A/N: Thanks for the encouraging reviews, guys! It made my day! I hope y'all enjoy this next installment. I'm aware my chapters are short, but I kind of like it that way; it's almost like his journal. What do you think about Dianna getting involved? Should she be interested in Cory? I don't think she would have ulterior motives, though. Will she figure it out and do some double agent work between Monchele? Should she be more involved in the story? Let me know what you think and keep reviewing to let me know how you like the story so far! 3
It was always a tricky situation when we got the new scripts. I mean, it was obviously exciting to figure out what was next for our characters, but recently it had become slow torture. My heart did feeble back flips when I found scene after scene of Finchel material, and I found myself guiltily shooting Lea furtive glances. She had a totally professional attitude about it; every time she was interviewed, she graciously denied rumors of "Monchele" and, seizing my hand, said, "Cory and I are really close friends. Really great friends. But no, there's nothing going on between us, nothing at all." Beaming, she would look to me and I'd mutter something incoherent as the interviewer walked off to seek out Chris or Dianna.
"Cory," sang Lea, skipping over to me and wrapping her arms around my neck from behind. "Looking forward to rehearsal?"
"Yeah. Yeah, it'll be fun." I felt myself flush as I glanced at the script in her hand and saw that she'd highlighted the cue "Finn and Rachel kiss passionately, camera close-up". She always did that, when she had stage directions. Force of habit, I guessed, from Les Mis.
Di joined us, pulling up a chair and scooting to the side so Lea could sit next to her. They were two peas in a pod, so similar yet so different. Both beautiful, kind, talented young women, but Lea stood out to me. People always said Dianna was prettier, but I disagreed. Lea had a warmth that shone through to her brown eyes, unlike Dianna's soft nature. Not that I could've had her either, even if I'd wanted to.
"Are you two gonna rehearse again together?" she asked, scanning the lines that she'd highlighted.
"We'll play it by ear. I mean, we don't have any difficult scenes, do we?" Lea replied, gesturing at the script. "Just a lot of Finchel kissing, a fight, and we'll go to dance rehearsal all together." I winced at how casual she sounded, speaking as though she were just kissing any old guy. All I wanted in that moment was to be special to her, to hear the same emotion in her voice when she was talking about me as when she talked about Theo.
"You okay, Cory?" Di was scrutinizing me.
"Right. Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Just tired today." Darn, what if she found out? Would she tell Lea? Why did girls have to be so smart?
"If you say so." She raised an eyebrow and glanced pointedly at her best friend, who was engrossed in the script. I vehemently shook my head, then stood, cleared my throat, and, stuffing my hands awkwardly into my pockets, announced, "I'm, uh… off to find Chord and Mark. Got a few questions for them. See you girls later?"
"Mhm." Lea raised a hand absent-mindedly.
"See ya." I felt Dianna's eyes on my back even as I escaped. What would Finn do? I found myself wondering. I'd gotten so used to switching back and forth between Finn thinking and Cory thinking that it felt like second nature to put myself in his shoes. He might go to Puck, but that was somewhat doubtful, especially since Puck had gotten his first girlfriend pregnant and made out with his current one. Sam? Well, there was always some competition between them.
Then it hit me, in a burst of Finn-esque realization. I ran up to the nearest crew member and asked urgently, "Have you seen Matthew?"