Page 25 of The Break Out

Instead of backing up like I wanted, Colton’s hands are on my hips once again as he lifts me off the bar top, setting me back on my feet. I immediately put distance between us so I can breathe and work on slowing my heart rate down.

“I should go,” I say, refusing to look at him because everytime I do my body betrays me more, and I need to get my head back on straight.

“You should stay.” He smirks, like he knows every single battling thought I’m having.

“This has been…” my voice trails off because I don’t even know how I want to finish the sentence and it only makes his smile widen. “I don’t even know why I came here, bye Colton.”

I push past his brick wall of a body, and he lets me as I make my way out of the bar. As soon as I get outside, the cool night air feels like a slap in the face as reality comes raining down on me as I process what actually just happened.

Colton kissed me.

It was the hottest kiss of my life.

And it’s neverevergoing to happen again.

13

I’m getting a cat.

This wasn’t the plan when I woke up today. The original plan was to pretend that last night never happened. And to decorate my apartment to make it feel a bit homier.

Well, on my quest to do the last part, I ended up at the pet store. I thought about maybe getting a little fish tank because I like the sound of running water and the pretty lights they can have. The idea of the peaceful ambiance for my place sounded nice.

And then I walked past the cats up for adoption. There’re a couple litters of kittens who are all rambunctious little things. But it’s not them that caught my eye. It was the corner kennel that had a fluffy black and white cat who is lying on a little bed that’s tucked under a shelf. I look at the card on the front of her cage and see that she’s five years old. Her name is Ellie and there’s something that draws me to her.

The person working behind the kennels notices me. It’s an older woman who pops her head out. “Did you want to meet any of them, darling?”

I look back at Ellie. “Yeah, I’d love to meet her.”

The older woman gestures me into the room behind the kennels and I follow her.

“She’s very sweet, but shy. We don’t know much about her other than she was surrendered to a shelter and after six months she was set to be euthanized. Our rescue took her in about three months ago,” the woman tells me while opening up the kennel.

My heart breaks at the thought of this sweet baby sitting in a cage like this for the last nine months. And who knows what her life was like prior to this.

I step up to the open cage. “Hi Ellie,” I say softly to the sweet ball of fluff.

She looks at me and it may seem ridiculous, but it almost looks skeptical the way her large gold eyes lock onto me. I rest my hand on the edge of the cage, and she starts to get up, slowly, stretching her lanky body out as she carefully approaches me. That’s when I notice she only has three legs, her back left one is missing, and I actually start to tear up. After sniffing my fingers, she drops her head onto my hand and rubs. I feel the vibration of her purring and I start to pet her.

Smiling as my fingers run through her soft fur, the purring gets louder as she continues to rub against my hand.

“I’ve never seen her take to anyone so quickly,” the womansays. I realize she might just be saying that because she wants me to adopt Ellie, but her words don’t matter because I’ve already made up my mind.

“You want to come home with me, sweetie?”

I may have gonea bit overboard with buying things for my newest best friend. But I don’t even care. I’m terrible at spending money on myself, but for other people it’s my favorite. Which is why my niece is going to be extremely spoiled once she gets here because I refuse to hold back.

And my new child, Ellie, is about to be the most spoiled cat on the planet and I don’t even care. I do, however, struggle bringing in all my purchases. She’s in the kennel meowing as I carry in the giant box containing her cat tree and add it to the corner of my apartment where everything else is.

I open up the kennel once everything is inside. “Welcome home, Ellie.”

She’s cautious about coming out, so I just sit on the floor and watch her as she explores. The way she has to hobble around because of her missing leg just makes me fall more in love with her every second.

I start to set up everything for her, starting with the necessities of her litter box, food, and water. Then, move onto building the cat tree. I am not very handy, so after a couple arguments with myself that had Ellie questioning who she’s living with I finally built it. I can only hope it’s secure enough and that I didn’t mess anything up.

Ellie immediately starts exploring her new area, meowing and purring loudly. When she finds a spot and rolls onto her back, I take a picture to send and share with everyone.

Spencer: OMG she’s so cute! I want to meet her!

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