Straightening his tie in front of the mirror, Kurt looks at Blaine's reflection rather than his own. "Sam still hasn't gotten back to you?"

"No." Blaine lets the phone drop onto the bed next to him. "I hope he's okay. It's kind of unlike him."

"Is it though? He was never the most…reliable. At least in my experience."

"Yes. Very unlike him," Blaine says firmly.

"Okay." Kurt puts his hands up in surrender. "Well, I hate to leave you here by yourself. Do you want to tag along with my dad and me?"

But no, Blaine doesn't want to tag along. Kurt and Burt have a tradition of visiting Kurt's mom's grave on the anniversary of her death. Of course Blaine would want to be there for Kurt if Kurt wanted that, but he knows it's a thing that Kurt and his dad explicitly like to do just the two of them. Carole's never been invited either—she's out with some friends from work. Blaine could possibly crash the dinner afterwards, but he knows Kurt's looking forward to the one-on-one time with his dad, and Burt is probably looking forward to it even more. It's not the fault of either of them that the only friend Blaine still has in Lima is apparently unreliable. "No, honey," he reassures Kurt. "I'm a grown man, I can entertain myself for one evening."

After Kurt and his father leave, Blaine remembers that he actually does have another friend in Lima, sort of, and he calls Mr. Schuester—not to ask if he wants to hang out, but to ask if Sam is okay. It's a Tuesday, after all; if Sam isn't sick or something, Mr. Schue probably saw him at school.

Mr. Schue sounds happy to hear from Blaine and, although his little one is clearly vying for attention in the background, wants to chat and get caught up. Blaine promises that he and Kurt are planning to stop by the school tomorrow. Then he gets to the actual point of his call, which doesn't actually seem to surprise Mr. Schue at all. "So you're worried about him," he says, not really a question.

"Well, yeah. He said he wanted to get together during my visit. And even when I'm in New York he doesn't just ignore my texts and calls. Did he seem okay at school today?"

Mr. Schuester hesitates before replying, "I don't talk to every teacher every day."

"But…he was there, right? He's not lying in a ditch somewhere?"

"I did see him. Actually, he…"

Blaine waits. "Actually he what?"

Mr. Schue sighs. "You should talk to him yourself."

"That's what I'm trying to do!"

"Right. Well, maybe you want to drop by his apartment. You know where it is, right? I'm pretty sure he hasn't moved since you lived there with him."

Yeah, of course Blaine knows where that is. It should have occurred to him to just go there. Well, it's not entirely that it didn't occur to him. It's that he feels weird going back there. But what else can he do? He gets in the car he and Kurt rented at the airport and drives over.

He stands outside the front door to the building, buzzing and buzzing and getting no answer. After several minutes an older lady he remembers—from the third floor, he thinks, though he can't remember her name, if he ever knew it—comes out. "Hi!" she says, smiling at him. "Wow, I haven't seen you around in a while. What's wrong, did you forget your key?" She holds the door open for him.

Blaine returns the smile and walks inside. "Thank you! Really nice to run into you again."

"Have a great night," she tells him on her way out.

Blaine runs up the stairs to the second floor and bangs on Sam's apartment door. He yells Sam's name. Still nothing. Well, nothing from Sam's apartment. After a little while, the door next to Sam's opens. It's this woman whose name Blaine does remember. "Oh, hey, Laura. I was just—"

"Blaine, what are you doing here? I thought you and Sam broke up a while ago."

"We were just roommates."

Laura crosses her arms in front of her chest. "Uh huh."

"I'm actually trying to find Sam. I'm getting worried about him because—"

"Who are you talking to?" a voice calls from inside Laura's apartment.

"Ryan? Hi, it's Blaine. I'm just trying to find Sam."

Laura's boyfriend (fiancé? husband? Blaine can't remember) appears behind her. "Oh, hey, Blaine. If he's not home you might wanna try Tree House. He hangs out there a lot."

Laura spins around. "What the hell, Ryan? You just told Sam's stalker where he can track him down."

"What? Stalker!? You guys know me!"

"Yeah, and I also know that most relationship violence occurs after a breakup."

"I swear I don't want to hurt Sam!" He doesn't even bother repeating that there was no relationship to break up.

"Good. Because I know exactly who to send the police after if anything does happen to him." She slams the door; Blaine hears the deadbolt lock a second later.

Blaine has never heard of Tree House and Googles it as soon as he's outside. Turns out it's a bar a few blocks away. He drives there, and sure enough he spots Sam inside at a table with three other people.

Sam spots him too. He jumps up, jostling the table and sloshing the drink in front of him, and jogs over to wrap Blaine up in a bear hug. "Blaine! I thought you were coming to town next week!"

Blaine's sure he told Sam when he'd be there, but he's just glad he's okay. "No, this week."

"Well, come meet my friends." He takes Blaine by the hand and pulls him back to the table to introduce him to Allie, Mark, and Eddie. Allie is the new assistant cheerleading coach at McKinley, and Mark is her boyfriend; Eddie moved into the apartment on the other side of Sam's a couple months ago. Meeting Eddie prompts Blaine to recount his run-in with Laura minutes earlier. "That's the most ridiculous thing I ever heard!" Sam exclaims. Holding Blaine's cheeks, he asks his tablemates, "Does this look like the face of a stalker to you?"

Allie looks uncomfortable with the question, and in the interest of fairness Blaine points out that stalkers don't look a certain way. "But I'm not one!" he adds. "Sam, if you want me to leave…"

"Don't you dare!" Sam steals a chair from the table next to theirs and pulls it over. "Sit your ass down! What are you drinking?"

"Uh, vodka tonic?"

Sam flags down a waitress and orders Blaine's vodka tonic plus another round for himself and everyone else, even though he's the only one at the table whose glass is close to empty. Blaine tries to pay, but Sam insists.

Sam and Blaine get to telling horror stories about Sue Sylvester. Mark and Eddie act more amused than appalled, probably because they don't believe half of what they're hearing. (Who would?) Allie seems to believe them, but she's also probably heard a lot of them.

Eddie's the first one to duck out. He tells Blaine that it was nice to have met him and that he'll tell Laura and Ryan that they don't need to worry. He leaves most of the beer Sam ordered for him, which Sam pulls over to himself and finishes. Soon after, Mark reminds Allie that they have "that thing to get to," and the two of them leave too. Sam finishes their half-empty drinks as well; he gives himself brain freeze slamming down the rest of Allie's frozen margarita. "What are you doing?" Blaine asks. "Trying to get hammered as fast as you can?" He tries to make this sound like a joke, but it isn't, not entirely.

"I just don't want it to go to waste," Sam says. "And they'll just clear it away if it sits here."

"I guess."

"So how are things with you and Kurt? I hope it's not a bad sign that you had to ditch him just to come skulking around the seedy bars of Lima."

"He had that thing with his dad. That I told you about. I came here looking for you because I thought we had plans and honestly I was getting worried about you."

"Yeah, sorry about that. You know me, so flaky. Anyway, you're right, Tree House isn't really that seedy."

Blaine looks around, considering for the first time whether he thinks this bar is seedy. It's kind of cramped and there's a lot of crazy crap on the walls, but it's not dirty or anything. It's probably no seedier than most Lima bars—not that he's been to any others, if you don't count Scandals in West Lima.

Sam looks at his phone. "Oh, this is hilarious! It's Laura, warning me that you're out looking for me!"

He holds the phone out so Blaine can see the hilarity for himself. He notices that the message refers to Blaine not by name but just as your ex, but if Sam isn't going to comment on this detail, then he won't either. "Well, it's nice that she's looking out for you."

"Yeah, she's all right. I should text her back so she doesn't worry." Sam starts to type but doesn't get very far. "Damn it!...Damn it!"

"What's wrong?"

"I just can't spell worth a fuck tonight for some reason. Now she's gonna worry because she'll think I'm drunk. Here, would you text her back? I have to take a leak anyway." He pushes his phone over to Blaine and stands, a little wobbly.

Blaine just stares at the phone, not sure if he should actually text her back. Sam's texts usually have a lot of typos anyway, so it's a little weird that he's self-conscious about them now. Also, what's he supposed to say? Should he add a typo or two on purpose so it won't be obvious the text isn't from Sam? But no, it doesn't look like Sam and Laura have exchanged enough texts that she would think anything of a lack of typos, so he decides to keep it simple: "Thanks for letting me know. He's here with me and we're both fine"

And then…Blaine doesn't want to snoop, but he is curious. He checks and sees that Sam definitely received all his texts about meeting today; he listened to the voicemails too.

Sam returns from the bathroom and Blaine asks, "Do you want me to go? I don't actually want to force myself on you."

"Nooo, don't go!" Sam throws an arm around Blaine's shoulder. "We established that you're for sure not a stalker, right?"

"Yeah, I just…" Blaine hands the phone back.

"You can't go! They have karaoke in the other room, it's starting soon. You wanna sing, right?"

"I do like to sing," Blaine admits.

"Yes!" Sam pumps his fists. "I've missed hearing you sing."

"Yeah, but…you'll sing with me. Right?"

"Oh, I dunno…"

"Come on!"

"I guess. I need another drink first though."

"Since when do you need to drink before you can sing?"

"Since I realized I actually kinda suck at it compared you."

"You don't suck at singing. Even if you did…it's just karaoke."

"Mmm…no, I'll feel better if I have another. You want another?"

"No, I—"

"Okay, be right back." And Sam is off to the bar. When he's back several minutes later, he's already finishing the drink he just ordered. He sets the empty glass on the table. Gesturing at what's left of Blaine's drink, he says, "Do you want the rest of that?"

"Why? Let me guess, they'll just clear it away otherwise?"

"Well, yeah, if you leave it on the table when we go in other room. I wasn't gonna drink it, if that's what you're worried about. I was just gonna suggest you bring it with. Unless you're done."

"Oh." Blaine didn't mean to make Sam defensive. There's only like one more swallow left anyway, it's not like it would be enough for Sam to get wasted on even if he did drink it. Still, Blaine doesn't want Sam to drink it, so he finishes it himself and gets up. "Yeah, I'm done with it. What are we singing?"

"Well, I know how you love a good BJ."

Blaine's not sure how Sam expects him to respond to that. "Uh…"

"Come on, dude. Obviously I meant Billy Joel."

"Right. Yeah. Let's see what offerings they have of Mr. William Joel's."

"Unless you'd rather get a blow job."

"Sam." The comment stirs something in Blaine, given their history. Sam probably doesn't really mean it, but still. "Be serious."

"I am serious, Blaine, you know that." Sam looks around the bar. "No one here knows you, they're not gonna tell your husband."

Okay, so Sam does really mean it. Blaine shouldn't actually be surprised—Sam is drunk, after all. "Whether someone tells Kurt isn't the point. I'm not going to duck into a bathroom stall with you for a quick blowjob."

"Come back home with me then. I'll give you a slow one."

Blaine should have anticipated this response when he mentioned the bathroom stall, when he mentioned the speed. Maybe he wanted to leave open the possibility of…? But no, obviously it can't happen. "That's not the point either. You know that. Come on, let's see if they have 'Movin' Out.'"

"You would want that one."

"Well, yeah. We sang it together in glee. Remember?"

"I seem to remember more than you do." He glares at Blaine for a moment. "Let's do 'Only the Good Die Young.'"

Blaine doesn't know what Sam has against 'Movin' Out.' He does know what Sam means about remembering stuff, however. It's not that Blaine has forgotten, it's just that he doesn't see any point in bringing it up now. He agrees to the song Sam wants.

They have a little bit of a wait before it's their turn. It's too loud to really talk, so they just watch the people who are singing before them, none of whom are terrible but none of whom are especially good either. It's fine, though, people are having fun. When it's their turn, Blaine has fun during 'Only the Good Die Young," and Sam seems to too. Theirs is by far the best performance so far, and the crowd encourages them to do another.

Blaine asks what Sam would like to do for an encore, and Sam surprises him by selecting 'Movin' Out' after all. They sing it great, just like they did back in glee, but something's clearly off with Sam, who rushes off the stage as soon as it's over. Blaine hurries to catch up with him, and it looks like he's about to cry. He says he's fine, though, and goes to the bar to order more drinks. Blaine goes with him, and when Sam tries to order him another vodka tonic tells the bartender to just give him a Coke, actually. Blaine takes his Coke and Sam takes his whiskey sour and they grab the one open table left, way in the back. It's inconveniently far from the bar, which Blaine thinks is a good thing, and it's relatively quiet.

"Are you okay, Sam?" he asks when they're settled.

"I'm fine."

"You don't seem fine. Is it the song? I wouldn't have even suggested it if I knew you didn't like it."

"No, it's a great song. I love it. Just, coming from you it reminds me of…"

What the hell is that supposed to mean, coming from you? More gently than he feels, Blaine asks, "Reminds you of what?"

"Of how you couldn't fucking wait to move out!"

"Oh."

"Yeah. Oh." Sam slams his drink and starts looking around for a waitress.

"Let's order some food," Blaine suggests, looking at the appetizers menu.

"I'm not hungry," Sam answers petulantly. He catches the eye of a waitress and waves at her.

"Sam, it's not that I couldn't wait to move out. I was so grateful to you for letting me crash with you when I flunked out of NYADA and moved back to Lima. You were so great, helping me pull myself together again, helping me get over the breakup."

"Except you didn't really get over it, did you? Because you went running back to Kurt as soon as he'd have you."

"Sam." Sam gets like this sometimes when he's drunk. Like he's jealous of Kurt or something. Like he ever wanted there to be anything more between himself and Blaine than there was. He's never gotten like this sober, which is how Blaine knows it's not real.

"No, I know, I should just get over it." The waitress comes over. Sam orders another whiskey sour and Blaine orders some fries and two glasses of water; he hopes he can get Sam to drink both of them. When she's gone, Sam repeats himself. "I need to get over it. It's been a while since I lost you—getting close to a year."

"But you didn't lose me! Just because we're not roommates anymore, just because I moved back to New York, that doesn't mean we're not still friends."

Sam scoffs. "You mean I didn't lose you because I never had you. Fair enough."

"But Sam, you did have me. You still have me."

"You're right, I did have you. You haven't forgotten that, have you?"

Blaine feels his cheeks heat up. "No. I haven't forgotten that."

"By had you I mean fucked you. Do you remember the times I fucked you, Blaine?" The waitress sets down Sam's drink and the waters and pretends not to have heard what he just said, or possibly actually didn't hear. Sam tips her five bucks. She leaves, and Sam repeats, "Please, please tell me you remember us fucking."

"Of course I remember. It's not the kind of thing I do with just anyone. It's not the kind of thing I'd forget." Blaine should have known at the time it was a mistake. He guesses he did know, on some level, that messing around with your straight best friend is maybe not the smartest idea. But Blaine just really needed someone then, and Sam didn't seem to mind. Sam always made the first moves, in fact. But it got messy, of course. Blaine developed impossible feelings for Sam. And then Sam would sometimes say stuff when he was drunk that made it seem like maybe he had feelings too, and Blaine would almost believe it. And of course there was the fact that everyone always knew Blaine was going to get back together with Kurt, so even if Sam had been possible… "You said you wanted to help me get over Kurt, you said you knew I was still in love with him."

"I did know that. Let's not talk about how in love you are with Kurt, okay? It hurts too much, okay? I mean, no, I'm happy for you and everything. It's just…it's like, your world keeps on turning and I'm always here. Hey, can I tell you something?"

Blaine doubts he wants to hear whatever it is, but he says, "Sure."

"I didn't forget when you were coming. I just thought it would hurt too much to see you. Mr. Schue said I should just tell you that, but I chickened out, I guess. I came here, thinking I could drink you away."

Now Blaine wants to cry. Even though he knows Sam only gets like this when he's drunk, the last thing he wants is to hurt him. "Should I…" He's about to say leave, but he realizes he can't just leave Sam alone in a bar like this. "Should I drive you home and then go back to Kurt's?"

"No!" Sam grabs one of his arms with both hands. "No, please stay with me, Blaine. Please."

"Okay." Blaine pats one of Sam's hands with his free one. He slides one of the waters over and says, "Drink some water, you'll feel better. I'll stay."

Sam drinks almost the whole glass. "You're right, I'm better now. Sorry. Guess I've had too much to drink."

"It's okay. But yeah, maybe you should lay off for a while."

"Yeah, totally."

The waitress returns with their fries and asks if they'd like anything else. Sam looks like he's about to order another drink, but he just asks if they can get some more water instead. And then he eats most of the fries, even though he claimed he wasn't hungry. Blaine actually is hungry, but he'd rather see Sam eat something to soak up all that alcohol, so he doesn't mind. The water and food do seem to help, and he seems noticeably less dejected. He asks about Blaine's classes and even about the auditions Kurt's been going on.

He is gone for kind of a long time on another trip to the bathroom, and when he comes back he's got another whiskey sour and vodka tonic. They are at a bar, after all—does Blaine really expect him to not drink? Anyway, Sam continues to be okay for a while, almost like normal, as he talks ramblingly about stuff going on at McKinley.

There's a lull in the conversation, and then out of the blue Sam asks, "Do you really believe in soulmates?"

"What?"

"Isn't that what you said to Kurt when you proposed? That you were soulmates? In like a bunch of different lifetimes?"

Blaine was nervous and doesn't remember exactly what he said when he proposed, but that sounds close. "Something like that."

"So how did you know? You don't actually remember any previous lives, right?"

"No, of course not."

"Well, I know his name didn't appear on your arm one day. Right? Like that soulmates fanfiction you read me that one time, remember?"

Blaine does vaguely remember that one, now that Sam mentions it. "No, his name didn't just appear on my arm."

"Then how did you know?"

"I just…felt it, I guess."

"But what even is a soulmate? Like, you don't even believe in God. So who decided for you that Kurt was your soulmate?"

Blaine knows Sam has never really gotten agnosticism. He points out, "I don't disbelieve in God."

"So God did make you and Kurt soulmates?"

"I don't know that I'd say that."

"Maybe he did. Maybe he gives some people soulmates and then they have no choice."

"I'm not saying I didn't have a choice," Blaine objects.

"Isn't that implied, though, in the whole idea of soulmates?"

Blaine thinks about it. Maybe it is. In that fanfiction Sam mentioned…Blaine doesn't remember it super clearly, but yeah, someone's name just shows up on your arm and you pretty much have to be with them. Of course, in that story that's just how the universe works and people are happy with it, as he recalls. He certainly never thought that, like, the actual universe works that way.

But…yeah, he has always kind of felt like his ending up with Kurt was a foregone conclusion. He wouldn't say that God or…or fate or the universe didn't give him a choice. But he doesn't necessarily feel like he decided either. Even when he and Kurt got married, it was sprung on them by Brittany and Santana and Sue, and it just sort of seemed inevitable that he and Kurt would go along with it.

He can't say any of this, not without sounding like he doesn't want to be with Kurt. He says, "I love Kurt," which is true.

Sam ignores Blaine's response and goes on. "I think God gives some people soulmates, and then other people he just fucks with. Makes them be with this person and that person—people they don't even like that much. But, like, the other person needs someone, so the one person doesn't have a choice. They just have to, like, fill in a hole."

Blaine knows that if Santana were here she'd say wanky. But he's not Santana, and he says, "What do you mean?"

Sam doesn't seem to have even heard the question. "And then maybe he does give that person a soulmate, but psych! The soulmate already has a different soulmate who they like better."

Blaine doesn't ask what Sam means this time. He says, "I don't think God just likes to fuck with people. I don't think it works like that."

"How does it work, then, Blaine?" Sam demands, voice quivering.

Blaine moves his chair to Sam's side of the table and puts his arm around his shoulder. "I don't think there's a system. I just know you'll find someone."

"Sure, that's the problem! Lots of someones, just no one who gives a fuck about me."

"Sam, you're twenty-one. You can't give up just because you haven't met the love of your life yet."

"I have, though. I have met the love of my life. It's just that he went and married someone else." He turns his face and starts crying on Blaine's shoulder.

Blaine wants to assure him that he's going to meet a girl he actually loves and who loves him too, but he doesn't feel like Sam would listen if he did. He just strokes his hair and makes what he hopes are soothing shh, shh noises.

Sam cries for long enough to attract attention. Their waitress comes over and asks if everything's okay. Blaine asks for more water and the bill; she's back with both pretty much right away. Blaine pays and gets Sam to drink some more water. Sam stops crying and announces he's going to go wash his face or something. He stands up, takes one unsteady step, and falls flat on his ass. "I can't stand up straight," he observes.

Blaine helps him up and says, "I'll go with you."

"I don't actually wanna go to the bathroom. I want…Blaine, please take me home."

"Yeah, of course."

Sam leans heavily on Blaine as they walk to the car. On the short drive to his place, he keeps repeating how sorry he is. While he's fumbling with the key in the hallway, he announces loudly, "I invited my ex over, and if anyone hears me fucking him they shouldn't worry about it!"

"I don't want you to fuck me tonight," Blaine says as he leads Sam inside.

"No, I'm probably too drunk even if you did want me to. You could fuck me, though. If you want. We never did it that way before, but only because you never asked to."

"That's not a good idea either."

"Because you're married? Or because you wouldn't want to anyway?"

Blaine's pretty sure that even having this conversation isn't a good idea. He should probably just lie and say he wouldn't want to anyway, but…but he cares about Sam too much to lie to him. He says, "Even if I weren't married, I wouldn't take advantage of my straight best friend when he's drunk."

"You seriously still think I'm straight? You admitted you remember when we had sex—when I was totally sober, by the way. And you did hear me tell you just a little while ago that you're the love of my life, right?"

Sam didn't actually say that, but Blaine got it anyway. "I know. But you're drunk."

"Fine. Ask me in the morning. I'll say the same thing."

Blaine knows this isn't true. That is…he thinks it isn't. It can't be. "What do you want from me, Sam?"

"I want you to leave Kurt and be with me."

Blaine is initially too stunned to even reply to that. When he can speak, it's to say, "No you don't."

"Don't tell me I don't know what I want."

"Okay, well…I'm not going to do that. I'll get you into bed, how's that? Let me lay you down, I'll close the blinds for you, get you some water—"

"And stay with me?"

Blaine leads Sam to the bedroom, sits him down on the edge of the bed, and helps him off with his shoes. "I don't think that's a good idea."

"I promise I won't try anything."

"No, I know. It's just…"

"You can't leave me alone, Blaine. What if I get sick and choke to death on my own puke?"

Blaine takes a deep breath. Sam is probably manipulating him with the question, but on the other hand, what if it actually did happen? "Do you really think you might?"

"I don't know. I just really don't want you to leave. Please, you can invite Kurt over to chaperone if you want." He starts crying again.

"Okay. It's okay. I'll stay." He lays Sam down on his side in the recovery position and holds him until he stops crying. Then he rolls away but stays on the bed next to him until it sounds like he's asleep. He closes the blinds, gets a glass of water for when Sam wakes up, and texts Kurt to tell him that Sam is too drunk to be left alone and Blaine will see him in the morning. Obviously he leaves out Sam's declarations of love.

Sam sleeps fitfully, getting up more than once to use the bathroom. Blaine doesn't fall asleep at all, and not just because he's listening for puking—which there fortunately isn't any of.

But actually, he does fall asleep at some point. He realizes he must have because he's woken up when an alarm goes off and Sam says, "Ow, fuck."

"Headache?" Blaine asks.

"Yeah."

Blaine rolls out of bed to find him some aspirin and some more water. "Hungry?" he asks after Sam has swallowed four aspirin.

"God, no."

"Too bad, I'm making you eggs."

Sam follows Blaine into the kitchen and sits at the table holding his head. He eats about half of the eggs Blaine puts in front of him.

"How do you feel?"

"Fucking terrible. Thanks for the eggs, though. And thanks for staying."

"Should we…do you remember what you were saying last night?"

Sam pushes his plate away. "Yeah. I remember pretty much everything."

"Should we talk about it then? Some of the stuff you were saying?"

"I don't know. If I tell you that I remember saying you're the love of my life, and if I tell you that I do feel the same way sober, what are you going to do about it?"

Blaine takes a bite of the eggs left on the plate. "I don't know what I'd do. If you said that."

"Would you leave Kurt to be with me?"

"Would you ask me to?"

Sam looks him in the eye but doesn't respond.

"No, I wouldn't leave Kurt."

"Then is there any point in talking about it?"

Blaine's pretty sure they should talk about it anyway, but he hears himself saying, "I guess not."

"Yeah, I don't think so either. Anyway, I have work."

"Oh, right. Uh, do you need a ride?"

"No. Thanks. I don't feel great, but I'm not still drunk."

"Okay, well, I should let you get ready then. Oh, actually, Kurt and I are planning to visit the school today. So I'll see you there, probably." He stands and puts the plate in the sink.

Sam gets up too and scrapes the eggs into the disposal. With his back to Blaine, he says, "Yeah. Yeah, that'll be great. I'll see you there."