Katrina padded through the small apartment. Nothing in it screamed her home. It wasn't it would never be. It was a temporary stop like every other place before. The only thing that was hers were the clothes that laid scattered across the whole place. The pistols she kept hidden everywhere and the hair brush that found itself all alone in the larger than it should be.
It was easy for her to pack up and leave should she need it. She didn't remember why she was on the run. It had been forever since she had a taste of normal and even longer since she had first went on the run. Katrina stopped trying to live a normal life after three years of constantly moving, and changing all her phones.
It was easier for Katrina to keep to herself. She didn't make friends so no one could miss her when she left in the middle of the night. No one could hit her phone with a thousand missed calls and crying voicemails. It broke her too many times to even attempt to make friends anymore. She was friendly with the neighbors but kept them at a distance. Kat didn't make herself out to be a bitch by any means. She made small talk, engaged but she didn't go over when invited and she never invited anyone over.
A knock on her door had pulled her from her mindless task of picking up the clothes she had torn out looking for a simple black shirt. She moved to the door, pulling it open a bit. An eyebrow up at a man she had never seen before.
"Hey, sorry to bother you... I just moved in across the hall and was wondering if I could borrow a spoon... That's really weird..." His dazzling smile lit up his blue eyes and sent Katrina for a loop.
"A spoon?" Katrina repeated and pulled the door open for him to come in, while she turned to go towards the kitchen. Clad in a bra and jeans, she held no shame in her body and didn't bother to put a shirt on. She had been on the hunt for the shirt she wanted and she wasn't going to settle on anything but.
"Yeah, my roommate and I just moved in and we haven't found the silverware box yet..." he explained, eyes hitting the ground. "I didn't mean to interrupt or anything..." he said taking in the state of clothes around the floor.
"I was looking for a shirt..." she said with a slight smirk as she pulled it off the counter and over her head. "That I found... Ignore the mess, I need to do laundry." She said pulling a spoon from the drawer and crossing back to him. She handed it over.
"Thanks. You're the first to actually let us borrow one." He said with a smile. "I'm James by the way."
"Katrina. I'm not surprised. It's a weird thing to ask to borrow, James..." she said before closing the door on him.
He smirked a bit to himself, tapping the spoon in his hand before he went the few feet across the hall and pushed open the door.
"Neighbor is hot." He said tossing the spoon at the blonde. "Let us borrow a spoon though..." he laughed when his roommate shook his head.
"Only you, James would find the redhead everyone warned us off of hot... She won't do anything with anyone. Is fine keeping to herself and not asking for anything..." The blonde shook his head.
"Fuck you, Steven..." he said with a roll of his blue eyes. "She's going to be doing laundry if you wanna meet her." He said and laughed when the blonde hopped up to get a bunch of random clothes that were in reality cleaned.
Katrina was stepping out and down the steps when she heard the door open. She paused, hoping to get another glimpse at the man from earlier. She paused seeing a blonde carrying a basket. A shake of her head as she headed towards the belly of the building, the blonde in tow with a basket of his own.
"You must be the roommate..." Katrina said dumping her clothes into a washer before going to the little machine.
"You must be the neighbor... You want some detergent?"
"No thank you." She smiled and dropped the bit into the washer and started it. Katrina propped herself on top and cracked open a book.
Steve watched her with a bit of curiosity before he sat on the one with his in it. "Whatcha reading?"
"Does it matter? It'll occupy my time while I wait for the washer to get done then while I wait for it to dry?"
"You dont leave to do other things?"
"Not when my shits been stolen.." Katrina said peaking over the warn cover of her book. A smirk as she put the book down. "So tell me- which of you lost the silverware?"
He seemed shocked by her statement before he turned a few shades of red. "I did... I'm pretty sure it was one of the boxes that got put in storage and not brought with us, like James's clothes..." he laughed.
Katrina giggled a bit and shook her head. "So you guys are sharing clothes?" She laughed when he nodded. She shouldn't be getting close to them. She knew better and look at Steve's face she couldn't help but feel depressed if she was the reason the blonde had a frown on her face.
"I'm Steve by the way." He introduced.
"Katrina." She forced a friendly smile before she went back to her book.
"Vampire Academy? Any good?" He asked finally getting a decent look at the front when she brought it up to ignore him.
"Mhmm..." she said turning a page. Steve made a mental note to look the book up later and maybe get her a new copy. It would be something that he'd talk to James about.
The silence was clearly deafening, even with the occasional flicker of a page. He pulled his phone out and was scrolling through randomness.
"Hey, Mrs. Thompson..." Katrina's voice cut through the silence followed by a page turn. Steve looked up and smiled at the older lady, only to see Katrina move from the corner of his eye to help the older lady.
"Ms. Katrina always a pleasure to meet you down here..." the older woman cooed and let her take the basket.
"Go on, I'll bring them back up when they're done... Say hi to Jim for me?" She asked, not taking the change from the older woman. Steve smiled a bit to himself, seeing why James seemed to be hung up after one visit. Of course, he hadn't seen nearly as much of what James had see of her.
"So sweet, thank you Kitten, you know he'll be tickled pink to see you.." she practically melted with the young woman before she headed back up the steps.
Steve raised an eyebrow at her. "Shut it Golden Retriever..." was all Katrina said.
"Didn't say anything, Kitten." He teased, causing her to roll her eyes and start the older womans laundry.
The rest of it was silence as they waited. He was surprised to see her so willing to help despite some of the things he had heard about her when they first started moving in but weren't quite staying in the apartment just yet.
He was folding his laundry just waiting for Katrina to finish. He had offered to help and was immediately shot down when she was folding her own laundry. He perched up against the machines and waited for her to finish folding her load and the older womans.
Katrina didn't say anything as she set the woman's basket on top of her own. "Come on..." she said exiting the room and bounding up the steps. Steve quickly grabbed his basket and followed. He went past her to the steps when she delivered the laundry basket back to the older couple nearly missing her telling them to call her next time before she was behind him and splitting off to her apartment.
"Tell James to keep the spoon..." she said, closing and locking the door. She set the basket on top of the counter. Katrina sighed, feeling the tears well up. She did her best to blink them away, hating she was feeling this way. They were super nice to her and she wanted to be friends but knew she shouldn't.
She slid down the little island and buried her face into her hands. She sobbed for a good while until she was able to slowly pull herself from the downward spiral that was suddenly making friends.
