Cat and Mouse

"Are you sure about this, Aya? I'm not sure your mother and I are comfortable with you being so far away, and on your own." My father's worried voice flowed through the ear piece of the phone- and I couldn't help but chuckle ever so slightly.

"Don't worry, daddy I'll be fine. You and mom said it was a good neighbor hood, and installed the alarm system yourselves. You put my gun upstairs in the safe; and besides I have Thor here to protect me." I smiled, looking down to the black Great Dane puppy standing by my side. My father had bought him for me when I moved out here about a week ago.

"If you say so, sweetheart. We just worry about you is all." He sighed, obviously seeing the point I was making. "Good, but I have to go now okay? I'll talk to you later, I love you." I continued to smile as I ended the call and stuffed my phone down into my pocket.

"Come on Thor, let's go get something to drink." I smiled to the rather large puppy. He was able to go absolutely everywhere with me since he was legally registered as a service dog due to anxiety and depression problems that I've had throughout life. My doctor had suggested it when I was about fifteen years old. We had a dog at home at the time, and with it's company I began to understand why the doctor had suggested it. Sadly, our family pet had gotten old and passed- giving my parents cause to get me a new dog and register him as a service animal.

Walking into the Starbucks, I came to stand in line behind a rather tall man. He had dark hair that looked like it had a few grey streaks running through it, and he had it slicked back out of his face.

Thor stepped forward, and started sniffing around the man's feet. It took me a few moments to notice, but once I had I immediately scolded him. "Thor! Stop that!" I said quickly, looking down at the puppy. As soon as I spoke up, the man turned around to look at me. "Sorry about him, he's still in training." I said, slightly embarrassed as I looked up at the man.

"Don't worry about him, he's adorable." He waved it off, and as he spoke I couldn't help but be captivated by his accent. Scottish maybe? "Training you say, service animal?" He questioned, looking me over.

Thor wasn't wearing the usual 'Don't pet me, I'm working' vest that most service animals wear, but there was 'Service Animal' written down the side of the leash I was currently holding. I guess he hadn't really seen it. "Yeah, yeah he is. He's just still learning his do's and don'ts right now so it gets a little bit difficult sometimes." I explained with a slight shrug of my shoulders.

"Ah, understandable. You said his name was Thor, can I ask what made you pick that name?" He asked, now seeming slightly shy about it. "Oh, uh, because how loud his bark is. For how young he is he's pretty loud." I explained simply, looking into the man's light colored eyes.

It was then that our conversation came to a pause as he stepped forward in the line and up to the counter in order to, well, order. So, I stood back with Thor and awaited my turn in order to do the same thing for myself. Once he had ordered and paid for his stuff he stepped back once more and looked at me again. "Well, it was nice to meet you.." He trailed off for a moment, as if asking for my name.

"Uh, Aya." I said after a moment, feeling a bit awkward giving him my name. Somewhere in the back of my mind I was screaming at myself for doing so. "Well, Aya, it was nice to meet you- hopefully we'll run into each other again sometime." He flashed me one last smile before grabbing his coffee and walking out of the building.

I felt ever so slightly confused as I stepped up to the counter, where a wide-eyed smiling teenage girl stood waiting for what I had to say to her. "Can I just get a green tea frappuccino please, and that's all." I sighed, turning slightly to reach the bag that hung over my shoulder.

"Of course, that will be 4.68." She continued to smile as I pulled my wallet out and found the five that was waiting in the side pocket to be used.

Once I had paid the girl, and gotten my change back Thor and I stepped over to the side to wait for my drink. The person that had been behind me now stepped up to order as I waited. The boy that was actually making drinks, I could see him making my drink. I knew it had to be mine, because it was green.

I watched as he poured it into the see through cup before topping it with whipped cream and placing the lip on it. He then walked it over to the counter and handed it out to me. I quietly thanked him for it, before leaving Starbucks.

Outside, I looked down at Thor, who was looking up at me with expectant eyes. "Why don't we go to the dog park, hm?" I suggested. Immediately, Thor barked loudly causing me to giggle slightly as we started walking towards the park. I sipped my drink in silence as we walked alongside each other, and the walk itself only took about ten minutes. By time we had gotten there, my drink was halfway gone.

I removed the leash from Thor's collar, allowing him to take off running throughout the fenced in area, while I went and sat down on a bench not too far away from where I was standing.

Once I had sat down, I pulled my phone out of my pocket in order to scroll through the notifications. There was a text from my mom saying how much she missed me, and I had gotten an email from one of my professors that class would be canceled until Wednesday due to personal reasons. After reading through the two things, I set my phone down in my lap and looked around me.

I could see Thor running around playfully, getting some exercise along with a few other dogs. Surprisingly the park wasn't all that crowded today, usually it was on the weekends. Looking around, I saw only about a handful of people.

There was a little girl sitting with her mom, a small little white toy poodle sitting in the grass in front of them. There was what seemed like a teenage girl with a black and white Alusky playing fetch with her. An Alusky is a mix of a malamute and a husky. Then finally there was a man rolling around in the gross with his dog, a large brown pitbull. The guy looked rather intimidating personally. He was covered in tattoos and had what I liked to call resting bitch face.

The loud, shrill ringing of my phone snapped my thoughts away from the other occupants of the dog park. Without even looking down at the screen, I answered the call and brought the phone up to my ear. "Hello?"

The other end of the line was dead. There wasn't a sound in the world to be heard. No breathing, no speaking, not even any background noise. "Hello?" I questioned again, hoping for an answer. But still, no answer came. So, I ended the call not wanting to waste minutes before checking the time- it must have been a wrong number or something like that.

Apparently wile I had been looking at everyone else in the dog park, twenty minutes had passed. I must have been really deep in my thoughts.

"Thor!" I called out as I stood up, "Come on baby, let's go!" As soon as I called for him he came running over to where I was standing. I crouched down slightly in order to clip the leash back onto his collar before we started making the walk back towards him.