Disclaimer: I claim no right to the Glee universe. Thank you so much for all of your reviews and continued readership. BTW, I modified the ending to 4 to make it a little more plausible. Please Review!
Rachel slid into the chair Puck held out for her and set her lunchbox on the table. Taking a deep breath, she wrenched her nerves under control and waited until he settled into the chair across from her and set his tray down before she opened her lunchbox. She pulled out her sandwich, carefully removing it from the plastic bag and laying the bag out before setting the sandwich down. Any idea of what to say completely escaped her. All she could think about was that kiss, though he didn't seem to be distracted at all.
He acted as though it was the most natural thing in the world for them to be eating lunch together. Her nose wrinkled as he took a huge bite of his pizza and chewed it loudly, but he paid no attention.
"So…" she began. "How's football?" She winced internally. Why were her conversational skills suddenly lacking? She was getting what she wanted, right? An opportunity to show the jerk sitting across from her that he wasn't as alone in the world as he thought? Then why was she so apprehensive?
"Good, you know. It's football." He chugged half of his bottle of Pepsi and plunked it down on the table. "How's, um, Glee?"
She raised an eyebrow at the question. "It's good." At least she wasn't going to be outshined by a jock in the small-talk making.
"Yeah, huh?" he agreed, one corner of his mouth quirking up in a tiny smile.
She popped the straw into her juice box and took a sip, using the everyday action to concentrate on something else other than the few extra beats her heart just took. That frightened her more than he at his most intimidating ever had. But, she was no coward and it wouldn't do to ruin an opportunity to accept his apparent tolerance of her company. She was reluctant to read anything into his actions (well, the nice ones) of the last day and a half, but a small part of her really hoped that he was beginning to see the two of them as potential friends. "I suppose I should say thank you."
Puck paused before he chomped into the pizza again. "For what?"
"For getting rid of Jacob for me. He just gets creepier every day." She shivered as she thought about the boy's intense interest in her. He was hardly dangerous, but a girl could only handle so much crudity before she snapped.
Puck nodded in agreement. "He does indeed."
Eyeing him, she noticed the dark circles under his eyes, bruise notwithstanding, and how his hand shook slightly as he reached for his food. For the second time, she touched him without thinking, laying one hand over his on the table. "Is everything all right with you? You look like you're going to pass out or something." Leaning over, she pressed her wrist to his forehead. "Are you getting sick?" His skin didn't feel especially warm, but little sparks of heat seemed to prick her wrist all along where they touched. Almost the way she tingled when she and Finn managed to make skin to skin contact.
His eyes closed and he took a deep breath.
"Noah?" she asked, hoping that he wouldn't object to her use of his first name. It fit him so much better when he was like this. It would be difficult to prevent the cultivation of an attraction to him if he continued to act like this toward her.
He shook his head and leaned back, away from her. She quickly tucked her hands back into her lap. "I'm fine. Just tired," he told her.
"You won't be any good if you're worn out. Maybe you should go to the nurse and rest for a while," she suggested. "I've read that exhaustion is a growing problem among high school students because they are expected to do so much: get good grades with a curriculum ever increasing in difficulty, participate in clubs, do community service, sometimes work part-time, not to mention any problems that can make that all more difficult like a bad home life or bullying at school. I don't know how we're supposed to survive it all, much less excel. At least I only have Glee and school, and MySpace, but that's something else. You've got school and football and Glee and your pool business, right? That's a lot."
He frowned at her. "I can handle it. Are you saying I can't?"
Rachel bit her lip. She definitely didn't want to make him upset. "Not exactly. I'm saying that the pressure can get to anybody and it seems to be getting to you right now. I'd rather not have to miss Sectionals because you're sick or something. We really need you. I have enough to worry about without worrying about you, too." She watched for his reaction with apprehension.
He snorted. "You'd worry about me? Not just because it would interfere with Glee?" Those eyes of his locked on her face with a poorly veiled intensity that she tried not to see. Hadn't he said that he hated her guts not even 24 hours ago?
She surprised herself by immediately saying, "Of course," and meaning it absolutely. As she sat there across from him, sharing a normal moment with him, she realized that it would be very easy to care about him. She was tempted to ask him right out why he had decided to change the way he behaved toward her, but she didn't think she could handle an answer just yet.
"Thanks."
The simple sincerity in the quiet word tugged at something deep inside her. "That's what friends are for." She put her half eaten sandwich back into the bag and tucked it all into her lunchbox. Steering the conversation back to topics safer than emotional connections, she asked, "Would you consider working with me on some stuff for Glee? You are quite handy with the guitar and your voice isn't bad either. I can help you develop your vocal skills while you can play for me. We could make an excellent team."
He shrugged.
"Maybe this afternoon? You could come by my place and you could stay for dinner if you wanted to. My dads would be happy for me to have a friend over," she admitted.
He chewed for what seemed like forever on the last bite of his pizza, looking at her with a different expression than she had ever seen on his face. It made her nervous.
"Maybe this afternoon? You could come by my place and you could stay for dinner if you wanted to. My dads would be happy for me to have a friend over."
Puck couldn't believe that she had just asked him over to her house. In an instant, his head was filled with little fantasies of how simultaneously right and wrong that could go. He imagined the two of them ensconced in her room, which was likely to be an insane shade of pink, working through the last few bars of some sappy love song together. Her dark eyes would be soft, the way they always were when she sang with Finn, and her hair would be loose around her shoulders, or maybe swept to the side. He liked it when her hair was like that. Their eyes would stay locked together and slowly they would approach each other; he would be confident, she would be inexperienced but curious. His mouth went dry as his mind naturally followed the storyline to a pleasurable conclusion. Damn. The rest of the day was going to be difficult.
"Noah?" She waved her hand in front of his face.
He blinked and looked at her. "Oh. Sure."
She snapped her lunchbox shut and stood. "Do you have any food allergies or anything? Having to rush you to the hospital would not make an ideal evening."
He shook his head. "Nope. I can eat anything and everything." He suddenly wanted a vanilla soft serve cone.
"Excellent," she said. "I'm going to go by the music room and pick up some sheet music. I recommend that you get some rest somehow. I'll see you at Glee." Turning on her heel, she swung away from him, her skirt swinging up on a motion that almost gave him a very interesting view, and marched out of the cafeteria.
He watched her leave, then leaned back in his chair and groaned. He knew that pursuing her was a mistake. She was all hung up on Finn and he was still messed up over the whole Quinn issue, but Rachel's presence somehow made it seem like it would all work out fine if she could only be by his side. All he had to do was convince her that he was better for her than Finn.
With that vague plan of action in mind, he got up. Glancing at the clock, he realized lunch was almost over and it was due for his midday nap anyway. Trigonometry was his first class after lunch.
At 2:00, the nurse shook him awake. She checked him over briefly and sent him on to his last class with a pat on the cheek. He had no idea why she accepted his excuses every day, but he wasn't exactly complaining. Math sucked ass.
He made his way through the halls to his locker, his jacket slung over his shoulder. He neared the corridor down which Rachel's locker was and paused upon reaching the corner, peering around it to see if she was there. And he was in luck, or whatever one would call it. He wasn't sure if luck was the right word for seeing a woman he was suddenly ridiculously attracted to but who was also hung up on his best friend and completely crazy.
She stood with the door open, messing with her hair in front of the tiny magnetic mirror she kept in there. From where he stood he could see her face scrunch up in a scowl as it apparently didn't do as she wanted. Finn wandered by, oblivious as always, and she quickly shook it back and slammed the door shut. She had that ridiculous smile on her face again as she spun around to say hi to him.
Puck felt the beginnings of a real headache as they chatted, obviously very familiar with each other. He hated watching her lean in close to his best friend and touch him playfully. Finn poked her back, turning to rest his back on his locker. She blushed lightly, her smile growing in response to Finn's comments. The bell rang and she started down the hall away from him, waving good-bye to Finn as she left. He headed up the hall toward Puck, who immediately started walking like he hadn't been pseudo-stalking.
"Hey, Puck," Finn called. "Good nap?" He clapped a hand on Puck's shoulder, grinning at him in a conspiratorial manner.
Puck nodded. "Yeah, you know." Though he wasn't known for his self control, he managed to swallow his agitation.
Finn practically dragged him along to their last class. "Thanks for making an effort with Rachel. It makes things so much easier when you all get along," he said. "She said that you helped her with a problem at lunch. Wouldn't tell me much more than that." He shrugged.
Puck glanced at his friend sideways. "She talks about me? Ugh," he said automatically. Acting fast, he squelched the satisfaction before it spread to his face. She talked about him, to other people. He tried not to think about how he could still taste vanilla.
Finn's face assumed the expression somewhere between confusion and understanding that always showed up when he was thinking hard. "Not usually. Earlier she was asking about you. Seemed kind of worried, but that's Rachel. She's like that. I just told her you had stuff going on at home. Shit, did you do the homework?"
They stumbled into class a few minutes late, but no one really noticed. A substitute teacher sitting at the desk in the front of the room glanced up at them.
"Study hall, boys. Mr. Goddard's out with the flu. Just keep it down," she said and returned her attention to the papers she was grading.
"Thank God," Finn muttered and pulled out his book as they sat down in the back of the classroom. "He said he was going to talk to Coach if I missed another assignment. Then, Coach would talk to Mom and-" he shuddered.
Puck rolled his eyes. "Crisis averted." He shifted in his seat and tried to keep it casual as he asked, "So, do I need to install a new security system in my house?"
Finn looked at him in confusion. "What?"
Hating and loving Finn's idiocy at the same time, Puck prodded, "Rachel? Am I going to have to carry a Taser?" The knots in his back tightened to to point of pain. It was all gonig to blow up big if he and Rachel...did what, dated? Just fucked? No, he didn't like the way that second option sounded or the sinking feeling it produced in the pit of his stomach. Not that he didn't want to fuck her. He sure as hell did, but (and it was a huge step to admit this to himself, even after the last couple of days) he wanted more than that with her. He wanted...He wasn't sure, but he wanted more.
"Oh," Finn's eyes lit up as he understood what Puck was asking. Then he laughed, "I doubt it. You are not her type."
His pride dented, Puck snapped, "And what is her type?"
Finn shrugged. "I dunno. Me?" he said as though it were the most obvious bit of information in the world.
It took everything in Puck not to reach over, grab Finn by the throat and squeeze. Instead, he said, "Nice." Finn's indecision over Quinn and Rachel pissed him off. Though he loved Finn like a brother, Puck wanted to beat him like one, too. Finn had always come out on top when it was down to the two of them. His dad was dead (not that Puck wanted it to be that way) when Puck's was very much alive and into "teaching" by force. Finn was dating the one girl Puck had thought he ever really wanted and now he was stringing along the only other girl with whom Puck actually did think he could build a real connection. Finn was the golden boy that everyone loved and Puck was the bad seed who was only on top because everyone else was afraid to challenge him. He looked over to see Finn hard at work on last night's homework and felt a small bit of satisfaction. At least he was smarter.
And he spent the rest of the period completely ignoring his best friend.