Dustin, to say the least, was enthusiastic about seeing Will in our home. He arrived home around ten on Saturday morning, entering the house just in time to see Will staggering sleepily down the stairs. Apparently the nights he spent sleeping on the café sofa weren't very restful because after that and staying up until 2:00 AM playing videogames caused him to immediately pass out on the guest bed after I showed him to it.

I was in the kitchen sipping an instant coffee, steadily working on my math homework when the two boys joined me. Dustin had a bright smile on his face, his hazel eyes wide and excited. Before he could ask, I gave him a quick explanation. "Dustin, Will's our neighbor, his house is the house that caught on fire, and I let him stay here last night."

"Uh." Dustin blinked rapidly as this new information sunk in. Then he turned on Will, his eyebrows nearly touching his hairline. "You own that fancy house?"

Will half-smiled at my brother. "Well, it's not so fancy anymore."

"So, you're staying with us now?"

"It was only last night..."

Dustin frowned at this. "But where are you going to stay tonight? And tomorrow night? It's not like there's exactly a surplus of apartments or houses on sale around here."

"Will, you're more than welcome to stay here longer," I said before Will could respond to my brother. Everyone in the town knew how hard houses and apartments were to come by around here. Heck, even Dustin apparently knew. So it wasn't hard to figure that Will was either going to go back to sleeping at the café or stay in one of the grimy motels in the next town over.

"I don't know."

Placing my pencil down on the table, I turned to purse my lips at him. "Face it. You have nowhere else to stay. And we're friends, aren't we? Friends help each other out. I have a room. Dustin has a girl crush on you—"

"Hey!" Dustin protested.

"—and honestly, I wouldn't mind having someone stronger than me around. Especially after the suspicious circumstances of your house catching on fire." And wasn't that the truth. I was a female, and while it was terribly unfair, there was only so much strength I possessed. And if there was a potential arsonist running around? I didn't like my odds.

"It was faulty wiring," Will murmured.

I gave him a flat look. "Don't tell me you believe that."

"I can afford the motel—"

"Will," I interjected, a little exasperatedly. "Do you want me to beg? Just stay here. I'll feel safer. And better, knowing you're not sleeping on a too-small couch, or in a dirty motel room."

There was a few more moment of silence. Then he spoke. "If I stay," he started slowly, choosing his words carefully, "I want to pay you."

"Don't worry—"

"No," he interjected firmly, his piercing gaze meeting mine. "That's my counteroffer."

I raised an eyebrow. "Counteroffer?"

He gave me a brisk nod. "I don't like freeloading."

"Well." Now it was my turn to consider. Although having Will pay to stay with me while his house wasn't livable sounded unfair, it would really help me out. And if he was adamant about it...

Seemingly guessing my thoughts, the corners of his mouth quirked up into a tiny smirk. "I won't stay unless you agree to this."

I shot him a dirty look. "Fine."

"Fine as in you'll let me pay you?"

"Yes."

His smirk widened into a smile. "Perfect. I have to be perfectly honest though; I have no idea how long it'll take for my house to be fixed. I mean, I haven't even been able to contact anyone as of yet."

I waved my hand dismissively. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. If you're going to be helping me pay my bills, you can just stay here for the rest of your life." And there was a huge, totally irrational, part of me that honestly meant that.

"Katie, thank you." The sincerity in Will's voice threw me off guard for a moment. It was like he was thanking me for saving his life, or something— not just giving him a place to stay.

"You're welcome," I finally mumbled, embarrassed now. "Um, I guess I should give you a better run-through of the house though."

"I'll show him!" Dustin offered cheerfully.

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously at my brother. Since when was he so helpful? Still, before I could say any protest, Dustin was dragging Will out of the kitchen, speaking a mile a minute. For a moment I stared after them, wondering if I should intervene, but I elected to finish my homework instead. Hopefully, I could trust my brother to not say anything too cringe-worthy.

As it turned out, whatever Dustin had to say to Will, just made the older man feel more comfortable in our house. The first week of living together was sort of like putting together the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. After living with only Dustin for so long, it felt weird to have a third person in the house. A third person who was a very grown, and very attractive, man. But eventually, the pieces all came together, and Will's presence in the living room at nine o'clock at night, while I channel surfed, was just as expected as Dustin's. Another great plus was that Dustin and Will got along tremendously, and Will was brilliant, so he was able to help Dustin out with his homework.

A week and a half into this new arrangement brought Matt to our door, a knowing smirk on his smug face. In his arms was a party-sized pizza. "I've come to have dinner with my favorite people!"

Will groaned at the sight of his older brother. "Why?"

"As a thank you to the lovely lady that's letting little homeless you stay with her," Matt said in response, winking at me. "You're a brave soul."

"Brave?" I echoed.

"Yeah, he—"

"Matt, shut up," Will demanded, elbowing his brother in the ribs. "Get inside and shut the door. You're letting all the cold air in."

Doing as requested, Matt slipped inside, closing the door behind him quietly. "So he hasn't made any advances on you yet?"

"Matthew!"

I grinned upon seeing a blush spread across Will's face. "Nope. I've been fortunate enough to have been spared that."

"For now."

"Where's your little brother?" Matt asked, peering around my shoulder. "He's here, isn't he? I got meat lovers."

"You're such a suck-up," Will muttered, shaking his head.

Matt ignored the jibe, making for the kitchen and placing the pizza on the table. "Dustin! I come bearing food!"

Ten seconds later Dustin came bounding down the stairs shouting, "Pizza!"

"Your favorite," Matt said confidently.

Dustin beamed at him while opening the giant cardboard box, the warm scent of pizza hitting and wafting through the air. "Yep!"

"Should I be concerned about our brothers' friendship?" I asked Will in a low murmur.

"Yes," he deadpanned. "Before you know it, Matt's pain in the ass ways will rub off on Dustin. Then we'll both have even more annoying brothers."

Matt turned his nose up at Will as I grinned. "What can I say? I get along with everyone, unlike you. Besides, Katie doesn't mind, right?"

I shook my head. "Nope." Because I didn't. As I'd said before, Matt was a good influence on Dustin. Dustin needed an older male role model in his life. Of course, there was Will now, but Will had never been an older brother, so.

"Are you planning to beat him up if he eats all your Cheetos?" Will inquired dryly.

I raised an eyebrow as Matt smirked. "No, that's only for you."

Will pursed his lips. "Is there a specific reason you're here? Other than to harass me, of course."

The humor in Matt's face faltered slightly and he cleared his throat awkwardly. "Er, just reminding you Mom's birthday dinner is on Friday. I'm not working tomorrow, and you never answer my phone calls—"

"Because half of them are you drunk dialing me and the other half of them are you asking me where you put your shoes in your house—"

"—so I decided this would be a good chance to see how you were doing and remind you," Matt finished forcibly, clasping his hands in front of him.

Will's face darkened, his posture becoming tense. "Who said I was even going?"

"You have to go," Matt told him, his eyes flickering to my face for a brief second. Then they were back on Will. "She's our Mom."

Now Will's eyes were on me, a scowl forming on his lips as he faced his brother again. "Oh, I get it. Why you came here to tell me."

"Will—"

"Whatever, I'll be there," Will snapped, shoving his hands into his jeans' pockets. "But I'm bringing Katie."

For a brief second I wondered who Katie was, and then I realized he was talking about me, and my head jerked toward him in surprise. "What?"

Matt shrugged. "Sure, go ahead. I don't really care as long as you show up. With a gift, preferably."

"We'll see," Will responded unpromisingly.

"What? Your mom's birthday dinner?" I said, feeling my heart tighten at even the prospect of meeting Will's mother. Ignoring the fact that she was famous, just by looking at Will and me, you could tell our social classes were completely different. If rich people were anything like they were in the movies, I didn't know how I felt about meeting his mom. "I can't go to that—

"Well, too bad, because you are."

"Has your mom even heard of me?"

Will shrugged and Matt shook his head.

I smiled wryly. "Taking that as a no, then. Why?"

"Why what?" Will sounded wary.

"I'm not going to say no if you really want me to go," I promised him, "but I just want to know why you want me to go."

Will tilted his head curiously at me, cerulean eyes bright. "Do I need a reason? I can't just invite you because I want to?"

"You're didn't invite her, you're demanding her to go with you," Matt pointed out, hovering over the pizza and narrowing his eyes. "Dustin, what the hell? You ate all the corner pieces!"

Dustin said something in response, but I was too busy staring at Will to catch it. His eyes were pleading, and I could see he was waiting for my answer. While the idea intimidated me a little, I couldn't think of a reason to say no. "Okay," I relented, "I'll go."

Will tossed a dazzling smile at me and I found myself smiling back. Smiles like that should be illegal. "Great. Tomorrow we'll go shopping and find you something to wear."

"Why? Where's her dinner?"

"On a yacht," Matt responded casually as if this was a normal occurrence.

And suddenly, I was regretting my decision.

Matt ended up spending half the night at my house, challenging Dustin to videogames, and having his ass handed to him, much to Matt's chagrin. They were in the middle of their tenth round when I heard a clatter from the kitchen. Jumping in surprise, I twisted my head to my right, noticing Will wasn't sitting next to me on the couch anymore. I pushed myself off of it and headed into the kitchen to discover what had fallen. It turned out it was the baking sheet that I'd made buffalo wings (by demand of Matt) on earlier. Will was snatching it off the floor when I walked in.

My eyes surveyed the area and I took in Will's wet hands and the clean dishes next to the sink. "Will," I began with a frown, "we have a dishwasher. You don't need to do the dishes by hand."

"It's fine, it helps me think," he responded offhandedly, running the baking sheet under the warm spray of the tap.

"Still, you're a guest—"

"I want to," he interjected, turning to roll his eyes at me. "Why don't you wrap up what's left of the pizza and put it in the fridge?"

My lips pursed, but I did as he suggested. "What are you thinking about?" I asked, just to make conversation.

"Friday." His voice wasn't too enthusiastic. The pan was clean now, so he placed it into the strainer and twisted the tap off. Resting his lower back against the counter, he dried his hands with a towel and furrowed his eyebrows. "Trying to figure out how I'll make it through the dinner sober. If I get drunk, you'll have to drive us home."

I didn't know if that was a joke or not, so I abstained from commenting on it. "You don't get along with your mom?" I said instead, moving from the kitchen doorway to in front of the table, so I was only a few feet away from him.

Will laughed a hollow laugh. "Try my whole family."

"Why?" I inquired tactlessly.

There was a moment of silence and I grimaced, realizing how nosy I was being. And how could I expect him to tell me everything about his life, when I withheld half of mine? It wasn't fair to him. But before I could apologize, he spoke. "I've always been the black sheep of the family."

"You?" I said, a little taken aback. It seemed a little impossible to me for Will to be the black sheep. He came across as the perfect son to me, what with multiple degrees, a famous novel, and a well-off coffee shop. Not to mention his kind and amiable personality. Just the thought of him being a black sheep almost made me laugh.

Sensing my incredulity, Will grinned at me. "Not everyone can be perfect, right?"

You come close, was what I wanted to say, but that was incredibly cheesy. So rather than that, I just said, "Right."

"But I'm always invited to these kinds of celebrations," he continued, shaking his head, "so we can all pretend we're a happy family. But it's hard when everyone makes snide comments about my history. Never about my present."

"What..." I trailed off, holding my tongue. What I wanted to ask was what did you do? But I knew that was stepping way too far over the line. He'd mention it if he wanted to. "Your dad too?"

Will's face softened a little, his body relaxing slightly. "He's better, much better actually, but my parents are divorced, so he won't be there."

The nerves I felt earlier were starting to creep back up on me and I shuffled anxiously on my feet. What would Will's mother think of me? Hopefully she wouldn't ask me about my life, so I could leave out... pretty much everything about my life. I couldn't imagine what sort of reaction she would have to finding out I lived by myself with my brother and had a dad who was incarcerated.

"If you really don't want to go, I won't force you," Will stated and I blinked when I realized he was only about a foot away from me now. "It's pretty short notice, after all."

"No, I'll go," I told him. I wouldn't make him face his mother alone. If I were going to meet with my dad, I'd want Will to accompany me as well. "Just promise me there won't be dancing."

A mysterious smile flitted past his lips. "We'll see about that."

"You're cheating!" Dustin suddenly shouted from the living room, causing me to jump.

"I'm not— hey! Give that back!"

"No!"

"OW. Don't hit me with that! I can't legally hit you back."

"Do it. You can't cheat from jail."

"Give that back, you brat!"

"Will! Your brother is harassing me!"

Will ran a hand over his face and groaned. "I guess we should go save our brothers from each other."

I laughed. "Guess so."