A/N: I wanted to get this up before my birthday... because if I waited until after it probably wouldn't have gotten done for a while lol. Thanks so much for the kind words and I can only hope that they keep coming. :)
Twenty-One
Quinn felt like she was floating, surrounded by a thick liquid, almost like molasses but as black as night. It ate away at her skin, not hurting but invading her body to take it hostage to its evil. The sensation was almost comforting—the direct pressure of a needle piercing her skin without the sting—so she didn't fight back. Quinn found herself giving up control to the substance, just closing her eyes as she sunk deeper into its depths.
The liquid had made it to her lungs, stealing her breath and leaving her gasping for life. It burned as it rose through her throat, spilling out of her mouth and rising up, towering over her as if a wave ready to knock her down all over again. It glistened like the edge of a blade, standing building-sized stories high and then it dove down, barreling into her chest, puncturing the walls of her heart. She could slowly feel her life fading but she didn't fight it. Quinn realized she really didn't want to and she waited, just feeling so incredibly tired as her heartbeat slowed, her body rocking back and forth with the rhythm of the tide.
She was ready for whatever came next, but then it stopped.
The pressure lessened, her watery grave disappeared and Quinn was left staring up at rapidly forming russet swirls whirling together above her. The reeling sky came closer to her until it was an inch away. Fear finally enveloped her and she tried to move away but the sky was just so hypnotizing as it fell towards her.
Quinn yelled as the chocolaty swirls finally engulfed her, pitching her body into white-hot burning heat. Objects slammed into her, thin blades sliced her skin with unforgiving blows and Quinn waited for the end, hoping it would get there soon.
When it did, she slumped up against her headboard, breathing heavily in her bedroom. Her alarm clock showed seven o'clock and Quinn slid down deeper under the covers.
Half an hour and then she'd get up. Those weird dreams, the Cheerios, morning sickness—she was just so tired.
Oh God, speaking of…
Quinn quickly darted into the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her.
Throwing up never got any easier—even with all the practice being pregnant had given her—especially for Quinn who never handled being sick very well. It was just another reminder of how alone she was, when her father would tell her to buck up and her mother would hand her some pills and send her on her way.
Rinsing her mouth with water, Quinn weakly dragged herself toward the shower, stripping off her nightgown as she went. Finn would be there soon to pick her up, since he couldn't exactly curl up at the bottom of her bed and cuddle her feet through the night, being on her doorstep every morning was obviously the next best thing.
It honestly made her want to cry… or stab him with a steak knife.
And as she opened the door to see his giant body teetering on her front porch, her mother's antique candlestick holder was looking mighty inviting for bludgeoning him to death. That was until she smelled that awful cologne.
"Finn," she sighed and pushed him out of her way as she moved passed him for the fresh air near his car.
Quinn heard him stumble after her and now she really did feel like bursting into tears. He just wouldn't leave her alone. Even Berry stopped harassing her, why couldn't her dimwitted boyfriend?
"Hey, Quinn, I really miss you, you know?" Finn babbled and Quinn could feel another mood swing on the horizon because she didn't quite understand how he could miss her after stalking her for all hours of the day. "Do you think maybe we could go on a date tonight? It's Friday and well we haven't done stuff together for a while... so I think we should. We could go bowling or something."
Her daddy's giant stone lion—the one that he had doubles of and used to decorate the tops of the pillars framing the bottom of their driveway—was looking super enticing all of the sudden. It was too bad she couldn't lift it, well maybe. Quinn never really tried when she was annoyed to high heaven and fueled by her new wacky Anti-Finn hormones.
She edged towards it but quickly thought better of it and turned back to Finn. "Sorry, I can't. Busy with the Cheerios. Coach has us working out a new routine this weekend."
His shoulders slumped and he nodded. That's when Quinn noticed his fat lip and the nasty bruise on his jaw. Somebody had hit him but he was still there—with his stupid face and orangutan arms—so they obviously hadn't hit him hard enough. Quinn glanced one more time at the lion before slipping into the passenger side of Finn's car and the rancid odor of the football equipment in the back made her want to cry all over again.
The drive to school was a long one. Finn spent the time brainstorming—out loud—all the things the football team could spend their lunch hour crushing against their heads and Quinn found it useful to plot his murder to take her mind off the nauseating smell churning her stomach. She all but ran to her locker just to get away from him when they arrived.
Only someone was there waiting for her in a hideous bumblebee coloured argyle ensemble. Well Berry was standing in front of her own locker—a few lockers away—but it was obvious she was waiting for Quinn. Her dumb lying eyes were looking right at her and Berry pounced the moment Quinn got her locker open.
"Good morning, Quinn." Quinn already felt like punching her but refrained. "I was wondering if we could speak? It will only take a few minutes but what I have to say is of upmost importance and—"
"No, I don't think so." Quinn started pulling the proper folders from her locker with listless ease.
Berry huffed at the brush off—or being interrupted Quinn wasn't sure—but definitely wasn't deterred. "Please Quinn. I know this goes against our deal but… just please. I assure you it won't take long."
The pleading was new and had Quinn looking at her, trying to figure out the hidden angle. Berry never did anything without some ulterior motive, usually for her own personal gain until lately anyway. She certainly looked desperate though—her eyes were red and pleading, her posture was slumped—not as determined as the last time she'd cornered Quinn in the hall.
Still, Quinn didn't have time for appeasing Berry's crazy because she could smell that paint peeling cologne as it wafted closer and closer with every second.
Her stomach revolted and Quinn hastily slammed her locker shut. "My answer is still no, Berry. I'm sure the crossing guard could use your eyesore of a wardrobe to help stop traffic, so you should really run along. You wouldn't want to be late."
She started walking away but Berry actually grabbed her wrist to stop her. Quinn gritted her teeth and whirled around, ready to make the girl regret it until she saw her face, actually the beginnings of tears.
"I understand," Berry whispered, looking down. "I just wanted to apologize for everything. I didn't know, I promise I had no knowledge of what occurred during your night with Noah. If I had I wouldn't—"
"Shut up, RuPaul," Quinn hissed and quickly pushed the girl flailing into the Astronomy room once again.
The room was only ever in use in the afternoons because McKinley (unofficially) counted all sciences as compulsory electives and only employed one teacher for the entire department, giving the rest of the budget to cheerleading and football. With only one teacher, sciences were never slotted simultaneous in the schedule and Biology was always first for reasons that were never really known.
"Quinn I… you are in here with me, aren't you?" There was some shuffling and then obviously more talking. "You didn't just push me in here and lock the door… Quinn?"
The lights were off and they were standing in the dark so Quinn flipped them on. Berry looked like a pitifully sad bumblebee, biting her lip and trying to stop the tears.
Quinn sighed. "What do you want, Berry?"
The girl's head snapped up the moment she was addressed but Berry still seemed unsure. It was beginning to get totally creepy because being annoyingly confident in the face of danger was what Berry did best. Still, the blabbermouth couldn't be stopped for long.
"As I've said, I want to apologize for forcing my will upon you without all the proper information. I knew something was amiss but I was guilty of ignoring it to further my own agenda. I'm truly sorry and I—"
"What's your angle?" Quinn interrupted because she knew there was one and letting Berry work herself up into a tizzy was a big waste of time at this point. "You'd never apologize unless you wanted something from me. So what is it? My skin to add a miniature flesh vest to your already hideous closet?"
Berry frowned and Quinn was mentally patting herself on the back for deflating Stubbles' plans until she realized that the indignant stomping and mouth flapping—that usually followed the destruction of any Berry sanctioned operation—hadn't come.
Instead, the girl just continued to look sad and when her eyes sought out Quinn's—incredibly desperate.
"I have no ulterior motives, Quinn. I assure you." Brown eyes were pleading with her to accept the words as true but Quinn just looked away at Jupiter again because Berry's ego being creepily nonexistent made that papier-mâché ball the biggest thing in the room to reasonably stare at. Berry didn't let that stop her though. "Noah shared the details of that night with me and I wanted—"
"What?" she stuttered, eyes involuntarily darting back to the ones that were still full of lies.
As she relayed the Berry rant back, her blood ran cold because Berry couldn't possibly know. Quinn had made sure with the drinking and there was no way Puck remembered anything—he couldn't have.
Berry started talking again with those damn soft chocolaty eyes. "I know he failed to listen to your wishes and took advantage of your intoxicated state and I—"
"Wait," this time Quinn hadn't interrupted to intentionally piss Berry off because honestly it almost sounded like… "are you insinuating that Puck attacked me?"
Berry's eyes widened and she was quickly shaking her head. "Well… no, not in those words exactly," the girl then suddenly froze, biting her lip nervously as she looked up at Quinn, "unless such a thing did occur then…"
"God, no Stubbles," Quinn yelled, eyes narrowing at the thought. "Why would you… actually I really don't want to know. Are we done here?"
She honestly wondered why she was asking. Berry always did this to her, always threw her out of sorts with her crazy rambles and blatant disregard for every single thing Quinn valued most. Status, reputation, acceptance… none of it mattered to Berry unless it was lyrics to a song, perfectly tailored for her voice of course. But really, who the heck was fine with not being liked?
Berry frowned. "Quinn, from what Noah said, it didn't sound like—"
"I don't care what he said, Manhands." Quinn's small bubble of patience officially popped. She didn't want to talk about Puck anymore, not that night or all the outlandish assumptions Berry's psychosis had came to. "I'd also appreciate if you didn't sit around and talk about my sex life to fill in the enormous gaps in your loser life."
Berry sighed, looking frustrated. "I see you have no desire to talk about it, which is understandable. Just know you can always do so with me because such a situation has never occurred, at least not when I knew he was talking about you specifically and we certainly aren't talking anymore so there is no need to worry."
Quinn inwardly cursed because this wasn't supposed to happen—it couldn't happen, not now. She needed them to be friends, so Berry stuck around. As much as she loathed admitting it, Quinn needed her help. She need her doing whatever she'd been doing over the past couple months because Quinn couldn't do this by herself.
"What? I thought you two were best friends forever," she muttered with a slow nervous roll of her eyes.
Berry wrapped her arms around her own torso and looked down. "Not lately."
"Well why not?" Quinn growled, eyes narrowed at the mere thought. "Honestly, you can't really afford giving up your only shield from complete loserdom as easily as that."
Brown eyes snapped up, looking surprisingly angry. Quinn really felt like punching her because of course Berry would decide to get indignant the moment Quinn was actually trying to do something sort of nice.
"Noah and I have engaged in this argument many times over the course of our friendship but this time it is undoubtedly more serious. You might not see what went on that night as a reason to 'give up my only shield to loserdom' but I certainly do. Nobody should be forced into a situation where saying no is worthless."
Quinn swallowed as dark chocolate eyes bore into her own. She bit her lip—looking away to Jupiter once again—as her stomach bottomed out with an awkward lurch. This wasn't supposed to happen, she just wanted to feel something else that night and Puck was…
"Berry I didn't—"
"I'd rather not continue conversing about Noah because he isn't the reason I'm here." Hazel eyes flickered over as Berry stepped towards her, looking sad, almost contrite. "You keep interrupting me before the end of my apology and I just wanted to apologize for forcing you to confront your pregnancy through underhandedness that effectively took your right of choice away."
Quinn looked away again. "You don't need to do this…"
"Though I was just in my intentions, the effect is not something I'm proud of, especially with the knowledge I've recently acquired about Noah's actions." Of course, Berry went on not paying her words any mind, ignoring them, as she continued to babble. "I never want to be culpable in forcing anybody to involve themselves in something their not ready or favourable in doing, so I hope you can forgive me. This is something that I can promise will not happen again."
Brown eyes were staring at her, she could feel them but didn't look away from the muddled swirls of her new favourite planet. There were things she should say because obviously Puck hadn't been drunk enough to forget everything about that night. Quinn wanted to say something—anything—but her mouth remained shut tight.
Berry sighed and silently nodded, leaving Quinn standing under the cardboard stars and planets in the Astronomy room.
Quinn watched her go with a frown on her face.