Just a little something something I knocked up in a short space of time.
Enjoy!
My heart is open. It needs no lock, for it has no key, because in someone else it already belongs.
Rachel stared at the neatly printed letter for a moment completely bemused. The letter gave no indication from whom it had come from and merely consisted of her home address and a single first class stamp. Rachel didn't hesitate to wrench open the door onto an icy midwinter to glance down the street, as if her confusion would suddenly be answered by the sender standing the other side of the door. She strained her eyes as hard as she could; squinting into the distance, but even the postman had disappeared now, engulfed in his travels, trying to finish his morning round as quickly as he could on such a cold, bitter morning.
A gust of wind blew the New York chill, goose bumps covered the girls skin and Rachel walked briskly back inside before closing the heavy door behind her. She rarely received post from anybody except her two fathers' of who were still residing in Lima and braving the winter on their own in the household of which Rachel Berry grew up in. Thus, the letter was a surprise to say the least and instead of waiting to open what few bills and junk mail she did receive with her morning coffee, Rachel had ripped open the strange letter even before it managed to hit the floor.
The unexplained, anonymous letter was the only post Rachel was delivered that day hence she abandoned her morning coffee and instead spent her time traipsing her Facebook and Twitter account seeing if she could find any explanation, or even better, a culprit, to what the letter had meant or who had sent the letter. Although her friend requests had somewhat increased after New Directions win at Nationals, it still didn't take Rachel long to go through all of her friend list sending a brief message asking if they had sent or knew of anyone sending a letter to her. Most responses were brief and either consisted of a blunt "no," "I don't have your address" or in Santana's case, "I didn't know hobbit's had a mailing service?"
Rachel sighed at the lack of intellectual responses and resorted to writing a tweet asking anyone to come forward with information as if she was a police officer trying to yield information to solve a matter of life or death. Shortly after logging out and shutting down her laptop Rachel's cell rang and she was more than eager to answer it, so eager that when she lunged across the table to reach it, she only resulted in knocking it further away. By the time Rachel got to her phone it had stopped ringing and the front screen read one voicemail.
Hey Rachel, it's Kurt. If you aren't answering because you're still annoyed about last night I did say I was sorry and that it won't happen again but I was drunk. Anyway, I hope you're okay and I just called to talk about your mystery letter. Talk soon, Love you.
Rachel tutted at her phone and shook her head, mentally scolding herself. She had in fact forgotten about the previous night but now that she had been reminded, she made a mental note to lecture the boy as soon as he picked up the other end of the line.
"Ah Rachel, you aren't mad! Thank God, I've been worrying all night about you. Blaine asked me to call the cops at one point but I told him you'd be fine and we'd check on you in the morning," Kurt blurted out before Rachel could get a word in edge ways, which in most cases, is the only way you have a hope of talking to Rachel without being shouted down first.
A small smile crept up Rachel's sleep ridden face, of course she was mad as Kurt, he threw a snowball at her after she specifically asked him not to as it was her brand new designed coat that had been specifically brought for her as a present by her father's; but on hearing Kurt's restless night of worrying Rachel didn't have the heart to say anything more about it. After all, on waking up she couldn't even remember the previous nights' events so it'd be unfair to complain about something she'd genuinely forgotten about and secondly she had also been just as drunk, to the extent that she threw her drink over Kurt when he suggested that she was drinking excessively in hope for an easy lay.
"Well I'm glad you had a restless night because I did also, after I spent half the night scanning my room from ceiling to floor checking you hadn't sent an 'easy lay' around after your foul comment," Rachel remarked because she couldn't completely drop the situation, it just wasn't in her nature.
Kurt blushed on the other end of the phone as he had hoped Rachel had forgotten, evidently not though. "I'm sorry Rach, I just drank a bit too much, but even so you shouldn't have run off in the night like that, anything could have happened."
Rachel felt a little guilty, "Yes, that was a reckless decision I made and I apologise but now can we get onto the matter in hand and discuss my mystery letter?"
She could sense that Kurt was getting excited and was probably preparing himself for the upcoming conversation by sitting himself down, relaxing a little bit before jumping to sit on the edge of the couch digging deeper and deeper for any information that Rachel may have or any inklings the girl may have on who sent the letter.
"I don't know who sent it before you even ask Kurt," Rachel stated convinced that she could actually hear Kurt deflate and mutter damn it under his breath.
"But you must have some idea; people don't send these things randomly out of the blue."
"I am aware of that Kurt, but as you're very much aware I've spent very little time with anybody else apart from you and Blaine these past few weeks," Rachel confirmed to Kurt.
"What about before then?"
Rachel thought for a minute, there was that one drunken guy giving her the eye on the subway but he didn't look intelligent enough to string letters together, let alone use words correctly, so she highly doubted it was him.
"Nope, no one."
There was a short pause of silence between the pair before Kurt spoke again, "You don't think…" he trailed off trying to get rid of the idea before it even formed in either of their heads.
Rachel was on the same wave length because she quickly dismissed it too, "That was a long time ago Kurt, we worked through that and we are friends, nothing more."
Kurt nodded before realising Rachel couldn't see him, "Yeah, stupid idea, sorry."
Silence fell again.
"Rachel?"
"Kurt."
"Just checking you were still there, I've never known you to be so quiet," Kurt said a hint of concern laced in his voice.
"Mmm," Rachel responded not really aware of what Kurt had just said as she was too busy pondering over his previous comment.
The summer following their graduation a party was held in honour of the McKinley High students that helped the Glee Club secure their victory at Nationals. Naturally the party was held at Rachel's as both her dad's were once again away and for once, persuasion from Puck wasn't needed for the key to the alcohol cabinet. However, despite having the key to the cabinet that wasn't the only alcohol that was brought along. Crates of beer somehow found themselves into the Berry basement, additional bottles of spirits and even, to Rachel's disbelief, imported standard Russian vodka, she could only assume came from Santana as she literally threw herself in for the first shot.
Two hours in and the majority of the members in the basement were well and truly inebriated and the game of truth and dare to follow only emphasised this point more. After only two rounds Sam was sporting boxer shorts as his only item of clothing, Santana and Brittany could be heard 'fornicating' as Rachel liked to describe it in a room above them and Puck was so far gone nobody could tell if he was unconscious or just sleeping, but thankfully when hiccups turned to snores they knew he was far from dead yet.
Santana and Brittany returned to the basement only to say goodbye to Rachel before leaving hand in hand with Brittany's mouth latched to the latina's neck. Rachel winced before feeling her heart sink as she hadn't had that feeling in a while. That feeling of love and new found happiness. It seemed so far off, but there was no time to dwell because a chant of 'spin the bottle' had started behind her and she couldn't afford for the neighbours to complain and potentially blab to her dad's.
The rest of the glee clubber's left at scattered intervals ranging from midnight to three in the morning, with Sugar being the last to leave escorted by Rory who was asking anyone who would listen 'where is the pot of gold?'
Rachel closed the door after waving off Rory and Sugar before returning to the basement where a currently tipsy Kurt lay flat out on the couch. He had already begun to sober up unlike anyone else but his wild arm flailing gestures made absolutely no sense to her. She walked over to him in her half drunken state and asked, "Kurt I know you aren't quite with it right now, but the arm flailing has got to stop its hurting my head."
"One person left," Kurt mumbled drowsily.
Rachel winced, the sound of even his mumbles already making her head hurt, "Kurt you are the only person left I know that so get some sleep and…"
Kurt interrupted, "Not me Rach, Quinn," and with those last few words Kurt was fast asleep, his mouth hanging open, saliva slowly dripping down to his chin.
"Ew, gross," Rachel screwed her face up before turning around to hunt for the blonde. Now she thought about it she hadn't said goodbye to Quinn and she'd checked every room of the house minus…
Knock. Knock. Knock.
"Why are you knocking on your own bedroom door Rachel? Most people enter theirs of their own accord," Quinn giggled drunkenly.
Rachel pushed open the door to be greeted with Quinn stretched across her bed propping her chin up on her left hand so that she wasn't completely flat and she could see Rachel more clearly.
"Quinn, whilst I don't mind you sleeping in my bed, it is common courtesy to ask to sleep at somebody else's house instead of diving straight into the bed of the hostess," Rachel said with a raised eyebrow.
Quinn bounded off the bed and straight towards Rachel, "I just wanted to see what the famous Rachel Berry's room looked like before leaving for the night," she replied stopping just in front of Rachel a guilty look etched across her face.
Rachel smiled, "Would you like to sleep over Quinn?"
"No, I promised I'd go to church with my Mom tomorrow, we're trying to weave our way back into each other's lives so I figured I better start trying now because I'll be in Yale in two months."
"Yale," Rachel whispered under her breath.
"Yale," Quinn giggled mocking Rachel before walking out of the room and heading towards the front door. Rachel followed soon after her and just as Quinn had her hand on the handle Rachel called her back.
"Thank-you for coming tonight Quinn, I hope to see you again before you leave for Yale. If not, I'll be using my pass soon than expected," Rachel joked, the effect of the alcohol quickly wearing off and being immediately replaced with a horrendous headache.
Quinn smiled and without thinking took three large steps forwards and pushed a firm kiss on Rachel's lips before removing them just as quickly as she'd placed them there. Both girls stood for a minute not knowing what to say to each other or where to look and then all of a sudden they spoke at once and the whirlwind of the situation was as over as quickly as it had started.
"Quinn, I…" Rachel said at the same time Quinn walked to the door and calmly turned around before saying, "I know about the gardenia, Goodnight Rachel."
"And I know about senior prom," Rachel whispered brokenly to the sound of a closing door.
"Stop it Kurt!" Rachel shouted after what felt like an age of non communication.
"I haven't done any…" Kurt protested.
"No, but you are thinking it and that is just the same as saying it! Quinn did not send the letter, why would she? I mean, she rang me the morning after and explained that she was drunk and didn't know what she was doing and that it was merely a friendly gesture of thanks."
Kurt snorted, "A friendly gesture of thanks," he repeated, "does that mean I have an excuse to go back and have a baby making session with the cute bartender because he got rid of the non-existent fly in my martini last night?"
"No," Rachel scoffed, "That's different and anyway I believe Quinn," she finished.
"But it wasn't what you wanted to hear was it?"
"What's that supposed to mean," Rachel asked nonchalantly.
"It means that I've seen how you look at her, how you light up when she shoots a look in your direction and the way your smile fades when you realise she's looking at someone behind you," Kurt explained softly.
"You have no idea what you're talking about Kurt," Rachel deadpanned.
"Don't I?" Kurt asked raising an eyebrow that Rachel couldn't see.
A knock at the door stole Rachel's concentration from the pending conversation. She had no idea who it could be. People rarely travelled in the snow and ice if they could help it. Maybe they walked; Rachel thought to herself before remembering how she'd staggered home, drunk, on sheet ice the night before and thought how any sober person would think twice before attempting to walk on an ice rink.
"It's okay Rach, it's hard to come to terms with it when you like someone but I can help yo…"
There was a second knock on the door. They were persistent, Rachel thought, she'd give them that. After a third knock literally seconds after the second knock Rachel knew she could no longer leave them on the doorstep freezing off whatever genitalia they may have.
"You have no idea what you're talking about so instead of giving me advice, give Blaine a ride to the airport so he doesn't die before managing to complete senior year," Rachel rambled impatiently.
"But…"
"No butt's Kurt, someone is at the door, I have to go, bye," and Rachel hung up, however she was convinced she heard Kurt attempt to yell the words 'pressed lemon' before the line disconnected.
Rachel threw her phone on the table and headed to the door. She wished she had a peephole, that way she'd be able to see if letting in a draft of icy air was worth it or not, but unfortunately without one, she had no choice but to greet whoever persistently tried to get her attention. She had just about managed to lift the latch before the door was being pushed open and then pushed herself, against the closest surface with a strangers lips attached to her own.
Or were they a strangers? They felt familiar. Rachel wracked her brain, urging it to work faster, damn hangover, Rachel yelled at herself and then all of a sudden it clicked.
She didn't know when her eyes had closed but she wrenched them open and found herself looking into eyes the colour of fall and summer leaves. A perfect mixture of burnt orange and emerald green merged into a hazel contrast so familiar that a name immediately formed on the tip of Rachel's tongue.
"Quinn," she breathed, "All this time?"
Quinn nodded shyly, magenta patches forming on her cheeks in the dim light. Her breathing was slightly laboured due to the quick, frantic kisses she continually planted on Rachel's lips but she didn't seem to care. She seemed in too much awe to speak so it was no surprised that Rachel verbal control of the situation.
"The letter?"
Quinn nodded again, her eyes darting from Rachel's orbs of mahogany to her puckered, pink lips and then back again.
Rachel tried to remember what the letter said, it was on the table, and she could go and get it! Wait, no she couldn't, it would ruin the moment. Rachel stayed rooted to the floor and then, to her surprise, Quinn spoke.
"What did you say?"
"What," Rachel asked confused.
"When I left that night, you said something."
"How do you…"
"You always have the last word, always," Quinn smiles bashfully, "What was it?"
"And I know about our senior prom," Rachel replied in an undertone.
"All this time?" Quinn mocked cheekily, her magenta patches deepened in colour before she leaned in once more, much slower this time and captured Rachel's lips carefully between her own and finally allowed for the girl to lean in to the kiss before making the decision of eagerly returning it.
Reviews?
For anyone who is reading "When I Deserve You," I am slowly getting there with the next chapter, sorry for the wait!