Chapter 2 – You're not going away again.

Lauren was once again in the doctor's waiting room. The room was pretty much like any other waiting room, white, with chairs, a TV that had some show on but you can barely listen to it because the volume isn't up enough and some babies and children are always whining. If there was something more annoying than going to see a doctor, it's the waiting, and Lauren hated that, but she needed to be here, to finally know if she needed a surgery or not.

Time really pass by at different speeds. Now, Lauren felt that the seconds were actually taking hours to pass; she needed something to distract her. She took a magazine and started to flip through the pages, not really wanting to read it, nothing seemed interesting enough. She sat the magazine back where it was. The nurse hasn't called her yet, and that was driving her crazy. She took her cellphone out of her pocket, checking the news on the internet, browsing for funny comics, but unconsciously she found herself looking at some old texts.

As she spotted a particular old text, she swallowed hard when her mind revive the old memories that it brought to her; memories that she had pushed away, on the back of her head and kept reminded her not to remember about them. She should have deleted his texts and avoid the feeling of something fluttering on her stomach. She bit her bottom lip, trying to remain focus and push away those feelings again, but her mind seemed to not want the same thing, and then, his face appeared as she closed her eyes, the memory from last week, when he was at her locker, asking her to go get a coffee with him, making her heart skip a beat once more with the memory.

It wasn't until she heard her name being called that she opened her eyes, leaving these memories where they were, standing up and walking to the doctor's office, it was time for her to find out about her future, and she wasn't very calm about it.

Football practices could be really tiring, but Puck enjoyed it. It was the time that he could get all the stress out of his system by beating someone up, in a sports way, since he quit throwing people in dumpsters, or getting into any fights, and with this week, he could totally use some moves to relief the tension he was in.

It has been a week that he hasn't seen Lauren around school, since the day he talked to her, to be more accurate. After talking to some people, he found out that she was at the school, but somehow she managed to not be around when he was looking for her, he wanted to talk to her, see if she was ok, mostly because her arm seemed to be really messed up, and because he just wanted to talk to her.

'Is she trying to avoid me?' he thought as he walked back to the boys' locker room and sat on the bench, unlacing his shoes, wrapping his brain around trying to understand what was going on, what were her reasons to be avoiding him, he can't have done something wrong.

As the boys started to get their things and go home, Puck stood up and headed to the showers, taking each piece of clothing out and hanging it. Turning the shower on, he waited under it so he could feel the water running from the top of his head, down to his torso and feet. The hot shower was making his muscles relax at each second it passed, the steam making the room foggy. He was alone now, and he took deep breaths as he started thinking about her again. 'What am I going to do?' he thought countless times, trying to figure it out his moves, because he knew that with Lauren, he had to do it right, she wasn't like the other girls.

It took him about half an hour to finish taking his shower, and when he was done he turned off the water, and wrapped the towel around his waist, stepping out of the showers and drying his body and putting his clothes on. His mind did not stop thinking about what he could have done for Lauren to the point that she didn't want to see him, played the times they were together a thousand times in his head, but he got nothing from it, he sighed heavily, feeling tired.

Walking out of the locker room, holding his gym bag, he headed to the school's parking lot through the gym, walking slowly. By this time, there was no one in the school, so there was a peaceful silence, the kind that you could hear a feather falling and hitting the ground, but that wasn't the sound that caught Puck's attention.

This sound seemed to be like someone just walked in and dropped something not too heavy, and it came from the other end of the gym. That got Puck intrigued, biting the inside of his bottom lip just a bit and heading towards where that sound was coming from. As he got closer, he saw that the light on the weight room was on, that shouldn't have been, since there was no one in the school at this time, figuring that one of the guys must have forgotten on.

Stepping closer to the room, he opened the door slowly and looking around to make sure there was no one there so he could turn the lights off and finally go home, because he was tired and hungry. At first, a bag came to his sight, it looked familiar to him and he frowned trying to remember who it was, but his eyes soon caught the sight of Lauren, sitting on the bench, with her back to the door. He couldn't help but to smile slightly to see her, after the whole week of nothing, he entered the room, but could tell that she didn't even notice his presence, so he stood next to the door trying to decide whether was better for him to come to her – which would probably scare the shit out of her, and make her break his nuts in one movement – or just say hi from a far – which could make her turn around and tell him to go away. Deciding to play safe now, he knocked slightly on the door "Hey" he said to her watching at every reaction she would have.

She turned around to the sound of his voice, facing him. Her eyes were heavy and she looked a little pale, she didn't want him to see the mess she was right now, but she honestly didn't have the strength to do anything right now, she just wanted to put everything in place and figure out about her life. "Hey" she replied quietly barely looking at him.

He took that as a sign she wasn't great, he could see that she wasn't her usual self, so he walked towards her, taking a seat by her side.

"I'm worried about you" he told her not taking his eyes off of her face.

"I really don't know why" she replied trying to sound as if she couldn't care less if he was worried about her or not. But she did.

"To start, Lauren, I care about you" he said to her, a little annoyed that it seemed that she didn't know that yet after all they went through "And for other, because your shoulder seems to be bothering you a lot. And…" he trailed off. The look she gave him indicated that she wanted to hear the rest, so he continued "…because I'm trying to understand why are you avoiding me so much."

Lauren knew that he wasn't going away without an answer, "I went to the doctor today, to see what's gonna happen with my shoulder and all" she paused, looking at her hand that was resting on her knee, replaying the doctor's words on her head, feeling her heart heavy and her eyes watered. She took a deep breath "He said that I need a surgery".

Seeing Lauren so tense made Puck even more worried. He never seen her so nervous before, and even though he knew she was trying to hide it, he could see the pain in her eyes that were locked on her hand. "I'm sure it is a normal procedure, and that you'll be good as new after it" he said, trying to comfort her.

"The chances for me to get back on the mat, after the surgery, it's only 40%. And I'll need a lot of physiotherapy" she said, finally looking at him meeting his eyes and locking in his gaze. She was frustrated with the results that the doctor had told her, and felt for the first time in her life, lost. She would have to do the surgery, but what if after it she couldn't wrestle anymore, what would she do?

Puck tried to find the right words to calm her down, and to tell her that everything was going to be alright, but there were no words to describe to how much he wanted to be there with her and for her. He then slipped his hand, reaching out for hers and holding it gently, intertwining their fingers. He half expected her to jerk off, losing the contact that he just made with her, but when she didn't do it, he just squeezed a little.

"Everything is going to be alright, Lauren" he said lamely "I know it's what anyone would say, but I know it will be alright. You don't need to worry too much about it" if he wasn't paying so close attention to her face, he would never notice the small smile she let appear on her lips.

Lauren couldn't deny the touch of his skin to hers made her a little calmer, even her mind let out the thoughts about her surgery and concentrated on the holding hands that was happening. 'How come he stills worries about me, after I dumped him giving a stupid ass reason?' she thought letting a small smile appear on her lips.

"What am I supposed to do, if I can't wrestle anymore?" she asked him, trying to figure it out a plan if the worst happens.

"You'll always have me" he answered "and Glee. Even though you think we are lame, we are always there for each other and it won't be any different for you…" he looked at their hands and back to her eyes.

Lauren looked into his eyes, trying to read what he just said, trying to find a lie in this sentence but failed the attempt, his eyes were truthful just like his words "Do you really mean it?" she asked, sounding too vulnerable, making Lauren want to kick herself in the guts to sound like that.

Puck nodded, his eyes locked with hers, his free hands reaching for her cheek cupping it. He leaned in, making their lips meet with one soft kiss. He knew that was a risky move, but he didn't care, he didn't want to play safe anymore, he couldn't be around her without kissing her anymore he wanted her and wanted to show her that.

As she felt his lips touch hers she gasped at the contact, it wasn't something she was expecting, and he let his tongue explore her mouth, twirling with her own. She found herself liking the contact, one she didn't have from him a long time, she missed it. They only broke apart when their lungs were screaming for air.

"Does that answer your question?" he said in a whisper tone since they were still close enough to hear each other's breathing with a smile on his face.

Lauren opened her eyes slowly, believing that this moment was a dream, and was a bit scared that when she opened her eyes it would all be gone; his whisper did not made it seem real, but when she finally opened her eyes, she found his hazel ones and a soft smile appeared on her lips whether she wanted to show it or not.

"You're getting a little better at this. I guess I thought you well" she told him, transforming her smile in a smirk.

"You sure did" he replied leaning in for another kiss, but she turned her face to avoid the contact that was about to happen. She knew that if they kissed again, it would mean much more than it should and she wasn't ready for that just yet.

"What's wrong?" he asked when he noticed that she appeared not want his kiss and it made him confused.

"I need to go home."

"No. You're not leaving me. I'm not going to let run away from me, Zizes."

"I'm not running away."

"So tell me why, every time we are close to having something special, you walk away from me?"

She didn't answer.

"I like you Lauren, I told you this many times before, and for now this is one of the few things that I have sure about my life. And I know you like me back, because you can't possibly not feel the same electricity that I feel when I touch you, or kiss you, because that isn't something I feel every time I hook up with someone, it only happens with you, actually. So why can't you just admit to yourself, and let yourself be happy with me?"

"Conceited, aren't you?" she snapped at him, standing up.

"No. Not at all. Actually I think I'm not the best at all. Everyone is making plans to go off to college, and leaving this hell, and sure I want to get out of here, but I have nothing planed, I don't know what's going to happen to me after high school, but it seems that I'll end up being the Lima loser I never wanted to be" he stood up facing her, locking his eyes on hers.

Lauren wanted to punch him and hug him at the same time. She could see the pain in his eyes, the kind of pain you have when you dream about something, and it's taken away from you all the hope of making it come true.

"Your future is what you decide it to be. Not what anyone else tells you" she told him stepping backwards, towards the exit. "I have to go now."

He watched her go again, and saw that she forgot her bag. He let out a heavy sigh, he didn't want her to go away, so he took the opportunity and grab her bag and jogged to find her in the parking lot "You forgot your bag" he said to her as she was getting inside her car.

She took the bag from his hands and without looking she thanked him, and before she could close the door, he hold it firmly "I'm not giving up on you. On us." He told her and let go of the door, turning around and heading to his own car.

She watched him go this time, staying a little while longer on the parking lot, taking in all he had told her today.

"It could be much easier if you didn't felt this way, Zizes" she said to herself.