"Seriously, how are you doing this?" I asked, stupefied.
It was the fourth time I had tossed Lucky out of my basement, yet, there he was, sitting in the middle of my living room and looking at me like I was the insane one. I didn't have the faintest idea how he kept coming back inside.
And why was he even doing this? Why did he keep coming back? Hasn't he made perfectly clear that he hated me? Now that he was healed and free to go as he pleased, he decided he was pleased to follow me around.
I think he was doing it just to piss me off.
The annoying little bugger.
I first thought about taking him to an animal shelter so that someone could adopt and take care of him, but I made the mistake of saying that out loud with him close by. It had been impossible to go near him after that. He went berserk every time I tried to pick him up to put him in his carrier. After the third violent attack, I gave up on that plan.
Black cats are really hard to get adopted anyway, thanks to human prejudice and stupid superstition. I knew he would have a hard time getting picked.
I decided to call Marie's friends then, to see if any of them would be interested in a new pet. None of them called back and I couldn't bother Frankie again with this, having made her already adopt two dogs that I had rescued from the streets. So, the only option left was to release him into the wild, since he was such a free spirit who could not be tamed.
The idea of tossing an animal onto the streets made me reluctant, but maybe it was the best thing to do for him. But when I tried to set him free, he wouldn't go away. As soon as he realized that following me around got me aggravated, he made it his life's mission to do exactly that. He was living to antagonize me.
If I wanted him in a cage, he made sure he was out of the cage. If I wanted him close by, he did everything he possibly could to get away from me. Now that I wanted him gone, he stayed glued to me like my frigging shadow.
I had put him outside on the sidewalk three times already and he kept finding a way to come back into the basement, strolling inside as if he owned the damn place.
He was so bloody infuriating, I swear!
"I mean it, Lucky. The door is locked. All the windows are closed. How in the hell are you coming inside?" I asked again.
"Mrrooow?" He blinked innocently back at me from his royal spot on my carpet.
"Don't give me that baffled look and the 'don't know what you're talking about'! You know exactly what I'm talking about." I snapped at him with both hands on my hips while tapping my foot impatiently on the floor as I waited for his explanation.
He stared at me for a couple of seconds before licking his nose, lying down, and getting all comfortable on the carpet, as if to say, "Well, there's no talking to you when you're acting crazy, so I'm just gonna not".
So. Bloody. Irritating. I'm telling ya!
"No, no, no! You can't lay in there. And you can't stay either. I'm not taking you in, Lucky! I have a 'no pets-adoption policy' here." I wailed at him. "Stop coming back. I told you, you're free to go now! It's time for you to go live your life. This is the last time I'm putting you out, you hear?"
I went to grab him to toss him outside again and he 'cchht!′ at me in protest, but didn't bite or slash out at me. Thankfully, since the incident with Noodles yesterday at the store, he was now letting me grab him without the need for protective gloves. But that only happened if there wasn't a carrier around.
"Yeah, yeah, complain all you want. It's my house, my rules. You. Out!" I grunted and opened the door to find a startled Frankie at the other side with her hand in the air, ready to knock.
"Oh, hi Frankie. Hold on a sec, I'm just going to put this over here," I placed Lucky gently on the first steps of the staircase that led to street level before I turned around to face her again.
"Taking the trash out?" She joked and Lucky made a series of aggravating chattering noises in response, a sound cats usually do when they are frustrated or irritated. Or in this case, both.
Frankie raised both eyebrows in surprise. "It's almost like he understood me!"
"He's freakishly smart, he sure did understand you..." I mumbled, gesturing for her to come inside. "Come in. And you," I hunched down to glare at Lucky. "It's time for you to start enjoying your freedom. You can go away. It was nice meeting you. Kinda. Have a nice life." And I banged the door shut on his affronted whiskers.
Frankie tossed her purse on the kitchen counter and walked up to my couch, to plop down on it. She stretched her legs on the center table while I sprawled on the carpet and prepared to listen to her latest gossip.
"So, listen to this," That was usually her opening line for juicy gossip. "Bobby and I went to the Fair last night, remember?"
"Yeah. It's the third time he asked you out, isn't it? Are those wedding bells I hear?" I teased.
"Shut up!" She giggled embarrassedly.
"Are you going to see him again?"
"As a matter of fact, yes, I am." She stated proudly. "I'm going on a date tomorrow as his official girlfriend." She paused for dramatic effect and to watch my surprised reaction before she continued. "Yep. He asked me to be his girlfriend yesterday at the Fair. I said yes. No biggie."
She tried to pretend she didn't care about the news, as she picked at her nails absent-mindedly, but we both knew how special this was. No guy ever asked Frankie to be his girlfriend. They all thought she was good for a quick roll in the hay, but she wasn't 'girlfriend material'. Just because she had an active sex life and wasn't ashamed to flaunt it on anyone's face. Bobby didn't seem to mind her reputation, though. I was forced to give him special brownie points for not being a bigoted jerk then.
"Are you serious, Frankie? That's incredible! Congratulations to him, he's a very lucky guy to have you as his girlfriend." I felt the need to congratulate him because he was the lucky one to have scored someone as incredible as Frankie.
"It's all happening very fast and we just met but... I have this weird feeling about him, you know? It's like, all butterflies in the world are in my stomach whenever he's with me." She confessed. "I can't believe we haven't crossed paths in our school before. He's kind of hard to miss..." She mused thoughtfully and I nodded in agreement because Bobby was indeed a very bulky guy.
"Where is he taking you for your first official date?"
"We're going to the drive-in to see a movie," she said and then added, "Your cat is back, by the way."
I didn't even turn around to check that out. "Of course he is." I let out a heavy sigh of defeat while Lucky pranced right back into the living room. "He's not my cat. He just refuses to leave because he knows that staying annoys the living hell out of me. I think it's his way to punish me for what happened to him."
"You mean he's purposefully hanging with you as punishment?"
"Yes. If I wanted him with me, he'd be running for the hills, I'll bet. I'd been trying to get him out of the basement all morning, but he keeps coming back just to annoy me."
He jumped on the center table and walked around, knocking down all the ornaments there were set there. He only stopped moving when every single one of them was rolling on the floor.
"See what I mean? He's doing it on purpose!" I hissed at him and he hissed right back.
Lucky only seemed satisfied when there was nothing more left on the table, then he jumped to the floor and sprawled on my carpet.
I couldn't blame him for that, I had the softest, most cozy carpet in the world, with long plushy cotton strings so thick and fluffy you could sink a few inches deep into it. That's why I always sat on the carpet when Frankie arrived to gossip. It was my favorite thing in the living room.
"You two are so alike, it's freaky to watch." Frankie mused.
"You mean, I'm an insufferable pesky brat with no respect or gratitude for anything and anyone?" I scoffed indignantly while I glared at him.
"No. I mean you are two stubborn butt-heads. You also sprawl over the carpet in the exact same way."
"I do not." I huffed and Lucky 'mmph!′ at the exact same time, doing almost the exact same sound, which made Frankie even more right.
She stifled a laugh and shook her head at us. "So, anyway, I came here today to tell you all about my new girlfriend status and about my date at the Fair last night. It was so epic, Mia! We went to see the magic show that everyone's talking about, you know? And we were waiting in line for the show when a creepy old lady arrived to announce to the crowd that the show had been canceled! For mysterious reasons that she could not disclaim at the moment." She gasped theatrically with a hand over her chest. "The old woman acted as if some awful tragedy had happened. I wish you were there to see it, Mia. You'd piss your pants scared, I swear. I almost did."
"You're so excited about the cancellation that it looks like you don't even care about missing the show."
"Oh, this was way better than watching a lame magic show. That old lady did quite the performance, telling everyone that the show has been moved to the end of the month. But I guess you had to be there to understand... Anyway, people kept gossiping about it all night long, trying to guess the 'mysterious reason' for the cancellation. I think it was only a cunning stratagem to make people more interested in the show if you ask me. To build up expectations and all. It sure worked for Bobby, he's dying to see the show now. This magician better delivers an incredible performance or people will have him skinned. What's wrong with your cat?"
We both turned to watch Lucky wringing nervously over the carpet, gnawing and chewing at the plush cotton strings as if he wanted to yank them all out.
"He's not my cat!" I repeated annoyed. "And I don't know. He's always weird like that. I gave up trying to understand him a long time ago."
He stopped mid-chew, blinked at us, and went back to pretending he didn't care about anything, with a bored expression on his annoying little snout.
"So, as I was saying, this magician better be damn amazing, you know? I expect to be blown away by his performance, anything less than spectacular won't cut it. Can you imagine if after all this bogus cancellation nonsense, the guy ends up delivering a lame act after a whole month of making us all wait?"
Lucky let out a series of distressed sounds, burying his face in the carpet strings and contorting his body at a weird angle.
"Yeah. He really is pretty weird." Frankie agreed watching him with a frown, "So, Mia, besides fighting with the new weird cat, what's new with you?" she asked, crossing her feet over the table nonchalantly. "I hear Adam passed by the store yesterday to chat up with you... and that he may have possibly asked you out, hum?" she wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.
"How do you know about this, Frankie? I swear, it's like you have this place bugged or something..." I grumbled while I peeked at the corners of the room suspiciously.
"I have my sources. And don't change the subject. Adam asked you out, girl!"
I rolled my eyes. "It's not what you're thinking. Adam is not interested. He's only bored and single. He'll try to hit on anything that moves in front of him right now."
"Ah, Mia. Come on! Maybe he really likes you!"
"Frankie, I love you, you're my best friend, you know that, but please, stop trying to hook me up. I'm not interested in dating. I don't want anything to do with boys. I know it's hard for you to understand the concept of living without a man but try anyway, for the sake of our friendship. I'm okay being alone, seriously. Adam is nice and everything, but his interest comes and goes as swiftly as the change of winds. I can't be with someone like that, who will treat me as something trifle. I want to mean something, I want to be important. That's not going to happen with Adam Campbell and you know it. So please, drop it."
She glanced down and played with the hem of her tank top. "Okay. I'm sorry. I only want you to be happy, Mia." She apologized.
"I know. But just because I'm alone doesn't mean I'm not happy, Frankie. I wish you could see that."
"And I wish you could at least give a boy a chance. Just a chance, is all I'm asking. Because I know you're not giving anyone a chance out of fear of being hurt and not because you really want to be alone." She argued.
"Nope." I shot down the idea once again. "I am never, ever, getting a boyfriend. And that's final."
...