Author's Note: Thank you for your kind reviews! They are much appreciated. My only comment for this chapter is... don't kill Finn.

Even Rachel Berry knows that spending New Years' Eve alone is pathetic, so when Noah Puckerman invites her to his party, it is without much hesitation that she accepts his invitation. To quote him, he "kind of likes her," so she figures that at least the host will be courteous to her, even if no one else speaks to her.

But she's not going to the party for Noah.

She's going because she hopes that Finn will be there. She had visited his home on Christmas Eve, armed with another present for him – tickets to a college football game for him and Burt because she'd thought that he'd enjoy them. Rachel figured that she had nothing to lose. She wasn't simply going to give up on her relationship, because she'd happened to make one little mistake. Just because Finn had officially broken things off with them didn't mean that Rachel had stopped loving him. On the contrary, she was more determined than ever to make everything work with him. So she had gone over to his house, armed with her pearly white smile and her present. Finn had opened the door, seen it was her, and shut it in her face. She had proceeded to knock for half an hour, to no avail. She had left the Hummel-Hudson home shivering, her tears starting to freeze on her face as she walked back home. She had left the gift in the mailbox, a final attempt to get him to see that she was trying, that she was paying attention to his interests, hoping that he would call her, no such thing had happened.

She was aware that cheating on Finn with Noah hadn't been her smartest move, but she'd been so angry and she had just wanted to forget, for a little while at least, that Finn had chosen to give over something so special to the harlot known as Santana Lopez, and worse, he had lied to her about it. In the end, her mistake had cost her everything, but being Rachel Berry, she was nothing if not determined to win Finn over. She had done it before, she was sure that she would be able to do it again. She knew that Finn still loved her, it was just a matter of time until he caved in.

She was the only person at the party who hadn't dabbled into the alcohol supply. While it would be easy for her to get alcohol if she wanted it, she had promised her Daddy that she wouldn't drink, and when she made a promise, she kept it. Finn, however, had not been so chaste. Actually, he was visibly drunk. His eyes were glassed over and he seemed to think that he could dance. He had danced for a while with two random Cheerios, and they were obviously drunk enough not to care about the fact that Finn looked like he was having an epileptic seizure. Rachel had spent most of her night in the corner by herself. Tina had come to talk to her for a bit, but that had ended quickly when Mike offered his abs to do body shots off of. She had never seen Tina again and she had spent the rest of the night standing by herself.

After he had had enough of dancing, Finn had gone and moved over to sit in a chair, just to watch everyone else. He was talking to Noah but she couldn't make out what they were saying. Maybe Finn was talking about how much he missed her, or maybe he was asking if she was there. "Come on, Rachel. You can do this," she sighed, giving herself a little pep talk as she tried to make her way through the crowd of dancing people. "Excuse me," she mumbled, wrinkling her nose as she was rudely shoved backwards. She tried again with a different group of people but they just flat out ignored her. She was as invisible as always, even when everyone was drunk. All she wanted was for Finn to look up at her before New Years' Eve. Perhaps it was bad to take advantage of him while he was drunk, but she really wanted to ring in the New Year with him, with a promise that everything would be alright between them.

Looking down at the time on her cellphone, it was 11:58pm, two minutes to the new year. 2011. New beginnings were just two minutes away, but somehow, she didn't want 2010 to be over. She was afraid of starting the New Year in a bad place, if Finn rejected her. It would set the tone for the entire year. But, it was a risk she was willing to take. Forcing herself through a dancing couple, Rachel squeezed and shoved her way through the dancing mob to make her way over to the other side of Noah's living room, over to Finn. Her palms were sweaty and her heart was beating oddly fast, and she was pretty sure that this was what nerves felt like, something she'd never really experienced before. Just more proof that they were meant to be together. He made her feel things that she had never felt in her sixteen years on the planet.

"Hi Finn," she ventured, tapping him on the shoulder to get his attention. In the time it had taken her to get over to him, he was already standing talking to one of the guys on the team. He looked tired and miserable. Like he was at this party even though he didn't really want to be. Like he had to make an appearance here because he was the football quarterback, popular, and single again.

"Oh," he replied, before turning back to his teammate.

"I was hoping we could -" she began, before she was cut off by a very inebriated Santana Lopez shoving her aside.

"Thirty seconds to midnight, Finnocence," the Latina called, seemingly unaware that she had even bumped into Rachel.

"Yeah," Finn smiled, turning his attention towards her.

"Do you have someone to kiss at midnight?" she asked. Finn simply shook his head as Rachel watched.

"Actually he does," Rachel called, her voice just cutting over the music. The brunette wasn't sure if the other girl had heard her and was simply ignoring her, or if she had really managed not to hear her.

"You do now!" she giggled. "And if you play your cards right, it could be more than a kiss."

"Sounds good," Finn replied, seemingly unaware that Rachel was still around as he put a hand on Santana's side.

It was then that people started counting down. 10 – 9 – 8... no, no, no! This was all wrong! Why was Finn looking at Santana with those eyes? Why was there a twinkle there? That was supposed to be her! 3-2-1.

It was only much later that she would realize that the countdown to the new year had also been the countdown to her heart breaking. Because if she thought that having Finn Hudson break up with her was the worst thing that could happen to her fragile heart, watching him lock lips with the girl who had spurred on the end of their relationship by seducing her Finn. Maybe it wouldn't have been as bad if it had just been the one kiss, or if he had pushed her way, disgusted. But they broke away for chuckling, and the Finn's hand was on he side, pulling Santana against him forcefully as their lips crashed together again. All tongue and teeth and the things that Rachel had never let their kisses be.

Santana took Finn's hand and pulled him out of the room suddenly, giggling, a smiley looking Finn stumbling behind her. Maybe it would have been tolerable if he had gone by without acknowledging her, but he did. He looked right at her as Santana pulled him along and he smirked.

Rachel Berry had never wanted the ground to open and swallow her whole before, but she did right then.

Of course, as her luck would have it, that didn't happen.