The all-too familiar chime of Kurt's alarm suddenly filled his quiet bedroom, jerking him awake and robbing him of a great dream he was in the middle of. Kurt groaned and rubbed his eyes, yawning slowly. He reached his arm out in search of his phone, desperate to quiet his alarm. As soon as he shut it off, he lay idle in his bed, still too tired to sit up and get ready for the day. He hugged his warm covers closer to his body, knowing the second he got out of bed that he would be freezing.
He could tell he was the last one to get up. The rest of the house was already awake and buzzing with activity: Carole yelled at Finn to hurry up and get in the shower, his dad turned on the morning news downstairs, and Finn slammed the bathroom door shut a little too loudly.
The temptation to just forget the trip and fall back asleep was too real. Kurt rubbed his eyes again and took a long drink from the nearly-empty water glass on his nightstand. He usually woke up early on the weekends, but today he didn't have a choice. Carole had gotten the bright idea to spend the day together in Columbus, celebrating Kurt's birthday as well as taking advantage of the Memorial Day weekend sales at the mall.
And, of course, everyone loved the thought of a day trip to get out of Lima. Kurt had been excited, too. A day full of shopping and getting to spend his birthday money certainly sounded wonderful, but now that he was actually having to wake up and get going, he didn't seem so sure anymore. He and Finn had been out of school for three days, so spending the first weekend of summer with his family and without Blaine didn't suit him well.
Besides, not even twelve hours earlier they had just had their Friday Night Dinner together. They went to Breadstix for Kurt's birthday dinner, but he wasn't allowed to invite Blaine, so the whole thing was pointless.
Needless to say, he had had enough of his family for one weekend.
Kurt sighed, accepting the fact that he didn't have a choice. His dad would drag him along one way or another. But he had no choice but to get up right then if he wanted to look halfway decent. Kurt wished it was socially acceptable to go out in public in his pajamas, because he had no energy to pick out an outfit. Getting dressed at five thirty in the morning, especially on a Saturday, took so much motivation. Much more than he could muster at the moment.
Kurt finally rolled out of bed (literally rolled) once he heard Finn start singing in the shower. There was no way he would be able to relax again after having to listen to that.
"Kurt, come on! We're all waiting on you!" his dad called up the stairs. Kurt had finally finished doing his hair (only after Finn spent half an hour hogging the bathroom) and just needed to put on shoes.
"I'm coming, I'm coming," he assured him impatiently, flicking off his lamp and making sure to grab headphones before shuffling down the stairs to the living room. Finn was on the couch, tying his shoes, and his dad and Carole were turning off the lights and closing the curtains.
"Everyone ready to go?" she asked. No one really answered as they filed out into the garage, but Kurt was ready for it to be over already.
The reason he was so pessimistic about the whole thing was because they were supposed to be celebrating his birthday, when in reality, everyone else was getting what they wanted instead. His dad was going to look at a car show in the morning, Carole was taking them to shop at the new Columbus mall (which didn't sound so bad to Kurt, until his dad announced that they weren't allowed to split up. Which meant spending upwards of two hours in the women's department having Carole ask his opinion on every single thing.) Even Finn was getting to pick where they ate dinner that night, leaving Kurt with nothing to look forward to. He could have spent the day home alone and had more fun.
But once they were on the road, there was no turning back. They took Carole's Highlander so everyone would have plenty of room to themselves, but Kurt still felt cramped in the backseat next to his brother.
"Mom, can we at least eat breakfast before we get on the highway?" Finn asked. Kurt despised fast food breakfasts with a passion, but because Finn wanted it, Kurt's dad stopped at the closest McDonald's and got everyone biscuits and orange juice. Kurt went ahead and ate hesitantly, even though he knew it would just upset his stomach later. He stuck his headphones in his ears, drowning out the sound of Finn's annoying iPhone game and his dad's repetitive country music station. Honestly, he just wanted to be with Blaine.
His boyfriend had to babysit his little sister, Sydney, for the day while his parents attended a fundraiser at Lima's art museum. Kurt asked his dad if they could both just tag along, but his dad made the argument that it was a "family thing" and that Kurt could see Blaine the next day.
They merged onto the highway, and Kurt leaned his head against the cool glass of the window. It was the last weekend of May and already unbelievably hot, even for early in the morning.
The drive was uneventful, and they made it to his dad's car show right at nine. Everyone was tired, but seemed to be in a good mood. Kurt just wished the day would go by as quickly as possible. He had no patience whatsoever.
That morning was possibly the hottest day in Ohio history. Kurt felt sluggish, and wanted nothing more than to sit in the car with the air on full blast, but his dad insisted they were about to leave every five minutes. (That went on for nearly three hours before they actually did leave.)
They ate lunch at the mall. Granted, it was cooler indoors, but also more crowded and loud, which set off Kurt's every last nerve and made his head hurt. He was tired of his family, and wanted a break from each one of them.
Kurt was ready to go off and spend his birthday money, but his dad made them stick together, promising that they would have time to get to everyone's favorite store.
But, after spending over two hours on Carole, they barely had any time left in Columbus, if they wanted to make it back home before it got too late. So they decided to cut the mall trip short, and went ahead out for dinner.
By that point in the day, Kurt knew there was little he could do to salvage the trip, so he ate his dinner in silence, growing increasingly impatient as everyone took forever to finish eating.
"We should do this more often," Kurt's dad commented. Finn and Carole nodded enthusiastically in agreement. Kurt pretended not to hear.
"Maybe when they're having the back to school sales," Carole suggested. "And we could tour OSU while we're here. Finn, you've been talking about applying there."
"Yeah, maybe," he shrugged. "Rachel's been thinking about New York, though."
Kurt didn't want to go into how petty he thought it was that Finn would shape his entire future around someone else. But he just rolled his kept his mouth shut, mostly from annoyance. If he brought it up then he would be the one his parents got mad at.
The drive home was quiet and relaxed, unlike the rest of the day, and since the sun had set, the temperature had thankfully dropped a few degrees. Kurt still had a headache, so he couldn't listen to his iPod, but he was fine without it now that he finally had some peace.
Finn had fallen asleep next to him, as well as Carole in front of him in the passenger seat. His dad was driving still, and Kurt hoped they had to be almost home. He was itching to be in his own bed and forget about the frustrating day that he had.
His dad suddenly sped up and changed lanes quickly, forcing Kurt's head back against his seat. Kurt figured he had to be going at least eighty.
"What's wrong?" Kurt asked, leaning to his left to see out of the windshield.
"There's some idiot back there is driving all over the place," his dad grumbled, tightening his grip on the wheel. "Probably drunk, even though it's not even midnight. We're fine, though."
Kurt sat back in his seat and was able to forget about it, but he couldn't help but panic for a second when he heard his dad swear under his breath, and jerk the wheel quickly. The sound the other truck made when it hit them jolted the rest of his family awake, and Kurt reached over for his brother as Carole's little SUV toppled down a hill. Bits of shattered glass embedded into his skin, until finally he hit his head and could no longer stay awake, and no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't catch his breath.
Author's Notes:
This is it, guys. My second attempt at a full-length story. I've discovered that I'm more of a drabble girl, which explains why my drabble series has almost 150 chapters. But I need to give this a go.
This idea came to me as I was reading If I Stay by Gayle Foreman. I didn't make it all the way through the book, so the plot isn't exactly the same, I just kind of used the same concept, so if you haven't read that book then you're totally fine.
I guess you probably figured out that this takes place after season two. There are a few AU elements, so I'll go ahead and explain so you're not confused throughout the whole thing:
- When Kurt transfers back to McKinley in 2x18, Blaine transfers with him.
- The Warblers were upset about Blaine leaving, so the slushy incident took place right before Nationals, as they wanted Kurt to be unable to compete. Blaine still jumped in front of it for him, though, and was unable to go to New York with them.
- Kurt's dad's heart attack happened after Kurt and Blaine met.
I hope that saves everyone some confusion in later chapters! I've already written out this whole story, so updates should come fairly often. Let me know how you liked this first chapter, and chapter two will be up sometime this week depending on how you guys respond to this!