Easy Come, Easy Go

They had finished the meal Puck had made—spaghetti with tomato sauce, which was simple, but Adelaine had loved it anyway. Apparently she loved pasta, but she wasn’t supposed to eat it. It wasn’t on the diet plan her dance instructor from Vocal Adrenaline had given her.

But Puck reassured her that one meal of simple carbs wasn’t going to hurt her and that nobody would know except for the two of them, and who was he going to tell? And now she was giving him a tour of the house.

“There’s a lot of pictures of Jesse.” Puck commented.

“Yes, well, my parents are very proud of his many accomplishments.” Adelaine answered her eyes on a framed picture of him with the Nationals trophy from his first win. The other three followed after it, all four right in a row. It reminded her of the judge from her audition.

He turned to her, not even pretending to care about Jesse St. James’ accomplishments.

“I don’t see any pictures of you.”

“That’s not true. My school picture is in a frame on the table by the front door.”

Her school picture from two years ago.

But she didn’t tell him that. She also didn’t tell him that she was 98% positive Jesse had put it there and the reason it hadn’t been updated was because he’d been off at college since then.

“What about your accomplishments?”

And he saw this flash of pain in her eyes. It was just moment, and then she hid it again, but it hurt. Seeing her hurt was awful.

“They, ah…” She paused, coming up with the right words. “Jesse is their first born. He’s very talented. And they’ve been encouraging him since he was young. So his wins and successes mean a lot to them.”

“And what about yours? You’re talented. You have accomplishments too. You took Vocal Adrenaline to Nationals last year.”

She shook her head. “I helped win Sectionals and Nationals.” He noticed how she stressed the word ‘helped’. “But I wasn’t even at Regionals, remember? So I didn’t take them there.”

“Yeah, but that’s still something. It’s not nothing.”

“I haven’t done anything Jesse hasn’t done.”

Puck shook his head. “This isn’t right. There has to be something we can do.”

She smiled at him, but it wasn’t the smile. And was pretty sure she was just humoring him. Because those green eyes? They didn’t hold any hope.

“Come on, Noah. Let me show you my room.” She said, taking his hand and leading him up a set of stairs. She led him past one closed door and to another one, which she opened.

They stepped inside. He looked around the room as she closed the door behind them. The walls were painted purple. There was a bookshelf on one wall, filled with books that looked mostly unread. “I love to read, but I never have time.” She explained when she saw him looking.

There were also a ton of CDs. And iPod dock and laptop computer sat on her desk. A group photo obviously taken after her win at Nationals last year sat on her desk too. There was a stack of papers on her bed, and she picked them up and moved them to her desk. “College, scholarships, auditions…I have way too many papers.” She frowned and shrugged.

She sat down on her bed and Puck crossed to sit down next to her. “You’ll get that audition, baby. You were amazing out there.”

Adelaine smiled and turned to him. "You're amazing, Noah." She said, and pulled him in for a kiss.