A/N: I should've included this in the first chapter haha.. As I've mentioned before this is my first time uploading a story to and I would definitely appreciate any type of reviews you can leave me. The more the merrier! And I would like to thank all those who have favorited/alerted this. Many thanks. Also, I've decided to have the chapters fluctuate from each person's thoughts in the sense of one thing happens to one person and the next chapter is from the other person's mind, but not in their POV. I'm sorry if this is confusing, it makes sense to me… I don't have a beta for this, so all mistakes you see are my own. For example: the title R&R! Enjoy!
Disclaimer - I do not own glee.
Rachel's POV
Even though Rachel is Jewish, she still had one gift left over from the Glee club's Secret Santa that happened weeks ago. Since rachel was born with her giving personality she thought it would only be fair to give everyone a gift despite Mr. Schuester's protests. The reason she had only one gift left was because she had only bought it yesterday. She was stumped because the actual person she received in the drawing to buy a gift for was Quinn.
She knew that Quinn and herself weren't the best of friends, but due to recent events they had become a lot closer. So on the eve of Christmas Eve, Rachel decided to make Quinn a mixtape to show how she felt about her. Rachel, if she had not been as naive, would know that the easiest way to show a person that you like like them is to put together a series of songs that remind you of them in the form of a mix-tape. The young diva decided that would be the best way to set the friendship in stone.
The following evening, Rachel finished up the last details of the mixtape by writing ' To Quinn Fabray, With love' in pink marker followed by a dozen or so golden star stickers. "There, that should do it." She whispered to herself after applying 3 more stars. Rachel was debating whether or not to put more gold stars on it (she was going to anyway) when her cellphone vibrated. It was a text from an unknown number, 'It's Shelby, come over tonight. I want to talk to you.' Rachel had almost dropped her phone because another text came through from the same number, 'Don't tell your dads. I want to keep this between us.'
A rush of adrenaline shot through her body after reading the second text. She had talked to her mother before without her dads knowing. Shelby had told her she was too grown up to need her anymore and that was the last time they spoke. It seemed as if millions of questions flew around in her head. She could barely sort them out. "Does she really want to talk to me? Tonight? Does she miss me? How did she get my number? What does she want to talk to me about? " She asked herself. She sat on her bed She told her dads that she would be going out tonight, what harm would be done if she were to take a detour on the way there?
Her father LeRoy had offered to take Rachel to Quinn's house but she insisted on walking since it wasn't even snowing that evening. As she walked out the door her fathers told her to be safe and not stay out too late. "I'll be back by eight, daddy." She dressed somewhat appropriate for cold weather. Rachel only took three things with her: Her purse, the mixtape, and her phone. There was nothing else in the purse. Since Shelby's house was a lot further than Quinn's she knew she had to walk fast to make it to Quinn's house before seven. She texted the unknown number back, 'Will do.' She had questions that needed to be answered by tonight.
Rachel was in deep thought until she realised she was just two blocks away from Shelby's, when a familiar voice called her name. "Rachel. Long time no see, heh?" Rachel's blood went cold. She knew that familiar voice belonged to Jesse St. James.. Rachel and Jesse had dated a few months prior to the egging incident. Rachel can remember how the members of Vocal Adrenaline surrounded her. How the laughter and humiliation haunts her still.
Rachel thought that if she just ignored him and continued walking, he would go away (she was really hoping for the memories to go away) but he didn't. In fact, he stepped closer. Rachel tried to act normal. "Good evening Jesse. H-How are you?" She mentally slapped herself for stuttering at a time like this. "Never been better.." He chuckled.. He pulled out a flip phone and dialed a number. Rachel thought about running away for fear of what might happen, but turned around to face more VA members. She knew there was no way out so she might just accept her inevitable moment of pain and humiliation. That is, until her phone rang.
Jesse's face was as smug as ever. Rachel pulled out her phone as if it might explode when she answered it."Hello?" She could hear her voice echo from the phone Jesse was holding up. When she looked at the number that called she recognised it as the one her "mom" had texted her from.'Oh no,' she thought. 'This was an elaborate prank done by Jesse and his friends. Why do they have to be so cruel as to get my hopes up. Couldn't they just leave me alone?' She started panicking. She didn't want to cry but she couldn't help herself. She could feel the tears starting to well up and spilling over (oh well, too late).
While the VA members surrounded her, Rachel heard the rubbing of styrofoam and quickly decided to not go through this once more. It was christmas eve and she had a gift to deliver to a special girl. She looked down at the phone in her hand. '6:45 P.M' it read. She had time. She looked around frantically, searching for a weak spot in the now formed circle. In spite of herself, she was crying even harder. She walked up slowly to Jesse and asked why he was doing this. His only response was, "Because I didn't feel satisfied the first time." He looked down, egg twirling in hand. "You know Rachel, Shelby had asked me to get close to you and I didn't get as close as I wanted to. You turned me down, Rachel. Now we're getting even."
Rachel scolded herself for thinking that after Shelby dismissed her all those months ago, she'd want to talk to her now out of the blue. Jesse was about to throw the first egg when Rachel decided to do the only thing that's been on her mind the entire time: knee him in the family jewels. And she did. While jesse was doubled over she took that as her chance to run and run as fast as she could. She was sobbing hard because after all this time the egging was really because she didn't sleep with him while they were dating. She was glad that she could run for great lengths of time because she wasn't gonna stop anytime soon. Not until she got to Quinn's.
She could see Quinn's house in the distance and didn't notice it was snowing. She was still feeling adrenaline rush through her whole body after that situation that she hoped didn't decide to chase after her. She had stopped crying at this point, but her hair was a mess from running and her face was all red and blotchy from crying.
She prayed that she looked half as decent as she imagined. She smoothed her front and she rang the doorbell, meanwhile in the distance, she heard an engine rev. Rachel just wanted to get inside for the time being. Rachel pulled out her phone and looked at the time. '7:25 P.M.' She frantically knocked on the door. As much as she wanted to be friends with Quinn, she didn't want to be out any longer. She just wanted to give quinn her gift and leave.
To Rachel's surprise, Quinn opened the door with such a force she thought Quinn was going to strangle her. This surprised her so much that all she could get out was, "I'm sorry for inconveniencing you at such an hour but..-"She could tell Quinn was studying her. She always knew when Quinn was studying her and it warmed her up a bit.
It was at this point Quinn noticed it was snowing and had to think of a way to prevent the small diva from freezing to death. "Rachel come inside, please. You must be cold. We can talk about whatever you need to inside…" Rachel, not feeling well, politely declined and suggested that she must leave. "Quinn, I assure you that I am fine. In fact my fathers must be worried about me because I had been out walking for quite some time now." Well, she wasn't lying. "You can call your Dads on my phone and tell them where you are because I am not letting go until you tell me why you came tonight." A rush of wind blew past Rachel which pushed her into realising how freaking cold it was. She decided not to argue and come in.
Quinn ushered her into the sitting room and seen how beautifully decorated it was. She place herself on the couch and Quinn started to hand Rachel the phone, but it rang. Quinn froze. She was wondering why she was acting that way from just a simple phone call. After staring at the phone for several moments, then gave Rachel a look only she could describe as shameful, and then finally answered it. "Yes hello...I understand… I see... Really? I hadn't noticed…" she looked out the window. "...so not tonight but some other time? I'll see you next week. Bye." Rachel figured she was talking to a date that canceled on her. She knew that feeling all too well.
Rachel, unbeknownst to herself, was staring at Quinn. Quinn stared back. Rachel and Quinn never really hung out alone, so it was moments like this that was filled with some sort of tension. After a beat of silence Quinn said, " Here." in a scratchy voice. She handed the phone to Rachel. "It was just my dad calling to let me know it's too dangerous on the roads right now." The lights flickered as if to punctuate what she said.
Rachel called LeRoy and as soon as he answered, he started chewing her out. "But Daddy…" She could see Quinn sniggering at that but couldn't defend herself against her because she had to form an argument for her father. Her father told her it was too dangerous to walk or drive home and that she would have to stay over at Quinn's until the next day.
"Daddy" She emphasised pointedly, " just told me to stay here until it is safe for you to drive me home and according to the weather report, it won't be anytime soon." Rachel sighed and gave Quinn her phone back. She didn't want to be here anymore. She didn't even have any overnight clothes. She was unprepared. "So" Quinn started, "Care to tell me why you were crying?" Rachel was going to lie and say it was her allergies. "And don't think about lying to me, Berry." Damn. "I know we're not the closest of friends but since we've got literally all night to change that, why don't you just tell me." "I visited Shelby." Her voice was so quiet, like she was ashamed at the fact. She was. "What happened?" Quinn pressed.
"I went to tell her something (she was going to tell her to f-off), but I'm not sure if I'm comfortable telling you.." she trailed off. She didn't want to tell Quinn the real truth. She didn't want people to help her because they felt obligated to do so. She needed to fight her own battles.
"Rachel, listen. I know in the past I haven't been kind to you, but ever since Beth… " She said her daughter's name carefully, "...Ever since her, I've seen the error of my ways. I know what it's like to get picked on just because of a situation you couldn't control. And I now know it's hard to trust people after all that they've done to you-" She backtracked, "That I've done to you..." Rachel noticed how tears were forming in Quinn's eyes. Quinn's apology was so sincere that all of everything just started pouring out. "Rachel, I want to be your friend because you're the only person that I feel like I can trust. I know that you're different and I like that about you. I only teased you because I was jealous of how talented you were and how you knew for sure that you were gonna get out of this town. You're certain about yourself and even though some may not like it, you're brutally honest. Oh, I wish I had a clock to turn back time. I have no other way to put it. I am so sorry for.. For" Tears were streaming down her face steadily as she searched for the right word.
"Everything." Rachel finished for her.
Rachel was beaming at Quinn for her sincerness even though she was crying in spite of herself. Rachel pulled Quinn into a bearhug. If Quinn wanted to be her friend there was one thing she had to learn: Rachel was a hugger. Even when Rachel was with Finn or Noah, she has never been this happy to have a person willingly be around her and probably never will again. Rachel thought about letting go of Quinn but decided against it for fear that this was somehow an elaborate prank (even though she knows she was the person who came here first) and half expected to see Santana jump out of the coat room with a slushie and a video camera.
Quinn finally let go after four comfortable minutes. Both girls were still emotional from the event that happened moments ago. Rachel really didn't want to tell Quinn about what happened, but now she was sure she had someone to help. And she was glad to do so.
She just needed to get cleaned up first.