Chapter seven: Another Friend, Part I
Word Count: 2, 628
The second time around dancing with Mike was smooth. Rachel couldn't describe it using any other word and during those moments when she allowed her mind to wander she often thought about dancing with Mike. The way his arms so naturally wrapped themselves around her and the feeling of complete calm that filled her even during the moves when falling meant vicious bruises. All of the sudden dancing became something more than merely moving her body to music. It was more than merely a way of exercising. It became an outlet, a new way she could express herself.
And even if she didn't want to admit it to anyone. Not even herself. Mike had quickly turned into something more than a friend. She didn't feel her heart beat quicker when she saw Quinn the way it did with Mike. She didn't look for Quinn just to make sure that she was there the way she did with Mike. Rachel did a lot of things that she normally didn't whenever Mike was there. She wanted to do a lot of things that never entered her mind before. So far, she'd managed not to fall victim for her desires. Desires that she couldn't understand much less say out loud.
Rachel panted when she laid down on the floor with her eyes closed. Her chest raised and lowered itself faster than it ever had before and her heart raced inside of her. Her entire body felt like one big wound and just the idea of moving caused her to let out a disgruntled groan. The music ended and a thud was heard as another body laid down on the floor next to her.
"We're done practicing, right?" Rachel asked and tilted her head to the side so that she could look at Mike. "I mean I love dancing with you but I want to throw up and I think I broke something."
Mike rolled his eyes as he tilted his head to face her. "What did you break?"
Rachel scrunched her face together. "Everything."
Mike laughed and she couldn't help but smile at the sound. They had been dancing for four weeks and there were three weeks left until the competition. Not that the competition was on the front of her mind when they were dancing. There were more important things; Mike's laughter for example. The more she heard of it the more Rachel realized that she loved the sound of it. Maybe even more than music.
"You're such a drama queen." Mike said and nudged her with his shoulder.
Rachel smiled bashfully. "Yeah well, we all have our talents." She became quiet and watched as Mike looked at the roof. His chest raised and lowered itself slowly but surely. His hands rested on his chest and he wore that smile that she had gotten used to seeing.
A few minutes later he laughed again. "I can hear the wheels moving inside your head Rachel. What are you thinking about?" He tilted his head back to the side so that he could look at her.
Rachel smiled when she saw that familiar dimple. She wanted to stretch her hand out and touch it but managed not to. "You're a really good dancer and you're a really good person. I haven't told you enough but I'm so grateful that you would do this for me."
"You don't have to thank me Rachel." He said and offered her a smile. "Its what friends do."
In that moment, Rachel felt thankful that her cheeks became naturally flushed when she exercised. Because that meant that Mike couldn't see her blushing.
"Are we friends?"
Mike nodded. "I'd like to think so." For a moment, they were both quiet and then Mike let out a sigh and closed his eyes. "I hope you don't mind but I'm just going to take a small nap. I can't move."
Rachel laughed not missing the humorous undertone in his voice. "I don't mind." She replied and tried to lie as comfortably as she could against the hard floor.
Mike took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Drops of sweat ran down his forehead and hit the floor. His eyelashes flickered against his skin and Rachel saw the way his eyes moved underneath his closed eyelids. Rachel felt her breath get stuck in her throat and her smile grew. Her fingers itched to feel his hair in between them and she wondered what it would be like kissing his lips. The moment those thoughts entered her mind Rachel looked up at the roof, her cheeks redder than normal. She couldn't figure out where these thoughts came from. It felt as if they just appeared overnight for no reason.
"Okay, I think I'm all done resting. Do you need a ride home?" Mike pushed himself from the floor with a groan and then offered Rachel his hand.
The brunette smiled and nodded as she hoped that Mike wouldn't notice the way she struggled to keep her eyes directed at his face and not his bare, toned upper body. "Yeah, that'd be great."
Yeah, in hindsight and without the distracting man with her Rachel could see that maybe it hadn't happened overnight. It had been a process but every time they danced her feelings had grown stronger and her wall had slowly but surely lowered itself or molded itself until there was an entrance. A unique entrance in the form of Mike.
Quinn had looked her dead in the eye on night after having finished dance later than normal and said that she couldn't deny that something was different between her and Mike. Rachel had given her a triumphant smile. Apparently, Quinn Fabray didn't know Rachel as well as she told herself. If there was anything Rachel was good at other than singing, dancing and acting it was denial. Rachel would go so far to say that she was brilliant at it. Her mind was if nothing else. Her body on the other hand wasn't.
GLEE
"Hello Michael." Rachel said with a smile on her face as she stopped next to him with her books clutched to her chest. Her brown hair was pushed back in a ponytail – one that could not have been made by any other person than Quinn Fabray herself – that clearly showed her newly cut bangs.
Mike glanced at her as he looked through his locker for the right books. "I told you Rachel, you can call me Mike. All my friends do."
Rachel hummed and smiled. The way she always did whenever he mentioned it.
"You're not going to call me Mike, are you?" he asked as he closed the locker. Rachel shook her head with a big smile on her face. "Yeah I didn't think so either. So, what's up? What have you been up to all day, I feel like I haven't seen you at all."
"I've been here and there." Rachel answered with a shrug. To which Mike gave her an unimpressed look. "Okay, I have been avoiding certain people that I have a feeling will be trying to talk me into doing something that I don't really feel like doing. But they don't really care."
"So, you've been avoiding Mr. Schue and Miss. Corcoran."
"That is correct Michael." Rachel stepped onto her toes to see better but almost fell. She felt her breath get stuck in her throat as she waited for the inevitable fall that never came. "Oh, that's a very nice catch. Thank you."
Mike shrugged. "So, do you need a bodyguard or something?"
"A bodyguard Michael, really?"
Mike shrugged again, this time with a sheepish smile on his face. "Well, it's Glee and both of them are really intense about Glee. It might not be a bad idea."
Rachel smiled. "Yeah, you're right. And for your information, I've always thought that you would make an excellent bodyguard."
"I'm not even sure what to say about that." Mike said with a laugh as they began walking down the corridor. "That either means that you've been thinking about what kind of bodyguard you would need before or that you have just thought about me being a bodyguard and I'm not sure which one I prefer."
"Chose the one you feel is the most complimentary to you."
Mike scrunched his face together. "Did you just give me a compliment?"
"Yeah." Rachel nodded. "I think you look very nice today Michael. See, I just did it again."
"You are beautiful Rachel Berry." Mike said with a laughter. "And when I say that you are beautiful I'm not talking about your appearance even if you're beautiful in that sense too. But right now I meant that your personality is beautiful. I like this side of you." Thanks for showing it remained unsaid.
Rachel hummed. "This is nice."
"Me being your bodyguard?" Mike asked with a laugh.
Rachel chuckled. "Well that too. But it's also really nice to just do this. Walk with a friend to class, joke and have compliments thrown at you instead of slushies. I like it."
She looked straight ahead and missed the smile that took over Mike's face as he nodded. "Me too."
GLEE
"Quinn Fabray."
The blonde laughed and just the sight made Puck's heartbeat increase just a little bit. The more he saw of the mother of his child the more he realized that the world became a bit shinier and just prettier with her in it. "I didn't know we used full names but I'll adapt, Noah Puckerman. Why am I not surprised to see you outside the principal's office? What did you do this time? Please tell me that it wasn't something criminal?"
Noah shook his head. "Not this time Fabray. Believe it or not but this time I was called in for acting like a good boy for once. Apparently, that was enough for the principle to get worried about my home situation. Imagine that? All these years of acting up for attention. All I had to do was behave."
Quinn frowned. "You… kind of lost me after that part about being called in for good behavior. That doesn't sound like you at all."
"Well, I decided to pick myself up and get my act together." Puck replied and self-consciously scratched his neck. "What you told me kind of stuck with me. You know the thing about you expecting things from me. No one's ever told me that before. It was nice. Thank you for telling me."
Quinn smiled. "You don't have to thank me Noah."
Puck smirked. "You just called me by my real name."
"That wasn't the first time. So?"
He shrugged. "I liked it. I just wanted to tell you that."
"Well," Quinn began. "I guess I'll just keep doing it then."
"Well, then I'll keep trying to be better. I think Beth would have liked to know that we made the most of our lives, don't you?"
Quinn nodded. There was a certain tone in his voice that she had never heard before. Puck, Noah, looked at her with a certain expression on his face that wore little resemblance to the smirk he often wore from the moment he walked into school to the time when it was time to leave. Rachel had been right.
"I'm telling you Quinn, he's changed." Rachel waited a few seconds after Quinn had turned around the corner before following her. It was almost ridiculous the actions she would take to make sure that she didn't see her mother. "It's something in the way he looks at you. And he hasn't called me Berry since Shelby showed up. That is a very long time for a man whom I assumed didn't even know my first name."
"Yeah, maybe your right." Quinn agreed. "Speaking of Shelby, are you going to act like this for the rest of the year or are you going to face her again at some point?"
Rachel shrugged. "I'm more interested about how you feel about her being here. It's not been that long since you know…"
Quinn smiled sadly as she finished Rachel's sentence. "Since she adopted my baby. It's okay, you can say it out loud. That's what happened. I gave my… our, mine and Noah's, baby up for adoption and now Shelby Corcoran is her mother. It happened, not saying it out loud isn't going to make it less real."
"Your allowed to be sad about it." Rachel said as she opened her locker. "That you made that decision doesn't make you any less entitled to being sad or missing Beth. I'm just telling you so that you know. If you ever want to talk about it, I'll be here."
Quinn felt a warmth spread inside her body as Rachel turned around to face her with her books in her arms. If someone would have told her when she was almost nine months pregnant that she would be friends with Rachel Berry in just a few months' time, then she would have laughed in their faces. But now, the idea of not being friends with Rachel was even more unlikely.
"Do you love your birthmother?" she asked after a moment of silence.
Rachel shook her head. "I can't say I love her because I don't know her but I still want her to be proud of me for some reason. She gave me this chance and I feel like I want to show her that I took it and did something amazing with it."
"Would you join her Glee-club?"
Rachel laughed but there was no missing the intensity in her voice when she answered. "No."
"I think she's going to be fine." Quinn said with a smile. Noah nodded in agreement. "So, do you want to hang out after school?"
Noah nodded. "Yeah, I'd like that."
GLEE
"What is this song called?" Mike asked.
He and Rachel sat closely together in the cafeteria with one earphone in either ear as they listened to whatever song that came on Rachel's phone. Up until that point Mike hadn't been disappointed. It was a mixture of 90´s hip hop, rock, ballads, musicals and the occasional singer-songwriter. Pretty much everything that people were sure Rachel had never heard before.
"Cannonball by Damien Rice." Rachel answered without looking at the phone. "I really love the guitar parts on this song. The lyrics are amazing too but I tend to forget them when I listen to the guitar."
Mike nodded. He wondered how he could have missed how much music changed her. When she listened to music Rachel's entire body went lose and all the tension that had previously been the reason that she kept her shoulders pushed – sometimes all the way to her ears as Noah would have said – vanished as if she was always that calm. She gave the song all her attention and noticed details that Mike would never have heard unless she told him about them.
"Can I pick the next song?"
Rachel nodded and Mike took the phone from the table, opened it, and then looked through the list until he found the right one. Mike glanced at her as she bopped her head to the rhythm of a song that she had listened to multiple times before. If he would have been a little bit more brave than maybe he would have told Rachel that song reminded him of her. But he wasn't that brave so he didn't. When Quinn and Puck appeared, and asked what they were listening to Rachel was the one who answered. Show me what I'm looking for by Carolina Liar.
Mike pretended not to notice the look Puck gave him.
And Rachel pretended that saying the name of the song didn't make her blush.
Both failed.
