Journalists

Chapter 5

This chapter contains animal abuse. Feel free to skip this chapter if you're uncomfortable with reading it.

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With a sigh, Nola leans back in her chair, feeling completely defeated. Kenna, who was standing beside her, bites her lip and sits on the counter. "It's actually really good."

"I know it is," Nola sighs again, running a hand through her hair as she looked back at Colin's article on her computer screen. "Kourtney is the Queen of Family Lunch," she reads the title aloud.

"It's as good as an article about some celebrity's lunch could be," Kenna says softly, watching Nola closely.

"I know it is," Nola repeats and spins around in her chair a few times before stopping, coming to a realization. "Maybe that's why Tony was being so unfair. Both our articles were written well so for him to make the decision, he had to look at the pictures, and my picture looked pathetic."

Kenna raises an eyebrow at Nola. "You're saying your writing is as good as his?"

Nola frowns and looks at her, confusion and hurt clearly showing on her face. "Are you saying it's not? You're the one who has constantly told me that my writing is amazing."

"Oh," Kenna says softly and quickly shakes her head. "I meant, do you really think there's any comparison? Obviously, your writing is so much better than his."

Nola blushes a little. "Come on, you know I hate competition."

"Yet you're competing with Colin," Kenna points out, rolling her eyes when Nola wasn't looking.

"I don't have a choice here. I want this job more than anything," Nola sighs, looking back at her computer when she got an email. "Shit, it's from Tony. For our next article, we have to investigate reports of animal abuse in some stores in the city."

"That should be fun," Kenna says sarcastically before getting up and heading to her office. "Good luck with that."

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The Next Morning

Instead of meeting at Tony's office this morning, Nola and Colin met at a coffee shop across one of the stores they were investigating. After both of them order their drinks, Colin walks off, leaving Nola to pay.

Nola huffs and hands over the money before walking over to Colin. "Why do I have to pay for both of our drinks?"

"Because it's the polite thing to do," Colin smirks lightly before taking a sip of his coffee.

"What do you know about being polite?" Nola scoffs. "Besides, you're the one with rich parents. Your mom is an actress and a model and your dad is a famous photographer! You can spend three dollars on your own damn coffee. Meanwhile, I barely have enough money to pay my rent each month."

"Granola, chill," Colin rolls his eyes, glancing at her before grabbing her arm and pulling her to the store across the street.

Before Nola could respond, they were inside the store and she had to keep her mouth shut and play along.

"Excuse me, we were wondering if you could help us out," Colin says to one of the employees working there while Nola's gaze was stuck on the puppies trapped in a cage in the middle of the store.

The employee turns around, looking over them before her eyes narrow when she sees where Nola was looking. "Why's your girlfriend staring at our dogs?" She replies rather rudely, watching Nola.

Nola and Colin both look at each other quickly, Nola's cheeks turning red while Colin resists the urge to roll his eyes. "Actually, we're from one of the puppy mills that you get your dogs from, and we wanted to make sure they were being treated properly here," Colin lies smoothly to the employee, Alex.

"Oh," Alex grins at them and nods. "Of course. The dogs here are treated great. They are given treats once a month at the most, fed once a week, and they have punishments when they're naughty."

"Punishments?" Nola asks softly, suddenly finding her voice.

Alex nods in response and grabs a towel when two puppies in the cage whimper. The cage was open from the top so she had no hesitation when it came to wrapping the towel and whipping the puppies with it multiple times.

Nola flinched and took a step back immediately, her eyes wide at the abuse that took place in front of her. She had the urge to cry and to scream but wasn't sure which one to go with.

As if her body decided for her, she opened her mouth to scream at Alex to back off, but Colin quickly grabbed her hand a bit too tight for her liking and Nola shut her mouth, understanding Colin's warning. Screaming at Alex now wouldn't do any good but reporting on this would save all the puppies.

Nola's eyes started to water. Since she couldn't get out her emotions by yelling, her body decided to let it out by crying.

"I think we've seen enough," Colin stops Alex who was just about to deliver another hit to the puppies. "That's all we needed," he says before turning and walking out of the store. He was still holding Nola's hand so she followed him, staying right behind him.

Just as they rounded the corner, a few tears fell from Nola's eyes and she wiped at them angrily with her free hand, not wanting to cry in front of Colin or let the abusers win by making her feel bad.

"Granola, calm down," Colin rolls his eyes when he notices her crying.

Nola looks up at him in shock, wondering how he could be so heartless and not feel upset at seeing those puppies be hit and then whimper constantly. "Fuck off," she says quietly but firmly, roughly pulling her hand out of his before walking away from the store and Colin.

Colin watches her for a moment before groaning. "For fucks sake," he mumbles to himself before jogging over to her. He turns her around and pulls her into his chest in one swift move, letting her cry into his shirt.

"Are you seriously crying?" Colin chuckles, his voice soft as he wraps his arms around her.

"I don't want to cry," Nola admits, sniffling quietly as she forced the tears to stop falling from her eyes.

Colin sighs softly and holds her closer, gently rubbing her back as an attempt to comfort her. He's never had to comfort anyone in his life so he had no idea if he was actually helping.

Realizing the position they were in, Nola pulled away and wipes away the remainder of the tears on her cheeks, ignoring the tingling feeling in the pit of her stomach and on her back where Colin's hand had been. "Sorry about that."

"You don't have to apologize," Colin says softly, watching her cautiously as if she was going to burst into tears any moment. "Are you going to be okay?"

Nola hated the way Colin was looking at her but at least he wasn't being the asshole he usually was. "I'll be okay when those puppies are free from that abuse."

"We'll take care of it," Colin assures before smirking at her, the same way he always did. "I have evidence," he grins and pulls out his phone from his pocket, handing it to her so she could see the video he'd recorded of the abuse.

"You're amazing," Nola grins at Colin after looking up from his phone.

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Yesterday I read an article on Daily Mail that inspired this chapter. It absolutely broke my heart to see puppies abused like that.

I'm actually really proud of this chapter. I started writing it with absolutely no motivation but then I started to love this story again halfway through. I also ended up writing a chapter that was 1.5x longer than any of my previous ones, so I feel great about that. 

I really don't want to give up on this story, so please motivate me by commenting and voting!

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