Saved By The Music
Glee AU Fan Fiction
Chapter 8: Party Time

A/N: Alright, hope you guys enjoy even though I'm sure I'll be getting a ton of negative reviews about what's going to happen by the end of this chapter. But, just so you guys know, there's a reason for it and it's not going to involve anything more than friendship for either Finchel or Quick, alright? So no stressing. This story is Puckleberry and I'm not going to be having romantic involvements for Finchel in this story, because it would just be wrong and go against everything else that I have written for this story so far. So, please, keep the hate to a minimum. I love your thoughts and reviews, but not when it's bashing my ideas and writing. Anyways, enjoy-love you all and appreciate your spending time to read and review my story.

What Brittany probably should have thought about in her plans for the party was the fact that their next game was two days later, that Friday, and with all of the emergency party planning that Rachel, Santana and her had to do to have everything ready in time, they barely had time to enjoy anything that happened for the rest of the week. Wednesday and Thursday passed by in a blur, and with the craziness that came on a game day-especially on Rachel's first game day-none of the girls had time to catch their breath.

"Are we all ready?" Santana asked, plopping down onto the couch as she dropped the last bowl of snacks onto the coffee table that was already fluttered with bowls of chips and pretzels.

The pretty Latina with her dark, olive complexion and muscular long legs had styled her glossy mane of ravel colored waves to fall over a single shoulder, pushed all to one side. She wore a bright red bra-let spaghetti strapped crop top with a sparkly, silver on black spandex skirt. Red high heeled pumps with straps around the ankle sat on her feet, while dangling red feather drop earrings hung from her ears. She had a black and white ATTENTION WHORE necklace around her neck with silver and red rings on her two ring fingers. A downward facing belly button ring with a street sign that read HEAVEN tempted the male eyes and in her hand was her BADDEST BITCH phone case.

"Everything's set up, including the alcohol," Brittany said, giving her blonde curls another wave, giving them a carelessly messy look as she danced her way from the kitchen towards the living room where her friends were waiting.

Dressed in a pair of skintight, black skinny jeans that hugged her curves and sat low on her hips, she had paired a blue sparkly spaghetti strapped crop top with a LIKE THIS facebook resembling belly button ring, a downward arrow hanging from the bottom. She had sparkling blue pumps on her feet and a Michael Kors phone case in her back pocket.

She dropped down onto the couch, her infinity sign silver-diamond necklace popping against her chest as she moved. A silver and blue sparkling cuff bracelet was clinging to her wrist and a pair of blue sparkling stud earrings were in her ears. She had three blue rhinestoned rings cluttering her left hand.

"And the music is good to go," Rachel announced as she hit the play button on the stereo, filling the room with a Macklemore song.

She pushed her bangs to the side one more time, finger tossing her curly, ombre-d locks and then started to play with the treble cleft diamond-studded pendant on her silver necklace chain, her silver charm bracelet dangled as she moved. Pink, circular earrings hung from her ears with a matching ring on her her finger, another silver ring with a one sided pink polka dotted pattern on another hand.

"Are you sure I look okay?" She asked, twirling her pink Marc Jacobs phone case in her hands casually.

Dressed in a pink, cutout crop top with a silver bandage spandex mini skirt and pink peep toe pumps, she was a perfect ten, as she had been assured by Santana and Brittany repeatedly since they had gotten her all dressed up and did her makeup.

"If you ask one more time I'm going to punch you in the face. Remember school when you doubted us? What happened when everybody started to fall all over you and Mike freaked about how sexy you looked and Puck got extremely jealous?" Santana smirked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Didn't she apologize repeatedly to let us know that she was wrong and we had been right?" Brittany teased as she took a seat on the couch. "Because I recall that happening, just like she did when we dragged her to cheerleading tryouts," Brittany winked at the brunettes sitting opposite her.

"Shut up!" Rachel giggled, reaching forward and pushing Brittany playfully. "I seriously hate you guys," She insisted, shaking out her curls.

"As if," Santana snorted, rolling her eyes. "You couldn't hate us if you tried," She smirked.

"That's besides the point." Rachel stuck her tongue out at her friends. "Who's coming tonight?" Rachel wondered as her eyes flickered towards the digital clock attached to Santana's cable box. She had two more minutes to prepare herself for this. Two more minutes before her popularity was made or broken.

"Well, I invited the entire Glee club, unfortunately, because Lady Hummel found out about the party when I invited Tina and Artie-I heard they stood up for you one day, so I figured they had to be pretty cool-and put on a big stink about how we were a team and we needed to stick together. Whatever. I invited him and Wheezy to shut them both up," Santana rolled her eyes.

"And all of the Cheerio's are coming, as well as the football players and some of the hockey players, too!" Brittany said, bouncing in her seat excitedly. "Probably all of the really popular kids, obviously, because nobody could possibly be more popular than you, San, and I," Brittany beamed as the doorbell rang.

Rachel sighed, knowing that her real question hadn't been answered. She still didn't know if Noah Puckerman was going to be showing up with Quinn Fabray, but it was too late to ask now, as Santana was busy taking on the role of the perfect hostess while Brittany was being taken away by the attention of some overly excited cheerleaders and obviously horny football players who were ready to take some body shots-whatever it was that those happened to be.

Rachel had never been one for alcohol before, because it could damage your vocal chords, and Rachel's entire future was relying on her talent. She couldn't do anything to endanger her voice, so she refused to do such stupid things as accept an alcoholic beverage when she was underage-that was also because she'd prefer not to have a criminal record against her as she tried to start her career-and she absolutely refused to binge-drink with the sole intention of getting drunk and getting drunk fast. That wasn't the type of thing that soon to be Broadway starts did with their lives.

But, when she saw Quinn Fabray come strolling into the party, blonde hair falling straight, a few inches below her shoulders, with her bangs pinned back from her face, providing a sideways poof of hair, Rachel could feel her nerves shooting up. Dressed in a flowy, white skirted dress with a denim bra-let, spaghetti strapped top and pink leather flat cowboy boots, Quinn wasn't acting as though she had had a fall from grace.

Carrying her matching baby pink leather bag on one arm with her flowered phone case in her hand, silver infinity sign jewelry shining on her ears, neck, and wrist, and fingers, it was clear she was still at the top of the world in her own eyes. She was even shielding her blue eyes from the rest of the world, as if to hide her face, with baby pink sunglasses.

She was pulling Puck through the door behind her, clasping onto his hand tightly as she talked to him about something Rachel could tell the boy wasn't interested in at all. Still, he was listening and he was giving her a response every now and then. And he even moved forward and forced her to remove her sunglasses, gently, of course, and took her purse from her, bringing it into a secluded corner where he saw an already tall stack of purses and jackets starting to form. Using his own jacket to shield Quinn's belongings, he hurried back to his pregnant girlfriend, wrapping an arm around her waist and making their way to the kitchen, not even noticing Rachel Berry.

Or, maybe not, Rachel thought sadly to herself as Quinn glanced over her shoulder, shooting an overly confident smirk directly at her as she was pulled away.

And if it had been just the pregnant cheerleader and the bad boy football player, Rachel probably would have been okay with what was taking place at the party. Unfortunately, a lot more than just that happened.

Mercedes Jones, dressed in purple skinny jeans with a pink spaghetti strap, baggy tank top and leopard print purple and pink shoes, came strolling by with Kurt besides her. Her curly hair framing her pretty face and a DIVA necklace around her neck, she was texting away on her purple, fluffy phone case, hot pink purse on her arm.

"A party in Rachel Berry's honor? Are you kidding me, Kurt? God, we only came because Tina swore she'd be here and didn't want to be alone. Where is that girl?" Mercedes ranted.

"I know, it's awful that we're here, as if we're supporting Rachel's ridiculous attempts to become popular just so she can try and admit she's over Noah Puckerman. As if-we all know she's doing this because she's obsessed with him and is trying to get some of his attention. Can you say desperate?" Kurt rolled his eyes.

"The boy is having a baby with another girl. She's so desperate. It's just selfish of her to keep fighting for him," Mercedes replied as she walked by.

"I agree one hundred percent." Kurt nodded.

"Oh-Tina text me! She's-right there!" Mercedes pointed, glancing over her shoulder. Rachel followed her view and her eyes settled on Tina, somebody who was actually nice to her in the Glee club without having to be her friend or wanting anything from her.

Of course, it was clear that Tina didn't care what others thought of her. With her glossy black hair falling straight to her shoulders with electric blue streaks, the girl was dressed in ripped skinny jeans with a black crop top, with long sleeves in a lacy print, cut out at the shoulders to leave them bare. She had black laced up high heeled boots and all of her jewelry had to do with music, a leopard print phone case in her hands and a grey and black print purse in her hands. She caught Rachel's eye and offered a friendly smile, and then she was whisked away into conversion with Mercedes and Kurt.

"Hey,"

Rachel jumped in her seat, startled at the weight that was freshly added besides her on the couch. She turned slightly, shocked to find Finn Hudson sitting besides her. Not only had she never before spoken to Finn Hudson, but he usually sat idly by while the other football players tortured her, and occasionally would add a comment or two to Azimio or Puck's sexual harassment like comments. Of course, when they were doing something cruel that could really hurt her, he stood up for her, forcing his friends to go away and leave her be.

She knew that he was of the nicer caliber of football players, but she still wasn't sure if she would be able to trust him and if he should be counted as one of her friends or not. Besides, she couldn't be sure why he would even want to talk to her in the first place, since as far as she knew, all he wanted to do was hate the rest of the world for his best friend helping his girlfriend to cheat on him and knocking her up in the process.

As far as she knew, Finn was going to school and then to football practice before heading home. He hadn't hung out with the other team members since the breakup and he definitely hadn't been going out of his way to talk to people, especially to other girls. And especially not to the Cheerio's.

Most people believed he was worried he was going to get made fun of for what he had had happen to him. Some believed he was still in shock. Others thought he was just plain old confused and had no idea what was going on in his own life because he was, after all, one of the dumber members of the football players who weren't the brightest bunch as it was.

"Oh, shit-sorry. I forgot, you probably don't even know who I am. Finn-Hudson. I'm Finn Hudson," He said, reaching up and running a hand through his dark mane of dark chocolate colored spikes.

Rachel could see the attraction so many girls had to the tall quarterback. He had a boyishly adorable face, the type of face that could unintentionally break hearts. The type of face girls fell in love with without realizing it. He was the type of guy that a girl would bring home to her parents and actually go on the date with. He had innocent, hazel colored eyes that were heavy on the brown, with a sweet, harmless type of look to them. And while he was tall and slightly doughy, he was clearly made up of all muscle and it was probably impossible for him to harm anybody, even if he really wanted to.

"I know who you are," Rachel giggled. "I just didn't realize that you knew who I was," Rachel explained to him sweetly.

"Everybody knows who you are, Rachel Berry-you're the girl that's taking over the Cheerio's with a couple of days. You're the girl who became popular within a day. You're the girl who was able to become friends with Santana and Brittany without even trying. And you're Mike Chang's best friend, of course," Finn smiled at her.

"I didn't realize I had that big of a reputation behind me," Rachel laughed.

"I heard you and…him had something going on….before everybody found out about what happened," His voice got darker, almost scary, as he spoke of his supposed best friend.

"It was nothing. It was over before it had a chance to start. He's obviously a jerk, helping a girl cheat, especially when she was dating his best friend," Rachel rolled her eyes, trying to play it off as cool, as if she weren't bothered by what had happened.

"You can admit that you're hurt-at least, when you're talking to me you can," Finn said, leaning in close to whisper in her ear. "After all, I'm every bit as hurt as you are," He whispered on as if they were in one some big secret nobody else could know.

Rachel giggled at his closeness to her, adjusting her head so that she could whisper back into his ear, her hair tickling his cheeks as she spoke.

"Why are you whispering?" She asked softly.

As she moved back away from him, leaning against the arm of the couch, he threw his head back and started to laugh. It was a happy, pure and real laugh, full of actual humor and appreciation for what she had just said to him. It made her happy-it made her feel appreciated. And for once, she didn't feel like she was getting something because of her would-be relationship with Puck or her talent.

Finn had come up to talk to her on his own, without wanting to initiate her into a club. He was joking around with her and laughing with her without knowing about her talent at all, and he wasn't trying to hide the fact that they were friends-or, at least, that he was enjoying her company-from his other friends, so he wouldn't be mocked.

As much as Rachel had come to love her friendship with Santana and Brittany, she knew that it never would have happened if she hadn't started to get close to Puck. And while she was grateful she had them now, she wasn't sure if she would rather have missed out on all that they offered to her rather than have had the broken heart Puck had left her with. And she really did appreciate all that Tina did to try and defend her, but she couldn't help but be a little bit hurt at the way the girl never said anything to Mercedes and Kurt and she never tried to talk to Rachel when other people were around.

"You're kinda cool, you know that?" Finn asked her when he had finished laughing. "Seriously, besides when I'm playing football, this has been the first time I've been able to stop thinking about them and everything that happened for more than a minute or two at a time. And this is definitely the first time since all that drama that I've actually been laughing and feeling good about myself," Finn smiled at her appreciatively, as if he were thanking her for talking to him.

"Why do you feel bad about yourself? She's the whore and he's the jackass," Rachel blurted out without thinking, repeating what Santana had been saying to her ever since Rachel had learned the truth about what had happened.

She had never really understand how Santana could say that, because Rachel did feel lousy that Puck had slept with Quinn, while claiming he had feelings for Rachel for years. It made her feel as if she could easily be replaced by any female who would put out for him. And while she knew he'd been with Santana, she also knew that that entire thing had been public and in the open, obviously for their social status.

And he had picked Rachel over Santana. He didn't have the choice to do that with Quinn, and that was what really made Rachel feel awful, because she wanted him to pick her over the girl he had knocked up way more than he should.

"Because she wouldn't do anything more than kiss me, but she'd hook up with Puck, and he's been with more girls than Santana's been with guys. I mean, I'm a virgin and so was she-it would have been both of our first times. She claimed she loved me, and then she went and hooked up with my best friend. I feel like I just wasn't good enough for her to want to have for her first time or something," Finn sighed.

"Don't feel that way," Rachel blurted out. "Seriously, I know it sounds easier than it is, but you shouldn't feel that way because any girl would be lucky to have a guy like you for her first time, rather than a guy like Puck. Do you know how many times he told me Quinn didn't mean anything to him? And how they're stuck together. They were both idiots and now they're stuck together. You can move on and find a girl worth your time and I can move on and find a guy worth my time," Rachel said in a rush.

"Yeah, I guess that's true," Finn sighed. "You want drink? I'm going to go and get a beer, but I can get you something a little lighter or something I can water down or make more girly or something. You don't seem like you drink a whole lot," Finn said, rising to his feet.

Rachel was quiet for a second, trying to figure out a nice way to inform him that she didn't drunk at all because it could taint her vocal chords, but then she spotted Puck in the corner, holding Quinn close to him as he casually spoke to a few guys on the football team, drink in hand, occasionally allowing Quinn to pull him down to exchange a quick kiss.

"Yeah-that would be awesome, thanks," She smiled at him.

"Somebody's moving on fast-and becoming a bit of a rebel," Mike Chang dropped down onto the couch besides Rachel, taking the spot Finn had just vacated. "Drinking and flirting with Finn Hudson?"

"I am not flirting with Finn Hudson. We're just talking. We're friends," Rachel insisted, shaking her head.

"Well, do me a favor and don't tell him that, because he's flirting with you and I'm starting to see him act like the blubbering idiot he was when he started to fall for Quinn." Mike sighed. "Anyways, Finn's a sweet guy and I know he looks strong and tough and all, but he's soft, especially when it comes to girls. One more heartbreak-especially another girl leaving him for Puck, is going to kill him. So, don't do anything to lead him on," Mike sighed.

"I'm not doing anything wrong, Michael," Rachel insisted.

"Not to you-but Finn's sort of naive. All it takes is a girl talking to him and giving him attention." Mike shrugged, rising to his feet again. "But-you know, he wouldn't be bad for you, if you wanted to give him a shot. You could both use somebody to put the pieces back together," Mike told her honestly.

And with that comment, Brittany grabbed onto his arm, dragging him towards the area where people had made a makeshift dance floor.

"Sorry, Rae-Mike's the best dancer here and I've got to go and show a few people up. So, I gotta steal him for a little bit. Don't worry though! FInn's coming back now!" Brittany said cheerfully, as she pulled him away from a shocked Rachel who started to laugh at her friends once she understood what was going on.

Of course, a lot of Brittany's dragging Mike away probably had to do with the blonde's want to dance with the boy, because of her crush on him. It wasn't that she was jealous of the bond he and Rachel shared. Brittany knew that the two were only friends and Rachel was not interested in him that way. She was aware that Mike was over Rachel. She just wanted an excuse to dance with him without getting rejecting or breaking the Unholy Trinity's unspoken rule about being the one to come onto a guy stronger than he was coming onto you.

They didn't need to chase guys, and they didn't need to beg. Boys either came to them and asked them out, or they enjoyed the single life together, the way best friends usually did.

"Here-I got you a coke with rum. Santana said that was what she starting drinking…" Finn said cautiously, handing Rachel a red SOLO cup, which she accepted and took a long sip from, surprising herself at the fact that she actually liked it. "Maybe I was wrong about you being a first time drinker," Finn laughed, sitting back down besides her.

"No, I am," Rachel insisted, shaking her head. "I'm just….angry. And sad. And pissed. And hurt. And…I don't know. There's a lot of feelings inside," Rachel sighed.

"Believe me, I get what you mean," Finn sighed, stopping her from going any farther. He popped open the top of his beer bottle and brought it to his lips, stopping just before he could take a sip, turning to look at her carefully.

"What?" She asked, running a hand through her hair and brushing it away from her face, nervously taking another sip of her drink.

"You wanna get out of here and go for a ride or something? Just listen to some music, find a straight away abandoned road and speed on down it, screaming out the window as if the world actually cares about our pain? You ever do that before?" He asked her, taking the bottle away from his mouth, not having taken a single sip.

"This party's for me. I don't think it would be cool to just take off and leave. Santana and Brittany might get their feelings hurt. They worked really hard on planning this for me," Rachel said, glancing over her shoulder as she tried to find her friends.

The thing was, she wasn't looking for an excuse not to go with him. She actually would love to go with Finn and get away from everything for a little while. She was enjoying her talk with him and she felt as though he were the only person who could honestly understand what was going on in her life at the moment. He was the only person who could relate and try to comprehend just what was going on in her head.

Finn had listened to her and added his opinions, chiming in with how he felt the same was as she did. He didn't just try and talk her into feeling better and he didn't put down the people that had hurt her. Instead, he just listened to her and put in his own opinions when he felt like they were necessary.

And Rachel had comfortably fallen into a routine, doing the same for him when he opened up to her and she had been the listening ear, offering her own advice in ways for him to feel better and letting him know that he was not alone in what they were suffering from.

"Somehow, I don't think they'll mind," Finn laughed, causing Rachel to turn and follow his line of vision.

He had found Santana, who was lying on a table, shirt removed, as football player after football player came up and took a body shot from her. Occasionally she would lift her head up and shake out her hair, squinting at the boy that was about to use her body for the shot. Whenever she did that, she ordered him to leave because she only allowed 'fit football players' to do a body shot off of her.

Beyond Santana was Brittany, on the makeshift dance floor with Mike gripping her waist as she stood with her back to him, the blonde swaying her hips against Mike's groin, matching him move for move and thrust for thrust.

"They won't even notice I'm gone," Rachel agreed, placing her cup down onto the coffee table with a sly smile on her face.

"So….?" Finn asked, flashing her a devious look.

"Let's go," She jumped to her feet, grabbing her hand and pulling him to his own feet, heading towards the door quickly. "I could use a change of atmosphere," She smiled at him over her shoulder as she pushed their way from Santana's house.

Noah Puckerman clenched his fists tightly, feeling his fingernails digging into his palm, and he knew that there were going to be deep indents from the short nails when he got home that night. That would take a lot of explaining to Quinn if she noticed. Of course, she could probably feel the tension in his stance as he watched Rachel giggle and whisper with Finn Hudson, accepting drinks from him and then walking out of the house with him as though they were lifetime friends.

That bothered him, because he didn't like seeing Rachel with any guy that wasn't him. It was hard enough seeing her with Mike Chang all the time. He had just gotten over the fact that Mike was so close to her and had a thing for her. He was just starting to realize that Mike was more into protecting Rachel and being her hero than actually dating her. It bothered him a lot less that Mike and her were so close.

And now he had to deal with a new guy in the picture-a guy who actually seemed to stand chance. And that was bothering him because he didn't want his girl-his Rachel-hanging out with any other guy, especially a single guy who was dealing with a similar to pain than what she was dealing with.

"Puck? Could I talk to you for a second? Alone-sorry, Karofsky, you're going to have to excuse us for a second," Quinn said with a faux-sweetness to her tone.

It was the obviously fake one that she'd been using since moving in with him. Whenever she spoke to his mother who to his little sister, she had that tone tainting her voice. It was part of the reason his family couldn't stand her.

"Um, yeah, sure, whatever," The hockey player frowned, furrowing his eyebrows together as Quinn grabbed Puck's hand and dragged him off to a secluded corner.

"What the hell are you doing? Is there a reason you dragged me out of the house to go to some shitty party and I didn't even want to attend just so you could stare at Rachel as though she were god's gift from above or something? That's ridiculous and disgusting. I can not believe what I am seeing right now," Quinn ranted as soon as they were isolated.

"Quinn, shut up," Puck rolled his eyes.

"It's embarrassing enough that Finn's suddenly showing an interest in her. Do you ever think about how your actions can affect me? And being forced to deal with your anger at the fact that she's running of with Finn, who's probably just going to try and bang her because he's already sexual tense enough after dating me for a year and being rejected, only to hear that I had sex with-"

"Wait-shut up…what did you just say?" Puck asked, reaching up and running a hand through his mohawk.

"I said that Finn only wants her for sex," Quinn said slowly, cautiously watching his reaction as if she were actually nervous about what was going to come next from him. "Why?" She asked, twirling a strand of hair around her fingertips nervously.

"Get in the car. Now-we're going to go and follow them because-"

"No, you shut up and you listen to me," Quinn crossed her arms over her chest. "Because here's the thing-you're not with Rachel. She's single and it's not your job to protect her. It's nobody's job but her own because she can take care of herself. She's a big girl and she's stronger than most girls at this school-clearly, she's stronger than me, because she resisted you. Right now, I need you to support me. I'm the one who's pregnant. The one who got disowned from from her parents. I need you to support me and protect me," Quinn said, her hard outer shell cracking as her queen eyes started to fill with tears, a frown taking over her mouth and making her usually strong face make her appear weak.

And that was that broke Puck, causing him to sign and wrap his arms around her, pulling her into a tight hug.

"I'm here for you, okay? Don't worry," He sighed, resting his head against the top of her blonde haired head.