If you love me let me know

CHAPTER 9

SONG: TELL HER ABOUT IT BY BILLY JOEL

"What was that all about?" Kelly smiled at the younger girls flustered state.

"Just brothers being stupid brothers, you know?" they walked to the tigers enclosure.

"No I don't, I'm an only child."

"Lucky." Harriet chuckled.

"No I wonder consider yourself lucky."

"I mean siblings are nice, but those particular siblings." She pointed in the direction they had come from, the direction where her brothers were teasing her on her non-existent crush on Kelly, ..... okay her crush on Kelly, but it was only small, kinda. "trust me you spend one day with them and you'll be pleased with any other siblings available. I mean I love them but being surrounded by boys my whole life was just horrible basically." Kelly let through a smile at the younger girls tone.

"What about you're mum?"

"I love my Mum yeah I was just always closer with my dad."

"Are you still close with him?"

"We were close until the end yeah." Kelly caught on.

"Oh shit Hattie I'm so, so sorry." Kelly clutched her chest in guilt with one hand the other reaching out for Harriet, eventually taking in her hand as they stopped, guilt taking over her she pulled Harriet in for a hug.

"Kelly don't sweat about it, really. It's fine." she returned the hug chuckling.

"I can't help but feel bad."

"You shouldn't, it's been a long time since he passed, it's a normality now." Harriet shrugged as they continued walking. "Are you close with your parents?"

"I'm the opposite of you, I love my dad but not as close with him, I'm more close with my mum, then again we have to be so we're not at each other's throats seeing as I still live with her."

"It's not as bad as having to movie in with your older brother."

"You clearly haven't met my mother." They both chuckled, Kelly looking down realising she still had hold of Harriet's hand, in panic that Harriet was uncomfortable she gently pulled her hand away trying to act normal, however the void of Kelly's hand didn't go unnoticed by Harriet. "So tigers are your favourite animal?"

"Well land animal, yes, and overall animal no. My overall my favourite is my favourite water animal, a sea turtle."

"Really?"

"Yeah my dream is to go to Australia, swim in the reefs, see the sharks, and of course most importantly the turtles, ohh but also the sting rays, my love for sting rays has grown over the years." Again Kelly couldn't wipe the smile off her face seeing and hearing the girl talk about something that she was clearly madly in love and passionate about, she couldn't help but find it completely, heart warming but heart wrenchingly adorable. "What's your favourite?"

"Out of the whole zoo, I'm the same as you, I love each and every animal but the tigers own my heart. As for overall land animal, now don't judge me but hedgehogs are my favourite, with their little button nose, and i love the way they run as they slightly waddle sort of like a penguin, kinda. And then my favourite animal,...." Kelly stopped to think about it. "I love whales, in particular orcas. Have you ever seen the movie 'Free Willy'?"

Kelly heard a snort from beside her as she rolled her eyes and nudged the brunette girl. "Get your mind out the gutter."

"No, no I love that movie, I cry every-time when they free him and he jumps over the border. It's one of my favourite movies and I find it extremely devastating that my niece and nephew haven't watched that movie."

"How dare they!" Kelly dramatically gasped, placing a hand to her chest as they approached the tiger enclosure, going inside the shed where the tigers over night smaller enclosure came through. Kelly smiled as she heard Hattie gasp running over to sit on the floor seeing Spar in his enclosure look aimlessly around. Kelly's smile faded when she sensed the girl's changes in emotion.

"What's up?"

"It breaks my heart to know he's going through so much pain." Harriet looked sympathetically at the tiger, Kelly's heart melting at the action.

"He's a strong boy, he's fine for now. Now come on Dolittle, I'll show you how we put Spar's medicine in his food for future references if you want this to be your job." Kelly held out her hand as Harriet took using it as support as she lifted herself from the ground following Kelly into the small kitchen attached to the shed filled with steaks of meat and and pot of pills in the cupboard for Spar.

"So because they're not as fancy as we are, of course they have it raw." Kelly smirked as she placed out the bowls for all the tigers on the counter in front of Harriet all of them being the same colour except for one, the red one, assumably it wasSpar's to know the difference. "Right so all you've got to do is hide two to three pills in his steak." Kelly explained handing Harriet a pair of scissors.

"Okay..." Harriet stood there confused with a pair of scissors in hand. "How do i do that."

"Here." Kelly slightly chuckling moving to her side taking her hand which held the scissors in them as she guided Harriet whereabouts to cut the steak to hid the pills. "How many pills have you put in so far?"

"Two."

"Better put another one in there but on the other side, more possibility of him taking the pills he never really eats his food knowing there's pills in there." Kelly moved to the girls side now, the closeness having increased from the last time bringing heat to Kelly's cheeks.

"Done." Harriet sighed shakily as they both finished preparing the tigers feeds.

"See you're learning Dolittle."

"Okay that name is not sticking." Harriet took two of the same coloured bowls and placed them in the cages for the tigers to take.

"I should just call you Mad Hatter instead." Kelly smirked. "What you don't think I heard Dylan call you it many times when I was giving you the tour?" For some reason when other people called her by that nickname, anyone but Dylan really, Rosie hardly called her that, Hattie would always roll her eye being fed up of it, not liking the nickname at all, only dealing with it for Dylan not for Benjamin or Duncan. But when Kelly called her by the nickname something was different about the way she choose to hear it. This time it felt special. It felt warm and nice. And she didn't mind at all, in fact she might have liked it too much. God this isn't just a small crush is it?!