So I was really excited to write about this chapter because here is where things start to get really interesting for poor Blaine. Enjoy!
Trigger warnings: possible eating disorder
Blaine picked at his food. He had been having a horrible day so far and he doubted that it would get any better. After all, it hadn't so far. He had woken up late and had just barely made it to class on time. In Chemistry, they had had a lab and Blaine hadn't fully understood what was going on, nearly destroying their work. Luckily Gabriel, who happened to be in his Chemistry class and his lab partner, had intervened before things had gotten messy. Then, in his other class of the day, Blaine was pretty sure that he had failed a pop quiz. He had known the material but he had blanked as soon as the paper had been set in front of him.
After classes, Blaine and Mike had met up with Kurt and Sebastian. Sebastian kept sending smug looks in Blaine's direction—looks that Blaine had tried his best to ignore but failed. He couldn't help worrying that Sebastian had something ugly planned for Blaine.
Then his parents had called. That had been an ugly conversation, especially when his father had found out about the quiz. His words still rang in Blaine's head.
"I hope that this is only a one time thing, Blaine. We're not paying for college just for you to be kicked out for doing poorly in your academics."
Why was it so easy for his father to make him feel like such a disappointment? Like he would never be enough? That he was just a failure?
Mike watched Blaine as his roommate ate silently. He knew that Blaine had been having a bad day (Blaine had readily admitted it when he asked) but there was something bugging him. Something that was bigger than just an ordinary bad day.
Blaine shoved his plate off to one side. He had barely touched his food. It just didn't look appetizing.
"Do you know what always cheers me up when I have a bad day?" Mike told Blaine. "Ice cream. Let's go get some."
Blaine opened his mouth to say that he couldn't have any, that ice cream and other milk-based sweets made him sick, but then he stopped. Ice cream made him feel sick at first but once that had passed, he always felt more confident. More sure of himself. After he was done being sick, he felt good about his body and when he felt confident about his physical appearance, he was confident in everything else.
"Okay," he agreed. "Ice cream sounds really good right now."
An hour later, the side effects hit Blaine. Mike winced as he heard Blaine's reaction in the bathroom to the product through the paper-thin walls. Some of those noises weren't human.
"Are you okay?" he called through the door.
"Fine," Blaine replied. Mike frowned. Blaine sounded fine but one could never be too sure. Mike decided not to mention anything about what had just happened when Blaine walked out.
"Do you need a ride to the hospital tomorrow?" he asked instead. Blaine gave him a confused look.
"The hospital?" he asked. Mike gestured to his elbow, which was still in its cast and sling.
"You're getting that off tomorrow, remember?" Blaine's eyes widened. He had totally forgotten about his appointment. He had grown so used to working around his arm by now. It didn't even pain him anymore. However, it couldn't have come at a better time, though. He would be glad to be rid of the thing.
"Hallelujah," Blaine responded as he flopped into his desk chair. "Has it really been that long already? And yeah, a ride would be great."
"I'll text Kurt then. He was asking earlier."
Blaine didn't know how to react to Mike's comment. He was torn in two directions. After the whole Sebastian blackmailing him situation, Blaine wanted to avoid Kurt as much as possible. He also wanted to avoid the boy because he still wasn't sure how he felt about Kurt. He didn't want to call it a crush but it was getting to the point where he couldn't call it much else. It was beginning to make him feel uneasy.
However, Blaine was ecstatic that Kurt had been asking about him. It meant that he had left an impression on Kurt after all their meetings. It meant that Kurt had been thinking about him. Just the thought of Kurt thinking about him made Blaine feel giddy.
Mike set his phone next to him as he waited for Kurt's text message.
"You know, most students would go out and have fun on the weekends but you're heading to the hospital and I'm planning on spending the entire day in the practice room because I have nothing better to do," he said. Both boys grimaced.
"The entire day? Really?" Blaine asked. Mike shrugged.
"I have to keep up in class," he stated. "And, like I said, there's nothing better to do."
"You could accompany me to the hospital," Blaine said. His request had nothing to do with the fact that he was concerned with spending time alone with Kurt….not. Mike laughed.
"No thanks," he began but was interrupted by Blaine's phone ringing. Blaine jumped. He had forgotten he had taken his phone off of silent.
"Hello?" he said, answering it once he had recovered from his shock.
"Hey Blaine, it's Gabriel," the voice on the other end said.
"Oh hey! What's up?" Blaine asked.
"Well, we have that exam in Calculus and I was wondering if you wanted to get together sometime tomorrow and study." Gabriel sounded nervous to Blaine, who couldn't figure out why. What was there to be nervous about if you were just asking a person to help you study?
"I thought that wasn't until later this week, though," Blaine said, pinning his phone between his shoulder and ear and flipping through his calendar to look at the date he had put the exam down for.
"It isn't, but I get pretty busy during the week. Is it okay if we study tomorrow? Or did you have other plans?"
"If you don't mind waiting until the afternoon, it'll be fine," Blaine told Gabriel. "I have to go to the doctor in the morning about my elbow. I'll call you when I get back to campus, if that's all right."
"That's fine," Gabriel sounded relieved, further puzzling Blaine. The boy couldn't want to study that much, could he? "I hope everything goes okay and I'll see you tomorrow."
"Okay," Blaine murmured before hanging up his phone. He caught Mike staring at him.
"What?" he asked, once Mike's stare began to unnerve him. Mike shrugged.
"Got a date?" he asked. Blaine rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, right," he replied. "Just studying with a classmate. We have an exam this week. Did Kurt respond yet?"
Mike nodded.
"He said to be ready to leave by nine o'clock," he replied. Blaine cringed at the earliness of the time. Mike chuckled.
"You know, if you had paid attention and not been run over by that bike, you could have slept in," he pointed out.
"Yeah, yeah," Blaine mumbled under his breath and pulled out his homework.
True to his word, Kurt was waiting for Blaine as the curly-haired boy walked out of the building at promptly nine o'clock. Much to Blaine's surprise, Kurt had a cup of coffee waiting for him.
"I didn't know what you liked, so I just got a black coffee and some sugar and cream packets," Kurt said as Blaine slid in to the passenger seat. "Mike said that you weren't a morning person."
"He's right," Blaine said between yawns. "And black's fine. Sugar and cream just make me sick."
"Duly noted," Kurt replied. "Now is it the same hospital as before or someplace different?"
Blaine passed along the address he had been given. Kurt nodded and typed it in to his GPS. The ride to the clinic was mostly quiet at first, with Blaine thankfully sipping his coffee. It did a great deal in waking him up. After a few minutes, Blaine realized that music was playing in the Navigator. He hadn't noticed it before because it was so quiet.
"Wicked?" he asked. Kurt looked at him in surprise but nodded.
"Do you mind?" he asked. Blaine shook his head.
"It's one of my favorites," he admitted.
"Mine, too," Kurt agreed. "I almost sang Defying Gravity as a solo in one of my glee club's competition but I blew the audition."
"That sucks," Blaine murmured. Kurt made an indistinguishable noise.
"Didn't matter in the long run," he informed Blaine. "We did a different song instead at last minute. Our glee club was known for doing things like that."
Blaine laughed.
"Were you in any clubs in Chicago?" Kurt asked. Blaine gave a tiny flinch.
"Not really," Blaine replied, though he wished that he didn't. "I just studied a lot. I didn't have much of a social life."
The car was silent once again.
"Oh!" Blaine jumped as Kurt suddenly spoke. "I've been meaning to ask you. Do you have a Facebook? I was looking for it a few weeks ago, after I met you, but I couldn't find anything. Really put a dent into my plan to Facebook stalk you."
"Er…no," Blaine replied. "I used to but after a bad week, I deleted it. I never got around to making another one."
"What happened?" Kurt asked. Blaine shifted awkwardly.
"Just some bullies," he finally said. He knew his answer was vague but he didn't want to go into detail. Those memories were still painful to relive.
"Oh," Kurt said, giving Blaine a sad look. "Sorry."
"It's fine," Blaine brushed off the apology. "It's not like I'm going to see them again."
The rest of the car ride was silent. Upon reaching the clinic, Blaine was prepared to be dropped off but to his surprise, Kurt parked and unbuckled his seat belt.
"You don't have to come in," Blaine informed Kurt, who shrugged.
"I don't really have anything else to do today," he told Blaine. "Are you ready?"
Blaine nodded, touched that Kurt was willing to stay with him.
"Let's do this."
Sneak Peek (to take place later on):
"Just leave me alone."
I hope you enjoyed! Feel free to leave thoughts and reviews!