Twenty-four year old Rachel Berry stepped into the apartment she shared with her best friend Santana Lopez, carrying the Latina's usual from Starbucks, along with her own partially finished drink. Rachel was enjoying her first day off from her first starring role on Broadway, Wendla in Spring Awakening, since the opening three months ago. She was glad for the break, but she loved her job more than anything in the world.
Rachel knew that no one from McKinley, save Brittany who lived in the same Chelsea building as the two, would ever believe that she was best friends with Santana. The two had barely tolerated each other in high school. However, as fate would have it, they were assigned to be roommates in their first year at NYU, Santana studying to be a lawyer, and Rachel majoring in theatre at the Tisch school. They were both furious at first, but soon found that they had quite a bit in common. It also helped that Rachel had restrained her neuroses considerably over the summer. They had grown to be the best of friends, and decided to live together, after Rachel's fathers had bought her a two bedroom apartment.
Santana walked out of her bedroom just as Rachel set the coffees down on the kitchen table.
"It's about time you woke up," she joked.
"Haha. It's not even ten yet Rachel. You would think that you would sleep in on your first day off."
"I don't think I can. I woke up at eight this morning and was wide awake. Anyways, drink your coffee, and then we can hit the gym?"
"Sounds good. By the way, we're going to a concert tonight at the Highline. And no, you cannot argue your way out of this. You need to get out and do something fun tonight!"
"I wasn't going to argue. I was going to ask who's playing."
"I can't remember the name of the band. But still. It should be a good time." The taller brunette smiled mischievously before walking to her room to change into her workout clothes.
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Around four that afternoon, Santana shoved a pile of clothes at Rachel and told her to get ready before doing so herself. Rachel quickly changed into the dark indigo jeggings and black spaghetti strapped tank with a ruffled front. She loosely curled her hair, leaving it to fall in a slight disarray, before applying a smoky eye and light pink lipstick.
She grabbed her Christian Louboutin Winter Trash peep toe heels and made her way into the living room to wait for Santana, who, surprisingly, was already waiting for her, dressed in a distressed denim mini and a white ribbed tank that exposed a couple inches of her toned, tanned stomach and clearly showed the bright red bra Santana was wearing under the shirt. She was wearing a a pair of black Jimmy Choo heels with crystals on the heels, her hair had been left in its natural waves, and her makeup was surprisingly simple, her eyes lined in black and her lashes coated in mascara, along with a nude lipstick.
"You ready?" Rachel asked, grabbing her cell, credit card, ID and some cash and shoving them into her small, multicoloured Coach wristlet, and watching her friend shove her phone and some cash deep into the pockets of her skirt.
"Yep." And with that, the two girls left their apartment.
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After presenting their names at the door, Rachel and Santana entered the venue. Rachel was shocked by the number of people in the audience that mainly consisted of teenage girls.
"The band must be smoking hot," Rachel laughed, as she and Santana scanned the audience.
Santana nodded her agreement before suggesting they get drinks.
Almost as soon as the two girls had walked away from the bar with their rum and cokes, the lights dimmed and the opening band stepped onto the stage.
The concert was pretty good, and Rachel found herself getting into the pop punk sounds of the opening bands. It reminded her of the music her ex-boyfriend had enjoyed so much.
Finally, the main band took the stage. And as the spotlight hit the main singer, just as he began to sing, Rachel gasped. Noah Puckerman was standing on the stage, basking in the attention of the hundreds of people in the room.
Rachel hadn't really had time to keep up with her ex's life, and besides, their breakup had been more than a little messy.
As Noah played, Rachel realized he must have moved on, as almost every song his band performed was about him being in love. There were a couple of break up songs, but really, Noah was a very attractive man, more so at twenty-four than he ever was in high school, and he had probably had several girlfriends in the two years they had been apart.
After several songs, everyone left the stage except Noah, who sat on a stool that had been brought out for him with his old acoustic. Rachel recognized it from when he had performed Sweet Caroline for her in sophomore year. She smiled slightly at the memory. It was at that moment that she realized that she was still in love with him.
When Rachel and Noah had been dating, she had believed they would spend the rest of their lives together. However, they had broken up, using the distance as an excuse after a fight in which both of them had said terrible things to the other. Rachel had gone out with a few men since then, but non of them ever lasted. None of them compared to him. She had to find a way to talk to him.
However, her slight burst of hope was quickly halted by the realization that Noah had almost definitely moved on. She had been terrible to him during that last fight.
She was jerked out of her thoughts when Noah started talking.
"How are y'all doing?" he asked. She had always hated when he said "y'all". Now she realized how much she had missed it.
In response to the screams he smirked.
"So, I don't know how many of you know this, but when I was in high school, I was in the glee club." He laughed. "It was completely lame, but my best memories of high school are from that club and the people that were in it. Anyways, in my senior year, we went to Nationals for the second time. And we actually prepared for it, as opposed to the year before."
Rachel was suddenly lost in the memory of the day in early March of her senior year when they hammered out the set list for Nationals"
"Okay, everyone," Mr. Shuester said, clapping his hands once as he entered the room. I have just received the official requirements from the National Show Choir Association. We essentially have free reign to do what we want, within reasonable restriction, of course. However, a band called All Time Low is guest judging this year, and at least one of our three songs is required to be by them."
Rachel was suddenly even more excited for Nationals than she had been before. It wasn't something she would tell people, but All Time Low was actually one of her favourite bands. A side effect of growing up with Noah Puckerman she supposed.
"So does anyone have any ideas as to songs we could do?"
Rachel had to refrain from shooting her hand in the air. Luckily, Puck put his hand up.
"They're one of my favourite bands. And I'm sure the other groups will choose to do the more popular and up beat songs. One of my favourite songs by them is a slow acoustic one. I can play it for you guys if you want? There's just a small chick part that won't get done because I doubt any of the girls here listen to All Time Low."
Puck began to sing the song, obviously preparing to just skip over the female part. However, to everyone's surprise, Rachel's voice jumped in. To Puck's enormous surprise, her normally pure and smooth voice was able to easily take on the slightly raspy tone of Juliet Simms'.
As Puck concluded the song, everyone clapped.
"I think we should listen to a few of the bands' other songs, but I think that'll be the All Time Low song that New Directions sings at Nationals.
They spent the next half hour looking up All Time Low on YouTube, and decided that Remembering Sunday was definitely the best song for them for Nationals, and that Puck and Rachel would be the one's to sing it.
"That should be our closing number I think." Rachel said. "And we can just have it be a simple performance, maybe even have Puck play the guitar while I perform a dance behind him until my verse, where I should somehow manage to be above him, maybe there'll be a balcony or something at the venue, and then the rest of you can join in for the 'I guess I'll go home now' part."
"That's...actually a fantastic idea Rachel," Santana said, somewhat grudgingly.
"Okay," Mr. Shuester interjected. "I'll let the two of you work out the choreography and stuff for that on your own, since it's mostly you. We'll just spend one rehearsal figuring out how we should get everyone else onto the stage at the end during the week before we leave. We still need two more songs though, and they should probably be group numbers."
"What about I Want You To Want Me?" Finn suggested.
"Yeah, everyone can switch of lines for the entirety of the song," Mercedes agreed.
"That should be our opening number." Kurt put in. "We should have our performance be a story arc. The pursuit of someone, then a love song to them, and then the break up song."
"Edge of Glory!" Rachel nearly shouted, startling the rest of the group who had been deep in thought for the last couple of minutes. "We always do well with Gaga. And it's super upbeat, so the choreography we could do would be unreal. Brittany, Santana and Mike could do something fantastic with that song."
"Okay. We have our set list!" Mr. Shuester exclaimed.
That set list had been what led to Rachel and Noah's relationship.
Puck and Rachel were in the auditorium, working on the choreography for Remembering Sunday.
"It needs to be really simple on your part. Seriously, you can just sit there with your guitar." Rachel told Puck.
"That sounds awesome. Although I don't really know why I need to be here then."
"Because even though you refuse to admit it, you know dance, and you'll be able to tell me if something does or doesn't work with the song."
He had agreed to stay, but eventually the two of them ended up in an argument, somehow arriving at Noah's sex life.
"Why does what I do in my spare time matter to you? It's not like I'm fucking every single girl I go out with, first of all. And second of all, you aren't my girlfriend!"
"Well maybe I want to be!" Rachel had yelled back without thinking.
"What did you just say?" Noah asked, his voice much quieter than it had been before.
"God, Noah. Are you blind? I've been in love with you since we were ten years old!" Rachel said softly.
Before she could say anything else, he had taken three long strides over to her and pressed his lips to hers in the most passionate kiss she had ever experienced, even to this day.
"It was the most random set list probably in the history of show choir. I Want You To Want Me, then Edge of Glory, and then this song, that I'm going to play right now. There is a female part, and, if I've been informed correctly, the girl that sang this with my then is here tonight. So, if she can get her hot little ass up here before then, I'd really like for Miss Rachel Berry to sing with me." Noah said before beginning to play Remembering Sunday.
Rachel blanked. "What should I do?" She asked Santana.
"Go up there and sing with the man you are so obviously still in love with!" The taller girl said, giving her friend a push in the direction of side stage.
Rachel rushed to the stairs at the side of the stage, only to be stopped by a bouncer.
"You can't go up there miss."
"Excuse me," Rachel said, fishing her ID out of her wristlet. "My name is Rachel Berry, and I've been invited up there to sing!"
She was allowed to pass, and then given a wireless microphone, walking to the side of the stage just in time to step onto the stage and sing her part.
I'm not coming back
I've done something so terrible
I'm terrified to speak, but you'd expect that from me
I'm mixed up, I'll be blunt
Now the rain is just washing you out of my hair
And out of my mind
Keeping an eye on the world
From so many thousands of feet off the ground
I'm over you now, I'm at home in the clouds
Towering over your head
After he finished the song, Noah gestured to me. "The beautiful Miss Rachel Berry, ladies and gentleman."
He stood up and hugged me, before I had a chance to slip off the stage. "Can you wait around for about an hour after the show? I need to talk to you." He whispered to me before pulling away.
I nodded before waving to the audience and leaving the stage.
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A little under an hour after he had left the stage, Noah had managed to pose with and sign autographs for all of his remaining fans, and made his way over to Rachel.
"You look really fucking good Berry." He said, very obviously checking her out.
"Yeah, well, performing at least once a day every day is bound to keep a girl in shape. Also, you look really fucking good yourself, Noah."
"Thanks," He said, looking down. When had he developed a sense of modesty? "So, I caught your show last night. You're fantastic. It was really good. The only problem I had with it is that St. Douche plays your boyfriend."
"You came and saw my show?" Rachel asked, slightly shocked. "Thanks," She said, taking her turn to look down sheepishly.
"Yeah, that's where I ran into San, and found out that you guys are still best friends and you've got a fancy new apartment now that you're a big Broadway star and she's on her way to being a fancy pants lawyer. I asked her to bring you to the show tonight. I miss you Rach. The last couple of years have been hell. I got a lot of really good songs out of it, but I need you. I love you."
Without thinking, Rachel threw herself at Noah, kissing him as passionately as she could.
"I love you too," She said breathlessly, as she eventually pulled away.
"We'll make it work this time. I know we will." He said, just before he kissed her again.