A/N: I am an awful updater. My apologies, like seriously. I hope no one is upset with me. I've been in Florida without my computer this past week so I couldn't do anything from there and, I'm not going to lie, the week before that I was completely unmotivated to write anything. With school coming to an end I've been really busy as well but I hope to get the last few updates out sooner than later. So here we are, a little part of Finn's summer before football camp :)
Finn never thought he could be happier actually being back at school. Normally, the first day of a new school year sucked because you had 179 more days to drag through until it was summer again but this year he didn't care. He had gone the whole summer not seeing his newly asked girlfriend, Quinn and he was siked.
He was throwing the last of his junk into his locker when he turned to see a beautiful blonde girl wrapped in a red form fitting uniform walking his way.
"Hey Quinn!" he happily greeted while pulling her into a big bear hug. He missed her so much and was in such a great mood to see her.
His mood dropped a little when he hugged her and she barely returned it. She didn't seem like the type of girl that was excited to finally be seeing her boyfriend that she hasn't seen for two months.
When he released her she looked upset to say the least. She didn't even say hi before she began to speak. "Finn, I… I have to tell you something."
He took in her solemn expression before he numbly nodded his head for her to continue.
"I know this isn't how you probably wanted to start the school year but... I'm breaking up with you."
"Wha..?" he tried to get out but he was so in shock he couldn't even form complete words. Out of the blue much?
"Please Finn, don't think I haven't thought about this and that I'm just doing this for no reason but, I'm sorry to say that I kind of met someone at cheer camp."
He was still so taken back by his initial shock that he couldn't really put two and two together yet. "What do you mean you 'kind of met someone?' he questioned still not understanding.
Quinn tried hard to make eye contact with him but she just couldn't. It was hard enough to break up with someone never mind having to do it while looking into the soft and saddened brown eyes of Finn Hudson.
"I mean, I started seeing a guy I met that was at cheer camp this summer. He's new here and he joined the Cheerios about a week into camp. We just sort of hit it off."
He couldn't believe what he was hearing. It seemed like too much. "What about us Quinn? We were supposed to pick up right where we left off this year. Don't you remember our conversation when I came to see you off at your house?" he asked distressed, fighting to hold back tears.
"I know..." she started quietly. "But being away from you was so hard and I was really upset and Logan was there to comfort me."
"Logan? Who's Logan?" Finn spat harshly.
"I am." he heard a voice answer from down the hall.
Finn watched as some guy confidently strided toward them. He took in his appearance before he reached Finn's locker where he and Quinn stood.
The other boy was a little shorter than Finn, pretty built; he wore navy blue track pants and running shoes along with a white t-shirt that read 'WMHS' in big bold red letters across the top front with the word 'Cheerios' in slightly smaller font under it. He had dirty blonde hair that fell a little past his ears and he was even pretty tan. Finn thought he looked like a surfer kind of dude.
'Why don't you cut your hair you stupid surfer hippie! The ocean's like, 600 miles from here!' Finn scoffed in his head as he looked the other boy up and down one final time.
"Hey I'm Logan." the guy greeted as he held out his hand to Finn, clearly unaware of who Finn was to Quinn.
Finn made no move to meet him half way but immediately stared down Logan's hand seemingly trying to 'kill' it with his death glare.
"Logan, this is Finn." Quinn pointed out making the situation even more awkward for both boys.
"Oh." Logan breathed as he slowly withdrew his hand from Finn, finally realizing who Finn was now. "Listen, I'll uh, I'll wait for you in French." he offered to Quinn who only agreed with a subtle nod before he left.
Finn's eyes followed the other blonde as far down the abandoned hall as possible before he lost sight of him in a turn. Then he quickly shifted his gaze back to the girl in front of him.
"You promised me things wouldn't change." he softly muttered.
"I've never been very good at keeping those." she confessed before turning away from him and left an apology that lingered in Finn's ears, but it meant nothing to him.
As soon as she was out of sight he felt a prickling sensation burn his face as the anger and hurt swelled inside. He turned to his locker and let out all of his frustration on the red slab of metal with his fist and pounded it so hard that it left a dent in it and a throbbing pain in his hand.
The sharp pain in his extremity forced his eye lids open in an instant. Now he was in his room, sweat dripping down his face that left noticeable wet stains on his t-shirt collar and his hair damp. He abruptly shot up from his laid down position panting, sucking in all the air he could. Then he felt the intense pain in his hand again. He gritted his teeth and grabbed hold of his left hand with his right and began to grip it hoping that putting pressure on it will dull down the discomfort in his knuckles. He looked to the small wooden nightstand on his left and noticed an indent into the hard wood. He figured that the locker must really have been the table and what he thought was a terrible reality was just a really bad dream.
"Oh thank God. It was just a dream…It was just a dream." he parroted comforting himself. "Actually more like a nightmare." he decided.
Finn fell forward against his blankets and put his hands to his face. He quickly grabbed the collar of his t-shirt and pulled it over his face to wipe the beads of sweat that had gathered through the night. He had just leaned up and rested his head back against the head board shutting his eyes when the he heard the door to his room swing open.
"Hey, so I'm busting in Hudson. I-" Puck stopped himself mid-sentence as he noticed his best friend looking flushed and gripping his left hand. He quickly glanced over to Finn's nightstand where there was now a large indent on the side and back at Finn's hand and then at his whole flustered figure.
"Dude, are you okay?" he questioned worriedly.
"What?" he breathed before noticing his friend standing in the frame of his door. "Oh, yeah I'm fine Puck."
Finn paused for a second to stare at the boy in the doorway with curiosity. "Um, what are you doing here anyway?"
"Well, believe it or not, I was worried about my best bud. It's been a whole week of summer vacation and I haven't seen you once." he explained. "What have you been doing, staying at home all week?" he asked in a joking manner.
"What?" Finn exclaimed trying to sound taken back. "No, I haven't been inside the whole week." he lied. "Who do you think I am? A guy that stays inside eating junk food and playing video games by himself all day for an entire week?" he retorted as he discretely pushed an empty cheese curls bag laying on his floor, under his bed with his foot.
Even though Puck heard the extremely loud ruffling sound of the bag under Finn's monstrous foot, he decided to ignore it.
"Okay then," he began. "So do you think you can not be that guy and get your ass out of bed? I've been waiting for some time out of school and away from football, and spending it with my best friend would make it awesome, so let's go!" he ordered.
Finn just goofily grinned at his demand, temporarily forgetting his nightmare and his hand, and rolled out of bed.
It didn't take him long to get ready before they were out the door.
"How does that hand feel?" Puck asked, pointing to the hand in question.
"Fine now. I guess I have knuckles of steel." he responded with a laugh, then rubbed his eyes.
"I could really go for a coffee dude," Puck stated looking at Finn. "and by the sleep deprived look on your face and the fact that you're rubbing your eyes, I'm assuming you could go for one too."
Finn just quietly chuckled. "Nah, I'm okay man. I got enough sleep last night." he fibbed once more, putting no effort into making eye contact with Puck.
Puck wasn't buying Finn's BS. He had known Finn since kindergarten which made it all the more easier to tell when a lie or even a half truth was coming out of his mouth.
"No way am I buying into your crap Hudson. You're lying and we both know it. I mean come on bro, you look like a friggin zombie." he paused before adding, "Frankenteen." last second with a smirk.
"Hey!" he pretended to take offense to Puck's height comment. "I got plenty of sleep." he repeated, hoping that if he pushed the fib hard enough on his friend then he would just drop it. 'I'm not completely lying. I did get enough sleep, just not good sleep.' he thought.
Even though Puck was aware of the 'not truths' coming from Finn, he figured if Finn was still denying it then he probably didn't want to talk about why he had major baggage under his eyes.
"Fine, I'll let it go for now but I still know you aren't telling me the deal bro, so when you feel like it, you just let the Puckanator know." he instructed with a friendly, laughable smile.
Finn didn't say anything but only smiled in return knowing that, even though Puck would find out his fib eventually, he was glad he had such a great, understanding friend.
"I guess I could go for a hot chocolate instead of a coffee. It's got caffeine right?"
"Um, sure." Puck answered before he continued, "let's go to that Lima Bean place."
At the small coffee shop, Finn sat uncomfortably at the tiny two person table waiting for Puck to return with their drinks. For the duration of his wait, he messed around with the sugar packets in the corner of the smooth, coffee stained table and fidgeted with the position of his long legs under the table, trying to find a comfortable way to rest them.
Only minutes later was he joined by Puck who put the beverages in front of them.
"Are you sure you're okay dude?" he questioned, taking his seat in the process.
Finn quickly nodded as he looped his hand around the hot chocolate and pulled it over to his side of the table.
"Really? Because I'm pretty sure I've watched you cross your legs in at least three different positions since I walked back from the counter." Puck informed him, seemingly worried that the build up inside Finn might make him explode at any second.
"Yeah, yeah I'm cool…" Finn quietly murmured.
All Puck had to do was shoot him a "fess up" look before Finn's guard crumbled and he quickly submitted.
"Fine!" he shouted loud enough for Puck to jump back startled but not so loud as to make the entire café have the same reaction.
"It's Quinn." he confessed.
"What about her?" Puck probed.
Finn wanted to be reluctant but he just couldn't anymore. His dream from last night was just devouring him.
"I know we've only been official for a couple of weeks now but, do you think she'd cheat on me or find another guy at the cheer camp she's at?" he asked worriedly.
Puck couldn't help but let a small understanding smile grace his lips. Normally he would just laugh something like this off and tell Finn he was only being paranoid but he knew how long Finn had pined over Quinn Fabray for, and at the moment, Finn was being as serious as a heart attack.
"I wouldn't worry about it man. I know Quinn likes you too much to do something like that to you." he assured his friend before taking a sip of his coffee.
As much as he wished he could be, Finn wasn't convinced. The dream was just that terrible.
"I wish I could have as much faith as you do Puck…" he began before being interrupted.
"Eh," he shrugged. "I got to Temple. You've gotta have faith to be a good Jew."
"No Puck, that's not what I meant!" he blurted. "I just meant, I wish I could believe you." he said with a sigh, then took a small sip of his hot chocolate.
If Puck was going to be honest, Finn's glass half empty kind of attitude on the matter was really starting to get on his nerves. Couldn't he see he was trying to make him feel better?
"Dude, I'm serious, don't even think twice about it." he stressed. "Your doubts are really starting to annoy me."
"But-" Finn tried to defend but to no avail.
"But nothing!" Puck shot back. "Finn, Quinn really likes you! I wish you would stop being such a tard and believe how much she's into you so we wouldn't be having this pointless conversation," he barked. "no offense." He quickly added in a softer tone.
"Yeah but, I know that we have guys on the Cheerios and that isn't even counting other guys from other school's squads that would be at that camp." he explained to Puck, quite distressed.
"Ugh, Finn, bro, they're all probably gay like that Hummel kid. I mean, who wouldn't be if they'd rather cheer than join the football team and pound some heads in like real men?" he asked in a condescending manner.
Finn chuckled at his friend's comment. "I don't know, maybe guys that don't want to take the chances of what happened to Jack Clintson." he joked as Puck shrugged. "You know though, if I was ever kicked off the football team, I'd join the Cheerios to keep my popularity, and I'm not gay."
Puck understood where he was coming from. Gay or straight, being on the Cheerios got you places, that was for sure.
"Fine, I'll go with you on that but…" he paused before he continued, "listen Finn, just don't think about it because it will never happen." he assured Finn once more as he patted his back.
He watched as the tall boy looked down toward his lap.
"Hey, I'm your brother from another mother; would I ever lead you into anything bad or give you horrible advice?" Puck questioned, trying to make Finn feel better.
"Well there was that one time…" Finn recalled, lifting up his hand from his lap to show a small scar lining the side near his pinky, with his voice dying down before being cut off.
"You will never forget that will you?" Puck complained. "How was I supposed to know the thing was going to bite people?" he defended, receiving a shrug and a playful smile from Finn in a quick response. "Besides that, I would never lead you into anything bad or give you horrible advice."
"Alright." Finn agreed.
'God, I'm so lucky to have Puck around. Even though he can be an idiot, I don't know what I'd do without him… Probably believe my girlfriend was cheating on me.' he thought to himself.
"So what was that about Quinn liking me so much? How would you know anything about that?" he wondered as he watched Puck quirk an eyebrow up and smirk.
"Dude, I'm dating Santana. What she knows, I know. Enough said." he answered laughing.
By the time they ended their conversation, they had both finished their drinks.
"Come on. Let's get out of here. It's bowling time." Puck announced to Finn who gladly agreed while they fist bumped. How could he refuse? He loved bowling.
Please let me know what you think! I love the feedback, and yes, Logan strikes an uncanny resemblance to Sam haha. By the way, I would never have Quinn come back and dump Finn so no worries if you were like, 'What?' Also, I plan on putting up a short chapter about Quinn's time at cheer camp, and a bit in it about how she will fit into herself as she is in the pilot. Lastly, thanks to the people that have continued to add my story to favorites and alerts throughout my writing absence. Love you all!