Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any profit from the use of, these characters.

A/N: Hello all, and welcome to my first Glee story. I don't exactly know what the venn diagram of 'people who watch Glee' and 'people who've read Cyrano de Bergerac' looks like, but if you, like me, are in that center section, then this one is for you lol. (If anyone cares, I'm working off the Kingsbury translation of the book.) I'd really appreciate your feedback! Enjoy!

Cyrano

"I'm sorry."

"I should probably go."

Without waiting for a response, Marley turned and walked blindly down the hall away from Ryder's locker. What was she supposed to do? She'd meant to just give Ryder his Valentine's Day card and thank him for helping Jake come up with her gift ideas. She hadn't expected him to kiss her.

She ducked into the girls' room for a moment to compose herself. Ryder had kissed her. Ryder had kissed her. How had she gotten herself into this mess?

She rested her books on the corner of the sink and met her own eyes in the mirror, surprised to see that she didn't look any different. She felt different. Blushy. Tingly.

Ashamed.

This was ridiculous. It wasn't like she'd never kissed Ryder before; they'd kissed all the time when they were Danny and Sandy in the school production of Grease. And that one time backstage, on opening night.

But that was before she and Jake had officially started dating. That was before Jake had told her he loved her, and she'd said it back. And she'd meant it... right?

Pull it together, Marley, she told herself sternly in the mirror. After school, you can take all the time you want to freak out about this. With that, she took a deep breath and left the bathroom.

She slipped into Mrs. Swanson's English class and into her seat just seconds before the bell. She felt momentarily relieved that Ryder had been transferred out of this class after being diagnosed with dyslexia. Unfortunately, she wasn't lucky enough to be able to avoid Jake as well, and the first thing she did was make eye contact with her boyfriend across the room. 'Hey,' Jake mouthed, shooting her a wink. 'I love you.'

She mustered a grin for him—at least, she thought she did—and turned around to face the blackboard as Mrs. Swanson began taking attendance. So much for waiting until after school to freak out. I can't even look at him. What if he can somehow tell I've been kissing Ryder?

Mrs. Swanson put away her attendance sheet and picked up a well-worn novel, holding it up to the class. "I hope you all did what I asked over the weekend and read the first three acts of Cyrano de Bergerac." she said.

Marley had; in fact, she'd already read it several times. It was one of her favorite books, and under normal circumstances she'd be excited to talk about it... but how was she supposed to concentrate on the book when she was currently dealing with her own real-life Cyrano situation?

"Who can give me a brief summary of the first three acts?" said Mrs. Swanson.

When nobody volunteered, she called on someone, a girl in a Cheerios uniform whose name Marley didn't know. She was a fine looking girl, but it was hard to look past the huge neck brace she wore. "So, there's these two guys, Cyrano and Christian." the Cheerio said. "And they both love the same girl, Roxane. But Cyrano finds out Roxane loves Christian, so he puts his own feelings aside and helps Christian win her."

The teacher nodded. "Very good. How does Cyrano help Christian? Kitty?"

From her seat next to Marley's, Kitty sighed with annoyance, popping her gum loudly. "He writes her all these romantic love letters, since Christian's too dumb to think of anything to say to her himself."

Marley fidgeted in her seat. It was hard not to see the parallel between Ryder and Cyrano... she'd said it to him herself: 'Jake is awesome and everything, but he's not capable of that. Any of it. I know it was you, whispering in his ear like Cyrano.' God, no wonder he'd kissed her. It had probably sounded like some kind of open invitation. Why hadn't she just kept her mouth shut, pretended they'd fooled her? It's not like it was a big deal. So Ryder remembered her favorite song and her favorite flowers. So what? It's not like the only reason she liked Jake was that he gave her gifts.

"Why do you think Cyrano would want to help Christian?" Mrs. Swanson continued. Marley was barely listening as neck brace Cheerio raised her hand.

"He wanted her to feel loved by the guy who loved her." said the Cheerio, sighing at the romance of it all.

Kitty snorted. "More like, he wanted to hit that but he knew she'd never look at him twice because of his giant honker." she said. "So he was like, it's not like I can ever have her. Might as well help the hot guy get some."

"That's an interesting point, Kitty." Mrs. Swanson said, obviously used to having her students reduce classic literature into slang and crude paraphrasing. "On page 110, Cyrano says 'But still I feel my heart has something gained, since on those lips where Roxane now is caught, it is the words I spoke just now she kisses.' Cyrano feels that even though Christian is the one kissing her, Cyrano has gained something from it: the knowledge that his words, his actions, have made her feel this way."

"Like I said." Kitty put in. "It's the closest he's ever gonna get to having her for himself."

Marley caught herself toying with the heart pendant she wore around her neck, realized that Ryder had probably picked that out too, and felt a little stab of guilt. How did Ryder feel when he saw her wearing his pendant around school? Was he happy that she was enjoying the necklace he'd chosen? Or was it painful, because he knew she was wearing it for Jake? This morning, she'd figured it was the first one, but in view of the way he'd kissed her...

It was painful for him, wasn't it? If she was in his position, could she have sung backup while her best friend serenaded the guy she loved, and then took credit for the idea to do it in the first place? God, she would be miserable. How was it even possible that he was so nice?

But he really wasn't nice, was he? If he was so noble about letting her and Jake be happy together, he wouldn't have kissed her in the hall like that. Kissing your friend's girlfriend was definitely not cool at all, in any circumstance, but...

He did apologize. And he'd seemed just as stricken by it as she'd been. Clearly he hadn't meant to kiss her. It had just been one of those things, those things that just happen before you get a chance to think. A spontaneous impulse or whatever. And...

She hadn't stopped him. Didn't that make it partly her fault? Maybe mostly her fault, since he, at least, had the excuse of having feelings for her. What was her excuse? That he was a good kisser? Well that wasn't slutty at all...

"...Marley?"

Marley's head shot up as she registered that the teacher was calling on her. "Y-yes? Sorry, I didn't hear the question." she stammered.

Mrs. Swanson raised one eyebrow. "I said, what did you think about the kiss?"

"It was really good." Marley blurted without thinking. She could feel the blood rushing into her cheeks. What had possessed her to say that? She was clearly asking about the kiss between Christian and Roxane, not the one between her and Ryder!

It obviously wasn't the answer Mrs. Swanson was expecting, and she looked surprised and pleased at having a new perspective brought to the material. "What makes you say that, Marley?"

Marley swallowed hard. "Well... I don't see why everyone's so down on Christian all the time. I mean, just because he wasn't as good at putting his feelings into words doesn't mean he loves her any less!"

The Cheerio with the neck brace looked at her disapprovingly. "It's pretty shallow to choose the guy with the good looks over the guy with the good mind." she said.

Marley bristled. "At least Christian had the guts to tell Roxane how he felt about her! He- he wanted to make her happy and he did what he had to do. So what if he got help? Some people are just better at thinking of gift ideas—or letter ideas—or whatever. It doesn't necessarily mean they're the better man!"

The Cheerio shook her head as best she could in the constraining neck brace. "If Cyrano's not the better man, why would he step aside so selflessly?"

"Maybe because he knew that Christian loved her more!" Marley answered.

"Oh, please." scoffed the Cheerio. "Once Roxane finds out who really wrote the letters, she'll realize that Cyrano's the one she loved the whole time. It's obvious they end up together in the end."

"Ha!" Marley shot back, rising from her seat. "He never tells her and then when she finally finds out, he dies right after!"

"What?!" shrieked the Cheerio.

"Spoiler alert." Kitty snickered.

Mrs. Swanson was frowning at her. "Um, yes, thank you Marley. I'm glad to see that my students are so passionate about the reading. But let's try and keep the discussion about the first half of the book for now, all right?"

Marley suddenly realized that she was standing, and that the whole class was staring at her. She could feel Jake watching her from the back corner, concern warring with amusement in his dark eyes. "Sorry," she croaked, her cheeks flaming again. "I just... I mean... Can I go get a drink of water?" At the teacher's nod, she fled the room, making a beeline for the safety of the girls' room.