"You're the one that I want! Ooh ooh ooooh!"
Finn groaned and reluctantly paused the game so he could reach into his pocket and pull out his ringing phone. Well, it wasn't really ringing; it was more blaring the song that Rachel had set as his ring tone for her.
"Come on, man!" Puck whined. "We're at level 15! Just do what I do when a girl calls me—ignore it. If she wants to talk to you so badly, she can leave a voicemail. Then you can decide if it's worth it to call her back."
Finn hesitated. "But Rachel will leave a voicemail and call back in 15 minutes anyways."
The song abruptly cut off. He had waited too long in deciding whether or not to answer it.
Puck snickered. "I can't believe you two have been together almost a year! I didn't even last two weeks with her. She may have a hot body, but she is way too much work."
Finn let out a short grunt, not sure whether it was supposed to signal agreement with or denial of Puck's words. "The truth is, she is a lot of work—I mean, she likes a lot of attention—but..."
Puck attempted to finish Finn's sentence. "What you get in return morethan makes up for the work? I don't know, there are enough girls in this school who will put out and not expect any commitment in return—"
Puck's assumption annoyed Finn. "I'm not dating Rachel only for the sex!" He lowered his voice to a murmur, "If I was, we'd have broken up a long time ago."
The look on Puck's face was one of shock. "Wait, man. Are you telling me you two still haven't done it yet?"
Finn wasn't going to respond to that.
Puck continued. "She dated that Jesse kid only for like two weeks before she did the deed with him! How is that fair?"
"She didn't sleep with Jesse." Finn felt the relief and guilt that usually came with thinking of that fact.
"You told me she did last year."
"She was going to, but didn't go through with it. She just told me she had to get me jealous."
"So Berry's still a virgin?"
"Yeah. But I'm not." Here's where the guilt came in.
"So what? When she finally caves she'll be glad you have some experience. Not as much experience as me, but..." Puck trailed off, smirking.
"Well, she was pretty mad when I 'fessed up to sleeping with Santana. She got over it when I told her why I'd done it—you know, because I was so upset she was with Jesse—but she told me she wasn't going to go all the way with me until I'd had a bunch of tests for STDs."
"That's crap. Have you had the tests?" Puck asked, his bravado wavering slightly. Finn knew why—if he had something, chances were Puck, having also done it with Santana, might have something, too.
"Yeah, I'm clear."
"So, why is she still holding out?" Puck's face was a mixture of relief and disbelief.
"Says she's not 'ready'." Finn's frustration showed through in his emphasis on the last word.
"And you're still with her?" Puck asked sceptically.
Finn shrugged helplessly. "Yeah."
"Why?"
"I love her."
Puck was silent and expressionless for a moment, before a grin slowly spread across his face. "You are so whipped, man."
"Shut up. Let's get back to the game." Finn unpaused the game, and all talk of Rachel Berry ceased for the time being.
Finn considered himself a decent boyfriend. He at least pretended to listen to everything Rachel said—which was more than Puck would do. They went on a date every Friday night and hung out on Saturdays—although he'd spent quite a few of those Saturdays sitting on the couch with her, watching football, basketball, or baseball—but even though Finn didn't think she really liked sports, she'd said she was okay with it. He even made sure that any restaurant they went to had something a vegan could eat—well, okay, maybe he'd forgotten and taken her to burger joints a couple (or maybe six or seven) times, but she'd just got a water and said she wasn't hungry anyways, so no big deal.
If he was really honest with himself, though, he was getting to be kind of exhausted keeping up with her.
Most of the time, once you got used to not understanding the occasional word she used in her often constantly streaming monologues, watching lots of musicals, and her calling him at 7:30 on a Saturday morning because "Gosh, Finn, everyone is up by now," she was pretty fun to be with. Her quirks had become mostly endearing to him, and he really did love her—not to mention their make-out sessions.
Things were going well—in fact, Finn thought, much better than things had gone with Quinn. He was happy. Rachel was happy. Right?
Finn was feeling pretty good about life as he was walking in the direction of Rachel's locker after Glee rehearsal. This morning he'd got a B on a test in History, Glee had won Sectionals easily only weeks ago, their main competition in the upcoming Regionals—Vocal Adrenaline—was looking to be only a shadow of their former glory, and at lunch he and Rachel had made out against her locker when the hallway was deserted. Things were going well.
He and Rachel had gone to their respective lockers after Glee rehearsal; when Finn had got his stuff, the plan was to meet Rachel at her locker and he would drive her home. It was their "after-Glee-practice" routine.
But something very un-routine-like was happening as he rounded the corner, bringing Rachel's locker into visibility, something that made him freeze, made his blood run cold. There was Rachel, just like always.
But there was Jesse St. James, not like always.
An emotion Finn hadn't felt for almost a year—nausea mixed with anger mixed with fear—filled his entire body. Suddenly, his fight or flight reflex kicked in, and he aggressively strode forwards towards the pair, semi-consciously trying to make himself look bigger so as to intimidate Jesse.
When he was maybe ten feet away and closing in, he shouted, "What are you doing here, St. Jerkface?"
Jesse turned—dramatically—towards him, smiling in a way that seemed to be a challenge to Finn. "Hello, Finn. A pleasure as always. I am simply in Ohio visiting for the week. It's spring break for us college students, you know. I don't know if you remember, but I'm on a full-ride scholarship to the University of California Los Angeles."
Finn rolled his eyes, and retorted in what he thought was a clever way. "Yeah, well, I'd never forget something that made me as happy as that did!" Jesse raised his eyebrows and smiled a little mockingly. Finn quickly thought about what he'd said, before blurting out lamely, "Not the full-ride-scholarship part—the you-being-in-California-far-away-from-Rachel part. Was what made me happy, I mean. Uh." Finn wanted to turn to the locker next to him and pound his head against it. But he had a feeling that would make him look even stupider than he'd already managed to look.
He glanced at Rachel. She seemed to be holding back a smile, but it wasn't the same kind of smile as Jesse's. Finn was relieved—she probably thought what he said was "cute". She was always telling him how "cute" she found him.
Jesse smoothly broke the silence that followed Finn's attempt at an insult. "Well, this has been fun, but I have to be going." He turned back to Rachel. "I'll call you later so that we can talk again without the danger of being interrupted." He shot a glance at Finn as he finished.
"You are not calling her!" Finn growled. He'd decided that the fewer words he used in front of Jesse, the better.
"I don't think this really has anything to do with you," Jesse responded easily. "As long as she has no objection to me calling her, I shall call her. And she doesn't seem to have any objection. After all, Rachel and I have been talking over the phone this past year." Finn's mouth dropped open as Jesse continued. "Anyway, if I don't see you again, Finn, break a leg at Regionals." If only Jesse knew how much Finn wanted to break his legs right now! "Rachel, I'll talk to you again soon."
Rachel opened her mouth to say something, but Jesse had already gracefully strode away. Finn made a rude gesture directed at Jesse's retreating back.
As soon as Jesse was out of earshot, Finn couldn't hold back anymore. "He has some nerve thinking he can come over here and talk to you. And what the heck did he mean when he said you two'd been calling each other all year?"
Rachel gave a melodramatic eye roll. "Oh come on, Finn. Before he left for California last summer, Jesse and I had a long talk. He apologized and explained why he'd done what he had. While it was no excuse, I could understand his motives—peer pressure and wanting to be accepted. After all, no one in New Directions except for me did ever really accept him. He did a terrible thing in egging me, but we've all done terrible things."
"And you forgave him?" Finn couldn't believe what Rachel was saying.
"Yes," she replied, uncharacteristically simply.
Finn waited for more. "And?" he prompted.
"And what?"
"You don't still hate him? You don't hold a grudge against him? Rachel, he humiliated you. He basically insulted you in the worst way possible."
She rolled her eyes a second time. "Finn, it's not an attractive quality in a star-in-the-making to hold grudges. Besides, if I held a grudge against everyone who has ever wronged me, I would hold a grudge against everyone in this school."
Finn inwardly winced at the unsaid "including you". He knew she was right. But still! How could she just forgive that idiot?
Rachel picked up her bag and started in the direction of the doors that led to the parking lot. Finn quickly followed after her, not finished with this conversation.
"Wait, so you still haven't answered me about the him-calling-you thing yet!"
She gave a large sigh for such a small girl. "It's true, he called me a few times. Our conversations only lasted a few minutes. He would ask me how Glee is going, what I'm doing outside of Glee to hone my skills, and he has given me performance tips that he's picked up in his studies at UCLA. It's nothing really."
Finn wasn't satisfied. "Rach, the way he looked at you—he wants to get back together with you."
They were now walking outside, towards Finn's beater of a car. "Finn," Rachel responded, "there are two problems with that assumption." She held up one finger. "First, he's going back to California in a week. It would be utterly ridiculous for him to try and start anything now." She held up another finger. "Second, he knows that, while I've forgiven him, I've given my heart to you. Jesse wouldn't waste his time when he knows I'm taken."
Finn felt somewhat relieved at Rachel's words. While he still thought Jesse would try and get Rachel while back in Ohio, he was reassured by Rachel's devotion to him, Finn. Good luck, St. James, Finn thought. May the best man win. And I'm the best man. He smiled to himself in anticipation of his triumph.