Okay, I suck and long time since an update. I sort of lost inspiration and where I was going but I'm trying to get it going again. Not a super long chapter but needed to finally get something out there again.
"You know what I've always really liked?"
"What is that Noah?"
"When actors come out for curtain call. And they're all getting support from the audience and from one another."
"Oh Noah, I think you are becoming too much of a softy."
"Shut up!" Puck laughed and playfully punched Rachel's shoulder. "That's what I really miss about glee."
"Not the camaraderie? Or the formation of the most unlikely friendships?"
"What like you and Quinn?" I fell silent and kicked some dirt on the path. "Sorry."
"No, it's…yeah, that's what I meant. Why that though?"
"Well it's kind of dumb. But it's like you were saying but more than the camaraderie, or whatever. When we were all on stage after we performed…there was this energy, you know? And we were all connected in this way I can't describe. It felt like we really did something. We weren't just Lima Losers, together we were great, we could actually do something."
I grabbed his sleeve to get him to stop walking. "What's going on with you?"
"I love you. If it weren't for you, I never would have gotten here the first time, not of us would have – "
"Noah, stop"
"Let me finish. You were always bound to be a star Rachel. We all knew it, from the moment each of us met you. Because of that we got to see something bigger than Lima, bigger than what we thought we would be stuck with our entire lives."
"Noah…"
"I just…If it weren't for you I'd still be cleaning pools right now. And I wouldn't be playing a gig this weekend!"
"What? That's fantastic! Ahhhh!" I couldn't help but jump up and hug him. "I want all of the details so I can make sure to arrange the understudy taking my place that night. I will not miss this!"
"Great! I'll text you all the stuff. And feel free to invite whoever. I'm kind of afraid of crickets you know?"
"Hey, no! You're gonna be fantastic!"
"I've gotta be at work soon but I'll see you later?"
"Yep, get out of here." He wrapped his arms around my small frame and swung me around. After putting me down he trotted down the trail. I always loved Central Park. It was the only place that had any way of reminding me of home. When I was a little girl, my Dads used to take me to the park every weekend. Daddy would push me on the swings while Dad sat in the grass and read. Every weekend, like clockwork. The city is so hectic and messy sometimes, I wish I could just go back to those days in the park. New York is where I have always belonged, I have always felt that but…there's something about the park that can bring me peace when nothing else can. That's the lone thing I can never seem to find anymore. It's been a few weeks now but I still can't walk past a flower shop without feeling like I'm going to throw up. Or a bridal shop, for that matter. The invitation came in the mail last week. The envelope is still sitting sealed on my counter. I'm sure it's lovely. Anything that Quinn touches typically is, she exudes it from her pores. Shit, I need to snap out of this.
The bar was packed, I wondered how all of these people knew about Noah's band. He never talked about this before, but it seemed there was a bit of a following. I kept myself posted at the bar waiting for the show to start, scanning the crowd. There was a group of women at a hightop all only about half-dressed and too much eye liner. Apparently Puckerman had groupies. Hmm.
"Well if it isn't the hobbit. Didn't expect to see you here with us mere mortals." I whipped around to come face to face with the hot-headed Latina I hadn't seen in years.
"Santana!"
"Didn't think this was your sort of scene."
"I'm here to support Noah as I assume you are as well."
"Yep, he called me and even though I promised myself to leave high school behind me, I didn't want to miss this."
Santana was still the same, so ready to prove she didn't care about but to caring to be able to effectively put up a solid front.
"Where have you been? Why haven't I seen you around?"
"No offense, Berry, but I doubt we run in the same circles, Broadway star"
"Oh right, Santana."
"I was supposed to go see your new show but work keeps getting in the way."
"What have you been doing?"
"A few back up singing gigs here and there. Well that makes it sound more sporadic than it is. I'm hoping to finally get a break soon."
"I would say that I would put in a word for you but I wouldn't dare insult you in such a way." I joked.
"That's right you wouldn't" there was a grin threatening to break out on her face. There's an odd sense of calm that settles over me when I find myself with someone I knew in what can only be described now as a past life. It should be confusing and almost threatening when Santana links her arm in mine and drags me over to the stage but it's not. It feels like a sister or cousin I haven't seen in far too long has dropped in and we fall into step again. Sure, she knows me as I used to be, and that's unshakable in some ways and frustrating trying to grow out of the memories of who I was, yet, I don't need to try and be anyone around her. When Noah and his band come out on stage and Santana just starts dancing, stealing all eyes like she tends to do, I sort of revel in it. When Noah and I lock eyes and I see the fire and excitement in them to be on that stage I find it so strange how the three of us can be completely different and yet the same as we were all at once. It's beautiful.
"I'll have to come see your show sometime Berry, I heard it was pretty good."
"It was lovely." The most jarring voice makes behind us. As I turn I'm greeted with a long island thrust at me. "I took the liberty of buying you ladies some drinks."
"Well thanks Q, you should have."
Her eyes are nearly swimming. I hope she hasn't had that much to drink, she never could hold her liquor all that well.
"What were you hiding in the back against the wall?" Santana chided.
"Well I couldn't get up towards the front with you flailing around."
"Oh you bitch!" And then Santana playfully lifted Quinn, who was now squealing and giggling, into the air spinning her around. Those two have always needed each other, I hope they know that to some extent and stop avoiding the past and rekindle this friendship. Quinn hasn't had such a look of pure silliness, intoxicated or not, in a long time.
We had been waiting for Noah to take him out after he packed up but apparently one of those groupies had other plans. He kept shouting apologies as they stumbled out the door, the groupie shooting daggers at Santana the entire time. However, Noah be damned the party continued without him. The two members of the "Unholy Trinity" as they seemed to call it, threw stories back and forth while they tossed back more and more drinks. I will not lie, it was quite amusing as well as incriminating but as soon as they started comparing their encounters with the boys of McKinley, I decided to break it up for their own sanity. Santana got in a cab, shouting "I love you"s and "I will call you"s out the window. I tried to hail a cab to get Quinn home, who was far more gone than I had seen in quite some time, but as soon as my hand went up in the air she grabbed it.
"I want to go on a walk in the park!" she shouted and pulled on my arm a little before taking off running in front of me. She always had to be so difficult at the worst times. Of course I took off after her, not wanting the next episode of Law and Order to be based on her brutal attack. By the time I caught up to her, now in the park, she had her shoes off and was twirling around in the grass. "Isn't it so lovely here at night when there's no one around?"
Bent over, trying to catch my breath I replied, "Yeah so lovely until you get murdered and no one can hear you scream." She stopped spinning and regarded me seriously.
"Oh don't be silly, someone would hear you, they just probably wouldn't help."
"That's much more comforting." I recovered and closed the distance between us so I could easily tackle her if she tried to take off again.
"You are too tense, you need to relax" she drew out and grabbed me quickly twirling me around her now. Her hands dug into my ribs and I had to grip her shoulders in fear of falling and getting all scuffed up. She was giggling again and I couldn't help but laugh with her at this point. When she finally let me down she still had her arms wrapped around my middle, her head on my shoulder.
"I miss you."
"I'm right here." I push her away a little bit so I can look her in the eye.
She's pushing some hair out of my eyes as she speaks and I get a little bit distracted. Her eyes are sparkling like I've never seen before and a small smile is playing on her lip. Her hand has stopped on my shoulder, her thumb running back and forth on my neck, the other hand periodically squeezing at my side. I don't even have the proper time to prepare myself and have a mini panic attack before her lips are on mine. It's not a drunken "you're my best friend" kiss. That still would have thrown me but I would have rather it had just been a peck. No, her lips are fully on mine, the hand on my neck had drifted up into my hair, the hand on my side pulling me into her and all I can do is try to keep my head from exploding. Then suddenly it's over and she's grinning at me. Fingers link with mine as she leads me out of the park - that I will now have to add to the list of things that make my stomach flip over.
Thoughts? Too soon? Not enough? Make sense at all? Leave me some reviews and let me know!