It had been a month.

Quinn had been learning how to live with Ellie again, and get used to not having the guys around. But it had also been a month since she had heard from any of them.

The radio silence was strange. Clay wouldn't be able to reach her, even if he wanted to, but not hearing from Nick or George, hurt Quinn more than she wanted to admit. She hid this hurt from Ellie, knowing that it was practically pointless to still be upset. Life happens.

Quinn would probably hear from her boys soon.

In the meantime, she was getting used to having her old roommate back. Ellie wasn't as loud as Nick, but she definitely had the energy, and she wasn't as logical as George, but she was as witty, and she wasn't as compassionate as Clay, but she was good at making sure that Quinn was okay.

As she laid on the couch of their apartment, Quinn scrolled through social media, mainly Tik Tok. Ellie had convinced Quinn to re-download it, and now it was all she could think about. Her For You Page was full of mainly Minecraft builds and clips from streams, but every once in a while she would get a comedy sketch, or a teenager dancing in a strange way.

She was currently watching a clip that someone had edited of her and Ellie, the Tik Tok transitioned from her and Ellie a year ago when they barely did anything on camera together, to the most recent stream of Quinn's where her and Ellie played a little bit of Geoguesser. It was weird seeing how her content had changed in the past month. When she lived with the guys, she felt like she had to include one of them in her streams, or else people didn't care.

This was an opportunity for her to grow her fanbase on her own, without them.

"Quinnnnnnnn, I'm bored," Ellie trotted over to the couch, and slumped down onto Quinn, who started giggly profusely.

"Ellieeeee, I'm working," Quinn lied, shoving her friend onto the floor with a thud.

"You can't just tell me that you're working every single time I catch you on your phone. It's nice outside, we should do something fun!" Ellie insisted, standing over Quinn crossing her arms.

"Outside? Mmmm, no thank you," Quinn sat up.

"Pleaseeeeee, we can go to the flea market or something! Or maybe we can go thrifting! It's been a while since we've done that, I want new clothes."

Quinn wasn't going to lie, the thought of going thrifting with Ellie didn't sound terrible, but she knew that it was going to be an all day affair, which was something she had to mentally prepare herself for.

"Yeah, okay," Quinn caved, "Let me just go get dressed."

Ellie celebrated before retreating to her own room, most likely to get ready herself.

When Quinn returned, she glanced at her phone one more time. Hoping that she had conjured a text from Nick into existence. She had not.

Maybe she should be the one to reach out.

Despite the small damper in her mood, she got ready, deciding to ignore Ellie's golden rule of thrifting, 'Only wear neutral colors, in case you want to layer things, Oh! And also a strapless bra.' Quinn wasn't really planning on buying anything anyways, she was just going to support Ellie's crazy shopping habit. So she donned a light blue sundress that had small white flowers on it, and slipped into her vans. Knowing how warm it was going to be inside the shops and just outside in general, Quinn pulled her hair into a ponytail, and then Ellie tied a ribbon in her hair, making Quinn girlier.

"You look pretty," Ellie complimented when she saw Quinn, "Don't forget to message your mom today." Ellie reminded.

"Why?" Quinn looked at her best friend puzzled before the answer hit her smack in the face, it was Mother's Day.

Quinn's relationship with her mom... wasn't the best. She hadn't spoken to her mom since last mother's day, when her text was left on read. The room started to spin and Quinn felt nauseous, if she didn't text her mom she would be a bad daughter, and if she did text her mom, Quinn would end up crying. And she had already cried so much.

She decided to wait, and come back to this later. The girls left their apartment shortly after Quinn's internal dilemma and decided to kick things off at the farmer's market.

Quinn drove, like she always used to, and Ellie was in the passenger seat showing Quinn all the shitty songs that her hookups recommended to her. Quinn laughed loudly when she came across a song she recognized. She Will Be Loved by Maroon 5. Clay played that all the time.

When they got to the farmers market, it was surprisingly busy. The parking lot was nearly packed with cars, and Quinn found herself parking on the grass, and praying that it was legal.

Quinn couldn't remember the last time she had visited the farmer's market. Seeing all the small shops that sold random items, gave Quinn the feeling that she was in a fever dream.

Meanwhile, Ellie was like a kid in a candy store. She was bouncing from vendor to vendor, smelling homemade candles, sniffing teas, and holding up crystals to the sun. All Quinn could do was follow her, trying to keep her from spending unnecessary money.

There was one vendor who caught Quinn's eye, and she even found herself walking away from Ellie, leaving her to look at some bags made from recycled plastic. As Quinn approached the vendor, she realized what he was selling, guitar picks. Quinn wasn't a musician, but she had walked over because the guy working the stand, was playing guitar, and he was cute. When she got close, he looked up to her with a smile.

"Hey! You looking for anything specific?" His smile was warm, and Quinn felt herself blush a little. He was a little tanner then Quinn was, and he had dark eyes and even darker hair, but he was definitely a sight to see.

"Uh no, I'm just looking," Quinn nodded convincingly. She began to scan some of the picks on the table, they looked handmade, "Did you make these?"

"Mhm," the guy picked up one and extended it to Quinn, it was wooden and thin, but very smooth, "This one's my favorite that I've made. It's engraved with the words un porte-bonheur, a lucky charm. It's French." Quinn watched as he began to pluck the strings of his guitar with the pick. She smiled.

"Oh there you are!" Of course, Ellie had to ruin the moment, "I've been looking for you."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wander," Quinn apologized bashfully, noticing that the guitarist was looking at her, "I was just looking at these cool guitar picks."

Ellie gave Quinn a confused side eye and then made eye contact with the vendor, she had an idea of what was going on. She introduced herself.

"Hi I'm Ellie, Quinn's roommate."

"Nice to meet you Ellie, I'm Chris, which means you," He looked towards Quinn, "must be Quinn."

She nodded, biting back a smile.

"That's a pretty name," It sounded like flirting, his smile said that he was flirting, but Quinn could not convince herself that he was flirting with her.

"Well it was nice meeting you," Ellie began to tug on Quinn's arm, signalling something, "But we really should be going." Ellie pulled harder. Quinn looked at her with wide eyes.

"It was nice meeting you," Quinn agreed, giving Chris one more smile.

"Quinn," Chris was holding his hand out, the pick in hand, "I want you to have it."

"But I don't play guitar," She held the guitar pick in her hand, tracing her fingers over the engraving, Ellie still trying to pull her away.

"It's a lucky charm. Maybe it'll do you some good." Chris gave a friendly wave, then returned back to his guitar, playing a simple melody that Quinn hoped would get stuck in her head.

"Okay, can you let go now?" Quinn shook Ellie off her arm, "What was the urgency for?"

Ellie didn't want to tell her. She was hoping that Quinn wouldn't notice, and she was banking on the fact that Clay wouldn't recognize her.

Ellie was wrong.

She had been in Quinn's recent streams, of course people would recognize her.

"Quinn?" Dream's sister had called out, making Quinn go completely pale. She froze, maybe it was just his sister and his mom, and she wouldn't turn around to see Clay.

"Oh wow, hi guys," Quinn's face lit up with a fake smile, greeting his family with hugs.

Part of it made Quinn sad, she knew that it was gonna be a while before she could see them again. Clay was nowhere to be seen, which made Quinn relax slightly.

Clay's mom just eyed her sadly. Quinn knew that she knew about everything going on, but Quinn really didn't want to know how she felt about the situation.

"How are you honey," his mom asked, resting a hand on Quinn's shoulder.

"I'm... alright," Quinn knew better than to lie, "It's an adjustment for sure, going from living with the boys, to just Ellie, but sometimes it's nice to have a change."

His mom nodded, but she could tell there was something underneath her sympathetic look, "I wish Clay would've consulted me, it all happened so fast," His mom shook her head.

That's when Quinn felt Ellie grab her arm, and it only took a second before Quinn had realized why. Clay had regrouped with his mom and sister, and when he noticed Quinn, he turned as pale as she felt.

Quinn was at a loss for words. What do you say to the guy you almost dated, after now being on bad terms? Quinn felt a little embarrassed, remembering her last words to Clay.

"Quinn! Hey, you look... pretty," Clay rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, between the five people who stood in the group, almost no one wanted to breathe.

"You look..." Quinn paused scanning him, he looked like shit, "tired." She chose her words carefully.

Seeing that she was okay, made Clay relax a little bit.

For the past month, all he could do was sit and think about how she had been coping, if she had been at all. But seeing her standing in front of him, looking so put together, made him realize how badly he had been moving on. Vanessa had helped him stop feeling guilty, but he couldn't help missing her around the house. And it affected his physicality.

"Yeah, I've just been working hard, planning on releasing some big content stuff soon," This was a lie. Clay had not been planning anything. But he figured that maybe he should start.

"I bet," Quinn forced a nod. This was awkward as hell, "Well, Ellie and I were just about to leave, but it was nice seeing you guys," Quinn looked towards Clay's mom and sister, who both gave friendly enough smiles.

"Quinn wait," Clay stopped her from leaving, against the tiny voice in his brain that was screaming to let her go.

She stopped and looked at him, there was something almost sad in her eyes, as if she was doing this out of pity.

"Yeah Clay?" Quinn's voice was softer than she expected it to come out. She hated when he caught her off guard like this, because it was how he got through to her.

"You're doing okay?" The question was sincere, and it was one that he had hoped to ask her for a while. Quinn could see that in his expression, he was worried about her, still.

She wanted to comfort him, but then the mental image of Vanessa reminded her that it wasn't her place, "I am. You need to get some sleep. You're wearing yourself thin," Her voice was as comforting as she could make it.

"I'm so sorry," He said, another sentence he needed to tell her.

"I don't blame you," Quinn frowned, even if some part of her did blame him originally, she knew that it was the price he had to pay if he didn't want Vanessa to manipulate both of their careers, "I never did."

With that, Quinn joined Ellie who was ready to comfort her upset best friend. But Quinn wasn't showing any sign of upset on her face, or in her expression. The girls walked very quickly to the car, and when they were safe inside, Quinn let her composure falter. But she wasn't upset.

"You're not in tears," Ellie noted.

"Why should I be? He looks like shit, I shouldn't be upset about that," Quinn felt a little bad, but then remembered how many nights that she had lost sleep, and the bad feeling sank.

"Let's go home," Ellie suggested, "the sun made me tired, I wanna nap."

Quinn agreed, and reserved out of her makeshift parking spot. Her inner dialogue was arguing about unblocking Clay's number, he didn't deserve to be left in the dark completely. Quinn decided to sleep on it, and she would make the decision tomorrow.