Pretending (bxb)

chapter 10

"So that's my room right there," Azzy says pointing to a pink door, different from all the rest that are white. "That's mom and dads room, and then that one will be yours! It's sort of boring right now, and it hasn't been painted yet, but dad said we could all do it together as a family!" I nod along, boy she can talk.

Opening the door, I notice it's just a plain old room. It's a bit bigger than mine from home, but it's still grey and plain. Just how I like it. "The bathroom is just across the hall, and the one next to it is dads office."

"Cool," I say as I enter the room and put my bag down on the bed. The bed is actually queen size I notice, much bigger than the twin size I'm used to.

"Wanna come see my room? It's really really cool," Azzy says pulling on my arm.

"Alright, sure" I say following her to the pink door. Opening it I'm actually sort of shocked at the amount of pink shit that was in here. It was so bright it hurt my eyes.

"I take it pink is your favorite color," I say looking around the room.

"No actually it's green, but mom seems to like the pink so I just stuck with it," Azzy explains.

"Greens mine too," I tell her.

"Cool! Maybe we can paint your room green then. Awesome!" I like her enthusiasm. Azaela begins to show me around her big room, explaining all her school projects, her posters, the pictures of her and her parents or friends, and even pointing out the tv and ipod she got for her 10th birthday. Goddamn, this would've been my dream room at her age, minus the pink.

"I know your rooms super boring so if you want we can have sleepovers in here sometimes," she tells me "I've always wanted an older brother. My friend Audrey has one and he's super cool, kind of like you. I think you guys are the same age, maybe you can be friends and then we can have giant sleepovers together!"

"Maybe." I doubt any of these Florida boys are gonna want to be friends with a gutter boy like me, but it's not like I'm going to tell Azzy that.

"You don't really talk a lot," Azzy says frowning a bit. "That's okay though! I can talk enough for the both of us." I wish I could tell her that I usually do talk a lot around the people I'm comfortable with, but it's hard to explain to a happy energetic 10 year old why that is.

"Maybe we can watch a movie together! It's Saturday anyways so we don't have school tomorrow."

"I don't know if your mom likes the idea of you staying up," I point out.

"Yeah but I can't fall asleep if I'm not tiredddd," she drags out.

"Good point."

A knock comes from the door even though it's wide open and I turn to see Adrian standing there. I wonder how long he's been there since he looks pretty comfortable leaning against the door frame. Honestly seeing him makes me tense a bit and when he noticed it that same expression from earlier appears on his face. It looks a lot like uneasiness up close. Usually I'm good at reading people but with him it's a little more difficult.

"Quinn's right, mom wants you in bed. No movie tonight kiddo," he says entering the room to stand next to me. Jesus christ he's taller than Amari, the guys gotta be like 6'5. I try to subtly get away from him and get out of the room.

"Quinn are you leaving?" Azzy pouts.

"Quinn's tired Azzy, he just flew all the way here from New York. We've got to let him rest."

"Fine," she sighs. "Goodnight Quinn!"

"Night Azzy," I say before rushing out of the room and into the guest room, shutting it behind me. I know I have no reason to be afraid of Adrian but the fact that he's my mothers fiancé and someone I'm going to have to live with just rubs me in the wrong way. It doesn't help that he's huge and strong and could probably kill me if he wanted to with just his fists. Better to not make him angry or just stay away from him in general, I decide.

Feeling uncomfortable in my too warm clothes for this heat, I decide I need to change out of them into something more suitable. Grabbing my duffel back, I look around and decide to settle for a pair of grey sweatpants and a black t-shirt. It covers most of my bruises except the ones on my arm.

There isn't a lock on the door, I notice. That's going to be a problem. I'll just have to be speedy in changing then. Slowly I attempt to take off the sweatshirt, wincing at how much it hurts my ribs. Jeez I should really take those meds. Finally getting it off, I do the same with my shirt and throw on the black one to replace it. Worst part; taking off my jeans with one arm. Somehow I get them off and change into the sweatpants without falling on my ass. I put my dirty clothes back into the bag, not really feeling like unpacking anything.

Just as I'm about to throw myself into the unreasonably comfortable looking bed, there's a knock on the door. If I'm fast enough I bet I can pretend I'm sleeping, but the door opens right away.

It's Janette.

"Did you take your medicine?"

"Yes," I lie.

"I don't believe you," she accuses. "Give me the bottle then." I sigh and roll my eyes.

"I'll take it right now,"

"There's no point in lying to me. It'll just end up with me not trusting you in the future. And you will take it right now, right where I can see you." I could care less if this woman trusted me or not if I'm being honest.

I slowly unzip my bag again and dig around for the prescription. Finding it, I uncap the top and take a pill out, dramatically showing it to her and popping it in my mouth to swallow.

"Done. You want to check my mouth too?" She doesn't seem amused and instead gives me a pointed look.

"I don't like your attitude."

"Well you're just going to have to deal with it, aren't you?"

"Quinn," She warns. I turn away from her, wishing she'd just leave and instead zip back up my bag to preoccupy myself.

"Tomorrow we're going to have a talk about how things are gonna be around here. I don't want to hear any complaints or whining, get me?"

"Uh huh."

"Try again," she prompts, hitting a goddamn nerve.

"Jesus christ could you just-" I cut myself off noticing Adrian is now standing behind my mother, staring at me. Even though he's not exactly being threatening in any way, it completely catches me off guard and intimidates me.

"Okay yeah, that's fine," I say changing my tone automatically in case Adrian decides he wants to give me "a lesson" for treating his fiancée badly. Janette looks shocked and confused at the sudden change and notices me eyeing something from behind her. She turns around to Adrian who looks a little hurt and confused as well. Okay that's it I've had enough interaction with these people today.

Janette turns back around looking a lot less agitated with me and instead a little saddened. Fuck I really need to start hiding my emotions better around them. I'm usually so much better at this what the fuck is wrong with me.

"Quinn-" Janette starts to say but I rush to cut her off, knowing damn well what was about to come out of her mouth.

"I'm tired so I'd really like it if you left," I say hinting I want them to get out. Mostly I'm avoiding any contact with Adrian so I only notice Janettes defeated look as she takes in my words.

"Okay. Goodnight then, Quinn," she says staring at me a moment before slowly closing the door.

"Fucking idiot" I murmer to myself, pinching my arm tightly.

I need to get my exhausted and stupid self to bed before I do anything else like that in front of them again. I don't know if I'm going to get a great nights sleep, considering I'm a horrible sleeper and sometimes it takes me up to two hours to fall asleep, but I'm hoping to get as much as possible. The whole falling asleep on the plane is a huge surprise to me because usually I can't fall asleep in public places or places that I'm around people because it leaves me in such a vulnerable state. It doesn't help that there's no lock on the door.

But I get into bed anyways, and try my best to fall asleep, distracting my mind from the events of this long ass day. Goddamn this day felt more like 3 months than just 15 hours.

Tomorrow we're going to have a talk about how things are gonna be around here. Shit I am not looking forward to that. I guess we'll see how that goes in the morning. Fuck my life.