I sank back into my seat and glanced around the room. The girls’ camp had ended up holding a pretty traditional mixer. There were board games set up on tables at one side, and cheesy pop music that Mike kept trying to get people to dance to. Most of us were avoiding both, huddled instead off to the other side of the room, where a mixture of old couches and comfy chairs were clustered, shoving more people than intended into each piece of furniture.

Currently, I’d managed to snag a can of Diet Coke from the table of junk food and crammed myself onto a group shared couch between Mercedes and Tina, gossiping about our years and our plans for the summer.

“So, I think you should go join Mike on the dance floor.” I cut in, nudging Tina lightly in the ribs with my elbow as I looked out to where Mike had managed to get Blaine, of all people, to dance along to a cheesy old disco song with him. I did have to admit, even if he couldn’t quite keep up with Mike, the kid did have some moves. I mean, Blaine. Blaine had some moves. Got to stop referring to him as the kid, even in my head. He was both too cute and too close to my age for that.

Tina flushed bright red and ducked her head down. “He’s got a friend out there, that new kid from your camp. I hardly think he’d appreciate me interrupting them.” 

I turned my gaze quickly over to Mercedes for support before grinning over to Tina. “Oh ye of little faith, I happen to have insider knowledge. All knowing being that I am, or maybe just close friend that I am, whatever, I know Mike would love to dance with you.”

Mercedes popped into the conversation, smirking over to Tina. “What did I tell you? You’ve got to make a move or you’ll be mooning over him all summer. Again.  Go for it. And it is a peppy song. It’s not like you’ll be cutting the new guy, Blaine was it? It’s not like you’ll be forcing him out. This is the sort of thing you can dance to in a group.”

I reached over to push Tina up. “Go. You know you want to.” I teased with a smirk on my face.

Tina turned around, hands on her hips, fighting not to laugh. “Fine. Fine. But if it goes badly, I’m blaming it all on you.”

“Blame away, if it happens. I doubt it will.” I quipped over confidently, shooing her off with a laugh. “Apparently, I’m in a matchmaking mood tonight.” I turned a bit on the now a bit less crowded couch to focus on Mercedes, and maybe have a better view of what was happening on the dance floor.

“Sure. So you’re working your magic on Mike and Tina? That’s a pretty obvious pair. It was just up to one of them to actually get the nerve to make a first move. Who’s next on your matchmaking list?” Mercedes leaned in, clearly in a good mood tonight. It was so nice to see some of the girls, since it was a much rarer thing than time with the guys, during the summer at least. At home? I hung out with girls a lot. It felt safer.

“But someone had to prod them along.” I said, with a bit of playful arrogance before I looked her over. “How about you? Anyone caught your eye tonight?”

“Me? Yeah, right. I’m not the girl guys fawn over.” Mercedes shifted self-consciously. “I’d rather just hang out with my friends.” Yeah. That sounded really honest. Not.

“Why not? You’re smart, witty, great to be around. Plus, you’re beautiful, Mercedes. You just have to own it.” I paused for a second looking around at the guys from my cabin before I grinned. “Not that a summer fling is the be all, end all, because Lord knows I’ll probably never have one, but if one of the guys was interested, would you consider it?”

I watched Mercedes think about it for a moment as someone new must have gotten ahold of the iPod and changed the playlist. The disco music faded away into a ballad. I looked up to see Sam smirking over towards where Mike was actually stepping up to make a move, using the chance to pull Tina over. I leaned even closer to Mercedes trying to come up with some smart aleck comment to whisper when I saw Blaine dart out of the room.

“Shit. I need to go make sure our new guy’s alright.” I caught Wes’s eye and pointed to myself, letting him know I’d handle it. If need be, I could always run back in for him.

“Why you? Not trying to be rude, but still.” Mercedes turned to follow my gaze. “Wes could handle it. It’s your night to relax.”

“Probably could. But, Blaine’s my camp brother. That makes me responsible, in a way. I think we’re getting to point he might tell me things he wouldn’t open to Wes about. I talk to you later. I’ll write if I don’t make it back tonight.” I promised.

I wasn’t hanging around to hear anything more Mercedes said, following Blaine out of the building, the same one as the dining hall. Blaine had gone out the back way, to a large, open deck overlooking the lake.

It took me a moment to spot him. Even that bright red cast is muted when the only light is what’s spilling from the dining hall windows and what is shining down from the moon and stars.

“You alright?” I asked, as much to announce myself as anything as I walked over to the bench I’d finally spotted Blaine on.

“I’m fine.” The response was automatic, and blatantly untruthful. The new guy was shaking, which is totally what you do when you’re fine.

I sat down on the bench and hesitated for a moment before I reached over and pulled him into a hug. I’d been avoiding too much physical contact ever since we met, not wanting to trigger bad memories. Right now, though, it looked like he needed that hug very badly. “It’s alright not to be fine sometimes.” I pointed out. “I can’t make you talk about anything, but I’m here to listen if you want to tell me what’s wrong.”

Blaine stiffened at first, in reaction to the hug or the words, or probably both. Then he actually relaxed into the touch, which felt like major progress. “I think I’m ready to talk,” he admitted. Maybe our quiet confidence sharing on the way over had opened this up? “You have to promise not to tell anyone, though.” Blaine pulled back to look up at me, judging what my response would be.

“Can I give the same promise we learned in training to give a camper? If it’s not something that I need to share to keep you safe, I won’t tell anyone.” I looked right back to Blaine, even, steady. I couldn’t promise not to tell and have it turn out that his dad beat him or he was hurting himself or something.

Blaine considered it for a moment and then nodded. “That will work. The people who need to know for that already do.” He shifted in position on the bench, turning sideways to face me with his legs pulled up to his chest, both more open and more protected at the same time. “Tonight was going so well. I met new people and didn’t want to hide in the other room. I was having fun dancing with Mike, and then Mike and Tina. I love music in general. Singing, dancing, playing it when I’m not covered in plaster.” Blaine paused there at that reminder, pulling his legs in even closer. “It was the slow dancing. For some reason that started to trigger memories that the faster music didn’t.”

I reached over to put a hand on Blaine’s knee hoping to be a steadying presence. “Sometimes you just don’t know what will be a trigger. One of the guys clapped me on the shoulder yesterday, and I braced myself, like some part of my brain was expecting that the next step would be to shove me into something. It’s not either of our faults for memories everyday things pull to the front of our minds.”

Blaine flashed me a not-so-genuine smile, but he didn’t pull away from my hand on his knee. “Do you have time for the whole story? I think I’d like to tell you, and to tell you now before we have a bunch of nine year olds to worry about.”

I nodded over. “I’ve got as much time as you need. Hell, I’ll sneak in and set the clocks inside back if I need to.”

“I don’t think you’ll need to do that.” He said earnestly, before taking a deep breath. “I guess I’ll just dive in. The best place to start is the spring of my Freshman year. I’d known I was gay for a while, but I hadn’t been ready to actually admit it. That spring, I started to creep out of the closet. I didn’t announce it to everyone, but I told a couple of good friends in confidence. I even went as far as to come out to my parents. That wasn’t quite a disaster. My dad didn’t kick me out or anything, but I could tell he wasn’t happy. I heard him fighting a few times with my mom over my theater work. As if being in plays made me suddenly like boys. Last summer, he had me work on fixing up a car with him, as if that would butch me up. This year, I’m off to an all boys camp. See the trend?”

“That sucks. I know I’m really lucky to have a dad as supportive as mine.” I gave a quick laugh. “And if either of those things was going to turn someone straight, I wouldn’t be drooling over boys in movies. I’ve been coming here for years and help out now and again with cars in my dad’s repair shop. Those things can’t make us straight any more than theater can make us gay.” I rolled my eyes supportively.

“I know. Believe me, I know. If I could just get my dad to know, that’d be great. Anyway, word started to spread around school that I was gay. I really think one of the people I told betrayed that trust. My sophomore year in general sucked. I think you know what I mean.” Blaine didn’t elaborate on the bullying further, just looking up to see me nod over to him.

“I do. I’ve been in that spot. One more year, and I can escape from it. I think I’ll literally be counting down the days of my senior year.” I half joked, shifting in my seat as well, so I could lean my head against the back of the bench looking over towards Blaine.

“I bet you will. I’m starting at a new school this fall. I don’t know if I can bear hoping it’s better, because what if it isn’t? You know?” Blaine paused, before he shook his head. “I should finish the story, or I’ll lose my nerve. Or someone will come looking for us. I can do this. I can do this.” The last part was apparently to himself, judging by the dropped volume level.

“There was only one other boy at my school who was out, a freshman, William. Will and I slowly became friends. We’d never really run in the same social circles, but now we had some shared crappy experiences to bond over. At the end of the year, the school held a dance for the underclassmen. The upperclassmen got prom, and we got this Sadie Hawkins dance the last night of finals. I got the bright idea that Will and I should go together. We were just friends, but neither of us had anyone else to take. He agreed.”

I squeezed Blaine’s knee when he stopped, expression blank. “I don’t actually remember much about that night. There are little flashes of dancing in my holey memories and a general memory of fear and pain. Nothing specific. Will told me later that some guys followed us out to the parking lot, and beat the shit out of us while we were waiting for his dad to pick us up.”

“Oh God, Blaine. That sucks.” What do you really say to that? I shifted closer, offering my arms out for a hug. Honestly, I was pretty surprised when Blaine took me up on that offer, trembling faintly once more.

I held him for a moment before he pulled back, using the hand that wasn’t covered in a large amount of plaster to rub tears from his eyes. “Anyway, my next clear memories are in the hospital. I took the brunt of it. Will was all black and blue and swollen up, but I had a pretty good concussion and breaks through both bones in my arm and my wrist. By the time they sent me home from the hospital, my dad was looking for another school for me for the fall and talking to Schue about shipping me off here, like he couldn’t even stand to have me around.”

“Maybe. Or did you ever consider that maybe he was trying to give you time and a place to heal?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.

“I don’t… I never thought about it like that.” Blaine stated, brow furrowed.

“And maybe you’re totally right. But you could always think of it that way for yourself. Even if your dad did send you here to not have you around for summer, who says it can’t be a good experience for you?” I pointed out. “You can choose to make this a place to get away from all that crap at home and heal.” I paused to shake my head. “I sound like some kind of self-help book right now. Sorry.”

That got a laugh out of Blaine. “No, it’s nice. You’re the first person I’ve really talked to about this, at least that wasn’t there. Thank you for just listening.”

I didn’t get the chance to respond to that, as I heard the creak of the wooden door. I slid away from Blaine a bit on the bench, maintaining appearances for his sake. I did relax a bit though when I saw who was there. Wes.

“Hey guys. I wanted to come make sure you’re doing alright.” Wes flashed his ‘big brother’ smile over. I swear he practices that look in the mirror.

“We’re fine. Just enjoying a beautiful evening out here on the porch.” I covered, with a quick look over to Blaine. I’d keep his confidence.

Blaine didn’t seem to have anything to add to that, but Wes had to notice the tear tracks on his cheeks. Thankfully, he didn’t say anything about them, nodding instead. “Well, in that case, I’ll pass over the bottles of water I brought you and head back inside. We’ve got about another half hour before we head back. Remember, dehydration is no fun.”

A bottle was offered out to both of us, with a rather significant look over to me. I took mine then had to stifle a laugh. Wes had written a message onto the label of the bottle, asking me to see him when we got home. “We promise to stay well hydrated. I’d say scout’s honor, but the scouts would never have me.” I mock pouted, to get a laugh out of Blaine as he cracked his bottle open. “Thank you, Wes. I’ll see you later.”

The evening wound down quickly after that, and soon enough we bid the girls goodbye. I was happy enough to see Mike give Tina a quick hug. Matchmaking success. Then it was back to our side of the lake to get ready for bed.

As soon as I had changed into pajamas, and made a trip to the bathroom to brush my teeth and wash my face, I knocked on Wes’s door.

He pulled it open, peeking around at me, before gesturing me inside. I rarely saw the inside of this room, so I took the moment to glance around. As a group leader, Wes had a private room, but it was hardly spacious. There was a twin bed pushed up against one wall, a battered desk against the other, and shelving against the wall in between, full of Wes’s belongings.

“Take the chair. Let’s talk.” Wes gestured to the rolling chair stuck under the old desk. I set my toiletry basket onto that desktop before I settled into the chair. Wes took the bed, tucking his feet under him and using the wall as a backrest. “How is Blaine?”

“Oddly enough, I think he’s better than before we left.” I stated after a moment’s thought. “The slow dance triggered some memories. We dealt with them. Blaine finally opened up with me, told me a lot about what happened to him.”

I saw the curious look on Wes’s face and shook my head. “It’s Blaine’s place to share that with people when and if he’s ready. I’m not going to break his trust that way. I promised him I wouldn’t tell.” Wes opened his mouth, and I held up a hand to cut him off. “Unless I needed to for his safety. I listened in training. Most of the time.”

Wes laughed openly at that last bit of honesty before he sobered back up. “Do you think this will happen again? When the campers are here?”

“Maybe. Probably. It would be a bigger problem if Blaine were 18 instead of 16. He’s a CIT. He’s not supposed to be left alone with campers anyway, right?” I pointed out. “So maybe you should just talk to the staff he’ll work with the most, like Finn and Rory, about what to do if it does?”

“That is a good point. I’ll bring that up with Schue when I talk to him about this tomorrow.” Wes paused to smile proudly over towards me. “I also wanted to tell you how impressed I’ve been with the way you’ve handled all of this. You’ve gone above and beyond to help Blaine. You’re showing how much you’ve grown up and what kind of counselor we could expect you to be.”

My stupid pale skin flushed at that praise. “Thank you. That means a lot. Hearing Blaine’s story tonight, it was clear that it could just have easily been me. If it were, I’d want someone to be there for me. How could I not be there for him, you know?”

“I know. Go get some sleep. I heard a rumor that you’re going to have a gaggle of hyper nine year olds to take care of tomorrow.”