Chapter 11

It was still early when they came back to the motel, and sitting around seemed like an utter waste of time. They split up and went to their respective rooms, deciding it was no use going sightseeing now, so they’d leave it for the morning.

Kurt flopped to his bed, trying not think of what happened the previous night. He had never before been as confused, he had never received such mixed signals from Blaine. Having to spend the entire night with Blaine and nothing to do had never been this impossible to bear. He needed something to occupy his mind or at least people to distract him. He unconsciously let out a heavy sigh.

‘Bored already?,’ Blaine asked from where he was flattening his hair at the closet mirror.

‘What? Um- yeah, a little.’ Kurt wished it was easier to chase all the thoughts of Blaine out of his mind even for a moment; they were too preoccupying.

Blaine turned around and took a few steps to sit at the edge of his bed.

‘Maybe we could go to the beach again?,’ he suggested. ‘No alcohol this time, though.’

If Kurt’s heart could sink any lower, it did. It sure as hell felt like it did. No booze meant Blaine controlling himself perfectly, not letting anything slip. No kisses.

But he nodded anyway. ‘I’ll go ask the others, if they wanna come with.’

And before Blaine managed to tell him he wanted them to be alone, Kurt was out the door. As if he was trying to run away from him. Blaine felt as if someone punched him in the gut, knocking the breath out of his chest. The pain it caused him was practically a physical sensation.

Kurt stopped right outside the door to breathe and calm down. There was no way for him to last much longer like this. It was eating him from the inside out to keep his secret from Blaine, yet telling him scared him to death. Finally, he inhaled deeply one more time, and resumed walking towards Brittany and Santana’s room, just several meters from theirs, his thoughts still circling the Blaine situation.

His brain was way too busy dissecting every move Blaine had ever made to stop and listen for an invite, so as soon as he tapped lightly at the door, calling ‘Guys?’ in a low voice, he pushed the door open.

Kurt didn’t see them at first, and they were too wrapped up in each other that they didn’t notice him either. He scanned the room and eventually his eyes fell on the bed nearest to the door, almost invisible in the faint light coming in from the entrance and the shaded window.

Brittany and Santana’s bodies were pressed together, their legs tangled so that only the skin tone could determine which limb was whose.

‘Oh,’ Kurt let out in surprise. Only then did he notice over Santana’s head that Brittany didn’t have a shirt on. Or anything that would cover her chest at all. ‘Oh!’

That finally drew their attention and they jumped upright. Brittany was a little slow covering herself up, so Kurt squeezed his eyes shut. It wasn’t an image he wanted stuck in his mind for the rest of his life.

‘Kurt!,’ Santana screamed, for a second completely horrified. Then she collected herself enough to get back to her usual snarky self and added, ‘Haven’t you heard of knocking?’

He peeked out from under his lashed to check if his eyes were safe from any unsolicited boobies, and sighed in relief, seeing Brittany had covered her chest with the shirt she’d surely cast away earlier.

‘I did knock, only you were- busy, I guess,’ he mumbled.

‘Okay, so why are you here?,’ she asked. ‘I bet it’s not to jerk off to some girl-on-girl action.’

‘Nothing. Just- Blaine and I were going to the beach, so I wanted to ask if you wanted to join us, but- you probably have better stuff to do so I’ll- go.’ He pointed a shaky finger at the door.

‘Great,’ Santana said, sending him a nervous, much too wide smile.

‘Sorry for- interrupting. See you later, Santana, Britt.’

He was almost at the door, when Santana jumped up to him hastily and grabbed his arm.

‘Kurt,’ she said, for once dead serious.

‘Yeah?’ He was quite positive he knew what she was going to say next.

‘Could you- not tell anyone about this? I mean, I know you’re gonna blab it to your BFF this very second, but apart from him, could you not tell anyone?’ He’d never seen her pleading like that.

‘Sure. I’d never out anyone.’ Kurt gave her an encouraging smile and patted her on the shoulder. ‘But you know we love you, no matter what? All of us?’

Santana rolled her eyes at him.

‘Yeah, but stop with the sentimental bullshit, okay?’

‘Got it.’

***

Instead of going to the others’ room, Kurt turned around and almost ran back to his and Blaine’s.

‘What did they say?,’ Blaine asked him, struggling to sound casually, the moment he stormed inside.

‘I didn’t exactly ask,’ Kurt replied, everything he’d just seen still sinking in.

Blaine’s heart fluttered happily for just a second before he noticed Kurt’s bewilderment.

‘What happened?’ It took him two seconds to be next to Kurt.

‘Let’s go to the beach, I’ll tell you on the way, okay? I think I need air.’

Blaine didn’t have to hear it twice. They were out of the motel and walking towards the beach in a half minute. Kurt was silent until they were walking onto the sand, clutching their shoes in their hands.

‘So... I kinda walked in on Brittany and Santana,’ he said finally, glancing sideways at Blaine to catch his reaction.

‘Walked in on as in...?’ Blaine frowned.

‘As in I interrupted their steamy make-out session,’ Kurt elaborated. ‘The kind where shirts come off. And I guess that could be a big deal with them being girls and all.’

Blaine fell quiet for a moment, putting the information in order in his brain. Everyone knew Brittany wasn’t exactly straight; she lived in her fantasy land, where her cat was a smoker and it didn’t matter who people fell in love with. There had been rumours about Santana’s explorations of Sapphic love, but everyone always assumed they were half made-up and the half that was true was a way of getting attention.

‘They didn’t ask you to keep it to yourself?,’ he asked.

‘Santana did,’ Kurt admitted. ‘But she knew I’d tell you, so she let me.’

‘But you would even if she asked you not to.’

Kurt shrugged. ‘It’s not like you’d out them.’

They stopped several feet from the edge of the water and Blaine sat down on the sand, dragging Kurt down with him. It was the second day in a row that found them on the beach at sunset. This time it was even more beautiful, with thin delicate clouds circling the golden orb in the sky just above the horizon.

‘I wouldn’t out them,’ Blaine agreed after a moment. ‘I know how hard it is, but they should know we have their backs.’

‘They know,’ Kurt said sadly. ‘Maybe all they need is time. Everything needs time.’

***

Brittany was sitting alone on the stairs leading to the second storey when the boys returned from the beach. She smiled at them, but it was clear she was upset.

‘Maybe you should talk to her? You’re better at talking,’ Blaine whispered in Kurt’s ear.

Kurt responded with a nod, and sat down next to Brittany, while Blaine wished her goodnight and snuck upstairs to their room.

‘Where’s Santana?,’ Kurt asked, when the door closed behind Blaine and they were alone.

‘She’s taking a shower and didn’t want company,’ Brittany said.

‘Oh. You two didn’t have a fight because of- because of earlier, did you?’ He’d hate to be the reason behind anybody’s relationship problems.

She shook her head. ‘No. I just don’t like it when she’s sad. She has such a pretty smile, she should be smiling, like, all the time.’

Kurt nodded with understanding.

‘She doesn’t want people to know, because she thinks people won’t love her,’ Brittany said after a moment’s silence. ‘She thinks it changes things, and I don’t get it. She’s awesome, ‘cause she’s Santana and she doesn’t want people to know everything about her awesomeness?’

‘It can be hard on people to be awesome sometimes, Britt,’ Kurt told her. ‘It was tough on me and Blaine.’

She smiled sadly at him.

‘You know, Santana is like... my Blaine.’

Kurt frowned at her words.

‘What do you mean?’

Brittany shrugged.

‘It’s like- I can always talk to her, even when nobody else wants to listen to me, she listens. And she’s never called me stupid. And when she’s with me, I feel like I had a family of butterflies in my tummy.’

‘But, Britt, me and Blaine, we’re just- you know, friends,’ Kurt stammered.

She stood up swiftly and looked down at him.

‘So why don’t you change it?’

‘I don’t know,’ he said honestly. ‘Because I’m scared, probably.’

‘Why? Blaine loves you, you love Blaine, it’s all perfect, isn’t it?’

‘Maybe.’

Brittany smiled widely. ‘It was nice talking unicorn to unicorn,’ she said.

Kurt frowned, wondering what exactly she meant by it, and stood up.

‘It was nice talking to you.’ He paused hesitantly. ‘I hope you and Santana will be alright.’

‘We will,’ she said. ‘And you and Blaine will be, too.’

‘Thanks, Britt.’

He caught her in an embrace and she hugged him back eagerly. With their last goodnights, they went up the stairs and into their rooms.