Blaine woke up feeling a little tired, but excited about his date that night. He trudged through his classes, taking a nap from noon until 2 to help him get by. He hated when this happened, but he couldn't help it. Some days he was just... a little tired.

By the time he was getting ready for his date at 7, he was feeling seriously run down. So should he cancel? No, that was unthinkable. Kurt might think he was having second thoughts.

Should he cut the date short? Maybe, but that would seem rude. Or would it be more rude to go on a date while he was feeling sleepy and not be an attentive companion? Blaine really wasn't sure. So he showered, shaved, put on dark jeans, a shirt, and a sweater vest, and forced a smile onto his drooping face as he walked out the door. On the way to the cafe they were meeting at, he tried to distract himself enough that he would forget he looked and felt like a soggy noodle with curly dark hair.

They had planned to meet at a place Kurt liked called Yaffa cafe on St. Mark's. Blaine didn't usually spend much time in that area, and felt out of his element. He figured that everybody walking by him was probably a lot cooler than he was and from the looks he was getting, they knew it. Blaine did not think it would be exaggerating to say that every third person walking by had some article of fishnet clothing on and dyed hair.

When he walked down the stairs into a dimly lit entryway with tons of random fliers on the walls for local music and massage therapists, he started to feel a little dizzy. Were those condoms that he saw in a dish by the register?

Luckily, he spotted Kurt pretty quickly, sitting at a small zebra print booth with a red table. They made eye contact across the dimly lit and noisy room, and for a moment Blaine relaxed. If Kurt was here, then he was supposed to be here too. Kurt stood up to greet him, and gave Blaine a quick hug. Blaine realized too late that he hadn't returned the hug properly. His reflexes were just a little too slow today, he was just...tired.

"I'm so glad you're here!" Kurt said, excitedly. The atmosphere seemed to bring out a giddiness in Kurt. Blaine would love to say it was contagious, but he was struggling to keep his eyes open. "I ordered us both drinks," Kurt continued, "I think you will really like this one, try it."

Kurt gestured enthusiastically to a red colored cocktail that looked delicious. Blaine wondered what he should do. Should he drink it to be polite and then feel like crap all day tomorrow? Should he take a quick sip and pretend he didn't like it? He certainly wasn't in the right frame of mind to give Kurt a long-winded and patient explanation of his dietary restrictions tonight, so that option was out. If only he didn't care what Kurt thought of him, this would be so much easier.

Kurt seemed to notice Blaine's indecision. "Do you not drink liquor? They have okay beer and wine here too."

Blaine looked into Kurt's eyes and concentrated on how lovely Kurt was, and how much he wanted Kurt to have a good time with him tonight. He concentrated hard until the glint in his eye was real and the upturn of his lips felt natural. Tonight he would take chances, and it would be worth it.

"Sure, I'll try it." Blaine took a sip of the drink, then another and another. He hadn't had any food in hours and he could already feel it going to his head. It tasted a little bit like fresh watermelon and mint with rum. "It's really good, great choice."

---AAIGAAIGAAIG---

After two more drinks for each of them, Blaine was feeling no pain at all. His sole focus was Kurt's skin and Kurt's eyes and Kurt's soft hands and round ass in his tight purple jeans. They stumbled down the street to a karaoke bar. Blaine didn't remember what Kurt sang, but it sounded like angels. He didn't remember what he sang either, but he had the vague impression of applause. Not surprising, he had always been a talented singer and being drunk amped up his already charming demeanor.

He and Kurt had agreed not to mention their date to the group, though it was mostly that Kurt had decided and Blaine had wanted to do whatever made Kurt comfortable. At this point, though, Blaine would have no trouble pretending it hadn't happened because it felt pretty surreal. He knew they kissed goodnight. Or actually, made out for 10 minutes goodnight against the brick wall of Blaine's dorm building. It felt like heaven, and deliciously irresponsible and youthful.

Kurt came upstairs for a bit, and they made out for another 5 minutes against the door to Blaine's room before saying goodnight for good.

Good date, Blaine thought. Good, good, awesome, good date. Drunk date. Blaine loved himself when he was drunk. He was silly and fun and not nervous about anything. Without inhibitions he was the most endearing person on the planet. He definitely could have charmed Kurt's pants off if he chosen to. But he didn't want Kurt staying over, because he knew what came next.

---AAIGAAIGAAIG---

And the next morning, like clockwork, there it was. Blaine had fallen asleep at around 2AM, and he was up by 6AM vomiting in the bathroom. He made himself some mint tea, which he vomited up a few minutes later. The painful cramps in his stomach gave him a few seconds warning to run from his bed back to the bathroom again at around 8AM. He was on the toilet in a fair amount of pain for about a half hour. He had forgotten to bring anything in with him to read so all he could do was close his eyes and try and let his mind wander somewhere else, away from the pain.

He must have been groaning a little, because Andy knocked on the bathroom door a couple of times to make sure he was okay.

"I'm fine, Andy, sorry you'll have to use the bathroom in the lobby I'll be in here a while."

Breakfast was out of the question, as was lunch. At noon, Blaine decided he would have to miss his first class of the day. He would make sure and go to his second one, though, because there was a test worth 15% of his grade for the semester. 10 minutes before the test he was back on the toilet again. He called his professor to say he was too sick to come in to class today, claiming a stomach flu. Luckily, his professor seemed to buy it.

After hanging up, he realized Kurt had texted him a couple of times.

12:45PM Kurt: Hey cutie, I had a great time last night!

2:30PM Kurt: How's it going today? I am so hungover LOL.

Blaine couldn't bring himself to text Kurt back. He was mad. Mad at himself and at Kurt. Blaine had to stop pretending he was a regular, healthy young person because his body obviously was not cooperating. And Kurt, that gorgeous bastard, for whatever his emotional problems were, had no problem getting drunk one night and picking up his life like normal the next day.

Blaine hated his body so much in this moment. Why wasn't he allowed to be a normal college student? While he was marinating in self loathing, his brother called.

"Hey buddy, how's life?"

"Fine, Cooper," He lied, "What's up?"

"Not too much, I'm just working on this new project that will bring me to New York for a while. So we should be able to spend some time together, as long as it doesn't get in the way of your work."

Blaine brightened at that. "Yeah, Coop, that sounds great. How long will you be here for?"

"As long as it takes to cast this new TV show we're doing a pilot for. I can't tell you too much about it, but I have a good feeling about it. It's this innovative idea of doing a show about a high school glee club, so we need to find people who are great actors and singers. Maybe I'll be here for around 2 months. But it's kind of up in the air."

"That sounds like an awesome idea, Coop. For sure, call me when you get in and we'll have dinner."

"Okay bro, but you pick the place. You know I can never keep track of your weird diet."

Blaine chucked. "Yeah, okay. Bye."

"Bye."

---AAIGAAIGAAIG---

The following day, Blaine took his exam. He got a 60, which was failing. How could things have gotten so out of hand so fast? He was definitely out of spoons.