Disclaimer: Don't own Glee or the characters. If I did, Rachel would not be in love with Finn, and Jesse would still be around :)
A/N: This is my first Glee story, as well as my first story in years. If I don't have the style down, I'm sorry :( Also, I do have vague plans to continue this, but no promising on regular updates. Still, I have been bitten by the Puckleberry bug.
The Sum of Things
When they break up for the first time, she's relieved.
She's been expecting it since she found out they were dating. When she looks back over the week's events, she's still not entirely sure how things added up they way they did.
He had slushied her that Thursday before, and they had sat together at Temple that Friday, but nothing had seemed out of the ordinary.
He never slushied her on Fridays because of Temple. The very first time he had slushied her they were in seventh grade and it was a Wednesday. That Friday he had sat with her during services because there really weren't that many people his age there. This meant there weren't many her age their either, but she had never minded this because she had always been precocious and conducted herself just like a miniature adult, mixing with them easily and never realizing that their smiles were more from amusement than anything else. Puck, however, avoided the adults like a plague, maintaining that they smelled funny. When he told her this she said he shouldn't make fun of their elders and walked away. He had grabbed his sister then and gave her a quarter telling her she could have another if she told the kid with a fro that Rachel Berry had the hots for him.
Rachel always sought out Puck after that because he was her protector from Jacob Ben Israel.
The first and only time he slushied her on a Friday, she refused to sit with him at Temple. So he ended up sitting with his mom and sister – who sat next to a corpse. That's what he called the ancient beyond belief people who showed up every Friday without fail. This one apparently had lost his sense of smell and didn't know his depends needed changing. He glared at Rachel who was sitting with her hands folded in her lap next to her dads. Frankly he didn't understand why she'd sit with him when he slushied her on a Thursday, but not on a Friday.
Still, he never slushied her on a Friday again.
He had slushied her on Thursday, so when she saw the grape slushy in his hand on Monday, she instinctively closed her eyes. When nothing happened, she opened one eye and looked up at him. Then he'd told her he'd gotten her grape because he knew it was her favorite. Technically banana was her favorite, but the slushy machine at school only had cherry and grape, and cherry reminded her of cough medicine.
The next thing she knew they were making out on her bed. Well, perhaps it wasn't the exact next thing, but she'd always had a flare for the dramatic. Which explained why she pulled away so suddenly when she realized whom she'd been kissing. Trying to give herself an out, and to avoid having to admit she was only dating him because he was a replacement Finn, she informed him she was too high maintenance for him. At least that's what she thought she'd told him. Apparently he'd taken it as a challenge and performed Sweet Caroline in glee for her. She blushed when he sang at her because that's what protocol demanded.
Sometime after that they became a couple. When they walked down the halls, she tried not to look at Finn and Quinn. Still, every time she did, she would distract herself by engaging Puck in conversation, however once sided it might be. She's certain that he learned more that week about Broadway than he ever wanted to. Or perhaps he didn't. She knew that as much as she watched Finn, he watched Quinn. But for some reason, she ignored this and held on to his arm tighter.
When he was hit with a slushy, she cleaned him up. She was surprised by his apology for all the slushies she had to endure from him over the years. But he never asked why she still sat with him at Temple. She was glad he didn't, because she didn't think she could adequately answer that question. Still, she was positive they were broken up when they left the bathroom. But he showed up to glee and she hugged him and he all but dared people to slushy him, and she thought maybe they might make it. But then someone mentioned Finn and her heart constricted and she watched him stare at Quinn all through glee. She didn't blame him though.
When they break up on Friday, she's relieved. Somehow she had been expecting more drama, so when there isn't, she's happy. She admits to him that she loves Finn, and she acknowledges that he loves Quinn. Then she admits to him that she wants everything too much. She wants to not want Finn. But she wants Finn just as badly as she wants to not want him. She can't figure out which she wants more, because she wants both scenarios so badly it hurts. She doesn't know that she necessarily wants to date Puck, or to just be able to date someone without constantly looking at Finn.
She calls him a jerk when the situation demands it. She's called him a jerk before, but for some reason it affects him more now. She thinks she should have maybe been listening more when he was talking. Sure, she'd heard his words, but she'd been watching Finn, and hadn't focused like she thinks she should have. She's hurt when he tells her they were never friends to begin with, and she watches him walk away wishing she could run after him and apologize. But she stays in her seat, thinking that running after him to apologize might be too dramatic for even her.
That night at Temple she keeps the seat next to her open, and she's been sitting for ten minutes when he sits down next to her. She smiles at him and he smiles back and she asks him if they're still friends and he tells her to stop being such a drama queen. And things are back to normal.
