Author's Note: Well this is my first one! finally! been meaning to do this forever! I'll post a second once I start getting positive feedback so if you want more tell me! I should have time now that it's my off season to do this stuff! So yeah! enjoy! the songs i use are You don't know me by allison iraheta and you can be david archuleta!
Everyone left after Rachel's Firework number. Rachel was rather surprised at how much her life had turned around since things ended with Finn. She just needed a swift kick to realize how much better of she was without him. But her, Mercedes and Kurt were finally getting along as well as Tina and Mike. Her mind was also back on track towards her real love, Broadway. The gold star around her neck showed that.
Rachel stayed back for a little and sat down at the piano. She felt overjoyed at her new found independence. In just a few hours she had completely turned her life around. Finn was completely gone this time and she knew exactly how she felt about it.
I'm a ghost of a girl that you looked right past
I'm a voice you didn't wanna hear
I'm a page in a book that you read too fast
But I'm still here
You never cared, never tried, never even asked
Maybe I didn't wanna stay
You shut your eyes, told your lies then you had your laugh
And that's okay
Cause you don't know me
You don't wanna know it's real
And I'm not sorry
For who I am, for what I feel
Cause you don't know me
I got more on my mind than I ever told
I got pain that you never felt
I got the scars
I can deal with it on my own
I've got stories that I'll never tell
But maybe its just as well
Cause you don't know me
You don't wanna know it's real
And I'm not sorry
For who I am, for what I feel
Cause you don't know me
As she got up from the piano and turned towards the door, she jumped back in surprise. It was it James, the drummer from the band that backed up New Directions. "Hey James! I didn't know anyone was still here. I thought everyone has left."
"It's fine. I was just passing by and heard you." He walked in, hesitating at first. It was all odd to Rachel. James never really spoke. In fact, no one from the band ever spoke much. They just went along with all the crazy glee drama.
"So what's up?"
James shifted uncomfortably. "I just wanted to tell you that you did amazing on Fireworks. Probably one of your best numbers yet. "
Rachel was taken aback for a moment but quickly composed herself. "Um… Thank you."
"Yeah, I especially like the message behind this one." With that he looked up and gave Rachel a small smile and walked out.
Rachel might've been standing there for ten seconds or five minutes before she heard Puck come in. "Rach, you coming?"
Her eyes snapped up to Noah and she came right back. "Oh, hi Noah. Yeah, I'm coming. Just let me grab my bag." They walked out to the parking lot together towards Puck's car, Puck allowing her to sift through her thoughts. It wasn't until two miles that she finally said, "So how's it going with Lauren?"
Later that night Rachel walked into Breadsticks, looking discretely for someone to sit with everyone was already with someone though… except Santana. She decided to sit on the opposite side of her. Well the opposite side of the wall anyway. Santana looked over though and in that one moment they understood each other. They were both alone on Valentine's Day and didn't really know what to do with themselves. They knew each other's pain.
Santana smiled over at her and Rachel smiled back. She thought that maybe they could be friends from that day forward. Or at least be able to look at each other without wanting to physically harm the other.
Rachel was about to speak when Mercedes showed up and made her way into the inside of the booth. Tina and Mike were close behind. But when Kurt was up introducing the Warblers, someone else crept in and pulled a chair up next to their table.
"James?" Rachel looked at him in shock but he just smiled at her and looked back up at Blaine who had started singing. Mercedes nudged her and gave her a plain 'WTF' look to which Rachel responded with an 'I have no freaking clue!' look. Even when Kurt came by to sing 'I love you' to them he had confused look on his face.
As the guys finished up with You Can by David Archuleta and Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond, Rachel kept stealing glances at James, quickly looking away when she caught him looking back. He was still wearing that same little smirk. This was all kind of freaking her out.
Every once in a while Rachel could see Puck or Santana also looking over at her as well. They looked just as confused as she was.
After the last round of the applause for the Warblers, the boys split into different groups around the restaurant. Before Rachel could turn to question James though, Santana and Puck were at her side along with Kurt, Mercedes and Blaine. "So James, what's up?" Puck said with a crack of knuckles.
"Noah!"
"Yeah, what's going on?"
"Santana!"
"Easy guys," James said, taking a small step back. "I just need to talk to Rachel."
"Well, you're going to have to wait me first." Santana grabbed Rachel's arm and pulled her outside of Breadsticks. "Okay, we'll get to what's going on in their in a minute. First I want to get all of this emotional crap out of the way." She pulled a somewhat pained expression on her face but went on. "I'm… sorry for the things that I've said to you in the past. They were mean and I shouldn't have said them and-"
"You can stop Santana. I know how much this is killing you on the inside."
"Oh thank you. I don't think I could've done much more. So, now that we're best friends I can ask, why was James staring at you all night?"
Rachel rolled her eyes, but smiled. "I have no idea. He spoke to me in the choir room after glee earlier and then he shows up. That's as much as I know."
"Ooh, wanky."
"Shut up. Oh, and I'm sorry I said that you would only have a job on a pole." They laughed and walked back in together, arms linked, only to be confronted by the five other people waiting for them in there.
"Okay, my turn." James smiled kindly at Rachel and reached for her hand to gently pull her back outside. Rachel looked back at the others who showed no signs that knew what was going on.
Outside James just stared at Rachel for a moment and then took a deep breath. "So how's it going?"
Rachel laughed. "I'm fine, just a little confused." He laughed at that. "What's going on? We haven't spoken more than ten words to each other before today and all of a sudden you show up in the same exact place as I am twice on one day. Please explain."
James laughed again at the exasperation in her voice. "Listen, I don't want to say what I need to say here. One, it would be a major cliché to do this on Valentine's Day. Two, there are too many people. Well, more like stalkers."
Rachel turned to see her friends staring at them out the window. While, the others looked away guiltily, Puck actually stepped up right next to the glass, glaring at James. "Yeah, I'm sorry about them."
He chuckled. "It's fine. Just promise me that'll you'll be in the auditorium Monday morning at 6:30."
Rachel's eyes widened as she heard this, but she composed her face quickly. Seriously, this was so out of the blue! She wasn't complaining about the attention, but what about her solemn diva vow to herself to focus in the music for a while. But, James wasn't Finn. He didn't seem like the type to push or pull Rachel in a different direction. Nor the type to just abandon her with out a real reason.
All of this flashing through her mind in about two seconds, she nodded. "I'll be there."
Relief seeped through the smile that James seemed to be constantly wearing. "Good." He hesitated for a second but leaned in to kiss Rachel on the cheek. A quick smile and then he was walking away towards his car.
Rachel walked back in with a small smile on her face, but was almost immediately dragged back outside by Puck. "You know I'm kind of cold and would prefer the inside!"
She looked up at Puck laughing a little, but stopped the glare on his face. "Noah, breathe and relax your face muscles before it gets stuck.
Puck's look softened but he didn't really relax. "What's going on with you and James?"
"So just because a boy asked me to meet him in the auditorium on Monday and kissed me on the cheek there's automatically something going on?" Rachel laughed at Puck's sudden anger and muscle tension. "Relax. Does James seem like the type to lure me into a trap and try to stab me?"
"That was a bad choice of words Rach. I'm not standing by to let another guy hurt you. Not again. Not after what happened with your dads. Not after Jesse. Not after what Finn has done to you, twice."
"Look, I know that you and your mom and your sister seem to think that I'm actually blood related to you, but I just live with you. True, we act like siblings almost all the time but you don't always have to be the big brother. Sometimes it's useful, but I think I'm safe in this situation."
"You don't seem to get how mad I am at myself for not sticking up for you. I know you agreed to let me protect my rep but I hate watching everyone push my little sis around. That's not happening again."
"Fine, you can start calling out the hockey players or Finn, but please, be nice to James. He's not doing anything wrong."
"Fine, let's get home then. Don't want you out here getting a cold."
Rachel shoved him playfully but went back inside to grab her jacket and purse from Mercedes. "I'll talk to you guys tomorrow," Rachel said to her confused gaze.
"At the mall, right?" Santana cut in.
"Of course Santana." Rachel smiled at her new friend. "Brittany can come to. Kurt, stop pretending to feel uninvited. You're coming to."
"Yay!" Kurt jumped up and down excitedly. "Can we please vamp up your dresses please? You look much better this year but I really want to see some different colors on you."
"Fine. See you guys at eleven tomorrow." Rachel waved goodbye to her friends and walked to the car with Puck.
Once in the car Puck looked at her. "How are you going to hide the fact that you live with me once you start hanging out more with them?"
"Everyone needs to find out eventually anyway. But I'm going to let it happen naturally. I won't force it onto them."
"Okay." Puck still looked worried but pulled out of the parking lot.
"What happened to Lauren?" Rachel was still confused on how her brother had some how managed to fall for Lauren. She was a great girl, but just wasn't Puck's usual type.
"She went home when I told her I had to check on you. I think she understood that I really needed to talk to you. She wants to take this all slow. She's going to kill me."
Rachel laughed. "I think you'll manage. If you really want her, you can hold out."
Puck just rolled his eyes and turned on the radio for the rest of the ride home.
Monday morning Rachel took her own car to school. It was too much to ask for Puck to wake up at 5:30 to bring her in early. On the way, Rachel looked back over Saturday.
Once she had gotten to the mall Brittany had nearly jumped her in her eagerness to give Rachel a hug. The excited blonde was so happy to have a new friend. Mercedes, Kurt and Santana had quickly moved onto the subject of James. After explaining the two occurrences on Friday, Kurt and Mercedes went strait into dissecting everything. Their main conclusion was a lot of jumping around in joy for Rachel.
Rachel had asked though, "What happened to 'I need to be a diva' again? How men were only going to ruin that?"
"Oh please, like you could ever stop being a diva." Kurt said with and eye roll.
"And that was just to make you and Kurt feel better about riding solo on V-Day. But now we don't have to worry about it!"
Santana's main input was, "Auditorium? Wanky," while Brittany just kept on smiling for her new friend.
"But why did you go home with Puck afterwards?" was the question Santana cared most about.
"Noah was just giving me a ride home," Rachel answered honestly. After that they moved onto shopping. Kurt had gone crazy with the dresses and having Rachel model them for them all. She forced him to narrow it down to his top five favorite though. In the end she had gotten four dresses and a new a pair of jeans Santana had forced her into. She was currently her new red dress.
Pulling into the lot, Rachel entered the school. The halls unsurprisingly deserted and there was an eerie quiet. Once outside the slightly open auditorium doors, Rachel heard the soft sound of a piano. Peeking in before entering, she saw James at the piano on stage. Recognizing the melody, she fully entered and shut the door behind her. At the shutting sound James looked up and smiled, but he didn't stop playing. Rachel took this as she was allowed to come up on stage next to him.
Once she was sat down next to him on the piano bench. He looked over at her with a little smirk. "You ready for this?"
Rachel raised her eyebrows, but replied, "Bring it."
And suddenly she was rendered speechless.
Take me where I've never been
Help me on my feet again
Show me that good things come
To those who wait
Tell me I'm not on my own
Tell me I won't be alone
Tell me what I'm feeling isn't some mistake
'Cause if anyone can make me fall in love, you can
Save me from myself, you can
And it's you and no one else
If I could wish upon tomorrow
Tonight would never end
If you asked me, I would follow
But for now I'll just pretend
'Cause if anyone can make me fall in love, you can
Baby, when you look at me
Tell me what do you see?
Are these the eyes of someone
You could love?
'Cause everything that brought me here
Well, not it all seems so clear
Baby, you're the one that I've been dreaming of
If anyone can make me fall in love, you can
Save me from myself, you can
And it's you and no one else
If I could wish upon tomorrow
Tonight would never end
If you asked me I would follow
But for now I'll just pretend
'Cause if anyone can make me fall in love
Only you can take me sailing in your deepest eyes
Bring me to my knees and make me cry
And no one's ever done this
Everything was just a lie and I know, yes, I know
This is where it all begins
So tell me it will never end
I can't fool myself
It's you and no one else
If I could wish upon tomorrow
Tonight would never end
If you asked me I would follow
But for now I'll just pretend
If anyone can make me fall in love, you can
Show me that good things come
To those who wait
All the while Rachel just stared at the suddenly beyond amazing boy in front of her. The way his voice flowed and annunciated and made her melt! Only one person had done that to her and that affect on her was long gone. The picture of perfection in front of her was likely to hold her forever.
When he played the last chord he looked up and smiled his usual smile that Rachel was growing to love more every time she saw it. His eyes were this unique color of brown, hazel and grey. Yeah, she could definitely fall in love with those eyes.
"Do you get why I asked you hear this morning."
Rachel snapped out of her moment of analyzing James. "Yeah, I think I picked it up."
"I know it's kind of sudden and unexpected and, I won't lie random, but I had a take shot. I knew that it wouldn't be long until another guy tried to make you theirs. I couldn't let that happen. I've watched you get hurt by too many jerks. You deserve someone better than them. You deserve someone who cares about music as much as you do and cares about you as a person. Not just the lead in glee club or the person walking down the halls in very short skirts. But someone who's smart, funny, beautiful, a leader, and has one of the best voices around."
Rachel blushed as James listed off why he liked her. "Wow. Did you rehearse that or just some up with all that on the spot?"
James laughed and nodded. "I've thought this over a thousand times. I've imagined finally telling you this in a million different ways. But I decided the best way to ask you out was through music. So what do you say? I know I'm just a drummer in the back ground, but do you want to go out with me?"
Rachel smiled. "I say that you have proved yourself to be more than just a drummer and you did everything just right. Yes, I will most definitely go out with you." She leaned in to press her lips to his. It was simple kiss, but deep down she felt something. A little flutter in her stomach telling her that this was right.