Reviving Thursday Traditions

[The Cedar Witch]

"Quinn,"  She looked at him seriously.  "Quinn.  Shoot.  Your.  Shot.  You never fucking know!"  Rachel sighed and shook her head.

"I don't think you give yourself enough credit--seriously.  Like, what have you got to lose?"  Okay, maybe she was getting a little too wrapped up in the drama, encouraged by the blushing and the obvious crush that her friend had.  But he deserved to be happy, and she was a firm believer of You Never Know Until You Try.

And maybe she thought he just needed a little push.

"Honestly, though, if you need time I get that.  I'm just saying,"  Rachel sipped at her coffee.  "He argued over you, right?  Like that's got to mean something, no?"

[Saiketsu]

Quinn shrugged, unsure of how to respond or feel about Rachel's last question. As she admonished him, the color in his pale cheeks deepened. Did it mean something? Probably not; it was Jerry after all. He had seen Mal and Jerry get into it over the stupidest shit and made up or moved on within hours or days. They were never too mad at each other that their friendship suffered and Quinn felt strange being in the midst of that.

"Mal texted me the day after that whole thing and apologized for Jerry's douchery." The thought was as much for Rachel's benefit as it was just to process out loud. There was an undercurrent of insecurity to the thought, as if the idea that Malakai Pryce could be potentially interested in him was just sprouting, pushing up through the dirt of Quinn's emotional baggage. A reaching thought that he felt but didn't have the words to articulate. "We had a decently long conversation about it. He was telling me that Jerry had always been this way: emotionally stunted to the point of reclusive. He said that he didn't feel like he had the right to step in and tell me that until him and I had become more acquainted... I guess when it seemed like Jerry and I couldn't work it out, he decided that then was the proper moment to reach out.

"I had grown to kinda love the guys in the band like friends and when Jerry was being a dickhead, I was a bit terrified that I'd have to find a new set of friends to hang out with. Like the past few years I spent Christmas and Easter and Thanksgiving and Fourth of JUly with these fools. Mal throws stupidly extravagant parties." Quinn smiled at the times spent playing Rock Band next to Thor and his girlfriend, or drunkenly trying to pull the remote out of Jerry's hands during Mario Kart. It was bittersweet now, and he wondered how welcome he'd be now that he couldn't really deal with the sight of Jerry. Maybe that would change as time passed.

[The Cedar Witch]

Rachel gave him a look.

"Are you really not seeing what I'm seeing here?"  She sighed and finished the remainder of her coffee, and like magic, the waitress came back to refresh both their cups.

"You folks want boxes?" 

"Yeah,"  Rachel stretched and laughed.  She was stuffed.  After the waitress left, Rachel leaned forward.  "You should text him to hang out."  She wasn't about to let her best friend miss out on an opportunity.

[Saiketsu]

He eyed her with a cocked eyebrow as the waitress left. "Maybe," he said with a touch of finality. Quinn began gathering the dishes and stacking them neatly - a thing he had learned to do back when he was living with Rachel and she was working as a waitress herself. She'd look over at other tables and remark on the mess and how people were so rude to leave shit everywhere. Since then he had always made sure to stack the plates in the most secure manner, keeping the trash on one stack and the silverware on the other for easy washing, depositing, and garbage removal. Quietly he thought about what he would text Mal about.

They were friends, of course, and they had had each others' numbers for more than a year. Occasionally they would send each other texts about dumb things - memes, funny things they saw in person that reminded one of the other, or updates like parking spaces when there was a show or event afoot. But they didn't really talk - that was too personal. Every conversation they had in person began a bit tense for Quinn and relaxed instantly and became easy. He liked Mal - he was easy to talk to, to connect with, and he had  a great sense of humor. They had bonded about aquarium fish, Jerry, and other small things, but everything was always relaxed - once past Quinn's initial nervousness.

The waitress came back just as Quinn finished stacking the dishes and dropped the boxes and the check on the table. "No rush, whenever you're ready," she said warmly and took the stack of dishes from the table. Quinn, having the better angle to see the waitress coming, was prepared to snatch the check off the table the second it touched down. "Aha!" He said as he beat Rachel to the punch of getting the check. "Haha, I'm getting this one," he decided, already with wallet in hand. The last time he had this opportunity with her it had been years ago and he had significantly less money to his name. "We'll call it payment for allowing me to have my bitchfest."

He took out enough cash to cover the bill and the tip - 20%, because these bitches worked like servants and needed to eat too, dammit - and put the server book on the edge of the table. "Now, do I get to have you for the rest of the day? Because there's tons of trouble we could get into today if you were down."