A year and a half later, Quinn was laid on her bed, staring at the phone screen waiting for Jeff's reply. They were attending colleges in completely different states, but they'd tried to keep their relationship going.

It wasn't easy. Phone calls that lasted for hours now were only half an hour, max. She spoke to Rachel for longer than that! Pages of emails became paragraphs. The hope she'd started the semester with was fizzling out.

Her roommate knocked, "Are you decent?"

"Yeah," she called back.

Her roommate took one look at her and sighed. " Look, he's probably moved on. You should do the same."

Quinn shook her head. "No," she replied simply, "Jeff's not like that."

"All boys are the same, Quinn. Just forget about him for a night and come out with us!"

Quinn shook her head again. "I have work to finish anyway. Have fun, though!"

"I will!"

…

It all happened in a matter of minutes. Quinn was feeling hungry. She'd gone to get a sandwich. A skid of tyres, a squeal of brakes, the scream of an eighteen-year-old girl and then the thud of a body hitting the road.

She woke up several days later, bleary-eyed. She could make out a blonde head and a plaid shirt. She chuckled. "See college hasn't changed your dress sense."

As Jeff's face came into view, she could see the relief as she'd spoken. His hair was shorter now, and he had slightly more muscle. He laughed. "Well, I had to get you to recognise me somehow!" He bent down to kiss her brow. "How you feeling?"

"Sore. Everywhere." Quinn groaned.

Jeff stroked her hair softly, "I'm sorry, baby. If I could make it stop, I would."

"I know," she smiled. Her face then fell. "Wait, when did you get here? What about college?"

"You're more important. Besides, I can copy notes from someone else. I can't ask someone else to be your boyfriend." Hearing Jeff say that suddenly lifted a huge metaphorical weight from Quinn's chest. "Quinn, I am so sorry for…Well, not being a good boyfriend. But I don't want to promise that I'll be a better one. In fact, I don't want to be your boyfriend anymore."

Quinn felt like everything around her was slowing down. "W-What?"

"I want to be more than that." She looked at him and saw what he was twirling in his fingers - a small box. "I didn't quite know when to go ahead and do this, but…Well, that night. When I rang your phone and someone else answered telling me you were here…I can't lose you forever, Quinn, it'd tear me apart! So here I am. I've been your boyfriend since high school, and now that we've moved on from there, we've grown up - I want our relationship to grow up too.

"Now I'm not saying we should any time soon, but someday, after college," he pulled open the box to reveal a ring, "would you make me even happier than I am right now and become Quinn Sterling?"

Quinn bit her lip before replying simply, "No." Jeff's heart sank before she giggled, sitting up and wincing as she did. "I wanna become Lucy Sterling."

Relief and joy and all the good feelings in the world combined swept through Jeff. He took her hand, put the ring on and then moved up to kiss her for the first time in three months. "I love you."

"I love you too. But one more scare like that and that might change," she laughed.

"Hey, you scared me with that whole 'I wanna be Lucy' thing!"

"True. Okay, we're even. What time is it?" Quinn asked, rubbing her eyes wearily.

"1:25am," Jeff replied.

Quinn's eyes widened. "And you're still up?" She shuffled over to make room and patted the bed next to her. Jeff laughed as he joined her, carefully wrapping one arm around her where it didn't hurt. "Night, Jeff," she smiled sleepily.

"Goodnight…Lucy," Jeff kissed her cheek before settling down and falling asleep.