So after the lengthy chapter seventeen, I decided to make this chapter shorter. There is another song featured in this chapter, though, and it is sung separately.
PS: To my reviewer, a Guest on the site, yeah, Nick is still pretty good because he confessed to Gina. I thought I would give him a break; he does seem like a nice character after all. He was just a bit misled and distraught. But I think he's still a nice person inside.
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
"I can't stare into your eyes and lie to you anymore."
His words ring in her head. She stares at him, incredulous. She shakes her head, biting back tears. She is not going to cry in front of this pathetic, two-faced liar. "You can't lie to me anymore?" she repeats, her voice as cold as ice. "Everything had been a lie. You're sick. All of you Warblers, you're sick. Blaine told me you were the nice guy. He thought you were different. I thought you were different. But I guess both of us were wrong." She backs away from him as if he was a poisonous snake. Maybe he is.
"Go to hell, Nick."
She turns around and runs off the auditorium, not looking back.
Nick doesn't try to catch up with her. He doesn't even call her name. He doesn't have the right to. So instead, he just slumps down on the hard, auditorium floor, punching the backpack with the secretly sewed packs of drugs until his knuckles are bruised. Under the glare of the auditorium lights, he feels small, infinitesimal, insignificant. He's just a puny little bug, a horrible, disgusting creature. He is filled with guilt that his chest feels like it's about to burst with it. How? How could he do this to Gina? How could he be so heartless?
Once outside the auditorium, Gina lets herself cry. Her body explodes with tears. She is so ashamed, so humiliated, that she feels like she's… worthless. Unwanted. Stupid. Ignorant. A useless piece of crap.
As she walks down the corridor, hugging herself, tears flowing freely down her cheeks, she imagines herself singing a song. A song she never gave much thought before, but now knows what it means by heart.
In the auditorium, lost and alone, Nick imagines himself singing the same song.
[Gina]:
I'm gone, the ground is shaking under
Feels like the world may all come crashing down
Now your words and sorrys have no meaning,
Baby you lied
[Nick]:
You turned it on, wasn't my imagination
Everybody knows that you've been running round
So dumb, let you play with my emotions,
Baby you lied
Gina, running away from McKinley, biting the inside of her mouth to stop herself from shaking. Nick, still slumped on the auditorium floor, senseless, not able to move.
[Both]:
If this isn't love, what did I feel inside?
If this is love how could you look in my eyes?
Cause my heart is breaking, not falling this time
This can't be love now I know, you're a beautiful lie
Gina, dumping all the cards and flowers Nick had ever given her. Ripping their pictures together, erasing his name from her notebooks, deleting his text messages without a second thought. Pausing in front of the Warbler blazer, caressing it under her fingers. Pausing, before ripping it off its hanger and dumping it to the trash.
[Gina]:
So cold, had me wrapped around your finger,
Part of a show, like a puppet on a string
How could I know? I was just another victim
Baby you lied
Nick, staring at her name on his screen, wanting so badly to hear her voice. Holding their pictures together to his chest, reliving the happier memories. Scrolling through pictures of the two of them on his phone, missing her smile, her laugh. Rereading her text messages, hoping to have another conversation with her, knowing that he would never get her trust back.
[Nick]:
I can't stay when I keep falling apart,
[Gina]:
I won't be here waiting lost in the dark
[Both]:
Now I know it's time to let go, and I won't take this anymore
I don't wanna be lonely, but I can't take no more…
Gina, crying herself to tears that night. Wanting to call Ryder, but is too embarrassed to do so. Her heart shriveling in pain, her head going crazy with memories of Nick.
Nick, lying wide awake on his bed, silently screaming inside. Remembering that night, watching the stars, with her at his side. Wondering if she had erased him from her life completely.
[Both]:
Cause my heart is breaking, not falling this time
This can't be love, now I know
It's just a beautiful lie…
Gina, turning around and closing her eyes.
Nick, reaching out to turn off the lights.
Everything goes dark.
NB: The song is Beautiful Lie by Jennifer Paige and Nick Carter.