When Dirt opened the front door, his hood over his head, Salem immediately perked up. "You got more weed?!?" he excitedly chirped, being able to smell what was in the bag Dirt carried by his side.
"Wanna share?" he asked monotonously.
Salem's face changed from excited to suspicious as he bounded up to Dirt. "Are you okay?" he asked.
"No," Dirt answered, with no further explanation. Salem asked no further questions. He followed Dirt to his room, where he got out his grinder and bong. As he sat at his desk, packing a bowl, Salem sat patiently and politely on his bed, swinging his legs back and forth over the edge.
"..What happened?" Salem asked cautiously.
Dirt sighed shakily. "I don't wanna talk about it."
"Mkay."
"Here," Dirt said, giving Salem the bong, "You first." Salem grinned and accepted it. He lit the flower and inhaled deeply, quickly filling the chamber with thick smoke. When he passed it back to Dirt, he made a face like he was struggling to not cough. Dirt smiled and took a hit himself. Just seconds later, his muscles were relaxed and his head was foggy. A couple more hits and the room was rocking as if they were on a boat, in steady waters. A comfortable sway that always brought peace to Dirt.
He and Salem sat across from each other on his bed, passing the bong back and forth. "I talked to Mittens today," Salem said, always becoming more talkative when high. "She told me that Jameson is polyamorous and has two other girlfriends and that they all smoke weed!" He smiled, apparently excited to tell this news.
Dirt laughed. He didn't know how else to respond except for a casual, "That's cool," and a shrug.
"Yeah but James is like SUCH a capitalist though..." Salem said, rolling his eyes.
"Ha! Oh my god.." Dirt wasn't expecting something like that to come from Salem's mouth. He guessed he didn't realize that Salem had much understanding of like... economics?
"Ugh you know what, I didn't wanna say anything but like you REEK of pain and misery... Like I get that you kinda of didn't wanna talk about it or whatever, but I'm sooo nosy I just have to know..." Salem blurted.
"Uuuggghhh," Dirt groaned, leaning back onto his pillows. "Brian broke up with me, is what happened, okay?" he said aggressively.
"Oh, shit.."
"Whatever..."
"Whatever?" Salem laughed, "Oh em GEE you LOVED that man! Did you ever even get to fuck??"
"No. That doesn't matter to me, though."
"What happened, anyway? What did you do?" Salem asked.
"I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!" Dirt yelled, and Salem jumped, his ears flattening. "He-he was mad?? Because I lied to Patrick about you. SO WHAT?? Like, fucking look me in the eyes and tell me you wouldn't do exactly the same in my situation!" he ranted, "Pat practically fucking fed me that fucked up lie, anyway! That felt kinda weird, when he came up to me and apologized for leaving me in the middle of a psychotic break or whatever."
Salem took another hit and didn't say anything; he just watched Dirt rant and rave in fascination. He'd never seen him so angry and upset before! Upset, maybe, but not so angry! It was so interesting!
"You know what?? I don't even care! Honestly, if he'd leave me over some stupid shit like this, maybe we were never a good match! He went on about how HATES liars n shit and like fuck! I'm kind of a liar sometimes! I lied SO much when I was a kid, holy SHIT.. I had to lie to fuckin' survive back then! Maybe it still comes out a little! I don't know!" Dirt shouted.
"Kinda sounds like you care a lot," Salem commented, mockingly.
"Oh, shut up. You don't even get it. The whole human relationships thing. You said it yourself," Dirt said, annoyed and defensive. "Your-your fucking—HAH your fucking reddit post dude... Oh my god.." he laughed. "'Why hasn't my roommate fucked his bee eff yet??'" Dirt mocked, "Dude, you like, know I'm not.. MALE, right? You said im '26M'"
"What?" Salem said, obviously quite faded.
"Haha!! Oh my god, are you even paying attention? Dude. I'm fucking non biney. I don't have any biney," Dirt told him.
"Haha... wait, really?"
"Yes!!!! Oh my god! Did you think I was a cis guy this whole time?? Fuck!"
"Ahahahah.... fuck, sorry, dude... That is kind of funny." They both laughed. "Aahh.. This bitch empty," Salem said, referring to the bong.
"More?"
"Yeeaahh!!!" Salem cheered, bouncing up and down excitedly. Dirt laughed as he went to pack another bowl.
"Alright, I gotta know something," Dirt said, as they were finishing off their second bowl of weed, "When you asked me if I wanted to fuck you, were you just messing with me?"
"What do you mean?"
"You always do that! You tell me something and pretend it's totally serious and then you go, 'hahaha jay kay i'm just fuckin' with you, man!'"
"Ohhh hahaha yeeaahhh... But no, that one was serious," Salem said, sounding genuinely sincere.
"Pff. Why? Like, I don't know, I guess I thought you had standards," Dirt joked. Salem giggled.
"HAH!!! Ahhhhaha.." Salem laughed, "I thought I told you?? Like, I was horny, as I always am, and I trust you with my body! It's not that hard of a decision to come to," he explained. "Hard... of a decision.. ell oh ell..."
"Jesus.. what are you, twelve?" Dirt laughed.
"Ahaha... Duude it's the hormones! Testosterone be making me more horny than I already was! Which was already a lot!" Salem said.
"Hahaha I hear that. I remember puberty. Ugh..." Dirt shuddered, and Salem laughed. "So you were serious, then. For real? You'd really have sex with me."
"Yeah! Whatever!" Salem shrugged, chuckling.
"Well... what about now?" Dirt asked.
"What?"
"Do you wanna have sex right now?"
"Right now??" Salem asked giddily. "Okay!" Salem didn't wait for an answer, and practically pounced to get next to Dirt. They were both laughing and giggling as Dirt set the bong down on his desk, idle smoke still rising from the burning weed in the bowl. As soon as he did, Salem was quick, grabbing Dirt by the arms and dragging him over.
"Dude! Chill out!" Dirt laughed, releasing himself from Salem's grip. "You may be an expert at this, but I have no idea what I'm doing."
"Huh?"
"You know I'm a virgin!"
"So am I..??" Salem said like it was obvious.
"What?!!?? But.. You.. You always.. SEEMED like..." Dirt stuttered.
"Pfffhahaha!!! You're kind of stupid!" Salem laughed. He got very close to Dirt's face as he straddled him. Dirt's mind was still catching up with how quickly everything was going when Salem kissed him. Woah.. He wasn't expecting that. To Dirt, kissing was such a romantic and intimate act, and he knew Salem wasn't exactly the romantic type. Especially with the way Salem was kissing him.. it was just surprising. It was sweet and tender, and Salem held Dirt's face with one hand and lightly stroked his neck with the other.
Dirt wasn't at all expecting any passion from Salem. The way he was holding and caressing them felt so... romantic. Uh oh... Dirt flipped Salem over and got on top of him. Salem let out a little "woah!" when he was flipped so suddenly. Dirt wasn't going to let himself have any sort of romantic feelings for Salem. He was going to have fun casual sex on impulse while stoned with a friend, and that was IT.
As they helped each other get undressed, Dirt tried not to think about the warm feeling in his chest he got when Salem's hands grazed his bare torso. He tried not to think about the way his head spun when he felt Salem's soft skin under his fingertips. He fought to repress the way Salem smiled at him, and looked at him with those big, round eyes.
"WOAH! I didn't realize you were such a GROWER, dude!" Salem exclaimed. Thank god Dirt could finally laugh, releasing a LITTLE bit of the tension that had been winding up in his chest. But it kind of built back up right away when Dirt saw the way Salem bit his lip and squeezed Dirt's arms when he penetrated him. Oh no...
After that, it was quick. With Salem being a catboy, whose species take only a couple minutes to mate in the wild, and Dirt being... Dirt, it didn't take much for either of them. Dirt closed his eyes, but the sounds Salem made still echoed in his head. But it was over.
Dirt flopped over onto his back, his chest heaving, sweat coating his body. Ew.. Salem sighed contentedly and flipped over, throwing his arm around Dirt's torso and nuzzling his head against Dirt's jaw. "Eugh... Sweaty," Dirt said, finding it incredibly unpleasant. "Salem... You're all gross, come on. Get offa me..."
"Noooooo I dont wanna mooooove," Salem whined.
"If you wanna finish that bowl, you have to move," Dirt teased.
"UUGGGHHHHH!!!!" Salem groaned, slowly and reluctantly removing himself from Dirt. Dirt cleaned himself up, and helped Salem clean up as well, before helping him find where he'd tossed his clothes earlier.
Fully dressed again, Dirt sat at his desk chair while Salem sat on his desk, and they smoked the last little crumbs of weed that were left together.
Had that been too much? Was that maybe a line they shouldn't have crossed? Dirt kept himself awake for hours just thinking about it all. Maybe it was a mistake. He'd just been broken up with, and was under the influence! He wasn't in his right mind when he made that decision! But.... ugh... but he really liked it, was the thing. It was hard to tell himself it was a mistake when everything felt so good... He didn't feel any regret, just guilt. A lot of guilt.
He worried that he and Salem viewed that interaction vastly differently from each other. Salem mentioned that catpeople don't fall in love, and that sex was just a fun activity for them.. Not that Dirt thought he was in LOVE with Salem, just that it meant more than just a little bit of 'fun' to him! It was his first time! That was important to him! Salem didn't even seem to give a second thought to the fact that it was his first time as well. Dirt guessed it just wasn't that big of a deal to catpeople the way it was with humans.
Dirt tried to wave everything away with the excuse that it was just a rebound thing. He'd just gotten broken up with and wanted to... to know that someone loved him? That he was worthy of being loved? But that wasn't exactly accomplished when it was Salem; having sex with him didn't mean there was any love there. It didn't exactly make him feel any better about his whole situation, but it made him feel something, at least.
Maybe Salem's view was a better one. Maybe it was easier to not care about love. But thinking that made Dirt's heart hurt. For that moment he had with Brian, he was so so happy. Everything felt like it was so much more bearable and he felt so light all the time, and he felt like everything was finally going to be okay, and he felt like, finally, he'd found someone that really loved him the way he loved them. Fuck. There was no use dwelling on it, really. Brian had made his decision and Dirt was too angry about it to try and put up a fight.