The weekend passed in its usual, Dalton fashion. All the boarders messed around in the games room and in the kitchens until around 4:30 on the Sunday afternoon, when we’d all begin our homework. Yeah, we always left it to the last minute. That’s just the way we worked.
It was the hour that Dalton was eerily quiet. You couldn’t hear anything through the halls of the boarding house other than the turn of a page or the sharpening of a pencil. The peace and quiet was so out of character for Dalton students, and every time the bell rung to indicate it was dinnertime, the noise and destruction was very much welcomed by the teachers (who’d always get nervous when the halls were quiet).
Jeff and I decided to head to the dining hall together, where we’d meet up with Wes and David, and some other Warblers, Jason and Max. During the entire walk from our dorm room to the dining hall, which usually took around five minutes, Jeff insisted on humming the KURTIEBEAR CUDDLES song. Well, to be honest, he started off singing it, but once I’d elbowed him in the ribs HARD, he was kind enough to hum it. So considerate.
We reached the dining hall where we were instantly greeted with the smell of a roast dinner. We loved Sunday nights: you’d be guaranteed a beautiful roast with some form of rich dessert. So Jeff and I, having been one of the first guys there, sat at the long table right in front of the rolls, roast potatoes and gravy boats. We definitely had the advantage.
“OI! WHY’D YOU GET THE GOOD SPOT?”
Jeff and I turned to see Max and David walking over while Wes was desperately trying to get Jason to stop yelling at us.
“Calm yourself, it’s just a roast!”
“It’s not just a roast, Wes. It’s a DALTON ROAST. THE BEST ROAST IN THE WORLD.”
Jason and Wes continued bickering while Max and David sat opposite us. David was grinning at me suspiciously for about ten minutes before I finally asked him what he was smiling at.
“Hey Pedo-Bear. Is there a reason you’re smiling at me like that?”
Max looked at David with a look that wiped the smile off of his face.
“It’s nothing, Blaine. He’s just being an idiot,” Max offered.
“You sure? Because idiocy is the norm for him.”
David glared at me, but I just stared at him right in the eyes until he cracked.
“Fine... So how’s Kurt?”
Everyone in the general vicinity almost choked on their roast beef and turned to stare at me.
“He’s fine,” I replied nonchalantly, ripping my roll apart so I could butter it.
“Just fine, eh?”
I turned to look at David quickly, seeing his eyebrows jumping up and down, clearly running through several inappropriate innuendos in his head to see which one would get the biggest rise out of me.
“Dave, man, leave him alone, ‘kay?” Jeff interjected.
“Never! We do this to everybody! TEASING IS NECESSARY! Besides, Blaineyboy here teased me about Vanessa!”
“Yeah, but I teased you because you accidentally called her NessyNessNess in front of us during dinner,” I added.
“OH MY GOD! NESSYNESSNESS! HOW DID WE FORGET ABOUT THAT?!” Jason jumped in his seat in realisation of this teasing device.
“Don’t even think about it, Waterford.”
I could see David slowly getting angry. He hadn’t appreciate the merciless teasing the last time around, and if he was going to try and tease me about Kurt, I was perfectly capable of stepping it up a notch.
“Okay, David. Get it out now. What do you want to know about Kurt?”
Everyone continued eating, but I noticed the quietened down slightly and turned their eyes on me.
“Well,” David began, “Is it true?”
“...Is what true?”
“Well, that you two are somewhat of an item?” David thought it was funny to put on a British accent for some reason. Idiot.
“That’s... yet to be determined.”
“What do you mean by that?” Wes asked, as he and Jason joined the table and the conversation.
“Yesterday... I mean, I asked him out. But I don’t know what that means.”
“Did he accept?” David asked.
“Yeah. He did.”
“Well, that’s a good thing, yeah? He likes you back.”
“Yeah, but... I don’t want to just assume that... that we’re boyfriends or something.”
Jason looked at me thoughtfully for a second while the others continued eating.
“I know what you mean here. You don’t want to push anything.”
“Exactly!” I was surprised with the way Jason, of all people, understood. He was known to be the Lothario of Dalton – he had a new girlfriend every week, and often mixed up the names of his ex-girlfriends.
“You know what you have to do though, don’t you?”
“What?”
“You’re going to have to test the waters on your first proper date. You’ve asked him out. Now ask him out to a specific date, and see how that goes. At the end, do something about it.”
“...I’m not going to date-rape him!”
“WHOA! Why does everyone automatically assume I’m talking about sex all the time?!”
Jeff looked Jason right in the eye and said, “Dude. You have a bulk carton of 100 condoms hidden underneath your bed.”
Jason shrugged seemingly unaffected by Jeff’s comeback and turned back to his dinner.
“Look,” Wes started, “You like him. We’ve known you like him for ages now. It’s not just going to go away. So after the first date, ask HIM what HE wants to do. And then you’ll know where you stand.”
“...That makes sense, I guess.”
“Stop being such a buzzkill, Blaine! Shut up, relish in the fact that you got your hunky white boy, and eat your damned potatoes!” David slammed his knife down onto the table in fake-anger as he shouted across the table.
He’d shouted loud enough for the whole dining room to hear, so of course I prepared myself for what would happen next.
“HUNKY WHITE BOY!?”
“IS THAT HUMMEL?”
“ANDERSON AND HUMMEL?!”
“YEAH, YOU HEARD IT IN THE DORMS THIS MORNING!”
Various idiots were yelling and shouting throughout the dining hall and the teachers struggled to calm everyone down. Whenever I heard my name, I refused to look up or react to the guys yelling in any way. I sat there and ate my beautiful dinner without batting an eyelid. But I couldn’t help but smile a little when I heard Kurt’s name being thrown into the mix.
Jeff noticed the way I’d smile and proceeded to hum KURTIEBEAR CUDDLES just loud enough for only me to hear. I elbowed him in the ribs, polished off the rest of my meal and joined the guys as we took our dinner plates up to the buffet and exchanged them for dessert plates.
“Chocolate mudcake! Awesome!” Wes always had a severe love affair with chocolate.
“With a raspberry coulis!” Jason added.
Everyone just stared at Jason.
“Coulis?” I asked. “Now dude... that’s just... gay.”
“Like you can talk! You’re gay!” Jason said in mock hurt.
“Yes,” I grinned to myself and thought of Kurt. “Yes I am.”