I met Alec right there in my parent’s veterinary clinic. I had been hanging around there after school for lack of anything better to do. Sometimes they let me help, which I really enjoyed since I seemed to have inherited my parents’ love for animals.

“Yes, can I help you?” the secretary sitting there at the front desk asked, glancing up at the group of six people that had come in. None of them had any animals, which kind of piqued my interest considering people usually went into an animal clinic for, y’know, their animals.

“We have an appointment to talk with Dr. Fowler,” the tall woman at the forefront of the group said, glancing all around. All of the people seemed to fbe at rapt attention to what she had to say, except for one guy at the back. He had obviously come in because he was a part of the group, but he really didn’t seem like he could care less about what was currently happening. He saw me watching, though, and I ducked back behind the magazine I had been reading, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible. He had a kind of presence to him that made you not want to mess with him, even when he didn’t even bother saying anything.

Of course that may have just been the fact that I was basically a wimp.

The woman pushed past the secretary after a while of talking, and four of her cronies went with her. That final guy, the one with the intense presence, stayed behind, actually listening to the secretary’s protest at so many people going in at once.

“Who are those people?” I asked of the secretary once she had properly gotten herself back together. Apparently, that tall woman was a force to be reckoned with. She just shook her head, though. Well, glad to see that the office secretary was on the ball with everyone who went in and out of the clinic.

“We’re animal rights activists,” the guy said, leaning against the door behind him. I rose my eyebrows, and he glanced over at me. “Well, they are. I like animals, too, but I’m kind of just along for the ride at this point.”

“Yeah, I could kind of tell that,” I said, remembering how bored he had looked just a minute ago while his friend had gone on a rant to the secretary. The guy looked me up and down, seeming to not be sure whether I posed some kind of threat or not. “Uh, I’m Connor. My parents run this clinic.” I stood up and held my hand out to shake, and he eyed that, too. What did he think I was, diseased?

Okay, so I spent a lot of time hanging around a veterinary clinic. It may have been a valid concern.

“…I’m Alec,” he said, finally shaking my hand. I rose my eyebrows.

“Like Alec Baldwin?” I asked. Alec just rolled his eyes, taking his hand away from mine and wiping it on his shirt like he really was afraid I had some kind of spreadable disease. Nice first impression there, buddy.

“There is very little Alec Baldwin involved in my life,” he said.

“And that’s what makes this so depressing,” I said. Alec actually stared at me at that before starting to laugh. It wasn’t huge or anything, and it didn’t involve even so much as a smirk. But it was nice to know he had a sense of humor, at least.

The doors to the examining rooms and other places in the clinic suddenly burst open, and the tall woman with the rest of her cronies came storming through. She gave Alec a stare that could rival Medusa’s, but he just shrugged and started following her. I glanced over to the hall to see that Dad, who had apparently been the one to talk to them, was leaning there near the doors, looking absolutely wiped.

“What happened?” I asked. Dad sighed, putting a hand to his forehead and looking over to me.

“They want to… I dunno, some kind of protest about a medicine we use here at the clinic,” he said. “I told them that it’s perfectly fine, but that tall woman just started ranting about animals getting hurt by it and…” My eyes went wide when I saw that Dad’s medical coat was soaked. “Don’t worry, it’s just water. But I have a feeling they’ll be back.”

I just looked out the window and watched as the tall woman flailed her arms around, probably talking about the injustices that had been served to her. We had seen plenty of animal rights activists over the years that Mom and Dad had run this clinic, but she seemed to be on the wrong side of special.

Oh, we were definitely going to have fun.

***

“Animals can have allergic reactions to medications just like humans,” my mother said patiently. The group, including Alec, had come back just under a week later. I had seen them sitting there outside the clinic in what seemed to be a classic sit-in protest, but people usually just stepped around them and went in before the woman could even catch their attention. Despite the fact that Alec had said he was just along for the ride, though, he seemed to be rather enjoying this.

Although the fact that he kept watching me whenever I went in or out the clinic was kind of unnerving.

“Yes, and do you force-feed peanuts to a child that’s allergic to them?” the woman demanded. My father was looking rather twitchy as he stood there beside my mother, more there for physical support in case it got more violent than throwing water on each other’s clothes.

“We don’t force-feed any medicine we have in this clinic to the animals that are brought in,” Mom said. I was amazed at just how patient she was being with this whole situation. Dad still looked like he was ready to blow up. “We take blood samples from a patient and determine whether it would be safe to give it to them or not. I understand your concern, but it’s rather misplaced.” The tall woman was looking incredibly irritated now, though I wasn’t sure at what. Probably the fact that Mom had said the same thing over and over again, although so had she. They had been talking in circles out here in the waiting room for what had to be ten minutes now.

The only reason they were even in here was that Dad had threatened to call the police if they kept loitering around. The woman seemed to be the leader of their group, and she wasn’t really one that was up for discussing anything when it didn’t involve someone completely agreeing with her.

“There have been documented cases of animals dying after given this supposedly harmless painkiller!” the woman said, her voice raising. Mom looked like she was ready for a proper rebuttal, but Dad finally decided to break in.

“Listen here,” he said, holding up a finger and pointing at the woman. “You all have been lurking around my practice for a week now, trying to scare away customers. I have no idea what, but you better find something better to do with your time or I am calling the police. Got it?” The woman didn’t look deterred at first, but when she saw that Mom wasn’t going to tell Dad to stop it, she got a fire in her eyes. She raised her fist up in what was clearly an attempt to punch Dad, and that was when I sprang into action.

I grabbed the woman’s arm, pulling her back as Mom and Dad backed away. Alec actually looked like he wanted to help me, until the woman reared around and punched me square in the jaw. My eyes went wide, and I staggered back against the wall, holding a hand to where the woman had punched me.

“We aren’t done here,” she said. With one last glance over at me (though if she was sorry for what she did, she didn’t let it be known) she led the way back outside.

I watched as Alec stared back at me. The woman called out to him, though, and he quickly ran after her, probably thinking that he would get the same treatment if he didn’t.

***

A few days after that incident, I had been left home alone by Mom and Dad while they went out to supper with some of their friends. They both usually stayed at the clinic until it was time to close at seven, but they had no appointments that day and had trusted the staff to close up when it was officially time to leave. I would’ve pointed out that you never know when there was going to be an emergency that they would have to be there for, but they both had cell phones and I knew they’d go in and see if they really were needed for something.

Besides, it was Friday night. The clinic wasn’t even open on Saturday. Even grown-ups, apparently, need to party. Not that it was a thought that really appealed to me. I was eighteen; I didn’t need a new brother or sister just because Dad was too drunk to put on the condom.

Shudder.

I was just thinking of getting up and getting something out of the fridge to nuke in the microwave when there came a knock at the door. I glanced over at it, raising my eyebrows. The door was locked, so I was kind of hoping that it wasn’t Mom and Dad, dropped off by their friends after eating and too drunk to remember that they both had a copy of the key for the house. Abandoning the thought of getting supper, I went towards the door.

“Uh, Alec?” I asked, the surprise clear in my voice. He was leaning there against one of the support poles for the porch, looking down the street instead of at me. He didn’t really seem to want to say anything, but he was obviously here to do something. And I was kind of hoping it wasn’t to hurt me again, because there were apparently no witnesses in the neighborhood right now. “Do you wanna come in?” Alec just stared at me for almost half a minute before nodding.

Apparently, even though I thought that the chances he wanted to hurt me like his friend did were high, I still was letting him into my house, where there was even less chance that someone would see us and be able to call the police if something happened. My survival instincts are apparently not working today. Sigh.

“Listen,” Alec started after I had closed the door behind him. I nodded, leaning against the wall beside the door and staring at him (almost) attentively. He rubbed the back of his neck, looking nervous about what he had planned to say. He glanced down at my jaw where he had hit me; the bruise was pretty much faded now, but it still seemed to make him wince. “…I wanted to say I sorry, okay? I know that Noreen isn’t going to do it, so I thought I should. Because apparently, after all these years she’s been fighting for animal rights, she’s lost a lot of her humanity.” I slightly nodded, eying him as he walked closer to me.

I wanted to say something like ‘You should be sorry!’, but for some reason, it wouldn’t come. “It’s okay,” I finally said, putting a hand up to my jaw. It didn’t even feel tender anymore, so the fact that I had yelled in pain was probably more from the shock than anything else. “You’re kind of… more reasonable than the rest of that group, anyway.” Alec shook his head.

“No, it’s not okay!” he said. He looked like he wanted to punch something, and my eyes went wide. Apparently my survival instincts were working today, because I quickly ducked out of the way when it looked like he was going to swing around and punch the wall. He didn’t really make it, though, instead uselessly flailing his arms in the air like some kind of rag doll. He sighed and put a hand to his forehead, glancing around like maybe he just noticed where he was. I glanced around as well, not really sure what he was looking for.

“What?” I asked, probably just as confused about all this as he seemed to be. He inched a little closer to me, and I pulled myself along the wall, not really feeling safe. In fact, I felt quite unsafe. He was beginning to seem suspiciously like a stalker to me, and whether or not my survival instincts were working, that definitely wasn’t good.

“Where are you parents?” Alec finally asked, glancing around the house again like he expected them to just appear out of nowhere. I just stared at him. I had no idea where that had come from, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. “I’m not gonna… make you bring them out here and insult them or whatever. I just wanna know. The clinic isn’t supposed to be closed yet but I saw them leaving early.” If I had been wondering what he was doing lurking around the animal clinic when he knew it was close to closing time, I didn’t bother asking.

“Uh, out to eat with some friends,” I said. Alec seemed to approve of that answer, and he stepped a little closer to me. I just stood there, frozen to my spot as he stared me in the eye, as if he had paralyzed me.

Alec forced me against the wall, and I yelped as pain shot straight through my spine. He seemed to take my open mouth as an invitation, though, because he leaned forward and kissed me, pushing his tongue in to curl around mine. I tried to push him off me, every single survival instinct in my brain telling me that this was a Bad Situation, but he was stronger than me by a long shot. I knew that I wasn’t going to get out of this.

Alec suddenly pulled back, though, staring into my eyes like he expected me to have something to say.

“What, no smart-ass protests?” he asked. He was still close enough for me to feel his breath on my lips, and I gulped once, twice, three times. I shook my head. Alec claimed my lips again, a little more gently this time, as he wrapped his arms around my waist. After what had happened, which as far as I was concerned, he could’ve at least tried to stop, I was willingly making-out with him. Nice to know my hormones listen to my brain. Not.

He carefully pushed his hands up under my shirt, running his fingers along my back and making me shiver. Alec suddenly pulled away again, though, and I found myself kind of regretting it when he pulled his hands out from under my shirt.

“I, uh, think you get by now that I’m sorry,” he said, turning towards my open bedroom door. I just nodded, feeling my body temperature go back to normal now that I knew he wasn’t going to try to grope me anymore. Alec looked more like a little boy after his first kiss with the pretty girl in class than a grown man, the way he averted his eyes and coughed embarrassedly. I smiled a little at the comparison until I realized that in that scenario, I was the pretty girl. God dammit.

Alec didn’t even say anything, just quietly slipped out the open door, closing it behind him. I sighed and leaned against the wall, putting a hand to my forehead. Maybe this was a bit more complicated than I thought it was.

The phone suddenly started ringing, though, and I brought my attention back to the present. I quickly picked up the phone sitting on the small table over in the living room.

“Hello?” I asked.

“Connor!” came my mother’s voice. I frowned. I knew that she and Dad had gone out with their friends after leaving the clinic, but she already sounded drunk. It was, what, six at night? Classy. “We’re, uh, we’re gonna stay at Tammy and Manny’s house for a while, okay? You’ve got lots to eat at home.” I just nodded, glancing out the window so see that Alec was making his slow way down the sidewalk and away from the house. He glanced back at me, but quickly averted his eyes and hightailed it when he saw me looking.

“Yeah,” I said, sitting down on the couch and leaning against the back of it. “Have fun, Mom.”

***

It was almost ten at night when I heard rocks hitting my window. I rose my eyebrows, pushing my laptop off of my lap and going over to see. Throwing rocks at someone’s window had gone out of style in seventh grade, or so I had thought.

“Alec?” I asked when I saw him standing down there, trying to hide in the shadows of the hedges, it seemed, so he wouldn’t be seen by someone going by out on the road. “What the hell are you doing here?” He didn’t say anything, just moved his arms in a pulling motion that I guess meant he wanted me to come down and meet him. Yeah, well, it wasn’t that great of a prospect as far as I was concerned, but I had a feeling he wouldn’t be leaving until I did.

“Why are you throwing stones at my window at ten o’clock at night?” I asked once I had gotten to the ground. I had experience with climbing out my window before; it really wasn’t all that hard to get to the ground, assuming I could keep a good grip of the drainage pipes that ran from the gutters. I had slipped once. It was kind of not fun to have to explain to Mom and Dad why I had to go to the hospital after that.

“Connor, your parents aren’t home, are they?” he asked. I rose my eyebrows but nodded.

“They went over to a friend’s house after the clinic shut down for the day,” I said. “There’s probably alcohol involved. Why? What do you need with my parents?” Alec glanced around, then he suddenly pulled me into the bushes and ducked down when he saw that there was someone coming our way. I actually squeaked in alarm, but he put a hand over my mouth before I could say any more.

“I think my… ‘friends’ know that your parents aren’t going to be around to stop them,” he said. I vaguely recognized the people that were going by; they had come into the clinic with Alec that day I met him. I had to resist the urge to bite his hand when he kept it there on my mouth as his friends went by. They were talking, but I couldn’t really hear what they were saying.

“You mean they’re actually going to break into the animal clinic?” I asked once Alec had taken his hand from my mouth. His friends had disappeared down the road now. Well, they had looked significantly more suspicious than they had when they were just visiting to try to get Dad to endorse their protest. “What do you expect me to do about it?” Alec glanced in the house.

“You have a master key, right?”

We had gotten to the clinic before them, apparently, somehow. I had no clue why I was doing this, considering the fact that Alec was one of them and could very well be using me.

The door was already unlocked, though, and we could hear that same group making their way down the road. For trying to sneak around and not get caught breaking into some place, they were awfully chatty. They fell silent as they got closer, though, and Alec quickly pulled me into the clinic and closed the door behind him. He wouldn’t even let me have a say in what we did; he just pulled me into the closest unlocked room, which happened to be one of the examination rooms.

Alec frowned as he pressed me up against the wall. I tried to move, but he hissed at me to stay still. That I could do.

His friends were here now, and they looked pissed. I was more than willing to stay there with him in the examining room now that I knew he had pulled me in here for something other than to sodomize me into submission. Alec didn’t seem to have that particular scenario far from his mind, though, because I could feel him pressing his groin up against mine as he made what seemed a really unnecessary attempt to hide from the window as his friends went by.

“What are they even doing here?” I asked. Alec just shook his head, finally seeming to realize that dry humping me wasn’t appropriate for the current situation. He pulled himself away from me, ducking down so that he could peek out the window without being easily seen from the other side.

“They said something about an animal’s right to choose what's put into their body,” he said. My eyes went wide, and he glanced back at me.

“Are all your friends this loony?” I asked. Alec rolled his eyes before going back to looking out the window.

“No, just them,” he said. “I like animal rights too, remember? I just don’t think that breaking into a clinic at ten o’clock at night to set the animals free is the best way to go about it.” My eyes went wide, and I made to push past him.

“Those animals belong to my parents’ customers!” I yelled, pushing Alec out of the way. He made an ‘ooph’ sound as he fell to the floor and out of my way. Before I could even unlock the door, though, Alec had gotten back up and tackled me to the floor, pinning me under him.

“They have a gun, Connor,” he said. “You know, boom-boom sticks? They catch anyone here that they don’t think belongs and they’re going to shoot.”

“But I do belong here!” I protested. I was about as good at getting him off me as the last time we were in a similar position. I didn’t even know why I was even trying at that point. “Well, maybe not right now, but you’re the one that brought me here in the first place! So why aren’t we doing anything?” Alec licked his lips, glancing out the window. He was tall enough so he could still see out it just fine even if he was sitting on me.

“I was going to call the police, but I wasn’t sure if they were actually going to do it,” he said. He fell silent as one of them came back around, probably having heard us and our poor excuse for a fight. Alec ducked down so that he wasn’t looking out the window anymore. He pressed himself down against me, which was actually a prime strategy to not be seen by someone looking in the window from the hall. That doesn’t mean he needed to seem so comfy.

“Would you get off me?” I asked, irritated. Alec looked down at me briefly before pulling away, sitting down on the floor at my feet. “Thank you. Now… are you sure they have guns?”

“And they have no idea how to use them,” Alec confirmed. “Well, obviously they know how to pull the trigger, but that’s about it. I doubt any of them even know how to aim.”

“Then wouldn’t it be fine to go after them?” I asked. Alec shook his head.

“If they tried to shoot one of us and missed, they could end up hitting one of the animals,” he said. I frowned. Of course that was true. And trying to save the animals but getting one of them shot kind of defeated the whole point, didn’t it?

The group made their third run-by of the room, and Alec and I ducked down just in case. They didn’t even seem to be paying attention to our room, though, and I began to wonder just what was up.

“Why are they running around so much?” I whispered. “The kennels are right in the back; they could’ve been done by now.” Alec furrowed his eyebrows a that, but then he seemed to realize something that I, apparently, was still missing.

“…I think they’re looking for a key,” he said. “Even they’re not stupid enough to break into a place without knowing where they’re going. But your parents probably locked up the kennel rooms, and none of them are exactly adept at picking locks.” I rose my eyebrows.

“So in other words, if you hadn’t made me come here and unlock the front door of the building so that we could get in, they might’ve just given up?” I asked. Alec just stared at me like he didn’t even think that was a possibility.

“No, if we hadn’t come here and unlocked the front door, they would’ve kicked it in and you’d have property damage on top of lost animals,” he said. I frowned. I really needed to convince my parents to get a security system for this place. The door to the animal kennels was a heavy metal, as opposed to the polished wood of the clinic’s front door, so they probably didn’t want to try to kick that one in for fear of getting hurt. At least it would buy me some time to actually convince Alec to let me do something.

I heard a door open and shut near us and so, apparently, had Alec. We both got up to look out the window so see that some of the people had headed into the staff room. Whoever had left it unlocked was going to have to answer to me in the morning.

Or not.

“Hey, come on,” I whispered, signaling for Alec to follow me. He didn’t really seem to trust that I had an idea that wouldn’t get us shot, but he didn’t stop me from unlocking the door and quietly going out into the hall. I glanced around to make sure that no other members of the group were there before using my awesome ninja skills to sneak the few feet down the hall between the examining room we had been hiding in and the staff room.

“What are you doing?” Alec hissed at me as I carefully opened the door. I only opened it enough to see inside; two of the five members of the group were in there, looking around. Probably for a key.

“We don’t keep keys in the staff room,” I whispered, carefully closing the door so that they wouldn’t hear me. I took the master key out of my pocket and locked the door. There weren’t even any sounds on the other side to indicate that they had heard us. I turned to Alec, sighing in relief that we had gotten away with it, but he was frozen stiff.

“Alec, what’s the matter?” I asked. I suddenly felt cold metal pressed against my neck, and I dared a look behind me. It was one of the other three members of the group, the tall, skinny red-headed woman that had berated Alec when she saw us together the other day. Now if only I could remember her name.

Of course, her name didn’t really matter considering the fact that she had a gun to my head.

Yeah, we should’ve called the police first.

“Nice work, Alec,” the woman said with a smile. My eyes flew over to Alec, but he was holding his hands up defensively.

“Hey, I didn’t want anything to do with this stupid scheme of yours!” he said. The woman smiled, lowering the gun so that she could poke me in the back with it. I jumped and started walking the way that she was indicating, which I knew would be the animal kennels.

“And yet you still did your part so well,” she said.

“I thought you said they sucked at aiming guns,” I muttered to Alec, wincing as she pressed the thing further into my spine.

“Well anyone can shoot at point-blank range,” Alec muttered back, glancing down at the gun.

“Stop muttering!” the woman barked at us, and I jumped in surprise when she rammed the gun into my spine. Even if she didn’t have any experience with guns, she still had enough strength to render me unconscious if she so chose. Not a very good scenario to think about. “Now give me that key so I can get to the animals.” I gulped and nodded, not even bothering to think of a way to protest against it. Alec was right; anyone can shoot someone else when the gun is aimed straight at their spine.

The woman actually smiled her thanks after I handed the key to her, and I gave Alec an alarmed look. He just shrugged as we reached the door to the kennel room. Apparently, he didn’t know why he associated with these people, either.

I was kind of getting tired of this bullshit. Alec seemed to understand that as well, because as the woman concentrated on getting the kennel room door unlocked, he slowly tried to make a get-away, reaching for the cell phone in his pocket.

“I don’t think,” the woman said, suddenly rearing around and pointing the gun right at Alec’s forehead. He gulped a little, letting his phone drop to the floor. He held his hands up like the woman was a police officer and had just told him to come out with his hands up, and I frowned at him. He gave me an alarmed look before backing up against the wall. This didn’t seem to pose an threat to the woman, because she smiled and put the gun down.

“Uh, Noreen, before you threaten someone with that again, I think there’s something you should know,” Alec said carefully. The now identified Noreen frowned at him, looking at the gun like she expected it to explode now that Alec had implied there was something wrong with it. “I think you still have the safety on.”

“Yeah, right,” Noreen said. She pointed the gun towards the ceiling, and I winced and covered my ears, expecting to hear it fire. It didn’t, though, and she just stared at it. I slowly uncovered my ears, staring at her. She was desperately trying to pull the trigger, but it wouldn’t go. Alec just smiled, removing himself from the wall and leaning down to pick up his cell phone now that he knew there wasn’t any risk of getting shot. He quickly pocketed it before taking the key out of Noreen’s hands.

“Aren’t you gonna take the gun?” I asked as he gave me the key and pushed Noreen forward. Even though she was taller than him, he was apparently stronger, and she just ended up giving in. We stopped in front of the staff room, and I unlocked the door so that we could shove her in.

“What, and get my fingerprints on it so they can say I was a part of this stupid scheme? Yeah right,” Alec said. I nodded in understanding and closed the door again, locking it just before Noreen started tugging at the doorknob. I would’ve felt sorry for her if not for the fact that, y’know, she had threatened me with a gun. That kind of dampers any sympathy I might have for someone. I’m sure you understand.

“Where are the other two?” I asked, glancing around and ignoring Noreen’s demands that we let her out. “I thought there were five in this little misadventure.” Alec nodded.

“I think they might’ve left,” he said. “Even if they had, Noreen will probably rat them out. We need to call the police before they do, though.” I rose my eyebrows as I reached for my own cell phone in its holster at my waist.

“They broke in with the intention of letting all the animals free; I’m not sure there’s much to worry about,” I said. Alec shrugged.

“You never know with them.”

***

“Mom, Dad!” I called, running up to my parents as they finally got in. They clearly didn’t look all there, which wasn’t helped by the fact that there were two squad cars here, courtesy of my calling the police as soon as we had made sure that the other two members of the group weren’t there. Because you know. If they had been, Alec and I would probably have to lock them in the staff room as well.

Alec was over by the door, hiding in the shadows and trying not to be seen, just like he had been when he had thrown the rock at my window to get my attention. Mom seemed to notice him, though it just seemed to serve to confuse her even more.

“What in the world happened here?” Dad asked, not seeming to notice Mom’s confusion over Alec lurking around. The police had already questioned the both of us since they got here before Mom and Dad did, so I didn’t know why Alec was even still around. He glanced my way and noticed that I was looking at him too, but unlike when he had made that ‘grand’ escape earlier that evening, he didn’t look away. “Connor? I’m extremely confused right now, and I’d like to be informed.” Wow. I didn’t know that Dad was capable of forming sentences that coherent when he was drunk off his ass.

Before I could answer, though, Alec walked over, and I saw that he had been getting out of the way of the police. They had gone inside the building after I gave them my master key, but they had been spending a lot more time in there than I thought was needed for getting into the staff room and pulling out a bunch of over-zealous animal rights activists who didn’t even know how to take the safety off a gun. The three police officers that had gone in each had a person. The two people that I had originally locked in the staff room didn’t even look my way, but Noreen glared at me.

“Oh, grow up,” Alec told her as they hauled the three over to the squad cars. Apparently their Miranda Rights had already been recited to them. Darn. I kind of was looking forward to being able to witness that.

“Drs. Fowler? We’d like to have a few words with you now that we’ve caught the people that broke in,” one of the policemen said, approaching us after he had properly gotten Noreen into the car. Mom and Dad nodded, and I couldn’t help but notice that they were staggering just a little. Oh, joy. Of course, the police had probably talked to people much more drunk than them, but they were usually on the perpetrator end of the deal. I wasn’t really sure I wanted to watch.

I glanced over at Alec, who looked like he was trying to figure out the easiest way to get away. Once he saw that I was looking at him, though, he coughed into his hand and turned to watch the police talk to my parents.

“I guess this is where I say thanks,” I said. I could hear the police telling Mom and Dad what Alec and I had said, right now about how the doors were all unlocked. Someone was going to be getting their ass handed to them on Monday, and for once, it wasn’t me. Oh yay. Alec shook his head.

“I feel kind of stupid, actually,” he said. “Noreen’s right; I did exactly what she wanted me to, even if I thought I was helping. If I hadn’t brought you in with me, there wouldn’t have been a key to use to actually get in.” He furrowed his eyebrows. “Actually, come to think of it, why was that door still locked when whoever had left last left everything else unlocked?”

“That room automatically locks,” I said. “The animals have gotten loose before and managed to work the doorknob, so Mom and Dad fixed it that way.” Alec just nodded in acknowledgement, staring down at me now. I felt a little nervous under that stare, but it seemed different from the one he’d been giving me the past couple weeks.

My mind flashed back to the kiss that evening just as Alec leaned down and did a repeat performance. It didn’t last long, though, probably because my parents were right there and he was afraid they’d wield their surgical tools and castrate him. He was smiling when he leaned back, though, which surprised me. It wasn’t bad, necessarily, but I didn’t remember seeing him smile once since we had met.

“I-uh, it’s late; I should probably get home,” Alec said. I glanced over to my parents, who were too engrossed in their conversation with the police officer to really care what either of us did. I had a feeling they’d notice if I was gone, though.

I just waved as Alec made his way down the road, looking back every now and then until he disappeared around the bend. I had a feeling I’d be seeing him again.

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I actually came up for the title of this before anything else, so I looked up Alec Baldwin. Turns out he’s done stuff for PETA in the past, hence why this entire thing is about animal rights activists. Uh, yeah. And holy crap, this is longer than my usual stuff. I hope everyone enjoyed it, at least? Until next we meet, everyone.