Page 60 of Fast Break
We eat a bowl of cereal and Quinn makes us both a coffee which helps perk me up a little after the late night. It’s too easy lazing about Quinn’s house with him on a mild Saturday morning. My phone is still burning a hole in my pocket, but I have nowhere else I’d rather be than here with Quinn who makes me feel like a complete person.
We walk to the duck pond in the afternoon and Quinn lets me play with the ducks for a bit before we sit in our usual spot and enjoy the sunshine, the mixed scents of pine and eucalyptus soaking the air. My phone vibrates in my pocket again and I ignore it even though I’m aware it’s becoming fairly obvious.
“You want to talk about that?” Quinn eventually drops.
“Talk about what?”
“About whoever’s phone calls you’ve been ignoring all day,” he says pointedly.
I sigh heavily. “I know who it is and why they’re calling. I also know I’m not in the right headspace to talk to them right now.”
“Your parents?”
“Yep.”
“Why are they calling?”
I sigh again and run my fingers through the black and green duck feather I found earlier. “Well, they’ll be phoning to demand I return home for starters. I only really get leave passes for basketball games and training and that leniency expires on Saturday mornings. They’ll also be phoning to demand the apology they think they’re owed because I dared speak back to my mum last night.”
Quinn is silent for a few moments, but I don’t look at him. I can’t. “They thinkyouowe an apology to yourmum?” he finally asks, disbelief colouring his tone.
“Oh yes. There is no greater crime in my home than disrespecting your parents. Doesn’t matter the circumstances.”
“JT,” Quinn says softly, and I can’t stop myself from looking at him. He wears a sad expression, and I wish this wasn’t my life so he didn’t have to look at me like that.
“Don’t feel sorry for me, Quinn,” I say. “This is just my life.”
“I know but it sucks. You get that, right? That I have to just sit here on the sidelines and watch them mistreat and control you? Like I don’t get any say over you.”
“You get all the say you want,” I correct him. “Yours is the opinion that matters to me most.”
“Okay then, tell me this. Do youwantto go home to your family today?” I shake my head. “Well then stay. Stay with me and let me take you out tonight,” Quinn says, reaching out to hold my hand. “Let me take you out on a real date and then you can come back home with me and spend a PG rated night in my bed on account of my mum being home.”
I snort out a laugh. “I would love nothing more than to go on a date with you, even if it ends with a PG sleepover.”
“If you promise to be really quiet, we could maybe make it an M15 night,” Quinn grins, thumb tracing the back of my hand.
“I can be as silent as a mouse,” I assure him.
“We’ll see about that.” We just smile at each other and I feel a whoosh shoot through my stomach with the realisation that he is mine. Well, kind of mine. We haven’t made any promises to each other, but I know without any doubt that there is nobody else for me but him.
***
Later that evening I’m sitting across from Quinn inside a cute French style bistro feeling a whole fleet of butterflies in my stomach. I don’t know why because this is Quinn, and I know him well enough to not be nervous. But I’ve never been on a real date before, especially not with someone as amazing and brilliant and beautiful and so out of my league as Quinn Dayton.
I’m wearing a blue button-down shirt that he leant me. The material is tight around my pecs and biceps, but the way Quinn’s eyes have hovered there all night suggests he quite likes it. I’m also wearing my blue jeans and Nike Le Brons because that is all I had on me, but Quinn is wearing jeans and a black button down too and I think he dressed down a little for my benefit. The place he has picked is perfect too, just the right blend between nice and cosy. Not too fancy for a pair of teenage lovers.
“You’re setting a pretty high benchmark for future dates,” I comment as the waiter drops our plates with a flourish.
“Only the best for you, JT.” Quinn quirks that crooked smile at me and it hits me right in the chest. I’m so in love with him it’s not even funny anymore. I hardly know how to cope with all the feels I have for him.
My phone has thankfully quietened down after I sent a brief text to my parents to tell them I was ‘hanging out’ with Quinn today and won’t be home. Trey sent me a heads up that they’d called his house looking for me, so I knew better than to lie about where I was. Besides, Quinn is not on their radar for potential fornication incidents, so I figure it is better to hide in plain sight.
Our date doesn’t end with the restaurant as Quinn drives us to the botanic gardens on the edge of the city and I realise we’re going to the cinema under the stars. Quinn hires a two-person beanbag and a blanket, and we find a secluded spot near an ancient gum tree that is wrapped in twinkling fairy lights and romance.
“This is so romantic,” I sigh as I sink onto the beanbag beside Quinn. He tucks me under his arm, and I rest my head on his shoulder, feeling more content than I ever have in my life.
“I’m glad you like it.”
