A/N: Day 11! Quinn sees Rachel perform in her college production of Rent. Enjoy.
Day 11: Performance
Sitting on the train, Quinn sees her phone light up as she's doing some work for her history class. She has a text from Rachel, and just the sight of the name on her phone makes her smile.
My call time is in half an hour, It reads, Kurt will meet you at Grand Central and bring you back to our apartment before the show. Can't wait to see you!
Quinn smiles even more after reading the text. She types, Thanks. I know you're gonna do great tonight. Break a leg! , and attempts to go back to her work while her mind thinks about the night ahead of her.
She's currently on the Metro-North train from Union Station in New Haven to Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. In about an hour, she'll arrive in New York, meet Kurt, go with him to their apartment in Bushwick, and go from Bushwick to Greenwich Village where NYADA is located.
Rachel is starring in a school production of Rent tonight. It's her first major role in a major school production, and, given the amount of talent at her school and the fact that they are only sophomores, it's huge. It's the opening night, and they're expected to have a full house, and it's all Rachel's been able to talk about for weeks.
Quinn couldn't be prouder of her best friend.
Of course, this isn't to say that Rachel hasn't struggled at all in the past year and a half of college. Quinn has spent hours listening to Rachel complain about her dance teacher from hell, her grueling acting classes, and her extremely strict vocal coach, but she's always known that Rachel is too talented to let any of that drag her down. And she's right. Because Rachel landed this role in Rent , just as a sophomore, and Quinn knows she's gonna be amazing.
By the time she arrives in New York, she's finished with her work, which just leaves her with more time to spend with Rachel this weekend. Quinn exits the train with her bag, steps onto the platform, and immediately spots Kurt a number of feet away. She walks over to him, greeting him with a friendly hug, and they head outside where Kurt hails a cab.
Their conversation stays light, talking mostly about how they're each doing and about Rachel and the show. She and Kurt have never been super close, but they've grown to be friendly as she's come to visit Rachel several times in the past year and a half. Quinn likes Kurt, she does, but he can be a bit irritating at times, and she hasn't forgotten his "the world never stopped loving you" comment during their senior year. When she came out to him as gay, his eyes had grown comically wide, and he had apologized for that comment and for not knowing sooner. Quinn had accepted the apology, but she still thinks about it from time to time, in the moments when he's particularly getting on her nerves. But he's Rachel's roommate, and her best friend, so Quinn tends to push those feelings aside for Rachel's sake.
They make it to the apartment in Bushwick; Quinn drops her bags in Rachel's "room," changes into something a tad more formal, does her hair and makeup in the bathroom, and they're quickly out the door to catch a bus into Greenwich Village. The bus ride is uneventful, aside from one passenger loudly arguing on the phone with his (presumed) wife, at which Quinn and Kurt shared a mutual look of exasperation. Arriving near the campus, they make the short walk over to the theatre building. Kurt pulls their tickets out from his pocket, hands them to the person at the booth, and they're given two programs and a wish to "enjoy the show" before they are shown to their seats.
Immediately, Quinn opens the program and begins to search for Rachel's name. It's right on the third page, the cast list, at the end of a long line of dots next to the name Maureen .
Quinn has to admit that she's never actually seen Rent, nor does she know what the show is even about beyond what the title implies. She's heard a good amount from Rachel over the past months, but the details are still pretty fuzzy for her.
She finds Rachel's picture in the biography section, and she smiles at the sight of her. Quinn reads her bio, and something inside of her lights up as she reads the last sentence.
Rachel would like to thank her dads and her best friends, Kurt and Quinn, for always believing in her and making sure that she would get it right.
The sight of her own name and the callback to their conversation from nearly three years ago brings all sorts of emotions bubbling to the surface inside of her. Thankfully, she doesn't have too much time to sit with her thoughts before the lights dim, and the pit begins to play.
Quinn is left waiting for Rachel's character's entrance for a while, so she sits back and enjoys the show for what it is. And she definitely enjoys it. The cast are extremely talented, though she would expect nothing less from a performing arts school, and the music is equally amazing.
It's right before a song entitled Tango: Maureen (which Quinn had learned from the program) that a sudden realization dawns on her. The song is between two characters, Mark, Maureen's ex-boyfriend, and Joanne, Maureen's current partner. The realization hits Quinn like a train: Rachel is playing Maureen, and Maureen is dating a woman named Joanne.
Well, that is an important detail that Rachel forgot to mention.
She watches these two characters sing about being in a relationship with Maureen and the challenges that come with it, and Quinn's mind is racing with the idea of Rachel dating a woman. Rachel, her very much straight best friend, is going to be playing a relationship with a woman.
Why hadn't she mentioned that?
A while later, Rachel, as Maureen, finally makes her entrance, arriving on stage on a makeshift motorcycle, and the crowd erupts in cheers. The stage blacks out for a beat, and then the lights come back up to show Rachel, center stage, performing a solo act for the audience.
It's a six minute song full of metaphors, funny bits, and theatricality, and Rachel shines . Quinn watches in awe as Rachel performs and cracks the audience up while also showing off her vocal ability.
The song is brilliant. Rachel is brilliant, and the thunderous applause she receives following the number is more than well-deserved.
In the next scene, the whole cast is in a diner, and, within minutes of each other, Quinn watches Rachel both pull down her pants to show her bare butt to the entire audience as a part of the song and kiss two different girls.
Quinn's brain short-circuits.
Seeing Rachel's bare ass for the first time along with the hundreds of others in this theatre is something that she never saw coming, so that's that. But seeing Rachel kiss two women, on stage, in front of hundreds, gives Quinn so many conflicting thoughts that all come back to the fact that she wishes she were the one, on that stage, kissing Rachel.
There's an intermission after this scene, and Quinn sends a silent thanks up to Jonathan Larson for that because she needs time to process everything that she just saw.
Kurt turns to her and asks, "So, what do you think?"
Quinn lets out a heavy sigh. "It's really good. And Rachel, she's just…"
"Amazing, right?" He says, and Quinn nods to agree. "She's been really nervous about what you would think."
"Really?" She asks, shocked. "Why?"
Kurt shrugs. "She's always a little insecure when it comes to you."
Quinn's silent for a moment, pondering Kurt's words. Then, she says, "I don't know how she can be insecure when it comes to her performing, especially compared to me. Rachel's… She's brilliant, and she knows that." Her eyes gleam over as she continues, "This role… it's perfect for her. She's shining."
"Oh, wow."
Quinn spins her head to look at him, seeing a grin on his face. "What?"
"You're so into her." Kurt says.
"What? No, I'm not." Quinn lies though her face betrays her.
Kurt laughs, "Yes, you so are. Damn, I can't believe I didn't see it sooner. This makes so much sense."
Quinn blushes fiercely and says, "You can't say anything to her. Please, Kurt, you can't. It would ruin everything."
He simply nods as the lights go dim, signalling the beginning of the second act. It opens on the whole cast standing on the stage as they sing Seasons of Love, and Quinn is left in tears. Quickly, it shifts into a new scene where Maureen and Joanne are arguing; the music for the next song starts, and Quinn instantly recognizes it.
When Rachel starts singing Take Me or Leave Me, Quinn is thrown back to when she and Mercedes sang this song in Glee. She sounds just as incredible as she did back then, if not better, and the actress playing Joanne gives back just as good as she's getting. They sound amazing together, and Quinn is hit with the thought that Rachel truly was made to be on stage. There's something about her that shifts when she's performing, and it is such a sight to be lucky enough to witness.
After that number, the rest of the show turns sad, quickly, and Quinn is basically crying through the entire remainder of the show. At the end of the show, when the cast finishes their final note, Quinn jumps to her feet with applause, everyone else quickly following behind her. When Rachel comes out during the curtain call, Quinn cheers for her so loudly that it draws strange looks from the people around her, but she can't even find it in herself to care. Rachel somehow finds her in the audience, bows, and blows a kiss in her direction before getting out of the way for the next cast member, and Quinn's heart flutters in her chest.
No matter how hard she tries, she can never seem to quell her feelings for this girl.
It's a while before Quinn and Kurt find Rachel after the show, and it's to be expected. She probably has tons of classmates, professors, and other friends that she'll want to speak to first. Eventually, though, Rachel comes out of the crowd of people, spots Quinn, a massive smile lighting up her face, and runs over to her. Quinn opens her arms as Rachel nearly plows into her, throwing her arms around her shoulders in such a tight hug it almost knocks the wind out of her. She wraps her arms around Rachel's back and squeezes her tightly, enjoying the feeling of their bodies pressed so closely together.
"Hi," Rachel mumbles shyly.
"Hi, Rach," Quinn giggles, pulling back from the hug and watching Rachel take a slight step back and lower herself from her tiptoes. She says, "The show was amazing. You were amazing. I loved it so much."
Rachel grins shyly, playing with her hands. "You really think so?"
"Yes," Quinn states honestly, "No one could have done it better."
Rachel blushes as smiles as Kurt scoffs next to them. She gives Kurt a quick hug and begins rambling, saying, "The show went so great tonight! Our dress rehearsal was a disaster last night, but everyone was so amazing tonight! La Vie Bohème went so well, and Darryl absolutely killed the reprise of I'll Cover You, and, wow, Jamie during Take Me or Leave Me? She was amazing, don't you think so, Quinn?"
Quinn vaguely remembers seeing the name Jamie in the program, assuming she's the woman who played Joanne, and says, "Yeah, she was great.
"She's a senior, and I was so nervous to work with her and do certain scenes, but she's the nicest person ever, and she's been so encouraging this whole time." Rachel explains.
"That's really good to hear," Quinn says before she admits as casually as she possibly can, "I didn't realize you'd be, you know, dating a girl in the show."
Rachel smiles and says, "Yeah, that's one of my favorite things about Rent! Getting to play a bi character is so amazing, especially because we don't get a lot of representation in musicals."
Quinn nods, running what she just said through her head, and she stops. "You… we… wait, what?"
Did Rachel just imply that she… that she is… what now?
"Yeah, I'm bisexual," Rachel confirms, oblivious to Quinn's racing thoughts, "Did I never tell you that?"
"Um, no?" Quinn blurts out incredulously, her voice embarrassingly high-pitched.
She can't believe this. Rachel is bisexual. Rachel likes men and women. Which means that she likes women. In a romantic sense. As more than friends.
"Huh," Rachel says, "I thought I had mentioned it." She continues talking about how the show went, but Quinn is too trapped in her thoughts to properly listen.
How could she never have told Quinn? Quinn came out to her as a lesbian almost an entire year ago. They had gone to New York Pride together with Kurt, and Quinn had just thought that Rachel was there as an ally and a friend! Rachel has asked her multiple times about her crushes, potential flings, without once mentioning a thing about her own feelings for girls.
Then, Quinn wonders, has Rachel kissed a girl before being in this show? How long has she known? And, again, how had she never told Quinn?
These thoughts run through her mind for the rest of the night. On the bus ride back to Bushwick, as she's changing into her pajamas and washing her face in the bathroom, when she gets into Rachel's bed and lays on her back, staring at the ceiling, her mind going fifty miles a minute.
They've gotten used to this whole sharing-a-bed thing, so it's no surprise to Quinn when Rachel climbs into the bed next to her shortly after she gets in herself. It does, however, carry a whole new level of significance in Quinn's mind, one that she is struggling to ignore.
Rachel keeps her lamp light on, leaving them mostly in darkness but with enough visibility to see each other's faces, and asks, "Did I really never tell you about my sexuality?"
She says it thoughtfully, as if she truly believed she had brought it up at some point, and Quinn resists the urge to laugh. Instead, she says, "No, you never did. Believe me, I would have remembered."
Rachel's face drops, and Quinn knows she's said the wrong thing. "What do you mean?" She asks carefully.
"I just mean that, um," Quinn stutters nervously, "If I had known, I might have…"
She trails off, and Rachel seems to hang on her every word. "Might have, what?"
Quinn sighs. They are both laying on their backs on the bed, and she feels Rachel's hand slowly stretch out, just barely touching her own. The simple contact sends sparks through her hand, up her arm, spreading through her whole body. She hears Rachel take in a breath when Quinn laces their fingers together, and it gives her all of the courage she needs to say what she's about to say.
"I might have, I don't know," Quinn says quietly, "Made a move, or something."
Rachel is quiet for a moment, and the feeling of their hands together is almost too much for Quinn. She's about to pull hers away when Rachel turns on her side to look at her, and Quinn turns to meet her eyes. There, she finds deep brown eyes, swirling with confusion and… hope?
"Made a move?" Rachel whispers, awed.
"Yeah." Quinn whispers back, blushing intensely.
Rachel shifts closer to her, and Quinn's heart rate picks up. Her heart is pounding so loudly in her chest that she'd be surprised if Rachel couldn't hear it. Rachel leans her face towards Quinns, just inches separating their lips.
"Like, this?" She murmurs, erasing the distance between them and pressing her lips to Quinn's.
Quinn's heart soars out of her chest at the first touch of Rachel's lips to hers. She doesn't respond at first, trying to process what is even happening right now, but as soon as she does, as soon as her heart lands back in her chest, pounding steadily, Quinn kisses Rachel back with everything she has.
The kiss is everything all at once. It's short, not more than lips sliding together, for just a few seconds, but it leaves Quinn wanting more, wanting everything this girl is willing to give her.
Rachel pulls back, smiling widely. She pecks Quinn's lips one more time before she tucks herself into Quinn's side, resting her head on her shoulder, and whispers, "Good night."
Quinn chuckles to herself, tilting her head to rest on Rachel's. Thank God for Maureen Johnson.