Faster We Burn

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.