It’s all over tomorrow, but they’re still here today.
Tomorrow, Reginald is getting shipped out to college half-way across the country. A week later, Amir’s leaving too. So that means this is it. Summer has drained out like sand in their paws and only the last grains are left.
Amir and Reginald are indulging in a well-worn activity they’ve done many times in the last four years. Just as the two met on the swim team in freshman year, where the two big awkward cats who knew no one else became friends, the two are going out swimming in Amir’s pool. His parents anticipated that this would be a sensitive moment for the two of them and booked themselves and his sister a weekend stay at the Hilton Garden Inn downtown. It really is just the two cats right now.
First, of course, they sit on the couch in the basement and play video games. Amir’s house is huge and even though there’s a bedroom on the second floor which is technically his and is still filled with all of the decorations he put up when he was 13, his bedroom is really in the basement. It’s an expansive room with the water heater and the burner and random crap but also their video game setup tucked into the corner. They have an old couch and a bean bag facing the flatscreen TV that used to be in the living room before his parents replaced it with a bigger one, and Christmas string lights, and a bunch of consoles they gathered over the years. Right now they’re playing Minecraft on the Xbox 360, not because the since discontinued game is up to modern standards but because it’s what they used to play back in freshman year. They’re booting up all of their old worlds and looking around at everything they’ve created.
Next to them are the two makeshift beds they’ve slept on every day for the last three years. Amir dragged his mattress down from his real bedroom and found an air mattress in storage for his best friend for a sleepover once. They placed them side by side and they haven’t moved since. It’s appropriate that Amir gets the bigger mattress since he’s a lot bigger than Reginald, but sometimes the panther would wake up to find that the lion had rolled over onto the air mattress and they were sharing the little square of space. Regardless, he’s found himself sleeping there every night since.
It’s about the time that they reach the bottom of the list of worlds and they find the first one they ever made, aptly titled “A and R’s Letsplay” that they look up at the clock and realize it’s one in the morning. Pretty much every day is a sleepover for the two cats, going long into the night, but Reginald has an early flight and time is of the essence. Amir puts down the stale liter bottle of Coke he’d been chugging onto an old pizza box and they both toss their controllers onto the couch and they both agree to go get dressed without even saying anything.
The two of them are long since past laughing at any sort of juxtaposition you could notice between them. Yes, they’re best friends and Amir is a huge leucistic white lion with a big tummy and built arms and Reginald is a black tiger that’s a foot shorter than him who only looks toned because he’s so thin. Amir is outgoing and popular and girls ask him out and Reginald is nerdy and shy and hasn’t so much as considered being romantically interested in someone else. Back in their swim team days some of the other guys swapped out their Speedos and gave Amir a black one and Reginald a white one but never once did the boys wear them with anything but pride.
“We could just go skinny dipping,” Amir says under his breath, standing in the middle of their hangout space in the basement. “No one’s home.”
“Are you excited about the neighbors seeing all that?” Reginald responds with a smile, pulling his shirt off. The two have never had reservations about changing in front of each other.
“It’s one in the morning!”
“I think you’re just excited about college.”
“Huh?”
Amir strips his shorts off and hooks his paw pads under the waistband of his underwear. He’s truly a sight to behold like that – six foot four the last time anyone measured and something like 250 pounds. His fur is grey around his mane and his back and pure white on his stomach. He takes his boxer briefs out and his dick bounds out. It’s nice and thick like the rest of him.
Reginald strips nude too. He’s always been jealous of his buddy’s dick. It’s not like they’ve measured, obviously, but Amir’s so much thicker than him. The leopard has a nice long dick, he knows, but he’s never put it to use with anyone. At least Amir’s seen some action. The two stand naked as they discuss what to do.
“I mean,” Reginald says, “That’s what you do in college, no? Go out and get drunk? Skinny dip?”
“Yeah. Yeah. I am excited.”
The leopard swallows. “One last time in those Speedos, I think. For old time’s sake.”
“The day I never wear a Speedo again! Real bathing suits that don’t superglue my junk to my body!”
They put their Speedos on. They look at each other and laugh.
“You gained weight.”
“You lost weight.”
“You ready?”
Amir smiles. “Let me grab my guitar.”
“Oh my god, your guitar.”
“I can’t play a song?”
“Yeah. Let’s do it.”
The two cats climb out of the basement and exit the living room through the big glass doors. Amir looks great in his Speedo – it’s obviously a little small on him with the way his tummy jiggles over it and his ass is shaking like nothing else, but with that mane and that smile, he looks undeniably good. Reginald is just damn cute rubbing his paws in his hand, shaking his tail back and forth.
Amir goes and turns the light on in the pool, then he lays the guitar on a lawn chair. No other lights on but that. They can see every star in the Florida sky perfectly, black trees silhouetted against a blue sky.
They play around like they usually do. It’s like everything’s normal – this is just a normal summer day where they’re up in the middle of the night swimming and eating pizza, and then they’re going to go to bed and wake up tomorrow and go right back to the first day of Senior year like they’re living in Groundhog Day. Diving into the water, having the wetness slick their fur back, swatting at each other with their tails, seeing who can hold their breath the longest, it all helps to make it feel normal.
Amir looks over at his buddy, though, and Reginald looks back, and they can both tell something’s up. Amir climbs out first and grabs the guitar, then finds a nice spot on the edge of the pool and dangles his paws into the water. Reginald looks at him for a little bit before Amir pats the spot next to him.
“Come sit with me?”
“Yeah.”
Amir starts tuning the thing to the low E – it doesn’t matter if it’s all really the right pitch as long as they’re tuned correctly in relation to each other.
Reginald takes the seat next to his friend. And he doesn’t know what it is, maybe it’s the emotions of the day or that he’s already a little bit of a sentimental person or that Amir’s thigh is just really big and fluffy, but Reginald voices the thought in his head. “Can I lay my head on your thigh?”
Amir wants to call him gay, but something about it seems nice to him too. He just nods and Reginald gets his head in place. The leopard looks up at the open sky, with a bit of a view of his best friend’s body as well. There’s nothing weird about it, even with just a thin strip of spandex between being clothed and being nude.
Amir starts strumming out some chords. Just some random chords that sound pleasant together, no bar chords, no nothing, just trying to get some sound out. Then he begins.
“We'll meet again/Don't know where/Don't know when/But I know we'll meet again some sunny day.” His voice is low and husky, but he hits those notes perfectly. He closes his eyes and smiles.
Reginald cranes his neck to look up at the lion. “I thought I was sentimental.” They learned about this song in 11th grade history and constantly sang it to each other as a joke. It’s not so much of a joke now.
Amir continues. “Keep smiling through/Just like you always do/'Til the blue skies chase those dark clouds far away.”
“It’s not like I’m going to war, honey.”
And then Reginald notices a tear on Amir’s cheek, and that only makes him cry. He has to sit up because the tears are pooling in his eyes and it burns, and suddenly the two wet cats are sitting there next to each other and crying, imagining the last four years gone by. They’re so close to each other, inches away from each other’s muzzles. There is no laughing going on.
“You’re my best friend,” Amir says. He breathes. Never in a million years would he be caught dead saying this to another guy. “I love you.”
“I love you,” Reginald says back. “I love you too.”
And neither of them know what the hell it is. The stupid song, or their fur slick with water, or the cool Florida air, none of that cover it. But Reginald looks into Amir’s eyes and Amir looks into Reginald’s eyes and the two pull each other into a kiss. The two cats touch muzzles, touch tongues, and enjoy it for just a brief second, before they both pull away in complete surprise.
“What the fuck?” Reginald says.
“Dude, what was that?”
“What the fuck, man?”
“Holy shit. What the hell?”
The two cats sit there in complete surprise, tails sticking straight up. Amir covers the erection he just got with his guitar. Reginald folds his legs up and tries to cover his dick with his tail.
It is dead quiet for 20 seconds. Not the slosh of pool water, not bugs in the background, nothing.
“Reginald?” Amir finally whispers.
“Amir?”
“I don’t want this to end.”
And Reginald doesn’t know what he’s talking about – high school and their time together or whatever the hell just happened – but the leopard finds in his heart that he agrees.
“Let’s go back to the basement,” Amir says. “Let’s figure this out there.”
