Just within the first two hours of posting the first chapter, I got six story alerts. I want to thank everybody for putting the story on alert and for the reviews! I seriously appreciate it. I always love getting an e-mail from Fanfiction notifying me of these things!
Anyway, this chapter will finally be introducing Puck. God, he's so drool-worthy. Thank you, Mark Salling, for being the sexiest Jew I know of.
Disclaimer: Do I own Glee? Abso-fucking-lutely! Another thing you should know about me is that I'm an impulsive liar...
Remember that this is slightly AU from season 3. Like I said, I will keep most things, but I might change a few for both the plot line and because I have an even worse short-term memory than Dory from Finding Nemo...Or is it Dori? Damn it, I just looked this up, too!
Tell me if and how you like it :)
G L E E
I got back to my dorm room a few minutes after finishing my cup of coffee on one of the iron benches along the concrete pathways of the campus. Still no sign of anybody else's existence in this room. I sighed to myself as I sat on my bed.
I wanted to decorate my side of the room, but I didn't want to relive that whole basement-decor debacle between Finn and I.
I haven't fully recovered from that yet, and neither has Finn. He is completely unaware of his homophobic tendencies, like forcing me to cancel my duet with a guy in fear of him leaving the team. But as much as I've tried to put it behind me, damn it, he always does something else to reel me back into that place.
Okay.
No thinking about my bigoted stepbrother. I have to make this place more like home without doing too much.
I settled for just putting the three pictures I had of my loved ones on the empty space next to my laptop.
The first picture I pulled out was the one of my mother and I in our old backyard. I was just a baby in this picture—only about one year old and sporting my mom, Elizabeth's, new outfit that she handmade for me. She always made my outfits, and they were always so perfect on me. It was several years later when I was seven that my mother died of breast cancer.
The next picture was of Finn, Burt, Carole, and myself yesterday evening during my going away party. I believe Mercedes had taken that picture for us seeing as most of my close friends were there to me off to my collegial journey. Everybody that could make it, did: Mercedes, Quinn, Artie, Tina, Mike, Sugar—even Santana and Brittany. That's when Santana had informed me that she would be going to Ohio State, also. Her girlfriend, Brittany, would be going to Lima College, the local junior college.
And finally, the last picture was of me and the entire Glee club. It was the last day of my senior year and two weeks before, we had won nationals. We were still ecstatic in this picture having celebrated the entire period of time in between. The only people missing were Rory, who had to go back to Ireland after his time here had ended, and Sam. He ended up moving over the summer before senior year because his dad got a job in another town. Although, I still talk to him frequently after he risked his safety against a bully who tormented me back junior year, David Karofsky, in order to protect me from harm. It made me realize how amazing of a friend he was.
I scanned the photo once more and smiled at everybody. It had only been three months since that day, but I missed them all dearly.
After graduating high school, it was much more difficult to find time where everybody was free and spend time with one another. Luckily, my party had brought us back together. Well, most of us. Rachel left a week prior to move to New York for school. She insisted that Finn was there to see her go, so he had went with her after saving enough money from working in my dad's garage to stay in a decent hotel for a week while Rachel settled in. That's where they both felt it would be too difficult to continue a relationship with each other from such a long distance away. He made it back early the morning of my departure but seemed a bit distraught from his regular self.
As for Noah...well, nobody knew where he was. The weekend after Senior year had ended, and after the club's biggest celebration, he left for the opportunity to drive cross country. God knows where he ended up, but as far as I knew, nobody had been in contact with him since, other than the occasional phone call.
Okay, that took all but thirty seconds. That doesn't exactly solve my problem of having nothing to do. Should I go stop by Blaine's again? I mean, he must still be trying to work things out with that bigot of a roommate. Friends are there for each other, right?
Then again, I know Blaine and he would come to me if he needed anything. Maybe Henry figured something out for them, possibly moving that neanderthal to a different room.
Classes didn't start until Monday. And considering it was still Thursday, there was plenty time to get ready.
And Santana wasn't moving in until tomorrow since today was her mother's birthday. I never met Gloria, but from what I know about Santana coming out, she must be very accepting. She deserved to have her daughter there for her birthday.
I glanced over at my clock and saw it was already four in the afternoon. Rory and I wanted to meet up around 6:30, so I had to see if Blaine wants to go within the next two hours.
I guess two hours can be a long time. Now, what can I do to fill that amount of time. I mean, sure, tweeting the followers of my fashion-focused account could entertain me for all of the ten seconds it would take to type out a quippy hashtag about Ugg boots never having been in style, but I need something more.
Facebook.
G L E E
After messaging both Sam, Mercedes, and Quinn for the last two hours about their day, I realized it was either now or never to ask Blaine if he wanted to have dinner with Rory and I. Question is: should I do it in person or just text him?
I guess if he refused to go to dinner because of...was it Lloyd? Anyway, if that guy put Blaine in a bad enough mood not to go out, then I can at least be there for him to vent.
I made sure I had everything with me before I left. Oh, no. Where is my phone?
It took me five minutes to look through everything and realize that it was right next to my laptop; right in plain sight. Oh, Gaga, now I'm in a rush.
As soon as I exited my room, I ran into Henry—literally. "Oops. I'm sorry Henry—I should have watched where I was going."
"Umm, that's okay. Probably my fault, anyway. It's the first day people are moving in and they're already stressing me out with requests to change rooms. The RA two floors down wanted me to see if I had any open spots for a swap."
"That...request wasn't made by a 'Lloyd,' was it?" I asked curiously.
Henry looked at me in somewhat surprise before answering. "Yeah, actually. How did you know that?" he asked with a slight smile.
"His roommate is...an old friend." My smile faltered a bit after debating how to introduce Blaine. And even though I did, in fact, want to say 'ex-boyfriend,' my tongue had a different scenario already planned for this moment.
"That will do it." he laughed softly, looking toward the direction of the elevator. "Do you wanna grab a bite? It's getting to be about that time."
"Yeah, actually, I was just about to meet up with some friends, if you want to join us." Don't see why not. Inviting your RA isn't so bad, is it? Not like I knew many others here.
"Definitely. I'll meet you guys there, though. I have to go grab my things." After I said it was fine, he walked down to the end of the hall to his specified room. Or office. Whatever it was...
God, now I'm in even more of a rush. I have to go see if Blaine is good to go. Maybe I should have text him after all...
I finally got to his room and his roommate was still nowhere to be seen. I knocked on the open door just to be polite before he invited me in. "Hey, Blaine. Any luck?"
"No, he hasn't showed up since this morning. What have you been up to?" His voice told me he was slightly disinterested, or at least distracted, but who could blame him?
"Nothing of importance. Although, I did run into our old Irish friend, Rory. Apparently, he goes to school here." I informed him with a smile, ready to finally invite him after such a prolonged period of time. "And he invited us to come to dinner with him and a few others."
Blaine needed no further explanation before he grabbed his coat. "Sounds perfect. I'm getting tired of waiting around for Lloyd, anyway."
G L E E
The conversation was pretty much nonexistent on the way to meet up with Rory. Even with the chatter from surrounding students traveling to their destinations, it was silent. Probably because I was waiting for Blaine to say something about anything.
At least the sky was charming tonight. Plenty of stars and the moon was hanging at a low crescent. The paths were lit rather well, too. The charming charcoal-tinted light poles were placed in all the right places. Except the one I can see burned out about fifty feet from us.
Luckily, the walk wasn't long enough for me to become extremely uncomfortable. Rory and some others were conversing in front of the doors to the mess hall. I always hated that phrase, but cafeteria sounded rather juvenile, no? Meal hall, maybe. Is that a real phrase?
"Hey, Blaine. It's good to see you again!" Rory greeted happily, gesturing toward him. Blaine put on a fake smile and told Rory practically the same. The two guys standing behind Rory were now waiting patiently to be introduced. "Kurt, Blaine—this is Ariel and George."
Ariel was a six foot prodigy with light blonde hair and almost blue eyes. He had some facial hair, but not much. It was just the a bit of scruff. He wore a black button-up with jeans with a pair of red Converse and a leather band on his wrist. His smile was friendly and seemed genuine.
Next to him stood an even taller male—maybe six foot four. He had a rich brown shaggy hair and dark brown eyes. He was wearing a plain green sweatshirt and black cargo shorts. He smiled widely at the two of us, reaching his hand out to greet both of us.
"Alright, let's head in." George suggested, opening the door for the four of us. The building was filled with students already eating and having a good time. Along with a majority of the tables being taken, there were still plenty of people waiting in line for their food.
Before we could order any food, we had to have the person working in the front scan our meal cards. Once a day is what that card got us. I hear the best way to get away with this is to just sneak food out of the cafeteria in a bag or in a pocket, but seeing as already dinnertime, I don't think I will have to resort to that just yet.
Everybody got their food and we sat down at a free table near the back of the room where there was nothing but windows. I'm sure that if it were brighter out, it would light up the entire building.
"So, are you in the same dorm?" I asked the three sitting across from me as I took a bite of my salad.
"Yeah, we're just waiting for another roommate to show up and take a room with George, here." Rory explained after he swallowed a sip of his Coke.
"Well, it won't matter much, anyway. I plan on rushing Alpha Omega." From what I heard, Alpha Omega was the most prestigious fraternity in the school. And while they didn't base their new brothers off of the amount of money they had, it was still difficult to get in.
"I'm actually waiting for my roommate to show up, too. But at least we had the chance to pick our sides of the room." I added amusingly, smirking at myself. George agreed that it was nice to have the choice and that he had heard horror stories about the dorms here.
"Hey, Kurt." Henry greeted as he sat down with his food, smiling at everybody at the table. "Glad I found you with how crowded it is in here." He was right—it would be very difficult to find somebody in this sea of students. And being how my skin probably blended in with the white tiles on the floor, it would make things that much more difficult.
"Guys, this is Henry—my floor's RA." I then proceeded to introduce the others, going down the line and stopping after Blaine.
After the introductions were finally through, we all went into easy conversation. I learned that Ariel was an English major who wants to become a published author and George was somewhat of a basketball legend back in his hometown. With his height, I'm sure it was inevitable.
Everybody hit it off with each other and promised to meet up again for tomorrow's breakfast. I would have agreed to it myself, but I remember that Santana wanted some help moving in. Blaine would have helped, also, but he and Santana weren't on the the best of terms after she found out why Blaine and I broke up. She had actually reacted more than anybody else had, which both touched me and frightened me a bit. By reacted, of course, I mean threatened Blaine that she would go all Lima Heights on him and destroy the beaver dam he was attempting to build with his hair.
I made it back to my room, shivering and rubbing my hands together for warmth. The room was about as cold as the rest of the campus. That stupid window still wouldn't close. Maybe Henry knows a trick or two on how to close this because I don't think I can comfortably make it through the night when I could practically breed polar bears in my room.
I walked down to the end of the hall and discreetly knocked on the door to his room. He opened the door and looked at me, puzzled why I came by again but rather amused at the same time. "Can I help you, Kurt?"
God, this is rather embarrassing, actually. Why did I think to ask? "Umm...there's a window in my room that doesn't seem to close." Henry smiled at me and told me he would attempt to take care of it. We both took the quick walk back to my dorm room and I showed him the problem.
"I think..." Henry began, grunting as he tugged on the window, "if I continue to push...this should...finally...close!" He ended with a loud groan and a slight pant. The window hadn't moved a millimeter from it's previous spot. He gave it a second try, but received the same outcome. "Any way you could bare through the Arctic Circle for the night so that I could see if we can get it replaced...or something..."
"Yeah, I suppose with the right amount of blankets and clothing, I could handle it." I answered, already gathering the ones I had set up on a shelf at the top of my closet. The blanket on the top was one that Blaine gave me for Christmas.
It was navy with a bright red script at the bottom corner of it. It read, 'Courage,' in cursive. I sighed to myself as I set that blanket along with the others onto my bed.
Oh, speaking of Blaine...or...thinking, rather. "Was the RA downstairs able to find living arrangements for Lloyd?"
"No, not this soon. He said he would have to wait a couple of weeks and see if anybody drops out." Oh, God. Poor Blaine is going to have to live with that ass of a homophobe. Henry looked behind him to the untouched side of the room. "I see your roommate still hasn't showed up."
"Not yet, which isn't the best first impression. But I'm sure he has his reasons." Maybe giving my roommate the benefit of the doubt would be for the best. I mean, who am I to judge somebody before I even met them. Even Santana is arriving later than expected with a perfectly good scapegoat.
"Yeah, I'm sure he will arrive by tomorrow. There's no way he would come the day of classes—that would just be plain masochistic." Henry joked as he made his way to the front door.
"Let's hope that doesn't translate into erotic asphyxiation..." I mumbled to myself, my RA unable to hear the comment. "What time do you think you could be over here?"
"Considering tomorrow's somewhat of a heavy schedule, I would say I would be free around noon."
I informed him I would be looking forward to getting my window fixed and politely said my goodbyes before glaring at said window. It was now whistling at me in a seemingly mocking tone, which I did not appreciate.
Instead of having a ridiculous staring contest with the cold night air rushing into the room, I decided a hot shower would help out best. I changed into my white robe and grabbed a towel and my toiletries—all conveniently placed in a stylish carrier, of course—and headed for the communal showers down the hall.
Luckily for me, there were separate stalls for showers rather than an open room like the locker rooms back in high school. Not that it would distract me. Over the years, I've learned to avert my eyes and just focus on the tasks I had to finish in order to get out of there as soon as possible before a random number of football players decided to dump my book bag in a clogged toilet. That was probably the worst thing to happen to me my freshman year.
A couple of guys were taking showers, steam rising from the top of the stalls, and some were walking around stark naked and drying themselves off. Like I said, I had no difficulties looking elsewhere.
There were about three empty stalls along one of the walls and I took the closest one. I hung up both my robe and towel, tugged the shower curtain closed, and turned on the water.
Mother Monster, that's cold! It took most of my willpower not to shriek in the middle of the crowded vicinity. Roughly forty-five seconds more and the water temperature finally started to rise. At that point, I was trying to keep my composure seeing as how my body wanted to betray me and violently convulse, so the change in temperature was much welcomed.
I sighed with content before taking out my blackberry-scented shampoo and lathering my hair in the sweet scent.
Ten minutes later and I was warm and properly bathed. My skin care regiment came next, and as I applied assorted creams onto my skin, I could see from the corner of my eyes that some guys were giving me quizzical looks. Ignoring them, I continued with my daily routine and exited without glancing at anybody else, making sure to keep my chin high and my confidence higher.
I half expected to find my roommate unpacking when I got back, but the farther side of the room was still completely uninhabited.
I slipped off my robe and got dressed into my cobalt silk pajamas. As soon as I put them on, I knew I had made the wrong choice. They were way too thin for the cold weather. Instead, I changed into a plain purple cotton shirt and gray OSU sweats.
Much better.
I got under the layer upon layer of blankets thick enough to replace the Berlin Wall and turned my laptop on. I made sure I had my schedule right for the hundredth time. Yup. Still the same. Honestly, I don't know why I worry it will drastically change for no apparent reason.
After a marathon of vlogs I follow on Youtube, my laptop started ringing. Well, no, not literally ringing. Somebody was just calling me via Skype.
Rachel's name popped up onto the screen and I answered almost immediately seeing as how she became one of my best friends over the last year.
"Kurt!" Rachel greeted excitedly, a huge smile gracing her features.
"Hello, Rachel. How is the big city treating you?" I asked her, wanting to get immediate details on how fabulous everything was.
I have only been there once in my life back in my junior year for our glee club's nationals. I was hoping that they would take place again in New York City, but they decided to host it in San Francisco. It was still rather exciting. It was the first time I ever set foot on a beach, despite it being just under fifty degrees outside. Rachel, Mercedes, Quinn, Santana, Brittany, and I had also snuck away to visit Castro Valley just to see what it was like. And, as to be expected, it was very homosexual. It was exciting, though. I have never been anywhere where rainbow flags hung from every building and the majority of couples were same-sex. It was definitely an experience.
"New York is fabulous, Kurt—as always. The bagels are fabulous and the Jews are plentiful. Life is good, Kurt." She joked before laughing heartily. "What about you? How's OSU?"
"It's okay. Not much has really happened so far. Oh, but guess who decided to go here?" I started cheerfully and then proceeded to inform her. "Our little Irish nugget, Rory."
"Really? Oh, you have to tell him 'hello' for me next time you see him!" I told her I would make sure to do that before she proceeded to ask me more questions. "How's your dad?" He's the same since last time he saw her. But the doctors said that he should be up and about after a couple more months. "And how's...?" Rachel trailed off, a look of devastation on her face.
"He's dealing the best he can." I said truthfully. Rachel swallowed before asking me if she made the right decision. "Honestly? Probably so. You guys are just so far away that I don't see how it would work out from just seeing each other during holidays or on the rare occasion when either of you can afford to fly out to one another."
She nodded, agreeing with what I had to say, knowing it was probably for the best. The tears welled up in her eyes but she blinked them away before they had a chance to fall. "Alright. Let's talk about something else."
That's when the door to my room beeped and a guy with tan skin and a shaved head walked through the door in reverse, carrying his luggage. He had on a leather jacket and jeans. He was pretty tall and there was something familiar about him. I couldn't pinpoint what it was until he turned back around.
Noah.
"Noah? You're my roommate?" I asked disbelievingly, hoping it was his long lost twin brother instead. We just stared at each other
"Noah? Wait...Puck? Rachel exclaimed through the computer speakers. I rotated the laptop so that the camera would face the former classmate. In the reflection of the closet doors, I saw Rachel's mouth drop open in a gasp before I closed the laptop on her.
"So...you're not dead?" Noah flinched before giving me a strange look.
"What? People think I'm dead?"
"Considering you never call, yeah. Brittany thought you were lost at sea after her cat spelled it out in puffs of smoke from his cigar."
True Story.
Noah chuckled before carrying the last of his bags completely into the room and shutting the door behind him. "Guess some things never change."
He was wrong. Just like for a brief period of time back in our sophomore year of high school, he was practically unrecognizable without his trademark mohawk. And on top of that, he now had small obsidian-colored gauges in both of his ears.
"Or not." Noah said after looking my outfit over. "Since when do you wear cotton?" The last part was said in feign disgust, teasing me after saying something to that affect sometime back in high school.
"Since the room we live in can store entire carcasses of meat for weeks on end." He looked over at the windows and noticed the infuriating one after I pointed at it and explained that it just wouldn't shut completely. Noah walked over, gripped onto the window, and the window slid into place with a tiny metallic clang. He looked over at me with a look of disbelief, but one much more mocking than the one I had right now.
"How—Wha—Ugh, never mind. Just...do you need help with your stuff?" I asked after my stage of being absolutely speechless had ended. He shook his head before unzipping one of the first of several bags.
"Any hot chicks on campus, Hummel?" he teased as he looked up from manhandling his shirts from his bag and onto his bed. "Puckzilla misses his Ohio poon." And to add emphasis to that grotesque imagery, he then proceeded to grab onto his crotch.
"Charming." I sneered, causing him to snicker. "And don't call me, Hummel..."
For the next hour or so, we stayed in silence as he continued to unpack and I was reading critiques on the recent Meryl Streep film that I have yet to see.
After hearing another zipper close, I looked up to see a half-naked Noah about to take his black boxer briefs off in exchange for another pair.
"Bah!" The laptop almost flew up in the air but I positioned it just quickly enough to block him out of my vision. "Noah, what the hell?"
"What? I'm changing in my room." he said, his voice giving away that was completely and utterly entertained at the moment. "I don't know why you're choosing to miss out on it. My body was meant to be shared with the world."
"Just put something on!"
"Prude..." I heard his bed creak ever so slightly before he told me it was safe. And just in case, I eased my line of vision away from the computer screen and over to his side of the room. He was sitting on his bed, still shirtless, but with red sweats on and looking rather amused at me, his usual cocky smirk making it that much worse.
"Just go to bed, Rico Suave. We're helping Santana move into her room tomorrow morning." I got up and set my laptop to charge before going back under the warmth of my bed.
"Santana goes here, too? It's like a damn Glee Club reunion..." Puck commented before he leaned back onto his bed and resting his head against the wooden headboard.
"I haven't even told you that Blaine and Rory are here, also." I mentioned as I continued to look at him from across the room as I tried to regain the heat I had earlier.
"Jesus, it's like we never even left Lima..." And with that I let out a loud, dramatic groan before plopping down into my bed. And in eight hours, I can wake up to Lima: The Sequel all over again.
Second chapter done! Yay!
Now, don't think Noah and Kurt are going to hook up anytime soon. This is going to be a very drawn out story. The main focus is obviously going to be Kurt, but I'm also adding storylines to the other lovely characters. You probably already caught that with the whole "Finchel breakup."
Go ahead and give me some random pairings! There's a possibility I might let you know if it's a pairing I'll be using as endgame. Well, probably not, but I want to see what couples you crazy kids can come up with :p
Love you guys! You always make my day when I get any kind of notification in my e-mail.
Happy wishes!
-Ritchie