The Beast and the Homecoming Queen (10 page)

“About time you got here.” Breanna winks at Quinn.

“Sorry I was talking to Justin.” Breanna walks over to her car and smiles.

“Well he is cute enough for a great excuse. Are you ready?” Quinn laughs and gets into Breanna's car.

At the dress store, Breanna grabs five different dresses. Quinn grabs two, a black one with red jewels and a peach puffy dress with little straps.

She walks in the dressing room, and tries on the black one. It fits her like a glove, shows off her curvy body.

“Quinny you better show me!” Breanna says right outside Quinn's door.

Quinn opens the door, and walks out to Breanna. As soon as Breanna sees Quinn her mouth drops open. “I wish I could look like that.” Quinn smiles, there is no way she is wearing this dress. It shows way too much. She looks at Breanna and she is wearing a beautiful red flowing knee length dress.

“How is this?”

Quinn smiles, and shakes her head. “You found your dress!” Breanna laughs and claps. “I have one more dress.”

“What, that one is perfect.” Quinn shakes her head, and turns around to walk back to the dressing room.

She slips of the tight fitting dress, and grabs the
peach dress. She slips the dress on and turns to look at herself; she looks amazing. The peach is the perfect color for her, and the actual dress is short but the mess of flows out. This is her perfect dress, she walks out of the dressing room and towards Breanna.

Breanna's eyes look at Quinn through the mirror, and she slowly turns around.

“Holy crap, you are so freaking beautiful I really hate you.” Breanna says, and winks.

Quinn laughs, and looks at the price tag. “Whatever have you seen yourself?” Quinn arches an eyebrow at her best friend.

“Psssh, I will look like dog poop next to you.” Quinn laughs, and shakes her head.

“You are crazy,
” Quinn says and walks back to get her clothes on.

When she walks out of the dressing room area she sees Breanna paying for her dress, and Quinn looks for some shoes to go with her perfect dress. She spots them right
away; she grabs a light peach color shoes and head to the front to pay for everything.

In Breanna's car Pink comes on and the song True Love makes Quinn think, so she changes it.

“Hey! I love that song.” Quinn thinks of what Kaden said, that he loves her.

“Sorry I don’t want to listen to that. So how are you and Mark?” Quinn needs to get Breanna's mind off her.

“We are great! He is so freaking sweet.” Quinn smiles, and Breanna looks at her for a second. “I was wrong about Kaden, he isn’t a bad guy. He really cares about you.”

Quinn's heart drops to her stomach. “You talk to him about me?”

“He talked and I listened.” Breanna says, and pulls into her driveway. “But I don’t think you should leave Justin, you two seem really happy.”

“I am happy with Justin, but there is something with Kaden.” Breanna lays her head on the steering wheel.

“I know you have a spark with him, just promise me you won't do anything foolish to mess things up with you and Justin.”

Quinn looks at her house, she doesn’t know if she can promise that. She is already going behind Justin's back to send notes to Kaden.

“I don’t want to break a promise, but I will try my best,” Quinn says and bites her lip.

Breanna lifts her head, and looks at her. “Quinn you drive me crazy, but I love you.”

Quinn smiles, and takes Breanna's hand. “I love you too, and I know I drive you crazy. Thank you for putting up with me.”

“Well someone has to!” They laugh, and Quinn starts to get out of the car. “Quinny, I really can't walk in to the dance with you.”

Quinn shakes her head and gets out of the car. She waves at her best friend and unlocks her house.

She text Justin and told him that she was home and waiting for her food.

She runs up to her room and puts her dress on her computer chair, and the shoes against the desk.

Quinn glances at the mirror and smiles, Justin got done with practice five minutes ago. He
should be here in twenty minutes, so she is going to watch some TV.

Just as she sits down there is a knock on her door, she glances at the time still too early for Justin.

She walks over to the door, and looks through the peep hole. Kaden is standing there holding her favorite flower.

Quinn's heart speeds up, Justin will be here anytime and Kaden is here. She opens the door and walks out. “What are you doing here?”

“It's nice to see you too sweetheart,” Kaden says, and grins.

Quinn glares at him, and he offers the dark pink dahlia. “Kaden.”

“Quinn.” He winks. Damn it he is killing her, she knows that is what he is trying to do. “I came to see you, you wanted to talk about something.”

“I did, but I told you in my note that tonight wouldn’t work.” Kaden loses his smile, and scrunches his black eyebrows together.

“What note?” Quinn is starting to panic, he has to be joking. “Quinn what note?”

“I gave Ryan a note to give to you.” His eyes widen, and his mouth drops open.

“Shit,” Kaden says and runs a hand through his long black hair. “He didn’t give me anything, and he follows my brother.”

“What do you mean he fo
llows Justin?” Kaden opens his mouth, but she sees Justin standing behind him.

“That means I have your note.” Justin pulls out her note to Kaden, and she feels her blood drain.

Quinn thinks back to what she wrote, and doesn’t think there is anything bad on it. “I want to see his note to you Quinn.” Justin steps forward towards Quinn, and Kaden steps between them.

Quinn just glares at Justin. “I'm not giving you that note, it's mine.”

Justin steps closer, and Kaden backs her up a little. Quinn can hear both of them growling. “Kaden you need to back away.”

“Not going to happen.” Kaden's voice is deeper than normal.

“Enough!” Quinn yells, and both boys look at her. “I swear if you two fight I am done with both of you. Justin, I am your girlfriend but that doesn’t mean you own me. And you read my note, I told him that.” She can feel her face heat up with her anger.

Justin's face softens, and he nods. “Yeah I know.” He closes his eyes, and when he reopens them they are his perfect gray-yellow. “I'm sorry, but I am so afraid of losing you.”

Quinn arches an eyebrow. “You acted like that again you will. I’m not your freaking property, do you understand me? If not then leave and don’t come back.” She sees Kaden smile out of the corner of her eye. “Don't you dare smile. You aren’t innocent in this. Where do you come off telling me you love me? You have known me for what, two days?” Justin growls again, and turns his attention back to Kaden.

“T
here is more to it besides love,” Kaden says, and before she can tell him she doesn’t care. That people don’t love each other that fast, and that there is no such thing as love at first sight. Justin is all talk.”

“You told her you love her? Kaden
, you know your place and it isn’t with Quinn.” Justin growls, and narrows his eyes at Kaden.

“Quinn I’m not sorry for what I said.” Kaden ignores Justin, and talks to her.

“I think you should leave, Kaden.” He nods, and she sees his unshed tears in his eyes. Quinn can feel something inside of her breaking knowing that she is the cause of his pain. Kaden offers the flower again, and she takes it.

Quin
n watches Kaden walking away, but she can feel Justin’s eyes on her. She rolls her hazel-blue eyes, and turns around to head inside. She leaves the door open for him.

Justin walks pass her and into the kitchen. He sets the food and another bag on the table,
and then he turns to look at her. “Quinn I am so--”

Quinn shakes her head. “I don’t want to hear you're sorry again. I can't believe you read my note, and then demanded to see his to me.” She walks over to him and stares up at him. “If you want to be with me, then you are going to have to trust me.”

Justin stares down at her, and doesn’t move or say anything. She thinks she messed up with the note, she promised she wouldn’t see Kaden, and she knew Justin would be mad about the note if he knew.

“I'm sorry about the notes, I know I shouldn’t have
given Kaden a note, and I shouldn’t have done it behind your back. But that isn’t the worst part.” She takes him all in, the hurt on his face is clear. “I hurt you, and I am the one who needs to be sorry. Please forgive me, and I promise you now that I won't do it again.” Quinn puts her hand on Justin's chest, and prays he forgives her.

Justin doesn’t do anything for a minute but stare down at her. “Quinn I am a very jealous guy, and now that I know how he feels about you it will make me go crazy if you two have anything to do with each other.” He brings his hand to rest on her cheek. “I can see tha
t you have feelings for Kaden.” Quinn opens her mouth to argue, but he puts a finger against her lips. “No I don’t want to hear you deny it. But tell me one thing; are your feelings for me stronger?”

Quinn can feel her tears fill her eyes. “I don’t know.” She looks down.

“Hey, it's okay I’m not going anywhere.” Gently Justin pushes Quinn's chin up so she will look at him. She closes her eyes. “Quinn look at me.” She opens her eyes, and he smiles. “I will be the one that is fighting for you heart, and I want it all.” Justin smiles down at her, and she feels her heart speed up. “Now let’s eat.”

After they eat Justin hands her a chocolate bar, and she
smiles. “Chocolate, you really are trying to win my heart, aren’t you?”

He chuckles, and shrugs. “They say chocolate is good for your heart.”

It is her turn to laugh, she thinks it’s dark chocolate not milk chocolate with caramel. “Thank you, do you want to watch some TV?” He shrugs, and she walks over to him. Quinn wraps an arm around his waist, and he puts his arm around her shoulders.

They sit on the couch and she snuggles into his side. “Did you find your dress?” He as
ks with his chin resting on the top of her head.

Quinn smiles, he feels right, this feels right. “Yes, and I think you are going to love it.” She yawns.

“Do you want me to stay tonight?” Justin asks.

She nods, and yawns again. “Yeah, but this time sleep with me.” Quinn smiles then he kisses her forehead.

“You don’t have to ask me twice.” Quinn smiles and closes her eyes, as the cop show lights up her living room.

Chapter Eight

Dark Secrets

Quinn walks into her living room, and the TV has baseball on. That is one sport she has never liked to watch on TV, now in person is a different story. She loves to sit in the stands and eat a hotdog, with extra ketchup.

“Dad, can Lizzy and I go to Breanna's for the weekend?” Quinn asks her dad, and he doesn’t move from his chair. “Dad?” Quinn walks closer to his favorite chair black leather chair, and touches his shoulder. He is cold, very cold. “Dad!” She moves so she is standing in front of him, and falls to her knees. Her dad's normal tan skin is now white as snow, and his head was missing from his body. She looks around and sees her father’s head lying across the room, she screams.

She can't believe what is going on. This is what you would see on so TV show or a Hollywood movie, not her. Quinn looks at his bare chest, and it looks like some animal clawed and bit him. She reaches in her back pocket to grab her phone to call the cops.

Less than five minutes the police are in her home, and Quinn is sitting in the kitchen staring at the wall. She can't get her dad cold dead eyes out of her head, and when she closes her eyes she sees him, bloody and dead.

Strong warm arms wraps aro
und her, and her eyes fly open; she sees her pink and blue walls of her bedroom. She doesn’t remember coming in here last night; Justin must have carried her up here. “Shh, it was just a dream.” Quinn didn’t even know she was crying until she felt his chest wet. She hasn’t done this in a few weeks, and never when someone was around.

Quinn got rid of her father's favorite chair, and had the carpet replaced. “I never do this.” She says more to herself than to him.

“Sometimes you need to cry, and I will be here to wipe them away.” She cries more, she doesn’t deserve someone like Justin.

Quinn has looked so strong, but melting on the inside. Breanna has only seen her break down right after she found her dad, and for the rest of the summer she was hiding in her house. Quinn lifts her head and looks at the
clock; it is almost time to get up.

She looks up at Justin, and he
smiles. “Thank you for staying with me.”

“Quinn I would do anything for you.” He looks away from her. “Will you tell me about your
dream?”

She hasn't told anyone how she found her
dad; the only people that know are the police since she had to tell them. Justin looks back down at her, and doesn’t need to think about it. Quinn looks away, and tells him everything.