Fragments of His Being | ✓

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The sitting room/kitchen of Quinn's family's apartment was quiet today. It was late on a Sunday afternoon, and Quinn's sister—Janet—was reading a book on the couch as Quinn watched her from behind the kitchen counter. Janet was a few years older than Quinn—twenty. She had started working straight out of high school, and now helped maintain a hair salon.

Quinn wondered about, sighing and huffing, hoping he would catch his sister's attention. The girl ignored him, licking her finger before flipping to another page of her book. The two weren't very close but Quinn often went to his sister for advice like he was trying to do now.

Frustrated, Quinn decided to let it out. "I like him," he said, watching his sister, to see if she would react to his out of place words.

Janet shrugged. "You like who you like," she said, flipping to the next page of the book in her hands. A romance novel. Janet and Quinn's mother were big fans of the cheap second-hand books they got from the gas station convenience store.

Quinn sighed before looking up at the ceiling patched with wet stains. It had been raining frequently, and their roof didn't look like it was taking it well. It was odd how the rainwater trickled down through the cracks and through all floors.

Quinn looked down at his fingers, letting out a groan "I guess I like who I like, sure, but what should I do about it? Should I just keep quiet about it or—"

"Whatever you want to do. Why are you asking me even?" Janet asked, looking up from her book before giving her little brother a frown. She had dark skin and loose full curls that ended at the nape of her neck.

Quinn laughed, understanding his sister's frustration with him. He knew he was being whiny, but he wanted proper advice from her, not her 'leave me alone' one-liners.

Janet sighed when Quinn didn't say anything in response. She cocked her head to the side, making her brown curls fall to the side with her action.

"Though, if I were you, I would tell him. I'm not sure if you notice the way he looks at you. It's quite endearing," Janet said, watching her brother's face grow warm with her words.

Quinn looked up from his fingers to stare at his sister. "Really?" He could hear his heart beating his ears. He hadn't really noticed anything. In fact, he'd thought maybe Cody was bored of hanging out with him. Cody had come to his place a few more times when he couldn't go home, and he'd met Quinn's sister once.

"Yup, but it could be a savior complex thing, you do kind of protect him. I don't know... I might be reading into things too much." Janet watched her brother sigh.

That was true. Quinn gave Cody a lot of things. Food, clothes, and protection at school. Of course, Quinn was doing all that because he wanted to help. He also liked Cody there was that, but he didn't want things to go in a transactional way. Throwing gifts at someone until they liked you wasn't the way to go about things.

Quinn ran his fingers through his hair before nibbling on his lips as he thought of what to do. He'd recently come to terms with the fact that his feelings were more complicated than being a crush. His thoughts might have been easy to ignore when they were just isolated thoughts like 'His eyes are beautiful', and 'He's cute', but realization crashed down on him when Cody started clouding his thoughts in more intimate ways. He'd get worried about it. He wanted to be around him, and it'd crossed the line when he realized Cody was all he wanted to think about when he tried to masturbate like any normal teenage male.

Quinn's face starts to heat up. "So, do I just say I like you? That's kind of all out there, and direct—"

"Look, I really don't know. Maybe ask him on a date?" Janet said, cutting her brother off before closing her book and putting it aside.