Be Free, Be You

I smiled to myself as I shut my bedroom door behind me after Val left for her date. It was incredible to me how much she liked Artie already, and she wasn’t even trying to hide how far she was gone. She was listening to him, joining Glee Club for him…

Maybe my big sister finally found her first real love.

I plopped myself on my bed and turned on my television, scrolling through the shows to try to find something that caught my interest. After a while, I stopped it on a channel that was showing the old Karate Kid movie, the one from the 80’s. Although I had missed a significant amount, it was still an old favorite of mine that I couldn’t pass over.

The movie was almost done, at the part where Mr. Miyagi distracts the man working the front desk at the tournament so Ali could steal the black belt for Daniel, when my cell phone sounded.

Distracted, I took the thing into my hand and slid it open to read the text, but I waited until a commercial until I finally looked down at the thing.

hey is it cool if i come over?

My eyebrows drew together in confusion as I stared at the thing, reading it over and over again to make sure that I hadn’t interpreted it the wrong way.

But no. Puck was really asking if he could come over.

Um, is everything okay?

yea i was just wundering if i cud

Oh, dear lord. His grammar and spelling were cringe-worthy. Maybe I should have offered to tutor him in English along with math.

Sure, if you’re willing to get interrogated by my parents. Haha.

Ill charm the pants off them especially ur mom ;)

I’m rolling my eyes at you. When are you going to be here?

bout ten seconds im driving there now

Oh, texting and driving. How safe.

havent died yet babe

I sighed and got to my feet, hurrying to the front door so I could get there before my parents could.

Just as I hit the cold linoleum of the kitchen, the doorbell sounded throughout the house.

“I got it!” I called, trying to avoid my parents for as long as possible.

“Who could that be?” Mom mumbled, followed by the sound of her getting out of her chair. “Val’s not home.”

Oh, wow. That was embarrassing. My parents just assumed that I’d never have any friends or visitors. Not that they were wrong, but…still.

I opened the door to find Puck standing there, a huge grin on his face. “Hey, Steph.”

For a second, it looked like we were going to be home free, but right after I replied a greeting to him, Mom asked, “Stephanie? Are you going to introduce me to your boyfriend?”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” I corrected as I turned around. “He’s just a friend.”

“That happens to be a boy,” Puck finished. “I’m Noah.”

I blinked in surprise for a second before I remembered that Puck’s name was actually Noah. It was weird. It was used so infrequently that most of the time, I didn’t even think about him having a first name.

“Nice to meet you, Noah,” Mom smiled. “Where are you two going?”

From the way she turned to face me, I figured that my answer was not going to be an acceptable one. I knew my mother well enough to know that her mind was going to go immediately into the gutter if I told her the two of us were going to my room.

“The den,” I responded quickly. “We’re going to watch some America’s Next Top Model. It’s for a school project.”

My mother turned to Puck with a cocked eyebrow, as if asking him to confirm my explanation.

“Oh, yeah,” Puck seconded, only sounding a bit like he was bullshitting his story. “America’s Next Top Model is my favorite show.”

I elbowed him in the side as I laughed. “It has nothing to do with favorite shows, Mom. We’re writing a report together on how the modeling industry affects young girls.”

“Right,” Puck agreed without hesitation.

Mom looked back and forth between the two of us, trying to sense any sense of dishonesty. And although she must have been getting it in waves and tsunamis, she uncrossed her arms and sighed. “Alright, go ahead. Good luck with your project.”

I kept my cool, maintaining a calm expression on my face as I climbed the stairs, hearing Puck’s heavier footfalls behind me.

When we got into the den, I shut the door behind us and let out a long, relieved breath. “Cool. She didn’t give you the usual interrogation session.”

“Usual?” Puck smirked. “How many guys have there been before me?”

I smirked at him and flopped onto the couch. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” But really, I only knew about the interrogation because all of Val's past boyfriends had to go through it.

He chuckled a bit as he sat down next to me, resting his arms against the back of the couch. I was very aware that his fingertips were mere centimeters away from my shoulder, that if he reached forward the slightest bit, he could brush the bit of bare skin that was showing where the collar of my t-shirt slipped down.

Blushing and fixing my shirt so my risqué thoughts would stop, I turned to face him, folding one leg underneath me. “So is there something bothering you?”

He gave me a confused look. “What?”

“Are you okay? Was there any particular reason that you asked to hang out with me?”

“What? Friends can’t just hang out with friends without there being some great conspiracy behind it?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “You’ve showed no interest in hanging out with me if I wasn’t tutoring you or making out with you. And you think that I’m just going to accept you texting me out of the blue just to hang out like friends?”

Puck stayed quiet for a long time before he shrugged. “I dunno. I just couldn’t stay in my house. And I’ve been so caught up with our, um…tutoring,” I blushed madly, “that I don’t even know where there are any parties this weekend. So I settled for you.”

Any romantic or mysterious electricity that had been in the air vanished the second he said the word “settled”. I didn’t want anyone to settle for me. I wanted someone to chase after me, to want me.

But then again, getting involved with Puck meant that romanticism was going to be nothing but a fairytale.

“I didn’t realize that I was so low on your list of forms of entertainment,” I voiced bitterly after a long silence.

“Oh, hey,” he said softly when he realized that he’d hurt my feelings, “I didn’t mean it like that, Steph.”

“If you say so,” I allowed, giving him the smallest, tightest of smiles. Fighting myself not to get emotional, I directed my attention toward the television, turning on the DVD player and letting the disc load. “But while you’re here, you might as well watch some America’s Next Top Model with me.”

“Or…” he scooted closer to me and pressed his lips against my neck gently a couple of times, “we could skip watching TV.”

I shrugged up my shoulder to cut off his access to my neck. “Back off, predator. We’re watching television. And while we are, you can sit there and think about why you’re not getting a makeout session tonight.”