Living in the Shadow

“Crystal, I’m just going shopping with a few girlfriends, you’ll be alright won’t you chick?” Mom asked me whilst I was still in bed.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine Mom!” I groaned and rolled onto my side.

Before I knew it mom had gone, drove off to the mall, and as usual I’m left on my part minus the three dogs we have. Paskia, Martini and Reyna. They’re all girls and are all Chihuahua’s but different colours. Paskia is the smallest and by far the most spoilt. She’s white with huge fluffy ears and matching tail. She wears a pink sparkly collar round her tiny neck and loves dressing up in her little dog clothes. She even has a pink dog bowl with her name engraved in crystals. The others dogs have the same bowl with there names engraved in crystals also. Martini is bigger than Paskia, but more boisterous. She’s always yapping and running around the house as if she’s doing the Olympics, She wears a lilac collar with little pink beads which she doesn’t like. And then there’s little Reyna, she’s the smallest of the pack and the quietest. She’d prefer to sit in the corner than run around the house like a lunatic or act like a spoilt brat. Reyna is by far my favourite and she lives in my bedroom with me. She has light and dark brown fur, and wears a gold, silver and pink collar which I bought her not that long ago.

I jumped out of my king sized bed and grabbed my white robe and headed downstairs with Reyna close by my feet. She was my little angel. Martini was barking, and Paskia was crying in the kitchen. They were sitting by there bowls waiting to be fed. Anger rushed through me, couldn’t my mother be arsed to feed our own dogs. I reached into one of the kitchen cupboards and pulled out a box of dog food and poured it into each dog bowl. As I put the box away I noticed the dogs were attacking there food as if they hadn’t been fed for days. Well Martini was. Paskia was eating like a snob but a dog like version and Reyna wouldn’t touch her food till the others left, she was shy!

I opened the back door so Martini could do her thing, I swear the vet mixed up her gender; she’s more of a boy than a girl. She rushed out like the house was on fire, and the last you could see of her was her tiny little legs running down the huge garden. I turned away and went to make my own breakfast, Reyna was still close by watching my every move as she always does, she hated being alone. I poured Kellogg’s ‘froot loops’ with marshmallows into a bowl and poured the milk in too, then took it into the grand dining area and sat down and ate it. I decided to put the telly on so I grabbed the remote from behind and switched through the channels. Everything seemed boring; the news, Animal Channels, Vet channels, something about plastic surgery... All the things I don’t care much about. I gave up eventually and turned the telly off. Reyna had scarpered off back to my bedroom and Paskia was sitting on her pink velvet doggy settee in the lounge watching telly. What a weird dog! I looked at the clock, it was 10Am. I put my empty bowl in the sink and dragged my feet upstairs. I sat on my bed which was a mess and picked my pink laptop off from where I left it the night before; next to my bed. I switched it on and waiting for everything to load. I kept hearing a bleeping sound, but thought it was my imagination. Then I realised it was my phone. I laughed. I’m so stupid sometimes. I picked it up and read the text that had come through. It was from one of my girlfriends; Mercedes. She wanted me to go out with her and some other girlfriends for the day. I texted back saying I would. A day out wouldn’t harm me would it?