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

My outburst woke up Grayson, so he was screaming his head off, not helping the situation at all. Puck, being smart for once in his life, took Grayson away from the smoke so that he didn’t inhale any, and I had to jump into action.

After unplugging the griddle so it no longer smoked, I threw water onto it. Of course, I didn’t think about the fact that it would make a hell of a lot of steam that filled my nose and mouth. I started coughing hysterically, my chest hurting more and more with each hack.

Blinking away the tears that were starting to form in my eyes as they burned, I threw open a window to try to get all the smoke and steam out of the house.

After a couple of minutes, it was easy enough to see and breath again, and my coughing had stopped being so violent.

“Well,” I called loudly before taking a long sip of water, “that was fun.”

Puck walked by in with an expression on his face that clearly made fun of how incompetent I was. “Again, you’re an awful girl. I’m pretty sure that even I can cook better than that.”

“Oh, really?” I teased. “Be my guest.” I took Grayson from his hands, who was still whimpering a little bit, and nodded toward the griddle.

For a second, he just stared at me, wondering if I was serious or not. “Alright, I do a lot for you because I don’t want to get on your bad side…but I’m not cooking. That’s totally a chick thing.”

“A chick thing? Try saying that to Bobby Flay or Emeril Lagasse. Oh, and Duff Goldman? He bakes and decorates cakes for a living.”

Puck narrowed his eyes at me. “Someone’s been preparing that speech. Have you moved from in front of the Food Channel?”

“Food Network, and I barely watch it. It makes me really hungry.” He let out a laugh. “What? The food looks friggin’ delicious.”

We had a stare down for a second before Puck let out a sigh. “Fine. I’ll try to make the pancakes. But if I burn the house down, it’s your fault.”

“Agreed.” Grayson started wriggling in my arms, so I let him down, and he started running away, his tiny feet padding against the floor.

Puck went to plug in the griddle again, but I grabbed his arm. “Nope. You gotta clean it first.”

He let out a long groan as he brought the griddle over to the sink, and I let out a small laugh.

My humor was interrupted by a loud crash in the living room. In response, my heart thumped in my chest as I ran toward it, praying to God that Grayson was okay. What was I thinking, letting him go off alone?

When I got into the living room, I let out a sigh of relief. Grayson was fine, but Mom’s movie cabinet…was not. All the DVDs were scattered all over the floor. Gray was adding to the mess as he opened all the cases, removed the disks, and threw both objects into the pile.

“No-ah?” Gray questioned with big eyes.

“In the kitchen,” I sighed, taking a couple more steps toward the mess. “Puck!”

“What? I’m trying to cook! Do you have an apron? I want to complete the look.”

“…Alright, I’m going to pretend that I didn’t hear that apron thing. Are you sure you didn’t sleep with my Aunt Piper?”

“Pretty sure. Why?”

“Because Grayson is kind of in love with you, so I’m wondering if you’re his real father,” I laughed.

“Your aunt doesn’t have a pool, does she?”

I hesitated for a second, trying to remember. It had been so long since I’d been over there. She always brought Grayson over to our house. “She might.”

“Um…where does she live?”

“Like, an hour away?”

His sigh of relief was clearly audible across the distance between us. “Then I wouldn’t have cleaned her pool. You’re safe.”

Shaking my head, I turned back toward the mess. It really shouldn’t have been so difficult to establish whether he’d had sex with Aunt Piper or not. Ugh…that was so awkward sounding. Why did he have to have that period of time when he only went after cougars?

As I settled down on the floor to clean things up, I remembered that Mom had the DVD cabinet stacked alphabetical by decade released. Part of me wanted to respect that and try to fix it properly. But the immature side of me won over, just shoving the DVDs back into the case and smirking when I saw all the different classic movies scrambled among each other, movies from the 60s next to those from current days. It showed just how pure I was, this small feat making me feel like a full-blown rebel.

“HEY!” Puck yelled loudly and excitedly. “I just made a perfect pancake! Holy shit…how did I do that?!”

Chuckling to myself, I made my way out to the kitchen and peered over his shoulder. Surely enough, there was a perfectly golden brown pancake resting on a glass plate that he must have found in one of the cabinets.

“Hm. Seems that it was smart that I made you cook,” I smiled.

“Don’t get used to it,” he retorted.

Grayson interrupted the conversation, tugging at Puck’s jeans. He pointed at the pancake, and then at his mouth.

“Sure, kid,” he answered, reaching for the plate.

“No,” I objected. “You have to make him ask for it. Grayson, what do you say?”

He gave one of his baby huffs before saying, “Cake, please!”

“It’s not a cake,” Puck whispered to me as if he was making a major breakthrough.

“Thank you, Einstein,” I rolled my eyes, handing the pancake to him. “He just thinks that he can get away without talking sometimes. And then, other times, you can’t get him to shut up.”

“Huh. Kids are complicated.”

“Good thing you don’t have one,” I joked. Then, my face flushed, remembering Beth. “I mean…that you kept? Ugh, that sounds mean, too. I didn’t mean it. God, my mouth just blurts things out without thinking through them.”

“It’s okay,” Puck finally interrupted, but I could tell that he was kind of hurt. Not that he’d ever show it, Mr. Tough Guy.

“I really am sorry. That was cruel.”

“Don’t worry about it, Red. Seriously.” He put a couple more pancakes on the plate, an accomplished twinkle in his eye. “Hm…I can actually cook pretty well. Maybe I could do this for a living.”

“You can cook pancakes,” I reminded him. “Don’t let it go to your head.”

“Can you cook pancakes?” A blush filled my face. “Exactly. So I’m further along than you are.”

Rolling my eyes, I pushed away from the counter and put my hand out to Gray. “Come on, wanna go find Boobah?”

“What the hell is a Boobah?” Puck questioned, staring at me as if I’d lost my mind.

“It’s my cat, but Boobahs is a little kid show…I should show it to you sometime. It’s really a wonderful viewing experience.”

“I think I’m gonna pass…”

“Your loss,” I shrugged.

Grayson had started meowing at the mention of the word cat, and so he was already looking.

“I’ll call you in when the pancakes are ready!” Puck called after us.

“Okay. Thanks.”