Not Just a Pet - Chapter 8

**** Fast forward 3 weeks after we last heard from Julian and Keely. Two weeks ago Julian and Keely decided they would start dating, to see how it would go and it had been going well so far. They are yet to profess their love, not having even shared another kissed yet, but there have been some close calls and ‘heated’ moments. HAG day has just passed and we got to see their celebration (even though Julian forgot at first) and they are progressing on with their week. It must be noted though that Julian hasn’t told anyone about his current relationship with Keely, who thinks he has. ALSO Julian had to go to Mark’s court hearing where he was let off with a small mark on his record, much to Julian’s anger. He has been secretly worried ever since that he was going to try hurt Keely again. ****

Keely woke up suddenly after Julian stirred beneath her.
“Whatthehell...” she mumbled sleepily, sitting up. She glanced over t the clock on the bedside table. 3:15 am. She groaned groggily and tried to lay back down on Julian’s chest – a new arrangement she was far too happy about, he was so warm and smelled great and his skin was so….wet? She sat back up and wiped her hand on his chest.
Yep. Definitely wet. He was drenched with sweat. Keely pressed her hand against him and realized he was really hot and his heart was beating like crazy – this woke her up more as she began to panic, was having a heart attack?!?? She looked over to her face, eyes adjusting to the dark and she realized he had a very pained expression on his face and he was jolting his head around. She could even see is eyes darting about under his eyelids. She also realized he was mumbling something, including her name.
“is he having a nightmare?’ she wondered, trying to decipher what he was mumbling but it was to no avail, it was gibberish, except for her name.
He started move even more now, his hands twitching and his feet kicking. Keely realized it was probably wasn’t the safest to be sitting in the middle of his chest while he was having an intense nightmare. She got onto her hands and knees and crawled over to his shoulder and slid off, having to dodge his now thrashing head as he panted heavily. She frowned as she look at him from under his spare pillow. His eyebrows were furrowed deeply and his mouth was agape, eliciting murmurs between his puffing. Sweat beaded down his forehead and make his brown hair cling to his face. She wanted to cry herself when a whimper escaped is lips. She felt helpless, it was so sad to watch him like this, not being able to do anything.
Suddenly he sat bolt upright with a gasp, his eyes shooting open and chest heaving. He grabbed at his chest for something and when he realized there was nothing there his breathing hastened and he began searching all around him
“no…no no no NO NO!! KEELY WHERE ARE YOU?!” he cried out frantically. He leapt from the bed and quickly flicked the light on and jumped onto his hands and knees and began searching all over the bed, ripping the blankets and sheets off as tears began to well in his eyes
Keely was frozen at his outburst, when she realized he was looking for her she managed to squeak out
“I’m here!” from under the spare pillow that luckily he had not yet ripped off the bed. The light immediately flooded over her as the pillow lifted off her. When her eyes met Julian’s as he knelt over her she could see his face visibly relax and he let out the breath he was holding. Without asking he immediately, but gently, wrapped his sweaty hand around her and pulled her up to his cheek, damp with tears in a desperate hug.
“I had the scariest dream” he chocked out croakily as a few more tears fell down his cheeks. As he calmed down a little more Julian sat back against his pillows and let out a tired sigh. Keely hugged his cheek as best she could, even kissing it a couple times. His now 3am shadow prickled at her lips.
“Are you okay? What was the dream about?” she asked softly and tried to look up towards his eyes but it was hard when he was holding her so firmly
“It was about...” Julian paused and clenched his teeth, his voice changing to poison “Mark” he spat
Keely sighed, already having assumed that would have been the answer. She knew he had been fretting ever since Mark got off with just a warning, and of course she was mad too, but she just wanted that to end.
“Julian, it’s okay. We just need to move on from this, if we keep on edge he will have won” she said, rubbing her hand over his cheek. Julian pulled away from her touch and held her in front of his face
“why aren’t you as worried as I am? He got off Scot-free and could still be out to hurt you” he huffed but it turned more into a harrumph.
“Julian,” Keely smiled and reached out and held his thumb close to her “I’m not even the slightest bit scared”, this caused Julian to furrow his brows
“I’m sorry Keely but are you stupid? He could be planning to take you away from me, don’t you care?!” Julian was growing quite frustrated at Keely’s obvious zero care factor that someone could possibly be planning to kidnap her
“would you let him take me?”
“NO?! I WOULD BREAK HIS LEGS BEFORE HE COULD EVEN LAY EYES ON YOU!” Julian growled protectively, quite offended she would even ask that, and grew even more so when she still had that stupid smile on her face
“see, that’s why” she smiled affectionately up at him and kissed the top of his thumb “I’m not stupid, I just know there is no way you would let him near me, so I have nothing to fear”
Julian tried to keep a straight face but he broke out into a wide smile “true” he chuckled and leaned close to her, nuzzling her with his nose. They looked at each other as best they could without going completely cross-eyed, eyes drooping from sleep. As if on cue, they both yawned loudly
“How about we go back to sleep? I’m knackered” Keely rubbed her eyes while she stretched. Julian nodded in agreement and lay back down, placing her back on his now dry chest and they almost immediately slipped into sleep.
*the next morning, a Saturday*
“Keels?” Julian asked as he dried his face, wiping the water off his face after shaving it
“yeah?” came her voice from the human bathroom attachment that sat on his bathroom bench next to his sink. It was a really convenient thing to have but Julian couldn’t help but hate it for how completely difficult and expensive it was to get put in.
“I know you wanted to spend some time together today since I have been so late a work this past week but I need to run a few errands. I’m sorry, can I spend the day with you all of tomorrow instead?” he asked, now leaning against the bench with both hands. He felt really guilty he had to bail on her. Again. He never realized how many times he wasn’t home until he had her pouting face to answer to.
“What do you have to do?” Keely asked in a curious tone as she emerged from the room with her hair up in a towel and another one wrapped around her body. Julian gulped, suddenly forgetting how to speak as he greedily stared at her delicate frame.
“Uh…I need to…. Get some…..” he mumbled dumbly and Keely rolled her eyes and went back into her bathroom so he could form a coherent sentence, but also to hide the blush growing on her cheeks from his staring.
It worked a charm because he immediately snapped out of his trance and began to reply
“I need to get you some more things at the store, I need to buy stain remover because SOMEONE keeps spilling everything on my white couch, I have to pick some stuff up for work, I need to go INTO work to drop them off AND Jackson needs my help picking up kegs from some guy on Gumtree – he decided he wants to brew beer” Julian let out a huff. It was going to be a boring day.
“Why don’t I come with you?” Keely asked as she reappeared fully clothed. Her question made Julian’s breath hitch in his throat. She hadn’t asked him if she could go anywhere with him before and he couldn’t make up excuses any faster
“oh you’ll get bored!” “It’s just going to be a lot of driving” “there will be AOT of Astrothians around, it’s not safe”
as more and more excuses bubbled out of his mouth Keely grew more and more skeptical of his real motives. She folded her arms and stared silently up and him as he babbled. He quickly realized she knew something was up and stopped, letting out a deep sigh and reached down and scooped her up in his hands and brought her up to his face, averting his eyes
“I don’t want to burst this bubble” he sighed
“I like being in our own world here. Here, it’s me and you and we’re happy, I don’t want to add anyone to the mix to ruin it” he explained, which was true, but it wasn’t the whole reason. He couldn’t tell her the whole reason. It would break her heart if she knew.
“Julian, I’ve been cooped up here for a month, this bubble is getting old and smelly, it needs to be broken, I need to see your world” Keely smiled, having not picked up on Julian’s lie. Julian bit his lip as he tried to think, but after looking down at this adorable girl in his palm giving him the most saddest puppy dog eyes, he caved.
“Fine, you can come” he sighed and Keely just about leapt out of his palm. Julian grabbed his phone, wallet and a bag of tiny teddies and jumped into his car. The last time he had been in the car with her, he was bringing her home from Mark’s house…
“Where do I sit?” Keely asked, obviously not being bothered by this.
“Uh….here?” Julian thought out loud as he hovered his hand over the cup holder in the middle console
“okay!” Keely all too happily jumped in and made herself comfortable. Julian looked down at her frowning.
“What is it?” she asked, craning he neck to look at him
“nothing! Let’s skip the human store and stain remover, I can get those things on the way home from work another time, okay?” he asked. The shorter they were out, the better.
“Alright then…” Keely raised a questioning eyebrow at him but he pretended he didn’t notice and quickly busied himself with driving the car.
*skipping the boring car ride to after Julian picks up the stuff for work and is currently debating with Keely in the car park at his work*
“I will be really quiet! Please!!” Keely whined, hand pulling at Julian’s pant leg after having climbed out of the cup holder
“I said NO Keely, they won’t want me bringing you in here, I will literally be 10 minutes, just let me go” Julian groaned, head pressed against the headrest of his seat, growing frustrated after already having the same argument when he stopped to pick up the stuff
“Julian! PLEASE!! I want to see your work!! I won’t ask for anything else, please!” Keely pounded on his leg – doing absolutely nothing but still, he caved again
“ughhhhhhhh!!! FINE! But you have to sit in my pocket and you can’t make a sound, got it? I can get in a lot of trouble for this” Julian pinched the bridge of his nose a Keely squealed in response and immediately climbed up onto his leg and up his shirt, depositing herself into his pocket
“let’s go!” she yelled excitedly, her hand thrust forward like she was leading an army to battle. Julian couldn’t help but chuckle in amusement and her sheer eagerness to see what a boring advertising department looked like.
He took in a deep breath then got out of the car, grabbed the box of supplies then locked it and walked into the reception of the building where luckily no one hung out. He peered down at Keely who was peaking her head out of his pocket. He wanted to tell her to put her head back down, but he didn’t have the heart, it was adorable the way she awed over one empty room. He smiled and walked over into the elevator and pressed ‘level 6 – advertising’ and the doors closed and the elevator whirred to life.
“Whoa that gives me butterflies in my stomach!” she giggled, glancing up at Julian with child-like wonder in her eyes. He gave her a wide smile before saying “shhh…” as the doors opened again on the 6th floor.
He stepped out of the elevator into the quiet reception. His stomach dropped when he saw Gretchen at her desk.
“Shit” he mumbled under his breath, but the room was so quiet that she heard. She looked up, her crazy curly hair bobbing a she did so
“oh, Julian, hello!” she said in her painfully chirpy voice
“Hey Gretch” he mumbled, shifting the box he was holding in his arms – it was growing quite heavy
“is that for Mr. Johnson?” she asked, standing up and leaning over the tall desk to look at what he was holding
“Yeah, I was just going to put it in his office” Julian said as he shifted the box, but he bumped it up too high and it nudged Keely
“OOWWwww!” she yelped from his pocket and both Julian’s and Gretchen’s eyes went wide
“what was that?!” Gretchen panicked, but Julian was already speeding off down the hall.
“Keely!” he hissed down at her
“I’m sorry! That hurt!” she whispered back. Julian shook his head and sighed as he walked into Mr. Johnson’s office
“I said you have to be quiet, no one can know you’re here” he said as he looked up to see where to put the box and was shocked to find Mr. Johnson sitting there at his desk with three other people
“no one can know WHO is here, Julian?” he asked in a stern voice, all four people staring at him. As Julian fumbled over what to say, completely frozen, Mr. Johnson’s eye’s widened
“Is that a human?” he asked, then the three other’s eyes all drifted to the same place – Julian’s pocket. Julian followed their eyes to see Keely who had stupidly stuck her head out of the pocket. He felt bubbles rising up in his stomach and as he tried to swallow them, someone’s voice piped up
“uh….Hello” Keely’s small voice entered the room and Julian wanted to faint. This is why he wanted her to wait in the damn car.
“Uh, I’m sorry sir, she INSISTED on coming in with me, I didn’t realize you were here. I’ll drop this off and go… “Julian quickly bent down and put the box of the floor and began to turn around when Mr. Johnson’s voice halted him
“How perfect!” he clapped and the three others began to laugh. Julian slowly turned back around, not even trying to wipe the wince off his face.
“we were JUST discussing what we could do to cut budgets on some simple adverts we need done and Jaleena over here was just saying that she heard some companies are using humans as models instead of Astrothians, since they are free! I LOVED the idea, except…none of us know anyone with humans. We were called everyone and were just about to veto the idea, then BAM you waltz on in here with one in your damn pocket!” they all laughed heartily and Julian gulp hard. This was going from bad to worse.

“Well?! What do you think?” the man then stood up and walked over to Julian
“Uh…I don’t think so sir…you see, she’s very uh…camera shy and she… She….I’m gonna have to say no” Julian fumbled, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. He looked down at Keely who was looking at him angrily
“Julian! I AM not! That sounds amazing! I’ve always wanted to be on an advert! Yes!” Keely looked up to Mr. Johnson enthusiastically which plastered a wide smile on his face
“see! She’s perfect! An absolute beauty. What do you say Julian?”
Everyone, including Keely was now staring at Julian. He bit the inside of his cheek as he thought. It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, right? He looked down at Keely
“are you sure?” he asked her quietly, glaring his eyes at her trying to get her to ‘catch his drift’
“there will be a lot of people around, all Astrothians, can you handle that?”
“Julian, you should know by now that I love being the center of attention. Yes, I’m sure” she beamed up at him. Julian bit the inside of his lip before looking back up to Mr. Johnson and plastered on a smile
“Alright then” Julian said through clenched teeth and watched everyone’s faces light up
“Marvelous! Just wonderful! Bring her in to work with you starting Monday and we get this show on the road!” he laughed happily and the three others all began chatting amongst themselves about ideas.
“Well we better be going Mr. Johnson…” Julian looked glanced to the door and took a step back. Mr. Johnson was already too deep into conversation to say goodbye so he just raised his hand above his head and gave it a shake.
Julian quickly spun around, swung around the door and cantered down the hall, not even acknowledging Gretchen’s chirpy goodbye as he punched the ‘ground floor button of the elevator. Keely saw the glare in his eyes when he asked her if she was sure. She thought it was because he really wanted to be sure, but after seeing his jaw tighten after she spoke to Mr. Johnson (considering that was all she could see) and realized there might be something up. She KNEW there was something out when he basically out of the room, down the hall and was slamming the elevator button.
“Julian…” she said tentatively after the elevator doors closed “what is it?” she tried looking up at him from his pocket, but he was staring dead ahead at the elevator doors.
“…Julian?”
“I can’t believe you did that to me in there, Keely.” Julian said coarsely, his jaw tightening again and Keely could feel his muscles twitch in his chest.
“Did…did what?” she knew it was probably a bad idea to ask and she held her breath waiting for his response. She felt him take in a sharp breath and he opened his mouth to speak, but then the elevator stopped at the 5th floor and a guy pushing the mail cart walked in. he quickly shut his mouth again and leant against the back wall. The elevator was completely silent until the guy noticed Keely
“ooh hello there sweetheart! Aren’t you absolutely adorable?” The young man beamed, causing Keely to blush.
“Humans are the cutest, aren’t they? What’s her name?” the man then looked to Julian, awaiting a response.
Julian looked to the guy. His nametag said “Ryan”. He looked down at Keely who was bright red, then back to the guy who had a stupidly wide smile on his face. He saw him reaching to touch Keely.
“None of your business” he spat and crossed his arms over his chest – covering Keely, then he went back to looking to the elevator doors. They were just going past level 2.
“Julian!” Keely groaned from behind his arm, trying to push it off of her, but it was to no avail.
Ryan had not expected such a rude response, but he realized he had made Julian feel threatened – or so he thought.
“I’m sorry, I wasn’t making a pass at her, but I don’t think you need to smother her like that, she obviously doesn’t like it” Ryan gestured to her struggling “let her go”
Julian snapped his head to Ryan “I don’t CARE what you think, she’s MINE. Now can you mind your own damn business?” Julian growled and narrowed his eyes at the mail boy, who quickly nodded his head and looked down at the ground. Keely stopped struggling and Julian let out a huff – like a Gorilla would after having scared off a predator.
The doors opened on the ground floor and Julian stormed out, straight to the car, got in, slammed the door, pulled Keely out of his pocked and placed her in the cup holder then pressed his head against the steering wheel.
Keely opened her mouth to speak, but Julian beat her too it.
“I’m sorry” he sighed and even though Keely couldn’t see his face that well, she knew he had his eyes clenched shut.
“Its okay” she whispered softly, trying to sooth him, but he seemed to get more agitated
“It’s not Keely. It’s not right. This isn’t right. I can’t…” Julian sucked in a breath through his teeth in attempt to calm himself down “This is why I didn’t…why I don’t…oh my God just forget it. I can’t even have this conversation right now, we’re going home.” Julian quickly sat up, put his seatbelt on and turned on the car, leaving Keely utterly bewildered.
“What the hell are you talking about? What’s not right? What can’t you do? What, what, what?!” Keely puffed, frustrated and exasperated. She looked up to him for a response. He looked down at her and let out an impossible deep sigh
“you cant do that to me in front of all my work colleagues Keely. It’s different at home when its just us in our own world but out here you can’t do that to me, you are still a human and they would never understand us.I can’t explain this-“ he gestured between the both of them “I don’t want to….I will be a joke….” Julian couldn’t even bring himself to meet her heartbroken stare.
he opened his mouth to try give something of comfort to her but quickly closed it again when the passenger side door flew open. In a panic, Julian grabbed Keely and put her in the compartment of his driver’s door.