LIVING & GRIEVING

16. come to joes

"So, usually I would start with the main themes and then see what quotes I could use for them."

"Right. So, what are the main themes?"

"Have you been to any classes at all?"

"A few. I just haven't been concentrating that well."

He shook his head, probably understanding the exact reason I wasn't concentrating much in class.

"Okay. Why don't we start with power, that's probably the easiest one?"

To start off with, Quinn made me read through his old annotations which actually turned out to be really helpful. He had even used different colour highlighters to represent the different themes, so it was easier to pick out what quotes I needed. We worked through four of the main themes for almost two hours. I didn't even notice the time passing.

"I've actually got Gaelic training to go to. I should probably get ready."

"Oh, yeah. No worries, I completely forgot about that. I'll get my stuff."

"Do you want to come watch?"

"Watch your training?"

"Yeah, why not."

"Um, yeah okay sure."

It only took Quinn a few minutes to get ready. I followed him out to the car, and we drove more or less in silence. I don't know why he asked me to come watch him train. And I don't know why I agreed. Regret slipped in as soon as we pulled up to the training pitches and I noticed Marks car. I hadn't considered that him, Sean, and James would all be here. They would all wonder why I was here too.

"Will I just watch from the car?"

"What? No, you can sit in the dugout."

"Are you sure? Wont people wonder why I'm here?"

"I doubt they'll care, Ivy, now hurry up," he rolled his eyes as he stepped out of the car.

I followed closely behind him as we approached the pitch, already spotting my friends standing near the dug outs, warming up, along with a few other boys I recognised as Quinn's friends.

"What are you doing here, Ivy?" James looked confused as the rest of the boys turned round, not sure what to make of it either.

"She's watching us train, what does it look like?" Quinn shot back.

"Yeah, but why?"

"Cause I brought her," and with that, they didn't say anything else, just went back to whatever they were doing, "sit here, I just have to go leave my stuff in the changing room, this will probably only last around an hour."

Once Quinn was gone, my friends turned to me again, "Quinn brought you to watch him train?"

"Yeah, he was just helping me study for English then must have been running late for this so brought me with him."

"You live next door to him."

"Yeah, I know that Mark," I shrugged. "Look, I don't know why I'm here, we finished up and he asked me to come so I came. Is it a big deal?"

The boys shared a knowing look between each other, shaking their heads and laughing, before running off to join the rest of their team. Quinn was already back from the changing rooms and walking onto the pitch with one of his friends, Ronan, who shot me a wink. Feeling my cheeks heat up, I gave them a quick wave and turned away, trying to focus on the rest of the team.

Despite what Quinn had said earlier, people were definitely going to care that I came to this. Especially because he seemed to focus more on me than the actual training. Their coach kept making him run laps of the pitch. It got even more awkward when Ronan decided to speak up, "for fuck sake man, she's not going anywhere."

"What?" he shrugged, acting oblivious.

"Are you working up the courage to ask her out or are you just staring for fun?"

"Fuck off Ronan," he grumbled, before doing another lap of the pitch. James, Mark, and Sean were equally as distracted as they tried to look between me and Quinn constantly, while listening to his and Ronan's conversation. This not only earned them laps too but also some choice words from coach. Total disaster.

Eventually, they made it through training, and I waited at the car for Quinn to come back out. He was in and out pretty quick, probably trying to avoid his teammates, unsuccessfully. Ronan caught up behind him, doing a slight jog, "where you off to so fast, you're not going to introduce me to your friend?"

"You've met Ivy before," he shook his head.

"Ah yes, Ivy from next door, that's right!"

"Hi Ronan," I smiled.

"Well Ivy, don't you have a great smile," he smirked.

"Seriously Ronan?" Quinn folded his arms, "fuck off."

"No can do, my friend. Are you going to come to Joes with us Ivy?" Joes was another bar in town, slightly further out from our local. But from what I had heard from the boys, the team were pretty regular customers after training and matches.

"No, she's not," Quinn opened his car door to start getting in.

"That's for me to decide, isn't it?"

"Yeah, but you won't want to go."

"Why wouldn't i?"

"You don't go out much anymore. You don't have to go."

I stood for a second, looking between the boys, who were almost sort of glaring at each other. Ronan looked like he was challenging Quinn. He had invited me to get a reaction out of his friend. He was getting what he wanted too; I was expected not to go. And yeah, I didn't want to. Any other day I would have said no. But there was something about the fact Quinn thought I wouldn't go, that made me have to prove him wrong.

"Actually, I was hoping to start going out again. May as well start now."