"Hey, Mia! Hello!" Adam greeted me in his usual cheerful mood.
Adam Campbell was the ultimate heartthrob in my school. His sandy blond hair and bronze skin was the perfect match to his big almond eyes. Adam could always be found near the beach because surfing was his favorite pastime. Whenever he wasn't at the beach, you could find him at the gym on the other side of the street from my store.
It's easy to guess that the boy had quite a fit body, between all the surfing and working out he did all the time at the gym. The girls went crazy every time he took his shirt off during P.E. and I have to admit, it was quite the view. But people didn't only like him because he was ridiculously hot, Adam was also extremely easygoing and nice, with a constant smile on his face.
He was also a regular client in the Pet store. He used to say we had the best dog treats in town. Do you know how some people seem to assimilate their pet's personality? Well, Adam had this adorable Gold Labrador Retriever called Noodles, and he acted a lot like that dog. He was loud, all over the place, contagiously happy, and a bit goofy as well.
He would be damn near perfect if it wasn't for his biggest flaw ever: Russell Cooper, AKA The Devil's Spawn. Russell was Adam's best friend and was constantly glued to his side, like a big, fat, diabolical leech.
Yeah, I know, talk about a major flaw. But hey, no one is perfect.
"Hi, Adam. Hi, Noodles!" I greeted Adam and his dog as they walked into the store.
"Mia, do you have more of those awesome biscuits I bought last time I was here?" Adam asked while his dog pulled him eagerly towards the dog treats aisle. "Noodles frigging loved them!"
"Yeah. But I think Noodles already found them. Follow his nose, his trying to nudge them out of the shelf there." I told him.
"Oh. Cool. Thanks." He grabbed one small bag and headed to the cash register where I was perched over.
"Why don't you get the bigger package? He'll gobble this up in one second." I said, watching Noodles whine for Adam to hurry up and hand over the goodies.
"Noodles. No! Sit. Wait." Adam barked out the orders and Noodles promptly obeyed, but only because he had his eyes on the prize and thought that maybe he'd get a treat for being a good boy. He usually wasn't very responsive to Adam's commands.
"I don't have much money now," he said, scratching his head embarrassedly. "I'll come back later to buy some more when I have more cash on me."
I waved a hand at him. "It's okay, Adam. You can take the treat and pay me whenever. You buy tons of stuff from us. Customers like you have privileges at Paw's Pet Store!" I sang like we were in an infomercial.
He laughed at my silly performance. "Nah. I'll take the small pack. It gives me an excuse to come back for the big bag. Then I can see you again." He shot me a flirty wink with that goofy smile that always looked so easy on him.
Adam liked to flirt a lot. He never stuck with one girlfriend for too long and whenever he started flirting like this usually meant that he was single again.
"I'm hazarding a guess that there isn't a girlfriend in the picture anymore?"
"It wasn't working out and we decided it was time to break up. The grieving period is over for me and I'm ready to move on, so, if there's any lady out there interested, this is the time for her to present herself." He gave me a pointed look and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at me.
I laughed at his oh-so-subtle hint drop. I had a feeling that if it wasn't for the dog treats that Adam used to buy in the store, he'd never have a reason or desire to talk to me. The idea of Adam and me dating seemed so unfathomable that I couldn't help but laugh at such a ridiculous suggestion.
"What? Why are you wiggling your eyebrows at me for? Are you seriously suggesting that I present myself here? I'm the 'stinky Cat Lady' Adam, remember?"
"Hey, I know for a fact that you do not stink. You smell like vanilla. It's nice." He countered, leaning against the counter to get closer to me.
"Thanks," I said shyly. "But I'm sure there will be loads of more presentable girls presenting themselves to you very soon. You don't need to worry."
"I'm not worried," he said with a cocky smirk. "So, my friends and I are going to the Fair tonight. There's this new magic show that's causing a buzz and everyone is crazy to see it. Wanna come too?"
"I don't think I can, sorry." I tried to politely decline the invitation.
"Why?" he asked while absent-mindedly handing treats to Noodles, who happily gobbled them all up with an excited waggling tail.
"Lots of reasons..." I responded as vaguely as I could.
"Is this about Russell? You don't want to come because you think he'll be there?" He tried to guess.
I shifted on my feet, uncomfortably. "It's not just Russell. All your friends hate me, Adam. It'll be awkward."
"What? They don't hate you." He protested in blind denial.
I snorted. "You don't think I didn't hear them spreading all those rumors about me at school, Adam? Russell is the one asking them to do that. Come on, let's be real, why would I want to hang out with them?"
Because last I checked, his best friend was still spreading nasty rumors about me, just because I dared to reject him, he was still trying to coerce me into doing what he wanted, and was still paying victim blame. And the rest of his friends were helping him along. Why on Earth could Adam think that I would want to hang out with those people?
He hesitated for a second. "Hey, I've never helped spread anything about you, okay? I don't this stuff like this. You know that, right?"
"Yeah, Adam, I know."
He really didn't. Adam was among the very few in our school who didn't jump on the bullying wagon. He never helped spread any rumors and didn't gossip about anyone too. He was the only one of all of Russell's friends who never harassed me or called me names.
But he never did anything to make his friends stop either. If you don't bully, but you do nothing to stop it, aren't you accountable in a way too? If he's letting the bad people continue doing bad things, how much different Adam really was from his friends, I wondered...
"We don't need to hang out with them. We can ditch them and then it can be just the two of us, what do you say?" Adam insisted.
"I'm sorry, but I really can't go." I wrecked my brain for a good reason to give him and remembered a very good – and true – one that I had given before to Frankie. "I'm totally broke for the month."
He gave me a knowing smile. "You blew all your paycheck on strays again, didn't you?"
"Sort of, yeah," I confessed, embarrassed.
His laughter rang with amusement. "You're the only girl I know who blows all her money, saving animals. If it wasn't for Frankie dragging you to have some human socialization, we would never get to see you at all. You'd be stuck in here with your pets all day long!"
"Well, no one really cares if I'm 'socializing' or not anyway," I mumbled.
He realized he might have offended me with his insinuation that I was an anti-social loser and tried to make amends. "Sorry. I joke about your charitable heart, but I admire you a lot, Mia. I'm glad there's someone like you in this town, who loves animals like you do. I feel a lot better knowing that if something ever happens to Noodles and I'm not around, you'd take care of him."
At the mention of his name, Noodles stood over the counter in his front paws and waggled his tail happily, having finished wolfing down all of the treats from Adam's package.
"Of course. Noodles is the most awesome dog ever!" I patted his head while he tried to vigorously lick all over my hand.
"He really likes you," Adam said, beaming wide.
I chuckled. "He really likes everyone, Adam."
Noodles' ears perked up in attention and he stopped licking my hand to sniff inquisitively at the air. Then he jumped back to the floor and started growling. I had never heard Noodles growling at anyone or anything, so I was very startled at the sudden weird change in his behavior.
Adam tugged at the dog's leash, trying to make Noodles stop, but that only encouraged him to growl even louder.
"Noodles, what is it?" I asked worriedly.
The answer came quickly in the form of a sassy black cat strolling towards us as if the angry dog barking furiously at him was nothing but a pesky and unimportant annoyance. Then he jumped over the counter and peered at the dog with as much contempt as only a cat can muster up.
"Oh, it's because of Lucky," I explained to a befuddled Adam who had been holding tight to Noodle's leash. "He's the reason my bank account is in red right now," I shouted over the loud barks.
"What?" Adam asked confused, because he couldn't hear me. "Noodles! Stop!"
But Noodles wasn't having any of it and jumped on the counter, trying to get Lucky, who startled and fled to my shoulder. He perched half of his body on my left shoulder and the other half on the top of my head, before he began to hiss at the dog.
I cringed, fearing his deadly claws that would surely make an appearance all over my face, but Lucky just perched on my curly locks like a warm, soft, furry hat.
"S-sorry, I- I don't know what's happening to Noodles. He's never like this." Adam apologized, pulling his dog back forcefully. "I'll get him out of here. I'll come by later to get more treats, okay? Noodles! No! Outside! Now!" He scowled at the dog and dragged him out, and I was left in the store with a new furry black 'hat' on display over my head.
"Well, that was... weird," I mumbled awkwardly to the room. "He's such a nice dog. I've never seen Noodles acting like this before."
I heard a grumpy 'mrowf' coming from Lucky. It was a mix of meow with a huff at the end, as if he was saying, 'Yeah, right. Dogs are always stupid.' He stayed perched comfortably on my head and I breathed in relief.
It had taken a crazy dog to make Lucky get closer to me, without him clawing my face off.
One angry dog can sometimes perform small miracles, I realized with a pleased smile which Lucky gladly was not able to see.
...