Chapter 3
QPOV
I was startled out of my gloom by a booming voice.
"Hello Rachel's friend! How are you today?"
I smirked as I saw Rachel turn beet red. Then again, I can see how this would be pretty embarrassing. Bringing home your worst enemy to stay at your house, and having them greeted rather boisterously by your parents right after a particularly depressing turn in conversation – yup, that could definitely be considered embarrassing.
"I'm doing well, Mr. Berry. And yourself?" I responded politely.
"Oh, call me Leroy dear. I'm fine, thank you." A second later I heard him whisper to his husband.
"So much more polite than that Flynn boy that Rachel brought around for dinner last week…" To which there was a murmur of assent from the other man.
Rachel seemed to recover by this point, and piped up.
"Sorry! Where have my manners gone? Dad, Daddy, this is Quinn. She's in glee club as well." She turned to me.
"Quinn, these are my fathers; Hiram and Leroy." I shook their hands in turn, hoping to make a good first impression.
"So, Quinn, I hear that you'll be staying with us for a little while; is that correct?" Hiram asked.
"Yes Mr. Berry, I had a bit of trouble at home and Rachel very graciously offered to let me come here." I hoped there wouldn't be any more questions about my household. I knew I would probably have to tell the two men in front of me at some point why I was sleeping in their house; but I really didn't want to at the moment.
"Well then, a friend of Rachel's is a friend of ours!" Leroy boomed. I smiled; I think I was really starting to like him… "Rachel, why don't you show Quinn the guest bedroom?"
"Sure Daddy. Come on Quinn!" She seemed to have new energy after the encounter with her dads. I grinned as I watched her bound up the stairs. This should be interesting…
RPOV
"Well, this is the guest bedroom. We haven't used it at all since it was furnished, so I'm going to have to take a day or two to make it presentable. Until then you can just sleep in my room. 'Kay?" Then my mouth formed a shape as if I just ate a lemon.
"What's wrong?" Quinn asked with a concerned look.
"I can't believe I just used such a crude slang term." I really was appalled. Apparently, being around Quinn was becoming a detriment to the quality of my speech. She laughed loudly, and I gave her my best 'Screw you' glare. Barely containing her snickers, she stepped forward.
"I'm sorry Rachel. I shouldn't have laughed at that, should I?"
"No, you shouldn't have." I responded with a huff. I haughtily turned around, ready to ignore her. I really do not enjoy being laughed at. It's one of my pet peeves. Suddenly I felt her arms around me, and I immediately stiffened, before relaxing somewhat.
"I never thanked you properly." She whispered. I smiled and turned around.
"Anytime." I softly replied. She chuckled.
"I should hope not." We both paused for a moment, contemplating about our situation.
"Isn't it weird?" She suddenly said.
"Isn't what weird?" I asked.
"Less than 4 hours ago I thought I hated you, and now – now I'm staying at your house, and we might even be… friends?" I thought about this sentiment, before saying something that I had spent months perfecting.
"I don't think we ever really hated each other. Emotions are funny things. They take different forms, and we can get easily confused as to what they are or what they mean."
"True dat." She responded.
"Now, I have a very important question." Quinn drew close to my face and stared into my eyes. I shivered, but had to restrain my urge to kiss this beautiful girl in front of me.
"And what would that be?" I said, averting my gaze in an effort to remain nonchalant.
"Rachel, I need you to look at me." She said. Slowly I dragged my eyes up to look at her hazel ones. All the breath left my lungs as I saw the expression in them. It was one of – well, the only way to describe it is deep. The expanse within those orbs was both frightening and exhilarating at the same time. It seemed as if she was staring into my soul, and I was worried that she would see what was hidden there…
"Y-yeah?" I stammered.
"Where," she paused. "Is the bathroom?"
Taken aback, I stood still, gaping for a minute, before I collected myself and replied. "Oh, uh, down the hall and to the right." As I recovered from what just happened, Quinn walked out of the room. At the last second, though, she paused at the threshold.
"And yes, revenge is very sweet."
I turned and picked up the nearest object, not even noticing what it was, and was about to throw it, but I stopped. What was the point? Why was I so perturbed? I realized that I was more scared than angry. I was scared that if she could play with my emotions so easily, I would inevitably get hurt. I slowly lowered my arm and set down the clock radio I was holding. I backed up to the wall and slid down until I rested on the floor. I hugged my knees and put my head down, gathering my thoughts. I remained in this position for a little while, absorbed in my own little bubble of security.
QPOV
I came back into the room to see Rachel sitting on the ground, leaning against the wall, with her head on her knees, which were pulled tight against herself. Her small frame seemed to radiate incredible vulnerability and insecurity. This bothered me, even though I've only been on good terms with the little diva for a few hours. I softly padded over and sat down next to her, and she lifted her head with a weary smile. I wrapped one arm around her shoulders.
"You okay?"
"Yeah. Just a bit preoccupied." An idea started forming in my idea, and a devilish grin crossed my face.
"Are you absolutely positive?"
"Erm – I think so…" She replied uneasily.
"Okay then. Here goes." I leaned over and started tickling her sides, and she immediately keeled over and started writhing and laughing on the floor.
"No-no I'm not tick-cklish! Thissss is compl-completely unnecessary! S-stopp!"
"Surrrrree you're not ticklish. That's exactly why you're squirming this much." I rolled my eyes as I said this, and kept tickling her.
"No I'm serious, stop."
I sat back on my heels. "What?"
"Nothing…"
"Well there must be something, otherwise you wouldn't care."
"I just, well I don't have the best reaction to being tickled."
"What do you mean?"
"I don't want to talk about it."
"But-"
"I said I don't want to talk about it."
"Fine, okay, whatever. Chill." I normally would take offense to this exchange, but I decided that, given everything she's done for me, Rachel was allowed some secrecy.
"Oh, hey, do you want some food? We happen to have some." A multitude of expressions crossed her face, and she eventually adopted one of distaste and facepalmed herself. In response to my confused look, she explained herself.
"My language. It sucks."
"I am inclined to agree with you, Rachel. The quality of your speech has deteriorated significantly. This seems a very abnormal change. Would you happen to know why this has occurred?" She stuck her tongue out at me, but still answered my question.
"I don't really know, although I do have a theory."
"And what would that be?"
"You're too big an influence on me." She nudged me and stood up, holding out her hand to help me up.
"Yeah whatever." I said, and took her hand. She pulled me part of the way up, and then dropped me back down and grabbed her shoulder, hissing in pain.
"What happened?" I asked worriedly.
"You weigh too much…" She replied, looking up with eyes dancing with humor. I slapped her arm lightly and stood up.
"Whatever. So you said something earlier about food?"
"Yeah it's about dinner time anyway. Come on." She grabbed my hand and we lightly descended the stairs.
I have no clue what was happening then, but my face was lit up with an obscenely happy expression, and I swear, I felt like I was floating.
[Author's Note: Hey guys! So every single person that read the last two chapters, and also everyone that reads this one gets a cookie! I love you all so much! This is another chapter of I'll be there (in case you hadn't noticed). So yeah. Read and Review please! Feedback is welcomed, encouraged, and needed. Do you guys want longer, shorter, fluffier, angstier, is the story going too fast, too slow, basically just tell me anything! And more cookies for everyone! And here's some more exclamation points, since the ones I already have don't express my excitement enough. ! Peace out. :))]