AN: I got my hair dyed today... It's awesome... My natural colour is like a brown with natural blonde streaks through it (I was born a blonde... then over the years became a brunette) and then I got blonde, black and red streaks through it... It's pretty awesome. Family is freaking out... well not my parents or brothers cause they're used to this (got my hair streaked black and purple once... now that was fun)... Rest of my family feel the need to disapprove of everything I do... I LIKE MY SECOND EAR PIERCING! I mean, I haven't even gotten my nose pierced or anything (which I may one day) so they can't seriously freak out on me...
AN2 (which I wrote ½ way into writing this...) Oh fuck, I've lost my glasses... got out of the shower, went to pull them on and can't find them... it's incredibly blurry... aren't you all lucky I can touch type? If there are mistakes, don't sue me I can't see.
AN3 (which I wrote just before **): Found my glasses...
Reviews:
Alley83, Ladybug Jess, emo nemo96: Read on!
JustAmazing: Your reviews make me laugh... I sadly don't think I could hate any of my reviewers... you guys make me too happy for words... And yeah that's cool... the little Puck in my head wants to kill Isla too, but he can't because she just smiles at him and he ends up laughing... Your not gonna like this chapter though, now that I think about it... just don't kill me... In return I'll bake you cookies! (well, I'll bake cookies but I don't know how I'd get them to you)
Oh and I think I'm slowly starting to rush cause I want to get to chapter 18... which I've written... hehehe... I really want to get to chapter 18... Oh and I get choppy in this, splicing from what Puck's doing to what Rachel's doing without making the little ~*~ symbol cause they're having a phone conversation.
He didn't know he was tossing and turning in his sleep, when he did sleep that is. Usually he would stare up at Finn's ceiling, trying not to think about how he was a homeless teenager, living with his best friend who thought he was the father of his kid.
It usually failed.
Hopelessly.
But from a combination of exhaustion and frustration, Puck found himself falling to sleep before dinner, conking out as if he hadn't slept in days and being pretty much dead to the world when Finn, Isla and Mrs Hudson had all tried to wake him up.
Which led him deep into his subconscious, dreaming about things he never really wanted to think about again. Or start thinking about. Because while his first few dreams he had that night were about times in his life he was happy to forget, the ones near the end were all about a particular brunette girl who seemed to capture his mind whenever he wasn't around her.
For the last week he'd found himself wondering what she was up to when she wasn't around him. This wasn't that often because lately she'd been around him most of the time. Whilst that day was the first time he'd driven her to school, they'd been hanging out at Finn's house or just him and her at her place so he could get away from the sad looks Mrs Hudson kept shooting him.
This dreams started out similarly to the way his wonderings had started. With Rachel at her desk studying or singing into her camera. They would end similarly too. With him and her ending up in a tangled mess on her oh-so comfortable bed. The fact that he knew just how comfortable the bed was probably should've been some indication as to how his relationship with Rachel was changing, but Puck put it down to testosterone and being a normal hetrosexual man. Cause Berry wore those crazy short skirts and too tight sweaters...
(Who the hell was he kidding? He was so totally falling for Rachel Berry and it wasn't funny and most definitly wasn't good.)
He woke up the next morning, uncomfortably because Finn was sleeping in the same room. He looked at the time and saw 7:30am flashing on the digital clock. He was gonna be late. He shifted to get out of bed just as Finn started stirring. Quickly, he grabbed the covers and yanked them over his lap. "Far out." Finn muttered looking at the time.
"Slept in..."
"Yeah." Puck said nodding his head and deeply regretting not wearing his sweats last night instead of his boxers. "Uh, I'm gonna jump into the shower first, kay?"
Finn nodded and turned back into the bed, trying to fall back asleep. Puck was glad that his friend was sometimes just too stupid to realise certain things.
Puck yanked on his sweats and bolted down the hallway with a towel before turning on the iciest shower he could and standing under the water.
~*~
Rachel sat at home after school, doing her homework and curious as to why she hadn't seen Puck all day. She'd seen Finn and Matt and even had a conversation with Mike during English, but she hadn't seen Puck at all. They hadn't had glee practice that day so she couldn't have seen him there and he never had his run that morning.
While she was trying to focus purely on her work, she couldn't. Because his face coming closer to her own in the car the previous day just kept popping into her mind.
Were they going to kiss? Should she even go there?
It was obvious he was emotionally all over the place, especially with his father in town. Also she knew he had an odd attachment to Quinn. But the way he had looked at her in his truck after he jumped into the lake and after she'd been slushied the previous week made her heart swell and convinced her that maybe there was something else there.
Wait? What happened to Finn?
Okay, Rachel knew what happened to Finn. She got over him. After the way he embarrassed her by not showing up the photos for Glee when it was just the two of them but suddenly finding confidence when the whole of Glee agreed.
Letting out a frustrated growl, she slammed her exercise book closed, not even remembering what subject it was. Why could she not be like one of those other girls with simple love lives?
Deciding she wanted to know why Puck had been avoiding her all day, she picked up her mobile and leafed through her phone for his number. Her finger hovered over the 'dial' button and it took her a full ten minutes of mental negotiating to finally click, 'cancel' and returning to her menu.
Two minutes later, she had dialled the number and was lying on her bed, waiting for a response.
~*~
Puck had just finished his homework (yes he did it... Not out of choice. It was the deal he had with Isla). His phone started singing out 'Sweet Caroline' and he couldn't help but smile a bit. Finn was downstairs making a sandwich and talking animatedly with his mum about the sonogram. The sonogram he put up on his bedroom mirror so it could torture Puck.
He had gone to school and finished his plan. It was pretty smart. Markus was a jerk, so when he grabbed Marcia's ass before lunch period, Puck wasn't completely surprised. He was surprised though that Markus did it in front of Karofsky though.
Puck had to calm Karofsky down a bit, but just long enough to get his plan out.
"Look, Karofsky, I figure we can help each other." Puck said, shoving Karofsky away from Markus who hadn't noticed the commotion behind him in the hall. Marcia was standing there, trying to figure out what just happened. "You want to beat up Markus right?"
"Duh." Karofsky growled.
"I want to beat up Markus." He trailed off for a moment. "And the rest of the basketball team."
Now Karofsky was an idiot, but he wasn't completely stupid. "Why?" he asked, his eyes narrowed.
"My business." he said. "I want to send a very clear message to them though and I happen to know where they'll all be on Saturday night. There won't be teachers to stop you beating the shit of him and Matt, Mike, Finn and I will help with the rest of them. If you get Cusperberg involved, I'm pretty sure we can beat the crap out of them."
"Why should I help you?" Karofsky asked. "I can just pound Markus myself."
Puck let go of Karofsky and shrugged. "Either way, you go after Markus, you're gonna start a war between basketball and football and either way, I'll get to beat the living daylights out of all of them. But this way, we start with the upper hand and we show we're all in it. That way, when you get rolled by Wilson's goons in a backstreet, you know we're gonna beat the living shit out of him for you while your in recovery."
Karofsky got what Puck was basically saying under all the bullshit. You get my back, I got yours.
"Fine." Karofsky said shortly. "Where's he gonna be?"
"He's gonna be coming after me. I'm gonna be a party. For Glee cause it's the our first so sorry for the non-invite." Puck stuck his chin up to see if Karofsky was gonna question that. He didn't.
So now, staring at the phone, Puck wasn't sure whether or not to answer it. Because of a lot of reasons too. He needed to make sure none of the football team figured he was doing this for Rachel firstly, because then they'd all back out. Minus the Glee boys of course. This meant he needed to spend less time with her. Time after school was alright though, except for the fact that he didn't want things to be weird after their moment in his truck.
Just pick up the phone you looser, she ain't gonna bite you through the phone... Was it wrong that he was disappointed by that?
"Puck here." he said answering his phone and pretending like he had no idea who it was.
Rachel saw right through that because she knew his phone was programmed to play Sweet Caroline. "Hello Noah."
"'Sup Berry?" Puck balanced the phone on his shoulder and opened up msn on Finn's computer. As he signed in about fifty pop-ups of half naked girls came on. He blinked a few times and closed them all, not in the mood.
"I was wondering the same thing." her voice was full of confidence but Puck could detect a small amount of uncertainty.
"Don't do that." he said, leaning back on his char.
Now she was just plain confused. "Do what?"
"Pretend that you're alright." he couldn't believe he was saying this. 'If you don't feel alright, just don't pretend you are."
She scoffed, "Says the King of, 'I'm Alright'."
"You've got to stop joking Berry. People are gonna start thinking I'm rubbing off on you."
"Maybe you are." she said and Puck would've groaned but he didn't want this conversation to get awkward... for her, not for him. But the fact of the matter was, Puck could see himself making this conversation very awkward.
"Why'd you call Rach?" he asked her, his defences dropping for a moment.
She realised his change of name for her and smiled to herself, lying back on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. What she didn't know was Puck was leaning back in his chair, looking up at Finn's ceiling. "I called because I didn't see you today. I got worried."
"I'm not a baby Berry."
Defences back up? Yep. Snarky attitude? Got it. Ready to take on Berry? Yes.
"I know but I was getting kind of used to seeing you everyday and... it doesn't matter. Sorry for bothering you Noah." The disappointment in her voice hit his defences like a missile and they broke down again. "I'll see you around."
"No!" he stood up suddenly, his eyes open in alarm. Okay, maybe he didn't want Rachel to say goodbye just yet. "I uh... What are you doing tonight? Want to watch a movie?"
"Um... just you and me?" her voice squeaked at the end.
Puck frowned. "Duh. Unless, like..." he winced. "Unless you wanna invite someone or something. Isla's being a pain though so I kind of want to get out for a bit... alone. If you don't mind." Isla was being a perfect saint (except for that stupid timing of hers). But then he looked up to Finn's mirror and saw the sonogram of his little girl and knew he had to get out.
"Oh. Okay... um... my dad's will be home soon but... do you want to come over? They don't mind you, surprisingly. Except your hair. Daddy keeps saying I should get you a voucher for a haircut."
"Do that and I might kill you."
"I assumed as much. Be here in half an hour?"
"Fifteen minutes Berry."
"Half-an-hour then."
He considered this for a moment and just shrugged. "Yeah, you're probably right."
~*~
He rocked up at her house in forty-five minutes, only because she had said half-an-hour and plus, Mrs Hudson had given him the third degree on where he was going. He kind of (really badly) missed his mum cause she never cared where he was going.
(Okay, he really liked the fact that someone cared, but he really missed his mum. Like he thought about her everyday and why she hadn't even tried calling him and why Mrs H kept saying she's talked to her and she apparently misses him and Isla too but she hasn't left dropkick and she hasn't tried talking to him).
Puck shoved those thoughts away angrily and focused on the night he was about to have. He knocked on the door and her dad Allan (the short one aka Daddy) opened the door.
Puck shifted nervously. "Uh... hi. Is Rachel home?"
"Yeah, she's just upstairs in her room. She told me you were coming." he let Puck in and closed the door. "Call if you need anything."
Puck nodded and jogged up the stairs. He always thought it was weird how her dad's let him up to her room so often (especially since he was pretty sure they knew what happened in that room cause the other dad, Ben, would always give him funny looks... or maybe it was just the hair).
He knocked and when he heard the faint 'come in' he opened the door. Rachel was reading something at her desk and looked up surprised. "I thought you weren't going to come."
"I told you, half-an-hour."
"You said fifteen minutes."
"Then you said half-an-hour."
"It's almost been an hour."
Puck rolled his eyes and fell onto her bed. "Wanna make out?" he asked with a small grin, but for this he just got a pillow landing on his head which started a pillow fight between the two teens. He eventually grabbed her by the waist and yanked her down onto the bed, covering her with his body so she just wouldn't move.
Rachel was still laughing and didn't notice when Puck stopped and just stared at her. His eyes were wide and stunned and he was trying to figure out if he'd ever seen anything more beautiful than watching her laugh. Rachel eventually realised his silence and fell silent too.
The tension was all too similar to the previous day in his truck but this time, both of them refused to move. Good on you, you idiot... You're just gonna screw this up, Puck thought.
Kiss him... Rachel was thinking. Just kiss him. It's not that hard. You've done it before. Why is it different this time? Oh yeah... You were in love with Finn before... so this didn't matter.
"Yes." Was all Rachel could say but Puck took it as a question not an answer.
He rolled off of her and stood up stiffly, squaring his shoulders. "Uh... so about that movie."
**Rachel's shoulders fell back against the bed and she only let herself feel pity for a moment in front of him. (Later she'd hug herself in bed and cry because really, just really). She got up and showed him her collection of movies and he eventually picked the one he was least likely to fall asleep during. (Make it Happen... He liked the dancing girls... Although now they reminded him of showgirls... maybe the Jacob revenge wasn't so good...)
They sat on her bed to see the TV in the corner. They just sat side by side, shoulder to shoulder at first. But half-way into the movie, Rachel put her head on his shoulder, not meaning to at first and then staying like that, deadly still, frightened of what would happen if she moved. Puck felt her anxiety so gently reached his arm around her shoulder and shifted her so she could be more comfortable. It was only then that she started to relax a bit more.
Puck thought it was a miracle but realised he called it too soon because sure enough, her back became stiff from the position and she was fidgeting so Puck just rolled his eyes and fixed himself up too. "Here." he murmured. He stole the two pillows from behind her, propped himself up and then took another pillow and put it on his lap. "Lie down." Puck said, just as quietly.
Gently, Rachel let herself be guided her so her head was on his lap with one hand curled under her head and the other laying across his thigh. "Better?" he asked her and Rachel nodded, unable to find her voice to speak.
They watched the rest of the movie silently, Puck's hand finding it's way to Rachel's hair to cautiously play with it. When she didn't object, he found himself concentrating more on her hair than the film. Like how silky it was and how it didn't really seem to knot and it was so shiny... Stop that! You're not a girl dude!
What he didn't know was that Rachel wasn't focusing on the movie but was mesmerised by way the his hands were moving through her hair, massaging her scalp. She closed her eyes and fell asleep, waking up just as the credits started to roll. "Did you like the movie?" she asked, not knowing that he had fallen into a half-sleep, half-trance where he was rubbing her hair with his eyes closed.
Startled, he looked around then looked at the screen. "Uh yeah... it was great."
Rachel smiled and still didn't get up or move. It was almost eight and neither of them knew her dad's had come up to call them for dinner but they were both sleeping, out cold. "I'm glad you came. I thought that you were avoiding me today."
"Now why would you think that?" he asked with a small smile, but Rachel didn't answer, both of them knowing perfectly why he would avoid her. "I better go or else Mrs H will flip out on me."
Rachel nodded and only then did she push herself up. Puck still kept his arm around her though, so she couldn't move far. "Uh..." he didn't do well with the whole heart to hear, as she knew so the next few words he said surprised both of them. "This is really cool, Rachel. Us hanging out. I like that we do, hang out." Could you sound more like a pussy? "You're just... different that everyone else." Puck swore internally but his mouth wouldn't quit. "I'm glad we're friends."
Then he wanted to kick himself, because Rachel's face fell. "F-friends?"
It's now or never dude... Girlfriend or girl-friend. "Yeah." he shrugged. Cause if we weren't I'd probably break you by accident. "You're cool to hang with Berry." He let go of her and got off the bed with a smile on his face. "Thanks for the movie." he leant down and kissed her on the cheek. "You're the best." And he meant that with everything in him.
And with that, Puck left her bedroom, said goodbye to her fathers, drove back to Finn's place and wore sweaters before he went to bed. And Rachel just laid back on her own bed and cried for her life full of unrequited love.
Okay, just watched a youtube video of a girl getting her nose pierced... it looked painful... remember I said I have an aversion to pain? And needles? I hate needles... That was a massive needle... Nope, I'm never getting my nose pierced, but I've dyed my hair! Rebel... (not that I do this to rebel... I have no need to... my 'rents have tats and my mums hair changes colour every week... My dad has a cross earring which I find offensive... not cause I'm over-religious but just cause my 46 year old dad should stop trying to be cool...)
I lost my muse for this chapter... like... totally. She disappeared on me. Or he... They were just gone. They came back eventually though, which is why it took me almost forty-eight hours to update (I can't begin to imagine what horrors you were all experiencing...)
I haven't been able to write music either lately... or my original story which my agent (aka Uncle) is getting the shits about cause like... I'm trying to get published and the publishing agency that's interested wants me to finish it by Feb, cause like, they've read half of it and have given me a deadline...
Plus I've got to do my homework for HSC... shit, I keep forgetting about that... PLUS I want to write this story...
Am I putting a lot of unnecessary stress on my life?
Probably, but who cares?
It's fun to be on your toes (minus the blisters).
More Reviews:
Aussietasha: Hehehe... Wait until next chapter...
Xnerdark: I did that scene just for you... :) And there will be more Artie/Tina just not for a bit... Cause I like them together...
Literati Lover, maggiequeen, Boelyn Girl13: Thank you so much!
Jewdork: Hehehe... See, I don't have girlfriends, well... I do... there's three really close girls but we're pretty much tomboys and I don't hang out with them as much as I hang out with my guy friends. And that's how they treat me... and I pretend to be annoyed by their protectiveness but secretly, I relish in it... And I heart Rachel/Matt, Rachel/Mike friendship fics too!
Alimards: LoL... I've based Kurt on my gay friend... (make that four girlfriends if you read Jewdork's reply)... Actually, really I think they based Kurt on him... those two are too freakishly alike... I'm gonna call him Kurt now and just watch him squeal with excitement...
Fantasy's forever: I just laughed... really, I have nothing more to say to that than LoL...
Myhiddenlove08: Thank you so much for reviewing... Don't worry though, you're not the only one who has me on alert and doesn't review, but I don't mind... I just stare at the hits counter and that gets me happy... Rambling is cool and I fully agree with the Kurt/Puck fics... (like you, I have nothing against gays... my uncles are gay as well as my best friend... and my other one is possibly lesbian but she's not too sure... now I'm rambling) I don't see any of the gay Puck fics happening... I just... I can't... it's weird... I don't know... It's just... no... tilts head to the side to try and see if spinning brain liquid around helps... No I just don't get it... I totally get the one sided Kurt/Puck... from Kurt's side... And I do love those fics cause they're usually hilarious.
Karma22: You poor thing... only just figuring that out I'm a dork?? ;P... I wear glasses and am getting my braces installed in two months (on my birthday nonetheless)... and yes I said installed... LoL... Cause my sister-in-law told me they were gonna 'mount them on my teeth' and my brother Justin said, 'she's not a bloody bathroom getting the towel rack put up, she's getting braces...' this led to both him and my other brother Leo starting up a joke about how my mouth is a house and they are slowly building the foundations and they're installing a kitchen soon... I don't even bother trying to understand them anymore... (rambling) Oh and about the turkey... Out of the many words I've thought about describing that day with, cool was never one of them until now... How does one loose half a turkey by they way? LoL... Oh and I live in the sixth storey of an apartment building with a harbour in front of my window... it'd be a bit hard, but you can happily come and try egging it...
Bibz! (think about saying it with the Glee! sound thingy...)