CHAPTER FOUR

When I get inside, Wood and Amelia are sitting on opposite ends of the couch, reading papers and very pointedly not speaking. They look up when I come in, though not at each other.

"Hey."

"Hi."

"Everything okay?" I rub the top of Tanya's head as she trots up to me, purring. "I mean…" I trail off. They know what I mean. It's weird to see freshly engaged people being annoyed at each other all the time.

They finally exchange glances and Amelia sighs, breaking into a smile. "It's just…stressful, arranging a wedding and stuff. That's all." She moves closer to Wood and kisses him on the cheek murmuring "I love you" under her breath. Wood whispers he's sorry and kisses her back.

Ah, that's better.

I open the fridge, starving after burning about a thousand calories and only consuming about a hundred. "When is the wedding, anyway?"

"That's…one of the things we're trying to figure out," I can tell by Wood's voice that he's treading carefully. "We don't want something huge, but we do want something nice." It sounds rehearsed, but Amelia doesn't seem to get mad, so I guess it works.

I find some burritos in the freezer and pop one in the microwave, my stomach growling audibly. While I watch it spin, I chew on some carrots that Rock makes me buy every week. "Am I the best man?" I ask between bites.

I'm joking, but it seems to cause whispered controversy behind me and they don't answer.

When the timer beeps, I take the burrito out and, too lazy to get a plate, juggle it from hand to hand as I make my way to my room. Tanya snaps at it when I walk through the door and I push her away, putting the burrito down on a tissue on my dresser. Then, as quietly as I can, I sneak back down the hallway, stopping just shy of the living room so I can listen to them. I know that's kind of a little kid thing to do, but I do want to know what's going on.

"…worry about it? Why does it have to be so complicated?" That's Wood. He sounds on the verge of being angry, but not quite there yet.

Amelia sighs. "I don't really know. My family wants to throw a big party…that's the way they are. And my friends, too."

"Can't you just tell them you don't want that?"

"Well, if they're going to pay for it, where's the harm? They're pretty much just picking out their own menus."

"So the whole thing is going to be your family's wedding because I don't have any?" I wince. His tone is getting bitter. "Because you have more friends than me, I don't get a say?"

"No!" She sighs again, more frustrated this time. "I just…we'll work with them, okay? But they are paying for everything, so they should play some role."

Wood's silent for a minute. "I'm sorry." He says quietly after a minute. "It's only…can't we put this off a couple of months or something? It might be easier to organize with more time…"

I risk a peek around the corner and see her take his face in her hands. "Because I love you and I want to marry you as soon as I can." She leans a little closer. "Don't you want to marry me?"

He kisses her. "Of course I do."

Then he glances up and sees me and his mouth twists into a smile without a lot of humor in it. "It's okay, Dash, you can come out now."

"What?" I walk out, trying to look casual. "I was just getting a drink." I have to stop myself from whistling as I grab a bottle of sports drink from the fridge. They don't say anything. They still don't say anything as I walk back down the hallway, stopping as soon as I'm out of sight.

After a long minute, Wood says, "All the way, Dash." He's using his firm guardian voice, so I obey and shut my bedroom door behind me. Tanya's staring up at my now-lukewarm burrito longingly and I feel sorry for her and rip her off a piece.

While she's eating, I rub her ears. "Maybe I'll just let Wood run the marathon. It might be easier."

She blinks and purrs.

(-o-)

The next day, after a five mile run and about seventy sit ups, I go to help Rock at the animal shelter. I don't go there often because his parents are the type that expect to see you there all the time if you show up once. But he is my friend and some of the babies there are really cute, so I try to make room once in a while.

His mom smiles at me when I come in. "Hey, Dash, good to see you."

I smile back and pet the desk cat, an ancient feline whose name I've forgotten and who never strays far from his bed next to the computer. "Hi. Where's Rock?"

"Out back, with the dogs. They could use a walk." Then she turns to help a little girl holding a confused-looking rabbit.

I give a little wave and walk down the hallway to the dog pens, the sheer noise of the place engulfing me. There are a lot of different species and they all make their own sounds – from parrots squawking to the dogs barking to the hamster's wheels squeaking – and the whole place kind of smells like pee and fur. Still, some of the animals are so cute, it makes up for everything else.

Rock's in the back, struggling with five different dogs on leashes. When he sees me, he hands me three of them without saying a word. Of course, even if he had said something, I wouldn't have been able to hear him. These dogs are barking at the dogs in the pens, the dogs in the pens are barking at these dogs…it's amazing he hasn't gone deaf yet.

I take the leashes and allow myself to be dragged after the dogs as they follow Rock down a trail leading into the small woods out back. After a while, they settle down and he and I can talk.

"Usually, we do it one at a time – " He yanks back a dog staring at a squirrel. "But we don't have as many volunteers lately. All on vacation."

I sense a wistful note in his voice. "All right, who is she?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." He says vaguely.

I give up for the moment. If it was important, he wouldn't shut up about it. And anyway, I'm busy trying to untangle myself from the knot the leashes have formed around me.

"Sometimes I come out here with that little guy Wood gave me." Rock takes one of the dogs for a second as I spin. "He has a bunch of ropes that come out of that bud on his back. More like vines."

I take the dog back. "Don't you have a name for him yet?"

He gives me a look.

"What?"

"Dash, we name all the animals that come in to the shelter. I have my hands full just remembering which Fluffy is which. Besides, he doesn't really need a name. He is what he is," He pauses. "Whatever that is."

I laugh. "So you're just gonna call him Plant-Animal-Former-Nonextant?"

He shrugs.

We walk a little farther. The dogs definitely want to keep going, but eventually, we drag them around and head back. I feel a little twinge of guilt putting them back in their pens…I just hope they get adopted soon.

We do some other odd jobs – feeding some of the birds, cleaning out the rabbit cages – and luckily, we avoid anything to do with cats. It's weird, but I don't really like them as much as I used to. At least, not a lot of them at once. Maybe it's because of Owen and Cheryl's freaky cat.

Then, we go into the back room, which kind of serves as the ICU of the shelter. They keep really young animals in here, or ones in really bad condition…the ones that aren't up for adoption. We feed a couple of unidentifiable naked pink things milk from an eyedropper and give medicine to a hamster with a scabbed head and Rock shows me the one-legged owl he had talked about before. It's pretty adorable and doesn't seem that bothered by its injury. It hops around hoothooting a lot.

"Would you be willing to do…one more thing?"

The way he says it makes me suspicious. "What kind of thing?"

He drums his fingers on his collarbone and doesn't meet my gaze. "I'm…not actually supposed to tell you this, but we have this dog who's super aggressive and we can't do anything about it. We can't keep him with the other dogs, he's that bad. He seems kind of…weird and he might be a Nonextant and since you're so good with them, I thought maybe…" He trails off.

"Maybe what?"

"I don't know…you could help calm him down, train him a little," He looks at me for a minute, then adds quietly. "We're going to have to put him down soon if he doesn't get better.

I sigh. I'm a complete sucker for things like that and Rock knows it. "Do you guys have, like, padding or something? I'm not that good with animals and I'd rather not get torn to shreds."

"Yeah, we keep it by him. Come on."

I follow him out the back of the room, down a hallway where our footsteps trigger a series of loud, low snarls. I swallow nervously.

The pen at the end of the hall is covered with plywood boards that do little to mask the frantic scrabbling and barks behind them. Rock picks up some chewed armor from the floor and holds it out to me. "If he even looks like he's going to bite you, come out, okay? Actually…" He lowers his arm. "Maybe we shouldn't. I really don't want to risk anything."

I snatch the padding. "Oh, shut up. I won't get hurt." I struggle into the suit, which is super heavy and feels like it's made out of carpets. I am kind of worried about getting hurt, but he's already made me feel bad about the animal and that's all I can think about now.

He stands by the door and looks at me expectantly. I nod and he opens the door with a jerk and I jump awkwardly inside.

Since it's all covered, it's dark inside, but I can still see by the cracks between the boards. The dog is mostly black, with some brown on its face and stomach. It's also got these bands of white on its back and ankles and one on its forehead that, for some reason, looks kind of like a skull. I can tell that it's kind of skinny and has the same kind of scars that Tanya had when I first got her. Right now, it's only crouching and growling, but I try not to breathe too loud, in case I might anger it.

I try to remember what I did to get Tanya to like me, but that was over a long period of time and probably because I fed her and stuff. I have no idea where to start with this dog. I kneel clumsily and it takes a step back, growling louder. I put out a hand for it to sniff, aware of how close my fingers are to its extremely sharp teeth. It sniffs once, then lifts its lip and growls again.

I draw my hand back. "I'm sorry. I'm not that great at this." I whisper. "I bet you'd rather be around your own kind, huh?"

It stops growling and looks at me curiously.

That's just the kind of thing Tanya does. I move a tiny bit closer. "You're not a dog, are you?"

It shakes its head and makes a weird howling noise, one that kind of sounds like a word, but not quite. "Owwndooor!"

I put out a hand again and it sniffs it a couple more times. "I bet you have a pack or something out there and you got separated."

It nods and makes a different noise, a sad, quiet one.

"Well, the people here are really nice, you know. And those fights – " It bristles. " – They're over with. I bet if you were a little nicer, we could even help you find your pack."

It wags its small tail and licks my hand.

I laugh and rub its head. "Hey, Rock!"

"Everything okay?" He calls back anxiously.

"Perfect!"

After a few more consoling words, I lead the dog out of the pen. It growls quietly at Rock at first, but stops when I tell it to and sits down, wagging its tail.

Rock looks at me incredulously. "How do you do it?"

I rub the dog's head. "You just have to listen to them. You know, understand them."

He shakes his head incredulously as the dog lets out a short, happy bark.