Catalyst

Chapter 7

In the month since their last date, Quinn had somehow forgotten how boring dating Finn was. She knew his mother didn't go out much, and that no one had taught him to be adventurous besides movies, but she was certain there was more in a RomCom than taking his date out to the nearest restaurant, ordering something heavy and onion-filled for himself and giving her his puppy-dog eyes when it came to dessert. Her lack of response to most of his conversation should have alerted him that she was bored. Whatever. It was better than being by herself on a Friday night.

After dinner, he drove them about fifteen minutes out of town to one of the corn fields, where it was empty of people and the sky was heavily studded with stars. All she could see were the corn fields, showing up almost black with the lack of sunlight and a single pale yellow light from a small house. The sky wasn't pitch black, like they always said in movies, but a deep midnight blue and the stars were silver and blue pin-pricks. He helped her out and onto the hood of the car before climbing up after her. They stared upwards for a while, just breathing in the humid air of the last hints of summer before he said, "You know the Lion King taught me that stars are just souls looking down on us."

She nibbled at the skin on the inside of her cheek, not wanting to really say anything to him. "Uh-huh. That's cool."

"Yeah, I remember when Puck first let me watch it with him. I mean, the part where Simba's dad dies is really sad, but I think it's awesome when he like, brings back awesomeness to the pride."

She glanced at the earnest look on his face and wondered what it felt like for two little boys to find out that their dads weren't the only ones missing. Or even Rachel, having one too many dads according to Lima, and missing a mother, seeing that people had one mom and one dad, even according to animals. Damn, she was never letting her kid see that movie. Mulan all the way.

"That's nice, Finn." Quinn hated to break up the moment and said, "You know, the stars are actually elements and other things pushed together, not souls, right?"

He blinked in surprise, and then frowned. "I told Puck I was right."

She blinked as well. "What?"

"I told Puck that stars were elements and rock and other junk all mixed up, not souls, but he didn't believe me. People are always saying he's smarter, so I believed him."

Great. Finn was the smart one in that friendship. Maybe raising a baby with him would be the smart thing to do, if Puck was going to be a part of raising a baby with Rachel. Then again, they were best friends. It was probably smart to just become used to him, then.

"Who taught you that?" She asked, and then winced. It was easy for her to lose control of her decorum around Finn because he let her get away with it. It was one thing for her to soften and be truthful, like with Rachel, but another entirely when all she did was belittle and act cruel to him and for him to never call her out on it.

He chose not to call her out again and said, "There was this kid in my elementary school that taught me. He was short with a ton of hair, like really curly and messy, and he had huge eyes. He was always wearing these weird clothes, like flower sweaters and dress shoes and stuff." He laughed, "He looked like a hippie deer."

Quinn's eyes widened. "Are you serious? That was Rachel."

He laughed again, louder, "Nice one Quinn. That was a boy, he had this weird name. Something from the city, I think. Samuel, Steven, Sebastian-"

She interrupted, "Spencer?"

He nodded, "Yeah that was it. How'd you know?"

"That's Rachel's first name."