15D is for "Damn kids!"
"Fluffers!? Where are you? Come here kitty!" I called out while wondering throughout the house, looking in every nook and cranny. Oh God, where was my cat? I could feel myself start going into panic mode. Eyes watering? Check. Hyperventilating-ish breathing? Check. High pitched voice? Check.
Fluffy is a strictly indoor cat. He is fat and white and likes to nuzzle loofahs; he's basically my baby. A snowball not melting in the Sahara is more likely than my cat not being killed in the suburban wilderness. Good God, I can't handle this right now. I have finals in two days and then I graduate from the Hell that is high school.
Deciding that Fluffy was not in the house nor hiding in a sleeping bag, I ran outside and started searching there. Ominous looking clouds plagued the sky. It was only a matter of time before the rain would start. I looked for a few more minutes before I officially began panicking. The tears began streaming down my face and I started to seriously hyperventilate. I sat down by the base of a giant oak and attempted to calm myself. I tried slowing my breathing to at least stop the hyperventilating because, surprisingly, the feeling of not being able to get enough oxygen kind of sucks.
"April? What's wrong?" It was William fricking Wells talking to me from the street. Of course. Why wouldn't it be William fricking Wells walking his dog on my street by the large oak tree that is coincidentally close to the road?
"I'm," breath, "fine." Wow, that must be the worst lie I've told anyone in my entire life. Obviously I'm not fine. I'm sure my face is incredibly red and tears are still falling from my eyes. I'm not even breathing regularly yet. He walked up to the tree and sat down beside me, his dog inquisitively sniffing me. From the corner of my eye, I could see that his hand went to pat me on the back or shoulder but he retracted it at the last moment. He tried to play it off as stretching though. I laughed as much as I could (which really wasn't that much) and Will gave me a small grin.
"Are you going to tell me what's wrong now?" I took a deep breath and swallowed.
"I can't find my cat, Fluffy. I think he's escaped outside." I told him in a pathetically small voice, not making eye contact.
"Do you want me to help you look?" he asked, his blue eyes looking directly at me.
"I'm sure you have better things to do then look for a lost cat on a Saturday morning, Will," I replied, chewing on my lower lip.
"I don't mind helping. I just have to tie Teddy up though." I finally met his gaze and gave him a small smile.
"Alright, thank you." He stood up and offered me a hand. I took it and couldn't help to notice that my hand felt right in his. I shook off the feeling and showed him where he could tie up his dog.
"So I've already looked in my yard, I think we should go into my neighbor's yard." I told Will, pointing to the crimson ranch-style house that was directly across from me. The house had a huge yard covered with plants and bushes. It was like a suburban jungle in there. A strong gust of wind blew by, making my hair whip around me.
"Sounds good to me. You get one side and I'll get the other?"
"Yeah, but we have to hurry…it's going to rain soon," I said as I started towards the house.
About fifteen minutes of shoving my head into bushes had passed when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see Will holding a giant, white furball covered in leaves.
"Oh my God!" I cried, grabbing Fluffy out of his arms, "Thank you!" I pressed myself into his body, giving him a slightly awkward hug. A door slammed from behind us and I felt Fluffy quake with fear. Turning around, I saw it was old Mr. Gibbey. He was certifiably crazy. I went to the park one day and saw him on the swings…by himself. He wasn't amusing his granddaughter or anything, just swinging. I just thought it was a little weird. He has committed other strange actions, but I feel no need to get into that now.
"DAMN KIDS," he yelled in a voice laced with years of chain-smoking, "GET THE HELL OFF MY LAWN!" Mr. Gibbey isn't just a crazy; he's also a mean bastard.
"Someone didn't take their meds today…" Will muttered from behind me. I snickered before answering my neighbor.
"Good afternoon Mr. Gibbey! Sorry for trespassing, but I was just looking for my cat," I replied, holding Fluffy above my head. I saw lightning in the distance and quickly folded Fluffy back into my arms. He meowed in annoyance.
"Do I look like I care?" He questioned, a vein pulsing in his neck. I started walking backwards and accidentally ran into Will. He grabbed hold of my shoulders, steadying me.
"Um…no?"
"Just get off my lawn!"
"Right, well, have a good day Mr. Gibbey." I told him as I walked out of his yard, just as the rain started falling. I heard him mutter behind me,
"Damn kids these days…"
Sorry for the…major delay. What can I say? I've been pretty busy. I graduated from high school, my relatives from South Dakota who I haven't seen in like 5 years visited for two weeks, and I've had to go to a crap load of grad parties. I hate parties…
And plus there's that whole preparing for college thing.
I plan to rewrite the first few chapters whenever I have time and/or motivation.
As always though, I hope you liked this chapter. I still don't know where I'm going with this story but you can bet that it will be clichéd. Mm, warm and fuzzy – just how I like it.
I shouldn't have coffee in the morning…it does weird things to my brain.
I also have another one-shot in the works. It's called Doe, Jane. Because I always wondered how much it would suck to have one of those basic names that are given to unidentified corpses. Yeah, I have been watching too much CSI/NCIS lately.