"Damn girl is that a keg in your pants
"Damn girl is that a keg in your pants? Cuz I'd sure love to tap that ass!" Luke said smirking.
"That was a good one, Luke." She said.
"Think it will get me any?" he asked hopefully.
"Nope, not many girls have the same sense of humor as I do, sadly." She said.
He grinned. "Naw I guess not, you're one of a kind." He agreed.
"You ain't getting any from me either, kiddo." She said.
He shrugged. "I'll get you wasted enough one time." He said.
"You're my baby brother's best friend kid and that's just a line I ain't crossing." She said.
"Aw come on I grew up and am ready to show you how a real man acts." He said jokingly referencing what she used to teasingly say to him.
She studied him. "I'm just going to be used as a salve to your severely bruised ego." She said seriously.
"Nope, Jenny was a spring fling. You're the real deal, baby." He said.
She laughed again. "Dude stop hitting on my sister." Chase complained.
"Sorry bro, but she's smokin'!" He said.
Chase rolled his eyes.
"So not cool." He said sitting on the stool next to his friend.
"Here." She said handing them plates. They wolfed down their food. Leah looked pointedly at the clock.
"You guys got 10 minutes and neither of you are dressed." She said.
Chase jerked a shoulder. "Luke had plenty of time, he was just too busy drooling over you." He said.
"Shit." Luke muttered.
"Go on and get ready, I'll give you two a ride." She said.
They rushed up the stairs pushing and shoving each other. Leah sighed and started putting the dishes in the dishwasher. Five minutes later the boys came running down the stairs.
"Lee have you seen my math book?" Chase asked. She held it up.
"I could have sworn you told me you put it away where it belonged last night." She said. He grinned sheepishly and grabbed it from her.
"Come on I am not about to explain to Chuck why you two are late, again." She said. "So has he hit that yet?" Luke asked. He grunted in pain when Chase elbowed him in the gut.
"Dude, that's my sister and our dean you're talking about, shut the fuck up." Chase said. "Watch it kid." Leah warned glaring him. Chase shrugged apologetically as they climbed in Leah's truck.
"Hey Lee Imma spend the night at Leo's tonight to finish up that project." Chase said on the drive to school.
"Okay I'll call Leo's later and check up." She said.
He groaned. "Come on Leah, I'm 16 I don't need you checking up on my like I'm a little kid." He said.
"So sorry to mess with your rep kid but it's my job." She said as she pulled up in front of the building.
"Get lost." She said. The boys scrambled out and cockily swaggered inside.
Leah was exhausted but had a million things to do. Ever since her parents died last year she'd been in charge of her little brother and sister. The state had given her hell at first but she'd finally gotten custody. She'd only been 20 at the time and didn't even have a steady job but the judge had taken pity on her and allowed her a month to get her act together. She'd dropped out of school and gotten a job bartending. The owner had been a friend of her daddy's and was pretty lenient with her schedule. Things were going pretty good so she started going back to school to get her degree.
She thanked god that Jonnie spent the night at her friend Natalie's house so she didn't have to deal with her. She had just turned 18 and was being a royal bitch. Chase she could handle when he got in his moods. Jonnie was just unreasonable sometimes. Not that she blamed her she remembered what it was like to be 18, after all she was only 21. Besides their parents death had taken it's toll on all of them.
She pulled into the parking lot at the grocery store and sighed. She hated grocery shopping. It was right up there with helping Chase with a science project or trying to calm Jonnie down after her and Mitch broke up, yet again. She sucked it up because she's rather go by herself then listen to the kids bitch. As she wandered up and down the aisles she mentally made a list of what she had to do.
Clean the house, take Murphy to the vet, run to the bank, call Leo's mom, start studying for that midterm, clean the pool, laundry.
She sighed and calculated if she could afford to put Chase on the insurance next month or not. Yeah this is exactly what a normal 21 year old would be worrying about at 8 am in the morning. Oh wait that's right normal 21 year olds weren't up at this time unless they had a class and then they were still hung over from partying the night before.
"Come on Murphy." Leah said to the stubborn dog.
"This isn't my fault you just had to hump and impregnate Mrs. Rutledge's dog. That is all on you and now my friend you are getting snipped." She said pulling on his leash. Somehow though the forty-pound dog was holding firm and not budging.
She sighed and picked him up and then dumped him on the ground. She looped the leash over her wrist and wrapped it around a few times. She glared at the dog and he seemed to glare right back.
"Stupid mutt, how I let Jonnie and Chase talk me into getting you is beyond me." She said reaching up to grab her purse.
"Austin!" a man shouted.
Murphy tried taking off but Leah held the leash to securely. Too bad she was off balance, the tug at the leash pulled her from the foot rail causing her to fall backwards and hit her head on the pavement.
"Stupid dog." She muttered trying to push herself up.
"Hey you might not want to move, you could get nauseous." A gruff voice said.
She braced her self on her elbows and squinted up at him.
"No offense but your hair is making my head hurt." She said. He laughed.
"Murphy." She said. The dog wandered over and licked her face.
"We are going to have a serious talk about not trying to kill me later." She mumbled and rubbed the dog's head.
"Well you might have a concussion, maybe I should take you to the hospital." The guys said worriedly.
She put her hand over her eyes to shade them. The guy was crouched over her. His brown eyes filled with worry. His platinum blonde hair was reflecting the already bright sun.
"Mr. …" She began.
"Ken." He said.
"Look, Ken. I'm fine. Even if I do have one there just going to tell me to take asprin and take it easy. This is nothing that ice, Advil, and sleep can't cure." She said.
He frowned at her. "You know you aren't supposed to sleep right away after hitting your head." He said.
She started getting up. He jumped to his feet and lifted her like she weighed nothing. "Thanks, now if you'll excuse me I gotta bring the mutt to get snipped." She said and pulled on Murphy's leash.
Ken winced. "Poor guy." He said.
"Well if he wasn't a regular Houdini I wouldn't do it but he just impregnated his third baby momma last month." She said.
Ken laughed. "So how much puppy support are you shelling out on his behalf?" He asked as they stepped in line.
"The first batch the owner wanted nothing to do with. She threw a bitch fit because he wasn't a purebred and soiled her precious Molly. So I took them basically right after Molly whelped. The last one I paid half and I have a feeling Mrs. Rutledge isn't too happy that her Roxie is knocked up so who knows." She said.
"Sit!" he ordered his wire haired terrier. The dog obeyed.
"So this is the culprit who made my innocent little Murphy try to book, huh?" she asked. Ken grinned sheepishly. "Yeah, he's not a big fan of the vet and he really isn't going to like it after today." He said.
"He up for the same thing as Murph here?" Leah asked.
"Yeah he sprays shit to mark his territory all the bets got called off when he decided he was literally going to claim my pillow." Ken said.
Leah smiled and bent down to pet the wiggling dog. "You're a cute little guy huh?" She cooed at him.
The dog placed his front paws on her knees and licked her. "Aw you give kisses. Did your daddy train you to do that to help him pick up girls?" She asked and looked up at Ken.
He blushed. "No but I wish I would have thought of it. That way I could have gotten your attention without giving you a concussion." He said.
"You hitting on me Ken?" she asked rocking back on her heels.
"Yeah, I am actually. It would go a whole lot smoother if I knew your name." He said. She stared up at him. "Leah." She said.
"Austin down." He said. The dog looked up at him unhappily but sat.
He held a hand out to her. She accepted it and let him pull her up. She was next and went up to the counter.
"Hi." The receptionist said.
"Murphy's here to get snipped." She said.
As if he sensed this was his one last chance he looked up at her and gave her his most soulful puppy dog look.
"Oh no mister, it's three strikes and your out, I can't afford to have you single pawedly boost up the puppy population." She said.
He whined. The receptionist smiled.
"If you'll just have a seat someone should be out for him shortly." She said.
"Alright, thanks." She said and pulled him over to a vacant chair.
He jumped up in her lap and curled up. She sighed and stroked his curly fur.
"Sorry Murph but it needs to be done. I ain't saying you can't have your fun but you just need to not knock up every thing you mount." She said.
"If you wanna get love you gotta have a glove." Ken said sitting next to her.
She laughed. "Now you sound like Luke." She said.
"Luke?" He asked.
"My little brother's friend. He has all these corny pick up lines and I let him test them out on me." She explained.
"He have any winners?" He asked.
"Not really but I'm guessing his looks get him by." She said.
"Oh he's one of those huh?" Ken asked.
"Yeah, he has the whole I'm hot and I know it plus I can make you laugh thing going on." She said. Ken laughed.
"I'm guessing you never had any problems getting a date either though." Leah said. "You guessed it I mean look at me." He said cockily.
Leah rolled her eyes at him. "I hated guys like you in high school." She said.
"No offense but you look like you are still in high school." He said.
"I wish but sadly no I am at the ripe old age of 21." She said.
"Honey you are still a baby." He said.
"What and you are all of 25, 26?" She said.
"You are great for my ego. But no I'm 32." He said.
"Why is that men age so damn nice but I'll probably look nasty when I hit thirty." She said.
"At 30 you'll probably look 21." He said.
"Flattery is nice but I prefer the truth." She said.
Ken shrugged. "Why lie it's too much effort and no one has ever accused me of sugar coating anything." Ken said.
A young girl came and took both dogs. "So wanna go grab some lunch?" He asked. "Sorry I'm busy." She said.
"I insist." He said. Leah studied him.
"Chivalry has been dead a long ass time so that's not why you're insisting to go it's because I'm going to guess you haven't been turned down in a long ass time and it bugs the shit out of you." She said.
"I am a nice guy but yeah you're right." He said.
"At least you're honest." She said.
"Told you I was." He said.
"Tell you what, if your free tonight I can hang for awhile." She said.
"For you yeah I can be free." He said.
She rolled her eyes at him and held out her hand. "Hand it over." She said.
"What?" he asked.
"Cell phone." She said. He dug in his hip pocket and pulled it out.
She flipped it open and grinned at him.
"Aw cute it's your puppy." She said as she was pushing buttons rapidly on his phone. She handed his phone back to him.
"Balls in your court, Ken." She said and left him standing there.
(So what do you think?)