by Alisha Watts
He gave her an odd look but helped her to find a disposable cup to fill up with water and even helped her to research what ducks ate on his phone. “I’m not sure why you don’t just take him to the vet.”
“I probably should, but maybe I can help him,” Skylar said. Her parents wouldn’t be thrilled about her discovery but she was fairly certain that keeping him in the backyard for a little while wouldn’t be too much of a problem. So long as she kept an eye on Nellie. “... or maybe I should take him to the vet,” she admitted sadly.
They both watched the duckling take a long drink and preen his chest feathers. Her hoodie was a mess but she wasn’t going to let go of him in the building since she wasn’t sure she could catch him or not. “That probably would be best,” he told her as he went back to closing up.
“Would it be okay if I stay here until my boyfriend can get here to take me there? I don’t want to let him free in my car,” she explained.
“Yeah, go ahead and stay here a bit. I think he’ll be fine if you just take him back to the pond across the way, but it might be helpful to take him to the vet just to be sure.”
She nodded and shifted her grip enough to have one hand free so that she could call Grayson. Perhaps it was cliche but she couldn’t help the grin that overtook her features when he answered the phone. “Hey, are you busy?”
“Never too busy for you. What’s up?” Grayson asked. His voice had an odd quality, almost slurred.
“Were you taking a nap? You sound tired.”
“Oh, yeah, I was writing a song and just couldn’t keep my eyes open all of a sudden. I must have been up later than I thought last night.”
“Aww, you poor thing. Well, maybe I can call Tara...”
“No, what is it? I’m up now,” Grayson said.
“I was on my way home from teaching karate and I found this little duckling and his foot is hurt. Do you think you can drive me to the vet? I don’t trust leaving him in the car with me since he might get even more hurt.”
“Uh, sure. Let me just get cleaned up a bit and I’ll be on my way. Are his eyes cloudy or something? I’ve heard that means they have a fever. Or something.”
She could hear him moving around his room getting ready and it made her chuckle. It made sense that someone as wonderful and sensitive as Grayson knew something about taking care of defenseless animals. “No, his eyes are pretty bright. His foot looks mostly normal but he was limping when he walked.”
“Huh, weird. You’re waiting at that place near 104th, right? I’ll be there soon.”
“Thanks, Grayson.” Skylar hung up and sighed happily as she lightly pet the duckling’s head. He didn’t seem highly appreciative of this treatment but allowed it since he was not able to fight very hard to get free, anyway. Grayson was so sweet, coming to help her like this. She would have to tell Tara all about it as soon as she was home and didn’t have a handful of panting duckling.
The little waterfowl had calmed down enough that she was sitting with him in her lap by the time Grayson pulled up to the front of the building. He waited patiently for her to wave to the other instructor and thank him for staying with her. Grayson smiled at her companion and she pet his head again to prove that she could.
“Thanks for coming to get me,” she said. The car smelled odd to her but she quickly dismissed it as not being all that important. Everyone’s car smelled different, after all. Hers probably would smell odd to him.
“It’s not a problem. Do you know where the vet is from here?”
“No, actually, unless the vet we take Nellie to helps ducks, too. Do dog vets help ducks?”
“Hmm, let me see,” he said as he pulled out his phone to look up the information. “Seems like we don’t have many options. Most animal hospitals around here closed an hour ago. We could go to one of the urgent care places but it’s a good half hour drive.”
“I don’t have any plans tonight if you don’t,” Skylar said shyly. “I can pay you for the gas.”
“No, that’s fine. Do we have some water or something for him?”
“I brought a cup from inside. I think he should be fine on the trip, he seems like he’s been breathing better when he’s been out of the heat.”
“Where did you find him?” Grayson asked as he started the voice guidance and started to drive across town.
“Right there,” she said as she pointed to the spot she had seen the duckling limping along. “At first I thought that he was just lost but then he was moving oddly so I used my hoodie to pick him up and bring him inside.”
“Did you see any other ducks around?” he asked.
“Um, no, I forgot to look. I was a little distracted by him,” she admitted a bit sheepishly. “Do you think maybe his mother’s looking for him?”
“Probably not,” he shrugged. “He doesn’t look that little, and if he was by himself then he has probably outgrown being around his mom.”
“I just can’t tell if something is up with his foot because I haven’t been this close to them before. I am not sure how to see if there’s something wrong. I have seen them in cages at petting zoos and such but haven’t ever held them before.”
“Well, the vet will know what’s up. It’s sweet that you want to help him so badly,” Grayson said as he flashed her a smile.
She smiled shyly back at him. “I just hate to see him suffer, especially if there’s something we could do about it. Maybe I should have taken him back to the pond, though.” She watched the duckling worriedly. The duckling, for its part, completely ignored her as he preened his feathers once more. He limped to another part of her lap and she used her arms to corral him back to the center of it so he wouldn’t fall. “He doesn’t seem like he can fly yet.”
“Probably not, and I’m sure it’s fine. They know better how to deal with this kind of thing at the vet.”
Skylar tucked her chin so that her hair would hide her blush. “It’s silly, I guess, getting this worked up about a duckling. He’s just so cute, and so helpless.”
“Really, Skylar, it’s fine. Don’t worry so much about what I think because I think that you are cute and far from helpless. It’s awesome that you want to help, and I’m happy that I have a chance to be there when you needed a favor.”
Skylar tucked her hair to one side and beamed at him. “You are so sweet, do you know that? I’m so lucky that I bumped into you.”
“Heh, I think that I’m the one that’s lucky,” he corrected her.
“Then I’m luckier.”
“And I’m the luckiest.”
“That’s not fair,” she protested teasingly.
He grinned at her. “It’s true.”
“But it’s not equal.”
“It could be. Since you’re sharing in the spoils of my luckiness.”
She giggled. “More like you’re spoiling me.”
“You deserve it. You’re sweet, too. Not many people would stop their whole day just to pick up a stray duckling.”
“Well, not everyone would stop their nap to take their girlfriend to the vet over something so little.”
“If it matters that much to you then it’s not little at all.”
“It does matter,” she affirmed softly as she went back to watching the duckling. “What song were you working on before your nap?”
“Hmm. I was writing something, but I think I might scrap it.”
“Oh, no, why are you wanting to do that?”
“I might have been inspired to write about falling in love with someone for the little things they do,” he said with a casual look her way. “That is, if it’s not too soon to start falling for you.”
Skylar’s heart contracted oddly and she could feel the heat of another blush as it suffused her face. “You, do you mean it?”
“Of course. Would I lie to you, baby?”
Skylar giggled and shook her head. “Of course not, you have no reason to do that.”
“You’re not the kind of person anyone should lie to. Anyone that did sh
ould be ashamed of themselves. I guess now would be a good time to start asking about what you see happening in your future?”
“Well, I want to get married, of course,” she said with a sly look his way.
“That definitely is a must,” he agreed. Her heart did another flop at the heated way he looked over at her.
“And I want to move up to being an actual masseuse. I’ve been saving my money to go to school for it and have been working at the office for seemingly forever.”
“I’m willing to bet you’ll be good at that. You have a very relaxing personality and you obviously know how to talk to people.”
“I try to help people,” she said modestly. “Right now it feels as though I'm not doing hardly anything. I just make schedules and write down appointments and teach occasional karate classes. I could have moved out a while ago but I don't make enough to save for school and to get out of the house.”
He gave her a sympathetic look. “Yeah, the market is tough. I am lucky my dad paid my way through school. He's been pretty chill about my lifestyle so long as I keep him in the loop.”
“What is your dad like?”
“A little nutty. He manages the plant shop but mostly likes to stay home with his dogs. He and my mom are divorced and he's dating someone else now.”
“How old is he?”
“Almost fifty, I think. I don't really pay much attention to what he gets up to, honestly, since it is not really a part of my life any more. My mom doesn't want to talk to me much at all because it reminds her too much of my dad. I wrote a song or two about it, but I don't like making a big deal out of my problems.”
“But it's not healthy to ignore your problems,” Skylar protested.
He smiled at her. “Well, I'd rather just talk about it with people that matter.”
The butterfly feelings returned to her stomach and she nearly missed keeping the duckling on her lap when he made another dive for freedom. “That makes sense,” she breathed. She cleared her throat in the hopes that it would make it easier for her to speak like a normal person would. Why did Grayson have the superpower to make her feel like putty? “What does your mom do?”
“Not much, she spends a lot of time at home. She does a lot of commission work, making signs and that sort of thing. I don’t know if she still does any of that, but I guess she must be doing more of it because she hasn’t had any other source of income in her household. Unless she’s getting some kind of child support since she’s a woman.”
Skylar wasn’t sure that she liked his word choice in that moment, but wasn’t sure what to say about it and she just nodded.
“What do your folks do?”
“My dad does accounting and Mom helps people with their taxes. They talk numbers a lot.” She smiled as she thought about how their faces had lit up when they were telling her stories about how they had met. “They were working on some project or other together and just hit it off. It was a whirlwind romance, to hear them talk, and they can be so cute about it. Mom gets so sentimental and Dad pretends he isn’t listening because the news is on or Nellie needed attention. But you know he totally is.”
“Well, it’s difficult to ignore the most important person in your life,” Grayson pointed out practically. He gave her another cool smile and she all but melted in her seat. “Speaking of, let’s get that duckling to somebody that can take care of him properly, mmk?”
“Definitely,” she agreed as she allowed him to open her door for her and lead her into the vet’s office. “I think she’ll feel much better knowing that she’s in such good hands.”
“I’m sure she will.”
~~~
Chris lounged on the couch in a sprawled out fashion. The room was still cluttered with camping supplies from when Steve first dropped him off at the house. Thankfully, Steve had taken him back to the truck the evening they had gone hiking. That is of course, after several impromptu, Steve adventures; which included, amongst other things, playing with old abandoned lawn darts. Cue happiness at having brought the first-aid-kit. Chris sometimes marveled as to how his friend could possibly still be alive.
Nevertheless, he had to admit that the trip had been fun. His head also felt much clearer and the atmosphere of the apartment had ceased to weigh on him. A true friend, Steve had counseled him to eat when he got home because Chris had refused to stop. Steve knew that despite Chris’ assurances that he would eat, he wouldn’t, because that would require preparing something.
Therefore, after dropping Chris off at his apartment, Steve had driven down the street, around the corner, picked up some take-out at a burger joint, and dropped it off at Chris’ place with a brief conversation that had the tone of a resounding sigh.
“You didn’t eat, did you?” He questioned as he held the bag of food out at arm’s length for Chris to intercept.
“You do know me so well,” Chris replied with a smile. “I was getting to it after I finished this sentence.”
“Yeah, I kinda figured that would happen,” Steve let out a chortle, shook his head and turned to walk back to his car, “I’m fairly certain you told yourself that several pages back. Don’t worry about it, your thesis will be great man.”
“Thanks...” Chris said more to himself than Steve as his friend had closed the door and gone back to work. Or wherever it was Steve went when he wasn’t kidnapping people.
He was pretty sure, however, that his prompt return, the fact that Steve hadn’t demanded any sort of ransom besides knowing that Chris was having a good time, and the bribe of the delicious burgers had somehow made kidnapping okay in his book. He would have to ask a seasoned detective about it one day, though. Not that he wanted particularly to press charges but it would be good to know if he had some legal right to do so.
Although, it was probably too late to take any kind of legal action. The incident had to have been a few days ago if the fatigue he was experiencing was any sort of indicator. It was Wednesday, and he was pretty sure they had left on a Tuesday... though he had no idea what date that was so he could have been working practically non-stop for a week or two. Chris was fairly certain he would have noticed if it had been longer.
The realization of time passing caused him to remember that he was hungry and rather desperately needed another shower. There was only so much changing clothes and spritzing deodorant could do for personal hygiene, and he’d probably reached some kind of limit on that score. He sent an email to his mentor informing him of his progress and then went to take care of himself. After all, he needed to take as much advantage of this stopping point in his work as he could before another burst of inspiration struck him.
He seemed to be gaining ground on his thesis and his head was definitely clearer than it had been before the trip, but currently he was splayed out on the couch thinking of Skylar. At the moment, his head felt alternately clear and cloudy.
For a long while, Chris had been toying with the idea that he was a creepy stalker type as far as Skylar was concerned. They hardly ever talked, even though they used to be close. Also, he was pretty sure he had made it into the ‘it’s too late to make a move’, friend zone a long time ago and here he was pining away. The more he pondered the situation however, the more he realized that Skylar had always been in this thoughts. He was not quite sure as to when his thoughts became romantic about her; only that it had been a gradual, subtle process. The more his thoughts returned to her, he came to feel that they would be good for one another too.
Should he call her and at least catch up? Maybe invite her to wings with Steve? Or not, never mind that thought. Well, never mind the Steve part at least, a phone call wasn’t such a bad idea. That was what people did when they were friends, after all.
Chris picked up his phone and stared at it nervously before placing the call. How many rings would it take her to answer he wondered, even as he simultaneously scolded himself for being so lame. A simple phone call shouldn’t make him this nervous as he had never had a problem with social anxiety before
. He still counted though and she answered on the fifth ring. He chuckled as he pictured her looking frantically around for her phone during the time he had been anticipating and dreading hearing her voice.
“Hey! You haven’t called in a while.” She said sounding genuinely excited.
“Hey yourself, and yeah I was thinking about that, it’s why I called actually”
“Well what a shock you actually had thoughts other than research.”
“Har de har har. Yes, I do, thank you. I was wondering if you’d like to get together sometime this week?”
“Oh, during the week is not so good for me actually,” Skylar said with obvious disappointment. Chris started to feel more nervous because the other part of the conversation he had planned involved making plans to meet up, but apparently that wasn’t going to happen.
“Well, that’s a shame,” He said quickly, “I guess it’ll just have to wait until we’re less busy then. I’ll talk to you soon I suppose.”
“I can talk now if you’d like. I’m not really doing anything at the moment.” She said nonchalantly.
“I have to get back to my studies actually and we can hang out later when you don’t have as much going on.” Chris hurriedly replied. Maybe calling her wasn’t such a good idea, after all.
“Oh, okay then, I guess I’ll talk to you later. Bye.”
“All right, bye.”
Chris hung up the phone and sat there wanting to die a little. How juvenile was that? What made him think that he would have any time to spend with someone else in the first place? Lord, he had worked so hard to get here and he didn’t want to lead Skylar on when he couldn’t commit to plans he might make. He couldn’t even make it to Tuesday night wings and he was sure Steve would be at his door again before he even realized he had missed the next wing-outing. If he hadn’t missed one or two of them already.
Also, he was babbling in his own head.
“Oh this is just great. Badly timed and great.” He said to the empty room.
Chris sat up and decided to dive back into his thesis with Skylar still on his brain. The hardest part of writing anything for him was tying everything together. Much like his life, Chris thought much to his chagrin. What would he do when he was done with classes and studying. He had been so busy writing papers, reading, and apparently fawning to decide the exact direction he wanted to go in life and what all this work had been for anyway.
