How can I hurt when holding you?

After round 3, they fall asleep again. Rachel wakes up first, and realizing that her Dads are probably home, she scribbles down a little note for Noah. Thank you. Signed with a star and a heart. She sets an alarm on his phone for him so that he'll be able to get up and shower before his Mom gets home, sitting it on top of the note on his nightstand and pressing a kiss to his forehead before she's gone.  Sunday, she doesn't do anything. She turns her phone off, and spends all day drifting in and out of sleep, only getting out of bed when her back and thighs feel stiff or her Dad calls her to eat.

Monday is the worst, though. It's not that she's not happy for Kurt. She is. He's still her best friend and she's going to support him in whatever way she can. But when he runs squealing past her to Blaine's locker at the end of the hall before first period, screaming about his acceptance and hugging and doing a little happy dance that attracts the attention of Tina and Artie and Ms. Pilsbury and it-...it's too much. She should be over there, dancing with him, happy, except she can't be. All she can think about is that crumpled letter in the wastebasket in her room, the ink blurry from the way she'd only been able to stand in her foyer and cry over it. When the sharp metal of her locker cuts into her finger enough to hurt, she finally lets go, shutting it. And Rachel Berry has never skipped school before, but the only thing she can think of to do is turn around...and walk out.

Welcome to the Fallout

She tells Kurt later that night. Of course she does. He's her best friend and she's been trying to work out this...thing with Noah since it started Sophomore year, in between Finn and Jesse. And he's happy for her, which is great. It's just...he's a little too happy. A little too loud.

And guess who he lives with?

She's at her locker the next day (she hasn't seen Noah yet. She hasn't looked. She knows he's usually late and she's painfully punctual, so it's pretty much a moot point.) She's not expecting Finn to approach her. And she's definitely not expecting to hear "Puck? Puck? Are you kidding me?"

"I'm not sure how it's any of your business, Finn."

"He’s bad for you."
 
"You don’t know what’s bad for me, do you?"
 
"C’mon, Rachel, I know you better than anyone."
 
"So you kept hurting me on purpose, then?"
 
"Rach-"
 
"No, Finn, stop. I won’t-…even if I wasn’t trying this...thing with Noah-"
 
"Rachel, wake up! He only wants what he can’t have!"
 
"And why can’t he have me, Finn? I don’t belong to you.  We're over, okay? We're done. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to make sure I have all of my homework for the day."

"You know you do, Rachel. Come on, we need to talk about this..."