Chasing Dragonflies

I was woken for a second time by thudding and banging from downstairs which meant that Quinn and Bert were awake. Sliding out of bed carefully, so as not to wake Jeph, I pulled on a black tank top and a pair of jeans.

Quietly I wandered into the living room, that was still a wreck from the party, and stopped when I saw Quinn with two duffel bags in his hands.

"Where are you going?" I blurted out.

He tossed the bags down beside the door, "I'm going back to L.A. with Bert."

"What? Why?" I followed him into the kitchen where Bert was sitting at the table, nursing a cup of coffee.

Quinn turned and addressed the floor tile to my left, "Because I want to, because I don't want to stick around here anymore."

"If this is because of last night, because of me and - "

He held his hand up to stop me, "Don't say it."

"Don't say what? Me and Jeph? Quinn we're together. I'm sorry if you don't like it but you're just going to have to deal with it," I crossed my arms over my chest.

Quinn finally looked up at me, "What about when you guys get in a fight or you break up? Am I going to have to deal with it then? I just don't want to see you get hurt okay Mace, I'm sorry if that's not alright with you."

I ran a hand through my hair and sighed in frustration, "I get that you care about me Quinn and I love you for it but you have to let me do things on my own. You got a chance to make your mistakes give me a chance to make mine."

"Yeah, well, my mistakes fucked me up I don't want that to happen to you," Quinn went back to not making eye contact and noisily making himself a cup of coffee.

"He's just doing what brothers do Macy," Bert piped up.

I turned to face him, "No one invited you into this conversation Bert, you've done more than enough already."

He held his hands up defensively, "At least now it's out in the open when were you and Jeph planning on telling Quinn, if ever?"

Just looking at Bert right now was making my blood boil, "Of course we were going to tell him. It was my idea not to tell people because I knew that everyone would end up hating each other and I didn't want that. I don't want this."

I felt like stamping my foot and bursting into tears, not that that would achieve anything, but it would make me feel a hell of a lot better.

"Why can't you just be happy for me Quinn?" I tried not to whine, tried to swallow the lump in the back of my throat, I'm not sure it worked.

He refused to face me again, so I was going to make it harder for him to turn away from me. I walked over to where he was staring intently at the coffee machine and stopped next to him.

"I thought we said that we wouldn't date each other's friends so that we didn't ever get into this exact situation," Quinn said quietly, leaning on the counter top.

"I know we did and I'm sorry I broke our pact but this isn't just messing around. I really like Jepha, really like him. I wouldn't be doing this if I felt anything less. I don't particularly enjoy making you mad enough to punch your best friend," I bit the side of my lip, hoping he was listening to what I was saying.

He turned his head to look at me, "You're really serious about this aren't you?"

I nodded and whispered, "I've never felt like this about anyone before and it kind of scares the shit out of me. It's almost as scary as you were last night."

His expression softened, "Well it wasn't exactly the best way to find out your best friend's doing your little sister behind your back," he glanced over at Bert.

I scrunched my nose up at his words, "We're not 'doing it' we're taking it slowly."

"That's very mature and sensible of you," Quinn nodded.

I shrugged, "I don't want to mess this up."

"You won't. I know you and I know Jeph, you guys will be great together. It'll just take a little getting used to," he shrugged.

I nodded, "I know and I'm sorry I went behind your back but I thought it was the best thing to do at the time."

He shrugged and filled his cup with coffee, "It's all out in the open now so it doesn't really matter."

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