The Orchid (Colby Brock)

Fire (Chapter 61.)

It had been a day and a bit since the drama of the exhibition, I sat with my eyes closed letting the hot water in the bathtub relax my stressed body. Soft music was flowing in the background as I let my body rest in the warm water and bubbles. I hummed along to the tune until I was interrupted by a phone call, I rolled my eyes. Who would it be? 
"Hello?" My voice echoed through the bathroom.
"Hi there, my name is Mary Renalds I was the lady at the art exhibition. The one who saw the um incident." She said sounding very posh almost. I stood up in the tub and stepped out wrapping a yellow towel around my body.
"Oh uh how may I help?" I asked stepping out from the bathroom, passing the body length mirror my floppy bun moved as I stepped.
"Well I'm an interior designer and I think I have some clients that'd be interested in your work." My mouth dropped at her sentence but a wicked grin quickly replaced it.
"Sounds like something I would be interested in." I replied attempting to sound some what formal.
"Great, I'd like to get you started asap." She said sharply. "These buyers will pay a lot of money and I was thinking the cut could be maybe 80:20 to you? Although we could negotiate if you wanted." I wasn't very good with business stuff but it sounded pretty decent to me.
"Sure, when do would you like me to start?" I asked with a smile.
"Preferably tomorrow. I have a client who is male and for the room I'm designing, I'm thinking greens and browns. The girl you painted was amazing I think you should paint that on top of the greens and browns." She said as I was visioning it.
"Yeah I could do that." I replied.
"Great, are you free tomorrow to talk about prices and sizes and all that fun stuff." She said jokingly sounding a lot more relaxed than before.
"Yeah of course." I said
"Great, I will text you a time and address."
"Okay cool."
After hanging up and getting changed, I rushed out of my apartment deciding to take and the stairs and frantically started banging on my downstairs neighbours door. The door swung open.
"Jesus Christ Brie." Quinn said rubbing his brown eyes like he had just woken up, of course  Quinn was wearing grey sweatpants and no shirt with his black nike socks. When he saw my big grin he frowned. "Please don't tell me you got back with Colby."
I scrunched my face up which Quinn laughed at before starting my story. He gave me a big bear hug and told me how happy he was for me. We decided to watch the office on Netflix for the rest of the day and by the end of the first season, Quinn hated both Colby and Brennen.
"Why did he even do that?" He said his bushy eyebrows forming into a frown.
"Which one?" I asked looking up at him as he played with my hair while my head rested in his lap.
"Both of them, man I'd beat them both up but I'll just have to stick with Colby, because I don't want to put you through the stress of Brennen's Uncles or whatever again." I rolled my eyes and giggled at him.
"Oh my god you sound like bloody Noah." I said resting the back of my hand against my forehead dramatically before laughing at my own joke, like I always did.
"Who's Noah?" Quinn asked twirling a strand of my blonde hair.
"My little brother." I said as if it were obvious when Quinn looked confused I continued, "He's a Junior in high school and looks exactly like me."
I pulled out my phone and showed him the photo of Noah and I that I took when he was over the other day. Quinn's eyes widened as he saw how a like we were.
"That's you!" He exclaimed, "Except boy version!"
"You're just a big toddler aren't you." I giggled looking into his deep brown eyes, a moment of silence filled the room as we sat staring into my eyes.
"Your like my little sister to me, you know babes?"
Quinn's POV
I stared into Brie's pretty green eyes, I meant what I said. She was truly like my little sister although she died in that stupid house fire, it was the reason why I left Canada. Mum being depressed and all and Dad being an abuser of alcohol. I couldn't deal with it.
"Quinn what's wrong?" Brie asked her voice trapped with concern. She grabbed my free hand her ice cold hands pricking me back into reality.
"Nothing." I said trying to bottle it up again all over. Brie sat up and placed both of her cold hands on my cheeks locking eyes with me, a loose strand of blonde hair fell in front of one of her eyes.
"Quinn you've been there for me so much the least I can do is listen to your problems." She said and she was right, I let out a sigh and broke the eye contact. Brie dropped her hands but she was still sitting on my lap, although I barely noticed considering how light she was.
"Okay, I didn't move here just for football I moved to get away." I admitted for the first time ever.
"Away from what?" She asked curiousness peaking in her voice.
"My stupid family." I sighed glancing into Brie's eyes that were glinting with concern.
"You just said I reminded you of your sister so I'm kinda hoping their not that stupid." I smiled at her desperate attempt of a joke.
"No my sister is-was great." I corrected myself. Brie's mouth dropped.
"Awh Quinn." Brie wrapped her legs and arms around my torso like the big baby she was I hugged her back blinking back the memories of the fire, my mother screaming hysterically as firefighters ran into the burning house, I still remember the foul smell of the smoke burning my house and sister down. I opened my eyes and realised Brie from my tight hug.
"I was 14 she was 11." I began breathing a shaky breath in I hadn't talked about this topic in years. "It was a house fire everyone escaped apart from her, her door was locked. Dad was abusive so of course it was locked."
Brie didn't say anything so I continued.
"He was drinking that night, Rylie and I went to bed. Mum was crying, I think Dad had hit her." I was gripping Brie's hand tighter and tighter with every word. "Then Dad through his alcohol it hit the wall and must've caught on fire or something, and boom the house was up in flames." I sucked in another breath before continuing once again, "And I tried Brie, I banged and banged on her door but she didn't wake up. She didn't fucking wake up."
I dragged a hand through my brown hair a salty tear had slipped through. Brie rested her head against my chest.
"I know Quinn, you would've. Rylie would've forgave you, but you need to forgive yourself." She spoke softly and what she said sent a shiver up my spine, she basically explained what had been going on in my head for the 7 years in about 5 seconds.
"I could've done more, stopped my father. Stood up for my Mum. Knocked my sisters door down to the ground saved her!" My hands were shaking at this point and my breathing was heavy.
"Quinn listen to me," Brie's voice rung in my ears, I couldn't listen I scrunched my eyes closed and lifted my shaky hands up to my head.
"I could've done something Brie." I gasped what was happening to me?
"Quinn you're having a panic attack." Brie said soothingly as she slipped her cool hands into mine intertwining her fingers in mine. "Look at me."
I followed her orders looking her in the eyes even though my vision was blurry.
"Now take a deep breath in," I sucked in at the the same time as Brie. "And out."
I followed the same patterns of her breathing until I calmed down. I looked at her shocked at what had just happened. I released her fingers her hands were red from how tight I was gripping them but she pretended not to notice.
"Sorry." Was all I could say. Brie looked at me with that warm smile of hers.
"It's okay it happens to the best of us." She said softly, she sat beside me on the couch.
"I was diagnosed with PTSD when I was 15, so I've had flashbacks, nightmares, insomnia you name I've had it. But never a-a panic attack."
"It's okay" She whispered wrapping her arms around me, comforting me.

Okay so this is a massive chapter, but I really like Quinn as a character so I thought you needed a bit of a backstory and that it would kinda clear up Quinn and Brie's relationship. Anyways,

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