"Oh, Quinn, honey. Wouldn't you like to stay for dinner?"

I lingered in the doorway, my lips parted in surprise at Mrs. Duncan's question.

I would have thought her husband bringing me in here and bandaging my hand would have been enough of me in her house for the day, but she had been hovering around the whole time. Asking Mr. Duncan and me both what had happened outside and if I was all right. Even after countless attempts to reassure her I was, she still stared at me worriedly from the couch.

"Oh, uh-"

"We'd love for you to join us." She went on before I could deny the invitation, "I'm sure Maxwell would too." I reached up and scratched the back of my neck with my good hand, smiling sheepishly as I tried to come up with an excuse.

I had already told Austin I'd explain everything once he got home from taking the long bus ride back here, but did I really want to hear a whole lecture about his car and how right he was about Jayden?

"Sure." I answered with a sigh of defeat, "My parents won't be home anyway." My mom had told us this morning she wouldn't be back until after midnight, and God only knows where my dad is.

"Max!" Mr. Duncan yelled, almost deafening me. I guess as a Professor, he had to speak loud enough for the whole room to hear and probably just brought that home with him.

"What? I thought. . . what are you doing here?" Max said, not hiding the shock as it spread across his face.

"I. . ." I trailed off, thankful when his mom spoke up for me.

"That Jayden boy was harassing the poor girl, Maxwell. Isn't that horrible? He even hurt her hand." I waved my bandaged hand in the air, a small smile on my face.

"Are you okay? What did he do?" Max rolled himself over to where I stood, staring at my hand in curiosity.

"I'm fine. I. . . he actually didn't hurt my hand that bad. I kind of punched him and it. . .yeah." I shook my head to myself, my cheeks starting to warm up.

It was bad enough that it had happened in the first place, I really didn't need to throw my problems on to the Duncans.

"Maxwell, honey, why don't you show Quinn back to your room?" I started to shake my head, but Max had bowed his own and was starting to nod.

I followed Max as he rolled back down the hall in silence, rubbing my arm anxiously as I followed.

Once we were away from his parents, his expression finally fell into a normal look, one that I was all to familiar with.

"What'd you do?" He asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, he wouldn't have tried to do something if you hadn't started it." I leaned back against his door frame, frowning.

"I didn't do anything. He wouldn't leave me alone." I said, honestly. He looked at me in disbelief, his hands reaching back for the water bottle on his dresser.

"He wouldn't leave you alone?" He repeated my words, as if him saying them would make them sound different.

"He was being a dick, okay? Maybe you two should have some long talk about being dicks sometime." I threw my hand over my mouth when I had realized what I said. Max stared at me for a second before a bitter smile crept on to his face.

"I know I'm a dick, Quinn." He snapped, "But I am and never will be a piece of utter crap like him." I nodded, staring at the trophy case behind him.

"I could take care of him, you know." Max finally sparked up another conversation a few minutes later.

"Max, you don't exactly have the. . . body to fight anymore." He waved his hand in the air, snorting.

"I don't have to fight him. There are plenty of other ways to get a rise out of him." He explained.

"Like?" I prompted.

"Like finding you a boyfriend. If you were with someone else, he'd either back off or get the shit kicked out of him." Hearing the words, his idea actually didn't sound so bad.

If I did get another boyfriend, possibly one of the jocks, I know for a fact that Jayden wouldn't come anywhere near us.

The only time I'd ever seen Jayden uncomfortable was when I had used to hang out with some of the team at parties.

"You could get Austin to kick his ass." Max suggested, meeting my eyes when I lifted my head up. I was surprised to find that his eyes were as cold and hard as usual, but held more of a soft, bright, liveliness to them that I hadn't ever seen before.

"As much as I think Austin would enjoy that, I don't think he wants to go to jail."

"I'd do it." Max muttered, "Not just for you or anything, don't get all gooey on me. I meant I would kick his ass because he's a prick." He quickly added, avoiding my eyes. I peeled myself like a sticker off the wall and fell down on to the edge of his bed, sighing.

"He wasn't that bad, not when we first started dating. He-"

"Bullshit. He put you in a hospital." My head snapped up at Max's response.

"I fell down the stairs." I lied, "He didn't do anything. How would you even know that anyway?" I could hear the defensiveness in my voice, and for a moment, I questioned it.

Why the hell was I still defending the idiot? He had put me in the hospital. It had been an accident, but it had still been his fault for doing what he did.

"Rumors." Max mumbled, narrowing his eyes, "And why are you being so defensive? I thought you didn't like him."

"Just because I don't like him at all doesn't mean that some part of me doesn't still love him, Max. There are still parts of me that love the good parts of him." I replied, glancing over at him. He was staring straight ahead at his open door.

"You mean the same parts that you allowed to come back over and over?" He met my eyes, the same coldness that had been gone a few minutes ago appearing again.

"You wouldn't understand. Not unless you loved someone, Max. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try to hate them, you still find some small part of yourself wishing they were with you again." I whispered, wrapping my arms around myself.

Max was staring at me, a strange look in his eyes, one that I couldn't place.

"You're right, I don't understand. I don't understand how you could love someone like him in the first place. Even after he beat you more than once, you let him come running back to you." I shoo my head at his response.

"Tell me the same thing when you finally find a girlfriend you care about, Max. One that you know you love. That's when I'll listen to your opinion on my love life." I felt a little guilty as I finally stopped talking, my eyes on the quiet boy beside me.

"I was starting to like you, you know, Quinn. You must have used like that whole Jedi mind trick on me." I cracked a smile as the tensions snapped out of the room like a rubber band.

"Yeah, I guess you're starting to grow on me too. Kind of like that unwanted fungus I got on my feet five years ago." I swear I saw his lips tug up into a smile, but I would never know. His mom came into the room, a Kiss The Cook apron on and both of her hands covered with ovenmits.

"Well? Are you two coming or not?" She asked, before ducking out of the room and leaving her son and me to stare after her in amusement.

***AN***

Sorry for the filler chapter guys!

Hope you enjoyed anyway!

Let me know what you thought!

~ChasingMadness24