"The Switch" - Part 16
Charlie was playing a light melody on the piano when Rachel came in. The brunette stopped short, obviously unprepared to see her there. She glanced around warily, seeing that they were alone in the auditorium. Charlie took her fingers off the keys and looked up at her.
It was a long silence.
“Why are you here?” she finally asked.
“Quinn left her notebook…” Rachel explained quietly, looking like she wished she could turn around and run right back out again.
She held up a purple spiral notebook. “Got it.”
“Oh. Okay. Then…I’ll just go… I’m sorry I disturbed your playing.”
“I thought about what you said.”
It worked. Rachel turned back slowly, taking a few steps towards the piano with a questioning look.
“What I said? Which ‘what I said’? Because as you know, I tend to say a lot of-”
Charlie stood up, effectively cutting Rachel off and came towards her.
“I’m prepared to give you what you asked for.”
She breathed in sharply. “W-what I asked for?”
Charlie nodded, knowing she felt just as nervous and terrified as Rachel looked right now, if not a thousand times more.
“But before I do, you have to know that I have feelings for you.”
“Feelings?”
“Very…very strong feelings,” she clarified.
“O-okay.”
“You just need to understand that before we do this because it’s going to mean more to me than it will to you.”
“Charlotte…” she whispered sadly.
“I’m not telling you that to make you feel bad or to guilt you into anything. This is your test right? You want to know the difference for sure. It’s just, no matter what happens, I need you to know that. And that…that I’m sorry for how I’ve-”
“Don’t apologize,” she said pleadingly. “I don’t think I can hear you apologize to me right now.”
Charlie took her hand, so gently at first, as though it might break, as though she would pull away, as though she would disappear. But she didn’t. So her grip became stronger.
“This is me here. Not Quinn. Not me pretending to be Quinn. It’s me.”
Rachel’s breath hitched in her throat, but she nodded tightly.
“I’m going to kiss you now.”
And she did.
When Rachel thanked her and walked away sobbing, Charlie knew the truth.
She found her answer.
(PART 1) (PART 2) (PART 3) (PART 4) (PART 5) (PART 6) (PART 7) (PART 8) (PART 9) (PART 10) (PART 11) (PART 12) (PART 13) (PART 14) (PART 15)