CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

SATURDAY NIGHT

KURT

"Why is it always freezing on Halloween?" Lauren mumbled as we ascended the stairway of the Subway. The show had ended about an hour ago and Lauren and I had decided to get ready for the Halloween party at the theater where we'd have a slew of products and costume items at our disposal. It was not entirely kosher to do what we were doing, but I had at least informed Roselyn of our actions and she said she'd turn a blind eye as long as we didn't ruin any of the costume pieces or use all of the make-up.

"It's like you're not prepared for the cold. You could have worn a warmer costume if you knew it was going to be cold," I replied.

"Have you ever been with girls on Halloween? There are some expectations for Halloween costumes for girls; the shorter and more provocative, the better."

I snorted. "Like you've ever been one to maintain the status quo."

"Whatever, Hummel."

The party was a mere two blocks from the apartment I shared with Wes and he was already at the party and anxious for my arrival. I think Wes was more eager to see me exist in a social capacity since he hadn't really seen me in a party atmosphere since college. Back then, we'd attend the odd mixer together – since we went to different schools it wasn't exactly a common occurrence – but the ones we had gone to were usually involving other a Capella choirs that we had connections with.

We arrived at the building and could hear the party roaring on the fifth floor from the street. I had planned on texting Wes for the exact apartment number upon our arrival, but it wouldn't be necessary based on the decibel level of the music. Thankfully someone had propped the door open and we slipped in and made our way to the fifth floor, music getting louder with each step.

"Jesus Christ, I feel bad for the neighbors," Lauren yelled once we were on the stoop for the fifth floor.

"Doesn't seem to be an issue," I noted, as I pointed out the many doors on the floor that were also open and had partygoers flitting in and out of the different apartments. "I'll just text Wes and let him know we're here."

"Kurt!" I heard someone yell from down the hall as I was pulling out my phone. My eyes turned in the direction of the voice, belonging to my roommate.

"Hey Wes," I replied. "I was about to text you."

"Uh huh," he grunted, not looking at me for once. Instead, I noticed his eyes were fixed on the space next to me. Perplexed I turned toward where he was looking to see him fixated on Lauren. "Oh, uh, how rude of me. This is..."

"Lauren Zizes," she said, extending her hand to my eerily quiet roommate.

"Uh, hi," he stammered. I couldn't help but giggle. There was no way I would have predicted this type of reaction from Wes. The last time he was this quiet was just before they announced that Obama was taking his second term as president, which was years ago. And if I would have predicted that Wes would have been so taken with my former high school friend, I would have introduced the two sooner.

"Uh, can I take your coat," he asked, extending his arm to Lauren. She shrugged and started to untie the belt at her waist that kept her knee length coat fitted against her figure. As she peeled it off, I heard Wes gasp. I turned, amused by my roommate's obvious attraction, to see him openly ogling Lauren in her cat costume.

Lauren had managed to pick a costume that flaunted her slimmer figure while still maintaining some form of warmth. She was wearing a long-sleeved leotard with short sequined black shorts and knee high boots with heels, all topped off with cat ears and flawless eye make-up and a tiny, dainty pink cat nose. She was a good example of cute and sexy and it went so well with her personality, I had been thoroughly impressed at her ability to pull it together so quickly.

I discarded my own coat and held it out to Wes, who was still befuddled by Lauren's existence. Clearly the guy was smitten and I looked forward to relentlessly bugging him about it later. After all, turn about is fair play.

"Mr. Montgomery, please take my coat along with Lauren's," I said in my best English accent. Wes could do no more than stutter a response, maintaining eye contact with Lauren the whole time. He quietly took our coats, muttered something about coming back, and promptly walked backwards into a doorway. I couldn't stifle my laugh and as soon as Wes was out of eyesight, Lauren turned to me with a peculiar look on her face.

"Is there something wrong with me?" she asked, face paled under her painted whiskers.

"Hardly."

"Why was he being that way? It was like there was something wrong with me." I looked at her and finally placed the face she was making; she was terrified.

"Hon, there is absolutely nothing wrong with you; in fact, just the opposite. I think my roommate might have a crush on you."

She gasped. "On me?!"

"Yes, you! Why else did you think that he was acting that way? He certainly doesn't get flabbergasted by my presence," I replied.

"Oh."

Her face still displayed one of uncertainty and fragility despite me revealing that she had taken my dumbfounded roommate by surprise – in a good way. "Why are you so surprised by this?"

She shrugged. "It's just... new."

"I don't understand." I wished that she and I didn't have to have this discussion in the crowded hallway full of people buzzed and in ridiculous costumes, but I guess there's no time like the present.

"I haven't exactly had a lot of... attention... come my way from guys. Sure, there was Puck in high school, but he was more into my power and bitch factor than by the way I looked. I guess it's one of the growing pains of this whole New Lauren thing that I'm still getting used to. I've never really had anyone be so taken with my just by looking at me before. Normally, it's that they wonder how I got to be the way that I was," she replied sheepishly. She tugged on the sleeve of her leotard and pulled her shorts down a little longer, trying to cover herself fully.

I softly grabbed her hand and pulled it tightly with mine. "Stop," I commanded gently as she stopped fidgeting. "You were gorgeous before and you're gorgeous now. I can't help that straight guys are idiots." She laughed at my conclusion. "But," I assured her, "I'm glad guys are finally realizing what I've seen."

"You sure know how to flatter a woman," she said with a giggle. "Too bad you're into guys."

"Only bad for you, Zizes," I retorted.

"Well, I'm sure Blaaaaaaaaaaaine isn't complaining about you liking guys," she snorted, earning an eye roll from me.

"He doesn't seem to be," I said. I looked up to see Wes returning with two drinks in his hand. I giggled at the thought that Wes was being such a gentleman to Lauren, but snapped back to reality when I realized where our conversation was leading.

"Okay, and remember what I said about mentioning Blaine to Wes?" She nodded. She and I had talked about how I wasn't introducing him to Wes yet and though she understood, she did think that waiting until mid-November seemed unrealistic but she wasn't going to stop me. "Don't say anything now that he's back, okay?"

Another nod and Wes approached, drink in hand extended to Lauren. "For you," he said sweetly.

She quirked her brow and took it reluctantly. "I hope you didn't put anything in this," she said as she peered into the cup in her hand.

"I would never," he replied. "Shall we go inside?" he asked, motioning to the room he had just come from.

She fumbled with her clutch for a moment before pulling out her cell phone. "Yes, but can you first please take a picture of me and Kurt? We both look pretty hot tonight."

Wes nodded his head as she handed him her phone. I could hear him under his breath uttering something about "nice kitty" but I just let it go... for now.

"Alright, ready?" he asked. We both got into position as Wes counted down. "On three. 1, 2, 3!"

He handed back the phone as we checked the picture.

"Not bad," she replied before fidgeting with her phone for a bit then placed it back in her clutch. "Lead the way, Wes," she drawled with a fake Southern accent and he practically tripped over himself to show Lauren into the party.

Tonight will be awesome, I thought to myself.

BLAINE

I hated Halloween.

I think it started with the torture Cooper had initiated when I was a child by insisting that we watch horror movies every Halloween. Every year would start the same – me sitting next to my big brother watching the movie quietly – and would end with me sobbing in my parent's bed later that night when nightmares troubled my dreams. It finally came to an end when Cooper moved away when I was in middle school, but I had been scarred for life.

I hadn't even gone trick or treating much as a kid. I didn't mind going, but I would get plenty of candy from the Halloween soirees at the country club my parents belonged to in Columbus, so I never was short on candy.

All in all, I found Halloween to be an unnecessary holiday – one that I regarded as just another day. A day that, thankfully, fell in the middle of the week this year so big Halloween parties were likely to be scattered.

Wes and David had invited me to a party, but I was thankful that I had just traveled last week and I used being tired from the trip as an excuse to pass on the party. Didn't they remember that I hated Halloween? I never celebrated it in high school; clearly they had to know I wouldn't now. Then again, they were both big dorks so maybe they just didn't remember.

So instead of going out to the Halloween Wes and David had asked if I wanted to go to, I sat around at home and caught up on my DVRed TV shows and read blogs. Sure, most people would probably sneer at my way that I was spending a Saturday night, but whatever. I was content to just chill at home.

Sometimes I'd spend a Saturday night with Santana and Brittany – either going out to dinner together or having a night in at either my place or theirs, but Santana had surprised Brittany with a trip to Montauk to propose in the off-season where it wouldn't be overly crowded with tourists. Thankfully my family had a timeshare there that I lent to her for the weekend – as a more acceptable early engagement present – and she promised to give me all of the details when she returned from her trip. Seemed fair to me.

I sat staring at another episode of Toddlers and Tiaras – a guilty pleasure of mine – and happily scrolled through some blogs I hadn't read in awhile. I started with Brooklyn Vegan and moved onto Pitchfork and marked my calendar with when some new albums were releasing in the coming months. After I had caught up on my reading and Honey Boo Boo was no longer appealing, I decided to go onto Twitter to see what some of my friends were up to.

I had a Facebook in college but I had immediately deactivated it after my break-up, or whatever you want to call it, with Jared. Besides, it had way too much personal information on there for me to really enjoy it. Plus Jeff and Nick always managed to tag really horrible pictures of me from high school on there and there's only so much of that I could take before I hit my breaking point. So I decided to have some privacy and removed myself from Facebook and I hadn't looked back.

A few months ago, Santana said I should at least have a Twitter account – one that could be highly guarded if I wanted it to be – and people couldn't tag me in embarrassing photos. I joined over the summer and had been on there a bit since I had started the account, but rarely. It had proven to be an effective way to get back in touch with some of my old Dalton friends – some had moved to new states and others had remained in Ohio – but it also helped me keep tabs on some of my all-time favorite bands.

After logging into Twitter, I scrolled through the smattering of posts from my brother – he was just as narcissistic in 140 characters as he was in person – and a few from the official Rialto Twitter account that had been drafted by Santana to send out on Saturday night. It's amazing how you can time things to deliver electronically long after you've written them.

I had also recently started following Lauren, my favorite bartender from The Bell House. Admittedly she had found me first and when I received the notification that she had started following me, I followed her back. Lauren didn't post very often, but when she did she usually had me busting a gut with her random musings.

Just underneath the five posts from Cooper – most of them of his abs or some YouTube video of him being an idiot – were a two from Lauren.

LzizesNYC: It's amazing what people consider to be Halloween costumes these days.

Along with that tweet was a picture of a girl in a bikini and a sash, the sash reading Ms. New York – notating that she was supposed to be a beauty queen. It was an incredibly ridiculous costume to wear with the temperature at freezing, but girls clearly had a different definition of Halloween costumes these days. I couldn't help but laugh at her commentary because it certainly was true.

Just below that tweet was another one that piqued my interest a bit more than the last.

LzizesNYC: Kurt and I out on the town for our favorite holiday! #manhattanhouseparty

I clicked on the tweet and it expanded.

Sweet mother of Jesus, hell yes.

Lauren looked cute in her cat costume but next to her stood the jaw-droppingly handsome andhotKurt Hummel - in a male cheer leading costume.

I about died.

I knew he must have borrowed it from his work since it had the tell-tale RCHS on the front for Rancho Carne High School, but the costume looked like it had been made specifically for him. The v-neck uniform shirt clung tightly to his chest as he lifted his right arm up as if pretending to cheer. The way his fist formed made his bicep clench, showing off his sculpted arm that had been hidden under the long sleeves shirts I had always seen him in, which I was now sad that I hadn't seen this sooner.

But the best part had to be the pants. He was facing forward with his legs an arms width apart forming an inverted V but the white fabric of the pants hung tightly on his thighs, which I could tell were well sculpted even though they were covered by the pants.

And the way it fit him in the crotch... I had to adjust myself just looking at the way things were very... fitted.

I wanted to reply to Lauren, but given my current state of mind I was afraid it would all come out too forward. Sure, Kurt wasn't tagged in the photo or anything – I didn't even know if he had a Twitter – but I didn't want to say anything that might make me seem like a creeper. It already irked me that I had primarily communicated with Kurt online, I couldn't let one bad tweet about how her friend was incredibly sexy in his borrowed costume jeopardize anything – especially since he and I were supposed to go on our third date the next night.

I went through the rest of my tweets, all of which paled in comparison to the one from Lauren, and made my way back to her tweet.

One little tweet can't hurt, right?

Okay, think Anderson. And don't come off creepy. Just... mention something about how they're having fun... and how you'd like to have fun with Kurt and his...

Lord have mercy, simmer down.

warbler_blaine:LzizesNYC – Looks like you guys are having fun!

LzizesNYC:warbler_blaine – You should come join us!

warbler_blaine:LzizesNYC – Maybe next year. ;)

LzizesNYC:warbler_blaine – I certainly hope you'll join us next year - Kurt says you have to!

warbler_blaine:LzizesNYC I guess I'll have to then!

I sat back from my computer and read through the tweets that had just come in. Kurt might not have been on Twitter, but he was certainly involved in our conversation and I couldn't be more thrilled. Especially since heinsistedon me joining them next year. Insisted!

Well, if Kurt liked Halloween, maybe I could too. Especially if his Halloween costumes always lookedthatgood.