I'm so sorry for how long this took. Besides being incredibly busy and extremely lazy, I also had a small freak out about how terrible my writing was, and I was worried about offending people with some things in this story line and- well it was not pretty. Thanks to some of your reviews telling me you were genuinely interested in this story, I got over it, and am now posting this. It's entirely too short but the next chapter WILL be up soon. I'm about to start writing it. I hope you enjoy this despite it's shortness! Thanks, -as always- for reading!
Kurt bit his lip in concentration, looking over the boy in front of him with intense scrutiny.
"I think we're done. You look acceptable."
"You think?" With a quick glance in the mirror Kyle's little brother nodded. "Yeah, I still look like me, but you know, more date-worthy. Thanks." The freshman sent him a grin, "You're good at this."
"I never doubted myself. But your praise is welcome." Kurt smiled at the boy in a friendly manner. "Good luck with, -what was it?- Melissa? Otherwise all my hard work will have been for naught." After receiving a nod in reply Kurt left the boy's room and made his way down to the common room with a light feeling in his chest.
It was hard to explain how much he loved giving fashion advice. A big part of it was making people feel confident in their skin. He wouldn't be caught dead in the outfit he had just put together but -and this had taken a while to learn- his opinions didn't matter that much. Consulting your friends on fashion should be about making them feel happy and comfortable while making sure their outfit wasn't committing any major crimes to the fashion world. Part of what he loved about Dalton was that a ridiculous amount of the boys were appallingly bad at dressing themselves, and a number of those boys weren't ashamed to ask for his help. At first they'd been more wary than even the New Directions boys about his fashion choices but a few offhanded tidbits of advice here and there, (Which honestly, he didn't expect anyone to listen to, they never had before.) and suddenly people were starting to trust him to dress them. The feeling was like walking on air and it was making him re-evaluate his chosen career path. He'd always designed clothes but Broadway was the biggest dream. Now he wasn't so sure, because if just choosing outfits for people gave him so much joy, how brilliant would seeing people in his original creations be?
When he came to the base of the stairs and into the common area he saw that only a few people remained by the fire, all of the New directions boys by the gaming systems now, and that the last of the Dalton boys who weren't Warblers had left for the weekend. Rachel's eyes lit up when she saw Kurt and she jumped up and latched onto his arm. He winced and shook her off, still a bit mad at her from earlier.
"Whoa, let me sit down. That boy's wardrobe gives me a headache. Too many over-sized jeans for such a skinny little freshman." Before Rachel could latch on to Kurt again and pull him to sit beside her on the love seat where Finn had been, Blaine was moving closer to Mercedes which left room beside him. Kurt walked over and gracefully seated himself in one fluid motion. As Kurt settled himself down Blaine shifted too, so the two were close together. Blaine's arm was slung across the back of the couch and Kurt had angled his crossed knees so they were turned towards Blaine. Mercedes watched them closely and clenched her teeth in irritation. Their body language was so relaxed. Yeah, Kurt was basically in love with the curly-haired boy and Blaine had heart-eyes for her BFF, but they weren't in the awkward crushing stage of their relationship like they should be. They acted like the closest of friends. They called each other best friends. She felt betrayed and abandoned and quickly squashed the voice in her head that said she was just jealous. She was torn between being happy that Kurt was happy, and dragging him back to McKinley by his Dalton tie, hopefully shredding the ugly thing in the process. Seeing Kurt in the Dalton uniform was weird. It was like another person was in his body. Lost in her thoughts, she completely missed the glances Kurt was sending towards his normally bubbly friend.
"I'm sorry to be blunt, but it's almost eight o' clock and you guys have to drive back to Lima still. We also have a game night planned and we usually start at eight-ish. You're really not supposed to have been here so long without signing in at the office building anyways." Wes spoke loudly, jolting Mercedes' focus back to the conversation.
"That's been grating on you this whole time hasn't it?" Kurt's voice was coloured with amusement.
"He's dying inside at the lack of protocol." David replied. "Despite the fact that these parties we throw are against the rules too."
"They're tradition, it's different." Wes defended himself. "They also promote team unity."
"You keep telling yourself that's why we have them." David patted his friend's shoulder.
"We barely even got to talk to Kurt." Rachel pointed out.
"Then you could call me instead of squeezing everyone into Carole's minivan and driving over an hour to see me." Kurt told her, then added softly, "Not that it isn't appreciated."
"We really should get going though, otherwise I'll miss curfew, and I don't want to deal with my parents." Tina grimaced at the thought. Everyone stood up then, grabbing mittens and purses and dragging the boys away from their fun and Santana away from the drooling Warblers. Hugs were exchanged at the door. Santana looked over her shoulder, before sliding out the door with a smirk.
"Have fun in your gay orgy heaven, lady face. Give me a call if you need a woman to spice things up. Now hurry up Frankenteen, I needs to get home and the sooner I never have to step foot in that lame-o-rama van with you sweaty losers again, the better." Everyone shuffled out the door after her, muttering, and then they were gone.
"Okay! Now let's go drag Jeff away from his French books, and find Nick. Then we can get started!" David said, shouting the last bit excitedly.
"I am suddenly having delayed anxiety. I'm going to regret staying aren't I?" Kurt was glancing at the door his ex-classmates had just gone through like he wanted to follow them.
Blaine just laughed and bumped shoulders with him. "You're going to have fun. I promise."
