Chance Encounters

twelve

Dedicated to @manipulators for her lovely comment on the previous chapter, which made me smile like an idiot. Thank you so much :) 

Chapter 12

Even without a leash, Hunter was surpisingly well-behaved. Like Austin had said earlier, the dog seemed pretty old. There was a quality of laziness in the way he walked and followed us. I'd always liked dogs. When Tori's brother got a new puppy, I immediately came over so I could help them name her.

Austin seemed more relaxed as well, as if Hunter's presence had a soothing effect on him. We hadn't been walking for a long time when I felt him sending me curious glances.

I caught his eye, craning my neck to look up at him. "What?"

He shrugged and averted his gaze. "You like dogs?"

Narrowing my eyes at him, I wondered if it was a trick question for a green joke or sexual innuendo, but his face didn't have that glint of mischief that I now knew all too well, so I said, "Yeah."

"Do you have one?"

It was kind of weird to have him asking all these questions without being rude about it. It almost felt like we were two normal people casually having a stroll at the park. I figured it was a harmless question. "No. My mom's allergic." I sneaked a glance at him. "What about you?"

"We had one," he said, "when I was much younger."

An image of that picture in the glove compartment flashed across my mind, with him and Lewis smiling broadly at the camera. "Can't imagine how that dog must have felt with such an owner."

"Hey, June loved me." He sounded all defensive about it and I suppressed the urge to smile.

"June," I echoed the name. "That's a nice name. Girl or boy?"

"Girl," he replied. "She died when I was thirteen."

"Oh."

"That's the thing about having pets," he said, kicking a stone on our path without missing a step. "You get attached to this animal, you watch it grow, you rely on it, until it stops becoming an 'it' and you end up seeing her as a best friend."

I looked up at him, surprised to hear him say these words. There was a slightly lonely expression on his face.

He took a deep breath and continued, "Only to watch her die."

I looked down at Hunter, taking in this little fragment of Austin's past. Maybe that was the reason why Austin suggested for us to take Hunter to a walk. Maybe he was seeing June in him and this was why we were here, walking as though we had all the time in the world, without even making any effort to look for Hunter's owners.

"Tell me about her," I suddenly said. He seemed surprised, but to be honest, I was even more so. It wasn't like me to engage in topics like this. I didn't even know why I chose to push the topic further, but I didn't want to dwell too much on it.

He considered this, his eyes flicking to Hunter before nodding. "Well."

I waited, looking down at my feet as we continued to walk. I noted, almost as an afterthought, that our steps were matching each other's.

"I got her when I was five," he began. "She was just a little puppy then."

"Were you the one who named her?"

I fixed my gaze ahead of us. From where we were, I could see the Bench. It was still a few yards away from us, but I could see it. It was this little metal bench, placed right next to a lamppost, but for some reason, I wasn't exactly disheartened to see that the Idiots weren't there.