Chapter 12

Quinn

Quinn and his dad were busy packing boxes. He still couldn’t believe what was happening… but what could he do… other than accept it. This was just another bump to cross in the road. He could make it a few more weeks.. and then…. he was leaving.

It hadn’t been the first time he had seriously considered getting out of this town. Actually he had fully planned on it after he graduated… with his brother coming back he knew he couldn’t stay here.

But then everything happened with Em: He had fallen for her completely. His brother went back to jail… so things had worked out. For five minutes anyway. He had talked to a MMA coach that agreed to take him on in Portland. He was going to work with him and do fights once or twice a month and get paid for it.. if he won, which, of course he would.

Then he and his dad had bought and built the out building so he could start giving lessons, so he fully had changed his mind and decided to stay. Why wouldn’t he at that point? He actually had extremely deep ties to this town and the people in it. Hell he had a big ass tattoo of the mountain and the lake on his back.

But then of course things all went to shit again. And now there was no way he could stay here. He sure as shit wouldn’t be able to keep this up for long. Did they actually expect him to live with Em long term? He had a hard enough time keeping his hands off of her as it was. Imagine her coming out of her bedroom in the morning in those tshirts and booty shorts she loved to wear to sleep. Or.. imagine her coming out of her bathroom in just a towel.. all wet…. BAM!

Fucking hell. He just slammed his finger in the cabinet he was cleaning out.

And now he was thinking about Em in a towel.

When he had first spoken to the coach in Portland the guy had heard about him. That surprised Quinn, but he guessed people talked even though they were in a different city altogether. The coach.. whose name was Randy… had asked him if he would move there, he said he had a place he could stay and everything. But Quinn had shut that down real quick.

Then when everything came up about his and Em’s parents… he called Randy back and told him he would come if the offer still stood.

He hadn’t told anyone he was leaving. But he’d already spoken to all his teachers and the counselor at school, and they told him he had enough credits to graduate now minus a few papers and tests. So he would do the rest of his work online. He didn’t want to wait til graduation in May.. he wanted to get out now. So he was planning to go right after Christmas.

He dreaded telling his dad and the boys. He even dreaded telling Finley. But most of all he didn’t want to say goodbye to Emerson. She had brought him back to life, given him happiness… and things to look forward to. She had saved him. And now he was going to do his best to make her happy.

At least in the long run. He knew she wouldn’t be happy now but.. she would be safe. He knew how badly she would be ridiculed if they stayed together once their parents married. He couldn’t do that to her, not after everything that had happened.

He had felt like shit yesterday when she had seen Angel calling his phone. He hadn’t even planned that but it worked out. Although, the last time he had tried to make ‘Em hate him.. so she would leave… it all backfired.

He hoped this time by making her hate him she just wouldn’t be sad. And she would forget about him and eventually move on. However the very idea of her ‘moving on’ made him furious with rage. Hell he didn’t know how he was gonna do this.

Even when they’d talked yesterday and he had said something about Finley being family…. he knew that had hurt her. He could see it in her moon eyes the moment it left his mouth. He didn’t even really think about it beforehand.

His phone started ringing and for a split second he hoped it was Em calling. But he knew it wasn’t .. that wasn’t her ringtone. Hers played ‘Let’s Get it On’ .. guess he would have to change that now. His phone was currently playing the song ‘I don’t wanna grow up’, which was obviously Asher.

His and Asher’s friendship had been hanging by a thread as of late. Every time he turned around Asher was mad at him about something. Well that wasn’t really true it was always about Em. Even recently after Quinn had told Em they couldn’t be together now.. Asher had been avoiding him. He couldn’t say he didn’t understand… he did. But he sure as shit didn’t like it. He and Asher had been best friends the longest. It was killing him that he was messing it up. Asher was like a brother .. a real brother. Not like Huxley who had turned into his enemy.

“Sup man?” He greeted Asher as he picked up the phone.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Woah. What the hell? Asher had never really spoken to him that harshly before. Sure he had been mad at him for the shit he pulled at the beginning of the school year. Asher had given him a few choice words after he and Finley put some stuff on Emerson’s locker but even then… he didn’t sound like this.

Quinn took a steadying breath. He understood.. hell.. he fucking loved Asher for challenging him on behalf of Emerson. He hoped Asher would always do that. But it still pissed him off when anyone spoke to him that way.

“What are you talking about Asher I explained all this to you dude… I told you why I was doing it.” Quinn said as calm as he could.

But his best friend wasn’t having it today.

“I’m talking about the fucking girl Q. The one that called you right in front of her?? The one you had a picture of with y’all in bed together??”

Oh. Quinn thought. She told him about that?

“That was an accident I didn’t mean for her to see that.”

“Oh really. So you put a picture on your phone of you fucking some bitch and just thought maybe Em wouldn’t see it. Yeah that makes sense dude.”

Damn. He was really worked up.. Quinn thought. And yeah maybe he had thought if Em did happen to see the picture it would push her away more.. or faster. And that’s what he was trying to do wasn’t it? Push her away?

“It wasn’t meant for her to see in that moment.” Quinn gritted out, getting aggravated at his best friend.

“Right… right. Help me understand this dude. Have you just completely gone back to your old ways of bullying the poor girl? Have you not done enough as it is?? Do you have any idea what she’s doing right now?!”

That certainly got his attention.

“What? No.. what’s she doing??”

“She’s covering up her tattoo she got for you. I’m a little confused about your intentions here man. I get it.. you think this is the best thing and all that shit. But another girl… already?? That’s fucked.”

Quinn felt his heart lodge in his throat. She’s covering up his tattoo? Fuck …. He felt a pain slice through him.

“Wha……” Quinn tried .. but couldn’t even speak.

At that.. Asher hung up.