Lines and Twists 3 (Patreon)

Lines and Twists 3 - or ‘Surprisingly enough, Furry America is less problematic’ (Jay Naylor's Furry Comics, Human!SI)

Brooke Reed refused to cry.

There was a good reason why she should be, but the raccoon girl was outright opposed to showing any weakness in public. Not when she knew that the bitch could be still spying on her.

To think that Alicia, someone that she opened up so much in the last two months, was actually a ‘spy’ just felt utterly ridiculous. First there was Kaori and her ‘butt-supremacy’ bullshit and her hat-wearing slave-guy, then Alicia and now…

Now Brooke was at a loss for words. What was she supposed to do with this? She was back in square one, if not even in a worse shape due to the hostility aimed at her, and she could no longer see others in the campus with the same neutrality as she used to.

Instead, she was happily spending time out of Uni, looking around in town and… thinking. Sometimes it was remembrance which pissed her off one way or another, or it was just abject pondering on what was left for her to do.

The Summer Break was around the corner, that was at least going to give her some mercy, but she just couldn’t wait for it. Brooke needed a break, and she needed it to happen before she could leave for home.

So, it kind of made sense that something unusual was bound to happen. Either by volition of others or by other reasons driving her to do something weird. Usually, that meant sex with someone, but that wasn’t how things went.

As she distractedly checked around the local supermarket she visited a while back, Brooke’s unfocused gaze was taken away as her nostrils spotted a relatively sweaty and musky smell coming near to her. And she spotted the new worker at the store moving boxes around and refilling the various aisles.

He was the store’s uniform, with the thin blue shirt now pressing on his frame due to the sweat and his short pants bringing attention to his cute butt. It wasn’t big, in fact it was even less than half of what Alicia has but… fuck, I bet he would be a good lay.

Brooke had never done it with a human, but she had considered it. After all, it was a ‘less fur but more smooth experience’. Nothing that matched with anything she did in the past.

And the sweat was just making her tingling as she imagined how easily he could pin her on one of the corners, pull her tanktop up and just- just- make her his~!

“You alright?”

Once again, Brooke’s vivid imagination put her in a bit of a situation.

“S-Sorry, I was just-” She paused, looked away and failed to think of an excuse as the human merely spoke again, his concern evident.

“I don’t mean about the ogling, I was talking about you just giving murderous looks at the bean cans.”

His response surprised her for a moment. He didn’t mind being… ‘watched’? Actually no, what really mattered to her was his main worry: the reason why she had been so lost with her mind.

“It’s… I just had a long month,” Brooke mumbled. “How come you don’t… mind?”

“Watching but not touching, kind of the standard rule on stores, I reckon,” He playfully answered. “Still, I am genuinely sad to hear that. I mean, I was in Uni too so I know it’s a pain in the butt with the whole different system there.”

“That’s one way to put it,” The raccoon girl nodded in agreement. “Still, I didn’t mean to peep on you like that.”

“I told you that it’s fine… you.”

She snorted at the silly way to get her name. “Brooke.”

“John. Still, you are fine. I wouldn’t say the same for your other business and I know it’s a bit odd for me to ask but… would you like to talk about it?”

“You- You didn’t even know my name until just a few seconds ago,” Brooke argued at that offer. “Why are you interested? Trying to get on with some chick that could bounce off a bad relationship?”

The human blinked at the accusation. “Is it a matter of relationships? Sorry, I thought it was, you know, cliques at Uni and all of that.”

“It’s tied to that too.”

“Oh,” He frowned, quite surprised by these words. “Sorry to hear about it. Well, I think you should talk about it with someone you can trust. Bottling it up, especially with Uni being quite difficult, can only do you more harm than good.”

Brooke lowered her gaze and looked nervous on what she should do with this.

I should say no.

I should not accept his advice.

He could be scum like the rest.

He could betray me. Hurt me.

But…

“F-Fine. But I get to not answer some questions.”

“It’s your prerogative, Brooke,” John assured. “I will not push you to say or do anything you don’t want to do.”

A slow nod came from her before she followed the human back to the counter. She had expected him to lead her to some unseen room, but they just sat by the cash register and spoke there.

“It’s alright, people hardly visit at this hour.”

It was getting quite late for the post-lunch shift, so it made sense that they had some free time to talk. And while Brooke didn’t want to go deep, she ended up doing just that.

Kaori, the mess with Francis, then Alicia, and now… this.

“I am still perplexed about the whole ‘world domination through big asses’,” John remarked, a twitchy smile on his face that kept on appearing the more this was brought up. While he had been serious about most of what she said and told her that she was in the right in some reactions she got, he would always bring that up and… make her snort in amusement about it. “Like, this Kaori sure is a perverted shortstack.”

“And the whole spiel about ‘good relationships not being a thing anymore’ kind of pisses me off,” Brooke added with a hint of irritation. “She fucking engineered the whole thing with Alicia just to have it blow up on my face.”

“It kind of defeats the purpose if it is a relationship born on false premises,” John agreed with a sigh. “Still, I can’t help but think Alicia may have started to really like you.”

The sporty girl growled. “Well, I don’t. She should have told me. Like hell I will get back to her.”

“I doubt that’s the good path too, but I was referring to… talk about it once you feel in a better mind space.”

She raised an intrigued brow. “You mean, finding closure?”

“Something like that,” John assured. “I get it, she stabbed you in the back by not telling you the truth. But at least do it to put any ‘what ifs’ you have about her to rest. For yourself.”

“I guess I could think about it. Just… not now, right?”

“Focus on getting back on your feet first,” The human nodded at her question. “It may sound weird to hear this from someone else, but do be selfish for the sake of bouncing off this bad spot. You got the guts, the brain, so it’s a matter of how you invest both and the time you put into it.”

“That’s… some good pep-talk,” Brooke commented, offering a smirk. “Thanks for listening. It’s… it’s good. Not the best, but I feel better.”

“Happy to help,” John smiled happily, then gave her a ‘business card’. It was just his name and his phone number plus his email. “This is if you need to talk some more. I would ask for your number back but-”

“Here,” She mumbled and just fished a random paper with her number. She had some on herself in case she found ‘someone’ she could hang out and ‘have fun’ with, but the situation was quite different. “So, what was it about asking for my number?”

“I was saying that if I asked for it and got it, it would have felt more like I was asking you out rather than helping you. That’s why you would have gotten my number and that’s all,” He quietly explained and… Brooke grinned, causing the human to realize what was going on. “You knew it was something like this, that’s why you gave it to me.”

“You have to admit you get easy to predict the more you talk with someone, John. Like, you may get me, but I think I get you too.”

He huffed. “Betrayed by my own good personality. How embarrassing.”

A brief giggle left Brooke’s lips. “No need to be ashamed, it makes you more pleasant to talk with.”

And Brooke realized this was getting flirtatious very fast.

Nothing weird happened after that. She had to go, she waved at him as she left and… her heart couldn’t stop pounding as she felt like this wasn’t just a case of ‘new friend’ or ‘new friend with benefits’. The girl wasn’t sure what it was but she didn’t mind.

Brooke Reed refused to cry… for today gave her a way out of that bleak tunnel.

—----d-d-d-d—------

AN

Uh-Oh! Did John just get a pseudo-GF?