Page 75 of Hard Hitter

"Rae," Quinn placed a hand on the floor, getting ready to stand up. "What are you doing here? Did my mom let you in?"

"No, I let myself in," Raelyn replied, then with a snarky glare toward Alaina she added, "When you've been friends for nine years, there's a standing invitation. I can come and go whenever I want."

"Wow! Tell me, what's it like to feel so entitled that you think you can make up other people's boundaries as you go?" Alaina asked sardonically.

"It's phenomenal. Tell me, what's it like to be a cynical, egotistical twat?"

Alaina scoffed, and Quinn was probably lucky he wasn't facing her because his mouth made a silent "ooh…" as his eyes widened slightly and he avoided eye contact with Raelyn.

Ignoring Alaina's move to sit up and face her with a challenging stare, Raelyn looked at Quinn who had yet to stand up. "We need to talk. I don't know why you've been ignoring me or why I had to drag my ass all the way over here to witness this again," she gestured vaguely between Alaina and Quinn, "but I need some answers."

With a hand stuck out in his direction, Quinn grabbed it and let Raelyn pull him to his feet. She winced at the pain in her hand and muttered, "Son of a bitch.” She shook her hand out when Quinn let go of it.

"What happened to your hand?" Quinn asked with genuine concern.

"No one ever tells you how much it hurts to punch someone," Raelyn replied.

Quinn’s eyes grew wide as they flew from her hand to her face. "You punched someone?"

"Yeah, I did. You know, you, me, Chris, and Jett used to be a team. You can't expect me to not want in on the action, too."

"You hitLiam?Rae, he's huge."

"I'm aware. Maybe more so than most people," Raelyn said. When Quinn's face twisted to mild disgust, she laughed nervously, "That's not what I meant. I just meant, like, I've been around him a lot. Near him. I know how big he is. Compared to me. Hiswholebody-Jesus,I cannot get out of this one."

He bit his lip, trying to hide his amusement with her word vomit. Once he'd successfully contained his expression to one of stony silence and near disinterest again, Raelyn continued with what she'd come to say. “Listen, it’s been a hell of a few days and I still have no idea why you supposedly stood up for me if you were so pissed that I was sharing all your dirty secrets. I wasn’t- but you seem to think I was. So...what the hell?”

Quinn's expression didn't change and she was starting to get annoyed. If he was looking for some sort of apology, he was mistaken. She hadn't done a damn thing wrong.

“Liam saw the check Dad wrote for the school for football. It was with that form they sent home and it had your name on it. I guess it got left out on the kitchen counter or something.” She continued, “As far as knowing about your mom, people gossip in this town. And his dad's a family court judge. I wouldn't be surprised if your case popped up on his desk when that social worker kept coming by a few years ago.”

Raelyn watched as the information sunk in and his features softened slightly.

"This would be a good time for you to apologize, by the way," Raelyn said, crossing her arms. When Quinn’s brows pinched together she added, "for having so little faith in the value I put on our friendship. I wouldn't talk about you like that. I don't know what else he said, but it was either taken out of context or he was just fishing for a reaction and got lucky."

Quinn's strong chest deflated slightly as he sighed, and gave a nearly indistinguishable nod. "I'm sorry, Rae."

"That's a good start," said Raelyn, eyeing him stubbornly.

Alaina made a derisive noise from behind them, "Are you serious? She just tells you what to do and you do it?"

“Oh, I’m sorry, are you still here?” Raelyn asked with mock-friendliness.

Quinn half-sighed, half-groaned as he ran a hand down his face, “Rae…”

"What?" Raelyn snapped, exasperated. "Is this, like, a thing now?"

"We've been hanging out," Quinn said vaguely.

"Yeah, we have," Alaina got up off the bed and stood next to Quinn. "But please, feel free to barge in here with your petty, rich-girl problems. We would love to hear them. It's not like we haverealissues going on in our lives."

"Okay, Alaina, this whole act of yours is getting stale," Raelyn sighed. "I get it. I have money. A whole bunch of it. I could raid myparents' bank vault and throw stacks of hundreds around this room and they probably wouldn't notice. Is that what you wanted to hear? I feel like you're waiting for me to just brag about my financial situation that I did absolutely nothing to help create, and I never have, so there you go."

Alaina glared at Raelyn. "Wow, I bet that felt good."

"You do realize that you hate me for something I have absolutely no control over, right? I had no more choice in the life I was given than either of you. And yeah, I know you guys can probably bond over how much life can suck sometimes, and that's great," she now turned to Quinn and grabbed both of his shoulders, forcing him to look directly at her as she spoke, "but at the end of the day, Quinn, you are my best friend. I love the shit out of you. And if you want to be mad for a while longer, then be mad. But you're better than this woe-is-me bullshit. And for someone who hates feeling pitied, you can throw one hell of a pity-party for yourself, and you're better than that."

She watched as Quinn's mood changed, the stiffness and tension in his shoulders seemed to dissipate, and the stubborn defiance of his face relaxed. Raelyn placed her hand gently on the side of his face and ran her thumb over the now green-ish bruise on his cheekbone. "When you're ready, you know where to find me." He was looking back at her, still silent, but his eyes were searching her face. He gave the vague impression of someone who'd just woken up having forgotten where he was. Ignoring the presence of thisothergirl in the room, Raelyn planted a kiss on Quinn's cheek before briskly walking back out the door.

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