And Here's What You Missed on...GLEE

“Here,” Mom greeted, nearly throwing Grayson at me. I stared at him with a cocked eyebrow for a second before looking back at her.

“Not that I don’t love Grayson to death or anything, but…what is he doing here?” I asked.

“Sprout, Ellie?” Grayson cooed with a grin.

“One second,” I mumbled, hoisting him higher up on my side.

“Piper had to go to Washington D.C. for her work, and she asked us to watch him for the week. I have to get to work now. Your father took his car to spite me. Have fun!” She patted me on the head like a small child before disappearing out the door.

Grayson started writhing in my arms, trying to get down. “Sprout, Ellie!” he cried as he toddled toward the staircase.

I followed him, still kind of in a daze about the whole situation. He reached up as far as he could go to reach the doorknob and turned it, admitting himself to my bedroom.

After turning the TV to his desired channel, I crouched down to his level and looked him in the eyes. “You can watch TV, but I can’t play with you right now, okay? I have to do my homework.”

He nodded, but I knew he didn’t understand a word I had just said. As I settled down on my bed, I pulled my backpack into my lap and pulled out my history book. Thankfully, I didn’t have to do any questions, just read and take notes.

“Ellie!” Grayson squealed, putting a DVD case on my lap, right on top of my schoolwork. He bent over to get the disc that he had dropped before placing it gingerly on top of the case.

“Baby, I can’t do this right now.” Sighing, I scooped him up and put him next to me on the bed. “Watch the TV.”

He started to crawl away before he spotted my bag. I started taking notes again and had only been at work for about a minute before I heard a rip.

Alarmed, I snapped my head to my right to find Grayson sitting there with a million-dollar smile. He had my English notebook in his lap, laughing as he tore out the blank pages in the back.

Letting out a breath of relief, I turned back to my work and tried to ignore the irritating, repetitive sound of the ripping paper.

I had finished most of my homework when the doorbell rang. Grayson’s eyes lit up. “Ellie, visitor.”

“I know. I’m just as surprised as you are.” I took him into my arms, resting him against my hip, as we made our way down the stairs. Part of me kind of hoped that it was Aunt Piper, here to relieve me of my babysitting duties. A voice in the back of my head tried to tell me that was impossible, but I ignored it.

I leaned down to open the door, but Grayson started wiggling, making it impossible. “Me!” he yelled with a giggle.

Breathing slowly out of my nose, I put him on the ground. He reached up and opened the door, screeching in delight when he succeeded.

When I looked back up, I didn’t see Aunt Piper, with her long, blonde curls and bright smile. Puck was standing on my porch, hands in his pockets.

His eyes nearly popped out of his head when he got an eyeful of Grayson. “I thought you told me that you’d never been kissed before. Clearly, you’ve been way further.”

“He’s my cousin,” I explained. Grayson was shoving his face into my leg, shy toward the unfamiliar stranger. It was funny because I knew that if Mercedes or some other girl had been visiting, he would have run to her with his hands raised, begging to be picked up. He was a flirt already. “Say hi, Gray.”

He didn’t follow me orders, instead mumbling something incoherently into my leg, followed by him nuzzling his head further into the back of my leg.

“Hm,” I observed, “he’s smart. He doesn’t like you either.”

Grayson put his hand in mine and started pulling me away. I almost told him to go back upstairs and watch Sprout, but I remembered that my homework was lying around. The last thing I wanted was for him to rip up that.

“C’mon,” I told Puck hostilely. When we got into my room, I threw all of my dirty clothes in my hamper (embarrassing) and made sure that all my homework was away.

I spun around to face Puck, and I was about to start the conversation right there before I remembered about Gray. “Stay here,” I ordered, pushing Puck out the door and closing it behind us.

“Now what do you want?”

“I just wanted to say…” he trailed off, looking everywhere except me. “Um…”

“You’re wasting my time,” I told him as a not-so-subtle hint for him to hurry up the pace a little.

“I just wanted to see if we were cool,” he covered. “So, are we?”

For a second, I stared at him, trying to see if he was serious or not. “You ignore me all day…and then at Glee, you’re all over Santana…and you think we’re cool…?” I said slowly, trying to process his state of mind as each phrase left my mouth.

“Uh, yeah? It’s not like you liked me or anything, so why does it matter?”

“Oh my God. Could you be any more of a boy?” I snapped at him.

“No, no, I couldn’t,” he replied smugly. Then, after a second of thought, he elaborated with, “Well, I like to think of myself as more of a man…”

I rolled my eyes before telling him, “Puck, you’re an idiot. Just because I said that I didn’t want to kiss you…you know what? Just forget it. Go have sex with Santana, and I’ll go back to how I was before, trying to deal with my parents’ fighting and taking care of my baby cousin from time to time alone.”

“Hey, I came over here because I want to try to be friends.”

“Do you even know the definition of friends? I’m sure in your mind, it means something more along the lines of what the rest of us humans call ‘friends with benefits.'”

“Okay, Finn used to be my best friend, and we never did anything like…that.” He shuddered a little.

“And what a great friend you were! Sleeping with his girlfriend and getting her pregnant!” The sarcasm in my voice was biting.

“Maybe that wasn’t the best example,” he mumbled, running a hand through the fuzz on his head.

“No, it wasn’t.”

We were silent for a second. In the other room, I could hear Grayson running around with those clunky boots of his, opening DVDs. I sighed, knowing that I was going to have to put them all back where they belonged.

“I should go,” I nearly whispered, gesturing toward my bedroom door. “I’m sure he’s getting into a whole bunch of chaos.”

“Want help? I’m good with kids.”

“As much as I highly doubt that, no thanks. I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Isn’t this what friends do? Help each other?” His smile was so cute. Ugh.

“We can’t be friends,” I said matter-of-factly.

“Why’s that? ‘Cause we kissed? That doesn’t even mean anything.”

“No, that’s why. Because you’re a jerk. That kiss meant a lot to me. It was my first, after all. And there you are, being an ass about it.”

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Sure, you didn’t.”

“Oh my God!” He sounded pretty frustrated. “Girls are so complicated! I can tell that you’re trying to say something that you’re not, but I can’t figure it out.”

I smirked at him. “And it’ll stay that way.”

“Just tell me!”

“No! I’m getting over it, okay?”

“Getting over what? Maybe this really was a mistake. Why would I want to be friends with you, anyway? After all, you’re a chick. Chicks are only good for one thing.”

Letting out a spiteful laugh, I put my hand on the doorknob. “I think it’s time for you to go.”

He stayed there, staring at me. The longer he stood there, the angrier I got. Couldn’t he take orders? For God’s sake, I didn’t want to see his stupid, smug, irritating, gorgeous face anymore.

“This is why I swore off girls my age for a while. Cougars don’t expect you to be exclusive, and they don’t want to talk at all.”

“I really don’t need to hear about this. Now, please, just go.”

This time, he listened for once in his sixteen years. When I heard the door slam behind him, I disappeared into my room and sat down on my bed gently. At first, the tears just flowed slowly, but soon enough, I was full-out crying, sobs and all.

“No, Ellie,” Grayson sniffled, climbing into my lap. I had totally forgotten about him until that second. “No cry.” He put his palm against my cheek, trying to get rid of the tears.

Smiling at how cute he was, I pulled him into a hug and kissed his cheek. He handed me a Winnie the Pooh book, and I started to read to him, my voice wavering.

How I wished sometimes that Grayson actually was mine.