Thanks so much for all the reviews/favorites/author alerts! It really is made of win to wake up to a flooded inbox! You guys are awesome!
If there was one thing Matt Rutherford knew, it was that being gay made life in a small, mid-Western town in Ohio your own slice of hell. People were judged everywhere and labels followed you wherever you went, but in that particular corner of the world, pressure to be a normal, straight, corn-fed hick was ever-present.
But normal, as far as he was concerned, was just a cycle on the washing machine. Still, that didn't change the fact that he didn't want anyone (or, more precisely, everyone) exactly aware of the fact that he wasn't exactly straight.
One plus of being the strong, silent type was that you weren't noticed, and therefore, not judged, so it wasn't so much that other people worried him when it came to his sexuality
He'd had the 'I'm gay' conversation with his best friend Mike Chang years ago. Mike had just said: "So, you want to be Mario or Luigi?"
The 'I'm gay' conversation with his parents, though, was a different story altogether. His dad had just given an indifferent nod as an indication that he'd been heard. His mom had asked him if he'd tried not being gay, and although she dropped the subject when he informed her it didn't work that way, Matt was pretty sure that she chose to live in ignorant bliss.
But Matt hadn't even managed to come out to anyone else yet. The subject just never came up and he saw no need to advertise that fact the way Kurt Hummel did.
From the first day of Glee practice last year, Kurt intrigued him. He was different and wore that badge with pride, and part of Matt wished he could be that way, but the desire to be invisible won out over everything else, and he remained silent in the background as much as possible.
So when Mercedes approached him with what he'd begun to dub Operation: Defunkify, he didn't exactly say no, but he wasn't exactly looking forward to the weekend and all it would no doubt entail, either.
The bus wasn't leaving for Toledo until 2pm the next day, and unfortunately for Matt, this left plenty of time for a makeover. So after school on Friday, Matt made his way over to the Hudson/Hummel household, bracing himself for what was sure to be pure, unadulterated torture.
For one thing, he didn't really know either Kurt or Mercedes all that well outside of school, and while being third wheel to Ohio's answer to Will and Grace did not sound like fun, even worse was the possibility of what Kurt and Mercedes might do to him at the end of it. He did see that Lady Gaga outfit after all (you had to be blind not to), and he was pretty sure he was going to have to put his foot down if powdered wigs were part of Kurt's plan.
Still, Kurt was Finn's step-brother-to-be, and after earfuls every football practice from Finn complaining about living with a very depressed Kurt (there was only so much whining about country music, sappy show tunes and marathons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer one person could take), he was willing to do just about anything to shut his friend up, at least, that would be what he'd tell Finn and the rest of the guys if they asked later. And mostly, he knew Kurt needed this more than anyone, so he was willing to go with it. But in some small corner of his brain, were he being completely honest with himself, the idea of spending quality time with Kurt wasn't exactly…unappealing.
It was a mixed blessing, then, that Finn was otherwise occupied with Rachel. On one hand, it would've been nice to have Finn around to stick up for him, but on the other, the idea of Finn witnessing his impending transformation definitely had its upsides.
"He's here!" Mercedes called down as soon as he appeared at the door. She led him by the hand and then in a softer voice with a smile on her face, "Matt, just…thank you," she said, giving him a hug. "I'm worried about him. If you need anything in return, you just name it."
"Just um, don't let him put me in platform shoes, okay?"
"Deal. And let me just say…I still can't believe you actually speak."
"Why do people keep saying that?"
"Um…because for most of last year, I think we all kind of thought you were a mute."
Matt just shrugged, not quite knowing how to reply to that.
Matt fully expected to be led down into Kurt's basement like prey to a predator's lair, but much to his surprise, she led him upstairs.
"I thought Kurt lived in the basement?" he said as he followed her.
"I do," Kurt said, meeting them in the hallway.
"Then why aren't we down there?"
"First off, Oh Em, Gee, Mercedes, he DOES speak! Second, seriously? You should see the closet space down there. It's pathetic. There's barely enough room down there for accessories."
"So that explains why Finn had to share your basement," Matt mused. But aloud he just said: "Accessories?"
"How many more hours until we have to leave for Toledo?" Kurt asked Mercedes.
"It's 4:13, that doesn't give us much time," she said, consulting her phone.
"Twenty-two hours, give or take…no…not much time at all. Matt, you brought your overnight bag, right? Also, how do you feel about guy-lights?"
"Huh?"
"You know, highlights? But for a guy?" Mercedes supplied.
Matt nodded with a sigh, resigning himself to his fate. It was going to be a loooong weekend.
"Hands," Kurt said as soon as they entered the room.
The room itself was equipped with a large dressing-room sized makeup mirror with lights all around, a swivel chair like he remembered in the beauty parlor his mother would drag him to as a little boy, and even one of those deep sinks with a spot for your head that looked like it had been purchased second-hand from a beauty parlor as well.
"What?" Matt asked, not even bothering to count the bottles of skin and hair products neatly displayed on a shelf.
"Let me see your hands," Kurt said. Matt complied, and Kurt took Matt's hand, studying the fingertips and calluses. "Those cuticles are atrocious. Have these nails ever seen an Emory board?"
"A what?"
"Good GaGa, they've got so many creases in them…do you have a vitamin deficiency I should know about? Some Vitamin E ought to clear that right up."
Brittany had said his hands were soft, and she was right, it was like touching pure silk, but the sensation was short-lived thanks to Kurt's incessant berating of his grooming habits (or, as far as Kurt was concerned, lack thereof).
After a forty-five minute lecture on moisturizing, it took every ounce of restraint Matt had not to bolt for the door, but he could see the gleam in Kurt's eyes returning as he yammered on about the importance of SPF.
"SPF? I thought you only needed that for the summer."
Kurt let out a harassed sigh. "The sun is out year-round. If we don't take care of our skin now, we'll have wrinkles later. And we don't want to look like a Shar Pei by the time we're thirty-five now, do we?"
Matt could only shake his head in response as Kurt checked all of the supplies.
"Oh shit, Mercedes, I ran out of cream for my signature moisturizer."
"You want me to go to Wal-Mart for it while you prep him?" She suggested.
He tossed her the keys. "PLEASE! I'll let you pick the songs on the way to the outlet mall tomorrow!"
"Deal!" She replied, grabbing her bag as she headed up the stairs.
"Outlet mall?"
"Normally, I would buy direct online, but you need a full-length three-way mirror tomorrow, and that is the only piece of equipment I am sadly lacking. Next time I manage to save up a bit of money, though, it's totally mine."
Kurt filed away in awkward silence as a marathon on Bravo about bitchy, rich housewives blared in the background, and Matt kept thinking about how soft Kurt's hands were.
Kurt cleared his throat. "So, um, do you know what you're doing for the assignment on Wednesday?"
"Me? A solo assignment? Yeah…right. I'll leave that up to you, Rachel, Finn, and pretty much everyone else."
"Oh, that's right. You could sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and it would basically fit."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Matt demanded, and then winced as the nail clipper made contact with what was apparently his cuticle on his right-hand index finger.
"You should get up there on Wednesday."
"Um, no," he replied.
"Matt, I get stuck next to you in performances, so I'm one of the few people who've actually, I dunno, heard your voice. You're good, Matt. Really good."
Matt was sure his face was turning ten shades of red at the moment at the compliment. "Thanks," was all he could mumble.
"When I get through with you, girls will be falling all over themselves to get to you. Look at all the guys who've gotten girlfriends now thanks to Gleeclub. New Directions is hook-up central and you're the only one not getting a piece of the action. And you're in luck because I'm basically the resident cupid. I set my dad up with Carole, and now look at them!"
"You only set them up so you could get closet to Finn!" Matt protested.
"Oh right…but still…you have to admit they're kind of perfect for each other. Seriously…Matt! I could set you up."
"I don't know…" was all Matt could say. He couldn't bring himself to tell Kurt that it wasn't exactly the Gleeclub girls who interested him.
"Oh come on…Rachel's off-limits, but I'd never unleash her on you even if she was. Tina, too, but she doesn't seem like your type, anyway…"
'You have no idea…' Matt thought, but let Kurt praddle off names.
"Britt's gorgeous but she has the IQ of a jellyfish. And you've already made out with her. Santana's…well…Santana and I wouldn't wish her on my worst enemy. Quinn's got too much baggage for a relationship. Hey, what about that new chick?"
"The religious one?" Matt said, making a face.
"Oh hell to the no…the other one!"
"Oh her! Um…"
"It's done. She'll be at your feet by this time next week. We just have to find the right song."
He wanted to tell Kurt that this wasn't what he bargained for. Makeovers were bad enough, but to be bullied into performing so he could get a girl he didn't even know well enough to bother learning her name? Not to mention...she wasn't even on his particular menu? But
"Kurt…" he began…but all he could say as he could practically see the wheels in the other boy's head turning was: "Sam shouldn't have done what he did."
"Aaaand good feeling gone. Thaaaanks."
"Sorry…" Matt replied lamely.
"Um, no. Really. What I meant to say…um…thanks."
And by Kurt's expression, he could tell that Kurt was just as relieved as he was that Mercedes had just pulled into the driveway, returning with the promised handcream.