Only You Could Save Me
Chapter 1
Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Glee (except a beach towel and S2 on dvd). I possess no lyrics or melodies of any songs I use, only an admiration for the tune.
The auditorium was quiet as Sam slunk down at the edge of the stage, only the colorful sidelights still blinking in the darkness. The large room was empty of its audience and even the custodial staff. Most of the Glee Club was still celebrating with the newlywed Mr. and Mrs. Schuester in the choir room, though some had already left. Like Brittany. And Santana. Arm in arm and smiling at one another. He pulled off the black cardigan and twisted it in his hands between his knees, staring at it blankly.
He heard the click of heels before he picked up on the perfume.
"I sure hope you aren't sitting out here moping," Kitty said, sitting herself down next to Sam. "The last thing I need to see today is more tears."
He shrugged.
"So...is this about Brittany dumping you in front of Jesus and everyone? By text message? Sam, Sam, Sam...I'm trying to be sweet here...you deserve so much better than these girls who just dump on you constantly," she said.
"She didn't dump on me...she was just...in a weird place..." he muttered quietly.
"Yeah, a weird place getting her lady lovin' on with Satan," Kitty snorted. When there was no reaction from Sam, she went on, "So you and Britt had a few laughs...she's letting you go because she's letting go...of her life here in Lima Loserville. Onto bigger and better things than this town could offer her."
"I would've given her everything...eventually..." he said, dropping his cardigan. He sighed. "She left with Santana...didn't say anything to me...she just walked away from me like we were...nothing."
"That's what I'm trying to tell you, Sam Evans. You deserve so much better than what these girls are giving you! Quinn, and yes she is my idol, treated you like dirt, cheated on you with that gorilla boy, then went off the deep end. Santana...I don't even know what happened there, but I'm sure it was just wrong on too many levels. And Mercedes? You didn't even know she had that record deal! Has she not even contacted you since going to California? Remember, you opened that door for her and what? Nothing! And now you're sitting here moping over Brittany...sweet Brittany who is going to MIT for some insane reason and who is destined to be with Santana. They know it; we all know it...and I think even you know it, Sam, deep down. You don't need a lesbian/part-time hetero in your life...you need a full-blooded man-loving woman to satisfy you."
He was quiet.
"No more tears...man your ass up!" She slapped him on the back and stood up. Softening her voice, she said, "I'm around, you know, if you ever need to vent."
Then she left the stage, leaving him there staring down at his cardigan crumpled on the floor.
xxxxx
The Monday after Regionals was business as usual at McKinley, except Brittany was already gone. Mr. Schue told Glee Club that when she said she had to be at MIT immediately she meant she had to move into her dorm room that Monday and start classes within a week. Kitty sat in front of Sam, and, as Schue updated the kids about Brittany, she turned to Sam and mouthed no moping! Again, he shrugged at her. He'd mope if he wanted to. He had invested a lot of his time and emotion into Britt and then she was just gone. So, yeah, he was going to mope whether Kitty liked it or not and why did she even care? Sam tuned out most of the talk about Nationals that day.
He bought a carryout lunch and decided to eat outside that day to enjoy the springlike weather and also to get away from the boisterous cafeteria. The courtyard was equally as noisy so Sam wandered over to some tables under the maple trees where only a few kids sat. And at his usual table sat Kitty Wilde.
She looked up as he sat his boxed lunch on the table, staring at her in disbelief.
"What? Are you stalking me now?" she asked mid chew.
Actually, she knew who the stalker was. She had been watching him since he hooked up with Brittany. Something about suddenly wanting something just because someone else has it. She had also noticed that even though Sam and Brittany looked so perfectly cutesy together Brittany would often put Sam off, dismiss him even. She also knew that occasionally Sam and Brittany would have lunch at that particular table.
"Uh, no…I was just looking for a place to eat in peace and quiet, jeesh," he replied. He stood there a moment.
"Here's your engraved invite…sit down and eat," she said, waving at an empty space at the table.
He stepped over the bench and opened up the box and plowed into his lunch of a cold sandwich and salad. They both ate in silence, him occasionally stealing glances at her, her curled high pony bobbing as she looked around the courtyard.
"So…" she said, dabbing at the corners of her mouth with a paper napkin. "What did you think of Schue's idea for Nationals?"
Sam shrugged. He hadn't paid one bit of attention to Mr. Schuester's ideas.
"It should be fun and a good money maker…it always is for the Cheerios," she said.
He grunted in reply, still not knowing what she was talking about.
She watched him eat for a couple minutes, the staring becoming uncomfortable. He looked so forlorn she wanted to reach out and touch him in some way.
Instead, she got up to leave, not wanting any of her walls to come down. He watched the pleats of her skirt as she sashayed away.
xxxxx
Suddenly it was early May and time for the Glee Club fundraiser for Nationals…a Saturday car wash. Kitty had backed off Sam, letting him mope his way through his Brittany-less days. Besides, she was busy fending off Ryder, the flop-haired Beatles reject, who now realized that he wanted her after the catfish hoax was revealed. She had befriended him after realizing they both shared a horrible secret but then he blew her off for the catfish. So let him have the catfish. That's all he deserved now…he definitely did not deserve her. Plus, her days were filled with Cheerios practice and Glee Club rehearsals. The only time she really saw Sam was at rehearsals for their Nationals performance.
The day of the car wash was hot, hot for early May in Lima, Ohio. The heat caused the girls to be in their shortest shorts and tanks, the boys as well. Sam got there a few minutes after it started due to waiting on Finn for a ride.
After taking one look at Sugar, Tina, Marley, and Kitty in the skimpiest outfits imaginable, Finn chuckled and said he kinda missed high school. Sam's attention was focused on one Kitty Wilde. She wore tiny red shorts...just kick pants really...and a white McKinley High tee, the sleeves lopped off and the midriff knotted just under her ample breasts. She was laughing at something Artie and Ryder had done, her lips cherry red and her high blonde pony dancing with her giggles. He watched her bend over at the waist to soak a sponge in a bucket of sudsy water...no tan lines...no sign of panties at all.
"She's fresh..." Finn mumbled, following Sam's gaze.
Sam turned to glare at Finn, a streak of jealousy shooting through him for some ungodly reason. "Yeah, well she's a grade A bitch."
Finn laughed. "Dude, I know...she went out with Puck, remember?"
Sam had forgotten but thanks to Finn that came crashing back into his mind.
"And she's Quinn 2.0," Finn finished.
Not really Sam thought. Kitty was pretty blunt, not conniving like Quinn.
"Thanks for the lift, dude," Sam mumbled, stepping out of Finn's car.
"No problem..." Finn pulled around and got in line to have his car washed.
Sam wandered over to Mr. Schuester. "Where do you need me?"
Schue handed him a stack of old rags. "Drying...remember, no streaks!"
Sam took the rags and went to the end of the assembly line to dry cars with Jake. At least he had a good view of the girls, now nearly soaked with soapy water. Unique was at the head of the line, spraying down the cars with a hose. Then, Tina, Marley, Kitty, and Sugar would soap the cars down to be rinsed off by Ryder, Artie, and Joe. There was a steady line of cars, like all of Lima had shown up. For once, Schue had picked a good fundraiser, it seemed. The trip to Nationals was going to be expensive, flying all the way to California and staying there for nearly a week.
Instead of thinking about where he was going to come up with the money for that trip, he focused on Kitty when not toweling off a vehicle with Jake. He tuned Jake out a lot, since all Jake was talking about was Marley and how wonderful she was. And, of course, how hot she looked in her high-waisted denim shorts and Glee Club tee, her hair in a ponytail too.
"God, her eyes are just so...blue...like a freakin' ocean, man," Jake was saying. Sam wasn't listening. He was watching Kitty lean over the hood of Finn's car to reach the middle, the front of her t-shirt and shorts soaked, suds on her bare belly when she stood up straight and waved to Finn. She then squatted down to scrub the hubcap and tire, her shorts riding down just enough that Sam could make out just the top of a white thong. It had to be a thong, she had no panty lines. He leaned into the car he was drying off to stifle his boner.
And there was singing. Someone had brought a boom box and it was going strong. Sam wondered if that was the draw of all the customers, to actually hear the Glee Club in a not-so-formal context. Plus the scantily-clad girls. They actually had it tuned to 97.9 out of Columbus, top 40 hits. Sam heard the DJ announce: "Going out to the Glee Club kids washing cars on this hot, hot Saturday in Lima!"
She's my cherry pie,
Cool drink of water, such a sweet surprise,
Tastes so good, make a grown man cry,
Sweet cherry pie...yeah!
Everything came to a screeching halt then. Sam and Jake stopped drying off the cars; Ryder, Artie, and Joe stopped rinsing; even Unique dropped her hose. All to stare at the four girls surrounding the car behind Finn...all four girls now dancing to the old Warrant song and having a lot of fun doing so. By the end of the song, Sam knew what color bra Kitty was wearing...pink. The girls had decided to have a soapsuds fight and were shrieking when the cool water hit them. Sam felt like he had died...four pairs of hard nipples, eight jiggly boobs covered only in flimsy wet t-shirt material and bras.
Swingin' on the front porch,
Swingin' on the lawn,
Swingin' where we want,
'Cause there ain't nobody home.
Swingin' to the left,
Swingin' to the right,
Think about baseball,
I'll swing all night...yeah!
Sam was fairly sure that the word swinging in the song really meant fucking. The girls must've interpreted it as in swinging their hips...because that's what they did. He was also pretty sure that once when Kitty spun around she caught his eye as he stared at her.
She saw him staring...how could she not? All the boys were staring at them. She had seen him arrive with Finn and climb out of Finn's heap of junk car wearing black shorts and a red wifebeater and ball cap, on backwards. Ryder had just said something to Artie about calling the radio station so she laughed, hoping Sam would hear her. Or at least see her. She had chosen her outfit especially for catching eyes that day. She had also told Schue that she'd be soaping up the cars, she'd worry about her nails later.
Schue finally realized that the assembly line of cars had stopped. He turned the boom box off and told the kids to focus on washing the cars while shaking his head. Sam turned back to towel-drying Finn's car when he felt a small presence next to him, radiating energy.
"Is that a pair of toddler socks in your shorts or are you just happy to see me?" Kitty asked him, popping her gum.
He looked down at her, all soaking wet and hotter than the sun beating on his back. She was only as tall as Rachel but much less troll-like. She looked up at him from under her lashes, a hand on her hip, awaiting his response.
"Uhhh..." was all he could come up with. She popped her gum again and smiled.
"Come to the DQ with us after this, why don't ya?" she said, playfully punching him in the arm. "An ice cream would do you good."
"Kitty! Get back here!" Tina yelled at her.
"Yeah, maybe," he said to her, which sent her jogging back to her station.
He really wasn't sure what he was getting himself into.
