January 7, 2013

As Blaine entered the choir room for the first time after winter break, he wondered who had heard about his and Kurt's break; his answer came when only Tina jumped up from her seat and rushed to him. She wrapped her arms around him in a fierce hug. He had had a feeling at least Tina would know; he had called Mike on Saturday because he needed someone to talk to.

"Mike told me about you and Kurt. If you need anything, you let me know, okay?" She whispered in his ear.

"Thanks, Tina," he paused and looked at the other members of the New Directions in the room. "Does anyone else know?"

Tina pulled back from the hug and shook her head. "I didn't feel right telling anyone. It's up to you to tell them."

Blaine nodded. "You're a really great friend, Tina. Thank you so much."

"You're welcome, Blaine. Let's go sit down. Mr. Schue should be here soon."

Blaine and Tina took seats in the front of the room. Right as they were sitting down, Mr. Schuester walked through the door.

"Okay, guys. We have our work cut out for us. Regionals are in about a month and we still don't have a set list. The only requirement for this competition is that we have a clear theme. So let's start with that," he said as he walked to the whiteboard and uncapped a dry erase pen. "Does anyone have any ideas for themes?"

"What about love songs? The competition is going to be right around Valentine's day, that'd be a nice theme," Sam suggested.

Mr. Schue wrote 'love songs' on the board and then turned back to address the group. "That's a good starting point, Sam. But I don't know if we should go with a theme as broad as love songs."

"What if we do songs about lost love?" Tina suggested, sneaking a peek at Blaine.

Blaine looked at Tina incredulously. "Tina!" he whispered, annoyed.

"Great idea, Tina!" Mr. Schue took in Blaine's pained expression. "Blaine? Do you not like that idea?"

All eyes in the room were suddenly on Blaine. He flushed and scooted lower into his chair. "It's not necessarily that, Mr. Schue." Everyone was still looking at Blaine curiously so he threw his hands in the air and jumped out of his seat. "Fine! I didn't want to tell you guys yet because it just happened. But you're all going to find out eventually. Kurt and I decided to take a break."

A silence fell over the choir room. And then all hell broke loose.

"What!" Sam shouted. "Why?"

Brittany looked confused and started to cry.

"I love Kurt, but he best not've messed with you, Blaine!" Artie shouted.

"Oh, Blaine!" Sugar squeaked as she started to cry with Brittany, who was sitting next to her.

"Noah is going to be so pissed." Jake Puckerman said quietly.

All of the upperclassmen were in an uproar. The underclassmen looked upset but were, for the most part, silent. They had all met Kurt at the beginning of the year, but didn't know the situation well enough to be anything more than mildly upset for a friend.

Blaine raised a hand to try to silence them all. When that didn't work he whistled. Instantly, everyone was quiet. "Guys, thank you for your concern. It was my idea to take the break, so don't be mad at Kurt. I love Kurt and I didn't want to hold him back from his dreams." He looked at everyone in turn and smiled. "It means a lot to me that you are all upset about this, but please don't be. Kurt and I talked about it thoroughly. We're still going to be friends. If after graduation we still want to be together, we'll get back together and that will be that." Blaine nodded and sat back down.

Mr. Schue cleared his throat. "So, Blaine, as one of our strongest performers, do you have a problem with the theme of songs about lost love? I'm sure none of us want to make you uncomfortable."

Blaine shook his head. "No, I think it's a really good idea. Most of us have dealt with that at some point and I think that will help us with the emotional connection to the songs. It'll help us have an edge over the Warblers and Aural Intensity. Neither group is very good at emotional connection."

Mr. Schue nodded. "Good point, Blaine. What does everyone else think? Should we go with this theme?"

Everyone in the room nodded and voiced their approval of the theme.

"Good. Now we need ideas of songs we could sing. Anyone?"

A forty-five minute debate ensued. Songs were shouted out so fast that Mr. Schue couldn't keep up with writing down the titles. Eventually he capped his pen and just let the members of the New Directions come to an agreement. Once they had picked three songs, the task of figuring out who would sing them was easy.

"Blaine should sing Better That We Breakby Maroon 5. Not only would he kill it vocally, it's like the perfect song for what he's going through," Tina said. Everyone else nodded in agreement.

"What about the duet? Pictureis sung by Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow. Which two of us would be able to sing it?" Artie asked.

"I think Sam and Tina would do a fantastic job with that song," Blaine said.

"Yea, Sam is great at country and Tina can sing almost anything." Brittany said.

"And we already decided that Don't Speakwould be a group number," Mr. Schue said. "Does anyone have any complaints about the set list or who gets what solos?"

When no one said anything, Mr. Schue clapped his hands once. "Great, guys. I think with this set list we will easily be able to beat our competition. Now go home, we'll start practicing on Wednesday."

Everyone jumped up and gathered their things. Blaine threw his bag over his shoulder and started to leave with Tina, Artie, and Sam.

"Blaine, can I talk to you for a second?" Mr. Schue called after the group.

"Go on without me; I'll catch up." Blaine told his friends before he walked to the piano, where his teacher was standing. "What's up, Mr. Schue?"

"I just wanted to make sure you were doing okay. I know you said that you were the one who initiated the break between you and Kurt, but over the past year and a half I'd like to think I've gotten to know you pretty well. You can't be taking this very well. You and Kurt are extremely close."

Blaine nodded. "You're right. I'm not really taking this well. My head knows that this is the right thing for us, that it'll help us figure out if we really want to be together. But at the same time I don't want to lose him." Blaine looked at the floor. No matter how close he and his teacher were, it was still a little awkward to discuss his love life with Mr. Schuester.

"You won't, Blaine. Kurt's been through a lot of hard things in his life. He was in a very bad place before he met you, but right after he met you he started to get better. You helped him so much and I know he's helped you with some things as well. You two are perfect for each other. I know it. If any couple from glee is going to end up married, it's the two of you."

Blaine looked at his teacher and smiled. "I hope so."

"Don't give up on him. His address may have changed, but he didn't."

Blaine nodded. "I'm not giving up on him. Like I said, I don't want to hold him back. He doesn't need the baggage of a long distance boyfriend who doesn't even have the time to be able to talk to him."

Mr. Schue sighed. "Alright, Blaine. I won't keep you any longer. It looked like you had plans with Artie, Tina, and Sam. If you need anything, let me know. Let Kurt know the same goes for him when you talk to him."

"Sure thing, Mr. Shue. I'll see you tomorrow." Blaine said before he left the room.

Blaine walked out of the school and to his car. He opened the door and sat down inside. After sighing heavily, he put the key in the ignition and started the engine. He quickly pulled out of the parking lot and headed home. He did have plans with Artie, Tina, and Sam, but he would cancel them. He didn't feel like doing anything but sitting in his room and watching sappy romance movies. Once he pulled into the garage, he sent a quick text to Tina to tell her that he wasn't going to make it after all. He climbed out of his car and went straight to his room. He popped in his copy of When Harry Met Sallyand settled into his bed.

His phone rang half an hour later. He paused the movie and answered without even checking to see who it was.

"Hello?"

"So, based on the texts I've been getting, I'd say it's safe to say you told the New Directions." Kurt said laughing.

"Oh my gosh, I'm sorry. I didn't think to ask you if it was okay to tell them," Blaine said, worried.

"Blaine, its fine. I'm glad you told them. God knows I wouldn't have been able to do it without bawling."

"It took every ounce of strength I had not to start crying, especially when they all started freaking out and crying and threatening you."

"Threatening me?" Kurt laughed.

"Well, he didn't threaten you, per say. Artie was upset and said, and I quote, 'I love Kurt, but he best not've messed with you, Blaine.' It was actually kind of endearing. I didn't realize how much they cared about me. I thought for sure everyone would be mad at me. Most of them have known you longer."

"Of course they care about you, Blaine. Just because some of them have known me longer doesn't mean that they can't be upset for you. Besides, knowing you, you just said that we decided to take a break. I'm sure they all assumed that I was the one who suggested it since I'm the one in New York."

Blaine laughed. "God, you know me too well. That's exactly what happened. Only after they all started freaking out did I explain that I was the one who suggested the break."

"It's scary how well we know each other, Blaine." Kurt laughed.

"But a good scary." Blaine said quietly.

"A great scary." Kurt replied.

There was a pause for a moment.

"So, what kinds of texts did you get?" Blaine asked.

"Well, let's see. Noah said that he was pissed and that we'd have to get back together soon or he'd go back to Lima, kick your ass and then come to New York and kick mine. Artie said 'heard what happened. Sucks. Hope you and Blaine work it out.' Brittany was so sweet. She said that she was sorry that we were on a break and that if I needed someone to call her and she'd tell Santana to come into my room and give me a hug."

"Except for Noah's threat those were all very sweet. Mr. Schue told me to tell you that if you needed anything to just let him know."

"It's funny how much everyone wants to help us. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty much okay. I miss you like crazy, but I would've missed you even if we hadn't decided to take a break. The only real difference is that we aren't talking everyday like we did before."

"Everyone is oddly invested in our relationship. It's sweet. Except for Puck. I'm not entirely sure why he wants us together so badly. He borders on obsessive."

"Did I ever tell you that he was the one who told me to spy on the Warblers that day?"

Blaine laughed. "No way!"

"I think that's why he wants us to be together. He thinks that if we're apart and sad that it's somehow his fault because if it wasn't for him we might not have met."

"We probably would have met at Sectionals."

"True. But I also think that he's trying to make up for all the horrible things he did to me freshman and sophomore year. No matter how many times I tell him that it's okay, I still feel like he's constantly trying to make it up to me."

"Sounds familiar." Blaine mumbled.

"Yes, it does. My dad told me about how upset you were at the cemetery about the Sebastian thing. Blaine, I forgave you for that a long time ago. Stop beating yourself up about it."

"That's what your dad said."

"Well, like you said, he's a smart guy."

"I'll try. I just feel so damn bad for making you so upset. I didn't realize how badly I was hurting you."

"I know you didn't, Blaine." Kurt sighed. "Let's just stop talking about that, okay? It's in the past. We both made mistakes. We've both apologized. Let's move on."

"You're right. I shouldn't keep beating myself up over it. I can't change it."

"Exactly." Kurt paused. "So how was school?"

"Not bad. Pretty boring until glee. We decided on our set list for Regionals."

"That's great! What songs? Who got solos?"

"I'm going to start with Better That We Break by Maroon 5, Tina and Sam are going to sing Picture by Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow, and then we're going to have Don't Speakby No Doubt be our closing group number."

"I'm sensing a theme there." Kurt said quietly.

"Yea, we have to have a clear theme for the competition. So Sam suggested love songs. Then Tina suggested songs about lost love. I have a feeling she did that so that I would tell everyone about the break. I called Mike on Saturday and he told her, so she was the only one to know when we got back today."

"That'll make for a good performance, though. I mean almost all of you are dealing with some form of being separated from someone you love. It'll give you the emotions you'll need to beat the Warblers and Aural Intensity."

"That's what I told everyone when they asked if I was okay with the theme."

"I'm glad you got a solo. I wish I could be there to see you perform."

"It's okay. You'll be at Nationals. That's what counts."

"True."

Another silence fell between the two boys.

"I have homework I should probably start." Blaine said, breaking the silence.

"Alright. I'll talk to you later?"

"Yea. I'll talk to you later."

"Have a good night, Blaine."

"You too, Kurt."

"Bye."

"Bye."

Blaine hung up the phone. He smiled. "Maybe everything will be okay," he said as he got up and grabbed his bag from where he dropped it by the door.