Chapter 1

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Quinn and Ari sat down in a cafe. Quinn seemed absent-minded and Ari noticed. He couldn't help but watch her delicate and beautiful face staring out the window and sigh. He reached out for her hand.

"Wanna tell me what you're thinking of?" Ari asks Quinn as she turns to face him. She gives him a slightly weary smile.

"Just thinking about school and college,"

"No way," Ari says, smiling. "The genius known as Quinn is worried about school?"

"Very funny, but I was actually thinking about what I wanted to study,"

"What do you want to study? You never told me,"

"You couldn't figure it out?" Quinn asks, eyebrows raised.

"Well, you're good at everything so how would I know?" Ari waves his hand around as if he was stating a well-known fact. He rested his chin on the back of his palms, elbows on the table. He showed child-like excitement. Quinn couldn't help but chuckle.

"I really like to write,"

"Well, obviously, you're just so good at it, too,"

"Thanks," Quinn sighed. "But I wanna learn how to write more than book reports and news paper articles which make no sense anyway,"

"Yeah, the school literature programme is crap anyway," Ari waves it aside. Quinn nods in agreement.

"Excuse me, I'm sorry for the delay. What can I get you?" The cafe was so busy, but the waitress finally came up to the couple.

"It's fine," Quinn says, smiling. "I'll have a Caramel Frappuccino and a chocolate muffin,"

"And also get her about 10 packets of sugar," Ari added. Quinn flicked his forehead but did, in fact, ask for the sugar packets.

"And what about you sir?"

"I'll have an oreo frappuccino," Ari says, without skipping a beat. "And get me two straw please?"

"Why?" Quinn asks.

"You're going to want some of my drink anyway so," Ari shrugs, smirking.

"Dumbass," Quinn says but she doesn't argue. The waitress left, taking their order to the others working behind the counter.

"So-," Quinn starts again, making Ari raise his eyes and meet her face. She's starts to speak again only to stop. She closes her mouth with a sour expression. She covers her face with her hand as she looks desperately at Ari.

Quickly, understanding, Ari gets her a couple tissue which Quinn spits into. She quickly crumples up the tissue and hides it behind her back. She was almost certain that it had blood in it as she felt a cold liquid seep through the paper. But she didn't want Ari to see it. She sighed as she drank some water.

"Are you okay?" Ari asks her, head tilted to the side.

"I'll be fine," Quinn nods.

"Give me the tissue, I'll throw it," Ari reaches his hand out.

"No, I'll do it," Quinn says, maybe a little to quickly, but smoothly just the same. She keeps her fists close tightly around the tissue as she heads to the bathroom. As she walks, she pulls it out to look at it and she wishes she didn't.

There was a disgusting red liquid mixed with saliva and bit of her lunch in the tissue. Pieces of the paper tore and mixed into the disgusting mixture. Quickly disposing of it in the bathroom bin, Quinn washed her face. She wiped the drool starting to spill from her mouth, tinted red. Quickly rinsing off and drying her hands, she weakly crawls back to the table where Ari was waiting with their drinks and a muffin.

"Thanks for waiting," She says, lips pursed. Ari looks at her, straw of his drink in his mouth. He quickly puts the cup down which makes Quinn laugh. "Give me a sip to make up for it,"

"Fine, if you insist," Ari holds on his cup, straw tilted towards her. Quinn quickly takes a sip and smiles.

"Here, have some of mine," Quinn offers her cup.

"Alright," But instead of taking a sip, Ari's finger lightly grazes across the cream on top and swiftly heads toward Quinn's nose. "Boop,"

"Mmm," Quinn takes the cream from her nose by her finger and puts it in her mouth. "Still tastes good,"

"Ew,"

"You're the one who put it on my nose in the first place, so," Quinn shrugs, arms crossed. She looked at Ari sceptically.

"Touché" Ari nods.

"Ari?" Quinn asked, suddenly contemplating.

"What is it?" Ari asks, curious. A nagging, negative thought flits across his mind but he pushed it to the back. It couldn't be that.

"Well, I just- I don't know, something feels wrong,"

"W-wrong?" Ari gulps. He's a strong guy but his weakness is Quinn.

"Oh, dumbfuck," Quinn flicked his forehead when she realized what he was thinking. "I'm not breaking up with you,"

"Oh, ok," Ari seemed to recover at the speed of light.

"What's one thing you want to do? Just one thing you will regret if you don't do?" Quinn asks.

"I think, it's to make a special memory with you,"

"Well, that was fast... and deep," Quinn said. "I just want to skydive. Extreme sports, something to excite me,"

"Is a date with me not exciting enough?" Ari asks, seemingly innocent.

"You're old news, I want something new,"

"I don't know if I should be offended or relieved," Ari says, without missing a beat.

"Wow, way to treat you GirLfRiEnD," Quinn says, especially exaggerating the word, 'Girlfriend,'.

"And you treat me like any other girl treats their BoYFriEnD?" Ari says, matching Quinn's tone, mood, and excitement.

"No, because I'm special," Quinn says, resting her head on the table, like she was a playing card which flopped down.

"I can see that," Ari says, poking her as if she's dead.

"I'm alive, leave me alone!" Quinn says with newly found energy. She sits up straight and makes an exaggeratedly suspicious expression.

"Okay, it's the coffee finally kicking in," Ari says, sitting Quinn back down.

"Oop-," Quinn has her hand over her mouth as she giggles.

"It's like you're drunk," Ari says in disbelief. He pays for the drinks and the muffin, don't forget the muffin, and picked up Quinn. He set out for her house.

In contemplative silence, Quinn watched her surroundings while Ari observed her. He was still carrying her. As they neared her house, Ari put Quinn down on the porch while she just flopped down. She lay on the ground, eyes slightly watering. She was tired and had basically given up at that point. Her eyes hurt from not blinking for so long, observing.

"Okay, get up," Ari dragged her up, supporting her by her arms. He walks her to her room and sets her down on the bed. He washes his hands and comes back to sit in front of her. He smiles until he realizes.

She's crying. She's still in a trance-like state, half-asleep. tears drip down from her eyes and to her ear on the side she's lying down on. Her hair is slightly damp in the area and a small pool gathered around her ear.

"Hey, hey, what's up,"

"I don't know, I still feel like something's wrong,"

"Wrong? What do you mean?"

"I don't know, it's like this tingling, ticklish, pain-type feeling in my stomach and at my fingertips,"

"Are you sure you aren't sick?" Ari lifted Quinn up and set her down on his lap. She buried her head into his shoulder, still crying.

"I'm always sick," Her voice sounded hoarse and broken, like she was struggling to speak through the tears.

"No, you have a sickness, you aren't sick," Ari says.

"The king of cheesiness," Quinn chuckles lightly. She leans back to look into Ari's eyes.

He looks back at her.

"Kiss me," She says softly. Ari obliged, reaching for her lips. He pulled her into a soft kiss.

They both lay down on the bed, looking at each other. Silently, Quinn turned around and placed the back of her head into Ari's chest. He instinctively wrapped his arm around Quinn, pulling her close. They both fell asleep, now both feeling the pain in the pit of their stomachs.

Something was about to go horribly wrong.

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~chapter completed~

unedited

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