TurnTable
First Verse
Damn girl, with her overtly dramatic way of doing things and that annoyingly indignant way she held herself.
In his mind, there were many different, and interesting, ways of handling this.
One, he could say some scathing comment until that infuriated glint returned to her almond doe eyes. Two, he could catch her off guard and wrap his arms around her, which would be interesting considering how she's been avoiding him like he had some sort of plague –the term bubonic escapes him since he hasn't bother with going to History class for a while- and was infested of fleas. How would Berry react to that? Would she crumble under him like she did when she left the bathroom, like she did that night? Or would she go crazy apeshit and start flailing all over the place? Now, that would be amusing.
But first things first.
"Have you gone mental, Berry?"
"Uhm…" Now there's an epic battle raging in her mind, trying to decide if what he asked was a trick question. The only reason he knows this is because of those damned flustered expressions on her face. Surely she wasn't expecting an "Are you okay?" filled with deep concern, or even a "Damn girl, you look like crap."
No…scratch that. The latter was true, but not even Puck was that mean. That's why he avoided the matter completely.
So instead, he touched upon the one that made him really frustrated: Today's Glee Club meeting.
"Mr. Schuster, I have something to say before we proceed with today's meeting." Berry began, sitting on the edge of her seat with her mini plaid skirt. How the Hell does she wear that in 40-degree weather? 'The stockings keep me warm, Noah.' Yeah, whatever. Puck rolled his eyes in seemingly indifference; Rachel always had something to say. Still, no one voiced this and the girl continued, "Since my return back to Glee Club with the aforementioned conditions, I've decided that I would like to redraw myself as lead for every song so that you could award someone else with the opportunity. Perhaps Quinn could take over for me."
That's when this started. That's when all Hell broke loose. Silently. First, Mr. S was speechless for an entire two minutes which went by mostly unnoticed because gasps and murmurs of the impending end of the world in three years –Thanks Artie- spread around the choir room like condoms at a Chastity Club meeting. Then, everyone slowly inched away from Rachel because hey, if the chick was crazy enough to renege on her own condition, what else was next? "Hi, I'm Rachel Berry, and my goal in live is to be a homemaker in Lima, Ohio with seven kids. And no job."
Oh God, the mental images…
Then Kurt and his gay ass cautiously descended in front of Rachel and laid a hand on her forehead. "Hon, you feel warm, are you doing all right?"
Rachel chuckled nervously, trying to shake the edge the room seemed to be taking, "I'm fine, Kurt. Why is everyone making such a fuss about this? It's not as if I'm incapable of-"
We all cut her off right there. "You are," The entire room said in unison, even the band kids who never seemed to speak. A first. Puck never knew that the chick with the glasses had an English accent. Huh.
She looked around, slightly put off. "Thank you for your concern everyone, but really, I'm-"
A pause. She snapped her mouth shut and covered her mouth. Also, another first: Rachel Berry shutting herself up. Except, this didn't seem as innocent as it was meant to be. A watery glint suddenly flashed over her brown eyes and then she jumped out of her chair in a panic, and ran haphazardly to the exit. Puck was somewhat alarmed by this, but suppressed an inward growl when he realized he shouldn't have been. That was so Rachel. And this wasn't the first odd behavior the girl had done. Well, more odd in her case.
The avoiding was expected, of course. Even though she had a vast vocabulary and was generally put together majority of the time –for the exception of cherry slushy dripping down her face- she had the maturity of a four year old. When it came to sex, that is, and not the act of it, the aftermath. At first, he thought she was dealing with it really well and that they could maybe just forget that the whole ordeal even happened, but then she would just stare at him at odd intervals during Glee, even when he would turn back, she'd never take her eyes off of him. So, she was one of those…
Kurt gave him a empty look after Puck stated his case. It wasn't as if he could go to Finn about this because Finn was just as, if not more, clueless than he was. Plus Kurt was just about as good as talking to a girl -more intune with the feminine psyche- or whatever the Hell else he babbled about.
"Surely you're not serious."
"No Beyoncé, I just like talking to you for my health," Puck retorted dryly. "I need you to do some recon; find out what's up with Berry."
He didn't feel the need to explain himself, as he never needed to, so why start now? Besides, he didn't really want to talk about what had been truly aching to him; how he had, at one point after their drunken hook-up, touched her shoulder while she was facing her locker and only flinched away when she saw that it was him. When the Hell did he suddenly become the Big Bad Wolf? 'Ever since you've made me Little Red Riding Hood, when you consistently doused me in cherry slushy,' Rachel's voice is reaffirming in his head. Funny. What about those days when he doused her in grape? And it wasn't as if he were still doing it after the fact.
The point was he had become a little less of an ass after that night, for her sake, and she still treated him like he was about to unleash some sort of onslaught on her at any moment. It was…annoying.
The smaller boy crossed his arms with a raised eyebrow, "And if I can't?"
"You know you can, so I don't even know why you would say that." Puck stated with a cross of his arms. The two stared each other down, Puck with more fervor as he glared, until Kurt huffed and shut his locker.
"No need to get all hot and bothered, Puckerman," Kurt said nonchalantly and Puck shifted his balance to his other foot, caught of guard with his comment. "I'll find out what's going on with Ms. Berry, I've been curious myself. Although, I'm even more curious as to why you even care."
Just to be an ass, he replied with a straight face: "Because I'm a vindictive son-of-a-bitch that wants to exploits Berry's weaknesses."
At this, Kurt's face lit up, "I didn't know you cared so much."
Gay bastard.
"Whatever, just do it. I'd get Jacob Israel to since he's obsessed with her, but I think I'd wring his neck first before he got to tell me." Puck says with a smile, and it's mostly true. Ever since they were kids at the JCC, Jacob's scared the ever-loving shit out of him. Maybe because of his freakish resemblance to those Good Guy dolls from the Child's Play horror movies, or because he drank his apple juice back in first grade, and squirted it out through his nose. For whatever reason, that kid was the only one known for being crazier than Berry. And she was already insane.
And now, standing in front of her and becoming impatient with her and the way she barely had anything to say to him, he felt the need to reiterate: "Have you gone off the deep end Berry? You're telling Mr. Schue to give the lead to other people that aren't you."
After a moment, she nods tightly, losing all bravado. "Yes, Noah. I'm adept enough to know when my performance is affecting the group, hindering it, actually. It's not fair to everyone else that I'm not giving it my all-"
"And why aren't you?" He cuts across, a bit quieter than intended. "What, did we become unimportant in your world again Berry?"
"No! Absolutely not!" Rachel exclaims, and steps closer, treading slowly, "How dare you say such a thing?"
"Then why don't you cut the crap?" He asks, not evening looking at her, but past her. "Why don't you just say that you don't want lead anymore because Finn bowed out and I took over for him? Because all be damned if I touch you again."
His face snapped back from the delivered slap. Even from the side he could see Rachel straighten herself. "I just want to make one thing clear to you Noah. My actions have nothing to do with you."
"Not even just now?" He stretches his jaw and resists from rubbing his cheek. He wouldn't give her the satisfaction.
"No. That was because I felt like it," She raises her chin and stands at her full height, as if that was supposed to intimidate him. It would've been cute if it was some other girl, but this was Berry who was some sort of hybrid between an actual girl and a parent's wet dream. So he snorted in response.
"Yeah, felt like putting your hands all over me again," He muttered before he could even think of his words.
Rachel's face grew ashen. "D-Definitely not," She shook her head for good measure. "I'd rather not…well."
Well, indeed.
"Yeah because why the Hell would you want a Lima loser like me?" He gritted out and the growling edge to his voice made her flinch.
"Precisely," She responded curtly, and then walked away before another word could be said.
Puck left the school after that, thoroughly pissed and he didn't even bother going back into the choir room. In the student parking lot, Mike, Matt and Artie were gathered by his car, singing the last chorus to a new rock group. Before moving to Lima, Mike lived in Colorado, so it was no surprise why he out of the trio sang it with more fervor.
"I think I should know…how…to make love to something innocent without leaving my fingerprints out…
Now, L-o-v-e's just another word I never learned to pronounce!
How…do I say I'm sorry cause the word is just never gonna come out.
Now, L-o-v-e's just another word I never learned to pronounce."
Wow, I think I just fell in love with the Glee section. 57 alerts, 15 favs, in less than one day? You guys are AWESOME. Even my mother noticed the mass response to my inbox. xD I wanted to put this chapter up quickly, but I'll respond to all reviews soon, and please, keep 'em coming. They inspire me like you wouldn't believe. Featured the song Starstrukk by 30!H3.
DAC