Bettering The Bruises

Two Months Later …
“Come on, Jen! I have to get to practice, and you take so damn long to get your stuff together,” Puck’s voice called to me.

I giggled as I put my things in my backpack that much slower. “Oh, Puckerman. You can’t rush a girl; you’ll have to learn that sooner or later.”

“Oh, yeah, sure I will. I’m going to be riding solo for the rest of my life,” he stated proudly.

I rolled my eyes with a smirk. “No, you’re going to find some beautiful girl that you just can’t resist someday. And at your wedding, I’m going to be smiling like an idiot because I know that she’s going to whip your ass into shape.”

He chuckled. “You have this all planned out, don’t you, kid?”

“I do,” I admitted. “And I am not a kid!”

“You’re two months younger than me, therefore, you are a kid,” he replied as I slammed my locker, and put my backpack around my shoulders.

“Whatever, Puck,” I bumped into him playfully as he then bumped me back. Soon enough, we were bumping each other back and forth as we laughed. Puck really did have a soft side; you just had to get it out of him.

As we got to the locker room’s hallway, I saw Finn waiting patiently for me. I smiled when I saw him. It’s been two months since we’ve been officially dating, and I couldn’t be happier with him. Puck started to slow down as we got closer and closer to Finn. Recently an unknown tension had been going on between the two of them. All I could figure is that Quinn was becoming a problem.

“Hey, beautiful,” he kissed me on the head as we hugged once I got to him. “We have to get to practice, so I’ll see you later.”

I nodded in response as Puck and Finn began to give each other the death glare. Puck’s face was more solid than I’d ever seen it, and Finn crossed his arms promptly. The tension between them even made me feel uncomfortable. I began to speak to get them out of it. “Alright, you guys are going to be late to practice, I’ll see you later.”

“Bye, Jenna,” Puck turned around quickly with a smile.

Finn smiled at me and blew me a kiss, and with that, they were both into the locker room. With a confused expression on my face, I continued on to the auditorium. Every day during the practice, Quinn and I would talk. We’ve grown to become great friends actually, and she needed to talk at times because of the stress in her life.

Her parents had just recently kicked her out, and she is now living with Mercedes. Quinn got tired of Puck’s mother, and Mercedes let her live with her. Thank goodness Mercedes and I are now friends again. All three of us hang out pretty frequently.

Quinn was seated on the edge of the stage, texting somebody. I slid up next to her, and placed my bag on the side of me. “Hey, Quinn, how are you doing?”

She sighed. “Not too bad. Today wasn’t awful, and Puck was genuinely in a good mood.”

“I noticed that,” I admitted. “He was all good, then he got to Finn, and they like gave each other the stare down, it was bad.”

She chuckled. “I have noticed that recently. Every time Puck and I pass him, they like stare at each other intently. I don’t understand it, but I think it has something to do with the two of us.”

I gave her a confused look. “I understand why it would be you, but why me?”

“Well, think about it for a minute,” she told me. “I was with Finn for the longest time, and then had sex with Puck, which got me pregnant. During this time, you and Puck are spending an awful lot of time with each other, along with you and Finn. Puck develops a crush on you, until he realizes that I’m pregnant, so he tries to lose the feelings for you. Finn then feels hurt because I cheated on him, and is confused because he’s had slight feelings for you all along. This whole thing of course is going to make them not like each other because they are confused because they both have feelings for both of us.”

I looked at her with a dumbfound expression. “Are you sure this is what is happening?”

“Yes I am,” she admitted. “We’ve put these boys into a world of confusion, and it’s because I made a stupid mistake.”

I squeezed her hand. “Hey, don’t worry about it. Everybody makes mistakes, but you are fixing it, you really are. Don’t worry, okay?”

Once we ended our conversation about an hour later, both Puck and Finn came into pick us up. Puck spoke first. “You two ready to go?”

We nodded as we picked up our stuff and left. I gave Quinn a hug, and then Puck before walking off with Finn. One last look between the boys told it all. Everything Quinn had said was right. It was our job to fix this, and I was going to do just that.