AN: You didn't have to watch the video but I think you might find this chapter a little difficult to imagine if you didn't.
"What are you doing here?" Sam opened the door to find Rachel standing on his doorstep with some sheets of paper in her hand.
It had been two weeks since they last talked outside of class.
"I need you to teach me how to play the guitar." She sighed and walked past him and into his apartment.
"And you couldn't ask Puck to do this?" He turned to face her.
Rachel paused. "Huh. I didn't think of that." She lied. In truth, she needed Sam to teach her in order to knock over two birds with one stone; she needed to get Finn back and she needed to redraw the blurred lines between her and Sam. Surely Finn will realize that nothing's going on if he helped her perform a song for Finn?
"Rachel." Sam sighed, still holding the door open. "What are you really doing here?"
"What do you mean?" She blinked.
"I mean you haven't talked to me for two weeks and now you show up at my apartment suddenly and randomly wanting me to teach you guitar?" He cried, frustrated. "I don't have time for games."
"Um." Rachel's voice shook. "I'm sorry. I thought that, um, whatever happens, I can always count on you. But I guess I was wrong." She started walking towards the open door.
"Wait." Sam put out his hand and sighed. "I'm sorry. You're right." He closed the door. "You can count on me...always." He tried to smile and didn't do a half bad job at it.
"So tell me what happened." Sam asked as they sat on his bed.
"You may have already heard that Finn and I broke up last week." Rachel said carefully.
"I may have heard something about that." His lips twitched in amusement.
"Well, I want to play a song for him to win him back and show him that I really am ready for sex." She explained, trying not to feel awkward. Friends talked about these kinds of things, didn't they?
"I see." Sam's face seemed like he didn't know how to react.
"I tried 'Teenage Dream' by Katy Perry but I felt like the song was too...considering that Finn and I aren't actually together right now, it was..." Rachel shook her head, unable to find the words to explain.
Sam just nodded his head neutrally.
"So then I tried 'Sparks Fly' by Taylor Swift but it still felt..." Rachel bit her lip. "Anyway, so finally I found this acoustic cover on YouTube and I just...I mean, the subtlety of the singing and the music..." She left that train of thought hanging. "The only problem is I don't know how to play guitar. I mean, in the video there's a girl singing and a guy playing the guitar but I figure I should perform the song by myself. Plus, I think Finn will like the effort I made to learn a musical instrument basically for him. And he'll like that you were the one who taught me."
Sam's eyebrows furrowed. "Why would he like me teaching you?"
"Because...you can't like me as more than just a friend if you're going to help me get back together with another guy, right?" Rachel forced a laugh and Sam forced himself to laugh with her.
After their ridiculously fake laughs subsided, they both unconsciously sighed sadly.
The silence that followed was brief but wistful.
"So anyway, I've already memorized the lyrics but I've printed out the music for you and I was hoping we could make a start on it today." She handed the papers to him.
"Oh, sure." Sam studied the papers for a minute then nodded. "Okay, I think I can work with this."
He stood up and grabbed his guitar sitting in the corner then sat back down.
"Before we can even look at this though," Sam pushed the papers aside, "let me teach you some basic chords first."
The next hour passed like a dream. He showed her some chords on the guitar then handed it to her and told her to copy. He kept showing her the hand position but she couldn't get it exactly right until finally he just laughed and went, "Here," and gently laid his hand over hers, moving her fingers to the right strings. Slowly, he did the same with the other chords until she started getting the hang of it. Then he tried to teach her small parts of the song which she could play well enough individually but failed dismally when it came to pulling the parts together.
"You know what," Sam said after her thirtieth try, "how about I play the song first and you just sing so you can hear how it's supposed to sound all together?"
"Okay." Rachel nodded and handed the guitar to him.
He strummed a chord and she started singing, soft and slow.
The way you move is like a full on rainstorm
And I'm a house of cards
She could feel his eyes on her but decidedly looked straight at the wall.
You're the kind of reckless
That should send me running
But I kinda know that I won't get far
And you stood there in front of me
Just...close enough to touch
Sam joined in singing.
Close enough to hope you couldn't see
What I was thinking of
Drop everything now
Meet me in the pouring rain
Kiss me on the sidewalk
Take away the pain
'Cause I see sparks fly
Whenever you smile
Get me with those green eyes, baby
As the lights go down
Give me something that'll haunt me
When you're not around
'Cause I see sparks fly
Whenever you...smile
This feels weird, Rachel thought. Sam wasn't supposed to be singing with her. And she meant to replace 'green eyes' with 'brown'.
My mind forgets to remind me
You're a bad idea
You touch me once and it's really something
You find I'm even better than you imagined I would be
I'm on my guard for the rest of the world
But with you...I know it's no good
And I could wait patiently
But...I really wish you would...
Drop everything now
Meet me in the pouring rain
Kiss me on the sidewalk
Take away the pain
'Cause I see sparks fly
Whenever you smile
Get me with those green eyes, baby
As the lights go down
Give me something that'll haunt me
When you're not around
'Cause I see sparks fly
Whenever you...
I'll run my fingers through your hair
And watch the lights go wild...
Just keep on keeping your eyes on me
Sam had kept his eyes on her the whole song.
It's just wrong enough to make it feel right
And lead me up the staircase
Won't you whisper, soft and slow?
I'm captivated by you, baby
Like a firework show...
God, she's beautiful.
Drop everything now
Meet me in the pouring rain
Kiss me on the sidewalk
Take away the pain
'Cause I see sparks fly
Whenever you smile
Get me with those brown eyes, baby
She looked at him in surprise as he sang 'brown eyes'.
As the lights go down
Give me something that'll haunt me
When you're not around
'Cause I see sparks fly
Whenever you...smile
The last note played with an ominous echo as they stared at each other.
And in that moment, she could see it.
In another life.
In an alternate universe.
In a different world.
She would be with him.
In a heartbeat.
If she hadn't fallen in love with Finn first.
If he wasn't her teacher.
If things were different.
But they weren't.
Suddenly afraid that he could see what she was thinking of, she tried to hold onto reason but any kind of reason that was still left inside of her flew out the window as he put down the guitar.
And kissed her.
AN: Just to clear up any confusion about the timeline, it's over half-way through Senior Year by now.
To MixedChick1998, your private messaging is disabled? So I'm replying here. Thank you for that wonderful review! Haha, I love their cover so much! :)
Lyrics are from Sparks Fly written and originally performed by Taylor Swift, covered by Julia Sheer and Tyler Ward.
What's mine is mine, what's not mine is probably RIB's or Taylor Swift's or Julia Sheer's or Tyler Ward's.