Sober |a.k.|

10

I rolled over and shut off my alarm clock. It was 7:30 and I was not excited to go into work today.

Last night I stayed up watching a playlist of the "most disturbing videos" on YouTube, so then I couldn't sleep (go figure), was paranoid all night and finally fell asleep two hours ago. Needless to say, I felt like a zombie.

I sat up and noticed the sun was barely shining through my window. To make myself stay awake, I opened my curtains and blinded myself. Shuffling over to check my phone, I'd noticed Maggie called me about 10 minutes before I woke up.

"I'll see you at work, why are you calling me?" I said aloud as I pressed her name and heard the dial tone. She immediately picked up.

"H-"

"Hey, hi, so I'm not gonna be there today."

"What? What happened?"

"Uh, family stuff. My cousin, uh, he's okay, but he got into a car accident and I need to be there."

"Oh, uh, yeah," I said, kind of alarmed, "who was it?"

"Gabe."

"Oh God."

Gabe was super sweet and terribly afraid of driving. He got his license less than a year ago and he's 18, he's definitely never gonna want to drive again.

"Is your brother going to?"

"Yeah. Kaylie knows she's in charge for today, I was just letting you know we might be gone for a while."

"Is Casey going with you?"

"Yeah. Will you dog sit? Please?"

"Yes," I said a bit too excited.

"Okay, we'll be over there in 10 to drop off Watson."

I smiled at the name of their Golden Retriever puppy.

"Okay. See you then."

I decided I wanted to listen to Taylor Swift so I put my 1989 vinyl on the player and picked out an outfit for the day. They were pretty lenient rules for clothing at H&M which was pretty cool of them. I grabbed a pair of leggings and walked into the kitchen to get water. I saw a sweater I didn't recognize sitting on the counter so I grabbed it and saw it was one of Awsten's. I smiled and grabbed it. I walked into my bedroom and got changed, deciding on no perfume because the sweater smelt good enough anyway,

I walked back into the kitchen and warmed up an egg in the microwave and sang along to "Out of the Woods". I heard a knock on the door and walked over, opening the door and immediately seeing an adorable puppy.

"Watson!" I said excitedly, letting him in.

"Ah yes, good morning to you too," Maggie laughed.

"Woah, nice shirt," Casey said, "where'd you get that?"

I smiled and shrugged.

"A friend."

"Mhm, a friend," Maggie grinned at me, making my face heat up.

"Shut up," I mouthed, making her laugh.

"Thanks for watching over Watson for us," Casey said oblivious to the interaction we'd just had, "it means a lot. I was worried because I don't know who else would want to do this."

"Watch over a dog? No one else wants to watch over a puppy?" I asked, completely baffled.

He shrugged.

"Yeah, unfortunately."

Maggie lent down, flopping Watson over and rubbing his belly. We sat around and talked for a while before the two had to go. I said goodbye and wished them and Maggie's cousin well. I checked the clock and saw I still had about 40 ish minutes before I had to be in, so 20 minutes before I had to leave. I stood Watson up with his paws and giggled as I made him dance to Shake It Off.