Puppy Love

Puppy Love

Brynn could hear the scratching of the little rat’s nails at the door before she could even get a chance to open it. Unfortunately for her, the new puppy her roommate decided to bring into their flat (without asking her of course) was not an actual rat so she couldn’t kick it across the floor like she would an actual rat. The wind sliced through her despite the wool coat she wore,the wintery London air much colder than usual for that time of year, and as she pushed the door open the small creature went flying across the linoleum floor.
“That’s what you get for standing too close to the door rat.” A small smirk formed on her face as she heard the tiny Chihuahua yelp, she dumping her bag and keys on their side table. Pumpernickle was his name but Brynn was content oncalling him ‘rat’ or ‘thing’. Why would anyone want such a runt of a dog and name it something so stupid? He was tiny with scruffy cinnamon colored hair and Lori always insisted on dressing him like a dog. When her and her roommate Lori first moved into the small flat after moving to England for, what both their mother’s expressed as ‘better education’, Lori had asked for a dog and Brynn had flat outrefused. They were starting graduate school and Brynn felt that a dog would complicate things. She also told her friend that the reason was because anything that went to the bathroom on the floor was not welcome and no amount of whining and pleading would change her mind. Though her reason wasn’t an entire lie, dogs really were yappy little things; it wasn’t why she didn’t want one. She hated dogs.No. She despised them.
Her hands suddenly flew to her mouth as childhood memories suddenly flooded her mind, she covering her top lip as if to hide something. She looked over to the dog but she wasn’t really looking at him. She was looking through him as she remembered just why she hated dogs. As a child she had always had dogs and quite enjoyed them as most children did but it only took oneday and one incident to change all that. Her mother told her to stop running up and down the stairs because it got the dog too excited but she never listened. Up and down. Up and down. The great, grand mastiff had its tongue hanging out of his mouth as he bounded behind the small girl. Giggles could be heard as she ran faster and faster, the dog barking in fun, thinking it was all for him. If onlyshe had listened to her mother. The dog, Brutus, took a step too far and got tangled under her legs, little Brynn letting out a shriek as she tried to reach for anything to break her fall. There was nothing there but fur, carpet and the hard knock of the stairs as she went tumbling down. She screamed over and over for Brutus to help her but she was young and didn’t realize that he was just a dog.By the time she made it to the bottom of the stairs it looked like a mini murder scene. She was crying, Brutus was barking and prancing around her (despite being such a large dog) and blood was everywhere. Through the tears and frantic screams of her mother she realized that her two front teeth had been knocked out. Unfortunately for her they weren’t her baby teeth but they were able to get somekind of replacement teeth. They were darker than the surrounding ones and much bigger but her mother told her they would have to do. Most of her school like she had been teased relentlessly and had even been honored with the name ‘BigBrownBucky.” That event changed her somehow. She was no longer a happy go lucky kind of girl. She became sullen and disliked practically everything. She was extremelyinsecure and not just about her teeth. Nothing ever pleased her and it didn’t change as she entered adulthood despite having her teeth fixed to look more normal. And for some reason she blamed dogs for all that. If only her dog had helped her instead of tripping her down the stairs. Every time she saw one she was reminded of her shameful teeth.
Her memory was suddenly cut short as the front...