“Yes. That’s what I’m telling you,” I said. “Not unless you want me to squeeze her or get scratched the hell up. Look at her, she’s volatile.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she grumbled.
I narrowed my eyes. “If it’s so easy, you do it.”
“Fine.” Rolling her eyes, she huffed as she stood up to her full height. She proceeded to take her socks and sweats off quickly, leaving her body covered only in an oversized hoodie. It looked like she had no pants underneath but I suspected she had on those compression shorts she always wore. “If I get in this tub and hold the cat, I swear to God—”
She stepped one foot in and Lila hissed again. I smiled, not able to help the gloat I felt welling up in my chest. “Yeah? Be my guest.”
Never one to back down from a challenge, she continued on into the tub. As she began to crowd the area, Lila backed away, moving as far away from her as she possibly could.
“No tengas mieda, gatito,” she cooed under her breath. Hunching over and holding her hands out in front of her.
I smirked. "I’m pretty sure she’s even more scared with you hunched over like that.”
“Shh!” she hissed over her shoulder at the same time the cat did the same thing. I chuckled.Great, now I have two feral animals.
I watched quietly as Ceci creeped through the bath water with her arms out in front of her like she was catching a rabbit or something. Every step she took closer, Lila’s back hunched higher. I wanted to tell her it was a warning, but she was in a stubborn mood. It was best to let her figure it out on her own.
And that she did. Hard actually. After creeping so far, finally she made a move on our kitten, and what did the little thing do? She scattered. Scrambling past Cee to the other side of the tub so fast it tumbled Ceci off balance, sending her sliding to her ass in a splash of warm sudsy water.
Lila meowed.
Ceci yelped.
I lunged to catch her head from hitting the tile but pulled up short when she caught herself first.
Silence passed over us all for several moments.
Now that everyone was safe though, I couldn’t hold it. I doubled over in laughter. Laughing so hard that my own hand slipped into the tub causing my elbow to hit the tub floor, getting a whole half of my sleeve wet. This just made me laugh more. And even more still as I looked over at Ceci to see her staring at me in an annoyed huff. She was wet from the waist down, half her hair hanging limply as it dripped down her side. The other half still dry and fluffy, if not a little frizzy.
The color yellow never looked so much like fire as it did in her eyes. She glared, but the longer she looked at me, the more her mask began to crack, until finally she was chuckling too as she pushed half-wet hair out of her face. “Connor, come on. It’s like two in the morning. Let’s just get this done.”
Still laughing, I gestured at the form huddled on the other side of the tub. “Get your cat then.”
“Ourcat,” she corrected as she flipped over to her hands and knees and began crawling through the water slowly, she crept toward the cat. Her attention focused as she made every move deliberate and careful. And I don’t know what came over me but my arm moved on its own and before I knew it, I was pushing her sweatshirt clad butt and sending her barreling chest first into the water. “Connor Ferguson, you…”
She was laughing though, her words cutting off as she spit soapy water out of her mouth. “You… fucking… asshole!”
I couldn’t take offense; I was too busy holding my stomach as it ached with continuous laughing gasps. I could hardly breathe. “You’re doing great, Cee.Really.”
“It’s so late you’re delusional, pinche chiquillo.”
“It’s so late your Spanish is slipping out,bajita,” I said, dipping a hand in the water and splashing some into her face.
Ceci recoiled, and Lila did something so,socute. She turned her face up at me and let out an angry meow. Then she gingerly picked her way toward her sopping wet mother, sitting directly in front of her before meowing protectively my way again.
We basically raced to look at each other, our eyes like magnets as we both broke out into huge, dumb grins. As if we were sharing the last brain cell in the room, we simultaneously cooed, “Awwwww!”
Then we laughed again.
“Okay,” I said sobering and for some reason whispering. “Pick her up now.”
No smartass remark resulted from unnecessary instructions. Ceci just did it, wrapping her hands around the middle of the cat and letting her little cat arms flop over the front of them. Lila cocked her head back to look at Ceci and let out a shrill meow, begging Cee to stop the torture.
Ceci's face wiggled in a mix of what I could only describe as‘cuteness overload’. Pushing her hands and Lila forward, she held her out to me. “Okay, do it.”
“It” was lathering a generous handful of cat shampoo in my hands and then proceeding to get scratched mercilessly by kitten claws as I enacted the crime of simply washing her. Every movement of my hands was rewarded with another swipe of her claws. She was just trying to get away, still each one got a hiss out of me. Those claws were fucking sharp.
