A Bad Boy's Worst Nightmare (Book 1)

17. The Kiss

"What in the actual hell!" a voice shrieked.

I sat up immediately to find the source of the shriek.

Kelsey.

"Ryder!" She yelled. "You are sleeping with Corey?!" she screeched. "How couldn't you tell me you two were a thing? How could you not tell Devon? What the hell?!" Kelsey was at the foot of my bed with Aiden, who was looking at my wallpaper as if it was interesting. "I swear to God  I'm going to kill you both for not telling me!"

"What the hell? Calm down, Kelsey! I'm not sleeping with him!"

"Then explain why you have a half naked boy in your bed with you, and why you were snuggled up so close!"

I was what?  "Kelsey!" I yelled, trying to cut off her rant. "I didn't have sex with Corey." I stood up and put my hands on her shoulders, looking her dead in the eye.

"Don't I get a say in this?" a voice demanded from behind me.

"No!" Kelsey and I exclaimed at the same time.

* * * * *

After what seemed like ages, I had finally convinced Kelsey that my virginity was in tact. Not that Corey was much help. He kept making jokes, and that solidified my distaste of the entire male species. Yes. They were their own species.

Now, we were all at the mall. Most of the shops were closed, seeing as how it was Sunday, but we went anyway. I enjoyed the setting, and the Dairy Queen was open, which was enough to get me to go. As I walked, I stirred my strawberry cheesecake blizzard--my favorite dessert, might I add--and talking to Corey. Aiden had run off somewhere yelling about a sale at some store and talking about how much "Hot Cash" he had saved recently while waiting for this sale. Kelsey had texted her boyfriend, Jason, to come join us, but they ended up going off on their own. So it was just Corey and me now. It seemed to be like that a lot recently.

"Welcome, would you like to come in to Pet City?"

I stopped at the mention of pets.

Bear.

"No. She just recently lost--"

I grabbed his hand and towed him in to the store. "I hate pet stores," I muttered to him, "because most of their puppies come from puppy mills and because I would much rather get a rescue dog, but I want to look."

He followed me.

Quietly, I knelt down to look in to the glass and sat on my heels.

There were puppies, obviously, and they were incredibly cute. Cute, that is, for little creatures that had been produced by the forced breeding of mistreated adult dogs. They were white and fluffy, and I touched my finger to the glass while one started licking the glass where my finger was. Puppies had always been one of the few things I enjoyed in life.

I moved to another glass case and my breathing hitched when my eyes landed on the German Shepherd puppy. He looked so much like Bear.

"Do you want another dog?" Corey asked suddenly from behind me.

I shook my head, my eyes still stuck to the puppy. "Not yet. And not one from a pet store. Also, I don't want another German Shepherd. That would make me feel like I was replacing Bear."

"What kind would you want, then?"

"A husky mix. I love mixes, and I love huskies a lot. They have a really long life expectancy."

"Huskies are nice," he commented.

I nodded in agreement.

"If you're looking for a husky," someone said behind me, causing both me and Corey to spin around, "my girl's pregnant right now. We're expecting around seven pups from this litter. I'm real cheap, too. We didn't mean for her to get pregnant."

"I want a mix," I corrected him politely.

The man smiled. "Keiser has only ever been around a male for intentional breeding, and we didn't intend to get her to have pups right now."

"I just lost a dog," I muttered.

"That's alright. She's due in a little over two months."

"I'm not interested," I muttered again, "sorry."

"I might be," Corey piped up. "Can I snag your phone number?"

"Of course, young man. Sorry if I seem like I was eavesdropping on your conversation, there. Would you like to meet the bitch before you commit to buying a pup?"

Corey blinked in surprise, causing me to giggle.

"Sorry. 'Bitch' is the correct term for a female dog."

"Right," he said. "Um...sure. I'd like to see her. Is she purebred?"

"Yes, she's pureblood husky. She's had a couple litters before this and her pups went for thousands; she's a very prized show dog. But having her have mutt puppies makes my hair stand a little, so I want to get rid of as many as possible as quickly as possible. They should be weaned pretty quick, so you'd get it around three months old."

"So five month wait?" Corey clarified.

Five months sounded a lot more reasonable for a new puppy than two months did for me. Maybe by then I'd be up to raising another puppy. Five months...that would put the year in, what, September almost? That's when my birthday was. Maybe I could buy one for my birthday. My house would be less empty that way, and I would have plenty of time to prepare to take care of one...

"Yeah, five months total. Maybe a bit over that, I'm not talking exact dates or anything."

"Alright. Can we go see the...er...bitch?"

The man nodded and we followed him.

Corey held my hand while we walked, stroking my hand lightly with his thumb. He seemed to like holding my hand for whatever reason; he'd been doing it at every opportunity that day. When we reached the car, a beautiful dog popped up in the window. The man let her out of the car, put her on a leash, and made her sit.

I could see why she was a show dog. She was...gorgeous. Her eyes were icy blue and her coat was thick and smooth. As I knelt to pet her, she looked me in the eye. "You'd make a very beautiful mother," I murmured softly to the husky.

She licked my face sloppily.

"Look, Ryder," Corey said with a smirk. "You had your first kiss."

Author's Note:

Hah. Bet I got you with the title of the chapter. XD