Author: CrazedHumor

Rated: T (for swearing)

Summary: I put it on her finger, expecting something...but it didn't fit...it had nothing to do with the size...It just didn't feel like how it was suppose to. It didn't feel like it looked like it did in the movies. This wasn't right. Niff

Note: Part Two is already written… Just remember that this is a Niff story. The next chapter is… well, you'll have to see for yourself. Based off of Katy Perry's, Not like the Movies.

Not Like the Movies

Part One

We had been going out for a year and a half when it happened. When my world came crashing down in our small apartment in the middle of the city. The remote hanging loosely in my hands as the images flashed on the screen before me in an array of taunting knowledge… I had been so stupid not to notice…

I met her at Blaine and Kurt's wedding reception.

I had been standing off to the side with the rest of the former Warbler members, catching up on everything we had missed out on in our years apart. I remember laughing when Wes brought up a prank I had been a part of, nearly choking on my glass of wine and spitting it everywhere until a hand came up to pat my back in comfort and a laugh I knew all too well rang around me.

"Take it easy there, man. There's enough for us to drink all night."

I nodded and smirked as I wiped off what had escaped from my mouth and had landed on my chin and suit. "You know I just love the attention."

Jeff shook his head at me and before he could retort, I felt a tug on the sleeve of my arm.

"Hello...Nick, is it?"

I turned at smiled in courtesy, "Yeah, I'm Nick."

She smiled, letting it reach her eyes. "I'm Rachel." Her hands met behind her back and she rocked a little on her toes. "I was talking to Blaine and Kurt about you..." She nodded over in their direction where they stood smiling and dancing to a more upbeat song. Blaine's limbs were everywhere and Kurt was doing his best to not fall over in laughter.

She blinked up at me through her silky bands that hung just above her lashes. "I was...I was wondering of you'd like to dance?"

I smiled and shook my head in giddiness. "Sure." Of course they would try and play matchmaker. I remembered thinking through the tingling sensation and lightheadedness.

At the time I didn't think anything was going to come from it. I thought a harmless little dance was going to be nothing but that. We'd make pleasantries and introduce ourselves and make small talk.

I had handed my drink to Jeff absently and turned from the rest of the guys as I let this petite girl lead me to the dance floor.

This was only a few weeks after I had been dating Anna. We had been going out for nearly two years. I thought that she was my everything. She was beautiful, there was no doubting that. Everywhere we went I noticed the way that the guys around us kept her in the corner of their eyes. Girls seemed to notice too, giving her glances up and down and gushing about her looks, whether in positivism or jealousy.

Our entire relationship was… strained. I was competing with nearly every male specimen around us. I felt insecure most of the time. Why would someone like her want to be with someone like me anyway? Not to mention that she hated my relationship with Jeff. She had since the very beginning when she had met us in our theater class in college.

We had been friends, Jeff and I, for over seven years at the point when I met Anna. Nine years when we broke up.

Junior high had almost been a bust. I had strolled in the door thinking about how easy it was going to be, being a big shot in my elementary school and instead I had been knocked on my ass and overwhelmed by the change. However, as I took my seat near the back of the room, I instantly found myself becoming friends with someone one morning in class when I pulled out my Wolverine folder and eyed the blonde haired lanky kind's own. We got into a heated debate over who would win in an epic battle of Batman verses Spiderman. From that point on we did nearly everything together. We got each other through the good and the bad, nearly living at each other's homes so as not to deal with the difficulty of our parent's. Mine ended up divorcing in our eighth year and Jeff's father passed away in our ninth. We clung to each other like static. Not many people understood our awkward geekiness or closeness, like spending the night at each other's house on a regular basis or sharing the same bed. We were overenthusiastic about comic books and RPG's on the Xbox and instead of playing football with the rest of the guys at lunch, we headed to the band room so I could practice the drums and Jeff could work on the guitar.

We stayed this way for years. In middle school we had decided that with everything that was happening at home, we had to talk to our parents. We needed… something. Anything to spread out and become ourselves and just be kids. Which was how we came across Dalton, the boarding school that opened up opportunities for us not only as students, but as friends. From the beginning we roomed together. They had tried to split us up the first week of our first year and that had been futile. We were hardly able to sleep in separate rooms and eventually they ended up having to cave and let us become roommates once more. In our junior year we decided on going to college together. We applied to five schools, spread across the country, all for different reasons and when we were both accepted to UCLA, we were thrilled. It seemed that even college wasn't going to be able to split us up. Best bros forever. We spent the first two years in the dorms and then later we rented an apartment close to campus.

In our sophomore year I met Anna. I tried to balance things out between school, Jeff, Anna, and the rest of the friends we had made over the years, but it became difficult. Slowly, Anna started to demand more time with me, which led to cutting time with Jeff because I couldn't afforded to slack off in school.

More than once I had to tell Anna that I had already had plans, even though it wasn't true, and instead of going out for a night on the town, I'd surprise Jeff by showing up to our apartment with a bag of takeout and a few new releases to watch for the night. I can still remember the feeling Jeff would give me whenever I told him I didn't have plans with anyone else. His face would light up and I just...

Anna eventually made me choose. I chose my best friend.

Apparently, Kurt and Blaine saw it fit to introduce me to Rachel, a former choir member of Kurt's and a mutual friend of theirs. They had kept in touch over the years, she told me. All three of them had lived here in New York, apartments only blocks apart, and every now and then they would run into each other at auditions and a local coffee shop. She told me what she was still working to become and all her dreams that she had been trying to achieve since elementary school.

She had stopped our dancing for a little while, skimming over her ex, who too was a mutual friends of theirs and went to McKinley. Finn and her had tried to survive the long distance relationship, but after a while it just got too...difficult, she stated. I remember her eyes wandering to a taller male that stood in the corner of the tent talking to a bald man, that I knew was Kurt's father. Finn was Kurt's step-brother, I knew, having met him a few times from group get-togethers in high school.

Then she quickly moved on, asking me questions about my relationship with the happy couple of the evening and the rest of the Warblers. I went into quick detail about my life from Dalton on. About how I had moved to California where Jeff and I attended UCLA, and eventually got an apartment together while working on our similar goals of hitting it big somehow.

I remembered how her eyes had brightened just a little, like something had flashed behind them with hope and she immediately pressed me for information on my talents and intended interests.

I just remember answering her with a laugh.

We had parted for most of the rest of the evening after our dance. The rest of the time I spent sitting with the guys at a long table where we all reminisced about how things had been in high school and how things were so much different now. Most of the evening I was reminded that things weren't so different as everyone made them out to be whenever Jeff would nudge my shoulder or I caught his eyes with mine through laughter and smirks. Another part of the evening I spent thinking about Anna and, at times, Rachel.

She had called me only days later, knowing that I was still in New York visiting. Jeff and I were staying at Kurt and Blaine's, taking care of their house until they returned the following week from their honeymoon in Paris, as Blaine had promised years ago. She had asked me if I wanted a tour of New York with her and she hooked me in when she said she'd take me out to lunch, her treat.

We spent the whole day walking the streets of New York. We talked about high school and college and what we wanted to do in the future. At times I hadn't noticed it. The way I had slid my phone out of my pocket to check the screen for missed messages from my counterpart who was currently still at the apartment with his comfortable clothes on and hitting up what little junk food was in the cabinet…When I was able to pull myself from the insistent nagging feeling at the back of my mind, I found her talking about, in all honesty, how different she was from her teenage self. "Leaving Lima had been the best thing," she said, "because then I wouldn't have become who I am today." And then she stared off for a moment, thoughts obviously elsewhere, until she smiled back up to me and nudged me in the arm. "And I wouldn't have met you."

I nodded and smiled back, thinking the same thing.

Kurt and Blaine had showed up about a week later, both glowing from their time in Paris and they spent a good two hours telling us, in detail, what they did and where they visited. They had been so happy when the judgment ruled for New York to legalize gay marriage. Even though Blaine and I hadn't really kept in touch over the years, I knew I had to congratulate them, and so I had called him and he gushed until I heard a door slam on his end. Kurt had arrived home and Blaine told me in a rush, "I gotta-." He hadn't even finished his sentence when he had hung up in eagerness.

Before we left, they asked us what we did. I remember telling them that Rachel had taken me out on the town, showing me around New York and only a day or two later Jeff and I had explored, telling him everything I could remember from Rachel's lesson.

I didn't notice it at the time, the look that they had given us, the brows that they had lifted in confusion as they looked from Jeff to me a few times. Finally, after nearly a half a minute in silence, Kurt had cleared his throat and somewhat smiled at me, or so it seemed at the time. "You went out… with Rachel?"

My hand found the back of my neck and I laughed. "Yeah, I mean...she said you guys talked about me at the reception and then she asked me to dance...and then she sorta...asked me out on a date the other day." I chuckled, looking at the floor between us, missing the looks they were casting at each other.

I had looked up at Jeff with a smile, expecting one in return. Instead my smirk slowly fell and my brows came together in worry and confusion. Jeff stood there without looking at anyone. His eyes hung low and his hair was covering half his features. I could only just make out the expressionless face he had on, arms hanging at his sides. I could tell that he was trying to make out his own thoughts. Like...he was confused, but he wasn't fully sure what he was confused about. Which detail of whatever he was thinking about was causing him that expression was getting to him more.

Nevertheless, I let it slide and we headed back to LA that evening.

The plane ride had been quite, to say the least.

Rachel and I stayed in touch, skyping, calling, and texting each other whenever we could in our free time. It seemed like the whole long distance relationship thing wasn't too hard to deal with...especially since we didn't have to deal with it for long.

Rachel ended up getting a small part in a television show in LA and she ended up moving there with us after only a few months of dating, sharing the apartment with both Jeff and I.

Months passed. Not much changed, though instead of staying in the spare bedroom Rachel eventually moved in with me.

Soon after, Jeff moved out.

I tried to get him to do otherwise. I didn't understand his abruptness to get away so fast. I just remember getting home one day after an audition to where I found Jeff's things were almost all out of his room. I remember panicking, thoughts drifting toward eviction or a burglar, but instead in the moments that followed, the front door opened and closed, Jeff standing there with sweat poring down his face.

I turned to him then, cocking a brow in confusion and pointing to his room. "What the hell are doing?" My thoughts were everywhere. I didn't understand how this had happened. I had lived with Jeff for almost half my life at this point. I spent years worth of time in our room. In our dorm. In our apartment. The thought of him leaving me…

Jeff had only shook his head. "I found an apartment downtown. Girl was looking for a roommate a while ago to kinda watch out for her and I volunteered."

He walked past me, toward his bedroom to grab the last box. I followed him. "What the hell are you talking about? You're moving out?"

Jeff entered the kitchen in front of me, setting down the box for a moment to grab something out of his pocket. "Yeah, I mean, that's what it looks like, doesn't it?"

The sound to his voice should have kicked me off. At the time I was so wrapped up in the idea that Jeff was leaving that I didn't take notice to slightest quiver to his bottom lip for the flaring of his nostrils or the way his Adam's apple bobbed up and down just before he spoke. I was too busy watching his eyes and searching out the true reason as to why this was happening. I stood there, completely in shock, blinking back what I can only remember as tears now. "Wh-" My hand came up to rub my face. "You mean...you're moving out...and you've known for a while?"

Jeff nodded stiffly toward me, then handed me a key. "H-Here's the one for the apartment, I… already turned in the key for the front door." He refused to look at me as he lifted the box and opened the door to make his way downstairs.

I had stared at the key for a long moment, not fully understanding what it meant when his fingers brushed mine to lay the piece of copper in my hand. There was the clatter of metal against the counter top as I threw the key to the side so I could follow his footsteps, not being able to make coherent sentences. "Y-you're just moving- You didn't say- When did you-" I sounded like an idiot to anyone that passed by, but I didn't care. Not one damn bit. My voice was broken and I was frowning and I just felt… lost. Jeff stuffed the last box in the car and I heard something escape him, but it barley registered on my radar of notice.

The car we had been so anxious to buy when we first moved out to LA. The one that we had bought together only a week into living here because they had discovered a cheap take out place downtown and refused to walk all the way there at two in the morning when we got our random food cravings and nothing was in the house. The rickety old car that I found myself stuck in nearly four blocks away and Jeff and I had ended up pushing all the way back home one afternoon. The same car Jeff and I had laid on top of after a month of being here and just… talking about nothing out in the middle of no where.

It was when he was opening the door of the vehicle, when it hit me. I slammed my hand against the glass, preventing him from being able to open it all the way. My chest was heaving and I refused to look at him at first. Instead I watched our reflection in the glass as Jeff turned to look up at me and I continued to stare at the side of his contorted face. "You're just going to leave. Just like that." When he didn't say anything, I continued. "You were going to leave me without telling me you were going to move out…" I lifted my eyes, sad and confused and hurt that my friend of nine years would do this to me. "Without even saying goodbye?"

Jeff stood there for a moment, a frown, a, expression finally appearing on his face. He looked up at me, finally meeting my eyes for the first in months. And it was painful. It made everything hurt. "Yes. I'm leaving. I didn't think it'd matter if I said goodbye or not. I thought it'd be easier this way." Jeff bit his lip and then smirked lowly, giving out a pitiful chuckle. "Things kind of backfired..."

I knew he wasn't talking about me showing up. I fucking knew that he wasn't referring to the fact that he was moving out without word.

I knew what he meant, but I didn't do anything. I didn't say anything until he was halfway down the road and out of my eyesight, too mixed in with traffic for me to be able to make out his rear lights in the day light. The only thing I could think of at the moment was his name. I breathed it and looked back up at the window to our apartment, lost as to what to do.

And even then, if I had realized it. If I had pulled my head out of my ass and brought myself to finally see it… it wouldn't have matter. It was already too late.

Months passed and during that time, my relationship grew seemingly stronger with Rachel as her career grew and mine started to flourish. When I wasn't working and we weren't on dates, I spent my time on the phone or the computer. I did everything I could to get a hold of Jeff. I texted and called him and left him pages of e-mails. He didn't answer me once.

Things appeared to pass more rapidly when he wasn't there. The days strung together and half of the time, if it wasn't for my scheduled practices, I'd had no clue what day it was. Nights passed faster than I liked, instead of staying up late and playing video games until four in the morning, I started going to bed early with no one to compete against, only to wake up the next morning feeling as though I hadn't slept at all. The holidays were different. Instead of waking up to the smell of chocolate covered waffles and a few special presents under a crappy plastic Christmas tree, I woke up to Rachel's voice in my ear telling me to get proper for her fathers downstairs.

Valentines day was a bust. I had attempted a home cooked meal, but I had always been rotten at it and was use to Jeff making everything. He use to tell me that every now and then I had to eat something he made to even out all the junk food and the take out we got. So it wasn't a huge surprise when Rachel came back to the apartment only to find half my apron in shreds and all the windows open for venting out the smoke. She had laughed it off and told me to call take out and it wasn't a big deal.

And I remember thinking...It was a big deal. I had eaten nothing but junk food for the last week and all I wanted was a real meal for the occasion...but I didn't press her. I knew that if I asked her to cook something instead she'd just give me a look and tell me she didn't feel like it.

Finally, a year had gone by since Jeff had moved out, and… I asked her.

I remember going to a local jewelry store and standing at the counter, completely lost as to what I was doing until a woman came to assist me. She kept asking me what I was looking for, what kind, what cut, what size, and I just had no idea...to any of it. I couldn't give her a single answer to any of them. I knew what color she liked. I knew what shape she preferred. I knew her size because I held her hand all the time...but, all in all, I didn't know. Instead I looked like an idiot and let the woman pick out a traditional ring that nearly every woman would have liked.

I asked her as I stood on one knee in front of the rest of her family, who had come to visit one weekend.

She had said yes.

Part Two Coming Soon~