She has to face the music

Shaking her head, Jenna discarded that half-formed plan. Honesty was always the best policy, that was how she tried to live. Even little white lies gave her pause, a bigger one like this would have been giving her anxiety and rough sleep for weeks. No, for better or worse, she would come clean to her boyfriend's bully. She would throw herself on his "mercy", but it felt more like throwing herself to the wolves.

With the seriously damaged box clutched in her hands, Jenna walked from the middle of the road over to Tommy's house. It still looked as rundown as last time, but she didn't spare much time to glance around at her surroundings. Her eyes were fixed on the door instead, already dreading what would happen when Tommy answered it. When the wind played with her skirt again, she ignored it, allowing the hem to raise up her thighs. She wasn't about to drop the box twice.

This time she skipped the broken doorbell and just drummed her knuckles against the wood. The sound of her knock hung in the air for a moment, and Jenna allowed herself to hope that Tommy was out. If he didn't answer, then she could just return his package to the depot and flag it for redelivery, and hopefully the damage could see it replaced before Tommy ever realized.

Unfortunately for Jenna, she heard movement from inside, and her newly inflated hope sputtered out like a lead balloon. With every step she could hear creaking down the hallway, Jenna's shoulders slumped, until she was stood on the porch staring at the toes of her trainers like a naughty schoolgirl. It was only when the door opened that she even glanced up.

Once more silhouetted in the doorway was Tommy's broad frame, towering over Jenna as he pulled the door open. He looked about as scruffy as last time, but now with a little extra stubble on his strong jawline.

"Hey Jenna," he greeted her with a confident smile, one that quickly fell away when he saw the state of the box in her hands. "What the fuck's that?"

"It's your delivery," Jenna stammered as he took it from her shaking hands, "it was, erm, damaged in transit."

"Damaged in transit?" Tommy repeated incredulously. His eyes went wide as he looked up at her, before falling back into a frown as he looked at the damaged box. For another moment he just fiddled with it, the suspense tearing Jenna up inside, before he finally hooked his fingers into the tape and began to open it.

Jenna nervously wrung her hands in front of her skirt as she waited, watching Tommy tear open the box. She imagined that she felt like a parent who knew she had gotten her child the wrong gift for Christmas, but it was too late to do anything about it now. All she could do was stand and wait for the inevitable disappointment.

When Tommy finally flipped up the cardboard flaps to see whatever was inside, his brow somehow furrowed even further. "Damaged?" He repeated again, "It's completely fucking flattened." His stormy eyes flicked up, pinning Jenna to the spot on his porch. "What the fuck happened?"

"I-it fell under a truck," Jenna muttered, her words sounding like a lie as they left her lips despite them being the gospel truth. "I'm sure whatever it is will still work," she added, flicking her baby blue eyes up to meet his.

"Oh, you're sure?" Tommy responded sarcastically. "Take a look at this and tell me you think it'll still work!"

In an instant Tommy pulled out the contents of the battered box, shamelessly revealing that it was a fleshlight, now squashed nearly flat. Jenna's shamed cheeks blushed even redder as she realized that she was looking at one of Tommy's sex toys, and her face fell as she saw just how damaged it really was. The whole black tube was nearly two dimensional, a far cry from the round and symmetrical shape it should have been.

"Now maybe your needle dick boyfriend could squeeze into that," Tommy hissed, "but there's no chance I could."

Jenna's eyes traced subconsciously to below Tommy's beltline. He was wearing sweatpants again, and there was once more an annoyingly visible imprint running partway down his left thigh. If the shape of that bulge was anything to go by, then he was right, there was no way he'd ever be able to use his new toy. It was only after she'd stared at his bully's dick again that she realized she should defend David.

"Hey, leave my boyfriend out of this!" Jenna stamped her foot, doing her best to meet Tommy's fiery gaze.

"So what? I was rude to your little bitch of a boyfriend back in the day, so now you start breaking my shit?"

"No, it was just an accident, I swear!"

"Yeah sure," Tommy rolled his eyes, "I bet your boss won't believe that when I call to complain."

"No please, don't," Jenna clasped her hands together plaintively, "I need this job. Maybe I could just pay you back for it, how much was it?"

"300 bucks."

Jenna's eyes went wide. She'd always assumed things like this were just cheap bits of plastic and latex. Her eyes fell to not look straight at Tommy again.

"I-I don't have that kind of money right now," she admitted. Her bank account was running low, she wouldn't be paid until the end of the month, and she certainly couldn't ask David for the money to pay off his old bully.

"That's how much you owe me," Tommy shrugged, an uncomfortably cocky smirk reforming on his face as he looked Jenna up and down again. "Unless, you can think of another way to make it up to me."