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“The last one didn’t seem too bad,” Rachel tries half-heartedly, but Kurt shut her down with one look.
He takes long quick strides (Rachel nearly has to skip to catch up) until they put at least three blocks between the debilitated apartment and drags her into a Starbucks for a long overdue caffeine refuel.
“Rachel, I’m pretty sure the people sitting on the front porch were crackheads,” he hisses, before giving the barista his drink order. “It’s not romantically reminiscent of Rent. And I’m pretty sure that it won’t make a great story of your future memoir if we both end up dead.”
Rachel deflates a little; “I knew the rent was a little too good to be true.” She sighs and orders an iced tea-lemonade. By the time she gets her drink, Kurt has already commandeered a small table by the front window and is chatting away on his phone.
“Who are you - “
Kurt makes a shushing gesture. Rolling her eyes, Rachel slips into a seat and rummages through her bag for her folder of prospective apartments. She crosses out the last one and writes ‘NO’ very clearly. She’s pretty sure the apartments inRent were actually nicer than the place they just visited.
Kurt is right. Even the tiny fourth floor walk-up they had visited earlier that day with the weird and creepy brown stains on the wall had looked cozy compared to the last one, and that had been slightly over their budget.
Apartment hunting in the summer is ridiculous; NYADA’s student housing office had been entirely unhelpful.
“Rachel,” Kurt says, voice high and a little breathy (which only means he’s excited about something). “I think I just solved our little problem. We have a place to live this summer.”
Rachel blinks. “What do you mean?”
“I just got off the phone with April Rhodes and she says she has an extra condo near Morningside Heights that she’s not using,” Kurt explains excitedly. “She’s willing to sublet it to us for for within our budget.” He looks apologetic. “I actually had to stop her from subletting it to us for free, you know how generous she can be sometimes. The apartment’s amazing.”
“I thought April lived in a penthouse,” Rachel protests. She remembers it from a US Weekly interview a while ago; she had clipped it, April had name-dropped McKinley High and New Directions. “Why would she live there?”
Kurt shakes his head. “She has apartments and condo all over the city near college bars so she can pick up college students,” he explains in his best ‘I am not condoning her actions but I’m also not judging because she is offering us very nice accommodations’ voice. “She says she hasn’t used this one in a while. Last time she almost brought home a high school student and there was an unpleasant conversation with the police.”
“Oh.” Rachel blinks. “When can we see the place?” she asks, finally.
“Soon,” Kurt says. “April just texted me - “
He’s interrupted by the sound of a car honk, followed by tapping on the glass. April Rhodes’ face peers at them, her town car and driver illegally parked in front of Starbucks and blocking traffic.
“Come on kids, mama hasn’t got all day,” she says.