Hey! By some miracle (I blame female genetics and the sympathy of my mother) I'm updating today! Isn't that great? This is the update you've been anticipating! I really hope you like it, as I've spent the past few days working on getting it just right. So, here you are!
The first thing Quinn did when she got back to her dorm was grab a change of clothes and lock herself in the adjoining bathroom. There was a familiarity, a normalcy, about the place that seemed to calm her racing heart. She let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding.
For a while Quinn stared at her reflection, looking at the make-up that had gone on that morning in hopes of winning back Mark's heart. Something in her stomach clinched and she felt sick. With an almost angry look at herself, Quinn began to take off the make-up. Thankfully, the action left little room for thought, as she had to concentrate to remember how to get the stuff off.
Somehow, forcibly removing the make-up from her face made her feel better, even as she rubbed her eyes raw to free her lashes of water-proof mascara. Looking at her own slightly pink face when she was done was definitely worth it. She smiled weakly.
Then she turned on the shower to wash her long, straight hair and return it to its usual curly state. When she finally got the water to the right temperature she peeled off the too-small clothes, actually restoring some blood circulation, and hopped into the shower.
Immediately, she wet her hair and began to shampoo it, hoping the action would distract her. Unfortunately, the act of washing her hair was much more practiced than that of removing make-up, which left her mind to wander.
And, given the freedom, her thoughts went back to the bench, the one place she was trying to avoid thinking about. Quinn knew she couldn't avoid it forever. Thinking about what happened. But she could darn well try! She didn't want to think about the bench. She didn't want to think about Logan. She didn't want to think about any of that! And, most of all, she didn't want to think about the kiss.
But... when Logan touched her... it was like... like sticking a hairpin in an outlet. That painless pain, that electric shock, that fizzing feeling you get. There were a million ways to describe it. Fizzing. Pins and needles. Bubbling. The butterflies. Electric shock. But fizzing seemed best. Like when you pour a soda out of the can. It fizzes at first, giving you that weird foam, and then you've got the teeny little bubbles of carbon dioxide that come up afterward, like an aftershock. Or a flashback. Fizzing.
And she got that feeling when he touched her. Logan. Or when he spoke to her. Or looked at her. Or came within ten feet of her. Fizzing. She never got that with Mark.
Of course, that wasn't new. She'd been bubbling over with love for Logan practically since the day they met, much to her displeasure. Logan was arrogant and irresponsible. He was handsome and he knew it, which made him full of himself. He was selfish, loyal, charming, nice, caring, gentle...
And Quinn practically hated herself for liking him.
I mean, how pathetic am I? It's so cliche it leaves a bad taste in my mouth, Quinn thought bitterly. The geek falls for the jock. Cinderella and Prince Charming. Only, Prince Charming doesn't know Cindy's in love with him and goes out with step-sister after step-sister until Cindy's finally disillusioned and sees him for the jerk he is-- and is still in love with him!
Of course, to make matters worse, Quinn had decided that people were getting suspicious of her, which they weren't, so she'd had to throw them off the fact that she worshiped the ground Logan walked on. To do this, she'd thrown herself headlong into a relationship with Mark. Problem was, she fell for him. What had started as a way to free herself from Logan ended up a two-year-long relationship she didn't want to lose.
That she'd just lost.
Quinn took a shuddering breath.
No, she thought. I will not cry. Not again. Never again.
She squinted her eyes shut and stepped directly under the shower so that the water ran rivers over her face and neck. That way she wouldn't know.
She wouldn't know if it was water or tears running down her cheeks.
There was a knock at the door that startled Quinn out of her thoughts.
"Quinn? Quinn, are you alright?" It was Lola. She and Zoey were always there to ruin her dramatic moment.
But this time... she was glad.
"Oh, hey, Zoey." Lola said when her friend came in the door, looking zombie-like after her classes. "You okay?"
"Yeah," Zoey groaned, dropping her bag neatly on the floor by her bed. She flopped down on the aforementioned bed with a moan of relief. "Ooh, I'm still sore from that horse..."
"The one that was following Michael around school?" Lola asked with interest, producing a cold water bottle from seemingly nowhere for Zoey. It seemed that no one ever noticed the mini fridge in the corner...
"How do you--?" Zoey began to ask as she unscrewed the top of the water bottle.
"I just know these things." Lola answered.
"Okay, then..." Zoey said, rolling her eyes in jest. The two smiled at each other. "Hey, where's Quinn?"
"I think she's trying to drown herself in the shower." Lola said, glancing at the door separating their dorm room from the adjoining bath, currently locked. "Or get all that goo off her head. Either way, I wish she'd hurry up. I have to go."
"Go down the hall." Zoey said reproachfully.
"That's too far away!" Lola whined.
The bathroom door opened then. Quinn stepped out with her face bare and her hair wet and in a long braid down her back. She was wearing an old, stretched out sweater and a baggy-looking pair of jeans. She looked more Quinn at that moment than any other.
"Thank god!" Lola muttered, getting to her feet with un-Lola-ish speed. "'Excuse me!"
She brushed past Quinn and let herself into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. Zoey and Quinn exchanged looks, and then burst into giggles.
"Come here," Zoey said, holding out her arms to her friend. Quinn went over to receive her hug. "How did things go with Mark?"
"Ah, not so good." Quinn said with a sniff and a rueful grin. "You were right."
"Doesn't matter if I'm right," Zoey told her. "Are you okay?"
"Not so good," Quinn admitted, brushing away a bit of hair escaped from her braid. "But I'll start feeling better eventually. There's other guys out there and all that jazz. The cliche stuff."
"The kind that leaves a bad taste in your mouth." Zoey said, and Quinn nodded, smiling weakly.
"I'm, ah, I'm going to take a nap." Quinn said. "Just, you know, until bedtime. Then I can go to sleep and try to get over this."
"You don't get over it," Zoey said with feeling. "You get past it."
Quinn nodded. Then she got under the covers of her bed and went to sleep.
When Lola came out of the bathroom, Zoey told her about what Quinn had said.
"And now she's napping!" Zoey said anxiously. "You know what that means!"
Lola's eyes rested on Quinn's sleeping figure. "Something is definitely wrong."
That's it for now! Maybe next chapter I'll give you a dream sequence. Let me know what you think of it! I'd like to give some thanks to the people who reviewed me, such as shmibby, who was the first review EVOR of my story. Thanks to bookworm3, Abster1, Ms. HellFire 4590, and maximumfan for their constructive criticism. And thanks to the eight other people who reviewed my first chapter! Really! I am AMAZED at the amount of reviews I got in just the few days I've had this story up. Let's hope for even more!
Till the next chapter,
Poet on the Run