A GIRL LIKE YOU. sam evans

viii. WELL, THAT WAS AWKWARD

"Will you shut up? I'm not pregnant. It's much worse." she told him, "I think I like Sam. Like, like like him. Or maybe more than that. I don't know."

"That's worse than being pregnant?"

"Look, I've never loved anyone before. Or at least I think I haven't. I don't know what to do." she said hopelessly, not realising what she had just said. But Bellamy seemed to have noticed as he stared at her with wide eyes.

"You love Sam?!"

Aria looked at him, eyes widening, "Wait! No—! Yes? I don't know." she sighed.

"I mean, it's not like I wanna date him." she continued, "I think he and Quinn would make a great couple. All I want is for me to be able to tell him what I told you and have things not be weird after."

"Then do that!" Bellamy encouraged, "He might feel the same about you."

Aria scoffed, "Sure. If I told him, he'd probably leave the glee club. And then Finn and Rachel would hate me for scaring him away.

"You don't know that."

"Neither do you! You know what? I'm just gonna go." she said, grabbing her bag and walking out.

•••

SURROUNDED BY BRUISED BOYS AND THEIR GIRLFRIENDS, Aria was left feeling extra lonely that day.

"Dude was a wild animal." Mike said, describing what happened.

"Manimal." Artie added.

"I'm so turned on by you right now." Brittany murmured to the wheelchair-bound boy.

"How bad does it look?" Sam asked Quinn as she held an ice pack to his eye.

Aria turned her head to look at him.

"It's pretty hot, actually." Quinn stated.

"You have no idea how hard it was for me not to jump into that beatdown." This time, Aria's head turned to Puck as he spoke.

"Where were you, Finn?" Santana questioned, bringing, not only Aria, but everyone to look over at Finn.

"I was still out on the field, okay? I totally would have given him a beatdown if I had been there, though." Finn said, pressured that everyone was staring at him.

The fact is, it shouldn't have gone down without you, Finn. You should have been leading the charge." Mercedes told him.

"Lay off Finn, everyone. It isn't his problem. It's none of your problems, actually. But thank you for what you did, especially Sam." Kurt said tiredly.

"Serious, an epitome of a leader."

Sam smiled lightly and looked at Aria, who smiled proudly at him.

"What's going on? What happened to Sam's eye?" Will finally entered the choir room.

"He stood up to Karofsky." Quinn informed the teacher.

"All the guys did." Tina added.

"Well, except Finn." Aria commented.

"Is everyone okay? Do we all need to go talk to Principal Sylvester?"

Never did Aria think she would be used to hearing someone refer to the former cheerleading coach as Principal Sylvester.

"No. I got in a few good licks, too, so we can just call it even. And maybe this will send a warning to Karofsky, telling him to back off Kurt." Sam said.