Laughing Fate (13 page)

Puck smiled, her morose thoughts of Kyle disappearing. “I’m going to hold you to that! I’ll have Tony make you some nachos, okay?”

“God, no! I loved the nachos, don’t get me wrong, but I just couldn’t eat them again…too many calories.  You don’t want me to get fat do you?”

“
Well…I don’t know.  I kind of like the idea of you being chubby.”

“
You do, do you?” Potter asked stepping dangerously close.

Puck felt a spark of excitement as Potter started to stalk her menacingly until her back was to the door. “Yes, in fact I do. Then maybe your ego would go down a little.”

Potter grinned wolfishly down at Puck.  His eyes focused on her lips, and all humor faded to be replaced with hunger.  He was pressed up against her body, and could feel her soft curves through her sweater. He wondered what Puck would do if he kissed her…

Puck saw his eyes darken with hunger, and felt his gaze on her lips.  Her heartbeat sped up and she felt her own hunger rise, Potter would be a great kisser, Puck just knew it. Her eyes slowly closed and Potter leaned in closer. She could feel his breath on skin and could barely resist squirming.  She needed his kiss and she needed it right now! screamed her passion drugged brain. 

Potter’s hand slowly moved from her waist to the side of her bra, just grazing her breast. This time Puck couldn’t resist a shiver as she pressed herself closer to her angel.  He smelled like heaven, when was he going to kiss her?!

Potter groaned slightly when Puck pressed herself even closer to him. She felt like heaven, and he wanted to strip her of her clothes, he wanted to claim her as his. He wanted to completely wipe from her memory all thoughts of all other boys.  ‘SHE WAS HIS!’ roared his body, his heart, his sluggish brain.  He dipped his head closer, his lips just a fraction away from her rosy lips, when someone began to bang on his door.  He jerked away and ran a shaky hand through his hair.  What was he doing almost kissing Puck AGAIN? Couldn’t he learn his lesson?

Puck flushed bright red, and quickly opened the door.  She blindly pushed past Baby, who was standing outside, and hurried to her car.  She was mortified of what had almost happened.  Why had she responded like that to Potter? This was the second time that she had almost kissed him with Baby standing nearby.  There was something seriously wrong with her, maybe it was a tumor?

Potter watched her go, and then turned his attention on Baby. What was she doing here?

“What is SHE still doing here?” demanded Baby angrily.

“
She was just helping me clean up, what are you doing back here? Dinner is over, Baby.”

“
I know.  I just didn’t want for us to go to bed mad at each other.” Baby stepped closer to Potter and lightly kissed his lips. “Maybe we don’t have to go to sleep in separate beds either.” She put her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss, ignoring the fact that Potter wasn’t really participating.

After a long minute, Potter gently disengaged her.  He just couldn’t kiss her when all he could think about was Puck and if she had gotten home safe. 

“Baby, listen…”

“
No! Potter don’t say it! If you’re not in the mood tonight, then that’s fine. I’m leaving; I just wanted to apologize for stalking out without saying goodnight. I’ll see you later, honey.”  

Potter had been about to tell Baby that they were through, but at her words and her big blue eyes glistening with tears, he just couldn’t. Potter sighed and nodded his head. “Okay, Baby. I’m sorry too; look today just wasn’t a great day for any of us.  I’ll see you later.”

Baby smiled a watery smile and after waving her manicured hand, she walked over to her convertible and soon Potter was watching her drive away.  Man, did he have some women problems. He wasn’t attracted to his girlfriend, and he was drawn to a girl who distrusted men and had about a million secrets. Potter ran his hand through his hair again and walked inside, tonight had not gone as planned.

Chapter five: Long live the Kook!

The next couple of days Puck was kind of melancholy. She couldn’t get Potter out of her mind. The memory of being pressed up against his body was tormenting her senses.  On top of that the weather had turned sour and Puck wasn’t able to do much of anything. It was foggy and boring and it was driving Puck crazy. She missed Potter; they hadn’t talked since their problematic dinner.  She didn’t think he was avoiding her, since they had ran into each other at the market and had smiled a greeting to each other.  They had simultaneously decided to put the almost kiss out of mind and pretend as if it had never happened. It was just a fluke after all; it wasn’t like they would ever make the same mistake again.

She had the day off, but Perri was busy with her own friends. Potter was actually working and Sandy was busy at the diner. Sadly, that was all of Puck’s close friends.  There was always Tony, but she rarely did things with him by herself, besides he was probably busy with one of his ladies.  He was such a man whore!

She considered going outside and doing something active, but nothing came to mind. All she could think of was going on a hike, or body boarding, or shopping, or going on a drive. Unfortunately, she had no money, the ocean was flat, and with out a companion nothing really sounded like much fun. She had never felt so bored or so lonely in her life. In the past if she was bored she could find stuff to do, even if it was by herself. Today, Puck couldn’t think of a single thing to do by herself. She didn’t want to be alone.

Plus, seeing that picture of Drea and Kyle was making her relive memories that she didn’t want to revisit. At odd moments she would start thinking of old times and it would bring back all of the feelings that she had thought she had successfully pushed aside. The last time she had seen that picture was right after the accident had happened, and she hadn’t looked at it since.  It was sapping away all of her joy. Puck didn’t know what to do to stop the memories. She tried to distract herself with various activities, but none of them worked.

She was disgusted with herself. She’d already dealt with Drea and Kyle years ago, why was she revisiting the old pain? She’d long ago made a pact with herself that she would only remember the good times with her old friends, not the bad.

She hated days like this. She liked to think of herself as a happy energetic strong young woman. Nothing could get her down, smile and march on little trooper... but as much as she kept telling herself that, she still felt blue. She also found herself longing for something that others took for granted as a basic right. She wanted a partner, a playmate, her dearest wish was to have someone to love. It was something that Puck would never be able to have. It just hurt to see everyone partnering up with someone. Sandy was dating a man that she absolutely loved, Potter had his blond bimbo, and Perri could have her pick of young men.

With out a friend with her, Puck had nothing to do. So she lounged around the house, ate chocolate, tried to read a book (but ended up burning it just for fun), but even practicing arson didn’t bring her joy. Puck needed a hobby, she needed a life. So feeling blue, Puck decided that doing anything at all would be better than just sitting around, feeling sorry for herself.

She started off at the gym. She exercised for half an hour, sweated profusely and left energized for more activity, even if she was still down in the dumps. Next, she went back to the house, searched for her lost credit card and after an hour of searching for it, she smiled in triumph as she saw the shiny blue card. She did a little victory dance and then ran out the door.

She had found a tiny blue portal to hell. Suddenly the empty day was filled with joy. She had a two thousand dollar limit...what would she do? Her worrisome conscience tried to remind her of the reason WHY she had hid her credit card. It had taken two years to pay it off last time. Puck pushed all warning voices out of her head and hopped in her car.

She drove an hour to a bigger city and walked around the mall. She was humming a little to herself as she walked down the mall floors to her favorite store in the whole wide world. It was called Earl’s Surf and Skate. It had cute clothes, awesome surf boards, and the smell of surf wax. What could be better than that? She headed towards the clothes and looked at the hoodies. There was a cute black Billabong sweater for fifty dollars. She picked it up along with two pairs of pants, three shirts that were to die for, and a pair of flip flops.

She was walking towards the fitting rooms when she saw the purses. Hmmm... Puck browsed the purses, but didn’t see any that were super cute. So using self control, she walked on by. She tried on the clothes, and she had to admit that she looked dang cute in the jeans. They made her small butt look bigger and her legs look even longer than normal. They were just tight enough to make her look dang sexy, but not like a hooker. She smiled at her self in the mirror and did a little dance. She wondered idly what Potter would think of these jeans.

She pulled off her old shirt and pulled on one of the new shirts. It was a little too tight and it hit her right at her belly button, so if she raised her arms at all it would probable rise up to show off her belly ring... which wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. Potter and Perri had already seen it and Potter had seemed to like looking at it that one night. She could buy a new cuter belly ring too, one that would really drive him wild.

‘WO! Hold on there Puck!’ she yelled in her head. Where had those thoughts come from? She didn’t care what Potter thought of her. She didn’t want him to look at her THAT way. She wanted his respect and notice as a human being, not as a sex object or potential girlfriend! Besides, he had a girlfriend, that stupid bimbo that had been on the other side of the door when Potter had almost kissed her!

Puck’s good mood went right out the window. She stripped off the clothes and pulled on her old ones. It was a pair of faded blue jeans with a rip in the knee and a long black t shirt that had a crazy looking monkey on it. The caption read: The monkey in my closet is trying to kill me! Her hair was pulled back in a hasty pony tail with fly away hairs everywhere. She really did not look her best. She stared at the clothes in her arms. Should she get them?

The pants made her look dang sexy, but the thought of dressing up for Potter scared the hell out of her. Was it possible that subconsciously Puck was attracted to Potter and wanted to be with him??? If that was so, then Puck had to nip it in the bud! She did NOT want a relationship with anyone. Admitting to herself that she was lonely was not the same as wanting a relationship, especially a relationship with someone who would only end up hurting her.

She reviewed the past days that she had spent with Potter. Had she given the impression that she liked him in that way? She had slept on his lap...did friends do that? It wasn’t like she had willingly sat on his lap; he had pulled her down on his! It was all Potter’s fault, stupid dolt! The other day they had almost kissed, but surely they were allowed a free pass on that one.  As long as they didn’t do it again, then it never happened in the first place!

Well all she had to do was be very careful around him so that neither her subconscious or Potter would think she was interested in THAT way. All she wanted from Potter was his friendship, maybe he could even teach her how to surf? She would love to learn how. ‘Okay,’ Puck told herself, ‘you can buy the sexy clothes, but they are not in any way intended to attract a guy’s attention. They are for you and your self esteem, nothing else!’ Happy with that, Puck walked out of the dressing room and walked smack into a body.

"Oh! I’m sorry!” She cried as she bent down to pick up her fallen clothes. She mentally berated herself for being stupid and she gathered all of the clothes. She stood up and really looked at the person in front of her. Her eyes widened in shock and she took a quick step backwards. She couldn’t believe that he was really right there, in front of her.

At the same time, he stared at her in shock and took a step forward. He grabbed her arm in a loose grasp and said, "Puck is that really you? How are you doing? I haven’t seen you in three years! You’re looking really good."

Puck stared at him with apprehensive eyes and said, "Hi Kyle. It’s been a while, how are you?" She couldn’t believe her eyes. Right in front of her was Kyle, her ex boyfriend whom she had loved with all of her little teen’s heart. Well, she was an adult now, and her heart had no place for Kyle. She gently pulled her arm out of his grasp and took another step back.

This time Kyle didn’t follow. His eyes glanced up and down her body before settling on her eyes. "I’m good, real good. I was just thinking about you...and here you are. How strange is that?"

Puck smiled a little awkwardly and said, "Weird alright! Well, I gots to go, so..."

"Don’t leave, Puck. Please? I haven’t seen you since that night... I was your friend once before, can’t we just go back to that? We had good times once. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry, Puck. I’m so sorry."

She hated to hear Kyle speak in that sad voice. Puck remembered how Kyle had been before, when they had been friends. Kyle had been a happy sort, always game for the next adventure, loved to have fun. He hadn’t changed his appearance much, but his manner had changed.

He had matured into a responsible adult. He didn’t have that devil may care look in his eyes, and his mouth had lost that ever present smile. Puck didn’t like to see him like that, so she smiled a real smile and stepped forward. He was right; he had been her friend once. And Puck valued loyalty to her friends above all else.