"Yeah, Noah, I know… but-"
"No 'buts' it's 9:30 in the morning, I really don't want to argue with you right now."
"He knows it's not his and I KNOW that you know something, Noah Puckerman." We were having the same argument that we had been since that Thursday two months ago, I knew Quinn was lying, and had mentioned something to my cousin. His face immediately went pale which from him indicates he knows something worth knowing. He definitely did. I was still trying to pry it out of him. "Just tell me, we've never had secrets, and I don't think it's fair for either of us for you to start now."
"Fine."
"Really?" I hadn't been expecting to win this argument.
"Really meet me at the park." And with that I heard a loud click to let me know he'd hung up and then my LCD screen went blank. I shot out of bed and ran to my closet to throw on my zebra print long tank and my MLKHS hoodie with some leggings. After checking myself in the mirror I threw my hair in a messy bun and grabbed my car keys and purse off of my night stand and made my way down the stairs. "Brandon, I'm going to the park with Noah. I'll be back at some point." I laughed pushing open the front door and making my way towards my brand new, jet black, Charger. Sometimes I really appreciated my parent's gifts. As I drove into what we called 'downtown' Lima I noticed just how far into fall we were. All of the trees on every road had either a yellow, orange or red color to them, varying shades, but still each was as vibrant as the next.
The road was just past the edge of town and the same as it always had been, my parents used to take us here when we were kids to see the puppet shows in the fall. I spent the majority of my time staring at the bright fall colors instead of enjoying the puppets. Eventually Noah and I would sneak off and find a pile of leaves or swing on the swing sets. When he was in trouble he would come here and just sit in the tower of the play structure and I would come find him. Some things never change. I made my way into the park, paid for a day pass and made my way past the 'Puppet Palace' and towards the back where the play equipment is located. I caught him out of the corner of my eye and slowly came to a halt; he was sitting exactly where I had expected.
I opened my car door and made my way towards where he was sitting with his head to his knees and his hands on the back of his neck, kind of like when you do a tornado drill in school. "Hey." I spoke quietly; I didn't want to startle him. When I got no answer from him I spoke again a little louder, "Noah?" He finally met my gaze tears were apparent in his eyes. I quickened my pace and threw his arms around him and squeezed as hard as I could, "what's wrong?"
"Finn is my best friend." He spoke flatly.
"I know he is?" I pulled back and looked at him quizzically.
"Four months ago there was this party and almost everyone was there. Me, Quinn, Amelia, and Finn were all hanging out in this living room of this guys house, and everyone besides Finn and Amelia were drinking, they knew that they would have to drive some people home and so Quinn and I drank… a lot. Finn ended up leaving to take a group of people and then head home and asked Amelia if she would take me and Quinn. I don't remember much, I remember Quinn and I ended up in a bedroom some time after the party had started to die down and Amelia wanted to leave so she came to find us… We had just finished and it looked so bad. The look on her face… she stormed out of the room and was yelling about telling Finn. The next morning…" he stopped and began to sob into my shoulder again.
"You found out that she had died." I finished his sentence for him. "You have to tell Finn."
"I can't, Luca, he's my best friend, I can't lose him." It was rare to see Noah so vulnerable.
"Do you care about Quinn or was it just something stupid?"
"Yes I care about Quinn. It just wasn't- I didn't mean for- I was so stupid."
"If you tell Finn I can tell you right now he's going to break up with her." I was desperately trying to get him to tell Finn so I wouldn't have to live with the guilt of knowing. As much as Finn was my friend, Noah was family, and I would keep his secret until he died. We both knew that much.
"They are never going to break up, Lu; it's about time you get it through your head."
"He should still know the truth." I huffed under my breath. My cousin and I sat like that until around noon and then decided to grab something to eat.
"Pizza?" he questioned as we pulled into the downtown area again.
"You know me too well." I smiled as we got in my car and made our way back to the middle of town, "Burt's Pizzeria?" I laughed as he nodded and we pulled into one of the parallel spots on the 2 mile stretch of road. As we walked in I noticed Rachel sitting by herself in a booth, "sit with Rachel?" I asked cocking my head in her direction.
My cousin shot me a glare and shook his head, "are you trying to get the rep of a loser?"
"No, I'm trying to make good friends, not friends based on the social ladder." I shot with a smile before making my way over and tapping her on the shoulder, "mind if we sit with you?" I smiled at her and motioned to the rest of the empty booth.
"Not at all." She smiled back at me. In the last couple months I had definitely become the closest to Rachel. Sure I got along with everyone, but Rachel and I were like two peas in a pod. Except for our looks we were almost exactly the same person. We began a simple conversation about glee, which turned into fashion, which went to football, which went to so many different things I began to lose track and by the middle of it Noah actually seemed to be enjoying himself. Just as Rachel was explaining her family dynamic to Noah who she kept calling Puck I heard the clang of the bell over the door and caught the gaze of none other than Finn. I excused myself and made my way towards him.
"Hey." I tested; we had gotten into a fight about Quinn over a week ago and hadn't really spoken since.
"Hey." He looked to his feet as my eyes darted everywhere in the tiny restaurant except where they should have, "I'm really sorry I yelled at you, I haven't really been mad, I'm just not good with knowing that I hurt people's feelings and then I just kind of avoid the situation as a whole."
"I understand." I spoke quietly. "Can you meet me at my house later? I have something I want to talk to you bout that you'll definitely want to know. Just don't say anything to Noah. He'll kill me if he knows that I said anything."
"Uhm…" he paused, "well, I have plans with Quinn until like ten." I saw him looked back down at his feet and grab the back of his neck again.
"Stop worrying… I'm not going to kill you, just come over when you're done, and I'll tell you everything. Deal?" I smiled.
"Deal." He shot a crooked smile back at me and then made his way to the counter to place his order.
"What was that about?" Noah shot me a look.
"Nothing, we got into a fight, and I though it was time I say sorry was all. Calm down." Before I could process what was happening my cousin was out of the booth and talking to Finn. It wasn't until Finn looked over at me, his face dropped, and he balled a fist that I realized Noah had decided to tell him.
"You slept with Quinn?!" I heard him shout just before his fist connected with Noah's face.
Noah just sat on the ground in awe, I'm sure just trying to figure out what to do. As I stared at my cousin there was a mixture of feelings running through me, one being how proud I was of him for manning up, the other being anger for doing it just so I couldn't, and the third was complete admiration for not fighting back; I knew that that was a genuinely hard decision he had just made. I'm not sure why I expected anything less from him, but I really hadn't expected it to turn out this way. As I extended my hand to my cousin to help him up I heard 'Mary's Song' by Taylor Swift explode from my phone sitting on the wood counter at the other end of the pizzeria. When I got there I noticed I had one new text message from Finn.
Finn: I'll be at your house as soon as I'm done talking to Quinn.
Me: okay, I'll see you soon. Are you okay?
Finn: fantastic.
[&takeachance]
It had been hours since I had last seen Finn when he finally arrived on my door step. I swung the door open and he huffed through me on his way to the living room. Luckily my brother had heard about what happened and was at the Puckerman household making sure our cousin was okay. I walked quietly into the living room and saw Finn sitting on the couch closest the sliding glass window. I'm sure he could hear my feet tapping on the wood flooring of the room as I made my way to the oversized chair placed about ten feet from where he was sitting; but he never looked up. As I sat I pulled my knees up to my chest and just stared at the kid in front of me. Some times I forget how young I am, how young we all are. He was devastated; I hadn't seen him this bad since I left the first time.
I was sitting on my bed, twelve years old, staring at the boy in front of me. "Finn, I have to tell you something." I had invited him over to tell him some pretty bad news as far as we were concerned. I was moving. To where yet I had no idea, but I was going to be gone. Despite the forlorn expression on my face for the last 45 minutes, Finn had been rambling about the football game he had seen two hours ago. The melancholy tone that I had decided to use finally worked as he sat down next to me on my bed, grabbed my hand, and cocked his head to the side to let me know that I indeed had his full attention. "I'm moving." It was barely above a whisper, but I could tell he had heard me.
"That's not a funny joke." He dropped my hand and shifted angrily.
"I know Finn, which is why I wouldn't have said it if I wasn't serious." I stared at him blankly as I watched the emotions change in his eyes. "You're my best friend, I don't want to leave, but my parents are going… I can't just stay with Brandon, I asked trust me, they said no. I have to go with them. I'm sorry." Tears were filling my eyes as I looked at the boy who was tremendously disappointed, his face white, jaw open as if to protest everything I was telling him, and yet no words followed. We sat in silence for what seemed like hours but it was probably only minutes before he laced his fingers in mine again and kissed my temple.
"Lu?"
"Hmm?" I replied shaking my head; his voice had snapped me back to reality.
"Can you figure out why?"
"I can tell you that mistakes happen and that people will be people, but why is a very hard question to answer when it comes to anything honestly." I met his gaze for the first time since we started talking. I didn't see the same guy who had walked through my front door, instead I saw a young boy probably around twelve sitting in his place, asking me questions, and apparently I should have known the answers. As he shifted uncomfortably I shook my head and the young boy disappeared and I could see the older boy in front of me again. My eyes shifted to the clock. "My brother will be home soon." I smiled, "he went to check on Noah."
"I hit him pretty hard." He chuckled.
"Yeah, you did. He took it pretty well if you ask me." I agreed.
"I'm so glad it's only Saturday." He paused for a second. "It's eight o'clock on a Saturday night, lets go do something." His forehead crinkled a bit, "actually… let's just rent a movie and watch it here or at my house or something… I don't feel like being around people."
"Define 'people' because Rachel and I had plans tonight to rent some movies." I laughed. "So if you don't mind her joining then, yeah, I'm down."
"I wouldn't mind her being here. She's a really good friend." He smiled.
"Agreed." I returned a grin and made my way to the door, just as I was throwing on my favorite pair of black Uggs and red, checkered, jacket, Finn came around the corner.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to put on my scarf, and then I'm going to get the movies, duh, and then to get Rachel to come over. Not in that order actual, but that's pretty much the to-do list I've got in my head."
"I'll come." He spoke grabbing his letterman jacket from off of the couch.
I shot him a smile and made my way out of the large door and across my lawn that was riddled with leaves from the dozen or so trees that were planted along the road I lived on. A few second later I heard less than stealthy crunching noises behind me to let me know where Finn was. I knocked on Rachel's door and was greeted by [one] of her fathers; I called him Abba just as Rachel did. They were my second family here and in a few short months I was as close to them as I was with Rachel.
"Hey sunshine!" He greeted.
"Abba!" I smiled as he pulled me into a hug.
"Who's this handsome young man? Is this that Finn Hudson boy you speak so fondly of? Oh, he is cute." He winked at me as my cheeks caught fire.
"Abba" I heard Rachel shush from behind the door.
"Rach!" I laughed as I grabbed her. "Finn needs some friends, so we're going to do a movie night, and since we have plans I figured we could just include him?"
"Of course, of course… lets head out." She grabbed a coat and bundled up just as I had, slipping on her shoes she pushed through her father pausing briefly for a kiss on the cheek. "I'm going to the movie place, then to Lu's, so if you need me, call my cell." And with that we were off.
"So you guys talk about me? Is that really true?" Finn looked to Rachel and I as my cheeks began to burn again. "You totally do, you're blushing." He began laughing loudly. I finally found my way back to my house and climbed in the car. I tried avoiding eye contact or any conversation from him almost the entire trip. As we approached the rental store I came to a stop, threw my car in park, and practically ran into the store. Finn finally caught up with me as I was wondering aimlessly down the comedy aisle. "So you really think I'm cute?" he was wearing a goofy smile on his face.
"So what if I do?" I whispered back finally meeting his eyes with mine.
"Nothing, you're just really cool, and I've really missed you," and with that he kissed the top of my head and walked towards the new releases to see what Rachel was looking at. I stood and stared and him for a second before shrugging it off and continuing on my path. There was no way I was going to read into any of it. There was no use in getting my hopes up on Finn Hudson. No use at all.