Bumps in the road | J. Puckerman (1)

Auditions

We had just won nationals and were all riding on Cloud 9. We had seniors graduating so that meant that we had to hold auditions to fill their Places. Blaine and I along with the rest of the Glee club and Kurt were watching and helping judge the auditions. I have no idea why Kurt was there. He wasn't in glee anymore and I quite frankly was ready for him to move to New York so I never had to see him again. Blaine said they were going to have a long-distance relationship but Kurt could barely pull his weight in their short distance relationship.

I thought back to when I auditioned for the glee club. I sang Teenage Dream and Rachel Berry accused me of lip-syncing. She and Kurt formed this little pact or group or whatever you want to call it to make my life -and Blaine's for that matter- a living hell.

We were watching people audition and everyone's voices started to blend together. They all sounded the same and none of them stood out. I started zoning out, as long as I would clap, smile, and nod it would look like I was paying attention. My daydreaming was suddenly interrupted by an amazing voice. A voice that didn't blend and did stand out "Some things we don't talk about" the voice sang, he was singing Never say never it was a risky song choice but he was singing it and he was singing it well.

I watched the beautiful boy sing, taking in every detail that I could from my seat that was suddenly too far from the stage. He had brown eyes, beautiful chestnut skin, his black hair was neatly cut and slightly longer on top so you could see his tight -and perfect- curls.

"He is so sexy" I heard Sugar say, Sam quickly turned her down. I tried to agree with her but I couldn't bring myself to speak and miss even a second of hearing his voice.

Apparently, I was alone in my thinking because Mr. Shuster cut him off in the middle of his performance. "Okay Jake, thank you," he said. I wanted to yell at him to let the boy, Jake, continue his song.

Jake looked crushed, then he looked mad. After being told he couldn't finish his song he threw a music stand across the stage causing me to jump. "Well that was rude," Kurt said, and I rolled my eyes. Kurt was rude, Jake just had a reaction.

"I'm going to go talk to him," I decided, getting up from my chair.

"I- no. No. No, you are not. Emily Anderson, you are not going after the person who threw a music stand across the freaking stage. Bad plan Emily! One of your very worst plans. Think again Miss girl." Blaine said, stumbling over his words in an attempt to make me stay.

"Okay, I am going to go talk to him because he seems upset and deserves a person. He deserves a friend Bug, I just want to put myself out there. Trust me? Please?" I asked him, my eyes bigger than I intended them to be.

Blaine kissed my head and helped me across the people to keep me from hurting myself. My body hated me enough it would not have been helpful for me to fall flat on my face especially because I just got over a stupid flare-up. "Be careful please and find me after."

I quickly walked after him, "Jake!" I yelled, knowing that I would not be able to catch up with him. "Hey! Ummm my name is Emily! You should stop walking because I'm slow?!" I called after him, knowing that if I ran I would fall flat on my face or dislocate some joint and neither of those things were the vibe I needed for the day.

"What?" he snapped, turning around "are you gonna cut me off in the middle of something too? No thanks."

"Emily. Emily Anderson." I said, clearing my throat. "You are like um an um... haha you are a great singer, simply very big fan. Ten out of ten going to yell at all of them because... yeah great. Am I making any sense?" I sounded like an idiot. I wasn't making any sense, but I couldn't get my words to work the way I wanted them to. "Lunch? I mean... who do you eat lunch with?

He walked back towards me laughing "Trust me, you don't want to be seen eating with me, Emily Anderson. You don't want to be seen with someone like me"

"See I like to make my own impressions of people. And what is 'someone like you' Jake... I don't know your last name?" I asked him with a smile on my face.

"Ha, well if you want to make your own impression of me, my last name is not going to help."

"Oh Kay" I sang, "well, we are simply back to who do you eat lunch with"

"Me, myself, and I," he said smiling proudly "Oh and the random Cheerio every now and then that wants to hook up"

"Well that's... fun," I said, taking a second to think about what I would say next. "You also sit with the shy girl with an overprotective big brother. Also, I like your smile.... and I said that out loud, shutting up now." Clearly, my second to think was not long enough.

"Based on the way he was looking at you, I would say the one with the bow tie is the brother?" he asked "I highly doubt he would want you to have lunch with me."

I shook my head, "He likes me happy, and I think that you could make me happy. Oh Shit," I said, smacking my hand to my mouth. "Now it sounds like I am one of the Cheerios trying to hook up with you. That is not what...what I meant. Like your voice and simply being your friend. That, that is what I meant would make me happy."

He smiled a huge smile that could light up a whole town, "Puckerman." he said, his face slightly falling.

"Hmm?" I asked. "What about Puck?"

"Jake Puckerman. Noah is my brother or my half brother," he amended. "I just found out that he even existed and apparently he is a bigger jerk than I am and also hooked up with every girl. Including you."

I quickly shook my head, "We flirted some, mostly to piss off my brother. Nothing more. I never had any feelings for him."

The bell rang and my face fell to a frown before I could fix it back to a smile. "Okay then, Emily Anderson, I guess I will see you at lunch." He said, fixing his face in the same way I fixed mine. Was he upset that over conversation was over like I was?

"I will see you at lunch, Jake Puckerman," I said, walking back to where Blaine and the rest of the glee club were sitting. "He is nice, you are all mean, he should be in glee club."

"Damn Emily, you must really love him," Kurt said with a laugh.

"You don't have to be in love with someone to be nice to them and you can be in love with someone and still be mean to them. So with absolutely no respect, shut up when you don't know what you are talking about Lady Hummel" I snapped, using my favorite nickname that Santana gave him.

Blaine watched our small squabble and then grabbed my bag, "You're eating lunch with him aren't you?"

"Only mostly. You love me," I said, hugging him and walking out of the auditorium with his arm wrapped around me. "I've got this."