thank you for last night (puck/rachel) -r
Title: Thank You For Last Night - part one/?
Author: nicolasamaria
Pairing,Character(s): Puck/Rachel.
Rating: R
Word Count: 5869
Spoilers: Up to Regionals.
Summary: Puck and Rachel both end up spending the summer after sophomore year in the tiny lakeside town of Van Isle. Puck laughs at the outrage that flits over her face, she opens her mouth, ready to dispute, when he hands her the lid. She looks down on it with confusion at first, but her eyes soften and her mouth tilts upwards into a smile. He has no idea what just happened, but she doesn't look pissed anymore, so he decides not to question it.
Author's Note: Written for 15north for her birthday! I know it's not for a couple weeks, but I'd thought I'd get a head start, so HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY BB! I refuse to show you any of the chapters from now on until I post them. lol. Also thank you to cheapen for being the most wonderful beta a girl could ask for.
I'd like to add a disclaimer: Van Isle is a fictional town and doesn't actually exist, at least not to my knowledge.
“Hi.”
Puck looks up from packing away his guitar to see Rachel standing in front of him, ringing her hands together.
“Hi.” he says back, slowly. It takes him a moment before he realizes that they're the only two left in the room.
“Your performance was excellent.” she comments, smoothing out invisible wrinkles in her skirt. Puck just shrugs, he doesn't need Rachel to tell him he kicked ass, he knows he did. Still, it's nice to hear it, especially from her.
“I-I'm sorry we didn't place at Regionals. I know that it's partially my fault, the whole thing with Jesse, and I-”
“Whoa, whoa, Berry.” Puck stops her, standing up straight and crossing his arms loosely over his chest. “Why are you apologizing to me?”
“Well-it's just … you gave up a lot to be in the glee club and I know it's not exactly … cool or anything, but I'm more than confident that we'll place next year and I think it would benefit all of us if you chose to stay.”
Puck can't help it, he laughs. This girl is crazy, like one hundred percent certifiable, “I'm not quiting glee, Rach.”
She blinks, obviously blindsided, which is good because Puck likes to keep them on their toes. This whole thing with Regionals has been pretty fucked, but glee has kind of been good to him. He and Quinn are together now, he thinks, and Finn doesn't look at him like he wants to kill him anymore and Puck's trips to the principals office are now few are far between.
“You're not quitting?”
“Nope.”
“Really? You're not just saying that so I'll leave you alone?”
“Oh, damn.” Puck mutters sarcastically as he swings his guitar case over his shoulder. “You figured me out.”
“What?” Rachel squeaks, following him out of the room, nearly tripping over herself. Puck chuckles and shoots her a smug grin. Realization washes over her face and she scowls at him. “That's not very nice, Noah.”
“It's not my fault you're easy to fuck with.”
“Yes, well, asinine behavior aside, I'm glad that you'll be returning next year.” She tells him as they walk down the near empty hallway. He thinks it's kind of weird that he's having an actual conversation with Rachel Berry, even weirder that he's totally made out with her and almost got to second base. If you had told him last year, around this time, that he would be in the glee club and actually like it, he probably would have punched you in the face.
“So, you and Finn, huh?” He doesn't know why he asks because it's not like he really cares. Rachel smiles hugely and practically starts skipping, he tries not to think about how adorable she looks.
“Yes, we are an item now. I think.” she adds as an after though, frowning to herself.
Puck scoffs, “You mean you don't know?”
“Well he hasn't exactly made clear the status of our relationship. I'm assuming we're together because he held my hand and walked me to class today and he told me he loved me, which obviously-”
“Wait, he what?” Puck halts, quirking an incredulous brow at her.
She bobs her head happily, “Yes, at Regionals.”
“Huh.” is all he says before continuing his way out into the parking lot.
“What?” she pants as she scurries after him.
Puck just shakes his head, “Nothing.”
“You can't just say something like that and then not tell me-”
“What'd I say? I didn't say anything.”
“You said 'huh'!”
“So?”
“So! It had negative connotations behind it!”
“It did not!”
“Do you think he didn't mean it? Maybe he was saying it in-in the heat of the moment. Or maybe! Maybe he was saying it because he felt sorry for me, with the whole Jesse situation. Noah!” she whines as he picks up his pace in an attempt to get away from her.
“Seriously reconsidering the whole joining glee again next year, Berry.” he bits out as he reaches his truck.
“But you can't just say something like that and then not explain yourself.”
“Jesus fucking Christ, get over it!” Rachel reels back as if he slapped her, but he doesn't really care because she's driving him insane right now. “I wasn't saying anything bad, okay? I was just- I dunno.”
Rachel glares at him for a moment and she really looks like she wants to rip his head off. This is why he doesn't have in depth conversations or talk about his feelings, especially not with girls. They start over analyzing shit and get all offended over things they think you said, but you really didn't.
“Look, guys like Finn don't lie about that sorta shit, so just chill out.”
“Fine.” she says through her teeth, he can tell she wants to keep talking about it, but seriously, he doesn't give a shit and his mom is making brownies today, so he wants to get home before Sarah and her snot-nosed little friends eat them all.
“Well, I'm gonna go then.”
“Wait!” Rachel cries, flinging herself between him and the drivers side door. “My dads are both working late tonight and won't be able to pick me up for another hour and a half. I don't really mind waiting, but -would it be too much to ask for a ride home?”
Puck sighs and pretends to think about it for a couple seconds before nodding, “Yes, it would be.”
Rachel's face falls, “Oh, okay then.” she mumbles before starting to shuffle back towards the school. Puck reaches out and grabs her upper arm, tugging her back.
“I'm just joking, Berry, jeez.” Rachel stares at him blankly, she obviously doesn't think he's very funny, which is sad because he thinks he's hilarious. “I'll give you a ride home.”
“Well as long as it's of no inconvenience to you.” she says dryly, Puck thinks she's being sarcastic, which, by the way, thank God. He didn't think it was possible for little Miss Tightly Wound to crack a joke.
“Come on, get in.” he pulls open the door and motions towards the truck. And he totally didn't make her get in on the drivers side so he could catch a peek of her panties as she climbed across the bench seat (They're pink, in case you're wondering). It's a quiet drive for the most part, Rachel only lives like ten minutes from school and there's not really a lot for them to talk about.
“So, how are things between you and Quinn?” Except maybe that.
“Fine, I guess.”
“You guess? You mean you don't know?” She mocks and Puck doesn't really know what to say to that because Rachel Berry is mocking him, so instead he opts for reaching over and messing up her hair to distract her.
“Noah!” she shrieks, slapping his hand out of the way. He laughs quietly to himself, Rachel isn't so bad once you get past all the psycho broadway star bullshit. “Fine, don't tell me anything-”
“Okay, I won't.”
“Even though I bared my soul to you and-”
“Yeah, well I didn't ask you to.”
“Allowed myself to be vulnerable with you and now you can't even do the same. This is not how friendships grow, Noah.” The instant she says it, it's like she knows that it was a weird thing to say and he has to stop himself from saying something really mean that would probably like make her cry.
“Yeah, well ...” he doesn't really know what to say, Rachel just basically called him her friend, which is … weird, but he guesses they kind of are now. “What are you gonna be doing this summer?”
Rachel frowns at the sudden subject change, “Oh, I-I think my fathers and I are going out to our lake house in a couple weeks and then after that they're taking me to New York since I got into this summer music academy there.”
“Cool.” he nods as he turns onto her street. She lives at the very end of the block of really nice houses, like the kind with white picket fences and perfect lawns with grass that looks like it was painted, it's so green.
“What about you?”
“Hm?”
“What are your plans for this summer?”
“Uh, I dunno, probably just gonna … hang out.”
“Oh and by 'hang out' you mean underage drinking and the use of illegal substances, I'm sure.” She snaps, suddenly sounding angry, and Puck has no idea what he did to piss her off in the past five seconds. He pulls into her driveway and she's already unbuckling her seatbelt before he's stopped the car and for some reason her being pissed off at him has made him pissed off at her.
“Damn Berry, you just have me all figured out don't you.” he taunts and she scoffs at him as she tries to push open the door, he'd tell her that it sticks sometimes and that you have to pull up and then push out, but she's kind of being a bitch right now for no reason so he's going to let her suffer. “Except you forgot the part where I fuck a lot of hot girls.”
“You are so crude- what is wrong with this door!?” she cries, yanking on the door to no avail, he's almost afraid that she's going to hulk out and rip it off its hinges or something. He reaches over, trying not to be offended when she basically flattens herself against the seat so his arm doesn't touch her, and pops open the door.
“Thank you.” she says stiffly as she slips out of the car, gathering her books as quickly as she can.
“You're not welcome.” he returns petulantly and Rachel turns livid, her eyes light up as she yanks her bag down from the truck.
“You are so immature.”
“Right back at you!”
“You're insufferable!” she screams as she finally wrangles her bag out of the truck and storms towards her house.
“Yeah, well- you're that too!” He yells before throwing the truck in reverse and backing out. He has no idea what that word even fucking means, fucking Rachel Berry with her fucking huge vocabulary.
He's really fucking glad that she's going to be gone for the summer, then he won't have to see her stupid face or hear her stupid voice.
Fuck.
- -
So, all those plans that Puck had for the summer, you know the ones where he drank a lot of booze and had a lot of sex, even played a little Xbox? Yeah, totally gone, done, finito
His life sucks and he's pretty sure his mom hates him. This whole thing was her stupid idea in the first place, barely two and a half weeks in his summer and she tells him that the three of them are going on a little family vacation. His summer was set and now he's going to be stuck in some lakeside retirement home for a month and a half. The second they're in Van Isle, Puck decides that he hates it. It's like small town America except worse because he's pretty sure that they don't have WiFi up here or even cable.
“What the fuck is wrong with my phone?” he mutters, he's been trying to send a text message for the past five minutes and it won't go through.
His mom reaches over and swats the back of his head, “Language, Noah.”
He just rolls his eyes, fuck that shit, if he's gonna be stuck out here for a whole month he's gonna use all the language he wants. His summer is totally fucked, he's basically stranded in this lame ass town with no way of contacting the outside world and maybe like two hot chicks to defile, since he doubts there's a large supply here.
“I know this isn't your idea of fun, but I think we could all really use the … bonding experience.”
“Yeah, sure.” Puck mumbles as he shifts lower into his seat. His mother simply rolls her eyes as she turns onto what he's guessing is the main road since it seems to have the most shops on it. There's a lot of random stores that he can't really image why people would go into. Seriously, there is a whole store dedicated to selling twinkle lights.
“Mom, is this where old people come to die?” he hears Sarah ask from the backseat and he snorts, which earns him another slap to the back of the head.
“No sweetie, of course not, why would you say that?”
“Well, it's just that there's a lot of old people, with canes, and I saw one with an oxygen tank. You didn't bring us here because we're going to die, did you?” Sarah asks, panic building in her voice. His mother sighs hopelessly, “No Sarah, I did not bring you here to die and old people don't come here to die. They come here to rest.”
“They kind of come here to die.” Puck comments as he scrolls through his playlists on his iPod.
“Noah!”
“Ma, it's a retirement town.” he says pointedly and all she can do is narrow his eyes at him because she knows he's right. Puck knows it's a retirement town because he looked it up before he even started packing for this stupid trip. He needed to see if there was any way to salvage his vacation. There wasn't. Van Isle has a population of eight hundred, half of which is everyone over the age of sixty-five in the state of Ohio.
“Do you remember the address, Noah?”
“Uh, no?”
“1224 West Rivers Street.” Sarah says and he and his mom both angle their heads back to look at her. She simply shrugs and holds up the piece of paper with the driving instructions his mom had given to him at the start of the trip.
“I thought I gave that to you?” she asks, glancing at him. He doesn't say anything as he puts in his headphones and tunes out the both of them. He loves his mom, he really does, but it's times like these he wishes that there was such a thing as a justifiable homicide. He wishes it even more as they pull up into the driveway of a tiny house with it's Christmas lights still hung up and a beat up old boat sitting right in the middle of the front lawn.
“Why the fu-” he starts but is interrupted by the screaming his aunt is doing from the front porch. His aunt looks a lot like his mom, except a little shorter, a little rounder and she's maybe even a little more insane, if that's possible.
“Ava! Oh, Ava!” she wails, launching herself into his mothers arms. His mom stumbles back from the impact but catches herself before she falls and awkwardly pats her sisters on the back.
“Hannah!” she says haltingly as she attempts to pry her sister's arms off of her. Puck just shakes his head as he goes around to the back of the car to get their shit out of the trunk.
“Noah!” his aunt screeches as she launches herself at him, she's near tears and he thinks that's pretty fucking weird, but whatever. He holds up the bags in front of him like a shield, stopping her before she tackles him.
“Sorry, maybe later.” he mutters as he steps around her. She then moves on from him to his little sister, who is basically cowering in fear by his mother. At least now he knows that they'll both be suffering with him this summer.
- -
Puck realizes that he may very well be in hell when he walks into the living room and sees that there's no TV. What the fuck is he supposed to do here all summer if there's no TV, read or something? The last book Puck read was the one they read as a class in the 7th grade and even then he just drew pictures of boobs in the margins.
“Oh, shit.” Puck mutters, stumbling back slightly as he notices the giant gray cat that's sitting in the recliner. It's staring at him like it fucking wants to annihilate him, it's yellow eyes on him like a trained assassin. It must know that he's more of a dog person.
“Nice, cat.” he says under his breath as he edges himself as far away from the beast as possible, dropping the bags in front of the kitchen door. He figures he's being kind of a pussy right now, so he stops himself and takes a quick step towards the cat, trying to scare it. He realizes he really is a pussy when the cat starts to get up, slowly because it's really fat, and he bolts down the hallway.
“What! No, fuck you!” Puck hears as he pushes open one of the bedroom doors at the end of the hallway. His cousin Benji is sitting in one of those bean bag chairs with a headset on and a controller in his hand.
As soon as he sees Puck he pauses the game and rips of the headset, “Hey.”
Puck nods, “Sup, man.”
Benji just shrugs, “Nothing.”
The thing with Benji is … well, the two of them used to be really close when they were younger, when his aunt lived in Lima. They would do all this little kid stuff together, like play at the park and ride their bikes really fast down really big hills. And then Benji moved away and Puck discovered girls and they just kind of grew apart.
Okay, so maybe they didn't grow apart. Maybe Puck gave Benji a major brush off when he realized that he was a nerd and that nerds weren't cool to hang out with. He really can't help it that he's such a douche, he blames not having a strong father figure, or whatever.
“So, I guess we're rooming together then, huh?” Puck asks when he sees the air mattress that's rolled up in the corner of the room. Benji just shrugs again as he sinks a little lower into his bean bag.
“I … um … saw your cat … out there.” Puck mumbles awkwardly, jerking his thumb back in the general direction of the living room. Benji gives him a blank stare and Puck's not too sure what to say because this whole situation is really fucking uncomfortable. It kind of feels like the morning after, when you want the really hot chick you just banged last night to leave, but you know she's going to want to talk or some stupid shit like that. Except Puck does not want to picture Benji naked and he's pretty much stuck with him so a month so he just better get over it because he has to share a room with him. And if Puck wants to defile those two girls like he was planning on, he and Benji are going to have to go over a little bit of the bro-code, like the whole hanging a sock on the door business.
“Alright, let's stop being little bitches.” Puck announces, slapping his hands together and moving to stand in front of the TV. “I'll probably be having sex with a couple hot girls this summer and I might need the room to myself, so if there's a sock on the door, you'll know why.”
“Whatever.” Benji says, rolling his eyes and scooting over in his bean bag chair so he can see around Puck. The game un-pauses and the headset goes back on and Puck has a feeling that this conversation is over.
Well, it went a lot better than he thought it would.
- -
“Hey Mom, I'm going out!” Puck yells, trying to get to the front door before anyone can stop him. This house is really fucking depressing with its creepy paintings of cats and old person smell, which he doesn't understand because no old people live here. He feels bad for Benji, he really does.
“Wait, Noah! Kitchen!” his mom yells back just as he's about to open the door. This is a serious fuck his life moment, he was so close to freedom and now he's probably gonna have to go to a pottery class or some stupid shit like that.
“Yeah?” he asks, popping his head in the kitchen, he refuses to walk all the way in because that means that there's more of a possibility that they'll make him sit down.
“Where are you going?” she asks through her teeth. His Aunt Ava sets two steaming mugs down on the table before pulling up a seat and sitting down next to his mom. Then she pats the seat next to her.
“Have some tea with us, Noah.”
“Uh, that's okay. I'm just gonna go out and check out everything.” he says with a shrug and his mom finally smiles.
“That's good sweetheart. You should take your sister.” Puck frowns, yeah, if he's going to be picking up hot chicks, he does not need his little sister tagging along. He's about to pull a really lame excuse out of his ass when he sees something in the backyard that makes him smile.
“Yeah, sure, but she seems a little busy.” His mom and aunt both turn to look into the backyard where Sarah is chasing around a couple chickens. Puck is trying not to dwell on the fact that his aunt has chickens in her backyard because then he'll have to think about how much is life is going to suck this summer.
“Oh, Sarah! Be careful!” his mom yells as Sarah tries to pick one up. Puck shakes his head and takes this moment as an opportunity to bolt.
“I'll be back later!” he calls over his shoulder as he walks out the door. The screen slams behind with him a resounding thud and he ignores his mother yelling his name from the kitchen as he jogs down the front path. He's getting the fuck out of here before they tie him to one of the kitchen chairs and force him to look at naked baby pictures.
- -
There's not a lot to this town. There's like one bar that he could probably sneak into and an old arcade that look like it's seen better days, but nothing else that really catches his interest. He's going to die of fucking boredom this summer. He guesses he could probably go hang out on the lake since it's literally like right there, but he doesn't really know what he'd do there. Like, go fishing, maybe.
There's a liquor store coming up and he decides to take a look inside and see what his chances are of stealing a pack of beer sometime this summer. There's this prick at the register with like perfectly coiffed hair, reading a Hustler and paying absolutely no attention to the people in the store. Puck could totally steal beer from here, but it's his first day in town and he really doesn't want his mom to have to bail him out if he gets caught.
“You got slushies?” he asks the guy, who doesn't even bother to look up from his magazine as he motions vaguely to the back of the store.
“Thanks.” Puck bits out, kind of irritated at the suck-ass service. He passes by the beer, just to see if they have anything good, they don't. He thinks his luck might be turning when he walks down the aisle with the slushie machine and sees a really hot girl reaching for the lids that are like a foot above her head. She's got these shorts on that are like underwear, they're so short. Her bra strap is sliding down her shoulder and, goddamn, there is like sweat glistening and his pants start to feel a little tight. He cannot blow this, he needs to get himself under control, this girl could be his last hope for fun this summer.
He gets in really close behind her and leans down so his mouth is by her ear, “Need some help?” he asks in what he usually refers to as his sex voice.
The girl jumps, “Excuse me!” she shrills, elbowing him in the gut as she whips around. He doubles over, clutching his stomach, because damn that hurt, girls got some muscle on her. “Noah?”
Puck stops wheezing and looks up to see Rachel Berry, standing there with a grape slushie in her hand. This is a serious fuck his life moment.
“Shit, Rachel?” He just tried to spit game at Rachel fucking Berry. This shit only happens to him, he swears.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
“What are you doing here?” Rachel crosses both arms over her chest, which makes her boobs practically pop out her top, and raises both brows at him.
“I asked you first.”
“You did not.” he mutters, rubbing at the spot on his stomach where she fucking pummeled him with her bazooka elbows. Rachel's eyebrows nearly disappear into her hairline and Puck relents.
“We're here visiting my aunt for the summer.” he explains, reaching around her to grab a cup for himself. It's totally an accident when his arm brushes up against hers. “And trust me, I am not here on my own free will.”
“No, I would imagine not.” she comments as he fills his cup with Coke slushie. He grabs a lid for himself and one for her, he goes to hand it to her, but snatches it out of her grasp when she reaches for it.
“You still pissed at me for no reason?” Puck laughs at the outrage that flits over her face, she opens her mouth, ready to dispute, when he hands her the lid. She looks down on it with confusion at first, but her eyes soften and her mouth tilts upwards into a smile. He has no idea what just happened, but she doesn't look pissed anymore, so he decides not to question it.
“No, I guess I'm not.”
“Good.” he says with a nod as he pivots and heads down the aisle with the chips. “So, tell me, Berry. Why are you here?”
“I already did, Noah. My fathers own a lake house out here.”
“Oh, right.” He really doesn't remember her telling him that at all, but then again, most of his time spent with Rachel is either him tuning her out or staring at her legs. “The slushies here as good as the ones by home?”
“I would say yes. Mostly because these slushies have never been tossed in my face.” she answers, picking up a bag of pretzels as they make their way to the register. He feels a little pang of guilt, which he brushes away because he can't afford to feel guilty. About anything. If Puck felt guilty about all the shitty things he's done, he would probably hate himself. And that would really fucking suck, 'cause to be honest, he's like his favorite person ever. And no, he doesn't care if that sounds conceited 'cause it's true.
They both clear their throats, loudly and at the same time after they've been waiting at the register for awhile, and the douche finally peeks at them over his magazine.
“Oh, God.” he hears Rachel mutter next to him and when he turns to look at her, he sees she's trying to hide her face.
“Well, well, Rachel Berry, do my eyes deceive me? Look who finally … filled out … kind of.” The guy drawls, looking Rachel up and down. Puck kind of moves a little more in front of her, suddenly feeling extremely territorial.
“Pierce.” she grounds out, her jaw clenching, Puck think it's one of the hottest things he's ever seen her do. The two of them have this weird vibe between them and he has a feeling they know each other pretty well. They kind of stare at each other for a few seconds in an awkward silence and Puck is starting to feel a little bit ignored, which just does not fly with him.
“So I take it you two know each other.” He observes as he fishes out his wallet and tosses a five dollar bill on the counter.
Pierce nods, “I guess you could say that.”
“Oh yeah, wanna clue me in?” Puck prompts and when all the prick does is smirk at Rachel, he turns to face her, “Berry?”
“Hm? Oh! Pierce and I have known each other since we were very small.”
“Yeah, Rachel used to come up and visit every summer before she got too … busy.”
“We went to music camp together.” she adds, dismissing it as nothing with a wave of her hand. Pierce frowns at her and then gets this smug look on his face as he takes the five bucks Puck put on the counter.
“And I was her first kiss.” Now that's something that Puck can take interest in.
“Really? Huh, Rachel's never mentioned you, have you Rach?” he asks, grabbing the change and stuffing it back into this wallet. He turns to look at her when she doesn't answer and she shakes her head.
“No, I didn't really see a reason to ...”
“I'm sorry, who are you?” Pierce asks in what's probably his best douchetastically condescending voice.
“Puck.” he answers with a nod. “I got to school with Berry here back in Lima.”
“I see, taking a vacation together then?”
“Nah, just a happy coincidence.”
“Well, since you're both here, you might as well come to a party I'm throwing at my grandparents house. They're out of town for the weekend and well, let's face it, there's not much else to do around here.” he mumbles as he grabs the pen from behind his ear and jots down some directions on the back of their receipt. “It's should be starting around eight tonight.”
Puck takes the receipt from him, “Yeah, sure. We'll think about it.” He has no idea why all of a sudden it's like Rachel is his or something, 'cause she's not, but this douchebag is getting on his nerves. “Come on, Rach.”
“Bye.” she says quietly as she grabs her slushie from Puck and follows him out of the door. She waits till their outside before she starts laughing.
“Well, that was entertaining.”
“What?”
“What just transpired back there between you and Pierce? It was like a testosterone-fest, a classic exemplification of alpha male posturing.”
“Alpha male what?” Puck asks as Rachel walks over to a beat up old convertible Bug. She tosses her bag of pretzels into the passengers side seat and holds up her slushie as she walks around to the drivers side.
“Thanks for the snacks.”
“Wait, what about the party?” he asks, leaning against the side of the car as Rachel gets in.
She shrugs one shoulder, “What about it?”
“Don't you want to go?”
She sighs, placing both hands on top of the steering wheel, “I don't think Quinn would appreciate the two of us going to a party together, would she?”
Puck rubs furiously at his face, “Yeah, about that. There isn't really a … Quinn and I anymore.” Rachel perks up slightly, leaning forward in the seat just far enough that he can see down her shirt.
“I'm sorry, Noah. What happened?”
“Nothing. Just didn't work out.” He answers shortly and she nods once, then leans her head back against the worn leather of the seat. She blows out a steady stream of air before sitting up straight again and nodding.
“Okay, we can go, but I'll need to be home by eleven.”
“I think I can do that.” he murmurs, pushing himself up off the car. Rachel smiles brightly at him as she revs up the engine.
“Pick me up at seven.”
“Okay. Hey- Rach?” she pauses to look at him and he takes a second to really look at her. She looks different out here, calmer, happier, maybe even free. He's never seen her hair like it is now, up in a loose bun with tendrils falling in her face, he likes it.
“Will Finn mind that the two of us are going to a party together?”
Rachel's face drops and she looks really sad for a second before she shakes her head, “Well let's just say there's not a Finn and I anymore either.”
“Okay then, let's go to a party.” he grins, his voice hoarse for some reason. That mega-watt smile is back in place as she she pulls out of the parking space and he laughs as the car jerks around. He's going to have to teach Rachel how to drive a stick, the right way.
“Seven o'clock, don't forget!” she calls out as she drives way, the car sputtering as she does.
Yeah, he has a feeling he's going to be working on that car a lot this summer.
Author: nicolasamaria
Pairing,Character(s): Puck/Rachel.
Rating: R
Word Count: 5869
Spoilers: Up to Regionals.
Summary: Puck and Rachel both end up spending the summer after sophomore year in the tiny lakeside town of Van Isle. Puck laughs at the outrage that flits over her face, she opens her mouth, ready to dispute, when he hands her the lid. She looks down on it with confusion at first, but her eyes soften and her mouth tilts upwards into a smile. He has no idea what just happened, but she doesn't look pissed anymore, so he decides not to question it.
Author's Note: Written for 15north for her birthday! I know it's not for a couple weeks, but I'd thought I'd get a head start, so HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY BB! I refuse to show you any of the chapters from now on until I post them. lol. Also thank you to cheapen for being the most wonderful beta a girl could ask for.
I'd like to add a disclaimer: Van Isle is a fictional town and doesn't actually exist, at least not to my knowledge.
“Hi.”
Puck looks up from packing away his guitar to see Rachel standing in front of him, ringing her hands together.
“Hi.” he says back, slowly. It takes him a moment before he realizes that they're the only two left in the room.
“Your performance was excellent.” she comments, smoothing out invisible wrinkles in her skirt. Puck just shrugs, he doesn't need Rachel to tell him he kicked ass, he knows he did. Still, it's nice to hear it, especially from her.
“I-I'm sorry we didn't place at Regionals. I know that it's partially my fault, the whole thing with Jesse, and I-”
“Whoa, whoa, Berry.” Puck stops her, standing up straight and crossing his arms loosely over his chest. “Why are you apologizing to me?”
“Well-it's just … you gave up a lot to be in the glee club and I know it's not exactly … cool or anything, but I'm more than confident that we'll place next year and I think it would benefit all of us if you chose to stay.”
Puck can't help it, he laughs. This girl is crazy, like one hundred percent certifiable, “I'm not quiting glee, Rach.”
She blinks, obviously blindsided, which is good because Puck likes to keep them on their toes. This whole thing with Regionals has been pretty fucked, but glee has kind of been good to him. He and Quinn are together now, he thinks, and Finn doesn't look at him like he wants to kill him anymore and Puck's trips to the principals office are now few are far between.
“You're not quitting?”
“Nope.”
“Really? You're not just saying that so I'll leave you alone?”
“Oh, damn.” Puck mutters sarcastically as he swings his guitar case over his shoulder. “You figured me out.”
“What?” Rachel squeaks, following him out of the room, nearly tripping over herself. Puck chuckles and shoots her a smug grin. Realization washes over her face and she scowls at him. “That's not very nice, Noah.”
“It's not my fault you're easy to fuck with.”
“Yes, well, asinine behavior aside, I'm glad that you'll be returning next year.” She tells him as they walk down the near empty hallway. He thinks it's kind of weird that he's having an actual conversation with Rachel Berry, even weirder that he's totally made out with her and almost got to second base. If you had told him last year, around this time, that he would be in the glee club and actually like it, he probably would have punched you in the face.
“So, you and Finn, huh?” He doesn't know why he asks because it's not like he really cares. Rachel smiles hugely and practically starts skipping, he tries not to think about how adorable she looks.
“Yes, we are an item now. I think.” she adds as an after though, frowning to herself.
Puck scoffs, “You mean you don't know?”
“Well he hasn't exactly made clear the status of our relationship. I'm assuming we're together because he held my hand and walked me to class today and he told me he loved me, which obviously-”
“Wait, he what?” Puck halts, quirking an incredulous brow at her.
She bobs her head happily, “Yes, at Regionals.”
“Huh.” is all he says before continuing his way out into the parking lot.
“What?” she pants as she scurries after him.
Puck just shakes his head, “Nothing.”
“You can't just say something like that and then not tell me-”
“What'd I say? I didn't say anything.”
“You said 'huh'!”
“So?”
“So! It had negative connotations behind it!”
“It did not!”
“Do you think he didn't mean it? Maybe he was saying it in-in the heat of the moment. Or maybe! Maybe he was saying it because he felt sorry for me, with the whole Jesse situation. Noah!” she whines as he picks up his pace in an attempt to get away from her.
“Seriously reconsidering the whole joining glee again next year, Berry.” he bits out as he reaches his truck.
“But you can't just say something like that and then not explain yourself.”
“Jesus fucking Christ, get over it!” Rachel reels back as if he slapped her, but he doesn't really care because she's driving him insane right now. “I wasn't saying anything bad, okay? I was just- I dunno.”
Rachel glares at him for a moment and she really looks like she wants to rip his head off. This is why he doesn't have in depth conversations or talk about his feelings, especially not with girls. They start over analyzing shit and get all offended over things they think you said, but you really didn't.
“Look, guys like Finn don't lie about that sorta shit, so just chill out.”
“Fine.” she says through her teeth, he can tell she wants to keep talking about it, but seriously, he doesn't give a shit and his mom is making brownies today, so he wants to get home before Sarah and her snot-nosed little friends eat them all.
“Well, I'm gonna go then.”
“Wait!” Rachel cries, flinging herself between him and the drivers side door. “My dads are both working late tonight and won't be able to pick me up for another hour and a half. I don't really mind waiting, but -would it be too much to ask for a ride home?”
Puck sighs and pretends to think about it for a couple seconds before nodding, “Yes, it would be.”
Rachel's face falls, “Oh, okay then.” she mumbles before starting to shuffle back towards the school. Puck reaches out and grabs her upper arm, tugging her back.
“I'm just joking, Berry, jeez.” Rachel stares at him blankly, she obviously doesn't think he's very funny, which is sad because he thinks he's hilarious. “I'll give you a ride home.”
“Well as long as it's of no inconvenience to you.” she says dryly, Puck thinks she's being sarcastic, which, by the way, thank God. He didn't think it was possible for little Miss Tightly Wound to crack a joke.
“Come on, get in.” he pulls open the door and motions towards the truck. And he totally didn't make her get in on the drivers side so he could catch a peek of her panties as she climbed across the bench seat (They're pink, in case you're wondering). It's a quiet drive for the most part, Rachel only lives like ten minutes from school and there's not really a lot for them to talk about.
“So, how are things between you and Quinn?” Except maybe that.
“Fine, I guess.”
“You guess? You mean you don't know?” She mocks and Puck doesn't really know what to say to that because Rachel Berry is mocking him, so instead he opts for reaching over and messing up her hair to distract her.
“Noah!” she shrieks, slapping his hand out of the way. He laughs quietly to himself, Rachel isn't so bad once you get past all the psycho broadway star bullshit. “Fine, don't tell me anything-”
“Okay, I won't.”
“Even though I bared my soul to you and-”
“Yeah, well I didn't ask you to.”
“Allowed myself to be vulnerable with you and now you can't even do the same. This is not how friendships grow, Noah.” The instant she says it, it's like she knows that it was a weird thing to say and he has to stop himself from saying something really mean that would probably like make her cry.
“Yeah, well ...” he doesn't really know what to say, Rachel just basically called him her friend, which is … weird, but he guesses they kind of are now. “What are you gonna be doing this summer?”
Rachel frowns at the sudden subject change, “Oh, I-I think my fathers and I are going out to our lake house in a couple weeks and then after that they're taking me to New York since I got into this summer music academy there.”
“Cool.” he nods as he turns onto her street. She lives at the very end of the block of really nice houses, like the kind with white picket fences and perfect lawns with grass that looks like it was painted, it's so green.
“What about you?”
“Hm?”
“What are your plans for this summer?”
“Uh, I dunno, probably just gonna … hang out.”
“Oh and by 'hang out' you mean underage drinking and the use of illegal substances, I'm sure.” She snaps, suddenly sounding angry, and Puck has no idea what he did to piss her off in the past five seconds. He pulls into her driveway and she's already unbuckling her seatbelt before he's stopped the car and for some reason her being pissed off at him has made him pissed off at her.
“Damn Berry, you just have me all figured out don't you.” he taunts and she scoffs at him as she tries to push open the door, he'd tell her that it sticks sometimes and that you have to pull up and then push out, but she's kind of being a bitch right now for no reason so he's going to let her suffer. “Except you forgot the part where I fuck a lot of hot girls.”
“You are so crude- what is wrong with this door!?” she cries, yanking on the door to no avail, he's almost afraid that she's going to hulk out and rip it off its hinges or something. He reaches over, trying not to be offended when she basically flattens herself against the seat so his arm doesn't touch her, and pops open the door.
“Thank you.” she says stiffly as she slips out of the car, gathering her books as quickly as she can.
“You're not welcome.” he returns petulantly and Rachel turns livid, her eyes light up as she yanks her bag down from the truck.
“You are so immature.”
“Right back at you!”
“You're insufferable!” she screams as she finally wrangles her bag out of the truck and storms towards her house.
“Yeah, well- you're that too!” He yells before throwing the truck in reverse and backing out. He has no idea what that word even fucking means, fucking Rachel Berry with her fucking huge vocabulary.
He's really fucking glad that she's going to be gone for the summer, then he won't have to see her stupid face or hear her stupid voice.
Fuck.
- -
So, all those plans that Puck had for the summer, you know the ones where he drank a lot of booze and had a lot of sex, even played a little Xbox? Yeah, totally gone, done, finito
His life sucks and he's pretty sure his mom hates him. This whole thing was her stupid idea in the first place, barely two and a half weeks in his summer and she tells him that the three of them are going on a little family vacation. His summer was set and now he's going to be stuck in some lakeside retirement home for a month and a half. The second they're in Van Isle, Puck decides that he hates it. It's like small town America except worse because he's pretty sure that they don't have WiFi up here or even cable.
“What the fuck is wrong with my phone?” he mutters, he's been trying to send a text message for the past five minutes and it won't go through.
His mom reaches over and swats the back of his head, “Language, Noah.”
He just rolls his eyes, fuck that shit, if he's gonna be stuck out here for a whole month he's gonna use all the language he wants. His summer is totally fucked, he's basically stranded in this lame ass town with no way of contacting the outside world and maybe like two hot chicks to defile, since he doubts there's a large supply here.
“I know this isn't your idea of fun, but I think we could all really use the … bonding experience.”
“Yeah, sure.” Puck mumbles as he shifts lower into his seat. His mother simply rolls her eyes as she turns onto what he's guessing is the main road since it seems to have the most shops on it. There's a lot of random stores that he can't really image why people would go into. Seriously, there is a whole store dedicated to selling twinkle lights.
“Mom, is this where old people come to die?” he hears Sarah ask from the backseat and he snorts, which earns him another slap to the back of the head.
“No sweetie, of course not, why would you say that?”
“Well, it's just that there's a lot of old people, with canes, and I saw one with an oxygen tank. You didn't bring us here because we're going to die, did you?” Sarah asks, panic building in her voice. His mother sighs hopelessly, “No Sarah, I did not bring you here to die and old people don't come here to die. They come here to rest.”
“They kind of come here to die.” Puck comments as he scrolls through his playlists on his iPod.
“Noah!”
“Ma, it's a retirement town.” he says pointedly and all she can do is narrow his eyes at him because she knows he's right. Puck knows it's a retirement town because he looked it up before he even started packing for this stupid trip. He needed to see if there was any way to salvage his vacation. There wasn't. Van Isle has a population of eight hundred, half of which is everyone over the age of sixty-five in the state of Ohio.
“Do you remember the address, Noah?”
“Uh, no?”
“1224 West Rivers Street.” Sarah says and he and his mom both angle their heads back to look at her. She simply shrugs and holds up the piece of paper with the driving instructions his mom had given to him at the start of the trip.
“I thought I gave that to you?” she asks, glancing at him. He doesn't say anything as he puts in his headphones and tunes out the both of them. He loves his mom, he really does, but it's times like these he wishes that there was such a thing as a justifiable homicide. He wishes it even more as they pull up into the driveway of a tiny house with it's Christmas lights still hung up and a beat up old boat sitting right in the middle of the front lawn.
“Why the fu-” he starts but is interrupted by the screaming his aunt is doing from the front porch. His aunt looks a lot like his mom, except a little shorter, a little rounder and she's maybe even a little more insane, if that's possible.
“Ava! Oh, Ava!” she wails, launching herself into his mothers arms. His mom stumbles back from the impact but catches herself before she falls and awkwardly pats her sisters on the back.
“Hannah!” she says haltingly as she attempts to pry her sister's arms off of her. Puck just shakes his head as he goes around to the back of the car to get their shit out of the trunk.
“Noah!” his aunt screeches as she launches herself at him, she's near tears and he thinks that's pretty fucking weird, but whatever. He holds up the bags in front of him like a shield, stopping her before she tackles him.
“Sorry, maybe later.” he mutters as he steps around her. She then moves on from him to his little sister, who is basically cowering in fear by his mother. At least now he knows that they'll both be suffering with him this summer.
- -
Puck realizes that he may very well be in hell when he walks into the living room and sees that there's no TV. What the fuck is he supposed to do here all summer if there's no TV, read or something? The last book Puck read was the one they read as a class in the 7th grade and even then he just drew pictures of boobs in the margins.
“Oh, shit.” Puck mutters, stumbling back slightly as he notices the giant gray cat that's sitting in the recliner. It's staring at him like it fucking wants to annihilate him, it's yellow eyes on him like a trained assassin. It must know that he's more of a dog person.
“Nice, cat.” he says under his breath as he edges himself as far away from the beast as possible, dropping the bags in front of the kitchen door. He figures he's being kind of a pussy right now, so he stops himself and takes a quick step towards the cat, trying to scare it. He realizes he really is a pussy when the cat starts to get up, slowly because it's really fat, and he bolts down the hallway.
“What! No, fuck you!” Puck hears as he pushes open one of the bedroom doors at the end of the hallway. His cousin Benji is sitting in one of those bean bag chairs with a headset on and a controller in his hand.
As soon as he sees Puck he pauses the game and rips of the headset, “Hey.”
Puck nods, “Sup, man.”
Benji just shrugs, “Nothing.”
The thing with Benji is … well, the two of them used to be really close when they were younger, when his aunt lived in Lima. They would do all this little kid stuff together, like play at the park and ride their bikes really fast down really big hills. And then Benji moved away and Puck discovered girls and they just kind of grew apart.
Okay, so maybe they didn't grow apart. Maybe Puck gave Benji a major brush off when he realized that he was a nerd and that nerds weren't cool to hang out with. He really can't help it that he's such a douche, he blames not having a strong father figure, or whatever.
“So, I guess we're rooming together then, huh?” Puck asks when he sees the air mattress that's rolled up in the corner of the room. Benji just shrugs again as he sinks a little lower into his bean bag.
“I … um … saw your cat … out there.” Puck mumbles awkwardly, jerking his thumb back in the general direction of the living room. Benji gives him a blank stare and Puck's not too sure what to say because this whole situation is really fucking uncomfortable. It kind of feels like the morning after, when you want the really hot chick you just banged last night to leave, but you know she's going to want to talk or some stupid shit like that. Except Puck does not want to picture Benji naked and he's pretty much stuck with him so a month so he just better get over it because he has to share a room with him. And if Puck wants to defile those two girls like he was planning on, he and Benji are going to have to go over a little bit of the bro-code, like the whole hanging a sock on the door business.
“Alright, let's stop being little bitches.” Puck announces, slapping his hands together and moving to stand in front of the TV. “I'll probably be having sex with a couple hot girls this summer and I might need the room to myself, so if there's a sock on the door, you'll know why.”
“Whatever.” Benji says, rolling his eyes and scooting over in his bean bag chair so he can see around Puck. The game un-pauses and the headset goes back on and Puck has a feeling that this conversation is over.
Well, it went a lot better than he thought it would.
- -
“Hey Mom, I'm going out!” Puck yells, trying to get to the front door before anyone can stop him. This house is really fucking depressing with its creepy paintings of cats and old person smell, which he doesn't understand because no old people live here. He feels bad for Benji, he really does.
“Wait, Noah! Kitchen!” his mom yells back just as he's about to open the door. This is a serious fuck his life moment, he was so close to freedom and now he's probably gonna have to go to a pottery class or some stupid shit like that.
“Yeah?” he asks, popping his head in the kitchen, he refuses to walk all the way in because that means that there's more of a possibility that they'll make him sit down.
“Where are you going?” she asks through her teeth. His Aunt Ava sets two steaming mugs down on the table before pulling up a seat and sitting down next to his mom. Then she pats the seat next to her.
“Have some tea with us, Noah.”
“Uh, that's okay. I'm just gonna go out and check out everything.” he says with a shrug and his mom finally smiles.
“That's good sweetheart. You should take your sister.” Puck frowns, yeah, if he's going to be picking up hot chicks, he does not need his little sister tagging along. He's about to pull a really lame excuse out of his ass when he sees something in the backyard that makes him smile.
“Yeah, sure, but she seems a little busy.” His mom and aunt both turn to look into the backyard where Sarah is chasing around a couple chickens. Puck is trying not to dwell on the fact that his aunt has chickens in her backyard because then he'll have to think about how much is life is going to suck this summer.
“Oh, Sarah! Be careful!” his mom yells as Sarah tries to pick one up. Puck shakes his head and takes this moment as an opportunity to bolt.
“I'll be back later!” he calls over his shoulder as he walks out the door. The screen slams behind with him a resounding thud and he ignores his mother yelling his name from the kitchen as he jogs down the front path. He's getting the fuck out of here before they tie him to one of the kitchen chairs and force him to look at naked baby pictures.
- -
There's not a lot to this town. There's like one bar that he could probably sneak into and an old arcade that look like it's seen better days, but nothing else that really catches his interest. He's going to die of fucking boredom this summer. He guesses he could probably go hang out on the lake since it's literally like right there, but he doesn't really know what he'd do there. Like, go fishing, maybe.
There's a liquor store coming up and he decides to take a look inside and see what his chances are of stealing a pack of beer sometime this summer. There's this prick at the register with like perfectly coiffed hair, reading a Hustler and paying absolutely no attention to the people in the store. Puck could totally steal beer from here, but it's his first day in town and he really doesn't want his mom to have to bail him out if he gets caught.
“You got slushies?” he asks the guy, who doesn't even bother to look up from his magazine as he motions vaguely to the back of the store.
“Thanks.” Puck bits out, kind of irritated at the suck-ass service. He passes by the beer, just to see if they have anything good, they don't. He thinks his luck might be turning when he walks down the aisle with the slushie machine and sees a really hot girl reaching for the lids that are like a foot above her head. She's got these shorts on that are like underwear, they're so short. Her bra strap is sliding down her shoulder and, goddamn, there is like sweat glistening and his pants start to feel a little tight. He cannot blow this, he needs to get himself under control, this girl could be his last hope for fun this summer.
He gets in really close behind her and leans down so his mouth is by her ear, “Need some help?” he asks in what he usually refers to as his sex voice.
The girl jumps, “Excuse me!” she shrills, elbowing him in the gut as she whips around. He doubles over, clutching his stomach, because damn that hurt, girls got some muscle on her. “Noah?”
Puck stops wheezing and looks up to see Rachel Berry, standing there with a grape slushie in her hand. This is a serious fuck his life moment.
“Shit, Rachel?” He just tried to spit game at Rachel fucking Berry. This shit only happens to him, he swears.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
“What are you doing here?” Rachel crosses both arms over her chest, which makes her boobs practically pop out her top, and raises both brows at him.
“I asked you first.”
“You did not.” he mutters, rubbing at the spot on his stomach where she fucking pummeled him with her bazooka elbows. Rachel's eyebrows nearly disappear into her hairline and Puck relents.
“We're here visiting my aunt for the summer.” he explains, reaching around her to grab a cup for himself. It's totally an accident when his arm brushes up against hers. “And trust me, I am not here on my own free will.”
“No, I would imagine not.” she comments as he fills his cup with Coke slushie. He grabs a lid for himself and one for her, he goes to hand it to her, but snatches it out of her grasp when she reaches for it.
“You still pissed at me for no reason?” Puck laughs at the outrage that flits over her face, she opens her mouth, ready to dispute, when he hands her the lid. She looks down on it with confusion at first, but her eyes soften and her mouth tilts upwards into a smile. He has no idea what just happened, but she doesn't look pissed anymore, so he decides not to question it.
“No, I guess I'm not.”
“Good.” he says with a nod as he pivots and heads down the aisle with the chips. “So, tell me, Berry. Why are you here?”
“I already did, Noah. My fathers own a lake house out here.”
“Oh, right.” He really doesn't remember her telling him that at all, but then again, most of his time spent with Rachel is either him tuning her out or staring at her legs. “The slushies here as good as the ones by home?”
“I would say yes. Mostly because these slushies have never been tossed in my face.” she answers, picking up a bag of pretzels as they make their way to the register. He feels a little pang of guilt, which he brushes away because he can't afford to feel guilty. About anything. If Puck felt guilty about all the shitty things he's done, he would probably hate himself. And that would really fucking suck, 'cause to be honest, he's like his favorite person ever. And no, he doesn't care if that sounds conceited 'cause it's true.
They both clear their throats, loudly and at the same time after they've been waiting at the register for awhile, and the douche finally peeks at them over his magazine.
“Oh, God.” he hears Rachel mutter next to him and when he turns to look at her, he sees she's trying to hide her face.
“Well, well, Rachel Berry, do my eyes deceive me? Look who finally … filled out … kind of.” The guy drawls, looking Rachel up and down. Puck kind of moves a little more in front of her, suddenly feeling extremely territorial.
“Pierce.” she grounds out, her jaw clenching, Puck think it's one of the hottest things he's ever seen her do. The two of them have this weird vibe between them and he has a feeling they know each other pretty well. They kind of stare at each other for a few seconds in an awkward silence and Puck is starting to feel a little bit ignored, which just does not fly with him.
“So I take it you two know each other.” He observes as he fishes out his wallet and tosses a five dollar bill on the counter.
Pierce nods, “I guess you could say that.”
“Oh yeah, wanna clue me in?” Puck prompts and when all the prick does is smirk at Rachel, he turns to face her, “Berry?”
“Hm? Oh! Pierce and I have known each other since we were very small.”
“Yeah, Rachel used to come up and visit every summer before she got too … busy.”
“We went to music camp together.” she adds, dismissing it as nothing with a wave of her hand. Pierce frowns at her and then gets this smug look on his face as he takes the five bucks Puck put on the counter.
“And I was her first kiss.” Now that's something that Puck can take interest in.
“Really? Huh, Rachel's never mentioned you, have you Rach?” he asks, grabbing the change and stuffing it back into this wallet. He turns to look at her when she doesn't answer and she shakes her head.
“No, I didn't really see a reason to ...”
“I'm sorry, who are you?” Pierce asks in what's probably his best douchetastically condescending voice.
“Puck.” he answers with a nod. “I got to school with Berry here back in Lima.”
“I see, taking a vacation together then?”
“Nah, just a happy coincidence.”
“Well, since you're both here, you might as well come to a party I'm throwing at my grandparents house. They're out of town for the weekend and well, let's face it, there's not much else to do around here.” he mumbles as he grabs the pen from behind his ear and jots down some directions on the back of their receipt. “It's should be starting around eight tonight.”
Puck takes the receipt from him, “Yeah, sure. We'll think about it.” He has no idea why all of a sudden it's like Rachel is his or something, 'cause she's not, but this douchebag is getting on his nerves. “Come on, Rach.”
“Bye.” she says quietly as she grabs her slushie from Puck and follows him out of the door. She waits till their outside before she starts laughing.
“Well, that was entertaining.”
“What?”
“What just transpired back there between you and Pierce? It was like a testosterone-fest, a classic exemplification of alpha male posturing.”
“Alpha male what?” Puck asks as Rachel walks over to a beat up old convertible Bug. She tosses her bag of pretzels into the passengers side seat and holds up her slushie as she walks around to the drivers side.
“Thanks for the snacks.”
“Wait, what about the party?” he asks, leaning against the side of the car as Rachel gets in.
She shrugs one shoulder, “What about it?”
“Don't you want to go?”
She sighs, placing both hands on top of the steering wheel, “I don't think Quinn would appreciate the two of us going to a party together, would she?”
Puck rubs furiously at his face, “Yeah, about that. There isn't really a … Quinn and I anymore.” Rachel perks up slightly, leaning forward in the seat just far enough that he can see down her shirt.
“I'm sorry, Noah. What happened?”
“Nothing. Just didn't work out.” He answers shortly and she nods once, then leans her head back against the worn leather of the seat. She blows out a steady stream of air before sitting up straight again and nodding.
“Okay, we can go, but I'll need to be home by eleven.”
“I think I can do that.” he murmurs, pushing himself up off the car. Rachel smiles brightly at him as she revs up the engine.
“Pick me up at seven.”
“Okay. Hey- Rach?” she pauses to look at him and he takes a second to really look at her. She looks different out here, calmer, happier, maybe even free. He's never seen her hair like it is now, up in a loose bun with tendrils falling in her face, he likes it.
“Will Finn mind that the two of us are going to a party together?”
Rachel's face drops and she looks really sad for a second before she shakes her head, “Well let's just say there's not a Finn and I anymore either.”
“Okay then, let's go to a party.” he grins, his voice hoarse for some reason. That mega-watt smile is back in place as she she pulls out of the parking space and he laughs as the car jerks around. He's going to have to teach Rachel how to drive a stick, the right way.
“Seven o'clock, don't forget!” she calls out as she drives way, the car sputtering as she does.
Yeah, he has a feeling he's going to be working on that car a lot this summer.