Chapter 10

Quinn awoke with her arms empty; Rachel was no longer in the bed. She could hear the shower running and Rachel's voice was drifting out. It made Quinn smile that Rachel was belting out lyrics in the shower. It was something she hadn't gotten to experience before and she laid there with her eyes closed, taking it in. Even while washing her hair, Rachel was perfectly in tune.

Without Rachel's warm body against her, Quinn began worrying about the future. In the past few days, the line between friendship and love had been greatly blurred. She cared about Rachel so much. But how would they be able to handle these feelings when they couldn't spend every moment together? Rachel had a dramatic flair to her and loved attention. Would Quinn be able to keep her happy from a different state? Would their relationship get in the way of them making new friends at college?

Her worries melted away as soon as she saw Rachel again. She was standing in the doorway to the bathroom, taking in Quinn sprawled on the bed. Quinn's jaw dropped at the sight. Rachel had nothing but a towel wrapped around her. Her skin was still damp and her hair hung loosely against her shoulders.

"You're beautiful." It was all Quinn could muster. She could feel herself getting turned on as she took in Rachel's slender legs. Rachel had made it obvious last night that they were taking the physical part of the relationship slowly, and it was torturing Quinn to lay there watching Rachel. She jumped up and headed for the shower herself, deciding a cold shower would be the best thing to cool off her desire to have her hands all over the tiny diva right now.

Once her body had calmed down, Quinn emerged from the shower to find the bedroom mercifully empty. She threw on a bikini and a sundress and headed downstairs to have some breakfast. Her friends were already sitting at the table, chatting animatedly.

"We only have 2 days left of real fun," sighed Kurt.

"Well let's make the best of it. Today is most definitely a lake day!" Rachel said enthusiastically. Quinn smiled at her as she poured herself a cup of coffee and joined the others. She sat down next to Puck who held his fist out.

"Way to go, Fabray," he said. Quinn rolled her eyes, but bumped her fist against his. "I totally never pegged you as a lady lover."

"That's because you were too busy knocking her up to notice that she was faking it," said Santana venomously.

"Don't mind her. Sanny is just bitchy because I was too tired to give her some sweet lady kisses last night," Brittany informed the group nonchalantly. Kurt and Blaine laughed and Santana glared at Brittany. Her face softened almost immediately when Brittany flashed her a big smile.

"We're wasting precious tanning time," said Kurt. "I'm heading down to the lake." They all agreed and gathered their bags to head down to the lake.

As soon as they were settled on the sand, Finn and Puck began throwing the football between them. Blaine set up the portable speakers and was flipping through the songs on his iPod while Kurt basked in the sun. Rachel and Brittany decided to head down the water's edge, leaving Santana and Quinn sitting on their towels.

"Glad to see you worked things out with the hobbit."

"C'mon, Santana, can't you at least try to be nice?"

"I've been freaking nice this entire trip. It's exhausting," retorted Santana.

"Brittany was right, you are cranky when you don't get laid." Santana slapped her friend's arm playfully.

"You're a jerk, you know that. But judging by how tightly wound you are this morning, I'm guessing you didn't get laid last night either." Santana's smug look had returned.

"We're just starting to make sense of our feelings, we didn't jump right into sex," Quinn said in her defense.

"Something is still bothering you though," Santana added knowingly. Quinn hated that Santana could read her mind.

"What do you think is going to happen when I head off to Yale and Rachel is in New York?" Quinn's face showed her anxiety at the situation.

"No idea, Q. But if anybody could figure out how to deal with it, it's you and Rach." Santana had obviously had enough chatting about Quinn's love life. She stuck her headphones into her ears and closed her eyes to tan.

Quinn sat up on her towel, hugging her knees as she watched Rachel and Brittany play on the water's edge. There was no question that Brittany was attractive. Her blond hair sparkled in the sunlight and her barely there bikini showed off her muscular dancing legs and ample chest. Yet her beauty seemed paled in comparison to the dark haired girl standing beside her. Rachel was six inches shorter than Brittany, but her petite features suited her. Her bikini was light blue and flattering against her dark locks. Her naturally olive skin had gotten darker from the summer hours tanning by Quinn's pool. There wasn't anything about her that Quinn didn't love. She sat for a long time, just smiling down on her friends as they splashed one another playfully, Finn and Puck having joined in.

Finn had been really quiet about last night's development with Rachel and Quinn. She figured his feelings were probably a little bruised. Rachel and Finn had ended things on civil terms, both understanding that their dreams didn't line up and that they weren't going to be able to make it work. Quinn knew that Finn hadn't given up hope on the tiny brunette. All week he had been gazing at her longingly. Him and Quinn had a developed a good friendship after their messy breakup and she felt like she owed it to him to talk about Rachel. She planned on asking him to talk alone later, away from the eyes of their prying friends. But right now, she just wanted to enjoy the day in the sun.

Quinn laid on her stomach and pulled her book out of her beach bag. She opened it to the dog-eared page and tried to immerse herself in the novel. More than anything, Quinn just wanted to be carefree and enjoy these last couple days of vacation. But no matter what she did to try to distract herself, the future with Rachel was the only thing on her mind. She needed something to shift her attention away from her worry. So she did the most logical thing: she walked to the lake, wrapped her arms around Rachel from behind and kissed her neck.

The afternoon passed by in a blur. All of them had spent most of it laughing and chasing one another, splashing in the water and just genuinely enjoying themselves. Quinn had made every excuse to get to put her hands on Rachel's bare skin throughout the day, each time feeling the excitement that came from being close to her. She was high off of Rachel Berry.

Eventually they dragged themselves back up to the cabin. Quinn and Rachel headed for their room to shower and change before dinner. But as soon as the door closed behind her, Quinn pinned Rachel up against the wall, kissing her furiously. All day they had flirted and mildly kissed, but Quinn craved more. She could feel the tingle of Rachel's reciprocating lips throughout her body, which urged her to kiss the small brunette even more passionately. They were fighting for dominance and it was taking all of her effort to not relinquish her control to the feisty diva. Rachel's hands were tangled in her hair, Quinn's hands on Rachel's bare hips.

"Quinn.."

"Mmm?" Quinn didn't want to pull her lips away from Rachel's neck.

"Quinn, we need to slow down." It made Quinn freeze. She would never push Rachel beyond her boundaries. She forced herself to pull her hungry mouth off Rachel's neck and looked her in the face. Rachel's face was full of longing, but Quinn knew that Rachel wasn't the kind of girl that would have sex with someone that she only kissed for the first time 24 hours ago, even if it was her best friend.

"I'm sorry, Rach. I just can't get over how amazing you feel against me." Quinn smiled bashfully down at the brunette.

"I know, Q. I'm just not ready to get carried away to that level yet." She could hear the hesitancy in Rachel's voice, like she was afraid that Quinn would be unhappy with her. Quinn took the girl's face in her hands and pecked her gently on the lips.

"I'm just happy to be around you." Quinn replied softly. "We should be getting ready for dinner anyway."

Quinn let Rachel shower first so that she could have another opportunity to see Rachel in just her towel and to hear her smooth voice filling the bedroom as she sang unabashed. Quinn hopped into the shower after her, making the water as cold as her skin could handle to ease some of sexual tension that had built up from the kiss with Rachel. She even found herself singing softly in her good mood, enjoying the acoustics of the shower.

Everybody else was already sitting out back for dinner. The boys had made hamburgers on the grill for everybody except Rachel, who was happily digging into her vegan burger. The red meat and cold beer on the mild August evening seemed like paradise. It was everything that Quinn loved about summer. She sighed happily, wishing that they didn't have to return to Lima in two days.

The evening was pretty subdued as they sat around the living room, American Pie 2 playing on the TV screen. Quinn could sense Rachel's dislike for the crude comedy and had to stifle a giggle thinking about how Rachel was probably watching Funny Girl inside of her head instead. Quinn knew it was one of Finn's favorite comedies, but he seemed to be hardly watching it.

"I'm gonna go for a walk with Finn. I'll catch you in a bit," whispered Quinn into Rachel's ear. The girl looked at her with a face that was begging her to not leave her in a room with Puck and the Stiffmeister, but nodded. Quinn kissed her forehead and prodded Finn, gesturing him to meet her outside.

"What's up, Quinn?" Finn was obviously confused to find himself alone with Quinn willingly. It had been a long time since Quinn had allowed this.

"She did care about you, you know." It wasn't what Quinn had planned on saying, but it slipped out of her mouth before she could even think.

"Doesn't seem like it. I wanted to make the distance work, but she was too set on her dreams and I had to respect that she needed to focus on it without trying to keep up our relationship. But then all of a sudden she's fine with being with someone that isn't following her to NY either." Quinn could clearly hear the hurt in Finn's voice.

"It's not like that, Finn. She was so upset when you guys decided to end things. She contemplated how to make the distance work. But you'll be in boot camp without access to even a phone for two months. Then who knows where you will be? You know how intense she can be, she wouldn't be able to focus on her dream and maintaining a really distant relationship."

"So it's better to heal the apparent pain by hooking up with her best friend?" His comment stung, making Quinn feel like she was just a rebound for Rachel.

"That's not the case, Finn. I don't even know what's going on with Rachel and I. I know I have feelings for her that I didn't realize were there before. I know that she brings out the best in me. But I would be lying to you if I told you that I thought that Rachel and I were going to be able to have this amazing relationship when we leave for college. It's so new, but I fell like we're not even getting time to figure out what's going on before we're ripped apart. You guys had time to work through it before it came to a decision."

"There was no decision on my part. Nothing is allowed to be in the way of Rachel and Broadway. Yet she has no problem getting wrapped up with you a week away from moving to New York. So yeah, I'm not going to sit her and fist bump and praise you for getting with Rachel." He turned and headed back inside.

Quinn sat down on the edge of the porch, taking in what Finn had said. Was she kidding herself into thinking that anything would happen with Rachel once they left the blissful vacation? She knew how serious Rachel was about her future, it was the main topic all summer. But the girls had already promised to visit one another on weekends when they could when they were strictly just friends. Rachel had already priced out the buses and trains that would transport them between New Haven and Grand Central Station.

She knew Rachel had cared for Finn, but their relationship had so many cracks that their very separate futures made the breakup inevitable in Quinn's eyes. But obviously Finn thought their love was deep enough to have overcome the odds and made it work. At the time, Rachel had made it seem like it was a mutual decision to end things and remain friends before she headed to New York and him to the Army. Now Quinn was finding out that it was all on Rachel's terms. Would their relationship be the same way?

Knowing she couldn't hide forever, Quinn headed back inside. Finn was double fisting beers and laughing at the movie. Santana and Brittany seemed to have disappeared. Rachel was still watching the movie, the look of disgust etched deeply on her adorable face. Quinn melted just looking at her. She wanted to be annoyed with Rachel for how she had treated Finn, for how she believed she would be treated in the near future. But instead she found herself pulled towards the girl like a magnet and was on the couch cuddled up against her once again.