The Sullivan Sisters

Clearing The Air

Quinn sighed quietly while her eyes rested on her toes that squirmed around beneath her purple fuzzy socks. She ignored the quiet audio emitted from the t.v. across from her. After just three days of being grounded, she was already bored of the seemingly endless reruns of catfish. She furrowed her brow at Paloma who quickly joined her on the couch before clicking the television off.

"Hey, I was watching that," the girl scoffed.

Paloma said nothing and instead scooted closer to Quinn, the redhead scrunched her legs up as a result.

"What are you doing? I thought you were heading over to Ava's," Quinn pointed out.

"I was," Paloma replied, "I am. But I wanted to talk to you first."

"Don't worry, I know the deal. I know I'm grounded," she sighed. "I'm not leaving the house and I won't have Charlie over, I promise."

Paloma chuckled quietly, "That's part of what I wanted to talk to you about. I want you to know that I only said what I said and did what I did because, you know, I care about you so much. And...you scared me. But, I think Ava was right, I was being a little too hard on you. It's been a few days and you've done everything that I've asked, we've all made mistakes and I think you realize yours. Right?"

"Yeah," Quinn assured.

"Okay, good. Then...you're officially no longer grounded," she handed Quinn her cellphone and gave her a small smile.

"What?" the teenager grinned. "Really? Thanks." Her elated expression faltered ever so slightly once she noticed her sister staring at her. The redhead's eyes squinted in suspicion. "Not that I'm complaining, but...why exactly are you doing this? What changed your mind?"

Paloma shrugged, "Like I said, I thought about it and I figured that Ava was right."

" ...Okay," Quinn slowly nodded. "Well, thanks. I guess I'm gonna call Charlie. I'm assuming you apologized to Ava yesterday and you two are probably about to get down and dirty, which is something I'm hoping you'll do at her house instead of scaring me again," she laughed.

Paloma playfully rolled her nut brown eyes. "That's the other thing I wanted to talk to you about. I actually haven't talked to Ava for a few days, and I didn't go to work yesterday or today."

Quinn furrowed her eye brows and spoke, "What? Why not, where'd you go?"

"Well...wait. First I want you to promise me you're not gonna get mad," Paloma bit her lip.

"What?" Quinn chuckled, "I can't promise anything."

"Well, I can't tell you unless you promise."

"Jesus, what'd you do?" the redhead pondered.

Paloma simply raised her eye brows.

"Okay, fine, I promise," Quinn reluctantly agreed. "Now, where'd you go?"

"Alright..." the brunette rubbed the back of her neck, "Yesterday when I was out, after I dropped you off at school, I really was on my way to work but...I got a call."

"Okay..."

"It was from Dr. Phelps," she admitted while trying to gauge Quinn's emotions. "He asked me to come to is office to talk for a few minutes."