Page 98 of Through Quick and Quinn
likewise
but more
Monday, December 30, 2024
Note to self:
We just got back from Florida and we had the best time! My parents were so amazing. I am seriously blessed to have such supportive parents. I can’t wait to tell Quick all about my decision regarding next year. I mean, yes, I will miss him with every single cell in my body, but every time I think about what I’ll be doing, I get so excited. I know it’s the right decision, and I know my best friend will be thrilled for me.
He asked me to go over to his house for New Year’s Eve tomorrow. It seems like a big deal to me. I’ll be officially meeting his parents (because my run-in with her on the Fourth of July should not count), and it is so soon after his mom’s return. And then what about the fact that it’s New Year’s Eve? Ummmm, does that mean we kiss at midnight? I can’t even think about it without freaking out on the inside.
Anyway, I asked my mom if I could go, and the conversation quickly became something I was not entirely prepared for. She immediately asked me about the level of my relationship with Quick, and when I asked her what she meant, she point blank asked me if we were “intimate.” I literally almost died. I gasped and choked and laughed and was horrified, all at the same time. Clearly she could see from my reaction that we were not, but she didn’t miss a beat and hit me again with another question. Actually, two questions. This time, she asked if we were boyfriend-girlfriend and if we “engage in French kissing.” Who even says that?
Once I settled down, I explained to her that we really are just friends. She said she believed me, but that she was surprised because we seem much closer than “friends.” I told her that we are indeed closer than typical friends, that we are the best of friends and connected on a super deep level. She then asked what makes it so, and I told her that he and I shared something unique and very profound in common. I was planning on telling her, but I didn’t need to. I could see it register on her face. Her eyes filled with tears and she squeezed my hand.
When she got up to walk away, she softly said with a smile, “Of course you can go. I trust you.”
So, I guess I’m going. To Quick’s house. To meet his parents. To tell him my good news. And the bad news. And hopefully he doesn’t kick me out before midnight.
I kind of hope he does. I don’t know what I’ll do when the clock strikes twelve.
…Q
Quinn:
Assurances
Not only did both of my parents drive me to Quick’s house, but they both insisted on walking me to the door. They wanted to meet Mr. and Mrs. Williams before their daughter spent hours upon hours with a young man, and understandably so. As we were driving over, I had a daydream in my head where both of our moms and both of our dads also became the best of friends, and then we’d always spend all the holidays together. I caught myself having such absurd thoughts about my future with Quick that I made myself blush.
The four parents greeted one another with kindness, and after a few minutes, my mother and father felt comfortable enough to leave. Quick’s parents gave mine the assurances they needed, which also settled my nerves a bit. Once my folks headed out, Mrs. Williams faced me directly. “Quinn, dear, please accept my apologies for our encounter over the summer. That was not my finest moment.”
“Of course, Mrs. Williams. Thank you.” I wasn’t sure what else to say. I was remarkably impressed with the forward manner in which she accepted responsibility. I took it as a good sign, and it only made me more eager to hear Quick tell me all about her homecoming.
“Please, come to the kitchen. Declan and I have been preparing fun little finger foods all day. Do you have any allergies, Quinn?” I shook my head no, which was all I could muster. I was reeling from the fact that I heard her call Quick by his given name. It was a great name, and it sounded all the more beautiful coming from his mother’s mouth.
After nibbling on bacon-wrapped dates and a charcuterie board that put the one I made for his birthday to absolute shame, his parents retreated to their den to watch a movie. Quick and I stayed in the living room, as promised to my parents, and I was so excited to have him all to myself again.
“Quick! Oh my gosh, tell me everything! I am so stinkin’ happy for you, Quick. She seems so good!” I was trying to whisper, but my enthusiasm was hard to subdue.
“First things first,” he winked, as he reached over for a hug that made up for the last eleven days without one. We untangled and he leaned back on the couch, his face suddenly wearing a distressed look. “Quinn, I thought we agreed to start with the not-so-good news first, no? I gotta get this off my chest.” It hurt my heart to see him with such anguish. I didn’t want him to suffer with it for even one minute more than he had to.
I squeezed his hand. “Of course, Quick. Please go ahead.”
He proceeded to rattle off a stream of consciousness full of vague sentences that seemed to circle around a major central point that he was leaving unsaid. If he wasn’t repeatedly apologizing and saying that he finally understood why I did the same thing last year, he was professing how much he wanted to help me and protect me. I was trying to follow what he was saying and attempting to make sense of it, when he mentioned wanting to take away all of my pain. It slowly started to click in my brain and was simultaneously confirmed when he confessed that he felt like a hypocrite. “Quick?” I disrupted him mid-sentence. “Quick, is this about SIDS?”
The terror on his face said it all. He had researched SIDS, just as I had researched trafficking, and the secrecy of it was tearing him apart. “I’m so sorry, Quinn. You’ve always been right to face the truths, no matter how difficult or how uncomfortable. And so I have to face you now. I completely understand if you never want to talk to me again. I cut you off for months for the same thing, which makes this even worse. And the worst part is—”
I placed my hands on his cheeks and lovingly smiled at him. “It’s okay, Quick. I’m not upset.”
“You’re not? Seriously, you are such a better person than I am.” Relief washed over him, and I had to resist the urge to crawl into his lap and wrap my arms around him as tightly as I could.
“No, I am not, Quick. Look at you. Look at how torn up you were. You are the most caring, most empathic, most thoughtful person I know. I am so lucky that I found you.” He placed his forehead to mine and I gently closed my eyes, taking in the warmth that I felt being that close to him. A minute or so passed, and I realized there was more to the conversation at hand. “Besides, I guess I wasn’t entirely honest with you either, now that I think about it. I suspected foul play with SIDS for a long time, and I ended up doing a shallow dig on it a while back. I learned enough to confirm my intuition, and then I closed the chapter on it. I know the truth and I’ll have to make choices in the future based on that truth. And that’s that.”
Something I said stunned him silent. He stared at me, his mouth agape and his eyes as wide as golf balls. “You dug on SIDS? How could you stomach it?” He went on to tell me how he was in awe of me, my bravery, and my boldness. I told him that it actually helped me heal even more because I was able to put some things to rest, and that now it was his turn to put something to rest. I was not upset with him in the slightest and, if anything, I was grateful that he not only cared enough to research it, but that we got to a place in our friendship where he felt he did not need to run or hide from uncomfortable situations anymore.
“I looked up Ephesians 6:12, you know. When Seek & Speak’s topic was fluoride and that username ‘live on stage’ mentioned it? It’s super profound, Quick. I would never be upset with you. It’s the bad guys at the top of the food chain that we should all be upset with. The rulers. The authorities. The powers that be. They’re evil, and you are the opposite.”
I squeezed his hand and glanced at the clock. Four more hours until midnight.
