"Susie? What the hell..." This is interesting. Liz followed the guy to his car, unnoticed. She wondered if Susie was a person. Susie turned out to be a small, really weird-looking dog hanging out of the window of the guy's car, snorting like a pig when it wasn't barking. She tried not to laugh as the guy tried to figure out what to do to save "Susie." He finally decided to open the door on the passenger side, crawl into the car, and turn on the ignition so he could roll down the windows. By the time that operation was completed, Susie had stopped barking and was snorting steadily. The strange guy held her against his chest, petting the weird dog's head gently.
"Poor Susie!!! It's okay, it's okay. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have left you in the car alone with Tyke and Panda and Bear...." While the still unknown person mumbled words of comfort to Susie, Liz stood uncomfortably in the driveway. She stared at the guy holding snorting Susie again and started laughing against her will. He looked at her.
"Sorry.. I just, uh, I followed you when I heard, um, Susie barking, and she's just kind of funny." Susie snorted again and Liz suppressed more laughter. "Sorry...Um, should I tell Alyssa something for you? Or-" Susie snorted loudly and Liz broke into laughter. Susie's guardian didn't look amused. "Sorry... I'm really, really sorry."
"It's okay." Is she going to start screaming? BRIAN!! BRIAN I LOVE YOU!! BRIAN SIGN MY FOREHEAD!!!! Hopefully not. "No thanks, I'll just come back another day.. NO! Tyke! No! Come back!" Tyke had leapt out the still-open car door and was running full speed towards the house. Although he was larger than Susie, Tyke was still a very small dog, and Liz didn't notice his ratlike form scurrying along close to the ground, crawling up Alyssa's front steps and towards the front door, which was slightly open.
"What? What's going on?"
"The other dog got out!! I'm sorry. I'll get him.." Brian got out of the car, first shutting the other door and putting the windows up. Susie snorted, ultimately pissed at Brian for leaving her trapped after she had gone through so much in an effort to protect him. Brian followed Tyke up the steps and in the door, but by that time Tyke had gotten into the house, up the stairs, and was currently scuttling down the hallway. Brian didn't see him. The girl he didn't know followed him cautiously. "I swear he went inside. He always does this."
"It's okay. Um, he can't be too hard to find." Liz wasn't sure about that. She didn't see a little dog anywhere. "What's his name?"
"Tyke... TYKE! Come HERE!" he begged loudly. Somewhere upstairs, Tyke heard his master's voice but it didn't sink in and he kept plowing down a hallway gleefully.
"Have you been here before?" Liz asked. Maybe this person knew his way around this house. She certainly didn't.
"No, never." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a dog treat. "Maybe we can lure him back. TYKE! Treats!!!" Brian couldn't believe Tyke was being so misbehaved. He was usually easier to watch than Susie, with her superiority complex.
"Ah. I was just wondering, because I've only been here since last night and I don't know my way around.... Do you think he went upstairs?"
"Maybe. Umm.... Hey, look! There he is!" Tyke started running down the stairs and tumbled head over feet the last few steps. He saw Brian waiting for him and darted into the living room and underneath a couch. "Oh, God." Brian slapped his forehead. "I'm really sorry."
"It's fine." Liz again tried not to laugh as she and the owner of Tyke and Susie followed his dog. Brian saw Tyke's feet under a couch and sat on the floor beside it crossly.
"Tyke, you are being a BAD DOG. Come out right now!" Tyke ignored him. Brian looked at the couch and noticed there was something stuffed under the cushions. He poked at it interestedly. "What's that?"
"Some magazines," the girl answered.
"Hmm. Tyke? Tyke, stop it! Get out here!!!" Brian reached for Tyke's foot but Tyke, feeling vicious, snapped at his finger. "Bad dog!" He turned to the girl. "This could take a minute. Tyke's being hateful."
"It's fine." She shrugged. "What did you originally come for?"
"I was gonna ask Alyssa about something... Um, my band's new single has an ugly CD jacket and I was gonna ask her about changing it," he said, trying to be understated about the 'band' thing. So maybe 'group' was more accurate. They weren't at the point where they were playing their own instruments yet.
"Oh. That's cool." Liz nodded, wondering why she hadn't seen this guy's face in a magazine yet. "I was in a band...." she said absentmindedly. SHIT! Lizzy, you IDIOT! How could you do that?! Forget it, forget it, forget it... "Before I moved here."
"Really?" Brian was interested. "Tell more." He smiled.
"Basically, it was a really sucky angry punk garage band." Ah, fond memories. "So, um... What's your name?"
"Brian Littrell. TYKE!" he said threateningly. "Come ON, Tyke." Tyke didn't respond. "And you?"
"Lizza Avalon Hamilton. Or Liz. Um, whatever. I, I'm, um, kinda being a live-in babysitter for Alyssa's kids. She's my aunt." Brian thought for a moment then something clicked and he smiled.
"Your middle name isn't Avalon." The girl tensed.
"Like hell!"
"You don't have a middle name!" He laughed amiably.
"How'd you know that?" she asked uneasily. "Alyssa must have told you."
"No, actually I think I was sitting behind you on the plane yesterday. Sorry."
"Oh…" Now she understood. "That's cool. It's okay." How very interesting. I wonder how much he read….. She smiled. At that moment, Tyke darted out from under the couch and tried to run back towards the stairs but he tripped on something and skidded on his overly-long toenails, making himself an easy target for capture.
"Gotcha!" Brian picked Tyke up and stared into his overly large eyes. "Tyke, that was very, VERY bad. Never do that again! Do you understand me?" Tyke panted. "Okay, fine." He looked back at Liz, who had an amused smile on her face. "Sorry about that. Next time, the car windows stay up."
"It's okay." He apologizes altogether too much. "Nice meeting you." Liz, you sound like a naïve country girl. I wonder why.
"You too. Bye." Brian hurried back to his car, where Susie was anxiously pacing the front seat and snorting worriedly. Panda and Bear were placidly sitting side by side in the back seat.
"Hmm.. Brian. Brian Littrell…" Liz muttered as she dug the magazines out from under the couch cushion and looking through the first one she picked up. "Brian Littrell! I found you!" she exclaimed victoriously, pointing at a picture of the guy she had just seen holding two dogs, both of which she recognized. "And Snorting Susie! And Tyke. Tyke the Terrible! Hehehe….." She read the caption. "BSB!! He's one of them, too?! Ugh! I'll have to find out more about them someday. Maybe Emma will be able to tell me…" Eventually, Liz got tired of talking to herself and retired to "her" room, putting the magazines away where she hoped no one would find them.
~
"That girl was kinda weird, wasn't she?" Brian was partly talking to himself, partly to Susie, Tyke, Panda, and Bear. "She kept laughing at you." That was directed at Susie. "I guess you are kind of funny, though. You're always snorting." Susie snorted and Brian chuckled. "Oops, forgot to get dog food from AJ. That's okay, you guys can eat Tyke and Susie's food. They don't mind… Susie might, but she'll have to deal." (When human companionship is lacking, Brian talks to his dogs and Liz talks to herself.) He wondered how he was going to get all four dogs inside without another one of them escaping. He decided to take Panda and Bear inside, then come back for the other two . And then he'd probably sit around his house all night long, talking to the dogs or maybe he'd call Nick and talk to him. He could always clean up his house a little more, even though he'd done a lot of that yesterday. Brian suddenly wondered why anyone would wish their middle name was Avalon. Susie snorted quietly, interrupting his thoughts. Maybe he would just take the dogs inside then sit around his house all night, not talking to anyone, canine or human. No, he'd have to call Nick or something. Sitting still and doing nothing was too much like plane rides, and plane rides were horrible. Not always, but that last one had been really dull. Brian liked being able to stay busy, especially these days, what with his grandmother's health problems and all that stuff to think about when he was bored. He frowned as he pulled into his driveway. What was he going to do if Nick wasn't home? Call Howie. But Howie would probably be with his new girlfriend. Kevin was out of the country and AJ was busy, too. If Nick wasn't home he'd just have to talk to the dogs all night again.