Kurt’s father, Burt, was actually going to be home for Friday night dinner. Burt was recently elected as congressman, and at first, organizing their life around the new schedule was hard. In the beginning, the tradition which was started by Kurt’s mother was neglected. The family was getting better though, much to Kurt’s pleasure.

The countertenor was cooking dinner.  Since neither Finn nor Burt was good at cooking, Kurt and Carol would switch off. She was working late, and wouldn’t be home until just before time to eat. Excitement bubbled through him. He liked the fact it was only their family on Friday nights. No friends, no Rachel Berry, who never seemed to go home, only Kurt, Finn and their parents. 

Grilled Salmon marinated in Chardonnay, olive oil, lime, and honey with a side of homemade garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus was on the menu for the night. He had come across the recipe while browsing for simple but healthy recipes his dad could make in Washington. It was a surprisingly simple dinner for him to cook, normally he’d make something elaborate that took a couple of hours to cook. 

“This looks wonderful,” his dad said as they all sat down together.

“I don’t like asparagus,” Finn complained. 

“It’s fresh, Finn. Trust me it tastes different than what’s in the can. This is actually edible. 

The taller boy picked a piece up with his hand, and examined it skeptically. 

“Don’t play with your food, Finn,” Carol reprimanded.  “Try one piece , and if you don’t like it, you don’t have to eat anymore.” 

Skeptically the boy placed it in his mouth and made a face. He then spit out the half chewed vegetable. 

“Finn!” Carol screeched, appalled. 

“That’s gross! Can’t you cook normal food?” Finn whined. 

“This is normal food, Finn. It’s just healthier than pizza and hamburgers,” Kurt said giving his step brother an evil look.  Then he turned it on his dad who was failing at holding in his laughter. 

“You need to lighten up, dude.”

“Boys, that’s enough,” Carol said, effectively preventing the coming argument.  “How was school?”

The football player launched into a story about Coach Beaste’s fury during practice. Apparently two of her starters got suspended and would miss the big game Saturday night. Kurt tuned the story out. Finn had just started on the fight during lunch when the singer realized how late it was getting. 

“I’ve got to go,” he said getting up from the table and placing his plate in the sink. Someone else would do the dishes. “I’m going to be late.”

Luckily, he packed his bag before he began cooking, so all he had to do after running up to his room was grab it. That and his satchel filled with school work he’d have to do at Mercedes’s house. He sprinted back down the stairs to grab his keys and jacket. 

His stepbrother was waiting by the front door when he reached it. The taller boy was looking at Kurt hopefully as he pulled his jacket on.

“Can you drop me at Rachel’s,” he asked after Kurt gave him a questioning look. 

“I don’t have time.” The countertenor snatched his keys out of the glass bowl on the table next to the door and started walking out it. 

“Come on! Just this once?” 

“It’s completely out of my way. And you always want me to take you places. Find someone else to do it. Have Rachel come get you.”

“You’re only going to Mercedes’s house. It’s not like she’ll care if you’re late.”

“I care. Besides, we might be doing something that requires I get there on time. Like I said, have Rachel come get you.”

“You’re such a bitch, Kurt!” Finn yelled and slammed the door closed. 

The words stung, especially since it came from family, but Kurt ignored him. His stepbrother was ignorant and never realized the things he did and said hurt people. Finn was an extremely selfish human being, though he didn’t realize it. And he’d do things without thinking about the consequences. 

Mercedes lived on the opposite side of Lima, and even though the drive was long, it relaxed him. He was fully recovered from the argument by the time he reached her house. 

Tina’s Hyundai was already parked in the driveway when he arrived. 

“Finally!” his best friend said when she opened the door to her house for him. “What took you so long, White Boy?”

“Finn was trying to get me to take him to Rachel’s,” he told her.

Both she and Tina made disgusted faces at the comment.

“Is it sad I like Quinn more than her? Even when she’s being all psycho?” Tina asked.

“Not at all. Quinn’s not so bad once you get to know her some,” Mercedes said, apparently in agreement with Tina. She pulled the door closed behind Kurt, and led them upstairs to her room. 

The bedroom was painted purple on the top half, and below a chair rail, white. A graffiti mural in bright loud colors was above the bed. It was exactly the type of room anyone would picture the diva in. 

Kurt kicked his shoes off just inside the doorway, dropped his bags, and made himself comfortable on her bed.  “Who would have thought we’d be friends with the ‘Unholy Trinity’ and hate Rachel,” Kurt added. It was ironic. 

“We barely knew each other back then,” Tina said. “Meaning we didn’t know how annoying Rachel really is.”

“I wish I still barely knew her,” Mercedes laughed.

“And that Finn was still dating Quinn. Or Santana. I’d rather either of them be at my house all the time instead of her,” Kurt complained. 

The three of them laughed.

“We should invite them, and Brittney next time. We could have an ‘everyone hates Rachel Berry’ party,” the diva suggested jokingly.

Tina reprimanded them, “That’s so mean!”

Changing the topic, Kurt turned to Mercedes. “So what’s the plan for tonight?” This was his escape from the dwarf, his family, and school; he wasn’t going to spend it talking about her. 

“We should watch a scary movie,” Tina suggested enthusiastically. 

“Oh, hell no!” Mercedes snapped at the same time Kurt yelled out, “No way!”

The three friends spend the next twenty minutes arguing over what to watch. Twilight was vetoed because it’s only redeeming quality was Taylor Lautner. 

“Why don’t we order pizza and watch a musical. Then we can figure out what to do after that,” Kurt finally suggested. 

They both agreed. He and Tina pulled out Moulin Rouge while Mercedes went back downstairs to order the pizza. Since the two girls were already in their pajamas, Kurt ran to the bathroom to change into his while Tina set the movie up. 

Halfway through the movie, their food arrived. By the time it ended, their eyes were full of unshed tears and their bellies were stuffed. 

“Now I’m depressed,” Kurt said as he wiped his eyes. 

“I always forget how sad this movie actually is,” Tina said passing a box of tissues to him. 

“Why don’t we play a game then,” Mercedes suggested with a mischievous glint in her eyes. 

Kurt asked in a skeptical voice, “What type of game?”

Every game she came up with always ended up with someone in an awkward situation on severely embarrassed. To say he was afraid of any game his best friend could come up with was an understatement. 

“Fuck, marry, kill,” she suggested smiling. 

A blush crept up on his face, and he buried his face in his hands. “How about not!” he said. 

“It’ll be fun.” She waggled her eyebrows at him suggestively.

“Not happening!” he said in a sing song voice. Then he added, “I’d kill myself before I’d sleep with any of the assholes we go to school with.”

“As I recall, White Boy, you had a crush on Finn…” she started.

“He’s my stepbrother now. I plead temporary insanity on that one anyway,” he defended.

“…and Sam,” she finished.

“Just, no,” he protested.

“You have to find at least one guy we go to school with cute,” Tina said. Apparently she agreed with Mercedes that the game would be fun.

Kurt wanted the ground to swallow him. Or to disappear completely, either would be nice.

“I’m not playing!” he said.

“Puck, Mike…and the Irish kid. What was his name?” Mercedes prompted him.

“You can’t be serious!”

“Answer the question, Kurt,” Mercedes goaded. 

“Come on!” Tina yelled. The Asian girl was bouncing on the bed excitedly.

“Fine!” he huffed. “I’d sleep with Mike, marry the Irish kid and kill Puck. Happy now?” His face was scarlet from embarrassment. Puck was like an older, unwanted brother to him. Killing him was the only option that didn’t leave Kurt with a creepy feeling. Not that sleeping with Mike was much different, but the Irish kid looked too innocent to just sleep with. 

Both girls began laughing loudly. Kurt wanted nothing more than to run away and hide. His friends loved torturing him.

“I’d kill puck too,” Tina said. “Definitely marry Mike, and sleep with Rory, that’s his name. I think.”

Mercedes choked on her laughter. After a couple of minutes, she finally said, “Puck does have a pretty nice body.”

“With the way he sleeps around, he no doubt has an STD to go with it,” Tina pointed out. 

“Still, I’d sleep with Puck, marry Mike, and kill Rory,” Mercedes finished. “Kurt, your go.”

“Finn, Sam, and…Anthony Rashad.” Kurt decided.

“That’s the guy you set me up with last year,” Mercedes pointed out.

“Yep. Tina?”

“I’d kill Finn, marry Sam, and fuck Anthony,” She giggled.

“Same goes for me. Anthony has a great body, but I hardly know him.”

Kurt agreed with his girls. Around they went, taking turns and giggling over the answers each gave concerning the different boys in their school. 

“Karofsky, Joe Hart, and Blaine Anderson.” Tina directed at Kurt after a while. 

“You can’t be serious,” he screeched.

“Sure am. Anderson’s body is just…fuck,” she said fanning herself dramatically.

“I’d kill Karofsky. Why did you even ask that?”

“Would you fuck Anderson or marry him?” Mercedes asked.

“He’s an asshole. I can’t stand to be near him for more than thirty seconds!”

“So you’d fuck him,” Tina said.

“Admit it, Kurt, that boy is eye candy. The whole bad boy thing works for him too,” Mercedes said.

“Plus, he’s probably really good in bed!” Tina was giggling and making more dramatic gestures. 

“Yes, I’d sleep with Anderson!” he yelled.

“And apparently marry Joe. That’s adorable,” Mercedes said. “I’d do the same. I’d love to get a piece of Anderson.”

“Me too. Let’s invite Santana next time. She’s been hanging around him a lot,” Tina said.

“So you can get all the dirty details of her sex life,” Kurt said making a disgusted face.

“If it concerns Blaine Anderson, then yes,” both girls said. They fell into another round of giggles.

Then they gave up the game and put another movie on to watch. 

**************************************************************

Blaine Anderson sat in a cast iron chair, boot clad feet propped on the matching table, smoking a cigarette. The French doors that led from his bed room to the private balcony were propped wide open so he could hear the music blasting from his stereo. He knew his mother would yell at him for it (and for smoking), but she rarely ventured to the second floor of their house. 

From where he sat, he could see his brother, Cooper’s car in the garage. Not ten minutes after they arrived, he showed up to tell them how Blaine had already been suspended from his new school. That had been two hours ago. Pacing his room had gotten tiring, and Blaine hated to admit he was too much of a coward to chance running into his parents on the way to the basement. Boxing was his favorite way to relieve stress; smoking was a close second though. 

He watched the sun set, lost in thought. Public schools were awful McKinley was the second one he’d been to, and it fared only slightly better than the school he went to in Westerville, where he lived. Nothing would compare to Dalton, but he’d fucked that up. He missed the prestigious school, but they wouldn’t allow him back, regardless of how much money his father waved at them. James Anderson had waived a lot of money in the headmasters face too. 

“We need to talk,” his mother said, making him jump. 

The boy had been so lost in thought he hadn’t heard her turn the stereo system off. 

“About?” he asked nonchalantly.

“You got suspended for fighting,” she said sternly. “Fighting and school’s barely been in a week. What happened?”

“Assholes happened, Mother.” He took a drag from the cigarette. 

“Language, Blaine, and put that cigarette out now.”

With a sigh he took another drag then stubbed it out on the metal table. 

“Now talk, and do it before your father comes up here.” 

“It’s public school, Mother. Besides the two guys threw a slushy at me. It’s apparently something they do there.”

“So you felt that was a justifiable reason to fight them?”

“I wasn’t going to. Threaten them, yes. But they’re both three times my size, and were coming after me. What was I supposed to do? Let them hit me?”

“No, but you can’t fight people. You’ve had training, you could seriously injure someone.”

“I held back. I’m not stupid.”

“I know you aren’t, but there could be potential lawsuits if anything does happen.”

“I won’t start any fight from now on, I swear.”

His mother smiled at him. “Thank you. Now Cooper tells me there’s a girl you’ve been hanging out with lately.”

“Her name’s Santana. She’s the only person I’ve made friends with. Well, her and some other cheerleaders who keep fawning all over me. They’re really annoying.”

“And this Santana?”

“She’s covering for me.” After she shot him a questioning look, he continued. “I’m not getting into a situation like what happened at Westerville again. Santana’s in the closet, and I just… It’s safer to make them all think I’m straight.”

“I think this is a really bad idea, Blaine. You’re going to get yourself into a bad situation. And going back into the closet will only make it worse. I thought you were proud of who you are. I am, when you aren’t doing stupid things like getting suspended the first week of school.”

“I am proud. It’s safer to be in the closet at this school. Trust me on this.”

“I’ll try,” she said then stood up. “I’ll have Hannah call you for dinner.”

Once she was out of his room, Blaine lit another cigarette. He knew this was a bad idea, but he and Wes spend a couple of weeks looking things up on how the students treat gays before Wes left for college.  It wouldn’t take people long to catch on to the fact that he had money, which would be bad enough. He couldn’t combine that with being gay. Fights would be more frequent than he predicted they were going to be anyway. 

His thoughts brought him back to Santana. The cheerleader, or Cheerio as they were called at the school, had cornered him just after the final bell rang Tuesday. Actually, she caught his arm and dragged him into an empty classroom. When she locked the door every awkward situation crossed his mind. Everything except what she did next, which was calling him out. 

“Try all you want, I looked you up on Facebook. The pictures of you and your ex-boyfriend say a lot. I don’t really care why you’re in the closet again, because you see, it works to my advantage. I need a beard, and you’re hot, new, and apparently need me too.”

The girls offer was too good to be true, but he accepted it anyway. Plus, it would mean there he would have at least one person in the school to talk to, without having to pretend to be something he’s not. 

It didn’t help he spent half the day with the most gorgeous guy he’d ever seen. Santana died laughing when he told her that. Then slapped him when he explained he was acting like a homophobic jerk to Kurt Hummel. He deserved the slap for what he said to him during their French class. If he could have slapped himself he would have. 

Acting straight didn’t include telling another guy you found him extremely attractive. So Blaine did the next best thing he could think of. In reality it was the worst, but he only realized that after the fact. He couldn’t give up the act regardless of how much he wanted to apologize to the intriguing boy. So he had to settle for being generally rude to him without saying anything too damning. 

His mother was right, this whole thing was stupid. It was too late to change anything now though. Not unless he found a way to get Dalton to let him back in.