Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight.
Authors Note: Thanks for the reviews! :D I decided not to let the uploading time between these two chapters be too long since (I apologise) this chapter is a little bit of a cliffy! :O
I have a question for you all though, I ask this for each of my fan-fics but do you think that this is getting a bit too long? I mean I know where I'm going with this and it is going to take a while before it's finished...if people think that it should end soon I would like to know so if you would go to my profile and vote that would be great!
Anyways enjoy the chapter and as usual review good or bad! :D
Chapter Twenty- Five
The car drove just as well as I had imagined, I reveled in the ability to drive quickly without Sam telling me to constantly slow down. Quill, I noticed seemed perfectly at ease talking animatedly about the car and its advantages, I listened happily not caring what he was saying as long as I got to hear his voice, for the most part I wasn't sure what he was talking about anyway, Quill going into great detail about the engine. We were driving towards Fork's now, I knew that we should probably have stayed around La Push, but Quill had thought that it would be a good idea for me to get a better impression of the car than driving along the roads of La Push. I was occasionally looking around the car at the different features, when I noticed that there was a tape in the radio.
"What's the tape of?" I asked curiously, Quill had the same taste in music as me so I assumed that it would be something good. Quill who had been silent for a number of minutes, looked at me confusedly, I laughed at his expression, it was the same as the one he had worn when Sam had spoken to him earlier, "Umm sorry Claire what did you say?" he asked, shuffling his feet uncertainly. "I was just wondering what's the tape of?" I repeated smiling at him, he smiled back at me "What tape?" he asked, not even looking at the radio, I smirked at his still confused expression. "The one in the radio" I explained, amused by his sudden inability to follow the conversation. Quill glanced at the radio this time and looked back at me, before quickly doing a double-take, "It's nothing!!" he declared suddenly too loudly. I raised an eyebrow at this, "Nothing? …..really…" he muttered. I wondered what had caused this reaction and was suddenly curious, Quill was watching the tape somewhat apprehensively as thought it were something lethal that might suddenly attack him.
"Can I hear it then?" I asked innocently, the curiosity was getting the better of me. Quill looked as though he had been stung, "No!" he almost shouted at me, usually a move like that would have quieted me, but the look of horror that came with it canceled that out. What could be so bad about the tape that would cause such a reaction, without thinking, when we were on a straight stretch of road, I slowed down turning and looking up at Quill from under my eyelashes, "Please.." I asked, not expecting him to give him a positive answer. Quill's jaw dropped, and he stared at me before he composed himself, "Well…I mean …if you really want to.." he mumbled rather breathlessly. I smiled back at him, before quickly pushing the tape into the radio and pressing play. I turned the volume up too expecting not expecting to hear what was on the tape.
Britney Spears Toxic was now blaring from the radio, Quill's blush which had earlier been hardly noticeable was glaringly obvious now. "Quill what the hell!…" I exclaimed, finding it difficult to both speak and drive at the time, as I was laughing that hard at the unexpected music, recalling a conversation where Quill had ranted about how much he hated this kind of music. Quill shifted uncomfortably in his seat bringing his hand against his face, in an odd gesture that made it seem as though he was massaging his face. "I thought you hated this stuff?" I asked, barely able to contain the amusement in my voice, Quill glanced at me awkwardly looking adorably nervous. Without thinking about what I was doing, I reached out and ruffled his hair. It was just like every other time Quill had touched me, hugged me ,shook my hand, I could feel my temperature rise and quickly drew my hand back from his exceptionally soft hair. Quill's eyes had widened somewhat, and I quickly focused all my attention on the road again, cursing my impulsiveness, it was completely unlike me to do anything like that. However with a small cough Quill finally spoke, breaking the strange tension which had built up in the car from my action.
"Ummm… to be honest it's not my tape…" he began to explain, throwing him a quick glance I noticed that he was smiling, looking thoroughly amused, causing me to blush; he had found my movement funny. I didn't know why this upset me as much as it did, but I bit my lip to stop the tears which threatened to appear from streaming down my face, thanking the heavens that I had let my hair down today letting it hide my face; before forcing myself to listen what Quill was saying. "..It belongs to Suzette…that girl has strange taste in music…I forgot that she had left in the car.." he trailed off almost sadly.
Immediately I stiffened in my seat, Suzette…that was a girls name, I felt sick, Quill had a girlfriend after all, of course he did how could he not! Why had I trusted in what Hannah had said, not many people probably knew about her considering I had never heard her being spoken of before, it mad sense I thought Quill struck me as the private type, not wanting his business on display. Quill had stopped talking and I knew that I ought to answer him, and struggled to find my voice as I spoke, "You sound kind of sad….I take it you don't see her as much as you'd like?" I asked, not really wanting his answer hoping that I was wrong. I heard Quill sigh beside me and glanced quickly over at him, his face which had been animated earlier, smiling and laughing even when horrified when I noticed the tape had still been happy, but now it looked pained. I hated this girl already, if she was causing him any kind of pain, and gripped the wheel tightly until my knuckles whitened from the force.
"Yeah…never enough for my liking….she's away in New York…." I could hear him smile as he continued to speak, "she got into Berkley college she worked so hard to get there.." the pride in his voice was evident and I blanched from it slightly. Knowing that I should really answer him I decided to continue asking about Suzette, the sudden unexpected development. "So what is she studying there?" I asked forcing my voice to sound as politely interested as possible, when I really wanted to spit out the words with as much venom as possible. "Criminal studies…she's considering doing law afterwards but she's not entirely sure yet.." he laughed now before continuing, "she doesn't think that she would be clever enough for law but that's just her being ridiculous she has brains to spare!" he declared still sounding amused but proud at the same time.
I felt completely dejected at this point and was barely able to contain the tears, any thoughts that I had, had before now of asking aunt Emily about the strange behaviour that surrounded both myself and Quill had been abandoned. Why should I care now, he had a girlfriend it wasn't as though it was really important, even before now I knew that Quill would not have any interest in me, but at least then I could let my overactive imagination run away with me.
"Claire…are you alright?" Quill asked sounding slightly worried, I hadn't realised that he had been speaking until I felt his ever warm hand on my shoulder. I shrugged it off quickly trying to ignore my traitorous body's usual reaction, "Yeah I'm fine.." I practically snapped at him, "I think we had better get back though Sam's waiting and has some work he has to do.." I trailed off, heading now in the direction of La Push. Quill didn't answer and the rest of the journey was spent in complete silence on both parts, although Quill tried several times to strike up conversation again. I knew that I was being childish, I could hear the worry and hurt in his voice but I simply didn't trust myself to speak. If I were to suddenly burst into tears that would have been difficult to explain to say the least, no it was better this way, if I were to get over this crush that I had on Quill I had to stop trying to be his friend, it wouldn't work all it was going to do was hurt me, and that was something that I just didn't need.