He maybe got a grand total of three hours of sleep each night. He was exhausted. Oh yeah, and the whole Kurt thing wasn't helping either (Kurt had decided that wearing pants five sizes too small were the new in thing). Blaine had thought that maybe he had gotten Kurt out of his system, and Blaine could move on with his life, but it didn't work that way.

It seemed everywhere Blaine went, Kurt was nearby. In the lunchroom, the hallway, the gym, at Finn's house. Kurt was always there. And who knew, maybe Kurt had always been there and Blaine just hadn't (or made himself) not notice Kurt. All Blaine knew is that Kurt was there now.

And whatever the case was, it wasn't helping Blaine's strained state of mind.

At least it's game day, thought Blaine, attempting to look on the bright side. After this game there were two more games in the season, left in Blaine's high school career. He had to focus, he had to make them good, had to make them count.

The team all around him were all vibrating with excitement, they were playing a team they had never beat before in the history of the school, but now they had Coach Beiste, who was standing in front of them, a proud look on her face. The other team wouldn't even know what hit them.

"You guys ready?" She asked quietly, a smirk in her lips. The team nodded back, barely holding back their eagerness.

"Are you guys ready?" This time Coach Beiste yelled, throwing her fist in the air as her prized team exploded with cheers and yells. Blaine stood up off his chair and yelled along with the other boys.

"Let's do this!"

OOOOOOOOOO

The bright white lights shined fiercely down on the players of McKinley High School's football team There were five minutes left in the game, they were winning, and it felt wonderful, Blaine felt wonderful. For the first time in days Blaine's mind felt clear and focused.

This is was Blaine played football for, the bright lights and shouts and cheers from the crowd barely registering in his mind as he watched the players in front of him set the ball. The crowd became a dull roar as the ball was thrown and all Blaine could think was winning.

"Hudson! What are you doing?"

Blaine jerked his head up at the yell of Coach Beiste, and he immediately spotted Finn, and what on earth was he doing?

The whistle blew, and Blaine jogged back to their coach, who was looking furious. As soon as he was near enough, he could hear Coach Beiste's angry words directed at Finn, who was sputtering helplessly back at her.

"Are you trying to lose?"

"I'm sorry-I don't know what happened-"

"Why don't we just give the ball to them!"

The rest of the team stood by, their eyes cast downward, not wanting to be caught in the crossfire. The Coach clapped her hands and beckoned all the boys to form a circle; Finn looking very relieved that he was not getting yelled at anymore.

"Look, we got his game in the bag, but let's just try to get the last point. Whatever Finn calls, do. I don't want any arguments! Follow Finn. Now go!" Finn gave a surprised look at the Coach, but smiling as he clapped his hands together, happy for a chance to redeem himself.

The teams hurried off to their positions, their eyes trained on Finn for a hint of what play they were about to pull of. Finn looked at the guys and made a two finger salute, and all the guys nodded in understanding.

All the sudden the ball was in play, and Blaine felt all the tension drain from his body because once again, all he could think about was winning and maybe a little bit of, oh shit, that guy is huge I can't intercept that guy I'm going to die, oh god-

But the guy was closing in on Finn and Coach Beiste said try to get the last point. And okay, they were going to get the last point.

Blaine threw himself at the guy just before he could reach Finn. Miraculously, the rival team member was caught off guard, and was tackled to the ground by Blaine, who was about five inches shorter than that guy, and probably about fifty pounds lighter.

Out of the corner of his eye Blaine saw the crowd jump to their feet, jumping up and down. It was a sight to see, people jumping up and down like that. Finn must have gotten the touchdown. Blaine scanned the crowd and immediately found Kurt, waving his arms around like a maniac, then cupping his hands around his mouth and yelling something, and he was looking right at Blaine.

Blaine felt his own hand wave weakly back to Kurt, his heart exploding with tiny little fireworks because Kurt was jumping up and down and cheering just for him-

Then out of nowhere Finn slung an arm around Blaine's shoulders, knocking him right out of his thoughts. Finn pointed to Kurt, Carole and Burt in the stands, the football still clutched in his fingers. From the stands Blaine watched with a sinking stomach as they all pointed back to Finn and cheered.

The first thought that went through Blaine's mind was, oh well, it was a good fantasy. Then the second one was, oh shit, Kurt probably saw me waving to him like an idiot...

Before Blaine could contemplate how similar his life was to a Taylor Swift song, the team came sprinting towards them and threw themselves at Finn and Blaine. It was so loud that Blaine couldn't hear himself think, but that was okay.

As the boys clapped their large hands on Blaine's back and helmet, congratulating him on tackling that humongous guy, ("How did you do that, he was three times the size of you!") Blaine looked back over him shoulder and spotted Kurt, who was still excitedly cheering.

Blaine's vision was a little shaky because the team wouldn't stop thumping his helmet, but Blaine kept his eyes trained on Kurt. He knew that Kurt was cheering for Finn, because Finn was his step brother and had just won the winning touchdown but Blaine could ignore that for now.

He could ignore that.

Blaine turned around and helped the team dogpile Finn to the ground. It was okay, because when Blaine closed his eyes, all he could hear was the cheers of the crowd and in his mind, Kurt was staring straight at him, his eyes lit with excitement and happiness as he cheered for Blaine.

OOOOOOOOOO

However, Blaine's excitement about winning the football game was shortlived. He had spent the entire Saturday doing his homework, which left his Sunday completely free for him to mentally punch himself in the face for that stupid wave directed at Kurt. Honestly, why didn't Blaine just wear a large neon pink sign on his forehead with the word gay on it?

Lockers slammed shut loudly all around Blaine, and with each resounding slam Blaine felt his headache get a little bit worse. Didn't the guys know that no words should ever be spoken on a Monday?

The guys around him were having conversations that could easily be spoken in a calm, inside voice, but apparently what they had to say had to be projected through the locker room so that people all the way in China could hear. Blaine gritted his teeth and continued pulling the sweaty football pads of his shoulders, then his knees and calves. Blaine tried to ignore the arrogant conversations around him, but it was sort of hard when they were being pretty much shoved into his head.

"-dude, and then she was all 'oh, I'm waiting for marriage' or whatever, but then she like, sends me pictures of her boobs two hours later-"

"Tease!" said one boy, and then,"What a bitch! Who is this?"

"Marta," said Liam, a offense player who like Puck, really got around when it came to the ladies.

"Dude, at least you don't have chicks sending you love letters and shit," piped up Sam, a newer student to the team and school. He was tall, blonde and handsome and kind of nerdy. The first time Blaine saw him, he was reminded immediately of James, but once he got to know him better, Blaine really liked Sam.

(He may have actually been hoping that Sam would be gay. But then he started dating Quinn Fabray, and Blaine pretended not to care. It's not like he really liked Sam or anything.)

The whole ignoring Sam thing became a lot easier when he tried to take Finn's position as quarterback. As a duty of being Finn's best friend, Blaine had to hate Sam for that.

"Yeah, I got this weird note in my locker the other day, and it was this chick talking about how much she loves me and wants to get married someday."

All the guys turned to Sam and threw towels and jeers at him, "aw! She's probably some weirdo chick who stalks you!" Sam caught some of the towels and threw them back at the crowd of guys around him, "whatever, at least I have girls after me unlike some people!"

Blaine took this as his cue to leave, forcing the last of his gear into the locker and shutting it quickly. He pushed himself through the guys, pausing to say goodbye to Finn, who was having issues getting his shoes off. "Later, dude." Then Blaine leaned down towards Finn and added quietly, "I'll come over later tonight and help you with that Biology stuff, alright?"

Finn smiled, "thanks man, you're a lifesaver. See you later."

Blaine nodded and said goodbye to the rest of the team, sending a wave over his head and a "later guys!"

As Blaine walked down the hallway, he trailed a single finger along the lockers beside him, smiling a little at the funny squeaky noise the metal made under his fingertip. He vaguely noted the numbers as he passed each one. 250...251...252...253...254...256.

Blaine stopped. 256. This was Kurt's locker. He knew this number very well, because the other night Blaine had fallen asleep with this number written on his palm, and the next morning he woke up with Kurt's locker number rubbed into his cheek. He remembered frantically scrubbing it off, trying not to think about how creepy he was.

Blaine cast a look down the hallway to his left and right, making sure there was no one else in the hallway with him.

He reached up and turned the lock between his fingers slowly, feeling each tick of the lock under his finger tip. Staring at the locker, Blaine was reminded of what Sam had been telling the team just moments before, I got this weird note in my locker the other day...

Blaine pulled his hand from the lock and placed in on the strap of his backpack instead, and continued down the hallway. That was kind of weird, leaving a note in someones locker, and Sam said he still didn't know who she was, and yet she had spilled all of her deepest secrets and feelings on a piece of paper.

What if Blaine wrote Kurt a note, and just left it in his locker? Kurt would never know it was Blaine; he could tell Kurt everything that he had been feeling and just get it off his chest. It would feel so good.

No, Blaine told himself. He was not going to do that; it was a stupid idea. What if in some weird twist of events Kurt found out it was him? Then what would happen? Blaine preferred not to go into what would happen if Blaine's secrets got out to the whole school. Well, some of the consequences that played out in Blaine's mind were a bit of an overreaction, but still.

Instead of dwelling on that idea, Blaine started his car's engine and started the drive home, distracting himself with all the homework he had to get done, and what he had to bring over to Finn's house later that night.

But no matter how hard he tried, Blaine couldn't help his mind from going into dangerous grounds. He thought that maybe Kurt would think the notes were romantic, and maybe he would like Blaine back. It was a nice thought, but just no.

No.