What the World Can't Accept
by zukone
So there the two were standing in front of all of their blank-faced friends at the entrance of the restaurant. The truth had slipped out of their mouths just as simple as breathing.
The crew had decided on a change of scenery and opted to go off campus to a random California diner. They had walked in and were in the process of waiting.
About five minutes into their wait, Lola made a remark. "You know, uh, I don't feel like a diner. Maybe we should go for a steak house."
An incredulous looking Zoey turned to her, "But we're already here…" The girl's eyes widened when she saw something just beyond her friend. "You know what. On second thought, maybe steak is good."
"We can get steak here," Michael joined the conversation.
"But, I like those onions. You know, the special fried onions." Lola said.
"Look we're not going anywhere… ugh." Logan had caught sight of what the girls had seen.
"What?" Quinn replied.
"Nothing," Logan rolled his eyes. "Just Mark Del Figgalo and Brook-"
"Let's just go somewhere else Quinn." Zoey started. Before Quinn could even protest, the blond pulled the girl out of the restaurant and everyone else followed. "You don't have to see them. There are plenty of other places we can eat."
"Yeah we understand." Michael joined.
Quinn blinked at them. "I'm fine. Let's just eat." She said before trying to head in. Lola stood in front of the door to stop her though.
"Well at least laugh a lot." she said.
"I plan on laughing when something's… funny?" Quinn remarked quizzically.
"No, you know you gotta laugh to let him know you're having a great time without him. Oh here." Lola said dragging her off to the side and propping her next to James. Her eyes quickly went back and forth between the two before they landed on James. "Pretend to be her boyfriend."
"No!" Zoey said.
"I'll do it." Logan raised his hand and offered. The group turned to him and gave him a weird look. His hand started to inch down slowly.
"No offense but James and Quinn is a little more believable." Lola tagged and almost everyone else nodded in agreement.
"But…" Logan started, "She's kinda…"
"Already going out with him." Quinn finished for him. The two exchanged smiles and then turned to their frozen friends.
And that was where they were at this point, awaiting a reaction. A couple of moments had passed. It should have been registering by now. Logan awkwardly put his arm around Quinn to drive the point home. That's when it happened.
They laughed. Not just a chuckle either. They cackled like hyenas. If that wasn't enough, their body language sealed the deal. Zoey grabbed her side and covered her eyes in her fits, Lola doubled over barely able to breathe, and Michael threw his arms up howling at the air. James fought bubbles of laughter too. Though, he reacted more as if it were a contagious yawn. It wasn't a joke he understood too well, but he kinda got the point.
Logan tried to be a sport about it and Quinn shrugged her shoulders while their friends came down off of their high. When the lull had fully seized and their friends looked like deflated versions of themselves Logan spoke, "No, seriously." Quinn nodded.
Their sedated friends livened again breaking into even more serious fits of laughter. Zoey all but threw herself towards the ground and she would have hit hard if Michael hadn't grabbed her before she fell. He was laughing so hard though, that he could barely hold her. They both toppled. Lola joined them shortly after, having been crippled by her uncontrolled mirth.
"Bw…when did, ehe, you get so funny." Lola said from the ground and doing her best to stifle laughter. Michael, who was already up, helped her up because she sure wasn't going to make it on her own.
"They did this before." Michael chuckled. "…to cover up for my birthday party."
Quinn bobbed her as she spoke, "Oh. I can explain this. We were telling the truth then. What happened was…"
"Who are you trying to kid? We've known you guys for too long." Michael said.
"Yeah, ahaha, and, haha." Lola found she couldn't even finish. She reached out for Logan's arm and snatched it off Quinn. The girl's mouth dropped in mix of disbelief and offense. Logan's face fell in to a similar indignant condition.
"Oh that's better." Lola said wiping a tear from her eye, "You guys were killing me here. Anyways, we all know Quinn's too smart to go out with someone so dumb."
"Hey," Logan said.
"Don't call him dumb."
Michael decided to tag onto what Lola started. "And Logan is too self-centered to go out with a ner… smart girl." Quinn darted a disdainful look towards him. "Let's face it," Michael continued, "You're not his normal 'hot girl' type."
Quinn squinted her angry eyes at him while Logan blurted, "Hey, I don't want her to change."
The crew looked at each other with dubious looks on their faces. Zoey nodded a yeah-right gesture. "Oh sure," Zoey said. "You know what. We believe you. Why don't you guys show you love each other with… I don't know a… kiss."
Logan had no control over the smile that took over his face. "That's easy." He said before turned to Quinn. "Do you mind? I want to shut them up once and for all."
"Fine by me." She said with equal fervor.
They began with a simple look, but as they gazed into each other's eyes, sparks seared the air between them, rushing water shivered up their spines, and volcanoes of passion erupted from within their hearts. Logan reached out for her and drew her close. He cupped her face and unveiled the sealed desire behind his eyes. She drew a breath in as she crept her arm around his neck. He wasn't the only one set aflame. This was it, the kiss containing the intense passion of a thousand suns that would prove to their friends they were official.
The problem was no one else saw the fires of desire. The gaggle of friends was busy talking.
"We gotta do something." Zoey said. "Quinn's about to make a huge mistake." Everyone looked at Michael.
"Oh no." he said. The two girls looked at each other and nodded. They both pushed him forward between the couple forcing them to part before their lips ever touched. Unfortunately, Logan's lips did make contact. They slid across Michael's cheek and caught a bit of his lip.
"Gross!" they said in unison.
Logan spit on the ground and Michael fervently wiped his cheek and mouth.
From her tossed position, Quinn exhaled upwards blowing up strands of her hair. Zoey helped her up.
"Look, I think I know what this is all about." Zoey started, "If you want to get over Mark, this isn't the way to do it."
"The hell with Mark!" Logan said forgetting all about the need to purge his lips. In two seconds, he was already standing next to his girlfriend.
"Look," Quinn said towards her friends, "When I broke up with Mark, Logan said some really nice things to me."
"And then we kissed." Logan interjected.
"So we started hanging out some more,"
"And we made out."
"We found out we really liked being with each other."
"Because we kept making out."
"So we decided to start dating, but we didn't want anyone to know."
"Because we wanted to keep making out."
"And that's the story."
Logan looked at Quinn and said, "Do you wanna make out?"
"Maybe later." Quinn scrunched her nose. "Cutie."
"I know."
"Woah, and they got their story straight too." Lola said.
"Oh you're good" Michael said. "If I were someone else I'd be convinced."
"And like Zoey said." Lola said, "This isn't this way to get revenge on Mark," She pulled James towards her and then shoved him at Quinn. "This is the way to do it."
The boy toppled towards her but got his bearings before he got to her and stood their awkwardly.
"Lola!," Zoey remarked.
"Well she thought he was cute." Lola said. "And I bet if he kissed her, she could have her revenge and we can be over this whole silly thing."
"He can't kiss her. He's going out with Zoey." Logan whined.
"And don't I get a say in this."
"Yeah, doesn't she get a say in this."
James raised his arms in resignation, "They've got a point."
"Wait. I have an idea." Lola said. She pulled Zoey, Michael, and James closer to her and they started whispering. Logan and Quinn just looked at each other. After about thirty seconds the group came out of it ready to confront the issue.
"Look guys. I think we've had enough of you two trying to mess with us." Michael said.
"Yeah." Said Lola.
"So here's what's happening" Michael said.
"James is gonna kiss Quinn." Lola said.
"Wh." was all Logan could whimper before Zoey cut in.
"Go for it." Zoey said to James while patting him to go.
The boy smiled something devilish as he took strong steps towards the girl in question. It was almost surreal. Quinn and Logan looked at each other with a quizzical look on their faces. This wasn't really gonna happen. Was it?
At this point, the boy was already reaching out towards Quinn. She reeled back, horrified, and shook her hands in desperate "no" gestures.
Before he knew it, Logan had sprung into action and punched James across his nose. "Get away from my girlfriend!" he shouted before he grabbed Quinn by the waist.
Quinn pointed at Logan about to protest but she stopped. "Normally I'd say I'm could have handled it myself…" Quinn glanced at James who was holding his nose and in obvious pain then turned back to Logan. "But thanks." Logan beamed like the puppy in love he was.
Zoey had already rushed to James' side. She turned to Logan giving him a harsh look, "Don't you think that was a bit extreme? Do you think I was really gonna let him do it."
"Jeez. You should know I would never do something like that." James said finally standing up.
Logan and Quinn sheepishly let go of their embrace. Their stance was a little more sure. At least their friends had gotten the picture by now.
"Eh." Logan said, "It's just that you can't go making someone do something they don't want to do. Even if it's pretend. I mean anyone would go ballistic if someone tried to kiss his girlfriend, especially someone as cute as Quinn."
Everyone looked at Logan. Nothing he said smelled like him, sounded like him. Lola was the one to speak. "You can't give dead give-aways like you just did."
"Huh"
"It's over," Michael said, "I think you guys have officially taken your joke too far." Logan dragged his hand down his face and Quinn let out an exasperated sigh.
"Yeah, you almost broke my nose." James chimed in.
The two looked at everyone. "Let's just go." Quinn finally offered to Logan.
"I guess." He said reluctantly. "Can we make-out?"
"Yes, Logan. Yes we can."
"Schweet."
As they left hand in hand, they realized that the day's events revealed a basic truth. The world would never be ready for their uncensored, hard core, nose bumping, Eskimo-kissing make-out sessions. Oh, yeah, and their friends were idiots.
