make you miss me • q. hughes

24

tiny
what ya up to?

jean louise
nothin much
still trying to figure out how to love the
mirror i bought not once but twice

tiny
oh my god
so you're at home?

jean louise
yes ma'am
why

tiny
just wondering
i miss you

jean louise
i'll cry
don't tell anyone
but i will

tiny
telling the other valentines that's all
it takes to get you to cry

jean louise
not for them
z and jack would have to do something
terrible to make me cry

tiny
didn't you cry because of that ft
where z fell out of his bed in only
his underwear

jean louise
thats cause i was laughing so hard
and jack was laughing so hard and so were
you and so i couldn't STOP laughing
and then once he wasn't in pain z started
his wheezy little laugh and made it worse

tiny
fair enough
i'm getting stared at cause i'm
laughing just thinking of it

jean louise
i just started laughing thinking about you
getting stared at for laughing about me
laughing too hard bc you were laughing so
hard bc jack was laughing so hard

tiny
i miss you so much

jean louise
who wouldn't

tiny
OH
i have a bone to pick with you
but it'll have to wait

jean louise
why does it have to wait

* * *

A series of knocks on my front door pulls me from the conversation before she can type back a response. How dare whoever's behind this door make me have to stop paying attention to my favorite person in the world? It's downright offensive. Upsetting. Enraging. Okay, I'm done with that.

I swing the door open and my jaw drops. I'm surprised my entire body doesn't drop. It's a gunshot to the chest in the best way possible. I don't know how to describe it. A steep drop on a rollercoaster. Screaming the best part of your favorite song with the windows down on the highway. Seeing my best friend who should be across the country smiling at my front door.

Val walks forward and I expect her to hug me but she goes straight past, "I have to pee. Quinn refused to let us stop in case you decided to go somewhere. Didn't wanna fuck with the surprise."

"Quinn?" I question, smiling like an idiot watching her go right past and down the hall. I don't even get how she knew where the bathroom was. But as soon as the door clicks shut, I turn to Quinn who is apparently also here. I'm very overwhelmed.

"Surprise," he says. He closes the front door and my arms are around his neck in an instant. A hug, not an attack! Well, it's debatable. With as little hesitation as me, his arms wrap around my waist tightly.

"Did you help with this?"

"Figured might as well do it when the Ducks are coming to town." His voice is low. Doesn't matter when he's right by my ear.

I loosen my hold and sadly decide to pull away. Val doesn't exactly know the whole situation between me and Quinn. It's not that I want it to be a secret. It's that I don't know if he wants it to be. We're not even doing anything. We check in with each other every single day. We just... Exist. We don't ignore the other's existence completely like we had been. And we've kissed a few times recently. No big deal!