A/N: I would just like to say thank you and I'm so grateful for the response my story has had so far! A special thanks to blueeyedchibi because they're review made me feel all fuzzy inside. Also to DisappearanceOfAdalia for giving me some things to think about!
Here's part 2 of Chapter 3!
It's not meant to be like this, not what I planned at all,
I don't want to feel like this, Yeah,
No it's not meant to be like this, it's just what I don't need,
Why make me feel like this, it's definitely all your fault.
"The Walk" by Imogen Heap
By the time 7th period arrived and it was time for Glee, Kurt had come no closer to figuring out the riddle Puck had presented him with. Walking into the music room, he was more than a little scared, not knowing for sure if Puck was still going to assault him with hostile glares as he had in Spanish. But he walked in with his head held high, looking as much a diva as he ever had.
The small singer was initially planning to go and sit by Mercedes because he needed to dish to his BFF how weird and creepy Puck was being, but that plan was disrupted when Kurt spotted the mohawked teen sitting just feet behind his best friend. There was no way Kurt was sitting in range of being throttled, so he planted himself in the open seat next to Tina and gave Mercedes a 'we need to talk!' look so she knew that he wasn't dissing her.
Kurt rolled his eyes when Mercedes asked him with her facial expressions what was going on. She was so nosy! But he couldn't deny his girl anything, so the countertenor tired his best to be discreet and sort of twitched his eyes to the jock sitting behind her, hoping she'd get the point.
She didn't. God, for someone so smart, she can be awfully slow sometimes!
After several seconds of perfectly re-enacting a seizure, he got tired of jerking his head and gave a pointed look at Puck who was luckily staring at his hands in his lap. Kurt was caught off guard by the torn expression that was still plastered on Puck's face. He stared for a little bit longer than he should have…
The muscled teen could feel a pair of eyes looking at him and caught a pair of blue, almost grey, eyes as he brought his head up. Something foreign shot through Kurt and he snapped his entire body to the front of the room.
Oh my God. Please don't start freaking out Kurt, don't start freaking out!
The boy really hoped Mercedes had finally gotten the hint (if she hadn't, he needed to take her to a neurologist) because as of right now, he never wanted to think about, let alone look at, Noah Puckerman again. If he did, he might have a heart attack.
Kurt was saved from having another mental break down when Mr. Schuester walked into the music room and set his briefcase on the piano. He jumped right into what was on his mind.
"Okay, kids, it's time for your new assignment!" The teacher said with a grin on his face. He really was genuinely excited about this. Kurt didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. He just hoped it didn't have anything to do with Rachel getting a solo – he might rip the badly dressed prima donna to shreds with his bare hands, blood ruining his cuticles be damned, if that were the case.
"You guys are going to be doing –" He paused for dramatic effect, " – duets!"
Kurt shot out of his chair when he heard a high pitched squeal behind him and when he turned around, he saw that the rest of the class had almost fallen out of their seats too. Rachel had screamed and was currently jumping up and down, clapping her hands.
Oh God, shoot me in the face. Didn't she ever get tired of being nauseatingly annoying?
Mercedes had a scowl on her face at the spazzy brunette still hopping around like a kid on a sugar rush. Kurt turned and gave his BFF an "I agree" eyebrow lift/eye roll. Rachel was honestly the only person who was able to make Kurt consider jumping off a cliff.
After a couple seconds, Mr. Schuester seemed to get a grip he began trying to talk over the dying squeals emanating from Rachel.
"I really want to hear what you guys can put together in partners. Now, I'll be gone for a while because I have to attend some conferences next week, so you guys will have a little extra time than I would normally give you. You will be performing in two weeks, on Thursday. You need to take this extra time to make the duets as perfect as they can get! Who knows, maybe we'll even use one for regionals!" Mr. Schuester took a breath before he continued to talk. The man still had a smile transfixed on his face.
"As always, I'm going to have you draw to see who your partners will be. Artie, if you want to come and draw first," Schue finished, holding out the black hat filled with names of Glee Club members.
Artie drew Brittany's name. Kurt stopped paying attention to the draw until it was Puck's turn and he couldn't not pay attention. The troubled teen got up from behind Mercedes and walked to the front of the room with a distinct 'fuck you' look on his face He had his arms crossed over his body defensively and Kurt found himself wondering, once again what was wrong with him.
As Puck passed near to Kurt, everything seemed to start going in slow motion. Puck's hand slipped into the hat and his fingers wrapped around a slip of paper. Kurt could feel sweat starting to gather on his forehead. He crossed his fingers, wished, and prayed to God that his name would not be drawn by the jock. That would be the worst thing that could possibly happen to him.
The tanned hands of Puck slowly unfurled the strip of paper he read out the name on it.
"Finn."
Kurt hadn't even known that he'd been holding his breath when his lungs forced him to take a deep breath. Puck didn't look happy about his partner selection, but what Kurt was feeling was far beyond relief. It was with a skip in his step that he walked up to the piano (after he was sure Puck was sitting down so they would have no chance of contact) and stuck his hand in the hat. There were three names left in the hat that he had the chance to draw: Quinn, Rachel and Santana. Honestly, out of the three of those, Kurt didn't know which one would be worse, but he didn't care because none of them was Noah Puckerman. He would put up with Rachel's hideous skirts, Santana's skankiness and Quinn's pregnancy hormones just as long as he didn't have to be subjected to Puck's insane glares and freaky mood swings.
He dipped his pale, delicate hand into the hat was surprisingly okay with it when the slip of paper read 'Quinn'. He offered a somewhat friendly – as friendly as he could manage for the girl who had ruined his crush's life – smile at the girl. After all, he was going to have to put aside his dislike for her if he was going to make this duet good enough to take to sectionals over Rachel's.
Mr. Schuester spoke, pointing out that Santana and Rachel were left and were therefore partners as Kurt pranced back to his seat; he still felt very happy that he hadn't been paired with Puck.
"So, now that you have your partners, get at it!" Mr. Schue finished enthusiastically. Kurt decided to make the first move and he walked over to the pregnant girl who, he noticed, looked fabulous in pastels. She was wearing a wonderful sky blue baby doll tee with cream colored capris and blue flats. The male fashionista had to admit that she probably dressed the better than everyone in the school, second only to him (though he would never tell Mercedes that). He may still not like her, but not many people could pull of the pale colors and this blondie could. Good for her.
"So Kurt," Quinn was the first one to speak when Kurt primly took a seat beside her. He noticed that she had a really hushed voice. It was so much different from when she was singing. Then, it was passionate and full of emotion.
"Look, I know you probably hate me."
Well at least she isn't stupid.
"Why would I hate you, Quinn?" He coated his voice with sugar; it may sound kind of childish and bitchy, but Kurt was almost goading her on. He wanted her to admit what she had done and how wrong it had been.
"Kurt. No offense or anything, but everyone knows you're in love with Finn. And… Everyone also knows what I did to him," Quinn had the decency to look ashamed and she bit down on her lip, "I just don't want us being partners to be awkward or anything."
Kurt cocked his eyebrow and looked the blonde up and down. He could tell that it was making her uncomfortable. Good, then his goal was accomplished. Finally, he relented.
"I suppose I could learn to forgive you," Kurt said, sticking out his hand and putting a friendly half, though still superior, smile on his face. He didn't know why he hadn't tortured the girl a bit more. Maybe it was the way she pulled off pastels, or maybe it was just because, deep down, Kurt could tell that she was honestly a nice person who just happened to make a huge mistake. That mistake being the stupid jock, Puck.
Laugher overtook the girls face as she took Kurt's hand and shook it vigorously.
"Kurt, I think you and I could be friends."
Strange as it seemed to the teen boy who was madly in love with the boy she had hurt so badly, Kurt thought they could too.
What the hell was wrong with his life? Puck wondered as he stood, leaning against his truck after Glee practice. Now, while he had to admit that he was embracing his inner-Jew and thanking God that Hummel hadn't been forced upon him as a partner, having drawn Finn's name wasn't much better. His ex-best friend still fucking hated him; that much was clear by the look Finn had given Puck after his name had been read. He'd literally looked like he was going to be sick.
Puck knew that what he'd done with Quinn was wrong and he admitted that Finn had every right to be angry with him. But he was angry at Puck for all the wrong reasons. The mohawked jock had wanted nothing more than to be able to tell the world that the baby was his and be able to take care of it. It was Quinn that had insisted the secret be kept a secret and lied to Finn, stringing him along. He felt like their friendship should have been able to overcome this. Chicks were a just a distraction, but bros were supposed to be forever.
Ugh! He didn't need this as an added stress to his life. Things were just piling up; Quinn and the baby, fucking Hummel who wouldn't get out of his head, and now he had to sing a duet with the dude who hated him most in this school. It just wasn't fair.
The entire day had been Hell for Puck. He'd tried his hardest to avoid Hummel. If he saw the small boy in the halls, his mind would deny that it was actually Hummel, just some nobody who looked like him. He'd been forced to go to Spanish class today because the Nurse was out sick. He'd sat in the back of the class room hoping that he wouldn't have a view of the boy. But then Hummel walked in wearing this outrageous outfit and it was almost like he was intentionally trying to mock the football player.
The emotions Puck had been feeling were ones that he wasn't used to. Puckzilla shouldn't be scared of anything. But he found that he wasn't just scared of Hummel, he was terrified of him. He was so lost and scared shitless because he really didn't know how to cope with how he was reacting to Hummel.
What is happening to me? He'd wondered as he lay in bed the night before. He didn't know what the hell his problem was, he just wanted it to stop. It had taken him hours to get to sleep, and when his eyes finally closed, Kurt had started dancing across his eyelids. Santana and Quinn had also been in the dream, laughing at Puck as he did… well, some fucking crazy shit to Kurt Hummel.
When is this going to stop? I can't keep on like this. I have to figure out a way to handle this.
The day had only progressively gotten worse. Near the end of Spanish, Kurt had turned around and caught Puck staring at him.
No, not staring, glaring, he corrected himself. He was a badass, he did not stare at other dudes.
God, he was so confused…
It had shaken up the jock even more when the small teen at the front of the class room had apparently sensed something was wrong and looked at him with pity. Shouldn't this little twig be scared shitless of what could happen to him? Hell yes he should!
But no. Hummel felt sorry for Puck. Was his internal battle really showing through that easily? Oh, fucking hell, what if Hummel knew what was raging through his mohawked head?
Puck felt even more horrified. If there was one thing that would ruin his life forever and force the jock to never show his face again, it would be Kurt knowing that Puck, THE Puck, had been thinking of him shaking his ass for hours and hours on end.
The boy turned around and started banging his head against the glass of his truck window, as if trying to dispel the thoughts of Hummel flying through his mind. It didn't work.
Looking through both the windows to the beat up truck, Puck spotted Quinn walking with the fag to his fucking nice car. Of course fate had to torture him by making the star of his hideous dreams the duet partner of his house mate. She needed to hurry her ass up, because he needed to go home, shower, and contemplate drowning himself.
He kept watching and saw the two faces – one Hummel's and one Quinn's – laughing as Quinn waved goodbye over her shoulder and walking towards Puck's truck.
About damn time.
Puck ripped open the driver's side door and stepped inside, putting the key in the ignition and turning it. The truck roared loudly to life and Puck wished that he could replace all the thoughts in his mind with that mind numbing sound coming from the engine.
Quinn still had traces of laughter on her face as she climbed in the truck and closed the door. Puck put the truck in reverse and then shot out of the parking lot, wanting to get as far away from Hummel as he possibly could.
The jock nearly jumped out of his skin when the laughing Quinn spoke. To her, absolutely nothing was wrong while the whole world was turning over on its axis for Puck. It wasn't fucking fair!
"So get this – Kurt totally doesn't hate me! I think we might actually become friends." As much as it warmed Puck to see Quinn smiling because he honestly cared for the girl – in a platonic way – he still had this insane, irrational fear of Hummel and hearing his name spoken so casually by his passenger had freaked him out. Quinn, however, plowed on ruthlessly, not even noticing that she wasn't getting a verbal response from Puck.
"I really don't know what we're going to sing since his voice is just as feminine as mine, but I think this is going to be a lot of fun."
That's when Quinn dropped the bomb on Puck.
"Oh yeah, remind me to ask your mom if it's alright that Kurt comes over to the house so we can come up with a song and practice!"
For the first time all day, Puck's mind was completely blank. He couldn't process what the blonde had just said. Something about Hummel and his house?
Appearantly Puck look as lost as he felt because he felt a warm hand on his arm and heard the girl ask, "Puck, is there something wrong? You're ignoring me. I said to remind me to ask your mom if Kurt – "
"NO." Stop saying that fucking name! He was gonna drive them both off the road if she kept it up.
"Puck, really, what the hell is your problem? You've been acting strange for a while and I thought maybe if I ignored it, it would go away, but it hasn't. So please tell me what's wrong!" Quinn didn't like being left out. And Puck felt guilty whenever he lied to her, but he could not bring himself to admit that he'd been having some fucking weird (he wouldn't allow his mind to say gay) thoughts about the queer in Glee Club.
"Nothing's fucking wrong with me, Quinn." He said, sounding defeated. "Really," he added when she didn't look convinced.
Quinn still wasn't buying it. Damn, she was too observant for her own good.
"Whatever Puck, I don't know why you feel like you have to lie to me. Maybe talking about whatever it is could make it better, did you ever think of that? And honestly, who else do you have to talk to besides me?"
The girl had a point, but Puck still wasn't giving in.
"Just drop it, okay? God!"
By this time, Puck was pulling up to his house. He stopped along the curb and didn't attempt to get out as Quinn opened her door and swung her legs around.
"Are you planning on getting out of the damn truck?" Quinn asked with the venom that Puck knew he deserved. He felt like a total, worthless douche bag. What he was about to do didn't make him feel any better, either.
"No. I'm going out." He had to keep trying to burn Hummel out of his mind; he knew no other way of doing that than what he was planning to do.
Quinn looked so hurt and pissed that Puck almost decided against what he was setting up in his mind. The one thing he hated more than the fucking crazy visions he kept having of Hummel was seeing Quinn in pain, especially when he was the one that caused it. Which was most of the time.
The venom in the girl's words before was nothing compared to what came out of Quinn's mouth now.
"Where to, Santana's?" She spit the words out of her mouth like they were toxic. He knew how she felt about him and Santana having anything to do with each other. But he needed a distraction and Quinn wasn't about to stop him from getting it. So he kept on, even though he knew he was hurting the fragile girl more and more every time he spoke.
"What's it to you if I am?" Puck screamed at the small blonde girl to his right. He hadn't meant to scream, really he hadn't. But it was too late to take it back now.
Quinn was wounded, Puck could see. He wanted to hug her and kiss her forehead and apologize over and over again because she didn't deserve this. He was the one with issues, he didn't need to take his frustration over Hummel out on Quinn. But Quinn had been right about one thing: she was all he had. Puck had no emotional attachment to anyone else except his sister and mom (and they didn't count) so she was the only target he had to vent out his emotions. It wasn't right and it definitely wasn't fair to Quinn, but he couldn't seem to stop hurting her, not even for a little bit.
The injured girl, looking as fragile as the jock had ever seen her, didn't reply. She just grabbed at her flowery purse and stepped out of the truck, closing the door as quietly as she could. This was her saying she was giving up.
Puck knew that he should feel absolutely awful and that eventually he would. He'd want to gouge his face off and set himself on fire and be eaten by goats all at once for what he did to the woman carrying his child.
Puck put the car back in drive and sped away from his house and the broken girl walking in the door.
Yeah, he knew he'd feel the repercussions of what he was doing later. Right now he just needed to feel like a man again.
A/N: So I've decided that I sorta like tortured Puck. I may keep him around a while ;)
Also, Kurt calls himself pretty in Part One of 'The Walk'. I almost omitted that part because I know he has issues with his self esteem. But then I figured that Kurt really is the type to think of himself as pretty, esteem issues or not. What do you think? Hmm, interesting…
Let me know what you thought about the chapter! Thanks for reading :)
