AN: Please don't hate me. Hate Blaine or Mrs. Anderson ;)

Chapter 13: Mother Dearest - Part 2

Kurt

Kurt had years of practice hiding his true emotions and he was thankful for that when Blaine drove him home after a wonderful night at the theater. He shouldn't have let himself hope that Blaine taking him out to see the show was more than a friendly gesture, but he still had and so it had hurt when Blaine had pulled his hand away and had kept his distance after the woman had assumed they were a couple.

He knew there was only one thing to do to get over Blaine fast – keep his distance. Luckily, Rachel always wanted to hang out, and so it wasn't too hard to come up with excuses as to why he couldn't hang out with Blaine.

"Are you avoiding me again?" Blaine asked him a few days later, and Kurt made sure to look all confused. "I don't know what you mean Blaine. You drive me to school every morning and we work together on Saturdays. And wasn't it you who told me I could use more friends and to give Rachel a chance? Maybe you should take your own advice. Sam and Puck always invite you to play video games after school."

"I drive you home after school," Blaine argued and Kurt rolled his eyes. "Rachel can drive me or I can walk. All I'm saying is that you could probably use a few friends too. We can't spend all our time with just each other." Even though I want to, his heart added.

He knew the smile on Blaine's face was fake when he left, but he didn't know what Blaine wanted from him. If they were just friends, than it shouldn't matter to Blaine that Kurt wanted to hang out with other people as well.

Soon his mom realized too that Blaine wasn't around much any more, and she used every opportunity to ask if Blaine had finally come to his senses and realized he was too good to hang out with Kurt. Kurt didn't bother correcting her because she had been right. Blaine wasn't interested and it would be just pathetic if he kept trying to pursue something that would never happen.

So when Rachel invited him over to her house one Friday after school, it wasn't so hard for him to cancel on Friday night dinner with the Hummels. Rachel's dads fascinated him, because what in the world made them decide Ohio was a good place to raise a child. All he could think about was that he wished he could have what they had one day if he ever managed to get out of Lima.

Blaine wasn't at the shop Saturday afternoon, but Burt wasn't willing to tell him where he was when he picked him up and drove him over to the garage. His ribs were finally healed enough that Burt was starting to show him how to do oil changes and minor repairs, but he had to admit he missed Blaine's presence while he was working.

Just as he was finishing up, Blaine's car pulled up front and Kurt pulled his coat on to go out and meet him.

"Where were you this afternoon?" he asked, immediately hating how clingy he sounded. Blaine blushed before he answered. "Oh, ah, I had coffee with this guy I met in the mall."

Even though he knew this would happen one day, he felt his heart break when Blaine told him he had been on a date. Coffee was there thing now, he had thought, which was stupid because it was just two friends hanging out after school from time to time after all.

"That's great," he forced himself to say, quickly putting his mask back in place so Blaine wouldn't realize how he really felt about it.

"Yeah? I mean it was just coffee, you know," Blaine stuttered, looking mildly uncomfortable and Kurt quickly changed the subject, telling Blaine what he had learned today.

"Hey do you want to hang out tomorrow? Maybe head over to the Lima Bean. I want to make it up to you for leaving you alone here today," Blaine suggested after Kurt had changed back into his regular clothes.

"I can't. I made plans with Rachel, Tina and Mercedes," he told Blaine, lying only a little. The girls had asked him if he wanted to join them for a trip to the mall, but Kurt had told them he didn't know yet what his and Blaine's plans were. Now, it sounded like a good idea though, because he didn't want to go to the Lima Bean with Blaine, knowing he had a date with someone else there.

"Oh, maybe another time then?" Blaine asked, looking disappointed but Kurt couldn't care about that if he wanted to protect his own heart.

It was weird hanging out with a group of girls but he had to admit he had fun with them. So much fun that he agreed to let them come over to his house so they could model the clothes they had bought for one another.

His mom's car wasn't in the driveway to his relief and he quickly led the three girls into his basement room, hoping they wouldn't judge him for the way he lived.

"I wish I had this much space," Mercedes gushed. "I hate having to share with my siblings."

Kurt breathed out a sigh of relief before he propped his mirror up on his table so the girls could look in it. He sat down on his bed, while the girls took turns showing off their purchases and he must have lost time during it, because suddenly it was close to six and his mom was coming down the stairs, a fake smile on her face.

"Kurt honey, you promised to help with dinner tonight. Your friends can come back another time," she told them sweetly. Tina, Rachel and Mercedes hugged him before saying goodbye to his mom who was still acting all nice and sweet but Kurt knew she would drop the act as soon as his friends were gone.

Unfortunately, he wasn't wrong.

"Have you finally decided you want to be one of them?" she sneered while Kurt was putting a pot with water on the stove. "Well, at least you don't have to worry - you are already half way there."

Kurt tried to drown her out. If there was one thing he was certain off was that he identified as male, and so his mom could say whatever she wanted about it making him a girl for wanting to hang out with them, because he knew it wasn't true. She just couldn't accept that there were people who willingly spent time with him, but she wouldn't bring him down this time.

His mom stalked off to the living room when she realized her words weren't affecting him, the sound of the TV soon filling the house and Kurt started humming his new favorite song, 'Defying Gravity' under his breath. He had had an amazing day with the girls, not even thinking about Blaine and his date most of the time, and not even his mom would bring him down today.

November changed into early December and brought with it a surprise. He and Blaine were still keeping their distance outside of school apart from having coffee before driving to work on Saturdays and reinstated Friday night dinners with the Hummels, his mother's words lodged in his brain. He didn't want to become that pathetic person who threw himself at other boys and he knew the only way to stop her from mocking him, was not to give her any new ammunition. His diary was now buried under a lose floorboard but he had stopped writing in it anyway after his mom had discovered it.

It was a Tuesday, one of Blaine's football days, when the doorbell rang and Blaine's dad stood in front of the door, his hands buried in his thick winter coat.

"I heard you got a clean bill of health during your last checkup," he said after shaking his head to Kurt's invitation to come in. "So I thought we should start this before it starts snowing again and the roads will be harder to navigate."

Kurt looked at him with a puzzled expression on his face. "Oh, did Blaine not tell you?" Kurt shook his head. "Tell me what? We haven't spent much time together lately," he added and did he just imagine it or did Burt look sad.

"That I have agreed to teach you how to drive. That is if you want."

Kurt's eyes widened in surprise before he nodded enthusiastically. He had always felt bad for missing out on one of the essential teenage experiences when he had turned sixteen, but his parents had never allowed him to take driver's ed because it would have given him the freedom to go places if he got his hands on their car keys.

"Then grab a coat and let's go." Kurt eagerly followed Burt to his truck and got into the passenger seat. They drove for a while, Burt humming off key to some country song on the radio, until the reached the parking lot of an abandoned hardware store on the outskirts of Lima.

"I though we start out with automatic before I teach how to drive a manual, because if you want to work in my garage you need to be able to do both," Burt explained as the switched seats before showing Kurt how to adjust his seat and the mirror.

"Now but your right foot on the break – that's the big one and put the car into drive." Kurt followed the instructions and waited for further instructions.

"Now slowly get off the break and once they car is moving you can put your right foot on the gas – the right pedal – but carefully." Kurt followed the instructions again, but the car jerked forward when he put his foot on the gas too fast. Burt chuckled and Kurt felt his face heat up.

"Hey, don't worry. Blaine was a lot worse when I first taught him. I was regretting getting him a car for his sixteenth birthday for weeks because he wasn't the best driver in the beginning. Just try again."

Ten minutes later, Kurt was able to smoothly drive around the parking lot, but he still argued with Burt for a few moments when he told him to drive out onto the street. Burt finally relented, but told him they would do it again during the next few weeks because he wanted Kurt to be ready to take his driver's test as soon as possible.

"Things are going better now at home?" Burt asked when they were driving back to his house and Kurt mulled it over for a few seconds. Compared to how things had been before, things were better now. He didn't have bruises on his body anymore, because his dad was gone, and the glee club managed to protect him at school most of the time. And though his mom's words had sent him to his room crying or refusing to eat dinner, it could be worse.

So he nodded, hoping Burt wouldn't keep asking. He felt Blaine's dad's eyes on him and he tried not to fidget in his seat, but eventually Burt nodded. "You know you are always welcome at our place if things are not okay at home, right?" he asked as they were pulling into Kurt's driveway and Kurt nodded again. He had no doubt, the Hummels would take him in for a few days, but eventually social services would get involved and would take him away, if he ran away from home. And now that his mom had finally found a job she wasn't around that much anyway, so he would survive living at home till he turned eighteen in May.

The next two weeks he and Burt met up multiple times until Kurt finally felt comfortable driving the truck on the street and managed to park it between two bins without running one of them over.

It was a Sunday evening when they returned to the Hummels house, because Kurt had left one of his books there on Friday. Kurt had just left the house, waiting for Burt to drive him back home, when a black BMW pulled up front and Blaine and a boy he didn't know got out of the car. They both hugged each other before the other boy got back into his car and drove away.

Kurt's heart clenched painfully because apparently all his keeping the distance had not helped him get over his infatuation with Blaine. He quickly hopped into Burt's car, pretending he hadn't seen Blaine, and didn't react to Burt's raised eyebrows, because as much as Burt was the father he had always wanted to have, he was not ready to tell him he had the hots for his son.

Blaine

"Did you have fun with David?" his dad asked once he returned from dropping off Kurt. He was sad he hadn't gotten the chance to talk to Kurt but the other must not have seen him. Blaine nodded. "I forgot how much I misses hanging out with the Warblers and David has been a bit lost since Wes graduated."

"And what about this Jeremiah? You still seeing him?" Blaine frowned before he shook his head. Why couldn't his dad just let it go? "We didn't really click. All I could think about when we were having coffee was how much more fun I usually have with Kurt. And don't tell me I told you so. You were right, it was stupid to try to distract myself with someone else. I promise I'll talk to Kurt soon. If he still wants to talk to me then," he added with a frown on his face.

He understood Kurt wanted to have other friends as well, and he actually enjoyed hanging out with some of the guys in Glee, but he was seeing Kurt less and less these day and it always felt like they were drifting further apart then growing closer.

He just wished his dad hadn't been right and he had already blown his chance.

Up Next: Christmas