Even though Kurt knew deep down that breaking off the engagement was the right thing, he still loved Blaine so much. He wondered if leaving was a mistake rather than the preventative measure he'd presented at the time.
When he woke up in the morning, he still instinctively turned over, hoping to see his fiancé on the other side of the bed. A wave of sadness always washed over him at the feeling of cold sheets under his fingertips.
One particular morning, he'd had enough of the melancholy and decided to win back the best thing that had ever happened to him. It would take work (what with Blaine declaring that he would never forgive him), but Kurt had been convinced that that was just the pain talking.
Until he saw the Facebook page.
As it was the only for him to check up on things in a reasonably healthy manner – and Blaine had flunked out of NYADA soon after the break-up – he routinely looked at the wall and the 'single' status in his ponderings. It had only been that way for about 3 months.
That fateful morning, the status read 'in a relationship with David Karofsky'.
Kurt's heart broke all over again.
Blaine had moved on. And the worst part was that it was all his fault.
He looked at Blaine's wall just a moment before the time on his laptop's clock caught his attention. If he didn't leave now, he'd be late meeting Rachel and the others.
He made a new decision. Unless Blaine spoke to him, he would only catch up with the others. If Blaine brought up his new relationship with David, he would only offer a polite 'congratulations'.
He was done chasing the teenage dream.
Kurt smiled and waved goodbye to a classmate who had stopped on the street to talk to him. The pain in his chest was still there, but with both Rachel and Blaine back out of NYADA, he owed it to himself and to Madame Tibideaux to work his butt off and get on track to graduate. After that particular train of thought passed, he squared his shoulders and continued on to the meeting place.
It had rained all day, but a promise was a promise. Besides, Rachel would kill him if he let her down after her speech on learning that her friends were the most important thing to her. No matter what they had been through this year, he felt that showing her that they were okay was a priority. Kurt would be there and cheer when her TV show became a hit.
Two hours later, he was starting to reconsider being a cheerleader to a girl who couldn't be bothered to honor a commitment she had everyone else make. Actually, that could easily go for everyone else as well.
When it became clear that he would be the only one standing outside the loft in the foreseeable future, Kurt decided to grab a coffee and warm up a little.
"Kurt?"
That voice, while familiar, didn't belong to anyone he had been expecting to show up. Still, he stopped and turned to face the speaker.
To his surprise, Adam ran up to him.
"What were you doing standing in the rain?" he asked.
"It's a long story."
"Well… I'm all ears."
Kurt all but melted at that familiar smile.
The two men walked in a fairly comfortable silence that Kurt still couldn't believe was actually possible. After he'd left the Apples, he and Adam had passed by each other more than a few times at NYADA. At the time, Adam said that he would need time to resume their friendship. Time that Kurt was more than happy to give him.
Because even though he loved Blaine, there had been a special place in his heart for Adam.
Adam broke the silence after a while. "So, Kurt."
"Yes?"
"Are you going to tell me why you're out in the rain by yourself?"
"Oh, right… actually, can that wait 'til we get a…" he trailed off.
That wasn't right. He'd just run into Adam by chance. Who knows if the man still needed more time to get over Kurt's horrible treatment? But he didn't have the time to correct himself right then.
"A coffee?" Adam asked.
"Yes, that's what I was going to say – not that you have to get a coffee with me or anything! That was my plan before you called out to me, and since you wanted to hear what happened, it slipped out."
Adam didn't interrupt Kurt's rambling. He shouldn't have been so surprised. Besides Elliott and Dani, he'd been the only person considerate enough to always let Kurt finish his sentences. He simply nodded when he was done.
"Well, I'd love to get a coffee and catch up. We'd be out of this rain, at least."
"… So she wanted us all to meet right outside the loft in six months' time, but I was the only one who actually showed," Kurt told him after one last sip of his mocha.
"Well, maybe they got hurt or caught in traffic jams," Adam said.
"Maybe, but two hours is enough time for them to send off a text or something."
"Unless they were underground."
"Yeah, you have a point," Kurt said. "Maybe my frustration has blinded me to reason. But Artie's school is ridiculously close to the loft. He should have been the first one to show up."
"Right, right. And Blaine?"
It wasn't a ploy to find out Kurt's relationship status. However, he hadn't mentioned his fiancé much in his telling of the story, and Adam was growing more and more curious. He immediately regretted asking the question when he caught the look on Kurt's face.
"I… I broke off the engagement."
"Why?"
The simple word came out of Adam's mouth before he could stop it.
Kurt sighed. "Because we couldn't stand living with each other for more than a few months at a time."
He couldn't ask for elaboration. Not when Kurt was beginning to hurt over Blaine all over again. Adam wasn't sure if his own pain was due to knowing that Kurt still loved Blaine, or if it was just due to seeing the man he loved so much hurt again because of his ex.
Just as he was about to change the subject back to Rachel Berry, Kurt continued on his own.
"I mean, we fought for three hours because I got some toothpaste on a towel after wiping my mouth. That's bad."
Adam grimaced. "Indeed."
Kurt nodded and continued.
"And the first time we tried living together wasn't much better. According to my friend Elliott, Blaine stormed into his apartment and basically told him to stop spending so much time with me.
Anyway, our situation got so bad that I told him that we needed to call things off before we completely hate each other."
"How did he take it?"
"He looked me in the eyes and told me that he would never forgive me."
Now Kurt was on the verge of tears. If Adam had regretted asking about Blaine before, it was nothing compared to how he felt this very instant. As soon as Kurt looked up, however, he seemed to force himself to cheer up for Adam's sake.
"So, what's new with you?" he asked.
"Kurt… I know you. You're hurting, and you need to let it out. Like I said before, I'm all ears."
"… Okay. But first, I'm getting another coffee before they throw us out for loitering."
As Adam watched him get up and walk to the counter to make another order, he couldn't help but wonder about the kind of person Blaine Anderson was.
Judging by the reports of the Apples remaining at NYADA, he was always reluctant to separate himself from Kurt (and they had even heard rumors of him pulling the right strings to jump straight ahead to most of the classes Kurt took). Now that Kurt had told him about Blaine angrily telling another man to back off, so to speak, Adam wondered if it was because he was afraid of Kurt breaking off the engagement.
Well, if he was, he hadn't done enough to keep it from coming true.
He hadn't had much time to ponder Blaine before Kurt came back.
"Are you sure you don't want to regale me with the details of your life post-NYADA?" he teased.
Adam shook his head with a smile. He saw right through the light tone of Kurt's voice, but he didn't want to put any kind of pressure on him to continue talking about Blaine if he didn't want to.
"I've never stopped caring about you, Kurt. Know that my shoulder is here for you to cry on. Well, if you need to cry on a shoulder."
Kurt nodded shakily and spoke quietly.
"He's dating someone else now."
Out of nothing but instinct, Adam reached over and squeezed his hand very gently.
"Did he tell you?" he asked.
Kurt shook his head. "I saw his new relationship status on Facebook this morning. And to make things worse, he's dating a friend of mine."
Adam nodded, but he didn't say a word.
A few minutes passed. Adam rubbed small circles into Kurt's hand while Kurt took sips of his second coffee.
"Did you have any plans today?"
He started. Kurt's question came out of nowhere. Was he trying to get away? Or did he just want to focus on something other than his pain?
"Not really," he said at last. "And even if I did, they couldn't possibly be more important than spending time with you."
Kurt smiled at that, though there was still that chance of him not quite believing it.
But it was true. Adam had lost Kurt Hummel once. He was not about to let that happen a second time.
Kurt looked pensive for a bit, but then he took a deep breath.
"In that case, would you regale me with your stories over dinner?"
Adam didn't need to think about the answer. It was immediate.
"I'd love to."