Rachel wakes up to seagulls and salty air. Stretching and yawning and throwing Puck's arm off her, she takes in the surroundings. The beach is every bit as beautiful as it was last night – wide, open, pristine and breath-taking.
Puck wakes up with a yawn. He looks as if he hasn't quite registered where he is yet, like he's lost. "Rachel?"
Rachel nods, burrowing through her bag to find some fresh clothes. The sun is high in the sky, and its hot today. In fact, it's worse – it's that starting-to-sweat-just-standing-in-the-sun kind of temperature.
"What do you reckon they're doing?" he asks casually, rubbing his eyes (she finds him adorable right now, for some reason best left unexamined). She turns around to see a few boys and girls their age blowing up balloons and hanging up a banner from the jetty.
Rachel shrugs. "I really don't know."
As she's heading towards the toilets, someone taps her shoulder. Rachel whirls to find a tall, dark-haired boy smiling sweetly at her. "Hey, you, are you coming tonight?"
She's a little startled by his outright manner. "What's happening tonight?"
The boy points towards the other teenagers. "Beach party, of course. You should so come; we're all just hanging around."
Rachel looks back towards the truck, where Puck was packing up the blankets. She still felt a little hazy, like she couldn't believe she'd really just slept in a boy's truck. But then again, she was still finding it hard to wrap her head around the fact that she was here at all. She hadn't been in Lima for a while, now, and it was so new.
"Is it okay if I bring a friend? Because-"
"Yeah, sure," the boy interrupts. He winks as he says, "I'll see you tonight then."
"Certainly," Rachel replies hesitantly.
While she's getting changed, it hits her. That boy had been hitting on her (was that the right term? He definitely wasn't 'coming onto her'. Maybe he was just flirting – or was that the same as hitting on? She wasn't very good at this).
"I've been invited to a party," she says when she returns. Puck nods.
"Yeah, some hot chick just invited me too."
That bothers her, but she does her best to push it away.
-
Rachel changes into her favourite white, summery dress that she was sort of saving for an occasion like this and prepares herself for the hell she's going to go through tonight. She's never been much of a social person, and this party would require talking to a lot of people without annoying them.
Of course, she only knew she was annoying because Kurt Hummel told her so every day (every single damn day) of her life. He doesn't seem like a great judge of character, though, with his attitude.
Rachel joins Puck, and he looks her up and down. He doesn't try to hide it (he even wolf-whistles under his breath) and it makes her heart drop (don't ask her why, that's too complicated). He looks just as sexy as always in a button-up blue shirt and jeans, and he has that kind of feel to him that just pulls her closer.
-
He loves the way she looks tonight.
But just that – just the way she looks. That's it, that's all. That's all it will ever be.
-
The party is just hordes of teenagers crammed together, drinking, smoking and bopping to the music because there isn't enough room. Rachel tightens her grip on Puck's arm when a sloppy, fumbling boy walks past her with a grin.
Puck orders two vodka bottles. "Thank the good Lord for alcohol," he says appreciatively.
"Amen, brother," a random guy says as he walks past, fist-punching Puck.
It's just like in the movies, so she feels a little prepared. There's a big bonfire which reflects off the water magnificently, and the sky is so open and wide it looks like it'll never end. Rachel stays by his side as she nurses the bottle (she has to bite her tongue from going into a long, detailed speech about the affects of underage drinking and scolding him on his disappointing behaviour).
"Trust me, Rachel, it makes you feel good. It's like seeing the world in a whole new perspective – and if you get drunk enough, you might just forget all the other shit."
That sounds kind of appealing to her right now, what with the whole party thing, so she downs her bottle like Puck does and he orders another round.
A blond girl grins up against Puck, which Rachel finds extremely rude and disgusting. Puck pushes the girl away with a wave of his arm, and just like that, bam and the girl is gone. He looks down and gives her a warm smile, which she returns gingerly. Maybe she should just ask to go home . . .
The second she turns around though, he disappears. But the alcohol is sort of setting in now, and she forgets about that. Because she can sing, damn it, and she can dance. This was a party, so why should she be worrying right now?
The same boy who invited her comes up to her and puts his hands on her hips, which makes her feel warm in a strange way. So they kind of sway until she gets sick of it and starts really dancing. She feels a little slutty, and everyone's watching her.
Well, almost everyone. Puck's still nowhere in sight.
But she just did a high kick, and all the surrounding people are clapping and ohing. Maybe they can't see straight, but they love her. They love her moves, her smile, her voice . . .
The night drags on and she drinks a little more until her head starts spinning and she can't walk straight. But then again, that's pretty funny, so she starts giggling.
"Hey, baby," a smooth voice says in her ear. She twirls around to face a guy in his mid-twenties. His hands are suddenly all over her, and she doesn't like that. So Rachel pushes mystery sleaze off her and stumbles away.
She sees the bathroom and trips her way over there, because she's feeling light-headed and sick to the gut. Wasn't this supposed to happen the morning after? Or was that the night before? Or- Or-
It's a mess, alright.
She feels a lot better coming out of the stall though, and a lot more clear-headed than she was before. Rachel splashes her face and runs a hand through her hair. She's sick of this and just wants to go lay down in some peaceful spot, preferably with Puck.
One problem: Puck's gone AWOL.
Rachel bounds out of the ladies room, determined to find said missing boy and go home (wherever home is for tonight). She can hear someone vomiting in the bush nearby, and two people making out (in a display that sounds like it really shouldn't be done in public).
Turning around, Rachel sees the couple. Her heart does that dropping thing again, and then it's gone. Way gone, like fallen out of her chest gone. She can't help that he's rubbed off on her, and she can't help that the first thing to do is yell and scream profanities.
"What the fuck do you think you're fucking doing, Noah Puckerman?"
A/N: I might just be having the worst day of my life (and it's only, like, 11:20), and this may result in the pulling out of my hair or me having a midlife crisis at my tender age. So to me, this chapter is absolutely HORRIBLE (everything is). But I uploaded anyway, because I like the next chapter better, and you can't have the next chapter without having this chapter and blah blah blabbity blah.
I sound like a preschooler. I even have my arms crossed right now and a frown on my face.