Page 3 of Margo's Got Money Troubles

“You are not,” I said. “You’re an amazing teacher! You’ve spent all this time with me, helping me.”

“Every second of which I was desperately wanting to kiss you.”

I did not know what to say to that. I mean, in a way I had a schoolgirlish crush on him, but I’d never thought about kissing him. I just felt glow-y and good whenever he praised me.

It was raining, and we had been walking in circles around campus. We didn’t have umbrellas, but we were both wearing jackets with hoods. We’d stopped underneath a huge eucalyptus tree.

“Can I kiss you?” he asked.

I nodded. I mean, I literally could not have imagined saying no. I would have done anything he asked. He was short, maybe five foot five, my height, and I had never kissed a boy that short before, and it was kind of nice, with both of our hoods up in the rain. But even I was like, We are kissing openly on campus? This seems like a very bad idea.

The thing was, by the time everything was over between us, he had behaved so childishly, and I’d had to assume so much of the responsibility for what we’d done, that I didn’t feel taken advantage of. I felt... pissed off. If he had actually been a grown-up, the whole thing never would have happened in the first place.

The first time Mark came to Margo’s apartment, he wore a baseball cap and sunglasses, like he was trying to dodge the paparazzi. Margo had not attempted to clean or pick up for this visit, did not feel embarrassed about Mark seeing the stained pink velvet sofa, the mess of cords hanging from the TV. Her own frameless bed, a mattress and box spring on the floor. None of this troubled her. He was here to fuck a nineteen-year-old—what could he possibly expect?

“You have roommates” was what he said.

“I told you I had roommates,” she said.

“I didn’t think they would be home.”

“Is that beer?” Suzie asked.

Mark was indeed clutching a six-pack of beer in oddly medicinal-looking bottles. Red Stripe. It was a kind of beer Margo had never seen in her life. Certainly, they didn’t stock it at her work. He was still wearing his sunglasses indoors.

“Take those off,” Margo said, and tried to pluck them off his face.

He swatted her away. “They’re prescription.”

“Pay the troll,” Suzie said, and held up her hand to receive a beer.

“What?”

“Give her a beer,” Margo said, laughing at him. He was holding the bottles to his chest like a child who didn’t want to share.

“How old are you?” he asked Suzie. “Jesus, Margo, I didn’t mean to—”

“Old enough to tell the dean, now pay the troll,” Suzie growled.

“This was such a mistake,” Mark said.

“Here,” Margo said, and slipped a beer out of the six-pack and into Suzie’s waiting hand.

“The troll is very pleased,” Suzie said.

“Let’s go to my room,” Margo said.

Mark followed her down the hall, past her other roommates Kat the Larger’s and Kat the Smaller’s rooms, to her door.

“Welcome,” she said, holding the door open for him, “to the place where the magic happens.”

Even though she was not really attracted to Mark, the sex was surprisingly pleasant. She’d had sex with two other boys before: One her high school boyfriend, Sebastian, who had absolutely the best dog, a shepherd mix named Remmy, whose head smelled vaguely of peanuts and whom she definitely loved more than Sebastian. And the other, a boy she’d met at orientation the first week of college who never spoke to her again. Mark was different in bed from either of them. He was uncircumcised, a situation that made her curious, and she never did get to explore the elasticity of his penis skin to her satisfaction. But he was also capital P Passionate. That first time they had sex was standing up with her pressed against a wall. It seemed impractical and uncomfortable, but Margo assumed it was part of some fantasy he had. She could not see a reason for having sex against a wall besides a fantasy really.

When it was over, he sat down in her desk chair and spun around. She went to the bathroom to pee and thus ensure she didn’t get a bladder infection, and when she returned he was going through her desk drawers.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“You wander around like that in your underwear?” he said, looking up.

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