Chapter 5: The Big Cheater

"Licorice!" I yelled. "Lick! Where are you?"

He wasn't in the backyard, but I found the gate open.

"Lick!" I yelled some more. "Licorice! This isn't funny!"

He wasn't in the front yard either and we didn't even have a fence there.

"Tiffany..." Mom stood in the open front door. "Dinner's on the table. Come inside now."

"I can't find Licorice," I told her and then yelled again. "Lick! Licorice!"

"I'm sure he'll be back," she said, but that didn't make me feel any better.

"He's supposed to be back right now!" I shot her a frown because I knew I hadn't left the gate open. I'd been at school all day.

"And you're supposed to be at the dinner table," she retorted. "You can look for him after supper."

"I'm not hungry," I said unhappily and I had a fifty-fifty chance of getting dragged into the house or...

"Suit yourself," Mom sighed. "I'm going to eat while dinner's still warm."

"Licorice!" I yelled as the door closed, kind of singing his name and grateful Mom had decided to let me suffer a cold dinner later.

My stupid boyfriend had run off, probably because he was mad at me. I'd told Lick about the thing after school. We were getting ready for the Virgin Circus, which wasn't really a circus at all. It was more like a carnival fund raiser thing for my school, the Virgin Mary Academy, and there would be a little show, like singing and dancing, and some games and I dunno, all kinds of stuff. I wasn't in the choir or anything, thank God. Those girls had to practice every day after school, but I was helping decorate the gym and I'd told my boyfriend I'd be late getting home.

Stupid Licorice. Maybe he'd gone looking for me, I thought suddenly, and that sorta cheered me up. I mean, that's what most guys would do, right? I always came home about 3:30 in the afternoon and today I hadn't, so Lick would have been worried, because dogs do kinda forget stuff the same way everyone else does. He was probably worried about me, just like I was worried about him. That's what I figured and the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Licorice loved me a lot, just as much as I loved him, so...

"Licorice!" I walked around the block, looking this way and that, yelling as I went.

"Tiffany? What's all that yelling about?" Old Man Peterson asked me from his front yard.

"Have you seen Licorice?" I asked him.

"Your dog?" He rubbed his chin. "Nope."

"Thanks," I sighed and yelled some more as I crossed the street. "Licorice!"

Mrs. Winters smiled at me as I passed her driveway.

"Hi Tiffany," she said, opening the back of her station wagon. "What are you up to?"

"Looking for Licorice," I told her. "You haven't seen him, have you?"

"Not lately," she replied with a soft grunt, picking up a bag of groceries.

"Here..." I said. "I can help."

"Thanks, Tiff." She smiled and I carried a couple bags into her kitchen.

She asked me if I wanted something to drink or anything, but I had to find my boyfriend. Stupid Lick.

"Licorice!" I yelled some more and a car slowed down. I rolled my eyes as I saw Jeremy Hawkins leaning across the passenger seat with a smile. He'd be lucky not to drive over a couple mailboxes if he wasn't careful, so I stopped walking just so he could stop driving.

"Hey Tiffany," he said.

"Hey Jeremy." I crossed my arms over my boobs, since that's where he was looking. I still wore my school uniform, so it wasn't like I was naked or anything, but he made me feel like I was.

"Where are you going?" he wondered. "You need a ride?"

"I'm looking for my dog," I told him and then yelled, just to make sure he got the point. "Licorice!"

"Oh, right," he nodded. "The big black one?"

"Yeah," I nodded and he knew perfectly well who Licorice was, everyone knew my dog.

Jeremy was one of the neighborhood boys I'd grown up with, even though we went to different schools and everything. He was 17 and kinda good looking, for being a boy, I mean. I knew he liked me and my mom sort of encouraged him because she thought Jeremy was really nice, plus he was catholic and went to St. John's and all that stuff. My mom basically thought any available boy was a nice one though and I pretty much ignored her unsubtle hints.

Just like I was ignoring Jeremy's unabashed interest in my breasts.

"Licorice!" I yelled again and started walking.

"Hey! Hold on, Tiff..." Jeremy called and I expected him to ask me out, I really did. "Why don't you get in? We can drive around and look for him."

"What?" I almost smiled at that idea. Get in the boy's car just so he could put his arm around me and tell me how pretty I am and run out of gas and have a flat tire and...

"It's gonna get dark pretty soon," he said. "Come on. It'll be a lot faster than walking."

"How much gas have you got?" I asked him suspiciously.

"Huh?" He looked confused and then shrugged. "The neighborhood's not that big, Tiff."

"Wellll..." I made a face, looking around and wondering if maybe he didn't have a point.

"You can still yell if you want," he told me and that made me giggle. I was sorta being a dope about it.

"I guess so," I agreed. "Okay. Thanks, Jeremy."

"No problem," he said as he reached for the passenger door and pushed it open for me.

That's how I ended up riding around in Jeremy's car, tugging my plaid skirt down my thighs, and leaning out the window to yell every now and again.

"I saw your mom the other day," Jeremy told me.

"Licorice!"

"Do you want to go ice skating some time?"

"What?" I blinked at him and then stuck my head out the window. "Lick! Licorice!"

"She said you got a new pair of skates," he continued. "We can go Sunday afternoon, if you want."

He was talking about the Rec Center, a big community place with a pretty nice year-round skating rink inside. I did like ice skating a lot and I'd gotten new skates like a month before just because my old ones were too small, but I wasn't particularly interested in going ice skating with Jeremy. So I ignored him.

"Licorice!"

"You really look nice, Tiff."

"Huh?" I frowned at him.

"I mean, um..." he swallowed hard and looked the other way.

"Sorry," I sighed, realizing I was being a bitch, and not the good kind either. "I'm just worried about my dog right now."

"Yeah," Jeremy sighed too, but at least he stopped trying to hit on me.

"Stop!" I yelled, sticking my head out the window and looking behind us. "Go back! I saw something!"

"Did you see him?"

"Back up!" I sorta commanded and Jeremy did it, rolling the car backwards until we could look down one of the alleys that people used to reach their driveways.

We lived in a really old neighborhood and there were a lot of odd little roads that just went behind old houses that had been built before everybody had cars. Garages had come as a surprise to this part of town and people built them wherever they could, you know? It was kind of sad and confusing and neat all at the same time, I thought, but maybe I'm kinda weird that way.

"There he is!" I said, getting out of the car even before Jeremy had come to a complete stop.

"Licorice! You jerk!" I yelled. "What are you doing? God!"

He lifted his head and perked his ears, but the rest of him ignored me totally and I felt something like a knife in my tummy. My heart was breaking and I suddenly didn't know what to do. It seemed so weird. I mean, I never felt so empty in my life. I seriously didn't have any idea what to do. I just stared at my boyfriend and the stupid ugly bitch he was fucking.

"Tiffany ... Oh man!" Jeremy laughed as he hurried up the alley behind me after parking his car. "They're doing it!"

"I can't believe you're doing this to me!" I yelled, like all I'd needed was a little push from Jeremy to get me started. "I hate you!"

"Are you okay, Tiff?" Jeremy asked and I could feel his hand hovering over my shoulder, but he didn't actually touch me.

"I was looking all over for you!" I told Lick. "I was worried sick! And you're fucking some other girl?"

Licorice didn't say anything. Like what could he say? I had him totally busted. He had his forelegs wrapped around the bitch, his back arched like the Hunchback of Notre Dame, and his hips were going a million miles an hour. He was driving his huge cock hard and fast into the blonde slut beneath him and I could hear her whining happily, grunting and growling with pleasure as my ex-boyfriend slipped her the bone.

"I think that's Becky's dog," Jeremy said. "Isn't it?"

"Maybe," I frowned, kind of stamping my feet and squeezing my fingers into pale fists.

Becky's slut of a golden retriever was stealing my boyfriend. Licorice had always had a thing for blondes, I knew that, but that wasn't any sort of excuse either. I knew he'd fucked my mom before and I'd forgiven him for that. I mean, that was understandable because Lick's just a guy and Mom's a pretty attractive woman and all. They see each other every day too, so ... Sure, Lick was tempted and my mom had been asking for it, according to him, and...

"I forgave you!" I yelled at him. "I didn't even get mad, remember? And this is what I get?"

Lick cocked his head. So did Jeremy, since neither of them knew what I was talking about. I wanted to say more, you know, but I wasn't so far gone I didn't remember where I was and who was with me. Jeremy didn't need to know too much and so I had to bite my tongue and not ask Licorice why he had to go looking for pussy when he had me begging for it practically every day.

"Did she suck your dick first?" I asked him, knowing that silly blonde bitch hadn't.

"Tiff?" Jeremy gave me a funny look.

"What?" I shrugged away from Jeremy's hand as he gave my shoulder a gentle squeeze.

"Are you okay?"

"Does it look like I'm okay?" I stared at him. "He's cheating on me!"

"Uhhh..."

I kissed him. Jeremy, I mean. I didn't plan on it. I didn't even think about it. I just grabbed the boy by the shoulders and pressed my lips to his. Not a little kiss either, because as soon as Jeremy realized we were kissing ... he went for it!

His tongue tickled my lips and slipped inside my mouth even before I realized what I was doing. The boy's hands found my hips and held me tight, pulling me against him and I didn't resist. Part of me wanted to be kissed, I'll admit that, but I only kissed him because I was mad at Licorice. Jeremy was cute, sure, kind of handsome for being a boy, but I wasn't attracted to him at all sexually. The last thing I wanted was to kiss the guy, but I wanted to punish Licorice too.