back nextAs Dirt rode his bike to work, anxiety rose in his chest. He had a shift with Daisy that night, and he was going to confront them about their TikToks about Salem. On the way there, he kept repeating in his head what he was going to say to her, making minor changes, trying to think of what would make him sound the most serious. He wanted to make sure he sounded like he meant business.
He played out several different versions of potential conversations in his head. Mostly ones where Daisy was a bitch about it, but he also thought about if they apologized, or broke down crying, etc...
When he got to the 7-11, Daisy wasn't there yet. She would be starting in a couple of hours, but Amber was there. "Sup dude!" she greeted him as he walked through the door.
"Hey," he nodded to her. He put his stuff down in the back before coming out to stand at the counter, while Amber went out to stock the shelves. "You seen Daisy's TikToks?" Dirt asked her.
"Uhhhh nah, I don't think so? Not unless she sent 'em to the group chat," she answered.
"Nah, she didn't. She came to my house to meet Salem and fucking secretly recorded him and posted it! I'm gonna confront her about it when she comes in."
"Oh shit!" Amber gasped.
"Yeah!" Dirt agreed. "After Salem and I literally JUST directly told her not to tell anyone about him!"
"Yooo what the fuck... Man, what a fuckin' clout-chaser...." Amber rolled her eyes.
"I'm so fuckin' pissed, dude. I didn't expect this shit from her. Do you think you can stay here for a minute so I can talk to them outside? I'll owe you," Dirt pleaded.
Amber shrugged, "Sure man, whatever. It'll probably just be empty anyway," she chuckled.
"Thanks, bro."
Daisy casually strolled into the 7-11, blowing a gum bubble. "Daisy!" Dirt exclaimed upon her entry.
"Hey!" she smiled wide and waved at Dirt.
"Can I talk to you outside for a second?" Dirt asked.
Daisy paused. "Uhh sure..." she answered nervously.
Dirt went light-headed as he and Daisy walked out the door of the shop. He felt like he was spinning for a second, he was so nervous.
"Didn't I tell you not to tell anyone about Salem?" Dirt angrily muttered, his voice low, in case anyone was within earshot.
Daisy's eyes went wide. "D-did you?" she asked innocently.
"Yes, Daisy. I did. Salem and I both did, and you said, and I fucking quote, 'Don't worry! I won't spill any beans!'" Dirt mocked.
Daisy scoffed. "Hah! Kay, well I don't remember that, okay?"
"Oh, you don't-tch! You don't remember? Is that right?"
Daisy crossed her arms. "Yes."
"Daisy the part where you said you 'wouldn't spill any beans,' is LITERALLY in your fucking video."
They rolled their eyes at him. "Well, whatever. I don't see what the big deal is, anyway, like why does he even wanna keep himself secret?"
"Does it matter? We told you not to tell anyone! I trusted you not to!" Dirt shouted.
"Don't fucking yell at me!" she yelled. "He does fuckin' porn online! He's not a fuckin' secret!"
Dirt sighed/scoffed. "He's smart about it! He tells everyone it's CGI and they all believe it! Hell, he even gets asshole comments telling him the CGI 'isn't very good'!" Dirt argued. "People aren't supposed to know about catpeople, they're like.. vampires, or gnomes!"
Daisy laughed, "Pfft! Why the fuck do gnomes wanna be a secret..."
"THAT'S NOT THE POINT!" Dirt yelled in frustration. "Daisy, you fucking lied to us. You said you wouldn't tell anyone, and you told the entire fucking internet! You broke my trust. Don't fucking talk to me outside of work. And don't act all chummy with me anymore while we are at work, either. And take those videos down." Dirt demanded.
"Hah! No way! I've gained a million followers since I posted those TikToks! I'm not taking them down now!" Daisy laughed in his face.
"Are you fucking serious? This is a huge invasion of privacy. Salem did NOT give you permission to post videos of him," Dirt growled.
"There are already videos of him on the internet!" they laughed. "I'm not taking them down!"
Dirt's face was hot with rage. "I don't want to argue about this any more. After work, you're gonna take those videos down."
"No I'm not," Daisy said, "You can't make me," she laughed. Dirt was already walking back inside.
"How'd it go?" Amber asked.
"She's a fucking bitch," he answered.
The rest of Dirt's shift was long, and tedious, as he had to deal with Daisy being a passive-aggressive little cunt to him the whole time. When he finally got home, he was exhausted as all hell. When he saw he'd gotten a text from Brian, he felt even more exhausted. "I wanna talk." Just vague enough to have to ability to consume Dirt's thoughts for the next however long it would be until he was able to talk to Brian. He sent back a, "whenever you're free," and plopped into his bed, still wearing his work clothes.
"..Where's Salem?" Dirt asked himself aloud. "You under the bed, buddy?" No response. Dirt left his room and went to Sarah's knocking on the door.
"Come in!" she sang. Dirt opened the door to see her and Mitt cuddling on her bed, Sarah's laptop balanced on both of their laps.
"Hah.. cute.." Dirt teased.
"What do you want?" Mittens growled.
"Right, uh, you guys know where Salem is? He usually greets me when I come home, but I can't find him..." The girls both shrugged, shaking their heads. "Any ideas..?"
"Ummm.. Maybe he's hiding around here somewhere?" Sarah suggested, "Or in the backyard?" Dirt turned on his heels and did a gay little half-jog to the back door, looking through the glass sliding door before opening it and stepping outside.
"Salem?" Dirt shouted into the empty backyard. After hearing no response, he quickly returned to Sarah's room, and shook his head at them. "Hey.. what are you doing up anyway, Sarah? You're usually asleep right now," he commented.
"She woke me up!! Came over with no warning and shook me awake and made me watch videos with her!" Sarah said, jokingly complaining.
"Hmh.. What is with you two, anyway? Like what's your deal, are you... an item?"
"Yeah," said Mitt.
"No!" Sarah said simultaneously.
"....Yikes...."
"No, I mean! A-are we? I-I wasn't sure! I didn't want to assume, I mean..." Sarah prattled on, all panicked. Mittens was cackling as Dirt leaned against the doorframe, crossing his arms and smirking. Sarah covered her bright red face with her hands.
"HAHAHAH! AAHH Ahh, oooh baby!" Mitt laughed, squeezing Sarah in her arms. She nuzzled up to her cheek and planted kisses on her hands that covered her face.
"Umm so.. Where do you think Salem might be?" Dirt asked.
"You're still here?" Mitt jeered.
"Why don't you text him?" Sarah suggested.
"He wouldn't get it unless he's somewhere with wifi, dude. He doesn't have cellular data!" Dirt pointed out.
"Oh...."
"He'll come back," said Mitt, "Don't worry. He did this kinda shit when we were kids! He'd just up and leave for a whole day and come back later!"
"Mmmm...... He's never done that while living here..." Dirt mumbled nervously.
"He's probably just out getting cock, bro. Sorry, Sarah."
Sarah squeaked, "It's fine!"
"Yeah, maybe..." Dirt sighed, "I hope he's okay..."
"Okay, gayboy, can you please leave us be, now?" Mittens hissed.
"I'm bisexua--.. Whatever." Dirt left and went back to his room.
Dirt changed out of his work clothes and into some sweatpants and loose-fitting t-shirt with a dark navy blue zip-up hoodie over top, before plopping back onto his bed and checking his phone. Nothing new. He shot Salem a message over Line asking where he was, just in case he did happen to be somewhere with wifi.
A second after the message said "Delivered," Dirt heard a vibration from his desk. Salem left his phone at home. "What the hell, man..." Dirt whispered. He sighed and dropped his phone to his chest, closing his eyes. Maybe if he just went to sleep, Salem would be back when he woke up.
But after lying awake with his aching body keeping him up for half an hour, he remembered that Salem always helps him fall asleep. He probably wasn't gonna be able to sleep without him... Anxiety churned in Dirt's stomach. Fuck where IS he??? Why didn't he tell me where he'd be going? They decided they ought to cut their losses and text the only person they thought he might be with.
7:10AM
me: is salem with you?
divan: non... he is missing? :-(
me: yea... his sister said not to worry about it and that he used to do it a lot but he didn't tell me he was going anywhere or anything and i'm a little worried
divan: goodness gracious... well if i hear from him i will let you know right away!
me: thanksAgain, Dirt sighed, tossing his phone on the bed beside him. Just then, he heard scratching at his window. He bolted up, turning around and peering outside. It was Salem, waving at him, and looking like a fucking mess.
Dirt hurriedly ran out to the front door to unlock it for him and let him inside. "Where have you been? What happened to you, are you okay???" Dirt asked anxiously. Salem's clothes were torn, and dirty, and he had small cuts on his face with dried blood running down his cheeks. "Baby!! What the fuck!" Dirt took Salem's hand and dragged him into the bathroom with him.
He grabbed the paper towels from under the sink, accidentally knocking some bottles over and one of them fell out onto the floor. "Shit," Dirt whispered under his breath as he hastily ripped a paper towel from the roll and wet in the sink, wringing it out, and then dabbing at the blood on Salem's face.
"Ow," Salem winced.
"Sorry," Dirt whispered as he continued, trying to be as gentle as possible. "What did you do, man??? I was freakin' out when I got home and you weren't here.." he asked, before reaching into the medicine cabinet and getting out a box of bandaids.
"Well I was just running around outside in cat form and then I saw a squirrel so I started chasing it and it ran all the way around the fence and over it and I followed it out the yard and across the street and it just kept running so I kept chasing and chasing but then it got away and I was still hungry so I walked to McDonalds and got a chicken nuggets and I ate them and then um I went to the park and rolled around in the sand and get this there was BROKEN GLASS in the sand! Very dangerous... And that's how I got these cuts," Salem recounted incomprehensibly.
"Jesus!" Dirt exclaimed, chuckling a little. "How'd your clothes get all ripped up?" he asked. Salem went quiet, and a small smile formed on his face as he stared into the distance. "Salem?? Hello? How'd you get all torn up and dirty, man?"
Salem looked off to the side. "Umm... Y'know... Just from like.. I um met a catgirl and we had rough, animalistic sex that's all...." he said.
"....Really?" The story was plausible, but unlikely..
"Yeah," Salem said, his eyes looking away from Dirt.
"Look at me." Salem made eye contact with him. "Is that really what happened? Or are you just embarrassed about what actually happened?"
Salem looked away again before answering, "That's what happened!"
"You keep looking away!" Dirt laughed nervously. "You're a terrible liar when it's not for a joke, bro."
Salem sighed, looking down at his feet. "Okay... You got me... I was just embarrassed about what really happened...."
"You can tell me, buddy, it's okay," Dirt said softly. Salem looked up at him, his face twisted into an unreadable expression.
"So... I was walking around and... There was these seagulls gathered around a can of tuna next to the dumpster and I said I want that tuna get away birds! And they started to fly away and I started eating the tuna but then they came back with their buddies and starting pecking at me! And flinging their feathers all in my face!" Salem told him, his lower lip wobbling like he was about to cry.
"Oh... buddy...."
"That's what the cuts are from, too, there was no glass in the sand..." he admitted as well. Dirt sighed sympathetically as he applied a couple of bandaids to Salem's cheek.
"I'm sorry that happened, buddy, but you know you don't have to eat tuna from the street!" Dirt said, caressing Salem's jaw.
"But that's the best kind!" Salem whined, looking up at Dirt with big, watery eyes.
"Gross, man..." Dirt cooed, still in baby-talk mode. "C'mon, let's get you changed and into bed. I'm exhausted.."
"Mkay," Salem nodded, and followed Dirt out of the bathroom.