I took one last look in the mirror, making sure that ever hair was in place. I combed through my bangs for the last time when I heard a knock at the door. I quickly put the hairbrush in the correct place on my vanity and bounded towards the top of the stairs. I could hear the muffled chatter between my fathers and Quinn. I wanted to wait until she was in the house and waiting in the hallway for me before I made my grande descendent, I am Rachel Berry after all. I peeked at myself in the mirror close to where I was standing, making sure I looked perfect. I walked over to the top of the stairs; the closer I got the bigger the smile across my face became, I bounced a little with excitement before readying myself for my big entrance. By the time I could see Quinn waiting at the bottom of the stairs for me and making light conversation with my dads, I was grinning from ear to ear.
"Hi" I smiled. And started making my way down the stairs. I'm not wearing heels any higher than I normally would but I decided to take the stairs extra slow anyway, to give Quinn extra time to see me I guess. I'm not wearing my usual sexy school-girl librarian chic style outfit either. Tonight I have dropped the school-girl librarian bit, and I'm wearing a little black dress, with no cardigan or tights. So I am bearing a bit of skin for my first date with Quinn.
"Rachel. You look…" She seemed to be at a loss for words. "Gorgeous."
"You're not so bad yourself." I leaned in and gave her a warm hug.
"I … um … I brought you these." She blushed, bringing a bouquet filled with white roses and little forget-me-nots. "And a bottle of wine for your Dads. I wasn't quite sure what else to bring, so I thought wine would be a safe bet." She said gesturing to my dads behind her holding a bottle of wine and giving me a teasing smile.
"These are beautiful, Quinn. I'll be right back, I'm gonna go put them in my room." I scurried back up the stairs, determined to get the flowers into a vase as fast as I could. The less time Quinn spent alone with my dads, the better. They'd probably already shared two embarrassing stories about me already. I had finally convinced them that Quinn had changed and had only made fun of me because she had feelings for me she couldn't understand. And quite honestly, I didn't mind Quinn picking on me, I like being the centre of her attention. Leroy took the news a bit better than Hiram; he still glared whenever I mentioned Quinn and myself as a possible couple.
I knew my dads were going to be one of the biggest hurdles in our relationship, next to the kids at school. Once I got them to allow me to at least be friends with Quinn, anything was possible. It'd been a fight, though. It wasn't easy to convince my dads – especially Hiram - that Quinn wasn't a monster. And after an ugly ending with Finn, neither of them were too keen on their sixteen year old to start dating again. And Quinn being a girl only made it more difficult; my dads didn't mind, no surprises there, but Quinn hadn't even told her parents out of fear, and I knew secretly she was afraid what people at school would think of her. But she did try to put on a brave face, but since I have being in acting classes since I was only one years old, I can see straight through her.
I quickly filled a vase from my room with water and I could hear Hiram talking to Quinn. He sounded civil enough, but that could change at any moment. I put the flowers in and placed the vase on my vanity, and I took one last look at how I looked in the mirror. If I was going to go public with Quinn Fabray, I was gonna look damn good while I did it.
When I came downstairs, Quinn was sitting on the living room couch while my dads were standing opposite her. I stifled a giggle, because I knew this is how I looked when my dads were about to lecture me about something. I realised what I'd just thought, and my smile was wiped clean off my face. I cautiously walked over to my dads and Quinn, and I managed to stammer out something so fast that it came out as gibberish.
Leroy turned to me, with a confused look on his face. "Slow down, Rach. What did you just say?"
"I said that Quinn and I should probably get going. We don't want to be late for our reservations and you don't know how much traffic there could be on a Friday night, after all Friday is a very popular night for dates because you don't have-" I was cut off before I could finish my sentence.
"Rachel, you're not going to be late. Sit down for a second. Your dad and I want to talk to you both." Hiram motioned to the couch, Quinn was nervously playing with her fingers and trying to keep from looking down at her lap. I could see that Hiram was gritting his teeth a little, so I flashed Quinn an encouraging smile.
"Okay, even though we've come to… accept that Quinn has changed and you two want to give this whole dating thing a chance, and have expressed that you don't think that the fact that you are both girls is a problem."
"And we are both proud of you for expressing who you are and how you feel, because we know how difficult it can be." Leroy added with a soft smile to Quinn.
"Yes that being said, it doesn't mean that Lima will. It is Ohio after all. We don't think you have grasped how hard this will be on you, the looks you will get and the things being said about you will not be easy. Before you interrupt me Rachel I know that times have changed, but they haven't changed that much and we know first hand how it feels." Hiram looked at Leroy to continue, and he went on saying basically the same thing. Trust me, Quinn and I already knew the consequences… It won't be that different for me, I'm used to the tormenting by now, but I do get worried about Quinn at times. She been at the top for so long I don't think she has ever been treated like that, but she's Quinn, I think she can give them her death glare and keep her head high. We knew that we were going to be the WMHS's hot piece of gossip for who knows how long. But our relationship isn't the first which makes gives me hope, and it will especially help Quinn, the other lesbian couple in our school are Santana and Brittany. I know they aren't out and proud like I hope we will be someday, but everyone knows even if Santana does deny it. The Glee kids would welcome us with open arms I'm sure of it, well maybe not Finn but I don't need his permission or consent anyway. There's still Quinn's parents though, I know she hasn't told them anything about me, but when she sees that she doesn't need them to approve of her relationship then she will. How do Christians feel about their daughters dating another girl who just so happens to be Jewish, oh and has two gay dads? I'm thinking it's probably frowned upon.
I zoned back in when I felt Quinn squeeze my arm.
"And know that even though Lima may seem to be against you, we aren't. Plus you'll have your friends behind you." Leroy looked relieved, as if he'd thought about what he was saying for a long time but hadn't had the chance to let it out until now.
"I know Daddy, we'll be fine." I gave him a hug; I knew that this was hard for him to accept, he didn't want me to go through the same abuse he went through for being gay and he still wasn't 100% confident in Quinn.
"Be back by midnight, okay?" he quietly asked me.
"No problem Daddy. I'll see you later tonight". I withdrew from his arms and walked over to Quinn, and entwined my fingers with hers. She gave me one of her adorable grins, and we headed towards the door.
I felt Quinn pull away for a second, and she turned towards my dad. "Thank you. I will make sure to have Rachel home by midnight. Goodnight Leroy and Hiram."
She was a better gentleman than Finn was and she was petrified of them. I looked up to Quinn, and I saw the same excitement in my eyes reflected in hers. "You ready?"
"Of course." She held open the door for me and gave me a little tap on my bum as I went out. I heard my Daddy clear his throat behind us, and I closed the door giving him my winning smile. We walked down the driveway towards Quinn's car, both giggling like little kids.
"Sorry about my daddy. I know he's supposed to be okay with us now and he does trust you, but I have a feeling it's more of the threat of my dad keeping him in line." We got to her car, where she opened the door for me. "Thanks."
"In all honesty, I didn't expect your dads to accept us being together so fast, but I'm glad they did." Quinn crossed over to the driver's side. She put the keys in the ignition, but looked at me with adoration in her eyes.
"Me too." I breathed heavily, and I leaned back into my seat trying to control the urge to kiss her. I could feel Quinn smiling next to me, so I turned to face her and looked up through my eyelashes. "That grin should be illegal." she gave a soft chuckle. That grin should be illegal? What is wrong with me? My face has gone all red now, I'm sure of it.
"I'm happy I finally got the guts to do this. We're able to go out and have a relationship outside of the sneaking glances in Glee club and exchanging text messages. I can hold your hand in the hallways and tell people that yes, I did go on a date with Rachel Berry and if anyone has a problem with that then … well, we'll just let them worry about that." Quinn smiled an awkward smile. I didn't know what was happening, this was very out of character for Quinn. Was this her being nervous? It was kind of flattering that she would protect me. I blushed again, before noticing the clock on the dashboard.
"Quinn, our reservations are for seven, and its six fifty already!" I know it's not exactly custom for me to make the dinner reservations as Quinn asked me out, but I'm a vegan so there aren't very many choices for me and after I gave Quinn the pout she couldn't say no. I'd made reservations at the most popular vegan restaurant in Lima, it had good regular meals too. It was kind of swanky but first dates should be special and this one was so different that I sort of just took the idea and ran with it. I hadn't exactly told Quinn where we were going yet either; I just told her to head towards BreadStix. Oh no, maybe I shouldn't have said that! What if she gets her heart set on BreadStix and when we turn up at the vegan restaurant she's disappointed. She can't be disappointed on our first date, that would ruin it all.
"Okay, so where am I heading now?" Quinn interrupted my inner monologue, as she slowed the car down between the cross roads with BreadStix on the corner.
"Umm … it's a left here and then the road is pretty straight for the rest of the way there." I smiled apprehensively.
As if she could read my mind, Quinn said how she was hoping we weren't going to BreadStix because most of the meals there aren't that good.
"Where are we actually going then Rachel?" Quinn asked after the silence.
"AlmaZen." I was kind of nervous telling her this, because I didn't know if she had even heard of it and I hadn't even thought to ask if she was comfortable having our first date in Lima or at a vegan restaurant. But at least we wouldn't need to feel uncomfortable as no one we know would go to AlmaZen.
"Sounds perfect."
"You've heard of it?" I blurted, I hoped Quinn didn't take the surprise in my voice the wrong way.
"There's a lot of pressure to be thin when you're on the Cheerios and sometimes eating vegan meals is the easiest way to do that. And when Santana actually does eat anything it's vegan, so she used to make me come here with her sometimes. I like it … good choice Rachel"
"I think you look great without eating vegan meals," I said and looked down at my lap, avoiding eye contact with Quinn who kept her eyes on the road and smiled.
"No I don't," Quinn whispered. She looked so adorable when she was being bashful and shy, but it gave me that strong urge to kiss her. I was shocked, she really didn't see how beautiful she was! I thought she got told it everyday and would have believed it by now, I got a bubbly feeling in my stomach when I fantasised about being the person to tell her everyday how beautiful she was and that I loved her. … Oh my god, I love her. We haven't even got to start our first date and I know I love her. Oh my god. I can't tell her that, I would just scare her off like I did to Finn. No, I will bite my tongue this time and wait until it's the right time and I know she loves me too.
Quinn parked the car and walked around to my side before I had even unbuckled myself. She opened the door and held out her hand and said "Madam?". It wasn't cheesy like it sounds, it was actually very endearing and I felt myself blush for almost the fifth time that night. We were holding hands the whole way into the restaurant, the few people that were around overlooked us, ignorant to who we were and the fact that we were both teenage girls. I knew this wasn't going to be as difficult as my dads tried to make out. They probably came up with that whole speech together to try and scare Quinn off. It lasted for a good minute and a half before we passed an elderly couple when we were being seated. As we walked by both pairs of eyes was on us, and they were was silent with disgusted looks on their faces. Lovely.
It was at that moment that I decided I didn't care what they thought. But that didn't mean Quinn didn't care what they thought. I glanced at her to see her smiling at me, she hadn't seen the elderly couple. I don't want anything to ruin this first date and I definitely don't want anything to scare Quinn off. But as long as she and I were happy now, that is all that matters, Quinn and I. I had the approval of the people that mattered most in my life anyways, the other people's opinions just weren't important.
The waitress put us on a small table near the back of the room. I like it better back here, it was less lit, now I can blush as many time as I like. I giggled at myself and looked up to see Quinn looking right at me, smiling and with a look of admiration in her eyes. I just realised that I giggled to myself … out loud.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Quinn asked as she lent her head on her hand. I thought I was going to explode at how cute she looked. And the best part was she was looking at me.
"It was nothing," I smiled back. "Thank you for asking me out Quinn. I know it must have been hard for you."
"I would do it for you." God, she knew all the right things to say. My legs had started turning into jelly. She was about to carry on when the waitress interrupted her to take our order. I was about to bring up Glee club when Quinn spoke.
"You look so beautiful tonight." I couldn't help but blush and murmur a thank you. I had been trying to act all confident around Quinn, but it was proving to be quite difficult. She must always know what to say, and how to say it to make anyone swoon.
Quinn placed her hand on the table, asking me with her eyes to hold it. Of course I was delighted at her bold move in such a public place and I intertwined mine with hers across the table, and she used her thumb to caress my hand a couple times. She was looking into my eyes, and for once I didn't look away or feel uncomfortable. I didn't know what to do next, I've never dated a girl before. I'm a girl though, so it shouldn't be so hard to do things Quinn likes. I startled caressing her hand back. Quinn smiled the fullest smile I have ever seen on anyone. If it keeps going like this I might kiss her tonight, but is that moving too fast? I don't want to go to fast. It's not too fast if Quinn is liking it is it? And I know she is liking it, I can feel her pulse was racing in her hand, does that mean she can feel mine too?
"I think you look beautiful too," I blurted without even thinking about it. Quinn hung her head, but it did look like she was smiling. Was that too much? Should I stop caressing her hand? I stopped caressing it for a second. Maybe she was blushing, but too embarrassed to show. Finally, she lifted her head.
"Thank you," she said, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. I giggled a little at her embarrassment. I like this, I don't feel uncomfortable or anything. I really don't want this evening to end already.
The food arrived very fast, we didn't have much time to talk before the food, between all the long glances and hand caressing. And when I had to let go of Quinn's hand it felt unnaturally cold at the loss of her heat. Over dinner we found good areas of conversation. We talked about musicals and I was pleasantly surprised that Quinn had such a good knowledge on the subject. She told me that her parents took her to see Wicked on Broadway a couple years ago and that she thinks we show go together sometime. She basically asked me to go to New York with her for a Broadway show, that would be so incredible I can't even think about it right now for the fear of becoming giddy. Then we moved onto move personal topics and the Glee club.
"You definitely deserve more solos Quinn. You have a tremulous alto that just doesn't get enough attention. If you would like I could talk to Mr Shue about it, he appreciates my musical input more now." I smiled because it was all true, Quinn did deserve more solos but I knew that she would decline the offer as soon as I made it. That's just the kind of girl Quinn is.
"Thank you, Rachel. But if I got more solos then …" She looked right into my eyes with a teasing look. "you know that would mean that there would be less for you." I laughed at her teasing, but a tiny piece of me knew it was true. But I would happily give up my solos if Quinn was the one singing them instead, I love listening to her sultry voice. It does things mine could never do.
"Come on, Quinn! You must get tired of listening to me sing everyday, this could be your shot. Please?" I begged, I knew she would say no but she was so sexy when she rolled her eyes.
"I could never get tired of you singing," She said and reached across the table to grab my hand with both of hers. "But I would love to sing a duet with you. We would be so much better than you and that oaf, you carry the whole performance with him as your partner." I didn't think that Finn was terrible at singing but I would much prefer singing with Quinn too.
After some more talk and me insisting that Quinn come over on Friday to watch Funny Girl, to which she agreed only if we would then watch Where The Wilds Things Are, which I am pretty sure is a child's film, we ended up playing footsie under the table, and couldn't focus for longer than five seconds without one of us snickering. We'd finally managed to control ourselves when a waiter arrived with the most delicious looking piece of cake.
"Your dessert, ladies." The waiter placed it on the table with a smile, and turned to walk away.
"But we didn't order our dessert yet. This isn't ours." Quinn told the man.
"It was paid for by that table by the kitchen. I'd take it if I were you. The woman was pretty adamant about ordering this for you." The man pointed us in the direction of the table and went on his way.
I looked to where he had pointed and Quinn turned around in her seat to see as well. And of course there she was, Santana Lopez, sat there with a smug look on her face and waggling her fingers at us. Brittany was sat next to her and she gave us a genuine smile which told us that she wasn't in on the joke. I looked back to Santana who was pointing at the plate and raising her eyebrows. And when I looked back at our table I saw Quinn looking down at her hands in her lap. She wasn't ashamed of me was she? I wouldn't really blame her if she was; Santana just witnessed Quinn Fabray, head Cheerio and the hottest girl in school, on a date in a vegan restaurant with Rachel Berry, the biggest loser of the school. I had kind of hoped that Quinn wouldn't feel embarrassed around Santana her so-called best friend though.
On the plate was a slice of cheesecake, and around the outside was a heart outlined with raspberry sauce. On top of the cake was a little red piece of paper. I looked at Quinn to see that she was looking at me with sorrow in her eyes, I couldn't tell if she was sorry she had come here or sorry that Santana had done this, I hoped for the latter. I was almost afraid to see what was inside the little red paper.
"Go on, open it. I don't care what it says." Quinn looked at me with a smile.
I opened it, and cringed.
Dear Q and Gayberry, I can't say I'm surprised but we'll see if everyone in school will be on Monday. Say cheese! -S
And sure enough as we both turned around to glare at Santana she was just finishing taking pictures to spread around school on Monday. I felt a big ball of dread fall down into the pit of my stomach. I knew everyone at school was going to find out eventually but I was counting on eventually to not be so soon, and I wanted it to be Quinn and I that made the decision to tell. I can't even imagine how Quinn is feeling, she was apprehensive enough but now with this I bet she wishes she had never asked me out. Santana really is a terrible friend, Quinn deserves someone much better.
"Rachel, I'm sorry. I know it's only 11 but would you mind if we headed back now?" Quinn said softly, her eyes were pleading me to say yes. This was killing me, we were having a great time and now I can tell that Quinn is regretting it all. I just nodded softly and called the waiter over to ask for the check. Quinn insisted on paying, saying she was the one that asked me out and it was the gentleman thing to do. We stood up to leave and Quinn held out her hand to me and asked me to hold it in the most angel voice I'd ever heard. I was surprised she didn't want to put her head down and barge right past Santana without saying a word. But of course I agreed and she lead me out by the hand.
Once we were outside and by her car I saw here look over the parking lot and squinted her eyes at one car. I followed her eyes and saw the car too, Santana and Brittany were sat inside watching us. I sighed and began to walk around to my side of the car before Quinn grabbed me by the forearm.
"No, I'm not ashamed of who I am. And I am not ashamed of being here with you, Rachel." She said while turning me around and taking a step towards me so my back was almost touching the side of her car. "She just caught me off guard." She gestured towards Santana.
She leaned in so close to me that I could smell her perfume. Quinn placed her hands on my shoulders, I reciprocated her movement by placing my hands on her hips, and gently pulling her towards me. I saw her turn her head slightly to make sure Santana was watching.
"Kiss me." Quinn turned to me with wide eyes.
"You sure?" I asked, looking for approval; there was no going back now, and I don't want Quinn to feel like she has to do this.
She took another step towards me, closing the gap between us and pushing me up against the car. She let out a small whisper, "Absolutely." She placed a chaste kiss on my lips; it made my legs go soft, the butterflies in my stomach performed acrobats and my lips tingled like crazy. It was a chaste kiss but I guess she didn't need to be indecent in public to get her point across to Santana that she wasn't ashamed, right?
By the time she pulled away, I had a huge smile plastered on my face. "You don't kiss everyone on the first date do you?" I let out a small giggle.
"No, but for you I can make an exception." Quinn flashed her broad smile at me, and I leaned in once again. If she does that one more time I swear I am going to pass out. It was amazing how great this felt, to be kissing Quinn in the parking lot of a restaurant on our first date, with people from our school watching but no care in the world. We broke apart, and I took a step forward and Quinn led me around the car and helped me in, the whole time I had this dopey looking smile on my face. I touched my lips with my fingers, they were still tingling but it felt nice. Santana must be pleased with herself, she got a show, and some decent pictures to spread around. I wouldn't mind a couple of those pictures myself.
"We've got a lot of explaining to do on Monday" Quinn said, twisting around in the car to put her belt on. Both our hands touched while buckling in, we let them intertwine for sometime and just looked at each other with dopey expressions on our faces. Then Quinn saw the time on the dashboard. "And I'll have a lot of explaining to do to your dads if we don't leave now! They're never going to let me take you on another date if we don't get back before midnight." She pulled out of the parking lot and drove down the long road heading back to downtown Lima.
"You want to take me on a second date?" I asked bashfully and watched her face carefully.
"Of course I do," she replied in a heartbeat without so much as a flicker of unsureness. "And don't we already sort of have a movie date planned for Sunday?" She winked at me, and it sent my heart to my throat.
"Uh … yes, yes we do."
The rest of the drive home went far too fast. I wanted to spend as long as I could with Quinn so I took extra long fumbling around with my seatbelt when we pulled up to my house with the porch light on meaning that one of my dads was still up. Of course, playing the gentleman this evening, Quinn was at my door again to escort me to my porch. We reached the porch and the awkward goodbye started, the one where neither of you really want to say goodbye but you know that you have to. I really wanted to kiss her again, but I didn't know if three kisses on the first date was too much.
Apparently Quinn didn't think so. She leaned in close to my face and closed her eyes, I did the same and we shared a sweet chaste kiss on my porch. My lips, which hadn't stopped tingling, were now on fire. I gave a breathy giggle and opened my eyes to look at Quinn's face. I leaned back in and the porch light turned on and off a couple times. It frightened Quinn, who pulled away before our lips could touch again.
"I think that's your cue, Rach" Quinn smirked and gave my hands a squeeze. "Thank you for a wonderful evening Rachel. I'll see you Sunday for our movies?"
I was still in a dazed from our kiss so only managed to nod with a ridiculous grin on my face. She laughed at me, said goodnight and walked down the drive back to her car. I stood in the doorway and waved her off. As I watched her car turn the corner it all hit me. I had just had the best first date ever ... and it was with Quinn Fabray … and she kissed me three times … and she was coming over on Sunday! It's official, I'm Rachel Berry and I've kissed Quinn Fabray, three times!