Falling (A Sam Evans Fan Fiction)

Opening Night

SEASON 5 Ep: 17: Opening Night
•••••
Rachel's opening night on Broadway had arrived, and she had freaked out. Kurt had firmly put her on a technology lockdown, preventing her from reading any more negative reviews. Instead, he called the group to come and help cheer her up, and spread love and encouragement.

"Hello big fat Broadway star! These are for you!" Tina smiled handing Rachel flowers. "Oh no do you have laryngitis again?" She asked, as Rachel mouthed a thank you.

"Oh, no, she's just resting her voice." Kurt explained.

"Oh thank god! This would not be a good time for your tonsils to flare up again! Remember that? First year of Glee Club?" Tina gasped, as everyone sent her warning looks. "Hey, where is everyone? Rachel's opening night on Broadway is a big deal! And where's Artie? I was hoping to get to see him." She continued.

"Oh, his short film 'Bags in the Wind' got accepted into the Ft Lauderdale International Short Film festival." Sam said excitedly.

"Oh that's too bad, I mean, what about Quinn and Puck and Santana? Are they not being supportive?" Tina asked.

"Tina, Tina, Tina..." Haley muttered, sitting her down on the couch. "Why don't you catch us up on your experience so far at Brown University?"

"I love everything about it! Except my dorm room. My roommate, she's nice, but she's from Pakistan and she doesn't speak much English and she's always watching the Al Jezzara channel. And no, I don't have a boyfriend, I was dating this really nice guy but he turned out to be-"

"Gay." Sam and Blaine chorused in unison.

"Gay." Mercedes nodded.

"Asexual." Haley muttered.

'Homosexual." Kurt finished, loudly.

"No. Yes. Anyway, Rachel, I read this amazing story about you on BroadwayWorld.Com and they're predicting Funny Girl to be a big hit. And so is everyone else accept a few mornic bloggers-"

"Shut up!" Sam yelled, stopping Tina from going any further.

"It's fine. It's fine." Rachel assured Tina. "Frankly, the only opinions I care about are you guys and you love me so if I ever need any validation, I just turn to my buffet of people right in front of me. So if you don't mind, I'm going to go and take a nap."

"Tina, alright Tina! Get your bags, you're coming to my place!" Mercedes said getting up, and walking over to her.

"But I thought I was staying here? What if Rachel needs my love and validation from the buffet?'

"We'll call you okay?" Haley said, as Mercedes shoved Tina out the door.
----
Rachel had stayed up all night, reading every negative review under the sun. Following Kurt's orders, everyone had made an effort to try to talk and cheer her up.

"I've never seen her like this." Kurt sighed.

"I know, she's usually pushing people away to get on the stage." Blaine nodded.

"It's not fair that anyone can send a hateful tweet to anyone to have access to artists." Sam said, as he played with Haley's hair, while she sat on his lap.

"You know, I don't think it's the criticism that's got to her, I think it's the volume of it." Mercedes spoke up.

"I can't believe my note didn't work." Tina mumbled.

"Hello losers and shortstacks." A familiar voice echoed through the door.

"Sue..." Haley muttered.

"Well you live in the worst neighbourhood in Brooklyn and there isn't even a lock on your door, you might want to look into that. Unless of course, you think the rapist is just gonna move onto the next apartment filled with nubile nineteen year olds simply because your door is so damn annoying to open." Sue said, ignoring the looks.

"What are you doing here?" Tina asked, shocked.

"Ah, Asian number one, that is totally something you would say. I have come to watch Rachel Berry choke on her opening night." 

"I heard that!" Rachel yelled from her underneath her bed covers.

"Sue, please, Rachel is freaking out!" Kurt whispered, angrily.

"Well she should because she's going to choke. Oh and to answer your question, I'm staying here overnight because I realized when I got to the hotel that Will Schuester is a big old perv, and has been trying to sleep with me this whole time."

"No, you can't just invite yourself to stay at someone's house. You can't stay here." Haley pointed out.

"It's fine, I'll stay in Porcelain's room. Thank god there are no weird sex toys lying around."

"Things could not possibly get worse."

"Alright where is she?" Santana asked as she opened the door. "Haley called me in the cab and told me what was up."

"She's been in there for houses, we don't know if she's peeing. And of course, she didn't give me a chance of talking to her...." Haley muttered, pointing at Rachel's bedroom.

"Okay give me four minutes." Santana said, hugging Haley quickly, before walking to go talk to Rachel.

As the group waited, while eating candy, Santana emerged out of the room shortly after. She sent them all a smug smile and a wink, as Rachel stood before them.

"What are you all moping around for? It's my opening night!" Rachel said, a small grin on her face.

Everyone cheered, and surrounded her for a big group hug, and began to prepare for her big opening night.
----
Everyone gathered in Rachel's dressing room after her show, popping open bottles of champagne and laughing and chatting together.

"You were incredible Berry. I bawled my eyes out during 'Who Are You Now?' I had to blow my nose on Sam's sleeve. Haley said, as Mercedes nodded.

"Yeah, and this is suede." Sam chuckled, letting Haley lean against him.

"I love you guys so much. I seriously couldn't have done this without you." Rachel said happily.

"And you've got flowers from Quinn and Artie and Mike Chang and Puck and Principal Figgins. Clearly you are loved by many." Kurt exclaimed in awe, looking through her notes and flowers.

"Tonight, you are a star." The producer said entering the room.

"Oh my god, thank you so much. You know what you guys? Let;s save all the praise until after the New York Times reviews come out." Rachel smiled.

"You're right, you're right. We have six hours of innocence left. And when the reviews hit the stands, we'll find out if we're the best thing since sliced bread or toast. But we are going to celebrate tonight. We're going to have an opening night party at Elio's Italian restaurant. Eggplant parmigiana always brings me good luck. Rachel, are these your friends?" The producer asked.

"Yes, yeah." Rachel nodded, taking Tina and Kurt's hands in hers.

"Bring everybody!" The producer smiled fondly.

"I can't believe it, a real Broadway cast party!" Blaine gushed, wrapping his arms around Haley and Kurt who smiled.