Blaine Anderson was the school's biggest nerd. He wore thick framed glasses and was never seen without a bowtie and either suspenders or a cardigan. He was a straight A student and he always seemed to be carrying a book, reading as he walked constantly. Something that absolutely nobody knew about Blaine, however, was that he had a huge crush on the ever-popular Kurt Hummel. He wasn't exactly sure why, or how, he had this crush – Kurt was a jerk to him most of the time – but he always seemed to get sweaty palms and butterflies in his stomach when he walked past him or made accidental eye contact with him during class.
Blaine only had one friend in the entire school; Sam Evans. Sam was his best friend and Blaine knew that he could talk to him about anything, no matter what. They'd known each other since they were little, and somehow managed to stay friends through high school.
"Watch where you're going, four-eyes!" Kurt snapped as Blaine walked into him accidentally while walking through the corridor, reading one of his books.
"I – I'm sorry…" Blaine stuttered quietly, pushing his glasses up and stepping backwards shyly.
"You're wearing glasses, isn't that supposed to improve your eye-sight, not take it away?"
"I…I…"
"Hey!" A voice came from behind Blaine – Sam. "Don't talk to him like that."
"Or what?" Kurt sneered.
"Sam," Blaine whispered, tugging on Sam's sleeve. "Leave it."
Sam finally gave up after staring Kurt down for a good minute or so, leading Blaine away with him before Kurt could say anything else to him.
"Are you okay?" Sam asked once they were safely away from Kurt.
"I'm fine," Blaine sighed. "You didn't have to do that."
"Blaine, you're my best friend – of course I had to do that."
Blaine smiled shyly at his friend, putting his book away in his bag. "Well thank you…I guess."
"You're welcome." Sam smiled back.
Later that night, Blaine laid on top of his covers and let his thoughts drift to none other than Kurt Hummel. Blaine really didn't understand why he liked Kurt so much. Sure, he was cute, but Blaine would never crush on someone that hard just because of their looks. He didn't know anything about Kurt's personality other than the fact that he was quite defensive.
"Blaine!" He heard his mom call from downstairs. "Dinner's ready."
Blaine sighed, dragging himself downstairs. The Anderson's were loving parents and they fully accepted that Blaine was gay, but they were quite forceful and expected big things from Blaine. He didn't mind most of the time, he was a natural overachiever anyway, but sometimes he wished he could just do something he was passionate about for once.
"How's school?" Blaine's dad asked as they began to eat their dinner.
"Fine…" Blaine said. "I got an A on that report about Shakespeare."
"Of course you did, honey." Blaine's mom smiled, making his insides twist – and not in a good way.
He hated how it was standard for him to get amazing grades. His parents couldn't just be proud of him for doing well, it was always a 'well of course you did amazing' instead. Blaine sighed quietly, resting his head against his hand and beginning to eat his dinner.
The next day at school was a disaster for Blaine. It started out with him getting slushied the second he stepped through the school doors – resulting in him having to change into his gym clothes and wash his glasses thoroughly. It then continued to him getting a B in history – he was sure his parents would have something to say about that later – and realising he forgot to bring his homework in, meaning he got a detention. And to top it all off, he got pushed into a locker unnecessarily hard on the way to lunch.
"Hey!" A familiar voice called as Blaine pulled himself off the floor, picking his bag up. "Don't you have something better to do than bruise the weak?" Of course, Kurt couldn't defend him without also insulting him. "Are you okay?" Kurt asked once the jock was gone.
"Do you care?" Blaine said before he could stop himself.
Kurt was stunned silent for a few moments before he collected himself. "Look, I may not like you, but I don't agree with bullying."
"Clearly." Blaine said quietly, rolling his eyes.
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Kurt asked defensively.
"Nothing. Forget about it." Blaine replied, beginning to walk away, only to be stopped by a soft hand on his wrist.
"Hey," Kurt said. "Answer my question."
Blaine sighed. "It's just…you say you don't agree with bullying, but you call me names all the time. That's exactly the same thing."
Kurt didn't know how to reply. He'd never really looked at it in that way, the names just…came out of his mouth.
"I have to go." Blaine mumbled, ripping his wrist free from Kurt's grasp.
Blaine made his way to lunch, sitting at his respective table by himself when Kurt suddenly came and sat across from him.
"I'm sorry…I think." Kurt said, sounding unsure of himself.
"You think?" Blaine repeated, lifting his head from where he'd been reading a book seconds before.
"I…I didn't mean to…bully you."
"So what exactly was your goal in calling me four-eyes every day?"
Kurt shrugged, staring down at the table.
"It's okay," Blaine sighed. "I learned to ignore what people say about me a long time ago."
"Yeah, but I…I just…I don't know."
Blaine smiled a little, his stomach doing the same jittery thing he was so used to feeling.
"Why are you smiling like that?" Kurt asked confusedly.
Blaine's smile dropped, as did his gaze from Kurt's face to the table. "I…I'm not smiling. Why would I be smiling? That's…that's weird."
"Right…anyway, I have a question for you," Kurt said, causing Blaine to raise his eyebrows in question. "So, I'm kind of…failing history right now and you're like the smartest person I know so…I was wondering if you could maybe help me?"
"So basically you want to use me?"
"No! I didn't…I wasn't…"
"I'm kidding," Blaine laughed. "I don't mind helping you, but history isn't exactly my strongest subject. I got a B on the last exam."
Kurt couldn't stop himself from laughing a little. "You got a B? That must be like, the end of the world for Blaine Anderson!"
"Shut up," Blaine said, but he was smiling anyway. "Can you come over tonight? I'll help you then."
"Uh...yeah," Kurt said, sounding uncertain. "I'll need your address though."
Blaine rifled through his bag, pulling out a notebook and a pen, scribbling his address down on a blank page and ripping it out. He handed the note to Kurt before putting his stuff back in his bag.
"I have to go. Oh, I'll be a little late home tonight because I have detention, just so you know."
"You got detention? What did you do?" Kurt said, trying not to laugh at the idea of Blaine sitting in a room with a bunch of jocks who couldn't be bothered to do anything but answer the teacher back in class.
"I…I forgot to bring my homework in." Blaine said, causing Kurt to laugh despite how hard he tried not to.
"I'm sorry," Kurt said, still laughing. "I just…wow. I'll see you tonight."
"Okay." Blaine said, walking away and trying not to squeal with delight because oh my god Kurt is coming to my house to study and he actually spoke to me and apologised and he was actually kinda nice to me and oh my god Kurt's coming to my house tonight.
Detention was torturous for Blaine, and not just because it was detention. He knew that Kurt was probably waiting for him outside his house at that very moment and he just wanted to get home and spend time with him. Sure, they were only going to be studying, but that was one of Blaine's favourite things to do anyway.
When Blaine finally got home, he saw Kurt sitting outside on his doorstep. He climbed out of his car and made his way over to the boy. "Have you been out here since school finished?"
"No, I sat in my car listening to music at first but then I got bored." Kurt explained, standing up and moving out of the way for Blaine to unlock the door to his house.
The two boys made their way inside and up to Blaine's bedroom. When they stepped inside, Kurt's jaw dropped so far he was pretty sure it would fall off if he dropped it any lower. Blaine's bedroom was…big…a lot bigger than he expected. Then again, his whole house was bigger than he expected…how much money did Blaine's parents have?
"You…your room is massive," Kurt pointed out, walking inside slowly. "I'm pretty sure your bed itself is bigger than half of my room."
"My uh…parents have good jobs?" Blaine said awkwardly, feeling uncomfortable as Kurt pointed out how big everything was.
"No kidding…" Kurt mumbled.
The boys eventually settled down on the floor, spreading out everything they needed to study with. Blaine went to get his 'study materials' and Kurt wasn't that surprised when he pulled out a huge box of stuff. Blaine went about highlighting important information in Kurt's textbooks and other reading material and bookmarking pages he needed, but Kurt was too distracted with looking around Blaine's bedroom.
Unsurprisingly, it was extremely neat and tidy. There was a desk sitting against one of the walls with stacks of paper, different coloured notebooks and a pencil pot filled with pens, highlighters and pencils. There was a small tub next to it with erasers, sharpeners and paper clips in it, and a stack of sticky notes next to that. Other than that, the desk was pretty much empty, aside from the table lamp that sat on the right hand side. There was a shelf full of different books – actually, there were so many that Kurt wasn't sure how the shelf was still attached to the wall. There were another two long shelves below it, completely filled with music. Beneath the shelves was a table that held a record player and there were clearly more than a few records leaning against the table legs.
"Okay, what year did...Kurt?"
Kurts head snapped round suddenly to meet Blaine's eyes. "Hu- what?"
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing..." Kurt mumbled, looking around Blaine's bedroom once again. "You have a lot of music..." He said, staring at the multiple shelves of CDs attached to Blaine's wall.
"Yeah, my parents aren't exactly happy about that...or that I like playing the piano. Apparently it's a 'waste of my time' and I could study more instead."
"Study more? Blaine, you're like freaking Einstein," Kurt laughed, causing Blaine to blush and push his glasses up higher on his nose. "If you study anymore your brain might explode."
"Yeah, well...you don't know my parents."
"Why should it matter what they think?" Kurt asked. "If you like playing the piano, why don't you play the piano?"
Unsure of why he did it, Blaine grabbed Kurt's arm and lead him downstairs, into a room with a big piano. He went and sat down in front of it, letting his fingers drift over the keys before he began to play it.
Kurt was stunned. He had no idea it was even possible for a person to move their fingers so quickly. "You...you're really good." Kurt said once he was finished.
"I've been taking lessons since I was five," Blaine explained. "My parents don't like it, but they have no reason to stop me from doing it. We have more than enough money, I'm a straight A student -"
"Up until today." Kurt teased, sitting next to Blaine on the bench by the piano.
"Shut up," Blaine laughed. "Anyway...I think they're just worried I'm too attached to playing and I'll pursue it when I'm older."
"Will you?"
"I don't know," Blaine sighed. "Honestly, I have no idea what I want to do after school. My parents expect me to go into business, but..."
"You don't want to." Kurt finished for him.
"No," Blaine sighed, hitting the keys randomly. "I love school and I love studying, I just...being stuck in business for the rest of my life..."
"I get it." Kurt smiled.
"What about you? What do you wanna do when we graduate?"
"Go to college?" Kurt tried.
"Okay, after college," Blaine laughed, rolling his eyes. "What's your dream?"
"It's stupid," Kurt said, staring down at the piano keys.
"It's not stupid if it's something you're passionate about."
"I..." Kurt sighed. "I've always wanted to go to New York and study musical theatre, then maybe one day...be on a Broadway show."
"You could do it you know."
"You don't know what you're talking about," Kurt laughed. "You've never even heard me sing before."
"So show me." Blaine said, wiggling his eyebrows teasingly.
"No!" Kurt exclaimed with a laugh.
"Come on," Blaine said. "You're in glee club, don't go shy on me now...I'll even join you if you're lucky."
"You sing?" Kurt gaped.
"Maybe."
"Are you any good?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Blaine teased.
"Okay, okay, fine," Kurt laughed. "I'll sing, but you have to sing with me."
"Deal." Blaine grinned, beginning to play something on the piano.
'Made a wrong turn,' Kurt began to sing, instantly recognising the song Blaine was playing. 'Once or twice,
Dug my way out, blood and fire,
Bad decisions, that's alright,
Welcome to my silly life,
Mistreated, misplaced, misunderstood,
Miss "no way, it's all good," it didn't slow me down,
Mistaken, always second guessing,
Underestimated, look, I'm still around,'
Blaine grinned, beginning to singly along softly with Kurt, feeling a tiny bit shy.
'Pretty, pretty please, don't you ever, ever feel
Like you're less than, less than perfect
Pretty, pretty please, don't you ever, ever feel
Like you're nothing, you are perfect,'
Blaine wasn't expecting Kurt to stop singing, so he looked up at the other teen, quietly singing the last line of the chorus as their eyes locked.
'To me…'
The two boys were left staring at each other, their breathing being the only sound filling the room. A door creaking open snapped the boys out of their reverie and they turned to face the door, Blaine's mother peeping inside.
"Hi…" She said confusedly.
"Hi," Blaine said awkwardly, standing up and pushing his glasses up his nose. "Uh…mom, this is Kurt," Kurt got up and stood next to Blaine, waving to the woman in the room. "I was helping him study, but we just kind of…"
"Got distracted." Kurt finished for him.
"And will…Kurt…be joining us for dinner?" Mrs Anderson asked.
"Uh, I actually need to get going," Kurt said. "My dad will be worried about me if I don't get home soon, so…um, thank you for the help." He said to Blaine.
"I'll walk you out," Blaine said quietly, walking past his mother and leading Kurt to the front door. "Uhm…I'm sorry about that."
"It's fine," Kurt smiled. "Actually…would it be possible for you to help me some more, by any chance?"
"Sure…I can come over to yours tomorrow?"
"Okay," Kurt replied, holding his hand out. "Give me your phone."
Blaine raised his eyebrows, but pulled his phone out of his pocket nonetheless, handing it to Kurt. The brown haired teen did something quickly before locking the phone and handing it back to Blaine, slipping out of the door without so much as a goodbye. Blaine unlocked his phone, grinning when his contacts opened up and Kurt's name was there. He started typing out a text to Kurt, trying desperately not to squeal and start jumping up and down.
Blaine: It's impolite not to say goodbye, you know.
Kurt felt his phone vibrate in his pocket before he even reached his car and he knew it was Blaine so he pulled it out, shaking his head at the text he received, laughing a little to himself.
Kurt: Goodbye ;)
He wasn't sure why or how, but he actually kind of had fun with Blaine. Kurt had always thought that Blaine was a complete nerd…he sort of thought that he was weird, but it turned out he was actually fun to spend time with.