Trapped (Caged #2)(19)

“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 f*ck 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 f*cking 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.