AN: Thank you so much to everyone who favorited, followed, and reviewed this story! You all are amazing and I'm so happy to see you enjoyed the first chapter! I'm going to try to update this story as frequently as I can!
Three hours and five drinks later, Rachel was having the time of her life. She'd been nervous walking into the bar, not quite sure what to expect from Will and Cooper after not seeing them for so long. But, it was like no time had passed at all. They'd spent most of the night reminiscing about Rachel, Quinn, and Kurt's college years.
Thankfully, Will and Cooper had enough tact not to bring up any stories involving Rachel's ex. That was a bit difficult since almost al of Rachel's freshman and sophomore years were spent with him.
"Do you remember that time during y'all's junior year when Rachel practically fell off the stage?" Will chuckled.
"To be fair, I had just turned 21 and was enjoying all the perks that came with it," Rachel stated defensively, her cheeks turning a slight shade of pink.
"I don't think I've ever seen Cooper move so fast," Kurt teased, nudging Cooper in the ribs. "I swear, he's the only reason you didn't get a concussion that night."
"Too true!" Quinn laughed, draining the rest of her drink. "Of course, he was only protecting the interest of the band," she teased. "Without Rachel, you guys would have lost all your fans."
Will chuckled, taking a sip of beer. "I've never heard a more accurate statement in my life. i think 95% of the people who came to listen to our music were frat guys hoping they could hop into bed with the lead singer." He gave Rachel a playful wink.
Rachel rolled her eyes at him. "I think you're exaggerating things a little. There was definitely a group of girls there every week objectifying you and Cooper," she teased.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Will said innocently.
"Oh whatever," Rachel answered before finishing the rest of her drink. "Anyone else want a refill?" she asked, moving her chair back to get up and head back to the bar.
"I got you, Diva," Kurt said, snatching her glass away from her and motioning for her to stay seated.
"Hey, wait for me!" Quinn insisted, following behind Kurt with her empty glass in hand.
"You know, I always thought you're name would be in lights on Broadway by now," Cooper said, looking at Rachel. Will nodded his head in agreement.
Rachel sighed, looking down at her lap. It stung, hearing how her big dreams didn't pan out from her old bandmates and friends. They were right, though. When Rachel had left college, she was positive she would be a big Broadway actress within a year of moving to New York. But it didn't happen. Then Noah left and it was as though all her dreams had left with him. She couldn't even remember the last time she had sung.
"Yeah, well I suppose some things are not meant to be," she sighed. "Everything happens for a reason. I just an unsure of what that reason is at the moment."
"I get you," Cooper said. After he and Santana had split up, he was in a dark place for a few months. She hadn't given him any indication she was unhappy or planning on leaving at all. But maybe it had less to do with her being unhappy and more to do with her having an affair with her female coworker. One day she was there and the next she had left with their daughter and no indication she was planning on coming back.
If Santana had just disappeared out of his life, he supposed he could have gone on with life without many issues. It was not being able to see his daughter that killed him. Lily was Cooper's life. Since she was born, he read her a story and sang her a lullaby every night before she went to bed. To suddenly go from seeing her every day to twice a month (if he was lucky) was killing him.
"Man, you two are a bunch of downers," Will complained, throwing a napkin at Rachel's head.
"Careful," she warned. "If you mess up my hair, Kurt will probably murder you and hide the body next to Jimmy Hoffa," she joked.
Will laughed and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, yeah," he said, shaking his head. "Well, since you're not on Broadway, have you been doing anything else to make sure that lovely voice of yours is heard?" he asked.
Rachel shook her head. "No," she admitted. "I have not felt much of a desire to sing or even perform. Ever since he left," she said, pointedly refusing to say Noah's name, "I have not felt like doing anything, really."
"Now that right there is a crime," Cooper cried. "If you're not selling out shows, you should at least be making music."
"Like I said, I have not felt the desire to do so," Rachel sighed. She hated talking about her lack of a career. She didn't understand why Cooper and Will kept harping on the singing thing. It wasn't as though they were about to offer her a record deal. They were teachers for crying out loud.
"It's too bad we didn't keep the band together," Will mused. "We could have really been something."
Rachel snorted. "Please. We sang cover songs to a bunch of drunk college students who would not know good music if it dance naked in front of their eyes. It is not as though we were really serious musicians writing our own music. We would not have lasted two seconds against a real band."
"Wow, tell us how you really feel," Cooper said, placing a hand over his heart in an attempt to look as though he had been wounded.
"I bet you we would,' Will said, looking her in the eyes. "I bet if we got everyone back together and played against other bands, real bands, we would do fine. Maybe we wouldn't be the best, but we'd be top ten for sure."
Rachel shook her head and laughed. "What does this even matter? It is not as though we are actually discussing getting everyone back together. You two have real world jobs. Sam is in California, and I..."
"And you are looking for some reason to start singing again," Will said, finishing her sentence. "Face it, Rachel. You'd love it if we all got back together again."
"Like I said, it is a moot point. There is not even a market for a band like ours, anyway."
Cooper reached into his pocket and pulled out a folder piece of paper, sliding it across the table towards her. Rachel picked it up and unfolded it, reading what it said with a bemused expression. "You cannot be serious," she said.
"I've never been more serious about anything in my life," Will said.
Calling all bands!We're looking for the next great American band for a new reality competition show, "Battle of the Bands!"Auditions Monday November 8th 9am-5pm
Rachel glanced between Cooper and Will, shaking her head. "You guys are crazy!" she said. "We would get laughed out of that audition before we even took the stage. Besides, I'm not that kind of singer. Never have been, never will be. And I'm not about to embarrass myself on national TV because you two want to relive the glory days before you two became boring old men."
Will gave her a look while Cooper let out a hearty laugh. "Who you calling boring, diva?" Cooper teased.
"Cooper, shut up and be serious for once in your life," Will said with a sign. "Look, I know this sound crazy, Rachel. Emma thought we were crazy too. But I don't want to wake up in ten years and regret not taking this chance and wondering what could have been. I know we were some crappy band in college that only appealed to frat boys who wanted to bang you. But, we were good. And we could be great if you'd just take this chance with us." He gave her a look. "Just think it over, okay? You don't have to give us an answer tonight. Just...think about it."
Rachel looked at the two of them for a moment before finishing the drink Kurt had just set in front of her. "Okay," she promised. "I'll think about it. It's getting late and I need to get to bed. I'll call or text you tomorrow, okay? We can get lunch and talk this over more or something." Will and Cooper nodded their head as Quinn and Kurt got up with Rachel.
"Will, always a pleasure," Kurt said, shaking his hand as Quinn pulled Cooper into a tight hug. "I'll see you guys soon," he promised before he and Quinn followed Rachel out of the bar and into the chilly air of the city.
The three friends hailed a cab and headed back towards Rachel's apartment. Rachel yawned and leaned her head on Quinn's shoulder as Kurt sang along loudly with the radio. Rachel replayed the conversation with Cooper and Will over again in her head. They were crazy, there was no other explanation for it. How could they think she was ready and wiling to start their old band up again? It would just bring back memories of Quinn's brother, and she wasn't ready to face them again.
Rachel and Quinn climbed out of the cab as Kurt paid the driver, and the three of them headed inside. Once they were in Rachel's apartment, she kicked the boots Kurt had given her off and headed into her room, ready to change into her cozy pajamas.
"So, what were you, Will, and Cooper chatting about?" Kurt asked once she had reemerged into her living room, though Rachel had a feeling he already knew judging by his tone.
"Like you don't already know," she said sarcastically. "I should really refuse to speak to either one of you, you know. You two set me up."
"Set up is a little harsh," Quinn said as she started cleaning her make up off her face. "We just arranged a meeting, that's all."
"You say arranged a meeting, I say you bamboozled me," Rachel insisted.
"Get over yourself, diva," Kurt said as he pulled a tee shirt and sweatpants on. "You need something to pull you out of this funk. I think this is exactly what you need."
Rachel ignored him as she pulled the sofa bed out, throwing a few pillow onto it.
"Kurt's right," Quinn said as she pulled her pajamas on. "You haven't been yourself since my brother left. You need to get your groove back."
"And you think that means I must rejoin the old band and make a fool out of myself on national television."
Kurt tolled his eyes. As much as he loved Rachel, she could be a bit of a drama queen sometimes. "You're not going to make a fool of yourself, diva," he promised. "You're going to kick some ass and make America fall in love with you. Just like all those frat boys did when you were a little freshman," he joked.
Rachel glared at him, looking very cute nconvinced with her arms crossed over her chest.
Quinn sighed before taking a seat on Rachel's bed. She looked at her seriously. "Look, you know I love you, right?"
"Are you going to try to give me some tough love now?" Rachel asked sarcastically.
"No. I'm going to be completely honest with you. Look, I know you've been down since my brother ripped your heart out of your chest and stomped it into the dirt." Rachel winced at Quinn's words. She certainly didn't sugar coat things. "I get it. It's not like you two had a normal break up. You were planning your lives together before he decided to pul the plug because he's the world's biggest asshole."
Rachel smiled a little. When she and Quinn were roommates, it always made her feel better to have Quinn insult her brother when he and Rachel were fighting. She was thankful that still held true now that they weren't together anymore.
"But you can't stop living your life because you two aren't together. He hasn't stopped living his."
"Quinn," Kurt said with a warning tone to his voice. "You promised."
Rachel looked between her two best friends, a look of confusion on her face. "You two are not telling me something," she accused. "About...him."
Quinn signed as she took Rachel's hand. "Rach, my brother...he...he..." She let out a sigh. 'He has a new girlfriend."
Someone physically stabbing her through the heart would have hurt less than hearing that he had moved on. Rachel had still been holding out hope that this was all a mistake, that he would realize how miserable he was without her and beg for her to come back to him. Obviously, that was not the case. Apparently, he was doing just fine without her. She was the one who didn't seem to be able to live without him.
"Who cares if he has ten new girlfriends?" Quinn continued, putting her arm around Rachel's shoulders. "First of all, none of them would ever come close to comparing to you. I always said my brother never deserved someone like you. He did something right in a past life for you to even agree to go out with him. He'll come to his senses eventually, but maybe if he knew you were living your best life without him, he'd realize it a lot sooner."
"Are you trying to make a point or make me cry?" Rachel asked.
Quinn sighed and turned to Kurt. "I'm doing this all wrong. Help please?"
Rachel felt the bed shift as Kurt sat on her other side and placed his arm around her as well. "Our point is, sitting inside watching reruns of bad reality TV is not going to make him realize how much he fucked up and how much he misses you."
"So, you're saying I should rejoin the band to win him back?" she asked.
"No, you should do it because you want to. Rach, you've been my best friend for as long as I can remember. You deserve to be happy, much happier than you've been over the past six months. I hate seeing you waste your life pining over some guy."
Rachel looked over at him with her brown eyes, the shine they once had missing. "What do you want me to do then?"
"I want you to be the Rachel who didn't care what anyone said told Mr. Ryerson that Jean Valjean could most definitely be played by a girl. I want you to be the Rachel who punched Max Everson in the face senior year for grabbing her ass. I want you to be the girl who helped me pass as straight for over a year," he joked, giving her a tight hug. "I want you to be...you."
"I have not been me, have I?" she asked. Both Quinn and Kurt shook their heads. "You're right," she agreed. "I have just been existing, not living. I am sick of it," she said, a little more life in her voice. "Kurt, will you hand me my phone?" she asked.
"Why?" he asked.
"Because I am about to do something reckless and maybe just a little bit stupid," she said.
He handed her her phone and watched as she opened up a new text to both Will and Cooper. She typed out four words before sending it.
Call Sam. I'm in.