So this being the good guy thing? It sucks.
You need someone to help you tp a house or pour soap into the fountain in the park yeah, you call Puck. You need someone to talk to when your boyfriend breaks up with you because you took back your yes to his proposal…yeah not so much. That's exactly what happened though, and now he's got Rachel freaking Berry on the phone and no idea whatsoever to make her feel better.
Chick is out of her mind right now, seriously he doesn't even think he's heard her this freaked out. See, Finn dropped to his knees three weeks ago and proposed. Fucking crazy but that's his best friend and he knows he loves (loved?) this girl. She tells him yes and then her dads (and just about everyone else) talked some sense into her and she told him she couldn't marry him yet. She added the yet too so Puck's not really sure what got him pissed enough to break up with her. Kinda fucked if you ask him.
So that was two days ago, and now she's calling him and asking for advice. Not so much asking for advice really as crying uncontrobally into the phone about how much she loves him and how she never should have taken the yes back.
"I just don't know what to do Noah! He's my everything, I have nothing without him!"
Now that shit just pisses him off. He knows for a fact she's the only person that's going to get out of this town and really make something of herself. He's not about to let her think Finn fucking Hudson is the only thing that's important about her.
"Rach, that's bullshit and you know it." She sniffles and now he feels like an asshole. He really needs to learn how to do this whole good guy thing better.
"Noah, I have spent the last three years in love with Finn. What am I supposed to do now?" He sighs and lays back against his pillow.
"I don't know what you want me to tell you, Rach. I know it hurts, and it's going to hurt. Probably for a long fucking time. You need to know that you're better than him, than this whole damn town. Now you're going to get back to what you do best, kicking everyone's ass at everything. Okay?"
She's silent on the other end and he rolls his eyes.
"Rachel…say okay." She giggles a bit and it makes him smile.
"Okay. I'm gonna go take a super hot bath and see if I can shut my mind off for awhile, I'll talk to you soon." He's trying to get the image of her out of his mind when she speaks again. "And Noah, thanks."
"You're welcome, baby." He hangs up when she says bye, and tries to figure out why in the world he just called her that.
The next few weeks are fucking weird and he's not sure how else he can describe it.
Finn starts fucking around with Santana, and that makes zero sense to him because he thought she was with Brittany. Then he realizes she's with both of them and it makes a lot more sense. He knew that girl was into dick, he did date her for years before she got with Brittany. So now Finn and Brit and Santana have this weird thing going and it's freaking Rachel the fuck out.
She comes up to him one day in the hall and before he knows it she's pulled him into the janitor's closet.
"Do you still think I'm hot?" He raises an eyebrow and looks down at her hand that's still wrapped around his shirt.
"Are you serious with this shit right now?" She lets go of him and sighs as she leans against the shelves. He wants to tell her those aren't that secure and he's knocked them down more than once but he thinks this might be a bad time.
"Yes, Noah, I'm serious. I don't understand why Finn is doing what he's doing. I mean, yes, Santana is very pretty but she's with Brittany and I just don't know why he'd…" He stops her by grabbing her and pulling her close. He puts his hand in her hair and he can hear her breath catch in her throat. "Noah…"
He just shakes his head and looks into her eyes.
"Rachel. You are the hottest chick in this school. You're the hottest chick in this town, and probably the state. Finn is a fucking idiot." He's got his fingers tangled in her hair and her eyes are fluttering closed. He wants to kiss her but he knows that probably wouldn't be the best thing in the world for him to do right now. She's still so caught up on Finn that she'd probably envision he was him or something. And that shit's just not kosher.
She realizes he's not going to kiss her and opens her eyes to look at him. A shy smile crosses her face as he looks down at her.
"Thank you Noah." She says it so quietly he's not even sure she said it and before he can say anything else she's gone.
He leans his head back against the shelves and closes his eyes. Being the good guy fucking sucks sometimes.
She doesn't get back with Finn.
That really surprises him, because he figured they would just get their shit together and that would be that. It didn't happen that way though, and now she's heading to Tisch and he's heading to Boston, and he has to say goodbye. It sucks too because they just started getting close, and he is going to miss her. He tells her this at her going away party that Kurt insisted he be in charge of. She smiles shyly when he says it and she pulls him close into a hug.
"I'm gonna miss you too Noah." He pulls away but keeps his hands on her hips. "We're gonna talk all the time, right?" He just nods and bends down to kiss the top of her head.
"I gotta go home to pack but call or text when you get there okay?" There are tears in her eyes when she nods and he squeezes her hip before walking away.
He is catching a train to Boston in three days and he knows that shit will be different. He also knows the fact that he's worried he won't see Rachel much is fucked, and he's not quite sure what that means.
Boston is fucking amazing.
He enrolls in a local college for criminal justice and he's not sure what he's going to do with that but at least it opens him up for some potentially awesome careers. He thinks about how fucking legit it would be to be a cop and that keeps him from blowing off his classes.
He meets a cute girl in one of his law classes and he fucks her in some college bar bathroom. She gives him her number but he knows he wont call. Those aren't the types of girls you bring home and he knows his ma would flip her shit if he brought home a girl like that.
He stays in the dorms until he makes friends with a guy that lives off campus and that sounds pretty badass to him. The guy, Nick, is 23 and is in serious need of a roommate and Puck agrees quickly. He finds a bullshit job at some coffee place on campus and he pulls in major tips from all the horny college girls that think he's hot.
And he knows he is so he makes sure he gets numbers from anyone that looks interested.
He makes enough to pay his part of rent and to keep his fridge stocked with beer and frozen pizzas and he starts to think that college is pretty fucking awesome.
Rachel calls him after his crime & punishment class one day and he smiles as he answers his phone.
"What's up gorgeous?" He notices a group of girls standing by him that look at him when he says it and he just smirks as he walks by.
"Noah, you always know what to say to a girl." He grins and pulls his backpack up on his shoulder. "So guess who I've been talking to lately?"
He stops right in the middle of the hallway and he's sure she's going to tell him that she got back with Finn. He thinks that's probably out of the question since last he talked to Finn he was seeing some girl he met while fixing her breaks at the shop.
"Who's that?" He braces himself for her answer and is pretty shocked when it comes.
"Santana. I don't know if you still talk to her but she's working as an intern at some law firm in the city and she asked me to go to coffee with her. Isn't that strange? Well anyways, we had coffee and started hanging out and now we're friends…I think."
He laughs because seriously, Santana and Rachel friends? That's just about the funniest shit he's every heard.
"So you and Satan…that's a really fucked up friendship Rach. I mean, technically you're both my exes."
"If I was only allowed to be friends with girls that aren't your exes in one way or another Noah, I wouldn't be able to make a whole lot of friends." She says it in the fucking sexiest flirty way and he smiles at her snarkiness.
"Well played. So do you guys like talk about Finn's dick or what?" Her loud laugh lets him know she's not still hung up on Finn and he's glad. He was sick of hearing about that fucking guy.
She starts seeing someone from her dance class and it shouldn't piss him off as much as it does. She calls him one night after a date and he rolls his eyes as she talks his ear off about how great it was.
"Rach…rach..Rachel! Not trying to be a dick but why are you calling me to talk about this? Shouldn't you be calling Hummel or Santana or anyone else?" Guess the not trying to be a dick thing isn't working so well.
"I'm sorry Noah, I just thought you'd be interested in hearing about what's happening in my life." He can actually hear her frowning and he sighs.
"Yeah, yeah. So what's this dude's name? Barney?" She giggles and he smiles as he closes his notebook. He might be in school for criminal justice but that doesn't stop him from writing music.
"His name is Bernard." Puck rolls his eyes.
"What is he, 58? What kind of name is Bernard?"
Their banter of her new boyfriend's name lasts another fifteen minutes before she says she has to go. Early classes suck and Puck's just glad his first class tomorrow doesn't start until after lunch.
"Have fun with your grandpa…I mean boyfriend Rach." He knows if she were actually here he'd get a slap on the shoulder for that one so for once he's glad she's so far away.
"Ha ha ha Noah, you're hilarious." He grins and grabs a beer from his fridge. Living in off campus housing really has it's perks sometimes. "I really have to go, but I'll text you soon. Bye Noah."
He ends the call and pops the top off his beer. He looks at the phone in his hand and scrolls through until he finds the number of a girl that came into the coffe shop today. She's small and brunette and when he's fucking her he tells himself he's not thinking about Rachel, but he also knows that's a lie.
The relationship with Barney lasts another two months and then suddenly it's senior year all over again and he's holding the phone while she's crying on the other end.
This time she's not as hysterical though and the crying is mostly about how someone could just cheat on her and not care at all. Puck's fists are closed the whole time and all he can think of is finding this piece of shit and punching him in the face as hard as he can. When he tells her that she just laughs through the tears and thanks him for caring.
"Noah, you're the only man I have in my life that is there no matter what. Well, aside from my dads of course, but really…what would I do without you?"
He thinks about their converstion a lot longer that he probably should that night as he's trying to sleep.