Faster We Burn

by Chelsea M. Cameron

  “Hey, Mom. Do you need any help?” The counter was covered in cans and bags of flour and cooking spray and spices galore. Stryker would have been horrified at their disorganization.

  I’d said good-bye to him this morning and I was already itching to text him. I’d put my phone in my glove box so I wouldn’t be tempted to look down at it while I was driving.

  “No, I’m fine. Just trying to get organized. When is that guy coming?” As far as my parents knew, Stryker was a friend who was also a guy who didn’t have a home to go to on Thanksgiving. Granted, this was true, but I knew my mother was painting an Oliver Twist-like picture in her head that the reality was going to shatter.

  “Um, I told him to be here by eleven.” We usually ate around one, so that would give my parents enough time to get used to Stryker before we all sat down to dinner. It would also give my relatives enough time to properly embarrass me in front of him.

  “That sounds good. Is he staying the night?” She wiped the counter down with a leaf-shaped sponge. I had no idea where she got this stuff from, but she always managed to find things to fit the holiday.

  “Uhh,” I said, stuttering. I hadn’t anticipated that. “I don’t think he’d planned on it.”

  “Well, didn’t you say he was a couple hours away? We could always make up the extra room for him.” She rinsed the sponge out and I could feel Dad staring intently at me. Normally Mom was the one who read too much into situations with boys.

  “I’ll ask him,” I said, getting out my phone.

  My mom wants to know if u’ll stay the night. In the guest room. I think she thinks ur a loser I’m being nice 2.

  He responded immediately.

  Can I sneak into your room for pity sex?

  I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes because both my parents were watching.

  I told you, my dad has guns.

  I could almost hear his sigh through the text.

  Fine. We can rendezvous in the shower. To be continued

  I smiled as I typed dot dot dot

  “Yeah, he’s going to stay.”

  “What did you say his major was?” Mom said, fiddling with the oven.

  “He’s a double mechanical and environmental science major.” Stryker’s majors painted the picture of a helpless dork, complete with glasses and a pocket protector.

  “Impressive. He must be really smart.” Dad was still giving me a searching look.

  “He is. He’s also musically inclined, and may or may not bring a guitar with him. He usually always has one in his car.” I didn’t know which car he’d be bringing, because he was always working on two at once.

  “And he doesn’t have any family?” Mom said.

  “His sister is going with Lottie, actually. Their parents abandoned them and they don’t have any relatives they’re close to.”

  Mom shook her head sadly. Oh, how her delusions were going to be smashed tomorrow.

  “That’s such a shame. Well, he’s more than welcome.”

  “He’s really grateful,” I said, which wasn’t complete bullshit. “So, I’m going to go take my stuff to my room.”

  I scurried away before Dad could intercept me, and shut the door. So far, so good.

  Chapter Eight

  Stryker

  If I said I wasn’t nervous, I would have been lying. I panicked and wrapped the container I put the baked brie in with towels so even if it bounced, nothing would happen to it and checked my appearance in the mirror more times than I had in all the previous years of my life, combined.

  I’d even made Trish help me pick out a tie, which was like making a really grumpy cat take a bath.

  I’d debated about taking out my piercings, which was another first, but I left them in. I didn’t care what they thought about those. I did, however, wear a long-sleeved shirt that hid my tattoos.

  Luckily, I had a nice long drive to panic and try to rehearse what I was going to say.

  I texted Katie when I was a few minutes away, realizing that in my nervousness, I was pretty early. My GPS directed me that her house was my next right in a lovely calm robotic voice.

  Katie’s neighborhood looked like the set of a quintessential American town. It was a development with houses that all had the exact same-sized lawns and evenly-spaced trees. I’d lived in a lot of places, but definitely none like this. This was a place with snowblowers and riding lawnmowers and potted shrubs and white fences. It was so…clean.

  There were at least six cars parked in the driveway and in front of the house, so I had to park on the street in front, partially blocking the neighbor’s driveway.

  I unwrapped the casserole dish from the towels, grabbed the bag with my hostess/suck up gift and walked up to the front door. There was a flag shaped like a turkey hanging from the eaves of the porch. Wow. They were those kind of people. The kind of people who had boxes of decorations for every holiday, even the holidays that weren’t really holidays. Like President’s Day. Katie hadn’t mentioned that.

  I rang the doorbell and crossed my fingers that Katie would answer. I heard pounding footsteps, which probably meant she was trying to beat someone else to the door. Smart girl.

  “Hey,” I said, giving her what I hoped was a confident smile.

  “Did you do something to your hair?” She said after staring at me for a full thirty seconds.

  “Yeah, I actually brushed it today.” This was partially true. I’d also put some gel in it to make it behave.

  “You look, wow.” She blinked, but didn’t move to let me in. She didn’t look so bad herself. I didn’t know anyone who could pull off pink jeans with a white sweater, but she could. Behind her I could hear the hum of people talking and laughing. Panic tried to claw its way into my brain, but I pushed it back. There was no need to panic.

  I held out the brie. “I come bearing gifts. Do you, um, think I could come in?”

  She blinked again and shook her head, as if to clear it.

  “Um, yeah. Come on in.”

  “Thanks.” I stepped over the threshold, but she grabbed my arm and leaned to whisper in my ear.

  “Are you sure about this?”

  “Now isn’t really the time to be asking me that, sweetheart,” I said.

  “I know, but—” I stepped around her. No, I hadn’t spent the two-hour-drive-in-the-car-practicing-for-this time for nothing. We were doing this.

  “I’m here, Katie. It’s too late now.”

  She nodded and dived in front of me so she could make the introductions. I followed in her wake and tried not to drop the casserole dish. I also tried not to watch her ass as she walked away.

  At least I didn’t drop the dish.

  Her voice made me look up and realize I was in the kitchen and everyone was staring at me.

  “Mom, Dad, this is Stryker Grant,” Katie said as I walked behind her and set the casserole dish down on the already-crowded counter. Katie had her mom’s wide eyes, but that was about the only similarity they shared. Katie was very much her father’s daughter, except for the fact that he was about as tall as Zack.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Hallman, thank you so much for inviting me. I really appreciate it.” I set the bag with a bottle of wine and a bunch of flowers down so I could hold out my hand for her father, who was standing closer to me. He was the first one to unfreeze from his shock. Yeah, I’d expected that, and I was used to it.

  “It’s nice to meet you, Stryker. Please, call me Glenn.” He gave me a firm shake. Maybe a little too firm. I let go and looked at Katie’s Mom.

  “Mom?” Katie said. For a second, I thought she was going to snap her fingers in front of her mom’s face.

  “You’re Stryker?” Mrs. Hallman said, her eyes flitting from my eyebrow ring, to my lip ring and to my earring.

  “You have a beautiful home,” I said, picking up the gifts. “I brought you some wine, and this,” I said taking out the flowers.

  “Uh, thank you, they’re beautiful.” She took them but didn’t stop looking at me.
She finally shook my hand, but it was limp and she let go as quickly as she could. Ah, so that was how it was going to be. This would be interesting.

  “I also brought a little something. It’s a baked brie. I tried to keep it warm on the way over, but it might need to sit in the oven for a few minutes to warm up.

  “Right this way,” Katie said, glaring at her mother and grabbing the casserole dish. This was also a house with two ovens, apparently, because there was a turkey in one, but the bottom oven was unoccupied.

  “I knew she was going to do this,” she whispered as she set the oven and shoved the dish in.

  “It’s okay,” I said back as everyone else broke into chatter again. There was a microscopic part of me that wanted to shut the oven and run out the front door to my car, but one thing kept me from doing it.

  Katie. Her fingers dug into my arm, and I could feel she was as nervous as I was, maybe even more so. She cared if her parents liked me or not.

  “What am I, chopped liver?” An older man wearing a flannel shirt with more than a few holes in it marched over, his hand out.

  “Stryker, Grampa Jack. Grampa Jack, this is my friend, Stryker.” I shook his hand and he winked at me.

  “Welcome to the family, son.”

  “Oh, he’s not—” Katie said at the same time I said, “I’m not—”

  He laughed, wheezing. Clearly, he’d smoked more than a few cigars in his life. He crooked his finger for me to lean in.

  “Just be careful with my granddaughter,” he said, giving me a roguish wink from under his unruly white eyebrows. He only gave my appearance a quick glance, but I still felt like I wanted to crawl into a hole and hide. I wasn’t afraid of a whole lot of people, but this guy scared me. Katie had barely mentioned him when I’d asked about who I’d be meeting, but I did remember her saying he was ex-military, which sounded less intimidating when the guy wasn’t standing in front of me.

  I looked at Katie and she rolled her eyes.

  “I will. Thank you, sir,” I said, wishing I’d taken my piercings out. Too late now.

  He clapped me on the shoulder and wheezy-laughed again.

  “Come and sit next to me. I want to hear all about you.” He grabbed my shoulder and steered me toward the living room as a few kids ran by screaming. I sort of wished I could join them.

  Katie was right behind me when I heard her mom say, “Katie, can you help me with something?” She gave me an angry look and then smoothed a smile over it.

  “Sure, Mom.” Be right back, she mouthed at me before going back into the kitchen.

  Great. I had to face the grandfather interrogation alone. There was no choice but to let the man with the iron grip steer me into the next room.

  The living room was beige with more beige and simple furnishings, which I guessed made a nice canvas for all the Thanksgiving things. I moved a stuffed cornucopia pillow so I could sit on one end of the massive sectional. He took the other end, and sat back.

  “Why did you do that to your face?” he said, pointing at his own lip and eyebrow. It took me a second to get enough moisture in my mouth to talk.

  “What?”

  “You’ve got metal in your face. How do you go through one of those detectors at the airport?”

  For about five seconds, I had no idea what to say. Then he started laughing as if it was the funniest thing he’d said in his entire life. The laugh turned into a cough and I wondered if I should get off the couch and bang on his back or something.

  “You okay, sir?”

  “I’m fine, son. The look on your face was priceless.” He wiped tears from his eyes and slapped his knee with one hand.

  “So, what are your intentions with my granddaughter?”

  I was about to form some sort of response that wasn’t She’s using me for sex when the front door opened and someone called out, “Surprise!” The talking stopped as everyone rushed to the door to see who it was.

  “Oh my God, Kayla?” Katie shrieked and ran from the kitchen, launching herself into the arms of a girl who had to be her sister. They both hugged, rocking back and forth and I was afraid they were going to tip over in their enthusiasm. Guess it was genetic.

  “Hey, Katiebug!” Kayla said, pulling out of the hug, but not letting go of Katie’s hands.

  “What are you doing here?” Katie said, her face lit up like a kid on Christmas morning. Christ, she was beautiful.

  “It’s Thanksgiving and I got on a plane. Hey, Mom.” There was a flurry of hugging and tears and laughter as the family welcomed their new guest. I stayed in the living room and watched it all. Katie beamed and kept her arm around her sister. Even though Kayla was taller, you’d have to be blind not to see that they were two peas in a pod, with identical brown hair and eyes.

  Kayla cleared her throat and then whistled to get everybody to shut up. “Um, so everyone, I have someone I want you to meet.” She opened the door again and grabbed the hand of a tall black guy who looked like he wanted to get back in the car, and led him in. Kayla threaded her hand with his and gave him an encouraging smile that he somehow returned.

  “This is Adam, and um, we’re getting married.” She held up her left hand to show a simple gold band and beamed at the terrified-but-trying-to-hide-it Adam.

  There was a half-second of stunned silence and then house exploded with noise as everyone started talking and yelling at once.

  Katie

  I couldn’t believe her. She’d mentioned a guy in a few of her emails, but never his name and never that she was serious about him.

  I was torn between being so happy to see her and super pissed that she didn’t tell me, but that was just like her. She’d been all set to get her Master’s degree, but then she decided that helping people in third world countries was more important. She didn’t tell us she’d dropped out of school until the night before she was set to get on a plane.

  “What the hell, Kayla?” I said when Mom finally stopped freaking out. I felt bad for Stryker. He sat in the living room by himself and I could tell he was regretting that he’d come. Poor guy.

  “I’m sorry, it just happened so fast.” She glanced over at Adam, who was getting grilled by Dad, and then her eyes found Stryker. Everyone else was talking to Adam all at once, including Grampa Jack, who’d levered himself off the couch to come and inspect his soon-to-be grandson-in-law.

  “Who’s that guy?” she said, loud enough for him to hear. He pretended to be very interested in the couch.

  “Ah, that’s Stryker. He’s a friend,” I whispered.

  She crossed her arms and gave me a look.

  “Now who’s keeping a secret guy?”

  “It’s not like that, Kayla. It’s more of a…friend’s with benefits thing,” I said even lower so only Kayla could hear, my face turning red despite my best efforts.

  Kayla gave me a knowing smile. “Of course it is. Come on,” she said, linking her arm with mine. “I wanna meet this guy.” There was no way I was going to win that battle so I let her drag me to the living room. I tried to give Stryker a look to warn him, but he was still staring at the couch. He got up when he saw us coming for him, his hands making sure his shirt was tucked in the right way. He really looked damn good all cleaned up like that.

  “Well, well, well, look at you,” she said, giving him the once over as he stood still, awaiting her inspection. I had to give him credit; he didn’t even flinch. They stared at each other in complete silence and I could sense they were having a conversation without saying a word. Stryker’s jaw tensed and Kayla’s eyes narrowed before she slowly smiled at him.

  It was one of the weirdest non-conversations I’d ever seen, and I’d watched Lottie and Will do their twindar thing any number of times.

  “Stryker, this is my sister Kayla, Kayla, this is Stryker,” I said, to try to break up some of the tension. They shook hands and Kayla’s gaze went back and forth between us a few times.

  “So, what are your intentions with my sister?” Stryker thought about it
for a moment, leaned in and winked at me.

  “I’m just using her for sex,” he whispered. Kayla’s eyes went wide and then she started laughing. Stryker relaxed a fraction. He’d taken a risk, saying something like that. It sounded more like the Stryker I was used to.

  “I like him. He’s not a douchebag. That’s a first.” Stryker nodded at Kayla and his lips twitched as if he was trying not to smile.

  Seriously? “He just said he’s using me for sex and you think he’s not a douchebag?”

  She shrugged. “How do you think Adam and I got together? Nice to meet you, Stryker” she said, patting him on the shoulder and going to rescue Adam from my dad.

  I stared after her, shaking my head. “I don’t understand what just happened,” I said.

  “Go with it. We should probably check the brie,” Stryker said, stepping around me to go to the oven.

  “Right, brie.”

  ***

  Kayla definitely took the heat off Stryker, which was a good thing. Mom was too busy gushing over Kayla’s announcement to worry anymore about Stryker’s appearance. She was shocked for as much time as it took Kayla to tell her that Adam was in medical school and was on his way to being a doctor with a huge salary and then she was ready to throw them a wedding in our living room right then and there. Dad just laughed and shook his head and told her not to get carried away.

  Adam was quiet initially, but Kayla got him talking about their time in Africa and how they met and all the adventures they’d had with food poisoning, lions and droughts. Hearing them talk about it made me ache, and after a few minutes, I just wanted them to shut up. They were just so…goddamn happy. Kayla was glowing with it, like a firefly. I’d been so happy to see her, but we’d barely had a chance to talk about anything because everyone was so eager to hear about the engagement plans and all that. I just wanted a chance to talk to her, just us, away from everyone else.

  But I was trapped at the table with them, Stryker on my right and Grampa Jack on my left. My parents ended up having to bring in another table to fit everyone, including my Aunt Carol, Uncle Clay, their kids Jackson, Ruthie and Andy, my Uncle Ray, Aunt Linda and their kids Bailey and Brandon, our neighbors Poppy, and Ron and their daughter Rosalee.