If You Only Knew

Kaley's POV

Oh my gosh! Did Lea Michele really just say that?

I could feel my cheeks flushing and I instantly went to duck my head to hide my face, but it was too late. Darren had already turned towards me and seen my bright red cheeks.

"Lea!" Darren exclaimed, turning back to her.

"Oh, sorry!" Lea exclaimed, extending her hand to me. "I'm Lea Michele." Was she oblivious to what she had just said? She seemed unphased, as if her comment hadn't just embarrassed me.

"Kaley, Kaley Grant," I replied, quickly maneuvering the clothes in my arms so I could take her hand. She had very soft hands and my mind instantly flickered back to a video that I had watched on YouTube where Mark Salling had commented that Lea had cute hands.

I guess that you could call them cute, I thought as she pulled her hand away. If you thought hands were cute, I guess. I just shrugged the thought off, looking up at her face instead. She had beautiful, deep brown eyes and luscious, dark brown hair that fell past her shoulders. Her bangs were cut straight across, Rachel style, helping to frame her lightly tanned face. Her perfect lips, which were darkened with a shade of red lipstick, were turned upwards into a smile. A smile directed towards me.

"It is such an honour to meet you," I finally managed to sputter. "I sing along to all of the songs that you do on Glee all the time."

"So you do sing," Darren commented.

"Yes, but not around people," I brushed his comment aside.

"Oh, a fellow singer!" Lea smiled. "Sing something for us!"

"N-No," I shook my head. "No, no, no. I don't sing in front of people anymore, especially not when they're cast members of Glee! I am no where near as talented as you guys!"

"Oh, come on!" Lea insisted, grabbing my hand and pulling me into her room. "I've got a stereo in here, so we can put on something and sing along to it."

"No, please, I can't," I was starting to panic. I looked back at Darren, desperately willing him to help me.

"Lea, wait," Darren finally called out. "We shouldn't force her to do something if she doesn't want to do it." I felt myself relax at Darren's words.

Thank you for understanding, I mentally thanked him.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Lea exclaimed. "I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable!"

"It's okay," I smiled hesitantly, setting down the clothes in my arms on a nearby table. "Honestly, the only way that you could get me to sing in front of people would be if I was drunk, and I don't get drunk."

"You don't?" Darren sounded surprised, mimicking my actions by putting his pile down beside mine.

"I don't drink," I shrugged. "Partly because I'm not even legally allowed to here yet, and partly just because I choose not to. I've never gotten drunk and I never plan to."

"Really?" Darren exclaimed. "Well, we're going to have to fix that someday."

"Why?" I asked, slightly surprised and confused.

"Well, it's obvious, isn't it?" he looked back and forth between me and Lea, his face earnest as if he wanted us to guess. "I want to hear you sing!"

I felt my heart stop for a second. Darren Criss actually wanted to hear me sing? I was almost tempted to open my mouth and sing for him right there and then, but I held back from doing so, afraid that my voice wouldn't be good enough, that it would disappoint him because he expected so much more from me.

Instead, all I did was smile and say, "Well, good luck with that!"

"Mark my words, Kaley Grant," he declared, pointing at me. "I will get you to sing for me, if it's the last thing I do!"

"Yeah, right," I rolled my eyes at him, laughing slightly.

"All cast members to the green room now please," a voice announced over the P.A. system.

"Probably another pep talk from Ryan," Darren sighed, his hand reaching up to his hair as if he were about to run his fingers through it, but he stopped himself just in time.

"Opps, can't do that!" he laughed, dropping his hand. "Zayna would kill me if I messed up my hair after she spent so long fixing it!"

"We'd better go," Lea said, linking her arm through Darren's and pulling him towards the door. "We don't want Ryan to get mad at you for being tardy again!"

"Funny," Darren just rolled his eyes at her. "I'll see you a little later, Kaley! If not before the show, I'll definitely see you after! I'm looking forward to that ice cream!"

"Bye, Kaley," Lea smiled back at me, giving me a small wave. "It was nice to meet you!"

"You too!" I laughed. "Have fun guys!" And then they were gone.

Now that I was alone, I turned my attention back on the forgotten piles of clothes still sitting on the table. I pulled my iPod out and set it on shuffle, putting my earbuds in as I started to hang Lea's clothes back on the clothing racks. I hummed along to the first song for a couple seconds, then decided that I didn't really want to listen to that one, so I hit skip. Lea's voice filled my ears as Don't Rain On My Parade started playing.

Once I had finished hanging up all of the clothes, I headed off back down the hall towards the laundry room. The hallway was empty, so I gradually began to sing out loud as I walked. I was fine with singing out loud as long as no one else was around to hear me.

I can't remember when exactly I became so paranoid about people hearing me sing. I used to be totally fine getting up and singing in front of an audience, especially after being in so many musicals, but then I just suddenly couldn't do it anymore and I have no clue why or when it happened. All I know is that it happened at some point and now if I thought that someone could hear me, I would instantly stop singing... Well, with one exception: Leah.

I think that we had bonded over not being comfortable singing in front of people, which somehow allowed us to be comfortable singing in front of each other. I don't know why that worked out the way it did or how it makes sense, but we've just come to accept it because it allows us to be able to sing in front of at least one other person besides ourselves. It also made it easier to sing a duet song when you had two people singing. I couldn't help but smile as I thought about the endless nights that Leah and I would dance around our apartment, belting along to our favourite Glee songs.

"Don't bring around a cloud to rain on my parade!" I belted suddenly, instantly reacting by quickly clamping my hand over my mouth. I hadn't realized how loud I had gotten. I guess thinking about belting out songs with Leah had caused me to actually belt out while I was quietly singing along to this one.

I quickly glanced around, checking to see if anyone was nearby, all the while thinking,

I hope nobody heard me...

~~~~~~~~~~

Darren's POV

Sitting in this green room was the last place that I wanted to be right now. I wanted to be back in Lea's room, hanging out with Kaley, uncovering more of her secrets, rather than being stuck here listening to Ryan talk on and on about how awesome today's show is going to be.

Can't it just be four o'clock now? I wished as I stared up at the barely moving hands on the clock on the wall. I could almost taste that ice cream on my tongue.

"Don't bring around a cloud to rain on my parade!" the voice suddenly slipped in through the open door, making my body instantly tense up. It was just loud enough for me to hear, but not loud enough to catch everyone's attention. The voice was only noticed by the people sitting closest to the door and that was me, Chris, and Lea.

"Hey, it's my song!" Lea whispered, nudging my side.

"Isn't that-" Chris started to say.

"It's her," I stated with confidence, cutting him off.

"Who?" Lea asked, feeling a little confused and left out. I hadn't told her about the mystery singer. It was a secret between just Chris and myself... Until now.

"We don't know who she is," Chris filled her in quietly, trying to not draw too much attention to us. "We heard her singing once, but we haven't been able to find out who she is. It's been driving Darren crazy cause he thinks he's fallen in love with her voice or something."

"I have not!" I objected. "I just think that she has a really nice voice and I'd like to know who she is."

"Obsessed," Chris coughed, a smile flickering on his lips.

"Ooooo! Darren's got himself a crush!" Lea teased, poking my arm annoyingly.

"That's it!" I exclaimed, moving to stand up. "I'm going to end this mystery now!" I would have dashed out the door right that second if Chris hadn't held me back.

"Don't," he warned, grabbing my arm. "If you bolt out of here now, Ryan will kill you. He's already grumpy, so you don't want to push his buttons, not now when we're so close to the show going up."

"But she-" I sputtered, reaching longingly for the door.

"She will still be here somewhere once Ryan is done," Chris sighed. "We will find her, Dare, I promise you, we will."

"Fine," I sighed, slumping back down into my chair. I tried to focus back on what Ryan was saying, but my attention kept drifting back towards the open door, one question repeatedly running through my mind.

Who are you?