Chapter 11

The boys didn’t say a thing the whole time they walked back to the hotel. Kurt tried to start a conversation by explaining how he had sent a text to Jeff telling where they had disappeared and tried to ask a few questions but Blaine was unresponsive.

Kurt wanted to hold Blaine’s hand to show him his support but it was too risky in a place like Lima. Besides, he had no idea what the other boy would do. Probably he wouldn’t even notice because it seemed that Blaine didn’t even see where he was going; he was just blindly following Kurt.

“Your room or my room?” Kurt asked once they were back in the hotel but he didn’t get any response. “My room it is.”

Kurt unlocked the door of the room which he was sharing with Jeff and another Warbler Trent and went in, making sure that Blaine followed. Once in the room, Blaine visibly relaxed as if the feeling of safety overtook him. For the first time since the bathroom incident, his eyes looked more focused and he went to sit down on Jeff’s bed.

“Care to explain what happened in the mall?” Kurt asked softly but he couldn’t help but sound a little bit annoyed as well. He really wanted to spend the day enjoying himself, not babysitting his tormentor.

Blaine shook his head and closed his eyes.

“Then I will tell you what I know,” Kurt said and sat down on his own bed, facing the other boy. “I went to the bathroom and met three jocks who were leaving at that time. They said a few homophobic slurs and–”

“Stay away from them!” Blaine cut him off looking frantically at him.

Kurt nodded slowly and crossed his legs. “I was right then. It does have something to do with those three jerks.”

“Listen, whatever you do, don’t get involved with them. They are bad news.”

“How do you know?”

“I… I used to go to McKinley,” Blaine said finally, shuddering at the thought.     

Kurt cocked his head. “I take it you four were not the best friends,” he said.

“You can say so,” the other boy snickered coldly.

They fell into an uncomfortable silence both not knowing what to say. Kurt really wanted to know the story of the four boys because of his curious nature and maybe a little bit because he wanted to help Blaine, even though he would never admit it. Blaine, on the other hand, was arguing with himself whether he could trust Kurt with his past story or not. He was sure that Kurt would keep his mouth shut but he didn’t want his pity. The fewer people knew what had happened to him, the better.

“If you want to talk about it–” Kurt began.

“I don’t,” Blaine answered shortly. It strangely reminded him the first real conversation he had with Wes and David.

“Well, if you change your mind later, you know where to find me,” Kurt forced a small smile.

“Why do you even care?” Blaine snapped against his own will.

Kurt shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said and felt himself getting angry. He helped this ungrateful ass and now he was being yelled at. “I have no fucking idea what I’m doing here with you. Why I’m helping you. You know what? Fuck you!”

With that Kurt stood up and stormed out of the room. Before Blaine could even process what had happened, Kurt was back.

“This is my room,” he said blushing furiously. “You should leave.”

Blaine stood up and nodded. “I’m sorry,” he said and moved towards the door. “I keep saying that and it had probably lost its meaning long ago but I really am.”

“You know, maybe you should see a therapist to help you sort out your mood swings,” Kurt spat when the other boy opened the door ready to leave.

“One step ahead of you,” Blaine said and left, leaving stunned Kurt behind.

<~*~>

The sectionals were disastrous. Their dancing routine to the group number was off and even though Nick did a great job, Wes knew that Blaine would have been better. As for the duet, the boys did so poorly that David wished they had chosen a different song or different singers. Both Blaine and Kurt, who seemed to have gotten used to the idea of singing a love song together, suddenly looked uncomfortable. There was an obvious tension between the two of them and the judges didn’t miss that.

They were saved only by the fact that the New Directions were even worse, having had five members lip-syncing because they couldn’t find enough people to compete, and the other chorus was disqualified for trying to bribe the judges. So in the end the Warblers won the first place but they were far from happy.

Kurt wanted nothing more than to get away from his teammates so he grabbed Jeff’s hand and made his way to see Finn. He hoped that his step-brother wouldn’t think he came only to make fun of him for losing.

“Hey, Finn,” Kurt greeted the guy who was looking the other way. He would recognise Finn’s back anywhere.

Finn turned around to see Kurt and Jeff coming towards him. “Hey, guys. Congrats,” he grimaced.

“Thanks. Though we didn’t deserve to win,” Kurt smiled sadly.

The idea of going to Regionals was nice but he wished they had been good enough to actually qualify for that. On the bright side, they will have time to prepare for the next competition.

“Let’s just say that the competition wasn’t too tough,” Jeff said and saw Mercedes coming to join them. “Hi, sexy.”

Jeff excused himself and went to talk to his girlfriend. Meanwhile Finn eyed his step-brother suspiciously.

“Is everything okay? Yesterday you just took off. Jeff told me you had something to take care of but I would like to know more. I mean, you went to the bathroom and were about to join us but suddenly you found out some stuff to take care of? Did you pee in your pants or something?”

“Very funny,” Kurt frowned. “No, a friend of mine just needed some help and I couldn’t not help him out. I’m sorry for disappearing like that.”

Finn heard someone shouting his name and turned around to say he was coming. “It’s not like I have a bus to catch,” he rolled his eyes. “Have you heard anything from Burt or mom?”

Kurt shrugged. “Dad said they would try to come for Christmas but he isn’t sure… It really sucks.”

“I know. I miss them,” Finn nodded sadly. “But at least we are not going to be alone.”

“What do you mean?”

Finn shrugged. “The twins asked their mom if they could invite a friend over for Christmas. Apparently the guy’s parents are in Europe or something so he is literally alone for the holidays. That’s pretty sad.”

“Poor guy… Even if our parents don’t come, we have other family members no matter how annoying the twins can be.”

“Exactly.”

“So what did auntie say?”

“Oh, you know her. If she could, she would invite all poor souls so of course she said yes. But I don’t know if he is joining us,” Finn said and Kurt saw someone coming towards them.

“Hey, Finn,” the guy said. Kurt almost laughed at his weird hairstyle. “You said you were coming but you are still standing here.”

“I was just talking to my step-brother Kurt,” Finn explained. “Kurt, this is Puck. Puck, this is Kurt.”

Puck took in Kurt’s appearance and stretched his hand out for Kurt to shake it. “Nice you meet you, dude.”

“Pleasure,” Kurt gave him a small smile and shook the guy’s hand.

“We should get going,” Puck said and Finn looked at Kurt apologetically.

“I’ll call you next week,” he said.

Kurt checked his watch. “I should be going as well. The bus is leaving in five minutes,” he said and hugged his step-brother tightly. “See you next weekend.”

“Bye.”

<~*~>

The last week before the Christmas break was uneventful. There was no Warblers practice because Wes didn’t want to lash out in front of everyone. He needed time to cool down before he could point out what went wrong and how they should improve their performance for the Regionals.

The classes were much easier than during the term because the teachers were getting into the holiday mood and they had already covered the material for the term anyway. It left free evenings for Kurt and Jeff to chat about stuff, do some online shopping, watch films, and plot outfits for the holiday. The last bit done strictly by Kurt because he didn’t trust Jeff’s taste in clothing.

Blaine kept his promise and didn’t speak to Kurt after the Sectionals. For some reason Kurt felt sad about it. He couldn’t help but think about the boy. He just hoped that the holidays would help him to keep his mind off things.