Page 2 of Never Again

“Fair enough,” came the thoughtful murmur seconds before she finally gave up waiting for him to move his legs out of the way and dropped down on the bench next to him. “I’m not going back.”

“You really are, though,” Quinn drawled as he debated asking his grandmother to pick her up only to decide against it knowing that it would end with his grandmother going for her cane when one of her foster parents said something to piss her off.

That left Coach.

He hated asking for a favor, but he really didn’t have a choice, Quinn thought as he sent Coach a quick text message explaining the situation. Barely thirty seconds later, Coach responded, letting him know that he’d pick the little pain in the ass up at the next stop in an hour. Knowing better than to trust her to wait, Quinn considered waiting with her to make sure that she didn’t take off, but that wasn’t an option, not unless he wanted to miss his flight and he knew better than to miss his flight. Not after his recruiter warned him what would happen if he didn’t show up to boot camp on time.

“You need to tell your foster parents what Kelly and her little friends are doing,” Quinn said, sending one last text thanking Coach for putting up with the little pain in the ass before he slid his phone back in his pocket and focused on the small girl sitting next to him.

“You want me to tattletale?” Bailey asked, frowning at him. “Seriously? That’s your plan?”

“Do you have a better plan?” Quinn countered, even as he had to agree that telling Jennifer and Steve what their favorite foster child was doing probably wouldn’t help.

“Yes,” she said with a firm nod as she gestured around them.

“You’re not going with me,” Quinn said, deciding to put an end to this asinine plan of hers before it got out of hand.

“Why would I want to go with you?” the little girl that had been following him everywhere since he’d made the mistake of coming to her rescue the first time Kelly and her friends tied her up and stuffed her into the janitor’s closet asked.

“Because you follow me everywhere,” Quinn said, sighing heavily as he rubbed his hands down his face as the exhaustion that he’d been fighting all morning finally started to catch up with him.

Between running around trying to get everything in order for boot camp and keeping one eye open while he slept just in case Grandma decided to put her plans to keep him from joining the Marines into action, he was fucking exhausted. He’d planned on catching some sleep on the train ride to the airport, but instead, he had to babysit the little pain in the ass.

“I see,” Bailey murmured, drawing his attention to find her once again frowning in confusion. “And just out of curiosity, what are you basing this on?”

“The fact that I can’t seem to go anywhere without you following me?” Quinn said, even though he had to admit that he’d been flattered the first time that he’d realized that she was doing it. She was a cute little thing with big, bright blue eyes and a warm smile, but she was also only fourteen and a pain in his ass.

“Ummm, I live down the street from you and we both went to the same school,” Bailey pointed out with a pitying look that he chose to ignore at the moment.

“And when I’m at football practice?” he asked, watching as the conductor started making his way down the aisle, collecting tickets.

“I like to hide beneath the bleachers, counting down the minutes until I’m forced to go home so that I can avoid ending up another statistic,” Bailey said, nodding solemnly as she pulled out a twenty-dollar bill from her pocket and held it up for the conductor. “Two one-way tickets to Boston, please. My father’s in the bathroom.”

“She’s only going as far as Bridgeport and she’s traveling alone,” Quinn murmured absently as he reached for his wallet only to frown when he didn’t find it.

“He’s in the bathroom,” Bailey repeated while he searched for the wallet that should have been in his back pocket, making him shake his head in disgust if she really thought that story was going to work.

“Where are you going, son?” the conductor asked as Quinn stood up and grabbed his bag off the overhead rack, praying that it was there.

“Boston,” Quinn said, tearing his bag apart only to mumble, “Oh, god, no,” when he couldn’t find his wallet.

This wasn’t happening.

“Ten dollars,” the conductor said firmly, looking really fucking annoyed to have to stand there waiting.

“I can’t find my wallet,” Quinn said, knowing that he had bigger problems at the moment.

His airplane ticket was in his wallet.

“That’s unfortunate,” Bailey said with a heartfelt sigh and a sad shake of her head. “I’m not sure if this is the right time to mention this, but I have no idea who this man is and he keeps asking me if I like puppies,” she added with a helpless shrug that had the conductor narrowing his eyes on him.

“Wait! She’s kidding,” Quinn said as the conductor stepped out of the way and gestured for him to move his ass. “She knows who I am!”

“I have no idea who he is,” Bailey mouthed with another helpless shrug that was going to get her ass spanked as the train slowly came to a stop, letting him know that they’d reached the next stop.

“Don’t do this!” Quinn snapped as the conductor grabbed his arm and dragged him towards the door.

“Do what?” the little brat asked, blinking innocently as Quinn was shoved through the door and, in seconds, found himself shoved onto the platform with his bag in his arms, watching through the window as the little brat held up his wallet and cellphone, letting him know that he was screwed.

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