AN : This is the second chapter to this story. It's set like a few weeks after the first chapter. Time will jump in this story, it's just the way I planned it out in my head. I hope it makes sense and you can follow it.

Thanks! xx

Rachel was sat in the choir room when Kurt flounced in, she had been expecting him, they were the Glee Club Captains now and had arranged for this meeting. His attitude towards her however was less than familiar. He sat down abruptly in the chair next to her and turned his entire body to face hers. She reciprocated the gesture and smiled slightly, surprised by his body language.

"Kurt, is everything - " She started before he cut her off.

"Is there something going on with you and Puck?" His face was questioning, one eye brow arched perfectly as if to say I'll be able to tell if you lie to me.

She gulped before taking in a deep breathe, smiling, and then looked him straight in the eyes.

"There's nothing going "on" between Noah and myself. What would make you think that?"

His eyes were still boring in to her, watching every movement to catch the slightest hint of a lie.

She felt uneasy, what had made him think that there was something between her and Noah? She hoped he hadn't told Finn. He had a hard enough time dealing with Noah and her in general, let alone an accusation of infidelity.

"Well you don't ever really talk to him Rachel and yesterday when Santana went all "Lima Heights" on him because he wasn't paying attention to the choreography you defended him. It was just odd. And then I saw the two of you whispering at his locker." She looked away from him, the way his eyes were staring in to her was making her uncomfortable.

"I just wanted to see if he was alright, he didn't seem himself. That's all." She replied, but she could tell he didn't believe her.

"Rachel..." He started, before she let out a huge breathe of air. She stood from her chair suddenly and walked to the middle of the room before turning around to face him again.

"Fine. Fine! I'll tell you. I need to tell someone. But it's complicated and you have to know I would never act on anything, I love Finn very much."

Kurt looked worried, "Ok. Tell me" he said, before motioning for her to sit back down.

She conceded and returned to her seat beside him. She took a moment to compose herself before starting her story.

"We were friends, best friends, before everything changed. We grew up together and we were practically inseparable for so long. We knew each other inside out; he could feel if I was happy and I could tell when he was upset or angry. It was like there was a part of each of us in the other. All of his great miseries were mine, I felt every one of them the same way he did, not because he explained it to me but through this connection we shared. It was as if we were one soul, as if we were half of the same person. It was the two of us against the world."

"So what changed?" Kurt asked when she paused to take a shaky breathe as she stared blankly at the wall opposite. He could tell she was reliving those days in her head.

"My fathers' were worried we were spending too much time together, that we were too...involved in each other. So one night after I ran away from home and Noah brought me back they blamed him for my disappearance and said we couldn't see each other any more."

Kurt gasped, he had expected her to say that they were having some kind of secret spontaneous affair, not that they had this epic story connecting them. He reached out and took her hand, it was shaking slightly so he rubbed it soothingly.

"But, if you were friends, why did he start the "slushy facials"?" He asked confused.

Rachel shook her head and laughed slightly to herself. "He was angry with me for not trying harder. I just went with their wishes and stopped seeing him." Her eyes glazed over once more, looking in to the past, "It hurt so much to be away from him. We were young but I knew I loved him. It was like I was never fully myself because I was away from him, and I wondered if he was ever himself again without me."

Kurt had a questioning look on his face, "Why didn't you try again with him? If you were in love with him, why didn't you find a way to be with him?"

Her mouth formed a small smile, "It was too late for us. Too much has changed for us to be those people. To be the Rachel and Noah who shared that time, that love. I had to let go of them when we started here. It hurt too much to think about what could have been, so I focused on what could be."

Kurt nodded in acknowledgement, "You mean you focused on Finn instead?"

She shot around to face Kurt suddenly, eyes wet with unshed tears for a love long lost, "I love Finn. I do Kurt. You have to believe that. My love for him is like...the trees, it changes and grows tall and strong. It bends and shapes itself and it's rooted deep within me." Kurt nodded his head in response, he knew she loved Finn. "But Noah, my love for him is like the rocks beneath. Hidden from view, unchanged and eternal. It lies deep inside underneath everything else, always there to remind me of what we had. But it's cold and hard, it has no light or grace the way...the way my love for Finn has. But I know that if everything else is washed away, it would still remain." The tears began to fall now, slowly down her cheeks as she thought about how deeply she felt for that boy she used to know. She leant her elbows against her knees and put her face in her hands as Kurt slowly rubbed small circles on her back to calm her down. After a few minutes of only the sound of their breathing filling the room, she turned to face Kurt and smiled softly.

"Thankyou. I've needed to tell someone about this for a really long time." He smiled in return, "You won't tell Finn will you? I swear nothing will ever happen between Noah and I."

"No, of course not. It's not my place. I thought I was going to get some idle gossip from this, not a tragic love story. I will however be fantasising tonight about the both of you being in some period drama." They both chuckled before hugging.

Kurt looked at the clock on the wall and realised they would be late to their next class if they didn't make a move soon so he stood, grabbed a hold of his bag and said his goodbye to Rachel before leaving the choir room. As he turned down the hall however, he noticed the very prominent back of Noah Puckerman walking away from the other door down the hall that allowed access to the choir room. His eyes widened as he realised what had happened, Puck had been listening and had heard Rachel say nothing could ever happen between the two of them again. He hoped this wouldn't effect the Glee Club, but more than that he hoped this wouldn't break Rachel's heart any more than it already had.

She knew he was avoiding her, she could tell. It wasn't like their normal interaction where they might catch each others eye across the cafeteria or classroom and share a small smile before returning to their lives. This was worse. If she looked towards him he was always turned away, a snarl across his face as if he was disgusted she was in the same area as him. In Glee Club he sat or stood as far away from her as possible without being out of the door. She couldn't understand why he was being like this, they had an unspoken agreement that they weren't friends, but they were at least civil to each other. This was just him being what she could only think to call nasty.

So, never one to back down, she found him after school had ended at his locker. She knew he usually waited for the car park to clear out before leaving, so most of the school population had already left. She walked slowly towards him, trying to think of something to say, but when she approached she saw he was watching her intently. She stared back at him for what felt like hours before he huffed and turned back to his locker.

She moved towards him then with more purpose, "What is wrong with you exactly?" she asked in an irritated tone. He still had that effect on her.

He slammed his locker closed, the sound echoing down the empty hall, before stalking towards her. She wasn't afraid of him, this was just the effect they had on one another. He was breathing deeply through his nose and she couldn't help but notice the way his jaw clenched and the muscles of his neck moved.

"Nothing is wrong with me Princess, so you can carry on with your day as if I never existed." He answered with a devilish smirk at the end.

Rachel stood her ground, refusing to be over powered by him. "Believe me, I try. But you're making it very obvious that you're ignoring me which makes it pretty hard to ignore you. So what exactly have I done to upset you?"

He let out a short, low laugh and then walked back to his locker to pick up his bag. She followed behind him waiting for an explanation.

When he faced her again she knew he'd lost some of his confidence, he seemed tired. But within a second the walls came back and he snickered at her before saying, "Go back to your boyfriend Rachel. I wouldn't want you to loose...focus." He lifted his eyebrow to challenge her but when she said nothing in return he turned and left her by his locker.

She was confused by his choice of words, focus, why did that sound so familiar? The realisation hit her like a bullet as she began to walk out of the school. Focus! She had said that to Kurt in the choir room. He had heard her, heard her say that nothing would happen between them again. She had hurt him and so he was doing what he knew would hurt her, proving that there was no more Noah for her to love.

She felt her knees weaken so she hurried to her car. Once she was safely inside she stared at the empty parking space where she knew his truck had been and let herself cry. Cry for her friend, for her love and for any hope she had that they might change things. They were all gone now.