Wow, thank you guys so much for the great reviews! Yeah, I agree, first Chapter was a lil short, but I just wanted to get the plot out there before it got lost in the incredibly busy life that is studying European Studies ^^
Btw., I'm grateful for any title-suggestions
As for where they're going, I'm not sure yet, NYC was original Idea, but one big roadtrip might be more fun, not sure yet.
Disclaimer: They ain't mine, darn it!
Chapter Two: Rachel's side
For Rachel, the motivation to leave lies with something different. Sure, her leading man is ignoring her as well, despite her innocence in this conundrum the Gleeks found themselves in, but she is sure that this is merely a rough patch in their destined romance, only a small hiccup which will make their story all the more dramatic when told to their adoring fans and children (Though lately she's begun to wonder whether a simple boy is worth all this drama…). No her motivation lies with three simple things:
Bad Thai Food, Late Night TV and the simple fact of life, that even future Broadway stars and role models like her are prone to reckless behavior at 3 in the morning….
Her Dads are gone for their weekly date night, so Rachel pretty much does her routine of either ordering pizza or eating leftovers and watching a musical on cable. Somewhere between heating up the Pad-Thai from a few days ago and watching James Fox climb buildings in New York, she fell asleep. The next thing she remembers, she is sitting in front of Larry King, who somehow looks a lot like an older version of Artie, answering questions about her new Show.
Of course, that in and of itself is nothing new, as an ingénue she has envisioned this moment many times, it is only a matter of time until she will have to give regular interviews. A bit of practice, no matter how unreal, can prove very helpful.
What is different this time however, is that after the regular questions such as what are her inspirations, (Barbara and Idina, of course) or where does she see herself going (Who knows? (a bit of mystery is important to keep the fans guessing)), he asks calmly, so, what was the biggest adventure in your life?
And she…
…can't answer. Dream-Rachel opens her mouth to answer but nothing comes to mind….nothing…of course, striking out on her own in New York seems appropriate but... so…usual.
So she just sits there, staring at Larry, hearing the audience start to chuckle, hears the whispers, but….NOTHING! She cannot think of a single experience she could utilize at this point.
So when Larry starts tapping is pen on the desk, she becomes more and more nervous, until she suddenly shoots up from the couch. Larry is still looking at her, yet his suspenders become decidedly less scary when a television screen is safely between them. Rachel mentally chastised herself for ignoring the slightly odd odour omitted by her dinner, before realizing that the tapping of Larry's pen is actually something at her window.
Taking a second to locate the baseball-bat given to her in case of emergencies by her fathers next to the window, she gets up and looks outside. And has to pinch herself, to make sure she is not still asleep. There, is Noah, Lima's resident gigolo for middle-aged ladies and self-proclaimed badass, standing on her front lawn, throwing pebbles and whisper-shouting her name.
"Berry! Hey, Berry!" Apparently he had not noticed the window open, because next thing Rachel knew, she felt a small pebble hit her square on the forehead.
"Noah! What is wrong with you?!?!? Do you have any idea what time it is?!?! If I am to be of any use to Glee, I need to give my Vocal Chords a proper nights' rest! And your interference with my REM-Cycle is most certainly not appreciated!"
"Can the crazy talk and open your front door, I gotta talk to you!" He shoves his hands in his pockets and looks up at her.
"I most certainly will not! It is the middle of the night, and for no apparent reason you have decided to make a nuisance of yourself! My fathers are out of town, do you have any idea what kind of consequences your inappropriate behavior could have if I were to let you into my House unsupervised?!?!" Rachel rants.
"So, that's a no?"
"Of course that's a no. A most emphatic one…"
"Alright, then stand back!"
"What, why?"
"Because I'm coming up!" In the dark she can see his broad shape take a few steps back and run towards the base of the tree next to her House. Before she can say anything, he had hoisted himself up unto the lowest branch and quickly climbed the next, before leaping through her open window.
"Noah! What are you doing?!?! You scoundrel! Who do you think you are, accosting me in the middle of the night! I'll scream if I have to!" Reflexively she grabs the bat and lifts it up. The only problem is, she has never been good at sports, so she doubts she can do much damage. Plus, her less-than-average height makes holding the bat extremely uncomfortable…
For his part, Puck calmly gets back up and smirks at the picture. Rachel Berry is standing in front of him, in a pair of shorts and a tank-top, wearing fluffy pink slippers (with fucking STARS on them!) and wielding a baseball-bat which is about the size of her entire upper body.
"Sheesh, calm down Berry! Nobody's accosting nobody!" He plucks the bat from her with one hand and sends her his signature smirk, eyeing the stars on both pants and shirt.
Rachel uncomfortably crosses her arms in front of her and gives him a weary look.
"What do you want?" and just like that, his smirk drops from his face and his shoulders slump. He sits down on her bed and scrubs his hands over his face.
"Noah? What's wrong?" she worriedly makes her way over to him and sits beside him.
He heaves a sigh.
"Come with me…"
"What?"
What? Is all he thinks. Dude, you're tryin to leave this fucking town behind you! What the fuck are you doing dragging it with you? But when he turns to her, prepared to make up some lame-ass story and get the hell out of town, he sees Rachel's big brown eyes looking up at him with worry. And suddenly it clicks. This is the girl he slushied every day for the past two years, who's High School Life he made fucking hell….the girl who somehow still managed to see his "leading man potential". That's why he's here. He can't do this on his own. He just fucking knows, if he's on his own this summer, he'll do something fucking stupid. Puck knows, he might be a badass, but hell, misery loves company, Bon Jovi knew that already…He needs someone who he can talk to, otherwise he'll end up driving in a ditch somewhere, someone who cares to stop him from screwing up his shitty life completely. And just like that he reiterates (and yes, she spent WAY too much time talking and not half enough time making out with him during their brief fling last year):
"Come with me." Sadly, for all her talents, Rachel isn't psychic, so she still looks at him confused and says:
"I beg your pardon? Where are you going?"
He heaves another sigh:
"I don't know. Away. From Lima, from Ohio. Just for the Summer. I just can't do it. I can't. All that shit…I can't. Look, I know you got it all going for you, you got your Dads you probably got all the Gleeks rallying for fucking singing and dancing in the street and shit and you can think of a bunch of cooler things to do than this, but fuck it Rachel, you are the one good thing that happened to me this fucked up year, and I need you with me here. I know I screwed up, big time, but….please!" By the end he's fucking begging, and if he could just feel something else than that stupid numbness, he'd probably be crying right about now.
"Noah…I…" Rachel for her part is just overwhelmed. Her head is rushing with thoughts. She knew that despite appearances the whole Quinn-Finn debacle has not left him without its marks. She saw it, even if others did not. He looked more tired than usual, his shoulders slouched he shuffled through the hallways, not his usual cocky strut. In Glee his voice is quiet and hardly audible, sometimes he just mouths the words. But what is even more shocking is that his Mohawk is less defined, a sort of brown fuzz is starting to grow on his head, making him look even more ridiculous. As she looks at him now, she doesn't see Lima's resident bad boy and stud…she sees a boy who tried so hard to be a man, that the simple knowledge that he was just not ready was enough to break him.
With a soft sigh, she lays a hand on his shoulder.
"Noah…what about our parents? What about Quinn, and your child? How can you hope to reconcile with Finn when you are running away from your problems?" she says softly.
His harsh, cold laugh is not what she expects.
"That's not an issue, Berry. I can't talk about it right now, but….trust me, I'm not running away. I'll come back…I just can't stick around for three months full of this shit, only to have another fucked up year after that. I just need a fuckin' break!" he's out of breath by the end, and only her startled look clues him in to the fact that he shouted the last part. He forcefully breathes out and forces himself to push his anger back into that quiet little box in his head.
"But if you don't want to come, alright. I get it. I'm just a Lima looser, I'd drag you down with me." He manages a sad smile. "You got your Dads and stuff to stick around for." He gets up and makes his way over to the window and prepares to jump onto the tree again, when her voice stops him.
"Noah…wait!" He turns and looks at her. She is standing in her room, looking down. He swears he hears her mumbling "Stupid suspenders!" before she looks up at him and smiles.
"Give me twenty minutes." And all he can do is smile back and thank the stars that his autopilot is just as screwed up as the rest of him.
So, that's the end of Chapter 2, bout twice as long as the first one, go me ;)
Hope to update soon!