Marathon [h.s]

five

Ellie Meyer

I have to do a double take once I'm inside Louis' house because of how similar the layout is to mine. I feel as if I'm in my own house right now, except everything is mirrored and on the opposite side as mine. I guess I should've expected it since all of our houses look the same on the outside.

The sound of loud barking dogs bombards my ears, along with Louis yelling at them to stop barking. One of the dogs is more hyper than the other, it continues to jump on me out of excitement before Louis orders it to sit and it listens to him.

They're both full grown labs, one with blonde fur and one with chocolate colored fur. By looking at the one with blonde fur, I can tell that it's older in age by it's slow walking pace and the natural droopiness of its eyes. I've noticed that it also has a little bit of gray fur around its face. It comes up to me and places a soft lick on my leg while gently wagging its tail.

The other lab is a dark brown color, and it is very obvious that he is younger and much more full of energy. Its' steady barking hasn't stopped since I've walked in, and Louis keeps having to force it to not jump on me and to not scare the puppy that's in my arms.

"This is Hazel, she's only a little over a year old so she's still in that hyper puppy stage, as you can tell," he looks down at the brown lab that's sitting in front of me excitedly with her tongue hanging out of her mouth.

"And this old guy here is Koda," he leans down and pets the calm Labrador on the top of its head, "He's nearing nine years in September, so he's getting almost too old to keep up with Hazel."

"Koda is a really nice name for a dog, I love it," I tell Louis while I continue to try and calm my own puppy down from her panicking due to the two dogs in front of us, who she most likely sees as giants.

"Yeah, I found him on the side of the street at a time where I was in college and felt super lonely. We instantly grew to be best friends when I felt like I had no one. Koda is a Native American term for friend or companion, so I thought it was fitting to name him that."

He looks back down at him as I'm in awe of the relationship between them, the meaning behind the name making the situation even more beautiful.

He looks back up at me to point at Hazel, "I adopted her about a year ago when Koda was in a tough patch when he just seemed sad all the time so I thought maybe he needed a friend to make him feel better, and they've been best friends ever since."

I look down at the animal in my hands that has calmed down more now, "Well maybe this little girl can join their friend group also once she grows a little."

Louis gets cut off from answering whenever we hear a knock at the door behind us, making my blood run cold realizing who it is.

Harry's knock is only a warning to let Louis know that he's here and that he's coming in because he doesn't want for Louis to answer him, but simply just walks right in.

Harry's running his fingers through his grown out hair to push it away from his face when he stops mid step once he makes eye contact with me. He looks as if he's gone completely frozen as he breaks his stare from me to look over at Louis in confusion.

"You didn't tell me she was going to be here??," Harry hisses at Louis. He drops his hands down to his side in annoyance, his mood completely changing from the moment he walked inside the house.

"It wasn't important. All you needed to know was that you needed to come here to help take care of my dogs," Louis spits back at Harry in a stern tone letting him know that he's serious.

I still haven't said anything this whole time because I can't say I didn't expect this reaction from him. Hell, I would probably be worse if I was in his spot.