The Peach Pits

Chapter 7

Mae looked around the apartment. Even though it was pretty small, it was filled top to tail with things Mae had never had in her own home- a big flatscreen TV, glass tables, nice leather furniture. The place smelled like heavy air fresheners.

"Never seen an apartment before?" Jesse questioned.

Mae suddenly felt self-conscious for looking around so much. "Yeah, I have. It's just... you have a lot of stuff. You live here all by yourself?"

Jesse shook her head. "I live with my older brother. He's out." Mae caught the hint in his voice. So they were alone.

He led her into the kitchen. The furniture in the kitchen seemed new too. No scratches, no dents. When Jesse opened the fridge to get a couple beers, Mae saw it was well-stocked. She was hit with a pang of jealousy.

"Your brother must have a nice job," Mae said.

Jesse laughed. "You could say that." He opened a beer and handed it to Mae. They stood in the kitchen in silence, looking at each other. Jesse smiled at Mae. His smile burned, like he could see right through her.

"Thanks for dinner by the way," Mae said, trying to fill the dead air. Apparently, Jesse planned to make good on his promise.

"No problem," he responded. He turned his back to her. "I'm going to my room. Unless you want to stand in the kitchen all night."

Mae rolled her eyes and smiled to herself. She followed Jesse down the hallway. He opened the last door on one side of the hallway. Again, Mae looked around the room, doing the worst job in the world at not making it so obvious. The walls were painted dark grey, almost black, which made the room look smaller than it probably was. Still, it looked the same size as her own room, and she had to share it with Trina. There was a TV in here too, and a gaming system- typical boy- with loud speakers. Mae felt the jealousy hit her again. She wanted to plop down in Jesse's large, comfortable-looking bed and stretch out.

"How much of this did you actually pay for?" Mae questioned, looking at the collection of watches on Jesse's dresser.

"Maybe half," he said. Mae wheeled around to look at him. "A lot of it was gifts."

"Oh," Mae said. "I was wondering how you managed to steal a whole TV."

Jesse sat down on his bed. He turned on his TV. "It's actually not as hard as you'd think."

Mae leaned up against the dresser. She considered Jesse. For a moment, a voice in Mae's head told her she was being dumb. She barely knew this boy, and here she was in his bedroom, listening to him talk about stealing after he'd already stolen for her. But didn't she deserve to be a little dumb? After all, she was a teenager. She wasn't the adult that anyone in her family made her out to be. Hell, even adults made stupid choices. At least if this was a bad one, she'd hopefully come out richer for it.

"So you never really explained the stealing thing," Mae ventured. "You're not a klepto but you do it for fun? Doesn't make sense."

Jesse raised an eyebrow at Mae. "There's got to be a reason?" he asked.

"People don't commit crimes just because. And, clearly, you can afford nice things so-"

"No one's ever told you it's rude to ask how people get what they got?" Jesse questioned.

Mae shrugged. Of course, she'd heard that before. "But you've told me a little bit. Now I wanna know more. And-"

Jesse put his hands up. An accusing smile spread across his face. Mae hated seeing him smile. It always made her feel like she could melt right into her socks. "I thought you wanted no parts?" he asked. "If I tell you, you're involved."