make you miss me • q. hughes

25

"Scoutsy," Val says with a hint of tipsy in her voice. "You so should have gone and ripped them a new one."

Quinn laughs. "At least she did it."

"Oh, I just sat and thought about what Val would do," I joke. They're really happy that I decided to cut off the girls from work other than Ayesha. Though I did it a bit too respectfully for Val's liking.

We're out at dinner after V and I spent a day doing tourist shit. Starting to think my issue about Vancouver was a real lack of effort to try. I let my nerves control me entirely. Months of built-up emotions crashing down.

"'Cause that's something you do so often," V says.

"Every single choice I make."

She rolls her eyes. "Really? I would never reorganize my entire house before eight in the morning. Y'know, the thing you did this morning."

"I didn't say I always listen to what you would do." I shrug.

"Obviously." It'd be hard to miss the look she shoots toward Quinn. We must both look confused because she huffs and motions between the two of us. "I wouldn't hook up with someone multiple times in secret."

"Val knows?" Quinn asks.

"I've known since that night we played Never Have I Ever."

I have to turn my head completely away from our table to resist looking at Quinn. "Yeah, bit of a shock for her."

"Ouch," Quinn laughs.

"See, I knew something was going on," she says. "I just thought it was with Jack."

"Really?" He doesn't sound too curious about it. More like he never wants to hear that again.

"Mhm," she hums. "Anyways, I'm gonna go pee."

I hold my hand out as she passes by me. "Want me to come with?"

"Nah. Stay with Huggy." She doesn't even stop and let me argue. With any of it. And Quinn didn't sound very excited about the mention of her Jack theory.

With a sigh, I face the table again. I don't have to face him. He's beside me. However, it feels weird facing nobody so I end up with Quinn in my view anyway.

"For someone who used to sneak around all the time, you sure tell a lot of people about it," he says.

"I didn't sneak around all the time. Sure, I snuck around a lot but..." I shrug even though he's looking down at the table. "Not to mention Trevor wasn't told. He caught you."

"So it's all my fault?"

"Are you actually tripping about this? I'm not throwing blame around."

He sighs. "I mean I told Jack so..."

"I told Jack."

"What?" His eyes leave the table, meeting mine. "When'd you tell Jack?"

"My birthday."

We stare at each other. Neither of us saying anything more. I'm mainly doing it because any excuse to look him in the eyes would be neat. It feels like a crime whenever I make eye contact with him. I almost always look away the moment he looks at me. It makes me nervous he'll read into it and figure me out completely. Even though I'm pretty sure he's already done that.

Quinn's eyebrows furrow. "He acted surprised."

"Keyword acted."

"So who doesn't know?"

"My brothers had suspicions I was up to something."

"Had?"

"Well, we aren't very active at the moment," I say, and his entire face shifts. It's barely noticeable. If it wasn't Quinn, I don't think Id have caught it.

He goes back to staring at the table, swiping his thumb over his lip quickly as he turns away. "No, yeah, no. You're right."

"Yeah... I know?" It sounds more like a question than the statement it should be.

We've kissed a few times. That's it. The last few weeks aren't anything that I've told anyone about. Nobody knows about any of the extracurriculars. They know we hooked up a few times in the summer. That's it. Everything else is for only me and Quinn to know.

The silence is suffocating me. I'm bored. "When did you tell Jack?"

"The week we were in New York with family," he says.

"When you realized you missed me?" My voice unintentionally gets a bit teasing.

The smallest of smiles fights its way onto his face. "Yeah. That— Yeah."

"Quinn, be honest." V takes her chair again. Quinn braces himself slightly, tensing up. "Would you be mad if I wore my Zegras sweater? 'Cause the dude got me it after Jack got Schuy hers and I feel like it'd be nice to wear it. Also to prevent any whining."

He relaxes, even laughing that quiet little laugh of his. "I wouldn't be mad."

"What if I wore it?" I ask while my hand finds his back, running up and down. He tenses back up for a quick second before melting into the touch. It's honestly the most perfect match to melting into a touch I've ever fucking seen. Beautiful.

"You don't even have one." He knows I'm fucking with him. There's still an edge to his voice.

"We can trade. Right, Tiny?"

She pretends to think for a moment before scrunching her nose up. "Don't drag me into this."

"Can't be nice to me for one night?" Quinn questions. I'll admit it, I do get a little hesitant when he once again makes eye contact with me. With my fingers still going up and down his back. My breath catches a little, yeah.

"Oh, I've been plenty nice to you on more than one night." I soldier through that missing breath.

Val groans. "Jesus Christ. Go back to the secretive stuff."

"She was doing this shit even when it was a secret," Quinn reminds her.

"Oh, yeah."

"Like when?" I know exactly when.

But Quinn seems to know me. "You don't need reminding."