the first one • j. hughes

26

"Okay, so I've been thinking," Luke says.

"Ruh-roh."

Wistfully, he looks out at the water. We decided to take the boat out just us two. Our favorite thing is to find a place to just kind of drift for a few minutes, drive a few minutes, and repeat. Me in the passenger seat, him driving. He won Rock, Paper, Scissors.

He sighs with every bit of dramatics in his body. "Fine. I won't explain."

"I'm sorry." He gives me a look of doubt so I throw my hands up in surrender. "Seriously. I would love to hear what you're thinking."

"Well, I knew that."

I mirror his dramatic sigh. "Nevermind."

"The other night, when Jack was begging me to find you and asking where you are, he said some shit about Holly talking shit and needing to mind her own business but he refused to explain it." Luke shrugs as if it isn't a huge drop if I didn't already know about it. Sometimes I wonder if he's learned anything from having his lifelong best friend be a girl.

"Yeah, I got that too," I say.

"It's weird. I don't even get why he got so fucking plastered. That's not something he does so like casually."

The conversation from by the tree replays over and over in my head. My hands even clasp together to try and make it more accurate. Maybe there's something I've forgotten. Maybe I didn't get it the first time around. I still come up with nothing. It makes no sense exactly like it did that night.

"Did he mention Quinn at all?" Luke asks.

My entire body reacts, flinching. Something in the back of my mind tries to reveal itself yet can't quite get it out. "Did he mention Quinn to you?"

"Did he mention him to you?"

"Yeah, I guess," I say. Luke leans forward into the aisle-ish area between our seats. "When he told me you and Quinner could come to our Vegas wedding. No Holland though. She's not allowed."

Luke kind of just... karate chops the air a bit. "What is up with that? Why the hell does drunk Jack want to marry you ASAP?"

"To prove Holly wrong, duh."

"Wrong about what?"

"I don't know!"

"Who do you think would know?" He asks because he's the dumbest idiot out there. One very directed look and he sighs. "Holly and Jack."

"Yeah. And Holly's on her honeymoon and Jack's not even here for the next few days and Quinn— Older half."

It's his turn to look at me like I have a single brain cell working overtime. "What?"

"Quinn's part of the older half and so is Holls so maybe—"

"Quinn might know," he finishes.

"Maybe."

Luke shrugs but still turns the boat back on. "Maybe."

"I mean, if it was me, you and Jack would both know what was going on," I say. "Even if the other half is very, very mega confused."

"Pretty sure he'd be back at the house by now."

"Well, we wouldn't want him all alone, would we? Seems rude."

He smiles. The plan has been hatched. "Can't have him all alone. It'd be a shame."

* * * * *

So, apparently, Quinn was headed back to the house at the time we thought he was supposed to arrive. We could have gone back out on the lake for a few more hours but Quinn's bed felt so comfortable after all that sun. Next thing I know, a light flicks on and I wake up to Luke using my stomach as a pillow and Quinn frozen in his doorway.

"It's been two days," he says. Luke slowly wakes up as I poke his forehead repeatedly. "I was gone two days. Do you guys really miss me that much?"

"Yeah," I say just as Luke says the opposite.

Quinn sighs and walks into the room to start putting his things away. "What do you guys want?"

"First, I want this hoodie." I point to the hoodie I grabbed from his closet before we passed out. "Second, we want to know what you know."

"About what?"

"Any reason Jack would be pissed at Holly?" Luke dives right in. I was gonna slowly ease in. Like most people do to avoid suspicion. My best friend in the whole world doesn't care about that and soldiers through even more. "How would Kennedy and Jack getting married prove Holls wrong?"

"I don't know," Quinn says. His voice low. Almost as if he's trying to be extra nonchalant about not knowing anything.

Well, time for the big guns. "Quinn you know I love you, right?"

"Oh my god," Luke laughs. I pull one of his curls and he stops laughing with a wince.

"I know and that's why I'm hoping you'll drop this," Quinn says.

"So there's a this?" I ask.

Immediately, Quinn turns around and points at me. "No."

"This is so important. I would never withhold this important of a thing from you and—"

"Jack heard Holly tell me that she doesn't think you and Jack would ever last as a couple," Quinn blurts out.

"Oh, shit," Luke says.

I pinch the bridge of my nose, squeezing my eyes shut. Breathing. Really focusing on that breathing thing because I'm pretty sure I was punched in the stomach. Right here. Write it down: Holland reached over internationally and punched me in the stomach.

Luke reaches back to grab my forearm. "What do you mean she said they would never last as a couple? What does that even mean?"

"Basically she thinks if it was meant to be it would have by now and that they're too unstable," Quinn explains. "She told me that she'd support it and all because she's not evil but no one should come crying to her when it crashes and burns. Also, that you guys breaking up affects everyone and it'd be selfish for you guys to go into a doomed relationship."

I blink. There's nothing else I can do. I blink a few dozen times. My hand rests on top of Luke's hand on my arm to make sure I'm alive. Awake. Who the fuck does she think she is? Selfish? Doomed? Relationship? Is that why she was trying to set me— Oh my god.

I huff out a sour-tasting laugh. "Jack almost mentioned that he heard her telling you that at the wedding. Right after I said I couldn't believe she'd try and set me up with someone."

"Is that why he got fucked up though?" Luke questions.

"No," Quinn says. He scoffs like it's the most ridiculous thing he has ever heard. "Why would you think that? He was rambling about how Ethan and Kenny were gonna hook up again and he couldn't stand it."

The younger Hughes groans since he's always so dramatic. "Please, tell me you didn't hook up with E again."

"I didn't," I assure.

"You know I argued with Holls right?" Quinn fiddles with the shirt he has yet to put away. "Jack only heard us because we were arguing and it got a bit loud."

"Thanks, Quinny."

He nods. It's best to leave it there. We both know it. Luke does not. "You're going to tell her the fuck off right?"

"Luke," Quinn snaps.

"What? She deserves—"

"Luke."

"What?" He huffs. "I wouldn't do that to you, Q. Wouldn't do it to Jack. That's so fucked."

"It's fine," I say, giving him a squeeze on the hand.

He squeezes my arm back. "No. Don't think it is."

"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion."

"Doesn't mean she has to go running her—"

"Luke," Quinn snaps yet again. "Drop it. If Kenna wants your help, she'll ask. She's got it."

I do not got it.