Many autumns ago, in a neighborhood that had seen its better days , a young girl was crying in the middle of the road "Yuri! Yuri! Are you okay?" a young boy ran up to her , followed by his canine companion "Why? Why are you crying?" the little boy bent down, being careful not to touch where she was injured "Is it cause you scraped your knee?" "No" snot was coming out of her nose, and her cheeks were damp "I"m...I'm scared." she whimpered "You...you can still see me?"she questioned, wiping her eyes "Of course silly!" he gave her a hug "What kind of question is it that? You're right there! " he poked her in the forehead, tickling her in the process "Don't touch me.." she protested while giggling "If you keep teasing me, I'm not gonna let you meet my mom!" she started to pout.
But I'm supposed to be spending the night at your place for the first time, cause my mom's out of town remember?" friendly and obedient to a fault, the dog they were playing with earlier kept its distance "Derrick?" she hid behind him, still not comfortable around animals-especially ones she didn't know "Can you speak dog?" nearly falling over at the unexpected question, Yuri grabbed him, making sure he didn't trip on the pavement "What kind of question is that?" Yuri blushed in response "I dunno, you get along real well with them, and they always seem to do what you say." she moved her foot around in circles while answering, almost in an attempt to prover her wrong, the dog seemed to bark out of protest, grabbing onto Derrick tighter, Yuri nearly jumped out of her shoes
Make...him go away..." Giving it some thought, the boy knew it was probably for the best to do what made her comfortable, but for some reason he opted the opposite instead, walking over to the gray collie, the pet the dog and whispered into its ear. "What are you doing?" Yuri panicked, backing away "Get back over here!" she begged, tears welling up in her eyes, wanting to comfort her, Derrick took her hand into his.
"'Yuri do you trust me?" Derrick asked, the dog had sat, not a peep was heard from him but the wagging of his tail "Ye-Yes..." she stammered "You're my best friend...so I guess I have to." her answer made him smile "Close your eyes for me...please.." innocent and doe-eyed, his face was one she couldn't refuse "Okay." she relented 'I hope this works.....God please let it work' the boy thought to himself squeezing his eyes shut. Taking slow deliberate steps over to where the dog was, Derrick took Yuri's hand into his, placing to on the collie's muzzle, feeling the soft fur Yuri's first instinct was to jerk her hand back, opening her eyes, to her surprise the dog stayed silent and still allowing her to pet him "He's...so well behaved." While she pet the dog, Derrick scratched the collie's ear, and the friendly pup wagged its tail "He's...so happy!" Yuri giggled, feeding of the change in energy, the dog barked and started running around in circles "See! I told you!! Not so bad!"
"Told ya" the boy smiled putting his hands behind his head "Chester's a good dog! There's no reason to be scared!!" Yuri, continued giggle, Chester had come to stop from running and circles and was licking her face "I know sometimes you get scared and run away from things...I do too...but sometimes things we convince ourselves we're scared of...we don't need to be scared of at all." Drying her eyes, the dog joined in to help, licking her in the face "Stop!" Yuri giggled "That tickles!" Out the blue, Chester's ear's stood up, and the collie looked off in the distance, and then back at them-it was clear he was torn "It's fine boy. Time to go home?" the dog whined and whimpered, crouching low "It's fine, we'll be in the neighborhood again...then we can play even more!" Derrick bent down, petting the Chester on the head "Arf!! Arf!" licking both of them in the face, the dog wagged its tail, then took off in a sprint around the block "Yuri what's wrong?" refusing to let Derrick see her face, she turned her back "Are you...gonna miss Chester..I thought didn't like dogs?"
Shooting him a glare, she turned around, still refusing to face him "Not sure what I did wrong, but I guess we can go on ahead..I'm ready to meet your Mom!" Fist-pumping into the air, Yuri got over whatever was making her upset, taking him by the hand "Alright then! Let's go!" Hand in a vice grip, Derrick thought of snatching away his hand, but seeing Yuri in a bright and cheery mood he decided to let her have her way "Hey! Slow it down a bit!!" Derrick complained, but if Yuri heard him, she didn't acknowledge it or slow down at all-the two skipped and pranced all the way home.
