilet and a few minutes of running water, Alex returns to the bedroom, stretching his arms over his head with a big groan.

“How are we feeling this morning, boys? Pretty good, I hope!” He says with a smile.

You and Blake look at each other with tired, painful eyes.

He scans over the two of you and says, “hey, I told you guys to drink plenty of water. Not my fault you’re hungover.”

Pretty sure he didn’t tell us to do shit last night other than drink. Actually, it’s ENTIRELY his fault.

"Whatever, Anon. You'd be lying if you told me you didn’t enjoy yourself last night, though,” he says with a wink.

Was the orgasm worth the hangover?

…

Honestly, yeah it was, not gonna lie.

Alex shrugs and starts putting on his clothes.

Once you guys got all packed up and made sure nobody forgot anything, you headed down to the lobby to turn in your key.

As you walked out into the parking lot, the brightness of the late morning sun absolutely assaulted your eyes, causing you to shield your face from its onslaught.

If it weren't for the headache still pulsing in the back of your head, you’d be in better spirits to enjoy this beautiful midweek morning.

You help Alex pack up his Wii into the trailer and hide the rest of the absinthe before putting your suitcases back in the trunk.

You begrudgingly toss yourself into the driver's seat and close the door. Alex takes shotgun, leaving Blake with the back seat all to himself. You take a second to gather your bearings, rubbing your face in your palms, before starting the car.

Sure enough, when you turn the key the vehicle rumbles to life.

Even this 20 year old car has more life in it than you have in yourself right now.

Before you pull away, you hook up your phone to the cassette adapter and put on some chill, low energy tunes. It wasn’t long before Alex pipes up.

“Aw, c'mon dude. You need something to wake you up, not whatever this sad-girl music is,” He mocks.

“B-But I like Anon’s music,” Blake says from the back seat.

Two against one, get vetoed, loser. Thanks Blake.

“I've g-got your back, Anon,” Blake says.

“You both suck,” Alex retorts with a pout.

Uh, actually, out of everyone here, you think that Alex sucks the best.

“Fuck you,” he says with narrowed eyes and a grin. “But you’re not wrong.”

You hear Blake shift in the back seat. You glance in the rear view mirror to see that he’s leaning forward.

“T-That’s not fair, Anon! I haven't even g-gotten to try yet,” he says.

Oh, true. Sorry Alex, but Blake is right. Your title has been revoked, Blake could secretly be the best dick-sucker in the world.

Alex rolls his eyes. “No offense, Cheezit, but it takes a lot of practice to get the skills I have. You don’t just have them on your first BJ.”

“T-Then we’ll practice, r-right, Anon?”

You can see Blake looking at you expectedly in the rear view mirror.

Sounds like we’ll have to host a study session. Alex can teach Blake his ways and you’ll provide the example.

“I better be getting paid for this,” Alex says with a snarky smirk.

Oh c'mon now, he’s no cheap whore! He’ll get paid with love and affection, you say as sarcastically as possible.

“Uh huh, and how do you pay rent with love and affection?”

Hey, dickhead, you’re not going to give him money just for him to give it back to you as rent. That’s just stupid.

“Of course you’d think so, capitalist cuck,” he says with a grin.

The three of you bantered back and forth for a while before finally getting back on the highway.

The sleepy little town where you had spent the night slowly faded into the distance in your rear view mirrors and you were back to rolling through winding hills and dense forests.

As you kept driving, you watched the ETA on your car's GPS creep down at snail's pace. Apparently it would be another 10 or so hours before you got to your destination.

Your headache got slightly better as time went on, but it would still bother you whenever the glare of the sun would find its way into your eyes via one of the windows.

You activate the car's rear power sunshade with the press of an overhead button and that manages to protect your sore and delicate eyes for a little bit. It managed to split off the sunbeams into delicate little rays that only splashed faintly throughout the cabin.

Looking in the rear view mirror, you could see Blake sitting politely with his hands in his laps, his little mouse snout facing towards the window.

You glance over at Alex and see him lazily propping his head up with his arm via the passenger door armrest, also watching the scenery go by.

It was quiet, and your mellow tunes filled the cabin with a comfortable ambience.

Despite your headache, you smile a bit. The thought of starting this new life with the two of them was exciting.

For the first time in your entire life, you feel like you have a purpose. Not the purpose that your parents or a teacher assigned to you, but a purpose you’ve created all your own.

You have no idea what’s waiting for you up north and in the upcoming years, but as you glance at the two anthro boys sharing this long drive with you, you don't think you could meet the future with any better company.