"I spoke to Angus and bought him some tacos," Trent said as they started walking back.

"Really? Dude that's so nice. How was he?" Mae replied.

"Uh...reserved. Polite?" Trent answered.

"Oh. Yeah, he's like that. He's kinda shy, but he's real cool and super nice. Even if-" she hesitated, then sighed.

"Even if what?" Trent pressed. She remained silent. "Mae...look, I'm not saying you have to tell me everything, but if you're serious about this, like if you're actually wanting to be my girlfriend, and expect it to happen, like, you're gonna have to tell me things. The last girl I was with, just…" he sighed heavily. "She didn't like telling me things. Like anything. It was a whole thing. And I just can't put up with that again."

"Okay, okay, that's fair," Mae said. "Bea keeps telling me Doctor Hank was fulla shit when he told me to repress stuff, and I think she's right. So I've been trying to let more stuff out now. But it's hard to tell what to let out and what will just make people mad or sad. So, Gregg and I have been best friends for a long time. And we always used to get in trouble together and do dumb stuff together. And I left two years ago to go to college. And then I came back a few months ago. And we started hanging out again. And it was like old times…

"Only since then, he and Angus have this plan. Like this big plan. They're gonna work really hard and move out of Possum Springs. And I mean I get it. I want them to be happy. But I don't want them to leave. And I can't follow them. They don't want me to live with them, either. Which I get. I'm a real handful, and a drain on resources. But when I came back Gregg and I started doing dumb shit again because it's fun and Angus got mad because it could fuck up their plan. Which, he was right. The stuff we were doing, it could've gotten Gregg arrested or fired or cost a ton of money, and that would've fucked up everything…"

"You sound like you like to take a lot of risks," Trent murmured.

"I do. I don't know why. I guess...I spent so much time being sad and unhappy and shit, and taking risks like makes me feel alive, you know? And feeling just alive, it's just-man, it's like, that's real. Everything else is fake or shit, but alive is real and good. And I want to feel it so bad. But I know it's dumb and I need to get it under control. I just want to do crimes."

"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm sorry your friends are moving away and you're so sad all the time."

"No, I mean, it's okay. I've still got Bea and Selmers and Germ and Lori and some other people. They're all real cool and they're my friends too. But like...I dunno, man. I hate even talking about this. Every time I talk about this with you I'm scared you'll decide I'm not worth the effort...which, can I just say, oh my God, I can't believe it's been less than a day since we've met. I already feel like it's been a week or something…"

"Actually, yeah," he agreed. "I feel the same way…"

She laughed suddenly. "So Bea likes you. And you like her. I saw the way you two were looking at each other. I'm kinda dumb but I know what that look means. You'd do her, right?"

"I would," he said. "Bea's really fucking hot. I like goth girls and she's got this kinda energy. Just like this...I dunno…"

"Power. Badass energy. Screamy girl rockstar energy," Mae said.

"Yeah. That."

"She's really hardcore, but she's really sad, too. She's been through a lot...we all have, I guess. But she had it pretty bad. Her mom died a few years ago of cancer and now her dad is basically making her run their family shop all by herself…"

"Oh my God, that's awful."

"Yeah, it is. But she's tough. Tough as nails. Hey! Let's invite Selmers over tonight. Maybe you can get laid!" she said.

"Good lord, keep your voice down," Trent growled.

"Why? You got me all paranoid now."

"Maybe Selmers doesn't want the fact that we're trying to hook up with her broadcast all over town?" he asked. "Did you think of that? Or Bea?"

"Oh...yeah, that makes sense," she said sheepishly, then sighed. "Okay fine, but can we?"

"If you actually seriously want to, then yeah. I'm down. I gotta make sure power is on first, though, and get the place cleaned up a bit and start looking through all the stuff."

"I can help with that!"

"I don't think you can. I mean, you can help with the cleaning, but I need to figure out what goes and what stays."

"Ugh, I hate cleaning."

"Then, fuck, I don't know, sit around and look good."

She snorted. "I sure as shit can't do that."

He sighed heavily. "If the power's on, I'll hook up my Xbox and you can see if there's any games you like. Did you ever play Xbox?"

"No, just computer games. We couldn't afford consoles mostly. Oh! I can grab my laptop and bring it over and play it...although I guess I'll start feeling bad and lazy. I should do something…"

"Mae, how about, if I need help with anything, I'll ask you, and if you feel up to it, you help me. But otherwise, you can just chill, because I don't mind?"

"Okay! Let's go see Selmers."

He laughed and they kept walking.

When they got to Selmers's house, she wasn't on her stoop any longer. Mae knocked on the front door and she was the one who answered it.

"Oh hey, you two. Any luck?" she asked.

"Lots of luck," Mae said. "He got me tacos."

"Like I said: keeper."

"So, uh, that offer to hang out tonight is officially, like...offered? I don't know. Mae and I think it'd be cool if you came over to my place to chill," he said. God, he was bad at this. Well, he didn't have a lot of practice inviting people to his house or having friends.

He had basically no practice inviting attractive women to his home, and Mae seemed to be friends with mostly intimidating women. Bea was...well, intimidating for obvious reasons. Selmers was very chill but he had the idea she was older than him, though he couldn't quite tell by how much. He doubted she was like past forty or anything, but she definitely didn't seem around his and Mae's and Bea's age.

"You should definitely come over tonight," Mae said with a grin that she probably thought was sly but was anything but. "Trent is super nice. And you should like...find out just how nice."

Selmers looked curiously between him and Mae. "Yeah I'm down," she said, "what time?"

He checked his phone, since it was still good for telling time at least. It was pushing three in the afternoon by now.

"Eight?" he replied, figuring that'd be enough time to get everything in order for at least a basic hangout.

"Okay then. Wanna exchange numbers?" she asked.

"Yeah, although right now my phone has no plan, but I should be able to have it back on, provided my house has electricity, and internet, which it should. So if I don't answer, that's why. I guess you could call Mae's parents and have them check or…"

"I'll just come over," Selmers said.

He nodded. They exchanged numbers and he told her the address. Mae was just grinning, beaming really, the whole time, and Selmers kept giving her curious glances. She looked like she wanted to ask what was up, because clearly something was, but ultimately she just thanked him and they left.

"Mae…" he groaned as they walked back home.

"What?!" she replied.

"You have no subtlety. Like, none. At all. Zero."

"I was being subtle!"

"You actually really were not. Like I think your subtlety detector has been broken. I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be mean to you, it's just, she obviously could tell something's up."

"But she doesn't know what is up, though," Mae replied triumphantly.

He sighed. "I guess it doesn't matter. Selmers seems pretty cool and nothing's probably going to happen between us. I hope it just doesn't make it too weird when you spring this on her."

"People love surprises!" Mae replied.

"I think you have a skewed understanding of...many things. Then again, I probably do, too…" He sighed. "My point is: this isn't the kind of thing you surprise someone with, you know?"

"Hey, I was very pleasantly surprised when I found out you wanted to have sex with me. I mean, weren't you when you found out I wanted to?"

He thought about it. She had a point. "Yeah, but what if it had gone the other way? You'd be very, very unpleasantly surprised then."

"No, I wouldn't have been surprised if you didn't want to sleep with me. No one wants to sleep with me," she replied. "That's why you're weird."

"Why do you think that? Probably a lot of people want to sleep with you."

"No one at college did. No one around here does. They all know me and my...history." She stopped suddenly and looked at him. "Did Mr. Penderson, like, say anything to you?"

"Who?"

"The old asshole in front of my house."

"Oh...yeah…" he said, suddenly wondering how much he should say.

Mae faced him fully and shifted uncomfortably. "...what'd he tell you?"

"Uh…"

"Come on, man. You just got done telling me we gotta tell each other things."

"Okay, okay, that's a fair point. He told me you cracked some kid's skull open for like no reason and everyone saw it, a few years ago. That you're crazy."

She sighed softly. "He wasn't lying," she said after a long, long moment. "I did it. And I'm probably kinda crazy."

"...crazy like how? Like...schizophrenic?"

"I don't think so. I've never, like, hallucinated...I think...I'm not like a psychopath or anything. Like, I haven't done it since! It's not like I think about killing people or stuff. I'm not a serial killer." She paused. "You know, I don't think about it more than anyone else. I mean, I like horror! You know what it's like, right?! Watching slasher movies and thinking about how cool it would be to be a monster and taste people's skin?"

"...you're not really reassuring me right now, but I do get what you're saying," he replied.

"I won't hurt you," she said. "I promise. I swear. I haven't hurt anyone else...well, I mean. Not without reason."

"Without reason? What does that mean?"

She wrapped her arms around her stomach and looked down. "I don't want to talk about it."

Trent sighed and looked up into the slate gray skies overhead for several long seconds. He felt like some kind of choice had been dumped in his lap and apparently they were just doing this, here and now with people around who seemed like they were trying not to pay attention.

"Do you trust me?" she asked quietly. "I know it isn't fair to ask. We haven't even known each other a whole day. But I feel like...I'm safe with you. I don't know why. You're not just a shape."

"A 'shape'?" he asked, looking back at her.

"Yeah, I-it's-ugh, it's so hard to explain. What I mean is, I trust you. And a lot of bad shit happened to me just before we met, and it was weird and scary and it hurt and I still don't know what it all means but I'm hoping it's done, and being with you is really helpful. Not just because you're nice or buy me tacos or we do it and it feels really good, just like being around you, like in the room with you, it's just-I don't know, Trent, it's nice. It feels good. It…"

"It what?" he asked when she didn't continue.

"I don't know," Mae mumbled uncomfortably, "it's like, when you're here, everything's just better."

He looked at her, and she finally looked back up at him, staring intensely with her big red eyes, full of a desperate kind of need and sadness and fear and anxiety, a tempest storm of emotional turmoil. And again he felt that urge, that intense, overwhelming urge to make her feel better, to just comfort her. Was it just because they'd slept together? Just because he was attracted to her? He didn't think so, but he'd never been particularly good at emotions.

The big question was: did it really matter?

He liked her. She liked him.

She was hurting, he wanted to comfort her.

That was enough.

He hugged her. She immediately hugged him back, squeezed him.

"It'll be okay, Mae," he murmured.

"Do you promise?" she asked, pushing her face into his chest.

"I promise, Mae."

"I'm sorry, that was really heavy. I know it was a lot, I just can't help-"

"It's okay, Mae. Just...relax. We'll go home and you'll grab your laptop and play your game."

"And Selmers will come over and you'll do it with her?" she asked hopefully.

"If she's down for it and you actually are cool with it, then yes. Definitely."

"I'm actually cool with it."

"I'm going to take you at your word."

"Good."

"Come on."

He let go of her and took her hand and they began walking again.

"Can we get Taco Buck again?" she asked.

"We literally just had it," he replied.

"I know, but I want more."

"...me too. Yeah, we can."

"Yay!"

No one was there when they got to Mae's house. She seemed glad about that. He wanted to ask her about her relationship with her parents, but he felt like they'd talked about enough heavy shit for one day. She ran upstairs while he hung around in the kitchen, and came back down a minute later with a little sticker-covered laptop in her grasp. After that, they headed back across the yards and into his house.

"All right!" she cried as he flicked the switch this time and the light came on.

"Power is a check," Trent replied, feeling better about this already. "Let's see if we're go for wi-fi. Apparently my great-uncle already had some set up here and I got it transferred to my name and it should be on. I even got to set the name and password."

"I'll check, although you could probably get your laptop, turn it on, and check before mine boots up," Mae replied.

"I should probably look at your laptop and see if I can make it faster."

"That'd be cool. I probably shoulda asked Angus to do that when he helped me clear it of all the...porn."

"All the porn?" Trent asked, laughing as they walked into the living room.

She sighed. "You know, like, porn. Like what regular people watch when they're alone! And lonely!...will it be weird if I still watch porn sometimes?"

"Will it be weird if I watch porn?" he replied.

"No, I mean I don't care." She paused. "I don't care if you don't."

"Deal. Although maybe we could watch together."

"Okay, but I only really like girl-on-girl stuff."

"That's fine by me."

"Ha! Knew it." She plopped down on the couch after finding an outlet and plugging her laptop in, then set it up and turned it on. Indeed, it did take awhile to boot up. But he wanted to be near her, and so he sat down beside her and slipped an arm around her waist.

"Wow, this is like so awesome," she murmured.

"What?" he asked.

"You touching me. I didn't know how good just, like, touching is. It feels so good. It makes me warm and happy and my stomach do flips. I really thought people were just making that dumb shit up, like how romance movies are bullshit."

"I mean it's not like it's like this for everyone all the time," he said.

"I know that. Just...I guess I didn't know it could happen to me. Fucking finally," she muttered. "What's the network called?"

"Doom."

She cackled merrily and checked the list that came up. "Yep, there it is! Why is it called that?"

"Reference to the games and also to Invader ZIM," he replied.

"Oh my fucking God I love Invader ZIM. And Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. Like, dude. Did you ever read that?"

"Yeah! That's actually one of the things I brought with me! Hold on!" He rushed upstairs to his suitcase and brought it downstairs, then put it on the floor, opened it up, and started digging through it. He brought out his Xbox, the wires, the controllers, and then his games. He hadn't been able to bring all of them and had just sold off the extras. Some it had been easy, but some had been tough choices. And finally he pulled out the thing he was looking for.

"Whoa…" Mae murmured, getting up and walking over as he stood and showed her the object.

It was the Director's Cut of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, the cover a confusion of images, painted over by a white Z? encased in a square.

"Is this, like...the whole thing?" she asked reverently.

"All of it," he replied. "The whole thing, plus some bonus stuff. He released it in like two thousand ten. I'd always hoped he'd do a sequel but I don't think it's gonna happen."

"Dude...can I read it?"

"Yeah, totally," he replied, handing it to her. "Read away."

"Thank you. I read this when I was a kid, not like the whole thing, just some of it. Bea had like two issues, like issue two and five, so I don't even know the whole story. Her mom got mad after she found us reading them and took them away and I felt real bad because it was like my fault we got caught, but it left such a huge impression on me...thanks. Really. Um. Hungry," she said, tearing her eyes from the comic and looking at the laptop.

"Taco Buck," he agreed, sitting down at the laptop. She'd brought up the password window. He typed it in.

"What's the password?" she asked.

"Ragnarok, all lowercase," he replied as he typed it in.

"Why that? I mean I know what it is. Cuz of that superhero movie?"

"No, cuz of Max Payne. I just thought it was cool."

"What's Max Payne?"

"Third person shooter about a miserable cop who blows away like a thousand people and most of the cutscenes are like actual comic-book style, like the programmers and voice actors actually dressed up and posed for pictures and they made comic-book cutscenes out of it. It's fucking awesome," he replied.

"Do you have it?"

"Yeah I got the first two...okay, we're in. Here, this is taking forever, let me just get my laptop. I'll put in the order, you can do, uh, whatever you want, I guess."

"I'm reading Johnny," she said, taking off her shoes and pants and shirt, and stretching out on the couch in a tanktop and panties. She started reading.

"Oh man," he murmured, staring at her.

"What?" she asked.

"I don't know. Something just like clicked."

"Good clicked or bad clicked? You're looking at me funny…"

"Good clicked. Like...do you know how long I've wanted something like this? An awesome girl who wants to have sex with me, laying around in her underwear at my place, reading fucking Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, eating tacos? And she likes that I'm a horror writer? And she's a fucking bassist? If you're serious, then yeah, I want to date you."

She sat up. "I am serious, but...I was also serious about all that other stuff, Trent. If you date me, you're taking on a lot of problems. I'm my parent's problem right now. And also kind of Bea's and Gregg's and Angus's. And my own."

"Everyone has problems," he replied.

"Yeah but I've got more problems than most. I mean, I told you: something's wrong with me. Like seriously. I honestly don't know if I could hold down a job. I've really thought about it, I had one once, but it's like...my brain starts to melt or something. I did okay in school, sort of. It wasn't hard to get, it was hard to like endure. I don't know…"

"Have you ever thought about trying to do something, like, creative?"

"I'm not creative."

"You play a fucking musical instrument!"

"Yeah, and I mean I'm like good at it, but...I don't know, man. I guess, what I'm saying is, you have to maybe accept that if you're gonna date me, then I might never get my shit together. Like ever. I'll try. I will. Although I don't even know when. I feel like...I don't know what I feel like. Fuck. I'm a handful, is what I'm saying."

"It's not like we're getting married," he said.

"Yeah, I know. I'm just scared...of a lot of things. But I guess that's life."

"...sometimes, yeah," Trent said. "I'm kind of a handful, too, you know."

She laughed softly. "I guess we can be a big, messy handful together...yeah, I'm still serious. I wanna date you."

"Okay then."

She smiled and looked down at her feet, shifting awkwardly. "Should we, um, kiss or something? To make it official?"

"Yeah," he replied, crossing the distance between them quickly and kissing her. She grabbed him and kissed him back, and they fell back onto the couch.

"Maybe we could do more to make it official. How long does birth control take to start working? I took the first one already," she said.

"Like a week," he replied.

"Oh. Well...I mean we've already done it twice…" she murmured, then pulled up her shirt and freed her huge breasts. "Maybe you could just take my panties off…" she added quietly, grinning slyly as she raised her legs and put them together in front of him. "and just...slide on in there…"

"This is a stupid idea," Trent said, but he was already taking her panties off.

She laughed in triumph and finished pulling her shirt off as her panties came away and he tossed them somewhere else in the living room. She spread her legs once they were free and grinned up at him as he tossed his shirt away and then hastily unzipped his pants.

"You want foreplay?" he asked.

"No," she replied, "not right now. Just do me. I'm really wet."

"You got it."

He was already hard and pulsing and desperate to be within her, and then he was between those thick blue-furred thighs of hers, and she moaned loudly as he penetrated her.

"Oh fuck!" she cried, flinging one leg over the back of the couch and putting her other foot on the floor to give him better access.

He grunted as he started driving into her. It was an awkward position and the couch wasn't quite made for this but they managed. That hot wet pleasure overwhelmed him as he dove in bareback and some part of him was screaming at him that this was stupid, so fucking stupid, he was going to get her pregnant probably, but it felt so fucking good. And she looked so good, sounded so good as she moaned and yelled.

"Come on! Yes! Oh fuck! That's-ah! That's so good, Trent! IT'S SO GOOD! DON'T STOP!" she screamed.

He could hear the couch start thumping against something as he drove furiously into her, getting his whole dick into her, pounding her fast and hard.

"Please, oh, yes, fuck, faster! Oh more!" she moaned, out of it with sexual bliss. He was on his way to losing it himself. "Oh, Trent, I'm gonna-OH GOD! OH YES!" she screamed as she abruptly began to orgasm.

Trent let out a long, loud moan that became a grunting of effort as he struggled to contain his own orgasm. Her pussy felt so good as she got way wetter down there. He could feel her tightening around his length, almost massaging it, her liquids escaping her as she screamed and jerked. She wrapped her legs around him, grunting and moaning.

"Mae! Mae let go!" he cried, panicked. "Mae I'm gonna bust!"

"Shit…" she moaned, barely managing to unwrap her legs in time. "Can you bust on the floor?" she asked, her own orgasm over with.

"I'm not busting on the floor!" he cried and then pulled out of her and started shooting his cum onto her belly. He could feel his whole body spasm in response to the orgasm as he busted his load all over her stomach. She reached down suddenly, gripped him, and started jacking him off. He cried out, cumming harder, getting it up onto her tits as she worked it.

"Oh shit!" she cried.

Pure bliss ate him alive, consumed him as he shot his load onto her and she furiously worked his twitching dick.

When he was finished, she slowly let go.

"So...that was good? Sometimes I watch like het porn and I see chicks do that sometimes," she asked as he caught his breath.

"That was good," he replied. "That was really good. You did a good job."

She grinned, then lost it as she looked down at herself, at her hand. "Man, is this gonna happen every time?"

"Every time," he replied. "Until I can bust inside of you? Or if you want to take it in your mouth? There'd be no cleanup with a condom…"

"I kinda like going raw," she said.

"I really fucking like it."

She sighed. "I guess I could get used to it. Although I'm curious to see what it's like when you go inside...I guess that'd be harder to clean up...ugh. I guess, to be totally fair, though, I made a little bit of a mess too..."

"I'll get you a rag," Trent said, getting up.

"I can just go shower."

"No, don't move, I don't want you to like drip on everything."

She giggled. "Fine."

He pulled his pants back into place and hunted down a rag, wet it with warm water, then came back and gave it to her.

While she started cleaning herself up, he went to work putting in an order.