Someone else paid for the medical bill?

Why?

Who would do such a thing?

As soon as I signed the piece of paper to confirm that I accepted the random, generous payment, the lady took it over to a filing cabinet and put the document away into a brown folder labelled 'Willow Anderson - Missing Kitten.'

So she was missing..!

I had way too many questions to ask.

"So she is a missing kitten? Do you possibly know of the owner?" I asked and leant forward with both my hands on the counter.

"The kitten you brought back is from a lady who lives about five minutes from where you found it. The lady is a breeder and that kitten just so happens to be on of the ones she's giving away."

My mouth dropped wide open. "Please can I have her phone number? Or some sort of way to contact her?" I desperately hoped that she had some sort of way that I could find or get ahold of the women.

The lady frowned. "Unfortunately I cannot give out any private confidential information."

"You really can't give me any sort of contact with the lady? I only want what's best for the kitten." I said with a pleading look. The women stared at me for a couple of seconds, a thinking look on her face. I watched as she looked around for any staff before she leaned forward and lowered her voice to a whisper.

"Fine, alright." She said and I smiled widely. She grabbed a pen and a sticky note and started writing down on it. She passed it to me and pressed her finger to her lips. I nodded and thanked her kindly.

Soon after, a women took me to a little closed off room to where all kittens were. I couldn't help but smile as soon as the door opened. She was in a small baby pink cage and she looked like she was asleep. Her beautiful orange fur looked shiny and healthy. She was still small and still didn't have much fur on her paws since she took it off herself, but I was glad she was healthier and in much safer hands.

I squeezed the yellow sticky note tightly in my hand, almost coaxing a reassuring squeeze, and quickly slipped it into the back pocket of my jeans.

"She's asleep at the moment but I think it's best if you maybe say hello to her. She might remember you." A lady said and I looked down at her name tag.

"Thanks, Crystal." I said. She nodded and left the room. There were some other cats and kittens in the room, all in their own cages. Some were asleep and some were peering down at me. I slowly bent down to the level of the cage with the kitten I was after and saw how she was on her side, her front paws spread about and a pink cast was wrapped around her back leg.

I wondered how long she had been in pain for. Was she still in pain now or would it of eased?

I quietly took out my phone from my back pocket and snapped a few pictures of the kitten. I sent them to Betty and my other friends and then I quickly pressed onto Theo's contact.

I didn't know what drew me to do it, but I did.

Theo must've had some sort of part to play in all of this. That was the only explanation possible. He was the only guy that had known about the kitten I took here and the only guy to know how much I was willing to sacrifice for her.

But then again, thinking about it now, why would he do such a thing? I didn't know him well enough, he didn't know me well enough, we both didn't know a great deal with about on another. Why would he spend hundreds of dollars on a kitten he didn't even seem to care about?

Would it of been a stranger that overheard the conversation when I first came in? But really, who would actually do that?

I bit my nail as I stared down at the old messages between Theo and I...and goodness did they make me cringe.

I wanted to test the rivers a bit. See if my suspicions were correct.

*sent an image*

Hi. Just a question, but

do you have any kind

of part to play in this?

He didn't reply instantly and I almost turned off my phone, but when my phone lit up with a message from him a minute later, I couldn't help but want to check it out.

I don't know. Did I?

..Did you then?

I don't know.

I'm taking that as a

yes. Thanks.

I honestly mean it. I don't

know how to repay you.

This is, I don't know how to

explain it. But this means

so much to me.

It's cool.

It's cool? It's cool? He just paid three hundred dollars for the medical bill and said 'it's cool.'

Did he really not care? I practically poured my heart and soul out into that message for him to say it was cool.

Okay man of many words.

Okay. Well, thanks anyway.

Bye then :)

I put my phone away back in my pocket and the kitten in front of me stirred awake. "Hello little one." I said softly. The kitten meowed and stretched out its ligaments.

Then it meowed again.

"Aw. Aren't you a cute little kitten, huh?" I said and the kitten tried to bite through the bar of the cage door so I made sure to quickly unhinged it. The kitten slid out immediately and I giggled.

I didn't want to touch her in case she didn't want to be, but seeing her trod slowly over to me and climb on my lap, I knew it was okay.

I very carefully stroked my hand along down her back and she pushed herself more into my hand.

Her fur was super soft and her whiskers were slightly ticking the palm of my hand. Her nose was a cute baby pink colour and her stomach had some sort of brown splotch on it. I never realised that before — I had been too caught up on helping her to even notice.

"Zoe." I said, thinking to myself. "That name suits you."

Even though she wasn't mine, I wanted to imagine it. I wanted to imagine it for a little while.

But then that thought suddenly reminded me. Reminded me of the sticky note in my pocket. I grabbed my phone out again and also took out the note too. The receptionist had written down the ladies number and her address.

Slowly, I pressed the numbers on the keyboard and stared down at the ring button. One part of me said I could just never call and leave it be. I found her after all. But then the other, positive, better side of me knew that would be all kinds of wrong. She wasn't my pet, she belonged someone already and I had no right in pretending that Zoe was mine and not someone else's.

I took in a deep breath and slammed my finger down on the call button, and instantly bringing my phone up to my ear.

It rang. It rang and rang and rang. What if she didn't pick up? Would that be a sign?

It rang and rang again. It was got to be some sort of sign telling me something.

I was ready to end the call when suddenly the repetitive sound of the dialling came to an abrupt stop, a joyous, bubbly voice on the other end.

"Hello?"

I swallowed and continued to stroke the kitten in my lap. She looked happy. "Hi." I said nervously. What a great way to start a conversation with a random stranger who's pet was casually laying in my lap.

"Who is this?" They lady asked curiously and I heard a door shut.

"Hi, sorry. T-This is Willow Anderson. You haven't met me before but I just wanted to let you know that I found one of your kittens a couple days ago. I took her to the vets and she has been staying here for a few days and she's all better now. She does have a fractured leg but it seems to be healing. But I promise you, she's in total safe hands." I said frantically as I rocked softly back and fourth and chewing continuously down on my fingernail.

As soon as the women processed my words, she gasped.

"I-Thank you so much, dear! Oh my goodness! I've been looking for her for ages. Where was she, sorry?" The women sounded extremely happy and I watched as Zoe curled her paws around my finger.

She wasn't your pet, Willow.

Don't be selfish.

You were doing the right thing.

"The vets told me that she was five minutes away from your house. I was on a run when I found her so I didn't really know where I was, sorry." I told her and heard the lady hum attentively in response.

"Thank you, Willow. Do you possibly have my address? If not, I'm happy to meet you somewhere or something." She asked and I stared down at the note with the messy scribbled writing on.

"I have your address."

"Great. If you would like to come to my house, we can sort out some way I can repay you. You've done such a kind thing. Thank you, dear."

I smiled sadly down at Zoe.

I wasn't going to keep Zoe.

I took a breath in and closed my eyes. "Sure...and no worries. I'll see you soon." I said and the women bided me a goodbye.

I hung up and shoved my phone and the note away into my pocket.

"Let's go, Zoe. You're going home." It was as if she could understand me because her mouth dropped into a light frown. I slowly picked her up and put her back into the cage. I closed the gate and picked it up, taking it out into the main reception.

As I was about to walk out of the place, the lady receptionist smiled down at the kitten, a genuine happy glint in her eye.

I smiled back and walked out into the parking lot, over to my beat up car. That thing was a pile of shit.

As best as I could, I slid the cage into the passenger seat and pulled the seatbelt over it. Just in case, okay? I was a paranoid fuck.

I walked around the car to the drivers seat and started up the car. I made it back onto the main road eventually, and every so often I'd check on Zoe to make sure she was doing alright.

Which she was. She definitely looked a lot better.

After some time I pulled up to the house and the front door immediately opened. It was a small women with black hair. She looked about forty odd.

I unstrapped my belt and the belt that was across the cage and took the cage out with me.

"Oh my goodness. Look at her!" The lady said as she took the cage carefully from my hands. Zoe's nose brushed against her finger before looking up at me. The lady looked up also. "Please, do come in." She said and I slowly accepted. I walked behind her and into her house. It was a small white house. There were some other houses on the street but none of them had as much flowers and shrubbery as she did in her yard.

As I stepped in, I was welcomed in by the warm smell of honey. She had a massive guarded off part over in the living room where some other new born kittens were in. They were drinking from the water bowls and were also eating.

Shit.

I totally forgot to check if Zoe had eaten! I was sure the vets had fed her, would've been strange if they hadn't.

The lady slowly put the cage down onto the oak floor in the living room and swung open the cage door. She sat herself down and gestured for me to do the same.

"How has she been? Poor thing."

I shrugged and laughed slightly when Zoe was finding her balance. "She's been fine. She's a lot better from when I found her which is good."

The lady sighed. "That's great. I'm Teresa, by the way. I forgot to mention that." She said with a slight laugh.

"It's nice to meet you. You've really got a beautiful home by the way." I said and took another look around the room we were in — which was the living room. From where we sat, there was a big fireplace in front. The kittens were out to the side where they had a small cat flap leading out to the yard which I could only image that they also had some sort of boarder for them to roam around in without getting hurt and lost.

There were also fairy lights surrounding the pillars and it reminded me of Christmas. Though we never spent Christmas in California. It was always somewhere with the weather that was somewhat cold.

"Ah, thank you. I try and make this play as warm as possible. Especially for them." She pointed to the kittens. They were all different colours. One had ginger fur, like Zoe. Another had black fur, grey fur, white fur. They all looked cute and I straight away knew who the Mother and Father were. The two big cats hopped over the little boarder and stroller around the kittens.

I looked down at Zoe. Surely this was what she wanted. To be back with her family and siblings.

"How long ago were the kittens born?" I asked curiously and Teresa looked back at me with a warm smile.

"Just a couple weeks." She said and stroked Zoe's head. "I didn't realise this one had gotten away until a couple hours during the storm."

I frowned. Zoe must've been so scared.

Zoe took one look at the ladies hand on her back, which she must've thought was mine, and quickly stumbled over to me to crawl onto my lap.

Teresa chuckled. "She's taken a liking to you. A very big one at that." She said and looked back up at me making me wonder what she could be wanting to say or what her intentions were. "Which reminds me. I can see a strong bond between you both and I would anyway let someone else adopt her, but I was wondering, why don't you take her?"

My mouth dropped wide opened and I stared at her in shock. She was asking me to keep Zoe.

"As in, keep her for myself?" I asked breathlessly and the women nodded excitedly.

I nibbled down on my lip as I was in deep thought. "I would love to but the only problem is that I don't have any mon-"

"No money. You can have her for free. See her as a gift. A gift because of your kindness. I don't know how else to repay you and I feel as though I won't be able to separate you both."

I felt so happy but also so sad.

What if Zoe would be happier with her real family and not with me? Would my Mom even be okay with me having a kitten in the house? I knew it took a lot of responsibility and I did have school and work.

But fuck it.

That was a problem for later.

"Thank you so much." I stuttered. I didn't know what else to say.

Teresa immediately beamed at me and stood up. She dusted off her Mom jeans and scurried off somewhere. I waited on the floor, still with Zoe on my lap, and waited till Teresa came back.

When she did, I didn't expect her to have her hands full with stuff.

She had a small cat bed, a bag which I could only imagine had cat food inside, toys and any other essentials for a new born kitten. I left a final stroke on Zoe's head before slowly putting her down on the floor.

I stood up, feeling as if it was weird that I was the only one sitting down. "What's this for?" Was all I could ask. Why was she being so generous?

"These are for you. Instead of you having to buy new stuff, you should take these."

"Oh- I- okay thank you." I said in shock.

A few minutes ago I didn't own a kitten. A few minutes ago I didn't expect to have been given the opportunity to look after Zoe. But now, I had a kitten of my own and everything I needed. I was in some random ladies house dealing dodgy deals to do with kittens. It almost felt illegal though I knew it wasn't. She bred cats and let other people adopt them.

That was a normal thing to do.

I was just thankful I got Zoe for free.

I must've spent a good hour or two speaking and getting to know Teresa. She had told me stories of her and the kittens she had owned in the past and I must say, it was interesting to say the least. We ended up having a honey tea and a donut. It was nice to be hanging out with someone who wasn't my age. As weird as that sounded, it just felt refreshing.

"See you around some time, I'm sure." Teresa called as she waved me off from her front porch. I closed the passenger door after putting Zoe inside and turned back around, waving at Teresa. "Thank you!" I shouted back to her.

"It's absolutely fine. If you have any questions or problems, don't be shy to come to me, okay?" She asked and I nodded my head. I wanted to say thank you again even though I had already said it.

I was so relieved.

I was happy Zoe was mine and all the worrying could stop.

But realistically, I knew it was a distraction from the other parts of my life. The parts that were dark and sensitive. The parts that I didn't like talking or thinking about.

But I didn't care. I just wanted to live in the parts of now. Enjoy these moments of having a pet. Having something to look after. I had never really had control over something in the sense of having a big responsibility. But now that changed and I couldn't be happier.

Driving home with soft sounds of the radio playing in the back and the purring of Zoe as she snuggled into the blanket in the cage, I found myself smiling.

I just hope my Mom wasn't going to disapprove.

A/N: