Jeremiah had better be grateful.

After Blaine had failed to convince his fellow Warblers to come and sing with him at the local Gap, he had been at a loss for idea for a moment. He had been planning on serenading Jeremiah and asking him out afterwards, but when the council would not let him bring the Warblers along for the serenade, things started getting tricky. No Warblers meant no back-up, and Blaine didn't think it would do to just go to the Gap and sing a song all by himself. No one would hear or even notice him, including Jeremiah.

An entire show choir tended to be heard better than one single person.

Instead of giving up, however, Blaine had formulated a new plan. He had borrowed Jeff's old guitar, gotten some sheet music, and tried to teach himself the song in only a few days. Having never played guitar before, this was quite a challenge, but Blaine liked to think that he had it down now.

Just in time, too, as Valentine's Day was only two days away.

Blaine had refused his friends' offers to come with him anyway, for moral support or good luck wishes or consolation or anything else. They didn't want to sing with him, so they'd better stay away completely. Blaine was aware that this might sound childish, but after the Warblers collectively shot down his plan, he'd been in a sour mood around them the entire week. He knew, though, that his friends wouldn't stay away. It was very likely that they would be hanging around near the Gap the whole day, and he didn't know what exactly to think of that.

So, all in all, Jeremiah had better be grateful that Blaine was willing to go through all this trouble for him.

Of course, Blaine did it gladly, and it would all be worth it when Jeremiah would indisputably agree to go out with him and be his boyfriend. It would be worth it.

At this moment, though, Blaine felt a little silly, walking through the mall with a guitar case in his hand and a carefully prepared speech in his head. You know, just in case Jeremiah needed to be persuaded some more. Not that Blaine really counted on that, but you could never be prepared enough.

Finally, he arrived at the Gap, and he was hit by a dilemma. Where was he going to leave the guitar case? Shuffling around by the entrance of the store, Blaine tried to find a solution for this unforeseen issue.

"Hey, Blaine." All of a sudden, Jeff popped up next to him. "How'd it go?"

Blaine inwardly rolled his eyes as David and Trent arrived as well. His friends were so predictable it was almost frustrating. "I haven't gone in yet. I have no idea what to do with this thing." He gestured towards the guitar case as he said this.

"You could strap it onto your back," Jeff suggested. "Or you take out the guitar and we'll take this thing with us."

Blaine allowed himself to smile now. "Awesome, thanks, Jeff."

"So, who is the lucky guy?" David asked, peering inside the store through a window.

"Can we stay to watch?" Trent asked enthusiastically.

"Please don't," Blaine replied, taking the guitar out of the case.

"Why not?" Trent asked obliviously, while Blaine adjusted the instrument and Jeff closed the guitar case. "If we'd sang back-up for you, we would've witnessed it as well."

"But you didn't want to sing back-up," Blaine reminded him. "I have to do this alone and I'm ready and prepared. I didn't count on you being there anyway but not actually doing anything."

"We'll just go to the Lima Bean," David suggested. "So just stop by there later to drop off the guitar or take the case with you again." Thankful for that, Blaine smiled slightly. David clapped his shoulder. "Good luck, Blaine."

Jeff and Trent said similar things, and Blaine felt oddly at peace. Maybe having some people around for moral support wasn't actually such a bad idea. Hopefully, all would go well.

After he walked in, it didn't take long before he'd located Jeremiah – the older boy was folding some sweaters, and Blaine took a moment to admire him from afar. Taking a deep breath, he approached him as quietly as he could, and started playing. His nerves got in the way at first, causing him to mess up the opening notes, but a few seconds later, he got it right. There was no way back now, so he started singing, too.

After a few lines, he dared to look up, only to find that Jeremiah was no longer there. Blaine faltered for half a second, before turning around and trying to once again find the assistant manager he was trying to serenade. Careful not to bump into any of the clothing racks, Blaine hastily followed Jeremiah through the store.

Maybe it was just Blaine, but he felt like Jeremiah wasn't really into the song. Whenever Blaine looked up, Jeremiah seemed to be walking away, hardly ever looking at Blaine. And when he did look, he looked like a deer caught in headlights. It wasn't the most encouraging thing to do, Blaine thought as he continued singing. It didn't occur to him at all to just stop the serenade before things got out of hand – Blaine was a performer, and if he didn't learn to play for hostile or unreceptive crowds, he was never going to get anywhere. Plus, maybe Jeremiah was just playing coy.

He didn't notice the fact that Jeremiah was moving his mouth swiftly from time to time, and he also didn't notice that, when he was halfway through the second verse, a couple of mall security guards entered the store. A large crowd had formed inside and outside, and the people seemed torn between curiosity, second hand embarrassment and feeling uncomfortable because this was a boy serenading another boy.

So when Blaine was suddenly grabbed from behind, he panicked. He hadn't quite forgotten about the treatment he'd been given at his middle school, and also, this guitar wasn't his. Even if it was only Jeff's old guitar, Blaine knew his friend would want it back safe and sound.

He was dragged out of the Gap, trying and failing to catch Jeremiah's eye. Well then. Maybe this wasn't going as well as he'd hoped beforehand.

o-o-o-o-o

After a thorough interrogation as to why he'd caused a disturbance in the middle of a store on a Saturday, of all days, and a warning to not (attempt to) enter this Gap for the next six months or there'd be consequences, Blaine was let off by the security guards. Shaken to the core, Blaine returned to the Gap anyhow, if only to hang around it (he didn't want to find out what exactly the consequences of doing that were), waiting for Jeremiah. Surprisingly, he didn't have to wait very long, as his friend (if they were still friends after this) came out of the employees exit only a few minutes after Blaine had sat down on a bench.

Standing up immediately, Blaine planned to move towards him, but Jeremiah didn't give him the chance to do so. Instead, the other boy (man?) started berating him and Blaine immediately realised what was happening.

He was being rejected. And it sucked. Sure, Jeremiah tried to break it to him somewhat nicely, but that didn't make Blaine feel much better about himself. He had been so sure that the older boy would like the performance that he hadn't thought twice about going through with it.

" – No one here knows I'm gay," Jeremiah was saying, and Blaine stared at him incredulously. He had thought that Jeremiah was out and proud, just like him. Not stuck in the closet for some reason. They had had coffee together a couple of times, what was he supposed to think? He had honestly thought that the other boy reciprocated his feelings.

At that moment, a group of teens around Blaine's age passed by and paused. The tallest of the three – the only boy – turned around and raised an eyebrow. He glanced at Jeremiah for a split second and asked, "Can I be honest?" Both Jeremiah and Blaine turned towards him and that seemed to be enough of an indication for the boy to continue. "Just with the hair? I think they do." After adding this final comment almost conspiringly, he whirled back around, linked his arms with the two girls' and flounced away.

Blaine barely heard the rest of Jeremiah's speech. Who did that guy think he was, just butting into other people's business like it was his own? How rude.

When Jeremiah left, Blaine's mind was reeling. Jeremiah didn't return his feelings. In fact, he'd even come up with a lame excuse as to why he couldn't, as if Blaine was a child who couldn't take care of himself. Blaine was seventeen, which was perfectly acceptable. Except, it seemed, to Jeremiah. Also, he'd apparently managed to get Jeremiah fired from the Gap, which was also kind of weird. Couldn't Jeremiah have just said that he didn't know Blaine or that, while Blaine was, apparently, gay, he wasn't?

Although the feelings he had for Jeremiah weren't going to disappear all of a sudden, Blaine did wonder why he'd ever thought he was in love with someone who so clearly lacked common sense and made up silly excuses left and right. Sinking back down on the bench, Blaine just stared ahead and thought.

His heart definitely didn't feel like it was breaking, so he'd probably exaggerated when he'd claimed to be in love with Jeremiah. Maybe he had said it because he'd wanted to be in love, and, perhaps more importantly, be loved back. Or because Jeremiah had been the first gay guy he'd met who seemed interested in him in a way.

It was obvious that Blaine had made it all up in his head.

A while later, Blaine finally got up from the bench, having contemplated and rationalised everything that had happened so far that day. He walked around the Gap with as much distance as possible, not looking forward to facing his friends and admitting that his plan had failed – that he was still single for Valentine's day.

Then again, so were Trent and Jeff, so he wouldn't feel like a complete idiot for not having a date.

Entering the Lima Bean (after taking a detour to walk off his embarrassment), Blaine decided that it was probably a good idea to get some coffee now – who knew, perhaps his friends wouldn't let him leave the table, or they would drag him back to Dalton as soon as he'd confessed what had happened.

Much to his surprise, his friends weren't sitting at one of their usual tables. Slightly disoriented, Blaine looked around the shop. It took him a moment, but then he found them, sitting at a larger table with… girls?

He groaned quietly. Of course, Jeff and Trent would try to get some last moment dates now. Blaine should've known that he'd gotten his hopes up earlier.

When he approached the table, his already bad mood became even worse. There, sitting opposite David (and, incidentally, next to the only free spot at the table), was the obnoxious guy from earlier. Deciding to ignore the boy for now, Blaine walked up to the free seat and placed his coffee cup on the table carefully.

"Hey, guys," he greeted them. "Sorry I kept you waiting."

"That's no problem," David assured him. Blaine could see the impatience in his friends' eyes as he handed Jeff the guitar back before sitting down. "How did it go?" David asked, and Blaine's posture slumped instantly.

"It was awful," he muttered. "He ignored me the entire time – I mean, he could've come up to me and told me he wasn't interested, right? But no, he just kept running off and let me get arrested by the security guards, who then told me I am not to go back to the Gap for six months. And I also got him fired, because his boss is, apparently, homophobic, and Jeremiah wasn't out – " He shot the guy next to him – who was listening interestedly – a glare before continuing. "Then he made up some lame excuse that he'd get arrested if we were to date, and he walked off." He sighed. "Long story short, I made a complete fool out of myself for nothing."

"I don't know if it was for nothing," the still unnamed boy next to Blaine piped up. "To me, it sounds like a great anecdote that will be told for years, or even decades, at school reunions and family get-togethers." The boy shrugged and sent him an innocent glance from behind his coffee cup as he took a swig.

"Look at it this way, Blaine," David started, and Blaine hoped that his friend's words were more comforting than the stranger's. "He wasn't interested in you, so he obviously wasn't right for you. You'll find someone else to serenade – or whatever you plan on doing – and it may not be this guy, or the next, but there'll be someone who will love you for the crazy ideas you have sometimes and who will appreciate you singing all kinds of songs to them."

That slightly helped. "But in the meantime, I'm still alone on Valentine's day," Blaine said, sulking.

"Seriously?" the stranger was clearly not impressed. "So am I, but that's really the least of my concerns. If that's the only thing you're worried about, then please, stop complaining."

Blaine didn't get angry very often, but this guy was severely pissing him off. "At least I don't have to be concerned about coming across as a sad, pitiful guy like you do. If the only thing you're good at is tearing other people down, I'd count on spending many more Valentine's days by yourself if I were you."

The boy snorted, but it sounded a bit weak. Blaine could be mistaken, though. "Tearing other people down? Hardly." He paused for a moment. "If you can't bear to hear what I'm telling you, you won't survive for long in the real world, outside your fancy private school."

The two girls sitting next to the guy exchanged looks, and one of them, a dark-skinned girl, said, "Boy, you've been spending far too much time around Santana lately."

Not exactly caring about this, Blaine asked, "How do you even know about that?" He was caught off guard, to say the least.

"Oh, please," the boy said, rolling his eyes. "You're all in uniform, and we're not stupid or anything." He narrowed his eyes a tiny bit, as if daring Blaine to challenge their intelligence. "Plus, we've all been sitting here for about half an hour, and it's not very interesting to watch your friends trying to flirt with mine, even though Tina's already got a boyfriend, so I talked to your friend David here for a bit."

That made sense, even though it was slightly painful for Blaine to admit that. "Still, you don't have to walk around, acting superior, and inviting yourself into conversations just like that," he muttered, and the boy shrugged.

"Maybe, but he did make it a bit too easy," the boy countered. "I mean, have you looked at the guy's hair? Well, I guess you have, seeing as you apparently sang a song to him at his workplace, but… how could anyone think that he's straight?"

"I could ask you the same thing," Blaine said stubbornly, even though he didn't even know anything about this boy.

The two girls covered their mouths with their hands, and the boy replied, "Trust me, I've tried. It didn't work out. Now I'm completely out and proud. Something your friend doesn't seem to be."

In a clear attempt to stop them from bantering any further, the other girl – an Asian one – asked, "What song did you sing?"

"When I get you alone," Blaine responded. He hadn't told any of the other Warblers this either, so all six of his companions looked surprised.

"You serenaded him with a song about sex toys and pornography? No wonder he rejected you." Blaine glared at the boy next to him. Seeing this, the boy hastily elaborated. "Honestly, I think at least ninety percent of all people would've rejected you, if only for your song choice. It's not a romantic song, and it should definitely not be sung to someone you haven't been together with for at least some time. Why would you choose that song? There are so many love songs in the world and you pick that one?"

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," Blaine replied curtly. "Do you have any better ideas?"

"Plenty," the boy answered. "But it's not like you need them anymore."

"You did at least change the pronouns in that song, didn't you, Blaine?" David asked, looking hopeful; perhaps even a little desperate.

"No, why?"

"So you called your closeted, hopefully boyfriend-to-be 'baby girl'?" the boy next to Blaine asked. "And that would be another reason for him rejecting you right there." Blaine had to admit, that sounded logical.

"Good thing you didn't manage to convince us to have the Warblers sing back-up," David said. "I don't know how Wes would've reacted if we were all dragged out of the Gap by security guards, let alone the school."

Blaine winced; he hadn't even thought about that. Yes, in hindsight, he was glad that he hadn't dragged the Warblers down with him. "So where are you from?" he asked the boy on his other side, figuring that he wouldn't get anywhere if they just kept fighting. "You go to Westerville High?"

The boy shook his head. "McKinley High, actually. In Lima."

David nodded at the three people across from him. "Mercedes, Tina and Kurt are in New Directions."

Oh. That was actually pretty interesting. The boy now identified as Kurt added, "I doubt we would've recognised the uniforms if we hadn't been in New Directions."

"So how are your… Regionals preparations going?" Blaine asked, trying to be as casual as possible about the matter.

Kurt, however, did not fall for that. "Like we'd tell you. Don't bother, David also tried that already but you're not getting anything from any of us."

"Rachel would have our heads," the Asian girl – Tina? – said, shivering a little.

"We won't tell you anything and we won't ask you anything either," Kurt summarised what Blaine suspected might've been a heated debate earlier.

Much to Blaine's surprise, once they got past their differences and slight frustrations, it was actually nice, talking to Kurt. They managed to keep a conversation flowing for another half hour, with David contributing to it as well.

When it was time to leave (David was supposed to meet up with the other two council members, Trent had some homework to finish, and the New Directions members had to shop some more, if Blaine understood correctly), Jeff had managed to arrange a date for Monday with Kurt's friend Mercedes. As for the rest of them, they'd see each other again at Regionals.

As he drove back to Dalton, Blaine also realised that he wasn't feeling so bad about what had happened earlier that day anymore. Perhaps Kurt was right; Valentine's day was just a holiday for people to shove their relationships into other people's faces and make those other people feel bad about not being in a relationship, or whatever he had said. Blaine would survive another lonely Valentine's day; one day, he'd find someone special to spend the holiday with. Maybe next year, maybe it would take a little longer. Until that time, he just wouldn't let Valentine's day bother him too much.