A/N: I’m not going to lie, I’m pretty proud of this one, let me know what you think! I wrote this during algebra class. As I’ve said before, inspiration comes randomly! Lol

The rain was pouring as Karam slammed his front door shut. He could hear his mother and younger sister yelling at him to come back. But he wouldn’t listen. He had had enough.

It started out as well as it could’ve gone, moving from Syria to America, leaving everything he knew behind. Until his mother married an American man. That’s when things took a turn.

Karam’s stepfather, Josh had only married Karam’s mother for money that she barely even had to begin with. There had been many times Karam had caught Josh stealing money out of his mother’s purse, probably to buy cigarettes, Karam assumed. Josh also treated Karam and his younger sister like servants, never caring for their well-being.

Josh had taken it too far tonight. He had been going on to the family about how Karam’s father must have been a lowlife and how bad of a father he must have been. Karam had heard enough as he stood up and told Josh just exactly what he thought of him.

In response, Josh had slapped him across the face. Leaving a big red mark on Karam’s face. Karam had turned to his mother for help, but she had only looked away.

Hurt and angry by Josh and by his mother’s way of handling it. Karam marched upstairs, packed everything he could fit into his backpack and left. Which leads him to where he was now.

He kept walking until he got to the heart of San Francisco. though Karam lived only twenty minutes outside of the city, he had never been until now.

He didn’t know exactly where he was going, but he knew one thing, he was never going back home.

Karam then heard the sound of someone, or something walk behind him. Karam whirled around ready to tell whatever it was to leave him alone. But then he stopped.

Behind him, was a small little dog who had sat down when Karam had stopped walking. The dog was now looking up at Karam with big black eyes.

Karam gave the dog a stern look,

“adhhab beyda 'ayuha alkalb!” He said, waving his hand.

The dog didn’t seem to understand since it only tilted it’s head. Karam rolled his eyes and tried the sentence in English instead of Arabic, as if it would even work.

“Go away dog!” He said.

The dog still didn’t seem to understand the full sentence, but it must have understood the word ‘go’ as the dog stood up and wagged it’s tail.

Karam sighed in frustration,

“I don’t have the energy or time for this.” He muttered to himself.

In the corner of his eye, Karam saw a stick, an idea popped into his head.

Karam grabbed the stick and waved it in the dog’s face. The dog started wagging it’s tail even more and doing little hops. Karam would be lying to himself if he didn’t think this dog wasn’t cute.

Karam threw the stick and as soon as the dog went after it, Karam resumed walking, pleased with himself.

“Sometimes I’m so clever I scare myself.” Karam said to no one in particular.

Karam found himself at a subway station, this looked like a good place to spend the night,since the subway trains stopped operating around this time. He had packed enough money to buy a subway ticket in the morning. It was perfect.

Karam had just sat down on a subway bench when he felt something drop at his shoes.

He looked down and saw the same dog, panting harder this time.

Karam threw his head back on the bench

“allaena.” He swore in Arabic.

Karam picked his head back up and looked at the dog.

“You’re not going to give up, are you?” He asked the dog.

The dog only tilted it’s head once again.

Karam gave him a small smile. The dog was pretty cute....

Ah, whatever.

Karam gave in,

“Alright fine, you can come with me. I guess I could use a little adventure buddy.”

The dog seemed to understand that as it wagged it’s tail and spun in a circle. Karam huffed out a small laugh.

“Of course, you need a name.” Karam put his elbows on his knees and thought. His friends had dogs, but they all had generic names like Rex. Karam felt that this dog was special.

Special....

“How about Mumayaz?” He asked the dog.

The dog did another spin and lay down at Karam’s feet. Happy with his new owner and spot next to him, Mumayaz fell asleep quickly.

Karam smiled,

“Mumayaz it is then.” He said closing his eyes.

Tomorrow was going to be difficult, the subway probably wouldn’t take Karam and Mumayaz far, they were going to have to do a lot of walking, probably go to bed hungry most nights and be homeless for a while. But at least they would have each other.

Man’s best friend after all.