Quinn walks down the street in the direction of her apartment with her camera in hand. She has inspiration again for a documentary, this is going to be the fourteenth one she has started this year. This one, she is going to finish, or at least that is what she keeps telling herself. Quinn was a striving documentary maker, but unfortunately she never could focus on one film. She has been unable to finish a single film and always moves onto a new project, swearing up and down that this will be the one.

Her worn heels turn the corner onto her block. People are out on the streets celebrating and exchanging happy sentiments for the holiday. Quinn decides to film them because her new topic is daily struggle, and lord knows they all are struggling. At first glance, everyone looks really happy, but that is all a facade. In fact, usually they were all very angry. The cost of living was getting ridiculous in their community and many people were becoming homeless. Quinn knew this struggle all too well. She and her roommate have luckily not had to pay rent on their shared loft, but they can not afford to keep it warm during the winter and they can barely keep themselves fed. It was only a matter of time before their landlord came knocking and requesting their rent.

That was when she noticed it. Fresh new Eviction notices lined all the poles on the street. What a wonderful Christmas Present. She thought they would at least make it to January but it looks like their landlord had other ideas. He did not even give them a warning and by the looks of it, the whole building was suffering the same fate. People mumbling about the notice grew in her ear like a low buzzing noise. She tore the notice up and crumbled it into a ball. That should teach him. Her attention then turned to her apartment and she wondered if her roommate even knew.

Quinn lived with her best friend Blaine. They met back in high school and moved out to New York with their friends Santana and Sam to make it big. Their dreams were bigger than they originally thought and they fell onto hard times. Santana and Sam have since left, leaving Blaine and Quinn alone in the city. Santana left to pursue teaching after she had difficulty making it as a recording artist. Sam married a wealthy woman and went into business with her father. He owned their apartment building, hence why they did not have to pay rent.

She pulled the heavy door to their loft open to find Blaine laying across the couch with his guitar across his chest. “I see you are still in the same place that I left you in.”

Blaine did not respond yet ran his fingers along the thick guitar strings.

She sighed and plopped herself on the end of the couch in the small space that he had left vacant. “Did you see the notices?”

Blaine moved his eyes over to her. “What notices?”

“Sam is evicting us.”

“Oh Christmas Eve?”

“Oh Christmas Eve.” She repeated.

The lights flickered above their heads and then suddenly went out. Quinn threw her body against the back of the couch and groaned.

“I got it.” Blaine shifted the guitar off his body and then climbed to his feet. He handed her his instrument and then went to work on the breaker to see if he could get the power back.

“I can’t do this any more Blaine.”

“Do what?” He furrowed his brow as he manipulated the circuits.

“Living like this. Not having heat or electricity.” Quinn pulled her jacket closer to her body. It had grown so cold in their apartment that she could see her breath.

“Well then get a job.”

Quinn made a sound of disgust. “I can not fathom sitting behind a desk somewhere.”

The lights came back on and Blaine cheered. He returned to the couch and put his arm around Quinn’s shoulders. “But it will keep you warm.”

She pushed him off of her and got up from the couch. “I am being serious Blaine. We need jobs. We are about to lose our apartment and we are going to be living out on the streets-”

“Do you really think that Sam would do that to us? He is our friend.” He interrupted.

“He was our friend. His wife Mercedes calls the shots now. If her Dad wants this place torn down, he will listen. Sam is puddy in her hands.”

Blaine pressed his lips together.

Quinn walked over to the window and looked down onto the street. “He’s a different person now. You have to accept that.”

Blaine and Sam used to be very close. They were best friends dating back to their early elementary school days. They had dreams of getting into music and starting a band. Blaine was crushed when Sam gave up on that idea and get involved with Mercedes and her family business. He did not want to let go of this dream and could not wrap his head around the fact that Sam did so easily.

“So how are we going to pay rent then?”

Quinn laughed. “I have no fucking clue.”

Their phone rang and Quinn looked at Blaine. He shrugged and picked up his guitar again. She picked up the phone to hear a familiar voice come through.

“HEY HONIES! MERRY CHRISTMAS!”

“Why hello Santana. How are you this fine evening?”

“Freezing my ass off, throw down the keys won’t you.”

She walked back over the window to see Santana on her cell phone and waving from the middle of the street. “Yeah okay.”

“Who is it?”

“Santana, she is downstairs and I am going to throw down the keys.”

Blaine smiled.

Quinn set the phone down and then climbed out onto the fire escape. She found balancing quite difficult in her heels so she leaned forward against the bar and threw the keys down to her.

“Can’t wait to see you.”

“Be right up!”

Quinn stumbled back into the apartment shivering. “We really need to fix the heat in this place.”

“Ya think?”

An old blanket lay on the end of the couch. She picked it up and wrapped it around her frame. “What should we do? We won’t survive much longer like this.”

“Then let’s burn shit.”

-----

Santana clutched the set of keys in her hands and made her way towards the door. Three men approached her.
“Hey there sexy mama, where do you think you are going?” The first man called.

“Away from you.”

The second man grabbed her wrist. “Not so fast, don’t be rude to us darlin’. We were just saying hi.”

Santana whipped her free hand around that held her purse and hit him on the side of the head with it. “Fuck off!”

The third guy lunged at her and grabbed her around the waist and Santana struggled to break free.

“Don’t fight him sugar, it is only going to make him mad.”

She continued to thrash about until her heel made contact with his groin. Instantly he dropped her and she made a run for it. The other two men chased after her as they left their companion writhing in pain in the middle of the street.

There was a dark alley that she ran into, in the hopes of losing them but they were hot on her tail. They called after her which only made her run faster. She took a misstep and heard a crack and felt herself fall onto the ground hard. Her knee was scuffed up badly and she had cuts on her palms from trying to catch herself.

“The bitch fell!”

Santana tried to get to her feet but the men caught up to her and kicked her back down.

“What a disrespectful bitch you are. We were trying to show your ungrateful ass a good time and you attack us. Now look at you.”

The second man kicked Santana’s purse away from her. “I’ll take this. You did hit me over the head with it.”

She whimpered.

The first man kicked dirt in her face and walked away. “She is not worth our time. Let’s go Dave.”

The two men left her laying in the alley. Once they were far enough away she picked herself up and brought herself to the sitting position. She looked at her hands and her bloody knee and started to cry.

-----

“Where is she?” Quinn leaned out the window again to look for Santana. She was no longer standing in the street. “There is no way she could of possibly gotten lost....she was right there!”

“She knows her way here. She probably went out. You know her.”

Quinn felt sick to her stomach. Something just did not feel right about all of this.

“Help me build this fire, Q. I started it with my old magazines and sheet music but I need more.”

She turned to face her roommate who was attempting to warm their small apartment by building a fire in an old trashcan. It was still small so Quinn added some old screenplays and newspaper that she had lying around.

“Hey Fabray! Anderson!” A voice called from outside.

They looked at each other then then walked out onto the fire escape. All of their neighbors were out on their own fire escapes and they were holding out their eviction notices. To their left was their neighbor Puck, the owner of the voice they had just heard.

“We are all lighting these fucking notices up. I don’t care what Evans does. It’s Christmas. He is trying to ruin our Christmas!” Puck flicked his lighter and a small flame was released. He held the paper over it until it caught. A malicious grin covered his face as he watched the paper burn in front of him. Blaine looked around to see that the rest of their neighbors were going the same. At once they all threw their eviction notices over the side of the railing and they slowly fell towards the ground. The flyers danced in the cold December air before gracefully landing in the street and sidewalk. Chants of “We’re not gonna pay!” filled the air. Puck’s voice was the loudest. Quinn and Blaine smiled at each other before joining in themselves.

Quinn went back inside to grab her camera and filmed Puck and the rest of their neighbors as they continued to chant and throw things over the side of the building. Blaine leaned against the railing to watch. He causally looked down to follow a rather large piece of paper that the neighbor upstairs had thrown when he caught eyes with his downstairs neighbor. He was gorgeous and Blaine was sure he had never met him before. The first thought that crossed his mind was how impeccable this guy’s fashion sense was. Where is this guy from with his black sweater, skinny jeans and black boots? There he stood with one foot perched on the railing while his hand held to the vertical ladder. His bright eyes, whose color was indistinguishable in the dark of night, were watching the scene as it unfolded. He must of felt him looking because he turned his head to look upwards as Blaine was checking him out. They made eye contact and Blaine lipped the word “Hi” and the man responded by waving his fingers.

Quinn pulled on Blaine’s jacket to go back inside which broke their eye contact.

“Do you hear them B?! This is perfect... I can use this for my documentary. They are so passionate about this.” She opened her palms to their homemade fire to warm them up.

“Yeah... they sure are making a point by setting fire to all of their notices.”

“Do you think this will get police attention? That could be a really good thing to catch on film. I wonder if they would take action against the people throwing things.” She raised her eyes upward as if trying to image this scenario.

Blaine shook his head. “This happens all the time and the police never come. They avoid this section of the city. Then again if someone accidentally sets something on fire, that might be a different story.

Quinn looked over at him with a smirk on her face.

“Oh no, please tell me you are not thinking about burning something up just to bring the police out here.”

She scrunched up her face. “What, not a good idea?”

“Yeah... it’s a horrible idea. Imagine if they threw you in. We don’t have the money to bail you out. Just don’t do it or anything stupid for that matter.”

She slouched her shoulders and crossed her arms across her chest. “Okay.” Her tone thick in disappointment.

“Just think...we have Sam to blame for all of this. He is our landlord after all. He was the one who wrote the letter.”

“He was the one who betrayed us... yeah, yeah I get it.” Quinn picked up an old textbook and began ripping out pages to throw into the fire.

“Now a days, just about anyone will betray you to get ahead.”

She slammed the book closed. “I know where you are going with this conversation...don’t go there.”

He held up his hands defensively as he walked backwards toward the window again. Hoping to catch another glimpse of the man downstairs, Blaine whisked over to the edge and looked over only to find it empty. He should not have gotten his hopes up, he doesn’t know anything about the guy. He could be straight for all he knows.

A black land rover pulled up in front of their apartment complex and it caught his eye. Only one person was brave enough to drive that nice of a car into this neighborhood. Sam was here. It has been months since either of them talked to each other. He must be coming in to check on them.

Sam exited his car carefully, making sure to not to draw too much attention to himself.

“What are you doing here Evans? I think you have already done enough today.”

The blonde haired man cringed at the attention. A few people that remained on their fire escapes turned to exchange dirty looks with Sam.

“Did you really need to say that right now?”

“Did you really need to evict everyone on Christmas Eve?”

“Touche.”

“Is that Evans?” Quinn called from inside the apartment.

“The one and only.”

She joined Blaine on the fire escape and leaned her top half over railing. “Hey, just so you know....we aren’t going to pay!”

A chorus of “Yeah!”s erupted around her.

Sam shook his head.

That was all it took to get Puck back out on his balcony to start everyone up again on their protest of “We’re not gonna pay!”

Some people had flooded into the street and had circled Sam. He stepped back until he was up against the side of his car. The crowd continued to shout around him. He gave a pleading look up at Quinn and Blaine.

“Fine...we will come down.” Quinn sighed.

The man downstairs had come out during the commotion and they were looking at each other again. “Wait we are what?” He asked while holding the same line of vision.

“C’mon B, let’s go talk to him.”

Blaine broke contact and disappeared back into their apartment.

-----

Santana pressed her back up against the cool brick wall. The cut on her knee was starting to congeal but it was the least of her concerns. The cracking sound she heard before she had fallen had been her heel breaking. Walking in high heels with one heel broken is not a fun experience. Defeated and vulnerable, she just sat there.

“Are you okay honey?”

She looked up to find a stunningly beautiful woman dressed in sweats, a t-shirt and sneakers. Her blonde hair was pulled up into a high ponytail on the top of her head that was decorated with multicolored feathers.

“I am afraid so.” Santana hugged her body.

“Were you...mugged?”

Santana just nodded, a lump building in her throat.

“What did they take?”

She sniffled. “My purse, there was not much in there.”

“It is still sad to have your things taken away.” Brittany kneeled down next to her. “Merry Christmas.”

“Hmm.” Santana responded.

“My name is Brittany, what is yours?”

Santana looked up into the girl’s eyes. They were striking and they drew her in. She felt her breath hitch at the mere sight of them. “Santana, Santana Lopez....hi.”

Brittany smiled, but then looked down at her knee. “Your knee, is bloody. Can I clean it up for you?”

“You really don’t have to...I can just go to my friend’s place.”

“I want to. I don’t have much time though, my group therapy starts soon.” Brittany helped Santana to her feet.

“Group therapy?”

Brittany put one arm over Santana’s shoulders to help her balance. “Yeah, it is an LGBTQ group. I am gay.”

Santana smiled. “Oh, me too.”

Brittany’s face lit up. “Really? You should come. Everyone in group is really good. I think you would enjoy it.”

“I would, but my friends are waiting for me.”

Brittany pouted. “Aww I was really hoping you would come. I don’t like it when people say no to me.”

Santana was in shock, she had just met Brittany and she gave her a pouty face and she the worst part was that she had already won her over. She could not deny that face. This girl had some sort of power over her that she was unaware of. “Well I am already out, it can’t hurt to stay out a bit longer.”

Brittany’s expression completely changed. “Yay! I am so excited, but before we do that, let’s get you washed up.”