AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She clears her throat. “We shouldn’t talk about him when he’s not here. So what classes are you taking?”
She doesn’t want to talk about Troy. Is it because I’m right? Because his temper’s gotten worse? Is he taking his anger out on her? It seemed like he was when he yelled at her today and grabbed her arm.
“It’s right here,” she says when we reach her apartment building. She pulls into the parking lot and finds a spot. Sheshuts the car off and hands me the keys. “Thanks again for doing this.”
“Sure. It was good to catch up.”
She smiles. “It really was. It was good seeing you again, Jake.”
“So this is it?”
“What do you mean?”
“I was thinking we could meet for dinner sometime,” I say, then realize it almost sounded like I was asking her out. “I mean, it doesn’t have to be dinner. I was just thinking it’d be fun to hang out sometime. I haven’t made any friends at school yet so it can get kind of lonely. But I understand if you don’t have time.”
“Um, no, I have time.” Her eyes meet up with mine and she smiles. “I’d actually love to see you again. When were you thinking?”
“Maybe later this week?”
“How about tomorrow? Troy’s going to be working on his car all day and I have tomorrow off.”
Tomorrow is Sunday and I really should study, but with everything that’s happened, I can’t see myself able to concentrate long enough to memorize stuff in a textbook.
“Yeah, let’s do something,” I say. “I could come over around noon.”
“That’s perfect!”
We get out of the car and I walk over to her. “Well, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She glances at the apartment building, then back at me. “You want to come upstairs? I could show you my place. Well, it’s not mine, but you know what I mean.”
She’s inviting me up to her apartment? Part of me feels like I shouldn’t go up there with her, but why wouldn’t I? Nothing’s going to happen. We’re just friends.
“I have leftover pizza. It’s way better than those hotdogs Sean made.”
“Um, yeah, okay. Pizza sounds good.”
She takes me into her building and up to the third floor. Her apartment is a small two-bedroom, but it’s clean and decorated well with nice furniture and plants everywhere.
“So you get the whole place to yourself?” I say, looking around the living room and connected kitchen.
“Only until my aunt comes back. She should’ve been back last summer, but the person they hired to be her new boss didn’t work out so she’s filling in until they find someone.”
“They should just give her the job.”
“Yeah, they might,” Tara says, taking a pizza box from the fridge. “But if they do, she’ll have to move to Florida permanently and I won’t have a place to live.”
“You’re not paying rent here?”
“No. Her job pays for her place in Florida so she’s been covering the rent here so I can save up some money.”
“She sounds like a nice lady.”
“She is. She’s really more like a mom than my aunt.” Tara takes a plate from the cupboard. “You want the pizza cold or heated up?”
“I’ll eat it cold.” I join Tara in the kitchen and she hands me the plate.
“I get all the free pizza I want. Troy gets mad if I don’t bring him some, but it’s hard to take pizza on a bus. I’ve tried wrapping it in foil and stuffing it in my backpack, but after an hour on the bus it starts to smell, especially when it’s hot out.”
