Sundays were always a nice break at camp. All of the other days followed a similar schedule of camp activities and evening activities, but Sundays were a day to sleep in. At least, they were a day for the older campers to sleep in. I didn’t envy Finn and Rory with the nine year olds. You could tell them to sleep in all you want, but at the crack of dawn (or at least by the time the bell normally rang), they’d always be up attempting to play quietly. Ten nine-year-olds and quiet should never belong in the same sentence. I think it’s humanly impossible for them to do, no matter how much they try.

In the JC’s room, only the crazy wouldn’t take the first opportunity of the summer to sleep in. Even Sam didn’t get up for a run that Sunday. It was nine o’clock by the time I surfaced from my bunk and dragged myself through my morning routine.

 I doubted most of the JC guys would even make it to breakfast before they put away the continental style setup at ten. Wes would probably wake them up shortly after that when he ordered us around, er, supervised a deep cleaning of the leadership cabin.

I made it to breakfast in time to mix some cereal and yogurt together. Really, I made it to breakfast in time for a couple cups of coffee. None of my friends were in there, and I’m sure Finn and Rory had the boys through long before, so I wandered out as soon as I’d had a chance to eat.

Apparently, my timing was either really good or really bad, because Schue caught me as I was walking out and flagged me down.

“Kurt! Perfect. I wanted to talk to you this morning. Walk back to the office with me?” It was phrased as an invitation, but when your sort-of boss and definite superior offers you and invitation like that, you have no real choice but to take it.

I moved into step beside him, really glad I’d had the chance to grab coffee already. “What did you need to talk to me about?” See? I’d learned something this summer. I didn’t even start off with incriminating myself this time.

“Several things. First, Finn said that you’re doing well with the younger boys.” Schue commented as he led me up on the porch. This must not have been too serious of a talk, because this time we settled into the Adirondack chairs outside of the office.

“That’s good to hear. Honestly, I think I do like working with the older boys better, but I’ve found that the younger boys have their charms.” That’s a nice enough way to phrase it, right?

“I hope that even if you never end up wanting to be a cabin counselor to younger campers, and frankly, I’d be rather surprised if you do, that working with them this summer will increase your skill with them when you teach younger boys in activity periods.” Schue noted, relaxing back in his chair. It was a rather nice morning out for this.

“That really does make sense. If, when, I come back as a counselor next summer, I’d be teaching an activity to all kinds of ages.” I mused, but really, Schue wouldn’t have brought me back to the office to tell me that. If that was all he wanted to talk about, he would have done it right outside the dining hall.

“I was also talking to Finn about how Blaine was doing with the boys.” Schue noted.

If he wasn’t going to ask a question, I wasn’t going to offer much back. “Oh?” I said simply. It wasn’t a surprise. It seemed like all my conversations with leadership lately came right back to Blaine.

“Finn said that he’s really good with the younger boys.” Schue continued, not fazed by my lack of real response. “How do you think he’d doing?”

Ah, a question. Now I’d offer more back, now that I knew what angle Schue wanted this to go towards. “Honestly, I think he’s better than I am with the little guys. He understands them, and they love him. He’s not nervous around them the way he is around people his own age or older. Plus, I didn’t realize just how silly he could be until I saw him in a cabin surrounded by them.”

“That’s almost exactly what Finn said.” I eyed Schue trying to figure out if that included the Blaine being better than me part. Then I decided it didn’t really matter. Good thing, because Schue kept talking. “Has he had anymore moments of shutting down or, well, freaking out?” Schue asked that slowly, as if he couldn’t find the right word for what he wanted to ask.

I shook my head first then had to stop to correct myself. “I was going to say no, but really, he has had one. Not on camp grounds. He had a hard time at the doctor’s appointment. I think that related back to the fact that David was there, and that the doctor needs to work on his bedside manner a bit.”

Schue raised his eyebrows, gesturing at me to explain things a bit more.

“Blaine was nervous about David finding out things that he hadn’t told anyone here but me. Even then, it took him to the end of training open up enough to tell me. The doctor didn’t seem to notice that the fact he was telling his med student about just how Blaine’s arm got broken, as if Blaine wasn’t even in the room, was bringing back some bad memories.” I shrugged, trying to keep it on general terms. I was pretty sure Schue only knew parts of the story. It didn’t help that I didn’t exactly know which parts.

“I could see how that would be a trigger. He didn’t seem too bad when you got back to camp, though.” Schue noted.

I shook my head. “He stopped freaking out pretty quickly when we left the hospital, and David stopped for ice cream on the way back. That helped. He really seemed to calm down when we pulled back into camp though. I think he’s starting to see this as a safe space in the world. He’s definitely a lot more relaxed all the time than he was a week ago. When it’s just the two of us, he doesn’t really have any walls up anymore. Even with some of the other guys he has very few, like Jeff, Nick, Mike, and Sam.”

It came out with a bit of a defensive tone. I’m not sure why I really felt the need to defend how well Blaine was doing to Schue.

“I’ve seen that. That’s part of the reason I’m telling you about the next decision I made. Some of the kayaking counselors were talking to me about the first out of camp trip this week. The advanced group is going off for three days to learn river kayaking techniques. They asked me if you could go with them. They’re leaving tomorrow.”

I know that there’s no way I was keeping the excitement off my face at that news. It had been a two summers since I’d gotten to go on a trip like that. “Can I? When is it?”

“They leave tomorrow. I know it’s short notice, but I really had to think this through. I think it will be good for you to go on this trip.” Schue paused for a moment before he added, “I also think it’s time to let your little chick fly on his own. Blaine needs to see that he doesn’t have to be dependent on you to do well here.”

I beamed over. “I can pack quickly. Tomorrow through Wednesday? Is it tent camping both nights? Campfire cooking?” Yeah, I really was excited to do this. I did need to respond to the second part, too. “I don’t really see Blaine as my chick, but I do think that would be a good thing. I don’t mind that he needs me, but I look forward to the day when he doesn’t have to rely on me. I’d like to just be his friend.” Or his boyfriend, but there was no way that’s what I was saying to the director.

“All of that, yes. When you leave here, you should go find Joe. He’s talking lead on this trip. He’s in Cabin 8. He can fill in the rest of the details.” Schue smiled over. “And I bet Blaine would like to get to the point himself where he can see you as just a friend as well.” I hoped not, really. I hoped Blaine would end up wanting something closer to what I did.

I left Schue’s not long after to find Joe and get details on the trip. Once those were acquired, I made my way back to my cabin. The guys had probably started cleaning by now, and this was going to be my one real chance to pack today. The afternoon would be filled with themed competition, and after dinner, it would be time for campfire.

I ran into Nick as I walked inside. He had a bundle of now dry clothes from the line outside. I grinned over, probably too cheerfully for the relative time of day, but the trip had me excited. “Nick! How’s it going?”

“Alright. Got roped into cleaning off the line. This is yours, right?” He pulled a pair of plaid swim trunks out of the pile to offer them to me.

I eyed the pair for just a second before I grabbed them with a quick, “Thanks.” I started towards the stairs before I turned back to add, “If Blaine’s in your room, will you ask him to come talk to me? Just whenever he has time?” It was probably better if he found out I was going on the trip from me, and not from the grapevine.

“Sure! Glad to get one thing claimed from this pile.” With the wave of a towel, Nick disappeared into his room, leaving me free to go up to mine.

At least half the guys were out, probably cleaning the bathroom or the grounds. Sam and Mike were still there, though. Sam was sprawled across his bed, while Mike re-organized his trunk, most of the contents strewn across his bunk.

Sam glanced up and over at me. “Oh, there you are! We were starting to wonder if you’d gotten lost in the woods or something.” Sam teased, scooting to lean over the edge of the top bunk.

“Hah. Are you avoiding work again?” I asked back with my eyebrows raised. “Schue pulled me aside after breakfast. Then I had to go talk to Joe.” I moved to my trunk, pushing it open to look to see what all I still had clean inside. Laundry normally went out on Tuesdays, so this might be a bit of a stretch wardrobe wise.

“What did you do now?” Sam asked, at about the same time Mike turned to ask, “What did Schue want you for?”

“I didn’t do anything. If I did, you know you’d have been in on it.” I pointed out to Sam with a dry tone. “I am however going on the kayak trip.” I grabbed my backpack out from under my bed, snagging my sleeping bag from under there as well.

“Lucky. That sounds fun. Pretty much the same one we went on as Seniors?” Mike stated as he worked on refolding his remaining clean clothes, sliding them neatly back into his trunk.

“It’s pretty darn similar. We’re camping at Lake Francis State Park, and doing some day trips out from there to the upper parts of the Connecticut River.” I pulled a pair of sweatpants from my trunk, unrolling them to eye the fabric. Not something I cared too deeply about ruining, so in it went to the backpack. I’d probably only wear them around the campsite anyway.

“Awesome. We’ll miss seeing you around here though.” Sam said, with the perfect timing of getting that sentence out as Blaine walked up.

I could tell that Blaine had heard it too because his eyes went from Sam to my packing. He immediately got pale, eyes widening. “You’re leaving?” Blaine said with a hint of panic to his tone. It was clear that he thought this was something more permanent than it really was.

“Just for a couple of days.” I said quickly, as Sam and Mike suddenly found ways to pretend they weren’t close enough to be listening. It was more of a challenge for Sam, since he had nothing to occupy himself with. “Schue just told me. There’s a kayaking trip this week, and he’s sending me with them.”

Blaine let out a long rush of breath, settling a bit. “Oh. When will you be gone?” He was fiddling the bottom of his t-shirt between his fingers, a sure sign he was still somewhat anxious about this.

“Tomorrow morning. We’re taking breakfast with us to get an early start. I’ll be back Wednesday around dinner time, though. It’s just three days.” I tried to let my confidence that this would all be alright show in my voice. “I’m going to miss everyone here,” especially you, “but I’m really looking forward to this. We’re even going to kayak a bit of whitewater on Tuesday, I think.”

“That does sound exciting.” Blaine said, letting the bottom of his t-shirt go as he let out another long breath. “I’d say we’re all going to miss you here, but I might just move up here. Take your bed. Get to hang out with Mike all the time.” He gave the other guy a quick smile, bringing him back into the conversation.

“Yeah. Like Wes would let you do that.” I rolled my eyes over towards Blaine, moving back to packing. Joking Blaine was a good sign. “I may starve in the meantime, though. We have to eat our own cooking. I’m a wizard with a stove, but I doubt we’ll have all the spices I’d like with our campfire. Ooh, I should push to bring a dutch oven. We could make dump cake.”

“You’ll make me jealous I’m not going.” Mike joked at that, tucking the last of his now matched socks down into his trunk. “Not as much for the kayaking, but you know I love dump cake.”

Blaine however was just giving us the ‘crazy camp people’ look. “Do I even want to know? It sounds… rather disgustingly like something Jared would make up in a moment of potty humor.”

“Oh no. It’s great.” Mike said, pulling the conversation fully back to a cheerful point. “You just dump fruit or fruit pie filling into a dutch oven, dump cake mix on top of it, and then add soda or butter to the top. Takes a while, but it makes a great dessert.”

The three days were great. Wonderful even. I had a marvelous time. I did miss people back at camp, but mostly, I missed Blaine. Sitting out there in the woods, I had a bit of revelation, staring out over the lake at the state park.

Blaine wasn’t just someone I was interested in because he was cute. In those moments where he was most himself, like out in the canoe, Blaine was quickly becoming one of my best friends. I’d only known him about two weeks, but I already felt like I could tell him things I didn’t share with anyone but Mike. I hoped that he was doing well at camp. I wanted more of those best-friend Blaine moments, even if putting it like that felt a little bit selfish.

We pulled back into camp late on Wednesday. We were supposed to be back before dinner, but it was after seven when we pulled into the parking lot.

A grin crossed over my face when I saw that Blaine and Rory were leading Cabin 3 over towards us, probably on the way to the athletic fields for whatever they planned to do for evening activity.

All I had to do was step out of the van, and I was attacked by little people. Of course, it was in the best way possible, since they were relatively un-sticky as they showered me with hugs. Actually, after three days in and out of water and sleeping in a tent, I’m sure I was the stinky one, if not the sticky one.

 It was rather nice to be missed, even by a group of rugrats. I gave them a group squeeze before I stepped back joking, “It’s good to see all of you, but I’d like to keep breathing!”

Blaine stepped forward and with just a glance towards the van of teenagers, he pulled me into a quick hug as well. “I missed you. A lot. Come find me when you’re all settled back in?”

I gulped at the contact, Blaine initiated even, and then simply nodded wordlessly. That was an offer I would never refuse.