A New Beginning

We were quiet for a while as Puck’s radio played kind of softly in the background. I tapped my fingers against the armrest in the door, staring out the window and trying to ignore the thick awkwardness in the car.

“So,” Puck finally started, trying to make it seem like this was somewhat normal, “what made you want to cut school?”

I shrugged. “It’s not a big deal. I used to do this all the time back home.” Okay, so that was kind of a lie, but it wasn’t like Puck needed to know that.

“Oh, really?” And of course he didn’t believe me.

“Sure. It wasn’t like my parents cared.” I turned to him so he could see me shrug. Then, I leaned back in my seat and crossed my arms in front of my chest.

“Why wouldn’t they care that their little angel skipped school?”

I let out a loud honk of laughter that I didn’t realize was embarrassing until afterwards. “I can’t believe that you just called me a little angel. After how mean I’ve been to you.”

“It was a joke. A funny one, apparently.”

Shaking my head, I went back and answered his question. “They were mostly strung out on drugs, anyway. To them, I really was an angel child.”

“Is that why you’re such a bitch? Because you don’t want to know anyone to know that your parents were druggies?” He turned to smirk at me, signaling that this, too, was supposed to be a joke.

“Funny,” I commented. “But no. If I didn’t want anyone to know, I wouldn’t have just told you, would I?”

“You got a point there, I guess.” He flicked on his directional to turn, and it was quiet for another minute. “So are you going to tell me the real reason why you skipped?”

“Wasn’t planning on it.”

“C’mon. I’m skipping, too, remember?”

“Right. So why don’t I ask you why you felt inclined to skip with me, considering we both don’t like each other.”

“No…that’s not really true. I kind of like you…which might just be because you really don’t seem to like me.”

“And I don’t.”

“Then why did you say I could tag along?”

“That’s a good question,” I mused, leaning back in the passenger’s seat as Puck sped through a crosswalk instead of letting an elderly couple go. “I really don’t know.”

“Here’s another question you haven’t answered yet: why don’t you join Glee Club if you love to sing so much?”

“That’s really none of your business, is it?”

He immediately turned to me, grinning, since he knew that he must have just hit a touchy subject for me to snap at him so harshly. “Is it because of Santana? ‘Cause I know that your excuse about you not wanting to be around her all the time isn’t true.”

“It is true,” I insisted, but when I saw his look (unbelieving with a touch of ‘how stupid do you think I am?), I continued, “but it’s not the majorly real reason.”

He stared at me for a while, waiting for me to finish. So I took a deep breath and leap of faith. “We made a deal.”

“A deal? What kind of deal?” Then, he snickered and held up a hand. “No, let me guess. If you didn’t join Glee Club, then Santana wouldn’t tell about your deep, dark past.”

Blushing fiercely, I mumbled. “Kinda.”

That made him stop laughing and turn to stare at me. “So I was right when I said something shitty happened to you? Maybe more than one thing?”

“My whole childhood was shitty. My parents weren’t exactly good ones. But that’s not exactly what she’s going to share.”

“What would she?”

Again, I let out a laugh. “Why in God’s name would I tell you, of all people? For all I know, it would be all over school even faster than Santana could manage.”

“I wouldn’t tell,” he defended. “Do you really think I’d do that?”

“Why not? You haven’t really shown yourself to be a stand-up guy.”

“That’s because I’m not, but I’m not a dick.” I shot him a look. “Okay, I kind of am. But whatever it is that you’re keeping a secret is obviously killing you. I don’t remember seeing you laugh or smile without it being mocking or totally fake. You have to get over it sometime.”

“Again, why would I tell you, if I was going to tell anyone? I would rather tell Finn. At least he’s shown that he’s not a total douche.”

“Oh, come on. Finn’s a loser. Just tell me what happened.” Annoyed, I turned and gave him a death look. “You’re never going to get over yourself if you don’t tell me.”

“If you’re going to keep annoying me about this, just drop me off.”

“No.”

“You know what?” I snapped at him. “If you want to know what happened to me so fucking bad, put the pieces together. Or are you too dumb to do that, too?”

“Hey, I’m trying to be nice!”

“Well, don’t. I don’t need people being nice to me.”

“Clearly, you do. Think about it. You haven’t had anyone be nice to you, have you?”

“I had friends in Texas,” I scoffed, offended.

“Not good ones. Did you tell any of them what happened to you?”

Gritting my teeth, I decided to keep my mouth shut.

“Exactly! So why not start now by telling someone who’s not going to hold it against you?”

Finally, I put a fake-smile on my face and turned to him. “Why the hell won’t you just give up and leave me alone?”

“Because that’s not the Puck way. You gotta learn to live a little.”

“And you gotta learn how to leave a girl alone when she tells you to.”

“At least I can tell when someone’s trying to change the subject.”

“You really piss me off,” I informed him before leaning back in the seat and putting my feet up on the dashboard.

“I can tell.” It was quiet for another second before Puck got a grin on his face that I really didn’t like. Then, he sighed and said, “Alright. I guess asking isn’t going to help. I guess I’m just going to have to get you tell me by annoying you.”

“What?” I questioned, cocking an eyebrow, but I didn’t have to wait long for him to show me what he meant.

“I know a song that gets on everybody’s nerves, everybody’s nerves, everybody’s nerves! I know a song that gets on everybody’s nerves, and this is how it goes!” he sang loudly, turning off the radio so it was the only thing that I could hear.

Now, I normally have a pretty short temper, and I snap at people that I don’t like very often. For some reason, Puck seems to search for the easiest ways to get me to want to murder him, and that song was a perfect way to do it.

“Oh my God…” I mumbled, putting my hands over my ears, leaning over to put my elbows on my knees. “I hate you so much.”

He ignored me, reacting to me putting my hands over my ears by singing even louder.

“FINE!” I screamed after the hundredth time of him going through the song. “FINE. IF YOU WANT TO KNOW SO FUCKING BADLY, I’LL TELL YOU.”

I glanced at him in the rear view mirror, and he looked a little scared by my explosive reaction. “First, pull over here. You drive me absolutely crazy, and in a very bad way. If I have to stay in this car one more second, I will probably strangle you.”

Puck pulled over, and I turned to face him, shooting daggers at him with my eyes. “When I was thirteen, I was walking down my street after school when I was abducted by my neighbor. He told me that my mom was at the hospital, that she’d OD’d, and I believed him. So I got into the car, and he brought me to his sister’s house, who was on vacation. He put duct tape over my mouth so none of the neighbors would hear, tied my arms together behind my back, and he raped me a total of five times before the police got there the next day. If I join Glee Club, Santana will tell everyone, and no one will ever look at me the same. Happy?”

Puck looked totally shocked and, surprisingly, sorry, but I ignored him. Getting out of the car, I started down the street, not even looking back when he screamed after me.

After all, he was the last person I wanted to see me cry.