Black Fox - 2. The Fox

I was lying on my bed with my laptop, well, on top of my lap.

It was past 11 am and I was thankful to my family for letting me stay in bed for so long. I would rather expect them to wake me up at 8 or so and force me to help them prepare for our moving. They’ve been on it for a good while now, judging by the noises and occasional hollering.

Me, I didn’t have a lot of stuff to my name. Apart from the bed and the desk, my room had a wardrobe, an electronic drum set, an acoustic guitar, a bookshelf, some board games, a few posters, a TV set and PlayStation. In the corner, there was a weight set to keep in shape. I was quite fit for my age, which matched my youthful face surprisingly well if I can say so myself. I felt capable of picking up Alex and that was what I was working on this lovely June morning.

The name and the face were all I had but also were everything I needed. I had this little book and I knew his face was in it. Facebook. Get it? I’m terrible, I know but I’m not sorry. I’ll do it again.

Anyway, I went to our Facebook fan page. Black Fox. A teen rock band from Coventry, UK. Cayden Hicks - vocals. Josh Aslan - guitar. Michael Cox - bass guitar, backing vocals. Owen Davies - drums. We had 27 338 fans and I hoped that the cute Alex was somewhere among them. Unless he uses Instagram like everyone in our age in the world except, apparently, me. Click. Search by name. Alex. Loading. Nice, let’s look at the results. 120+ Alexes and Alexanders. Okay, my plan was good but involved some manual data search that I’d rather avoid. Asking Alex for his last name yesterday was not an option anyway, so I could just as well start looking. I skimmed the list, looking at profile pic thumbnails, hoping to find him quickly but I didn’t. So then I started looking for “Birmingham” next to the name. I found two but they were some older guys. And then, near the end of the list, I found an Alex from Coventry. Alex Richmond. He had a Baby Yoda meme as his profile pic but it intrigued me and I clicked on it.

The first thing I saw when his profile loaded was my face. In the picture, I was standing next to Alex who was taking a selfie and grinning from ear to ear. The caption said, “Finally got to meet Owen of Black Fox!” He added it last evening and there were already a ton of likes and comments.

Busted!

Owen, you are a hacker and a true data miner. A call from an NCA recruiter is just a matter of time, there’s no doubt about it. Hmm, what am I supposed to do now? Should I add him and say “hi”? No problem but what do I say to him? Damn, he lives in my city.

I was not sure what I should do next so I just started clicking through his photo gallery on Facebook. I saw a video of him playing drums. Damn, he was really good! I expected him to be a beginner but his beat was tight. Click. A few selfies, a pic or two with his friends but mostly dank memes and stupid gifs. Click. A shirtless photo from vacation last summer. Oh boy, was he fit or what? And that was almost a year ago. I was dying to see what he looked like now. I played with my dick through my boxers absentmindedly when I saw another photo of him and his friend posing in front of a house. Wait, I recognised this street. I opened Google Maps, switched to the street view and after a few minutes of clicking around, I found it. It was just a few streets away from our new home! I felt excited and proud of my little investigation bringing results. Too bad I couldn’t tell anyone. I had to make do with admiring myself in silence.

I frowned when I realised there was no telling if this was where he actually lived. It could be his friend’s or just some random house. I didn’t find any other photos that could support my theory so I decided the next step would be to start a large-scale field operation. I knew I could just text him and say “hi” but it would be too simple. I was already invested in my overly elaborate scheme.

That’s when I heard a knock on the door.

“Owen, get up and help us!” It was my mum’s voice. Geez, it was already past noon and I still haven’t left the bed.

“Alright, I’m coming,” I shouted back and reluctantly closed my laptop.

***

I quickly cleaned myself and ate my breakfast. The five of us spent most of the day cleaning, packing, sorting and so on. Boy, was there a lot of it. I realised I won’t be able to stalk Alex until after we move in. But that was okay because it meant I won’t have to bike for like 20 minutes to get there.

All the mindless, manual labor allowed me to form a sophisticated plan in my head. I would go near his house and… roam around till I see him! Well, that wasn’t much of a plan but let’s say it’d work. Then he’d see me and run to me, screaming “Owen! Owen! What are you doing here?! You live here, too?! That’s SO cool! There’s something I wanted to ask you about… will you be my boyfriend?” and bang, just like that we’d be making sweet love on my king-sized bed in my new bedroom. The plan had no holes in it whatsoever!

“Hey Junior, why are you smiling like a lunatic?” Wayne’s remark shook me up from my daydream.

“Ah, nothing, I just thought about a funny cat video I saw.”

“That’s my Junior, thinking about the pussy all day. Seems like you’re still high from yesterday, am I right?” Well, that was partially true, I only just realised I still felt a little light-headed and the breakfast tasted better than normal. “Hey, you wanna spare some?” he asked when I didn’t reply, “I’ll need a way to relax after dealing with this mess all day.”

“Uhm, sure, let me…” I was interrupted by my phone vibrating in my pocket. Cayden.

“Hello?”

“Hey mate, how’s it going?” Cayden sounded eager as usual. Wayne smiled and retreated to his room.

“Good but we've been packing our stuff the whole day. I need a break.”

“Want to come over?”

“Nah, parents won’t let me go. Some of our stuff is going there today so that we have some essentials in place after we move tomorrow.”

“Sucks! Will you come over to jam with us on Monday?”

“Um, I guess. I’ll let you know tomorrow, kay?”

“Cool. You’ll have to show me your new room when you’re all moved in.”

“Sure mate! I’ll be setting up PlayStation in my room. You know what that means?”

“That I’ll be kicking your ass in Soul Calibur every day?”

“In your dreams! Alright mate, I have to be going. I’ll call you tomorrow, cool?”

“Yeah sure, see you around,” he said and hung up.

The rest of the day was pretty much the same. At dinner time, Dad ordered pizza for everybody and that was about the only break we got. Before 8:00 pm, the rental service truck left with our stuff and dad and Wayne followed them to handle the unloading. I stayed with Mum and we relaxed watching telly for a while.

“So, how was it yesterday?” Mum asked, “I didn’t have a chance to ask you.”

“Oh, it was good. A good show. One of the best so far, actually.”

“That’s great! How many people?”

“Oh, about 200, sold out! And I think we pushed a good deal of merch too.” There was a merch company handling everything for us for a commission. It saved us a lot of headache.

“That’s nice! Dad was talking to Drew today but I didn’t have time to ask him about it either. Did you boys manage to fight off all the groupies?” she laughed.

“Ah yes, I guess we’re coping. But frankly, it wasn’t so bad. There was even a boy who actually wanted to talk to me about drumming.” I felt a little strange talking about Alex. He was supposed to be my little secret.

“So now you even have a fanboy, that’s brilliant!” She mocked me.

“Yeah, we have all kinds of fan… people these days,” I dodged and we both laughed.

“You play another one next weekend, right?” she asked, making herself a drink. Gin and sparkling water, as always. Low-carbs diet.

“Aye, on Friday,” I said.

I was looking forward to it. Maybe I’ll meet more hot groupie boys. That would be sick!

***

On Sunday morning, we had our last breakfast in our old place and moved to the new one right after. It was a big, century-old, stand-alone house in a nice neighbourhood consisting of similar buildings. It had a large double garage and a decent garden. There was an impressive walnut tree next to it and the closest house was some 40 yards away. My parents and Sarah had their rooms on the main floor and upstairs were mine and Wayne’s. There was also a large, separate bathroom on our floor so the big boys didn’t have to share with the rest of the family anymore.

It turned out to be another busy day but I enjoyed it more, being able to arrange my room the way I wanted. I could see the walnut tree right through my window. The bed was huge. I wasn’t sure if it was a message from my parents that I should finally find myself a girlfriend? I wasn’t interested but instead, I could have my whole band in this bed for a sleepover if I wanted. That was an interesting idea, now that I thought of it. To be honest, I haven’t seen any of the lads naked and it would present a good opportunity. On the other hand, I put them in the friend zone a long time ago and I wasn’t sure if I wanted them out of it. But maybe I could invite Alex. We could jam on my electronic set for a while and after we’re done, hit the shower together… Speaking of Alex, I couldn’t wait to finally stalk the cutie and I promised myself to do that right after the band practice the next day.

Since no one had time to cook, we went to the city centre to grab some Chinese food. Once back, I chilled in my room for a while, plucking my guitar and thinking about stuff. I liked the feng-shui of my new room. I could spend quality alone time here whenever I wanted. If only there was a lock in my door…

Speaking of which, I heard knocking and Wayne came in.

“What’s up, bro? How do you like the new room?”

“Thanks, it’s… roomy.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed. It’s really big. Wanna see mine?” he said, grabbing his crotch and we laughed. Wayne was roughly a bigger version of me with his slim body toned from playing football for the school.

“Maybe another time, man, not sure if I want to see it now. Now that we talk, I realised I forgot to give you the weed yesterday. Still want it?”

“Hell yes bro, I’m knackered. How about we go and explore the area for a proper smoke spot?”

“Sound plan. Give me a minute to roll one and let’s meet outside, good?”

“Good man!”

Five minutes later, we were outside, going in a random direction. I knew the area more or less but never been much in this particular neighbourhood. We walked for about 5 minutes, chatting about this and that until we reached a park. It was a really nice one, with a large pond in the middle. We found a secluded bench on its side and I lit the joint.

It was getting dark and there was no one around. We shortly relaxed and smoked in silence. I had a feeling this was going to be our favorite spot. Watching the water was very relaxing.

Suddenly, we were alarmed by rustling in the bushes nearby. I quickly dropped the joint and stomped it with my shoe, expecting a police patrol to show up at any second. Instead, I saw a strange, black dog emerging from the darkness.

For a second, I thought it was a puma or a lioness because of its slick fur and the way it walked. It stood there and looked at us from a distance. There was no sight of its owner anywhere and it did not bode well. We exchanged worried looks with Wayne and waited for it to do something. This far away, I couldn’t see it clearly. While not huge, it looked quite savage and dangerous. And stared at me with its large, red eyes. I was already high and wasn’t sure if I was imagining this or what. Wayne watched it with a dull expression on his face, so I figured it must’ve been real. After a minute, it turned its head and trotted in the other direction, leaving us dumbfounded.

“What the fuck was that,” Wayne said emphasizing every word, “Was that a tiger or something? I’m way too stoned for this shit, let’s head back.”

I was too startled to say anything so we just stood up and went back home. Make no mistake, I was not one to get easily scared by a dog but this one had some demonic aura to it. And the more I think about it, it did not look like a dog at all. I know it was dark and we were high… alright, I guess that explains a lot.

Back in my room, I was still in the mood for pleasuring myself and it felt super exciting to do it in my new bed. I got naked quickly and started rubbing with a sigh of relief. I went really slowly, wanting to make this first time special and memorable. The bedding was fresh and fragrant and doing it in this big room felt almost as if I was being watched.

The feeling was so strong that I opened my eyes just to see Wayne in my door with his jaw dropped, staring at me. In my current state, it took me 5 seconds to process the situation before I covered myself with a pillow. This made my brother blink a few times as if he woke up from a trance. Then he mouthed “sorry” inaudibly and closed the door hastily. I was in a deep shock. Why didn’t he knock? Why didn’t I hear him open the door? Did I leave it ajar? Oh no…

I rolled on the bed and pressed my face to the pillow, feeling more embarrassed than I’ve ever felt in my life. That was not a moment I was ready to share with somebody. Now there was no way I could focus on cumming. I just turned off the light and went back to bed.

***

Breakfast was beyond awkward. My parents and my sister chatted merrily about the new house and all the stuff they’re going to do while me and my brother sat there in silence, barely touching our food. We’ve seen each other naked a couple of times but hardly ever talked about sex. Not to mention seeing each other hard. Eventually, dad asked:

“How about you boys, how do you like your rooms?”

“Um…” I said and gave a quick glance at Wayne who chose the exact same moment to look at me. I burned red. “I really love it. It’s very… big.” Please, someone, deliver me from this agony.

“Yeah,” Wayne added, “really big and comfortable.”

Ten seconds of silence.

“Can I be excused?” I asked, “I’ll finish later. I want to look around the neighbourhood.”

I really needed to be out of there. My plan was to roam around for a few hours. Then I could go to the band practice before dinner. After dinner, I would go and try to find Alex. This way I could avoid being alone with Wayne for the entire day. I thought I’d be ready to talk to him like after a month or two, not sooner. And that’s what I did. I explored the area, taking note of points of interest and places to hang out if my mates ever come by.

Later, I messaged my mum that I’ll be home after practice and rode my bike to Cayden’s. They had a large, three-story house with the attic partially arranged as a rehearsal room. We had a lot of stuff there and my drum set was staying there all year round. I could come to play whenever I wanted and it was awesome. Both Cayden’s parents were at work and all the boys were already upstairs.

“Alright boys, this is our final practice before the gig on Friday,” said Mike, “let’s burn this place down.”

“I’d be careful with burning it, mate,” Cayden replied.

And rightfully so, because we did almost burn it. We were on fire! We added this Tame Impala song, Elephant to the set and it was such a banger with Cayden playing a synth solo in the middle.

After two hours, we finished playing and sat on the couches, bingeing on onion-flavoured crisps, talking about farting and such. I showed the boys some pictures of the house and my room and invited them to come over in a few days. It's gonna feel great to beat their spotted asses in Soul Calibur.

I wanted to stay longer but I was having Alex in the back of my head the entire time. Eventually, I ditched the boys, telling them I had to help my parents and hopped on my bicycle. I checked the address once more on my phone and in less than 10 minutes, I was there. The street looked really nice and there were people here and there, strolling or walking their dogs. I activated scanning mode and surveyed the area for any hot boys my gaydar could detect. I spotted some indeed but there was no sign of Alex. I slowed down when passing his (?) house but no one was around. Well duh, did I expect him to live on the street? Even if he wasn’t in his room, he could be anywhere. I explored a few adjacent streets but slowly started losing hope. I wasn’t going to stalk him forever until he came out. If he lived here in the first place, that is. After 20 minutes, I passed the house one last time and gave up.

I will simply message him on Facebook. Screw my puny investigation.

Riding back home, I was on the street just next to the park we went to with Wayne yesterday. That reminded me of the puma-dog-whatever monster. That, in turn, reminded me of Wayne catching me red-handed, which scared me even more! I gulped. I knew I had to face it eventually, so I could just as well get it over with now. I was sure he’d be cool about it but boy, it was gonna be awkward!

My thoughts were interrupted when a black shape emerged from the bush in the park. It wasn’t far away and I could still see it clearly in the evening light. Once again, I felt almost a demonic presence and a shiver coming through my body.

It was something else, this time.

It was a fox. And its fur was pitch black. A black motherfucking fox. How in the world?

He stared at me with its red eyes and I stared back in terror.

When I heard screeching tires just next to my left ear, it was already too late to react.

“At least I won’t have to confront Wayne today. Or ever,” I thought, as the car sent me flying across the street. The fox didn’t move an inch.