Rachel was sitting on the sofa, watching TV when Quinn walked in, bouncing up and down. She didn't even notice as Quinn sat down next to her, very excited.

"I got the night off from work today. Do you want to go out or something, just you and me, like old times." Quinn asked, and Rachel spared her a glance.

"I can't. Puck, someone who Finn works with, is having a poker's night at his house, and Finn invited me to join him." Rachel said, with her eyes glued to the TV. Quinn sat up at her words, panicking a little. There weren't too many Pucks in the city, were there? It wasn't a very common name.

"What's his last name? Puck, I mean." Quinn asked nervously.

"Puckerman is his last name, his first name is Noah, but everyone calls him Puck." Rachel said mindlessly, not knowing what the problem was. Yes, that Puck must have been the same one she slept with. How many people were named Noah but were called Puck? It wasn't a common nickname. Quinn starred at Rachel wondering if she should tell her about what had happened with Puck. No, Rachel wouldn't understand if she told her she slept with a complete stranger. It wasn't her fault she needed a good lay, she hadn't had one since Sam. That was a good excuse, right? And on top of that, Puck works with Finn? Well, that would be too awkward to tell Rachel. She wouldn't be able to look at Quinn or Puck the same way ever again.

"Oh, that's a strange name." Quinn noted, trying to sound casual. Rachel nodded her head in silent agreement. "So…you're spending another night with your new boyfriend, huh?"

"He is not my boyfriend! We're just good friends, is all." Rachel said with a roll of her eyes and a loud sigh. Quinn laughed at her, wondering if Rachel really was that blind to the truth.

"Sure he's not. But you want him to be." Quinn said with a knowing smile, and Rachel smacked her arm playfully. "Alright, alright, he's not your boyfriend!"

"Good." Rachel said, and Quinn's eyebrows scrunched together. So wait a second, Rachel was leaving Quinn alone on her day off to hang out with Finn? What happened to being best friends?

"So, you're just going to leave me here by myself while you go flirt with your future husband?" she asked, and Rachel nodded again, not even noticing that Quinn used the term "future husband". "Well, what am I supposed to do then?"

"I don't know." Rachel said with a shrug. "I guess you can come along if you want."

"No, I'll just watch a movie." Quinn said quickly. God, can you imagine? Quinn would then have no choice but to tell Rachel about what had happened with Puck, and Quinn was ignoring that conversation for as long as possible.

"Okay then. I should get going. I'm meeting Finn at his place." Rachel said, getting up and walking towards the door.

"Have fun with boyfriend!" Quinn yelled with smirk.

"He's not my boyfriend!" Rachel shouted at her as she closed the door.

FRFRFRFR

She knocked on the door twice, and waited patiently for Finn to answer. It was few seconds before she heard footsteps, and the door opened, revealing Finn. He looked disgruntled, and the sleeve of his shirt was hanging off, but all the same, he looked happy to see Rachel. Finn let Rachel into the apartment, and her eyes set on the messy apartment. Things had been turned over, and the closet in the hall was opened with things tumbling out of it like a mountain.

"Did a tornado attack your apartment?" Rachel asked, turning to Finn who was opening a drawer on the table next to the door. He looked up at her, his eyes shifting back to the open drawer.

"What? Oh, no. I'm trying to find my poker chips. Puck called me and told me I had to bring them because his cousin was borrowing his. Problem is; I can't find mine." Finn told her, walking past her and down the hall into his bedroom. Rachel watched him go, wondering if it would be okay if she followed. What would his bedroom look like? Would Rachel be able to control herself if she saw Finn in his bedroom all alone? She hoped so, since she was walking down the hallway and into his room. It looked like the average guy room; blue comforter, messy bed, clothes coming out of his closet. It was a regular man's room.

"I know I had them here somewhere." Finn said with his head in the closet. Rachel awkwardly sat on his bed, still looking around. It was like the more she looked around, the more Rachel had to memorize. Friends did that, right, memorized what their friend's bedrooms looked like?

"You must have lost it." Rachel said, because it looked like Finn wasn't going to admit it. His head reappeared from the closet, and he joined Rachel on the bed, breathing loudly.

"Well, what am I supposed to do? They don't just sell poker chips anywhere, you know." Finn said, and Rachel bit her lip in thought. She remembered that time she was on vacation with her family, and they wanted to play some poker, and went to about every store on the boardwalk, but not one place had poker chips. What did they use again to play?

"We could stop at the CVS and pick up Starbursts. My family used those once. There are four colors, so we can have a different color for each coin, and they're edible so they make a tasty treat for later." Rachel said, hoping Finn wouldn't think the idea was stupid. His eyes met hers, and he was giving Rachel that look again that she didn't understand. Why did he keep looking at her like that?

"That's…a really good idea." Finn said slowly, smiling at Rachel. She returned his smile, relieved. Rachel just got more and more interesting in Finn's eyes. Starbursts as poker chips are something that Santana would have never thought of. In fact, if Santana were in this situation instead of Rachel, she probably would have snapped at Finn for being so stupid as to lose his poker chips, and then storm off back to her own apartment.

"Thanks! We'll just walk past the CVS down the street, pick them up, and then go over to Puck's." Rachel said, and they both got up, leaving the apartment to go to the CVS.

FRFRFRFR

Rachel was fingering one of the big bags of Starburst, wondering how many bags she needed when Finn snuck up one her, scaring her. She smacked his arm as he laughed.

"That was now funny!" she told him, but Finn kept laughing, and then she joined in. Rachel had to remind herself not to stare at Finn laughing for too long or he would notice. "I think I'll get two big bags just to be safe."

"Okay." Finn said happily, wrapping his arms around Rachel's waist before he realized what he was doing. He was about to pull back because Finn was sure Rachel wouldn't be cool with this, but before he could, he felt her hands touch his arms, keeping him there. She liked the way his chest pressed against her back, and Rachel had to bite her lip so she could hold back a moan. They were being friendly; friends put their arms around each other. Rachel grabbed the two bags of Starburst, reluctantly falling out of Finn's grasp and walking down the aisle with him in tow. She pulled out her wallet at the cash register, ready to pay for it, when she saw Finn put his own money on the counter.

"This is kind of my fault so it's only right if I pay for them." He told her, and Rachel didn't even fight with him as she put her money back. If Finn wanted to be a gentleman, who was she to stop him?

The walk to Puck's was a long one, and Finn held the bag in his hand, swinging it back and forth. Rachel glanced down at it, and then looked up at Finn.

"Having fun?" she asked with a smile, and Finn smiled back, telling her he was. Finally, with Rachel's feet in pain, they made it to Puck's apartment door, Finn knocking a couple of times before Puck opened it.

"Finn, Rachel! You made it! Did you bring the poker chips?" Puck asked, letting them in. Rachel snuck a glance into the kitchen where she saw a group of men surrounding a table. In the living room was a group of girls and a man sprawled on couch, watching a movie.

"Yeah man, about that. I couldn't find my poker chips, so Rachel and I stopped at the CVS to pick up bags of Starburst. We figured, well, Rachel figured actually, that we could just use these as poker chips…if that's okay with you." Finn explained nervously, hoping Puck didn't think they were crazy or anything.

"Well, Finn paid for them, so it wasn't like he didn't do anything." Rachel said, flashing Finn a nervous smile, which he quickly returned. Puck watched the two of them interact with a smirk.

"Yeah, but it was your idea." Finn said, and Rachel felt herself going a little red. Puck cleared his throat, and Finn and Rachel both realized that he was still there.

"Starbursts; I like it Rachel. It'll be good for later too." Puck said, smiling at the two of them. They both smiled back, and then shared their own secret smile as Puck took the bag from Finn and led them to the kitchen. "You can join us Rachel, if you want. Not all the girls want to play poker, so they're just watching a movie."

"No, I'll play with you guys. I love poker, used to play it all the time with my relatives." She said, and joined Finn at the table with the other guys.

"Rachel, this is Mike, Andrew, Matt, Dave, and you already met Blaine." Finn introduced, all of the guys nodding towards Rachel when their name were said. Rachel smiled at each of them, trying to remember when she had met Blaine.

"It's good to see you again, Rachel. Kurt talks about how awesome you were at the bar all of the time. He's in the other room, just so you know." Blaine explained, and Rachel smiled politely at him. She remembered Blaine now! His boyfriend, Kurt, was the one she had been dancing with. Wow; that felt like such a long time ago. Finn and Santana had still been together at the time. Puck dumped the bags of Starburst out in front of Finn and Rachel with his signature smirk as the rest of the guys wore curious looks.

"Finn and Rachel got us Starbursts as poker chips, so they get to have the honor of sorting them out." Puck said, and Rachel looked down at the pile of colorful candy. They had to separate all that? Maybe this Starburst as poker chips wasn't a very good idea after all.

FRFRFRFR

After they were finally done with sorting out the candy (reds being quarters, yellows being nickels, and pinks being dimes with the oranges on the side for anyone who was hungry), they started playing. Finn quickly found that Rachel knew exactly what she was doing, instantly winning everyone's Starbursts. Puck was obviously taken by surprise as Rachel pushed some of his in her direction with a smirk on her face.

"I think Rachel's cheating." Mike announced, walking over to the plate of orange Starbursts for another one. He popped it into his mouth as Rachel gaped at him.

"I am not! I play by the rules, thank you very much!" Rachel said with her head held high. Finn scoffed, giving her a love tap over the head at her words.

"Why did you have to bring your girlfriend, Finn? I would still have some candy if it wasn't for her!" Dave said, as he gestured to the four pieces of Starbursts he had left. Rachel glanced at his almost empty space, smirking. It wasn't that she was really good at poker, it was just these guys weren't.

"Oh, Rachel's not my girlfriend." Finn said quickly, shaking his head and laughing uncomfortably. Rachel joined in after a moment, wishing that she indeed was. Hey, what can you do? If Finn wanted nothing more from Rachel then friendship, then friendship was what she would give him. Puck watched the two of them interact, wondering if they knew what he knew. "We're just good friends."

"Right, because I always bring my 'good friends' to poker games when the rest of the guys are bringing their girlfriends." Matt said, air quoting the good friends part, while taking another peek at his cards. The rest of the guys smiled, and Rachel shifted in her seat, waiting for Finn to say something. Could they please just get back to the game, and leave her and Finn alone?

"Let's get back to the game, okay?" Finn said, being Rachel's savior. The others looked like they wanted to carry out the conversation longer for a second, but then Puck cleared his throat again and they went back to looking at their cards.

FRFRFRFR

"Thanks for coming, guys! It was good seeing you Rachel." Puck said as Rachel pulled on her coat. The rest of the party had already left and all that was left was Finn and Rachel with a full bag of Starbursts in their hands. "Enjoy the Starbursts!"

"Oh, we will! And thanks Noah, for inviting us I mean." Rachel said as Finn joined at the front door, his jacket already on. Puck shook his head at her.

"No problem. And don't call me that, call me Puck my hot Jewish princess." Puck told Rachel, making her smile. Puck had found out that Rachel was Jewish during the game, much to Finn's interest, and she and Puck seemed to bond over the same religion. Finn almost felt like a third wheel as they talked about temple. Of course, it wasn't like when Santana and Brittany excluded him, this time around, Puck mentioned to Finn that marrying a girl of a different religion was a lot hotter than marrying a girl of the same religion. Not that that made much sense, but Finn figured Puck just wanted to make fun of his and Rachel's relationship a little bit more.

"Yeah, thanks for inviting us Puck." Finn said, and Rachel took his hand subconsciously, leading Puck outside of the apartment and into the cool, night air. Puck waved to them.

"No problem. I'm thinking about doing this again another time. You guys will come, right?" Puck said, looking from Finn to Rachel. Finn looked down at Rachel, waiting to confirm with her. He hoped they were still hanging out when that did happen; Finn didn't want to lose Rachel now that he had her.

"Sure. We'll be there." Rachel confirmed, smiling at Puck. He flashed a grin and said his last goodbye before the pairing walked down the steps and onto the sidewalk. Finn noticed that Rachel was still holding onto his hand, but he didn't say anything, wanting the moment to last. It wasn't too hot or too cold out; perfect for a walk. Neither of them found the need to talk, both were enjoying themselves in their own little worlds too much to bother. Finn couldn't get over how perfectly Rachel's small hand fit into his big one; it was almost as if her hand was made to be in his.

"So what are we going to do with all these Starbursts?" Finn asked, holding the bag up. The rest of the Starbursts had been divided up between the guys, Puck giving Finn and Rachel the most since they bought them. Rachel looked at the bag, but was giving Finn's face much more attention.

"I don't know. You can keep them since you were the one who actually bought them." Rachel said, looking at the busy street. Finn put his hand down, looking down at the Starbursts.

"I know you like them a lot, I watched you sneaking an orange one into your mouth like, every other minute." Finn said with a smile, earning a slap on the shoulder from Rachel. "You're so abusive!"

"I am not!" Rachel said with a laugh. "And I was not eating a Starburst every other minute!"

"Fine, every five minutes." Finn said, and Rachel scoffed. Every five minutes? Yeah right, she wasn't even that big of a fan of Starbursts. A curious thought crossed her mind.

"Why were you watching me anyway? Why weren't your eyes always on your cards? Someone could be sneaking a peek you know, maybe I was." Rachel said playfully, and Finn glanced at her, a small smile playing on his lips. How could he explain why his eyes were glued to Rachel the entire time?

"I knew you were looking at my cards. No wonder you won." He said, and Rachel gave him another smack on the shoulder with a laugh. He seemed to skip over the first question, but Rachel wasn't going to bring it up again. She would just sound too desperate if she did.

"Shut up. You're just a sore loser, that's what you are." Rachel told him, and Finn looked down at her, that special smile very still on his face. There he was, giving her that look again, that one that she couldn't figure out. Something about that look always had Rachel feeling so good, always had her feel so warm, and full of life. But why did he keep looking at her like that?

"So…how's Quinn?" Finn asked, because things had gone strangely silent between them as they just stared at each other. Rachel shook her head to clear her thoughts, trying to keep up with Finn's fast pace. His legs were much longer then hers, and when he easily walked, she had to move quickly.

"Quinn's fine. She had tonight off, and she wanted to hang out with me but I already had plans with you." Rachel said, wondering what had made Finn change subjects to this. Finn looked down at her, feeling a little bad for Quinn.

"Oh, I'm sorry. If I had known then…." But Finn didn't finish the rest of his sentence, because he honestly didn't know how he would have ended it. How was he supposed to know about Quinn anyway?

"It's okay; she was just going to pop in a DVD." Rachel told him, and Finn nodded, remembering why he brought up Quinn in the first place. Finn didn't know how he was going to put this, but he felt like Rachel had to know none of the less. The only question was how he was going to bring it up.

"Where does Quinn work exactly?" Finn asked with a fake tone of curiosity. Of course, he already knew where Quinn worked, thanks to Puck, but Rachel didn't know about that. Boy, would she freak out when she heard about this. Rachel looked very uncomfortable at this question, wondering if she should tell the truth about Quinn's work. Finn was a good friend though, and he had proven to be trustful, so why not? Quinn surely wouldn't mind, right?

"She, um, she works at a strip club for the time being. You know, until she can find a better job. She hates working there though." Rachel sputtered out, hoping Finn wouldn't judge Quinn by her job. He looked weirdly calm though when she answered him, only nodding his head as if hearing that being a stripper was a regular job that everyone did.

"That's interesting. So does she, like, ever get together with her customers or anything?" Finn asked, hoping he sounded casual about it. Rachel gave him a curious look, wondering what Finn was trying to get to. He wasn't thinking about going there, was he? Rachel's heart dropped to her stomach at the thought of Finn being surrounded by girls in nothing but sexy lingerie.

"No, Quinn's not like that. Why? What have you heard?" Rachel asked suspiciously, eyeing Finn. He scratched the back of his neck, clearly uncomfortable. Rachel probably thought he was some sort of pervert or something, wanting to get into Quinn's pants.

"Well, because Puck told me this story about how he went to a strip club and saw Quinn working there." Finn hesitated with his story, glancing down at Rachel with an expression he couldn't read. He quickly went on. "And according to him, he caught up with Quinn, and then you know, had a sleepover."

The look on Rachel's face told Finn that telling her about Puck and Quinn's relations was not a good idea. She looked frozen with shock, trying to figure out how that had happened. Quinn wasn't the type of girl to just go sleeping around with strangers, especially strangers like Puck. What was she thinking? Didn't she realize how dangerous that could have been? What if Puck was a mass murderer who lured lonely woman into his house, making them think they were going to have sex, but really kill them? What if that had been the situation?

"I'm sorry; I shouldn't have told you that." Finn said, wishing he could take those words. Shit, he shouldn't have told her that. Shit, look out how angry she looks. Rachel quickly shook her head at him though.

"No, it's not your fault. It's Quinn I'm upset with, not you. Thank you for telling me Finn." Rachel said in a low voice. And then there was the issue that it had been Puck that Quinn slept with, out of all people. Just the thought of those two going at it had Rachel shudder. That was just a thought she did not want to think about.

"Well, here we are." Finn finally said, stopping in front of Rachel's apartment building. Rachel focused back on what was happing with Finn, forgetting about Puck and Quinn quickly. She thought about saying goodbye to Finn, and immediately wished she didn't have to.

"Here we are. Thank you, Finn. It was really nice of you to invite me." Rachel said, facing Finn and smiling at him. "And as a token of my thanks, I want you to keep the Starbursts. Even though, you know, you paid for it."

Finn smiled at the way she said, a strange feeling in his stomach.

"Fine, I'll take them, but I won't eat them unless you're there." Finn told her, leaning down a little so he could feel her breathe against his neck. Rachel laughed a little, swinging her hands by hers sides. Finn wondered if they could just stay in this moment forever, without having to say goodbye.

"Well, I should go." Rachel finally said, nodding her head towards the door. Finn looked at the door, then back at Rachel, sighing loudly.

"Right, yeah, I'll call you tomorrow then." Finn said, as Rachel opened the door. She looked back at him, a sparkle in her eye.

"Okay, I'll wait for you to call." She told him, and Finn smiled at her, walking down the front stairs. "Have a good night, Finn."

"Good night, Rachel." He said, and then Rachel closed the door, turning her back to it and sighing deeply. Yes, tonight had been a very good night, a very good night indeed. And Rachel found herself excited to get that phone call from Finn, a reminder that he had not forgotten about her. But as much as she wanted to stay in this blissful moment, Rachel had other things to take care of.

RQRQRQRQ

The apartment was quiet and dark when Rachel entered, voices and a light glow coming from the living room. Rachel slowly walked towards the room, not wanting to turn on a light as to wake Quinn, so being careful not to step on anything or run into a wall. In the living room, Quinn was lying on the couch with the covers over her body, sound asleep. Rachel watches her with a smile on her face, almost entirely forgetting about what Finn told her about Puck. And then she snapped out of it, walking over to Quinn and nudging her shoulder lightly. Quinn stirred in her sleep, murmuring some words Rachel couldn't make out. She nudged her a little harder, and very slowly, Quinn rubs at her eyes and sits up, looking up at Rachel.

"Did I fall asleep?" Quinn asked in a sleepy voice, and Rachel sat down next to her on the sofa, pulling the covers over her.

"I guess so." Rachel said, glancing at the TV to see what Quinn feel asleep to. "The Nanny was on?"

"It was the episode where they get married." She said with a yawn. "How was poker night with Finny?"

Rachel smiled at the nickname, having once again, to remind herself to not fall into a daydream featuring Finn.

"It was good. I had a really nice time." Rachel said, and then bit her lip, figuring that she might as well not beat around the bush and get to the bottom of things. "I heard this really interesting story from Finn starring you and Noah Puckerman."

Quinn's eyes went wide at Rachel's words, gulping loudly. How did Rachel find out? How did Finn find out? Did she know what Quinn thought she knew? How could she know, unless Puck went around telling random people about his sex life? Rachel watched with amusement as Quinn tried to hide her panic as calmness.

"Oh, is that so? What happened in this story?" Quinn asked, making sure to not look Rachel straight in the face. If she looked Rachel straight in the eye, she would know that Quinn was lying. Rachel would know that Quinn knew what she was talking about.

"Well, Puck went to the strip club, saw this very attractive blonde there, who he was able to persuade into spending the night at his house where they did many…activities." Rachel said, smirking at Quinn on the last word. Quinn shifted her eyes to floor, Rachel practically burning a hole in her skin just by staring at her. What she had done with Puck wasn't her at all. It was a onetime thing. It was a desperate need for sex that took Quinn over, forcing her to go to Puck's apartment. She wasn't the kind of person who just slept with the first hot guy she saw, Rachel knew that. "Is this true?"

"It didn't mean anything!" Quinn quickly said, but Rachel stood, her hands thrown into the air.

"I can't believe you would do that Quinn!" Rachel shouted, glaring down at Quinn. She looked like a little kid who had gotten in trouble with her mom, and Rachel had to force herself to not feel bad for her. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that was! You didn't even know who Puck was, and you just decided to hook up with him? How could you be so stupid?"

"I'm-I'm sorry." Quinn stuttered out, her words caught in her throat. She stood up to her full length, taller than Rachel. "I know I was stupid, okay? It was completely inappropriate and dangerous, and I promise I'll never do something like that ever again!"

Rachel stared at her, reading Quinn's face. Was she sorry? Quinn looked sorry, and Rachel knew that Quinn wasn't that kind of girl. It was a little stupid, really, to get angry with Quinn for sleeping with someone. She didn't deserve hate for that, Rachel supposed.

"Just…don't do it again, okay? It scared me there, when I first found out." Rachel said with a shaky breathe, and Quinn nodded her head silently. "Good. Now, let's go to bed because I'm really tired, and obviously, you are too."