A Dog's Life

Sarah bit her lip trying to work out where exactly she’d gone wrong.

“Take the first turning off the main road, follow and then you want the third turning on the right,” She read it through again and again trying to make sense of it, she’d even printed out a map. How on earth had she managed to get lost? All the roads where straight it wasn’t difficult!

She sighed and carried on down the road, deciding that she might as well go back to where she started, if she could find it, and go through the directions again.

At this rate Sarah was going to be late and the man on the phone did not sound like he would tolerate lateness. She gazed down to the directions again, trying to remember if the man had said he’d be there when she arrived or not.

Her eyes flashed back up to the road, leaning over to change the track on the radio as she did so.

Though she’d looked up too late, the sound of screaming breaks and the loud bang that followed gave her the fright of her life. Sarah felt her heart physically skip a beat, nearly jumping out of her chest as she was flung forward in the chair while the seat belt pulled her heard back.

Everything for a few seconds was silent. Sarah kept her eyes firmly shut the pounding in her head enough to make her wish she’d never woken up this morning. The silence was broken as quickly as the accident occurred.

“What the fuck were you doing?!” The man shouted, Sarah could hear him through the busted windscreen of her car, though there was no way she was opening her eyes to see him. “Were you fucking even fucking looking where you were fucking going?”

“Zack for fuck sake this is not the time!” She heard another man’s voice. “Go phone a fucking ambulance will you!” He sounded a little bit calmer than the first man, almost making Sarah want to open her eyes to plea for help. Her arm was burning for some reason, and the thin trickle of what she assumed was blood ran down her cheek; she did not even want to know. For that reason alone she kept quiet, and kept her eyes shut as her head fell back against the head rest, willing herself to just wake up from this nightmare. “Hey?” She heard the second man whisper, and felt the warm Californian air sweep into the car as he opened the door. “My names Brian,” She felt the man move beside her, his hand running across hers. “Can you hear me beautiful?”

“Sarah,” She whispered back, the only thing she could manage to say right now.

“Sarah?” The man questioned, squeezing her hand softly. “Well hey there Sarah,” She could hear the softness in his voice, the warmness of his hand, the inviting sent of his aftershave mixed with the dark sent of smoke was intriguing. She opened her eyes slowly and went to turn her neck, she yelped in pain, a stabbing sensation ran through her body. “Hey no moving just yet,” He chuckled. “You just stay still,”

“I’m late,” She whispered.

“For a very important date?” Sarah chuckled as much as the pain would allow her.

“Work,”

“Eh wouldn’t fucking worry about that doll,”

“I love this job,” She whispered. “Someone’s relying on me,”

“What do you do?” The man questioned, hoping he was distracting Sarah and keeping her focused on anything but the pain she must have been feeling at that moment in time.

“I look after dogs, walk them, keep them when people go away,” She explained, he noticed her attempt to smile. “I love animals,”

“You had a job today?” Brian questioned, wondering if this was a big coincidence. “For Zack Baker,”

“Angry man,” Sarah whispered. “Really pissed off, he never gave the dog’s name,”

“Oh,” Brian muttered looking over to his friend who was on the phone to the ambulance, or at least he hoped he was. “That sounds like our Zack at the fucking moment,”

“The other man that’s here?” Sarah tried to move to look for him. “Oh shit he-“

“Hey don’t fucking worry about him, you’re in a fucking car accident beautiful, you worry about you!”

“I bet I don’t look beautiful right about now,” Sarah mumbled, feeling the cold liquid that had to be blood, traveling across her lip. The metallic tingle,as she instinctively chewed her lip, making her wince in disgust.

“Yes you do,” Brian moved round to look her in the eyes. “Now I’m just gonna fucking calm stressy pants over there down, I’ll be back in five seconds flat I promise,” Sarah bit harder on her lip, she didn’t want him to leave. “Now you stay where you are, don’t you move an inch, promise me,”

“I promise,” Sarah whispered, wishing she didn’t have to let go of his hand, he was keeping her from freaking out right now. “You promise?”

“I promise I’ll be five seconds,” He smiled brightly at her. “Stay still,” Before he let go of her hand and ran towards Zack. “Dude,” He shouted reaching the shorter man who was still fuming with anger.

“You phoned an ambulance?”

“On their way, they said don’t let her move,” Brian just nodded. “Fuck sake how can she fucking do this today of all-“

“Hey dude fucking cool it, there’s a terrified women in a car over there who has a lot of blood coming out of her head and a nasty looking arm, you are going to think of someone fucking else for five seconds!” He’d lowered his voice to a harsh whisper, there was no sense in Sarah hearing any of this and scaring her more than she always was.

“Jenny fu-“

“Not another word about Jenny!” Brian barked at him. “Now I need to make a phone call to Niki, check in and all that shit, but I promised that poor girl, Sarah, I’d be back in five so you know what you need to do?!”

“Brian fuck off, I can’t,”

“Yes you can!” Brian snarled at him. “You go over there and make her feel like a million dollars, flash that smile girls fucking cum over you for, and smash head first into her with all the Zacky Vengeance charm you can fucking master because she is scared shitless and she needs someone, and that someone is sadly you,”

“She’s fucking ruined my-“

“Go over there and make her smile,” Brian pointed towards the car while fishing his phone out of his pocket and ignoring the expletives pouring out of Zack’s mouth. So what if his fiancée had just walked out on him, for all they knew that girl in that car could be dying, so the least he could do is think of someone else and make her smile.

Brian chose not to mention she was the dog sitter, who was looking after Zack’s pride and joy Ichabod and his ex-fiancee’s nightmare of a dog Foo Foo; surprisingly named after her favorite band.
Brian sighed, holding the phone to his ear, as Zack walked away and towards the car.

Zacky was angry, though even that was an understatement; he’d planned on screaming at the women, telling her exactly what he thought of her. It was always woman drivers, being unprepared, dangerous, doing their fucking make-up instead of concerting and then boom, they slam into your far too expensive car and cause unspeakable damage. As if he needed this right now, life was shit enough as it was.

“Do you-“ He started to shout as he got closer to the car, but suddenly fell silent, almost as if the gods had struck him down in that very spot stealing his voice and all the air around him. He looked at the women in the car, unable to comprehend the state she was in. Blood trickled down the side of her head, there was a nasty gash in her arm, and the car was clearly not in any fit state, worse off than his.

But she was beautiful…

“Hello? Brian?” He heard her question, but he couldn’t quite manage to speak, just staring at her was horrific.

Such a beautiful women surrounded by such a horrific scene. He could not comprehend it. He felt so sorry for her. After weeks of feeling sorry for himself and angry at everyone else this new sympathy was unnerving.

“Bri-“ She went to move her neck but quite clearly caused her pain, she let out a small mew in agony waking Zack up from the sight he was looking at.

“Don’t move,” He suddenly spoke darting to her side, he knelt just as Brian had done, grabbing her uninjured hand.

“Who are you?”

“Zack,” He replied. “My names Zack, I’m Brian’s friend, that was-“ He went to moan about his car but snapped back to look at her. “You’re Sarah right?”

“Yes, you’re the really angry man? Where’s Brian gone?” Her accent cut through clearly as she spoke, she was English. He seemed to recognize the voice from somewhere; he just could not place it.

“To phone his girl, she kind of needs to know what’s going on, we’re late for this event she’s putting on today, said we’d help out,”

“I’m sorry,”

“No problem,” He paused and gazed at her. “I’ll let you into a secret; I never wanted to go.”

“Why?” She questioned, he seemed to be doing an ok job at keeping her talking and not focusing on the pain she must have been feeling; what an incredibly brave woman.

“My ex-fiancee is likely to be there,”

“Oh,” Sarah paused. “Ex?”

“It was fucking messy,” Zacky muttered squeezing Sarah’s hand. “Can we talk about something else?”

“I’m the one trapped in the car here, in agony may I add,” She whispered, wincing a little bit as she spoke. “I get to choose the topic of conversation,” Zack could not help but laugh at her attitude.

“Well I guess I owe you that,” He squeezed her hand softly. His gaze swept across her body taking every inch in, and noting the damage that had been inflicted by the car. “What d’ya wanna know?”

“Everything,” Sarah whispered, the grip she had on his hand loosening slightly. “I-I-“

“Hey Sarah,” Zack squeezed her hand trying to get her grip back. “Hey don’t you dare fall asleep on me, this is my story,” He joked, though the fear was evident in his voice. “Sarah come on you’ve gotta stay awake for me babe,”

“I am,” She managed her eyes fluttering shut. “Just checking the back of my eyelids,” Zack sighed and moved so he could face her. “Tell me, her-her name,”

“Jenny,” Zacky started. “She was called Jenny, year younger than me at school apparently, I don’t really remember her, but a few years ago we really-“ He paused hearing the sirens cutting through the suburban air. “I think that’s for you,” He added recognizing they were getting louder. Brian was walking towards the car now, he’d clearly finished talking to Niki and probably got a load of shit for not being there right now.

“Hey Sarah! Looks like the men in blue are coming for you,” Brian called nearing the car as Zack cut his story short.

“I always thought it would be the men in white coats,” She replied trying to force a smile to appear on her blood stained face, Zack and Brian both chuckled. “How bad do I look?” She questioned silencing their fake laughter.

“Not bad at all, I told you,” Brian spoke up. “You look beautiful, doesn’t she Zee?”

“Sure does,” Zacky put on the Zacky Vengeance act, hoping the act would keep her smiling like it do for so many other girls. “Looks like you’re gonna be out of here in a few seconds,” He added as the sirens got much louder and the lights could be seen.

“Are they hot?”

“Huh?”

“The paramedics,” Sarah pointed out. “Every girl likes a hot man to save her,” Zacky and Brian both smiled at her.

“We aren’t hot enough for you?”

“I can’t really see you guys to judge,”

“Guess we’ll have to come with you then so you can judge which of us has the best ass,” Brian mocked nudging Zacky to get him to move out the way of the paramedics as the ambulance pulled up. Zacky loosened his grip on Sarah’s hand and went to let go.

“Don’t,” Her voice a little louder than she’d managed before. “Please don’t leave me,” Zacky looked up at Brian a little panic clearly etched in his features.

“Eh all the girls always go for him,” Brian joked winking at Zack. “I’ll speak to the boys in blue, you stay there!” Zacky just nodded moving back to crouch by Sarah.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he whispered running his thumb over her knuckles. “Nowhere, so Sarah,” He questioned thinking of something else to distract her. “What d’ya do for a living?”

“I’m a dog sitter,” He raised his eyebrows and it suddenly all pieced together,

She was the girl he’d screamed down the phone at yesterday. God could this get any worse?