http://tasteslikepnk.livejournal.com/ ([identity profile] tasteslikepnk.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] slidingmoments2012-02-27 09:19 pm

You can't use a half-loop stitch on china silk, it will pucker.

Who: [livejournal.com profile] tasteslikepnk, OTA
What: Shopping
When: Monday, lunchtime
Where: D-A-S-H and then some
Rating: Leaving it open

Taking the opportunity to spend her lunch away from the office, Rachel decided to do a bit of shopping, heading into one of the strip malls around the area. She stopped outside of the D-A-S-H store and glanced inside through the windows, waging an internal war on whether or not to go inside. The browse side of the war won and she pushed the door open and headed in, making a beeline towards the bathing suits. She declined help from the sales girl as she browsed, pulling out a couple of pieces before putting them back.

After finding a couple she liked, she turned,  bumping into someone. “Sorry, I didn’t see you there.” she said, tossing her hair back as she adjusted what she held in her arms.


[identity profile] justbeingaqueen.livejournal.com 2012-02-28 04:36 am (UTC)(link)
"I'm not surprised. Clearly you're blind as Stevie Wonder's pet bat if those are your choices."

Kurt was here to pick up an order for a dress he had chosen to buy and pull to bits in the name of his own designing. He had seen it in a magazine and his current college assignment was find something that you felt was a blight on the fashion world and remodel it into something worthy of a Red Carpet. Considering his opinions on the Kardashians, he wasn't surprised D-A-S-H housed exactly what he was looking for. He had been waiting for assistance when nearly got barrelled over by someone and although his ass nearly fell out of him when he saw who it was, as usual, he kept his usual Hummel cool outside.

He coked his head a little a quirked an eyebrow at his old rival. He vaguely remember references to her over the course of recent conversations, especially since meeting Blaine, but this was such a blast from the past, he wasn't exactly sure how to take it. This was the woman who basically made it impossible for him to get any spotlight in glee club, and he wasn't sure how he was supposed to feel about bumping into her.

[identity profile] justbeingaqueen.livejournal.com 2012-02-28 09:57 am (UTC)(link)
If Kurt worried about people not wanting his opinion, he would probably never open his mouth. Good thing he never did. If someone was making an abysmal fashion mistake, he was going to blatantly let them know about it. At least, that was one of his favoured topics he liked to be vocal about. He was the epitome of a gay bitch, he had a lot of topics at his disposal.

"I wish I could say the same for you, darling," he responded with a small, haughty sniff. This was the chick who screwed his stepbrother over in the worst possible way, and even if Finn wasn't his stepbrother at the time, the loyalty still stood. Still, Kurt was being forced to play nice with Noah Puckerman for Blaine's sake, so maybe this was a similar scenario. But at the comment about Glee Club, he gave a dry laugh. "Competition? Are you trying to kid me or yourself? You never had any competition, you demanded the whole club revolve around you. No one else was allowed to be your competition. Half the school graduated still believing you were sleeping with Schuester," he said with a hint of a smug smirk. That was one of his and Quinn's better rumours, he must admit. But when a gay bitch wanted revenge, he always made sure it was fabulously sweet.

"How are those Broadway dreams coming along? Had your duet with Babra yet? Funny, when I was last there seeing some shows, I never saw your name anywhere in lights... huh." He tapped his finger to his lips, feigning deep contemplation.

[identity profile] justbeingaqueen.livejournal.com 2012-02-29 02:48 am (UTC)(link)
Kurt's lips quirked in a smirk. "Oh no, darling. This is me being very nice. The alternative is probably not something you want to be on the receiving end of, because the truth really hurts. It was McKinley. A pedophile rapist could have been hired to teach and no one would give a flying fuck. Despite your opinion of yourself, no one cared enough about you personally to really bother," he said with an indifferent shrug. "And those who tried to care, you stabbed in the back with bloody force and screwed them over anyway. With 'friends' like you, who needed enemies? There comes a time where people just... stop giving a fuck." Pretty much basically the story of his life when it came to interacting with some members of New Directions.

"You failed. Interesting." Her attempts to insult him were extremely boring. He knew when people resorted to calling people 'cute' as a way to be patronising, it was really scraping the bottom of the barrel. He looked at his watch, and then looked around the interior of the store with a small scrunch of his nose. Did he seriously have to be wasting his time making an effort with this woman? It was a brick wall. She hadn't changed an iota. He was distinctly remembering now why he all-but exited glee club in favour of the Cheerios. Her over-inflated ego left no room for critique on the bevy of faults she actually harboured along with the rest of the normal people. She thought she was pristinely perfect and so elevated above everyone else, Kurt couldn't stand being in the same room with her.

[identity profile] justbeingaqueen.livejournal.com 2012-02-29 06:31 am (UTC)(link)
"So, we had to sit through years of your mindless drivel about how fantastic you thought were and how successful you were going to be only for you to never even bother trying? Wonderful. I developed migraines for nothing." Kurt hitched his bag over his shoulder and side-stepped her with a disdainful glare. "Don't do me any favours, Berry. If you were going to bother with that, you could have done it years ago and had your failure loser self quit glee club to give the rest of us a chance instead of hanging around like a bad smell and making our lives a misery. For your information, it has nothing to do with your illegitimate sprog. I just really do not like you and thank god Finn has better taste these days. Enjoy your day. I'm sure McDonalds can't function without you as an employee. Flipping burgers must be awesome fun."

With that, he gave a roll of his eyes and walked away from her, not even bothering to look back. Of course everything had been too good to be true. Nothing was ever allowed to be easy and nice for him, was it?

[identity profile] gotstarpower.livejournal.com 2012-02-29 02:58 am (UTC)(link)
[Let's say this is AFTER her conversation with Kurt, as Rachel is leaving the store ;)]

Mercedes had a much treasured day off and after grabbing a smoothie with Kurt before he had to run off and get what he needed for his college assignment, she thought there could be nothing better than a little retail therapy. Quinn was tied up in college and Kurt was busy, so she had to go it alone today. She was going to text Holly to see if she wanted to join her, but she had her hands tied up with apparently a new gorgeous beau on the scenes and Mercedes didn't want to impose on that. Hell, she would be a cheerleader for anyone finding love with her own romantic life abysmally in the toilet. She was sure she was destined to just forever be a fag hag.

With some bags draped over her arms, she wandered casually past some stores, window shopping and was about to side-step someone exiting D-A-S-H so she didn't bump into them when she had to do a distinct double-take. "Rachel? Rachel Berry?" she gasped in surprised, eyes widening a little. "Oh my god. What are you doing in Miami?"

[identity profile] gotstarpower.livejournal.com 2012-02-29 07:14 am (UTC)(link)
Mercedes stopped short and gave the other woman a 'Are you kidding me?' look. "Well, you don't have to be so goddamn rude," she shot back. "Excuse me for even bothering. Enjoy your lunch and don't choke on it."

She just gave a shake of her head and moved onto the next shop window to look inside, seeing if she wanted to bother going in. She knew from chatting with Jeff that there were a lot of McKinley people in Miami, but she assumed Rachel was off somewhere beyond the snotty diva she had been in school. Mercedes had been willing to give her the benefit of the doubt that maybe people changed, but the moment her mouth was open, clearly she shouldn't have bothered. She was in good spirits lately and she didn't need that dragged down into the gutter with bad attitudes.

[identity profile] gotstarpower.livejournal.com 2012-03-01 10:59 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, how easy it would be to go all diva up in Rachel Berry's business and tell her exactly what she thought of the attitude, but she isolated it to a long-suffering roll of her eyes before she looked back at the ex-Glee rival. "You mighta been queen bee in school, Miss Thang, but that don't mean you can get around years down the track and expect to still hold that crown with people who have done a hell of a lot of growing up since the stupid rivalries of McKinley High." She gave a wave of her finger for emphasis, her other hand on her hip as she at least made her opinion known.

"But I accept your apology, even if I ain't got a hope in hell of knowing how genuine it is," she soon added and eyed Rachel carefully. "I live here. I have for years. I came here with... friends after school, got into the community college here. Performing professionally turned out to be empty hopes. But we all had to grow up sometime and see that the light at the end of the tunnel wasn't our name illuminated over Hollywood Bowl."

[identity profile] gotstarpower.livejournal.com 2012-03-03 02:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Mercedes gave a small flick of her head and a long-suffering look was planted on Rachel. "Well, maybe that right there is reason to pause before you react. You always wanted to think people were failin' around you so you could climb to the top, well there's a lot of room at the top. Sharing never hurt anyone. A lotta time has passed since we saw each other and you can't be making no assumptions about how anyone is anymore. A lotta us are existing in this place together now, you know."

"I'm done with school. I'm a Pediatrics Nurse now at Jackson Memorial. Turns out I got a lot more satisfaction outta helping others than I did trying to just help myself. That could be something you try sometime." She raised her eyebrows a little. "I spoke to Puck recently. Heard he's doing well for himself. You two dating?"

[identity profile] gotstarpower.livejournal.com 2012-03-11 09:53 am (UTC)(link)
Mercedes gave a brief shrug of her shoulder. "You always did struggle to put others' feelings ahead of your own. I don't know if that's still a bad habit of yours, but it always seemed to be an impossible one for you to shake. Even after you got yourself in trouble and probably could've used all the friends in the world, you gave us the flick because you were selfish and couldn't share. Here's hoping you have grown outta that on some level or it could be a lonely life you got. And yeah, a lot of us are here. Even more now Mike and Quinn have come here for med school and law school respectively. Outta New Directions, I think we got them, Kurt, Finn, Puck. Then there's Nick and Jeff from the Warblers with Blaine. Kurt was the one who got into college here first, we just all followed."

"I do like it. Once you get outta the McKinley box to think outside of it, a whole new world starts to open up for you. Ain't any of us really went into performing as loud as we declared we would back in school. We all do hang at a local Karaoke bar a lot, though. At least once every few weeks. It's like a tradition, can't ever really shake music from a person. So are you married? Kids?" she asked.

[identity profile] gotstarpower.livejournal.com 2012-03-17 12:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Mercedes gave a succinct nod. "Kurt was here right outta McKinley. He came here to get away from Ohio. He ain't a fan of the sun or the beach, but he seems to have found some place to belong. We just all followed him really. Ain't like some of us weren't gagging for a seachange after the shallow minds of Ohio. I used to date Jeff, so it's nice having him around, and Mike Chang is Nick's room mate. Finn followed Kurt, which Carole was glad of 'cause he wasn't exactly willing to follow a straight and narrow path, so to speak. He's doing well, just probably not in the way anyone expected. Maybe that fact alone shows how much you need to... give a little."

"I am doing something," she clarified pointedly. "Just 'cause someone ain't prancing around on a stage doesn't mean they ain't doing something. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm getting more worth outta my life now than I ever could getting my name in lights to only know I wasn't gonna stay in the spotlight forever. No performer ever does. I'm helping sick kids now and it's more rewarding than any time I stepped up to a microphone. I guess your job must be hell rewarding if you can give up other of life's gifts to maintain it. Not that I can talk, 'cause I ain't married or nothing, either, but a fag hag's job can sometimes be up there with mothering as to demands."

[identity profile] gotstarpower.livejournal.com 2012-03-18 08:00 am (UTC)(link)
"Location ain't a life though," Mercedes pointed out. "Miami's a gorgeous backdrop, but that doesn't mean what you're doing here is anymore worthwhile than what was going down in Ohio. Just better water views. Do you even know what it entails to give anyone anything? Or did you just think everyone had to give it to you?"

She watched a few people in the passing mall crowd for a moment. "Well, a dear friend of mine had a bad time with illness and it woke me up to a hell of a lot of things going on in my life, and my friends' lives. Something along the lines of just 'cause they look like they're okay, doesn't mean they really are. Doesn't mean they don't really need help. At the end of the day, we always need help from our friends, even if it's superficial help. Administrative Assistant? That's the big career that's stopping you seeking bigger things outta life...? Okay then... So, what you're saying is you're sitting there doing very little and too lazy to get up and find anything better from life, on any level. Whatever floats your boat, girl. Just didn't peg you as that sort."

[identity profile] gotstarpower.livejournal.com 2012-03-18 11:37 am (UTC)(link)
Mercedes just snorted in amusement and shook her head. "When the going gets tough, Rachel Berry gets going. You don't like hearing concrit about yourself, do you? Some things never change."

"So, what happened to Broadway? We all had to sit in Glee day in, day out and listen to you prattle on about how you were so amazing and destined for the stage. I think it's only fair you let me in on why none of that all went down. It sucked up a huge chunk of our lives too, you know," she said dryly. She was willing to give Rachel the benefit of the doubt, but this was a two-way street. She had been obnoxiously in everyone's faces about her apparent now-wasted talents like a broken record.

[identity profile] gotstarpower.livejournal.com 2012-03-22 10:39 am (UTC)(link)
"We all need a lil criticism sometimes. It's whether we listen and what we do with it that makes the difference. If it's all just water off a duck's back, girl, how you ever gonna learn anything? It's the people who love you the most that'll deal the heaviest blows, but they're usually the one's who know us the best to have valid points we should be listening to," Mercedes reasoned with a nod. Many a time she had learnt from things Kurt passively (or not, in some cases) gave her a few home truths. She was a better person for it these days that she was back in school when it was all about thinking of how hard done by she was rather than just stepping up and working for what she needed.

She tilted her head a little. "So, maybe it wouldn't have been such a big deal if you let some of the rest of us have the spotlight in school now and again, right? Sounds like you've isolated yourself from a hell of a lot, though. Don't you regret that?"

[identity profile] gotstarpower.livejournal.com 2012-03-24 02:42 pm (UTC)(link)
"At least it also goes both ways. They're usually the first to tell you that you're doing a great job on something or that they're proud of you when no else notices. Sometimes it's nice to just pause and appreciate the people 'round you a little. Tell them how much they mean to you... even show them, if you can," Mercedes responded. "Hell, for awhile there in my life, I felt so low and like I didn't mean nothing to anyone, but my darling gay guy was there to tell me I was beautiful and worth it, and his opinion to me was worth a billion random guys who only want one thing of me."

She raised her eyebrows. "You coulda played with the team," she corrected. "Ain't none of us ever cared to be patronised by you, girl. You had yourself so far up on a pedestal, we just all gave up trying to bother with you after awhile. Not through lack of trying though, I might add. People just don't lie getting kicked in the teeth when they're trying to make an effort. Makes you wanna not make an effort even more. And if you wanna play it isolated, fair enough. Whatever does it for you. Personally, I prefer people 'round me. They remind me I have something to keep working for."

[identity profile] gotstarpower.livejournal.com 2012-03-28 02:15 pm (UTC)(link)
"Friends are priceless. You can't buy friendship, and you start being a jerk, you got someone there to tell you to pull your head in. That alone is worth a million random acquaintances," Mercedes said knowingly.

She was shrugging again, shaking her head. "Girl, I've got too much on my own adult plate to be worrying out what was on my teenage one. I ain't got the time or energy to be holding nothing against you. But then, you didn't screw me over as much as you did others, so I can't talk for them. All my friends have always had their own very passionate opinions on things. A few apologies might not go astray though, or a lil recognition that you did railroad a lot of people for your own gain. It's amazing how showing a lil remorse or apology to someone will go a long way. Only if it's genuine and not just coming 'cause someone like me told you to. That's when it just gets even more patronising. Y'all not surrounding yourself with people because you don't wanna deal with no conflict... Okay then. Still sounds like a lonely life."

[identity profile] gotstarpower.livejournal.com 2012-04-01 04:39 pm (UTC)(link)
"I hope it all keeps going smoothly for you then, girl. If you're in the same boat as me and you ain't got a lover to cuddle up to at night, sometimes you gotta turn to your friends to give you that same companionship," Mercedes murmured. Not that she could deny to herself that she really would love someone to cuddle up to at night... at least seeing Kurt find that was the next best thing for her.

She shrugged. "You're talking in the very extreme, though. You live with it for a few months, and suddenly you think you can avoid it altogether forever so you cut yourself off from... being happy? Makes no sense when life can be a hell of a long time for some of us. But if you wanna just be half-satisfied and without conflict, looks like you're at least on the right track, I guess."

[identity profile] gotstarpower.livejournal.com 2012-04-02 10:42 am (UTC)(link)
"Well, I hear that unless you get some who sleeps like they're folded up in a neat little bow, sharing a bed can be overrated in some circumstances..." Mercedes knew she was scraping the bottom of the barrel now. As far as she was concerned, she would love a warm body to cuddle up to at night, and maybe a little more of something-something on the regular, but it just wasn't happening for her right now. As full as Miami was of hot bodies, it was also full of shallow-minded twits she really didn't want to waste her time with. And all the good guys were gay, it seemed. "I mean, stealing the covers? Total turn-off, right?"

Interesting theory to say the least. "I always thought being an only looked lonely. Then I saw Kurt and Finn clash when they had to learn to be brothers and I wondered if being an only was a safer bet. Now, though, they're closer than ever, so I guess it's just what you get used to."

[identity profile] gotstarpower.livejournal.com 2012-04-05 12:23 pm (UTC)(link)
"You got room mates or anything? I got two and whilst it's an extreme battle for the bathroom sometimes, it's like having a ready-made family there for the good times and bad. Makes a huge difference. Luckily, too, they ain't the kind to leave the toilet seat up," Mercedes joked.

She gave a nod. "I hear Blaine did it too, but I dunno all the details. Kurt mentioned something 'bout him having twin stepbrothers and one of them was a Warbler. I guess getting used to two siblings would be a whole lot more intense than just one. Especially if you had nothing in common with them. In saying that, Kurt and Finn did fine after Finn stop being a douchebag hung up on Kurt's sexuality. Kurt said he never had a problem being an only, but it was nice getting a brother."

[identity profile] gotstarpower.livejournal.com 2012-04-08 07:46 am (UTC)(link)
"You knew your room mate before you wanted to live with them so you knew their lifestyle, or you just wrote everyone off prematurely?" Mercedes asked.

She tucked her hair back from her face. "I only remember Sebastian from being a douchebag in the Warblers a few times we were up against them. Gotta give twins kudos for being polar opposites, though. It can't be easy when you're kids and everyone wants to treat you as one. Yeah, you're hellishly right about that..." She trailed off, knowing a lot of Finn's douchbaggery was because of this chick standing in front of her. She wouldn't labour the point or anything, but she had to wonder if Rachel knew or care how much she hurt him with what she did. Finn had never been the same Finn since all that, even if he was still a sweetheart. Just a very rough-around-the-edges one now.

[identity profile] gotstarpower.livejournal.com 2012-04-12 12:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Mercedes had to laugh a bit at this. "Oh yeah? How did it go living with the guys? Sounds like it could take some getting used to. Blaine would probably be okay, there's something 'bout gay guys, but Puck? That woulda been interesting."

She gave her old school rival a small wave. "No bother. It was... well, interesting to bump into you after all this time. I hopefully it all works out for you and you get what you want outta life now."