Author's note: Here are a few flashback scenes from Rachel's party. I've always liked reading as well as writing reflective scenes. I guess because you get some perspective as well. This here is mostly memories. Anyway...enjoy!
Music suggestions: 'Like a G6' by Far East Movement, The Cataracs, & Dev; 'Better than revenge', 'Sparks fly', and 'Enchanted' by Taylor Swift.
Disclaimer: Don't own Glee.
4-Blame It On The Dysfunctional Relationships
Rachel waved enthusiastically from her front stoop as Kurt backed his loaded SUV out of her driveway and drove away. Once he turned the corner and was out of sight, Rachel dropped her hand and headed back inside. The party was now officially over.
Shutting the front door behind her, Rachel carefully picked her way back to the trashed basement, steering a wide berth around anything breakable. Descending the stairs towards the music thumping the walls at a more moderate level, she rounded the corner to find Sam with a trash bag already in hand, bent over to sweep the littered contents off a coffee table.
It was funny, how she'd never really noticed the way Sam's backside looked in a pair of jeans before.
Sure, Rachel had pegged his voice as spectacular pretty much from the moment he'd opened his mouth. Any man with a mouth that awesome had to be carrying a set of matching caliber vocal chords. As for the rest of his appearance, she'd applied a very generalized attractiveness, because she did have eyes and could see that he held a certain appeal...if you didn't have issues with your own attractiveness quotient. She knew well enough that they were each on opposite sides of the spectrum, and he was on the very good looking side of that spectrum.
And, at the time, Finn could do no wrong in her eyes.
However, she'd discovered that Finn could, in fact, break her heart multiple times, tonight being added to that ever-expanding list. And presently...she was taking a specific interest in Sam's anatomy.
A very lingering, appraising, interest.
Continuing to stare, her head tilted appreciatively to one side as he stood to his full height with a wine cooler in hand, she watched as he sniffed the open bottle cautiously, shrugged, and downed the remaining contents in two gulps before adding it to the bag and continuing on.
Shaking her head to clear the fuzziness that had built up with her immobility and wondering thoughts, Rachel descended the remaining steps and entered the room. "How did you even know where those were?" Rachel asked, the question blurted out unfiltered as she pointed her whole arm towards the bag in his hands.
Sam paused and turned to look at her when he heard her voice. He then gestured to the island. "They were on the shelf next to the fridge. I saw them earlier while I was searching out another wine cooler for Santana."
"Oh." Rachel uttered cheerfully, moving cautiously towards the couch. Turning her back to it, she fell onto the cushions and exhaled dramatically. She then smiled genteelly and patted the seat beside her. "Sit down with me for a minute, Sam."
"Okay..." Sam complied slowly, carefully placing the bag in his hand on the floor before crashing on the opposite end of the couch from Rachel.
"Come closer, Sam." Rachel commanded coaxingly, gesturing with her hands in a 'tugging a rope' fashion. "Don't believe anything Santana may have told you. I don't bite. Or steal gold. Or steal anyone's soul while they're sleeping." Rachel remarked in a dry fashion as if she were reading off of a list, wry humor in her eyes.
Warily, Sam defied all of Santana's warnings – she had, in fact, warned him of all three, along with a few others that not even he was dumb enough to believe – and edged towards the middle of the square couch, until only a couple of inches separated them.
"There. That's better." Rachel praised him, reaching a hand out and patting his biceps drunkenly. "I'm not so bad. I can throw an awesome party. Regardless of how uptight people say I am."
"Yeah." Sam agreed stupidly, unsure of what to say in response without getting whacked. Rachel appeared to be one of those touchy-feely kind of drunks, and he didn't want to take any chances.
At that moment, a Taylor Swift song cued up on Rachel's music player.
"...Now go stand in the corner, and think about what you did..." Rachel spoke/sang in an punishing tone, pointing to the far corner of the room. She then turned to face Sam with a happy expression, began to clap happily, and bounce in her seat. "I love this song! It's one of my favorites!" Rachel enthused excitedly. "Her newest album is, in my opinion, her best to date. It's so much more mature, and the lyrics and instrumentals seem to express her emotions much more accurately than her previous. Sure, they're mostly about bitter breakups and clandestine affairs, as usual, but..." Rachel trailed off at Sam's blank expression. "You probably don't care at all and would rather I skip to the next song, don't you?"
"Nah, it's cool. She's not so bad." Sam answered with a shrug. "She's better than a lot of the others. I'd choose to listen to her over someone like Montana or Gomez anyday." Sam took one look at Rachel's comically widened eyes and rushed on. "My sister, Stacie, is obsessed with all three." He raised up his arm and draped it across the back of the back of the couch as his body angled itself in Rachel's direction as he spoke.
"So, does that mean that you're familiar with the words to most of Taylor's songs?" Rachel asked in a casual tone as she leaned forward slightly, a cunning glint in her eyes.
The look went unnoticed by an unsuspecting Sam. He really should have heeded at least a few of those sage warnings by Santana.
"I hear them in my sleep." Sam answered with a faint grimace.
Rachel jerked her head in the direction of the stage and latched on to his hand. "C'mon. I have an idea."
oooouooooo*oooooaooooo*
"I don't know about this." Sam mumbled uncomfortably, staring at the rhinestone encrusted microphone with something akin to trepidation.
"Oh, come on. It's just you and me here." Rachel pressured as she searched through her karaoke list. "Live a little."
"I thought I was doing enough of that by dating Santana." Sam grumbled with a frown, staring at his feet.
"Santana's just an easy lay with airbags for breasts.– " Rachel countered in a distracted tone.
"Whoa." Sam exclaimed in surprise as Rachel plowed on, as if the sentence that had just passed her lips wasn't completely atypical Rachel Berry.
"–I'm talking about stepping out into the world of country karaoke and taking on the challenge of singing a strictly female vocals song and making it your own. I'll be co-singing, of course. You won't be able to do it all on your own, after all." Rachel finished in a rush. She then pumped her fist victoriously in the air. "Aha! I knew it was in here." She then glanced up from the machine to meet Sam's eyes with a challenge. "You ready for this, Bieber?"
"Bet your ass, Streisand." Sam returned in a sure tone after a deep, long-suffering sigh, pointing the microphone her way.
Rachel pressed the play button and climbed up on the stage as the instrumentals for "Sparks Fly" began to play.
oooooooeooo*ooocooooo
Rachel pulled her thoughts back to the present and looked over at Sam, only to find him lost in thought as well, a reminiscent smile ghosting his lips. A smile tugging at her own lips, Rachel crossed the room and propped herself on the arm of the chair Sam had taken earlier to help her clean up after a party her dads had thrown for a few of their coworkers and favored customers.
"What are you thinking about?" Rachel questioned, smoothing her fingers over Sam's messy blond locks affectionately.
"You made me sing Taylor Swift." Sam remarked with a small shake of his head, turning his gaze up to hers. He reached up and tugged her off the chair arm and into his lap, eliciting a squeal of laughter from Rachel. She settled her arms over his shoulders and continued to stroke her fingers through his hair.
"You're only just now remembering that? It's been almost a month since then." Rachel commented, settling into a more comfortable position. It was eerie how close their thoughts had coincided. "I thought you performed it wonderfully. I think we should put something together for glee before the year is up."
"I seem to remember putting something else together from that night after singing with you." Sam tossed back, a smirk pulling at his lips as he waggled his eyebrows at her suggestively.
"That's right. Who didn't you make out with that night? You really should learn to show a little discretion, Sam." Rachel cautioned, her eyes twinkling with mirth.
"I'll show you 'a little discretion', Miss Perfect." Sam countered, surging forward and latching onto her lips, his arms locking around her to hold her in place.
oooxoooooo*oowoooooooooooo*
"Sam, dance with me." Rachel simpered, dragging him off the stage as a slow song began to play. She hooked both arms over his shoulders and began to sway.
"Have I ever told you that you have amazing lips?" Rachel commented appraisingly after about a minute of silence as Sam held a relaxing Rachel and shuffled them back and forth to the slow song playing in the background, the high from singing ebbing away. "I think they're perfectly shaped. I've always wondered, though. Do they aid or hinder your ability as a kisser?" Rachel continued in a musing tone, staring at his lips with a way too serious expression.
"I've never had any complaints before." Sam replied in a bragging tone, one corner of his mouth twitching upward. His gaze drifted to Rachel's mouth, and the atmosphere between them began to crackle with anticipation. Watching her kiss Blaine earlier had kind of turned him on. She'd looked like a pretty decent kisser on her own. "I never actually got a spin in that game earlier. Wanna pretend I just spun and landed on you? You could find out first hand."
"Why, Sam Evans...are you suggesting that we should kiss?" Rachel asked in a scandalized tone. Her serious expression then cracked into a full smile, and she softly answered the question herself. "I would love to."
His hand sliding around to cup the nape of her neck, the fingers of his other hand tightened on Rachel's waist as he ducked in and pressed his lips lightly onto hers.
One of her hands braced her weight against his shoulder as her other sunk into Sam's hair on the left side of his head and pulled him closer, going up on her toes to meet him halfway. She bit his lower lip playfully, swallowing his small sound of surprise as she opened her mouth underneath his and deepened the kiss. Sam responded enthusiastically and eagerly reached out with his tongue on her next pause for air.
A quiet mewl of pleasure escaped Rachel's lips as she met his questing tongue with a welcoming swipe of her own, accepting the sensual invitation – in the space between his mouth and hers as well as within the warm depths of her mouth.
Finally pulling back, Rachel reached out one of her fingers and traced the outline of Sam's lips as she looked up at him with a happily relaxed smile. "You taste...like pink."
A roguish smile tugged at his lips, his arms loose around her hips. "So do you."
A frown formed on Rachel's countenance. "Why did we stop? That's the rules, right? Once the kiss ends..." Rachel finished, looking to her fingers to form a snap to signify finality. She then rotated her eyes back up to his. "Right?"
"Well...wait a minute." Sam countered, his thought processes moving sluggishly. "When we played earlier, you didn't stop kissing until someone said 'stop'. And far as I can tell..." Sam trailed off, looking and gesturing to the empty room. "I still haven't heard anyone tellin' us to stop. Have you?"
"I like the way you think." Rachel said, her tone puckish. "You're so smart." Rachel added, her tone switching to adoration.
"Really?" Sam asked with a self-conscious smile, his hands moving to the small of her back as she stood back up on tip-toe.
"Really." Rachel affirmed, her left hand fisting up a handful of his shirt. Her tone turned assertive. "Now kiss me again."
ooouooooo*oowooooooo
First off, the way it works out in my mind, the first flashback was Rachel's, and all the following were Sam's. Whenever I originally started out with this story, I'd wanted to give more detail to the events leading up to Sam and Rachel sleeping together. But the first chapter I ended up posting was a monster all on its own, so I left most of them out. And now here we are! This isn't all of them either. There's more to come in future chapters! Also, what can I say about the music suggestions? I was on a Taylor Swift kick this weekend. I think that I like listening to more of the songs on her "Speak Now" album than any of her others. Along those lines, I was in one of my more OCD moods this week and broke down Sam and Rachel's karaoke session into a spreadsheet. Ironically, I didn't even have them singing in this chapter, but rather alluded to it. So, if you all would like, I could post (not the table) a full version Rachel and Sam's duet (lyrics and all) in a future chapter, if you want. Just let me know.