Underage

[11] Real or Fake

Underage
[11] Real or Fake

The mall has never been my favorite place. Maybe the number of people makes me anxious or always having to watch out for little kids running away from their parents. Maybe it's the overwhelming sense of people's eyes on my body. And not in a good way. I can feel the judgement form the girls as Ethan walks close to me, his hand grazing mine every once in a while. It ignites the nerves in my arm and makes me aware of every movement, every swing of my arm, and he knows it too. I can tell by the small, almost nonexistent upward tilt of a single corner of his mouth.

There are plenty of girls in this mall. We had gone out of our way to go to the mall two towns over. School just ended here, and all the girls are out shopping for both boys and bikinis. Cooper keeps pointing out girl after girl, but right now we are just window shopping.

Ethan buys me a pretzel. Before handing it to me, he takes a large bite from the top and gives me a smile. I roll my eyes, taking the pretzel anyway.

"You two need to stop acting like a couple so we can find him a girlfriend," says Grace. Her hand is wound tightly in Cooper's. "I still think,"

"—That you need to shut your mouth before I shut it for you?" I say.

Grace rolls her eyes, her boyfriend tries to cover his smile, and Ethan looks between the three of us with a confused expression. "Did I miss something?"

I hook my arm through Ethan's and lead him towards the puppy shop in the back of the mall. Even though we are here for girls, I still want to visit my favorite shop. It's a rather small store packed away in a back corner of the mall. Many puppies are kept here, in padded cages where people can come and adopt them. They take in strays and overflow puppies from the shelter so they aren't sent to be laid down.

"Five minutes, Thea, that's all you have in the store. Then we're going to do what we came here to do," Ethan says. I lead him into the store, the barking of puppies bringing a smile to my face. There are many kinds, from Poodles to Pomeranians. My eye immediately goes to a mutt at the back of the store. He's a multitude of colors, predominately an off-white with spots of black and brown. He has a large brown patch circling his eye and isn't very large.

"Can I hold this one?" I ask the woman behind the counter.

"Of course."

The puppy in my arms is soft, his nose digging into my neck. I smile down at the pup and he licks my cheek. "Does he have a name?" I ask her.

"He doesn't. We got him a few days ago. Our vet says he's only about six months old. Couldn't figure out what he's a mix of, though, but he's a sweet little thing." The pup licks at my face and I run my fingers through his hair. "We didn't want to name him in case someone does buy him. We wanted to give them that privilege."

"Come on, Thea, it's been ten minutes."

I kiss the pup's forehead before reluctantly handing him back to the worker. The pup whines and it breaks my heart. He claws at the cage and it takes Ethan literally pulling me from the shop for me to leave. "I knew I shouldn't have taken you in there, you always fall in love with a new puppy."

"That one's different."

"You always say the same thing." he says. "I can't believe I still let you go in there."

"You saw that puppy. You cannot tell me he didn't look like a Magnus."

"You're already naming the puppy?"

"I want him. I don't even know if my apartment can have dogs in it," I try to think back whether my lease said anything about animals. My parents had read through it, making sure everything was okay with it, and then they signed it. It won't be mine for a few more months so I have no idea. I guess I could ask my landlord, it isn't like the puppy is very big