A/N: Hi everyone! Its been a little awhile. I'm terribly sorry that its taken me so long to get this update to you all but this summer has been really busy and draining for me. I've had a lot of writer's block for most of it due to a pretty big death in my family at the beginning of the summer that took a lot of out of me. So I hope you understand. While I planned on this story being 3 chapters, there's a lot more to get through so it's going to be 4. I hope you enjoy this chapter and continue reviewing and letting me know what you think!

Disclaimer: see previous chapters.

Where are you?

In my room..at school? Why?

I have to see you. I'm coming over there to Philadelphia.

Is everything ok? What's wrong?

Everything. I'll tell you when I get there.

x 0 x 0 x

She gets up early that morning and is able to purchase a Bolt bus ticket to Philadelphia, which she finds lucky because tickets run out so quickly. She writes a note for Mercedes and gathers up a few books she can read on the way there. When she slips out of the room quietly, she immediately runs into Noah, dressed in a wife beater and gym shorts and obviously coming back from a workout. He's panting slightly and she should find the wetness of his wife beater from all the sweat repulsive, but she surprisingly doesn't. He looks at her cautiously, remembering her cold demeanor towards everyone last night.

"Hey," he drawls.

She smiles shyly and tucks her hair behind her ear. "Hey Noah," she starts softly. "I would stay and chat but I have to go catch my bus."

She begins to walk off but is stopped by his hand grasping hers.

"Wait where are you going?" he asks.

"I have to go see Tina," she answers.

"What happened last night Rach? After you talked to that guy you were super freaked out. What'd he say, do I have to kick his ass?"

His obvious concern for her well being warms her heart. Through all of this, Noah has been one of her best friends and it makes her long for middle school, when they were simple people without problems like these. When she knew that if he was her boyfriend, he would never hurt her the way Jesse has.

"His name is Matt. He went to high with Jesse and he told me that Jesse cheated on me during the summer. He thought I knew because Jesse told him, actually his whole team, that I knew what happened," she explains without looking at him. More than anything it's embarrassing to be in this situation, to feel like she should have known from the start.

She finally looks up and looks at Noah with sad eyes. His face is grim and he looks like he would punch the wall if he could.

"What a bastard," he mutters to himself while looking away from Rachel. She bites her lip and wraps her arms around herself.

"You don't deserve this B," she hears him say. She nods her head in agreement. "I don't. I know that. Look Noah, I really need to go if I'm going to catch this bus. But I'll be back tonight and I'll talk to you. I just need to see Tina. She doesn't know anything about any of this. But don't say anything to anyone until I get back."

He nods in understanding and gives her a shoulder a comforting squeeze before walking off to his room. She looks on at his retreating form with a sigh before running off to catch her bus.

x 0 x 0 x

The bus ride feels like it took forever when it was really only 90 minutes. She had texted Tina halfway through the journey to let her know she was on her way, and the girl let her know she would meet her where the bus would drop her off. Rachel looked out the window to see the looming building of a big train station. Cars were everywhere and people were coming in and out. In many ways, it was a lot like New York but…manageable.

She saw her friend standing by a pole that the bus was heading towards. Rachel felt her heart swell in her chest at the sight of her best friend. She usually didn't get overly emotional about her friendship with Tina, but at this moment she had never been so glad to see her best friend in her life. She regretted not telling her about Jesse all these months.

As the bus came to a stop and passengers got up to get their things, Rachel hurriedly retrieved her backpack and pushed her way to the front despite the disgruntled looks she received from everyone else. At that moment she didn't care.

When she stepped off the bus and caught sight of Tina, she immediately dropped her backpack and hugged her friend tightly with tears in her eyes. Tina received the hug with surprise, but merely hugged Rachel back. She leaned back to look at Rachel, and saw her tears with concern.

"Rach? What's wrong?"

"God everything Tina. Everything. I don't know why I haven't told you anything all these months but I'm so sorry!"

Rachel continued to cry and Tina quickly took Rachel's bag and hailed them a cab. She shuffled them over and got inside, hoping that whatever her friend had to tell her was just her being dramatic and not being…serious.

x 0 x 0 x

Hours later, the girls are lying on Tina's bed in her dorm room surrounded by tissues for both of their tears and various items of food. They lie side by side on the bed, staring up at the ceiling and contemplating Rachel's long explanation of the series of events of her life.

"I wish you had told me before," Tina finally croaked. "I could have helped you, I could have-"

"It wouldn't have made a difference Tina. I didn't want you or my dads to know. It's just…if we had worked it out you 3 would have hated him no matter what and I didn't want that. I didn't want your opinions of him to change."

Tina smiled grimly and took Rachel's hand and squeezed it. "He does not deserve your protection and kindness. You know that right? You're too good for him."

"But…what if I'm not. It's just…you knew Jesse. What we had was wonderful so why did he cheat? Why did he lie? Why did he suddenly decide that I was easy to hurt and just kick to the corner?"

Rachel began crying into her friend's shoulder and Tina sighed wearily as she turned towards her and rubbed her back comfortingly.

"It's not your fault Rachel. He had us all fooled ok? Sometimes people just...do things. But it's nothing you did. You were an awesome girlfriend ok?"

Rachel nodded tearfully and reached for another tissue to dry her tears. The girls lied in silence for a few more moments before Tina got up from the bed determined.

"Ok. We need to do something else. Tell me about your classes, hallmates, roommate, everything. How is Puck doing?"

The two friends traded stories about their college experiences, laughing at the various mishaps that had come about recently. Meanwhile, they looked through Tina's computer at different sites, Tina showing Rachel some of the work that people at her art school were doing.

"I have to show you this set of photos one of the girls did recently. She got to go to France for it. How cool is that?" she told Rachel as she typed in the website.

They looked in awe at the beautiful photos, commenting on how amazing it would be to just go there and see it for themselves. The Louvre, catacombs, The Eiffel Tower. They knew everything would be beautiful in person.

"What if we went? What if we just did it?" Rachel wondered.

Tina looked at her with a peculiar look on her face. "There's nothing stopping us from going. We could go this summer if we start saving money now."

The girls looked at each other for a few moments before wide grins spread on their faces.

"Let's do it," Rachel said with finality.

x 0 x 0 x

She returns to her dorm in New York that night with a lighter heart. Instead of the plaguing thoughts of what Jesse had done to her, she can't help but be excited about her plan with Tina. The girls decided they would go to Paris and explore everything they could, living cheaply and staying in hostels. They both had a good amount of money saved already, and Rachel being the planner she was had already estimated the amount of money they would need for the trip.

She walks into her room, exhausted but with a smile on her face. When she enters though, she finds Mercedes and Puck sitting in the living room, books in their laps. When they see her, their attention was immediately on her.

"You're back!" they both said.

She raises an eyebrow. "You guys are…really happy to see me."

"Well you kind of left early this morning with just a note of 'I'm going to Philadelphia' so yeah we're happy to see you," Mercedes replied.

"How's Tina? How's Philadelphia? How did…she react to everything?" Noah asked expectantly.

Not wanting to dwell on the more somber parts of the day, Rachel brushed off the last part of the question. "Tina is great, I didn't see much of Philly, and we're going to Europe this summer," she told them nonchalantly as she walked into her bedroom.

She grinned as she heard her two friends' surprised exclamations at that piece of news. That would delay them for awhile.

x 0 x 0 x

As time went on, Rachel threw herself back into her classes and work. When she wasn't in class or in her vocal and acting workshops, she was working in the library as a work study student and also in a small café on the weekends. She was determined to make enough money to go to Europe.

She thought about Jesse…she thought about him often. But she refused to let him take away more than he already had from her. She thought about their relationship and all the good times and tried to reason how everything could have happened. But maybe it was better this way. Sooner or later it could have ended out worse if she hadn't found out about his infidelity.

Life went on in the hall too. She stayed close with all of the girls and spent a lot of her free time exploring New York and shopping with them.

And then there were the hilarious moments with the boys.

There was one particular night at about 1am when she and Mercedes were sitting comfortably in their pajamas doing some work, when Jake barged into their room.

"You guys have to come over to our room, Puck just discovered the funniest shit."

The two girls looked at each other amused and went over across the hall.

The first thing Rachel noticed when she walked in was that Puck was simply in his boxers. This wasn't a strange occurrence, the boy was comfortable with his body and didn't have a problem flaunting it. It's just that lately she'd been…noticing it more. Now that she wasn't engulfed in sadness she was recognizing her attraction to Puck again more and more…which wasn't acceptable since he was still very much in love with Brittany.

Secondly, Puck was standing in the middle of the room with a swiveling desk chair grinning mischievously.

"Hey B…sit in the chair," he orders her.

She looks at him skeptically. "Why?"

"Just do it ok. Live a little."

He said that to her all the time.

She sighed and went to sit in the chair. As soon as her butt touched the seat, Puck immediately began spinning her around furiously. She squealed at the motion and yelled his name.

"Noah what are you doing!"

"Just go with it B!"

He spun her in the seat faster and faster until all she could see was blurs of her surroundings. She wasn't even aware the chair had stopped until she heard Puck tell her to try and get up and walk. She did as he said and got up wobbly, reaching for something to hold onto so she wouldn't fall but there was nothing there. She tried to move her feet, but everything was moving and she began to laugh hysterically as she stumbled around even though it seemed like she was walking straight. She could hear everyones good natured laughter around her and she fell to the ground laughing uncontrollably. The feeling of not having control, of having the world literally spin around her wasn't as scary as she once thought.

In fact, it was exhilarating.

She felt strong hands pull her up onto her feet, and she looked up to see Puck's amused and warm smile.

"Somehow I figured you would love that B."

Somehow he knows her better than most people. Somehow he knows just what she needs.

x 0 x 0 x

Thinking about Jesse plagues Rachel too much. She knows this. Even though she has a lot to keep her busy, it doesn't stop her mind from wandering to that dark place.

She happens to be bored and on Facebook one afternoon when she gets morbidly curious and checks his profile. He was tagged in new pictures, and it seems he's been taking trips with all of his friends. And taking lots of cozy pictures with Betty.

With everything she knows about him now, this isn't a surprise.

Her forehead creases with every picture she sees. Any hope of having a good day is officially gone and she's angry with herself for letting Jesse take that away from her.

She needs to let that stop.

She picks up her phone and goes to her contact list to call him. She paces the living room of her dorm and bites her lip, doubting what the hell she's even doing as the phone rings. And when he actually answers she almost drops the phone.

"Rachel?" Jesse answers confused.

She can't find her voice and even though she's opening up her mouth to speak, nothing will come out.

"Are you…are you there? Don't hang up! How are you?" he says desperately after noticing her silence.

She clears her throat, annoyed already that he seems so concerned for her. If that was the case, none of this should have happened.

"Well, I was feeling pretty sorry for breaking up with you until I ran into dear Matt Rutherford and heard the story about that girl from London. Apparently I was supposed to know about that but it's news to me…isn't it Jesse?" she answers back with a steely tone.

"He-he told you about that?" he stutters.

"I can't believe you. I can't believe you lied to not only me but your teammates as well. I can't believe I wasted my summer and first semester of freshman year worrying about how you would feel about our relationship changing so much and trying to make sure you were happy and secure. But this whole time…it didn't even matter did it?"

"Rachel I-"

"This is the last time you will ever speak to me. Don't call, don't text, don't do anything. If you see me on the street you'll ignore me. I never want to see or hear from you again. So you need to say whatever you need to say because this is it. This is the last time."

She's never spoken to him with so much anger in their entire time of knowing each other. But she needs to do this. He needs to see how angry she is…so she can move on. This door of her life needs to be closed.

"I…I'm so sorry Rachel. I'm so sorry for everything that happened. I just…I don't know how to explain any of it. But I did love you. So much. I do love you."

She scoffs. "Is that it?"

"I guess so."

She sighs. "Goodbye then Jesse."

"Goodbye Rachel," he says sadly.

x 0 x 0 x

She feels like she's on a roll after that confrontation.

She gets rid of everything that has to do with Jesse in her room with the help of Mercedes and Grace and puts everything in a box. All of the pictures, the special photo album, gifts, everything.

Except for the jewelry.

She never particularly cared that Jesse gave her so much jewelry. It was just something he did for almost every special occasion. He loved to spend money on her that way. Now that they are done and over, she doesn't know what to do with all of it.

Until a brilliant idea comes to mind.

She wakes up semi early on a Saturday morning and heads out into the city. She goes to a jewelry store that she knows of and asks to speak to the manager. While she waits, she eyes a few pretty earrings that she knows would go great with a few outfits she has. When the pretty manager comes out, Rachel takes out the envelope in her purse and empties the contents.

"How much can I get for all of these?" Rachel asks excitedly.

When she walks out of the store a half hour later, she has a great new pair of earrings and a huge dent put into her Europe trip fund. From now on, Jesse will just be known as that guy that helped her get to Europe.

x 0 x 0 x

The rest of the semester passes through a lot easier than her first. She's more focused, happy, and relieved. Its been a long time since she's been single, and without the weight of having to worry about someone else in her life she feels more free to do everything she set out to do in New York.

She spends much of her time with everyone in the hall, exploring more of the city outside of the campus. She's found that frat and house parties usually aren't her style, unless she knows a lot of the people there. Otherwise…who knows who is in that party.

She and her friends have a knack for meeting creepers. Especially when she and Mercedes go out places.

One particular weekend, Tina comes to visit and the girls decide to head to a piano bar. Thankfully, Tina and Mercedes get along great. Rachel is glad that her two best friends can be friends themselves.

The music is fantastic and the girls manage to finagle the bartender into giving them some drinks. It seems like no one really cares that much if they're under 21. They will be soon anyway. Soon as in a couple of years.

The mic is open at one point and Tina practically pushes Rachel up to the stage to sing a song. She tells the piano man her choice and he laughs as he begins the notes to 'Maybe This Time.'

Her performance gets her a standing ovation from everyone in the bar.

She returns to her bed that night, exhausted and a little tipsy but happy and sure for the first time in awhile. This is what she's born to do. She's born to sing. It could be in a bar, a classroom, or a Broadway stage. It doesn't matter. She just knows she'll always be singing something.

x 0 x 0 x

By keeping herself busy, Rachel hasn't had time to think about Noah all that much.

He's still around as much as ever, and he's still just as attractive, but even without the overwhelming sadness of her break-up looming over her, she's still too occupied to think about the feelings that have never gone away for her friend. She also knows she owes it to Brittany to never get too far. It's a slippery slope, and she refuses to be that person. Especially since she knows exactly how that feels.

Puck's acapella group is having their spring show towards the end of the year, and the whole hall decides to go as a group to support him. Rachel's excited to see what they have to offer. She was so busy with work and Jesse last semester that she missed all the shows but she bought her ticket from Noah well in advance. She regrets that. She's never missed a show that he's ever been in but she did one time because of Jesse and trying to make a failed relationship work.

She's heard Noah practice once or twice. His voice is as wonderful as she remembers.

She sits between Mercedes and Grace and the 3 girls spend most of the show commenting on the costumes or good looking guys in the group. Noah has a short solo at one point, and the group makes a point of hooting and hollering embarrassingly. He shouldn't even be surprised. They're an obnoxious bunch of freshmen.

After the show they wait in the lobby to see him and congratulate him. Rachel looks away from Jake as they're talking and sees a familiar face standing by the bathrooms. Brittany is there. She doesn't know how she didn't see her this whole time.

She doesn't necessarily want to but there's no reason for her to not go and say hi to her.

As usual, Brittany greets her warmly and excited. It's so hard to hate this girl.

"Puck was really awesome. I'm so glad though, he and the guys have been working so hard this week!" she exclaims. Even Rachel can tell how proud Brittany is of her boyfriend.

"Yeah I know they were really great. He's hardly been around the dorms this week so I'm glad it was so good," she replies.

"By the way, I heard about you and your ex-boyfriend. I'm so sorry, it sounded like such a rough break-up," Brittany tells her sympathetically.

Rachel raises an eyebrow but keeps her smile intact to not cause alarm. "Yeah it was rough but power through it! That's what I say."

She wishes she could see her own smile right now. It's so fake.

"Puck was really worried about you sometimes. He would tell me about how he wanted to 'smack that Jesse kid in the face.' It was cute…like you're his little sister or something!"

Rachel blushes at that remark. Maybe that's true for Noah but on her end? Definitely not sibling related thoughts sometimes.

The insinuated idea of them being related is…terrible.

Thankfully Noah comes through to save Rachel from the awkward conversation, except it's more awkward to watch them hug, kiss, and be generally cute with each other. She almost hugs Mercedes and Grace when they lead the rest of their group over to them.

Noah thanks everyone for coming like it's no big deal, even though Rachel can tell by the look on his face that he appreciates it greatly. He parts ways with the group, saying he wants to spend some time with Brittany since she's going back to school tomorrow morning.

Rachel is mostly quiet during the walk back to the dorms. Everyone around her is talking and laughing but she's mostly lost in her thoughts. It's not until Mercedes bumps her and says something to her that she even comes out of autopilot.

And then comes the word vomit.

"You know how Noah and I went to the middle school together? I had a pretty big crush on him," she tells Mercedes nonchalantly. She doesn't know why she's telling her this. It shouldn't even matter anymore.

"Really?" Mercedes says surprised.

"Yes. In fact, I asked him out 3 times in middle school and he said no."

"Huh. Seems like Puckerman was a bit of a fool back in the day."

"Not really. I had a terrible short haircut that made me look awkward. One day I'll show you. But I was pretty in love with him for 2 years."

"That's kind of cute. Except he's with Brittany and everything-"

"Which is fantastic because I like Brittany. Of all the girls from that high school he could have dated besides Tina, she's a great choice. Plus…I don't have time for boys right now. I'm focusing on school and my career of course," Rachel says quickly as if she's convincing herself.

Mercedes mutters in agreement and changes the subject to something else. Rachel doesn't know why she told her friend all of that. It's like she has to validate it in someone else.

In some ways she wants to hate Brittany…she wants to think that she had Noah first.

But technically she didn't.

x 0 x 0 x

It's after her last final and she's staring at her practically empty room. Everything is boxed up, Mercedes has already left since she didn't have as many exams, and she's one of the only people left in the hall.

It's all very bittersweet.

She's excited for the summer and going to Europe with Tina for 2 weeks of course, but leaving everything here in New York for a few months will be…strange.

Waking up in her bedroom at home instead of her dorm with Mercedes will take getting used to. She can't just bake great thing with Grace whenever she wants to avoid homework.

She also can't look up hilarious YouTube videos with Noah and Jake.

Rachel sighs, not wanting to depress herself any longer with the impending departure. Her fathers are coming tomorrow and she still has a few things that need to be ready.

She heads out to get some food and more packing tape when she runs into Matt Rutherford. Their interaction this time is less awkward and strained. In fact it's nice to see Matt. She's not surprised that she never sees him considering NYU is a huge campus, but when he invites her out to an end of the year party with some of his friends she readily accepts.

x 0 x 0 x

When Rachel wakes up the next morning, she knows she did something kind of stupid.

She's still in her clothes from last night, her make-up is smeared, and she's completely unsteady on her feet. Not even the shower she takes helps the feeling she has. She wishes she could fall over and die.

Once she's dressed and looking blearily in the mirror, she hears a knock on the door. She shuffles over and opens the door to find Jake, chipper and awake in front of her.

"Hey! You wanna get some breakfast with me?" he asks her.

"I think I'm still drunk," she croaks out.

x 0 x 0 x

It's also funny to her that the events of last night become more clear as she explains everything to Jake.

She went to go meet Matt at his dorm, met some of his friends, and proceeded to "pre-game" with them. That was probably the first mistake. She didn't drink that much, but the thing that did her in was all the drinking games they played once they got to the actual party.

The beer tasted horrible, but the games were fun.

They all partied until the early morning of 4am. Matt walked her home, equally drunk, and the two stumbled and laughed their way back to Rachel's door.

The big mistake occurs when she lets him kiss her.

There's nothing wrong with Matt, in fact he was always a really great guy in high school. Out of all of Jesse's friends she liked him the best, mostly because he kept everyone grounded.

There's also nothing wrong with the way he's kissing her. It's slow, nothing like Jesse, and so soft. So she unlocks her door and pulls him in.

She lets his hands wander under her clothes and the feel of his hand on her breast should be more exhilarating than it is, but the haze of alcohol lets her ignore that and keep going.

At least she's smart enough not to let him unbutton her jeans. If there's one place she knows they can't go…it's there.

He's a gentleman about it, kisses her lightly on the cheek and tells her he'll see her around this summer…hopefully.

He probably won't but it's nice of him to say so.

When she finishes her story, the only reaction she can get out of Jake is pure laughter.

"Fuck Berry, who knew you would become that typical college kid on your last day here? Mercedes is gonna be pissed. She's such a good influence on you."

Rachel laughs at this statement. Mercedes probably wouldn't be…mad.

She'll probably just laugh at her.

x 0 x 0 x

Europe is more gorgeous than she expected.

The girls are on day 3 of their trip and return home in 11 days. The plane ride was a whirlwind adventure Rachel can't even remember but before she knew it they were in Frankfurt, Germany and on a train to Paris. When they arrive in the city they wander aimlessly without a care of getting to their hostel or settling in.

Over the next few days they develop a system.

Rachel learns quickly at Tina is not very good with directions…at all. Giving her the map in order to find their way around the city pretty much ended up with them lost for a few hours. Not that being lost in Paris was a problem per se but it seriously delayed the time they took to see the museums. Tina spent more time taking pictures of everything than getting them where they needed to go.

So Rachel takes complete control of the map so that Tina can be free to take pictures and not pay attention to what streets they have to be on. When the girl gets a camera in her hand, everything else falls away.

They see everything. The Eiffel Tower, The Louvre, and the catacombs. Rachel was particularly freaked out walking through the catacombs. She's never been a big scaredy cat about the dark, but to walk through the dark tunnels and be able to feel the bones within the walls sends a chill down her spine.

The city is beautiful though. Rachel eats a baguette at least once a day and the amount of gelato she consumes should be embarrassing.

And she's never felt as close to Tina.

The girls have been best friends for years and never let the physical distance between them change that, but as the two of them gaze into Monet's Water Lilies, Rachel realizes how lucky she is to be in this city with the one person that has always been there.

She and Tina cry a little at that moment.

x 0 x 0 x

The rest of the summer is a little more boring than her European adventure.

She works at one of the local coffee shops in town part time while helping out with the community theater's summer musical. The theater mostly encourages participation by high school students so Rachel helps with set design and critiques some of the scenes every now and then. After all, they're doing Grease and the girl they have playing Sandy can't always reach the note she's supposed to during "Summer Lovin". So of course she needs Rachel's help.

She goes to visit Mercedes up at her house for a week and just as she thought, the girl laughs hysterically for 5 minutes after Rachel tells her what happened with Matt before she left.

"Girl, that totally explains the weird text I got from you that night," Mercedes remarks.

"What text message?" Rachel asks confused.

"It was something like 'I have a deep lesbian love for you Mercedes' except you spelled most of it wrong. I figured it wasn't you and it was Jake or something but it was sent at 3:30am."

Rachel blushes. "Yeah that was probably Matt. He did have my phone at one point."

"Not gonna lie Rach I'm a little proud of you. You were always so against hooking up especially after your break-up and look at you now girl! Guess it's safe to say you're over Jesse though huh?"

Rachel scoffs. "Jesse who?"

x 0 x 0 x

When Rachel moves in her dorm for sophomore year, she immediately knows this year is going to be a little different.

While Mercedes and Rachel's friendship is still intact and completely fine, Grace and Karen are a little more strained. Rachel can understand though mostly because Karen became a lot more bitchy at the end of the year and that hasn't changed. Grace isn't really tolerating it though, and Rachel expects her to be hiding out in her room a lot more this year.

And almost everyone from last year is back in the same hall…except for Noah.

Jake is still living in the hall in a room by himself, but Noah decided to get an apartment with a bunch of guys from his acapella group. This basically means they'll hardly ever see him.

The girls work on getting their room set up, and Rachel adds the extra special touch of photos from Paris that Tina had framed for her. Their living room turns into a bit of a shrine to Tina's work but Mercedes thinks it's beautiful and it makes the room more sophisticated.

In the middle of setting up the bathroom shelf she gets a text message.

Yo B! Get the crew and come to my new place tonight we're having a party.

She automatically smiles from seeing his name appear on her phone screen. She didn't really hear from Noah over the summer but that's not surprising. He was busy himself with his acapella group's summer tour in Cuba and various trips with Britanny and her family. She knows this because she stared at the photo of him on the beach with the guys for quite awhile.

It was a nice picture…so sue her.

She immediately goes to find Mercedes and let her know tonight's plans. Of course they're going to that party.

x 0 x 0 x

Rachel is quickly learning that she leads a terribly awkward life.

When they arrive at the party, the first people Rachel sees are Noah and Matt Rutherford, talking and laughing as if they've known each other for years.

They also notice her at the same time.

"Yo B!" "Hey Rachel!" they yell at the same time.

They then look at each other confused.

"You know Rachel?" Matt asks.

"Yeah man me and Rachel go way back…middle school actually,"

"That's funny because I knew her in high school. Really good friends with her ex and shit."

The boys eye each other strangely and Rachel chooses that moment to break the tension and hug them both.

"It's so good to see you both! I didn't know you knew each other though," Rachel exclaims.

Questioning them manages to distract them from the previous tension.

"Yeah he's friends with one of the guys and I've met him at some other parties. Matt is a hilarious dude," Noah explains. He wraps his arm around both Matt and Rachel and walks them over to the kitchen where drinks are set up.

"So uh…help yourselves guys. I'm gonna go say hi to everyone else. Haven't seen Jake yet you know?"

"Yeah man we'll see you around. And hey! We should get a game of pong going later. Rachel is actually a really good partner," Matt says with a wink.

Rachel blushes and her eyes widen a little as she looks at Noah who is giving her an unreadable expression.

"Yeah um…hopefully we'll get a game going. I'll see you guys," he says coolly before walking off.

Matt and Rachel watch him walk away from them with confused expressions.

"Is he an ex or something? Like before Jesse?" Matt asks.

"God no! Noah and I are just friends. Since middle school. Why?"

Matt shrugs. "I don't know he seemed really weird just now. Whatever. You want a beer or something. Tell me about your summer! You went to Europe right?"

She nods excitedly and accepts the cup of beer he hands her.

x 0 x 0 x

A couple hours later Rachel is not very sober and up against a wall making out with Matt.

They're still at the party and played 2 rounds of pong only to lose but Noah was nowhere to be found. They danced for awhile, incredibly close, until the heat from all the people on the dance floor caused Matt to pull Rachel into a dark hallway of the apartment and kiss her.

She kisses him back, and lets his lips trace over her neck. She should probably stop because they're in such a public place but she's drunk enough that she doesn't even care. She wraps her legs around his waist and feels him grind against her as he continues to kiss her neck.

She opens her eyes a little and sees someone standing at the end of the hall. There are a few people in the hallway but this person stands out because 1. It's Noah and 2. He's staring right at them.

She gasps, and Matt thinking it's a sign of pleasure groans himself and lifts his head up to take her lips again. She keeps her eyes open, looking once again to Noah.

His expression is completely unreadable, but something in Rachel knows he's not necessarily pleased to see her making out with Matt. It sends a thrill in her, to know that he must feel something about her. She's not making this up in her head.

Matt's lips leave hers and she hears him whisper in her ear about going back to his place. She keeps looking down the hall and sees that Noah is walking away and out of sight.

She feels an ache deep in her belly, and she knows it's not from Matt. But he's here and he can take care of it.

So she says yes.

Rachel finds Mercedes to let her know where she's going. Mercedes happens to be dancing with Grace, Jake, and Noah.

She says goodbye to everyone and they all reply…except for Noah.

But she still feels his eyes on her as she walks out the door with Matt.