Don't Let Me Fall Again

Chapter Twelve - Someone's Changed

‘Quinn!’ I screamed, absolutely furious. ‘Oh my God, I could kill you! What the hell are you doing out here?’

‘I could ask you the same!’ he said, doubled over in laughter. ‘Oh my God, your face! You were so scared! Ha! “Take the phone!” Why on earth would I want your cell phone, anyway, Laura? Oh, god, I think I’m going to die with laughter … That was just too funny. LOL! By the way, that means “laugh out loud”, if you didn’t already know! I should’ve taken a picture of that face –!’

‘Shut up!’ I hissed, balling up my fists in anger. I felt like hitting him so badly.

‘You look so cute when you’re angry with your little fists. I just want to put you in my pocket,’ Quinn sniggered. ‘Why did you get so frightened just because I was walking behind you? Ha! Don’t get me wrong, Laura, I’m sorry I scared you … but your face was so –!’

‘Quinn! Shut up right now!’ I warned, not finding this funny at all. ‘You could’ve given me a heart attack!’

He eventually sobered up. ‘I know, I know … I’m sorry, Laura. So … what has you out here? Why are you alone? You shouldn’t be out here alone with the way things are nowadays … Why aren’t you with Ryan? Where is he? Did something bad happen, Laura? Are you okay? Do you need me to bring you back to Ryan’s?’

My bottom lip wobbled, and I bit it to try and stop myself from crying. I shook my head, blinking rapidly to stop the tears from gathering up in my eyes. ‘I-I’m not going back to Ryan’s,’ I decided. That was a logical thing to do, right? If Quinn brought me back to Ryan, he’d only jump to conclusions that I went to find Quinn, rather than the other way around. He was jealous of Quinn enough as it was, and I didn’t want to make things even worse.

Quinn offered to bring me back to his place, which he said would be empty because his mam was working and his sister was more than likely out drinking, and I gratefully agreed. The short walk to his house was mostly silent, but it wasn’t an awkward silence, it was comfortable. It gave me time to think about my ridiculously stupid fight with Ryan.

When we stepped inside, we got a pleasant view of Caroline the Whore slutting it up on the couch with a guy I recognised from my surprise birthday party. Mortified, Quinn hurried me up the stairs and into a room at the end of the hallway. It was his bedroom, and I wasn’t ashamed to admit how excited I was to step into his bedroom, which worried me. I was supposed to be sobbing over my boyfriend, not thrilled to be in another lad’s bedroom.

‘Sorry about that,’ Quinn said, blushing as he sat down on his bed. ‘Didn’t think she’d be home at all … But anyway, let’s get talking about why you’re so upset. What happened?’

Sighing, I sat down on a comfy black leather couch on the other side of the room and told him all about our fight and the fact that Ryan wouldn’t let me back into his apartment. Quinn looked angry, and took a while to think about what he was going to say. In the meantime, I stared around his room.

It was so cool. Pictures, postcards and posters covered every single part of the walls in his room. Most of them were of bands and actors, while others were photos of beautiful places and his family. Built-in bookshelves held around a hundred books that I had never even heard of, and stacks of CDs and DVDs were piled up in a corner of his room beside his flat-screen TV. Most of the furniture in his room was black, along with the carpet, and his laptop was sitting on top of some type of drawing.

Before I could go over and have a nosy, Quinn started talking again. ‘Maybe … we shouldn’t see each other so often anymore,’ he suggested, picking uncertainly at a small patch of dry skin on his thumb. ‘I mean, Ryan probably wouldn’t have said half of those things if we weren’t spending so much time together. I think his jealousy’s getting the better of him …’