Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. I haven't updated since forever. But it's a new year, and I've realized my goal on becoming a professional writer, maybe an author, and therefore I've made a New Year's Resolution to write more, especially to FINISH THIS STORY. At first, during the first month without updating, it was because a problem arose and my laptop ended up getting stolen. However, with amazing friends and family, I was able to get a new, amazing laptop! Everything was lost, including my outline for this story, so I began to build it all up again. After that sad month, however, I really have no excuse not to have updated for such a long time. I always tell myself "Just look at the reviews for this story and that will be more than enough inspiration to start writing again," But it wasn't until today (January 1st, 2011) that I looked at it and forced myself to open a Microsoft Word document and start writing. I started and I didn't stop until I was finished, and this is the product. It's short, because I originally planned for something else to also happen in this chapter, but I decided to split it into another chapter.

On another note, the movie for which Tina is auditioning has been revealed to be a live version of Mulan. To be honest, I didn't think too much of who the director would be for the movie, and I instead just needed some random name to fill in that role, so I went and found some random VHS to get the name from, but I then decided to make that movie a bigger role in the story than once planned. So I will edit future chapters to tie in with the winner of that oh-so-exciting competition. I have a great idea for what I want to do, and it will end up affecting the entire story.

Again, I hope you can forgive me for waiting so long to update. I'm so sorry! Thank you for those of you who have stuck with the story so far, and I'm hoping I won't disappoint you.

It's a short chapter compared to the rest, so read and review and if the love for this story is as great as it has been, I'll work on updating within the next day or two. I'm going back to school in a week, so I fear a lack of updates...but another one of my resolutions was not to do my homework last minute as I have been, so hopefully it would give me time for other things, such as writing.

Enough of my nonsense. Get to reading!

DISCLAIMER: I don't feel like making some witty remark that tells you I don't own anything, so...I don't own anything.

Enjoy!


Chapter Seven - Confessions

Her idea of romance went a little like this:

She and her special someone are alone at night. The sky is cloudless and the stars are plentiful. They are sitting on a quaint park bench, lit and colored orange by only one small street lamp. She is comfortably but not too sexually situated on top of him, and they are lying down and resting. Nothing else matters, and they are the only two people in the world. For a moment, everything is right.

But this was not right. This was all happening, but not to her. Worst of all, it was happening between HER boyfriend and ANOTHER girl!

"Finn!" Rachel screamed.

"Huh? What?" Finn woke up with a start, nearly throwing Brittany off of his body in the process. "Where am I?" Finn looked around and wiped the sleep out of his eyes, until his gaze met Rachel's glare. "Oh, hey Rachel!"

Brittany began to wake as well, sitting up and looking around. "Rachel!" she exclaimed, jumping up to give her friend a hug.

"Don't touch me!" Rachel yelled coldly. Brittany abruptly stopped. Rachel turned to her boyfriend. "I can't believe you."

"It wasn't what it looked like! We didn't do anything, I swear!"

"Shut up!" Rachel turned around and stormed back the way she came.

"Wait!" Finn jumped up and chased after her. Brittany, unaware and uncaring of what was going on, followed Finn.


Mike sat in disbelief in the car. Barely one minute ago had the man of his dreams practically confessed his feelings to him through a quick little action. So why didn't he feel right? Why wasn't he ecstatic? Mike's thoughts raced.

Well, he did pretty much run away after he kissed him. Mike shivered at that thought: Matt Rutherford had kissed Mike Chang! Unbelievable! Which is why he must've fled right afterwards.

Mike snapped out of his thoughts with one realization: something must be wrong! Swiftly, he opened the door and hopped out himself, proceeding to scope out his surroundings in hopes of finding his friend. He spotted the silhouette of what must've been Matt a good distance ahead of their vehicle, so Mike jogged to catch up with him.

Mike put his hand on Matt's shoulder. "Wait!" He exclaimed.

Matt stopped. "What?"

"Don't pretend you don't know what happened."

"Why not!" Matt spun around in frustration. Mike stepped back in reaction, but immediately noticed the tears forming in Matt's eyes. "Why can't we pretend that didn't happen? Why can't we pretend I don't feel like this? It would make everything a hell of a lot easier!"

"It's not going to be easy, Matt…" Mike said. "It wasn't easy with Kurt, and it won't be with us, either." Mike looked down. "I have to confess something…"

Matt looked at his friend with a genuinely yet suddenly benign disposition. "What's wrong?"

"…When we first started this road trip, and you picked me up from my house…nothing was okay. Truth is…my parents didn't let me come on this trip. When I asked, and they said no, we got into an argument…about you. They had a fear that I might have wishes for you to be more than my best friend, and they didn't like it. They confronted me about it, and I confessed to being gay." Mike looked up at Matt with the last comment, whose eyes showed great worry. "So…they kicked me out."

All at once, tears invaded Mike's eyes. Matt spoke up: "Mike…I'm so…sorry…" Without saying anything else, Matt simply embraced Mike for a comforting hug. For at least a minute, Matt just held him like that, being unable to think of the words to ease his friend's emotions. He didn't, after all, have to deal with homophobic parents.

Mike was the first to speak. "I don't have anywhere to go after all of this, Matt…"

"That's not true! If there's one thing I'm sure about, it's that your parents love you, and they will learn to accept you no matter what. They just need some time, and I'm sure when we get back to Ohio, they will welcome you back with open arms. I know they miss you right now…"

Mike, now in control of his tears, broke the hug to look at his friend. "I hope that's true…"

"I know it's true…"

Mike smiled. "But there's still one thing I need to know…"

"What's that?"

"So…are you gay?"

Matt hesitated, and then answered. "No. Not really. Kinda. I don't know…I just know I feel right when I'm with you…"

"Ditto…" Mike said. Mike grabbed Mike's hand. "But…you're not alone. You know I'll take your hand. Sound familiar?"

Matt laughed. "I guess I'll keep holding on, then." Mike smiled.

"So, we should get back to the car. Brittany and Finn aren't going to find themselves, you know."

So, hand in hand, they walked back to the car, ready for the challenges ahead of them.


After several blocks of running, Rachel finally got tired and slowed down, allowing Finn to catch up.

"Rachel, stop!" Finn implored. "You have to listen."

Rachel did as Finn said, but refused to turn around and look into his eyes.

"Look…I don't know how Brittany and I ended up in that position, but I know I never meant for it to happen. But, even bigger than that: you of all people didn't notice when me and Brittany were missing."

"Brittany and I," Rachel corrected.

"…Whatever. You know what I'm telling you."

"So…I guess we both made mistakes."

"Yeah…mine was a little less of my own than yours, but…yeah. But you came back, and you found us, which means you care…to be honest, before, I was mad at you for this, but seeing as how you're the only one who looked for us, it makes me feel loved."

"Well, Mike and Matt went out to look for you, too, but I'm not surprised they haven't found you yet." Rachel turned around and looked up at Finn. "They don't know you as well as I do!" Rachel smiled. Finn laughed and hugged his girlfriend.

For a moment, everything was right.

Then, Brittany caught up with them and shouted "Guys! I think I left my cricket on the bench! We have to go back for him!"

Finn and Rachel had no clue what she was talking about, so they just laughed.


So...short chapter, as well as a more dramatic chapter. I originally planned for the plot to thicken in this chapter, but expect things to take off in my next update, which will hopefully be tomorrow or the next day.

Also, in my next chapter, I hope to start adding in Review Replies before every chapter, like I promised a while ago. In my opinion, public replies to reviews proves to the world that the author really is paying attention to what you guys are saying, despite popular belief, and in my book, replying in text will help me make an active effort to change my writing for the better. Also, I think it makes anyone else who didn't review both want to review and also want to go back and read the reviews, and I believe reviewers seeing what others thought is always a productive thing.

So, reviews fuel my creativity, so go out there and tell me what you think about this chapter and the whole story so far, as well as what you would like in the story in the future!