Suddenly it felt like I had a real and tangible link to Kurt – something more substantial than just words on a page.

I did eventually manage to choke out a horse "hi-I'm-Blaine" to which Finn gave me a worried look and told me to come inside, insistently offering me a glass of water. I eventually accepted the offer because he was clearly concerned and wasn't relenting. It was both amusing and a little intimidating.

"So," I said as Finn slowly drove the Chevy into the shop, "I think my dad called you about the tyres?"

"Yeah, he did," he replied. "Don't worry. He's already explained it all."

"Great," I said, not really sure what else to say. I couldn't mention Kurt - the one thing I really wanted to know about – without sounding like a major creeper, so I resolved to make small talk until Finn mentioned him. "So, have you been working here long?" I asked as he began raising the car on the dolly.

"Kinda," Finn replied, loosening the nuts on the wheels. "I worked here for a year or two while I was still in school. Then I moved to New York for a few years and came back to work here when the situation that side changed."

I was quiet for a moment before daring to ask the next question.

"Can I ask what happened?"

Finn looked back at me and gave a small, sad smile.

"Yeah, I suppose you can. You don't look the judgemental type," he said, placing the loosened nuts carefully on the table behind him. "I got divorced," he said simply.

"Oh," I said, not really sure what to else to say. What do you even say to something like that? Sorry? What if the marriage was toxic and things were way better now that they weren't together? Congratulations? That just seemed tasteless.

Apparently my inability to articulate wasn't an issue, because Finn shrugged and continued with what he was doing.

"We're still really good friends," he said, "but I just couldn't keep piggybacking on her dreams. I realised I was holding her back from achieving them."

"So you came back to work in the tyre shop?" I asked.

"I came back to part-own the tyre shop. My mom and step-pop moved to DC to further pursue his political career and I stayed behind to run the tyre shop."

Finn shook his head with a small grin. "I'm probably boring you out of your mind right now."

"Not at all," I replied, truthfully. The more I knew about his family the better. It would help me put together the mystery of Kurt Hummel and what happened to him after the diaries ended. Finn smiled.

"You're a strange kid, Blaine," he said, wiping his hands on an only slightly cleaner rag so that he could read something on a sheet of paper. "So you got any kind of job going?"

"Not at the moment and it's kind of freaking me out because I want to have something substantial to put on my college applications and so far all I have is polo and show choir," I said, sounding slightly more pessimistic than I meant to.

"Show choir, huh?" said Finn, raising an eyebrow with a smirk on his face. At first I thought he was taking the piss, but then I remembered reading something in Kurt's diaries about Finn being a part of the glee club at McKinley. "So which one are you a part of then? Vocal Adrenaline? The Unitards?"

"Oh, god no," I said, subconsciously wrinkling my nose in disgust. "I'm a Warbler."

"Ah, so you're a prep school boy then," said Finn, with an amused grin. "Should have guessed when you spoke about polo."

"Yeah, and?" I said, feeling defensive. Kurt's brother or not, I didn't appreciate people having a laugh at my expense.

"Woah, sorry bro," Finn said. "I didn't mean to upset you. Dalton's pretty epic. Sounds better than McKinley anyway."

This would have been the perfect time to ease into a conversation about Finn's time at school, which could easily divert into a conversation about Kurt, but the words stuck in my throat. I was scared of sounding like a stalker, so instead I stared at the concrete floor of the garage. I could feel Finn's eyes on me and tried not to feel too self-conscious.

"You ever worked on cars?" he asked, and immediately my head snapped up.

"My dad and I rebuilt this Chevy before-"

I almost said 'before my mom left' but stopped myself when I figured that Finn wouldn't really care and I didn't actually like saying it out loud anyway.

"Want to help me out for the afternoon? I'll pay you for the hours you work and if you enjoy it, I can offer you a part-time job?" said Finn, looking at me expectantly. I considered his offer. I did enjoy fixing up that old Chevy and I did need a job of some kind for the work experience. As long as my dad didn't mind, I couldn't see why not.

"I just need to check with my powers that be, but I would love to," I said with a grin which Finn returned. I pulled out my phone and dialled my dad's number.

It rang twice before "Good day, Phil Anderson speaking?" rang through the earpiece.

"Hi, Dad, it's Blaine," I said walking a few paces away from Finn. It was kind of pointless because he'd still hear everything, but it made me feel better. "Listen," I continued, not really giving him a chance to reply, "I'm at the tyre shop and I got talking to the guy who runs it and he's offered me a part-time job. He wants me to stick around this afternoon to help out and see how I like it. Is – is that okay?"

"Will you still be able to keep your grades up?" asked his dad.

"I'll make sure I still have plenty of time to study," I replied.

"And what about your choir stuff?"

"The practices happen while I'm waiting for you to finish at the office, so it wouldn't make a difference," I replied, barely hiding my surprise. My dad had never once spoken to me about my involvement with the Warblers.

"Fine," said Dad. "Just don't run yourself down, okay?"

"Okay," I said, grinning. Not only was he okay with it, but he had given me the most concerned comment he had given me in over two years. "I promise I'll be fine. Thanks, Dad."

"You're welcome," he said. "Don't be out late."

"I won't be," I said before the line went dead as my dad hung up.

"So was that a 'yes'?" asked Finn with a smile.

"Yep," I replied.

"Awesome! Okay there should be a spare set of overalls in the office back there. You might have to roll them back. Steve quit last week and he was pretty tall," said Finn. I nodded to show that I understood and then made my way to the office. After digging through miles of junk and paperwork, I managed to find a somewhat neatly folded set of blue overalls. I shrugged off my hoodie and pulled the jumpsuit on over my jeans and t-shirt.

And I worked hard that day. Finn showed me how to do most of the basics, since business wasn't that busy, and by the end of the day I was pretty skilled at it. Finn seemed to think so too, because when I told him that I probably had to head home, he grinned and said, "So see you tomorrow after school?"

"Yeah, definitely," I replied. The day really had been awesome.

"Great. Thanks for all your help today, man," he said, clapping me on the shoulder as I reached into my pocket for the Chevy keys.

"Thanks for the opportunity," I said politely as I climbed into the driver's seat and started the engine. "See you tomorrow!"

"See ya!" Finn replied, waving as I backed up into the driveway and then out onto the road.

As I drove back home, I couldn't help but grin. I now had a legitimate link to Kurt Hummel. He had become more than just the mysterious source of the diaries.

He was now a someone.

As I worked in the tyre shop with Finn over the next few weeks, I became pretty good at it. We worked out a system too – he gave me the quick, easy fixes and replacements so that he could tackle the more complex jobs. On the days that I couldn't make it, Finn did both. It wasn't like it was a huge setback for him. He had been successfully handling all his work before I joined him. It was just faster if I was helping, which meant that he could return vehicles sooner, which meant the shop got a good reputation.

All in all, working at Hummel's Tyre and Lube with Finn was awesome. We often talked while we were working – mostly about Dalton and McKinley, glee club, music, show choir competitions and sport. Occasionally Finn would tell me something about himself and I would do the same, but that didn't happen often.

The subject of Kurt still hadn't come up. At this stage, mentioning him would be super weird and awkward and I would have to tell Finn about the diaries and that was the last thing I wanted to do. So instead, I waited for Finn to bring it up.

As it happened, about five weeks after my first afternoon of work, Finn was in a curious mood.

"Say, Blaine," he said, wiping his hands on a dirty rag on his belt, "do you have any siblings?"

My heart raced. This was it. It was going to happen.

"Just the one brother," I replied, trying my hardest to sound like a normal human being when inside I was clearly possessed by some kind of excited puppy. "He's much older than me though. He's a year or two younger than you. He lives in Texas and has a house, a car, a wife and two and a half children. You know- the perfect son and all that."

"Ah, I see..." he said pensively. He was quiet for a moment before he frowned in confusion. "Two and a half?"

"There's a baby," I explained and Finn nodded to show that he got it now. "And you?" I asked. "Do you have any siblings of your own?"

"Just the one," said Finn, "And even though he's not technically related to me, he's totally my brother."

"Oh?" I asked, knowing exactly what he meant, but pretending not to, to cover my tracks.

"Well, his dad, Burt, and my mom, Carole, got married in our junior year and since then we've become pretty close. He went through a lot of shit in High School and for a long time I was an idiot who ignored it, but then I stopped being an idiot - only to realise that Kurt was already much stronger than I gave him credit for."

"Kurt?" I said softly. "That's his name?"

"Yeah," said Finn with a smile. "Anyway, he's living New York now and he's pretty much living his dreams."

This was what I wanted to know. Was Kurt happy? Did he achieve his dreams? It seemed that the answer was yes. It was as if a burden had lifted from my shoulders. I finally knew that it had worked out okay for him and for reasons I couldn't fully understand, I now felt like everything would work out okay for me too.

"That's awesome," I said, leaving an awkward silence behind me. I started working on the car again, mind full of images of Kurt on Broadway, singing his heart out each night, making the audience cry with him – just being what he had always wanted to be.

The sound of Finn's ringtone – 'More than a Feeling' by Boston – made me jump, which was weird because the guitar riff at the beginning was the most calm and benign thing ever. I guess I was just on edge because I was thinking about things that I probably shouldn't have been thinking about.

"Finn Hudson, hello?" Finn said, as he pressed the 'accept call' button. His face suddenly lit up. "Kurt! How are you, bro? I hear that you... oh."

The smile on Finn's face disappeared along with the colour in his cheeks.

"Wait, wait, slow down... what? ...And he just... no fucking way, I'll kill him. ...No, seriously, Kurt, I will murder him and make it look like an accident... you deserve so much better than this, bro. So much better."

I stared at the back of Finn's head wondering what was going on. It sounded like Kurt was going through something intense and suddenly the warm feeling I had got from hearing about his perfect life in New York evaporated.

"Well, okay. Do you want to stay here for a couple of months while you sort things out? ...Of course it's fine! Seriously it's just me alone in that huge empty house. It would be awesome to have you over for a while. The gang misses you... Yeah, Tina, Mike and the kids ask me about you at least once a week and Puck nearly cried when I told him you weren't coming down in summer... Great, so I'll see you sometime next weekend then? ...You'll be okay, Kurt. You're tenaci... tenesh... you're tough. If anyone can make it out of this in one piece and stronger for it, it's you. ...Love you bro. See you soon... Bye"

My heart was beating rapidly in my chest. I didn't quite know what to do with myself. I didn't know if I was ready for it yet either. Finn didn't need to say it. He couldn't possibly know how life-changing this was going to be. He shrugged as he put his phone back in his pocket.

"Looks like you're going to meet Kurt after all."