The word document that I use to write this story is now over a hundred pages long! That just blows my mind. Thank you to everyone who reviewed this story and gave me the inspiration to get this far, and of course to Tuuzmorado, for all the help she's given me.
Sam slowly opened his eyes, trying to figure out where he was and why the annoying beeping noise that had woken him up didn't sound normal. After a minute, it came back to him. This was Blaine's room. The beeping was coming from Blaine's alarm clock, not Sam's. He was in the same bed as Blaine.
That last one was enough to make his mind go a little crazy.
Blaine groaned and buried his face in his pillow. Sam quickly turned the alarm off before it could wake him. The plan had been to wake up early so that they could rehearse, but Sam figured that it'd be better to let Blaine sleep a little longer.
Sam rolled out of bed and tiptoed over to where he'd dropped his bag the night before, digging out his change of clothes. He tried to suppress a yawn as he walked to the bathroom to get ready, and failed miserably. Blaine had collapsed like a rock the night before, not even brushing his teeth or changing clothes before he was asleep. But Sam hadn't been able to doze off until the early hours of the morning, which may have been because he'd been in the same bed as Blaine, his almost-boyfriend, and how could that not keep him awake?
It probably would've been easier to sleep if he'd moved to the floor or something, where he wouldn't have been able to feel it every time Blaine shifted position or hear every breath that he took. Somehow, that hadn't occurred to Sam at the time. Oh, well. He'd just have to hope that Blaine's family had tea or something to wake him up. Worse came to worse, he'd even drink some coffee to keep him up, though he'd have to put a ton of milk in it to kill the taste first.
He changed quickly, glad that he'd showered after work the night before, so he didn't have to now. Wouldn't that have been awkward? All he had to do was wash his face and brush his teeth, and he was done. Usually he'd shave, but he decided that he'd be fine without it today. McKinley technically had rules against that, but it wasn't like the stubble on his face was noticeable, anyway. Unlike Blaine, who was apparently a hair-growing machine. Sam bet he could grow a full beard in a week if he wanted to. It was like magic.
There was a knock on the door. "Blaine?" a male voice called. "Are you almost done in there? I need to leave for work in five minutes, and you'd better not make me late!"
Sam swallowed hard. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the guy banging on the door must be Mr. Anderson, but Sam had never met him before. Which was a little weird, considering all the times that Sam had come over to Blaine's house this year, but Blaine always described his dad as a workaholic. Apparently it wasn't unusual for him to spend fourteen hours in the office every day, and when he came home, he usually ended up in his office doing paperwork or something. So despite all the sleepovers, he and Sam simply hadn't run into each other.
This wasn't exactly the way that Sam wanted to meet Blaine's dad, but it wasn't like there was any choice. He tucked his pajamas and toothbrush under one arm and opened the door, his right hand already extended for a handshake. Because Mr. Anderson sounded like a formal man, and Sam wanted to make a good first impression. "Blaine's still sleeping. I'm Sam Evans. I hope you don't mind that Blaine invited me to spend the night."
Mr. Anderson blinked, staring at Sam in surprise. His eyes dropped to Sam's outstretched hand, and after a moment he shook it gingerly, their hands barely touching. "I've never seen you around here."
Sam just shrugged, not sure how to answer that. If he pointed out that Sam was over here all the time, then it'd just look like he was blaming Mr. Anderson for not knowing him. Which would be bad, because Sam really wanted Mr. Anderson to like him. That would make it so much easier when they eventually told him that Sam was dating Blaine.
Oh, god, they were going to have to tell their parents about this eventually. And Burt, too. And probably have one of those awkward dinners where they go over to each others' houses to officially meet the parents and all that. Sam hadn't even thought about that until now, but he decided to worry about it later, because it would just freak him out if he focused too much on it now.
"So," Mr. Anderson said, looking about as awkward as Sam felt. "Are you Blaine's boyfriend?"
"Uh, no," Sam said quickly. Wasn't even a lie. "We're just friends. Best friends," he added after a moment, wanting to emphasize how close they were so it'd be less of a surprise when they did start dating. "I like Blaine a lot. He's awesome." It couldn't hurt to throw in some nice things, make it clear that he cared. Mr. Anderson should appreciate that.
Mr. Anderson just nodded absently, not looking like he cared about what Sam said one way or another. "Right, well, I really have to get to work," he said. Sam exited the bathroom, stepping aside to let Mr. Anderson in. "Thank you. Well, I suppose I'll see you around at some point. I hope the guest room was comfortable enough for you, and let my wife know if any of the toiletries in the guest bathroom need to be restocked, alright?"
"I didn't use the guest room. I shared with Blaine," Sam said, mostly wondering if he had really heard Mr. Anderson use the word toiletries He'd thought nobody actually used that word unless they were in a really fancy hotel that liked to make stuff sound important.
"Right," Mr. Anderson said. A second later, the door slammed shut.
Well, that could have been a lot worse. All in all, he thought that that had gone about as well as could be expected, considering how they'd run into each other. Sam smiled as he walked back to Blaine's room.
"Sam?" Blaine asked, sitting up and rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand in a way that was absolutely adorable. "Where'd you go?"
"Just getting dressed," Sam said, tucking his pajamas back into his bag. "You can go back to sleep if you want. I'll wake you up in a little bit." Blaine nodded and looked like he was going to listen. At least, he would have if Sam hadn't opened his big mouth and said, "Oh, and I just met your dad."
Blaine sat straight up, eyes widening in a way that was really funny, especially with the way his hair was sticking almost straight up from his head. "You did?" Blaine demanded, completely ignoring Sam's laughter. "When? What happened? What did he say?"
"We just ran into each other when I was leaving the bathroom," Sam said, dropping down onto the bed next to Blaine. "I introduced myself and said I was your friend, then he needed to get ready for work so that was that. It really wasn't that big a deal. The way you talk about him, I was expecting something more dramatic, like he'd demand to see my resume before he let me be your friend."
"He was caught off guard this time," Blaine mumbled, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and hurrying over to his closet to grab his spare Cheerios uniform, which he'd have to wear today until his other one could be washed. "Just wait until next time he sees you. He'll be asking about GPA, SATs, you name it."
"Well, hopefully he'll forget about that part, because otherwise I'll be screwed," Sam said, only half-kidding.
Blaine shook his head. "If he even asks about any of that stuff, then I'm going to throw a dramatic, teenager-ish fit and storm out in a way that would make Rachel Berry proud. Did you know that when Finn and Rachel came to check on me before my surgery last year, he actually spent ten minutes interviewing them to make sure that they were 'good influences'? He's crazy."
"Well, it's good that he cares about that," Sam said. Blaine just grumbled in response. "If he did all that for your friends, what did he do when you brought Kurt home?" Hopefully it hadn't been anything bad, because the same thing would probably happen to Sam once their relationship was official.
Based on the uncomfortable look on Blaine's face, that hadn't been the best question to ask. "Nothing," he said. "I'm pretty sure he convinced himself that Kurt didn't exist."
Sam winced. "That sucks," he said, making a note that he should make sure his parents were extra-welcoming to Blaine when they eventually met.
Blaine just shook his head. "Anyway, we should get to work rehearsing, since that's the whole reason you're here." He grabbed his iPod from his desk and tossed it to Sam. "It's called 'Long Live' by Taylor Swift. Tell me what you think of it."
Sam scrolled through the iPod while Blaine headed to the bathroom to get dressed and do his hair. It didn't take long to find the song, and he lied back on the bed with it playing on repeat. The song was definitely good, better than he'd expected Taylor Swift to be, and it was something he could picture the two of them singing together. And he got the whole "inspirational" vibe from it, so Mr. Schue would be happy. Personally, Sam thought that they should do something that would show off Blaine's voice better, but if this was what Blaine chose, then Sam didn't have any problems. After the first time listening to it he closed his eyes and focused on the music, pretending to strum an imaginary guitar as he tried to work out the chords.
"I take it you like the song?" Blaine asked about halfway through the third repeat, walking back into the room.
Sam opened his eyes and nodded. "It's good. We should go through and figure out who's singing what and all that."
Blaine nodded and held out a hand to Sam, who immediately took it and let Blaine haul him to his feet. "Want to get breakfast first? I'm pretty sure Mom made eggs."
The two of them headed downstairs. Both of Blaine's parents had already left for work, though there were eggs still warming on the stove and a note addressed to Sam, telling him that he'd better get enough to eat this time (she seemed to think that Sam was too skinny, and insisted on dumping third helping onto his plate whenever he came over). They each grabbed a plate and sat down with the iPod on the table between them, "Long Live" playing from the speakers. It was the kind of thing they'd done a dozen times before after sleepovers, but like everything else, this felt different. Sam's mind was once again going to weird places, but in a different way. He couldn't stop picturing them moving in together someday. Getting an apartment in New York, since Blaine was so sure that he wanted to go there, and Sam didn't really care. Going to school, getting jobs, getting married eventually. And then one day Sam would wake up early to make this same kind of breakfast for Blaine before work, and they'd eat in bed before going to wake the kids up...
If there was one thing he'd learned from Quinn and Brittany, it was that he really needed to stop jumping into things. Buying Quinn a promise ring before they were even dating, proposing to Brittany after they'd barely been together a month... Not exactly the best ideas. And he was pretty sure that fantasizing about marrying Blaine before they were even fully dating qualified as getting ahead of himself. Still, he had to admit that it made a nice picture.
"Yeah, I'll definitely be able to get this down," Sam said. "Let's see if we can claim the choir room during lunch, okay? Hopefully it won't take me that long to figure it out." Last night, he'd made sure to grab his guitar along with his clothes and toothbrush. It was currently in Blaine's car. Sam could grab it at lunch so they could practice.
"Sounds good," Blaine agreed. "Want me to print out the lyrics so we can learn them during class?"
"Sure," Sam agreed. Normally he did better listening to things instead of reading them, but it wasn't like he could sneak an iPod into class, so this would have to work. "We should get going as soon as you're done, though. Don't want to be late two days in a row."
The words weren't that hard, though. A lot of it was repetitive, even though they agreed to cut the first chorus, and Blaine was singing half of it, so Sam didn't have to worry about those verses. By the time they arrived at school, they must have listened to it twenty times, and Sam was barely stumbling over the words anymore.
"We're going to kill this audition," Sam exclaimed as they walked to his locker.
"Definitely," Blaine said. "I've got to go talk to the history teacher about something, but I'll see you later, okay?"
"See ya," Sam said, and Blaine left.
A minute later, Joe walked over. "Can I ask you a favor?"
"Sure," Sam said, wondering what Joe could want. The two of them were bros, but they didn't really hang out a whole lot.
"There's this girl that I like, and I want to serenade her during lunch on Thursday," he said, a look of both excitement and worry taking over his usually-calm demeanor. "Did Blaine tell you anything about that?" When Sam shook his head, Joe said, "Huh, I figured he would have, since it was his idea. Anyway, will you be willing to back me up?"
"Of course!" Sam said with a grin. Because Joe was really cool, and he totally deserved to have a girl like him back. Well, hopefully she'd like him back; who wouldn't? Joe was awesome. "What song? Do you have anything planned yet? Is she nice?"
Joe smiled. "I haven't decided yet. I'll have it picked out by tomorrow, and I thought we could rehearse tomorrow after school." His smile grew. "And yes, she's... amazing."
"Glad to hear it," Sam said. "Yeah, I'll be there tomorrow. Blaine won't be, because of Cheerios, you know. But I could try to teach him the steps, if you want him to help."
"That would be great," Joe said. "I kind of want him to be there, since he came up with the idea. Thanks for helping me out, man."
"No problem," Sam said, giving Joe a high five before turning to leave.
"Oh, and Sam?" Joe said. Sam turned and saw Joe staring at him with a way-too-serious expression. "Don't worry. Everyone in Glee knows that the rumors aren't true. The rest of the school will forget about it eventually."
Sam frowned, his mind instantly going back to the staring yesterday. He'd known that there was something to it, not just paranoia. He glanced around. There weren't that many people in the halls right now, and there definitely wasn't the same amount of staring that there had been yesterday, but a few people were throwing glances his way. Enough to make him instantly uncomfortable. He turned back to ask Joe what exactly he meant by the rumors, but he had already walked away.
Sam checked his watch as he started toward his classroom. There wasn't time to go searching for anyone now, but as soon as first hour was over he'd go find someone else in Glee and ask what the heck was going on. Because it was definitely something, and he wanted to prepare for it before anything could go wrong.
"So, what are you singing for your audition?" Blaine asked, coming up behind Tina as the two of them walked toward third hour. She shot him a glare over her shoulder and didn't respond. "Well, after you had to learn a song in a completely different language for Sectionals, I don't know what you could do to top that," he said. Still no response. He sighed. "Are you mad at me?"
"Why yes, Blaine, I am," Tina snapped, spinning around to face him. "I understand that you and Sam are close, and that he's helped you out this year. But may I remind you that we have been friends this year, too, for just as long as you and Sam have. I have tried to be there for you all year, and I don't appreciate being pushed aside just because you have a crush on Sam."
"Shhh," he said, more out of habit than anything else. There wasn't really anyone around. "The fact that Sam and I spend time together has nothing to do with any crushes – and I don't have one, by the way."
"Oh, please." Tina rolled her eyes. "Anyone can see it, Blaine. You want Sam badly, and you've been pushing me aside so you can try to get him."
"When have I ever pushed you aside?" Blaine asked, honestly surprised to hear her say this.
"Last Monday, when you invited him to go boyfriend-scouting even though we'd been planning that for weeks," she said, crossing her arms and ramping her glare up about a dozen notches. "You didn't even ask me first, you just invited him along. And then you just texted me that the three of you were leaving together, didn't even ask what I thought of that. Then there's yesterday, when I wanted to sing a duet with you but you already had one planned with Sam. Never mind that you two have already sung together a ton of times and we never have."
Blaine felt guilt stirring in his stomach. "Listen, Tina, I never realized that you were upset about that," he said, though part of him felt like he should have realized that she would be. For one, Tina had proven that she could get upset about anything, justified or not. But this one felt justified. He thought back over the last week and realized that, other than a Brainiacs meeting where they'd been too busy concentrating to actually do much talking and a few moments in the hallways, he hadn't spent any time with her. Every other moment had been spent with Sam, goofing off and figuring things out and trying to make decisions about what their relationship would be. "I'm really sorry. Can I make it up to you? Maybe hang out after school next week?"
To his relief, she relaxed and even smiled slightly. "It's okay," Tina said. "I do want to spend more time with you, though. Just the two of us, with no Sam."
"We can do that," he said, reaching over to give her a one-armed hug, glad that she'd forgiven him so easily. He hadn't been entirely sure that she would. But then, she really was a nice person, even if she didn't really show it.
"And another thing, Blaine," she said, and his stomach clenched, but she looked more concerned than angry. "Just be careful around Sam, okay?"
He frowned. "Why?" Was she about to suggest that Sam was dangerous? Because the very thought was completely insane. Sam would never hurt anyone.
"Because even if you try to deny it, you obviously have feelings for him," she said softly. "And I'm sure you remember that I know what it's like to be in love with someone who can't like you back because of your gender." Blaine winced a little at that, but Tina kept going, not sounding accusing in the slightest. "Obviously I don't believe any of the rumors. The whole club knows that Sam is straight. He has a girlfriend, Blaine. He's not going to like you back."
"Wait, what?" Blaine asked. "Sam doesn't have a girlfriend."
Tine looked confused. "What?"
"He and Brittany broke up on Saturday," Blaine said.
"Really?" Tina asked. It was obvious from her shocked expression that this was news to her. "But they looked like they were doing fine on Fondue for Two. I can't believe nobody said anything! That would explain why she was moping around the choir room and not talking to anyone yesterday."
Blaine felt another spasm of guilt as the thought of Brittany being too upset to talk, but he forced himself to push it away. "Yeah, they're definitely not together anymore."
"Huh," Tina said, then shrugged. "I guess it was hard to tell with them. Sam always spends more time with you than with her, anyway, so the fact that they weren't sitting together didn't mean much. I'm surprised that neither of them mentioned it, though."
"Yeah," Blaine said. It kind of made sense that Brittany hadn't, if she was really as upset as Tina said (and Blaine immediately felt bad for not checking up at her at Cheerios yesterday, even though there hadn't been much time for that, considering how hard Sue had worked them). And there had to be a good reason why Sam wouldn't. Maybe he just didn't think to say anything, and it wasn't like they'd spent a whole lot of time with the New Directions, anyway.
Blaine didn't feel like talking about it anymore. "Tell me about Yoshiro," he said. "That guy you met at the mall? Still as hot and nice as ever? Give me all the details, and let's pretend that I'd been a better friend and asked you all about it last week."
That earned him a smile. "He's incredibly sweet," she said. "We met for coffee on Saturday and spent hours just talking. We were supposed to go on our first official date tonight, but he had to cancel. You should have seen him. He spent about half an hour apologizing for canceling while I kept telling him that it was okay."
Tina not being upset over a canceled date? She must seriously like this guy. "Why did he have to cancel?"
"He found out that his best friend is planning on proposing tonight," she said. "He offered to come along and hide in the crowd with a video camera to capture the moment. Isn't that romantic?"
"Yeah, it is," Blaine said with a smile.
"Anyway, I've got to go to class, but I'll see you later," she said.
Blaine knew that he really should hurry to his own class, to make absolutely sure that he wasn't late. Instead, he stopped and pulled out his phone, typing out a quick message to Jeremiah. Heard tonight's the big night. :) Good luck!
Barely a minute later, his phone buzzed with the reply. Got the ring, got the courage, got everything planned. Just hope I've got the patience to wait until tonight!
He smiled down at his phone, happy that Jeremiah seemed so excited. A second later he got another message. Let me know as soon as you win over that Sam of yours and we'll double! That one made him grin like an idiot, partly because he was amazed that Jeremiah had remembered Sam's name, and partly because the thought of going on any sort of date with Sam made him ridiculously silly.
He was so caught up in typing out an affirmative reply that he didn't even notice the football players approaching until the slushies were hitting him from three different sides.
"That's a message to you and your faggy boyfriend," a voice spat. Blaine's eyes were burning too much for him to open that, but he'd recognize Lipoff's voice anywhere. "Next time, keep the gay to yourself before you spread it to anyone else."
