May 28, 2013, 12:51 p.m.
NYADAstud21: Chapter 4: Part 1
E - Words: 2,538 - Last Updated: May 28, 2013 Story: Closed - Chapters: 7/? - Created: Apr 22, 2013 - Updated: May 28, 2013 81 0 0 0 0
Blaine burst through the front door of his shared apartment with Wes. "Dude, you missed it. Where were you?" Wes said without looking in Blaine's direction. He finally averted his gaze from the TV. What's up with the ridiculous smile, dude?" Every Monday was their night to sit down and watch whatever absurd singing competition that they were trying to pass off as good television today. They would sit on their ratty, beat up couch, make some popcorn and just tear each performance apart. These competitions had gotten to be so outrageous. They would both heckle each contestant and then once they were done, they would say how the two of them could have done it better or how the Warblers had already done it better back when they were in high school.
"Wes. I met him." Blaine beamed, throwing his cardigan on a nearby chair and flung off his shoes before throwing himself on the brown, dingy very worn out, old couch that had been there when Blaine moved in.
"Met who?"
"Him. I met Kurt."
"Kurt who? Blaine, you're going to have to give me more information."
Blaine closed his eyes momentarily and took a deep breath. "Kurt Hummel. I met Kurt. Hummel." He exaggerated his name, pausing between words, savoring his name on his lips.
Wes' eyes flew wide open. "That youtuber? The one that you sent the portrait to? The one that goes to Neo-something? That one?" Blaine bobbed his head up and down vigorously. "When? Where? What? Oh my god. Ok, how?"
Blaine had his full attention now. "Ok, I was working at the coffee shop and about an hour or so before we closed him and Rachel Berry walked in. You know who she is. She is Kurt's roommate that is in some of the videos. Real outspoken, opinionated, but very talented."
"Yeah, yeah. So what happened?" Wes was intrigued.
"Well, they ordered coffee and I was on register. I rang them up without really looking up. I said the total and there he was, arm stretched with a $10 bill in his hand. I didn't say anything I just stared like an idiot as they sat down by the windows."
"After about an hour or so, Rachel had left and Kurt stayed until closing and I had to kick him out. We started to walk the same way and I ended up saying that I had to run an errand in Greenwich and I walked him all the way home. Wes, it was amazing. He told me how great my painting was that I sent him and how I should continue."
"Then what?"
"Then nothing I left him at his front door. He gave me a kiss on the cheek and I said that I would see him around."
"You got his number, dude?" Wes was genuinely excited for his friend.
Oh my god. Blaine never thought about that. "Oh shit. I never asked for it. Do you think...?" Blaine's head fell from being incredibly optimistic to tremendously disappointed. "I will probably never see him again. Wes he was amazing. He looks even better in person. His face has more freckles that there are stars in the sky, I swear. His smile...ugh. And those eyes...I just...Oh my god Wes. What am I going to do?"
His friend looked at him with all the love in the world, "Well...now you just have to see if fate can bring you to him again. If you are meant to see him again then you will. Until then why don't you sit here and watch this Gina girl screw up trying to hit that high F in that Taylor Swift song even worse than she did last week." Wes turned his attention back to the screen.
"No I think I am going to get started on some school stuff. I have an exam in two days and I really need to study. Not to mention that I will be up all night thinking of something to do from my self portrait assignment for intro to photography and I still haven't picked out an outfit for that interview that I have tomorrow."
"Are you sure? I heard this was going to be good one tonight. It still has twenty minutes left or I can start it over?"
"No that's alright. Next time, I promise." With that Blaine walked right into his tiny bedroom that barely had enough room for his full size bed and his small art desk. He sat down in the desk chair and picked up his pencil to start scratching out some ideas.
Kurt waited for Rachel to get home from the lesson. At around 12:30 she finally came creeping into the apartment, thinking that Kurt would already be in bed, she tiptoed her way in, closing the door behind her with grave caution, as not to have the front door squeak. "Rachel!" Kurt snapped. Rachel visibly had a heart attack from the position Kurt was laying on the couch. She jumped up; her feet actually left the ground at one point as she clutched her chest. "I have been waiting all night for you to get home. Where were you?"
"Oh my god, Kurt. Why are you still up? Don't you have an early class tomorrow?"
"I do, but I wanted to tell you what happened after you left the coffee shop. But first, no avoiding the conversation where were you? Your lesson should have ended around 11, what's with the extra hour and a half?"
"Well," Rachel flopped down on the couch next to Kurt where she threw her still booted feet onto Kurt's lap, which meant that she could get them off. Kurt was all for stepping out of the house wearing only the most fashionable of clothing but if you didn't know how the piece came undone at the end of the night then it probably was not something that you should be wearing. "I was on my way home and then I ran into Adam." Kurt rolled his eyes as he maneuvered Rachel's foot out of the boot. "Don't give me that. Adam is sweet."
"Yeah your right he is. And a very nice friend."
"Well we started talking and we decided to go out for drinks for a little. He asked about you and I told him that you had just broke up with Cameron. You should give him another shot, Kurt. He really misses you."
"You know what? And I honestly miss him...as a friend and nothing more. He wants to be more than that and I just can't give that to him. I just don't feel the same way about him as he does for me." Kurt ended with a shrug and one last good yank and the last boot was off.
"I know but..."
"Uh-uh. End of discussion. He wants to be friends then he can come to me. Other than that I don't want to hear it." Rachel's face fell. " Besides. I may have met someone at the coffee shop."
Rachel perked up. "The coffee shop. I forgot. Did you ever give my number to the guy behind the register like I asked?" Rachel was bouncing up and down.
"Well...that's kind of what I need to talk to you about." Rachel flashed Kurt a very confused expression. "I was going to but I'm not sure that you're his type.
Rachel giggled in a silly boy, I'm everybody's type kind of way. " What do you mean?"
"I mean, I'm not...100% sure...that he...plays for your team." Kurt set his hand on Rachel's knee and gave her a knowing glance.
"Oh," was all Rachel could muster.
"At the end of the night I was the only one left in the shop. He had to come over and kick me out. We ended up walking in the same direction for a little and then he made up some lame excuse that he had to do an errand in Greenwich just so he could walk with me." Kurt smiled looking back on the memory of the shorter, curly headed man. "We were talking and we introduced ourselves. He's Blaine Anderson, Rachel."
"No way! It can't be. You have been looking for his art for a year now."
"It was. He said he was a fan and that actually he had sent me something, a painting, of me, about a year back. Everything just clicked. The name, the story about him being a fan, the painting, it all just made sense. I told him how incredible he was and to please continue with is art.
"Then what happened?" Rachel was bouncing out of her seat in anticipation.
"Then we came up to our door and I gave him a kiss on the cheek and we said goodnight and that we would see each other around. The end"
"The end? You didn't give him your number? What's wrong with you?" Rachel punched him, as hard as Rachel can, in the arm.
"I'm not worried. It can't be that hard to see him again. I know where he works. Odds are if I drop in as much as I plan to, I will see him again very soon."
It was way harder than Kurt thought it would be. For the three weeks after first meeting Blaine, Kurt would stop in to A Whole Latte Love at least once a day for an 'impromptu' cup of coffee. Unfortunately, Kurt hadn't run into Blaine yet. For the first week or so Kurt went in every night at around 9pm, telling Rachel that if he was going to remember his monologue for class, he was going to need a gallon of coffee. He would leave optimistic and arrive back to the apartment an hour later sorely disappointed.
Rachel knew what he was doing and where he was going being that they lived right across the street from a perfectly good Starbucks. Every time Rachel would ask what took him so long he would make up some lame excuse about how he was pretty sure that he left something at NYADA or that he had run into someone while he was out. Rachel was his best friend, which means that she could see right through him. Kurt would say "I'm going out for coffee", which would just be met with a "mhmm" from Rachel and an knowing snicker.
The second week, Kurt switched the time he went to get coffee thinking that maybe Blaine started working a different shift. Instead of going late at night, he would go before classes. After another week of more disappointment, he just started getting coffee at every time of the day. Whenever he wasn't in class, he would make the three-mile trek to the small coffee shop that was clearly not his kind of place. He would sit there and 'study lines' or 'find a song to sing for class'...or that's what he would tell Rachel anyways. He would get a coffee and sit there and scope out the staff, hoping that at any minute that the curly headed, amber-eyed beautiful man would walk through the doors but he never did.
On a sunny Wednesday afternoon, Kurt was sick of waiting. It had been nearly a month and he was growing impatient. He wanted to see Blaine, for what reason, he had no idea, he just did. He wanted to just be in the same room as him. Kurt had about three hours until his next class started. As had become recent practice for him, he started to head toward the hipster coffee shop. He walked through the narrow doorframe to find a less than enthusiastic Dixie staring straight at him. He went up to the counter and ordered the usual, a grande nonfat mocha. Dixie took down the order and handed it off to some guy with a nametag that read 'Leo' that Kurt had never seen before and decided that he must be new. Once Leo was done making the drink, it was shoved to the girl behind the register that Kurt had gotten to know fairly well. "Hi Hazel."
"Hey! Your early today." Hazel was one of the more pleasant people on staff. She never gave Kurt a hard time for not exactly blending into the shop the way that other costumers seemed too.
"Yeah, class let out a little early today." This was Kurt's chance. He had decided today was the day that he was going to ask because he was sick of waiting. "Hey I have a question." Kurt started to get out the appropriate amount of cash to hand to the petit brunette with her typical hipster glasses and flannel shirt. "There is this guy. I think he works here. He's about this tall," Kurt holds him hand up right around his chin. "He has super curly hair, maybe wears glasses, and has amber colored eyes."
"Are you talking about Blaine?" Hazel asked.
"Um...maybe that name does sound familiar" (As if Kurt could forget).
"What about him?"
"I haven't seen him around here in a while and I was just wondering when the next time he would be in. I have something of his that I need to get back to him."
"Oh I think that he is coming in later today. I can give him whatever if you want."
"No!" Kurt protested quite feverishly, enough to make Hazel jump. "I mean I would just much rather give it to him myself. Sorry."
"No worries." Hazel said bouncing back from the jolt.
"Do you know when he will be in?" Kurt tried not to sound to enthusiastic about the possibility of seeing Blaine today.
"Um...I think he is due in around 6 or so tonight."
"Ok, perfect. Thank you so much." Hazel reached out her hand to give back Kurt his change from the mocha. "Keep the change." She deserved it. She had just provided valuable information to Kurt. He had class until 7pm but he was sure that he would be making his way back to A Whole Latte Love for a 'spontaneous' caffeine fix right after.
As Kurt walked out of the shop and back toward NYADA, the sheer thought of seeing Blaine later was making his stomach do leaps and flips and kicks and this brought a huge smile to his face. He didn't even know this guy, well he felt that he did, he stared at the painting and the accompanying letter enough. He was beautiful. Kurt shook the thoughts out quickly. He didn't even know if Blaine was gay. I mean he watched the youtube videos which was a good sign as the majority of Kurt's viewers were other gay men and those interested in musical theater but maybe he was just one of those very progressive straight guys that weren't bothered by gay men. Kurt didn't know but he was sure as hell going to find out tonight at 7pm when he 'casually' bumped into the curly headed Disney prince.