When the eyes facing hers as she spun around were green and surrounded by long blonde hair, she was more than shocked.
"Yes Quinn?" She said, quickly wiping the leftover tears from her eyes, feeling embarrassed about what had just transpired in the choir room.
"Why don't we take a walk, Rachel?" Quinn replied gently, steering Rachel down the hall towards the female restroom. Rachel timidly walked beside her, glancing behind every so often to see if one of the boys would run out the door to follow them.
"Don't worry," Quinn said, catching her not so subtle glances. "Both boys wanted to follow you. I stopped them. I didn't think you were up to either of them right now. I especially didn't think you were up to both of them." Rachel was a little taken aback, but tried to keep her face neutral since she didn't know Quinn's angle.
"Well…thank you." Rachel eventually responded with genuine gratitude. "I think you were right, but why you? Why did you want to come after me?" Quinn shrugged.
"I've been there, you know?" The cheerleader's eyes seemed genuinely sympathetic as she turned towards Rachel. "Don't worry, the only boy I'm currently interested in making things right with at the moment has blonde hair, so I won't be chasing your men, but I've been there…with both of them, and I blew it with Puck because I was afraid of the stigma of being his girlfriend instead of Finn's. Obviously, you don't have that problem." She chuckled, and for a moment, reminded Rachel why she was so popular. She could manage to throw in an insult in even the most amicable of situations and play it off like it was no big deal. Rachel could tell she was actually trying to help, so she kept quiet about her snide remark. "I assume you just don't want to jump right from one to the other in case Puck's your rebound guy and the feelings aren't genuine?" Rachel nodded, impressed by Quinn's astute insight into the matter.
"Although, I don't want to lose him if they are genuine. I also don't want to be another in the line of girls Noah has conquered." Although even as she said it, she knew she wouldn't be. She saw the way he had looked at her in her room and in his basement. He was not normally that vulnerable or open. Thinking about those two conversations, she voiced her truthfully biggest concern. "I don't want to hurt him. He's been through enough." Her voice hit the floor as she looked down to avoid Quinn's gaze. They both knew Rachel was in part referring to what Quinn and Beth had put Puck through.
"Then, I think, for once, you might be right…to wait I mean." Quinn smiled encouragingly and despite the two-worded insult that had once again snaked its way in to her advice, Rachel smiled back. It was nice to be agreed with, but there something she was still unsure about that she thought Quinn might be able to help her with.
"What should I tell Finn? I mean, I can tell Puck I need a while to decide, but Finn's going to be curious about the song, and it would really hurt him to find out. He also has been through a lot, and thanks to, no offense, both of us, he has trust issues with women. I don't want to make that worse." In that moment, referring to both of them as giving Finn trust issues for very similar reasons, Rachel almost felt like Quinn was a slight ally, but the moment quickly passed, and they were once again just two people who had made a few poor choices.
"You tell him Puck is just a friend who was concerned when you ran out crying, and that part of the song didn't refer to any boy in particular…you just didn't have time to find a more appropriate fit." Once again, Quinn proved that her popularity came from more than just her looks. Apparently, manipulation was one of her strong suits. Rachel should have remembered from the "hot tub pregnancy" days. "You need to give him a little while to digest the break-up and begin to move on. Because, as you remember from your last break-up. He will move on. You mean a lot to him Rachel, but he doesn't like to feel hurt, so he'll avoid it, which means a few slutty Cheerios until he finds a girl with half of a brain who doesn't look anything like you that he can pretend makes him happy until he's actually over you." Rachel shared at the blonde in shock. She knew Finn well. "And Rachel, one more piece of advice. As I said, Finn will move on. Think about how that makes you feel before you give him time too." With that, Quinn walked away from Rachel and into the bathroom, no doubt to re-apply makeup to her already perfect face.
Rachel looked up and down the empty hallway, trying to decide what to do whilst letting Quinn's words sink in her mind. In the end, the need to keep up with Glee Club and their current competition overpowered her desire to run as far away as she could, and she walked as confidently as she could back down the hallway towards the choir room. She could think through all of Quinn's advice later.
Unfortunately, Puck couldn't wait for later. He needed to talk to Rachel about both of their songs, and also ask her when she got so buddy-buddy with his baby mama, because he wasn't sure he wanted Quinn to have any influence over Rachel, but when Glee ended, and he tried to reach her, he was too late. Finn had already pulled her to the side, most likely to ask very similar questions to Puck's
Puck would have waited, but he had figured he didn't want their discussion being squeezed in between Finntime and football, so he turned around and headed towards the locker room, sending Rachel a quick text asking if he could come over later to discuss her "weird Jew movie idea".
When he got back to the locker room after practice (which Finn had been just on time for, he noticed), he had a reply, and he smiled down at his phone because she could sound like Rachel even in text form.
Of course Noah! I am so glad to see you taking an interest in your role as co-chair even if I have a suspicion that you have an alternate topic for us to discuss. Please don't presume that that topic will take precedence over the vital event we need to plan. See you around seven.
After a quick trip home to shower and eat, Puck headed to Rachel's. He knew she was serious about the event needing to be discussed before personal matters, but he would sit through her crazy chatter about temple stuff if it meant he would finally get a chance to go over what was going on with her, and them, afterwards. She literally had not left his mind since his declaration Saturday night. Yeah, of course he was still him, so occasionally when he saw a hot girl on television or at school, maybe she left his brain for like half a second, but he had decided somewhere between telling her he'd marry her and yelling at her in her room that she was better than all of those girls put together. He'd take making out with her over making out with a slutty cheerio or horny mother any day.
When he rang her doorbell and she answered in stretchy black pants and an oversized t-shirt, he once again knew he'd made the right decision. She looked hot without even trying.
"Hey sexy" He greeted her with a smirk. Yeah, feelings or no feelings, he was still him.
"Hello, Noah." She replied. He noticed she had her actress face on, the one she used when she didn't want the world to know something was bothering her, and the smirk quickly fell off his face.
"What's up, Rach? Wanna skip the movie crap and talk?" He asked as he followed her to her room. He couldn't remember the last time he'd willingly asked a girl if she wanted to talk about her feelings.
"Noah, I had every intention of discussing our business for temple first, but then you arrived, and seeing you, I'm not sure if I can necessarily push aside my uneasiness at the situation to explore the more practical and necessary item on our agenda. " She was in full-on nervous ramble mode, but Puck couldn't help thinking she looked adorable. He was in the middle of mentally chastising himself for the thought, like he'd been doing for months, but stopped and realized that now he could think she was cute as much as he damn well pleased. He could even tell her. The thought made him ecstatic.
"You're cute when you ramble." Well, why not right? It's not like she was going to tell anyone and ruin his cred. She didn't talk to anyone outside of Glee.
"Well, thank you, Noah, but this is what we need to discuss." She blushed a little at his praise, and the sight was again, adorable. "I understood your song's meaning in Glee club, which is why I told Finn it would not be right for us to get back together."
"Hells yeah!" Puck grinned, before remembering that even though he was Rachel's ex, and therefore public enemy number one, he was also Puck's best friend. "Wait, does Finn wanna like kick the shit out of me now?" He really didn't want to lose his best friend again.
"Well, no, see, maybe I didn't take the song's message fully to heart, because I may have misled him in some areas." She seemed embarrassed, but he nodded his head to urge her to continue.
"I just didn't want to hurt him anymore than necessary, and so when he asked me why I didn't want to get back together, I just said that things were not the same as they were after all that we went through last year and I didn't think we were ever going to be fully happy together again, which wasn't untrue!" She explained, trying to defend her actions. "Quinn told me that I should just tell Finn that the parts of my song that referred to another man were just an ill-fitting part of the song, and that there was no other man in my life."
"You took advice from Quinn?" Well, at least that answered his question on what the two girls had discussed, but in a split second, he had gone from watching the way her mouth talked when she spoke to being so disgusted with her that he didn't even want to look at her. He didn't want anything she did to be colored by Quinn. Quinn was a liar and a manipulator, and yes, he knew she had some feelings buried in their and he once had seen her good qualities, but after what she did to him, and Finn, and Sam, he just…he didn't want to imagine her and Rachel in the same thought. "That's low. How could you do that?"
"Noah, did you listen to my song? I'm being pulled apart by you and Finn! I can't be with either of you until I've had time to not be bouncing from one to the other." She dramatically exclaimed. "Yes, I know Quinn is the bad guy, but she was trying to be my life raft when I needed one, and I appreciate that. There is no need for me to hurt Finn if you and I might not even happen."
Puck wasn't even sure what he was feeling anymore. He really did like Rachel. Even now, seeing that she was on the brink of tears, he wanted to hug her and make it all ok, but he just, couldn't. He was hurt and felt like he wasn't sure Rachel was exactly the girl he thought she was. Not only had she taken advice from Bitchy McBitchpants, but she had once again chosen Finn over him by lying to Finn about what was going on between her and Puck.
"Maybe you're not the girl I thought you were." Maybe it was immature of him to want to hurt her a little bit like she'd hurt him, but he was only seventeen, and he was pissed. "So maybe you're right, maybe you and I won't happen. Why don't you let me know when you're not ashamed of me?"
"Noah! I'm not! Just please-" She pleaded.
"I'm sick of being everybody's dirty little secret. I figured you would never treat me the same way she did." He turned around and attempted to storm out, but damn that tiny girl was fast. She blocked the doorway and would not let him escape.
"Now you listen here, Noah Puckerman." She had gone from pleading to scary in less than a minute. "I am trying not to hurt your best friend or make him hate you. I need to figure out what I'm feeling, and if I decided I wanted to explore romantic options with you, I of course, would not keep it a secret. I am just tired of being stuck in the middle and if I can have a break from hurting him for a little while, I'm going to take it. Now, I am not having your baby and pretending it is someone else's, so I appreciate if you would not compare the situations. Finn did the same thing last year when I made out with you, and it has since become a pet peeve of mine. I did not do anything nearly as bad as what she did, so don't you dare compare me to her." The last sentence was emphasized, and Puck immediately felt like shit. She was right. She was nowhere near as bad as Quinn, and he should never have said he was. He was just so sick of always being pushed to the side for Finn's sake, even if it was just to spare his feelings.
"I understand, Rachel." He gently told her, prying her from the door to give her the hug he'd been wanting to. "I'm sorry." He whispered into her hair. "But I need to think, just like you do. I'm not sure I can handle waiting around in the shadows pretending and hoping you'll pick me. I'm sorry." He wasn't exactly sure what he was apologizing for the second time, but it probably had something to do with the tears he saw forming in her eyes as he pulled back from her and slipped out the door. When did shit get so complicated? As he pulled off of her driveway, he figured the least he could do was try to find a movie for her event on Saturday. No matter what crap was happening between them emotionally, they still had to deal with seeing each other constantly for their co-chair responsibilities. Sometimes, the fact that he'd matured to the point where he actually honored his responsibilities and cared about women that weren't related to him, sometimes it really sucked.
Thank you again for the amazing feedback! Please, keep it coming and try not to hate me for this chapter.