The annoying glare of the sunlight greeted Grape as she awoke the next morning. She quickly rose out of bed and approached the door to find a note taped to it:
“Dear Grape,
Dad and I are a work today, so I expect you to keep things clean and neat while we’re gone.
Peanut should be still asleep when you’re reading this. If he wakes up, please help him with whatever he needs help with and treat him nicely.
Love Mom.”
Grape quickly pulled the note off the door and crumpled it into a ball before throwing it into the trash. She sighed and began to approach the stairs, but stopped to glance at Peanut’s room. Slowly, she peeked her head inside to see Peanut fast asleep, making a faint, somewhat relieved smile. He looked rather peaceful in his sleep; one would never suspect what happened to him. the dog turned his back towards Grape and made a yawn.
Grape sat down at the table and poured a glass of orange juice she grabbed from the refrigerator. She didn’t feel like eating this morning, and it was clearly obvious why. “If I didn’t go with Max to that movie…” Grape thought. She sighed and rubbed her eyes. How was she supposed to know that Peanut was going to be raped?
It wasn’t long before Grape heard the sound of footsteps slowing walking down the stairs. She watched as Peanut entered the kitchen, and suddenly felt depressed. Peanut looked like hell. His ears were drooped completely. His eyes were vacant and blank. His posture slumped over. He stood in the kitchen for a few moments before returning back upstairs. Grape felt as if her heart was bound by barbed wire, her eyes welled with tears.
As the weeks passed, Peanut began to fall deeper and deeper into a large depression.
Eventually, he began to move around and talk. He even began acting like his usual self. But if one would look into his eyes, they would see that he was simply trying to hide how he truly felt under a emotional mask.
Despite the “positive attitude”, Peanut rarely ate or slept. If someone touched him, he would flinch and tense up. At night he would get horrible nightmares and end up getting terribly sick, and vomited constantly. Eventually, he decided to avoid sleeping to get rid of the nightmares. Now, if this was a person, on would probably say that such acts were exaggerated or ridiculous. But Peanut was no person. He was a dog. A simple, weak, pathetic dog, and what happened to him ended up leaving him, “broken”.
Grape stood against the fence outside her house and sighed. She knew that if Peanut continued to act this way, he would surely die. She looked over to see Peanut leaving the house. His fur was matted and worn. His body was so thin that his ribs stuck out. There were dark bags under his eyes, which were darting all over the place. Peanut did this every time he left the house. If the hound saw any vans on the street, he would run back into the house for the rest of the day.
As Grape watched Peanut look cautiously around the street, she couldn’t help but feel a great sadness as she saw her friend’s pathetic appearance.
Once Peanut saw that there were no vans in the street, he ran quickly over to the clubhouse where the other dogs hung out. Grape sighed and rubbed her eyes a Max walked up next to her.
“Hey Grape.”
“Hey Max.”
They kissed.
Max didn’t even try to avoid what was on Grape’s mind. “How’s Peanut?”
Grape sighed and flattened her ears. “I don’t know, Maxie. He’s keeps getting worse and worse. I saw him today and…” Wiped her eyes. “I kept thinking that if I didn’t go see that movie, that he’d be okay. That none of this wouldn’t have happened.”
Max smiled and brought Grape close to him. “Hey, he’ll be okay, you’ll see. You can’t change the past, but you can be there for him and change his future.”
Grape raised and eyebrow, a smile forming on her face. “Did you go for Chinese last night?”
Max grinned. “Yep. Fortune cookies are pretty convenient.”
They both laughed and kissed momentarily before they heard a large scream come from the clubhouse. Grape immediately recognized it as Peanut, and ran for the clubhouse, dragging Max along with.
When Grape and Max entered the clubhouse. They saw Peanut curled up into a ball on the floor, sobbing, as Bino stood over him. A crowd of dogs surrounded the two of them. “Ha! C’mon, get up you loser!” He grabbed a piece of paper from a nearby podium, crumpled it up, and threw it at the whimpering figure. Peanut let out a small cry and curled up tighter. Grape flew through the crowd and stood between Peanut and Bino, letting out a large hiss.
“Hey, you can’t come here. No cat’s allowed.
“I DON’T CARE! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!”
“I was simply yelling at Peanut for disrespecting our club’s rules and he freaked out on me.”
Fox sighed. “More like you yelled and shook him.”
Bino looked over to see King and Fox standing in the crowd. There was a look of scorn on Fox’s face.
Bino growled. “Who invited you homos here? I thought I kicked you both out of the club.
Fox cracked his knuckles. “No you didn’t. I kicked your ass and left.” He approached Bino. “And I won’t mind doing it again.”
Bino shoved Fox away. “Back off, Fag! This is between me and Peanut.
Grape grabbed Bino by his collar. “DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT HE’S BEEN THROUGH?!
“Yep. I heard my dad talk about it to Fido and the other police dogs. And frankly, I think Peanut needs to get over it.”
Grape punched him in the muzzle.
Bino got up and scowled, wiping a bit of blood from the corner of his mouth. “Get out of here, and take ‘Sergeant Homo’ and his butt buddy with you.”
Grape helped Peanut up as Max approached Bino. “I’m telling dad.” He said. He left along with King, Fox, and the others.
The five of the walked down the street. Peanut was shivering and his eyes were shut tightly as Grape did her best to comfort him.
“I’m sorry…I’m sorry.”
“No Peanut, it’s not your fault, Bino-“
“B-but it is…It all is…”
“Peanut…”
