Shooting the Breeze
Ch. 1: Sadie Hawkins
Disclaimer: I own nothing from Glee
Authors Note: I originally started out thinking of writing Jyder since I'm a firm supporter of them but it quickly morphed into a Blaine/Ryder story. I have no idea if there is a name for them. What would it be…I'm kind of a fan of Ryd-ine. Anyways here's the first chapter.
"I don't get it?" Ryder said before he can stop himself. He was sitting next to Sugar under Mars which was cool because he was the god of violence. Fin had just given the assignment where the girls would ask out the guy they wanted to go to the Sadie Hawkins dance with song. He had looked back at Marley and had seen the unhappy look on Blaine's face. It wasn't a good look on him. He looked way better with his typical smirk.
"It means the girls will sing to the guys, Mr. Bieber." Kitty said from the doorway.
"Not that, I understood the assignment. What I meant was I don't understand the Sadie Hawkins dance." Ryder forced out even though everyone was staring at him and it was making him uncomfortable.
"It's about empowerment and equal rights. It gives women the chance to have the power to ask out who they want for once." Tina spoke up looking like she was going to force her opinion down the throat of anyone who even looked like they were going to disagree with her.
"If it's all about equality…what about Blaine?" Ryder asked drawing everyone's confused looks to Blaine's equally confused expression.
"What about me?" Blaine asked in confusion.
"I mean the rules are that the woman asks out the guy and that's really cool. The thing is Blaine's gay. He doesn't want any girl asking him out any more than one of us would like an old person asking us out. What is he supposed to do? Go by himself or take a girl to the dance for the most awkward night of their life." Ryder explained. Ryder was glad that he had gotten his point across because most of the room looked like they were agreeing with him. Well besides Tina who looked like she had swallowed a lemon or something.
"Thank you for the concern Ryder but it doesn't really matter. No guy would ask me out here even if they could." Blaine said looking embarrassed.
"Why wouldn't they? I mean sure you're a little short and your hair kind of looks like a helmet but you have amazing eyes, a killer body and an ass worth drooling over." Ryder said trying to get that depressed look off Blaine's face. The room had dropped into stunned silence. Everyone was looking at him in shock. Sam was looking at him with a weird spark in his eye before turning his gaze to Blaine. Blaine's face had turned a light pink that looked kind of good on him.
"What?" Ryder asked the room when they continued staring at him.
"Ummm… You have a point Ryder." Finn said breaking the silence. Finn's face turned panicky when they looked at him in shock.
"I mean not about Blaine's butt, but about the dance thing. I guess if someone wanted to ask Blaine out or if he wanted to himself that would be cool. Well um…you have your assignments for the week so get to it." Finn said in one breath before practically flying from the room. Ryder sat there for a moment but quickly took the same route Finn did when the others just continued staring at him.
"Dude what was that?" Jake asked him as he ran to catch up to him.
"What do you mean?" Ryder asked as he opened his locker.
"I mean since when were you gay? I mean I thought you still had a thing for Marley. Don't get me wrong I'm glad you're over her but when did you start liking Blaine?" Jake whispered.
"I don't know I mean I never even thought of guys that way. I mean I've been kind of a loner until I joined Glee. I mean I knew about gay people and stuff but I never met or thought about it until now and I might have had a few sex dreams starring Blaine and Sam." Ryder mumbled. He busied himself with gathering his books for his next few classes so he didn't have to meet Jake's eyes.
"Really Sam too… huh, so what was that with Marley was she like your beard or something?" Jake asked.
"No not really. I did like her and she is beautiful. I guess I'm bi but I don't know. I have trouble trusting women and when Marley the nicest girl I know went and asked you out because I had to study for my first appointment for my Dyslexia I kind of lost what little trust I had been able to build with her. If I can't trust Marley how can I trust any other girl?" Ryder said closing his locker.
"Dude I'm sorry. Are you going to ask Blaine to the dance?" Jake asked. Ryder leaned back against his locker for a moment as he thought it over.
"I don't think so. I mean I like him and he's really hot, but I'm not stupid. I have eyes and it's pretty obvious that Blaine is still in love with Kurt and he has a huge crush on Sam. I could deal with the Kurt thing I mean I'm kind of used to being second best but I don't think I could handle being third best." Ryder said looking at his friend.
"Don't worry dude. You'll find someone. I'll help you find someone once this stupid dance is over." Jake told him as they started walking towards their class.
"So that was an interesting Glee club meeting." Sam said as he joined Blaine at his locker. Blaine felt his face go red again for the second time this hour.
"Umm yeah it was." Blain said trying to hide his face in his locker.
"So are you going to ask Ryder out or what?"
"I don't know." Blaine said closing his locker. He leaned back against it with a sigh. He didn't know what to think about it. All of it had come out of nowhere. Yeah it had been really embarrassing when Ryder had called him hot in front of the whole glee club but it had also been really nice. He didn't really know him that well, but it was really cute that he had thought about him and his view point on the dance.
"Why wouldn't you?"
"I don't know. What if he didn't mean it that way? What if he was just trying to make me feel better and it had come out wrong. If he asks me out I think I would say yes. I can't keep waiting for Kurt to forgive me."
"Dude he likes you but he is not going to ask you out." Sam said.
"How do you know that?" Blaine said turning towards his friend.
"Well, after glee I followed Ryder to ask him if he liked you and I might have over heard him talking to Jake." Sam said looking a little bit guilty.
"What did they say?"
"Well apparently Ryder's like Brittney liking a little bit of everything. Though he said he didn't trust girls. Which I don't get how can he not trust girls? They're so nice and bubbly." Sam said.
"Sam get to the point."
"Sorry, anyways he might have told Jake that he has had a few sexy dreams about you, well and me which is kind of cool and really flattering." Sam said with one of his goofy smiles.
"So he does like me." Blaine said with a smile. It made a warm feeling settle in his chest.
"If that's true why won't he ask me out?" Blain asked.
"Dude he's not an idiot. He can tell that you're not over Kurt and he also knows about your little crush on me." Sam said.
"I don't have a crush on you." Blaine stuttered.
"Dude you spend a lot of time staring at my lips. It's alright though. You like guys and I'm pretty hot so if you didn't have a crush on me I would be kind of insulted. Look what I'm trying to tell you is that if you want to try getting together with Ryder you're going to have to make the first move. Why don't you stop punishing yourself for what you did to Kurt and give yourself another shot at happiness?" Sam said before walking away.
Blaine thought about it. Yeah his crush on Sam was new and fairly small. He knew that it was never going to happen and that he was just setting himself up for humiliation later on. He knew that it would disappear over time if he didn't let it grow. The big question was whether or not he was ready to get over Kurt. The thing was he had cheated on Kurt. He knew that there was no really getting over that. Even if by some miracle Kurt took him back he would never trust him again. It would be better for everyone if he just moved on. Maybe Ryder wasn't the one but who knew maybe it could grow into love.
Blaine smiled as he walked to class. Now he just had to get up the courage to ask him to the dance. Something told him serenading Ryder was the wrong way to go. In this case being brutally honest might be the right thing to do.
"Hey Ryder I was wondering if I can talk to you for a second?" Blaine called out as he sped up to catch up to the younger man. Ryder turned around and gave him a shy smile.
"Uh sure." Ryder said.
"Can we go somewhere more private?"
"Sure."
Blaine led them to the auditorium. It was empty this time of day. It was also fairly close to the locker room where we had glee practice in around twenty minutes. They stood on the stage in awkward silence for a few seconds before Blaine got the courage to talk.
"I was wondering if you would want to go to the dance with me?" He asked watching in fascination as Ryder's pale skin turned a beautiful color of pink.
"I would love to." Ryder said with a smile.
"Great I'll pick you up around six and maybe we can get stop by Breadstix before." Blaine said.
"Yeah that sounds like fun. I'll text you my address after glee practice." Ryder said with a huge smile.
"Oh we should start going or we're going to be late." Blaine said gesturing towards the exit. Ryder walked ahead of him down the stairs and Blaine couldn't help checking him out. How could he have missed how hot Ryder was? Sure he was busy with the heart ache of losing Kurt and the inappropriate crush on his straight friend but ignoring those shoulders and tight ass should be considered a crime on humanity.
Ryder wasn't sure if he was supposed to laugh or find a place to hide in sympathetic embarrassment. If he had any idea that Tina was going to basically throw herself at a gay guy he would have tried to pull her over and stop her. He didn't understand how she could honestly have missed the way Blaine had been touching him throughout the practice. He had been subtly bumping shoulders and letting his hands graze Ryder's leg and hand whenever he could. Jake had been giving him looks asking him what was going on since they walked in.
"I'm sorry Tina but no. I mean I already have a date." Blaine said trying to let the poor girl down gently.
"Who?" Tina demanded looking embarrassed.
"Well, I asked Ryder out right before practice and he said yes." Blaine said.
"Congratulations man." Sam said slapping Blaine's back while Jake gave Ryder a thumbs up in approval.
"Well I for one must say I'm not surprised that Bieber hair finally admitted his love for dick and decided to ask high waters over there to make him a real boy. Good for you." Kitty said looking really bored now that all the entertainment from watching Tina embarrass herself was done.
"I think what Kitty meant was that we're happy for you." Marley spoke up drawing an ugly look from Kitty.
"Well as fun as this train wreck has been Unique has a pre-cal test in twenty and she need to get her study on." Unique said standing up. The glee practice seemed to end there with everyone slowly leaving. Ryder held back until it was just him and Tina.
"Hey, I know I'm most likely the last person you want to hear from right now but I wanted to tell you that it's all right." Ryder said.
"How is this alright? I have a crush on a gay guy and I just made a fool of myself in front of all our friends." Tina asked as she sat down looking defeated. Ryder sat next o her and put his arm around her.
"If it makes you feel better I've done way more embarrassing things." Ryder said.
"Yeah right, I'm pretty sure this takes the cake."
"Well, in my old school some guy asked me if I wanted to shoot the breeze sometime and I was all like why would you try to shoot a breeze isn't that a waste of bullets." Ryder said drawing a laugh from Tina.
"There was this other time. It was when I was first starting to think I was bisexual. I snuck into this gay club even though there was no way I looked old enough. I started to talk to this guy and it was going good. Well I thought we were talking about cars…let's just say he was definitely not talking about cars." Ryder said making Tina laugh even harder.
"Okay that is really bad."
"Now I don't know what's going on with you since we haven't really talked much, but something is telling me that you're not really in love with Blaine. What's really going on?" Ryder asked.
"I don't know. I know Blaine's gay and that I have no chance. It's just that for the last three years I've been in the background, always playing second string even in our little group of rejects. I guess I just thought it would be different this year. I mean I'm still a loser fading into the background and now it's even worse. I don't even have a boyfriend this year." Tina said looking really down again.
"Hey don't think of it that way. Look I know you think that you're not important because you're not singing every solo there is but you are. From what I hear about how it was last year glee club wasn't that healthy of an environment. Everyone was always fighting each other for top dog status. Maybe you're not feeling special is because you're not like Rachel. You don't need to be the center of attention every second. You're letting everyone have their moment in the spotlight. I think that makes you better than Rachel." Ryder said. Tina was staring at him in wonder.
"I never thought of it that way." Tina whispered.
"Well maybe you should and you did get the solo at sectionals…even though that ended up being a disaster."
"True I did a pretty good job. It was really hard learning all those words." Tina said with a smile.
"So what we are going to do now is go get ready for the dance." Ryder said standing up and offering her a hand up. Tina took his hand and let him escort her out of the locker room.
"Oh and I need you to do me a favor. I'm singing the last song of the night and I need you to dance with Blaine. It seems like a shame to have him standing there all by himself." Ryder said.
"It would be my honor." Tina said. They walked with each other in silence for a few minutes before Tina said, "You know you're a really good guy. I think you'll be good for Blaine."
Ryder couldn't keep the smile off his face all the way home.
Blaine was having a wonderful night. He had picked Ryder up early and they had spent an hour or two talking about everything. While Ryder wasn't as much of a comic geek as Sam was he did have an intense love for movies. They loved all the same movies even the rarer ones.
"I can't believe you've seen Prime Evil. I mean no one knows that movie. When I mentioned it to Kurt he had looked like I was talking about an alien abduction." Blain said.
"I know what you mean. No one ever appreciated the really good movies. You know the unknown beauties. I can never get Jake to sit down and watch it with me and Marley spent the whole time bored though she was nice enough to watch it with me." Ryder said in agreement.
"So what did you think of the Avengers movie?"
"I loved it though I think they gave Hawkeye no screen time and I'm a firm believer that Coulson lives." Ryder said with a smile.
"Finally someone agrees with me. Coulson definitely lives on. Though I am more of a Ironman man myself."
"Of course you are. After all you have the same dark good looks." Ryder said.
"Ahh thank you and you have fantastic arms like Hawkeye." Blaine said feeling himself blush. He looked down at his watch and jumped up.
"Oh my god if we don't leave now we're going to miss our first number." Blaine said dragging Ryder out of Breadstix. After that the night seemed to go by so quickly. It was amazing how well he got along with Ryder. He was even willing to admit, if only to himself, that they got along better than he ever did with Kurt. For one thing Ryder didn't seem to care about how people thought of him and danced with him in front of everyone, even letting him lead.
They were slow dancing with their bodies so close that he could feel the heat coming off of Ryder's body. Ryder's face was close to his almost against his neck. This was turning out to be one of the best nights of his life. That was until Sam pulled him away saying that he needed to talk to him. All he could see as Sam dragged him away was Ryder's sad confused look. This was going to do nothing in helping him convince Ryder that he wasn't crushing on Sam. He would have to make it up to him somehow.
By the time he got back to the dance Ryder was already on the stage singing the last number of the night. His eyes were a little red as if he had been crying or at least holding them in. Blaine felt like shit.
"What the hell were you thinking?" Tina asked from behind him. Blaine turned around to find Tina glaring at him in obvious disappointment.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean how could you abandon your date for half the night to go run off with Sam?" Tina said with a scowl.
"I don't know I messed up. Sam has been going on about this theory that the Warblers had cheated and he found proof." Blaine said.
"Oh that's actually a pretty good reason. Just couldn't you have told Ryder before abandoning him? You left him in the middle of a slow song in front of the whole school. I would even say it was more embarrassing then what I did in the locker room." Tina said with a sigh.
"I really blew it didn't I?"
"Look just tell him why you left and then grovel for all your worth. Just use that famous Anderson charm and he'll forgive you in no time." Tina said.
After the song ended the dance quickly died down. People quickly left to continue their nights elsewhere. The easy feeling of the night had disappeared leaving them with this awkward tension as Blaine drove Ryder home. He had opened his mouth multiple times on the way to explain but couldn't find the words. Blaine pulled up in front of Ryder's house and parked.
"Well, Thanks." Ryder said starting to open his door. Blaine panicked and grabbed his arm to stop him.
"Wait please." Blaine said. Ryder let his hand drop looking down at his hands.
"Look I know I shouldn't have left you there. It's just that Sam had this crazy idea that the warblers had cheated and he had found evidence that they were cheating. So we went and told Fin and it looks like we might be going to regionals." Blaine said.
"I guess that's a pretty good reason." Ryder said looking him in the eyes for the first time since he had left. They were a little red and his cheeks were a little blotchy.
"I'm sorry that I left you by yourself. It's just that I got carried away with the excitement. I'm so sorry please let me make it up to you." Blaine begged.
"I guess I could give you a chance."
"How does a dinner and a movie tomorrow night sound?" Blaine asked.
"That sounds nice." Ryder says before leaning over and kissing Blaine softly on the lips. His lips were softer than they looked and felt perfect against his. It was over way to fast.
"I'm looking forward to it." Ryder said before getting out of the car. Blaine sat and watched him walk towards his house, waving at him when he turned to look back at Blaine. This had turned out to be an amazingly good night. Maybe he could finally get over Kurt.