A Thing for Star - Chapter 10
#10 of A Thing For Star
Chapter X: Neptune in Peril
That school day was fairly uneventful. It was pretty much a repeat of yesterday, but neither of us got any tardies, we didn't skip any class to use the restroom, no fire alarm, no kickballs in my face, and Star had brought his underwear. This time I stayed awake on the bus; both of us were doing our homework. We had just finished when the bus pulled up at our stop. When we got out, I saw that Neptune was waiting outside in the yard, tennis ball already in his mouth. He ran up to us, and dropped the ball at our feet with his tail wagging all over the place.
Star picked up the ball, and threw it all the way to the next mountain in the ranges, at least the length of the short side of a football stadium. I stared at the now distant blur so far away, with my mouth gaping open. "When did he get such an amazing throwing arm?" I asked myself.
"Come on, we can probably put our backpacks away before he gets back." Star said.
"Right..." I said, mostly to myself. I blindly followed Star to our house as I kept staring at the ball.
"I'd imagine you'd be playing with Neptune." Dad said as we entered.
"We will," Star reassured, "we just came in to put our backpacks away." We put our backpacks in the corner, and then went back outside. Neptune was coming back, but it looked like he was just over halfway there.
"Are you sure throwing it that far was a good idea?" I asked him. Star didn't reply. I turned towards him, and he was just staring at him. I could see he had a worried look in his eyes, and that killed my faint smile. I turned back, and now Neptune had started limping, determined to make it back. I crossed my fingers, hoping he was just playing. Then, Neptune suddenly fell to the ground. We both immediately ran to him, but then I turned around get Dad.
I ran back into the house screaming. I'm not sure if I was calling for help or just plain screaming, but nevertheless Dad could tell something was wrong. We ran outside, and then towards Neptune. The moment Dad could tell it was Neptune who was hurt and not Star, he took out his phone and called the vet. Luckily, there was room to have him examined, so we rushed to get him in the car. The vet was a good twenty minutes away, so he made us calm down so he could ask about it. "What happened to him?"
"I don't know!" Star exclaimed. "I just threw the ball to the other mountains so we'd have time to put away our backpacks!"
"Other mou-" he started, before his eyes widened. "Haven't you ever been to the other mountains?!?!" He had started yelling.
"N-no..." Star said innocently.
"The other mountain is extremely rocky!" Dad exclaimed. "They're sharp and slippery - it's practically a spike bed!"
"C-calm down Dad..." I quietly said, and I could hear my voice quivering.
"And right before the foot of the mountain is a 40-foot canyon!" Dad exclaimed. "He's lucky to even be alive!"
"I-I'm sorry...." Star said, obviously more afraid then I was. "I didn't know..." We were both silent the rest of the way there, scared he would yell again.
"You boys stay in here." Dad said when we finally got there. He had turned off the car, and so we had to wait in the freezing cold because the windows were open a crack. After a minute, we decided to hug for warmth. Somehow I ended up lying down on the rug, with him on top of me. But I barely felt any cold at all now, so I was satisfied.
"Do you think Neptune will be okay?" Star asked me.
"I'm sure he'll be fine." I said. I couldn't help but think it was a tad bit difficult to take him seriously, with his body pressed up against me, but I knew that that wasn't important. But my mind quickly wandered back to feeling our pressed together bodies, and then I had gotten hard from it. Not more than ten seconds later, I could feel he had gotten hard too, and our jeans were pressing against one another.
Both of us blushed, and tried to avoid talking about it. It wouldn't really be the most appropriate time, while our brand-new dog has just collapsed. But as before, trying to avoid it just increased the urge, and in no time we were kissing like crazy. Though somehow, we weren't completely driven insane from this, as we managed to keep our pants on. The urge quickly went away, but without blankets, we had to stay like that for a full three hours until Dad came back.
"Well, the vet said..." He started, but then saw us on top of each other.
"What?" I asked in a muffled voice. "We were cold."
"You left the heat off" Star said, confirming my statement.
After a minute of silence, Dad went on to say "...the vet said that Neptune will be fine. He only has one dislocated shoulder. But he ran some tests, and it looks like he has Arthritis. So only half an hour of playing with him a day." The car ride home was quiet. It may be because we weren't sure of how to react; maybe we were scared Dad would yell again. But by the time we were back at home, it was dark out, and we had to go to bed. That night, no one slept easy.