Rae's part :D
He was standing at his locker, his tall form hard to miss in the small hall. Books were being returned while others were being taken out and it looked just as normal as it did when she would stand beside him, talking to him in the process.
And then she came. Her pony tail taunting Rachel to pull it as she turn, softly blowing a kiss to the boy that Rachel had once thought she 'loved'. But she didn't stop there. Santana continued to walk towards Rachel, her eyes focused on the smaller girl.
Quickly, Rachel looked away, trying to make her presence less obvious but for some reason, Rachel was like Santana's light and she was the moth. Whenever Rachel was somewhere, Santana seemed to always be able to find her to torture her.
"Did I tell you he bought me dinner after?" Rachel knew that she was still behind her, watching her reaction and gauging how she should proceed. But no further damage was needed. Quietly, her head rested on the wall beside her, the tears that she had promised would stop after Saturday rebuilding in her eyes.
"You okay?" A hand was on her shoulder, forcing her to turn around, and there stood Puck, his brown eyes looking concerned as they connected with her own tear filled gaze. "Why are you talking to me? Are you going to steal something from me?"
His laughed surprised her as he shook his head, "Look. After six hours in that port-a-John, Ozzy himself would have turned to God. I prayed. I promised him that if he got me out of there, I'd start being nicer to people."
There was a slight pause, Rachel staring with an awestruck expression at the boy who had been more than a friend to her once before. "Then I realized I couldn't do that. So I changed it to just Jews."
"It's Finn."
"Boyfriend troubles. I got that covered. Considering that I am usually the cause of them, I'd say I'm an expert."
Despite everything inside her, all her heartache and tears, she smiled the first genuine smile that she'd had in days. "Walk with me?" She looked to his offered arm, and softly turned, looping her own in his. The muscles seemed different, as if they had gotten bigger. "Have you been working out? Your arms seem bigger."
"It's the steroids."
-RJRJRJRJ-
"Am I not pretty enough? Is my heart too broken? Do I cry too much? Am I too outspoken? Don't I make you laugh? Should I try it harder? Why do you see right through me?" The music played softly as Rachel sang alone, tears flowing freely down her cheeks. To someone looking in, they'd see a girl so lost in her own grief that she forgot about the happiness in her life. They'd see a teenage girl in the throws of heartbreak, a scene that many have acted out before her.
But they would all be wrong. Rachel was not pitying herself. She wasn't sitting around and feeling sorry because Finn had left her tattered and torn. She was giving herself the release she needed and that was all.
One day, one Saturday that would soon live in infamy in her mind, that's all she'd give to the idiot known as Finn Hudson. Jesse had gotten a week. For the third time in the last four days, her mind wandered to Jesse St. James as that was more than enough for her. She didn't need to think of him, that heartache did not need to be re-awoken.
"Rachel?" A soft knock came upon her door and silently she cursed herself for wallowing, wiping the fallen tears from her eyes. "Yes, Daddy?" Hiram Berry gently opened the door and looked upon Rachel, her eyes ever the storytellers as he saw the unshed tears still reflected in them.
But if he knew his daughter at all, she wouldn't talk to him. He had learned that in June, when a boy broke her heart. She voiced her opinions to him on everything except heartache. That was what she kept to herself.
"Dinner will be ready shortly, darling."
Rachel gave him a sad smile as he shut the door, grateful that it was her Daddy and not her Dad, who would not have been as understanding of his daughter's one day of solitude. He only wanted her to be happy and she knew that, but somedays Rachel Berry was just tired of being Rachel the star student and over-achiever and wanted nothing more than to be Rachel, the almost sixteen year old who was emotional.
-RJRJRJ-
Glee had been it's normal bashing, supposed friends calling out names and all it took was one comment from Santana, one muttering that broke her resolve and forced her to storm out with tears in her eyes. "Maybe I should take a lesson from the Vocal Adrenaline prick and use poultry to get it through your head." There he is again.
She had ran to the only place she could consider her 'haven' in the school, the auditorium. The gleaming piano sat center stage and the empty theatre chairs taunted her. One day, I'll have them filled. Silently, she sunk to the bench, her fingers aimlessly playing the keys. They'll never play as beautiful as his did. Her mind acted on repeat and she was too tired to fight it any longer. She let the painful memories come in, let them flood her weakened resolve.
"Hey, Rachel. I've been looking for you."
"Yeah, don't bother on spying on me to get a leg up because the only solos that I am getting for sectionals are in my mind." Her gaze left the boy who had abandoned them, the one who she had started to connect with and not see as just her 'competition' and looked to the black, sleek piano before her.
"Actually, I was hoping you could help me." Her fingers clenched as her head snapped up. Of course he'd want help, that's all anyone thinks I am good for. They just want to use me and then leave me behind. "I've been sitting my car for over an hour waiting for Karofsky to make a Mickey-D's run. I've been invited to audition for a solo."
The smile that lit up his face forced her to drop any 'selfish' thoughts that had taken over her. Maybe Kurt was finally happy at Dalton, maybe she would finally see him as a friend. Maybe she'd finally have somebody.
But she was still Rachel Berry. "Why should I help you? I mean, you're our competition now."
"Because, even though we hate each other, we've had our moments." We have, she thought with a pang. She didn't hate Kurt, she never did. She just was afraid that if he took her spotlight then she'd really have no where to turn, she'd just be the girl that was once the star. "And I could use your expertise, and no one knows how to kill a ballad quite like you. You are as brilliant and talented as you are irritating."
To her, that was the best compliment that Kurt had even given her. "Considering that this may be the last chance I have to sing for a while, I'll give you a couple tips. So, what did you have in mind?"
"I've settled on Celine Dion's classic, My Heart Will Go On-"
"Oh no." She gently shook her head, looking at the boy before her who had placed his iPod hook-up on the piano. "No, no, no."
"No?"
"You need something much more personal than that, I mean this is about you-" She stopped, quickly inhaling as an idea filled her. She knew his song, the one that was meant for him even if it's my inevitability. "Have you ever fantasized about you own funeral?"
"No."
"I do. Finn throwing himself at the grave out of grief, and all of the heartfelt speeches. And all of the regrets."
"That's insane." But didn't Kurt understand? All those years of torture and torment had pushed her to resorting to her fantasies. All the pain and anguish had pushed her to believe that maybe once she was dead, people would realize how much she was truly worth.
"Clearly no one in the glee club appreciates me. Is it so wrong for me to fantasize about them finally realizing how amazing I am? But it being too late? And there's only one song that expresses those feelings."
She took a deep breath, her resolve beginning to fall. But she had to just start the song, she could blame her tears on the emotions it arose with the words that filled the verses and chorus, and not on the boys that it brought to her mind. "I'm sure that it's in here somewhere," she moved towards the iPod, finding it and hearing Kurt's realization at her choice.
"It won't be easy, you'll think it strange, when I try to explain how I feel that I still need your love, after all that I've done."
Kurt watched out of the corner of his eyes, his attention meant to be on the girl before him who was singing her heart out for his benefit. Well, it seemed it was more about the shattered pieces that her heart were in. He knew Rachel's story almost as well as his own, but he was meant to be her 'frienemy'. Not her shoulder.
Her shoulder, the one who was taking his attention away from her, was slipping in the back of the theatre trying to go unnoticed. "You won't believe me all you will see is the girl you once knew all those she's dressed up to the nines. At sixes and sevens with you."
A soft smile graced his lips, the anger that should have filled him vanished when he knew that she needed no one else in that moment, no one but the boy hidden in the shadows. Rachel was engrossed in her song, the lyrics leaving her lips without any notion of the men in the room with her.
"Break her again, and I won't be so sweet." Kurt whispered as he slipped out without Rachel's knowledge, stopping to talk to their visitor before quietly leaving the auditorium.
"I had to let it happen, I had to change. Couldn't stay all my life down that hill, looking out of the window, staying out of the sun." She looked different, thinner, he noted as he took in her bangs and how her collarbone jutted out more prominently than before. A necklace hung loosely from her neck and when the light glinted upon it in just the right angle, he could make out what looked like two n's at the end. Finn, he thought with a pang, tearing his eyes from it. I'd never let her wear anything like that if I were him.
"So I chose freedom, running around, trying everything new but nothing impressed me at all. I never expected it to. Don't cry for me Argentina. The truth is I never left you. All through my wild days, my mad existence, I kept my promise. Don't keep your distance. Don't cry for me Argentina, the truth is I never left you. All through my wild days, my mad existence, I kept my promise. Don't keep your distance. Have I said too much? There's nothing more I can think of to say to you. But all you have to do is look at me to know that every word is true."
"Well, it's not a sold out crowd so, I still believe that one day you'll be singing that in Evita." Rachel screamed slightly as she turned sharply, Kurt nowhere to be found and a different man taking his place. She knew the voice the moment 'Well' resounded through the then silent room. It's melodic quality that used to send shivers down her spine. Well, if she was being honest with herself, still sent them rattling her to her core.
"Jesse, what are you doing here?"
:DDDDDDDD
Okay, so, as usual, review. No one is reviewing this story and it's making me sad. So, get on that. :D
