Way Back into Love ↪ Owen Grady

four ↪ blue

    My alarm went off at six-thirty in the morning. I snapped my eyes open and let out a groan of disapproval. Oh, how I hated waking up early. I fought with all my strength to get out of bed and get ready for the day. A bunch of text messages blew up my phone, mostly from Dyson, asking if we could talk over breakfast. "Sure, on my way". I sent the text and tiptoed to the door, trying not to wake up my dad nor Nick, even though I was tempted to plan a joke on the latter.

    "You're on time, I like that" Dyson greeted me with his mouth full. "Pancakes?"

    "Yes please." I sat down in front of him in the café, our table being one of those next to the glass windows. For being that early in the morning, the place was packed with families, couples, and elders. Between a pancake and another, Dyson handed me my own badge and security ID, with several restrictions, obviously. He then told me all about the dinosaurs' schedule and meals, clean-ups, and pre-bed snacks. Yes, they did have pre-bed snacks. Amazing, right?

    "What have you seen so far? Have you explored the Island yet?" Dyson took a sip of his smoking hot black coffee.

    "Not much" I admitted. "I still haven't seen any dinosaur except for the Mosasaurus and your Pachys"

    "Our Pachys" he remarked nonchalantly. "What about we go feed our pals breakfast and then I'll show you around? I think Owen feeds his raptors at seven-thirty, we can go watch them"

    I tried to act as chill as possible. "Sure, yeah, that'd be pretty cool"

    "Roger has basically told everyone about this girl who tamed a baby pachy and hides a secret love for raptors" the black-haired guy chuckled. After a few seconds of silence, he added — "You. You're the girl. I'm talking about you"

    A chuckle slipped out of my lips. "I mean, not so secret if everyone knows about it"

    "I like you, kiddo" he grinned, standing up very slowly in a goofy way. "Shall we get going?"

.

    As planned, our pachys had their breakfast done by seven, which gave us enough time to get to the raptors' enclosure. I started feeling sick to my stomach at the only thought of seeing Owen again. — "You look off, kiddo. What's up?"

    "It's just- I never thought I could witness all of this in person, you know" I directed my thoughts in a different direction.

    "Yeah, I get that" Dyson softly smiled. "Just live the moment, alright? Don't overthink it"

    My boss and I walked up the stairs that led us to a kind of construction structure. We stopped right before the restriction point and glanced down where the raptors were. They looked even more majestic in real life: how they would communicate to each other, the way they would tap their nails on the ground in a kind of morse code, the way they looked up at Owen and did what he said.

    The sunrays hit Owen's figure from behind as the sun was starting to go up. My insides were fighting: look at Owen, look at the raptors, look at Owen, look at the..

    "You're missing all the fun stuff" Dyson snapped me back to reality.

    "Yeah, right" I mumbled frantically as I glanced back down at the raptors.

    Everyone who worked at the enclosure clapped at the scene. Owen had made it. He somehow had them listening to him and do as requested. The raptor trainer waved at us and pointed downwards, signaling us to meet him at the entrance of the gate.

    "Yo, Grady. Great job, man!" Dyson high-fived Owen through the bars.

    My eyes wandered around frantically in every possible direction. They had a containment secure for each raptor, a double gate, and a very wide space for them to run around. I glanced up at the two boys when I noticed none of them was talking. Their eyes were glued on me for some reason. "What"

    Dyson let out a soft chuckle. "You're coming back with me? I need to run a couple of errands but I can drive you to the park first"

    "Or you can just stay here. I want to show you something" Owen interrupted with a small goofy smile.

    "If it's not a problem for you.." I shyly said. Dyson raised his eyebrows at me but quickly dismissed whatever with another smile.

    "No problem at all, come on in" Owen said and pushed a button that opened the gate's door for me to walk in and reach him.

    "Okay then, you two nerds have fun" Dyson waved as he walked away while playing with his car keys.

    The raptor trainer closed the first gate behind us and smiled down at me. He then proceeded to push another button and made the raptors come to their containment space, their heads peeking out. "So what do you think? How was it?" Owen asked as he walked closer to Blue, sticking his hand towards her head so he could carefully caress her.

    "It was awesome. They're pretty smart, how do you do that?"

    "You wanna touch her? She won't bite, I promise" he nonchalantly asked as I unsurely nodded and stuck my hand out in the raptor's direction. "I raised them, I'm kind of their role model I guess"

    "That's cute" I blurted out without giving my words a second thought. Again.

    "Cute isn't the word I would use.." he laughed. "..but yeah, they're pretty awesome"

    The contact of my shaking hand on Blue's scratchy skin was more intense than I expected it to be. She didn't even flinch, not even a sound. I gently caressed her in a slow movement, trying not to upset her in any way.

    "Huh" Owen's voice sounded even more manly as he whispered.

    "What?" I whispered back, not breaking eye contact with Blue for a second.

    "Never have I seen her so calm" one of the employees, Barry, stated surprised.

    "She's like doctor Dolittle of dinosaurs" another one laughed.

    "I- what?" I looked at the man with a confused expression, trying not to laugh at his statement.

    "It's almost like she can feel you" Owen softly spoke while walking close to me. — "Like actually feel you"

    "I'm not doing anything" I helplessly smiled.

    "Oh but you are" he smiled back at me, his eyes stuck on Blue.