Some days are destined for normalcy. You can feel it. You wake up, looking like you slept in a wind tunnel, and can taste the routine in the air. Someone up there challenges you: “Ha! Make something exciting out of that!”, and you know you’re about to experience a boring day. This was not one of those days.

I really did wake up with my hair like that and a big crease on my face, but I was just going out for my typical morning run so it didn’t phase me. Somehow I got my feet in my shoes and out the door without falling over, even though my equilibrium liquid was sloshing around and my baseball cap was hanging in my line of sight. I blasted some Billy Idol to get my blood pumpin’ and started down the route my worn out favorite running shoes had beaten many a day. I had just gotten to the neighbors’ front yard when I saw it. A dog. Looked like a collie of some type, black and white. It was pretty, looked like its fur might have been silky, but that wasn’t what caught my attention. I was used to seeing this particular dog. It had wandered up to the Jenkins’ a couple weeks ago, but today- something was off. It didn’t run and bark and act like a normal squirrel-obsessed pup. Nah, it stared at me. Really. I was kind of freaked out, I mean the dog was sort of checking me out. “I know I look bad, you don’t have to point it out.” I muttered, jogging past. I forgot about the weirdness in a minute as my legs returned to that familiar rhythm, now Blink throbbing in my ears. But as I made my loop almost 20 minutes later, that darn dog was still there. Not only that but it actually stood up and followed me with its head as I ran by. Odd, right? I mean do dogs do that? Look as if their searching for something? Whatever, I finished strong with only a slight burning in my calves, but I was winded and it was hot and I rested for a second on the door knob to catch my breath before going in.
“You didn’t, you know.”

I gasped and flung myself around, accidentally turning the handle as I turned myself. The cold, conditioned air fluttered out around my sweaty neck and would’ve felt wonderful, except I was a little preoccupied with the person standing less than ten yards in front of me. You see, it wasn’t that a 6 ft something handsome-as-all-get-out boy had just appeared at my front door. It wasn’t even that I acknowledged this and didn’t care a lick that I probably had pit stains the size of a small country. It was the fact that I knew that face- that half-arrogant expression lounging around his mouth. I knew it so well that I half expected to see a black and white tail fanning out behind him.
“So,” he said cocking his head to the side with a slightly wicked grin, “you’ve noticed.”