Something - Quinn Fabray

Chapter 24

"Hello Quinn," Ryan said happily as his girlfriend (his smile widened at the thought) entered the garage. "Just in time, I was just getting ready to leave."

"You seem happier today," Quinn noted.

Ryan smiled at her as he put away a few things. "Yeah, I'm doing better. My mom and I had a little talk yesterday, and it helped."

"That's good."

Ryan walked over to her and offered her his arm. "Shall we?"

Quinn smiled, again simultaneously amused and charmed by his old-fashioned manners. He must have picked it up from those old musicals and classic movies he liked to watch. She took his arm, smile widening when he kissed her on the cheek.

"I thought we'd walk over to one of the restaurants," Ryan told her. She quickly agreed, and they started off.

A few minutes later, they had decided on where to eat, and they ordered. "What do you usually eat when you eat out?" Ryan asked. "I just realized I don't really know a lot about your food preferences."

"Oh," Quinn thought. "Well, we didn't really eat out a lot." They both knew she was talking about her family, pre-BabyGate. "My mom used to cook most of the time, she didn't really have a lot to do," she said.

"Hmmm. I guess that's nice. My family was fully committed to take-out, Hiram and Leroy couldn't cook. Well, Hiram could make breakfast, when he thought of it," he corrected. "But that wasn't very often. So we had a lot of Chinese and pizza."

Quinn couldn't help but notice that he seemed more at ease talking about the Berrys today, and she told him so.

Ryan was silent for a while. "Yes. I guess I just needed some time to think. And someone to talk to." He stopped again, thinking. "You know, I didn't say thank you yesterday," he said quietly.

"For what?" Quinn asked.

"For what you said. Not the being-my-girlfriend part, thought that was good too," he smiled happily. "But the part about talking. You were right, it did help a lot. Our talk yesterday helped a lot, as did the one I had with my mom. I'm happy I could be your go-to person, and I wanted you to know that you're that for me too. I do know I can talk to you about anything."

Quinn put her hand on his across the table, stopping his ramble. "Good. And you don't need to thank me."

"Nevertheless, thank you," he said, squeezing her hand.

"You're welcome." Conversation stopped as their food arrived and they started eating.

"So what have you been up to?" Ryan asked a few minutes later.

Quinn thought. "Nothing, really. I go over to Santana's and Britt's houses sometimes. Not really a lot to do in Lima in the summer," she said dryly.

"No, there isn't," Ryan agreed. "That's why I started hanging out in the garage last year."

"My mom's thinking about us going to visit her parents for a week or two next month," Quinn mentioned. "They live in Indiana. We usually go to them for Christmas, and to my other grandparents in the summer. Obviously we're not doing that this year."

Ryan nodded. "My mom's parents just live over in Akron, she says she goes on weekends sometimes, though she spends a few days there in summer. I expect we'll be going for a visit soon."

"Isn't it going to be complicated once she goes back to Vocal Adrenaline when school starts?" Quinn asked curiously. She knew she would feel a bit confused if her mother were the one coaching the competition.

"Oh, she's not," Ryan replied. "She quit. She told me at Regionals that she decided to leave show choir near the beginning of the year. Said something about the environment being 'toxic'." He smiled in amusement.