Laughing Fate Read online

  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 he
r. 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.

  "I’m sorry Kyle. It’s just that seeing you here after all these years, it surprised me. You know how I don’t like surprises."

  Kyle laughed and his lips turned up a little at the corner. "Liar! You love surprises, remember when we all went up to the mountain, and you were blindfolded and we surprised you with the party around the bonfire? You were so happy you were jumping up and down and laughing?"

  Puck laughed at the memory. They had shown up outside of her window and kidnapped her. In the car they had blind folded her and drove way up into the mountains. When they got there, Kyle had slowly removed the blindfold and kissed her softly on the lips. ‘Happy anniversary Puck, I love you,’ he had whispered against her lips and then he took a step back and allowed her to see what was before her. Drea had been off to the side grinning from ear to ear and behind Drea was a raging bonfire and a crowd of teenagers from their home town. They were good fun loving people that Puck had hung out with before. That night they had gotten drunk and sang campfire songs and acted like the stupid teenagers they were. Good times, but definitely in the past.

  "Yeah, I remember Kyle. That was a real good day. I don’t much like surprises now though. I guess I’ve changed some. But look at you! You look the same as I remember, how’s life treating you?" He was wearing a leather jacket and his hair was spiked up a little. He looked good, healthy.

  "Good, I’m going to college to become a teacher, can you believe it? I’m going to be a history teacher! Just don’t tell any of our old friends that, they’d think I was growing old on them!" Kyle smiled, but it didn’t really reach his eyes. He talked some about his life, he had a new girl friend named Kate and he explained why he decided on being a teacher.

  His reasons didn’t really surprise Puck. Sure, he’d been a rebel as a kid, but he’d been smart and he really loved kids. He would make a great teacher, Puck was sure of it. She told him that too. She also told him about Perri and her parents living on boat. They talked of everything and nothing and then Puck said that she really did have to leave.

  She was glad to say goodbye to him. Sure he had once been her friend and her boyfriend, but that was all in the past. That night three years ago, things had been said that couldn’t be forgotten. They’d both been so hurt and angry and had taken it out on each other. That night, neither one of them had wanted to see each other again. When she had left the hospital, she knew that she was leaving behind both of her friends. She had moved on, she had a life that had no room for an old memory.

  She walked out of the store after spending four hundred dollars and quickly left the mall. She didn’t want to run into Kyle again. She never wanted to see him again to be truthful. She wished him the best life possible, as long as it was far away from hers. She got into her car and locked all the doors. No one had ever hurt her the way Kyle had, the memories of their last three months together were not what she wanted to think about right now. She was on a shopping spree; it was a carefree day darn it! Puck breathed in deeply, letting it out slowly, letting the peace flow back into her. Today was going to be a fun day.

  She looked around her and didn’t see anyone coming. She stripped off her shirt and pulled on the too tight Roxy shirt. Then she shimmied out of the faded blue jeans and pulled on the sexy pair of jeans. It was a quirk Puck had. She always had to put on her new clothes right away, usually just in her car. There had been many a time where she frantically tried to pull on a shirt and had flashed people that had suddenly appeared. It always seemed that when you needed to put clothes on fast, that they resisted, but in situations like this when no one was around, they were easy to put on, very weird. She put the keys in the ignition and pulled out of the mall’s parking lot.

  What to do now? It was only four in the afternoon. Still lots to do and lots of cash to blow. She drove around lost for a little bit but soon grew bored of that. She glanced at the clock again. Tonight Perri had mentioned that she was spending the night at Kelly’s house, some chick that Perri went to school with.

  Puck had never met her, but she trusted Perri. Now if it had been anyone else mentioning that they were going to spend the night at a strange friend’s house, then she’d be worried. That is always code for ‘I’m going to go do something that you would not approve of’, heck Puck had used that a million times while growing up. But Perri was different; she was a good kid who would never think of doing anything wrong.

  So Puck would be alone in their house all night. This was her only day off for the week. Since she had to work so hard, she liked to play even harder. So far she was not accomplishing the goal today. She pulled back onto the freeway and headed back home. She really didn’t want to spend the rest of the day at home by herself. She glanced outside her window at the beach, the waves were picking up some. She even thought she saw a little bit of sunshine.

  She debated whether or not to go to the beach. It definitely wasn’t sunny, but it wasn’t freezing outside and the waves were getting bigger. She could swing by Trinidad, a little town outside of Sunny cove, and buy a cute swimming suit there, that way she wouldn’t have to drive to her house. She would just need to drive straight to the sea. ‘Good plan’, Puck thought to herself as she increased her speed. The night was already beginning to look better. ‘A day at the beach is better than a thousand elsewhere’, Puck thought happily.

  She pulled off at the Trinidad exit and drove to the little surf shack that stood at the dock. It was an awesome surf store that was about as big as a large shed. It had the cutest swimsuits though and great prices on everything from surf boards to beach towels. She walked straight to the swim suits. She instinctively grabbed a tankini that was black and would be modest. But then she put them back. She had a million pairs of swim suits like that at home.

  This was a shopping spree, a wild and crazy day. She needed a swim suit that was wild and crazy too. So she walked over to the bikinis and looked at each one. There was a really cute one that she would never normally think to buy. It looked like it belonged in the Victoria Secret swimsuit catalog and it was dang cute.

  She saw the surfboards and a wild and crazy idea formed in her head. She could learn how to surf! She had the money to buy everything she needed! She could really actually do it! She walked over to the clerk
, a dorky looking boy with pimples and a bad hair cut, and smiled at him.

  "Hi. I’m Puck and I want to learn how to surf. What do I need to buy?"

  "Uh... well first off you don’t want to go out by yourself, the ocean can be dangerous."

  "I know that surfer boy, I have grown up on the ocean and can do everything from swimming and body boarding to skim boarding and body surfing in the ocean. I just need to learn how to surf. I know that I need a surfboard, a leash, sex wax and all that; I just need to know what kind of surf board I need. Also I need to know the kind of sex wax for our waters and all of that. If you can’t help me then just shut up and I’ll find out for my self."

  The sales clerk stared at Puck nervously and said a little bit shakily, "Umm...no I can help you... uh, you’ll need a used surf board because you’ll probably ding it up pretty bad. And it should be a long board. It makes it easy to catch small waves and it’s easier to get your balance on. As for sex wax the green label is for cold waters like ours and the board should come with a leash.

  You should also get a wet suit because our waters are dang cold and you really should have someone help you learn to surf, but if you really don’t want that then I suggest this instructional book to help you learn the basics, but the true help is practice. You got to be determined to surf and practice a lot. Early morning before work is the best, say around five or six? The waves are awesome then."

  He walked around the store as he talked, handing her the sex wax and the surf rack and everything else she’d need. She bought the yellow long board he recommended and the book, but refused the wet suit. She hated wetsuits; they felt all stiff and uncomfortable. She walked out of the store, her card maxed out once again, but she was oh so happy.