Free Lot Lizards by Ray Garton Page A

another. His parents hadn't been much better, but at least they weren't screaming all the time and they didn't live in Yreka. He'd tried saving money with the hope of moving south to Redding on his own when he could afford it, but jobs didn't pay much in Yreka and he wasn't going to get any help from Mike and Sylvia, so he held his money in an iron grip. His only luxury was the little baggy of marijuana he bought every couple months from Corky Potter who lived, appropriately, in nearby Weed. He hadn't been on a date in all the years he'd lived in Yreka and he didn't go to movies or eat out; he had no friends to speak of, but that was okay because, the way he saw it, having friends meant having to spend money now and then, so he couldn't afford them. He had his job, and he enjoyed it.  
    After the second hit, Kevin began to feel the effects of the grass—a little relaxed, a little horny—but decided he had time for one more hit before getting the cheese and going back upstairs. He inhaled a third time and lifted his face to the window so the smoke would waft outside and—  
    —a small white face smiled at him from outside and said, "Smells good."
    Kevin fell from the crate and landed on the cement with an explosive grunt. He scrambled to his feet coughing and spun around as two legs slid through the open window.  
    "Sorry," the girl said, still smiling as she hopped off the crates. "Didn't mean to scare you." She brushed snow from her curly brown hair and the shoulders of her blue down jacket. "Are you okay?"  
    Kevin was shaken, but unhurt. "Y-yeah, I'm fine, but... um, you shouldn't be in here. I could get into trouble."
    "I think you could get into trouble all by yourself." She looked down at the smoldering joint on the floor.
    Kevin stamped out the ember with the toe of his shoe and put the joint back in his pocket. "Yeah, well... you should go." He fidgeted, looking the girl up and down quickly, then turning toward the freezer.  
    "Why? Is somebody else coming down here?"
    "Maybe," he lied, opening the freezer.
    "Ah. You're expecting company? Your girlfriend, maybe?"
    He heard her footsteps on the concrete as she followed him. He said nothing as he searched for the boxes of shredded cheese.
    "You have a girlfriend?"
    He hefted the box out of the freezer, looking at the girl again.
    She was kind of cute. No... cute wasn't exactly the right word. Exotic...yes, she was exotic. She had very pretty dark eyes, heavy lidded, as if she were sleepy, and smooth lips which she licked as she unzipped her puffy jacket.  
    "Look, I'm working right now, okay?" He tried to sound firm but he was preoccupied with the open front of her jacket, with the impressive curve of her breasts beneath the black sweatshirt she wore, and with the tingly feeling that had already been stirred in him by the marijuana. He put the box down and added, "I've been down here too long already."  
    "Oh. So you aren't waiting for your girlfriend."  
    "No. Um, you've gotta go now. Really." He was sounding less convincing each time he spoke.
    "Out there? But it's so cold."
    "Go inside. Get some coffee."
    "It's packed in there. Besides, I don't have any money. I'm stuck here." She slipped her jacket off and tossed it onto the crate behind her. On her sweatshirt, red letters stretched taut over her surprisingly large breasts: EASY BUT NOT CHEAP.  
    He thought about it a long time. Yes, he could get into trouble. But no one ever came down to the basement besides Kevin and he did have a break coming. He could even take it early.  
    "So you want to stay down here a while?" he asked.
    Her eyes brightened a little. "Could I? I promise not to touch anything and I won't make any noise. I'll just sit down here for a while, that's all. I could use the rest."  
    The marijuana was making him feel a little more sure of himself than he would have been otherwise and he nodded slowly as he looked the girl over. What skin he could see looked silky; she wore no bra and