If You Only Knew

Darren's POV

She appeared out of no where, the sudden sound of her voice surprising me. I felt Chris shift beside me and suddenly his voice was speaking in my ear.

"Wow, she's a cutie," he whispered, letting out a low whistle. "You never said that she was cute." His comment caught me off guard and I was left speechless. I blinked my eyes repeatedly as I looked at him, my eyebrows furrowing questioningly, before I looked back at her. As I looked at her, I realized that she was pretty cute and I instantly felt even worse.

I hadn't noticed before how pretty her light brown, carmel streaked hair was, or how nicely it framed her tanned face, which held beautiful, bright brown eyes that were currently glaring at me.

"You must be Kaley," Chris chimed in before I could say anything. He smoothly walked over to her and held out his hand to her. "I'm Chris Colfer."

"It's an honour to meet you," she smiled as she took his hand. "You have an amazing voice and are so talented. Honestly, the majority of my favourite songs on the show are ones that you do because I just love hearing your voice."

"Oh, why thank you!" he blushed, looking back at me and mouthing, "I like her!"

"You are too sweet," he continued, turning back to her. "But speaking of sweet people, there's someone here who would like to say something to you." He started to move away to turn her attention onto me, but then he stopped suddenly and whispered something in her ear. He gently patted her shoulder and gave her a light smile before moving away. Her eyes were warm and light as they looked at Chris, but turned cold and hard as they fell back on me.

"Th-these are for you," I stuttered, holding out the flowers to her. She did not move, but rather remained firmly planted where she stood, her arms crossed over her chest. I noticed her shoulders stiffen slightly when I started talking but I couldn't stop. I had to let her know how I felt.

"Please," I sighed, taking a step towards her. "I'm so sorry. I don't think that I can ever say that enough to convey how sorry I am. I was a jerk to you and you didn't deserve it. There is no excuse for my actions. Having a bad day does not justify what I did to you and I can only hope that you will someday be able to forgive me." I noticed her shoulders slowly starting to relax as I spoke and when I finished, she stepped closer to me and took the flowers from my hands.

"Thank you," was all she said as she turned away from me. I thought that that was an indication that I should go, so I turned to leave, but Chris grabbed my arm, stopping me.

"Wait," he whispered, pointing back towards Kaley. I turned back and watched as she gently set the flowers down on the table behind her before turning back to us.

She looked at me and took a deep breath.

"I forgive you," she said.

"You do?" I was surprised.

"Yes, I forgive you," she repeated. "I forgive you, but I don't trust you. You hurt me, Darren, more than you could ever know."

"I know," I hung my head. "I did not expect you to forgive me, but I'm very thankful that you did. I only wish that I could find a way to earn back your trust. I feel horrible about what happened. Is there any way that I can make it up to you?"

"I don't know," she sighed, leaning back against the table.

"Well, when you think of something, please let me know, okay?" I replied, reaching into my pocket and pulling out my small notepad and pen that I carried around in case I got inspiration for a song. I quickly flipped it open and scribbled my number down. I ripped the page out and handed it to her.

"Here," I said, urging her to take it. She slowly reached out and took it from my hand. Our fingers briefly touched and I felt a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach before she quickly drew her hand away. Her eyebrows furrowed in question as she looked at it, but then realization flashed across her face.

"Are you serious?" her voice was a barely audible whisper.

"Of course," I smiled for the first time. "Let me know if you need anything, okay? Anything I can do for you, anything at all."

"Ok, yeah," she stuttered. "Thanks."

"Can I borrow that?" Chris asked, plucking the notepad from my hand. He quickly jotted something down on it, then ripped the page out and handed it to Leah.

"I look forward to talking with you girls again," he smiled, giving them a little wiggling fingers wave before he turned and looped his arm through mine and proceeded to pull me out of the room. I chanced a glance back at the girls as he pulled me out the door and I smiled as I saw Kaley's eyes soften and a smile spread across her lips. And then they were gone from my sight.

"From zero to ten, how well would you say that went?" I asked, turning my head towards Chris as we walked down the hallway.

"For you, I would say about an 8.5," Chris smiled. "But for me, that was a perfect 10. Those girls were so sweet! I can't believe that you could be so mean to someone like her!"

"Hey!" I exclaimed, stopping and turning towards him. "I thought that you were on my side!"

"Key word there, "were"," Chris shrugged. I felt my mouth drop open in shock, the pure emotion of hurt plastering all over my face.

"Darren, I'm kidding!" he laughed, giving me a light, playful shove. "And there's no real "side" here to take anyways. What happened was just an unfortunate misunderstanding. Kaley seems like a smart girl. I'm sure that things will smooth over between you two in no time."

"You really think so?" I asked, hopeful.

"Oh Darren, honey," Chris sighed. "Sometimes you can be just as oblivious as Blaine is." With that, he turned and started to walk away from me.

I stood there for a moment, letting his words sink in, before I snapped my head up and called out after him, "Wait! What do you mean by oblivious?"