6. Alex
6
ALEX
A nd then there are two.
For the final section before the finale, we lose one more of the teams in our group, leaving us with only the teen couple who has been on our heels from the start.
“Is it too late for you to do that background check on them?” Quinn jokes as we head into our last area, the ice skating rink. I chuckle and eye the young couple, who are still all smiles, holding hands and enamored with the game.
“Maybe we should just call their parents to pick them up,” I reply dryly. “Do you think they know they’re skipping school today?”
Quinn titters. “I wish! It’s a teacher planning day, so the kids don’t have school.” She jumps into the last round without preamble, and I have to rush to keep up with her, noting her furtive looks over her shoulder as she moves.
She’s fully into this now. We’re down to the crunch.
“We can’t let them see what we’re doing,” she warns me. “I think they’ve been following us.”
I almost ask her what the big deal is, if that’s true, but I don’t want to start a fight. It feels like I’m finally starting to make a little bit of headway in conversation with Quinn, and I don’t want any setbacks by antagonizing her. But I am determined to find out why she’s been so hostile toward me. I just want to pick my timing when she’s not so distracted by the hunt.
“Oh, I think I’ve got this!” she hisses, grabbing my arm and tugging on the sleeve of my jacket. She’s so pumped by the prospect of winning, her earlier annoyance with me has totally gone out the window. “It’s in the concession stand!”
We duck around the pine wood booth, careful to avoid detection, and locate the third clue, Quinn’s excitement palpable as she pulls me down to crouch behind the closed stand. Wafts of chocolate and peppermint meet my nose as we sit at eye level with the decorative paper cups, reading the final clue as she pockets a candy cane, the token for this part.
“It will have to take us toward the entrance again,” she whispers, her breath warm on my face. “The last clue always does.”
Her sweet, vanilla smell filters into my subconscious and triggers a fleeting memory of our youth.
“Maybe,” I agree. “Unless they’re trying to trip us up. We shouldn’t assume.” She raises her head, her eyes locking with mine, and I realize just how close she is to me in that moment. “Vanilla Whispers,” I blurt out.
The excitement in her eyes fizzles slightly. “What?”
“Your perfume in high school. Vanilla Whispers.”
She pulls back like I’ve struck her, almost falling off her haunches, and ends up on her backside into a pile of snow. “W-what are you talking about?”
I chuckle with embarrassment. “Sorry, it was just a random memory. It came out of nowhere. But your perfume… it reminded me of what you used to wear in high school. It was Vanilla Whispers, wasn’t it?”
Quinn’s face hardens, and she jumps to her feet, brushing herself off. Again, I’m left dumbfounded.
“What did I say now?” I ask, barely able to conceal my exasperation.
“ That’s what you remember about high school?” she fires back.
My eyebrows knit. “I… What do you mean?” I ask, baffled.
“Never mind.” She storms toward the door and heads outside, but this time, I don’t let her go so easily.
“No, wait!” I insist, reaching for her arm. She pulls away, scowling, and I immediately let her go, my hands raised. “I don’t understand, Quinn. Ever since we got here, you’ve been treating me like I killed your pet goldfish, and I have no idea why! But it’s not just today, it’s every time I see you!”
Her mouth gapes open, and a scoff escapes her full lips, her brilliant blue eyes blinking in disbelief. “Are you joking right now?” she demands, folding her arms over her chest defiantly.
“No, I’m not,” I sigh. “I don’t understand what’s going on.”
Anger flickers through her face, confusing me more, but she doesn’t explain. Instead, she spins on her heel and wanders off. But I’m determined to make her tell me what’s going on. This animus has gone on long enough.
“Quinn—”
She whips back around and glowers at me. “Look, Alex, I didn’t ask to be paired with you today, and I’m trying really hard to be civil. I know we’re both adults, and you aren’t going out of your way to annoy me, but let’s just get through this before I say something I regret, okay?”
Stunned, I recoil. “ Trying to be civil?” I echo, falling back. “Why would you need to try to be civil with me?”
Half a dozen different emotions flutter over her face, but before either of us can react, a movement catches my eye through my peripheral vision.
“We have to keep moving,” she mutters, turning away again. “They’re right behind us.”
She’s off like a shot, and I have no choice but to rush and keep up with her if I want to stay in the game. But my heart isn’t in it, if it ever was before. Quinn’s naked hurt comes at me in waves, and I don’t understand it at all.
What did I do?
Clearly, I’m not getting any answers until this hunt is over.
We barely make it back to the meeting point before the teenage couple, and just in the ninety-minute cutoff time.
There are only six teams left for the grand finale of the hunt.
“We’ll take a fifteen-minute break before meeting for the ending of the scavenger hunt,” Edna declares. “It will take place inside the community center.”
There's a charged excitement among the remaining contestants, but I’m not feeling it. Any semblance of a good mood was shattered, with Quinn’s rebuke still echoing through my head.
She stalks across the park toward the building at the south end of the property without waiting for me, and I stride forward, determined to finish our conversation.
“Quinn—”
“Alex, I’d rather just get through the day,” she pleads, the fight gone from her voice as she continues to stride over the lawn. “We’re so close to the end. Can’t we just get through this?”
Her cheeks are pinker than before, long lashes hooding her eyes as the afternoon sun dips behind a gray cloud overhead. The smell of the air changes, and I feel snow coming, the texture of the atmosphere shifting in that indiscernible way that usually gives me a spark of childlike exhilaration.
But not today.
“I know,” I tell her. “But I think we can get through the day much better if we’re both on the same page, don’t you?” She doesn’t answer, her gait continuing at the same pace. Exasperated, I call out. “How can you expect me to fix it if you don’t tell me what I need to do?”
My words surprise her, and she stops, turning slightly. Dubiously, she eyes me. “You can’t fix it,” she snaps. “No one can. It’s not something that can be fixed because it’s the past.”
The festival sets up around us, vendors filling their stands to prepare for the five o’clock opening as the town workers finish with the last of the decorations, but I’m oblivious to everything except Quinn’s flashing blue eyes and my whirling mind as I think about every interaction I’ve ever had with her in my life.
There aren’t many, despite us having grown up together.
“I… I don’t get it,” I tell her weakly.
“No, I see that,” she says. “Which is why we better just leave it alone.”
She starts off again, and I run to catch up. “No, I want to know,” I beg. “Please. Even if you don’t think it will do anything.”
Quinn stops again and looks around uncomfortably, glancing at her watch.
“We have time,” I press before she can make the excuse. A smile quirks on her lips before she can hide it, but it fades soon after. Folding her arms over her chest, she gazes down at the ground, shoveling the toe of her boot into the leaves.
“I don’t see the point?—”
“That’s fine,” I interject quickly. “But will you do me the favor? At least let me know so I can work on myself?”
Her head jerks back, surprise coloring her face. Again, she drops her head. “Alex…”
“Please?” I step closer. “I won’t keep bothering you about it, I promise, but I won’t feel right until I understand this friction between us, Quinn.”
Laughter filters through our conversation as a group passes by us, and I realize how close I’m standing to her, but she doesn’t step back as she weighs the request.
“Fine, but I just want to get back to the scavenger hunt after, okay?” she says, and I nod vehemently.
“Deal.”
Tilting her head back, she meets my eyes squarely and speaks words that chill me directly into my soul.
“I’m still not over the way you and your friends treated me in high school,” she intones with no emotion. “And I’m not sure I really ever can forgive you for being my bully.”