People call me BC. Big Cat. A nickname I've had since I was a boy. However, during my years at art college I was known as 'Fluffer'. These are my diaries of that time. Fluffer's tales.
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Sara's wedding, and I was stood at the top table, in a rented morning suit with a bit of paper trembling in my hand. Two hundred expectant faces looked up at me.
I bloody hate giving speeches. And since when does the bride's best friend have to give a speech anyway? This whole `Bridesman' thing was so... fucked up.
I opened my mouth. Coughed. Nothing came out. Sniggers ran around the church hall.
"Come on, Fluffer!" Shouted Alan, the groom. The room erupted with laughter. They all knew I'd got this nickname years ago from giving his wife, Sara, head--or as he described it, "Doing what a real man don't."
Alan's rugby mates started chanting, "Fluff-er, Fluff-er" and my vision tunnelled. Sara to my left, smiled and frowned simultaneously. Tessa, to my right, glared at the chanters.
With my heart battering my rib cage, I took a deep breath and proclaimed loudly, "Sara was keen that I go down--" I faltered. The sentence was supposed to finish: "...in history as this church's first bridesman." I don't know why I paused, I think it only then occurred how that could be misunderstood. But I paused too long.
The crowd went mad, banging tables, slapping thighs. I thought maybe I'd got away with it and took a breath to finish my sentence, but everyone's faces distorted nightmarishly. Eyes widened, grimaces pulled, hands raised to mouths. At something right beside me
I turned just in time for Alan's fist to smash me on the nose. Pain flashed. I staggered back. On instinct, my hand shot out and grabbed the over-puffed rugby-ball of a man by the throat. I swung him like a ragdoll to pin him against a wall. Under the blubber of his fat neck his oesophagus felt flimsy and hollow. My other fist clenched, primed behind me. I didn't know if I was going to smash his skull or strangle him or both.
"I'm not.. Fluffer," I hissed, then roared, "I--AM--BIG--CAAAAT!"
Silence.