Animal's Sanctum

Chapter 1

"I'll be back in an hour, I'm going to lunch." Sticking my head into Kyle's office as I slide it on. Reaching for my braid I pull it free from it's confines of my coat. Kyle looks up, his glasses sitting low on his nose as he goes through to finish up some kind of paperwork.

"It's that time already?" With a nod I rest my hand on the door frame.

"Yeah. Are you only working half of the day?" He pulls his glasses from his face, dropping them carefully on the desk and leaning back in his chair.

"Yeah, Maya wanted to go to dinner with her parents tonight. You know how that goes." He rolls his eyes and rubs at his face making me laugh at him. Maya is his longtime girlfriend, or pain in the rear as I like to call her. Not that there isn't anything wrong with it, but she can be pretty needy and somewhat of a control freak. Kyle seems to like her a lot, of course I've noticed a few more arguments as of late. So who knows what is going on in that front.

"I wish you luck my friend." With that as a parting message I turn heading towards the door. Releasing a heavy breath I rub my eyes, my keys clinking together in front of my face. An emergency call came in late last night and I had been forced to come in at an insane hour, three thirty. Typically the clinic opens at seven in the morning, one of the few downsides to having an emergency line. With it being my week to handle emergency calls, I got stuck with the strange wake up calls. It isn't long before I am sitting in my truck getting ready to drive home to grab the lunch that I wasn't able to remember in my rush to not be late.

Kyle and I met back in veterinary school, and have been friends for some time now. We both talked about owning our own practice and set out to create the one we work in today. Since we opened close to three years ago, we've garnered quite a bit of a loyal clientele base. Making it easy to stay busy between emergency calls, regular check ups or the small mishaps that occur day to day. Getting onto the road I head towards the small fixer upper house my brothers had managed to find on the market. Since I was still in school I didn't really have the extra money to rent a house.

Sure I could've gotten roommates, but I don't really like to live with strangers - call me weird. Since the house is very small, and needed a lot of work done my brothers were able to work out payments for a great price. Lucky for me it was just barely livable, and I had spent so much of my down time with my brothers helping to get it into a better state. Don't get me wrong, the place still needs a lot of work. That didn't stop me from working night and day to keep the progress moving forward.

Between fighting with the house, school and attempting to get my own practice it's been a struggle that has left me feeling mostly satisfied. Since I focused all of my time on being an adult or at least getting ready, I didn't do much socializing. So while most college students spent time going to parties and going on dates, I went the complete opposite way and now I'm left with little to no social life. So now I spend most of my nights sitting at home alone, trying to figure out the next step for my life.

Like with the practice, since I had only three years as an intern with a local veterinary office it took some time to build up our client list. Of course now both Kyle and I are looking to move the business in different directions. He wants to focus on small, and large pets, while I want to incorporate exotic animals. So now I am left wondering if it would be smart to sell off my part in the practice to start another clinic that focuses on more of a variety of animals. I glance in the mirror and look at my droopy eyes.

Last night's wake up call left me with less than four hours of sleep, which isn't the worst but not what I prefer to run on. Between that and the hairs that seem to be going white on top of my head makes me feel like I'm a lot older than my birth certificate says. I'd say that I have the classic Native American skin, deep chocolate hair. Honey hazel eyes, and the typical rounded jaw, and high cheekbones completes my looks. My parents love promoting our Native American heritage. We have the classic Native American tan, the light brown and red tones, my family and I are on the darker side of the spectrum.