Chapter 2
Quinn's POV
The first time we kissed shouldn't have even happened. At all. She shouldn't have even been at that party. She shouldn't have been wearing that dress that hugged her hips like an anxious child hugs her mother. She shouldn't have smiled at me, her lips coated with the perfect amount of lip gloss and dampened by a hint of saliva. She shouldn't have even looked my way, her eyes full of excitement at what was probably her first high school party. I shouldn't have been intoxicated, and my hormones shouldn't have been raging from both the liquor and the lack of contact that my lips have had in the last couple of weeks. All these things shouldn't have happened. Alone, these single events would have meant little. But together, all happening in the same night, they proved to be a lethal combination. All these things shouldn't have happened. But they did. And it changed everything.
Rachel's POV
The minute I clicked "attending" to the mass party invite on Facebook, I found myself losing control to fate. I wasn't sure why I did half the things I did tonight. But I learned not to wonder why things happened to me and to just let everything be.
But, my night was still filled with questions and self-doubts. Should I go to this party? Should I wear this tight, black dress that my mom said I shouldn't wear until I'm 18? Where is my lip gloss? Does mom even know how to turn on the new car? Does mom know that she's supposed to use turn signals? Does mom even have her driver's license? Where is 18 Longmeadow Street?
As I stepped into the house, my night changed from being controlled by fate to being controlled by liquor, and as the night flew by, the moments started blurring together. What's Jose Cuervo? What's Keystone? What's Burnett's? Am I drunk? Is that Quinn Fabray? Should I look at her? Am I allowed to do that? Is she looking back at me? Why is she smiling at me? How many fingers am I holding up? Can I feel my face? Why is Quinn feeling my face? What is air? What the hell is happening?
Me losing so much control that night was the most confusing experience. But it happened for a reason, and that reason was for me to meet Quinn.
That Night
The bass bumped, hips swayed, and drinks were chugged, as the first major house party of the year was underway. There must've been a hundred students crammed into a house that was only really meant for the five people who lived there, plus a few guests here and there. The potent smell of marijuana drifted in and out of the different rooms of the house, and the air was filled with a thin layer of fog that nobody seemed to mind except for the innocent girl who just walked in. She coughed, waving her hand quickly in front of her face, and looked around. This environment was all new to her, and she wasn't consciously aware of what made her come to this party, alone. Maybe she figured that since it was the beginning of the year, she could make some new friends, ending the taunting and teasing that she was so use to experiencing. She had two friends, but they were both sitting at home on the Internet, disinterested in the outside world, which she normally would've done too if she wasn't tired of that type of life. The type of life where the minutes turn to hours, the hours turn to days, the days turn to weeks of staring at a computer screen, in the same pajamas, with the same plastered smirk on her face, with a bag of never-ending Cheetos in front of her. Maybe she was tired of shutting herself in her room and cranking up her music to drown out the faint, but quickly ascending voice of her dad screaming at her mom. Maybe she was tired of seeing pictures of girls at different parties every weekend, with different groups of friends, posing with duck faces, hips jutted outwards, grabbing each other like their friends were the only people that mattered. Maybe she was tired of letting high school pass her by, so she took a leap of faith and went to the party.
Because she was in no position to make herself any more different to the other high schoolers at that party than she already was, she didn't refuse the drinks that were being passed to her. One, two, three, four. Clear, dark, pink, red. Some sweet, some bitter, some almost too strong for her to handle. But she took every cup that came her way, at first forcing herself to pretend she liked the taste, but then losing feeling in her face and believing she was just drinking water.
To Quinn, this was just another party. Her eyes scanned the room as she thought of which girl she could make out with tonight. She's made out with a few girls, always at a party, always drunk, always claiming that it was just for fun or claiming that she didn't remember it the next morning. Her friends thought she was a free spirit, and casually making out with girls was no big deal. Secretly though, Quinn loved how their smooth faces and soft lips felt against her skin. She loved the faint taste of tequila on their tongues and the delicacy of their movements. It was a much needed, and much wanted, change from the scruff and faint smell of cigarette smoke and cheap beer that she had to endure while making out with some of the guys at these parties. So, when her eyes made their way to Rachel, who was clearly drunk but also clearly beautiful in her tight, black dress, she instantly forgot that Rachel was too far down on the social hierarchy for her to even see which ring she sat on.
She made her way to Rachel and when they made eye contact, Rachel looked baffled, like she had seen a beautiful ghost. The alcohol and the chaotic party atmosphere gave Quinn the chance to be whoever she wanted to be in that very moment, and although Quinn's heart beat fast and her palms began to sweat, she maintained composure and a familiar façade of confidence and control. Quinn, who hungered for a taste of Rachel's lips, decided that there was little need for small talk as she grabbed the cup away from the young girl and lightly grazed her face with her right hand. "Hey I'm Quinn, you're Rachel. We're at a party, and right now you're the most beautiful thing in the room."
Both Rachel and Quinn knew that if any guy had walked up to either of them and said that, they would have laughed, lightly tossed back their hair, and walked away from the loser with the bad pick-up line. But this was Quinn Fabray, and the way she said it to Rachel, as her eyes pierced through her soul, made it seem like Quinn was some sort of deep poet who had just written the most beautiful line that the world has ever read. For Rachel, this was all it took for her to lose her last bit of control for the night, first to fate, then to liquor, and now to Quinn.
They made their way upstairs to a room on the far left of the hallway, weaving in and out of drunken kids, barely avoiding spilled drinks on multiple occasions. As Quinn closed the door, she flipped her hair over her shoulder and leaned back against the dresser, smiling and staring at Rachel. Rachel walked over to her so that she was standing a few inches away from Quinn's body and then started rambling on about her interests, as if Quinn wanted to hang out and have a girls' night. But this was the last thing on Quinn's mind as she softly grabbed Rachel's dress, closing the small gap in between them, and meshing their lips together. A small peck quickly turned into a battle between tongues, with Quinn obviously winning the war.
At first, Rachel assumed that this is what drunk girls do at parties, based on the movies she's seen, so she let it happen. But as her body sunk into Quinn's, as Quinn delicately wrapped her arms around Rachel, as their lips parted for a few brief seconds before tangoing again, and as Quinn smiled into the kisses, Rachel felt like a bubble surrounded her and for once, she felt safe. And for Quinn, there was something so pure and innocent about Rachel that she had never come across before, that she almost felt like from that moment on, a slowly growing fragment of her brain belonged to this girl.
On this night, two worlds collided, and then molded. On this night, everything changed for Rachel and Quinn. But who knows what tomorrow will bring, because tonight, the feelings that they experienced could only be allowed to last for so long, as the party began to die down and the alcohol began to flush out of bodies.