32 reviews. Wow. That's the most I've gotten from a chapter so far! I tried to respond to all the first time reviews I've gotten, but to everyone who has reviewed pretty much every chapter, thank you guys, so much. Really. All of you! And to the ones that I can't reply to. I hope you like this chapter, I'll understand if ya don't. Promise.
Still don't own anything.
Three weeks later, Brittany is standing in the locker room on a college campus working on the photo shoot for her article. Every now and then between poses, she steals glances towards her friend, who seems to be constantly pacing around instead of watching like she usually would since it does involve photography. But Santana is absolutely livid that she's near Finn because later that night when she, Brittany and Mike were eating dinner after getting back from the hospital, Mike accidentally blurted out what her boyfriend thought about the Puck/Rachel situation. Basically, Santana wasn't too happy about it.
Every few minutes he walks over to try and talk to her but the Latina just moves to a different part of the studio, looking interested in something she otherwise wouldn't give a shit about.
"Santana, would you please talk to me?"
He's on the verge of whining and she's not having any of it. "Finn, the only thing I will talk to you about is anything regarding Britts, Mike or my job with Bryan. Other than that, leave me alone until I'm ready to fucking talk to you." She moves towards the bathroom, hoping for five minutes to regain her sanity.
Brittany sits in the makeup chair while they fix some curls in her hair. Finn walks over and sits in the chair next to her, pouting. "Finn, frowning like that isn't going to make her talk to you any time soon."
"I don't understand, why is she so mad at me?" He turns towards her and tries to look into her eyes.
She's not going to sell out her boyfriend, but she turns the best that she can to look at him. "She's stubborn Finn and this whole thing with Rachel is completely throwing her off. Rachel, her dads and I are basically the family that San wishes she had. Her parents were always busy with work when she was growing up, still that way now, and her sister just doesn't care. San holds grudges. The sooner you learn that, the better, so that you avoid pissing her off."
"I understand that she's stubborn as hell, but what grudge is she holding that deals with me? I'm just doing my job to make sure Puck looks good."
"No Finn," She snaps, "That's what you don't get. That is Holly's job. You get him jobs. She's the one who's supposed to make sure that he's maintaining a good image, but she's not exactly doing that is she? Do you honestly think that him dating Quinn is going to be good?" He nods slowly. Brittany rolls her eyes. "How is it going to look when Rachel has been gone for weeks and he's suddenly dating someone else? He's going to look like a cheater, especially when no one can question Rachel about it. Maybe instead of being his agent, you should be his best friend and advise him to fire Holly."
Santana comes back out and narrows her eyes at Finn when he's about to talk to Brittany. He sighs and moves across the studio and leans against a wall, not talking to either of them until it's time to leave. Even then, the ride home is really awkward.
Puck wipes some sweat off his forehead and looks over at Quinn running on the treadmill. She's got her headphones in her ears but it just pisses him off for some reason. He turns towards the punching bag and turns his music up more, effectively drowning out anything he can hear in the gym. His fists move against it and he's really glad that he thought about taping them up or else his knuckles would be split and bleeding after just a few punches. Puck does one more hard punch before he feels someone touching his shoulder. Automatically he flinches and turns around, only to see Quinn jump back.
"Jesus Quinn." He pulls off his headphones and uses the towel that she holds out.
"I called your name but you couldn't hear me." She shrugs. "Are you okay?"
"Fucking dandy. You ready to go?" She nods. "C'mon."
He leads the way out and tosses the towel into a hamper nearby. She reaches for his hand as he pushes his aviators down and pulls out his keys. Puck's practically dragging her to his car and ignoring any photographers that are around, he's actually thankful that there's not that many.
When they get back to his apartment he moves to the couch after grabbing a bottle of water and puts his head in his hands. All he wants to do is pass out and sleep for days, but he can't. Every night for the first two weeks Rachel was gone, he would wake up after two hours of sleep, then send a text message to Rachel, just hoping she'd reply. But this past week, he's given up and just turns on the TV until his alarm goes off. Finn, Sarah and Quinn, occasionally Holly, are the only ones who notice the bags under his eyes, mostly because they're all he's seen the past few weeks. Even though they're supposed to get together to watch Rachel on TV. That hasn't happened since she started the show.
Quinn sits down beside him and chews on her bottom lip. It's not as cute as when Rachel does it. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"Nope." He picks up the remote and turns it on. Puck doesn't really care what's on, but he throws the remote onto the coffee table and drains the rest of his water.
She moves closer to him and sets her hand on his cheek. He looks over at her and furrows his brows. Her eyes drop down to his lips and she moves in, setting them onto his. Quinn can tell he's hesitating so she moves hers and licks his top lip. Puck starts to kiss her back until they're interrupted by his phone chirping. He quickly moves away and wipes his lips, picking up his phone.
"Hey, it's Connor." He looks at her from the corner of his eye and she nods. "You can take a shower or something." She gets the hint and moves to grab her bag then heads to the bathroom. He pulls over his laptop and opens up his webchat to see Connor sitting there glaring at him. "Sup?"
His friend just stares at him for a few seconds. "You look like shit."
"Thanks, nice to see you too man." Puck leans back and rubs his eyes. He probably feels just as bad as he looks, if not worse. Especially since he just kissed Quinn back.
"What's the deal with you and Rach?"
He groans. Of course he would ask. "I fucked up, what else is there to say? But my job is important."
"I get that your job is important but so is she."
"Dude, I really don't want to talk about this right now." Connor shrugs. "Kiss any girls lately?" He spits back out smugly.
Connor pales and stares at Puck. "Look…Puck…"
Puck laughs. "As much as I'd love to give you all sorts of shit about this right now, I'm just not in the mood. It's fine man. She talked to me about it."
"Oh, shit, you almost gave me a heart attack." He leans back in his seat and Connor nods. "So you're fine with us being, well whatever the hell we are right now."
"Yeah, just man up when you get back and take her out."
"Yeah, alright. So what's new over there?"
"Not a damn thing. Got Mike's dance thing next week."
They talk for about twenty minutes about anything and everything. It completely amazes him how much better he feels than he has the past few weeks.
Rachel walks out to the car that is supposed to take her shopping, now that it's the top 12. With that being said, they get to go buy outfits for the group number, their individual performance and the results show. They can even go to the salon if they want to. She opens the door and sees a well dressed man with perfectly styled hair and light skin.
"Oh good Lord, what are you wearing?" He sets his hand over his heart, like she's seriously offended him. She's just in shorts and a shirt.
She tugs down her sunglasses so he can't see her eyes rolling. "I wasn't aware that I needed to be dressed up."
"Sweetie, you should always look good."
"Are you implying that I look terrible?" She pulls her sunglasses off and stares at him while the driver pulls out into traffic.
"Well…" He shrugs.
"Excuse me!" She huffs. "I am very sorry that I am under a lot of stress and I'm dealing with a breakup."
"You're that Rachel Berry?" His eyes widen.
"What are you talking about?" There's no other Rachel Berry's on the show is there? Because if there is, maybe she needs to meet this person.
"I'm Kurt Hummel. Finn Hudson's step brother. And you're Puck's girlfriend." He smiles and tilts his head, looking her up and down.
"Ex-girlfriend." She mutters and sinks back into her seat, looking out the window.
"Right." He shifts nervously.
"So you're my stylist?"
"Yes! I've had this little thing going for the past two years, but don't worry. We'll make you look fabulous and Puck will be slapped in the face with what he's missing."
"Thank you Kurt." She plays with the hem of her shorts. "Is he doing okay?"
Kurt hesitates and moves his body towards her. "I haven't really heard from him but Finn seems a bit worried that he's not sleeping. Plus he's with that awful woman."
"Which one?"
He looks at her confused. "Quinn."
"Holly's a bitch too."
"Hmm, she is. I have a feeling we'll be getting along fabulously." He turns to the driver. "Salon last." Kurt turns back to Rachel. "I have a plan to make you completely irresistible." He grins.
Rachel turns on the TV while a few contestants from her apartment are with coaches practicing their songs. It's premiere night for Mike and she really wants to support him, but this is the only way that she can. Blaine sits next to her and throws his arm up on the back of the couch.
"What are we watching?"
"You know Mike is performing tonight." She pushes at his side and sees her friend walking down the steps in a tux, smiling at the camera with his partner's arm looped through his.
They're the first couple up and she can't help but laugh and falls against Blaine when they're showing the video of them rehearsing. They do have great chemistry, but in a goofy, friend sort of way. They start the dance and she can hear Brittany and Santana instantly cheering for them. When they're done judging (all good things) and move to get their scores, he high fives Santana and squeezes Brittany's hand. His partner squeezes Santana's hands, but she can see Puck in a suit with Quinn next to him and her heart sinks. But she can see how the group is divided with Sarah sitting between Santana and Finn. She feels awful that San is ignoring her boyfriend because of her. And Mike didn't acknowledge anyone but her best friends.
"She looks like a slut." Blaine looks at her with his eyebrow quirked up.
"You're insane. She looks beautiful." But she's smiling and leans into him more, thinking of the image of Quinn in a beautiful dress next to Puck.
They watch the rest of it and at the end, she runs around to the other contestants and tell them to vote for Mike. They agree because they know the guy is really important to her, and you know, good.
The day of her performance, she's really, no extremely nervous. Top 12 is a big deal. Mike sent her a text message saying he can't make it but he's got the other dancers voting for her. She hasn't really responded to anyone since she's been here, but she tells him thank you and is actually smiling for the first time all day since her rehearsal earlier with a different audience than who will be in the live crowd.
Rachel moves to hair and makeup, finding Kurt there and he's already got a plan to match the outfit they picked out. He's talking on and on about different eyeshadow to the stylist. This week's theme is the Beatles and she really loves the song she picked out. It's actually her dad's favorite song by them. In all actuality, they (her family, Brittany, Santana and whomever else) will probably find a way to think she's trying to send a message about her relationship with Puck but she's not.
While she was in her own little world, they finish her hair and Blaine walks over, kisses her cheek then hugs her. Kurt watches with an amused expression on his face. She's just glad to have two people here who are truly nice to her. Besides Holly, but she's still kind of freaked out by the whole name and hair thing.
"Nervous?"
She laughs a bit and looks down. "A bit, you?"
"Hell no. I get to sing an awesome song."
"What'd you pick again?" Rachel looks into the mirror and smiles at her hair, fingering the curls as she tilts her head.
"Eleanor Rigby." He grins.
"You'll sound great, it suits your voice. The group number will be fun." She winks and they make their way to the stage.
Puck sits down on his couch with Sarah at the other end and Finn on the armchair. That dude Ryan introduces the group and the guys are on stage, singing 'Something in the Way She Moves.' Sarah glances at him but he just puts his feet up on the table while his left eye twitches. Next, it moves to Rachel and the guitar is quiet. But he notices her hair is at least a few shades lighter and shorter, it's curled and stops at her collarbone. She's got on dark jeans and low cut white shirt with boots on. And he's aching to touch her.
But then she sings and she's looking at the camera, singing the opening lines of 'All My Loving.' "Close your eyes and I'll kiss you." For some reason, he does close his eyes. He doesn't really need to see her singing, but he just wants to listen. "Tomorrow I'll miss you. Remember I'll always be true, and while I'm away, I'll write home every day and I'll send all my loving to you." He opens his eyes and the camera moves to the next contestant but his chest is aching. Did the producers deliberately pick songs that would bother him? Then it moves into 'I've Just Seen a Face' and he groans, leaning back into the couch.
Finn looks at Puck then back at the screen. He may not be upset like Puck is, but Santana is still refusing to talk to him. It's been a week and a half (or something like that, he's so busy he can't remember) since the photo shoot and he's going insane. They get a glance of Rachel's dads, Brittany and Santana before it goes to a commercial break.
Sarah stands up to grab beers. From the look on their faces, she has a feeling they'll need them. She looks down at her watch and grabs her laptop. Connor emailed her the other day saying he'd be able to get on to try and catch Rachel's performance. And since she's going second, she thought she could face the laptop towards the screen. She opens up her webchat and hands them their beers. When she sits back down she looks down at the screen.
"Hey there." Connor shows up on the screen.
Sarah smiles brightly and waves. "Just on time. Rachel's second tonight."
"Oh, I'll get to see her. Did Puckerman go?"
"No." Puck answers angrily and glares at the TV.
"Shit." Connor mumbles and Sarah blows him a kiss. Finn sits up and stares at her confused, he looks to Puck and gives him a 'when did that happen' look, but Puck shrugs. "Thanks sweetheart. So tell me what's new with you guys while we wait for Rach."
"Noah got his script for his first episode for the show." She moves the laptop so he can see them all.
"Man, that's awesome." Connor leans forward and smiles into the screen.
"It is Puck. It's cool and he films next week. Me and Sarah are going to go." Finn grins.
"Yeah I'm actually excited to do it."
"You should be. I've been watching them when I get the chance to."
Puck mutes the TV while some clown named Jesse sings. "How's it going over there?" He looks to Connor.
"Long patrols. Nothing major has happened." He shrugs and averts his eyes. "I just want to sleep."
"Oh! She's on!" Sarah turns the laptop towards the screen and turns up the volume."
There's a video of Rachel explaining why she chose her song. She laughs and bites her lip at the end. It cuts to the host and he announces "Rachel Berry, singing 'Hey Jude.'" She looks to her dad and smiles. The piano starts and she closes her eyes, singing the opening lines. After a few beats she opens her eyes again and looks into the camera, smiling and singing. Once the rest of the band joins in, she grabs the microphone and moves towards the front of the stage.
After she's finished, they're all quiet in the living room as the judges tell her she's got an amazing voice and that they think her song choice was spot on. She moves off stage and the cameras show her family cheering loudly then Rachel blowing a kiss to them.
"Wow." Connor breaks the silence.
"That was amazing." Sarah agrees. "Okay, I'll vote after I talk to Connor."
Puck and Finn say bye to Connor and she leaves to her room. Puck leans back and thinks of Rachel. Should he tell her she was amazing? She hasn't responded to any of his other text messages, so she probably wouldn't now. He thinks that she's probably mad that he's not there all together.
Puck groans. "I'm voting them I'm gonna try to sleep."
Finn looks at him concerned. "Maybe you should see a doctor for sleep meds."
"Fuck off Finn. That's why they make whiskey." He drains his beer and moves to his room, leaving Finn staring at his back.
In the middle of the night when he wakes up, he groans and moves to the kitchen. Sarah is in her pajamas on the couch watching some romantic movie that Rachel made him watch a few months ago. Rachel. He opens the cabinet filled with all his liquor and pulls the whiskey out, taking two shots before he moves back down the hallway to his room. Puck pulls out his laptop and opens up iTunes so he can go buy the studio version of Rachel singing her song from tonight. He puts it on repeat while he closes his eyes and when he wakes up eight hours later, he hates himself a little more.
A week later, he's in his trailer for How I Met Your Mother and Finn is sitting on the couch. They just wrapped for the day and he's changing into jeans and a button up when Finn looks over at him from his phone.
"Sarah called while you were on set." Puck raises his eyebrow and buttons his shirt up then moves to roll the sleeves up. "Santana called her and said we're all going to the condo to watch Rachel on Idol tonight."
All the air from his lungs leave. "Wait, they're talking to us again?"
"I guess so man. But aren't you supposed to be doing something with Quinn?"
"Yeah, but you know if I don't go over there, they'll lay a new one on me. Shit, I could just bring Quinn…" He runs his hands over the top of his head, leaving them there for a minute.
"They'll rip your balls off Puck. But they all hate being bailed on, so just bring her."
Puck sends a text to Quinn and they leave to go pick up Sarah.
Santana is pacing in the kitchen while dinner finishes up. "He's bringing that bitch here?" Her voice raises and Brittany just stares at her friend with Lord Tubbington in her arms. The cat meows and Santana tilts her head at it.
"It'll be fine San. But we need to start acting like a group again, because I'm making him go to her performance next week. I don't care what excuse he tries to give me. He's been there for Mike last week and this week. And you need to talk to Finn. It's been a really long time and I know that it's driving you crazy."
"But you heard what he said to Mike."
"I know San, and I don't know how Finn can think this is good for either of them. But we need to do this. It's what Rachel would want."
"Well she's not here." Santana instantly regrets saying that and looks at Brittany. "She's the one who held us all together. We can barely even fucking stand them right now."
They both move to their rooms to change since they're friends are supposed to be coming over any minute now.
The door opens and Sarah walks in slowly, setting her purse down by the table near the door with Finn, Puck and Quinn trailing in behind her. They move into the living room and the girls walk out of their rooms. "Hey guys."
Brittany and Santana move over, hugging Sarah tightly before staring at the other three then walking back into the kitchen. Finn sighs and walks towards the kitchen. "Santana, just talk to me. I'm getting sick of this."
Sarah sighs. "Finn, just don't start this tonight. We're supposed to be supporting Rachel."
"I don't care about Rachel! But I would like my girlfriend back." He looks at Santana, before she turns around with a spoon in her hand pointing to him and starts to yell in Spanish. "Whoa, English please." Her eyebrows shoot up and she starts to yell even more.
Puck moves over to the dining room table where Sarah is sitting and puts his head down. He's been sleeping better but his head is throbbing. And with Santana yelling, it's making it worse.
Quinn walks away to go to the bathroom while Santana and Finn argue. She saw Brittany leave out of the room on the left and Santana from the end of the hallway, so that leaves two doors on the right side of the hallway. She quickly moves so no one notices her leave and picks the first door she sees. When she moves inside, there are clothes everywhere and the bed is in the middle of the room. Her curiosity gets the best of her and she moves further into the room, looking at all the pictures. There's a picture of Rachel and Puck kissing on the beach, her legs wrapped around him. Then closer to the vanity and window, she can see a group picture of them at Disney and another group picture of them with championship hats on.
She sits on the chair and stares at the picture of him holding Rachel with her uniform on and a championship hat on. Quinn sets her face in her hand, her right elbow on her leg and the picture sitting under her left hand. She starts to think about how Puck's been acting the past few weeks. But then she hears someone clear their throat and her head snaps up, meeting his eyes. Puck's standing against the door frame with his jaw clenched and his arms crossed.
"What are you doing in here?" He speaks out gruffly.
"I was trying to find the bathroom and I ended up in here." He moves over and grabs the picture out of her hands and sits on the bed. It was the night before he told her he loved her in the club. "Is it always messy in her room?" She jokes.
Puck looks up at her and shakes his head. "She was redoing her room the day before she left for the show. It's usually pristine in here. It's fuckin' nuts." He stands up and puts the frame back on the nail on the wall, then moves back to the bed.
"Why is it so messy then?" She looks around.
"That was the day I told her about us and what Holly wanted." Puck looks down then over to her nightstand. There's the picture of them kissing on the beach in Miami then next to it, and the picture of him in his uniform from training that he's never noticed until now.
"Oh." Quinn looks down. "That's why Santana was so mad and her fathers was asking where she was."
"Yep. After she was gone, they just brought everything back in here so it was clean in the living room. She'll probably flip her shit when she's back." Puck looks over to 'his' nightstand and sighs. "We better get back out there before Santana comes in here and yells some more or some shit."
Quinn quickly moves out and down the hall back into the living room. Puck looks back into the room and then closes the door quietly.
Blaine watches as Rachel is getting ready to go out on stage. Kurt walks up next to him and looks at her too. "How has she been? And don't lie."
He glances at the smaller man and sighs. "Holly tells me that every few nights she'll cry herself to sleep when she thinks everyone is asleep. Rachel puts on a smile during the day but the only time I can see a real smile from her, is when she's watching her friend on his show or right after performances."
Kurt sighs. "Poor girl. She looks stunning in that dress though."
Blaine looks the man up and down subtly before looking back at Rachel. "She's beautiful. I can't believe he gave her up." She's standing there in black dress that has a sheer bodice and black satin heels.
Rachel walks over and adjusts the ear piece before smiling at both men. "You are a genius Kurt." She twirls around and her curled pony tail falls over her shoulder.
"Thank you diva." He grins and adjusts the shorter layers framing her face. "Are you ready to show them what you've got? Your voice was almost made for classic Broadway week."
"Of course." Kurt smiles and walks away after kissing her cheek to go check on his other contestants. Blaine puts his hands in his pockets and smiles. Rachel smiles back and adjusts the vest that he's wearing over his button up and slacks. "You look handsome."
He laughs and hugs her. "We're both going to kick some ass tonight."
Rachel looks up at him and smiles sadly. "I wish San and Britt were here."
"And Puck?" Blaine asks and pushes her hair out of her eyes.
She glances up at him. "Yes." She whispers and looks away.
"Hey, it's okay." Blaine puts his finger under her chin so she'll look at him. "Use your emotions when you sing." He nods to the stage. "You're up." He kisses her cheek and she smiles at him.
"Thank you."
Rachel moves out to the wings of the stage and takes a deep breath before moving out onto the stage in front of the microphone. Once she's announced, Rachel takes a deep breath and listens to the piano starting to play 'I Dreamed a Dream.' The judges are staring at her and smiling, her dads are at the edge of their seat, and she can feel Blaine's eyes on her. Rachel lets out a shaky breath before easing into the beginning lyrics, letting all the emotions she's been feeling into the song. At the end of the song, she wipes away a tear and smiles at the judges.
Randy looks at her and lets out a breath. "Yo Rachel, look..." Her heart sinks. "The emotion that you put into that song, it was amazing! I want to see you put more emotion like that into everything you sing from here on out."
"Thank you." She smiles nervously and looks to Steven. "I liked it. I'm not a Broadway kind of guy, but the song choice was fantastic. I think you can make it far in this competition. Everyone is loving you." The crowd cheers and she laughs a little, biting her lip.
"Rachel, you did an amazing job up there. You sang from your heart and that's how it should be. I agree with Randy and Steven, keep up with singing with your heart and use your emotions, you'll go far. I hope we see you next week." Jennifer winks at her.
So I'm not exactly thrilled about this chapter. It was kind of depressing to me, but yeah. If you guys have any ideas on what should happened in the next one, let me know. I'm kind of running low on the ideas, anatomy class is messing with my head. And I'm pretty sure this is the shortest chapter so far. Sorry about the suckage guys.
Anywho, the dress for her top 11 performance, if you go to Google images and type in 'Lea Michele dress', it's the 3rd one with the red InStyle squares in the background : )
Reviewer #200 shall get something special also.