Page 81 of What We Got Wrong

But as soon as she made the call, she knew that this was something she was going to need to move past. Because her mother was alternating between sobbing and shouting on the line, sounding something like Quinn thought she might if she’d won the lottery. Which, Quinn supposed, wasn’t too far off from how she must be feeling. She was bawling so much that Quinn couldn’t even get a word in, and eventually she chose to hang up and send a text that she and Liv would call later.

Quinn took a few minutes, though, to check in with herself. Because this was…a lot. It was a lot because of the ridiculous expense of it all, regardless of how wealthy Liv’s parents were, how wealthy Liv was, even if Quinn didn’t often think about it like that.

But it was also a lot for reasons entirely unrelated to the cost of the gift. Liv, her friend, had done this incredible thing for her parents. Quinn was overwhelmed and a little embarrassed by the gravity of the gift. But she was also touched, swept up in an emotional whirlwind, and she felt like she was going to cry with the weight of it.

Such a good friend.

When she walked back out into their living room, she found Liv exactly where she’d left her, still more nervous than anything, though it did appear she’d taken a moment to put the groceries away. The way she was watching Quinn, though, with uncertainty and utter apprehension, melted away the remainder of Quinn’s discomfort.

“Thank you,” Quinn said softly. “I didn’t get much out of Jennifer, but she sounds ecstatic.”

Liv nodded, a small, tentative smile growing at the corners of her lips. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Quinn replied simply, and she leaned down to press her forehead to Liv’s, hoping that the tenderness she was feeling was explicitly clear in her expression. “You’re something else.”

So they returned to Quinn’s childhood home that next Wednesday. For the first few days, their phones exploded with pictures and texts from Quinn’s parents, who didn’t seem to understand how time differences worked, and Quinn was blown away by how happy they looked. Even her siblings understood how important this was to her parents, acting on their best behavior. Truly, they were good kids, but Quinn had never seen them all like this at the same time, listening and doing their chores and being respectful, even when their parents were on a different continent. Quinn had to think that they were trying to impress Liv, which, of course, she understood very well, because she knew for certain it wasn’t her influence.

Valentine’s Day was on Saturday, and she and Liv had to divide and conquer. Liv stayed home with the girls, and Quinn, because she was an excellent big sister, was tasked with driving the twins—nearly, but not quite sixteen, so still unable to drive themselves—to the movie theater for a “group hangout,” both refusing to answer whether they were meeting dates. That didn’t stop Quinn from watching them as they approached their large group of friends, trying to see if any coupling became obvious. She didn’t see anything suspicious, exactly, but when she picked them up a few hours later, Peter hugged an adorable blond boy for what felt like several minutes. When she asked him about it when they got in the car, though, he simply asked her what she was planning for Liv for Valentine’s Day, and that effectively shut her up.

They swung over to a drive through to pick up dinner on the way home, and when they arrived, found that Liv, Juliette, and Everlee had made the executive decision to order groceries to bake chocolate chip cookies. They walked in to find the house smelling sugary sweet, the girls clearly on something of a sugar high.

Quinn told her siblings to wash up before dinner, and then she ran downstairs to do the same, only to stop short when she found a bouquet with a dozen sunflowers set in a vase on the entertainment center. She stared for a minute before she realized that Liv had followed her.

“You…you bought me flowers,” Quinn said, her voice full of wonder.

“It was stupid, wasn’t it? I thought it might be okay to order them to be delivered with the groceries,” Liv replied, her blush in full force across her cheeks as she babbled on. “I saw something on the internet the other day. It said that, for most men, the first time anyone buys them flowers is for their funeral, and God…that’s morbid, isn’t it? And obviously, I know you’re not a man. I just…I know Scarlet never bought you flowers, and I probably shouldn’t be bringing up your ex right now, either, but you never mentioned that anyone else ever did, so—"

Quinn took pity on her, cutting her off by gently pressing her lips to Liv’s, a kiss that was sweet and soft and slow. “Thank you. That’s incredibly sweet.”

“We’re not supposed to kiss here,” Liv whispered, but she was smiling in a way that made Quinn think that she might just be okay with it.

“I could present a solid argument that taking care of these monsters is its own kind of adventure,” Quinn said. “And I seem to remember that adventures are exceptions…”

Liv blushed. “I didn’t know what your favorite flower was, so I just picked sunflowers, since they kind of…remind me of you.”

There she was, again with the sweetness. Quinn was so fucking gone for her.

“Can we eat dinner?” Peter asked, calling down the stairs.

“We’ll eat in up here while you two eat out down there,” Nico added, and Liv jumped away from Quinn, her face fully flushed.

“Jesus Christ,” Quinn muttered, before yelling back, “Shut up, Nico.”

After a moment, though, they both burst out laughing, and after another quick kiss, bounded upstairs to have dinner with Quinn’s siblings.

Quinn was only just able to sneak the flowers out to her car the next day, buckling them into the back seat like a sap just as her parents pulled into the driveway next to her. She slid the rest of her things next to the vase, settling Liv’s bag on the other side, before coming around the car to greet her mom and dad.

They pulled her into a giant hug, sandwiched between them, and Quinn was struck by their joy. When Liv came out to join them, leaving Quinn’s brothers and sisters inside to wait for their parents, they looped her into the embrace.

“Please let Emma know that you have set an extremely high bar for our expectation of Quinn's friends,” Quinn’s mom said, winking at the word ‘friends,’ though Liv still giggled.

“Noted,” Liv replied.

“I wish you could stay and look at pictures with us,” she added.

It was Quinn’s turn to laugh. “Woman, you have sent us an entire album’s worth of pictures. We need to get back.”

“Okay, okay,” her mom responded. “I don’t want you to miss more school. We really appreciate this.”