Chapter 3

"Hey, Quinn, can we talk?" Rachel asks walking into the restroom.

Quinn doesn't look away from her reflection in the mirror as she touches up her make-up. "What do you want to talk about? Did you come up with another insane plan to test Finn's commitment to you that will make me look like a bitch and feel like an idiot?"

Rachel is momentarily stunned at the naked anger in Quinn's voice, remembering Quinn and Santana's altercation in the hallway the first week of school. Despite the fairly obvious lack of passive in Quinn's aggressive, Rachel's reasonably sure that Quinn wouldn't just attack her, not after everything they've been through together, even if things have gotten progressively weirder between them as she and Finn have gotten closer.

"No," Rachel says, "It's about Sam. I heard you backed out of doing the duet with him."

"Seriously?" Quinn says finally looking at her, "Two weeks ago you wanted me to try to steal your boyfriend out from under you and now you're trying to push me off onto Sam?"

"I was just talking about the duet," Rachel says.

"No, you aren't," Quinn rolls her eyes and looks back to the mirror.

Rachel huffs and looks at the floor to keep Quinn from seeing her smile at being busted. She really loves that Quinn knows her this well. "Okay, fine," she admits looking back up, "I thought that you guys doing the duet together would show you that he's a good guy, and that when you guys get the dinner for two at Breadstix, a gift courtesy of the actual winners, Finn and I, since I don't much care for Breadstix's meager vegan friendly selection, that you could figure out that you and he could be good for one another. I know that Sam's confidence about staying is Glee is shaky at best, so being seen with the head cheerleader and prettiest girl in school could give him the social clout to not care what others think. You could find someone who, from what I understand, really likes you that I'm certain would treat you well and you could begin to move on and stop hating Finn so much. Maybe then things could stop being so weird between us."

"So once again it all boils back down to you," Quinn says.

"Quinn, I think I made it pretty plain that everyone gets something out of this scenario," Rachel says. Quinn side eyes her for a second but says nothing. "You and Finn are both so important to me and I just would like for there to be some level of peace between you. I would settle for you to just stop hating him. I miss you, Quinn. Don't you miss me… at all?"

Quinn sets her make-up brush down, finally and drops her gaze to the sink in front of her. "Of course, I do, Rachel," she says softly, "But…" She trails off and shakes her head.

Rachel closes the gap between them and gently, cautiously places a hand on Quinn's shoulder. "But what?" She sees tears welling in Quinn's eyes that she's fighting to keep in check. "Quinn, whatever it is, you can tell me. You're my best friend."

Quinn sniffs and dabs her eyes with her thumb. "I don't hate Finn, Rachel. I don't really even know what my feelings towards him are because I've never had any closure to the relationship so I can't seem to move past him. And now because of that stupid favor I did you, I'll probably never get the chance to. He'll never talk to me about our relationship again without thinking I'm trying to lure him away from you."

Rachel rests her head on Quinn's shoulder. "I'm… I'm so sorry, Quinn. I had no idea you felt this way or I never would have asked. I… wish I knew what to say, something to make your hurt go away." Quinn says nothing as she always does in times of high emotions. "You know that I'm of the opinion that the best way to express your heartache is through song." Quinn huffed out a small laugh. "If you don't want to be Sam's partner for the competition, then… well, I think you're missing out. I think he'd be really good for you if you let him, and you deserve good things, Quinn… but I'll stop pushing the matter. It's up to you."

"I'll think about it," Quinn says, "Maybe… if he can quit speaking Na'vi to me."

"Seems an entirely reasonable request," Rachel says, "I'll pass it along and speaking of requests…"

"Another one?" Quinn says incredulously, moving herself out from under Rachel's head.

"Yes," Rachel replies with a friendly smile, "I request that after the competition is over and my inevitable victory is declared…"

"Keep dreaming," Quinn interjected.

"…that you and I close out duets week with what should become the first of many Berry-Fabray duets."

"Fabray-Berry, I think you mean," Quinn corrected.