A/N: Inspired by: How to safe a life - The Fray

Hey. I have already written chapter 2 & 3 and they are twice as long the Prologue, so don´t worry :D I just wanted to post more frequently that way to make my readers happy :D

Warnings: May have triggering material in the future. This is all the warning you´ll get, because I hate to spoiler my own stories xc

Prologue

Blaine Anderson didn´t feel particularly old with 25, but he knew that he had lived his life to the fullest up to this point already. That did include make-out scenes with women when he was intoxicated, drugs and booze, a tour with his former band, parties and a not as clean record as he would like to have. A year ago if one had asked him what he thought of his life, he would have grabbed another bottle of beer, laughed as the drugs kicked in and said that life was fucking amazing. There had been a turning point obviously. Something he wouldn´t dare to delve in deeper, because the fragile, clean life he now had would crumble like dry cookies if he touched it. However it had changed him. His former band was abandoned, booze and drugs banned and he had moved away from LA to New York.

He hadn´t wanted to, but with nobody left and with people refusing to sell him their apartments, he had called his father. Neil Anderson was a business man whose focus had always been on his work as a lawyer and that only. When Blaine had fled home when 16, he had severed all ties with him and that he was now the only one he could call, angered him. Regardless of that, his father had helped him under his conditions. After going to rehab for several month, his father had bought him a small apartment in New York, far away from the band members in LA and he was forced to cease all contact to them if he wanted his father to wipe his record. Another one of Neil´s conditions was now to be met, two to be exact, and for the first time Blaine found himself appreciating the task he was supposed to do.

The weekly call that he was about to do agitated him less than it had two month ago as well. As expected his father accepted the call within seconds, as if his mobile phone was attached to his body already. It probably would be if technology had gotten this far by then.

"Blaine." Neil said, voice gruff and his speech limited to as few words as he could possibly use.

"Father. I have received the letter you send me. So what exactly do you want me to do?"

In the background Blaine could hear voices, but that was to be expected, as his father seemed to live in his office nowadays.

"Good. Just attend the meeting on the address that I provided. They will explain what it is that you should do."

"Okay."Blaine said.

"Job?"

Blaine sighed, knowing what his father would ask before he did. It was him checking if Blaine had his life under control. He probably knew already, since he wouldn´t trust his son to simply come clean by himself and let him be investigated by detectives or something.

"Yes, I still work as a waiter, and yes I could do better. Go on."

"College?" His father asked.

"Good grates, teachers like me yada, yada."

"Rent?"

"Paid.",Blaine answered."Can we cut this short, I think I need to leave soon if I want to arrive at the center in time. I haven´t had any contact with them, I shower every day and even brush my teeth trice a day. I attend the violin lessons accordingly and my apartment is spottless."

Phone still pressed to his ear, supported by his shoulder, he pulled on his shoes in the tiny hall of his apartment. He balanced himself on one foot, dangerously swaying until he was finally dressed.

"Very well. Don´t forget the drug test two days from now. I expect the results on my desk by Monday."

Without a goodbye, Neil disconnected the call, but Blaine hadn´t expected one either way. The letter with the address of the center he shoved into the inside pocket of his jacket as he left his apartment.

Blaine felt nervous on the way to the center, unsure of what he was expected to do and most importantly if he was able to help at all. It was voluntary work and even if it wasn´t the first time he had to do one, it was the first one related to drugs. He felt like he could cope with it better now, recovery was a bumpy road but not one he liked to look back on, so this task would be more challenging.

He had felt the urge to buy cocaine again sometimes and he wasn´t proud of it. Especially when the stress level rose and his loneliness constricted him, but he had always managed to resist temptation. He had a good reason to do so at that.

Exiting the always full subway,it took some time to find the building and he barely made it in time. The center was unlike what he had expected. Instead of a floor in a skyscraper it was a two floor house. It was only slightly bigger than a average family house and could use a repaint job, but it at least emitted a cozy feeling.

Knowing his father, he had expected something more uptight and high-end, and standing in front of something that resembled a family house in Ohio was a obstacle he hadn´t thought he would have. Shyly, he checked if his clothes were still in check before pressing his finger on the small button that rang a bell that he could hear through the front door. It took time for the occupants of the center to open the door, enough time to check twice if he really was on time and once if the address was right.

When a dark-skinned girl finally opened the door and looked at him as if he was interrupting something, his greetings got stuck in his throat.

"Yeah?" She finally asked, noisily chewing a pink gum. The purple and yellow combination she wore complimented her round body. If it weren´t for the annoyed expression she wore, he would have found her adorable. If only he weren´t forced to watch her chewing.

"Uh…I´m Blaine Anderson. I am a volunteer for the Smile project and was supposed to meet with the head of the institute to have my first instructions." Blaine said, phrasing it as a question.

"Another one? You should be grateful Sue isn´t here today, or she would rip off your prep boy head."The girl remarked as if he should know whoever Sue was, before turning back to him and yelling. "No shoes in this house!"

He was quick to comply, leaving his shoes at the door, before following her. As he walked, he caught glimpses of the many small rooms that were connected to the narrow hall. Right in front of them, at the end of the hall,were the stairs that lead upstairs. The girl whipped around too sudden for Blaine to stop and they collided. He mumbled a quiet sorry, rubbing the place on his forehead where it had met hers.

"What are you doing?" She spat, hands on her hips.

"Well I thought-.

"Listen, if you really want to do this job, especially with Kurt, it will do you no good being clumsy or shy. The office is the second door on the right side." She then ascended the stairs, leaving him alone with his mouth open.

Dumbfounded he walked back and noticed that the office doors were labeled as such. There were two, one that stated the office belonged to one Sue Sylvester, the other to Isabelle Wright –Project Manager of Smile. Remembering the words of the dark-skinned girl, he tried to shake off his nervousness. He had played in front of hundreds of people, had had his fans wrapped around his pinky finger and he still was shy when it came to facing new tasks. Given the fact that he had spend his time in the band high or drunken, it wasn´t that big of a surprise that starting a normal life was huge in comparison. He took a deep breath, encouraged himself with an interior pep talk, before knocking. A high pitched voice beckoned him to come inside and he did.

The office of Mrs. Wright was as small as the rooms he had had a glimpse of while entering, but it was stuffed with shelves, a big desk, and several little figurines, all fashionably dressed. The woman sitting at the desk stood up when he entered, her smile motherly and her blond long hair curled around her designer outfit. She wasn´t what caught his eyes at first though. It was the tall boy, with light-blue streaks in his short brown hair, the blue eyes that were rimmed with equally blue eyeliner and his ripped grey shirt that was smudges by multicolored spray cans. He was pale and in a way disturbingly unique and handsome apart from the scowl and the guarded posture. It didn´t take an expert to figure out that he was the one he would be working with at the Smile project. And he wasn´t delighted to see him it seemed.

"Blaine, right? Please take a seat. Tea or coffee?" Mrs. Wright asked, after shaking his hands. He sat down, locking his gaze with the cluttered desk instead of the boy that stood few feet away.

"Coffee, please."

"Of course." She said."Meanwhile let me introduce you to Kurt. Kurt this is Blaine Anderson. He is the one I told you about. He will be the you will spend the next months with, your Buddy that will listen to you when you feel down or help you cope with other problems. Blaine will be your support system."

Kurt gave no indication that he had listened and Blaine felt stupid with his hand outstretched, so he put it back in his lap.

"Say hello, Kurt!" He ignored her.

Shortly after, the boy left the room and didn't return. Mrs. Wright sighed, but was obviously already used to such behavior. She handed him his coffee, and he took it without mentioning that he liked it with milk.

"Excuse me for asking, but what exactly is it that you expect me to do? Visit him twice a week?"

"Well Blaine,"She took a sip from her cup before resuming."I have known your father for years and believe it or not, I feel like I have known you for just as long as that. I also know that he was the one that got you this here is me hoping that you will prove to be good at it. The Smile Project is something I have started because when I was younger, it took a stranger that listened to me, explained things to me and got me on the right track again. This is what you are supposed to do. Kurt arrived here two month ago, drenched, bloody and begging for money. New York's streets have roughened him up and we provided him with shelter here. In this center, we have many rules, one of them is no drug-use. Kurt just won´t stop and I don´t have it in my heart to throw him out. He can be such a good boy, he simply finds it easier not to nowadays."

Blaine knew now where this was heading, but he wasn´t sure if he was the right one for the job. He had lived his life to the fullest himself and had fallen deeper than he had climbed beforehand. How exactly was he the one that should keep Kurt away from something he struggled with?

"Mrs. Wright I am not proud of it, but I still visit after rehab sessions monthly. I would love to help you with him, but what exactly makes me the one fit for this?Your connection to my father? I am hardly a good example."

She smiled, as if she had known he would say that. Maybe she had.

"No, not a good example, but someone he can relate to. We have tried to get him to go to therapy sessions, but he regularly skipped them. You however, are someone he could open up to. Talk to him, explain why becoming clean is important. Show him the life he could have freed from drugs. Take him to your after rehab sessions. You are free to do anything that you think would help distract him. "

"I don´t know." He stated.

"Give it a try. Meet him tomorrow at 4 pm at the coffee shop around the corner called Neeba. I will make sure he is there."

"Can I ask what happenes when I don´t get him to stop?"

Mrs. Wright smiled a sad smile. On one of her shelves he spotted a photo of Kurt when she looked at it. It was the expression he had once seen on his Mom´s face.

"He will have to leave, I fear." She answered.

Blaine found himself ripped of arguments against taking the hob, so he simply nodded and drank his coffee to have an excuse to remain silent. She started chatting, telling him about the center and the other kids that lived here and as much as that interested him, he was glad to go home a while later. He had homework to do shift to work and the idea of being the guardian of an addict to digest.

Thanks for reading and feel free to review :D