No one knew I wasn't even with Sienna. But it did not matter anymore.
I dodged past Mrs. Thomas without another word. Anything would set her off. She was hoping I would, and followed me inside. I knew Sienna's mother needed a reason for a scene; she was just keeping it together. I slipped down the side hallway and flipped the light on in the guest bathroom as I went. I shut the door and leapt around the corner just as she came after me. Luckily, the door to the basement was cracked open and I was able to slip downstairs without a sound.
The lights were off except for a bluish glow at the bottom of the stairs. I stepped lightly down and discovered Quinn sitting on the edge of the old leather sofa. She leaned forward as she furiously tapped the video controller. On the large screen television, the world of Dark Flag came into focus.
I stepped around the corner so I could not be seen from the top of the stairs, but I did not say a word. For just a moment, I wanted to watch Quinn in my world. It was like seeing a stranger on the moon and realizing she had always been there.
#
I leaned on the doorframe. It would not be long before Mrs. Thomas decided to look in the basement. I should have gone out the front door. I should have left, but something made me stay. With Sienna gone, I knew once I left that house, I would have no reason to come back. And I wanted a reason.
It was Quinn. In the darkened basement, I could think about it. Just for a moment. In the bluish light from the video game screen, I allowed myself to look at her.
Her chestnut brown hair was thick and soft. It fell in waves to the middle of her back, loose and free. It was the kind of hair I wanted to scoop into my hands. It would run through my fingers like silk. Against her black dress, it was warm with streaks of gold.
The dress was sleeveless, showing the graceful reach of her arms. Quinn was slender and athletic, despite the soft curves of her body. Her arms showed taut muscles as she shifted the controller and tapped in sequences. Long, delicate fingers that could have played the piano or performed surgery flew over the controller.
She leaned forward again, concentrating on the game. In the light from the television screen, I could see her full lips parted. As she focused on a difficult move, her tongue swept across her lower lip. She made me think of ripe strawberries.
I met her a month after Sienna and I started dating. Her hair was loose, her arms looked too long, and her chocolate brown eyes were so wide. For all her teenage awkwardness, Quinn was confident.
"You're dating my sister?" she had asked. "Do you play football?"
"No."
"Basketball?"
"No," I had said.
She had tipped her head, those chestnut waves sweeping over her arm. "What do you do?"
"I don't know, video games?"
Quinn had laughed – a free, unpracticed sound. "With Sienna? She hates video games. You must be a good kisser."
Quinn had always been easy to talk to, despite the gap in our ages. She was a freshman when Sienna and I were seniors in high school. I remembered hearing the other guys talk about Sienna's hot younger sister. It had made my blood boil. They did not know her like I did. Quinn was more than just attractive. She was quick-witted, interesting, and guileless.
Where Sienna always had an agenda, an angle, or a desired outcome, Quinn was different. She was genuinely interested in people, not for what they could do for her but because she liked them. She was friends with everyone. Sienna had an exclusive list of people she would be seen with, but Quinn was more like me. Not loners, just not defined by the tight clans of high school territory.
"She's driving me crazy," Sienna had said many times. "I mean, she went to the movies with this nerdy guy. She could have gone out with the first baseman of the baseball team."
"Not into the whole dating thing?" I had asked Quinn when she was a freshman in high school. We sat on the worn leather sofa in her parents' basement playing video games while Sienna did her makeup for a pep rally.
Quinn had shrugged. "Sienna makes it sound like a competition. I'd rather just sit here and beat you at Mario Kart."
I did not tell her then, but I preferred the same thing. There had been too many nights when all I wanted to do was hang out with Quinn. I leaned on the doorframe and called myself a coward.
She must have heard my heavy sigh. "Owen? How long have you been standing there?"
"Long enough to be impressed with your use of the frost sword," I said.
Quinn paused the game. "Yeah, right. An expert like you. I probably did 100 things wrong back in that glen."
"Well, there is a secret passage in one of the trees, but you were a little busy with that ogre." I slipped onto the couch next to her.
"Is it wrong that all I wanted to do all day was escape down here?" Quinn asked.
I resisted the urge to brush her chestnut curls off her bare shoulder. "I don't think anyone would judge you for that. It’s surreal up there."