Bayside Queens (BoyxMan)

4.

4.

Quinn

CJ was staring at me from the corner of his eye again. I sunk further into the passengers seat and dropped my head against the window, my thumb pressing into the mark on my inner elbow. Please, I prayed. Please don't let him see this.

"Are you high right now?" he asked me, and I could practically hear his eyebrows shoot up in disbelief.  The disapproval in his voice made my stomach drop.

My eyelids dropped. It was getting worse.

"No," I told him, my voice a whisper. My body felt shaky all the sudden. I wanted to cry. The feeling was all too familiar.

"Don't you dare lie to me, Quinn." His voice was strong and firm and made me want to bury my face in his chest. I moaned, getting lost in that image as the inside of the car started to get fuzzy. Carter shouted my name again. The car stopped moving. I couldn't hold my head up any longer.

Suddenly he was shaking my shoulders from across the bulky middle console. I tried to blink my eyes open. All I saw was panicked flashes of those green speckled eyes that I couldn't get out of my head. They made me smile.

"...now this? I can't FUCKING believe you! .... The shit I do for you! No one would ever....."

Carter's menacing yells flooded into my head, but I could hardly comprehend them. The deep growl of his voice would have been such a turn on if I weren't in this state.

The car was moving again. I was slumped against the window, CJ's voice still in my ears. When the car stopped again, I blacked out right before he was pulling me into his arms.

~~

"...And you're saying he didn't do it himself?"

I could make out CJ's voice anywhere. Deep. Masculine. Soothing. Arousing.  The other voice was foreign.

"It's unlikely. It was entered into the side of his arm, seemingly through use of force. If he was going to do it himself, he would have done it right." The person swallowed. "Well looks like you can ask him yourself. He's awake."

I heard Carter sigh. "Thank you Dr. Connors."

I ripped my eyes open. I was in a hospital.

I looked down at myself. I was in a bed, wires attached to my arms. Frantically I grabbed at them, trying to pull the IV out of my arm, cursing.

But before I got anywhere, I was being thrown back into the bed, my head slamming against the thin hospital pillow. I gulped. Carter was looking down at me, absolutely fuming.

"What in the hell do you think you're doing?"

I just stared at him.

After a few seconds, he sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. Then he sat down on the edge of my bed, causing it to dip.

"Never mind, I don't even care," he said, staring at his lap. "What I do care about is why the hell you didn't tell me."

He looked up at me now. His anger had dissipated. His eyes were wide with concern.

There was no getting out of this. The doctor had told him already. I just didn't want him to think it was a huge deal. Because it wasn't. It really wasn't.

"These kids like to mess with me," I said with an attempted shrug, trying my hardest to just brush it off.

CJ snorted. "Mess with you, Quinn? They shot you up with heroin. That's not 'messing around' that's illegal."

Heroin. So that's what it was. Last time I thought it was cocaine. Wait... I think you're supposed to snort cocaine...

"Quinn!" he shouted, shaking me from my reverie. "Do you have anything to say for yourself? Do you have anything to say to me? Like, oh I don't know, why don't you fucking arrest the douche cocks that injected me with heroin?"

I blinked at him.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," he said, standing up off my bed, grabbing at the ends of his hair and turning away from me. His low slung uniform pants really looked too good on him.

Suddenly he whipped around. "You know what?" he said, green eyes narrowed. "I don't even give a shit. I don't feel bad for you. You didn't tell me they drugged you, and now you wont tell me who the fuck they are. You're on your own, kid.  I'm out."

And then he turned and stormed out of the hospital room, slamming the door on his way out. I was too stunned, and embarrassed, to say anything. He was right. I was an idiot. Since I got jumped by Derek a block away from the station, I figured the effects of the drug would start once CJ dropped me off at the park for community service. I could sit it out there for an hour before he picked me up and neither Viola nor CJ would ever find out. But apparently my "foolproof" plan didn't end up being as foolproof as I thought it was.

A strange sensation erupted in my chest just then. My heart clenched. The image of Carter's soliloquy had me biting my lip, trying not to cry. I couldn't put a name on it, but my body itched to see him.

So I ripped out the IV. I pulled the heart monitor off. And threw the blanket off my body and ripped off that stupid hospital gown. My t-shirt, jeans, and Nikes were back on my body within a minute. I rolled my shoulders into place and walked right through the door.

My room was right across that front desk area where all the nurses convene and loved ones demand to see their respective patients. Carter was leaning over the desk, filling out some sheet of paper. My heart thumped.

My body found his on its own accord. Tentatively, I placed a shaky hand on his arm. I noticed he was a lefty.

Curiously, he glanced my way. When his eyes met mine his lips parted. He gave me a once over which made me shiver.

"Derek," I said, rubbing my arm nervously. "This kid... this kid at school. We don't get along, but we're guys, Carter. We, yanno, we push each other around. This time he took it kinda far. I can handle him myself. And I should have told you! I should have told you, I know. I just.. I..." I paused, looking down at the Nikes toeing the dirty tile. "I didn't want you to think I'm weak," I mumbled, not looking up at him.

He sighed.

Then I was in his arms.

It was awkward and I wasn't hugging him back because his embrace was so tight that I really just couldn't. But he smelled so good and his form was so big that I just closed my eyes and buried my face into the middle of his chest. I didn't even reach his shoulders. But he made me feel protected, not small.

When he pulled away, he left his hands on my shoulders.

"Quinn," he started, his voice soft, his eyes softer. "I could never think that. I'm... I'm glad you told me," he said, seemingly struggling. "But its hard for me to just let you handle it. I'm going to, but the next time he puts a hand on you, I'm getting involved no questions asked. Okay?"

I nodded, in a trance from his stare.

"Alright let me pay this bill, then we'll go. We can forget about community service for today."

I chuckled lightly, and then stood next to him as he filled out the rest of the paper. I wondered if he was as conscious of my shoulder pressing into his as I was.

That's when I realized. The feeling from earlier. The one that burned in my chest and clouded my vision. The one that made my stomach drop.

I had disappointed him. And right there, I vowed I would never do it again.