Blaine decided to go back to New York. He apologized profusely to his mom and to Sam because he wasn’t just going back to New York, he was leaving them too. Quite honestly, he was terrified. Lima was safe, but at the same time it wasn’t. Lima was filled with old memories that still felt new to him, but memories that nonetheless were painful to think about now that some people in his life were gone. Mainly Kurt. Which is why New York was also terrifying. Kurt was there. Kurt, who was trying to be more open with him, who was trying to be his friend. Kurt who didn’t want to be with him anymore. Kurt who thought that he didn’t love him anymore.

Obviously, Kurt wasn’t the only reason New York was so terrifying to him. He had a life. A whole life that he had forgotten about. He had a job and friends who he is going to have to get to know again. He had an apartment that he would have to relearn to navigate and a bed he would have to learn to get comfortable in. This would be so much easier if he could just get his goddamn memories back. But Blaine knew it wasn’t that simple.

He made it back the day before Rachel’s opening night on broadway. He explained to her previously that he didn’t think he’d be able to make it because he wanted to be in Lima to try to be more comfortable. She was upset, but she understood. Now he was really glad he decided to come back because Rachel was still his friend and he’d hate himself if that was something he missed.

Blaine thought the best way to get reaquainted with New York, was to re-acquaint himself with apparently his closest friend in New York. Kurt had told him about his supposed new best friend showing up to Kurt’s apartment and he was honestly very interested in learning more about her, if not a little guilty for not knowing who she is. Blaine had texted her and asked her if she wanted to come over for dinner and she barely took a second before she agreed.

It was around 5:00 when he heard a knock on his door and he opened it up, revealing the girl who Kurt had told him about. He did not mention how short she was though, and Blaine had to actually look down to her. It didn’t happen a lot considering how short he was. “Blaine!” she exclaimed, beaming up at him. “May I come in?”

“Um, sure,” he replied, smiling at her. He moved out of the way so she could walk into his apartment. He shut the door behind her and then turned to see that she’s barely moved 5 feet away from the door and looked kind of nervous. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she strained a smile at him. “This is just...weird.”

“You have no idea,” he agreed. Seeing someone you never met get that excited to see you is a little more than weird. Losing seven years worth of your memories is even weirder. “Why don’t you sit?”

She nodded and walked to his couch, sitting down and he followed. “Just so you know I ordered us a large pizza with pepperoni, sausage and bacon and cheese stuffed crust. You missed our cheat day so we have to make up for it now.”

Blaine laughed. “Our cheat day?”

“When I moved to New York, you encouraged me to start eating healthier and I agreed as long as I could have one cheat day a week,” Cady explained. “You said you already had a cheat day so we accommodated and started having our cheat days together, always after my vocal lesson.”

Blaine didn’t know how, but that triggered a memory. A memory that had nothing to do with Cady, but a memory that had to do with himself and with Kurt. He remembered living in an apartment, different from the one he had now, struggling to fit in his clothes. He was constantly eating junk food and he hated how he felt about himself and Kurt didn’t seem to notice. Until Blaine brought it up and he got into a fight with Kurt and Kurt told him that he would never stop loving him and god, he wished it was true.

“Blaine?” a voice broke him out of the episode and he looked up to see Cady looking at him with a worried expression on her face. “Are you okay?”

He hadn’t realized there was tears dripping down his face and did he seriously just cry in front of someone he doesn’t know? Except you do know her. She’s been your best friend for two years. “I just remembered something,” he told her honestly. Why hide something from someone who probably already knows everything about you?

Something flickered in her eyes that he couldn’t read. He was too much of a mess right now. “What did you remember?”

“I...it must have been years ago,” he shrugged. “While I was in NYADA. The stress of the city was getting to me and I started eating like crazy, really unhealthy food and I gained a lot of weight and-”

“I know the story,” she interrupted me, with a small smile. “You don’t have to tell me again if you don’t want to.” This was both unnerving and relieving. It was weird that she knew that already but he was grateful that he didn’t have to go through telling it again. It was also telling, if she knew something from so long ago, how close they were.

“Thank you,” he said appreciatively. “So...vocal lessons, huh? I teach you to sing?”

She looked a little embarrassed. “I kind of suck. I love acting. I’m good at it. I go to school for it, but I also love musicals and that’s what I want to do with my life. And to do musicals, you need to sing. You help me with that.”

Blaine couldn’t imagine having that much trouble with singing, he didn’t mean to sound conceited, but he knew he had a good voice. He’s had it since he was young and it wasn’t something he was taught, it was something he grew into. He was happy that his now-self was helping a friend get better at it, though. The world could always use some more good singing.

“You don’t go to NYADA, do you?” he asked. He doubted it, NYADA was known for it’s musical theatre department. Obviously there was more majors but they literally only took 5 acting majors a year, you had to pretty much be a child star to get in.

“Hell no,” she seemed to cringe at this accusation. “Sorry, I know you liked it there when you went but most of the people at NYADA are stuck up bitches. I go to Pace, Acting major with a creative writing minor. I didn’t have the grades for NYADA anyway. You pretty much had to be top of your class to be a finalist.”

Blaine was top of his class and he was in 23 clubs and he was senior class president. It wasn’t hard for him to get into NYADA academically. He was a bit of an overachiever when it came to school. “What were your grades like in high school?”

“Average,” she shrugged. “Mostly A’s and B’s. A few C’s, primarily because I suck at math and didn’t do my homework. Also, my school didn’t have a billion clubs like yours did. We pretty much had none at all.”

“Seriously?” Blaine never heard of a school having no clubs.

“Clubs have to be run by a teacher and we didn’t have enough teachers as it is and the teachers didn’t get paid enough to want to babysit after school,” Cady explained. She had said she moved to New York, but it sounded like she was from an inner city school if teachers seriously weren’t getting paid enough. “My school was also really small.”

“Where are you from?” Blaine asked. She has yet to mention it and she must have not told Kurt either.

“Philadelphia,” she told him. That explained why it sounded like she went to an inner city school. “The district sucks. We had to raise a lot of our own money to be able to fund a lot of things. We barely could afford to fund sports, let alone a bunch of clubs.”

“No glee club?”

She laughed and shook her head. “No glee club,” she confirmed. “But, I actually went to an arts school. So, the vocal majors and the Chamber Singers were like our glee club.”

“I’m guessing you were not a vocal major?”

“Theatre major,” she answered. “As I said previously, I’m not the best of singers.”

He nodded his understanding and then his doorbell rang and Cady stood up, announcing she would get it since she had to sign. She opened the door, revealing a delivery person with a box of pizza and a 2 liter of mountain dew. He handed the paper for her to sign and she did, then handed it back to him and in return, he gave her the pizza and soda. She brought the pizza over to the coffee table and placed both the box and the soda on top of it. “I’ll go grab some plates and cups.” Blaine watched as she went into the kitchen, immediately knowing where everything was. She knew his apartment better than he did.

She brought everything back to the living room and put them on the table, that plopped down on the floor. She motioned for him to sit on the floor too, and he did. “Just like we always do,” she told him, giving him a sad smile.

They ate their pizza in silence for awhile until Blaine broke it. “So,” he said after swallowing, “how come your school was so small if you came from such a big city?”

She sighed and put the cup she was holding down, turning a little to face Blaine more. “I didn’t come here to talk about me, you know,” she gave him a pointed look. “I’m here because my best friend got in a car accident and I want to make sure he’s okay.”

“I’m okay, really,” Blaine assured her. Except he wasn’t. “Plus, I want to know more about you. Since we’re best friends and everything.”

“You don’t need to know more about me because I am very confident that you’ll get your memories back and it won’t be a problem,” she said, face completely serious. Blaine wanted to roll his eyes at that but he refrained. Everyone seemed to have complete faith that he would get all of his memories back but he wasn’t so sure. He’s only had little snippets come back so far and he just wanted them all back. “I want you to tell me about Kurt.”

“What?” Blaine blinked, not quite expecting her to bring him up.

“Once upon a time you told me he broke your heart,” she said. She looked concerned but he wasn’t completely sure what about. She obviously didn’t have a problem with Kurt himself, Kurt had told him that she was talking to him. “And now…”

“Now I don’t remember that ever happening,” Blaine finished for her. She nodded. “My mom says I never stopped loving him. Is that true?” Blaine couldn’t see why it wouldn’t be, but if anyone knew what was true or not in his life, it would be her.

Now she smiled at him. “God, even if you told me you didn’t I wouldn’t believe you,” she chuckled a little. “You hadn’t seen him in years and you still talked about him like he was the light of your life. You met me right after you broke up with Karofsky too.”

Blaine swallowed. He didn’t really want to talk about Karofsky. “I...did I love him too?”

“Not like you loved Kurt,” she answered simply.

“So why did I stay with him so long?” That was the question he really wanted to know that nobody seemed to be able to answer. Hopefully Cady could.

“I don’t know,” she shrugged. For a second, Blaine thought that was all she was going to say but she went on. “I think he made you feel safe. I think he was a clutch for you, more so in the beginning of the relationship. But then...I think you felt guilty. You didn’t want to break Dave’s heart like Kurt did to you.”

“Have you ever met him? Dave, I mean?”

“Once,” she told him. “You guys lived in New York together. When I said you met me right after you guys broke up, I meant literally right after. He left something in the apartment and had to come to pick it up. Me and you got close really quickly so I was already practically at your apartment everyday.”

“Was he respectful about it?”

“Yeah,” she nodded. Then, she took another bite of her pizza. “He introduced himself even though I already knew who he was. He definitely wasn’t the type of person I’d want to hang out with though. He’s all into sports and crap that I don’t care about.”

“I’m into sports,” Blaine reminded her. Not to the extent that other people were, but he still liked them. He wasn’t that stereotypical. Not that there was anything wrong with that.

“Sure,” she replied. “But you’re also into musical theatre and books and binge watching Orange is the New Black.”

“What’s that?”

“Oh my god,” she blinked at him. “You really have lost 7 years of memories. And that was 2012. Jesus Christ. I was 13.”

Blaine had almost forgot that she was 5 years younger than him. He felt like he was talking to someone his age, which made sense, considering he still felt like an 18 year old. “You know...all of this is still really hard for me to handle.”

“I know. I’m sorry. That was so long ago, it’s hard to put my brain in that headspace.”

“You don’t need to do that,” he told her. “I’m trying really hard to get my memories back. You talking to me like it’s still 2012 isn’t going to help that.”

“You’re right. You’re right,” she rubbed a hand across her face before looking up at him again. “Blaine, if I’m ever overstepping or making you uncomfortable please tell me. I know how you can be with trying to make everyone else comfortable, but you are important to. I can be really straightforward sometimes and there are situations when that’s not okay.”

“You aren’t making me uncomfortable,” he assured her with a smile. “This is all just really confusing. I mean, how would you react if you woke up with 7 years worth of memories missing?”

“I think I’d be very confused as to why I was in New York and also very confused as to where my family was,” she answered. She looked like she was seriously considering what it would be like if the roles were reversed.

“Speaking of,” Blaine cleared his throat. He didn’t want to make this more awkward than it already was, but she seemed to be skirting around talking about her personal life and family. “Where are they? I mean, I know you’re from Philly but…”

She looked at him, something cold growing in her eyes. “My dad died in 2012, actually. Then, uh, my mom died in 2015. My sister got custody of me after.”

He never knew someone who had lost both their parents. It made him feel a little guilty for having both his parents alive and kicking. “I had no idea. I’m sorry,” he said because he didn’t know what else he could say.

She waved his apology away and shrugged. “You couldn’t have known,” she gave him a weak smile. “My sister took care of me until I was 17. I should have shown more gratitude but god, that city had so many bad memories. I left as soon as I saw the opportunity. Um, my sister hasn’t talked to me since. But that wouldn’t even be the hardest thing if I woke up as a 13 year old. I was obsessed with One Direction. I would be so upset that I wasn’t dating Niall Horan yet.”

Blaine choked on his pizza. “What?”

She started cracking up at Blaine’s expression. He didn’t mean to judge, he just didn’t peg her as one of  of the crazy fangirls that the band had. “Don’t worry,” she said, still a hint of laughter in her tone. “I haven’t liked them since 9th grade. Plus, they’re broken up now anyway.”

“Seriously?” he asked, eyes wide. One Direction was probably the most famous boyband ever. He didn’t think they would ever break up. All those fangirls would riot.

“I know, right?” she shook her head. “I’m surprised that Kurt hasn’t caught you up on all the juicy celebrity gossip now that you’re talking again.”

“It’s not like that,” Blaine told her. “It’s complicated. He talks to me when he wants to talk to me but it usually winds up in an argument. I love him, I really do. But I’m starting to dread talking to him.”

“He can be a bit much,” she nodded. Blaine tilted his head, he knew they were talking but he didn’t know how much they were talking. “I hung out with him for a good hour after he got off the phone with you a few days ago. We started off talking about you but I tried not to overstep and eventually the conversation shifted into him talking about drama at work and what a pain it is to have Rachel Berry as a best friend.”

“Sounds like Kurt,” he laughed. “So, um...what did he say about me?”

“He asked how you’ve been the past few years,” she shrugged. “So I told him. I knew you wouldn’t appreciate me telling him that you were still completely in love with him, so I didn’t.”

“And um...do you think he still loves me?” The one question that’s been burning in his mind since he woke up. The one question that’s been keeping him up at night. The only question that truly mattered.

“I think that Kurt is very good at hiding his emotions,” she replied. “But I have also been studying theatre for the past 6 years and to do that, you learn a lot about character. You need to know how to read people. I’m no psychologist, but Kurt at the very least still cares about you. I could see it in the way he held his body when talking about you. I could hear the concern in his voice when talking about the accident. He cares, Blaine. I think that’s what matters.”

“I just want him back,” Blaine choked out. “I already know that he cares or he wouldn’t have shown at the hospital. I just really need him right now.”

“Hey,” she said softly, resting her hand over Blaine’s and squeezing it. “You know, my theatre teacher once told us to stop using the word just. She said it meant that we were unsure of ourselves. That we weren’t confident in what we were saying. So, do you really want him back? Or do you want the idea of him back?”

“Let me rephrase: I miss him like crazy. I don’t just want him back. I want to spend the rest of my life with him. I want to watch him on Broadway, I want to wake up to him every morning and make him breakfast in bed. I want to cuddle up on Friday nights and watch Moulin Rouge,” he took a breath. That wasn’t even half of the things he wanted with Kurt. “And I do need him. My life is a mess right now and I just- I mean, I want him in it.”

She grinned at him. “See how more sure of yourself you sound when you don’t use the word just? Good job on correcting yourself at the end of that spiel.”

He couldn’t help the smile that grew on his face. He could see why they were best friends. She was so easy to talk to and always knew the right thing to say. “I bet you already knew all of that.”

“I did,” she confirmed, the smile still plastered on her face. “I just wanted to see that you were really sure.”

“Are you convinced?”

“Very. And by the way, you don’t need to worry about getting Kurt back. With a winning charm like yours, he’ll be crawling back to you in no time.”

He sure hoped so.