Part One|
Twilight had begun to set outside the kitchen window, and a low hum of rush-hour traffic only numbed the grunginess of a dirty shirt and the aftertaste of a stale beer. That, and he was guilty of spending a perfectly mild June day entirely in the comforts of his messy apartment. But, despite his resentment of it all, this pitiful state was one for the past three years Will Schuester could've called a regular Saturday night.
Until upon breaking his gaze with the beer bottle label, something caught his eye.
An envelope, sitting on his counter, jutted out barely from a stack of bills and junk mail. It was scarcely off-white; blush, almost pink colored. The tone, minimal even, contrasted with the regular whites and beiges.
Will hadn't noticed it the night before when retrieving his mail in the apartment-building lobby. Yes, he hadn't even bothered to look at the mail regardless, but leaned there against the wall, he wondered how he could've possibly missed it.
Especially when the handwriting on the envelope, the few letters he could see anyway, was chillingly familiar. The bold, rounded, and somehow determined-looking print of one Rachel Berry.
Rachel. The name echoed through his mind with a hollow sound, sending shivers up his spine. Many, many, times a day that name made itself known in Will's subconscious, but no occasion had left quite the affect as it did then. What, with possible traces of the girl herself sitting a mere three feet in front of him.
Will lifted the envelope carefully, almost as if it'd disintegrate and make him realize the thing was only a spectrum of his imagination, a mirage. But it didn't turn to dust, and when the name on it confirmed what he'd originally suspected, nay, desired, the glee club director stood there frozen in place.
It was legitimately from Rachel Berry.
Rachel Berry, who had fled Lima a long-gone April night, not telling anyone where to and not even graduated from high school.
Rachel Berry, who they couldn't report as a missing person because she technically was eighteen years old and left a note behind affirming she hadn't been abducted.
Rachel Berry, who had tearfully confessed to her teacher a month prior to it that she wasn't over her 'school girl crush', and apparently never had been.
Rachel Berry, who had slept with said teacher that very same night.
Will absolutely hated thinking about it, then especially. He'd never wanted to cross that line, he'd never wanted to be that male teacher. It all happened so fast, neither of them were thinking. Too drunk on emotion, too passion-filled for their own good. And then it was over, they were laying on the hard choir room floor, and Will had never felt so filthy. Not because of the sex, but because he'd taken advantage of a student in a horrible way, even if he did have feelings for her.
"What have I done?" she had whispered, taking the words right out of his mouth. "God, I'm so stupid, I can't be doing this! I'm going to ruin your entire career!"
Will had lay there, almost agape, as he turned his head to look at her. He'd expected her to lash out and blame it all on him. Never, had he thought Rachel Berry would put him and his consequences before herself. But then it progressed.
"Why did you let this happen?!" she had continued angrily. "You just took my virginity and you're my goddamn teacher! I should've kept my big mouth shut, I should've never let my feelings get in the way of your job. And you let it happen! You hardly even tried to stop me!"
Will had sat up next to Rachel and tried to take her hand, but she pulled it away.
"Rachel, I am so, so sorry," he'd said softly, his face not letting on how his heart was breaking. "I'm so sorry it had to be like this."
"Don't you see, Will?" she'd choked out, tears threatening to spill onto her flushed face. "It's never going to be the same between us. I'm never going to be the same."
And she wasn't for the remaining few weeks. Will sighed, tracing the edge of the envelope, seeing so clearly her dimmed brown eyes and sagged shoulders. He remembered the way their eyes would catch sometimes, and it was almost like telepathy. I'm so sorry, his would plead. I don't forgive you, hers would return. It'd been like that every day until she was gone, suddenly.
Puck was the first at McKinley to know, after her dads announced it to their synagogue. The news hadn't taken long to spread after that, nor did the rumors that followed. When Will found out about her, the first thought that came into his head had been, not surprisingly, 'It's all my fault.'
And it was the same thought ringing in his head as he stood there, just staring at the thing. Her own gentle hands had touched that same surface, her own careful handwriting was deliberately put onto something meant for him, him exclusively.
It only occurred to Will moments later that something was inside of it.
Opening the envelope, he was startled by the sharp scent of her perfume; a smell he had almost forgotten, but was so familiar that thousands of tiny memories flooded his brain instantaneously, giving him a head rush. Had three years really been that long? Will lifted the paper to his nose and inhaled slow, savoring it. Rachel must have sprayed it with her perfume, or drowned more like. The little devil. Was she trying to drive him insane?
Then he opened his eyes and they fell onto the handwriting once again, but more of it. It was a letter.
A letter! His stomach lurched. With raised eyebrows, Will blinked hard and internally scolded himself. Of course it was a letter, what else could it have been? With his eyes adjusting to the print, he drank in every word.
'Will-
This is a long shot, given I have no idea about your whereabouts or personal life for the past three years. If you are not William Schuester, please respect my privacy and stop reading, and forward this to him if you can.
If you're still reading this, I'm assuming you are Will. So...Will. Where do I even begin? You'd of thought three years of building up courage would prepare me to compose a half-decent letter. Anyway, I plan on keeping this short and to the point, so here goes, I guess.
Well...I need to see you. My address is on the envelope that this came in. Don't tell ANYONE where I am; I can't face anyone from Lima, save for you. And quite frankly, I probably can't face you either. But just come, okay? I'll be home after three on any day. And Will? I'm really sorry about this whole mess. I shouldn't of blamed you like I did.
Sincerely,
Rachel Barbra Berry
P.S) I understand if you don't want to see me. It's okay.'
His hands were trembling as they held the neatly folded paper. Will read it over again twice, three times, four. He found nothing on the backside, much to his disappointment. How could she leave him for three years and only write half a sheet of paper for consolation? But he supposed that didn't matter as much. Rachel needed to see him. Not wanted to see him, needed. Will then remembered the part about the return address and snatched the ripped envelope.
Rachel Berry
201 N. Rochester St.
Apartment 13
Chicago, IL
60290
So she was in Chicago. All this time, and Rachel had been a mere four hours away. Some part of Will had always assumed that she was up in NYC, but then again she might've thought it to be an obvious place to find her. He couldn't help but wonder what she was even doing in Chicago, how she made a living. Evidently she made enough to keep an apartment. What would she say when he showed up? What would she look like? He could scarcely believe she even thought for a second of him not wanting to come.
Then Will felt his heart begin to race and he hadn't even wrapped his mind around the idea of it all. Of seeing the one person he had missed so greatly for such a long time. And he knew, right away, he knew couldn't possibly wait until the morning, couldn't possibly sleep with this information.
With a back-handed wipe of his mouth and a jingling snatch of keys from the counter, Will was gone.