Her POV.
Clean, clean, clean. No matter how long she spent dusting off every surface of the house, no matter how much bleach or air freshener she used, the smell was there still. It was a stereotypical smell of a granny’s house, yet for her it meant more than that. Every time she stepped inside the place it was as if all her bad memories slapped her on the face, which made her angry. And sad. Fortunately, her growing mental breakdown got interrupted by the doorbell. The new TV furniture arrived.
“Ok, how hard can this be?” Quinn talked to herself, while putting her hair on a high ponytail.
Two hours later, she barely finished the first step of the instructions. Not silently, of course. It was therapeutic for her to grunt and complain loudly, as if someone were there to hear. Though it wouldn’t be weird for her grandma to show up as a hunting ghost. Now back to the furniture, it stopped being funny. How was it so difficult for her? A professional body fixer?
“You should’ve paid for them to assemble it.”
“No shit, Sherlock. They didn’t offer me to. Probably because I was accidentally rude to them.”
“Accidentally? Girl, ever since you came back everything is gray for you. Soon enough you’ll really turn into that old ass witch your grandma was.”
“It’d be easier I had my old life with me. My apartment, job, and roommate.” She accusingly stared at her phone on a FaceTime call. “I luckily have my roommate, but she decided to get married and have a freaking kid while her poor best friend got dusted.”
“Quinn.” She warned.
“It was a joke! Jeez, Trish. You know I love that little brat. It’s just… this place. It took me weeks to take the courage to move in, imagine how it’ll be to adapt. Impossible. I’d literally burn the place if it was legal.”
“I know, boo. Give it time, you’ve dealt with worse. You should focus on work, or your super-hot neighbor.”
“Hot” She huffed. “Although I admit he has nice features, you forget all of them when meeting his attitude. You know what he did to my coat.” Trish rolled her eyes in the other line, while braiding another strand of her curled brown hair.
“Well, you know you can visit again anytime soon. Carl misses playing with his auntie. Even Tucker misses your stupidly charged jet-black coffee.”
“Aw, tell Chuckie that… Fuck! Where’s that goddamn piece!”
“Yeah, no, I won’t tell him that.”
“Sorry Trish, this won’t work.” She sighed, while reading the instruction step for the 30th time. “And now someone’s ringing the doorbell, great. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“Sure. Take care! And stop being a bitch, please. For me.”
“I’ll try.” She whispered to herself, while getting up and walking towards the door. Obviously, her friendly neighbor was on the other side. “Can I help you?”
“You know, I got myself a laugh the first thirty minutes of you yelling about that furniture. Now, after hours of hearing the same it kinda started to pain my ears. So please, my loveliest neighbor, could you keep it down?”
“Hmm, let me think.” She feigned interest. “No.”
After closing the door and going back to the assembling pieces and her phone, she remembered the conversation with the only family she had, her best friend. Perhaps she should just give up and wait to invite Trish so Tucker, her husband, can make himself useful with those pieces. It was late anyways, plus she felt a bit hungry. Thinking of that sushi place she saw and missing a little night walk, Quinn put a jacket on and decided to go out of her misery cave for a bit. When entering the place, she thanked whoever thought of putting a bar for people who went alone. She’d kill herself before using one of those couple booths.
“Hi! I’m Leah. Here’s the menu, you can ask me when you’re ready.” The waitress spoke, making her feel weirdly welcome.
“Thanks.” She murmured.
Quinn was a bit taken aback when it came to social interaction. After coming back from the Blip she found herself alone, and only began talking again when Trish opened the doors to her house while she sorted out what to do with her life. Then it all hit too hard, going back to work, living by herself, and inevitably facing triggers of her childhood.
“Are you new here?” She distractedly came back from her thoughts. Leah was speaking again.
“Sort of. But things have changed all over the years, so I guess most of Brooklyn is new to me.” She answered, before sipping the water Leah brought her.
“You got blipped too?”
After those four words there's plenty of conversation to go from. It was the new ‘Where were you on 9/11?’ topic phenomenon. They didn’t stop talking ever since, not revealing much of their personal life. About feelings and weird things only people that got dusted could understand. Leaving the talk aside, the food was delicious. Quinn was glad to listen to her friend bug in her mind saying, ‘stop being a bitch, please.’ Everything went nicely until the bell of the restaurant’s door sound.
“Hey Buck, the usual?” When turning around, she saw the face of the person who least wanted to see. After rolling her eyes at him he stopped right on track for a second, yet still proceeded to seat.
“Night ruined.” Quinn whispered, loud enough for him to hear.
“Oh sorry, I didn’t get the memo. Who’s the one who showed up at my favorite restaurant?” He mockingly asked, while leaning his head to the side.
“I don’t understand.” Poor Leah.
“She’s my new neighbor.” The man explained, making Quinn frown.
“You talk to people about me? Didn’t know I was that important to you, pal.” Bucky pursed his lips at her comment.
“You know something?” He calmly said, while crossing his arms. “You claim that I’m the one obsessed with you. But who’s the one who moved next to me? Who’s the one who couldn’t just accept me apologizing the first time we met? And most importantly, who’s the one who casually eats at my favorite restaurant the only day of the week I visit it? Aha, that’s you. You’re the one who apparently doesn’t know how to treat people.” And with that last sentence, a glass broke inside Quinn’s brain.
Leah seemed to understand the effect on Bucky’s words, but there was no turn back. He already made her feel awful. She seriously thought of bickering back, and when the moment of opening her mouth came, regret made her close it. After silently paying the check, she took her purse and gave him one last look after leaving the place. Silent tears escaped through her cheeks as she walked. It wasn’t him, it’s the build up before that. Jesus, she couldn’t even go and cry at home because it didn’t feel like it. The only person she could trust on was two hours away from her. Not even work would lift her up these days. All she could do was walk. Walking as far as she could from her memories. Walking until her physical pain made her forget about the mental. Walking until it didn’t make any sense.
*
Cursing while charging the dirty clothes downstairs was a thousand times better than what she lived on her last 48 hours shift. At first, she couldn’t bare the fact that she had to do a whole Intern year before coming back to her Attending position at the hospital. It was definitely a humbling experience, though rewarding in times where all she wanted was to have her mind occupied.
“You have to be freaking kidding me.” She complained, when realizing she had to use coins to make the laundry room work. As if her legs weren’t tired enough, she went upstairs again to search for coins. While doing so, she heard the door next-door closing. Great, he left. The mere thought of Bucky not being in the building lightened up her mood enough to sing while going downstairs. “Jealousy, turning saints into the sea. Swimming through sick lullabies, choking on your alibis. But is the price I-… pay.” She stopped, when noticing that her so loved neighbor was in the laundry room, and not out the building.
“…Yeah.” He said, being careful with his actions. She saved him trouble by not acknowledging his presence. Unbeknownst to her, he was doing the opposite. Paying attention to her movements, and how she separated her jobs clothes from the daily ones. “Are you a nurse?”
“I’m a medical surgeon.” Quinn bluntly answered, without even turning to face him. He nodded, understanding her rejection and offense. Silently, he took his laundry and left the room. Wow, she thought. He had the decency of giving me space. It felt like a peace offer that she’d take. It was preferable to have small fights instead of tensing up every time they bumped into each other. It was funnier that way.