This chapter is from Quinn's POV.
Song recommendations: I Hate Everything About You-Three Days Grace, Conspiracy-Paramore, maybe even Don't Speak-No Doubt ;)
I was tossing and turning the whole night. Images of Logan's hurt face and looks of betrayal, his sneering words cutting deep to the core; images of Vince played, him smirking at me, biting his lip, trying not to laugh after Logan stomped away; images of Zoey and her look of shock sitting perfectly on her face, her quiet, cold voice; and lastly, a dark and blurry image of Lola's bloodshot face and slumping body creeping silently toward her bunk bed and all I heard from her was the infrasonic sound of her padding her feet and a final flop down on the bunk bed above me.
At 5:30 AM, I couldn't take anymore of this. I slipped on an old gray t-shirt, blue sweat shorts, and a pair of tennis shoes and pulled back my hair and slipped quietly out the door. Stepping out onto the damp, dewy grass, I took in the crisp morning air and the rising California sun.
I jogged clear across campus, my heart pounding, my adrenaline rushing and pulsating through me wildly. With every step I took, I left another piece of last night's drama behind, until all I could focus on was the thudding of my feet on the pavement beneath me and the fresh morning air. I would have to take morning jogs more often.
Soon, I was out of breath and gasping helplessly for air. The basketball court was nearby so I walked over and sat down on a bench, trying to regain my composure and take a break.
On the way out, I almost tripped over a basketball. It seemed well-pumped, why not shoot a few hoops to further calm me down?
Dribble. Dribble. Fwoom. Swish! I gave all my focus and concentration to make basket after countless basket.
"Hey," I heard that familiar voice. I literally stopped breathing and dropped the basketball, letting it roll off across the court.
With all the force in my body, I turned to face him, leaning against the chain-link fence, grinning that carefree, boyish grin that I adored. Stop that! my mind demanded. I couldn't help it. I hated him, but he'd grown on me madly, and this sudden feeling was almost impossible to stop.
He was standing there, waiting for me to say something, "Please…go away," I finally choked out, giving it all my oxygen.
"I only wish it could be that simple," he chuckled to himself.
"What's that supposed to mean?" he drove me crazy with these types of comments.
"Hmm, guess that's for me to know and you to figure out," he winked. I shivered. He stepped closer, and soon, we were only inches away.
"Please stop," I whispered to him, looking down uncomfortably.
"After last night, it's kind of hard, Quinn. Your lips call to mine, and hey, can't say no to that."
I backed away slowly, "After last night, I've seen that this isn't going to work. You saw Logan. I love him. I really like you, Vince, but you have Lola, and now I've messed up everything…" I trailed off, almost in tears.
"If you loved him so much, you wouldn't be making out with me every night, would you?"
"Well, you wouldn't be making out with me if you loved Lola so much either," I retorted, strands of hair falling in my face, and I shoved them fiercely back behind my ears.
"When did I ever say I loved Lola, hmm?" a playful look in his eyes.
I started at him with utter confusion etched across my face. How could I ever like this guy? How could I ever believe he was nice after all that he did? How could I still like him after he totally laughed as my boyfriend walked away after finding out about us? These three questions still baffled me. Better experiment with them later. Maybe I would have better luck doing that when I had some time to myself. I had a feeling I would have a lot of that lately.
I slapped him hard despite all of this. He stumbled back, a look of astonishment crossed his face, "You horrible little cockroach!" I yelled hoarsely.
"What's the matter?" he asked.
"Don't pretend like you don't know! Because of you, I've messed things up between my boyfriend and my best friend! And you know what the worse thing is? I'm strangely attracted to you in spite of all of this, and you don't even care! About any of it!" by then, my voice rose a few decibel levels, and I was gesturing with my hands zealously, "You just stand there…smiling like a complete idiot, crossing you arms and laughing at me - "
He pulled me into a kiss and caved in, pressing up against him. What am I doing? I suddenly realized and pulled away, "Stay away from me," I said firmly.
Before he could reel me back in, I ran off the court and soon, the familiar rhythm my feet thudding on the pavement and my rushing adrenaline came back to me.
"Hey! Quinn! What the hell…?" I heard him shout.
Soon, his voice was out of range and I could no longer hear him, but I kept on running.
---
Maybe if I acted like everything was normal, last night's events would sound like a strange dream.
At lunch, I sat down with all my friends. Chase, Michael, and Lisa acted like their usual selves. Zoey sat as far away as possible and avoided looking at me, much less talking to me. I saw Lola sitting with Jeremiah Trottman, him wearing an annoyed and tired expression, trying to convince him she should work alongside him as a PCA newscaster. Logan, on the other hand, was nowhere to be found.
"Where's Logan?" Michael asked, scanning the other lunch tables.
"Yeah, and why's Lola sitting with Jeremiah?" Chase questioned, glancing over at them.
They both looked at me, "What?"
"Well, you are Lola's best friend, and Logan's girlfriend," Lisa stated matter-of-factly.
"Sorry, not sure," I mumbled, looking down at my Caesar salad, sandwich, and Blix on my tray. Man, was I having a light lunch. Seeing Vince this morning made me lose my appetite.
"Is there something going on?" Michael asked.
"Good question, Michael. What is going on?" Zoey finally spoke, her icy tone making shivers go up and down my spine.
"You got me," I said shrugging, trying to look innocent.
"Right, tell me when you're ready to own up to your big mistake. You know what's going on," she said harshly, picked up her try, and plopped down next to Jeremiah and Lola.
"What was that all about?" Chase asked.
"Oh, it's nothing," I said, waving my hand away.
No one said anything, but they stared at me suspiciously.
I pressed my zap watch from under the table, burning a hole through the table, "Woah!" I looked down at my watch, "Hmm, what's wrong with this thing? Better go get this taken care of up in my dorm rather sooner than later. Don't want any accidents to happen," I said hurriedly.
"Quinn…you've barely touched your food," Michael said, glancing down at my tray.
"Yeah, you can have my lunch, not that hungry, gotta go, bye!" I said all in one sentence.
I grabbed my purple backpack and high-tailed it the heck out of there, and for the second time that day, I didn't look back.
It was SO fun writing this chapter! After a long, crazy last week at school, I just finally pounded all of this out onto Word...it felt so good and relaxing and really helped me to de-stress.
It's usually pretty hard for me to get into character for Quinn. I hope I did her some justice. Tell me what you think ;)
Also, I'm really excited with where this story is going, now since it's summer, I'll be updating more often so look forward to that! Speaking of, you can look at my livejournal: .com to see all the summer fanfiction projects I'll be working on if you're interested.
With that said, read, review, alert, favorite, etc. Happy Summer, darlings =)