Rachel is what you'd call a controllist.

Rachel drops the subject, just like she always does. Really, as long as he's working, trying to do something, anything at all with himself, she doesn't want to push him too hard. After his lack of motivation in high school, she's reluctant to harp on whatever motivation he has now, even if she is completely convinced that he can do much better. And anyway, she can already tell that he's totally checked out of the conversation and she can swear she feels her pupils dilating when she realizes that his eyes are on her bare legs. Blushing, she crosses her legs and tugs her t-shirt down over her thighs, trying to subtly shit the attention.

It's not like Puck's never hit on her. Like they haven't made out before...there's been a few drunken pecks here and there since he moved in, even, but she's unsure how to handle this sober attention.

The Artie example is totally irrelevant. It would probably work better with Puck or maybe Mike, but Artie and Rachel had absolutely nothing in common. That relationship would have fizzled out faster than his short lived run with Sugar their senior year. "O-oh?" She finally looks over at him, head tilted a bit. "Where do you propose I find one of those, then?" Because Noah's too busy trying to work his way through the female population of New York.