The sounds of happier patrons and digitized weapon’s fire filled the atmosphere around Jack while he stood there, mouth just slightly agape as he tried to find the words. It hadn’t taken much for Allison to put two and two together and he’d only made it as obvious as he possibly could. The tension turned deadly, he needed to say something.

“Yeah, Lys. Al is a kobold—I mean Al, Lys is my kobold—my girlfriend. My girlfriend is a kobold.”

Her face wrinkled into an inquisitive scowl. “What?”

“And furthermore, I’m completely in love with her and that’s all there is to it.” The words flew out of his mouth as an incoherent babbling. He floated outside of himself with his mind reeling, trying to escape what was coming. The corner of Al’s mouth turned up in a shocked sneer, her eyebrows slouched in disbelief, and then she began to laugh. “God, you almost convinced me. Very funny Jack.”

His senses returned and he stared at her dumbfounded, almost feeling cheated. “I’m dead serious Al, she’s—”

The arcade machine interrupted them both, the timer ran down with no winner. “Now look at what you made us do, you and your lizard.”

“Al, I’m not joking. She really is a kobold, small, green, scaly, cute.” He’d come this far, he might as well drive it home.

“Cute?” Allison asked.

“Very,” he said without skipping a beat.

“Sexy?”

“Absolutely,” he replied without thinking about it.

She smirked. “And I suppose she’s a real beast in bed. Okay, you’ve had your fun. Go get some quarters, I owe you a pounding.” Al leaned against the arcade machine, eyeing would-be players. “Hurry, before someone tries to take the machine.”

He raised his hand to protest, but then thought better of it. He sauntered off towards the change machine in defeat, ready to scream in frustration. The truth, he tried to tell her the truth, wanted to tell her. Too bad then he told the truth as well as he lied.

The change machine was one of those ugly brown things with the word “Change” posted above it in an eye-stringing, illuminated white lettering. It stood at the center, an island of solitude in a sea of fun, giving people the power to enjoy themselves, but never partaking itself. Jack cast a few forlorn glances at it and then shrugged. As much as he wanted to liken himself to the lonesome cash dispenser the analogy just didn’t work. It did, however, spit back the fiver he kept trying to feed it.

“Come on you bastard…”

The bill slipped in as if it took his threats seriously. Quarters spilled forth into the bowl in generous quantities, perhaps too generous. Five dollars’ worth seemed like a lot, but at least now there would be no further interruptions between playing and making a fool of himself. The coins made his pockets sag, forcing him to tighten his belt. Allison was still waiting, looking impatient. “Get lost?”

“You know, I’m not kidding.”

“About?”

“Lys, she really is a kobold.”

She slumped her shoulders and tilted her head to the side, giving him a stern look. It was rather like removing a nasty splinter that just didn’t want to come out, a barbed splinter that dug into his flesh with each passing second. Jack gave her a handful of change and the fight resumed.

“Bison? Odd flex for you,” she said.

“Maybe I just need a change. Besides, I can relate.”

“How?”

“Bison isn’t bad, he’s just misunderstood.”

A new match began. The dictator slid across the screen, trying to land a kick only to eat Blanka’s fierce punch. Jack was forced to hunker down and take a beating. Retaliation came in the form of a clever head stomp to the green beast and he followed up with a light combo. “Okay, let’s just say hypothetically—”

“Jack…”

“Let’s just say hypothetically that I really was going out with a kobold. What would your reaction be?”

“If this is some kind of fake out.”

It wasn’t, but Blanka mistimed his dodge and landed face first into a psycho crusher. “What’s so bad about it? Humor me.”

“I don’t know,” she huffed. “Where would you even meet one that wasn’t camped out in one of those shanties or rummaging through the dumpster?”

“Do you really want to know?”

“No, I don’t,” she said pointedly. “It wasn’t really all that funny to start with and frankly I wish you’d stop.” Her irritated tone made him worry. He countered with a knee-press which she leapt over at the last moment. Before he could right himself though he ate a rolling attack. The cabinet creaked under the force he put on the joystick.

“I’m not trying to be funny.”

She responded by getting more aggressive, whittling down his health as he blocked roll after roll. He tried to break out of it with a kick, only to get knocked down. The exchange afterwards was just a series of blocks and feints, neither one scoring as the tension built up between them.

“Well?” she asked.

“Well, what?”

“Where did you find it?”

He lost his focus and got rolled yet again. “I didn’t find ‘it’, I found her…in my trunk.”

“You found your girlfriend in your trunk?” She laughed. “This just gets better all the time; did you tie her up and kidnap her?” That was enough to break his concentration entirely, Blanka lit Bison up like a Christmas tree and that was the end of round one. Jack stared past the screen, lost in thought until he looked up to see himself being gnawed on.

“Damn it.” He mashed the buttons, trying to break out Al’s grasp. “She was hiding.”

“From what?”

“Nothing. You remember how I told you I almost wrecked my car?”

The second round began, he opened with a knee-press which she leapt over at the last moment. Before he could right himself though he ate a rolling attack. The cabinet creaked under the force he put on the joystick. “How could she wreck your car from your trunk?”

“No, no. I went off the road and that’s when I heard her, she was hurt when I skid.”

“So, you almost crashed, looked in your trunk, found a bruised lizard and said to yourself ‘I want me some of that’? Yeah, that makes tons of sense.”

For just a moment he grinned, he wasn’t so far gone that he didn’t see the absurdity in his situation. The way she’d said it made him want to laugh. Three weeks ago, he wouldn’t have believed it himself. “Well, not that quickly. Look, she was hurt and I was out in the middle of nowhere, what was I supposed to do?”

“And you took her home, just like that?” she asked with disbelief.

“No, not ‘just like that’, but I couldn’t leave her out there on a dark road in the middle of nowhere, I mean come on.” While he was still talking, he managed to head stomp over her at just the right moment and amazingly enough she didn’t block the follow up combo, the second round ended in his favor.

She scoffed at the controls. “Hmph! I would have.”

Jack gave her shoulder a quick swat. “You would not.”

“Ok fine, so I wouldn’t but I wouldn’t be making wedding arrangements either. So, wait. She’s been living with you this whole time?”

He hadn’t considered the implications of what he’d said. “Yeah.”

His best friend considered it for a moment and winced. “That sounds seriously messed up Jack. Like, really, really messed up.” He chalked up her tone and choice of words to frustration, rather than being so dead set against it, at least that’s what he hoped, but she stopped paying attention to the game and looked directly at him. “I don’t appreciate your sense of humor and I don’t like what’s going on here.”

The third round started, she clutched the joystick tighter, looking distraught, casting sideways glances at him. The two contenders went at each other in awkward silence. None of this was going right and everything he said just made it worse. Jack resolved not to press the issue any further and weather the rest of the evening in uneasiness. The battle came full circle when they managed a spectacular double KO. Allison whipped about to look him in the eye.

“Just what the hell have you been doing during your vacation?”

“I’ve only been trying to tell you.”

“No, what’s really going on? You do this total one-eighty.”

“And you make it sound like a bad thing.” The final round started and Al wasted no time going at him, trying to brute force the round into a quick end, but he’d seen it coming. She was pissed now and taking it out on poor Bison. Jack kept seeing her hair wafting back and forth as she shook her head, muttering the whole time.

“Isn’t funny…messed up…”

“Why?” he asked. “Why is it messed up?”

She growled, like he wasn’t supposed to notice her screaming under her breath. “I mean, why would you? Where’s the attraction? How desperate would you have to be to resort to bestiality?” She rattled off the questions rapid-fire between attempts to thrash him. “I’d really hate to think you’d be that desperate. That’s just…just no…”

“Bestiality?!” He blocked an ill-timed kick and countered with one of his own. “They’re intelligent beings, not freaking animals.”

“Oh, that’s supposed to make it okay?” she asked, all too loud. “Small, green, scaly, cute. I think those were your words. Have you been shut in so long that you’d chase anything with a pulse?”

“Me? What about you and that Spanish guy you kept going on about from your Journalism class?”

She let go of the controls, fling her hands into the air as if she were pleading to the heavens. “That was for one whole week and I told you why that wouldn’t work out. I was focused, but you just…I’m done talking about this. It wasn’t funny to start with and it isn’t funny now.” Her voice cracked again. He might have let it drop if not for one thing.

“And what do you mean, desperate?”

“Let’s be honest Jack, you haven’t exactly been out and about since…”

“Since what?”

“Let’s just not, okay?” Allison knocked him dizzy, but he broke free before she could come in for the throw.

“Well, we need to, because you obviously think—"

“That my best friend has broken, bad. I told you not to…”

He started seeing red. “Why the hell does it always come to this?”

“Because, goddamn it.” She slammed the fierce kick button down particularly hard. “I told you not to buy that engagement ring. I told you she didn’t love you and you fucking did it anyway and you ran off one semester from graduating and it pisses me off every time I think about it!”

A few heads turned in their direction, but he couldn’t care less. His hands moved reflexively, not really paying attention to the screen anymore. He’d heard this song and dance one time too many. “I’m over it, you’re the one still freaking out.”

“Several years of throwing your life away and you’re just ‘over it’ in a matter of weeks?”

His eyes narrowed. “You know what I think? You’re afraid.” Now more people were watching them. The match ended with Allison getting in a last light punch, Jack made no attempt to put in any more coins and she stepped away from the machine as it went on without her. Her brown hair drooped over her left eye. His best friend glared at him.

“Of what? What am I afraid of?”

“Of change.”

She pointed a finger at him. “Are you actually insinuating that I enjoy watching you throw yourself away? That I get some sick sense of superiority out of this?”

“All I’m saying is that you’re the one upset, not me.” Jack watched her fidget in agitation, shifting back and forth while she wiped her hand on her jacket, a sign that he’d managed to say something she didn’t have an immediate riposte for (which often just made her angrier).

“Ok, show me a picture of her then,” she barked.

Jack began to reach for his phone, at last he’d made some progress. A sinking sensation came over him and then an agonizing groan escaped his lips as he realized. “I haven’t taken any.”

“She’s this wonder girl you’ve been seeing—I mean living with you for three weeks, and you haven’t taken any pictures?”

“Hasn’t been foremost on my mind with as crazy as things have been and what’s with the tone? Are you calling me a liar?”

“I’m saying there’s something going on with you and it’s scaring the shit out of me.”

“What do you want me to do? Rot inside my apartment and die of lung cancer? Earlier you were thrilled that I’d quit.”

Her expression kept shifting back and forth between frustration and fear. “What I want is for you to make some sense, you can’t just change overnight and expect people to think it’s normal.” She flung out her arms in a wide gesture as if to drive the point home.

Jack leaned against the wall, exhaling deeply from his nose. A pained grin formed on his face and he shook his head. “I never said it was normal, it isn’t normal, but for the first time in a while I’m happy and things are alright. I’d really like it if my best friend could be happy for me too.” He took his jacket off, it was far too hot in there.

“I’m not going to be happy if my friend has turned into some kind of perv”. She gestured at his arm. “I suppose those stitches were from her?” she asked, half mocking, half angry.

“They were, actually,” he snapped. “She’s a sore loser.”

Her brown hair fluttered about as she shook her head vigorously with pursed lips on her worried face. She jammed her hands into her pockets and did everything she could not to look him in the eye. Her reaction made him feel small, corrupted. Perhaps she was right, maybe he’d been sitting around so long that a cute (intelligent) injured creature awakened romantic feelings in him he shouldn’t have been feeling. Maybe he’d projected his loneliness onto someone vulnerable, someone who would only be too grateful and willing for kindness’s sake. If that was the case then he really was corrupted past the point of all redemption. He had no intention of ever becoming the thing he’d been in the past and his love for Lys was as pure as someone like him could ever hope to have.

“Why don’t I introduce the two of you? Come back to my—"

“I’m not…I don’t think that’s a good idea.” She raised a hand to brush away her fallen hair, but her hand lingered and Jack could see glistening moisture on her cheeks. All the sound and merriment around him died away. She looked on like one would look at a stranger and he felt pale, almost sick.

“Oh my God.” His jacket slipped out of his hands and onto the floor without him noticing. “You think I’ve flipped.”

“I don’t know what to think.”

“Look, I’ll send you a damn picture of her when I get home if that’ll set your mind at ease.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “Don’t send me anything. I don’t want to know about it.”

“Now you’re just being irrational.”

“Am I being irrational? I’m supposed to be happy that my friend has either lost it or he’s screwing an animal. God, this is sick. I think I’m going to be sick.” She took a few steps away from him and folded her arms.

“She’s not an animal, she’s a person,” he sniped.

“I’m not even sure ‘she’s’ real. I can’t handle this.” She started walking out of the barcade. Jack snatched his jacket off the floor, chasing after her as all people watched the scene unfold.

“Al!” he called out over the commotion, nothing else mattered now except trying to put this right. “Wait!” He shoved past the crowd, almost knocking someone over in the process. By the time he got outside the place she was already in the parking lot, standing by her car, wiping her eyes once more. He hurried across the parking lot before she got in the car. Nosey people paused to stare, perhaps hoping for something worth posting online.

“Al, please listen. If you just met her.”

“I don’t want to meet her; I don’t want to be part of this sick thing you’ve got going on. Get some help.” She shook her head once more and opened the car door.

“I already got help, you’re just mad it wasn’t you.”

She stared at him wide-eyed and then flipped him off. “Screw you!”

The engine revved to a deafening roar. He could only watch as she pulled off the lot, staring at her taillights vanishing into the distance, taking their friendship with them. He could feel the gaze of nosey people, boring a hole through him, accusing him with their eyes. Jack got into his car, slamming the door.

Why did I say that?

The key turned in the ignition, loud bursts of half-starts rattled the car, it refused to turn over. His fingers turned red and then white as he pinched it harder with each twist. He growled like a wild animal, turning the ignition over and over until his sweaty fingers slipped and he scratched his hand on the dash. “Shit!”

Why the hell did I say that? Why did I say anything?

A faint, red line formed on the surface of his hand, it stung far worse than it looked. He twisted the key again, the engine stalled several more times before catching, causing a loud backfire as it came to life. He peeled out and was already down the road, running a red light.

Bitch.

He clinched the wheel, cursing himself for thinking it. Out of all the so-called friends he’d had over his life, Allison was the most loyal and the most patient. Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that she really didn’t want to accept this change, some of that was understandable, there was no easy way to explain Lys, but that notion brought a horrible realization that he’d been dragging Al down. All the excuses he’d made and meet-ups he’d sullied. All the friends he’d alienated and bridges he’d burned. For years now he'd been an overgrown, petulant child, angry at the world because of something stupid in the past. He’d been vengeful enough to take it out on the last person foolish enough to care, someone he could rope into his spiraling drama. It wasn’t her fault; the onus was on him.

None of that made her words cut any less. He was going to defend Lys, even to his best friend and that made him feel despicable. He’d known Allison since high-school and Lys for barely three weeks now. If he had to choose though, he’d always take Lys, always. Before he could ruminate on it further the engine died on him in the middle of an intersection.

“Why now?” The car kept enough momentum for him to pull off to the side, bumping up against a nearby curb. He got out and lifted the hood for all the good it did. He knew next to nothing about mechanics other than the Chevy had needed a tune-up for ages. The smell of burning something accosted him. The last thing he wanted was to call for a towing service, he’d already spent too much as it sat over his vacation. The jingling coins left in his pocket acted as a painful reminder of that. Jack let the hood down and got back into the car, trying the engine every few minutes until it relented. The unpleasant burning smell grew worse for a moment and then vanished. From then on, he took it real slow, getting honked at more than once.

The slow pace extended his drive to over an hour and Lys didn’t have a phone, something he’d meant to remedy before he went back to work. The apartment complex came into view in all its run-down, same-old glory. The car stopped with a shudder in his parking space and he wasn’t so sure it’d ever answer the call again. He stumbled up the stairs with shoulders slumped and a bag of leftovers in his hand. The front door creaked open to a rather clean looking living room. A set of washed dishes sat drying on the rack and the floor looked mysteriously absent of blood. It did him so good to know she’d cleaned up the place for him, but before he could think to put the leftovers away he heard a disturbing sound coming from the bedroom.

“Lys?”

There came no answer.

Jack opened the door to see his mate lying on the bed away from him, naked and on her belly. He had little time to admire her, the hideous sounds were coming from the radio. He made a sick face. “Jesus Christ, is that jazz? Turn that off.”

The kobold sprang up and turned around. The shock on her face died away and reached for the radio, killing the music. She turned about without a glint of shame on her muzzle, it lifted his spirits just a bit. “You’re back, I was starting to think something happened.” She scrambled across the bed and stood up to hug him. “Did you have a good time?”

“Uhh, not quite.”

“Something happened then?” She looked up at him, concerned.

Jack slumped down onto the bed, giving Lys little time to move before she got caught up in his momentum. He set aside the bag of leftovers and let his hands rest on his legs, rubbing them slightly. Lys waited for him to continue until the silence became unbearable. “Well? What did you do?”

“We saw a movie.”

She inched closer to him, setting her claw on his busy hand. “A movie?”

“A terrible movie.”

“A movie so terrible it made something happen?”

He shrugged and sneered. “Ehh…it just…one thing led to another.”

“What one thing lead to another?” She laid her other claw on his hand, stopping his rubbing. Lys gave it a squeeze, not exactly a gentle one. The kobold let her claws do the talking and she wanted to know the details. Jack tried to ignore her, not wanting to divulge further.

“I told Allison,” he finally said. “It didn’t go well.”

Lys kept hold of his hand and listened.

“She just kept getting more upset.” He jostled his head and shrugged at the word “upset”, remembering the evening’s events. “Tried to explain it, but she…there was just no freaking way…so stupid of me.” He closed his eyes and shook his head. Lys waited, but it seemed like he might spend the rest of the night like that, so she poked him with her claw.

“And then what?” the kobold asked.

“She bitched at me. She stormed off. She left. She couldn’t be happy for me. She couldn’t accept change. She’s gone.” His voice jolted with every sentence and his face grew red. He gazed off, lost in a world of anger and it just kept building. Visions of betrayal and vile words he’d never thought to say clouded his mind until the soft sounds of sobbing brought him out of it. He looked down to see Lys leaning against him and crying.

“I’m sorry, this is Lys’s fault.”

“Oh God no, sweet.” All the rage in his voice disappeared in an instant and he gathered the kobold up into a hug. “This is…it’s been a long time coming, longer than you’ve been here, it’s really my fault.”

She nuzzled into him and shook her head. “Lys doesn’t see how.”

“Sometimes when you’ve been some way for a long time people expect you to just keep being that way…and I kind of said some things I shouldn’t have.”

“But you said she got upset when she found out about Lys. You said ‘no freaking way'’”

“Well, yeah.” He laughed nervously, wishing he was better at these types of things. “But you’re part of that change. I know Al, she needs time to cool off and think it over. There’s a chance she’ll come around, maybe. Like, thirty-seventy.”

Lys blinked. “Come around to what?”

Jack brushed her head, letting his fingers tap against the ends of her horns. “Talking to me again, hopefully. I haven’t made her that mad since…I guess that was the point,”

he said to himself.

“Huh? Since what?”

“Since I did something really stupid when I was younger. I’ll tell you later, okay?”

Lys didn’t look too thrilled on being kept out of the loop, but Jack didn’t want to delve into his take of unrequited love for a second time tonight. Al had a “point of no return” and that was when she liked to mention the ring, the girl, and so on. It happened on cue and he hated having that held over his head when she lost her temper.

 “So, why are you naked?” he asked, trying to change the subject.

“Clothes itch and sometimes it’s just nice to not wear them. Getting nervous?” she asked, slyly.

“Not at all, you can walk around here naked all you like, so long as I get to stare.”

Lys developed a sense of self-awareness on the spot and yanked a sheet over herself, making him laugh out loud. “Brought you some leftovers.” He held the bag out to her. She peered inside and took a big whiff.

“Smells really good. Is Jack sure everything is okay?”

“Are you here?” he asked.

She cocked her head to the side. “Yes.”

“Then everything is okay.”

Lys set aside the bag and leaned into him again, holding him tight. “I’m sorry this is happening.”

“Me too.”

***

Jack resigned himself for bed, at least he’d get to fall asleep with Lys in his arms. It made times like these bearable. Lys was already waiting for him, laying there just as naked as before, her tail shifting back and forth on the bed. He reached for his shirt to pull it off, but before he got it half way over his head he heard a pounding at the front door.

“For God’s sake, what now?” He snatched up his pants, almost falling over as he tried to force his legs in. He glanced over to see Lys already off the bed and choosing a place to hide, a necessity that just made him all the angrier. The knocking continued, getting louder with each strike. Jack sprang up and marched out of the bedroom, slamming the door behind him. A second later he flung open the front door to see Allison standing there, her arms going back and forth between being folded across her chest and resting on her hip, looking no calmer than she did earlier.

“You really piss me off,” she said.