Here's the second chapter for today! Rereading what I wrote, I can't believe that I forgot about this story. I am slowly falling in love with it all over again. Please enjoy! ~Dreaming of Words

Chapter 3: Fall For You

Tina found it mildly ironic that in the process of finding out if her two friends were perfect for each other, she discovered that the boy she thought was her soul mate wasn't right for her. It stung, more than she was willing to acknowledge or admit. She didn't want to tell anyone, but when she and Artie broke up, she still felt like she was able to breathe. The world didn't crash down around her ears and she could still live. All she felt was a slight pain, then the stinging of a freshly opened cut. And Tina knew instinctively that her heart was healing itself, but she wasn't prepared for the pain. It stung, the jagged edges of the wound cutting her as she kept living.

She hadn't noticed where she had been walking until she heard the soft strumming of a guitar. She immediately froze where she stood, taking in her surroundings. A few tense moments later, she realized that she was standing in the science wing and breathed a sigh of relief. Tina shook her head, believing the guitar to be a figment of her imagination, when she suddenly heard it again. She glanced in the doorway to see Noah Puckerman sitting on a stool in the center of an empty classroom with pictures scattered all around him on the floor. Tina didn't even have to look at them to know that they were pictures of Puck and Rachel dating from back when they were young all the way to now.

The zipper of her coat clanged against the metal door frame and Puck looked up startled, the clink a sudden gunshot amidst the silence. Hardly daring to breathe, Tina stood motionless just outside the partially open door. Her heartbeat thundered in her chest as she prayed that Puck would not see her. She heard his deep voice murmur something before absently plucking at the strings of his guitar. Tina carefully backed away from the door and sat down just outside it, peeking through the sliver that was open. Concealed in the shadows, she waited for something, anything. She waited as Puck continued to play random notes and just as she was about to leave, Tina heard him begin to sing, his deep baritone filling up the room.

"The best thing 'bout tonight's that we're not fighting.

Could it be that we have been this way before?

I know you don't think that I am trying…

I know you're wearing thin down to the core…"

Tina could practically feel her heart break at the emotion in his words; how much conviction he put into what he was singing. She couldn't help but think about Artie and how he changed over the course of their relationship. Once doting and loving, at the end he seemed to barely tolerate her and to lose patience with her so much more easily than he had in the beginning. It was like he was constantly trying to pick fights, to push her away from him…

"But hold your breath,

Because tonight will be the night that I will fall for you,

Over again, don't make me change my mind."

Puck caught sight of an older picture amidst the chaos of photographs on the floor right next to a more modern one. The first was of a gap-toothed Noah with his arm around the shoulders of a Rachel Berry wearing glasses. He remembered the day vividly. It was the day he proposed to her…

"Rachel?" five year old Noah Puckerman asked quietly. "Yes, Noah, what is it?" Rachel answered in her singsong voice and turned around to be face to face with Noah holding a ring he had made in art class that day. It was green with red and yellow dry spaghetti shells on it, but it looked perfect to Rachel. "When we get older, Rachel, will you marry me? Please?" Noah had proposed, holding his prized ring out in front of him. Rachel grinned and pushed her glasses up on her nose. "O'course I will, Noah! Thank you! But, if I have to wear your ring, you've got to wear this bracelet, that way we know that we'll be together forever!"

Puck smiled coming out of the memory, fingering the bracelet that he wore. It wasn't the same bracelet Rachel had given all those years ago, he had grown out of that one quite quickly, but it was another, larger one with some of the bracelet she had given him on it.

"Or I won't live to see another day,

I swear it's true…

Because a girl like you is impossible to find,

You're impossible to find."

Later that year, Puck had met Finn Hudson and they quickly became best friends. He didn't hang out with Rachel anymore, but still wore the bracelet she had given him, remembering the fun times they had had together and the promise they had made each other. He and Finn grew up together after that and became more like brothers than best friends and Rachel faded into the background of Puck's subconscious. As time passed, he forgot why he wore the bracelet, but knew that he should never take it off. So he didn't, just changed it and made it bigger to fit him as the years passed and forgot the glasses wearing, midget best friend that he had spent all of his time with before Finn.

"This is not what I intended…

I always swore to you I'd never fall apart.

You always thought that I was stronger…"

Puck was drawn into a more recent memory of the two of them, one from when they had gone out for a week. She was shocked to see that he still wore the bracelet, but was so happy that he still wore it even if he didn't remember why or who gave it to him. And much to everyone's surprise, he had told her that he was Quinn's baby daddy. Everyone had expected him to lie, but he knew that Rachel would appreciate the truth, even when it hurt her. When he told her she was so disappointed… He had never known what it was like to have someone be so proud of you. Having that trust and pride she had in him ripped away so suddenly was a scarring experience. She had looked at him with those sad brown eyes and whispered, "I thought you were stronger than that, Noah. I thought you were better than this…" He felt his heart shatter into millions of tiny pieces. He had so many things he had wanted to say to her, but instead he had made her swear to tell no one about what he had divulged to her. And she had looked at him with her sad brown eyes and kissed his forehead, whispering, "It's not mine to tell…"

"I may have failed but I have loved you from the start,

Oh, but hold your breath…

Because tonight will be the night that I will fall for you,

Over again, don't make me change my mind,

Or I won't live to see another day,

I swear it's true…

Because a girl like you is impossible to find…"

He felt hot tears run down his cheeks and he let them fall, he didn't care who saw him cry. Even if it wasn't a "badass" thing to do, this was Noah singing, not Puck, and he couldn't care less that he was crying over a broken heart. It hurt so bad, he didn't know what he would do with himself if he didn't let the pain out.

Tina heard his voice take on a pleading tone and she could almost imagine him pleading to a phantom Rachel. She knew it was Rachel he was singing about, there was no doubt about it, and Tina knew that she had a much better of chance of getting the two back together. She felt some tears fall as she heard the scratchiness of raw emotion in his voice.

"It's impossible to breathe in so deep,

Breathe me in; I'm yours to keep,

And hold on to your words 'cause talk is cheap,

And remember me tonight when you're asleep…"

Tina could practically hear the tears coat his voice and she felt tears running hot and fast down her own cheeks. She peeked inside the room and saw Puck staring at the pictures on the floor, lost in his own memories. A ghost of pain haunted his eyes and it hurt Tina to see how sad and haunted he was. His voice came out thin and spidery, a whisper of pure emotion as he began again.

"Because tonight will be the night that I will fall for you.

Over again, don't make me change my mind,

Or I won't live to see another day,

I swear it's true…

Because a girl like you is impossible to find…"

Tina could feel all the pain and heartbreak Puck felt pushed into the song and she wished that Rachel was here to hear this. Tina had no doubt Noah loved her, and this song showed just how much.

"Tonight will be the night that I will fall for you,

Over again, don't make me change my mind,

Or I won't live to see another day,

I swear it's true…

Because a girl like you is impossible to find,

You're impossible to find…"

Tina snuck away as quickly and quietly as she could, the soft sound of sobs following her as she exited the science wing. All she could hear was Puck's voice ringing in her ears as she reentered the crowded hallways of the more populated side of McKinley. Her heart hurt for Puck and Rachel and how miserable they both were. They loved each other so much… It was almost too much for her to take. Wiping the tears from her cheeks, Tina looked around with a new resolve strengthening her. She would help them find each other. A love like that deserved to grow, and Tina would help it no matter what.