A few nights later, after finishing his homework, Blaine went downstairs to see if Carole needed any help with dinner...
"Are you sure you don't need help?"
"Positive, but thank you for asking, Blaine."
Blaine nodded. "Do you… Do you mind if I sit in here? I don't really have anything else to do and I'd kind of like to talk to you."
Carole smiled. "Of course I don't mind, honey."
Blaine sat down at the table and began fidgeting with his thumbs.
"What did you want to talk about?" Carole asked kindly.
Blaine cleared his throat. "Oh, um… I was just-" He paused and took a deep breath. "I've been here for about two and a half weeks now and I- I don't feel comfortable not helping out or having a job to pay you some money."
Carole put the noodles into the boiling water and sat down at the table by Blaine. "You don't need to feel that way, Blaine. We don't expect you to pay rent."
"I know you don't," Blaine replied. "You don't expect me to do anything, which is unbelievably kind, but I want to do something."
Carole let out a thoughtful breath. "Hm… Are you a good cook?"
Blaine nodded. "I like to think so. I mean, I've never set anything on fire."
"How about, on nights that I work, you cook dinner? It would help me to know that take-out wasn't being ordered every time I work evening shifts. I mean, Kurt used to cook, but both Burt and Finn stopped eating his organic meals so he gave up on cooking them."
Blaine smiled. "I would love that."
"Good." Carole got up and stirred the pasta, then placed the steam-in-a-bag vegetables into the microwave. "Oh, and if Kurt asks," Carole said, "these vegetables are fresh from the market. He said he despises frozen vegetables… so I don't tell him and he doesn't know."
Blaine nodded. "Understood." They were both silent for a moment before Blaine spoke again. "Carole?"
"Yes, honey?"
"I'm- I'm not that good with laundry, but I've been known to iron a mean shirt… I mean, if you need help with that too, I don't mind."
Carole turned back to him. "Blaine, if you would like to help out with ironing the clothes, you can. But, don't ever feel like you have to, okay?"
Blaine nodded eagerly. "Okay, I promise."
"And if you ever want to make some extra cash," She added. "Sometimes Kurt and/or Finn wash the cars on the weekend and Burt gives them twenty dollars."
Blaine would never expect the Hummel's to pay him, but he wasn't going to go into all of that right now. That was a conversation that could wait.
Carole returned to her seat by Blaine and placed her hand over his. "Honey, as long as you're in school and you're happy, that's all that matters to me and Burt. You're an amazing boy, Blaine, and we're happy just to have you here."
Blaine felt the sudden urge to stand up and hug her, so he did.
She gladly returned the hug, tears coming to her eyes as she did so. She couldn't imagine going through what Blaine had gone through over the past two weeks. Especially at such a young age.
"Blaine!" Finn suddenly called from upstairs. "You wanna come play some video games?"
Blaine ended the hug, tears in his eyes but never leaving them, and smiled at Carole.
"Go ahead," She said with a laugh. "Dinner will be ready in about twenty minutes."
He nodded. "Thank you, Carole… For everything."
"Do you think Mr. Hawks would mind if I ripped his toupee off?" Kurt asked as he and Blaine traveled down the hallway.
Blaine laughed. "Something tells me he would. Why do you want to rip his toupee off?"
"Because he smells. He's always sweaty and gross and he picks on me."
"I've never seen him pick on you."
Kurt looked at him and glared. "That's because you're too busy sucking up to him."
"He's nice to me!" Blaine defended. "I don't suck up to meanies."
"Then pay attention more tomorrow and listen to him speak to me because he picks and you suck."
Blaine grimaced. "That sounds absolutely disgusting, Kurt. There had to be a better way to say that."
Kurt listened to the sentence over in his mind and, when he went to agree, he saw it… Coming right for them was Dave, with two of his friends right behind him, and a slushy in his hand.
He was already so close that Kurt could do nothing to stop it. He didn't even have time to warn Blaine.
In less than two seconds from Kurt seeing Dave and the slushy, it had made contact with Blaine's face.
Bright red, cherry flavored dye and ice covered Blaine's gelled hair, filled in his eyes, went halfway up his nose, into his mouth, down his neck, on the white with blue trim sweater he was wearing, and even a little bit went into his right ear.
They both stood there for a moment, seemingly frozen in their spots.
Kurt's eyes were wide, his heart racing.
Blaine closed his eyes, bring his hands up to them. "Oh my God," He said, breaking the silence. "That friggin burns!"
Blaine's voice brought Kurt out of his trance and he quickly grabbed on to Blaine's arm. "Here, just keep your eyes closed and I'll lead you to the bathroom."
At that moment, the bell rang. Kids scattered to their classes and Kurt successfully got Blaine to the restroom. He didn't care that they'd be missing class. PE was next anyway.
"Does the burning ever end?" Blaine asked as Kurt let go of his arm.
"Soon it will, I promise."
Kurt quickly grabbed the garbage can, which had a flat lid, and placed it by the sink. He took a towel, wet it and added soap, then cleaned off the top. After that, he took a dry towel and cleaned it once more.
He did this all very quickly, knowing Blaine was in pain.
"Okay," He said, taking Blaine's arm again. "Just come this way… Now, sit down. The seats right behind you."
Blaine sat down slowly until his butt hit the garbage can lid.
Kurt wet two paper towels. "Hold out your hands."
"I don't think I can take them off of my eyes."
Kurt sighed, set the towels on the edge of the sink, then placed his hands on top of Blaine's. He slowly removed them from Blaine's eyes. "See, holding them there really doesn't help the burning."
Blaine nodded. "Very true."
Kurt put one towel in each hand. "Now, hold those up to your eyes. Do not rub them, just hold them there."
"Okay."
Although the burning didn't really subside, the coolness of the towels did help to soothe his eyes a little.
"Now, lean your head back."
Kurt placed his hands on Blaine's head, guiding him back so his head didn't bang against the sink.
Once it was comfortably positioned on the sink, Kurt turned the water on.
"What are you doing?" Blaine asked.
"Washing your hair. I don't have shampoo, but if I do nothing then your hair will be impossible to wash later… especially since you have a ridiculous amount of gel in it anyway."
"Hey, the gel should have helped the slushy to glide off of the hair easily."
"And yet, it didn't."
Blaine laughed which caused Kurt to smile. It was good to see that being slushied didn't make him lose his sense of humor.
Kurt gently washed the slushy and gel from Blaine's hair in silence.
After a few minutes, Blaine broke it. "You know, the cherry flavor tastes terrible. I can still taste it. I'm pretty sure it's draining down my nose and into my throat… The least they could have done was chose grape. I like grape."
Kurt shook his head. "You're really random, you know that?" He said, keeping his eyes focused on Blaine's hair. All of the slushy and gel was out, making it a curly mess, but Kurt just loved it. He kept running his fingers through it, hoping Blaine wouldn't catch on to what he was doing.
Blaine had figured the slushy was out of his hair, but what Kurt was doing felt really good, so he didn't mind it a bit. He kinda hoped Kurt would just do that forever.
But, too soon for either of their liking, Kurt stopped.
"Okay, that's all out. Now, put your hands down and I'll finish with your eyes.
Blaine did as he was told, leaving the towels on his eyes but taking his hands away.
Kurt ran some warm water this time and placed new paper towels underneath it. He removed the old towels from Blaine's eyes, "I'm just gonna drop some warm water onto your eyes. Keep them closed."
"So, how many times have you had to do this?" Blaine asked as Kurt began.
Kurt sighed. "Too many… I couldn't even begin to give you an estimate."
"That… really sucks."
"Agreed."
"You don't deserve it, Kurt."
Kurt wiped away the water that was running down the side of Blaine's face. "According to them, I do."
"Well, they're wrong. You're an amazing guy, Kurt. You've done more for me in the past three weeks than anyone in my family has ever done for me. You didn't even know me, but you didn't hesitate to welcome me into your home… You don't deserve the crappy way you're treated here."
"You don't deserve the way you're treated either, Blaine. Both here and at your own home. I mean, your parents just throwing you out on the street… I can't imagine. Then, you come here and immediately your attacked by the homophobe brigade. It's not right."
"You care so much about other people, Kurt… I just don't see how anyone could not like you or want to be around you all the time."
Kurt's heartbeat quickened. He cleared his throat. "Um, I'm- I'm done. You can open your eyes."
Blaine slowly opened his eyes, as if he were almost afraid to do so. But, when he did, he realized they didn't hurt at all. They felt a little irritated, but just like he had held them open under water.
"That's… a lot better."
Kurt nodded. "Um, you're gonna want a different shirt. Staying in that one will not be comfortable."
Blaine began unbuttoning the sweater, revealing a black undershirt.
Kurt tried to hide the fact that he was staring.
"I have a PE shirt in my locker. I'll just change into that."
Kurt nodded again, knowing his voice would be freakishly high if he tried speaking at the moment.
Blaine looked around the room. "Are… Are we in the girls bathroom?"
Kurt laughed. "It's my safe space. Every time I'm slushied, I come here."
Blaine nodded. He looked behind him as he took off his sweater. "Did I sit on a garbage can?" He asked, slightly disgusted.
"I cleaned it off first, I promise."
It was then that Kurt noticed Blaine's muscular arms. He hadn't seen him in short sleeves before today, as it was December, so he didn't know that Blaine was so… defined.
"Well, I better get my shirt and then we better get to class," Blaine said, noticing Kurt's staring but keeping it to himself for the moment.
Kurt quickly looked up to meet Blaine's eyes and nodded. "Yeah, let's go."
Once they left the bathroom, Jacob came out of the middle stall, where he had been squatting for the past thirty minutes. He had recorded Blaine and Kurt's entire conversation on his phone and could not wait to get this bit of gossip out in the open.
Blaine, a homeless boy that had to be taken in by the Hummel's… Of course, he'd have to add some stuff to make it a little better, but no one would have to know the made up parts.
The only problem was that Christmas break started in two days, so he'd have to wait until they returned to get this information out to the kids of McKinley… But he couldn't think of anything more worth the wait.
Thank you all for the many reviews of the last chapter. I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well :)
When I started this story, I imagined it sometime around the beginning of December, which is why Christmas break is about to happen in the story.
Did you guys see the craziness outside the stage door at H2$ yesterday night? Those fans are crazy! I wish they'd realize that Darren coming out every night is a privilege, not a right. Some of them are beginning to act like the paparazzi... They're not respecting Darren, NY, NYPD, or the residence that live in the area... It's sad :(
Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed the chapter :) Thanks for reading and reviewing :)