Chapter 6

Noah Puckerman sighed and scrapped his hand over his scalp as he picked up the folder sitting on the desk in front of him. He was sitting in his office well past quitting time for the third night in a row. He had only been back in Lima, Ohio for a little over two months, and already he had established a reputation for being quite a good lawyer. Albeit, small, the reputation was quickly growing, which was why he was currently sitting his office reading through his latest case.

He read for a couple more minutes in the small light provided by his small desk lamp. He read until the words started to bleed together on the page, leaving only a jumbled mess of letters and punctuations. Noah rubbed his eyes and then set the paper back in its folder and placing the folder into the briefcase sitting by the side of his desk. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes for a second, imagining the beautiful feeling of the weekend stretching before him, looking forward to sleeping in.

With that Noah found the motivation to move from his desk chair and go back to his small house and his rather large bed.

"Up, up, up!" Quinn's soft feminine voice fluttered through his ears, and he knew instantly that it was not going to be a very good day. "Seriously Noah, you can't sleep the day away." Her voice demanded.

"Woman, how did you even get in here?" He asked groggily as he lifted himself up with his arms rolled over onto his back. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and looked up at her.

"Finn." Of course. He should have known better than to give his best friend a key to his house. There was no way he could keep it from Quinn, his nosy wife, and of course the inevitable had happened. Quinn had weaseled the key away from her husband.

"Why are you here?"

"Because you promised to baby-sit tonight, I just wanted to make sure you were still up to the challenge."

"And you couldn't just pick up a phone?"

"I wanted to see you place. Noah this place is atrocious, you have exactly three pieces of furniture, and the only thing you have in your refrigerator besides beer is some milk that is dangerously close to its expiration date."

"You went through my fridge?" He arched his right eyebrow up at the end of the question, amused at the blush that touched her cheeks.

"I was thirsty." She explained then went on with her rant over his lack of proper decorating. "You know, you really ought to have a woman's touch added to this place Noah. Really, it has so much potential, how can you live with only a couch and a TV in the living room? Noah-"

"Quinn did you come over just to yell at me about how awful my house looks or was there a reason you woke me up at 8:30 in the morning on my day off?"

"Oh yes, about baby-sitting. Are you sure you're up for it?"

"Quinn, I think I can handle myself with a couple of munchkins, I practically raised my little sister." Noah promised, reassuring her that he was in fact up to the job. "You and Finn go out and have a good time with Tina and Mike. I promise they'll still be alive when you get back." Noah had risen from the bed, not at all shy in front of one of his closest friends, and made his way to the master bathroom, searching for his toothbrush in the medicine cabinet. Quinn followed him and leaned in the doorway, waiting until he had gotten the toothbrush into his mouth before saying something.

"Finn and I aren't meeting up with Tina and Mike." She corrected him, and then continued with a smirk on her face. "We're meeting up with Rachel. Anyway, thanks again for agreeing to baby-sit, see you tonight." With a smile she pushed herself from the doorway and left him alone. Noah spit the reaming toothpaste into the sink below him, swished some water in his mouth and dried his face off. "Well fuck." He said calmly to his reflection staring back at him on the mirror. Now all he could do was hope that he would not run into his former classmate and former flame. He had not known that she was back in town, and in a town with only a little over 3,000 people he wondered how he had not already run into her.

'Oh well' he thought to himself. All he could do now was hope and pray that he could avoid her as best he could now that he did know. Unfortunately, such a project might prove to be difficult if they both fraternized with the same circle of friends, especially if said friend was nosy, meddling, Quinn Hudson.

AN: Wow, sorry it has taken me so long to update, and sorry that this chapter was so short. I will try to write longer chapters in the future, especially that this story is flowing better now, or I hope it is. It's flowing better in my mind; I hope it reads just as smoothly for all of you. Thank you for the reviews, and I hope this chapter is satisfactory, even if it is quite short. Love you all!