Chapter Text
“Nevermind, return to your world and I’ll return to mine,” Jane Lane had told Quinn Morgendorffer once in high school.
And now, ten years later, after both high school and college, Quinn Morgendorffer was here, in Louisa’s Dyke Bar on the Lower East side.
What the hell was she doing in Jane’s world?
They made eye contact and Quinn immediately looked away and seemed to walk to the other side of the bar.
Jane had never seen Quinn here before and she didn’t think Quinn knew she was a regular here. It was probably awkward for the younger Morgendorffer to run into Jane. But why was she here?
Jane couldn’t help but follow her. After all, they couldn’t ignore each other all night.
When she made her way to the other side of the bar, she found Quinn again and the younger Morgendorffer was not alone. She was with a blonde woman who wore a high ponytail, a Levi’s denim button down that was buttoned open, revealing a white midriff tank top underneath and some chunky blue bracelets.
You would be femme for femme but with a girl slightly more edgy than you, Jane found herself thinking about Quinn.
“Quinn, hi,” Jane said a bit awkwardly.
Quinn blushed a deep scarlet.
“Jane…I guess I shouldn’t be surprised you're here,” she said a bit dismissively.
Jane laughed. “Yeah, I’m kind of a regular here, actually.”
“Oh,” Quinn replied tersely.
A thick, silent tension hung in the air but the presence of Lindsay helped diffuse it.
“Oh right, Lindsay, uh, this is Jane. We went to high school together. She was and still is my older sister’s best friend.”
“Hey Jane, nice to meet you,” Lindsay put out her hand.
“Nice to meet you too, Lindsay,” Jane shook her hand.
“Lindsay and I met a long time ago and recently reconnected because she just moved to NYC with her girlfriend, Allison. Unfortunately, Allison couldn’t make it tonight as she’s busy with some art gallery setting up stuff,” Quinn informed Jane.
Oh so they’re not together! Jane tried to hide her surprise.
“That’s awesome, congrats on the move! Did you say art gallery?”
Jane knew a queer woman named Allison who was somewhat big in the art world and she was not a fan. Hopefully this was not the same predatory, clout-chasing, money grubbing Allison.
“Yes, my girlfriend is setting up her own small gallery. It’s one of the many but definitely one of the main reasons why we finally made the move to NYC!” Lindsay gushed.
“Oh wow, congrats again!”
“Jane is an artist. She’s really talented too,” Quinn said.
Jane nearly spat out her Blue Moon beer. Did Quinn mean that or was it just one of those fake mean girl comment things? True, Quinn had mellowed out over the years but she still made fake nice remarks sometimes. Yet, she seemed genuine, sweet somehow.
“Oh, really? Allison and I are both artists. She does her paintings and drawings and me, I make jewelry," she shook her bracelets as a way of saying she made them herself, “and I do ceramics. I’m also thinking of getting a Master’s in Art History, I’d love to teach or curate.”
“That’s sick!”
What about you, what do you do Jane?”
“I mostly do drawing and painting, a lot of mixed media. I’ve been experimenting with film too recently.”
Again, what was Quinn doing in her world? Not only in the dyke bar but among artists? What did Quinn even do again?
“Quinn, I forget, what do you do for work?” Jane cringed a bit as she hated to call her art work but it was true that she was lucky enough to make a living off of it. Was she a starving artist? A bit, she definitely wasn’t living in her own apartment in Manhattan, that was for sure. She was slumming it with roommates in Brooklyn. But she was having a blast.
“I’m writing for a Fashion magazine,” Quinn, who was wearing low-rise jeans, a pink strapless halter top, glittery butterfly clips in her hair and clutching a little pink shoulder purse to her body, replied.
It made perfect sense, as Quinn had been a member of the fashion club in high school, and Jane also knew that Quinn shared more in common with her older sister than she cared to admit. Of course, Daria was a very different type of writer, but nonetheless, the two Morgendorffer daughters were both writers. It was a bit comical.
“We’ve been here for like ten minutes already. We should really order our drinks. I’ll go to the bar and order for us, Quinn. Vodka cranberry, right? Be right back!” Lindsay took off.
Vodka cranberry, Jane raised an eyebrow. Quinn Morgendorffer was so predictable, another thing she had in common with her sister.
Next, Jane folded her arms. “So, are we going to address the elephant in the room?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Quinn stuck her nose in the air and flipped her long, silk strawberry blonde hair back. She smelled like strawberries too. The bar was packed and Jane was close enough to her to notice.
“Look, I didn’t mean to sneak up on you. I just come here all the time and this is the first time I’m seeing you here and we know each other. Wouldn’t it be weirder if we ignored each other? And yeah, not gonna lie, I would have never expected that this was your scene.”
Quinn sighed. “Can we talk outside for a minute?”
Jane raised an eyebrow again. “What about Lindsay and your drink?”
Quinn looked over her shoulder. The bar was packed and Lindsay seemed to have already gotten distracted, chatting with some people who were also waiting to order.
“She’ll be fine and I’ll get my vodka cranberry eventually.”
“Whatever you say, sweetheart,” Jane quipped as she started walking outside with a very red-faced Quinn. Jane meant the sweetheart sarcastically but now that she knew or at least it seemed to her like Quinn wasn’t straight and seeing her blush, Jane felt a weird feeling in the pit of her stomach. She suddenly remembered that time in high school when Quinn had come to stay over at her place because the sleepover with her fashion drone friends had gone awry, with Sandy kicking her out for snoring. Jane almost felt sorry for Quinn. That Sandy chick was a mega bitch and was clearly jealous of Quinn and always putting her down for that reason. Quinn’s popularity was always hurting her more than helping her. It was a good thing she finally realized that her senior year.
Daria told Jane a lot about Quinn’s growth and it seemed the sisters had gotten closer. But Daria hadn’t mentioned that Quinn was…that she had something in common with Jane and although Daria didn’t like gossip on paper, this is definitely a detail she would have shared with her best friend.
“If Lawndale High had to guess which Morgendorffer was straight as an arrow they would get the answer dead wrong,” Jane joked.
Quinn rolled her eyes.
Jane was again reminded of a few times at Lawndale High when Quinn had gone running to her, probably trusting her because she was her older sister’s best friend. Although Quinn was quite shallow back then, Jane enjoyed her antics and helping her out. She always got this sense that Quinn respected her and Jane would be lying if she said Quinn wasn’t cute, especially in her damsel moments. Ah yes, Jane Lane, a real knight in shining armor.
‘’I haven’t told Daria yet.”
Jane went from joking around and giving Quinn shit to being serious and empathetic.
“Daria of all people wouldn’t judge you,” Jane paused before teasing again, “after all she’s best friends with a lil ‘ol lezzie like me.”
Quinn glared at her while folding her arms.
Jane was dressed in black and red as usual with her signature red lipstick and combat boots. Quinn always hated and admired Jane Lane for being so effortlessly cool. Jane wasn’t popular in school but she didn’t need to be. She was cool, authentically cool, and that was a better thing to be actually. Even her plain name was somehow cool and chic.
“To be honest, even though I was trying to avoid you when I first saw you, I’m actually glad that I ran into you, Jane.”
Here it was again; Quinn finding her way into Jane’s world as if she wanted to be there.
“Really?”
“Yeah, I always kinda looked up to you actually.”
“What?” For the second time tonight, Jane nearly spat out her Blue Moon.
“Don’t act surprised! I was always going to you when there was trouble. And I always kinda envied you and my sister for not being afraid to be different and when I heard from Daria that you had come out as a lesbian in college, I wasn’t surprised but it just made you mean even more to me..because…”
“Becuase?”
Jane and Quinn were standing in front of the bar, leaning against a lamppost as bar hoppers and partygoers passed by them. The streets were throbbing and alive.
“I’m bi,” Quinn came out to her.
Jane could have made some rude comment, asking if she was really bi or just liked to kiss girls at parties, but Quinn couldn’t have sounded more earnest and she was here tonight with her female friend who had a girlfriend, so Jane swallowed her snark.
“Now that I think about it, you never seemed that into Joey, Jeffy and what’s his name.”
Quinn laughed and flipped her hair. “I just liked the ego boost. The first guy I actually liked was this tutor of mine named David. I felt embarrassed liking a nerd like him but also relieved because up until then I was really worried that I didn’t like guys at all because I didn’t like any at Lawndale High and I clearly liked this one girl as much as I tried to deny it. Anyway, I am kinda more into women than men. I kinda put those feelings down for a long time but explored them a bit in college on the down low but since graduating and reconnecting with Lindsay and living in the city, I feel more ready to be open, you know?”
“Quinn, you know you didn’t have to share any of that with me but I’m really glad you did. I’m really happy for you.” Jane smiled and gave the younger Morgendorffer a comforting hug, which she reciprocated.
“You also don’t have to come out to Daria but you should. I mean, take your time with it of course, but you should tell her because all she’s ever wanted is for you to be happy and be your authentic self. It always seemed like you were faking a lot of things back in school and despite Daria getting called the misery chick, you sometimes seemed like the miserable one. Like those friends of yours were assholes, you know that right?”
“You’re not wrong,” Quinn admitted, looking at the ground.
“But wait, this one girl at Lawndale? You have to at least tell me who. Oh god, it wasn’t one of your fashion drone fake friends, was it?”
Quinn laughed, "it was absolutely not one of them!”
“It wasn’t Brittany?”
“Ugh, as if! Is that who you think my type is?
“You do strike me as femme for femme.”
“Well, you’re wrong.”
Jane looked at her curiously as she twirled her strawberry blonde locks.
“You know if you’re looking for a butch, I have a friend..”
“I like more…androgynous girls.” Quinn blushed.
Jane smirked. “The princess is looking for a punk! I never would have imagined Ms. Pink and Popular being into alternative chicks but I guess opposites do attract. Your crush wasn’t Andrea then, was it?”
“Jane Lane, not only are you infuriating, you are so dense!”
Jane looked shocked.
“It’s in the past now, so I guess I’ll just fess up. I mean, I’m sure it’ll stroke your ego anyway. I had a huge crush on you, all throughout high school. It wasn’t that different from how Daria liked your older brother, albeit, more age appropriate. Why do you think I was always seeking you out? But of course, I like, totally resented you at the same time, for making me feel that way. You were like a huge source of my angst.”
Jane couldn’t believe what she was hearing and yet it made so much sense.
“I shouldn’t have told you that. This is so embarrassing. You can leave if you want. I’m gonna go back in and find Lindsay,” a nervous Quinn said as she started walking back inside.
Jane grabbed her by the wrist. “Quinn, it’s not embarrassing, don’t go. I’m extremely flattered and..”
Quinn stopped and looked Jane in the eyes. “And?”
“And, I’d rather not find my best friend’s younger sister, even if she is just a year younger, cute, but I do and I did back in high school too.”
The strawberry-blonde girl could feel her heart racing.
Jane hoped she wouldn’t regret what she was about to do as she leaned in.
When her lips met Qinn’s lips there was no resistance. In fact, Quinn kissed her back with a desperate intensity. Jane put her arm around her waist and pulled her closer and again, no resistance. If anything, Quinn pressed herself to Jane even harder.
The artsy girl and the fashion girl remained kissing on the streetcorner, under the lamppost, as if time had stopped for them.
Eventually, Lindsay, with two drinks in hand and a whole posse she had made from chatting, walked outside the bar.
When she and her new friends saw Jane and Quinn kissing, they started hooting and hollering obnoxiously.
“Yeah, Quinn, get it!” A tipsy Lindsay shouted.
The distraction caused Quinn and Jane to break away from each other.
“When you come out to Daria, maybe leave out this one detail,” Jane whispered.
Quinn laughed and stuck her pinky out.
“Are really pinky promising over this?”
Quinn made a hmph sound as Jane acquiesced to her command.