It was only a matter of time before Puck moved on from Santana. At least, that's what he had told Finn had happened. It was pretty believable, actually; Puck went through girls at their school like they were tissues he blew his nose in. Finn expected the impending break-up of Puck and Santana to happen a lot sooner than it did.

Of course, he wasn't exactly expecting it to happen for the reasons that it did.

"She basically came up to me and told me that she was more interested in girls than me," Puck told Finn one afternoon. The school day had just ended and Finn and Puck had just gotten out of US history, the only class they had together.

Finn hated history. He understood the point of learning about important battles and leaders and whatever; he just didn't want to learn about it.

Finn leaned against the locker next to Puck's and nodded along absentmindedly. He wasn't paying much attention to what Puck was saying. Puck and Santana breaking up was one of those inevitable things that he figured was going to happen at some point, he just didn't know when.

"Woah," he deadpanned, zoning out as he looked down the hallway. "That sucks, man." Finn didn't really care all too much. Listening to Puck complain about the girls he slept with and how they had suddenly decided to become lesbians overnight or whatever wasn't how he wanted to spend the last week before their sophomore year was over.

"Who's she dating now, then?" Finn tried his best to actually seem interested in what Puck was talking about, no matter how grueling of a process that was.

"Brittany ," Puck said, spitting her name out like it was poison.

Finn couldn't help but smile. Santana and Brittany had been best friends for as long as he had known them. He couldn't really see the two of them becoming girlfriends, or whatever, but the thought of them making out with one another was kind of hot.

He just wasn't going to let Puck know that he thought that, that was all.

There was a beat between them and Puck shut his locker, slinging his backpack over his shoulder.

"It's not a complete loss, though," he said, his mouth curling up into a mischievous smile. Finn looked at him, worried that he was going to say something disgusting or something in the same vein.

"What are you talking about?"

"Remember that girl that sang at the baseball game?"

Oh, shit, Finn thought to himself. Rachel.

"What?" Finn asked, trying to sound distracted. "Um, no. Why?"

"Because she seems like a nice person, Finn." Puck rolled his eyes and the two started to make their way down the hallway. "No, do you think I'm stupid or something?" Finn looked down at Puck and felt something in his chest tighten. "I'm just going to sleep with her and then the school year's going to be over. Big deal."

Finn looked at Puck, trying to keep himself from saying anything he knew he would regret. He knew that if he said anything about how objectifying Rachel was a bad thing, Puck would just roll his eyes and tell him that he was being stupid for actually considering the feelings of a girl he didn't know that well.

Puck wasn't lying when it came to that. Finn didn't really know all too much about Rachel. She seemed kind of elusive to him in that the only real interaction that he had with her was at the baseball game. They didn't have any classes together and they didn't talk to one another in the hallway when they walked past each other.

There was something about Rachel that intimidated him for some reason. She seemed like she knew what she wanted and would stop at nothing to get it, and that frightened him for some reason. Rachel was headstrong and proactive and so unlike the rest of the girls that they went to school with.

She could probably be the President if she wanted to.

"That's cool," he told Puck, feeling like he wanted to throw up. He didn't think it was cool at all. There was a small part of him that wanted to tell Puck all about how what he was doing was wrong, and how maybe if he wanted to be respected by girls other than the ones who would just put out for him whenever he wanted, he should treat them like actual people instead of objects.

Of course, that was just Puck operated.

"You think she'd be up for it?" Puck asked, actually curious as to whether or not she would. Finn shrugged slightly, unsure of what to say. He didn't want Puck to actually try and date Rachel, because he knew that she wouldn't be completely opposed to the idea. Every girl wanted a boyfriend, whether they were willing to admit to it or not. Finn just didn't want Rachel to be stuck with Puck, that was all.

"Um, yeah," he told him, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "Go for it, man."

Finn knew that it wasn't smart to actually tell Puck to go ahead and try to ask Rachel out, because he knew what her answer would be. It wasn't that Rachel seemed like one of those insecure girls that needed a boyfriend, but every time he saw her, the more she looked like the type that wanted to hold hands with a guy as she walked down the hallway just so she could feel some kind of sense of reassurance from him.

And clearly, Finn wasn't the correct person to fill those shoes.

But Puck wasn't either.

:.:.:

"Did you hear about the party that Puck's throwing on the last day of school?" Finn and Quinn say together in biology one day, watching a movie because the teacher had run out of curriculum to go over before the final exam.

Finn looked at Quinn suspiciously, arching an eyebrow. There was no way that Puck was throwing a party all by himself – there was too much work that was put into actually throwing a party and Finn knew that Puck would never want to have any part in that.

"Well, he's hosting it at that one girl's house. The short one?"

"Rachel?" Finn asked, not bothering to get angry with Quinn for not knowing Rachel's name. Finn let the thought mull over in his head before he put everything together. Puck must have already asked Rachel out and she had probably already said yes, just like how he had expected.

"Yeah," Quinn said, not bothering to look up at him from her lap. She had her phone pulled out and was texting someone underneath her desk. "I guess she thinks that she's his girlfriend now or something, so he convinced her to throw a big end-of-the-year party at her house while her dads are out of town." She let a sigh slip through her lips and she tipped her head up to look at Finn. "Pretty pathetic, if you ask me."

Finn didn't want to say anything to Quinn, knowing that it would begin an argument between the two of them. He didn't see why people didn't like Rachel as much as they did. She was nice to people – or at least nice to him, anyway, and she was a really good singer. She was really pretty too- or at least Finn thought so. Not in a Quinn kind of pretty, but in her own way, or whatever.

"So are you going?" He asked, wondering if he supposed to be going. Puck hadn't told him anything about it. Puck hadn't even told him about how he and Rachel were apparently dating, so maybe he wasn't supposed to know about the party, either.

"Of course I'm going," Quinn said, suppressing a laugh. "And miss out on that mess getting drunk and embarrassing herself?" She laughed, almost maniacally. "I wouldn't miss that for the world."

Finn looked at Quinn, feeling frustration boil up inside his stomach. "Isn't that a little rude?" He asked, furrowing his brow. "I mean, Rachel never did anything to you, Quinn. You don't need to make fun of her just for the fun of it."

Quinn rolled her eyes and laughed as she looked back at Finn. "Oh my God, it's not like it matters, or anything. She doesn't know." She glared at him; Finn watching as she slowly became angrier with him. "I don't see why you care so much about her. She's just another person we go to school with. It's not like she's ever done anything for you."

Finn looked away from Quinn and up towards the screen in front of the classroom. "Because she's a person," he told her, lowering his voice even more. "And she's nice to me, Quinn."

The blonde rolled her eyes and began to drum her fingers against the table.

"Whatever," she said, rolling her eyes and looking away from Finn. "We're going to that party, Finn. It'll be fun, or whatever." She started to tap her pencil against the side of her desk and looked at Finn again, smiling to herself. "Besides, you'll get to spend all of your time with that Rachel girl. You two seem like you're starting to become friends, or whatever."

Finn looked at Quinn and sighed. "Why does she matter so much to you?"

"Just stop trying to spend time with her," she quipped. "She's not that impressive, anyway."

:.:.:

Finn thought it was best to make every decision tentatively from the moment he and Quinn stepped out of his car in front of Rachel's house. Her house was much farther away from his than he would have guessed; she lived closer to where Quinn lived, where all of the houses looked the same and the grass was supposed to be cut to a specific length. Cars were parked in front of it and lined the streets, but by looking at the house, it was hard to tell that a party was going on.

"Maybe she told everybody to leave," Quinn joked, walking up to Finn and grabbing him by the hand. "Or she's having everyone listen to her sing along to some stupid show tune."

Finn bit his tongue as Quinn took him by the hand. He didn't want to make her upset for the evening by challenging her about Rachel once again.

The two of them approached the front door of Rachel's house, Finn grabbing the knocker and hitting it against the door a few times.

It didn't take long until the door was swung open; Finn and Quinn met with Rachel standing in front of them, smiling ear to ear.

"Finn," she said, her voice light and happy. It made Finn smile himself, not noticing the look stuck to his girlfriend's face. "I didn't know you were coming."

Finn stood there in the doorway, lost for words.

"We both came," Quinn finally interjected, pushing her way through the doorway and inside Rachel's house. "I told him it would be stupid if we missed out on the biggest party of the year, right?" She cocked her head to the side and gave Rachel a smirk, shoving her purse into her chest as she walked past her.

"Come on, Finn," she said, her back turned to the both of them. Finn watched as she walked away and turned the corner, suddenly out of sight. He looked down at Rachel, who had turned over her shoulder to watch Quinn walk away. She held her purse in her hands like she was unsure as to what to do with it, eyes wide as she turned around to look at him again.

"Hey," he said, trying his best not to start smiling like an idiot. Rachel had that effect on him like no one else he knew did, and Finn couldn't figure out why.

"Hey," she said, biting down on her lip as she smiled at him. Her hair started to fall in her eyes and Rachel moved her hand to push it out of her face. "You should have told me that you were coming."

Finn felt his face begin to flush and he shoved his hands in his pockets nervously. "I didn't know about it until the other day," he told her. "You should have told me about you and Puck."

He watched her as she swung from side to side, alternating on the balls of her feet. She was barefoot; her toenails painted pink. "It just kind of… came up," she said, hugging Quinn's purse to her chest like it was her own. "Besides, I never really see you, anyway."

Finn started to laugh and looked down at the floor. "Yeah, well… maybe I'll have a class with you next year, or something."

She giggled and looked at him with a smile, bearing her teeth. She had a beautiful smile; practically lighting up the dimly-lit hallway on its own.

"Maybe," she repeated, still not looking away from him. There was a beat of silence between the two of them, Finn watching Rachel as she looked up at him with a smile.

"Do you want to come with me upstairs?" She asked him, causing Finn's heart to stammer. "I need to put Quinn's purse up there, I guess, and… well. You can see my room if you'd like."

He looked at her and smiled. There was something so intriguing about Rachel that Finn had never come across in any other girl before, and he wanted to know why she was the way she was.

"Sure," he said, smiling slightly. "I'd like that, Rachel."

:.:.:

"So this is me at my first dance recital, and this is me and my dads in Chicago, and this is me in the musical this winter," she told him eagerly, pointing to each bedazzled picture frame as she described to him the synopsis of each photo. Finn watched her as she smiled wider each time she picked up a new picture frame and practically shoved it in his face, eagerly explaining the story behind each picture and why there were so important to her.

Finn couldn't help but look around her room while he was upstairs, noticing the pink walls and the pink bed spread and pillows and the pink curtains hanging in front of the window across from her bed. "You must like pink, huh?"

Rachel turned around to face Finn, her smile falling for a moment. He looked at her and watched her as she smiled at him again, making him feel like butterflies were in his stomach. Finn was sure that he had never seen a more beautiful girl than Rachel. He didn't want to turn into the clichéd boyfriend who ended up falling for another girl, because he knew that he wasn't falling for Rachel. She just so happened to be a really pretty girl who was nice to him. That was all it should have been.

"It's my favorite color," she told him with a grin. Finn watched her as she turned back around to her vanity and set the picture frame down that she had been holding up to show him moments earlier. He watched her as she looked in the mirror and adjusted the bodice of her dress around her waist, looking like she wasn't very pleased with herself or her appearance, he couldn't tell.

"I think you look really nice tonight, by the way," he said as if to keep her from preoccupying over what she looked like in the mirror. Finn took the moment to take in the image of Rachel in the dress she was wearing for the night; a flowing, pink number that had heart-shaped buttons starting at the collar and trailing down until they reached the hem of her dress.

She blushed and looked at him with a smile, the biggest and brightest smile she had given him all night. "T-thanks," she stammered nervously. "I picked it out for Puck, actually." She spun around in the dress like she was some princess in a Disney movie who had just finished cleaning her room. "Do you think he'll like it?"

Finn already knew the answer to Rachel's question, but he didn't want to let her down. She looked like she was having such a great time and was happy with herself that he didn't feel the need to tell her about what Puck looked for in a girlfriend – not that Puck ever really had real girlfriends.

"Um, yeah," he told her, playing with his hands in his lap nervously. He didn't have the heart to tell her that Puck would have thought that Rachel's dress looked like it belonged on a six year old, and that he would have preferred her in something that resembled a swimsuit or a nightgown or nothing at all. "How are things going with you two, anyway?"

Rachel looked at Finn as he sat himself down on the edge of her bed, blushing slightly. "Fine, I guess. We haven't really gone on a lot of dates, I guess. He just tells me to go to his house with him after school and we watch TV together or something, but we always end up making out in his room instead."

Finn felt his mouth dry out and his heart drop to the pit of his stomach. He was surprised that Rachel was being so candid with him about her relationship with Puck so far. He would have expected her to turn her nose up in the air and cross her arms over his chest before saying something like 'that's none of your business,' but she decided to tell him anyway.

It was better from Rachel, he figured. Puck was probably going to give him details he wouldn't want to hear later on – if he got that far with her, anyway.

"Oh," was all Finn could say, not wanting to embarrass her. "It's just that I didn't even know you guys were dating until a few days ago, and Puck never tells me anything, so-"

"He never really tells me anything either," she told Finn, giggling slightly. She turned around to face the mirror in her vanity again, looking at her reflection like Finn wasn't able to see the expression on her face or what she was doing, but he watched her anyway, like he was sitting in on her in a moment of privacy.

"Sometimes I wonder if he actually cares about me," she muttered, fingering a lock of her hair in the mirror. "But otherwise he wouldn't be dating me, right?" Rachel spun around and looked at Finn, a smile stuck to her face.

All Finn could really do was smile at her like everything was alright. He figured that if Rachel had gotten into a relationship with Puck that it wouldn't necessarily work out, and so far, it looked like he was right.

"Right," he said, choking on his words slightly. "I just can't see why he wouldn't like you, Rachel."

Rachel broke into a fit of giggles and walked up to Finn, who had stood up in front of her bed.

"Thanks, Finn," she said sweetly, grabbing him and pulling him in for an embrace. "I don't think I've ever met anyone as nice as you before."

Finn wrapped his arms around her small frame and awkwardly held her, not knowing what to do. She tipped her head up and pulled her arms away from him, smiling.

"Let's go downstairs, okay?" She grabbed him by the hand and pulled him towards the door. "I want you to actually spend time with your friends, not just up here with me in my room."

Finn followed her out of her room and down the stairs, finding it hard to keep up with her, even though he was at least a foot taller than her.

It was too bad, too. The more he thought about it, the more Finn wanted to spend the night with Rachel in her room, just talking to her. Spending time with Rachel was all he wanted to do.

:.:.:

It didn't take very long for Rachel's party to get into full swing. Finn quickly learned that while he was upstairs with Rachel that Puck was out buying alcohol after Rachel had informed him that she wasn't about to open up the liquor cabinet in her basement, which he was sure left Puck upset. That was what made a party, in his opinion, anyway. It wasn't really a party until everyone was drunk, Finn had learned.

Unfortunately, not everyone was fun to be around once they got drunk.

"I feel like Little Miss Perfect wasn't expecting to get as drunk as she is," Quinn whispered to Finn while she was working second beer. Quinn wasn't a very heavy drinker to begin with, and Finn thought that she was choosing not to drink as much for some odd reason that he couldn't put his finger on.

Rachel, however, had far too much to drink and was busy trying to make her party a more entertaining one by talking to everyone who had shown up. She was no longer the polite and demure girl that Finn had grown to like, and was instead a loud, boisterous and somewhat promiscuous drunk.

It had almost gotten to the point where Finn didn't want to spend time with her anymore, simply because she didn't act the way she normally did. Rachel spent the night sitting on Puck's lap and laughing over the obscene things he had said about her, and it made Finn feel like he was going to throw up.

Rachel deserved better than Puck as a boyfriend, and it killed Finn to see her that way.

Quinn had gotten up and gone somewhere else, Finn losing track of her before he noticed Rachel walking up to him.

"Finn," she said, her voice sounding different than usual. "I want to sit next to you."

Finn looked at her and then around the room, looking for any trace of Puck. Suddenly, it was like everyone had disappeared besides him and Rachel, and while Finn usually would have enjoyed it, it wasn't fun anymore. Rachel wasn't the same anymore.

"Hey, Rachel, I don't think you should-"

"But you said that you liked spending time with me," she gushed, planting herself on his lap. Finn groaned and put his arms around her so she wouldn't tumble off of his lap in a drunken haze. "And that my dress was pretty, right?" She giggled and rested her chin against his shoulder, tipping her head up so she could look at him.

"Don't you think I would look prettier with my dress off, though, Finn?"

Finn swallowed thickly and pushed Rachel off of his lap, trying his best to do so without throwing her to the floor. "Woah, Rachel, you've got to stop," he said, watching her as she tripped over her own two feet and managed to regain her footing in front of him.

"But, Finn, I thought you liked spending time with me," she said, her words slurring together.

"Not like this," he told her bluntly. She looked at him, Finn trying to look at her in her glazed-over eyes. "Look, Rachel, you can't be someone you're not just because you're drunk."

She looked at him and swallowed nervously, sighing. "So you don't like me anymore?"

"No," Finn said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "At least, not like this, Rachel. You're just… you're dru-"

"What are you doing talking to her?" Quinn asked, approaching Finn again and grabbing him by the shoulder. Rachel looked at Quinn, playing with the hem of her dress nervously. "Finn, seriously? She's drunk."

"I'm not that drunk," Rachel protested, sniffling slightly. Finn could see the tears beginning to spring to her eyes, feeling his stomach twist into a knot.

"Please," Quinn sneered, rolling her eyes. "You're nothing but a drunk slut who can't get laid because no one wants to sleep with her." Finn watched as Rachel looked at him, still looking upset in her drunken mess.

"Come on, Finn," Quinn said, grabbing his hand in her own. "Let's go."

He watched as Rachel looked at him and Quinn as she walked away with him.

And, for the first time, Finn didn't feel bad for her.