A/N: This isn't my story, it's my friend's, but she doesn't have a FF, so please do favorite, alert and review and I'll pass it on. I loved it! Enjoy.
Disclamer: I, nor my friend, own Glee or anything of that sort.
When Rachel started dating Finn she had this teenager image of love, of them going to prom together, dancing with him, wearing her sparkling dress and high-heeled shoes while he spun her around the dance floor in his arms. Of course as we all know teenager images of love aren't always exactly the way things end up working out. Weeks before prom Finn broke up with Rachel. He found himself still attracted to Quinn, still wanting to date Quinn, still feeling a sort of possessiveness toward her. To Rachel he just said, "Uh, sorry, but I can't see you anymore" and though his face held that puppy dog regretful look, like when you catch your dog chewing on an item that is not his, Rachel could tell Finn was serious.
After Finn broke up with her she started the long walk out of the school to her car, walking through the parking lot she kept her head up, kept her walk purposeful, willing herself not to let one tear slide out of her eye, down her cheek, not until she got in the car, not until her engine was running, not until her car was moving, better yet, not until she was in her room with her door closed and music on so her dad wouldn't come home from work and hear her crying or her other dad for that matter either.
Rachel pulled into the driveway and grabbed her purse and backpack from the passenger seat, she was up the walk and had her key in the lock when she heard his voice behind her.
"Rachel? Did you forget?"
Rachel turned in surprise, she dropped her keys, Puck was standing behind her with his history book and a beat-up notebook and a pencil over his ear. She fumbled picking her keys up, she fumbled opening the door and stuttered as she walked inside, "No, I didn't forget, come on in, the dining room is this way, go ahead and get settled, I'll just be a minute," she left him standing just outside the door as she tried to walk casually up the steps. She'd forgotten, how could she have remembered, what with Finn breaking up with her, how could she have remembered that today she and Puck were studying, studying history.
Puck watched her go up the stairs, he saw her hand tapping along the rail as she walked up, not her fingers, not like she was happily drumming the railing, but the palm of her hand, like she was talking to herself, like she was nervous, like she was reminding herself. Puck closed the door behind himself and looked at the dining room table, clearly this was where Rachel did a lot of her homework, there was a cup of pencils in the center of the table and little eraser shavings on the edge, toward the right of one chair. Puck scratched his head, ran his hand over his Mohawk, then sat down at the table with his book and notebook. He looked around the room, flowers on end tables, framed pictures on the walls, pictures of Rachel and her dads, pictures of her with just one dad or the other, with grandparents, family get together pictures, Puck stood up for a closer look.
"I-I'm sorry about that," Rachel said walking into the room, she was changed from her school clothes of a skirt and top and was wearing shorts and a sweat shirt, and socks, no shoes. Her hair was in a pony tail and she was wearing glasses. "I had to change clothes," she walked over to Puck, stood beside him and looked up at the pictures with him. He looked down at her, in her casual after-school clothes and smiled, he hadn't ever seen Rachel so unwound, so relaxed, it was a welcomed change. He had never seen her with glasses, she looked cute.
"Why don't you dress like this for school?" He asked, motioning from her head to her toes.
"Uh, well, I, it doesn't look nice. Normally I wouldn't dress like this to study, but, I had, such an awful day, I just had to get into comfort clothes. Comfort clothes are like comfort food you know, they can relax you, change your mood, make you feel-" She paused, looking up at Puck's face, at his dark eyes, she took a little uneasy step backward, "-better, all better," she said quietly, finishing her sentence.
Puck didn't know what made her day bad, like any guy he wasn't sure if he should ask or not, but he knew that he was hot and had a smokin' body and a hug from him always made the girls feel good. So, he leaned down, put his arms around the top of Rachel's shoulders and gave her a hug that not only enveloped her arms, but pulled her forward until she was against his chest. Puck smiled to himself, that always helped.
"What was that for?" Rachel asked, a little off balance, Puck hadn't taken his arms off her, but he loosened his grip a little and she could lean back and look at him.
"You looked like you needed a hug and you said you had an awful day," was all he said. Rachel nodded and smiled and gave him a quick squeeze then let go and started for the table. Puck followed her and sat down in the chair closest to the one she was sitting in. He would wait and see if she had anything else to say, she was a girl so he figured she'd share her entire day before he went home for supper.
Rachel sat down and scooted her chair forward, then opened her book and her notebook. When Puck sat down right next to her she was a little surprised, at this point in her life, in her day at least, she was feeling so bad and so rejected from Finn having broken up with her, completely out-of-the blue, in her opinion at least, well, she was just feeling so bad about herself she couldn't believe Puck would choose the chair nearest her when he could have just as easily sat across from her or on one of the table ends.
"Okay, the test is in three days, we need to review chapter 6, have you read it?" She asked him, thumbing through the chapter to the review questions at the end. Puck leaned over her shoulder looking at the pages with her, his arm casually draped over the back of her chair.
"Well, you know, the teacher went over it in class," he scratched the back of his neck, "He had notes and I wrote down what he said, what he wrote on the projector," Puck leaned his head on his hand, his elbow on the table, "I didn't read it at home though, if that's what you're asking." Then he looked at her and smiled, thinking to himself, Charm her, Charm her, or she will scold you.
Rachel sighed, was she the only student who took school seriously? Who read the chapters when the teacher said to read the chapters. But, well, going over the material with Puck would help her learn the information further, and he had to get a B or higher on this test or he was out of Glee. Schools and their grade requirements, didn't administrators know not all students cared about history and science? Some students were artists!
"Well, it is rather dull, I mean, my dad, he taught me a lot about the civil war when I was a kid, so I know it inside out, but-"suddenly as her eyes crossed the room, and looked out of the dining room and down the hall and into the living room, she saw a jacket of Finn's that he'd left at her house just two evenings ago. He'd been over to "study" but had spent the evening sitting on the couch with her, NOT studying. Suddenly Rachel felt angry, embarrassed, furious, she felt her face grow hot, she stood up, forgetting the Civil War, forgetting Puck was sitting next to her, and she stomped from the room.
Stomping with socks isn't as loud as stomping with say, shoes, but she stomped angrily from the dining room, across the hallway, into the living room, ripped the jacket so angrily off the chair that the chair tipped backwards, then without noticing the chair she stomped out the front door and threw the jacket onto the porch. She saw her cell phone on the little table inside the door, and angrily jerked it off the table and began typing so fiercely Puck thought sure she would break something, either the phone or a thumb or something. At that point, he stood up and with a few long strides he was right next to her.
"I thought if we started talking about the Civil War you'd come out of your funk or whatever, but clearly we're not going to get anything accomplished until you get it off your chest," he took the phone from her hand and easily tossed it, sending it sailing across the room, and landing softly on the couch. Rachel looked first after her phone in surprise, then up at Puck's face. He looked so caring and sweet that she couldn't keep it in any longer, and she started to cry.
Puck followed her to the stairs where she sat down on the bottom step, he sat next to her and put his arm around her shoulders and she let her head fall against him and she cried.