Best of Me

Chapter Thirteen

Hello hello! I totally meant to update this morning, but I've been taking my mini vacation before my last semester starts and lazing around as much as I humanly can. I will be posting every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless otherwise specified until this book is done. I think it'll end up being about 20 chapters (at the very least).

Anyway, we left off after the Hibachi blow out and Quinn being a super supportive and caring human being that I adore.

Comments, reactions, feedback of any kind is always accepted and appreciated!

Enjoy!

Chapter Thirteen:

I spend most of the next day avoiding my family in any way I can. Quinn is a champ, though, she goes downstairs to hang out with them while I wallow away in our room. I think they're baking cookies today. I can intermittently hear the mixer whirring and the sound of laughter floating up the staircase, but I don't budge from the bed. I know I should go down there and be with them, but I remain rooted in my spot on the bed staring out the window into the backyard.

There were so many Christmas's I spent with Mae here baking cookies, decorating the tree, having massive family snowball fights. She was apart of our family from the first moment I brought her home as my best friend, and not much later, my girlfriend. She fit in so seamlessly with my family, it's hard to imagine her not standing beside me whenever I'm home. It's like a part of me is missing without her.

I stare at the empty space of bed beside me and curse myself for thinking any of this was a good idea. I should've just owned up to being single and disinterested in dating anyone that isn't Mae. Now I'm stuck in this ridiculous situation with Quinn who would probably rather be relaxing at home without a worry in the world. Instead, I've trapped her here with me and my stupid, pitiful baggage that she doesn't give a fuck about. I give her credit though, she's good. She almost has me convinced were dating and that she actually cares about me. Maybe she should have majored in theater instead of English because clearly, she's talented. She has my whole family duped.

The picture of Mae is sitting on the bedside table now. Quinn basically demanded that I leave it out. "She's a part of who you are," she said last night. "You'll feel better not burying her away all the time."

I'm not so sure about that. The more I look at the photograph, the more the hole in my chest aches. It feels like a sinkhole that's getting bigger and bigger, swallowing up everything around it. I wonder if there will be anything left in its wake...

I flip the picture frame over hiding mine and Mae's faces before getting dressed and sneaking down the stairs. Hiding out in that room wasn't helping me any. It's surrounded by memories of Mae, and now Quinn. Not that Quinn has anything do with it. I mean, other than being there for me last night...and the cuddling. Not that it was significant, it was just for comfort. And to get her to stop fucking moving around. Yeah.

My family doesn't see my slip my coat out of the front hall closet or slither out the front door and out of sight. Snow crunches under my boots as I walk around the house. There isn't a direct path to the backyard, but a small path that weaves through the trees to the right of the house. Elliot and Jasper thought it would a good idea one Christmas when we were younger to cut a path through the trees so we wouldn't have to constantly go through the house to get to the backyard. It made playing in the snow and ambushes during snowball fights easier. Except, Asa snuck up on Jasper while he was holding a large branch and scared him. Which caused Jasper to smack his brother clear across the face with the branch. Elliot still has the scar on his cheek from the incident. CoCo spent most of that afternoon scolding us for doing something so stupid while Chris and Julia whined that they weren't apart of it.