Thanks again for all of your feedback, and pretty please keep it coming! After this chapter, there will be one more as a fluffy epilogue. Also, Briyer Rose, I used a lot of what you said in your angry rant comment about Finn being a buttface in Rachel's angry rant to him, so I want to credit those ideas to you. Enjoy!
Normally, Rachel was up as soon as her alarm went off, hopping to her elliptical to begin her day in the most productive way possible. This Monday morning, however, she lay in bed for an extra minute, trying to mentally prepare herself for the day.
Most of her was super excited. She was surprised how much the thought of being on Noah Puckerman's arm once again filled with, for lack of a better word, glee. However, unfortunately, part of her was still plagued by how the club, and more importantly, her ex-boyfriend, whose feelings she still cared about, would react. She had gone over what she would say to him a lot, but she couldn't predict his reaction, which left a normally overly prepared Rachel Berry a little worried.
Noticing that it was now two minutes past when her workout should have begun, she quickly shot up and began her pre-school routine. It wasn't until she was eating her nutritionally balanced breakfast that she had time to look at her phone and see the good morning text from Puck that told her he would pick her up on his way to school.
"Good morning, Noah!" She greeted him brightly as she hopped into his truck.
"Mornin' star," He responded, bringing his lips down to meet hers. Rachel loved how familiar this all already seemed, like it had always been this way. She giggled as she pushed him away when he tried to deepen the kiss, and he just smirked and pulled out of her driveway.
When they got to school, Puck quickly hopped out and then noticed that Rachel was still glued to her seat.
"Errrr you don't actually expect me to come open the door for you or some shit, right? I mean I guess I could, but c'mon that's a little-"
"No, no." Rachel interrupted him. "As a modern woman, I am perfectly capable of opening my own door. Maybe if we were in a date setting or something else of that nature, it would be acceptable, but I am certainly not waiting for you to open my door."
"Oh, ok, good." Puck breathed out a sigh of relief, glad he hadn't fucked up and also that he wasn't expected to be Prince Charming. "So what's up?"
"I just…I seem to have a slight case of stage fright." She looked at him and he hopped back in the truck to sit next to her.
"Only you would call it that." He chuckled, amused by her adorable crazy. "Look, we just gotta get the Glee crap over with and then you can just enjoy me taking slushies for you again." He put his hand on her leg, trying not to think dirty thoughts about her bare thigh, and smiled, hoping she appreciated his joke. "I mean…if something goes horribly wrong, you could always sing about it this afternoon." He smirked, and was glad when that got a small laugh out of her.
"You're right." She nodded, and he almost rolled his eyes at the fact that that was the part she agreed with. He wanted all of her though, crazy singing emotional crap included, so he resisted.
After another quick and decently clean (not for Puck's lack of trying) kiss, they both got out of the car and headed towards the school, her arm locked in his.
Lunch was a lot less eventful than expected. Finn sat with the jocks, only giving them and the Glee table one glance before heading towards the sea of football jerseys and Cheerio uniforms, so the announcement of Puckleberry didn't have quite the backlash that the couple expected. The rest of the club was more curious than anything else.
"Did you cheat on Finnocence again?" Santana, fan of bluntness, started the questions off. Rachel had expected the accusation and kept her stage face on to not show how insulting it was.
"No, of course not." She just answered primly, squeezing Puck's hand under the table.
"And you with the crazy wrestler lady over there…?" Santana asked Puck as she pointed to where Lauren was sitting with her team. Apparently, even though she had approved of Puckleberry, she didn't really want to have to sit across from her ex-boyfriend and his new beau. It was understandable.
"No, Satan, I didn't cheat either." Puck got out through gritted teeth. Apparently, he wasn't as good at his stage face as his girlfriend.
"Hey, c'mon, like you weren't all thinking the same thing given the track record of these two." Santana rolled her eyes at the group.
Other than that, most of the questions were pleasant, such as what brought them together and when they started spending time with each other outside of school. Even Kurt, who should have been biased based on his family relations, seemed to love the idea of the new couple together. When he started planning out little Puckleberry baby clothes that would go with a tiny baby Mohawk, Rachel had to physically restrain her boyfriend from strangling the poor guy.
"Our babies will NOT be wearing anything Kurt buys," He grumbled as he and Rachel walked out of the cafeteria after lunch. "You can't be a badass in that plaid crap."
"Fine Noah, you can pick out all of our babies' clothes." She laughed. This conversation was ridiculous, but she felt like the approval of most of the Gleeks had left her feeling a bit lighter. When she caught sight of a blonde ponytail at a locker at the end of the hall, she remembered Quinn's text the day before and the fact that she had been the only one to not say anything during lunch.
"I have to take care of something." She said. "I'll see you in Glee, ok?" Without waiting for a reply, she gave Puck the steamiest kiss she could in 2.5 seconds, so he wouldn't ask questions, and walked quickly down the hall towards Quinn's locker.
"Hello Quinn." She greeted her warily. "You were awfully quiet at lunch."
"I already knew what was going on." Quinn shrugged. "I was just thinking about who I want now."
"I thought you liked Sam…" Rachel offered.
"So did I." Quinn replied. "But then the second I read Jacob's blog, I sent you that text. Maybe I'll always go back to Finn." Her voice was quiet and Rachel realized this wasn't Quinn being bitchy or manipulative. This was pure, honest Quinn.
"I think you two are inevitable." Rachel told her honestly. "I think he loves me, but if you give him time to get over it, as he always does, he'll go back to you like always." Quinn nodded.
"You know," Quinn said thoughtfully. "After you and Puck broke up, even after we got together, I thought the same thing. You two fit like he and I never did." Her words caused an involuntary smile to appear on Rachel's face. Lately, she had been thinking the same thing. "As cute as this lovefest is, I need to get to class, and there is a certain ex of both of ours coming down this hallway who I think wants to talk to you."
Rachel instantly whipped her head around and saw Finn marching angrily towards her. By the time she turned around again, Quinn was gone, and she was alone with the boy she had been dreading talking to all day.
"Hello," She nervously started, going into defensive ramble mode. "Shouldn't you be in class? I have study this period, so I probably won't get into too much trouble for being late, but you have math and you know you are already slightly behind in that subject-"
"I don't care." His eyes looked dangerous. She knew Finn would never hurt her, but he was awfully scary right now. "How could you do this to me Rachel?" At that, all of Rachel's sweet, carefully thought out explanations went out the window and she was just mad.
"How could I do this to you?" Her voice rose. "Do you know what a hypocrite you're being? Ok yes, I know that I am hurting you, and I'm really sorry, but do you know how many times you've hurt me?" Once she started, she couldn't seem to stop. "From kissing me when you were with Quinn to tricking me back into Glee to dumping me to sleeping with Santana, which ok, yes I guess that's unfair because we've been over that, but ugh! To breaking up with me because I kissed your best friend and then getting back with the girl who SLEPT WITH HIM and helping her CHEAT on her boyfriend! I just ugh! Look in the mirror Finn!"
Finn looked taken aback. "Wow, that uh…that sounds pretty bad." Through most of her rant, he had been trying to stay angry, but by the end, he was just awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck while he stared at the ground.
"Yes, it does." Rachel took a few deep breaths to catch up on the ones she had missed while she spoke. It did sound really bad. It had taken them both long enough to realize it.
"Rachel, I'm really sorry." Finn looked genuine, just like he always did. He honestly had never meant to hurt her. She knew that, but enough was enough, and another boy who wouldn't break it now held her heart. "You know I still really care about you right?"
"I know." Rachel attempted a smile at him. "I care about you too, and I hope we can eventually be friends, but we both know we can't make each other happy as more."
"Yeah…" Finn nodded. "It's still gonna be weird for me…but I really do want you to be happy. You deserve it." He gave her his trademark lopsided grin and she couldn't help but return it. He was being as nice as he could manage right now and she wanted to return the favor…and maybe offer him a little advice that could make him happy too.
"Thank you, and you do too, so I know you were avoiding her for my sake, just like Noah was avoiding me, but I think Quinn could use a friend right now. She seems a little lonely." She felt a little better when he visibly brightened at her words.
"Cool. Thanks." He said and they both stood there awkwardly for a moment before simultaneously realizing they were about halfway through the period. They began walking towards their destinations, which happened to be in the same hallway, and Rachel felt relieved at the lack of tension between them. They weren't friends yet, but they would get there. She could feel it.
She was practically skipping as she made her way to Glee on Puck's arm that afternoon. They sat down next to each other and his hand immediately found its way around the back of her chair where she was content to lean against it.
She held her breath for a moment when Finn walked in the room, but she let it go gratefully when he gave her a hesitant smile before making his way to the empty chair between Quinn and Kurt. He even clapped when Mr. Shuester announced that Puck had won the contest from the previous week with Poses. As Puck gave her a celebratory kiss after yelling "Hell yeah!" to the choir room, Rachel realized that the storm was actually over. She had started out being worried about being his co-chair, and then his friend, but now, she was free to not only be both of those, but also, and most importantly, his girlfriend.