Chapter 29

‘What do you mean you lost it?,’ Kurt asked. He wished he didn’t have his whole family to listen to his conversation with Blaine on the phone, but there was nowhere he could go in the car speeding down I-75 towards Lebanon.

‘I have no idea how it happened,’ Blaine said. ‘I definitely had it on when I walked Goldie in the morning, and then Aileen sent me to the grocery store, and it was still there. But when I came out, it was gone. I must have dropped it, but I just can’t figure out how that could happen. I went back to check if it was still there, and I couldn’t find it.’

Kurt listened patiently; most people would probably laugh at Blaine for getting so upset about losing a scarf, but Kurt was the last person to not take a matter like this seriously. He understood feeling attached to a piece of clothing or an accessory enough to let his friend vent.

‘That was one fine scarf,’ he said sympathetically. ‘It will be missed.’

He couldn’t see the way one of the corners of Blaine’s mouth twitched at that.

‘Yeah, about that,’ Blaine said. ‘I think I’m going to hit the mall today after all, maybe they still have those scarves. It hasn’t even been two weeks since I bought it.’

Kurt suppressed an urge to groan. There was nothing he’d rather be doing than going shopping with Blaine. And yet there he was, stuck in the stupid car to see his grandmother who had apparently forgotten he existed for almost ten years.

‘Can’t you wait until tomorrow? We could go together then.’ Kurt’s voice was obviously hopeful.

‘I’d love that, but the after-Christmas sales begin today, and the chances for me to replace the scarf would drop, if I waited till tomorrow.’ Blaine bit his lip, feeling guilty he was stripping his best friend of an opportunity for his favourite activity.

Kurt sighed, disappointed. Blaine definitely had a point, but it didn’t make him feel any better to know that his best friend was out shopping, as he was going to be experiencing probably one of the most awkward family reunions in history.

‘I wish I could go with you,’ he said into the receiver, dropping his voice. Thankfully, his dad and Carole where engrossed by a conversation about her friend from work, and Finn had just dozed off.

‘I wish you could, too,’ Blaine replied. ‘I promise, we’ll go to the mall before next year.’

‘Right,’ Kurt snorted. ‘Have fun.’

‘I won’t. My favourite shopping buddy isn’t coming along.’

Kurt giggled, his heart pounding suddenly a little too fast.

‘I’ll call you later, okay?’

‘Sure,’ Blaine said. ‘Good luck with your granny.’

***

It was almost noon as Blaine entered the packed mall. The shopping craze wasn’t quite as big as on Black Friday, but still he found the people a little scary. Having Kurt to accompany him in this madness would have been comforting, but there was no way that could happen today. And he was really pissed off at himself for losing that scarf; getting an identical one would hopefully ease the feeling.

He picked his way carefully through the crowd, heading to the Gap. The store resembled the rest of the shopping centre, people pushing past others surrounding them to get to the sale racks.

Blaine sighed as he began to make his way to the accessories department. It took him a good five minutes of “excuse mes” and uncomfortable closeness to complete strangers, until he finally made it to the shelves hosting men’s accessories. Another couple of seconds later, Blaine hastily grabbed one of the two last stripy scarves, and turned around to head for the cash register. He didn’t want to spend any more time than was absolutely necessary among the crazy people. Somehow, shopping with Kurt was an entirely different experience. It was like his mind blocked all the unpleasant elements of it, leaving his friend’s passion and enjoyment for the activity to spark up similar feelings in himself.

He was just trying to push past an overweight woman with a huge bunch of shopping bags, when he bumped his shoulder into someone to his left and turned around to apologize.

The hair of the person standing with his back to him was oddly familiar.

‘Excuse me,’ Blaine mumbled.

The guy turned swiftly with a small dismissing smile. ‘No problem.’

Blaine felt stupid, staring blatantly in the face of the man before him. The guy from the skating rink. Lima really was tiny.

The guy’s eyes examined Blaine’s dumbstruck face for a moment.

‘Do I know you from somewhere?,’ he asked.

Blaine blinked a few times. Was that a regular question, or was the guy hitting on him? He really couldn’t tell.

‘Um- I don’t know. But I could swear I saw you once at the skating rink,’ Blaine said awkwardly, feeling a blush coming to his cheeks.

‘Oh.’ The response was accompanied by a flash of sadness on the guy’s face. ‘That’s possible. By the way, I’m Jeremiah.’

He extended his hand towards Blaine, who shook it gingerly.

‘Blaine.’

***

Kurt was increasingly uncomfortable on the way to his grandmother’s. The only memories he had of her were scarce and old. There was an occasion when she was in Lima taking care of him, while he was down with chicken pox at the age of six, and some vague recollections of summer visits and baking cookies. He knew he used to love his Granny and get excited whenever they went to visit her. But isn’t that the usual way children feel about their grandmothers? Kurt couldn’t for the world tell, whether this reunion of theirs would be as pleasant as his childhood memories seemed to predict, or the precise opposite. After all, people change, and he had certainly changed within the last nine years.

What had not changed a bit was the house where Elizabeth Hummel’s mother lived. The building was still painted blue and surrounded by a garden that evidently was filled with flowers in the warmer months. Now it looked sad with empty branches of rosebushes covered by a thin layer of snow.

Kurt smacked Finn awake, as his father pulled up in the driveway. Burt examined his son’s face in the rearview mirror; he’d been a little worried about the whole visit. It was as if he came to introduce himself one more time to the woman, who’d always been a little critical of him. Deep down, he’d always had a feeling that his mother-in-law blamed him for her daughter’s death. It didn’t matter that the person responsible was caught, or that Elizabeth was alone in the car at the time of the accident. Burt sensed Frances was holding a grudge. Why else would she remove herself almost completely from their lives?

‘We ready?,’ he asked, turning to his sons.

Kurt nodded nervously; Finn didn’t respond, still groggy from his nap and trying to remember where he was. Carole sent her stepson an encouraging smile, and they all tumbled out of the car and into the chilly December air.

They approached the front door in silence. Kurt locked his hands together to stop them from trembling; he couldn’t tell whether it was caused by his anxiety or the cold. He wished he was back in Lima with Blaine, or for Blaine to be here with him.

Burt rang the bell, the whole family arranging in a straight line at his sides. It didn’t take more than twenty seconds for them to hear a shuffling sound inside.

‘Coming!,’ a voice announced, and the door swung open, revealing a small, delicate elder woman.

Frances was wearing an old-fashioned, yet impeccable dark blue dress, and had her hair painstakingly curled and pinned down to her head. She smiled kindly at the group at the door.

‘Burt! It’s so nice to see you,’ she said, sending her son-in-law a short look, and looked sideways at Kurt. ‘Is that my grandson? You’ve grown so much!’

Granny pulled him into a surprisingly tight hug, and as soon as she couldn’t see his face, he rolled his eyes. How could he not have grown? She hadn’t seen him since he was eight, for heavens’ sake.

‘So handsome,’ she added, as she back out of the embrace, holding him by the shoulders. That was enough to change Kurt’s uneasiness into full-blown embarrassment. ‘And you must be Carole and Finn! I’m happy to finally meet you, my dears! But now, let’s come in, before we all catch a cold.’

Everyone entered the murky hall, while Frances chattered on about happy family gatherings and how perfect their timing was, because she’d just finished preparing lunch for all of them. She led them in a line through the narrow spaces of the clattered house into her tiny dining room.

‘Sit down, my dears, I’ll be right back with our food,’ she told them, her lips stretched in a never-ceasing smile. Kurt was beginning to think that maybe she had facial muscle paralysis or something, because that was just not natural.

The next half hour passed in a relative silence, broken only by the clink of cutlery on plates and occasional compliments on the food. The vegetables were a little overdone for Kurt’s taste, but at least his grandmother didn’t serve anything that would be unacceptable for Burt’s diet, so he stayed quiet, giving only small nods of agreement to whatever Carole, Finn or his father were saying,

Then the food was gone, the plates stacked one upon another and taken out to the kitchen. Frances offered them tea and coffee, and that was when the awkward part began. Their conversations were causal inquiries into their daily life, how Burt and Carole met, and how well Kurt and Finn did at school. Frances had been informed the previous year about Kurt’s escape from home, so she wasn’t shocked by the story she was hearing. Kurt himself stayed mostly quiet, leaving the storytelling to his parents. His thoughts were escaping back towards Lima and Blaine, whenever he was trying to focus on the conversation at hand.

‘So, Kurt, are you always this shy, sweetie?,’ Granny asked him finally, looking at her grandson with curiosity. ‘That has to make it difficult with the girls, huh?’

Without taking a beat to ponder on his answer, Kurt swallowed a mouthful of his coffee to speak.

‘That’s not a problem, I’m gay.’

It wasn’t until the words were out, ringing in the sudden complete silence of the room, Burt eyeing his mother-in-law expectantly, that Kurt realized he’d just come out to his grandmother. And that it wasn’t necessarily going to be pretty.

Frances was visibly lost for words and for a moment her smile vanished.

‘Oh, I didn’t realize,’ she said eventually, restoring her previous facial expression. ‘And how about you, Finn? Is there someone special?’

Finn’s ears reddened. It really seemed weird, getting questions like that from someone, he’d barely met an hour and a half ago. And it only reminded him that he still wasn’t quite over Rachel.

‘Um, no. My girlfriends usually cheat on me.’

‘Oh, I’m sorry,’ Kurt’s grandmother said, but she seemed pleased that at least Finn liked girls.

Kurt cleared his throat, couldn’t resist his urge to comment.

‘But, may I remind you, my dear brother, that you weren’t quite fair to Rachel, either.’

Finn leant back in his chair, huffing.

‘Okay, I maybe should’ve told her about Santana, but we weren’t together then,’ he said.

Carole and Burt looked from one of their sons to the other, clearly not knowing the details of the matter.

‘Still, the question whether or not you are a virgin is kinda important in a relationship, don’t you think?,’ Kurt asked his brother sarcastically, before slapping his hand over his lips in horror.

Finn’s eyes widened to match his saucer in size, his jaw dropped. Carole seemed relatively unfazed, but then again, she did use to think her son was responsible for impregnating Quinn Fabray. The idea of Finn having had sex must have entered her mind. Burt was the one more shocked by it, but mostly due to the fact that it reminded him that his son was the same age as Finn. It took him a second to discard the idea of Kurt having lost his virginity. His son might have been keeping secrets from him, but Burt knew one thing for sure: Kurt wasn’t a boy who’d sleep with just anybody for the sake of not sticking out from the crowd.

‘Dude, seriously?,’ Finn said, jumping to his feet.

‘God, Finn, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to…’, Kurt mumbled.

‘It’s okay, honey, just sit down.’ Carole grabbed her son by the hand and pulled him back down. Her soothing tone worked, and Finn slopped back onto the chair.

‘I’m not so sure if it’s okay, but we’ll talk about this at home,’ Burt added.

Finn sent a glare Kurt’s way, and his brother mouthed an I’m sorry, creasing his forehead in worry and regret. He really had to focus, otherwise, this family reunion was going to be a disaster and it would be solely his fault.

The topic dissolved quickly, Frances too mortified by the turn their conversation had taken to stand another moment pursuing it. She asked about Glee club, as the Hudson-Hummels had mentioned it before, and Kurt became more eager to talk. He even managed to focus better.

Until he felt his phone buzz in his pocket, and he automatically yanked it out to see a text from Blaine.

U r not gonna believe this. Call me when you can. xo B.