Heartless

One

I sit at the table fidgeting with my spoon, staring into the whiteness of the milk. The neighbor's dog is barking like crazy. "Grandma?" I look up.

"Yes, darling?" she says not taking her eyes off of her sewing to look at me.

"Have you noticed that dog's been barking even more lately?" I look out the window and see the poor animal tied up by a chain on the side of the house. I look back at her and wait for a response. 

She looks at me from the top of her glasses and sets down her sewing. "Adaline, you aren't going to interfere with Josh and his dog. That's his property, his dog. I don't think he's abusing it." 

I look at her and then at the dog. "Grandma, have you seen that dog up close? He's got scars and scratches everywhere! And when you were gone, he went outside with a belt and beat the poor thing!" 

"Adaline." she began.

This time I stood up, "Grandma, please, can go look at it??" 

"No." She says sternly. "It's still on his property, and Josh is a mean man, who knows what he's gonna do if he sees you with his dog."

"Your Grandmother is right!" My Grandpa yells from the other room.

I feel prickles at the back of my eyes, this is so unfair!  I run upstairs to my room. This isn't the first time this has happened. I shut my door and flop on my bed. I grab my phone and open messages, I click on my chats with my boyfriend, Elijah. 

Hey Babe

I wait for a few moments until he reads it. 

Hey, what's up? 

Oh nothing, just missing you.😚 I smile, he always makes me happy.

Missing you too!😘

We talk for a little bit longer, even video chat, until one of us falls asleep, usually, it's me, but not tonight. 

"I'm starting to fall asleep, I love you Babe." He says sleepily. 

"Ok, me too." I lie. 

"I love you, get some rest."

"Ok, I will, you too." I say and smile. 

The call ends and I start thinking about the dog again. And right on queue, the dog starts barking. Like he's asking for help. 

I get up from my bed and peer out of my window. Josh runs out, onto his porch, with a beer bottle. I grab my softball bat and I race down the stairs. Before my grandparents could stop me I was running barefoot out the back sliding glass door. I yelled at Josh to stop as he raised the beer bottle. He glanced at me and gave me an evil grin, then I jumped onto the porch and pushed him over with my free hand. He doubled over and fell off his porch. 

"HEY!" He yells, he's practically spitting out every insult I've ever heard of, and every profanity word on the planet. 

I get in a ready position with my bat and give him a look that could kill. "Don't. Touch. Me." I say protectively. I slowly back up and set my bat down. I crouch down and turn towards the animal. I look the dog in the eyes. "Hey baby," I say in a soft voice, he's pulling on the chain and viciously growling. 

"Adaline!" My Grandmother yells on our back porch, I look up but then back at the dog.

"It's ok, I won't hurt you. My name is Adaline. I want to be your friend." I hold my hand out in a fist and slowly inch towards the dog.  

"He's just a stupid dog, he's not gonna want to be your friend," Josh says.

"Shut up mouth breather!" I say to Josh. I can feel his hot glare on my back. 

"It's ok boy." Now that I'm about three feet away from him I can see that he's really skinny, no more than about twenty pounds. He looks to be about two years old. I can see his ribs and all of the scratches. "Hey, how old is he?" I ask Josh turning my head to see him. 

"Why does it matter?" He smirks and stands up finally. I give him a death glare. 

My face softens and I say, "Fine don't tell me how old my new dog is." I watch in satisfaction as he drops open his mouth. 

"I'm not giving you that dog!" He exclaims. 

"You might not, but the law might." I smile at him.

"Little girl, I can call the police on you for crossing my property!"  

"I'm fourteen." I say standing up to meet his eyes, "And I can call the cops on you for abusing your dog." I put my hand in my pocket and grab my phone. 

"Adaline!" My Grandma yells once more. "Come here, right now." I look Josh straight in the eyes and grab my bat, walk-off still looking at him. He flips me off and I stick my tongue out at him. The dog starts barking wildly. 

"Grandma!" I yell as she closes the sliding glass door.

"Adaline, you are going to apologize to Josh! Tomorrow! We'll have lunch with him and you will apologize!" she held out a long crooked finger and pointed it at me, towering over me.

"NO! I will NOT be in the same room with him!" I say looking her dead in the eye.

"Yes, yes you will!" she straightens up and turns around and starts clearing the table of my "dinner" (cereal).

"I'm going to call the cops, right now!"

"No, Adaline, you won't, you will wait until morning to talk to him." She was strangely tranquil when she said it.

"Why can't you just tell me?" I question putting my hands on my hips.

"It's not my job to tell you other people's business."

"Yeah, but you gossip with the church ladies about other people's business all the time! Like the Smiths, the Coopers, I could go on if you'd like..."

"Adaline!"

"What? It's true!"

"Come 'ere" She says playfully.

"No!" I scream happily. I run upstairs into my room.

I flop onto my bed once again and try to sleep. But fail, listening to the dog bark. It's not fair. I hate Josh, he's so mean! What happened to him to make him like that? I want to text Elijah about it but it's close to 11 pm and he had a soccer game today.

I get under the covers and watch some Youtube. I turn off my phone an hour later and start thinking about the dog. I cry silently. This world is horrible! I cry myself to sleep.

Author's note| Fraz3r

 Hey guys! I know I haven't been writing a lot lately but I plan on writing more. How do you guys like this book so far? Should I keep writing in the other ones or nah?

Also, go check out @Vixen184 and @Soggo_Doggo 

-Fraz3r