2

It was Friday, so the normal chaos was to be expected, especially since they had been finals all week and they were excited for a break. But adding to the chaos, Jacob Israel-Ben posted a new post on his blog today. Even though Jacob himself was a total social dud (but not as bad as that social Disaster Berry), reading his blog was a guilty pleasure of everyone, even Quinn. And Jacob had been building suspense for weeks about what this one was going to be about. He swore up and down that it would be his best post yet, and now that it was out, everyone else probably did think the post was deliciously juicy and satisfying, but Quinn didn't. Because for once, the post was about her.

The bell screamed down at her but Quinn made new movement to get up and leave. She knew right now that everyone was still laughing at her, even though she couldn't hear it anymore. She knew her parents had seen the article by now and were beyond pissed, but Quinn was too emotionally drained to care. At first she had been a ball of rage. She was planning mass-murder against the boy, and major laws sue citrusy of her loving Daddy. But when she showed her face in the halls, and everyone pointed at her and laughed, Quinn felt her anger crumple and a pang of sadness and humiliation swarm inside her gut. Her breathing was suddenly gasped and she felt so self-conscious, all she wanted to do was shiver up and die. At the least, she had hoped her loving boyfriend Finn would say a few words in her defense or at least come after her to see if she was alright, but all he did was stare, and she had a sickening feeling that when she left, Finn laughed at her, too.

It was hard to believe that just hours ago, Quinn was on top of the world. She scowled at herself for being so...defenseless. Why was she sitting her, cowering like a little baby? That was most certainly not the Fabray way. Not that Quinn really cared about what her precious Mommy and Daddy felt about her. But she wished so much that right now, when she really truly did need them, that they cared about what she was feeling. Now that she was thinking about it, she didn't really care who checked in on her, just someone. It hurt her heart to know that the people she'd known since kindergarten, the ones who she thought would always have her back, had left her so easily. All it took was some gossip about her for them to leave her. She suddenly felt lonely. And she wondered for the first time if she ever really had any friends.

"Hello?" A soft, tentative voice suddenly brings Quinn back to reality. She recognizes the voice, and it was without a doubt the last voice she wanted to hear, but Quinn had to admit that she is glad that someone cares. Although she is not flattered by the fact that at first glance even Berry - who Quinn was positive had no experience with things like this - wanted someone to talk to. Just as Quinn was getting ready to answer, Berry suddenly cut her off. "Oh, it's you." Quinn felt like she might burst at the tone of Berry's voice. She felt she might burst knowing that she had been so mean, that even Berry - too forgiving for her own good - wouldn't even forgive her. "I'll just, uh, go." And with that, Rachel was gone, off to her real friends.

A cold, icy feeling that Quinn couldn't name suddenly spread over Quinn's chest. She felt so lonely that at this moment she felt like she could just drop and no one would care.

Rachel Berry scurried out of the gym, feeling horrid about how incredibly mean she had been to Quinn back there. Sure, Quinn out of everyone she knew definetly deserved it. And it wasn't like if anyone else had done it to Quinn Rachel would've been laughing her butt off. But Rachel had done it to Quinn, and she actually had a concious and didn't find joy in hurting people like Jacob and Quinn did. Rachel sighed, she did not want to forgive Quinn. She had given the girl so many chances and for what? She was so tired of putting her heart on the line, always hoping, and always getting crushed.

She mentally slapped herself. How could she be so selfish? How could she always start with one person, but it would always end up about her? Rachel took a deep breath and grudgingly heading back to the gym, hating what she was about to do but knowing deep down it was right. She had to go talk to Quinn. Again.

Rachel was relieved to find Quinn in the same spot, but also sad. Even though she had deep deep anger towards the girl for how she'd always tortured her for being "gay", she always secretly admired the way she seemed so invincible. So flawless. So...untouchable. Nothing in the world ever brought her down and she always had her head held high, and more than once she had wished she had as much backbone as Quinn. Yet, here was Quinn, looking like a living dead girl, frozen like a statue, waving an invisible white flag. It was hard to believe that was even Quinn. Or was Quinn always like this, and no one had just never cared enough to notice?

This time Rachel gave no hellos; she simply climbed up the bleachers and took a seat a few rows down from Quinn. It was silent, but not in an uncomfortable way. She could feel Quinn slowly start to come back to life behind her, and she prepared herself for a hateful insult about how ugly Rachel was, or that Quinn could have her Daddy sue her for stalking, or something of that nature. She actually sort of hoped for it, at least that way she knew Quinn was still in that shell somewhere.

Minutes passed and neither girl said a word. She could hear Quinn's breathing start to relax with each silent minute that passed by, and she wondered whether she had fallen asleep, but Rachel reasoned that Quinn was probably just enjoying the quiet and the fact that Rachel wasn't trying to weasel information out of her (which Rachel had to admit, that didn't seem out of her character. She had always dreamed of seeing Quinn's reputation go down the tubes and get a smack of reality. Yet here it was, and Rachel didn't feel anything close to satisfactory.) like her parents would the second she stepped inside the door. Admittedly, she was happy she was able to grant Quinn this one wish.

"I'm so sorry for how I've treated you, Rachel." Quinn whispered, breaking the silence.

Rachel shrugged her apologizes off; yet another dream of hers, to hear Quinn say the words 'I'm sorry' to her. It was finally here, but right now Rachel honestly didn't want to hear Quinn's apologizes. Rachel realized that a lot of her dreams had something to do with Quinn Fabray.

"I mean - at first when you kept staring at me like you wanted to get in my pants so long ago," Quinn continued when it became clear she wasn't going to get an answer from Rachel. "I was weird-ed out. Obviously. But I was a stupid, immature, twelve year old. I shouldn't have tortured you like that. Especially since I did the same thing when I was new. You know, staring at everybody." Rachel opened her mouth to correct Quinn and say that she had always had a problem with staring out of boredom, but Quinn didn't give her the chance before continuing on again. Rachel suppressed a giggle at the fact that, normally, she was the one Quinn endlessly complained about talking to much, yet here they were, roles completely reversed.

"And don't even say that it's okay, because it's not. The whole gay thing...It wasn't cool. At all. And for me to keep it going for four years. Just thinking about it makes me sick." Quinn shook her head, feeling her stomach start to churn. She put her head in her hands, gently rubbing her temples.

Rachel took this opportunity to get her word in.

"You're right." Rachel said, "What you did was very, very wrong. And not in just my defense, but for my relatives who are gay - proudly." Rachel saw Quinn open her mouth to say something in her defense, but Rachel put her hand up, silencing her. "And don't think we are all forgiven, because we are certainly not. And I honestly don't think we ever can be. But I do understand why you did it, Quinn. You wanted popularity. You wanted the popularity so you could have people adore and love you or - aka - do what your parents never did."

Quinn felt her eyes fill up with tears. Rachel had hit a homerun. Was it that painfully obvious how weak and spineless she really was? "You know?" Quinn squeaked, hating how she sounded like a little baby.

Rachel nodded. "Yes," She said, "I do. It's not that hard to figure out. All bullies are the same. Insecure. Desperate for attention, both positive and negative. Desperate for love. And that's where I start to feel sorry for you and your people, Quinn. Because even though my relationship with my mother may not be that strong anymore, I still have two loving, caring uncles who took me in when I needed it. You don't have that, do you, Quinn?"

Quinn ignored Rachel's last question, not wanting to admit aloud that no, she did not have that. "What happened with you and your mom?"

Rachel shook her head. "None of your business, Quinn." She replied flatly, crossing her arms over her chest and sneaking a glance at her wristwatch and mentally sighing when she realized she was going to be late for dance practice and her uncles would be worrying about her. Her head said that this wasn't worth being late to dance practice for, but her heart knew it was. "Its getting really late," Rachel hinted, "Do you plan on going home or staying here?" Rachel could hear how bitchy she sounded, but she couldn't help it. She was annoyed that, out of all things, she was going to be late to dance because of having a heart-to-heart with Quinn Fabray.

"I don't want to go home." Quinn whispered, her voice choked with tears.

"Well, you have to." Rachel noticed her tone was again, harsh, and softened it. She didn't want to make her feel worse than she already did, although Rachel already knew she probably did. "The longer you avoide it, the harder it'll be to face it. Trust me. I would just get it done and out of the way, and hope for the best." Quinn nodded numbly. "But," Rachel's heart won over and took control of her mouth before she could think about what she was doing. "If it gets really bad, call me." Rachel climbed down the few bleachers to get to Quinn so fast she nearly tripped and broke her nose. She could see the edges of Quinn's mouth turn up in a smile, though Rachel knew for once it wasn't in a mean way, for once. Rachel flipped over Quinn's hand and scribbled her cell phone number on it.

"Thank you," Quinn whispered, wiping a few tears from her eyes.

Rachel nodded quickly, getting up to retrieve her bag. "Good luck." Rachel whispered as she scurried out of the gym, hoping to make it to dance being at least under ten minutes late. She breathed heavily, her mind screaming at her, demanding to know what she had done. Karma was karma, Rachel reminded herself, and she most definitely did not want some bad karma coming her way. She exited the gym, leaving Quinn sitting behind, her hand with Rachel's number clenched to her heart. She really hoped her parents didn't react too badly.

Authors Note #1: I. Fail. At. Spelling. Seriously. I went through and edited it on Word (Thanks Jean for mentioning that!) and wow. I've never spelled so many words wrong before. OKAY. So I'm hoping all the errors are out.

Authors Note #2: Do not start expecting daily updates or anything. Because that will certainly not happen. I just got bored today, and am still working off a Mountain Dew high. Ha-ha. :)

Thank you so much to ALeeReviewer, Blaze Phoenix, Silentinformer, smiling-on-the-inside, WinterAquair, WashedOut, greencrayon, ConservEr1e, Jean815, Black Fang 02, and Tichha for Story Alerting / Favorite Story-ing / Favorite Author-ing me.

Thanks loads to smiling-on-the-inside, Jean815, and Curious for reviewing.

To Curious: About the whole "Christian Rachel" part it wasn't supposed to be like that. Word 'fixed' it for me, the original word was a word that sounds like the word christian but isn't? :-P Ha-ha, confusing, I know. But my vocab sn't too amazing.

Smiling-on-the-inside: RIGHT!

Jean815: I thank you so much AGAIN for reviewing, it really did make my night. :-)

-Geena