Been Hit Before - Brian Quinn

Taxi

Q had finally taken my offer up on wanting to leave. Although his reasoning for leaving seemed the complete opposite to mine.

As we walked past the bar, I heard Bobby call out my name. I slowed my walking unknowingly, before Brian slowed also, turning to look at me.

"Should I.. go and see what he wants?" I asked him, receiving a sigh from Q. He seemed in no mood to entertain me at this moment, let alone him.

Taking that as a somewhat go ahead, I turned around, nervously making my way up to Bobby.

"What are you doing here? I asked curiously.

"I'm working, what does it look like?"

"Did you know I was here?" I asked.

"There's hundreds of bars in the city, how was I supposed to know that you were going to be here."

"No, not the bar. Here. New York. Did you know I was here?"

"It's hardly the best kept secret, Serena." he replied, before picking up a glass and filling it with an alcoholic beverage. "But you being here, right now? Perhaps it's the universes way of saying that I should be in your life."

"You don't get that choice after what you did to me."

"And what did I do to you?"

"You left. I opened myself up to you and you just disappeared. That hardly makes you important enough to be a priority in my life."

"And what if you're now a priority in mine?"

"Then like I said, you don't get that choice." I said, becoming agitated at his words. It was like Q had sensed that, as it was the moment that he walked up behind me, placing his hand on my shoulder.

"Come on, let's go." Q said, keeping his sights on Bobby.

I turned around with him, leaving the bar and getting into the first cab that we could find. The ride was quiet for a good five minutes, neither one of us saying anything. Something that was never a good sign.

"Is that the reason you came to New York? Because he was here?" Brian's voice finally breaking the silence.

"What?" I turned to face him, my face telling him that that was one of the dumbest things that I had ever heard. "Of course not. You saw my reaction, I didn't even know he was living out here."
"Do you have feelings for him still?" He asked another bizarre in my mind question. All I could do was stare at him, as if I was waiting for him to tell me that he was just kidding around. "Well why else would you react like that?"

"Just don't talk to me." I said, shaking my head, turning myself to look out of the window.

"You can't get pissed off at me for asking a simple question."

"It wasn't one simple question, it was a compilation of several dumb ones."

"Ones that I have the right to know if we're dating."

"We're not dating." I turned to him, giving him a displeased look.

"You're impossible. For a guy that you didn't even date, he sure fucked you up upstairs." he said, pointing his finger at his head.

"Fuck you." I shook my head, trying my absolute hardest to not blow up on him right here, right now in the back of some guys cab. The poor guy just wanted to do his job, not be in the middle of some ridiculous dispute. "Can you just drop me off here, please?" I leant forward to the driver, who acknowledged my request and began to pull to the side of the road. I opened my door, getting out without giving Q the chance to even say a word more. Not that it seemed like he wanted to, as the glance I got of him showed he had no sign of pulling himself out of the little sulk he had going on.

I just needed a good rest. Tomorrow would be a new day. A new day that I would need a lot of energy for, considering I was working with a guy that I had very little patience for at this very moment in time. I just hoped that I would suddenly grow a major tolererance to annoyance over night. Wishful thinking, perhaps. But that was all that would get me dragging myself into work the next day.

After I had got back to my apartment after a much quieter, and relaxed cab ride, I climbed straight into bed. I decided to check my phone for any messages, deciding that if Brian was a logical person at all he would have at least decided to check in to see if I had made it home okay, but as I should have expected - nothing. Placing my phone on the nightstand, I slowly started to drift to sleep.

The early morning traffic the next day seemed like a sign to me, that the day was already starting of on a bad foot, and that would most likely continue knowing that I had to spend the day with Q. I had already decided to try and have as little contact with him as possible, and the fact that I had no messages from him at all seemed to imply that he just might be doing the same.

"Nah man, she only likes me when she's drunk." I heard Q's voice and laughter - making no attempt at being quiet - flow down the hallway as I walked to the office. Nice to see that he found this whole situation so comical, that was if he was even talking about me. Knowing him he could quite possibly have a long list of females that he treated the exact same way.

"As much as I would understand her for that, I don't think that's true." I heard Joe chuckle as he tried to reassure him.

"I'm telling you, it's the truth." Q countered back.

I decided now was a better time than ever to walk into the room, silence filling the space as everyone noticed my presence. Talk about awkward.

"Morning, Serena." Joe came over, placing a cup of coffee into my hands. His smile much warmer than my mood, instantly making me feel a little better.

"Morning Joe." I smiled back. "Shouldn't I be getting you the coffee?"

"Heard you had a rough night." He leant in, lowering his voice slightly. "You're not in the wrong."

"Huh?" I asked, feeling a little embarrassed that Q had been telling everyone the details. No matter how small the situation actually be.

"He over reacts. It's what he does. He's been hurt before, not that that's an excuse, but he's a little paranoid, I guess is the right choice of words. He gets angry, but once he stops being angry, he'll realize what he's done. That's just what he does. With anything."

"But that's supposed to make it all okay, and more importantly make me feel better about what he said to me?"

"No, not at all. But understand, like you, he's had something that didn't work out. And that leaves an impact. No matter how hard-shelled of a person." He said looking towards Q.

He was such a hard surfaced human being, from what I had realized about him. He seemed much more cold, and distant than the other three, much harder to get to know. But maybe I hadn't taken the time to ask myself why. I guess in some way, I was like that too. Maybe we were more alike than I thought.