Apt. 317 {C.h.-A.U.}

Midnight Explorers ((Lukarie))

11:15 pm 

The Pet Store

"All I'm saying is the economy is in a fragile state and if we continue like this, we could end up living in a post-apocalyptic world of our own creation. We wouldn't need a meteor or a massive disease to wipe us out." Ashton looked at Valarie, trying to decide if she was going to agree or disagree with him. 

She hadn't been listening to him for the past 20 minutes, but she kept nodding like he was saying something interesting. Usually Roxanne was the person who would have these conversations with people. 

"You know who would really fight you on that idea?" Valerie asked, looking around the pet store. "Roxanne. She would totally give you some compelling argument that would make you rethink your whole existence." 

"Where is she anyway?" Ashton asked, nonchalantly. 

"Probably watching some weird-ass movie on Netflix. She was supposed to pack to go home this weekend, but when I was home earlier, there wasn't a single suitcase by the door." 

"Why's she going home?" Ashton was suddenly unnerved, somewhat, at the thought of Roxanne leaving so soon. After all, it had only been a couple of weeks since she'd arrived and he was looking forward to getting to know her more. 

"She usually visits her parents around this time. It's her..." Valerie suddenly looked at her phone, or attempted to considering it died an hour ago. "What day is it?" 

Ashton looked at the calendar behind the Petstore counter. 

"It's the 15th." Ashton watched as Valarie attempted to quickly hop off the register counter she was previously swinging her legs on. It looked awkward and rushed but that wasn't the point. 

"Aren't you supposed to lock the doors tonight?" Valerie asked. Over the past couple weeks, she was in and out of the store, buying loads of useless crap for their dog, even though Roxanne disagreed greatly over some of the purchases. 

"Yeah... Why?" Ashton moved from behind the counter, grabbing the keys from his secret hiding spot. 

"You should come help me figure out how to make up for something I did wrong. Like majorly wrong." She pulled Ashton towards the door once he turned off all of the lights. 

Ashton wasn't really the best at buying presents for people. He never had any clue what to get anyone, especially girls who made him nervous everytime he saw them. 

"So here's the problem. Remember how I told you a hot guy invited me to spend the weekend with him on a farm?" Valerie asked, listening to all of the different locks click. They started walking in the direction of downtown, completely opposite of Valarie's apartment. 

"Yeah?" 

"Well in the process of basically calling my roommate a wuss over a couple of cow utters, I accidentally forgot that it was her birthday and now I feel bad because her parents forget about it enough and now I joined the forgetful party." Valerie was normally pretty good about remembering birthdays, but she had bigger things to think about. 

"So what are you going to do about it?" Ashton asked, trying to figure out how he played into this. 

"I am going to go into some creepy grunge shop and we're going to buy her the most normal thing we can find." She said, walking a little bit faster. 

"But how do I come into this?" He asked, still slightly confused. 

"You're going to protect me."

"You may be small but I think you can handle yourself." Ashton said, trying not to insult her. He honestly meant it, but he recognized she wasn't the biggest or most intimidating person.