"Finn you know I hate parties." I told my boyfriend for the fourth time before leaving for the Cheerios/Football New Years party that night.
"I thought that was because of the alcohol and you won't be drinking any 'cause of the baby." He replied fixing his hair and I sighed in frustration. I've hated parties long before I mentioned it to him and the only reason I finally did was because I wasn't expected to go anymore. When I was a Cheerio I was expected at every football party, but since becoming pregnant and exiled I was only supposed to support Finn who was sweet enough to stay by me even after I told him he wasn't the father. It took him two weeks to calm down and take me back and I lived with Brittany and realized that I didn't miss Finn as much as I thought I would. Despite what my heart said I said yes when he asked for me back because my brain told me I needed a stable life and Finn could give me that. I stayed at Brittany's and everything seemed to go back to normal well as normal as it could be for me.
"Quinn, if you don't want to go it's fine." Finn said sweetly looking away from the mirror to look at me. Even thought he said it was fine I knew that he hated showing up to parties alone and I also knew that I was on thin ice with him and should show him how good a girlfriend I can be.
"No, I don't want you to go alone." I said putting on my best smile.
"Thank you. Let's go." We walked outside and got into his car. It wasn't a long drive so soon we were at Santana's and I was letting Finn walk me inside. He found his friends and I found a spot on the couch. I looked around surprised to see some people from Glee here. I saw Kurt talking to all the guys on the team and Brittany talking to Santana on the wall standing really close which was normal, but then I saw Mercedes walking down the hall with a football players arm around her shoulder. I stood up from the couch and walked over to Santana and Brittany.
"Hi Quinn!" Brittany said happily, but Santana gave me a look that said I interrupted something.
Brittany looked at Santana and she said, "Hey."
"Hey guys." I said then looked directly at Santana. "Did you invite the Glee kids?"
"Brit did." She replied pointing to the girl next to her.
"I did and everyone came except Tina and Artie." I felt my stomach turn.
"Rachel's here?" I asked quietly.
"Yup!" Brittany said happily and Santana just smirked. I walked away without a word, but could faintly hear Brittany say, "Bye Quinn." I felt nervous and I knew the exact reason why; I always felt nervous when I thought about Rachel Berry. Glee had gotten worse and worse the more I went 'cause after a while I started to let my guard down and Rachel and I had become friends and the butterfly's in my stomach got worse when she talked to me. I tried to put it off, but whenever I even thought of her my stomach would jump and I would start to feel dizzy. Now that I'm far enough along in my pregnancy to feel the baby kick I've noticed she seems to like Rachel too and kicks whenever she speaks and especially when she sings.
I walked around trying to find Finn, but he had been dragged away so I sat back down on the couch and tried to make myself invisible. It worked for a while, but eventually Rachel came over with a cup in her hand and sat down next to me.
"Hey, Rach." I said trying to ignore the dance party in my stomach.
"Quinn!" Rachel said a little loudly and I knew she was drunk or at least tipsy. I let my eyes look at her outfit and saw her dressed in a black shirt and plaid skirt that showed so much skin I felt myself fluster before looking up to her eyes.
"Are you drunk Rachel?" I asked concerned.
"I think so. Puck handed me a drink and now I feel loopy." She said scrunching her face in a way that I thought was adorable.
"Let me take you home." I said grabbing her wrist and standing up.
"We can't leave. We have to wait until midnight." She replied seriously. I sat back down and let go of her hand.
"Why do we have to wait till midnight." She looked around to make sure no one was listening and leaned in close to my face.
"Brittany says I have to kiss you at midnight, but don't tell Quinn." She put her finger to her lips and I sat back thinking about her words.
"Why does Brittany want you to kiss Quinn?"
"Because she knows I like her and she says Quinn likes me so she wants us to kiss." She looks over her shoulder and I follow her eyes to see Brittany and Santana waving at us.
"Stay here." I said standing up to walk over to them. I looked directly at Brittany. "You want her to kiss me at midnight?" I tried to stay angry, but it came out more quietly than I wanted.
"Santana told me to do it." Brittany said simply. My eyes fell on Santana.
"You told Puck to make her drunk too?" Santana's smile fell.
"No, I just wanted her to kiss you I never told him to make her drunk." I sighed.
"I'm with Finn and I don't like Rachel." I said but by their faces I could tell they knew I was lying.
"Finn's not gonna be anywhere near you when midnight strikes. I made sure of it." Santana said in a matter of fact voice. I walked back over to Rachel and sat down.
"How much have you drank?"
"This is my second cup." She said finishing what was left in the cup.
"Ok, no more and you're staying by me." I saw Puck walking around the room looking for someone and when his eyes landed on Rachel he smiled until he saw me. I gave him a dirty look and he nodded before walking away. I pulled out my cell to see it was only eleven, but knew that I couldn't let Rachel out of my sight or Puck would be her date for the rest of the night.
"You sure you don't want me to drive you home?" I asked after a couple of minutes of us not talking.
She slid closer to me and put her head on my shoulder before answering, "No, my dad's will wonder why I'm home so early besides I want to stay here with you." I felt the air in my lungs escape.
"Do you really want to kiss me?" she lifted her head to look into my eyes.
"Yes. Why don't you believe me?"
"I don't want to be hurt." I said quietly looking down at my hands.
"Quinn look at me." She said suddenly serious. I looked up and she looked like the Rachel that I see in Glee. "I like you and have for a really long time. I've wanted to kiss you since you joined Glee maybe even before that." She looked down to my hands in my lap and grabbed my left to interlace with her right.
"You're not drunk are you?" she shook her head.
"Puck thought I would have more confidence to talk to you if I was drunk, but I poured it down the sink when he turned his back." I felt myself laugh harder than I had in a really long time and felt a lightness hearing her laugh merge with mine. We calmed ourselves down but didn't move our hands. Our eyes met again and the kicking of my little girl took off.
"Either my daughter is practicing for cheer or she loves you." I mumbled and she smiled.
"Can I feel?" I lifted the hand I was already holding and placed it where I felt her kicking the most.
"Can I ask you a personal question?"
"You are the only person who can to be honest." I looked into her eyes and saw a glint that made my breath catch in my throat.
"Are you going to keep her?"
"I've thought about it. I just don't have any help."
"Do you want to keep her?" I thought for a moment staring at her hand on my stomach and mine on top of hers then looked up.
"If I could yes, but right now I think she'd be better with two parents with jobs"
"Do you have a family that's going to adopt her?"
"No I'm still looking" I looked down at our hands again and added, "She hasn't stopped since you got here"
"I think I read somewhere that babies respond to when the mom gets nervous"
"You make me very nervous; you always have."
"You make me nervous too. When you first joined Glee I didn't think the butterfly's would ever stop."
"You never showed it" I replied incredulously.
"I couldn't I never get nervous especially when I sing and I couldn't say anything cause of Finn."
"Did you really like him?" I asked needing to know but not wanting to hear yes.
She shook her head and replied, "I wanted to see you jealous and even though I knew the truth I wanted to believe you were jealous of Finn."
"I was. I hated when he took you bowling cause I wanted to teach you." she laughed and I looked at her hurt
"I knew how to bowl before Finn. My dads used to take me almost once a week as a family night." I started to laugh with her until she stopped first.
"Maybe you'll have to take me one of these days"
"When I'm not pregnant maybe" We fell into a comfortable silence until she looked up and met my eyes.
"Do you want to kiss me?"
I looked at her and with full honesty I said, "Yes and I'm not sure I want to wait till midnight."
"Me either." She said and I could feel our faces moving closer. I felt her breath on my face before my lips lightly touched hers. I felt an instant spark that I'd never felt with Puck or Finn. I placed my hand on the back of her neck and pulled her closer automatically. The sound of the raging party disappeared and all I could hear was my heart beats merging with the beating of Rachel's.
I broke apart first when my lungs started to burn and after we collected our breath Rachel said, "Wow." Before I could answer we both heard Finn yell my name. I looked around and didn't see him so I breathed a sigh of relief until I looked to Rachel who still had her hand on my waist.
"Will you wait here for me?" she nodded silently and I added, "I'm gonna go talk to him and ill be back before midnight." she smiled and I took that as a good sign so I walked past everyone to find Finn looking around the room.
Before I lost my courage I walked right up to him and said, "We need to talk." He nodded and I saw understanding in his eyes. I followed him to an empty room.
"Listen . . ." We said at the same time. We stopped and awkwardly shared a smile.
"You go first" I said sweetly
"I don't want to hurt you especially now, but I think you and I need to break up" he looked up at me nervously
"I agree" I replied simply. He looked at me like I had just grown a new head. "Don't look at me like that. Ever since the pregnancy we've been separating so I'm just saying you're right"
"Oh" he said surprised. I went to walk back out but he stopped me. "There's someone else" I turned around and looked at him with a small smile.
"Finn you don't have to explain, it's fine"
"One thing" I nodded "Are you gonna walk out of here and go to Puck?" I let out an airy laugh.
"No I am not" he nodded and I walked out the door, but could swear I heard him whisper, "have fun with Rachel" I didn't turn around to check if he really said that because I heard Santana yell that it was one minute till midnight so I quickly moved through the crowd which was easy considering my large belly. Thankfully Rachel was still sitting on the couch.
"Finn take it well?" she asked when she saw me.
"He's dating someone else." I said looking around and everyone. I grabbed her wrist as I heard Brittany yell "30 seconds." I pulled her into my arms and asked, "Can I ask you a question."
"You can ask me anything." She replied with a huge smile erupting on her face.
"Will you be my girlfriend?" I could hear someone counting behind me.
"Rachel." I looked down into her eyes.
"2 . . . 1" I heard before Rachel replied, "Yes." And kissed me with a passion that made everything in the room nonexistent except the person in my arms and the baby in my stomach.