Faster We Burn

over her face.
    “Her father just died, Ric. I couldn’t tell her that right now.”
    “How convenient.”
    “It’s not like that. Shit, why do you have to make this so difficult?”
    “Difficult?” She let out a loud burst of laughter. “Give me a fucking break. You have no idea, Stryk. Your little pink girlfriend who’s had everything handed to her on a fucking platter. Yeah, well, the rest of us have had it a lot worse. It’s about time she got knocked down a peg.” The venom was directed toward Katie, but she should have been shooting it at me.
    I crossed the room until I was within a foot of her. “Listen, you don’t talk about her that way in my house. Ever. Get the fuck out. There’s the door.” I pointed to it and turned my back on her.
    “If that’s the way you want it, fine. Fuck you, Stryker.” I heard the door slam behind her. Good riddance.
    My phone buzzed a moment later.
    Good luck keeping your dirty little secret Stryk. I was going to keep it to myself, but I might just slip and tell someone …
    I didn’t respond, because that was what she wanted me to do. I was actually shocked that it hadn’t gotten out already. Trish knew and Zoey knew. I’d caught Trish’s eye a couple of times when she’d come down for the funeral and she’d almost brought it up on the phone, but we hadn’t had a moment to talk about it. Trish would never squeal on me because she knew it would hurt Katie.
    I would be damned if I was going to let Ric manipulate me. Even if she did tell Katie, I wasn’t sure if Katie would believe her. Ric didn’t have a good track record with her, and Katie would probably figure Ric was being a jealous bitch.
    I called Trish.
    “Hey, Ric just came by and threatened to tell Katie about us.”
    “Surprise, surprise. Hell hath no fury, brother.”
    “Yes, I am familiar with the quote, Trishella, I’m just not sure what I’m supposed to do about it. I have no idea how far she’ll take this.”
    “So what am I supposed to do about it?” she snapped.
    “I don’t know. Just…don’t say anything to Katie.”
    “Do you think I’m the kind of person who would tell her friend that her boyfriend slept with someone else right after her father died of a heart attack?”
    “I’m not her boyfriend.”
    “Whatever, dude. That’s just semantics. I’m just saying that I wouldn’t tell her. She’s got enough shit to deal with right now without worrying about you putting your penis in places it doesn’t belong.”
    “I’m going to tell her.”
    “Yeah, okay. Let me know how that works out for you. I gotta go, bro. Therapy time is over.” She hung up without saying anything else.
    Well, I had that base covered.
    A moment later, my phone rang again. Damn, I was popular today.
    “Hey, it’s Lottie.”
    “Hey, what’s up?”
    “We’re sort of doing this welcome back kind of thing for Katie, and I thought you should be involved.”
    “What kind of thing are we talking about?”
    “Like a get-together-to-take-her-mind-off-of-it thing. We were also hoping, maybe, we could use your apartment? It’s bigger than the dorm. I figured you wouldn’t mind, but I thought I’d ask before we barged in.”
    “Yeah, that’s fine.” I’d have to clean first, that was for sure. I’d left things in disarray when I’d gone to Katie’s house and I hadn’t gotten them back together yet. “Do you need anything else?”
    “Nope. We’ve got it covered.” She gave me some more details and then hung up.
    God, I had dug myself a hole and it was like it kept getting deeper and deeper.
     
    Katie
     
    Campus was the same. Why I had expected it to be different, I had no idea, but it was like my world had changed so dramatically, I expected the rest to match. Like the sky should always be cloudy, the weather always cold and miserable, the world gray and lifeless. It would have been easier to accept the truth if it was like that.
    I got hug-tackled as soon as I walked into my room by Lottie, who had clearly been waiting for me. My side of the room was all made up and it smelled like she’d just sprayed it with something vanilla-scented.
    “I’ve missed you so much.”
    “You didn’t enjoy having the room all to yourself?” I said, giving her a wink. I would have taken advantage of it, if I were her.
    Her blue eyes went wide.
    “We didn’t—”
    “Of course you did. Hell, I would, if I were you.” Not that I was going to be having sex anytime soon, and it wasn’t just