“I- I” Kurt tried to think around his racing heart “Wait, how do you know my name?”
Blaine’s eyes widened like a deer caught in headlights.
“I …. Umm….” Suddenly Blaine was very interested in his own shuffling shoes as a red blush crept up to his face “I heard someone call you that… that umm…. You know that…. That girl the… umm… the short one.”
Kurt couldn’t help but feel that that was a lie but a chuckle left his mouth before he could comment on it.
Blaine looked up at the chuckle, confused.
“Why are you laughing?” He wondered aloud.
“Well…” Kurt knew what he was about to say might come off as a bit mean but quite honestly he had to say it “I don’t think you really have the right to call anyone short.” He smiled down at Blaine, hoping to make it look like he meant no harm, but he was trying so hard to not burst out laughing that he wasn’t sure if it worked.
“I’m not-” Blaine pouted “I’m not that short, I’m just…” he pulled at the bottom of his jacket “I’m fun-sized.”
Kurt couldn’t help but compare Blaine to a little kid who had just been insulted and burst out laughing. He looked at Blaine and expected him to be offended, pissed at him, ready to turn around, deciding that Kurt wasn’t worth his time, but what he saw was much worse.
No.
Stop it.
Kurt’s laughter faded when a tight feeling took over his heart as Blaine looked up at him with a million-watt smile and a warmth in his eyes.
“Now, Mr. Hummel, it’s not very nice to make fun of the new kid is it?” A mischievous smirk took over Blaine’s features.
“Why are you even here?” Kurt scoffed.
Blaine actually took a step back at the shock of the tone of Kurt’s words.
“I’m sorry” Kurt sighed, instantly regretting his snapping at Blaine “I just- I mean, don’t you have friends you’d rather hang out with?”
“Kurt, I-” Blaine bit his bottom lip, and looked at the floor “I actually-”
“Blaaaaaaiiiine” A whiny girl’s voice came from across the hall “What are you doing with that loser?”
“Do not-” Blaine quickly whipped around to tell the girl to stop being such a bitch but as he did he felt Kurt close his locker and leave.
He stood there for a second and was about to chase after him but just at that moment the bell rang. The bell for one of the few periods that Blaine had without Kurt.
“Damn it” he said under his breath.
The girl -Tanya- came to stand next to him.
“Gosh Blaine,” her whiney voice had never annoyed him as much as it did at that moment “why were you talking to that loser?”
“Don’t calm him a loser” he snapped through gritted teeth.
Tanya jumped a little at the bitterness of his voice- something no one in the school had heard before. Blaine quickly caught himself and fixed his mistake.
“Sorry,” He smiled at her “It’s just- it’s really not cool to be mean to other people.
“Well” she rolled her eyes “I wouldn’t have to call him one if he weren’t such a-” she saw a look of look of warning in Blaine’s eyes and quickly thought of something else to say “I’m just saying, it’s not really smart to hang out with that-” she struggled to find a word that she felt Blaine wouldn’t get mad at “guy.”
“Kurt” Blaine quickly responded.
“What?” Tanya wrinkled her nose a little in confusion.
“Kurt,” Blaine explained “the guy’s name is Kurt, and maybe if anyone cared to get to know him they might see that he’s not so bad.”
“Whatever” Tanya dismissed the subject with a wave of her hand “I’m just saying- if you start hanging out with him then you could become, like, so unpopular.”
Blaine gave up on trying to make the girl understand and started walking toward his class.
He crossed through the door just as the tardy bell rang and quickly took his seat.
Throughout the whole period he couldn’t help but wonder. Wonder why Kurt had such a cold look in his eyes while talking to him. Why that day a year ago Kurt had run away. Why in this last week Kurt kept running away every single time they caught sight of each other. Why Kurt couldn’t seem to look at Blaine without tensing up and getting a look that Blaine felt could cut through him.
Had Blaine done something to hurt Kurt? Did he disgust Kurt?
At first he thought that maybe he had been wrong, maybe Kurt wasn’t gay and that one day in Dalton had been a mistake. But that fear was ended when on the first day of McKinley, when he came out, people told him “Oh like that loser guy Kurt? But you’re so much cooler!”
If it wasn’t that then maybe Kurt didn’t feel the same way he did. Didn’t feel like just grabbing him and kissing him, losing himself in his arms and never letting go, never knowing anything more than each other.
What had Blaine done?
Maybe he hadn’t done anything, maybe Kurt would never like him, maybe his life was meant to be a cheesy drama where he always dreams of a boy who will never want him back.
The teacher noticed how zoned out Blaine was but chose not to comment on it like she would have with any other student. The teachers loved Blaine just as much as everyone else did.
That’s another thing that confused Blaine.
At Dalton he had been popular because of his position in the Warblers, but at his old school Blaine had been hated. He had been teased and taunted, beaten and bruised. He had run.
Blaine had run from what scared him.
Maybe that’s why Kurt was running from him.
Maybe Blaine scared him.
He slammed his head down on the desk at the thought.
What is wrong with you? He thought to himself Why would you scare him? Why are you thinking that? You are making absolutely no sense. He sighed Why does he make me feel this way?
He shot up as the bell rang, he hadn’t bothered to take anything out of his bag with how distracted he was, and so he just grabbed it and walked out of the class.
He pressed his fingers to his temples and closed his eyes as he let out a big sigh.
He heard it before he saw it.
The bang of a body against a row of lockers. The echo of a much too familiar word filling the hallway. The heavy footsteps as the assailant walked away.
Blaine tensed up, the memory much too fresh in his mind. He braced for the impact of hands shoving him, of the vents of the lockers digging into his side.
A few seconds passed before he let himself relax.
He opened his eyes only to feel worse as he saw Kurt slumped on the ground, leaning against the lockers.
“Kurt!” he stumbled on his own feet as he ran towards him.
He reached down to help him up and would have rather been shot through the chest than watch as Kurt flinched away from him.
“What are you doing?” Kurt snapped as he stood up, wiping the tears from his eyes with his sleeves.
“I’m-” Blaine had to fight to keep from scooping up Kurt in his arms and kissing away his tears “I’m trying to help you.” The words barely came out as a whisper.
“Why?” Kurt let out a dark chuckle “So I can-” Blaine saw Kurt tense up as his eyes grew huge, looking like he just stopped himself from saying something that he felt he’d regret later.
“You know what?” a shudder went through Kurt’s body as he clenched his jaw and squeezed his eyes shut to keep the tears in his eyes from spilling “Just- just leave me alone, okay? I just- I don’t think I can- It’s just better if you didn’t come near me anymore.” He couldn’t look Blaine in the eyes as he turned and walked away.
Blaine just stood there.
Why?
What had he done?
He would be crying were it not for the fact that he was too shocked to feel anything.
He walked mechanically to his next class and all he could think was that whatever it was, whatever he had done, he would fix it.
He would make Kurt Hummel love him back.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Kurt slipped down to the floor as he leaned back against door of the empty room.
He had almost told Blaine Anderson that he loved him.
He had to make sure that would never happen again.