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

At Kurt’s house, Mercedes and Kurt fired question after question about what happened with Puck, as well as how we were doing before. They exchanged a look with raised eyebrows when I insisted that Puck and I hadn’t even made out yet.

“What?” I whined. “Do you have so little faith in me?”

“No,” Kurt reassured me, “we have so little faith in him.”

I didn’t really know how to reply to that, so I just kept my mouth shut as Mercedes threw a skirt at me. “Put that on,” she demanded me.

Sighing, I picked it up, along with one of the few shirts that Kurt had bombarded at me. It only took me a couple minutes to put the clothes on, and soon enough, I was modeling them.

“That shirt’s not the right cut for you,” Mercedes murmured thoughtfully.

“Try this one,” Kurt corrected, tossing another shirt in my direction.

“Alright,” I breathed so only I could hear it. After tossing the shirt back over my shoulder and striking a pose, I disappeared back behind the privacy screen and changed.

“What do you guys think?” I laughed as I stepped out from behind the screen and tossed my straight hair behind my shoulder, posing dramatically.

When they didn’t answer, I put my hand on my hip and focused on what was going on. Finn was standing there, raising an eyebrow at me.

“Well,” I cleared my throat, crossing my arms in front of my chest, “this is a tad awkward.”

“Sorry,” Finn mumbled, rubbing his hand on the back of his neck. “You look nice.”

“Thanks.” My face heated up, totally embarrassed that I had acted so silly in front of someone that I barely knew. Ugh…

“Is there something you need?” Kurt questioned. Wait…what was Finn doing in the house, anyway…? Was this strange just to me?

“Mom wanted to know if Ellie was staying for dinner,” he replied, shooting another look in my direction.

“No,” I spoke up. “My mom’s probably wondering where I am now, so maybe I should just-”

“You’re not going anywhere. We still have work to do,” Kurt informed me. “Well, there’s your answer, Finn. You can go now.”

Finn smiled at me one more time. “Uh, bye.” Oh, how awkward he was. Not that I was much better.

Mercedes and Kurt both looked at me with smirks on their faces. “What?” I snapped, tugging at the hem of my shirt. It was a little too short for my torso.

“Nothing,” they both answered at the same time, but their smiles were too suspicious.

Instead of interrogating them, I just went over and picked up yet another shirt.

* * *

“Where have you been?” Mom snapped right as I walked into the door.

“Don’t talk to me,” I replied simply, remembering the argument that we had while Puck was over. As if I’d have told her a single thing.

“Don’t speak that way to your mother! I deserve your respect.”

Letting out a cruel laugh, I told her, “You long passed that line.”

Upstairs in my room, I stared at the ceiling for a while, not really thinking about much. I didn’t even realize that I had started to doze until I snapped awake when my phone went off.

It scared me so much that I flailed and fell off my bed with a loud crash. “Ugh…” I mumbled, rubbing the back of my head, which had smashed against my floor. As I rose, I was happy to see that nothing really seemed broken.

u still mad

“Hm,” I mumbled to myself. Was I? I couldn’t tell. My brain was too foggy and still clinging onto sleep for me to focus too much on anything else.

I dunno…haha

thats better than a yes i guess

Yeah, but it’s just ‘cause I’m tired. My anger could return.

while its not, can we talk

My eyebrows drew together. What were we doing if it wasn’t talking…? What a dumb guy. A hot dumb guy, but an idiot nonetheless.

Before I could answer, he fired another text at me. im in ur driveway…safe to go in

Grumbling to myself, I hobbled down the stairs and opened the front door. Sure enough, his car was still running in the driveway. He was sitting in the driver’s seat, adjusting his position so he could slide his phone back into his pocket.

Just for kicks, I knocked on the glass. He jumped a little, cocking an eyebrow at me as he rolled down the window.

“I’d rather talk out here, since my mother’s still convinced that I would have told her if I was going out with you…even though I’ve barely talked to her for two years…”

“Your mom’s nuts,” he shrugged.

“No dispute here.” He pressed the button on the door that unlocked the rest of the doors, so I walked around and climbed inside.

Puck backed out of the driveway, clearly wanting to get away from the house in case my mom ambushed. I had to admire him for that.

We had been driving for about five minutes before he started to talk. “So…you’re angry at me for throwing nerds into dumpsters, right?”

“You act like that’s a useless thing to get angry for.”

“It is to me. Especially since all you said was that I wasn’t allowed to cheat on you, which I’ve been able to do so far.”

“It’s been less than two weeks…” I laughed. “That’s not a feat.”

“Oh, trust me. It is.” He grinned at me for a second before bringing his eyes back to the road. “But I kept that promise, and you didn’t say anything about torturing losers.”

“That’s because I didn’t even know you did that anymore. I figured that you’d grown up a bit or something.”

Puck let out a mocking laugh. “Yeah, okay.”

The condescending tone in his voice made my jaw clench a little. “Could you at least pretend that you’re not a jerk for five seconds?”

“It’s a habit,” he admitted. “Alright, I’ll try to be nice. If it’s possible.”

“Will you stop throwing nerds into dumpsters?”

We were quiet for a long time as he debated that. “How about I cut down on it? Like, instead of every day, I do it...three times a week? I can’t quit altogether. Nerds gotta know their places.”

I knew that offer was the best I was going to get, and I didn’t want to be angry at Puck anymore. I had enough anger in my life between my mother, my father, Santana, and usually Rachel.

“Fine,” I sighed. “It’s better than nothing.”

“Now how about some ice cream?”

Ah, my weakness. He was good. “Alright,” I grinned.

It felt as if a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders.