A Rat Named Tank

“I still can’t believe he gave you his number,” Courtney said several hours later as we strolled through the mall. I hadn’t planned on telling her, but being Courtney she’d immediately noticed the number scrawled on my hand when I‘d joined her in the cafeteria after my run in with Tyson. Not one to lie to my best friend, I had just shrugged nonchalantly and told her that Tyson had given me his number so we could arrange study dates for our joint assignment. Little did she know my blasé attitude belied the giddy feeling that had taken up residence soon after he’d left. I mean come on, I had just been given Tyson’s cell phone number. From none other than Tyson himself. How many girls in the school could say that? Probably none. Not that it was a big deal or anything. So why did my stomach twist into a ball of nerves every time I thought about calling him to arrange said study date? Courtney wasn’t helping the matter either. She was adamant that he wanted me to call alright. Not about a study date, but a date date. Nothing I did or said could convince her otherwise. I’d only been trying for the better part of four hours. Giving up, I decided to change the subject instead.
“I can’t believe you and Drew have been going out for three weeks now.” Well actually I couldn’t believe she’d been bold enough to ask him out on the first day of school. That he’d said yes without hesitation had been another shock. The two had nothing in common beside being in the same year level at school, and to my knowledge had never shared a class together. Which made their current dating status the talk of the school. Bets were already being made as to how long it would last. So far the odds were in favour of their relationship going arse up sometime next week. I hoped not.
We stopped at a retro clothing boutique that was flashing a huge sale sign.
“Oh em gee, I know, right? Isn’t he just totally delish?” she asked, pulling a gold sparkly top off the rack.
“Um, sure,” I offered. Although he was proving to be a really nice guy and totally doted on Courtney, the preppy look and the fact that he was blonde just didn‘t do it for me. No, but the dark hair, jeans and boots look does it, my mind readily supplied. I stamped down the thought as soon as it arose. Nope, that look didn’t do it either. Definitely not.
“Too bad he had to work tonight,” Courtney said, breaking me from my thoughts. She sighed wistfully. Oh crap, that wasn’t a good sign. When Courtney fell for someone, she didn‘t just fall, she crash landed. And of the dozen or so boyfriends she’d had, she’d fallen for at least ten of them. The end result - in other words, when the break up came - was not good. That wistful sigh was the tell tale sign that she was heading that way with Drew. And even as I was predicting the emotional heartbreak to come, a small part of me hoped that Drew rose up above the rest of the jerks that didn’t deserve my best friend and prevailed.
“Oh, great,” I teased, trying to distract her from her most likely R-rated Drew thoughts. “Nice to know I’m only a substitute for when Drew is unavailable.”
She bumped me with her hip as she brushed past me to one of the dressing rooms. “You know that’s not what I mean,” she said, disappearing from sight.
I grabbed a t-shirt from the sale rack that was covered in rhinestones and ducked into the stall next to hers.
“So things are going good with you guys then?” I asked, slipping my jacket off and pulling the top on over my singlet. I had no intention of buying something this hideous. I was only trying it on so I had something to do while I waited for her.
“Things are great,” she gushed through the wall. “He wants me to come over to his house sometime next week to meet his mother.”
“Wow,” I said. That was definitely a first.
“I know. I’m so freaking nervous.”
I looked at myself in the mirror. Ugh. Pink, green and purple rhinestones on a bright yellow background. The person who made this was definitely on crack to have come up with such an ugly combination. The colour totally washed out my olive skin, the colourful rhinestones clashing with my hazel eyes. And so much for the saying that anything works well with jeans. This baby wouldn’t work well with anything. I stripped the shirt off and grabbed my jacket, exiting the small cubicle.
Courtney emerged a few seconds later, a look of distaste on her face.
“Next store?” I asked, laughing.
“Definitely,” she said, chucking the top on the ‘returns’ table and leading the way out. “So are you going to call him?” she asked, linking her arm through mine as we navigated the throngs of people.
“Who?” Although I knew all too well who she was talking about.
“Don’t play dumb with me, girly.” Damn, sometimes I forgot how attuned my best friend was to me.
“Well, yeah I guess I have to if we want to pass our assignment,” I said.
Courtney dragged us into an accessory store, the cloying smell of a dozen different perfumes threatening to make me sneeze. I rubbed my nose to stop the tingling.
“No, I mean call him just to chat.”
“Why would I do that?” I asked, truly perplexed.
“I don’t know. Maybe to get to know him.” She picked up an electric blue eyeliner.
I sighed wearily. I didn’t want to be having this conversation. Not now, not ever.
“I mean, you’ve got to be blind if you haven’t noticed how hot he is,” Courtney persisted.
“Yeah, fine. He’s good looking. Uber-hot. But I’m not going to go after a guy just because he looks good enough to eat.”
“Why not?” she asked, looking at me like I was an alien.
Sometimes I forgot that Courtney operated on looks first, personality later.
“Never mind. Lets just finish up here and go back to mine. We have a One Tree Hill marathon waiting for us. Riley managed to find the newest season for us.”
At the mention of her all time favourite TV show, Courtney dropped the eyeliner and began ushering me to the nearest exit.
“What the hell are we waiting for?” She exclaimed.
Ah, the joys of her short attention span.

I swung into my drive and parked up behind Riley’s SUV. That was strange. I checked the time on the dash before killing the engine. It was barely eight.
“He’s home early for a Friday,” Courtney commented as we slid from the cab.
We grabbed our shopping bags and headed for the house.
“Maybe his evening meeting got cancelled,” I said as I turned the key and opened the door. I stepped into the brightly lit foyer - and almost did myself grievous bodily harm in an effort to sidestep something that was sitting right in front of me. Half of my shopping bags slipped from my hands and scattered about the floor, sending the little ball of fur into a whirlwind of motion. I let out a squawk of shock as the little ankle biter ran in circles around me before taking off down the hall.
“What was that?” Courtney asked, half out the door ready to bolt.
“Oh, my god!” I shrieked, dumping the remaining bags on top of the pile and scrambling away from the direction it went. “Riley!?”
Footsteps sounded on the stairs as Riley crashed into sight.
“Where is it?” he demanded, spotting me and Courtney. “Close the door,” he hissed. “You’ll let it out.”
Courtney slammed the door, looking as confused as I felt.
“So we’re trying to keep the rat in?” I asked. A fan of rats, I was definitely not. Icky little critters, they did nothing but leave droppings everywhere and chew everything in their wake.
“It’s not a rat,” Riley said, getting down on his hands and knees to look under the hallway cabinet. “It’s Tank.”
“You’re damn right it’s a tank in terms of rat size,” Courtney said looking warily around herself as if the critter in question was waiting to charge at her.
Riley sat back on his haunches and gave us a peeved glare. “It’s not a rat. It’s a dog. His name is Tank.”
“When the heck did we get a dog?” I asked, more than a little annoyed that I hadn’t been informed beforehand. “And why would you get something small enough to scuttle around undetected. I almost broke my neck trying to avoid squishing it when I came in.”
Riley’s face drained of colour. “You didn’t hurt it though, right?”
“Gee. Thanks for making sure I’m okay,” I said dryly.
“There!” Courtney yelled as a little golden-brown blur ran out of the kitchen across the hallway and up the stairs.
Riley tore off after it, emitting a sound of triumph from the second floor moments later. “Got it!” he said, coming back down the stairs. We met him at the entrance to the kitchen and I screwed my face up when I got a good look at the culprit.
“I thought you said it wasn’t a rat.” The so-called dog fit neatly into one of his hands, its huge eyes bugging out of its head as it eyed me and Courtney. It’s wet nose twitched violently as it sniffed in her direction.
“It’s not. It’s a Chihuahua. And before you ask, no, I didn’t have the sudden urge to add to the family. It’s my secretary’s dog. Izzy’s mother fell down the stairs and broke her hip. She had to fly out to the hospital this afternoon and asked if I could baby sit Tank.”
I sighed in exasperation, leading the way into the kitchen. My poor brother was head over heels for his secretary. All I could say was thank God Tank was a Chihuahua and not a whopping Rottweiler. Because I had a feeling he would have said yes to just about anything regarding Izzy. It was a wonder he hadn’t already confessed his feelings to her. Though I suspected it had something to do with his travelling all the time and therefore not being around often enough to sustain a healthy romantic relationship.
“How long is your furry friend staying?” Courtney asked, taking it from him.
“Just a couple of weeks,” he said, scratching it behind one of its ears. The dog yapped excitedly, it’s little tail wagging. I cringed at the sound, still unconvinced that it was canine.
“It’s kind of cute,” Courtney said, letting the oversized rat lick her fingers.
Cute? Was she blind? It looked like it was one step this side of being rabid. Was it even house trained?
“If it takes a whiz in my room, I’m going to rub your nose in it,” I threatened Riley.
Courtney cracked up laughing.
“Why my nose?” Riley asked in alarm.
“That’s how you teach dogs not to piddle in the house,” I said, giving Courtney and the rat a wide berth as I moved to make a bowl of popcorn. “Well usually it’s the dogs nose, but since it has no choice in being here and you oh so kindly volunteered to look after it, I figure you deserve punishment for anything it does.”
He chuckled and said, “I’ll keep that in mind,” before rummaging around in a shopping bag on the bench. When he pulled out a small can of dog food, Tank went bat s**t crazy and it was all Courtney could do not to drop the thing.
“Oh, hungry little fella, aren’t you?” Riley observed, astute man that he was.
He pulled out a small doggy bowl and less than five minutes later Tank was devouring his food like there was no tomorrow, flicking bits everywhere. I screwed my nose up and dug some ice cream out of the freezer.
“Oh Courts, some guy named Drew called while you were out. Said to give him a ring when you got in.”
Courtney let loose a little squeal of delight before dashing from the kitchen to find the cordless phone in our living room. I smiled as I heard her run back and up the stairs to my room.
“I think all that‘s left for her to be an official member of this household is an address change,” Riley teased, grabbing the bowl of popcorn and tossing some into his mouth.
“Oh, didn’t I tell you? She did that last week,” I teased back. Finding the tub of Ben and Jerry’s, I slammed the freezer closed.
Riley smiled, placing the popcorn back on the bench.
“I must admit, I do feel better knowing you have someone around most of the time to keep you company while I‘m not here.”
Courtney spent so much time at our house, she was pretty much family to both me and Riley. He adored her like a sister and treated her as such when she was around.
“Yeah, me too,” I said, fiddling with the lid.
I felt his gaze on the side of my face for what seemed like an eternity before he spoke again. “I know it’s been hard on you these past few years,” he started. “I mean, with mum and dad gone -”
I put my hand up to cut him off without looking up. “Riley, it’s fine. We’ve both done the best with what we had.”
He walked over to me and took the ice cream out of my hands. “It doesn’t make it any less easier to deal with.” I nodded, unable to work any words past the lump in my throat. We didn’t usually talk about our parents. It was a sensitive subject best left undisturbed. The fact that he was mentioning it now could only mean he was feeling guilty about not being around as often as he should.
Without warning, Riley pulled me toward him.
“I love you, Noah,” he said, kissing my forehead before wrapping me into his arms.
“Love you too,” I said, blinking fast against the sudden sting of unshed tears.
A burp interrupted our little moment and we both looked down to see Tank sitting at our feet, watching us expectantly.
“Jesus, he ate the whole lot,” he said, giving the dog an odd look.
“What did you expect? For him to save some for you?”
“But he’s so little,” my brother marvelled. “The bowl is almost bigger than he is.”
As a matter of fact, I think it was bigger. I stepped around the dog to grab a couple of spoons for the ice cream.
Without warning, Tank scuttled across the floor after me. I let out a yelp and jumped up onto the bench to avoid it. Riley laughed at me before stooping to pick the yapping dog up.
“It’s not going to bite you,” he said. “And even if it did, it’s not like it’d do all that much damage.”
He scratched it behind the ears smiling endearingly at it. I glared at him and his new best friend.
“Just keep it away from me, or we’re going to see how Tank compares to my foot bulldozing right over him.”
Riley chuckled some more, rubbing the top of my head with is free hand as he passed.
“You won’t even know it’s here.”

Reviews

[life*of*equiluxe]

Can I complain that it wasn't long enough? LOL. Your writing flows really well. I can tell Noah is going to have some fun with Tank in the next few weeks, cuz it's a sure thing that Riley won't be home that full time! I did notice a few references that stick out if this is set in the US, those being 'year level' (which we call 'grade') and 'singlet' (we call them a 'tank top' or 'cami'- the ones that are thinner and have the thin spaghetti straps, usually you layer them). Those just stuck out to me! Anyway, really interested to see how the interaction between Noah and Tyson develops!