A/N: This is slight AU in that there is no Glee Club yet at the beginning, and Rachel only has one dad who is divorced and has just moved into town. Enjoy!

Funny how the tiniest things can change a person's life forever. One second you're on a straight path that appears to be set in stone, and in a flash, the next second you find yourself caught up in a whirlwind, about to embark on a completely different journey that will change everything that you know, forever. At first, when these tiny things come across you, they appear insignificant. But one day, maybe years into the future, you look back and realize just how much that seemingly insignificant thing impacted your entire universe. "Tiniest things" could mean a chance encounter, or even tripping over a stone on the sidewalk…or maybe, a single, short phone call.

Everyone else was out having fun, even his parents. Kurt was out with Blaine, "studying" at his house (as if anyone actually studies on Friday nights), and Burt and Carole were spending a celebratory weekend at a resort for their one-year anniversary. But Finn? He was at home, lounging on the couch in nothing but a holey grey T-shirt and his boxers after a shower, his hair matted and soaking wet and a beer in his hand. His mind was hazy from all the alcohol circulating through his system, but it was what he wanted—to lose all fear of consequences and forget about everything altogether. Finn simply didn't want to have to feel anything anymore, because if he let himself be subject to his emotions, he knew that he would only feel pain. Almost two months into his senior year, and Finn had already taken on a completely new attitude: life freaking sucks.

It only made it worse that during the past summer, he had been so anxiously awaiting his last year of high school. He thought that it could be like his victory lap—after all, he already had everything. Finn was the golden boy, with his position as star quarterback on the football team, sky-high popularity, and beautiful blonde cheerleader girlfriend, Quinn Fabray. But it all ended when the recruiter for Ohio State came, and told him that he had "reached his ceiling" and obviously had "no promise, and no future" in football. From there, Finn had plummeted into depression. First he quit the football team for fear of failure, and started to doubt that he could ever have much of a future in anything. At least I still have Quinn, he had thought. She loves me, and we're high school sweethearts who are going to get married someday. She's so beautiful, with that luscious, wavy blonde hair and deep jade-colored eyes with specks of hazel…and then she dumped him. Turned out she didn't truly love him nearly as much as she loved his popularity, and with his quarterback position had gone his perfect rep. That left him single, heartbroken, hopeless, talentless, useless, and most of all—a loser.

Taking a swig from his bottle, Finn reached for the television remote and began flipping through channels halfheartedly. There were so many corny shows about people finding their dreams, doing great things, falling in love, and other fairy tale cliché shit like that, so he eventually gave up on finding something decent to watch and strode over to the fridge to grab another beer. He couldn't wait to get to the point where he was so drunk that he would simply pass out and not remember anything about the night before. Too bad he couldn't just pass out forever.

I'm useless. I can't do anything. My life is worthless, and I'M worthless. Dying would be nice. I could rot away under a gravestone, in the dirt for the rest of eternity. Fuck Quinn. Fuck the world. Fuck everything, Finn thought to himself as he poured more and more of the light brown poison down his throat. It didn't even burn on his tongue anymore. He just wanted more and more; alcohol was one of the only escapes that he had, and he wasn't going to stop consuming it. Finn had become an alcoholic.

Suddenly, he heard the brrring-bring of his cellphone, as it rotated from the vibrations on the wooden kitchen table. He leaned over to see who was calling, and found that the screen flashed, PUCK CALLING. Sighing, Finn reached over to answer it. Although he didn't really feel like talking to anyone, Puck was his wingman and best friend, and he had been pretty awesome about swiping more liquor for Finn from the ladies whose pools he cleaned.

"Heeeelloo, Puck," Finn said into the phone, his words slurring together. He almost didn't recognize his own voice. Puck did not care though, and immediately began shouting into the phone with sheer excitement.

"DUDE. So today my mom came home with this divorced guy from my temple, who just moved into town with his daughter, whose our age, and SHE'S DATING HIM. So at first I was totally freaking out, cause my mom's like ancient, but then his daughter came in, too, because they were staying over for dinner, and FUCK! Her name is Rachel Berry. She's so, so, so freaking hot! I almost wanted to fuck her right then and there, dude, 'cause she was wearing this super short and tight strapless dress, and I could see her amazing boobs, and I swear I could almost see her freaking PUSSY when she bent over! And she's starting at our school on Monday!"

"Awesome, dude…realllly greeattt," Finn replied drunkenly, although he hadn't actually been listening all that well. Puck could sense Finn's insincerity, and paused for a moment, remembering that maybe it wasn't cool to be telling Finn about meeting a hot chick just when Quinn had so recently dumped him.

"Sorry, man, maybe I shouldn't have told you, because of Quinn…"

"No, it's fiiine, I'm just like super… super…drunk, and like I toootally am over Quinn even though I miss those cute little sounds she made when I screwed her and stuff…hell, who am I kidding, I love her and I'm sooo miserable and—" Finn was cut off by Puck, who was shaking his head on the other line, surging with sympathy for his friend.

"Finn, get some sleep, I think you definitely had too many beers this time. As your best friend, I'm not gonna let you talk to me while drunk. And don't go drunk dialing anyone else, especially not Quinn! Good night, bro." With that, Puck hung up, knowing that Finn would have ended up saying too many things that he would regret in the morning. And just at that moment, as Finn stumbled back to the couch, he passed out on the hard, cold ground. Then, there was only darkness, as slumber consumed him.