"So I had the chick up against the lockers and..."

"Puck shut up." That was Quinn.

"-And she started pulling off my jacket,"

"Would you shut up?" Mercedes spoke up.

"So then I can't even believe it, she reaches up and pulls off her..."

"Noah I'm inclined to agree that this isn't the appropriate time to be..." Rachel started.

"-Shirt, then she undoes her freaking bra, I was like damn this girl is good to go you know?"

"Noah! Shut your damn mouth before I shut it for you!" All heads whipped around to look at Santana in the back row of the choir room, whose eyes were now trained on the back of Puck's head like something out of Predator. At least that's what Artie thought it looked like. Maybe he had stayed up too late watching sci-fi movies last night though.

"Hey Santana you need to chill out, I thought you'd love a good topless chick story." Puck turned in his seat to look at the Latina, a self assured smirk on his face that clearly indicated he was amused by his own wit.

Instead of inciting a torrent of rage like such a jibe usually would, the joke this time hung in the air, Santana freezing in her seat as brown eyes bore unwaveringly into Puck's.

"What did you just say?" Her voice was quiet, deadly.

The fact that he had done something very wrong became immediately apparent to Puck, whose smirk faltered as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat under the piercing gaze.

"Babe lighten up it was just a joke, seriously."

Artie looked on the scene with what he supposed was a similar expression to that on the faces of his class mates. The same sort of expression you might expect to see on the face of someone who has discovered the timer on the suitcase bomb had just reached zero. The sudden realisation of impending carnage.

Eyes never leaving Puck's face, Santana watched him for a beat with a look that could only be called venomous before finally responding.

"Do not, ever, call me babe." The room was silent; every slight creak of the plastic chairs bouncing off the walls and magnifying.

"Whatever, you used to love it when I called you babe," The smirk was back, Puck apparently unwilling to lose face on this particular argument, "Especially when we were getting it..."

"Right guys how was everyone's... What's going on here?" My Shuester strolled into the room with impeccable timing as always but paused where he stood, bag still in hand as he picked up on the unmissable tension in the atmosphere.

"Nothing Mr Shue, Santana and I were just taking a little trip down memory lane, weren't we babe?" Puck flashed another grin over his shoulder.

"Oooh, boy gonna get it." Artie muttered under his breath chuckling. Honestly he was kind of enjoying the entertainment. He felt a sudden wrenching as the hand that had been clasped in his was tugged forcibly back, looking up in time to see Brittany's face contorting into a rare frown. What was her problem?

"You know what Noah," Santana emphasised his name, voice still disturbingly calm, "I never loved anything about when we used to get it on, quite frankly you were as interesting a screw as a dead tree, and just about as skilled too. So when are you going to realise no one wants to listen to your bullshit stories and do myself and the kind people in this room a favour and shut. the hell. up!"

Noah leapt out of his seat in the front row and twirled around to face her, face already turning a bright shade of red at the insult. There was a collective intake of breath from the class as everyone watched, riveted, to see where this was going. Artie was reminded of a car crash, he knew it was going to be bad but he couldn't look away.

"Oh so is that why you kept coming back for more? Or is it because blondie was holding out on you?"

Artie frowned as he glanced towards Sam. He'd always wondered about the blonde boy but seriously, holding out on sex? Maybe Kurt had been right all along. Only he noticed Sam was wearing a similarly confused expression which didn't really make any sense, because everyone else in the room was glancing at each other knowingly. Artie considered himself to be a fairly intelligent guy, so why was he the last one on the uptake?

Beside him Brittany was fidgeting restlessly, snatching her hand out of reach as he made a grab for it once more. He glanced into her face to see a nervous expression as she avoided his eyes. Really, what was going on here?

A scraping sound drew his attention to the back of the choir room once again as Santana slowly got out of her seat and descended the steps to the front of the room coming to a stop right in front of Puck. Even though the girl was several inches shorter, in that moment she seemed to be towering above him.

"Alright guys seriously enough, I don't want these kinds of arguments in my classroom," Mr Shuester finally stepped in.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." Puck looked her straight in eyes confidently, ignoring Mr Shue's weak attempt at supervision, although from where Artie was sitting he could see Puck's booted feet shuffle back ever so slightly.

"You don't know the first thing about me Noah." Santana hissed.

"Yeah? I know where you go most Friday nights. Bet you thought you were being sneaky about that huh? Well I'll make you a deal, I'll keep your little secret if you let me watch you two..."

The unmistakable sound of an open palm on soft skin bounced off the walls like a gunshot ringing out causing Artie to jump in his wheelchair. Beside him Brittany flinched as though it was her that had been hit, and she recoiled back into her chair.

Puck swore loudly as his head jerked to the right with the force of the slap, stumbling back a step or two. By the time he turned around Santana was marching towards the door, fists clenched by her side and anyone could see she was struggling to maintain her calm.

Artie was more concerned with Brittany who looked like a wounded animal as she stared aghast at the door Santana had just fled through, so absorbed that she jumped when he touched her on the shoulder.

"Hey are you alright?" He asked tentatively.

Brittany didn't reply, by the looks of it she hadn't even heard him; instead she just sat chewing her lip, her eyebrows drawn in concentration. He was about to repeat the question when suddenly, almost as if she had won some sort of internal debate, she jumped out of her seat and started running towards the door.

"Brit, where are you going?"

She turned back to him for a second, face plagued with uncertainty and... was it regret?

"Sorry Artie I just... I can't."

Artie sat dumbfounded as he watched his girlfriend disappear with a flash of blonde ponytail around the corner. Puck stood scowling and rubbing his face while the rest of the class turned to each other with raised eyebrows, still no one daring to say a word. The room was silent again for a minute before Artie couldn't stand it anymore.

"Seriously would someone tell me what's going on here?"

He glanced around the class but no one would meet his eyes.