Quinn sulked as she made her way up the drive to the Berry household, wondering why she'd even bothered to be turn up tonight. It wasn't like she really cared about winning the duets competition, she won the last one and didn't feel too excited then. Plus being partnered with Rachel was the last thing she needed right now. She knocked on the door and waited patiently for somebody to answer, whilst humming a tune to herself. As the door opened, Quinn was greeted with a short man with a receding hairline and glasses that resembled Harry Potter. "You must be Quinn" he said as he welcomed her in. She smiled politely, not knowing what to say to the father of the girl she'd been torturing for the past few years. "So… Is Rachel upstairs?" she asked, still nervous.
"She sure is sweetie. It's the third door on the left, with the gold star on the door." He pointed up the stairs and smiled at her before she sped off in search of the room with the gold star. Sure enough it was easy to find; Quinn knocked gently before entering the room to find Rachel sat on the bed already, surrounded by sheet music.
"Hey." Quinn muttered, still feeling nervous to be in Rachel's room which looked like Broadway had vomited all over her walls with the amount of musicals posters pinned to them. "You already looking at songs?"
"Indeed. I've been trying to come up with a song that will express our voices perfectly, what with us having such different voices." She hopped off the bed and walked nearer to Quinn, holding a sheet of paper before handing it to the blonde. "What do you think to Adele? Well, an Adele cover. The original was by Bob Dylan I believe…"
Quinn loved Adele, who didn't? Though she also remembered listening to Bob Dylan when she was little, a childhood memory that reminded her of her Dad, when he actually cared about her. Taking a look at the page that read "To Make You Feel My Love" she couldn't help but let a smile spread across her face. It was one of her favourite songs, one of the songs that she'd dreamed of singing in Glee Club but she never really had anyone to sing it to.
"It's a beautiful song Rachel, but don't you think the idea of it's a little odd? I mean, two girls singing a love song?" Quinn was confused, why was she arguing against singing a song she loved so much? She really wanted to sing it but singing it with Rachel was a strange concept.
"I understand what you're saying Quinn and normally I'd agree but this song is so perfect for our voices that I think we can look past the intimacy of the lyrics and focus on how well it compliments both of our vocal ranges." Rachel smiled at Quinn as she spoke, watching the blonde's reactions.
"Okay." Quinn nodded, still eager to sing the song. "I'll do it. I really love Adele."
"Want to sing it now?" Rachel asked, hoping that Quinn was as happy as she was to get a head start on the competition.
Quinn nodded once again before pulling Rachel to her feet, taking a deep breath in and started singing. "When the rain is blowing in your face and the whole world is on your case, I would offer you a warm embrace to make you feel my love."
Rachel then stepped forward and began to continue the song, "When the evening shadows and the stars appear and there is no-one there to dry your tears, I could hold you for a million years to make you feel my love." Rachel noticed a vulnerable look on Quinn's face, a lingering tear in the corner of her eye, something that made Rachel stop what she was doing and avert her attention to the teary blonde.
"Quinn, are you okay?" she asked softly, not knowing what could be triggering such emotions.
Quinn sniffed, trying to disguise the fact that she was crying but it was just no use. "I'm fine" she said instinctively before realising that it'd never work on Rachel - that girl could get anything out of you. "That song reminds me of my Dad, that's all."
Rachel listened patiently to Quinn, nodded and sympathising with her. She didn't know a great deal about Quinn's family life but she knew that her Dad had cheated on her Mum over a year ago and he'd moved out to be with his new girlfriend and her two kids. "Do you miss him?"
"Sometimes… Sometimes I cry about it but mostly I just get mad. Mad at how he could just kick me out, how he could keep a secret from us for so long, how he could pick two kids that weren't his over me and my sister. He was the perfect Daddy when I was a little girl, I was the apple of his eye and then one day he just decided he hated me." Quinn started to sob, warm salty tears rolling down her cheek and smudging her formerly perfected makeup. Suddenly she felt so self conscious around Rachel, not wanting to let down her Queen Bitch front in front of the girl she'd so frequently tormented in the past. "I'm sorry, I'm being silly."
"No Quinn. No you're not. You never show this side to you, the sensitive side that actually cares. The side to you that doesn't seem to hate me, that trusts me, that might even consider me as a friend." Rachel held out her hand to Quinn who was still crying.
Quinn hesitated for a moment before slipping her hand into the brunettes, giving it a squeeze. In that moment, she felt a weight of her shoulders, like Rachel had automatically removed that pressure off of her just by holding her hand. A strange feeling spread throughout her body, something that felt a little like butterflies. Butterflies over Rachel Berry? For the most peculiar reason, all Quinn wanted to do right that very second was to lean over and kiss Rachel, but it really didn't seem like a good idea. Instead she simply smiled at the tiny brunette before mumbling "Thank you."
"For what?"
"For being nice to me.
"I'm always nice to you…"
"Exactly. I'm always horrible to you, I say terrible things to you that I know hurt you but you never seem to stop being nice to me. I've started rumours about you, I've called you names, I've even slapped you! And what have you done in return? Kept the secret about my pregnancy, constantly reached out to me and you even called me pretty at prom. You should hate me Rachel, like really hate me. Why don't you hate me?" Quinn rambled, feeling so little now, like a child starting her first day of school.
"I care about you, that's all…" Rachel whispered, trying not to look Quinn in the eye. Everything right now was feeling so surreal, her head was reeling from all the emotions and thought buzzing around. Rachel had always cared about Quinn, since the very first day they met.
"But why?" Quinn persisted. "Why would you care about someone who has always made you feel like you were worth nothing."
"You really want to know why?"
"Yes."
Rachel tried to clear her throat but she felt that same dry, tickly feeling like she'd been chewing on sandpaper. Her voice trembled but she continued to talk to Quinn. "Because I see through you. I know that you're more than the head cheerleader who'd toss slushies in my face. I saw the way you looked at me, like you felt guilty every time. That's when I realised everything you were doing was for a reason, whatever it was, I didn't know but I knew that you didn't hate me like you acted… So what was it, Quinn? Why did you hurt me all those times?"
Quinn listened intently, her stomach churning as Rachel carried on talking. "I-I don't know." She stuttered, wanting to avoid the question that the brunette had posed on her.
Something in Rachel snapped, a feeling inside of her that needed closure on the whole situation. "Yes you do know!" she yelled, startling Quinn. After a little silence and breathing to ten, she carried on to speak calmly again. "Don't be afraid to tell me anything, Quinn. I'm not going to judge you."
"Fine… I did hate you for a little while, I mean I found you annoying and I hated the way you'd follow Finn around like a lost puppy. But then I heard you sing, I saw a video you posted online of your own cover of "My Heart Will Go On". Since then, I was kind of jealous of you but there was something else…" She trailed off, too scared to finish the rest of her sentence.
"Something else?" Rachel persisted, needing to know exactly how Quinn felt.
"I can't explain it. I mean, there was something a little different about you. I had these emotions towards you that I'd never had with anyone else before. They confused me, made me feel sick, made me angry. It made me so mad to see how you could make me feel without even noticing, that I wanted to punish you. I knew you'd had a crush on Finn since Junior school, so I dated him to spite you. Then I heard that you'd been staring at Puck in Spanish, so I slept with him. I'd comment on your videos to upset you, anything I could do to make you feel as crappy as I did. I was such a stupid little girl. I mean, I still am if you think about it but I don't want to be that person anymore. I want to change."
"What do you mean 'emotions towards me'? What emotions?"
"I loved you. I loved you so much that I hated you. I know that makes no sense but to me it does and I know you hate me but-"
Quinn was cut off by Rachel placing a finger to her lips, before replacing them with her own lips. The taste of Rachel's blueberry chapstick lingered on Quinn's lips as her tongue slipped gently inside of the brunette's mouth. She knew this wasn't really what she should be doing but it's something she'd wanted to do since the day she'd met Rachel. Her parents would freak out, burn her like a witch but there was nothing she wanted more than to feel that close to the girl she'd pined for since day one. As she pulled away for breath, she smiled before saying "Back to work then, eh?"