Rachel was standing in the bathroom fixing her hair when one Noah Puckerman walked in, smirking at her.

'What are you doing in here Noah?'

'Relax you know that…'

'You checked through the peep hole to make sure no one's here. I know! So what is it that you want?'

'I need your help with something!'

'And that couldn't wait until I came out of the bathroom?'

'No!' he shakes his head.

'Ok look, I need you to help me with my college applications. My mom is too busy at the moment and there is no one else I can go to with this so.'

Rachel definitely didn't expect this. She looked surprised which made Puck a little bit mad.

'Didn't expect someone like me to want to go to college, isn't it?'

'What? No that's not it. I would never think that. How can you say something like that. I'm just surprised that you are asking me to help you with this. That's all. I really didn't mean …'

'Relax Rachel. It's ok. So are you gonna help me?'

'Of course I will. Come to my house around 7. Is that ok for you?'

'Sure. Thanks Rachel!'

She just smiled and watched him walk out of the girls bathroom.

Around 7 o'clock Puck arrived at the Berry residence with all the paperwork. Rachel handed him two bottles of water and told him to go upstairs and wait in her room while she prepared sandwiches for them. She knew that he came straight from football practice and that he must be starving.

She made her way upstairs and saw Puck sitting on her bed. For some reason he looked upset, mad even.

'Is everything ok?'

'What is this?' he asked and showed her the papers he was holding in his hands.

'You were going through my stuff?' she accused him. She was angry. How dare him to go through her things.

'I wasn't going through your stuff. I accidentally dropped the bottle on your desk and the papers got soaked so I tried to dry them off and….'

'You had no right to read this! ' she grabbed the papers from his hands.

'Let us do your applications and then you can go!' she tried to brush it off but Puck was having none of it.

'No, we are going to talk about this. NOW!'

'There is nothing to talk about. It's none of your business!'

'You have no idea.'

'What's that supposed to mean?' Puck ignored her question.

'Why are there no applications for Julliard, NYU or any other of those fancy colleges in NYC? Why are there only applications for Ohio?'

'Because I already send out the other ones. These are just meant as a backup plan. So can we move on from this and get to work. I have things to do!' Puck knew she was lying.

'That's bullshit. I know when you are lying. You might be a good actress but you are a terrible liar Rachel.'

'Can you just forget about this please?'

'No, I can't and I wont. If you are scared that they wont take you then you are an idiot. They will be doing back flips when they see your application.'

Rachel just stared at him not knowing what to do or say.

'But you know that already. You know they would take you in a heartbeat. They would be idiots not to. So what is this really about?'

She was just standing there.

'Is this about Finn?' she didn't answer but she didn't have to. Her silence was enough for him to know it was because of him.

'You know that you will get accepted and that you will leave Lima and that he just does not belong there and that he wont follow you so you are staying here? Please tell me that is not true. You of all people? You are the only one that I know will make it out of Lima and will become something big and you are giving it up for Finn and a live in Lima? Really?'

'He loves me! I can sing everywhere but…'

'you can't find someone that will love you everywhere? Is that really what you think? Finn has nothing to lose. None of us do! You on the other hand have everything to lose. All the hard work would have been for nothing. The pain we put you through with all the insults and slushies we threw at you would have been for nothing. You don't belong here. You belong on a stage in front of an audience. If he really loved you he would come with you.'

'It's not like he asked me to give anything up for him.'

'No but he isn't even trying to get out of here.'

'Why do you even care? This is not about you. It's about my future and my life and not yours.'

'Because I'm responsible for it!'

'What? What are you talking about?'

'If I had known I would have never helped him!'

'Helped who with what? What are you talking about Noah?'

'I'm talking about that date in NY and that damn song! That's what I'm talking about.'

Rachel couldn't believe what she was hearing.

'Finn was all whiny when we were there about how the two of you should sing a duet if we wanted to win and how Jesse is in the way again. So I suggested that he should take you on one of those dates that you see in those awful romantic comedies that you love so much. When that didn't work, he tried writing the song but he just couldn't come up with anything so I helped him. And well it did the trick. The two of you got back together.'

'I don't understand why did you help him?'

'Because I owed him. It was my fault that you guys broke up!'

'No it wasn't. It was his and my fault. Not yours.'

'Maybe so but I felt like I needed to make it up to him or something. Besides I was sick and tired of watching you be miserable all the time and make everything in Glee about him. Instead of focusing on Nationals you only cared about getting Quinn out of the way so you could have him back. You wanted duets with him not so you could practice for Nationals and find a good song for us but to make him see that he wants you and get back together with you. I just wanted the two of you to stop this stupid game so we could finally focus on what Glee is really about and not your drama.'

'So this whole thing is not because you care it was only so I wouldn't be a whiny, annoying bitch anymore?'

'Have you been listening to me at all? I'm mad at you for wanting to give up everything for a guy. I'm mad because I think that you deserve more than being stuck in Lima teaching music and drama and pop out Finn's babies. I'm mad that you can't see how amazing you are and that there is another guy in your life who loves you more than Finn ever will. A guy who will do anything for you without you ever asking him to. Who will be there every step of the way and support you and try to be the best version of himself. A guy who will not make you feel bad about yourself for wanting things too much.'

'Noah….' she tried to grab his hand but he was already on his way out.

'You know what? You are right. It's none of my business. Do whatever you want!' he spoke before walking out of her room.

Rachel ran after him.

'Noah wait! Where are you going? What about your applications?'

He stopped at the front door and turned around.

'It doesn't matter anymore!' and with that he walked out.

Rachel could feel the tears forming in her eyes. She went back to her room and sat down on her bed. When she looked to her right and saw one single paper lying there. She picked it up and realized that it was Puck's application but there was only one. One single paper with the word NYU written on it. That's when it hit her. She dropped the paper, ran down the stairs and opened her front door to run after Puck only to find him still standing there. When Puck heard the door open he turned around and looked into Rachel's tear-filled eyes.

'I'm asking you just once, so think, really think about what you are going to answer. Why does it matter so much to you where I'm going to college?'

'I think you know the answer!'

'But I wanna hear it from you!'

'Because I wanted to be there with you.' he finally admitted it.

'I knew that Finn would never want to leave Lima and that you would. I figured you two could be together for the remaining year have a heartfelt goodbye and you would go to NY like you always wanted. I thought you would get over him after some time and I would be there and maybe, just maybe I could finally have a real chance with you.'

'How is that any different than me staying here to be with him? You would be willing to leave everything here to be with me.'

'Because I would not be giving up anything. There is nothing here for me to give up. My mom would be ecstatic about me going to college in NY. She could finally be proud of me after all the things I put her through. I thought you could be proud of me. I thought you would grow out of your school girl fantasy with Finn and see me as the guy you can grow into and have a future with.' she was about to say something but he cut her off.

'Just let me finish before I lose the courage. We both know that you could never be happy here. Yeah you could try but in your heart you know that a life here wont make you happy. Not in the long run. I know I just probably ruined all my chances with you after saying all those things but if I made you realize that there is something bigger out there for you than Lima then I can live with that. At least I know that you are doing what you always wanted to do and what you are meant to be doing.'

Rachel didn't know what to say. There were so many things going through her mind. She needed time to sort them out.

'I know this is a lot to take in and that you need your time. Just please think about it! Don't just give up!' and with that he left.