Kurt stayed in the café after Blaine left. He sat there hands wrapped around his warm coffee. He hadn’t seen Blaine for five years, he never thought he would again. It had taken Kurt a long time to get over the loss of his friend. He hadn’t known where he went, he left no note. For all Kurt knew he could be dead in a ditch somewhere. He was pleased to see Blaine again, sure, but couldn’t help but feel angry towards him. Why couldn’t he have just left a note, told someone where he was going. He had left without a trace and Kurt had been worried.

By the time Kurt rose from his seat his untouched coffee had gone cold. Kurt didn’t care, he chucked the paper cup into the trash on the way out. When he pushed open the heavy door of the coffee shop, he felt to cool wind sting his face. He let out a shaky breath. Why had seeing Blaine all of a sudden made him feel so uncomfortable? Kurt had no idea what he was meant to be doing. He looked around in hope of seeing something to jog his memory. Nothing. So instead Kurt slowly walked back to his apartment.

When he got back he took of his jacket and loosened his tie. He hadn’t even been to the office that day yet he still felt like he was carrying the world on his shoulders. He really should go and see his boss but decided instead to call in sick and sort it all out tomorrow.  Kurt still couldn’t get the picture of Blaine’s thin face out of his mind. He looked so ill, like a ghost. He supposed it was for his job after all the phantom isn’t meant to have seen day light for years. That reminded him he should Google Blaine’s show. If Blaine wasn’t getting out of his head any time soon it would be fun to see his show.

Kurt sat on his couch, pulling his laptop onto him and starting it up. When it had loaded he opened up a new browser and typed in ‘The Phantom of the opera New York’. The only thing that came up was reviews from years ago and a few pictures of the old set.  Where was Blaine, where was his show. Kurt decided to try again but this time adding a ‘new’ at the beginning of the sentence. Only a few new articles came up and a couple of videos of college students performing Music of the night. Where was Blaine? Kurt thought again.

Why was Kurt even bothering with this Blaine shouldn’t mean anything to Kurt any more. He shouldn’t be spending hours trolling the internet looking for something that might not even exist. Maybe Blaine was lying to him. But why? Why would Blaine want to lie to him, sure they weren’t close to each other anymore but surely Blaine wouldn’t lie to him. Blaine was a terrible liar he always was. Kurt remembered when he had lent Blaine one of his shirts. Blaine had given it back to him with a small orange stain on. He had instead that cooper had stolen the top and put tomato sauce on it just to spite Kurt. Kurt had seen straight though Blaine’s lie. He knew for a fact that it was the only shirt that Kurt owned that Cooper actually liked. Kurt had told Blaine that it was all right and he didn’t mind. Blaine had said he was sorry and wouldn’t lie to Kurt again.  What had changed?

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Blaine had been sitting there watching the people of New York go by for the best part of an hour. People had come and gone. Some of them had given him pitying looks some even giving him a few dollars. Where as some just looked like he was another piece of dirt on the street. Blaine had gotten used to these looks a long time ago but he still felt a little humiliated in his worn out jeans and his stubble that grew on his chin. He sat there watching families, students, groups of friends get on different trains all travelling to a new place in their lives. Blaine had nowhere to go, no home to go to, no family to see. He had never felt this alone before, never felt this depressed. What had Kurt done to him?

Blaine got up and trudged up the stone steps away from the subway, away from happy people and onto the busy roads of New York where he could get swept up in the busy rush of people. Where he didn’t have to think about where he was going, he would just walk and let the crowd take him somewhere.

He stopped in front of a low bridge. He didn’t know how far he had walked. Miles probably considering he started in the city centre and was now near Alphabet city. He didn’t know why he had come here.  When him and Joel had first been kicked out they looked about renting an apartment here. The apartments here where so cheap they were certain that they would find some place, but they had been too broke to even afford the smallest of flats. When Blaine had been staying around other people on the streets, when he had friends, a few of them had managed to get a small job waitressing or cleaning. They had managed to put a deposit down on one of the smaller apartments.

Blaine didn’t know which block or even which street they lived on now. Blaine doubted if he could even remember half of their names. It was always Joel who made the friends, always Joel who got the food. Joel was like a big brother to Blaine. In fact Blaine wished that Joel was his brother rather than cooper.

Cooper had been one of the reasons Blaine had left Ohio. He would always try his best to make Blaine look bad around other people just to make himself look better. He would always be the first person to tell Blaine if he was doing something badly or completely wrong. He would never give Blaine praise. He’d been like this since Blaine could remember. But Blaine didn’t want to remember, he wanted to forget.

Blaine moved towards the middle of the street and looked up. The buildings flew up to the sky higher than you would expect a normal block of apartments to be. I suppose that’s why their so cheap they build loads at one time Blaine thought to himself. Blaine could see one balcony which had some suspicious looking red stuff dripping down onto the one below. People get killed in their own apartments Blain thought in shock. I’m glad I didn’t live here in the end. And with that Blaine turned on his heal and headed back to the city, where he belonged.

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It had been two weeks since Kurt had seen Blaine. Kurt had woken up, gone to work, come home just like usual. Everything was normal except that Kurt found himself checking his phone every few minutes just to check that Blaine hadn’t called him and he had missed it. Kurt hadn’t heard from Blaine since he saw him last. He was getting worried. Blaine had said he would ring him. Yes he said that he lost his phone but surely he would have gotten a new one by now. Why hadn’t Blaine called, when they were young Blaine would never be late for anything. Maybe he had forgotten or work could have been tying him down.

Every time his phone buzzed he was way too surprised, always hoping it was Blaine even though the voice inside of him told him to stop getting his hopes up and forget about him. You lasted five years without him you can cope now. You survived the last time he ran off you can get over it this time as well. Kurt told himself every time he thought about the subject.

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Blaine was sat squashed up against a wall. He was underneath a bridge sheltered from the wind. His arms were wrapped around his knees protectively. His red jacket creased and his stubble was turning more into a beard by the day.

Blaine had managed to last two weeks without feeling or even thinking about Kurt. But now the guilt was starting to sink in. He had told him that he would call. Kurt must be worried. You can’t watch your best friend run off twice and not feel like they’re running away from you. Blaine felt bad, he wished he had never thrown away the card. His wished he had kept it. He could of called Kurt once, tell him what was really going on with his life and then hang up and he would never have to speak to him again.

Blaine was just about to lie down by the wall to take a nap when a he spotted someone in the distance. There wasn’t normally many people round here. It was just outside the city centre. The odd tourist who got lost would come down here trying to find their way back to hotels. That’s why Blaine liked it round here. He was quite sure there were the smelly bins from the offices, but he would go under the bridge far enough away not to be able to smell them.

So Blaine was surprised when he saw someone walking his way. He couldn’t see who but they looked out of place. When they got closer they grew more familiar. Blaine knew this person.

“Hi” The young man said, as he approached Blaine.