THE CURIOUS CASE OF BLAINE ANDERSON

Synopsis: Bullying seems to be a normal way of life at McKinley for Kurt Hummel. All of Karofsky's football gang abuse him in some way or another. Well except for Blaine Anderson, who always stood in the shadows. His behaviour was unnerving, and becomes even more strange as Kurt and Blaine's paths begin to cross outside of school. Kurt was about to find out who Blaine Anderson really was.

(Kurt's POV)

I'm the only openly gay student at my school which kinda sucks. It's not as though I can even attempt to hide it, seeing as I have a few "stereotype" characteristics. So my voice is a little high, I take pride in my appearance and live for glee club... so fucking what? I'm not ashamed of whom I am.

But in all honestly it can be pretty hard sometimes, finding the courage to just walk through the doors of McKinley. Barely a day goes by without some form of abuse being thrown at me, or an ice cold slushie - nice, at least their bullying costs them money. It was mainly directed from the guys on the football team. Dave Karofsky is the worse. If gay bashing is made into a sport one day he would be a top contender for a gold medal.

My fellow glee club members Finn, Puck, Mike and Sam were also in the football team but have pretty much stopped hanging out with the other players socially, choosing to hang out with each other instead, or the glee kids of course. But before they joined, Finn and Puck bullied me a little themselves, which of course was water under the bridge now that we were all friends and Finn was my step brother.

Here comes the weird bit though. The only football player who has never verbally or physically abused me is Blaine Anderson. But he's always there, lurking in the background. I don't think he's ever been within hitting distance to me. I can't deny that the guy is hot as hell though. I've heard he does a lot of boxing in the locker rooms. I may have had one or two daydreams of him all hot and sweaty, pinning me up against the tiles of one of the shower cubicles and... oh um, anyway...

The way Blaine looks at me sometimes is almost worse than the name calling and the pushing. It's unnerving, like he's trying to do some voodoo mind trick or something. I don't know what his problem is; maybe he thinks you can catch 'gay' if you get too close to one?

'Kurt is that you?' Dad called out as soon as I let myself into the house after school.

'Yeah,' I called back.

'Come in here.'

I put my school bag on the floor in the hallway and hung up my jacket on one of the empty pegs then walked into the kitchen where Dad was. He was sitting at the kitchen table, in the middle of peeling carrots and throwing them into a pan. I smiled to myself, Carole has been teaching him well.

'What's up?' I asked, pulling a chair out and sitting down.

'Don't make plans for Thursday night. And if you already have, cancel them.'

'Why?'

'There's a potential new client who is considering the garage to service all their company vehicles and the director has invited us over to his place for dinner. It's a big contract.'

'Right... so what has that got to do with me?'

'Well you're coming as well. While we were talking we realised both our sons went to McKinley... oh and Finn of course.'

'Really? What's the son's name?'

Dad stopped peeling and frowned in concentration. 'Oh, he did tell me... um... Brad? No that wasn't it. I can't remember now. But the father is Michael Anderson, does that ring any bells?'

Anderson? Anderson? Oh Jesus, this cannot be happening. Although to be fair it could be a whole lot worse, at least it wasn't Karofsky.

'It's not... Blaine is it?' I asked quietly.

'Yep that's the one.'

'I hate him,' I said without thinking.

'What? Why?'

I stopped myself from talking for a moment. Do I really want to go into the whole bullying thing with Dad? The last thing I need right now is for him to run up to the school making things ten times worse. Also, this contract is obviously important to him if he wants Carole and I to attend. I don't want to cause trouble by telling him the director's son is a complete homophobe.

'Just because,' I shrugged eventually. 'He's a football player and I hate football.'

'You know, if you just watched onegame Kurt you might find it's not that bad.'

'And if you spent just one afternoon shopping at the mall Dad?'

He rolled his eyes. 'Ok, good point.'

'So Finn's coming as well right?'

'He can't, it's his cousins birthday.'

'Why do I have to go then?' I groaned.

'Kurt it's non-negotiable. Now grab yourself a knife and help me with the veg.'

The following two days at school before the dreaded dinner I saw Blaine a number of times, but he showed no sign of being aware we were about to spend an uncomfortable evening together in the presence of our families. But of course he knew, unless he lived under a rock or something. I wondered if he'd told the other football players. If he had, no doubt they were giving him advice on how to put salt in my water or spit in my dinner. Well that was something to look forward to I guess. Not!

So here I was on Thursday evening in the back of Dad's car, silently wishing we could have a teeny tiny car crash, just enough to warrant cancelling dinner and going back home or even a cautionary visit to the ER. But my prayers weren't answered and all too soon Dad was pulling up outside the Anderson household. Fuck, it was about five times the size of our house. Rich snobs.

'At least try to smile Kurt,' Dad said as we walked up to the door. He rang the bell and almost immediately it opened.

'Nice to see you again Burt.' Michael Anderson and my Dad shook hands. I could see a slight resemblance in Blaine and his father; they both had dark hair which they insisted on using gallons of gel on. 'Come on in.'

As soon as we walked into the house I spotted Blaine standing with his mother, but he didn't look in my direction at all. Michael closed the door and then it was my Dad who spoke first. 'Mr and Mrs Anderson this is my wife Carole, and my son Kurt.'

'And you know my son Blaine,' Michael said to me.

'Yeah sure,' I smiled. Michael introduced his wife Linda who kissed Carole and my Dad on the cheek.

'Well come on through to the dining room, dinners almost ready,' Linda said.

Dinner was a completely boring and dull affair, but I couldn't fault the food. The Anderson's obviously liked to show off their money.

Dad and Michael talked cars and football. Carol and Linda talked shoes and labour experiences. Apparently baby Blaine decided to come out arse first.!Yuck!. Blaine was sat opposite me and he never once looked at me but shot a few annoyed glances at his Mom now and again. He spent most of the time on his phone, probably texting his girlfriend or something. It was rumoured that he was dating a girl from the local private school. Public school girls weren't good enough for him I suppose.

Once the plates had been cleared away all the adults stood up, so I did the same, walking over to Dad and getting my hopes up that we were leaving, but no.

'Hang out with Blaine for a bit,' Dad said to me. 'We're gonna go talk business. Shouldn't be too long.'

'Sure,' I replied. They all made their way out and when I turned around back to the table, Blaine had vanished too. No surprise there. I sighed.

I looked around the room and a collection of photo frames caught my eye on one of the walls. Most of them featured Blaine. When he was a baby. Wearing his football attire. Smiling with his arms around his Mom and Dad outside a church. Ok, this was boring.

I went back over to the dining table, intent on getting some water, but the jug was empty. I picked up the glass I'd been using at dinner and walked out. It didn't take long to find the kitchen, but when I did I jumped out of my skin. Blaine was in there. He was leaning back against a kitchen counter, a mug of coffee in his hand. I walked through the doorway and cleared my throat.

'Do you mind if I get some water?' I asked.

'No,' Blaine replied, giving me the smallest gesture with his free hand towards the sink. He didn't look up from the floor which he appeared to currently be fascinated with. I went up to the sink and ran the cold tap for a few seconds before filling up my glass. I took a sip and then turned around to face Blaine. I should probably say something. But what?

'Um... you've got a really great house,' I said eventually.

'Yeah,' Blaine replied absently.

Jesus this guy was hard work. I know football players had a tendency to be a bit thick but this was beyond a joke. He could hardly string a sentence together. But I knew he wasn't thick, his grades were through the roof according to the gleeball guys.

'Your parents must be loaded.'

'Hhm,' Blaine muttered in response.

'I'm surprised they didn't send you to a private school.' Oh God I was completely rambling now. 'I really wanted my Dad to send me to Dalton Academy instead of McKinley, but the tuition fees are way too steep.'

'Right,' Blaine said so quietly I barely heard him.

'You know it's not a disease,' I suddenly snapped. 'You can't catch it.'

Blaine's head snapped up, his eyes locking onto mine for the first time that evening and an indecipherable emotion flicking across them. For some reason it didn't scare me, it concerned me.

'Sorry?' he said despite clearly having heard.

'I get it alright? You're homophobic, just like the rest of them. Only you don't even have the back bone to say it to my face.'

Blaine looked away from me, shaking his head and let out a tiny laugh. He drained the last of his coffee and then slammed the mug on the counter before storming out. What a jerk.

I stayed where I was for a while, drinking my water and wishing the time away so I could get home. I should have driven over in my own car, at least then I could just escape and send Dad a text telling him I'd gone. I finished my water and put the glass in the sink before walking out of the kitchen to find a bathroom. I figured there probably was one on the ground floor somewhere but I went up the stairs anyway.

Sure enough the first door at the top of the stairs was a bathroom. When I came out, instead of going back downstairs, I walked further along the corridor. Well, it was practically the law to snoop around in other people's houses right? But most of the doors were closed unfortunately. I reached the last room and I stopped dead. Blaine's room. The door was wide open and I could see Blaine lying down on his bed, headphones in his ears and listening to his iPod as he flicked through a magazine.

As I looked at him it occurred to me that Blaine had either shrunk to half his size or his bed was indecently big. It looked so inviting. I was just about to make myself scarce when Blaine looked up and caught me staring at him. Oh shit.

'What are you doing?' he asked shortly, taking his headphones out.

'Sorry... I was looking for a bathroom,' I blatantly lied.

'Top of the stairs,' Blaine replied.

'Oh right... thanks.'

I hurried off. Well that was awkward. When I got back downstairs I sat at the dining table for a while, browsing facebook on my phone. I resisted the urge to update my status to Hanging out at Blaine's house, his bed is huge ;-P But in all honesty I didn't fancy spending six months in a coma.

It was another half hour before Dad appeared, ready to leave. He looked pleased with himself so I assumed the business talk had gone well. I never saw Blaine again and but during the drive home I couldn't stop thinking about what an idiot he was. His girlfriend must be a saint.

A few days later I was walking to glee club after classes when I found myself pushed really hard into a block of lockers, face first. Ouch. Some books I was carrying fell with a thud to the ground. Breathing deeply and my heart racing, I turned around to see Dave Karofsky standing there, smirking. A few others were behind him laughing, and Blaine was at the back, just watching the events unfold and looking indifferent as usual. It was the first time I'd seen him since that awful dinner.

'Sorry lady,' Dave said to me. God I hated that word. 'I didn't see you there.'

I stood tall and just stared at him, praying the tears that were threatening to appear would at least wait until they were all gone. Dave walked off and the others started to follow. I bent down with a deep sigh and took my time to gather all the fallen books up, my eyes filling up with tears.

But as I stood up I came face to face with Blaine, who was standing right in front of me and within hitting distance for the first time ever. I flinched and instinctively moved backwards. But he was just holding out an A4 piece of paper which must have slipped from one of my books.

'Thanks,' I said, taking it from him. Blaine nodded briefly and then hurried away.

Well that was weird.