SHARK IN THE WATER
feat. kurt hummel. & noah puckerman ( @pvckerstud ).
summary. puck says he’s not gonna bully kurt anymore but he has his doubts and decides to test the waters.
when. monday, 15 april 2019.
where. william mckinley high school hallway.
warnings. mentions of bullying.
The possibility that Noah Puckerman had finally decided to stop bullying Kurt didn’t seem entirely genuine or plausible, at least in his opinion. They had gone through the same routine for years: morning tosses into the dumpster, being shoved into and inside of lockers, stealing his shampoo in the locker room, stuffing his locker with feminine sanitary products, and the list continues. Nothing particularly creative, though, always hurtful. But only when it was Puck. They had a past and one that he didn’t forget about. The other guys could do whatever they wanted and he’d look past it, blame it on pee brains and small packages. But Puck had been his friend for years and then, when hormones started pumping through their systems at high speed, everything changed.
Maybe it wouldn’t hurt so much if Kurt only knew why. What could he have done to lose his friend and gain a tormentor? The kinship they’d had died quickly as middle school progressed and they transferred to McKinley High. When it came to Puck, he had conflicting emotions.
So when he got the text that said he wasn’t going to be bothering Kurt anymore, he was surprised. It didn’t seem likely and he couldn’t understand what prompted the change. Blaine surely would have spoken up sooner if it was just the fact that he held some kind of authority - over Puck or the student body. But he couldn’t piece together what Blaine would have over the boy that would make him stop. He wasn’t ungrateful and it certainly changed his perspective on school and the span of time left until graduation. It held promise of being easier, at least in some way. There were still bullies and those that would do anything to make him feel small. But one card pulled from the stack was better than none. And this card had always had a way of making words cut deep.
Even though he’d been assured that he was in no danger of a morning in the dumpster, Kurt avoided wearing anything that would stain too easily. He still had his doubts and it was better to be safe concerning the precious fabrics that he wanted to wear. Those could be saved for the weekend and after school events. At least until he was sure that things were really going to change.
The hallway was crowded as the school day was just starting and Kurt moved through his peers, side-stepping lockers and weaving between freshmen. He found his locker, spun the dial to unlock the padlock, and pulled the door open to stuff his bag inside. The crashing of metal around him made him jump and Kurt glanced around until his eyes landed on Noah Puckerman leaning against those lockers across from his own. Turning, with a hand on the door of his locker to keep himself steady, Kurt took a deep breath. He needed to test the waters. See if the words in Puck’s text had actually been genuine.
“Nice shirt,” he mused, nervous, placing his hands on his hips as he fumbled to gain the courage. “Which dollar store reject pile did you pull it out of?”