I NEEDED YOU.
"You can sit beside me when the world comes down."
-"Mona Lisa" The All American Rejects
Quinn watched as Rachel ran off the stage and out of the auditorium in tears. She felt a small pain in her chest, as if she was about start crying, too. She wasn't this girl anymore. The girl who said anything just to hurt people. The girl who cheated on her loyal boyfriend. The girl who hid her true feelings under her popularity.
She felt the pang her chest again and she scolded herself. Not here, Quinn, she thought. She shook her head and took a sharp breath in, suddenly becoming angry with herself. She couldn't go there, not here, not now. She knew that crying was saved for when she was under the covers, in the dark of night, so that no one would ever find out how broken she was.
Quinn turned and began collecting her things from the piano bench, when she heard heavy footsteps behind her. Stupid Rachel, she thought, finding herself getting angry again, she just had to go and tell Finn what I said. Quinn knew in her heart that Finn still loved Rachel, and that given the choice between her or Rachel in a fight, he would defend Rachel over her. Quinn knew sooner or later, Finn would have to come between the two of them and choose, but she thought it would happen after her Prom Queen win and her popularity had been restored. She never expected all her plans to fall through so soon, but she braced herself to turn around and come face-to-face with an angry Finn.
But when a voice called out her name, "Quinn," it wasn't Finn's angry voice, but a soft voice that she would know anywhere, even though she hadn't heard it say her name in almost a year.
"Quinn," Puck said again, when she didn't turn around. She could feel him standing right behind her, and she willed herself to hold it together. They hadn't been alone, standing this close to each other, since he'd told her that he loved her. But she was the queen at faking a smile, so what was one more time?
"Yes?" she said, swiveling around, meeting his eyes the second she turned her body to face him. She knew it was a mistake even before she did it, but here she was staring into the eyes that belong to the boy that completely got her, understood her inside and out like no one, not Finn, not Sam, could ever do.
Inside, she felt herself breaking, as Puck said, "Rachel came into the choir room in tears. She says she tripped and fell in the hallway on the way back from rehearsing with you, but I don't believe it."
"Why not?" Quinn asked, forcing herself to look him in the eye, to prove to him that those eyes of his couldn't see into her soul anymore or maybe because she needed to prove it to herself.
"Quinn," Puck said, softly, and at the mention of her name, Quinn teared up. "I know you. Whether or not you can fool Finn, you can't fool me. You haven't been acting like yourself for a long time now. I know something's wrong. And when something's wrong, you lash out at people."
"Everything's fine," Quinn insisted, but she knew it was useless as her voice broke and the tears began to fall.
"Quinn," Puck said, stepping forward and opening up his arms.
"No, stop," she protested, backing away from him. "Just stop. You don't get to do this. Not after all this time has passed." Puck's face dropped. She could tell from the look on his face that he'd seen this conversation coming when he'd come to talk to her, but that he was hoping to avoid it.
"Look," Puck began, taking a step back and shoving his hands deep into his pockets, "I know I wasn't around for you this year. I thought you needed space, and then you got involved with Sam, and I figured you didn't need me anymore." She looked down as he spoke, but looked back up again as he said, "But I'm here now Quinn."
She looked into his face, into his eyes. He still loved her. She could tell. She could tell by the way his eyes showed genuine concern and care for her like no one else's did, and by the way he spoke gently to her, barely more than a whisper. She could tell by the way that he was acting like sweet, caring Noah, not like bad-ass Puck.
As all these thoughts began racing through her head, she felt a fresh wave of tears come on. In fact, the tears behind her eyes felt so heavy, they were more like a tidal wave. She broke eye contact and looked at the floor, hoping to hide her tears from him. But she couldn't.
"I'm here now," Puck repeated again, as he stepped forward to wrap Quinn in his arms, and this time she didn't back away.
All her hurt feelings and pain from the past year exploded onto Puck's plain brown t-shirt. Everything she'd been holding in these past few months came out in loud, heaving sobs right on Puck's chest. As he held her, he stroked her long, blonde hair, shushing her and whispering reassurances to her. And as he held her, Quinn realized that he got it, that he understood her pain, and the thought that she'd pushed him away for so long made her sob harder.
"What's going on here?" a voice called behind them, entering the stage. Puck turned his head, keeping his arms around Quinn still while she kept her head resting on Puck's chest, choosing to hide from whoever was coming in.
"Don't worry about it, Finn," Puck said, speaking to his ex-best friend, calmly, "Just go back to the choir room."
"No, tell me what's going on," Finn insisted, coming closer. "Why is everyone crying?'
"Seriously, just go," Puck repeated, his voice growing louder, angrier. Finn stared at them for a moment more, before following Puck's order. As soon as he left, Quinn lifted her head off of Puck's chest.
"I don't want to be like this, Puck," Quinn said, saying his name out loud for the first time in what felt like forever. "I just want to be happy again. Genuinely happy."
"I know, I want the same thing, Q," Puck said, looking sympathetically into her eyes. Her eyes watered again at the sound of her old nickname, and Quinn fell onto Puck's chest again. Here he was, the boy she'd avoided, ignored and cut out of her life. The boy she'd fallen in love in with, the boy who'd fathered her child, and the boy who knew her better than anybody. And in that moment, she realized, she needed him.
***Please review, my first Glee fanfic!***
I might make it a series, should I? Or just leave it as a oneshot? Let me know!