Chapter 3
Duets
Tommy had fallen back into his customary groove by October. He was handing in assignments on time, mapping out the fastest way to get to classes (he didn't like all of them, but speed still mattered to him), and things were getting better in glee.
The events that followed Puck getting sent to juvenile detention would turn out to be the next major milestone in his time at McKinley. He was still standing slightly apart from everything, trying to pretend he was still invisible some of the time.
Had this happened last year, Puckerman's absence would have been far more significant, but with Tommy joining the group, they had a little more wiggle room. It did, however, leave them with an odd number of performers in, which made the next assignment challenging.
Most of the people in Glee jumped at the idea of a competition for dinner at Breadsticks, which was practically the only solid restaurant in all of Lima. Tommy was not looking forward to it. He had gotten more comfortable performing with them in the group numbers, had done a handful of solos, but singing with another person scared him.
Tommy may have been invisible, but he wasn't blind. He knew how many couples had formed and broken up because they had started singing together. He was pretty sure that Mike and Tina's relationship had begun because of the dance number they had performed last April, and he knew that Artie was still devastated by it. And as someone who had never been on a date in his entire life, he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to be vaulted into any kind of relationship based on whether he sang well with someone else. There were potential land mines all around him.
The first one came the next day when Kurt approached him in the hall. "You know everything that's been going on the last week or so, I never got a chance to thank you," he told Tommy.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he told him.
"It took me awhile, but no one else in New Directions had anything to do with getting Dr. Craig to work on my father," Kurt explained. "What I can't understand is why you were so concerned about someone you've barely gotten to know."
It was a question Tommy had been considering ever since he had called on the world-rated heart surgeon two weeks earlier. "We may not have been friends, but that doesn't mean I haven't seen some of the things that you've been dealing with the last year," he admitted. "You have an extra level of crap to deal with than most of the people in glee. I didn't want to have to see you become an orphan."
From the expression that briefly crossed the young man's angelic face, it was clear that had been a scenario that he had considered. "Thank you for being honest," Kurt hesitated. "To make a particularly awkward segue way, have you decided who you're going to be partnering with for this week's assignment?"
"I've sort of spent the last few hours considering it. To be honest, I haven't sung a duet with anybody other than my grandmother on the radio when I was twelve," Tommy admitted. "The idea kinda has my stomach in a bind."
Kurt looked at him carefully. "You have definite talent. You've got a better voice than about half the group, and considering how good most of us are, that's saying something." He gave a smile. "One way to lock up your position in this club would be to sing a duet with the right kind of voice."
Suddenly, Tommy had an idea where this conversation was going, and decided to try and head it off at the pass. "Kurt, you have a wonderful voice, and I'd be honored to sing with you. But," he held up a hand, "before we do, I think you and I have to have an understanding. Is it your impression that I'm gay?"
Kurt looked a little like he'd been taken off guard. "I'm honestly not sure," he admitted.
"Am I your type?" Tommy asked. "'Cause if I am, you really should raise your standards."
This actually merited a laugh from him. "I think you're selling yourself short."
"I'm not good at sports, I'm not movie star handsome, I have to wear glasses to see from a distance, and until last year, my favorite weeknight activity was blogging about Lost. Even I would be charitable to call myself a nerd."
Kurt didn't run away, but he didn't start telling him he was wrong. "I notice you didn't answer the question," he responded.
"It's 'cause I don't have an answer that would satisfy you," Tommy admitted. "I'm ninety-five percent sure that I'm straight, but for all I know maybe I just haven't met the right person. But since we're going to go there, I'll tell you this much, I'm no more attracted to you than I am anyone else in glee club."
This was, in fact, a flat out lie - he was no more immune to looks of the Cheerios than any other guy in this school- but he really didn't want to hurt Kurt's feelings anymore than he already might have.
Kurt didn't seem that upset, but maybe he was dealing with it differently. He decided to throw Kurt a crumb. "But if you're serious about wanting to do that duet, I'd still be willing. You got any preferences?"
Kurt managed a smile. "How much Sondheim do you know?"
"More than I would admit to anyone except you or Rachel," he told him. "That's actually something that I wanted to talk about to everybody else in Glee about, but I know that you've got enough pull that people would listen if it came from me."
"I'm listening," Kurt told him.
"This is around the time that the theater group puts together a show," he told them. "I've got the germ of an idea that might make that less painful then it was last year. Might even help us raise money for that trip to New York we've all got our eyes on."
Now Kurt seemed genuinely intrigued. They walked off, not knowing that Finn had observed most of the conversation
The next day was to be one that was full of shocks, most of them unpleasant ones. It started off when Kurt ran into him in the halls before second period, and told them that he was 'taking him off the hook."
Tommy was genuinely surprised. "Kurt, lack of attraction aside, I was kind of getting used to the idea of performing with you."
"Lima's a lousy place to be gay in," Kurt admitted. "It hurts not being able to do the things that every other couple in this high school does without thinking. I wouldn't wish it on anybody else here, and unfortunately, that would apply to you, if you and I did a duet."
Tommy could've argued that Mercedes and Santana had done a hell of a number the previous day, and nobody was telling them to get a time share in San Francisco. But he knew, unfairly or not, that this was not the way life worked. Someone on the student body, boy or girl, would have to have balls of steel to even suggest that idea to Santana Lopez.
"What makes you think I give a damn what other people think?" he argued instead.
"Maybe not, but it's one thing to go from making yourself visible to pinning a target on your back," Kurt replied. "You're a decent guy, and you deserve not to get mixed up with my stuff."
"I don't think even you should have to go through the 'stuff' that comes down here," Tommy said honestly. "Besides, think of it from my point of view. I was just starting to get comfortable with the idea of singing with you. Now I've gotta go through all that anxiety of choosing someone else."
"You really are taking this a lot more seriously than an unlimited salad bar seems to deserve," Kurt replied. "In any case, I wouldn't worry about that part of it. Finn and Rachel probably don't even have to rehearse to get this thing locked up."
He was probably right about that. "Okay, I'll find a way to get through this." Tommy hesitated. "You think about the other thing we discussed?"
"I did, and it's such a good idea, I'm tempted to claim it for myself," Kurt told him. "I think you should hold off mentioning it until the competition is over, but I can't see anybody in glee or the faculty having a problem with it."
Tommy just nodded, feeling a little bit more satisfied.
"Where have you been all our lives?" Kurt asked.
"Less than ten feet from you," Tommy replied.
He walked away - and right into the path of a strawberry Slushie.
"Welcome to the geek squad, bitch!"
He hadn't seen who had done it, but he recognized the voice. It was Cliff, the linebacker who seemed to take a particular delight in wholly uninspired taunts before he doused his victims. The Terminator, he wasn't.
He knew that he'd been humiliated in front of half the student body, and that he was probably going to take a shitload of teasing for the rest of the day. But, just like he did when he was performing, he separated himself from the assault, and allowed a single thought to form in his mind.
This was supposed to stop.
Why was he surprised it hadn't? A bully doesn't stop being a bully because he's been threatened by somebody else. And even if you take down one, there's always another one to take his place. Nature abhorred a vacuum, and while he was still vague on what that meant in biology, he had a crystal clear idea of what it meant in high school.
He had no idea how long he stood there, looking even more like a loser than he already felt, until he felt someone tapped on his shoulder. "Funny, until now I always liked strawberry flavored things," he said slowly.
"Come with me."
Cliff had managed to hit right between the eyes, but he could still tell a Cheerios uniform when he saw one. Quinn had rescued him. Though it went against his nature to be led by anybody, he let her guide him to the bathroom. He needed to see less red, physically and metaphorically.
"Pretty sure one of us isn't supposed to be here," he said as she walked in and let her lead him to the sink.
"This uniform sort of gives you a pass for just about everything," Quinn told him.
"And the effect of being in glee doesn't cancel it out? I remember last year just as well as you do," Tommy pointed out. "I'm a big boy, Quinn; I remember how to wash my face."
"You always miss some the first time," A trace of the bitterness that seemed to be in the head cheerleaders voice half the time showed. "I was getting blueberry out of my hair for days."
"Somehow, I doubt you ever let anything keep you from looking as good as you do," He hadn't meant to sound like some kind of hanger-on, but now it was out there.
For several seconds, he thought Quinn was just going to let this go. "You're not seriously trying to talk me up here?" she said slowly.
"Believe me, Quinn, if I was going to try and be romantic, I'd pick a far more pleasant setting. There is no love poem in the world that can spice up a high school bathroom."
This, she smiled at, and got some paper towels as he finished the first clean up. "You think you're going to be ok?" she asked.
He was silent for several seconds. "Considering I was just assaulted in front of the student body, I'd say I'm rather far from okay," he finally told her.
"This is how high school works. I'd give you some cliché about the circle of life, but I don't think that this would make you feel any better," Quinn told him bitterly.
"Actually, that attitude bothers nearly as much as taking a Slushie in the face," Tommy was beginning to see red again, and it wasn't because of the Slushie. "High school may be a really shitty place, but what the hell gives them the right to make it worse?"
Quinn looked at him strangely. There might even have been a touch of fear in her voice. Why wouldn't she be upset? A lot of bad things had happen in high schools across the country for far less than the kinds of things that New Directions had taken during the last year. "Promise me you're not going do something stupid," she asked.
"I've seen the caliber of who you're fighting," Tommy told her honestly. "Stupid actions are the only kinds of things people like Cliff understand."
Now she really was starting to get worried. "Tommy, you're a good guy. Don't do something that could get you tossed out."
"I'm not going to hurt anybody, you can be sure of that," he promised. "Beyond that, I think that it's better for you and the rest of Glee if you don't know what's going to happen."
"You want to go to the teacher-"
"I did. We've seen how well that worked," Tommy was trying to remain calm. "All I'm going to do is send a message. A message that even those thugs out there can understand."
What happened in the boy's locker room that afternoon would be talked about for days to come, which is why it was so surprising that even immediately after the event; no one was entirely sure how it could have happened. Ever since she had come to McKinley, Coach Bieste had a practice of shutting off the showers to anybody who wasn't in the football, and though people may not have liked her, they were afraid of her enough that they were willing to abide by these rules. So there was never a clear idea of how a student, much less someone who from the moment he showed was clearly an interloper, got inside in the first place.
By now, word had spread around McKinley what had happened to Tommy. And considering half the football team was on the glee club, there was a lot of tension simmering in the room. If the Coach didn't have a no tolerance policy, there might have already been a few fights breaking out. As it was, there were a lot of dirty looks being exchanged on all sides.
For that same reason, no one was quite sure when the figure got in. And by the time somebody looked up to see what was going on, it was almost too late.
"Cliff Katzenbach," That was the other thing. No one recognized the voice either. It sounded like a mix of a snarl and someone clearing their throat. Everybody turned towards the source, and were even more confused.
It was a warm October and they were indoors, so there was no reason for anybody to be wearing a trenchcoat, red dirty gloves, a hat, and, though no one could place the face, a rubber mask of Richard Nixon. This was enough to cause everybody to freeze in their place, even Cliff whose reactions should have been quicker.
"I'm here to deliver a message," the trespasser told them.
Everybody was so busy looking at the intruder's wardrobe that none of them noticed that he had a plastic cup in his hands. Before anyone could jump on him, he had dashed the contents - which appeared to be ice coffee- at Cliff's crotch.
"You - or any of your jock friends- try to retaliate against Glee- and this happens to whoever does it," the figure growled. "Only next time, the coffee will be hot."
He was outnumbered, and in hostile territory. In a normal situation, the friends of Cliff, which were pretty much everyone in the room who wasn't in New Directions, should have leaped on him, torn off the mask, and prepared some kind of retaliations. But the utter audacity of the attack, coupled with the strangeness of his appearance, had everybody flummoxed.
Nor did the intruder overstay his welcome. Finished with his message, he ran towards the exit. One of Cliff's friends eventually regained enough clarity to start running towards the exit, but by then he was already halfway down the hall.
"Hey asshole, you really think you can do this and run away?"
By now, Coach Bieste had reentered, and was trying to figure out what the hell was going on.
"I'm not afraid of anything you can do," the figure taunted him.
"You just messed with the wrong group of people. What the fuck makes you think you can do it again?"
As if he had been waiting for that exact line, the figure turned, and, in an even scratchier voice (though none of them knew it was an imitation of Frank Langella doing Richard Nixon) said: "Because when the President does it, that means that's it not illegal."
He didn't bother waiting for them to try and parse out this particular quote. He just ran around the corner. The pissed-off teenager would've chased him further, but by now the bewildered coach was yelling at him to come back.
And just like that, the intruder was gone, never to darken the door of the boys' locker room again.
The next day the whole school was buzzing about it, and Tommy had the feeling that he was sitting on a powder keg. He had spent the hours after the incident sure that he was going to be chased down by Figgis, but nobody said anything to him. Nor was there any retaliatory strike against the club - apparently the jocks hadn't been able to tie together Attack A with Attack B.
The problem start when they met after-school. At first it didn't seem like one. As was his pattern, he showed up to glee early and therefore bore witness to all the excited chatter about what had happened. Even those who had actually seen what had happened seemed unable to agree on how tall or how big the intruder had been. The story was less than a day old, and it was already become a legend. Nevertheless, Tommy didn't take any bows, or give any hint to anybody that he was the man behind the mask. The last thing he wanted was credit for this.
It was when Mr. Schuster showed up looking serious that he began to realize there might be something of a problem here. "Guys, I've heard what happened yesterday, and the principal's concerned."
"Oh, as opposed to all the times we've taken Slushies in the face in front of the whole school," Santana replied. "Glad to know their priorities are straight."
"This person made a threat in front of a bunch of students. That has to be taken seriously."
"I was there. All he said was another attack would happen if the jocks retaliated," Artie told them. "That's a lot less warning than we usually get."
Mr. Schuster seemed to realize he was treading on thin ice, but obviously as a member of the faculty, he couldn't just let this go. "I knows we've had problems with the other athletes in the past -"
"Have, Mr. Schue," Kurt reminded them bitterly. "They've been wailing on us non-stop for a year and a half."
"We have ways of dealing with this."
Now Tommy felt it was safe to speak. "As I recall, we tried that way. Didn't work."
This was in fact a very sore point with the Glee kids. After showing Figgis the digital photo, the principal had suspended the assailant, and promised stern repercussions for any repeat offenders. All that had ended up meaning was that each day a different jock splattered one of the kids. And while they had tried to maintain a video perimeter around them, the band was not big enough to keep an eye on all of them. Plus, the jocks had spent a year managing not to get caught, and had gotten pretty good at managing to avoid being caught twice.
"I know how frustrating this is for all of you, I've been going through the same kind of battles too," Mr. Schuster was telling them, "but if we give into this kind of attack, they win."
"They've already won, Mr. Schuster." Mercedes retaliated. "We get reminded of that every day."
"Coach Sylvester's having us spell it out at the next pep rally," Brittany told them abstractly.
"If somebody's willing to stick up for us, why shouldn't we be cheering them on?" Finn replied
This was actually a little more anarchy than Tommy had hoped to sew. The last thing he wanted was for the club to fragment because they didn't think the teacher- who he knew at times last year had been the only thing keeping Glee going- was willing to go to bat for them.
"Mr. Schue, does Figgis know who did this?" he asked very cautiously.
"Everyone agrees that he was wearing a mask and disguising his voice." Mr. Schuster admitted. "They're not even a hundred percent sure it was a man."
"And nobody was actually hurt in this- whatever you want to call it?"
Schuster nodded. "It's the main reason the principal's a lot less worked up than he should be."
"Then how about we promise to keep our eyes open, and hope that everything else remains calm." He could've argued, but didn't, that despite all the rumors going around school, no one from the football or hockey team had retaliated.
Reluctantly, the teacher let it go and they proceeded with the day's assignment. Tommy was so relieved that he hadn't been implicated that he never even noticed that Quinn was looking at him strangely for most of the class.
Feeling a little guilty about not hanging out with them that much, and partly to bring himself down a little after all the excitement, he spent the next half-hour jamming with the band, in their fashion. They were in the middle of playing one of his favorites, when he suddenly realized that Quinn was watching
"Now that I see how good you are, I kind of understand why you spent so much time just playing," she told him. "I don't quite recognize that last number."
He didn't like sharing any part of himself, so he almost blushed to be caught. "It's part of the background music for Lost," he admitted reluctantly. He looked at here. "I'm guessing you're not a fan."
"I watched it for awhile when I was younger," the cheerleader admitted. "I think I held out until they stopped doing the flashbacks and then I bailed. Did it ever end up making any sense?"
"Depends on who you ask," Tommy decided to keep his opinions to himself on this. "But there are more important things to a work of art than that."
"Really?"
"I didn't realize until around the fourth season, but the guy who wrote the musical score- a man named Michael Giacchino- did some pretty amazing things." He hesitated, not sure whether or not to share this part of himself, which he didn't do that often.
"What made it so special?"
"He gave each character theme music," Tommy spoke slowly. "Starting in the first season and in a lot of the episodes afterwards, when a character appeared on screen, they play it, like it was some kind of musical. I've never seen anything like it."
"And you know how to play it just by hearing it?" Quinn seemed amazed by this. "I don't know why I'm that surprised, considering everything that you did when you were helping us rehearse."
"I think you overestimate, how much help you need for what you do," Tommy told them.
"I think you underestimate that," Quinn replied. "Maybe that's the reason you've decided to help us so much."
Suddenly he felt like squirming. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Come on, Tommy. I'm not an idiot either. I saw you get hit with a Slushie yesterday, I saw you swear to send a message, not six hours later someone does the exact same thing to Cliff in our name," Quinn reminded him. "You don't have to be an honors student to add two and two."
He had wondered why Quinn hadn't said anything about this to Schuster or Figgis.
"What I don't understand is how you managed to get in the boys locker room looking like Halloween came two weeks early," Quinn asked.
Reluctantly, he got up, and walked over to her. Lowering his voice to a near-whisper, he told her: "One of the brave young men who plays music for you works as one of the gym teacher's assistant. He managed to coordinate things so that I could find a hole in Coach Beiste's schedule."
"Don't tell me that you just happened to have that disguise stashed in your locker," Quinn asked.
"No more than there happens to be a Starbucks in our lobby," he admitted. "I went straight home after last class; I changed in the bathroom where I got the coffee. The rest was practically a walk in the park."
"You know how much trouble you could get in, if you had gotten caught?"
"I was hoping for it!" He realized he'd raised his voice, and lowered it again. "Why do you think no one reported on me? If they acknowledge they know what happened, they'd have to own up to their own crimes. They'd have to admit I had a reason to retaliate. It would've put everything the jocks have been doing to the glee club for the past year under a damn microscope, and no one wants that particular can of worms opened."
Quinn considered this for several moments. "You're either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid," she finally said.
"One doesn't preclude the other," Tommy admitted. "You now have my life in your hands. What are you going to do about it?"
She thought about this again. "For some strange reason, Rachel caught up with me in the girl's room. She seems to think that you and I should sing together."
He got up from the piano, hoping like hell he hadn't done a cartoon double-take. "That doesn't sound like the Rachel we know," he said slowly. "Anything that has even the slightest of possibilities of taking the spotlight off her-"
"It kind of worries me a little," Quinn admitted.
"What was her argument?" he asked.
"She says if we could finish a strong second, it would improve how we look the entire club, particularly with the newest member," Quinn looked at him. "I'm not saying I buy it either."
"I think I've proven I'm good singer, and I know how good you can be," he said slowly. "But I don't think on our best day, we could beat Rachel and Finn."
For a second, he wondered if the head cheerleader would take offense. She didn't seem to. He was about to challenge that idea. "Besides, aren't you afraid that it will damage your rep to be seen singing with the school's most dangerous teen?"
She actually smiled a little at this. "You? You do remember the father of my child?"
"I'm not a quarterback. I'm not even a benchwarmer," Tommy told her. "I'm not a fool, Quinn. I know my limitations. Anne Hathaway will not show up at my door wrapped up in a raincoat in the middle of the night."
"I haven't even said I'd do this duet with you."
"And you know that's how almost every relationship in this club ends up going. You're not a fool either."
Quinn didn't deny it. "Neither of us have much in the way of other options," she pointed out. "Besides, you just said you weren't afraid of anything."
"Yeah, well singing with another person comes close," he admitted. "Especially when you're a decade behind the rest of the world musically." He decided not to tell her that it was actually closer to thirty years.
"You seem pretty good when-"
"You have no idea how much work it takes," he told her honestly.
"He's not kidding," Kerri apparently hadn't gone that far.
"No commentary from the bleachers, please," Tommy told the rest of the band.
"You're still very good. I find it hard to believe there isn't a song we could do." Quinn asked.
For some reason, he didn't want to seem any more geeky than he already had in front of her. He tried to think of some duet that might pass for modern in his repertoire.
And then one hit him. "I think I got one." He ran up to the band, who were, as was usually the case, more on top of this than he was.
They started playing, and he started whistling. After the first few bars, it was clear Quinn knew what he was talking about.
If I told you things I did before
Told you how I used to be,
Would you go along with someone like me?
If you knew my story word for word,
Handled all my history,
Would you go along with someone like me?
Quinn took over:
I did before and had my share.
It didn't lead anywhere.
I would go along with someone like you.
It doesn't matter what you did,
Who you were hanging with,
We could stick around and see this night through.
Then they were singing together, like they had done so a hundred times before.
And we don't care about the young folks
Talking 'bout the young style,
And we don't care about the old folks,
Talking 'bout the old style too.
And we don't care about our own folks,
Talking 'bout our own stuff
All we care about is talking
Talking only me and you.
Things just kept flowing, when they did it in glee the next day.
Usually when things have gone this far,
People tend to disappear,
No one would surprise me unless you do.
I can tell there's something goin' on
Hours seem to disappear.
Everyone is leaving; I'm still with you.
It doesn't matter what we do
Where we are going to
We can stick around and see this night through.
And we don't care about the young folks
Talking 'bout the young style,
And we don't care about the old folks,
Talking 'bout the old style too.
And we don't care about our own folks,
Talking 'bout our own stuff
All we care about is talking
Talking only me and you.
And we don't care about the young folks
Talking 'bout the young style,
And we don't care about the old folks,
Talking 'bout the old style too.
And we don't care about our own folks,
Talking 'bout our own stuff
All we care about is talking
Talking only me and you.
Then they finished with the whistle, and the songs last lyrics:
Talking only me and you
Talking only me and you.
Considering the abomination that had been Rachel and Finn's number, Tommy knew that they had pretty much nailed the song. He nodded at his friends in the band, who had played him in.
It turned out they were the last ones to sing- Artie had been going to sing a duet with Brittany, but for reasons that he had only the vaguest of understandings of, they opted not to perform.
He had no idea how things would have turned out had the voting been based on merit, but when the ballots were counted, he and Quinn had won. Quinn was clearly shocked at this; Tommy wasn't, and much as he wanted to celebrate his victory, the part of him that always had to know things couldn't let this go.
After the choir let out, he cornered Rachel. "You want to explain to me why this just happened?"
Rachel had a pretty lousy poker face, but she managed to keep her gaze steady. "I don't know what you're talking about," she said shakily.
"Come on, Rachel. You corner Quinn and tell her that we should do a duet together. You do that number, which played like some kind of ode to child molesting, and then we follow it up. And I'm pretty sure that you voted for us."
"It was a secret ballot," Rachel proffered weakly.
"I voted for Kurt," he told her bluntly. "If everybody had voted for themselves, which I'm willing to bet half of us did, Kurt should've won. That leaves you and Finn."
Rachel actually seemed a little ashamed. "Finn and I know how good we are," she told him truthfully. "We can't be a good club if he and I are grabbing all the good numbers. You've more than demonstrated that you have the voice but not the ambition to be a champion. We figured this would give you a push in the right direction."
"And this had nothing to do with turning me and Quinn into an item?" Tommy asked.
This time the look of surprise on Rachel's face was more genuine. "I realize that it turned out that way, but I'm a lousy matchmaker. Just consider it a dinner out."
"I don't like it when my grandmother pushes me to find a girlfriend," he told her. "Besides, don't you think I'd be dating above my station?"
Rachel looked baffled for several moments, and then finally seemed to come up with an answer. "I never thought I'd end up with Finn," she told him. "Maybe that's one of the other good things about glee. It levels the playing field for all of us."
Tommy thought about this for a few moments after Rachel left. Everything he'd told Quinn was true. To paraphrase another movie, she was out of his league. But what Rachel said was true, at least to a degree.
He had no intention of telling Quinn that; he was already terrified enough. He didn't know if this would qualify for a date, but it was definitely the first time he had been out at night with someone of the opposite sex. The idea of having dinner with the captain of the Cheerios would have sent most of McKinley to the moon; it took all his will power to make sure his shirt was tucked in. (Breadsticks didn't have a dress code, so long as you didn't look like you were homeless.)
Tommy was just as sure that Quinn would be mortified at the thought of being in public with him, but she showed up and seemed only mildly amused at how nervous he seemed to be. Fortunately, they kept the conversation light.
"How can you not like that movie?"
"There were two thousand people on that boat; they had to make one up to tell the story?" he argued. "And he froze to death because he couldn't find a piece of ship big enough? No wonder Dicaprio took four years off; it's a good thing he's a good enough actor that he could recover from that."
"And I guess you thought that whole romance was schlock," Quinn told her.
"Any love story scored by Celine Dion is crap, and we all know it,"
"That's not an answer," Quinn asked, and even though she was smiling, he could sense that there might be a deeper question.
"The romance wasn't real because it wasn't real love," he tried, "We knew it was doomed from act one on. That's not the kind of love I want."
"All right. What's your version of it?"
He gave this a little thought. It wasn't a question he had ever really considered. So he did what he always did when he couldn't find a good example of something. He turned to pop culture.
"I mentioned that I had a lot of reasons for liking Lost even though I thought a lot of it didn't work," He held up his hand. "I'm going somewhere with this." One of the things that worked on the show was Desmond's story. You know who he was?"
"The Scottish guy, right?" Quinn nodded.
"The love of his life was Penny. He knew he loved her early on, but he was convinced she was too good for him, and he cast her away. He went on a race around the world, and ended up spending three years of his life pushing a button on a computer. Everyone on that island was happy staying on it. He was the only one who wanted to leave. Because he never stopped loving Penny. And even though the entire world seemed determined to keep them part, she didn't give up on him either. She was literally willing to scour the earth in order to find him. So when they finally were reunited at the end of the fourth season, it meant something to me. I actually wept when it happened. Dying for love is one thing; there may be romance in it. Never giving up on love, even when the entire world seems determined to keep you apart, that means something to me. That's the kind of love I want."
Quinn looked at him for so long, he was certain that he had lost her. He had revealed something that for him was very personal, but he figured it just showed him as more of a geek than he actually was. Instead, she looked him in the eye. "When was the last time you were on a date?" she asked.
He still wasn't prepared to answer honestly, so he just said: "Not for awhile."
She took the vouchers for the meal at Breadsticks off the table. "Not for any longer," she told him.
"Just reciting a TV plot counts as romance?" he asked lightly.
"What you did for us in the locker room, it was kind of breathtaking," she told him. "It was a grand gesture. I kind of like those. More than I thought."
The urge to say something about how Rachel and Finn were better at this than they thought went through his mind. He put a breadstick in his mouth instead.
He noticed Brittany at the next table looking sad, and wonder what she would think if she saw this. He decided to do his best not to care.
And for the rest of that night, he managed not to.