Chapter 2: Silly Silly Phase
I'm not in love, so don't forget it.
It's just a silly phase I'm going through.
"Noah," a soft voice called his name as he walked towards the parking lot. He was surprised to hear her voice, he expected her to be on her way home by this time. He stopped and turned. Rachel was approaching him, her short skirt swirling sexily in time with her walk. Fuck! He never had gotten over her short skirts. Whenever he sees her now, he regrets not cupping a feel of her ass when they were dating. Maybe he shouldn't have given up easily.
"How can I be of service, babe?" Puck sexily smirked at her.
Then she thanked him for coming to her defense on that shitty egging thing. The warm feelings that her words brought him was a surprise. What is with this girl and fucking emotions? So he told her he does not do friendship with girls.
When Rachel simply turned and started walking back, Puck was more than surprised. He expected her to give him a lecture on his foul (Berry's freaking term) mouth, or to stare him down, at the least. That midget of a girl is scary when she does that, even Mike and Matt get scared. Fuck that Jesse asshole! Schue should have allowed him to punch his face.
He looked at her again when he reached his truck (he isn't worried about her, it was in the hopes of getting a glimpse of her undies as she walks, ok). He knew her ride is coming late, and when one of her dads is late, they are, like, really late. So he decided to give her a ride home. His offer has nothing to do with how he misses her blabbering on just about anything or how sad she looks since the egging happened. He just wanted to see her legs up close. Those, he misses.
When she gave him a brief lecture on his tainted (new word Berry, huh) mouth the moment she sat down in his car, he knew she will be alright.
-0-
"You are freaking awesome, Berry!" Puck exclaimed when she, once again, saved his ass. He briefly glanced at her and noticed red creeping up her neck. He grinned.
Rachel checked up on him when he still had not returned to school days after Beth's adoption. He ended up inviting her inside (She freaking looked worried about him, ok) despite not knowing what they will do or talk about (Heck, he doesn't do the feelings stuff and that's all she is about). It's not because she made him think of sex, again, (stopped since the day he watched Quinn delivered Beth, which is like, such a pussy thing, right?), when she sexily blushed after seeing his guns. Oh yeah, she totally wants him, he thought then. It's not even because she fumbled on what to call their brief relationship (that was so cute he almost smiled). It's not because of those warm feelings (Arrgh, what the fuck is that all about. The fact that he only feel it around this girl is seriously freaking him out) he felt when he realized that she might be really worried about him, and that she probably is the only one to feel so, except for his mom and sister.
She surprised him when she went straight to his games collection, browsed through it, and suggested playing Halo with her.
He raised an eyebrow at her, and sneered, "That's not a Beyonce (Oh yeah, he knows her, who's man in his right mind wouldn't?) song, you know that right?"
She giggled that sexy giggle of her, "You're silly, Noah", and whatever, but that fucking turned him on. In silent retaliation to this and to her saying he has a soft heart (He almost choked on his saliva upon hearing that. What the fuck gave her that idea?), he is so not putting on a shirt.
They just finished another stage when she looked at him and said, "Noah, as much as I had so much fun tonight and regret to be saying this, I should be going."
He laughed, shook his head - this girl and her freaking vocabulary - and replied, "You're cool, Berry." He turned off his X-Box and TV and added, "Wait there, I'll just put on a shirt and I'll bring you home," running up the flight of stairs to his room.
-0-
Freaking weird, that's what he thought about it. Finn, Rachel, Puck and Quinn all hanging out together after Babygate - freak-no, too light a term, fucking weird was more apt. But here they are on their junior year, and doing exactly that.
He knew this weirdness was because of how annoyingly determined Rachel is to get what she wants. Her crazy is rubbing off on them. He should have known something was up when she started to acknowledge his presence in the temple each time they see each other. Despite his attempt to ensure that his badass-ness remain intact, he just found himself answering her questions and offering her rides home, like it was the most normal thing for him to do.
He was not just the recipient of her crazy over the summer. When Rachel visited Quinn at her house the first time, Quinn called Puck right away to share her surprise. Nothing would beat his surprise, however, when she added that she thinks she likes Rachel. Something about bonding over the fact that she gave her daughter away to Rachel's biological mom and Rachel herself being given away. Well, that makes sense to him, as well, he silently agrees to himself. He, also, thinks that this made it easier for him to accept Rachel's offer of friendship. Yeah, yeah, that is such a pussy thing to admit.
Of course, when he and Quinn are both wrapped around her little finger, the most whipped of all would follow. Hanging out with both Finn and Rachel just became a normal thing, eventually. The turn of events made Finn and Puck renew their friendship. Same goes for Quinn and Rachel.
So, naturally, junior year saw them four - the quarterback, the head cheerleader, the school's resident badass and sex god (he insisted that Rachel describe him like that), and the crazy diva turned sweet ingénue in one clique (he remembers choking when Rachel said this, and laughing hard when Rachel stomped her midget foot when she insisted on it) - walking the halls of Mckinley High together regularly. This left the school population confused and he blames all of this to that manipulative and annoyingly persistent midget. He secretly fears this makes Rachel more badass than he is.
It was at the end of the last game of the football season when he found himself running after her in the school parking lot. The moment he saw Rachel out of the locker room, he knew something is wrong. Her small form is so tensed, her eyes clouded with doubt and hurt. As a badass, he notices these things. It makes him a better predator, you know.
"Berry!" He called after her.
How can such a small person walk so fast, he wondered, glancing at the amount of skin shown from the hemline of her short, okay, very short, denim skirt (yeah, the girl owns denims now, courtesy of her friendship with Quinn). He is trying, and failing miserably, not to notice the smoothness of her skin and the tightness of her butt. Down, Puck, down, he told himself off. Not the time to think of Rachel in that way, again. Yeah, he thinks about her in that way, a lot. He is not acting on her attraction towards her, though. Been there, done that. He's a reformed stud, after all, but a stud, still.
"Rachel, stop!" He called her again. "Please". He added this because he thought that will get to her.
He's right. A few feet away from him, he saw Rachel stopped. She slowly turned around to face him and he noticed the tears running down her face. Definitely not the time, he thought.
"Yes, Noah", she quietly said as she wiped her cheeks to get rid of the tears and put on her "I'm-not-going-to-cry-because-of-envious-uncultured-miscreants face that she puts on when she gets slushied.
He wanted to beat the crap out of Finn for making her cry again. But since they are just beginning to be friends, again, he did the next best thing that he knows will work on this girl. He bridged the remaining space between them, reached for her and brought her to his chest. He just rubbed her back as sobs rack her small frame again. He's pretty sure he just grew a mangina.
"I'm okay, now." Rachel stepped back from him, patting dry the part of his shirt that was drenched by her tears. Avoiding his eyes, she whispered, "Thank you", and turned from him to walk away.
Before he realized what he's doing, he reached for her arm and told her in a no nonsense tone, "I'm taking you home."
The ride home was the quietest they ever had. He called her during the weekend to check on her but she refuses to answer his calls. It was on Monday morning when he finally learned the whole story from Quinn.