rissy stories

I was watching her sit at the top of the stairs, anxiously wringing her hands, and tapping her foot against one of the carpeted steps. Her tanned skin and blue eyes were tinted red with mascara running down her face. She was involuntarily taking in slight gasps of air because she had been sobbing only seconds ago. Her dark hair was messy due to running her hands through it and grabbing ahold of the roots with helplessness too many times. Now she had a cold stare down the stairwell, probably forcing herself to mask the anxiety and stress that she must be feeling. I thought that it was strange how almost completely silent she could be while chaos brewed in the kitchen beneath her.

The eruption of noise woke me up a few minutes ago. I had fallen asleep at the foot of Leah’s bed. I remember raising my head off of the floor and looking out into the pitch-black hallway to discover the source of commotion. In spite of the darkness, because my vision is perfect, I found myself staring at Leah’s back as she sat on top of the steps. I could immediately sense that something was wrong because her shoulders were hunched over, like something was weighing her down. What was wrong? Why was everyone screaming downstairs? I decided to push myself off of the floor to investigate.

I moseyed my way over and snuck up behind her, pressing my long nose to the back of her arm. She jumped slightly, gasped, and snapped her head around to face me,

“Geez, Alex, don’t scare me like that!” she cried, but in a whisper. She was still trying to be quiet for some reason. My ears flattened against my head as an apology. We spoke completely different languages, so I couldn’t understand a word she said to me, but I could tell from the tone in her voice that I had done something that she didn’t like.

Despite this, she instinctively moved over so that I could sit next to her. I happily took my spot beside her and noticed how we’re the same height while sitting. That’s when I finally took a good look at her. She looked sad, like someone had smacked her nose hard with a newspaper. I hated it when mom and dad did that. But I’ve never seen that happen to Leah, so why did she look like that? It breaks my heart that I don’t understand.

She stared back down the stairwell, looking even more morbid as the screaming and yelling continued downstairs. My ears extended upward and my head tilted to the side as I strained myself to try and understand their language. This fighting occurred way too often in our house. I could recognize the voices of mom and dad, but I could never fully comprehend what they were screaming about. This was frustrating as hell, especially because I could see how hurtful this was to Leah, based on her frightened reactions. However, it was even more frustrating to know that there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it. The only thing that I have ever been good for is a distraction.

I turned my head back to my friend who now had tears silently sliding down her cheeks. I wished I could lick them away forever. I automatically pressed my nose against her warm arm to regain her attention. She flinched away because of how cold my nose was, but then she reached one of her sweat-covered hands over to pet my fluffy head. I shut my eyes, loving the feel of her human touch.

This was short-lived though, and she lowered her hand once again as the violence downstairs escalated. We were both cringing from the sound of objects being thrown, but I continued to engage Leah by licking her. Her crying was now audible as she wrapped an arm around me, gripped my dark fur, and held me tightly. She held onto me as though her life depended on it, which made me realize that I needed to find a better way to distract her from the fighting.

An idea emerged, as I broke free from her vice-like grip and rushed down the stairs as quickly as I could. I heard Leah gasp sadly from my sudden fleeing. I fought the urge to bark to her that I was just going to get my leash, because she wouldn’t understand me anyway. I turned to the right as I reached the bottom of the stairs and headed into the bright kitchen, but then I came to a sudden halt. The air felt thick and shattered items were scattered across the floor. I looked up to see the culprits with my tail between my legs: mom and dad.

I heard Leah’s name mentioned several times, but I couldn’t decipher anything else that was being screamed. Mom was sitting at the table with her head in her hands. She looked drained, as though she’d just taken an hour-long walk in the blistering heat of summer. Meanwhile, dad was parading around the kitchen, knocking things over and yelling about…well, something.

I headed towards the sliding glass door, picked my leash up and off of the ground with my teeth, and then turned to face the two of them again. Neither one of them glanced my way, so I flattened my ears against my head again, and barked as loud as I could in a last attempt to interrupt/end their fight, for Leah’s sake. Mom didn’t move while dad looked my way with a bright-red face and clenched fists. He started to scream at me, but I felt so confused. I couldn’t follow any of it. What was he screaming at me for? What did I do?

He pointed towards the hallway that I had entered the kitchen from. My ears shot right back up as I realized that he was telling me to leave. So I fled right back out of the kitchen, knowing that a distraction was not the solution to whatever problem they were having.

I rushed back up the stairs and dropped my leash into Leah’s lap. She stared down at it, taking it into her hands as I panted and drooled onto my paws. This was exhausting. I blinked at her, really hoping that she could make the connection. I saw conflicting thoughts running through her mind just by her facial expressions. I let out a bark and finally, she looked back up at me and nodded once. She wrapped the leash collar around my neck and we both stood up.

We rushed down the stairs and Leah ripped the front door open as soon as we reached it. Humid, summer air hit us like a Frisbee thrown too hard, but this didn’t stop us. I took the first steps outside, into the darkness of the night, hoping that Leah would quickly follow. She took one last look inside, and then slammed the door shut behind her. I sprinted with my best friend into the peaceful darkness together.