“No!” I narrowed my eyes, my own ire returning. She didn’t have any reason to
doubt me. I had never lied to her.
She took a step back and covered her face with her hands. A moment later, she let out a loud growl, shook her head, and then looked back at me. Her throat bobbed as she swallowed, and I tried not to think filthy things about how awesome it looked.
Her shoulders sagged as she let out a long breath.
“I wasn’t expecting people here to find out and judge me for it.”
“I’m not judging you.”
“Judgment day! Judgment day!” A singsong voice called out from above us.
“Shut up, you crazy bitch!” I yelled.
Tria snickered, and the tension between us instantly faded away as Krazy Katie threw her still-lit cigarette out over the edge of the fire escape and toward us. It dropped to the cement in front of me, and I bent over to pick it up.
“Thanks!” I said as I took a long drag off of it.
“Even she knows now,” Tria muttered.
“Krazy Katie isn’t going to tell anybody anything, are you, baby?” I yelled up at her. I smiled as I looked back at Tria. “Even if she did, no one would believe a word of it.”
“What’s wrong with her?” Tria asked quietly, as if Krazy Katie would care if she heard anything Tria said.
“I told you before—she’s crazy.”
“But what kind of crazy?” Tria asked. “Is she schizophrenic or something?”
“Hell if I know,” I responded with a shrug. “All I can tell you is she doesn’t make any sense about ninety-five percent of the time. Then the other five percent of the time, she says something you think is absolutely brilliant.”
“Like what?” She looked up at the fire escape with wide eyes.
I could feel a smile creep over my face as she stared toward the fire escape. She was beautiful in the faded light from the one and only functional streetlight around, and I was thrilled she hadn’t stayed mad at me. It made me feel…giddy.
“Like mares eat oats, and does eat oats, and little lambs eat ivy…”
“Liam!” Tria smacked me on the arm and laughed.
“What?” I placed my hand on my chest and tried my best to look shocked. “I looked it up on the internet! It’s true! All of it! The lambs, the mares—everything!”
Tria shook her head and laughed again. It was a wonderful sound, and I was glad we weren’t ending the night with any more talk of her ex-boyfriend-brother, Keith Harrison.
We headed into the building, said goodnight at Tria’s door, and I went up to my own apartment for my date with a handful of lather and my fingers wrapped around my cock.
*****
The following Wednesday, our walks came to an abrupt end.
I had just dropped Tria off and was already wishing it were time to pick her up again. The nights were a lot longer when I wasn’t working, but she was. Stepping over the little brick border around a half-dead bunch of annuals, I hopped off the curb to cross the alley behind Fin’s, figuring I’d spend my time at Feet First even though I didn’t have any spare cash for dinner or a drink. I reached into my pocket, pulled out my smokes and lighter, and took a deep drag on the Marlboro. I blew smoke high into the cooling night air and then turned abruptly at the sound of my name.
“Liam! Liam, wait!”
I stopped right in the gutter, turned to see Tria running toward me, and wondered if some sort of prayer had been answered. I stepped back up onto the curb and watched her run up to me. As soon as she was close enough, I could see the tears running down her face.
Did all girls cry so much?
“What’s wrong?” I asked. It hadn’t been more than five minutes since I watched the door close behind her, and I couldn’t fathom what could have happened in such a short amount of time.