Jason listened patiently while I did what I told myself I wouldn't. I wanted to leave my pain in New York. In fact, I wanted to leave the happy times there, too; they only made the hurt from bad ones intensify. Telling him meant he would know and it would follow us everywhere. My memories and petty tragedy were no longer to be estranged from my mind. All of this was running through my mind as I spoke and he listened, but I couldn't stop myself.
When I stopped my rant, Jason looked me right in the eye and stated bluntly. "First of all, if I ever meet this Skittery guy, it ain't gonna be pretty."
I wasn't sure how to react to that. My head seemed to think it would be great for them to meet and for Skitts to get what he deserved while a smarter part of my heart knew better than to wish for that. I remained silent, not knowing what I was supposed to say.
"Secondly," Jason continued, "You need a puppy."
"What?" I asked, a forced a small laugh at what I assumed was a joke.
"No, I'm serious. You need a happy little distraction right now, and a puppy sound like the right thing."
"That's so... That's so... stupid." I said, baffled and slightly annoyed with the suggestion.
"No it's not and you know it. Listen we're going to get you a puppy and your going to like it." He said, trying and failing to be harsh and authoritative. He grabbed my wrist and started pulling me towards the door.
"Jason." I whined and tried to resist his pull.
"Mary, don't make me carry you."
"If you started carrying me, I would scream and then someone would arrest you. You can't get away with 'kidnapping' in a city like this." I said, feeling pleased with myself. He didn't answer me, but he didn't pick me up either. He just pulled harder and I followed.
"The Captain isn't going to like this." I said. Jason just shrugged proving to me he wasn't changing his mind.
Once we got off of the boat Jason stopped pulling and instead of turning back I followed him. I remember thinking, "Well, maybe a puppy isn't such a bad idea..."
We walked into a pet shop and Jason immediately started looking through the cages. I stood in the doorway. "How did you find this place?" I was amazed he had this being his first time here.
He shrugged without looking up. Rolling my eyes, I started looking through the cages, too, only a few paces behind him. Most of the dogs looked unhappy and bored. They'd been cooped up to long and lost energy. Their pathetic looks weren't helping to cheer my up. I frowned at them but opened the cage door to pet them, but even when I did they looked almost annoyed.
Jason was crouched down by a cage on the bottom row with an amused smirk on his face when I caught up to him. What I saw was a large cage with a small dog running back and forth. He would hit a wall head on, look at it with a confused "Where did you come from?" expression and promptly turn around and run the other way, repeating the process from before. Watching his perpetual motion, I couldn't help but laugh.
Looking at me after hearing my giggle, he said "This is the one."
Jason was right; puppies are great distractions because I forgot all about Skittery as I picked up the puppy. I followed Jason towards the counter as my new puppy squirmed and wagged his tail in my arms. He was fuzzy and mostly black with white and brown markings.
The man working there looked slightly surprised by our choice but didn't say anything besides, "He's a Bernese Mountain Dog. He'll grow quite a bit. This one isn't particularly intelligent, though." He said frowning at the puppy whose tongues was currently hanging out of his mouth adding to his adorably stupid look.
"Don't say that!" I said. "You a genius aren't you, Edison?"
"You named him Edison?" Jason asked with a smirk.
"Yes, he's very, very smart, just like Edison." Jason laughed at me and paid the man for Edison, a collar and a leash.
I put his leash and collar on but still held carried him. "Thank you, Jason."
"Hey, you needed it." He smiled. I laughed and held Edison up to his face and let him lick it. He flinched and added a "Grossssssssssssssss!" to it.
Once we were back on the ship I let Edison run around in my room. Laughing, me and Jason watched him run around and jump on everything.
Awhile later the Captain came down and opened the door to my room. Upon seeing Edison who was barking at his reflection he said, "Um, there's a dog in here."
"Yes there is, sir." Jason said officially with a hint of worry in his tone. "Mary there's some girls here to see you and Jason ... can talk to you about the dog outside."
Jason followed the Captain out and Trip, Kiki, Slight, Little and Russia all came in. Excited by the new people Edison abandoned his reflection to greet them.
"Puppy!" Russia said excitedly while me and the other girls hugged. "Navy, it's so cute! What's it's name?"
"That's Edison." I said as she picked him up and sat on the lounge.
"We missed you." Trip said.
"I missed you guys, too."
"Jack told us you were going to see Skittery this morning." Kiki said, looking embarrassed.
"I did." I looked down. "I feel horrible. It's my fault."
"Not it's not." Kiki said and patted my back reassuringly.
"I shouldn't have left like that."
"What happened?" Little asked.
"When I left or this morning?"
"Both." Slight answered for her.
"When I left, he found me at the train station. I was so upset and mad about my father-"
"What do you mean about your father?" I lifted my eyebrows at Kiki's interruption. "None of us have any idea where you were and why. Skittery just said you left and weren't coming back. He was so mad we decided not to ask anymore about it."
"My father got hurt and they brought him to a hospital in Georgia. There was a chance he was going to die."
"Oh no's" and "I'm sorries"escaped all of there mouthes but I just nodded indicating it was okay.
"Anyways, once I told Skittery might not come back, he kissed me. I was just so upset and it was the wrong time to do it and I don't know..." I trailed off.
"Hey, he was out of line, not you." Little said.
"What happened today?" Trip asked.
"He was drunk and I was scared and we yelled at each other in the middle of the bar. He threw a bottle at my head at some point."
"He did what?" Trip yelled out.
We spent the afternoon catching up with each other and ended up going out to lunch. It was nice to see my friends again and they seemed happy to see me too. For the horrible morning I had had, the afternoon and evening with them and Edison made up for it.
I went to bed that night thinking, "Maybe things aren't as bad as they seem."
Yay for puppies and friends. This is the part where you review. :-P