It wasn’t like Blaine had intentionally hidden his sexuality. No one ever asked and it wasn’t exactly the best opening line. But when Blaine walked into school the Monday that the fall musical rehearsals started, he was met with open staring and name-calling. Everywhere he turned, there was a football player waiting to slushie him or a girl turning their nose up at him now that they knew he would never be interested in them. All the friendships he’d made outside of New Directions were gone, as if they’d never existed. Blaine found out later that Jacob Ben Israel had run the story on his online blog. He didn’t know if the nosy teen had actually done any research, or if he’d been throwing out a guess to stir things up, but Blaine’s reaction had been enough to confirm suspicions. The only bright part of his day had been, surprisingly, glee club.

“You stick close to me and Finn from now on, okay?” Puck said as he took a seat next to Blaine in the choir room. It was the closest any of them had ever sat near him.

“Yeah, man. And if we aren’t there, come find us,” Finn added and Blaine had never seen him look so intense. “You’re not getting hurt on our watch.”

There wasn’t much he could do but agree. Puck and Finn gave him guarded smiles, too strained to be genuine yet, and shuddered in time with each other. They shrugged it off when Blaine raised an eyebrow in questioning, saying that they’d felt a cold draft.