There are only three moving parts to my life: home, school, and volunteering.
I've been volunteering with "Save Our Furry Friends", or S.O.F.F, since I could pretty much walk. It's a no-kill rescue shelter for animals in need, even those without fur, which was something I found out when meeting the resident snake during training.
The owner is Amanda Banks. She's my dad's best friend and she's been here through, well, everything with us. Me growing up, Dad's divorce, Grandma's death, all of it. While I wouldn't say she's raised me, she has shaped me quite a bit. And for that, I'm grateful.
When I walk inside the rundown, glass shop, Amanda, hearing the bell overhead and knowing I'd be in by now, hollers that she's in the backroom. In the back, I see she is teaching a boy around my age how to wash Roxy, our oldest and toughest German Shepard.
"Roxy likes to show she's in charge, so when you talk to her, be soft but also, firm."
Amanda scratches behind Roxy's ear and she graciously licks at her hand.
"She's mostly harmless."
"Mostly?!" The boy looks startled and Roxy senses that immediately, she stands tall and still, her tail down.
"She IS harmless." I cut in, walking over. Roxy lowers her guard when she sees me and gives a small greeting bark.
"Just don't act like you're ready to be harmed."
Amanda bellows her loud laugh and the boy, paling, rises to his feet.
"God, you can't find that sense of humor just anywhere." Amanda smiles, wiping a tear from her eye.
"Lilah, hon, this is Cole. He's interning here for the school year for his college application."
"Hi." Cole waves awkwardly, still glancing occasionally to Roxy who has taken to standing at my side. She pays him no mind, idly watching a fly buzz around the room.
"Hi." I give a half smile and turn to Amanda. "Any tasks take precedent over the regular?"
"Nope." Amanda shakes her head before grabbing Roxy's leash. "All good here. Cole is going to vet school and eventually would like to open his own practice so he'll be doing a lot of work with Casey. But until then, he works with you since you pretty much run the place for me."
She smiles and hooks the leash onto Roxy's collar. "I'll leave you to it. I have a city hall meeting to prep for on a zone we could really use."
Turning a waving, she takes Roxy before either of us can utter a word.
"How do you work with such a lack of direction?" Cole arches an eyebrow as he walks closer to me. Now that he's closer, I recognize him. We go to school together. Nothing notable or remarkable; in fact, we've never actually talked until this moment. Otherwise, just a face in the crowd.
"You just learn to sink or swim. And I'd rather swim." I shrug and fold my arms. "I'd get used to it; not just for working here but eventually, when you have your own clinic and you're the head vet, I'm pretty sure you won't always have anyone to guide you 24/7."
He shrugs. "Yeah. I guess I didn't think of that."
I give a small smile and make my way to my desk in the corner of the room. He sits in the chair across from me and looks around as if seeing the room for the first time.
I rummage through my desk for a task list; though I no longer need it, we have to give it to all new hires whether paid or not.
"We go to school together, right?" Cole asks curiously. "You're the really quiet girl who always sits in the back?"
"That's me." I bring out a manila folder labeled "new hire". "I'm gonna assume she just said 'you're hired, come start whenever'and didn't have you fill out any waivers?"
"You'd assume correct." He nods, taking a pen from my pen cup. I open the file folder and begin gathering the necessary forms.
"I didn't know you worked here." He says casually, as if he were catching up with an old friend.
"Well, I don't really talk to people and when they do, they rarely ask about me." I shrug, not looking up. "And even if they did, and volunteering came up, I can't imagine it'd be all that interesting compared to the rest of the gossip that goes around."
I can see him nod from my peripheral. "That's fair. Did you start doing it for college too, or is this more of a hobby?"
"A hobby."
"Do you have a lot of those? Hobbies, I mean?"
"Just a few. This and reading."
"You don't watch TV?"
"Sometimes."
"What do you like to watch?"
"What do you like to watch?"
He laughs lightly and leans back in his chair. My fingers, I've noticed, have stopped moving, and I realize that I'm fixated on watching him think. I realize, somewhat abashedly, that I have simply become unaware that others, especially peers of mine, do it. Think, I mean. There so much pretentiousness and superficiality to so many of my classmates that I can't help but believe they never think long and hard about anything in their lives and don't care either. But here's this boy, thinking, long and hard about, well-
"Those thriller shows, yanno? Dexter, and Bates and all that." He says, snapping me back to reality. My fingers, seem to move again on their own, I look back to them.
"I really like those shows where it's just crazy people going crazy. Maybe the system failed them or their parents or maybe, maybe no one at all, yanno?"
I nod, then, closing the folder, I align all the forms and set them in front of me.
"I've always felt like there was some truth to that madness."
"Me too!" He says giddily before clearing his throat and settling. "I mean, look at serial killers."
I nod again and push the papers towards him. "I need these read through and signed."
It's his turn to nod. "How soon?"
"Yesterday."
"Noted." He flashed me a grin and gets started. I get up and take a walk around the room, tidying up here and there and restoring it back to its former, rundown glory.
"What books?"
"Hm?" I barely hear Cole through the to-do list rambling off in my head.
"You said you read, that it's a hobby. What books do you read?"
I intake a breath. "That's a really broad question."
"Well..." he's quiet for a moment. I can almost see him tapping his chin thoughtfully. "What's your favorite book?"
"I don't have one."
"No?"
I shrug and turn to him, crossing my arms. "I like most books."
"Well that narrows it." he laughs again and I feel the corners of my lips shoot up, only briefly.
"For me, I really like 'Lord of the Flies'." He says thoughtfully. "Just a bunch of kids, going crazy, and you're thinking about where they were failed and if they were failed. I always try to think of a reason why. It scares me to think that they-"
"Are crazy just because?" I'm looking at him now. He snaps his fingers and points at me.
"Exactly."
"I'll keep my true crime podcasts far away from you then." I grin slightly and he laughs. It's big enough to fill up the whole room and I don't hate it.
"She was right about that humor. You're real funny." He grins and shakes his head, returning his eyes to the paperwork. His New York accent, the one we all have, that I often forget, his is unforgettable.
I go back to my to do list, fixing this and that, all the while fighting back a tiny smile. Why I'm smiling, I don't know. Why I'm holding it back, I can't begin to understand.