Faster We Burn

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.

“Pink,” Trish finished for me.

The girl looking back at me from the mirror looked…older? More…in charge? I tucked one of the streaks behind my ear and smiled. It was pink and it was awesome.

“My mom is going to freak.” This couldn’t be any worse than Kayla’s tattoo. At least this wasn’t permanent.

Lottie banged on the door again.

“I’m coming out,” I said, looking once more in the mirror. There was something missing. I quickly fished in my bag for my glasses, after popping out my contacts. I always kept extra solution at Stryker’s because he liked the glasses better than my contacts.

“Genius,” Trish said when I put my glasses on. “It’s like in those movies where the girl takes off her glasses and all of a sudden she’s super hot. Only you’re the opposite of that.”

“Right,” I said, trying to figure out if that was a compliment or an insult and deciding it was a compliment.

There was another bang on the door, so I took a deep breath, opened the door dramatically and struck a pose.

“Tada!” I was met with a round of applause and a kiss from Stryker.

“Hey, Pinky. You look amazing.”

“Thanks.”

Everyone said how good it looked and touched it and oohhhed and ahhhed. Even if it looked like crap, they probably would have done so with as much enthusiasm. They were also all starving, and would have done anything to hurry up the process so they could all go eat.

“Shoot. I think I left my phone back at the dorm,” I said, after searching for it in my purse and my car. “I think it’s on my desk. I’ll go grab it and be right back, okay?”

Everyone was restless and hungry, but I promised I’d be back ASAP. Stryker offered to come with me, but I figured it was just an excuse to pull over somewhere so we could make out, and everyone was hungry enough as it was.

“I swear, I’ll be right back and then we have aaallll night. Just think about that,” I said, reaching my hand in his pocket and giving him a little squeeze when no one was looking.

“Fine,” he said, his voice rough.

“Be back soon,” I said, waving to everyone. They were all busy starting another round of the Picnic game. I shook my head and walked down the stairs.



***



I was so distracted by my new pink hair and thinking about moving in with Stryker that I almost didn’t see him waiting outside the dorm’s entrance.

“Katie.”

I looked up and there he was, wearing a pressed shirt and expensive jeans, and a serious look I’d never seen before.

“Zack,” I said, as if saying his name would make him disappear, like in a dream.

He didn’t.

I stopped walking with at least twenty feet of space between us.

“What do you want from me? What are you doing here?” I fished in my purse for the pepper spray I’d gotten a while back, just in case of moments like this. I reached for it, but he didn’t move closer to me. My hand brushed the Ziploc bag of Dad’s ashes before I withdrew it.

“I just…shit, I practiced this.”

I crossed my arms, tucking the pepper spray against my palm so he couldn’t see it.

“Zack, you had your chances to say everything. I just want you to leave me alone.” I tried to be stern, but my voice shook a little.

“I know, I know.” He took a step closer, and I took one back.

“I just wanted to tell you that,” he took a deep breath and looked up at me, his eyes clear. “I just wanted to tell you that I’m sorry, and that I’m getting help. I just wanted you to know that.”

Part of me wanted to tell him that was great, but another, larger part wanted to tell him that it was too little, too late. He’d broken anything we had together beyond repair. The only hope I could have for him now was that he wouldn’t do it to any other girls. That was the only hope I could ever have for him anymore.

“Good. Now you can leave me alone,” I said.

“But…” He sort of reached toward me, but didn’t step closer.

I put one hand up to stop him. “Look, you came to say what you needed to say. I’m going to go in the building right now and the next time you see me, it will be in court. Bye, Zack.” He was standing between me and the building, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. He was never going to stand between me and anything else. Ever.

I started walking and was about to reach for the front door when he planted himself in front of me.

“But you’re not hearing me, babe. I really need you to hear me. What did you do to your hair? And why are you wearing your glasses?” There it was. That word, and the desperation in his eyes. He reached for me, and that was it.

I simultaneously sprayed him and kneed him in the groin.

He screamed and dropped to the ground, and I went for the door as fast as I could, yanking it open and running for the stairs. It was unlikely he was going to follow me, but I wasn’t going to take any chances. My hands shook as I unlocked my door and went for my phone, which was exactly where I thought it would be.

I gave the operator the details as I pushed several boxes of books she’d been packing up in front of the door and sat on them, heart pounding.

The operator told me that the cops were on their way, so I called Stryker.

“I thought you were going straight there and back. What’s taking so long?” He tried to make his tone joking, but I could hear the worried edge in it. We didn’t have twindar, but Stryker always seemed to worry about me when I wasn’t with him. Maybe because of all the death that had been around us lately.

“Zack’s here. I’m okay, though. He tried to touch me, but I pepper sprayed him and kicked him and now I’m in my room with the door locked. I called the cops and they’re on their way. So I’m fine, really.” My voice sounded like it didn’t belong to me.

Stryker let forth a string of curses and I heard a commotion in the background.

“I’m coming to get you. Hold on. Just stay on the phone with me.” He put his hand over the phone and I heard muffled talking. They were probably all coming to my rescue now. I listened to them with one ear and trained the other on the hallway. I’d told the cops which room I was in so they could find me.

“Are you still there?” Stryker said as I heard more chatter and car doors slamming.

“I’m here.” Sort of.

Tires squealed. “Just stay with me, sweetheart. I will never let him hurt you.”

“I know.”

He said a bunch of other things, but I didn’t hear most of them. I felt floaty, like a balloon that was only lightly tethered to the ground.

I waited and waited and waited.

Finally, voices sounded down the hall. Adult voices. Police voices. Then there was a banging on my door, followed but a flutter of other voices that I recognized.

“Katie?! Are you okay?” Stryker said, trying to open the locked door. Ah, that question that never had an answer. “Just tell me if you’re in there, sweetheart.”

“I’m here,” I said, getting off the boxes and pushing them out of the way. I opened the door and was met by quite a group. Three cops and five friends.

“Oh, Katie,” Stryker said, reaching out for me. I shook my head.

“I’m okay. I just…” I looked at all of them. “I want to f*cking kill him, the bastard.” My weird floaty feeling was gone, replaced with something that burned hotter and brighter.

Rage.

“Where is he?” I said to one of the cops. “I have a few things I’d like to tell him.”

The cop looked at me with a stunned expression.

“We, uh, took him into custody. I don’t think you should see him right now.” He tried to put his hand on my shoulder, but I shrugged it off.

“No, I’m not done with him yet. I’m going to make him regret everything he did to me.” I tried to lunge past the crowd, which wasn’t the brightest thing to do because about six sets of arms were there to stop me.

“Let me go!” I said, trying to shove my way through and failing. “I’m going to make him wish he was never born.” I growled, and another set of hands clasped my face, forcing me to look into a set of lovely green eyes.

“You already got him. You got him. He doesn’t have any power over you. He never did. He is nothing. Nothing, compared to you, do you understand, Katie? He’s nothing.” He pulled me into his arms and whispered the last part into my ear as he crushed me into his chest.

“Nothing, nothing, nothing.” Rocking me back and forth, he said it over and over. I was sure the cops were giving us strange looks, but they stepped back.

“I hate him,” I whispered into his pounding heart.

“I know, I know. I hate him too. The only reason I’m not killing him for you is because I’m holding you. You’re the only thing keeping me from making a big mistake and ending up in jail.” His voice shook a little as the cops talked back and forth about what to do. I knew from experience that I’d have to give a statement and so forth. It was going to be a long night. I wished I could rewind and go back to when I was so excited about my hair.

Stryker held me for as long as it took for both of us to calm down enough that we didn’t both bolt.

“Can I give my statement tomorrow? I’m really tired,” I said to one of the cops.

He said something into his radio. “Are you sure? It’s best to get everything while it’s fresh in your mind.”

“Oh, it will still be fresh tomorrow.”

“Are you sure?” I appreciated his concern, but I couldn’t do it tonight.

I nodded. “Yes. I just want to go home with my boyfriend.” I squeezed Stryker’s hand.

“Okay, well just come in tomorrow when you’re ready. He’s not going to be bothering you anymore tonight.” He gave me his card and I thanked them for their quick response.

We all stood silently in the hallway. Then Simon’s stomach growled so loud we all heard it.

He blushed. “What? My stomach didn’t know there was a crisis. I can’t help it.”

“Sorry guys,” I said, leaning against Stryker.

“Are you kidding? What do you have to be sorry for?” Simon said. “I’m sorry about my stomach. Shut up stomach,” he said, tilting his head down as if he was talking to it.

“Let’s go back home and order pizza. What do you think?” Stryker said.

“Good idea,” I said, letting him lead me back toward the stairs.

“If he ever lays a finger on you—” Stryker started to say.

“He won’t. I’ll break his hands off first,” I said. “Nobody will ever make me feel that way again, least of all Zack.”

I leaned my head on his shoulder. “That’s my girl.”