That afternoon, when Blaine returns home with Bethany in tow, his patience has officially run out. He drags her inside the front door, his sister kicking and screaming all the while like a petulant toddler.

“I don’t want to take a nap!” she screeches as soon as he slams the door. “I’m not a baby! I’m too old for naps!”

“You’re acting like a spoiled brat!”

“But I wanna see the movie again!”

“We saw it two times in a row, Bethany,” Blaine reminds her, rubbing his forehead with his hand in an attempt to calm his burgeoning headache.

“Well I wanna see it three times!”

“I’ll take you another day when I have more money.”

“You have lots of money!” Bethany fights. “I saw it! You brought all those coins to the thing and you got lots of money!”

“Beth, I have to save it.”

“No you don’t, you need to share it!”

“I’m using it to go eat dinner with a friend later.”

“I wanna go!”

“No,” Blaine says with finality. “You’re tired. You’ve been overexcited for half the day and you’re coming down from a sugar high because you ate all that candy. You’re going to take a nap.” He points in the direction of her bedroom with a stiff arm.

“You can’t make me! You’re not my dad!”

“Well, I’m the closest thing you’ve got because dad’s not here!”

“Only ‘cause you made him leave!”

Blaine’s face falls, as does his arm. Bethany has this angry, determined look on her face and her body is rigid with impertinence. She juts her little chin out, just like their mother does. His blood runs cold.

“Go to your room,” he says as calmly as possible.

“No!”

“Go,” he grinds out through his teeth, slowly this time, “to your room, Bethany Marie.”

At the use of her middle name, Bethany immediately senses the change in Blaine’s demeanor. She’s obviously still angry that she didn’t get her way, but she runs into her room and slams the door. Blaine brings his hands to eyes, palms rubbing against his eyelids before dragging them down his face.

He never thought she would use that against him.

By the time five-thirty rolls around, Blaine doesn’t feel like going on a date at all. He’s still furious with his sister, but he’s more depressed by the truth of her words. His closet holds nothing he would consider date-worthy, his head still throbs with a tension headache, and he just feels overwrought.

Flopping down on his bed, Blaine stares up at his ceiling and sighs into the room.

A knock sounds. The door creaks open.

“Blainey?”

Bethany’s voice is small and soft to his ears. It’s a relief from her earlier screaming. Blaine turns his head and looks over to see her peek her head around his bedroom door.

“Can I come in?” she asks.

“I guess.”

She shuffles into the room and over to his bedside. Leaning against the edge of the mattress with her knees, Bethany lowers her head, pulling her bottom lip into her mouth and chewing on it with her teeth. It’s a habit they share. That, along with the glistening color of her golden eyes makes him look upon his baby sister in concern.

“What?” he asks.

“I’m real sorry,” she says, thumb tracing an invisible pattern on top of Blaine’s sheet. “I never shoulda yelled at you about that stuff.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he replies.

You were right, he doesn’t say.

They both fall silent, Blaine’s eyes trained on the ceiling once again while Bethany looks over at him with curiosity on her face. That’s the thing that’s so bizarre about kids: their little minds flit around from topic to topic. One minute they’re crying and the next they’re enthralled by something new and wonderful and colorful. The whole word is still kind of amazing to them and they’re just so astounded by that fact, like they can’t spend too much time worrying about one thing because there’s a billion other things to think about or discover.

Blaine envies her.

“Who’re you going to dinner with?” she asks softly.

“The boy I met at the park,” Blaine answers.

“I knew you thought he was pretty.”

He looks over her, taking in her sly smile and he can’t help but smile along with her. Bethany has always been too perceptive for her age. Once, when she was two, Blaine remembers their mother buying a bag of cookies. She gave them one each before dinner and when Bethany asked for a second, their mother told her they were all gone. It was a trick, of course, so that Bethany wouldn’t ask for more. However, the plan backfired when two year old Bethany said, “Show me the bag”.

“Yeah,” Blaine finally agrees. “He’s pretty.”

“I think he’s pretty, too,” says Bethany, climbing onto the bed as well. “He was all smiley at you, too, y’know.”

“Was he?”

“Uh huh.”

“Maybe you can help me, then.”

“Help you do what?”

“I can’t pick out anything to wear.”

Over an hour later, his mother still isn’t home. Blaine calls her cell phone for the fourth time, swearing out loud when it goes to voicemail once again.

“Mom, where are you?” he asks, leaving a message. “I’m leaving in half an hour and you said you’d be here. At least call and tell me where you are.”

He ends the call and glances over at Bethany who looks up at him in confusion.

“Where’s mommy?” she wonders with wide eyes. “Is she coming home tonight?”

Blaine thinks back to last month when his mother promised to be home before dinner, only to find out she met a man in a bar after work and decided not to come home at all that night. He hates that his sister remembers it as well.

“Yes,” Blaine says with conviction. “She said she’d be here.”

She has to be here. He dials her number a fifth time. On the sixth, she finally answers. It’s loud on the other end of the line with cheering and music in the background.

“Mom!” he shouts into the receiver. “Where are you?”

“I’m out with some friends!” she yells back, laughter echoing through the call. “I’ll be home later tonight!”

“No, no, you said you’d be home by six!”

“Oh, honey it’s Friday night! Let me have some fun!”

“No, you – you said you’d be home! I told you I have plans!”

“We – hold on, Blaine – yeah, it’s my son. I’m not leaving, no, no. He’s watching my daughter, yeah. Okay. Blaine?”

“Mom, please,” he begs.

“Sorry, we’re all up here, all the girls from work!”

“You promised,” he tries weakly, though she probably can’t even hear him over the music and the chatter in the background.

“I’ll be home later!” she shouts once more. “Make sure Bethany eats dinner! Love you, bye!”

The call ends. Blaine’s eyes water, completely against his will, and he places his phone on the arm of the sofa. He looks at himself in the mirror hanging on the wall, all dressed up in dark jeans and a black button-up shirt with rolled-up sleeves that Bethany had picked out. His hair is tamed with a small amount of gel and he actually looks really, really good.

And now he can’t even go out. He can’t go on his date. He has to stay home and look after his sister.

“Is she coming home?” Bethany asks again.

His phone buzzes. Kurt’s name appears on his screen. The thought of breaking off their date makes Blaine’s chest heavy, but there’s nothing he can do. He answers the phone.

“Hello?”

“I’m about to leave my house,” Kurt tells him. “So I’ll see you in like, a minute.”

God. This just hurts.

“I can’t go,” Blaine says, voice cracking in the middle of the sentence. “I – I have to watch Bethany. My mom, she – she’s not going to be home in time.”

“Oh,” Kurt replies, sounding surprised. “Babysitting duty again?”

“Something like that.”

“Well Bethany can come, too.”

“I’m sor – wait, what?”

“I said she can come,” Kurt repeats himself. “It’s not like kids aren’t allowed in restaurants.”

At first, Blaine’s spirit soars, but then he thinks of the measly twelve dollars and sixty-four cents left in his wallet and realizes he doesn’t have enough money to pay for both of them.

He doesn’t want to admit to being broke.

“That’s – that’s really nice,” Blaine ends up saying, “but it’s not really a date if I bring my kid sister along.”

“I don’t mind,” Kurt says. “Really, I don’t. I just want to see you again.”

“I-”

“And it’s Friday, between seven and nine, right? Kids under twelve years old eat for free.”

“…Are you serious?”

“Dead serious. They have a kids’ meal she can pick from. It’s some special thing, they’ve done it for years,” Kurt tells him.

“O-okay. I have to get her dressed, though.”

“I’ll meet you outside your house.”

“See you in a few,” Blaine says, ending the call. He looks down at his sister. “Wanna go out to dinner, Bethbee?”

“Do they have spaghetti?” she asks, eyes glowing brightly.

“You know what, I’ll bet they do.”