Between the Lines by Renee Harless

Author:Renee Harless [Harless, Renee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harless Productions LLC
Published: 2018-05-20T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Trevor

THE HOUSE SITS IN the middle of the same two-acre lot it’s occupied since before I was born. My parents still live across the street, but when Quinn moved away, I had a hard time gazing at the home that seemed more foreign to me than ever before.

The two-story brick colonial is large, mimicking a few of the other houses on the street, but strangely it always seemed a bit dark to me. Shadows linger on its surface from the surrounding trees, but it’s the shadows on the inside that intrigue me most. It’s still hard to this day to picture bright and bubbly Quinn living in a house that’s her opposite.

Growing up, we never saw her parents much. Just comings and goings from work, leaving Quinn alone in the massive estate, far too big for a teenager, which is why she spent many nights sleeping over with Izzy. My parents love Quinn, but the same can’t be said for her parents toward me and my sister. They always complained when we were over and would send us home claiming Quinn needed to spend her time studying. Except that was typically what we were doing.

I remember how hard her parents pushed her in school, but they never made an effort to support her. Izzy and I never saw them at any of Quinn’s plays or her high school graduation. She didn’t even get to go to prom because her parents were taking her to a medical convention across the country. That part had hurt me just as much as it had hurt her. I had plans to ask her to senior prom, even turned down requests from some of the most popular girls in our school. I had my sights set on only one girl, and that girl was Quinn. When I found out she wasn’t able to go, I begged my parents to see if she could stay with us, but they said it wasn’t up to them and I needed to find someone else to take. My heart had hurt for her, so I had no qualms about the fact that she up and left after graduation.

So as I pull into the driveway with the murky darkness closing in on the car, my past anger and hurt for Quinn boils at the surface, threatening to overflow.

“Quinn,” I start as I turn off the car and twist in my seat to face her, “if I say anything out of line tonight, I want to go ahead and apologize now.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I just….” I run a hand through my hair as I try to find the words expressing my feelings toward her parents. “I just want to protect you, and if they say anything condescending, I’ll probably snap.”

She rests her small hand against my cheek, and I want to lean into her touch more than anything right now. Strangely enough, it’s as if she’s comforting me and not the other way around.

“Trevor, you don’t have to stand up for me.

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