It was the last day of tech. Reggie was hanging out with Aaron in the hallway playing with his iPhone. Tech week had a very annoying habit of being insanely long and insanely boring. Aaron promised to hang out on the one condition that they work on homework, which they had finished half an hour earlier. Now they were just goofing off.
It was times like these that Reggie missed going to school. Not the doing homework part, but rather the hanging out in the hallway just goofing off part. She was a social creature and she had felt so caged being stuck with tutors at home and out of place with the students at the JC. Some of her classmates were more than twice her age. It intimidated her. This was one of the reasons she had so many activities. She felt that if she kept herself active as much as possible, she'd forget how lonely she felt most of the time.
"It's your turn."
"Hmm?" Reggie had completely forgotten what she was doing.
"I spelled parsnip. Triple word score. It's your turn," Aaron was holding the iPhone out for her to take. Reggie couldn't help the blush rise up to her cheeks. "Did you get lost again?"
Aaron was the only one who knew about Reggie's frequent daydreaming. She was usually pretty good at staying focused and even when she forgot, the Anderson charm allowed her to bluff pretty well as far as knowing what was going on. Aaron called it 'getting lost' which Reggie thought was a little out of sorts since she was always able to find her way back.
"Just thinking," she finally said.
"About what?"
"About how nice this is, about how I wish we could stay like this for always."
"We can, you know."
"But that defeats the purpose."
"The purpose of what?"
"A moment. A perfect moment."
Aaron laughed, "You and your perfect moments. You love them so much but are afraid to have too many of them. Why?"
Reggie shrugged, "Because then they're not special anymore."
Aaron wrapped his arms around his girlfriend, "With you, every moment is special."
As the two leaned in for a kiss, they were interrupted by an anxious foot tapping and throat clearing. Reggie slowly turned around to find a very angry Kurt Hummel staring at the two. The angry look turned to one of confusion and then relief as soon as Reggie said his name.
"Oh my," he said, collapsing on the bench next her. "I thought you were Blaine. I mean, I really thought you were Blaine. From the back, you look exactly like him."
"Yeah, that's pretty much why we're doing Twelfth Night. But you knew that."
"But I didn't…I mean, you look just like him. Even your hair…where is Blaine?"
Reggie motioned to the auditorium, "They're working on the fight choreography between Sebastian and Sir Toby. Blaine's sword keeps getting in the way. It's actually kind of funny; you should go in and see."
Kurt shook his head, "I'll wait till opening night. I want to be surprised." Kurt then turned and looked at Reggie's companion, a look of recognition igniting his face. "We met at sectionals, right? You're Aaron, Reggie's, err..."
"Boyfriend," Aaron finished for him. "And Blaine's surrogate brother. Well, sort of. It's a little confusing at times."
"Oh yes," Reggie agreed, "we Andersons are quite confusing at times."
"Tell me about it," Kurt sighed.
Reggie was about to ask Kurt what he meant when she felt her phone vibrate. "It looks like they're finally ready to do the finale. Aaron, you don't have to wait."
"No, it's okay. I'll have some time to study," he said while fiddling with his phone.
It wasn't until she entered the auditorium when she felt her phone vibrate again. I think Kurt needs a lesson in the Anderson veil of obliviousness.
You're a great teacher, she texted back before joining her brother on the stage.
XXX
Reggie wasn't able to find out what happened between Aaron and Kurt until the following day. Rehearsal ended up taking way too long, and so Aaron was long gone by the time Reggie and Blaine were finally able to go home. It annoyed what was left of the girl inside of her to no end that she couldn't gossip about her brother's love life to her boyfriend.
As soon as she heard Aaron's Firebird pull into the next door driveway, she bolted out of her room, down the stairs and out the front door.
So?" Reggie asked before he had stepped out of the car. "What happened?"
Aaron grabbed his backpack and shrugged, "You were right. He's in love. Come on, let's go in and I'll tell you all the details."
Reggie sat cross-legged on Aaron's bed, listening intently to what went down after she had returned to rehearsal. Aaron had point-blank told Kurt that he was in love with Blaine. Rather than deny it, Kurt asked Aaron knew. The boy had simply smiled and told Kurt about the mental daggers he felt in the back of his head before Kurt realized that he was staring at the wrong Anderson. Besides, Aaron had already 'been there, done that,' explaining how long he'd been in love with Reggie before she finally let on.
"You didn't tell him about, you know?" she interrupted.
"You think I have a death wish?"
Reggie smiled, "Good boy."
Aaron continued, "He was heartbroken. It's hard to be friends with someone knowing they have no idea how they feel about you."
Reggie looked down at the comfortable feeling both ashamed and embarrassed for torturing her best friend for so long because of her thick-headedness.
"I told him to be patient. I told him that Blaine needs to realize things himself. Hopefully it won't take ten years like it did with you, but it'll still take a while. Also, I told him that the key to Blaine's heart is his sister, so I wouldn't be surprised if he starts hanging around more often."
"Oh, gee thanks," Reggie swatted him playfully. "Are you coming to rehearsal tonight? It's dress. It's like an actual show."
"Sorry, I can't. I have to study for my chem test tomorrow. But I'll be in the front row tomorrow night, sitting next to Kurt…and apparently all of his friends from McKinley high. Didn't they beat us last year? And weren't we like the only team they beat?"
"Shut up and kiss me…before I have to leave for rehearsal. Or do you want to make me late?"
"You're not in the first scene, you can be late."
"And you can be a pain in the ass."
XXX
Opening night. There was no phrase better than opening night. It was the time moment when all of a performer's hard work was shown to be all about and as far as Reggie was concerned, every night was opening night. And so, here they were at their last performance, just as important and miraculous as their first performance, taking in the applause and laughter of the audience.
Apparently, Kurt had taken Aaron's advice to heart. The boy had come to every show, not even Aaron had done that. The funny thing was Reggie was all but positive Blaine thought it was normal, especially since he came with a different person each time. The first night, he came with a couple of girls. The next, his parents. On Saturday, a boy who just seemed freakishly tall as well as the brunette from two nights before. At the evening performance, it was if the blonde brigade had taken over. Today, he was here with an Asian couple along with a boy in a wheelchair and a cheerleader. And after every single performance, he made a point of finding Reggie and telling her how wonderful she was, even better than the night before. It would be funny if it weren't so...
Reggie didn't want to say pathetic. She realized, in hindsight, that Aaron did pretty much the same thing when she was performing. He was there every night during her theatre productions and came to every football and basketball game, and even competitions to see her cheer. And of course, he was pretty much best friends with Blaine. And once they got together, he didn't try so hard because he didn't have to. He simply told Kurt to do exactly what he did to win her. She just hoped it wouldn't take another tragedy to make her brother realize his feelings went beyond friendship. Of course, the Andersons did enjoy drama.
"Kurt, it's so nice to see you…again," Reggie said with a wink as her new best buddy, it seemed, was finished winding his way through the crowd of adoring teenagers.
"Oh, you know," he said, his hands running through his hair, "just wanted to make sure all of my friends were able to see you perform."
"Yes, I saw. Where are they?"
Kurt's eyes fell to the floor, "Oh, they had dinner plans."
"Right. So where's Blaine?" Reggie's eyes darted through the crowd looking for her brother. "I haven't seen him since final bows and I figured you find him first…"
"Oh, no. I was looking for him too. I just saw you first."
"Or you thought I was him?"
"What? No, of course not," Reggie couldn't help but notice Kurt's neck begin to redden.
She put her hand on his shoulder, "It's okay. Aaron told me what happened. You don't have to try so hard with me, I promise."
Kurt crossed his arms defensively, "Is it that obvious?"
Reggie smiled, "Come, let's find Blaine and then I'll treat you to some ice cream. Ice cream always makes the heart feel better."
"You're not going to the after party?"
She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, "Neither of us are. Besides I'd prefer hanging out with you and I promise that Blaine does too."