"You'll figure it out. I'm sorry, but I gotta get ready." Kurt didn't want to fight with Rachel, but he didn't want her to put herself in that situation. She wanted Cassandra
"Where are you going?" The annoyance in her tone was quickly gone.
"Isabelle asked us all to come in tonight for a meeting and afterwards we're going to a little party." He sounded very excited when he mentioned the party. "I won't be back for a few hours, probably not before morning."
"A little party?"
"Yah." Rachel loved the fact, that she could easily go back to normal with Kurt. He went to the bathroom to get ready, but returned after a moment. "You okay?"
"Hm?... Oh yah, absolutely, have fun."
"Okay." Rachel did not know what to do with herself, there was nothing to clean up and she hasn't made plans for tonight, so she just sat on the couch and turned the music back on. She considered for a few moments, again, whether she should call Cassandra or not, but since she couldn't think of a thing to say, she decided against it. Maybe she would call Rachel. Probably not. She could call Cassandra and just pretend nothing had happened, right? But how will she get Cassandra to come over, or to invite Rachel over, when they pretend it didn't happen?
"Dammit!" She ended her inner monologue and realized Kurt was standing behind her.
"Rachel?"
"Huh?"
"I said I love the stereo and that I'm sorry I didn't thank you earlier."
"Oh no, you did!" She grabbed Kurt's note and waves it in the air. "Besides, we needed a new one anyway and I'm glad you like it."
"Oh yes, I like it."
"You're leaving now?"
"Yes, you sure you're okay? I could ask Isabelle-"
"No Kurt, it's okay, I'm sure I can handle to be on myself for one night and I got a lot of things to do."
"Like what?"
"Think." It was a sad statement, but Kurt knew what she meant. He smiled nicely, nod and left. A few seconds later he came back.
"I don't forget my keys anymore." He held them up and smiled happily, which made Rachel laugh.
"I can see that. Have fun."
"Thanks." With that Kurt left, without returning a few moments later and it was good this way, because Rachel wanted to think about all the things she heard today. She got lost in her thoughts and laid down on the couch.
While listening to the music and figuring out what to do she fell asleep. Rachel didn't realize it and she also missed the vibration of her phone, if it wouldn't have been set on silent mode, she would have heard the ringing.
"This girl is unbelievable!" Cassandra was annoyed. "So egocentric and stubborn." She walked towards the kitchen, while drinking the rest of her drink and put the glass in the sink.
After Rachel had left, Cassandra walked upstairs and practiced, but she soon realized she couldn't concentrate and got a drink from her bar upstairs. What now?, was the question in the room and Cassandra didn't know. She had tried to call Rachel several times, but Rachel didn't pick up her phone.
"I shouldn't have let her go, I knew something was up." So why did I?. Cassandra had thought about that a lot and nothing came to her mind. "Kurt." She remembered Rachel wasn't living alone, so she called him instead.
"Hello?"
"Hey Kurt, it's Cassandra."
"Oh, hi. How are you?"
"What the-? I'm not calling for chitchat." Clearly, she doesn't chitchat. "I wanna talk to Rachel."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm not with her."
"Where is she?"
"When I left, she still was home."
"She isn't answering her cell."
"Uh, well, I don't know, but she didn't mention going somewhere tonight, or having plans at all."
"Then why isn't she answering her damn phone, I mean that's what it's for, right?"
"Ah, yes, but, like I said, I don't know. Listen, I know you two had some kind of argument. Maybe you can just go over to her."
"Sure and because, she isn't answering her cell, she probably will open the door, if she even is there." If Kurt didn't notice Cassandra's annoyance before, he sure did now, the sarcasm was impossible to miss.
"Okay, you're right. There is a spare key, I taped it under the windowsill, by the window on the end of our floor and that will open our mailbox, in which the spare key to our apartment is taped to the bottom."
"You're odd and that's not really safe." But she grabbed her stuff while talking to Kurt, because of course she was going over to their place. If Rachel ignored her calls, she´ll make it harder for the girl to ignore her.
"You wanna know which mailbox, or try them all? Because most of them are not labeled."
"Makes the whole thing a little safer and yes, please."
"It's the fifth from the right, two down."
"Thanks Kurt."
"Yeah, you're welcome, but don't tell Rachel about my keys and don't put them back, okay?"
"Can do."
"Oh and she can be a little uptight sometimes, so maybe you can cut her some slack."
"Gosh, she told you everything!"
"I, ...uh-"
"Don't bother saving her, when will you be back?"
"You're going to talk to her?" Kurt sounded worried, but Cassandra understood, they were friends. So she tried to calm him down a little and stopped with her attitude.
"Yes."
"I can sleep at a friends if you want?"
"Would be nice, I don't know how long our talk will last."
"Probably better for my beauty sleep."
"Okay then, thanks and bye."
"Bye." She hung up.
The fact, that Rachel told Kurt about their heated conversation didn't surprise Cassandra, but it annoyed her anyway. Cassandra changed from her dance clothes into something casual. She put on a pair of dark olive cargo pants and a long sleeved white shirt with V-neck.
Before Cassandra left, she tried to call Rachel again, but she didn't answer, so she grabbed her keys, phone and wallet and left. When she asked Henry to drive Rachel home, she told him to take the rest of the night off and she didn't want to disturb him, so she took a cab.
The drive took longer than she anticipated and the cab driver was annoying, he was trying to make conversation and she was absolutely not in the mood. When they pulled over, Cassandra was glad she took her wallet with her instead of just her credit card. She quickly counted her money, gave it to him and left the car, before he could give Cassandra, her change back. Cassandra was on the floor of Rachel and Kurt's apartment and walked to the window. She felt for the key, but couldn't find it, so she bend down and looked for it.
"Fool." It was in the back corner, she grabbed it and walked back down to the ground floor. "This is...ridiculous." She felt stupid walking up and down in the building to find the key, but she did it anyway. When she walked back upstairs and stood in front of the door to Rachel's apartment, she knocked first, to give Rachel the chance to open the door. Rachel didn't open, so Cassandra used the key.
"Rachel?" No answer, but she saw Rachel. She walked over to the couch and found her sleeping.
"Convenient." Rachel's phone was on the table, Cassandra grabbed it and saw that Rachel didn't check any of her calls. So, Rachel really did miss Cassandra's calls, she wasn't ignoring Cassandra, she was sleeping. "I can't let you sleep like this...you're gonna wake up with a stiff neck." Cassandra stood in front of Rachel, fascinated how deep her sleep was and knelt down a moment later. "Rachel?" She was whispering. "Rachel, wake up." Rachel stiffened and grumbled something, but didn't wake up. "Rachel, you can not sleep here." Eventually Cassandra realized, if she didn't want Rachel to sleep on the couch, she would have to do something.
However, Cassandra didn't want to wake Rachel up, that's why she somehow managed to pick Rachel up and carried her to the bed.
Rachel moved a bit, but didn't wake up and Cassandra shook her head, about how deep Rachel was sleeping. She watched Rachel for a moment and decided to take her clothes off. At least most of it. Therefor she took Rachel's shoes off and didn't hesitate to take her jeans off as well.
Rachel suddenly curled herself up, but to Cassandra's surprise, didn't wake up. Cassandra watched her a moment and when she was sure Rachel was still sleeping, Cassandra covered her with a blanket. "How can you sleep so deep?" It was more a question to herself than to Rachel.
Cassandra considered to leave and go home, but changed her mind and took off most of her clothes and laid next to Rachel. She tuned the lights off and fell asleep. Cassandra woke up, in the middle of the night, by some noise she couldn't quite put together yet.
"Rachel?" Her voice was barely a whisper. She turned towards Rachel, because she was certain Rachel made the sounds that woke her, it sounded like sobbing. "Rachel are you awake?" No respond came from Rachel and when Cassandra turned on the light on the nightstand, she saw that Rachel really was still asleep and in the same position she fell asleep, curled up.
"Wake up." Cassandra shook her a bit, to wake her up, but it didn't work. Rachel didn't stop sobbing, so Cassandra shook her again.
"Rachel, what's up?"
"Hmm... I don't..." Rachel was still asleep and Cassandra didn't want to wake her up anymore. Though Cassandra was annoyed, Rachel looked so pitiful, Cassandra had the urge to clung her arms around Rachel and somehow stop the sobbing and the rocking.
To Cassandra's surprise it did, Rachel stopped and a few moments later Cassandra fell asleep again. Rachel woke up by the smell of coffee and breakfast.
"How's your party?" She was glad that Kurt let her sleep in, she felt exhausted. Her voice was hoarse and she cleared her throat while sitting up in her bed. She was a bit confused how she got there and something didn't feel right. "Do you know where my phone is I gotta call Cass-." Rachel looked up and saw Cassandra sitting on their kitchen table.
"What are you doing here?"
"Good morning to you too."
"I'm sorry, good morning. How did you get in here? And when? Did you sleep here? Where's Kurt?" To answer the first of all the questions Rachel just blurted out, Cassandra held up the apartment key. "And yesterday and yes and no." It took Rachel a moment to put everything together. "You want coffee? Or breakfast?"
"Yah, sure. Thanks." She walked over and sat on the opposite of the table. "Where are my pants?"
"I took them off."
"What?" She almost spilled the first sip of her coffee.
"I wanted to take off your shirt too, but I couldn't."
"Because you realized that would invade my privacy?"
"No, but you raised your knees in your sleep and your grip around them was too tight."
"Good to know." Rachel was a bit startled, because Cassandra was casually talking, like that was what people would talk about all the time.
"Did you sleep well?"
"Uh... Yes, I guess. You?"
"Not so much. You were crying."
"Huh?" She wasn't sure she heard Cassandra correctly, even though there was nothing she could've misunderstood.
"You woke me up."
"Sorry."
"Why did you cry?"
"I don't know, I had a bad dream I guess."
"Liar."
"I'm not-."
"Please, not again, you don't have to tell me, but I want you to know, that I know. By the way, the food is for you."
"Thanks, but I don't eat eggs."
"Oh, right, I'm so sorry" That made Cassandra clearly uncomfortable. "I didn't think about that, I just made toast and scrambled eggs. I can make you something else if you want." Rachel was a bit amused, it was funny to see Cassandra baffled, at least for a moment.
"No it's fine, thank you anyway."
"Okay."
"Why are you naked? God, what happened?" Rachel flushed when she realized it.
"Well, you sleep like a rock, I can imagine that you miss quite a lot, once you're asleep. Nothing happened, I just didn't have any clothes to sleep in and... I'm not naked."
"Almost." It was funny that Rachel seemed so uneasy, when she, less than twenty-four hours ago, wanted Cassandra to wear fewer clothes than now. Cassandra did her the favor though, to change the subject, but she couldn't hide the smirk on her face.
"You wanted to call me?"
"When?"
"Five minutes ago? When you thought I was Kurt."
"Oh, yeah, actually I wanted to call you last night, but I was afraid."
"To talk to me?"
"Yes. I wasn't sure how we left things."
"I tried to call you, but you were already asleep."
"How did we...leave things?"
"Do you mean are we still an item? A couple, in a relationship, a-" Rachel just nodded, she didn´t really want to look at Cassandra, she was still uncomfortable. "Yes."
"I dreamed about you." Cassandra waited for Rachel to explain. "I dreamed..." It looked like Rachel was trying hard to remember. "I'm not sure, I remember, in my dream, we fought, really bad, I don't know about what and we broke up and you gave me a kitten?"
"You want a kitten?"
"Not really, I'm allergic."
"Bizarre dream."
"Kind of. Hey, don't you have to go to school?"
"I took the day off, I thought this was more important." Rachel took a moment and drank the last sip of her coffee, she got a little uncomfortable, because Cassandra stared at her. "You wanna talk about what happened yesterday?"
"Do we have to?"
"No."
"Okay." Rachel stood up to put her mug and the plate away, but mostly to avoid eye contact. It didn't work, because Cassandra stood up too, walked around the table and leaned against the kitchen counter next to Rachel.
"II don't want to push you by rushing things."
"I thought we don't have to talk about it?"
"We don't have to, but I will anyway. I think you should know why."
"Okay. You don't rush anything."
"And you seem to be quite eager."
"So, what should we do today?" Cassandra grabbed Rachel's wrist to stop her from walking away.
"You really don't wanna talk about it with me, huh?"
"No." For a moment, Rachel tried to get away from Cassandra's hold. "Wait, what do you mean?"
"You're trying very hard to change our topic."
"I meant the 'with me' part." Rachel was slightly annoyed by now, because she really didn't want to talk and Cassandra said they didn't have to, but forced her anyway.
"You didn't seem to have a problem to talk to Kurt. We talked and he knew a lot."
"Yah, I, you know-."
"No I don't."
"It's different."
"How?" Neither of them wanted to fight, but Rachel raised her voice first and Cassandra did the same.
"Well, first of all, he's not you and I don't want to sleep with him." It was clear Rachel didn't want to say it, but it just blurted out, but it was got for one reason at least, Cassandra calmed down.
"But you could've told me that."
"Yes, of course, I just say it. Let's have sex-." Cassandra wasn't sure Rachel was finished, but she didn't care much, so she kissed her to stop her from talking and because she really wanted to. Rachel didn't expect the kiss, so it took her a few seconds to participate. Another few seconds later she stopped again.
"I don't under-." Cassandra laid her finger on Rachel's mouth, she just didn't want Rachel to talk anymore. She cupped Rachel's face, gave her a light kiss on the lips and kissed her way to Rachel's ear and then down her neck to her collarbone. Rachel closed her eyes and tilted her head back, she was enjoying each kiss and wanted more of them.
When Cassandra reached her collarbone, Rachel cupped her face and made her look into Rachel's eyes, before Rachel started kissing her.
It wasn't very tender, it was full of emotions, anger, frustration, from their conversation before, but mostly passion. Rachel walked a few steps backwards, because she didn't want to stay in the kitchen and Cassandra knew exactly where Rachel wanted to go, so she sped up their walk to Rachel's bed.
One of the benefits of being a dancer, you can move quickly and smoothly at the same time. Rachel sat on the bed, Cassandra was above her and making it necessary for Rachel to lay down, because she moved closer and closer. Rachel's heartbeat was up and her breathing was unsteady.
She moved a little more backwards and laid down, Cassandra crawling up to her and just looked into her eyes. Rachel wasn't sure she was right, but she thought she saw hesitation in Cassandra's eyes.
"I trust you. Please make love to me." It seemed that it was exactly the right thing to say.