“Guess?” I looked her over and couldn’t understand what the hostility was for. “Can you talk to me?” I tried to reason with her.
“What? Like youtalkto me? Or did you just come over to fuck me again?” The hard accusation in her tone pissed me off.
“Never heard you complaining,” I snapped back.
“Well, I’m complaining now.”
This wasn’t going the way I wanted it to. She was angry, but I didn’t know why. But Quinn had a bad temper, so maybe I just needed another tactic?
“Let me try again,” I started, but her sneer stopped my words.
“I’m not interested.”
“You don’t even know what it is,” I countered quietly as I watched her.
“I don’t need to. I’m not interested in anything you have to say now or ever. It’s the same worthless bullshit I’ve been listening to for years. Please leave.”
“Fine.” Shutting my own emotions down, I took a few steps to the door. “Knew I was being an idiot.”
Whether it was my tone or the look on my face, she called out to me to stop. “Tell me.”
“No point, like you said, I’m full of shit. You’re probably right.”
We stared at each other in silence, the hurt and anger between us heavy in the air.
“Just say it,” Quinn said with a heavy sigh as she rubbed her hand over her eyes and stared out the window. “Get it over with.”
“I love you.”
Her head whipped around to look at me, her eyes searching, her face mirroring her shock. “What?”
“That’s what I came to tell you, but you’re right, I’m full of shit and it doesn’t make any fucking difference.”
She stared at me, and then I watched her turn away from me. She didn’t say anything until I’d had enough and turned to walk out.
“It’s too late,” she whispered behind me.
“Yeah? I just got the fucking memo. See you around, Queeny.”
If only she had been honest with me that night, if only I had pushed her more, maybe all of this could have been prevented. As I sat on the bus heading back to Cardinal, I knew one thing for certain: hindsight was one of the few luxuries I couldn’t afford.
Chapter 16: Quinn
I hadn’t laughed like I did that afternoon for a long time. Because Mia had embraced her inner mutant and had painted herself blue, it was impossible to hide in the maze, and we spent so much time running and laughing and basically losing the competition of who could get out in the fastest time.
Plus, every ghoul, zombie, and vampire “scarer” within the maze took great delight in hunting us down, sometimes even in packs. As we ate candied apples on hay bales, we burst out laughing every time we heard other students complain that there had been hardly any scarers this year. There were plenty of them; they had just been intent on catchingus.
Ava was the proud carrier of the wooden apple. We had come in dead last due to the amount of time we had spent trying to get out and how many times we got caught. We were awarded a carved wooden apple with the phrase “dead losers” etched into it.
We were carrying it with pride.
“It’s getting dark, should we be heading to the party?” Mia asked as she ate her cotton candy delicately.
“I kinda want to stay here,” Ava said as she looked around the field. “It was fun.”
“It was,” I agreed. “But, you know, the party has warmth, music, dancing and bathrooms.”
The girls laughed as they stood, and we agreed that being warmer would be a benefit.
