The next morning, it would seem that the word of Blaine’s recent admittance into the McKinley High New Directions had spread throughout the school. And apparently, the New Directions didn’t exactly mean “cool”. Which was definitely news to Blaine.

“Heard you joined the Nude Erections, pretty boy!”

And there it was again. The ice cold liquid dripped down Blaine’s face, stinging his eyes worse than the time before. A small lick of his lips let a strong cherry flavor fill his mouth. He remembered Kurt telling him that the red dye stung the worst. He definitely was not lying. Blaine sputtered, spitting the little amount of slushie that ended up in his agape mouth out. He pushed the majority of the ice off of his face, not daring to open his eyes quite yet.

This slushie experience was different than the last. Last time, Kurt came in and saved him. Helped him clean off and gave him new clothes. Blaine wasn’t as lucky this time. He was completely alone.

The hallways were already cleared. The bell rang signalling the start of class, and Blaine was standing, frozen in the middle of the hallway.

Blaine trudged to the bathroom and managed to dab off most of the slush with paper towels, but there were still prominent red stains all over the front of his white (seriously, why did he wear white?) polo. His eyes still stung. He was still uncomfortably wet and damp. It was so much worse than when Kurt was there with his adorable little stain remover kit and his dry clothes. So much worse.

Blaine shuffled to his next class, his heels dragging soundly against the tiled hallway floor. Blaine quietly ignored the looks of sympathy given to him by Mike and a couple of the kids he recognized from glee in his next class. What was the point in putting up a fight?

Loneliness is a terrible feeling.

xx

That night, Blaine and his mother ate dinner alone, as Joseph Anderson was at work. He was away for work most of the week, so this wasn’t uncommon for the family. It was part of the reason that Katherine and Blaine were so close. They spent so much time alone during dinner, bonding over whatever was going on. Most days, Blaine loved meals with his mother. They used to have so many interesting and intriguing discussions. But ever since Blaine started going to school at McKinley, dinners mostly consisted of Katherine asking Blaine about his day. Blaine would normally reply with half hearted shrugs and half-truths. It was draining, more than anything.

“How’s school going, Blaine? You haven’t talked much about it.” Katherine started the conversation, not surprising for Blaine. And he would reply with the same answer he had used every day since he started.

“Fine. I like it.”

“Are you sure, honey?” Katherine wore a concerned expression. Blaine winced. “I’m worried for you.”

“I swear, Mom. It’s fine.” he dismissed.

“I just want what’s best for you, sweetie,” she sighed, resting one hand on top of Blaine’s across the table.

“And this is it. I needed this. I’m doing well. It’s going to be fine.” Blaine reassured her, gripping onto her hand like a lifeline, and looking deeply into her eyes, trying his best to convey everything he was trying to say.

“And you have friends...” Katherine prompted, hopefully.

“Yes, Mum, I’ve been making friends.”

Katherine smiled warmly, and Blaine exhaled. “I’m glad, Blaine. You need other kids in your life.”

“Um, yeah.” Blaine gave a half-smile and looked back down towards his food, his brows furrowed.

“Hey, maybe you should invite them over?” Katherine said excitedly after a moment of silence. “You can have a little party?”

“Um, I don’t know if that’s a good...” Blaine started, suddenly alert.

“You can invite Mike and Tina and that Kurt kid you’ve been talking about! We can do it this weekend, it’ll be so fun!”

Blaine hated the way his mom was suddenly so excited. It was rare to see her wear this type of smile lately. And Blaine really hated that he would have to be the one to break it. “Mom, I really don’t think-”

“I’ll call up their parents right now!” If it was even possible for Katherine’s eyes to light up more, they did. “I already have the Cohen-Changs’ number, and I think your father has Mike Sr.’s number somewhere... Do you know, um... Hurley, was it? Do you know Kurt Hurley’s number?”

“I, um...” Blaine stuttered, panicked. “Don’t...”

“Oh, that’s okay, sweetie, I’ll just look it up in the phonebook.” Katherine dismissed, which scared Blaine even more.

“No!” he nearly shouted. “I mean... No, I can call them myself.”

“Oh...” Katherine looked shocked, but when he saw Blaine’s softened expression, she let it go and smiled gently. She gave Blaine a nod. “Oh, well, alright.”

After dinner, Blaine went up to his bedroom and made sure the door was closed. Luckily, Mike had given Blaine his cell phone number just the previous day, but Blaine had yet to call it. Now would be that time, he guessed.

Blaine was nervous, to say the least. He hadn’t intended on doing much socializing at all apart from the random encounter at school. He had not the slightest clue what to expect. He had never once in his life been to a party with other kids his age. The closest to a party Blaine had been to was one of his family’s galas that the occasionally held for their work. And that wasn’t anywhere near what Blaine’s mother was asking of him now. She probably expected a stereotypical teenage girl type sleepover with his friends, which is something Blaine thought only existed on TV. How was he to know?

Blaine pulled up Mike’s number on his phone and tapped it quickly before he could regret it. It rang three times, and Blaine was beginning to hope that he wouldn’t answer and he could just leave a voicemail. Unfortunately for him, Mike did pick up, and answered with a questioning “hello,”.

“Hey, Mike?”

Mike greeted Blaine cheerfully. “Blaine! Hey!”

“So, um... I wanted to know if... Well, my mom wanted to know...” Blaine stuttered nervously. He took an intake of breath, but it didn’t help very much. “I was wondering... If you... Well, I mean, if you wanted to...”

Even if he had only known Blaine for a week, Mike knew what was going on. He interrupted Blaine’s nervous rambling quickly. “What is it, Blaine?”

“Well, if you weren’t doing anything Friday night, maybe you and Tina could spend the night? My mom wants to make sure I’m making friends and stuff...” Blaine asked hopefully. His idle fingers found themselves searching for something to do. Blaine thumbed pointlessly at the hem of his shirt, picking at where a thread was coming undone.

“I’d love to! Wait one sec, Tina’s right here, let me ask her. Wait, I’ll put her on speaker.” Blaine exhaled as he heard Mike calling to Tina away from the speaker in his phone. “Tina? It’s Blaine.”

“Hi, Blaine!” Tina called.

“Hi, Tina!” Blaine replied, offering a genuine smile, even if Tina and Mike couldn’t hear it.

“What’s up?”

“Well, um...” Blaine took a deep breath, collecting his thoughts. “My mom wants to make sure I’m making friends, so I was hoping you and Mike could stay over Friday night?”

“Sure!” Tina replied, cheerfully. “I don’t think we’re doing anything! Sounds like fun!”

“Did your mom just want the two of us?” Mike asked.

“Well... I kind of let it slipped that I knew a boy named Kurt and had to make up a fake guy and I’m supposed to invite him, but he doesn’t exist, so I’m just gonna say he can’t make it.” Blaine answered quickly, in one breath.

“Do you want us to invite a couple people? Some nice kids from Glee? That way your mom can be happy, and you can also meet some new kids.” Mike offered.

“Oh. Um. Sure! That’s great, actually. I’d like that.”

“Quinn and Artie will love you. Definitely Mercedes. And Brittany, too. And Sam, and Rory. And Sugar and Santana, maybe.” Tina immediately rattled off a bunch of names, clearly extremely excited. “I’d invite Finn, but he’s Kurt’s step-brother, so your parents probably wouldn’t like that.”

“And Rachel is Kurt’s best friend and Kurt’s step-brother’s girlfriend, so not her.” Mike added.

“We can make a few phone calls. You can tell your mom that it’ll be a small party, just a few New Directions kids.”

“Thank you so much, guys.” Blaine was grinning ear to ear. “You don’t even know how much I appreciate this.”

“It’s nothing, Blaine.” Tina reassured, her voice soft and warm. “You’re part of the glee family now.”

Maybe Blaine wasn’t alone after all.

xx

When Mercedes got the call that Blaine Anderson was having a party, she knew that she had to take action. If her Kurt was going to land himself a boyfriend in the near future, Mercedes was damn sure it would be this Blaine boy. They seemed to be completely perfect for eachother. Blaine was sweet, loyal, and such a gentleman. And not to mention hella sexy and an amazing singer. Kurt needed somebody like that in his life. He’d been alone for so long, and you could tell that it was beginning to wear him down. He hadn’t been saying anything, but Mercedes could tell just from observation that Kurt’s bullying had gotten increasingly worse over the past couple of months. He was so much more withdrawn lately. His legendary comebacks became less and less frequent, and Kurt seemed more jumpy than usual. And it killed Mercedes to see him in this state.

So the decision on whether or not to interfere when given this golden opportunity was kind of a no-brainer.

Mercedes didn’t want to lie to Kurt. She would never lie to him. She would, however, sort of... distort the truth. If Mercedes were to straight up ask him to come to Blaine Anderson’s party, the answer would, without a doubt, be one big, fat NO, accompanied with a twenty minute lecture on why it’s a no, and also why Mercedes is being an inconsiderate friend in her even asking. Of course, anybody who knew Kurt would know that this is not the way to go. So distorting the truth? It worked for Mercedes. Besides. He’d be thanking her in the long run when she is a bridesmaid in Kurt and Blaine’s wedding.

But we digress...

Mercedes dialed Kurt’s number almost immediately after getting off the phone with Tina. It rang only once before Kurt offered a half hearted greeting into the phone. Mercedes didn’t waste a second.

“Hey, Kurt? I got invited to a junior party and I was wondering if you would come with me? You know, so I don’t feel awkward.”

“Whose party?” Kurt questioned. Of course he would ask tons of questions. This was where white lies and fabricated truths would come in handy. Mercedes tread carefully, still.

“I don’t know his name. We’ve never actually formally met.”

“Cedes, I’m not going to go to some kid’s party...” Kurt trailed off, predictably. It was time for Mercedes to turn on the charm.

“Kurt. Please? I don’t want to say no to him. I’d feel awful.” Mercedes tried her best to sound sympathetic. “Plus, I heard a few other glee kids talking about it. So you won’t be totally lost.”

“Mercedes...” Kurt trailed off again. Time for the puppy eyes.

“Please?”

“I don’t think-”

“I’ll let you pick out my outfits for a week.” Mercedes countered, interrupting Kurt’s protests. There was a beat.

“Damnit, Cedes. You’re making it really hard for me to say no to you.” Mercedes grinned. She was victorious. “Fine, I’ll go.”

“Yay!” she squeaked. “Love you, boo.”

“Love you, too,” Mercedes could practically see Kurt rolling his eyes through the phone. “Now. You were serious about the outfit thing, right? Because we might need to go shopping.”