Chapter 7
"Hey girls, what are you doing?" I asked as I passed Laura and Rachel.
"We just finished cooking, we were going out for a little walk, do you want to come?"
"Yeah, I guess so. I could use a little girl time," I laughed.
"Yeah, to get Will out of your head," said Laura.
"Not at all," I replied immediately.
"Yes, it is. Wait, I have to go see Liam first. Someone has to watch the oven, and he owes me a lot of favors."
Rachel and I watched as she left for the boys' room, then came back five minutes later with the young man.
"Go ahead, I'll watch everything," he said. "Have a good time."
"Thank you," Laura kissed him.
Then we went out into the cool morning air. As we talked, we went deeper and deeper into the forest, exploring its dark corners.
"How long have you and Liam been dating?" I asked Laura.
"Well, it's pretty recent, since we got to know each other here. But, I don't know, I feel like I've always known him," she answered, blushing. "And you and Will, what exactly is going on?"
"What? But nothing at all," I denied.
"Oh yes, he's different with you," Rachel added. "Different in a good way, of course."
"Uh... what do you mean?"
"More settled, happier, I'd say."
"But we're arguing all the time," I retorted.
"That's what you see. We see something quite different," said Laura.
"There was a moment last night, but that's it and it doesn't mean anything," I admitted.
"Deny it all you want, but we see everything," said Rachel.
"And what happened last night especially?" added her best friend.
"Let's just say he gave himself up to me."
"Wow, that's a huge step for Will," said the tall brunette. "It usually takes him a long time to open up."
"Yeah, with us, it took a long time, two months I think," said the blonde Venetian.
"But I still don't know anything about him, really. What's his story exactly?"
"But it's because you're very interested in him. Anyway, all we know is that he knew before anyone else what was going on with the government. Don't ask me how, I don't know," Laura told me, seeing me open my mouth to speak. "He saw a lot of people he knew die or get involved so he came here to take refuge. I think this house belongs to his grandparents. Then he started making rounds to find survivors and one day he found us. We had taken refuge a little bit further and luckily for us, he found us, we were at our lowest point."
"Wow, I... I had no idea about this. I'm sorry, girls."
"You don't have to be sorry, you've been through much worse and anyway... "
Rachel was interrupted by a loud noise from deep in the forest. We turned as one man, or should I say as one woman. We jumped when we heard another cracking branch. Although it was the last thing to do, I approached the sounds.
"Chloe, what are you doing?" Laura whispered.
"I'm going to see what it is," I replied, whispering back.
"You're crazy," she said.
I moved closer, my heart pounding against my chest. Suddenly, someone threw himself on me. I let out the biggest scream of my life as I fell backwards. When I finally opened my eyelids, I couldn't believe my eyes. The person who had fallen on me was none other than an adorable little white dog. A white Swiss shepherd to be exact.
"It's nothing girls, it's just a dog," I shouted to them as they ran towards me.
"Don't ever do that to us again, you scared the hell out of us," said Rachel.
"Poor guy, he must have been abandoned during the war," said Laura.
"Yes. Let's bring him home," I said with conviction.
"Excellent idea," said the blonde girl.
" I'm not sure the boys would be happy to have a dog," said the tall, dark-haired girl.
"Let me convince them," I said. "Shall we go back?"
They nodded and we set off. The dog followed us like a shadow, as if he was happy to have finally found some company. I picked up a piece of wood and threw it far in front of me. He went to pick it up and handed it to me, proud to be able to play with it. After a few more rounds, we finally arrived at the house.
"Hey," Rachel said when she saw the boys on the porch. "Look what we found."
"Oh, he's so cute," Liam exclaimed when he saw the dog. "What's his name?"
"Uh, we haven't found a name yet," I replied.
"And that's good, because he won't be staying here," Will replied, coming closer.
"What? Why?" I replied.
"Because we have to take care of him and we don't have time."
"Of course we do, between trainings, or he can run with us."
"Oh that would be great," Rachel said.
"It's out of the question. He could expose us," said Will.
"We'll be careful with him, Will. He'll only come out of the house with one of us, if you want, but give him a chance. I think it would be good for all of us to have a dog. And as the saying goes, 'A dog is a man's best friend'."
As Will remained silent, I added:
"Come on, please Will?"
"Okay, but there's no way I'm going to take care of him," said Will, who went to lock himself in the house.
"What's wrong with him?" I asked the others.
"He used to have a dog," Max explained. "He lost it when he was ten or eleven, I think."
"Oh, I didn't know," I said.
"Don't worry, we don't either," Laura said, referring to her and Rachel. "Maybe it will make him feel better, remind him of the good times he had with his dog."
"Maybe it will. But for now, we'll have to find a name for him," Liam said.
"We can call him Snow, right? Something to do with his mane.
"It's a coat," Laura corrected her, "but I like the idea. What about you?"
We all agreed to call him that. Then we took turns playing with Snow, getting to know him and getting to know him.
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