Black T-shirt. Loose jeans. Comfy shoes. Warm hoody. Operation dog walking is a go. You should leave in about fifteen minutes. You walk over to your couch, flop down and turn on BBCs Sherlock. Nothing says volunteering at the animal shelter like Sherlock.
You've been sitting down for maybe two minutes when your phone rings. Thomas.
"Hey." You answer.
"Iris! Guess what!"
"Hmm?"
"No guess!"
"Dylan crashed his jeep into Emma Watson and now he needs a place to hide? Don't worry. Tell him i've got him covered."
"Yes! How did you bloody know? Just kidding."
"Better be. I was lying. Dylan can't come over here."
"Anyway, I HAVE THE DAY OFF!"
"Very nice. Good for you."
"Guess what else!"
"What?"
"YOU DO TOO!"
"Yep, I do." You say smiling.
"Guess what else!"
"What?" You ask.
"I THINK WE SHOULD HANG OUT!"
You pause. You're actually very surprised, "Oh, well, i'd love to but I'm kind of busy today."
"Doing what?" He sounds disapointed.
"I'm volunteering at the animal shelter today."
"Oh."
Then an idea hits you.
"Hey, do you like dogs?"
"Uh, yeah." He says it like it should be an obvious thing.
"Maybe you could come with me?"
He perks up considerably at this, "Hey, yeah!"
"I'm leaving soon though. He quick can you be at my place?"
"Five minutes." He says through a grin.
- - - -
A few minutes later there is a knock at your door, "Room service!"
You walk to the door and call, "I didn't order room service!"
"Very funny."
You open the door.
"Touche."
Thomas steps and you are quite surprised.
He is wearing a T-shirt.
Like a normal person T-shirt.
He isn't Mr. Fashion today.
And he's wearing sweatpants?
Whoa!
What demon possessed him?
"What are you wearing?" You ask him.
He puts his hands in his sweatpants pockets, "Last time I checked clothes."
"No, i mean. You are wearing a button up shirt or skinny jeans or anything. You look like a normal human being!"
"Well, I am a normal human being from time to time."
"I didn't realize." You say almost without joking.
"Anyway, come on in. We're leaving in like five minutes so get comfortable until then."
You walk back towards the direction of the kitchen and Thomas awkwardly sits down in the living room.
Until he sees your book shelf.
He stand up and walks over, "Harry Potter, Theodore Boone, Hatchet, Si-cology 101...." He trails off.
He calls to you, "Got a pretty decent book collection here."
You smile and stick your head in the living room, "Thanks. I like to read."
"I didn't see these the other night when I was here." He adds.
"It was dark." You justify.
"Yeah, I guess."
"So, we should get going."
"Right!" Thomas says hurrying over to you and coming to a hault in front of you.
You grab your keys and head out the door.
- - - -
You drive your car this time, seeing as you're the one who knows the way to the animal shelter. Thomas hums to himself, as usual. You think it may be a car thing. That he mostly hums in the car and occasionally at the Studio, maybe at his home.
"So tomorrow is our three week anniversary." Tom says.
You glance at him, "Our three week anniversary of what?"
"Well, meeting each other of course!"
"Oh. Cool."
"It is, isn't it? We should do something." He says looking over to you.
"Like what?" You chuckle.
"I dunno."
You laugh, "You've obviously thought a lot about it."
"Well, I don't know what you like to do."
"I'm fine with whatever. But didn't you meet Dylan and Ki-Hong three weeks ago too?"
"Yep." He says popping the P.
"Are you going to invite them?"
"Do you want me to?"
"I don't care. I thought you'd like to though."
"Yeah, I'm going to invite them. Maybe even Shea and Sarah. "
"That'd be an interesting gathering."
He laughs, "I thought so."
He stares out the window and sighs.
It's a rainy day today. Practically pouring. So walking the dogs today will be super fun. Dark clouds surround the city, looking threatening.
"So do you volunteer at the shelter often?" Thomas says inturupting your thoughts.
"I just go whenever I can. I like to do things for others. And not too many people think of animals when it comes to service so, seeing as I love animals, I spend a lot of my volenteer time at the shelter."
"That's good. It's nice that you like to help around."
"Thanks." You say smiling.
"You're just a little do gooder aren't ya?"
"A what?"
"Isn't that what Americans say?"
"You mean good doer?"
"Yeah, something like that."
You laugh.
You pull into the shelters driveway. You love the sheters achitechure. It's very modern and airy. There are lots of windows, making the place energy efficient with fewer light bulbs, and every spring they plant yellow and purple tulips out in the flower beds, making it look like somewhere you could come watch the stars.
And of course the animals. You adored them. They adored you. You did everything from playing with them to cleaning up the poop yard and bathing them. You liked to pet the cats and throw small jingely balls around for them. You had about a thousand selfies with animals on your phone. You even had some framed back at your apartment.
"Here we are." You say to Thomas.
"Alright!" He says excitedly. You look over to him as you park. He looks like a little five year old bouncing around in his seat, excited to play with the puppies and kittens.
You smile to yourself and open your door.
"No!" Thomas says.
Oh. Right. He likes to open the door.
"Sorry," you say, "I'm driving."
He clicks his tounge and starts to open his mouth.
"Come on." You interject. "Let's get some work done."
- - - -
"Hey, Kelsie!" You say greeting one of your best friends who works full time at the shelter.
She looks up at you from the front desk, "Iris! Hi! Here to walk dogs?"
"Yeah. Um, actually, two dogs. I brought a friend."
You gesture to Thomas who's standing beside you. He offers a small smile and nods.
"Oh, so we'll be needing two name tags? Great! And what is your friends name?"
"Um, his name is Thomas."
Kelsie looks up sharply. You've told her about him for sure. And she ships the two of you pretty hard, which is kind of embarrassing....
"Nice to meet you Thomas." She says holding back a smile and she finishes writing our names on the tags, "You two go ahead and go talk to Bret and he'll set you up with a couple of dogs."
"Yeah, okay. Thanks Kels!"
You and Thomas walk around a corner, "You seemed pretty good friends with her." Tom says.
"She's my best friend. " You say simply.
"She's your best friend!?"
"Yeah."
"You should have told me, I'd been nicer."
"You were nice enough." You say smiling a bit and rolling your eyes.
You open a door to the dog portion of the shelter and Bret sits on a tall chair, in his hipster glasses, checkboard in hand.
"Iris!" He exclaims fondly.
You sigh and smile a little, "Hi, Bret."
"Here to walk a dog?"
"Two actually." You gesture to Tom, "This is Thomas."
"Nice to meet you." Bret says with enthusiasm.
"You too." Thomas says.
Bret blinks, surprised, "He's British!"
You smile, "I know."
"Is he your boyfriend?"
Your mouth falls open. You know Bret has no filter but....why!?!?
"Oh, no! We're just friends. We're on friendly terms! Just friends!"
"Yeah." Tom says nodding along, looking just as desparate as you feel.
"That's a shame." Bret says shaking his head.
There Bret goes AGAIN.
"How about those dogs, eh, Bret?" You say half nervous, half annoyed.
"Yeah, how about Daisy and Buddy? Sound good?"
DAISY.
OH MY GOSH.
YOU LOVE DAISY WITH ALL YOUR HEART AND SOUL.
Daisy is the sweetest dog that ever exsisted. She looks like a golden retriever with big brown eyes and shaggy golden fur. You've thought about adopting Daisy but you're not sure you can take care of a dog full time.
"That sounds great! Thank you Bret!"
He smiles, "Sure thing. You know where they are. Especially Daisy."
You walk through the dog rooms searching trough the windows.
"So who's Daisy?" Thomas asks.
"Only the sweetest dog ever! She's my favorite. I love her."
You come to Buddys room. When he sees you he starts wagging his tail. Buddy is mostly Husky. With a little cocker spaniel.
"Buddy is my second favorite." You explain. You snatch a leash off the wall, "You get Buddy."
"Oh, I see how it is," Thomas teases, "You keep the bloody sweet dog for yourself and I get the other one. Okay. Okay."
You smile, "That's exactly how it is."
You hook Buddy to the leash and hand him off to Thomas.
"There ya go Bud."
You start walking back to Daisy's room, Thomas following you. You must admit it's a little odd to have him here. A good odd, but odd all the same. You're not used to turning around and seeing him here, having your heart skip a beat even when he's just standing not doing anything.
You come to Daisy's door and throw it open. She's laying on the floor sleeping, but when she sees you she barks and jumps up, her tail wagging as she bounds toward you.
"Hey Daisy!" You say crouching down so you can pet her better.
"Not the face! Not the face!" You yelp as she trys to lick you, "Wanna go for a walk? Want to go for a walkies? Let's go for a walkies!" You jump up and put her leash on and she bounds out of the room and spots Thomas.
She runs over and jumps on him playfully.
"Whoa, there!" Thomas says laughing, "Hi! Hey! Nice to meet you too. Aren't you a good doggy?" He pets her and looks up at me, his mouth grinning and his eyes smiling. Your heart sparks. How do you breathe again?
You cough and look at the ground, "Come on. We should get going."
- - - -
Thomas is skipping ahead with Buddy. He's actually skipping. He is skipping in his sweatpants.
You laugh, "Are you enjoying yourself?"
He turns around, you swear he looks like a five year old, giddy and full of energy, "Indeed I am!"
It's raining and you have your hood up. Thomas however did not bring a jacket of any kind so he's standjng out in the rain with a dog. He's going to smell like wet dog.
You shake your head, "You're going to catch a cold and it's going to be my fault."
"Bloody nonsense!" He says turning back around and jogging with Buddy, "Did you hear that Buddy?" He says couching down, "She thinks i'm going to catch a cold. I'm not going to catch a cold am I? No."
Buddy licks his face, "Bleh! Buddy! You lick your bloody butt with that thing. Ew!"
You laugh.
Big mistake.
Thomas turns to you, eyebrows raised mischeviously, "Oh? She thinks it's funny, eh?"
He starts stalking towards you. Your eyes get wide, "Wait! No! It's not funny! It's totally completely-"
He breaks out in a run and you bolt with Daisy.
"Run Daisy!" You yell through laughter.
Although running is useless. He catches you in a matter of seconds, throwing his arms around you and starts tickling you. He doesn't let you fall onto the wet ground, thank goodness, but you're giggling and trying to get out a coherent sentece, finally you gasp, "Stop!"
"Okay, it wasn't funny, it was terrible! Awful!"
He stops tickling you but still grasps both of your arms, "I dunno. She doesn't look very serious...." Thomas says this to Buddy.
You try to make a straight face, "No. I'm very serious. See?"
He smiles, "Ah, well. You've convinced me."
You give a sigh of relief, "We should get these dogs back."
"Awwww." Thomas says pouting.
You smile and seeing as you don't want to leave Thomas you say, "And then we're going out for milkshakes."
Thomas blinks a couple times, "You're right, we should get these dogs back."
You smile a little, "I thought so."
Author:
Sorry I didnt update yesterday. I'm not on fall break anymore. :-(
Sadness.
Anyway,
COMMENT.
VOTE.
FOLLOW ME!
Come on ya'll!
-MK