Easier Said Than Done

As I expected, when I walked into Glee Club, people did stare at me. But I just kept my head up and pretended I didn’t notice or didn’t care.

I settled next to Sam, who gave me a quick one-armed hug.

It was completely silent until Santana walked into the room, a little smug smirk on her face. I was pretty sure she had deliberately looked in the mirror and perfected it before making her appearance. “Well, look who we have here! The little white princess got a little dirty.”

“Oh, please. At least I dated Puck before I slept with him, slut.”

The whole group drew a collected gasp. “You did not just say that to me,” she nearly growled, inching forward with increasing fury.

“I think I just did,” I snapped back, starting to get up. Sam grabbed my arm and pulled me back down into my seat.

“Wow, your boyfriend has to hold you back, huh?” She gave a maniacal sounding laugh that also sounded rehearsed. “Funny how you always take my throwaways, huh, Ellie?”

“What are you talking about? You never had Sam! In your sick little dreams, maybe, but not in Real People Land.”

“Looks like your boyfriend doesn’t tell you nearly as much as you think he does, does he?” Another disgusting smirk, and she settled next to Quinn, her head bobbing as if she was celebrating what, in her mind, she thought of as superiority.

I could feel Sam looking at me, but I refused to return the glance. The last thing I wanted or needed was to have that discussion with the audience of the Glee Club. They had gotten more than enough gossip the past couple of days to fuel their love of it.

“Sorry I’m late, guys,” Mr. Schue announced as he walked into the room. “Who has their Spingsteen number all picked out?”

Rachel’s hand flew into the air like a blur. “I do.”

“Okay, Rachel,” Mr. Schue sighed, as if it was what he had been expecting exactly. “Take it away.”

She smiled and bounced out of her seat to the front of the group. “I’ll be performing the classic Springsteen hit Born to Run. Even today’s generation is familiar with the song because the lyrics are so inspirational that they transcend generations.”

“Just shut up and sing,” I muttered under my breath.

Apparently, it was louder than I intended because a couple of people snickered, while Rachel gave me a death glare.

She sang the song, and she was great. Shocker there.

When Finn stood up to sing a Springsteen song that wasn’t quite as well-known, I pretty much tuned him out. My mood had taken a complete downturn, and my mind was going through a hundred questions a second.

What the hell had Santana meant? Sam had gotten together with her? And he hadn’t even told me? I knew it was hypocritical, since I hadn’t told him about the Puck situation, but…didn’t that mean that Sam had no reason to be irritated with me about keeping my sexcapade a secret, since he was clearly keeping one to himself as well?

The longer I had to wait, the more irked I was getting. By the end of Glee Club, my arms were crossed and I glaring at some point on the other side of the room.

“Alright, that’s it for today. Kurt, Ellie, and Puck, you guys think you’ll be ready for tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” Puck said with a yawn. I nodded, and Kurt responded with a formal, “Yes.”

“Great. See you tomorrow, guys.”

I grabbed my bag and stood over Sam as the rest of the club filed out very slowly. I knew that they were all watching me, probably wanting to hear a snippet of my confrontation with Sam, but I wasn’t going to give them that satisfaction. Unlike the popular opinion, I had more tact than that.

But unfortunately, sometimes, picking out words were not really my forte. “Santana, huh?” was the first thing that came to mind.

“Listen…I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. It was right after I moved here…she was the first person who showed any interest in me.”

“And here I was, thinking that you fell for Quinn right after you moved here.”

“I did, basically. I started liking Quinn after a couple of weeks. But Santana came onto me, like, the first day.”

“What did you do?” My statement was flat, so it sounded more like an accusation than an actual question.

“We just made out, I swear. I didn’t sleep with her. Which I’m happy about now, considering that I probably would have gotten some sort of STD.” He laughed a little, but I didn’t join in. “I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you about it. But you can relate, right? I guess I was just kind of ashamed that I did it, since I didn’t even know what Santana was all about when it happened.”

I sighed. “Yeah, I know. I can’t really be angry at you, since I’m guilty of the same thing.” I stuck out my pinky, waiting for him to link it with his. “No more secrets between us?”

He agreed in Klingon before finishing his half of the pinky promise.

Laughing a little, I grabbed my bag off the floor and started toward the door.

Sam caught up and wrapped his arm around my waist. “By the way, I wouldn’t really advise picking a fight with Santana again.”

“I kicked her ass sophomore year.” I chuckled at the memory. “So it’s not like I can’t take her.”

“I hear she hides razors in her hair.”

“Oh, please.” Rolling my eyes, I tried to picture it. “It’s not like she has big hair. It’d be impossible for her to hide anything in there, much less razor blades.”

“I guess.” Some guys were so dumb when it came to common sense, I swear.

My phone started going off, and I went through my bag frantically to find it. As my luck would dictate, it was at the bottom of my bag, underneath a couple of heavy books. “Hello?” I questioned, a little breathless, on what must have been the last ring before switching over to voicemail.

“Hey, Ellie. What’s up?” What was Aileen doing calling me? Wasn’t she supposed to be working or something?

“Um, Sam’s just about to drive me back to the house. What’s up?”

“I was just thinking…I think that you, Sam, and I should go out. It’ll give us a nice time to bond. You know, get to know each other.”

“Um, we already know each other…” I mumbled, but she ignored me.

“I think it would be nice of us for the three of us to have dinner together at Breadstix.”

“Hold on. I’ll ask Sam.” I put my hand over the receiver of my cell phone and explained the plan to him.

He just shrugged and said, “That sounds fine.”

“He said it was okay,” I told Aileen. “So what time are you going to be home?”

“Probably around five, so we’ll go at five-thirty. Sound alright?”

“Sure.”

“Okay, I’ll make a reservation now. You two behave yourselves.” I could almost hear the wink in her voice at the end of that statement as she hung up.

“She’s such a sketchball,” I whined, resting my head against Sam’s shoulder.

He laughed lightly, his arm still around me. “It’s okay. I don’t mind.”

“You’re pretty cool, you know that?” I sighed.

“Yeah, I do.”

I looked at him and laughed, throwing open the door to outside, letting the icy air slap us in the face.