Susan's Story #61 - Lucky's Checkup

It's been over two months since her last entry, where I used to keep a pretty regular schedule until it just suddenly stopped. Back then I was on the verge of uploading this but it just didn't feel right. All it probably was that I ran out of steam and needed a break.

However Susan has returned now! I've been working on her steadily over the past month and I've built up a decent buffer of story scenes (that all only need some touching up) and 'extra'-styled scenes meant to pad out the upcoming time-skip scenes where we'll fast forward a bit. I probably have mentioned this before but I'm extremely excited to get through these scenes. >:D

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18th of April 2016 - (9 days after #60) 

The two lovebirds made their way inside of the mall, with Susan holding Lucky’s cage firmly. Nathan had offered several times during the journey to carry it for her, but she was adamant on holding him herself. 

At first, the kitten made a bit of a ruckus when they lured him in. Meowing loudly and backpedaling onto each side of the cage to try to get out of it. Much to their relief, he hushed down after the initial shock and simply observed the bus ride and the short walk inside the mall.

Susan by this point knew the mall inside out, or at least, the northern side of it. The hybrid vet and pet store she worked at was situated there as well as the fast food chain. She never bothered to venture outside of that, why would she when all she needed was around the same place? So totally ignoring everything else in the mall, they headed straight into the store. Nathan followed her into the backroom that also served as a waiting space in front of the examination room.

They were slightly ahead of their appointed schedule, so Susan knocked on the examination door and peeked inside. She saw Lauren just closing the door to the dog cage and taking a deep breath while the dog inside was barking. She looked over to the door and smiled.

“H-hey Susan.”

“Hi Lauren! I know we’re a bit early but I figured I’d pop in and let you know that we’ll be waiting here.”

“Okay, good to know. I’ll just-” The bell inside of the room ringed, signaling a customer just entered the store. “Gosh, can I ever get a break in here?!” The dog continued to bark.

Susan gave the cage containing Lucky to Nathan and entered the room. “Go ahead and attend to the customer, I’ll keep an eye on him.”

“Ah yes… that’d be perfect, thank you so much!” Lauren stepped back from the examination table, maneuvering through the small room past Susan. She gave a high-five to her before exiting and greeted Nathan. Leaving Susan alone with the misbehaving dog.

When Lauren was done tending to the customer, she headed back into the examination room. Lauren nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw the large Mastiff outside of the cage. Paused in her tracks, she asked; “....How did you do that Susan?”

“Hmm?” Susan said while petting the dog, who was happily panting. His small tail quickly moved side to side. “I just calmed him down a bit.”

“I know! He drops by every month and it’s a huge pain every time!” She carefully moved closer, expecting the dog to do a 180 at any moment. But he sat happily as Lauren carefully petted him. “What did you...”

“I dunno.” She shrugged. “I just… kinda felt that he needed a bit of love. Maybe having someone else made it less anxious for him. Uh. No offense of course.”

Lauren chuckled. “None taken, sweetheart. I’m just a-amazed that you did it. And really glad. Either way, can you… stay with me? In case he freaks out halfway through it.”

“Sure!”

“I still can’t believe you’ve managed to calm him down, make him happily sit down no less!” Lauren said to the two, now all sitting in the break room.

“A-ah please… It wasn’t just all me, m-maybe having someone else do it made it… helped or something.”

Nathan, who was sitting next to Susan, gave her a light shoulder bump. “Don’t undersell yourself! You can be proud for once.”

“Th-thanks.” Susan looked down at the table, unsure of how to take the compliment. Meanwhile Lauren was looking at the two with a big grin, basking in the cuteness on display.

“So when are you two getting married?” She said jokingly. Susan jumped up in her chair, causing it to screech across the floor. Her face started to turn red. 

“Ah… Lauren pl-please…” Susan took a deep sigh.

Nathan padded on her back. “She’s just having a bit of fun. I uhm.. can’t quite blame her though.”

Susan looked at him gnarly. “Yeah. Because you do it all the time too.” Nathan leaned out sideways, in fear of a punch coming in his direction.

“S-so yeah. That was a joke right?” Nathan asked to be doubly sure.

“Yeah in some way.” Lauren said, putting an elbow on the table and resting her chin on her knuckles. “Let me just channel my tendency to pry into relationships... I really do love seeing them blossom! Have you guys thought about the next step?”

Nathan looked over at Susan, who seemed to share his thoughts. “Not exactly. I mean, sure we are mostly waiting to finish our degrees. Which will still take me about another year-... and a bit longer for Susan, b-but that doesn’t matter. After that, I think getting an apartment for the two of us might be good.”

“Yeah.” Lauren nodded. “That sounds like a great plan. Get your jobs sorted out, make sure you two want to continue with one another- well, I have a feeling that that part is totally covered.” The smiles and brief glances of the lovebirds confirmed her assumption.

“We might just start looking around for a place soon. Sure it might be a bit early, but it will  help us to kinda… judge what to expect from it all. Right Susan?”

“Y-yeah. That might be good.”

“Hm. I hate to bring this up now...” Lauren turned to Susan, picking up on her reluctance. “But have you given it some thought?”

Susan scratched the back of Lucky’s neck, he purred loudly in the quiet room. “Yeah… a bit. It’s just like… hard to think of any alternatives.”

“Oh? Think about what?” Nathan asked.

“Ah yes, we’ve got to clue Nathan into this. So Susa-.. Wait, do you want me to tell him or do you want to do it yourself?”

Susan shook her head. 

“Susan was talking to me the other day about how she wasn’t really enjoying college.”

“Aaah. I see...” He looked over at Susan. “I did avoid the topic as much as possible to not… let it bug her as much.”

Susan’s shoulders slumped, Lucky picked up on her mood and started to lick her fingers. “S-sorry…”

“No-no don’t be. Your feelings are as important as anything else. So, what’s wrong?” Nathan leaned in to give her a kiss on the forehead.

“Okay, so I… I guess programming to me was like… the thing that called out to me the most back then, back in the first year. It was fun but… all the techniques, conventions… it just stresses me out way too much.”

Susan paused for a moment or two. “I don’t know if I want to continue like this… Dropping out seems like such a b-bad move and not being able to be with Nathan during classes...”

“Hey sssh…” Nathan embraced her. “Don’t let me hold you back from doing what you want. I’d feel horrible if you just stuck around college to just be with me.”

“This is where I suggested she really enjoyed working here.” Lauren started. “She could probably get an associate then take the test to be a Veterinarian Technician.” She looked over to the cages where the dog was sleeping quietly. “Plus.... it seems like she has quite a knack for it.”

Susan squirmed a bit. “I would have to give up my bachelors, but if I ignore my computer classes and spend all of next semester taking medical classes I can graduate with an AAS in Applied Sciences. There was a lot of overlap with the classes that I ended up choosing as my core classes anyway.”

Nathan wasn’t too sure but it seemed like Susan had put a lot more thought into it than she let on. “That is quite the shift… S-so she’d still work here?”

“Sort of, she would be working more with me and less in the store.” Lauren said. “I’ll admit it isn’t the best course you could probably take. But I can guarantee that I’ll teach you anything and everything you need to know if you decide to do this.”

Susan smiled. “Yeah, thank you Lauren. That means so much to me, I’ll give it some more thought before I decide. If that’s okay.”

“Yeah of course! It is a big decision after all, one that you still have a good while to think about.” Lauren smiled gently. “So… how about we finally take a look at Lucky here? He’s been waiting long enough!”