A/N: First, thank you again to all you wonderful people who reviewed!
Second, depending on your own personal opinion, I either have some good news or some bad news. This, as you may have already noticed, is cited as Chapter 3: Part 1. I mentioned that I thought chapters would get shorter and boy was I wrong. I didn't realize until I was way into this chapter that the first two weeks Puck and Quinn spent together allowing them to get more comfortable with each other meant more conversations and therefore more text. I tried to go back and delete things in a desperate attempt to make these two parts fit one shorter chapter, but I honestly couldn't. I spent a long time trying to, but everything is either relevant now or will be necessary later (or maybe I suck at editing, which probably true). There's a lot of growth ahead, which is necessary to get them to a point that we're all looking forward to, and the overall purpose of this part couldn't be split more or altered. But to make it easier to read in a slightly more manageable manner, I did split up the chapter and the next half (which is even longer than this part, sorry) is finished and will be uploaded within the next week, as soon as I get the chance to proofread it to my satisfaction.
Third, there's a story coming from Addie in this chapter, about how her and Foster got together, and just in case anyone thinks it's super unlikely or ridiculous, it should be noted that I actually based them (semi-loosely) on a couple I know, not quite as old but with an extremely similar history.
Fourth, for anyone willing to indulge me, does anyone else know of kids partying in orchards? The town that the college I went to for undergrad didn't have kids partying outside really at all, despite generally gorgeous weather. Yet, in my hometown kids still party in orchards (or at the dumps, which I used in another story) because it's way more convenient than trying to find someone's house to go to. Is this something unique to my crappy hometown or does anyone else out there living somewhere suburban find orchard parties common and completely believable in this story?
Fifth, I hope you enjoy the chapter!
Cheated Hearts
III. This is not what I'm like, this is not what I do; This is not what I'm like, I think I'm falling for you
(Here's something you should know: She falls asleep about twenty minutes into the post Lucy-and-Carter get stabbed episode of ER. He glances over at her during a commercial break because she's not talking like they have been and he sees her, asleep. He spends a good ten minutes only thinking about what he should do. Ultimately, he pulls the throw off of the back of the couch and puts it over her and does nothing more at all. And he's still not willing to admit that this is different.)
When she wakes up Friday morning she's immediately aware that she's not at home. She doesn't panic though. Last night comes back to her very quickly, very clearly. Plus, despite just having woken, she knows that the only way this (i.e. effectively spending the night with Puck) will matter is if she lets it.
She sits up from her back-and-neck-pain inducing slumping on the couch and stretches in an effort to relieve her sore muscles. She pauses in the movement abruptly when she notices that Puck's there, next to her on his couch and asleep like she was. He did not stay, she tells her self firmly. He must have just fallen asleep like she had, she decides.
This still isn't an event that matters though so she stands up, glances around until she finds a clock on the far wall. She has to squint to read it, but when she realizes the time she knows that hesitation (not that she would) isn't an option. She quickly heads for his kitchen and grabs his house key that she left there. She kicks his leg and when he moves the tiniest bit at the contact she says, "Hey." As his eyes open and begin to focus on her, she continues, "I'm leaving. Your key is right here, on the table."
He glances at the clock and groans as he shuts his eyes again, settling back on his couch, "Why'd you have to wake me? We have like an hour and half before needing to get up for school."
"Well I have cheer practice in forty minutes that I'm probably already going to be late for so I have to go," she explains irritated because this is wasting her time and Coach Sylvester isn't exactly keen on tardiness. She sighs and adds, "Besides if you're taking Kelyn to see your mom before school like you promised her, shouldn't you be getting up too?"
He groans again and moans as he opens his eyes again, "Crap."
As he begins to stand she makes for her exit. She concludes, "Tell Kelyn I said goodbye and to have fun at her dance. And tell her I said it last night, not this morning." She heads for the door, but just as she's in reach of the handle she realizes that this interaction was missing something that should be there. She turns around and tags on, "You know, if you tell anyone I was here I'm sure my god will forgive me for castrating you."
"I'll take that bet. Why don't we try and find out?" he returns. It's not like he's a complete ass. Okay, he kind of is and he does usually brag and if this happened with another girl he probably would let it be known that she spent the night at his house. She's different though. He doesn't feel like sharing about her, he doesn't ask himself why.
"I'm up for it if you are," she volleys and opens the door. "Bye," she shouts behind her as she leaves.
He thinks about all that's happened in the two minutes since he was woken up (and everything that did/didn't happen last night) for only about thirty seconds before Kelyn nosily comes bounding out of her room, eager to go see their mom. Thinking, has to wait after that.
-o-o-o-
She's never gotten ready for cheer practice so fast in her life, but at least she makes it on time. Plus, for possibly the first time ever she's really glad that her parents don't notice anything about her because if they did she probably would have gotten delayed by them this morning demanding to know where she had been all night. Instead they got up some time while she was taking the world's shortest shower, didn't realize she hadn't been there all night, and let her race out of the house with their typically fake-cheerful, "Good morning honey." She doesn't think about it again until she's leaving the house that night, her parents instantly believing she's being honest when she says she's going to dinner with her "girlfriends," but part of her does wish they'd find out about all her lies and actually care about everything she's done.
She does go to dinner with Santana and Brittney and a very carefully selected couple of other cheerleaders. As usual there's another orchard party tonight and the rest of the girls want to go. She plays along, but she really wishes that they had anywhere else to go, that something different would actually happen in this town.
For about the first hour that she's at the party she manages to forget about the one she was at exactly a week ago and what happened during it. She's too busy playing her usual role of Queen Bee to have time to think about it. It catches up with her though as the night goes on.
-o-o-o-
Puck dropped his sister off with his grandma for the weekend again. He had to work all weekend so it made sense. He did find out where his mom had hidden money, but he figured keeping his job a bit longer and adding to the money they had wouldn't hurt. Besides, his mom's boss had been really cool and let her keep her job, but wasn't letting her come back to work for a couple more weeks, just to make sure she was okay again, so in the long run the money could be necessary.
He can't work Friday night though, even though he tries to sweet talk his manager into letting him, but the lady's oddly resistant to his charms and when Finn asks if he can get a ride from him to the party he doesn't have a good reason to lie and skip it.
A little while after he gets to the party with Finn, as he's standing around talking to a few friends and taking his time with his first beer, he realizes that for the first time all day he doesn't have anything to worry about, anything to take care of, he's free. Maybe it's just a coincidence, but in the brief time he's realizing that he's free he sees Quinn across the orchard. He hadn't realized she was there and now he has a whole lot of other stuff to think about, only, by the friend he has next to him, he knows he can't. (The initial excitement about being free gets lost somewhere between realizing he's not really and realizing that he has to be.)
Finn notices that Quinn is there pretty soon after he does and proceeds to hesitate for the next forty-five longest minutes of his life, he swears. Eventually, inspiration striking, he grabs a wine cooler, hands it to Finn, and tells him to cowboy up and bring her a drink and just start talking to her if that's what he wants to do. Finn takes a couple deep breaths, but takes his advice (unfortunately), because apparently Finn does actually like her (unfortunately).
When Finn approaches Quinn she sends her girlfriends away (it's what's expected). After about a minute he holds the wine cooler out to Quinn, offering it to her as his best friend suggested (despite the fact that he was pretty sure Quinn didn't drink).
She looks at the bottle in his hand for a beat, brows furrowing trying to predict the chances. She takes it with a thank you and waits for Finn to get back to trying to talk about their Spanish class before she looks around, scanning the crowd for him. He's where she'd expect (the place she knew he was because he had been all night, but didn't let herself look first because even now she couldn't admit that she knew). He was still standing in the same place he'd been with Finn. He stops talking to the girl that's come up to him and meets her eyes. She doesn't look away and as if he knows the question in her head he nods, just once. He lifts his drink and takes a sip, his eyes not leaving hers. She twists off the cap of the wine cooler in her hand and takes a drink, her eyes not leaving his. He raises an eyebrow at her, can't resist the smirk that slides into place. She half shrugs in response; can't resist smiling at the surprised expression on his face because she's actually drinking the wine cooler (which was very clearly from him).
She's supposed to be talking to Finn, who is talking to her. He's not supposed to be ignoring the girl trying to talk to him, though chances were pretty good he would anyway--- she seemed pretty desperate, huge turn off. But instead of doing what they should have been, they're over a hundred feet away from each other having some silent conversation (best one either has had all night).
Maybe something would have happened. Maybe Finn would have caught on or Desperate Girl and called one or both of them out on it and they would have been forced to face the truth right then and there. Instead, flashing lights send everyone running. As Puck reaches his truck, hoping Finn's only seconds behind him, he realizes that it's never sucked more how people never listen to him about using their car headlights for light and not build a fire. Finn hops in the truck and tells him to drive and getting out of there without getting caught occupies his mind for a while.
Quinn gets to her car before any of the cheerleaders she gave a ride to despite the fact that she wasn't closest to the car. She's been telling them that they need to keep in better shape (as has Coach Sylvester). She briefly ponders leaving them all there to teach them that lesson. Then she ponders getting out of her car and staying herself, getting caught. If she did, everything in her life would probably change and the idea is mighty tempting (if she stayed she could become the type of girl that would be free to run to his car instead of hers). But all the girls are suddenly piling in her car and antsy to leave. She tells them to shut up, but drives away all the same.
Puck drops Finn off at some new party, but declines the invitation to stay, not telling his best friend the real reason he's doing so is because he has to be up in handful of hours to go to work. Finn tries to persuade him to stay, not understanding why he's so insistent on not doing so. But he scanned the cars as he drove up to the new party site, some senior's house, and her car's not there and it just doesn't feel like the party would be worth sacrificing more sleep for.
(While he sleeps that night, he has this dream replaying the events of the night. Only, when he's sitting in his truck, hand poised on the gear shift waiting to go the second Finn gets in, she gets in his truck instead. Smiling at him as she says, "Let's get out of here." He smiles back as he puts the truck in drive and leaves. Going God knows where, but then that doesn't really matter.)
-o-o-o-
She passes by him in the hallways at school. But this is school and they have certain ways they always act there. They always pass without acknowledgement, always acting like they don't even know that they're passing each other and they're good enough at pretending that not a single person seems to realize that they always notice.
As the school day comes to a close and she's faced with the prospect of heading home, Quinn tells herself that everything is the same. She gets to go back to doing things the same as she would before she was watching Kelyn and she should stick with that (it means too much if she doesn't). So she goes home, changes, tells her parents she's volunteer tutoring still and heads for Foster's.
(There's a moment that in her mind doesn't exist, where she sits in her car outside Foster's and doesn't move. She just sits there, not sure she's breathing, and wondering why this doesn't feel as right anymore.)
She plasters on a big smile when she goes into the bar and greets Foster, trying so hard to carry on like nothing is different. She chats with him for a few minutes, which is a nice distraction, and then she heads for her table and gets started on her homework as usual. She's determined enough that it only takes her five minutes- and her iPod- to get into her homework and ignore everything else.
She's tapping her foot and mouthing the words along to "Love Profusion" (she's been in a Madonna mood lately for some reason), as she works through some French exercises to prepare for her AP exam when a messy wad of money appearing on her notebook prevents her from continuing. She removes her headphones as her brow furrows. Looking up doesn't resolve her confusion because Puck is standing by her table.
"Ew, what are you listening to?" he asks as he snatches one of her earphones from the table where she dropped them (dropped being the operative word because they kind of slid from her hand unnoticed when she realized it was him who was interrupting her).
Him taking her property and insulting her music selection brings her wits back to her. As he's bringing the earphone towards his ear for a closer listen she snatches the cord back roughly and declares, "It's Madonna and it's good."
"Psh, it's not even good for chick music," he counters.
She's tempted to argue that Madonna is one of the best musical artists of their time, but she probably won't change his mind and it won't get her any answers about why he's here or what the money's about. She sighs, resists the urge to argue, and questions as she unfolds the wad of money, "What is this for?"
"Kelyn's dinners," he says as if it should be obvious. Before she can say something about not paying her back now he adds, "I found where my mom hid that money so I figured I'd pay you now, get it over with."
There's no real reason for them to ever interact again after this. She's thought about it before, which she won't admit, but him paying her was the only time she knew they'd ever be alone together again and he was getting it over with so soon. Though she knows it means all that, she doesn't want to know it. She points out as she smoothes the bills, "You paid too much. Foster and Addie didn't let me pay for Kelyn or myself some nights." She slides a few of the bills toward the end of the table where he's standing rather than trying to hand them back to him.
He picks up the money, stuffs it back in his pocket. He hesitates for a second, but slides into the both across from her as he says, "I'm supposed to write you some letter too, right? What's it supposed to say?"
"I already wrote it for you," she says as she takes out her binder and finds it easily (she's very organized) as she tries not to think about the fact that he just sat down with her. She hands it over to him and instructs, "All you have to do is sign it."
"Well I have to read it first, can't sign anything without reading it," he says teasingly because he already saw the first line. He reads aloud, "Quinn Fabray is the most compassionate young woman I've ever met." He stops reading, glances up at her and questions, "Hmm….that doesn't sound right. What kind of compassionate young woman draws pornographic pictures of her female classmates on the stalls in the girls' bathroom?"
"I did not," she denies, straight faced and unflinchingly. He raises an eyebrow at her questioningly and she can't help it, she caves. She's smiling as she demands, "How did you know that?"
"Have my ways," he says vaguely (Santana goes off into revealing jealous rants sometimes). "Plus," he adds, "I'm an admirer of your work… especially its accuracy."
"You would be," she says with a roll of her eyes, trying to ignore how good she feels right here, right now.
He steals her pen that's lying right by her right hand and signs the letter she had typed up before she can blink. He slides the paper back over to her, rolling the pen back towards her after it.
"So you were just screwing with me pretending like you wouldn't definitely sign it?" she asks as she picks it up and puts it safely back in her binder.
"Yep," he confirms, "I don't really give a crap what it says." He knows he needs to say something else to her, something that's been nagging at him. He's been trying his best to ignore it because he really, really doesn't want to have to acknowledge it, but if he gets it over with maybe he can forget about all of this. He adds, "Besides, I kind of owe you big, for everything."
She's a smart girl and even if she'll tell herself that she was just following the natural course of the conversation, she knows she's taking advantage of the presented opportunity. She responds, "Yeah, you do. What are going to do about that?"
"Well I'm definitely not going to pay you. You have plenty of money, I don't, so that rules that out," Puck answers, because the only thing he'd thought of so far didn't seem right if he didn't first warn that he wasn't going to pay her like a normal babysitter.
"I agree," Quinn comments, "you shouldn't pay me." She tries to think of a suggestion of something he could do, but everything she can think of would mean way more than she's comfortable with.
"I could teach you something," he offers, hand tapping on his leg just a little because he's aware that teaching could take time, a lot of it.
She laughs, she likes the suggestion, but it sounds a little ridiculous. "Right," she says doubtfully, "You're going to teach me something? How do you figure that will work with your what? D average and my straight A's."
"I wasn't talking school work, nerd. I mean something useful," he counters. He suggests, "Like football or baseball."
"Yeah, those are useful," she mocks. But she doesn't want to say no either so she adds, "What makes you think that I don't already know how to play both of those or that I'm not better than you?"
"You're a girl," he answers simply.
She rolls her eyes and agrees, "Fine. But when I prove that I don't need to be taught how to play, it doesn't count as you having taught me something so you'll still owe me. Agreed?"
"Yep," he agrees easily and he doesn't really care if she noticed what she did, but he's glad that her terms meant the possibility of even more time together. "Alright, I'm pretty sure I have a football and all my baseball equipment in my trunk. Let's go."
"Wait," she says stopping him and finally realizing why something was off about all of this, "Where's Kelyn and why aren't you at work?"
He stops in his movement to get up and settles back in the booth. He prefaces, "Okay, first with Kelyn I was right and with work they deserved it."
"What did you do?" Quinn half demands, half inquires worriedly.
"Well with work that real tool assistant manager got promoted to manager Saturday because our other manager, a lady, was sleeping with this other lady we worked with and they both got fired. Which isn't as hot as it sounds, they were ug-o's. But this guy is a real bastard and he was there like all day Saturday and Sunday and so yesterday he tries to deny us bathroom breaks so to get back at him I may have…relieved myself in the fryolater," Puck explains.
"You peed in their deep fryer?" Quinn clarifies, mostly disgusted at the idea, but just a little bit appreciative of the boldness of it.
"Yeah," Puck confirms, and he can't help feeling good about it because it was really satisfying to see that jackass' face when he caught him peeing in the fryolater.
She shakes her head, but doesn't comment on it because, really, what does one say to that? She asks, "And Kelyn?"
His mood shifts from proud and satisfied to agitated and angry, "Kelyn's at a guy's house."
"What?" Quinn exclaims.
"Yeah, some guy named Jamie who she became 'really good friends with' at whatever stupid dance they had last week. Then his mom calls me today and asks to set up a play date for them. She says she does it all the time, likes having her son's friends over or something. But who would like having a bunch of annoying nine year-olds around all the time? Something's not right with this whole thing. But Kel really wanted to go so I agreed and I dropped her off there right after school," he rants on and stops abruptly.
She doesn't know when it happened (and won't admit that she can), but she can read him. Feeling like there's something more to the story she prompts, "And then?"
"Well, I can't just let her go into the house of people I haven't met, right? I know my mom wouldn't let her do that. But she didn't want me to come and ran off to the back yard as soon as the mother who opened the door said that's where Jamie was. And the lady was nice, I guess. She had a few questions since it was me talking to her and dropping Kelyn off and not our mom, and you know, why would Kelyn tell her son to call me instead of our mom? Which I guess is something normal to wonder. So I told her the same lie my mom made up for Kelyn so she can't mess Kel up about it. But then she was kind of kicking me out of the house, saying she had stuff to get back to, like right after that. And it was suspicious, right? So I went out to my truck but I didn't leave. So like twenty minutes later she comes out and asks if something's wrong and I told her no and then she said that the kids were just in the back playing, I could leave. And shouldn't she be offering to let me stay? You know? It seemed like she was really trying to get me out of there. So I left, but I only went like half a block away on the other side of the street and then she has Kelyn call me and Kel says that she can still see me and I'm embarrassing her, which is ridiculous, but I did what she claimed she wanted, but I'm sure it was that weird mother making her do, and I left," Puck rants. What kind of parent doesn't let the guardian of a kid they have over stay and watch the kids play if they want to? Or at least let them stay near by?
"And you managed to tear yourself away and come all the way out here?" Quinn questions a bit teasingly because this whole leaving Kelyn at a friend's house who's a boy clearly has him flustered.
He actually manages to look just a little bit guilty as he admits, "Actually, they live in that new development that's way out here. It's only like three miles away."
"Of course," she says glancing down at the table and pulling the right corner of her lower lip between her teeth, trying not to smile because his overprotectiveness was making him just a little bit…different, wishing that what they were could be different. "So did she tell you anything about this Jamie boy?" she asks, knowing what she's doing to him (and knowing what effect keeping him in this state has on her---clinging to it just a little bit longer).
His jaw clenches and his fists tighten as he as he responds, "Yeah, said something about him being really funny or something." He looks like he tries to resist, but it only last a few seconds before he can't anymore and he's raving, "Which you know guys only do to get a girl's attention- trying to be funny. That's like, the best way to get a girl when you're nine. Get them laughing, then get them playing, then get them involved in some version of playing doctor."
"Maybe for you," Quinn says, knowing she's probably right. She decides to put him out of his clear misery though (and she has no idea why, especially when she had been enjoying the little flutter it induced), "But you know, not all nine year old boys are like that. Kelyn's a good kid, she wouldn't hang out with a boy like that and even if she found herself with one, she is your sister, I'm sure she'd be fine."
The clenching of his jaw and fists eases and Puck admits, "I guess I kind of have been teaching her how to fight since she was three so she could definitely beat his ass if he tries anything."
She smiles, "See, she'll be fine."
He smiles just a little, soft and just a tiny hint of shyness because this is about his sister.
(She realizes why she decided to end his misery. This- the tiny little smile that the truths she pointed out to him by knowing him caused. She's the reason he feels better in this moment and that's not insignificant.)
"So when are you supposed to pick her up?" Quinn questions as a start to change the subject and get them out of this place where she's just…(feeling).
He glances at the wall in back of her and answers, "In like forty-five more minutes."
"That should be plenty of time for me to not only prove to you that I know how to play football and baseball, but that I'm also better than you at both," Quinn says as she pushes her books aside and neatly piles them.
"Psh, right. Bring it, cheerleader," he challenges as he stands up from the booth.
-o-o-o-
Fifty minutes later they're still out behind the bar in the clearing before the field. Apparently Foster and Addie owned the two hundred acres surrounding the bar, their house was even on the far side of it, and he gave them permission to wander on back and settle whatever they were doing.
What they were doing turned out to be confirming that Quinn was right. In the fifty minutes they had found out that Quinn could throw short passes, long passes, and still hit her target (Puck) when practicing a play with the football. He was disgruntled, but quickly moved on to baseball in hopes of her being horrible at it. Unfortunately for him, Quinn hit ever pitch he threw her and he missed nearly ever one she threw him.
After hitting one of her pitches, but missing the last four, Puck angrily chucked his own bat deep into the field of potato plants. "This isn't happening," Puck declares.
"Oh it is," Quinn assures with a happy, victorious smile.
"I'm out of practice," Puck offers an excuse, though it doesn't really make him feel any better about losing to a girl.
"Right," Quinn says doubtfully, "I thought baseball season doesn't end for a few more weeks?" As she's saying it, she realizes that it's actually a question because he's on the baseball team and she is pretty sure their season isn't over, and yet, he's here.
"I had to quit, few weeks ago," he answers shortly as he heads for the field to get his bat back.
She feels stupid now because of course he had to quit. Who would watch Kelyn if he was at practice and their mom wasn't around? She could watch her, but things were different a few weeks ago when he would have been faced with that choice. Things were different now; that hangs in her head. She doesn't want to think about that though so she gets back to the initial point of why they were out here. She yells after him, "You know, nothing you say will change the fact that I beat you."
He returns from the field, pointing the now found bat at her and smirking as he says confidently, "That won't be true for long." He takes position back where he had been when she had been pitching to him and prepares for another swing. Before she can pitch though, his phone starts ringing and he drops the bat and answers as soon as he recognizes the number on the screen (it was a new one that had already called him once today). "Yeah, I'm on my way, two minutes," he promises. He hangs up and swears, "Shit." He grabs the football off the ground and catches the ball she tosses to him (she's already caught on) as he says, "Kelyn. Can't believe I'm late."
He's racing for his truck before she can take a step back in the direction of the bar and by the time she gets there, he's already speeding out of the parking lot.
She goes back inside and gets back to her schoolwork. She tries not to notice the curious looks Foster gives her. She tells herself that it was a good day, because being better than him was fun, but that it was over and her life would, thankfully, go back to normal.
A few hours later, as she's packing her bag resigned to going home earlier than she had been the past couple of weeks, she gets a text and it's from him (pops up as N.P. on her phone--- she didn't know what to label him and didn't want anything anyone could know). He wrote simply: Tomorrow guitar. It has her scrunching her forehead in thought for a second before it leaves her smiling the entire way home, most of the night, and the whole next day (ever time she thinks about it). He's planned on seeing her again, apparently to teach her guitar now and she can't pretend anymore that she's not thrilled that her life isn't going to go back to normal soon.
-o-o-o-
Quinn races home after school and hurriedly changes into the outfit that's hanging at the front of her closet (she picked it out earlier, but totally not for today specifically, not really). She knows that he has to pick Kelyn up and possibly do some other things so she'll be waiting for him and there's therefore no logical reason to rush, but she practically runs right back out of her house and speeds the whole way to Foster's.
As soon as she steps foot into Foster's, she knows something is different today. This thought is soon confirmed as Addie comes through the door to the kitchen greeting, "Hi honey."
"Addie," she returns, stunned. It was nearly four and according to Foster, Addie never missed Oprah. Something was definitely up. "What's going on here?" Quinn questions, hoping it isn't anything serious so she's not being intrusive.
Addie sighs tiredly and explains, "You know Joe Russo? He's a truck driver, always stops in when he's coming this way, you've probably seen him in here before. Anyway, we've known him a long time and he likes to bring us business when he comes this way with anyone or he's always recommending us to people, which we appreciate of course. But about a half hour ago he called and said, "Get ready for some company." He's on his way to Port Clinton with a whole caravan of people, he said they have over a dozen car full's and they'll be passing this way and stopping here for dinner in a couple of hours. I'm not sure we can even fit that many people or that we have enough food to feed them. I had to truck over a bunch of food from the house and Fos is out on a store run right now."
Addie sounded stressed and already looked tired despite the fact that anyone had yet to arrive. Both her and Foster had been really good to her and she always felt like she owed them. Since this opportunity presented itself, Quinn offered, "Is there anything I can do to help?"
"Well," Addie begins, looking like she doesn't want to say whatever she's going to say, "We'll probably need your table when they get here. We can find somewhere else for you to work though. If you don't mind the noise then you can work at the bar and if you need somewhere quite you can come over to the house, no one will be there to bother you."
"It's fine," Quinn assures, "I don't really have much work to do at all." Actually, Quinn had had quite a bit of work, but she multi-tasked in her classes to get it finished before school was even out just in case guitar lessons ended up taking up most of her day. She offers again since Addie didn't really ask anything of her, "Is there anything I can help you with for when they get here or while they're here?"
"Thank you dear, but we'll be fine," Addie says with a smile, but not really sounding like she's sure it's true.
"But I owe you for all the free meals and for always letting me be here so I don't have to be home. Are you sure I can't help in some way?" Quinn insists.
"Well," Addie drawls. She pauses and considers it for a minute more and finally admits, "I could probably use a hand in the kitchen and serving if you wouldn't mind."
"No problem," Quinn quickly assures, "I'd love to help."
"Thank you," Addie says sincerely. She sighs again and grabs a towel from the top of the bar, wipes at the nothingness there for a second before wringing it in her hands.
Quinn simply stands there and waits. She figured she'd be put to work now.
Addie realizes that Quinn's still there and remembers that she left out some vital information. "Oh," she says recalling, "we can't get started really until Fos gets back with the rest of the food so you can get to that homework if you want." As Quinn heads for her usual booth, Addie adds on just a bit quitter, "Or call Puck and let him know the change in plans."
Quinn sets her bag down on the bench of the booth and turns around and questions, "What?" She wasn't sure she heard right. Addie hadn't been there yesterday to see that Puck had shown up despite the fact that she wasn't watching Kelyn. Although Foster was there and, being married, could have easily told Addie. Still, she didn't think Addie would just come out and say something like that, not when she had only been heavily hinting so far.
"Can you manage here by yourself for a few minutes dear? It's unlikely, but if a customer comes in just tell them I'll be back in a minute. I'm going to head home and grab you an apron. I'd hate for you helping me in the kitchen to lead to that pretty dress getting ruined," Addies says, changing the subject and heading for the back door before Quinn could answer.
Of course Quinn had no problem staying there and covering for Addie if need be, but that didn't really answer her question. Plus, the mention of her dress kind of sounded like the usual veiled hint that both Addie and Foster were frequently guilty of making lately.
After Addie leaves, Quinn thinks about what she thought Addie said. Maybe she should call Puck and let him know that she was going to help Addie and Foster. She had wanted guitar lessons (she told herself it was because she always wanted to learn how to play), but this was more important. They had provided her with a safe place to escape to and she was so grateful to them for that alone, but they had also been genuinely kind and generous to her and she wanted to return the favor as much as possible. If she called Puck though, he wouldn't come there and she wouldn't see him today. But if he showed up and she knew that she couldn't get lessons from him today, then she would have caused him to drive all the way out here out of his way.
As Quinn was trying to decide whether or not calling Puck or not calling Puck was the right thing to do, but tried to focus on revising her completed homework in case Addie came back (since Addie thought she actually had homework), Puck showed up.
Puck trudges in empty handed and calls from across the room, "Hey."
"Hey," she returns, wondering why he's not carrying a guitar and where Kelyn is. She considers the possibilities that she knows of that could explain why he's there without Kelyn. One in particular is interesting and she questions with a smirk, "Kelyn's not spending another afternoon with that boy, is she?"
"Yes," he answers tightly as he plops down into the booth across from her.
She puts down her pen and simply sits and waits for the rest to be explained.
He doesn't want to have to even think about the fact that his little sister was ready to pitch a fit when he just hesitated to say yes to letting her go to that boy's house again. He addresses the other issue rather than elaborating on his sister, "I don't have my guitar." He realizes that that sounded like he was just stating the obvious and quickly continues, "I loaned it out for a week, to my neighbor, he paid me to let him borrow it. But he said he'll bring it back tonight so…". He trails off, not really knowing what to say. He both wants and doesn't want to suggest that he teach her how to play starting tomorrow. And he feels like maybe he should come up with an excuse and get out of here. What does it say about him if he stays when he obviously has no reason to at the moment?
"That works out well," Quinn comments after it's clear that he's not going to finish his sentence. With his interest perked, eyebrow's jumping just a bit, she explains, "Addie and Foster just found out that a big crowd will be showing up here tonight and they've done so much for me so I volunteered to help out."
"Oh," Puck says, not knowing how to react. Did she intentionally make plans to do something else while they were supposed to be doing something together or did she really just feel like helping them took precedence over their plans? Was she into them actually doing something or was she looking for excuses not to? Was he just supposed to leave now that something else was going on?
Quinn doesn't know what possesses her to do it. She'll tell herself that she's just making the obvious connection that he's not smart enough to notice and in doing so she's just doing him a favor in some Christian-induced spirit. (Really, it's much simpler than that. She just wanted him to stay.) Since it's been a beat and he's not taking the opportunity to bolt, she mentions, "You don't like owing people anything right? That's why you're going to teach me something?" She doesn't wait for him to respond (doesn't really want to know if that's the only reason he's here right now, because he owes her) and suggests, "Maybe you could pay Addie and Foster back for their kindness to you the same way I am. I'm sure they could use more help. I've never seen Addie so frazzled."
"Yeah, until I have to pick up Kelyn, sure," Puck finds himself saying before giving the suggestion a second of thought.
It's quite enough in there, between them, eyes connected, breathing stopped, that they hear Foster's angry swear from the direction of the parking lot easily. "God dammit," is proceeded by a thud.
Puck jumps up and heads for the door, Quinn on his heals. They find a couple of bags of spilt groceries scattered on the messy asphalt before the door and Foster on his knees cleaning up. Puck immediately starts helping pick the contents of the bags up, while Quinn has to be a little more careful as her dress isn't short, but also not meant for kneeling or squatting to pick things up.
"Thanks guys," Foster says gratefully, "stupid bags broke."
"No problem," Puck dismisses. With his arms full of groceries now, he asks, "Where do you want this stuff? The kitchen?"
"Yeah. Just put it anywhere in there. No matter where I say Addie will just want it somewhere different in there anyway," Foster answers.
Quinn picks up a few more things and heads toward the kitchen, quite a few strides behind Puck and with Foster just behind her. "From what Addie said it sounds like you're going to packed tonight," Quinn says conversationally.
"Yep. Probably going to feel weird to have so many people here now. Got used to just having a few good regulars," Foster admits.
As they're all coming back out of the kitchen to head to Foster's truck to help him with the rest of his purchases they run into Addie who finally returned with an apron for Quinn. She has Quinn put it on right away to avoid risking her dress getting messed up and Puck laughs at her once she's put it on (honestly, he never knew an apron could look that good though). It takes a bit for Puck to convince Addie and Foster to let him help to pay them back for all the free meals they've given him and his sister. It also takes a bit for Foster to accept that Addie already agreed to let Quinn help. Addie and Foster end up oblivious to the two teens for a while as they fight about whether or not they need help, if she should have let Quinn help, if they should let Puck help, and finally what each of them should help with first.
Puck and Quinn eventually tire of standing by and listening and head to the bar, unnoticed, to sit and wait. They play paper football, which it turns out is a form of football Quinn can't do at all as she just can't seem to flick the paper to get it to go anywhere. Frustrated by the fact that she's apparently incapable of something as purposeless (and that Puck can do) as paper football, Quinn finally interjects in their fight as they're arguing about what they should be doing and suggests, "How about one of you is in charge of what one of us does and the other is in charge of the other one of us and you can't interfere with each other or each other's…help at all."
"Good idea," Addie declares, turning back to her husband and waiting his agreement.
"Fine," he relents. "Someone making a logical suggestion to our fighting. Doesn't that remind you of Jake?" Foster questions his wife fondly.
"It's like he's here and speaking through Quinn," Addie agrees. For the two teens who clearly have no idea what they're talking about she adds, "Jake's our oldest son. And the only one who was responsible and level headed from an early age. He's always been the voice of reason." She smiles affectionately at her husband, remembering the family they raised together. She sighs and gets back to the moment at hand, "Okay, let's get to work. Quinn, you're with me." She gestures Quinn over to her and to follow her into the kitchen.
Quinn follows and as she's led to the kitchen by Addie and she can hear Foster telling Puck that they have things that need fixing outside, she can't help the thought that she'll tell herself never existed that maybe she shouldn't have spoken up at all.
-o-o-o-
Addie told Quinn that nearly every dish they served involved potatoes in some way, so get peeling. Peeling was all Quinn had done for the entire time she had been helping Addie, which was for practically an hour now. (An hour that she hadn't seen Puck during once. She didn't know what time he was supposed to pick up Kelyn and she wondered, while trying to only think of the task at hand, if he was still there, if he would say goodbye before he left, if whatever course of action he took would mean anything.)
"Regret offering to help yet?" Addie questions good-naturedly and pulling Quinn from her troubling thoughts.
"Of course not," she swears with a smile, but seriously, she felt like she had peeled enough potatoes to last her a lifetime.
"Well that looks like it should be enough potatoes so you can make that your last one," Addie declares. After Quinn finishes the potato she was peeling and puts it with the rest of the ones she peeled, Addie hauls over a rather large bowl of onions. She asks, "Can you cut these next? We'll need about a quarter of them for onion rings, a quarter of them for sandwiches and burgers, and the other half finely chopped to be cooked into different things."
It was another task that she wouldn't typically want to do, but she did want to help and this was what was needed so Quinn agreed with a smile, "Sure."
"Thank you honey. Can't handle cutting onions myself. I usually have to have Foster do it for me," Addie says gratefully, a bit of sadness in her voice as she returned to her task of prepping a roast for the oven.
"They make you cry?" Quinn guessed. She hadn't cut many onions herself and they had made her eyes water the tiniest bit on occasion, but she'd never cried from cutting one. She had heard they make lots of people cry though.
"Yes," Addie confirmed the sadness no longer just a hint in her voice. She feels her lip quiver and she knows what may soon come to pass as the room will increasingly smell like onions. And she's never been one to bottle things up and shove them away anyway, so she sighs and admits, "But it's not whatever's in the onions so much. It's… it's…a memory. I miscarried while cutting an onion once."
Quinn could hear the tears in the older woman's voice and she watched as her face crumpled in misery and lost all it's usual joy. She wanted to say something. She wanted to offer some substitute so she wouldn't be cutting up something that incited a heartbreaking memory. But she didn't know what to say to make it any better and Addie continued talking anyway.
"I was at my mother's house, in her kitchen," she recalled, "I was making dinner for the family, meatloaf. I was cutting an onion and then… No one else was there yet and all I kept thinking was how it was all my fault. I was only nineteen and in the five months I had been pregnant all I could think was that we weren't ready for another kid. We couldn't handle it and then…she was gone." Her voice broke over the words, the few tears that were always there for this, just beneath the surface, spilt over and she sniffled before continuing, "As much as you don't want a memory like that to stick with you, it does, every part of it. I couldn't walk into my mother's kitchen for five years after that. It took over fifteen years before I made a meatloaf again. But the onions, I remember the entire time it was happening that the smell of the onion was overwhelming and ever since, smelling them always brings me back to being collapsed on my mother's kitchen floor, alone, and…losing her."
Addie swipes at her tears with her hands, wipes her hand on her apron, sighs and picks up an apple. As she starts peeling it she manages a small smile towards Quinn.
"I'm sorry," Quinn says, not knowing what else to say but still wanting to say something. She feels a lot like crying herself and she knows that it doesn't have anything to do with the onion she's cutting.
"Oh honey it's alright," Addie promises. She shakes her head and says as she continues her task, "It's one awful memory that sneaks up on me sometimes. But I'm lucky enough that I have thousands more memories that are fantastically good that can pull me back from all the sadness it brings." Always chatty, Addie rambles on with only the briefest of pauses, "In fact I'm luckier than most people because I've gotten to spend fifty-two years married to my one true love."
Quinn smiles at that because it's nice to see people who are married and happy. Her parents were never an example of that. Yet that statement also reminds her of earlier questions she had so she dives in since Addie has taken a breath and isn't talking. "Fifty-two years?" she questions.
"That's right," Addie exclaims as she starts chopping the apples she just finished peeling, "I never told you the story." She smiles recalling it and begins, "Well,…" she pauses. Her mood switches suddenly and she warns, "Now, I don't usually tell this story to young people and now that I think about it, it could be sending a very bad message. If you promise not to do anything I did then I suppose I could still tell you it though?"
"I won't do anything you did, I promise," Quinn says easily. She had no idea what Addie could be talking about so it was an easy enough promise to make, especially for the sake of answering her many questions.
"Okay," Addie accepts. Her nostalgic smile returns as she transfers her apples to a pot and she remembers, "I was fifteen when I met Foster and he was eighteen. I knew right away that he was the one and I wanted to marry him, but I waited until we had been dating about six months until I told anyone that, including him. It turned out he felt the same way and we didn't want to wait to get married until I legally could- he was nineteen by this point so he didn't need his parents permission like I did. I only had one parent to convince though, my mom. My daddy had died when I was eight, car accident. Anyway, I went to my mom, with Foster, and I told her we wanted to be married and I needed her signed consent. She basically said hell no. Foster was older, rode a motorcycle, had long hair, and was kind of a rebel. And I was fifteen. My older sister was on her side too and we had always been as close as sisters could be. It hurt, them thinking I had lost my mind to want forever with him to start then. But more than it hurt it made me really, really angry. How could they not understand what kind of pain they were inflicting on me to make me wait? How could they tell me that I was wrong in thinking that I wanted to spend my life with him?" She lifts her knife she was using to cut up chicken breasts and warns, "Now this is the part of the story that you don't copy, right?" When Quinn nods in agreement she sighs and continues, "Being angry and hurt, I went to Foster for comfort of course. It had been a week since we went to my mother for permission and ever since then my mother and sister had been constantly trying to convince me that he wasn't right for me and that I didn't really love him. And I was so mad and….now, I had been planning on waiting for my wedding night to lose my virginity like a good girl. But since they were keeping me from having a wedding night and since Foster making me feel better about them had turned into making out and heavy petting in the back seat of his car, I figured, why wait? And I think somewhere in the back of my mind I knew exactly what I was doing when I decided that and when I decided that it would be okay that we didn't have any protection and I wasn't on any birth control. So I ended up pregnant by the time I was sixteen and it was different times then. Marriage at a young age was preferable to a single knocked up teenaged daughter. Foster's father nearly beat the life out of him when he found out, he was a very…strict man. But we got rushed to the alter just after my sixteenth birthday and not too long after that we became parents."
Quinn finishes the onions and Addie hands over a bowl, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and carrots so she can prepare the base of the salads. After she digs all that out and returns to her work on the chicken, Addie continues, "And fifty-two years later we're still together, we have three wonderful sons and one beautiful daughter all grown up, seven grand children, and one great grand baby on the way. We're lucky it worked out so well."
Quinn smiles at that. They really were lucky (she had a feeling she wouldn't be lucky like them). She bites her lip because despite all the information that had been crammed into Addie's story (she could tell she told it all the time, all the words seemed stuck in her head), there was one still lingering in Quinn's mind.
"What?" Addie questions. She caught the look on Quinn's face and she's been telling her real life love story for a very long time, she knew what a face like that meant when it was over. There was still something the girl wanted to know.
Quinn can't keep it in anymore, not with having been prompted to ask it. She bursts, "How could you know? You were fifteen and I was fifteen last year… just a few months ago actually. I can't imagine…being certain of anything. How could you know that Foster was the one for you?"
Addie smiled. Quinn had asked the most common question she got after telling that story. Other people who had found love knew the answer and never asked, but she knew Quinn wasn't one of those people (as far as the girl was aware yet, but Addie had hoped awareness was just around the corner). She answered, "You just know when you meet the right person. It sounds too simple, but that's the way it is. Even those people who don't want to fall in love for whatever reason--- fear, not wanting to let someone in, bad timing, whatever--- on some level, in some part of them, even they know when they've met the right person. Something just clicks into place and of all the futures you've ever dreamt of, none of them seem right without that person. And Foster, he was so immature. That could lead him to be reckless in the worst ways and there were times that his immaturity would lead him to do something so awful that I would consider leaving him. But from the very beginning I knew that I'd never be able to leave because no matter what he did, due to this worst part of him, it wouldn't make me stop loving him. And the same was true of him. He loved all the good things about me, but none of the bad things were things that would ever make him walk away. And one of the things that made it clear that it was right was that when his immaturity would hurt me he'd try to change because hurting me was the last thing he wanted to do and visa versa for the things I did that hurt him. It didn't always work. We didn't always succeed in changing. But we tried and that's what really mattered--- when you're willing to make any sacrifices for another person, it means a lot. He was willing to change his world completely and marry me and I was willing to do the same. That's what really made me certain that he was the one, because we were both willing to change everything we knew to start a life together."
As Quinn listened to Addie's wise answer, she wondered if she'd ever be able to say the same thing from her own experience. She highly doubted she ever would. Something had just always nagged at her, in the back of her mind, telling her that she wouldn't get to find someone she'd be willing to do anything for or that would make her feel like she was whole. She'd been resigned to the idea of always having that part missing, that person who was her other half, since she was eight and made her Barbies have arranged marriages (it was easier than creating a love story to just skip right to the wedding).
Reading people pretty well had always been a gift of Addie's and as she glanced up from her task and saw Quinn's thoughtful look as she sliced a cucumber, she had a fairly confident guess what the girl was thinking. She promises with a smile, "You're going to find your own Foster someday, your one and only."
"I hope so," Quinn agrees softly. And she does hope that when she's off somewhere far from here in college she does meet someone that feels right. Only, part of her knows that she'll probably settle like her mother. Hopefully she won't settle on someone as incompatible as her father was for her mother, but settle for someone less than the one because she has plans for her life and she can't wait for the one forever and if he doesn't show up at the right time then she's going to end up with a second best (and she's hoping for nothing less than second).
Settling is hopefully a future that is far from now though and, anyway, she hasn't particularly felt like thinking of the future lately. So, Quinn changes the subject and starts asking Addie what she finds so enjoyable about watching Oprah and about other things about the other woman's life (so she doesn't have to think about her own.)
-o-o-o-
Meanwhile, Puck had started his time helping out by being told by Foster that the sign over the bar needed fixing. It hadn't been lighting up for a few weeks, but since they'll have people looking for the place, possibly in the dark, it's probably about time that finally got fixed. Puck was then led around the bar by Foster looking for a ladder, but after a lap he realized that he must not have one there anymore. Their task then took a turn as it became to go to Foster's house and get the needed ladder, but since they were going to be there they might as well grab "the other stuff" from the basement.
Puck had no idea what other stuff Foster was expecting him to help with in the basement and the whole idea of having to do something in someone's middle-of- nowhere house, in their basement, seemed pretty creepy. But Puck went along with it because he figured that Foster had to be at least in his late sixties and he could totally take an old-guy if need be--- after all, when it came to fighting, he was undefeated (mostly).
Puck had never been a big talker and he was glad when the walk to Foster's house was progressing without conversation. He figured that being a bartender Foster had to be good at bull shitting with people, but for whatever reason that he wasn't doing it now, he was enjoying the lack of conversation.
As the house seemed close enough that it'd only be a minute more walk though, Foster seemed to remember that their wasn't just conversation to be made, but things he actually wanted to know. He asked, "Oh yeah, where's Kelyn been at these last couple days? Your mom's not back yet right?"
"No, she's not," Puck answers slowly, confused about how Foster knew his mom was away in the first place. Had that been his original excuse to them about why he was taking care of his sister in the first place? He could have sworn they knew a vague version of the truth.
Foster notices Puck's pause of confusion and offers, "Quinn ran out of here with Kelyn pretty fast last Thursday. We were worried and she doesn't always come by on Friday's but she stopped by just to let us know everything was fine, let us know why she ran out and you didn't come for your sister so we could stop worrying."
"Oh," Puck responds. He's not sure what to do with that. He supposes it's nice that they care that much, but he wonders if it's weird, or if it means anything that Quinn went all the way back to them just to talk about him and his sister. These things are much more confusing to think about than the things that usually occupy his mind so Puck tries to rid them by responding to Foster's other question, "Yeah, my mom should be back Friday. She just decided a week at rehab should be helpful and then regular therapy from now on. But Kel's at a friend's house. She became really good friends with some kid in her class at the end of last week and she's been invited to spend afternoon's there today and yesterday."
They reach the house and as Foster opens the door and holds it open for Puck, he chuckles and guesses by Puck's agitated tone, "Her friend's a boy?"
"Yeah," Puck confirmed, both surprised Foster had guessed and the anger seeping through in his tone again.
Foster chuckles again, "That's the hardest. I remember when my daughter made her first friend that was a boy. She was only six and they were way too young to even consider each other in a romantic way, but I was ready to beat the kid if he touched her. And when she started dating it was so much worse. Good luck with that. Dating is only a few short years away."
"Great," Puck drawls sarcastically. He's thought about that before and he's really not looking forward to it. He follows Foster down to the basement and once down he notices that it is full of alcohol.
"After we got our liquor license taken away we still had a lot of stock so…here it went. I've got to get rid of it somehow though so I figure I'll just have to give some away. I'm pretty sure that as long as I'm not selling it it'll be legal. Just in case though I'm only bringing some wine back. I'm looking for both reds and whites so you start on that side of the boxes, I'll be over here, holler if you find it," Foster instructs.
About ten minutes of digging through box after box, moving box after box and re-stacking them, Puck comes to a stop as he finds quite a few boxes of wine coolers. One container in particular had a ton of Bartles and Jaymes Strawberry Daiquiri's in it- the same kind he'd given to Quinn twice, the kind she actually started to drink once.
As Puck is staring in the case and remembering how good last Friday night seemed if only for a bit, he doesn't notice when Foster comes up beside him. Foster startles him when he asks, "You like those?"
No, he doesn't. He thinks they taste horrible. But on the other hand, they're not horrible. "Well," he begins and pauses because he's not much for talking and he doesn't feel like it now either. "Yeah," he settles on simply.
"Someone told me wine coolers would be big sellers with a younger crowd, but they weren't as much as the hard stuff and beer and then I got shut down and stuck with tons of them. I don't feel good about giving them to a sixteen year old, especially one who's always driving around his little sister these days, but if I can't get rid of them in a while and you still want them, I guess I can give you some. At least they wouldn't be filling up my basement then and you probably find other ways to drink anyway right? If I remember being sixteen correctly," Foster reasons.
"Yeah," Puck agrees, "you really don't need to supply me. I've got tons of methods."
"Well, can't say I'm happy to hear that, but not surprised either. Like I said, I was sixteen too. And you deserve to have your fun," Foster shows him the box of wine he was looking for and hands it over to Puck to carry. As they start back up the stairs he continues, "Growing up comes soon enough and you seem like you've already had to do your fair share of it too early, so a little fun doesn't hurt. As long as you never drink and drive. You don't, do you?"
"Nope," Puck promises, "I just walk a ways home sometimes."
"Good. That's one thing I made sure of when I was serving minors, or anyone really, if I thought they had too much, I took their car keys. I have a lot of ways of getting someone's car keys from them actually, but it's not a very useful skill anymore," Foster rambles. With the box of wine by the door ready to go and the ladder somewhere outside, Foster takes a look around his house trying to remember what else they needed from here.
While Foster looks around for inspiration, Puck takes a look at the house for the first time since he got there. It's not a very big house. Probably only about twice the size of his family's apartment, but it definitely feels like a home- with pictures of family everywhere and a sense of warmth and memories floating about.
"Oh, my tool box, that was it," Foster catches on and heads down a hallway and into a closet. Foster piles the tool box on the box of wine and asks as he does so, "Are you good with tools? Do you know any trades?"
"Not really," Puck answers honestly, "I fix my truck myself, but only because I can't afford to take it anywhere to get it fixed and I'm only guessing when I do stuff to it, have no idea how long it's going to hold up."
"Well I can help you with that," Foster offers, "I've always fixed all of our cars. That was probably the only thing I got from my dad that actually stuck with me for the better. He was a military man and tough as nails, mostly on my and my brother. And speaking of, my brother can teach you a trade too. He owns a pool supply store up in Findlay and more people 'round here have been getting pools. There aren't many people who know how to take care of one in the area and he's getting too old to make house calls anymore, he's only a couple years older than me but he's not nearly as spry, so he's always looking for younger guys to train and recommend to all the people that come in wanting someone to take care of their pools." Foster wanders over to his small kitchen as he's talking and squints at the contents on his refrigerator. As he comes back over holding a card out to Puck he offers, "Here, if you're looking for work, a job that teaches a skill is always more valuable- learned that one a long time ago. So, if you need it, call him and just tell him I recommended you, he'll set you up, no problem."
"Cool, thanks," Puck says gratefully, though honestly the idea of taking care of people's pools sounds horrible. He'd have to be around them during the summer and not get to swim in them? What kind of crap job is that?
It turns out that Foster has some kind of tiny, old tractor looking thing that he hitches some completely busted cart to so they don't have to carry everything all the way back. As they're riding back, Foster tells Puck how he used to let his kids pile in the cart thing they're towing with the stuff in it with their friends and he'd drive them around the field. Puck asks if that's how it broke (because it does indeed look broken), but Foster says no, it's always been like that, including when he let the kids in it. He tells him that it was one of the many stupid things he did thinking it'd just be fun, trying to have a good time, and that Addie nearly left him over. Luckily, Addie always forgave him for his idiocy eventually.
(As cool as that seems, that someone would be that forgiving, Puck thought it'd be a lot easier if someone like Foster, who sounded like he was too immature for a family, didn't have one.)
Foster continues telling some pretty awesome sounding stories from his life. He was kind of a rebel and honestly, Puck thinks that if they were around the same age Foster would totally be a good hang. Unfortunately, Foster abruptly changes the topic of conversation while Puck is on the roof of all places. Puck had been under the impression that he'd be needed to hold the ladder or something while Foster fixed the sign, but Foster said he's way too old to be climbing up there now and told Puck to climb on up, he'd tell him what to do once he's there. And it's probably good that he's learning how to fix a sign, after all, Foster did claim learning trades was valuable, but being on the roof and messing with electricity and tools was possibly one of the worst moments Foster could have said what he did. Foster stated (he honestly didn't think he needed to ask at this point), "So you've got the hots for Quinn."
"Huh?" Puck asks after nearly losing his balance and falling backwards off the roof. He holds on to the sign to stable himself and hopes that when Foster replies he says something other than what he thinks he heard the old man say.
"Well that's what we used to call it. What do you say now? You're into her?" Foster asks.
Puck fails to form coherent thoughts, caught too off guard, but the wires in his hand remind him of what he was doing and he tries to focus all of his concentration on the task at hand. He's unable to focus enough to drown Foster out as he continues talking though.
"I get it," Foster begins, "Quinn's a great girl, very pretty. In my opinion not as pretty as Addie still is, but I'm biased. But she's caring and nice and smart too- she's a whole package type of girl, the kind that don't come around often."
If he's not going to throw himself off this roof on purpose, Puck needs this conversation to end, now. He finds his voice (more tight than he's okay with) and informs, "She's into my best friend actually and he likes her too. Pretty sure they'll be dating soon."
Foster scoffs and replies, "Dating. Dating doesn't mean anything. And even if it did, if they're not dating yet then she's still fair game."
"He's my best friend," Puck repeats, less for the sake of Foster and more because what Foster had said made thoughts cross swiftly in his mind that didn't belong there and he needed to hear the words again as a reminder.
Foster nods, despite the fact that Puck's back is to him on the roof and he can't see it. "It's a tough place to be," Foster agrees, but adds, "But there are things that are worth risking all the trouble they could cause. The real question is, what's worth the trouble? Or who?"
Puck isn't sure if Foster's still there or if he's left, but he's grateful that he can't tell because the fact that he can't is entirely due to Foster not talking anymore. He finishes the sign (he thinks) and turns around to find Foster still standing there and when he tells Foster that he's done Foster turns it on to test it out and it turns out he did indeed fix it (he thinks it may be the first thing besides his car that he's ever fixed).
They head inside and Foster thanks him for his pretty quick and impressive work with the sign with a soda. Since he has a bit of time before needing to get Kelyn yet, Puck ends up helping Foster make sure everything in the bar is clean--- booths, tables, chairs, every imaginable surface. Thankfully, as they're both cleaning, Foster doesn't mention Quinn or the conversation he started outside again, he doesn't even allude to it. Puck hopes that it never comes up again.
When the time to leave starts approaching he considers what to do. He could leave, as he's supposed to, and probably see Quinn there tomorrow because he did promise guitar lessons. He could also go to the kitchen and let her know he's leaving. He can't think of any reason why the latter is necessary. He doesn't owe her (well he does, but that's what the guitar lessons are for), he's not polite (unless his mom is watching), he doesn't care (he does), and he doesn't want to see her again before he leaves (he needs to).
With only a minute more until he needs to be out the door and in his truck headed in the direction of Kelyn's friend's house, he tosses the rag he had been using to clean stuff off down on the bar unnecessarily forcefully and walks determinedly to the kitchen door. He comes to a stop right out side it, pauses and thinks about what he's doing, what it could be perceived to mean. But he knows what it means (what he wants to think it means, which is nothing) and so he takes a breath and opens the door, steps in to find himself stopped again because she's standing there at some table/work station in the middle of the small room slicing tomatoes and laughing whole-heartedly with Addie.
He has no idea what they're laughing about, but the fact that she is, is enough to bring a smile to his face. He doesn't notice that it's there until Quinn calms down and asks him, "What?"
He realizes the strange expression that must have prompted the question and he asks, "Nothing. Just wondering what's going on in here?"
"Addie is trying to make me eat lots of very fatty food," Quinn simultaneously accuses of Addie (the woman had been trying to force her to taste everything she made- all of which so far had very high calorie counts) and informs Puck in a "save me" tone.
"You're skin and bones," Addie retorts playfully. She had been going through this bantering routine with Quinn ever since she started eating there.
Puck starts laughing at a thought the whole thing inspires, one he's prompted to voice when both pairs of eyes in the room turn to him, eyebrow's raised. He answers their unasked question of what he's thinking, "I just got a mental picture of that- you know, you fat and the other cheerleaders trying to hoist you to the top of the pyramid. That'd be hilarious."
As Quinn glares at Puck because that idea certainly is not funny, she finds a bad spot on the tomato she's cutting, slices it out, and intends to toss it in the garbage.
Puck hadn't noticed that he'd been standing next to a large open garbage can until the tomato Quinn threw in it's direction missed and hit his pant leg, leaving a very noticeable spot before tumbling to the ground. Now, it was his turn to glare at her.
"I missed," she states, lacking an apologetic tone in her voice.
"Yeah," Puck agrees, "What happened to all that coordination and aim you were bragging about yesterday? A little too much to the left today."
"A little too south actually," Quinn corrects with a smirk, "I was aiming for your face." She wasn't, but after his fat quip she realizes she probably should have.
Addie catches Puck glancing at the garbage and has a feeling things are about to turn messy, in more ways that one. She hopes to interrupt any ideas he's getting when she asks, "Did Fos send you back to help me now? He all done with you?"s
"Nope," Puck responds, just now remembering what he was doing in there in the first place, "I'm leaving actually, need to go pick up Kelyn. He may have been joking, but he did say that he'd give me five bucks if I came in here and told you that he brought wine for tonight."
"He what?" Addie says sharply. "He brought wine? Is he really that stupid? He got our liquor license taken away he can't serve wine. What is he thinking?"
Neither teen has any answers for her, obviously, so Addie quickly heads past Puck and out of the kitchen to berate her husband who was obviously not thinking at all anymore.
Quinn has continued her task throughout Puck's presence (it's a good distraction) and he's noticed the way she's just kept working.
"I'm going to get you back for the tomato," he promises because they can't just stand there in silence (not talking has led to….he's not sure, it's not a familiar situation for him).
"Sure you will," Quinn says sarcastically. Not that she really doubts he's the type of person to get revenge, it's just fun to antagonize him like that.
He means to say something back, something mean or offensive as per his usual demeanor. But she's standing there with the light coming in from a window across the room, making her glow as she just slices tomatoes in her hand-me-down apron and light blue dress and he loses his ability to think of anything besides going over to the space where she is and kissing her. And if he's being honest (which he's not) he's been fighting that exact thought since he stepped in the room.
(If he's being honest, which he's still not, he's been unsuccessfully fighting thoughts exactly like that one since she spent the night on his couch, since she volunteered to watch his sister, hell, since he passed her in the main hallway on the first day of freshmen year and couldn't remember what class he was supposed to be heading to.)
"I should go," he announces and he doesn't really mean to say it out loud, but he needs the extra push to leave right now.
"Tell Kelyn hi for me," Quinn says with a smile and glance to him, because she already misses her a bit. (And she can't really help the smiling, she's glad he came to see her before he left even if he did have a legitimate reason for coming in and it didn't have anything to do with her, she's still glad there was this moment of closure, she thinks it will help her from thinking of him any more today- she's wrong.)
"Yeah," he says and the weirdness of his tone makes her look up again. It's like he's not quite present for the present and she wonders what he's thinking of because he's looking at her and it's not in some expected way like he looks at other girls.
Despite saying he should leave and silence not settling between them right after, he still somehow got drawn back to that place in his mind where he's not standing six feet from her, but he's standing right where she is and he's kissing her. He more than kind of wishes that what he couldn't stop imagining in his head was happening in reality.
The idea of it becoming real, the fact that he has very little stopping him and there's nothing here now that should be motivating him brings him back to the fact that the fantasy in his head can't happen (and he's really hoping that the forbidden aspect is why he keeps wanting it so much). He clears his throat, tears his eyes off her and onto the floor, and says quickly, "See ya." He makes it out the door before he can hear if she has any kind of response and he rushes out of the bar so quick he doesn't notice Addie and Foster on the other side of the bar pause in their fight to thank him for his help.
His rushed exit was weird, but she tries not to wonder what it could possibly have to do with her. He was Puck, who hit on and used every girl he could, and it didn't matter if she knew him to be a few other things beside that, it was enough to mean that they wouldn't and couldn't be anything more than they were now- two people who had an arrangement to help each other. She tires to distract herself by helping Addie and Foster the rest of the night, not leaving until all of their many guests do. She cooks and serves food and she chit-chats with the caravanning customers. And as far as she is concerned, she doesn't think about Puck because they're not anything and there's never been any sort of moment between them, not even tiny ones.
(In moments in between all of her usual pretending- which she does not to alter her personality tonight, but to convince herself of her own thoughts- she finds moments where she's frozen. She'd be talking to a table of people and zone out, she'd be frying up a batch of onion rings and her mind would drift off to some far away place. Only it wasn't really a far away place, but to moments that did happen and that weren't insignificant, and were with Puck- despite how much she doesn't think they should be.)
A/N: To be continued… (soon).
I hope you enjoyed reading this first part. Remember, writers love feedback!