Did you tell him yet?
Matt shook his head as he looked at Leah's text. So much for her promise about not pressuring him into anything. Every day since his impromptu trip to see her, she had texted him the exact same question. He had hoped today would prove an exception given he was currently in a bus with the rest of the glee club heading to Columbus. And her continued promises/threats about coming to the Invitational. Of course knowing Leah, he was probably lucky she was texting this question to him and not asking in front of Kurt.
His fingers flew across the keyboard of his phone. No. But remind me to tell you about the advice for our piece. You'll laugh.
Shifting his eyes to the front of the bus where Mr. Schue was sitting talking with Brad Matt again wondered how on Earth Mr. Schue had hit upon possibly the worst advice ever. Convincing them to sing Lady Gaga songs in full costumes would have been better.
"It's a great song guys." Mr. Schue smiled as leaned his arms on the top of the piano. Matt and Kurt exchanged proud smiles from their positions at opposite ends of the instrument. They had both known going with a song so unknown was a risk, but that was the assignment right? "Really. Great choice."
"It was Kurt's idea." Matt offered up quickly.
"You're the one who kills it." Kurt returned quickly.
"Clearly you're a great team." Mr. Schue had interrupted them with a laugh. "And modest. It's a nice change in here."
Meeting each other's eyes, they tried to not laugh at the obvious reference to Santana and Rachel who had been in the room right before them. Walking right past their waiting forms, neither girl noticed as they argued their way down the hall. They hadn't heard everything but words like "delusional", "uneducated" and "virgin glory hound" had made them crack up. Kurt had texted Artie and told him to make sure he brought the video camera on performance day. If Santana and Rachel started an all out throw down in the choir room, everyone would want to see it.
"It's a group project right?" Matt managed to get out without laughing. Kurt was clearly too close to breaking to actually respond and settled for nodding his agreement.
"I'm glad you both understand that. Like I said it's a great song and I like your staging. There's just one thing you need to work on." Mr. Schue looked at both of them, with something in his eye that looked to Matt like he was trying very hard not to enjoy what he was about to say. "It's a love song. A song about passion and desperately needing someone."
Mr. Schue stepped over towards Matt, clasping his hands on Matt's shoulders. "You have to open your eyes and look at what's in front of you."
"Excuse me?" Matt and Kurt managed to squeak out in unison.
"You're keeping your eyes closed when you sing."Mr. Schue clarified, his smile widening a little as both of them looked as if he grew another head. "You're singing a love song to no one. It looks like you are trying to remember your lyrics."
"Oh." Matt stammered out, feeling his cheeks start to flush. "I didn't know…."
"I never noticed." Kurt cut in quickly. "I guess I've been too busy concentrating on the keys…."
"It's ok." Mr. Schue assured them with a wave of his hands. "It's pretty common. Watch a lot of singers who do leads in bands. They do it. Actually Kurt there's a pretty famous story about Adam Pascal doing it right up until Rent opened. Since this is your first solo Matt, I hadn't noticed it before. You just need to concentrate on keeping your eyes open."
"Right. Ok. Makes sense." Matt nodded. How hard could it be keep his eyes open? He did it all day after all.
"Kurt, when you guys practice keep your eyes on him. If he closes them, stop playing and start again." Mr. Schue instructed.
"Sure." Kurt nodded. "That would probably help."
"And Matt." Mr. Schue bounced his finger up and down, a sure sign he had an idea. "After you keep your eyes open, you need to pick a person to concentrate on. You're singing a song about passion. If you want the audience to feel that passion, they need to feel you connect with someone. "
"What are you saying Mr. Schue?" Matt questioned slowly.
"When you perform this, pick a team member to sing the song to. And while you're practicing, you'll have to sing it to Kurt."
Even now, two days later Matt could feel his cheeks burn at the mere memory of the words. The next half hour had been a lesson in silent humiliation. Matt had sung and re-sung that damn song so many times he was almost sick of it. And every time he had closed his eyes, Mr. Schue had stopped him and made him open them. He took back every positive thought he had ever had about Mr. Schue. The man was clearly on level with Coach Sylvester in terms of torturing students.
It didn't help that Kurt had nearly run off the second they had finished, half-heartedly mumbling something about plans with Sam. So apparently they had made up, not that Matt expected anything less from them. And even though it killed him, he had to give Sam credit. The swim freak was at least trying to be nicer to him. At least when they ran into each other in the halls, there wasn't an undercurrent of hostility from Sam and since he had been able to hide his absolute disdain for Sam's existence so far this, Matt was confident there wasn't nothing negative coming from him.
Looking at the other side of the bus, he saw Kurt sitting with Quinn since Mike had pulled Mercedes down with him. Matt smiled a little at the sight of his best friend leaning back with his arm around Mercedes. At least one of them was happy. Apparently it was his lot in life to be miserable and taunted by his sister.
The buzz of his phone indicated the receiving of a new message. He scanned the words before looking up to find where Santana was sitting.
Staring again wimp.
She didn't even try to hide her delight as she waved to him before turning her attention back to Puck. He rolled his eyes at her. Still she had a point. It was a little hard to not be obvious while on a bus with only 12 people. He looked in front of him, only to find Rachel smiling softly at him. Oh good. From one taunting him to one determined to play therapist. Why couldn't she have just sat with Finn instead of behind him? "Rachel don't start."
"I wasn't going to say anything." She held up her hand in protest. "I do think you're being ridiculous but so long as you are capable of setting aside your emotions and perform like a professional, then I can let this pass for now."
He smiled a little at her speech, delivered at the speed of light. Only Rachel would treat a high school Invitational as a professional opportunity. "Of course I can be professional."
"Excellent. And on the way back we can discuss the classic love behind the scenes love stories of American theater and see which lessons we can apply to your own unfortunate situation."
Matt sighed and lowered his head on the seat back. Maybe dealing with Santana was the easier option.
"Uh-oh" Quinn whispered. "Matt's been Rachel-ed."
Kurt, Mike and Mercedes all whipped their head around to see Rachel talking a mile a minute and Matt trying to look interested in anything she was saying. Trying and failing.
"Why isn't Finn there?" Mike wondered. "I thought the benefit of them dating was to save the rest of this from this?"
"Brittany." Kurt sighed, pointed to where the cheerleader had Finn cornered in the back of the bus. "I think she thinks the group assignment meant she was now dating Finn. "
As if he felt their eyes on him, Matt turned his head slightly and mouthed the words "Help me" at the foursome.
As the rest of them tried to duck their head to avoid Rachel's eyes, Kurt shrugged an apology to Matt. It was the most they had talked since that highly awkward rehearsal with Mr. Schue. How had he not noticed Matt kept his eyes closed when he sang? Well that was probably easy to miss considering he had been concentrating on not looking at Matt. And then to sit there and listen to Matt have to sing a love song to him? One day he was going to sit down and have a long talk with Mr. Schue about how his assignments always meant additional torture for him.
He closed his eyes. All he needed to do was just concentrate on this performance. Focusing on Matt lead to things like stupid fights with Sam. Alright he wasn't exactly complaining about the making up there, but still. It was a stupid fight over nothing. Absolutely nothing. And furthermore he was not going to think any more about how Matt looked into his eyes to sing that song. Besides it wasn't like Matt was going to be looking at him when it came to perform. He'd probably sing to Mercedes or Quinn. No definitely Quinn. The blonde would love it and if he set it up before hand, then Matt wouldn't' freak out during the performance.
Wait a minute. He looked back and forth between Quinn and Matt. Why had he not thought of this before? Quinn constantly talked about needing a great guy. Matt was a great guy. They ran in the same crowds in school. She was a cheerleader. He was a football player. It was almost a little sickening in its clichéd sugary goodness. This was the answer to all his problems. He would get Matt to sing to Quinn. And then work on getting them together, exactly as he spectacularly succeeded with Mike and Mercedes.
With a smile, Kurt settled back against his seat. This was good. This was a step in the right direction. This would work and then everything would get back to normal.