Brendan jumped off his bike and walked it toward his apartment. After traveling for half an hour on train and working all day at the accounting office, he just wanted to get some rest and browse some social media. His stomach rumbled a bit and his nose started whining about his odor.

                He pulled the keys from his pocket and set the bike next to his door. He wanted to simply just hop into bed, but he needed to eat, take a shower, and then he could go to sleep.

                After fiddling with the door lock, he pushed to the door open and brought the bike to its little space by the entryway.

                He sniffed in the febreezed air.

                “Ah, home at last."

                The familiar environment prompted a small burst of energy. Something about finally being home made him excited.

                He made his way into the kitchen, it was sectioned off from the living room by a thin counter. He pulled a box of cereal from the top of the fridge and grabbed a plastic bowl from the cupboard.

                Too lazy to cook himself a decent meal, he quickly grabbed some milk and mixed the ingredients into a colorful, sugar induced Commodore Crisp. Despite being a bit crunchy at first, Brendan devoured his portion of corn slop, washed his dish, and moved to take a shower.

                He plodded over into his room, crossing the living room and into the door to the left from entering the apartment.

                He flicked on the light to see a certain scaly faced creature light up from inside a terrarium.

                “Hello, Susie," Brendan smiled at his pet snake. The copper blotched rat snake waved her tail as if to say “Hello, Brendan. Glad you're back!"

                Brendan grinned and shook his head. Susie was a weird snake. He caught her doing all sorts of strange things during the time he owned her. He admitted that Susie was intelligent, but he had doubts that she was capable of actual communication.

                Susie raised her head and held her jaw open. Brendan laughed, “What? You hungry girl?" The snake bobbed from side to side, looking a bit eager. “Alright, I'll get you another mouse. Does that sound good?" The snake stretched a bit further up.

                Brendan cracked another smile and went to prepare her a meal. Susie was always an active pet, constantly shifting about in her terrarium looking at whatever was going on outside.

                Brendan wasn't quite sure how to balance her diet though. If he kept feeding her at the current rate, she might get fat. Or something. Brendan wasn't the expert when it came to snakes, but he kept himself educated enough.

                He opened the freezer and pulled out a box full of frozen mice. He picked one out and set it to thaw in plastic bag in a bowl of warm water. He then went to take a shower.

                Susie flopped to the side her terrarium. “Oh, Brendan… I'm gonna get fat if you feeding me mice!" She flicked her tongue out, already anticipating the meal. Despite her inner objections, she loved to eat, and letting a mouse get cold was not something she appreciated. Still, she did her best to burn off the excess weight, even in her enclosure. She kind of wished she could be let loose a bit more often. But, judging from past experiences, she was likely to get into some mischief.

                She huffed giddily, recalling the time she managed to wake Brendan's desktop computer and launch the Doogle browser. She didn't know exactly what she was doing at the time, but it was fun to interact with things like Brendan did. Unfortunately, after that incident, Brendan changed the lock to her terrarium, and Susie hasn't figured how to get out since.

                She coiled up and rested behind the fake log in her terrarium. It wasn't terribly roomy in the glass box. A few artificial plant decorations - a large flat rock, a fancy pool with a dragon head - littered the space.

                She looked to the dragon head, which had a white crystal affixed to its forehead. “Do you think I'm getting fat, Maestro?"

                The stone head stared blankly with wide eyes.

                “Oh, come on! I do not look as thick as a bread loaf!"

                The dragon's maw lay agape.

                “Some nerve you have calling me plump noodle! I'll have you know that I am as healthy as a green vine and am quite an attractive specimen. Thank you very much."

                The head barred toothy smirk.

                “Attractive to who-? Why, I'm sure Brendan appreciates my good looks. I haven't seen you impress anyone dragonesses lately. You stone-faced fluke."

                The head gave her that wide-eyed look again.

                “Well… I could use a drink right about now." Susie slid up to the pool to get some water.

                She looked up once more to the stone head. The new angle seemed to change its expression.

                “Do you think Brendan likes me?"

                The dragon gave a blank un-assuring stare.

                “I know I'm his pet. But do you think he sees more in me that just a mice-gobbler?"

                Maestro bared his teeth.

                “He does smile at me a lot. I think he finds me more amusing than attractive though."

                Susie slithered around the bowl and rested on Maestro's side.

                “Yes, I know he's a human. I just want him to trust me enough to leave this blasted box. I don't like being heated by that sun light all the time. I like being wrapped around his hand and feel the warm blood flow through his veins. I like smelling the new odors and exploring the outside. He- just doesn't seem to get me. I wish he did."

                Susie stared into the bowl to see a ripple shine across the water. She could almost sense that a light flashed from the dragon's forehead. She turned around and paced away, unsure of what she saw. She slithered back to her log, suddenly feeling uncomfortable around the drake.

                A few minutes later, Brendan walked into the room. Susie got up to see her owner wearing a white T-shirt, a pair of swimming shorts, and sandals.

                Brendan threw his raised his hands, “Oh! I almost forgot." He rushed back out to fetch Susie's meal.

                Susie sighed.

                Brendan came back in. “Here' you go Suze. Stuart Little on platter." He opened the terrarium and plopped the mouse down on her feeding area.

                Susie looked at the thawed mice. As much as she craved the meat, she didn't feel hungry. She looked up to see Brendan, who was expectant to see her eat.

                “Go on. He's not gonna bite."

                No duh. He's dead.

                Susie ignored the mouse. She didn't want food. She wanted out.

                She made her way up the glass enclosure toward the opening.

                “Ah ah ah, where do you think you're going Susie? I'm no letting you out yet. You need to finish your food." Brendan gently pushed her back down into the terrarium.

                Susie wouldn't relent. She wanted to make it clear to Brendan that she no longer wanted to be in the terrarium.

                Brendan nudged her down again. “Now Susie, behave."

                Susie slid upward once more, this time dodging around Brendan's hand and getting a grip on his wrist.

                “Woah. Hey, I can't have you outside just yet."

                Susie coiled her lower body around Brendan's hand as Brendan attempted to pry her off. She continued to wiggle about his arm adjusting herself strategically as Brendan tried in vain to get her back into her enclosure.

                “Ok, fine. I'll let you out for a bit." He reached for her meal with his free hand and went into the living room. “I probably should have let you out sooner. You must be bored sitting in there all day."

                Susie adjusted herself around Brendan's arm. Looks like Brendan was going to put on the TV.

                He sunk onto the couch and grabbed the remote from the coffee table. The TV lit up with the evening news, another celebrity was involved in another something.

                “Ugh… I was hoping the weather was on. I'll just have to check it on my phone."

                Susie snuggled to Brendan's side and watched as Brendan aimlessly flipped through channels. “Nnnhhh, I wonder why I even bother with the premium package, it's only the same crap but in HD." He switched the TV output and booted up his gaming console, the newly released Game Sphere PI. “Let's see what's on WebFlix."

                He opened the WebFlix app and navigated the WebFlix library, searching through popular movies. “Ooo, I think you might like this one. I haven't seen it before, but it has snakes in it apparently." Brendan hit the play button and reclined his section of the couch. He spread his arms onto the other sofa heads and relaxed. He loved 3D animated movies, though, he could never find any good ones. Here's hoping this studio didn't let him down.

                Susie rested her head against Brendan's lap. She hardly ever got to watch movies, well, not for the past couple of months. Brendan had been working hard at the office as of late and only took her out once every few days, and even then, he only kept her out for a few minutes before putting her back and locking her in the terrarium.

                She liked movies. She got to see things without having to move around everywhere. Quite a luxury to have.

                The movie played on, the main characters were cobras. The plot involved them finding a new home due to an abrupt shift in climate. The character's didn't like each other at first but eventually grew to depend on each other to get through the dangers of the wilderness. They befriended a vine snake along the way and a chatty bird as well. Eventually the group of animals found a sanctuary far into a warmer land and lived happily ever after, or something along those lines. Susie got distracted a few times from some neighborhood racket while Brendan was half-asleep throughout the movie.

                Brendan stretched on his recliner forcing himself awake to stop the credit sequence and turn off the console. He took a deep breath and gave a satisfied exhale.

                “Well, that was fun. What do you think Susie?"

                “I thought it was rather nice."

                The two smiled and stared at the blank screen. Brendan's eyes grew wide while Susie's face made a similar expression.