Chapter 14: Hurricanes And Lies

No walls can keep me protected
No sleep, nothing in between me and the rain
And you can't save me now, I'm in the grip of a hurricane
I'm gonna blow myself away
I'm going out, I'm gonna drink myself to death
And in the crowd, I see you with someone else,
I brace myself, cause I know it's going to hurt,
But I like to think at least things can't get any worse

-Hurricane Drunk by Florence + the Machine

Blaine was more than a little bit horrified when he found himself standing in line atScandals,the only gay bar for miles. Of course, it was still western Ohio and so the crowd was fairly conservative in comparison to most gay bars. But still. It was a gay. Bar. And it had its fair share of bears and leather daddies and trannies to make Blaine feel quite unsettled.

But he didn't allow himself to freak out about that. He was here for a reason, he had an exact purpose in mind. He was, tonight, going to figure out once and for all what thesefeelingswere. His eruption at Kurt after that blowjob was certainly unexpected; he had surprised even himself. He had been angry with Kurt, had wanted him and felt like he wasn't treating him fairly, and that implied some scary things about Blaine's sexuality.

But, he kept reminding himself, it was entirely possible that it was just Kurt Hummel doing this to him. Kurt had a way of getting under people's skin and maybe Blaine was straight and Kurt had just confused him. So tonight would be a test. Blaine wasn't sure he was ready for the answer, but he certainly couldn't wait any longer. This last week at school and with Quinn had been nothing short of hell for him.

On Monday, he had set up a table in the cafeteria for the Gay and Lesbian Center. It wasn't anything exciting, just a bunch of pamphlets, some free pens and bumper stickers, brochures about awareness and tolerance, and a donation bucket. He had sat there, manning the table during lunch stalwartly, brave and alone. Kurt hadn't even attempted to help him. And that was more than fine, because while having to do this without Kurt would be a lot more work, at least it wouldn't be painful.

It was true some kids had stopped to laugh and point, mocking him. The few people that had taken brochures proceeded to take them to their tables and read them to each other, making fun of everything they said. Blaine wasn't sure whether he cared or not. But honestly, most people just walked by ignoring him entirely.

That was, except for one boy.

Blaine had seen Sam Evans a couple times. He was new to the school, had come in a little after Kurt, and Blaine knew he was on the football team as well as in Glee Club, but they had never spoken.

Yet now, here he was, six feet of pure muscle striding confidently toward Blaine with that strikingly blonde hair and too-wide smile. Blaine was positive he was about to be torn to shreds.

But that had been far from the case.

"Sam Evans," Sam had said by way of introduction, as if Blaine didn't already know him. The whole freaking school knew him, he was all the cheerleaders could talk about, he was quickly rising to the top of the social totem pole and just being seen near him could raise your social status several pegs.

Not that Blaine's social status needing raising. Although it might after today.

"Sure," Blaine nodded. "I'm Blaine Anderson."

"I know," Sam said with a grin. "I heard your Glee audition. It really fucking rocked Man. I wanted to go up to you and tell you then, but I couldn't really work up the courage." Sam blushed a little bit, hands in his pockets.

"Couldn't work up the courage? Are you kidding me? You've only been here a few months and you're like the most popular kid at McKinley already."

"But that's just it," Sam explained. "I've only been here a few months. I'm just some newbie transfer weirdo. You- you're like a legend at this school. Plus you've got the looks, and the pipes. That's pretty intimidating for a dude."

"Trust me, nothing to be intimidated about here," Blaine said, and for some unknown godforsaken reason, he felt himself tinging pink as well.

"So," Sam said, leaning forward and propping his elbows on the table in front of Blaine, "I didn't know you were into all this stuff."

"Yeah," Blaine said with a sigh. "To be honest, I'm doing it as a community service project for an altercation I had earlier this year. I was supposed to do it with a- with a partner, but he kind of bailed. So now it's just me and my rainbow flags." He laughed awkwardly.

"No I think it's really cool. From what I've seen here, this school doesn't know much about tolerance. It really pisses me off, you know? Back home, everyone was always really open. I guess I just had sort of a culture shock when I came here."

Blaine smiled sympathetically. "Yeah, the kids here can really be assholes. I'm doing my best to raise some awareness or something you know, but if they're not making fun of it, most kids just don't care."

Sam nodded, whole-heartedly agreeing with the words coming out of Blaine's mouth and Blaine found himself very inappropriately fixated on Sam's mouth, his amazing, delectable-looking lips, wondering how they would feel, maybe, if he could only just...

"Thereyou are!" If anyone was the master of the girlfriend bitch out, it had to be Quinn. Blaine should've been able to tell she was coming from a mile away with all the smoke that poured out of her ears as she approached the table. In fact, for the way her green eyes were lighting up in a fiery rage right now, she might as well have been some demon.

"Would you care to explain just what thehellyou think you're doing sitting here manning the gay booth like some kind of fag!" Quinn barked at him. Blaine flushed, wishing Sam wasn't here to see him get treated like a naughty five-year-old caught stealing cookies by his own girlfriend.

"Quinn, Sam. Sam, you may have already met her, but this is my girlfriend, Quinn Fabray."

Quinn had not noticed Sam before. She now had the decency to look slightly embarrassed and turned to the blonde boy, a sickly saccharine smile plastered to her Barbie doll face.

"Sam Evans, the one and only," she said sweetly, holding out her hand.

"Ah, my reputation precedes me," Sam said with a light chuckle, taking her hand and kissing it. Blaine nearly swooned at the sight and then berated himself soundly.

"I'm so sorry you had to witness this. I hope Blaine wasn't trying to get you to...take any of this...crap," she said, surveying the contents of his table with disgust. "Sometimes, Blaine can get a little too excited about his school projects and things tend to get out of hand," she told Sam, as if Blaine weren't even there.

"On the contrary, Blaine and I were actually just discussing how few students here practice tolerance or are even aware of LGBTQ issues," Sam said smoothly.

"Oh. So, are you saying...you're supportive?"

"Absolutely. It just makes me sad that Blaine here has to champion this campaign all by himself. I'm sorry," Sam said, looking a little confused suddenly. "Did Blaine say you were his girlfriend?"

"That would be correct," Quinn said with an air of near-pride in her voice and Blaine was half-surprised she was owning up to it in front of this guy. "Quinn Fabray, captain of the Cheerios and president of the Celibacy Club."

"Oh," Sam said a bit awkwardly. "Wow. I just...wow. Okay. I just did not picture the two of you together."

In that moment, Blaine could've sworn Sam looked almost disappointed. But about which one of them being in a relationship, he couldn't tell.

Quinn seemed to think it was her because she gave her ponytail a firm swish and puffed her chest out a bit, which made Blaine want to tell her that no amount of thrusting and showing off would make her boobs look flattered by that hideous uniform. Not to mention they weren't all that impressive in the first place.

"Well, we've actually got two years in the bag, amazingly enough," Quinn purred, tossing a kiss to Blaine, who just frowned at his girlfriend's obvious fakeness. "But uhm, that doesn't mean I don't come across other boys who manage to turn my head from time to time," she whispered. "I'm always willing to work something out, for someone special."

Sam cleared his throat. It was obvious that Blaine had just heard everything his girlfriend was saying and Sam had an incredibly uncomfortable look on his face. Blaine honestly felt sorry for the poor guy. He seemed really niceand hot, his mind yelled at him, and it was unfortunate that Quinn was trying to sink her claws in.

"Well I better go, but it was nice meeting you Quinn, Blaine," Sam said, giving a nod to each of them and walking away hurriedly. Blaine could have face palmed right then and there at how embarrassing Quinn was and how much she had just totally fucked up a potential friendship.

"Well break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar," Quinn said wistfully, licking her lips as she watched Sam walk away.

"Uhm yeah excuse me? Hello? Boyfriend right here." Blaine didn't know why he bothered pointing it out, it wasn't as if he actually really cared. But the way Quinn was staring at Sam as though he were some fuzzy forest creature she was preying on was really getting to him.

"Oh please," Quinn said, whipping around finally to face her boyfriend. "You run out on me after failing to even deflower me properly and then spend weeks hanging around with the school's resident faggot and manning this little gay booth and expect me to remain faithful and true? You forget who you're talking to, Anderson. Quinn Fabray plays second tono one. I thought I had made you aware of that."

"You did. You did make me aware of that."

"Well you have a funny way of showing your loyaltyBlaine," she sneered, gesturing at the table.

"Fucking community service Quinn. God, it's like you don't even listen to me."

"I might find it easier to listen to you if you could actually give me a decent fucking rather than pussying out halfway through."

Okay. That was hitting below the belt.

"Alright I'm gonna say this and I'm gonna say it once," Blaine said, never in his life having imagined that he would stand up to Quinn like this. "I am your goddamned boyfriend of two fucking years. That means you don't get to hit on other guys right in front of me. That also means that we are going to have sex, again, only this time, on my terms, and maybe if you retract your bitch claws for five seconds I'll actually be able to maintain a hard on for you. And don't pretend like you're going to break up with me because we both know this relationship is just as important to your mom and dad as it is to mine. So why don't you just be a good little princess and stop shooting your mouth off about things you don't understand and be a decent fucking girlfriend for a change?"

Quinn was staring at him open-mouthed and for a brief moment he worried that she was going to tell his mom about this, who would then proceed to make his life so miserable that he would wish he had never been born in the first place. But instead, she leaned forward and gave him a long, sultry kiss, full on the mouth. Blaine was so shocked that he didn't even have time to respond before she had pulled off again.

"I don't have daddy issues that badly that I actually like getting emotionally abused by my boyfriend but that was actually kind of hot," she breathed into his ear. "Looking forward to seeing what you have in store Mr. Anderson." And with that, she sashayed off, leaving Blaine speechless and rather horrified. He was not at all sure that he was prepared for what he had just gotten himself into.

x-x-x-x-x-x

Meanwhile Kurt had been watching the entire exchange from his vantage point in the far back corner of the cafeteria, where he sat brooding over an apple, feet propped on the stool next to him, gritting his teeth as that stupid, trout-mouth blonde boy threw himself all over Blaine in front of the entire lunch room. They might as well have been grinding on the dance floor for how obvious the sexual tension was. And Blaine said he wasn't gay. Yet there he was flirting with the school's newest transfer studentright in front of everybody. It was enough to make Kurt lose his appetite, if he had even had one to begin with.

And to make matters worse,thatscenario was quickly followed by a disgusting display of PDA between Blaine and that god-awful girlfriend of his. Couldn't they just fucking get a room or something? No need to subject the whole school to their hideous performances.

Kurt hated the jealousy welling up in his stomach, hated that this stupid boy had managed to get under his skin.

Jesus Christ, how could he have been so utterly fucking stupid? So close to letting his walls down entirely for this dumb jock with the goofy smile? So goddamn invested in something that he had actually broken into tears when Blaine made that speech in his bedroom yesterday and stormed out.

When Blainedidleave, Kurt allowed himself to cry, for a few minutes, or maybe longer, he wasn't totally positive, and then he had picked himself up and decided to go and do exactly what Blaine expected him to do. Exactly what Kurt Hummel hadalwaysdone.

He was going to go out Friday night, and he was going to forget. And where to do that? Why, the only gay bar out there for miles.Scandals, it would be.

x-x-x-x-x-x

When Blaine finally got intoScandals, still a little bit shocked that he didn't get called on his crappy fake ID, he headed straight for the bar, because if he was going to get through the night, he was going to needsomesort of libations. He asked for a beer because he didn't want to get drunk or anything. Buzzed a bit, sure. But intoxication would just render his experiment irrelevant and he needed to keep his wits about him, to tell if his reactions were real.

The bartender soon returned to hand him a chilled Killian's, and while some said it was a girl's beer, Blaine preferred it because it was light, and he didn't really love beer all that much in the first place. The bartender had deep blue eyes and rugged arms and Blaine couldn't help but grin stupidly at him when he winked as he handed Blaine his beer.It's not so hard to be here, Blaine realized; in fact, he was a bit frightened to make the admission, but he felt rather at home. Well, maybe not at home, but comfortable. Sort of like he fit in. Or at least, if he didn't fit in, like that was okay, like maybe everybody didn't fit in, and they all didn't fit in together, which made them, somehow, weirdly and paradoxically fit in. His brain was working overtime to try to understand his own thoughts and it occurred to him that he was nervous. But good nervous.Excitednervous.

And that's when he saw a familiar face in the crowd.

No it wasn't Kurt's like he had been dreading; Kurt was, after all, the one who had told him aboutScandalsand he was more than a little paranoid about running into him.

It was someone much better. The person walking towards him was Sam Evans, blue-eyed and blonde-haired, muscled and charming, turning heads as he made his way over to Blaine and looking like pure sunshine himself with that hair and that stupid, stupid oversized grin. Blaine was melting all the way to his toes.

"Blaine!" Sam clapped him on the shoulder in friendly greeting. "What in fuck's name are you doing here?" He yelled above the music.

"Uhm..." Well shit. Blaine hadn't considered this part, the explaining his reasons for being here part, he had just been so happy to see Sam. Fuck. What could he say? Research? No, Sam'd see right through that.

"I, you know, I am involved in a lot of extracurricular activities. This happens to be one of them," Blaine answered vaguely in what he hoped was a mildly smooth manner.

Sam grinned at him knowingly. "Thank God. I just knew it, knew it right when I saw you, that you couldn't be some straight-as-a-pole Bible-thumping jockstrap like all the rest. And then, when your girlfriend came over, God, she really threw me for a loop. I have to admit I was shocked. And mega-fucking-disappointed. But here you are! Here you are after all and I was right and, man, it's just so great to see you here Blaine." Sam pulled Blaine into a soul-crushing hug and it was in that moment that Blaine fully realized what seeing Sam here meant. It meant that Sam...Sam must be...Sam was...gay.The most popular guy currently at McKinley High and he was gay! And flirting with Blaine!

And suddenly, Blaine was on top of the world.

"Sam," Blaine said, trying to get the blonde's attention as he flagged down the bartender.

"Blaine," Sam responded cheesily with his signature smile.

"I have to admit something to you. When I talked to you before, at school, I really...I had no idea that you were..."

"Gay?" Sam laughed. "I don't like to announce it when I walk into rooms anymore, because the kids at McKinley are so damn frigid. I think they'd throw me off the football team if they knew. It sucks."

"It does," Blaine agreed, even though he wasn't out or evengayand so he really didn't know what it was like.

"So anyway Man, what's your arrangement with Quinn? She your beard or something?"

"No. She's my girlfriend, like I told you."

Sam took a long swig of the beer he had been handed. "She know you're here?"

Sam had him now. Blaine sighed in defeat and ran a hand through loose curls. "Not on your life," he half-whispered.

"So I take it you're not...out," Sam prodded.

"I'm not out because I'm notgay," Blaine insisted. Sam looked genuinely confused.

"Then why are you here?"

"I just...I like...to fool around sometimes. You know, experiment or whatever. I don't need fucking labels or someone to tell me who I am. I just want fun. Casual fun." Blaine was feeling defensive and he moved on to his second beer.

Sam seemed to sense Blaine's attitude and backed off. "It's okay Man. I know how you feel. I've been there. And wherever you end up, you'll never regret these days. These days of figuring it out, of having fun. More guys should be willing to let themselves go. That's hard to do. But you seem pretty brave."

Sam was smiling coyly and Blaine could see he was trying to flirt with him and he didn't hate it.

"I try to be."

"Well I think you succeed, for the most part. But the real test of bravery is, will you go out onto the dance floor and dance with me? Show us all what you got?"

Blaine felt his heart leap a little bit, his cheeks already flushing.

"I think I could manage that," he answered, taking Sam's outstretched hand and letting the taller boy lead him to the center of the gyrating couples on the dance floor. Sam was all confidence and swagger and when they got out to the center of the group, Blaine could see why. The boy had some seriousmoves.

He grabbed Blaine's wrists and pulled him close so that Blaine's back was pressed flush against Sam's well-muscled chest. Sam then lifted Blaine's arms so they were high above his head, causing his shirt to ride up ever so slightly and Sam drifted his hands down, trickling his fingers over Blaine's arms, dancing across his shoulders, and then slowly, tantalizingly, sliding them over his chest.

Blaine closed his eyes as Sam's fingers found the patch of skin that was bared for all the world and began stroking and teasing the area, kissing it with his fingertips, daring at moments to slip his fingers just into the top of Blaine's pants, running them across his waistband, before slipping them out again.

God this was hot.

He could feel Sam's hips swiveling behind him in time to the music, his groin pressing erotically into Blaine's own backside, letting himfeelSam in all his arousal.

Blaine couldn't help but lose himself in it all. He knew it was wrong, onsomany levels, but he could not force himself to care any longer. Fuck Quinn and fuck his mother and most of all, fuck Kurt. He wanted this, in this moment, didn't care who saw or what it meant or what the ramifications of it would be later. He just wanted to allow himself what he wanted, for once in his life. And so Blaine continued to dance with Sam, to feel him, to enjoy him, forgetting Sam's name and perhaps even his own as he became more and more lost to the feeling. He was surrendering completely and nothing had ever felt so good, he was buzzed off the alcohol and he didn't have an identity anymore, he just one, with the music, with this other body, with the feelings. He let his body move without consideration of what he was doing; it knew what to do on his own. And this, this felt right.

Words broke through the dull roar that had replaced all noise in his head.

"Blaine.Blaine."

And oh. It was Sam speaking andhewas Blaine and he wasstraightand taken and dancing, with a sexy blonde, in a gay bar andoh.

Because there was Kurt, at the other end of the bar, staring at him, something like ice hardening the irises of his normally liquid blue, green, yellow eyes that were always so bright and enchanting that they sometimes looked inhuman. But what Blaine saw there now was none of that, what he saw now was cold and empty, like skeletal trees in the wintertime, stripped of their beauty and warmth.

Blaine decided he didn't care. He could feel Kurt's gaze burning him and he felt emboldened by that, by the hurt Kurt had caused him and how much he wanted to hurt him back, and more than that, fortified by the alcohol and the arousal of dancing with Sam. Blaine tilted his head back and turned it slightly and fortunately, Sam read his intentions and leaned forward and just like that, they were kissing.

Sam's lips were much different than Kurt's, but not necessarily in a bad way, Blaine thought. His skin was not as smooth and his lips were wider and sloppier in their kisses, but they still had the ability to make the heat stir and pool in Blaine's stomach and begin pulsing southward. Blaine reached a hand up to grab one of Sam's and place it on his pectoral muscle, holding his own hand over it to keep it there, and he kept his other hand entwined in Sam's shaggy blonde hair. Sam responded enthusiastically to these movements, deepening the kiss and continuing to grind against Blaine, his free hand on Blaine's hip, fingers digging tightly into the bone and flesh there, holding Blaine's body in place against his own. It was all so erotic and even more erotic because Blaine knew Kurt was watching.

He opened his eyes for a quick second and Kurt was no longer standing there. This made Blaine truly open his eyes, like a man emerging from a deep sleep, and search for Kurt. Where could he have gotten to? It was just like him, to walk out, Blaine thought bitterly as he realized that Kurt had certainly vacated the small bar.

Whatever. Good riddance. Tonight isn't even about him. You're done with him.

Blaine nodded to his own inner voice and then felt the hair on his neck rise as Sam's lips brushed against his ear when he whispered,

"Do you wanna get out of here?"

Without thinking Blaine grabbed both of Sam's hands in his and steered them toward the door.

x-x-x-x-x-x

Admittedly, the last person Kurt had expected to see upon arriving at Scandals on Friday night was Blaine. Hadn't Blaine insisted he wasn't gay, basically broken up with Kurt because of it, and run back to his little girlfriend like a slap in the face?

Not broken up with,Kurt thought harshly to himself. That would imply they had had some sort of relationship. And they didn't. Just an arrangement. A stupid arrangement that had gone on far too long. And now Blaine was- well what? Throwing it all in Kurt's face? Proving once and for all that Kurt was right not to trust him, not to trust anybody? Because Blaine had lied, outright, and that would've hurt somebody who had been more invested than Kurt was. Yes, it would've hurt them a great deal. But fortunately, Kurt hadnotallowed that to happen. And that was why he did not care what Blaine Anderson did, or if hewasat Scandals, despite everything he'd said, there with another guy nevertheless.

That was why when Kurt left the bar furiously scrubbing at his eyes with the fists of his hands to keep from allowing tears to run down his cheeks, it hadnothing at allto do with one Blaine Anderson.

Kurt sat in his car once outside the bar, trying to gather his wits about him. Fortunately he had only really just arrived when he had been greeted by that disgusting display, so he hadn't had time to drink anything. He would be fine to drive. If he could just get his damn eyes to stop watering. His contacts must be dry or something.What the fuck Hummel?He asked himself as his eyes began to water more instead of settling down as he took deep breaths and rubbed them.

Even through the teary haze, it was impossible to miss the couple stumbling drunkenly out of the front door of the club, hanging off each other like a couple of newlyweds. Kurt blinked once, twice, trying to clear his eyesight, but the tears only seemed to come faster as he watched Blaine- beautiful Blaine- hanging onto the arm of another boy, kissing another boy, walking in the arms of another boy.

Kurt became vaguely aware that the radio was on, a man's voice wailing at him lyrics he felt all too appropriate for the moment:

I think it's time, we give it up
And figure out what's stopping us
From breathing easy, and talking straight
The way is clear if you're ready now

Blaine was stumbling a little bit and Sam reached to grab him more firmly before he fell onto his face. It had begun to rain outside the club but Kurt didn't bother turning on his window wipers. The blurred image was already far too vivid for him.

You're moving too fast for me
And I can't keep up with you
Maybe if you slowed down for me
I could see you're only telling
Lies, lies, lies

The boys got to a green car parked half in shadow and Sam was pushing Blaine up against it, soaked through though they both were, and kissing him soundly while Blaine grasped his blonde locks in his strong fingers.

Breaking us down with your
Lies, lies, lies
When will you learn

Kurt was not crying. God, no, Kurt wasnotcrying. He continued to repeat this mantra to himself even as he felt the ache in his heart tearing even larger, even as he placed his face in his hands, ducking below the steering wheel so no one could see him, and felt his shoulders shaking and his body becoming racked by his own sobs.

He was mad at Blaine, but mostly sad, because he knew, at the end of it all yes he knew, that it was he who had it to himself. This was what he had wanted, wasn't it? Kurt Hummel had succeeded once again in keeping a boy at arm's length and sending him packing when the time was right. He just hadn't expected it to hurt so much on his end.

Long after the boys had gotten into the green car and Sam, the apparently more sober of the two, had pulled away, Kurt remained in the parking lot. He opened his door and crawled onto the sidewalk where he let the rain wash over him so soon he couldn't tell where his tears ended and the raindrops began.

x-x-x-x-x-x

Blaine didn't really know what he was doing when he pulled Sam from the club and began making out with him against his car, outside, where anyone could be driving by. He just knew that it felt good and that after seeing Kurt, he suddenly needed it. He didn't have any cares anymore. Of course, that aspect was aided by the amount of beer he had downed within the course of about an hour. It was only when Sam pulled the car over in a small parking lot and began passionately kissing Blaine that Blaine began to sober up a little bit.

The radio was playing, some pop hit song that Blaine had never previously liked but in the moment he felt was so right:

And baby it goes on and on and on and on
When me and you party together
I wish this night would last forever
Cause I was feeling down, now I'm feeling better

"This song is perfect," he whispered to Sam as the blonde boy straddled him, nipping at his earlobe.

"You're perfect," Sam whispered back huskily, and Blaine smiled to himself, humming along with the stupid, feel-good song.

"I can't make this night last forever, but I can tell you that it will be one you'll never forget," he breathed and Blaine felt himself harden at just the promise those words held.

Sam began to kiss down Blaine's neck, murmuring to him as he did so. "God, you're so hot. And smart too. Funny. I was crushed when I thought you were with Quinn. I thought my gaydar must've broken for sure. But now here we are, and I get to do this to you. This is all I've been wanting to do to you since I first laid eyes on you.

Blaine didn't say anything, just let Sam continue on his path, his hand snaking down to tug at the button on Blaine's jeans. He was too drunk to care that in his head it was Kurt's lips, and Kurt's hand that was caressing him. Too drunk to remind himself that Kurt had only ever hurt him and didn't deserve to be missed.

"Fuck, I'm so glad you're gay."

Blaine wasn'tthatdrunk.

He shot up from the seat where Sam had pinned him down, banging into the other boy in the process.

"Ow. Jesus Blaine what was that for?" Sam asked, rubbing his head where he had knocked it on the roof.

"I'm not gay," Blaine said, struggling to push Sam off of him and give themselves as much distance as possible.

"You gotta be kidding me right?" Sam looked at him open-mouthed from underneath his shaggy bangs. "You were totally just dry-humping me in a gay bar and now you're out here hooking up with me in my car and you're still gonna pull the "straight guy" crap? Knock it off Blaine. It's cute at first but there's a point where it starts to get offensive."

"I'm not lying."

"So what are you then, bisexual?"

"I'm straight!" Blaine insisted.

"Well that's a fucking lie and a half." Sam sounded pissed off now.

"I am goddamnit!" Blaine was fighting back tears now. He bit his lip as Sam began buckling his seatbelt, starting the engine with clipped, angry movements. "Don't tell anyone," he pleaded, pathetically.

Sam sighed then, and his previous anger had melted somewhat.

"I'm not gonna tell anyone. I'm not that kind of guy. I thought you would've realized that. Besides, it wouldn't exactly help my reputation would it?" He chuckled bitterly. Blaine didn't respond.

"Lighten up Man." Sam punched him softly in the shoulder. "Clearly, you have a lot of figuring out to do. And I'm sorry for that, it's a shit place to be. I hope you work it all out."

"Listen, I-" Blaine wanted to say something, to protest, but it was obviously too late now. Sam knew, knew Blaine's secret and he couldn't take that back.

"Calm down alright? No one is going to find out unless you tell them." Sam peered at him for a moment in the darkness. "Doesanyone else know?"

"Well...I guess...Kurt Hummel...we used to sort of have a thing...I guess. I don't know. Anyway it's over now." Blaine didn't mean to sound so dejected as he stared at his hands in his lap.

"Kurt Hummel." Sam whistled long and low. "I can't pretend I don't think he's super attractive. Also an asshole though. Heard he's a real heartbreaker."

"Heartbreaker." Blaine gave a sharp laugh. "That sounds about right. He gets every boy who's even slightly bi-curious, sooner or later. But asshole? I don't know. Sometimes he could be. But sometimes..." Blaine trailed off on that thought, gazing out the window, remembering the times when Kurt would open up to him, or say something entirely sweet or funny, and it hurt to think of it.

Sam didn't ask questions, politely just let it be. "I'm sorry you got mixed up with Hummel. But not all guys are gonna be jerks like that."

Blaine blinked to keep the water from leaking from his eyes. He was starting to get uncomfortable in his wet clothes that were more or less molded to his body. He wanted out of here, to get home, to forget everything.

"Not gay," he mumbled at Sam half-heartedly.

"Right, right, I forgot," Sam muttered sarcastically, but not cruelly. He seemed to sense Blaine's train of thought and pulled out then, speaking only to ask Blaine directions to his house. When they arrived there, Blaine couldn't get out of the car soon enough, unbuckling his seatbelt and nearly racing to get to the door.

"Blaine," Sam called in the darkness and Blaine couldn't help but stop for a half-second.

"I really could have liked you, you know? If it all wasn't so messed up. If you- if you ever figure things out and you decide- you know that maybe you're ready for something- I'll be around."

Blaine gave a half-hearted smile and nodded because after everything, Sam really was a nice guy.

Blaine just wasn't gay.

Which was why, when he reached his bedroom and peeled himself out of his soaking clothes, he absolutely didnotthrow himself dramatically across his bed and cry quietly into his pillows over a boy named Kurt Hummel.

x-x-x-x-x-x

It was close to 5 AM and Blaine had fallen asleep face-down on his bed crying when he was awoken to the sound of his phone buzzing next to his ear insistently. He cracked an eye open groggily to squint at the caller ID.

Kurt.

Blaine knew it was stupid,hewas the one who had walked away from Kurt after all, but only because Kurt had basically forced him to, and now Kurt was calling him and he couldn't help but pick up.

"What do you want?"

The sounds on the other side of the phone were decidedly upset and un-Kurt like. In fact, it sounded like the person was crying, albeit quietly.

"Kurt?" Blaine said, unable to keep a note of worry from slipping out in his voice.

"Blaine?" Kurt's voice was strangled, thick with tears, and so very small. Blaine felt his heart clenching.

"Kurt what is it?"

"It's my...my...my dad had a heart attack," Kurt finally whispered and Blaine's heart sunk at the words.

"Oh my God, Kurt. Is he-?"

"He's alive." Kurt let out a shuddery breath. "But unconscious. The hospital sent me home. Carole's on duty. Said they'd call with news. Blaine-" Kurt's words got choked off in a sob again and Blaine's heart was breaking for him.

"What can I do?" Blaine asked simply.

"Come over. Please." Kurt said pitifully. "I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't ask just- I need-"

Blaine shushed him, already tugging on his shoes. "I'm on my way."