roommates

twenty four

Quinn realized that she loved him. 

And that was terrifying. 

Because she had always in her head known that eventually she would love him, but feeling this ache course through her body was so much scarier than just considering it. 

Quinn resisted the urge to pick up her phone and tell him right now, but she knew that was something that had to be said in person. So she did the irrational thing that her brain was pushing her to do. 

Quinn packed an overnight bag, and she swallowed her pride. Quinn remembered what his mom had said to her in the hospital. "When you tell Clay you love him, make sure he gets it in his brain."

She had to do this right now. 

As Quinn grabbed her keys off the counter, Rose meowed at her feet. 

"I'll be back in the morning baby. Go eat!" Quinn said goodbye to her cat. 

When she swung open her front door she was met face to face with the man she was going to see. And he was holding flowers. 

"Clay?" Quinn asked, how was it that he always seemed to read her mind. 

"I haven't been able to stop thinking about you," he admitted almost bashfully, "which is immature I know, but I wanted to be able to do this right." 

Now Quinn was confused, if he beat her to saying what was on her mind, she was gonna be pissed. 

"Do what right baby?" The name rolled off of Quinn's tongue affectionately. It was then that Clay noticed Quinn's bag. 

"Were you going somewhere?" Clay didn't want to keep her from leaving, but he wanted Quinn to himself tonight. Well, he wanted Quinn to himself always, but tonight especially. He probably should've called to see if she had plans. 

"I was actually, gonna come see you," Now it was Quinn's turn to be bashful, "I guess you beat me to it." 

Relief flooded through Clay's chest. 

"Okay, good. I was worried that I was about to wreck your plans," Clay handed her the flowers, "when we first got together, when we talked, the morning after the hospital, I told you that I would go back and change history if I could. Rewrite it so that nothing got in the way of us being together." 

"I remember," Quinn could see something shaking inside of Clay's eyes, he had thought about this for a while, she could tell. 

"Give me the chance to change history," Clay seemed to have settled on these words, on his invitation, "Let me go back and fix it, what I did, how I let you go." 

"How do we do that?" Quinn was curious, he had driven all the way over to her house, with flowers, and now said he wanted to change history. It was all very sweet, and Quinn appreciated the gesture, but she knew that no one could really change history. 

"Come stay with me tonight. That first night we kissed, there was something that ignited itself in me, and I begged you to stay. Well this is me, begging again, for you."

Quinn's stomach flipped on its head. Last time this happened, she cried for a whole day. But maybe this time, he won't let her leave. And maybe she'll tell him that she loves him before time runs out. 

Slowly Quinn nodded, and Clay's reaction was immediate. He took the flowers from her hands put them on the counter and picked her up like she weighed nothing. 

"Put me down!" Quinn was trying to contain the giggles she let out. 

Tiki came around the corner wondering what all the noise was, and chirped happily when she saw Clay.