"We're so busy watching out for what's just ahead of us that we don't take time to enjoy where we are." – Calvin and Hobbes

"What did he do, fuck you until you accepted his apology?" Santana chides. "Jesus Christ, I drop you off at the hotel and come to pick you up the next morning and you two are in bed going at it as if nothing happened." I hear the sound of the shower flick on and turn to look back at Santana my eyes wide.

"I have to tell you something," I whisper. I can hear Noah's singing floating around in the bathroom and I'm pretty sure with the water running he won't be able to hear us. Still I grab San's hand and drag her out onto the balcony, closing the door behind us.

"What are we being so secretive about?" she whispers. Her eyes are wide and her arms are crossed against her chest, trying to ward off the chill of the air. She gets this impatient look on her face and reaches for the door to yank it open. I reach over and hold the door closed as I look at her pleadingly.

"You have to promise me that you will not say anything to anyone." I reply immediately. I hold my pinky finger up and San's eyebrows raise about three notches. "I've seen you and Britt do it." I reply defensively. She nods her head as she links her pinky with mine twisting slightly before letting go.

When I don't say anything she lets out this huge groan, "Start at the fucking beginning B," Santana snaps, "and hurry because his ass is going to be out of the shower sooner or later."

"I called Noah last night because I couldn't sleep," I reply hastily, "and we talked about everything. He begged me to come home, San. He cried." I hear her chuckle and glare at her with my best annoyed face. "So he came over last night and kind of sort of slept here."

"I don't understand why I have to keep this a secret," San mutters. She looks at me in annoyance and I let out a small curse under my breath which really gets her attention.

"Finn called this morning. Noah answered the phone."

"Now we're getting to the good stuff!" she squeals, plopping down on one of the two plastic chairs.

"Finn wanted to see how I was doing. He was worried about me and wanted to check in." I hear her small scoff but ignore it and continue, "So I met him for coffee this morning so we could talk. He basically insinuated that I broke up with him because of you and that he has been in love with me this whole time."

"Rach," San has this strange look on her face, "you did break up with him over me." I shake my head vehemently but she continues to speak. "He wouldn't talk to me for months afterwards. Every time I tried he said something about me ruining the best thing that had ever happened to him. At one point he even called me a temptress and I mean I kneed him in the balls for it, but still."

She leans back in her chair, her face studying me carefully. "It's not a surprise that Finn still has a thing for you, I'm pretty sure everyone knew that. Well, I guess everyone but you. I still don't get why this is a big secret. Did you not tell Puck what you guys talked about because you didn't want him to go all cave man on Finn again, or?"

"I may have kind of lied to Noah." I reply. Her mouth drops open and she gets this huge grin on her face. "I told him I was going out for coffee. I just left the Finn part off."

"Holy shit," Santana laughs her head thrown back in amusement, "I am such a good influence on you."

The balcony door slides open and Noah looks between the two of us, eyes questioning. "What are you two doing out here?"

"Oh," Santana immediately speaks up. I see her eyes roam his bare chest for a moment and she gets this huge grin on her face. "Rachel here was just telling me all about last night."

"SANTANA," I growl feeling the blush immediately flood my cheeks. She starts laughing again and I can hear Noah sniggering as well. I look between the two of them, my head shaking in amazement. "I'm going to take a shower." I mutter.

#

I know it's inevitable that we are all going to be in the same room at the same time, I just didn't expect it to be so soon. It's a few days after the 'incident' when Tina and Mike invite everyone over to their place. The two of them seem on edge, upset, and a bit quiet. Mike pulls all of the guys into the basement to play some Halo. I watch the back of Noah and Finn's heads as they walk down the stairs and can't help but shoot a panicked look to San.

"Hey Tina," San says nicely, "I really want to see the new Halo game so I'm gonna go down there for awhile, alright?' She doesn't wait for a response before she darts down the stairs. Tina plops down on the couch next to Brittany her eyes filling with tears.

"Mike and I have been going to couples counseling," she announces. "We've been fighting and having some problems with communication and we thought that maybe this would help us. We've been contemplating splitting up."

All I can seem to picture is Kiah. I see the little girls smile, the way her cheeks would dimple when she laughed, and the way she would stick her bottom lip out when she pouted. I can feel the panic rising up inside me and I'm at a loss for words. In the future I know Tina and Mike are happily married, hell they are the perfect couple. This just doesn't make sense to me.

Brittany throws her arm around Tina, her hand patting at the girls shoulder. She looks up at me like 'say something' but the thing is I really don't know what to say. For some reason, the wrong words come out. "Tina does this have anything to do with Finn?"

I can see the anger on Tina's face and I turn to look at Britt sensing her confusion. "Britt, sweetie, why don't you go see which of the guys is winning?"

"Alright," she replies happily. She wraps her arms around Tina giving her a hug before she traipses down the stairs.

"No, Rachel," Tina's voice is filled with malice, "this doesn't have to do anything with your number two."

I'm confused by her statement; I'm not going to lie. But instead of questioning her, I find myself moving next to her and grabbing one of her hands, squeezing her fingers. "I love both of you," I reply honestly, "and it's hard for me to picture you and Mike apart. But you need to do what makes you happy."

Tina starts to cry again and I find myself softly rubbing her back as she lets the tears fall down her face. "I love him," she replies, "but I'm tired of the fighting and the constant bickering. I just am starting to wonder if it's all worth it."

I think about Tina and Mike and how happy they are in the future and find myself opening up to her. "I think that love is always worth it," I reply softly. "You are always going to have your ups and downs. There will be times where you feel as if nothing in life could be better than how you are feeling at that moment with that person. There will also be times when you would give anything to be as far away from that person as possible. But life is scary and lonely." I whisper. "The only thing that makes it worth living are the people we love."

#

The days pass in a blur of motion. Between my time on stage, our friends, and Noah life moves quickly. It's on a Saturday that I find myself in the drugstore, fingers gripping the box as I walk to the register. The cashier looks at the item and then at my ring finger, a look of disgust on her face. I bite my tongue and choose to be the better person.

I take the subway home, letting the rush and whir of the people around me to drown out my thoughts. There is a cute little Asian baby in the seat next to me and I can't help but think of Kiah. Tina and Mike are planning on leaving in a few days for their trip and secretly I wonder if he will still propose. For both of their sakes, for both of their happiness, I hope that he does.

I'm expecting the apartment to be empty when I arrive home as Noah's shift doesn't end for at least another hour; however things that we expect and things that we get are never quite the same. Brittany is sitting next to our apartment door, a duffle bag at her side. She looks up at me as I walk down the hall and I can see the remnants of tears that have been falling from her eyes.

"San and I had a fight," she whimpers. Her eyes look up at me and I can't help but think that she looks a bit like a lost child. I've never really questioned either of them on their relationship but with all of the comments that Noah has made through the years, I've secretly wondered. I pull her into our living room, set her on the couch, and throw my purse and the small drug store bag onto the counter.

I find myself pouring her a glass of water and curling myself into the other cushion of the couch. She has turned the TV on to some movie channel and 'The Princess Bride' is playing. I hand her the glass of water and sit patiently waiting for her to start talking. She doesn't. Instead she takes a small sip from the glass and sets it down on the coffee table her eyes focused on the screen.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I question as she pulls the blanket off of the back of the couch and wraps it around her legs. She starts to cry again and shakes her head no. I don't want to push her so I just nod my head and sit silently watching the movie.

Noah gets home just as the credits are rolling on the movie. He looks at Britt's disheveled appearance and raises his eyebrow in question. I mouth 'Santana' at him and he nods his head, making his way back to our bedroom to shower and change before he joins us.

"You know you can stay here as long as you need," I find myself telling Britt as she digs through her duffle bag for something. I see her pull out a stuffed unicorn and set it on the coffee table before she goes back to digging. An old tattered quilt joins the unicorn and she finally turns and looks at me.

"I know thanks." She replies softly. "It's just confusing right now." I nod my head in understanding. Noah is moving around in our bedroom, the sound kind of echoes through the quiet of the apartment, and I'm kind of hoping that he can get something more out of her than I can. As crazy as it sounds, he's a bit better at dealing with these kinds of things than I am.

When he finally rejoins us, he's carrying an old beat up Playstation and a mat. I look at him in confusion but he just holds it up for Britt to see and she gets this huge smile on her face and claps her hands. "Babe," he leans over and places a small peck on my lips, "why don't you go order some food why we set this up."

It turns out that 'Dance Dance Revolution' is like Britt's version of therapy. By the time the food gets there she has beat all of the high scores. As the night progresses she seems to become more and more like her old self and before I crawl into bed she gives me a smile and a huge hug, her bouncy personality back in place.

#

I have rehearsals the next morning at the crack of dawn. I tiptoe around the apartment, trying to avoid waking Noah or Brittany, just grabbing my purse and slipping out the door. After stopping to grab a cup of coffee from my favorite local coffee shop, I make my way to the theater and slip into one of the plush seats.

It's one of those mornings and the director is in mid rant about sequence and pitch and carbohydrates that has become a staple of almost every rehearsal, when I hear the buzzing in the bag at my feet. I reach in inconspicuously and hit the ignore button. I figure it's just Noah calling (or texting) to wish me a good morning, so I don't really worry about it.

When it starts to buzz again a few of the people around me kind of turn and look at me in annoyance. I reach in and hit the ignore button, pulling the phone out I quickly flip it to silent and drop it back into my bag. I don't really think much of it, or even check it again until a few hours later.

The choreographer is working with a few people who are having issues perfecting a dance move. It's one that I had got right away and I'm a bit tired, so I'm just sitting back and watching. It's while I'm sitting there that I pull out my phone quickly scrolling through the missed calls. It isn't until I reach my text inbox that I realize anything is going on. I scroll through the multitude of messages my face paling a bit more with each one I read.

I hear the throat clear behind me and turn around to find Brittany and Noah. Noah has a small white bag clenched in his fist and a confused look on his face. "When exactly were you going to tell me about this?" he questions holding the bag up.

"Yeah," Brittany replies, her arms crossed over her chest and her face set in a frown. "What he said."

So my computer crashed tonight, and I have to admit I cried (cursed, screamed, and threatened the damn thing) a bit. I lost everything, all the prompts and chapters I was working on, my iTunes library, all my stored files… everything. Thankfully this chapter was in my document manager so I had a backup. I have to rewrite the next chapter so it may be a few days, just a heads up.

Thanks to all of you who took the time to review the last chapter. You guys are amazing and I kind of heart you.

The first prompt in the prompt call has been posted over on Puckleberry Twist. The first prompt chosen was:

Fuck that. I'm gonna get drunker and make them regret they EVER put me at the kids table. I'm a MAN.

And was submitted by blackgem88

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