Chapter 8
Long tanned toned legs stretched out in front of me. More soft supple skin became revealed, freed from its material confines. I fought an internal battle, struggling between my desire to reach out and run my fingertips down the front of her glinting shins; and fighting down the churning temptation to reject the contents of that morning's breakfast.
I shut the door of my locker in the locker-room. Matthews smug face appeared in front of mine.
'Have fun with your little girlfriend last night Puck?'
'What...?'
'We all saw you leaving with that dorky new girl.'
I shrugged. 'Yeah, so?'
'What happened to the bro code?'
I scoffed. 'Bro code?'
'Ditching your boys for a girl.'
'She's worth more than most of you.'
Hisses rippled around the locker-room. Matthews laughed cruelly. 'Oh I can guarantee she'd be nothing without guys like us.' he spat with a chuckle before looking round at the rest of the growing smirks in the room. 'Is she your little gold star...?' he hissed cruelly.
I paused. 'What...?'
My insides began to bubble as Matthews' illuminated cellphone screen appeared in front of my face. My eyes focused on a grainy video that had obviously been copied from a laptop screen.
Grainy images surfaced of a body standing in a bedroom doorway. Small bare tanned feet stretched out into long tantalising legs. My eyes found themselves fixed onto the screen as a very short black and white plaid skirt came into view. Peeks of navel were revealed under a thin white skirt, tied around the bottom of a small ribcage. My heartbeat began to quicken as a dawning started to creep up my spine. The camera kept shifting upwards. Long plaited pigtails came into view, hanging down each side of her small but perfectly formed boobs.
She began walking over to a guy sitting at his desk playing a video game. As soon as I heard her voice I knew I couldn't block it out. The guy looked up at her and smiled as she turned his chair around to face her. Her thighs slid over his and I couldn't watch any more.
I turned my face away and shut my locker with a clang. I shrugged off the stare of Matthews and some of the other guys and left the locker-room without a word. I could hear their sniggers as the door swung closed behind me.
Rachel had been tutoring me enough in English that I was allowed to take my test again. Miss Tate handed me my marked test and I got outta there as fast as I could. I slumped against my locker and looked down at the page. In red marker pen, the page was stamped with a big B- in a thick red circle. Me, Noah Puckerman, a B- student. Coached by a porn star.
My phone buzzed in my pocket.
Finn Hudson
Dude have you seen that video going round? I knew you were interested in her for a reason!
The bell rang distracting me from my phone screen. I looked up, and it seemed the guys on the basketball team weren't the only ones who had seen it. Hundreds of students milled up and down the hallways, whispering and laughing, unable to take their eyes off their cellphone screens.
I heard a quiet clicking of heels through the hushed voices and sniggers. The same quiet clicking that my ears had begun to train themselves to recognise through the din. She walked in the opposite direction down the hallway. Most students at McKinley were dying to get outta that place as soon as the bell rang. But not Miss Rachel Berry.
Students began to slowly clear out of the hallway, wanting to soak up every last bit of the newest McKinley High scandal. I walked in the opposite direction, following her footsteps and that unforgettably short skirt. My phone buzzed again.
Jimmy Matthews
You're welcome.
I stuffed my phone back in my pocket and my grip around my test grew tighter. I pulled back the door to the choir room and stepped inside.
She had her back to me, sitting at the black piano. Her back straightened slightly, hearing the door shut behind me but she didn't move to look who it was. She didn't move until I spoke.
'So gold stars are really your thing huh?'
Recognising my voice she looked over her left shoulder, her hair breezing away from her face. 'Noah...? What are you doing here...?'
I walked forward and placed my crumpled English test on the lid of the piano. 'Just came to tell you that I got a B-.'
Her eyes went wide and a grin spread across her small mouth. She looked up at me before jumping up off the black piano stool. 'Noah, that's ama...'
'Yeah.' I cut her off.
She looked up at me, her face crinkled in confusion. 'Aren't you happy Noah...?'
I looked down, those smooth long legs looking up at me. I huffed. 'Why couldn't you have just told me?'
Her head tilted to the right slightly. 'Uh...'
I rolled my eyes. 'Oh now you're gonna pretend like you don't know what the hell I'm talkin' about...'
She stayed silent, just watching me with a confused expression.
'The school girl outfits, the sexy yet adorable pigtails...you really are a gold star aren't you...'
Her expression turned from confusion to horrified realisation.
'How many?'
She looked down to the linoleum floor and stayed mute.
'How many?' I asked again.
'30...'
My lower abdomen pinched and I fought off the churning beginning. 'Why couldn't you just have told me...?'
She looked hard at me. 'Because I knew you'd react like this. It's not easy Noah...'
I scoffed. 'Oh yeah I bet it's real hard to take your clothes off and fuck for money.'
A small palm left a burning trail across my left cheek. I've had quite a few slaps in my life and thinking about it, yeah I definitely deserved that one.
'You don't know anything about me. You don't get to speak to me like that.'
'I know plenty about you.'
She raised her chin slightly. 'Oh yeah? Then you must already know that I did it because working two jobs to try and help raise money for dad and daddy just wasn't enough. You must already know how it felt for me to wonder every day whether my daddy would ever walk again. You must already know that I had to uproot my life and move to this small town because they just kept asking and asking me to do more. Gold star is who I was. Not who I am.' she turned and gathered her papers off the piano. 'You were right. I should have listened to you Noah. You are just like the rest of those jocks. A jerk.'
She kept her eyes facing forwards and walked out of the choir room.
I looked down at the crumpled English test still sitting on the piano. I reached forward and crumpled it further into a small ball and dunked it in the trash can sitting below the board. I ran outta that choir room and didn't stop until I'd reached the parking lot.
Except she was nowhere to be found. I saw Matthews and two of his dick friends walking on the other side of the street. My fists clenched together as I felt anger bleeding through my veins. My forearms and wrists pulsated with urgency.
So I took off running. Running towards that spiked blonde hair and I didn't stop. I didn't stop when my body collided with his, knocking him to the ground. I didn't stop when the knuckles of my right hand crunched into his left cheekbone. I didn't stop when my knuckles collided with the bridge of his nose. I didn't stop when I felt the hands of my teammates trying to separate us. I didn't stop when I heard the wail of a siren, or when I heard the screech of brakes. I finally stopped when I felt two sets of large strong hands grip my shoulders and pull me up off him.
I finally stopped when my ass hit the cold concrete bench of a Lima County jail cell.
