Faster We Burn (34 page)

“Okay, how about Animal Science?”

She shook her head.

“Anthropology?”

“Put that in the maybe column.” I grabbed the marker I’d been using to draw on her back and wrote ‘anthropology-maybe’ below the sun.

“Art education?”

Another head shake. “But that would have been a good one for you, if you weren’t already doing your genius thing.”

I went down the entire list of majors and she nixed almost all of them, except for a few that I wrote on her back. When we were done, I put the cap back on the marker and admired my work.

“Well Miss Hallman, I think we’ve got a list. Why don’t you make an appointment with a guidance counselor and they can help you out. They’re professionals so they know what they’re doing.”

She made a little snorting noise. “You want me to go in to the guidance office, take off my shirt and say that this is the list of majors I’ve narrowed my choices down to?” She pointed to her back.

“I meant that we should probably transfer this list to paper and
then
take it in,” I said, kissing ‘anthropology’.

“Good plan,” she breathed as I kissed my way lower on the list before flipping her over and making us both forget about majors for a while.

***

The following Tuesday Katie came back from her meeting with the guidance person with a sad look on her face.

“What’s wrong?” I’d been working on a lab, but I threw it aside, even though I was halfway through a tricky calculation.

Her face split into a smile.

“Gotcha. It went fine. Basically they told me that if I’m really not sure, I should just take a bunch of classes for things I’m interested in and go from there. So, I’m signing up for art history, another anthro class, British lit, vocal performance, and food science and nutrition.” She flopped down next to me, giving me a quick kiss.

“That’s very…eclectic.”

“I would have taken more classes, but that’s a full schedule, and I wasn’t sure if I could do more.”

She definitely could. I’d seen what she could do when she put just a little effort in. Katie was one of those girls who didn’t have to try too hard to get good grades, so she’d just done just enough for years and gotten by.

“So my life makeover is in full swing. Now I just have to find a job.” She mimed shooting herself in the head.

“I could always use an assistant. You could hold the flashlight for me,” I said, pulling her onto my lap.

She giggled. “Not that that isn’t tempting, but I gotta do my own thing. I just don’t know what that is. I started looking online.”

“You want to make another list?” I stroked her arm.

“I think I can do this one on my own, but there is one part of my makeover I would like you to be with me for.”

“And what’s that?”

“I was thinking…” she said, twirling some of her hair around her finger and staring at it. “I was thinking I’d like to do something with my hair. Like, maybe put some pink in it.” She looked at me out of the corner of her eye, searching for my reaction.

“Pink, huh?” I grabbed a few strands and ran them through my fingers. I could picture that. She’d look so cute with pink hair, especially with her glasses.

“You don’t think it’s dumb, do you?”

“Sweetheart, I would never think you were dumb, and even if I did, I’d never tell you. I might call you an idiot, but I’d never say you were dumb.” I kissed her nose. “No, I think you would look beyond adorable with some pink in your hair.”

“Okay then.” She relaxed against me.

“I have some…changes I’d like to make as well, involving you, that I wanted to talk to you about,” I said. It was now or never.

“And what might those changes be?”

“I was thinking…” Now it was my turn to be nervous. “I was thinking that since you’re here so much anyway and Lottie and Zan are thinking about getting their own place, that maybe you might want to move in. Here. With me.”

She sat up and turned around. “Move in with you?”

“I know it’s really soon, but I thought I would throw it out there. I mean, you already have tampons stashed everywhere, and my bathroom looks like a cosmetics store blew up in it. Not that I’m complaining.” I was still at the stage where seeing her stuff around made me happy instead of annoyed. I was sure I’d get to the annoyed part eventually.

“Move in with you.” She said it as a statement, not a question. “I…Are you sure? I’m just afraid that you’ll get sick of me, or find something you don’t like about me, and I don’t want that to happen.”

“What about me? What if you find something you don’t like about me?” That was the first thing that had crossed my mind and the reason I’d put off asking her in the first place.

“I guess that’s a risk we’re just going to have to take,” she said, leaning into me for a kiss. “I would love to move in with you. You and me.”

“No space.”

“Nope, it’s going to be
our
space, and it’s going to be covered in pink.” Her eyes gleamed maniacally.

“God help us.”

Chapter Thirty

Katie

“Please say that is the last box,” Will grumbled as he shoved yet another box into my Mazda. We were moving the majority of my crap into Stryker’s today and then the rest at the end of the semester. I hadn’t told Mom yet because I didn’t think it was something she needed to be worried about at the moment. She was doing a little better with the help of her support group, and she’d become close with another woman who had also lost her husband suddenly. Still, I didn’t want to mess with the careful equilibrium we’d established by telling her that I’d moved in with Stryker.

“That is the last box,” I said, shutting the trunk. Lottie had roped Will and Simon into helping me. Zan would have been there, but he had a class, as did Stryker. Or so they said. I had my suspicions.

“You sure about this?” Will said, crossing his arms and leaning on the back of the car.

“Not really, but there’s only one way to find out. I mean, we’ve already been through so much.”

“True.” He glanced over at Lottie and Simon, who were playing rock, paper, scissors for no apparent reason.

“Hey, how are you and Aud?”

He shrugged.

“I don’t know. She’s…I always feel like she’s hiding something from me, you know? Like she lets me get close enough and then shuts the door in my face. It’s driving me crazy.” He yanked his hand through is hair, which didn’t do much. Will always looked like he’d come from the beach, with his blonde wind-blown hair.

“That sucks.”

“Tell me about it.”

Simon and Lottie had started what looked like a slap fight.

“Sometimes I don’t know about those two,” Will said, shaking his head as I got my keys out.

“So I’ll see you guys later. Thanks so much for all the help.” It seemed anti-climactic for me to be leaving like this, but they all seemed to have things to do. Supposedly.

“Bye, roommie. I’ll miss you,” Lottie said, giving me a hug.

“I’ll see you tonight, you idiot. Remember? Girls’ night?” As much as I wanted to spend the night having no-space time with Stryker, I still needed my girl time. Especially now that Trish could dish on her new guy.

“Right,” she said, not looking at me as she let go. “So, I should get to that thing. That I’m doing. You know.”

“Riiigggghhhttt,” I said, getting into the driver’s side. She was a terrible liar. Something was up, but I sort of knew that already. None of them could keep a secret very well. Not even Stryker.

Driving back to his, I mean our, apartment wasn’t easy because I couldn’t see out my back window. When I pulled into the lot, there were more than a few cars that I recognized. The least they could have done was park down the street, but they weren’t that stealthy. Amateurs.

“Knock, knock,” I said loudly at the bottom of the stairs. Frantic movement ensued and then Stryker appeared, looking flustered.

“Hey, best friend. What you doing up there?” I said.

“Oh, um, nothing.” He made sure to close the door behind him.

“Sure.” I let him kiss me for a really long time. Clearly, he was trying to stall me, and it was working. His hands worked themselves under my jacket and shirt, hot and demanding.

“Are you trying to have your way with me right here, right now?”

“Maybe,” he said, kissing down my neck. He was very good at distracting when he put his mind to it.

“Uh huh,” I said, biting my lip as my legs threatened to buckle. “And this has nothing to do with the surprise you guys are trying to get together upstairs.” My words were all garbled, but he got the gist, raising his head from my neck.

“Were we that obvious?”

“Well, Lottie couldn’t keep something like this a secret to save her life, so yeah.” He rested his head on my shoulder.

“Damn.”

“Nice try, though.” I patted his head and he sighed, which tickled.

I nearly jumped when a very fake-sounding bird call emanated from Stryker’s partially open door. He called back, sounding very much like a wounded seagull.

“You are ridiculous,” I said as he led me up the stairs. He stopped me and put his hand on the door, and I heard some scurrying feet. Stryker waited a second longer and then swung the door open.

“Surprise!” Unlike with Lottie’s car, they all yelled it at the same time. Simon had practiced with them, no doubt. They were here, Simon, Brady, Lottie, Zan, Will, Audrey, Trish and Max. All smiling at me like idiots. God, I adored them.

“Oh my God, you guys,” I said, pretending I had no idea. There was a huge pink banner that said, CONGRATS ON LIVING IN SIN TOGETHER in white lettering.

“Thanks for that,” I said, giving Stryker a look. He just raised his hands in defeat.

“It was Trish’s idea.”

Of course it was.

She grinned from ear to ear, but at least Max had the decency to look sheepish, blushing under all that blue hair.

“We also have another little surprise for you,” Lottie said, coming around from behind the couch. “So you know how we are not going to be living in the same room for next semester, which made me crazy sad.”

“Uh huh.” I had no idea where she was going with this.

“Weeeelllll, there just happens to be an available apartment right below this one,” she said, giving me a huge wink.

“You didn’t,” I said, looking at Zan, who gave me one of his rare smiles.

She put her arms in the air in celebration. “We did!”

“And guess who is getting her own place, just down the street, and away from her psychotic roommate? This girl,” Trish said, raising her hand.

“Thank God,” Max said. “I didn’t think I could stand her staring at me every time I came over. I was afraid she was plotting to murder me in my sleep, or at least use me as a human sacrifice.”

“Don’t worry, I had a knife and a Taser under my bed. You’re safe,” Trish said, patting his arm.

“I love how prepared you are,” he said.

Simon made gagging noises, but he was wrapped around Brady, so he couldn’t really say much.

“So, who wants to help bring all my stuff up from my car?” I said and they all groaned in unison. They must have practiced that too.

***

As soon as we got all my crap up the stairs, Lottie announced that she wanted to get her stuff moved as well. Apparently Zan had already moved his things, by himself, in one trip. But he was a guy, and he was kind of a minimalist anyway. They thought my stuff was bad, but Lottie had all those books.

“Can’t we just…not and say we did?” Will said as we consumed the cupcakes Audrey had brought over for the party.

“Look, if we could just Portkey the stuff here, I would totally do that, but we can’t,” Lottie said.

“Wish we could,” Audrey said. “It would make things so much easier.”

Stryker swiped some frosting off his cupcake and held it out to me. I licked it off and someone made a disgusted sound. Oh, like they hadn’t all done it already.

“There’s another part of this little surprise,” Trish said, getting up from Max’s lap. “Stryker mentioned your wish to change your hair up, so I brought some supplies.” She grabbed her backpack and dumped it out on the coffee table. Bottles and combs and other things fell out.

“You ready to be pink?” I picked up the box that had a smiling girl with brilliant pink hair on the front. Well, I wasn’t ready to be
that
pink, but a few streaks were definitely doable.

“Um, you sure you know what you’re doing?” I said.

“Who do you think does my hair, and his?” She pointed to Stryker. “I’ve been doing it for years, and I haven’t messed up yet.”

“There was that one time…” Stryker said.

She glared at him. “Okay once, I messed up once.”

“What happened?” Max said.

Trish looked at the ceiling. “I may have made Stryker’s hair the color of snot.”

“I think it was more dirty canary. Either way, it was pretty bad,” Stryker said, shuddering. “Never again.”

“But that’s not going to happen to you. So, are you ready?” She took the box from me and grinned.

“Guess so,” I said, even though it was kind of a lie. No time like now.

I’d only ever had highlights done, so doing the pink was a whole different thing. First Trish had to bleach the pieces that I wanted, which made my eyes burn, and then she had to put the color on. There was a lot of waiting, and holding still, and people staring at me, and more waiting for the end results. I opted for a few streaks in the front, and then a few more here and there throughout. Trish seemed to know what she was doing, so I trusted her enough to take charge.

She wouldn’t let me see anything until she’d washed the dye out in Stryker’s sink and blow-dried my entire head. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d flat-ironed it. I’d sort of stopped doing a lot of that stuff. I also hadn’t been tanning in forever. I used to go like clockwork, but it seemed like both a stupid and dangerous waste of money now.

“You’re done, gorgeous,” Trish said, turning me around.

“Let us see!” Lottie said, banging on the bathroom door.

“Well, it’s…” I said, searching for the right word.