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There were absolutely no accurate words that came to mind to describe how gloriously perfect that night was.

Quinn was elated that he’d managed to pull off what might go down in history as the best first date ever.

No number of one-night stands or meaningless lovers could have prepared him for what had happened in that fort.

The high he thought he’d been getting from those countless other women couldn’t begin to touch what he felt with Rae.

After chugging a tall glass of water or three from the kitchen, Quinn and Rae had come back down to the fort to lay in each other’s arms, restarting and actually watching The Sandlot .

At least until Squints tricked Wendy Peffercorn into giving him mouth to mouth and Rae’s hands started to roam his body again.

Their second round of love-making had put Quinn to sleep almost instantly, with his arms wrapped around Rae and holding her all night.

The following morning, they couldn’t seem to keep their hands to themselves. In bed. In the shower. At the breakfast table. Quinn declared there should be a rule against all clothes when they were together.

"Do you have anything to change into?" Rae asked from beneath him on the couch.

"In a bag in the Bronco," Quinn said, trailing his mouth over that birthmark on her hip he'd noticed the other night.

"Seems like a good place for it." Rae ran her fingers through Quinn's hair and massaged his scalp. “You know, I’ve always loved how untamed your hair is. ”

“I love how untamed your hair is after I throw you on your back and take you for a ride.” Quinn noted her quick intake of breath and grinned. “I also love how you’re still surprised when I say dirty things to you.”

Rae bit her lip. "I guess I just really like how it sounds coming out of your mouth."

“Don't get me started on how much I like the sounds that come out of your mouth.” Quinn kissed and nibbled at Rae’s hip some more. He raised his voice to imitate hers, " Faster, Quinn...please, Quinn."

The fingers in his hair tightened their grip and pulled as Rae giggled, "Stop, you're making me blush."

He laughed into her stomach and continued his exploration of her body with his mouth. Silence stretched out for a few beats as they lay together like this. Then suddenly Rae said, “When are you going to see your mother again?”

Quinn paused, mouth hovering over soft skin. He looked up. “Why?”

A look of apprehension flitted across her face, but she regained her composure. “You wanted me to go with you...it’s Sunday, and I can’t go during the work week.”

The thought that he'd have to go back eventually was constantly at the back of his mind, but this last week he'd been so consumed with seeing Rae again and his chance to finally get it right this time around.

Now that he'd at least had last night, he supposed it was time to try visiting his mom again.

For the first time in several hours he felt tense.

Quinn’s jaw clenched at the memory of the scene that had unfolded at his old house almost a week ago.

How was he supposed to just show up after that?

Then again, how had his mom expected him to react?

She hadn’t seemed surprised in the least. She hadn’t argued with him or tried to defend herself.

She simply let him rant until there was nothing left for him to say.

This time he would have Rae with him and he knew that would make a world of difference .

“Yeah, we can go today,” Quinn sighed. “But since you’re the one who’s making us put clothes on, I get to decide what we do later when we take them back off.”

"Ready?" Rae asked as she parked her Jeep on the street in front of the blue bungalow.

Quinn peered through the car window at the old house that would now look inviting to anyone else who passed it on the street.

To him, however, it still held all those nightmarish memories.

The soft warmth of Rae's hand over his made him take a deep breath and look away.

He looked down at their hands and back at her and gave her a nod.

She held his hand on the way up the walkway and as they stood on the porch.

Quinn glanced down at Rae while he stood in front of the door and she gave him an encouraging smile.

It was all he needed. With a deep breath in and out, he knocked on the door.

After a few heartbeats the door opened, and Quinn's mom stood in the doorway. Her eyes widened in surprise at the sight of her son, only briefly flitting to Rae on his arm before her face broke into a teary smile.

"I came back," Quinn said.

"I thought you probably would," she replied as she gave a half-hearted smile.

Quinn tensed, jaw clenching, squeezing Rae’s hand tight in his own.

His mother just assumed he was going to be a good boy and come back for her.

How did she have that right? Rae seemed to sense his tension- or had she simply heard the hot breath he let out of his flared nostrils?

- and placed her other hand on his forearm, shifting her body toward his.

Molly Casey was a tall, thin woman who had the appearance of someone who was likely very pretty before various forms of abuse.

When he was little, Quinn remembered thinking that she looked far younger than his friends’ moms. She had even been mistaken as an older sister or an aunt on the few occasions that they had actually gone out together, usually for groceries.

His mother held the door open and ushered them into the new, clean living room where they all took seats; Rae and Quinn on the sofa, Molly across from them in a matching overstuffed chair.

"Good to see you two are still together," his mother said, as her gaze traveled between the couple sitting on the sofa.

Quinn and Rae exchanged brief and awkward looks, letting out uncomfortable laughter.

"We weren't-"

"I mean, we were together a lot, but-"

"And now - um- well-"

"We were always friends," Rae stated, and they settled with that. Their friendship had come first, and it was something Quinn felt they both valued above whatever else may have happened between them. It was probably the best way to put it without having to get into the What Are We Now discussion.

Molly eyed them with a curious smile. "Well, you could've fooled me."

Another awkward laugh in each other's direction told Quinn they were likely thinking the same thing: If everyone else had seen it, why hadn't they done anything about it before now?

"I remember the first time you came over here to see Quinn," Molly mused. "You were both so little. Six? Seven?"

"Seven," said Quinn, looking curiously at his mother. "You actually remember that?" He'd always had the impression his mom was too high or simply didn't care to notice what was going on in his life.

"Of course," Molly said, then turned toward Rae. "Your dad drove a black BMW. I thought it was some government lawyer or someone coming to ask around. But instead a little blond girl came up to the door and asked if my son could go swimming with her and her family at their country club. "

Quinn and Rae exchanged grins at the memory. Quinn said, "I had no idea what a country club was, but it was like a hundred degrees and swimming sounded like a good option."

"I saw the car and heard the words 'country club' and thought, 'hey, my son got in with the right people on his own'," Molly said. "After that I didn't worry too much about where you were going when you snuck out."

This new information rolled around in Quinn's head for a few moments. He wasn't sure when he'd taken Rae's hand in his again but was suddenly hyper-aware of her presence as she rubbed her thumb back and forth across his knuckles.

Where would he have been without her? Who would he have been friends with?

Before she came along he had been an angry kid.

He got into fights and was called into the principal's office a few times a week.

The teachers and other school staff had labeled him "troubled" and he'd received several home visits from concerned staff members.

There had been people throughout his life who had looked out for him in ways that his mother never had.

Teachers who had taken a particular liking to him, coaches, school social workers.

But what Rae and her family had done almost seemed like too much.

She had insisted on being his friend- for some reason.

Mr. DeRose never asked too many questions, but Quinn had always suspected he knew on some level what he was dealing with at home.

Regardless, he'd made it clear that their house was always open if he needed it.

That day Rae had showed up on his doorstep asking him to go swimming only a few days after her birthday party, he'd been in shock.

When Mr. DeRose had insisted on giving him a ride home from the beach, refusing to let him walk home in the dark, Quinn was sure someone who could afford that birthday party and those clothes and that car wouldn't want to be his best friend once they saw the run-down little structure he called his home.

But she had shown up. She could have asked any of her friends to go with her that day, but she had picked him. And then she continued to pick him after that day .

Quinn looked at Rae, sitting there on the sofa next to him, and suddenly felt so overcome with gratitude.

She had done everything for him just by choosing to be his friend.

He wanted to wrap his arms around her, shower her with kisses, and never stop giving her any and everything she wanted or needed or asked for.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Rae asked, a curious smile on her face.

Quinn cleared the lump in his throat and shook his head, "Just thinking about how lucky it was that I went to the beach on your seventh birthday."

Rae's smile brightened and she leaned into him. Quinn put his arm around her and planted a kiss on top of her head.