Cheerio

I threw myself onto Kurt’s bed, rolling over onto my stomach and propping up on my elbows so I could see Kurt more easily. He was sitting at his computer, bringing up Google to start searching songs.

“What song are you going to sing?” I asked him as he started typing.

“I don’t know. Maybe something by Whitney Houston. Or Madonna…I haven’t figured it out yet. But since you’re performing tomorrow, we need to get your assignment done first.”

I yawned and ran a hand through my hair. “Oh, yay.”

It was hard to get excited about an assignment that was so far from what I liked to do. Maybe I would just have to beg Mr. Schue to make the next assignment about current times or a more recent artist. Like someone who was still alive.

“So you’re saying that you don’t know any songs from the 80s?” Kurt’s voice verged on a whine, desperate to hear that I had some knowledge.

“Well, I know Madonna. Remember? I sang a Madonna song for that audition Rachel made me do.”

“Oh, yeah. Well, that’s not going to help. Until I figure out if I’m actually doing a Madonna song or not, she’s off limits.”

“Whatever you say,” I mused, pulling a pillow off the top of his bed and crossing my arms on top of it, my chin nestled comfortably on top of them.

There was a while when there was no sound in Kurt’s bedroom other than his typing every once in a while, followed by the soft clicking of the scrolling mouse. I stared at various different points on the wall, focusing as hard as I could on not falling asleep.

Suddenly, the door opened, and it frightened me so much, I actually screamed and jumped a mile.

Kurt shook his head at me, as if I was pathetic, and Finn laughed from the doorway. “Sorry,” he voiced, talking to me and not Kurt, “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“It’s cool,” I responded, trying to sound cool while my heart was beating so hard and quickly I was almost positive it was going to burst out of my chest.

“Anyway, Finn, was there something you wanted?” Kurt asked, bringing the attention back to him.

“Uh…” Finn trailed off, probably trying to figure out what brought him to Kurt’s room in the first place. “Damn. Mom asked me to tell you something…”

Kurt and I shared a look before turning back to Finn. In a second, his eyes lit up, like someone finally turned on the light bulb. “Oh, yeah! Mom told me to tell you that her client canceled, so she’s free to go shopping with you on Saturday.”

“Great!” Kurt smiled before turning back to the computer. “Tell her that we need to leave her around eleven if we’re going to miss the irritating rush of teenagers who bum around there on weekends.”

“Okay.” Finn started to walk out of the room before stopping and turning, as if he just remembered I was there. “Bye, Evie.”

“See ya,” I replied, waving kind of awkwardly.

He left, shutting the door behind him quietly.

“Okay, so…I’m going to list some artists, and you tell me if the name sounds familiar.”

I sighed dramatically. “This is going to be pointless, but fine.”

Kurt named some people, and none of them rang even the slightest bell. I just kept staring at him blankly, hoping he’d catch on sooner or later.

“Never mind. You’re even more pointless than I thought. I’m just going to go through my iTunes list and pick out some songs I think you’d sing well. You’re a soprano, right?”

“Uh…”

He just sighed and shook his head. “God, Rachel would throw a fit if she was here right now.”

“Thankfully, she’s not. So just look for the song and stop flapping your gums.”

He gave me a confused look, but I just smiled at him before rolling onto my back to stare at the ceiling.

I must have drifted off because the next thing I knew, the entire world was shaking. “C’mon, Evie,” Kurt urged, sounding the slightest bit annoyed, “I found a perfect song for you.”

“Ugh,” I groaned, shifting my head to look at him. “What is it?”

“God, waking you is like waking the dead. Alright, are you up for real? ‘Cause I’m going to play the song for you if you don’t pass out again.”

“What, did I fall back to sleep before?”

His look clearly said, ‘Are you kidding?’ “Yeah, like, five times. Are you telling me you don’t remember?”

“Nope. But really,” I sat up and yawned widely, “I’m up for real.”

“Great.” He was still staring at me hesitantly, as if he didn’t believe me.

After I glared at him, he seemed to believe that I wouldn’t fall back to sleep on him. He went back to his computer and threw himself into the chair, pulling himself closer to the desk. “So I was thinking, this song, you could sing with Puck.”

My eyes narrowed right away, not liking where this suggestion was going.

Some weird song started playing through the white speakers on both sides of Kurt’s computer. It sounded techno-y, and I just got more and more confused until the chorus.

You are an obsession
You’re my obsession
Who do you want me to be
To make you sleep with me?

“KURT!” I screamed, chucking a pillow at him. “You’re such an idiot. Shut it off!”

He chuckled as he did what I asked. “That was for falling asleep a million times.”

“I hate you.”

“Thanks.” There was more typing and another click before a different song started to play. What I hoped was the real song.

The beat was kind of cool, I had to admit. “Hey, this actually doesn’t suck,” I voiced.

“Thanks for the compliment.” He rolled his eyes and turned up the volume a little when it hit the chorus.

I’m gonna harden my heart
I’m gonna swallow my tears
I’m gonna turn and leave you here

Empowering. And it kind of applied to what I was trying to do, overcome my self-esteem issues and move on with my life. It was a slow, grueling, private process, but no one had to know what I was talking about. After all, it was just a song that fit the requirements of the assignment.

“So, what do you think?” Kurt asked when it finished.

I grinned. “I think it’s great. Nice find, Kurt.”