Drowning the Past

10

It was four in the morning when her phone woke her. She had three missed calls from Iris and two texts.

'I don't know what to say.'

'I'm sorry.'

There were two texts from the group chat they'd set up for the game. One was a picture of Rylee with Neil. Another one was of Piper with__.

Her mind went blank, and she sat up.

Noah had already been stirring. When she sat up, he did the same and looked at her phone. "Shit."

She turned off her phone so he wouldn't see the rest of the pictures.

"Jesus, Quinn."

She moved away from him, throwing on one of his shirts, she started chunking things around trying to find her purse.

He didn't even tell her to calm down. Smart guy. He started looking for her purse, too. When he found it and held it up, she jumped for it.

Her hands shook as she dumped it out on his bed and grabbed her pack of cigarettes and a lighter.

Her hands were still shaking as she took a drag.

He picked up her 5th of vodka. Looking at her, he grabbed up her bag of weed, her box of condoms, and her bottle of whip cream vodka.

She took the last one from him and took a quick drink. Sticking her cigarette between her lips, she grabbed all her stuff from him and shoved it into her bag.

"That explains why you need such a giant purse. What if you get busted at school?"

"That is the least of my problems."

She pushed away from him and headed out his sliding door to the pool.

She couldn't even believe what she'd just seen.

How__? Fuck! Was she really surprised? Of course, Piper would do such a thing, but why would she want to?

Fuck! What was he thinking?

Sitting in a lounge chair, she dug out another cigarette and drank the rest of the bottle. Shoving it into her purse, she took out the big one.

No matter how much she drank, nothing was going to make this go away.

She went to the website. Piper was in the lead with 140 points. 100 fucking points and it wasn't because she'd finally gotten with Mr. Rivera.

Quinn threw her phone into the pool.

Who gives a fuck? Who in the fuck cares?

Quinn stiffened when she heard Noah sit down beside her, and she drowned more of the fiery liquid.

"I don't give a fuck." She declared.

He had taken the time to pull on his jeans, but his shirt was missing. He held out his hand.

After taking a drink, he handed the bottle back to her. "No one would blame you if you're upset."

"I don't want to talk about it."

"You never do. You never want to talk about my problems eighter."

"Like you have any. Your fucking life smells like roses."

"Does it?"

"For where I sit, yeah, it does."

"I know life hasn't been easy on you, but you're not the only one with problems." He promised her.

"Yeah? Your father sleep with your stepsister? Your mom dead?"

"No, but my brother came out of the closet and my dad is threatening to disown him. My father is sleeping around, and my mom pretends she can't see it. She pretends not to see anything, or maybe she doesn't see it. She's never here to see it. Do you know how tired I am of watching him shitting on everything? On everyone? Jake is a good kid. He doesn't deserve someone telling who he can be with and who he can't be with. He doesn't deserve a mom who doesn't care enough to stand up for her own son. Don't even get me started on my girlfriend. She's in second place in one of the most fucked up games in the history of the world."

She blew her smoke out at him. "Tied for third now. Piper and Rylee passed me, and Heather found a virgin somewhere."

"Can you even imagine what it was like for me to hear about your review of Anthony Perkins?"

She passed him her bottle. "How do you know it was me?"

He took a drink. "You were the only one with the points."

Instead of handing her bottle back to her, he took another drink. "Why are you here? I know why you do what you do. I know why you were with him, why you're with all of them, but I can't figure out why you're here."

"You don't know anything."

"I know you spend all your time trying to feel anything other than pain."

Noah put the lid on her bottle and threw it into the pool with her phone, then he stood and offered her his hand.

"How could he do that?" The question was out before she could stop it.

"I don't know, but I know you need to stop thinking. I know you need to stop feeling the pain, and I know the way you do that."

"You don't know me." She whispered.

"Let's see if that's true." He led her back to his room.