She put his suitcase just beyond the door and closed it a few minutes later.
After drying, he found new clothes and pulled them on. Emerging from the bathroom, he almost felt like a new man. As he stepped out into the upstairs hallway, the weight of responsibility began to press in on him.
There was so much to do.
Explore and inventory the house. Figure out what to keep and what to get rid of. Figure out how to get rid of it. Learn about the town. Find a job? Find a car? Change his license and address and tax stuff, too…
But he was too tired to think of any of it right now, and he felt too good.
That sex had actually been fucking awesome.
Risky, but awesome.
He found Mae in the bedroom, presiding over a big pile of blankets and sheets and pillows, all on the floor.
"Uh...everything okay?" he asked.
"Yeah," she replied. "I felt bad, cuz of the mess. That I made. So I was gonna wash these. But then I remembered there's no power. So I was wondering...what to do with them."
"It's fine," he said. "I'll take care of it tomorrow. Come on. Let's get food."
"Okay." She had on her panties and the red shirt from before. In the light coming in from the street, he could see that it had a circle on it. A circle with a slash through it. It was interesting, but he felt the chill of the house again and figured she probably felt it more because she, for whatever reason, wasn't putting her pants on, and so he led her back downstairs, (pausing once to grab a heavy blanket from the hall closet, he'd seen it during their first frantic search for the bedroom), and then had Mae sit on the couch beneath the blanket while he checked the fireplace.
Didn't want it to kill them in their sleep with carbon monoxide or whatever.
But it looked well-maintained, and he supposed it would be in a town like this. After checking as much as he could that it would do what it was supposed to, he put some logs in the ashes, found one of those long lighters, and took probably longer than it should have to get it going. But once it got going, he turned around to grab his laptop.
He found Mae staring at him with an unhappy expression.
"Something wrong?" he asked.
"You're not gonna be mean to me now, are you?" she replied.
"...what? No. Where did that come from?"
"When I was in college, like, I don't know. I talked to some other girls, and my roommate, and a lot of them said, like a lot of them, that guys would be nice to you, but as soon as you, like, did it, they'd start being mean. Or just leave entirely. But I guess you can't leave, because you live right behind me. Like I can see you from my window probably. But I don't want you to start being mean to me just because all you wanted from me was sex and now you got it, and I also don't want you to just put up with me if all you want is more sex. I know I'm really annoying and I'm a jerk, but if you don't like me anymore, could you just like be neutral at least?"
Trent stared at her for several long seconds.
He was beginning to get an idea of the profound size of her damage, and it admittedly was beginning to scare him.
It was like standing at the edge of a vast crater.
But he also did really like her. He felt like he wanted to help her, somehow. He wanted to make her happy and feel safe.
"I won't be mean to you, Mae," he said.
"Do you promise?"
"I promise."
"...okay...thank you," she murmured.
"Are you gonna be mean to me?" he asked.
"No," she replied. "I mean...not on purpose. I told you I'm-"
"A jerk sometimes. Yeah. I think we're all jerks sometimes."
"Yeah but like I'm a jerk sometimes more than most people," she said. "I get really mad. And I say stupid things. And sometimes it's hard to think straight. I don't know."
"Let's just not worry about it," he said. "The fire's going. I'll go get my laptop. It's in my backpack. I'll be back."
"Okay."
He ran back upstairs, grabbed his backpack, and hurried back downstairs. Pulling out his laptop, he sat next to her on the couch and booted it up.
"Wow it's fast," she said. "My laptop takes forever to boot up."
"SSD," he replied as he went hunting for internet to connect to.
"What's SSD?"
"Solid State Drive. Um, it's a kind of harddrive, for the laptop to run off of. Basically it just means it goes fast. It's expensive. It took forever to save up for," he muttered.
"Oh. Cool." Her hand snaked out from under the blanket suddenly and started moving around his lap.
"Okay, so what name is it-what are you doing?"
"Touching your junk," she replied.
"Why?"
"Do you not want me? I guess I should've asked."
"I mean I don't care if you do, just, you know...why?"
"Duh. I told you, I was a virgin before tonight. I've never like been with anyone. Your dick is the first one I've ever seen like...in the flesh." She giggled. "Flesh."
"You're such a fucking weirdo," he murmured.
"So are you Mr. Up and Move Across the Whole Country." She paused. "Sorry, I guess that was mean. And I kinda did the same thing, but in reverse. It's Eeeeeels."
"What?"
"The network. That's what it's called. Eeeeels."
"Of course it is. Why? What's the password...wait, I can't see that on the list."
"I think you gotta get closer. Like to my house."
"Oh. That makes sense."
He grabbed his laptop, which was at about thirty percent power, and got up. Mae did too, wrapping the blanket around herself and following after him into the kitchen. They had to get right up to the counter against the back wall before Eeeeels appeared on the list.
It had one bar, but it was enough.
"Password?"
"Uh...shit. What was it? They asked me to do it when we finally got it. Ha ha, oh yeah. Witchdagger."
"Oh you listen to Witchdagger?" he asked as he typed in it.
"Yeah! You do!?"
"I got their whole discography," Trent replied. "Hey, we're in."
"Oh man, that's so cool. No one likes them out here! Well, except for Gregg and Bea. Although I always kinda felt like Gregg just listened to them cuz I did."
"Okay, I found the Taco Buck website," he murmured as he navigated the internet. "Man, it's slow. I guess that makes sense."
They spent the next ten minutes laboriously navigating the menus, reloading the pages, and finally putting together an order for themselves of a dozen tacos and a pair of burritos and two extra large Fiasco Limes.
"Thanks for dinner," Mae said once they'd actually confirmed the food was on its way. "I feel like I should do something for you."
"You had sex with me, I mean, that's already a lot. And saved me from being stranded and brought me to my new home," he replied.
"I guess so. Yeah."
They walked back to the couch and sat down, this time both of them under the blanket. For a few minutes, they simply sat there together, looking at each other, the only sound the crackling fire and the winds outside.
"I don't really know what to talk about," she said finally.
"Well...have you ever spent the night at a guy's house?" he asked.
"Yeah, lots of times," she replied. Then paused. "Oh, you mean like, uh, like in that way. No. I had sleepovers, not like adult sleepovers." She paused again. Considered something. "I mean, I slept over at Gregg's place with Bea on the couch, but like, I didn't even spend the night the whole time and it definitely wasn't like...sexy. At all. Although I guess I'd do Bea. I'd do Gregg, too, but he's gay so that's not happening."
"Oh."
She smirked suddenly. "What, were you worried about like...competition or something?"
He shrugged uncomfortably. "Yeah."
"Well don't be. I'm a trash mammal and you didn't score me, you're saddled with me."
"You are very eager to tell me stuff like this," he said.
"I mean yeah, it's like I said: if we decided to become a couple, I mean, I want to get ahead of you wanting to break up with me if at all possible. There's no way I'm going to be able to hide all these huge, glaring faults with me. So I should just admit to them immediately. That way I won't have to waste time trying to hide them. I'm super bad at hiding things...what about you? What's wrong with you?"
"Uh...I guess that's a fair question. Well, I'm not very confident."
"For real? Because you coulda fooled me, dude."
"Very little confidence here, I'm afraid. I've got anxiety problems, and depression problems. There's days where like I just need everyone to like fuck off and leave me alone. Even people I like. I hate working. I hate it so much. It makes me want to die. I don't have a job right now, obviously. No car. Just some clothes and an Xbox and a laptop and some games and some other random crap. I mean I've got money but how long's it gonna last, really? Six months? Probably less. I'm not very good with money. I'm trying to be a writer."
"Wait...why is that on the list of bad things? That's awesome, dude. What kind of stuff do you write?" she asked, suddenly excited.
"Horror."
"That's awesome! Why did you say it like it was something lame?!"
"Horror doesn't sell. Unless you get lucky and also are really good."
"I don't care, horror is awesome! Ghost stories fucking rule! Dude what have you written!? We gotta date now, you can be my ghost story writer boyfriend and I can be your bassist girlfriend with nightmare eyes!"
"I've written a few short stories, two novels...you play bass?" he asked.
"Yeah! I'm actually kinda good! I'm in a band! With Gregg and Bea and Angus!"
"What's it called?" he asked. "Do you like do shows? I'd go to one."
"We don't play out," she said, her natural cheer diminishing somewhat. "But we're called Night in the Woods. We're like, intense. And...hey, I hear a car."
They fell silent, waiting. Listening. He thought he heard a voice, and then he definitely heard a car door slam shut.
"They couldn't be here already, could they?" he asked, getting up.
"I mean they're kinda close," Mae replied. She looked nervous, though.
Suddenly someone knocked, firmly and loudly, on the front door.
"Police, open the door!"