“Wes, I just want to check on him,” David whined from the other side of the door. Blaine groaned and rolled over on his bed, pulling his quilt tighter around him.

“David,” Wes hissed. “Leave him alone.”

“It’s the middle of the afternoon, and his lights are off,” David protested.

“He is probably taking a nap, let him be already,” Wes chastised. Blaine agreed with Wes, please oh please he just wanted to be left alone. He just wanted to curl up under his quilt, squeeze his giant stuffed dog and sleep. But that wasn’t going to happen. Eventually David would win and come in to check on him. Blaine thought he might as well let them know he was awake.

“You guys really aren’t that quiet,” Blaine said aloud, rolling over onto his back and staring up at his ceiling. The door opened slowly with Wes and David poking their heads into Blaine’s room.

“Were you sleeping?” Wes asked.

“I was trying to, but don’t worry about it,” Blaine replied sitting up. David crossed to the bed and plopped down next to Blaine.

“How are you doing buddy?” David asked cautiously.

“I’m okay, still feeling kind of numb.”

“I’m sorry,” David said, pulling Blaine into a hug. Wes joined the other two on the bed.

“Its fine, it’s not like you were my boyfriend I found being screwed by another guy.”

“Blaine,” Wes sighed, giving Blaine a concerned look.

“I’m fine Wes.”

“Really?” Blaine shrugged in response.

“I don’t know. I just can’t believe I didn’t figure it out sooner. All those nights he cancelled plans cause he had to work late, he was actually just fucking his boss. Duh Blaine, something’s going on.” Blaine looked down at his quilt, his fingers picking at its frayed edge. “Imagine if I hadn’t decided to visit him that day. This could have gone on forever, and I would never have known.”

“You would have figured it out Blaine,” Wes reassured him.

“Yeah when I got herpes or something,” Blaine mumbled.

“Wait, you’re always lecturing us about safe sex, were you not practicing what you preach?” David asked mockingly.

“Well I’m gay, so the whole pregnancy scare goes out the window. Besides, when you’re in a monogamous relationship, or at least think you are, for two years why would you use condoms?” Blaine asked, turning to look at David.

“Those are images I did not need in my mind!” David protested, grabbing a pillow and smacking Blaine with it.

“Hey no hitting the recently broken hearted!” Wes scolded David, taking the pillow and putting it back.

“Thanks Wes,” Blaine sighed and began picking at the blanket again.

He never thought this would be his life. He and his boyfriend Ian had been together for almost two years. They had been living together for the last eight months. Blaine kept a small job teaching piano lessons to little kids, in between working the audition circuit for theatre. Ian was an accountant for a small business firm. The first six months living together had been wonderful. Then Ian had gotten a promotion, and his hours just got longer and longer until the only time Blaine spent with him was asleep in bed at night.

Last Wednesday, when Ian had called Blaine to say he was working late again Blaine decided to make a romantic gesture and bring him dinner at the office. What Blaine hadn’t expected was to show up at Ian’s office to find him bent over his desk being pounded into by his boss. Blaine had stood there frozen in shock for a moment before taking the food out of the bag and tossing it at Ian, telling him he hoped he liked dinner as much as he did dessert before storming out.

On the way home Blaine had called Wes and David to tell them what had gone down. The two boys showed up at Ian’s apartment and helped Blaine move his stuff out that evening and back into his old room at their place. Blaine had never been more grateful in his entire life to have those two boys as friends right then.

“Blaine, you there buddy?” David asked, waving his hand in front of Blaine’s face trying to get his attention.

“Oh, sorry. I was just thinking again…” Blaine replied. He sighed and pulled his knees up to his chest.

Wes and David exchanged a look, they were worried about Blaine. He loved with his whole self, and now to see him like this, watching him just shut down, scared both of them.

“Hey Blaine,” Wes said. “How does some greasy Chinese food and a marathon of Dance Moms this evening sound?”

“Really?” Blaine asked, looking up at him.

“Yeah, sure, why not,” Wes said.

“That sounds great,” Blaine replied, a small smile on his face. 

“This woman is horrible,” David commented gesturing at the tv with his chopstick between bites of food. The boys were seated in the living room, Blaine and Wes on the old dark green couch, David in the armchair watching tv. Several boxes of Chinese food were scattered across the coffee table, along with a couple of beers.

“Yeah, she makes Wes look like a saint,” Blaine teased.

“Hey!” Wes protested, elbowing Blaine.

“What?! It’s true. You ran the Warblers like a dictator.”

“Blaine’s right, you were horrible, and I was on that council with you,” David reminded him.

“Fine,” Wes said picking up a different box of food. “So maybe I was a little harsh.” Both David and Blaine scoffed at that.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, you wimps,” Wes taunted. The boys continued eating, occasionally trading the boxes of food between them.

They were on their third “Dance Moms” episode when Blaine’s phone began ringing from the counter. Blaine didn’t move.

“Blaine, your phone,” David nudged.

“It’s probably Ian, he keeps calling. Just let it go,” Blaine instructed.

David nodded, and settled back into his seat. The phone rang again a minute later.

“Blaine,” Wes started. “Do you want one of us to get it and tell him to fuck off?” he asked.

“Please?” the curly haired boy whispered. Wes got up and crossed to the counter picking up the phone and answering it.

“Look Ian, Blaine really…wait, what?” Blaine and David looked up at Wes, both confused by the change in conversation. “No, of course…Yeah I’ll tell him…do you need him to call you back?” Wes grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled something on it. “Okay…thank you,” Wes said before hanging up Blaine’s phone.

“What was that?” David asked.

“That was the casting director from that new show you auditioned for Blaine, you got a part,” Wes beamed.

“I did?” Blaine asked, sinking back into the couch in shock.

“Yeah, you did. One of the supporting characters named Jamison, I think.” Wes crossed back over to Blaine. “You’re supposed to call him in the morning,” Wes told him, handing Blaine the piece of paper with a telephone number on it.

“Wow,” Blaine said.

“Yeah,” David agreed.

“See we told you things would get better. You just got cast in an off-Broadway show. That’s pretty good huh?”

“It is,” Blaine smiled. “I just got cast in an off-Broadway show! Ha, take that you cheating bastard. I don’t need you. I can do fine on my own.”

“Yes, yes you can,” Wes said.

“In fact he’s doing pretty fucking well,” David commented.

“Congratulations Blaine,” he said getting up, crossing to the couch and giving Blaine a hug. “You deserve it.”

“Thanks David,” Blaine beamed, hugging him back.

“No more pitty parties now okay?” Wes said, looking Blaine in the eyes.

“I think I can do that,” Blaine replied, with a huge smile.

“Rachel where is my sketchbook? You better not be using it to write love letters again!” Kurt shouted through their apartment. He pulled aside the soft navy blue comforter on his bed, kneeling down to check under it.

“Like I would ever do such a thing,” Rachel said, appearing in the doorway. “Besides Brody knows how I feel about him, he doesn’t need a love letter.”

“Yeah I heard last night, and the night before, and the night before that,” Kurt grumbled, standing back up and crossing the space to check his desk again.

“I can’t apologize for the power of my voice,” Rachel replied.

“I think the entire building knows the power of your voice Rachel. Now have you seen my sketchbook?”

“It’s on the end table in the living room,” Rachel answered, heading into the other room.

“Why did I ever agree to live with Miss Rachel Berry?” Kurt mumbled to himself.

“I heard that,” Rachel called out. Kurt rolled his eyes and followed the small brunette out into the apartment foyer. “What do you need your sketchbook for anyways?” Rachel asked from the kitchen. Kurt picked up his sketchbook from the table before answering, feeling the smooth black leather under his fingers.

“I’ve got a meeting with Andrew tomorrow to go over my final sketches for the show. He finally figured out the casting and wants to discuss some stuff with me,” Kurt said as he headed into the kitchen.

Kurt had been working for a few years now as a costume designer. That hadn’t been his original intention when he came to New York. After failing to get into NYADA with Rachel he ended up with an internship at Vogue.com. From there he started taking fashion and costume design classes at Parsons. When he graduated Kurt decided he missed the theatre too much to stay away, yet he wasn’t interested in performing anymore.

For the first two years he worked on building and assistant designing costumes at a variety of theatres. About a year ago he got a permanent costume design position at a small off-Broadway theatre company. It was a good fit for him. Kurt liked the directors the company brought in, along with the shows the company produced. Plus it was a good stable job, something Rachel was still struggling with.

“We should do dinner soon, because I’m starving,” Rachel said as Kurt entered the kitchen.

“Do you have a show tonight?” Kurt asked.

“Yeah, just a three hour gig over at Cherrie’s,” Rachel replied, opening up the fridge to scout out ingredients they could use for dinner. To make ends meet Rachel worked as an in-house singer at a few local bars several nights a week.

“Is there any chicken still?” Kurt asked.

“Yeah, I think we’ve got enough little leftovers to do a stir fry. I can add some tofu as well,” Rachel said.

“Sounds delicious. I’m going to go put my book in my room then I’ll come back and help.”

“Okay,” Rachel replied, pulling out the necessary ingredients for their meal.

After Rachel left that evening Kurt pulled out his sketchbook again and settled onto the couch with it. He liked to have a new sketchbook for each show, that way every page stayed dedicated to it. In the first section Kurt had pasted lots of images for inspiration for each character. The next section was full of sketches. Each page was a different costume portrayed in great detail with handwritten notes from Kurt on the side. The last section would be dedicated to full colored renderings once he received the okay on his sketches from the director Andrew. That was the point of their meeting tomorrow.

Kurt liked Andrew. They had worked together before at another theatre. Andrew was a good director who worked well with both cast and crew. Kurt and Andrew had dated briefly after that show two years ago, but it hadn’t worked out. Both men liked and respected the other, yet the physical passion wasn’t there. They had tried to make it work but when it became clear it wouldn’t they broke it off and they decided to remain friends instead.

Kurt took out a pencil and began to do some cleanup work on his sketches. He liked this time of evening; the apartment was quiet since Rachel was out. All Kurt could hear were the noises of the city outside. Some evenings he would do his work listening to music, other nights he would prance about the apartment cleaning.

A little after ten Kurt heard two voices outside in the hallway before a key was placed into the lock.

“I’m home!” Rachel called out when she got the door open. “Brody is here too,” she added.

“Of course he is,” Kurt muttered to himself.

“Hey Kurt,” Brody greeted him.

“Hi Brody,” Kurt replied, closing his sketchbook in his lap. It’s not that Kurt didn't like Brody, he did. It was just hard to be around Rachel and Brody together all the time. They were intense together. It made Kurt wish he had someone like that. More recently it had made him realize that Brody would probably move in within the next few months, and while Kurt knew Rachel would never kick him out, he had no intention of staying to live with them. That would just be too much.

“How are things?” Brody asked, sitting down next to Kurt on the couch. Rachel had gone to drop her things off in her room, leaving the boys alone.

“Pretty good,” Kurt replied. “I’ve been working on a new show.”

“Yeah, Rachel said they’re putting on an new original piece,” Brody said. “Are you designing the costumes?”

“Yes I am. I’ve actually got a meeting with the director tomorrow.”

“Andrew, right? Your ex?” Brody asked. Kurt shifted on the couch.

“Yes indeed. How did you know?”

“Rachel, she can’t keep her mouth shut sometimes,” Brody said, giving him a look.

“Yeah, I know,” Kurt replied stiffly. Rachel danced her way back into the room and plopped into Brody’s lap.

“What is it I do?” she asked with an air of innocence.

“Nothing,” Kurt and Brody replied in unison. They were both smart enough to know how to avoid a Rachel blowup.

“I think I’m going to head to bed,” Kurt announced, rising up off the couch, his sketchbook in hand.

“Are you sure?” Rachel asked. “It’s not that late.”

“Yeah I’m going to make sure all my stuff is ready for tomorrow and then read or something. So goodnight,” Kurt said, slowly edging his way towards the bedrooms.

“Alright,” Rachel sighed. “I think we might watch a little tv before we turn in.” Kurt nodded.

“Just keep it down, the whole building doesn’t need to know your night time activities,” Kurt teased before disappearing down the hall, leaving the embarrassed couple behind.