"Brace yourself, Gracie." Fraser spoke with a grin.

I looked at him in confusion. "What do you mean by that?"

He chose not to reply this time. Instead, he just opened up the white door of the small shelter.

For one whole second, I just stood there, not sure what was happening, until I started hearing small faint barks. And then almost out of nowhere, several small puppies came out of the small shelter.

Right at me.

Which kind of took me off guard. I stumbled back a little, trying to steady myself. But when two of those small puppies literally pounced on me, I lost my footing and fell down.

I heard Fraser's laugh from somewhere around the overwhelming crowd of puppies near me. "I told you to brace yourself." He said before picking one up from my lap.

I was about to frown when one small puppy, a blue eyed husky, barked excitedly and licked the side of my face.

"Geez, calm down." I laughed, trying to pull away. But the other puppies were literally all around me.

"They all like you." Fraser laughed again before sitting down in front of me. Thankfully, some of them left and ran towards him. "Especially that one." He pointed at the blue eyed husky who was still trying to lick my face.

Dog drool was never one of the nicest things.

But that puppy was so adorable that I couldn't have pushed it away. Instead, I picked the small pup in my hands as it barked.

"This is an amazing way for passing the time." I said.

"What? You want to go somewhere else?" He narrowed his eyes. "Who will take care of these babies?"

I laughed at that. "God, Fraser. You're just as weird as Alice."

"No wonder you enjoy my company." He smirked.

I rolled my eyes at that. I hadn't known where he had been planning to take me once he'd convinced me to tag along with him after school. I hadn't known he'd bring me here.

No way in hell had I thought that there would be these many cute puppies here.

"Do you come here more often?" I asked him. I never expected Fraser to be the dog type.

"Yeah." He nodded. I looked down and realized that another small puppy, a black one, was busy chewing onto my hoodie. "I thought you'd like this."

"I do like them." I replied, gently pulling off the black pup from my hoodie. The husky pup barked loudly, nudging my knee with its snout.

Sometimes, pups were way better than real people.

"I'm glad to know that." Fraser commented. "Even though I know how difficult it's going to be once you'll have to leave."

"What do you mean?" The blue eyed pup was really, really trying to get my attention. And that was the cutest thing ever.

Fraser placed his hands on either side of him and leaned back, eyeing me. "He likes you." He jerked his head towards the husky. "He rarely likes people."

"So what?" I stroked it's soft white fur.

"He's either going to stick around you for the rest of your life. Or–" Fraser grinned at me. "–he's going to lose his shit."

•••••

Fraser had been right.

The blue eyed husky, whose name was actually Frost, wasn't planning on letting go of me at all. Even if I placed him down and stood up, he made sure to yap around my feet until I had to pick him up again.

"I told you, Gracie." Fraser picked up the other puppies, placing them inside the shelter once it was about to get dark. "He gets whipped for blondes easily."

I glared at Fraser while Frost just barked.

"What am I supposed to do now?" I asked him, looking down at the adorable small pup. Frost looked back at me with his light blue eyes.

God, he was giving me the puppy eyes.

"You do nothing." Fraser turned towards me once he was done with the other pups. "All I can do is–" He took Frost from my hands. "–place him back."

Frost barked loudly, trying to wriggle out from Fraser's hands, almost as if Fraser was some sort of danger to him.

"Calm down, boy. She's not whipped for you yet." He laughed.

"Fraser." I glared at him.

"What?" He looked at me, then laughed. "He's going to sulk around all night if I don't tell him that."

I looked back at Frost. I really wished I could keep him, but I wasn't sure I'd even get to take care of him. I barely took care of my own self.

I was never good with pets.

Fraser carefully placed him back in the shelter. When he was done, he closed back the white door. I stepped back as well and sighed.

Fraser came beside me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders—something that still surprised me even if he went around doing that a lot.

"Come on, Gracie. Don't be sad." He smiled. "I can bring you back here tomorrow if you want."

I gave him a small grateful smile at that. Even getting attached to a dog was stupid. But at that moment, I was looking forward to come here tomorrow to see Frost again.

Sadly, I hadn't known that tomorrow wasn't going to be the same. I hadn't known anything.

Not until Fraser and I reached back home.

"You know, I can finally say your company isn't that bad." I murmured as I got out of his car. He got out too, grinning as he walked me to my house. Thankfully, Alice wasn't anywhere in sight.

"I'm beyond honored to hear that." He replied. "Even if I never expected to hear it from you, Gracie."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Or maybe, it wasn't you. Maybe it was the company of those puppies."

His eyes widened in a fake hurtful look. "Ouch?"

I rolled my eyes at that before stopping at my front door and turning towards him. "But like, I'd give you credits for today. First time when I didn't want to punch you."

He smirked, looking at me. "I'm getting better."

Sudden exhaustion came out of nowhere, nagging at my insides. I could still see Frost's blue eyes in the back of my head. But I felt tired too.

"All right then. Thanks for today." I genuinely meant it. "Thanks for all you're doing, Fraser."

I meant that too because that was the truth. He acted normal around me, not like everybody else. And the mere fact that he was being this nice, for the unknown reason I still had to figure out, that made me feel happy.

"No problem, Gracie." The smile still didn't leave his face. Even when he leaned closer towards me. "I like spending time with you."

And it totally took me off guard when he leaned down and placed a soft kiss on my cheek. Then he backed away –passing me one last of his grins– and left.

I exhaled a staggering breath and turned around, my cheeks heating up involuntarily.

Alice's voice rang in my ears almost immediately, my hand fumbling with the keys to open the front door. Somehow, I managed to open it.

But before I could've gotten inside, I heard soft footsteps right behind me. Out of instinct, I turned around abruptly, my breath stopping midway in my lungs.

Oh Lord.

_______________________________________________________________________

Make sure to click the ★ below ↓ if you liked this chapter.

Xoxo,

Crystal 🌿