Disclaimer: I don't own Glee.
Author's notes: Thanks to everyone who's been reviewing this so far. Now we're getting somewhere. The drama is going to pick up. Promise!
Santana Lopez had always been the kind of girl who gave him the heebie-jeebies. Mostly because she bothered him about the fact that he said things like heebie-jeebies instead of scared. But come on. Heebie-jeebies was like the most fun thing to say. Ever. The point was that Santana had always scared Finn, for reasons he would probably never understand, but underneath the bitchy front was a girl who was actually kind of fun. Something that Finn had discovered completely by accident. After he had made them their grilled cheese snack, they had sat down to watch a movie. Given that Santana only owned chick flicks, he'd had to sit through The Notebook. Which, in his opinion, was a terrible movie that didn't make sense, but Santana had been into it and she had even cried a little. Of course, she had said that she had an eyelash in her eye, but there were real tears. He had bothered her about it when she came by to hang out again and make everyone believe that they were having hot and dirty sex yet again. Since they were at his house, they'd played video games. Finn wasn't sure whether he was in awe of her, in love with her, or absolutely terrified of her because she'd whooped his ass at every violent game they'd played. After that day, they had made a silent pact that she would never tell anyone about the video games incident if he never told anyone that she had something in her eye while they watched The Notebook.
Things between them were changing slightly, and Finn didn't really know how to handle it. He knew that it was just to keep up appearances that they were fuck friends and that was it, but still. Them being friends with benefits didn't explain why Santana suddenly came to sit next to him in the classes they had together, nor did it explain the fact that sometimes, she laughed at his jokes and when they were alone, she seemed a little less... well, a little less like Santana. In the halls, she was still her bossy self and she still made him kiss her all the time and walk her to class. According to her they had to look real, but how real was a friends with benefits relationship really supposed to look? Wasn't the whole point of a friends with benefits thing to make it seem casual and not like they were dating? Because Finn was pretty sure that what he had going on with Santana, at least to everyone else, looked like what he had going on with Quinn when they were dating.
And speak of the devil and she doth appear, or rather, her stomach and then her. It was kind of hard not to notice Quinn's stomach coming at you before she got there, especially now that she was really ballooning out. "Hi," she began, resting a hand on her stomach.
Finn didn't turn toward her. In fact, he made a show of not facing her, instead mumbling a half-hearted "What do you want?" to the air as he fumbled with his books in his locker. He didn't actually remember what class he had next, so he looked at his schedule. Oh hey, it was lunch time. Score. Only not, because it meant that Quinn could just harass him until she had to go to class.
"Can we talk?" Quinn inquired, in a tone she rarely ever used. It was like she was asking him for a favor. That got Finn's attention, and he raised an eyebrow at her.
"Do I have much of a choice?" he wondered, though it was more to himself than to her, sighing as he shut his locker.
"Can we do it in the choir room? I don't really want to talk about this here," she admitted, biting down on her lip.
"Fine, whatever," Finn shrugged, moving in the direction of the choir room and making it her job to keep up. Sure, that was probably an asshole thing to do, but considering the circumstances, she was lucky that he was willing to talk to her at all. Well, he didn't want to talk, but she had given him no other option but to listen.
Sitting down at his usual seat, Finn watched as Quinn hurried into the room and sat down next to him. She looked at him, almost as if she was trying to figure out what to say, as Finn crossed his arms. "So, talk," he demanded, something he had never done very often when they were together, but he felt he was entitled to now. Finn just wanted to get this over and done with as quickly as possible.
"Look, I know you're mad at me, but what you're trying to do, it's not going to work," Quinn began, pressing her lips together as she scanned his face, looking worried – something that he had never seen from her outside from her nerves about cheering at a Cheerios competition.
"I am mad, but I don't know what you're talking about," Finn insisted. That was a lie, of course, he knew that she was talking about Santana, but he wanted to hear her say it.
"This thing that you have going on with Santana. I know she put you up to this, to make me and Puck jealous," she frowned, hanging her head a little bit.
"She didn't put me up to anything," Finn quickly replied. And that was true. He was pretending to do all of this because he had agreed to it, not because she had forced him into it. He wanted to make Quinn jealous and a part of him wondered if it was working.
"I just... I'm concerned for you, Finn. I know that we're not together anymore and it's not my place but a girl like Santana, she's not right for you," Quinn insisted, shaking her head slightly.
"A girl like Santana? What's that supposed to mean?" Finn inquired, suddenly feeling defensive for reasons he wasn't really sure of.
"Santana is well... a slut. She just sleeps with guys – and girls – and leaves them out to dry. You deserve someone better than that, Finn. A girl who won't cheat on you or dump you because she's found someone hotter," Quinn reasoned. He could see that she was doing it out of the goodness of her heart to tell him this, and it made him feel bad, but she had hurt him way worse. He had to go through with it.
"At least Santana doesn't lie to me about being pregnant with my baby," he retorted. He felt a slight twinge of guilt as Quinn's face fell and she bit her lip. He recognized that look. She was trying to hold back tears. "We're not together we just hook up sometimes. And if you came here to talk to me to somehow try and convince me that someone better is Rachel, you're wasting your time. I know you two are all best friends forever now, because you're living with her, -"
"I'm not doing this because of Rachel," Quinn insisted. "While Rachel and I have become close now, yes, she knows there's no future between the two of you because of what she did and she accepts that. I'm doing this because I still care about you and I don't want to see you get hurt again."
"Yeah, well, maybe you don't really know what makes me happy," Finn replied with a half-hearted shrug.
"So hooking up with Santana makes you happy? You're enjoying this no strings attached thing?" Quinn scoffed, in a way that told her that she didn't believe a word that he was saying.
Sighing, Finn ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. "We're not hooking up, okay?" he admitted, growling under his breath. "Are you happy now? We're just making it seem like we are because we're angry at you and Puck. We just go over to her house and watch movies or play video games at mine sometimes," Finn mumbled, looking down at the floor.
Quinn let out a long sigh as her perfectly shaped fingers raked through her hair. "You shouldn't pretend to be with her because you're mad at me. There are tons of great girls at this school who would be happy to be with you!"
"Maybe I don't want any of them!" Finn replied, the anger in his voice clear. "Maybe the only girl I want is the one who lied to me about being pregnant with me with my baby!"
It was at that point that Quinn started sobbing. Finn wasn't sure if it was because she was actually sad or if it was just her pregnancy hormones making her cry again. It was also at that same moment that he noticed a very familiar set of black hair turning around and whizzing out of the choir room at a pace that was all too quick. "Santana?" he asked, more to himself though than anyone else. If she was there, she was gone, and he had a crying Quinn in front of him.
"I'm so sorry, Finn!" Quinn insisted, covering her hands with her face. "I never meant to hurt you. I really wish that the baby was yours. Sleeping with Puck was a mistake," she sobbed.
Finn reached out hesitantly to put a hand on her arm. "I know you didn't mean to hurt me. I know you were scared," he admitted, sighing. This was a lot harder than he thought it would be, mostly because he never expected Quinn to be sorry.
"You... you do?" she asked.
"Yes. It doesn't make what you did okay, but I get it. And... I forgive you."
Quinn's eyes widened as she wiped at her cheeks. "What?"
"I forgive you," Finn repeated, looking down at his shoes. "I... I don't want to be mad, anymore. I miss you, Quinn."
"I miss you, too," Quinn sighed, her slender arms wrapping around him as best as they could, given that her baby bump was in the way. "I'll always love you," she added, her head resting on his shoulder.
"I'll always love you, too," he smiled, his eyes closing. This felt good it felt like he was getting some closure for this whole thing. It was strange, but in a good way. Unwrapping his arms from around her as he felt her pulling away, Finn sighed as he looked at her.
"Promise me that you'll think about what I said? Santana's not good for a guy like you...she'll end up hurting you," Quinn pleaded, wiping at her eyes.
"I will think about what you said, but like I told you...we're not like that. We just hang out sometimes," Finn insisted, smiling slightly.
"Thank you, Finn," Quinn smiled, her smile matching his. "I should go..."
"Yeah, me too. I have to study for an astronomy test. Miss Castle's not too happy with me lately... I went from being her favorite student to being a potato head after my cell phone went off in class," he frowned, sighing as they walked out of the choir room. It was strange to think, but suddenly, Finn felt like a new man, just having had that talk. Like all the things that had once mattered to him now...didn't. It had been two months since he had found out that Drizzle wasn't his, and two weeks since he and Santana had supposedly started bumping uglies. It was time for Finn Hudson to start over. That sounded like a good thing, right?
