AURORA SLADE.

Julien wasn’t sure how he made it to Monday. The entire weekend had gone by in such an intense blur and by the time the new week started, he hardly remembered performing during Mamma Mia or hanging out with his friends and family at all. The only things he could remember were Rory’s face when she caught him making out with Ivy in the choir room and the fact that Ivy now hated him. Julien didn’t have a lot of free time over the weekend, but any time he did have was spent sulking and feeling guilty over everything that happened. When Rory texted him about being ready to talk, Julien readily agreed. He was prepared to do whatever he needed to do to fix the situation. However, as he sat on one of the couches in Rory’s living room watching her pace back and forth, he couldn’t find it in him to speak. His eyes were fixed on his tennis-shoe clad feet when Rory eventually took the lead and broke the ice by speaking first. “I know,” he replied quietly, his voice thick with shame as he dared to look up and meet her eyes. Julien’s heart sunk into the pit of his stomach when Rory revealed that she knew their kiss hadn’t been a one time thing. He stared up at her with his mouth agape, blinking repeatedly as he tried to gather his scattered thoughts into something coherent. He took a deep breath and stood up. Sitting was making him antsy and he needed to move around. Maybe that would help him focus. “I—” he started, but before he could say more, Rory interrupted him with the question he had been asking himself all weekend. Do you like…love Ivy or something? He stopped pacing and looked at her, face reddening. “No,” he said quickly, but the words felt wrong in his mouth. They felt false. “I don’t know,” he corrected himself, swallowing hard as his shoulders slumped. He had to toughen up and just say his piece. “I never meant for any of this to happen. I—” he cautiously walked towards her, stopping only when he was a foot or so away, “I messed up. I know I should’ve told you. I wanted to. I just…I didn’t know how to.” Julien rubbed his face for a moment before he dropped his hands to his sides and shrugged, “I was scared of what would happen if you found out.” A pause. “And I don’t know what I feel for Ivy,” he stated, closing his eyes in frustration, “but whatever it is, I don’t think it’s going away.” He opened his eyes to look at her and felt like smashing up his own car. How could he claim to be a good person when he had hurt someone this badly? “I’m really sorry, Rory,” and he meant it, he really did, “you deserve someone who knows what they want and knows how they feel.”

Rory’s heart had been broken and stomped on the ground by one Julien Schuester. She thought it was mainly because of Ivy. If he had cheated on her with anyone, it wouldn’t have hurt as bad but why Ivy? What was so special about her that made her better than Rory? As she paced, she brought her thumb up to her mouth, nervously chewing on her nail. When Julien got up, she stopped her pacing glanced at him for only a moment. He seemed genuinely upset, but at this particular moment she didn’t care about how he felt. He didn’t get cheated on. He wasn’t the idiot who put their trust in someone. Feeling a knot in her stomach, she looked away and directed her eye contact to anything around her other than the human in front of her. It made her physically sick to even look at him. When Julien said he didn’t love Ivy, she almost breathed out a sigh of relief. Almost. Because then Julien began to say he didn’t know how he felt about Ivy. “No one means to get caught cheating,” she blurted out of her own thoughts. “Then you should have broken up with me. Not give me a reason, whatever, but pretending like everything was normal? Fucking me like you weren’t doing the same thing with Ivy? That’s fucked up,” Throughout the weekend, most of her sadness had been replaced with anger for the younger Schuester and her tone just kept getting more furious the more he spoke. She stepped back as he continued to talk, mentioning Ivy. “Yeah,” she scoffed, her lip beginning to quiver slightly. “I do deserve someone who doesn’t lie to me or sneak around. I asked you if there was something going on and you could have said yes,” she pointed out, pointing her index finger out at him. “You could have just said everything you’re telling me know,” she let out a heavy breath, before moving onto her next question. “Did you ever care about me?” She asked, finally turning her gaze to look at him. “Did you ever mean what you told me on Thursday? Because I did.”

𝐖𝐇𝐎: Rory Slade & @julien-schuester​

𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍: Monday, August 10th. Midday.

𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄: The Slade Residence

Meeting at Rory’s house seemed like the best idea. Her mom was at work and her brother didn’t live there anymore so it seemed like the best place to have some sort of privacy. She had seen the Muckraker debut earlier that day which she sort of expected to be the headliner in all that drama. It had been four days since the blonde saw Julien and Ivy making out and in that time Leo and Joey had both revealed that this wasn’t a one time thing which stung even more, and that they had been doing this behind her back for weeks. When Julien got to her house, she opened the door for him, and made her way to the living room pacing back and forth around the room. She didn’t know how to approach any of this and Julien wasn’t saying anything so Rory took the reins on the conversation. “You could have told me, you know,” her words were decently quiet. She knew if she raised her voice in the slightest, she’d start crying. “If you just would have been honest, all of this could have been avoided and just,” it was hard to look at him. Every time she looked at him, she’d just be reminded of what he did. No wonder why Emory bashed his car in. It seemed more and more appetizing the longer she thought on it or just how punchable his stupid face looked. “Just don’t try and tell me this was a one time thing, okay? Joey and Leo both told me that they knew about it so why couldn’t you have just told me?” She asked. “Do you like... love Ivy or something?” That was what she really wanted to know. She needed to know what possessed him to do it.

𝐖𝐇𝐎: Rory Slade & @archerxcs​

𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍: Tuesday, August 11th. Midday.

𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄: The Lima Bean

Rory Slade was a bubbly person. She was adventurous, kind, and mostly realistic. But now, she just felt like she was trapped in a shell. Mamma Mia hadn’t been the best thing to happen to her anymore, it carried a memory that she’d have to live with everyday and would associate with that weekend or that musical for the rest of her life. Which really sucked because she really loved Mamma Mia in general. Yesterday her and Julien finally called it quits on their summer romance and even though Rory was still sad, she was focused on moving past it all which is why she decided to hang out out with Archer. It was spontaneous but so much had happened when Archer disappeared out of nowhere. Iced coffee in hand, she swirled the straw around, looking down into her cup. “Look,” she started, looking up at him. “I know that people are talking or whatever because of the Muck so let me clear things up,” she took a drink of her coffee before continuing. “Yes, Julien cheated on me. Yes, with Ivy. Yes, we broke up. And yes, I’m barely functioning,” it was a very brief description of everything that had happened. “But we’re here to talk about you! So, like, anything new happen?” She was semi-alluding to his and Joey’s hookup but she wasn’t going to be so blunt.

WITH MAMMA MIA NOW WRAPPED UP, drew could turn his attention to what mattered most for the rest of the summer. auditions. sure, he had a glee club audition waiting for him at mckinley, but what felt more important than that? college auditions. he was still a novice when it came to musical theatre, but with two shows under his belt drew had fully decided that stepping out on a stage was the only time other than when he was partying he felt invigorated and truly himself. he wanted to bask in that feeling for the rest of his life and he wanted to give the joy of live theatre to others. after a little research, he’d narrowed it down to a few schools that seemed impossibly competitive, but at the top of the list? NYADA. allegedly, all the biggest stars went there. so naturally, drew wanted to follow their shine, drink that in, experience, and learn from the best. now that he had a taste of the euphoria that followed a great performance and the hope that he was filled with for the entirety of their new york trip, he couldn’t get enough. so? his next step? turned to some more seasoned performers. on this particular occasion,  the meeting place of choice was his very own basement, which, he wasn’t sure many had seen. he sat on the worn couch, absently picking at some of it’s frayed green threads as a desperate, almost pleading look crossed his face, “look, you don’t have to help me, but i’d really appreciate it.” drew sighed, picking up in the middle of an ongoing conversation. “there’s still so much i don’t know and i want this audition to be great. you don’t have to do much just… tell me what to expect and help me pick a song maybe? please?” 

@limastarters​

With Mamma Mia shows being over and Rory freshly being out of a relationship, she was focused on moving forward. Julien was the past and a single Rory Slade was the future. Her goals for fall included getting solos in New Directions, auditioning for the fall musical, and getting all A’s. Most of those goals could be obtained, but most importantly? No focus on boys. She was passed that. She was about to be seventeen! Who was she to be focusing on every guy she knew? She was better than that and she was slowly coming to terms with that, so how did she end up in Drew Hart’s basement talking about glee? She couldn’t tell you, but this was only because she thought Drew was such a nice guy and she was such a willing person to help, especially as one of McKinley’s best performers. As she sat on the old couch, she brought her legs up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. “No, no, I want to help!” Was Rory in any state to help someone? No, but it gave her a great distraction. “Well, you’re a shoo-in already so I wouldn’t stress yourself out too much,” it was no secret that Drew was one of the newest assets to McKinley and was fantastic at performing and after his performances in RENT and Mamma Mia, anyone would be willing to take him. “It’s just like auditioning for the musicals just... no dancing or monologue,” she added with a small laugh. “Hm, what about something Ariana Grande-ish?” She asked,tapping a finger against her cheek aimlessly. “Like Into You or Everyday? No one ever does anything pop-ish and you’d definitely stand out,” she told him. “And you’d totally kill it,” she made sure to reassure him as she looked over at him. “Or you could play it safer and go with something from Grease or RENT. You know, something you’d actually know.”

Leo mirrored Rory’s position by sitting on the steps of McKinley and staring blankly ahead. Talking about this kind of shit was hard and the last thing he wanted was for her to feel self-conscious or scrutinized under the weight of his stare. If she needed to emote or whatever, he wanted her to feel free to do that without feeling judged, so the least he could do was give her the illusion of privacy by not looking directly at her when he broke all of the bad news. If Rory hadn’t talked to Julien yet then Leo was fairly certain she had no idea about the extent of his bad behavior. After he laid everything out on the table, there was a moment of silence. Again, Leo averted his eyes in an attempt to not seem intrusive, but when Rory spoke, he dared to look at her. “Fuck,” he repeated back, instinctively scooting closer to her and shaking his head, “I’m really sorry, Rory.” And he really was. It wasn’t often that one found Leo McCarthy freely apologizing or expressing similar sentiments, but this situation called for it. Rory was a lot of things, sure, but she wasn’t deserving of this kind of treatment. When she started choking out some words, he gave her the floor. He hoped she wouldn’t cry, mostly just because he was shit at comforting people, but of course the tears came. Seeing her so broken up honestly made him kind of mad. What the fuck was wrong with Julien? What was wrong with Ivy? At the mention of his own break-up and the rumors that circulated around it, the only thing Leo’s mind could focus on was the truth. How had his life changed so quickly and so drastically? He had no fucking clue. He didn’t understand what any of it meant or why people put themselves through this shit. Rory’s physical display of her sadness was a reminder of how bad Leo felt deep down and it was honestly hard to swallow. He let out a weak chuckle in response to hers, giving her a tight lipped smile as she started to apologize. “Don’t even worry about it,” he assured her, clicking his tongue as he turned his attention to the ground under his feet. He had to laugh at her comment about him having his own baggage. “True, but honestly? It’s kinda nice to focus on someone else’s baggage for a second,” he joked halfheartedly, turning to look at her again with a sympathetic look in his eyes. Leo wasn’t sure how to act in situations like these. What had he done to Ivy to make her feel better when she was sad? What had he done to Baby? Leo hesitantly brought his hand up and closed it around Rory’s, giving it a gentle squeeze before he let his eyes find hers. “You’re gonna fine,” he told her confidently, nodding once before he gave her hand another squeeze and then broken their physical contact by pulling away, “but I can help you smash up his car if you want.” A joke…maybe a bad one, but oh well. 

Rory hated crying. Most people didn’t enjoy it, but she hated crying in front of people she wasn’t close with and Leo? She wouldn’t exactly say they were best friends and given his lack of emotion, she felt stupid for it. She used the back of her sleeve to wipe some tears, trying to bring herself back to reality and suck all of her emotions back in. And she felt even worse for putting all of her faith and trust in Julien Schuester. She thought he had changed or at least learned from his mistake the first time, but here she was, getting the worst of it all. “You don’t have to apologize, Leo,” it was almost verbatim the same thing she had been telling anyone else. “Julien was the one who fucked up, not you,” she pointed out, instinctively bringing her juul back up to her mouth and taking a hit. That would calm her down. Everything seemed to be falling apart in Rory’s world. She had the perfect boyfriend, the perfect role, dating Julien would make her a total front runner for prom princess, and now it was all whisked away by Julien’s stupid mistake. “It’s just like,” she started, trying to explain what she wanted to get across. “I know you’re not fucking Shakespeare when it comes to these kind of things,” and she wasn’t expecting him to be. “So, don’t feel like you have to give me these reassuring words. And honestly? Leo McCarthy’s honesty would be very welcome because I have no fucking clue what I’m doing,” she said, letting out a heavy sigh. “You sure you don’t want to have a deep dive into your romance with Ivy?” She asked, nudging his foot. She didn’t feel better by any means, but it was nice to talk to someone who kinda could relate. “I think you’re a saint for putting up with her for that long,” thinking about Ivy for too long made Rory tear up again. It was all uncontrollable sadness and even though moving onto Leo’s relationship would probably make her a little less upset, she didn’t think it’d fill anything permanently. When Leo gave her hand a squeeze, she surprisingly felt comforted. For the first time between anyone talking to her or trying to offer her advice, Leo was the first one to make her feel like she could get through this. At Leo’s joke, she let out a wry laugh and looked at him. “Thanks for the offer, but I was thinking you hold down Julien and I shave off his mullet kind of vibe.”

hunter laughed lightly at his little sister’s expression after his comment about him sleeping around back in the day. it was true though, hunter couldn’t be tamed back then. he was constantly sleeping with girls when he was in high school and when he got into college. he just had a charm about him and soon enough, they were in the back of the school, under the bleachers, or in his car. it was either a cheerio, someone from the glee clubs or just anyone. he will admit he broke a few hearts but he broke his own heart after hurting sofia. his fingers twiddled together while he spoke, he could see it all in his head like a movie, clear as day. “i guess you can say that, i mean, i told her but she was the one who did the break up. i rather her do it than me. i don’t know how to explain it. i was luckily that i wasn’t caught because she’s small but i feel like she could give a black eye or something,” he said with a small chuckle. “i realized it after i saw her the next day and he guilt took over my body. she could call me babe or whatever and i was sweating,” shooked hunter. “why do you wanna know? you wanna cheat on schuester? it must be something in our sperm donor genes,” he leaned back in his seat at his sister’s desk. 

Rory couldn’t focus on much, even listening to Hunter talk about himself took a toll on her. It made her sick to her stomach to know that he had hurt Sofia the same way Julien had hurt her. Of course, as her brother revealed more, it seemed like a different situation, but still. It didn’t seem right. “So, as soon as it happened, you told her?” She asked. Something else to add to the list. Hunter was honest. Julien didn’t seem to have an honest bone in his body. “Well, I’m happy you guys are happy together, that’s all that really matters,” she weakly responded with a soft smile. The blonde was visibly more upset than usual given that she was normally... not so upset. She had an aura about her that would just light up rooms, but now that light had dimmed significantly. “Um,” now or never. Rip the bandage off, Rory. “I saw Julien and Ivy making out earlier,” she revealed, her lip quivering slightly as she continued to fiddle with the material of the pillow that was in her hands.

Joey could only assume that Rory at least knew that this had been going on for a while, he would have thought that Julien had told her that this wasn’t the first time they were kissing. “I thought you knew… I think it was only just another kiss and they both said it didn’t mean anything and well, I believed them. I just didn’t think that it would happen again.” He said and what he said was true, Joey didn’t think that they would kiss again because both of them had told him that it didn’t mean anything – but he was probably stupid for believing in that. Seeing Rory like this made him uncomfortable, he felt like she was about to break down in tears at any moment and Joey didn’t want that. “Still, no one should ever go through something like this, I really don’t know what to say… How about you come to Breadstix with us? You can sit with me and Ruby.” He said, hoping that it would actually cheer Rory up by being around some people that weren’t Ivy or Julien.

“No,” Rory shook her head and let out a sigh. “I haven’t talked to him. Like, really about anything,” she said, and learning about these other kisses just angered her. It wasn’t like her and Julien had been together for years, but they had been together long enough that Rory would have wanted him to come to her in the first place and just be honest. At Joey’s offer, she smiled slightly. It was a kind offer, but she wasn’t in a place to hang out with other people or even go out and eat. If there was someone that would know how to comfort Rory, it would be Ruby, but it was still too early to really talk to people. “I appreciate the offer, but I think I’m gonna have to decline. I’m just not really hungry and I’d rather just go home and cry it all out. I think that’d help a little.”

Someone had flipped a switch and turned off the light that usually radiated off of Rory Slade. The girl sitting on the steps hitting her juul with a fake smile and sad eyes wasn’t one Leo recognized. He gave her a vague nod, a wordless ‘you’re welcome’ after she thanked him, and then took another pull from his cigarette. Once he asked Rory if she wanted to talk about what went down, he didn’t press her to answer right away. He didn’t have anywhere to be, so if she needed some time to think shit through before she spoke, he was happy to wait. The moment of silence didn’t last that long though. Eventually, she said what they were both thinking. Even though Leo had already heard the rumors, it still stung to hear it directly from the source. Rory had seen Ivy and Julien kissing. It was one thing to know about it and another thing entirely to actually witness it. He couldn’t imagine how she felt. “That’s fucked,” he commented, turning towards her and shaking his head slightly, “Julien is a prick for doing that to you.” A tense pause. “So is Ivy.” Even saying her name out loud put a bad taste in his mouth. Leo had never been very good at comforting people and it didn’t come naturally to him in the slightest, but seeing Rory so broken up about it made him want to try. “I don’t know what your whole plan is,” he started, sighing as he took a final drag from his cigarette before he flicked the butt on to the pavement and put it out with the bottom of his shoe, “but this guy doesn’t deserve you.” Leo had overheard some people backstage at one of their shows talking about how Rory and Julien were still together, which was her prerogative, but he felt like if she was going to stay with him then she should know the full truth. “I don’t know if you want to know all this so just…tell me to shut the fuck up if you don’t want to hear it,” he started, clenching his jaws for a moment as he felt himself start to get worked up, “but Ivy and I got in this huge fight last night and she told me she kissed Julien like…not even two days after we broke up.” Talking about the whole situation really pissed Leo off, but Rory deserved to know. He wished that was all there was to it, for her sake, but unfortunately there was more. “And also…Baby said she thought she saw them have a weird moment in LA or some shit.” He took a deep, calming breath in order to regulate his own anger and also temper any sort of big reaction that might make Rory feel worse. “I’m really fucking sorry this happened and that I’m just…dumping all this shit on you,” Leo said sympathetically, “but you deserve to know.” 

Rory was a relatively happy girl. On the outside, at least. Even on her worst days, she made it her goal to not put her problems on everyone else and save it for her therapist. And it was easier to pretend to be happy. She thought that if she just smiled and pretended to be happy that it would make her happy, but she couldn’t do that now. If she did, people would probably be even more concerned than usual and she didn’t want to deal with anyone. Not Julien, not Ivy, not Joey. Literally the thought of anyone talking to her about everything made her queasy. She had talked to Joey a few days back, but she was able to keep the conversation to a minimum. She didn’t need people asking how she was or what happened. It was self-explanatory. Her boyfriend cheated on her and now she was sad. Now she just had to navigate that and figure out if her and her boyfriend needed to breakup. What she did need to hear though was everything Leo was telling her. Julien was a prick. Julien didn’t deserve her. But if Julien, the golden boy of McKinley didn’t deserve her, then who did? It was a crappy thing to put herself through, but at the end of the day she was just a sixteen year old girl who wanted someone to love her. Isn’t that what everyone wanted? And even if Julien didn’t love her, they could pretend. “I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she revealed, twiddling her juul in her hand nervously. “I haven’t talked to him either,” she looked down at the juul and let out a sigh as Leo went on about how this had happened days after his and Ivy’s breakup. She was trying to make sense of the timeline from when she caught Julien and Ivy but the kiss Joey knew about and the kiss Leo knew about and using Leo’s knowledge, then it meant this had been going on for weeks. “Fuck,” she said, her lip quivering slightly. She told herself she wouldn’t cry again. She had cried so fucking much in the last two days that she was shocked that her tear ducts could even produce any tears. She didn’t feel worse, she just felt hurt. That someone would do this to her. More importantly, that someone would do this to her with Ivy. That was the salt in the wound. “What really sucks,” she choked out, looking forward. If she did cry, she wanted it to be less noticeable. “is that deep down I already knew,” and that’s when the tears began falling down her face. “I asked him a few weeks ago when the rumors started circulating as to why you and Ivy broke up and he said it wasn’t true,” she let out a chuckle but it was more at her own stupidity. “I’m sorry,” she wiped a few tears off her face before looking at Leo. “I shouldn’t be putting my baggage on you when like you’ve got your own shit,” typical Rory. Always deflecting her own feelings for someone else’s.

JULIEN: ig i deserve that

JULIEN: i can come to u

JULIEN: do u mean like rite now???

RORY: no not like right now. it's like the middle of the night

JULIEN: i understand

JULIEN: ok

JULIEN: will u text me when ur ready?

JULIEN: im really sorry

RORY: [READ @ 8:10PM 8/7]

RORY: alright i think im ready to talk

RORY: we can like meet wherever

RORY: or you can come to my house if you wanna be more private about it since you like to live that way

When Rory finally told him what had happened, Joey was at a loss for words. He really didn’t know what to say, but the last thing that he expected was to find out that Rory had caught Ivy and Julien kissing, especially after both of them told him that it wasn’t going to happen again and that it was a one-time thing. “Oh.” That was the only thing that Joey could say before he actually processed what he had just learned. “I really don’t know what to say about this, I knew about their kiss from a few days ago, but they told me it wasn’t going to happen again.” Joey said, shaking his head as he thought about it. “And I tried having Julien telling you about it because I didn’t want you to get hurt… I don’t think anyone deserves to get hurt like that.” He said, sighing and crossing his arms as he shook his head. “I’m really sorry, Rory, you didn’t deserve that.”

Rory was still shaken up by everything, but saying it out loud? It felt like a sudden relief. “Wait,” the blonde shook her head slightly as Joey revealed that this had happened before in the course of Julien and Rory’s relationship. “This has been going on?” She asked, a hint of anger on her voice. Rory genuinely thought that it had only happened once and that one time was when she caught them but she had to face the music and realize that maybe it had been going on and for how long. “No, you don’t have to apologize,” except for not telling me, she thought to herself. It wasn’t Joey’s place anyway to tell her, but it would have been nice to know regardless so she could have saved herself from literally walking in on them. “It’s not like you cheated on me.”

THE LOSER HAS TO FALL (FT. LEO + RORY)

WHO: @roryslade​ & @leo-mccarthy​ WHEN: saturday, aug 8, post-mamma mia! understudy show WHERE: mckinley parking lot

The understudy show was kind of Leo’s baby. Of course he’d helped with the main cast and their show, but he’d spent a lot of time rehearsing with LJ, Leia and even Theo Beiste. Watching the 2pm show on Saturday felt like watching the fruits of his labor come to life. He had to admit—the show was pretty fucking good. Part of that probably had to do with the fact that he was just happy to see people other than Ivy and Julien on stage, but whatever. The show ended a little bit after 4pm and after giving the cast and crew a pep talk and amping everyone up as best he could for the second leg of the run, Leo was exhausted and ready to leave McKinley for a few hours before he had to be back for the 8pm. Despite Ivy and Julien not performing in their typical roles during the matinee, they were still around, so Leo didn’t linger around the auditorium once he was released. The last thing he wanted was a run in with the shrill St. James girl or to see Julien Schuester’s highly punchable face. He exited the building quickly and made his way to the parking lot, keys in hand. As he approached his beat up Acura, he spotted a familiar blonde in the distance, hanging out on the steps of McKinley and hitting her juul. Leo could’ve easily ignored her and kept to himself, but there was something in his gut urging him to talk to her. After all, in the situation with Ivy and Julien, they’d kind of both been burned (albeit she probably had it a little worse). With a tired sigh, Leo changed his course and approached her slowly. “Hey,” he greeted when he was close enough, finally getting a good enough look at Rory Slade to see that she was broken hearted, “can I join?” He didn’t wait for her to grant hi permission before he sat down. He took a pack of cigarettes out of his front pocket and tapped it against his hand a few times before he pulled one out and lit it, taking a long drag and then dangling it between his pointer finger and thumb. It felt like they just sat there in silence for a while. “You know,” he started, breaking the ice, “given the circumstances? You’re doing a fucking amazing job. It’s really impressive the way you’re keeping your shit together.” He blew out some smoke and took another pull fro his cig, sitting up slightly, “do you want to talk about what happened?” 

When the understudy show rolled around, Rory was pleased to not be performing for once. Even though she had to go on at 8pm, it was good for her to just sit back and enjoy everything from a distance. It had been a few days since she witnessed Julien and Ivy making out in the choir room and even though she was slightly better, she had still spent most of the week crying and avoiding Julien Schuester which was hard in the midst of Mamma Mia performances and sharing a stage with him and Ivy was incredibly hard, but she had powered through it to the best of her ability. Once the understudy show was over, she bolted out the doors fairly dramatically so no one could catch up to her and bombard her with questions about what happened. Sitting down on the steps leading to the high school, she whipped out her juul and began hitting the mint pod which had been a not-so gift from Leo that she had made last throughout the month. She tried to not use it too often unless she was stressed, drunk, or hanging out with her friends and in this case she was undeniably stressed. She was waiting on her mom to come bring her by some food. The blonde didn’t have a car just yet and had been anticipating her driver’s test which she also hadn’t taken yet so her mom and Julien were her main means to transportation. Taking another hit from her juul, she heard a voice and looked up to see Leo. It was weirdly a refreshing face to see. She knew he wasn’t the prying type and that she could share as much or as little as she wanted. “Hey,” she gave him an awkward smile as if to pretend she was happy. “Yeah, sure,” she said even though he had already sat next to her on the steps. “Thanks,” her words were undeniably short. Everyone had been congratulating her on her performance, but she didn’t feel particularly good about it. She was having fun slightly, but the heartbreak had made a permanent place on her heart for the time being. “Um,” she pondered his question for a moment before responding. “Is there much to talk about? I mean, I walked in on Julien and Ivy making out. That’s about it.”

Joey was a lot of things, but he wasn’t stupid – so of course he noticed that Rory was lying from the moment she started talking, except that Joey didn’t know why she would be lying. Even if they didn’t start as friends, Joey was starting to think that maybe they could be friends, even if that meant Ivy would hold that against him, but Rory wouldn’t be the first person that Joey was friends with that Ivy didn’t like – and it wasn’t like Joey was going to stop talking to Ivy just because he was talking to Rory. Giving her a smile when she mentioned her performance, Joey nodded and chuckled lightly. “You would think that seeing you cry on stage would actually make me laugh, but it really made me emotional. I think Meryl Streep would be proud.” He said, hoping that those compliments would at least cheer her up, especially since Joey could see it in her face that she wasn’t doing that well. “C’mon Rory, you don’t need to lie to me, I can see it in your face.” Joey said, trying to picture the million reasons of why Rory would be like this. Maybe she had fought with Julien or maybe she had fought with anyone in the auditorium and Joey hadn’t seen it. “You’re not fine, you have been crying your eyes out, you look like you were punched in both of your eyes. Just tell me what’s wrong.” Joey said, crossing his arms as he waited for an answer. Maybe Julien had told her about the kiss?

Rory wasn’t a bad liar, she was just a sad girl, and was bad at hiding it. Given how fresh the wound Julien left, it was hard for her to hide how she felt and really, she was just so tired that she didn’t feel like hiding anything. It’d be more work than she was willing to put in. She just wanted to go home, watch Dawson’s Creek, eat ice cream, and cry. Rory was surprised how much Joey seemed to be interested in her now, it was a refreshing change but it still wasn’t something she wanted to reflect on in the moment. “Thanks, I’d like to think she would be too,” she said with a light deflective shrug. When Joey pointed out that she was lying, the blonde let out a sigh. Joey would have to find out sooner or later. “Um, it’s really nothing,” she shook her head even thought she knew it wasn’t nothing. “I just-,” she felt herself semi-choking up. “I saw Julien kiss Ivy. Um, but not like in character. I think they sneaked away to do it.”

hunter made sure that he had bought him and his mom tickets to see the show every night that rory was performing. being a proud was a understatement, he was beyond proud of rory for getting the lead role. donna is an outstanding character and he knew his sister was able to pull it off no problem. he had no idea what was going on behind the scenes. he believed her acting, he could see the hurt and all but he just thought to himself, damn she got better. after the show, he was more than happy to take his family out to celebrate as they should. he could see the pure excitement on their mother’s face while she expressed her happiness that her two babies were doing amazing things with their life. he could only laugh and shake his head at the woman. after hearing rory’s pleads for him to come back to the house, he agreed and followed them back to the house. once he was basically dragged into his little sister’s room, he arched his brow but sat down on the bed beside her. “yeah, weirdo, what’s up?” he offered her a smile but it quickly faded when she asked the most hard hitting question. why he cheated on sofia awhile back. “uh, um,” mumbled out the drummer, his eyes now moving to his boots then his hands. “truthfully? before i meant sofia, well, you know, i slept around a lot. it was easy not not get attached to someone but still have them in bed with you even though they leave in the morning. when i met sof, i was thrown into something i wasn’t mature or ready for,” he told her. “don’t get me wrong, i was falling in love with her and i still do each day but back then i was very immature and was partying a lot with my friends. even though i had someone already in bed with me, i always had this constant fear of getting too attached and she was going to leave. so i made it easier for her to hate me so i told her and i hated myself even more. i regret it everyday what i did to sofia,”  hunter admitted and when i was without her and after getting screamed at by mom, i realize that i don’t ever want to be without her and i am a horrible person,” he sighed out. “i will never forget her face when i told her and i broke it off.” 

Rory was trying to figure out how to cope. She had yet to actually talk to Julien about what happened but she didn’t know if there was anything to even be discussed except for if they should break up or not. She didn’t need a reason why he cheated, even though deep down she wanted to know. What did Ivy have that she didn’t? She was pretty and talented and mildly popular, right? Once she got settled on her bed and wrapped herself around the pillow, she fiddled with the material on it nervously and hoping maybe her brother would offer some kind of advice, even if just indirectly. “Yeah, I know. I don’t need the details,” she said, a grimace clear on her face. As she listened to his explanation, some things clicked about Julien and some things didn’t. Hunter slept around a lot. Julien didn’t. Hunter was falling in love with Sofia. Julien seemed to be the same. But maybe Julien was going through the same thing. Maybe he just wasn’t ready to be in a relationship. Julien said he loved her, albeit in the heat of the moment, but Rory believed him. Hunter told Sofia. Julien let Rory catch him. “So, you broke up with her? And like... recognized that you were in the wrong?” She asked, looking up at him. Rory was truly trying to convince her of any reason as to why Julien would do this and any way for them to work this out, but it was already looking hopeless.

JULIEN: hi

JULIEN: i kno ur mad whcih is completely understandable but i rly think we shud talk

[READ 7PM]

RORY: [8:10PM] tbh i dont really want to

𝐖𝐇𝐎: Rory Slade & @hunterxslade​

𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍: Thursday, August 6th. Evening.

𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄: The Slade residence

After opening night, Rory was just ready to get home. After being stopped by multiple people, she was just ready to scream and cry her way out of the auditorium and once she got over to her mom and brother, they wanted to have a celebratory dinner at Breadstix and as much as the blonde wanted to say no, she couldn’t. Her mom was so happy that she had landed the lead role and it only made sense to go and celebrate that win. She spent most of the dinner with minimal conversation and playing with her food more than actually eating it. She wasn’t hungry, not when everything that was on her mind just made her want to throw it all up. She continuously brushed everything off as that she was just super tired and that performing wore her out which wasn’t a complete lie. After dinner, she practically begged Hunter to come back to their house, which he thankfully agreed to. She knew it would only be a matter of time before people started finding out about what happened and Hunter was either going to learn it from someone else, the Muckraker, or Rory and she thought it was best if he learned the news from her. Once they got back to the Slade home, she went inside and dragged Hunter into her room, locking the door behind her. She didn’t want her mom coming in and their relationship worked better when Rory lied to her. She’d just tell her mom that her and Julien broke up over something mutual, if they did break up that is. She knew that’s the direction it’d have to go in, but Hunter cheated on Sofia and it all worked out, so maybe it would for Julien and Rory too? She climbed on her bed and her heart already felt like it was sinking. Just thinking about all the times Julien had been in her bed made her sick to think about. “Can I ask you something?” She asked Hunter, grabbing a pillow and wrapping her arms around it. Not really giving him time to answer, she began speaking again. “Why did you cheat on Sofia?”