Poison
Chapter 10
The next day at school is no better than the last. Blaine's only comfort is that it will be Friday tomorrow, the weekend in two days time. And he will get time to heal then. For once he is glad Kurt won't be visiting. Blaine is afraid of scaring him, there is no way Blaine could hide this from him. 'And I have to hide it. I have to. At least for the week.'
It is a firm resolve still holding up after the seventh locker slam of the day, but by the early afternoon, five slams later, his pain is so bad he has to get out of going to Glee and make instead his way home. Driving is not an option, he does not trust his motor skills right now, with how stiff his left shoulder especially is, so he walks.
He does something else too that day, the longing for the numbness that alcohol can provide slipping back into his consciousness.
"Burt?" Blaine's voice quivers with the single word, spoken as soon as the man enters the living room that evening returning from work. Carole is still out, she called earlier about being needed a little longer at work today.
"Hey, Kid. How's your day?" Burt smiles only for a moment, until he catches Blaine's gaze. It is two steps only and then he is reaching out to hold Blaine. But the boy, to Burt's surprise, takes a step back. "Blaine? What's wrong?"
"I ...," Blaine swallows hard, and the right words won't come so heaving a breath followed by a pained hiss he pulls the shirt he is wearing and had struggled into this morning over his head.
"Fuck! Blaine! How did that ... who did that to you?" Burt takes the step closer again, hand caught in the midst of reaching out and holding back, unsure what to do next, what to say next. That is until his eyes fall on Blaine's side, the cut, he knows this kind of wound, has seen it more than once on Kurt, in middle school already kids had done that to him, and back then Kurt had still come to his dad for help and comfort, in high school he had suffered alone ... until Blaine came along, the two fighting for each other. "These are from locker slams." It is not a question.
"I need something for the pain," Blaine says not meeting Burt's eyes.
Burt wordlessly turns, says before he is out of Blaine's sight, heading to the bathroom for painkillers, "Be right back."
Once Blaine has taken the pills and Burt has gotten him to lie down on his stomach on the couch, Burt himself sits down on a chair he has pulled close.
Blaine is, still shirtless, covered by the blanket Kurt had offered him all those weeks ago. Struggling out of the shirt had hurt enough.
Burt has already made a call to Carole some minutes ago, before sitting down with Blaine, asking her to buy some creams for the bruising and muscle ache. Burt had hated having to tell her over the phone that Blaine is hurt.
All they can do now is wait. "Want to tell me what's been happening? And how long th..."
"Days," Blaine interrupts. "They started yesterday. I ... I'm not sure why exactly."
Burt looks so angry "Sadistic little shits."
"Please, just let me get through it. I just want to get it all over with," Blaine says in a whisper.
Burt wordlessly reaches out and runs his hand over Blaine's head, over and over, keeps it up as he seen the tears gathering and slipping from Blaine's eyes.
"They won't stop and I just want to get through, just get to be with Kurt and ... and ..." Blaine breaks off burying his face in his arms, crying harder and harder as the pain of his heaving chest shoots through his whole upper body.
Burt stays with him.
"Hi. Yeah, it's me, again. I had another bad day at school, new bruises covering the old ones, and ... it was so hard to be brave, to go and ask for help, but the pain was so bad, I'm scared of tomorrow morning, everything will hurt. Painkillers, medicine, take the physical pain away for a while, but on the inside I just hurt the same. It hurts so bad. Maybe worse, because there is nothing else to focus on now. My boyfriend's dad stayed with me all through the evening, and then his mom too. I'm so lucky to have them, they made it all so much easier, better. Without them ..." Blaine breaks off there and then, but the recording continues, captures all the heartache and more as Blaine just dissolves into sobs.
Blaine does not post the video that day. In all honesty, he feels terrified of even looking what responses his first video might have drawn in that one day. 'Maybe tomorrow,' maybe tomorrow he will check. He feels like a coward for putting it off, but at the same time there might be more pain waiting for him there. And today he cannot take any more of it, physical or otherwise. What if the site is not as safe as he had assumed? What if the bullies have found him there too?
Burt wakes Blaine up twice that night, the first time Blaine is so confused he almost falls out of the bed as he turns to see who just gently pulled him from his sleep.
"Blaine, Kid, it's just me," Burt says in a hushed voice. "You need to take some more pain medicine. Or you'll not be able to move tomorrow morning from all that pain hitting you waking up."
The second time, Blaine much less groggy this time, Burt asks, after Blaine has swallowed the pills, "Do you want to stay home today?"
It's only five in the morning, still pitch black outside, Blaine's head half asleep even as he is awake, almost, right now. Blaine's first reaction is instinctive then, 'I don't want anyone to think I am running away.'
"I mean, it's almost the weekend anyway, and there's honestly not much you can miss now, is there, Kid?"
'Mr. Kraemer's strange end of year movie choices that leave half the class appalled, the other half asleep; another Glee practice, probably dominated by Tina picking fights with yet another New Direction of her choice over, over ... who knows what!' "No, nothing to miss," Blaine answers eventually, voice scratchy with sleep. There is a whole week left next week to show them he is not afraid of them, but he knows too he will need all the rest for that week he can possibly get.
"Good. So you'll stay home?" Burt asks hopefully. "You'll have the house all to yourself half the day, and I can make you up the couch before I leave for work. I know Kurt brought back his Disney Collection for you some weeks ago. Make a day off it, and Carole and I can join you later?"
Blaine nods, sleepy, a little queasy about his decision to stay home, but happy too. One less day in his life marked by torture, of him being marked by torture.
Burt is about to turn and leave, humming "Sleep tight, Blaine," when ...
"Burt?"
"Yeah?"
"Thank you."
"I love you, Kid. We love you," Burt comes back to ruffle Blaine's curls.
"Love you too," he hears Blaine whisper, sleep closing in on him again fast.