The birds singing in the morning felt a bit like an insult to Quinn's ears. He knew it wasn't their fault, but given the state of how he was doing, he really felt that they should shut their beaks. No one should be singing, no one should be calling out.
Everyone should be quiet, somber. Maybe even crying.
Quinn stared up at his ceiling, the cold winter air washing over him. He'd opened his window when he'd gotten him, needing something to make it feel like he was alive. However, now it was too cold and he didn't want to get up. He'd forgotten to close the curtains too, so the sunlight felt like an insult.
He, like a fool, had even thrown his thicker quilt off of his bed. It was like he'd unconsciously really wanted to suffer, and now he certainly was. His room was freezing, bright with the morning sunlight, and birds were singing like their life depended on it while he shook and shivered under his covers.
The only good thing he could say was that at least he wasn't hungover. Noah made sure of that.
Noah had bathed Quinn within an inch of his life, and Quinn should have known better. He was embarrassed, but Noah wasn't. He'd had to take care of his elderly grandmother in his mom's place and Quinn foolishly hadn't understood what that meant.
Now he did. Rather intimately at that, and Quinn felt his face warm again at how casual Noah had been. There had been no tension because Noah had not allowed it. Thankfully, Noah had let him clean himself out. He was sore and tired, not broken. He could do that at least, even if Noah stood outside of the bathroom door like a protector ready to burst the door down at the wrong splashing noise.
It had been embarrassing, and really put Quinn in his place. He'd realised that he'd been a fool for ever going along with what Michel had proposed and questioned, over and over, why he'd had these damn rose-coloured glasses on the whole time? He was a beta, he couldn't even smell pheromones. He'd even asked Noah, a little rudely, if the room had any pheromones in it.
From the scowl Noah gave, Quinn didn't even need to hear his words to confirm. Quinn had then asked for something that was crossing the line, but Noah didn't need to hear his excuses.
"Quinn, it's okay. Honestly, having you covered in that asshole's sickly scent is bothering me. You're practically family and I wouldn't want anyone to be doused in his smell. I'm happy to attempt it." Noah told him. Quinn felt his eyes water at the sweet way Noah had treated him and how his words had felt to Quinn in the moment.
Of course, Noah using his pheromones on Quinn did nothing. It was to be expected, but Noah seemed to be in better spirits when he could breathe better. His shoulders relaxed and the bridge of his nose that was always scrunched up had relaxed. He looked far more handsome with a relaxed face than a scowling, annoyed one. It was a miracle that Noah had friends other than Quinn when he was always ruining his handsome face by scowling.
Quinn hadn't said that to him, he only did when Noah was in a good mood. Last night? Last night had been a bad, bad time to bring it up.
Noah got Quinn home, helped him into his apartment, patrolled the rooms to make sure that no one else was there to ambush him and then hugged Quinn close and told him that he wasn't at fault. No one was perfect, everyone makes mistakes. This was just a rather painful one, but Noah was here to help him through it. They would get through it.
"If you need to speed up the timeline when we start our own company, we can do it. I don't want you to be uncomfortable, Quinn. He doesn't deserve it." Quinn couldn't stop the tears when Noah told him that. It was so damn frustrating that Quinn had never fallen for Noah's charms. Noah had them in spades, and here Quinn was, falling for who everyone had quietly told him was an asshole, and yet he couldn't forget him.
Now look at him? Shattered, bruised, sniffling and cold. So damn cold.
Quinn got up with a groan, grabbing his phone from the nightstand. He hadn't bothered plugging it in because he didn't need his alarm. The first thing he did was close the window, the second thing he did was go to his closet and grab a thick sweater from university. It was from a club that Noah and Quinn had joined and slipping it on felt like erasing the traces that Michel had put on his body.
It didn't make his ass tingle less, or his body feel less sore, but at least he knew that Michel didn't know him during this time. It was another bitter pill to swallow, but Michel hadn't…he hadn't known Quinn at all for years. He'd also made that choice, and he'd been making all the choices related to the two of them for a while.
Quinn moved slowly from his bedroom, past his living room with a stunning view of the city and towards his kitchen. There he went through the calming motions of brewing a pot of coffee. He got everything ready, setting out his favourite coffee cup, the cream and the perfect spoon that he'd gotten when he'd been shopping with his grandma in a rural town once. Then, he sat down at the island in his kitchen and stared at the coffee percolating.
Should Quinn go to the damn end of the year party?
If Noah was here he would be screaming for Quinn to not even consider it. He could hear him cussing out Michel and his whole family in his head, but…now that Quinn had been hurt, Quinn could understand a few things. There were some people in the Baxter family that weren't completely awful. Michel had a sister that was quite nice. She was a dominant alpha like he was, from his father's previous marriage.
She, unlike Michel's other sibling, had always been nice to him. He didn't know if it was a tactic, since she hadn't known that Quinn and Michel were childhood friends until Michel had brought it up just before the whole arrangement happened. She had seemed surprised, but her attitude towards Quinn hadn't changed. She continued to treat him well, and even brought him in on projects that he knew that Michel and his brother would have protested. The higher ups didn't protest because she currently had more power, and Quinn was good at his job.
Quinn sighed. He did want to see her, and see his employees. He liked his team, liked the people he worked with, but at the same time…He didn't want to be around them when they all found out about Michel.
It was a twisting knife in his stomach, a dangerous reminder that he'd been a damn fool to do what he had.
Quinn sighed, wiping at his eyes without much thought as the phone he brought out vibrated. Quinn, confused at who would be calling at this time, looked down.
It was his Mom.
~
Turns out the choice wasn't up to Quinn. His Mom made the call for him.
She had been trying to get ahold of him since yesterday night, and due to everything else that had been going on, Quinn hadn't noticed and Noah hadn't either. Of course, as soon as Quinn realised that something was wrong, he went into full panic mode.
That was when she told him that he needed to get back home. Now. His grandma had taken a fall and it was not looking good. Quinn's stomach dropped to his feet. His grandma meant the world to him. His whole family did, actually.
They weren't anything special, just a good, wholesome beta family that had always encouraged Quinn and pushed him to go for his dreams, no matter what the others said. They always knew that Quinn had a good head on his shoulders and didn't want to limit him with anything about being a beta.
That was all Quinn's doing.
That being said, they had made sure to keep contact with him, make sure to visit him and make him visit them in turn. His grandparents had also been heavily involved in his life on both sides. However it was his sweet, loving grandma on his Mom's side that had been his favourite. He hadn't known until he was in university that his grandma was an omega, but it made sense.
If omegas had a classic stereotype it was that they were sweet and loving, and his grandma was just that. Hearing that she had fallen out of everyone was the last straw to an already shitty 48 hours. His Mom was crying, which was never a good sign and Quinn felt like the shittiest grandchild out there.
He told his Mom he would be there as soon as possible. He'd even cancel going to the end of the year party. He would let his superior know that his grandmother had fallen and that he needed to go back home to take care of her. His Mom had begun to protest, not wanting to cause him any problems, but if there was one thing that Quinn knew, it was this. He was almost the mirror image of his mother, for better or for worse. His father only got in with his giving Quinn his looks and height and that was about it. It was normally said with a joking tone, but that was not the case right now.
Quinn let Noah know right away, texting him exactly what had happened. He wanted to bolt for his hometown immediately, but he had to do what he said he would, and that also included having a cup of coffee to warm his bones. He couldn't drive with shaking hands.
Noah offered to drive him. Of course he did, but Quinn told him that he'd already helped him enough. What he could do was check in on Quinn's plants in his apartment because Quinn knew he was going to fly out of here and he wasn't sure for how long he was going to be gone. Noah agreed in a heartbeat and not for the first time Quinn realised what a great friend Noah was.
Quinn next contacted his boss, sending it in an official email and also texting them personally. That was usually against company policy, but this was an emergency.
It was while Quinn was packing up a few necessities that his boss called. Quinn hadn't expected that, but then again, his boss was 20 years his superior and funnily enough, from the same hometown.
He was a good man, a kind alpha, and from the phone call, that came through too. He told Quinn to keep him updated on her condition and that he was deeply sorry that something had happened. He was going to give Quinn a few extra days off after the end of the year party just to be with his family.
When he told Quinn that he'd earned it, and that no matter what happened, he could always reach out to him, Quinn realised once more that everyone wasn't Michel. They didn't just use and abuse people for their own pleasure. Quinn kept his cool while on the phone with his boss and thanked him for everything. He would keep him in the loop, especially when it came to coming back to work.
It was only an hour later that Quinn was out of his apartment, a hastily packed bag on his shoulder, his outfit impeccable, and he barely remembered to lock the door behind him. He raced for the elevator and had to take a few calming breaths in his car before he got on the road.
He hoped that everything worked out.