Rachel:

I rolled over and picked up my phone on the nightstand, glancing at the time. I silently groaned when I saw that it was 8:00 AM. I hadn't fallen to sleep until late last night, and was feeling the exhaustion already. But, I knew I was never going to get back to sleep—I had too much on my mind. Plus, I had to be up and ready to go by eleven anyways, so I might as well get my day started. Carefully getting out of bed, trying not to disturb the sleeping man next to me, I walked over to my closet and grabbed some workout clothes, my sneakers, and my headphones. I seriously needed to clear my head and distract myself from the thoughts currently floating around in there. I decided that a run in the cold, winter air, would be just the thing to help me. That was definitely better than the other option of staying in bed and crying. I already did enough of that last night.

Unfortunately, as I ran, I couldn't help but think about what had actually happened last night with Brody…

I arrived at the club around eleven o'clock with Kurt on my arm. I was extremely happy because I was done with classes for the week, and it was only Wednesday night. Mr. Schue and Miss. Pillbury's wedding was this Saturday, but the glee club had decided to get together Thursday night for dinner to catch up, since the rest of the weekend could get hectic. Friday night was the rehearsal dinner, and then Saturday afternoon and evening was the wedding ceremony and reception. I was excited and happy for my old teachers, but i could stop thinking that i should be married, or at least still engaged. thinking of seeing Finn made me super anxious, so I tried to put him out of my mind.

The two of us walked up to the bouncer at the entrance of the club and he let us in with a appreciative glance my way, not even bothering to check IDs. I was glad Kurt told me to dress up tonight, or else we would have been in line all night and probably never gotten in. I had on a cute short black dress, black patterned tights, and my black pumps. My brown hair was in waves down my back and my make-up was light except on my eyes, which were lined with dark charcoal.

As soon as we entered, I started my search for Brody. I spotted him with his friends at a small boothe in the back, and dragged Kurt over with me. He was not excited that we were spending our night with people we barely even knew, but Brody invited us and I figured we should get to know his friends. He was kind of our roommate after all. He hadn't moved in completely yet, since he still had to pay rent on his place until the end of the month, but he slept at our place almost every night, so it was starting to feel like it.

As soon as Brody saw me, he yelled my name and jogged over to plant a sloppy and wet kiss on my lips.

"Hey Babe!" he said, as I tried to gently push back from his kiss. He smelled like alcohol, but I could tell that he was just tipsy, not completely drunk yet. "Good", I thought. I don't like him when he's drunk. I've only experienced Brody drunk a handful of times, but it's enough to make me not want to be around him when he was. I began to think back to the party I threw junior year of high school, where Finn described the different types of drunks to me. If I had to describe drunk Brody, I would say he's the type that is happy and having fun one moment, and then angry, pushy, and slightly jealous the next. This was definitely not my favorite combination.

He slipped his hand around my waist and pulled me over to his friends, who were really loud and rowdy. Kurt came up behind me, whispering in my ear, "Wow, Rachel. I'm so glad we came. Now we get to hang out with a bunch of drunk guys that we've never met before. Goody!".

I knew he was being sarcastic with his tone and the facial expression he was giving me, and I couldn't blame him. I was not looking forward to this night either. I had met some of his dance friends before, but none of his best friends, so I felt a little awkward and uncomfortable meeting them like this. The music was loud and the drinks were flowing...not exactly ideal for introductions.

One of Brody's friends, Milo I think, handed me a cup of something alcoholic, but I declined. It wasn't that I was against alcohol—I drank occasionally—but I just didn't know this guy, and I wasn't about to take a drink from a stranger, even if he did know Brody. I like to feel comfortable with the people I'm around when I'm drinking, just in case I drank a little too much. I want to know that I'm safe and cared for if i get too drunk. These people were not my friends, and Brody did not seem interested in keeping an eye on me, so I decided that tonight was not a drinking night. I looked over at Brody, who was busy taking shot after shot, trying to catch up to his buddies' alcohol levels.

I sat down in the booth with Kurt with on my left and one of Brody's friends on my right. He introduced himself as Kyle, but he was sitting a little too close for comfort, so I discretely scooted as far over as could.

"Rachel!", Brody drunkenly yelled. "I'm gonna go have some fun with some of the boys. I'll be back soon, I promise!"

"Uh ok, I guess" I replied, a little uneasy about being left with Kyle alone. Kurt had left to got to the bar in search of something 'fruity' to get him through the night. Great.

"Sooo", Kyle said, raising his eyebrows and looking my body over slowly. "You're Brody's girl, huh?"

"Um yeah" I said uncomfortably, leaning away from him. His breath was so strong that I felt like I could get drunk simply by being that close to him. And he was really close to me. Too close.

"Hmmm" he seemed to think it over for a second. Then, with slurred speech, he said, "Cool! So, what'd you say? How bout we get outa here? Have some fun! Get a little crazy!"

I just stared at him for a second, before blurting out, "Are you serious?". Did he really just ask me to hook up with him while my boyfriend, his friend, was somewhere close by? Or, did i completely misunderstand his intentions.

"I just told you, Brody's my boyfriend". I said, not quite knowing what was going on or what to say.

He simply rolled his eyes at my response and easily said, "Ah it's fine! Brody's my man! He won't mind if we have a little fun." He winked and then caressed my bare arm with his fingertips. I was way passed the point of feeling discomfort, and was completely and utterly weirded out and irritated by this Kyle guy. This was wildly inappropriate.

"No, I'm good. Thanks." I said sarcastically. I tried to say it with conviction, but I'm pretty sure it sounded more weak and puzzled than I wanted.

At this point, I was looking around for Brody to save me from his so-called 'friend', but couldn't see him anywhere. I began to get up, just to escape the creep and find Kurt, when he said, "Where are you going?", his voice whined in my ear. "Maybe we can just dance? Loosen you up a bit?" He said this last bit while his hand traveled down my back, and landed on my butt, slightly squeezing.

"Oh my God! What the hell do you think your doing?!" I yelled, and began to panic while trying to push his hand off of my body.

"Come on, baby girl. Let's have some fun!", he said smirking and winking at me, while still reaching for my ass.

Just as I before I began to freak out even more, I saw Brody coming my way, and sighed in relief.

"Brody!" I said breathlessly. "I think I'm going to go home, but you can stay and hang out some more. Kurt and I are leaving tomorrow, anyways, so it's probably best if you go back to your place for the weekend, and I'll see when I get back, ok?", I say, leaning in to give him a small hug goodbye, because I wasn't going to kiss him right now. I was pretty pissed at him for abandoning me with his rude and touchy 'friend'.

"Noooo. Don't go" he spoke, clearly way more intoxicated than the last time I saw him only thirty minutes ago. "We haven't even spent any time together", he whined angrily now.

"Well, that's not really my fault. You left me here with your friend—who made me feel super uncomfortable, by the way!—while you went off and did what ever the heck you wanted without me." I could feel myself start to get angry, but I needed to try and keep my cool. He was drunk and he most likely wouldn't remember this in the morning, so it was better to leave now and not make a scene.

"What're you talking bout? I'm just trying to have a fun night out with my boys! And, you're being crazy cause my boys are great, and would never make you 're having fun! You know? That thing you never have?" he said, getting madder.

I couldn't help it. I was getting mad too, and I couldn't hold my tongue any longer. He either had absolutely no clue who his friends really were, or he doesn't care that they're complete assholes. And, I thought, I have fun all the time. It's just never with you. But I figured that would be mean, so I bit my tongue and instead said, "One of your friends just tried to take me home with him! To have sex! And he grabbed my butt! I wouldn't exactly call that great or respectful!"

"Well, at least I have friends! You have Kurt and that's it! And he can't even stand you!" That was a low blow, and he knew it. I told him in confidence that one of my biggest insecurities is being friendless, because, I had been there and it was hell. He knew I was terrified of being left by everyone I loved because they didn't really loved me in return—that they were just pretending. It hurt me more than I wanted to let on, and all I wanted to do was find Kurt and leave. But, he kept talking, and the next words out of his mouth wounded me further.

"Plus, Kyle was just try'na get you to have some fun! S'no big deal! They're helping me out, since I've been telling them how frustrating it that you never let me get very far and that we haven't had sex said they could help loosen you right up." He said this as his friends started to clap him on the back and nodded, as if agreeing with him and their tactic to help him hook-up with me.

I stood there mortified that his friends were making fun of me, and my belief that sex was special. I was staring at Brody, tears in my eyes and my mouth hanging open, not knowing what to say. It didn't matter, though, because Kurt swooped in at that moment, and screamed some expletives that I couldn't really hear in my daze. I didn't even know where or when he came back over, but I was so grateful for him in that moment. He then grabbed my arm and pulled me behind him, squeezing my hand in reassurance, and whipped his cell phone out.

"Meet me at home as soon as you can", he said into the phone and then ended the call. He sounded pissed, but all I could think about was what Brody said, and then I could't stop crying, thinking that some of that stuff might me right.

Kurt:

As soon as we got back to the apartment, I carefully put Rachel in a huge t-shirt (which happened to be Finn's), and put her into bed. I sat on the couch then, waiting for Santana to get home. It was one in the morning, but she wasn't supposed to get off work until one thirty. When she moved in, Santana decided to get a job as a waitress at Callbacks three nights a week to make money while she figured out what she wanted to do. The sound of the front door alerted me to Santana's arrival. She looked her usual sexy self in a tight, long sleeved black V-neck, tight red skirt, and black heels. She always said looking super sexy got the big tips, and I believed her based on the amount of money she always came home with. She sat down on the couch and looked at me annoyed, waiting for me to tell her why I made her leave work thirty minutes early.

"Brody's an asshole" I muttered angrily, thinking back on how he and his friends teased and treated Rachel.

Santana just looked at me, like that was nothing new, and just said, "what happened?"

I relayed the story to her, and she looked more pissed than me, and I had actually been there. I told her about how Rachel was sobbing on our cab ride back home. About how I tried to comfort her, but I just couldn't get her tears to stop. She looked so hopeless-shattered-and I had no clue how to fix her. I finally decided it was best to let her cry herself to sleep, because she looked exhausted.

Once I was done describing the night's events, Santana began to cuss in Spanish, until she finally stopped to speak in English. "Fuck! That douche is really screwing with Rachel! I love her, but she is so damn naïve and has no clue he is playing her! He just wanted a good lay and Rachel fits the bill. Young, innocent, clueless, and a rocking body. He probably thought he hit the jackpot, until he actually go to know her, and realized she wasn't going to sleep with just anybody. And his friends!? Berry said NO! I'ma go all Lima Heights if I ever see him or any of his little—"

"Santana! Stop! I know how mad you are. Believe me, I know! But hurting him won't help the situation. She's broken right now. Like really, truly broken. I think everything from the last six months has just come tumbling out, and she is finally feeling all of the pain. This is the first time I've seen her really cry, not just tear up, in three months! You know Rachel. She needs to cry. She always cries. And the fact that she hasn't really cried since Finn means the floodgates have opened and now she just can't stop! All the hurt has piled up, and this was the straw that broke the camel's back. I just don't know what to do". I felt helpless, and at this moment, I was so glad Santana surprised us and moved in, because I needed someone to vent to and help with Rachel.

"Ok, Ok. I get it. I wont beat up Brody when I see him…I'll just bitch slap him so hard, he won't be able to see straight, ok?

"Yeah, that perfectly fine with me", I said with a slight smile—the first since coming home tonight.

"Anyways", she said, "what do you think we should do? I mean, you're much better with the supportive, mushy stuff. I'm more of the slap-some-sense-into-Berry kind of girl, and I know that's not appropriate in this instance."

"I'm not quite sure. I guess we just have to be there for her and hope she can see that we love her, you know? That she has true friends that will never leave her, and that we love her no matter what."

"Well, it's a good thing we're going back to Ohio and spending three whole days with our friends, then, huh?

"Yeah, this wedding couldn't come at a better time" I exhaled slowly, finally feeling like we could get her through this bump with the help of our friends.

"And you're right, Lady Hummel. I might not show it the traditional way, but I love Rachel Berry. She can be annoying and difficult, but she's ours, you know?, she said with a slight smile.

"I know", he replied with the same smile. Rachel could be a handful, but she also really loved her friends and felt every emotion so powerfully. Usually, she was so happy and full of life, but right now, she was depressed and that was scary.

Right as I thought that, crying could be heard from her room. It was much louder than before, and it made me worry. We rushed to her room and saw her sitting against her bed shaking and bawling her eyes out, and it broke my heart to see my best friend like this. I glanced over at Santana and saw that she was reacting to Rachel in nearly the same was as me. Rachel sat completely shattered on the floor, and barely recognized our arrival. I didn't that know it was possible to cry that much, or to have that many tears, but if anyone was capable of proving me wrong, it was Rachel Barbara Berry. I just wished she didn't have to prove me wrong on this particular point…overachieving drama queen. Normally, I would say that out loud, and we would laugh about it, but right now, I didn't think laughing was in the cards.

I bent down and held her face in my hands, trying to calm her down and get her to tell me what had brought on this new wave of hysterics. However, I didn't need her to tell me once I saw Santana's face while she looked at Rachel's phone.

"Brody called her…and he left a voicemail", Santana said, as she held the phone up to her ear to listen. I saw her face and body contort into one of pure hatred, and I knew whatever he'd said in that message was awful. She silently passed me the phone, and then took my place comforting Rachel, so I could hear it for myself. We didn't need to put it on speaker and have her hear it again. I think even once was too much for her. Santana pulled her tiny, crumbled body onto the bed and lay with her while stroking her back. I had never seen Santana perform such reassuring and gentle gestures in my life, and I stood awestruck while placing the phone to my ear. I needed to know what caused all this seemingly crazy behavior. One roommate was hyperventilating she was crying so hard, while the other was acting like a big cuddly bear, instead of her usual snarky and sarcastic self.

"Rachel!" it started, with a whiny and totally smashed Brody.

"I'm soooo sorry baby! I really like you, and I-". Brody's voice was abruptly cut off, and all I could hear was some rustling and the base of the music from the club. I hear Brody laugh and shout, "quit it!", while laughing at whatever his friends were doing with his phone.

However, this playful banter was quickly replaced with a loud, familiar voice yelling, "You BITCH! You fuckin' Bitch!" I flinched at the words, but kept listening to Kyle talk.

"I didn't want you any ways!", his tone coming off harsh and livid. "Your nose is huge and gross, you have absolutely no boobs, and you won't put out for my man, Brody! I mean, seriously. Did you ever really think you could become anything in this business?" He begins to laugh, but keeps talking.

"Even if you weren't a little prude and slept with every casting agent in the city, you'd never get a part. You're ugly! They would be sick and embarrassed that they stooped that low to get a little -" At this point, I didn't think I could hear anymore without throwing up from pure, unadulterated rage. How could he say those things, and how could Brody stand by and let him? It seemed like Brody had been talking to them a lot about Rachel, telling them stuff that was supposed to be private. It was as if Brody had told him exactly how to hurt Rachel, and Kyle seemed to be enjoying it a great deal.

"I can't believe I tried to get with you! I figured that you're a tight little girl, and it would be fun to screw you, but…-".

Then, all of a sudden, the message ended, and all I heard was silence. I looked over at Rachel's bed, and saw Santana curled around Rachel while she slept. Rachel's face was red, blotchy, and puffy, but at least she was asleep. Santana got up slowly, not wanting to wake Rachel, and motioned for me to follow her out the door. Once we got to the kitchen, we just stood there and stared at each other. We didn't know what to say, so silence seemed the like the best, and only, option.

After five minutes of standing like that, Santana started to walk towards her bed to go to sleep, but before she got there, she turned around and muttered lividly, "You can't stop me... I'm going ALL Lima Heights on that mother fucker and his friends" And all I could think was, "Man, I hope so." I had no intention of stopping her.

I knew it wasn't completely Brody's fault, but he played a huge part. He was the one that begged her to come meet his "awesome, wonderful, super nice bros", even though Rachel was apprehensive. He was the one who left her alone with his creepy and rude friends, and ignored her all night. Then, he was the one who said those hurtful things about no one really loving her. He had the audacity to call her (still drunk, I might add!), and allowed his friend to say nasty things to the woman who was supposed to be his girlfriend. If those are his friends, then I'm not sure we've seen the real Brody yet. No good guy would put up with guys like that.

I mean, even though some would say that Finn does, with Puck and all, Puck isn't really a bad guy. Sure he's a player, but the girls he's with know what they are getting into before they sleep with him. Plus, he would NEVER say anything cruel, like Kyle. If Puck was anything like those scumbags, Finn, and all of us glee clubbers, would have unfriended him a long time ago. He might try to be a badass, but really, he cares about people, especially his friends. I know I shouldn't be comparing Brody with Finn, but it's too hard not to. Thinking of Finn, I know he would know what to do in this situation. He would know just how to comfort Rachel, and make her feel loved. Because really, who am I kidding, Rachel only wants to be loved by one man, and that man is not Brody Weston. Gosh I miss Finn! Those two need each other, because no one else quite knows how to deal with them besides the other. This weekend could not come soon enough…

Brody was right about one thing, though…she is really self-conscious and insecure. Not only about her body, but also with the fact that people always left her. She went through most of her life friendless and was made fun of until glee club. Yes, I was tormented in high school, but I had friends. I had Tina and Mercedes, and at least the rest of the club accepted me. When we first started glee club, we were all outcasts and knew what it felt like, to be bullied; yet we still rejected her. She had built up this wall to try and protect herself from hurt, and it pushed people away. But once she met Finn, she realized that she could open up and make friends without getting hurt. Well, she might get hurt, but at least she could be herself and have friends who would be there when she needed a shoulder to cry on. And this, this was definitely a time where she needed her friends. So I came up with a plan. This weekend would be a time for relaxing, unwinding, and having fun. We were going to remind Rachel Berry that she was loved.

I walked over to my bedroom to get ready for bed, and then slid into beside Rachel in her's. I knew she couldn't be alone tonight. Not after all of the fears and anxieties that she had been struggling with since childhood were just thrown in her face and brought to the surface again. People she loved always left her, or that's what she thought. I was going to prove her wrong. I loved her and I wasn't going anywhere, and neither was the glee club.