A New Beginning

There was a knock at the door at noon on Saturday. “Santana, can you get that?!” I called. “It’s Finn.”

“No,” she mumbled back. A second later, her bedroom door slammed shut.

“Bitch,” I muttered under my breath.

After putting on the back my earring, I hurried down the stairs and opened the door. “Hi,” I greeted. “Sorry for the wait. Someone isn’t awake yet.”

“It’s cool. You ready to go?”

“Yup. Let me just grab my purse.” After snatching it off the counter, I hurried over and pushed him lightly out the door.

For the first few minutes of the car ride, we were silent. “So what are we doing today?” I asked, putting my feet up on the dashboard and leaning back into the seat.

“Well…I kind of heard a rumor from someone, and I was hoping you could clear it up…” he trailed off nervously.

My stomach immediately clenched. How could it be possible that word got out about the truth about Puck and me? No one knew, besides Puck. Ugh…if he told anyone, I swear that I’d murder him in his sleep.

Clearing my throat and smiling, ignoring how long and tense the pause was, I finally replied, “What?”

“Is it true that you’ve never seen The Dark Knight?”

My face reddened and I laughed, internally relaxing with relief. “Oh, I’m going to kill Puck. I told him that in confidence!”

“So it’s true!” Finn looked like he was going to puke. “I can’t believe that. It’s probably the best superhero movie of our time, and you haven’t seen it?!”

“I’m sorry! I was never into superhero movies, and no one in my family was, so it must have slipped through the cracks.”

“Today, we’re totally going to change that. We’ll go to my house. We can eat popcorn and drink pop.”

“Sounds great,” I agreed. “But if I hate the movie, I’m going to be pissed that you made me sit through it.”

“Trust me, you’re not going to hate it. You won’t even dislike it.”

“Challenge accepted,” I laughed.

We pulled into the driveway and hurried inside the house, trying to dodge the raindrops that were coming down in sheets. Of course, it didn’t work out too well, and we were both soaked when we walked through his front door.

Finn just walked through the house, leaving behind him a trail of muddy footprints and dead leaves. “Uh, shouldn’t you take your shoes off?” I called after him, already working to untie my own.

“Oh, right.” He laughed lightly as he made his way back over to where I was. It took him about two seconds to flick off his sneakers, one leaving a smear of dirt on the wall. “Done. C’mon!”

Sighing, I followed him into the living room. It was pretty obvious that he was planning on me saying okay to his idea, since the popcorn and pop were already out, the DVD on the menu, waiting for someone to press play.

“What if I had said no?” I chuckled, sitting down, leaning against the arm of the couch.

“Then I would have called Kurt to get rid of all of this stuff,” he admitted, plopping down in the middle of the couch before reaching for the bowl of popcorn.

“Wait, Kurt? Why is he here?” I raised a questioning eyebrow.

“Oh, he’s my step-brother. I forgot you didn’t know that.”

“Uh, no. I didn’t.” I coughed a little. “Why didn’t you tell me that earlier?”

“I just figured you knew. Everyone else does.”

“I don’t know if you got the memo, Finn, but,” I leaned in close to him and lowered my voice, “I’m a new student. It means that I’m not in the loop most of the time.”

“I’ll remember that next time,” he laughed before shoving the bowl of popcorn at me. “Here. Have some and prepare yourself for a mind-blowing Batman experience.”

“This better be good,” I muttered, pulling my legs up onto the couch to sit Indian-style.

It took almost no time at all for me to be sucked into the movie. Finn was right: It was mind-blowing. And Heath Ledger, rest in peace, was totally fantastic as the Joker.

“Whoa,” was all I could say when it was done and the credits started to roll.

“Told you it was awesome.”

“I think that’s an understatement.”

Finn chuckled, putting the empty bowl of popcorn on the table. “You gotta trust me sometimes.”

And suddenly, I felt guilty. He was right. I should trust him more than I allow myself to. That was all it took for me to get an overwhelming urge to tell him all the lies that Puck and I had passed on to everyone else, to fill him in on what was really going on.

“Speaking of trusting you…” I trailed off, my head trying to fight with me over what I was about to do, “there’s something I need to tell you.”

Finn’s face became very scared as he asked cautiously, “Um, what?”

“Puck and I aren’t really a couple,” I spat at him, my voice barely above a whisper. Knowing that Kurt could walk in at any moment and overhear what I was saying scared me out of my mind.

“What? It’s okay, you can talk louder. Kurt’s having a Liza Minnelli marathon in his room. He won’t show himself for hours.”

Taking a deep breath, I repeated, “Puck and I aren’t a couple. We’re faking it. We were trying to raise my status at the school to take Santana down a couple pegs. And now, I’m not sure if I want to go through with the plan, but Puck doesn’t want to quit.”

Finn stared for a second, not saying anything. It made me antsy as hell, but I had enough experience to know that pushing him was not the best idea. “So you and Puck aren’t really going out?”

It took all my willpower to keep from sighing loudly at his stupidity. “No. And I feel really badly about leading you on about it, for not telling you the truth.”

“Okay. Well, I’m glad you told me.”

“That’s not it, though. How good are you with advice?”

“Um…not the best. But it’s worth a shot.”

I told him the whole story about Puck’s surprise visit while I was grounded and ended with, “So what should I do?”

“I think…” Finn bit his lip and stopped for a second, trying to find the right words to say, “I think that you should just let your feelings sort themselves out because if you lie to him and say that you feel the same way, you could end up in a shitty relationship.”

“That’s what I thought.” I nodded. “Thanks, Finn.”

“What are friends for?” he grinned. “Alright, now I think it’s time to get something to eat.”

“We just had tons of popcorn, you weirdo.”

“Hey, I’m a growing boy. I need my food.” He stood and offered a hand to help me up.

“If you grow anymore, you’re definitely going to reach freakish proportions, if you haven’t already.”

He shook his head and rolled his eyes before walking toward the door. “You coming or not?”