Chapter 37

chapter thirty-seven

Gavin

"You need to stop pouting you fucking simp," Levi laughs and yells at Remi though his gaming headset.

"I am not pouting," I argue. "I'm just bored."

Levi growls and tosses his controller on the coffee table, losing the match they were in. "You have walked Daisy a hundred times and for the last thirty minutes you've paced a hole in the hardwood floor. I get it, she's cool, but damn it's okay to be away from her for five minutes."

I blow out a breath, "Collins is there."

Levi chuckles, "And you are worried about him messing with her? You broke his fucking arm, Gav. Likely ended his season. Don't you think that was enough of a warning?"

I shrug, "I didn't mean to break his arm. I meant to threaten to break it, and besides, he hit me first."

I point to the small scar above my eyebrow.

He holds up his hands like he's innocent, "I'm just saying, do you really think he'd mess with her?"

My phone rings across the room, and Levi shakes his head when I nearly hurdle the back of the couch to get to it. I smile when I see Quinn's name fill the screen.

"Just can't get enough of me, huh?" I tease.

"Gross, no." Ava's voice fills the earpiece and I freeze. "Something happened, we're at the ER. They are stitching up Quinn's leg, can you come here? She asked me to call you."

"Is she okay, what the fuck happened?"

Ava sighs, "Well… Grayson grabbed Quinn. She pulled away and stepped backward onto a beer bottle. It cut her ankle, and then she fell into the pavement and kind of got knocked out."

"He did what?"

Ava growls into the phone, "Don't go all macho football player on me right now, just come here."

I end the call, and Levi gives me an apologetic look from the couch. "What happened?"

"I don't know, but I'm gonna fucking find out."

Levi puts his shoes on, and follows me out the door to my truck. I speed the entire way to the emergency room, and I lose my mind when I see Collins standing there in the waiting room.

"Don't," Levi warns. "Just get to Quinn."

"I'll deal with you later," I bark at Collins, pointing at him as I walk back through the doors.

I look in every room, pulling back every curtain until I find Quinn and Ava. A doctor is hunched over her putting a pretty long row of stitches in her ankle. Quinn's face is pale, and her blonde hair has a little blood in it near her scalp.

"Hey, pretty girl" I whisper, closing the gap between us. "You're okay."

She tilts her beautiful eyes up to me, and I die a little inside when a single tear falls from her eyes.

She chuckles, "Glad you got to see me like this."

I pull her against my chest, careful not to move her. "What happened?"

She shakes her head, "I don't really remember. Grayson grabbed my arm, and then I felt a sharp pain in my foot and the next thing I know some random guy is putting me in Ava's car."

Ava smirks, "Don't you wish you would've been in the bubble wrap."

She does a little twirl and Quinn horse laughs, causing the doctor to speak up. "We gave her some pain meds. She might be a little loopy and emotional for a few hours."

I nod, and wait for them to bandage up her ankle. They bring her some crutches but Ava carries them while I carry Quinn out. We make it through the double doors of the emergency room and Levi tries to stop Collins from walking towards us, but he can't.

"Quinn, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for…"

"Get. The. Fuck. Away. From. Me." She growls, leaning her head against my chest. I give him a look that says ‘if you don't move I'll move you' and walk out of the automatic doors to the parking lot.

"Can you drive her?" Ava asks, "My passenger seat is covered in blood."

I planned on driving her anyway, but I place her into my truck and follow Ava back to their dorm. When we get there, Quinn is still sniffling back tears, and says she's nauseous. Ava drags the trash can out of the bathroom and I hold her hair back while she gets sick. "It must be the medicine," Ava says, wetting a washcloth from the tiny organizer in the bathroom. "Because she didn't drink a single drop of alcohol."

"Oh my god," Quinn groans. "This is one of top ten worst days of my life."

Ava passes me the scissors to cut Quinn out of her dress, and once I get it off her and slip her pajamas over her ankle, she seems much more comfortable.

I look down at her ankle wrapped in a bandage, and sigh. I wish I could've been there, there would've been no way that Collins would have gotten within five feet of her. Not without a broken nose.

"I'm sorry," I breathe. "Come here. I'll hold you."

I lay in her bed, and she snuggles up to me. "You can't stay here, Gav. You have to be on the bus at seven."

There's no way I'm leaving her, "Levi can bring my stuff if I go."

"If you go? Gavin, No. You can't stay here because of me." She shakes her head adamantly. "You have to stop sacrificing things for me."

I push her hair away from her face, and kiss her temple. "I'd sacrifice the world for you."

She rolls her eyes all cute like, "Well, you're going to your game. I'll be fine."

"How are you gonna drive home this weekend?" I remind her. "There's no way you can drive with your ankle like that."

Ava shrugs, "I'm not doing anything, I'll drive her."

Quinn turns toward her and smiles, "Really?"

"Sure," Ava smiles. "You wore duct tape for me. Pretty sure I owe ya one."

After tossing and turning for two hours, Quinn sleeps for about thirty minutes without moving. That is, until my phone starts ringing on the nightstand.

Who would be calling at 4am?

I see Remi's name scrolling at the top of the screen, and try to answer it quickly.

"Dude, it's 4am. What do you want?"

He sighs into the phone, "Bro. Collins is standing on top of the press box in the stadium. He's drunk and he won't come down. He's mumbling on about Quinn and says he needs her here. The guys are freaking out thinking he's gonna jump."

"Call the cops, Remi. Quinn can't even walk."

Hearing her name causes her to rouse up, "What's going on?"

"It's alright go back to sleep," I tell her.

Her brows knit, "Is something wrong? Why is Remi calling you at 4am? Why does he need the cops?"

"Just Collins trying to mess with your head." I say, because that's exactly what this is. He's not suicidal, he's wanting to show me that she still cares.

"What's going on?" she asks, yanking the phone from my hand. "Remi what the hell is going on?"

She listens intently to Remi's voice on the line, and then closes her eyes for a second to breathe. She's obviously thinking about what to do, but the fact that she's considering leaving hurts.

"He's playing you," I tell her, but it comes out as a warning. "He's testing you."

She looks at me with conflicting eyes, "Yeah, maybe."

"You don't think so?" I scoff. "He wants to prove to me that you'll come."

Her eyes go dark, "So it's about you?"

"No," I growl. "It's about showing me that you still care."

She sits up in the bed, "It's not like that, Gavin. I have to go."

"Why?" I argue. "If you go it gives him hope."

She stares at me directly in the eye, and I see a glimmer of sadness consume her. "I can't have another person's blood on my hands, not like mom. I just can't, Gavin."