Chapter 57
"Hey" Rachel saw James sit down next to her in their afternoon class, his hair was still wet from the shower he must have taken. She smiles at him as he leans over and kisses her cheek.
"Hi" She replied, grinning taking in his appearance. "How was practise?"
"Awesome" Comes his response as he takes his books out of his bag. "I missed you though"
"Missed you too" She says taking hold of his hand as her other goes to brush his wet fringe out of his face, a wide smile on her face. "Couldn't dry your hair?"
He laughed at her, squeezing her hand "I could have spent time doing that, ooooor get out early and see you before class"
"You're sweet" She giggled, kissing his cheek before releasing his hand "I'm excited to watch you play next week"
"I'm not guaranteed to play Rach, don't get your hopes up" He murmured as he opened his text book.
"I know you're going to" She said smiling "You're amazing"
"You're not the one I need to convince" He laughed, and she nudged his shoulder.
"You better not give up that easily" She teased as he laughed at her "I want to watch my boyfriend and be able to cheer when he scores"
"I'll try my best" He said leaning over to kiss her cheek.
She replies with a warm smile as their teacher walked into the classroom and they were forced to look away from each other. As she turned to face the front Rachel glanced Finn watching them, a slight frown on his face. He'd done this more and more recently since that night and while he had stayed away from her, his gaze had been making her uncomfortable ever since James had returned from Oregon; it was almost like he was trying to get a reaction. Rachel had this horrible feeling that he could break her happiness at any moment. Forcing herself not to think about it, Rachel found the whiteboard as Mr Shayli continued his lecture.
Their last two afternoon classes passed quickly, of course with a mountain of new homework, but Rachel found herself with Kurt, James and Mercedes making their way to the choir room for Glee practise.
"Can you believe its nearly Saturday night?" Kurt said happily. "We're going to have SO much fun"
Rachel smiled walking hand in hand with James, as Mercedes replied "Have you got the movies planned already?"
"I thought your movie night was tomorrow night?" James asked
"Normally it is, but we're having it on Saturday for the six of us" Kurt replies
"Huh, six of you?" James says glancing at him
"Lauren, Tina and Quinn are joining us for our movie night" Rachel adds with a quick shrug of her shoulders
"Oh sounds good" He says with a cheeky smile "Good to know that I can be ditched so easily"
"I'm sorry but yes, you can" She says softly watching as a grin spreads across James' face and he laughs at her.
"Wow, really nice. I suppose i'll just have to go hang out at Artie's with the guys. He's having a monster halo tournament" He replies with a wink
"Remind me who is ditching who exactly?" She giggles in response.
"You know I'd give them up for you any time" James said seriously and she smiled, nodding in response as she leaned up to kiss his cheek
"OK, enough of that" Kurt mimes gagging "Yes, I have them planned out already"
"I think we should start off with the princess diaries and work from there" Mercedes replied as they walked into the choir room. "You're welcome to join us white boy"
"I'll pass" James laughed and Rachel couldn't help but laugh at the look of horror on his face. "I'm sure you guys will have fun though"
"We will" Kurt replied as the four of them made their way to the seats.
Rachel had a grin on her face as she noticed the warm atmosphere around the glee club. The past few weeks since sectionals had been fantastic, with everyone in the group riding high on their success, especially with the girls rejoining from the troubletones. Mr Schuester had took some advice from Shelby and Miss Pillsbury regarding creating unity in the team again. In her opinion it had been a huge success, the good feeling in the meetings now was as high as it had been at any point over the last three years and the positivity towards regionals was buzzing in the air. She had belted out Celine's That's the way it is the previous day and couldn't wait to see what the rest of them wanted to sing.
"Alright class" Mr Schuesters voice interrupted her thoughts and she snapped her eyes to the front as she sat down next to James and Kurt in "their" seats. "Today, we're going to continue our fun little assignment of working through our favourite songs"
"Yesterday we had Quinn, Rachel, Artie and Sam" Mr Schuester said as he started to walk towards them "They were awesome guys, thank you for sharing. Now, who wants to go first today?"
"I will Mr Schue" Rachel smiled as she heard James voice, turning to glance at him as he stood up from his seat next to her. "Is it cool if Sam helps me out?"
"Okay James sure, Sam come on up" Their teacher replied as James walks back towards the centre of the room carrying two guitars.
"This is why he loves me living with him" Sam remarks with a grin as he stands near James, who just laughs with the rest of the club.
Rachel watches with a fond smile as her boyfriend plays the first few bars of the song. Sam and the rest of the band join in as James starts to sing eyes closed as he strums.
Hey, slow it down
What do you want from me
What do you want from me
Yeah, I'm afraid
What do you want from me
What do you want from me
There might have been a time
I would give myself away
(Ooh) Once upon a time
I didn't give a damn
But now here we are
So what do you want from me
What do you want from me
Just don't give up
I'm workin' it out
Please don't give in
I won't let you down
It messed me up, need a second to breathe
James voice is as smooth as always as he sings the higher notes and she looks to Kurt on her left who is smirking, more than likely at the silly googly eyes she's showing off as he sings.
Just keep coming around
Hey, what do you want from me
What do you want from me
Yeah, it's plain to see
that baby you're beautiful
And there's nothing wrong with you
It's me ' I'm a freak
but thanks for lovin' me
'Cause you're doing it perfectly
There might have been a time
When I would let you step away
I wouldn't even try but I think
you could save my life
James stops playing and lets Sam play the next verse solo as he belts out the song.
Just don't give up
I'm workin' it out
Please don't give in
I won't let you down
It messed me up, need a second to breathe
Just keep coming around
Hey, what do you want from me
What do you want from me
Just don't give up on me ohhh aaayyyyyyyyy
I won't let you down
No, I won't let you down
Sooooooooo
James holds the note perfectly, the glee club are cheering as he joins back in on guitar and they harmonise alongside his vocals.
Just don't give up
I'm workin' it out
Please don't give in
I won't let you down
It messed me up, need a second to breathe
Just keep coming around
Hey, what do you want from me
Just don't give up
I'm workin' it out
Please don't give in
I won't let you down
It messed me up, need a second to breathe
Just keep coming around
Hey, whataya want from me
(Whataya want from me)
Whataya want from me
whataya want from me
Rachel stood up with the rest of the glee club and applauded as James and Sam finish the song and bow. Listening to him perform always brought a smile to her face, his voice was just so good. The boys high five each other as Mr Schue applauds, walking towards the two of them "Guys...AMAZING. Great job"
Mr Schue pats Sam on the shoulder, as James shakes his hand, grinning "Thanks Mr Schu"
"A straight boy singing Adam Lambert" Kurt remarks "Never thought i'd see the day"
"I'm obsessed" James laughs as he gets slapped on on the back by Blaine.
"Never a truer remark" Kurt answers before Mr Schu claps his hands together to get their attention.
"Who wants to follow that?" Mr Schue said clasping his hands as he turned back to the rest of them.
"I'll give it a shot" Puck grins
"You were great" Rachel murmurs in James' ear as she presses a kiss against his cheek. "and so hot"
James simply winks at her, placing his arm around her shoulder, Rachel happily cuddling into his side.
Throughout the rest of Glee club rehearsal,a few more of the kids performed their favourite songs; all of which had them cheering, clapping and singing along.
Rachel spent that night with James at his house with Sam that evening, both of her fathers were out of town for a few days for a business trip. In the past, she would have been sat at being left alone by them; but she was thankful that she had Andrea, James and even Sam to keep her company. Andrea was still putting the finishing pieces on her new menu for the restaurant together and they spent the evening being her chief food tasters.
...
Just as Kurt had said, Saturday came around quickly and Rachel took the free time in the morning for a trip to the mall with James for a small bit of shopping using the money they'd each gotten at Christmas to treat themselves. After spending a couple of hours at his house afterwards, Rachel said that she'd see him Monday and to make sure he behaved himself. James smirked at her, kissing her softly before walking to her car.
They were having the sleepover at Kurt's house considering he had the biggest room out of the three of them, which would be necessary given that number of . If you had told her this time last year if she would be sat here with Lauren, Quinn and Tina Rachel definitely would have felt more than a little nervous considering that she'd never really been the type of the girl to attract these type of friends. As it was now, Rachel was simply happy.
"What time is Quinn getting here?" Tina asked as they were stood around in Kurt's kitchen.
"I told her that we normally start watching the movies at seven so, any time soon" Rachel replies taking a sip of her drink. "How was your weekend so far?"
"Me and Mike went to movies this morning to watch that new Angelina Jolie film" Tina says "It was okay and then we got some lunch"
"Sounds great" Mercedes replies "Where's Blaine tonight Kurt"
"With the warblers, they need his help with something" Kurt shrugs "I'm sure they don't really but Blaine is too nice to say no and the evil chipmonk is too charming"
"Better than him spending the evening playing video games..." Lauren sighed
"Sam and James are over at Artie's….I don't understand how they can sit there and play video games for hours" Rachel says with a roll of her eyes.
"He hasn't convinced you to try playing with him?" Tina laughs "Mike asked me and I just laughed at him"
"I've tried it with him…but it was just so boring" Rachel giggles and the five of them stood around for a few more minutes before they heard the bell ring and Kurt went off to get it. She finds herself jealous of Tina only being a junior as the girl tells them about her easier school schedule compared to what is being dumped on the seniors this year.
"Look who I've found" Kurt says as he walks back into the room a few minutes later leading Quinn and surprisingly Brittany with Santana.
"So you girls thought you'd do this without us?" Santana asks as she walks in carrying a bottle of wine "Not cool lady Hummel"
"Great, Satan is here" Lauren rolls her eyes and Santana gives her a glare.
"They called and asked what I was doing tonight….and then they sort of invited themselves" Quinn explains with a small, apologetic smile. "Hey Rachel"
Rachel waves as Santana puts the two bottles of wine down on the counter "All the guys are together, so why shouldn't we?"
"You know its fine, we're happy to have you join; but you're not to say a word about the films, we decided days ago and we're watching them" Kurt said with a smirk.
"That's fine, we respect that" Santana replies "But if any of you cry or be overly emotional; I'm going to slaughter you"
Rachel laughs "We won't be that bad". Turns out that it wasn't so bad hanging out with Santana
The rest of the night was amazing, as the group of girls sat and led around Kurt's room enjoying the opportunity to spend time together. They worked their way through the movies they'd chosen to watched, laughing and generally chatting with one another about school, glee club and their general friendships. Though she spent most of her time talking to either Kurt, Mercedes, Tina or Quinn; Rachel noted with a smile that everyone seemed to be having a good time and when they were watching Mama Mia , everyone had a huge grin on their face as they dance and sang along to the lyrics.
Later on, when a few of them had a fallen asleep, mostly from the wine had left Kurt and Quinn awake as the only two for her to talk to. The three were sat in his bed chatting softly about their plans for college.
"When are you expecting Yale to reply?" Rachel asked in a hushed voice as she sipped her cup of cocoa.
"Early admissions is in late February" Quinn replied "I don't know if I'll get in then but definitely before graduation"
"It's so nerve-wracking" Kurt added "It's actually our futures coming up and we're sat around waiting with nothing more we can possibly do"
"We just have to believe that we're going to be accepted and we can go and do all those things we want in our lives" Rachel said softly
"When did you get so positive about college?" Kurt laughed
"I like that" Quinn replied with a smile "I'm using the image of my moms face when I tell her I got accepted into Yale as motivation"
"See? I give excellent advice" Rachel giggled and then bit her lip in case she had woke any of the girls. "Thats so great Quinn, you're going to be amazing"
"Seriously though" Kurt rolled his eyes "My dad would be so proud if i get in..."
"Especially with everything you've been through the last few years" Quinn agreed
"You've been so strong, even with me in your way" Rachel adds apologetically
"Old news...we made up remember" Kurt reassures "Your dads would lose their minds if you told them you got into NYADA with me"
"I know" She grins, a happy picture in her head "But all I can really picture these days is life in New York with you and James, Kurt"
"I'm not sure I can take that much lovey-dovey couple stuff" Kurt teased
"They're cute" Quinn said giggling quietly "And you know its true if i'm saying that considering all I put you through with Finn"
Rachel feels her smile fade at that. Finn, and how she hadn't told him about what had happened.
"Rach, everything okay?" Quinn asks softly, placing her hand on Rachel's
"I umm" She replies, glancing at Kurt "I'm just really happy and can't imagine anything without him"
"Tell her Rachel" Kurt reassures softly
"Tell me what?" Quinn asks with a frown. Rachel sighs and goes through the story carefully, mostly to avoid waking up the other girls but also to stop herself getting too emotional.
"And you haven't told him yet?" Quinn asked; Rachel shook her head in response and Quinn's eyes widened in response "Rach-"
"I know okay, it's just how can I tell him? Rachel murmured biting her lip
"You should tell him, Rachel, keeping it from him isn't going to help either of you" Quinn suggested
"I know that, I do; but he's been so happy ever since he came back from Oregon and I can't be the reason that goes away…it breaks my heart to think that I'm going to hurt him by telling him Finn kissed me and you saw the bracelet he got me…how do I tell him?" Rachel said softly, sniffing back her tears as she felt Kurt take her hand and hold it in his.
Quinn rubbed her hand up her arm comfortingly before she spoke quietly; "You know it'll be better if you do…James will understand, he loves you so much. It'll be tough at first, but you'll get through this"
"Quinn's right…the only thing that waiting any longer can do is increase the damage" Kurt said hugging her "We'll both be here to help talk to him if it's needed"
Rachel smiled as Quinn nodded her agreement, she knew they were both right but facing up to seeing the hurt on James' face was something she couldn't be ready for, regardless of how reassuring her friends were "I'm just worried"
"It's different…but when I was lying to Finn about Beth, despite how scared I was, it felt better knowing that he knew the truth that I wasn't lying to him any more" Quinn suggested "James is much more understanding than Finn is, I'm sure he'll listen and let you explain"
Rachel nodded stroking the bracelet on her wrist, the one that he had given her for Christmas that had made her feel so special knowing how deeply he cared for her. Letting out a sigh, she smiled and looked up at the two of them and nodded her head. "Thanks you two, I really appreciate you being so understanding"
"You're our friend Rachel and we love you" Kurt said, resting his head against her shoulder "We just want to see you happy"
...
The next day, the girls and Kurt spend a few hours in the morning at his house in the kitchen as they make breakfast together before going their separate ways. Rachel heads to the mall with Kurt and Mercedes, the three of them doing some shopping as they meet up with Blaine who fills them in on the details about who won the call of duty tournament. Apparently Blaine had surprised a few of the guys by being really good at the game and when she found out James had been beaten pretty early on; Rachel couldn't help herself and teased him via text message.
She wasn't going to see him until Monday, because his mom had insisted that he go with her to Akron on the Sunday to look over the restaurant with her before his father arrived. Rachel knew that despite the seeming improvement in his relationship with his father, it was still edgy with James still needing to keep up his efforts to impress his father. Despite her nerves being on edge, she enjoyed her day with Blaine, Kurt and Mercedes all the same before going home and spending the evening cuddled up in bed listening to her Broadway playlist.
The Monday morning, Rachel was sat talking to Kurt in their first class of the day; smiling as they joked about their Saturday night with the glee girls at his house. A few minutes before their lesson was supposed to start, she glanced up and saw James walk into the room with his bag slung over his shoulder. Giving him a warm smile, she watched as he walked over and sat in his seat next to her, dropping his head as he dug into his bag pack to find the his books.
"Hey" She says, rubbing his shoulder with her hand affectionately "You weren't at your lock this morning"
"Sorry" James replied in a low murmur "I got to school late"
"Everything okay?" She asked softly as he looks up at her after retrieving his text book, giving her a small smile.
"Yeah, just a little tired; got home late from Akron" He said, his eyes meeting hers before flicking towards the front of class.
"Okay" She replied, giving him a smile before leaning over and kissing his cheek. "I missed you"
"Missed you too" He said, returning her smile as he turned and kissing her sweetly on the lips.
The two of them had a number of classes together that morning, but in between as they walked from room to room; as well as during them themselves, Rachel couldn't help but notice that James seemed to be acting off, as though something was bothering him.
At lunch, she managed to get him alone; telling him that she wanted them to eat in private since they hadn't seen each other much over the last few days; the two of them sitting in the auditorium as they ate and she told him about the sleepover on Saturday night.
"And Santana was talking about how she thinks we only won because of using Michael Jackson" Rachel said with a smile "We took offence to that, I thought our dancing was so much better thanks to you and Mike"
"We were great" James said "Especially you guys that won it for us"
"It was a team effort" Rachel grinned, noting how James smile wasn't true "Is everything okay?"
"What do you mean?"
"You seem like there's something bothering you" She murmured, shifting closer next to him "You can tell me"
"I don't know"
"I can tell, I can always tell when you're upset about something" She said with a small smile
"I….." He murmured before pausing to swallow.
"James?"
Rachel frowned and watched him as he closed his eyes for a short moment before opening them and gazing at her as he spoke again; "Did you kiss Finn?"
"What?" Rachel opened her mouth to reply but nothing came out. Gulping she frowned at him before finding her voice; "How did you know that?"
"So it's true" James murmured, looking away from her and shaking her head "I can't believe you kept this from me"
"I am so sorry I didn't tell you" She says, moving her hand to touch his arm and his eyes snap back to hers
"I don't understand"
"I am so sorry I didn't tell you but please let me explain" She says pleading with him "Finn kissed me, I pushed him away after a second, I didn't want him to. I don't want him to kiss me ever again"
"Why didn't you tell me?" He asked quietly
"I don't know, but I was just afraid of what you'd think and I didn't want to hurt you-"
"When I called and you were crying, it because he kissed you" He murmured softly
"Yeah" She nods "I'm so sorry for not telling you-"
"How could you not tell me Rach?" James says disbelievingly, his voice rising.
"I'm so sorry- I should have"
"This whole time, I've trusted you and you've been lying to me" He says, shaking his head and she can see tears in his eyes.
"James please-"
He looks at her and she sees the hopelessness in his face as he holds her gaze for a long moment, before shaking his head and leaving her.
"James" She says softly as he slams the door behind him.
...
Small A/N :
After a long, long time (long long long long time) i'm back with an update ! I've got the next 10 or so chapters already wrote so it'll just be editing and then posting every few days while I work on the rest of the story :)
This video of Adam Lambert singing is literally the reason I picked this story up again, always wanted to to include the song somewhere but didn't know how. It's how i imagined James' cover of Whataya want from me for agggesss with the guitar and drums backing. ( www. youtube . com watch?v=zBu9VX-lWko) or check the link in bio
Just a little idea of my plan for this story: Valentines Day is either 62 or 63. Regional's is going to be 65. Rachel's NYADA audition will be around 70. I'm hoping to tie all this up by Chapter 85-90 ish