From writing prompts: "Exhausted" & "Sitting by the pond at my farm on a sunny day"

Jessie trotted slowly up from the edge of the pond to where Larry was sitting, a paperback resting on one of his legs. She’d looked over towards him a few times during her swim and the book hadn’t moved in quite a while, neither had Larry’s head, which was now pointing up at the bright sun.

She shook her hair around and sprayed her friend’s face with droplets of cool water. He barely moved. His eyes opened slowly and he spoke without looking at her.

“How long have I been out?”

“I’d say about the length of the pond, times two,” Jessie answered. “You look exhausted.”

“I’ve felt exhausted this whole month!” Larry said “March hasn’t been an easy one.”

“It’s April.”

“What?” Larry asked.

“I said it’s April,” Jessie repeated. “Today is April 2^nd.”

“Shit, seriously, how long have I been passed out here?”

Jessie plopped down and sprawled out on the blanket. She rolled from side to side a couple times, letting the roughness of the blanket scratch her back. Finally finding a comfortable spot, she lied on her side facing Larry’s chair.

“Are you still having a tough time with this break up thing?” she asked her roommate.

“Of course I am, Jessie!” Larry snapped. “You know I am!”

“I thought we came up to the farm so we could relax?” Jessie asked.

“I came up here so I could try to relax, but I would have left you at the apartment if I could have, trust me. This is all your fault!”

Jessie turned her head sideways, inquisitively.

“What did I do?” she asked, flashing her best puppy dog eyes.

“What did you do…?” It came out more as a sigh than a question.

Larry laid his head back again and stared up at the sky. The sun was starting to lower, dropping down to where it would eventually appear to submerge itself far out in the center of the pond. He’d seen this happen hundreds of times in his life. He could see it in his sleep. This view, these moments - It was probably the main reason he never sold the farm after both his parents had gone. Whenever he’d been going through a tough time in his life or needed to ponder a difficult decision, it would be to the farm he would head. The same wooden chair would always be waiting for him by the shore of the pond, weathered and welcoming.

“She might have been the one, Jessie,” Larry said. “And you messed it up for me.”

“She wasn’t the one,” Jessie told him.

“You don’t know that!”

“She wasn’t the one.”

“We’d been together for three months,” Larry argued. “I really got to know her. I don’t think it would have freaked her out.”

“She wasn’t the one.”

Larry stood up quickly from the chair, causing it to rock briefly on its back legs before settling back into the indentations in the dirt that had been formed over years.  He wheeled on Jessie and shouted down at her.

“Well, you didn’t give her a chance to even find out!”

“Sorry, Larry, but she wasn’t the one.”

“You’ve never liked any of my girlfriends.”

“That’s not true,” Jessie said. “I like Lauren.”

“That’s only because she made special meals for you every day!”

“And I really liked her for that.”

“And I really liked this one for lots of reasons,” Larry said, exhaustion thick in his voice. “You said you would speak to her.”

Jessie rose up onto all fours and walked over to Larry.

“No, you asked me to speak to her,” she said. “I never said I would. I didn’t think she was the one for you.”

He walked away from her and sat back down in the chair.

“Well, you don’t have to worry about that now. When I told her that you would speak to her and then you stood in front of her, refusing to say a word, she told me I was nuts and that she never wanted to see me again.”

“See…she wasn’t the one,” Jessie said again. She moved over to Larry and rested her head on his knee. “It has to be the right one.”

“Okay…okay. Fine,” Larry said, exasperated. “It looks like it’s just you and me again for awhile, girl.”

He patted Jessie on the head and watched her tail sway from side to side. Then he picked up her favorite ball, tossed it toward the pond, and chased after her, as she chased after it.