Discovering Me *Discontinued*

Chapter 9

After they finished their drinks, Ray and Ava left, Truffle happily following them, making sure he sniffed every person that walked by. Multiple people even stopped and cooed at the puppy, asking if they could pet him, which of course Ava let them. She loved bringing joy into people's lives, and was so glad that Truffle let her do that.

"So, where to next Ray?" Ava asked after the last passersby left, wanting to give Truffle some time to rest from socializing since he was starting to get sleepy.

"Next I'm going to take you to the mall, which is the most popular place to hang out for some of the younger teenagers. They have a massive dog park in the middle of all of the stores too," Ray explained, practically bouncing with excitement, which caused Ava to roll her eyes and giggle.

"Sounds good to me, Truffle seems a bit tired though," Ava commented, climbing into the car and placing Truffle in her lap. She watched as her puppy curled up in her lap and he quickly fell asleep.

"That's okay," Ray said, climbing into the driver's seat, "It's about a thirty minute drive from here, so he should be able to rest before then. If he gets too tired, you or I can hold him while we walk around, and if that's still too much for the little guy, then we can stop for the day and continue tomorrow," Ray reasoned.

Ava nodded in response, glad that he came up with a suitable plan, "Why is the mall so far away?"

"Well, they needed a large plot of land to accommodate all of the stores and the dark park in the middle, at least, that's what I'm assuming," Ray said, pulling out of the parking lot and onto the road. As he did so, Ava memorized the area around her, determined to not get lost. She knew she could pull up the location on her phone, but she didn't want to be looking down at it every ten seconds trying to see where she was. Ava wanted to at least be familiar with the area that way she could get to where she needed to be faster.

"You know what they say about assuming, it makes and ass out of you and me," Ava recited, having learned the phrase while in high school. She loved that phrase especially since she used it every chance she got.

"Have you ever wondered where that phrase came from? I've heard it multiple times and could never figure it out," Ray commented, deep in thought.

Without being able to stop herself, Ava burst out in laughter, which startled Truffle and caused him to wake up.

"What," Ray said, startled, while Ava tried her best to calm down Truffle and get him to fall asleep again. After a few minutes, she was finally able to do so.

"That's how assume is spelled silly," Ava finally laughed, making sure that her voice was kept at a low volume so she didn't wake up her puppy again.

"What are you," Ray paused for a moment before his eyes got wide in realization, "Oh my god, I never realized that. That's amazing," he said softly, making sure he followed Ava's lead on not waking up Truffle.

Ava shook her head at his antics and stared out the window, a happy smile on her face. It felt relieving to be able to look out of the window and not get continuous flashbacks. Ava knew that her time here was going to be spent happily, especially with Ray around to keep her company.

"I still can't believe that," Ray muttered to himself, shaking his head while keeping his eyes on the road. He muttered a curse word under his breath and got in front of a car that was going incredibly slow in front of them.

"You're a really good driver," Ava commented, glancing in the side mirror to see that the person they had just gotten in front of was on his phone and wasn't paying attention to what was in front of him. It made her incredibly nervous and she noticeably tensed up the more she kept glancing at him.