Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
For the third time that day, Rachel needed to run to the ladies' room and throw up. While she wiped away the sweat, she wondered what could have caused that nausea. Did she get food poisoning?
"Ms. Berry?", Maisie, one of her students asked from outside. "Are you okay?"
"Yes", Rachel answered faintly. "I will be back in a-" She gagged and vomited again. "Forget it", she corrected herself weakly "Tell Mrs. Despereaux I will take the rest of the day off."
She heard how the little girl left the room, and sat up, wiping away the vomit from her mouth. Yesterday, she didn't eat anything bad. The only other reason why she could feel so horrible could be…
Rachel's eyes widened and she paled even more than before.
No way.
No no no no noo.
When Blaine entered his favorite coffeeshop, he saw that both, Wes and David, were engrossed in reading a novel, their coffees in front of them must be ice cold by now.
"Guys?"
No reaction.
"Guys!" Blaine clapped his hands, and his two friends startled and looked up.
"Oh, hey Blaine", Wes greeted him shortly, David just muttered something unintelligible before they both turned back to their books again.
Blaine put his hands on his hips, glaring at his friends. "Are you freaking kidding me?", he asked them, offended by their ignorance.
"Sorry, Blainers", David murmured "But that book is just awesome. Vivian Kennedy's books always have been good, but this one is just pure genius writing."
When he heard the name of Tina's alias, Blaine perked up his ears. "Vivian Kennedy?", he repeated.
"Yeah", Wes confirmed without looking up. "It's called Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now. And it's about ten different people from across the States who are linked to each other with a telepathic bond."
Blaine almost dropped his Medium Drip when he heard that. His eyes widened in shock. "L…Linked?"
"That Blake dude is just like you, Blainers, as if Vivian Kennedy knew you personally", David said amusedly. "Wait, let me read out loud the best part." He cleared his throat overdramatically.
"Blake just cocked his eyebrow unimpressedly when he looked back and forth between Curtis and Vaughn.
'Are you sure you want to marry that guy?', he asked, crossing his slightly muscular arms and looking at Curtis with his piercing brown-golden eyes. 'You don't even love him.'"
While both of his friends cracked up, Blaine felt how he started blushing. He kind of felt ashamed when he thought about it, this was definitely not a moment he was proud of.
Besides…what the hell?
How dared Tina share all of what happened to them lately? What he and Kurt had done was none of the world's business, for god's sake!
Santana was fuming when she saw the novel Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now in all of the display windows of the bookshops she passed.
One of Brittany's friend, a bookworm, had texted her how great that book was and that she and Salvatora, one of the leads and (coincidentally) the only Latina, shared a lot of similarities.
Getting a bad premonition, Santana had bought the E-Book version of that novel and read the first couple of chapters, realizing that she and Salvatora not only shared similarities.
She was Salvatora.
The impulsive Latina who worked as a Stripper at a Striptease club in Florida and who had an affair with a hot smart blonde called Bailey, a woman who lacked in social competences despite her high IQ. Despite all their differences, they finally got together, not caring about what other people around them thought about it.
Sounded familiar, right?
Because it was hers and Brittany's love story, one to one. People who knew them would know soon that this story was about them, and they would start posing questions.
Santana refrained herself from storming into the store and setting all of these novels in fire. What she and Brittany were doing was none of the others' business, goddammit!
"Ay dios mio", she muttered grimly. Tina would pay, she would make sure of that. She couldn't just get away with stealing their love story.
Tina was about to prepare a turkey sandwich in her kitchen when she turned around – and looked into the eyes of nine pissed people. She yelped, dropping the mayonnaise tube.
"What the hell, guys?", she asked them irritatedly. "You scared the crap out of me."
"What. Is that?", Quinn asked sharply, angrily pointing at her exemplar of the novel she had bought earlier that day. "I thought we agreed on that you won't publish that story!"
"But…but I didn't!", Tina defended herself, her eyes widened when she recognized the title page of her novel. "I never sent that to the publisher, I swear!"
"And why is that book on the bestseller lists all over the US?", Finn asked her with cocked eyebrows. "The story about ten strangers who discover they have telepathic powers?"
"I…" Tina honestly didn't know what to say. "Did you at least like it?"
Mercedes crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes, not looking less angry than Quinn. "McKenzie said the N word at least one hundred times. That's what you think about me? That bitch is the blackest person I know, it literally screams cliché. I never thought you would take tokenism that seriously. And as if it wasn't bad enough, McKenzie refused to have Mind Sex with Sawyer. You basically told the entire world I'm still a virgin!"
Puck looked at her. "You serious? Aw, sorry, man", he said to Sam, smirking dirtily.
"Shut the hell up, Puckerman!", Sam and Mercedes shouted in unison.
"Speaking of clichés" Kurt cleared his throat, beyond pissed. "How dare you telling the world I fainted at my wedding?! And Curtis!? You didn't even try to find a name that didn't give away my identity!"
"And in your story, you make Blake look like a man whore just because I...he had sex with Hughes", Blaine complained. "But I'm not!"
"Not always", Puck muttered under his breath.
"Guys…" Tina was slowly getting a headache.
"I would beat the crap out of you if I could, Cohen-Chang", Santana growled with clenched fists. "I really like Britt and if I see her unhappy just because of your fucking book, I swear on my Abuela's grave, you will have an enemy in me."
"At least, Neil Pokerman's and Caitlynn's love story is hot", Puck said proudly. He was the only one who didn't look pissed.
Rachel had stayed weirdly silent all the time, which was unusual for her, but nobody noticed as everyone was too preoccupied with his/her own problems.
"Tina? Baby?"
Startled, Tina turned around as she had heard Mike's voice from the hallway. "I'm in the kitchen", she shouted back, shooing away her entourage.
With a smile, her boyfriend entered, holding a bag in the air. "I brought us hamburgers; I hope you don't mind."
"Not at all", she piped, hiding the whitebread and the other ingredients for her turkey sandwich behind her back. "That's perfect."
Mike sat down on one of the barstools next to the counter, still grinning at his girlfriend for some reason. "You know what? There is something I need to tell you."
"Oooh, surprises. I love surprises", Tina hummed. "What is it?"
"Do you remember when you said you didn't want to publish your novel?"
"Yes?" Tina cocked her head to the side.
"Well…I sent it to the publisher and the people out there already love it", Mike admitted, beaming proudly. "At least one hundred of my closest friends have read it by now, even some of the celebs, and they will all recommend it to other people. I told you not to worry about it, darling."
Tina's face fell. "It…it was you?"
"I thought you were more ecstatic about it" Mike looked at her confusedly. "What's the problem?"
"How could you?!" Tina jumped up and glared at him. "I told you I wasn't ready for publishing that story and you didn't respect it."
"Tina…"
"Get out. Now!", she yelled at him, her face was red with anger. "You probably just ruined my life. I don't want to see you for a while, Michael. I'm so disappointed in you."
Lifting his hands in surrender, Mike got up and slowly went towards the door. "I don't understand. I…I don't know what I did wrong to upset you, Tina. I thought that's what you wanted."
"Well…you were wrong", Tina answered coldly. She pointed towards the door. "Now leave."
After he was gone, Tina leaned against the door, slumped down, buried her face in her hands and started crying.
Praying that the result wouldn't turn out as she feared it would, Rachel put away her finger.
And almost fainted because of the shock that followed.
…
Minutes passed, and Rachel was still sitting on the cold floor, staring at the result of her pregnancy test. How could she? How could she have unprotected sex with her ex just because she got weak? The same ex she cursed at two and a half weeks ago. The future father of that munchkin inside her.
It was a disaster.
After the initial shock followed desperation. She wasn't ready for raising a child yet. Especially not with someone like Brody. She could barely take care of herself, how could she take care of a baby, all alone?
Rachel buried her face in her hands and started crying.
…
After having sprayed himself with his girlfriend's favorite cologne, Finn left the apartment, grinning. Today was his and Harmony's anniversary, they were a couple for exactly two and a half weeks now.
Harmony couldn't wait, she already reserved them a table at one of those fancy lobster restaurants. Finn felt his mouth water. He loved lobsters. This date was going to be perfect.
His phone vibrated and Finn took it out of his pocket.
Harmony: Can't wait for my lobster ... and for the dessert afterwards ;) See you in five, babe
He quickly typed in an answer, feeling aroused.
Finn: I love you so much right now…
Finn grinned widely. Gosh, how he loved that woman. He never would have thought things would turn out like that at their first meeting back then at the coffeeshop.
Suddenly, he heard someone sob next to him. Finn turned around – and saw himself standing at someone else's bathroom. But not just anyone's bathroom.
"Rachel?", he said after he had looked down and spotted the brunette. His eyes widened when he noticed that she was the one crying. He quickly kneeled down next to her. "Hey, what happened?"
She looked up to him with her tear-stained face. "Nothing, nothing", she said faintly, wiping away her tears with the sleeve of her sweater.
"Doesn't look like nothing to me", Finn stated. "You can tell me everything, Rachel, you know that, right?"
"Not that" Rachel started laughing bitterly and burst into tears again.
"Hey, hey, hey" Finn pulled her closer to himself and hugged her, her body was shaking with sobs. "Shshsh…" He reassuringly caressed her back and just held her tight while tears were streaming down her face. "You don't need to talk about it if you don't want to", he whispered "But whatever it is: You are not alone."
"Don't…don't you have a date with Harmony now?", Rachel said into his shoulder.
Finn just waved it off. "Doesn't matter. Harmony will understand. You need me more now."
So the two of them continued sitting on the floor of Rachel's bathroom with Rachel crying and Finn just holding her, whispering reassuring words into her ear.
…
Harmony was sipping on her champagne, waiting for her boyfriend to show up. Which lobster would she choose? An entire one or the lobster Newberg? What a hard choice.
-Ten minutes later-
Harmony let the waiter refill her glass of champagne and gnawed on the breadsticks every costumer got as an appetizer. It was not exactly uncommon that men were late, so she was not that surprised. He would show up any moment and apologize.
-Twenty minutes later-
Still no Finn Hudson far and wide, and he didn't even react to one of the texts or WhatsApp messages Harmony had sent him. She was slowly getting worried. Did something happen to him?
-Forty-five minutes later-
She reasoned that Finn must have ditched her. On their two-and-a-half-week anniversary of all days! How dared he?! Ghosting her was not normal anymore. What if he was about to have sex with another woman now?
-One and a half hours later-
Harmony picked up the last crumble of the breadsticks box and put it onto her tongue. Yup, he definitely ditched her. And he was definitely cheating on her because he hadn't been online for almost two hours now.
What a douchebag!
"Excuse me?" A handsome man came over to her and smiled charmingly. "Is that place still free?"
"Yes", Harmony snapped without thinking twice.
The man, unfazed by her irritation, sat down on her opposite. "Did your date ditch you?"
Harmony just nodded, still pissed about it. "And what about you? Did your wife elope with your best friend?", she asked him bitterly.
He shook his head. "And I'm bi, by the way."
"And engaged", Harmony added, noticing the engagement ring on his finger. The man waved it off. "It's nothing serious. It's kind of an open relationship, actually" He waved at the waitress who just went past their table. "I want the best wine you have at this place, for me and that beautiful lady."
"Of course, Sir", the waitress answered obediently and left.
Harmony smiled at him. "Thank you, handsome. I'm Harmony, by the way."
"Vincent", Vincent introduced himself and kissed her hand. "Enchanté."
"Looks like this evening won't be ruined after all", the brown haired woman gushed delightedly.