Unfortunately for her, unlike Puck, Rachel couldn't walk away from the boy waiting for her on the side of the house.
"Did you cheat on me?"
"How could you even ask me that? No!"
"You lied about him coming over. Why should I believe you now?"
"I would never cheat on you."
"I never thought you would lie to me either."
"I had to! I…this isn't working."
"I know."
"I didn't cheat on you."
"I…I know. I'm messed up."
"I know."
"I just…can't do this right now. Being with you makes me scared to lose you all of the time."
"I know."
"I love you."
"I know. I love you too."
"But I…"
"I know."
Puck was looking for his phone in the kitchen when Rachel walked through the sliding glass doors from the deck. Puck could get a good idea of the conversation that had just gone down based on Rachel's misty eyes and the fact that there wasn't a Finn behind her. "Finn leave?" He asked, testing the waters.
"Yes." was the only answer he got. Puck wasn't quite sure where to go from there. He had kind of hoped that after an unplanned baby, he would have filled his quota for dealing with high school emotional shit. He usually helped a girl out by making out with her until she felt better, but he had learned last time that that didn't really work with this particular girl. Part of him figured she just wanted to deal with alone and he should book it while he could, but part of him felt this need to comfort her, sort of like the feeling he had of needing to protect her earlier. He blamed it on the Jew connection.
"So like…that it? Game over?" Yeah, he really wasn't good at this.
"Game over." Rachel sort of chuckled at his wording, so he gave himself a point for that.
"You ok?" He abandoned his search for his phone and sat down in a kitchen chair next to where she was standing.
"I…I don't know." She sank down in the chair next to him. "I'm not surprised, and I guess I'm kind of relieved in a way. Is that really bad?" Puck shrugged, because he could tell from listening to many Rachel Berry rants that she didn't really want an answer and was going to continue anyway. "It just makes me sad that we don't work anymore. We did. We really, really did, but now we don't. We were supposed to work and we didn't. That makes me sad." She sniffled as if to prove her point, but Puck gave her credit that she wasn't in full Rachel-hysterical-crying-mode. He figured when she and Finn inevitably broke up again, it would be a repeat of last time's emotional breakdown, but she was right, and something had changed.
"Why were you supposed to work or whatever?" Puck asked. It was the first question that came to his mind. He had never really considered that anyone was "supposed to work" with anyone. In his mind, people just felt attraction and went with it.
"We had kind of the perfect popular boy/unpopular girl storyline. Also, common interests are key. We had a lot of things in common." She explained, still occasionally sniffling. Before he could help himself, Puck snorted, and Rachel looked at him in confusion.
"Rach, Finn and I also have things in common. It makes for a cool friendship, but so what?" Rachel looked at him with surprise, but slowly nodded.
"Noah, you're right!" She whispered, as if someone had told her the secret to becoming a broadway star. "I just…didn't have much experience with boys before Finn. I mean…Jesse and also had a lot in common. I just…I don't know…figured that was all it took for a healthy, balanced relationship to begin on a solid foundation." She eagerly grabbed his arm. "Is there anything else you could teach me about this? I'm obviously very naive."
"Rach, the only things I could teach you would need to be done upstairs." Puck smirked at Rachel's blush and tried to keep the mental image that accompanied his joke out of his head.
"Well, you obviously have a very healthy relationship with Lauren." For some reason, Rachel refused to look him in the eye when she said that.
"I guess." Puck shrugged. "We'll see what happens when she finds out about…" He motioned between himself and Rachel. Rachel gasped.
"You didn't tell her?"
"Why would I? She knows we dated." He rationalized. "Also, we haven't talked all that much since Monday anyway. We mostly just make out." It sounded kind of bad when he said it out loud.
"Is that what a real relationship is supposed to be like?" Rachel whispered, still looking away from him.
"I don't know. I doubt it. There's probably supposed to be talking." Puck felt like Rachel needed to know he wasn't just into girls for hooking up. He may be kind of a manwhore, but he got that chicks could be cool to talk to as well. He just so far hadn't really found a chick that was equally good at both of the things lips were made for. Well, maybe he had, for like a week, but he wasn't about to tell the girl that dumped him that.
"We talked." Rachel seemed to be able to read his mind. Puck nodded. He kind of really wanted to talk about this, but he felt the Lauren weight in the back of his mind, and he knew he shouldn't or he would say something to the girl that had just broken up with his best friend that he might regret. Just then, there was a loud banging on the door.
"Dude, you're out of pizza." Rob yelled through the glass.
"There's more in the fridge. I'll get it." Rachel told Puck before standing up and motioning for him to rejoin the party. As soon as he stepped outside, Rob was in front of him, asking him what happened with the "hot chick" and her boyfriend. When Puck told him they broke up, he wanted to wipe the smirk on Rob's face off with his fist, but he refrained and walked away to throw the empty pizza boxes out.
An hour or so later, when a boy with really dark brown hair and a dimple in his right cheek introduced himself as Rob, Rachel didn't think much of it. It wasn't until he very boldly suggested they "ditch the Jewfest and find somewhere more private" that she realized what was happening. Unfortunately, the creep couldn't seem to take no for answer and Rachel was getting very uncomfortable when a strong, tanned hand appeared on Rob's shoulder.
"I don't think she's interested." Puck growled at his new friend. While very grateful for his assistance, Rachel wasn't sure why Puck looked quite so angry.
"Hey, back off." Rob looked equally as angry. "I thought you had a girlfriend."
"Yeah, so? I still understand what "no" means." Puck towered over Rob.
"Yeah whatever, she's not worth this shit. You can have her." Rob stormed off, muttering under his breath, and Rachel turned to Puck in relief.
"Thank you." She smiled and saw Puck visibly relax. This whole day had been so odd to her. When she woke up, she didn't expect her usual knight in shining armor would have left her and her new one would be her temple teen council co-chair.
"Don't mention it. Seriously." He grumbled before walking away quickly, not looking at her. Rachel was a little confused by his odd behavior after rescuing her. He used to exhibit behavior like that frequently. It started last fall. He would laugh at something she said, or do something nice like holding a door open, and then all of a sudden he would turn off, and pretend it had never happened. She had figured at the time that it was because he wasn't supposed to even like her as a friend, since he was the football stud and she was the gleek, but eventually he seemed to have gotten over it, and they were actually friends. It obviously had all gone to heck because of Finn, but she had figured he had matured past the point of hot and cold. She decided she wasn't going to let it be his decision anymore. She marched quickly after him.
"Finn and I broke up." Rachel stated simply when she caught up to him.
"Um yeah. I know." Puck looked at her. How dumb does she think I am?
"So I disagreed with, but understood your "bro-code" pact that you would stay
away from me while I was "his girl", but as I am no longer his, so are we or are we not friends?" She asked directly, and Puck didn't really know what to say. There were two things wrong with him and her being friends and he really, really couldn't address one of them. He couldn't tell her how her talking to Rob, before he noticed how uncomfortable she looked, had stirred up something in him that he had felt seeing her with Finn, but had just written off as guilt, but now he was pretty sure it hadn't been guilt, but something much, much scarier for a stud like Puck. And for the last time, Puck did NOT get scared. Puck obviously couldn't tell her that because he had a Lauren, it would be dangerous for him to be her friend when all these really weird feelings kept popping up. He decided to just address the slightly easier issue.
"Rach, you and Finn…I mean…don't you think you'll always be his girl?" Puck really hoped the answer was no, but it was Finchel for crying out loud. She had been right in saying they had quite the story.
"I cannot accurately answer that at this moment." Rachel shook her head, not meeting his eyes. He felt his stomach drop, and then told himself to stop being a fucking girl. "I mean, honestly, I have realized that although I will always have feelings for him because he was my first love, that he is no longer the right guy for me. I am surprisingly at peace with that, so I think in my mind, I am not his anymore." Puck wanted to slap his stomach for ya know, un-dropping at that. "But…he is still your best friend, and I understand that since in his mind, I may still be his, a friendship with me might not be in your best interest at the moment." Even though what she was saying made complete sense, and he had the whole stupid, fucked-up emotions issue, Puck didn't like the idea of her agreeing to step out of his life again. Besides, wouldn't that make things super awkward since they had to continue working on this board together?
"Well, I dunno, I don't really think we have a choice, with the temple thing and all." He hoped his smirk after the comment let her know that wasn't the only reason he wanted to stay friends, and her grin back was a good confirmation to him that she got it.
"Right." Her attempt at playing coy was kind of adorable, and Puck was thanking his Jew god that he was starting to sober up. It was a good thing he had stopped drinking a while ago, but…just then, he realized that with the exception of maybe Rachel, no one else at the party had stopped drinking a while ago. Everyone was still at least buzzed.
"Shit." He muttered, more to himself than Rachel, but obviously, she overheard.
"What?" She asked, putting a hand on his arm, concerned.
"We can't let these kids drive home…" He indicated the drunken teens around him, most either making out with each other or playing chicken in the pool. Rachel's face went pale. It was getting dark, and they had been planning on ending the party around this time since the Shawnee kids had a longer drive home and some of the younger teenagers had a curfew.
"This is all my fault!" She wailed. He put a hand on her shoulder to calm her and then looked at her straight in the eye.
"No, Rach, this is my fault. Relax. We'll fix it." He put on his best "I got this" tough guy face to try and reassure her.
"Noah! How? We can't drive all of these children home. There's over forty and what if there parents can tell they're INEBRIATED?" She was trying her best to keep her voice down, but it wasn't really working.
"Rachel Barbera Berry, calm the fuck down." He pushed her towards a nearby chair and made her sit. This was his fault and he had to think of a way to fix it. He knew from experience that even if he cut off the booze supply now, it would still be hours until all of these kids sobered up enough to drive. He remembered the whole "mountain out of a molehill" crap that his mother was always talking about and just tried to block everything else out to come up with the simplest solution. If this was just the glee club, what would he do?
"I got it." He smirked triumphantly. "What's better for temple bonding than a little sleepover?"
Don't worry, I am planning for the next chapter to be longer. Also, I haven't forgotten about the Glee assignment. Thanks again for all of the reviews! Feel free to keep them coming!