Mute [Joshler]

Part 3 (Tyler Present Day)

"Ugh, I hate this job so much," I whisper to myself while I stock the shelves of the empty pet store. As I walk to the back of the store to get the broom, so I can clean up all of the hampster food I spilled a few moments prior, I hear the soft ring of the door bell. "One second," I call to whoever just walked in.

As I close the supply closet door and walk back to the front of the store to greet the customer, my eyes go wide and I let out a small gasp. He was beautiful. He had blue hair, brown eyes, and amazing features. He had a look of despair on his face. "What's the matter?" I ask, not even bothering to use the boring 'hello, welcome to skippy's pet store' greeting.

He simply held his empty fish bowl out to me and opened his mouth then quickly closed it again. He sat his fish bowl down on a nearby shelf and pulled a notepad out of his backpack. Splashy died, he scribbled down quickly, he had messy handwriting, which made him even cuter. I need a new pet, he wrote below the first message.

"Oh, well I'm sorry about Splashy, we don't have very many pet options here...we have hamsters. Do you want a hamster?" I ask him. As soon as I ask this he shakes his head no. "What about a snake? We have a couple of snakes," when I suggest a snake he make a face of pure disgust and shakes his head once more. "Well, the only other animal we have is a cat. We only have one left and she's the runt of the litter," as soon as I say the word cat his face lights up. He shakes his head up and down vigorously, this motion causing his notepad to slip from his hands.

The notepad falls to the floor and opens to a page with a beautiful night sky drawn across it. "Wow, that's really impressive. Did you draw that?" I ask. He turns beet red and shakes his head up and down. "Any-who, let's get you your cat," I smile at him, causing him to turn red again. He's so cute, make sure you get his number before he leaves this store, Ty! I make a mental note to myself as I lead him through the store to the back where the kitten sits in her cage.

As soon as we near the cage, she wakes up and let's out a small meow. She was an orange tabby cat named Amber. Josh smiled so big that it looked like his face would rip in half when he saw her, they're perfect for each other, I smile to myself as I get Amber ready to go home with this amazing boy.

Once we get to the cash register, I hand Amber to the boy and get him a small bag of kitten chow and a few cat toys. "That will be 50 dollars," I say. While he pulls out his wallet to pay he sets Amber down on the counter and she starts batting the pencil from his notepad around. I decide this would be the perfect opportunity to slip my number onto one of the pages.

Call me sometime @ (xxx)xxx-xxxx. I quickly set his notepad down and hope he didn't notice. He quickly pays and puts the food and toys in his backpack, then gently picks up Amber and cradles her in his arms.  As he turns to leave I say, "Wait! I never got your name."

He slips a sharpie out of one of the side pockets of his backpack, grabs my arm, pushes up my sweatshirt sleeve and writes josh then slips the sharpie back into his backpack pocket and walks out the door.  "I hope he finds my number in his sketch book thingy." I say as the door swings shut behind him.   

a/n lainie: amber was named after a friend who helped us with some ideas for this story