Chapter 36:

Rachel and Finn were planning on doing some shopping in the city for their new home together while Santana and I got ready for our night out with everyone. I hadn't told San about Shelby's attempt to get away with what she'd done. Today was the first day of our fresh start and I didn't want to mar it with images of Beverly dead on her bed or the thoughts of Santana being bound and gagged in the middle of an dilapidated auditorium while Shelby told her about the life she was somehow owed, but had always been denied. I figured she'd find out sometime soon and that would be soon enough. Tonight was about us. It was about our friends coming together for the first time. It was about our new life together.

We met Rachel and Finn first for dinner at some place called Starlight Diner. Santana thought Rachel would get a kick out of it. All the waiters dress in red 50s garb and they put on performances as people eat.

"Here's where some of the Broadway rejects get put our to pasture, Berry." She told her while snacking on an onion ring. There were a group of tourists at one of the other tables staring at her and snapping occasional pictures. She saw them, but did nothing. I had to remember that this was normal to her. I tried to ignore it and focus on the conversation.

"Are you suggesting I get a job here because we're close to the city, but that's still a long commute from our place?" Rachel offered. I hadn't told her about Shelby yet either. In the month since Santana had been kidnapped, Rachel and I had only spoken about Shelby a few times. I'd give her updates as I heard them, but it hurt her to talk about it. When she met Shelby for the first time, she finally felt like she had a mother and as she popped in and out of her life, she thought of her as a daring adventurer. Shelby would talk about her trips to different countries in Europe and how she spent every pilot season in LA meeting producers and writers and executives. She'd always talk about how she almost got a part or it wasn't her fault that they'd casted someone else. She'd say that the woman who'd earned the part had fucked a director or something. I never paid much attention to it before, but since I figured out what she was, it was on my mind a lot. We'd searched the abandoned school before I left the apartment and there was a pile of Shelby's stuff there. It was evident that she'd been there for at least the entire summer, but maybe she'd been there for a lot longer. Maybe everything she ever told Rachel was a lie.

"No, I'm just telling you." Santana stole a fry off my plate. We agreed to split the onion rings and fries.

"I don't even know where to start. Before, it seemed harder and easier at the same time." Rachel admitted. "I was young and I hadn't failed yet so everything seemed possible. Now, I'm a little older and understand the world better, but I couldn't do it the last time so I don't know what to do about it now."

I looked over at Santana who then rolled her eyes at me.

"Well, now you know me." She finally told Rachel. "I can help this time." She looked back at me as if to ask if that was good enough.

"I don't want hand outs. I want to earn parts."

"I can't get you parts, Berry. I can get you auditions. The rest is up to you."

"Really?" Rachel asked her before taking a small drink. "Why now? You hated me when we first met."

"I haven't decided yet if that hatred is of the past." Santana replied and I rolled my eyes and smiled.

"Then why? Because of Quinn?"

Santana took my hand under the table.

"Yes. Because Quinn is your friend and I love her, which means I have to find a way to deal with how annoying your speaking voice sounds and just hope your singing voice is good enough not to make me look like a jackass."

"She's amazing, San. She just had some poorly timed bouts of stage fright when it counted." I confirmed.

"Part of that was my fault." Finn spoke up. "Rachel and I tried long-distance at first and it didn't work out well. She had an audition the day after we broke up." He explained.
"Then, I had one a couple of days after Brody and I ended things and one about 10 minutes before my dads told me they were separating and then another before they actually divorced."

"Damn, Berry. What's to stop that from happening again?" Santana asked.

"Well, my dads are already divorced, Finn and I are much stronger now and my mother has already been arrested for being a serial killer so that can't come out of nowhere where as I stand on stage belting out Memories." We all just sat in silence for a moment at Rachel's joke. "It's okay guys. I'm okay."

"Excuse me, are you Santana Lopez?" It was a young girl standing in front of her mother.

"Yeah, that's me." Santana told her.

"Can I please have your autograph or maybe a picture?"

"Honey, she's eating dinner with her friends. Maybe we shouldn't-" Her father interrupted and put his hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay. Come on." Santana put her arm around me and scooted toward me in the booth so that the girl could sit on the other side of her. "Hey Q, do you mind?" She asked.

"Oh, sure." I was caught off guard for a second at her wanting me to get up and take the picture. I went to move.

"Where are you going?"

"To take the picture." I announced.

She giggled and shook her head at me.
"I just wanted to make sure you were okay with being in the picture. I didn't want you to take it."

I smiled.

"Oh, well now I know."

The father took the picture and Santana signed a napkin for the young girl. She left with a huge smile on her face.

"That girl's not bad." Santana changed the focus of the conversation and we all turned to look at the girl on stage. She held a guitar and was singing Here Comes the Sun. Santana was right. She was actually pretty good. Her hair was blonde with a little blue it in and that did her no favors, but she had the balls to sing a Beatles song acoustic so I had to give that to her. "I come here every now and then." Santana continued. "The record label has scouts that are paid to find good talent, but sometimes I like to find some myself." She told us. She stood and walked over to the counter and said something to the guy behind it. We all watched as they spoke for a moment and then she returned.

"What was that all about?" I asked.

"Her name is Dani. She must be a big lesbo." She said. "I told him to tell her to call Kurt. Maybe we can get her in to record a demo and see what happens."

"What about Rachel?" Finn brought up out of nowhere.

"What about her?"
"Dani gets a demo, but Rachel gets an audition." He pressed, but not aggressively.

"It's a little different there, Huckleberry. A demo is easy enough to make. Being in Broadway is a long-term deal. If your girl over there can make it through an audition, she has to actually show up on stage every night and sing, dance and act. Dani over there would just have to sing into a mic while someone uses auto-tune. If she sucks, it's just an hour of time wasted. If Rachel sucks, it could bring down a whole show." She explained it pretty well.

Her phone vibrated on the table.

"It's Kurt." I could see his face appear on the screen. She picked it up and answered. They were ready for us to meet up with them. We'd planned a bit of a long night and I was already dreading telling them I was up for it. The move had worn me out, but it was my first night here and we were celebrating.

Shortly after leaving the diner, we found ourselves standing outside a Broadway theater with a marquee for Wicked in green and black.

"What are we doing here?" Rachel asked Santana as we stood outside the building.

"It was Kurt's idea. He's already inside." That was all Santana would say. She opened the unlocked door and ushered us inside. "So, the show for tonight already ended. Kurt and Blaine, my friends mentioned that they knew the director and a couple of the actors and I mentioned that you were interested in being on Broadway. They're always looking for chorus members according to those two queenies so Kurt thought you should have your first audition tonight, Rachel." When Santana finished talking, the lights on the stage turned on and I saw Kurt standing there. Blaine and three others were standing facing us in the audience. "The director only has 5 minutes, Berry. So, don't screw it up."

"What?" Rachel was shocked. "I can't. I'm not ready. I haven't prepared anything."

"Rach, you know every song in this musical. I know because I've heard you sing them like 4,000 times." I offered.

"Plus, Kurt will help you. He worships Broadway and I think he's seen this musical about 1000 times." Santana continued and motioned for Rachel to start walking down the aisle. "Get on with it, Berry. We have a pub crawl to get too."

Rachel took Finn's hand for a moment and he nodded that she would be fine. Santana and I sat down near the back. Finn looked too nervous to sit.

"Thank you." I told Santana while taking her hand. "This is amazing."

"It was mostly Kurt's idea. He's a giver like that."

"Just take the damn credit, Lopez." I ordered and felt her laugh.

I watched as Rachel and Kurt introduced themselves and whispered something to each other on stage. Blaine jumped up to meet them and then sat behind the piano. Within a few moments, Kurt and Rachel were singing, Ding Dong the Witch is Dead and they were both nailing it. I knew Kurt could sing, but not like this. Both of them were getting into the part and I was so proud of Rachel. At the end of the song, she stood there as if awaiting the director's comment. Instead, he stood with the two actors and walked toward Blaine, spoke for a moment and then walked out of the room. Blaine gave no sign of what was said between them until the three of them joined us near the back of the room.

"Rachel, that was amazing." Finn pulled her into a bear hug.

"Yeah, Rach. That was great." I told her.

"Well Blaine, spill." Kurt ordered and looped his arm through Blaine's.

"They loved you." He stated calmly. "If you're interested, the director said he's losing a chorus girl in a couple of weeks to another show. He said you could start coming to rehearsals on Tuesday."

There were shouts of congratulations and praise and hugs that went around. I couldn't believe it. Rachel Berry was finally going to be on Broadway.

We were 3 bars into our pub-crawl, celebrating my move and Rachel's achievement. With one short audition, she had managed to get herself on stage. The money would be next to nothing and her schedule would suck, but she was about to embark on the adventure that had always eluded her. We'd done several shots. I'd watched Rachel, Blaine, Kurt and Finn all get to know each other and I was satisfied that the 6 of us could all be good friends beyond this night of celebration. It was if we had known each other in another life.

"One more, Fabray. You can do it." Santana encouraged while handing me another shot. I drank it down and felt fire in my lungs. I regretted that shot almost immediately and within about 5 minutes, found myself in the bathroom splashing cold water on my face. Santana followed close behind with a knock on the door.

"You okay, babe? Need me to hold your hair?" She asked.

"No, I don't feel like I'm going to puke. Just got a little hot." I told her and closed the door behind her.

This bar wasn't nearly as busy as the others had been. It was nearing closing time anyway and last call had already gone over the loudspeaker so most people had started flocking to the door. The bathroom had 3 stalls in it and it was dirty, but not the worst I'd ever seen in a bar. Lucky for me though, there was a lock on the bathroom door that would allow us to be locked inside alone. Maybe at some point in the past, this was a solo bathroom and they expanded and never took that lock off. I didn't care. I was drunk and my hot girlfriend was in front of me. I reached around her and turned the lock. She gave me a confused look for a second before figuring it out.

"Really? Here?" She questioned, but her fingers had already moved to the hem of my dress and started lifting slightly. "I have definitely corrupted you, Q."

"We don't have a lot of time." I told her and connected our lips while she backed me up against the counter.
"I guess we'll have to make it count then." She replied in a husky tone against my lips. My legs were spread and my underwear was pulled down before I could even reconnect them. We kissed as her thumb flicked my clit and I sighed at the touch. We'd been a part for weeks and getting myself off felt nothing like what she could do to me. Pretty soon, she was kneeling on the floor of a bar restroom sucking my clit into her mouth while gripping my thighs. I was practically sitting on the countertop as she moved her hand to get her fingers inside me.

"Shit, San! God, that feels good." I put my hand on her head and encouraged her further. I knew I was drunk and there was chance I'd wake up with a massive hangover and no mention of this moment, but as I came I begged my brain to hang onto this memory. Once I was done, I pulled her up against me and crashed her back against the door. I had no concern of someone hearing us or wanting to use the bathroom. I just needed to be touching her. Her tight black dress made things difficult, but I was able to slide it up enough to move my hand between her legs to feel how wet she was for me. My fingers slid inside and I could tell she regretted wearing that dress because she was having a hard time getting her legs far enough apart so I could push my fingers in further and curl them inside her the way she liked.

"Fuck! How did I go this long without this?" She asked into my ear as I continued to awkwardly move inside her. She was drunk too so I was sure she thought it felt better than it actually did, but none of that mattered as she shuddered against me and practically yelled my name. When she came down, I slowly moved my hand. We shared a kiss and a moment where we stared into each other's eyes and then we started laughing.
"We have a penthouse apartment and we're fucking in a nasty ass bar bathroom, Q."

"I couldn't wait." I shared and leaned back in for another kiss. "Now, take me home so we can do this again." I ordered into her ear and sucked the lobe temporarily into my mouth hearing her moan in response.

"Let's get the hell outta here." She reached to unlock the door.