Football players are assholes. I know; I'm related to their king. My older, and annoyingly overprotective, brother Jake is the star quarterback at Santa Cruz High School. I love him but hate living in his shadow. Everyone worshiping the air he breat...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Eleanor?" By Sara's dissatisfied look and irritation in her voice, my kitten playtime was over. "There's some dude here to see you. Kinda sketchy. I can chase him off for you if you'd like."
Sketchy dude? No one stood at the large window. I assumed she meant Jake and, if he was here, then his ass could wait in the lobby until I was done. Jake wasn't sketchy, but he had projected weird, angry brooding all week. Harper accused him of having male PMS, but no one knew its cause. He silently pounded back his chicken parm and broccoli staple dinners and retreated to his room. Mom and Dad shrugged their shoulders from across the table.
"No, thanks," I said to Sara. Jake would tell me what bothered him when he was ready, and he could wait until I was done. I picked up three kittens and put them back in the cage Marla cleaned. They mewed and swatted their paws at the bars, but I grabbed the other three and shoved them in too.
"This stinks," Marla whispered when Sara left. "Literally."
The smell of cat dander and urine burned the inside of my nose. "It does."
"As disgusting as this is, it can't be as bad as the blood drive." She shuddered. "God, I wish we could skip that one."
"One at a time," I murmured.
We moved down the wall of thirty-six cages and transferred a whole lot of cat stink onto us. An hour later, they were clean, and an ache of fatigue weighed down my arms. Marla's eyes were glazed over, and my ponytail stuck to my sweaty neck. Marla folded her tenth load of laundered blankets and towels while I scrubbed the walls and floors with a bleach-based cleaner that burned from my nose to my brain.
Thirty minutes later, I never wanted to see another cat again. After we refilled all the water and food bowls and then removed more cat poop and pee, we shared a sigh of relief.
"The boys got it easier with the dogs," Marla whispered. "I saw them walking a herd outside and left ten minutes ago."
Dogs. That's where Logan was? Caleb arrived when Harper dropped me off, but since I couldn't lift a dog food bag without dragging it across the floor and Marla was allergic to dogs, we tackled the cats. By the droop of my shoulders, the cats won. I sagged into Sara's office doorway for my participation form.
"Thanks for your help," she mumbled and handed the paper up to me.
"You're welcome." I tucked it into my backpack and forced a polite smile. A single person hadn't come in since I'd seen her last. "Did the sketchy guy leave?"
"Guess he was only visiting." She shrugged but her eyebrows remained furrowed. "We get some observers, people browsing for pets."
"I'll wait in the lobby for my ride." I shifted on my numb feet. "Thanks."
After we exchanged good nights, I walked down the hall past the cat room and pulled out my phone in the lobby. Jake promised to pick me up, but so far no Jake. Big surprise.
