With Every Heartbeat

I gasped myself awake, my haunting dreams chasing me into consciousness. The movie Cora had picked out had been about a girl who’d tried to leave her abusive spouse, but ended up being chased down by him.

So, of course I had to dream that my father had chased me down and caught me here. Arms prickling with goose bumps, I sat up in bed, breathing hard. It was the dead of night and I felt like I needed to check the front door, just to make sure it was still locked. After finding my glasses on my nightstand, I crawled off the mattress and tiptoed down the hall.

But I still felt jittery after finding everything bolted properly in place, so I stopped by the kitchen and got a water from the refrigerator. I was unscrewing the cap when a voice from the table said, “Hi.”

I yelped and whirled around, dropping the bottle and spilling water all over the floor.

“Sorry.” Quinn popped up from the table and dashed to the paper towels sitting on the counter. “I thought I’d scare you more if I didn’t say anything before you saw me.”

I retrieved the bottle, grateful not much had spilled. As Quinn wiped the floor clean, I cradled the water to my chest because I realized I once again wasn’t wearing a bra under my nightshirt...in Quinn’s presence.

“Can’t sleep either?” I asked, not sure what to say, or if I should say anything. Maybe I could just slip back to my room and leave him here alone.

He shook his head and sent me a look after he tossed the used paper towels into the trash. “I hate those stupid scary movies.”

A smile burst across my face. “I do too. I have no idea why Cora loves them so much.”

“And that she doesn’t like quality shows like Psych,” Quinn added, smiling back.

“Clearly, she has issues.” Unable to stay away, I wandered to the table to see what he’d been reading. When I realized it was the notebook I’d given him, I sat, wondering which one it was. I’d been too nervous earlier; I’d just picked out the first one my fingers had touched and shoved it his way without seeing the title I was handing away.

Tucking my feet up on the seat with me, I rested my chin on my knees and read a few words. Ahh. This one was about the dragon slayer who ended up making friends with the dragon. Very How to Train Your Dragon like. I know, I was so original. Except they weren’t Vikings in my story, the main character was a girl, and the main dragon was not named Toothless.

Glancing up at Quinn, I sighed. “I kept dreaming about someone breaking into the apartment, so I had to make sure it was locked. But now that I’m up, I know I won’t be getting back to sleep any time soon.”

He sat back in the chair he’d been in when I’d come into the kitchen, and he lifted his water in a silent kind of cheers. “Same here.”

I clinked my bottle gently against his. He smiled, and we drank together in silence.

“How’d you do on your biology test?” he finally asked. “I totally forgot to ask earlier, what with that guy breaking into his ex-wife’s window and trying to cut her apart with the saw and all.”

I grinned and rolled my eyes. “I think I did okay. I feel really good about it, anyway.”

“That’s great.” He tilted his water bottle toward me again. After another bump, we drank some more.

“Caroline got tickets for me to go with her to your home game tomorrow,” I said, thinking I should make small talk, and actually wanting to make small talk with him. “I even bought an ESU shirt to wear to it. I’m kind of excited.”

“Really?” His eyes lit up. “You’re going? That’s cool. I didn’t know if you even liked football.”

I shrugged. “My father’s a fan, so...I learned about the game from watching him watch it.”

Quinn watched me curiously before he shrugged. “I didn’t know much about it myself until I joined the team. I was homeschooled until high school.”

“Really?” My jaw about hit the floor. “No way. So was I.” That was so strange.

He nodded and glanced away. “Yeah, I know. Cora mentioned it before.”

I gulped. Oh. “She did?” What else had Cora told him about me?

Not meeting my gaze, he nodded again. “I never planned on trying out for the team, but the coach saw me walking down the hall one day and said with my size, it was a shame I wasn’t trying out. So I decided to go for it, and ended up being the starting quarterback by the end of high school. Of course, I was twenty at the time, so I’d matured a lot more than the other guys.”

I tipped my head to the side, curious. “Why were you twenty when you finished high school?” He obviously had no learning disability to hold him back. His biology help had told me that.