Faster We Burn

“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,