(One year ago)

"You know what rhymes with Blaine?" Santana said with a half-twisted tongue, long intoxicated by the amount of cocktails Elliott prepared. "A guitar out of tune... blaine, blaine, blaine, blaine." She gestured as if she was playing a guitar and started laughing at her own nonsense, along with the others.

"This is more like a rusty bell!" Quinn blurted out and the others laughed even harder.

No, that wasn't a pity party to lift Kurt's spirits. He and Blaine had broken up several months ago when the ex-Warbler cheated on him for the second time and the two finally realized they didn't match at all. Kurt had been in a relationship with Elliott for almost three months, and was already making plans to live together with his boyfriend.

The small party was simply to celebrate the birth of the band Dolores Kissed Me and its very first gig (still without a drummer). Blaine's name came up because it's a party of a small group of friends that loved to badmouth ex-lovers and disaffected ones. Blaine Anderson, Finn Hudson, Noah Puckerman, Jesse St. James, Brody Weston, Sam Evans, Sue Silvester, William Schuester, Dave Karofsky, Biff Macintosh, Sebastian Smythr, Code Tolentino, Harmony. The only ex who wasn't bullied by the group jokes was Brittany Pierce, who had an unbelievable safe-conduct.

"This thing here is spectacular. What is this again?" Rachel finished another cup and walked towards Elliott.

"I believe you just drunk an expressive amount of caipirinha."

"Did you know you are an alchemist?" Rachel laughed softly.

"An alchemist?" Elliott smiled.

"Only an alchemist would have magical hands to prepare these beauties." Rachel giggled and leaned a little closer to her friend, much to Kurt's displeasure, after all, even though Elliott was gay, Rachel never hid that she thought her best friend's boyfriend was handsome.

"Rachel Berry!" Kurt raged. "Hands off my man, please!"

"Oh, what a bag. We're at a party and I don't have anyone to kiss." Rachel grumbled.

"I kiss you." Santana said with a weak smile, of someone who was one step away from being sick and two from having an alcoholic coma.

"My savior." Rachel threw herself on top of Santana, who was sitting on the couch, and kissed her unceremoniously.

The drunken and spontaneous gesture provoked diverse reactions. Kurt rolled his eyes, Elliott was shocked, Dani was a little jealous and Quinn was incredibly annoyed. She walked over to the pair of drunken rutting girls and pushed Rachel, who plopped down on the couch next to Santana.

"Hey!" Santana complained. "That was rude."

Rachel burst out laughing, thinking that the whole situation that she would barely remember the next day was absolutely surreal.

"You can thank me later." Quinn said to Rachel. "I know very well where these drunken kisses with Santana Lopez can end up."

"Come on, Quinn. Don't be a spoilsport. You've had your turn, Dani too. Maybe now it's Rachel's turn." Santana caressed her friend's leg next to her.

"You're hot as hell, but you're not that irresistible, Satan, especially after you fucked HARMONY!" Rachel shouted in Santana's ear before start laughing like a naughty little girl and kissed Santana's cheek. "Otherwise I would have tried it a long time ago." Rachel's speech came as a shock to her friends, especially Quinn.

"Come on… Harmony is very flexible and talented… Rachel hates her because she's the new Elphaba and got there first. Too bad she is even more annoying than Rachel. If she went mute or I went deaf, things would work out."

Suddenly, the little diva stopped laughing. She got up from the couch with some difficulty.

"I... I'm a little sick... I blame Santana…" Nyada's student ran to the bathroom to the surprise of no one there. Rachel was the weakest on drinks, and maybe that's why she herself was always the first to get sick.

Kurt felt obliged to help his friend, because that's what he always did, or Santana. The band's lead singer was kind of distracted at that moment because Quinn was staring at her disapprovingly, as if Santana had taken advantage of Rachel somehow. Santana had already confessed a while ago to Quinn and Kurt, in the informality of drunken conversation, that she cared a lot about Rachel even though they were constantly pecking at each other, like grumpy old ladies. On the other hand, she never hinted at anything but platonic up until that point, and that's what bothered Quinn the most. And yes, that was the first kiss that Rachel and Santana shared.

Quinn and Santana looked like they'd gotten into a game where whoever looked away from them in anger and defiance first would lose the battle.

"Come here, Bae." Dani pulled Santana off the couch. "I think we've had enough fun for today... shall we get some sleep?"

"Can I be the big spoon?" Santana said sly, pouting.

"And if you're good, I'll kiss you good night." The two went to Santana's small bedroom. Santana occupied the smallest of the rooms in that three-bedroom, living-room-kitchen-and-bathroom apartment in Bronx.

Quinn watched the scene, still feeling angry. She heard Elliott cough and turned to her friend's boyfriend.

"Time to stop making drinks." Elliott began to cover the open bottles that still had liquid inside and throw the leftover lemons in the trash. "Unless you want to dry some of these beauties, Fabray."

"Enough for today or I'll end up like Rachel. This apartment only has one bathroom!"

"If you want my opinion, Fabray, you hesitated not to take Dani's place." The guitarist put the glasses into the sink, not thinking about washing them. In fact, Elliott was thinking of lying down on the cuddly ottoman in the corner of the room for a quick nap before heading home. It was either that, or it was spending one more night in the bedroom Kurt shared with Rachel. The previous experience was a little embarrassing, and he didn't want to do it again.

"You are wrong, Emo Boy." It was a nickname given by Santana that Quinn repeated from time to time. "Santana is not for me, and neither am I for her. San is someone else's, and I'm still looking for my one." Quinn said in a moment of pure lucidity amidst the alcoholic confusion.

"I could have sworn..." He felt awkward. "I mean, you two already… I mean, everyone knows Dani is Santana's friend with benefits because Dani isn't looking for that relationship stuff. Santana is free and I could be wrong, but you seem to have a crush on her. So..."

"You've never met Brittany, have you?"

"No."

"The day you meet her, you'll understand what I'm talking about."

"But, if it wasn't for this Brittany, would you try?"

"I don't know... San is…"

They were interrupted by Kurt and Rachel, who didn't look at all well after so many caipirinhas made from Brazilian cachaça. Who would have thought that a drink that looked more like sweet lemon juice with alcohol could knock a person down like that. Quinn went to her room, and she never discussed the matter with Elliott or anybody else even again.