The Way We Were

The Way We Explain

"You look nice."

Mercedes cringed. "What do you want, Noah?"

"Nothing." Puck shrugged. "I just wanted to tell you that you look nice."

She sighed and laid her head against her locker. "I'm married. You can't tell me that anymore."

"Is he so jealous that he can't handle another man stating a fact?"

"It's disrespectful. He's your friend. And he's not jealous." She finally opened her locker and rooted through it.

"If you were still mine, I'd be jealous. Hell, I'm jealous right now and we're not together. Though I wish we were."

"Noah." She whined. "I'm finally getting over you. Don't pull me back in."

He took her hand and pressed it against his cheek. "I will always love you. I'm going to count down the days until you can be mine again."

"I'm not getting divorced." She ran her thumb over the hollow in his cheek then withdrew her hand. "I'll always love you, too. You were my first love and that will always mean something to me. But I love and respect him too much to hang onto you."

"You love him?" He snorted.

"Yes, I love him."

"He's your brother."

"He's my husband. He stepped up when you ran."

"Are we going through this again?"

"Yes, we are going through this again!" She hissed. "We made this mess together and you ran because you couldn't deal. Well he could."

"So he's just perfect?!"

"He's a good man."

"And I'm not?"

She shrugged. "I think you have a lot of growing up to do." She closed her locker and walked away.

W.W.W.

Quinn huffed as she smiled through her anger and forced a cheerful expression at practice. "I can't believe him! He expects me to believe that he was just waiting on me all summer?! I'm not an idiot! I know he was with Rachel!"

"But you're not supposed to care anymore." Mercedes reminded her gently.

"I know. But I wasn't prepared for him to be all in my face, begging me for affection. I'm just starting to get over him. I'm happy with you and Mikey. Why is he doing this to me?"

Mercedes sighed. "I don't know what their problem is."

"Take five!" Sue yelled.

The girls put their arms down and went to their water bottles.

"What you need to do is pawn them off on other girls." Santana said.

"That's a good idea." Marcy sat in the grass. "If they're getting it in with some other chickenhead, they won't have the energy to bother you."

"I'd help but I think I want to date Artie." Brittany crossed her legs in the grass and laid back. "When I close my eyes, he sounds black and that reminds me of Monty."

"We're sorry you guys broke up." Mercedes touched her leg.

"It's okay." Brittany laid her hand on top of hers.

"At least he gave you some nice ice as a parting gift." Santana grinned. "Now that Matt and I are done, I need someone to occupy my time."

"What about that new guy?" Quinn suggested. "Sam."