"Lui!"
I heard my boss shout my name from the break room.
"Not now," I shout back, "I'm in the middle of something!"
"Lui, come back here NOW!!"
I heard him shout out to me, but with a more worried and scared tone to it this time.
"Heh, excuse me for one moment please."
I scurried off to the back of the movie theater where the break room was located, a bit annoyed that I had to leave a customer waiting.
"Ma'am, I was in the middle of serving a customer-" "Is that your house?"
I paused for a minute, not fully taking in the question.
"Excuse me?"
"Is. That. Your. House?!"
My boss seemed to have grown even more worried by the minute. She pointed to the TV in the corner of the room, showing me a burning house being hosed down to the best of the firemen's ability. I stared at the screen in disbelief. That's my house. The home I worked so hard to pay off, the home I worked so hard to maintain, the only thing that was currently keeping me alive and protected from the outside weather. I looked to my boss with pure fear and panic in my eyes.
"I've gotta go. I've gotta go NOW!!!"
I flew out of the door with everyone's gase snapping towards me, but not before my boss could throw me the keys. I feverishly started the car, slammed on the gas, and raced home.
The entire ride there seemed to be too slow for me, as I was thinking about my college papers, my essays, my pictures, my electronics, my files, my art, my food, but most of all, my dogs. I have one dog, his name is Hershey. Well, for short at least. I actually grew up with 3 dogs, but I couldn't take care of all of them by myself with college and everything, so I let my younger sister (who is 11 months appart from me) take care of Spot, and my parents take care of Candy. Spot is a dalmation-labrador mix, and Hershey is a pitbull-labrador mix. They are brothers my parents got me and my sis for Christmas years ago. Candy, however, was given to us by our aunt. She wasn't able to take care of so many dogs at once, so she gave her to us. I actually don't remember what Candy is...
My thoughts were souly on my "babie" as I sped through stop signs and red lights. Things like 'is he ok?', 'will he be ok?', 'i should've gotten him a fence', 'what am I gonna do if he dies', 'this is all my fault' flew through my head faster than I could coop with; and soon I found myself tearing up at the thought of never seeing Hershey again, of Spot not being able to see his brother again because of me.
As soon as I got to the smoke-filled house, I ran out of the car and started searching for my babie. I can't live without him; he's the only think keeping me sain through these tough years. The police stop me before I can get too close to the house, asking me if I was the owner of it. I told them yes, and that they need to find my dog soon, or I will freak out and probably have a panic attack (I've never actually had a full blown one before). They sit me down, tell the firefighters to look for a chocolate pitbull-labrador with a green collar, and assure me that everything will be alright. As they are trying to calm me down, I see a car park close to mine, and a female rushes out. She runs over to me with a bag of something, and as she sits down next to me, I realize that she actually works with me at the movie theater. She's that one girl who I talk to sometimes, and I know that she is very eccentrick and friendly. She normally has a smile on her face, or at least a neutral look, but the one she was giving me now was a look of sorrow and panick.
"Are you alright?!"
"Yeah..I'm ok. I'm just waiting for the guys to find my baby, that's all I care about right now."
She must've miss-understood when I called my dog my "baby", because I would've laughed at the look she was giving me if I were under different circumstances.
"My dog. I call him by baby sometimes. Sorry."
She waved her hands franticly in the air as if to stop me.
"NO!!nononono, it's ok! Don't apologise, it's alright! I was just worried there for a second!"
I let out a little light chuckle, easing the mood, if by just a little bit. Silence soon fell apon us, but was interrupted by the sound of heart-breaking whining and clawed footsteps trotting our way. I look up to meet Hershey's slobbering kisses all over my face. I scream, scaring him a bit, and launch myself at my baby, the only thing I was most worried about. I hold back the tears, mostly due to the girl next to me, when the vetinarians gently take him away from me. They tell me he will be fine, he just needs some rest and a shower. I thank them, watching them drive away.
"See? Everything is ok....well, for the most part."
I look over to her and smile.
"What do you mean? My baby is safe, what more do I need?"
She looks over to me with adoring eyes, pulling off a smile-frown.
"Well, uh, forgive me if I'm wrong...but..you don't have a home anymore. Everything you owned is gone. All of your paperwork is gone, your files, your food, your clothes, everything is gone."
I think for a bit. She's right, what am I gonna do now?
"But of course," she starts a bit hesitantly, "you um....you could always stay with me?" She rushes out, fidgeting around. I look to her with astounishment.
".....T-thank you for the offer, but I can't exept it."
There is no way I'm gonna bother her with my problems. I couldn't do that to someone.
"Now I know what your thinking, 'i couldn't possibly burden someone with my problems'. It's ok! I'm offering my home to you, meaning I'm more than willing to 'sacrifice' my problems for yours. I don't even have that many problems to be honest. And please take the offer, I really want to help you, but I can't force you to make that decision. I don't want you to have to live with your parents or even worse, in the streets just because you wouldn't take my offer."
I thought about it. I thought about college, I thought about my parents, I thought about my sister, I thought about Hershey, I thought about everything. She's right, I need a place to stay, I can't just stay with my parents. I wouldn't do that to them, and neither will I do that to my sister.
"Alright," I told her in defeat," I'll go with you."
You should've seen the look on her face when I agreed. Her smile was enough to light up a room! She gave me a tight hug and zoomed to her car, dragging me along. She started the car and kindly asked me to buckle my seat belt before driving off to where I can only assume her home was. When we arrived, she gasped as if she forgot something important.
"Wait," she exclaimed, "I never got your name!"
"Oh." Was all I responded with, not knowing what to say.
"It's, um, it's Lui." I gave her a sheepish smile.
"That's a beautiful name by the way! I'm Mila!"