I took a deep breath, trying to digest Hunter’s admission that he was a messed up person. I felt bad for causing to him to admit that. I also felt bad that maybe Hunter was being overly hard on himself. “Those ideas for the cats sound good. As for what you do with other girls, really it’s your decision. I don’t want to be a terrible friend to you. I’m sorry I said all those nasty things. Maybe I’m just getting stressed out about midterms coming up.”

He walked over and put his arms around me, squeezing me tightly. I squeezed him back just as tight. “You know what I bet will cheer us both up?”

I knew his answer but played along anyway. “What?”

“Rammmmppaaaaagggee!” he bellowed, his muscular arms spread wide and his voice deep.

Despite still being a little upset, I giggled; Hunter loved to pretend like Rampage could talk, but he always did it in that voice. The contrast between the little kitten and Hunter’s booming voice never failed to make me laugh. Rampage was definitely Hunter’s favorite.

“Do you think your roommate would want to come?” he asked.

I shrugged as Daniela’s voice came from her room. “Yes she would!”

Had she been listening to the whole thing? I turned and saw her emerge, purse in hand. Hunter looked at me.

“Okay, let’s go,” I said, eyeing my best friend suspiciously.

“Yay!” Daniela squealed. “Oh my gosh, I bet these things are so cute.”

“You have no idea,” Hunter said, standing up. “Get ready to have your chest explode.”

The squeal Daniela made when she saw the kittens was higher pitched than I thought was humanly possible. Hunter’s hands shot up to cover his ears, but I wasn’t so lucky. They stayed ringing for what felt like several minutes.

“Oh my god look at the little kittens!” she cooed. “They’re so tiny!”

She got down on her knees and tapped the rough wood floor. “Come here kitty!”

One of the kittens crept up to her unsteadily. They had just started being able to walk with any success a week or so prior. Before that, they had mostly squirmed, slept, and pooped. Now they’d added wobbling around on their feet to that list, and we were trying to get them to start using the litter box.

I looked more closely at the pattern on the kitten’s back. It had a little white patch on its brown fur shaped a little like a heart. That one was Taylor.

Taylor came up to Daniela’s outstretched hand and purred as she stroked her back. Some of the other kittens began to creep out from their sleepiness to see what all the commotion was about.

“How old are they?” Daniela asked.

I looked at Hunter, who shrugged. “We think they’re like five weeks,” I said.

She nodded. “They’re the smallest kittens I’ve ever seen. Can I hold her?”

“Sure. If she’ll let you. Taylor can be a little feisty.”

Daniela stuck her lip out and made a pouty face at me, then she turned her attention back to Taylor and picked her up. Taylor meowed in protest but didn’t scratch.

“See, she’s fine!” Daniela said.

I smiled, skeptical how long that would last. When I looked over at Hunter he was focused on his phone.

“Hey Lorrie, Gary wants to come over. That cool?”

“Why not?” I said.

He shrugged and tapped a reply on his phone. “I don’t know, just checking.” He put his phone in his pocket. “Now where’s Rampage?”

I shook my head and laughed. “If I didn’t know better I’d swear he’s the only one you ever pay attention to.”

Hunter walked over to the box and found a kitten with a white patch that went from between its eyes all the way to the base of its neck. He was a little sleepy but crawled up to him anyway and rolled on his back. That was typical Rampage.

Hunter scooped him and up and held him in his hand, the kitten’s head cradled in his fingers. He tickled Rampage’s belly and the little guy squirmed in approval, trying to grab onto Hunter’s finger with its tiny paws.

“I have enough love to go around,” Hunter said. “But just look at him? He’s just so adorable.” He held the kitten up for us to admire. Then Hunter’s face fell and he rushed to the litter box.

“God damn it Rampage!” he said.

“What?” Daniela asked worriedly. I already knew the answer .

Hunter plopped Rampage into the litter box, then got up to go to the kitchen sink. “He pooped on me!”

I giggled when Daniela turned to me in horror then down on Taylor. “They aren’t trained?” she asked me.

“Daniela, these kittens are little babies. Of course they aren’t trained. They’ve only been able to use the litter box at all for a few days.”

“So she could poop on me at any moment?”

“Yup,” Hunter said from the kitchen. “I don’t know how kittens so small can poop so much, but they do.”

Daniela wrinkled her nose.

“Hey Lorrie,” Hunter said, “can you come help me with the kitten milk? It’s just about time for them to eat.”

“Sure,” I said.

I got up at the same time as Daniela, who was gently putting Taylor into the litter box. Apparently she didn’t want kitten poop on her hands. I walked into the kitchen, opened the fridge, and pulled out the kitten formula while Hunter finished washing his hands. When I closed the door I saw Hunter had pinned a drawing to his fridge with a magnet.

It was the sketch I had done of a man with a fly’s head. He had said he liked it, but I didn’t realize he liked it enough to put it up in his apartment. The fact he had put it up made me feel good, both about my artistic abilities and about Hunter’s feelings toward our friendship.

As I stood looking at the drawing, I felt him come up behind me. The warmth from his body made the light hairs on my arms stand on end. I felt my skin prickle at his presence.

“We didn’t leave any syringes in there, did we?” he asked.

“No, I think those are in the cupboard with the bottles.”

“Okay. Are you alright?”

I blinked and turned to him. His eyes were narrowed in concern. “Yeah, I was just admiring this awesome drawing on your fridge.”

His face relaxed into a smile. “Oh. Yeah, the artist is really something. I look forward to seeing more of her work.”

“I think she’s working on a series involving kittens.”

He grinned. “Sounds cool.”

“But if she’s going to continue that series, these kittens need to be fed,” I said, stepping around him and going to a cupboard to look for a sauce pan. We needed to boil some water to warm up the kitten milk and sterilize the rubber ni**les.

I found one and got the water going on the stove. We returned to the common area to find Daniela gingerly petting another kitten. Judging by its fur it looked like Bones.

“Good lord,” I said. “It’s just kitten poop. You’re petting that thing like it might sting you.”

She turned to me and frowned. “I don’t want to get it on my sweater! This is dry clean only.”

Hunter scoffed. “I can get you a hoodie if you want to wear it while feeding them. Or a blanket maybe.”