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She drifted into silence, letting the rest reht not be dead, but she hadn’t made a reappearance in town

Maybe she’d moved on to start her war soest time, but when he finally spoke, his voice was careful "I know you don’t want to talk about it, but your ht I don’t want to talk about it"

"Are you going to hide here forever?"

His voice was gentle, but it ain "I don’t knohat to do Would they arrest her? What would happen to me and Jordan?"

"I don’t know But" He paused "She could have really hurt you, Quinn Jesus, she did really hurt you If she’d hit you a second ti the cops I’m not If you want me to leave, fine But I’ you to leave"

"I just need a few days, okay? Let it blow over"

Tyler stiffened "You want to go back there?"

"She’s not always like that If Jake is gone, ged Then she winced This re him for a place to sleep, too

"Okay," Tyler finally said "We can give it a few days"

She turned her face up and kissed him

Tyler pulled back "Quinn Stop"

She froze, then jerked away fro fresh tears on her cheeks She punched hiet it I don’t need charity froht her wrists and pinned theh, that she al up into his eyes "What do you want?" he said "Is this how every guy treats you, like you have to pay to play? Tell me, Quinn"

"Didn’t you hear her?" she said "This is all I’ood for"

"It’s not," he whispered "I promise you, it’s not"

"No one wants me I can’t even make someone want ainst hers

"You poor, irl"

"Fuck you If you don’t want o"

"You’re funny You have no idea how hard it was to act honorably when you were parading around here in your under-wear"

She snorted "Like you kno to act honorably"

He froze, then released her He grabbed the beer fro room "Come on," he said "Let’s watch a movie Grab so back "A movie? That’s it?"

"That’s it"

She couldn’t keep up with his rapidly shifting emotions, but maybe he felt exactly the sa on the television, searching through the pay-per-view list-ings

"What do you feel like?" he said

"Slasher flick," she said

He rolled his eyes and settled on a roroaned "These are cheesy"

"Sweetheart, I think you’re overdue for so cheesy"

She hesitated by the couch, but he opened his arled into the war the scent of him

Later, when she was almost asleep on his chest, she murmured, "I’ll keep your secret"

"You don’t need to" He stroked a hand through her hair--

the h secrets I’ you to keep ht his physics test was bad on Tuesday He probably should have stuck with that score This was iht He had no idea what he riting on the paper

And he didn’t care

His pencilto his texts Well, he’d responded to one this ot hoht

I’m home

And that was it Nick aletting his texts and choosing not to respond

Quinn was no better He’d tracked her down in the hall this , but she’d turned her back on hiht a glimpse of the new bruise on her cheek

What The Hell

He’d tried to catch up to her, but she’d disappeared into a classroom, and the teacher had all but closed the door in his face

And of course texts de to knohat had happened had been hopeless No one would respond to him, it seemed

He didn’t want to be around his brothers, with Chris suspecting so everything but keeping quiet At least Michael a

Nick turned to the last physics test question and sighed He didn’t have a chance

He gave it his best shot anyway, hoping for partial credit

Yeah, right

Luckily, Dr Cutter was speaking with another student when Nick brought the test up to his desk He turned it over, placing it facedown on the desk blotter