Disclaimer; Though I wish at 11:11 every day and night I still don't own Glee =( If I did do you really think cannon would be happening right now?
Finn avoids talking to anyone who isn't Rachel. It's not very hard considering everyone seems to avoid talking to him. He knows what they all think; he's pathetic, he's desperate, he should just let her go. Well, they can shove it because he won't. They don't know how amazing she is, how supportive, how loyal, how much she helps him, how good she makes him feel. Why would he ever want to let go of that. He knows, knows in his heart that if she really genuinely wanted to with someone else she would be. But she isn't. She'd said she wanted them to break-up and he'd gotten her to stay until June. She says it's because that was their original plan but he knows better. She's just scared and maybe a little confused but he's going to make the next two months the best of her life and then they'll stay together for the summer and then after she goes to New York and he'll wait until she comes back. He has a plan.
Rachel has no idea what she's doing. She doesn't mean to watch; in fact she wishes more than anything that she could stop. It's been weeks. Weeks of explaining to Finn why she won't marry him, trying to drill into his head that their relationship is over. Weeks of him pretending not to have heard her. Weeks of him picking her up in the morning and taking her to breakfast and acting like he can win her back and change her mind in few weeks they have left until graduation. It's been weeks of her ignoring Finn and watching them. They're always together. Always side by side, and when they're not she counts the minutes they're apart because in those minutes she can breathe. She notices more than she should, more then she wants to. She notices how natural they are. Rachel had memorized Finn's schedule, Finn knew what hallways Rachel walked to avoid getting slushied. Quinn and Noah were just in sync. There was just a cosmic pull between them; one that allowed for Quinn to leave a classroom and Noah to turn a corner so that they would meet in the middle to walk the hall together. And even though they never plan it, they never seem surprised to see each other. Just content. Maybe relieved. Their eyes relying a conversation that makes her stomach turn. There you are, here I am. And she can't help but watch as the girl she 'stole everything from' takes the one thing she values most in the world. Kurt asks her what it is that bothers her so much, because they've been close for a while, because they've always spent time together, because they did have a baby together, because what she's seeing isn't new. But it is; it's new to her. Because for the past year she's unconsciously been in love with Noah while her head was up Finn's ass and what he had with Quinn went unnoticed by her. It didn't bother her that they came to school together. She wasn't upset that Quinn would babysit Sophia with him. She was mature even to accept their bond. It was the way Quinn could enter a room and he would look up already knowing it was her, they way their eyes met in a crowded cafeteria never having to search simply knowing where to find each other. It was the way she could see him getting ready to snap and in a second he would be calm, and Quinn's hand had come to rest on his arm or her head on his shoulder. It was the way that she would catch him looking at her, like Rachel set his soul on fire and she would hope and then he would look at Quinn like she was gravity and she would lose all faith again. It's the intimacy of them that killed her.
Santana didn't need to look up to know what was going on. Rachel was watching Puck and Puck wasn't even aware Rachel was in the same room. She can't say she blames him for blocking her out but for Rachel she felt bad. But what Rachel didn't get was that he did it because of her, because he was hurt and he was lost and Quinn really was gravity to him. Quinn was Puck's Britney. She'd been there since the beginning. They all had. The 'popular' kids had been a unit since preschool and Puck and Quinn had been two peas in a pod all their lives. Quinn trying to be perfect, Puck accepting that he wasn't. Quinn failing, Puck saving her. Puck failing, Quinn accepting him. It's a dance they had perfected before middle school. It's the reason they'd gotten pregnant in the first place. Quinn hurts, Puck hurts, Quinn wants Puck gives, Puck gives, Quinn takes, Puck angry, Quinn calm, Puck lost and Quinn finds. It's just how they worked. Probably how they would always work. It's intimate but it wasn't romantic. Not that it made much of a difference. To Rachel, Quinn had Puck's undivided attention and that made her the enemy. But Santana knows that Quinn is willing to share. She isn't the person everyone likes to think she is. Santana gets plenty of Puck time, sometimes with Quinn but usually without. Just like people see a lot of Britney. They aren't greedy, they have no reason to be. Their relationship was untouchable. "She's his Kurt. Now stop burning holes in the poor girl's head"
Kurt perks up at the sound of his name, looks from Santana staring at Rachel to Rachel staring at Quinn. Santana looks exasperated, while Rachel… well Rachel looks like she trying to dissect a frog in pig's clothing. Looking over he knows Santana's right. Puck hasn't spoken to Rachel in months now, and while that may not be enough time to fall out of love it was definitely long enough to move on. Aside from the occasional party sex with random sophomores Puck is still single. And according to local gossip Quinn is still unofficially dating Robbie on the basketball team. Besides, even though he'll probably never say it out loud Rachel needs to get over herself. Puck went above and beyond for her and while she's staring at him like he's her long lost soul mate, Finn is holding her hand. For some reason, he seriously deranged step-brother won't take no for an answer and according to Rachel as long as he can accept that the relationship is over as of June 29th she can't be bothered to break up with him every day for the next two months. He thinks it's pathetic and he's sure it's ripping her apart, but it's not his place. They don't even seem like a couple anymore. She spends all her time staring at Puck and he spends all his time trying to convince her that they should stay together and they friends spend a good deal of their time trying to drill into his head that she doesn't want him and no one is getting anywhere. The only person not consumed by all this bullshit is the one person who could really put an end to it. By some grace of God Puck seems to have shut off all senses when it comes to Rachel. He doesn't see her when she walks past him, didn't hear her in the early days when she tried to talk to him, there's no indication he can feel her when they dance together. Artie made the mistake of trying to convince him to talk to Rachel and Sam is trying to win back Mercedes so right now his life is school, Sophia, Quinn, Mike and Santana in that order. He feels bad for Rachel he really does but she did this to herself.
Quinn feels like her hair is about the start smoking. She can feel how intensely Rachel is staring at her and as much as it used to annoy her now it makes her feel awful. She may not act like it but she doesn't want things to be the way they are. She would love for Noah to stop being stubborn and for Rachel to stop being a people pleaser and for Finn to stop being a dunce cap but she's no miracle worker. She brings up Rachel in moments when he's calm and pliant, in small doses and then she backs off. Every day she reminds him that he can't shut out the world. That school, his daughter and three friends will never be enough to satisfy him. That it isn't healthy to cut off such an obviously important person in his world. And every day he says it for the best, and every day she shuts up because the conviction in his eyes is staggering. So she drops it and tries again the next day and the next and the next. Sometimes though on the rare occasion her skin isn't crawling she follows his gaze as he watches her for a change. She watches him as his face soften in a way only she would notice as if the sight of her alone changes the world or him. She holds his hand while it twitches him hers like he just needs to touch her like every nerve ending is screaming for Rachel. It breaks her heart sometimes, and sometimes it gives her hope. One day, when they can finally get their shit together, they are going to be magnificent.
AN: I doubt anyone reading this likes Finn, even so this would be the chapter where you say your goodbyes. Next Stop - Graduation!