Times Square was packed with people for the traditional New Year’s Eve Ball Drop. The ground was littered in confetti and the air was filled with cheering and songs. Quinn, Blaine and Kurt pushed through the massive crowd of people towards the front because they wanted a good view. Their linked arms made it tough to navigate, but their determination was enough to get them through. Brittany had told them that she and Santana were going to be getting there early and would try to get a good spot, but they have been walking around for an hour and had not seen them yet. Rachel and Finn were going to be meeting them there as well. Hopefully they were not having as much trouble as they did.

“20......19....”

“Aww shit, we are not going to make it!” Blaine exclaimed while looking around the crowd for a familiar face.

“18.....17....”

“We have to be close. This is where she said they would be.” Quinn stood on her tippy toes to see over a particularly large hat an older man was wearing.

“16......15....”

“That is what you said at the last barricade.” Kurt popped his gum with a loud pop.

“14.....”

“Yo, Dapper Dan and his prudist blonde sidekick, we’re over here!” Santana’s voice rang over the other noises in the crowd.

“13.....”

With a tug, Blaine led the others towards her voice. She stood there in a black leather mini dress and knee-high boots. Her arms were crossed over her chest and her hair that was pulled into a tight ponytail swayed side by side as she shook her head at them. “Leave it to you, Blainey, to get lost.” She pressed her manicured nail into his shoulder and pushed him back.

“12.....”

“Yay you made it!” Brittany cheered. She was wearing, what appeared to be a bright pink tutu dress. Her hair was down but looked as if it was sprayed heavily with glitter hairspray. The multi colored lights danced through her hair making it shine as brightly as the ball itself.

“11.....”

“Have you heard from Rachel of Finn?” Blaine shouted over the counting.

Santana pointed to their right and he turned to see the couple pressed together with their eyes glued to the ball.

“10....”

Now that they were finally in position, they coupled grouped together in preparation for their New Year’s Kiss. Santana looped her arms around Brittany’s waist and looked into her eyes. They were whispering amongst each other and it was hard to hear over the loud crowd. Kurt and Blaine stood side by side holding each other’s hands between them. They counted down with everyone else.

“9.....8....7....”

Quinn looked between her group of friends and smiled. She pulled out her camera and turned it on each couple as they counted down to the new year.

“6......5.....4....”

She pointed her camera up towards the the ball to catch the actual drop. She couldn’t help but be a bit disappointed in being alone and not having someone to share this night with. Just last year, she was with Finn. It is funny how much could change in a year.

“3.....2.....1.....”

“Happy New Year!” She cheered into the camera that she had facing her. After hearing the rest of New York start to stir and cheer, she turned the camera on all of her friends as they engaged in the traditional New Year’s kiss. More confetti was thrown over the crowd and music began to blast from the speakers. It was officially the new year and they had made it. After sharing their kisses, the crowd began to disperse in an effort to get a head start on the traffic out of the city. Quinn focused the camera on the few pieces of confetti that were still fluttering the ground as she waited for her friends to finish their lip-locks.

“Let’s get out of here!” Santana shouted over the shuffling of bodies.

Internally, Quinn cheered. Being the odd man out was getting awkward and seeing her ex sucking face with his new girlfriend a few feet over from her was not making the situation any better. She loved her friends, but she could not help but be upset.

Brittany wrapped her arm around Santana’s wais as she lead the way toward their apartment. Kurt looked over at Blaine sheepishly and took his hand, whose own cheeks were tickled pink. Rachel and Finn were still going at it and it wasn’t until Santana threw a bottle at them that they separated. Quinn covered her mouth to hide her laughter from them as they joined the group.

The walk to the apartment was not that long, but the alcohol they consumed earlier began to affect them and it took its toll on all of them. By the time they got to the door of their building, they were all buzzed and clinging to each other.

Kurt’s eyes grew wide as he reached for the door. “Um guys, we have a problem over here.”

Blaine, who was pinned to his side, giggling at what appeared to be something that Brittany had just told him, turned and quickly grew silent. “That son of a bitch.”

What Kurt had noticed was a large chain that was wrapped around the door knobs to the building and locked shut with an obscenely large padlock. They had no way into their apartments.

Santana grabbed a hold of it and pulled on it a few times just to see it if was real.

“Stand back!” Brittany shouted. The crowd parted and Brittany approached the door carrying the trashcan off the street. With a swift swing, she brought the can down on the lock, knocking it to the floor ground.

The group cheered loudly and Finn took the can from Brittany and returned it to its place on the curb. Santana laid a loud kiss on her cheek and muttering things about how awesome her girlfriend was but no one was really paying too much attention. Quinn bypassed them both and opened the double doors and entered.

Clamoring up the flight of steps, the group talked in loud voices about how horrible Sam was mixed with conversations of New Year’s Resolutions. It was not until Quinn pulled back the door to the apartment did they all grow quiet. The only sound to echo off the walls of their now empty apartment was made from Santana’s purse hitting the ground. Someone had completely emptied their apartment. There was no furniture, no clothing, no utensils, no instruments, no nicknacks, nothing.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Blaine growled in a low tone. Kurt put one hand on his arm and whispered something about going to check his apartment.

They entered the space and walked around in search of any remains of their belongings but found nothing. Kurt was back in a few minutes only to announce that his apartment was in the same state as theirs.

Finn rummaged through the kitchen to see if the pantry had been emptied. He let out a heavy sigh when he found it as bare as the rest of the apartment. Santana left her purse on the floor where she dropped it and walked around the room before stopping at a large support beam in the middle. She slid down it until she was sitting on the floor and then proceeded to take off her heels and throw them against the floor where they skidded across the room. Brittany stood in the middle of the room, shifting her weight from side to side. Her eyes darted around and her mouth hung open, unable to find the words to express how she felt. Rachel typed furiously on her cell phone in the doorway to the apartment. Quinn left to check out her bedroom and when they heard a strangled cry they knew all of her personal belongings were gone. Rachel looked up with a concerned look on her face and looked toward the doorway, awaiting Quinn’s return. When she did not return after a few minutes, her gaze went back to her phone. Blaine walked straight to the the large windows that overlooked the street and pressed his forehead against the cold glass. He closed his eyes and hoped that when he opened them, things would be back to normal.

They didn’t.

“Well, technically you are all squatters now and you have rights.” Rachel slid her finger down her phone’s screen as she continued to read. “You can not be arrested. It looks like the worst that they can do is throw you out into the street.”

Kurt walked up to Blaine and put a hand on the small of his back and rubbed gently.

Quinn returned to the main room, her eyes rimmed red from crying but she held an emotionless face as she tried to hide it from everyone. “He took everything,” she said in a small voice. “What are we going to do now?”

The wood floorboards creaked loudly as Finn moved into the main room. “What about that show that called you Quinn?”

“I never called them back.”

Blaine turned to face her. “Wait, what is he talking about?”

She slumped her shoulders and slowly looked in his direction. “I got this phone call yesterday...it was nothing.”

“No,” Finn’s voice grew louder. “It is something Quinn, it is Buzzline. That is really important.”

“Buzzline!” Santana’s shouted from the floor.

“Quinn...” Blaine’s voice wavered as he tried to wrap his head around the news. “Buzzline? That....That’s incredible.”

Kurt nodded. “What did they say?”

Quinn pulled some hair behind her ear. “They want me to work for them. Film stuff for their show.

“That is amazing Quinn, congratulations.” Santana grinned.

“Why aren’t you happy about that?” Blaine’s eyes grew wider as he looked at her.

“It’s not what I want to do.”

“You are not really in a position to turn it down.” Rachel shoved her phone back into her pocket. Quinn’s eyes narrowed which made her hands raised defensively. “I am just stating a fact.”

“Quinn, I’ll help you. I’ll be your manager or something. Rachel performs on broadway so it can’t be much different from tv.” Finn approached Quinn which caused her to look up at him. He smiled at her and placed on hand on her arm.

“Actually yes it can and I am not on broadway, yet. I am currently only doing shows that are off-broadway, but that is beside the point.” Rachel moved over to Quinn’s side, she eyed Finn and his hand on her which made him drop it down to his side. “I will help, too.”

Quinn looked between the two of them and put on a weak smile. “Okay.”

-----
The following day, Rachel marched the both of them over to Buzzline offices. Quinn was borrowing one of Rachel’s dresses since she was still unable to get ahold of any of her belongings. Her palms ran down the front of the striped dress to smooth out the invisible wrinkles.

“I feel weird about this.” She finally managed to say.

“You will be fine.” Rachel huffed as she pulled Finn along with her.
“Do I look okay?”

Finn looked back at her and gave her a thumbs up. “You look awesome.”

Rachel jerked him forward that made him stumble a bit before turning around herself. “That dress looks lovely on you.”

Once the sign became visible for the Buzzline offices, Quinn stopped dead in her tracks. “I can’t....I can’t do this.”

Spinning around quickly on her heels, Rachel pulled Quinn by her arm. “It is just a meeting, you are going to be fine.” Once Quinn was walking normally Rachel let go of her. “I will do all of the talking and everything will be fine. Now let’s go.”

The offices were clean and modern looking. People walked fast through the halls barely missing the trio as they walked toward the designated office of Tina Cohen-Chang. She was the host of the popular evening news show. They covered the headlines and all of the controversial topics that no one else would touch. Tina was known for her edginess and her unique fashion sense. They found her office and entered to see a smiling, bubbly receptionist.

“Welcome to Buzzline. My name is Sugar Motta, do you have an appointment to see Ms. Cohen-Chang today?”

Rachel placed her hands on the desk between her and Sugar. “We do, for 11:30am.”

Sugar ran her manicured finger down her schedule. “Ms. Berry and Ms. Fabray?”

“That’s us.” She smiled.

“Great, if you will please take a seat I will let Ms. Cohen-Chang know you are here.”

Finn frowned. “Rachel... why isn’t my name on the list? I am going in there with you.”

Rachel flattened her skirt as it stretched over her lap before answering him with a firm, “No.” She raised her eyes to meet his. “I think it would be better if you wait out here.”

“B-but this was all my idea.”

She placed her hand on his knee. “I know but we don’t want to come on too strong.”

Finn’s shoulders fell in defeat and he did not budge when Sugar called out for them.

Quinn took a seat across from Tina’s desk as soon as she entered, but Rachel walked right in and held out her hand to Tina. “It is a pleasure meeting you, Ms. Cohen-Chang, I am Rachel Berry. Thank you for meeting with us today.”

Tina looked at Quinn before reaching out to shake Rachel’s hand. “No thank you, I loved Quinn’s piece on the homeless. It is so raw and genuine, just like my material on Buzzline.”

“I have been working on a documentary on the homeless, this was just a small piece of what I have been working on.”

“I love it, maybe you can share more of it with us next time. This is the kind of material that my show needs.”

“Really?” Rachel was not convinced. “Doesn’t seem like your normal content.”

Tina bobbed her head side to side as she spoke directly to Quinn. “Well we have been wanting to delve into more serious topics since we do tend to handle more of the tabloid stories. We are a news show after all, but that is why we wanted to bring Quinn in here with us. I can handle the headlines and Quinn here can deliver the more hard hitting material.”

Quinn nodded along with her, liking the idea of it more and more as she explained it.

“You know this would be a great way for you to gain exposure and get your name out there. Once you do that then you can produce your documentaries to a wider audience.” Tina turned to Rachel. “What do you think? Does this suit your client?”

She quickly nodded. “Yes, yes this sounds great, but what about salary? What would she be making?”

Tina folded her hands. “This will be based on commission with your first piece being about $1000, all of the ones after that will paid on a rising scale. This is very generous for a new comer.”

Rachel looked to Quinn who only shrugged in response. She turned back to Tina. “We’ll take it.”

Tina’s lips curled up into a wide smile. “Great. We look forward to working with you.”

-----

They left the office to find Finn hunched over the receptionist desk and talking to Sugar. She was leaning closer to him and playing with the charm on her necklace, her cheeks were a soft pink and she batted her eyelashes a few times. As soon as Rachel caught sight of this she began to fume, Quinn swore she saw smoke come out of her ears. Rachel marched over to Finn and pulled him by his hand out the door. Quinn rolled her eyes, apologized to Sugar and followed after them.

Quinn was not able to catch up with them until they were outside and Rachel was swinging her arms around like mad as she talked to Finn.

“I don’t get it Rachel. What do you want?”

“Commitment Finn! I need to know that you are mine and only mine. I don’t want to find you flirting with every pretty girl that bats her eyelashes at you.”

“Is this about Sugar?”

“Yes, and the barista with the tattoos, the girl from 10B, the woman who bagged our groceries...Quinn!”

Quinn was quite taken aback by her name being thrown in there.

Finn did not seem to notice anything. “I was just being friendly. I was trying to be a nice guy.”

Rachel was fuming, he could practically see the steam coming from her ears. Quinn backed away because if there was one thing she knew, you do not get between a woman when she is ready to attack.

“Commitment, is that all then?” He continued. “Why didn’t you just say so?”

Her face completely changed. Rachel’s mouth fell into an o as Finn cupped her cheek in one of his large hands.

“Just say the word baby, and I am all yours.” Finn did a half smile and it seemed to be enough to break Rachel down.

“Finn, will you commit to me, to only me. To being with me for the rest of our lives?”

Finn got down on one knee and pulled off his high school class ring and held it out to Rachel. “I know this is not the kind of ring that you wanted in this moment and I promise to get you an awesome one later but for now....will this do?” She nodded her head fast up and down. “Cool, because I do. Ya’ know, commit to you and everything.”

Rachel’s brown eyes were swimming with tears by the time he finished his sentence. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in for a kiss.

Quinn pretended that she melted into the stone wall of the adjacent building. Pretending she was not there for any of this and focused her attention on a small dog half a block down that was peeing on a taxi. It seemed to distract her long enough because it took them calling her name a few times before she realized they were done making out.

They walked down the street hand and hand and Quinn looked at them with a pained expression. “This can’t be happening.” She muttered under her breath. Ultimately she was happy that the two of them were together, but it only reminded her of her own loneliness and that upset her.

-----
They get back to the apartment and everyone is sitting around a makeshift fire that Blaine had built in a trashcan in the middle of the unit, and were passing around a bottle of wine that Santana had purchased. Blaine sat against one of the pillars and Kurt lay in between his legs with his head resting on his chest. Santana sat next to him with Brittany laying next to her with her head in her lap.

“So how did it go?” Blaine said after a long swig.

“I sold my soul.” Quinn moved towards the fire and held her hands over it.

Blaine held out the bottle to Rachel who turned it down. “She was great in there and they are going to pay her very well for each segment she does. I am very proud of her.”

From behind her, out of her version, Quinn rolled her eyes. Kurt who was taking a sip, noticed and choked on the liquid as he laughed. Blaine rubbed his back as he coughed and took the bottle away from him.

Rachel walked off in the direction of the bathroom and Finn sat down cross legged facing the two couples. “So Rachel and I just got engaged.”

“What?!” Blaine said a little more loudly than he intended.

“Congrats jolly green giant.” Brittany said from her drunken haze. Santana giggled above her as she reached over to take the bottle back from Blaine.

“Trying to make an honest woman out of Rachel huh?” Santana’s cheeks were pink which meant she was getting tipsy but took another sip of wine.

“She wanted me to commit to her so I did.” Finn had a wide smile on his face and turned to each of them expecting them to return it.

Quinn made a gagging motion from her place at the fire, out of his sight. Santana swished the liquid of the bottle back and forth as she held it up for her to take. She walked over to her and took it, taking a long sip and then plopping down between Santana and Blaine to face Finn. Before she could say anything, there was a knock on the door.

Blaine and Quinn looked at each other and shrugged, there was no one that they were expecting. Kurt sat up and allowed Blaine to get up and investigate. As he reached the door, it opened to reveal Sam on the other side.

“Well looky here.” Blaine said as Sam walked past him.

“What is going on Sam?” Quinn raised one eyebrow at him.

“I want to end this, here and now. I have all of your belongings downstairs and I would like to return them all to you.”

“What’s the catch?” Santana said as she took another drink.

Sam shook his head. “No catch.”

“Then what made you change your mind?” Blaine folded his arms across his chest as he took a few steps closer to him.

“It was Kurt actually.” He held out a hand towards Kurt who was still sitting on the floor with his legs stretched out but his eyes were glued to the floor.

“Kurt?” Blaine questioned. He turned back to look at him and crossed his arms over his chest.

“We had not seen each other in awhile. He called me up and we met for coffee and talked.”

Everyone slowly turned to look at Kurt. He was picking at an invisible thread on the hem of his shirt.

“He told me to rethink everything. I was convinced by his argument and I decided to come and apologize. I am sorry for the circumstances that lead us to this point-”

Blaine interrupted him. “Sam, you locked us out and took our shit.”

He pressed his lips together. “Right. I know. So now I am here offering you a new lease completely rent free.”

Quinn furrowed her eyebrows, not wanting to believe him.

“You may want to get this on film Quinn. Use this for one of your little movies.”

“So this is just a publicity stunt for you” Blaine laughed loudly.

“No no no, this is real.”

Quinn pulled her checkbook out of her purse and scribbled out a payment.

“Right, so we won’t see something in the paper about this tomorrow about how the big business man felt sorry for the homeless folk and made a big donation to help them out,” Santana waved her arms around as she spoke from the floor.

A hand thrust up towards Sam. It belonged to Quinn and it held a check which she waved in front of him. “We don’t need your charity trouty mouth.”

“His mouth is huge!” Brittany giggled.

Sam clenched his jaw as he looked down at the check that Quinn offered him. He took it from her reluctantly and stared at it before looking back at her. “Where did you get this?”

With a smirk, Quinn said, “My first advance from my new job.”

He nodded and looked at the other people in the room. “Congratulations Quinn.” Tucking the check into his coat pocket, he spun around and left the apartment.

Blaine shut the door behind him and then retreated to the opposite side of the apartment. Kurt looked up from the floor and slowly made his way over to him.

“Blaine?” He called in a low voice.

He pretended he didn’t hear him.

“Are you upset that I met with Sam?”

He kept his back to Kurt, not wanting him to see that hurt that was visible on his face.

“Nothing happened if that is what you are thinking.” He scratched the inside of his elbow. “We had a thing once like two years ago, just flirting...nothing else. He doesn’t mean anything to me.”

Blaine turned to look at Kurt, eyes big and full of sadness.

“Are you upset that I used to have a thing with him?” Kurt reached out for him but he moved away from his touch. “Blaine, it was nothing and it he means nothing to me now.

“I don’t really care, Kurt.” He then walked right past him to grab the bottle from Quinn and climb out onto the fire escape.

Kurt crumbled to the floor where he was standing. No one in the room moved to his aid. He pulled his knees up to his chest and laid his head down on them.