Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Chapter Five

I lied my ass off when my sister asked if I wanted to go shopping.

"Well," I’d said, straining my voice just right. "I would love to. But I’m not feeling so hot today. I think I got that stomach thing Len had last week. Killer. Maybe next time?"

The excuse wasn’t my best and yet Marisa still believed me. She took Mom instead and then they were off on their merry ways. I’m gonna be honest: I loved shopping. Loved it. Window shopping, actual shopping, speed shopping; the whole shebang. But shopping with Marisa was absolutely miserable. She would obsess over one thing and would not let us rest until she found the exact thing she needed—that, later, she would discard. I’d put up with it for the longest time, but after my seventeenth birthday I vowed never again to go shopping with her.

So I went up to the mall for my birthday with two hundred and something dollars in cash, ready to blow it all on boots and Hot Topic. But my sister was just dying to get these brown boots. She, once again, knew exactly what she wanted. And rather then let me shop, she dragged me into store after store, selfishly searching, in vain, for these just right boots. And when she couldn’t find them, she moped the rest of the day. It was downright pissed-offery.

But the alternative to shopping wasn’t so great, either. Dane was looking at houses, pretty much hogging my computer—my parents didn’t believe in letting me have my own internet source and my very old laptop refused to hook up to any internet or WiFi. I was pretty much SOL and instead opted for watching TV.

The theme song for Doctor Who just soothed my entire soul. Normally, I wasn’t a sit-around-all-day-and-watch-TV kinda girl. But there were a few choice shows that I recorded for when I did wanna be that kinda girl. Doctor Who was one of those shows.

"Len!" I called from the couch. "Lenny!"

He didn’t answer.

Instead, Dane did. "He went out," he informed me.

"Oh." So….essentially I was alone……with Dane. Perfect.

Since I had seen every David Tennant Doctor episode—and the one playing didn’t have Rose in it—I got up to get something to snack on. I knew we had nothing, but I checked the fridge anyway. When I found nothing I checked the cabinets. Checked the fridge again. Why do we always check the fridge again? It’s not like the food we want is gonna magically appear on a whim!

A happy little yip stole my attention. My dog wagged his stubby tail happily at the sight of me.

"Doc!" I cooed, crouching to pet the midget dog. He was quite possibly the only "small" dog I liked. "Guess Mom let you in before she left!"

In response, the Doctor just slobbered all over my hand. It was the one thing I seriously could live without. Poor Doc couldn’t help his incessant slobber—hence the reason my mom often kicked him out.

"So, that’s the infamous the Doctor?"

I looked up sharply to see Dane in the doorframe, grinning down at my dog. Of course it was Dane. Who else would it be? Silly Emmy.

I nodded. "Yep." I scratched behind Doc’s ears affectionately and he stomped his back foot on the ground. "This is my buddy."

"He’s cute."

I snorted.

"No, really. He is."

"It’s okay," I laughed. "I know he’s…" I put my hands over the Doctor’s ears. "The ugliest dog ever."

"No," Dane disagreed. "I’ve seen uglier."

I looked at the sorrel and white dog whose face looked as if it had been run over several times. It was a disease of mine. I was always attracted to the most….unfortunate looking animals, and yet thought they were the cutest ever.