Chapter 6

Getting the project done proved to be a challenge. Neither Kurt nor Blaine knew who would play what character. So they decided to play a game of “Rock, Paper, Scissors.” Winner got to choose what character they wanted to be. Kurt ended up winning and he chose to be Peeta. Now came the next part of the project, write a paper and connect the character's conversation to the characters of another book. That proved to be a challenge for them. Were there any other books out there that revolved around two characters talking about how one of them was going to kill other kids?

Kurt and Blaine spent the next thirty minutes trying to figure out what they were going to do. Kurt teased Blaine for picking such a difficult book.

By the end of the hour, they gave up.

“Okay, I'm stuck. I don't know what to do,” Blaine said, standing up and running his hand through his hair.

“We just need a little inspiration,” Kurt said. “What other book can we connect to The Hunger Games? And the characters need to discuss how to kill other kids.”

“I'm pretty sure there aren't any books like that out there.” Blaine looked at the clock on his nightstand. It was about to be 5:00 PM. “Kurt?” Blaine spoke.

“Yeah?” Kurt looked at him.

“I have an idea. But first I need to ask you, do you have any plans for tonight?”

Kurt shook his head. “No, no plans. What were you thinking?”

“Okay, so every time I need a little inspiration, or whenever I need a break, I like to go to this specific place. It's a place where I can go and relax. And call me crazy, but I always, always get inspired when I'm up there.”

Kurt looked at Blaine. “Oh okay. Do you want to go to this place now?”

Blaine nodded. “Yeah. Let's go.”

Blaine grabbed his backpack and Kurt gathered his things.

“So where are we going?” Kurt asked.

“It's a surprise.”

The boys left the room and went to Blaine's car. Wherever it was that Blaine was taking Kurt, it was surely a surprise.

… … …

Out in the open road, Kurt was enjoying his time. Blaine had the roof down of his convertible and as they drove they enjoyed the sun and wind against their faces. Kurt still didn't know where Blaine was taking him to. But it was going to be a big surprise. Blaine told him that they might just end up staying the night at this place. It was the weekend and Kurt was okay with that. He texted his father and told him he was going to be working on the project with his partner and he might just end up spending the night at his house since it might be a little late when they got done. His father replied with an okay and smiley face.

Both Kurt and Blaine had their sunglasses on and were listening to the music playing on the radio. Suddenly, a song came up that Blaine enjoyed.

“I love this song. Let me turn it up,” Blaine said as he raised the volume of the radio.

Kurt didn't know the name of the song but he liked it.

Blaine immediately started singing along with the song. “And theres a beating in my chest. And its seeming to suggest. That before this day is through it might go my way.”

Kurt couldn't help himself but smile and chuckle as Blaine sang his heart out. Seeing Blaine being his goofy self definitely made Kurt smile. Kurt really liked this song, but what was it called? He had heard it before. But what was it called? And then it hit him. “All Those Pretty Lights,” by Andrew Belle. Of course! He loved this song. It had been on his top 10 favorite songs of all time. He knew the song by heart. And the moment the chorus started playing, he sang along.

“And I want to remember this night. And how my words never came out right.”  Blaine looked at Kurt and both boys started to sing out loud. “Its just my patience that keeps me alive.  Just like all those pretty lights. Just like all the pretty lights in the sky.”

Kurt never knew it but Blaine was actually really fun and a great person to be around with. He looked over at Blaine and stared at his face with a smile. He liked the way his face moved with each lyric he sang. Kurt looked at Blaine's muscular arm on the steering wheel. Suddenly, Kurt could feel his face getting a little red. He looked away and kept his eyes on the road. He was not blushing? Was he? Why would he blush?

He looked out into the side of the road and looked at the trees passing them by. He was not blushing. It was probably from the sun. Yeah, that was it. It was just the sun. Kurt went back to singing along with Blaine as they drove off not bothering to look back.

… … …

Blaine had driven up to the foothills. It was really quiet up here. They crossed a small town and Blaine continued down the road. Kurt looked out of his window and saw hundreds of tall trees everywhere. There were so many trees that he could hardly see the sky.

Blaine took a left turn and drove through another road. It was just trees, trees and more trees. Kurt looked up ahead and saw the road was coming to an end and it ended at a large lake. Blaine slowed down as they arrived to the end of the road. The water of the lake was a beautiful, light blue. Same color of the sky. The lake was large and the tall trees on the sides of the lake casted their reflections on the water.

When Blaine parked the car, Kurt noticed that he had driven up to a house right by the side of the lake. It was a lake house. The boys stepped out of the car and Kurt looked at the scenery. It was magnificent up here. The sound of the water that hit the shore was calm and gentle. Beautiful flowers covered the area and a family of ducks were swimming near the shore.

Kurt looked at Blaine who smiled back at him. So this was Blaine's surprise.

“Welcome to my family's lake house,” Blaine said as he got his and Kurt's backpacks from the back seats.

Kurt looked at him. “I didn't know your family had a lake house.”

“No one from school does. Only Scott and Ethan know. And their girlfriends. If more people knew about this place, they would want parties here all the time.”

“So you prefer to have parties at your other home?” Kurt asked.

“Yeah,” Blaine said. “This is mostly for family and small gatherings. Not for parties. My family and I take really good care of it.”

Blaine locked his car doors and handed Kurt his backpack.

“It's a really great place,” Kurt said.

“I come here every now and then to just relax and get inspiration,” Blaine said.

The boys walked to the front door and stood on the porch. Kurt admired the beautiful wood of the porch and the house. The wood was a beautiful reddish-brown color that captured the eye.

Blaine opened the door and the boys went inside. When Kurt went inside, the scenery was cozy. There was a fireplace and right in front of it were two sofas across from each other. To the right was a beautiful, decorated kitchen. Kurt looked ahead and saw a flight of stairs that led to the second floor.

“Welcome to the Anderson Family Lake House,” Blaine said as he closed the door.

“Blaine, this place is amazing,” Kurt said.

Blaine went up the stairs and Kurt followed. “Come, follow me.”

“Where are we going to?” Kurt asked.

“My room.”

When they entered Blaine's room, Kurt saw that it was just like any ordinary room. There was a bed, a desk and a wardrobe. There were large windows across the room and since they were on the second floor, it gave them a lovely view of the entire lake. Kurt looked around the room and noticed that there was no TV set. And now that he thought about it, he didn't see any TVs downstairs either.

“No TV?” Kurt asked.

“Nope. When my family and I come up here, we like to stay away from television and we socialize.”

Kurt walked over to the windows and looked at the sun, which was setting behind the clouds. The setting sun gave a combination of pink and orange colors and their colors were starting to reflect on the water.

“Blaine, look at the sunset,” Kurt said.

Blaine walked to the window and they both stared at the setting sun.

“It's beautiful,” Blaine said.

“It is,” Kurt agreed.

Blaine went back and opened his dresser. He looked through all his shorts and got out a pair of swim shorts.

Kurt looked back and saw Blaine.

“Are you in the mood for a swim?” Kurt asked.

“I am. It's one of the many ways I get inspired. And I love it. Just a swim under the stars.”

“A night swim? Like on the lake?” Kurt asked.

Blaine shook his head. “No, not on the lake. We have an indoor pool.”

Blaine grabbed his swim shorts and opened the door to bathroom in his room. He went inside to change and didn't even bother closing the door all the way.

“Blaine. Question. I'm just curious, are we going to eat soon?” Kurt asked standing against the wall next to the bathroom door.

Blaine opened the bathroom door and Kurt saw his red and black swim shorts with fire designs on them.

“Yes we are, but not here. There's this restaurant at the town we crossed when we got here and the food there is delicious. They have a buffet set up from food from all over the world. It's amazing.”

Blaine walked to his drawer and searched through his clothes. He got out a second pair of swim shorts and threw them at Kurt. Kurt caught them with his right hand.

“Here you go. Try these on. We'll go swimming after we have dinner,” Blaine said.

“We're going to dinner in our swim shorts? Is that appropriate?” Kurt asked.

“Yeah, people won't care. It's a diner, not a five star restaurant. We'll have our shirts on, no worries. Now go get change, quick.”

Kurt entered the bathroom and started to change into his shorts. He still couldn't believe how this day was turning out. But he was not complaining. Not one bit.

… … …

Kurt looked at the time on his phone. 6:30 PM. He was ready to eat. Blaine drove them both to the small town and arrived to the restaurant. Right away they were seated by a waitress. The waitress took the boys to a table and handed them two glass cups.

“Here you boys go. Enjoy your meal,” she said with a smile.

“Thank you,” both Blaine and Kurt responded at the same time.

The waitress walked away and Kurt looked over at the buffet at the end of the room. Suddenly his stomach started to growl. He couldn't wait to go up to the buffet and grab all the food he could eat.

“Okay Kurt. One of us has to stay at our table so no one could take it. Do you want go get your food first or should I?” Blaine asked.

“Can I go, please? I'm starving,” Kurt said.

“Sure, I'll wait here.” Blaine sat back on his chair as Kurt stood up and walked to the buffet.

He grabbed a plate and walked over to the Italian section and served himself his favorite, chicken fettuccine pasta with Alfredo sauce. He filled his entire plate and grabbed a few breadsticks as he left the Italian section. He walked back to his and Blaine's table and sat down.

“Italian?” Blaine asked.

“Yeah, I love Italian,” Kurt responded.

“Okay, now it's my turn. Be right back.” Blaine stood up and walked over to the buffet. Kurt couldn't help but stare at Blaine as he walked away. His eyes suddenly looked down at Blaine's butt and right away he found himself smiling again.

Wait, what? What just happened? Was he checking out Blaine? No. He couldn't. Maybe there was something on Blaine's butt that caused his eyes to look there.

When Blaine sat back down, Kurt looked at Blaine's food. He had gone to the Chinese food section. On his plate he had noodles, rice and vegetable rolls. On the side there were six chicken wings.

“What kind of chicken wings did you get?” Kurt asked.

“Mild. They're my favorite. I don't really like spicy food,” Blaine said, taking a bite of the wings.

“I don't like spicy food either!” Kurt exclaimed.

“High five!” Blaine reached over and high fived Kurt.

Suddenly the waitress that sat them came over. “Hello guys, enjoying your dinner?”

Both boys nodded. “Yeah.”

“I wanted to ask, will you be ordering the Couples Coupon for tonight?” the waitress asked.

“The what?” Kurt asked confused.

“The Couples Coupon. It's ‘Couples Night' tonight. All couples get a free dessert. To be fair, tomorrow is ‘Singles Night.'”

It was Couples Night. Free dessert for all couples, Kurt thought.

Suddenly a girl behind the waitress dropped her plate with food and landed on the floor. The waitress turned around to help the girl clean the mess. Blaine looked at Kurt and whispered to him.

“Hey, I have an idea,” Blaine whispered.

“I think I know what it is,” Kurt smiled.

Blaine smiled. “Let's pretend to be a couple and get a free dessert.”

Kurt nodded. “Let's do it.”

“Sounds good,” Blaine said.

The waitress turned back to the boys from helping the girl. “Sorry about that,” the waitress apologized.

“It's okay,” Blaine said.

“So, will you two have the Couples Coupon?” she asked again.

“Yes we will,” Blaine said, looking over at his pretend boyfriend.

“Okay, here you go.” The waitress took out a coupon and put it on the table. “Enjoy your meal.”

As the waitress left, Blaine looked at Kurt and smiled. “Looks like you're my boyfriend for the night.”

Kurt smiled. “And since you're a good boyfriend, you should be a gentleman and get me a glass of water.”

Blaine shook his head but grabbed Kurt's glass. “Fine, I will,” he said.

Blaine stood up and headed for the drinks to fill both their glasses. As Blaine walked away Kurt found himself looking down at Blaine's butt again. But this time, he didn't question it.

The rest of the dinner was fun for the both of them. Since they had the Couples Coupon on the side of the table, it grabbed the attention of another couple. It was a lesbian couple. The two girls came over and greeted the two boys.

“Hi guys,” one of the girls said.

“Hi,” both Kurt and Blaine responded.

“It's nice to know we are not the only gay couple here tonight,” one of the girls told them.

“We feel the same way,” Kurt said.

One of the girls was blonde while the other girl had black hair.

“My name's Jenny,” the girl with black hair said. “And this is my girlfriend, Natalie.”

“Nice to meet you,” Natalie said.

Both Kurt and Blaine saw the big smile on Natalie's face when she was introduced as Jenny's girlfriend.

“Please sit,” Kurt said to the girls.

The girls sat down next to the boys.

“We used to think we were the only gay couple in this town,” Jenny said.

“Well actually we're not from this town. We live in Lima. We came here just for the weekend,” Blaine said.

“Oh, well that's okay,” Natalie said. “How's Lima?”

“It's really great,” Kurt said. “Really nice people.”

“So,” Jenny said with a welcoming smile. “How did you guys meet? I really want to know.”

Kurt answered. He had to make something up quick. “We met at a Katy Perry concert while she was performing Firework. Blaine bumped into me, we introduced each other and we spent the entire night singing along with Katy.”

Blaine spoke this time. “And when the concert ended, we talked the entire night. We went to a coffee shop nearby and hanged out. Before we said goodbye I had enough strength to ask him for his number.”

“At first I didn't want to give it to him,” Kurt said. “But I couldn't say no to that face.”

The girls awed at the story.

“And as soon as I had his number, I waited for the right moment to call him,” Blaine said. “I didn't want to call him too fast.”

“He called me the next day,” Kurt said.

Both Jenny and Natalie giggled.

“And I'm so happy that he did,” Kurt smiled at Blaine.

“We hanged out a couple times and eventually I asked him out,” Blaine stated.

Blaine looked over at Kurt and Kurt looked back. They stared at each other's eyes and both smiled, almost like it was a natural reflex.

When the dinner was almost ending, Blaine stood up from the table to get their free dessert. As he walked away, Kurt stared at him and just like before, he smiled. But he didn't hide it. He smiled at the guy he was having dinner with.

He was with Blaine.