Give It All Up
As soon as Mercedes opened her mouth, Rachel gave up every idea of doing a closing number. Mercedes had put her heart and soul into every bit of Aretha's genius and was reaping the rewards.
Rachel? Well, she liked Celine Dion, sure, but she wasn't putting herself on the line. She would only get begrudging applause from people who didn't recognize her talent. She couldn't diminish the genius of someone else who deserved a night in the spotlight.
And, besides. She wasn't sure if her heart would go on, anyway.
Finn was in the last row of the Glee members, leaning back in his chair, Quinn draped all over him like a drooling puppy. Even she hadn't been that bad.
She thought about what she had told Mercedes out in the car, the rain pouring around them, as they sat in a bubble of being lost in the wrong place, that she would give anything for the chance to be a star.
It wasn't quite true. She wouldn't give up Dad and Daddy, first of all. But she would never have to give them up.
There he was again, not looking towards her. She had royally screwed this one up. Her own fault.
Would she give up Finn?
They were sixteen. What on Earth did two sixteen-year-olds know about love? But her parents had found each other against all the odds, against every stigmatization, at eighteen. They were still together, still madly in love with each other.
If G-d came down and told her that she could be Broadway's biggest star or she could have second and third and forever chances with Finn, what would she say?
If she hadn't already decided that there would be no more dramatic numbers tonight, she would have come to that decision now.
Rachel Berry couldn't sing something that wasn't true. And her heart was irrevocably hung up on Finn Hudson.