Page 8 of Fire of the Fox

My exciting news died on my lips. I looked down at my sneakers and toed a rock. Dax had been going around behind my back with a few other girls on campus. Dallas and I had caught him once or twice leaning up against them or holding their hands in a more-than-friendly way. Anytime we asked him about it, he’d blow it off as if we hadn’t seen it with our own eyes. He’d say we were interpreting it wrong, insisting that he and the girls were just friends. He had a way of spinning the situations around to where I felt bad for accusing him of cheating on me when he was simply hanging out with friends.

I sighed and turned back in the direction of my dorm. I started walking, and Dallas jogged next to me. She threw her hands in the air and implored, “What are you doing? Aren’t you going to confront him and say something?”

I shrugged and twirled a strand of my hair. “Why should I? I know very well that he’s doing something, but confronting him won’t change anything.”

She was quiet for a moment. My eyes found hers as she asked, “Why do you stay with him?”

I didn’t answer right away. It was hard to admit to her that I’d been trying to come up with a way to end things with him for the past week now. Dax was my first taste of being in a relationship, so I didn’t know the best way to tell him I was done. Sure, he was a dick, but he had feelings, too. It wasn’t in me to be rude or mean.

Dallas often made jokes that I was a soft soul, and she was right. I thought about others and their feelings over my own far too often. It was something Dallas was trying to help me get over, but it was hard to break that part of myself. So, even though Dax was clearly doing me wrong, I wanted to be as civil as possible about ending things, that way we could potentially stay cordial. I just hadn’t figured out how to do that yet. In the meantime, I spent my time avoiding him and all discussions of him to try to lessen the pain of his betrayal.

As I was about to tell Dallas all this, Dax stepped into our path from the direction of the neighboring science building. His brown hair was styled as usual, and he wore his plaid button-up and khakis. Typical for Dax. He always had to look good.

He draped his arm around my shoulder and said, “Good afternoon, ladies.”

We stopped walking, and Dallas stepped in front of him. Her glare could freeze over hell, and she put her hands on her hips. “Don’t ‘ladies’ us. We know you were with another one of your side girls, Dax.”

His arm fell from my shoulder as he shoved his hands into his pockets.

I stepped back from him to stand with Dallas.

He gave a noncommittal shrug. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Dallas’ laugh dripped with sarcasm. “Bullshit! You’re always cheating on Bria!”

I looked back and forth between the two of them. Dallas always did this part. I was never confrontational. I’d always hated arguing and fighting. No good ever came out of it. All you got were hurt feelings on both sides. Dallas knew this about me, so she was always there to stand up for me when I wouldn’t.

When I looked at Dax and saw the smugness on his face, I clenched my fists as my anger heightened. My passiveness aside, enough was enough. I was so tired of this.

I commanded his attention, stepping up to get in his face. “I’m tired of you cheating on me. Just because I won’t give you any doesn’t mean that you have to go get it from someone else.”

Dax raised his eyebrows and gave me a condescending look. “Wow, Bria. Feeling brave today? Well, if I’m being honest, it doesn’t suit you. Why don’t you keep hiding behind your textbooks and let the adults do the talking?” He gestured between him and Dallas, his eyes turning wicked.

My jaw dropped, and I took a step back from him. Dallas shook with barely contained rage next to me. Before I could form a response, Dallas reared back her fist and smashed it into Dax’s face. Her knuckles collided with his nose with a sickening crunch, and he let out a grunt as blood sprayed. He reached up to clutch the fluid now pouring from his nose.

Dax glared at Dallas from beyond his hand, then turned his venomous eyes on me. “We are done! I’m over this!” He stormed off, shaking the blood from his hand.

Frustration built up inside my chest in a rising scream, but I couldn’t lose it here, especially since we now had onlookers whispering God-knows-what behind their hands. I held back the bitterness enough to look at Dallas and say in a hoarse voice, “I’m gonna go take a walk. Don’t wait up for me.”

I didn’t give her time to respond. I turned and practically ran off for the trees near the school. My hair flew behind me as I raced through the woods, and bushes tugged at my cream sweater the deeper I went. I didn’t care. I wanted to be alone where I could scream, and I knew exactly where that would be.

There was a creek beyond the trees, a distance away from campus property. I’d found it on the first day of classes. I’d been on a walk in the woods behind my dorm building, looking for a secluded spot to make my own where I could focus on school-work and art. As soon as I stumbled upon the creek with its soft trickling water and soothing natural melody, I knew this was it.

I fell to my knees by the water’s edge and worked to catch my breath. The acidic mixture of anger, frustration, and disappointment burned as it settled deep in my stomach.

My feelings for Dax had been real, yet he hadn’t felt a thing for me. What was wrong with me? How could I like someone so shallow? I’d been so blind liking him for so long.

I’d spent countless months conjuring up plans and ideas about what our relationship was supposed to be like. Coming to grips with the realization that my dreams with Dax were pointless was what made it hard to end things. I didn’t want it to mean that all my dreams were futile, especially not my dream of being an artist.

Pushing past my heightened acrimony, I watched the clear water flow quietly through the trees. I wanted to feel the water’s touch, so I slid off my sneakers and socks. Getting to my feet, I’d just stepped in the direction of the water when I heard a loud click and the cry of an animal.

I whipped my head around in the direction of the yelp. In the distance, I saw what appeared to be a smaller-sized black dog struggling against something. Desperate to see what was wrong, I raced toward him with my socks and shoes in hand, but when I got closer, I quickly came to a stop.

The creature looked at me, and I realized he wasn’t a dog at all. He was a fox! He gazed at me with rich eyes, and the sight of the fox made me lose my breath for a moment.

I had never seen such a beautiful animal up close before.

When I remembered my reason for coming over here, my eyes traveled down to his front right paw, and it became clear that the noise I heard was a foothold trap going off. I looked around frantically and hoped whoever set the trap wasn’t nearby watching.

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