This is the worst hangover in the history of the world, Rachel thought as she picked herself off the bathroom floor, heading towards a sink so she could brush her teeth. Her reflection made her cringe-her lipstick was smeared, her hair mussed, glitter everywhere, a giant hickey on her neck. She groaned inwardly and began brushing her teeth, trying to remember exactly what had happened the previous night. She had never drunken so much she blacked out before, and it wasn't a pleasant experience.
"Well, let's just hope I didn't do anything stupid," she muttered.
"Have you moved at all today?" Sally asked when she came in, stepping over Rachel and depositing her bag on the bed.
"I'm worried about the fact that I was not only on the floor whenever you left, but that you left me here," Rachel answered, covering her eyes with a pillow once more.
"Well, I tried separating you two because I did not want to be in the room if you started fucking, but I didn't really have anywhere else to go. But then when I woke up you were both on the floor, and I was running late to meet up with my world cultures group."
"What do you mean 'you both'?" Rachel asked, trying to rack her brain for a potential guy that stuck out.
"Oh my god, you don't remember?" Sally asked incredulously, laughing uncontrollably from the bed. Rachel frowned from her spot on the ground; she had a bad feeling about whatever Sally wasn't telling her.
"What should I be remembering? Who did I come home with?" Rachel asked her voice a bit tighter now.
"Oh no, this is golden, I'm going to let you figure it out for yourself." Rachel had half a mind to take her pillow and attack her with it, but that required moving-something Rachel still didn't feel like doing yet.
"Please just tell me," she whined instead, hoping it would become annoying enough for Sally to tell her. Sally just chuckled, holding strong. "Was he cute?" Rachel finally asked hopefully.
"Definitely," Sally replied.
"Well, at least I didn't settle for someone unattractive," Rachel said quietly. "How old was he?" she asked a couple minutes later, sitting up now to question Sally on her mysterious boy. Sally just smirked and kept quiet as she refused to answer her. "Sally, come on," Rachel whined once more.
"Maybe you should check your phone," Sally said. "I'm pretty sure you guys decided it was a smart idea to record your kiss for prosperity-though I assure you, I warned that it was a horrible idea." Rachel grimaced but reached onto her bed where her phone lay silently, going to the pictures.
Her stomach dropped about 17 feet as she flipped through them, watching the kisses get progressively sloppier.
"I think there's a video too," Sally said. "You guys put your phone on the chair and told me not to kick it because you were going to record it for the future when you're both famous."
Rachel bit her lip, going to the videos. Sure enough, the first one had a small screenshot of her and Blaine, clearly drunk. She opened it and played it, their laughter sounding from the small screen.
"No, Blaine, stop for a second!" Rachel laughed, pushing Blaine away. "Stop, we have to say what's going on for the video!"
Blaine scoffed, kissing her neck some more-that explained the hickey-"I don't think anyone needs an explanation if we give them a demonstration."
There wasn't too much more dialogue after that, Rachel seemed to have given in quite easily as they kissed some more. The video stopped after a couple minutes, and she sat in silence, trying to process exactly what had happened.
You made out with Blaine, she told herself. You made out with one of your best gay friends who is dating your other best gay friend because you're in love with him and you're stupid enough to act on it when drunk.
Rachel was trying to avoid Blaine, but Blaine didn't seem to want to offer her the same courtesy. She had managed to spend all day in her room, declining Sally's offer to go see a movie with her and a couple girls from one of her classes.
"Today sucks," he declared, walking in without knocking as usual and collapsing on her bed. She was at her desk, trying to pull her attention in enough to write a paper but so far she hadn't been successful.
"Why?" she asked, trying to look engrossed on the efforts of some ancient war she knew nothing about.
"Well, I have probably the worst hangover known to man-I don't even want to know how you're doing homework right now, I woke up on the floor so my back is killing me," Rachel tensed, waiting for him to mention her, "and then Kurt is all we need to talk! so I had to go across town just for us to end up breaking up."
She spun around in her chair, facing Blaine in shock. "You guys what?"
"Yeah," he said, his mouth going into a short line. "I hope it's okay that I came here to vent, I know you and Kurt are close-and he'll probably be pissed that I chose you to come to-but, really you're like my best friend here. I didn't really know what else to do." Rachel nodded, crossing the room to give him a hug. Any awkwardness she felt evaporated as she took him in her arms, his own wrapping around her and dragging her down to the bed so they'd be in a less awkward position.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered, and he shrugged as they broke apart. She scooched backwards until her back was against the wall, patting her legs so he would put his head on them. He complied immediately, his legs dangling off the edge of her bed as she began rubbing his head, pulling gently on the curls that were completely wild from the humidity. "What happened?" she asked.
"Well, it's really been coming for awhile now," he chuckled. "God, I can't even remember the last time we were really happy together. It feels like it's been years, though I suppose it's only been a couple months."
"Still," Rachel said in a soothing voice. "That's a long time."
"It is," Blaine agreed. "I thought maybe us moving to New York would fix things-we wouldn't be spending as much time together since we'd be going to different schools again. But it seems like it only made it worse. He doesn't like that I spend so much time with you and Sally, but every time I ask him if he wants to meet up he snaps at me, saying he's busy and has a shit ton of work to do for class."
"Did you tell him that?"
"Of course I did. Then he denied it, at the same time using the defense of a career in fashion is high paced, I don't have a lot of free time. God, we ended up screaming at each other like crazy people-his roommate walked in on us and left quicker than that time he walked in on us fucking. And it just felt like everything got dredged up, fights from last year, from when I first transferred to McKinley, my stint at exploring other sexual preferences, that time I accidentally set one of his scarves on fire."
"Oh god, I've never seen Kurt so mad," Rachel muttered, remembering the time all too well.
Blaine sighed heavily. "In the end, we just sat there. Staring at each other. And I didn't feel anything that I used to. I didn't feel the love or lust or romance or need to be a better man for him anymore. And I said that, and he agreed. He didn't know how we let it get this far any more than I do. I guess we both just didn't want to give up on the relationship, but I guess sometimes you just have to let some things go."
She scratched lightly at his hair line, nodding in response. "I really am sorry," she repeated. She didn't dare ask if their apparent make out session last night had been brought up, or even if he remembered it. He hummed in contention, pushing his head slightly into her hand.
"I just don't want to accidentally run into him now," Blaine said quietly.
"Well, you guys barely ran into each other unless you planned it as it was."
"Manhattan is a small island," Blaine countered.
"It's not that small," Rachel snorted. "And it's definitely crowded enough that I don't think you have anything to worry about."
He sighed once more. "New York wasn't even my plan or my dream. I just didn't want to deal with a long distance relationship."
"But you're here now," Rachel said. "You got into one of the most famous universities in the world, on a great scholarship for music, which you love."
"I know," he replied. "I know I'm still lucky enough to be here. I just feel like maybe New York is a little too-small for me. Like it's stifling and I'm becoming claustrophobic."