Connor sighed as he lay on his bed.
"I'm just saying," Zoe said. "That spending time with animals could help you!"
Connor rolled over and glared at her, hugging his pillow to his chest.
"I can barely take care of myself Zo. Much less an animal." He said dryly.
Zoe frowned at him. "Having a dog could be good for you." She hummed. "How about volunteering to walk dogs at the shelter? You wouldn't have to take care of the dog. Just walk them once a day."
Connor groaned. "Fiiiine. If only to get you off my back."
Zoe grinned. "Great! I expect results in a week."
"You're not my keeper Zoe." Connor said.
Zoe rolled her eyes. "I know you. You won't do it unless I check in."
"You're infuriating." He grumbled.
"Love you too!" She said cheerfully before ending the Skype call.
Connor stared at the blank screen of his laptop before sighing and closing the device.
He bit his lip before standing up and grabbing his jacket. Might as well get this over with.
Grabbing his keys and phone, he left his dorm room and headed for the nearest animal shelter.
He furrowed deeper in his jacket as the chilly air nipped at his skin. The walk wasn't long, only about twenty minutes.
He sighed when he entered the warm building. A young man, maybe about twenty-five, greeted him.
"Looking to adopt sir?" He asked.
Connor's stomach tumbled with nerves and he forced himself to shake his head.
"I was wondering... if there were any dogs that might need walking?" He instantly cringed at his choice of words and scowled at himself.
The worker however, lit up like a Christmas tree.
"Wonderful!" He chirped. "Just one dog?"
Connor nodded.
"Alright. Follow me and I'll show you who needs walking."
Connor followed the overly-cheerful man into a large backyard filled with dogs.
He watched as the animals played with one another and found that his eyes kept lingering on a small pug puppy that kept getting left behind by the large, more muscular dogs.
"I'll walk that one." He said, pointing to the pug.
The worker clapped his hands together. "Great!" He said before walking over to the pug and clipping a leash on them.
"This is Charles." He said, walking the pug over to Connor. "He's pretty good on walks. Just make sure he doesn't eat any gum. He really likes to eat gum."
Connor nodded and accepted the leash. "Alright. Thanks."
"No problem sir! Have him back in two hours tops."
Connor nodded again before turning to leave.
Charles jogged after him, his stubby little legs having a difficult time keeping up. Noticing this, Connor slowed his pace so he didn't exhaust the poor thing too soon.
"Where do you wanna go?" He asked Charles once they were outside. Charles responded by blinking at him before suddenly jerking the leash.
"Woah!" Connor yelped, startled by the sudden momentum.
He looked to what had the pug so excited and saw a blonde man his age walking a dog that looked way too big for him.
"You wanna go say hi?" Connor asked. Charles' tail wagged wildly and Connor decided that walking up to the stranger couldn't hurt. Hopefully it wouldn't be too awkward.
He walked up to the large dog, the pug trying to hurry him along.
As soon as they were close, the large dog perked up in attention and curiously padded over to Charles, sniffling the admittedly tiny dog.
"Beth, come on girl." The man said, tugging on the large dog's leash.
He looked up and it was then that he noticed Connor.
"O-oh!" He said, obviously startled. "I didn't s-see you there. S-sorry."
Connor shook his head and allowed an easy smile to appear on his face. "It's fine. I did come out of nowhere. But Charles really wanted to meet your pup."
"Is he yours?" The man asked, smiling down at the two dogs. "He's cute."
"He's from the shelter." Connor said. "I uh, volunteered to walk him."
"That was u-um, n-nice of you." The man said.
"What's your name? Mine's Connor."
"E-Evan." Evan said, accepting Connor's outstretched hand.
After that day, Connor made sure to walk Charles with Evan and Beth.
(He adopted Charles only a month after. Zoe was smug.)
