Heal My Heart

S p e c i a l : B a i l e y & K y l e

A/N: So this a 'special' chapter. Kind of a peek into Bailey and Kyle's life. Comment & Vote.

Bailey

I took the stairs two at a time.

Really I couldn't care less what Master had to whine about. It was always something. And since Boss was sick, payroll would be late too. So Master would be even more short tempered than usual. Money was tight normally. I could only imagine the shoestring budget we'd be on.

We had about $400 in our 'emergency fund' that doubled as life savings. It was pathetic really--Master knew it too. It wasn't like we were irresponsible with money. Master was one of the most frugal people I knew! So frugal in fact, we didn't celebrate any holidays that came with expenses. Like birthdays (with the exception of maybe getting something a bit fancier than chicken for dinner) or Christmas.

Christmas the hardest to adjust too. My childhood hadn't been luxurious but I never had to want for things within reason. New clothes each season, grocery trips where we could put whatever we liked in the cart, fun activities and shopping money came with ease.

Now everything was different.

Money suddenly had value to me. And don't get me wrong, Master tried hard to give me all the luxuries in life. And it was really had to work in a place of such wealth while knowing you couldn't have any.

I remember how much I hated Danny for having what he did. How he had brand new clothes on every day and paraded around in a silver collar while my own was pre-owned and fading rapidly in the hot sun...

But envy wasn't becoming on anyone.

And where we didn't have money we had love and happiness...usually. Puppy padded along behind me, looking at everything with a poorly hidden look of wonder and pity. Then again he'd never experienced anything but luxury. It would drive Master nuts--I knew that much. He was very sensitive about our financial information.

No one was to know how tight things were.

Puppy didn't have the sense to pick up on it. He didn't have the sense to do a lot of things--like let us know he couldn't swim. It was too bad though. I liked going to the Country Club.
Everything was free and fancy. Master liked to act like it wasn't a big deal when Boss took us there and acted as if we could afford a membership. It was twenty three hundred dollars a year. There was no way in hell we could afford that.

But Master was letting me get Charcoal. He would be expensive too we realized. Together we erected a one horse barn and built an enclosure. I heard Boss asking Master if he was sure he could afford to feed him, even offering to board the horse for free.

It was of course unbelievably offense to him. He assured Boss we could--I'd ran the numbers almost a dozen times now.

We couldn't.

Not with our current expenses anyway...

Master glared at me as I went into the dining room. He had several items on the counter. Past due items. "I told you to clean out this refrigerator three days ago. Why is this shit still in here? If I go through it will I find more?"

I tilted my head back with a groan. "I forgot Master. I'll do it tomorrow. I promise!"

Master just rolled his eyes. "As usual. Do you want to do the dishes or make dinner?"

We did this just about every night. "Dinner."

"Get to it." He sighed, pulling up his sleeves to start the dishes.