"Why did you ask about whether getting married would affect my financial aid?"
"He got into NYU for next semester."
"Wait, so he took the job with the Warblers, but he applied to get into NYU for spring term? He wasn't planning on staying with Dave. He just used Dave. At least that's how it looks to me."
"I hadn't thought about that aspect of it yet. But he would have had to apply back in August or by September at least to have already gotten an acceptance letter."
"It's back to the Blaine-effect as you call it."
"How did he get in to NYU when he washed out of NYADA?"
"Well, technically he got his credits for both semesters, so he didn't flunk out or lose credit hours. He was just not approved to pass on to the next level courses. He shouldn't have taken the second year courses, even though I never figured out how he got in them to start with."
"The Blaine-effect."
"Of course. But the product didn't match the hype. NYADA isn't for the faint of heart. It's tough. Every year we have to pass those evaluations to move on to the next level of coursework."
"He probably wrote some incredibly emotional essay."
"I don't know. I'm not even sure that I care. My brain is on overload. This whole idea of doing my internship here is stupid. It's not at all the type of experience that will help me in the future. Madame Tibideaux is probably going to give me an F for my midterm."
"Is there any way to salvage your grade?"
"I could pick up a couple of 8-week courses starting Monday at OSU or something and withdraw from the work-study course for the semester and do it again next fall, maybe? My other courses are online. But I would have the additional expense of paying for those courses out of pocket."
"Any other options?"
"Dropping out like Rachel? It's all such a mess. Since Blaine and I had split and I had lost my other New York friends, I had actually moved into the dorm so I wouldn't have to commute anymore. I sold off the furniture and made a deal with the landlord about the appliances and that large unit that I loved that was between my room and the living area. I had put my personal stuff and off-season clothing in a super small storage unit because I didn't know whether I could fit it all in the dorm room. I was only going to keep the storage unit for a month until I could sit down and go through everything, but it's still there, so whatever I end up doing, I'll have to go back and my stuff out of storage and move it somewhere."
"So, if you could completely defy all real-world expectations, where would you go and what would you do?"
"Wow, that's a tough question."
"Okay, then let's break it down. Would you stay here in the US or go somewhere else?"
"I have no real-world restrictions? Like money?"
"No restrictions. No future career repercussions."
"I'd go to Paris. I've always wanted to go and you said I had no limitations on my choice. I'd go there and then go around the country and see the castles and just relax for a while. I need a break."
"What do you have at your parents' house?"
"A couple of suitcases of clothes, my laptop, some shoes, my textbooks for this semester. Why?"
"I'm trying to figure out how to get it out of their house without getting caught."
"Why don't I just walk in like I belong and take everything I brought with me and act like it's completely normal for me to be collecting my things since they're going to be expecting me and Blaine to go on some sort of vacation, even it it's a short one. They might not even be home if they already flew back to DC."
"Good point."
"So, if we left tonight, we could arrive after dinner, so you can avoid a lot of interaction and you can collect your stuff and we could leave."
"I suppose so. Why tonight?"
"Because I want Blaine to stay until tomorrow, so that by the time he gets there, you'll be long gone with no trace of where to look for you. If you act completely normal, they'll think you've left with him for a trip, like you said. So, no one will ask a lot of questions since you obviously didn't leave yesterday afternoon prepared to get married."
"Where are we going to go?"
"I don't know yet, but you can just say that you don't know and they'll think Blaine is surprising you with the destination."
"Okay. You do realize this sounds over the top and a little nuts, right? He's not going to stalk me."
"I'm not sure about that. The more I've talked to him today, the more all of this seems quite planned."
"What do you mean?"
"He intentionally isolated you from the friends you had made in New York. Then, you were totally not going along with his 'Let's get married right away' plan. And he fights with you over everything. After he came back here, he took up with the one person that would bother you the most, well besides me and I had already turned him down. Plus, he had stolen my friendship from you already."
"Wait, what?"
"I knew he had a crush on me, but I turned him down."
"When was this?"
"Around Regionals our senior year."
"So, right before the proposal."
"Yes."
"As much as you don't want to see it, he wants you as his caregiver. His wife. His nurturer. He wants to have his steady input of affection and adoration always at his beck and call while he seeks out sexual encounters outside your relationship."
"You think he's cheated on me more than the once?"
"I would bet on it."
"I guess now that I think about it, he cheated on Dave with me."
"What do you mean?"
"The other night at Rachel's party. When I walked outside with him as he was leaving, he stopped and turned back and kissed me, and then walked away."
Sam changed the topic. "I confronted him about the engagement at Dalton and the fact that he never wore a ring."
"Oh?"
"I told him that since he was the one that cheated, it would have made more sense for him to be the one to wear a ring signifying that he was taken – to help him remember."
"Oh, wow. You weren't holding back."
"Nope. He told me that men don't wear engagement rings."
Kurt sighed. "I know he went to my dad to ask permission to ask me to marry him. I'm not a freaking girl and that's an archaic tradition anyway. Women don't need permission from their father's to get married anymore."
"When I asked him if he had had sex with anyone besides you, his random, and Dave, he wouldn't answer."
"So you think he was cheating on me in New York or cheating on Dave around Lima?"
"Maybe both. The question is whether it matters to the choice you have to make. Do you want to be married to Blaine?"
"Something just popped into my head. How did Blaine's mom get invited yesterday? Why would she come to Britt and Santana's wedding? She and my parents had never even met before yesterday."
"I don't have an answer to that."
"And even more strange is where did those dresses come from?"
"What dresses?"
"Those practically screamingly bright, fringed dresses that all the moms were wearing How did they just happen to have four dresses that went with the two Troubletones outfits in a barn in rural Indiana. Carole and Blaine's mom had never met. I'm sure that Mrs. Anderson hadn't met any of the adults or Santana or Brittany. The mostly likely person for to have met would have been you."
"Nope. Never saw her until yesterday."
"So, where did those dresses come from? It's not like any of the moms are the size that would just fit in random dresses from the costume room at the school. No one was wearing the same color. The styles were varied, but went together. That was pre-planned. Carole was there because my dad was officiating, but who on earth invited Mrs. Anderson?"
"You still call her Mrs. Anderson after four years of knowing Blaine?"
"Yeah. I'd only met her once and I've never met Mr. Anderson and he wasn't there yesterday. But someone orchestrated that. I have another question. Where is the white jacket I was wearing?"
"I made sure it was in the right place to go back with the rest our jackets to go back to the rental company."
"Oh, good. Thank you."
"The tux jacket that I had on for the ceremony needs to go back to Brittany, I guess. I don't know if it was a rental as well."
"Who knows? We'll just leave it at your parents' house and let Carole to figure out who it needs to go to, if anyone."
"So, if we go this evening after dinner and pick up all of my stuff, where am I going to go? I don't have a vehicle anymore. It's not like I can just throw my suitcases in the trunk and drive off into the sunset somewhere."
"So, you've decided for certain that you don't want to go to the county courthouse tomorrow and get married for real?"
"I have decided that I do NOT want to do that. I am not ready to be married to Blaine. Too much of what we've talked about has brought up too many unanswered questions for me to feel confident in taking that step. He's going to see this as Mercedes' fault and yours for putting doubts in my mind when I already said 'I do' yesterday."
"I don't care. I'm not his bestie anymore. I'm Sam. I'm me. I'm going to figure my own life out and neither one of us are sidekicks, Kurt."
"Mercedes told me that she was giving me time to figure out if I was going to be the leading man in my own life story."
"That's about the crux of it, isn't it? A best friendship or a romantic relationship isn't about a lead character and his or her sidekick. It's about two equal partners."
"It should be. I've never lived that though. I take that back. I did. Twice. Once with you as my closest male friend and once with Adam. Well, I could have with Adam, if I had let myself. He would have never pushed me into the supporting role."
"I let myself get drawn into all of this mess again. I'm going to quit McKinley. I need a break too. And in time, I'm hoping we can be really good friends again."
"You were the first male friend I had that he pushed out of my life. Granted, he didn't make me quit spending time with you, but he knew that we were close and he never liked it, and then he stole you away from me. You were just the first."
"Well, I've come to my senses and I'd like to have my position back."
Kurt smiled and nodded. "You're definitely getting there."
There was a knock on the hotel door. Sam got up to answer it.
