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

“I can’t take it,” Kurt voiced the next day at my locker, looking me over. I could see the pain in his eyes as he took in my outfit. Even though they were the sweatpants that he had bought with me, it was clear that he was still not happy that I was wearing them in public. “We need another intervention.”

“Why?” I whined.

“Because you look like a slob,” he said bluntly. I winced slightly but didn’t say anything.

Then, he got really close to my face, surveying it. “Are you even wearing makeup today?”

“Um…” I trailed off. The answer was no, but I was hesitant to say that. Kurt would probably kill me.

“That’s what I thought.” Okay, so he had gotten my answer from a non-answer. Couldn’t complain about that. “So you’re coming to my house again after Glee, and this time, I’m bringing Mercedes. You clearly need more than one voice telling you what to do.”

“Alright, alright,” I laughed and shut my locker. It was good that I was feeling a lot better about my parents’ split. Otherwise, I might have been really mopey, not able to hide it, and then Kurt would ask me what was wrong…big fiasco.

“Oh, Kurt!” I grabbed his arm so he stopped. “Have you seen Puck?”

“No,” he lied smoothly. He almost fooled me, but there was this tone in his voice that let me know it wasn’t true.

“Where is he?” I sighed.

After a second of debating, he finally admitted, “Um…outside. Near the dumpsters.”

Letting out a loud groan, I made my way out of the school. “Alright,” Puck grinned, “next!”

A guy with brown hair a little on the longer side and green eyes stepped up. I hadn’t seen him before, so I knew that he was relatively new. Not that it mattered to Puck and whatever football player he had with him.

As the boy was launched into the dumpster, one of his friends screamed, “Stay strong, Dan!”

“What is wrong with you?” I yelled at Puck, shoving him. “C’mon. Tossing nerds into dumpsters?” Turning around, I smiled at them. “No offense.”

“None taken,” a kid that I knew was named Jacob spoke up. His afro was ridiculously big.

“This is what I do. You know that, Red.” He glanced up at the group and called, “NEXT!”

“Please,” I mumbled, pulling him off to the side for a second. I could feel his friend’s eyes on us. Puck was definitely going to be teased for being whipped. “Is this really how you want to spend your time?”

“It’s fun, and it shows people that I have the power, and they don’t,” he shrugged like it was no big deal. “NO! Don’t throw him in there without me. Alright, Red, I gotta go. I’ll see you later.”

He leaned down to kiss me, but I pushed him away, my palm firmly on his chest. “You remember how I threw a slushie on Santana?” I questioned.

“Yeah!” His eyes lit up. “That was so fu-”

“Don’t make me do the same to you,” I threatened before turning on my heel and walking away. On my way by, just to make a point, I bent down and handed the Dan kid his glasses back. “Sorry about that douche.”

“Isn’t he your boyfriend?” he asked, looking around me to watch Puck toss yet another nerd in the dumpster.

“I don’t know,” I replied honestly. Not bothering to look back at the scene, I went back into the building and off to my first class.

***

“Look,” Puck sighed, leaning against the locker next to mine at the end of the day, before Glee Club, “I get that you don’t like what I do. But…it’s kind of me. Isn’t it important to chicks for guys to like them the way they are or whatever? Why can’t you return that?”

Biting my lip, I turned to look at him. He had a point, though a kind of bad one. “Okay, it would be one thing if you were rude…which you are. I overlook that. It’s something different when you spend your time tossing losers into dumpsters.”

“Well, it’s a part of me, so like it or lump it, babe.” His smile was cocky, as if he figured that I would just drop to his feet and beg for an apology for being angry at him.

Instead, I let out a spiteful laugh before going to Glee. “There you guys are,” Mr. Schue greeted. “Finn was about to go look for you guys.”

“Having a quickie before class?” Santana questioned with as sweet of a tone as she could muster.

“Sorry,” I shot back immediately, “did you want to join?”

“Girls, girls,” Mr. Schue warned. “Stop before I have to kick you both out.” Once we both turned our gazes away from each other and I took my seat in the front row, he started to talk again. “Now, today, we’re going to run lyrics for Suspicious Minds. Ready, Ellie and Puck?”

I shot a dirty look to my right before giving Mr. Schue a sickeningly sweet smile. “Yup.”

Puck simply nodded, and so we set up on opposite sides of the piano. The guy, who I now knew was named Brad, started to play, and the band followed along.

When I started to sing, I made sure that I didn’t look at Puck, especially not when I said that I ‘loved him too much’.

“Stop, stop, stop,” Mr. Schue sighed as Puck opened his mouth to sing. “Alright, what’s going on between you two now?”

“I’m not sure what you mean,” I mumbled stiffly. The rest of the club laughed a little. Clearly, the tension between the two of us was more obvious than I had noted.

“Aw,” Santana cooed, “looks like Ellie wasn’t so good in bed, huh?”

My face flushed, shocked at the sudden stab. What happened to her coming up and saying that she was backing down? Apparently, she was lying. Shocker. “Actually, I’m still a virgin,” I snapped, “which you haven’t been in a while. How old were you? Three?”

“At least I’m hot,” she retorted.

“GIRLS!” Mr. Schue exclaimed, stepping between us so neither of our dirty looks could reach each other. “You know what? I never thought I’d say this, but I can’t deal with this. Everyone, go home.”

I felt my face getting even warmer, realizing that my hostility toward everyone was actually making Glee Club close early when we had so much preparation to do for Sectionals.

Ugh. I was an even bigger bitch than Santana.

Kurt and Mercedes bounded in front of me. “We still going over my house?” Kurt questioned, looking back and forth between Mercedes and me.

“Sure,” I sighed.

While we walked down the hallway, Puck was hanging out near my locker. My first thought was that it was incredibly stupid, since I had already gone to my locker. That boy was so friggin’ dumb sometimes.

“Red,” he spoke up as we passed.

Kurt slowed down a little bit so that I could talk to Puck. Instead of doing as intended, I grabbed Kurt’s hand and practically dragged him along.

However, I wasn’t strong enough to keep from looking back at Puck before we disappeared out of the building. He had his hands in his pockets, appearing to anyone else as pretty pathetic.

He caught my eye, and I tried to send him a mental message. Give me time to cool down. Something told me that this argument wouldn’t, couldn’t, last forever.