Nothing Good Gets Away

Chapter 1

ROWAN BASS

My mom is the one who told me to get a puppy. She said that I'll be less lonely and that it'll do me good to feel responsible for another life. It will teach you selflessness and bring happiness, she said.

So I did adopt the puppy, and I sure as hell am not lonely anymore. No one in my apartment building is lonely anymore. No one in Los Angeles is lonely anymore. The barking and whining are relentless and seem to echo through the whole valley. I never stopped to consider the idea that something with such a sweet face could be such a terror.

"Okay!" I yell out, kicking my duvet off my legs like a toddler as I climb out of bed in a pair of pink and white striped pajamas.

My hair is in tangles and my eyes are still cloudy with sleep, but I proceed to stumble around the side of my bed to shove my feet into my slippers. I curse under my breath and swing my bedroom door open to venture down the hall, and there he is – Satan's puppy that escaped from a tiny crack in Hell.

"Oh, now you stop?" I scoff a laugh as the little German Shepard wags his tail and wiggles around in his kennel. He bolts right out of the black metal cage to run circles around me and my living room while I retrieve the leash by the door.

"Okay, let's go then," I yawn and make the detrimental mistake of propping the door open before I'm able to secure the leash to his collar.

Scout makes his escape and sprints right across the hall, through the surprisingly open door. As far as I know, that unit had been vacant for months ever since Mrs. Castillo moved away.

"Scout, no!" I whisper-yell in a panic as I linger right outside the door. "Come here right now."

The Devil's dog gets low to the ground in the open living space, which holds only four moving boxes stacked together. His tail is wagging and his long pink tongue is sticking out at me.

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me," I mutter under my breath as I take two extremely cautious steps inside the apartment, clearing my throat. "Hello?"

I hear footsteps coming from down the hallway, and a man stands in my view wearing a white t-shirt, holding a couple of books in his hand. He's instantly, noticeably attractive; the kind of attractive that makes you go dumb. I blink at him while he blinks at me. Scout barks and forces the man's head to whip over.

"Oh my God I'm so–" I slap my hand over my mouth as Scout squats to pee right there on the floor. "I can clean that up, I'll clean that up, just let me, um," I practically turn around in circles trying to decide if I should clean the urine immediately, or get Scout first.

Instead, I make the brilliant decision to close the stranger's door with Scout still in there with him. I run into my apartment to grab the spray bottle meant to disinfect and mask the scent of urine, and an entire roll of paper towels. Without knocking, I let myself back into the apartment to see Scout now jumping on the man, trying to nibble at his hands.

"I'm so sorry, oh my God, I am so sorry," I stride right past them to start cleaning up the puddle on the floor. "At least it's not carpet, right?"

"Yeah," he laughs, thank God.

I use almost an entire roll of paper towels to clean the mess and spray the spot a few times just to use more paper towels. When I hear the man laugh again, I look up from where I'm squatting down to see him smiling as he cups Scout's face in his hands. I wonder, briefly, if he would like to keep him.

"So you're moving in, I'm assuming?" I stand and gather the paper towels into a giant, damp ball, tucking the last of the roll between my elbow and ribs.