Puppy Love

Chapter 7

Owen

When I saw her on the ground, almost passed out and bleeding, I'd never felt so scared for someone's wellbeing. I want to say I felt that way because we're close friends.

"The universe is punishing me."

"Let me see," I say, slowly lifting the bag off her face. Ouch. He got her good.

"How bad is it?" she cringes.

"You look fine," I lie.

She grabs a basin and looks into it. "I'm going to need stitches, Owen. How is this fine?"

"It's fine because you're not going to die," I say sternly. She looks away from the basin and at me. Our matching blues lock and my heart begins to race. She's searching my eyes for something, but I'm not sure what, so I quickly look away before she finds anything. I want to say my heart raced because we're close friends.

I tease her a little about Ryan before taking her outside to wait for him. I know she loves him, I think she's just afraid to love him. I don't know why she's afraid but Ryan is lucky; she's a catch. I love having her around me. I want to say I love having her around me because we're close friends.

So imagine how pissed I get when I hear her ask him to move in with her. After three months in a relationship? I mean, yeah the guy basically lives there with his dog, but still. That's less time for us to hang out.

I want to say I'm jealous because we're close friends and that him moving in means we'll probably hang out less, but these days it's becoming harder and harder to believe that my feelings for Amelia are strictly platonic.

---

I come outside my trailer with my dog and see Amelia rolling in the grass with Riley a couple yards away.

"What are you doing?" I chuckle as I approach her. Sato tackles them, thinking it's a game. She's giggling uncontrollably as she wrestles my dog now. It's then I notice the small baggie of mushrooms next to her. She wouldn't...

"I can't believe you're doing mushrooms," I laugh, sitting down next to her. She hands me the baggie and I eat the rest.

"For some reason, I keep losing my prescription pad," she says, ignoring my statement and retiring her efforts with my dog to stare up at the sky. Sato settles for lying down next to Amelia, resting her head on her stomach while Riley still wiggles around in the grass, on his back.

Within the half hour we've laid down, I've officially become high, because the sky looks purple now. Don't get me wrong, I completely understand that drugs aren't good and they mess people up and I have PTSD problems, not to mention we're both professional surgeons, but it's fun being high with her. As fun as it is being sober.

"Should I buy Ryan's dog a red or a blue sleeping bed?" Amelia asks me.

I laugh. "Oh no, I'm not giving you any more advice about men."

She sits up and looks at me, confused. "What? Why?"

"For you to invite the entire male population to come live with you?" I say, still bitter a whole week later about her asking Ryan to move in. Not that I'd be less bitter if she waited longer to ask him.

"You're so dramatic," she dismisses me, lying back down in the grass. Her fingers brush against the blades as she grabs at them, and she smiles as she stares up at the sky. I'm finding it harder and harder everyday to not tell her how gorgeous I think she is.

"Look, Keri Hilson is a nice guy," I admit.

"Kerrigan," she corrects me for the hundredth time, even though she knows I know his name.