Off Leash

one

"Never mind, said Hachiko each day. Here I wait, for my friend who's late. I will stay, just to walk beside you for one more day."

― Jess C. Scott

•••

IT IS NOT the feeling of being in control that Paige Thomson likes. It certainly isn't the feeling of being in control, rather the feeling she gets after she's in control. It makes her feel powerful. Like Arya Stark slash Katniss Everdeen kind of powerful.

While she's holding the ultimately really heavy box that she strongly suspects is full of DVDs, Paige Thomson does not feel in control. She feels rather confused and a little strained as well, because the box is pretty heavy. This isn't how she planned on spending the first day of summer, really. She was going to binge-watch another TV series, take out the trash (see also: Walter Thomson, two year old brother) and eat a lot of Haribos. Instead, here she is, with a very heavy box in her hands (. . . is that . . .an actual yelp coming from the depths of darkness of the box?) waiting for the owner, the supervisor, the WhoeverIsInCharge to come over and help her, because she'd rather not double over from the terrible cramps she's getting.

(Nope, false alarm. DVD moved inside. Ha.)

She really feels the need to recount what happened inside her head. So, there she was, walking up to the total wreck of an animal shelter only because of her Grandmother, and she saw the box standing right by the doorstep. The beautiful brown box that she totally felt the need to pick up and then knock on the door three times with her foot. And here she is.

God, Paige thinks, this place smells terrible.

It obviously does, considering the excessive animal fur on the doorstep, she's starting to think they sell fur for backup convenience money because there are absolutely no spots not covered with fur. It also smells faintly of vanilla tea, and she has to crouch down to a certain spot to take a huge sniff of that particular smell, which is a relief from whatever animal's shit she was smelling three minutes ago. She doesn't particularly enjoy standing there, with one foot over the other and her head bent, box pressed tightly to her chest, enough to make her wish she'd worn a bra this beautiful Saturday morning.

As soon as she's about to give up and leave the box right there, the door opens.

Now, Paige's social skills are usually on point, but she's pretty blinded by all the white she can see when she looks up, so she resorts to a small "hi" and has to walk inside before she can actually focus on the boy that opened the door, and goddamn it, it's Theo Walker.

Overly bright, extra enthusiastic about everything slash Star Wars lover Theo Walker.

He's closed his mouth, so she can't see his pearly white teeth anymore, but there's still that one dumb smile on his face, and Paige wants to groan loudly. She looks at the box and she looks right up at him, a hint of annoyance on her face. Paige's always been annoyed with Theo Walker, right up from Day One, when he offered her a (free!) cupcake in AP US History, because of that overbearingly nice smile that's always on his face, and also how his voice sounds a lot like melted butter, and how he's always so cheerful.

"You can put that box down now, uh, the puppies are probably uncomfortable," is the first thing that leaves his mouth, and she focuses on the melted butter vibe his voice is giving off before muttering a "Huh?" and then stiffening all over. The puppies?

Suddenly, she realizes there's no acceptable reason for a box of DVDs to be sitting right outside an animal shelter, and she looks at the box, her eyes wide, as if it might suddenly open up and the puppies inside might attack her, and her breath hitches.