Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or its characters. Ryan Murphy is the genius behind them.

A/N: If you read my other story 'Moving On' this is the fic I was telling you about. It's slightly AU. It's starts off the summer after everyone has graduated from McKinley. It may be a little confusing but it'll get explained in later chapters what happened between Rachel and Puck in high school. Hope you enjoy this.

"What the hell is all this?" Puck asked walking through Rachel's front door to find a small party going on.

"It's Rachel's Going Away Party!" Mike smiled gesturing to all of the streamers, banners, and balloons decorating the large living room.

"Going away? Rach, what are they talking about?" Puck asked the brunette girl who was currently getting a group hug from Tina, Brittany, and Mercedes.

"I'm leaving for NYU." She told him, wishing they could have this talk some other time but by the way he was standing she knew he wanted to have this out right now. She hated that about him. He always had to do everything right then.

"I thought you weren't leaving for another two weeks. Were you planning on telling me?" He asked angrily.

"You weren't supposed to show up for another hour." She stepped towards him and the other people in the room shrank back towards the walls knowing that Rachel and Puck were about to start fighting.

"When do you leave?" He looked down at his feet, praying that it wouldn't be anytime soon.

"Tomorrow." She replied quietly.

"Tomorrow?" He clenched his jaw. "You were going to tell me, your boyfriend, that you're about to move to New York in less than 24 hours."

"Noah, it's more complicated than that." She shook her head. "You knew I got accepted to NYU. You knew this would happen."

There was a long silence that circled the room as Puck tried to calm down. He closed his eyes trying to form a coherent sentence that wasn't filled with crude language.

Rachel started talking first. "I plan. That's what I do. I had my entire life planned when I was eight years old. I'm supposed to graduate from here and go to New York, that's what I planned but you're there, in the middle of all of that and it's confusing, Noah." She paused to take a shaky breath. "It's terrifying because I used to see myself growing up to be on Broadway but when I'm around you I don't know see that anymore. I see myself with you and I don't know what that means."

"I see myself with you too." He said quietly. "Isn't that a good thing?"

"I don't know!" She yelled. "That's the thing, I can't think about anything else but you anymore and that scares me. I've never felt like this before and…" She bit into her bottom lip to keep from crying. "We want different things, Noah. I love being with you but I know what I want to be and you get in the way of that. With you, I can't plan everything. I'm not like you, I'm not spontaneous or fun or any of that."

"This isn't fair." He shook his head. "You let me feel like this and you promised you wouldn't hurt me. You promised, Rach."

"I know." She felt the tears fill her eyes. "I'm so, so sorry." She stepped towards him.

"Don't." He jumped away from her. "You knew how hard it was for me to open to you. You knew and you still let me fall in love with you. You… I trusted you."

She was a little shocked by his words. He had never told her that he was in love with her and he was choosing now to say it. Another thing she hated about him.

"I didn't mean for this to happen like this." She told him.

"Then don't go!" He screamed. "Don't leave me."

"You know I don't want to hurt you but I have to go to New York." She shook her head.

"Let me come with you." He begged.

"Noah. Please, this is hard enough as it is. I know I'm being selfish but I have to do this… without you." She felt the hot tears spill down her cheeks slowly. "You going to go to Cleveland State and I'm going to NYU. Maybe… maybe sometime in the future we can try this again but right now, I have to go. I have to at least see if I can make something of myself."

"Why can't you do that with me?" He asked coldly. "I love you, Rachel. I love you more than I have ever loved anything. You did that to me and now you're just going to walk away."

"Do you really think I want to leave you?" She asked, her voice loud. "Of course I don't. I would give anything to just stay here with you but that's not how life works, Noah."

"I don't mind having to share you, Rachel. I don't mind if you push me into a small spot in your life."

"That's not fair to you." She yelled, cutting him off. "The problem is that you have taken up every spot in my life. You're my best friend and my… You're everything to me, Noah. I can't push you away and that terrifies me. You don't just take up a little spot in my heart, you take up my entire heart and that's not how it's supposed to be. If I want to make it on Broadway I'm supposed to be selfish and I can't have distractions but when you're around, you are a distraction."

"So this is it then?" He asked, refusing to let himself cry. Chicks didn't make him cry, not even Berry.

"This is it." She nodded. "We can still keep in touch." She said. "I'll email you or whatever."

"You know what?" He reached for the doorknob. "Don't bother."

"Noah." Rachel begged but was answered with the slamming of the door as he left.

She felt the sob rip through her body and she sank to her knees as the tears streamed down her face. She felt someone wrap their arms around her and she knew it was Finn. She sank against him and let the tears flow freely, feeling all of her friends gather around her. She never thought it would be this hard to leave Lima, but then again before Noah she didn't have a reason to stay.

Rachel pulled herself out of her daydream and sighed. It had been over a year since she left Lima. She glanced around her bedroom and smiled slightly. This is what she wanted. She was in New York City. She was doing very well in all of her classes at NYU and she had an amazing boyfriend. This is what she wanted so why was she still thinking about that day; about Noah.

"You're up?" A man asked from the end of the bed.

"Yea." Rachel smiled at him. "I'm up."

"Did you sleep well?" He moved to sit on the bed beside her.

"Yes." She felt him lean over to kiss her on the forehead. "I slept great."

"I love you." The man pulled her back on the bed with him.

"I know." She grinned. "I love you too, Eli."