Everyone was getting tired of Finn and Rachel.
It was a sad statistic when your own friends were getting sick and tired of you. Two weeks into their senior year and the entire glee club was done with them. Done with the looks and the smiles; done with Rachel praising Finn at every turn. Most of them kept silent, some scoffed, rolled their eyes. But when the two brunettes weren't looking they'd all exchange glances of pure frustration.
They had all seen this before with them.
They get together for a while and for a while they're happy. They're all smiles and love; they're all hugs and sickening glances. They're all sweet, so sweet that they could rot a person's teeth.
But the sweet never lasts long enough for anyone's taste.
There's no saying who would take that away. They never knew who would screw-up first- Finn or Rachel. It was always a tossup between the two. Whether Finn would turn into a jerk or Rachel would turn into an emotional wreck. But it had happened before; they knew it would happen again.
"You doknow this cycle of yours is sick," Kurt points out to the tiny little diva one day.
Rachel smiles at him, stars in her eyes that have nothing to do with Broadway. "He's my soul mate. He knows me better than anyone."
Kurt simply gives her a doubtful look and shakes his head.
Everyone is tired of Rachel talking about her and Finn's date in New York- she's only brought it up about a million times- but no one is more tired of it than Puck.
Every time that she petite brunette brings it up she gets this far off look in her eyes, this excited look that shows how enamored she is with her on-again/off-again boyfriend. And Finn gets this almost cocky smile on his face, like a man who had just won the earth, the moon and the stars.
Puck rolls his eyes behind his back, looks at the back of his childhood best friend's head as if silently telling him to remember how oblivious he had been, reminding him how little he actually knew about the woman that he claimed to love.
Finn never notices the looks. He just gets this inflated ego over all of it. Their kiss may have cost them their competition but he feels as though it was totally worth it. He was able to, once again, get Rachel when she hadn't been his. And for him that was the ultimate of accomplishments. Everything else seemed secondary; everything else seemed silly and pointless to think about.
But Mike has noticed the looks. So has Sam. They watch their two teammates sitting in the glee room, watch the annoyed look, notice the cocky look. They notice and they exchange glances. Their eyebrows go up in question but they never say anything.
It always seems like a mistake to bring it up.
Mercedes is annoyed with Rachel. Sam knows it before she even opens her mouth. She has this look she gets when she's annoyed at the young diva.
They're friends. Mercedes would confirm that to anyone who asked. Somewhere along the line it had become this trio- her, Kurt and Rachel. They had somehow gotten much closer than she thought was possible. They had bonded somehow. But there were times when Mercedes wanted to slap Rachel right across the face.
They're sitting in Mercedes' living room watching the television- it's just so much easier for Sam to go over there- and she has this look on her face like she could spit poison. Which can only mean one of two things- either Rachel was going on and on about Finn againor she was trying to take control of everything again. Both were viable possibilities.
Sam doesn't ask. He knows he doesn't have to. Mercedes will talk about it if she wants to.
And she does. She huffs and crosses her arms over her chest. Her nostrils flare in annoyance. "If Rachel brings up that stupid date in New York one more time I cannot be held responsible for myself when I smack her in the face."
Sam almost smiles, finds amusement in the whole thing. Even he was tired of hearing about it though. "I'm sure it's not that bad."
"She brings it up every time we're together. Talks about how well Finn knows her, how romantic he is. It's sickening."
Sam shrugs, keeps his gaze on the television though he knows it hardly seems fair. Finn had been at a total loss. He had no idea what to do to try to get Rachel back. It seems wrong that he's getting all this praise as though he's the most insightful, romantic guy in the world. And yeah, he likes Finn and all, but that's just not the case. He's oblivious on the best of days.
"Can you keep a secret?"
Mercedes turns her head slightly to look at the blonde sitting next to her, his gazed glued on the television screen as though all of the answers to all of the world's problems are scrolling across the bottom of it, the wisdom on the ages laid out before him.
"Yeah," she assures him after a moment.
"Finn didn't come up with any of that," he confides. "Puck did."
Mercedes arches both of her eyebrows in surprise but says nothing.
Kurt looks annoyed. Very annoyed. He looks like her wants to throw Rachel's hairbrush at her, hit her in the head with it.
Kurt and Mercedes are sitting in Rachel's room while the brunette finishes doing her hair. And she's going on and on about that date again as though they had never heard it before. The two exchange annoyed glances.
"Okay, Rachel, we get it," Kurt finally says it. "It was romantic."
"It was beyond romantic," Rachel muses, turns to look at him with those stars in her eyes again, a silly, lovesick smile spread across her face. "It was perfect. The dinner, the flowers, the walk. It was perfect. I don't know why I didn't realize then just how perfect we were for each other. I was just too blind-"
"Enough!" Mercedes stands up from the edge of the bed, waves both of her hands in a gesture that almost begs for her friend to just shut up. "Rachel, I get you're in love with Finn or whatever but this isFinn. What makes you think that he could come up with all of that on his own? He agreed with Brittany that a duet is a blanket."
Rachel furrows her dark eyebrows at her friend, confusion etched across her face. "Because he knows me," she reasons as though it were the most logical thing in the world. "Better than anyone."
"Yeah? Well, guess what- Finn didn't come up with none of that. Puck did."
Kurt's eyes widened and he turned his head slightly to look at Mercedes like she just declared that she was Medusa and had managed to find a way to hide her snake hair from the rest of the world up until now.
Mercedes felt guilty. Sam had told her about Puck coming up with the whole romantic movie date thing in confidence. And she had fully intended to keep said secret. But Rachel had just pissed her off so much that she couldn't help herself. It had just come tumbling out of her mouth as though it were natural to spill the beans like that. But she still felt bad. Because Sam hadtold her in confidence.
"I told Rachel," she admits the next day as she's standing next to Sam's locker.
"Told Rachel what?" Closing his locker door Sam turns his head to look at her, both of his eyebrows raised in question.
"About Puck coming up with the date."
Closing his eyes the blonde hit his forehead softly against the locker, let out this sigh.
"Noah!"
Puck knew the petite brunette's voice the second he heard it- and it had nothing to do with her being one of the only people in the world who got away with calling him by his first name. He just knew her voice as well as he knew his own.
He leaned back from his locker so he could look at her from around the door. She stomped over, her lips pursed, her cheeks puffed out slightly in annoyance. He had no idea what he did to piss her off this time but shit if she didn't look pissed.
She stopped next to him, crossed her arms over her chest, her dark eyes glaring up at him. "Why are you lying to everyone?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." And in truth he didn't. He hadn't lied to anyone. Not that he remembered at least.
"Why are you telling everyone that Finn didn't organize our date in New York?"
Both of Puck's eyebrows go up though the rest of his face remains blank as he looks back at his locker. "I'm not telling anyone that."
"Then why does Mercedes think that you came up with it?"
"Someone told her that, I guess. Maybe Sam. They're spending a lot of time together."
"And why would Sam think that unless you told him that?"
"Sam thinks thatbecause it's true. He was there." Leaning back from his locker door again Puck glanced back down at the petite girl, shrugged his shoulders casually as though the fact wasn't a big deal. And in actuality it sort of wasn't. But it sort of was to him.
Rachel's face changed, shifted slowly from annoyance to confusion. She opened her mouth to say something, realized she wasn't sure what she was going so say yet, closed her mouth again and cleared her throat. "Let's just say that I believe you- which I don't. Why would you do that?"
"Because the guy is clueless," he replies as though the answer should be obvious.
"Noah-"
"Because you friggin' love the guy, alright?" Reaching up and wrapping one hand around the strap of his backpack Puck shrugged his shoulders. "You friggin' love him- God knows why when he's an ass to you most of the time you're together. But you love him. And you wanted him back. And he wanted you back at that point. And he's clueless, alright? I'm clueless most of the time but damn, he makes me look like a genius."
Her first instinct was to defend Finn but she didn't and that was simply because she didn't understand why Puck would help Finn out like that. Yes, they had made up but they didn't seem close anymore. "Why would you help Finn like that?"
"I wasn't helping Finn," he insisted. "I was helping you. You wanted him again and I don't get it but whatever. You wanted him so I figured the only way your asses would get back together is if he didn't screw-up the whole date thing. But I wasn't helping Finn."
"How…how did you even know I'd like that?"
"Because no matter what you think, Rach, no one knows you better than I do." Reaching up with his free hand he closed his locker door, started backing up down hall with a slight shrug.
"The fact of the matter is, Rachel, no one knows you better than I do. And no one loves you more."
Rachel knew she should say something to him. She knew it. But by the time she opened her mouth he was already rounding the corner.
But she knew she had to talk to Finn. She wasn't sure what would come from it. But she knew she had to talk to him.
She owed Puck that much, at least, for calling him a liar.