"IM sorry," Ledger mumbled as he pulled on a grey t-shirt, gazing down at me sat upright in his bed. I nodded but kept my eyes fixated on my thumbs that twiddled round one another.
I heard him sigh and shuffle round the bed to his side, before pulling back the duvet so he could sliver under it. My head was still hurting from the amount of alcohol I'd consumed tonight but I was sobering up quickly.
"Quinn." Ledger mumbled, he rolled on his side and stared up at me, I met his eyeline and lightly furrowed my brows.
"I'm sorry I've been so moody this evening..."
I nodded in response to his apology and looked back at my intertwined hands. Ledger huffed defeatedly before moving back and flicking off his lamp, flooding the room with darkness.
Ledger shocked me tonight, I mean everyone can get pissed off and angry sometimes, but taking that anger out on someone who's done nothing wrong? And doesn't even know the full story as to why you're angry? Makes no sense to me.
If Ledger was so pissed, he should've just messaged me and told me to make my own way home so he could be alone and cool off. I would've preferred that then him ruining a good night by being so snappy and moody with me.
And the whole Jason thing really screwed with my mind; I curled up on my side with my back facing Ledger, clutching the duvet up to my chin as I knitted my eyes shut deep in thought. Jason lingered in the back of my head and I tried so hard to kick him out, but the concern on his face when he saw me come back into Kenji's house after Ledger was rude to me, was that concern real? Or a facade?
I relaxed into the comfort of the duvet and pushed all the thoughts in my mind out of my head. Slowly allowing slumber to take me over, leaving this night behind.
༄
The sound of food frying, toast being popped down into the toaster and the kettle boiling caused me to stir and slowly wake up. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes I slinked out from under the covers and grabbed one of Ledger's hoodies to throw on.
I heard the faint sound of Adele playing on the radio, Ledger humming along here and there.
Sighing and stepping further into the kitchen I hugged my arms around myself and headed towards the island.
"Good morning." Ledger smiled softly once he noticed my presence, he looked beautiful in that moment, hair tousled, eyes twinkling with life, the stubble of his beard neatly tidied up; his grey t-shirt hugging his upper arms snugly, along with black running shorts.
"Morning." I retorted, feeling my lips form into a smile I couldn't contain when I looked at him.
Ledger turned the heat on the hob down so the eggs didn't overcook, he danced his fingertips across the island countertop as he made his way over to me.
"Look, I'm sorry about last night, I was just in such a shit mood and for me to take it out on you was not fair at all." His hand lifted up to tuck a chunk of my hair behind my ear, I relaxed into his palm and smiled sweetly up at him.
"It's okay, just next time you don't need to come and get me or see me if you're in a bad mood, I know you don't mean to take it out on me..." I sighed.
Ledger nodded before leaning his head down and connecting his lips to mine, I hummed against his mouth and wrapped my arms around his neck. He slowly pulled back, taking my bottom lip between his teeth before standing up right and heading back over to the cooker.
"Coffees over there for you." I glanced behind me to the kettle and saw the mug I always used around his and claimed as 'mine' filled with piping hot caffeine.
"Plans for today?" I asked him, cradling the warm mug in my hands as I re-took my seat at the island.
Ledger dished up our food and handed the plate to me, "I've got work at two..." he groaned, digging into his breakfast. I checked the time on my phone that read 12:34pm, I'd really slept in that long.
"I think I'll go see the girls today, need to catch up with them." I mumbled, quickly shooting Spencer a message asking if I could come round.
After our brunch, Ledger got dressed into his scrubs and I showered and changed into one of his hoodies and a pair of jeans I'd left at his a few weeks ago. He dropped me outside Spencer's house, kissed me hard on the lips and bid goodbye before heading to the hospital for his shift.
I never used Spencer's front door whenever I went round, always used the back patio doors; Hanna was there too and opened the doors for me.
"How've you been?" I gushed, embracing her lightly and feeling as if I hadn't seen her in ages when it had only been a couple of days.
"As good as I can be I guess." Hanna sighed, slumping back down on the sofa as I closed the door behind me and hung my handbag on the coat rack.
Spencer called out to me from upstairs before bounding down holding a slip of paper and her laptop under her arm.
"So um...Melissa's pregnant." She forced a sarcastic smile as she sat down on the sofa opposite me and Hanna. I gasped and snapped my head over to the blonde who shook her head lightly and dropped her gaze to her lap.
"What the fuck?" I whispered, Spencer hummed in agreement before typing away and glancing at the paper in her other hand.
"Hey what is that?" I asked, leaning over and grabbing it off her.
'I found this in Jenna's room,
You might be right.'
"Toby put it in the book I'd given him to read, it's a tracing of braille from Jenna, I'm trying to figure out what it means." Spencer rambled on as she fixed her gaze on her computer screen.
"How's it going...with tutoring him?" I asked.
"It's actually not that bad, we really misinterpreted him, I think he believes Jenna is bad just as much as we do." Spence shrugged.
I turned my attention to Hanna who still had her eyes cast downward and wasn't as talkative as usual. Her spit with Aria really wasn't looking good, the two hadn't spoken or looked at eachother in days.
"Han, she'll come around...I promise you." I placed my hand on her wrist lightly.
"Her and Em are coming over tonight to help us with cracking this.." Spencer waved the paper up, "Will you stay?" She asked innocently, I nodded before standing to head into the kitchen to make myself a drink.
༄
"Okay so that's a B." I hummed as I sat in between Spencer and Hanna on her bed, Aria sat on Spence's windowsill seat, Em on the love chair in the corner of the room.
"A..." Spencer found the second letter of the braille message; "Wait I think this is going to tell us who A is.." Hanna assumed.
"D...?"
"B...A...D...that's it?" I asked, brows furrowing tightly in confused.
"Bad?" Hanna clicked her tongue in disappointment and looked away.
"That's the message? Bad?" Spencer asked in disbelief, looking at me and the other girls before staring back at the computer screen.
"What does it mean, it's gotta have another meaning right?" Em asked, moving to the edge of her seat and wrapping her arms around herself.
"It means you got conned." Aria snapped almost smugly, I thinned my eyes at my little cousin, she looked away cowardly before standing up from her seat and grabbing her bag.
"You know what guys? I'm gonna go." She left the room swiftly before any of us could utter another word.
Hanna sighed heavily, I took my phone out and quickly texted Aria: 'Cut her some slack, we don't know why she did what she did, but I'm sure she had a pretty damn good reason to. You don't have to be so petty about it.'