"So, are you still 'dating' that boy?" Kurt gave Blaine his pillow so he could lean on it.

'Okay, so he doesn't know that there were a few boys, that's good. Wait. No. I'm not gonna lie again'

"Kurt, in the last few months, I've been with more than one man, but I'm not anymore" he corrected him.

"More than one?" he sounded surprised.

"Well, four actually?" he pried his way into Kurt's mind.

"Four?" he glared at Blaine agitated "Eh, not that it concerns me or anything just surprised" he regretted his reaction.

"Yeah, but I broke up with all of them. I'll prove it" Blaine took out his cellphone and showed him the messages he had sent and received in the last few days.

"And you left them because..?" Kurt inquired and placed a hand under his chin.

"Because I want to be with you now. Look," he gave the device to Kurt, so he'd peruse it himself.

"Yeah.." Kurt said unimpressed. He attempted to avoid showing Blaine any sign that he cared about him.

"Kurt, to tell you the truth, I wasn't always like that. I… actually started out high school as a pretty much the opposite. But after I had to leave my school because of bullies and got here to Dalton, something happened..I've opened up to things"

"And you feel totally comfortable with that 'friends with benefits' thing?" Kurt said in a hesitant voice.

"I'm assuming that it's not exactly the way you see it. I'll explain it to you later though 'cause first I want to share something with you that I've been kinda hiding" he clenched his teeth like he was trying to make himself sound softer.

He continued in a sensitive fumbling tone "It's about my first day in Dalton"

Kurt nodded silently.

"Almost nobody knows about it, but I've decided I want you to know. I want you to see me just the way I am, because…um.. I do have a few masks I put on every day, and when I see that you're not putting anything on you, it makes me feel like I-"

"Blaine-?" Kurt tried to say something

"No, Kurt. Make up doesn't' count" he laid a hand on Kurt's knee slowly "you're still the same person with or without it" he smiled with a closed mouth.

That tiny almost unexcited smile and the compliment that followed turned Kurt on and unlocked the cage of his heart. He could feel himself how the feelings are running out free, leaving through the open window into the dark streets, maybe searching their way to the moon. He was breathing, but it felt different. Whatever was blocking the way had melted.

Blaine had noticed the change in Kurt's expression, and his eyes emoted something more keen and impish than before, but he avoided mentioning it.

"Anyway, on my first day I had no idea what I was doing. It felt like everyone was patronizing me 'here's the new guy' and stuff like that. On recess I locked myself up in an empty room on the first floor and worked on my homework" he grinned as he remembered it.

"But when the first day was over, I had decided that I was sick from being alone, I had this urge inside me, to live up to my potential, to be good at making friends."

Kurt longed to lean his head on the bed, but thought it might be impolite. He pulled over the chair that was near his computer desk to sit on. He nodded to imply he was being attentive.

"It's hard to imagine you like that" Kurt said in a weak voice and coughed quietly to clear his throat "it's like, who's Blaine without a bunch of friends around him, asking him questions, dying to hang out with him.."

"Yeah, I know people see me that way, but it's not entirely who I am" he exclaimed, trying to stress his point.

Kurt could hear Finn snoring in the next room. Thankfully their conversation didn't wake him up, yet.

"That day, my first day alone in Dalton I finally realized that I had a problem, and after a short check on the internet, I even knew its name" he said with a sober expression in his calm eyes.

"It's called Social Anxiety," he clarified, and Kurt rolled his chair closer to him, attempting to hear him better.

"In other words, it means 'thinking too much about the way people see you.' It's something I've suffered from ever since I can remember. On that day, I decided that I'd put an end to it" he moistened his mouth.

"I.." he laughed in embarrassment. "I actually made a list of all the things that "I'm afraid to do. Especially things that scared me that time regarding other people" Kurt could look at his eyes and see that Blaine was reflecting on his own past," and there were so many stupid things at that time. "Kurt, I mean, you wouldn't feel uncomfortable eating in front of someone, or telling him 'oh, wait a sec. I'm just going to the toilet' or talking to a clerk in a store 'cause you want to apply for a job..it sounds ridiculous"

"Yeah, I see what you mean" Kurt imagined the secluded Blaine alone. It was the strangest thing ever to come up in his mind.

"These were the easiest things to do on my list, so I chose the most difficult thing from it, you know, to "break the spell"…and that thing was hitting on a man. A straight man" he emphasized.

"No!" Kurt formed a frozen "O" with his lips, so thrilled that he wouldn't move a muscle.

Blaine began thinking to himself how cute his wet reddish lips could possibly get.

"You did it" Kurt stated like it was obvious to him.

"Yup. Scared to death I drove to a straight club, just…wanting so bad to face the truth" he balled his hands into fists. "But things didn't turn out as expected" he blushed.

Kurt still glued to his spot, mesmerized by Blaine's extroverted actions, nodded while his eyes gleamed in anticipation.

"I remember it took me a while to overcome my anxiety. I stood near the entrance and let my eyes move, checking each and every man who was inside, until I saw a group of men, dancing close to three beautiful girls on the podium that was in the middle of the dance floor. I forced myself to approach them, making myself dull my senses and give in to the darkness and the trance music. I remember myself standing in front of someone twice as big as me, with muscles and-"

"Oh my god!" Kurt exclaimed in embarrassment.

"Wait!" he threw a pillow at Kurt "You haven't heard the juicy part yet!" he gestured with his hands. "I started dancing near them, pretending I knew the gang for like forever, and when one of them gazed at me, thinking 'what the hell's he doing?' I couldn't believe myself but I started flirting with him; batting my eyelashes, I asked him 'what's your name', placing a hand on his shoulder and offering to dance with him. Of course all of his friends looked shocked at me, trying to imply that I was being awkward," he sighed. "But that guy already had both his hands on my shoulders, directing me into the corner to sit on a chair. He sat right on me and started making out with me before I could even think 'what's going on here?'"

Kurt remained silent. He was trying to hide the fact that visualizing the kiss made him feel like a cold blade of steel had stabbed his heart.

"You see?" He threw his hands in the air. "Kissing that stranger…maybe just kissing for the first time, was what actually broke the "spell" I'd been in, that bubble I kept living in," he gazed for a second at Kurt, to check that he was still listening and continued on "and..and when all that shattered, I made myself a golden rule in 'relationships' – first do it, and only then think about it."

Kurt couldn't help but smile 'that explains a lot' he thought. He tried to analyze his own life – could he apply that rule too?

"Because if I did think about it," Blaine kept his fluent flow of words, "who knew how my high school years would have ended up?" he pouted in a joking manner as he considered his possible alternate life "being alone, no friends, no love, never entering the Warblers, or meeting you" Blaine implied.

"In another words, your motto is 'dare it'" Kurt concluded.

"Totally! The more something scares you, the more important it is that you do it!"

"Wow, just because I'm scared of kissing random men doesn't mean I should do it," Kurt retorted.

"You know what I mean, Kurt. Each one of us has totally different baggage, but somewhere deep inside, we know what the thing is that we're postponing, just because we're scared," Blaine said while standing up, ready to leave.

"Maybe there are few things that fall in that category in my life," Kurt said and hugged Blaine, mentally checking the first item off of his list of things 'to do'.

"I'll walk you to the door. You have your car here with you, right?" he muttered while they took off down the stairs.

"Yeah, don't worry about me. I'm a night owl, I'm not going to bed anytime soon," Blaine simpered.

"Huh, you're going to party between some other cute men?" Kurt tried his best not to sound too worried about that.

"Yeah, you wanna come?" Blaine took a pair of pink sunglasses out of his trousers pocket and put them on, just to get in the mood.

"I'm in my pajamas already, maybe next time."

"Go get changed in under five minutes, I'll be waiting for you in my car," Blaine stepped out of the house.

"But we're doing this just as good friends, right?" he hesitated.

Blaine lowered his sunglasses down to his nose "Do you really believe that this guy would break a promise he has made to you?" he pointed at himself.

"I guess not," Kurt smiled and went up the stairs again.

***

In the morning, Kurt didn't have to wake up to school because he didn't bother going to sleep. Blaine convinced him to spend the whole night with him pretty easily: "you've never pulled an all nighter?" he asked in the middle of the house party they've just joined "I mean, you're almost eighteen, when did you think about doing it if not now?"
"How often do you pass on sleeping Blaine? You party animal" Kurt answered sarcastically while drinking a Jägermeister shot.
"From time to time, you'll see you like it too" Blaine refilled Kurt's shot and they both drank another one together.

An unfamiliar man's face pulled Blaine's arm into a tight dance. Kurt jumped from his chair to join him and to oversee the developments. To Kurt's delight, Blaine danced close to him only for a few seconds, exaggerating closeness as a joke, and then shook him off, and started to make up his own moves for the music.

"We're not drunk right?" Kurt yelled the question in Blaine's ear.
"So what if we are?" Blaine shouted back and burst into laughter. He danced while placing his hands on Kurt's shoulders and waist, still as part of a dramatic act "Just kidding Kurt!" he screamed back after a few seconds "You can't get drunk from two shots!"
"But we're still waiting until we're fully sober before driving back?!" he ask uneasily as if he's expecting Blaine to promise him.
"Yeah! We can wait all the time you want. We basically have all night!"

***

School is a total different experience when you give up on your daily eight hours rest, but not for Blaine Anderson. The guy had a spring in his step, dashing here, there and everywhere bursting with positive energy.

Kurt, on the other hand couldn't feel his muscles and he had to force himself up from the class to the hallway to eat his homemade lettuce sandwich before lunch break is finished. He sat on one of the benches in the middle of the hall, gazing at Blaine who was in the meantime busy making sure he talked to every single person in that corridor, sharing experiences from the weekend.

As Kurt followed him with his eyes, he saw him turning to Wes and David that were on their way to the rehearsal room. Blaine accosted them with enthusiasm, "I have an awesome song for regionals! It's funny, it's catchy, and it has a great harmony and back vocals already placed. And um, since it's a duet, I thought about singing it with K-"
Wes gave him a weary look "We already have a long list of songs we want to check," Wes said "but we'll consider this song, thanks."

Kurt wished he was close enough to hear what song Blaine suggested, not knowing that it's going to be one of the most memorable and significant songs in his life.

What's on the list for today?" Blaine asked the council members."
"We have a change in our plans, we want to start working today on Misery" Wes browsed his backpack and took out the sheets for him "you know the song already, right? Our adaption is pretty much the same for the lead,"
"No..no problem at all, Maroon 5 could totally rock in regionals." He said still a bit disappointed they didn't want his suggestion.
"You know what? Take the sheets to all the other Warblers to start working on it right now, maybe if we take advantage of the lunch break we'll have this number flowing smoothly already today" David suggested and gave him a handful of musical sheets. Blaine was convivial, he was asked to do one of the things he loved the most: rehearsing.

Kurt leaned back on the couch after he finished eating and closed his eyes thinking of the possibility of catching a short nap, but he couldn't drift off. His senses we're too concentrated on Blaine's lively encounters with Warblers members.

"Here, that's our number for today, oh! And Wes also asked me to briefly show you the choreography for the chorus, you're going to be divided into three groups and-"

'Why do I find this man so attractive?' Kurt thought while listening to him 'I think I'm starting to understand...he loves people, and that makes him so…alive.' Kurt opened his eyes and approached Blaine that was in the middle of a conversation with Nick and Trent.

"Ok, we've reached 'I am in misery'" Blaine started singing and indicated with his hands the choreography he made up "it's leg to the right, leg to the left, hold, cover up your heart, hands across your head and turn". As they tried to do the same moves, his eyes strayed to the right and he noticed Kurt "You can join our practice if you want" he winked and gave Kurt the sheets of the song. Kurt nodded. He went and stood a bit aside from everyone else and copied Blaine's moves like everyone else. Meanwhile, a few other Warblers came from the stairway and joined those already practicing the moves that Blaine made up.

A few minutes later, when recess was over, Blaine finished his teaching with a satisfied expression on his face "Nick, you got everything right so now you're responsible to check that everyone here is ready for this afternoon"

Nick nodded and Blaine gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder as he went down the stairs back to the classroom. On his way down he told Wes: "Choreography checked, we'll just have to work a little bit on the singing modulation that is different from the original version and we're all set" he grinned.
"Great! Then I'll see you this afternoon" Wes replied as he entered his classroom and Blaine continued alone along the corridor.
He passed near a small room, not so far from the school entrance, he moved past it, into the classroom he needed, but when he turned back to gaze at the door for one more second he met Kurt's eyes.
He turned back and entered the class, sat in his regular place, but his thoughts were in a mess 'he saw me in that room, he admitted that yesterday.' The assumption bounced around in his head every few seconds when he remembered it in the middle of the lesson. He gazed at Kurt whenever he could while writing the lesson in his notebook, but Kurt didn't look back at him.

After the lesson, Blaine approached him "I want to talk to you again, if you don't mind"
"Sure" he shrugged and stood up.
They both took their schoolbags and stepped into the hallway "do you want us to sit here?" he pointed at an empty couch in the far corner. Kurt nodded in agreement and closed his eyes, exhausted.
"We're totally honest now, right?"
"Yes" Kurt said wearily. He opened his eyes and leaned his head forward to give Blaine his full attention.
"Do you want to tell me something?" Blaine inquired seriously while leaning his elbow on the sofa, his body facing Kurt's.

Something vibrated and hummed in Kurt's bag: he took out his phone and read the message.

You are not going to believe this! I feel like I should sell the rights on my life to Hollywood or something, can I come see you tomorrow?   -Thomas

Blaine tried to read the whole line upside down, but Kurt read it faster than him, and replied a quick yes , then he stashed it away in a small pocket in his bag.
"I'm fine Blaine, believe me" he said apathetically without looking at him in the eyes.
"I guess I was mistaken" He apologized and got up 'for caring too much about you. Who's this new man in your life? Why didn't you tell me about him?'

He got up the stairs with much more concerns than what he had in the morning, leaving Kurt to sit alone in the same spot he was in a few weeks ago, alone.

****

Kurt glanced at his watch: It was finally 04:00 PM, in the longest day in his life.
The Warblers still haven't finished discussing the outfits they're going to wear for regionals, but he was too tired to care about it. He had to close his eyes just for one second.

"O.K, let's vote, who supports the same outfit for the lead vocal as the backup singers?

He opened his eyes again: everyone raised their hands except for him.

"So the lead will have the regular Warbler shirt and tie" Thad announced.

After a few minutes, where his mind jumped back and forth from being concentrated and daydreaming, David tapped the council's hammer gavel.

"That's it for today, please all of you who still don't remember their parts by heart, work on it for tomorrow's rehearsal" he got up from his seat, and so did the rest of the Warblers that went in the direction of the door. David called out to two of them, "Oh, and you two said you can't reach the lower part in the bridge" he turned to Luck and Matt "let me hear you try the bridge as the Tenors" he tapped his tuning fork on the wooden table and gave them the starting note. They all sang as David hummed the lead for them.

"Kurt" Jeff approached him "We're having a Warbler-party tonight. Can you come?"

"No...I don't think so…I really need to get some-"

"Of course you're coming!" Blaine laid a hand on his shoulder and whispered in his ear "Just sleep at home until the night and you'll be fine"

"You're pushing me to the edge and I don't think-" he said overstressed

"He'll come" Blaine answered for him and explained "I swear you won't regret this, Kurt, the Warblers' parties are the best: a swimming pool, food, dancing, bonding. Don't miss on that for… come on, sleep? Been there done that!" He retorted to Kurt's words to him earlier that day. "Sleep until the evening just before going to Jeff's house. Tell me if you need a ride"

"Thanks, I think I'll handle this" he grabbed his bag and started heading towards the door.

"The Warblers who live far, like you, can stay for a sleepover there too, bring a tooth brush if you're more comfortable with that" Blaine gazed to his left, 'David's still busy with the boys' he thought.

"Sure thanks" Kurt placed his hand on the door, waiting for Blaine to come with him.

"Oh, I'm not going home yet" Blaine explained "I'll be staying for an extra rehearsal on the lead with Wes and David, so I'll see you there?"

"Yes" Kurt turned back to the corridor and left the room.

"Bye" he said brooding.

'Oh my god, it's official now, Mr. Anderson isn't human, isn't he exhausted? I can see the black circles under his eyes, the laxity of the muscles in his body, but it's like there's something in his head that keeps it all together working' , Kurt thought as he went down the entrance stairs and into the bus stop.

***

Blaine arrived at only 11:00 PM, being fashionably late, and started by greeting every single person that was near and around the pool. Kurt wondered if he ignored him on purposed and kept following him with his eyes.
Blaine placed his backpack on one of the tanning chairs and started undressing: he put his shirt and pants inside his bag, closed the zipper and threw the bag aside.

"How are you doing Kurt?" Kurt panicked and almost fell into the water, he got into some kind of trance the moment Blaine pulled off his shirt and had his head blank from thoughts until now.

"I'm fine" he said briefly.

"Getting used to the temperature of the water?" he asked since Kurt's legs were on the ledge of the pool.

"Yeah, I'm not really in the mood for swimming."

"Do you want me to give you a push?" he jested.

"No thank you" he said exquisitely and pouted his lips.

"You can always try my way to get used to the water" Blaine ran backwards and leaped in the water, leaving a trail of splashes after him as he sunk in to the pool.
He sprung off from the bottom and started accosting everyone that was inside the water.

Kurt was still sitting on the edge of the pool, almost jumping into the water, out of the safe zone, but didn't.
Instead, he turned his head to look behind him: the club members split into a lot of smaller groups, and Kurt couldn't decide where he would fit in the best.
To his left were Jordan, Luke and Jon eating hotdogs, behind him Jeff, Nick and Matt playing table football and to his right: Steve, Aaron and Brock, chatting exuberantly. He felt like he'd look stupid if he tried to talk to them, when they had absolutely nothing in common.

A new association from yesterday linked itself into his thoughts 'The more something scares you, the more it's important that you do it' he pushed his body straight into the pool: 'time to do.' The water was freezing cold, but he could handle that 'hell yeah, I'm gonna face all my fears! I'm sick of creating and planning my life through meticulous thoughts that sometimes has nothing to do with reality. I want my eyes to decide from now on. I want to be truly free, to feel my body rushing in fear and anxiousness every second of my life, but just never again be in the zone of safety, that's not what living is about.'

Blaine was playing water polo right in front of him. He swam fast into the group and asked to join them.
"Sure" Wes muttered "but now we don't have equal numbers on each groups, so.." he lingered in thoughts "let's play something else: a contest of individuals, we'll just rule out anyone who doesn't catch the ball in time, but you must catch it using one hand only"
"Wow, ok" ,Kurt thought, 'just relax and have fun, no spare thoughts.'
Wes passed the ball to Kurt, Kurt passed to Trent, Blaine snatched the ball from him while it was still in the air "Oh, sorry are we allowed to do that?" he asked.
'the master of unthinking' , Kurt wanted to be like that, and he decided that he will. 'If Blaine can, then I can too' he thought and started jumping higher than he thought he was able in order to catch the ball more than anyone else in the pool.
He wasn't the best, and he knew it. Most of the men that participated were stronger, but he felt like he gave it one hundred percent effort, leaving mediocrity out of the pool, but something unexpected happened then...

"Do you know where the bathroom is?" Kurt asked Trent as he got out of the pool "go inside the house. I can see Blaine there, just follow him"
Kurt ran to keep up with Blaine who had already closed the door behind him. He saw Blaine knocking on the bathroom door and waiting impatiently but at that second the content expression on his face changed completely to a horrified and worried look. Kurt was scared 'what the hell happened to him?' and decided not to enter the house yet, he kept watching the vulnerable Blaine from the outside glass door.

Kurt saw Blaine entering the bathroom annoyed; he seemed too distracted to notice that Kurt was looking at him from beyond the door. "What the hell are you doing here? Are you stalking me?" He could hear most of Blaine's yelling, but not the other person whose voice echoed feebly inside the house.
He was too curious to stay there, so he opened the glass door of the porch, and gazed at the two men through the crack between the door and the lintel.

"You can't tell me what to do Blaine, just so you know, I was invited here too" he said trying to irritate him even more.
"You're not even a Warbler" Blaine protested "you know what? Be wherever you want it's not like I care"
"I loved you" Paul mumbled from between his teeth and quickly pulled Blaine towards him into a French kiss, tightening his body as much as he can to Blaine's swimming suit, but Blaine pushed him aside "I'm not getting back with you!" he yelled at him and left.
Kurt quickly hid behind the black sofa in the living room while perplexed Blaine climbed the stairs to the bathroom on the second floor.
Kurt wasn't sure if it's just his imagination, because the living room was quite dark, but something sparkled on Blaine's cheek, it could have been just wet from swimming, could have been a tear.

Later that evening Kurt tried to get Blaine to talk to him about the incident he shouldn't have witnessed at all, but Blaine avoided the conversation, and did extra efforts to be perky than ever.
Kurt was the only one to see the frustration sneaking in to his face right after each smile. No one but him noticed the bitterness in Blaine's eyes as they lay on that man, his ex, who was busy making out with another man whom Kurt didn't know.
Kurt decided to take the initiative and sat with Blaine on the stone fence that encircled Jeff's house "We're being totally honest now, right?" he repeated Blaine's words to him earlier that day.

Blaine signed and nodded in agreement

"Do you want to tell me something?" Kurt asked seriously.

"You're right. Something happened to me, but I wanted to keep you out of this..." he hesitated for a second "stuff you don't want to know about them anyway"

"Well, share it anyway, I saw how you suffered in the last half an hour, don't you want to get it off your chest?"

"Kurt, I'm fine" he let out a smile

"You know it happened to me too" Kurt muttered

"What are you talking about?"

"That someone forced me into a kiss I didn't want to be part of" Kurt said although he wasn't sure how Blaine's going to react to that. He felt like he's throwing a huge boulder into the pool, splashing the troubling truth all over them.

Kurt lowered his head down "I…I was on my way to the bathroom too and I saw everything that's happened"

"That's...just… I" Blaine let out an embarrassed grin "So you were there the whole time?" he leaned a hand on his forehead.

"I know how you must feel now, so...just wanted to tell you…that" Kurt felt awkward

"You've probably guessed yourself who that man is..." Blaine said in a quiet tone.

"Probably" Kurt looked again into Blaine's eyes, searching for something different, a slight change "but maybe we can forget about all this and go get some drinks"

Blaine's smile widened in agreement.

They both got up from the stone. Blaine placed his hand gently on Kurt's bare back, Kurt held himself in order not to flinch.
"Maybe I'll kiss you to make him jealous back" Blaine looked dazed at Kurt "just kidding" Kurt hurried to add before Blaine could have said 'yes, I'd love that'.

"Just ignore him, he thinks he's interesting but he's very pathetic, right?" Kurt referred the kisses that Paul initiated in order to draw attention.

"Yeah, I'm in a new phase in my life, you know" Blaine forced himself to stop looking at Paul.

"I know what you mean" 'You're looking for a serious relationship' he thought.

As they got back to the lot near the pool, Jeff and Thad had just finished tuning and installing the D.J station and as a result, loud dance-mix music filled the open air.

"Not my favorite type of music, but maybe we should join everyone" Blaine suggested.

Ten people were already there, dancing like there's no tomorrow.
Blaine started dancing near Kurt but gradually found himself in the middle of the crowd, moving so fast that he caught everyone's attention.

'I wonder if there's something he's not good at' He thought while Blaine was showing off some R&B complicated moves.

Kurt joined in to the circle that formed around Blaine, dancing hysterically fast, releasing the energy through his feet and hands. The party was at its peak: almost everyone was able to forget about themselves and reach the point they're just throwing their hands everywhere, dancing in all directions.

Blaine was passing from man to man during his dance moves: making a move, letting the other man react and then moving on. Kurt was trying to do the same: dancing with as much men as he could until the song was over, getting closer to them, syncing with their own movements for one second and then moving on.
It all worked fine until he reached Blaine: he tried to sync his movement with Blaine's rapid dancing, but he couldn't, his body was too fast. Before they knew it, everyone stopped dancing and a calmer song was played.

"I love the way you dance" Blaine said honestly "It could totally boost up our performance in regionals if we plan the chorography together" he said impressed.

Kurt thought to himself 'Oh Blaine, if you only knew I was half copying your moves. Like everyone else here. You just gave a compliment to yourself.'

"What are you smiling at?" Blaine asked but Kurt only shrugged in response.

They kept dancing on and on until Kurt couldn't feel any muscle of his body anymore, he glanced at his watch – it was almost 02:00 AM.

He went to search his bag that was buried under a pile of other Warbler's belongings.
"Kurt are you leaving?" Blaine said from behind his back, "It's a long ride home, you can stay here for the night and drive home fresh in the morning"

"No, not this time. I have an hour and a half of driving back home, so I should get going" he found his bag and was about to say goodbye to everybody

"Well, it was pretty awesome tonight, don't you think?" Blaine concluded

"Yeah, most of it"

"Right" Blaine smiled to him and hugged him. Kurt tried to hold on to this moment, Blaine's wet swimsuit touching him, cooling him to the perfect point of serenity he needed to get through the terribly long way home.