A Four-legged Friendship [COMPLETED]

Chapter 4

"What is that?" I scream. "Get that thing away from me."

The furry four-legged thing has already climbed out of the box, while I was busy screaming my head off, and is sniffing around everywhere now.

"It's a puppy, Alia", says my mom calmly. She walks towards me, takes my hand in hers, and says, "Alia, meet Elsa. She is 2 months old, and is the brand new member of our family." My mom smiles at the thing sniffing and drooling at her ankles, before continuing, "Elsa is your responsibility now, Alia. You have to take care of her. Your father and I have decided that it's time you become more mature and responsible."

"So you guys got me a dog? A dog?! Couldn't you have gotten me a car or something? I would have been very responsible with a car", I scream at her.

My mom looks at me sternly. She doesn't say anything. So my dad takes over her now. "Alia, come on, remember how you used to love dogs and puppies when you were small", he says gently. "You used to play with your aunt's dog. It was a labrador, remember? Just like Elsa here."

"Oh I'm sorry dad", I say glaring at him. "But I'm not a 7 year old anymore. I don't like these- these things, okay? These drooling, wet, sniffing, disgusting things." I indicate towards Elsa.

"You could have asked me atleast before getting the damn thing!" I yell at them. "I don't like dogs! It's yucky, and it has- it has-" I feel something warm on my feet. "And it has pee'd on my feet!" I wail.

I yell and shake my feet trying to get the pee off, and secretly hoping I could kick the damn thing when my parents aren't looking. "Get that thing away from me! Get it away from me! It hates me already! It pee'd all over me! The little bitch!"

"Alia that's enough", says my dad coldly. "If you want to live in this house, there are some ground rules you are going to have to follow. First of all, no swearing of any kind will be tolerated. And second and the most important thing is, you are going to take care of Elsa. We are giving you six months. If we don't see atleast some improvement in you by the end of six months, you will be either grounded for the rest of your life, or you will be sent to your grandmother's place to work on the farm. If you do improve, you will be allowed to give your board exams. Now you decide. Your future is in your hands. If your behaviour doesn't improve, you could always give the board exam and all the other entrance exams next year, or the year after that, depending on your behaviour. Although judging by the rate at which you are studying, I think that will be the case."

I glare at my parents as tears of frustration form in my eyes. Why? Why is this happening to me? Am I not already suffering enough in my life? With Ananya gone and all that? Why do they want to adopt the damn thing, get attached to it, and watch it die after 14 years or so? Haven't they seen enough deaths around them already? What is wrong with my parents? I would have recommended a pyschiatrist, but I keep my mouth shut. Maybe they are suffering from schizophrenia. I wish they would leave me alone. I wish I was never born. I wish I could run away from here. I could run away from here...!

I nod my head slowly and say, "Okay.."

My mom smiles and says, "You are going to have the time of your life Alia. Elsa is going to be your very special friend. She is going to love you so much. I think she already does." She smiles at the thing who is now licking my feet.

"Euwww gross!" I say. I move away from the thing. "I'm not cleaning it's pee, mom, okay?"

She sighs and says,"Fine I'll do it, but only this time."

I leave my parents in the Great Hall, and climb up the stairs to my room. We have a huge house. There are like 12 bedrooms, a huge garden and a swimming pool. My house is pretty much in a secluded area. There are lots of trees around, and this makes the place cool even in summer. I climb through the window of my room, and onto the balcony. It's where I usually go when I want to think. The trees make me calm down a little. Usually. But not today though.

How could my parents do this? Bring a strange dog home? Who knows how many germs it brought to the house?! And from where did they bring the damn thing anyway? Shouldn't they have asked for my opinion before just deciding to parade a four-legged thing into my life? That damn thing would probably want to sleep on my bed. There is no way in hell that's gonna happen. It would have to sleep outside the house. Although my mom would never allow that. She would make it sleep in my room as the damn thing is my responsibility now. The hell with it.
There is no way I'm going to be taking responsibility for anything. Not in a million years.

"Alia, come down, dinner's ready", shouts my mom.

I have to think of a plan to get rid of the thing...

***
Dinner was a subdued affair. Thankfully the thing was asleep. My mom had given it pedigree, but when it would not eat, she tried feeding it. My mom, the pure vegetarian, despiser of anything otherwise, had actually touched the damn thing's food, and fed it. That's not the worst part. She actually sang to it, so that it would sleep. Thankfully this was before dinner, because if anything had been in my stomach at that time, it would have come right out.

I have to admit though. Even though I hate the damn thing, it looked cute while sleeping. It has nice, beady, innocent eyes, a cute button black nose, small paws on which it rested its tiny head, and a nice little tail, curled up.

Euw Alia, no. That thing has come to capture your life. To make itself the centre of attention. It has already taken over your mom. She sings to the damn thing, but she won't even say goodnight to you these days. Your dad is thinking of building it a kennel. You heard him at dinner. He wont even install an AC in your room when you asked him to last month. He said,"You already have one, why do you need another one?"

After dinner, mom says, "Look at her sleeping. Isn't she the most beautiful pup ever?" She smiles at the thing with gooey eyes.

"Duh, it isn't even that cute", I lie. "Shouldn't labs be pure white? What's up with the shade of brown in it's fur?"

Dad shakes his head and says,"You are so racist, Alia."

Whatever. "Where is the thing sleeping?" I ask my parents.

"Your room", they both reply in unison.

Thought so.

After a while, dad picks it up, gently, and it snores a little, but is fast asleep. He puts it in my room, on my bed.

"It's for the meantime", dad says when I look at him disbelievingly. He is a hygiene freak. He should know better than to put a wild animal on my beautiful bed. "I'm going to buy her a bed tomorrow. A nice, round, small one." He smiles at the thing and kisses it's forehead. "Goodnight, Elsa. I hope Alia doesn't trouble you."

And he leaves without saying goodnight to me. That should have been my forehead he should have kissed! Not the thing's!

The thing snores again. It isn't loud, but it still bothers me. What if it pees on my bed? Or licks my face? Yuckkkk!

I decide to sleep on the floor. For sometime. Before I can sneak out and escape to Tanvi's place. I have already texted her. She sounded sympathetic on the phone, but doesn't like me running away from my home. But she knows that once I've made up my mind, there is no turning back.

Sigh. It's going to be a long, long night.