The Troubles of Growing Up

Chapter 12

Her soft lips pressed against mine and a feeling shot through my body. My eyes widened as hers shut. It took me a second to regain my thoughts and then j realized that I wasn't doing it back. So I closed my eyes and pressed back. I didn't realize how much time went by before I heard a familiar voice.

"Well then. That escalated quickly." I separated myself from Haylee and looked over at the best sight I've ever seen. There, in the sunlight, was my best friend. With a crutch and an arm in a sling, Andrew stood there smiling at me. I stared at him. Standing there. He put his arm out and I walked over to him. I grabbed him and he laughed. Hayl just stood back patiently.

"So who is this pretty little lady?" Andrew said with a chuckle. I rushed back to her and as I wrapped my arm around her I said

"This is Haylee."

"Hi" she said waving.

"This is Andrew" I said smiling at her.

"Wait," she looked at me with a smile "This is Andrew, like the guy you are always talking about?"

"Yup" I said as Andrew smiled at me.

"You kids coming in?" I heard Paige yell to us from inside the house. I gestured my hand to Hayl and Andrew for them to go first.
"After you." As we walked Inside Riley ran up straight for Haylee. She jumped up and almost tackled her. I started to panic. Riley had never liked anyone else before so you could probably guess what I thought she was doing. But she wasn't. She was licking her face in happiness. I grabbed her still not processing in my head that she wasn't hurting Hayl. She immediately jumped off of Haylee and onto me. Paige just stood there confused. Riley kept whimpering at us. I pushed her away and she started running and spinning in a small circle. I looked at Hayl and realized that Riley hadn't attacked her. I looked at Paige in confusion. She looked at me with the same face. She held her hand out and Riley stopped wagging her tail and just stared at her. All happiness had stopped. Just like normal. I looked at Haylee with a very confused expression. Haylee looked at me and became concerned.
"She never tolerates anyone other than Josh." Andrew mentioned to her. Haylee looked from him to me and Paige with an awkward smile. Like she thought she did something wrong. But she knew she didn't.
"I'm good with animals I guess?" She replied with an awkward chuckle.

"That's a bit weird." I said as I started walking towards my room. I opened my door and before I even unturned the handle Riley shoved past me. I lost balance and shut the door behind her. After I regained my thoughts I opened the door again. Riley had hopped up on my bed and was laying there as if she had been there for hours. She lifted her head and looked at me. I set my bag down on the bed and Haylee came in. I started up my computer to see that my latest song had actually gone viral. It had over 27 million views and it was only posted a week ago.

"Wow. That is interesting." I said as I looked back at Haylee. She was sitting on my bed next to Riley. Riley was resting her head on Haylee's lap while Hayl sat petting her.

"What?" She asked without looking away from Riley.

"The song I posted the day before we left has more views than all of my other songs combined." I looked back at her. Petting my dog.

"You know that's really something. Anytime anyone other than me tries to pet her she snarls at them." I told her. "Basically she hates everyone."

"But not me for some reason..." She added. When Andrew walked in Riley didn't even move. Paige followed in behind him.

"Mom's about to cook dinner, what do you want?" She asked us.

"I'm pretty sure you know all of our answers." I told her.