Reservoir

The sun was bright the next morning. I get up and pour myself some cereal. I hear coming down the hall, talking on the phone.

"I've got work again today." He tells me "You okay with joining me at work again?"

I nodded.

"Great. Get ready, we leave in fifteen minutes."

I go to the bathroom and brush my teeth. I change into my clothes and walk outside, Jesse is waiting for me there. I got in his truck, and then we drove to the convenient store. I had made sure to bring money to buy something.

We arrived there, and we saw Bart, who was already bored into his workshift. He was more tired than usual, like he was up all night doing meth in his room.

"Sup." I say to him.

He merely grumbles at me. Jesse goes into the employee room to set down his lunch for the day. I walked around the aisles looking for something to buy. I grabbed a bag of chocolate chip cookies and a six pack of iced tea. As I went to the register to pay for my items, I heard someone enter the store.

I turned around and saw a familar fennec fox... Tyriqua. A girl who had bullied us in middle school, but became a bit friendlier during high school. I see her in the diner oftentimes. She also happens to be one of the only citizens of Echo, along with me and Jesse, to not be fucked up on meth... at least not anymore.

She goes to the chip section and browses the chips available. I payed for my items and casually went to the chip section as well. Tyriqua saw me and her eyes widened for a bit. She ran her tongue across her teeth.

"Utah, haven't seen you around a lot recently." She says to me.

I shrug, "I've been going to the diner less. I find it much better to go to Payton for food."

She frowns. I can tell she's thinking. Thinking about what, I'm not sure. Thinking about something, I'm sure. Then she nods.

"There also hasn't been anything from newspaper for the past few days, do you know what's up? You work for them." She asks

I then remember what happened on Sunday. The gunshot hole in the head of my dead boss. Looking into his empty eyes devoid of anymore life. I shake my head.

"Mr. Nasubi died. The local paper is going to be down for who knows how long." I explain to her.

She nods, "I'm sorry for that. I just wanted to know. It's not like I actually read the paper anyways."

"So how's Jesse." She asks

"Pretty good. I'm accompanying him at work today. Which sucks because we didn't want to leave Rex and Priyan alone today."

Tyriqua's eyes widen, "Wait, Rex and Priyan are in town?"

I nod. "Yeah, they're here for the whole week."

"Well tell them I said hi."

"I'll do that."

Tyriqua went silent for a moment before she speaks, "I don't mean this in a mean way, but thank Jesse for what he does. If you didn't stay in town after graduation, he would've left to somewhere better."

Tyriqua then goes to the register and pays for her chips. She leaves the store afterward. Jesse approaches me.

"Ready for lunch?" He asks

I nod. We both go to the break room to eat lunch. Jesse pulls his lunch out of the refrigerator, which is a grilled piece of salmon with a side of broccoli.

"This is good, but you shouldn't eat this." He says to me.

I nod, "I know. But I want to try it."

He sighs, "Well okay."

He forks a piece of salmon and feeds it to me. It tastes real good. After I take the first piece, Jesse feeds a piece to himself.

"Good?" He asks with a grin on his face.

I nod. Jesse feeds me another piece. After Jesse finishes his meal, he takes out a bottle of water.

"Want one?" He asks.

I nod.

"It's cold, but it's still good."

I take the water bottle and sip from it. I feel refreshed.

"It's really good." I say, "But the next time I get a chance to go to the store for more water, I'll buy a bottle."

Jesse laughs, "Yeah, I'll hold you to that."

We both leave the breakroom and see a large tiger standing in the middle of the store.

He turns his head to look at us, "Jesse, glad you're here."

"Mr. Yaolin, what are you doing in the middle of the store?" He asks the large feline

"I was looking for you. I need to talk to you privately." He answers.

Jesse gets a worried look on his face.

I walk up to the tiger, "What do you need to talk about privately with him?" I ask.

Mr. Yaolin looks at me, "That's none of your business."

I shrug, "Okay."

Mr. Yaolin takes Jesse to the back of the store. I stand there, waiting for them to come back. I look around the store. There are a few people browsing the shelves. I wonder if I should turn around and leave. I don't know what to do.

After about five minutes, Jesse comes back from the back of the store.

"Come on, let's go." He says to me.

I shrug, "Okay."

We both go back to the break room. I sit down and Jesse sits across from me.

"So what did you two talk about?" I ask him

Jesse sighs, "Mr Yaolin said I shouldn't bring you to work with me anymore."

"What? Why?" I ask, confused.

Jesse looks at the floor.

"He said you disrupt the order of things." Jesse says to the floor.

I look at the hedgehog. His eyes are pained. I don't understand.

"Disrupt the order of things? What the hell does that mean?"

Jesse looks at me.

"It means you cause problems. And he said he's going to punish me if I don't stop bringing you with me."

I stand up, "What the hell does he think I'm going to do? Go around causing trouble, disrupting the order of things, that sort of thing? Jesse, what the hell is he talking about?"

Jesse doesn't answer me. "The good news is though, I'm off tomorrow, so we can go do things with Rex and Priyan like we planned."

That seems to make me a bit happier, but still, what the hell?

A few more hours go by and it's time to leave. Jesse and I drive to the motel to check in on how Rex and Priyan are doing. We go to Priyan's room and knock on the door. Rex is the one to answer.

"Thank Jesus you guys are here. Something happened to Priyan today."

Jesse and I walk in and see Priyan sitting on the bed. He looks fine.

"Priyan, what happened?" I ask him

"I was attacked." Priyan answers

"Attacked? How?" I ask

"A creature dragged me away. I tried to bind it to the desert, but I don't think I really got it."

"What do you mean you tried to bind it?" Jesse asks, concerned.

"I tried to bind what attacked me." he says "It looked like a tent, but it had a face."

Jesse seems to get a look on his face that looks like someone just walked over his grave. "A tent with a face?" He says, looking from Priyan to me, "Is this what I'm dealing with? I've been having nightmares about this."

I don't say anything. I don't want to cause Jesse anymore distress.

Priyan goes on to explain what happened.

"And then... I blacked out."

"So what do we do now?" I ask.

Priyan gets up from the bed and walks to the window. He looks outside for a moment. He says nothing.

He turns back to us and says, "I'll be okay. Don't worry."

Then he walks back to the bed and lays down. Jesse and I look at each other. We both don't know what to think.

Jesse seems to make a decision about what to do.

"I'm going to go out for a walk. I'm going to be okay."

With that, he leaves Priyan's room.

"Well, see you guys tomorrow." I tell Rex and Priyan.

I then leave to follow Jesse. I walk out of the door, but I don't feel okay. I don't know how I'm going to be able to get up in the morning.

"Hey Jesse, wait for me!"

I see him getting into his truck. He looks back at me.

"Can I have a ride home?" I ask

He nods. I climb to the passenger seat and he starts the truck.

"Are you sure you're okay?" he asks.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." I say, trying to convince myself as much as him.

We drive in silence for a few minutes. He puts a hand on my thigh. I move my leg closer to his. He moves his hand up my leg. I turn my head to face him and see his face. He's looking at me.

"You really don't feel okay?" He asks.

"No, I don't feel okay. I need to go home." I say.

Jesse pulls over to the side of the road.

"I'm sorry." He says, "I can't just leave you like this. I have to protect you."

He gets out of the truck and I follow.

"Come on." He says, and we begin to walk.

"Where are we going?" I ask

"To my house."

"But why are we walking there? You can't just leave your truck out in the open?"

I look at him. His expression is serious.

"Trust me." He says, and continues walking.

I walk next to him with my hands on my hips.

"Jesse, I don't like this. Are you sure this is the right thing to do?" I ask, concerned.

"Yes." He says.

We continue walking. I look at him and see he's looking at me seriously. We continue to walk in silence. I don't know where this is going, but I go along with it. We finally arrive at his house. He goes to his back yard and stops. He motions for me to follow him. Once we're in his back yard, he stops. He turns to me.

He looks at me and smiles. I smile back, but it's forced. He walks over to the shed and comes back with a sheet. He lays it out on the ground. He points to it.

"Lie down." He says, "I'm going to cover you."

I'm curious as to what he's going to cover me with, but I don't question it. I lie down on the sheet. He covers me with the sheet. He lies down on top of the sheet next to me. We both stay quiet. He keeps his hand on my thigh. I turn my head to face him. His face is serious.

I look into his eyes. He looks back at me. I can tell he's worried about something. He looks like he wants to say something. He's looks like he's about to speak, but he stays quiet. I want to say something as well, but I don't.

Jesse takes off his jacket. I can feel his warmth. He puts his hand on my cheek. He carreses it, and looks deep in my eyes.

"I don't want anything bad to happen to you." He whispers, "You're the most important person in my life."

He kisses me gently. I kiss him back. Our lips part. I move my tongue around in his mouth. He begins to caress my back, and I feel him get hard. His breathing gets heavier. His kisses become deeper. Despite the passion between us, I can still tell he's tense due to his worry.

Jesse keeps his lips on mine for a long time. I feel his tongue on the inside of my lip. He starts to make little nipping and kissing motions on my lip. I let him have his way with my lips. I feel his tongue against my tongue. I begin to make little nipping and kissing movements on his tongue.

I can feel his growing erection against my lower stomach. I start to move my hips, grinding my crotch against him. He starts to grind his crotch against me as well. He moves his hands from my back down to my hips. He begins to slide his hands up my legs. He cups my ass. I grab the prickly quills on the back of his head.


Jesse grabs my hips and pulls me closer. I feel his hard on grinding against my pelvis. He starts to move his hips as well. I wrap my arms around his shoulders. I hear myself moan. I never want this feeling to end. He keeps kissing me and moves his hands up my legs. I wrap my legs around his waist. He keeps moving his hands up my legs.

The way he touches me, while intimate, almost feels, protective, like he's protecting me from a danger nearby. Like he's protecting me from the town. He kisses me harder. I can feel his heart thudding. I kiss him back even harder. Our lips part. He bites my lower lip gently. I moan. I start to move my hips faster. He does as well. I feel his whole body tensing up. I can feel his climax coming.

I feel it building up within him. I don't want it to stop. I move my hips faster. He keeps doing the same. I grab the back of his head and pull him towards me. He keeps his lips on my neck. He bites my neck gently. I keep my hands on his head. I begin to grind my pelvis against his.

"I'm going to..." he breathes, "come." He lets go of my hips.

We stay that way for a few seconds. He pulls his hips up and sits on top of me. I wrap my legs around him. He looks down at me. I look up at him.

Jesse fell asleep later that night, cradling me in his arms. I was still awake looking up at the sky, thinking back to Sunday when Jesse and I were staring at the stars while waiting for the police to arrive.

I think back to all the fun we had before everything got so serious. The way Jesse tried to calm me on the rollercoaster.

Then I think back to middle school, and how much Jesse cared about me even then.

I wonder what his life would be like if he hadn't stayed in Echo after graduation.