Free Lingering Touch - A Story of Young Love by Anna Howard

fish are boring and turtles stink." He answered, reading over my shoulder.
    "No pets at all? Do you even like animals?" I asked, looking up from my iPod.
    "Not really," he answered, not looking up. He bit his lip again.
    I put the iPod down. "Then I know what we're going to do. We're getting you a pet. Let's go." I put the car in drive and pulled back onto the road, looking around for a pet shop. There was a Petco a little ways behind us, perfect.
    "I don't want a stupid pet," he grumbled and sat back, crossing his arms stubbornly. As if I cared. I drove over to the open pet shop and parked right in front of the door. He groaned and I have to drag him out of the car and into the store. A large woman with curly, bright orange hair greeted us with a bright smile at the door. We said hi as we walked past her, well I did anyway. Trevor dragged his feet and sighed loudly, causing the friendly woman to frown.
    "Trevor, can you at least pretend like you want to be here?" I ask, exasperated.
    He scoffed and shook his hair out, running his fingers through it roughly. We headed over to the puppy section, where tons of tiny furry puppies lie sleeping peacefully. One overly eager dog pressed his wet nose against the glass, making it foggy. He yipped and ran in a circle, and then licked the fog off the glass and stared at Trevor with huge eyes.
    He looked like one of those dogs you see on movies in Alaska or something, with pointy ears and piercing blue eyes, kind of like Trevor's. A lot like Trevor's, actually.
    "Aw! Trevor did you see this one? Look at him! He loves you already!" I pressed my hands on the glass, and the puppy stared at them, his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth when he turned his head.
    "Yeah, whatever." He said, but he was walking up to the glass, too. He looked at the dog for a minute, and then he smiled . He totally loved it!
    "Er, it's cool I guess, but can we just go now?" Suddenly he turned away from the puppy and pulled out his phone like he was going to text somebody.
    "Seriously? You know you want this dog, I know you want this dog."
    "No, I don't, okay? I don't want a stupid pet. I told you that."
    He bit his lip and looked back at the puppy.
    Well I wasn't having it. I walked away without a word to find an employee to help me get out this adorable puppy. The big, friendly woman at the door happily lead me back to the puppy and disappeared behind a door on the side of the glass cages. She reappeared on the other side and opened the back of the cage. The puppy stood up and looked at her excitedly, his tail wagging. When she picked him up, he yipped at her and licked her face, I heard her laugh and lift him up. Oops, her .
    The woman walked out carrying the excited puppy. It tried to jump out of her arms at Trevor, who was totally beaming at the dog. He reached his arms out for the puppy, and held her to his chest, rubbing his face in her fur. He laughed as the dog licked his face and tried to climb onto his head.
    "Perfect! We're getting it," I smiled and clapped my hands. Trevor looked up at me with an unreadable expression. He wasn't smiling anymore. He glanced at the woman looking frantically between the two of us, and then he walked a few feet away and looked expectantly at me.
    I shot an apologetic look at the woman and followed him.
    " What is your problem? I know you want this dog, it's freaking obvious. So we're getting it, that's all there is to it." I crossed my arms and tapped my foot.
    "No, Ariana," I ignored the weird fluttering in my stomach when he said my name. "I can't get it. I can't-" he glanced at the orange-haired lady rearranging cans of things on a shelf. "I can't afford it." He sighed and looked down, petting the dog absently.
    Of course, that was why he didn't even want to come, because he knew he wouldn't be able to get a pet if we found one. But of course he was going to get one.
    I stared at him, willing him to continue. He just looked at the floor and kept petting the