Title taken from Danger…High Voltage! by Electric Six (Chapter Edited 1/11/09).
Chapter 4: How we keep starting fires? It's my desire.
Puck sat still with anticipation in his car, waiting for Rachel, his girlfriend, to tell him that she liked someone else. He stared ahead, waiting for the words that were going to tear him up inside. He waited, staring at nothing.
Then he looked at her. She was staring at him with her big brown eyes full of a mix of sadness and anger. That made him angry. Hell, he had just caught her in a full-on fight with an obviously jealous Finn, the boy she used to lust over - his best friend and the boy who was dating Quinn Fabray. The same Quinn Fabray who was pregnant with his baby. Wow, Puck thought, this is really screwed up. But it wasn't as if he planned any of this: knocking up Quinn, falling for Rachel…it was all one big, screwed up, fantastic accident.
He saw that Rachel had looked away and was staring at her hands. He noticed small tear trails flowing from her eyes to her chin. He reached out to her, and wiped the tears away.
"Noah, there was a time, perhaps when this first started, that I was using you to make Finn jealous. I wanted him so bad Noah. You two were best friends; you even talked like him sometimes."
Noah was preparing to kick her out of the car. His heart sank; although he had prepared to hear this it still felt like he had been kicked in the gut…several times.
"But Noah, please know that I don't see you that way now…I like you for who you are, for how you make me feel, for the way you keep me in line…I like all of that about you, and I certainly do not like Finn anymore at all! Please believe me when I tell you that!"
Puck felt overjoyed…or did he? Yes, she was (supposedly) over Finn, and she was the first girl to genuinely like him for who he was and not what he looked like. But she had used him in the first place…she had used him to make Finn jealous and to get him for her own. He wasn't quite sure how he felt about that.
"Berry, I've gotta go…I can't give you a life home tonight, I have…family stuff to do…"
He noticed how her shoulders sagged and she got out of the car. She leant back into the open window.
"Will you call me tonight?"
He looked back at her, and knew that she could see the anger and uncertainty in his face.
"Maybe"
With that, he sped out of the parking lot.
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Puck had gone straight to his room without saying hello to his mom or sister. He knew that after he slammed his door, it would take exactly thirty-eight seconds for his mother to come up and see what was wrong. As much as he hated to admit it, he really loved that about his mother. Sure enough, he heard a small knock on the door.
"Noah, honey, is everything alright?"
His mother's face poked around the door. Puck sat down on his bed and put his head in his hands.
"Yeah, mom, everything's fine."
His mother could clearly see through the lie.
"Come on, Noah, is it school? Girl troubles? Peer pressure? Is anyone trying to sell you drugs?"
"No, mom, nobody is selling me any drugs."
He looked at his mom. She was really the only other girl he could talk to, so why not give her a shot?
"Ok, so it's a girl."
"Rachel, the Jewish girl you were talking about?"
"Yeah, that's the one. See she used to like Finn. And today she told me that when we first started going out, she was only with me to make him jealous. She was using me."
"How does she feel now?"
"Well, now she says that she likes me and not Finn. But I'm not sure what to do, mom. I mean, if she liked him before, doesn't that mean that she could just as easily start liking him again?"
"Hmm…well, honey, she's being honest with you about how she feels, which means you should be able to trust her. Noah, this girl has obviously poured her heart out to you. If she says that she likes you now, then I think you should give her another chance. Just talk to her and let her know how you are feeling about the situation, alright honey?"
"OK mom. Thanks for the advice."
"Any time, sweetie."
She kissed him on the forehead and left the room. Puck had no idea what he was going to say, but after talking to his mother he knew that he had to talk to Rachel. He picked up his phone and went through his phonebook looking for Rachel's cell number. He was about to press 'call', but for some reason he knew that words would not be enough. He had to see her.
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Rachel was lying on her bed, trying to think of solutions to get Noah to trust her again. She had been there for three hours so far, and she still had nothing. She had picked up her phone several times, and found Noah's number in the phonebook, but every time she went to press the call button, she had instead burst out into tears. She was grateful that her parents were not home tonight, as otherwise she would have endured their many painful attempts to cheer her up. Rachel loved her dads, but sometimes she just wanted to be left alone. Now was definitely one of those times.
She had been lying there for god knows how long, when suddenly she heard her phone ringing. Oh, God Rachel thought, Is that Noah? She was excited yet terribly nervous, and grabbed the phone off of her dresser. The caller had their number blocked, and normally she didn't answer those calls, but today she would have to make an exception. Her heart depended on it.
"Hello, Rachel Berry speaking."
"Rach? It's Finn"
Rachel's heart immediately sank. She had been hoping with all her heart that she would be hearing Noah's voice on the other end of the line.
"Oh…Hi Finn"
"Look Rach, I just wanted to say that I'm really sorry about today…I was a real jerk."
"Yeah, Finn, you were."
"Yeah, I know. I shouldn't have said any of that stuff about you or Puck."
"No, Finn, you shouldn't have. I was very offended by some of the things you were saying. And I know that, although he will never admit it, Noah was deeply hurt by the things you said about him."
"Yeah, I know. I was a complete jerk. I don't know what came over me, Rach. Anyway, I wanted to ring and apologise."
"Well, thankyou Finn. I accept your apology. Noah may not be as gracious as me, though."
"Yeah, I'm about to ring him now and apologise. But can I take you bowling tomorrow, just to say sorry?"
Rachel thought hard about this. Noah certainly wouldn't be pleased to hear that she and Finn were spending one-on-one time together, not after the events of the past few hours. But, saida small voice in Rachel's mind, Noah's not here now, is he? He may break up with you after today. Rachel gave a small sob at this.
"Rach, are you OK?"
"Um…yeah I'm alright, Finn. And bowling sounds lovely. Shall we meet after school? At the auditorium?"
"That sounds cool. I'll see you then!"
Rachel winced at the cheerful sound in his voice. You will have to make yourself very clear to him, Rachel – you do NOT like him like that anymore.
"See you then Finn. I'm so glad that we will be friends again."
Rachel quickly hung up the phone. Yes, that was rude. But what else could she do? Which ever way things go, someone will get hurt.
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Puck was racing over to Rachel's house, as quickly as he could without breaking any laws. All he could think about was Rachel. He heard his phone ringing, and picked it up. The caller was blocked. That would have to wait until later. He saw Rachel's street up ahead, and screamed around the corner. He pulled up next to the sidewalk in front of her house. He could see the lights on in her house. And there was no car in the driveway, which meant that her parents weren't home. Score.
He jogged up to her doorstep and pressed her doorbell. He still had no idea what he was going to say to her. He was good at improvising though; he had to be in order to get out of so many assignments.
He heard her walking to the door, and his heart began to pound.
She answered the door. He saw the look of shock, happiness, sadness and fear on her face. He could tell she had been crying, because some of her make-up was smeared on her face. Puck didn't care. As far as he was concerned, she had never looked so beautiful.
"Noah…hi"
Puck knew he didn't have to say anything. Instead, he grabbed her by the waist, pulled her close to him and placed his lips on hers.
He could tell she was shocked. Her whole body tensed up and she wasn't responding to his kiss. She pulled away and had a surprised look on her face.
"Noah…what about this afternoon? Aren't you still angry at me?"
"Nah, not anymore. If you say that you like me, that you want to be with me, I believe you."
A massive smile broke out onto Rachel's face. She pulled him towards her and mashed her lips against his. The kiss started off soft, light, but then grew to a deeper kiss. It was as if a light had been switched on in their bodies; she pressed her body into his (which drove Puck crazy) and they were kissing so passionately it was as if they were glued together. Rachel started pulling Puck up the stairs, still kissing him, which caused them to trip slightly on the stairs. Puck had a fair idea where she was leading him, and this caused butterflies to erupt in his stomach. What was wrong with him? He'd had plenty of experience, why was this so different?
She pulled them into her room and pulled him onto her bed, causing him to fall on top of her. She giggled and kissed him again, slightly softer this time. As much as he really didn't want to stop, Puck had to make sure exactly where they were heading. He pulled away and chuckled slightly at the look of disappointment on her face.
"Rach, hang on a sec OK? I just want to make sure…are you sure that you want to…that you're ready to - "
"Noah, I know what you're going to say. I assure you, I am competent at making my own decisions. And my decision is that…I want to be with you. In every sense of the phrase..."
Puck loved that she blushed when she said that. That was all the confirmation that he needed. He dipped his head and began kissing her neck, and as he did so she pulled the cord to turn off her lamp, plunging them into darkness.
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Santana had been in a terrible mood for the past few weeks. She had to watch Puck and that glee freak together every day; she had to see how weird he was being, all nice and sweet (she thought it was so fake), and on top of that she had to see them making out every chance they got. It was sickening, as far as she was concerned. And drastic action needed to be taken. She had some information that would bring them down, and knock precious Quinn off of the top of the social ladder…and she was going to use it. Soon, she would be queen, and Puck, Quinn and the gleek would be bottom of the heap.
A.N. – Ok, so I'm not entirely happy with this chapter, especially with the Puck/Rachel fluff, but here it is. Angst ahead, as Santana is a bitch. At least for the purposes of this fic ^____^ Thanks again.
