dog sitters // C.H. (on hiatus)

(four) again

"Hey Calum," Michael says as he enters Calum's room, where the latter is laying down on his bed with Darcy, his thirteen year old and ever intelligent Border Collie, and Roman, his ten year old Beagle who is asleep more than half the time.

"Why are you still awake, Mike?" Calum checks the time on his phone, 1.37AM, it reads. "I can't sleep," Michael sits at the edge of Calum's bed, as far away from the two dogs as he could without falling off the bed.

"Why not?"

Michael interlocks his fingers tightly as he focuses his eyes on the floor. Having known Michael for most of his life, Calum learned that Michael does that only when he was trying not to cry as he had seen various times before; when Michael accidentally killed his goldfish at 10 years old, when his first girlfriend broke up with him at 14 years old and when his grandfather passed away on the eve of his 17th birthday. 

"Stella called me."

"What did she say?" Right off the bat, Calum knew that Stella didn't kick Michael out because he used a derogatory phrase on her. Rude as it was, Calum knew that Stella would have just screamed at him for it, but certainly would not have kicked him out. There was a bigger reason to why Michael is not with Stella, and he wasn't going to ask his friend until his friend was ready to tell him.

"She wants me back. But I don't." Michael says, still not looking at Calum. "But that's not the point. I just wanted to tell you that if she comes here looking for me, please tell her I'm not here. And tell Luke and Ashton to say that too."

"Okay. Are you okay?"

"I guess. Thanks, Calum. I'll go to bed now." Michael scoots towards Calum and hugs him, thankful that his friend knew when to and when not to prod. Thankful that he chose to live with Calum and not Luke because Luke would never stop asking him questions. And also because Luke knew.

"Good night, Mikey."

***

Approximately four and a half hours after the sun rose, Calum wakes up to the smell of sizzling bacon and the sound of his stomach grumbling. His dogs had probably sniffed the bacon slightly earlier since they were all gathered in front of the closed kitchen door. Calum slides the door open, shocked to find Michael in front of the stove, watching the bacon with loving eyes.

The dogs rush in and Michael eyes them cautiously, "don't you dare come near me or my bacon," he warns them, making Calum roll his eyes.

Michael has known Calum's dogs since he had rescued his oldest dog, Darcy, eight years ago and Michael still couldn't help but be wary of them.

"Did you wake up early just to make me breakfast on the day of my interview, Michael?" Calum asks, although he knew the answer deep within. "No...these are all for me," Michael flips the strips of bacon on the pan, "why do you have an interview today when you already have a job, anyway?"

"It's a part-time job," Calum answers as he took Lady on his lap. "I can do both and it will be an extra income."

"Are you in need of money? You know you can always ask me for help, right?"

"Thanks Mike, but I do have enough money. This pet hotel down the street is in need of dog sitters and I just want to help out."

Michael rolls his eyes. "What do I need to be intervened for?" Of course Calum needed an intervention! He definitely is obsessed with dogs. "Good luck, then. I hope you get the job. There's coffee in the pot and bacon in the fridge if you wanna make yourself some breakfast."

"Thanks. Please be nice to my children while I'm gone," Calum says as he pets his 'daughter' Darcy. Michael rolls his eyes, again. They both do it so often, it's a surprise their eyeballs are still in their sockets.

-

"You seem really experienced with dogs and I would love to have you on board, Mr. Calum," the interviewer, Miss Nelson says. "In a few days, one of my staff will be coming over to your place of residence to check out if it's appropriate for the dogs you would be sitting and also to brief you in greater detail about what dog sitting would entail."

"Sure, I'm looking forward to it! It was great meeting you, Miss Nelson," the wide smile on Calum's face betrays his efforts to contain his excitement.

"I'll see you then! Take care and thank you for coming today, Mr Hood!" Miss Nelson gives Calum a firm handshake and leads him to the door. "Thank you, Miss Nelson!"

Calum walks pass two other small meeting rooms and past the reception area of K9 Sitters. As he pushes the glass door open, he sees her again; except with more than just a skimpy attire of hot pink sports bra and uber short shorts.

Her eyes widen with recognition as his left hand freezes on the handle of the glass door. "I hope you haven't been here for an interview," she spits, remembering the recruitment flyers that were given out a few weeks ago.

Regaining himself, Calum shrugs, determined not to let some lady with pretty blue eyes (unlike his own mundane brown) get under his skin. She grumbles something under her breath and stalks off in the direction she was originally headed to: her mom's office.

"Hey, Ally," she barges into the room without knocking. "Jesus, Camilla! Why don't you ever knock? What if I had been in a meeting?" Miss Nelson shakes her head at her daughter. "I know your schedule better than you do, Ally. And in case you forgot, next on your schedule is lunch and furniture shopping with me."

"I am aware of that, thank you. Let's go, then." Miss Nelson picks up her car keys. "Wait," Camilla pushes her mom back into the seat. "Tell me what's the deal with that dude who just walked out first."

"What's the deal with which dude?"

"The Asian one!"

"Oh, Calum? He's not Asian, Camilla! And he's also our newly hired dog sitter. He knows a lot about dogs! He says that he trained all five of his dogs on his own."

"Well, do you remember a few weeks ago when I told you about that guy who left his dogs out in the cold outside Starbucks?"

"The dogs that were waiting outside in sweaters in a slight child, probably for a minute or so, for their owner? Yes, what about that guy?"

"Calum is him, Ally! You need to un-hire him!"

"Oh dear," Miss Nelson sighs, "it's okay, Camilla. Since you don't trust him, you will go over to his to check his place and to brief him. You're also going to supervise him so that you can see if he is truly as bad as you claim he is. If he is, we will get rid of him; easy as that! Can we leave now? I'm starving!"

"But Ally, he left five dogs out in the cold to freeze!"

"We both know it wasn't that cold, Camilla. And they were wearing sweaters on top of their thick fur!"

"Ugh," Camilla starts for the door. "You're just too passionate, Camilla. We'll give him just one chance. Now, let's go and grab something to eat before we start shopping your apartment!" Miss Nelson grabs her daughter's hand, "but I'm driving! You drive like a grandpa for someone who is only thirty-eight years old."

"Fine by me!" As they walk to the car, Miss Nelson thinks about how Camilla's father was missing all of these: the little milestones in her life. She feels goosebumps rise on her back when she thinks about how her twenty-four year old baby has already bought herself a car and is moving into an apartment all by herself. Ally Nelson is one proud momma. And shame on Ally Nelson's ex-boyfriend who decided to knock her up and then refused to take responsibility twenty-five years ago; he would have made a horrible dad, anyway!

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A/N: ok I'm so sorry for not updating in almost 2 months I am literally the worst person ever I know!! But hey here's a chapter for you guys! I feel so bleh about this chapter but I just wanted to introduce two new essential people so here they are! I hope you guys would still read this fic!!

Thank you everyone for reading and please don't forget to vote and comment!

(I also have a new story called Last Kiss on my profile you can check it out if you wanna)

I love u all bye

(I'll update this when I hit 1.8k reads)