Chapter 6

At some point, the girl had gotten up, poured her drink over Blaine’s head and walked away. Blaine wasn’t sure what he’d said, or why it had upset her.  He wasn’t even sure how long he sat at the table. Eventually, he just knew he had to leave.  He looked around for Kurt, before realizing he was laughing emphatically, still at the bar with that girl. 

So Blaine walked out of the bar.  He felt disgusting, covered in alcohol. He felt like a loser. And more than anything else he felt lonely.  No one really cared. He sat down on one of the benches outside of the bar, considering hailing a taxi. Instead, he just let his head fall into his hands, and he sat there, trying to make the world go away.

Blaine Anderson’s life hadn’t exactly been what you would call perfect.  Before coming to New York to work for his father, Blaine had lived with his mother in Westerville, Ohio.  His parents were divorced.  He attended Dalton Academy in Westerville, at his father’s request.

Blaine’s father, Charlie Anderson, had never really been too thrilled with Blaine.  On the other hand, he’d loved Blaine’s brother, Cooper.  Cooper had always been the perfect child. “Why can’t you be more like Coop, Blaine?” “See, that Blaine? Cooper got it right.”  Therefore, Cooper was the child he chose to take with him when he left Blaine’s mother.  Charlie Anderson had chosen Blaine to work for him in New York for two reasons. One, he wanted to keep an eye on his sub-par child. And two, he knew Cooper had too much potential for the job he would be giving to Blaine.

Meanwhile, Blaine’s mother was there for him while not really being there at all.  She stood by him through his struggles and achievements, but didn’t say or do much of anything. 

When Blaine met Santana, she accepted him, and decided to give him a chance. Blaine fell in love.  What he didn’t realize, though, was that he fell in love with the idea of someone who loved him back, not with the girl herself.  Santana was pushy, and used Blaine for her own purposes.  They dated for five years, exclusively for Blaine, not so exclusively on the other end.  Then she broke his heart.

Kurt was really hitting it off with the girl sitting a few inches away from him. At this point, he had his hand on her knee, and was making subtle hints at taking her to his apartment tonight, and she certainly made no inclination to decline.  It took him a while to realize Blaine was gone.

I told him not to go anywhere with her, he thought. And what he felt when he thought it did not seem like a good thing. Was that jealousy? No, no of course not.

He stood up then, “Do you want to go to my apartment?”

The girl grinned, “Sure.”

He led her out of the bar, and tried to look for a taxi, before seeing the figure sitting on the bench a few feet away.  Blaine had his head in his hands, looking at the ground. Kurt was torn between doing what he wanted to do, and what he knew would be better for everyone in the long run.

Fuck it. “Um, Linda, I’m going to go talk to my friend, you can leave if you want.”

The girl scowled, “It’s Luisa.”

“Yeah, okay.” He started to walk to the bench.  When he sat down next to Blaine, Luisa was gone.

He sat there for a second, wondering what to do. “Blaine?”

Blaine looked up at Kurt, “Oh, hi.”

“Hi.”

Blaine sat up straight, and they just sat there for a while.

Kurt finally said, “So, what happened?”

“I’m not really sure, actually. I was just sitting there, and I can’t remember if I said anything offensive. But she poured her drink on my head,” he gestured to the wet state of his hair and stains on his shirt. “Second time in a row, I guess,” he gave a half-hearted smile.

“Well, at least last time it was your pants, and it was me, not her.” He laughed.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Blaine didn’t laugh.

Kurt coughed, “So, um I never gave you those pointers.”

Blaine inwardly sighed, “And I never gave you that audition.”

“Oh, right. Did you get it?”

Blaine fished around in his pocket for a second, before producing an appointment slip. 

Kurt took the slip and looked at it. It read,

PHANTOM OF THE OPERA

Audition for   Kurt Hummel______________________

Date  May 20, 2017_________________

Time   4:00 PM_____________

Role  Viscount Raoul de Chagny__________

It was signed by the director. Kurt gasped, “Wait, you got me an audition for Phantom? These are nearly impossible to get!”

Blaine nodded, “Friends in high places.”

Kurt stared at the piece of paper in his hands. His dreams written on a simple slip of paper. Right there in the palm of his hand, literally.  He folded it and stuck it in his pocket before looking over at Blaine. 

“Okay, pointers.”

Blaine grunted, but nodded his consent.

Okay, Kurt, you can do this, he reassured himself. He needed to be professional, if he could hold a professional attitude, he could avoid awkwardness. 

“Let me start off by saying, you are not a horrible kisser, so don’t take this the wrong way. There are some things you could work on though.”

Blaine didn’t say anything, but thought, Oh god, this is going to be awful.

Kurt took his silence as an opportunity to move on. “When you kiss someone, you don’t want for it to be violent, and I mean, you weren’t bad about that. I’ve had worse, but you need to loosen up, let your senses guide you, don’t use your brain.”

Blaine attempted to think about anything but the kiss itself.  How could Kurt talk about this so nonchalantly?  All he could think about was how it felt to have Kurt’s lips pressed against his. 

“And when you use your tongue—“

“Oh, lord, seriously?” This time he couldn’t keep it in his head.

“Seriously what?”

“You don’t feel like this is strange at all?”

Kurt panicked momentarily, He thinks I’m weird. Or that I enjoyed it. Oh, no. He’s judging me, I know it.

“It’s only weird if you let it be weird. Besides, if you ever want to get better you need to know how,” Kurt swallowed, hoping Blaine couldn’t tell what he was actually thinking. 

“Fine. Continue,” he looked away though, avoiding eye contact would help.

“Anyways, with your tongue, you need to be gentle. Again, let your senses rule what you do. If you feel like the other person is ready for more, put more force in. But never poke and prod. No one wants a tongue poking them. That’s just awkward.”

That’s awkward, Blaine thought, and yet this conversation is completely normal.

Kurt found that talking about the process of kissing actually wasn’t that hard. He just had to apply what he was saying to any situation with a girl, and the words just came.  Also, Blaine looking away from him helped. There was just something about those hazel eyes…

Kurt finally got to a point where he had nothing left to say, so he wrapped it up, “Okay. That’s it I think, so I say we start meeting here on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and every other Saturday at eight. I know it’s a lot, but I feel like we need consistency.”

Blaine nodded in approval, a slight blush still visible in his cheeks, “Sounds good, I’m going to head home now though, that okay?”

“Yeah, that’s fine.” He looked at Blaine for just a second too long, and abruptly looked away. Blaine walked away from him.

As soon as Blaine was out of earshot, Kurt hit Rachel’s speed dial on his phone.

It rang twice before she picked up, “What do you want? It’s like midnight.”

“Rachel. Who even goes to sleep before midnight? Anyways, I just really need to talk to you. Can you pop some popcorn or something and I’ll come over? I’ll bring coffee.”

“What could you possibly have to talk about at this hour?”

Kurt exhaled into the phone, “Do you remember high school?”

Rachel stayed silent for a moment, giving the impression of thinking, “That was those four years between middle school and college, right?”

“Yeah, yeah. Be a smart ass. But I think…I think I might be retrogressing. And I need you.”

Rachel really did think this time, trying to understand what Kurt was referring to.  “Wha- Oh! Oh my god. Come over. But do bring coffee, I’m still only half awake.”

“Thanks,” he hung up and ran to the nearest coffee shop.

Blaine got up from the bench, not feeling much better after their little talk.  He walked home to his apartment, expecting to see Wes sitting on the couch watching late-night TV.  Instead, what he found was completely unexpected.

He entered the apartment, walked to the fridge and grabbed a Coke from inside.

“Wes? You home?” He looked over to the couch, and dropped the can on the ground. There was someone sitting there, but it wasn’t Wes.

The girl smiled. “Hey, Blainers.”