Glee: Race to the Finish (the fifth book in the Glee series)

Chapter 38: Unhinged

Because without Bree, his world really felt like it was ending.

***

LIMA, OHIO

"I'm home," Jake said as he walked into his house. 

Riley was back in school, so he knew the TV wouldn't be on, but he was still surprised that there was no noise whatsoever.

"Kitty?" he called out once again. "I'm home."

Jake walked into his bedroom and saw a lump on the bed that could only be Kitty. He slowly made his way towards her and took a seat beside her. 

Rubbing what he assumed was her back, he whispered, "Sweetheart... Riley's going to be home soon... I think it's time for you to get up."

"I don't want to..." she mumbled from under the covers.

"Kitty..." he sighed. "It's been a week of this. Riley's really worried and, frankly, so am I. You can't stay in bed forever."

He tried taking the covers off of her but she held onto them and gave them a tug. "I can't," she moaned. "I just..." 

He pulled off the covers and threw them to the side so that she couldn't get them back. Now coverless, Kitty forced herself to sit up. She was a mess.

"This is all my fault," she said, her face puffy and red from all the crying she'd spent the last week doing. "If I hadn't... I decided to take Julie home so that we could talk alone and she didn't have to face what she didn't want to face. Bree went out looking for me because I didn't give anyone the heads up and now... Now she's gone and Julie's gone, too, and Sam won't wake up and... I just don't know how to get through this."

"Well..." Jake sighed. "Maybe doing what Julie did isn't such a bad idea."

"I'm not leaving Riley under John's care," she said.

"Not that," he shook his head. "Go back to work. Keep busy. You can't just stay in here until you decompose. You're going to get sick; it's not healthy. Besides, you've taken enough sick days already and the city doesn't really function without you. So how about you get up, take a shower, get dressed, and when Riley gets here we can have an actual family dinner?"

Kitty sighed, but nodded, letting him help her get up. It wasn't exactly enough for her to feel the motivation to be up but it was enough. She wasn't going to leave Riley alone in all of this and she didn't want to be alone either.

***

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

"Alright, Vasquez," Sebastian said as he walked into Julie's dressing room with his keys in his hands. "We're going to have to hurry if we want to make it on time through all this insane traffic."

"What are you talking about?" Julie asked him.

He gave her a look. "The meeting with the Cursed producers? That song you had me promise them for you?" 

Julie shot up from her seat. "That's today?" she asked.

"In like an forty minutes," Sebastian said. "Which is about the time it'll take us to get there."

"Oh no," Julie said, brushing her hand through her hair. "No, no, no."

"What?" Sebastian asked her. "What is it? Don't tell me you... You didn't write the song?"

"I did, I..." she began lying, not sure how to respond to his disappointing look. "I just... I forgot it was today."

"Well are you ready?" he asked. "Should I just cancel?"