fic: playing for keeps (finn/rachel) [5/?]
Title: Playing For Keeps (5/?)
Chapter: 5. Hello Hurricane
Words: 3,517
Spoilers: Mentions of everything till episode 2x10.
Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or the characters. But the storyline is mine.
Rating: M.
Character/Pairings: Finn Hudson and Rachel Berry
Summary:This is a prequel to A Beautiful Somewhere. So it's got all the angst and drama of Finchel as we know them now, building up to what they are in that fic. The angst isn't there in this chapter, but it's going to appear at some point, along with a lot of fluff, smut and crazy.
Author’s Notes: Here lies Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three and Chapter Four.
Puck comes to visit him and for the first time since Rachel’s visit, Finn is really excited about seeing someone from Lima. Of course, this is Puck, which means that Finn has to find out about every party in town, worm his way into the bar scene so they can get shitfaced and spend hours playing Halo without even trying to pass a level. And because this is his best friend, Finn goes all out and makes everything happen the way Puck would want it to be. Sometimes Finn would just sit down and wonder how he and Puck even became best friends. They were the two most different people in the world, with only football and Glee club in common. And even then, they still didn’t have all that much in common with each other. But they seemed to get along and while Puck spent a good part of his life judging Finn for the things he did, somewhere along the way they found common ground. Even if the common ground was Quinn for a while, but whatever it was, something brought them together. When they were kids, it was so much easier. Being six and wanting to play football in the streets, or steal candy from the store, or talk about how every girl in their grade had cooties was easy. They didn’t need to have anything in common, just the same beliefs about how girls were gross and candy was awesome. But growing up together, it became clear that they weren’t really cut out to be best friends. Everybody saw that and everybody pointed it out. Including his mother. But they were best friends and best friends did stuff like this.
***
“Please be careful, Finn.”
“Nothing’s going to happen, babe.”
“This is Noah we’re talking about, you never know what will happen when you’re with Noah.”
“I promise, we’ll be careful.”
“Don’t get too drunk.”
“I never get too drunk.”
“I know you’re always the designated driver when I’m around, honey, but this is Noah!”
“The lack of faith you have in my best friend is a little sad.”
“I would have faith in him if he had proved himself anything but a complete jerk while we were in school.”
“That’s the old Puckerman, he’s different now.”
“I should say I’m impressed that you’re defending him, but I’m not.”
“Aw, come on, secretly, you’re glad that Puck and I are friends again.”
“It’s no secret, Finn, but I’m still very unsure about his motives.”
“Seriously? He’s madly in love with Quinn and he keeps talking about them getting married and stuff, so I think you should stop worrying about what he’s going to do when he gets here.”
“Keep him away from Sandy and those other trashy girls that I met the last time I was there.”
“Calm down, he’s not going to do anything with any of those girls.”
“Good, because if he hurts Quinn, I will break his legs. But I’m more concerned about them throwing their skinny bodies at him.”
“He knows when to stop, Rachel, give him some credit.”
“Finn.”
“What?”
“You still want to marry me, right?”
“Of course, I do. Why would you even ask me that?”
“Because you’re surrounded by all these girls and they’re so much prett-“
“Rachel, we’re not doing this again.”
“You really can’t blame me for being scared that you’re going to move on.”
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to marry you, start a family with you and give you the kind of life that you deserve.”
“You promise?”
“I promise. I can’t imagine spending the rest of my life with anyone else.”
“I really wish you were here with me right now.”
“Me too, baby.”
“No, seriously, I’m not wearing any panties.”
“Rach…”
“God, Finn, I miss you.”
“Baby, now is not a good time.”
“I’m so fucking wet right now.”
“Rachel!”
“What?”
“I’m at the airport and I can’t, not now.”
“Find a bathroom, Finn, I need you.”
“Puck’s plane just landed, I can’t.”
“Fine. Call me when you’re not busy enjoying your bromancing.”
“I will, I love you.”
“I love you more.”
***
Puck being the party animal that he was wanted to experience every kind of party the West Coast had to offer and Finn was more than happy to be his guide. There was no way he was going to be the designated driver because he knew that mentioning the words alone would earn him a black eye, so Finn kept the taxi companies on speed dial and went ahead with the crazy weekend. They attended a few boring dorm parties before finally crashing a fraternity party that proved to be the most boring thing till the two of them introduced the brothers to the age old tradition of beer pong. Finn had gotten so good at the game by the end of his senior year at McKinley, he could out do Puck in a heartbeat. Puck even got the brothers to open up the pool in the backyard and taught them all how to cannonball with just the right amount of splash. And just when they thought they were running out of things to do, the party really got started. It was then that Finn realized they were no longer on UCSD campus. He wasn’t even sure how the two of them got off campus to start with, but the fact that UCSD didn’t have Greek row should have triggered it off. But there they were, off campus, in a fraternity house, teaching a bunch of geeks how to throw a party and the world had invited itself. Somewhere along the way, Finn had found himself pressed against the wall of the pool as a girl tried to get her hands into his boxers, only to find his hands moving to push her off him with such force that he was sure he was going to drown her. The party was in full swing and Finn couldn’t find Puck, he wasn’t drunk enough yet, but he was pretty close. Finding a quite spot for a few minutes, Finn found that he had 24 missed calls from Rachel and a couple of text messages of her freaking out like she always did when he didn’t call her back after the first six missed calls. Cursing himself for letting things get out of hand, Finn moved through the house looking for dry clothes. Grabbing the first pair of jeans he found, Finn stripped off his boxers and pulled on the jeans. He really didn’t care that he was walking around commando, it was going to feel a whole lot better than walking around like he had something in his pants. Next job was to find Puck and a clean shirt. Every single room had a couple, or more, as naked as they could get each other in their desperation for the other person. And every time he found an empty room, someone tried to push him onto the bed and get his jeans off. Finding a dry shirt - not clean, just dry - proved to be harder than Finn thought. But he found one just as he found Puck fighting with a guy twice his size.
And then the cops showed up.
“One more thing scratched off my bucket list, no wait, make that three things.”
“Great, you have a bucket list of badass things to do before Quinn makes an honest man out of you.”
“Something like that. Crash a fraternity party, make a beer based cocktail and get into a fight with a guy that could be the stunt double for The Rock.”
“You’re crazy.”
“Wait, four things. Get arrested for trespassing.”
“I repeat, you’re crazy.”
“Be honest, dude, this is the most fun you’ve had since you left Lima.”
“My idea of fun does not include getting arrested and being handcuffed to my best friend.”
“Our girls might actually find this kinda kinky.”
“Of course you’d say something like that.”
“Lighten up, Hudson, it’s like you’ve got a stick up your ass.”
“I’m going to get murdered by Rachel when I get out of here.”
“Wait, you’re whipped, forget the stick up your ass.”
“Proud to be whipped, actually, she called me 24 times last night and I still haven’t called her back.”
“Why not?”
“Because I was trying to get you to stop chewing on that dude’s ear.”
“Yeah, that was nasty, I don’t even know why I was doing that.”
“Who was he?”
“A bouncer from some club, apparently I was macking on his girl, when I wasn’t macking on anyone other my own girl who insisted on telling me that she was wearing nothing as she walked around apartment, thinking about me.”
“Wow.”
“Get the image of Quinn naked out of your head!”
“I was not picturing her naked, well, now I am. But you spoke to her in the middle of all of that and I couldn’t even find the fucking time to call my fiancée. I’m so fucking screwed.”
“So call her now.”
“With what, my shoe?”
“Don’t be such a pussy, ask them for your one legal phone call.”
“I don’t want to call her while I’m in here, she’ll get the board line asking her if she wants to talk to me and even before I start talking, she’s going to be screaming at me.”
“What do you wanna do, Finn?”
“Get the fuck out of jail!”
“Okay, let’s make this happen then.”
***
When Finn woke up the next afternoon with the mother of all hangovers, he found his phone blinking alerting him that Rachel had called again. And while he thought 24 missed calls were bad, seeing 39 missed calls was a whole lot worse. Groaning as he got himself out of bed, Finn did his best to keep the noise to a minimum so that Puck wouldn’t wake up. They’d gotten home at six in the morning, after paying off their bail and making a huge apology for the mess that was the fraternity house. Luckily for them, the fraternity didn’t press charges for all the damage done, so they managed to get out without too much trouble. Except for the angry girlfriend that Finn had to deal with shortly. Making himself coffee, Finn sat on the kitchen floor and dialed Rachel’s number and waited for her to pick up the phone. She was clearly ignoring him for what he had done to her, but it wasn’t like he was doing it on purpose. He let his phone automatically redial four more times while he poured himself a large cup of coffee and when she finally picked up, Finn thought he was going to cry.
“I don’t want to talk to you. Ever.”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. My phone wasn’t with me.”
“Oh, I know that. Some girl called Missy called me to tell him just how gorgeous my boyfriend is.”
“What?”
“Mhm,” Finn tried to sort through the night before and couldn’t remember his phone as Rachel rambled on about Missy and something else, but Finn wasn’t paying attention, “Finn!”
“Yeah, sorry, what were you saying?”
“So, Missy is your new toy?”
“I don’t know a Missy, Rachel. And I don’t know how she got my phone.”
“Well, she got a lot more than your phone from what she had to say.”
“I’m confused.”
“Did you fuck her?”
“Whoa! What?”
“She said that the reason she had your phone was because you were too busy enjoying the feeling of being buried deep inside her.”
“And you believe some girl because she had my phone.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, what the hell am I supposed to believe then?”
“Believe me when I say that I did not sleep with anyone last night.”
“You better start proving it to me, Finn, because I’m having a hard time believing you right now.”
“What do you want me to say?”
“Start with the beginning of your night and then eventually get to the part where you missed 63 of my missed calls!”
“We were at a party.”
“Yes, I got that, with Missy.”
“Can you please stop bringing her up over and over again, I don’t know who the fuck she is and I did not fuck her and oh man, I can’t believe we’re actually doing this.”
“Finn Hudson, you better get your story straight because I am not in the mood for this right now.”
“Trust me, all that happened was that we got a little carried away. But I had my boxers on the whole time and yes, there is a portion of the night that is a complete blur and I’m sorry.”
“Let me get this straight, you had your boxers on which also means that your pants were not at the same time and you don’t remember a portion of the night, which might be the portion you were with Missy. Or wait,” Finn was sure he could hear her rolling her eyes and then there was a rustle of papers as she breathed heavily into the phone, “Or the hour you spent telling me just how you were going to fuck me when you saw me next.”
“W-w-whoa.”
“I have to admit that it was incredibly hot because we got to continue what you didn’t really let me start when you went to pick Noah up,” there was more rustling of papers and he could hear her breathing change, which made him assume that she was now pacing, “Speaking of which, where is the idiot who is responsible for all of this?”
“Passed out on the couch and it’s not his fault.”
“Finn, please listen to what I have to say right now,” he closed his eyes and pressed the hot mug of coffee to his forehead as he waited for her to speak, “If you don’t come up with an explanation, not an excuse, an explanation for what happened to you last night, we are going to have to talk about us not getting married. Because if I can’t trust you to be faithful to me when you’re out with your best friend, how can I trust you with anything? Especially my heart. I’ll give you till the end of your day and when I call you later tonight, you better have something good for me. Or, whatever we are right now? It’s not going to be anything. Ever again.”
She hung up and Finn just sat there, staring at his phone, waiting for everything to settle as he took a long swig of his coffee, burning his tongue in the process. His life as he knew it, was officially over, and while she had given him quite a bit of the day to figure his night out, Finn was sure that he wasn’t going to be able to explain it all to her. Especially not the part about Missy and his missing phone. Unless Puck knew what the hell had happened and was going to be a fantastic best friend and help him put the pieces together.
***
In true Puckerman style, the way to get over an almost break up was to get trashed all over again. It didn’t help that Jared was game for whatever whacked up plan Puck had put together. And between the two of them, there was no escaping. Jared and Puck bonded like long lost brothers and Finn just sat there, twisting the tiny straws into as many shapes as he could, trying to piece the evening together. Puck promised that they’d spend some time after getting drunk figuring everything out, but Finn really just wanted to sort everything out right then. Instead of waiting till the last minute to get his facts right. And if Rachel knew that Quinn and Puck had spoken during the party, he was officially a dead man. Given how well the two of them got along now. Closing his eyes as he downed his shot of whiskey, Finn asked for a round of beers and went through every single bottle in record time, leaving him in a drooling mess on the table till Jared and Puck were ready to head home. By quarter to 11, Rachel called and Finn had to stop himself from ignoring her call. The three of them were sitting around the patio table, a doobie being passed around as her name flashed on the screen. Taking one last hit of the joint, Finn grabbed his phone and hurried into the house. Collapsing onto the couch as he answered the phone, Finn took a deep breath, “I love you, Finn.”
“I love you too, Rach, you know that.”
“I know, I just feel like that you’re in California surrounded by all these hot girls and I’m going to become a distant memory.”
“I really need you to stop thinking that you’re nothing, okay? You mean the world to me and I’m with you not just because you’re beautiful, but because you get me and because I love you and because nobody else would put up with my ridiculousness.”
“You are pretty ridiculous and frustrating too.”
“I apologize for being all of that and more, but I really want you to know that I’m never going to dump you for some bleached blonde surfer chick.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
“Okay, tell me what happened last night.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, I want to know why you were only in boxers, how you lost your phone and why it took till this afternoon for you to return my 63 missed calls.”
“Yeah,” Finn closed his eyes and nodded to himself as he prepared his big speech, “So, it’s going to take some time, but I want you to know that it won’t happen again.” And he launched into the story from the beginning, the pub hopping and the stumbling across the boring fraternity with all the amenities for an amazing party and the sudden explosion of people and the pool party and how he had to grab someone else’s jeans because he couldn’t find his after stripping down to his boxers for the cannonball experience. He explained to her that the whole Missy thing didn’t happen, unless she was the one who took his phone while they were attempting to play spin the bottle. He talked about the fight that he had to break up and how Puck almost knocked him cold because he was in such a hurry to beat the crap out of the bouncer. “I am going to kill Noah when I see him next.”
“It’s not over, babe,” Finn proceeded to explain how they got arrested and tossed into jail while being handcuffed together, which did excite Rachel a little, just the way Puck said it would. He could hear her sniffling on the other end of the phone as he explained to her that they had to literally beg the police officer to let them out because they were visiting San Diego and happened to run into some of the wrong people along the way. It cost them $100 each to get out, which was a huge blow to their already depleting funds, but there was no other way to get out of that place. When he finally got to the end of the story, Rachel was crying and Finn couldn’t even hear himself think. “I can’t believe you got arrested!”
“Nothing happened, Rachel, it was just a few hours in jail.”
“Oh God, Finn, you were arrested, how are you not upset by this?”
“I was upset, babe, but I can’t keep being upset about it.”
“I’m so angry with Noah, tell him that he’s officially my least favorite person in the world.”
“Come on, it’s not all his fault.”
“Yes, it is! You’re not that kind of guy. I mean, this is the guy that drove his Mom’s Volvo into an ATM and got sent to Juvi! He’s not 16 anymore, he still can’t be doing things like this and hoping to get away with it.”
“At least we got out and that has a lot to do with him.”
“Yeah, because he knows how to deal with cops given his past.”
“Rachel?”
“Yes, Finn?”
“We’re okay and I really am sorry for all that I put you through.”
“It’s okay, but you’re going to have to find some fancy way to make I up to me.”
“I’m sure I can do that.”
“You actually have no choice. Close to 12 hours of trauma deserves at least a full day of mind-blowing sex.”
“I can do one better than that.”
“Two days of mind-blowing sex?”
“And then some.” Smiling as she growled into the phone, Finn got up and stepped out onto the patio where the guys were chilling with fresh bottles of beer and sat down, “I love you.”
“I love you too, babe. I’ll call you tomorrow morning, okay?”
“Okay, I have an audition at 10, so call me after that.”
“Perfect and you’re going to nail that audition, don’t worry about it.”
“Thank you, Finn. I should get to bed.”
Chapter: 5. Hello Hurricane
Words: 3,517
Spoilers: Mentions of everything till episode 2x10.
Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or the characters. But the storyline is mine.
Rating: M.
Character/Pairings: Finn Hudson and Rachel Berry
Summary:This is a prequel to A Beautiful Somewhere. So it's got all the angst and drama of Finchel as we know them now, building up to what they are in that fic. The angst isn't there in this chapter, but it's going to appear at some point, along with a lot of fluff, smut and crazy.
Author’s Notes: Here lies Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three and Chapter Four.
Puck comes to visit him and for the first time since Rachel’s visit, Finn is really excited about seeing someone from Lima. Of course, this is Puck, which means that Finn has to find out about every party in town, worm his way into the bar scene so they can get shitfaced and spend hours playing Halo without even trying to pass a level. And because this is his best friend, Finn goes all out and makes everything happen the way Puck would want it to be. Sometimes Finn would just sit down and wonder how he and Puck even became best friends. They were the two most different people in the world, with only football and Glee club in common. And even then, they still didn’t have all that much in common with each other. But they seemed to get along and while Puck spent a good part of his life judging Finn for the things he did, somewhere along the way they found common ground. Even if the common ground was Quinn for a while, but whatever it was, something brought them together. When they were kids, it was so much easier. Being six and wanting to play football in the streets, or steal candy from the store, or talk about how every girl in their grade had cooties was easy. They didn’t need to have anything in common, just the same beliefs about how girls were gross and candy was awesome. But growing up together, it became clear that they weren’t really cut out to be best friends. Everybody saw that and everybody pointed it out. Including his mother. But they were best friends and best friends did stuff like this.
***
“Please be careful, Finn.”
“Nothing’s going to happen, babe.”
“This is Noah we’re talking about, you never know what will happen when you’re with Noah.”
“I promise, we’ll be careful.”
“Don’t get too drunk.”
“I never get too drunk.”
“I know you’re always the designated driver when I’m around, honey, but this is Noah!”
“The lack of faith you have in my best friend is a little sad.”
“I would have faith in him if he had proved himself anything but a complete jerk while we were in school.”
“That’s the old Puckerman, he’s different now.”
“I should say I’m impressed that you’re defending him, but I’m not.”
“Aw, come on, secretly, you’re glad that Puck and I are friends again.”
“It’s no secret, Finn, but I’m still very unsure about his motives.”
“Seriously? He’s madly in love with Quinn and he keeps talking about them getting married and stuff, so I think you should stop worrying about what he’s going to do when he gets here.”
“Keep him away from Sandy and those other trashy girls that I met the last time I was there.”
“Calm down, he’s not going to do anything with any of those girls.”
“Good, because if he hurts Quinn, I will break his legs. But I’m more concerned about them throwing their skinny bodies at him.”
“He knows when to stop, Rachel, give him some credit.”
“Finn.”
“What?”
“You still want to marry me, right?”
“Of course, I do. Why would you even ask me that?”
“Because you’re surrounded by all these girls and they’re so much prett-“
“Rachel, we’re not doing this again.”
“You really can’t blame me for being scared that you’re going to move on.”
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to marry you, start a family with you and give you the kind of life that you deserve.”
“You promise?”
“I promise. I can’t imagine spending the rest of my life with anyone else.”
“I really wish you were here with me right now.”
“Me too, baby.”
“No, seriously, I’m not wearing any panties.”
“Rach…”
“God, Finn, I miss you.”
“Baby, now is not a good time.”
“I’m so fucking wet right now.”
“Rachel!”
“What?”
“I’m at the airport and I can’t, not now.”
“Find a bathroom, Finn, I need you.”
“Puck’s plane just landed, I can’t.”
“Fine. Call me when you’re not busy enjoying your bromancing.”
“I will, I love you.”
“I love you more.”
***
Puck being the party animal that he was wanted to experience every kind of party the West Coast had to offer and Finn was more than happy to be his guide. There was no way he was going to be the designated driver because he knew that mentioning the words alone would earn him a black eye, so Finn kept the taxi companies on speed dial and went ahead with the crazy weekend. They attended a few boring dorm parties before finally crashing a fraternity party that proved to be the most boring thing till the two of them introduced the brothers to the age old tradition of beer pong. Finn had gotten so good at the game by the end of his senior year at McKinley, he could out do Puck in a heartbeat. Puck even got the brothers to open up the pool in the backyard and taught them all how to cannonball with just the right amount of splash. And just when they thought they were running out of things to do, the party really got started. It was then that Finn realized they were no longer on UCSD campus. He wasn’t even sure how the two of them got off campus to start with, but the fact that UCSD didn’t have Greek row should have triggered it off. But there they were, off campus, in a fraternity house, teaching a bunch of geeks how to throw a party and the world had invited itself. Somewhere along the way, Finn had found himself pressed against the wall of the pool as a girl tried to get her hands into his boxers, only to find his hands moving to push her off him with such force that he was sure he was going to drown her. The party was in full swing and Finn couldn’t find Puck, he wasn’t drunk enough yet, but he was pretty close. Finding a quite spot for a few minutes, Finn found that he had 24 missed calls from Rachel and a couple of text messages of her freaking out like she always did when he didn’t call her back after the first six missed calls. Cursing himself for letting things get out of hand, Finn moved through the house looking for dry clothes. Grabbing the first pair of jeans he found, Finn stripped off his boxers and pulled on the jeans. He really didn’t care that he was walking around commando, it was going to feel a whole lot better than walking around like he had something in his pants. Next job was to find Puck and a clean shirt. Every single room had a couple, or more, as naked as they could get each other in their desperation for the other person. And every time he found an empty room, someone tried to push him onto the bed and get his jeans off. Finding a dry shirt - not clean, just dry - proved to be harder than Finn thought. But he found one just as he found Puck fighting with a guy twice his size.
And then the cops showed up.
“One more thing scratched off my bucket list, no wait, make that three things.”
“Great, you have a bucket list of badass things to do before Quinn makes an honest man out of you.”
“Something like that. Crash a fraternity party, make a beer based cocktail and get into a fight with a guy that could be the stunt double for The Rock.”
“You’re crazy.”
“Wait, four things. Get arrested for trespassing.”
“I repeat, you’re crazy.”
“Be honest, dude, this is the most fun you’ve had since you left Lima.”
“My idea of fun does not include getting arrested and being handcuffed to my best friend.”
“Our girls might actually find this kinda kinky.”
“Of course you’d say something like that.”
“Lighten up, Hudson, it’s like you’ve got a stick up your ass.”
“I’m going to get murdered by Rachel when I get out of here.”
“Wait, you’re whipped, forget the stick up your ass.”
“Proud to be whipped, actually, she called me 24 times last night and I still haven’t called her back.”
“Why not?”
“Because I was trying to get you to stop chewing on that dude’s ear.”
“Yeah, that was nasty, I don’t even know why I was doing that.”
“Who was he?”
“A bouncer from some club, apparently I was macking on his girl, when I wasn’t macking on anyone other my own girl who insisted on telling me that she was wearing nothing as she walked around apartment, thinking about me.”
“Wow.”
“Get the image of Quinn naked out of your head!”
“I was not picturing her naked, well, now I am. But you spoke to her in the middle of all of that and I couldn’t even find the fucking time to call my fiancée. I’m so fucking screwed.”
“So call her now.”
“With what, my shoe?”
“Don’t be such a pussy, ask them for your one legal phone call.”
“I don’t want to call her while I’m in here, she’ll get the board line asking her if she wants to talk to me and even before I start talking, she’s going to be screaming at me.”
“What do you wanna do, Finn?”
“Get the fuck out of jail!”
“Okay, let’s make this happen then.”
***
When Finn woke up the next afternoon with the mother of all hangovers, he found his phone blinking alerting him that Rachel had called again. And while he thought 24 missed calls were bad, seeing 39 missed calls was a whole lot worse. Groaning as he got himself out of bed, Finn did his best to keep the noise to a minimum so that Puck wouldn’t wake up. They’d gotten home at six in the morning, after paying off their bail and making a huge apology for the mess that was the fraternity house. Luckily for them, the fraternity didn’t press charges for all the damage done, so they managed to get out without too much trouble. Except for the angry girlfriend that Finn had to deal with shortly. Making himself coffee, Finn sat on the kitchen floor and dialed Rachel’s number and waited for her to pick up the phone. She was clearly ignoring him for what he had done to her, but it wasn’t like he was doing it on purpose. He let his phone automatically redial four more times while he poured himself a large cup of coffee and when she finally picked up, Finn thought he was going to cry.
“I don’t want to talk to you. Ever.”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. My phone wasn’t with me.”
“Oh, I know that. Some girl called Missy called me to tell him just how gorgeous my boyfriend is.”
“What?”
“Mhm,” Finn tried to sort through the night before and couldn’t remember his phone as Rachel rambled on about Missy and something else, but Finn wasn’t paying attention, “Finn!”
“Yeah, sorry, what were you saying?”
“So, Missy is your new toy?”
“I don’t know a Missy, Rachel. And I don’t know how she got my phone.”
“Well, she got a lot more than your phone from what she had to say.”
“I’m confused.”
“Did you fuck her?”
“Whoa! What?”
“She said that the reason she had your phone was because you were too busy enjoying the feeling of being buried deep inside her.”
“And you believe some girl because she had my phone.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, what the hell am I supposed to believe then?”
“Believe me when I say that I did not sleep with anyone last night.”
“You better start proving it to me, Finn, because I’m having a hard time believing you right now.”
“What do you want me to say?”
“Start with the beginning of your night and then eventually get to the part where you missed 63 of my missed calls!”
“We were at a party.”
“Yes, I got that, with Missy.”
“Can you please stop bringing her up over and over again, I don’t know who the fuck she is and I did not fuck her and oh man, I can’t believe we’re actually doing this.”
“Finn Hudson, you better get your story straight because I am not in the mood for this right now.”
“Trust me, all that happened was that we got a little carried away. But I had my boxers on the whole time and yes, there is a portion of the night that is a complete blur and I’m sorry.”
“Let me get this straight, you had your boxers on which also means that your pants were not at the same time and you don’t remember a portion of the night, which might be the portion you were with Missy. Or wait,” Finn was sure he could hear her rolling her eyes and then there was a rustle of papers as she breathed heavily into the phone, “Or the hour you spent telling me just how you were going to fuck me when you saw me next.”
“W-w-whoa.”
“I have to admit that it was incredibly hot because we got to continue what you didn’t really let me start when you went to pick Noah up,” there was more rustling of papers and he could hear her breathing change, which made him assume that she was now pacing, “Speaking of which, where is the idiot who is responsible for all of this?”
“Passed out on the couch and it’s not his fault.”
“Finn, please listen to what I have to say right now,” he closed his eyes and pressed the hot mug of coffee to his forehead as he waited for her to speak, “If you don’t come up with an explanation, not an excuse, an explanation for what happened to you last night, we are going to have to talk about us not getting married. Because if I can’t trust you to be faithful to me when you’re out with your best friend, how can I trust you with anything? Especially my heart. I’ll give you till the end of your day and when I call you later tonight, you better have something good for me. Or, whatever we are right now? It’s not going to be anything. Ever again.”
She hung up and Finn just sat there, staring at his phone, waiting for everything to settle as he took a long swig of his coffee, burning his tongue in the process. His life as he knew it, was officially over, and while she had given him quite a bit of the day to figure his night out, Finn was sure that he wasn’t going to be able to explain it all to her. Especially not the part about Missy and his missing phone. Unless Puck knew what the hell had happened and was going to be a fantastic best friend and help him put the pieces together.
***
In true Puckerman style, the way to get over an almost break up was to get trashed all over again. It didn’t help that Jared was game for whatever whacked up plan Puck had put together. And between the two of them, there was no escaping. Jared and Puck bonded like long lost brothers and Finn just sat there, twisting the tiny straws into as many shapes as he could, trying to piece the evening together. Puck promised that they’d spend some time after getting drunk figuring everything out, but Finn really just wanted to sort everything out right then. Instead of waiting till the last minute to get his facts right. And if Rachel knew that Quinn and Puck had spoken during the party, he was officially a dead man. Given how well the two of them got along now. Closing his eyes as he downed his shot of whiskey, Finn asked for a round of beers and went through every single bottle in record time, leaving him in a drooling mess on the table till Jared and Puck were ready to head home. By quarter to 11, Rachel called and Finn had to stop himself from ignoring her call. The three of them were sitting around the patio table, a doobie being passed around as her name flashed on the screen. Taking one last hit of the joint, Finn grabbed his phone and hurried into the house. Collapsing onto the couch as he answered the phone, Finn took a deep breath, “I love you, Finn.”
“I love you too, Rach, you know that.”
“I know, I just feel like that you’re in California surrounded by all these hot girls and I’m going to become a distant memory.”
“I really need you to stop thinking that you’re nothing, okay? You mean the world to me and I’m with you not just because you’re beautiful, but because you get me and because I love you and because nobody else would put up with my ridiculousness.”
“You are pretty ridiculous and frustrating too.”
“I apologize for being all of that and more, but I really want you to know that I’m never going to dump you for some bleached blonde surfer chick.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
“Okay, tell me what happened last night.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, I want to know why you were only in boxers, how you lost your phone and why it took till this afternoon for you to return my 63 missed calls.”
“Yeah,” Finn closed his eyes and nodded to himself as he prepared his big speech, “So, it’s going to take some time, but I want you to know that it won’t happen again.” And he launched into the story from the beginning, the pub hopping and the stumbling across the boring fraternity with all the amenities for an amazing party and the sudden explosion of people and the pool party and how he had to grab someone else’s jeans because he couldn’t find his after stripping down to his boxers for the cannonball experience. He explained to her that the whole Missy thing didn’t happen, unless she was the one who took his phone while they were attempting to play spin the bottle. He talked about the fight that he had to break up and how Puck almost knocked him cold because he was in such a hurry to beat the crap out of the bouncer. “I am going to kill Noah when I see him next.”
“It’s not over, babe,” Finn proceeded to explain how they got arrested and tossed into jail while being handcuffed together, which did excite Rachel a little, just the way Puck said it would. He could hear her sniffling on the other end of the phone as he explained to her that they had to literally beg the police officer to let them out because they were visiting San Diego and happened to run into some of the wrong people along the way. It cost them $100 each to get out, which was a huge blow to their already depleting funds, but there was no other way to get out of that place. When he finally got to the end of the story, Rachel was crying and Finn couldn’t even hear himself think. “I can’t believe you got arrested!”
“Nothing happened, Rachel, it was just a few hours in jail.”
“Oh God, Finn, you were arrested, how are you not upset by this?”
“I was upset, babe, but I can’t keep being upset about it.”
“I’m so angry with Noah, tell him that he’s officially my least favorite person in the world.”
“Come on, it’s not all his fault.”
“Yes, it is! You’re not that kind of guy. I mean, this is the guy that drove his Mom’s Volvo into an ATM and got sent to Juvi! He’s not 16 anymore, he still can’t be doing things like this and hoping to get away with it.”
“At least we got out and that has a lot to do with him.”
“Yeah, because he knows how to deal with cops given his past.”
“Rachel?”
“Yes, Finn?”
“We’re okay and I really am sorry for all that I put you through.”
“It’s okay, but you’re going to have to find some fancy way to make I up to me.”
“I’m sure I can do that.”
“You actually have no choice. Close to 12 hours of trauma deserves at least a full day of mind-blowing sex.”
“I can do one better than that.”
“Two days of mind-blowing sex?”
“And then some.” Smiling as she growled into the phone, Finn got up and stepped out onto the patio where the guys were chilling with fresh bottles of beer and sat down, “I love you.”
“I love you too, babe. I’ll call you tomorrow morning, okay?”
“Okay, I have an audition at 10, so call me after that.”
“Perfect and you’re going to nail that audition, don’t worry about it.”
“Thank you, Finn. I should get to bed.”