SYDNEY IS MORE NERVOUS THAN I AM. 

We are in the bathroom in which she has been rummaging around in her drawer for about a minute. I don't really know what she's looking for, but I'm guessing it's a brush or a pair of scissors. When I think about someone cutting my hair again after months, nervousness is not what I feel. It's more like excitement. The happiness that someone cares about me, even though that may sound bizarre. 

At Gavin's I've always gotten refuge ─ and a warm shower ─ but that Sydney, who still barely knows me, is willing to do the same, loosens the knot in my chest a little. Being around her makes me feel carefree and more like myself, just like I was before Hollyn died. 

Besides, her presence makes me feel good. Just like now, because she's still standing in front of me, leaning down now so far that I can't take my eyes off her butt, although it probably would have been better. I ignore the things she's doing with me as best I can and clench my teeth tightly. 

She turns to face me and notices what part of her body I just looked at. Her eyebrows, which are a few shades darker than her hair, shoot up and she looks visibly surprised. 

However, surprise quickly turns to anger, but I open my mouth first. "Yeah, it could be that I was looking at your butt, but you have to admit that you were also a bit of a tease ─" 

She interrupts me with a small smile. "Oh, shut up." 

"You shut up," I return. 

"Make me if you can."

She really keeps laying it on. "I will, Curly, but you might have to moan a little bit as well." 

The line where Sydney can still disagree with me is hereby crossed, as she turns away from me to hide the rising blush. She's so incredibly sweet and uptight, but then she's effervescent and direct again. And I'm sitting here, unable to decide which side of her I like better. 

When Sydney turns back to me, there's a smile on her pink lips and I have to force myself to look into her eyes, which sparkle mischievously. "So, I'm ready then. And you?" 

I nod and allow her to put a towel around my shoulders. When I hear the sound of the scissors, which I'm sure she triggered specifically to make me nervous, I have to say she does completely succeed. I would trust Sydney for a lot of things, including cutting my hair extra crooked just to spite me. 

She suddenly laughs. "Calm down, Dean. If you're going to wriggle around like that, I can't cut it straight." Her mouth comes close to my ear, so close that I can feel her smile on my skin. "And that's your biggest fear right now, am I right?" 

"I wouldn't make fun of me like that if I were you, Curly." The corners of my mouth lift in derision. "After all, I'm the criminal of us two, am I right?" 

I can feel her already starting to cut, imagining her concentrated face as she wonders if I just meant what I said. Sydney is one hundred percent not afraid of me, but that doesn't mean she automatically trusts me. 

And I'm determined to change that. "I didn't mean it, I swear."

"I know, Dean." She runs her hand through my hair briefly, maybe to estimate the length, but it causes goosebumps on my arms. "Can I ask you a question?" 

I want to nod, but then realize that wouldn't be such a good idea, especially with the scissors in her hand. "You can always ask." 

She stops cutting and takes a deep breath. "Do you think Hunter would hurt someone?" 

"Someone? Who exactly?" 

She tells me about her roommate ─ Bronwyn, I think ─ and their date tonight. Sydney being so worried isn't totally wrong, but Hunter isn't a woman beater. He snapped that one night and I was lucky enough to be there at the site when it happened. So, I don't think anything will happen to Bronwyn around him, but that doesn't mean I approve. Hunter is not the best person to be around, after all, and I know that because I've known him long enough. 

I tell Sydney all of this and it seems to calm her a bit. Eventually, she puts down the scissors and reaches for the razor. I'm completely relaxed by now, even though she's been messing with my hair for about twenty minutes, but as always, I feel normal around her and not like someone who could get caught by the police at any moment. 

And I think she feels the same way I do. Well, the only difference is that the cops aren't after her. 

"You have an interesting hair color," Sydney says when she's finished. Again, she runs her long fingers over my head, which feels incredibly good. "Kind of dark brown, but there are also light brown strands. And black ones. I've never seen hair like this before."

I slip the towel off, stand up and turn to face her. She looks at me almost in awe and at that moment I know that she clearly hasn't messed up anything with my hair. It turned out so well that she likes me and she doesn't even have to say that. I can read it in the way she looks at me. 

"Sydney," I say softly. "You can barely take your eyes off me, this is how handsome I look." 

She rolls her eyes and then pulls me by the hands in front of the bathroom mirror above the sink. Tensely, she lets go of me again and nervously runs her hands over her forearms. 

She's done really well and I immediately wonder where she learned that. For sure she has a brother who made her do it too. My hair is shaved off on the sides, which somehow makes me look more groomed. In front, they are longer, but still much shorter than before. Carefully, I touch the upper hair and suddenly can't hold back a smile. I don't even know why I'm smiling. It's not because of my new haircut, but rather because of the person next to me, to whom I glance now. Does she even know how happy she made me with it? 

"Do you like it?" She asks me. 

"Is this a serious question?" If it could be possible, I smile even harder. "Thank you for doing this, Sydney. I like it a lot." I like her a lot.

I have no idea how long we have been looking into each other's eyes because I have lost all sense of time at the moment. Her big blue eyes do not hide the slightest emotion from me, even though I can read only one feeling in them. Affection. 

I can't remember a woman ever throwing me off like that. I barely know Sydney, and yet right now it feels like we've known each other for years. She is the reason I can't stop smiling and why I came here today in the first place. I needed to see her after the last week has been more exhausting than the months before. She is the only anchor I have in this hopeless situation. 

But I realize I have to slow down because I am about to plunge headlong into something that is completely unknown to me. My life before Hollyn's death has not consisted of one relationship after another, more like one woman after another. I'm not proud of it, but I can't change it now either. And as much as I want Sydney, I don't want her for just one night. And that means I have to get to know her better. 

Suddenly, there's a knock at the door, and Sydney and I break our gazes. It doesn't sound like the kind of knock that would make guys burst back in, but still, we're on alert.

Sydney grabs something ─ maybe for defense ─ and so we go back to the living room. 

When I glance at the thing in her hand, I can't help but laugh. "You're going to beat the crap out of that person with a hairbrush?" 

"You don't have anything to defend yourself with," she responds in a huff. "Maybe it's just Bronwyn and we're totally overreacting." 

We're definitely overreacting. 

After all, I'm the one who opens the door and then would prefer to slam it all the way shut again. 

Gavin looks everything other than happy now. "You're kidding me right now, aren't you?" 

Annoyed, I turn away. 

Of course, Gavin comes to follow me. "Why are you here? We talked about this, and you promised you'd stay away from campus." 

"This isn't the campus," I simply reply, "This is an apartment." 

"You're really pushing it to get caught." Gavin is considerably shorter than me, but still, he builds himself up in front of me, no longer seeming like a vision of Ron Weasley that he's so often assumed to be.

"You need to go. I saw police cars outside the West Wing, so these guys can't be far away." 

"Why are you talking so quietly?" Sydney puts herself between us. "And why are you looking at me like I'm not supposed to know about this? What's going on?" 

Gavin sighs. "Okay, sweetie, you need to go now ─" she interrupts him harshly.

She interrupts him harshly. "Shut up for a second, Ron." 

The situation is really inappropriate to grin at, but there's nothing I can do about it. "Calm down, Curly, we have everything under control." 

"Do we?" asks Gavin. 

He's always the one of the two of us who's less relaxed than me in these situations, but I can't even blame him. After all, I'm the one who's been in these situations for months and am almost used to it by now. It sounds strange, but once I know the police are around, I don't feel fear. I feel this indefinable rush that makes me do crazy things to escape from them in some way. But it's different with the group of guys who seem to feel the need to hunt me. Gavin calls them the Catchers because he watches too many action movies and almost finds it exciting. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared of them because I definitely am. But there's something else I feel. Familiarity. It's three guys of which I hear only one voice, and it's the one that calls me every time I'm around. 

Like if I was a fucking dog.

I know this voice from somewhere, but so far I haven't come to the right conclusion. What I do know is that these dudes absolutely hate me, because they probably assume that I'm Hollyn's murderer. Whenever they're around, the police aren't far away either ─ at least that's something good about the whole thing. 

Gavin throws something at Sydney for which she has no fault, but she doesn't need me to defend her. She manages to put him in his place all by herself. Aside from their different looks, the two could easily be siblings in terms of their attitude. While Sydney and Gavin discuss, I try to think, which is not very easy for me.

When the cops are behind the west wing of the university, the catchers usually come from the exact another side ─ the east wing. So I'm left with just the back exits, which I can only get through if there isn't a single student in the hallways, which again is pretty much implausible. Jumping out the window would scare the hell out of Sydney again, and I'm not really keen on doing that again either, only if there's no other option at all. I have searched through the University of New Haven and found a huge variety of escape options, but I can only think of two that make sense at the moment.

"...you should stop arguing for once, you stupid nut," Gavin suddenly says, causing Sydney to angrily glare at him. 

"Stupid nut? Are you serious?" She spouts a few curse words that even I don't know, and that's saying something. 

"Are you two done with arguing now?" I grab my jacket that I took off earlier and throw it over my shoulder. "Because I need your help, Gavin." 

He nods immediately, however, Sydney stands in front of him and looks at me questioningly. Does she want to help me too? For the ... How many times now? I immediately shake my head because I don't see the need to drag her any deeper into this. 

But then I shouldn't have shown up at her door today either. 

She tries to hide her hurt expression by simply turning away from me. "Good luck you two." 

I shouldn't have knocked on her door today. The police will question her again because someone saw me walk in here otherwise the cops wouldn't even be there. As I'm putting on my jacket, I start to feel like the ultimate idiot, and Gavin's look confirms it again. He looks at me almost angrily, which shows me how he likes Sydney despite her argumentative nature.

We leave her apartment without saying a single word. Gavin is immediately highly concentrated again and, with his furrowed brow, he somehow looks as if he's solving a mathematical formula in his head, while my thoughts are still about the girl with the light blond, tangled hair. 

Gavin suddenly grabs me by the shoulders. "Okay, listen to me carefully, Dean." 

I'll try. 

"You are not going to get your head screwed up now, you hear me? You better concentrate so you can get out of this in one piece because if you don't, you'll never see Sydney again. Well, maybe when she visits you in jail." He laughs forcedly, but immediately falls silent when I look at him warningly. 

This isn't really a time for silly jokes. "Let's do it like last time," I say as I peer myself out of my zip-up hoodie. Gavin nods, puts on the black hoodie, and flips the hood over his head. I grin.

"You look pretty." 

"Shut up," comes his immediate response. 

We start running. Me toward the east wing and Gavin toward the west wing, as we've done countless times before. I'm always insanely lucky that Gavin runs into the police and holds them off while I'm busy with the three guys. As always, I feel a healthy rush of excitement and energy inside me that pushes me forward and doesn't make me run any slower. In fact, I get faster and faster, dodging scared students and apologizing when I bump into a girl who drops her laundry basket on the floor. 

After all, I don't want to be rude.

Only two more corners to turn and I can leave the university without handcuffs. I take two big steps and run right into someone who came right around the corner. Confused, I stagger back, and then, my eyes widen in surprise. 

Two guys are standing in front of me, both about the same size as me. I'm surprised that there are only two of them today and not three, but I'm not complaining anyway. As always, they're wearing only black and masks that cover their entire faces, except for their hair. I quickly memorize the colors. Blonde and black. 

I bet the black-haired one is grinning under his creepy mask. " It's getting really easier and easier to find you." 

Where the hell do I know that voice from? 

"But in return, it's not so easy to catch me, right?" I turn around and sprint off. Both are right behind me, I can hear it in their gasps and groans. I feel more than satisfied because I have the best condition of them and this is my benefit, as usual. 

But what isn't my advantage is, that I bump into students the whole time. This time it's a girl with curly brown hair who looks like she's just been crying a few moments ago anyway. If there weren't two guys behind me going completely crazy, I would have comforted her, but it seems like it wouldn't be necessary. Because as soon as she sees me, her face strangely brightens with realization.

"Dean Walker? The guy that my roommate hasn't heard from for days? She was really devastated ─" 

"WALKER!" 

She was devastated because of me?

The next moment I'm lying on the floor and two black figures are bending over me. My head is throbbing like crazy, but I force myself to get up without either of them touching me again. Swallowing, my gaze lingers on the black-haired man who comes closer and closer so close that I can finally recognize the color of his eyes. And those green eyes look way too familiar just like his voice. 

"Do you finally remember me?" Slowly, he pulls off his mask, and despite what I've already figured out, the shock runs deep. 

In front of me is Xander Reed.

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