Page 42 of No Good Deed

“Why don’t I take you? I’m not doing anything. I could drive you to Troy’s place so you don’t have to take the bus.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I know I don’t, but I want to. It’s cold out, and I don’t want you having to wait outside in this wind for the bus to get there. And do you really want to carry all those pizza boxes on a bus?”

“I’ve done it before, but it sucks.” She cocks her head to the side. “You’re really okay taking me?”

“I got nothing else to do.”

“Okay!” She smiles. “I’ll go change.”

I wait on the couch and look through my phone. Sean sent me a text, asking if I want to come over later and watch football. I text him back that I’ll stop by, deciding it’ll be a good excuse if Troy asks why I gave his girlfriend a ride. I was going there anyway, I’ll tell him.

Since she’s not taking the bus, Tara doesn’t need to leave so early. We use the extra time to hang out at her apartment, talking about movies and music and realizing we have similar tastes in both. We decide to go to a movie together and make plans to go see a local band we both like. I’m worried Troy will tell her she can’t be doing stuff with me, but maybe he doesn’t need to know. Tara can do things without him. And he wouldn’t like doing this stuff. He gets bored during movies and he has totally different taste in music than Tara and me.

“We should probably go,” Tara says, just after four.

I get up from the couch and notice I was sitting on her work shirt. I pick it up. “Sorry. I didn’t notice it was there. Now it’s all wrinkled.”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s torn. I have to throw it out. They only give us two, so now I have to buy a new one, which is forty dollars.”

Holding up the shirt, I see the tear is along the side seam. “I could fix this.”

She laughs. “Yeah, right.”

“I mean it. Dean and I ripped our clothes all the time when we were kids. Mom made us fix them because she didn’t have money to buy us new clothes.”

“Wait, you’re saying you know how to sew?”

“I like to say mend. Or fix. It sounds more masculine than sew.”

“Are you serious?” She takes the shirt from me. “Because if you could fix this, I could use the money on groceries instead of a new shirt.”

“I could definitely fix it. Do you have any thread?”

“My aunt has a sewing kit in her closet.”

“That’s all I need. You want to go get it?”

“We don’t have time. Could you come by later this week? I’ll have to keep wearing my other one, but I could—”

“I’ll come over tomorrow and fix it.”

“Jake, you’re amazing!” She hugs me. “Thank you.”

She shouldn’t be hugging me. I like it, but it’s turning me on, feeling her body pressed against mine. And she smells really good. She must’ve put on perfume for Troy. Lucky bastard. He gets to be with her tonight, and whenever he wants. I never thought I’d be jealous of Troy, but I am when I think of him with Tara.

I’ve never been to the house Troy’s living at, so Tara has to tell me where to go. It’s a few blocks over from my old house, next to the railroad tracks where a lot of homeless people hang out. On the way there, we pass an old building that looks like it’d been on fire at some point and was never repaired. Tara told me that’s where Troy works. It’s his uncle’s garage where he works on cars. There wasn’t a sign out front to let anyone know it’s an actual business, but there were rusty cars sitting outside along with stacks of old tires and gas cans. I can’t imagine his uncle makes much, which means Troy doesn’t either. I’m wondering if Troy has a side business, like gambling or selling drugs.

As I pull over on the street, Troy comes out of the house, wearing a dingy white tank top and baggy, torn jeans.

“Took you long enough,” he says to us as we get out of the car.

“I got the pizzas,” Tara says in a cheerful tone, like she’s hoping it’ll put Troy in a better mood. It won’t. The guy’s never happy. He always finds something to be angry about.

“Take them inside,” he tells her.

As she passes him, he grabs her and kisses her, shoving his tongue in her mouth. She almost drops the pizza boxes and tries to pull away, but he keeps hold of her and grabs her ass before finally letting her go.

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