A/N: In all honesty, I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to do with this story. I know what I want to do; I just don't know how to get there. I mean, I never have a plan, but I usually have some basic idea of what I'm going to do. All I'll try and do until that point is have some small time jumps to keep the story moving and try to keep things interesting.

This is only for the people that have read After You. First of all, I told you that I suck at endings. You people should really start believing me. What I really wanted to say though was that I may do another sequel, but if I do it won't be up for a long time. And I mean a LONG time. After this is finished, I have an idea for another story. Actually, that's not true. I have several ideas for several different stories. Kinda sucks that I have tons for other things but not for this. Oh well, I will press on though.

Back to everyone. As I am... not stuck, but having difficulty with ideas, I was wondering what people would prefer. Should I just focus all of my attention onto this, or start the other fic, and update this when I can. It would probably mean better chapters, but longer update times. Feel free to have your say in either a review or a pm.

-/-

Rachel was feeling good about herself lately. She was doing well in school, making new friends, being commended on her skills by her teachers; things were just going her way. Of course, it wasn't perfect. It was missing Quinn. She was actually pretty proud of herself for making new friends. It was really the first time she'd had any that Quinn hadn't hand delivered to her. It made her feel more independent and like she had earned them.

That was something Rachel had never felt with Santana and Brittany. They had become her friends, but she had done nothing to earn their friendship. She deserved it for the way that they had treated her, but that didn't mean she had earned it. Quinn had gifted them to her. The equation was simple. No Quinn, not friendship. Well, not with the cheerleaders anyway; she may have managed to salvage some uncool friends if she hadn't of been the main target of her girlfriend's ridicule.

"Hey Rach, do you want to rehearse some of your lines for class?" Rachel had lucked out with her roommate. This girl was perfect. She was just as driven as Rachel, but she was more willing to take the backseat. She was always prepared to run lines, or sing songs, or practice whatever it was that Rachel wanted to do. An added plus was that she wasn't as talented as the diva herself. They both knew it, even if neither said it. Whenever Rachel caught Cynthia looking at her, it was always a look of admiration. Rachel loved the attention.

"Sure. We can start from scene two and work our way from there." The girls had gotten to know each other much better over the last few weeks. The late nights and only having each other to rely on didn't really much choice, but Rachel was happy with it anyway. It gave her someone to take her mind off of Quinn.

Their schedules conflicted pretty badly. Quinn was always somewhere and could never talk. Rachel wasn't happy that the blonde wouldn't give her a definitive answer of where she was all the time either. It was always just, 'making things easier for when I get out of school.' Obviously there was some ongoing effort that apparently Rachel couldn't be a part of herself. It was frustrating, but there wasn't a lot Rachel could do. She couldn't withhold sex due to their distance, and she couldn't bring herself to give her girlfriend the cold shoulder; they barely spoke as it was.

That was where a fault of Cynthia started to show. Whenever Rachel would express these feelings to her, she would always call Quinn a bad girlfriend. Rachel never fought back, which made her feel bad about herself. If she couldn't stand up for her girlfriend who could she stand up for?

-/-

An hour later, Rachel had had enough of going over her lines. She checked her phone for any knew messages. She checked them more frequently than she would care to admit, always hopeful to see Quinn's name flash on her screen. It rarely appeared though. She had a message today. The smile on her didn't completely drop, but fell dramatically when she saw it was from Santana.

Hi Berry. Now that u've had time to settle in how u doin? Rachel's smile picked up a little bit. It was a very Santana message. Knows that it could do one thing differently to be correct, but is wrong on purpose not for ease, just to be cooler.

I am good thank-you Santana. I have settled in well and am being the star we all knew that I would be. Rachel waited for a reply for a minute, but got nothing back. She was about to start listening to her IPod when a message finally came through. It wasn't what she had expected.

I no this is gonna sound harsh but u were always gonna b a loner. Even u new dat so r u being the str u were gonna b, or th now? That was a good question. It did hurt a little that Santana had said she was going to be a loner, but it was probably true.

I'm not a loner. I have my roommate and I have made plenty of new friends. I can survive without other people's guidance you know. The next reply came much more quickly.

And what about Quinn? Rachel had to think about that. She was missing Quinn terribly, but she didn't need to alert Santana to that. She also didn't want to put Quinn under any more pressure than she probably already was. She was at Yale after all. Besides, she was probably being unreasonable. She was just used to having Quinn at her disposal every moment of everyday, any less than that was sure to throw her out a bit.

Distance is difficult. I am coping though. My roommate has helped me a lot. Rachel looked over her phone to her roommate who was going through music on her laptop and smiled.

Thats wat im worried bout Rachel's eyebrows narrowed.

Worried? Why would you be worried about anything?

Remember that you have a girlfriend who is working her ass off 4 u.

You think I could possible just forget about Quinn? You think that I don't think of her every day wishing she would call me or text me or anything?Rachel only noticed that shewas crying when a tear fell onto her phone.

Just keep in mind that u rnt in lima anymore. Ppl don't care if ur attached or not.

How would you know? You have never met her. She's different.

Do you stand up for Quinn like that? Rachel put her phone on the floor next to her. Santana knew her too well. The Latina was probably the only person who would be able to anticipate what was happening in Rachel's life. It was slightly freaky that Santana could guess that Rachel was being less faithful than she should be, but it was true nonetheless.

Rachel moved herself onto her bed and lay face down on her bed, head in her pillows. She knew that tears were going to mar her face when she stopped crying later, but she could worry about that when it happened. Right now, she just needed to have a good cry. She was angry at herself; for good reason to.

"Rachel, are you okay?" The diva felt her bed dip. Then she felt arms wrap around her. She pulled Cynthia close as the girl started to rock her slightly and whisper encouragements into her ear. It was strange; she had only ever been in this position with Quinn. Now it was about Quinn, and she was with someone else. It wasn't bad, just different.

Eventually, she stopped crying. Even after she had stopped crying for a few minutes though, she was still in Cynthia's arms. She was warm and feeling safe. She needed to feel safe right now. She nestled her head into Cynthia's chest further. She didn't really want to, but after a few more minutes, she pulled herself away.

"You want to talk about it?" Cynthia asked, not making a move to release the diva.

"No. I'm okay." The last thing she wanted to do was talk about it. She knew that Cynthia didn't really like Quinn, and it wouldn't take much for her to start insulting her. And of course, right now, Rachel wasn't too sure she could or would even defend her girlfriend. She wanted to, she just couldn't. She didn't know what it was stopping her, but there was obviously something.

"You can't just cry like that and expect me to think that you're okay. What's wrong?"

"I miss Quinn."

"Don't. She obviously isn't good enough for you. She doesn't understand how hard it is to be the best. She doesn't know how lonely you can get. Either that or she just doesn't care. If she did, she would either be here with you or calling and texting and telling you how much she wished she was here with you." Rachel pulled away and picked her phone up off the ground. "Where are you going?" Cynthia asked as Rachel made her way over to the door.

"I'm going for a walk. I need time to sort out everything. I'll be back later." She closed the door behind her as she walked outside. This was the best option. Go away from the person who continuously made Quinn seem more horrible than she was, and think about things. Avoid being overly emotional.

That was something that Quinn had pointed out about her when they were at school. One time Rachel had walked in on Quinn and Santana hugging. Naturally, she had started ranting as soon as she had seen them. When the reason was explained to the diva, she had felt horrible. Apparently, one of Santana's aunts had just died.

As Rachel exited the building, she opened her phone again. If Quinn wasn't going to talk to her, she was going to talk to Quinn. Once she had finished the text, she looked back over it. She deleted it quickly. She took a breath and calmed herself down. Being mad at Quinn and reflecting that in a text wasn't going to make things better. She tried again.

I miss you. Please talk to me. That was a better text. It still wasn't fair to Quinn, the girl had done nothing wrong and now she was going to feel guilty. Rachel could live with that though as long as she got a decent text back.

Sorry Rachel, Quinn isn't here. She's at work and seems to have forgotten her phone. I'll tell her you texted though. Rachel's head fell to one side of her head in confusion. It's Brook BTW. Rachel mouthed 'oh' at the explanation. Then the substance of the first message got into her head.

Quinn has a job? She asked. That was the first she was hearing of this.

Don't tell her I told you that. She said it was supposed to be a secret. Clearly I did that poorly didn't I? Rachel couldn't help but agree. She wasn't going to tell the other girl this though.

You may have failed Quinn, but you have made me feel much better. Even Quinn would prefer that. That was true. Quinn always said she wanted what would make Rachel happy.

Just don't tell her I told you. And why were you feeling bad? Rachel was stuck. She had no one to talk to about this. Maybe the blonde's roommate would be a good person to confide in. The problem was, she didn't want Quinn knowing.

If I tell you, you can't tell Quinn, okay?

Sure.

I miss Quinn. She doesn't seem to want to talk to me. We haven't been able to talk on the phone, or Skype or anything. I miss her so much and my roommate is continuously reminding me that a good girlfriend would be putting in more effort. Santana texted me today and made me realise that I haven't been standing up for Quinn like I should be. There was a long gap before the reply.

I know that I've never met this girl, but maybe you should tell her to pull her head in? Quinn's doing everything she can Rachel. That was part of what Rachel was afraid of. She was being selfish while Quinn was doing whatever she was doing to make things easier. Knowing Quinn, she was probably working ridiculous hours to try and make money. That money was probably also being saved up for Rachel.

Please tell me Quinn isn't going overboard working. There was only a short gap this time.

I think we should change the subject then...Rachel sighed.

Can you get her to call me when she gets back home then?

I don't think that's a great idea. She gets back ridiculously late and won't want to wake you.

Tell her I'll be waiting up for her call. If I don't get it, I'll be having an all-nighter.