Puppy Love

Chapter 3

So we've come to the end of my first ever chapter story. This has been an amazing experience for me & I'm glad so many of you've seemed to enjoy it too. I'll definitely keep writing things & I hope you'll keep reading them in the future. Also, I went and saw Just Go With It today. One of the best Adam Sandler movies in a while. Now on to the beginning of the end!

Mitchie's POV

Two weeks from last time...

Since finding Shell together, Alex and I had really started to get closer and become friends. Which of course made it harder to watch my feelings, but I hadn't slipped up yet. Taking care of the dogs had become a daily routine which we'd easily worked out a system for. She'd handle the food while I watered everybody. Then when we finished that we'd usually get out a dog or two to play with, mostly either a younger German Short-hair named Bella who loved running or my mom's beagle Gypsy, who was pretty shy but played nicely and never ran off on her own too far.

One of the other beagles, an older one named Maggie who was also Gypsy's mother, had had puppies again just a couple of weeks ago. We liked playing with them too. My mom had this huge pile of wood she used for bonfires because if you ask me she's a severe pyromaniac. She's always burning something. Set part of the barn on fire trying to burn down some weeds once, and we would have lost the whole building if I hadn't ran the hose out. Anyway, I said she had a lot of wood, right? Well today we decided to use some of the wider logs and some pallets of wood to make a big fort for the puppies to play in. We even put some grass over the gaps in the roof pallets to block some sun. With some barriers around the edges to help us keep track of the pups, it was like a nice wooden condo in the yard with a great view of a wondrous... field.

They had great fun with that for a while. It was a group of six puppies, so they were a lot to handle all at once. One would always be trying to walk away while you were playing with the others, so it was definitely a two person job to watch all of them.

After a few hours in the condo, the tiny dogs seemed to all be ready for nap. We layed down in the yard and they all flocked around us, wanting to be petted and seeking shelter from the slight breeze for their sleepy time. Eventually, with some creative positioning so we didn't accidentally roll over onto them, we ended up with a ring of puppies surrounding us. I held one in front of me as I lay on my side, facing Alex and stroking it's soft little head softly to not wake it.

"Aww, they're so cute." she cooed, pointing at the little one I held, who we'd taken to calling Butterball due to his rotund figure. He was squirming around periodically, presumably having tiny puppy dreams.

"Not as cute as you." I stopped petting him, my eyes widened. What the hell brain? I thought you were on my side! Why, why did I say that? Oh gosh, now she hates me, this is not gonna end well.

"I don't know," she responded, "I happen to think you're the cute one." Wait a minute, was she flirting with me? Now I'm seriously confused. If I've got a chance though, might as well go for it.

"It's definitely you. I should know, I've liked you for a long time." I said, hoping for the best.

"We should just agree to disagree on this, because I've liked you for quite a while too, so we're about even." She responded cheekily, smirking at me.

"Alex?" I questioned.

"Mhm?" She hummed a response.

"Can I... I mean, would it be OK if I, you can totally say no but, can I...mmph!" My query was simultaneously interrupted and answered as our lips met for the first time. My thoughts and fears vanished as I became lost in her intoxicating slightly strawberry-like flavor. As she pulled back my only thought was that I could do that forever, I sincerely wished I'd never need to breathe, just become some sort of magic superhero that didn't need air. I'd be called 'Breath Babe'. That could totally work.

Anyway, I shook myself out of my thoughts and realized my eyes had remained closed after the kiss. I opened them and decided we should discuss this. "Alex, like I said, I really like you, and I'd really like to go out with you if that's what you'd want."

Her face took on a happy look, giving me hope. "Mitchie, I'd love to go out with you, and I'd love the honor of calling you my girlfriend."

"Yay!" I shrieked for a second. "Sorry, uh...reflex. Anyway, can we just keep this quiet for a little bit? If my mom finds out we will never hear the end of it and I'd kinda like to keep you to myself for a while."

"I think we could work that out," she let out, leaning towards me, "but it might cost you some kisses."

"Mmm...that's a price I'm happy to pay." I said as she kissed me again and again, all over various parts of my face, ending on the lips.

Soon the puppies woke up, and put them back and headed inside. Suddenly, trying to find something to do other than hungrily kissing the beautiful girl in the pink and gray striped shirt and light blue skinny jeans next to me seemed incredibly difficult, especially with my mother in the kitchen. We eventually decided the safest activity was watching a movie, me stretched out on the long couch and her taking the love seat on the other side of the room.

The film, Scary Movie 3, was one of my favorites, but it was still hard to keep my attention on it this time. Around the time the main guy, George, was about to start his rap battle with Fat Joe, one of the funniest parts, my mom let Bella in. She'd been playing around out in the kitchen before going out to the bathroom, so she was somewhat tired now. She walked over and climbed up on Alex's chest, Alex petting her and trying to find her a position not involving dog limbs puncturing her ribcage. This was achieved with Bella lying horizontally along her, the dog's head curled up under her chin. By this point I wasn't even watching the movie, as my only thought was: Lucky dog. Wish that was me lying on Alex.

Two weeks later...

Today was Alex's birthday. I'd been talking with her parents, and we planned out a small surprise bonfire with just me, my mom, and her family for tonight. My mom gave her the day off and her parents were taking her out birthday shopping before bringing her over for the surprise later. I didn't want to spend the day without her, but it would definitely be worth it. She'd been counting down to July 15th for weeks, and I for one wanted to give her an amazing 19th birthday before we all went off to college in a few months.

My mother wanted to bring out her charcoal grill for the occasion, so I was helping her prepare what she called a beer can chicken. This was where she filled a beer can with seasoning, shoved it in the chicken's, well, rear area, and stood it on the grill. It tasted quite good, but sounded pretty disturbed to the inexperienced. We got the chicken on alright, but taking it off became a problem. The can refused to come out. Eventually she held the poultry while I gripped the troublesome container with a pair of tongs. We pulled with all our might, and it did come unstuck. Just not without making a mess of everything inside the can. There was a seasoned puddle across the counter that definitely took a while to clean up.

After that most everything ran smoothly, and we got all set up for Alex's arrival. As they arrived, her eyes lit up when she saw everything, though I'm sure that was just because she saw me, hah. It was great, we were all sitting around the fire in camp chairs, Alex and I together on a log. Music played from the radio in the garage, and we'd just finished the food, with the leftovers resting on the picnic table. Then she moved in close to my side, leaned to my ear, and whispered "Mitch. I wanna tell them about us."

I looked over in surprise. "I guess, if you want to we can."

She then stood and exclaimed, "Mom, Dad, Ms. Torres, we have an announcement. Mitchie and I have kinda been dating for the last couple weeks. We hope that's cool with you and all."

"Honey," her mom responded, "of course we're fine with this. We know you don't choose who you like, and Mitchie is a very sweet girl."

"Yeah, and we're very proud you came to us with this instead of hiding it until we found out like you usually do." Her dad threw in his two cents. Personally I've never understood that expression though. If you put in your two cents but it costs a penny for your thoughts, where does the extra cent go? Taxes?

"I told you she liked you too Mitchie." See! I told you she'd do that! My mom is already starting in on it. She turned to Alex's parents, "I told her the day your daughter started working here that she should tell Alex how she felt and it'd all work out. Mom's just know these things, right Teresa?"

"Obviously," Alex's mom responded, "I suspected it the first time Mitchie called us about this party. You could just hear the care in her voice." My chin dropped even more. Does every mom do this? Really?

One month later...

It was now mid-August. This weekend was our annual town festival, one called Frontier Days. First up was a hot air balloon launch outside of our school. The entire group of our friends met up here and we all decided we should spend this one last weekend hanging out before we went our separate ways.

We'd all made plans for our lives moving on after high school. Jason planned on going up north to some technical school to study his beloved math. Harper was going to room with me in our dorm for the first year while she studied physical therapy.

I planned on going into media production, while Alex picked somewhere nearby to go study to be a vet. That summer we spent with the dogs made her decide she wanted to spend her life helping animals.

Nate and Caitlyn stood off to the side, chatting quietly together. This year was going to be hard for them, splitting to different schools. They'd been so attached in school they'd been called Siamese twins. Those two held hands everywhere. I wished them the best.

Alex and I were lucky in that regard. We'd both chosen schools that were only half an hour apart. In our second year we planned on getting an apartment exactly in the middle of our two schools together. We knew we'd be fine making it through a year alone, because we'd be together in the end. Summer is most kids' favorite season because they don't have school, but I found a much better reason to love it. Love.

The End

So there's the end of that, the longest thing I've written thus far. I hope you enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to writing a lot more in the future. It'll probably be mainly one-shots, but I've gotten a lot of ideas, so keep an eye out!

Also, a joke I came up with: That new movie I Am Number Four can't be that good. Bret Favre's too old to do much action anymore.