The Lucky One

Chapter Twenty-Eight

"'Cause I like to love, to love, to love, to love you

I hate to hate, to hate, to hate, to hate you"

-Let the Light In by Lana del Rey ft. Father John Misty 

POV Noah

I did it. 

I asked Ryland to move in with me.

It took some convincing, but he's here, and that's all that matters. I don't want him to feel like a burden, no matter what. He means too much to me to ever feel less-then. 

I love him so much. 

Which is why I am at a pet store, holding his dog while Ryland stares at two different cans of dog food which, for the life of me, I can not tell the difference between. 

Ryland is wearing one of my shirts and it's taking an impressive amount of self-control for me to not kiss him right now. He looks so fucking cute, and he has this little furrow between his brow from staring at the tiny writing on the cans, and I want to smooth it out with my finger.

"Let Appa pick," I say, holding Appa up to the two cans. He gives each a small sniff before looking away disinterestedly. Well, that didn't work.

"I don't know which one is better!" Ryland says, glancing between each of the cans. "This one is chicken, and this one is beef. I don't know which one Appa wants!" he says before looking at me and holding the cans out to me. "You pick." 

"Uh..." I say before randomly picking one. "The blue one, chicken." 

Ryland drops it in the cart. 

At first, I thought this shopping trip would be like 15 minutes, but I severely underestimated how much this little dog needs. Or rather, how much Ryland insists this little dog needs. 

"Ok, so we got the bed, leash, and food," Ryland says, mentally checking off the list in his head. "Now, toys."

Once we get in the toy isle, I set Appa on the floor and let him sniff around the toys. I see a basketball, and I immediately grab it and hold it out to him, shaking it around to make it appear more enticing.

I hear Ryland scoff behind me and I send him a glare, but there's no heat behind it. 

"He's a good soccer boy, through and through," Ryland says, dropping a soccer ball on the floor right next to the basketball. "Appa would never be such a traitor as to-" he says, but then Appa starts playing with the basketball, totally ignoring the soccer ball.

Ryland's glare goes unnoticed by Appa, but I can't help but laugh.

"This is not funny, Chambers," he says, sending the glare my way, but I just keep laughing. "Betrayed, by my own dog!"

"Aw, sweetheart, I'm sure he'll come around," I say and Ryland just scowls at me. 

I pick up Appa and hold him out towards all the different toys hanging up. He sniffs a few before latching on to an alligator plushie. I grab it and put it in the cart. 

"You think that's enough stuff?" I ask, glancing at the almost full cart. 

"Yeah, for now at least," Ryland says, taking Appa from me and setting him on the ground.

"Thanks for coming here with me," he says with a soft smile.

"Of course," I say, "Plus, we can't have Appa living without toys."

Ryland smiles that soft smile at me again, and I want so badly to grab his hand and press my lips to his knuckles. This whole having to hid our relationship thing is getting more and more annoying as time goes on. I love Ryland. I wish I could just tell everyone how much I love him and it wouldn't matter.