Telling Kurt had both freed Rachel and terrified her in equal measure. On one hand she now had someone she could go to when her head got too noisy and even singing wouldn't clear it, but on the other hand it made everything so much more real. Saying everything out loud, finally giving it a voice meant she couldn't ignore it anymore. Not that she'd been in denial, not about all of it anyway. Strangely the hardest part had been admitting her crush. Telling Kurt she was gay had been scary but not half as terrifying as finally admitting, to herself as well as Kurt, that she really did have feelings for Quinn Fabray. Kurt had been understanding, told her to stop chiding herself for something she had little control over. He knew first-hand the awkward pain of having a crush on a straight friend, warning her not to make the same mistakes he had. And he was right; she had to make sure Quinn never found out. They'd only just started to form something that resembled a friendship, the last thing she wanted to do was alienate the girl by letting on that she wanted to be more than friends. They had spent most of the afternoon talking about her new-found sexual identity. When had she first realised she was gay? Was she planning to tell her dads yet? Who were her celebrity crushes? It was nice to just talk about it and not feel scared. Maybe this didn't have to be such a lonely time in her life. She also wondered how she and Kurt had not become better friends before. Even when she thought she was straight her love of theatre had always had her assuming she would make the greatest of fag hags. They vowed to spend more time together, especially now that they knew that had a new ally to brave the streets of conservative Lima with.

It hadn't really fixed her main problem though. Sure she could now vent to Kurt when she realised she'd accidently spent the whole of lunch staring at Quinn on the other side of cafeteria and actually forgotten to eat her own perfectly balanced meal. But she was still staring, nothing had changed. If anything it was getting worse. On top of the staring she now either had to be as near the blonde as possible or as far away as the room would allow, sometimes both at the same time. There would be glee practices where she just needed to sit near the girl, watch the expressions on her face change when they had to sing a song she hated, the way her foot would tap without her knowledge when they sang a song she loved. Rachel would stare at every line on the girl's hand; trace the contours of her body through her clothes, never looking at her face for fear her own would turn crimson and her secret would be visible for all the world to see. Other times the thought of being near her was too much, to be so close and so far was excruciating. To watch Quinn's fingers move absentmindedly along the folds of her skirt and not reach out to entwine them with her own was some form of torture. In those days after finally admitting her feelings they had only grown deeper. This was not just an idle crush anymore this was something else. Something she really hadn't been ready for.

Quinn was starting to wonder if she'd ever understood Rachel Berry. She thought they'd finally found some common ground and started to get to know each other. Maybe Rachel just didn't like the Quinn she was spending all this time with. She started to regret letting the other girl in at all. What was the point of being yourself if people didn't like you, at least when she'd been a bitch she knew why people didn't like her. She just couldn't work Rachel out. Sometimes she'd catch the Brunette looking at her with an amused smile, but when she'd grin back Rachel would just look away. Other times it was like she had some kind of communicable disease, the girl couldn't wait to escape her company. It was ridiculous, they had an assignment to work on, plus she could really do with another catch-up chem session. She was starting to hate that she sort of needed Rachel Berry. In some weird way it was almost like she missed her, and she hardly knew her. But that's what it felt like. She missed the way the girl kind of snort-laughed sometimes, or how when she was admitting something she found slightly embarrassing she would hide behind her hair. She missed the way the girl talked to her with no bravado; she was always herself, even when it got her trouble. Getting to know Rachel had made her look at herself, really try to understand why she had once been so cruel. The girl had never really done anything to deserve it apart from be herself, and it turned out that was someone Quinn actually liked. God, did she actually like Rachel Berry? Quinn realised she would have to be the one fix whatever had happened, remedy whatever mistake she'd made that had made Rachel start running so hot and cold.

As glee practice ended for the day and once again Rachel had sat on the opposite side of the risers to Quinn she decided enough was enough. Without worrying about the rest of the group being there she stopped packing up her stuff and strode over to the brunette who seemed to be in quite a hurry to leave.

"So what did I do? Did I insult Streisand; did I get the words to a song wrong? What have I done to make you act so weird these last few days?"

Rachel didn't know what to say, how to react without showing her true feelings. She took a breath and looked at Quinn, swearing for a second she saw sadness in the girl's eyes rather than the annoyance she was expecting.

"You haven't done anything; I'm just really busy with my own stuff." It was a lie, but it sounded enough like her that she hoped Quinn bought it.

"Really, too busy to work on a glee assignment? Glee is your life."

"Well maybe you don't know what my life entails. We spent a few hours together, you don't know me." She hadn't meant to get mad but her defences were up.

"Well sorry for thinking that maybe we didn't have to hate each other."

"Not hating each other and being friends are not the same thing."

"When did I say anything about friends, man hands." This wasn't how Quinn thought the conversation was going to go. She didn't want to be saying these things but something about Rachel's reaction just made her so angry.

"Glad the real Quinn is back, I was wondering when the act was going to stop."

"Oh, if you want that Quinn you've got her. I can't believe I even thought about trying to work with you anyway. Work on the assignment on your own."

"I will. You'd only drag me down anyway, with your sad, 'my life's so hard' indie music. I saw right through your act."

"Nice, Berry. Nice."

Quinn stormed out as her friends looked on, confused as to how two girls who hardly spoke to each other could get into such a heated argument. She went straight to her car, tears starting to form in her eyes. How could Rachel Berry make her cry? Rachel Berry. She didn't even know what made her so upset. It was true she was starting to like the idea of being friends with each other, but Rachel was right, they didn't really know each other. It's not like she was losing her best friend in the world.

Rachel continued to pack her stuff up, not looking at all the eyes in the room that were staring at her.

"Guess Q had enough of your boring self." Trust Santana to be the only one to say something.

Rachel didn't look up, walking out of the room with her eyes trained on the floor. What an idiot. She was so desperate to hide her growing feelings for Quinn she'd pushed the blonde right out of her life. Quinn was never going to talk to her now. Never going to sit with her doing homework together idly chewing on her pen and humming old Beatles songs without realising she could be heard. She was never going to secretly admit to Rachel when she did something nerdy she knew Santana would mock her for. Rachel slammed her locker shut angrily and tried to take a deep breath. She knew this crush was never going to amount to anything, how could it? But now she'd cheated herself out a friendship too.

It was fun, just the three of them again, they hadn't hung out like this in ages. Quinn looked over at San and Britt as they drank milkshakes and was glad there was still some consistency in her life after the weird fight with Rachel that afternoon.

"So what's with you and the munchkin? What was all that screeching about?" Santana always got straight to the point.

"She was just being her usual dramatic self. God knows."

"You weren't short on the dramatics yourself. I think you've spent too much time with her."

"I think it's nice they were making friends. Me and Rachel once shared blocks in kindergarten."

Santana looked over at Brittany with a smile, a smile that Quinn knew well.

"Thanks Britt but I think Berry is just too high strung," Quinn sighed. "I don't need all the drama. She can do the assignment without me."

"Enough about her. We's gots a movie to get to. Move it ladies."

Santana stood and passed Brittany her jacket, helping her put it on. Quinn knew the girls didn't even realise what they were doing. There were constant little displays of affection between the pair of them and Quinn found it sweet. She just wished Santana would realise what she had in Brittany and prayed she wouldn't break the girl's heart.

When they got to the theatre they realised they'd just missed the movie they were planning to see, some action thing San had picked staring some guy she had described as 'absalicious'. Looking at the listing there was one other movie about to start that none of them had heard of.

"We could just give it a miss guys, go see the movie another night." Quinn didn't mind the idea of going home and curling up on her bed listening to, what had Rachel called it? 'my life's so hard' indie music. But Britt was looking at Santana with pleading eyes and that was something the Latina could never resist.

"Britt here wants to see a movie, so let's just see this one."

"Ok."

The girls got their tickets and snacks and headed into the screen. It wasn't a very busy movie, so they got themselves some pretty good seats. Quinn sat to the right of the girls who were sharing a tub of popcorn between them and sitting as close as the seats would allow. As the lights went down Quinn understood why Britt had been so keen to see a film. In the dark of the theatre San wasn't afraid to throw a little affection the girl's way. She let Britt rest her hand on her knee and every now and then fed her some popcorn. She noticed Britt give Santana a light kiss on the neck and wished she had someone that besotted with her.

The movie started and from the looks of it it was a romantic comedy. As the film progressed Quinn soon realised it was a lesbian romantic comedy. It wasn't a problem for her, she was religious but she wasn't bigoted, she'd just never seen a gay movie before apart from Brokeback, and that had been for Jake Gyllenhaal. But the story was really good and she was sucked into it. When the two star-crossed women had their first sex scene Quinn found herself a little uncomfortable, there was something so, well, erotic about it. She looked over at her friends and realised they weren't watching the movie anymore; they were full-on making out. Santana had her hand high on Brittany's thigh and the blonde was running her fingers through Santana's hair. Quinn felt like she was intruding. She looked to her right and was sure she recognised the girl sitting on her own over the other side of the theatre. It was Rachel Berry. For the rest of the film Quinn couldn't help but look over at Rachel, wondering why the girl would come to the movies on her own, why she would come to this movie on her own. As the film drew to a close she was sure she could see Rachel sobbing. She imagined Rachel always got invested in movies, but this was a little over the top, the girl seemed distraught. Before the lights came up she watched Rachel leave and turned to her friends realising they hadn't even noticed their fellow glee club member had been in attendance. They hardly noticed Quinn was there. She cleared her throat to let them know the movie was over. Santana sat up awkwardly and looked at her.

"Britt had something in her eye; I was trying to see what it was."

"In the dark?" Quinn tried not to smirk.

"San's always seeing things stuck in my eye, that's why she sits so close, so I don't accidently go blind." Britt seemed happy with her cover up and Quinn wasn't going to challenge them. She wanted to see if she could find Rachel.

"I'm going to the bathroom, meet you guys outside."

"Sure." Santana replied as she straightened her clothes.

Quinn headed out of the screen and to the nearest bathroom. All the stalls but one were empty and peering under the door she recognised Rachel's Mary Jane's. She knocked lightly; pretty sure she could still hear light sobs.

"Rachel? Is that you?" The sobs stopped abruptly and she heard shuffling.

"Quinn?" Her voice was small, unsure.

"Yeah. I saw you in the movie, are you ok?"

"You were watching that movie?"

"Yeah, me and San and Britt?"

"All three of you?"

"Yeah, all three of us. What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Why do you care anyway?" Quinn sighed. Why did she care? Just that afternoon she'd gone back to finding Rachel infuriating. But for some reason seeing her so upset made her heart go out to her. She just wanted to make her feel better.

"Because for some crazy reason I don't want to see you cry. Why don't you open the door?"

That was the last thing Rachel wanted to do. The thought of Quinn seeing her like that, a crying mess just because a movie made her sad, it was mortifying. She wasn't even sure why she was in such a state. The movie had had a happy ending; the two girls had admitted their love and ended the film kissing in the middle of the street. Maybe that was why; maybe she wanted to find a girl who would kiss her in public and not be ashamed to love Rachel Berry. She couldn't hide in this stall forever though. She wiped her eyes on the back of her sleeve and finally opened the door. Quinn looked at her, worry etched on her face.

"Hey, what's got you so sad?"

"I don't know. I think I'm just emotional today." It was a vague response that she hoped would be enough.

"Tell me about it." Quinn raised an eyebrow, hoping to lighten the mood, "was there something in that movie that made you sad?"

"No. No. Just general stuff. Romance always gets me." Quinn wasn't sure she completely believed Rachel. There was something in her eyes, in the resigned sadness of her voice that made Quinn think this was more than just general malaise. But why would some gay movie make Rachel Berry a crying mess? She guessed it was probably something to do with her dads. Maybe there were problems at home. Quinn could relate to that. When her parents used to fight even cat food commercials could make her cry. She reached out and put her hand round the girl's shoulders. They'd never even shared a friendly hug but somehow it felt like the right thing to do. She led Rachel to the sinks, got a tissue out of her bag and dabbed at the girl's running mascara.

Rachel, in all her sadness, suddenly felt alive. She felt every inch of Quinn's arm around her every ounce of pressure the blonde's long fingers were placing on her arm. She blindly let Quinn lead her to the sinks, not even looking where she was going. Quinn could lead her anywhere. Then she got close to fix her eye make-up and Rachel was pretty certain she stopped breathing. Close-up Quinn was even more perfect than she'd imagined. She tried not to stare into the blonde's eyes for fear of turning red so instead she concentrated on her mouth. This wasn't the best plan as tracing the contours of the girl's lips, even just with her eyes, had her absent-mindedly licking her own. She looked to the floor and soon Quinn was done and stood back from her.

"There, you look a little better now."

"Thanks," Rachel said without looking up.

"Are you gonna be ok? The girls are waiting for me outside, I can't be much longer."

"I'll be fine. You should go." Quinn started to leave. "And Quinn, I'm sorry, I didn't…"

"I'm sorry too. Meet after school Monday?"

Rachel just nodded, still somewhere between distraught and more alive than she'd felt in her life.

Quinn walked out of the bathroom and went to find the girls in the foyer. She wasn't sure what had just happened but at least her and Rachel were back on speaking terms again. It felt good to be the one to make Rachel feel better for once.

"You took your time Q, what were doing in there?"

"Sorry, San, there was a line."