Chapter 29
Puck POV
"Dude what do you mean you saw him? Where?" Finn is pacing back and forth in front of the TV.
"Seriously Hudson, stop blocking my view, that's the fourth time I've died because your ass is in the way." Sam scoots closer to the TV while shoving Finn out of the way for the tenth time in an hour.
"It didn't really matter Evans, I'm kicking your butt anyway." Mike says throwing popcorn at Sam.
"I was getting gas in the van, and when I went to pay, I saw him coming out of the music store next door. I swear it was him, I'd recognize that ugly mug anywhere."
"What the hell is Jesse doing in Lima?" Finn tosses himself down on the bean bag in the corner.
"Why are you even worried? Rachel basically told him to get lost in New York." Hell Rachel probably wouldn't even know Jesse existed if he walked in the same room as Finn anymore. She's got like love on the brain and sex in the eyes around him all the time. Who would have thought? Figures the one girl I put in the friend zone is the one girl having hot sex in the back seat of another girl's car. Whatever I did to piss God off, I'm really sorry.
"Yeah I'm not really worried about Rachel or anything. I mean not really. He just bugs me. He's ALWAYS up to something. And it's never good. God the guy just bugs me." Finn has a football in his hands but with the way he is squeezing it, I won't have it much longer.
"Dude, relax. You're getting all worked up over nothing."
"Nothing, he cracked an egg on my girlfriends head! He lied to her about her mom. He tried to weasel his way back into her life and he freaking makes me feel like an idiot all the time. It's not nothing. Him being here is bad news. I'm telling you."
"Has Rachel said anything about him lately?" I figure I had better ask, but she hasn't said anything to me and I'm pretty sure she would have told me if Jesse tried to reach her.
"That's it, we gotta go find out what he's doing here!" Finn stands up quickly and grabs his jacket.
"Whut are choo jus gonma driv around?" Sam says with a mouth full of popcorn.
"No idiot, I'm going to the one place he would be if he was back here."
"Where the heck would that be?" I ask him.
"Carmel High. If he's back right now, he's got to show there at some point right?"
"Dude stake out in the van! Grab the blankets." I jump up and grab some stuff from the closet. This is a dumb idea, but it sounds freaking epic. Sam and Mike groan as I turn off their TV in the middle of their game.
"I almost beat him this time Puck! What the hell?" Sam yells.
"Grab some food. We're heading out." I grab my jacket and fish through the desk for my binoculars.
"Are we seriously going to sit in the van outside of Carmel waiting for that ass to show up?" Sam says grabbing up a bag of chips and shoving them in his jacket.
Finn sticks his fist out and I bump it and then shove him out the door towards the van. "You owe me dude. This is insane." I say honestly.
"I just wanna know what he's up to." He says walking slightly ahead of Sam and Mike.
"And if he shows up, then what? We can't just get out and kick his ass Hud. Rachel would kill you."
"We'll worry about that when he shows." Finn climbs in the front seat while Sam and Mike climb in the back and begin throwing the pillows at each other.
"Dude back off, I'm sitting there." Mike yells tossing Sam to the back of the van.
"Cool it! Are you guys three or something?" I slam the van in reverse and pull out onto the road and head toward Carmel. Finn has his phone out and keeps texting every five minutes.
"Rachel?" I ask him.
"Yeah she wants to know if we are having fun."
"What did you tell her? Yeah great time, just spying on your ex."
"No, and you aren't going to tell her either." He says glaring over at me.
"Ok relax. Let's just find out if he's up to something and then get the heck out of there ok." We pull up to Carmel and park in the back of the lot. "I don't know why you think he's going to be here."
"I don't know. It's just the only place I can think he would be other than showing up at Rachel's door and I'm pretty sure I would have heard her yelling by now if that had happened."
While I think this is pretty crazy, Finn's my boy. If he wants to sit in this van all night and watch an empty school, then I'm gonna sit here too. Besides, with Jesse comes a chance that he's here to mess with Rachel again, and I'm not taking that chance. So we wait.
After about 2 hours Sam and Mike have gone from bored to entertaining themselves by making pictures out of their Doritos. And Finn just looks plain angry staring out the window.
I see lights in the distance and I pull the binoculars to my face. Vocal Adrenaline's coach comes into view as he parks his car beside the auditorium. I nudge Finn and he snaps up from his seat. "Dude that's the coach. What's he doing here this late?" He walks into the auditorium and five minutes later another car pulls up and it takes all my strength to keep Finn in the van when he sees Jesse get out of the car and head into the auditorium.
"Wait. We aren't going to figure out what he's doing here unless you calm down. Come on." I open the car door after Jesse closes the auditorium door behind him. "Let's go figure out what he's doing here so we can go home!" I climb out of the van and Finn is quickly on my heels.
When we reach the auditorium door, I tug on the handle and it pulls open. I peek around the corner and motion for Finn to go ahead of me. He quickly slips in the door and Mike and Sam follow as I look behind to make sure no one else is around. When we get inside the auditorium, it's pretty dark. The only lights that are on are in a small room off of the stage. Sam and Mike are crawling down the aisle as I see their heads pop up every couple of rows. Finn however isn't wasting any time and has practically run down the farthest aisle toward the door. I whisper his name hoping that he remembers that we don't want to get caught breaking into the building. As he reaches the door I see him push himself against the wall by the door into the dark.
I kick Sam as I walk by him and he rolls to the ground and under the row of seats. Idiot! I walk to the other side of the door opposite of Finn and he puts his finger up to his mouth and points inside the room. I can hear voices coming from inside.
"Yeah well trust me, I know them better than you." I hear Jesse saying.
"So you think they will do a ballad? Definitely. If Schuester does what I think he will, he's going to use Rachel to sing a ballad and then probably do some stupid group number led by her and that freaking giant of an idiot."
"He does always go for the cheese doesn't he?" I hear their coach Dustin saying.
"Totally. He has no vision. I could probably get back in good with Rachel if you want me too. Sure she seemed pretty angry with me in New York but I'm sure I can turn on the charm." I see Finn start to move out from the wall and I wave him back.
"We just need to figure out what they are singing. These original songs are killing us. We need to blow them away at Regionals so that we can move past NO Direction!"
"Well I tried to run into her at the music store today, but she didn't come in. She used to go there every Friday night. Looks like I'll have to find another way to meet up with her."
"Well don't get distracted. I just want the set list. This isn't a dating service."
"Yeah you worry about your set list; I'll worry about my love life."
I motion for Finn to follow me back out. He is staring into the room with an angry look on his face. I quickly sneak over to him and yank him by the jacket toward the doors of the auditorium. He pulls back and jerks away from me but then turns and follows me towards the back of the auditorium. I yank on Mike and tap Sam on the back and we all exit out the doors and back to the parking lot.
"What the hell do we have to do to get that guy to go away?" Finn says angrily once he gets back into the van.
"What happened?" Sam says.
"Well instead of playing cloak and dagger, Finn and I actually did what we came here for!" I shoot Sam a look through the rear view mirror. "What do we do now?" I ask Finn.
"We gotta tell Mr. Schue. And I'm gonna warn Rachel." He pulls out his phone.
"She's gonna kick your butt when she finds out you didn't tell her right away." Mike says from the back of the van.
"Let me worry about my girl. We've got bigger things to worry about." He starts typing on his phone and then looks up at me. "Drive dude. I need to talk to Rachel."
"Yes sir." I say.
"Cool, we get to watch Rachel kick Finn's butt again." Sam says laughing.
"Just so long as they don't start having sex in the van." Mike says and Finn turns around as Sam and Mike start making moaning sounds.
"Shut up Chevans!" He yells. I laugh and quickly cough to cover it as I pull out of the parking lot and head for Rachel's house. She's not gonna be happy when we pull into her house at 11pm telling her how we've been spying on Jesse all night.
She answers her door in her pink Pj's and her hair in braids.
"Hot stuff Berry." I say winking at her as I receive a punch to the arm from Finn.
"Finn, is everything ok?" She asks staring at the four of us on her porch.
"I know its late Rach, but I need to talk to you." Finn says pushing his way past her into the house.
"Hey munchkin." Sam says hugging Rachel as he walks in.
When we get to the living room she turns on us. "Someone tell me what is going on. Who died?"
"What?" Finn says. "No one died Rach. But, look." He says running his hands through his hair. "I kinda wasn't honest about where I was tonight."
"What is that supposed to mean?" She says getting upset.
"Puck saw him at the music store and I don't trust him so we waited for him and he showed and then we followed him and we listened to his plans and before you get mad, I was right!" He says without breathing.
"Finn what are you talking about. Who?"
"St. James." I say. "I saw him today. I thought it was odd he was in Lima."
"Wait, Jesse is here?" She says looking from Finn to me.
"Yeah Rach, he's here and he's up to no good." Finn says.
"Ok someone better explain what's going on right now, but with more words and a lot more breathing between sentences." She sits on the couch and we all sit down and explain what happened. She looks over a Finn a couple of times and frowns at him.
"Ok let me get this straight. He's helping Vocal Adrenaline to beat us at Regionals by getting the set list from me because he thinks he already knows what we are going to do?" She asks.
"Yeah." Finn says quietly.
"Who does he think he is?" She says standing up and walking back and forth in front of the mantle. "What makes him think he can just turn on the charm and get what he wants from me? Oh that boy has got another thing coming."
"Babe, please just let me kick the crap out of him." Finn says getting up and standing in front of her.
"No Finn, no one is kicking the crap out of anyone. You let me deal with Jesse." She grins.
"NO! NO WAY RACH!" He says quickly.
"Finn, you have to trust me. He thinks he can get around me. Let's just give him what he wants."
"WHAT?"
"Finn would you calm down. I have a plan." She grins at me and I realize that maybe I have rubbed off on her more than she wants to admit.
