Faster We Burn

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