Fragile Bones

Chapter Ten

A/N

I know it's weird that this is at the beginning and it won't matter to the majority of readers. But I'm starting this book again after a year and a half of not doing anything with it. I just took it off of draft mode and republished chapters (after slight editing)1-9.

All of the previous chapters are from spring of 2018, and it is currently September of 2019. Wild, I know. I find it weird that I'm probably the only one who would ever be affected by this, or notice that something changed.

The main reason I wanted to continue this book is because I genuinely enjoy writing and I finally feel like I'm at a stage in my life where I'm happy enough to continue with it. Senior year for me was a majorly depressing one and I'm happy to be away from high school. I'll try to match my voice from a year ago as best I can so the change isn't that obvious between this chapter and the last.

•••

I looked up at the small building in front of me. It was a pet store, one that I had never seen before. I took more notice of my surroundings and noticed that there was only one other car besides Ashers in the parking lot. Overall, this store looked like it had seen better days in terms of the customers they were getting. I turned around to Asher to wait for his response.

"I don't know. You do realize that I'm new to this town right?" He asked, raising his eyebrows. "I just picked a direction to drive in, saw this, and I thought seeing some puppies or something would cheer you up." He took the cigarette out from behind his ear and lit it, smoking from it for a second. I stared at him in wonder, shocked that he could be so considerate. This wasn't the asshole I had met days beforehand. He sighed when I didn't move to the door and kept staring at him and took it upon himself to shove me forward. "Stop looking at me like that. I can be a decent person sometimes y'know." He threw his cigarette down and walked into the store.

A small bell at the top of the door chimed when we walked in. An old man stood at a counter and waved at us when he saw us come in. I waved back but Asher just kept walking. I mentally rolled my eyes at his continued disrespect for people, although it was nice he thought to do this. I slowly started making my way around the store, looking at the various animals, fiddling with my hands. It was a small store and we were the only ones in it besides the old man who I assumed was the owner. I took another look at him and he was paying us no mind, and was instead focused on playing with a large bird that was perched on the counter.

I bent down to look at some hamsters happily running on their wheel. Even though Asher could be a douchebag, this definitely was cheering me up. I mean, who didn't like looking at animals? Besides serial killers.

I moved on and saw a bunch of puppies playing with each other through a little glass wall. I immediately ran over to it and pretty much attached myself to the glass. They were so cute! I had completely lost sight of where Asher was but I didn't really care at the moment. I didn't really care about any of my problems really. Not Lindsay or Spencer, or my parents, or my weight.

Suddenly Asher and the store owner appeared on either side of me. I looked at the old man to see if he was wearing a name tag or anything so I knew what to call him if I had to, and indeed he was. The name tag said Lou.

"I can let you and your boyfriend into the room if you want to play with them for a while?" Lou said, smiling at me. I nodded hastily, not even acknowledging the fact that he thought Asher was my boyfriend. Lou pulled out some keys and I locked the door and held it open for us to walk though. I started going but stopped when I saw Asher wasn't following me. I looked at him quizzically.

"Aren't you coming?" I asked.

"Dogs aren't necessarily my thing," he said, smirking at me. I stared at him in bewilderment. How could dogs not be anyone's thing? Especially puppies like these ones.