Match

16: Cat Guy

Outside, rainfall taps on Jonah's window. He lays flat on the bed in his room, staring up at the ceiling. His eyes feel heavy, yet he's not tired enough to fall asleep. All of a sudden, the crack of the door widens. A flicking tail appears like a sock puppet moving across the edge of the bed. Jonah looks over and sees the raised tail.

"Mrrow."

Jonah smiles. "Dotty is that you?"

He can tell which cat is which from their distinct meows. Dotty tends to be the "cuddlebug", while Stella is the drama queen. She hops onto the bed in elegance and meows again.

"Hiya Dotty," Jonah's voice shifts to a higher tone. "How's my princess?"

With wide strides, she makes her way to him and begins purring. Jonah invites her closer with a finger scratching her chin. Her purrs become more eminent. She rubs against his arm then plops down into a white-orange, fluffy loaf. Her tail relaxes and coils around the right side of her body.

Jonah hears a ding coming from his phone. He reaches for it with one hand, while subconsciously petting Dotty with the other. The screen dims, but the text message is still readable.

Ben:

Wanna hang out tmmrw after the game? I have my day off and got nothing to do.

Jonah runs the front row of his teeth across his bottom lip. He ponders on how to come up with a response. Deep down he was hoping to have a chill weekend, other than the game on Saturday. To his surprise, there weren't many requests to clean houses on the weekend, so it's just Jenny and Carol cleaning the two requested, while Jonah and Charlotte are assigned a couple days off. His thoughts get interrupted by Dotty's sudden meow, pulling him back into reality.

"Oh, sorry Dot."

He resumes petting her while tapping a reply with his thumb.

Jonah:

Sure I guest.

The regret sinks in when he hits send. Stupid autocorrect, he thinks.

Jonah:

**I guess.

He places his phone back on the drawer beside him and adjusts his attention back to Dotty. She sinks into a melted ice cream cone shape, before laying flat on her back.

"Aww, Dot," he says, rubbing her belly.

Dotty shuts her eyes in content and turns into a murmuring engine once again. The purring becomes much louder than the raindrops.

———————————

The rain, in a matter of minutes, goes from light pecks to torrential downpour in no time. Cole begins to worry if the weather will persist well into tomorrow's game, or if its aftermath will make the grass turn into a swampland. No doubt in his mind if that happens, the game will be cancelled.

He starts to reminisce on him and Sasha's short visit from earlier:

"Wow, this place is spotless," she said.

Cole put on a triumphant smile. "Yeah, I could finally clean up the place a bit more now that Hayden's on vacation."

She sat on Hayden's bed and admired the decoration on the walls. "Mom told me you joined soccer, eh?"

His smile faltered into shedded embarrassment. He scratched the back of his head. "Yeah. She really wanted to come and see me play."

Sasha laughed. "If she ever does, she'll probably be the loudest in the crowd."

"Yeah, oh, so how's the whole tenant situation?"

She folded her hands in her lap and stared at them. "Ah, yeah. The new couple. I'm kinda sad to hear they have to leave, but apparently one of their dad's had a medical emergency. So, they figured it'd be best to move back to that town to take care of him. Which is fair, I'd do the same if I were in their shoes."

Cole felt the same sadness. Him and Hayden's 'next door neighbours' were incredibly nice. Sometimes they'd get their garbage to the end of the road if they forgot one morning, or dropping off snacks by their front door. "Are the doors still open if they ever wanna come back?"

Sasha bit her lip. "It's difficult to do that, Cole. If they permanently move out, it's hard to move them back in. All I can do is help as a landlord and get them well on their way, then put it up for rent again and await the next tenant that wants to move in."

"I see."

"Hey. Don't sweat it, Cole. Oh yeah, about the air conditioning suggestion from Hayden..."

Cole looked up at her.

"I think that's a good idea." She nodded over to the dormant fan in the corner. "It's not the best in here when it comes to the summer heat, yeah? I'll see if I can hire someone to install A.C. We'll share the cost, half and half."

He nodded. "Thanks Sash."

She went up to him and sat beside him. Ruffled up his hair, to which Cole leaned back with a shy, 'hey, stop'. Sasha then tilted her head with a raised eyebrow.

"Did you grow another inch last I saw you?"

Cole swallowed and continued staring at the wall. "What is with you and mom always saying that?"

She gave a light push on his shoulder with her hand and snorted. "That's 'cause we hardly ever see you! We're all... well, busy with our own lives."

A silent exchange was held for a solid ten seconds. Sasha then broke the silence with a, "sheesh Cole, you should've applied for the basketball team instead."

He blinks to remove the dryness from his eyes. He'd been staring up at the ceiling the whole time. Cole and Sasha were the typical siblings growing up. Sometimes they'd fight, sometimes they'd tattletale, sometimes they'd steal a lick from the other's ice cream cone when the one wasn't looking. As they grew up, their childish antics grew out. Nowadays they're adults trying to fit in the mold of society. One's a landlord, one's a student. Part of him misses the old days meddling with his sister, but now it's appreciated as a memory. He grabs his phone and awakens it from its rest.

Cole remembers what Hayden wanted him to do and checks his account. His latest pictures are from different parts of Japan. In one he's posing with a friend, and in the backdrop Mt. Fuji towers in blue with white sprinkled on its peak. Another photo shows Hayden with his back facing the camera as he walks down a flower path. Purple hydrangea flowers dangle above creating a fantasy-like atmosphere. Several more photos are him and his friends posing in front of shrines, wide smiles and all. He gives a like for each picture. Jealousy stings him. Japan is definitely on his bucket list of places to travel, other than a road trip across Canada. Once he gets to the most recent photos, Cole goes to another app. He browses through a feed and catches someone's account. They repost a video of a cat with a slice of cheese on its head. His eyes travel up to the name: "dottyandstellawrld". The profile picture is of an orange tabby cat. No way, this can't be... he thinks. Temptation gets the best of him, and he clicks on the username. It shows an account filled with various cat videos. It is! This is Jonah's account. He recalls the username being Jonah's pet cats' names. He doesn't remember ever following Jonah. Then he realizes someone he followed was the one who reposted his repost. That very person is the old friend from before.

His fingers hesitate, but he eventually coaxes himself to and taps the 'follow' button.