Glee 1. First Impressions

New York was considered a playground for most people. No matter where you came from, if you got to New York, it was your oyster to do with as you wished. That was why everyone ended up congregating in New York at some point – rich or poor, young or old, whoever. New York was the catch-all for everyone who wanted anything and was willing to chase after it.

And there she was, feet touching the ground in New York for the first time. The day Rachel had waited on for what had seemed like forever had finally arrived, and she was overjoyed. The entire concept of going to New York excited her more than anything else she could ever remember being excited about. For as long as Rachel could remember, New York City was all she had ever wanted. When she was a little girl she dreamed about ending up in New York one day and seeing her name on a Broadway marquee, and all of this only made her feel as though she was one step closer to getting what she wanted.

She was going to be attending some prestigious private school on the Upper East Side of the city. It was her fathers' idea, really. Part of her convincing them to let her go to New York was by them deciding where she was to go to school to finish her senior year, and they had picked some stuffy boarding school that was populated with people her age who had parents that practically ran Wall Street and rubbed elbows with people like Steven Spielberg and Oprah and Jay Leno and whoever else was important in the grand scheme of things.

When it came down to it, Rachel didn't think that going to a prep school would be all that bad. Of course, the whole idea of having to wear a uniform didn't exactly sit well with her, but there really wasn't anything she would be able to do about it.

She was supposed to be meeting with someone after she had stepped off of the plane. Originally, it was supposed to be the girl she was going to end up rooming with, but something had come up with her and she was unable to meet her at the airport, so she was stuck waiting for the student body president, or something. Rachel wasn't exactly sure. She just knew who she was supposed to be looking for.

The longer her eyes scanned across the airport's terminal, the more she began to get worried that her escort hadn't shown up – or worse, her escort had already gotten one look at her and had decided to leave based on that opinion alone. Rachel didn't think that she looked absolutely horrible. She had fallen asleep during her flight and her skirt had wrinkled around the edges a bit, but other than that, she thought that she looked rather nice.

It was important to look nice during a first impression, anyway.

She looked around and tried to look busy as she clutched her carry-on bag tightly to her chest until she was able to notice a girl begin to walk up to her, a big, bright smile stuck to her face. The closer she got to her, the more Rachel began to realize that whoever the girl was, she was strikingly beautiful. She had golden blonde hair that was cut into a long bob that ended at her shoulders, side bangs falling in her eyes. She was wearing a pale green dress with a light, gray jacket that Rachel was sure cost more than all of the luggage she had brought with her to New York (and she wasn't the lightest of travelers).

"Rachel?" The blonde girl asked, her voice chipper. Rachel nodded. "I'm Quinn Fabray. The one who's supposed to bring you back to campus?"

Rachel smiled and her eyes lit up slightly as she looked at Quinn. She looked like a perfect, cardboard cut-out of whatever a student over in New York was supposed to look like.

The blonde girl's smile was devastatingly sweet and seemed like it was never going to let up. She looked like a life-sized Barbie doll to Rachel, who was afraid that her eyes had grown too wide while she was staring.

"Oh, um, yes," she stammered nervously, extending her hand for a handshake. "I'm Rachel. Rachel Berry." Quinn took her by the hand and shook it vigorously, the charms on her charm bracelet clamoring together as she shook Rachel's hand vigorously.

Rachel's eyes fell on Quinn's wrist, smiling brightly. "Wow, your bracelet is really… really pretty." The little silver and diamond-encrusted charms glimmered under the dull lights of the airport terminal. She watched as Quinn smiled, wondering if it was ever going to let up.

The blonde continued to bear her teeth, looking down at her down wrist. "Oh, thanks," she said. "It was my grandmother's." Rachel smiled and adjusted her bedazzled pink duffel bag over her shoulder.

Her hand absent-mindedly reached for the necklace that she wore, fingers brushing against the heart-shaped pendant that dropped down between her collarbone. It had been given to her by her dads for her fourteenth birthday, and she had worn it every day since. Although Rachel came from a well-to do family, the necklace that she wore was probably the most expensive thing she owned.

That, and her collection of Barbra Streisand records. She had decided to bring those along with her, just in case she happened to run into someone who shared the same interests as she did.

She pushed her hair over her shoulder and looked at Quinn, almost envying her off-handedly. If the rest of the people at the school she was going to all dressed like Quinn and looked like Quinn, she didn't know how she was supposed to fit in or look like everyone else.

Quinn's eyes raked over Rachel and she smiled again, exhaling curtly. "Well, we should probably get going," she said, crossing her arms over her chest. "Why don't we go get your bags and I'll show you your dorm."

Rachel looked at Quinn and worried her lip between her teeth. "Oh, um, I have a lot of bags," she started. She clicked the heels of her Mary Janes together. "You know, I just thought it would be important to bring everything with me."

The blonde smirked and turned around on her heel, snapping her fingers slightly. Rachel tipped her head up and her eyes lit up, following after Quinn dutifully.

"Oh, that's fine." She stopped and turned around on her heel, her smile returning but not as strong as it once had been. "I brought some help with me."

:.:.:

Rachel ended up getting more distracted by the sights of Grand Central Station than she did anything else. She didn't want to make Quinn upset by trailing behind, but when she did the blonde simply responded with a quick snap of her fingers and a smile, which made Rachel feel as though she was doing something right.

She wanted to know who it was that Quinn had brought along with her and spoke so highly of. She wondered if it was one of her friends, who she expected to be nothing short of what Quinn was herself; beautiful, graceful and popular, she was sure. Maybe Quinn liked her and she would be able to become friends with her and whoever she was bringing with her. Rachel was never one to actually care about how unwanted she was, but she figured that she could always try and make a new name for herself at the new school was attending.

She could completely reinvent herself if she really wanted to. Chances were though, that was never going to happen.

"Alright," Quinn said, walking up to the luggage carousel. "I'm assuming that your bags matches your carry-on, so we'll just look for the-" She stopped, her eyes scanning the baggage claim area. She threw her hands up in the air and ran a hand through her hair, rolling her eyes. She held up a finger and groaned. "Hold on."

Rachel watched as Quinn approached a tall man who appeared to be too busy checking out some blonde girl who was looking at flight times. She couldn't help but laugh as she watched Quinn swat him on the back and directed him back to where she was standing. Rachel bit down on her lip and blushed as Quinn returned back to her, grabbing on to the arm of whatever tall man she had dragged over from the opposite corner of the terminal.

"Rachel, I have someone I'd like you to meet," Quinn said, pride in her voice. She stood to the boy's side and Rachel looked at him, smiling gently. "This is Finn Hudson," she said sweetly, letting go of his arm. "He's… one of my best friends."

Rachel had to tip her head up to get a real look at him, smiling as her blush didn't seem to disappear. He was probably a foot taller than she was, and he was really good-looking. Not in a conventional way, or anything, but neither was she, so she didn't really have the right to complain.

There really wasn't much of a reason to think he was attractive, though. Whoever this Finn person was had been described by Quinn as one of her 'best friends,' so she only assumed that they were boyfriend and girlfriend, or something along those lines.

"Hi," she said, giving him a small wave. He looked down at her and she could feel her cheeks redden the longer she looked at him. "I'm Rachel," she said, smoothing her skirt down over her legs nervously. She watched as Quinn looked at her with a knowing look in her eye. "Um, you're Quinn's…"

"Friend," he told her, running a hand through his hair. "Quinn and I have known each other since we were like, six." Rachel looked up at him and swung back and forth on her feet, trying to fill the holes in their conversation with something.

He smiled at her and she felt like Quinn wasn't even there, causing her to blush even more than she already was, if that was possible. "She never told me that she was going to be picking up such a pretty girl, though."

Rachel felt her eyes get bigger as he complimented her. She was sure that her face was redder than it had ever been before by the way he was talking to her.

Quinn laughed nervously, swatting Finn on the arm. "Oh, _you_," she said through clenched teeth. "Rachel is rather pretty, though." She walked up to the brunette and fingered a lock of her hair, sending a chill down Rachel's spine. She lowered her voice and moved her hands up to Rachel's shoulders, adjusting her sweater and tugging it down over her chest as she spoke. "She'll end up being quite the catch over at school."

Rachel pulled her sweater back up and noticed Finn staring at her over Quinn's shoulder. She didn't feel herself anymore.

"You know, Rachel, I have to go use the bathroom." Quinn gave Rachel's arm a squeeze before walking between her and Finn and away from the two of them. "But Finn can help you get your bags and carry them out to the taxi, okay?" She smirked towards her and turned over her shoulder towards the bathroom, leaving her alone with Finn.

She watched him as he looked at her and began to shuffle nervously over to the baggage claim. "Ever since I've gotten here, all you've done is stare at me," she told him as bluntly as she could. "Is anything wrong with me?"

He rolled his eyes and scoffed, laughing slightly to himself. "I wouldn't exactly say that," he told her, picking up one of the pink suitcases that spun around on the carousel and assuming it belonged to her. "This one's yours, right?"

Rachel crossed her arms over her chest and looked down at the suitcase Finn had picked up. "Yes," she told him, fixing her hair nervously. "So, should I be worried about going back your school?" She looked up at him, feeling close to terrified. She did worry about it. Living with people she didn't know and who probably wouldn't like her all too much. No one really liked her back in Ohio, so why would anyone like her in New York?

"Well, that kind of depends," he told her, continuing to laugh. "I mean, someone like you… probably not."

Rachel narrowed her eyes and turned around to look at him. "Someone like me?"

Finn looked at her and smiled. "You don't think much of yourself, do you, Rebecca?"

"It's Rachel," she reminded him. "And no, I think just fine of myself." She chewed on her bottom lip once more, nerves fraying. "Why, do confident people not fare well at your school?"

Finn looked at her, finding it hard to hold back the smile that he felt consume him when he looked at her. She was a pretty girl; it wasn't hard to see why Quinn had brought him along. It was almost distracting the way she walked and spoke around him. He knew as well as Quinn did that she would be glommed onto by practically every guy at their school.

Well, she would if she stopped talking. She already seemed like she spoke way too much.

"No, you're just… you're different than most of the girls I go to school with."

Rachel leaned against the carousel and tipped her head up to look at Finn, a surge of confidence coursing through her veins. "I'm different?"

He rubbed the back of his neck and clucked his tongue, rolling his eyes at her. "You should just be careful, that's all I'm saying."

She tossed her hair over her shoulder and spun around, bending over to pick up another one of her suitcases. "Well, I think that I'll do just fine here," she told him. She wasn't completely lying to him. Part of her actually felt good about coming to New York on her own and seeing how she felt in the city.

Of course, being in the city and being in the city on the Upper East Side were two completely different things.

"I think I'll surprise you," she told him before turning around to face him. "What, do you think I'm just some little girl who won't be able to make her way around your school?"

Finn rolled his eyes and grabbed Rachel's bag from her before she was able to put it down. "Look, _Rachel_, all of the girls that go to my school drink and smoke and have sex with whoever wants them to. That's how they get by, and that's why people like them. And you don't look like you'd be willing to do any of those things."

Rachel cocked a brow at him. "Those aren't necessarily the greatest attributes to have." She leaned against her suitcase and tipped her head up to look at Finn. "Maybe the best part about a girl is what she's actually like, instead of… you know. What she's like in bed or whatever."

"And what makes you think I don't weigh that when I date girls as well?" She looked at him incredulously and scoffed. "I mean, sure, guys date girls based on how hot they are, but I'm not going to date you just because of your boobs or something."

Rachel rolled her eyes and turned her back against her luggage. "You're not dating me period." She crossed her arms over her chest and sighed, blowing her bangs out of her eyes. "Are you always this charming with girls you meet for the first time?" She asked him sarcastically, looking down at her shoes. She watched as he picked up another one of her bags and set it down by her feet.

"No," he told her, leaning on the bag towards her. "I'm just telling you the truth. That's what you want to hear, right? The truth?" She rolled her eyes and tried her best not to look at him, but he was hard. No matter how much a douchebag he came across as, it didn't take away from the fact that she thought he was good-looking, because he was.

She tapped her feet on the ground and looked around, hoping that Quinn would come back soon. "I think that being honest and being blunt are two completely different things," she told him, suppressing an eye roll. "Besides, I already know your type."

Finn crossed his own arms over his chest, looking at her with a grin. "And what's my type?"

"Oh, you know. Confident, cocky, sleeps with a different girl each weekend." She sighed and continued not to look at him. There were guys just like him at her old school, only she could only imagine that the ones here were much different than the ones back where she was from. They had more money and had nicer houses and probably knew how to be more charming than the boys in Ohio. Offering a girl a dinner at some expensive restaurant was probably a hell of a lot more enticing than an offer to go cow tipping.

He laughed and got up so he could walk in front of her. "That's not true at all," he told her, laughing to himself. "I think you'll be surprised when you get to campus."

"And why is that?"

"Because you'll realize that I'm not that kind of person," he told her. "Besides, someone like you?" He scoffed and laughed to himself once more. "You'll get to know those kinds of pricks all too well once classes start."

Rachel flicked her eyes up to look at him, not bothering to smile. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

He shrugged and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Oh, nothing. It's just what Quinn said. You're a pretty girl who's new to the school and who doesn't go out and get completely trashed at parties and stuff." Rachel sighed and pushed her hair out of her eyes nervously. "That, and when they find out that you're-" He stopped, laughing to himself.

Rachel looked up at him, furrowing her brow. "When they find out that I'm what?"

He shook his head and looked down at his feet. "Nothing. Pretend I didn't say anything."

Rachel opened her mouth to ask him another question, but before she could, Quinn walked back between them, clasping her hands together in front of her.

"Sorry that took so long," she said, reaching into her coat pockets for her gloves. She looked down and noticed Rachel's luggage at their feet. "Well, I see that you've gotten all of your bags," she said with a smile. "Finn, why don't you bring those out to the taxi, hmm? We should get back before we're late for dinner."

Rachel looked at Finn nervously before he picked up her things and started walking them towards the door, taking the last one in her own hand and wheeling it with her as she and Quinn trailed after him.

She wanted to know more about him, whoever he was. He seemed too mysterious for her not to.

:.:.:

Rachel had moved in to her dorm but hadn't done much unpacking yet. Quinn had told her that her roommate hadn't arrived yet and she didn't want to start unpacking until whoever it was that she was living with was there, just so they would be able to establish which side of the room belonged to who and Rachel wouldn't end up feeling like she had taken up all of the room.

(The rooms were much bigger than she had expected, anyway. She wrote it off as something that came with going to a prestigious school in New York.)

Quinn had invited her to her dorm for the night because her own roommate had yet to move in. Her own room seemed much nicer than Rachel's. The walls were a light pink and pictures hung from everywhere, her sheets matching the lampshades and everything in between. Quinn seemed like the type that had everything figured out, so Rachel thought it would be a good idea to do whatever it was that she told her to do. She was the student body president, after all.

"So, Rachel, what do you think of the place?" Quinn asked her, sitting cross-legged on her bed. She was busy painting her toenails, dressed in a skimpy set of pajamas that looked really good on her. Rachel was wearing pink polka-dot flannels, her hair in a French braid down her back. She certainly didn't feel as sexy as she was sure Quinn did.

"I mean, I'm sure it's nothing like you're used to in Idaho, but I like to think it's nice," she said, screwing the top back onto her bottle of nail polish.

Rachel looked up from the end of her braid that she had between her fingers and cleared her throat. "I'm, um, from Ohio, actually." She looked at Quinn and smiled slightly. She was so much prettier than she thought she was, with her blonde hair and blue eyes and smile that seemed to light up whatever room she was in.

There was a beat of silence between them, Rachel looking up at Quinn from the floor before she mustered up the courage to speak. "So how long have you known Finn?" She asked, dropping her hair from her hands once more. "And you're… you're not really friends, are you? I mean, I completely understand if you're something more, I was… I was just curious."

Quinn laughed to herself, tipping her head back with a smile. "No, Rachel, Finn and I aren't anything," she told her, her grin staying to her face. "We've known each other forever. It would be too weird if we were to do anything… together." Rachel nodded and looked down into her lap, beginning to play with the hem of her pants. Quinn laughed and pushed her hair from her eyes, scrambling down from off of the bed.

"Why, do you like him or something?" Rachel's eyes got bigger and Quinn grinned, sitting down in front of her. "Oh, my God, Rachel, you like him." Rachel shook her head and stood up nervously to escape Quinn's smile.

"No, I don't, really," she said, playing with her hair again. "He seems like a real jerk, that's all." Quinn cocked her head to the side, doing her best to hide her smile.

"Oh, he's really not all that bad. He just probably thought you were hot, that's all." Rachel's eyes widened and she shook her head, biting down on her bottom lip. Quinn looked at her, a wolfish grin appearing on her face. "What, do you not think you're hot or something?"

Rachel looked at Quinn nervously and began playing with her hair once more. "No," she said, looking around the room. "I mean, it's not that I don't think I'm pretty, it's just-" She stopped, rolling her eyes. "I'm not interested in Finn, believe me."

Quinn giggled and rolled her eyes. "Look at me, Rachel." The brunette turned to face Quinn, who was busy getting up from the floor and placing herself behind Rachel. "You're going to be getting your uniform in a few days, which is fine, but until then, you should let me help you with your clothes and stuff," she said, pulling the elastic from the long braid that fell down her back. Rachel turned over her shoulder to look at Quinn, who was busy running her hands through her hair.

"Like that sweater you were wearing today? It was adorable, but you just need to learn how to dress like a New Yorker instead of… like you're from Indiana."

"Ohio," Rachel said again, Quinn walking in front of her. She didn't want to start dressing like the girls in music videos or anything like that now that she had moved here. "Quinn, I don't-"

"Just stop talking and leave everything up to me," she said, her voice becoming slightly harsher than it had been before. Her fingers trailed down her shoulders until they reached the buttons of her pajama top, undoing the first two. Rachel felt her pulse quicken and she felt her face get hotter, trying to hide everything from Quinn so as not seem like she was nervous.

"You have a really pretty neckline," Quinn muttered, pushing Rachel's hair off of her shoulders. Rachel's eyes widened and she looked at Quinn over her shoulder, confused. "And that's a really pretty necklace," she said with a smile. "You should wear your shirts all unbuttoned like this all the time." Rachel smiled nervously and turned to look at Quinn.

"I don't know," she said, fastening one of the buttons that Quinn had undone moments earlier. "I don't want to seem like…"

"Like a slut?" Quinn laughed and played with the pendant on her necklace. "Rachel, you're not going to look like a slut. But if you want boys to like you… you're going to have to dress a little differently."

Rachel looked at Quinn and sighed, playing with her hair nervously. "You really think so?"

Quinn smiled. "Oh, I know so. If you just do what I tell you, Rachel, everything will be great for you."

Rachel just looked at Quinn and smiled, hoping that she couldn't tell how nervous she was. The way she saw it, she actually would be able to go out in New York and make it on her own.


	2. Second Chances

It didn't take much for Quinn to call Finn and make him go over to her dorm. A phone call of her saying things around the lines of how bored she was and how she wished she had someone to keep her company in her big, empty dorm seemed to be enough to do the trick. In less than ten minutes, she had Finn knocking on her door.

She liked how manipulative she could be if she wanted to. With the snap of her fingers she could have people on their knees at her feet, asking her what she wanted done for her. It was difficult, sometimes, being the Marcia Brady of the Upper East Side, but Quinn liked to think that she pulled it off rather nicely when she tried. She deserved an Oscar for the amount of lying she got away with. She was supposed to be a perfect cutout of a Barbie princess, and she was – when she pretended well enough.

The blonde got up off of her bed and sauntered towards the door, opening it with a smile. "Hello, Finn," she said, jutting her hip out and placing her hands on her sides. "You made it here in record time. I'm impressed."

Finn rolled his eyes and looked down slightly to see Quinn; complete in one of her stupid dresses that she thought she was too good to wear. That was one of the benefits to wearing a uniform; everyone looked the same.

(It was also easier to tell which girls were hotter that way. If everyone was dressed in the same thing, the people who looked better than the others were clearly the hot ones.)

"You don't seem all too lonely," Finn told her, rubbing his nose. He crossed his arms over his chest and sighed, looking at her with a frustrated smirk on his face. "Besides, I'm pretty sure you didn't even call me over here because you were 'lonely.'"

Quinn rolled her eyes and grabbed Finn by the wrist, pulling him into her dorm. He looked around, confused for a moment.

"Isn't Santana here yet?" He asked, looking at Quinn's side of the room and the other half that clearly hadn't been moved into yet. "Don't you think she would be a little bit upset if she, you know, walked in on you with someone?"

She groaned and walked over to her vanity, undoing her hair from the messy bun it had been tied into on the top of her head. "Shut up," she told him through a clenched jaw, ruffling her hair as she noticed her reflection. "I have a little proposition to make for you."

Finn found Quinn's bed and sat down on it, kicking his feet out in front of him. Before she had called him he was in middle of a round of Angry Birds that he really wanted to finish, causing him to pull his phone out and stare at it diligently while Quinn continued to speak.

"Shoot," he told her, not paying nearly as much attention to her as she would have liked him to.

"You remember that Rachel girl, don't you?" Finn tried not to display much of a reaction for Quinn to see, but he did remember her. He remembered her smile, even though she didn't smile much when he had met her, and he remembered her hair and he remembered that yellow sweater she wore with the penguin on the side of it. She was a cute girl; he just knew that she wouldn't last very long at their school. She seemed bright and she was certainly beautiful, but she wouldn't be able to keep up with the rest of the girls he went to school with. The girls who drank at every party and were the first to light up a joint and were always willing to have sex with whomever, just for the fun of it. Whoever that Rachel girl was, she certainly wasn't one of those girls.

"Yeah," he muttered, slipping his phone back into his pocket. He had given up. "What about her? Aren't you supposed to be, like, her best friend or something?"

Quinn rolled her eyes in disgust. "God, no. I would never be friends with someone like her. She's like a baby, Finn." The blonde began to walk over to her bed, crossing her arms over her chest. "You should have heard her the other night. I invited her over for a sleepover or whatever, and I couldn't talk about one interesting thing with her. All she wanted to talk about was Barbra Streisand and musicals and how I did my hair." She faked a dry heave and rolled her eyes. "It was disgusting."

Finn laughed to himself and shook his head. "She sounds like a normal girl, Quinn." The more Quinn described her, the more he thought that she was crazy. Whoever this Rachel girl was sounded like a completely normal person to him, anyway. "You should introduce her to Kurt."

Kurt was Finn's step-brother. Quinn didn't care for him much.

"It was just so weird," Quinn said, pacing around the room. "I did learn a lot about her, though." A devious smile appeared on her face, making Finn look up at her.

"Like what?" He asked, not amused.

"Well, she had a boyfriend before she came here." Quinn giggled maliciously and drummed her fingernails together. "I mean, she told me a lot more than I actually cared about, but it was enough to actually learn something about her."

She sat next to Finn and he looked at her, cocking an eyebrow. "You say that like it's a bad thing," he said, running a hand through his hair. "I mean, she's what, eighteen? Don't most girls have boyfriends by then or something?"

Quinn rolled her eyes. "She did, but they didn't really go anywhere. It had the potential to be a really interesting story, too. She had some boyfriend from another school who was the captain of a rival show choir or something, and it was her sophomore year and he was a senior, and she made tons of people upset by dating him… so, you know, naturally, I was excited to find out if she had ever… you know, fucked around with him or anything."

Finn's interested piqued by Quinn's word choice and he couldn't help but smile slightly to himself. "And has she?"

"No," Quinn said, almost disappointed. "Which is upsetting, you know, because it would make everything all that much more interesting." Her eyes narrowed and a wolfish grin curled onto her face, leaning into Finn on the edge of the bed. "But that's where you come in," she said, her voice sounding like molasses being pulled out of her mouth.

He rolled his eyes and looked at her, unimpressed.

"Seeing as I'm supposed to help Little Miss Ohio get acclimated with our school before the year is over, I think that the best way to do that is to give her a true experience of what our school has to offer." She smoothed her hair down and tucked her bangs behind her ear, smiling at Finn. "I want you to take Rachel under your wing, Finn. Charm her stupid, virgin polka dot underwear off and sleep with her."

He choked on the words that rested on his lips, blinking several times before he could regain his composure. He couldn't believe the words that came out of Quinn's mouth.

"Wait, what?"

"Oh, come on, Finn. It's not like you wouldn't enjoy it. None of the girls that we go to school with are even virgins anymore, so you could consider it an accomplishment." She stood up and stood in front of him, placing her hands on her hips. "Besides, do you realize how many guys are going to want to fuck her once school actually starts? Consider it like a moon landing. You'll be the first one to stick your flag on uncharted territory."

Finn looked up at Quinn and began to wring his hands together; thinking of the option Quinn was lying right in front of him. The more he thought about it, the harder he found it was to forget about it. Rachel was pretty hot; she was short but she had these legs that looked like they went on forever, and she had a pretty nice behind. Her boobs were pretty nice too, and she had a nice smile. It wouldn't be a total loss to sleep with her.

He rolled his eyes and looked up at Quinn as she stood before him. "What's your angle?" He asked, leaning back on the bed slightly.

Quinn placed a hand to her chest in false shock. "What angle? All I want to do is help our little Rachy get acclimated to her new surroundings."

"Or you want to destroy a girl's reputation just because you think it would be fun," he told her, grinding his teeth together. Quinn paced around for a while, making a face and looking around the room, doing her best to avoid Finn at all costs.

"What, so I'm not allowed to have some fun?" Finn laughed and rolled his eyes, crossing a leg over the other. "Just think about it, Finn. All you have to do is get her to sleep with you and then never talk to her again. That's all."

Finn looked down into his lap, contemplating the idea. Quinn interrupted him, however, by sliding into his lap and hitching her arms over his shoulders, straddling his waist with her legs.

"I could always sweeten the deal, you know."

He looked at her and swallowed thickly, adjusting himself on the bed so that she wouldn't fall out of his lap.

"Why don't we turn this into a game, hmm?" She smiled and leaned in to press a kiss to his cheek, peppering his face and neck with kisses as she continued to speak. "I'll give you until the end of the year to seduce her," she said, her voice raspy as she kissed him. "And if I win, I get your car."

Finn pushed her away from him for a moment, furrowing his brow. "Do you even know what kind of car that is, Quinn? That's a 1975 Pontiac Firebird. You are not getting that car."

She shrugged casually and returned to kissing him, her lips traveling up towards his ear. "Yeah, but if you win… you get me."

Finn swore that he could feel his heart stop in his chest. Quinn Fabray was all any guy at school wanted. True, she was known for having a reputation as a slut, but that almost made it all the better. It just meant that she would be willing to give it up to whoever wanted it from her. It didn't help that she was one of his closest friends, either. They actually had known each other since kindergarten and while the thought of sleeping with her had crossed his mind more than a few times, he knew that it would just upset the balance of whatever they had together.

Finn pushed her away from him once more, groaning slightly. "What makes you think I want to sleep with you?"

"Because out of every girl you've slept with at our school, I'm the only one you can't have and that upsets you." She pouted and pressed a heated kiss to his neck. "Besides, what a great way to finish your senior year, hmm?"

He sighed and pushed her off of his lap, gripping onto her waist before letting her go completely. She stood up and wiped her smudged lipstick from her mouth, walking back over to her vanity with a knowing smile.

"You're a real tease, you know," he told her, wiping his mouth off with the back of his sleeve. He continued to contemplate the idea in the back of his head, mulling it over before giving Quinn a decision.

It was just one girl. It wasn't like he was really going to hurt her or anything. He had already slept with plenty of girls and taken their virginities from them, so having sex with Rachel would just end up being like one more notch in his bedpost.

"So are you going to do it?" Quinn said, slipping her charm bracelet onto her arm. Finn's lips curled up into a small smile and he looked at her, not wanting to seem like the vulnerable one in the situation.

"Yeah," he said, standing up from the bed and shoving his hands in his pockets. "I'll do it."

He walked towards Quinn and he extended his hand for her, the blonde doing the same for him.

She shook his hand vigorously, the charms of her bracelet clinking against his wrist. "You have a deal," she said, winking at him flirtatiously. "I'll see you this June."

:.:.:

Rachel had tried to avoid Quinn as best as she could during the week before school started. There was something about her that had left a sour taste in her mouth that she didn't care much for, and she decided that seeing her less and less would be the best remedy for it.

Her roommate, some blonde girl named Brittany, was a nice girl and she had helped her move in, and she had even gone as far to offering her a tour of the school, but by the time Rachel and Brittany had planned for said tour, she had returned to their dorm only to find Brittany's bra hanging from the doorknob, which the blonde girl had explained the meaning of the day she had moved in.

That and the obvious moans that came from the other side of the door were more than enough to tell Rachel to walk around campus for a while until Brittany had at least fallen asleep with whoever she had over for the night.

She had decided to walk around the campus and stray further than the pizza parlor that was nearby, simply because that was the only real place she had been to since moving in. There were other students that walked around in herds and gave her funny looks, which she had grown accustomed to by now. It was something she had gotten used to in Ohio, but she thought that maybe things would change when she had gotten to New York.

Unfortunately, some things stayed the same.

There weren't many signs that told her where she was going except for the occasional one that would give her the directions to at least six different places, so she would walk around until she found one that she thought would be informative enough to give her the directions to where she really wanted to go; the auditorium.

Quinn had shown her around the sports stadium and the foods building and different classrooms, but she had never shown her the auditorium. That was what Rachel had truly wanted to see from the moment she had set foot on campus, and it was what she was determined to find before she had to go back to the dorms before they locked them for the night.

She hadn't dressed very well for going outside, but that was only because she hadn't planned on going outside. It got colder in New York than it did in Ohio, but she simply wrote it off as the buildings causing some kind of wind effect that she didn't get back where she was from. She was wearing a blouse that tied into a bow at the neck and a matching polka dot skirt that was coordinated with her mustard yellow headband and patent leather Mary Janes. She looked nice; she just didn't look like the rest of the students that she would be going to school with.

That was fine by her, really. Rachel never really considered herself to be much of a conformist.

She found a sign that directed her to the auditorium and her pace quickened as a smile appeared on her face. She shoved her hands in the pockets of her skirt and made off like the wind, hoping to at least see the exterior of the building before she had to return back to the dorms.

Her happiness was quickly exhausted, however, by a familiar figure she had gotten to know too well over the passing days.

"Hey," Finn said, looking down at her. A small smile curled across his lips and Rachel looked up at him, frustrated. "Isn't it a little late for you to be walking around campus?"

Rachel crossed her arms over her chest and grumbled something under her breath, upset that she had run into him. Ever since meeting Finn Hudson, Rachel had only thought that he was an immense douchebag who was not to be trusted.

She didn't think all too much of Quinn, either, but that was a different story.

"And how, exactly, is that any of your business?" She sighed, adjusting her hair as a few stray pieces fell from her headband. "I was just… getting acclimated to my surroundings."

Finn shook his head. Even though he didn't really understand what the word 'acclimated' meant, he already understood why Rachel was out, wandering the campus all by herself.

"You're rooming with Brittany Pierce, aren't you?"

Rachel shifted around on her feet, trying to stay warm. "Yes," she said curtly. "How did you know?"

Finn laughed and threw his head back slightly, looking away from the brunette for a moment. "Santana moved into her dorm again today. Those two haven't seen each other in three months and all Santana's been talking about is jumping her girlfriend's bones the day she gets back to campus." Rachel scowled and made a face as she put two and two together. She had already heard rumors about whoever this Santana Lopez girl was, but she had never known that she was Brittany's girlfriend.

"Oh," she said, trying not to let the shock show on her face. She was an actress; she was supposed to be good at that kind of thing. "Well, that's… good to know, I guess." She clicked her heels together and looked down at her feet nervously. "So, um… what are you doing out here, Finn?"

He looked down at her and smiled as she uncrossed her arms from her chest. She was wearing a sweater that was cut lower than the one she had been wearing when he had first met her, and being almost a foot taller than her was definitely serving to his advantage tonight. He could practically see down her sweater, trying to hide the fact that he was looking down her shirt from her.

"My step-brother's got something at the music hall tonight, and I was going to meet up with him for burgers after." Rachel furrowed her brow and looked at Finn, trying to stand up on her toes so she could possibly see behind him. It made Finn start to laugh; smiling genuinely at her for what he thought was the first time since they had met. "What, are you trying to see if you can see him, or something?"

"No," Rachel said, stopping what she was doing. "It's just that I came down here to see what the auditorium looked like, and I figured the music hall must be the same thing."

"Close," Finn said, smiling. "The music hall is mainly just for singers and people that play in band and orchestra and that kind of stuff. The auditorium is where like, everything happens. Assemblies, concerts, musicals, you name it."

Rachel's face lit up as he spoke. "Musicals?" She grinned from ear to ear. "What's the musical this year?"

Finn looked down at her, doing his best to come across as though he liked her. She actually did seem like a sweet girl, she just talked too much. And she had an opinion and she wasn't afraid to voice it. He thought that was a great quality in a girl, just not necessarily in a girl he would consider going out with.

"Um, I don't know. You should ask Kurt. He would know. He was the lead in whatever they did last year." Rachel walked up closer to Finn so that she stood next to him, smiling sweetly.

"Kurt's your step-brother?"

Finn nodded, shoving his hands in his coat pockets. "Yeah, he's really into all of that theatre stuff. You'd probably like him." She looked up at him and he made the mistake of looking down at her. She had these big, expressive brown eyes that Finn swore lit up the campus more than the lamp posts did, and her smile – God, her smile was like, the best thing he had ever seen. It was contagious and it made him smile himself as he looked down at her.

And then he remembered that she was supposed to sleep with her instead of make her get all excited about meeting his gay step-brother, so he stopped.

"You know, Kurt's not going to be done for a while," Finn said, looking down at Rachel. "And, I mean, the coffee shop's still open, if you want to go. You look freezing."

Rachel smiled at him, feeling her heart swell in her chest. The more she looked at him the more she realized that maybe Finn wasn't as bad she thought he was upon meeting him. Although Rachel was always one to say that first impressions were important, she was never one to judge someone solely on the first impression they gave her. For all she knew, Finn was only acting a certain way around her because he was with Quinn at the time. She did have a certain effect on people that seemed frightening to the untrained eye.

"That would be lovely," she told him with a smile. "But I'm afraid I don't have my wallet on me."

Finn smiled at her and dug into his coat pocket. "It's fine," he told her with a small smile. "I'll get you a drink."

She beamed back up at him and let him lead the way, seeing as she didn't know where the coffee shop was that he spoke of. She followed after him almost like a little lost puppy, trying her best to keep up so that she was by his side. It was difficult, seeing as his strides were so big and hers were so small, but she managed.

"You never really told me where you were from," Finn told her, smiling. He was really trying to make an effort now. He was as charming as he could possibly be and always looked at her with the most persuasive of smiles to make her do whatever he wanted her to do with him.

He watched as she shook her head and laughed, if to herself. "Ohio," she said, still laughing. "But it doesn't really matter. I've always wanted to move out here." Finn looked at her and smiled, laughing slightly himself.

"So why did you decide to come here? Like, did you really want to come to this school, or do you want to go to college out here, or… what?"

She grinned and looked down at her feet as they continued walking together. "I'm going to be a Broadway star," she told him, confidence oozing from her voice. "I couldn't stand spending one more year in Ohio where everyone thinks that you're going to grow up to become either a realtor or a dairy farmer."

Finn smiled, laughing at her word choice. She spoke as if she was so sure of herself and her future, which was admirable in a way. He had never really met anyone, or at a girl, for that matter, who was so sure about what she was going to do with her life. Most of the girls at their school either wanted to become pop stars (and really couldn't sing) or planned on living lives like Kim Kardashian; mooching money off of their husbands or becoming rich and famous because of their sex tape with a famous rapper.

The more he got to know Rachel, the more he didn't see her ending up like the rest of the girls he went to school with. She would definitely be a change when it came to his typical conquests, that was for sure.

"That's really cool how confident you are and stuff, he told her, taking a turn at the corner. She smiled up at him and swung her hands back and forth.

"Well, you kind of have to be confident to do what I'm going to do." She grinned, tipping her head up to look at him. "Maybe I'll thank you when I win my first Tony."

Finn smiled and looked down at her, the two of them walking into the coffee shop together. The way he saw it, the more time he spent with her, the better. Maybe sleeping with Rachel Berry would be a lot easier than he had originally thought.


	3. Down The Rabbit Hole

There was something about Rachel's little coffee date with Finn that made her feel like she was supposed to change her mind about him.

It wasn't that he was all of a sudden the most remarkable person that she had ever met, but he wasn't the worst, either. Rachel was sure that she had met the worst people in her life back in Ohio. She wasn't planning on meeting anyone worse in New York.

She had walked back to her dorm the way Finn had told her to after they had finished their drinks and the coffee shop was beginning to close. He told her that he would normally walk her home after something like that, but he just _had _to get back to his dorm because his roommate needed help moving a couch, or something. She wrote it off just because she liked him. He seemed friendlier than he was when she had first met him. She liked being able to see him in whatever light he was in that night.

Rachel wasn't able to tell if it was because he spoke to her like actually cared, or if it was because he promised her jokingly that he was going to memorize her drink order, or that he actually cared about her getting back to her dorm safe and sound, but she liked it. She hadn't gotten off on the best foot with him when they had first met, and although Rachel thought that her relationship with Brittany was fine the way it was, she really hadn't had much time to spend talking to her due to Santana showing up at their door and Brittany not leaving since.

Rachel really didn't mind. She figured that if she had a boyfriend, she would be the same way – without the sex, though.

Part of her wanted to spend more time with Finn. She could see them becoming friends, maybe. She could pack a picnic basket and they could go somewhere together, anywhere. He certainly seemed like he knew his way around the campus at least, so she figured that tackling the immense city that was New York would be a breeze for him. She wanted to see all of what the city was instead of the small, confined sect that was the Upper East Side. While it was indeed beautiful, she wanted to know what the rest of the city looked like. She wanted to see Little Italy and go to Yonkers and Brooklyn, of course, before anything else – that was where Barbra was from.

She knew that if she were to ask Quinn if she wanted to go take her around New York to see the sights, she wouldn't agree. Rachel could probably read Quinn better than Quinn thought she could. She would take her to some strip of designer stores in the Fashion District and not bother to take her outside of what she had already grown sick of. That was where Finn came in handy. She thought that he would be the best tour guide ever.

:.:.:

When she had reached the door to her dorm (after walking past it several times), she noticed that Brittany's bra was no longer hanging from the doorknob, but still causing her to knock on the door, nonetheless. She wasn't about to introduce herself to Brittany's girlfriend by walking in on what could be their less than appropriate after-school activities.

"Excuse me," she piped from behind the door, knocking softly. "But I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to have to sleep in the bathrooms if you don't let me in soon." She paused, hearing two high pitched laughs coming from the other side of the door. Rachel smiled to herself softly, furrowing her brow. "So, if you wouldn't mind letting me in, I-"

The door swung open and Rachel stood face to face with a taller girl, but not Brittany. She assumed that she was Santana, Brittany's girlfriend. She stood taller than she did, just like Brittany did, and had an equally filled out hourglass figure that Rachel secretly envied from the moment she met Brittany for the first time. She was wearing a thin camisole and a skimpy pair of underwear that barely covered anything. Rachel could feel her face begin to turn red and looked down at the floor, trying to look like studying her shoes was exponentially more exciting that seeing a new face in front of her.

"You must be the new girl," Santana said, smirking and placing her hand that wasn't leaning against the door frame on her hip. Rachel looked back up at her sheepishly, beginning to worry her bottom lip with her teeth. She watched as Santana's lips curled into a wolfish grin and wagged her eyebrows. "Hey, Brits, this is your roommate, right? Rhonda, or something?"

"Rachel," she corrected, not sounding as bitter as she had earlier in the night when Finn had called her by the wrong name. Santana didn't seem like the kind of person that was to be crossed, ever. If she thought that Quinn was intimidating and manipulative, she thought that Santana was ten times whatever the blonde girl was.

She watched as Santana quirked an eyebrow and smiled, laughing to herself lightly. "Sorry," she apologized, brushing her hair from her eyes. "Brittany never told me you were pretty." Rachel's eyes got bigger and she swallowed thickly, trying to see Brittany over Santana's shoulder.

"Like, really. Have you even been to the commons area yet? You're going to have nasty ass guys all over you when you do." She laughed to herself lightly and sighed, crossing her arms over her chest. "So, where are you from?" Brittany stood up from her bed and walked over to the door, pulling a sweater over her head.

Rachel felt a stammer bubble up behind her words. "O-ohio," she said nervously. Although she had answered the question for multiple people multiple times already, it felt different when asked by this new, domineering person who intimidated her so much.

Brittany made a face, wrinkling her nose. "Rachel, come inside," she said sweetly, smiling. "Santana and I just got done making popcorn. It's the best snack to have after a scissoring session." Rachel could feel her chest tighten and her face redden in embarrassment. She watched as Santana moved aside and let her in, Brittany's comment prompting an eye roll from her.

"Don't listen to her," she said curtly, walking further into the room. The dorms were much bigger than Rachel would have expected, but she figured that was just something that came with going to a prep school. Rachel continued to shuffle into the room nervously, staring at Brittany as she munched on handfuls of popcorn.

"Oh, and don't worry, we didn't do it on your bed," Santana said. "Although I'm sure your collection of stuffed animals would have made the best cushioning ever." She grinned wickedly and Rachel swallowed thickly, looking at Brittany scornfully.

Her stuffed animals that she had brought with her weren't many to begin with, and they were shoved in the back of the closet that belonged to her in the room. Brittany must have shown them to her or something.

"I didn't mean to show them to her, Rachel, she just… kind of found them." A small frown appeared on Brittany's face on the bed and Santana snickered to herself, tossing her hair over her shoulder.

"I mean, it's fine, I guess. I wouldn't mind having you join us next time, even." She laughed to herself and Rachel was unsure as to whether or not she was supposed to feel flattered or embarrassed – or if Santana was even being serious to begin with. The raven haired girl winked at Brittany and laughed. "I'm sure you're fabulous in bed."

There was a beat and before Rachel could interject with anything, Santana nearly fell on the floor laughing.

"I'm sorry," she said, catching her breath. "I shouldn't be being this rude to you." Rachel crossed her arms over her chest and started to frown, confused. "I know who you are, though. Rachel Berry, seventeen, Ohio." She stood up and circled her, like she was a vulture stalking her prey. "Virgin."

Rachel felt Santana's words like ice against her back as she spoke behind her. She seemed so mysterious and alluring yet dangerous at the same time, which frightened Rachel. There weren't many people like Santana at her old school.

She found the courage in the bottom of her gut to say something, which she finally did.

"Why is that the only thing people care about at this school?" She asked, her voice no longer soft or sweet or anything else that was relatively positive. "Ever since I've gotten here, all people want to know about is sex. It's ridiculous." Santana cocked an eyebrow and rolled her eyes.

"It's like a calling card, Princess. Every time you have sex with someone, you leave someone with a new impression of yourself. I guess you just haven't left enough… impressions yet."

Brittany began to laugh to herself, lying down on her back and sprawling out across the bed. Rachel looked at Santana, placing her hands on her hips. "You don't have to be all upset or anything," she coaxed, rubbing Rachel's arms gently. She actually was trying to be a nice person. It wasn't that hard if she actually tried – well, depending on who it was that she was trying to be nice to.

"Having sex is like, the best way to get known at this school," Santana said with a small shrug. "All you need to do is show up at a party one night, have a couple drinks…" Her voice lilted off and she rubbed her hands into Rachel's shoulders, resting her chin on her shoulder. "You'll have a reputation before you even know it."

Rachel couldn't help but cringe and feel her face flush after hearing what Santana had said. "Don't boys think you're a slut because of that?" Santana furrowed her brow and looked at Brittany before rolling her eyes.

"That's probably what they thought back in Dinkytown," she told Rachel with a smirk. "But everything's different here, I promise." She wasn't really lying. Girls that slept around and got with every guy on campus were treated like goddesses among common men. There may have been some kind of stigma behind the fact that they slept with everyone, but it wasn't as horrible as someone would think it would be – or at least Santana didn't think it was. The girls who wouldn't give it up had a lot worse. Guys thought they were just prudes that were going to be lonely old cat ladies for the rest of their lives.

Except the hot ones. They were always an exception. And judging by the way Rachel looked, she would be one of the hot ones.

"Well, I don't think that's the best idea," Rachel said, trying to stand her ground as best as she could. "I think I can handle one year without… indulging myself in _that._" Santana met her with an eye roll and sighed, frustrated.

"You realize that girls like you are just prudes, right?" Brittany frowned, but nodded her head vigorously. "I mean, you might be a great girl and you have awesome standards and morals, but good luck getting asked to prom with that attitude." Santana circled Rachel and set her down on the bed, trying not to look upset. "Guys want girls like me."

Rachel folded her hands in her lap, nervous. "What do you mean, girls like you?"

"I put out. I'm hot and I know how to make guys beg for it only to take it away from them." Rachel quirked an eyebrow and Brittany looked down at her on the bed.

"Yeah, I mean, you're really pretty, Rachel, but if you're not willing to sleep with anyone, no one's going to like you." She waited a beat and counted something off on her fingers. "Well, the boys won't."

Rachel wanted to look at Santana down her nose and tell her that she had already met a boy who she thought liked her. Finn counted, didn't he?

"All we need to do is dress you up a little bit, buy you one of those bras that makes your tits look amazing, and you can go with us to the back-to-school mixer. Guys will be killing each other to get in your pants."

Rachel looked at Brittany nervously before looking at Santana once more. She was sure that whatever party they were talking about wasn't really a mixer and was instead some giant rager where everyone got drunk and had sex with one another.

It wasn't that Rachel looked down upon those people that did that at parties, she just didn't do it herself. She figured that it would tarnish her reputation before she even got the chance to be on Broadway.

She paused before looking at Santana, swallowing thickly. "Is Finn going to be there?"

Santana scoffed, placing her hands on her hips. "Finn, as in Finn Hudson?" She laughed, looking at Brittany with a smile. "What, you already have a crush on Finn Hudson?"

"No," Rachel said, feeling her face flush and turn the brightest shade of red she was sure it had turned in a long time. "I just… he's one of the nicer people I've met since getting here."

"Of course he is," Santana said with a sneer. "He's nice to everyone with a pair of boobs." Rachel's blush began to fade and she looked at Santana, a small frown beginning to appear on her face. "Finn Hudson isn't someone you should necessarily trust, Rachel."

"Why not?"

"He's slept with almost every girl that's ever walked down the hallways," Santana explained, beginning to pace in front of her. "I mean, go ahead, be my guest and fuck him," she said, waving her hands in the air. "I just feel obligated to tell you what you should know before you decide to… get into all of that."

Rachel crossed her legs over each other and watched as Santana picked up a pair of jeans from the ground and pulled herself into them. "You're too good of a girl to get involved with him," she said, smiling slightly. "Go date Blaine or something." She looked at Brittany, who nodded in response. "She should date Blaine, right?" Brittany smiled.

"Yeah," she said sweetly. "Blaine's really nice. He always looks really nice."

Rachel flubbed her lips and blew her bangs out of her eyes. She didn't want to date anyone else. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to date Finn; it was just an idea that floated around in her head and that she toyed with to keep herself occupied. She didn't think that Santana would take her so seriously when she did something as trivial as mention his name.

"I'll set you up on a date with him if you want. He's like, head of the drama department or something, I don't know. I don't really care, either." Rachel's ears pricked up as she heard Santana mention something about the drama department. That was what she wanted to become the most involved with at school eventually, and maybe going out on a date with this Blaine person would make that become closer to turning into a reality.

That and having a boyfriend who could sing with her was always something she dreamed of since she was a little girl.

"Okay," Rachel said, shifting around nervously on the bed. Santana smiled, walking back over and patting Rachel on the shoulder.

"Good," she said, smiling. "I think you'll really like him."


	4. Wet Behind The Ears

Finn was sure that his date with Rachel went exactly the way he wanted it to.

Well, it wasn't exactly a date. He just so happened to run into her and asked her out on an impromptu coffee date where he paid for her drink, but other than that, everything was fine. He was supposed to be some kind of charming guy towards her, wasn't he? Half of that would come with being nice to her. And being nice to her really couldn't be that difficult.

Besides, he was never the kind of person who had feelings for other people. All Finn did was find girls he thought were attractive and buttered them up until they were ready to sleep with him. There was some kind of sport to be found in that, or at least he thought there was. It made him feel like he was this big, macho guy whenever he went to a party and had about five girls hanging off of his arm.

That was why pursuing Rachel would be so much fun. She was a challenge, and any talented athlete loved a challenge.

He knew that there was the back-to-school mixer that weekend, and he figured that it would a perfect way for him to get Rachel to let her hair down and actually enjoy herself for once. Even when they were talking about each other (and it was mainly her talking about herself), she seemed tightly wound, like one wrong move and she would burst like a balloon full of helium.

The mixer would be a good idea, though. Halfway through the party all of the faculty left and it left just the students on their own, leaving them free to drink and smoke and have all the sex they wanted.

Which, you know, was great, just not for Rachel.

The way he saw it, she would be able to get drunk after two or three wine coolers, just because she was so tiny. He had never seen someone as small as Rachel before – particularly someone as small as her with the attitude that she had. By then, he figured that all he would have to do would be to coerce her into doing someone she would regret in the morning, and everything would work out in his favor.

Beating Quinn wasn't even about the sex anymore. It was just about proving her wrong.

:.:.:

The weekend before school officially started was always one of the loudest, most raucous weekends on campus. Every student had moved back in but had nowhere to go, so it was the greatest excuse for there to be a party every single night. It was why the night of Labor Day, or the back-to-school mixer was always so popular. The moment the staff left the party, students broke off into individual groups and spent the night getting drunk and seeing how many people they could sleep with before the sun came up.

It was why Rachel was in her dorm with Santana and Brittany once more, having them prepare her for the night. What she thought would be something as simple as making sure that her makeup looked up to par turned into finding what dress of Santana's was the most snug against Rachel's figure, and which hairspray kept her hair at the maximum volume for the night.

"You're going to look so hot," Santana told her, sticking a handful of bobby pins in the messy curls that were Rachel's hair. "Just remember, you want to impress Blaine, or whatever his name is."

Rachel looked at herself in the mirror and sighed, not sure if it was due to being frustrated or if it was because she was nervous. She had never, in her entire life dressed anything like this, so seeing herself looking like Sandy at the end of _Grease_ was surprising, to say the least. She never thought that she would actually have to dress like that to impress a boy, but maybe things were just that much different at her new school.

"Are you sure that this is a great idea?" Rachel asked, grabbing the dress that Santana had set out for her by the sides and pulling it up at the waist. The fabric was so skin tight and impossible to breathe through that she felt like the bright purple Lycra was beginning to grow onto her body.

"Of course," Santana said, completely confident in her choice. "I mean, hopefully it'll be up over your head by the end of the night, but it should do for now." She smiled and spun Rachel around in the chair, taking a black eyeliner pencil to her eyes. Rachel's nose curled up on her face and she scowled slightly, feeling the pencil jab into her eye and Santana begin to use her mascara wand on her.

The raven-haired girl spun her around in her chair once more and Rachel was finally able to see her own reflection in the mirror; primped and done up to the point which Santana considered to be perfection.

"Perfect," she said, patting Rachel on the shoulder. "Now all you need is to go to that party and find someone to sleep with."

:.:.:

The party was nothing like Rachel had initially expected. At first, she figured that the party would just be a bunch of people with loud music and the occasional drink, ignoring what Santana had told her to expect. The reality was much different than she ever would have hoped for.

At first, Rachel thought that it would be a good idea to stay with Santana, just because she believed in the whole 'safety in numbers' mantra, but moments into walking into the party, Santana had been handed a drink and rushed off into a group of people that Rachel didn't recognize.

She figured that they were Quinn and her friends, whoever they might be. The popular people she probably wouldn't be allowed to talk to in a week's time.

Shouting could be heard in the distant and breaking glass echoed in the hall. It was a rather large country club, the main part of the party being held in the ballroom of the building. There were people leaning against the long, spiraling staircase that was the star of the main entryway, and girls lounging on the pool table in the lounge in the next room. Everywhere Rachel looked there were girls dressed just the way she was; skimpy dresses with heels up to there and hair that looked like it belonged on the girls that always danced around in their swimsuits in rap music videos.

She began to walk further into the room, getting the occasional glance as she walked in further and further. Whether or not it was because she was the new girl in school or if it was due to her current appearance, she really didn't know.

Before she knew it, Quinn was standing in front of her. She looked like she was already sporting a rather nice buzz herself, holding two plastic red cups in her hand.

"Hey Rachel," she cooed, her words slowly beginning to slur together. "I didn't know you were going to come tonight." Rachel had to tip her head up slightly to look at Quinn, smiling as sweetly as she could.

"Yeah, um, Santana convinced me to come." She looked down at her dress and made a small gesture, laughing nervously. "This is her dress."

Quinn giggled drunkenly and passed Rachel one of her cups. "Awww, that's so sweet of her," she said, tipping her head to the side. The more she spoke to her the more Rachel was able to realize that Quinn wasn't hardly as drunk as some of the other girls at the party, and instead was just being her regular, smarmy self. "Why don't you have a drink and come with me," she said, grabbing Rachel by the hand. She followed after her as best as she could in the heels that Santana had put her in, trying her best not to trip over her own feet and break an ankle.

"W-where are we going?" She asked, trying to fix her hair and not have her drink spill over Santana's shoes at the same time. She wasn't even sure as to what was in the cup that Quinn had handed her, but it smelled like a mix of lighter fluid and coughs syrup.

"Oh, you'll see," the blonde said, pulling her through crowds of people that were too busy making out with each other or dancing up on one another to notice them parting between everyone. "I think there's someone you should spend more time with, that's all."

They wove around another large staircase and before Rachel could tell the difference they were outside, standing in front of a giant courtyard, flowers decorating trellises that hung over the doorway. Rachel felt Quinn still pulling at her hand and guiding her through the gardens that the outdoor area had, passing a few people on their way to wherever it was that they were headed.

"Here," she finally said, letting go of Rachel's hand. They stood in front of a giant pool that looked more like it was meant for swimming laps than it was for actually enjoying whatever it was that a pool had to offer. Her head moved around in a frenzy and Rachel continued to observe everything around her. She had never seen anything so beautiful, particularly for a school campus.

"Well, I'm just going to leave you here," she said sweetly, patting Rachel on the shoulder. "Have fun." Rachel looked around, confused.

"Wait, Quinn, I don't-"but she stopped, noticing Quinn walk away from her and back inside. There was no use in trying to find her in the giant mass that was the party going on inside. She looked around and felt a light breeze, causing her to cross her arms over her chest to keep herself warm. She began to walk around, trying to see what she could do to entertain herself for the time being. She could always wait to see if Brittany would come out with Santana, but she figured that she would stay, seeing as it was the most quiet place of the entire party.

She paced around and walked past a large bush, admiring the flowers that grew from it. They were big yellow roses that she were sure had been tended to meticulously by some janitor or groundskeeper that she didn't know worked at schools on a regular basis. It was odd to see so many things that Rachel assumed would normally be put aside for a country club or some rich businessman's home put towards a school. The campus itself was stunning, but there were the parts of an average high school that it lacked, like the writing on the bathroom walls or the student parking lot where all of the old, junky cars driven by students were parked. In their places was a pristine castle of a school, not the average-looking public school Rachel was used to attending.

Rachel continued to walk around, stumbling slightly in her shoes as she looked at the roses before she heard something rustling in the bushes she was looking at. She froze, eyes going wide and everything coming to a stand-still. She wasn't about to get killed at this party. She didn't even want to go.

"Hello?" She asked, nerves causing her voice to break. She began to walk backwards, minding that she didn't walk too close to the pool so that she wouldn't have to worry about falling in. She was sure that Santana would kill her if she got the dress that she had loaned her wet. She wasn't even sure if the fabric it was made of was supposed to get wet.

She didn't get an answer and the bushes stopped moving around, so Rachel assumed that she had just heard something that wasn't really there.

She had turned around and went to go sit down on the bench nearby when Finn jumped out from behind a tree, scaring her so much that she nearly fell down on the ground.

"Woah," he started, trying to contain his laughter as he watched Rachel scream and fall down to the ground. "I didn't think you'd scare that easily."

She started to catch her breath and looked up at Finn, minding that her legs were crossed as she started to pick herself up. "That wasn't funny," she told him, sounding like an angry mother. "I could have drowned."

"What do you mean, you could have drowned?!" Finn continued to laugh, offering Rachel his hand to help her up. She rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand, holding onto him tightly as she stood.

"I could have fallen in that pool and been so frightened by you leaping out of that bush and scaring me that the sheer emotion would have worked me up so much that I would have forgotten how to swim, thus resulting in me drowning." Finn looked at her and laughed as she crossed her arms over her chest and huffed angrily.

He tried not to make it look like he was just checking her out in whatever dress she was wearing (because he was), and instead focused all of his energy on her eyes. That was where girls liked to be looked in when they were spoken to, wasn't it?

"You really have a way with words," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. It was true. Rachel was like a walking thesaurus. He had noticed it when they had gone out for coffee. "Anyway, sorry I scared you or whatever. I promise, it won't happen again." She brushed off the skirt of her dress and tipped her head up slightly, trying to look down on Finn even though she was almost a foot shorter than him.

"Anyway, I was going to go for a swim," he said, looking down at the pool. "You can join me if you like."

Rachel rolled her eyes and popped out one of her hips. "I'm sure that would be great, but I didn't come to this party with a swimsuit. I don't think anyone else did." It was probably why no one was out in the pool, she figured. She always thought that a pool would be the highlight of any party.

Finn smiled at her and began walking so that he was closer to her, grabbing her by the shoulders. He laughed slightly before he spoke. "I never said that I had a swimsuit."

Rachel scoffed and swatted at his hand, backing away from him. "You're disgusting," she reprimanded him. "What makes you think that I'm going to go skinny dipping with you?"

Finn felt like he was going to bust a gut laughing over this girl. She certainly knew how to make things much worse than they needed to be. That was probably why she wanted to become an actress or something.

"I wasn't going to say that," he managed through his laughter. Granted, if Rachel was serious about actually going skinny dipping with him, he would have done it in a heartbeat. He probably would have been a lot closer to winning his bet against Quinn, and Rachel was hot, so there was that. She seemed pretty angry about the fact that she thought he had suggested that, though, so Finn figured that bringing it up would just make her even more furious. "I was just going to tell you to go in your underwear. It's basically the same thing as a swimsuit."

Rachel looked down at her figure before looking back up at Finn. "I don't know," she said, biting down on her lip. "I mean, Santana wanted me to meet this guy, or something, and I don't think seeing him in wet underwear would be the most appealing thing in the world."

"What guy?"

"Blaine Anderson."

Finn started to laugh again, rolling his eyes. "Blaine's pretty gay, Rachel."

"I'll have you know that I find that insulting-"

"No, I mean he's really gay. He and Kurt have had a thing going for like… four months. Don't tell anyone that though, okay? I'm not really supposed to tell anyone."

Rachel's mouth hung open slightly, eyes wide. "Why would Santana want to set me up with him, then?"

Finn shoved his hands in his pockets and sighed, looking down so he could see Rachel completely. "I don't know, Rachel, because she's rude? Santana isn't exactly the best person that goes to this school." He watched as Rachel's face fell and she looked down at her shoes, probably feeling like complete shit. "But, I mean, I'm sure Blaine would want to be your friend or whatever, sure. He's pretty nice. Kurt doesn't date complete assholes."

Rachel smiled softly and looked back up at Finn, uncrossing her arms from her chest. He smiled as he watched her face lighten once more. She was really pretty, and he noticed it more and more the more time he spent with her. "So, how about that swim?"

She rolled her eyes and looked at him, lips slightly parted. "I don't know."

Before she could say anything else, Finn was already undoing his belt and had shucked his pants, causing Rachel to blush furiously. He stood in front of her in his navy blue boxers, which she had to admit, looked more like a swimsuit than a pair of underwear.

He walked to the lip of the pool and jumped in the air, pulling his limbs together before crashing into the water in a cannonball, water splashing everywhere. Rachel jumped slightly, smiling at him as he bobbed back up for air.

"It's fine," he told her, making her smile. "I promise, I won't make fun of you or anything."

She narrowed her eyes and turned around, finding the zipper to her dress running down her side, fingers grabbing onto it tightly before turning over her shoulder once more.

"You need to close your eyes until I get in," she told him, hoping it would be a fair compromise. Finn wiped some water from his face and nodded, flipping onto his back and shutting his eyes.

Rachel kicked off the shoes Santana had leant her and started to unzip the dress she had let her use for the night, leaving her in a pair of pink underwear with little black stars scattered on them and a black strapless bra that didn't look like a swimsuit as much as she would have liked, but she figured that it would have to do. She had already promised Finn that she would go swimming with him.

She scurried around to the side of the pool and took the stairs in, the water warmer than she had expected. Because she was so short she could only walk out so far that she wasn't able to reach Finn to touch him, so she splashed him instead once the water had gotten up to her chest.

She laughed and looked at him with a smile, making him flip back over so that he was standing and looking at her. "So do you feel insecure?"

Rachel bit down on her lip and Finn felt his heart skip a beat, which it never did – or at least not when it concerned a girl. "Not really," she said, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear. It began to stick to her back where it had gotten wet and she threw it over her shoulder, feeling her heart want to beat out of her chest. "I've just never done anything like this before."

Finn laughed and walked up towards her, letting his hands fall around her waist. She shuddered to his touch and he laughed, moving his hands back down to his sides.

"You're really jumpy, aren't you?" She laughed slightly and looked down, raising her eyebrows.

"I just… no one's ever really been this nice to me."

Finn looked at her with a sympathetic smile. "Yeah, a lot of the people here are assholes, but, you know, you'll find people that are nice. They exist, believe it or not."

"No," she interrupted, regretting it the moment she started speaking. "I mean, no one's ever been this nice to me _ever. _Not even at my old school."

Finn wanted to smile to himself. If she felt this insecure about herself, she would be easy to coerce into sleeping with him. Insecure girls were always the easiest ones to convince that you loved them.

"Oh," he said, clearing his throat slightly. "That sucks, I guess."

"Yeah," she continued, not sure if the distance between them was uncomfortable or not. "It's kind of hard for people to like you when you're not exactly like them." She felt her stammer begin to return, like it always did when she was nervous. "I didn't go to parties and get drunk and have sex with people like everyone else did."

Finn sighed and looked down at her, wanting to appear as sympathetic as possible. The more she talked about herself, the better. It made his job a hell of a lot easier.

"Santana told me that you have quite the reputation, anyway," she continued, changing the subject. "I mean, I don't really know what to believe anymore, since you just told me that she was lying to me about Blaine, but… if you do, then I don't see why you would care about me. I'm not going to drink with you, and I'm not going to have sex with you." She turned around and began walking back up to the stairs of the pool. "Not that you would want to, anyway."

He danced on his feet, trying to find the right answer to her question. "She's not telling the truth," he blurted, trying not to sound as frantic as he felt. "I mean, I'm not, like, some patron saint of whatever, but I'm not an asshole, Rachel." Liar. "And what makes you think that no one would ever want to… share that experience with you?"

He didn't sound like himself. For all he knew, this was some cryptic way of a girl asking him to have sex with her, but since he had never really heard before, he had no clue what she meant.

"I don't know," she mumbled, turning back around to face him. "No one's ever really asked me for that before."

"What, your virginity?"

"No," she retorted, almost snapping at him. "I mean, they have, I just…" She stopped in frustration and paused, regrouping herself. "I don't think that losing your virginity is just sex, you know? It's something that's supposed to be special. I just haven't found someone special enough to give it to yet."

Finn ran a hand through his wet hair and looked at her, watching her as she stood in the water high enough so that he could see the curve of her bra under the water. "Well, I think you're pretty special, Rachel," he said, the words coming out before he could think of what he was going to say. He wasn't planning on saying that. He wanted to say something smoother, but whatever he had said seemed to do the trick.

Rachel started to melt and felt her face turn red as she looked at Finn, standing on the stairs of the pool and letting him stare at her, because she knew that he was.

"T-thanks," she stammered nervously, climbing out of the water and picking up Santana's dress before slipping back into it. "You're really sweet, Finn."

And with that she walked back inside and looked for Santana, who she was going to tell all about how much of a gentleman Finn Hudson was.


	5. Audition Day

Classes started and it made her feel like she was allowed to look through a brand new lens onto her school. New people came out of nowhere and filled her classes and her lunch hour. She would walk through the hallways (which still confused her) and catch the occasional glance of Quinn or Santana or Brittany or sometimes Finn and she would try to wave and smile at them before being bumped into by another herd of students that thought she was in their way.

There were more students at this school than her old school. All of them were really pretty, too. Even in the uniforms that were supposed to make them all look the same, certain people stood out from everyone else and looked better than others.

Rachel still felt gawky in the charcoal gray sweater and plaid skirt that was deemed the school uniform, especially when she saw Quinn wearing hers. She looked nice and Rachel thought that the sweater made her look like she didn't have any kind of proof that she had a chest (not that she thought she really did to begin with) and that the skirts were too long.

She always thought that school girl uniforms were supposed to be sexy, or whatever, and even if they were, she didn't look very sexy in hers. Quinn and Santana and Brittany and every other girl she passed in the hallway seemed to pull off their uniform with ease, and then there she was, walking down the halls and feeling gawky and awkward.

She was still somewhat excited for school to start, however. Rachel was good at school. Most people would probably assume that people who dedicated their entire lives to something as trivial as musical theatre weren't very talented when it came to academics, but Rachel always was. She figured that being smart and being successful went hand in hand, so she tried her hardest at everything, just like always. She wasn't nervous for the academic part of school to start.

She was more concerned about the part that would require talking to other people and being invited to parties and making friends – the part of high school that people actually remembered twenty years down the line.

:.:.:

Quinn had planned to eat her lunch with Finn. It had been too long since she had last discussed his progress on Rachel and wanted to know how far he had gotten. As far as she was concerned, this bet was like a blessing to him – not that she thought he would succeed. If he did, he would be able to say that he had slept with two girls and taken the virginity of one of them, which she figured meant something. Guys always felt some kind of primal feeling of success whenever they took a girls' virginity from them, didn't they?

She highly doubted that he would have much luck getting what he wanted from her, though. Rachel Berry already looked like she would be the hardest person to sleep with on the entire campus. She would even be more difficult to crack than the girls in the celibacy club, but that was only because they all though that if they weren't wearing their promise rings that it gave them license to offer blowjobs in the locker rooms after football games. Rachel was adamant about not giving it up to anyone as far as Quinn was concerned.

The girls with actual opinions and morals were always the hardest.

The blonde found Finn sitting in the courtyard, looking like he was reading a book. She quirked an eyebrow and laughed to herself as she drank in the image of him sitting down and reading a book, which was something she was sure she had never seen in her entire life. If Finn ever looked like he was reading, it was only because he had stuck a comic book behind whatever book he was supposed to be reading for English class.

"You're reading?" She asked, standing in front of him with her hands on her hips. Finn looked up at her from his book and sighed, closing the book after slipping a finger into the page he was on so he wouldn't lose his place.

"It's for class," he said, reclining back on the bench as much as he could. "Besides, I figured I would actually do the assignment this time. It's for French Literature."

Quinn rolled her eyes. She didn't have French Literature until next semester, so she didn't have the same assignment Finn did at the moment. "Why, what are you reading?"

"_Les Liasons dangereuses," _he said, reading the cover and butchering the French. "It's about these French people who like, kill each other and have sex with each other or whatever. It's dumb." Quinn rolled her eyes and nudged him over on the bench so that she would be able to sit with him, crossing her legs over one another. Finn narrowed his eyes and looked at Quinn, smiling slightly. "Rachel's in that class."

He piqued Quinn's interest and she turned to face him, smiling deviously. "Little Miss Ohio is reading a book about sex?" She gasped melodramatically and brought her hand up to her chest. "What would her parents say?" Quinn began to laugh and looked at Finn.

"I don't know, she said that it's really good," he told Quinn, setting his book on the ground. "She can like, speak French really well or something. You should have heard her go off in some conversation with the French teacher the other day." He paused; feeling his chest begin to feel like it was on fire. "It was actually kind of hot."

Quinn rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. "Please. So she can speak French. Big deal." She moved a hand up and tucked her hair back behind her ear. "You should let her be your visual aid for the book you're reading."

Finn laughed to himself and kicked at the book slightly. "I don't think it's that easy," he told Quinn with a smirk. He figured he could at least make Quinn believe something that wasn't true for as long as he had her, however. "I did manage to get her in her underwear at the party on Monday, though."

Quinn's eyes lit up and she looked at Finn knowingly. "Yeah, right," she said. "You should have seen how uncomfortable she was wearing Santana's dress that night. She said she felt like a sausage casing, or something."

Finn laughed and looked down into his lap, trying to picture Rachel in the purple dress that she had worn to the party. He thought she looked great in it, but that was only because he was a guy. All he could focus on was how the dress hugged every curve of hers perfectly and made her look like she was on her way to a club instead of a high school party – which could be classified as the same thing, technically.

"She looked pretty nice," he offered in rebuttal. "Look, I don't think that winning this bet is going to be that hard, Quinn." He smiled to himself for a moment, folding his hands together. "This girl is more insecure about everything than anyone I've ever met."

Quinn smiled to herself and folded her hands in her lap. "I could always make the bet more exciting and make you have to coerce multiple girls into sleeping with you." She giggled mischievously and Finn shook his head, not bothering to look back up at the blonde.

"No," he told her. "It's a challenge enough to sleep with her, believe me." He paused, hoping Quinn wouldn't be able to see past his lies. He figured that Rachel would be easy enough to persuade to sleep with him; he just didn't want to focus his energy on anyone else. Rachel would be easy enough to sleep with, and besides, he didn't want to destroy her completely. As far as he knew, sleeping with Rachel only to sleep with someone else would crush her completely, which wasn't what he wanted. He wanted to sleep with Quinn, and fucking Rachel just so happened to be a box that would be checked off if he wanted that to happen.

Quinn crossed her arms over her chest and tipped her nose up in the air. "Well, you might want to get started on that whole 'persuading Rachel to sleep with you,'" she said, standing up and adding in air quotes where necessary. "I give her two weeks before she finds some boyfriend in the drama department."

Finn wiped his hands on his pants and looked back up at Quinn with a smirk on his face. "Yeah, well, you're wrong," he told her. "I already know how to get around that."

"Of course you do," Quinn said, rolling her eyes and beginning to walk away. "What are you going to do, audition for the musical?"

:.:.:

Rachel already had a portfolio stuffed to the brim of all of the songs she had ever sung at any audition for anything, so she figured that she had a pretty good chance to selecting a song that would suit her voice to its best ability. She was elated over the fact that the school's fall musical would be a production of _The Phantom of the Opera, _since she was so accustomed to putting on productions of musicals that were so much cheaper to produce at her old high school. Last fall she had been the star of her school's production of _Oklahoma!, _being told by her parents and boyfriend at the time that she had a wonderful portrayal of Laurey, but she knew it was just some high school production that wouldn't matter in the long run.

Not that this production would particularly matter either, but it was _The Phantom of the Opera. _She figured that had to count for something.

She walked into her audition and sat down in the front of auditorium, her audition music in hand. She wasn't expecting to see anyone she recognized, but she was hoping to meet Finn's step-brother. By the way Finn spoke about him she could only assume that he was talented. She figured that all of the students that went here were much more talented than the drama department from her old school. Everyone seemed better at everything here.

The director walked up to the front of the auditorium and began making an announcement about how 'happy he was to be there,' 'how great the show was going to be this year,' and 'how excited he was to see everyone audition.' Rachel sat up in her chair and smiled brightly, hoping that he first impression would at least be memorable enough.

The auditions were quickly put on hold when the doors to the auditorium swung open and two figures walked in, Rachel spinning around in her chair to see who it was.

"Oh, Kurt, so great to see you," the director said, smiling. He paused, looking up slightly. "And you've brought someone with you?"

Rachel figured that it was the same Kurt that Finn had told her about, causing her to smile brightly.

"Yes," he said, finding a chair in the same row as Rachel and setting his Thermos down on the floor by his feet as he sat. "This is my step-brother, Finn." A smile spread across his face, Rachel turning her head until she could see Finn's figure standing next to him. "He's going to audition this year."

She tried to hide from him that she was laughing; biting down on her lip and feeling her face turn red. Finn looked at her and smiled coolly, sitting down in the chair next to her. Rachel crossed her legs and sat back up in her chair as the director walked up on the stage, beginning to speak more about the plot of the musical.

"You never told me that you were going to audition for the musical," she mumbled, trying to keep her voice down as much as she could. "You didn't seem like the type."

"I'm not," Finn told her, smiling. "You kind of convinced me, I guess."

She rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Yeah, right. _I_ convinced you."

He smiled at her and watched as she turned herself back around to watch the director as he spoke. He wished that she would actually believe him. He was telling the truth, sort of. Finn knew that if he auditioned for the musical, he would be able to spend more time with Rachel than he would if he didn't audition for the musical, which would make the task of sleeping with her much easier, but he was sort of telling the truth. Maybe it would be fun to sing and dance up on a stage in front of people. He sang in the shower all of the time and he danced in front of people when he scored a touchdown on the football field.

Maybe it wasn't the best dance ever, but it was dancing, nonetheless.

The director had said something about starting auditions and asked for volunteers, to which Rachel's hand shot up in the air like a rocket, putting her in the position to sing first. Finn suppressed an eye roll as he watched her scurry up the stairs on the side of the stage and hand her sheet music to the accompanist, smiling brightly as she walked towards the edge of the stage.

She said her name and the name of the song she was going to sing, or something, Finn wasn't sure.

He was sure, however, that when she started to sing, that she wasn't kidding about her whole dream of being on Broadway. Her voice was really, really pretty.

Kurt leaned into him, a smile on his face. "Isn't this the new girl you were talking about?" He asked, his hands in a little ball in his lap. "She's really good, Finn."

Finn smiled and looked back up at Rachel, who looked like she was really getting into whatever song she was singing. He didn't know what it was; he figured it was a show tune that Kurt listened to.

"Yeah," he said, almost like he was in a daze. "She is."

:.:.:

Finn introduced Kurt to Rachel after their auditions had ended. Kurt seemed overjoyed to finally meet her, especially after he had heard her sing.

"Oh, my God, you're fabulous," he told her, wrapping her up in an embrace before Rachel got to exchange their pleasantries between them. "I'm Kurt. Finn's step-brother." She looked at him, eyes wide.

"T-Thank you," she stammered, giggling as he pulled away from her. "You were really good, too. I'm sure you'll end up being cast as the Phantom, or like, one of the main parts." She was at a loss for words, which was something that normally didn't happen to her.

It made Finn smile as he watched her fumble for the words she wanted to use.

"Oh, no, that's Blaine," Kurt explained, waving a hand in the air. "He's auditioning tomorrow. But you're wonderful. And so beautiful… isn't she beautiful, Finn?"

Finn rubbed the back of his neck nervously, feeling his throat begin to close. "Yeah," he said, looking down at Rachel. He smiled at her and watched as she blushed furiously, tipping her head down and looking at her shoes. "She's really beautiful."

Kurt giggled and clapped his hands together a few times gleefully. "Well, Finn, I have to go finish a chemistry lab," he said excitedly, patting Finn on the shoulder before leaving. "Rachel, it was so great to finally meet you. We should definitely get coffee sometime, or something."

"Yeah," Rachel mumbled, waving slightly as she watched Kurt walk away. "That would be great."

She looked up at Finn and fingered the hem of her sweater nervously before speaking. "You, um, did really well," she told him, walking up so that she was closer to him. "I never knew you could sing."

"I don't really think I can sing," he told her, rolling his eyes and shoving his hands in his pockets. "I'm just a shower singer. You're like, the real deal, Rachel."

She blushed and looked at him, biting down on her bottom lip. "Well, you did really well," she told him, beginning to walk away from the auditorium doors and felt Finn follow behind her, making her heart feel like it was going to pound out of her chest. "I think you'll get in."

Finn looked at her and smiled, watching her as she walked. "Let me walk you back to your dorm," he told her, making her tip her head up to look at him.

"Okay," she told him, smiling. He laughed slightly and walked up to push the door open for her, letting her walk through first before closing it behind her. She stopped outside of the foyer to the school and waited for Finn, a smile on her face.

"You know, you don't have to do all of this," she started telling him, tipping her head up so that she could see him.

Finn looked down to see her, smiling slightly himself. "Do what?" He adjusted his tie around his neck and loosened it, shoving his hands back in his pockets after doing so. He hated the uniforms they had to wear. Granted, he liked seeing the uniforms that the girls had to wear, simply because uniforms were invented by men to give high school boys something to look at when they were in class, but he hated wearing them himself. Wearing blazers and neckties and sweater vests wasn't exactly how he wanted to look when he was at school.

He tagged along behind Rachel slightly and noticed how her hips swung back and forth when she walked. She definitely pulled off the uniform well. There were certain girls that looked hot in their uniforms and then other girls that didn't, and Rachel was definitely one of the girls that was bend-over-a-desk-worthy in her uniform.

"I don't know," she said, shrugging slightly. "I mean, out of everyone in this entire school, you pick to be friends with me. No one's ever really tried to be friends with me."

Finn sighed, trying to make her feel better. She sure didn't seem to think much of herself. Which, you know, was great if you just wanted to sleep with her. Insecure girls were prime targets for seducing. But the more time Finn spent around her and talked to her, the more he felt sorry for her. He didn't understand how someone like Rachel could think so lowly of herself. She was gorgeous and she had this amazing voice and she was really nice, or at least she had been nice to him so far.

He laughed and ran a hand through his hair. "Well, I like you. Kurt really likes you."

Rachel looked down at her shoes and sighed. "Yeah, but you're both guys."

"Kurt's gay, so-"

"Still." She sighed deeply and her shoulders fell up and down dramatically. "I mean, I really like Brittany and stuff, but I hardly see her because she's either locked me out of our dorm when she's with Santana, or she's with Santana doing God knows what." She laughed slightly. "That's part of the reason why I auditioned for the musical. I wanted to make other friends that were more like me."

Finn laughed and smiled as he looked back down at her. "You didn't just audition because you're probably the best singer at this school?" He smiled after he started to make Rachel laugh and looked ahead, guiding her back to her dorm. He thought it was kind of funny how he already knew where it was. "You'll make tons of friends," he told her. "You've already got one."

Rachel tipped her head up and looked at him, feeling her face begin to turn red. She adjusted her backpack straps over her shoulders and moved her hand back down to her side as she walked, eventually feeling Finn's hand begin to reach for hers. She looked up at him and laced her fingers through his, swinging her hand slightly as they walked.

"So, um… my dorm's this building," she managed to get up, hoping she didn't look as nervous as she felt. Finn nodded and looked up at it.

"You're lucky," he told her with a smile. "The boys' dorm smells like pizza and pot all of the time."

Rachel giggled as she looked at him, her hand still tangled up in his. "I'm not a boy," she reminded him sweetly.

"That's my point," he said with a laugh. Rachel giggled and tipped her head down, almost afraid to look at him. He watched her as she laughed and smiled, walking her up to the doors of the large building that housed half of the students on campus.

They walked into the lobby and Rachel continued on her way to her dorm, tugging at his hand slightly as she continued to hold onto him. What she was initially shocked by was now something that she felt she needed. She stopped in front of her door and looked up at Finn, who stood in front of her.

"Well, this is m-my room," she stammered, gesturing towards the door slightly. "Um, Brittany's bra isn't on the door, so it means that I can go in." Finn laughed and looked down at her with a smile, watching her eyes as she smiled with him. She had big, brown eyes that got prettier the longer he looked at her.

He watched as she dug in her purse for the key to her room and unlocked the door, stepping inside before turning around to face him through the doorframe.

"Hey, um, Rachel, if you're not doing anything this Friday, I was wondering if you wanted to go out together," he told her casually, watching as her face started to light up.

She laughed, playing with the sleeve of her sweater nervously. "What, you don't have some party to go get drunk at or something?"

"No," he said, shaking his head from side to side. "I was just wondering if you wanted to go out."

"Like… on a date?"

"I guess you could call it that," he said coolly. "I just want to spend more time with you."

She giggled and smiled, her teeth sparkling as she grinned. "Okay," she said, fixing her hair nervously.

He smiled at her before turning over his shoulder to leave, stopping before he was completely down the hallway.

"Oh, and Rachel?"

She poked her head out from inside her dorm and looked at him, her smile wider than ever.

"Don't have Santana pick out your outfit out. You're hot enough to not have to worry about what she dresses you in."

Rachel's mouth hung open slightly and she looked at him, hoping that he face wasn't turning red. "O-Okay," she managed, her hands gripping the door frame and her heart beginning to beat faster and faster. "I'll… I'll talk to you later."

She shut the door behind her and smiled, falling down to the floor and leaning against her door. She had a date with an actual person who liked her that didn't look like he was one of the trolls that lived under the bridges in fairy tales.

It was exciting, to say the least.


	6. Date Night

"So, you're looking pretty nice, huh?" Quinn looked at Finn as he adjusted his collar in front of the mirror. "It wouldn't be for our little Midwest princess, would it?" The blonde sauntered up behind him and wrapped her arms over his shoulders, resting her chin on his left side.

Finn narrowed his eyes and watched Quinn as she stared at him in the mirror. "I asked her out on a date," he explained, smiling at Quinn through the mirror. "You're going to have to go down to the cafeteria and have a big piece of humble pie tonight, Quinn Fabray," he told her, smirking to himself. "I've been buttering up Rachel for the past week now, and if I do everything right tonight, you'll be losing your little bet by tomorrow morning."

Quinn rolled her eyes and placed her hands on her hips. "Please," she said skeptically. "You think that just because you've known a girl for a week means that she's going to drop her pants for you tonight?"

He turned around and watched as Quinn walked towards his bed and sat down on the edge of it, crossing her legs enticingly. "I mean, to really seduce a girl you have to be able to learn how she operates," she said, her voice beginning to sound like honey. She reclined back on the bed and stared up at Finn through her lashes, batting her eyes coyly.

He did everything he could to keep his jaw from hitting the ground. Her skirt began to slip up her legs and he watched as she moved her hands up to pull and pick at her sweater teasingly.

"I mean, to get Rachel in bed with you, you'll have to really make her beg for it," she said, arching her head back and looking at Finn, her voice still smooth and sultry. "And I just don't think that a little girl like her is ready for such a… _big _commitment."

Finn could feel his eyes grow bigger for a moment before he snapped back into reality. He already knew how Quinn operated too well.

"I wouldn't try teasing me this time around," he told her, trying to sound as confident as he could without his voice breaking. "If I sleep with Rachel, I get to have… _that_."

Quinn rolled her eyes and stood up from the bed, her hands finding purchase on her hips once more. "Why don't you just give up?" She asked, frustration filling her voice. "She's not going to sleep with you. She's just another one of those stuck-up prudes that wants to 'wait until marriage' or some weird shit like that." Finn watched Quinn as she began to pace around the room almost as if she was nervous. "I bet she won't even let you kiss her."

"I'll bet you five bucks that she will," he said, beginning to feel more upset with Quinn than usual.

"No," she said, wagging a finger at him. "You're not going to place a bet on your bet," she reprimanded him. "The day you fuck her, you get to win."

Finn rolled his eyes and watched as Quinn sneered at him as she looked down at her nails. "Oh," she said, her eyes brightening slightly as she began to speak to him, but still didn't bother to look up at him. "If you ever do fuck her, don't talk to her ever again."

Finn turned over his shoulder and looked at Quinn. "Why is that so important now?"

"What, have you not looked at her?" She scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Talk about disgusting." She picked up her phone from the nightstand and began to read through her text messages. "Forget what I said about it being an easy task to sleep with her," she said, sounding thoroughly disgusted. "You might want to consider double bagging."

Finn rolled his eyes and picked up his phone from the bathroom counter, "I'm going to late picking her up," he mumbled if to himself, shoving his phone in his pocket. "Have fun at whoever's party is tonight," he told her, walking out the door.

Quinn rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest, frustrated. Finn wasn't going to win this bet. She knew he wasn't.

:.:.:

Rachel had spent all of Friday worrying about how she was going to get ready for her date with Finn. She thought that it might have been nicer if they would have at least had a class together, but they didn't. All Rachel had to base her day off of were the small glances she got of him in the hall on her way to class, to which she simply responded to with ducking her head down and blushing furiously.

Santana was serving detention for something – which surprised Rachel, since it was only the first Friday of the school year, but she was happy for it because it meant that Brittany was all hers for the evening. Rachel liked to think that Brittany liked her a lot more than Santana did, and she wanted someone like to Brittany to help her get ready for her date instead of Santana.

The last time she had Santana help her get ready for something, she ended up looking like a girl from a music video – which was probably great in some circles, but that wasn't what Finn wanted. That was all she kept in mind when she was getting dressed and doing her hair for the evening. It seemed to be the only thing that kept her truly optimistic about the night she had ahead of her.

"You look like a princess, Rachel," Brittany said, sitting on the foot of the bed and eating a sandwich. Rachel stood in front of the blonde and spun around in her dress that she had picked out for the evening. It was one of her own instead of one she had borrowed from Santana or Brittany. It was a light pink sleeveless dress with a shorter skirt that just fell above her knee, her hair falling down her shoulders in curls. She thought she looked nice, but she was still worried that Finn wouldn't think she would look nice. The only time he had seen her and was nice to her was when she was in her school uniform or the dress that Santana had loaned her.

The last time she was wearing her own clothes, Finn was never very nice to her.

She smiled with gratitude and looked down at her dress, Brittany tipping her head to the side slightly. "You should wear a crown or something," she said excitedly. "That way, Finn can pretend that you're a real princess and take you away on a big white horse."

Rachel laughed at Brittany and watched as she got up from the bed to run towards her. "You're really beautiful, Rachel." The brunette began to blush and Brittany started to giggle, grabbing her by the shoulders. "No, I mean it. You're really pretty. Finn would be really stupid if he didn't make out with you tonight."

She started to look around nervously and found the shoes that she had picked out for the night by the door. Rachel didn't really want to overthink any of what was about to happen. The way she saw it, the less she thought about what she and Finn would actually do together, the better. She didn't want to worry about whether or not she would kiss him, or whether or not he even wanted to kiss her.

She worried herself into a nervous wreck by asking herself questions that only made her feel more insecure about herself. Part of her really wanted him to pull her into his arms and kiss her furiously, turning what was supposed to be a date into something that would possibly be able to turn into something much more than it already was.

"Do you really think so?" She asked, fixing her hair nervously. Brittany nodded her head quickly, taking another bite of her sandwich.

"Of course," she said, grinning. "You're really pretty, Rachel. You might even be prettier than Quinn."

Rachel shook her head and sighed, uncapping a tube of mascara before looking in the mirror. "I don't think that's true," she said, almost bitterly. "Quinn is very pretty."

Before Brittany could say anything else there was a knock on the door, prompting Rachel to drop her mascara wand on her vanity's counter nervously and spinning around,

"I bet that's Finn," Brittany said, giggling. She ran up to the door and swung it open, Rachel's hands shaking at her sides.

She could hear them exchange their pleasantries from around the corner and slowly began to walk out from behind the wall that separated the hallway from the bedrooms.

Finn's breath caught in his throat the moment he noticed Rachel standing in front of him, her hands clasped together nervously in front of her.

"Wow, Rachel, you…" His voice trailed off as he watched her walk towards him, feeling like he was at a real loss for words. He had never seen someone look so beautiful before that actually looked beautiful instead of just hot, or like someone he just wanted to sleep with. Rachel looked stunning, like she was taken straight from a storybook or some movie from the 1940's. He felt bad. This wasn't what was supposed to happen. He was supposed to come pick her up, take her out for dinner, and then at least do as much as sleep with her.

Finn never thought that she would look so beautiful that he would actually have some kind of feeling towards her.

"Isn't she pretty?" Brittany interjected, sounding more excited than anyone else in the room. Finn looked at Rachel with a smile and nodded.

"Yeah," he said. "She's really, really pretty."

Rachel blushed and walked up towards Finn, his hand finding hers the moment she got close enough. Her stomach filled butterflies and she smiled, fingers lacing together with his.

"Where are we going?" She asked, tipping her head up so that she was able to look at him. "You never told me."

Finn looked down at her and swallowed thickly, feeling like he was just as nervous as she was about the night ahead of them. "Oh, um, it's a surprise," he told her, rubbing her arm slightly. Rachel watched as Brittany looked on with a smile, rolling her eyes as she watched the blonde become overjoyed just by watching Finn touch her on the arm.

"I'm ready to go if you want to go," she said quietly. Finn looked down at her and squeezed her hand.

"Yeah," he said, smiling at her brightly. "We should get going before it gets dark." He waved to Brittany and reached for the door, propping it open slightly and allowed Rachel out before he walked out behind her.

Brittany just smiled and waved at them as the door closed behind them, wishing the best for Rachel. Even for the small amount of time that she had spent with Rachel, she still thought that she deserved someone nice to be her boyfriend. Everyone did.

:.:.:

"So you used to live in Albany?"

Finn nodded, taking another bite of his hot dog. "Yeah. My mom moved to the city after she got this big job promotion, then she met Kurt's dad, who's the state senator, and I guess that's kind of how I ended up here," he said, smiling at her.

Rachel was busy taking bites of her own dinner. Finn had done a Google search before leaving and had found a vegan food truck that he took her to, buying her a tofu dog along with his hot dog for dinner.

"That's great," she said sweetly, licking her lips before looking back up at him. Finn had her hand wrapped up in his as they walked through Central Park together, Rachel holding onto his hand tighter than she ever had before. "I think it's really great that you're not born into money like everyone else is at this school. That's probably why you're so nice."

Finn laughed and gave her hand a squeeze, re-directing them until they walked across a stone bridge that was built over a river that ran through the park. "Well, I try," he told her with a laugh, stopping for a moment as they threw their trash into a trashcan nearby.

She giggled softly and looked up at him, smiling sweetly. "I really liked meeting Kurt, by the way. I think he's very nice and would love to go have coffee with him sometime."

Finn looked at her with a smile and stopped them in the middle of the bridge, brushing her hair from her face. She looked up at him ad bit down on her lip, tugging at it with her teeth.

"Well, he really liked you," Finn said with a smile. He moved his hands down from her hair and let them slide down her waist, feeling the indents her ribs left in her side with his fingers. "But who could blame him, right? You're beautiful and smart and sexy," he started, moving one hand down so that it was closer to her behind.

Rachel shifted uncomfortably in his arms for a moment and looked up at him, nerves beginning to fray. "Um, Finn, I think that it's really great that you think all of those things about me, but I don't want to take this too fast… whatever _this _is."

Finn looked down at her and felt his heart begin to beat faster in his chest. The longer he looked down at her and into her eyes the worse he felt about everything. He didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable; that wasn't what his bet was about.

Although, sleeping with Rachel was slowly starting to become less and less about the bet and more about his own personal attraction towards her.

"Rachel, I think you're so brave," he told her, bringing his hand up to her face and stroking her cheek gently. "You're the only girl I've ever met that's actually been willing to stick up to guys and tell them that you don't want to put up with any of their bullshit." She looked down at her shoes and he moved his finger down to her chin, propping her head back up so that she could see him.

"And if you want this to be something, it can definitely be something," he said, leaning into Rachel and grabbing her by the waist before pulling her in for a kiss. She didn't kiss him back at first, her lips hard against his own until Finn pulled away from her for a moment, looking into her eyes.

"Finn, I-" She started, but stopped, feeling Finn lean in for a kiss once more. This time, she took the plunge and stood up on her toes, kissing him back furiously.

Finn moved his hands around her waist and reached up and down her back, getting as good of a feel of her as he could beneath her dress and without her noticing too much.

She slowly started to slip her tongue into his mouth and moaned softly, pulling away from him.

"Wow," she said, her voice shaking slightly. "That was…"

"Yeah," Finn said, smiling as he ran a hand through her hair. Rachel began to giggle as his other hand found purchase on her waist, pulling her in closer so that their hips met. "I never would have thought you would be that good of a kisser."

Rachel began to blush nervously and Finn started to laugh softly, giving her waist a gentle squeeze.

"You're cute when you blush," he told her, only causing her to blush even more. "Let me take you back to my dorm, Rachel," he told her, grabbing her by the hand once more. Rachel shook her head and furrowed her brow, frowning slightly.

"Finn, you know that I-"

He laughed and smiled at her brightly. "No," he said, stroking her hair. "I just want to be able to have you somewhere where the entire city doesn't have to watch us."

She giggled sweetly and stood up on her toes, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

"I suppose that can be arranged," she said sweetly, taking him by the hands once more. She found herself falling harder and harder for him every day, not sure if it was good or bad.

Either way, she had found someone who wanted her for exactly who she was – or at least she thought she had.


	7. New Beginnings

The weekend passed by quickly and Finn spent every moment that he possibly could with Rachel. The way he saw it, if he wanted to make everything work out in his favor by the time Thanksgiving break rolled around, he would have to spend as much time with her as possible. He got to know her better that way, anyway. Learning about what set her off and what pushed her buttons made him feel like he knew exactly how she operated, which was good. Normally, whenever Finn decided to sleep with someone, it was because the girl was in a drunken stupor and wouldn't remember anything the next morning.

Rachel didn't seem to catch on, or at she didn't to him. She didn't seem to mind and liked spending time with him.

The more time that Finn spent with her, however, the more he realized that being around her was less of a chore. He started to feel Rachel growing on him, and it scared him. He had never been so emotionally attached to a girl before – particularly one that he wanted to sleep with. The fact that out of all of the girls in the school that he could have picked to actually feel something about made him wonder if Rachel would ever end up being something more than just some girl he was supposed sleep with because of a bet. She was hot, even though she didn't believe him when he told her, and he liked how she treated him. She wasn't like the other girls that he went to school with. She always wanted to hold his hand whenever she was with him and she stood up on her toes to kiss him.

Rachel was the best thing that had ever happened to him, whether he was willing to admit to himself or not.

:.:.:

Rachel had gone back to her dorm on Friday night. Brittany was gone at some party and she had the room to herself, the TV glowing in the corner. Rachel had no interest in going to a party, even if she had been invited.

She wondered if she would have gone if Finn was going, and even if he was, if he would have wanted her to go along with her. They weren't really anything official yet, anyway. Finn just walked her to class when it was convenient for him and asked her if she wanted to go back to his dorm with him when his roommate wasn't there to make out with him.

She wanted to hold his hand when they walked down the halls or even have the option to change her relationship status on Facebook (not that she particularly cared), but she wanted all of those things that came with being in a relationship.

Rachel had grown to like Finn, whether she was willing to admit it or not.

The television that she and Brittany shared glowed in the corner after Rachel had turned all of the lights off and sat down on her bed, reaching into the bowl of popcorn she had popped for herself and taking out a handful.

She had done it as a celebratory measure for herself; seeing as Finn was nowhere to be found and Brittany was off at some party that she didn't want to know anything about. Seeing as it was Friday, the cast list for the upcoming musical had been posted – and sure enough, Rachel's name was listed across from the part she wanted the most, Christine.

She had celebrated with a hug from Brittany when she walked back into the dorm and a congratulatory text message from Kurt, to which she just replied with a 'Thanks!' and a smiley face. She hadn't gotten to know Kurt particularly well yet, but she knew that she would once rehearsals for the musical started.

Finn got cast in the show as well. Rachel didn't know how to handle the news exactly, only because she wasn't even sure if he wanted to be in the show. As far as she was concerned, he had auditioned with the idea that he wouldn't get in, and she hadn't talked to him since she had seen the list herself.

It did excite her, however. Being in a show with Finn would end up being the highlight of her year at this school, she was positive about it. Besides, being on stage was her favorite thing in the entire world. Being able to share something like that with Finn would hang the moon and put the stars in her sky.

She was busy watching _The Phantom of the Opera, _of course, simply because she hadn't watched it in a long time and it was good studying material for the rehearsals that would be starting on Monday. That and she was bored. Part of her wanted to put a dress on and show up at whatever party Brittany was at, whether or not Finn was there.

She didn't really mind, though. Staying at home alone was something she had gotten quite used to in Ohio.

There was a knock at the door and Rachel poked her head up from the pillow she had been resting her head upon. She stood up and walked towards the door, swinging it open.

Standing in front of her was Finn, a big bouquet of flowers in his hand. She quirked an eyebrow and smiled at him, giggling softly.

"Oh, my God," she said, letting him inside of her room. "Finn, these are beautiful," she told him, accepting the flowers when he handed them to her. It was a big bouquet of roses, in different shades of pinks and reds and yellows. "I didn't know you were going to be…. here tonight."

Finn smiled at her and watched her as she walked further into her dorm, setting the bouquet down at the foot of her bed. She didn't have a vase to put them in yet, but she knew that she would find one eventually. The flowers he had given her were too pretty to just leave on her desk and have dry out.

"I wanted to congratulate you for your part in the show," he told her, grabbing her by the waist while she had her back turned to him. She jumped slightly and turned around, resting her hands on his shoulders as she fell into him. "That's got to be a pretty big deal or something, right?"

Rachel giggled and played with his sweater in her hands as they rested around his back. "Yeah, I guess," she mumbled nervously, looking down and feeling her face begin to turn red. "You got in too, though, so… I guess a congratulations is in order for you as well."

Finn smiled and started to stroke her hair, making Rachel laugh and look back up at him. "You're going to be the greatest person up there, though," he told her, rubbing her waist and pulling her closer to him. "Everyone that goes to see the show is going to be jealous of the fact that I get to have you all to myself." Finn leaned in to kiss her and Rachel nearly fell back on her bed before regaining her composure and kissing him back, standing up on her toes so she could get a better hold of him.

He pushed her back slightly as they continued to kiss one another, Rachel's feet slipping against the carpet as she stood in only her socks. She could feel his hands reach around to her waist and push her gently, his grip tightening around her, like he was afraid she would slip away from him if he didn't hold on to her tight enough.

Finn pushed her down until she was lying down across her bed, his body hovering over her own. She felt like she couldn't breathe and like her head was swimming; swimming to some place she had never been before and that she didn't have directions to. She tried her best to kiss him back, feeling his hands travel from her waist down to her hips, practically pinning her against the mattress as he continued to kiss her, his lips beginning to travel down her neck.

"Finn," she started, now that she was able to speak. Her eyes got bigger and she tipped her neck back, biting down on her lip. "I… I don't-" Her voice cut off, however, moaning slightly as Finn started to bite at her neck.

She could feel his hand slip up her leg and she managed to move her own hand down to push it off, sitting up before he was able to do anything else.

"Hey," he said with a smile, bringing a hand up to her face. "You alright?"

"No," she said, pushing her hair from her face nervously. Finn sighed and leaned in to kiss her once more, his hands moving to the buttons of her cardigan and deftly undoing one of them. Rachel frowned and pushed Finn away from her, pushing herself away from him on the couch.

"I said no," she said, her voice catching on a sob in her throat. "Finn," she said, her voice nervous. "I don't want to do this." She looked at him, her eyes wide and her nerves on end.

He looked at her and rubbed her arm gently, backing away from her slowly.

"Come on, Rach," he coaxed her, tucking her hair behind her ears. "It doesn't matter. You know that I care about you."

She shook her head and stood up from the bed. "I think you should leave," she told him, quickly re-buttoning the button he had undone earlier. She looked into the mirror of her vanity and fixed her hair, feeling her tears start to pique in her eyes.

Finn got up from the bed and sighed, walking up towards her. "Rachel, I'm sorry," he apologized, grabbing her by the waist. She flinched and turned around, Finn noticing the tears in her eyes.

"That was out of line," he told her, holding her close to him. He moved his thumb up to her cheek to wipe her tears away from her face, Rachel still frowning slightly. "Look, Rachel, I'm sorry. I won't do that again." She sighed and put her hands back up on his shoulders, sniffling.

"It's not that I don't want to," she said, mumbling slightly. "I just… I'm not ready. Not for something like that."

Finn smiled and watched her as she regained her composure, her fingers nervously playing with the hair on the back of his neck. "It's fine," he told her, smiling. "I can wait."

She giggled sweetly and he smiled, laughing as she looked up at him. "What, does this mean that we're a thing?" She asked, her voice still nervous. Finn smiled as he looked down at her, watching as she looked at him, batting her eyes. He still didn't understand how Rachel didn't understand that she was beautiful, more beautiful than anyone else he had ever seen. Quinn was stupid when she had said that Rachel was ugly. As far as he was concerned, Rachel was the prettiest girl in the entire world.

Finn didn't know how to respond when Rachel had said something about the two of them being something. He had never had that with a girl before; particularly with a girl like Rachel. She was so independent and carefree yet so insecure and quiet when she needed to be that she turned into this big mystery to him, especially when compared to the other girls he went to school with who didn't have much to say but would spread their legs for anyone who was willing to sleep with them.

That was his favorite part about her. He loved how she stuck to her morals, or whatever. He didn't know many girls who were the same way.

"I can be your boyfriend," he told her, giving her waist a squeeze. "I've never had a girlfriend before, though." Rachel gave him a fake frown and rolled her eyes, squeezing his shoulder.

"Monogamous relationships are fun," she said teasingly, her nose scrunching up as she smiled at him. "I promise." She stood up on her toes and pressed a kiss to his cheek, making him smile. He placed his hands on either side of her face and pulled her closer to him, kissing her soundly on the lips.

Rachel backed away from him, giggling. "See?" She said, her voice falling into a fit of giggles. She felt his hands rest on her ribcage and rested her own hands against his chest, feeling it fall up and down as his breathing got heavier.

She waited a beat and looked at him, looking up at him longingly. "I feel bad, though," she said, moving in so that she was closer to him. "I want to be like the other girls you've been with."

Finn shook his head and touched her face gently. "No, Rachel. You're perfect."

She took him by the hand and pulled him back towards her bed.

"Come with me."

Finn looked at her incredulously and followed after her, doing just as she had told him to. He felt out of place doing what Rachel said instead telling her what to do himself. He had never been with a girl so determined to not do exactly what he would tell him to do, but he liked to see it as a good change. Rachel was the only girl he had ever been with that made him feel like he wasn't completely in control of a girl.

Rachel sat down on the foot of the bed and slid back onto it so that she was in the same position she had been in earlier when Finn was kissing her. She sat up slightly and grabbed the collar of his shirt. Both of them had changed out of their uniforms for the night, like most students normally did. The uniforms were confining and didn't make anyone feel like themselves.

"You probably don't like me because I'm not… willing to be like the other girls we go to school with," she began, bringing her knees up to her chest and pressing them together nervously. Finn shook his head and watched as Rachel bit down on her lip nervously.

He felt his heart feel like it was going to beat out of his chest every time he watched her do that.

"Rachel, you can't say that," he said, running a hand through his hair nervously. Finn stood up from the bed and started to walk around nervously, noticing himself in her vanity mirror. He didn't know what to say to her anymore. The more time he spent with Rachel, the more she started to turn into someone he actually cared about.

It scared him to have feelings for a girl who he was supposed to just sleep with and get it over with. Rachel was turning into something so much more than just a random girl he was supposed to fuck so he could win a bet with Quinn, and it made him nervous.

Finn started to worry his hands together and looked down at the floor, his stomach tied in a knot as he started thinking about her, and what he knew he was doing to her.

"You're so much better than all of those girls," he said, feeling his voice quiver as he spoke. "I mean, guys like girls who'll have sex with them and stuff, but you're different," he told her, his back still turned to her. Looking at Rachel right now was the last thing he wanted to do.

(Actually, it was all he wanted to do, but he knew that he couldn't bring himself to do it at the moment.)

Finn swallowed thickly and rubbed the back of his neck nervously, letting his eyes fall shut before he turned around to look at her.

"Look, Rachel, there's something I need to tell you-"

His voice cut off as he opened his eyes and looked at Rachel, who was still laying down on the foot of her bed, propping herself up by her hands against the mattress. She had undone the cardigan she was wearing and it was on the floor by her feet, sitting in nothing but her bra and skirt.

Finn didn't know what to say. He knew that he had already seen Rachel in her underwear and she had seen him in hers, but it was different this time. This time, she looked so much more vulnerable than she had before, when they were just doing everything for the fun of it.

Whatever Rachel was doing now was serious, Finn could tell.

"I want to be all yours," she told him, bringing a hand up and beckoning to him to come closer. Finn looked at her and could only blink, at a loss for words. He couldn't remember anything before the moment he had turned around and seen Rachel staring back at him. "I d-don't care anymore, Finn."

He stared at her and approached her slowly, feeling her arms wrap around him and pull him close. "You know, you can kiss me again, if you want to."

Finn could feel his nerves breaking slightly as she started to sound like herself again, her arms wrapping around him. He smiled and leaned back in to kiss her, pushing her down into the mattress as his lips crashed against hers.

Rachel's hands scrambled against Finn as she tried to kiss him back, giggling sweetly and grabbing his shoulders tightly.

She pushed Finn away from her for a moment, tugging at his lip as their kiss disconnected. "What was it that you wanted to tell me?" She asked innocently, a smile spreading across her face.

"Nothing," he told her, laughing slightly to himself. He didn't need to tell her anything. It would kill her, and she didn't need that.

"It's fine," he told her, tracing her cheek with his finger. "You're perfect, Rachel."


	8. Raising The Stakes

Quinn knew that Finn was closer to accomplishing his task than she ever would have thought he would be. There was no way in a million years that she could ever see Rachel giving it up to anyone, let alone Finn, in the next few weeks.

Of course, she had given him until the end of the school year, but there was like an unspoken bet that he would be able to get it done before they went home for Thanksgiving. She didn't see how it would be humanly possible for him to do it, seeing as the girl in question dressed like she was six years old when they weren't wearing their uniforms, but she digressed.

Maybe it was in fact easier to get a prude like Rachel to sleep with someone.

She could have Finn winning this bet, however. She needed to get more skin in the game so that she would end up on top, and Finn would be able to have the memory of failing to coerce a girl to sleep with him.

That was why calling up Santana was so easy.

"I never ask you for favors, do I?" The blonde said into the phone after hearing Santana pick up her own.

Santana furrowed her brow on the other line and crossed her arms over her chest. "What are you talking about?"

Quinn sat on the edge of her bed and began playing with her hair absentmindedly. "I'm playing a little game with Finn, and I need your help."

Santana snorted and began laughing to herself. "What, did you two finally decide to do the deed? Because honestly, Quinn, the entire school's been waiting to see that go down."

"No," Quinn quipped, beginning to sound angrier. "I just need you to do something for me."

Santana rolled her eyes and sighed. She and Quinn really weren't the greatest of friends. They had been roommates since their freshman year of high school, but Santana had never really grown that fond of Quinn. She was rude (and that was saying something, considering Santana prided herself on being rude) and condescending and manipulative, something Santana hated. She would much rather have someone be rude to her face than be rude to her behind her back, which was exactly what Quinn did to everyone she knew.

"You know that new Rachel girl, right?" Quinn cooed, continuing to play with her hair. "Well, Finn and I figured it would be fun to start a game based around her and everything, and I made a bet with him and told him that he wouldn't be able to sleep with her by the time the school year was over."

Santana quirked an eyebrow, smiling to herself. Whatever bet Quinn was talking about sure sounded interesting, no matter how much Santana hated Quinn. "Well, she's sure been touchy-feely with Hudson lately, Quinn," Santana teased, laughing to herself. "I wouldn't be surprised if they've fucked already."

Quinn rolled her eyes in frustration. "That's what I'm worried about," she said. "But that's where you come in handy," she said, smiling slightly. "I need you to sleep with Rachel."

Santana almost dropped her phone on the floor. "What?"

"You heard me. I need you to sleep with Rachel."

The raven-haired girl let her mouth fall open, surprised. For one of the first times in her entire life, Santana didn't know what to say. For someone who was normally quick and able to retort with some smart remark immediately, Santana didn't know what to say.

"Quinn, that's kind of… why would you want me to do something like that?"

The blonde smiled and rolled over so that she was lying on her back, still holding her phone to her ear.

"Because, if you sleep with her first, then Finn can't sleep with her."

Santana rolled her eyes, scoffing. "Quinn, I'm pretty sure that sleeping with one person doesn't mean that you have to fuck them for the rest of your life."

"You're being stupid," Quinn snapped. She cleared her throat and composed herself, Santana responding on the other line with an eye roll.

"Look, Finn and I made a bet that he wouldn't be able to take Ohio's virginity by the end of the year. If she sleeps with someone else, he can't win." She smiled maliciously, drumming her fingers together. "Besides, I think it would do her good. You can obviously tell that Rachel needs… well. Some kind of release."

Santana sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. She wasn't about to express how she actually felt about the situation, seeing as she was standing outside of the locker room after cheerleading practice, but the idea that Quinn propositioned her certainly wasn't a bad one. When she had first met Rachel after Brittany had invited her back into her dorm, she wasn't lying when she had told her that she was pretty.

Santana thought that Rachel was hot, that was a given. But she never planned on sleeping with her. She had Brittany, and Santana loved Brittany. She would never go behind Brittany's back and sleep with Rachel just for the sheer thrill of doing it.

Brittany really didn't mind, though. She didn't understand what it meant to be faithful in a relationship (even though she remained faithful to Santana) and wouldn't mind if Santana were to sleep with Rachel for one night.

"Maybe she just needs a vibrator," Santana suggested with a laugh, trying her best to stray from the subject at hand. "Tell her that Hudson should use it on her and she won't really be losing her virginity, if that's what she's worried about."

Quinn rolled her eyes in disgust. "Finn can't have anything to do with her," she said, her voice becoming more cross the longer she stayed on the phone with Santana. "Just fuck her and leave her alone and maybe she'll transfer schools or something and Finn can never see her again."

Santana furrowed her brow and looked into the phone as if Quinn was standing in front of her. "Why would you want her never to see Finn-"

"Just do it," Quinn told her, whining. "Please, Santana. It's not like she's a complete lost cause."

Santana sighed and heard the phone click on the other line, looking down at the screen and noticing that Quinn had hung up.

It really wouldn't be that bad. All she had to do was sleep with the girl and get it over with.

:.:.:

"So you've really seen the Eiffel Tower?" Rachel asked, wrapping Finn's arms around her and snuggling herself closer to his chest. Finn shrugged and rested his chin against her head, taking in the familiar smell of lilacs and vanilla of her hair.

They were sitting on Rachel's bed after the first read-through of their rehearsal, Rachel insisting that she wasn't going to do her homework and instead was going to spend the entire night with Finn, which he was more than excited about.

Finn didn't know what it was about Rachel that made him like her so much. She was beautiful and smart and funny when she wanted to be, all qualities that the other girls he went to school with didn't possess or were too afraid to have.

He had decided early that that was the reason he had fallen so hard for Rachel. He wanted a girl that was different from the other ones he had been with in the past, and Rachel was certainly different.

"Yeah," he said before pressing a kiss to her head. "It was Kurt who wanted to see it, though. My parents decided that going to France would be the best idea in the world, and I just ended up going to the bakeries and clothing stores with Kurt."

Rachel giggled sweetly and turned her head up to look at him. "They have beautiful museums there too, you know." She smiled and felt Finn touch her hair; playing with it between his fingers. "I want to go to Paris one day."

Finn moved his hands back around her waist and pulled her closer, tickling her sides gently. "It's really pretty," he told her absentmindedly. "I mean, there were some things I liked about it."

Rachel turned around in his arms and laughed spitefully. "What, like the topless beaches or whatever?" She giggled and felt his grip tighten around her waist, causing her to giggle louder than she had been before.

"No," he argued, but was only met with an eye roll by Rachel. Finn started to laugh and ruffled her hair slightly. "I mean, okay, that was really nice, but, you know, it could have been better."

"They have completely nude beaches in France, you know. It's just that most of the time the last people you would ever want to see naked are the ones that are-"

"No," he said, laughing. "I mean, it could have been better if you had been with me."

Rachel giggled and rolled over so that she had her chest was pressed up against his own, her nose brushing against Finn's. "That's all you care about, isn't it?" She ran a hand through his hair and pulled her legs around his waist. "Boobs and how many girls you can…" her voice began to trail off, feeling her face begin to turn red. "Well. You know."

Finn held her close and wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her up by the small of her back. "What?"

"How many girls you can sleep with."

Finn looked at Rachel and pressed a kiss to her neck, making her mewl in his ear softly. "That's not true," he told her, stroking her hair once more. "Rachel, I…" His voice started to trail off, feeling his heart want to beat out of his chest. His throat began to close and he looked at Rachel, pulling him further up on her lap and tracing her cheek with his hand.

"I love you, Rachel," he told her, feeling like he was beginning to break out in a cold sweat. He watched as Rachel's eyes got bigger and she looked at him, surprise on her face.

Finn just continued to stare at her, his heart feeling like it was supposed to explode inside his chest. "I think you're the best thing that's ever happened to me, and I just…" He stopped, his voice breaking. "I just want to be able to know that I'm not going to lose you."

Rachel looked at him, tears beginning to well in her eyes. She ran her hands through his hair and pulled herself as close to him as humanly possible, her breathing becoming heavy and labored. "Finn, I… I love you too," she said, her voice falling into a whisper. He loved how her voice got smaller when she spoke to him, even if it was just the two of them in the room.

"And I want to show you how much I l-love you," she said, stammering slightly through her tears. She leaned in to kiss him, pushing him down on her bed in the process. Her hands moved over his chest and she could feel the definition of his muscles through his shirt, her eyes roving over his body as she looked down at him.

Finn watched her as she got up on her knees and moved her hands down her chest, propping himself up on his elbows as he looked at her.

"Rachel, you don't-"

"But I want to," she said, beginning to undo the buttons to her blouse. Finn watched her fingers peel her shirt off of her chest and bend down to kiss him once more, her lips lingering against his as her hands moved down his stomach, stopping at his waist.

Finn sat up on Rachel's bed and grabbed her by the waist, watching as she sat up with him.

"Rachel, you don't want to do this," he told her, brushing her hair away from her eyes. "I don't want you to regret anything."

She looked at him and lay down on top of his body, sprawling herself out so that she felt each inch of her cover Finn's body.

"I'm not going to regret anything," she told him, kissing his cheek gently. "I love you, Finn."

He sighed and touched her face, letting his hand linger there for a moment. "You know, you don't need to… we don't need to do it."

"I know," she said, placing her own hand on the side of his face. "And I don't… I don't want to do that just yet. But I want to be able to show you how much I love you," she told him, her voice sweeter than anything else in the entire world.

Rachel got back up on her knees and Finn followed after her, sitting up and still towering over her on her knees while he was sitting down. His hands reached up for her shoulders and he hoisted himself up to touch her arms. He was able to feel the goosebumps that peppered her skin and it made him feel as though the moment meant that much more to Rachel; hoping he could know how nervous he felt.

Finn started to kiss Rachel on the neck, moaning softly as she tipped her head back. He let his hands travel up her waist until they found purchase on the small of her back, traveling up her spine until he could feel the clasp of her bra in his hands.

Rachel pulled away from him, eyes wide.

"Finn, I-"

"It's okay," he told her, silencing her with a kiss. Rachel fought him back slightly, her hands resting on his shoulders. Finn pulled away from her and undid the garment, peeling the straps from her shoulders and watching it slide down her chest.

He didn't want to stare, because he knew it would only make her feel more uncomfortable than she already was, but he couldn't help himself. Finn never would have figured that Rachel would have been so hot without her clothes on, but she was more beautiful than he ever would have imagined.

Her face began to turn a bright red and she stared at him, arms at her sides. Finn pushed her down onto the bed and began to kiss her once more, sucking on her collarbone as he moved one of his hands up to her chest, beginning to massage her breast.

Rachel pulled her lips away from Finn's and looked up at him desperately, out of breath. "I want you to touch me," she moaned, her voice barely able to form a whisper. Finn could feel his heart feel like it was going to burst inside of his chest. He blinked a few times, trying to compose himself before he felt like he was going to explode.

He could feel his pants tightening and knew there probably wouldn't be anything he would be able to do about it, but that didn't matter. He wasn't the same person he was a few weeks ago. A few weeks ago, and all Finn would have wanted to do would be to use the girl in question for his own satisfaction. Now that he had a half-undressed Rachel lying underneath him, it seemed like everything had changed.

He didn't feel like the douchebag he had been before meeting Rachel. It was like she had changed his life all for the better, whether she knew it or not.

Finn moved his hands over Rachel's hips and felt around until he found the zipper to the skirt she had on, tugging it down gently and undoing the hook at the top that held the piece of fabric together. He heard her mewl up above him and groaned slightly himself, knowing that the sounds Rachel was making would be played on a loop in his head every time he jerked off from then on.

"It's okay," he told her, trying to sound as reassuring as he possibly could. The last thing he wanted was for her to feel uncomfortable, and he knew that was exactly how she felt. Finn's hands reached up for the top of her skirt, tugging it down her legs until the material started to pool at her ankles. He watched as Rachel spread her legs apart and had him slide in between her, her breath hitching slightly.

Finn looked up at her and Rachel looked at him, eyes wide. He moved up to kiss her on the lips once more, taking his time and letting his lips slowly travel down from her lips to her neck, hands taking their time to travel down from her shoulders to her breasts, his tongue rolling over her nipple, lips sucking gently on her breast.

"Finn," she moaned, her voice broken and breathy. One of her hands found purchase in her own hair that was fanned out across her pillow while the other managed to find itself on Finn's back, biting down on her lip so as to not make as much noise as Brittany did when she was exiled out of the dorm room.

Rachel had only been in one relationship before Finn, and the furthest she had ever gone then was making out on the couch in her parents basement. This was all brand new territory to her, and she was scared, to say the least. She didn't know if what she was doing was right or wrong, or if she was supposed to be doing _anything_ at all.

At first she had thought that the best way to act was like the girls that she saw at parties who hung off of guys and practically had sex with them right in front of everyone else at the party, but she wasn't drunk, so she didn't know if acting like that was what Finn wanted from her.

She also wondered if the girls in the pornos that boys watched were the greatest examples to follow by (okay, so she had accidentally walked in on her cousin watching one on Thanksgiving her sophomore year), with all of the excessive moaning and panting while the guy did all of the handiwork.

Rachel didn't want any of those things with Finn. She just wanted to be with him and have whatever happened to her happen to her. For the amount of nerves that bubbled up in her stomach when he touched her and kissed her, she still felt at the most peace with him. She couldn't explain it and couldn't find the words to describe how ethereal everything felt, but she did know that she liked it.

Judging by the way that Finn was reacting to what she doing, however, she figured that she must have been doing something right - or, at the very least, wasn't doing anything wrong. She could feel Finn's hands slide down her waist and his fingers hook onto the elastic band of her panties, sliding them down her legs slowly.

Rachel's legs began to quiver and she looked up at Finn nervously, not sure if she was supposed to blush or feel embarrassed or something else, simply because everything was unfamiliar territory to her from now on. "Finn, I… I don't know-"

"It's okay," he told her, leaning back up to kiss her again. "I love you, Rachel."

She nodded her head slightly and kissed him back, a hand lingering on his cheek as he moved back down between her legs.

Finn pulled Rachel's underwear down around her ankles and she kicked them off slowly, eyes trained on Finn as he moved his hand between her legs.

She gasped slightly as she felt Finn's fingers part the seam of her, his own breath catching slightly. Rachel did everything she could to tip her head up to look at him, eyes wide.

"What's wrong?"

Finn looked at her, rubbing her thigh gently. "No, Rach, it's… it's fine," he reassured her. "You're just… so wet."

Rachel laid back down on the bed, feeling Finn slip his fingers back inside of her, his own pants tightening and blood pressure rising the longer she kept on mewling and moaning softly, watching as her chest fell up and down with each breath she took. He slowly started to build up the speed of his fingers, listening for the noises that escaped Rachel and feeling himself come closer to cracking each time she exhaled.

"Finn, I can't… oh, my God, I – mmmm," Rachel cried, biting down on her lip. Finn pumped his fingers inside of her faster and he could feel her begin to tense up around him, nearly losing it himself simply by watching her come undone in front of him. He moved his thumb up to her clit and began to rub tight circles around it, continuing to pump his fingers into her.

Rachel's hips bucked up off of the mattress and she screamed his name, Finn watching her legs as they shook and as she sat up quickly, grabbing him by the way and kissing him soundly on the lips. He was surprised; kissing her back fiercely and grabbing her by the waist, holding her naked body close to him.

"I love you so much, Rachel," he murmured into their kiss, Rachel's lips shaking against his own.

She giggled softly and pushed him down back onto the bed, lying atop of him once more.

"I love you too," she said, searching for his hand and linking it with her own. There was a beat of silence between the two of them as she pressed a few more kisses to his neck. "That, um… that was the first time I've ever…" her voice trailed off and she laughed softly, pressing her nose up against Finn's.

Finn smiled, fingering a lock of her hair that had fallen on his chest. He still couldn't believe that he had a naked Rachel Berry lying on top of him in bed. "You never did anything like that with your old boyfriend?"

Rachel shook her head and pressed another kiss to Finn's cheek. "No," she told him. "He only ever kissed me."

Finn rubbed his hands down the small of her back, holding her closer to him. "Well, I guess I get to have that special thing with you then, don't I?" He squeezed her sides and she giggled, kissing him once more. He spun her around so that he was lying on top of her once more, pressing a kiss to her lips and never wanting to let her go.

"I guess you do," she told him, her voice soft and sounding like was telling a secret, even though they were the only two in the room.

She was glad that he did, though. She loved Finn to the moon and back, and he loved her just the same. There was nothing more she could possibly ask for.


	9. Coming Clean

Santana knew that what Quinn had told her to do was wrong. It didn't make any sense, anyway. For as many rude and horrible things that Santana had done in her lifetime, she couldn't say that she had ever done something as horrible as place a bet on someone's virginity. She had always known that Quinn wasn't the best of people, but this truly affirmed her suspicions.

That, and it made her lose all of the respect she had for Finn, if there was any left to begin with when Quinn had told her about the little settlement that the two of them had arranged.

It was why Santana was walking down the hall to go to Rachel's dorm. She needed to tell her the truth about everything, no matter how much it would end up hurting the girl.

She hadn't told Brittany about anything, only because she figured that Brittany wouldn't be able to understand anything that was going on. That was part of the reason why Santana loved Brittany so much, but it didn't help much whenever she wanted to talk to her about anything serious.

Santana knew that she just needed to talk to Rachel and let her know what was happening. It was the best thing for everyone involved – well, maybe not for everyone, but Rachel needed to know. For as much as Santana didn't care for Rachel, she knew that she needed to know the truth.

:.:.:

Rachel had been walking on air ever since the last night she had spent with Finn. She had never had someone tell her so clearly that they loved her – well, other than her fathers, but that was an entirely different story. Finn was someone who loved her to the end of the earth and back just because she was herself – not because she was related to him by any means.

She loved Finn and he loved her, and it was more than she ever could have wanted or expected. She didn't know how to describe the feeling of being loved unconditionally by someone who she had just so happened to meet less than a month ago. The school year was encroaching on October and she already had someone who she could call her boyfriend; someone who she got to hold hands with in the hallway and have pull her aside in the hallways before class sometimes just to steal a kiss from her or carry her books to her next class if it was convenient for him – or, when it wasn't convenient for him.

Rachel liked to think that she was the luckiest girl in the world because she had Finn. There was no other girl who was lucky enough to be able to call Finn their boyfriend, or was able to steal kisses from him from time to time or hold hands with him down the hallway.

It was like he was hers and she was his, and that was all that mattered.

She had been studying for a physics test that was at the end of the week when there was a knock at the door. Initially, Rachel assumed that it was just Brittany coming back from cheerleading practice and had forgotten her key like she always did.

It was either Brittany or Finn, to which brought a smile to her face. The last time Finn had been at her dorm could easily be written down as one of her favorite days so far at her new school.

That and she had been stealing Brittany's copies of Cosmopolitan that she kept underneath her bed for the past few days, studying all of the pointers she could to help improve whatever experience it was that she and Finn decided to embark on the next time around.

Rachel opened the door to find Santana standing in front of her. She furrowed her brow and smiled slightly, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Oh, um, hi, Santana," she said, her voice nervous. Rachel still didn't know where she stood with Santana. She liked to believe that she was friends with Brittany, simply because she roomed with her and Brittany seemed to show a genuine concern for things that Rachel did and what she said, but she still didn't know if Santana actually liked her.

Santana looked at Rachel, wringing her hands together nervously. She looked nervous; more nervous than she had ever seen Santana before. Rachel had grown so accustomed to seeing Santana looking like she dominated the entire universe every time she saw her that seeing her looking scared and nervous made her frightened herself. Something must have been terribly wrong if Santana had been acting so oddly.

"Um, Brittany's at cheerleading practice," she said, holding onto the door frame and playing with the sleeve of her sweater. "I could call her, if that's what's wrong, or-" She stopped, her brow creasing slightly. "Santana, is something wrong?"

"I need to talk to you," the other girl said, allowing herself inside of the dorm without asking. Rachel moved to the side and watched as Santana walked in and began pacing around in front of Rachel's vanity, wringing her hands nervously. "You… you can't be upset though, alright?"

Rachel looked at Santana and latched the door shut behind her, placing her hands on her hips as she waked towards the girl who was going to run a circle into the floor of her room judging by how much pacing she was doing.

"Santana, you can tell me, I'm sure," Rachel started, walking up towards her and placing a hand on Santana's shoulder. "Did something happen between you and Brittany?"

Santana rolled her eyes and sighed, throwing her hands up in the air. "God, no wonder she picked you for this," she grumbled, her voice beginning to trail off in frustration. Rachel could have sworn that she heard her start to mumble something in Spanish, but her voice was so muffled and incomprehensible that it was impossible to tell.

"Look, Rachel, you might need to sit down," Santana said, trying to remain as civil as possible for as long as she could.

Rachel did as she was told and sat down at the foot of her bed, looking up at Santana as she stood in front of her with her hands in her lap.

Santana swallowed thickly, looking upward before beginning to speak. "I don't think it's the best idea for you to continue seeing Finn," she started, watching as Rachel's expression grew from bright and excited to drained and pale. "Please, don't ask me why, but I just know that you shouldn't be seeing him anymore, alright?"

Rachel looked at Santana, completely perplexed.

"Wait, Santana, w-why would you say that?" She asked, running a hand through her hair. She laughed slightly to herself, rolling her eyes. "Santana, I… I love Finn," she told her, feeling her heart wanting to beat out of her chest. Every time she heard the words 'love' and 'Finn' in the same sentence, her stomach always filled with butterflies and her heart felt like it wanted to leap out of her chest and run away from her as fast as it possibly could. "Why would you tell me something like that?"

Santana looked at Rachel and crossed her arms over her chest, looking at Rachel solemnly.

"He's fucking with you on a bet," she confessed, picking at her nails. Rachel looked up at Santana, confused. "Quinn made some bet with him that he could take your virginity from you by the end of the school year," she confessed, wiping her hand across her forehead.

Rachel looked on in shock, her heart still beating at the same rate – but this time, for an entirely different reason.

"And the other day, Quinn called me because she knew about what was happening between you and Finn, and she didn't want to lose the bet, or whatever, so she wanted me to sleep with you," she said plainly, looking at Rachel and trying not to make her too upset. "I'm so sorry, Rachel."

Rachel looked at Santana, her mouth falling open slightly. "No," she said, shaking her head from side to side. "That's not true," she said, her eyes wide and filled with doubt. She fell into herself and started to turn back into the stammering, shrinking violet that she was when she had first arrived in New York. "Santana, that's not true. Finn _loves _me."

Santana shook her head and looked at Rachel sympathetically. "All I know is that Quinn told me that you were just someone that Finn wanted to fuck on a bet," she said, watching Rachel fall apart in front of her. "That he doesn't care about you, or your feelings, or whatever."

Rachel felt her breath catch on a sob and she coughed, feeling herself begin to choke. She tried her best to remain composed while for as long as Santana was in the room; she figured that she would have plenty of time to cry about everything later.

"Look, Rachel, I feel really bad for you, and if I were you, I would just go up to him and tell him how you feel," she told her, walking up to Rachel and sitting next to her on the bed. "Finn shouldn't be allowed to get away with something like this." Rachel sniffled and continued to cry, feeling Santana's hand on her back.

She didn't know if it was possible to feel any worse than she already did. She wished that she could tell Santana something about how much she loved Finn – rather, how much she thought that she loved him. She did the best to fight her tears and sniffled, her breath catching on every other sob.

"I can go talk to him if you want," Santana offered sincerely. Rachel looked up from her lap at Santana and frowned, pushing her hair from her eyes. Her face was red and was stained with tears, making her eyelashes stick together and her makeup to run down her cheeks.

"No," she said, throwing her hair behind her back and wiping her tears from her eyes. "I want to talk to him." She squared her shoulders and sat up straight, regaining her composure as best as she possibly could. "I want to talk to him." She sniffled and wiped her nose with the back of her sleeve. "I want to be the one that talks to him."

:.:.:

Finn never would have thought that he would fall in love with Rachel. If someone were to go up to him at the beginning of the year or over the summer and tell him that some new girl from Ohio was going to make him fall in love with her in only a month of going to school together.

The more he thought about Rachel, the more he wondered how he could be so stupid to have taken up that bet that Quinn had propositioned him in the first place. He had called himself a jerk for taking it up from the moment he had started spending time with Rachel, whether he wanted to admit it or not. Rachel was someone who didn't deserve to be treated the way Quinn wanted him to treat her.

No one was, but particularly Rachel. As far as Finn was concerned, Rachel hung the moon for him and put the stars in the sky each night. He never thought that he would ever be the type to fall in love with someone, but Rachel was the best thing that had ever happened to him.

Part of him wondered if telling her about why he had originally pursued her was a good idea. He had come close to telling her one night, but before he was able to the moment had passed, and he didn't want to interrupt a make out session to give Rachel what might have been some of the worst news she had ever heard. All he wanted was for her to be happy, and so far it seemed like for as long as he withheld that secret from her, she would be happy.

There was a knock on the door to his dorm one Thursday night. Finn's roommate was gone for the night somewhere; probably his study group or tutoring session in the cafeteria. Finn's roommate was much more studious than he was, which had changed somewhat since he had started spending more time with Rachel. She always told him that she would tutor him in Spanish and they could work on their physics homework together, but every time she came over they always ended up leaving their books on the floor and Finn would end up spending more time studying Rachel than the actual subject he was struggling with, but neither of them ever seemed to mind.

Finn was busy finishing some physics worksheet he had stared in class that day when he had gotten up to get the door.

Upon opening the door, however, a smile broke out across his face. Standing in front of him was Rachel, arms crossed over her chest.

"Hey," he said with a smile, looking down to take in the image of her. "Rach, um, I was just working on my physics notes, and I-"

He was cut off by Rachel's hand slapping across his face.

Finn looked down at her, confused. His own hand went up to his cheek to help soothe the searing pain that burned across his face, eyes going wide in shock.

"Rachel, what's wrong?"

She looked up at him, her bottom lip beginning to tremble as she tried to hold back her tears.

"How can you just stand there and ask me what's wrong?" She asked, wiping the hot tears that burned at her eyes. "I hate you," she said, the words ringing as clear to him as they did to her. "I hate you!"

Rachel fell into herself and started to cry, tipping her head up as she slid down the wall onto the floor. Finn walked up to her and fell down to his knees, extending a hand out to touch her shoulder.

"Don't touch me," she hissed, swatting at his hands before covering her face up with her own hands. "I don't want you to touch me ever again."

Finn looked at her, lowering his voice for as long as they were in the hallway. He watched as Rachel pulled her knees up to her chest and muffled her cries as she wiped her face, doing her best to look away from Finn.

"Rachel, you need to tell me what happened," he told her, genuinely concerned for her. What if someone had hurt her, or worse – what if he had, and he just didn't realize it?

Rachel sniffled loudly and shook her head, tears still streaming down her face. "You don't think I know?" She asked, looking up from her face for a moment to look at Finn. He looked at her and felt his heart feel like it was breaking in two; her face covered with her makeup that was running down her face from her eyes and her face pinched up like it had been the first time she had cried in front of him. "Santana told me everything," she said, wiping the tears from eyes, even though it didn't really do any good. She had already started crying again.

Finn felt his heart sink as he watched her and listened to what she had said, already knowing what she was talking about. She couldn't have known. It wasn't like Santana really knew or anything, so why would she have been able to tell Rachel?

"She said that you and Quinn came up with this game," she said, her voice bitter. "And that the point of the game was to see if you could sleep with me before the school year was over." She hid her face in her hands and started to cry again, her hair beginning to stick to her cheeks where her tears ran down her face. "I can't b-believe you would d-do something like that," she said, her voice hitching on her sobs. "I trusted you, Finn. And you just… does that mean that the other night meant nothing to you?"

Finn looked at Rachel, his eyes wide. All he wanted to do was hold Rachel in his arms and tell her that everything was going to be alright, wishing that she would accept his apology and they would be able to move on from whatever happened between them.

"Rachel, I… I love you," he told her, reaching out to touch her shoulder. She jerked away from him and started to cry louder than she had been before, making Finn hope that no one would be walking down the hallways for as long as she was sitting out on the floor. "And, I mean, yeah, that was a thing between Quinn and I, but Rachel, you've got to believe me, I love you."

He looked at Rachel and watched as she shook her head and cried, still looking like she was unable to look at him. Finn had never seen anyone, let alone Rachel crying as much as Rachel was now. Her face was red and she did everything in her power not to look at him, her face covered up by her hands more than half the time.

She shook her head from side to side and frowned, wiping her tears from her eyes. "No one who loved someone would ever do what you did to me," she said, her hands curling into fists at her sides. She managed to stand up to her feet and Finn looked at her, composing herself as best as she could without starting to cry again.

"You know, I thought you were different," she said, looking at him with a frown. "I thought you weren't like the other guys that go to school here, but I guess I was wrong." She fixed her hair and pulled it over onto her shoulder, trying her best not to start crying again in front of him.

"I guess you're just the same as everyone else, Finn. I'm sorry I wasted my time getting to know you."

She turned over her shoulder and began to walk down the hall, starting to cry again the moment she had her back turned to Finn.

Finn watched as she turned the corner and disappeared, wiping his face with his hand. Having Rachel find out would have been something that he would have told her later, if ever. She didn't need to know about anything as far as he was concerned, because Finn didn't care about whatever bet he had running with Quinn anymore. All he wanted to was to be with Rachel, because she was the one who had changed everything for him. He had never been with someone who cared so much about him and wanted the best for him like Rachel did.

He walked back into his dorm and kicked the desk chair that was by the side.

This was all Quinn's fault, and he knew it.


	10. Rebound

Rachel didn't know what to do with herself after breaking things off with Finn. She never wanted to end up being the girl that didn't know what to do with herself when she didn't have a boyfriend, but she had never realized just how much Finn meant to her until she had decided to confront him. She would go to practice after class and try to ignore him as best as she could during rehearsals; doing everything in her power so that she wouldn't have to speak to him or acknowledge him in any way.

Physics was an entirely different story, however. Finn and Rachel were lab partners that had to work together for the quarter lab report that was due by the end of the month. While they would normally work together for the most part (Rachel doing most of the notes and assisting Finn with the experimental procedure), Rachel now squared herself off from Finn and recorded the notes by herself while she conducted the experiment, watching him out of the corner of her eye as he looked at her notes over her shoulder.

Other than the class they had together though, Finn and Rachel didn't have the opportunity to see each other often. Rachel ignored all of the phone calls he made and whatever message he tried to pass along to other people she knew in different classes. She didn't want anything to do with Finn, only because she still didn't know how to react to what Finn had done to her.

She didn't know if she was supposed to believe him or what Santana had told her, but she thought it would have been smarter to listen to Santana, only because Finn had told her that what she had told her that he did was true.

Rachel still couldn't understand how someone could come up with such a big lie in order to keep her by their side. She wondered if Finn had actually been telling the truth when he told her that he hadn't cared about whatever kind of bet he had made with Quinn and he actually loved her.

She couldn't understand how someone could act that way and still have some disgusting bet about her that they were working towards.

When she wasn't in class or in the auditorium after school, Rachel stayed in her dorm most of the time. Brittany had even tried going back to the dorm more often than not, just because she didn't want Rachel to be left alone all by herself.

On the nights when she would normally go to Santana's, Brittany would just bring her back to her and Rachel's dorm and hope that Rachel wouldn't mind, which she didn't.

Santana sat on the foot of Rachel's bed while Rachel sat in front of her on the floor, finger deftly braiding her hair down her back. She was reminded of her first night at the school with Quinn and how she had tried to braid her hair, making her upset. She hated Quinn. It wasn't like she had ever liked her to begin with, but if there was anything that was supposed to push her over the edge; this would have done the trick.

"Hey, Rachel, you can pick what movie we watch tonight," Brittany said as she picked through the bowl of M&M's that she had sitting in front of her. She didn't want to outwardly express her sympathy for Rachel, and neither did Santana.

Rachel shook her head and Santana continued to run her fingers through her hair, letting her hands fall on her shoulders and rubbed them gently through the wool sweater of her uniform that she still wore.

Brittany looked at Santana and smiled sympathetically, who looked down at Rachel after sighing nervously.

"Look, Rachel, I don't think I've really apologized for what Finn did to you," she said, her voice soft at first. "I mean, I know I told you, and everything, but what he and Quinn did to you… that was just wrong."

Rachel pivoted around on her behind and looked at Santana, who had dropped her hair, causing the braid she had been working on to unravel down her back, her brown hair splaying over her shoulders.

"Thanks," she said meekly. "I mean, I like to think that I've gotten over everything, but there are still times where I see him in the hallway and feel really bad about everything."

Brittany frowned and shoved another handful of M&M's into her mouth, looking at Santana. The raven-haired girl rolled her eyes and sighed, looking down at Rachel with a small smile.

"You'll be fine," she said, patting Rachel on the shoulder lightly. "You just need a really good rebound, that's all."

Rachel turned around and looked up at Santana, fear in her eyes. "I don't think that's a good idea," she said, worry laced in her voice. "I mean, I just don't want to go out and sleep with someone just because Finn did something bad to me." She crossed her arms over her chest indignantly. "Two wrongs don't make a right, right?"

Santana sighed and slid off of the foot of the bed, sitting down next to Rachel on the floor. "It doesn't mean that you have to sleep with anyone," she explained, moving Rachel's hair from her shoulder. "It just means that you have to put yourself back out there." Rachel looked over at Brittany, who nodded her head with a smile. She turned back to Santana, who wagged her eyebrows with a knowing smile.

"You know, there's a party tonight," she said, beginning to pick at the carpeting beneath the two girls. "It's not a big one, or anything, and Quinn won't be there," she added, hoping it would somehow sweeten the deal. "She's probably fucking her chemistry teacher because she's flunking his class right now."

Rachel's eyes grew wide, but she tried her best to hide the shock that overtook her. She had grown accustomed to girls saying that the chemistry teacher was attractive, anyway. He was fresh out of college and he didn't grade the easiest, or so she had heard. Whether she was lying or not, Santana still believed that whatever she had said about Quinn was the truth.

"I don't want to wear another one of those dresses," Rachel said, brushing her bangs out of her eyes. She suddenly realized that she sounded like she was expressing actual interest in going and cleared her throat, shifting herself around slightly. "If w-we went, I mean."

Santana rolled her eyes and started to laugh, letting her hands fall on either side of Rachel's shoulders. "You don't have to wear one of my dresses," she said, laughing. "You can wear your uniform as far as I'm concerned, Rachel," she said, causing the other girl to start laughing. "This night is about you and feeling better after that asshole did what he did to you, okay?"

Rachel nodded, Brittany applauding behind her.

"So can we go?" The blonde asked, a cheeky smile stuck to her face. Rachel laughed, turning to face the two girls on either side of her with big grins stuck to their faces.

"Fine," she said, giggling. "We can go."

:.:.:

Finn was sure that there was no worse feeling in the world than how he felt about Rachel. He didn't know how to react to anything anymore, especially when it came to her. There were days where he passed her in the hallways and just wanted to say something to her, anything, but when he opened his mouth to speak, no words came out.

It shocked him that a girl who didn't seem like she could do any real damage to anyone was tearing him apart from the inside out.

There were the days when he would think that maybe if he went up and talked to her at rehearsal or noticed her at lunch that maybe it would give her the idea of at least trying to talk to him, but no matter what he seemed to do, Rachel continued to ignore him and Finn refused to try and take the first step in talking to her.

For the first time, he was the one who was intimidated by a girl and not the other way around.

He was lying on his bed when there was a knock at his door, eliciting a groan from his lips. The last thing he wanted to do was answer the door and find out who was there to see him. Unless it was Rachel willing to hear his apology, he wasn't interested.

"I heard you lost your little girlfriend the other night," Quinn said, standing in the doorway. She was studying her freshly done manicure, eyes not bothering to flick up and acknowledge him. "Too bad, too. Isn't she supposed to marry the first guy she fucks, or what?" A haughty laugh slipped through her lips and Finn sighed, looking down to notice her.

"I never slept with her," he said, leaning against the doorframe. "Don't you have some party to go to tonight?"

Quinn rolled her eyes and pushed her way past Finn, gaining access to his room. "I wasn't going to go without you," she said cheekily, feigning a pout as she turned to look at him. "Besides, you might want to improve your reputation by going. Just getting to second base with a girl and then having her dump you in a psychotic rage isn't exactly the best way to be well-liked, is it?"

Her words made Finn's mind stray and he started to think of Rachel, probably off doing something with some other guy who would try and take her to parties and make out with her and feel her up even though she wouldn't let him or want him to.

Finn wasn't used to feeling jealous of other guys. For all of the firsts that Rachel had brought him, he never would have expected jealousy to be one of them.

"What makes you think I want to go with you?" He asked Quinn, watching as she pulled a compact mirror from her purse and began looking at her reflection. She looked up and smiled maliciously, sauntering towards him.

"Well, judging by your little mishap with Backwoods Barbie, the odds of you winning our little game are slim to none." She walked up to Finn and ran a finger down his chest, giggling almost satanically. "And, you know, once I get a few drinks in me, I can be whatever kind of girl you want me to be."

Finn rolled his eyes and laughed to himself, pushing Quinn off of him. "You turn into a raging bitch when you're drunk," he told her, peeling her arms from around his chest and pushing her away from him. "Which is no different from what you are when you're sober."

Quinn's expression dropped into anger; furrowing her brow and looking at Finn furiously.

"And you know what; I don't want to play your stupid, sick little game anymore, okay? You just do these kinds of things to fuck with people that you wish you could be more like, because you're too worried about what people think about you to be yourself." He paused for a moment, watching as Quinn scoffed and looked up at him, anger beginning to boil up in her blood.

"What, you're actually serious about this girl?"

Finn looked at Quinn and sighed, rolling his eyes. "Yeah," he told her, feeling more confident in front of her than he ever had before. "Because you know, Quinn, I love Rachel, whether you like it or not." Quinn rolled her eyes and pulled her phone out of her purse and began scrolling through her messages. "And I'm going to go find her and tell her all about what happened, and everyone's going to know about you and who you actually are."

Quinn laughed to herself and sighed, looking down at her phone. "Do whatever you want," she said, not bothering to look up from whatever text she was reading. "But you might want to go to the party tonight after all. That is, if you're still in the mood to go win back your training bra wearing girlfriend. I just got a text saying that she's making out with Sam Evans right now."

:.:.:

Rachel had never been to a party that was as crazy as the one she had been brought to by Santana and Brittany. She had originally thought that it would be like the party she had gone to the first week of moving to New York, but this was much different. People were screaming and the smell of alcohol and cigarettes permeated the air, doors to bedrooms and coat closets locked (and others unlocked) by people who found other sexual activities to be more exciting than the game of beer pong happening out in the living room.

Santana hadn't gotten quite as drunk as Brittany yet; who was already running around in her underwear and having people do body shots off of her on the ping pong table in the lounge. Rachel had been nursing the same beer she had been offered from the moment she walked in through the door, not bothering to drink from it much. She didn't like the taste of beer and didn't want to get drunk in the first place, no matter how much Santana told her that she should have.

"You look so hot tonight," Santana slurred in Rachel's ear, the two girls sitting on the couch next to one another. Santana was closer to completely falling into Rachel's lap, sipping from what Rachel assumed was her fourth or fifth drink of the night. Santana giggled and rested her chin on Rachel's shoulder, continuing to laugh incessantly. "Can I be your rebound instead?"

Rachel laughed, smelling the alcohol on the other girl's breath. "No," she told her sweetly, stroking her hair. "Besides, what would Brittany think?"

Santana giggled to herself again before standing up, teetering around in her heels and practically falling on Rachel before making her way across the people standing in front of the couch and out into the hall. Rachel took another sip of her beer and puckered her face upon tasting it, wanting to spit it back into the cup before anyone was able to see her. It tasted disgusting, and she knew that she would never acquire a taste for it.

She tipped her head back on the couch, letting her eyes fall shut. Her lips were still buzzing from the kiss she had shared earlier in the night with Sam, but she didn't have that same familiar ringing throughout her entire body like she did when she kissed Finn.

Rachel had only kissed Sam because they were playing Spin the Bottle and Rachel had been told to spin it, landing on Sam. She had met Sam in passing a few times, and he was in her English class, but they rarely ever spoke to one another. She hadn't even kissed him for very long, and it wasn't like they had tried to turn it into anything special. He had just kissed her and she had broken it before it had even started, really, because she was too busy giggling to continue kissing him.

It didn't come close to the kisses she used to share with Finn. Kissing Sam was like one big reminder to tell her that she missed Finn in every sense of the word. She missed his kisses and his arms around her waist and the way he would kiss her neck and smell her hair, making her feel like she was worth that much more to him.

Her favorite part about Finn, however, was the way his voice sounded when he told her that he loved her. Even if the moment only lasted for a few days, she missed lying in bed with him and feeling their heartbeats synchronize and having him tell her that he would never let her go, no matter what happened.

He hadn't been lying, necessarily. She was the one who had let him go.

Rachel felt her heart feel like it was going to burst in her chest and she stood up from the couch, sighing slightly before going on her way to find Santana. She didn't want to stay at a party where all she could think about was Finn – especially if he wasn't there to begin with.

Fortunately enough for Rachel, she would be to rid herself of that problem perhaps sooner than she would have hoped.

Finn was standing right in front of her, his own beer in hand.

"H-Hey," he stammered, looking down at her. He blinked once or twice, drinking in the image of Rachel in the outfit she was wearing for the night. It certainly wasn't the dress that Santana had leant to her the last time she had went to a party, but it wasn't what she normally wore, either.

She wore a slinky, black cocktail dress that was probably too tight and too short for her liking, but if Santana had dressed herself in it, she probably would have said that it wasn't tight enough. There was a sheer panel on the front that had masked the necklace she was wearing, the black bodice of the dress covering her somewhat modestly for the rest of the dress.

She still looked beautiful in Finn's eyes, whether she believed it or not.

Rachel bit down on her lip and looked up at Finn, feeling her heart beat a million times a minute.

"Hey," she said, pushing her bangs out of her eyes. She was wearing more makeup than she usually did, making sure she took precaution to make sure that she didn't streak her eyeliner or mascara when she wiped her eyes. She noticed the way he smiled at her and couldn't help but smile back at him wider, clicking her heels together nervously.

"I, um, heard you and Sam got pretty busy already tonight," Finn said, a bitter tone hidden in his voice. Rachel's eyes grew wide and she started to laugh slightly, trying to mask the fact that she was actually glad to see Finn.

"Oh, um, that was nothing," she said, waving her hand in the air to alleviate a cloud of cigarette smoke that was gathering in the room they were standing in. "Um, we were playing Spin the Bottle, and the bottle pointed at him. We didn't _really_ kiss each other, if that's what you're worried about. I laughed the entire time and I-"

"Rachel, it's okay," Finn said, interrupting her. He watched as Rachel fell into herself, mouth still agape. "I mean, it's not like I don't care, I just… you don't want me anymore, remember?"

Rachel looked down at the floor and swallowed back her tears, sighing deeply. "I suppose you're right," she said, more towards the ground than up at Finn.

The silence between them was deafening, even with the loud music pulsating through the house they were in. It was like everyone at the party faded into the background and the only ones that mattered were Finn and Rachel, standing directly in front of one another with nothing to say.

"Look, Rachel, if you'd just let me talk to you," he said, reaching out to touch her hand. She pulled her hand away from his quickly, looking back up at him and sighing before shaking her head.

"I think you already know what my answer's going to be," she told him, words weighed down with tears. "Do you even realize what you took away from me?" She asked, holding on tightly to her cup in hand. "I mean, I know it doesn't matter to a lot of the girls that go here, but I had never… I had never done something like that with anyone before, Finn. I had never… no one had ever told me that they loved me before."

Finn sighed and looked down at the floor, feeling her break apart just by talking to him. Everyone else had vacated from the room they were in; Finn assuming that someone had taken out the beer keg and was doing keg stands in the bathroom upstairs.

He was glad that he was left with Rachel, allowing him to talk to her – if she was willing to listen.

"And I trusted you," she continued, wiping her tears from her eyes, careful as not to smear her makeup in doing so. "I trusted you and thought that maybe you weren't the person that everyone had warned me about, Finn." She sighed and her shoulders fell, tears beginning to roll down her cheeks. "I guess I was wrong, though." She crossed her arms over her chest, shifting her eyes so that she wouldn't have to look at him. "You know, for someone who's supposed to make me feel so great about myself, I never feel that anymore when I'm around you," she said bitterly. "Like right now."

Finn sighed and looked at her, feeling worse than ever. "Rachel, look, I know that what I did was horrible," he began. "And there's not really anything that justifies it, or anything, but if you would just let me talk to you, for ten minutes, then I can explain everything."

Rachel looked up at him skeptically, sighing deeply.

"You want to take me away from this party, Finn?" Her voice almost sounded strained, like she was holding back her tears.

"If you want," he said, setting his cup down on a nearby side table.

"Well, then we better get going," she said, her voice lightening up and sounding slightly sweeter than it had been moments earlier. "I've always wanted to see your house, anyway."


	11. Reconciliation

Rachel had yet to see any of the homes of the students that she went to school with. Although she went to a boarding school, most of her classmates had parents who lived in the Manhattan area, spending money simply to have their kids go to a prestigious school and to get them out of the house for nine months out of the year.

She often wondered if their homes were as extravagant and as lavish as the dorm rooms, especially since they all dotted the Upper East Side and overlooked the New York skyline.

They were the kinds of apartments she dreamed of living in when she was twenty five and had established a career for herself already. Rachel had always been the girl who didn't need a man to follow around dotingly or confine herself to a wedding ring. She was too independent for something like a husband, especially with the career path she would be taking.

Maybe she would be able to distract herself from whatever Finn wanted to tell her by looking at the penthouse apartments on his street and admiring however his mother had decorated her home upon getting inside. She had only suggested going to his house because she knew that it was nearby and she wanted a change in location. The dorms got stuffy and confining over a while and if Finn was actually going to talk to her, she wanted to be able to listen to him without being distracted.

Well, she would listen to him if she actually wanted to. Rachel still wasn't sure about that quite yet.

Finn walked down the street and Rachel followed behind him, eyes wandering and looking everywhere but at him. It wasn't a very long walk to wherever Finn lived from the school campus, but it wasn't the warmest outside. October had greeted New York with blustering winds and a drop in temperature, particularly when the sun had set. The winds whipped past the skyscrapers and sent a chill down Rachel's spine, causing her to cross her arms over her chest to keep herself warm.

Finn turned the corner and noticed her walking behind him, teeth chattering as the wind picked up her hair and made it start to dance. He shifted around and pulled his jacket from his arms, stopping in front of the building under the awning that covered the entryway, Rachel coming to a halt behind him.

"You can wear my coat, if you want," he said, offering her the blazer. Finn had ran to the party in a hurry and the only jacket he could find was his blazer of his uniform, but it looked rather nice when it wasn't paired with the rest of his uniform.

Rachel had worn it before in his room and would wear it sometimes when it was too cold and they walked outside together. She eyed the jacket and sighed, unfolding her arms and placing them at her sides.

"I'm not cold," she managed to spit out, despite her teeth chattering together. "It's just not as warm as it was when I left for the party, that's all." Finn rolled his eyes and stifled a laugh, clucking his tongue as he looked at her.

"Look, Rachel, it's cold, okay? You don't have to like me to wear my jacket if you're freezing."

She looked up at him through her lashes and extended her arm out, grabbing the blazer in Finn's hand and pulled it on, her small frame drowning in the jacket.

Rachel wasn't going to show Finn that she still had feelings for him. She was supposed to feel closure and become this independent woman again, wasn't she?

Finn led her down one more block until they reached a large apartment building, ringing a bell on the side to allow them access. In no time at all the doors were unlocked and Finn walked inside, Rachel swinging the revolving door and walking through the circle until the entered the lobby, following Finn into the elevator. He pressed his finger against the button labeled 'P' for penthouse and the doors sealed shut, the car slowly beginning to rise up the many floors to wherever it was that he lived.

Rachel clicked her heels together nervously, looking down at her shoes. She sighed, snuggling into the blazer that Finn had leant her. She wouldn't make it extremely obvious, but she missed the musky smell of Finn that was left in the fabric of the blazer that he let her wear. He managed to smell like Axe cologne and cigarettes and some fruity shampoo all at the same time, and she missed it. She missed how her sheets would smell like him when he would go to her dorm and how his kisses tasted like cigarettes sometimes.

"You know, you can start explaining everything now," she said, her head still tipped down to the ground. "I'd… I'd like to hear what you have to say, Finn." She didn't really. Rachel wasn't interested in hearing about how much Finn and Quinn must have discussed how ugly she was and how much of a chore it must have been to do so much as kiss her. Rachel thought that placing bets about sleeping with people was something that was left in storybooks and horror stories from teen magazines. She never would have thought that someone would have plotted out a similar bet at her expense.

Finn sighed and looked at her, still unwilling to look back at him. "Don't you want to get inside first?" He asked, the elevator pinging and the doors opening in front of them. Rachel rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest once more, her heart beating erratically. "It's warmer inside, I promise."

"Isn't this exactly how you treated me when we first met?" She asked bitterly, pushing her hair from eyes for a moment. "Wanting to bring me back home with you just so you could win your stupid little bet and have sex with me?"

Finn walked further into the hall and Rachel followed after him, the lights turning on the further he walked inside. The living room of his house was large and spacious; floor to ceiling windows putting the New York skyline on display in front of them, the furniture looking like it cost more than what her entire college tuition would cost. There wasn't anyone home; explaining why Finn had accepted her idea of going back to his house.

"Wow," she mouthed silently, eyes wandering around the room. She didn't want to say anything else to have Finn's mind stray from the topic it was on, but the house was truly beautiful. She wondered why he would ever choose to live in a dorm on campus rather than here, in a penthouse that she could only assume was more beautiful the longer she spent inside.

"Rachel, I don't know what else to tell you," he said, running a hand through his hair nervously. "I mean, I don't know how to let you know how badly I feel about everything, and I-"

"You could apologize," she said, her voice loud and cutting about his own as she interrupted him. Finn's eyes grew large and he looked at her, watching as she stood in front of the couch, tears beginning to pique at her eyes. "You haven't spent any time apologizing to me about any of this."

He wished that their relationship was still intact so that he would be able to run up to her and hold her; stroking her hair and reassuring her that everything was going to be alright.

Of course, it wouldn't be very fitting due to the fact that she was upset with him.

"I trusted you, Finn," she continued, turning her back to face him. "I trusted you and I kept on telling myself that you were so much more different than the rest of the guys here, and I thought you were." She wiped her nose with the back of her hand, promising herself that she wasn't going to start crying again. "And you were, for a while." She laughed bitterly to herself and crossed her arms over her chest, looking down at the floor. "You loved me and I loved you and all I wanted was to be with you." Her voice caught on a sob and she shook her head, sighing. "My mistake, I guess."

Finn watched her as she stood in the corner by herself, hugging herself and holding onto the jacket he had let her wear like it was some kind of lifeline.

"Rachel, I'm sorry," he told her, feeling like he was about to cry himself. Finn was sure that he hadn't cried since he was in the eighth grade and broke his arm, but that was about something completely different. He had never cried over a girl, and never like this. He knew guys who cried about girls who wouldn't sleep with them or whatever, but those guys were pansies to begin with.

He felt like crying because of Rachel and how badly he felt about what he had done to her. She didn't deserve anything that he had done to her, and it killed him.

The best way to make her feel better, however (if there even was a way to make her feel better) was to tell her the truth.

"When you first got here, Quinn made this big deal about finding everything out about you so she could mess with you," he started, swallowing his pride. Rachel looked up at him, tears welling in her eyes. "Like, she told me that she wanted to spend a bunch of time with you or whatever just so she could find out what made you tick."

Rachel's mouth fell open and she gasped, unable to say anything.

"And so when she found out that you hadn't… _done _it yet, she made the bet with me." He could hear Rachel sniffling and she sat on the arm of the couch, her arms covered up by the sleeves of his blazer. "She said that if I slept with you by the time the school year was over, that I got to sleep with her, and if I didn't, she got to keep my car."

Rachel swallowed her tears and her face pinched up like it always did when she cried. She tried everything in her power to regain her composure in front of him. She didn't want to look like the victim in all of this, even though she was.

"So you bet sleeping with me against your car," she said through her teeth. "I'm worth that much to you."

"No," Finn said, rushing up to her and letting his hand rest against her back. Surprisingly enough to him, she didn't flinch or shrug her shoulders away when he touched her. He could feel her labored breathing and how her body raised and fell each time she tried to keep herself from completely breaking down into a pool of tears. "No, Rachel, it's not like that at all." She wiped her tears from her eyes and sighed, a shaking hand moving up to her face to brush her hair from her eyes.

"But it sounds like that," she told him, turning to look at him. Finn felt his heart wanting to pop inside his chest as he noticed her face and how broken she was; mascara running down her face and her expression tired and sad. He hadn't seen her happy and smiling in the longest time. That might have been what killed him the most.

He turned around and knelt on the floor in front of her, wanting to reach for Rachel's hands just have something of hers in his hands once more. "Rachel, I've been in love with you since the first time I saw you," he confessed, taking her by the hand. Rachel refused to look up from her lap at him, a hand pressed to her face and shaking her head from side to side. "The entire time I was with you, I was never really thinking about that stupid bet, or Quinn, or whatever." He sighed and moved a hand up to brush her hair from her face, causing Rachel to prop her head up to look at him. "All I could think about was how great you were, and how bad I felt for doing what I was doing to you."

She bit down on her lip and looked at Finn, her tears stopping. "And I still love you, Rachel," Finn told her, fixing her hair and wiping her stained makeup with her face with his thumb. "I think I'll always love you."

Rachel sniffled and looked at Finn, swallowing thickly as he touched her. She snuggled herself further into his jacket and moved her own hand up to touch his face, tipping her head to the side slightly.

"I've never been so in love with someone before you, Finn," she said, her voice soft like she was telling a secret. "And it… it _killed _me to find out about you and everything, and it just…" Her voice broke off, her eyes looking up as she searched for something else to say to him. "I needed to know if anything that happened between us was real. Because it was for me."

Finn nodded and felt tears begin to start flowing behind his eyes, but he wouldn't let her see him cry. He never cried, ever. "I love you so much, Rachel," he told her lovingly, fingers playing with her hair absentmindedly. "And all I ever want to do is keep on loving you."

She giggled sadly and practically fell into his arms, drowning in his jacket and beginning to pepper his face with kisses, Finn's arms finding purchase on her waist and holding her close to him. She found his lips and kissed him fiercely, only wanting to feel him and taste him and smell him, and nothing else. She continued to cry, her tears running onto his face as she held him close to her. Finn pulled away from her for a moment, confused.

"You're crying?"

She giggled, wiping her tears from her eyes. "I'm happy," she reassured him, bringing a hand up to his face once more. "I'm happy for you, and I'm happy for me… I'm happy for _us_."

Finn laughed and picked her up in his arms, spinning her around while he had her up in the air. She looked down at him and smiled, legs wrapping around him while giving precaution not to stab him in the sides with her heels while doing so.

He set her down on the couch and she laid down across it, Finn hovering over her. She pulled him in for one last kiss, tugging on his lip before he pulled away from her.

"I'm ready," she told him, her voice still quiet. Finn felt his heart beat faster as he looked at her lying beneath him; rubbing her knees together and biting down on her lip, teasing him without knowing that she was teasing him.

He looked at her, puzzled. "Why would you want to do it now?" He asked, stroking her cheek gently as he looked at her. "It's on my living room couch. I thought you wanted it to be special."

Rachel moved her own hand up to cover his, laughing sweetly. "It is going to be special," she told him, looking up at him with heavy eyes. "I'm going to give you something that no one else is ever going to get."

Finn looked at her and pressed a kiss to her forehead, making her nose wrinkle when she smiled at him. She felt his hands ease onto the jacket he had given her moments earlier and peeled it off of her figure, throwing it to the ground. Rachel fidgeted around on the couch beneath him and kicked her shoes off as best as she could; quickly realizing that Finn was much more skilled in the removal of clothing in a small amount of time than she was.

Her fingers played with the hem of his shirt and she looked at him like he had just sold her the world, hands daring to venture up under the fabric to feel the definition of muscle on his stomach. She gasped softly in awe and he sat up for a moment, pulling the shirt over his head. Rachel's hands found purchase on his chest as he lowered himself back down to her, kissing her neck and nibbling on her ear.

They were silent save for the heavy breathing between the two of them; Finn in too much shock to say anything and Rachel so worried that she would do something wrong that she stayed silent. Her heart stammered and she sat up, feeling Finn's hands move around to her back to unzip the dress he had admired so.

She shuddered as she could feel him peeling the fabric away from her body, although wasn't as nervous as she had anticipated herself to be. Finn had already seen her naked before, she just hadn't seen him. That was part of what frightened her so much about having sex; that moment when her clothes finally came off would either make someone even more anticipated to do the deed or leave them with a bad taste in their mouth over what she looked like once she was standing and wearing nothing but her dignity.

"S'beautiful," Finn gasped, admiring her figure upon peeling her dress from her shoulders. She hadn't bothered to wear a bra with the dress she had picked out for the evening, making him that much more surprised when he had gotten the garment around her ankles. Rachel blushed fervently and ducked her head down, trying to catch her breath. Finn smiled and tipped her head up with his finger, causing her to smile. He kissed her sweetly and she kissed him back, pushing herself down on top of him.

"I want to be on top this time," she told him, her voice soft and scratchy. Finn just looked at her, surprised.

"But we're not going to do what we did last-"

"I never said I wanted to do that," she told him, trying to sound as sexy as she could, still coming out as sounding as innocent as ever. She slid down his body and kissed his chest, short fingernails digging into his skin and making Finn feel like he was going to explode. She smiled and sat up on his lap, straddling his hips. "I want to show you how much I love you," she told him, hands fumbling with his belt buckle. "I want to touch you like how you touched me." She undid his belt and began working at the button of his pants, deftly undoing the zipper and sliding them down his legs. Her hands ghosted over the space between his legs over his boxers and she could feel him tenting them with his arousal, moving her hands away from him quickly.

She looked down at him, eyes wide. She had never felt so vulnerable and exposed before, and it wasn't even her that was in submission at the moment. She felt his touch her hands and she smiled at him sweetly, moving her hands and trying her best to tug his boxers down his hips without breaking out into tears.

It wasn't like she was even performing some fantastic gesture of love, anyway. She just wanted to reciprocate what he had done for her earlier.

She dipped her head down between his legs and could feel Finn's labored breathing synchronize with her own. She had never given anyone a blowjob before, but she had done her research – reading Brittany's copies of Cosmopolitan had obvious paid off in some way. She tried to run through all of the pointers the magazine had given her, licking her lips slowly and looking up at Finn through her dark eyelashes.

Her eyes remained trained on the length of him, wrapping her small hand around him and beginning to pump at him slowly, biting down on her lip subconsciously.

(If she only knew how crazy she drove Finn every time she bit down on her lip like that, then she would know that doing it at the moment was a horrible idea.)

"Rachel," he groaned, making her afraid that she would clench her hands around him and hurt him. She giggled sweetly and ducked her head further down between his legs, letting her jaw hang loose and darting her tongue out in front of him, licking him from base to tip. Finn felt a chill go down his spine and Rachel figured that it was a good thing, pressing a kiss to the head of his cock, letting her tongue slip out before pulling her lips away.

Finn felt his blood begin to boil as she pulled her mouth away from him, her hand still firmly clasped around the length of him. She looked down at him, almost looking like she was afraid.

"Was… was that okay?"

Finn's eyes nearly rolled into the back of his head as he sat up and grabbed Rachel by the waist. "Yes," he blurted, his voice sounding about three decibels higher than he wanted it to. "I m-mean, um, yeah, baby. You're perfect."

Rachel ducked her head back between his legs and smiled after she had been praised for her ministrations and continued, taking Finn into her mouth eagerly and starting to suck lightly, afraid that she would hurt him if she went into everything too quickly. Finn tipped his head back and let his fingers root through her hair, urging her to continue what she was doing.

She pumped her hands around him and took as much of his cock into her mouth as she could, humming as she did so. (That's what it told her to do in the magazine, so she followed it like it was her bible.) She watched as Finn leaned back on the bed and continued to push her head between his legs, fingers threaded through her hair. She could feel his breathing becoming more labored and swore she could feel his heart beat in tandem with her own, only causing her to intensify what she was doing.

Finn sat up quickly and caused Rachel to release him from her mouth with an audible pop, looking up at him with a worried expression on her face. He crawled over to her on his knees, knowing that the image of Rachel Berry on her hands and knees wearing nothing but a skimpy pair of underwear would be burned into the back of his head for eternity.

"Did I do something wrong?" She asked innocently, sitting up so that she was on her knees. Finn joined her and grabbed her by the neck, kissing her fiercely. He bit down on her lip and tugged at it slightly as he pulled away from her, a hand rooted in her hair.

"No," he told her, pressing kisses to her jawline. "You're perfect, baby girl." She kissed him back and let her hands rest on his shoulders, looking at him sweetly. "I just didn't want to… you know. Lose it there."

She lay back down on the couch without a word, bringing Finn back with her so that he lay on top of her, his hands finding purchase on her hips. He kissed her on the jaw and around her ear, hands mussing through her hair.

"I love you so much, Rachel," he whispered in her ear, holding her as close to him as she could. "So, so much." She giggled and drew him as close to her as she could, feeling his fingers hook in the elastic of her underwear as he started to pull them down her legs. She didn't shiver or move her hands down to stop him this time; hitching her legs up around his waist once the garment reached her ankles.

Finn looked down at her and started to labor his breathing once more, adjusting himself so that he would be able to thrust into her without a problem. Rachel looked back up at him, biting down on her lip before bringing a hand up to caress him neck.

"I love you too," she told him, her voice soft. "I love you so much."

Finn bent down to press a kiss to her lips and then her jaw, peppering kisses down her neck and chest as he thrust into her. She gasped and bucked up off of the couch slightly upon first feeling him slide into her, her face pinching like it normally did when she cried.

He pulled out of her quickly and looked at her, searching for her signs of pain. "Rach, are you okay?"

She nodded slowly, letting her eyes open so she could look at him. "Yes," she said, voice soft and broken. "Just… I just… I need you, Finn. All of you."

Finn touched Rachel's cheek with his thumb and bent back down to kiss her again, shifting around until he was able to thrust into her again. Rachel mewled softly and dug her nails into his strong, broad back, feeling helpless underneath him. The pain she felt slowly started to turn into bliss; her lips able to crash into his as he continued.

She looked in his eyes and felt Finn's breathing intensify, watching as he looked down at her. He was moving at such a glacial pace that it made her want him even more; letting her relish in every moment they had with one another.

He pulled out of her quickly and looked at her, out of breath. Rachel furrowed her brow and looked at him from her position on the couch, still sore from moments earlier.

"Are you alright?"

He looked at her, unsure of what to say. "I need to…"

She already knew what he wanted and sat up further on the couch, motioning for him to come closer. "Come here," she said, watching as Finn walked towards her. She had read about this in Cosmo and figured that it would be somewhat romantic, even if it was supposed to be a special moment between them.

Her lips wrapped around his cock once more and she let her free hand clamp around him again, sucking at him and pumping her hand until Finn was able to release himself, Rachel milking him for all he was worth. She looked up at him and swallowed, making a face slightly as she looked at him.

Finn just looked down at Rachel, unsure of what to say.

"Rachel, you didn't have to-"

"It's fine," she told him, standing up and walking towards him, a small smile on her face. "I… I kind of wanted to, anyway." Finn smiled at her and she giggled, wiping the sheen of sweat that had begun to collect on her brow.

Finn grabbed her by the waist and pulled her down on the couch, grabbing the blanket that was draped over the back and spreading it out so that it covered both of their naked frames, Rachel snuggling into his chest.

"This means that you'll never let me go, right?" She asked, her eyes falling shut as she found his hand beneath the blanket. Finn smiled and rested his chin on her head, burrowing his nose in her hair and kissing her on the top of the head.

"I never want to let you go," he told her, holding her as close to her as he possibly could. He gave her hand a squeeze and she giggled, her neck craning up so she could nuzzle his own. "I promise, Rachel. I love you too much to ever lose you."

She smiled and rested her head against his chest once more, sighing deeply.

"I love you too," she assured him, her voice scratchy and echoing in the large living room. "I love you so much, Finn."


	12. The Accident

**Hi everyone! I am so sorry for the big delay in updating – I had been super busy with finals and the show I was working in outside of school, and of course, Christmas happened! I promise that the rest of the updates will stay consistent, and there aren't many left! Thanks so much for sticking with me – I promise you won't be disappointed!**

Finn was sure that the house had never been quieter.

Sure, there were the times when no one was ever there – which was most of the time – and it was left empty, the only sounds being the occasional ring of the telephone that no one was there to answer or the clock chiming every hour on the hour. Both Finn and Kurt lived on campus for the majority of the year and his parents were always gone; either away on business or on some three-day vacation that the boys just didn't go on because it was during the school year. The penthouse was almost always still and silent, not many people making their way inside and staying for very long.

But now, even with all of those familiar sounds still there, Finn still felt that it was the quietest the place had ever been. The two of them lay on the couch together, Rachel in front of Finn with a blanket pulled over the both of them.

Finn wrapped his arm around Rachel's waist and pulled her closer, extracting a whimper from her.

"Hey," he said, moving a hand up to her hair. "You okay?"

Rachel turned over onto her other side, looking at Finn longingly. She laughed softly and moved her hand to touch his hand, looking at it carefully while as she picked it up.

"Yes," she said, her voice still soft and sweet. She was whispering despite the fact that no one else was there, like she was telling him a secret in front of an audience of no one. "I just… I don't know." She brought a hand up to his face and touched his cheek, letting her hand linger for a moment. "I feel different."

He looked at her and smiled, touching her hand. "Like, good different? Or what?"

Rachel sighed and bit down on her lip as she looked up at Finn, letting her fingers dance across his chest. She was almost afraid to touch him too much; for the fear that he would react the same way she would if he were to do the same to her. She felt like her entire body had been set ablaze; electricity coursing through her veins even after they were done doing the deed.

She brought her hand up to his face and traced the outline of the freckles that spanned across the bridge of his nose, giggling as she watched his face wrinkle in response to her touch.

"Just different," she told him, feeling Finn pull her in closer to him, her chest pressed up against his own. "Like, it's almost like something huge changed or something." Finn looked at her and laughed, pressing a kiss to her hair.

"I mean, you did just have sex, or whatever."

"I know," she said, grabbing his hand again. "But I did it with you." Rachel tipped her head up and pressed a kiss to Finn's lips, feeling him draw her closer to him, making the space between them on the couch non-existent. She pulled away from him for a moment and Finn kissed her again, fingers rooting through her hair and pulling her closer to him, her face crushing up against his own.

They stayed that way for a while, hands fumbling underneath the blanket for something to grab onto while their lips hardly parted. Rachel felt Finn grab her by the waist and hold her in his arms, feeling her breath catch in her throat. She pulled away from him and could feel tears springing from her eyes, not bothering to wipe them away as they ran down her cheeks.

Finn looked at her the moment he noticed that she was crying, beginning to worry. "Rach," he started, stopping everything he was doing and wiping the tears from her face. "What's wrong?"

She shook her head and smiled, resting her hand against his own once more. "Nothing," she told him, biting down on her lip as an attempt to stop her crying. "I just… I've never had someone like you before, Finn." She sighed and fixed her hair, her breath catching on a sob. "I love you so much."

Finn smiled as she spoke, tightening his grip around her. "I love you too, Rachel," he told her, kissing her once more. "I love you so much."

:.:.:

Rachel had tried to ignore Quinn as much as she could since moving to New York. It was made easier due to the fact that they only had one class with one another (a class that she didn't share with Finn), and Rachel liked anatomy, anyway. She was good at it and didn't need to talk much during the class unless she was called on to answer a question.

Quinn, however, had different motives.

"Rachel," she called one day after the teacher had dismissed class early. The students were allowed to do whatever they wanted as long as they stayed in the classroom, and Rachel had chosen to work on her homework for the class, which was something that students rarely chose to do. Rehearsals for the show had been intensifying lately, and she needed all the free time she could get to finish her homework.

The brunette looked up from her text book and looked at Quinn, feigning a smile as best as she could. "Hi," she said, tipping her head back down to finish answering the question she was working on.

Quinn rolled her eyes and looked at Rachel with a sneer before plastering the fake smile back onto her face and sitting down on the corner of her desk, almost like a teacher would. "You know, I really loe your sweaters, Rachel. You always look so… put together."

Rachel looked down at her chest, examining the sweater she was wearing. It was the same sweater Quinn had on. All of the girls had the same sweater, just in different colors. Rachel, however, was wearing her red one today, and so was Quinn.

"We're wearing the same sweater," she told Quinn, quirking an eyebrow towards her. "We all wear uniforms here."

Quinn felt her face begin to pink as Rachel caught her bluff, trying everything she could to save herself from being embarrassed. She rolled her eyes slightly and looked down at Rachel once more, racking her brain to see if there was anything else she could bring up that might cause Rachel to feel the slightest bit insecure about whatever it was.

"So, I hear you and Finn are back at it," she said, looking down at her shoes. Rachel snapped her head back up to look at Quinn, avoiding her homework all together. "I mean, congratulations, really. I think you two deserve it. You know, just, knowing what you've been through and everything."

Rachel felt her heart skip a beat. It had only been a weekend after she and Finn had reconciled, and Quinn had already found out about it. She thought that as long as she or Finn didn't say anything about the matter that no one would know about what had happened, but clearly, she had managed to find out.

While she was surprised, another part of her felt like she shouldn't have been so surprised. Everyone knew everything about each other at her school. It was like she was just another blip on the radar that happened every few weeks or so and no one cared about it. It probably wasn't an event unless there was a pregnancy or death involved.

"We are," Rachel said, trying to extract every drop of confidence from her voice that she could. She figured that if she didn't say anything too specific, that Quinn wouldn't know what she was talking about. For all she knew, Quinn was making things up just to mess with her. "We just… reconciled over the weekend, that's all." Rachel picked her pencil back up once again and looked into her book, hoping it would cause Quinn to leave her alone. "Thanks for expressing your concern."

"Oh, I'm not concerned," Quinn said, sliding off of the edge of the desk and looking down at Rachel, causing the other girl to tip her head up to see her. "I'm just wondering how long it's going to take until you give it up to him, that's all."

Rachel didn't want to bring up anything regarding Quinn and Finn and how she had learned about the stupid game the two of them had created about her. She figured that the longer she didn't say anything, the longer she could ignore Quinn all together.

"I don't think that's any of your business," Rachel said, a sneer hidden in her voice. "The bell's about to ring, and I don't see why-"

"Of course it's my business," Quinn quipped, pressing a hand to her chest. Rachel swallowed thickly, looking at her like she had the power to cut her head off if she truly wanted to. "It's everyone's business, Rachel. Who you sleep with… whether or not you actually sleep with anyone, actually." Rachel looked at Quinn and felt her face begin to turn pink, her eyes diverting away from Quinn as she towered over her.

Quinn looked at Rachel, quirking an eyebrow as she recoiled back into herself. "And, as far as I know, you're still a virgin, aren't you Berry?" Rachel worried her lip between her teeth and studied her book once more, focusing more on the human skeletal structure than whatever Quinn was talking to her about.

"You'd be surprised how much you don't know about a person," Rachel said through pursed lips. She didn't know how to shoo her away without being completely obvious. "Maybe you shouldn't believe everything you hear."

Rachel shut the cover to her book and looked up at Quinn as she stood, brushing off her skirt before collecting her books. "Finn and I love each other," she said, turning around and walking past Quinn as she made her way out of the classroom.

Quinn opened her mouth to say something back to Rachel, but by the time she had thought up a witty enough retort, the bell had rang and Rachel was out the door.

:.:.:

"I think that they should just cancel rehearsals for the week," Rachel groaned, searching for her room key. She was walking back to her room after practice for the day, Finn's hand in her own. "I mean, I just don't see why we have to stay after class, day after day… your school really likes to rehearse their shows for a long time, huh?" She swung Finn's hand in her own and stood up on her toes, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

Finn looked down at her and smiled, watching her as she unlocked her door and swung it open, revealing it to be empty.

"Is Brittany gone for the night?" Finn asked, looking around the room. Rachel set her bags down on the floor near her dresser, nodding.

"Yes," she exclaimed, walking back over to Finn and standing on her toes so she was able to see him completely (or most of him, anyway), her hands thrown over his shoulders. "She and Santana have cheerleading practice all night."

A wolfish grin spread across Finn's face, causing a crease to form over Rachel's brow. She felt his arms wrap around her waist and pull her close, nuzzling his nose into her hair.

"So you have your room all to yourself?" Rachel looked up at him and giggled, pressing a kiss to his lips.

"Yes," she told him, her nose wrinkling up on her face as she laughed. She felt Finn's hands grab her by the waist and pick her up in his arms, causing her to giggle wildly while he had her in his grip. A squeal escaped her lips as Finn set her on the bed, crawling over her and pressing kisses to her neck.

"Finn," she managed to get out, sitting up slightly and pushing him off of her. She giggled and brought her hands back up over his shoulders. "What are you doing?"

He pushed her back down on the bed and started to kiss her neck, Rachel mewling softly beneath him.

"You've been playing the innocent for way too long," he told her, pushing her hair out of her eyes. Rachel looked at him, eyes wide. The accusatory tone hidden in his voice worried her, making her hand move up to the side of his face.

"Finn, I-"

He silenced her with a kiss and she fell limp under him, practically gasping for air as he kissed her. He silenced her and pressed a lasting kiss to her lips before pulling away from her. "I'm going to fuck you how _I _want to fuck you," he whispered in her ear, Rachel's heart beginning to beat a mile a minute. "Just relax, Rach."

She did what he was told, surprise to him. Rachel looked up at him with wide eyes, relaxing herself as Finn hovered over her.

He shucked his blazer and descended down her body, hands finding purchase on her hips. She looked down at him and her breath caught in her throat, hearing her heart begin to beat in her ears.

After a while, however, Rachel started to giggle and looked at Finn, hooking her legs up around his waist.

"I love you," she told him, a smile covering her face.

Finn looked up at Rachel, refraining from kissing her for a moment. He watched as she giggled and her nose wrinkled up on her face, eyes sparkling as she looked at him like he had the entire world in the palm of his hand.

Rachel looked at him, brow furrowing slightly.

"What's wrong?"

Finn laughed and looked down at Rachel, pressing a kiss to her cheek.

"It's nothing," he told her, squeezing her waist. She giggled, Finn moving his hand lower on her waist. "I love you too, Rachel."

:.:.:

"So, you and the Green Giant are back together?" Santana looked at Rachel as she sat on Brittany's bed, throwing her phone and catching it over again. Rachel wasn't paying attention; finding more interest in doing her makeup in the mirror than listening to Santana talk about how surprised she was that she and Finn had reconciled.

"Yes," Rachel said, searching through her makeup bag for a tube of mascara. She was getting ready for some night out with Finn and Kurt that he had sprung on her moments before her final class of the day had let out, leaving her only with a few minutes to get ready after rehearsal was finished. "Don't – don't make a big deal out of it or anything though, okay? Finn and I are just… we're just dating. We're not… super serious or anything."

She was lying to herself, and she knew that she was. Rachel loved Finn and Finn loved her, and that was all there was to it. She loved his smile and how he liked to pick her up when he kissed her, his only excuse being that she was too short to reach him otherwise. She loved how he had constellations of freckles across his nose, and she loved how his hair all matted to one side when he woke up in the morning. Rachel loved every part of Finn. She just didn't want to tell Santana that she did.

"Please," Santana said, reclining back on the bed. "You love him."

Rachel looked at her reflection in the mirror, finding it harder to go on without breaking out into a fit of giggles. She tipped her head down and looked at her feet, Santana smiling.

"I don't see how it's any of your-"

"You love him," Santana said, beginning to laugh. "You're just afraid to admit it. Admit it to me, anyway."

She didn't know why Santana always pried her for information, but it worked more than half the time.

"Fine," she finally said, turning off her curling iron and wrapping the cord around the barrel. "I love him." Santana smiled, sitting up so she could look at Rachel once more. "But that's none of your business, Santana. You can't talk to anyone about us, alright?"

Santana quirked an eyebrow and folded her arms over her chest. "Why not? You seemed like all you wanted to do is fall in love with him, and you did. And he loves you back, doesn't he?" Rachel looked at herself in the mirror and ran a hand through her hair, tousling it slightly.

"Yes."

"Well, then you're happy, right? That's all you've really wanted, is to be happy?"

"Yes. But Santana, you don't-"

"Yeah, I know you think I don't understand, or whatever, but Rachel, you're in love with him and he's in love with you. You just seem like the type to want to scream that from the rooftop that'll get you the most listeners, so I just figured…" Her voice trailed off, followed by an eye roll. "I won't tell anyone, okay? I get that you're trying to fall under the radar of everyone."

Rachel beamed in the mirror and adjusted her dress, pulling the straps up higher on her shoulders. "Thanks, Santana," she said, turning over her shoulder to see her sitting on the bed. She giggled and gave herself a once over before grabbing her jacket and purse.

"Hey," Santana said, getting Rachel's attention before she became too preoccupied with getting ready once more. Rachel turned around, her hair swinging behind her.

"Just… be careful, alright? With Quinn, I mean." Rachel's smile fell and she looked at Santana, who suddenly looked like she was actually serious. "She's a bitch."

Rachel flipped her hair over her shoulder and looked at Santana, smiling slightly.

"Thanks," she said, searching through her purse nervously for her phone. "You're, um… you're really not that bad, Santana."

Santana looked at Rachel, her smile still there. "I've always thought so."

Rachel giggled and swung her purse over her shoulder, heading towards the door. She liked Santana now, anyway. She was better than most of the girls she went to school with, and Rachel could handle that.

:.:.:

"Stunning," Kurt exclaimed as Rachel stood in front of him, Finn's hand in her own. Kurt had picked out the restaurant for the night, bringing his own boyfriend, Blaine Anderson, along with him. "You truly have a beautiful girlfriend, Finn."

Rachel giggled and felt Finn squeeze her hand, causing her to look up at him.

"I haven't even taken my jacket off yet, Kurt," Rachel quipped, letting go of Finn's hand for a moment to undo the tie around her waist that held her jacket to her frame. Kurt rolled his eyes and Blaine looked at her with a smile.

"Well, you look nice even with your jacket on," he said, looking at Kurt. "You're a very pretty girl, Rachel."

Rachel couldn't help but beam as she removed her jacket, Finn offering to take it from her as she slid into the booth of the restaurant. "Thank you," she said sweetly, giggling as she looked at Kurt and Blaine. "You two look rather nice yourselves."

Finn slide in next to her and she felt his arm wrap around her waist, pulling her closer to him. She smiled and looked up at him, bearing her teeth in a grin. She loves him, and she knows that he knows it. It's fine, though. He loves her just as much.

They spent a while talking before their food comes; the musical being the main topic of conversation. Every few minutes Rachel gave Finn a light jab in the ribs; her and Kurt and Blaine all taking the time to laugh about how he doesn't know what certain technical terms are in the theatre, and she finds it to be hilarious.

"I think I should just review every theatrical term with you after this show ends," she told him with a smile, grabbing his hand underneath the table before giving it a squeeze. "That should fix everything, wouldn't it?"

They laughed at Finn's expense and he rolled his eyes, looking around the restaurant for a moment.

Rachel looked distracted as she looked down into her plate of food, and Finn was glad.

Through the front door of the restaurant walked Quinn, some girl trailing behind her. She was the last person he wanted to see, and he was sure that he was the last person Rachel wanted to see, too. He kept his eyes trained on her as she was directed to a table by the maître, worried that she would be seated close to them.

"Well, look who it is," Quinn said, eyeing her as she sat in the booth with Finn. "How's your dinner, Berry?"

Rachel looked up from her salad at stared at Quinn, eyes going wide. She didn't want to say anything, knowing that it wouldn't be worth it in the long run.

"What, are you and your boyfriend out with the gay brigade or something?"

Rachel felt her face turn red and she looked back down at her plate not wanting to say anything. She didn't understand how Quinn could be so cruel and mean-spirited and seem like she suffered nothing from it.

"That's uncalled for," Finn said, speaking up where Rachel didn't have the courage to. "Quinn, why don't you leave us alone." He set his fork down and looked at her as she walked past, flipping her hair over her shoulder arrogantly. "I'm sure you have better reasons to be here other than to just be rude everyone."

"Please," Quinn said, pulling her gloves off of her hands. "I'm sure your friends would just love to hibernate somewhere else in this storm." The snow was beginning to come down harder than it had been when they had first arrived, coating the streetlights and causing drivers to try and drive slower so as not to get into an accident. "I always thought you were different, Finn." She paused, tipping her head to the side as Rachel looked up at her. "You always seemed like such a great person… and then I found out that you actually went and slept with Rachel. Way to go, really." She offered him a sarcastic smile and a thumbs-up, rolling her eyes afterward. "So, how many bags did you end up using, one or two?"

Rachel looked down in her lap and felt Finn get up, setting his napkin down on the table. "You're really disgusting, you know that?" He told Quinn, offering his hand to Rachel. "Come on, Rach. Let's go."

Rachel looked up from her lap and noticed Kurt and Blaine beginning to put their jackets on, deciding that she should have followed suit. "Finn, it's snowing really hard out, and I-"

"Just come on," he told her, grabbing her by the hand as Kurt and Blaine left behind her. Rachel looked at Quinn over her shoulder and watched as she sneered at her, Finn still pulling at her hand as she was dragged out of the restaurant.

She heard something about Kurt picking up the bill before Finn made his way outside with Rachel in tow, causing her to become worried.

"Finn, you didn't need to do that," she told him, feeling him let go of her hand once they were standing outside of the restaurant. He scoffed and looked at her, confused.

"Rachel, I was only trying to protect you," he said, feeling his heart begin to pound in his chest. "You don't…. you don't know how cruel Quinn is."

"Of course I do," she said, trying to sound braver and stronger than she felt. "She tried to destroy my reputation, remember?" Rachel tried to walk up to Finn, attempting to grab him by the hand as he distanced himself from her. "Finn," she said, trying to get his attention. Her hand found its way through his hair, still needing to stand on her toes despite the heels she was wearing to come close to matching him in height. "I don't need you to fight my battles for me."

Finn opened his mouth to say something, but his eyes fell on Quinn coming out through the doors of the restaurant, whoever she had come with following behind her like some lost dog.

Before he could say anything to her, however, Rachel had already started.

"I don't see why you chose to come here," Rachel said, looking at Quinn and feeling a fear begin to burn in her belly. "I don't see what I ever did to you that would make you want to ruin my life like that."

Quinn scoffed and quirked and eyebrow before looking at Finn, eyeing him up carefully. "You fucking told her, didn't you?" The girl who had gone with Quinn looked scared and retreated back into the restaurant, bumping into Kurt and Blaine in the vestibule. Finn looked at Quinn and Rachel felt her stomach twist into a knot, not knowing if she knew what she had done.

"She needed to know," Finn said, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jacket. "Besides, it's not like I was even playing that stupid game with you anymore, anyway." He looked at Rachel, who looked at him longingly with Quinn standing between them. "You're a horrible person, and you should feel like shit for what you did."

Quinn rolled her eyes and walked towards Finn, pursing her lips together in a furious rage. "Please," she scoffed, crossing her arms across her chest. "Like what you did was any better? You pretended to like some girl just so you could sleep with her so you could ultimately sleep with me." She laughed to herself, her breath present in the cold air as she turned to face Rachel. "Your little boyfriend is no better than me, Rachel."

Rachel felt tears begin to spring to her eyes, stinging her in the cold wind. "He's not rude like you are," she said, gathering up the courage to walk up to him past Quinn, standing behind Finn on the edge of the curb. Her heels hook the corner of the street, causing her to teeter in the snow slightly. "You're horrible," she said, swallowing the stammer her voice wanted to fall on. "I've never met anyone just as cruel and mean-spirited and awful as you, Quinn," she said, trying to sound confident. "You must have some kind of courage to try and destroy people you've never even gotten the chance to meet."

The cars that passed them by stopped for a moment as the light turned red at the intersection at the end of the block. Quinn looked at Rachel, rolling her eyes.

"Please," she said with a scoff, hitching her purse up higher on her shoulder. "You're just some Midwest bumpkin from Nowhere, Ohio, who's never going to find her place here, or anywhere, with anyone." She walked past Rachel and turned on her heel, her purse hitting Rachel in the side, the force enough to send her falling down into the street.

Finn hadn't noticed and was about to chase after Quinn when he noticed Rachel in the street, unable to get up.

The light had turned green at the intersection and Finn tried to stop the traffic from coming, but the roads were too slick for them to do anything, let alone stop.

Rachel looked up at him and tried to get up, looking at a car that had tried to stop; its wheels beginning to skid against the ice. Finn jumped in the street and Rachel could feel him push her aside, not realizing what was happening in the small amount of time that it was happening in.

All she knew was that Finn had gotten hit by a car. And there was nothing she could do about it.


	13. Scenes From A Hospital

She had never really been inside a hospital before. Sure, she had been in the waiting room of a hospital, out where everyone's happy and there's not the impending fear of people coming on stretchers and nurses running around like they do on TV shows, asking if they can get their patients' vitals or if they're going to make it through the procedure.

Everything had turned into a blur after she had seen the car speeding towards her in the street. At first, Rachel had thought that she was the one who had gotten hit, but upon opening her eyes after everything had happened, she had come to the realization of what had actually happened.

Kurt and Blaine had rushed out of the restaurant after they had seen what had happened, pushing past Quinn who was still there, standing in shock and unable to move. All Rachel could remember was the person who had been driving climbing out of the car, and Finn lying in the street feet away from her.

If she had been more mentally present, Rachel would have thought she was in the middle of a really bad dream.

After that, however, she had fallen down on the median of the street that Finn had pushed her on to. Once she opened her eyes again, she was lying in a hospital bed, unsure of her surroundings.

Santana and Brittany were sitting in the chairs that sat on either side of her bed.

Rachel sat up in the bed quickly, hair disheveled and falling in her face. "Where am I?" She asked, looking at Santana. "W-Where's Kurt, and where's Finn?" Santana stood up from the chair she had been sitting in, rushing to Rachel.

"Santana," Rachel said, grabbing the other girl by the arm. "Where's Finn?"

Brittany looked at Santana, tears beginning to spring to her eyes. Rachel noticed Brittany and felt her heart begin to pound in her chest. She had never seen Brittany cry before.

"You're at the hospital," Santana told Rachel, bringing a hand up to her face and fixing her hair. "You twisted your ankle when you fell and the doctors wanted to check you for a concussion." Santana sat on the side of the bed and fixed Rachel's hospital gown, pulling it down off of her shoulders slightly.

Rachel looked at Santana, worry still in her eyes. "Where's Finn, Santana?"

Santana looked over at Brittany, who looked back at Santana with a frown. Rachel watched as she and Santana seemed to exchange something between the two of them, worried for what might have happened to him.

"Santana," she said again, feeling tears spring to her eyes. "What happened to Finn?"

Santana placed her hand on top of Rachel's, looking at her and feeling her breath catch in her throat. "Finn, um, he's here," she said, wiping a tear from her eye. "The doctors said that he got hit pretty hard by the car and that they've put him on all of these monitors and stuff…" Rachel looked at Santana and felt herself begin to cry, hiding her face in her hands the longer Santana went on talking. "He's still… he's still alive, I mean, he just hasn't woken up yet." Santana grabbed Rachel by the hand and gave it a small squeeze as she watched her continue to cry, fixing her hair with the other hand. "The doctors said that it might take a while, but he'll wake up eventually. We just have to wait for that to happen."

Rachel looked down in her lap and felt her breath catch as she continued to cry, letting go of Santana's hand and wrapping her arms around her waist, hugging herself.

There was a long silence between the girls in the room, Rachel's crying the only sound in the room. Santana looked at Brittany, who had gotten up and walked up to the opposite site of Rachel's hospital bed. She fixed Rachel's hair and smiled, placing her hand on her back.

"The doctors said that you can probably walk on your ankle if you want to try," she said, smiling slightly. "Finn's in the room down the hall. We can take you to go see him."

Rachel looked up from her lap and at Santana and Brittany, trying to collect herself as best as she could.

"I want to see him," she said, sitting up further in her bed. "Right now."

:.:.:

Rachel found that she was able to walk on her ankle without it hurting too much. She had done nothing more than twisted it after falling down in the shoes she had been wearing, which was mainly her fault to begin with. Santana and Brittany led her to the room Finn had been in, Rachel wondering the entire time if she would have been able to walk into the room without breaking down into a puddle of tears. She didn't think she would know how to handle seeing Finn in a hospital bed, unconscious and out of touch with everything around him.

It was hard enough for her to watch _Grey's Anatomy _and see patients played by actors fall into comas and never wake up. She was sure it was an entirely different story when the person in the coma was someone she actually knew and loved with her whole heart.

Upon walking into the room, Rachel noticed Kurt and Blaine sitting on a couch on one side of the room, with two adults who Rachel assumed were Kurt and Finn's parents sitting in a pair of chairs next to them.

"Oh, my God," Kurt exclaimed as Rachel walked in, limping slightly and favoring her injured foot. She was still in her hospital gown, Santana having loaned her the cardigan she had been wearing so as to save her modesty when she walked down the hall. He ran up to her and grabbed her in a hug, squeezing her tighter than he had originally intended. "Rachel, I'm so glad you're alright." Kurt let go of her and backed away for a moment, taking a moment to take in the image of her. She looked like she had just woken up; her hair slightly matted down on the back of her head and her makeup ruddy, her hospital gown hanging on her frame and wrinkling slightly at the hem.

"I want to see Finn," she said, trying to push past Kurt slightly so she could see Finn. All she saw was a hospital bed behind them, her short stature keeping her from seeing Finn behind Kurt.

"You're tired," Kurt said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Rach, you passed out after the accident. You're probably really tired, and you just need to sit down, and-"

"Kurt, I want to see him. Now."

Kurt sighed and looked at his parents for a moment, who stood from their chairs and left the hospital room, Santana and Brittany leaving with them. Blaine looked at Kurt, who took Rachel by the hand.

"Rachel, you don't want to do this. You should sit down and rest your ankle."

She looked at Kurt and felt tears begin to well in her eyes once more, feeling helpless as she stood in front of him. Even if Kurt were to let her rush to Finn's bedside, there wouldn't be anything she could do about the state he was in. Her boyfriend had been hit by a car and now he was in a coma.

Not only that, but he had jumped in front of that car so that she wouldn't have been the one to get hit. She could have been the one that was forced to lie in the hospital bed that Finn was lying in, and he was the one that made it so she didn't have to be.

"What w-was the last thing the doctors said?" Rachel asked, finding the courage to say something without completely turning into a mess.

"They said that he's going to be okay," Kurt said, squeezing Rachel by the hand. "And that, even though he got hit by a car, the amount of injuries he sustained is pretty minimal." Rachel felt herself begin to want to cry and she bit down on her lip to keep herself from actually sobbing. "But, um, they did say that he was going to be in a coma for what could be a few days, but no more than that, and that he may have some memory loss when he recovers, but nothing serious."

Rachel wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and found it difficult to say anything, her tears making up most of the conversation she was having with Kurt. "I just wanted to see him and make sure that he was okay," she said, sniffling and wiping her nose with the back of her hand. "I didn't think that…"

Kurt squeezed Rachel's hand and pulled her in for a hug, feeling her arms wrap around him and hold him closer to him her nails clawing into his back and gripping onto him like he was a lifeline.

He understood why she was acting the way she was – for the most part, anyway. Kurt knew that if Blaine had ever been hit by a car and ended up in a coma, he would be holding on to Rachel for dear life and crying into her shoulder the way she was doing to him right now.

Rachel pulled away from Kurt for a moment and looked at him, making Kurt reach over and wipe the tears away from her face.

"His phone is ringing," she said, eyes focused on the nightstand at the side of his table. She looked past Kurt and pointed at his phone, beginning to collect herself a bit. "Over there. His phone's ringing."

Kurt and Blaine turned their heads to see Finn's phone vibrating on the desk next to his bed. Kurt walked over and picked it up, answering it.

"Hello?" There was a long silence, Rachel watching and Kurt's face fell the longer he stayed on the phone with whoever had called Finn. Clearly, it was someone who didn't know about his accident, so she could have assumed that it was someone completely horrible.

Kurt pulled the phone away from his ear and looked at Rachel and Blaine, pressing the phone to his chest.

"It's Quinn," he said with a sigh. "She's in the waiting room. She wants to know if everything's okay."

Rachel felt her stomach churn. She had forgotten all about Quinn, and frankly, she didn't want to remember. If she remembered correctly, anyway, Quinn was the one who had knocked her into the street (whether or not she had done it on purpose was an entirely different story, but she had still knocked her into the street). If that hadn't happened, Finn wouldn't be lying in a hospital bed.

"Tell her that we're busy," Blaine quipped, crossing his arms across his chest and reclining back on the uncomfortable couches the hospital had decorating its rooms. Rachel looked at him, noticing that he looked like he was on the brink of tears. "Besides, why would she ever want to know if everything's okay?" Rachel sighed, crossing her own arms across her chest. "She's the one that messed everything up in the first place."

"Let me talk to her," Rachel said, her voice ringing out over the other two. Both Kurt and Blaine turned to face her, shock on their faces.

"Rachel, you-"

"No," she told Kurt, not feeling as horrible about everything as she once had. "I want to talk to her."

She had to do this. She had told Finn that she was going to start fighting her own battles, after all. This was just going to have to be one of the biggest ones she conquered.

:.:.:

She had asked the nurse if she was able to go out to the waiting room, making up some lie about how one of her dads was there to see her and just the thought of going into an emergency room made him sick. It worked, and she was granted permission to roam the waiting room, which really didn't cause any danger to her. She had only sprained her ankle and was able to walk on it when she favored it.

She was surprised that her lie had worked. She was, however, an actress. She was supposed to be able to lie her way out of whatever situation came her way.

It took Rachel a while to scan the large waiting room, her eyes looking for the slightest glimpse of Quinn. Most of the people in the room were either bandaged or recovering from some cut or bump or bruise that had clearly caused them to come to the ER, but they didn't frighten Rachel like they would have in the past.

Now that she had seen Finn in a hospital bed, there wasn't really much that could cause her to feel the same level of queasiness that she had upon waking up in the hospital.

She adjusted the sweater that Santana had loaned her on her shoulders and continued to walk around the waiting room until she finally noticed a pair of shoes that she recognized.

They were the same expensive boots that Quinn was wearing at the restaurant, if she remembered correctly.

"Oh, my God," her voice rang through the waiting room, the blonde standing up and looking at Rachel. Part of Rachel was glad that she didn't rush to her and hope to grab her in a hug, because she wouldn't have known if she was supposed to hug her back or not.

Whether what she did was on accident or not, Quinn had pushed Rachel in front of a moving car and didn't have anything to say about it. She wasn't going to be that quick to forgive her.

"Rachel, you…" Quinn's voice trailed off as she took in the image of Rachel standing before her, hugging herself in the oversized sweater that was doing a decent job at covering her hospital gown, looking more pathetic than ever. Her makeup had long left her face and she looked tired, like she had just run a marathon, only she didn't have the glow that someone who had just run a marathon would have. She looked like part of her was missing.

"You look great," she said, lying through her teeth. Rachel sniffled slightly and sat down in the chair next to Quinn, which was far much more uncomfortable than the chairs in the hospital rooms. "You… what did the doctors say?"

"I twisted my ankle," she replied, staring at the television set that was mounted on the ceiling instead of Quinn. Some late night talk show was on. The sound was turned off but she was able to make out the subtitles if she tried really hard, so she did. She didn't really want to spend her time receiving any of Quinn's false sympathy. "The doctors said that I would be fine and that I should just rest it for a week."

She didn't have the heart to tell her about what had happened to Finn. At least, not if she wasn't going to ask.

"Oh," Quinn said, looking down into her lap. "I'm… I'm sorry, Rachel. That really sucks."

"Yeah," she said, playing with the hem of her hospital gown. "I mean, I'm hoping it'll be healed by the time the show starts, but it all depends how long I can rest it for." _You're lucky, _she thought to herself. _At least you weren't hit by a car._

"Oh," was all Quinn could say, shifting around nervously. The tension between the two girls was so palpable; it could be cut with a butter knife. "You know, Rachel, I didn't mean to knock you down, or anything, I just… I turned around too fast and I-" She paused, sniffling slightly. Rachel turned to face her, trying not to appear too shocked. She never would have guessed that Quinn had the ability to cry, but, much to her surprise, she did. "I'm so sorry."

"It's fine," Rachel said, feeling her own emotions begin to get the best of her. "I mean, I'm not even the one who really got hurt." She didn't know if she had the heart to come out and say what she wanted to say. All she knew was that she didn't want to find out by regretting anything she said.

Quinn looked up from her lap and turned her head to face Rachel.

"How's Finn?"

Rachel sniffled and looked back down into her lap. "He's, um… he's fine," she said, lying. "I mean, I don't know that much, but from what Kurt told me, the doctors said that he's going to be okay."

Quinn sat up in her chair, like she was relieved or something. Rachel couldn't bring herself to look at her. She didn't know if she was too afraid or too upset about talking about Finn or what, but she couldn't do it.

"He's in a coma right now, Quinn," she finally said, the own words that came out of her mouth scaring her a bit. Rachel felt Quinn turn to face her, sounding like she was shocked herself. She should have been. It wasn't her fault that Finn had ended up the way he had, but if Quinn hadn't had been so rude to them at the restaurant, Finn never would have had the reason to push Rachel out of the street so that she wouldn't have been hit by a car.

Quinn looked at Rachel, fear in her eyes. "A c-coma?"

Rachel just nodded, fixing her hair. "Yes. The doctors said that he should wake up in a few days, at the most, but he might have some memory loss when he does." She sniffled softly to herself, trying her best not to let Quinn see her cry. "He might not remember you, or Kurt, or me…" She stopped, wiping her eyes as she looked down into her lap. She collected herself for a moment and sighed, tipping her head up to look at Quinn.

"Why did you do what you did?" She asked, swallowing her tears as best as she could. "I know that you don't like me, but I don't know why you had to make a big game up about how much you didn't like me." Rachel sighed and tried to hide her crying as best as she could. She didn't want to cause a scene in the waiting room.

Quinn looked at her and sighed, watching as Rachel continued to cry. "Rachel, I'm sorry," she said, feeling tears begin to well in her own eyes. "I never thought that… I never thought that it would turn into all of _this._" She sighed and watched as Rachel reached for a tissue from the box of Kleenex that sat on the side table by the chair she was sitting in. "If I could take everything back that I did to you, I would."

Rachel rolled her eyes and looked at Quinn, folding her arms over her chest. "Of course you would," she said, her voice biting. "You would take back anything mean that you did to me just to look like a better person. I get it." She sighed and wiped a tear from her eye before it fell down her cheek. "I just don't understand why you would think what you did would be entertaining. I hated you for what you did to me," she snapped, brushing her hair from her eyes.

"Rachel, I-"

"I hated you!" She started to break down again, feeling her tears well in her eyes again. "But I kept on telling myself that maybe, if I was nice to you or whatever, that we could be friends." Quinn looked at Rachel and watched as she collected herself again, adjusting herself in her chair. She did it every time she started to cry, almost as if she was trying to appear as though she was that much stronger than she actually was.

"My mistake," she said, turning her head away from the blonde. Quinn bit down on her lip and looked at Rachel, sighing.

"I knew from the moment I picked you up at the airport that Finn was going to like you," she confessed, staring at the back of Rachel's head until she turned around to look at her once more. Upon making eye contact she looked down into her lap, fingers beginning to pick at the plastic of the chair she was sitting in. "Just… the way he looked at you and the way he talked to you… he liked you, and it was obvious." She sighed and felt her chest tighten. "I didn't want that for him. You were always just some boring girl from the middle of nowhere that wasn't going to be exciting, or meaningful, or anything in his life."

Rachel nodded her head, listening to what Quinn was saying. "That makes sense," she said, her voice hardly a whisper.

"So I came up with the game to divert his attention from having actual feelings about you, or whatever." She stopped and collected herself, looking away from Rachel after realizing it was too difficult to look at her while she spoke.

"But I eventually realized that I couldn't do anything about it," she continued, looking up at Rachel. "And no matter how much it killed me to see him with you, I figured that I could only let it happen and just be rude to you instead, or whatever." Rachel looked at Quinn, who had tears in her own eyes by now.

"He _loves _you, Rachel. Finn loves you and I'm just too afraid to accept that." The blonde looked at Rachel and watched as she tipped her head down and looked into her lap, picking at her nails. She laughed slightly, reaching a hand out to touch Rachel's hair. "I mean, look at you. You're in a hospital gown and your hair looks like shit and you don't have any makeup on, or anything, and Finn…"

Her voice trailed off, paying more attention to tucking Rachel's hair behind her ear than what she was saying. "Finn would still say that you were the most beautiful girl he's ever seen."

Rachel smiled softly as she listened to Quinn, feeling her cheeks begin to pink. "You don't have to say that," she told her, shaking her head. "I'm not as pretty as you, Quinn-"

"Rachel, stop," Quinn said, placing her hand on her shoulder. "You're a beautiful girl."

Rachel thought back to the first night she had spent with Quinn on campus, when she had sat her down on the floor of her dorm and offered to braid her hair, to which Rachel reluctantly agreed to do. Even still, she could clearly remember Quinn telling her that she was a beautiful girl, and simply writing it off as something she said just to say.

"And I'm not just saying that."

Rachel smiled as she looked up at Quinn, giggling slightly. Quinn sighed and removed her hand from the other girls' shoulder. "I understand if you don't want to forgive me right away, or anything. I get that what I did was horrible and if you never want to talk to me again, Rachel, I-"

"Shhh," she said, smiling slightly. "You're alright, Quinn."

Maybe they weren't going to be best friends, but they could work on some kind of relationship that was next to normal with one another.

Quinn smiled softly and the two girls looked around the waiting room for a moment before Quinn began to speak again.

"So, you haven't spoken to a doctor about Finn yet, or…?"

"No," Rachel said, looking down at her feet. "But, um, Kurt told me that a doctor told me he was going to be alright. They were going to check his vitals again in about an hour or so." She sighed, touching her hair nervously. "Part of me is afraid to be in the room when he wakes up, though. What if he doesn't remember me?"

Quinn smiled and looked at Rachel, reaching for her hand.

"I think he'll remember you, Rachel," she said, looking down at their hands, intertwined with one another. "You've made too much of an impression for him not to."


	14. The Beginning of the End

Quinn walked Rachel back to Finn's room, not exchanging many words between themselves on the way. Rachel still felt numb when she was with her, which Quinn understood. Neither of the girls were expecting to form a friendship immediately, which they seemed to be fine with. Quinn smiled at Rachel as she guided them down the halls to Finn's room, her slight limp turning her normally quick pace into a slower crawl.

"Do you want me to get you a new set of clothes to wear?" Quinn asked, finally breaking the silence between them. Rachel stopped in the middle of the hallway, surprised. She wasn't used to being treated like an actual human being by Quinn, and no matter if she realized that Quinn was being sincere or not, it still felt different, like she wasn't supposed to be so nice to her and that in a matter of time, she was going to tell Rachel that she was just joking around this entire time.

"Oh," was all Rachel could say, still stuck in what was somewhat a state of shock. "Um, sure," she said, fixing her hair nervously. "I didn't think that I-"

"You should stay the night," Quinn told her, the two of them now walking side by side. Rachel tipped her head up slightly to look at Quinn, a small smile beginning to appear on her face. "With Finn, I mean. You would want to be there by his side if he woke up overnight."

Rachel smiled and walked up to the door of his room, which had been propped open slightly. "Um, this is it," she said, gesturing towards the door. Quinn smiled and let Rachel walk into the room before her, watching her as she smiled. "And, um, thanks, Quinn. For everything."

Quinn smiled and walked into the hospital room, noticing Finn's mother sitting in the chair set off to the corner of the room.

"Hi, Mrs. Hudson," Quinn said with a smile, walking further into the room so she could grab Finn's mother in an embrace. Rachel stood by off to the side, smiling sweetly as she tried to remain unnoticeable. Finn's mother stood from the chair she was sitting in and grabbed Quinn, returning her hug. "I'm so sorry for what's happened to Finn."

Finn's mother looked at Quinn and placed a hand on her shoulder, Rachel noticing how she tried to smile through the pain she knew she was feeling. She assumed that Finn's mother didn't know about how Quinn was involved in the whole accident, but Rachel didn't see the point in telling her. It didn't really matter, anyway.

"I am too," his mother said, looking at Finn lying in the bed by her side. "But the doctors said that he's going to be alright. He may even wake up tonight if we're lucky." A small smile appeared on her face and Rachel watched the two of them in the corner, smiling herself as she wrapped her arms around her waist in an embrace.

She wished that the arms around her were Finn's; missing how he would hold her close and let her rest her head against his chest so she could hear his heart beating in tandem with her own.

"Really?" Quinn asked, hope in her voice and a smile on her face. "That's so great," she said, feeling tears begin to spring to her eyes. She wiped them away quickly and turned over her shoulder, noticing Rachel standing behind her.

"Oh, Mrs. Hudson, this is Rachel," Quinn said, gesturing for Rachel to come up to stand next to her. Rachel smiled sheepishly, pulling Santana's cardigan tightly across her chest as to save her modesty while standing in front of Finn's mother.

"She's Finn's girlfriend."

Rachel felt her heart stammer as Quinn spoke; the words ringing in her ears like she had never heard them before. She and Finn had talked about it a few times, but it had never really meant anything serious to her until Quinn had said it.

She was Finn's _girlfriend_, and she loved him to the world and back. It was why she wanted to stay with him in the hospital for as long as she could until he woke up, or the doctors at least let her know that there was some sign that would guarantee he would be waking up soon.

Finn's mother smiled and looked at Rachel, watching as she walked up to stand next to Quinn. "Kurt's told me all about you," she said, smiling sweetly. "I'm so glad to finally meet you." Rachel smiled and played with her hair nervously as she looked at Quinn, who had walked away and was busy putting her jacket on.

"I'm going to go back and get you some clothes," Quinn told Rachel with a small smile, grabbing her purse before heading out the door of the room. "I'll see you later, Mrs. Hudson. It was nice seeing you." She cast a look over her shoulder at Finn lying in the hospital bed, still unconscious.

"My best of luck to Finn."

Rachel sighed and looked down at her feet, noticing how swollen her right ankle was compared to her left. She wanted to sit down in a chair and spend her time with Finn, or with herself, afraid of what to say to Finn's mother. She was afraid to say the wrong thing, thinking that there too many opportunities to do something wrong – what with her son being in a coma and everything.

"I'm so sorry for what's happened to Finn, Mrs. Hudson-"

"Oh, please," she said, waving off what Rachel had said. "You can call me Carole." Rachel smiled sweetly, trying to appear as happy as she could, considering the circumstances. There was a beat between them and Carole looked at Rachel with a smile, reaching for her hand.

"You know, I never really talked to Finn about it, but Kurt's had nothing but good things to say about you," she told Rachel, looking over at her son behind them. "He's told me about how wonderful you are to him, and how crazy he is about you."

Rachel felt herself begin to blush, finding it more difficult to look at Finn. It was like he wasn't really there; just someone who looked like him who happened to be asleep. She had grown so used to feeling Finn grab her in an embrace every time he saw her that walking into a room with him unconscious made her feel out of place.

"Mrs. Hudson, or, um, I mean, Carole, Finn's…" she let her voice trail off, feeling a smile spread across her face. "Finn's the greatest thing that's ever happened to me," she said, looking at him longingly. "I just wish that he would wake up," she told her, hugging herself. "I miss him."

Carole looked at Rachel and did her best to muster up a smile, walking back to the chair she had been sitting in.

Rachel watched as she sat down, noticing how upset she was. She felt her stomach churn and her heart palpitate as she watched her, feeling like she had to tell her about everything that had happened. She had been told what the doctors had told everyone that wasn't at the restaurant with them, and she figured that Finn's mother deserved to know what had happened.

It made Finn look like a hero. He was, after all.

"Mrs. Hudson, Finn… when he got hit by that car… it wasn't an accident."

She watched as Carole looked up from her lap and at her, feeling the fear in her eyes.

"What do you mean?"

Rachel swallowed thickly and looked at her, smiling slightly. "It wasn't an accident because… because I was the one that got knocked down into the street," she said, looking down at her feet. "And when Finn saw what had happened, he… he pushed me out of the way." She felt like crying; wringing her hands together nervously. "It's my fault that he's like this right now."

Carole stood up from the chair she was sitting in, rushing towards Rachel. "No," she said, grabbing her in an embrace. "It's not your fault, sweetheart." Rachel buried her face in her chest and started to cry, hugging her back and trying to catch her breath as she continued to cry.

"I just want him to be okay," she said, doing her best to speak through her sobs. "I just want him to be okay."

:.:.:

Rachel spent all of Saturday night into Sunday morning sitting in the chair by Finn's bedside, waiting for him to wake up. Quinn had come back on Saturday with the clothes she had promised and Rachel had changed, but she spent the rest of her time in the hospital room, waiting for any sign from Finn that meant he was awake.

She didn't eat much, besides what Kurt would grab from her from the vending machine from time to time. She was too nervous to get up and leave – that, and they didn't have any vegan options in the hospital cafeteria.

She was halfway asleep when it finally happened. Rachel had been catching up on some book she was supposed to be reading for her civics class and had started to fall asleep when she thought she had heard a voice next to her.

It was too familiar for her to think that it was anyone else.

"Where… w-where am I?"

Rachel's eyes fluttered open and she turned to face Finn in his bed, feeling like her heart was going to explode when she saw him with his eyes open.

"Finn!" was all she could bring herself to say, at a loss for words. Rachel was never at a loss for words, but this seemed like the one time where she didn't have to know what to say and still feel alright about it.

She scrambled up from her chair, nearly tripping over her own feet as she ran to the side of his bed, afraid to touch him. She didn't know what hurt and what didn't, and the last thing she wanted to do would be to find out what hurt him by learning as she went.

He looked at her with heavy eyes, his voice sounding like it was broken. "Rachel?"

She felt like she was ready to cry, unable to see Finn through the tears in her eyes. "Y-yes," she stammered, touching his hair. It was still matted down to his head from the car accident, but Rachel managed to work her fingers through it so it looked presentable. She didn't know what to say, making her touch his face where his bruises were instead, taking the most care to make sure she didn't hurt him.

"How do you feel?" She managed to ask him, falling to her knees so that her face was at the same level as his own. Finn groaned in pain and Rachel jumped, afraid that she had hurt him. He tried to adjust himself in his hospital bed as best as he could, beginning to take notice of the IV in his arm that he was hooked up to and the cast on his foot.

"Where am I?" He asked again. Rachel continued to cry, trying to collect herself as best as she could.

"You're in the hospital," she told him, touching his face gently. Now that he was awake, Rachel noticed how his bruises covered the bridge of his nose and his temples, making her feel even more sorry for him than she had before. "You… do you remember anything that happened, Finn?"

Finn looked at her and smiled softly, reaching a hand out to touch her. He groaned in pain and Rachel touched him on the hand, shaking her head.

"I remember being with you… and Kurt and Blaine… and then I… I forget." Rachel cried and touched him on the face, feeling his five o'clock shadow from the past few days against her hand.

"You… you were in a car accident," Rachel told him, trying to say everything she wanted to so that he would be able to understand it through her tears. "We were outside the restaurant and I had fallen in the middle of the street, and you…" she continued to cry, finding it difficult to do so much as look at Finn while she spoke to him. "You pushed me out of the way and you…" She hiccupped, touching Finn's face again. "You might have saved my life, Finn."

She watched as he looked up at her, a smile slowly spreading across his face.

"Are… are you okay?"

Rachel nodded quickly, her tears falling onto his hospital gown. "I just twisted my ankle when I fell," she told him, pressing her hand to where her tears had fallen on him. "I'll be fine in a few days." She looked at him and sighed, resting her head against the side of his bed. "But you, Finn, I…"

"Stop," Finn said, looking over at Rachel. He didn't know what to do with her crying at his side, mainly because he didn't remember most of what had happened, and he didn't really understand why Rachel was so upset. "Rachel, I don't want you to cry," he told her, desperately wanting to reach out and touch her – and he would have, if it weren't for the pain that shot up his arm.

She looked at him and smiled, giggling sweetly. "I love you so much, Finn," she said, grabbing him by the arm gently. He didn't seem to cringe in pain like he had earlier when he had reached out for her, causing Rachel to smile. "I don't know what I would have done if I had lost you."

Finn smiled and sat up in his bed, groaning slightly as he adjusted himself. "I love you too, Rachel," he said, touching her hand and pulling her closer to him. She stood to her feet and leaned in to him, feeling her lips fall against his own. She was afraid that she would hurt him in kissing him, but Finn just pulled away from her with a smile.

"I love you so much."

Rachel smiled, feeling Finn press kisses to her face where her tears had run down her cheeks. "We should probably go get a nurse," Rachel said with a giggle, walking away from him. "And your mother… I'm sure she'd be excited to find out about you, and-"

"Rachel?"

Rachel turned around to face Finn once more, smiling as she noticed him smiling back at her.

"I love you so much."

She giggled and felt herself begin to cry again, wiping her tears from her eyes. Rachel didn't think that she would ever realize how lucky she was to have Finn in her life – but somehow, she knew that she would be just fine with that.

:.:.:

"How does your leg feel?" Rachel asked Finn one night, walking back to her bed with a bowl of popcorn, freshly popped from the microwave she and Brittany kept in their dorm. Finn smiled at her from where he had been seated on her bed, taking the bowl of popcorn from her as Rachel sat down next to him.

"Better," he said, grabbing Rachel by the hand and smiling at her. It had been a few weeks since the accident, and most of Finn's cuts and bruises had healed. The only thing left was his leg, currently wrapped in a giant cast that stopped just below his knee. Because of his leg, Finn had to back out of the musical, deciding to work the box office before the shows instead.

He figured that he should, just to support Rachel. He wasn't about to let his leg interfere with his support for her, or anything.

"They said that I can get it off in like, three weeks or something," he told her, causing a grin to spread across Rachel's face.

"Well, that's fabulous," she told him, giggling sweetly. She reached over and grabbed a fistful of popcorn, popping it in her mouth and smiling at him. "I'm just glad that you're alright," she said sympathetically, placing a hand on the side of his face and drawing her face close to his until the bridge of her nose rested against his own. "I love you, Finn."

Finn smiled and pressed a kiss to her lips, extracting a giggle from her. "Love you too," he told her, smiling into their kiss. Before Rachel could say anything else, however, she sprung up from her bed and walked over to her dresser, opening a drawer and shuffling around in the drawer long enough for Finn to say something about it.

"What are you doing?" He asked, trying to stand up slightly on the bed to see what she was doing. Finn never really knew what Rachel was doing, but that was part of the fun in being with her. She was spontaneous and fun and always ready to drag him into something new, which was one more reason to fall all the more in love with her.

"Nothing," she said, shutting the drawer and walking back over to Finn, smiling sweetly. "Come with me." She grabbed Finn by the hand and assisted him up, letting him wrap his arm across her shoulder for balance and leading him towards a chair that she had in the corner of her room, right by the table with her radio and the picture of her and Finn, Rachel kissing him while he had taken the picture, doing his best not to laugh while the shutter snapped on the two of them.

Rachel had built up a good deal of strength in assisting Finn; hauling his large frame around with her petite one. She helped him sit in the chair and adjusted his leg with the cast carefully so that it wasn't in her way before climbing onto his lap and straddling him, her knees resting on either side of his waist.

"I've missed being able to do this with you," she whimpered, running her hands through his hair. Finn looked up at her and smiled, letting his eyes fall shut as Rachel's hands roved his body. "I love being able to _be _with you, Finn." She pressed a kiss to his forehead and giggled, letting her hands fall down to his waist and slipped them up underneath his shirt, nails against skin.

"I've missed it too," he groaned, feeling her make an attempt to pull his shirt over his head. "I've _really_ missed it." Finn wasn't about to lie and say that he didn't love the physical aspects about his relationship with Rachel. He figured that he was allowed to express how much he loved it because he hadn't started out in his relationship with her like he normally did with other girls. He got to work up to being with Rachel intimately, and maybe that was what made him love it so much. Rachel wasn't like the other girls he went to school with. Being intimate with Rachel was like a gift, as campy as that sounded. He loved her for it, and fell harder for her every time because of it.

Rachel pulled his shirt up over his head and looked down at him, giggling as she bit down on her lip, hair falling in her face. Finn groaned and tipped his head back, feeling Rachel's hands beginning to work on his belt, pulling it from his pants.

"I thought I would surprise you tonight," she said into his ear, her breath hot and heavy against his skin. "No going slow, no being quiet, no anything." Rachel giggled mischievously, standing up from his lap and pulling his pants down his waist as far as his cast would allow.

"You get to do whatever you want with me tonight, Finn."

Finn was pretty sure that his eyes were going to pop out of his head when he heard her say what she had. He had never seen Rachel so willing to do whatever he wanted, and watching her stand in front of him and say what she was saying was like having all of the dreams he had ever had about Rachel come true.

Rachel smiled and pulled her shirt over her head, her pants coming off soon after. She had changed for rehearsal earlier and had never changed back from her uniform, although she didn't care either way – she knew that her clothes were going to end up on the floor no matter what she was wearing.

"Rachel," Finn said, trying to sound like he was able to form a coherent thought while staring at her as she stood in front of him in nothing but her bra and underwear. "Are you sure you want to do this?" He looked down at his cast and looked back up at her, smiling like the cat that ate the canary. "I mean, with my cast and everything…"

"I already thought about that," she said, walking up to him and bending over in front of him, grabbing the elastic waistband of his boxers and tugging them down his legs. Finn felt his breath catch in his throat and looked down at her, watching as a devious smile appeared on her face.

"I think I know how to fuck you the right way, Finn."

He felt like his head was going to explode as he watched Rachel pull his boxers down, letting them rest in his jeans as she fell down to her knees. She looked up at him through her eyelashes, letting her hands slowly make their way up his legs until they rested between his legs where he was already at full mast.

"I take it you've missed me a lot," she said, her hands grabbing the length of him. Finn tipped his head back and groaned, finding it impossible to look down at Rachel without losing it right there. She took the moisture that collected at the tip of him and spread it down the length of him, hands wrapping around his cock and pumping it slowly. "Otherwise you wouldn't be so excited to do this." Rachel giggled and dipped her head down between his legs, licking him exquisitely from tip to base. Finn felt a chill go down his spine, his hands finding their way to Rachel's head, rooting his fingers through her hair. The last time Rachel had actually given him a blowjob was the first time they had sex, and he was surprised at how much better she had gotten since then – not that she had been horrible to begin with.

"God, Rach, you're so good," he groaned, not bothering to open his eyes. Finn already knew that if he were to open his eyes, he would be a goner. "So, so good…" His voice trailed off and Rachel continued to suck at him softly, finally releasing him from her mouth with an audible pop. She had learned earlier in their relationship that had she continued, she would have much left of Finn to toy with later on into the night – and that was just what she intended to do.

"You're perfect," she told him, getting up from her knees and standing in front of him. Finn opened his eyes again and looked at Rachel, almost in shock by how she was acting. He had never seen Rachel act this way ever, although he was lying if he had said that he couldn't get used to it. "I love how big your cock is."

Finn didn't know why Rachel was acting the way she was, but he liked it. Whether or not she was putting on a show for him was an entirely different story, but he loved every minute of it.

Rachel stood in front of Finn and pushed her hair from her face before reaching around behind herself and undoing the clip to her bra, sliding the straps off of her shoulders and letting it fall down around her feet on the ground. Finn looked at her in awe, licking his lips subconsciously as she stood in front of him in nothing but her underwear.

Rachel didn't say anything and just blushed as she stood in front of him, stepping out of her underwear and straddling him once more.

"God," Finn groaned, feeling Rachel begin to roll her hips into his. "You're perfect, Rachel." She giggled and nuzzled her nose into his neck, smelling his cologne on his skin.

"You're better," she told him with a smile, starting to kiss his neck. Finn let his hands roam up her sides, grabbing her breasts in his hands. Rachel moaned and tipped her head back slightly, feeling Finn pull her up further on his lap. "I love you so much," she said, giggling as she felt Finn's hands move back around her waist.

Finn moved a hand down between her legs, rubbing the inside of her thigh before slipping a finger between her legs. Rachel hitched her hips into his, eyes opening wider and tipping her head down to look at him. Her mouth hung open slightly as he slipped two fingers in, pumping his hand and watching Rachel on top of him.

"Fuck," she moaned, grabbing onto his shoulders for support. Finn had never heard so many curse words slip out of Rachel's mouth before, and he didn't know if he liked it. It didn't seem like her – or at least not something she would do because she would want to. "Harder, Finn," she moaned, leaning down to kiss him soundly on the mouth. Finn did as he was told and felt Rachel tighten around his fingers, her breathing becoming more labored. He pulled his fingers out and Rachel gasped, rolling her hips into his slowly and riding off of her high. She watched as Finn looked at his fingers and prepared to wipe them on the edge of the chair, but Rachel grabbed him by the wrist before he could, taking his fingers into her mouth.

Finn leaned back further in the chair and watched her as she stared at him, giggling sweetly. "Come on," she said, reaching back behind her and grabbing the length of him in her hand. "I want you to fuck me, Finn."

He groaned and grabbed her by the waist, picking her up off his lap and feeling Rachel position herself above his hips, eventually lowering herself down and shuddering as she leaned against him, moaning against his lips as she tried to kiss him.

Rachel rolled her hips into his, throwing her arms over Finn's shoulders and dragging her nails down his back. The entire time Finn felt like he was going to explode; watching Rachel ride him and whimper as she looked at him.

"Finn, you feel so good…"

"Don't stop, Rach, don't stop…"

"Harder, Finn, please…"

Rachel felt a coil in her stomach burn brighter than it ever had before when she was with Finn, watching him as she felt it snap and make her feel like she was on fire. She grabbed Finn by the shoulders and shrieked, eyes pinched shut as she rode out her orgasm. Rachel nearly collapsed in Finn's arms, breathing heavily against his neck.

"Are you… are you okay?" She asked him, composing herself and running a hand through Finn's hair. He looked down at her, catching his own breath. A smile spread across his face, hands dropping down to Rachel's waist and holding her closer to him.

"Never been better," he told her, bearing his teeth. Rachel giggled ad sat up in his lap again, removing him from between her legs and adjusting herself so that she was sitting up further on his lap once more. Finn buried his nose in her hair and kissed her on the head, feeling her begin to laugh in his arms.

"You know, you don't need to act like that when we do that," he told her, brushing her hair from her eyes. Rachel looked up at him, unsure as to what Finn was talking about.

"What do you mean?"

"You don't have to act like a porn star, or anything. I like you when you're just you, Rachel."

She looked up at him and smiled, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

"I like you when you're you too, Finn." She giggled and wrapped her arms around him, holding herself as close to him as she could without being fused to him permanently.

"You love me, don't you Finn?"

Finn smiled and looked down at her, kissing her on the top of the head.

"Always, baby girl. Always."


	15. Epilogue

_10 years later_

She looks at herself in the mirror, unsure if she likes the way she looks.

Rachel likes to think that she's grown out of her insecure phase, but she still has moments when she looks in the mirror and doesn't know if she likes the way she looks. She figures that every girl does, she just feels that way more often than most girls.

Santana pokes her head through the doorway, giving the door a slight knock before coming in.

"You coming?" She asks, walking into Rachel's bedroom. Santana looks beautiful, but she always has. The dresses that Rachel's picked out have been picked out strategically so that they look good on everyone, but Santana looks especially good in her own. Pale pink looks like it was a color designed specifically for her to wear.

"In a minute," Rachel says, not bothering to look away from the mirror she's standing in front of. She can see Santana's reflection in the mirror as she stands behind her, walking around her bed.

Santana offers up Rachel a pleasant smile, looking at her own reflection in the mirror and making sure that she looked presentable. "You know, everyone's been looking for you for the past fifteen minutes," she says, fingering a lock of her hair that's fallen from the messy bun she's been told to put it up in and tucking it back into her head carefully. "I was told to go find out where you were."

Rachel turns around and looks at Santana, frowning slightly. She doesn't want to let her know about how nervous she is, or how much she wants to pull a Julia Roberts and leave Finn at the altar.

Not for a bad reason, of course. She just feels like she's going to throw up and faint and go crazy all at the same time.

"Has Finn said anything?" Rachel walks over to the foot of her bed and sits down, playing with the skirt of her dress. She doesn't want Finn to feel like she doesn't want to be here. All she wants is to be with him, and with everyone else that's here with them, ready to celebrate the two of them together.

"I haven't talked to him in a while," Santana tells her, scooting over closer to Rachel on the bed. "But I talked to him last night. All he could talk about was how excited he was for today." She looked at Rachel and watched her as she tipped her head down into her lap. She brought a hand up to Rachel's hair and combed her fingers through it slightly, trying to make sure that it didn't fall from the curls she has put it in earlier that morning. "All he's ever talked about is you, Rachel."

Rachel looks at Santana and feels her breathing get heavier, her heart feeling like it's going to fall into her stomach. She doesn't know why she feels so nervous about everything; it's not like he has to worry about whether or not Finn's going to say 'yes' once she gets outside.

She just feels like she's going to fall off of a cliff if she thinks about her and Finn one more time.

"I'm just nervous, I guess," she says, looking at Santana. "I don't know if I should feel happy, or sad, or scared, or-"

"Hey," Santana says, interrupting her. "You're going to be just fine. Finn loves you, Rach." Santana looked at Rachel and smiled, setting a hand on her knee. "Besides, everyone's waiting for you to go outside and look… well, the way you do right now, so you wouldn't want to disappoint them would you?"

Rachel laughed to herself and looked at Santana, smiling brightly. She looked at Santana and giggled, playing with the skirts of her dress again.

"So, if I give you five minutes, do you think you'll be ready to walk down the aisle?"

She nodded and turned to look at herself in the mirror again, a small smile appearing on her face.

"Yeah."

:.:.:

Five minutes pass and she's not any different. Santana's words of encouragement have helped her somewhat, but she's back to pacing around her room once more, feeling her heart want to leap out of her chest and the urge to find her running shoes from high school in the back of her closet return.

She was happy when she had planned her wedding. From the day after Finn proposed, Rachel had turned into one of the women who planned their weddings in a hurried frenzy, wanting nothing more than to have the perfect wedding that would make for the best memories for her and Finn and everyone else that ends up going.

Rachel promised Finn that she wasn't going to turn into a crazy Bridezilla who became over-controlling and wanted everything to be perfect. She was reasonable. Everything _was _going to be perfect – perfect for her and Finn, anyway.

They had decided on Rachel's home where she had grown up – her dads' backyard, to be specific. She had seen pictures of backyard weddings before and had watched enough episodes of _Four Weddings _growing up that she knew how to make one look the way she wanted it to without spending an outrageous amount of money.

Finn told her that he would pay for the entire thing, but she told him that he couldn't. She didn't want their wedding to focus around how much they could spend. As long as she had him, she was happy – as cliché as that sounded.

Rachel looks through the window down onto the backyard, her stomach twisting into a knot. She sees the little white chairs that form an aisle and their guests seated in them, all smiling and looking like they're waiting for something (and she knows they're waiting for her). Santana and Brittany stand of to the side in their bridesmaids' dresses, talking to Quinn, who's looking off in the distance.

Finn's standing up at the head of the aisle, his hands shoved into the pockets of his pants. He looks around and Rachel knows that he's nervous just by the way he's standing. Kurt stands next to him, but he doesn't look at him.

She looks over on her bed and spots her phone, biting her lip nervously as she looks down at it.

Rachel walks over to her phone and picks it up, punching in a number and holding it up to her ear.

"Hey," Finn says on the other line, his voice sounding confused. "What's up? Where are you?"

Rachel sighs and sits down on the foot of her bed, the skirts of her dress flouncing out around her. "Can you come up to my room?"

He scoffs slightly and tries not to seem so obvious while standing outside in front of everyone who's about to see him get married – well, at least he's pretty sure that he's getting married. If Rachel doesn't show up soon, maybe he's not.

"Isn't there a thing about not seeing the bride before the wedding?"

"Yeah," she says, walking back up to the window and looking down at Finn outside. "But I just… I need to talk to you, okay? Face to face."

He sighs and looks around for a minute before making his decision. "Give me a minute, okay?"

She hangs up on him and smiles, grabbing her phone in her hands.

:.:.:

There's a knock on the door and Rachel knows that it's him, so she doesn't say anything. She just waits and hears the door creak open, turning to face him as he walks in.

The moment he walks in, Finn realizes why they say that the groom shouldn't see the bride until she walks down the aisle. Rachel's the most beautiful he's ever seen her – prettier than senior prom, or that one night she sang at her senior recital in college, or when she wakes up next to him with her makeup ruddy and her hair a mess (even though she always protests and says that she looks like some kind of zombie whenever that's the case).

"Wow," he says, catching his breath as he walks into the room. Rachel gets up from the bed and walks towards him, grabbing him in an embrace before he can say anything else.

"Rachel, you look beautiful," he tells her; in shock that she's grabbed him so quickly. She holds him tightly like she's going to float away from him if she doesn't.

She waits a beat and lets his words sink in before saying anything.

"Let's not get married," she says, tipping her head up to look at him.

Finn looks at her, in shock. "What?" He wonders if all of the stress of planning a wedding has gotten to her head, and now she's just losing it all together. "Rach, we're getting married. We've waited a whole year to get married." He looks at her and touches her hair, hoping that she won't start to cry.

"It's not that I don't want to get married," she says, rubbing Finn on the arm. "I just don't want to get married in front of all of these people."

Finn looks down at her, smiling slightly. He's never known Rachel not to want an audience. It's all she's ever wanted, actually. She sings to him constantly, whether they're in public or not (and he knows that the times in public are the ones that she prefers), and even though she would get nervous about her performances in college, Finn always knew that she loved it.

This is different, though. He knows by the way her voice sounds and how she looks at him and holds him that it's not just Rachel being nervous about fumbling over her vows or him dropping the rings or tripping over her veil once she gets down there.

This is Rachel actually feeling nervous, like they're swallowing her whole.

"That's the point of a wedding, baby girl," he tries to tell her, touching her veil as he brushes her hair out of her face. "You get married in front of everyone so that they can see how happy we are with each other." His hands move down to her waist and he holds her close to him, feeling her rest her head against his chest.

He knows that this isn't just Rachel feeling like she's nervous.

"Hey," he says, rubbing her sides. She doesn't look up at him. "Rachel, what's wrong? I know this isn't just about getting married, or whatever." He smiles down at her sheepishly, Rachel looking up at him without a smile on her face.

"I just…" her voice trails off, feeling her heartbeat get faster and faster. "This is all coming at us so fast… the marriage, and going off into the world alone, and-"

"We've been living together for the past six years," he tells her, laughing to himself.

"I know," she says, giggling nervously. "It's just… we're going to be getting _married_, Finn. And you don't have a job that pays very well, and I hardly have a job, and I'm just…"

"You just what, Rachel?"

She looks down at her feet and swallows her nerves, not wanting to look back up at Finn.

"I just don't know why I feel this way right now." She looks up at him and holds herself close to him, not wanting to let go of him. "Every girl is supposed to feel like some kind of princess on their wedding day, and I just…" her voice disappears and she collapses on her bed, looking around her room. "I look disgusting in my dress and I don't feel right and everyone is out there right now waiting for me to walk down the aisle, and Santana's been asking me where I've been all night, and I just-"

"Woah," Finn says, sitting down next to her on her bed. He's kind of distracted by the whole atmosphere of her room. It was her bedroom from before they had met, and he understands more about her the longer he looks at everything. The pink walls and the Broadway posters everywhere, stuffed animals in different corners of the room and her vanity against the wall by her bed, pictures of her friends from her old high school tucked into the mirror.

There aren't many pictures there. Sometimes he forgets about the existence that Rachel had lead before he had met her.

"Rachel, you are the most beautiful bride in the entire world," he tells her, watching her as she sniffles down into her lap. "You look so pretty right now – I mean, you look pretty all the time, but, like, I totally get why they say that the groom's not supposed to see the bride before she walks down the aisle and stuff." She looks up from her lap and smiles, laughing slightly to herself.

"You really think so?"

"Yeah," he says, grabbing her hand in his own. "And you don't need to worry about what everyone else thinks about you out there," he tells her, smiling sweetly. "Everyone that's outside right now is here for the same reason I am – because they want to see you walk down the aisle and look pretty in the dress you spent six months to pick out and marry me, because they know just how much we love each other."

She smiles and looks at Finn, squeezing his hand.

"Besides… you've never been the type of girl to worry about what other people think of you," he tells her. "It's why I fell in love with you, Rachel." He leans down and presses a kiss to the top of her head through her veil, causing her to blush. "Well, one of the reasons, anyway."

Rachel looks up at him with a smile, doing everything in her power not to cry. She doesn't want her makeup that she spent a good hour and a half on to run before she even gets outside.

"I love you," she tells him, feeling him pull her into an embrace. She wants to reach up to kiss him and comes really close, but Finn stops her before she can.

"I want to wait to kiss you outside," he tells her, watching the first real smile he's seen from her all day spread across her face. "I think you of all people can wait just a little while longer, huh?"

She smiles and manages to move in to peck him on the cheek.

Maybe she can go get married after all.

:.:.:

Rachel watches as her bridesmaids walk down the aisle, standing behind the two drapes that have been hung up by the porch so that she can't be seen by everyone else. She likes it, only because she feels like she's waiting behind a curtain and her guests are her audience, all waiting for her to make some grand entrance or whatever.

She feels her Papa take her arm in his own on one side and her Daddy on the other, and she feels her heart palpitate in her chest.

The moment the curtains are drawn open, all Rachel can see is Finn standing at the head of the aisle, waiting for her.

Rachel thinks of the whole idea that everyone brings up in every romantic comedy of the groom's face when the bride walks down the aisle, and now, she knows that it's not just something made up for the sake of the movies.

The way Finn looks at her is like he's never seen her before, and that all he wants to do is spend the rest of his life with her, forever.

She's impatient while the minister and the rabbi go through all of the motions required for a wedding, and her hands are shaking while she holds Finn's hands in her own, unable to look away from him as he delivers his vows.

Her vows are longer than his, but she isn't sure that he would expect any different from her.

When they tell her that he can kiss her, she nearly jumps into his arms and kisses him, feeling like she's never going to kiss him again.

She loves him. He loves her and she loves him, and that's all that matters.

:.:.:

The sun sets and everyone heads out to the farthest part of the yard to dance, Rachel holding on to Finn the entire time. He grabs her by the waist and holds her close to him, Rachel leading him into the dance because she knows that Finn can't – or at least he can't very well.

"You still glad we got married?" He asks, pushing her veil out of her eyes. Rachel giggles and places her arms over his shoulders, playing with the hair on the back of his neck.

"Always," she says, standing up on her toes and pressing a kiss to his lips.

And she does love him. There's nowhere else she would rather be with him for the rest of her life.


End file.
