Hey there! In this chapter, the concept of a "progressive dinner" is used. It's really a cool thing, it's where you have a group of friends and each of the friends host a different part of a dinner (ie. salad and soup at another, entrees at one, etc). It's easier when you live in a village, for in that case, you can walk to each house, but since this is in America, not many villages around here. So I hope that makes sense and here we go!
Time after that day in the loft had been a little awkward for Blaine and Kurt for a while, but eventually they went back into the routine of Blaine being quiet whenever Cooper had Kurt over. It was 2008 now, Blaine a freshman at Dalton Academy Boys School and Kurt a Junior at McKinley with Cooper. Blaine was now more accepted into Cooper's group of friends whenever they all hung out, which Blaine was ecstatic about. His guy friends from Dalton would often come to his house and Cooper would hang out with them, Blaine would do the same for Cooper's friends. He was happy that he and his brother were closer than they had been when they were younger, which may have been attributed to the fact that when he came out to Cooper, he decided Blaine needed protection, just as he provided for Kurt when Kurt came out the year before. When Blaine heard Cooper say that Kurt was gay, his stomach flipped and he remenisced back to that day when Kurt had looked at his lips. Did he want to kiss me? Blaine was sure he made it up and quickly thought of something else.
Now it was New Year's Eve and the Anderson parents were going to a gala put on by their father's practice. Since they would be gone, they wanted to make sure the boys would be safe and, if they chose to drink, that they be in control. A progressive dinner had been set up, with a limo driver to transport the boys in between all of the houses. Blaine was allowed to invite a few of his friends, just as Cooper was allowed. Since they lived in Westerville, the group of friends had the progression of houses through Blaine's friend's houses.
Everyone met at the Anderson household to begin the dinner, first heading to Blaine's friend Jeff's for hors d'oeurves, then onto Nick's for soup and salad, David's for the entree and then back to the Anderson's for dessert. Before they left, Mrs. Anderson sat the groups down, which included Cooper and his friends Rachel, Finn, Kurt, Mike, Sam and Quinn, and Blaine's friends Jeff and Nick, David, Wes and Tina.
"Ok, so I know you will be drinking tonight. I am not naive to think you wouldn't, it's New Year's Eve. I would appreciate if you simply drink the alcohol we provided and not go out to find more. There is enough for all of you and we just want you to be safe. Please don't leave any of the houses, unless heading to the next house. Is that understood?" Everyone in the group nodded, smiling up and her and she quickly dismissed herself to finish getting ready, before heading out with Mr Anderson for their party.
"Dudes, I am so excited about tonight! We are getting blasted! Woooo!" Cooper exclaimed as soon as his parents had driven away.
"Coop, you know we can't get too drunk, we have Blaine and his friends here, they are only freshmen." Kurt tried to reason with Cooper.
"Hey! We aren't kids, you know. We can handle our alcohol." Wes reasoned back at Kurt, all of the other freshmen nodding their heads in agreement. Blaine walked over to where Kurt was in the living room while everyone was grabbing their coats to get in the limo.
"Hey." Blaine said quietly. Kurt looked up at Blaine and smiled a bright smile, which made Blaine's legs turn to jelly. "I'm excited to get to hang with you tonight. It should be fun."
"Yeah... Are you drinking much tonight?"
"Nah, I figured I'd kind of be the voice of reason with Finn tonight, just so that we can watch over everyone and make sure they don't get in trouble. I'm mostly talking about Coop, you know." He laughed and Blaine smiled, glad to know that Kurt wouldn't be getting too drunk. He was hoping to get to hang out with "real Kurt all night and see if this little crush that he realized he had developed was rightfully placed. Their conversation was ended by Cooper yelling for everyone to get in the limo to leave.
The dinner was well underway, the group on their way to back to the Anderson's to have the dessert. Blaine had been a little annoyed by his friends at the beginning of the night, who kept finding reasons to leave Blaine alone in a room with Kurt, or sit at the table so that the only place Blaine could sit was right next to Kurt. He wanted to be angry at how obvious they were, but Kurt didn't seem to mind and they were able to have a steady conversation the whole night about anything and everything. The current situation inside the limo was a crazy sight. After drinking a lot of wine during the first three courses, the group was well on their way to drunk. Some had abused the alcohol a little more than others, Cooper slurring his words and attempting to hit on Quinn, who was only rolling her eyes and smiling; Blaine assumed they would be together by the end of the night. Currently to his left were Nick and Jeff, the later straddling the former, heavily making out. Blaine was trying not to look at the boys as he didn't want to come off as a creep, but he was really interested in seeing what this kissing thing was really like. Most of the other kids were just jumping around and singing loudly, laughing at something that probably wasn't too funny to begin with. Blaine had also had a considerable amount to drink and that was why he was pretty much failing his attempts at not staring at Nick and Jeff. His eyes scanned the group and landed on Kurt, who was sitting on the other side of the limo. He smiled flirtingly at Kurt, hoping that he wouldn't get made fun of after tonight. Kurt, instead of rolling his eyes, blushed and looked down at his lap and then back up at Blaine through is eye lashes. Blaine could've exploded from giddiness of Kurt's reaction. His attention was caught by Nick again when he let out a rather embarrassingly loud moan and Blaine's eyes widened, looking back at Kurt. What he was surprised about was that instead of mirroring his expression, Kurt's eyes seemed darker than usual and were staring very intently back at Blaine with his mouth slightly agape. He swallowed the lump that had quickly formed in his throat and cleared it, effectively pulling Kurt out of his current state and he quickly looked away.
Thankfully, the limo pulled up to the Anderson household, where the night would commence with desserts and a dance party. Everyone stumbled out of the limo and ran up to the house. The Anderson's had payed professionally for a decorator and caterer to come in and host the event, with a dance floor set up in the main living room of the house. Everyone was so excited to begin their dancing, they quickly filled up more glasses of wine and hit the dance floor. Blaine went in to grab a glass of Muscato for himself, finding that it deliciously tasted like candy and therefore he didn't mind drinking it, and found Kurt in the kitchen, talking with Rachel... well, sort of. She was tripping over herself slightly and giggling with Kurt and when she saw Blaine, she ran over and hugged his neck.
"Blaaaaaaine! You are sooo cute." She placed a wet kiss on his cheek and instantly pulled back, "You taste like pink!" She then turned and started to run into the living room yelling "He tastes like PIIIIINNNNK!" Laughing at how ridiculous she was, Blaine walked over to lean on the island that Kurt was currently resting his elbows on.
"So how are you feeling now? Gonna drink a little more now that we are safely in the last house?" Blaine inquired.
"I probably will. Everyone is having so much fun and since we are all crashing here, I don't see the harm." Blaine nodded in agreement and poured them both a glass.
"Cheers to the night." Blaine said, raising his glass.
"And to where it might lead." Kurt added with a wink, smirking while taking a sip and heading for the dance room. "Coming, Blaine?" Blaine had to contain himself from running after Kurt's swaying hips and hustled towards the music.
*0*
The night had progressed quite well, Blaine dancing and having fun with his Dalton friends, Tina being taken away from the group by Cooper's friend Mike to dance, and Cooper and his friends were all dancing. The only difference between the two groups was the dancing styles of both: Blaine's friends were dancing and laughing, making human sandwiches, dancing and laughing loudly, while Cooper's group had begun dancing a lot more sexually as more alcohol got in their system. Midnight was quickly approaching and Blaine wanted to make a move on Kurt before the night was over. The groups were dancing pretty closely, so Blaine discretely moved from his group over to where Kurt was swinging his hips in a circle at the edge of the group.
"Hey!" Blaine shouted over the music, dancing in front of Kurt. Kurt looked up from his intense concentration of hip gyration and look straight at Blaine. His eyes were so dark, Blaine felt his leg falter slightly. Trying to remain confident, he moved forward and facing Kurt and trying to mirror the dancing that Finn and Rachel were doing right next to them. He moved his hips from side to side, slowly getting closer to Kurt, who instead of waiting for a slow approach, simply reached out and grabbed Blaine's hips and pulled him against his body. Blaine was very turned on by the fact that he was currently rubbing up against the boy who he had had a crush on for years and who was much older than him. He felt really cool and really excited (in his southern region, mostly).
They both danced in this manner for a while, both beginning to sweat, but Blaine noted that Kurt was really just getting into the music; his head was tilted to the ceiling and his eyes were closed, but he kept one hand firmly against one of Blaine's hips. Blaine was beginning to wonder if he was doing it right, since the rest of Cooper's friends looked pretty messy and he and Kurt looked pretty put together. He decided to ignore the feeling due to the small smirk Kurt was wearing the whole time.
The DJ pulled out a hand held mike and got everyone's attention, letting them know they had a minute before midnight. Everyone was cheering and the dance music got turned up really loudly for the last minute. It was at this time that Kurt brought his eyes to lock with Blaine's. His stare was so intense that Blaine really didn't know what to do.
"At midnight, who are you going to kiss?" Kurt asked, breaking the silence of words between them, a smirk still playing on his face.
"I- uh... I don't know. You?" Blaine said, barely speaking over the volume of the music.
"I think I know," was all Kurt said, before placing his hand in the small of Blaine's back and pulling him up against him. They were so lost in each other that: 1) they didn't hear the DJ start the 10 second countdown, and 2) they didn't see Jeff clenching his stomach, bending over and swaying a bit. There was a bunch of yelling and Blaine knew it was time. Kurt leaned in, closing his eyes, but before their lips could touch, something hit Blaine in the side, hard. Knocked out of their own world, Blaine and Kurt lowered their gaze to see what hit Blaine, seeing Jeff lying on the floor, passed out. It seemed that they were the only two who noticed Jeff on the floor, as everyone else was celebrating the new year and kissing each other's faces off. They both bent down next to Jeff and were shaking him, trying to wake him, but he was only making groaning sounds and not opening his eyes.
"I think he may have a concussion from that fall, let's get him out of here and put him somewhere quieter." Kurt yelled above the cheering and Blaine nodded, watching as Kurt quickly scooped Jeff up in his arms and head for the stairs to the loft. Blaine followed right behind and when they reached the top of the stairs, he asked if he should get anything.
"Yeah, get some uhhh some bread, water and a damp towel." Blaine didn't need to hear the list twice and ran down the stairs to fetch everything. The kids in the living room were still partying the night away and Blaine quickly went over to Nick and spoke into his ear that Jeff was alright and that they were taking care of him. He realized that Nick really hadn't noticed Jeff leaving as he was far too drunk to notice anything, but nodded his head and kept dancing with the other boys. Blaine was glad that he and Kurt had thought ahead of time enough to not drink too much.
He hurried back upstairs with the items Kurt requested to see him with Jeff's head in his lap, gently stroking his hair off of his face. Blow up mattresses had been placed throughout the house in order to accommodate the people staying the night, so Jeff was stretched out fully taking up a whole queen size bed.
"He woke up and is looking fine, but he was just a little tired, his head didn't really hit the floor hard. I think he honestly just had too much to drink. Let's see if we can get him to eat all of this." Blaine nodded and handed the food and water to Kurt, sitting down next to him on the edge of the bed and watched as Kurt gently woke Jeff and helped him eat all of the bread and drink the whole glass of water. He told him quietly that he could go back to sleep and that he and Blaine would stay there with him. After Jeff had fully gone back to sleep, Kurt looked over to Blaine and smiled a shy smile, all of the confidence from earlier much less evident.
"Sorry we had our night ruined." Blaine said, "And sorry you didn't get to kiss anyone at midnight."
"It's ok, you know, we have to do the responsible thing and take care of your friend. He's sick and obviously no one else knows what to do."
"Yeah, why do you know what to do?" Blaine asked, not accusingly, but just genuinely curious as to why a 16 year old knew how to take care of a drunk person.
"I'm friends with your brother." Kurt laughed quietly. "He gets a little out of control sometimes." Blaine nodded, understanding that Cooper would be like that. They fell into a comfortable silence again, Kurt stroking Jeff's hair and Blaine just staring at the wall, imagining what had almost happened downstairs. They both turned to look at each other after a few minutes and it looked almost like Kurt was going to try to make a move again, but they heard the music downstairs turn off and quickly heard heavy footsteps on the stairs.
"HEY, GUYS!" Cooper shouted way too loudly.
"Shh!" Kurt and Blaine scolded at the same time, Kurt nodding his head down to Jeff.
"Oh! Whoops! Sorry, hey, we are all going to go to bed, most everyone is pretty tired after all of the dancing and drinking. Kurt, you can come with me, you don't have to keep Blaine company, he's fine." Blaine scowled at this and looked down at Jeff. "The rest of your friends are coming up here, B, so make room. Oh! except Tina, she's coming with us. Come on, Kurt!" With that, Cooper was heading back down the stairs and Kurt turned to Blaine to say something.
"No, it's fine, just go with your friends, I really didn't mean to keep you from them." Blaine said, keeping his eyes downcast. Kurt wanted to say something to make sure Blaine knew that he didn't think of him as a burden, but couldn't find the words. Instead, he stood up, after lowering Jeff's head onto the bed and bent over, kissing the top of Blaine's head, right on his curls.
"Night, B. I really had fun tonight." Kurt exited just as quickly as Cooper had and Blaine was left with a sleeping Jeff and his regrets. He had so many opportunities to kiss him, to get his first kiss, but he never got it. He was really starting to resent Jeff for ruining the moment, but quickly erased that because Jeff couldn't help it. Soon enough, Blaine's friends from Dalton all crept up the stairs and threw themselves down on the mattresses, Nick falling right behind Jeff and pulling him closer to cuddle. Blaine definitely started to resent Jeff then, thinking of the possibility that that position might have been how he ended the night, but in Kurt's arms, if it weren't for him.
Hey guys! So I hope you don't hate me for this chapter. I honest to goodness had the exact same experience as this and I was equally, if not more so frustrated. Let me know what you think! I hope you liked it. And don't worry, there are only 2 parts left, so there's got to be something good in those, right? *hint hint
