Chapter One
"Q! Do you have breakfast ready yet? Seriously, I've been here for a whole freaking hour!" Quinn heard her best friend, Santana Lopez, shout.
Quinn sat up in bed at the sound of Santana's voice. She leaned over to check the clock on her dresser. It was eight. Also, it was Quinn's one day off from her two jobs that week, one of which she had to wake up at six in the morning to be at. She rubbed her eyes. Realizing she hadn't washed her face the previous night, she walked into the bathroom groggily and washed the make-up off her face. She ran a comb through her tangled, blonde hair and tied it up into a messy bun. She walked down the hall and into the kitchen.
"What are you doing here so early? It's my one day off for this entire week, you know," Quinn complained at Santana.
"Three words. I. Need. Food. It's not my fault that the only job you could get was a barista at the coffee shop," Santana groaned.
"I have another job too, San. But I can't pay the rent on this place with only one job. Unlike you, I can't get money by taking it from some poor, passed out chick on my couch," Quinn rolled her eyes.
"Whatever, Fabray. You wish you were me. Can I have some food now? I gots to go shopping," Santana said, sitting down at the kitchen table.
"Fine, Princess Satan. What do you want? Omelet, pancakes, waffles, French Toast?" Quinn asked, somewhat sarcastically.
"Satan? Wow, cheap shot, Fabray. And French Toast. I want French Toast," Santana smirked.
"Anything you want, Princess," Quinn grumbled as she walked over to the stove to start cooking breakfast.
Quinn's apartment was small and a bit stuffy. There was just one small bedroom with a tiny closet. The bathroom was across the short and cramped hallway. There was a storage room – or something that resembled one – next to the bedroom. And there was a kitchen-living room combination which was where Quinn spent most of her time when she wasn't working. She had a pet cat named Samantha who lived in the storage room. The cat was spoiled. Its room was even painted. It had an oversized cat bed – actually, it was a bed for a large dog, such as a Great Dane. But Quinn had insisted on buying the big one. There was a purple litter box, several cat "jungle gyms", a box of toys, food and water bowls, and a little remote control mouse. On the walls, pictures of the cat and Quinn hung.
"Happy, Santana? Is my French Toast perfect enough for you?" Quinn joked sarcastically.
"They are! Thank you, Quinnie!" Santana giggled, contently eating her French Toast.
"Did I just hear Santana Lopez utter the words "thank you"? I'm surprised," Quinn smirked.
"Shut up and let me finish this fabulous breakfast, Q! I'm going shopping! You should come. When's the last time you went shopping anyways? You've blown all your cash on that stupid cat, you know?" Santana said.
"I went in June!" Quinn said defensively as she frowned at her friend for calling Samantha stupid.
"It's December, Quinn… That's like, six months! Wait, what year did you go? I haven't seen you wear anything new since you've been out of high school," Santana raised an eyebrow.
"I went right before I moved out here… so… um, two years ago… don't slap me!" she shrieked, noticing Santana heading toward her with an open palm.
"Dear Lord! Two years?! I could barely go two weeks with no shopping! Fabray, you're officially crazy!" Santana laughed.
"Fine. You know what, I'll go today. As long as you promise not to force me into any skimpy clothing, okay?" Quinn warned.
"You're no fun! You'd look like a hot bitch, Q! C'mon! Have some fun for once!" Santana giggled.
"You think I'm hot?" Quinn laughed, receiving a furious slap on the shoulder from Santana as they exited her apartment.
The mall was a large structure with three floors. Quinn felt like heading to the "comfy sweats and pajamas for losers" store as Santana called it. Santana was a bit of a fashion freak and didn't plan on allowing Quinn to buy ugly clothes. Instead, Quinn was forcibly dragged into the GAP, New York and Company, Hollister, and a few other stores. She bought a few outfits, one of which Santana picked out entirely. It consisted of an extremely short pair of shorts, a strapless white top with lacey fabric, and a pair of large, white pumps. Quinn could barely walk in them without falling flat on her face.
"Q, look at that girl over there. The blonde one with blue eyes… I'm going to go talk to her. Don't wait up!" she smirked, running off.
"Yay. I'm alone in my least favorite place in the world," Quinn sighed to herself, walking off in the opposite direction. Quinn realized she wouldn't be expecting Santana back until late that night or the next morning. She was going to have to unpack her shopping bags alone and then listen to Santana bitch about how she "didn't organize her clothes right". Quinn sat alone in the food court. This was the only place she liked in the mall. She pigged out on Chinese food, pizza, and a large ice cream cone. As she was stuffing her mouth with food, she noticed that she got a text from Santana.
Santana: Going home with the girl. Her name's Brittany. She's great. I don't even know if I'll sleep with her. Damn, I can't believe I might have feelings for someone besides the feeling of sexual attraction. Well, wish me luck. Xoxo.
Quinn was shocked. Santana's number one hobby was sleeping around. She replied to Santana.
Quinn: You're kidding right?! Softie. See ya tomorrow. Might hang here. The mall has awesome food, ya know? Yum. Bye babe!
Quinn put her phone back in her pocket and resumed eating her food. Even Santana was possibly starting a real relationship. Quinn was twenty. She figured she should be obsessed with dating, but she wasn't. She actually was fairly repulsed by the idea of kissing a guy, let alone having sex with one. Quinn felt like she was doomed to be old and alone. But she would be old and alone with Santana (possibly) and her cat, so she supposed it wouldn't be so bad. On her way out, Quinn noticed a girl. She looked familiar. Really familiar. She walked closer the short brunette girl. She appeared to be window shopping with a tall, heavily built guy who she didn't recognize. The girl spun around.
"Quinn?! What are you doing here?! I haven't seen you since you, me, and Tana went out a few months ago!" she said.
"Oh! Hi Rachel! Yeah, I know. I've missed seeing you!" Quinn smiled as Rachel wrapped her in a bear hug. Rachel looked really great. She was wearing a really nice pair of jeans with bling on the back pockets and a black V-neck. Her long, brown hair was straightened. And her eyes – her big, beautiful, brown eyes – looked extremely pretty.
"We need to hang out, Q! And Tana, too. But she doesn't like me very much. She always calls me man-hands or hobbit. It's actually pretty damn annoying," Rachel grumbled.
"Oh yeah. San and I best friends. In fact, she was here a while ago. But she ran off with some girl. So, I'm stuck here alone. Yay for me. I fucking hate shopping. Seriously," Quinn muttered.
"Yeah, me too. I'm only here because my boyfriend Brody wanted to go Christmas sheet music shopping at the music store. Apparently I've been ditched," Rachel smiled, pointing out that Brody was gone.
"Yep. So, maybe we should hang out sometime? Friday's are my only days off though. I work as a barista at Coffee Palace from six thirty to eleven and I work as a waitress at Carmen's Diner from twelve to five. And the rest of the time, I'm working on a novel," Quinn said.
"You're a writer? How did I not know this before? I go to school at NYADA. I've actually gotten some call-backs for some off-Broadway productions, even if they're only for the chorus," Rachel grinned.
"That's nice. I should probably get going. I need to get to bed early so I can get up on time for work. Nice seeing you, Rach. I'll call you, okay?" Quinn said, waving goodbye to Rachel.
Quinn and Santana were walking to Rachel's apartment. They were going to help her move in to her new place.
"Do we have to, Quinn? Can't man-hands do it on her own?" Santana complained.
"Be nice. Rachel's my friend, you know? She's really nice and pretty cool if you get to know her, Tana," Quinn said.
"Oh, whatever. It's like you have a big crush on Berry. It's kind of creeping me out, Q!" Santana joked.
"You just want me to be gay, San! We all know that you wanna tap this!" Quinn laughed.
"Shut up, Fabray! Be nice to me. I have to endure a couple of hours of Berry's endless ranting about Broadway!" Santana scowled.
"Fine. I'll be nice. But you have to be nice to Rach, too," Quinn said, jabbing Santana in the chest.
"No promises. If she's wearing a ridiculous animal sweater, I don't think I'll be able to resist cracking a joke, Q," Santana said seriously.
"Whatever. We're here now. Best behavior, San!" Quinn said, texting Rachel to meet them downstairs.
They waited for a few minutes. Quinn was thinking hard about what Santana said about her having a crush on Rachel. It was ridiculous, right? She couldn't think of a girl like that, much less Rachel. She supported gay marriage and everything, but she didn't think she was gay herself. Then again, she hadn't really felt attracted to a guy in a really long time. And it seemed like she was thinking about Rachel more and more often, as well as Santana. She didn't like-like Santana or anything, but she thought she was very… hot. Wow, she had just called a girl hot. Rachel came downstairs.
"Quinn! Satan… I mean Santana. You're here too. Q didn't tell me you were joining us," she said, shooting an evil look over at Quinn.
Quinn mouthed "sorry" to Rachel with a very apologetic look on her face. She smirked at the way Rachel gave the death stare to Santana.
"Well, I hate to be here too, hobbit. But I'm being forced. So deal with it, okay?" Santana smirked.
"Let's go up to your apartment, Rach!" Quinn interrupted the two before a major squabble started.
"Good idea, Quinn. Thanks for helping out," Rachel said, smiling brightly at Quinn.
Rachel's apartment was much bigger than Quinn's and it was also cheaper due to the fact it was in the bad part of Brooklyn. There was a stack of boxes in each corner of the large living room. There were two other rooms, most likely a bathroom and a bedroom. Rachel clearly had painted the walls already. They were cream colored with gold stars scattered about – gold stars were Rachel's thing.
"Okay, so I figured Tana could do the bathroom because it requires the least amount of work. Quinn and I will work on my room. When we're all finished, we can all eat lunch out here and then start on the living room, if that's okay," ordered Rachel.
"Cools. I'll be in the bathroom then. Later losers," Santana said, disappearing into the bathroom.
"Isn't she just so enthusiastic, Rach? I sometimes wonder why we're friends with her," Quinn joked.
"I'm not her friend. Anyways, we should unpack my clothes first. You'll be happy to know that I got rid of my animal sweaters and upgraded my wardrobe," Rachel announced proudly.
"Oh, good job Rach. Let's unpack these," Quinn said, lifting a few boxes off the ground and taking them into Rachel's oversized bedroom.
It was a really huge room. The walls were lilac colored. The floors were all a light wooden color. There was a huge – a ginormous – bed in the corner. Playbills were tacked up to the walls, as well as pictures of Barbra Streisand, Rachel and her dads, her old dogs, Leo, Tony, and Bella, and a school schedule.
"Q, could you help me zip up this dress?" Rachel asked Quinn who spun around to see a half-naked Rachel.
"Um, yeah, sure Rach," Quinn said, her cheeks turning a bright shade of redish-pink.
"What do you think of this dress? Is it pretty on me or do I look stupid?" she asked.
"Wow. Uh, no. You – you look really beautiful Rachel. But the dress looks like it came from San's closet," Quinn said.
Rachel really did look beautiful. Actually, she looked beyond beautiful. The strapless dress was a dark purple shade. It was really short and tight, something that Rachel usually would've never worn. But Quinn liked the dress on Rachel – actually, she loved it on her. And for some reason, she was feeling… funny. There weren't dainty, beautiful butterflies in Quinn's stomach. No, there was a huge fucking herd of elephants stampeding around in there.
"Q, you okay? Your face is really red right now. Are you feeling hot? Do you have a fever?" Rachel asked, concerned.
"N-no. Just a thought I was having. I'm fine. Let's unpack this bitch," Quinn said, smiling and pointing down to the boxes.
Quinn thought of that moment more than she felt she should. On her way back to her apartment, she couldn't stop thinking about the brunette. This was why she kept avoiding Rachel. The feeling she got when she was around Rachel was unbearable. She had this weird desire to just lean in and kiss Rachel right on the lips. She didn't exactly like the feeling. She felt dirty. If her parents knew about her thoughts, they would be sending her to church to talk to a pastor about her unusual thoughts. So, she tried not to have them. But she did have them. Not all of them were about Rachel – some were about Santana for some reason. She didn't like-like Santana still. But she was attractive to Quinn. She felt like breaking into tears. She was stressed, worried, concerned, mad, sad, and happy all at the same time. She was stressed, worried, and concerned due to her thoughts about girls recently. She found them more appealing than guys. She even thought that some of them were hot in the way she should've thought guys were. She was mad at herself. She couldn't have feelings for girls, especially Rachel. The sadness was because in reality she knew Rachel didn't like her back, even if Quinn liked her. Rachel was straight, after all. And the surges of happiness came whenever she saw Rachel. Just seeing her seemed to make Quinn's day a little better, make all her thoughts seem normal. Although she couldn't really admit to having the feelings just yet, (and more importantly, she wouldn't admit to having them until she absolutely had to) she knew that she was definitely developing a crush on Rachel Berry, one of her best friends.