Blaine took a deep breath, as he walked into the common room at Dalton. Nick was sitting alone at a table in the corner, with a cup of coffee and his history textbook. Blaine hesitated, knowing that he could easily turn around and walk out without telling Nick anything. Then he remembered what Kurt and Sam had said. If they were Nick, they'd want to know.
"Hey, Nick," Blaine said, approaching the other boy's table and gripping the back of the chair across from his. "Mind if I sit?"
Nick smiled uncaringly. "Of course I don't. Go ahead."
Blaine pulled the chair out and gently lowered himself into it. Nick continued to read from his textbook, highlighting a sentence every now and then. Blaine watched him for a moment.
"Is everything okay?" Nick asked, glancing up and realizing that Blaine was staring at him.
"No." Blaine answered automatically. "Look. I need to talk to you."
Nick set his highlighter down. "Okay. What's up?"
"I... saw something... the other day." Blaine began. Nick didn't say anything, but he watched Blaine attentively. "It was Jeff. He was with Sebastian, and they were hooking up."
Nick was quiet. His face didn't change. When he finally spoke, he surprised Blaine by saying. "I know."
"You do?"
"Jeff told me everything," Nick said sadly. "He told me what he did. He told me you caught him. He said that he knew I wouldn't believe you if you told me yourself, which I probably wouldn't."
Blaine shrugged uncomfortably. "I don't blame you."
"Jeff and I had been having problems for weeks," Nick said calmly. "We broke up this morning. The Sebastian thing sort of opened both of our eyes, you know?"
"I'm so sorry, Nick." Blaine said sympathetically. "You guys seemed so happy. I had no idea."
"It was exhausting," Nick continued to vent. Suddenly, it was as if he was a balloon that Blaine had poked a hole in, and all the air was slowly leaking out. "We'd fight, we'd make up, we'd be with our friends one minute, cuddling and being this great couple, then the next we'd be screaming at each other in the front yard. I guess Jeff needed a way out, and he got it."
Blaine nodded, not knowing what else to say.
"But god damn it..." Nick continued, punching the table top and shaking his head. "That Sebastian guy really is a sack of shit, isn't he?"
Blaine let out a small, relieved chuckle. "You don't have to tell me that."
"Did you know he came onto me first?" Nick asked. "It's pathetic. He wanted me to cheat on Jeff and when I wouldn't, he took him away as revenge. Their both little sacks of shit, actually. This whole thing is just... messed up."
"Yeah. You deserve better," Blaine nodded.
"Thanks, Blaine." Nick smiled gratefully. "Thanks for making sure I knew."
"No problem, man."
"Really," Nick continued. "I'm so, so sorry for the way the Warblers have been treating you. We were acting like twelve-year-old girls. You barely did anything. I don't know why things got so awkward."
"It's fine..." Blaine mumbled.
"No. It's not. I should have realized what Sebastian was trying to do..." Nick's voice got a little bit louder, and Blaine had to look around to make sure no one was listening. "We're going to get him back, Blaine. You and me; we're going to make him wish that he'd never come to this school."
Kurt and Sam finally spoke to each other again during lunch hour. They'd driven to school that morning in silence. Kurt had been behind the wheel; Sam staring out the window in the backseat; Finn riding shotgun, deeply confused as to why Sam had offered the spot to him in the first place.
Then, at lunch, Mercedes called attention to them. "Is everything alright with you two?"
Sam glanced expectantly at Kurt, who's jaw was clenched as he fought back tears. They'd been sitting next to each other, wanting to keep up appearances, but they hadn't said a word to one another all day.
Finally, Sam leaned over and whispered to his boyfriend, "Can we go talk somewhere?"
Knowing he couldn't hold back his emotions much longer, Kurt nodded.
"We'll see you guys later," Sam told their friends, who looked concerned as they watched the boys walk away.
Sam brought Kurt to the boy's locker room, where he knew they'd get a little bit of privacy.
"Where do we stand, Kurt?" Sam asked him bluntly.
"What do you mean?" Kurt asked weakly.
"We said some things last night, but we didn't come to a decision. Do you want to break up or not?"
Kurt finally let out a choked sob. "Are you seriously asking me that?"
"We've been spending a lot of time together," Sam reasoned. "Maybe a break would do us some good."
"Wait. Do you want to break up, or do you want to go on a break?" Kurt asked quickly.
"I don't know." Sam said, frustrated. "I just know that I don't want to do this anymore... I don't feel the same way about you as I did back in April."
"What? Are you just gonna go back to Kentucky now?" Kurt asked reasonably.
"I'm still your friend. I'm still Finn's friend..." Sam tried.
"So, you still expect to camp out in my basement."
"If anything, this is because I've been living in your basement!" Sam tried to get across. "You're always breathing down my neck, always wanting me to be doing exactly what you want me to be doing. I'd feel better if I got some space for a while."
"Yeah," Kurt sniffed bitterly. "You'll get some space. Two whole floors worth."
"We can see where we are in a few months." Sam told him.
"And what if nothing's changed?" Kurt asked hysterically. "Then everything's just over?"
"You don't have to be so dramatic about it," Sam said accusingly.
With that, Kurt just shook his head. "Bye, Sam," He said sharply. "I'll see you at dinner."
Kurt left the locker room quickly, and Sam was hit by a wave of mixed emotions. He felt guilty, sure; a little nauseous. Mostly, though, he felt relieved.
Blaine stared at the text message he'd just received.
"Sam just broke up with me."
What were the odds that both of the seemingly functional gay couples he knew would split in the same 24 hour period? Frantically, he texted Kurt back.
"What?! Are you okay?"
Blaine held tightly onto his phone as he walked into Warbler's rehearsal, thinking Kurt was going to text him back any minute.
The minute he entered the room, Jeff rushed up to him.
"How could you tell him?" He was hissing. "You didn't even come to get my side of the story!"
Blaine was overwhelmed. Unable to formulate a response, he ignored Jeff, and walked past him without saying anything.
"Hey, Blaine!" Trent's voice called to him. "There's a seat for you over here."
Blaine looked over to see Trent sitting on one of the leather couches. He went over to join him, wondering when exactly Trent had decided to speak to him again.
"Look, Blaine..." Trent said immediately. "I think we should put any of our former conflict in the past. We're a team in here, and I'm sorry I ever doubted your understanding of that."
"Yeah, you did the right thing with the Nick and Jeff situation," Thad said as he approached.
"You guys know about that?" Blaine asked nervously.
"Everyone knows about it!" Trent exclaimed. "Nick wasn't going to let them get away with it."
Blaine knew that. Nick had told him himself. He just hadn't expected the revenge to start so soon. He suddenly looked up to see Nick pacing around the front of the room. Blaine's stomach sank. He had the gut feeling that some serious shit was about to go down.
His feeling was right. The instant Sebastian walked through the door, Nick lunged at him and grabbed him by the front of his blazer. He tugged him over to the nearest bookcase and pinned him up against it.
"You think you're pretty cool, don't you?" Nick hissed.
Sebastian showed no fear. "Well... this is quite the confrontation," He said coolly.
"How can you show your face in here?" Nick went on. "You're such a little prick. You don't care about Jeff. You don't care about anyone. All you care about is power, and you know what? That's not what we're about in here."
Sebastian was still smirking. "You wanna pretend like every guy in here isn't fighting for a solo or a spot on the council?"
"Competing. Not fighting." Nick said smartly, giving Sebastian another shove. "Maybe it's time for you to learn the difference."
Nick let go of him and stepped back. Sebastian let out a heavy laugh, smoothing out his blazer, assuming Nick was finished with his little outburst. He didn't even see Nick's fist flying at the side of his face. His eyes snapped shut as he got hit.
"That's fighting, bitch!" Nick shouted.
Blaine looked around frantically, wondering if any of the warblers were going to do anything. Sebastian leaped at Nick, wrestling him to the ground. Limbs were flying, and after a few seconds, Blaine could tell that Nick wasn't winning anymore. This whole thing felt so counterproductive. He wanted it to stop before someone got really hurt.
And so he stood up, "Stop it!" He cried out.
And they did. Not because they honestly wanted to listen to him. Mostly, they froze in shock of the fact that Blaine Anderson, of all people, was the first one to speak up.
"What's the matter, pygmy? Is this turning you on?" Sebastian sneered.
In a rush of adrenaline, Blaine walked over to them and shoved Sebastian off Nick. Sebastian tumbled off, not even kind of resisting, and quickly rose to his feet, sizing Blaine up.
"I'm so happy that you're the hero again," Sebastian spat at him. He looked around, calling out to the rest of the warblers, "Order in the choir room has been restored!"
"Nick's right!" Blaine yelled, his face getting hot. "How can you even show your face in here?"
Sebastian looked around again, searching for someone to jump out of the crowd and take his side. But the warblers just watched him, waiting to see what his next move would be.
"Screw you guys," Sebastian said confidently. "I have other shit to worry about...I'm not gonna waste my time with a show choir that's only made it to Regionals three times in the past twenty years."
"Right..." Nick said, holding his side and panting as he started to lift himself off the floor. "You'll just dedicate all your time and energy to a Lacrosse team that hasn't won a game since Clinton was in office."
Sebastian rolled his eyes. "Or maybe I'll give up teams all together, Nicholas." He snapped. "It turns out I'm not too big a fan of working with others. They only let you down."
"You let yourself down, Sebastian," Blaine piped in frankly.
"Yeah," Nick laughed. "It really is as simple as that."
Sebastian looked around the room one more time, just to make sure that he was really as alone as he felt. The warblers were silent, all of them staring down at the floor, avoiding eye contact. A convincing smile came over Sebastian's face, but Blaine knew it was fake.
"Alright, then." Sebastian sighed. "I guess this is goodbye."
Blaine felt on top of the world as he walked into Kurt's house after practice. He felt so powerful. He hadn't been able to stop smiling the whole drive over. Sebastian was gone. Everyone hated him. Blaine's life was finally going to get back to normal.
He bit down on his lip, knowing he had to put on his serious face now. Kurt and Sam had just broken up. That was not good news.
"How're you holding up?" Blaine asked, opening Kurt's bedroom door. The curtains were closed, the lights were off, and Kurt was in the fetal position in his bed.
"I'm not." Kurt whimpered.
Blaine walked over to him, sitting on the edge of the bed next to him.
"I just don't know what I did wrong!" Kurt was crying. "He just seemed so mad at me all the time...I should have seen it coming. I just thought he'd at least want to try to work everything out. I'm so stupid."
"You're not! Maybe you guys were just a bad fit..." Blaine tried.
"Yeah, well, I wish I'd known that before I lost my virginity to him," Kurt choked back.
"Kurt..." Blaine awkwardly rested a hand on Kurt's shoulder as Kurt sobbed into his pillow.
"You don't understand what it's like, Blaine!" Kurt told him. "You've never been in love."
"Well...maybe not..." Blaine said softly, looking away from Kurt and fidgeting with a corner of his comforter. He felt so helpless, like there wasn't much at all that he could say or do to fix the situation for his best friend. "But I've known people who have been, and I know that they've survived much nastier break ups."
"I bet they didn't have to live under the same roof..." Kurt wiped his nose on his sleeve. Blaine cringed and looked around the room, trying to spot a box of kleenex. Kurt suddenly sat up, so that he was at eye-level with Blaine. "And even if they do, they know it's only temporary. Sam may never leave! He breaks up with me and he doesn't even have the decency to get out of my face!"
"It's not like he has anywhere else to go," Blaine shrugged uncomfortably.
Kurt paused for a moment, thinking. Then, half joking, he said. "Maybe he should stay with you. Your house is big enough.
At first, Blaine just laughed. But, quickly enough, he began to seriously entertain the idea of Sam coming to stay with him. His house had a guest room... several guest rooms, actually. His parents didn't pay attention to anything he did, let alone who he brought over. Kurt had slept over multiple times without them batting an eye. Besides, his mother was very charitable. If, on the off chance, she decided to ask questions, Blaine could feed her some sob story about Sam's homelessness. This would certainly be a way for Blaine to help out. However, just because it was possible, didn't mean that Blaine actually wanted to do it.
"If it were just for a few days..." Kurt continued to plead. "Just until I've gotten all of the wallowing out of my system. I mean, you guys are pretty much friends already. It wouldn't be too awkward, would it?"
"I don't know when or why you decided that he and I are actually friends," Blaine mumbled. Kurt was wrong, living with Sam would be awkward.
"Blaine." Kurt scolded. "Stop it. You two are friends, and as his friend, I think you should extend your invitation to him right away."
"How's he gonna get to school?" Blaine asked practically.
"Public transportation. Or maybe Finn can go pick him up in the mornings."
"I don't know..." Blaine tried. "It would be weird."
"Blaine, will you at least think about it?" Kurt begged, trying out his own brand of puppy-dog eyes.
"You know, most people try to turn their friends against their ex-boyfriends," Blaine tried. Kurt didn't budge. "Fine, I'll think about it. But remember: just because I invite him doesn't mean he has to accept.