Happy Valentines Day, Lottie
With Love in the air at the build up for Valentine's day, Charlotte frowned slightly as she walked down the halls, which were plastered with love hearts and full of happy couples. It wasn't that Charlotte hated the day, she just felt a bit lonely considering a lot of her friends were in relationships, and the guy she actually liked had a girlfriend.
Slowly making her way into the choir room and seating herself next to Santana -who was also bitter about all the couples in this room having their PDA turned up 100%- Charlotte put her head on her friend's shoulder looking over to see Sam and Quinn being all cute together.
"Lottie, stop staring" Santana whispered once she had noticed the younger girls longing gaze, bringing Charlotte out of her thoughts and she sighed.
"All right, guys," Mr Schue said, drawing a heart around the word LOVE on the board and turning to the class. "I have one word for you."
"Is it love?" Brittany asked, earning a nod from the teacher. "I'm totally going to graduate now." she cheered.
"Valentine's Day is coming up, so for this week's lesson, I want you guys to pick a partner, because you're going to sing to them what you think is the world's greatest love song." Mr Schue explained and Charlotte groaned, having absolutely no one to serenade.
"Yeah, find a song that communicates all the things that love means to you." he said, quite happy with his valentine's day inspired lesson, "Now, partner up."
"Mr Schue, can I just say something?" Finn requested, moving to stand in front of everyone.
"I just wanted to point out that an entire week has gone by without anyone being slushied" finn announced, looking over at Quinn.
Charlotte was slightly confused and gave him a weird look as everyone clapped. "and I think the fact I led the football team to a conference championship might have something to do with it."
Unable to deal with Finn's ego today, Charlotte rolled her eyes at him, "And where would you be without us girls, huh?"
Shaking his head and ignoring his sisters comment, Finn continued, "Fact is, I'm the closest thing this glee club has to a celebrity right now. And just like an athlete I want to give to charity- you guys" finn finished with a smile.
"Did he just call us charity?"Charlotte muttered to Santana who scoffed.
"so, i'm setting up a kissing booth. For a dollar a smooch and donating the proceeds to glee club to help us-"
"gross." Charlotte mumbled.
"don't even pretend like you're helping the glee club out, you just wanna kiss a bunch of girls" Mercedes interrupted.
"I've kissed finn and can I say? Not worth the buck. But I would pay a hundred dollars to jiggle one of his man boobs" santana told the group with a grin.
"don't you ever get tired of tearing other people down?" finn asked, annoyed as he watched her laugh.
"no, not really" santana shrugged, unbothered.
"cause you always seem to be meddling in other people's business." finn added.
Santana smirked as she lent back in her chair, "oh please, you guys love me, i'm hilarious and I keep it real"
"actually, you're just a bitch!" Lauren said causing some shocked gasps from the club.
"oh i'm sorry, you just have eyes for my man" santana snapped, turning to lauren, her anger building up.
"first of all, i'm not your man!" puck exclaimed, growing annoyed of Santana trying to claim him as hers.
"and finn is right, all you ever do is insult us!" Quinn said to her. "three weeks ago, you said you were disappointed I didn't have a lizard baby"
"five minutes ago, you said mr schue belonged in a twelve-step programme" tina pointed out, catching mr schue's attention "youre addicted to vests" santana shrugged, unapologetically.
"truth is santana, you can dish it out but you can't take it. Okay, maybe i'm destined to play the title role in a broadway musical adaptation of williow, but the only job you'll ever have is on a pole!" Rachel insulted, and Charlotte was shocked. Once those words had flown out of Rachel's mouth, Santana stood up, clearly hurt and strutted out the room
"too far, Rach" Charlotte muttered to rachel, who was sitting back trying to keep her confident exterior.
***
"I was absolutely devastated." Kurt expressed as he and Charlotte sat at the kitchen table, talking about Blaine and his crush on a guy who works in the GAP.
"Did he ever actually say you two were dating?" Charlotte questioned and he sighed.
"Well not in so many words," he explained and Charlotte frowned.
"Well, did he put the moves on?"
"No, but we were always singing duets, and he was always smiling at me." Kurt said and Charlotte sighed and bit her lip as he came to a realisation, "Oh, my God. I made the whole thing up in my head, didn't I?"
"Listen we've all been there... In fact, I'm still there." she frowned, thinking of Sam before snapping back into advice-giving mode, "You are going to the Gap Attack, though, right?"
Kurt looked at her, uncertain, "Should...Should I?"
Charlotte smiled, "Yes! Scope out the competition. See what this guy's like!"
After agreeing with that idea, Kurt put his head in his hands, "I can't believe I thought I was the guy" he groaned.
"Believe me, Kurt, I totally get you." she joined him in a pity party about her lack of luck in love.
***
Sam had a suspicion that something was up. After seeing Quinn at Finn's kissing booth, all his worry's about losing his girl seemed more real. So, he wanted to get advice from the one person he could go to for anything, Charlotte.
As they walked through the library, Sam watching as Charlotte tried to find a book to read, she had a sweet smile on her face. "what can I help you with, Blondie?"
Just her giving him a nickname made him smile, but he shook it off and got to his point. "Somethings up with Quinn and Finn, he's trying to kiss her at that booth and...I..."
"Sam." She stopped him with a small laugh, "That's the point of a kissing booth."
"yeah, but something seems...odd." he continued, following after her as she tried to find a good new book. "What if he just set up this booth to kiss Quinn?"
"who wouldn't set up a kissing booth to kiss Quinn?" Charlotte joked, trying to get him to take a more light-hearted approach towards the kissing booth. It didn't work.
Noticing he was still insecure, she was quick to get back to being actually helpful. "Look, maybe there is something going on, or maybe you're just paranoid." she told him. "Besides, a kissing booths a kissing booth, everyone's probably going to go to it...well, not me, obviously...that would be weird...and gross."
When she started to ramble, Sam did chuckle a bit, but then proceeded to have doubts about the whole thing. "Are you sure he's not been acting weird?" he questioned. "I mean, you live with the guy."
"I don't know..." she tried to think but ended up shaking her head, "if I find anything out, I promise i'll tell you"
After they walked for a moment down another aisle of books, Charlotte noticed Quinn and nudged Sam, "Look, Quinn's over there, you should talk to her about it, she would know if anything's going on between her and Finn...I'm sorry I can't tell you much else."
Grabbing her arm, he pulled her over to Quinn who looked up from a record she was looking at when he said "I saw it!" She looked confused and tried to see what he was talking about by sending Charlotte a look but she just shrugged, letting Sam explain. "your guys faces were right up close to each other, kissing distance"
"I didn't kiss Charlotte." Quinn chuckled, sending Charlotte a smile as she was still there, being kept there by Sam holding her arm. When the boy stayed serious, Quinn sighed. "you're the only guy i'm ever in kissing distance of"
Sam wasn't convinced, so questioned her again for more answers. "okay, so answer me this then, why haven't you kissed Finn at his booth?"
Quinn's demeanour changed from confused into annoyed. "first you're all up in my business for kissing finn, and now you're pissed at me for not kissing him?"
"It's odd!" Sam pointed out, "something seems fishy!"
"This is insane.." Quinn laughed out of annoyance.
"everyone thinks i'm dumb-"
"Hey, you're not dumb." Charlotte interjected sweetly. From helping him study, she knew he was smarter than he thought he was and she wanted to make sure he gave himself more credit.
Sam smiled softly at her before turning back to his girlfriend. "Everyone thinks I'm dumb, but I'm not. At least, not about you. You play it cool, but you're ambitious, you like being queen bee, you think that being with the star quarterback, Finn is going to put you up there whether you're wearing a cheerios uniform or not. I'm pretty but I ain't dumb"
Taking a moment, Quinn sent her boyfriend an annoyed smile,"Fine. After glee rehearsals I'm kissing Finn" she decided before storming out leaving Sam confused.
Charlotte released herself from his grip, smiling sympathetically as he furrowed his eyebrows "come on, Evans. Turn that frown upside down." She patted his shoulder only for him to sigh.
***
Finn had managed to get the kiss he wanted from Quinn Fabray. With a smirk on his face, he didn't notice his sister come to the side of the booth with her arms crossed.
"please don't tell me you're going after Quinn while she has a boyfriend!" she said, sternly, getting his attention.
"why does it bother you?" he questioned, scrunching his face up.
"You know what it feels like to be cheated on. Don't do this to Sam." she told him, keeping her mom look.
"Aren't you in love with Sam? Wouldn't you prefer if he was single?" Finn asked, flicking through his dollar bills, proudly.
"Doesn't matter what I feel" she shook her head, disappointed. "Don't hurt him. He's your friend, he's both of our friend"
"But I love her" he said, just as she was about to walk away.
"Then don't let her hurt someone we all care about." she warned him.
"Lottie, I can't just give up! When I kissed her, there were fireworks! Sam doesn't even have to know." he tried to reason, enthusiastically, but she wasn't having it and was growing more annoyed at him by the second.
"Fine." she said and he started to smile before she pointed her finger at him. "But I'm not talking to you."
"wait.." he said.
"nope. I'm gonna go hang out with Sam" she said, walking off feeling extremely upset about the whole hurting Sam thing.
***
When Santana figured out that something was going on between Quinn and Finn, she had devised a clever plan to prove her conspiracy. With Quinn and Finn now suffering from Mono, everyone knew that the two were definitely messing around together, everyone but Sam- who had decided not to believe it.
Charlotte and Mike were walking together, just chatting like usual, catching up on all the gossip. "So... Finn and Quinn?" Mike trailed, looking at his best friend.
"Oh, don't. I couldn't even look at him." she groaned.
"Finn?"
"And Sam."
"He seemed pretty oblivious about the whole thing." Mike thought out loud. "You spoken to him at all?"
"I tried..." she sighed, thinking back to a conversation she had had with the blonde boy just a few hours before. "He's refusing to believe it I think... I mean, I guess it makes sense, he loves her."
Mike noticed how down his best friend was and smiled slightly, deciding to change the subject, "You coming to Breadstix tonight?"
"Yeah...Santana is practically forcing me. She's the one who gave Finn Mono, you know."
Mike chuckled, after all, that was a very autie snixx thing to do. "See, thats something to look forward to after this crazy week."
"Yeah." Charlotte sent him a soft smile before chuckling. "I had to lecture Puckerman about why singing fat bottomed girls was offensive, I've definitely had enough crazy this week."
***
Charlotte sat with Santana in breadstix. She was feeling down now that she didn't have her brother or Quinn to talk to, and she also felt incredibly guilty about the Sam situation because he was completely oblivious to the cheating. Well, either that or he was scared to admit that he'd been cheated on.
As she stared over at him, Charlotte had lost all focus on whatever Santana was talking about, too busy looking at her lonely, blonde, best friend.
"Lottie," Santana snapped her fingers in front of Charlottes face. "go sit with him."
"but..."
"no, come on. I can't sit and watch you look at him like a sad puppy." Santana stated, waving her hands around.
"but I hate not being honest with him." she sighed.
"he's got all the evidence, it's not gonna make a difference whether you tell him or not" Santana said standing up and pushing her in the direction of Sam's table.
With some hesitation, Charlotte approached the boy she was unusually nervous to speak to,
"can I sit with you?" she asked softly, and seeing her face brought a smile to Sam's as he scooted over, tapping the seat beside him which she happily sat in. "I'm sorry about Quinn"
"it's okay, she's just sick" he told her, but it sounded more like he was trying to convince himself that.
"Sam, I-" she started, but he stopped her by placing a hand over hers which was rested on the table.
"can we just...spend tonight not talking about her?" he asked.
"sure" she smiled.
As they spent the night keeping each other company, they easily laughed and fell into conversation, like they normally would. They listened to the Warblers sing Silly Love Songs and danced along in their seats, giggling together, it was the most fun Charlotte had had in a while.
"Happy Valentine's day, Lottie" Sam smiled.
"Happy Valentine's day, Sam" she grinned back. Sighing contently as she had the best valentine's day ever, spending time with her best friend.