Chapter 19

The birth of a tradition.

She should be rational, sure, there has to be an explanation. They are in school grounds; Quinn wouldn't do anything that could compromise her reputation, right? So, there's probably nothing going on between the two of them.

Of course, her jealousy is clouding her judgment. All she can see is Emily touching her girlfriend. Ex-girlfriend. She gets even more furious when she remembers this little detail. Because now, Quinn actually can be with whoever she wants.

This thought makes her feel dejected and displaced. She looks away and opens the car's door rather roughly.

"Hey Quinn." Finn waves his hand to his ex-girlfriend, as she is a few feet away from them. Emily's car is parked in a spot that is on the opposite side to where his pickup truck is.

Quinn ignores him; she walks past Emily and goes toward Finn's car.

"Finn, can we go?" Rachel says, her voice holding a tone of finality that signals that she is not open to debate. Finn, as usual, gets a little lost as he watches Quinn approaching his car. "My dads aren't home Finn, we're wasting time." She informs, loud enough.

In fact, is loud enough for Quinn to hear. The blonde girl stops in her tracks, feeling a pang in her heart as she watches Finn getting inside his car and closing the door. It's like everything is in slow motion. When she finally gets out of the stupor she got in, she looks at Rachel with hurt all over her face.

The brunette looks away, still angry. Thinking that Quinn has some nerve to look at her like that, as if she is the one in the wrong here. Of course, she will regret what she implied later, now she just wants to go home.

"What was that all about anyway?" Finn asks as he drives away.

"Nothing. You know Quinn and her mood swings." She covers-up.

"Yeah." He giggles, reminiscing. "That's true."

He buying her cover so easily makes her mad though. In fact, she starts picturing herself beating the shit out of him, knocking his head on the steering wheel for being such an awful boyfriend to Quinn.

Where is all this violence coming from? She questions herself.

Calm down Rachel…

She thinks, controlling her breathing. During the way home, she gets so distracted in her own thoughts that she only notices that they arrive when Finn turns off the engineer.

"We're here." He says with a smirk on his face.

"Yeah."

Before she can even think, Finn leans toward her and kisses her on the lips. Surprised, she gets stiff.

"Something wrong?" He asks.

"Uh…"

"It's okay. We don't have to do anything."

"Really?"

She looks at him, attentively.

"What?" He chuckles. "You seem surprised as if I was going to…" He frowns, thoughtful. "I'd never demand anything like that from you, you know that right?" He asks a little uncertain.

"Hey." Rachel cups his cheek, turning his face so he can look at her. "I know that." She states and he smiles foolishly.

They look at each other for a moment. She suddenly feels very tired. She should be thinking of ways to break up with him. Yet, here she is, leading him on.

He gets closer and she knows he is going to kiss her again; however, she doesn't pull away. She reciprocates the kiss, with little enthusiasm at first, but then she remembers Quinn saying something about reciprocating but for only a few seconds, because she was not expecting it. That was what she meant right? She thinks as Finn slides his tongue over her lips, trying to get into her mouth.

It makes sense right?

She keeps her train of thoughts.

Then why was she with HER again?

And that's the moment she will regret the most, she should have trusted her instincts as they were telling her to calm down, to think it through, because there was an explanation. She pulls away, looks at him one more time, and sees the boy she was in love with once. She was in love with him, right? They can have that again. It is easier, easier for her dads, for her, even for Quinn. It's the best for everyone.

Abruptly, she presses their lips together, this time more greedily. He gets surprised but immediately responds to the kiss. Rachel opens her mouth and deepens the kiss, straddling him as they make out intensely.

It doesn't take too long for him to start chanting his mantra. Rachel notices, of course. She pulls away and looks down, supporting her body with her knees and putting some distance between her and Finn's crotch.

"Breath." She says, annoyed.

"I'm okay. We can…" He tries to kiss her again, but she dodges in time. She gets off him, moving to the passenger's sit again.

"I'm tired. I have lots of home work."

"Okay." He nods eagerly. "We can continue this later."

She fixes her clothes, takes her things and opens the door, ignoring his suggestion.

"See you tomorrow then?" He inquires.

"Yeah, sure."

"Cool." Finn smiles, waves his hand, watches as she walks toward her house and then he drives away.

As soon as she closes the door behind her, she sighs.

What have I done?

"Where are you going? Was that Rachel and Finn? Is this why you're upset?"

Emily inquires as she follows Quinn.

"Look." Quinn turns around. "I appreciate your concern, but we can't."

"We can't?" Emily frowns in confusion. "We can't what?"

"You know."

"I…Oh!" She tilts her head up, sliding her fingers on her hair, figuring out. "I see. Yeah. You're right. We can't. You're still in this…" She gestures her arm in the direction Finn left with his truck. "Feud, contest with Rachel, I don't know… fighting over a boy?" She says with disdain.

Quinn chuckles.

"I'm sorry," The blonde girl laughs harder. "What?"

"I thought you were over this, I thought you were different, I mean, from our conversations you seemed to be a different girl…" She sighs. "My mistake. I guess."

"Emily." Quinn says, calmly. She holds Emily's arm tenderly. "You're a smart, independent and pretty girl, but I'm taken." She explains patiently. They broke up and Rachel may be hurt now, but it is not over between them yet. She knows it. "It's not who you think it is though. But this…" She gestures between them. "I can't risk losing what I have. I could say we should be friends, but right now, things are really complicated."

"Okay." Emily raises her arms, resigned. "I still can take you home."

"Thanks, but I'm gonna wait S."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." Quinn nods.

"Take care." Emily gets close and kisses Quinn's cheek.

As Emily goes to her car, Quinn starts texting Santana to tell her she is going to wait. What she should have done in the first place.

Why she keeps making the worst decisions?

After she texted Santana, she calls Rachel of course. She hopes Rachel is not mad enough to do something stupid.

Inside her bedroom, her bedazzled cell phone starts ringing again. She checks the display and huffs. She places it on her bed and starts pacing.

Then she starts replaying the scene on her mind again. Emily caressing Quinn's arm as they were about to get inside her car to go God knows where.

More ringing. Quinn is calling again.

She takes her phone and throws it on the nearest wall, placing her hands on her head in regret as she sees it shattering and falling on the floor.

"Great…"

Impulsiveness was always her thing.

"I'm going to need a new cell phone."

Rachel informs her dads when they are having dinner.

"My phone kind of…" She drinks her water. "Died."

"Sure my love, you have your credit card." Hiram says absently, he is pouring wine in his glass.

"How was school today?" Leroy asks her as he observes her more attentively.

"It was okay."

"What about you?" He insists.

"I'm fine dad. Really."

"How is Finn?" Hiram asks. "Are you guys okay?"

"We're good. Why?"

"I don't know, last time you had a fight with a certain blonde cheerleader, it had something to do with him."

"It had nothing to do with him." Rachel says unthinking and a little testy.

Hiram knew it. He just wanted her to confirm. Leroy may be stuck in his overprotective role, but he knows better. He doesn't know for sure, of course, but he is suspicious. If Rachel thinks she managed to disguise the way she looks at the blonde girl, she is very mistaken.

But he trusts his daughter, he will wait till she is ready to open up her heart to him.

It is no surprise to Quinn seeing Finn all over Rachel the next days. It's hurtful, but she decides to be the mature girl she promised she is going to be.

The days pass by; another week is gone. Her arm gets better. She is almost completely healed which is a relief for Mr. Schue. He won't have to replace her in the musical.

Speaking of the musical, as the opening night is getting closer, they are all getting a little too snappy. Especially Rachel, Quinn notices. Even though she is respecting Rachel's space, she is always observing the brunette girl. That is why she finds the glee club diva alone in the auditorium.

She smiles when she notices that Rachel is exactly in the same place Barbra was in the opening scene of Funny girl, sitting in the first row, facing the stage.

"Hey." She says sweetly as she gets closer, startling Rachel.

"Oh. Hey."

"Is everything okay?"

Rachel doesn't answer. She is giving Quinn the silent treatment ever since the parking lot occurrence. Quinn tried to talk to her, but Rachel ran away every time. So she decided she should give it time.

"I just wanted to check on you. See if you're okay." She explains.

Silence.

"I'll go then."

She turns around, ready to go. Then she changes her mind.

"Look, I know what it seemed, but it was nothing. Santana was my ride home but she was in a meeting with Sue. I was tired, my arm was hurting…"

Rachel sucks in a breath, unable to be indifferent to Quinn's pain. Quinn notices the small change in her demeanor.

"I'm okay now. Almost healed. Anyway, I just wanted to go home. She came to apologize that day for you know… and offered me a ride. I know I messed up again."

"I don't want to talk about that now." Rachel finally says, the kiss still triggers her somehow.

Quinn sighs and starts leaving.

"Stay." She asks, with a barely there voice, but Quinn hears and stops in her tracks. She sits in the seat next to Rachel.

"Nervous?"

"Me? I've been waiting for this moment my whole life Quinn."

"That much?"

"Yesss." Rachel whines.

Quinn giggles, making Rachel warm all over.

"How come you know me so well?"

"Shocking uh?" She jokes. They smile. "You'll be great. Don't worry."

"How do you know?"

"I just know."

"Quinn…" Rachel whines again.

"I'm serious Rach. You were born to this." She points to the stage.

And just like that, her trademark megawatt smile lights up her face as she looks at the other girl.

"Thank you." Still smiling, she rests her head on Quinn's shoulder.

They remain like that for a few moments. They do not know now, but they just started a meaningful tradition between them. Something that will be repeated many times in the future. However, that is for later, in the present moment they have somethings to work out.

"Are you and Finn dating?" Quinn finally asks.

Rachel pulls away and gets quiet.

"Rachel?"

"Yes. I mean, I was going to break up with him, but…"

"But?"

"I don't know Quinn!" She cries out, standing up. "We've been getting closer and I was…"

Mad at you…

Rachel thinks.

"It was my fault anyway." Quinn leans her head on the seat. She then stands up. "It's okay."

"What is? Me and Finn?" Rachel frowns in confusion.

Quinn places her hand tenderly on the brunette's neck, cupping it as she caresses Rachel's skin with her thumb.

"As long as you don't forget where you belong."

She meant the stage and Broadway, but she knows there was a double meaning in her statement. Affected by the way Quinn is looking at her, Rachel swallows hard.

"I won't."

"Good." Quinn pulls away. "I'm here for you. No matter what. Come rain or shine." She smiles, reassuringly.

Flabbergasted, Rachel watches the blonde girl leaving. That was not what she was expecting.

Wait, what exactly was I expecting?

Maybe Quinn has moved on already. She thinks, panicked. Was she right? Was she the first girl Quinn dated and nothing more and now Quinn really wants them to be friends? The rational part of her brain knows this is ridiculous, she knows Quinn loves her. She said so herself. However, once again, she is not going to be rational. She lets that part of herself taking control of her actions, that part that asked Quinn to hit on Finn last year. Which is a good example of Quinn's infatuation, because come on! The girl put herself out there to be dumped by a guy! Only to make Rachel happy. But Rachel is too lost in her emotions and insecurities to think about it.

She reaches the hallways, walking absentmindedly; she is so distracted that she does not see Artie coming her way. She bumps into him.

"Wow." He holds her. "Someone is distracted."

"Sorry, Artie."

"No problem. Actually, I wanted to talk to you."

"Okay."

"You and Blaine, actually."

She frowns, worried.

Great…

Done! We are back to first chapter!

But don't worry, it's not the end. Not even close. As I explained back then, when I started this, this is some sort of rewriting of their story, using their actual storyline. I know, there are many fics with this set up, but it will be worth it, I promise.

And thanks for the reviews and comments!