Chapter Text
In the auditorium style classroom, Pomni watches one of her classmates, Jax, trudge into class. He climbs the stairs two at a time.
Due to their Professor’s booming voice, Pomni typically opts to sit higher up, towards the back by the projector. Despite the large classroom, it’s a rather small sized class with a little over thirty students.
Pulling her hood over her head, Pomni makes herself as small as possible. In the end it doesn’t matter, Jax spots her almost immediately.
Typically when he notices her in crowds he’d grin, or use his thumb and pointer finger to make an ‘L’ at her.
Today he does no such thing. In fact, he bumps his hip into one of the long tables that leads down a different row, clearly cursing under his breath.
Having known him for a couple years, Pomni can tell he’s off today. His typically overflowing swagger appears to be at zero.
Stomping up the last couple stairs he slinks into her row of seats and takes the empty spot beside her. Releasing his crossbody backpack onto the ground by his feet with a heavy thud, Jax slides into the chair and drops his head onto the table. His ears fall limply over the edge.
Clicking at her laptop, Pomni pokes his side. “What’s wrong with you?”
Jax grunts into the table.
Unbothered by his non-answer, Pomni rolls her eyes. Choosing to ignore his dramatics, she instead continues working on an assignment for a different class.
Professor Orbsman can be heard before he’s seen. Storming over to the presentation area of the lecture hall, he sets to work on his statistics presentation for the day.
Saving and clicking out of her other assignment, she opens up her notes for this class. Peeking over at Jax beside her, she taps at his shoulder a couple times to alert him that the lecture is starting.
“...I’m listening.” He mumbles.
“You sure?” Pomni questions, looking between her notes and Orbsman’s powerpoint.
Turning his head towards her, he keeps it against the table. “What I don’t remember, I'll just steal from your notes.”
Narrowing her eyes down at him, she ignores the small flutter of her heart, just from being on the receiving end of one of his boyish grins.
“Bold assumption that I’ll let you borrow them.”
Jolting when she feels his pointer finger poke into her side, Pomni has to cover her mouth to muffle the yelp she’d been about to utter.
Clicking his tongue, he keeps his tired gaze set on her. “So jumpy.”
“Pay attention.” She tries again. Grabbing his finger still pressed into her side, Pomni drops it onto the table by his head.
Jax wakes to the side of his face pressed against a lecture hall table, his cheek damp with drool.
Recognizing that his shoulder is being aggressively poked into, he slowly comes to.
“Wake up.”
Pomni.
Gen Ed?
No. Statistics.
“Pay attention because I have to run to my next class.” Blinking slowly, Jax tries to pre-emptively fight off the headache forming from the bright lights. The ear closest to Pomni twitches when she starts talking again.
“Orbsman partnered us up for a project. I sent you the rubric. I’ll text you tonight to set up a time so we can get a head start on it this weekend.”
Collecting himself in pieces from his hour long statistics nap, Jax is suddenly mortified.
He’s bricked.
Like, dick straining against where his sheath parts.
He’s about to bust through the metaphorical gates.
Pomni’s staring down at him expectantly.
What did she want?
Dazed, he asks, “what?”
Adopting an annoyed expression, one of her eyelids twitches.
“I’ll text you.” She clips, weaving herself around the back of his chair. Stopping where the stairs start to climb down, Pomni turns back to him. “Try to get some rest. You look like shit.”
Remaining seated, his dick twitches. Grabbing the bag by his feet, Jax pulls it over his head to secure it on his shoulder, waiting for Pomni to leave so he can get up and cover up.
“Here I was thinking I had woken up looking the best I’ve ever…looked.” He jokes lamely. It’s definitely not his best line. Leaning back in his chair, he hopes he’s feigning nonchalance successfully.
Pomni runs her eyes over his form quickly, smiling in the process. “Whatever you say, bunny boy.”
With that she hops down the stairs towards the door.
Strategically getting up, he positions the bulky part of his shoulder bag over his front to cover up the bulge, that’s ready to become a real problem.
–
After nodding off through his second class of the day, Jax trudged back to his apartment. Thankfully it doesn’t take him long due to the short proximity to campus.
Stepping into the shared space, he can hear Kaufmo, his roommate, yelling loudly, most likely on a game with his friends.
Dropping his bag to the floor, and kicking his shoes off, Jax drags himself over to the couch where he drops himself face first. In his front pocket he can feel his phone vibrate a couple times, but he’s already falling asleep before he can bother checking who’s bugging him.
–
Everything sounds like he’s under water.
“...n’t he work on Thursday nights?”
Ribbit?
“Shit. Yeah, he does.”
Kaufmo.
“Help me get him up.” Kaufmo grunts, then Jax feels a foot nudging his tail.
Kicking one of his legs out at the offender, Jax lets them know he’s awake.
“...mm, time?”
“Almost seven.” Ribbit answers, from closer to the kitchen.
It still throws him through a loop when Ribbit comes over. They’d broken up a year or so ago, after agreeing they worked better as friends. However, there were instances, like now, where he’s in vulnerable positions and wants no part of her seeing him in said situations.
Navigating upright, Jax’s head pounds.
Am I getting sick?
“Woah-ho. Good dream, dude?” Kaufmo chuckles.
“What are you on about?” He mumbles, rubbing at his eyes, hunching over.
There it is again.
This time his tip is partially poking out, practically burning against his inner thigh.
There’s no good way to play it off.
Standing, and adjusting quickly, Jax stalks off to their bathroom. Praying Ribbit hadn’t seen anything, he can only hope Kaufmo won’t yap about it the second he’s out of the room.
Nothing she hasn’t seen before, he thinks. Even so, that’s not necessarily a good thing.
Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he checks the time. Sure enough, he’s got to hoof his ass to the bowling alley for his shift.
Jumping up and down a few times Jax desperately tries to both wake himself, and force his dick to calm down. While jumping, he mentally maps out where his wallet is on the kitchen counter and how much time he has to wait before the next bus.
Having calmed his blood marginally, Jax vacates the bathroom. Making his way to the kitchen, he grabs his wallet and an energy drink from the fridge. Kaufmo and Ribbit are muttering to each other in the way of his path to the door.
“We’ll be downtown tonight if you want to come out after your shift.” Kaufmo offers. Ribbit nods along nicely, as if he hadn’t just run out of the room with his dick trying to bust out.
“Can’t tonight. Later losers.” Jax says, fluidly opening and shutting the door behind him.
–
He’s five minutes late to his shift, but his manager ends up being ten, so he’s no worse for wear.
The bowling alley is busy for a Thursday night.
Scanning the lanes, Jax observes what looks like a couple of awkward work events, a tween birthday party, a double date, and what appears to be a ladies book club.
The book club sticks out to him because they’ve reserved two lanes, one being a coveted end. That and they have a frilly banner, fitted with cutesy name tags for the members.
Jax already has a headache just thinking about this shift, the clean laundry pile he has to fold on his bed, and the homework he has to do when he gets home. He wouldn’t have so much to do if he hadn’t slept through most of his afternoon.
–
Thirty minutes into his shift he helped a few of the straggling book club ladies with their shoes and fixed one of the janky lanes pin machines.
Back behind the counter, he crouches to sip at his drink, praying it’ll give him some life because he feels like a walking corpse right now.
“Hello-oo?” A familiar timid voice calls from the other side of the counter.
Setting his drink back on a tucked away shelf, he fumbles spilling a couple drops. Brushing off his pants, Jax stands, revealing himself.
“Hey Pom-pom.”
“Oh! Hey.” She genuinely appears taken aback. “I forgot you worked here.”
“I would looove to forget I work here.”
Pomni sucks in her lips and smiles at his lame comment.
Using the counter for support she stands on her toes and looks him over, then falls back onto her heels. “I don’t know…the branded polo really suits you.”
Glancing down at said branded polo, Jax rolls his eyes at her.
“What brings you in?”
“You know, I was in the neighborhood and I was thinking about how much I really wanted to throw around some heavy balls.”
Leaning against the counter closer to her, Jax allows himself a good look at Pomni. She’s dressed in nicer clothes than what she typically wears to class. She’s got on a pair of skinny jeans paired with a red scoop neck blouse style tank top. If he squints he can tell she’s not wearing a bra. A bold choice, but with her chest she could pull it off.
She even put her hair in a ponytail, her bangs and a few stray strands are notably left out to frame her face.
She looks hot.
Gazing past her at the lanes, so it doesn’t seem like he’s checking her out, Jax veers the conversation back into safe territory. “You hate that glorified orbeez’s class that much?”
Slouching dramatically, Pomni leans against the counter. He feels like he might need to step back to brace for what's coming. “I can’t even understand him half the time! He’s somehow mastered shout-mumbling. It’s awful. He’s somehow worse than the professor I had last semester who would just disappear randomly during his lectures, but he still expected us to finish the work…even though it was most times over things he never even taught! Because he wasn’t there!”
Jax watches her finish her fiery spiel, then follows her distracted eyes to a frantically waving red haired woman.
“You’re a lifesaver, Pomni!”
Immediately annoyed that his conversation with Pomni has been interrupted, Jax watches the exchange.
The woman takes in the space, her obvious good eye lands on the book club. “Wow, a good turn out so far!”
Piecing together that Pomni’s with the book club, Jax silently turns his attention to her. She’s still paying attention to her acquaintance, but he can see her cheeks bloom into a shade of bright pink. It boosts his confidence that she’s still cognizant of him even with her attention on her friend.
“Sir,” The stringy red haired woman addresses him. “Can I get a size 8 round, and…?” Turning to Pomni the woman waits expectantly.
Cutting her off before she can speak, he mutters dismissively, “I know her size. Give me a sec.”
Padding to the small side room behind the counter, that smells of feet and cleaner, he pulls out three sets of shoes.
Emerging, he can’t help but be irritated at the way the other woman pats Pomni’s arm like it’s nothing. They must have a good rapport if Pomni’s letting her touch.
“Ragatha, really, it’s nothing. I’m just glad you found a group you like!”
Ragatha.
Stuffing a set of shoes under the counter before they notice him, Jax sets the size 8’s out and slides them across the counter.
“...and here are yours.”
Heaving the comically largest shoes they have onto the counter, Jax grins at Pomni, showing his teeth.
Pomni goes right into mean mugging him. While Ragatha darts her eyes between them.
“Do you two know each other?” She questions, tucking a string of her red hair behind her ear.
Waiting for how Pomni will describe their situation, Jax shrugs at her friend. “This is the first I’ve ever seen this person.” Putting his hands up he plays dumb.
Scoffing, Pomni clears up her friend’s obvious confusion. “We’ve shared a few classes over the last couple years.”
Raising a brow at her, Jax notes she’s avoided adding the fact that they drunkenly and sloppily, made out at a party last year after their respective break-ups. And that ever since, they’ve been stuck in a weird flirting purgatory where both are too afraid to make the first move.
Turning back to Jax, Pomni gives him a look that says to fork over her actual size.
Clicking his tongue, he reaches under the counter and pulls out the proper shoes.
–
A couple hours have passed since he clocked in, and he’s been forced to drop off more than a few pitchers of beer to the book club group. He doesn’t mind too much, he gets to mess with Pomni when he does. It mostly involves listening to the group’s surprisingly graphic conversations about certain scenes from the book, and making scandalized faces at Pomni in the process. That or he pulls on her ponytail when she isn’t paying attention.
On his latest pitcher drop off, he overhears a few of the ladies talking about a scene where the demon prince character seduces the token love interest with his powerful pheromones, which sent them on a three day sex bender. Apparently.
One of the members, a red ribboned being with a dual comedy and tragedy mask for a face, is really animated about the topic.
The whole thing makes him want to puke.
Departing from their lanes, he discreetly tugs on Pomni’s ponytail. Not looking back to see her reaction he moves on to his next task of fixing a pin clog in the back.
Hoisting around pins, the club’s conversation triggers a weird family memory of his. Back when he’d been on speaking terms with his parents, Jax recalls being forced to attend a massive family party during his teen years.
At the event he’d walked into a room at the venue, trying to get away from the crowd only to stumble in on a scene he definitely should not have walked in on. One of his dozens of cousins was getting frisky with their spouse. He had walked in and walked right out all within a matter of seconds. But the experience stuck with him, as much as he had not wanted it to. The two had been so engrossed in each other, and the sex they had been having appeared so…primal.
With all the porn he’s watched over the years, he’s never seen anything like it. Not that he’s seeking that kind of thing out, but there was something to it that he could never quite label. In a way it reminded him of what the book club had been conversing about.
He remembers how taken aback he’d been. Growing up, Jax’s entire family seemed to all be different shades of conservative. Sex, politics, and money were never spoken of. So to have seen something so graphic at that age, it shook up his entire world view, while simultaneously answering the question about why he has so many cousins.
After fixing the pin issue, he returns to the counter. His manager tells Jax to take his break, to which he does so gladly.
Maneuvering around a co-worker in the shoe closet, he makes his way to the hidden door that leads to the back alley by the dumpsters. Exiting through the heavy door, Jax immediately crouches. Semi-leaning against the brick of the building, he lets his head fall forward. Rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands, he groans loudly.
Despite his better judgement, Jax decides to call the only family member he’s semi-conversational with. Though even semi-conversational is probably being generous.
There’s something that’s been nagging at him.
Reaching into his back pocket, he pulls out his neglected phone. Ignoring the page of notifications, he clicks on his contacts and scrolls all the way down.
EJ 🚫
Tapping at the contact before he can regret it, he listens to the tone ring, and ring. On the third dial tone someone picks up.
“Who’s this.” A mean sounding woman barks into the receiver.
“Who is this?” Jax returns, pulling his phone away from his face he double checks he’s called the right person.
On the other end he hears some cooing and a ‘darling’ thrown around, before the familiar nervous voice of his cousin comes on.
“Jax? Is that y-you?”
“Yeah it’s me. Who else do you talk to bi-yearly?”
“A-actually…” EJ starts, having a response on hand for whatever god awful reason.
“Save it, I’m on my break. Got a question for ya.”
“You do?”
“Do you remember that family party years ago when Uncle Ray got drunk and was all over Aunt Bella, and it made everyone super uncomfortable?”
“Yeah. Ray’s ruts never synced up with Bella’s heats.” His cousin answers matter of factly, surprising Jax. Whenever EJ’s tone shifted it always alarmed him. EJ typically came off as nervous, skittish, and overly friendly. Continuing, EJ decides it’s a good time to overshare, “Now that you mention it, I’m due for my own soon. Spring just sprung after all!”
“Gross. Well, this has been great and all but I’ve gotta go. Talk to ya in another couple years.”
EJ starts sputtering, but Jax hangs up before he can listen to anymore.
Pulling up google, he starts typing, but is interrupted when none other than Pomni walks around the side of the building.
After two mugs of beer, and helping Ragatha get her footing with this new friend group of hers, Pomni decides to use the bathroom.
The book club isn’t her cup of tea. Neither is bowling, but Ragatha has been a good friend to her and Pomni wanted to support her.
Excusing herself from the group, she meanders to the bathroom, does her business, then checks her phone.
There is still no response from Jax about setting up a time for this weekend.
Venturing out of the bathroom, Pomni scopes out the place, seeing if she can find him. No where to be found, she makes her way to the shoe counter. An older employee is working.
Biting the bullet she approaches the guy. “Is Jax here?”
“He’s on break. Probably out back.” The man gruffs, turning to a customer.
Taking a look over her shoulder, Pomni assures Ragatha is okay. Caught up in a conversation with a member, Pomni decides she’ll be ok to slip out for a few minutes.
The cool night air feels incredible after being stuck in the loud bowling alley for the last two hours.
Losing her step briefly, she recovers and sticks closer to the exterior of the building. The beer seems to have done a number on her. She’ll eat some of the appetizers they got when she goes back in to help sober up.
Wandering around two corners she finally hears him. It sounds like he’s on a call. Pomni hears him say his hurried goodbye, which sounds more like a cut off, so she takes her cue to greet him.
“I oughta pull your ears for what you’ve been doing to my hair all night.” She opens smoothly.
Cringing internally, Pomni watches as he whips his head over to her. A flash of what she’d label as alarm, settles over his eyes, but then it vanishes. Shaking his head, Jax stands to his full height, his ears shift upright.
Stuffing his phone in his back pocket, she watches Jax raise his arms over his head in a long stretch.
Unashamed, she ogles the patch of his revealed abdomen when his shirt shifts.
“Don’t threaten me with a good time.” He returns belatedly, settling his arms down by his sides.
Moving closer, she stands next to him, leaning her back against the brick. Certain areas of the loose brick poke at the exposed parts of her back.
Elbowing into his side, she ignores his remark.
“Didn’t take you for a romance reader.”
“I’m not. Do you have a cigarette?”
“That may be all I have.” Reaching into his front pocket he pulls out a singular cigarette and his scratched up lighter.
He acts like he’s going to hand her the cig, but ends up yanking it back. “Comes with a price.”
“What do you want?”
“Explain how you’re in a romance book club, but don’t read the genre.”
Plucking both items from his hand, she lights up and inhales deeply.
Blowing smoke out, Pomni explains, “I’m here for my friend. She went through a really bad break up a couple months ago. Like, breaking off an engagement bad. Finding herself after losing herself, bad.”
Yoinking the cigarette from between her two fingers, he puffs. On the exhale he meets her annoyed expression. “Go on.” He says with a lazy wave of his hand.
Taking the stick out of his mouth mid inhale, she taps the ash away. “So she’s been in the process of getting her life back in order, and trying out new clubs, and activities in hopes she finds hobbies she likes. Sometimes I offer to go to them with her so she doesn’t feel so anxious about it. Plus it gets me out of my comfort zone too.”
“What, not enough abandoned buildings to explore?” Jax counters with. He’s one of the few people who know of her hobby and youtube channel. During a certain drunk escapade a year back, she’d revealed her channel name to him. To her despair, he had not been drunk enough to forget.
Without fail, on the rare occasion that she does post a video, he’s always in the comments within a couple days. Most times it's a stupid comment about her filming vest, or how shaky the camera is, but there are some out of character nice ones every so often.
“This…takes precedence.” She says, then sucks in a heavy inhale.
“Well, aren’t you a good friend.” Jax returns sardonically. “Say, does your friend know you’re out back smoking with one of the degenerate employees?” Nudging her bicep with the back of his hand, he grins down at her.
“That’s funny you should say that, because I could have sworn I saw you on your phone. Yet, you haven’t responded to my messages about setting up a time for this weekend to work on our project.” Pomni huffs.
Scooting a step closer to her so that their arms touch, Jax takes the cigarette back. It’s probably got two good puffs left.
“Saturday night? You can come to my place. Kaufmo’s usually out.”
“I work. I can come by after? It might be late though.”
“It’s whatever. Boom. Happy now?” Bumping his hip into her, he hands back the cig willingly.
“Yes, actually.” Bumping her hip back into his, she grins, taking the last puff then dropping it to the crackling asphalt, to stomp it out.
Checking his phone, Jax groans. “I gotta get back. Later Pom.”
Nodding at him, she decides she should return to her group.
Stepping over to the heavy metal door, etched into the building beside them, Jax pauses. Placing his hand on the door handle, he turns back to her.
“By the way…” Pulling out a pack of cigarettes from one of his pockets, he shakes it around. “I lied.”
Unable to form a response in time, too stunned by his bold behavior, Pomni watches as he turns the handle and strides back inside.
Pomni had waved to Jax when her friend’s group was leaving. He had only been capable of nodding back at her, having been in the middle of a shoe return.
After work, he’d taken the bus, and clambered up the outdoor apartment stairs to his unit. Inside it’s quiet. Kaufmo, Ribbit, and whatever friends they made are probably still out.
Somehow simultaneously wired, and exhausted, Jax grabs a soda from the fridge and locks himself in his room. Continuing to ignore the laundry pile atop his bed, he sits at his desk and boots up his computer.
What EJ had mentioned so casually during their call had really gotten under Jax’s skin.
Even though he is the only one who uses his computer, he still clicks into an incognito tab, and searches: rut symptoms. It makes him feel like a total loser. Kind of like the equivalent of searching up boobs for the first time on his family’s shared computer.
Luckily, with the amount of people out there sharing similar human/animal characteristics as him, there is a lot of information to sift through.
His home life had been a mess growing up, and god knows his parents never told him shit about medical, let alone sexual conditions they may have passed down.
Jax isn’t a complete novice with sex, he’s had sex with Ribbit an odd handful of times back when they were together, but he’s not exactly versed. After all, he could get her off, his dick up, and come, what more was there to it?
Using his mouse to scroll, Jax clicks on a medical article about the topic: Animal/Humanoid Sexual Health.
Using the search feature he types in the terms rut and heat.
Scrolling down a few pages into the article he finds an entire section on it.
Rubbing at the center of his forehead, where a headache has started pinpricking behind his eyes, Jax blinks and reads through the article, overwhelmed by information.
–
Having spent a good half hour reading, Jax has self diagnosed that he’s in the early stages of a very belated rut. Apparently, this shit starts anywhere from your early teens to your mid twenties. Jax had even read a fine print bullet point that explained how trauma and neglect in your early teens could delay the onset in certain groups.
Since he fell into both the trauma and neglect categories, he was definitely part of that delayed grouping.
Apparently exhaustion, irritability, possessive behavior, and arousal were all day 1 symptoms.
Day 2 suggests he’ll be hyper-active, and aroused beyond anything he’s ever experienced before.
Day 3 and 4 are supposedly going to be heightened versions of day 2.
Pushing his keyboard up towards his monitor, Jax drops his head onto his desk, banging against it a few times.
Not for the first time that day, mortification sets in.
He’d gotten hard around Pomni earlier that day.
He’s having her over his place on what will probably be one of his most severe days.
FUCK
Hastily reaching for his phone, Jax opens up his text chain with her. Not seeing any information about when this project is due, he texts her.
when is this thing due? this weekend may not work for me
Bouncing his foot up and down, he sets his phone down.
Just thinking about her right now was making him horny!
FUCK
Beneath the thin fabric of his sweatpants he can feel the rumbling of activity stirring within his sheath.
His phone buzzes twice.
Pomni: it’s literally due on monday. did something happen?
Ignoring her message, he shakes his mouse, to wake up his monitor. Frantically searching cures or anything that could put his current condition on hold for a couple days, he comes up empty.
Literally the only cure for this bullshit is jerking off miserably, or sex.
i’ll make it work, nvm
Turning off his computer, Jax leaves his phone to charge at his desk. Opting to leave the pile on his bed, Jax takes to the carpeted floor in the space between his bed and desk.
Laying down, he hopes sleep will magically make this newfound knowledge, and possible condition– disappear.
–
A few hours pass. It’s early morning when he comes to.
Jax’s heart feels like it’s about to beat out of his chest, he can practically hear it vibrating. He’s drenched in sweat. On top of his clothes being soaked through, there’s an uncharacteristic sticky wet spot on the front of his sweat pants.
Waking to such an awful multitude of sensory nightmares, Jax shifts onto his side off his stomach, and curls inward, tugging down on his ears.
After allowing himself a moment to silently freak out, he gets up and listens outside his door for any sound. Thankfully there’s no sign of Kaufmo being awake, aside from his sleep apnea machine.
Seems like he made it home safe.
Snatching a clean pair of shorts from his pile of clothes waddles to the bathroom.
–
Friday is positively miserable.
After his early morning emission, he had been too wired to go back to sleep. Popping a couple tylenol to take the edge off his blaring headache, he went back to his room and tried to play some video games.
It was like the edges of his vision were clouded and he couldn’t think, let alone, see straight.
The day had gone by in a blurry haze.
He attended his singular Friday class, and droned through his early afternoon shift at the bowling alley, then retreated back to his apartment.
Entering the space, Jax is greeted by his roommate leaning out of the fridge, snacking on a leftover pizza slice.
“Welcome home, honey!” Kaufmo jokes with his mouth full.
Shaking his head, annoyed, Jax swats Kaufmo out of the way to grab a soda.
“What’s with you? You’re moody.”
Ignoring the comment, Jax steps out of the main kitchen area to sit on their couch. Sipping at his drink, he thinks he needs to take more pain meds soon.
“Ribbit was worried about you. Said you looked stressed.”
“She saw me for literally five minutes. Kind of a bold assumption.” Jax clips back. Grabbing at the remote he turns on their thrifted TV.
“You never come out with us anymore.”
“I’ve got work and school. You should try it sometime.”
“I work.” Kaufmo fires back.
“Scooping dog shit out of rich ladies' yards isn’t gonna pay forever.” Jax grouses, changing the port to their Playstation 2.
“Yeah, and wracking pins is really going to add to your 401k. Get out of my face.”
The two have been getting into these little spats every other day since high school, the insults they threw at each other were, most times, only surface level jabs.
“By the way, make yourself scarce tomorrow night.”
Shutting the fridge, no worse for wear, Kaufmo comes over. Picking up two controllers by the screen, he sits on the other edge of the couch. “Already done. Why?”
“Group project.”
Handing one off to Jax, they mindlessly start a match of whatever game is in the system.
“Anyone I know?” Kaufmo asks, the sound of buttons being pressed is loud between.
Remaining quiet, trying to act like he’s focused on the match, Jax ignores the question.
“Oho~! So I do.”
He can feel the urge to bounce his foot. Jax barely keeps his composure, assuring his heel remains flat against the floor.
“Now I’m tempted to stick around and see who it actually is, but I think I have a pretty good idea.”
Jax wins the match, so he acknowledges his roommate, who is actively waggling his eyebrows at him.
Facing the screen again, Jax hits the option for another match.
“What do you call her again? Pom-pom?”
Groaning, Jax gives in. “Pomni. Her name is Pomni, and we have to work on some stats project.”
“Wait, was she the one from that party?! Oh my god! Ribbit was pissed when all that went down.”
Kaufmo wins the second match.
“That’s her problem. She was the one who ended things.” Scratching at the base of one of his ears, Jax feels squirmy, like he needs to be moving. Standing from his spot, Jax glances between Kaufmo and the TV. “Are you gonna play somethin’?”
“Leaving already?”
“I gotta lie down.” He lies.
Leering at Jax, Kaufmo shakes his head. “You can turn it off. I’ll be out of here tomorrow, so no need to worry your pretty little ears off.”
Giving a curt smile, and a stiff nod, Jax vacates to his room.
Finally tackling the pile of clothes on his bed, he starts folding. Shifting his weight between his feet frequently, like he could hop out his window, or run a marathon, he does his best to stay focused on the task at hand.
Trying his damndest not to think of what Kaufmo had mentioned, Jax can’t help himself. The memory is hazy, but he remembers enough.
One year ago…
A week or so after Jax and Ribbit’s break-up, Jax had taken Kaufmo up on an offer to hit a party.
Kaufmo had really laid it on thick that he needed Jax to go with him because some girl he wanted to talk to would be there, and it would be lame if he showed up alone. Jax didn’t quite understand the logic, but decided that if anything he could get shitfaced.
He recalls it being odd that Ribbit wasn’t in their entourage, the three had been attached at the hip since freshman year of highschool, so to not have Ribbit along on an outing threw them off kilter.
Trailing after Kaufmo who had been leading them towards the run down booming frat house, Jax sighs.
It’s wall to wall bodies in a poorly lit house. The smell of weed and beer is heavy, bordering on noxious.
Kaufmo nods at Jax, signaling he’s ready to separate. Giving a lazy peace sign, Jax wanders to where the alcohol is being distributed. Pouring a cup from a large keg, he observes what looks like the familiar back of someone’s head.
He’s got some rapport with her, so he decides to lean down close and mutter, “boo”.
An elbow thrashes into his stomach. Pomni whirls around with fierce eyes, clearly ready to lay into someone.
Fixing her face, she visibly relaxed. “Oh. It’s you.”
Clutching his center, he chokes, “Who did you think it was?!”
“Doesn’t matter now. Who are you here with?”
“My roommate. You?”
“A friend…” Getting on her toes, Pomni does a quick scan of the room, “...maybe.”
“You’re in luck. I can be your friend if you tell me where you scavenged a cup.”
Pomni gives him a surprised glance, then nods her head to the counter behind him. It’s littered with bottles, cans, and a mix of empty and full cups. Grabbing a stack of empty cups, he takes one from the middle and brings it over to the keg.
Pouring, he observes Pomni out of the corner of his eye, kind of lingering around him.
He’s seen her around campus hanging out with one of the foreign exchange students, so he figures they’re probably here together. “Where’s your gummy boyfriend?”
Looking down into her cup, she kicks at a crushed can on the ground.
“He’s no more.” Pomni answers meekly.
“Jesus, did he die?!”
“God, no.”
“Why’d you word it like he did?”
“You’re one to talk. Where’s Ribbit? I thought I saw her earlier.” Taking a sip from her cup, she looks at him over the rim, her pinwheels practically peering into his soul.
A weight drops to his stomach. Ribbit’s here?
Stretching his free arm above his head, anxious to avoid interactions with Ribbit, Jax bites the bullet and answers honestly.
“We broke up. See how easy that was?”
“Really?”
“Was I unclear?” He returns meanly. Immediately regretting letting his temper show, Jax scratches at the back of his head.
“Huh.” Pomni makes a contemplative sound. She doesn’t appear upset about his little outburst.
“What?” He chugs back half of his drink, way too sober for any of this.
“You fidget when you’re nervous.” Pomni grins, swirling around the beer in her cup.
“How do you figure that?”
“I sit behind you in econ. On test days, you bounce your leg from the moment the test hits your desk, until you walk it up to the professor.”
“Maybe bouncing helps me ace the tests. Ever consider that?”
She’s spot on with her assumption, but he can’t let her know that.
Someone bumps into his back, nudging him closer into her space. “Have you aced any of them?”
Shrugging, he finishes his first beer, then fills up his cup again. “Who can say?”
“Ideally, you.” He hears her mutter into her cup.
A group of what looks like half of the soccer team comes into the kitchen, and beelines for the keg. “I’m gonna go outside.” Pomni shouts to him over the incoming loud group.
Not wanting to be inside, or even at this party, Jax follows her out of the kitchen’s back door to a cracking concrete patio. It’s got two plastic chairs with broken legs, and a small patch of dying grass, littered with trash.
There’s a small circle of people in the grass smoking something.
Right as he’s about to find something stupid to talk to her about, because she’s easy to talk to and he’s bored, the back door bursts open.
“Wingman, time to do your job!” Kaufmo barks at him. A few of the stoners chuckle.
Groaning, Jax laments to Pomni, “duty calls.”
“Maybe I’ll catch you later. If you’re still around.” She offers with a small wave and an awkward smile.
“Don’t get your hopes up.”
–
Jax wants to pull his eyes out of their sockets. Watching Kaufmo attempt to flirt is like staring at a midday sun.
Kaufmo had introduced Jax as a friend, and he did his duty. Jax had talked him up to the point that even he didn’t fully believe any of the shit he was spewing. Miraculously, the girl ate it up, and Kaufmo went on to schmooze the chick.
Going above and beyond, Jax even spoke with the girl’s friend to let Kaufmo have a marginally better chance. The conversation is horrible and awkward and he wishes that some act of god would take him out on the spot, but he gets through it and the girl eventually bails to get a new can of whatever she’s drinking.
Unaware of Jax’s absence, he decides to slink off too.
A passerby offers him a shot straight from a bottle, to which Jax accepts. It burns going down and is definitely over more than a single shot, but Jax gulps it down regardless. He wanders the booming and overpacked house, seeking out anything to entertain him.
Definitely a leap over tipsy, Jax nearly trips over his feet on a loose floorboard. Chuckling at his own fumble, he spots the back of Pomni’s head again. She’s leaning against an arched doorway, watching whatever is happening in the room ahead of her.
His feet work faster than his mind, so by the time he’s about to speak to her, he’s instead almost bowling her over.
“Wah, watch it!” Pomni stumbles forward, spilling some of the can of beer she’s got in her hold. Grabbing her bicep, Jax pulls her back up.
“What was that for?” She asks with a slightly more friendly tone, once she gets a look of him.
Cackling at her severe mood shift from pissed to annoyed, Jax shakes his head. Pomni gazes up at him, her eyes a little more glazed over than they had been when he first saw her.
“It was for standing in the doorway, I don’t know.” Now that they’ve both recovered, he stands close behind her, to the point he can feel her body heat against his front.
“What’s so fascinating that you have to block traffic?”
“Nothing really, just drunk people dancing like they’re cats in heat.”
Leaning down to drop his chin onto the top of Pomni’s head, he surveys the room she had been looking in on.
“Yikes.” He observes, watching a group of fifteen or so people dancing in front of a set of speakers.
“Right?”
Dancing is a broad term to describe what’s happening. If anything, it could be described as sweaty and obscene grinding.
“Woah. Is that Ribbit?” Nodding her head to the right, Jax’s eyes slowly follow, dragging across the room to where, sure enough, Ribbit is rubbing herself all over some mannequin guy.
Lifting himself off Pomni’s head, Jax’s foot starts thumping. He’s still aware enough to know he’s doing it, but not with it enough to really stop it.
“That’s…yeah.” He mumbles, more to himself.
With his gaze set on Ribbit, Jax loosely recognizes that Pomni’s turned around to face him. Standing on her toes, she flicks a finger under his chin.
Darting his eyes down at her, Jax is met with a set of lazy pinwheels peering up at him.
“Wanna go to the roof?”
“And jump?” He retorts.
“No. Sit.”
Clicking his tongue, he acquiesces. “Beats whatever this mess is.”
Stepping around Jax, Pomni leads them away from the doorway, through the kitchen, and up a set of creaky stairs.
Entering a disgusting excuse for what appears to be a miraculously vacant bedroom, Pomni nods her head at him, commanding him to follow. The vibrations from the speakers echo through the house, felt against his feet as he trails after her.
A desk filled with crap is pushed against a window that leads directly out to the roof. Pomni pushes the chair that’s tucked under it out of the way, and crawls onto the desk. If he was more in body, he’d realize it looks like she’s done this before. But he’s not, so instead he stares openly at the way her hips wiggle, trying to push open the window. Traveling his eyes up the curve of her back, he really looks at her.
Jax has been aware that Pomni is attractive. It was hard not to notice. He’s just never dwelled on it because of his relationship with Ribbit.
But now that that is effectively over, Jax allows his mind to wander.
“Sweet.” Pomni manages to open the window.
Nabbing a crumpled pack of cigarettes off the guy's desk, Pomni giggles menacingly under her breath.
Before he can fix where he’s looking, Pomni is turning back to him.
“Do you have a li–”
Dragging his eyes up from where he’s trying to piece out if he can see the hint of a red thong peeking out over the waist of her jeans, Jax meets her pinwheels head on.
Something weird happens. She doesn’t call him out. Doesn’t tell him he’s gross for staring.
Rather, she grins, and asks again, “do you have a lighter?”
Patting around his pockets, he amazingly, does in fact, have a lighter.
“Cool. Come on.” Crouching, Pomni finagles herself through the window. Jax follows after her, with a little more struggle from his longer limbs, but manages. Sitting beside her on the rough roof shingles, Jax takes the spot closest to the window.
Being outside is an immediate improvement from the loud bumping of the house. The noise lingers nearby through the window, but he’s able to breathe marginally easier.
“You smoke?”
“I dabble.”
Pulling the crushed carton out her bra, which he will be totally normal about not thinking about later; she jostles the box.
“You’re joking.” Throwing up at the sky dramatically, Pomni collects herself and pulls out a single cigarette. “You good to share?”
Grabbing the empty box from her hand he tosses it through the window, landing somewhere on the desk.
“Give me that.” Using his hand, he makes a gimme that gesture at her.
“No, I found it. So it’s only fair that I get first hit.”
Placing it between her lips, she all but stomps her foot. Beckoning for him to light her up, he keeps her waiting.
Reaching into his pocket, he pulls out his lighter. Faking her out initially, he instead leans back with his free hand and lazily flips the lighter between his fingers.
Cigarette in mouth, Pomni mumbles around it, “give it!”
“So impatient.” He comments.
Pouncing, she leans unexpectedly into his space, attempting and failing to grab his lighter. With a slight of hand, he manages to keep it out of her reach.
Tutting his tongue twice, Jax decides he likes Pomni when she’s feisty like this. He so rarely gets to see this side of her. Or really any other side of her beside her studious side. They’ve shared maybe three classes now? Somehow they’ve sat near each other in most of them. He’s learned a few things about her from observation alone, but there is an invisible tug that has him wanting to find out more about her. In the back of his mind, he vulnerably wonders if she has a similar tugging sensation too.
Closing the distance between them, Jax sits shoulder to shoulder with her. Pomni’s glancing up at him, an angry pout spread across her lips.
Flicking the lighter to life, he drifts the flame to the end, nodding at her to inhale.
Sucking in, Jax watches the cigarette burn, ash left in place.
Cutting her off he yoinks the stick out of her mouth. Pomni sputters, blowing smoke out of her nostrils.
“Here I thought we were sharing?” Jax jokes, inhaling a grounding amount. All the while, he’s thinking about how her lips had been wrapped around it just seconds ago.
Tugging the hair tie out of her loose ponytail, Pomni lets her shoulder length hair blow in the cool night breeze. Shaking the length of it out, she proceeds to gather it back up to tie it back up.
Handing off the cig, he gazes up, trying to get a look at what stars might be visible.
Exhaling smoke, Pomni breaks the quiet.
“I should post a tour of a frat house. I know for a fact, there are probably more dangerous things here than in any abandoned building.”
“What?”
Waving her free hand, she hands back the half smoked cigarette.
“In my free time, I postvideosonline.” She mumbles.
“Come again?”
“I make videos of abandoned buildings, but I just thought it might be funny to do a tour of a frat house.”
“Let me make sure I got this right, you go through abandoned buildings for, like, fun?”
“Yeah.”
“And you post the videos online?”
“Yeah.”
“Huh.” Passing off the cig to her, Pomni inhales. They probably have one hit left each.
“What’s your channel name? I mean, assuming you’re on youtube.”
“I am.”
Turning to her, he gives her a look, suggesting he wants more information.
Smiling coyly, Pomni stares down at her sneakers. “I’ve already said too much. I just thought it’d be a funny idea.”
“Oh, it totally would be.” He returns, trying to encourage her to open up more, he leans into the bit. “Like, imagine the viewers can only see your arms and legs, and you’re wearing a hazmat suit.”
Pomni laughs at that. So he keeps going.
“But for the bit…”
Jax paints a picture for Pomni, which has her giggling, and lightly punching his arm. Somewhere during his spiel, her warm smile shifts into a look of discomfort.
“Did I say something?”
Biting the inside of her cheek, Pomni shakes her head. Pulling her knees up, she drapes herself over her legs.
“It’s not what you said. Or you.” She explains.
Antsy that he still did something wrong, even though she’s confirmed it was not his fault, he gives her a minute to collect her thoughts. The butt of the cigarette burns his thumb and pointer finger, so he drops it on a shingle, stomping it out.
With a heavy sigh, Pomni relents. “It’s just. Gummigoo never showed interest in my channel, or when I’d go film.” Chuckling to herself, Pomni, raises then drops her brows. “Hell, one time I needed stitches after an exploration turned into a multi-stitches-needed wrist injury. I tried calling him to help get me to the ER, and you know what he said? That he had a test the next day that he needed to study for. I ended up taking myself. Got a good amount of blood in my car in the process. Real bitch to clean out.”
Cringing internally, Jax isn’t sure what to say here. Ribbit was his only relationship, and he can’t exactly say it was a good relationship. So whatever advice he is probably expected to offer, would be in vain.
“That croc seemed like a real dud anyway.”
Lifting her head, Pomni peers up at the sky. “Yeah. He kind of was.” Pausing, she continues, staring upward, she asks, “what about you?”
Great. Sharing.
“What about me?”
“What happened to you two?”
There really wasn’t much to it.
“I don’t know.”
Elbowing his side, she tries to convince him. He should be embarrassed by how little it takes. With anyone else they’d have to pull his arm back, or maybe even hold him at gunpoint to get him to open up.
“C’mon. Commiserate.”
“Yeesh, nosy much?” Fiddling with his jeans he fingers a stringy hole on one of his knees, pointedly looking away from Pomni’s big eyes. “We’ve been friends forever. Decided to go a step further for whatever reason. College, I guess.” Tearing the hole further, he goes on. “We tried. But in the end we work better as friends.”
“That sucks. Is it super awkward now?”
“You know it.” He chuckles lamely.
“Do you think you guys can be friends again?”
And that is what hurts the most about the whole thing. He had lost one of his best friends all because they decided to fuck around.
And boy, did they find out.
“Who knows.”
The sudden pit of anxiety in his gut opens, craning his neck to look at Pomni, Jax leans in close to her face.
“What are you doing?”
“I said too much.” Jax blurts, his voice on the verge of shaking.
“Woah, hey.” Pomni shifts around, her eyes hint that she’s alarmed by the change in his demeanor. Sitting on her feet, she faces him, and tentatively reaches out to touch his cheek. He lets her because if anything the touch is grounding him.
This is the worst.
Jax had been trying with all his might not to dwell on Ribbit, their relationship, let alone their friendship, but sitting here beside Pomni on the roof of some frat house, it was as if his brain decided to flood him. Like he pushed the matter down far enough that it was coming up now, no matter how much he tries to force it down.
Spiraling, his mind floods with memories and emotions that he’s not ready to sift through. Panting, he desperately tries to keep up with the onslaught.
“Jax?”
Shaking his head, he tries to signal he can’t talk right now.
An absolutely horrible idea makes itself known through the noise and muddy emotions overwhelming him.
A distraction.
Focusing in on the red and blue of her irises, Jax bites the inside of his cheek hard enough to taste iron.
Pushing his face into her concerned expression, Jax presses his mouth to hers.
It’s a terrible, awful idea, but he can’t deal with whatever is trying to surface right now. Or the way she’s looking at him with such…pity.
The haze slowly starts to clear, only to be replaced by a new fear. One he hadn’t fully thought through in his attempt to make himself feel better in the immediate moment.
Pomni is frozen, her startled pinwheels glaring at him.
She’s never going to talk to him again.
She’s definitely going to smack him.
Watching intently, he observes her as she slowly closes her lids. Delayed, he catches on to the fact she’s fisting the fabric of his graphic tee, tugging him closer.
Successfully distracted, he leans into her. Met with Pomni’s own level of enthusiasm, she tries to slip her tongue into his mouth. Not ready to give her what she wants, he bites at her bottom lip, which makes her squeak.
Tugging harder on his shirt, her fists bring him closer to her.
Bright bursts of light erupt behind his eyelids, terrifying him.
Had kissing Ribbit ever felt like this?
He can feel his hands shaking, ready to push her away…
…but then a switch flips.
Reaching around the back of her head, he threads his fingers through her hair, kissing her more deeply. She breathes a desperate gasp into his mouth, spurring him to lap at her tongue and lick at the corners of her mouth.
“Ahhn,” she whines, scrambling to straddle his lap while keeping their mouths pressed against each other.
From a distance below, his ears twitch in the direction of shouting. “Jax?! Dude, is that you?”
There was that other shoe he had been so nervous about dropping.
The two disconnect, if he was more with it he would have loved to have taken a better mental picture of Pomni, with her swollen lips and dazed expression. Standing up, he maneuvers himself carefully to peer over the lip of the roof to see his roommate.
“If you want a ride, I’m leaving. You’ve got one minute before I’m gone.” Kaufmo shouts from below where Jax can see him holding Ribbit up. Her head is lolling every which way. She must be really fucked up. His roommate starts walking in the direction of where he parked his car.
“You should go.” Pomni mutters from behind, snapping him back to the new reality of them having made out. “I have to go find my friend anyway.”
“Are you sure?” Why Jax feels the need to ask, he’s not certain.
Crouching towards the open window, Pomni bends herself awkwardly to fit through. Halfway in, she turns back to him. “I’ll see you in class on Monday?”
Too stunned by how fast everything just happened, he freezes up.
Pomni offers him a tight smile, then slinks the rest of the way through. By the time he’s got control of his mouth, and made his way into the house again, he’s lost sight of her.
Rushing down the stairs and through the front door, Jax manages to flag Kaufmo down right as he’s about to drive off.
Ribbit is slouched in the backseat of his car, the windows open.
Opening the passenger door, Jax slides in, within seconds of his ass hitting the seat, Kaufmo is speeding away.
Daring to take a look back at Ribbit, Jax assures she’s breathing properly before turning his attention forward.
Opening the conversation, Jax questions. “Strike out?”
“I don’t wanna talk about it.” Kaufmo’s grip on the steering wheel tightens.
Nodding, Jax rests his chin on his palm to look out his window. Kaufmo’s hand smacks playfully into the back of Jax’s head. “You didn’t though.”
A high pitched croak that Ribbit sometimes does when she’s sleeping sounds off from the backseat.
“W-h-hur ‘m I goin’?” Ribbit mumbles.
“Dropping you off at your place, drunkie!” Kaufmo answers enthusiastically.
–
The sound of buzzing wakes him.
Patting around his bed, Jax manages to grab his phone out from under his pillow. Cracking an eye open he glances at the notification.
1 new message from Pomni
urfavjesta57, blame middle school me for the name
Blinking the sleep out of his eyes, Jax rolls onto his back, trying to remember what happened last night.
Another text buzzes in.
btw im cool if ur cool?
Grabbing his pillow from under his head, he drops it over his face. Flashes of what happened last night come back to him. Lifting the pillow up enough to uncover his mouth, Jax inhales.
Yelling through their thin walls, Jax shouts. “Oi! KAUFY!”
He picks up on muffled grumbling. “What?!”
Shouting again, he vaguely asks, “did that happen last night?”
“Gonna need to be more specific dude.” Kaufmo returns.
“Oh! Yeah it did.”
Jax can hear Kaufmo half cough, half laugh through the walls. “HA! Messy, messy!” He scolds.
Pushing the pillow back over his mouth, he grumbles.
Sitting up, he throws the pillow off his bed. Typing up a reply before he has the opportunity to wake up fully or overthink it, Jax sends back a message.
we’re cool, now if you dont mind i have videos to watch
Present Day…
Pomni is mentally fried after working the better part of her Saturday. Rubbing at her neck, she climbs the stairs to Jax’s apartment. Nevertheless, despite her worn out body, she still wants to do well on this project in order to keep her GPA where she wants it.
Gulping down the last of her cold brew, which is room-temp and borderline gross now, she pulls out her phone to double check she has the right apartment.
Standing at the correct door, she brings her knuckles up to knock.
Leaning against the doorframe, she waits.
Knocking again, this time harder, Pomni starts to pull up his contact in an attempt to call him.
Losing her footing briefly, the door swings open. Adjusting how she’s standing she tugs on one of the straps of her backpack. Looking up at Jax’s looming form in the doorway, she has to double take.
Immediately, she can tell he’s off.
Hunched over, using the door handle for support, he nods at her. Looking him up and down, she notes he’s flushed and the fur not covered by his clothes is matted in some spots and poofed in others.
“Uh..?”
Seemingly able to read her nervous demeanor, he answers the question she’d been trying to form. “This isn’t contagious. Get in here.”
Grabbing her wrist, he tugs her in.