[Highest ranking: #72 in General Fiction]
Spring semester is here!
Classes are back in session but will the girls be able to handle the struggle or will they get taken down like 'hay fever'?
College wasn't easy before but throw in a proposal, newbo...
Alyssa had been in Quinn's nine hundred square foot apartment more times than she could count. However, as she sat on the couch, she slept on last semester she felt out of place—like keys in the freezer or salt in the sugar dish. With her back ramrod straight she sat on the edge of the firm cushion with her hands on her knees and her eyes trained on the TV as if she was interested in March Madness.
"Do you want a real beer or a root beer," Quinn asked peering into the almost empty fridge.
She wanted a real beer; maybe it'll stop her gnawing nerves from wrecking havoc on her stomach.
"A root beer." She answered, tucking a clump of her black silky locks behind her ear. "I have to drive home."
Quinn grabbed the neck of the glass bottles with one hand and slammed the fridge closed with the other, "You know you could always sleep your buzz off here." He dragged his sock-covered feet across the floor as he made his way back to the couch. "Here." He handed her the dark bottle before plopping down next to her.
"Thanks." Alyssa lowly told. Under the rays of the dying sun, she inspected the cold glass bottle that looked like the one Quinn had at his pursed lips. It was the gold letterings that spelled out the words root beer that set the two beverages apart.
"I wouldn't try to trick you." Quinn joked sitting back on the couch. "You can trust me, you know."
Alyssa clenched her hand around the sweating bottle drawing the blood from her boney fingers, "I hope so." She whispered.
"You hope so." Quinn turned his body towards her, hitting his knee against hers. "What do you mean, you hope so. You know me. You can trust me."
Alyssa inched away, pulling her knee away from his. Quinn deeply inhaled at the subtle gesture.
Alyssa hopped off the couch like a pogo stick and walked around the coffee table, "There's something I want to clear up." She sat the root beer on the table as the words and seriousness of Alyssa face prompted Quinn to inch to the edge of the couch.
Quinn took one more swig of his beer then uttered, "Okay."
"I would hate for history to repeat itself...honestly I couldn't handle it." Her eyes fell to her flip-flopped adorn feet thinking of the hideous act. "It's just that I know I can be a bitch and come across heartless." She scrolled her eyes back up to him as she toyed with the tennis bracelet her mother gave her for her sixteenth birthday.
"You're a straight-talker. I love that about you." Quinn shrugged nonchalantly.
Alyssa slowly nodded, inhaling deeply hoping it would stop the frantic racing of her heart. "You asked me out last month and I shot you down."
"You said 'wrong time'." He corrected placing his empty bottle on the coffee table.
"I did." She agreed. "I just don't want you to get the wrong idea. I wasn't trying to be cruel. I-I'm just not ready for a relationship and I don't want you to get angry with me and lash out."
"Lash out." He narrowed his eyes at her then his eyes widened with clarity. "Are you comparing me with Jacob? Is this what this conversation is about." He rose to his feet. "Is this why you came over here...cause silly me...I thought you wanted to hang." He raked his hand through his chocolate tresses.
"I do." Alyssa quickly told as she backed up almost bumping into the TV. "It's just that you're always so busy and you weren't returning my calls..." She gesticulated as she rambled. "And I don't want you to hold animosity towards me."
"Lyssa." Quinn stepped around the coffee table. "I could never hate you...yeah...I was taken aback." He nodded to himself. "But it was expected...after what you've been through." He held the back of his neck, "And I've been legitimately busy. You don't work at the lab anymore and I have to train the new guy and he's a little clumsy and he ain't too bright."
"So...you still want to be my friend."
"I wouldn't opened the door if I couldn't stand your ass." He smirked then it turned to laughter as he moved back to the couch.
Alyssa's laughter didn't move the gloom behind her obsidian eyes, "I meant what I said before."
Quinn looked at her with unclearness masking his face as he settled back down on the couch.
"It being the wrong time." She moved her gaze to the window as she swallowed the pain swelling in her throat. "If it was before...I would've said yes but now..." She turned back to him as he studied the plains of her face. "I'm not ready...for that...not even remotely close."
"Well..." Quinn lifted his long legs and sat them on the shaky coffee table. "Then, I'm not ready." He patted the sofa cushion. "Now, sit down...so, I can see the rest of the game. I already missed the first half."
Alyssa tsked as she walked back to the couch, "Nobody cares about the Final Four."
"The Final Four is next week." Quinn glued his eyes on the screen as he wrapped his arms around a pillow. "And you know that."
Alyssa shook her head, "After this, we're watching a movie. I don't care who plays next."
He playfully scowled at her for a couple of seconds then looked back at the TV as a smile slide across his face. She took a quick glance at him before getting mesmerized by the dribble of the basketball knowing that she could love Quinn as much as any young twenty-something could. He was everything she was looking for in a partner; responsible, compassionate, smart, and mature but her mind was bridled by fear and pain. She wished he would've asked her out before Jacob did. She wished she met him first and maybe she wouldn't have been a rape survivor. She'd just be Alyssa—college student.
Do you think Quinn's answer will help Alyssa conquer her worry?
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