The Beast and the Homecoming Queen

by Khelsey Jackson

  “Quinny can't I see how you are doing? I want you to know I am here for you.” Jenna bats her big teary eyes at Quinn.

  Quinn smiles, and shakes her head. “You lost that right to check on me, we aren’t friends. I don’t want you to be there for me.” Quinn can't trust Jenna, and even if she could forgive her she would never be friends with Jenna again.

  “I won’t tell you I’m sorry again,” Jenna says and lifts an eyebrow.

  Quinn smiles; truth is she doesn’t care about the ex-boyfriend. She just can't trust Jenna, plus she isn’t a nice person. “I forgive you about what you did, but I will never forget.”

  Jenna throws her head back and laughs. Quinn knows she does this for attention. “Quinny there is one thing you should never forget.” Jenna grabs Quinn's chin and yanks it so they are eye to eye. “Justin is mine. You are just his duty,” Jenna whispers, and digs her nails into Quinn's chin, and Quinn gasps.

  Quinn sees a large tan hand on Jenna's shoulder. “Jenna, let go of Quinn before you regret it.”

  Jenna's eyes widen, and she quickly lets go. Quinn touches her chin and looks at her red finger tips.

  Jenna jumps up and turns to face the man. “This isn’t what it looks like Mr. Keto.” Her voice is shaking; Quinn has never seen Jenna like this.

  “You should leave,” Mr. Keto says. Quinn has seen him a few times. This is Justin's and Kaden's father; just like his sons he is deviously handsome. Jenna nods, and starts to walk away until he stops her. “Aren't you forgetting something?” One of his black eyebrows arch.

  Jenna turns around and she is pale. “I'm sorry Quinn,” she says, but Quinn doesn’t miss the glare.

  Mr. Keto doesn’t take his eyes off of Quinn, but he does let go of Jenna. It doesn’t take her long to leave. He smiles warmly at her. “Quinn Murphy, it's nice to meet you.” The Keto family is the riches family in town. They own most of the town. Mr. Keto is very handsome, olive skin and huge dark blue eyes that make her think of Kaden. His square chin is like Justin's and his black hair is like both of his boys, black. His hair is slicked back.

  “It's nice to meet you too, Mr. Keto,” Quinn says, and stands up. She still has a hand on her chin, and he looks at it.

  “Did she hurt you?” he asks.

  She shakes her head. “It’s just a scratch.” Quinn takes her hand away, and doesn’t see that much blood.

  He looks at her, and nods. “Good.” Mr. Keto smiles.

  She glances at the field and sees Justin staring at her. “Thank you for that Mr. Keto.”

  He laughs. “Please call me Chris.” She nods. Quinn looks back to Justin, and notices that the other players are walking off the field.

  “Okay well Chris, Breanna and I have to go.” Quinn doesn’t know why, but she gets a weird vibes from him. He nods, and she grabs Breanna's hand.

  Chapter Five

  Rose Petals

  Breanna and Quinn are waiting behind the locker room for the boys. They are in perfect view of Justin and Mark as they come out of the locker room. As soon as gray-yellow meets her she smiles, meeting Justin's dad was weird.

  Justin's eyes look at her chin, she had Breanna look at it and was told it didn’t look that bad.

  “Oh Quinn.” Justin takes her into his arms. “I am so sorry, Jenna is just jealous.”

  “Yeah you can say that.” She moves away from him.

  Justin frowns, and looks to Mark. Breanna and Mark are smiling at each other. “Mark, can you meet us there?”

  Mark winks, and takes Breanna's hand. “No problem QB.” Mark turns his attention to Breanna, he winks at her. “Come on sweet thing.” Breanna giggles, and they walk away.

  Justin takes her hand and starts walking. She doesn’t ask where they are going; she has some questions for him, and wants to be alone when she asks him. He stops at his black pick-up truck.

  “We can talk inside.” He nods at his truck, and she walks around him and gets in.

  Justin gets into the driver's side and starts the truck. “Out of the last three years you haven’t said more than twenty words to me, and now you want me to be your girlfriend,” Quinn says then looks at him, and he is staring at her. “Why now?”

  He doesn’t do or say anything for a while. Justin reaches over and takes a hand that she has on her lap. He intertwines their fingers and smiles down at their hands. “I wasn’t allowed to talk to you, not really.”

  Justin looks back into her eyes. “I don’t want you to keep things from me.”

  He nods, and sighs. “I know and I don’t want to keep things, but I can't tell you everything. Not yet.” He brings her hand to his lips and softly kisses her hand. “Please give me the time I need and I will tell you everything. But I always wanted to talk to you, and when I would hear your laughter I wanted to be there to see your face light up. Quinn I would do anything to see your light again, and I want to be the one who makes you laugh.” He smiles at her, and she can feel the flutter in her chest.

  “Will you give me time?” He asks and she knows she can’t tell him no.

  Her heart is beating so fast she is afraid it will break free. She has never had anyone say anything like that before. Quinn will give him until homecoming. She nods, and smiles back. “Yes, but I won't wait forever.”

  “Yeah I know, and I don’t want to keep it from you. But after the dance I will tell you everything.” Justin touches her face. “Now get your cute butt out of my truck and follow me to the restaurant.”

  Quinn laughs. “What, I don’t get a please?”

  Justin laughs, and squeezes her hand. “Pretty please with a chocolate cherry on top.” He winks, and she giggles. “Awe there is some of the light.”

  Quinn, Justin, Breanna, and Mark are sitting at the pizza restaurant. Breanna is talking about something Mark did at practice, and Quinn's hand is under the table holding Justin's hand. She doesn’t like that he is keeping something, but she doesn’t want to push him. When he told her that he wanted to see the light in her, she thought her heart was going to beat out of her chest. Quinn never thought he noticed her, he was always with Jenna. Jenna was Justin's girlfriend from day one.

  “Quinny?” Breanna asks and throws a napkin ball at Quinn. She looks at her best friend. “You weren’t listening were you?”

  Quinn was kind of listening, she thinks about the last thing she remembers, and she can't remember anything. “Sorry.” She smiles, and Breanna rolls her eyes.

  “I just asked you what color dresses the guys want us in, for homecoming. And Justin said he doesn’t care, as long as Quinn is in it.” Quinn looks at Justin and he winks, she smiles.

  Quinn looks back at Breanna. “I don’t know, why do you have one already picked out?”

  “Yes, but I have to get it tomorrow.” Breanna laughs and Justin tightens his hand around hers.

  Quinn stands up. “I’ll be right back, I need to use the restroom.” She wants to be alone for a few minutes.

  ***

  Justin smiles as he watches Quinn walk away and when he looks back at Breanna; she has her eyebrows arched. He knows he is in trouble with her and for what he doesn’t know.

  Breanna sighs, and shakes her head. “Justin you know if my best friend gets hurt I will have to cut your balls off and feed it to you.” Mark chokes on his soda, but she keeps her eyes on him.

  “I would cut them off for you, I never want to cause Quinn any pain what so ever. I will do everything in my power to make her happy and whole again.” He wants to see that glow again, and he smiles to himself as the thinks about them in his truck. He saw a little glance of her glow he wanted more of it.

  A slow smile lifts on Breanna’s face. “You really do care about her, don’t you?” Justin nods. “Good she needs someone to make her whole again.”

  He vows to himself he will be the one that will make Quinn whole again, he wants her to give him her heart.

  ***

  “Is it okay if Mark and I leave?” Breanna asks about an hour later.

&
nbsp; Quinn looks at them, and shakes her head. “No have fun.” The smile on Breanna face tells Quinn she plans on having fun.

  Breanna gets up and walks over to Quinn. “I love you Quinny, see you tomorrow.” She kisses Quinn's cheek and hugs her.

  “Love you to.” Quinn waves at Breanna when pulls away.

  Quinn looks back at Justin, and he smiles. They walk out holding hands, Justin leads them to his black pick-up. He opens her door for her. “Breanna is......nice” He says as he helps her in, and she knows he wants to say something else.

  “She is, and I know she can be a lot to take on. But she loves me, and wants what is best for me.”

  Quinn thinks about after her father died, and where she would be if not for Breanna. “I don’t know where I would be without her.”

  Justin squeezes her hand again. “That's good, it's always nice to have someone like that in your life. I’m happy she is there for you.” He chuckles. “You know when you went to the bathroom, she told me if I hurt you she would cut off my balls and feed them to me.” He starts driving back to the school so she can get her car. He reaches his right hand out to take her hand as he is driving. She smiles and looks out of the window, she wonders why she didn’t have this spark until after they kissed.

  Quinn bites her lip, and looks down; she is trying like hell to hold back her laughter. “She said that?” She looks back up to Justin, and his is smiling.

  “Yeah, but I don’t mind. If I hurt you then I will offer myself to her.” Justin winks at her, and lets go of her hand as he pulls into the high schools parking lot. He squeezes her hand and she turns to look at him; he smiles at her. “Do you want me to follow you home?”

  Quinn doesn’t want to be alone; it was nice to have Kaden there last night. She wants someone to hold her again, she nods. “Sure.”

  Justin gets out of his truck and walks to her side of the truck and puts out his hand to help her, Quinn doesn’t take anything she put hers into his. He walks her to her car, and she turns to look at him. “You are so beautiful.” He wraps his arms around her.

  Quinn smiles as she snuggles her face into his chest. “You aren’t too bad looking yourself,” she says, and he laughs.

  Justin moves away, but keeps his arms around her waist. “Let me see your phone.” He says and smiles down at her.

  Quinn reaches into her back pocket, and pulls out her cell pink phone she hands it to him. He grins as he types something in. “There now you have my number.” He hands it back to her, and she looks down at the screen.

  She pushes the call button. “Now you have mine.”

  Justin laughs, and pulls her closers to him. His body feels hard, and warm. Her mind takes her to Kaden without his shirt on. “Quinn, I kind of want to kiss you right now.” She brings her eyes to meet his, and she can see his passion in them.

  “You only kind of want to kiss me?” she asks, with humor in her voice.

  Justin smiles, and shakes his head. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about kissing you. The whole time we were in there I wanted to kiss you and not stop.”

  That is all she needs to hear, she wraps her arms around his neck, and pulls him closer. She is the one who leans in and puts her lips on his. Quinn can taste the pepperoni pizza and the coke. She deepens the kiss, and he holds onto her hips. Justin pulls her closer to him, and he growls. He is the one to slide his tongue into her mouth and she welcomes it. Their kiss doesn’t last as long as she wants it to, and he places his forehead on hers. Justin's eyes are still closed, but he is smiling.

  “I can't believe how amazing that feels. You lips are like rose petals, so soft and so perfect. I have never felt this way before.” He opens his eyes.

  Quinn doesn’t know what to say, she has kissed other boys before, but Justin is different. When he touches her she feels better, and doesn’t feel like a complete mess.

  “Let’s get you home, I will follow you this time.” He brings his lips to kiss her forehead. Justin opens her door, and she moves away from him.

  “See you soon.” She looks over her shoulder.

  Quinn pulls into her driveway, and there is always a part of her that still thinks her dad will be in there waiting. He would put down his book that he was reading and asked her how her day was. She misses him so much, and she wishes she could hug him and tell him that she loves him. Then her sister would come and tell them about how her day was and what boy she is crushing on. Quinn jumps when she hears a tapping on her driver's window.

  She looks and sees Justin. He looks like he knows what she was thinking about. Quinn opens her door, and Justin reaches in the back to grab her bag. She is so thankful he doesn’t say anything, because she knows she will cry.

  Quinn unlocks her house, and hates that it's so quiet. Rose her stepmother took Quinn's half-sister Lizzy with her, and she has seen Lizzy in almost two months. Quinn loved that little girl, and can't believe Rose took her away. Rose didn’t agree with all the freedom Quinn was given, she said Quinn needed to be put in her place, but Jeff Quinn's father didn’t mind what she did. As long as she told him where she was going to be and who was with her he didn’t care.

  Quinn feels a strong warm arm wrap around her stomach, and she smiles. “I wish I could take away your pain. I wish I was here to stop the person that killed your father,” Justin says into her ear, and she leans back into his warm.

  “It's just hard to be here, and not to have him here,” Quinn says, and Justin puts his chin on her shoulder.

  “What happened to your stepmother?” No one besides Breanna knows what happened.

  “She was mad that my dad left the house and all of the money to me. Rose tried to fight it, and the lawyer said there would be no way she would win. My dad did leave Lizzy money, but she can't touch it until she is eighteen. Rose thought I was too young to have this house, and all the money. She tried to get me to sign over everything to her, I told her she could go to hell. She hit me, I threaten to call the cops and then I went to bed. The next morning when I woke up her and Lizzy were gone. I haven’t seen or heard from her since, but I miss my sister. She was the last thing I had of my dad, and Rose took her away.” Quinn can feel her tears falling onto her cheeks, and Justin turns her around. He pulls her into a hug.

  Justin rubs her back. “I can't imagine how you feel, to have your whole world taken from you. What about you real mom?” Quinn closes her eyes, this something else she doesn’t like to talk about.

  “She died when I was five, and that is all I really know. My dad told me that she was in a car accident. I really don’t remember much about her, I have this picture of her and me. It was taken the day before she died, and she was beautiful. I look like her.” Justin stops moving his hands.

  “I didn’t know. I’m sorry Quinn.” She just lets him hold her, and she yawns. “Let’s get you to bed.”

  Justin pulls away enough to look at her, he brings one of his hands to her face to wipe away her tears.

  “Thank you for being here, and listening to my sad stories,” Quinn says and looks down.

  “No, thank you for telling me. You are amazing and I want to show you that. I know you have had a hard life, but I want to be here for you no matter what.”

  “Plus you want to help me get my light back.” Quinn smiles when she sees his beautiful smile.

  “Oh yes, I want to see that light again. But then I think you may be too beautiful for anyone else to see.” Quinn rolls her eyes. “Hey now, don’t roll your eyes at me.” Justin says, and winks.

  “And what will you do if I do?” she says playfully.

  Justin laughs, and picks her up. He throws her over his shoulder, and she gets a great view of his butt. “Now I can't see if you roll your eyes.” Quinn laughs, and he walks up the stairs.

  When they get into her bedroom he gently puts her down. “I thought I was too heavy for that.”

  Justin shakes his head. “You are light as a feather.” Quinn can't help herself, she rolls her eyes, and he picks her
up again.

  Justin picks her back up and she giggles as he tosses her onto her bed, and sits on top of her. He takes both of her hands into one of his, and pins it above her head. “Are you ticklish Ms. Murphy?” He softly moves his free hand down her side, and she bites her lips to stop her laughter. He smiles down at her, and leaves his hand on her hip. “Oh beautiful Quinn, I will take that as a yes.” He tickles her on her hip and she burst out laughing. Just when she thinks she can't handle it anymore he stops.

  Quinn smiles up at him, and he just stares at her. “What are you thinking about Justin?” He lets go of her hands, and she touches his face.

  “I'm sorry about Jenna. What did she say to you?” Justin asks and moves off of her.

  Quinn misses the feel of his body on hers and sits up. “She said that you are hers, and I am your duty.”

  Justin narrows his eyes, and shakes his head. “I'm not hers, and she knows that. Quinn you aren’t my duty, you are my choice.” She covers her mouth when she yawns. “Get some sleep, we will talk tomorrow.” Justin leans in and kisses her cheek. She lies down on the bed and watches him leave. He leaves the door open, and she closes her eyes.

  Chapter Six

  Controlling Ass Face

  Quinn feels something warm touch her forehead. “I love you sweetheart.” A male's voice says, and when she opens her eyes she is alone. She looks at her nightstand and sees a pink and white dahlia, which is her favorite flower. Quinn reaches for it and smells it, it smells heavenly. Then she notices a note with her name on it. She sets the beautiful dahlia down, and grabs the note.

  Quinn

  You have a choice, no matter what they say. Follow your heart, my sweetheart.

  Kaden

  Quinn remembers someone saying, I love you sweetheart. That is what woke her up, she touches her forehead. She can still feel Kaden's lips on her forehead. She looks down at the flower, and wonders how he knew that was her favorite flower.