A/N: If you haven't read The Secret Diary of Ashley Juergens, well, this story might confuse you a little bit. In it, we learn more about Ashley's cutie blonde brief bus stop boyfriend, Thomas, and his family including his parents - Carolynn and Jim - and his beloved dog that passed away right before he met Ashley, Sammie.

Puppy Love

"He's very particular about his diet," Ashley explained, exasperated. "I'm only here for one kind of dog food and one kind only, so please stop trying to talk me out of it. You're the only place in town that carries it. So if you could just," she formed her hand into a peace sign and then flipped it over and began to move her two fingers as if they were a walking pair of legs, "scuttle on into the back and check the stock for me, that would be great! Thanks!"

The boy conversing with her looked only a few years older than her sister, Amy, and Ashley guessed that the pet shop was probably the slightly obese, acne swarmed teenager's post-high school, college supporting career. She'd never seen him around before and she'd been a regular customer since a month after her dad had brought home Moose, so she also deduced that he had to be very new.

Tired of fighting with her, the boy rubbed an oily red zit on the top of his nose and crinkled his face. "I'll go look," he muttered in defeat. "But if it's not out here-"

"I know, I know. Just thanks." She waved him along and watched in triumph as he disappeared into the employees only room. With nothing else to do until he came back - and she figured it might take him longer than you're average pet store pal - she decided to peruse the dog aisle. It had a million different cans and bags of dog food, all except the kind she was looking for, and even more squeaky toys. She was most amused by the cat shaped ones with comically bulging eyes. Not that she was sadistic and wanted to see people train their canines to attack felines or anything, but she'd also never been a cat person.

"Ashley?"

Ashley was bent over examining one of the aforementioned squeakies when she heard the voice and it gave her pause. Her back hurt a little in the prolonged position, but she didn't relish standing up to see who she already knew the voice belonged to. "Yeah?" she questioned stoically. She heard him scoff under his breath and it almost wanted to make her laugh, but she held it in.

"I know you know it's me and I also know you're avoiding me."

Ashley glowered, even though she knew he couldn't see her face. "What are you doing here?" She still had no intention of standing up, even if her back did break before the acne kid got back.

"You look good," he mused.

That did it. She shot up and whirled around so that he couldn't get anymore prolonged looks at her pushed out gluteus maximus. "Are you spying on me?"

"You and I both know that's not my job." He shrugged coolly. "It is, however, the job of the FBI, CIA, and all other government run acronyms." Thomas folded his arms and his leather jacket made a familiar squeaking noise as the leather rubbed together. "I was right," he nodded smugly, "you do look good. I think you're a little taller than I remember…and a bit fuller in the face. Maybe a bit thinner too; that's not so good."

"What do you want?" she snarled.

Thomas shrugged and sauntered down the aisle, but only a few steps away from her. "I came to get some puppy toys."

"Puppy toys?" Ashley brushed a strand of her wavy brown hair behind her left ear. "I thought you didn't want another dog after Sammie?"

"I wasn't ready for a long time," he admitted with a bit of a shudder hidden in the timbres of his voice. "But I finally decided to take your advice: I did need to get a new dog."

"Have you gotten one yet?" She hadn't meant to sound curious, nor did she mean to release the snit in her voice, but it was beyond her control. "Or are you here on a pre-emptive supply attack?"

"No, I got him, but I don't have him with me at the moment. I got him from the pound. He's really cute, a little Golden Retriever/Poodle mix who was the last of his litter that didn't get given away, so his mother's owner shipped him off to the seven-day-stay. I've got to admit, I wasn't looking for a half Poodle, but he was on his last day and when I heard that I just couldn't let them take him, y'know?"

Ashley gave a warm nod. She recalled how awful she'd felt when her dad had almost tried to send Moose back because he thought it would make her mom happy. She couldn't even imagine being at the pound and looking into the eyes of a dog that was about to be put to sleep unless someone threw up the cash to take him home in the nick of time. "What's his name?"

"Don't know yet," he shrugged. "I'm having a hard time deciding. I figure once I spend a little more time with him, something might just come to me."

"Where is he now?"

"At the vet's, getting his shots. My mom took him. I would've taken him myself, but she insisted." At Ashley's surprised look, he chuckled. "Yeah, I know, hard to believe, right? But I guess the vet's a fan of one of her recipe books from her website, so he offered to give her a discount on the shots if she'd come in and sign the book for him."

Ashley gave an exaggerated roll of her eyes. "Oh."

"So what're you doing here?"

"Dog food."

"You got a dog too?"

"Yeah, actually…all that talk about Sammie really made me wish I had a dog of my own. And now, I do. He's a Golden Retriever, flunked out of the guide dog program. His name's Moose."

"A dog named Moose," Thomas mused. "He definitely sounds like a Juergens to me."

At that point, the pimple paprika-ed college student returned: he held nothing in his hands except for a rectangular piece of paper.

The teenager outwardly groaned as she saw no fruit for her labors. "Where's my dog food?"

"Like I told you, we're out of stock," he grunted and shoved the slip of paper at her. "My manager says all we can do for you is give you this rain check and when we get some in, we'll give you a call."

Ashley flicked her eyes across the rain check and sighed dramatically. "Fine, I guess my dog will go hungry until your call comes in." She crinkled the paper and stuffed it into her skirt pocket before firing the employee an intimidating stare, causing him to scurry on his way.

"That's a little harsh, isn't it?"

"I'm not having a good day."

"Care to talk about it?"

"No."

Thomas ran his flexible fingers through his shaggy white mop of platinum hair. "Well," he drawled, "all I'm getting is this." He grabbed the squeaky cat Ashley had been examining earlier and gave it an annoying squeeze. "Care to accompany to the register?"

"I guess I have nothing better to do."

Thomas smiled as she matched him stride for stride up to register two. He set the toy on the conveyer and pulled his wallet out of the worn back pocket of his blue jeans as it slid its way up to the clerk. He pulled out a crisp five dollar bill as the toy was rung up and then handed it to the man, collected his change, and snatched up the bag with a brisk, "Thank you."

"Why do you need new toys? Didn't you already have everything for Sammie?"

Thomas swung the bag around his wrist as he held the heavy glass door open for Ashley. "I felt funny giving the new dog hand-me-downs. Besides, I don't know how I feel about the idea of seeing someone else play with all of Sammie's things. I figured I was better off just getting everything from scratch."

"So I take it you've been around?"

"Smith's was having a sale on dog supplies so I mostly took care of everything there, but the toys were pretty much picked over. Good timing though, I suppose."

"I suppose," Ashley parroted with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

Thomas smirked as he swaggered along beside her with his bag hanging off his right wrist and his hands in his leather pockets. "I love it when you talk all sarcastic to me and want me to think you hate me, but I know you don't."

"You don't know anything."

"I know you broke up with me for a very lame reason."

"Wanting excitement and passion instead of droning comfortable complacency is a valid reason to end a relationship!"

"And we didn't have passion?"

"I made you dinner and we were already acting like a nineteen-fifties' married couple. It was sickening. I never want to be a Stepford Wife."

"You couldn't be a Stepford Wife if you tried, Ashley Juergens." As he said so, they both bus stop bench. He motioned his arm, but Ashley crossed hers and refused to sit down. "What's wrong now?"

"Ladies first?" she snapped. "Really? This is the twenty-first century."

"You were fine with it when I was opening the door for you." He cracked a smile when Ashley snarled under her breath. Finally, he grabbed her by her sleeve and pulled her onto the bench as he sat down simultaneously. "There!" he announced in his most smug voice. "Twenty-first century."

"What the hell was that?"

"Equality: we sat down at the same time."

She refused to look at him. He aggravated her. He aggravated her and she liked it. But she didn't want him to know that, even if he probably already did. So Ashley quietly balled her fists and shoved them into her lap as she waited.

"Maybe we should get our dogs together for a play date."

"Moose isn't the play date kind."

As if he hadn't heard what she said, he continued on to say, "Moose. I really like that name now that I think about it. When I get home, I'm considering naming my dog Bullwinkle."

"What kind of sense does that make?"

"About as much sense as Moose does."

"Oh look," she pointed. "The bus." She reached into her skirt pocket and pulled out her bus card as the bus coughed, grunted, and screeched to a stop in front of them. She made a point to stay seated even after the doors opened, until she saw the look dawn in Thomas's eyes as he realized she wanted him to get on first.

Thomas shrugged, almost scheming as he obliged and climbed the steps, swiping his bus pass as the brunette began to ascend behind him. He paused just behind the bus driver's seat, surveying who was sitting where and which spots were still available.

Ashley was busy swiping her pass as the doors hissed and closed behind her. She was just pulling the end of her card through the strip when she felt a strong hand wrap around her hip and another press itself to the side of her right cheek. The breath left her lungs as her eyes met Thomas's for a lightning split second, then she realized their lips had bonded. Heat blistered between them as Thomas's hand pushed its way up her cheek and raked through her billowing brown hair. She pushed her shoulders back, involuntarily leaning further into the kiss and then just as suddenly as it started, it stopped.

She was left buzzing in front of an entire crowd of people: some looked shocked, others looked disgusted, and a special few had smiles and silent awws on their faces. Ashley didn't even realize that Thomas wasn't standing next to her anymore until she saw him seated five seats in, with an empty spot next to him and a blank stare on his face. Immediately, the scarlet of embarrassment burned in her cheeks and she ran down the aisle and took her seat next to him. She wanted to yell, to shriek, to hit him! But she couldn't even form a sentence and she certainly couldn't lift her hand to give him the smack he so certainly deserved.

"Yeah," Thomas nodded as the bus began to pull away from the stop. "I'm gonna go with Bullwinkle."