*Kurt Hummel*
"Okay, so you put your fingers here-no, right here." Blaine's hand replaces mine, showing me, well, attempting to show me, where to put my fingers on the guitar. "They're called frets." Blaine informs me. I nod in comprehension, feeling utterly useless.
I don't think Blaine knew when he agreed to give me guitar lessons how difficult the task would be.
I glance up from the guitar in my hands to Blaine's face. He is sitting cross-legged on my living room floor in front of me, me sitting on the couch. Blaine's soft eyes meet mine, his mouth turning up into a half smile that makes my stomach flip flop. I can't help but smile back. "
I'm hopeless."
"No, everyone's gotta start somewhere!" Blaine says confidently. "It's just that...you're beginning is a little worse than others." he grins at the last part.
I grab the throw-pillow that is next to me and chuck it at him, Blaine catching it against his chest.
"You're a feisty one, Kurt Hummel." he teases, his eyes sparkling with mischief. Instead of throwing it back at me, he sets it back into its original position. "So, do you remember the chords I showed you earlier?"
"Umm..." I can barely remember my own name with Blaine looking at me like that, a faint smile still lingering on his lips, his eyes open and honest, the smell of his cologne filling my nose...
Blaine ducks his head as he chuckles, and moves from his position on the floor to on the couch next to me, his knee slightly touching my hip, his legs underneath him. Just the simple touch is enough to put my body on edge.
I chew on the inside of my cheek, unable to look him directly in the eyes.
"You look upset." Blaine observes, making me cringe at the false statement, and the fact that he notices my nerves. "You'll get it eventually." he encourages me. "Here, let me help you." he scoots closer to me, and to my surprise leans over me to reach for the neck of the guitar, his body hovering over mine. I pray to God that he didn't hear my intake of breath.
He is so close, closer than he's ever been before, even though we've been hanging out everyday for the past week, counting the day at the coffee shop, and as friends we've gotten quite comfortable around each other.
His hand brushes mine as he reaches for the strings, and his eyes glance up at me before looking back down to the guitar, biting his lip in a painfully sexy way. "And you put your hand...here." he is saying, his voice low, causing my breath to hitch in my throat. "It's uh, kind of hard to show you from this angle. Could you scoot up a little?"
I nod and scoot up so I'm closer to the edge of the couch, unsure of how scooting up will help him. Blaine slides behind me, his legs on either side of my hips, but his body not touching mine.
Oh, so that's how.
I take in a deep breath, attempting to control my emotions.
"Put your fingers on the strings." Blaine says incredibly close to my ear, his voice shy. I do as he tells me, and he moves his hand so it's hovering directly over mine, his fingertips grazing my knuckles. "And you strum like this." Blaine drags his thumb across the strings, the sound echoing in the now silent room, bouncing off the walls, the only sound my unsteady breathing and that damn irritating clock again. I feel Blaine's warm breath on my neck, and my heartbeat begins to accelerate in my chest. If I turned my head, our lips would touch...
"The party has arrived!" the door bursts open, revealing Finn with Puck behind him, Puck being the one who had spoken.
I leap up off the couch, Blaine catching the guitar by the neck before it clattered to the floor. I turn halfway around the face him, my face burning a deep red. His face his flushed red as well, obviously embarassed at the two guys walking in while we were in that position. He doesn't look at me, his eyes on Finn and Puck.
"Hey guys," my voice falters, and I clear my throat. "W-Where's Sam?"
"He's on his way, he had to run extra laps in order to let Coach Beiste agree to let him join the football team." Finn explains, his gaze darting from Blaine and I, his eyes flashing with suspicion. I obviously was not fast enough moving off the couch.
"Ready to get our Call of Duty on?" Puck holds up the Black Ops 2 game, a sly grin on his face, raising an eyebrow.
"Always," Blaine chews on his lip, looking like his mind is elsewhere.
"This must be Blaine?" Finn asks, gesturing to Blaine, adjusting the bag on his shoulder.
"Oh, yeah! Blaine, this is Finn and Puck." I gesture to each of them as I say their names. I had completely forgotten they had never met before.
I'm still slightly puzzled as to why Puck agreed to come over, since he most certainly is not my biggest fan. I mean, yeah, I had brought it up to him, but I hadn't expected him to show up. Well, Finn had brought it up to him, anyways. Unsure of how Finn would feel about staying the night alone with a gay kid, I had told him Puck could come.
"And Sam will be here soon." Finn adds.
I honestly have never talked to Sam before. He's new at McKinley, and is in the glee club, and by the looks of it hasn't really made any friends. It had been Finn who invited him in attempt to involve Sam, make him feel like he belonged, with I think was really nice of him.
"Nice you meet you guys." Blaine smiles at them.
"You guys can head up to my room, I'll get us some drinks." I tell them. "That's where the Xbox is at."
Finn leads the way upstairs, being the only one who has been in my house before, Puck and Blaine following behind.
"You better not suck." Puck is telling Blaine as they disappear up the steps.
I grab four cans of Mountain Dew out of the refridgerator before going upstairs, my mind suddenly whirling and paranoia creeping into me. I've never had friends over like this before. What if they think my room is weird? What if someone notices the bloodstained comforter on my bed that can't seem to come clean?
Breathe, Kurt. Finn never noticed it before, so they probably won't notice it now.
As I enter my room, Puck plops down on the green beanbag chair in front of my TV, Blaine sitting down next to him on the floor, and Finn taking a seat at the foot of the bed, right on the most noticeable stain. I swallow back the hysteria threatening to escape me.
Everything is okay.
I hand out the drinks, each of them thanking me as I settle down next to Finn on my bed, lying on my stomach, my ankles crossed in the air behind me.
"I feel bad for whoever gets stuck on my team." I say. "
Since Finn and I are kickass at this game, we'll split up." Puck says, popping the disk into the Xbox. He turns to Blaine. "You any good?"
"I'm pretty good." Blaine offers optomisticly.
"I'm not." I say with as much enthusiasm, making Blaine laugh.
"Kurt, you can play on Finn's team, I'll take the Warbler." Puck tosses a controller at each of us.
About four Kurt-deaths later, there is a soft knock on the door downstairs. Happy for the escape from the game which I am losing at terribly, I leap off the bed, pausing the game.
"Jeez, Kurt, you weren't kidding when you said you suck at this game." Puck shakes his head, but he doesn't sound too insulting as he says it, a faint smirk on his face.
"Yeah, he's making me look bad!" Finn teases, flashing me teasing grin. "I'll go with you."
Finn and I go downstairs, and I open the door, a blond haired and blue eyed Sam on the other side, his hair damp from a recent shower.
"Hey, guys." he gives a shy smile, that new kid smile, the one that says please don't hate me. I know that look well- I was the new kid at McKinley only at the beginning of this year.
"Hey, man." Finn greets him. "The other two are upstairs, I hope you like Black Ops."
"Pff, do I like Black Ops." Sam scoffs, grinning. "I'll smoke all y'all!"
"Wonderful, then you can take my spot!" I tell him, to which he chuckles.
The three of us head upstairs, where the game has been unpaused, Blaine and Puck resuming the gameplay without us.
"Cheaters!" Finn smacks Puck on the back of the head as he walks by. "Let's start over, since Sam's here now."
"Sweet, some actual competition." Puck says approvingly.
Sam sits on the floor next to Puck, grabbing my controller, and they all begin playing, me dozing off, too lost in my own thoughts to really pay attention, or care, about the game. My mind seems jumbled, unable to organize itself. I'm thinking about the stain on my bed, about Sam being a new kid like me, about actually having people associating with me without beating me up, and about what Blaine's lips would feel like on mine.
After a couple hours I must have dozed off, because I jolt when Finn sets the controller on the floor and rubs a hand over his face. "Is it normal for your eyes to burn deep within your skull whenever you blink?"
"I need a break." Blaine agrees, stretching out his legs in front of him.
I glance at my alarm clock, which reads 1:30 AM. "You guys can take your stuff down to the basement if you want, that's where we'll be sleeping."
Everyone stands, grabbing their things, and heading downstairs, Puck talking about football with Sam as they go down the steps, Blaine joining in.
I start for the steps, but Finn stops me, an unreadable expression on his face. "Can we talk for a sec?"
"Uh, sure." I say, leaning against the the threshold of the door. Finn shoves his hands in his pockets and slowly walks in a small circle around my room, his eyes up towards my ceiling, trying to gather his thoughts. I don't say anything, waiting for him to say the first words. "Is something up with you and Blaine?"
The question catches me off guard. "No." I respond, because it's the truth.
Finn cocks an eyebrow at me disbelievingly. "You guys looked awfully comfy on the couch earlier."
I feel my face blush. "He was just showing me how to play guitar," I defend myself.
"Uh huh." Finn has a teasing tone, but then his face grows serious. "That's not what I wanted to talk to you about, though."
"What is it?" I ask, feeling awkward for some reason. I mean, I shouldn't, considering Finn is the closest friend I have, besides Blaine.
"My mom, she uh, said something about you the other day." Finn doesn't look at me as he talks, playing with the strings on my blinds absently.
"Did she?" anxiety begins to bubble up inside me.
"Yeah. She said..stuff happened." Finn's eyebrows pull together, and he finally looks at me. "What's that scar on your temple from, Kurt?"
My blood runs cold at the question that hangs in the air, my body frozen. Is there any easy way to answer that question?
"Rachel has asked me about it before too." he continues. "I told her I didn't know how you got it."
"I..." I can't seem to find words. What if he thinks I'm a freak? It was a stroke of luck he didn't care about my sexuality, I should have known that something would screw it up.
"Did you try to kill yourself, Kurt?" his voice is barely a whisper.
A single tear streams down my cheek without my consent, which only makes me want to cry more. Neither Finn or I move, both of us frozen, Finn's face unreadable. It seems to be a cross between wanting to bolt out of the room, or punch me in the face.
After a long moment that feels like an eternity, Finn crosses the room and embraces me. Finn has never been a man of words, and he seems like he doesn't like to show is emotions very much, so this surprises me. I bury my face into his chest, not caring how weird it might be. He doesn't say anything, and I'm glad.
When I do pull away, I try to smile at him. "Thanks."
Finn looks past me, biting his lip as he grabs his bag. "We should probably go downstairs." he says after a moment.
"Yeah." I nod, feeling like complete shit. I never meant to upset Finn. "Can... can you not tell anybody? Not even Rachel."
Finn nods curtly. "I won't." and he heads downstairs without a word, leaving me upstairs, feeling empty inside.
A/N: Thank you aremej012 for the review! And thanks to all other readers! You rock :)