She remembered this day all too well. It has been six years but their memories together were still deeply etched in her heart.
August fifth had marked a new beginning for her then, but at the same time, brought them both pain.
She knew her goodbyes were hard for him to accept; it broke his heart like never before and the memory of her holding back her tears as she turned away on him had since then never stopped burning at the back of her mind.
She did not want to go out at all. It reminded her of him, even more so when they were currently in his favorite city – New York.
It was all he could talk about back then, how he had wanted to embark on his journey to New York and make a name for himself in the Big Apple. He had also, many times in fact, asked her along but she always laughed it off, never dreaming of leaving their small town behind.
But she did. She never expected herself leaving her own town or going to New York, actually. The pain from leaving him was too much for her to handle, especially so when he refused to accept she no longer wanted to stay with him.
He left her messages, emails, voice messages and even resorted to getting mutual friends to pass along his messages to her when she did not reply to him. Every night, she would drag her heels home and in the corners of her room, listened to every single message he left her. Tears would stream down her cheeks the moment he started talking, his low voice echoing off the walls of her room.
It was then she knew she had to leave, perhaps forever, but definitely out of his life.
That day was August fifth, 2013. She dialled his number and arranged for a meeting with him. When she hung up at the tone of his elation, she had hoped he did not hear the soft sob from her end of the line.
He had met her with the silliest grin on his face; the same smile that melted her heart and got her falling hard for him. However, it had only served to make the burden in her heart sink deeper that day.
His arms opened wide, like they always do whenever he saw her walking to him, but she managed to keep her cool and forced herself not to react. They sank to his sides not a second later, his face falling at the same time. The smile was gone, as if he knew what was going to happen.
She felt her own knees grow weak and she almost turned away, her eyes blinking so quickly she prayed her damp eyelashes would not be seen by him.
She had never felt so badly to leave for the first time in her life when she finished talking. His green orbs had been filled with overwhelming sadness it made her want to take back all her words, feel his arms wrapped around her as she whisper against his chest about how sorry she was. But she could not. She can't.
"Quinn, please, no."
His hands grasped tightly around her wrist as he begged for her not to leave but she remained resolved. She gently picked his caroused fingers off her pale skin before forcing her eyes to meet him, trying hard to keep herself from crying together with him.
"I'm sorry, Sam. But this is goodbye."
She had wanted to say forever after that but something in her heart stopped her from doing so.
Six years later, she was in Sam's favorite city on the day of their break-up and about to meet her boyfriend's best friend and best friend's best friend.
Things can't get any better, she thought as she rolled her eyes to herself.
She met Biff about two years ago and he was why she moved to New York with him.
Biff was a successful television producer stationed at New York and they had met when they were both spending their holidays in Canada. They grew close and eventually started dating, soon afterwards he got her a job as a scriptwriter in his station that prompted her to move into his New York apartment.
"Do I really have to go meet them?" She remembered asking Biff when he first brought up the party.
"C'mon, babe. Puck's going to introduce his fiancée to us; it's only fair if he got to know you too," he replied in his calm tone.
She felt her nerves disappear along with the calmness in his voice.
It was an effect only Biff had on her. He could, at any time, allow her to calm down with his words. That was always why she loved having him around her at dinners or parties. She never fail to get nervous in front of intimidating crowds of people and after knowing Biff, that was never a problem any more.
They walked into the restaurant late in the noisy August fifth night and she found herself having to squeeze through the crowd. Luckily, Biff had walked in front of her with their hands tightly intertwined together, so she could trail safely behind his figure.
"Biff!" Quinn heard a voice among the crowd cry out and her head instantly perked up to peek over Biff's shoulder to find the owner of that voice, to no avail.
"Hey, Puckerman," Biff greeted warmly with a quiet chuckle, opening his arms as the man crashed into him for a hug.
Some murmurs emitted from their hug that she could not quite catch and after a few moments of conversion, both men turned back to her. Feeling the eyes on her, she unconsciously tucked some loose strands of her hair behind her ear before her lips curl into a friendly smile.
"Puck, this is my girlfriend I've told you about, Quinn," Biff introduced, smiling affectionately.
Her hand reached out, continuing to smile warmly as she greeted, "Hello, it's so nice to meet you."
Puck's brows had furrowed slightly when Biff said her name, though it disappeared just as quickly as it came when she spoke.
"Likewise," he nodded before glancing absent-mindedly into the crowd.
"The bud I was talking about is somewhere in the crowd there, but pardon him if he acts out of behavior. He's had a little too much to drink," Puck explained, somewhat guiltily.
Quinn winced at his words. She hated drunkards especially her run-in with one of them when she was leaving dinner in Canada one night. The drunk man had started to paw at her and calling her Janet repeatedly, having mistaken her for someone else. Thankfully, it was then Biff intervened and that was when they got acquainted.
Biff felt her shoulders tighten next to him and nodded to her, his fingers grazing gently over her knuckles reassuringly.
"Don't worry, I'm here. If he acts badly, we'll leave immediately and I'd cut off all ties with Puck," he teased playfully.
She laughed to herself and nudged his shoulders with hers, knowing very well he would not cut off ties with his best friend as simply as he had said.
Puck was walking way in front of them, passing by many of their high school's friends along the way who greeted Biff warmly as they walked by. She saw Puck stopped in front of a blonde man, his face blocked by another one of Puck's friends.
She tried catching a glimpse of the man but Puck had started speaking again.
"...the most handsome guy in all of Westwood High!" She heard Puck say, making Biff shake his head gently as his shoulders shook with a light chuckle.
Biff had replied something back and a few things were tossed back and forth between him and his new acquaintance, earning laughter around them as they nodded with approval at the pair.
She did not pay much attention to their conversation as she was still trying to catch a glance of the man. Puck had said his name and though it was blurry to her ears, it still sounded familiar together with his equally familiar figure yet she was unable to figure out as to where she had seen him before.
Just then, Biff had started prompting her forward, pushing her in front of him all out of a sudden. Her hand fell from his from the sudden gesture and her eyes jerked upwards, meeting his own eyes.
"What are you doing?" She asked in alarm, sensing eyes on her once again.
"I want to introduce you," his tone dropped to his usual calm again. She almost hated it sometimes. He knew what it did to her and had, more than once, used it to his advantage. "My girlfriend, to my friends. Can you do that?"
She gave him a small pout and bit in her bottom lip, an inward sigh emitting from her lips.
"Fine."
He returned her words with a brilliant smile that immediately sent her heart thumping, as if boasting of him being victorious. She pushed the wrinkles on her dress down with her palms, smoothing it over before finding Biff's hand again and giving it a small squeeze.
"And here's my girlfriend," he began.
She looked away from Biff and the head that had been blocking her view all that time had finally moved out of the way. She tried to find the man he was speaking to and started to smile like she did with Puck.
Only the smile never came when in the place of the blonde stranger she had expected, she saw Sam's face instead.
Her chest tightened immediately and her eyes widened in shock, Biff's voice muted out by her ears.
It was only as if she could only see the blonde man in front of her eyes. She saw him rub his eyes in disbelief, as if hoping she was a figment of his imagination. He looked at her again and his jaw fell agape, the realization finally sinking in for both of them.
She heard him say her name.
Quinn Fabray.
Only that was not his voice - it was Biff's. Sam mouthed her name at the exact same time Biff said it. Memories flashed through her mind in an instant, playing back their memories all the way from six years back. She felt sick to her stomach suddenly.
"Biff?" She whispered weakly.
He turned to her, alarmed at her voice and wrapped his arms around her instinctively. She heard a low hiss from Sam's direction and her heart beat wildly, her fear of meeting with Sam – talking, touching or even pretending everything was okay between them – intensified.
The feeling of wanting to leave as badly as six years ago found its way back into her head.
"What's the matter, babe? Are you sick?"
"Yeah," her eyes fell to the ground, no longer able to keep her eyes from looking anywhere else. Yet, she could still feel his green orbs continue to stay on her. "Sorry, but could you please take me home?"
"Don't worry, it's no problem. I'll just tell Puck," he replied and she felt him move slightly as his arms stayed tightly around hers to murmur an apologetic goodbye to his friend.
"Let's go," Biff said after he had bid goodbyes to his friends with the promise of another gathering soon.
"Okay," She squeaked out softly.
The word was almost caught at her throat when she made the mistake of looking at Sam again unconsciously.
His eyes, mixed with hatred and sadness, burned into hers and her lips tremble before looking away once again. She leaned against Biff for support and he held her even tighter to his chest, thinking she was really sick from the lunch she blamed her discomfort on.
Little did he know it was something entirely different. It wasn't a sick stomach; the love of her life had just reappeared in front of her very eyes.