The next morning, Rachel awoke to the obnoxious sound of her alarm clock. She'd forgotten how annoying the one she had at this house was. Since going to college, she'd bought a new alarm clock, one that did not get progressively louder the longer you ignored it. She also awoke with a visit from a friend she hadn't had in a few months- a hangover. She silently promised herself that she wouldn't be getting drunk again in the near future. Rachel groaned, trying to remember just how many drinks she'd ended up having with Puck the night before.
Well, she certainly remembered the reason, considering that the reason was the same as why she was currently brushing her teeth and staring at the nice blue dress she'd bought for the occasion hanging on her door handle. It didn't take her long to get ready. She prided herself on the ability to do her clothes, hair, and makeup quickly, especially considering that speed in those areas would only help her to succeed on Broadway when quick costume changes were often a must.
Rachel was out the door being picked up by Kurt and Michael in no time. The two of them chattered eagerly about how the bachelorette party had been well-planned and told Rachel about some of the stupid things others had done while drunk.
"You should have seen Brittany. She was offering to do body shots and stripping before we even an hour into the party," Michael laughed.
"Well, dear, that's not that different than when we were in high school," Kurt informed his boyfriend.
Rachel wasn't surprised to hear about Brittany's antics. It did make her ache a little that Brittany had been there since Rachel had always enjoyed what little time she'd spent with the blonde dancer. She seemed so harmless, unlike her close friend Santana. Speaking of Santana…
"How did Santana feel about Brittany's wild side showing?" Rachel asked. At that, Kurt actually laughed. Rachel wondered what she'd said to make him react in such a way. Her question seemed perfectly legitimate to her.
"Oh, honey, you really have no idea what's happened to anyone, do you?" Kurt said, patting her arm from the front seat. She was in the back alone, unfortunately, since Michael was driving.
"Well, I suppose you could inform me," she sniffed.
Kurt just shrugged. "Well, I don't think that any of the former glee relationships lasted. It's not uncommon, you know, we were only in high school," Kurt explained.
Rachel knew she probably had at least half a scowl on her face by now. Kurt took one glance at her face and she knew he was about to start backtracking, but she cut him off. "I just always thought that the two of them would end up together. No one seemed to be able to keep Santana in line besides Brittany. And Brittany seemed to tolerate Santana, god bless her, so I had adopted the assumption that once they were out of high school and away from the stigmatisms that came along with it, Santana would no longer be afraid of a lesbian relationship and Brittany would accept her offer."
"I guess things don't always work out the way it seems they will in high school," Michael commented quietly. Before Rachel could commit mutiny and rip his head off for making such a tactless comment, Kurt sent her a look that said "don't kill him, he's driving." Or, at least, that's what she took it to mean. It's true- if she were to kill him, she highly doubted that Kurt would be able to take control of the vehicle fast enough to save the car from what would become an inevitable crash. She resigned herself to humming the song "Getting Away With Murder" under her breath.
When the three of them arrived at the church for the wedding, they were early since Kurt part of the wedding party. Kurt had to attend to some things with Finn, and that would mean leaving Rachel alone with Michael, so he pulled the girl aside first to warn her about not killing the guy. He explained that Michael hadn't meant anything inflammatory by his statement and also threatened to leave Rachel to fend for myself at the wedding reception if she hurt his boyfriend at all. Even verbally. With an exaggerated sigh, she agreed to his terms and conditions, promising not to hurt Michael.
In order to comply with the Kurt's request, Rachel wandered away from Michael, instead walking around the church and looking at the beautiful rooms. It was an older church, probably built a century ago, and it had stain glass windows that distorted the light and fractured it into smaller and angular pieces on the floor and walls. It was a stunning sight, really.
She was staring at one such window in a side hallway that connected to the church sanctuary when a voice startled her from her own thoughts.
"Rachel?"
Rachel looked up to see Puck. He studied her for a moment before asking, "You didn't wake up with too much of a headache, did you?"
Rachel laughed for a moment. "I did experience a slight hangover from our slightly impromptu festivities last night, but I happy to say that the effects have mostly worn off by now. I hope you fared better?"
"Yeah, I've got a better tolerance than you. Though, I've gotta say, I'm impressed. After you disappeared for a while, you really chugged away pretty good," Puck said in a way that sounded like a compliment. Rachel restrained from correcting his grammar, saying that he should have used the word "well" not "good".
"I have been known to drink alcohol when the occasion calls for it," Rachel responded with a shrug. Puck gave her a lazy smile.
"Well, maybe we could have another occasion sometime soon," he suggested.
At that, Rachel rolled her eyes. Some things never changed, like Noah Puckerman hitting on girls around every turn. "While I am flattered, I will have to decline. I will only be in town for two more days and those will mostly be spent with my fathers and Kurt."
"Yeah, yeah, I figured you'd say no. But it doesn't hurt to try," Puck said, smiling easily. Rachel started to smile in return but stopped, thinking about what Puck had just said coupled with what he'd done for her the night before- taking her out to help her avoid thoughts of Finn.
Rachel surprised the both of them by pulling Puck into a hug. "Thank you," she whispered. Puck said nothing, which cemented the feeling Rachel had. Puck was trying to make things feel normal for her again, trying to remind her that things were not falling apart. And for someone she hadn't talked to since college, someone who was also best friend's with the man who'd left her in tears on more than one occasion, that was a huge thing to be thankful for.
The actual wedding ceremony was fairly short. Rachel sat next to Michael in peace, having forgiven him for his earlier indiscretion. There was a short message from the minister, followed by the usual vows and exchanging of rings and such. Rachel didn't really pay much attention to any of this. Well, she did notice that Addy was blonde. Finn had always liked blondes, hadn't he? Though, objectively, Rachel noted that Addy was nowhere near as attractive as Quinn, the other blonde Finn had dated.
The only other part of the ceremony that really caught Rachel's interest was when Puck had to deliver the rings. He looked like he'd run a mile before going up there with the way he was out of breath and off-balance. It was sort of sweet how nervous he was. Sure, the responsibilities of the best man were perfect for Puck when it was throwing parties, but keeping track of the rings? That was something huge, but Puck seemed to be successful with it.
Though the ceremony was short, Rachel was relieved when Finn finally kissed his bride so the thing could officially be declared over and she could look forward to getting drunk- again- in very little time once the reception started.
She had scanned the audience four times, never once seeing Quinn.
"I wanted to thank you so much for coming, Rachel, I know how much it means to Finn that you made it," Addy said with a polite smile. Yeah, I bet he's real thrilled. He hasn't so much as looked at me yet. Rachel's thoughts travelled in the vindictive direction, but she plastered her own polite smile on in spite of that.
"I wouldn't have missed it for the world," she gushed in response. She was an actress, after all. Addy nodded to her before reimbursing herself in the crowd to greet more of the attendees.
Rachel took another sip of the drink in her hand, wondering why just earlier in the morning she'd been promising herself that she wouldn't drink again for a long, long time. Drinking was good. It made her less on edge.
She had yet to run into anyone she knew, and she wondered if that was on purpose. Okay, so she had mostly been standing in an alcove off to the side of the open bar, but that didn't mean people couldn't approach her. It did make it hard to see her, but a few people could surely make the effort.
Rachel scanned the crowd, looking to see who she did recognize. She saw Addy and Finn, of course, and she spotted Puck, Kurt, and Michael out there as well. Rachel also caught sight of Tina, Mike, Artie, Mercedes, and Sam, the whole group of them in a corner together laughing. She wondered if they were reminiscing about the days of glee club. Or, it was possible that they had all kept in touch and this was just another usual day for them, drinking and laughing together. The thought stung, reminding her that she had cut most of her ties from high school.
Rachel looked down to find that her glass was unfortunately empty and decided to remedy that by approaching the bar and asking for a martini. As the bartender was complying with her order, Rachel heard a snort of laughter from beside her.
"Berry. I thought Puck was lying when he said you came." Santana was sitting on a stool in front of the bar, her hand firmly wrapped around the stem of a half-filled glass.
"Santana. It's…" Rachel trailed off. She'd been about to say "it's nice to see you", but that didn't really seem appropriate. "been a while," she settled on.
Santana made that snorting noise again. "I'll drink to that," she said, raising her glass before downing the rest of it. "Then again, I'll drink to anything right now."
Rachel raised an eyebrow at the comment but didn't question it.
"So, I always thought that this day would end up being you and that manchild tying the knot," Santana said offhandedly. Rachel's jaw dropped open. Before she could even come up with a dignified response to that, however, Santana went on. "Congratulations on getting out of that fate. Then again, I would have thought me and Britts would be sneaking off during the ceremony so we could cross off 'doing it in a church' from our bucket lists."
Any thoughts of returning the Latina's seditious words suddenly evaporated from Rachel's mind when she realized what Santana was doing- she was trying to pick a fight because she hated this situation just as much as Rachel did. Rachel followed Santana's gaze to see that it ended on none other than Brittany, who was on the dance floor with a nice-looking brunette guy.
"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I imagined that too, including you and Brittany having sex during my wedding. I may have actually felt let down if you did not, actually," Rachel said, only half-joking.
Santana laughed, fully this time. "You're not so bad, Berry. Or maybe you're just much more tolerable with alcohol."
"When I get married, promise me you'll sneak off to have sex with whatever hot woman you happen to have at the time?" Rachel said, mostly to get Santana to laugh again, and laugh she did.
"Bitch, please, you know I will," Santana replied. Rachel would have winced at the swearing directed at her, but she knew in this case it was being used lightly, not to insult her.
She had always been a bit of a people pleaser, and in this moment, she knew the other girl needed something to laugh at. It was completely out of her comfort zone, joking with Santana, actually, joking with much of anyone, but she felt she could make an exception with how down the other girl seemed. Rachel's heart bled with sympathy. Meanwhile, Rachel was wondering if her life really had been turned upside down. Here she was having a civil conversation with none other than Santana Lopez the day after she'd run into Quinn Fabray. Was karma seeking her out for something?
That reminded Rachel- Quinn. If anyone might possibly know about the blonde besides Puck, it would be Santana.
"Speaking of expectations… I had expected to see Quinn at the wedding, considering everyone from glee club seems to have been invited, including me despite my previous relationship with Finn and the estranged nature since that relationship has ended," Rachel tried to keep her voice as casual as possible.
Santana looked over at Rachel with bleary eyes. She had been drinking- hard. Rachel was jealous.
"Q got an invite," Santana answered simply. Well, if that wasn't infuriating. Rachel decided she would just have to press further.
"And why did she decline?"
"Really? Why did you come is a better question. It's your ex's wedding, and you don't even talk to anyone here except Kurt, am I right?" Santana scoffed. Rachel nodded stiffly. "Right. Quinn didn't really keep in touch with anyone either. So why would she wanna come?"
Rachel didn't really have a good answer to that question. So, in place of creating an intelligent response, she took another gulp of her martini and wondered how in hell she had ended up drinking two nights in a row- once with Puck, which was weird enough, but now with Santana. Was the apocalypse approaching? Because if so, Santana's earlier comment about bucket lists brought up the good point that she still had a lot on hers.
"What about you? Are you here because you kept in touch with people from high school?" Rachel finally asked.
She noticed Santana's gaze rested on Brittany again. "I didn't keep in touch with many of them. I'm here because I'm a masochist," Santana muttered.
After a few more minutes, Santana excused herself to go to the bathroom. Well, actually, Santana doesn't really "excuse herself" for much of anything. Her exact words had been more along the lines of, "I've gotta take a piss. Don't let anyone steal my purse and shit."
So that's how Rachel ended up with Santana's purse in her lap and the extreme temptation to take out her phone. Santana had said that Quinn hadn't kept in touch with anyone, but maybe, just maybe, she had Quinn's phone number saved in her cell. Rachel bit her lip, debating the scenario in her head. She really shouldn't do it. It would be wrong for so many reasons, starting with the fact that she would have to rifle through another woman's things to get to the phone. Also, stealing Quinn's phone number was not even near acceptable no matter how much she may want it.
This made Rachel pause. Why did she want to contact Quinn again so badly? Was it because their previous conversation had ended so stiltedly? Was it because Rachel wanted to check up on her once sort-of-kind-of friend from high school? She really would have no reason to ever see Quinn again in her life if it hadn't been for running into her last night at that strip club.
When her moral conscience was weighed against her curiosity, the latter won out. Rachel looked subtly from the left to the right (as if anyone would be able to notice that it wasn't her purse in her lap) before opening the purse and fishing out Santana's cell phone. Sure enough, when Rachel scrolled through the contacts, under the simple moniker "Q" was a phone number that Rachel quickly scribbled on a napkin with the pen she kept on her in case of emergencies. The deed now done, Rachel shoved the napkin down the front of her dress since such dresses did not come with the convenience of pockets installed. She also placed the cell phone back in Santana's purse and tried to get her heart rate to return to normal before Santana returned from the restroom.
Rachel felt elated from her sneaky tactic and couldn't stop smiling, even when Santana did come back. The Latina gave her an odd look.
"You have a little much of the happy juice, Berry?" she questioned. Rachel, thrilled to have been given such an easy out, nodded enthusiastically. An annoying side effect of this was that it caused her to become dizzy, the world rotating slightly. "Yeah, can't blame you. Now, it's time to gets my vodkas on."
Santana returned to her routine of slamming back drinks and Rachel meandered through the dance floor, looking for Puck. When she found him, he was thankfully not accompanied by any of the other glee club members, all of whom either had not yet noticed her or didn't want to approach her. She wouldn't blame them if that was the case. They had never really reached out a hand of friendship to her in high school, and the same sort of rule had applied during college and beyond.
"Hey, Jew Babe. Dance with me," Puck slurred. Rachel took his proffered hand but gave him a pointed look.
"Drinking to excess two nights in a row is not good for your liver, Noah. In fact, if you continue the rate of alcohol consumption that I have projected you to considering your current rate and tolerance levels, I would venture that you could be on the transplant list in no more than ten years. You would end up low on the list when your drinking is taken into consideration, plus your job is not considered a highly valued one by society, which is ridiculous if you ask me, since pools do need to be cleaned, regardless of the economy or other political factors affecting the job market," Rachel rambled.
Puck just gave her his signature lazy grin and nodded at her, eyes glazed over. He spun her around so he could put his hands on her hips from behind her as they danced. Mercedes and Brittany were laughing not too far away and Brittany caught Rachel's eye, tugging on Mercedes arm. The two women started making their way over.
"Cover me, Puck?" Rachel pleaded. Puck let out a groan.
"Fine, just this once. After this, you're gonna have to handle your own peeps," Puck relented.
Puck turned the pair around so they were dancing in the opposite direction, allowing Rachel the cover to sneak around behind some other unknown people dancing nearby. By the time Brittany and Mercedes got to Puck, Rachel was no where to be found, having disappeared into the crowd.
As it turned out, Rachel didn't need Puck to cover her again. She tried to leave to head out to Kurt and Michael's rental car, but she ended up having to stop halfway through the parking lot to throw up. She just thanked god that she hadn't made it to the car first. Kurt would never have forgiven her if she ruined the rental.
Now feeling a little dehydrated and so not in the mood to party, Rachel stumbled across the road to a convenience store where she bought a bottle of water and then fell asleep outside of the store against the wall, which wasn't at all comfortable, but it reminded her vaguely of when Quinn had her pressed up against the side of the strip club. That memory may have also invaded her dreams.
A/N: Just started college, which is fun. I really shouldn't have stayed up late finishing this chapter, but I did, so you guys better really like it!