Forever Has to Start Somewhere

Chapter 29: A Night of Neglect

"A benefit is a much better idea than selling salt taffy," Jesse declared. He was walking down the street with an iced caffรจ americano in one hand while his head was craned up to look at the buildings around him.

"The idea is yes," Rachel agreed. "But it's not going to matter if we can't get anyone to come."

"Well, between your fathers and my uncle you've got at least three," Jesse said. "And, even though I can't be there, I'll have Josh buy an extra ticket for me."

"Do not waste your money like that."

"Josh and I offered to pay for the whole trip and you told us no. At least let me do this."

"Of course I wouldn't let you pay for the trip. You're my boyfriend not my...sugar daddy." He could hear the cringe in her voice at the end. A puff of laughter left his lips. "Jesse! Don't laugh at me!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he said, waving a hand in the air in dismissal even though she couldn't see him. "I just never thought I'd hear the words sugar daddy come out of your mouth."

"It's not funny. When I told Kurt that you'd offered to pay for the trip to nationals, he told me there are multiple members of the club who think our relationship is like that."

"Honestly, who cares what they think?" Jesse questioned.

"Me!"

"Well you shouldn't. I can tell you with certainty that the only people who would honestly believe that are people who neither of us give a shit about," he said. "Everyone who knows us knows that I spend money on you because I love you and one day we're going to get married and it's all going to be your money as well."

Rachel said, "As sweet as that marriage statement was, it's significantly overshadowed by the mention of your money."

"Marrying me means marrying my money. It's a fact." He took a sip of his drink before saying, "However, its also a fact that you are going to make me the first man in this family that can say they married for love."

There was a moment of silence before Rachel grumbled, "Cheater."

He let out a loud laugh. "In this situation, I think I'm okay with that."

"That was an excellent performance." The whole glee club looked over to find Shelby walking out of the wings and onto the stage. She strolled towards Sunshine without any falter in her steps. "But, I'm afraid you won't be able to participate in our benefit."

The club erupted in outraged cries, the exception being Rachel who watched the interaction with folded arms and narrowed eyes.

"I want to help though," Sunshine said.

"Have you spoken to your coach about this yet?"

Sunshine gave a shake of her head. "No, but I don't need his permission to-"

"I know Goolsby well and he would never allow one of his stars to help his competition like this. You'd just be causing more issues by agreeing to help only to pull out when he finds out." She turned to the group, saying, "And you guys, why would you consider letting your competition help you with something like this?"

"She has six hundred twitter followers," Artie said.

"You guys can sell that many tickets if you tried," she said. "But you've already given up. You haven't even all invited your parents yet.

"The whole point of doing this was so our parents didn't have to pay for our trip," Tina insisted.

"There's a difference between asking them to buy a ticket to support you at a school event and asking your parents to pay your whole way." Her eyes locked on each of them as she said, "Sam, you have two younger siblings who I'm sure would love to come see you perform. Santana, your abuela would be here in a heartbeat if you asked her. And Quinn, you talk all the time about how both of your parents are trying to win your affection. Don't you think this is a much better reason to exploit that than a new curling iron?"

They were all silent for a minute, each of them thinking about the family members they had that would come to see them.

Shelby continued, "I expect you to try your hardest to fill this auditorium up before you start asking our competition for help."

"Yes Ma'am," they chorused.

She watched them for another moment before her lips curled up in a smile. "Alright than. Sunshine, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. We've got to start practicing for our benefit."

"David!" Rachel called, pushing through the hallway to reach him.

"Rachel," he murmured as she reached him. She frowned a bit when she noticed that he wasn't looking her in the eyes. "What do you want?"

She watched him for a minute before holding the folder in her hand out to him. "I heard from Shelby that you still hadn't submitted a number for the benefit and I already agreed to give Mercedes the final number during the benefit, so I thought the two of us could do a duet together. I wanted to do one with you when you first joined the club, but it was Valentines so it seemed poor taste. This seems like the perfect time."

Karofsky stared at her for a minute. His gaze dropped down the folder in her hands. His eyebrows knitted together as he said, "You want to talk about music?"

"Yes?" she said, unsure as to why he was so confused about the topic. "What else did you think I wanted to discuss?"

His eyes darted around before he said, "The thing that happened at the party?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Are you ready to talk about that?"

"No," he said.

"Then we won't talk about it," Rachel declared. "I don't want you to bottle everything up, but I don't want to push you into talking about something you aren't ready to talk about either."

His tongue darted along his lips. "Really?"

"Really. Just know that when you are ready to talk, I'll be here for you."

There was a moment before Karofsky reached out, closing his hand around the folder she held. She let it go easily. "What song did you pick?"

"Remind Me by Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood," she said, smiling brightly as he flipped it open to look at the lyrics. "Normally I would chose something Broadway, but you have a voice for country so I thought it would be best to go with that."

"It's a full house out there," Puck declared as he entered the choir room where the others were putting on their costumes and fixing their make-up.

"What? How?" Santana questioned. "I thought we ended up only selling to our parents?"

"Who said that?" Karofsky asked, drawing attention to him. He was standing behind Rachel, who was using the only vanity in the room to put on a light layer of make-up. "I sold at least twenty tickets."

There was a moment before Finn said, "To who?"

"My mom's an athletic booster," he explained. "When I told her about this whole thing she said she'd consider starting a music boosters as well and got tickets for a bunch of people she knew."

Kurt added, "I got the Warblers to come by convincing them that their loss at regionals would be in vain if we couldn't pay for the trip and my dad sold tickets to a few of the guys at the shop."

"Both of my parents invited people from their jobs," Quinn reported.

"And my siblings told a bunch of their friends when told Stacy I would sing a Disney song," Sam said. "So there's a ton of elementary school kids who dragged their parents out."

Rachel added, "And I put notices up on a few show choir websites so there are some enthusiasts coming."

"I told you that you could do it," Shelby declared as she walked into the room with Mr. Schue.

They were scheduled to sing a duet of As Long As Your Mine on the middle of the program, so their coaches were dressed in semi-matching outfits. Shelby would a long sleeves black dress with a black witches hat on her head while Mr. Schue wore a white button up with black suspenders and matching pants.

Mr. Schue clapped his hands together as he said, "You sold as many tickets as you put your minds to it. If you hadn't tried your hardest we wouldn't have gotten a turn out this good. Give yourself a round of applause."

They had a brief moment to comply with his request before there was a knock on the door.

Heads turned to see a man in a green florist hat walking in. He had a cardboard box in his hands which carried two vases, one full of red roses and one full of colored orchids.

"I'm sorry to interrupt," the man declared. "The man outside said I could find Kurt Hummel and Rachel Berry in here?"

"That's us," Kurt said, gesturing to Rachel. He was sitting just barely on the edge of the vanity she was using. As he spoke, he stood up and made his way to the man.

"Who are they from?" asked Matt. "I thought it would be Jesse, but if there's some for Kurt too..."

Kurt bent down, grabbing the card from the orchids as the man carried the vase of roses to Rachel. He flipped it around, reading the lettering out-loud, "Jesse told me it's actually bad taste to send flowers before a performance but I wanted to tell you good luck without disturbing you. Love, Joshua."

He hummed softly as he placed the card back down and grabbed his own bouquet, "What does yours say Rachel?"

"Something similar," she answered after she leaned forward to grab the card from the flowers, "with some added lines apologizing about Jesse not being here."

"They're lovely flowers," Kurt commented, fingers running over his flowers.

"They are," Rachel agreed. She set down the make-up brush she'd been using and smiled brightly. "We'll have to put on a great show to thank him for them."

Rachel was giddy on the high of a performance as she stepped out into night air.

Her fingers shook with adrenaline as she took her phone from her pocket. She punched in familiar numbers before lifting it to her ear.

It took only a few moments before Jesse answered. Forging a hello, he said, "Josh sent me a video. Your performance was absolutely spectacular."

"Thank you," she said, as she turned her head up the sky. "I feel fantastic right now."

"I'd imagine," he answered. "You're going to feel spectacular after nationals. It's a huge stage with a huge audience watching you."

"An audience which will include you?"

"Absolutely," Jesse agreed. "Nationals takes place on my turf. There's nothing in the world that could make me miss it."

"I'm glad," she murmured. She reached a hand up, fists closing around the stars in the sky. "Everything feels so much better when your there for me to share it with."

"I know. I feel the same." There was a moment where they both just took slow breaths before he said, "I love you."

She grinned widely as she answered, "I love you too."