Page 38 of What We Got Wrong

Chapter 14

Liv

September, Sophomore Year

Liv and Quinn were both glad to be back at school, returning to the rhythm of being on campus the first week of classes. They were getting more into their major-specific subjects—of her five courses that semester, only one was a gen ed requirement—and Liv was strangely excited to use her experience from the summer to help her better understand the subject matter in her business management classes.

She was still surprised by how well the internship had gone. She’d known she’d be working for her family, but now that she’d gotten a taste of it, she wasn’t dreading it as much as she thought she would. It had helped, she was certain, that her parents had been traveling, her dad busy working on a deal to acquire a similar business in South America that would allow the company to expand, her mom tagging along for the ride.

She found that she kind of…liked the work she did that summer. She understood that she had an unfair advantage when it came to her peers, that she was all but guaranteed a job when she graduated. But she wanted to do well, to not be given the job because of her last name, not because of her family, but because she actually deserved it. And it had, all things considered, been a successful summer.

She had missed Quinn, though, and somehow, she felt that ache even more being back with her. Quinn’s energy, her positivity, her vibrance—it pulled her in, like she was a lowly planet orbiting the sun.

They didn’t talk about Scarlet, and that was fine. It wasn’t new, really. After the party the previous year, Quinn’s relationship had become taboo. Quinn never brought up her girlfriend over the summer, either. For all Liv knew, they drove to see each other all the time, and Quinn just never mentioned it to her.

And Liv was good with that arrangement, with Scarlet fading into the background noise of her life, until she walked into the first day of her history class, American History Since World War II, and saw Scarlet already planted in the room.

She was on the far side of the classroom, towards the very front, and it was obvious she’d seen Liv walking in. Liv was torn. She didn’t want to be explicitly rude and ignore Scarlet, but she also did not want to sit with her.

For Quinn, though, she could suck it up and be nice. She made her way over, setting her things down on the desk next to Scarlet.

“What are you doing?” Scarlet asked as Liv sat down. The disdain on her face shouldn’t have been shocking, but somehow it still was. Liv had thought they could pretend to be civil, for Quinn’s sake.

Clearly, she cared more about her roommate’s feelings than Quinn’s own girlfriend. Though that part wasn’t at all surprising.

Liv didn’t know how to respond, but she was given a reprieve as the professor stepped up to the front of the room to start class.

Through the professor’s introduction speech and his recitation of the syllabus, Liv kept sneaking glances at Scarlet. Every time she did so, the other woman was pointedly looking away from her, although Liv occasionally heard her whispering under her breath, irritated.

“Do you have a problem with me sitting here?” Liv asked as soon as the class ended.

“We don’t have to pretend to like each other,” Scarlet spat at her, shoving her notebook forcefully into her bag.

“I’m sorry,” Liv said, although she wasn’t sure what she was apologizing for. “I just thought, you know. We could try to be cordial. For Quinn?”

Why did she have to explain this to Scarlet?

Scarlet was confused. “I don’t have to do anything for Quinn. I broke up with her.”

“You broke up with her?” Now, Liv was the one befuddled. “But she’s amazing.”

Scarlet rolled her eyes at that, but something about Liv’s confusion provided her clarity. She nodded, Liv watching as her face morphed into an unkind smile. “Yeah. She didn’t tell you, did she? That makes a lot of sense, actually.”

“What do you mean?” She knew, of course, that she shouldn’t expect a real answer from Scarlet, but she had to ask all the same.

“If I spent all of my time pining for a straight girl, instead of enjoying my actual queer partner, I’d be embarrassed to tell people, too,” Scarlet said, looking her up and down to make sure that Liv was fully taking in her message, that she understood the implication behind her words, to make it clear that Liv was the ‘straight girl’ in her statement. When she saw whatever she wanted to see on Liv’s face, she added with a huff, “Don’t sit with me again.”

And then Scarlet just walked out, like she hadn’t just completely imploded Liv’s entire world.

Because Quinn wasn’t pining after her. She wasn’t. Quinn wasn’t pining after anyone, first of all. Pining implied some sort of devastating, life-stopping longing, and Quinn was a whole, incredible, happy person. She was sunshine and fun and joy, a little bit dorky and a lot beautiful, and when she was away from Scarlet, she positively glowed.

Quinn seemed good.

And Scarlet suggesting that she was somehow pining over Liv was even more ridiculous. It was.

Sure. There were times when Liv thought Quinn might be looking at her in decidedly more-than-friendly ways. She’d called her hot before, and Liv had even noticed Quinn watching her lips in a way that made her feel off balance.

But even if Quinn was attracted to her, that didn’t mean she was pining. She’d certainly never tried anything. Had she said something specific to Scarlet to make her think…