CHAPTER 18

"Aaaggghhhhhh! You're here!" Blaine yelled when he answered the door.

Jeff threw his arms around his friend and just held on for dear life. "Dude, it is seriously good to see you! And look at this place! Awesome, man!" Jeff's smile was infectious and the two men grinned like fools at each other.

"Blainers, it's good to see you, however I have no obligatory hug for you after that incident with the Redi Whip, so you may just go on about your business….." Trent began, getting his snark on. Blaine laughed and hauled him into a hug anyway.

"You don't get out of it that easily!" he smiled, squeezing Trent even more. Trent laughed and squeezed back. "Ok, you win!"

Blaine showed them around and they bickered over who was going to claim the bed in the spare bedroom and who got the sofa. "Jeffie, you know, if you lose the coin toss you can sleep in my bed. It's not like it would be the first time, right?" he laughed.

"Whoa…what? Excuse me? Did I miss a large portion of something while studying at Dalton?" Trent said, raising his eyebrows in curiosity.

"No…no no no….remember when Gavel went missing and Wes trashed everyone's room looking for her? Well, he was poking at things with the stick he'd torn off of David's blinds, and he hit Jeff's fishbowl. It went all over his bed and he couldn't sleep in it for a week!"

"That sucker took FOREVER to dry….that was a mess. And my fish died!" Jeff whined. "Wes was an asshole!" they laughed.

"Yeah, and my bed smelled like fish forever, too." Jeff smirked.

"I heard he lives up here too, now. Beatz still talks to him, and so does David." Trent added.

"Haven't seen Wes since those guys graduated, but we're friends on facebook. He doesn't say much, or maybe he's just a lurker?" Jeff laughed.

"I never had a problem with Wes, I guess." Blaine said. "He always treated me ok."

"Uh yeah, golden boy with the vocal chords, of course he did!" Trent sneered.

Blaine blushed. "Shut up…." He laughed. "We're friends on facebook, too, but he rarely ever says anything about what I post either. When he does, it's random. Actually, he commented on the whole 'whorehouse' conversation, didn't he?"

"Yeah, he did, he wanted photos, remember?" Jeff laughed.

"Soooooo, during this week of the same bed, did anything ha-…." Trent began.

"NO!" they both yelled in unison. "No…nothing happened. At all. Nothing." Blaine added.

"Uh huh, and I have oceanfront property in Arizona to sell you…..Noted, gentlemen…..NO-ted!" he snarked at them.

"So, what's for dinner?" Jeff said, nervously, trying to change the subject.

Blaine turned to answer and it finally hit him. "Jeff….oh my God…what did you….your hair. I thought you were joking! Holy shit man, are you wearing eye liner? Cause that's fucking HOT…."

"Oh my God, I am SO the third wheel this weekend….." Trent mumbled loud enough for them to hear.

Jeff blushed, embarrassed by Blaine's outburst and Trent's insinuations. Jeff had put dark streaks in his platinum blonde hair from the roots to the tips and he had dark eyeliner under his eyes. The effect was….mesmerizing.

"I told you! My part in the show is "raver" and I have to look and act the part like I know what I'm doing, so I thought…well, what better way, right? If you're gonna do it, do it up!"

Blaine gulped. "Jeff, if you weren't my best friend, and thoroughly taken…..mmm mmmmmm…" he laughed, shaking his head. Trent raised his phone to his ear immediately, eyes wide.

"Yes, hello, is this the Hilton? Hi, I've just arrived in New York City from Ohio, but it seems my friends might want to get it on this weekend, so I was hoping you could help me out…"

"OH MY GOD, shut up, Trent!" Jeff laughed. "You know better…and if I was going to bang a city boy this weekend, no offense Blaine, but it wouldn't be him" he said to Trent, hooking his thumb toward Blaine. Blaine pouted and Trent huffed.

"Yes, yes, we all know about Nick. I know much more than I'll ever want to know about Nick, thank you very much…." Trent deadpanned.

"Don't be a dick, Nixon….." Jeff said, throwing a sofa pillow at Trent's head.

"I've never understood that….I mean, people say that like it's a bad thing, and being gay, I've gotta tell ya, I'm kinda down with dic-" Trent stated, mater of factly before Jeff cut him off…

"TRENT….oh my God, we get it!" Jeff and Blaine both laughed.

"Seriously, next time I'm angry at a woman I'm going to tell her not to be a vagina and see how that goes over, ya know?" Trent said, as if this was the most common of conversations.

"You done with that little train of thought, man?" Blaine asked, still snickering.

"Maybe!...Maybe not, we'll see." Trent snarked, giving them his bitch glare.

"OK! So….pizza? In or out?" Blaine asked, moving to a normal topic.

"OUT!" Jeff and Trent both agreed. The three set off to walk the short blocks to Gino's, where they were assured to get 'the best New York style pizza' in the city. They stepped out of Blaine's building into the late Spring evening when Blaine spotted Maggie and the kids across the street.

"Hi Mr. Blaine!" Evee yelled from her doorstep. Apparently they'd just arrived home, and Maggie's arms were full of grocery bags that she was nearly dropping.

"Whoa, wait…." Blaine said, sprinting across the street. "Need a hand?" he asked Maggie. She smiled at him as he took two of her heavy bags.

"God, thank you! I had one of those little cart things…and the wheel just fell right of on the way home, so I had to ditch it! Who knew 4 blocks was such a long way, ya know?" she laughed.

"No problem, Miss Maggie, I'm happy to be of service." Blained smiled at her, helping her into their tiny apartment. It was barely half the size of Blaine's and had ten times more homey charm than his did. Yet…..he'd get there.

"Thank you again, Blaine. I'm sorry to have taken you away from your company." She smiled as he set the bags down on the small kitchen table, shoving fabric and spools of thread across the surface out of the way. "Anyone special?" she smiled.

"Yeah, but not the way you're thinking" he blushed. "Jeff and Trent are here from Ohio. Jeff's my best friend; has been for years now, and Trent's probably a close second. It's their first visit up here to see me. We're heading out for pizza." He smiled, realizing how truly happy he was that his friends were around for a few days.

"That's awesome! You guys have a good time, and be careful walking. I'm always nervous when it gets dark. And thank you again for helping me carry the stuff in! The kids and I are having movie and cookies night. We'll save you a few homemade chocolate chip cookies if you're lucky." She beamed.

"At your service" he grinned, bowing to her and backing out the door. "I'll see you guys later!" he said to Evee and Matthew, heading back to his friends.

"Bye Mr. Blaine!" Matthew yelled back to him. "Come over when we can play cars again, ok?"

"Will do, little man!" Blaine smiled at him, and went on his way in search of pizza.

They three boys ate pizza, drank beer and laughed outloud more times than not. Blaine was in heaven having his friends there with him. This was probably the only thing he missed about Ohio. Ok, except maybe buckeyes. Yeah…he missed buckeys. Mental note: make myself some freaking buckeyes…..

"So I stop over the next morning and Jeff's literally hanging over the back of the sofa, phone plugged into the wall behind the sofa, and he can't move it, cause it's too heavy, so he's charging and talking at the same time, only half awake, and I just shook my head and kept walking. ALL freaking night, Blaine. Hours on end…. I mean, I went to work, did my shift and came back over and they were STILL on the phone! The only reason they hung up was because Nick had to work that night and he hadn't slept in almost 36 hours, thanks to Chatty Cathy here!" Trent said, as if scandalized.

"Yeah, I um…I saw Nick that night at work. He looked a little worse for wear, but he did fine. Have you talked to him since then, Jeff?"

"Mm hmm….. Not for 13 hours, but yeah, we've talked more." Jeff grinned.

"Almost EVERY night!" Trent snarked.

"Anything important mentioned that you didn't know before or figure out from previous conversations?"

"He's gonna blurt out something heinously sappy like 'everything Nick says is important…' and I'm going to upchuck this pizza right here…." Trent gagged.

Jeff said nothing, just batted his eyelashes at Trent and smirked. They finished their pizza, beers and conversations and started home. It was late, and Friday was going to be a big night. They needed to get some sleep, but not before a few good movies and catching up.

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They slept in on Friday morning, Trent having drawn the short straw, and getting the sofa. He whined enough that they decided he would take the sofa Thursday and Friday night and Jeff would get the sofa Saturday and Sunday night. Jeff woke before Trent and staggered down the hallway in to the living room immediately taking a photo of a sleeping Trent with messed up hair, drool dripping out and his teddy bear hugged tightly in his arms.
"Seriously? Pictures of sleeping Trent?" Blaine laughed, stepping into the kitchen.

"Yep….blackmail. He sleeps with his door locked when I'm over, like he doesn't trust ME, so this is an opportunity I won't miss out on. When he threatens to do something embarrassing, I'll show him this photo." Jeff said, totally amused with himself, and continued on into the bathroom.

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Around 6 pm, Cooper showed up. He didn't have Courtney with him, and Blaine wondered if that was on purpose or not.

"So what time did you tell people to get here?" Coop asked.

"I said around 8-ish…..I figure they'll have had dinner first and won't get stupid drunk on me and hang out the windows or anything!" Blaine laughed.

"Dude across the hall coming?"

"Oh yeah!" Trent exclaimed, suddenly interested, "I've gotta see this guy…he sounds like a piece of work!"

"I haven't heard anything from over there lately, and I'm thinking he might be out of town again. Kyle says he's gone a lot, so we'll see." Blaine answered.

"Kyle?" Jeff asked.

"He's Blainey's new boy toy" Coop snarked.

"Oh for God's sake, he is not!" Blaine laughed. "His mom owns this building and he showed us the apartment when we first looked at it. We go to the same gym, that's all…."

"Uh huh, and lunch a couple of times a week, and I believe you said last week he showed up at the bar?"

"Cooper, there's nothing there…besides, I don't want that…with him….or anything. Friends is a good place to be right now." Blaine said, dropping his eyes.

"You're still wallowing in self pity over losing your muse, aren't you?" Jeff asked. Blaine couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or serious. He gave him a questioning look.

"My muse?"

"The 'most amazingly beautiful man in the whole f-ing world' from the coffee shop?" Jeff asked. "See! I can tell by that grin you still want to find him!" he laughed.

"That's a lost cause, guys. The likelihood of that is…..well, slim and none. But yeah….God he was gorgeous…."

"If you wrote 5 songs in a week, I'd say he's a helluva muse and you should keep him!" Trent laughed.

"Yeah, well, the best one is giving me fits and I'm about ready to chuck the damn keyboard out the window! I can't get the notes right….it's making me crazy!" Blaine said, clearly unhappy with the state of his newest song.

"So play it for us…maybe we can help?" Jeff suggested. " I mean, we can listen….tell you what we think should come next and see how you feel about it?"

"Yeah…..ok…..you don't mind?"

"No we don't mind, weirdo…..just play!" Jeff grinned.

They all filed back to the music room and Blaine warmed up a little bit before he began playing a haunting melody that made the other men glance at each other in surprise. They were expecting something much different, apparently, but this was….it was…beautiful. It was deep and sensuous and heartfelt. Blaine had so obviously poured his heart out writing it, and it struck Cooper that perhaps he hadn't given enough credit to this 'muse' if he tore things like this out of his little brother. This….this was amazing!

Blaine got to a certain point, and stopped…played with some keys, shook his head in exasperation and thumped his forehead on the keys, making a hideous sound squelch out of the keyboard. For quite a few seconds there was no sound….no comment.

Blaine turned his head slightly and raised his eyes from under his eyebrows to see why they weren't saying anything.

"I know, it's not done or anything but…..is it ok? Should I even bother finishing it?" he asked.

Nobody said anything. In fact, they all just stood there staring at him with dumbfounded looks on their faces. Blaine was unnerved.

"Guys? What gives?" he questioned.

"Wow….."
"Jesus, Blainers….."

"Holy moly, dude…."

"What?!"

Cooper finally pulled himself together and spoke a clear sentence. "Blaine that was…..that song, it's…it's incredible. I know that everything I say usually comes out as sarcastic and, let's face it, amazingly witty, but I'm being as serious as a heart attack when I say that song was…..it was just….wow…Blaine?! You wrote that for a man you saw for 60 seconds, if that?"

Blaine blushed furiously, and looked back down at the keys. "Well, yeah….I mean….yeah. Stupid, huh?"

"No! Holy shit, Blaine, I didn't know….I mean, we talked about it that one time, and I know I tease you about him and all that, but…..wow. You really stepped in it this time, didn't you? You're infatuated with this mystery man!" Jeff kidded him.

Trent still hadn't said anything and just stood there, unable to find words for the angst and beauty of the song that Blaine had written. He'd sung of having someone, fleetingly, and then losing him, then doing whatever was necessary to have it again. Oddly, in an off sort of way, Trent could relate, but he wasn't going to tell his friends that…..not yet anyway.

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Kurt stood there against the wall listening to Anderson play. He was sick of calling him "the guy in apartment 2", so he went with Anderson, not caring if it sounded Neanderthal-ish or not. That song was the most beautiful thing he'd ever heard, and it made him want to just burst out into tears sometimes. He wished the guy would finish it though. Every time he played it, he got to a certain point and just stopped. He'd mess with keys and chords and just…give up. Most of the time this was accompanied by a loud growl / shout of frustration and what sounded like fists or a forehead laying on the keys.

Kurt heard the rest of the song in his head and played it often in his mind. Rachel was right. It was an amazingly touching song about finding someone or something and losing it again, without ever really having had it. Kurt knew that feeling, and figured this was why he wanted the song finished so badly. If he finished it, maybe Kurt would find answers? He shook his head and grinned. Silliness….

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"So, should I bother coming over tonight? Are you going to go over to the party, Kurt?" Rachel asked.

"I can't….Rach, you should SEE how many people have come up the stairs. It's crazy! I can't believe they can fit that many people into the apartment. Theirs must be lots bigger than mine!"
"Kurt, the shrink said you need to start getting out, trying to mingle again. Are you sure you don't want to at least try?"

"I don't know. I'd like to say hello and meet them. At least then I'd know who my neighbors are, but I'm terrified…"

"Would it help if we waited awhile and went later? Maybe some people will have gone by then?"

"Maybe…I mean….yeah, ok, we'll play it by ear. You can come over anyway if you want and I'll make dinner?" Kurt said, inviting Rachel.

"Ok, I'll be there soon. If we end up going over and having one too many, can I sleep on your couch? Finn's playing, but a couple of the guys needed the night off, so Mickey got some band in to play covers later tonight…..some guys from upstate or something? Anyway, Finn's headed out to the new guy's place for a party and Lord knows if he'll even be home! "

"Oooooh! A sleepover in my new apartment! Yes! Yes you can stay!" Kurt squealed. "We can stay up all night watching movies and do each other's hair and facials!"

"Oh please, Kurt. You can do MY hair and I'll look at yours. You know damn well you won't let me anywhere near it!" Rachel laughed.

"Ok, point taken…."