I checked the fridge just to make sure no one had come in since I had last looked, but it was still empty.
“How about a little trip, loony?” I asked.
“Liam!” Tria said quietly.
As if Krazy Katie didn’t have ears.
“What?” I asked.
“Quit calling her names.”
“She doesn’t give a shit, do ya, fruitcake?”
Krazy Katie didn’t answer.
“It’s still not nice!” Tria chastised in a whisper.
“Neither is whispering like she can’t hear you,” I replied with a raised brow.
Tria pursed her lips but didn’t give me any more grief for the various pet names I had for my neighbor. I dug around in her mail until I came up with not two but three checks she hadn’t cashed.
“Krazy Katie, have you met Tria before?” I asked her.
She didn’t respond.
“Say hi.” I jerked my head toward where Krazy Katie was sitting.
“Hello,” Tria said. She tilted her head a little, trying to get Krazy Katie to look at her. I could see the tension in Krazie Katie’s shoulders at Tria’s scrutiny, and I took the opportunity to come up behind her.
Right next to her on the table were her cigarettes. While Krazy Katie focused on Tria, I quickly picked up the pack and dumped the smokes into the pocket of my hoodie. I dropped the empty pack back in its original spot and headed toward the front door.
“Come on, crazy bitch,” I said with a wave of my hand. “Let’s go get you some more smokes.”
Her face scrunched up as she reached for the pack next to her and found it empty. She sighed heavily, totally refused to put on any kind of jacket, and then followed us out of the apartment and down toward the grocery store.
“There’s a check cashing place a couple blocks past the store,” I said to Tria. “I’m pretty sure they’ll cash government checks. I mean, if you can’t trust a government check not to bounce, you can’t trust the water to stay up in the clouds, right?”
Tria just shook her head at my lame excuse for a joke and glanced behind her to make sure Krazy Katie was still following.
“What is wrong with her?” Tria asked.
“I dunno,” I said. “Hey, goofy bitch—what’s wrong with you?”
“All the right chemicals,” Krazy Katie said, much to my surprise. I wasn’t expecting any kind of response. “They just got all out of order.”
“See what good it does? She just says random shit.”
“That wasn’t random,” Tria argued. “She’s saying she has a chemical imbalance.”
“Can’t walk on a tight rope,” Krazy Katie muttered.
“See?” Tria said with a smile. “No balance.”
I grinned at her.
“You’re awfully smart for a small town girl.”
Check cashing wasn’t too big a deal, but taking Krazy Katie through the grocery store was sort of like taking a bunch of those little gnat-bugs and trying to organize them into a synchronized swim team. She was all over the fucking place with no rhyme or reason to whatever direction she might head next. I didn’t know what she really liked to eat, but we picked out as assortment of foods that fit within her budget after rent and bills and shit were all covered.
It was a pretty decent pile of food—Tria was awesome at taking a small amount of money and ending up with a fucking banquet.
There were about five hundred and twenty-seven people trying to check out through two available lanes. There were also at least fifty-seven workers on break and hanging outside. Well, all right, there were nine people in line and two on break, but it still pissed me off.
I sighed dramatically and eyed the various gossip mags. They all seemed pretty focused on some Hollywood couple and whether or not they were secretly banging each other. The flavors of gum right above the magazine racks were far more interesting. After waiting about forty days and nights, we were next in line. That was when Krazy Katie stood up on her toes to look over the counter for a moment and then took off running.
“What the fuck!” I growled.
The woman in front of me turned around and glared. I eyed her right back.
“My dick’s a little lower if you want to check that out, too.”
“My word!” she exclaimed as she kept glaring.
“If your word includes ‘let me drop onto my knees and take your cock down my throat,’ then we might have something to discuss. Otherwise, turn the fuck around and mind your own damn business!”
Tria smacked me on the back.
“What did I do?” I asked as I turned around. “The bitch is being rude!”
“Go get Katie!” Tria said. “She ran over by the fruit.”
I handed Tria the cash for the food and then headed off in the direction Krazy Katie had gone. I groaned as I turned the corner to find a line of her clothing leading up to a display of vegetables. Krazy Katie was lying on top of a bunch of lettuce heads, completely naked, with an apple in her mouth and her arms spread out wide, as if she were ready to be nailed to a cross. There were people standing all around, some with kids whose eyes they tried to cover from the crazy chick among the fruit. A manager was yelling at her.
“I don’t know what you are doing, ma’am,” he said, “but we can’t have you…um…lying down on the produce.”
He moved up closer to her but seemed hesitant to touch her. He pulled a little radio out of a holster attached to his belt and called for backup.
“I got her,” I said as I walked around him. I marched right up and scooped her up in my arms like a baby though she was not pleased about it at all. She wriggled and screamed and spit bits of apple into my face as I yanked her underwear up her legs.
She continued to wail and struggle as I swooped down and grabbed the rest of her clothes. I covered her flopping tits with her shirt and tucked the rest of her clothing underneath my arm, trying not to lose my grip on the nutcase at the same time. It just wasn’t working, so I switched to a fireman’s hold—tossing her upside down over my shoulder.
Tria was paying for the stuff as I headed out the door, and I met her just outside. I stopped her before she could return the cart to the corral.
“We’re taking that with us,” I told her.
“I can carry this,” she said. “It’s not that much.”
I shook my head and walked over to the cart, shoved the little kid’s seat back with my elbow, and dropped Krazy Katie into the middle of the basket. Tria forced Krazy Katie back into her shirt, and then I grabbed all the food and piled it on top of her.
“Believe me,” I said, “this is going to be easier.”
After just a block or so, Krazy Katie stopped screaming and just settled in for the ride. She busted out a loaf of bread and started eating the crusts off of each slice and then put the rest of it back in the bag. At least no one else would be sharing with her. After that, we managed to get her back to the apartment without much more than a little screaming at passersby.
Inside, Krazy Katie immediately dug for the carton of smokes and ripped them open. She lit one and hung it out the side of her mouth while she studiously ripped pieces of masking tape off a roll and taped the boxes to the bottom part of the mosaic.
“Do you want some help?” Tria asked. Krazy Katie didn’t answer, but Tria sat down next to her anyway. She tore off pieces of tape and looped them while Krazy Katie stuck them to the back of the packs and then to the wall.
I just shook my head and shoved the perishable stuff into the refrigerator. Once all the cigs were “properly stored,” Krazy Katie crawled out the window and took up her usual spot on the fire escape. Tria took the opportunity to poke around in the apartment while I smoked outside.
“Did you put your penis in her yet?” Krazy Katie asked as I lit up, nearly causing me to choke on the smoke.
“Stop saying that shit,” I told her. “Tria doesn’t want you talking about us like that.”
“That’s the only way, you know. It doesn’
t work if you’re wearing a bathing suit.”
“You’re a fruit loop, you know that?”
She didn’t say anything else but puffed away and pulled at a string at the bottom of her pants. I considered warning her that they would fall apart if she kept it up, but I didn’t think she’d listen anyway, so I saved my breath.
“Liam?” Tria called as I was tossing the butt over the rail. “Can you come in here?”
I crawled into the window and found Tria in Katie’s bedroom. There were dirty clothes all over the place, and Tria was gathering them up.
“We need to do laundry,” she said. “I thought we might as well get hers while we’re at it.”
It was bad enough to hang out in a laundromat long enough to do my own laundry, but now I’d have to be there while Tria’s and Katie’s were all washed and dried? I groaned.
“Quit your whining,” Tria said. “She doesn’t have that much. I think we could work it in with ours.”
Krazy Katie came back in, probably wondering what the fuck the two of us were doing in her apartment. Tria chatted with her as if the nutcase was actually responding, telling her how we had laundry to do, so we’d just take care of hers while we were at it, and that maybe Tria had a couple of outfits that would fit Katie, and Tria could still make extra food at our place, and blah, blah, blah.
I didn’t get any of it, and frankly, I wasn’t sure I wanted to. All I knew was Tria was smiling while she was talking, and Krazy Katie didn’t seem too perturbed by her presence. I hung out in the kitchen and just watched the two of them interact.
By the time we got back to our own apartment, Tria was exhausted but happy. Happy Tria led to making out, which made me pretty happy, too. Making out led to a rather unhappy appendage of mine, and I had to take a quick shower to appease the moody little bastard before we headed off to bed.
I was never one to indulge in constant self-love, but it was either that or explode.
Chapter 6—Feel the Heat
Let her take the lead, Yolanda had said.
Sage fucking advice.
Weeks later, we still hadn’t done much more than kiss. There was a little touching, but not much more than what we had done during the first kiss. Tria’s hands pretty much stayed on my shoulders or arms when she wasn’t playing around with my hair, and I would only occasionally slide my hand over her ass. She didn’t encourage anything else, so I didn’t do anything else.
It wasn’t all bad, though.
Having Tria sit between my legs and lean back against my chest had become my favorite winter pastime. We would sit like that on the floor in front of the couch while we watched movies or on the couch while we drank apple juice. Sometimes we would sit like that in bed¸ and Tria would read one of her textbooks while I just relaxed against the pillows and held her.
We even sat like that in front of the cheesy, artificial mini Christmas tree Stacy had gifted us for the holidays. It fit our holiday theme so well, I found us a Linus blue blanket at a thrift store and gave Tria a little stuffed Snoopy dog as a present.
Tria gave me a really nice Adidas duffle bag to replace my existing gym bag, which had developed a decent sized hole in the bottom of it. The bag she found looked really expensive, but she told me she got it at a yard sale. I knew she hadn’t spent too much on it because she always got money from me when she needed some. She had to have skimmed off the grocery money to get me anything at all. Since the current ones were completely trashed, she also got me a new pair of shoelaces for my running shoes.
Over the holidays, I picked up an extra fight at a bar in the next city. The guy was good and just as big as me, but I was faster. I got clobbered pretty good, but I managed to take him down and bring home an extra hundred and fifty dollars. It was just enough to get caught back up with the bills, and Yolanda said she’d try to find me a few more like that.
Tria applied for and got the job at the campus library, but the hours weren’t much and didn’t start until after the winter break. She was really happy when she brought her first paycheck home and found out it covered most of the electric bill. After that, she continued to just hand the check over to me with proclamations about “owing” me for whatever. I thought it was bullshit, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer.
I still hadn’t taken her on a real date.
There just wasn’t any money for it. Even with the extra cash Tria was bringing in, she didn’t have enough hours at the library to make much difference. Yolanda was trying to get me more fights, but outside of the local bars, I was an unknown, and no one was really interested in picking me up other than for a one night gig. Overall, it meant I was doing a little bit of letting the phone bill slide a few extra days just to get the water bill paid and shit like that.
Still, the money issues didn’t bother me all that much. It was tight, but when I came home from working or working out and had Tria there, it was all worth it. Every time I laced up my running shoes with the new laces, I knew I would come back home to find her waiting for me, usually with a big glass of cold water and a hot kiss.
Krazy Katie had become a much larger presence in our lives. Part of me wanted to be ticked off that Tria was spending so much time with her, but in all the years I had lived there, I had never seen Krazy Katie do anything other than hang out on the balcony. At least now she spent more time in a warm apartment.
Besides, it made Tria happy. I hadn’t thought about it, but it wasn’t like she had any friends around here other than me, and she had to get tired of my bullshit sometimes. Having another chick around—even a crazy one—had to be better than nothing. Tria and Yolanda had tried to be civil toward each other, but I could tell it made them both kind of uncomfortable though I wasn’t sure why. Maybe it had something to do with how I made money. Tria still managed to find reasons not to ever come and watch me fight. I didn’t press, but I had to admit it did bother me a little.
“Are you hurt?” Tria asked the second I walked in the door from work.
“Not a scratch,” I replied with a half smile. “The guy was just barely in my weight class and probably won’t be fighting again for a while.”
Tria scowled at the remark and then came over to check me out to make sure I wasn’t bullshitting her. I held out my arms, and she gave me a once over and then a nod.
“Glad you’re okay,” she said. “I hate it when I can’t kiss you.”
She punctuated the remark with her lips against mine, something she hadn’t been able to do the previous week when I returned with a busted lip. I wrapped my arms around her and lifted her up. Taking a few steps forward, I pinned her against the wall for a minute—it always made her giggle—and then carried her over to the couch.
She pressed against my chest to make me back off, then looked at me out of one eye. She wrinkled her nose.
“You didn’t shower at Feet First, did you?”
“Heh,” I responded. “Nah, it was a slow night, and I wanted to get back here. I’ll get cleaned up.”
I washed quickly. When I was done, I peeked around the door to make sure Tria was still focused on the TV before running naked to the bedroom to grab some clothes. I couldn’t find anything comfortable in the drawers, was totally out of boxers, and all my sweats were in the bottom of the pile, so I yanked on a pair of jeans before heading back out.
Tria looked up as I came around the corner and gave me one of those smiles that seemed to make my brain turn to mush. Either that or the guy I had beaten earlier landed one good punch to the head. I scooted up next to her and put my arm around her shoulders, figuring we’d watch the rest of whatever movie she had on, but Tria had other ideas.
She turned to me almost immediately, got up on her knees, and wrapped her fingers in my hair before kissing me. I found her hips with my hands, and I alternated my focus between the taste of her tongue and resisting the urge to pull her down against my cock.
She moved her hands down to my shoulders and then further down my arms before moving up again. We moved
together with open mouths, just barely touching with lips and tongues. She moved her mouth to my jaw, nibbling playfully at the scruff there as she stroked my chest.
I felt my body tighten at her touch, and my skin tingled as her fingers moved over my chest and down to my abs. She took one finger and slid it over the ridge of each muscle. I caught her under her chin with my fingers and brought her mouth back to mine.
Open mouthed, I moved from her lips, up the line of her jaw, to her ear, and back again. With my free hand, I crept from her hip up her side, and my thumb stroked the skin of her stomach. I felt her hand over mine.
I started to pull away, assuming her intent was to tell me to stop, but her grip on my fingers tightened. Opening my eyes, I looked down at her and watched her tongue dart out over her lips before she slowly pushed my hand upwards.
“You sure?” I breathed, hating myself for even asking the question instead of jumping on the opportunity. In response, Tria rose up just enough to pull her shirt up over her head.
My cock tried to jump right through the material of my jeans to tit fuck her right there in her bra.
I had to physically restrain myself from the action as she settled back above me on her knees. The bra itself wasn’t unfamiliar—I’d seen all of her clothes in the drawers before—but having the lacy white material wrapped around her smooth breasts laid out before me was completely different.
I sat up and moved her with me until she was flat on her back on the couch, and I was hovering over her. I moistened my lips as I gazed down at the pale flesh before me with only a slight curve visible at the top of the lacy front.
As slowly as I could endure, I traced her skin from the edge of the thin strap around her shoulder and down to the mound of flesh against the lace edge. Barely touching her, I outlined from one edge over the curve, down into the slight dip, and back over again. My fingertip completed the trek back up to her other shoulder, and then began to make its way down again.