Jude’s Broken Heart
Chapter eighteen
Jude’s Broken Heart
Dex
Rusty’s hands clenched the steering wheel, eyes alert, jaw tense.
In the passenger seat, Jude sat curled in a ball, knees hugged to his chest, as he stared out the window, eyes open but unseeing.
And then there was Dex, sitting in the middle of the back seat of Hemersyn’s black sedan as he questioned all of his life choices that had landed him here.
According to Rusty and Jude, this was all Dex’s fault—technically, he’d argued, it was Toni’s fault, but neither of the short kings had appreciated that claim.
So he’d been dragged along on the expedition to find a pharmacy so they could confirm what he and Rusty already knew to be true.
Apparently, it had also been up to him to figure out the how and the where of it all.
More nonchalant than he’d ever been in his life, Dex had meandered back onto the veranda and asked Hemersyn to show him the bathroom.
Once inside the house, he’d immediately relayed their urgent need for a pharmacy.
Cool and collected, the Avia had handed over his keys, warning Rusty to be careful, and pointed them in the direction of a store ten minutes away.
“He’s not even human,” Jude said, still staring out the window. “We aren’t even the same species.”
Dex waited for Rusty to respond, but when the Pyclon didn’t, he took it upon himself. “Some species are compatible with humans. Fye species, usually, but clearly some Myre species are too. You know, given your situation.”
Sniffling, Jude curled up tighter in the passenger seat. “This can’t be happening.”
With a growl, Rusty glared at Dex through the rearview mirror, and Dex slumped lower in his seat. “Sorry, I talk when I’m nervous.”
Thankfully, the car’s GPS announced that they had arrived at their destination, and Dex had never been more thankful to leave the confines of a car. Jude’s sadness and fear were so heavy and choking, stinging his nose with their sour stench.
Standing in front of the wall labeled, “Family Planning,” the three of them stared at the shelves of condoms, lubrication, and there, near the bottom, pregnancy tests.
Jude stared at the rows of boxes depicting women with round bellies or babies with too-happy smiles.
Rusty stared at Jude. Dex stared at Rusty, then Jude, then Rusty again.
“Which one works on humans?” Jude asked, almost robotically.
Rusty crouched down and scanned the options. “They probably all look for similar hormone traces.”
“That one’s in English.” Dex pointed at one in the corner. “How many do you want?”
Jude’s blank expression glitched, and for a moment, he looked about to cry. Then he blinked, and the emotion was gone, replaced with a cold emptiness.
“All of them,” he said, then he turned and walked away.
After exchanging worried looks, Rusty and Dex gathered one of every test the store sold.
Since Rusty was only in his board shorts, they dumped the boxes into the makeshift sack Dex created with the end of his shirt.
They met Jude at the register where the human set a small stack of disposable cups on the counter.
With a grunt, Dex heaved his sack of pregnancy tests onto the counter where they spilled out with a clatter.
The girl behind the register—a Chyro with large, wide ears, leathery wings, and cloudy eyes hidden behind thick glasses—blew a bubble with her gum and stared disparagingly down at the counter.
“Find everything okay?” she asked after her bubble popped.
“Yup,” Rusty said.
She scanned each pregnancy test, clearly judging them with every beep of the scanner, and Dex rolled from his heels to his toes and back again.
Jude was staring off into the distance again, his index finger tapping the counter rapidly.
Rusty twisted and kneaded his tail as the claws of his feet flexed, fraying the carpet fibers.
“Your purchase comes with a free bottle of lube,” the Chyro said, lip curling to reveal her little fangs. “Or a box of condoms, though I assume it’s a bit late for that.”
Rusty growled, but Dex intervened before anyone got arrested for mauling. “Could we have a bag?”
“Ten cents,” she said.
“Put it on my tab,” Dex said, and her right ear twitched.
The second the tests and disposable cups were in the plastic bag, Jude snatched it out of her clawed hand and said, “Where’s your bathroom?”
“It’s employees only,” she said.
“Listen here, you—” Rusty started, but again, Dex stepped in.
“Listen”—he glanced down at her name tag—“Holli. Can I call you Holli?”
“No,” she said.
“Holli,” he said, putting on his most charming smile, “we’re in a bit of a pickle here. You see, we’re in a loving polycule situation, and these two strapping men just couldn’t get enough of me.”
“Oh my gods,” Jude groaned as Rusty sighed forlornly.
“Don’t mind them. They’re still a little closeted and in denial, but rest assured, we’re very much in love. But I degrass.”
“Digress,” Rusty corrected, but Dex ignored him.
“I was late with my pill. Or too early. I honestly don’t know how it works, which is probably how I got us into this mess to begin with,” Dex continued, forcing out a half-manic laugh. “But to give our little bundle of joy the best possible start in life, I really need to use your bathroom.”
Jude buried his face in the hand not holding the bag of tests. Rusty glared at Dex like he was trying to set him on fire. Holli looked horrified and even a little nauseous. Dex smiled brilliantly at her, then added a wink.
“So what do you say, Holli? Can you help a sister out?”
At long last, she reached under the counter and withdrew a key attached to a large key chain. “Don’t make a mess.”
With a wordless grunt, Jude grabbed the key and strode to the employees-only door she pointed at.
“Thanks, I can tell you’re a real girl’s girl,” Dex said seriously, and her leathery wings rippled in annoyance.
“Stop talking to me,” she said, and he nodded.
“Roger that.” Fluttering his lashes at Rusty, he said, “Can you settle the bill, shnookums?”
The Pyclon arched a fuzzy, mauve brow, then his hand shot out and bag-tagged him. With a yelp, Dex went down, cupping his groin as pain spread from his balls to his gut and down his thighs.
“Ah, my balls,” he wailed pathetically, and Holli made a noise of disgust. “Uh, I mean, oh, my vagina! Because I’m pregnant and stuff.”
“I’ll take the free lube,” Rusty said as he swiped his card to pay.
“Oh, come on,” Dex whimpered, “I totally earned those condoms.”
Bending down beside him, Rusty patted his cheek a bit too hard. “Judging from how high your voice just got, you won’t be needing condoms anytime soon. Isn’t that right, pookie?”
“Hey, guys?” Jude’s voice carried through the crack in the employees-only door, and every feeling of levity and jest evaporated.
Rusty left Dex to pick himself up off the floor, and had the situation not been so dire, he would have stayed down a bit longer. As it was, he grabbed the counter and heaved himself to his feet, ignoring Holli’s extremely critical glare.
Hobbling like an old man, he made it to the door and limped inside, still cupping his throbbing testicles. “Rusty nut-shotted me,” he explained before Jude could ask, and the human rolled his whiskey-brown eyes.
He shut the door behind Dex, locking the three of them in the bathroom together. Dex spotted a plastic cup filled with urine on the sink, numerous sticks and strips sticking out of it.
“Oh, that’s what the cups were for.” He pointed with one hand, his second still cradling his junk. “Smart.”
Rusty leaned against the wall and crossed his arms over his bare chest, eyes tracking Jude as the human paced. He was ringing his hands, and his breathing had grown choppy and fast again. This time, Rusty didn’t try to calm him; he let him pace.
“I don’t understand how this happened,” Jude said, not looking at either of them.
“I know I got lax because I never thought… because he’s an Elas, and I’m a human.
I’ve been on testosterone for years, which I know isn’t a contraceptive, but c’mon!
My body is different, and he is different. How did this—why is this happening?”
It was clearly rhetorical, but Rusty answered anyway. “Like Dex said, some species are just compatible that way.”
“Why didn’t I… How did Toni not…” Jude stopped abruptly. “Oh god, did Toni know? Please tell me Toni didn’t know.”
His glassy eyes were pleading as he turned to Rusty, and the Pyclon shook his head. “He didn’t; he couldn’t have. Toni’s a lot of things, but he would never have—Jude, you know he wouldn’t have let this happen. Not on purpose. Not like this.”
Shame and guilt crashed over the human’s face. “I know. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”
“We know,” Dex said, whining at the tear sliding down Jude’s cheek. “You’re just scared, and we all say things we don’t mean when we’re scared.”
Jude’s chin wobbled. “I can’t do this. I can’t. I just graduated and started a new job and I’m not even living with Toni. I mean, I’m pretty much living with him, but we never made it official.”
An alarm trilled, interrupting Jude’s tirade, and he pulled out his phone like it had grown teeth, silencing the timer. He looked at the cup and those innocent looking sticks. He shook his head and backed away until his back met the wall.
“I can’t.” He fisted his shirt over his stomach. “I can’t. Rus, I can’t.”
Pushing off the adjacent wall, Rusty went to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “One way or another, you have to know.”
“But then it’s real,” he said brokenly, and Rusty’s tail drooped, curling around his foot.
He cupped Jude’s chin gently. “It’s already real.”
With a dry sob, Jude plopped his forehead on Rusty’s shoulder, shuddering as the Pyclon cupped the back of his neck. Rusty purred soothingly, but it wasn’t a happy sound. It was an offer of comfort, of compassion, of sorrow, and it made Dex’s eyes sting.
“Can you look?” Jude asked, not lifting his head from Rusty’s shoulder.
Rusty made eye contact with Dex and nodded at the cup.