CHAPTER TWELVE

LATE THURSDAY NIGHT

BLAINE

I could've killed Brittany for pulling me away from Kurt but it's not like I would be able to talk to him while the band was playing anyway. Rather than be upset that Brittany pulled me away from the first guy I've been attracted to in months, I let myself get lost in the music and danced with Brittany for a little while. But before long I started thinking about what I was going to talk to Kurt about once the show was over. There was so much I wanted to know about him; what did he do at the theater? what brought him to New York? what music did he like? what things made him laugh? did he like to be the big spoon or the little spoon?

Okay, well, maybe I shouldn't ask him that last one.

Every once in awhile I would look back at Kurt who kept his place perched at the bar with a drink in hand. I hoped that some guy hadn't bought it for him, but this show didn't exactly scream "lots of gay guys will be here" so I figured I might have been safe. Thankfully he didn't notice me looking at his hands while he was ordering his drink earlier because it would have been really awkward if he saw me scanning for a wedding ring. The search had come up empty - thank god - but then I started imagining how his fingers would feel intertwined with mine, how the pads of his fingers would feel against my face, the way he would grip my...

Mind, meet the gutter.

But all this thinking I was doing made me realize that Cooper might have been right about me being a romantic. Sure, my mind eventually went the sexual route, but before that I was thinking about how I wanted to hold hands with the guy. I mean, how many guys think about that on a regular basis?

My mind must have been too occupied with my thoughts because before long the show was over. If it hadn't been for the cheers of the people around me, I probably wouldn't have emerged from my thoughts at all. As I clapped along with the crowd, I immediately turned back to the bar with an expectant smile - only to have my smile change to a panicked frown as I noticed Kurt was no longer at his place at the bar. Crap. I hoped he hadn't left... and I really hoped he hadn't left on the arm of some guy. I figured Kurt already had a boyfriend since that guy that met him at Cosi seemed pretty cozy with him, but I wanted to have hope that they were just friends since they hadn't come together to the show tonight. It probably wasn't smart to put my heart out there like that knowing that he probably wasn't available, but I had to remain hopeful. That didn't make me crazy, right?

I remembered how I ended up in the crowd in the first place - not wanting to abandon Brittany at this show where her girlfriend was working - so I turned back to her and saw her engaging in conversation with some guy she'd met. She probably wouldn't notice if I peeked around for awhile and I doubt this guy was going to let me peel her away from him anyway.If only he knew that she wasn't exactly on his team, I thought to myself before leaving her with him to try and find Kurt.

I weaved through the crowd and made my way back to the bar. I looked toward the bathrooms and saw no sign of Kurt or Lauren. I turned and checked the other direction toward the back exit; nothing.

"Excuse me," I said, trying to get the attention of the bartender who was closing out a tab at the cash register. She turned around at my call and raised an eyebrow expectantly. "Did you happen to see a girl with glasses, about this tall, and a guy - tall, pale, blue eyes, brown hair, black peacoat-"

"You mean Lauren and her friend?" she asked.

My eyes clapped open and a huge grin graced my face. "Yes! Are they still here?" I practically yelled it at her since I was so relieved that she knew who I was talking about.

She shook her head. "Sorry, they left about 15 minutes ago."

I looked defeated. "Oh. Well, thanks."

She looked at me quizzically. "Is everything okay? You seem upset that she left."

I sighed. "Yeah, you could say that," I murmured. "I just-"

"Hey! Can I close out now?" a guy yelled from down the bar. The man looked at her impatiently while pointing to his watch and she responded with an eye roll and deep sigh.

"I'll be right back," she said before moving down to deal with the man who clearly was far too important to wait like a normal person to close out.

I rocked on the balls of my feet and leaned over the counter, hoping that the bartender would come back sooner rather than later. But apparently tonight was not my night. "Blaine Anderson," I heard Santana bellow from the stage's microphone. "Blaine Anderson, please report to the green room." I turned to see Santana waving me to go backstage and signaled that I'd be just a second. She rolled her eyes before heading backstage again. I tried to get the bartender's attention to tell her I'd be back as soon as I could, but she looked to be arguing with the guy who'd yelled at her before and it didn't look like the conversation was going to end anytime soon.

I jogged toward the stage, climbed up the platform and ducked behind the curtain to enter the green room. The guys were all there, blotting the sweat from their skin and downing water. Their show had gone really well and had tons of energy, so these guys needed a reprieve before they experienced Santana's PR storm I knew she was cooking up.

"Oh, good. Blaine's here," Santana said before turning back to her clipboard. "We got some great action shots before the show and managed to take decent individual pictures of each of you as well, but we need to get some more 'beauty' shots of you guys performing. This way we can get up close and personal now that we won't obstruct the view."

"And why did you need me here?" I asked. "I'm not a part of the band, you don't need photos with me."

"That's where you're wrong," Zach said. "We asked her if she could take some photos of you with us as well. I mean, you're going to be a big part of this band so you should be in some of these as well."

I grinned, touched by the fact that they wanted me in their photos. Sure, I was just a rep from the label, but these guys were trying to incorporate me into their band family; I hadn't felt like this since I was in the Warblers. "I guess I can manage that," I said with a slight blush.

David lightly punched my shoulder. "Yeah, welcome to the crazy," he chuckled.

Santana rolled her eyes and motioned for me to position myself in the middle of the group - sandwiching myself between Zach and Troy, the keyboard player. "Alright, boys," she said as she placed herself next to the photographer. "Let's take a few snapshots with Blaine and then we're moving out to the stage again, okay?"

We all nodded in agreement with smiles plastered on our faces as the photographer snapped away and took at least a dozen pictures before claiming he'd taken the perfect photo and asking the band to go to the next set up. The boys flocked to the stage, leaving David, me and my thoughts. I plopped down on the sofa and sat forward, resting my elbows on my knees as I brought my clasped hands to my mouth as if in a silent, retrospective prayer. Is it crazy that I was thinking about this guy that I had just met... well, officially just met... but couldn't get him out of my mind? I was certainly one to wear his heart on his sleeve, but to think of someone so strongly with such reckless abandon was rare even for me. The fact that I hadn't really felt anything about any guy in a while only proved that whatever initial attraction I felt for Kurt was surprising and had caught me off guard.

I had forgotten that David was in the room before he cleared his throat, causing me to jump as the noise as my thoughts cleared from my head. "Are you okay?" he asked me.

I nodded slowly, eyes still set on the ground just in front of my shoes. "Yeah, I mean, I guess. It's just... something happened that's kind of freaking me out right now and I'm not sure how to place my feelings about it." I could feel David's gaze on me, waiting for me to explain further. I sighed. "There's this guy..."

"I knew it!" he exclaimed.

My eyes shot up and I saw him shaking his fist in the air triumphantly; I couldn't help but chuckle. "How could you have known David? We just talked about my love life - or lack thereof - last week. How could you already assume that it was a guy. It's not like I could've scrounged up a boyfriend in that short of time. I swear, you and Wes act like middle school girls when it comes to the romantic interludes in my life."

David laughed. "Blaine, when it comes to love, you wear your heart on your sleeve. You've had this weird look on your face all night and I knew it wasn't because of the show and it wasn't because of the band; it had to be because of a guy."

"I'm really easy to read, aren't I?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Not really. You were like this in high school - lovey looks in your eyes when you had a new crush and the way that you'd practically skip around Dalton like you were wandering down the yellow brick road if the guy you liked would talk to you. But you forget that even though I haven't seen you in awhile, it's not like you've completely changed in the past few years." He sat up on the armchair across from me and settled back - resting his hands behind his head. "So, who's the lucky guy to have snagged the attention of Blaine Anderson?"

I stuck my tongue out at him, causing him to laugh, before starting. "I just met the guy today, but his name is Kurt. He was here at the show tonight with this girl that used to bartend here."

David quirked his eyebrow. "That's it? That's all I get?"

"What else do you want me to say, David? Do you want me to tell you how his smile was so shy and sweet that I could barely talk to him when we were first introduced? How his eyes are such a crisp, light blue that they felt like they could see all the way into my soul? How I imagined his long and slender fingers would look between mine? How..." I stopped when I saw David's hand fly up, signaling me to stop.

"Damn, Blaine," David interjected.

I shrugged sheepishly. "Yeah."

"So you have it bad," he concluded.

I nodded. "You could say that."

He grinned. "Yeah, when you start rambling like that, I know it's best to stop you while you're ahead. Not that I don't want to hear about the amazing and wondrous Kurt, I just know you'll probably go on about him for hours and we do have to leave at some point." I laughed as he continued. "So did you get to talk to him?"

I shook my head. "Not really. He and his friend got here right before the show started so I only talked to him for maybe 3 minutes tops. I was planning on talking to him before Brittany..."

Oh my god. Brittany! I had forgotten about Brittany! She knew Kurt - or at least recognized him and he knew her.

"Brittany what?" I heard David ask, effectively pulling me out of my train of thought.

"Brittany! Brittany knows Kurt!" I exclaimed.

"And that's important because..."

"Because, David, he left before I could really talk to him or get to know him or get his number. Brittany might have his number!"

Now it was David's turn to grin. "So go talk to her!" he reasoned.

I bolted from the green room to search for Brittany. Thankfully as soon as I came out from the side stage, I saw Brittany standing in front of the stage, sipping on a water bottle and watching Santana with a smile.

"Brittany, I have to talk to you," I said breathlessly, the sudden movement along with my excitement betraying the normally calm tone of my voice.

"Okay," she said, taking a final sip before capping the water bottle. "What's up?"

I took a deep breath. "Remember that guy that you saw me talking to before we started dancing earlier?"

"Oh, Kurt?"

"Yes! Him. Uh, are you friends with him?"

She nodded. "I'd say so. We decided we were going to be best friends the other night when I saw him at the diner."

I was smiling like an idiot and kissed her on the cheek and as I pulled away she looked at me, puzzled. "What was that for?" she asked.

"Brittany, you have no idea how amazing it is that you're friends with Kurt. Please tell me you have his phone number or know how I can contact him." I looked at her with hope - hoping that for once, things would come out in my favor.

She shook her head. "Sorry, Blaine. I don't. You know I only have Santana's phone number in my phone - Lord Tubbington uses too much of our family plan for me to use any minutes other than to talk to Santana."

My face fell, instantly crushed. It was too good to be true, I knew it had been. Besides, Kurt probably was dating that Ken Doll that I'd seen at the restaurant and he was already way out of my league... all signs were pointing to the fact that he and I just weren't meant to be. I groaned. I just couldn't win.

"I really am sorry, Blaine," Brittany said. Sensing my distress, she gave me a light, lingering hug - holding onto me for a few minutes as I did my best to not droop in despair. "Sorry, I have to go to the bathroom," she said as she pulled away. "Can you please recycle this for me?"

"Sure," I said, taking the empty water bottle from her hand. As she retreated to the bathroom, I found my way to the recycling bin near the bar and pitched the bottle inside.

"Hey," I heard a voice beckon. I looked up to see the bartender collecting her coat and purse from behind the bar now that all of her patrons were checked out. "You were looking for Lauren, right?"

I nodded.

"You seem like a decent guy - not to mention your friend up there left me a really awesome tip," she said motioning to Santana who was barking orders at the photographer, "so I pulled her information from the most recent posted schedule for you. It's a little against the rules, but I don't think you'd tell anyone. You won't, right?"

I shook my head as she handed me a bar napkin with the ten-digits scrawled on it signifying Lauren's phone number. I looked at it with such reverie that I could barely make a coherent sentence come out of my mouth. "I can't.. this is... you don't know... thanks."

She laughed. "You're welcome. She's really cool, so be nice to her."

I looked at her slightly confused. Why wouldn't I be nice to her? "Uh, I will?"

She nodded. "See you around..."

"Blaine," I said, extending my hand to her.

"Sara," she replied.

"Thanks again Sara," I said as she released my hand. She gave me a wink before bundling up in her coat and heading out the exit. I stood there staring at the napkin before David found his way to my side.

"Is that Kurt's number?" he asked.

I shook my head. "Not quite, but it's the next best thing."

"What does that mean? Is it the phone number for the Kurt Fan Club?" David chortled.

I rolled my eyes. "No. It's the number for his friend that he came with tonight."

"So when are you going to talk to... Lauren?" he asked as he read her name from the top of the napkin I held with a death grip in my hand. I looked at my watch - noticing that it was nearly midnight.

"Tomorrow," I said, with a voice full of hope.