Ashley Price, Glimpsing Greener Grass

"Whoops. You broke its heart."

"Eh?"

"The frog?"

"Oh." You glance down and, sure enough, your hands had been attempting to continue on with your school work while your mind churned over the events of the last several days. Sorry Frog; you gave your life for Science, only for a distracted magical teen to fuck it up. There's probably something vaguely poetic in that, but if you're too distracted for frog lab you're definitely too distracted for complex metaphors. Between the upcoming face off with the other witches, ruminating over the exact effects of your tampering with reality, and having been up for hours on end listening to Donna's new favorite music, you've got a lot on your mind. "Sorry, I'm...distracted."

Quinn gives you a little frown, pushing a bit of blonde hair out of his face. "Yeah, I guess I would be too."

Even with your mind being drawn elsewhere, that still strikes you as an odd response. "What do you mean?"

The quarterback blinks. "Oh. I...thought you were talking about the new Queen Bea video."

You slap the scalpel down on the counter, narrowing your eyes. "What new Queen Bea video?"

It is very clear that Quinn regrets having said anything at all. "I mean, I didn't watch it; I just thought maybe..." He trails off, clearly realizing from your look that there is no escape. So instead, he sighs with a bit of a helpless shrug. "Well, it's called 'Top Ten: Sleeping Their Way to Success', and the preview icon sort of...uh, sort of has your Mom's face on it."

The boy eyes you warily, his whole body tense as you begin unnecessarily straightening and re-arranging all of your lab tools and materials, teeth gritted behind a mask of serenity. You wish for just one second you could be like Jenny, flipping your hair over your shoulder with a 'tsk' that made clear exactly what you thought of Queen Bea and her fucking opinions. But you aren't enough like Jenny, and your hair is way too short besides. At length you let out a hiss of annoyance, leveling a piercing sideways glance in Quinn's direction. "Why did you even start watching her shit? Before she apparently decided to make dumping on my Mom her new thing, it's all just dumb try-on hauls and makeup tutorials."

Quinn awkwardly runs a hand through his thick hair, avoiding your laser beam gaze. "Um, it was just the algorithm being weird in my Recommended section; she kept popping up with like one chess video and a bunch of British gameshows."

"Uh-huh." Yeah right. You still remember Quinn asking you about your nail polish a couple times. Though that thought manages to pierce through your cloud of annoyance; is that...maybe something he's curious about? "Quinn, there's nothing wrong with watching makeup videos."

The boy keeps his face relaxed, but his reddening ears do a lot of the talking for him. "I know."

"Though you should definitely get that sort of info from someone who isn't literally Satan."

"That's not how you use 'literally'."

"That's how bad she is! She warps all good and decent linguistics with her foul miasma. Literally." Quinn scoffs at that, still looking a bit embarrassed but losing some of his tension. God this feels familiar. "But hey, I'm not joking though." You lower your voice, making certain that only Quinn can hear you. "I could show you some basic stuff, if you want. There's nothing wrong with being curious. Besides, you'd be hot."

Quinn clears his throat in what is almost certainly a bid for time, nervously pushing his hair back again. It's getting pretty long; he's cute when he's all flustered like this. Even before you can be confused about when you've ever seen him flustered before, a vision blooms in your mind. There's Quinn, in that spot, fussing with his hair in this same bashfully adorable display. And there's you, a bit confused by the response and fuck that's Old You. Quinn's so caught up in his own situation that he doesn't notice you stagger, clutching onto the counter as memories from your former life burst out from wherever they'd gotten stored in the Girl Timeline move.

There's Quinn, curiously lingering by your locker long enough to say 'Hi' even though his is a whole hallway over. There's Quinn, haltingly asking about your nail polish in what you'd thought at the time was a bid to make fun of you, but you're now realizing was an awkward prelude to something entirely different. There's Quinn, making a show of manly bravery while working through your previous dissection labs, puffing up so much when you applaud and give a little smile that you're surprised he doesn't full on explode. It's memory after memory of Quinn doing his adorable best to straight up flirt with Boy You, only you're too in your own head to notice it.

Quinn Foley is into guys, and before you milked up reality he was into you.

God, how did you miss it? You weren't, like, entirely conscious of your full romantic interests back then, but you still knew that you at least kinda liked guys. Maybe fully liked everything, in fact. You're absolutely confident that if Quinn had ever worked up the courage to straight up ask you out, even the much more retiring Boy You would have said 'Yes'. You were convinced you didn't have a chance with Isabelle, after all, and in that version of reality you one hundred percent didn't. So again: how did you miss it?

Oh wait. Of fucking course you missed it. Goddamn fucking Max and Jesse.

After he saw Quinn haltingly chatting you up, Max got it into your head that he was trying to fuck with you to win points with Jesse. Fucking prick. But even beyond Max's usual gaslighting bullshit, if Jesse actually had ever found out that you and his backup were maybe starting something? Jesus. You don't want to think about how that would have panned out. Bad for everybody, to say the least.

Still, you can't help thinking it's all a bit sad. You wouldn't trade your relationship with Isabelle for anything, but...well, roads not taken, right? You have to wonder what might have been. Even if it's a bit bittersweet, the idea that Boy You might have been able to find something good without the use of world-shattering magic is comforting. But that's in the past now. Not even in the past; it's in the, like, Didn't Even Happen Anymore. Whatever that's called. The point is, even if you weren't very happily taken, based on every experience New You has had with Quinn he's not even slightly interested in New You physically. Meaning he's probably not interested in any girl, because seriously? You're, like, the fucking hottest thing to ever squeeze into a tight sweater. And even still, regardless of what Boy You's tastes were, Quinn doesn't really do it for you now. If you're taking a dip in the Hetero Pool, you prefer it to be for someone masculine as hell. Quinn's definitely good looking, but with the right makeup and his hair growing as long as he's let it grow, he could probably pass for a fit girl.

Well. You shouldn't jump to too many conclusions. But Quinn's new-found friendship with your old pal Colin has taken on a new light. Does Colin swing that that? If so, that is absolutely something you want to happen. You actually want that to happen so much that you might put off obsessively watching and rewatching that new fucking Queen Bea video until you get home today. If you allow that your newfound power weighs you with any sort of moral obligation, this is exactly the sort of thing that you'd be interested in meddling with.

You offer the still fumbling Quinn a disarming smile, giving him a friendly pat on the back. "Anyways! My door's always open, Quinn. If you ever need a sounding board, or whatever, I'm good at listening and think that judgement is gross. We could even just hang out! I could call in Colin for a movie night or something; it'd be fun."

Quinn's ears perk up at that. "Oh. Yeah? I mean, I'm pretty distracted with the season and all." He cracks a smile when you blow a raspberry at him, holding up his hands to jokingly ward off your scorn. "Okay, okay! Um, alright then? I mean, it does sound fun. I could probably use that. I'll let you know?"

You nod magnanimously, then peer down at the dissection table. "And all I charge is you taking this over for today. Poor guy's already dead; he doesn't need me embarrassing him, too."

Quinn rolls his eyes, but still he gamely picks up the scalpel. Well good! That's promising. It's nice that you can help someone out even with all these ominous distractions looming over you. And you certainly owed Quinn, because he might be the most heinous victim of your callous milking of the timeline. Because of your thoughtless actions, he's been forever denied the sweet pleasure of kisses from Boy You. That's harsh. You've got a serious boy kisses shortage to make up here, Ash. Chop chop.