new directions | glee

11. I LOVE YOU ☑️

CHAPTER ELEVEN |
i love you

***

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" A voice said behind Kayla as she was peering into her locker, looking for her good pen. She chuckled, turning around and grinning when she saw Sam in front of her with a bouquet of flowers.

"Aw, Sammy!" she smiled brightly, taking the flowers from him and pulling him in for a hug.

They'd been talking a lot more since Ryder and Kayla became official to the glee club. She felt like they were finally getting back to their normal. She was still severely falling for him, but it felt less now that they were friends again. She was just trying to live with being his friend again. If she couldn't be anything more, at least she could be that. She pulled away, smelling the flowers.

"Thank you. I didn't think you'd remember." she noted. Every year Sam always got her flowers for her birthday. The first year he picked flowers from a bush outside the motel he was staying in and every year since then, it had become a tradition.

"Of course I remembered. You're my best friend." Sam smiled warmly. It made her skin burn with glee that Sam's smile affected her that much. She was such a mess for him. He nodded over to the choir room, gesturing for them to walk together and she smiled, following him just as a hand wrapped around her waist and a sloppy kiss was pressed to her cheek.

"Happy Birthday, babe." Ryder smiled. She chuckled, pulling him into a hug. When she finally let go, she could have sworn she saw just the slightest bit of envy in Sam's eyes, but she was pretty sure she was just seeing things. She wanted Sam to be jealous. That didn't mean he actually was.

"Looks like Sam beat me to the romantics, huh?" Ryder smiled, looking at the bouquet in her hands.

Sam finally spoke up. "Sorry, man. Birthday tradition." he shrugged.

"No, it's cool. I have something special planned anyway." Ryder chuckled, putting his arm around Kayla's shoulder as they began settling into the choir room. Kayla frowned, looking at Sam's traveling eyes as Ryder was pulling her to the other side of the room into the seat right next to him.

She tried not to think about how much she'd rather be spending her birthday with Sam like she did every year, but it was hard. She wanted to be riding around town in his truck and going out on a threesome date with him and Puck, but now she was someone's fake girlfriend. Traditions were going to have to be replaced by new ones.

Finn had just finished writing Regionals up on the board and Kayla was two seconds away from jumping up and down in her seat because she was so excited they were back in the game, but then Ryder was interrupting Finn and hopping out of his seat.

"Finn, can I have the floor?" Ryder asked and Finn smiled, nodding as he went to sit next to Artie.

"So, in case you didn't know, today my beautiful girlfriend turns eighteen and I had a little surprise. Boys," Ryder turned his head to the door where Blaine and Jake were coming in, holding a cake with the pansexual flag on it. Kayla blushed, looking up at Ryder with a grateful smile just as everyone began singing to her.

"Guys..." she trailed off, starting to shed happy little tears as the boys sat the cake down in front of her to blow out her candles. She held her hair back and blew them, immediately knowing that the only birthday wish she had was for Brittany and Sam to break up, but then she realized how selfish that was, so she changed it to winning Regionals.

Finn clapped his hands together in a way that was reminiscent of Mr. Schuester and Kayla couldn't help smiling. "Okay, guys. We can have cake at the end. Right now we need to figure out how we're gonna pay for transportation to Regionals."