And Here's What You Missed on...GLEE

“Ugh,” I groaned, throwing myself back on Puck’s bed so I stared up at the ceiling. “I have no idea what I’m going to do. I mean, I still need to perform with Finn, but I don’t really want to talk to him, and you don’t want me talking to him, and everything's awkward and-”

Sick of my rambling, Puck came over and slapped his hand over my mouth. “Shut up, Red. And it’s not hard. You just sing it like you were supposed to, but you don’t have to pretend to sing it to Finn.”

The wheels in my head started turning quickly. “Hm…Puck, I think that’s the first smart thing that you’ve ever said.”

“Thanks,” he smiled for a second before my words sank in. “Hey, wait-”

“I’m gonna go shower,” I told him before kissing him quickly. “I’ll see you later.”

* * *

“So who’s going to go next?” Mr. Schue started as I walked into the room a half hour late, thanks to detention. Matt was still making his way back to his seat, so I presumed that he had been first.

Immediately, I set my bag down next to Puck and blurted, “Finn and I will!”

We walked up to the front of the room, and I explained to the band what we were playing and everything.

“What the hell?” Finn snapped at me, and I was instantly brought back to that time, so long ago, when Puck had volunteered the two of us to perform when we weren’t ready, just because he was angry at me. God, I was a hypocrite. “You know that we’re not ready to do this.”

“Sure we are. It’s not like I’m going to be able to rehearse with you anymore after what happened,” I stopped whispering for a second so I could look at Rachel, her face bright with anticipation to see what our song was, “so I think it’s just better that we get our performance out of the way.”

“Fine,” he sighed, turning back to the group.

The music started playing behind us, and Finn started singing, staring into my eyes and playing for the whole romantic vibe.

But when I joined in, at the chorus, I took a couple steps forward and sang directly to Puck, letting the whole club know where my loyalties lied. It was probably one of the bitchiest things that I’d ever done to someone, and I didn’t care. Finn shouldn’t have tried to kiss me in the first place.

Puck had this smirk of satisfaction on his face that grew even wider when Finn made a point not to notice.

After we were finished, the whole club burst into applause. “Guys, that was perfect!” Mr. Schue congratulated.

Er, what? Did I hear correctly? “Really?” I questioned, my eyebrows drawn together.

“Yeah! You took a totally different spin on the song, making it about a love triangle. Excellent twist,” he praised with a satisfied nod.

“Well,” I whispered when I sat back down, Mike going up to perform his song, “that backfired.”

“No it didn’t,” Puck reassured me. “Everyone thinks that you did a great performance, but Finn knows the truth.”

And when I looked over at Finn, his eyes blazing with anger, I knew that Puck was completely right.

A feeling of guilt settled in my stomach as Mike’s version of One Less Lonely Girl by Justin Bieber started playing in the background of my mind.

* * *

“Ellie!” Finn yelled to stop me as I started climbing onto the bleachers. “Was that totally necessary, in Glee Club?”

“Not sure what you mean,” I murmured, settling down a couple of rows up. Finn took the seat next to me, and I saw just how angry he still was.

“It was a love song with the two of us together. You were supposed to be looking at me.”

“Not to burst your bubble,” I responded with sarcasm, “but I’m not really into you like that. And frankly, I’m not too happy with the fact that you tried to kiss me. It showed that you had no respect for Puck, you had no respect for Rachel, and you had no respect for me.”

Finn coiled back like I’d slapped him across the face. “Fine.” He was on the last step of the bleachers before he called out, “By the way, I’m not breaking up with Rachel. In case you were wondering.”

“Good,” I responded. He left, and I leaned back on the bleachers, popping in the ear buds of my iPod and closing my eyes as Hello by Lionel Richie soothed my mind.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before I was interrupted again. “Hello, Ellie,” Rachel greeted with a smile. God, it had been a long time since she’d tried to talk to me. It was hard to keep track of just how long it had been.

“Hi,” I replied simply, shutting off my iPod and putting it away. “How can I help you?”

“No, that’s not why I’m here. Finn asked me to come watch his practice, and I accepted because,” she stopped and put a hand to her chest, “I’m a good girlfriend.”

“Uh-huh.” I worked my best to keep all traces of sarcasm out of my voice, but I didn’t completely succeed. It made me feel worse, knowing that I had almost broken up her relationship.

“Will you tell me the truth about something?” she broke through my thoughts again.

“Um, depends.” Narrowing my eyes with suspicion, I waited for her to elaborate.

“You and Finn didn’t plan for you to sing to Puck, did you?”

“No.”

She let out a sigh. “I figured. Neither of you are really the creative, think-outside-of-the-box types. Is there any reason you chose to do it last minute?”

There was a long, awkward silence as I bundled my thoughts. Finally, I cleared my throat and answered the only thing that I could come up with that wasn’t completely incriminating: “That’s something that you should ask Finn.”

But, clearly, to her, that was incriminating. “Okay. Thank you for your honesty, Ellie. I’ll see you in Glee Club tomorrow, where I’ll be performing.”

“Okay,” I mumbled guiltily, watching as she made her way down the bleachers. Right next to the field, she stopped and stared out at the players. Finn made eye contact with her for a second before she turned and stormed off.

She could definitely make an exit, that girl.

Revisiting the conversation, I figured that I probably could have lied and said that nothing happened. Not that she would have believed me, considering that lying was not my thing.

Ugh. High school was so dramatic. I hated it.