Status: new chapter june 8

The Ballerina and the Rocker

Chapter 32

Quinn

She swirled her straw around in her glass of half melted ice cubes as she stared aimlessly at the bar. The voice of the bartender shook Quinn out of her haze.

“Sorry, what?” she asked, not hearing what he had said.

“You want another?” the bartender repeated. Quinn nodded and pushed her glass forward. The bartender grabbed it and freshened it up with another vodka soda.

“Thanks,” Quinn said when the bartender handed the full glass back to her.

It had only been a few days since she found out about Zacky and Gena and she definitely wasn’t handling it well. She had gone over the situation several times in her head and kept thinking if maybe she overreacted. It’s not like she and Zacky were dating after all. But, he was sort of dating Gena… the whole thing just gave her a headache to think about.

Earlier that day Quinn had gone out for a run and, before she even knew what she was doing, took a new route and found herself jogging past the salon where Gena worked. Against her better judgement Quinn stopped running and instead peeped through the window, and there was Gena, on a break she guessed, talking with Zacky with a big smile on her face. Zacky was laughing, too. The tableau was too much for Quinn to handle, so she quickly took off back home before either of them noticed her staring.

And now here she was -- sitting alone at the bar drinking her sorrows away.

“Hey, can I get another?” she said to the bartender after having finished her drink in record time. He nodded and poured her another drink.

“Drinking alone tonight?” Quinn heard a familiar voice say. She turned around and saw Brian standing behind her with a smirk.

“Hey Brian,” she said before taking a sip of her vodka soda. Brian sat in the empty seat beside her.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“Drinking.”

“Yeah, I can see that.” Quinn chuckled. “I meant, what are you doing at this place instead of one of our regular places.”

“I, uh… I didn’t want to run into anybody.”

“You mean, Zacky?” Quinn took a long sip of her drink instead of answering. “What are you drinking?”

“Vodka soda.”

Brian waved down the bartender. “Hey, uh can I get a double vodka soda and two jaeger bombs?” The bartender nodded.

“So,” Quinn said. “What are you doing here?”

“Well,” he began. “I stopped off at Johnny’s and your sister was working and she said you were out but not there, so I just went down the block until I found you.”

When the bartender returned with Brian’s drinks, he took one of the jaeger bombs and handed it to Quinn.

“Look,” he said as he held the other shot for himself. “I get that you’re upset and I know things are really shit right now, but it’s always better to have a drinking buddy. Misery loves company, right?”

Quinn smiled. “Are you miserable, too?”

“I guess. I’m not making any progress with Michelle. And just when I think I am she’s off with another guy. It’s too much effort to try to get something that I’m not sure is ever gonna happen, you know?”

Brian sighed and held up his shot high. Quinn followed suit.

“Cheers,” she said. Brian clinked his shot glass with hers and they downed them. Quinn’s face cringed and Brian laughed at her.

“Another?” he suggested. Before Quinn could answer Brian was flagging down the bartender.

The two stayed at the bar laughing and drinking and talking until closing time. Quinn could always count on Brian to cheer her up. And to get her very very drunk.

“I should walk you home,” Quinn said, feeling very drunk and loopy, as she and Brian began walking down the PCH arm in arm. “Make sure you get home ok.”

“No no,” Brian retorted. “I’m the man, I should make sure you get home ok.”

“This is the 90s --”

“-- It’s 2003.”

“This is 2003 and a woman can look after a man!”

“You make a very strong argument.” Brian stopped walking, took a deep breath and said, “Ok fine, you can walk me home.”

Quinn laughed and the two continued walking.

“Ok ok ok,” Quinn said. “Marry, fuck, kill -- Britney Spears, Jennifer Aniston, and… Paris Hilton.”

“Ok so I’d marry Paris Hilton but then kill her for the money, and then I’d marry Jen for the long haul and fuck Britney Spears.”

“That’s kind of cheating,” Quinn chuckled. “But I’ll let it slide.”

“Hey, if I can’t get the girl in real life the least you can do is let me get the girl how I want in a game,” he said with a smile. Quinn’s smile fell.

“I’m really sorry about Michelle.” Brian shrugged his shoulders.

“It is what it is.” Quinn tightened her grip on Brian’s arm as they continued walking. Another few rounds of ‘marry fuck kill’ ensued before the two walked up to Quinn’s house.

“Hey!” she said. “I was supposed to be walking you home.”

“You’re so drunk you didn’t even realize we were walking in the complete opposite direction as my house.”

“Shut up.” Brian laughed. He escorted Quinn up to the front door where she struggled to get her key in the lock. Once she opened the door, the two quietly walked upstairs and went into Quinn’s bedroom where Quinn immediately tossed her purse on the floor, its entire contents spilling onto the carpet.

“Ugh,” she sighed as she knelt down to clean it up.

“Here, I got it,” Brian said as he knelt down, too. Quinn went to grab something but Brian was faster and picked it up first. He raised an eyebrow at Quinn as he held the condom up.

“Stop that,” she blushed.

“You always packing heat?” Brian teased. Quinn quickly grabbed it out of his hand and picked up her purse.

“I had it… just in case,” she said as she placed her purse on her nightstand.

“Just in case… what?” Brian egged on.

“You know perfectly well what.”

“Look I’m sorry, it just doesn’t seem like you to, to --”

Quinn crossed her arms. “To what?”

“To hook up with a random guy you don’t know from a bar.” Quinn was getting annoyed now. What business was it of Brian’s what Quinn did? She sighed and rolled her eyes. “I’m sorry,” Brian continued, noticing Quinn’s actions. “It’s just… I’m just looking out for you.”

“I appreciate that Brian, I really do, but I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.”

“I know you can. I also know how much you’re hurting so just… be careful, all right?” Quinn held back her tears and nodded. Brian looked at her tentatively. “Can I give you a hug?” he asked. Quinn nodded and smiled before walking into Brian’s embrace.

As he held her Quinn felt her heart begin to pound. She rested her head on Brian’s shoulder and took a deep breath in through her nose, his scent of cologne and cigarettes filling her nostrils. Her right hand slowly moved from his back up to his neck and her fingers became entangled with his dark hair. She felt his hands move lower on her back and his arms tighten his embrace around her torso. Slowly, she lifted her head from his shoulder and pulled back so they were face to face, barely inches apart.

Quinn felt her saliva stuck in her throat before she spoke.

“What if it wasn’t some random guy from a bar?” she spoke softly. She noticed Brian’s eyes drift from her eyes down to her lips and then back up.

“Quinn...” he said, matching her pitch.

“I just… I just don’t feel like being alone right now.” Without another word, Brian leant forward and pressed his lips against Quinn’s. The last time they had kissed was merely for fun and Quinn couldn’t stop laughing the entire time. Neither of them were laughing now.

After a few seconds of lip-lock, Brian pulled away to take off his shirt. Quinn followed suit and also took off her jeans. She looked at Brian and saw him standing in just his boxer briefs while she was in her matching polka dot underwear and it suddenly dawned on her what was about to happen, but at this point she was too drunk and hurt to care.

She sat down on the edge of her bed and Brian walked over to her. Standing in front her, Brian held her face in his hands and brought his face down to hers to have their lips meet once more. It was hot. He was hot. The heat progressed and before she knew it her legs were wrapped around Brian and he was between hers.

*

The next morning Quinn woke up with a hangover to rival all hangovers. She groaned and opened one eye to look at the time on her night stand clock. It was nearly noon. Reluctant, she sat up and stared at the empty space beside her where Brian no longer was.

“Fuck,” she sighed as she remembered the details of that night. Feeling awful, Quinn was ready to fall back down and sleep the day away. But before she did she saw a post-it note on her nightstand. She reached over, grabbed it, and read:

Hey Q -- didn’t want to wake you up otherwise I would’ve said bye. I’ll be at the studio recording all day if you want to talk later. --Bri

She sighed and put the note back on nightstand before falling back on her pillows.

Zacky

“Hey man, that sounded great,” Zacky said to Brian as he walked out of the recording booth.

“Uh, thanks man,” Brian said, barely making eye contact with him and hurrying away.

That was weird, Zacky thought. Brian was acting normal with everyone else but had been avoiding Zacky all day. He didn’t know what he did but he wanted to find out.

“Hey,” he said, corning Brian by their snack table. “Did I do something?”

“Uh, no,” Brian said as he grabbed a handful of pringles. “Why?”

“You’ve been avoiding me all day. Are you sure I didn’t do anything?” Brian shoved a chip in his mouth and shrugged.

“Can’t think of anything,” he said with his mouth full. Zacky eyed him and Brian gave a quick smile before walking away. Something was definitely up.

Later that day the guys decided to go out and grab a few drinks. Zacky thought the weirdness he was getting from Brian would have faded by then but he still seemed to be staying as far from Zacky as possible without actually leaving the group.

“Another round, boys?” Brian addressed the group to cheers before he went up to the bar for more beers. Zacky took this time for some sleuthing.

“Hey Matt,” he said quietly. “Did Brian mention anything to you? About if he’s mad at me about something?”

“No man,” Matt said. “You guys ok?”

“I hope so.” There was nothing worse than thinking one of your best friends hated you for something you didn’t know you did. Brian returned with the beers and Zacky was going to ask him one more time until someone else grabbed his attention.

“Hey guys,” Quinn said as she walked up to the group, to which they replied with exuberant hellos.

“Do you need to steal Zacky from us?” Jimmy asked with a smirk. Zacky readied himself to get up until he heard Quinn’s answer.

“Actually,” she hesitantly began. “I need to speak to Brian really quickly.” Zacky looked over at Brian who looked nervous.

“Uh yeah, sure,” Brian said, his voice slightly shaking. He followed Quinn out the front entrance and the two stood just by the window. Zacky looked at them through the window and wished he knew what they were talking about because he would bet it had to do with Brian’s weird behavior.

Quinn

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to drag you away,” Quinn said to Brian as she leaned against the bar’s window.

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Brian said. “So, uh, how are you?”

Quinn took a deep breath and exhaled heavily. “I’m good,” she said with a smile.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Look… about last night --”

“--Brian--”

“We were drunk and we shouldn’t have done anything.”

“Brian. I don’t regret it.”

“You don’t?”

“No. I mean, we knew what we were doing and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to. Did… did you want to?”

Brian smiled. “Yeah, I wanted to.”

“Ok then. We both wanted to so there will be no regrets and no apologies, ok?” Brian chuckled.

“Yeah, ok.”

“But, um, I did want to say,” she continued. “That I don’t think we should tell Zacky.” Brian nodded in agreement. “I mean, he and I aren’t dating so it’s not like we did anything wrong --”

“But it feels like we did,” Brian finished.

Zacky

Brian and Quinn sure were taking a lot of time outside and it was making Zacky paranoid. He needed to stop watching them so he got up and went to the bar to get another beer. It was incredibly busy and took a while for him to finally be served, and by Quinn’s sister no less.

“What can I get you, Zacky?” Audrey asked.

“Just another pint,” he answered. She nodded and began filling a glass from the tap. As she did so Zacky had an idea. “Hey Audrey,” he began.

“Yeah?”

“Do you know what Quinn is talking to Brian about?”

She handed Zacky his glass. “Huh?”

“Do you know what Quinn is talking to Brian about?”

“Uh, probably about last night,” she answered hurriedly. She was obviously in a rush and trying to listen to other customers.

Zacky’s mind wandered to the worst conclusion. “Last night?” But Audrey had already moved on to her next customer. As if in a trance, Zacky walked back over to his friends and placed his beer down. He heard Jimmy say something to him but it didn’t register. Instead of sitting back down he headed over to the bar entrance and walked outside.

He saw Quinn and Brian hugging.

“What the hell happened last night?” Zacky asked loudly. Quinn and Brian jumped, startled by Zacky’s sudden appearance, and pulled out of their embrace.

“What?” Quinn asked.

“Brian’s been acting distant from me all day, you two have been out here for a while, and your sister said you’re probably talking about last night, so… what happened last night?”

“Wait, my sister said what?” Quinn said, her face in complete shock. Zacky guessed it was because Audrey mentioned something she wasn’t supposed to.

“Did… did something happen between you two?”

It almost hurt him to ask that question out loud. He looked from Quinn to Brian and back to Quinn hoping someone would give him an answer but they both just stood there in silence. Zacky knew what that meant.

“I’m gonna take that as a yes,” Zacky said.

“Zacky,” Quinn said, her voice pleading. “Please don’t be mad.”

“Mad? Why would I be mad? It’s not like you and I are together. You can go around and make out with whoever you want.” Zacky had hoped in saying that he would get an agreement from either of his friends that that was all that had happened between them, but when they both stayed silent and stared at him Zacky knew that wasn’t the case. He felt his stomach churn and his face start to heat up. “You two slept together?”

“Zacky --” Quinn said, stepping forward. Zacky stepped back away from her.

“Don’t,” he said, shaking his head in disgust. “Don’t start.” Quinn looked as though she was about to start crying and Zacky couldn’t deal with that right now. He turned around with the intention of walking back home when he heard Brian say his name. Without thinking, Zacky turned back around and swung a punch at Brian which hit him right under his left eye. Brian stumbled back and Quinn went over to him, at which point Zacky took off before the scene got any worse.

Quinn

“Brian, are you ok?” she asked as she held Brian’s arms to help steady him.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” he said. Quinn looked around and saw Zacky halfway down the block.

“I can’t believe he punched you,” she said angrily.

“I can,” Brian retorted. “Look, I’m gonna head home.”

“Ok… Brian, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” he said with a sad smirk. “I’ll see you later.”

As Brian began walking home, Quinn began fuming. She looked through the window and saw inside the bar Jimmy, Johnny, Matt and Audrey, in the middle of clearing glasses from their table, staring back, obviously having witnessed Zacky punch Brian. Quinn headed back inside and headed straight towards them.

“Quinn, what the hell happened out there?” Matt asked, but Quinn ignored him. Instead she went straight towards her sister.

“Why the hell did you tell Zacky about me and Brian?!”

“What?” Audrey said, surprised. “I didn’t say anything.”

“Zacky said you did!”

“I - I might have mentioned something, it was really busy…”

“So that gives you the right to tell him that we slept together?!”

“Whoa, you and Brian slept together?” Jimmy began. Quinn looked over at him and saw Matt hushing him as if to say ‘now’s not the right time.’

“No Quinn,” Audrey continued. “That’s not what I mean, I was flustered and didn’t realize what I was saying.”

“Well thank god your work didn’t suffer,” Quinn continued in a rage. “Too bad my life has.” Audrey began to say something but Quinn didn’t want to listen so she stormed out as fast as she could.

Halfway home she decided to stop at the pier. Quinn took a seat on one of the benches and stared out at the waves crashing against the beach and she began to cry.
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It's only been 10 months, but I finally updated!! If there's anyone here who's still reading this I'm so so so sorry it's taken so long for me to update! School and life just gets in the way. But I am determined to finish this story! Please enjoy x

I'm back!