You're Invited - Chapter 4 - PG-13
Track 3: I Honestly Love You - Olivia Newton John
Kurt POV
After a week of intensive Glee practice sessions coupled with after school rehearsals we were ready for our Invitation on Monday. We left the stage set up to Mr Schue, we trusted that he would get the hall looking great for us. The first song we were to perform was Last Name as it was a big group number to begin with. Crazy fun times before a performance is a big morale boost for us as a group, usually causing us to suddenly forget how to clothe ourselves. This then leads to more crazy times and its just a vicious circle. But we were all doing our best getting ready in the choir room with makeshift changing rooms set up in the corners for privacy. I would flit between sides of the room to help the girls with their makeup whilst still trying to be part of the guys group. I may have performed Gaga with the girls but I’m still a guy.
‘Damn these jeans are tight’ Finn said emerging from behind the partition, unable to get the button of his pants done up. He was hunched over going slightly red in the face, visibly struggling with this simple task.
‘It’s the best way’ I replied walking over to him and batting his hands away. ‘Tight jeans or no jeans, what use are baggy horrible things hanging off of your waist when you’ve got the assets you’ve got?’
Finn uhm’d at me until I put him out of his misery.
‘Relax Finn. I’m being rhetorical.’ I said instantly making Finn look more comfortable. ‘Right, stand up straight, you’re never going to get them done up bent over like that.’ I took hold of either sides of the front of Finn’s jeans. He did at he was told and allowed me to solve the problem for him. It was unusual; I’d never done Finn’s jeans up before, but then again I hadn’t taken them off of him that much, we find other things to do together other than take each other’s clothing off. One of the reasons being that removed clothing leads to it being thrown on the floor and no way are my new items from Marc Jacobs collection being floored. Finn thanked me with an embarrassed look on his face as he put his cowboy hat on.
‘Anytime’ I replied fishing for a kiss with a huge grin, arching my head up towards him.
For once Finn caught the hint and planted a tender kiss on my lips, holding on to my waist with the hand that wasn’t stopping his hat from falling off. I raised myself onto my tiptoes to meet Finn half way.
‘Brokeback Mountain the musical anyone?’ Puck interrupted from the other side of the room rather loudly, so the other 9 people in the room could hear, looking at Finn and I with a smirk. I shot him a sarcastic look and gave a little laugh to Finn.
I heard Santana and Brittany giggle to each other as they applied their makeup, don’t they know how annoying that is? I noticed Artie had turned towards us with a stifled smile as well.
‘Well if that’s something you’d like to be involved in Puck I’m sure we could oblige’ I said with a smile, then gave a fake you’d-be-up-for-a-threesome-with-puck-right look up to Finn. He just smiled back at me. It was one of those looks Finn gives when you can practically see the gears turning in his brain.
We both looked back over to Puck and smiled at him. Mission accomplished, he looked substantially awkward and weirded out. Puck gave a huge breath and shuffled his feet a little. I can tell this is something that’s going to carry on for a while between Puck and myself and Finn. Bring it on.
‘How do you know Brokeback Mountain anyway Puck?’ Finn weighed in with the same tone of voice I addressed Puck with, he’d obviously got where I was going with this. The once proud and fearsome boy just stared at us blankly as I squeezed Finns hand.
‘Oh relax Noah’ I said with a laugh as I walked back over to Mercedes to help with her hair. ‘Finn and I are quite contented with each other thank you, but it’s nice to see we can still freak you out.’ Mercedes and I did our finger hair flick and then went back to work on the ‘fro.
‘Right guys, everyone’s in the hall and ready to go. How’s everything coming?’ Mr Schue said walking into the room clapping as always. He proceeded to usher us towards the auditorium. I felt ready, and judging from the impromptu singing and dancing down the corridors from various other people, they were too.
We reached the stage to see it exactly as it was before. It turned out that April had loved the idea of New Directions ‘paying homage’ to her performance with us that she spared no expense in getting the stage looking good.
Mr Schue introduced us as before and we began our performance. I’m glad we kept to the original choreography too, it was kind of genius. Thigh slapping, heel clicking and gun hands in a country western song with us dressed as cowboys; absolutely fantastic.
The girls killed the vocals, we agreed rather than just giving the song to Rachel splitting the vocals up between her, Tina, Quinn and Santana would be the best thing to do. Santana really bought the fierce vocals in her last chorus. Nowadays she’s so much more confident with her vocal ability. She practically jumps on anything out of the ordinary, usually going for middle eights or final choruses. I’m not complaining, even thought her personality can grate like you’re a piece of cheese, it’s definitely easy on the ears. Things are still a little weird between the two of us on a one to one level but I get the impression, in her own way she’s sorry for what she did. I'm not going to hold a grudge against someone who makes the club that much better and is clearly not going to try anything like that again.
All our regulars went as well as usual, Tina was so chuffed about Tonight, we knew she could do it. Quinn had obviously been practicing her dancing for Papa Don’t Preach since getting rid of the crippling weight; it was nice for us to watch individual members of our team just go for it themselves. Hopefully this will show Mr Schue that there are more people in the club that can handle bigger solos.
When my submission came up in the show I was way too nervous for my liking. The guys had basically given me everything to sing since they didn’t feel very comfortable singing the song, even to the girls. Even so I insisted they each bring someone on stage with them to direct their singing towards.
We sat the girls in their plain black dresses on individual stools spaced along the stage, but in darkness until the spotlight from their boy would reach them. We all dressed in our suits and started the number from the back of the stage, with me in the middle of course.
I hoped this had the impact I hoped it would, there was nothing I could do now but sing for it. I took a deep breath as the single spot shone onto me.
[Track 3]
Maybe I hang around here
A little more than I should
We both know I got somewhere else to go
But I got something to tell you
That I never thought I would
But I believe you really ought to know
Artie, Matt, Mike and Puck then took a line each, walking forward to their girls as their spotlights revealed Tina, Brittany, Quinn and Santana on their stools near the front of the stage.
I love you
I honestly love you.
You don't have to answer
I see it in your eyes
I then took the rest of the song with the guys harmonising with me. I slowly walked towards the front of the stage...
Maybe it was better left unsaid
This is pure and simple
And you should realize
That it's coming from my heart and not my head
…To meet Finn on his stool.
I love you
I honestly love you
He just smiled up at me as I sang, fighting back the lump that had appeared in my throat.
I'm not trying to make you feel uncomfortable
I'm not trying to make you anything at all
But this feeling doesn't come along everyday
And you shouldn't blow the chance
When you've got the chance to say
I could hear small murmurs from the crowd, and a huge gasp from Brittany, but I didn’t let this spoil the moment.
I love you
I honestly love you
The guys were now holding their girls hands, had their arms around them or singing to them. I’d reached for Finn’s hand automatically when he shot me one of his if-I-don’t-smile-I’ll-cry looks, neither of our eyes dared to look into anything other than each others.
If we both were born
In another place and time
This moment might be ending in a kiss
But there you are with yours
And here I am with mine
So I guess we'll just be leaving it at this
We hadn’t told the rest of the club of our idea, except for Mercedes, we just made sure the stage was in complete darkness then quickly switched her for Finn. It seemed to work perfectly.
I love you
I honestly love you
I honestly love you
Murmurs or not we got a huge round of applause from the crowd as we all hugged each other, Finn sneaking a little peck on the lips from me as we moved the stools off of the stage.
Don’t Stop went down a treat as ever, and we’ve decided to keep the regionals version in our repertoire; which means more solos for everyone!
Mr Schue congratulated us all on a fantastic show afterwards. He pulled Finn and I back after everyone had left the choir room.
‘Guys that was fantastic, its really brave of you to do something like that. I never would have thought of it.’ He said leaning on the piano.
‘Thanks Mr Schue, it was all Kurt’s idea, his song too.’ Finn said trying to fold a tie… a tie!
‘No it wasn’t! We both had the same idea Mr Schue, just I said it to Finn first.’ I said with a laugh giving Finn a little elbow. ‘I’ve got to thank him anyway; it was Finn that gave me the confidence to even do it. Otherwise I would have thought that everyone was judging me and finding faults with me that aren’t there.’
‘I did all that?’ Finn said with a frown and a grin. ‘I rock!’
‘Yes Finn, you rock’ I said with a chuckle.
‘Well, like I said, very well done. Keep the good work up and we’ll take regionals easy this year.’ Mr Schue said packing up his stuff and leaving the room.
‘I meant that by the way.’ I said to Finn as he zipped his backpack up. He had to wear his cowboy hat to go home in because of insufficient bag space, something that I never have to worry about.
‘I’m glad I could help you Kurt, any time.’ Finn said slinging his bag over his shoulder and walking over to me, holding out a hand.
‘Can I come back to yours tonight? Its only ten o clock and my dad wont be home for another few hours, he’s out with some car buddies or something.’ I said as we walked down the corridor towards the parking lot.
‘Sure. You know you don’t need an invite.’