Chapter 24:
Three long days of school included three long hours each day in detention. Three long days of torture from my friends and three days of him ignoring me. It wasn't helping that on top of the ignoring, he was also sitting away from me. When I mean away from me, I mean all the way across the classroom. Kurt had sensed something was going on the first day and asked but when I didn't say anything I saw him grab Finn after class. Kurt had come up to me and demanded to tell him what was wrong with me. I've been avoiding him for the past three days.
In fact I am pretty sure I've been avoiding everyone this week. Between Quinn asking me if I had gone completely nuts or the silent awkwardness in glee, I just wanted yell at the world. I don't want to give up, I know Finn needs this time to regroup but with his thick head and our pushy friends it might never be fixed.
Slamming my locker closed I was against going to lunch, for the third time this week. Instead my feet carried me to the one place where I didn't have to worry about the silence. That was because I was the one to fill that void. Pushing the double doors open I take in the beautiful stage. The one place that will never let me down. Climbing up those familiar steps to the middle but soon decided that the piano was going to be my partner in crime. Running my hands over the white keys I think of a good way to start the song, since it's a soft beat with a guitar mostly. That's when it came to me.
You and me
We used to be together
Everyday together always
I really feel
That I'm losing my best friend
I can't believe
This could be the end
It looks as though you're letting go
And if it's real
Well I don't want to know
Don't speak
I know just what you're saying
So please stop explaining
Don't tell me cause it hurts
Don't speak
I know what you're thinking
I don't need your reasons
Don't tell me cause it hurts
A hand slammed on the top of the piano just as I was getting into, scaring the crap out of me. My eyes opened to Noah standing there with an amused look upon his face. Slamming the key cover down I cross my arms over my chest.
"Fuck! Your depressing shit is getting old drama queen" Noah sat on top of the piano, his legs hanging over the side.
"Can I help you? Or are you just going to stay here and mock me all day?"
"I came to find you because you haven't been to lunch in like three days and how am I supposed to know whether your eating or not." Noah shrugged taking his bag off her shoulder throwing it onto the ground "It's good to know that your spending your lunch time singing depressing songs"
"I am not singing depressing songs" I rolled my eyes at his accusations, but he raised his brows as if testing me "I'm not I'm just simply broadening my horizons with my song choices, there is nothing wrong with that."
"You are singing about that shit because my boy Finn is ignoring you" Noah slide to turn towards me, his boots resting on top of the cover of the keys, his elbows resting on his knees leaning close to me "Listen to me when I tell you this, because I'm about to get real soft on you and I don't do that often."
"Go on" I sighed, wanting to just get this over. It was only a matter time before Noah (the only one who hasn't lectured me) come and talk to me.
"We're football players we're not supposed to be slushied. Up until junior year we were the shit, we were slushing wimps, little skater punks, freshmen, losers. But when Kurt and Finn got to be brothers shit hit the fan. It was not good. Finn told me you know this already so I'm not going to repeat it. Just know that Finn's been working hard not to take it personally and everything over the two years has been leading up to a showdown. It's not going to take long before Finn snaps and goes to kill the dudes. I'm going to be there with him."
"He didn't mean me when he was taking about how he never used to be a loser" I stared at Noah's shoes, not able to look up at him
"No" Noah groaned "Rachel you are such a girl! You girls take everything so personally I swear. Just make up already, Finn's never going to break. You know how hard headed that dude is"
"Why should I be the one to fix it when he's been ignoring me for most of the week?"
"Because if it wasn't for you saying something in the first place he wouldn't have said what he said to piss you off"
"What are you talking about? All I did was walk down a hallway, I didn't do anything to them, Finn and I were walking and they came out of nowhere."
"Just please fix things before it gets too messed up"
"I'm not going to sit here and argue with you" Standing up to leave and find somewhere else to hide during lunch I heard a thump and Noah grabbed my wrist
"I'm not trying to argue with you, I'm trying to help you. You have enough of sense to fix this before it's too late. Finn is slow, it takes longer for him to process these types of things. He really likes you Rachel and I don't want to see him lose probably one of the better things in his life because of morons who can't keep their mouth shut" Puck leaned in trying to catch my eyes which he finally did and once he knew he had my attention he smiled "Knew you'd see it my way, please consider it?"
Sighing because I knew I really had to be the one to fix this I nodded, he gathered me in rather a tight hug. My hands at my side as he squeezed me tight to him. Finding it hard to breath from his smothering I returned the hug because it was the only way for him to get me off of me.
"What the hell is this?" Pinching Noah's side he let go and I turned to see Finn standing there with a pissed expression.
"I was eating lunch in here and Noah here came to give me company. We started talking as well" Walking to the end of the stage to talk directly to him
"Yeah because talking leads to hugging" Finn rolled his eyes "Have a nice time in here"
He turned around going down the aisle.
"Finn!" I called after him
"Dude just chill" Noah went to sit on the edge of the stage as I was running down the stairs to try and catch up to him but I stopped in the middle of the aisle turning around his face was really red and he threw his hand in the air, pointing his finger at Noah.
"Shut up before I come up there and show you how"
"Finn" I gasped, I've never seen him so angry at Noah before "What is your problem, we were just talking Finn."
Not saying anything to me again, he turned around storming out of the doors. Looking apologetically at Noah I ran after Finn.
"Finn wait up" I ran making him throw his hand up as if brushing me off. "Please Finn I really want to talk to you, stop walking away from me."
He still didn't slow down which made he really upset.
"You are so annoying Finn Hudson!" I yelled stopping in the middle of the hallway, I thanked everyone I could because the moment I stopped he did too. Just this time when he turned around I was the one he was glaring at.
"How am I annoying? I found you hugging Puck I should be the one thinking your annoying" He pointed at me
"You don't know anything Finn, you don't have a right to yell at me. Your the one whose been ignoring me for the past three days"
"Because you broke up with me!" His voiced cracked as he turned around and starting walking again. My boots clicked on the floor as I walked to catch up to him.
"I didn't break up with you Finn, I told you we were taking a break because you needed to figure out what was going on in that head of yours!"
"What if I don't" He stopped as I walked in front of him
"Finn it's not that big of a deal. So what if you get slushies thrown at you, throw them back."
"What happened to 'no violence'" He mocked me
"Look if your going to be an asshole about this than I'm leaving" I stood my ground "For good"
His eyes went back and forth before rolling them. "Whatever"
"You don't mean that" His face didn't change, he just stood there with that same emotionless expression "Fine than, I guess I will see you around."
Turning on the heel of my boot, I tried not to cry in front of him. Holding my self together so I didn't break down in the middle of the hallway I picked up my paste.
"Rachel" Finn called out, this time it was me running away from him. Picking up my paste I really didn't want to cry in front of him. "Rachel please"
He grabbed the back of my shirt pulling me back. Turning around I smacked his hand off of my shirt.
"I am so furious at you right now" I sniffled not looking at him, I was not going to cry ."I don't even want to talk to you right now"
"I didn't mean that back there" Finn whispered shaking his head "I didn't and I want to fix this with everyone. I can't do it by myself Rachel, I can't always be the peacemaker."
"I'm not asking you" I yelled throwing my hands up "Nobody is telling you that you have to be the one to fix this by yourself. I told you I would try and fix things but it backfired. They came back at us. The only way I can think of is ignoring them and your temper yesterday didn't help very much. You leave them alone and they'll leave you alone. They slushie you, you walk away with your head held high. They'll get the message eventually."
"I can't just ignore them Rachel" Finn sighed running the palms of his hands over his eyes "You don't understand, I was one of them last year. I regret every single one of those slushies that I threw and obviously I got what I deserved but it's..."
"That's it" I hushed him by putting my hand up, he stopped talking looking at me confused "I've got it! We're going to ignore them. Don't look at them, don't do anything to give them any attention. If we do that they'll get so mad and bored that they won't come after us"
"Are you not listening to yourself? They're going to get mad and they will try everything that they can to make our lives miserable"
"Than we take it and show them that we aren't scared of them." This was much better than my other plan "If you just do what they do to us than that's just showing that were as bad as them. So we don't do anything to them, we just walk away with our heads held high"
"That's genius!" I looked up to see Noah standing there and Finn turned around glaring at him
"It's not going to work" Finn commented
"Yes it will" Noah stood by my side "Within a few weeks they'll get sick of trying to get a rise out of us that they'll just quit"
"Exactly" I smiled at him, Finn's eyes switched from me to Noah before walking directly in between us shoving Noah off to the side. "Finn we can't do this without everyone please"
"You know what, when you want to talk to me without him you come find me."
"Dude I was just walking to lunch!" Noah yelled "Don't do this again"
"No" Finn turned around, disappointment showed on his face, hurt or maybe both. Either or it wasn't something I wanted to be associated with, knowing that I was apart of something that made him feel that way "You don't do this again"
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Noah ran to catch up to Finn but he just walked away. The two were talking as they both walked away from me. Noah turned around giving me a small smile and turning around. The two were arguing as they walked away, maybe it was a good thing. It seems like they have a lot to talk about, things that they've been holding in for a while now. All I had to do was hope that everything turned out okay.
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We didn't have detention anymore so I went directly to the choir room to see that the majority of the club was already there sitting talking amongst themselves. Looking over I saw Kurt standing next to the piano talking to Brad, the man who usually stayed quiet and just played for us when needed. Sitting down my usual seat all the way in the front I noticed that neither Finn nor Noah were here yet. Quinn came down a row and took a seat next to me.
"I have the date set for when were going to do the number I came up with" Quinn smiled setting her books under the seat
My mood suddenly shifted for the day and I couldn't be anymore thankful for Quinn. She smiled and crossed her legs "I was thinking that next week would be the perfect day. Just be prepared for me to drive you to and home from school next Friday"
"I am so excited you have no idea. I have been running ideas through my head for the longest time"
"I can almost guarantee that you haven't guessed it"
We were silenced when sat on a stool in front of us rolling back the sleeves of his flannel button up and than pointing to the board behind him. "The girls have really inspired me this week and I have decided to have a vocal match between the guys and the girls based solely on rock and roll"
"Yes" Mike high fived Artie
"Wait where's Finn and Puck?" Artie looked around to try to find the two boys but they still weren't in there
"I noticed that earlier" Quinn stated
Feeling slightly responsible I stood up raising my hand "I think maybe I should be the one to go find them. I might possibly know where they are"
"That's fine Rachel" Mr. Shuester nodded, walking to the door I could here him explaining the girls vs. boys' competition. Closing the door behind me I went to the left first to check the first floor. Not seeing them anywhere I check the second, still nowhere. But than it clicked, walking down the stairs I went out the back doors and onto the pavement that led to the back of the school. Opening the gates to get into the football field and track I than saw them. They were sitting on the bleachers both of them talking. I was about to turn around and tell Mr. Shuester that I didn't find them, and let them talk but I heard my name being called. Noah stood up with Finn, giving him a handshake and a hug before running down the bleachers and hopping off.
Noah smiled and winked at me before clapping me on a the back and waving good bye to Finn. Closing the gate behind him, I slowly started walking to Finn who was still standing on the bleachers. Climbing the stairs I sat next to him not saying anything. Really both of us were quiet for a few minutes.
"Puck told me you know about what happened between Quinn, him and I a few years ago" Finn fidgeted with his fingers as he spoke to me "I just want to let you know that even though that happened I am totally over it. I didn't even like Quinn that much and Puck had learned his lesson over the past years. I knew he wouldn't do anything with you, even if it made it seem like I thought that."
"I hope you told Puck all this" Looking over at him, which he slowly nodded
"Yeah we've been sitting out here since we left you in the hallway. It's been a long couple of hours trying to get over and talk things through. We've been like hiding all this stuff and it felt good to get them out in the open"
"Like what?" I asked slowly not sure if he would be willing to answer
"Prom and everything, just stuff that I haven't really talked about. Than there's things that he's been wanting to talk about. It just felt good, and things are going to get better" Finn shut his eyes, licking his lips (his nervous habit coming out once again) "I just want to tell you that I'm like really sorry for yelling and getting pissed at you. I know your only trying to help"
"It's alright" I smiled holding onto his arm, making him look over at me.
"It's not, what I said to you was really shitty and what I said to Puckerman" His face was truly full of remorse. Leaning my head onto his shoulder I stared straight onto the football field. "I don't even know why I said it to be honest. You didn't make me a loser Rachel, those assholes did it and I only made it worse"
"Which is why we need to just ignore them Finn" Lifting my head I stared at him "You need to just let go of all that built up anger and show them that your a bigger person by not showing any emotion at all"
"I know Rachel" Finn rolled his eyes "I know but it's just so frustrating letting it go, they've made our lives miserable"
"And your about to let them have it the same way, they just take more common sense to make miserable."
He nodded in understanding. Touching my nose to his shoulder letting it rest there, he kissed my forehead. "I'm really sorry for being nasty to you"
"I know" Closing my eyes as he put an arm around my shoulder
"And I"m really sorry for not listening to you"
"I know" Smiling slightly I lifted my head up my hand running through his hair "You know were not broken up right? I really didn't want you to take it that way but when you kept saying stuff about it, I figured it would give you some motivation to figure things out"
"I really care about you Rachel"
"I care about you a lot too" He took my face in his hands bringing me closer to his face kissing me. "I really missed you"
I mumbled against his lips
"Let's not fight over stupid people again" He tugged on my bottom lip slipping his tongue in. Leaning back I nodded
"Agreed" Wrapping my arms around his neck tugging at the bottom of his hair.
We were going to be alright.
I had so much trouble with this chapter. I felt like a little kid trying to focus on the history channel. Like seriously, so difficult. Hope you liked it! THANK YOU for all the support on the last chapter. Hugs and kisses for you all!
6 more days until Glee! WOOOH!
5 reviews please.