16. We Are Young
She yanked her wrist in front of her, pulling her along behind her. 'Come on! We're gonna be late!' She squealed.
Quinn rolled her eyes and chuckled to herself. She'd never seen anyone get so worked up about fireworks before.
They ran through the crowd entering Central Park, dodging umbrellas and buggies, Rachel with a surprisingly tight grip on Quinn's left wrist. The blonde looked to her right and saw a break in the barriers.
'Hey Rach, over here!' She tried to shout over the noise of the milling crowd but the small brunette just kept dragging her, obviously oblivious. 'Rachel!' She tried louder, trying to pull back against her. No reaction. She gathered some strength and yanked back hard from Rachel's grip. Finally she realised and turned to look at Quinn with a confused expression.
She smiled and nodded her head. 'C'mere, I found a spot.'
Rachel was trying to look past the crowd to see where Quinn was talking about, when she seized her hand in her grip, their soft skin squeezing tightly together and she was pulled forward.
They dodged a crowd of what looked like drunken teenagers, and some parents with a whole brood of small kids in shorts and spotty summer dresses. Quinn pulled her forward next to her to show her. Their arms brushed together side by side and Quinn tried to ignore the flicker of electricity that prickled her skin and shook her head, luckily without Rachel noticing. She stepped forward and slipped between a gap in between two of the makeshift blue barriers designed to control the crowd. She cocked her head towards Rachel.
'What are you doing? You can't be behind there! Come back here…' She squeaked.
She raised a cocky blonde eyebrow. 'You chicken…?'
Rachel looked around her uneasy, looking out for any Central Park cops. While she was distracted, she felt a sharp pull and she was thrown forward and when she focused again, she somehow found herself on the wrong side of the blue barriers. She shook her head adamantly. 'We can't be on this side Quinn! What are you thinking?' She hissed.
Quinn looked to their right and smiled. 'I'm thinking…'
Before she could ask what was going on, she found herself flying forwards trailing after the blonde running full steam ahead trying not to let her shoulder slip out its socket. Quinn came to an abrupt stop, and lightly put her hands on Rachel's hips. Whirling her around, she pushed her forward and the stunned brunette realised where they were.
She looked up high above them, seeing little white sparkling holes littering the sky. Her grin spread, taking over her little face. She sighed lightly looking all around them.
'I can't believe we're actually here…' She gasped in amazement. She turned and Quinn was watching her amused.
'You're such a pussy…' She chuckled.
'I am not!' She huffed.
'I got our asses out of that crowd so we could be up here. If we stuck around there and didn't bend the rules a little bit then we would still be stuck back there and you probably wouldn't see any of…'
And then a boom. A loud fizzing crackling boom.
They looked into the sky and Rachel gripped Quinn's hand in excitement.
'It's started!' She squealed. 'They're here!' She hopped from foot to foot gasping.
Hazel eyes looked from the sky, to Rachel and back to the sky and laughed shaking her head. She looked behind them at the rest of the crowd. The kids on their parents shoulders, the couples with their arms around each other, the drunken groups of friends cheering every time a firework of red, white and blue burst into the sky.
She closed her eyes and just listened as the cheers got louder everytime a firework appeared, as the sounds crept up her back, rolling over shoulders and cascaded down her front – gripping her whole body. And then she snapped awake. Where were Puck and the rest of the guys?
She flicked Rachel. 'Have you seen the guys?'
She absent-mindedly shrugged but said nothing.
'Has Puck not called you recently?'
She shook her head; her waved dark brown hair swaying around her. 'Nope.'
Quinn groaned slightly and dug into her pocket for her cell. No missed calls. Fantastic. She scrolled through her phonebook and decided to call Puck. Maybe they were around and just got lost in the crowd.
'Puck? Hey, it's me…where you at?'
'Quinn…?'
'Yeah, it's me. We're in Central Park, where you at?'
'What…? Where…?'
'Central Park.' She tried to speak over the noise of the whoops and bangs.
'I can't...Q…?' A crackle sounded and then the call cut off.
She looked at her home screen and rolled her eyes. 'You gotta be kiddin' me…'
She shifted by Rachel's small ear so she could hear her. 'I can't get the guys…'
She shrugged not moving her eyes. 'We can find them later.' She said faintly, too distracted by the fireworks. Honestly she was like a puppy on e-numbers. Quinn decided to give up, and turned her attention back to the fireworks show going crazy above them.
The bangs seemed to get bigger and louder, and the cheers from the crowds seemed to echo around the whole park shaking the trees and playing amongst the leaves. Quinn heard Rachel give a throaty giggle, and she looked across at the wonder spread across her tanned face. She reached out her hand hesitantly as the bangs continued to get louder, and seemingly closer together. She shook her head.
'Fuck it.' She whispered and reached out her fingertips and tickled Rachel's left palm.
Rachel half turned her body to face Quinn. 'Did yo…'
Before she could finish her sentence, Quinn's right hand reached out and grabbed the back of Rachel's neck and pulled her in.
She closed her eyes and let everything else take over.
As their lips touched the taste of something she could identify as blackcurrant invaded her mouth and soft delicate skin slid against hers. She saw coloured shadows as she heard the loudest crackles, fizzes, wails and a ground shaking final boom. She clutched onto Rachel's forearm twisting her head more towards the right and nipped at Rachel's bottom lip. She hissed at the sharp pain throbbing at her lip and Quinn soothed it, tracing it with the very tip of her tongue. Rachel got her own back by lightly scraping her teeth against the end of Quinn's tongue, and after that everything turned slightly hazy. The girls silently moaned into each other pressing their bodies tightly together. Quinn ran her hand up Rachel's back and into her hair as she pushed further into her mouth.
Needing air, Rachel pulled back and smiled with heavy eyes. 'Happy July 4th…'