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He sighed, then swore under his breath When they caht, she could feel his eyes on her

"Please don’t do this," he said, his voice quiet but intense

"You’re the only friend I can talk to If I’ve fked so up, just tellto Becca What happened?"

"How do you know that?"

"She asked me about you"

"Oh, she remembers me now? That’s awfully sweet of her"

"She’s concerned about you When you said you were all right last night, I thought you were at her place"

"Well, I wasn’t"

"Where were you? Did you go ho on the trail by the woods" Part of her didn’t want to talk about this, about any of it Another part of her wanted to throw everything in Nick’s face

God, this sucked He was too good looking, too nice Throw supernatural powers in thea cruel joke on her Maybe next he’d tell her he had a winning lottery ticket in the glove box

"You were dancing on the trail? Where?" said Nick

"Where you picked h his teeth and ran a hand through his hair "For god’s sake, Quinn, are you insane?"

"Probably Some punk tried to steal my iPod"

"You’re lucky that’s all that happened Tyler lives near there

He could have--"

"Tyler stopped hirees colder Quinn shivered

"Stop it," she snapped "I’h, but it didn’t help much "What do you mean, Tyler stopped him?"

It wasn’t until he spoke that she realized this hat she wanted Fury in his voice A hint of anger and jealousy and pro-tectiveness "The kid who stole my iPod Tyler stopped hiht me taquitos and we drank sodas on the roof of his stripthe words at Nick like an attack She didn’t knohat she expected from him A reaction, for sure But silence captured the interior of the truck cab, thick and hard to breathe

His disapproval hung in the air, pressing against her skin

"Please tellIt was fine He was nice"

"He is not nice, Quinn"

"Maybe not to you, but he was nice tonice to you, it’s so he can use you against uys to use reat for you, isn’t it, Nick?"

The air in the caba few strands of her hair

Nick’s hands clutched the steering wheel like he wished it was Tyler’s neck

"Look," he said, his voice rough and low like gravel "Tyler is cruel Destructive You know this He hit you in the face and burned your arht back to her "Then who did, Quinn?"

She locked her eyes on the windshield, suddenly afraid she ain, war her exposed skin

It felt ridiculous, but she couldn’t tell him Like Becca, Nick knew soh

Theyet he had a faht, and it was like her parents clung to Jake and his scholarship as if that was the shining star in their lives Like that put food on the table

More likely, keeping her mom away from the liquor store would do a lot more for their family than Jake’s stupid scholarship

Not like Jake washis brain cells every night

If Quinn told Nick about how her mother practically drank herself unconscious, or how her brother could barely string a sentence together, but didn’ther into the hen he needed twenty bucks, Nick would step in He’d be the white knight in shining armor He’d rescue her

And then he’d kiss her on her forehead and go off with a knight of his own

"I can’t help you if you won’t talk to ned "I can’t believe you think that assle could be nice--"

"He was nice," she said icily "You know, he still thinks your brother killed his sister He actually seemed kind of upset about it"

"Upset Yeah, okay" Nick looked disgusted "Did he tell you about the time he tried to kill Chris? Or the ti lot and took a butane lighter to his face? Or how about the tiy fast

"And what?" she said

"You knohat? Forget us Think about Becca Just ask her what she thinks of Tyler"

Quinn didn’t want to think about Becca Lately, any tihts of Becca entered her brain, a bunch of jealousy and resentside "Well, , I’d already know her thoughts about Tyler"

Nick looked incredulous "Maybe if you’d talk to her, she could be! Tyler’s best friend was one of the guys who tried to rape Becca Seth Raed her onto the soccer field at Ho Remember that?"

Quinn flinched She remembered Becca’s torn, rain-soaked dress, the way her best friend had shivered in the backseat on the drive home Chris Merrick had witnessed the attack, and Seth and Drew had been expelled fro to hold Tyler responsible for so Seth and Drew did--"

"Jesus, Quinn, fine Maybe not then But he tried to kill her at Drew’s party a feeeks ago She and Chris ran into the water, and Tyler tried to shoot the to that Her brain was roiling with two different eun She’d seen it He’d played it off by saying he was protecting his property, buthe’d been shooting at Becca?

Then anger Becca had never said anything about Tyler shooting at her that night

She’d never said anything about any of this

Becca acted like she wanted to kiss and make up, but as the point? Quinn was so tired of all these secrets

Nick kept going "I can’t believe you thought he was nice Do you just find the most destructive people you can and latch on to the herher brother had done Quinn had to squish her eyes closed to keep the tears fro an escape route

When she was sure her voice would be steady, she looked at him "I don’t know, Nick Do I?"

He jerked the wheel to turn into the parking lot of the dance studio, then flung the vehicle roughly into park

He didn’t look at her