Wake Up

Blaine jumped slightly when he felt his phone vibrated in his pocket. He gripped his hand lazily around the familiar piece of electronic pressing a button with his thumb on his phone, “Text Message from Kurt Hummel,” the phone sounded, “Come bowling with Sam, Finn, my friends and I at 7pm”. Blaine smiled waking from his slumber and pressed another button on his phone weakly rubbing his eye with his other hand and cleared his throat, “Call Sam Evans,” he said making sure to articulate every word. “Calling Sam Evans”.

After a couple of rings Sam answered, “Hello?”

“Hey Sam, how are you?” Blaine paused straining to remember why he’d called in the first place, “I mean, yesterday, you sort of… left.”

“I’m fine; really, I just had a lot on my mind.”

“Like what?”

Sam sighed, he didn’t like lying but he felt this was necessary, “Beiste set up new drill for the football game next week and it’s been stressing me out a bit.”

“For some reason I don’t believe you,” Blaine said sternly.

Sam seriously thought in that moment Blaine was psychic, “I just miss… I miss how we were. I mean, Kurt is perfe-, Kurt’s great, but when I saw you guys… together, I-I thought you were going to leave me.”

“Sam,” Blaine breathed, “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t need you. You’re my best friend no matter what,” he smiled.

Sam chuckled, “Yeah, but I’m your only friend.”

Blaine laughed and soaked in the silence, “Hey, do you, uh, do you think you could give me a ride to bowling with Kurt this afternoon?”

“Yeah, that’s fine, dude,” Sam paused before speaking again, “So, are you and Kurt a … a ‘thing’?”

Blaine thought a moment, not really sure what they were, “I hope so,” he smiled.

“I’m happy for you.”

Blaine hummed in happiness, “Thank you.”

“No problem,” Sam bit his lip, “So, I’ll pick you up at 6:45, yeah?”

“That’s fine, thanks again, Sam,”

“Don’t mention it,” he smiled hanging up the phone.

Blaine dropped his phone to his side and stared at the ceiling still lying on the floor with Kurt’s jacket draped across his chest. He rehearsed exactly what he was going to do when he meets Kurt a million times in his head. He would rest his hand on Kurt’s arm after Sam lead him to the group of teenagers then pass the designer jacket to Kurt, “You smell divine.” Blaine would say in a low voice leaning in to kiss his shoulder tenderly. Yup, Blaine thought, Kurt Hummel will be mine.

The bowling alley was crowded with the smell of nachos and cheese sweeping through every corner of the room, music pounding into their ears. “Times like these I wish I was taller,” Sam shouted over the music pushing through the congested crowd of people and jumping in attempt to spot some of their fellow Glee clubbers.

“Times like these I wish I could see,” Blaine held closer to the other boy bumping into every shoulder of the crowd following Sam’s big steps. The two shoved past the crowd to the back of the alley where Finn stood awkwardly next to Rachel who was in a serious discussion about her gay Dad’s with Mercades, Tina, Artie, and Kurt.

Finn looked up at Sam and Blaine with a bright grin, “Please can we talk about anything other than Broadway?” he laughed doing what seemed to be a secret handshake with Sam. “Hey, man,” Finn patted Blaine on the shoulder. He returned the greeting with a smile but was really focused on being with Kurt at the moment. Soon, Puck and Mike appeared exchanging handshakes and greetings with Finn and Sam.

“Let’s bowl!” Puck shouted as the rest of the group laughed in agreement. “Watch and learn, boys,” Puck twisted the bowling ball in his hands flexing his muscles, “The lady’s can’t resist the power of my balls.” Finn, Sam, and Mike chuckled watching the pins on the other side of the room. Puck didn’t disappoint; he slid his fingers into it and in one swift movement, the ball was sent whizzing across the long wooden floors knocking each pin down. Santana sat at the sidelines fanning herself with a freshly manicured hand while licking her lips seductively and Puck. “Told you,” he bit his lip and wiggled his eyebrows at the other boys before heading towards Santana.

Finn had a go at bowling and hit almost each pin down. He smiled at the pins pleased that he didn’t completely screw up in front of Rachel. The girl waved at Finn as he walked back from bowling, “Hi Rachel,” he smiled standing on the tips of his toes.

Rachel looked at him through her eyelashes grinning, “I wish I could bowl that good.”

Finn looked at the ground blushing faintly, “Thanks. I could show you sometime- I mean teach you… if- if you, uh, if you want to”.

Rachel giggled and rolled back and forth on the balls of her feet staring at her bowling shoes, “I’d like that”.

Blaine kept nudging Sam’s side to take him to Kurt, but instead Sam gripped a bowling ball and touched it to Blaine’s chest, “Take this, but be careful, it’s heavy.” Blaine grunted when Sam let go of the ball into his hand. He quickly slipped his other hand off of Sam’s arm to grip the ball more firmly.
“You weren’t lying when you said it was heavy,” Blaine chuckled feeling the shiny bowling ball with his thumbs. “What do I do?” he asked worried that he wasn’t holding anyone’s arm.

Sam put one hand on Blaine’s shoulder and the other on the bowling ball leading Blaine’s hand to the holes that were drilled into it, “I’m right here, just put your pointer finger and middle finger in those, yeah, and your thumb, right, you got it,” Sam said comforting and smiling.
Blaine sighed in relief, “Now what?”

Sam placed his hands on Blaine’s shoulders and pushed him to walk past the carpet floors pointing him in front of the long lane of wood. “Alright, so in front of you, there is a long wooden lane with gutters, or ditches, sort of, on each side of the lane with ten pins lined up in a triangle. The object of the game is to knock down each pin with the ball while avoiding the gutters, got it?”

Blaine nodded slightly but dropped his shoulders and shook his head, “I don’t know about this.”

Sam wiggled Blaine’s shoulder with his hand and chuckled, “You’ll be fine,” he took the bowling ball with Blaine’s hand still in it and showed him the motion of how to throw the ball, “You just swing back and whip it forward letting it go close to the floor, try it out, bud,” he said smiling and letting go of Blaine. The other boy nervously swung the ball towards the pins hearing the ball cracking against the hard surface and rolling across the floor. The ball weakly swerved into the gutter and moved to the other side of the room.

“So how many pins fell down?” Blaine smirked.

Sam gripped onto another bowling ball and pressed it to Blaine’s chest, “Try again,” Sam smiled as Blaine sighed taking the ball and running fingers along the surface until they lined up with the holes. “This time, try getting the ball across the floor!” Sam nudged Blaine with his elbow. Blaine wrinkled his nose and practiced a couple of strokes before he let go with a powerful force.

The ball zoomed across the floor managing to knock down three pins. Blaine gasped in shock when he heard the pins falling onto the floor, “How’d I do?” he laughed waiting for Sam to lay his hand on his shoulder. Blaine stood in silence crossing his arms still happy from the outcome. He tapped his bowling shoe on the ground and bit his lip nervously not recognizing the voices around him, “Sam?”

A voice laughed excitedly from across the room and shouted, “Blaine, I got us some drinks and saw you knocked down some pin-”

A firm hand placed itself on his shoulder, but it definitely wasn’t Sam’s. Blaine heard footsteps running to him and a voice snarling in anger, “What are you doing here? Get your hand off of Blaine!” A hand gripped Blaine’s arm and jerked him towards it.

Blaine gasped falling into the arms of who grabbed him, “What’s going on?” Blaine screeched.

“Hey, I was just trying to help the kid while you clearly weren’t around,” an unfamiliar voice sounded.

“We don’t need your help, Jesse,” Sam growled through his teeth. Blaine felt his stomach twist into knots. It’s Jesse, Blaine thought, the Jesse St. James Sam cried about for days. The Jesse St. James that Sam had nightmares over. The Jesse St. James that broke Sam’s heart and turned all of Carmel High against him.

Blaine wiggled out of Sam’s grasp and held onto his arm, “Fuck off, Jesse St. James,” he shouted.

Jesse stepped closer narrowing his eyes at him, “What are you going to do? Poke me with your blind walking stick?” Jesse stood still for a moment, “Go ahead; hit me.” He clucked his tongue against his teeth, “That’s what I thought, you cowar- oomph!” Jesse doubled over cupping his crotch at the spike of pain he received from Blaine’s foot. Sam’s eyes widened at the sight of Jesse on ground scrunching up his face and biting his lip hard enough to draw blood.

“Shit, Blaine, we need to run,” the other boy gaped at the sound of Jesse groaning in pain.

“Ready when you are,” Blaine giggled tightening his grip on Sam’s arm.

The two raced out of the bowling alley into the parking lot coughing from exhaustion and laughter. “I wish you could have seen his face, it was hilarious!” Sam gasped for air and chuckled slapping his hand on Blaine’s back.

“Hearing it was enough for me!” Blaine laughed listening to the stampede of footsteps following behind them. He held closer to Sam when he heard the cluster of voices around them.

“Sam, who was that?” Blaine’s head shot up at the sound of Kurt’s worried voice.

Sam glanced down at Blaine then up at Kurt, “He’s nobody,” he mumbled. Blaine let go of Sam’s arm and took a couple of shaking steps forward sticking one of his arms out in Kurt’s direction where Blaine had heard him from.

“Kurt,” he said quietly listening to someone walking towards him. Kurt pulled him into a hug and squeezing tightly around his torso. Blaine wrapped his arms around the other boy’s neck and rested his head on Kurt’s shoulder whispering in his ear, “I’ve missed you.” Kurt shivered at the heat of Blaine’s breathe hovering against his ear through the cold.

Kurt broke away and shifted slightly so that he could stare into Blaine’s lustful eyes, “It’s only been a day,” he chuckled. Blaine sighed as he no longer felt the warmth of Kurt’s body pressed up against him in an embrace saving him from the chilling night breeze. Blaine slid his hand into Kurt’s smiling when he didn’t protest even though practically the whole Glee Club was probably watching them.

Finn took advantage of Kurt and Blaine’s loving encounter and wrapped his arm around Rachel’s shivering shoulders. She smiled up at him and leaned into the touch turning her head to watch the two again. “They are so cute together,” she grinned.

Finn raised an eyebrow, “Do you think we could be that cute together?”

The girl sighed watching the cloud of white escaping from her mouth into the cold, “I don’t know, they seem to have the bar raised up real high,” she laughed. Finn squeezed her lightly and wrapped his other arm on top of Rachel’s crossed arms watching Kurt and Blaine smiling.

“Get a blind guy,” Puck said as other Glee Clubbers whipped their heads at him in disgust, “bitches love blind guys.” The group busted in laughter separating in pairs chatting and embracing each other through the cold. Mercades, Tina, Mike, Puck and Artie huddled together breaking out into popular songs; some other pairs even joined in for a while. Mike and Brittany started dancing but Santana pushed Mike aside and grabbed Brittany into a cuddle. Tina worked up the courage to ask Mike to dance in the cold. They waltzed and held each other close keeping warm. Mercades watched the couples in longing as she grunted trying to put up with Puck’s rude sexual comments and Artie’s white rapping.

Sam watched Kurt and Blaine’s tightly linked hands molding together swaying back and forth as they whispered in each other’s ear giggling. He was looking forward to that one day when he has that… that love for another male. When he can be comfortable with his sexuality and be able to show those feelings. When he has that perfect boy he can say, ‘I love you,’ and the other boy will say, ‘I love you, too’ without hesitation. Sam could just mope around and be sad about Kurt but for some reason, it worked out. Blaine was happy. His best friend finally has the attention he has been craving for years. Sam smiled shuffling his feet to Mercades, Puck, and Artie’s group, thinking of how dumbfounded Blaine looked when he walked in on him yesterday, absolutely love struck. They seemed perfect.

After setting up a sleeping bag for Blaine next to his bed, Sam snuggled himself in the comfortable sheets of his bed later that night. “Sweet dreams, Blaine,” he whispered.

“Sweet dreams, Sam,” he smiled sleepily, eyelids growing heavy, pulling him into a deep sleep with images flashing before him.

“Don’t touch me!” Jesse yelled clenching his fists and becoming red with anger, “Fags don’t belong here!”

Sam gave him a hurt and confused look, “But, I didn’t touch you,” he croaked. Jesse unclenched his jaw, crossed his arms, and bowed his head pacing the empty choir room mumbling to himself. He stopped in the middle of the room slowly looking up at Sam with an innocent and confused stare. “You touched me,” Sam gulped his heart beating faster at the memory.

“Sam,” Jesse whispered shaking his head with tears pricking in his eyes. “What’s wrong with me? I have… these feelings I can’t control when I’m around you. Sometimes, I just want to tou- NO!” Jesse suddenly screamed. Sam jumped at the abrupt raise in voice. “This is all wrong! My father taught me what love is and this… whatever this is… it’s not real!” Jesse wiped his tears with his palms and shook angrily.

Sam started to sob, tears streaking heavily down his flushed cheeks taking careful steps towards Jesse and laying a hand on his shoulder, “Jesse, don’t do this again. You’re father’s gone, he- he’s not here to judge you or to… to tell you who to l-love anymore. This is real.” Sam furrowed his eyes at Jesse and lifted his chin with his free hand to meet Jesse’s gaze and leaned in to kiss him. Sam’s lips were blocked by a fist crushing into his jaw. Sam fell to the ground weakly clutching his sensitive jaw attempting to crawl on his knees and hands. A strong kick pounded into his back sent Sam slamming into the ground again, his skull hitting the ground with such force, knocking Sam out of cautiousness.

A crowd gathered around him clucking their tongues and sucking their teeth, “That’ll teach ‘em,” one said.

Others chuckled, “No fag will try to turn our friends into one of them,” a boy snarled, “right, Jesse?”

There was silence then a sniffle, “Right,” Jesse said stiffly with no emotion.

“Sam, wake up.”

“Make sure you beat the hell out of him if he ever comes onto me again,” He scowled stomping away.

“SAM!”

“No worries, Jesse, you’ve got us and the McKinley High wrestling team that’s got your back if anyone messes with you,” a student hollered after him.

“SAM, PLEASE! WAKE UP, IT’S NOT REAL!”

Blaine shook Sam’s shoulders violently forcing him out of the nightmare. Sam’s body was drenched in sweat, salty tears coating his cheeks, neck, and blankets. His throat was scratchy and dry almost as if he has been screaming for hours, his chest heaving up and down shakily with each sob. Sam forced his tired eyes open to see Blaine’s tears shining on his cheeks reflecting off of the bright moon that lit Sam’s room dimly through his window. “Blaine,” Sam cried, “b-but it was real,” he said in heavy sobs. Blaine wrapped his arms around Sam forcing the other boy cry in his shoulder while he did the same to Sam’s. They spent a lot of their sleepovers like this after what happened with Jesse. Blaine hated hearing Sam like this. It hurt him even more to know that someone was capable of hurting another person to such an extent that they can’t enjoy a simple thing as sleep. Blaine looked up to Sam so much after the years they spent together. Sam was probably the strongest person he’d ever known, having going to something as traumatic as that yet still pushing through to help his blind friend, attend school, and even join extracurricular activities. Even if Blaine had to be there to wake Sam from his nightmares and let him cry on his shoulder until the rest of his life, he still wouldn’t think any less of Sam.