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“Is he still that way?” I ask.
She doesn’t answer.
“I’m guessing the answer is yes. He was getting really angry when we were watching football yesterday. He threw a beer bottle against the wall and wouldn’t clean up the mess.”
“Yeah, he has a temper,” Tara mutters.
“But not with you, right? I mean, he doesn’t take it out on you.”
“No. He usually gets over it fast. And if he doesn’t, I just leave him alone.”
I hope she’s not lying. I haven’t been around her long enough to tell. But I think she’d tell me if Troy was taking his anger out on her. I don’t think she’d date him if he did. She could easily find someone else, someone better.
Tara gets up and walks over to my desk. “Are these your school books?” she asks, picking one up.
“Yeah. That one’s used and still cost over a hundred dollars.”
“Seriously?” She carefully sets it down. “How could it cost that much?”
“Textbooks are expensive. I guess they think if you can afford college, you can afford to pay hundreds of dollars for books.”
I walk over to her and hand her the book she just set down. “You can look through it. It’s not going to break.”
She flips through the pages. “It looks hard. Do you understand any of this stuff?”
“That’s a coding book, so yeah. I’ve been doing coding since middle school, even before that. My programming classes will be easy because I already know all that stuff.”
“Wow, you’re really smart.” She sets the book down and turns to me. “And you’re hot. You’re not going to have a hard time finding a new girlfriend. I bet you’ll have one by the end of the week.”
I smile a little. “You think I’m hot?”
“You’ve definitely changed for the better since I knew you before.” She looks me up and down. “You used to be so skinny. Now it looks like you’ve been working out.”
“That’s because of Dean. He spends hours in the gym. I started going with him and he taught me how to put on muscle. He even got me drinking those protein shakes that taste like cardboard. Actually, they’re not that bad.” I flex my arm. “And they seem to work.”
“Yeah, you’re, um, in really good shape.” She clears her throat and walks past me to the door. “We should probably go.”
We leave my room and go back outside. The wind blows and she shivers.
“Are you cold?” I ask.
“A little, but I’ll be fine.”
“I could get you a jacket from my room.”
“Really, I’m fine.” She shivers again.
I put my arm around her, noticing how natural it feels.
“What are you doing?” she says with a laugh.
“Keeping you warm. It’s either this or we go back to my room and get a jacket.”
“This is good,” she says, smiling at me.
I rub her arm, noticing how cold her skin feels against my warm hand. A big gust of wind blows, strong enough to feel like it’s going to knock us over. A cold front must be moving in. It was a lot warmer when we got here. Tara shivers as another gust blows past us. I stop and pull her into my arms, shielding her from the wind. Her body tenses at first, then relaxes against mine.
“You okay?” I ask, as the wind dies down.
