Blaine couldn't believe what he was seeing. It couldn't be him… could it?

When he was a little boy, he always stayed at his grandparents the entire summer holiday. They lived in a small town called Fairport Harbor near Lake Erie, about a three hour drive from his house. It was safe to say that Blaine spend most of his summer at the lake. But what he loved most about that small town wasn't the lake, it was a boy his age called Dave.

Dave had been Blaine's first and only friend. Every year Blaine returned to that small town and they met on the beach at the lake. It would feel as if nothing had changed, as if they had just seen each other yesterday. But when they were apart they missed spending time on that beach. Blaine's parents divorced when he was fourteen, his mom getting custody. His grandparents who lived in Fairport were from his father's side of the family, and ever since the divorce things were tense, to say the least, so he couldn't go there anymore.

For a long time Blaine and Dave wrote letters to each other at least once a week, but it was never enough. After a while the letters stopped coming each week, and slowly but surely the boys lost touch. It had been easy for Blaine to forgot about that beach and the boy who was once the best part of his live. But now he couldn't pretend that boy was a figment of his imagination. Dave was standing right in front of him. Blaine thought about saying something to him, but decided not to. He quickly looked somewhere else and walked away.

He had been going to McKinley High ever since his parents had divorced. His mom had said they needed a change of scenery, and when she was offered a new job in Lima they moved. Blaine knew she really just didn't want to run into his dad and his new trophy wife, which was understandable. The new wife was everything his mom wasn't; blonde, pretty, dumb, you know the type. Things had been hard at first, but together they had made it through.

Blaine couldn't say he was especially happy at McKinley. Even though there was said to be a zero tolerance violence policy, Blaine hadn't really noticed any of that. When they first moved here and he was still the new kid at school, things were especially hard. Now Blaine had found his place, and even some friends. The Glee club was the only good thing at school, the only reason he survived school sometimes.

Blaine walked over to his friends who were already sitting at one of the tables in the cafeteria. His best friend Kurt had saved him a spot next him.

"What's wrong? You look like you've just seen a ghost." Kurt asked in a concerned tone. Blaine considered telling Kurt, but decided against it. Kurt could be a bit of a drama queen. "Nothing." He shrugged, quickly taking a bite of his sandwich so Kurt couldn't pressure him into talking. Kurt stared at him for a couple of seconds, before turning back to Mercedes, talking about some cute guy Mercedes had seen or something like that. Blaine dropped his sandwich and wondered if Dave had recognized him.

Blaine wasn't sure how he had made it through that day, but somehow he did. He hadn't had any classes with Dave, which he was very glad about. He went home, driving his car almost as if it were on autopilot. It was just him and his mom, he was an only child. He was home alone a lot because his mom had to work long hours at the shop. Tonight he was glad he was going to be alone.

Blaine went to his room and got out a box from underneath his bed. The box itself wasn't very special, but the content was. At least to Blaine it was, and maybe one other person, but Blaine couldn't be sure about that. He opened the box and found what he had been looking for, a picture of two small boys hugging and laughing. Blaine looked at the picture a little while longer, before putting it down carefully. The box was completely empty, except for a large stack of letters. Blaine had thrown out most letters when he was younger. He had never thought they would turn out to be the only things left to remember Dave with.

Blaine read all the letters. It was past midnight when he was finished, his eyes red from crying, his mind spinning from lost friendship. He tried to sleep, but just couldn't. He got up and decided he would go for a short walk, just to get some fresh air to help clear out his head. He ended up in the park near his house. He walked around for a bit when he saw someone coming toward him. A big guy, in a letterman jacket. Blaine hoped it wasn't a jock he knew, they didn't really like him all to much. He turned around quickly, hoping to avoid trouble.

"Hey, wait!"