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Before I go to my car, I stop at the dining hall. My scholarship includes a meal plan and I haven’t been using it as much as Ishould. I ask for a to-go container and fill it up with food for both Tara and me, picking out all the stuff she likes.
“You’re back,” she says, smiling when she sees me at her door. She’s still wearing those oversized sunglasses, probably because she doesn’t want me seeing how bad her eye looks.
“I brought dinner.” I hand her the sack, which has a container of hot food, along with bags of chips and some brownies.
She looks in the sack. “Where’d you get all this?”
“The dining hall at school. In case you were wondering what college dorm food tastes like, now you’ll know.”
“This is a lot,” she says, taking the sack to the kitchen.
“It’s all you can eat.” I set my backpack down and join her in the kitchen. “It’s weird going from never having food to having as much as I want.”
“And it’s all paid for?”
“It’s part of my scholarship. Room and board are included.”
She lunges at me, hugging me. “Jake, I’m so proud of you. You’re actually doing something with your life while the rest of us are struggling to get through the day.”
“It won’t be like that forever. You’ll figure out what you want to do.”
She pulls away from me. “I didn’t graduate from high school. Waitressing is it for me. I’ll be doing this the rest of my life.”
“You could get your GED.”
“I don’t think I’d pass.”
“I could help you study.”
“Maybe. I’ll think about it.” She opens the container from the dining hall. “Mac and cheese? That’s my favorite.”
“That’s why I got it. And the tater tots. Chicken fingers. I got all your favorites.”
She looks at me. “Why are you so nice?”
“What do you mean?” I say with a laugh. “It’s just dining hall food. It’s not that great.”
“It is. No guy has ever been this nice to me. You brought me dinner. You picked out all my favorite foods. You’re staying with me to make sure I’m okay.” She smiles. “You even fixed my shirt.”
“Tara, those things aren’t anything special. They’re all things a boyfriend—I mean, a friend—would do.”
“Then I must not have any friends because no one I know would do all this for me. And I’ve never had a boyfriend who did stuff like this.”
“Then you’re dating the wrong guys.” I hear the anger in my tone and tell myself to calm down, to not get upset. I’m still angry that Tara went to see Troy today, but this isn’t the time to bring it up.
“Were you like this with Haley?”
Tara doesn’t usually say Haley’s name so it takes me by surprise. She just calls her my ex, or doesn’t mention her at all. I had to think for a moment about who she was talking about.
“Yeah, I did a lot for her, probably more than I should have.”
“Like what?”
“I’d bring her favorite coffee drink to her in the morning. Buy her stuff when we’d go shopping. Bring her soup when she was sick. I took her to all the girly movies she liked. Stuff like that.”
“And she still broke up with you?”
“She didn’t think that stuff was a big deal. I guess she was used to it. Her parents kind of spoiled her.”
