There Was A Library

There was a library right across the street from Blaine Anderson's house. He went there sometimes, but he didn't really like books, so he really only went to watch the puppet shows or the free movies.

First grade was not entirely difficult for Blaine, as he had a few good friends and his teachers were very nice. Most of the subjects were easy, like math and art, but Blaine never could get the hang of reading. It's why the library, which sat directly in front of Blaine's house, was never more than a Disney movie play area for him.

He didn't know why reading and writing was so hard for him. He could recite all the letters in the alphabet perfectly, and he could spell his name fine, so he figured that was all he needed to know. There was no point in reading when you could just watch the movie! He had tried reading the Tarzan book, but the movie had real voices and actual moving people. The book didn't!

It was spring break, a Monday, and Blaine was sitting by the main window waiting for his mom to come home. The babysitter was lounging across the couch, watching a T.V. show, but she kept glancing back at Blaine, unable to tell the curly-haired boy that his mom wouldn't be home for another four hours.

The narrow road held few cars, and Blaine sat anxiously waiting for his mom. Maybe even his dad, though even at the young age of six he knew that his dad wouldn't be home until much, much later. He usually came home at around eight in the night, offering no greeting or gesture to his only son. Blaine learned to just let his father be, as his mom had told him that his daddy was extremely sad. Blaine didn't know why, so he simply let the matter be.

Blaine's drooping eyes sprung open as a figure entered his line of vision. There was another boy walking on the sidewalk on the library's side of the street, the child's arms filled with a small stack of books.

The book-carrying boy had slanting chestnut hair, Blaine noted, like the sand in his sandbox. He was wearing plain gray pants, with a red sweater and a clipped on bow tie. Blaine had never seen him before, and he thought he knew all the kids in his neighborhood, even the older ones in junior high.

The unknown boy entered the library and disappeared. Blaine sat watching, curious, waiting for the boy to come back out. After a half hour of sitting still, Blaine got up and went to his room, the fact that his mother was not coming home, and that he wouldn't see the mystery boy again, settling in his stomach.

Five hours later, an apologetic mother came home to see Blaine and the babysitter singing along to the Little Mermaid soundtrack, her son's mouth moving with the words but a distant look in his eyes, as if he was thinking about pressing issues that a first grader shouldn't think about.

The babysitter went home, with the promise that she would be back tomorrow, leaving Blaine and his mother to fix dinner. Jean Anderson prepared mac-and-cheese, the dinosaur shaped kind, and the two sat down in their living room.

"So, B-Bear, what did you do today with Emma?" Jean asked her son, as he munched quietly on his cheesy dinner. Blaine shrugged, his small shoulders rising dramatically and then falling again.

"We watched movies, and she made hot dogs for lunch." Blaine said quietly, his usual expressive movements gone. Jean's eyebrows furrowed, but she let Blaine's impassive speaking slide.

The front door unlocked and opened, Jerry Anderson walking through the door and throwing his keys in the bowl on the table. He strode over to the two, giving his wife a peck on the cheek and leaving for the kitchen. Blaine stared after his father with sorrowful eyes, his mother only offering him a small pat on the back. She stood him up and patted him on the butt playfully, shooing him up the stairs for bed.

Blaine giggled happily, running up the stairs with his mother following, the troubling thoughts concerning his father and the book-carrying boy leaving his mind temporarily.

The next day, a sprinkling Tuesday, found Blaine sitting cross-legged in the same spot as yesterday. Rain was falling lazily from the sky, a fine amount as to not leave puddles but shimmer upon the grass. Blaine's mother told him that she would not come home for lunch, but would try to on Friday, so Blaine wasn't looking for her. He was looking for the new kid.

And there he was.

Blaine didn't see him at first, but when he did, an uncalled smile lit up his face. The boy was wearing a tan hat, covering his head from the rain but the sprinkles still got on the shoulders of his dark green shirt. The boy ran quickly into the library once more, his small body unsuccessfully guarding his books from the rain.

Blaine wondered who the boy was. He looked really nice, and he had to be smart too, because he had a lot of books with him. Blaine turned to the babysitter, Emma, and put on a puppy-dog pouting face. "Emma?" he asked loudly, his voice trimming with sweetness.

Emma looked up from her book, and gave him an odd look. "Yes, Blaine?" she replied, setting down the hardcover in curiousness.

"I want to go to that Library," Blaine said, pointing with his small hand. Emma glanced towards the window and looked back to him in confusion.

"It's raining, hun." she pointed out, her head shaking. She took hand sanitizer out of her pocket and rubbed the liquid on her hands absently, out of habit. "I don't know if your mom would like it if you got wet."

Blaine crossed his arms over his chest, in what he hoped was an adult gesture, and glared at her. Emma chuckled softly and padded the seat next to her, indicating that Blaine should sit near her. Blaine hopped up, his sad demeanor dropping almost instantly. Emma smoothed Blaine's curls down on his head as she spoke, "Well, if the rain lets up...we can go. But only then."

Blaine grinned and laughed, his head bobbing and rustling the previously flattened hair. "Before we go, can we watch a movie?" Blaine asked, and Emma nodded.

The rain did let up, though it was after 2 hours. Blaine nearly ran over to the Library, not even stopping to watch for cars as his school teachers and mother had always told him to do. Emma was left to wave apologetically at the few cars before catching up to the energetic boy.

Blaine didn't really know why he was so excited to meet the new boy. He didn't really have many kids his age in his neighborhood, so he simply thought that a new boy to play with would be very fun.

But when Blaine entered the Library, he looked everywhere, but the new boy had already left.

The rain had let up, after a roaring thunderstorm that sent Blaine reeling for his parents, or really his mother. The current Wednesday was a downcast, dreary day. Blaine still sat at the window.

Because he was nearly certain he was a psychic, Blaine was extremely happy to see the new boy walking down the sidewalk yet again, like Blaine had thought he would. His outfit consisted of regular black shorts and socks up to his knees, with a dark purple sweater and miniature tie. Blaine liked the outfit; he thought it was much better than his Teen Titans t-shirt and jeans.

After only a few minutes of convincing on Blaine's part, he and Emma were pulling on their jackets and locking the doors. This time when the two entered the Library, Blaine instantly saw the new boy sitting in a large armchair by himself, reading a small book in furrowed concentration.

Emma had wandered off to a different section, with the promise that she's watching him, don't do anything stupid, and Blaine walked slowly over to the new boy.

He didn't look up at first when Blaine approached him. His eyes scanned the semi-large print in fascination. Blaine didn't know the color of his eyes, they were like a mixture of all eye colors. He thought they were pretty, like a lake.

"Hi," Blaine said quietly, and the boy looked up in confusion. He smiled though. Bright hazel eyes met limpid blue-gray.

"Hi." the boy greeted back, his voice reminding Blaine of music. "I like your hair. It looks like a mop, but in a good way."

Blaine laughed and shook his head, letting the large curls flop around his face. "I know." he said, smiling.

The new boy grinned back, setting his book down. Blaine looked at it, cocking his head. "What're you reading?" he asked, trying to decipher the letters. The boy glanced at the title for a second.

"Tuck Everlasting." he said, focusing on the cover art for a moment or two. "It's about this family who drank water from a stream and now they can live forever."

Blaine smiled in fascination, craning his head to look at the front of the book too. He recognized all the letters, and he was pretty sure he could say the title, but that may only be because the boy had just said it a second ago. "I'd want to live forever, it sounds cool. Is the book hard to read?"

The boy shrugged. "I don't know some of the words but I can read most of them. I need help sometimes, though."

He had picked up the book again and was skimming the page he was on. He seemed to find what he was looking for, and his eyes lit up to Blaine as he poked at the book with his finger, gesturing at a word. "Like that one! I didn't know what it was for a long time, but now I can say it! Pre-size-ly. My mom told me it meant 'exactly'."

Blaine tilted his head to the side once more, and his eyebrows knotted together as he looked at the page Kurt was showing him. The book held many words he had never even seen before in his whole life, and he was slightly embarrassed by the fact. How did this boy, who was probably the same age as him, read this book with ease while he couldn't?

Blaine wanted to change the topic; he felt sad and slightly ashamed that he couldn't read a book like that. "What's your name?" he asked, sitting down and crossing his legs, the pretzel way, in the chair next to the boy.

"Kurt," the boy said, pausing for a moment, "Hummel, I mean. Kurt Hummel."

Blaine beamed. He liked that name. He had never heard the name 'Kurt' before, but it was original. His mom always told him that he was original, too!

"I'm Blaine Anderson, I live across the street. Did you move here, 'cause I thought I knew everyone in this neighborhood." Blaine said, or rather asked. He was honestly curious about this boy.

"No, I've just never been to this library before, I guess. I don't like going outside all that much, because there's a lot of dirt and stuff." Kurt Hummel said, adjusting his tie.

"That's what Emma says! My babysitter. She says that dirt is bad." Blaine said, nodding his head and laughing, looking pleased when Kurt joined in.

"Dirt is bad. It ruins clothes." Kurt giggled.

Blaine was about to say something else, he just wasn't sure yet, when Emma called to him. He had to go, said Emma, because his mother would be home soon. Blaine frowned for a moment, before shrugging sadly and getting up.

"Is that Emma?" Kurt asked, looking up at the red-head. Emma smiled at him, before giving Blaine a look to 'please hurry up'.

"Yeah. I have to go home." Blaine said. He was a little disappointed, because talking to Kurt was fun. A thought blossomed in his head, and he perked up almost immediately. "Will you be here tomorrow? We could talk some more, if you want."

Kurt nodded, a light-hearted grin lighting up his features. "Yeah. I come here at three, mostly. It would be really fun to talk again."

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow!" Blaine called, as he walked with Emma back out the library doors.

Emma seemed to know what Blaine wanted the next day when he walked over to her from his spot at the window. She wondered briefly why Blaine was looking out the window so much, but she knew he was either looking for his mother or that cute little boy from the library yesterday. She nodded as Blaine asked her if they could go to the library again.

At least it wasn't raining, like yesterday. Rain meant mud, and mud tarnished any clothing and skin in it's path.

Blaine hopped lightly up the library steps. He had seen Kurt walk into the library, a few minutes ago, and he was anxious to go and talk with him again. Emma went over to the romance section idly, giving Blaine the same message she had yesterday.

Kurt wasn't in the same seat he was in yesterday. Blaine found him sitting in a bean bag chair, a bright blue one, and reading the same book. Kurt heard the footsteps and his face broke out into a grin at the sight of Blaine. Besides Tina and Artie, he didn't really have many friends. It was nice to have another one, too. Blaine was really nice, and funny.

"Hi," Kurt greeted as Blaine kneeled in front of him, "how're you?"

"I'm good! Spring break is almost over, though, so that's bad. But I'm good!" Blaine said. It was cold in the library, he wished he had worn something with long sleeves. Kurt was. He was wearing a checkered shirt with these small buttons that looked like owls. Kurt had really nice clothes; Blaine wished he had something like it.

"Me too. I forgot my library card yesterday, so I didn't get to check out Tuck Everlasting. So I'm reading it now." Kurt replied, a stray piece of hair falling in his face. He flicked his head, bringing it back to it's place. Blaine tilted his head. He didn't want to be annoying to Kurt, if he wanted to read his book. He was about to get up and find something for himself to do, when Kurt spoke again.

"Do you want to read with me? I'm not that far. Nothing has happened that much, yet, anyway." he asked. Blaine nodded enthusiastically.

Kurt scooted himself over slightly in the bean bag chair, allowing Blaine room to sit down next to him. The bean bag was just big enough for both of them, with only a little squishing. Kurt put the book on his and Blaine's legs, so that Blaine saw one page and Kurt saw the other. "We could switch off reading!" Kurt suggested with a happy smile, and Blaine nodded.

Kurt was on page forty-five. He started to read, after he looked to Blaine to see if it was okay. "The sweet earth opened out its wide four corners to her like the petals of a flower ready to be picked, and it shi-shimmer-ed with light..."

Kurt stuttered on that one word, Blaine noticed, but looking at it on the page, he didn't blame him. It looked hard to spell. When Kurt finished part of the paragraph, it was a long one, he looked and Blaine to go on.

"Her mother's voice," Blaine started, unsure of himself. He wasn't a very good reader, he knew, but he was trying his hardest to impress Kurt. "the feel of home, re-rece-ceded for the mom-ment, and her tho-hog-hits turned forwa-ward."

Blaine continued on, and Kurt let him, even though Blaine knew himself that he wasn't doing very good. When he finally finished, it seemed like an eternity to him, Kurt smiled and looked at him.

"I'm sorry," Blaine said, feeling embarrassed, "I'm not a good reader."

Kurt shook his head. "You are fine. You can actually read, most people in my class, like this Dave kid, they can't read half as well as you."

Blaine beamed; he was happy that Kurt thought he could read. But he wasn't as good as Kurt, who only stumbled over two words, whereas Blaine stumbled over many more. Blaine thought for a moment. He guessed that Kurt could probably teach him how to read like him! The thought was very appealing to him. "But you are much better than me. Do you, maybe, wanna teach me how to read like you?"

Kurt grinned, a smile that exposed his teeth. "Sure!" he replied, "it could be like playing school!" Kurt laughed, and Blaine couldn't help but join in.

So, for the next forty-five minutes, Blaine listened as Kurt read the book out loud, pausing to repeat words to Blaine, who in turn spoke the words back. After awhile, Blaine read a paragraph out to the both of them, and noticed with pride that he had only slipped up on five words. He thought school was a really fun game to play. Kurt was a good teacher.

They didn't get very far in the book, only about fifteen more pages, but the time seemed to fly by for them. Kurt looked like he was having a good time, too. In between paragraphs, either Kurt or Blaine would get distracted by something and they would spend minutes on whatever that thing was.

Blaine's curls were tickling Kurt's face, and they spent a minute or so of Blaine intentionally rubbing his hair over Kurt's cheeks, eliciting laughter from both. Then Kurt was fascinated by the marker patterns on Blaine's sneakers, which Blaine had drawn on a few weeks ago. All in all, the librarians were shushing them multiple times.

There was a moment when Kurt and Blaine both struggled together on the same word, 'silhouettes', and the two were laughing quite loudly together, when Jerry Anderson wandered in on the picture. He leaned against one of the bookshelves as his wife and Emma came to stand with him, looking over at the two boys.

Jerry loved his son, he loved him with nearly everything he had, but he was distancing himself from Blaine. He knew that. He was distancing himself from his wife, too. It wasn't intentional, but nowadays, he didn't feel like doing much of anything. He would wake up, go to work, come home and go to bed. Life was a cycle for him.

But seeing Blaine with a new friend, Jerry came to realize that he should have been the father that was always making time for his son, to help him read or to tuck him into bed. He wasn't the father he wanted to be, and as he clasped his wife's hand, he made the quietest of vows to try and change. He wanted to be there with Blaine, with Jean, with his whole family without feelings as though he was drifting away.

The three adults wandered backward slightly, to sit at a table a few feet away, to discuss babysitting options for Blaine over the summer.

The purple and red clock in the corner clicked to four o'clock, and Kurt groaned slightly.

"What's wrong?" Blaine asked as Kurt wriggled his way to a standing position. Blaine stood up with him, cocking his head to the side in confusion.

"I have to go. My dad says I have to be back by four or else I'll be in trouble." Kurt sighed sadly, looking up again at the clock.

"I can't come back here tomorrow, my mom is going to take me to the zoo...but I bet we can invite you too!" Blaine was excited now, at the prospect of getting to play with Kurt some more.

Kurt, though, looked even more dismal. "My dad doesn't get home until four, and then I'm home by myself for the day before that. I'm not supposed to leave the house, except for coming here."

Blaine felt crushed; he was getting extremely eager about the zoo tomorrow. The clock was now at four oh five, Kurt saw, and he walked quickly through the shelves, towards the door, Blaine following. "Next week?" Blaine asked hopefully.

Kurt nodded happily. In a flash, Blaine wrapped his small arms around Kurt. Kurt and him were the same height, if not an inch shorter on Blaine's part, and Kurt hugged him back, before they both let go. Then Kurt tilted his head. "Could we be best friends? You are really fun, and you are an awesome friend already."

Blaine nodded, slightly elated at the compliment. "Best friends!" he nearly exclaimed. "You will be back here next week?"

"Mm-hmm. Bye, Blaine!"

"Bye, Kurt Hummel."

Their goodbyes sent them into a small round of giggles, the laughter echoing as Kurt pushed the door open and left.

It was especially sad that the two boys didn't meet each other again the next week. The both had seemingly forgotten that school was to start up again, and the two didn't go to the same elementary. Blaine Anderson would return to the library many times, as would Kurt, but they would never run into each other. After a while, even through the sweltering heat of summer in which the library's cool atmosphere attracted the most people, Kurt and Blaine did not meet again. It seemed as if those two days they had spent together were the only ones the two friends would get.

Soon, school picked back up and ended back in summer. The routine continued for quite some time, through Blaine's transferring to Dalton Academy for Boys, and through Kurt's increased bullying for coming out. The two boys had almost completely forgotten each other; all that was remembered was that boy who helped me read when I was seven or eight and the boy who would sit with me at the library in first grade.

Though one thing laid the same between the memories of the two:

The boy who was my first best friend.