LIVING & GRIEVING

24. one perfect day

I had successfully gone a full week avoiding Quinn. Having completely finished classes and being on study leave for exams helped a lot. The only time I had to leave the house was to have my weekly session with Lorna. I knew I couldn't keep going like this forever though. And Quinn had made it too easy, he wasn't in and out of his house like usual. It was almost like he was avoiding me too. But that would be too good to be true. Especially because he was now stood on my doorstep, waiting for me to greet him.

"Are you going to let me in?"

"That depends why you're here."

"I told you, I thought we could spend the day together. Seems like you haven't left the house in a while."

"What makes you think that wasn't intentional?"

"Oh, I can bet it was. But that's boring," he stated casually, sauntering passed me into the house. "So where do you want to hang out? Your room-"

"No. Absolutely not."

There was no way I was taking Quinn into my single bedroom with only one desk chair to sit on. I don't think I can handle being in any sort of close proximity to him after leavers night. I wasn't sure what his next move would be. Whether he'd even acknowledge it or not. I prayed he wouldn't.

Sure, I was drunk. But I kissed Quinn. And I enjoyed it. It was like someone had took over my body for a night. Besides it wasn't just for a night. I wasn't quite sure when but something in our relationship had shifted. The way I viewed him had changed – and he wasn't half bad. It was getting harder to ignore my skin shuddering whenever he was near and the slight pang of jealousy when other girls spoke about him, like Cliodhan.

"I've been in your room before."

"Yeah, when we were twelve maybe. Not now."

"Why, what's changed?" He took a step closer.

"You're even more unbearable now," I kept my cool in the only way I knew how, speaking to him how we used to. "If you're going to insist on ruining my day, you can do it in the living room." He followed behind me, a confused look on his face, "fine."

We sat in silence for what felt like eternity but in reality, was only a few minutes. Quinn had settled on the other sofa and called Charlie up to sit on his lap. "So, what do you want to do?"

"This was your plan, you tell me."

"Can we just have fun for a day?"

"Fun?"

"Yeah, fun. Ever heard of it?"

"Not for about a year or so, funny enough" I scoffed, obviously alluding to the I haven't fully enjoyed myself since mum got really ill again.

Quinn frowned at my attempt to make a joke of the situation. "Truth or truth?" he asked.

"Excuse me?"

"It's a game."

"Don't you mean truth or dare?"

"No, this is my version of the game. You don't get the option of a dare. Either way you answer my question, I get to ask you something intrusive about yourself and you can't do anything about it."

"I can just not answer."

"That defeats the purpose. It's meant to be fun remember."

"Fine. Truth, I guess."

"Do you want another option?"

"Are you serious?"

"I know it's a tough question. I'm just trying to help you out."