"HEY, why are you taking the sticker off?" Aria asked as each of us strolled into the Marins' kitchen.
"I'm not, I'm trying to stick it back on." Hanna huffed, her broken leg elevated as she sat uncomfortably in her wheelchair. My heart bled for her. "Believe me I don't want to see the autograph that's under it." She mumbled.
A had clearly broken into Hanna's hospital room and written a message onto her cast, one that said: 'sorry about losing my temper, my bad, love A."
"We can get you another sticker." Spencer suggested as she placed Hanna's duffel bag onto the counter beside her, "Yeah maybe next time we should try something mellower, like 'save the planet'" Aria inputted.
"Hey! there were not a lot of choices, it was either Humpty Dumpty or 'Jesus is coming look busy'" Spencer's face scrunched as she spoke.
"Honestly Han don't worry about it," I reached over to gently squeeze her shoulder, "just focus on everything around you instead, because you're home, you're safe and alive." I reassured her.
"I thought I was safe in my hospital room too." Hanna whispered under her breath. "Now what's going on with Noel Kahn? Is he A? have you talked to him?" Han asked Aria.
"No I avoid him, keep telling him I'm busy...busy freaking out everytime I look at him." Aria retorted.
"Yeah well try getting run over by him." Hanna huffed.
Me and the girls decided to let Hanna sort out some food for herself whilst we grabbed the rest of her stuff from Spencer's car.
As we headed out the front door I noticed Emily being quieter than usual, slowing my steps to a halt I lightly grabbed her sleeve and tugged her back. Letting Aria and Spence head down the drive without us.
"Are you okay?" I asked her quietly, she looked everywhere but my eyes. "Em?" I touched her forearm gently, the girl looked like she'd seen a ghost.
"I'm fine, just some stuff going on at home." She shrugged it off, "You're more than welcome to stay at mine for a few days if you need to." I offered.
"Thanks Quinn, but it's best if I was at home, my parents question where I am enough of the time..."
Emily sauntered off to the others and left me wondering what could possibly be wrong. Her family was always so good, I would never picture them to be the type that had issues.
Once we had grabbed the rest of Hanna's stuff we headed back inside. Hanna was in front of her kitchen cupboards with a few food boxes scattered on the ground.
"What happened?" I asked, "oh just a few boxes fell." Hanna quickly said. Spence and I crouched to pick them up but Hanna's voice interrupted our movement, "No no, you guys don't have to clean, honestly it's fine, you've done enough." She smiled almost nervously?
"Are you staying down here tonight?" Aria asked. "Yeah yeah, down here's good." Hanna grinned. I shared a puzzled look with Spence but then smiled back down at Hanna.
"You guys can go seriously my Mum's gonna be here soon." Hanna said softly, "wait, so now you want us to leave?" Aria asked.
"You don't need to put on a brave face for us Han okay? If being alone is freaking you out we can absolutely stay." Spencer offered, "No no no I'm just saying, I'm fuzzy, from this pain medication and Yep I need a nap." Hanna dragged a hand slowly over her forehead.
"Okay can we help you to the couch?" Em asked. "No you've done enough, thank you." Hanna retorted.
"Okay, give us all a call later yeah?" I asked, leaning down to lightly brush a hand over the top of her head affectionately. "Yeah of course." Hanna smiled.
I followed Em and Aria towards the front door as Spence stayed behind a few seconds after us to say goodbye.
༄
"Hey so how did that date go Quinn?" Emily asked as we piled into Spencer's car.
"It was amazing." I beamed down at my lap at the thought of last night. The girls all grinned at me.
"So what's he like?" Aria asked, "He's handsome, hilarious and we just get on so well, like it feels like I've known him for ages." I traced my finger along the car window pane.
"Well we're happy that you're happy and I hope all goes well for you both because you deserve endless love." Spencer smiled at me through the rear-view mirror before she begun to chat about the re-take of their PSATs.
"You fancy staying round tonight? Mum's working late and Dad has gone on a golf trip, I really don't fancy being alone." I ask Aria whose beside me in the backseat.
"Yeah for sure, is hot Doctor not seeing you anytime soon?" She teased. Leaning over to nudge her in the ribs she squeals and bats my hand away.
Spencer took a turning down onto my street after dropping Em off first, once she pulled up out the front of mine we said our goodbyes and headed into my house.
"So how's Mr fi- I mean, Ezra." I correct myself. Aria gives me a dumbfounded expression before a small smile plays it's way onto her lips.
"He's good, we're good."
I raise my brows at her over my shoulder as I saunter into the kitchen to grab us a drink and soemthing to eat. My phone vibrating in my back pocket diverts me from what I was doing.
"Is that Ledger?" Aria asked as she perched herself onto the island stool.
My eyes run over the message and I nod slowly to answer her. 'Not sure what time you finish work tomorrow but I get off at 2pm then I have my little girl with me for the afternoon, fancy coming to the park with us both? X'
"He's invited me out tomorrow afternoon to meet his daughter and go to the park." I grin, "Oh my god that's adorable, he must seriously like you if he's willing to introduce his daughter already." Aria beams.
"Yeah, yeah he must."
I hand Aria a drink and a plate with some nachos on, then take a seat opposite her at the island. "So what's Spencer doing with Ali's 'potential killer' in her backyard?"
"Well ever since him and Melissa officially tied the knot-" I choke on my juice and that causes aria to abruptly stop speaking. "Officially what?" I gasp.
How didn't I know about this?
"They got married?" I ask, wide-eyed, Aria nodded, "Holy shit, oh my god." I whisper to myself. Slowly placing my drink on the counter I bring a hand up to the bridge of my nose and squeeze it, something I do whenever I'm overloaded with stress or news that stresses me out. Like now, for example.
"Literally only happened last night, it's ridiculous." Aria huffed, lifting a nacho and waving it when she used her hands to gesture whenever she spoke.
"Wait wait, Ian's only been back in town for like what? Two weeks? And they eloped already?" I ask in utter shock.
"I know right! So weird." Aria mumbles, the twinge-y feeling in my gut senses that something else is going on there and that Melissa and Ian eloping isn't just some out-of-the-blue convenience.
"Come on, lets take this food up and watch a film." I grab my bowl of nachos and drink, trailing off up the stairs as Aria follows me close behind.
༄
The only sound that filled my office was the tapping of my pen against my desk, I was filling out reports, lots of them. All of the students I tutor, which comes to about 40, maybe more.
Typing out a few things on my laptop I pressed print and moved off my seat and headed toward the printer in the corner of the room. "Dammit." I muttered under my breath as the words 'no paper' flashed over the tiny screen.
The staff room was always stacked with paper in its file cabinets, so I made my way over the hallway to it. Luckily nobody was in here as it was third period so all teachers were in their classrooms, I wasn't in the mood to socialise with any staff today.
And as if the world was against me, I just had to bump into someone didn't I. "Woah, slow down I-" the deep, raspy voice cut short as they registered my face. I'd bumped straight into Jason Dilaurentis, fuck my life.
"Sorry." I mumbled, shuffling away from him and making a beeline towards the paper drawer, I could still feel his presence lingering. He knew how much it pissed me off.
"Saw you at that restaurant just out of town the other day." Jason called across the room, I grabbed a thick chunk of paper out the drawer and slowly shut it afterwards.
I simply hummed in response and moved back over to the doorway he was blocking. His hands firmly cupped around a steaming-coffee mug as his shoulder was lightly leant up against the doorframe.
"Excuse me." I said softly, Jason didn't budge.
He simply glared down at me, eyes slowly thinning into slits. My brows knitted together tightly in confusion as I tried to figure out what the hell his problem was.
"Jason, excuse me, please." I said softly once again, trying so fucking hard not to lose my temper.
A small sinister smirk played on his lips, he loved this game I could tell, oh how I'd love to smack that smirk straight off of his face.
"Jason, move." I ordered through gritted teeth, getting impatient and agitated now.
I scoffed lightly under my breath and pushed my forearm against his shoulder to shove him out the way; I didn't get very far as he snatched my wrist up in his big hand and pulled me close to him.
"Tell your gal-pal Spencer I know her families secrets." He whispered venomously, face dangerously close to my own.
"Tell her yourself, asshole." I tugged away from his grip and stumbled back into the chest of someone in the hallway.
"Is there a problem here?" Ezra Fitz's voice was calm but slightly warning as he eyed Jason and me suspiciously. I haven't actually encountered Ezra ever since I found out about him and my little cousin, but now that I have I'm gulping down the dry air forming in my mouth.
"No problem Ezra, just a little catch up with an old friend." Jason's emphasis on the word 'friend' made me want to knee him in the no-no-area, but I refrained.
Forcing a fake smile up at Ezra, I swiftly made my way back through the halls to my office.
Avoiding Jason was something I needed to do, but we know such dark things about one another, and the fact we work at the same place makes it harder. I suppose we're frightened of eachother really.
And what did he mean about Spencer's families secrets? Part of me wants to dig and find out only because I'm curious, the other part is telling me to steer fucking clear from anything involving Jason.
༄
I quickly jog up behind Emily and loop my arm through hers, shes been very uptight and on-edge recently and it's in my best interest to ensure that she's okay.
"Hey Em." I beam over at her, she types away frantically on her phone before glancing over to me and returning the smile. "Everything okay?" I ask softly.
She lets out a sigh and slows our walk to a halt, turning to face me properly. "Can we talk," she begins to say as she looks around at the crowded halls anxiously, "-In private?"
I nod eagerly and gesture for her to lead the way.
My office door clicks shut behind us and Emily slowly draws the blind, resting her back up against the door.
"Em, what's up you're freaking me out a little bit." I ask warily, her eyes downcast to the floor.
"I'm gay." She whispers, my eyes widen slightly, of course it's a shock because she'd been dating that jock Ben for over a year. Their breakup was pretty abrupt but I just thought it was because he was an asshole.
I move over to her and fold my arms over my chest, "Why are you whispering that like it's something to be ashamed of?" I ask her, furrowing my brows as her eyes pool with tears.
"I only told the other girls a few days ago, I told my parents two days ago...that's why it's been...tough at home." She mumbled, her fingertips rubbing over the purple embroidered bracelet Alison had given her years ago.
"Did Pam and Wayne not understand?" Emily nods in response to my question, "Well, Dad kind of did, he was reassuring about it, but I know it makes my Mum sick." Emily lifts a hand up to run through her black locks.
"Oh Em." I sigh and wrap my arms over her shoulders, pulling her into me.
"They've invited her to come around tonight for dinner, the girl I'm seeing." Emily adds, gently pulling back from my embrace and dabbing her damp cheeks.
"What's her name?" I smile, "Maya." Emily answers, her face seems to light up at the thought of her and that makes my insides go mush. Emily deserves the entire world.
"-St Germain?" I add, I know the exact girl Emily is going on about, Emily's head perks up and nods, "how do you-?"
"She's one of my students, bright girl, funny, sweet, talks about you." I tease and lightly push her shoulder, Emily grins down at the floor and looks away, her cheeks flushing a dark shade of pink.
"I don't know how I didn't piece it together, the way she would ramble on about you and what you guys had done over the weekend, I mean...obviously I thought it was a friendship but, there was something about the way her eyes glistened when she talked about you." I smiled at the thought.
"Okay now stop I'm going to go red you know it." Emily laughed, exiting my office with me trailing close behind. The school bell rings out for last period and I decide to walk her to her last lesson.
"You have fun on you're little date tonight with hot doctor!" Em calls over her shoulder as she walks into the classroom. I roll my eyes with a small smile playing on my lips.
༄
It's 3:30pm by the time I'm out of the high school and heading to the park, I'm still in my work attire but it's pretty casual and seemed okay to head to the park to. Just a pair of slim-fit jeans and a light brown knitted crew-neck jumper, along with my black boots.
I see Ledger over by the slide and head across the grass towards him, he looks like he's speaking to somebody and until her little head pops out from under the frame, that's when I see Diem.
"Hey." I say, slightly out of breath, Ledger turns around and beams down at me, I forgot how tall that man actually is. "Hi, how are you?" He asks, stuffing his hands into his jean pockets and rocking on his heals.
"I'm good thank you, how are you?" I return the question, "Good good, I want you to meet someone, c'mere." He nods his head to the side.
I follow him as we duck under the monkey bars and head round to the roundabout, there's nobody in the park except for us. There's a little brunette girl on the roundabout spinning it round using her foot, she slows it down once she sees us heading towards her.
"Diem, this is Quinn, Quinn this is my daughter Diem." Ledger crouches down in front of the girl who seems nervous but finds comfort when she knows her dad knows who I am.
"Hi, it's nice to meet you, your Daddy has told me so much about you." I bend down slightly and extend my hand out to the girl.
She looks at her dad almost asking for permission, he chuckles and nods. Before I know it she's bolting towards me and wrapping her tiny arms around my waist, giggling at my shocked reaction.
"She's a hugger, I forgot to mention." Ledger stands up and smiles, I squeeze Diem close to me before she lets go and starts bombarding me with questions about farm animals and what my favourite Disney films are.
Next minute I'm going down the slide with her in between my legs, Ledger stood at the bottom shaking his head at me with the biggest smile on his face.
Diem takes me on every activity in the park, she attempts to get her daddy on them to but he claims his frame is too 'big' for everything. He's not wrong though, a guy with all those back and arm muscles must struggle getting through the park tunnels and other obstacle bits.
It's when we reach the small monkey bars that I step back and let Diem do without me, I'm a little too tall for those and I'd be cheating if I attempted them.
A warm hand comes to rest on the small of my back, pulling my focus from Diem. "Now you're introduced and officially best friends, you got time to be with me for a bit?" Ledger asked.
"Of course." I retort, we sit on the grass just by the monkey bars, watching as Diem goes back and forth on them, swinging like a literal monkey.
"How was work?" I ask, deciding to bring up conversation first because he always does, our bodies are close and I like it. I enjoy his presence because he makes me feel safe and focused upon.
"Tiring, saved two lives today so that was a mood booster, what about you?" I tell him about how boring my days been because I only had one tutor at 10 am and I wasn't allowed to head home early because I had to answer emails and phone calls and file reports for the rest of the day.
"But hey, look at you saving lives." I tease and nudge my elbow into his rib, clearly that's a ticklish spot for him because he jolts and laughs loudly.
We continue to talk about the rest of our week planned and then eventually move onto other conversational topics.
My phone begins to vibrate in my pocket and I apologise to Ledger. Taking it out I see Spencer's name flash across the screen.
"Spence what's up?" I answer, miming another apology to Ledger who's leant back on the grass with his elbows propping him upright, he waves it off and begins to trace a piece of grass over my knee.
"Hey, I'm sorry I know you're with Ledger right now but, Sean threw Hanna a 'welcome home' party and frickin' Noel is here!" Spencer hisses down the phone.
"Oh my god, if he's at Hanna's house who knows what he's gonna try." I mumble, Diem saunters over to us and collapses onto her Daddy's lap, rubbing her eyes out of tiredness.
"Exactly, and Hanna's not exactly mobile so he has a better chance!" Spencer is a very fast talker I must say.
"Tell her to run him over with her wheelchair or something...Spence I gotta go..." I mumble.
"Can you get here?" She pleads, I glance at Ledger who's still fascinated by drawing patterns on my knee.
"I can try to, speak later okay?" I call down the phone before pulling it from my ear and ending the call.
"Everything okay?" Ledger asks as he slowly stands, picking a sleeping Diem up into his arms, she's adorable and I can't help but think that he looks so good as a Dad- Stop Quinn.
"Everything's all good." I smile and stand up after him, following him back through the park as we head towards our cars that are parked just behind and in front of one another.
"So I've gotta drop Diem at Clara's now but, I was wondering if you wanted to come to mine for dinner?" He offers, my stomach flutters, his nervous smile is too hard for me to resist spending more time with him, he is too hard to resist.
"That sounds lovely, I'd love to." I grin, he seems to relax a bit and nods.
Once we make it to our cars I wait by his as he buckles Diem into her car seat. Shutting her door he moves over to the drivers and turns to face me, "She loves you already I can tell, thank you for coming today." Ledger grips the back of his neck before dropping his hand back down to his side.
"I really enjoyed myself, she's an amazing little girl." I say softly.
"Instead of dinner, could we perhaps go to a party? My friends hosting one right now..." I figured if I want to spend time with Ledger, why not do that and keep a close eye on Hanna as well, just to make sure she's safe.
"I haven't partied since college, am I not too old to be attending your friends parties?" Ledger grimaces, he knows my bestfriends are all sixteen, to be honest I'm freaking old to be attending these parties too.
"I'm 20 in 5 months time, I think I'm too old for them too, but I'm only going to ensure my friend is okay, you know Hanna?" I jog his memory at the girl he treated in hospital.
"Oh yes! Broken leg?" I nod at his response.
"Yeah for sure we'll go, I'm sure we will make it fun." He chuckles, slipping into his car.
"Yeah we will, see you shortly, do you want me to come pick you up?" I offer but he shakes his head, "I'll come pick you up in twenty minutes, we can head there together."
I like the sound of him saying him and I as a 'together' it rolled effortlessly off of his tongue, oh god now I'm thinking about his tongue, stop Quinn!
"See you then!" I call and head over to my car.
————
A twenty two year old and a nineteen year old heading to a sixteen year old-filled party? Might have some strange reactions I suppose...
Do we like longer chapters or short ones?
I love ledger so much stopppp, I just wanna make them kiss so bad but time will tell....