Easier Said Than Done

“And take in a deep breath,” the instructor on the TV directed. Kurt and I complied, filling our lungs with air as we held the Warrior Pose in his living room on Friday night.

“This was a good idea,” I informed Kurt as we finished, Kurt exiting out of the yoga instructional video from onDemand. “It was relaxing.” My calf twitched spastically, and I winced. “Occasionally painful, but relaxing.”

Kurt smiled. “I know. I figured with all your stressing about Puck this week, you needed a little relaxation.”

My face colored as I sat down on the floor, sitting Indian-style. “What makes you think I’ve been stressing about Puck all week?”

“Because Tuesday, at Glee Club, it was, like, painful.” Kurt sat down across from me, running a hand through his unfairly still-perfect bangs. “He shoots you these confused looks, and you look like you’re trying as hard as you can not to look over at him. It’s obvious something happened.” He put a hand to his chest and tried his hardest to look hurt. “But apparently, we’re not good enough friends for you to tell me.”

“Did that really happen?” The ‘duh’ look that Kurt was wearing on his face was so potent that it made me wince. “Whatever. It wasn’t even a big deal.”

I gave Kurt the details on what happened. And just like Kurt was my conscience, he said exactly what I’d thought the second I saw Puck pull away. “Yup. By refusing, you just made everything awkward again.”

“That’s what I figured.” I grumbled a little. “But at least Mr. Schue was out Wednesday, and now we’re on Thanksgiving break, so I get to wait until Monday to do my performance. So there was a little less stress.”

“Oh, please. That’s not any help. You never stop thinking about Puck and what you should have done differently. Maybe you should just call him up and talk it out with him. What do you have to lose?”

Hm. He had a very good point. Why didn’t I just do that?

“You’re brilliant, Kurt.” He beamed as I stood up, wiping off the butt of my sweatpants. “I’ll text him now.”

“There ya go.” Kurt stood up himself and picked up his phone, grinning from ear to ear.

“Blaine text you?” I questioned teasingly as I sent a text to Puck.

“No,” he lied badly. Then, he coughed and laughed. “Yeah, he did. He wants to hang out tomorrow.”

“Awww. You two cuties. Have you kissed yet?”

Kurt colored. “Um, not really. We’re still working on making a deeper connection.”

I put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay if you haven’t kissed yet. It’s not something to be embarrassed about. You just better kiss him soon because you guys are friggin’ cuties.”

My phone vibrated, and my heart gave a little lurch. I didn’t know why the fact that Puck had answered made me nervous, but it definitely did.

um im kinda busy tonite can we meet up 2moro

“Ass,” I mumbled under my breath as I typed back that it was fine, we could meet up at noon the next day.

He agreed and said he’d pick me up at Aileen’s.

“What happened?” Kurt asked once I stopped talking to myself angrily.

“He said that he couldn’t tonight. He was too busy. He’s probably having sex with Zizes or something.” Kurt and I shared a look and shuddered on cue. “Sorry. That was inappropriate.”

“I can almost see your muscles tensing up again,” he concluded, turning back to the TV. “Time for the next yoga video.”

Laughing, we took our places back on the yoga mats on the floor, watching the woman start to dictate how to de-stress ourselves.

* * *

Despite having gone to sleep at one thirty the night before after getting home from Kurt’s at midnight, I woke up the next morning at seven o’clock without being able to go back to sleep.

Sighing, I got up and took a warm shower. My muscles, especially the ones in my legs, were sore from yoga the night before, but it was a good kind of pain. If that made any sense at all.

Downstairs, I stared in the fridge, waiting for something to jump out at me, looking delicious. Unfortunately, nothing was really awake this morning, other than me.

I really wanted scrambled eggs, but I couldn’t make them. Plus, Aileen was still asleep, so I wouldn’t even have a chaperone. Which meant that I’d probably burn the house down and we’d all die.

Not really a happy, cheery, seven-o’clock-in-the-morning thought.

So, instead, I just settled for Cinnamon Toast Crunch. It was boring, since I had it almost every morning, but at least it was food. My stomach started to yell at me as I sat down at the table with the bowl and milk.

When I finished, it was only seven twenty. I threw my head back and groaned, knowing that it was going to be a very long morning.

I curled up on the couch and watched a couple episodes of Criminal Minds that I had taped the night before. Probably not the smartest idea, being the only one awake in the house, maybe even the street, but it was too good to resist.

Once I was done with that, I stared at my school bag. It was grinning back at me, knowing that I was going to open it up and start doing my homework. It knew that I couldn’t keep myself from the work forever.

“I hate you,” I informed it, narrowing my eyes. It was so freaking smug.

Then, the top stair creaked, alerting me that Aileen was coming down the stairs.

“AILEEN!” I screamed excitedly, jumping up from the couch.

She entered the living room, giving me a really creeped-out look. “Since when are you so excited for me to get up?”

“Since you just saved me from doing my homework. So, what are your plans for today?” I followed her into the kitchen, leaning against the doorway as she scrambled to make some coffee.

“Um…I don’t really know,” she replied, rubbing her eye. “I hadn’t really thought of it. That’s kind of the point of weekends.”

“Oh, right.” I took a pause before speaking again. “Puck’s picking me up at noon.”

“Okay, I know I’m tired, but you guys are still broken up, right?”

“Yeah. I just want us to talk to clear the air. He tried to do that the other day, but I just made everything awkward again. So now we’re going to talk things out for real.”

Aileen gave me a look that clearly said it was just too early in the morning for talk about Puck and me. “But you guys aren’t going to get back together?”

“I’m not sure that would be smart,” I responded.

“Good,” she smiled as she pulled the cup away from the Keurig brewer. “Because you and Sam are meant for each other anyway.”

I let out a loud groan and threw my head back. She just laughed. I don’t know why she found herself oh-so-funny.