Chapter 11: The Jolly Green Giant

Three Weeks Later

Finn knew he should be happy, but he just couldn't sweep away the feelings that kept plaguing him all day long. They were annoying because he knew that things were meant to be even better than ever now. But they weren't, they just weren't.

Finn used to think that as soon as Kurt and Sam got together, it would make his relationship with Kurt even better than it already was. It would mean that Kurt was definitely completely over Finn, which made things easier for everyone, didn't it? Finn had expected him and Kurt to be way better chums, happy in the fact that Finn had proved himself worthy of being Kurt's brother and close friend.

But reality was a lot different than Finn's thoughts. Three weeks from the day Kurt and Sam actually got together, things were now quite different indeed.

In the very first few days of Kurt and Sam's relationship, Finn didn't really notice any changes. He was far too busy making sure that Kurt and Sam were not teased, but this rarely happened because, surprisingly, the couple was much more tolerated and applauded than anyone would have expected. The Glee Club was, understandably, a little shock at the first hearing of it, but they quickly got used to it (bar Christina, whose religious views were intangible and Puck, who occasionally threw out a string of teases – though they were mostly just for laughs) and were keen to congratulate Sam and Kurt and go on as normal. Sometimes Finn would catch Karowsky and the other jocks bad-mouthing Kurt and Sam, but it was never to their faces, so he usually just stuck with giving them mean glares and little thumps if he overheard them.

No, it wasn't until the end of the first week of Sam and Kurt's relationship, that Finn finally started to notice things.

It happened one night at dinner, when Carole and Burt asked Finn about his day and Finn began to talk about Glee Club, how hard the Spanish test was and that he's actually going a lot better in English these days – but, don't be perplexed at how this doesn't sound bad because, in fact, Finn barely managed to get any of these words out.

Every time he tried to say something, Kurt would open his mouth and every sentence always began with "Sam this" and "Sam that." It seemed that Carole and Burt didn't even notice. They just kept looking from boy to boy, smiling and nodding as if they were taking turns in telling the right story. If they had been, it would have been a horrible story and Finn was quite sure, as dim as he might be sometimes, that it would make no sense whatsoever, as the story would go:

Finn: And then Mrs. Kennings said –

Kurt: Sam says that he wants to take me to New York with him one day.

Finn: She said that my verbs –

Kurt: Isn't that exciting? Sam's so amazing, Dad, he really is! I can't wait for you to meet him!

Finn: my verbs are getting really good now and –

Kurt: Sam's so nice! Today he bought me some more of my favourite skincare cream, for no reason other than he knew I love it to death. Can you believe that he can be that generous?

Finn sort of shrugged this off at first, though he couldn't say he wasn't just a little bit annoyed. But as the weeks went on, Finn got more and more annoyed and he could tell that even Burt and Carole's smiles were sagging at the edges a bit.

All Kurt wanted to talk about was Sam! He just didn't even care about anything else! He didn't care about Glee Club as much (Sam and Kurt spent a lot of the time whispering to each other and not even listening to Mr. Schue or bothering to tease Rachel). Kurt was letting his school work slide away and always doing it at the last minute (which also meant he wasn't helping Finn with his anymore.) Kurt didn't care about spending time with his friends, so his friendships, even with Mercedes, were falling under the radar a bit. Kurt didn't care about quality family time (he was going and having dinner at Sam's so often it was like he was living there now.)

But what hurt Finn most about all of this is that Kurt didn't seem to care about him anymore. He was completely uninterested in speaking to Finn or spending any one-on-one time with him. Finn would never have admitted it, but he really enjoyed spending time with Kurt and he was really missing not doing it anymore.

Even though it had been creepy and uncomfortable back when Kurt had a crush on him, at least back then Finn had known that Kurt cared about him. And Finn had thought that Kurt cared about him as they started bonding as brothers, before Kurt started getting serious with Sam. But now he felt like Kurt had forgotten all about him. It made Finn angry and sad that Kurt was like this now and that the only thing Kurt cared about was Sam (and his look, because, obviously, he didn't want to look bad for Sam, did he?) and Finn had absolutely no idea how to make it all better again.

"Finn? Are you even listening to me?" Rachel asked, sounding exasperated and standing over Finn with her hands on her hips. "If we want to get this duet right, you have to listen to me! We need to improve your vocal range so we can have a bigger opportunity to win at Nationals!"

Finn lazily looked up at her from where he was sitting in front of the piano. He blinked a little bit at seeing her standing there looking cross and had the decency to look apologetic, but what came out of his mouth probably wasn't what Rachel wanted to hear.

"Rachel, I don't really care about this right now."

Rachel stared at him, a little angry. "What? How can you possibly not care about this right now? How could there be any time in your life that you don't care about – "

Finn interrupted her. "– sorry, Rach, but… I'm just not feeling so good… Can we just have a timeout, please?"

Rachel crossed her arms and looked at Finn for a moment, but in seeing that Finn was looking a bit down, she dropped her arms and went and carefully sat down beside him.

"Is something wrong, sweetie?" she asked, in a much softer tone than before, placing a hand on his arm. Finn relaxed a little at knowing she was going to be comforting rather than demanding. He shook his head and sighed before placing his head on her shoulder.

"What's happened? Was it me?" Rachel asked, sounding super concerned and stroking Finn's head.

"No, you haven't done anything wrong, Rachel," Finn sighed. "And actually… I dunno… you'll probably think this is stupid… but, it's… its Kurt."

"Kurt?" Rachel asked, surprised.

Finn nodded. "Yeah… Kurt."

Rachel sighed. "Do you want to talk about it, love? You know you can talk to me about anything. I am pretty knowledgeable in many fields."

Finn smiled slightly. "I know you are." He paused for a moment before adding. "It's just that… ever since Kurt started seeing Sam… it's like I don't even exist for him anymore."

Rachel nodded and seemed to smirk a little. "Oh, so you're going through a spout of Jealousy. I get that a lot, you know, and it's not easy to get passed but if you work hard enough – "

"What? Jealous – I – I'm not jealous!" Finn spluttered.

Rachel looked at him pointedly. "Ok, then. Let's see. You're annoyed that Kurt is paying more attention to Sam than he is to you?"

"Well – yes… but… it's different… Kurt isn't paying any attention –"

"You wish that Kurt would be spending as much time as he does with Sam with you?"

"No! Just some time… it would be nice to have some time – "

"You're scared that Kurt doesn't care about you anymore and that he cared for Sam less?"

Finn sighed. "Alright, so… so maybe I am a little jealous. But only because Kurt's my brother! And he used to care about me… but now he's all just "Sam this" and "Sam that" all the ruddy time!"

Rachel stroked his hand. "Aren't you happy for Kurt?"

Finn stared at her. "Of course I am! Whose side are you on, anyway?"

"I didn't realise there were sides, Finn. I was just trying to show you the perspectives. I can see that it's fair enough you might be feeling a little hurt, but it's no big deal. Kurt's just at the beginning of his first relationship. It will cool down and when it does, he'll be less absent and there for you again."

Finn sighed. "So… so you think I should just wait… until this all blows over?"

Rachel nodded. "I think it's for the best. You don't want to blow up on Kurt and ruin his mood when he's so happy."

"But I'm not," Finn pouted. "I'm not happy. What if it takes forever to cool down?"

"Make do with me until then?" Rachel asked, batting her eyelids.

Finn laughed and nodded, letting go of his despair for a moment. At least he knew that he would always have Rachel.

But Finn's euphoria didn't hold passed getting home and hearing Kurt rave on about Sam over dinner. All through dinner, Finn didn't even bother to talk and just sat there playing with his food. Occasionally he would glance up and see the slight grimaces on Carole and Burt's faces, but they seemed to be doing what Rachel suggested him to do: just wait.

After dinner Finn went to bed without even trying to talk to Kurt and went to sleep. He knew Rachel was right in saying that it wasn't really a big deal, but Finn just really wanted this family to work and right now it didn't seem to be when Kurt was so caught up in his romance.

Finn sighed. He decided he was going to take Rachel's advice, but he wasn't sure how long he could go on like this without confronting Kurt about it. He was pretty damn sure that he wanted things to change as soon as possible.

I week later

"Finn?" Mercedes asked, coming to sit beside him in Glee Club. "What's up?"

Finn barely glanced at her because he was too busy staring angrily at Kurt, who was, of course, sitting with Sam.

Mercedes followed his gaze and shook his head. "Is Kurt annoying the hell out of you, too?" she asked, frowning at Kurt sadly.

Finn looked up quickly at Mercedes and nodded, sighing.

"We have to do something about it, boy," Mercedes said, crossing her arms. "I mean, I'm excited for him… and Sam's a good boy… but… Kurt doesn't even know us anymore."

"I know," Finn said, nodding. "Rachel told me to wait it out… but this has gone on too long hasn't it? It's been a month… and we're just… drifting apart," he said, sadly.

"You know that he cares about us though, don't you, Finn?" Mercedes said, patting Finn on the arm. "He cares about you just as much as you care about him. We just have to get him over this… this obsessive nature."

Finn sighed. "That's going to be a bit hard though, isn't it? I mean, Kurt get's obsessed about everything he cares about."

Mercedes nodded. "Right. He does. I mean, he was even obsessed about you for awhile there, wasn't he?"

Finn stared at her. "Did you know?"

Mercedes shrugged. "I guessed. It wasn't hard. He was pretty obvious."

"Yeah… it was scary… but, oddly… I kind of miss it… in a brotherly way anyway…" Finn mumbled.

Mercedes nodded and smiled at Finn. "We'll get him back, Finn. You'll see."

"Hey, Finn!"

Someone was calling out to him as he walked out of the school after football training. Finn looked around to see Sam running up to him, an awkward smile on his face.

Finn tried to smile back at him. After all, Sam hadn't done anything wrong. "Oh, hey Sam," he said, scratching his neck. "What's up?"

Sam shrugged and fell into step with Finn. "I just thought I'd come and say hello. Haven't spoken much lately."

"I wonder why that is," Finn muttered to himself before saying louder, "well, awesome, it'll be nice to talk to you for a bit. Any suggestions?"

Sam nodded and sighed. "I… I actually wanted to talk to you about Kurt."

Finn sighed, but didn't reply. Not taking this as too much of a miss at enthusiasm, Sam went on.

"See… Kurt's been acting a bit weird… it's amazing being with him… but… have you noticed… he's a little clingy," Sam said, chewing his lip.

Finn nodded. "Yeah, I have noticed that actually," he said, a little darkly.

"Well… do you know if… if… Kurt has… a lot of insecurity or commitment problems?"

Finn frowned. "Why? What… what do you think… what's wrong with him?"

Sam sighed. "He just… I just think that he thinks he's going to lose me… so he's holding on to me harder and harder… and letting go of everything else important in his life at the same time… and I'm really worried because… I'm not sure how I'm supposed to tell him that he doesn't need to do that… that I'm not going anywhere."

There was silence for a minute as Finn pondered over this.

"Well… you should just tell him. Tell him how you feel," Finn said, finally. "You really should… that will… that will fix everything."

Sam looked at him for a moment and then nodded. "Okay… I guess… but how?"

Finn shrugged. "I'm not really the one to ask for that kind of stuff, am I?"

Sam laughed and nodded. "I guess not."

Finn sighed. "Can you talk to him soon, Sam? I know you guys are happy, but I really… I really miss him."

Sam smiled at Finn and nodded. "Of course I can."

Finn was in his bedroom later that night, trying to do his homework by himself again and he had to admit that the harder he tried, the easier it was to work things out for himself. But that didn't mean he didn't miss having Kurt around to help.

Suddenly there was a slight knock on the door and Finn knew who it was because he knew that knock everywhere. He sighed, a little grumpily, not desiring hearing Kurt mouthing off about Sam, but, he thought, may as well get this over with.

"Uh… come in," he said, turning around to face the door.

The door slowly opened and Kurt walked in, looking a little nervous.

For a moment neither of them spoke.

Then Kurt opened his mouth, trying to smile. "Uh… hey, Finn… is it okay if I just… come and hang out with you for awhile?"

Finn nodded.

Kurt walked over and sat on Finn's bed.

Another silence.

Then Finn decided it was his turn to speak. "What's brought this on?" he mumbled, watching Kurt blankly.

Kurt turned red and chewed his lip. "Mercedes talked to me today….and I realised how horrible I've been to everyone… especially to you two… and I'm really sorry… I just… I just got carried away."

Finn stared at Kurt before whispering. "Why did you do it, Kurt?"

Kurt sighed. "I just… I was just… so, so happy to finally have the boyfriend that I have always dreamed of having… and I got so caught up in it… and so obsessed… and frantic about what would happen… if…" Kurt gulped and a few tears spilled from his eyes. "… If it ended… that I forgot about everything else important to me."

Finn sighed. "You… you really hurt me… Kurt."

Kurt groaned and put his head in his hands. "I'm so sorry Finn!" he said, before looking up with tears streaming down from his eyes. "Do… do you think… you can forgive me?"

Finn nodded and moved over to sit beside Kurt on the bed. Carefully, he put one of his arms around Kurt's shoulders. Kurt wiped his eyes and his head flopped down onto Finn's shoulder.

"I'm really sorry, Finn… I've been so… so… stupid!" Kurt moaned. "You must hate me!"

Finn chuckled and shook his head. "Well… maybe for a little bit… but no, Kurt… mostly I was just annoyed that I, your family, didn't seem… seem to matter to you, anymore."

Kurt sniffled. "You should never think that, Finn! It's all my fault! I wish I hadn't been so careless about this – "

Finn patted Kurt's arm soothingly. "Hey, Kurt… its okay, man. Forget about it. I'm just glad we can all have you back."

Kurt laughed and nodded. "Me, too, Finn. Me, too."

They sat there comfortably together for a moment until Finn thought he'd better ask Kurt something.

"So… so do you think this will happen again… with Sam? Like, do you think… do you think you can get over your insecurities?"

Kurt sighed. "I hope so. I still… I haven't really spoken to Sam about it yet… but I'm sure that will help."

Finn nodded. "Yeah, it will. You've just got to promise me one thing, okay?"

Kurt nodded, "what?" he asked.

"If anything happens with you two, good or bad, I'm the first to know, alright? I'm always the first… I'm your… um… confidante… alright?"

Kurt laughed and nodded. "Deal," he said, holding out his hand for Finn to shake.