Blaine forces Bethany into the bathroom just as their mother walks in the front door, two hours after dinner and looking completely exhausted.

“Mommy!” Bethany calls, rushing past Blaine who stands with a towel in his hand. “Tell Blaine I don’t have to take a bath tonight!”

Their mother, Kathy, collapses into a chair at the dinner table, toeing off her pumps and sighing in frustration.

“This again?” she asks tiredly.

“She’s been running around outside all day,” Blaine tries to tell her. “She’s all sweaty and gross.”

“So she’s sweaty, Blaine, it isn’t the end of the world.”

“I just washed our sheets, mom.”

“Wash them again tomorrow,” she says, waving the issue away with her hand. “Go get ready for bed, Beth.”

“Will you read me a story?” Bethany asks, begging their mother with her eyes. “Please, mommy, please!”

“Blaine can read you a story, honey.”

“But Blaine read me a story last night,” his sister argues. “I want you to read me a story tonight.”

“Mommy’s tired,” Kathy says firmly. “Blaine will read to you.”

Blaine doesn’t say that he doesn’t want to read his sister a story. He doesn’t say that he wants to hole himself up in his room and text Kurt for the next half hour because the point would be lost on their mother. He doesn’t feel like wasting his breath.

“Fine,” Bethany groans, storming off in the direction of her room.

“I’ll be there in a minute,” Blaine calls to his sister. He eyes his mother, taking in her withered appearance and the way she rubs at her stocking-clad feet. “You can’t keep letting her skip her bath.”

“It’s just a bath,” Kathy tells him.

“Now it’s just a bath. Next week it’ll be just desert for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Next August it’ll be just a day she skipped from school. In a few years, it’ll be just an inappropriate outfit for a boy who’s too old for her.”

“That’s quite a slippery slope.”

“Well someone needs to be watching out for her. It’s not like you’re ever around to do it. You said you’d be home for dinner tonight.”

His mother looks up at him through her dark bangs. “And you said you’d do everything to help out when we moved here.”

“What does it look like I’m doing?” Blaine wonders, gesturing to the house around them. “I watch her every day. I cook for her, I do everyone’s laundry, I unpacked this whole house with no help from either of you.”

“She’s eight,” his mom reminds. “She doesn’t have to help unpack.”

“She could have unpacked some of her stuffed animals or something,” Blaine says in defense. “And you weren’t around for any of it so you didn’t see the way she just did cartwheels in the backyard all day while I did all the work.”

“She’s just a little girl.”

“And you’re just our mother.”

With that, Blaine spins around and stomps down the hallway into his little sister’s room. All at once, Blaine’s anger evaporates when he sees her sitting on the floor with a teddy bear in her arms, talking to her little stuffed friend about which book they’ll be reading tonight. She looks so young in her small, pink nightgown, knobby knees bruised from child’s play and Blaine wants to drag his mother in here and remind her that she has two children.

Not just a gay, nearly-eighteen year old son who can double as a caretaker.

“What do you want to read tonight, Bethbee?” Blaine asks, the nickname slipping from his lips of its own accord.

Hey. Sorry I couldn’t text until now. My sister can be a handful.

Understandable.

So…what are you up to?

Watching re-runs of What Not To Wear on the DVR. You?

Just got out of the shower.

Fun.

This is awkward.

Sorry for what I said today. About the boyfriend material thing.

It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.

Yeah.

But am I?

Are you what?

Boyfriend material.

Maybe? Idk. You like bowties. You’ve already got points for that.

You should see my collection.

Of bowties?

If I get points for liking them, maybe I’ll win you over for having so many.

Blaine stifles his laughter into his pillow, almost dropping his phone on his face in his darkened room.

It’s definitely a possibility.

Do you like Italian food?

Um YES. Why?

We should go to Breadstix tomorrow night.

Breadstix?

It’s basically the only palatable Italian place in Lima.

Oh. That sounds…good?

Unlimited breadsticks?

I’m in.

Good. :) I’ll pick you up at seven?

It’s a date.

You bet your cute curly head it is.

“You’ll be home by six, right?” Blaine asks, following his mother into the kitchen the next morning where she pours herself a large cup of coffee into a travel mug.

“Yes, I’ll be home by six,” she assures.

“Because I have plans at seven so I can’t watch Bethany.”

“I said I’d be home,” his mom returns, agitation clear in her voice. “I’ll be home!”

“Well you said you’d be home yesterday for dinner and you weren’t.”

“I will be here, Blaine.”

“Okay. Good.”

Kathy snaps a lid onto her coffee mug, snatches her purse off the kitchen table, and Blaine hears her heels clacking on the hardwood floor as she makes her way to the front door. The door slams and Blaine looks over to Bethany, whose eyes are bleary over her bowl of Lucky Charms cereal.

“She didn’t say g’bye,” his sister mumbles sleepily, hair sticking up at all angles. “And she didn’t kiss us.”

“She was just in a hurry, Beth.” Blaine attempts to apologize for his mother’s actions, mentally adding to the list he keeps tucked away in the back of his head. One day, he’s going to call his mother out on everything and he’s going to tell her about the way Bethany frowns over her cereal in the morning when their mother is too busy to care. He seats himself across from his sister. “What do you want to do today?”

Bethany shrugs her thin shoulders, apathetic to his question. She looks so sad and confused and even though she can be a handful, Blaine still loves her to death. He can’t stand to see his sister look so unhappy. Reaching into his back pocket, Blaine pulls out his wallet and opens it. He has one twenty dollar bill left inside.

It’s the last bit of money he has and it was supposed to be used for his date with Kurt tonight, but as he looks over at Bethany and sees a smear of dirt still on her cheek from yesterday, he knows he has to do something to cheer her up.

“I’ll make you a deal,” Blaine says. “If you go take a bath, we can go to the dollar movie theater we passed on the way home from the grocery store the other day. And we can watch that one movie with the lizard. Twice.”

“Really?” Bethany asks in awe, immediately perking up at the thought. “Can we get popcorn, too?”

“A small one,” Blaine promises. “But only if you take a bath! And I have to finish unpacking the rest of the kitchen stuff before we go!”

The last of his ‘deal’ falls on deaf ears because Bethany has already tossed her spoon into her cereal bowl and is in the process of tearing down the hallway to the bathroom. One corner of his mouth quirks up into a smile at her excitement.

When he finally hears the shower running, Blaine walks into his room and pulls open the top drawer of his night stand. His eyes light up at the sight of spare change.

Maybe he’ll stop by a Coinstar or something on the way to the movie and cash it in for more money. That way, he can buy Bethany a bag of popcorn and a box of candy.

He’ll just eat a salad for dinner on his date with Kurt.