Chapter 7
By Hippohead

There were, approximately, twelve hundred thoughts swirling around in Kurt's head right now.

The main ones were being repeated over and over on a loop and consisted of: What the fuck just happened, I want to do that again, that was the best kiss of my life and probably always will be, and, I'm never going to be able to look Blaine in the eye, ever, from now on.

Then he realized that everyone was looking at him. Blaine especially, out of breath from the song or the kiss, he wasn't sure. His eyes were scanning Kurt's face, looking for some sort of answer in his expression—an answer Kurt knew he wouldn't find there. It felt like everybody was waiting for him, for a reaction, for him to say something.

Time to perform.

"Well, then," he said, forcing a coy smile onto his face as he lightly pressed his fingertips to his lips. "Welcome to the party."

The Warblers burst out into cheers, all boyish and loud and racquet-y, while Artie turned the speakers back on, quickly changing the music from Rachel's backing tracks to something party-appropriate.

And then Kurt did everything in his power—without raising suspicion—to avoid Blaine.

He needed some time to process what had just happened, that's all, and he couldn't exactly do that when Blaine's hair was looser than usual and he could see glimpses of his thighs through the rips in his jeans. And his eyes… God, his eyes. He was wearing eyeliner, for Christ's sake. It was too much of a distraction, and so he just…slipped away anytime Blaine came near him.

A totally normal and mature response, obviously.

Eventually, he found a spot near Tina and pretended to listen while she and Quinn talked quickly about something. He was pretty sure they were both drunk because the little glimpses of their conversation he did catch made almost no sense. Mostly, though, he just sunk into his swirling thoughts as they oscillated back and forth between surely, surely, that kiss meant more than their ruse and then the base knowledge that everything they did was for show. And what a show Blaine had just put on.

Did Blaine know that Kurt hadn't been kissing him back like that just to sell their act? That it had been some innate reaction that had caused Kurt to tug, wanting more? Would he figure it out?

It was getting a little loud in his head, and the oscillating was starting to make him feel a little dizzy. He went and found Puck and demanded one of his special red solo cups.

Resorting to alcohol. Normal and mature. Obviously.

—*—

The thing about singing a song to a room full of your friends and then making out with your fake boyfriend who you're actually desperately head-over-heels for is… It sort of makes you feel like you're inside out when said fake boyfriend starts to ignore you.

Maybe it was just in Blaine's head. He wasn't sure. No one had questioned why he and Kurt weren't joined at the hip like new boyfriends would be, so there was a chance he was just overthinking it. Still, he couldn't help but feel like Kurt had spent the night skirting around him, briefly talking to him and touching his arm or waving at him from across the room but nothing of substance.

He was terrified that he'd overstepped Kurt's boundaries with that kiss. He could have sworn that Kurt had been into it, too, though. He was the one who had added tongue, for goodness sake. But now, it felt like a rejection, even though he hadn't technically admitted anything, and Kurt hadn't technically turned him down.

Blaine glanced up from his spot near Artie and saw Jeff across the room with a group of Warblers. He gave Blaine a weird, curious look, the question behind his eyes very easily understood: What's up with you and Kurt? Well, that confirmed it. Something was up with him and Kurt then. The unease Blaine had been feeling started to settle even more firmly inside of him. He looked for Kurt and found him sitting next to Tina and Quinn, a despondent look on his face as the girls laughed and gestured grandly around him.

Right, Blaine thought. No more pity parties. He downed the last of his drink—dry ginger ale; he had meant it when he'd told Kurt that he would stay away from Puck's concoctions—and made his way over to his boyfriend. Well, his fake boyfriend.

"Hey," Blaine said, trying to sound happy and natural and not at all like his chest was aching. "Can I talk to you?"

Kurt pulled his eyes up to look at Blaine and nodded, trying desperately to plaster a lovestruck smile on his face. It seemed difficult for him. "Sure, babe," he said, the pet-name tacked on at the end.

Blaine led them through Rachel's basement in search of a spot where they could talk, just the two of them. He found a corner that was quiet enough and turned to face his best friend. He could already feel the plea that was going to soak into his voice, his tone, his gestures. "Kurt, are we… Are we okay?"

Kurt cocked his head. "Of course, we are."

Blaine waited for him to say something else. He didn't. "I feel like you've been avoiding me all night. Did I do something wrong?" And what he meant by that was, Did I do something wrong when I kissed you? But that was too scary to ask, to verbalize, to say out loud, because the answer might be yes.

And if the answer was yes, then Kurt would have officially turned him down. The ache in his chest moved a little deeper at that thought.

Kurt, however, didn't get a chance to answer. Santana burst their tense little bubble, declaring that a game of spin the bottle was commencing by the stage area and that they were both invited to join. "And by that, I mean I'd better see your butts sitting in that circle immediately," she said, smiling so sweetly that both boys knew it was a threat. And then, she was off, rounding up all of the others who had broken off from the main group and pushing them towards the forming game.

"I guess we'd better get over there," Kurt said before sending Blaine a small, apologetic smile.

Blaine hung back while Kurt made his way over to the group. He watched his best friend and tried to figure out what was going on inside his head. Something was up; that much was obvious. He wished he could do something to fix it and hoped he wasn't the one who'd caused it. He sighed and then moved to join the rest of his friends, resolved to find another opportunity to talk to Kurt at some point that night.

Despite his best efforts to not let go of his concerns, the game of spin the bottle got under Blaine's skin, and before he knew it, he was laughing along with everyone else as Quinn and Mike exaggerated their pretend makeout after Mike's spin had landed on her. Everyone was feeling light-hearted and silly, and it rubbed off on Blaine. It got him out of his funk.

It seemed to get Kurt out of his, too. He still seemed vaguely horrified by the whole concept of the game, but he was being a good sport, and he even caught eyes and smiled at Blaine at one point; the smile seemed genuine.

Once Tina had good-naturedly pulled her boyfriend off Quinn, Quinn moved forward and took her turn. The bottle spun and spun and spun and then landed on Blaine. She locked eyes on him, assessing him almost, and then decided on how to proceed. She crawled across the circle to him and then, on her knees, leaned down and kissed him with a strength and sweetness to it. It wasn't entirely unpleasant, but it was kissing a girl, so he mostly just waited for it to be over. Thankfully, that came quickly.

The group laughed and cheered as Quinn moved back to her spot, and Rachel patted Kurt on the back with sympathy, as if everyone wasn't kissing everyone else's partners tonight. Then, it was Blaine's turn to spin the bottle, and it felt like it was never going to stop, like they'd all just be stuck here at this party in Rachel's basement forever. And then it landed. On Kurt.

The room erupted into wolf-whistles and cackles. Kurt went bright red and shy. Blaine's heart started beating fast at the thought of another kiss like the one they had shared at the start of the night.

"Please," Artie said, a loose smile on his lips and a glint in his eye, "do not turn this into a live sex show." Blaine wanted to roll his eyes at that comment, but to be fair, they had gotten a little carried away earlier.

Blaine looked over at where Kurt was sitting, a few people to his left. Kurt looked back, a mix of determination and terror on his face. Blaine couldn't figure out if that was a good combination or not. They stared at each other for a moment longer, waiting for the other to make the first move.

Blaine hadn't realized it, but everyone had fallen silent. They were all watching Kurt and himself just staring at each other, and many of them were confused. "Get on with it. It's not like you haven't kissed before," Jeff said, and Blaine heard the nudge in his tone. Oh. Right. Get on with it. These people think you kiss Kurt Hummel all the time.

He moved forward and closed the gap between them, aiming for a kiss that was not as intense as the one they'd shared earlier but that still conveyed their supposed relationship. Kurt, however, kissed him lightly, shortly, and with even less passion than the kiss he'd just shared with Quinn. Blaine went back to his spot and felt…embarrassed almost, as if there was a neon sign above his head, blinking, alerting everyone to the fact that Kurt didn't actually like him; he was just barely pretending to.

Kurt looked miserable as he leaned forward and spun the bottle. Blaine realized all at once that he'd been so caught up in his own head that he hadn't really stopped to consider that Kurt was probably also sifting through some big feelings. They were best friends. Kissing your best friend like that was complicated, no matter the circumstances. He wanted to reach out and grab Kurt's hand and be there for him like he always was. And then…

The bottle stopped spinning on Dave.

An upbeat Lady Gaga song was pumping out of the speakers, almost comically now because the entire room had fallen silent and everyone was holding their breath. Dave let out a nervous laugh, like he wasn't sure what to do.

Kurt looked frozen. No determination on his face this time, just terror.

"Maybe we should get back to karaoke," Rachel said, her voice uncharacteristically wavering. "I've been wanting to sing an Adele number all night."

No one replied. No one moved.

"Kurt?" Dave said, his voice begging and questioning and already wounded. "It's just a silly game."

Kurt stood up, whispered a quick, "Sorry," and then ran from the room.

—*—

Kurt let the back door swing behind him, the sound of it banging shut echoing through him. He wasn't sure where he was going. Mercedes had driven him here tonight, and he was supposed to be sleeping over, so he just wandered over to a tree in Rachel's backyard and sat down against it. It was late but the garden was fenced in, and they were in a safe neighborhood. Plus, the fresh air was helping his erratically beating heart.

He had forgiven Dave for all of the bullying and the name-calling and the shoving. He had done that a long time ago. But the second that bottle had landed on Dave, Kurt knew in every inch of himself that he hadn't forgiven him for kissing him in that locker room. Not yet.

His skin felt itchy, and his breathing felt raw. He wondered if he should call his dad to come pick him up, but he knew there was a little bit of alcohol on his breath, and he didn't want to have to explain why he was feeling this awful to him. What would he even say? I asked Blaine to pretend to be my boyfriend—Sorry. Yes, I've been lying to you—to get Dave off my back about Prom, but then Blaine and I kissed, and it made me feel alive. Afterwards, though, it just sent me spiraling about my feelings for him and how I wished it was real. And then, my turn landed on Dave during spin the bottle, and I was supposed to kiss him, except I couldn't because the last time that happened with him, he had taken it from me.

He leaned his head back against the trunk of the tree and took a deep breath in. He wouldn't call his dad; he would just wait there until he felt something close to normal, and then he would rejoin the party, maybe sing that karaoke duet with Blaine that he had been talking about in the car. Everything would be fine. But then, at that exact moment, Blaine pushed through the back door, sort of panicked.

"Kurt?" he yelled out, searching the garden with his eyes.

"I'm over here," he said, raising his hand weakly to show Blaine where he was.

Blaine hurried over, looking a little wild, honestly. "God, Kurt, I was so worried about you. I looked all through the house for you… Are you okay?"

The answer to that question was no, but he didn't really want to talk about it yet. So, instead, he said, "You've gone all Olivia Newton John on me."

Blaine looked puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"The leather jacket you were wearing, the ripped jeans, your hair all loose. The eyeliner ." And then, when it looked like Blaine still didn't get it, he explained, "You're Sandy. I'm Danny. At the end of the movie."

"Oh," Blaine laughed, looking down at his ensemble a little sheepishly and finally understanding the reference. "Does that mean we're about to fly off in a car together?"

Kurt laughed, the sound and the feeling of it rolling through his chest and out through his arms. It felt good to be sitting out there alone and laughing with his best friend. He had been worried that what he'd said the other day about things being weird between them after making out at the party was coming true, but this felt normal. Normal Kurt and Blaine. "I really wish we were."

Blaine sat down next to Kurt, laughing, too, and then he said, "You're the one that I want."

A shock ran down Kurt's spine, and he was pretty sure his heart stopped beating for just a second. "What?"

"You know, 'You're The One That I Want'? That was the song I had picked out for our karaoke duet tonight. I just think it's funny, you know. Grease seems to be a theme for us tonight."

Kurt thought about that song for a second. The first verse suddenly made so much sense to him. He sang it quietly, almost under his breath.

I got chills, they're multiplying
And I'm losing control

'Cause the power you're supplying
It's electrifying

That was exactly how kissing Blaine had felt at the beginning of the night. Electric, like neither of them had any control over how intense it had gotten. Kurt smiled shyly at Blaine. "I'm sorry I've been acting…well, all over the place tonight. It's my fault we didn't get to sing together."

Blaine reached out and picked up Kurt's hand, the touch so comforting that Kurt felt like he could cry. "Please don't apologize. It's been an eventful night," Blaine said.

Kurt exhaled. "Yeah. It has."

"Do you want to talk about what happened just now? With spin the bottle?" he asked, a little cautiously.

Kurt chewed his lip, thinking, and then gave in to the pull of wanting to talk about it with Blaine. "It just…took me by surprise, I think. As soon as it landed on Dave, I felt every single feeling I had felt back in that locker room. I don't know… It was like my fight or flight was activated." He looked down at his hand in Blaine's. "I must have hurt his feelings."

He must have hurt Blaine's feelings, too, when he had avoided him for most of the night and then barely kissed him when Blaine's spin had landed on him. But that was a whole other conversation.

"I'm sure he'll be okay. Your feelings matter, too, Kurt. Actually, I think they matter more in this situation," Blaine said. He went quiet, and then a look of horror appeared on his face. "Oh, God, what I did tonight was no better than what Karofsky did, was it?"

"What are you talking about?" Kurt asked, confused.

"When I kissed you. I just did it with no warning, and I didn't even ask you first. Kurt, I am so sorry."

Kurt laughed, which seemed to shock his best friend. He could see the worry that was coursing through Blaine's body, so he hurried to clarify, "Blaine, that kiss was nothing like what happened with Dave. We'd already talked about it, and we both knew we were going to have to makeout tonight." And I wanted it to happen, he thought, but he didn't say it. Part of him wondered why he didn't. Why not just say it now and get it out into the open, out into Rachel's backyard, out into the world? Then, at least, he would finally know if Blaine felt the same as him.

"Okay," Blaine said, seeming to calm down a little bit after Kurt's assurances. "And for the record, fake boyfriend, you are a very good kisser."

Kurt held his breath for a second while the fact that there was no one around to hear caught up to him. He must just really, genuinely mean that. He could feel his cheeks flushing. "Well, for the record, you are, too."

They smiled at each other, wondering where to go from there. And for a tiny, brief moment, it felt like maybe they were going to kiss again. Not for show this time. Just because they were two people who wanted to kiss each other, alone in a garden. But the moment was shattered by someone's voice.

"Kurt?"

Kurt snapped his head to the back door, looking to see who was hovering there. Mercedes. And she looked…upset?

"Why did Blaine just say, 'fake boyfriend'?" she asked.

Shit. That was…not ideal. Kurt had known that if he'd told Mercedes right from the start, it would have been fine. She would have rolled her eyes at him and pointed out all of the reasons why it was a terrible idea, but then she would have supported him and never told a soul. But he'd figured it was just easier to keep the amount of people who knew the truth to a bare minimum.

"Mercedes, wait. I can explain," he tried to say, but she was already shaking her head.

"You've been lying to me? To everyone else?"

Blaine stood up and said, "Honestly, Mercedes, we can explain everything. I promise. It'll make sense."

Mercedes looked at Blaine and then back at Kurt. She seemed a little tired, defeated, sagging in that way people do when the alcohol has worn off and they're just left with a sad feeling. "Explain it to me tomorrow. I'm going home," she said, and then she disappeared back into the house.

The boys stayed there, Kurt still sitting against the tree and Blaine awkwardly standing next to him, for a while. Just processing. Figuring out what to do.

"I hate parties at Rachel's house," Kurt finally said.

"Me, too," Blaine agreed.

—*—

Blaine was the one to suggest they go back inside. A bit of a breeze had started to pick up, and neither of them had jackets on. They were going to have to make their way back down to the party at some point; they might as well just bite the bullet. Plus, Blaine wasn't sure how much longer he could stand out here and not bring up the fact that he was pretty sure they had been about to kiss.

But when they finally made it down the last few steps and into the basement, it was pretty empty. There were still a few Warblers dotted around, and Artie was in a corner, eating a packet of chips in a trance, but a bunch of their friends had cleared out. A Bette Midler song was playing, adding an element of melancholy to the room.

"What happened?" Kurt asked, but Blaine just shrugged at him. He'd left pretty much immediately after Kurt had run off, so he had no idea either. They noticed Rachel sitting alone on the stage, singing along to the song with a bottle of sparkling wine in her hand. They made their way over to her and repeated the question.

She squinted up at them, her brain taking a second to catch up to what was happening around her. "Oh. Kurt and Blaineeee," she said, drawing out the "E" in Blaine's name.

"How many of those have you had?" Blaine asked, taking the bottle out of her hand and placing it on a table behind them.

"Three!" Rachel beamed, pleased with herself.

"Where is everyone?" Kurt asked, obviously trying a different tactic.

Rachel took a big, deep sigh, and then launched into a slightly slurred explanation. "Dave left after you ran away from kissing him, and some of the Warblers followed to check on him. Mercedes went to find you guys because you'd been gone for so long, and then she stormed back in and grabbed her keys and left."

Blaine could feel Rachel getting into the drama of her little speech the further she got into it. He almost wanted to laugh at her ability to be theatrical no matter the situation, but it didn't seem like the right time to.

"Mike and Tina went to go and check on Mercedes. She seemed upset," she continued. "Finn stormed off to bed early because he was mad that I sang 'You Don't Bring Me Flowers' earlier. He says I demand too much from him. Can you believe that?"

Kurt and Blaine just shrugged, neither of them trusting themselves enough to say anything to that question because, yes, they could believe that.

"Anyway, Santana and Brittany disappeared into one of the bedrooms, and I do not want to walk in on anything, so I'm leaving them be." It almost seemed like she'd finished, but then she inhaled quickly, remembering something else, and said, "Oh, and Nick and Jeff had a huge argument in the kitchen and went home…separately. That's all I know," she said, drooping from the energy she had just exerted.

Blaine ran the night through his mind, looking for any signs that Nick and Jeff had been fighting. They'd seemed fine when he was around them, but this night was proving to be a roller-coaster, so it wouldn't shock him if something had happened just while he was outside with Kurt. He was torn, desperate to stay here with Kurt and look after him but also wanting to check up on his other best friend.

Kurt must have figured this out because he set Blaine with a very certain look and said, in a tone that bordered on strict, "Go and find Jeff. I'll be fine."

"Kurt… No. I want to stay here with you. I'll just give Jeff a call."

"You are basically vibrating with anxiety, Blaine. Go and see if he's okay. I promise you I will be fine. I'm just going to go to bed."

Blaine assessed him. He did seem to be in slightly better spirits, although still weary and worn down. "What about the whole Mercedes thing?" he asked.

Kurt put his hands on Blaine's shoulders and started steering him towards the staircase. "I'll sort all of that out tomorrow. Please go and look after Jeff."

It seemed like Kurt wasn't going to back down, so he stopped at the bottom step and pulled Kurt into a heavy, warm hug. "I'll call you first thing in the morning, okay?"

Kurt nodded and then pulled away, an encouraging smile on his face. "Go on."

"Okay. Okay. I'm going," he laughed, and then finally tore his gaze away from Kurt to run up the stairs, pulling his phone out of his pocket as he went.

—*—

Knowing that Santana and Brittany had disappeared into one of the bedrooms, Kurt just beelined for the living room instead. The only thing that could make this night worse would be walking in on them and then having to endure Santana's wrath or merciless teasing about it, depending on her mood. The couch would be fine.

Except the couch was sort of lumpy in that expensive-but-uncomfortable type of way, and no amount of tossing or turning was getting Kurt any closer to sleep. He sighed, resigned to this never-ending bad night, and started laying blankets on the floor as a makeshift bed.

Once he was down on the ground and decidedly not thinking about how his back was going to feel in the morning, he made a quick mental list of all the things he needed to address tomorrow.

One, clear the air with Dave. Two, explain everything to Mercedes. Three, find out if Nick and Jeff were okay. Four, check on Finn and Rachel… Although, knowing them, they'd be back to being lovesick by the time the sun came up.

And then, finally…talk to Blaine about that kiss.

—*—

Kurt woke up with a headache. He'd only had one cup of alcohol last night, so it must have been stress related. Also, his back hurt. He pulled himself up off the ground and headed towards the kitchen. He knew Rachel's dads had a fancy coffee machine, and he was desperate to get it running. When he got there, though, Finn was already up and had beat him to it.

"This was supposed to be for Rachel, but you look like you could use it more," Finn said, holding out the fresh coffee he'd just finished making.

"Thank you; you're a life-saver," Kurt said, accepting it gratefully. "Where is Rachel anyway?"

"She's still in bed. Pretty sure everybody that stayed over is."

Kurt took a huge sip of the coffee and felt it as it warmed his limbs, and then he remembered what Rachel had said last night about Finn storming off to bed early. "Is everything alright between you guys? Rachel said something about you being upset."

Finn got started on another coffee, presumably a second attempt at one for Rachel, and smiled. "Yeah. You know how we are. She expects a lot, and I feel really pressured by it. And then she relents and apologizes, and I step up and do what I should have done in the first place. We're working on figuring out a balance."

"That's good," Kurt said, glad that they were working on it.

"Where's your boyfriend?" Finn said, his eyebrow arched in a tease. "I thought he was staying over, too?"

Kurt realized with a start that he'd been so focused on getting coffee that he hadn't even checked his phone to see if Blaine had found Jeff and if they were okay. "Nick and Jeff had a fight, so he went to check on them."

"Huh," Finn said as he grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge for himself and then walked towards the door with that and Rachel's coffee in his hands. "Crazy night."

"Crazy night indeed," he agreed, and then he padded back to his little set up in the living room and found his phone. He had one text message from Blaine, which had been sent in the early hours of the morning.

Found Jeff and took him back to my place. Nick is okay, too. Nothing too serious (I hope). I'll explain when I see you. Later today? Well, much later, seeing as it's currently 3am. Hope you're okay. xx

Kurt stared at the little X's at the end of the message. He wondered if they meant something, but then he remembered that someone was tracking their phones, and their messages were a part of their act now, too. What wasn't a part of their act? To answer that question, Kurt's brain supplied, very unhelpfully, a memory from last night: sitting on the dirt in Rachel's backyard, almost kissing Blaine in private.

He shook his head and sent a quick reply to Blaine, explaining that he'd be free in the afternoon and that he was glad that both Jeff and Nick were safe and sound. And then he pulled up Mercedes' contact information on his screen and took a deep breath.

If she didn't forgive him, he wasn't sure what he would do.

—*—

Kurt sat at a table in The Lima Bean, anxiously fiddling with his cup and saucer. Being on his second cup of coffee for the day was definitely adding to his nerves, but he'd needed something to do with his hands while he waited for Mercedes to arrive.

"Hey," she said, sliding into the seat opposite Kurt and startling him a little bit. "I'm sorry for storming off last night."

Kurt met her eyes and immediately felt warmth and love radiating from her. She wasn't mad. She still looked a little apprehensive, but Kurt had a feeling that she would listen to him explain the situation at the very least. "Hey, Mercedes. Thank you so much for meeting me. Do you want me to get you a coffee?"

"No. Thanks." She smiled, pointing to her bottle of water. "This is the only thing my body needs right now after last night."

"You didn't drive home, did you?" Kurt winced, knowing that she'd had a bit to drink.

"Mike drove me home. He hadn't had anything to drink."

Kurt thought about Mike making out with Quinn last night in their game of spin the bottle. Or, well, him pretending to make out with Quinn, and the performance of it all definitely seemed like something two drunk people did. Kurt brought that up with Mercedes.

She laughed. "I know! But he said he was just being goofy."

" Goofy? " Kurt exclaimed, tickled by the word. Goofy wasn't exactly how he would describe Mike.

"Yeah," Mercedes giggled. "Goofy Mike."

It was nice to sit there and laugh with Mercedes, to know that he hadn't done irreparable damage to his friendship with her. But when their laughs died down, he knew it was time to dig in and explain everything. She deserved to know why he had been lying to her. "Mercedes, I am so sorry for lying to you. To everyone. And I know I should have told you. You're one of my best friends."

"Yeah. Yeah. Second only to the one and only Blaine Anderson," she teased, but he could tell she was open to what he had to say.

"I… Ugh, I don't even know where to start."

"Okay," Mercedes said, grabbing Kurt's anxious hands and holding them in her own. "Why don't you start at the beginning. Why did you and Blaine decide to pretend to date?"

"Because of Dave."

"Karofsky?" she asked.

"Yeah. When he transferred back to McKinley, I really didn't mind. We're on good terms. But he was being…persistent, I guess? He wanted to take me to Prom. And with everything that had been going on for him, I didn't want to hurt his feelings. He just seemed…too fragile. I ended up telling him that I had a boyfriend and that he was already taking me to Prom."

"And that had to be Blaine, the only other out guy at school?" Mercedes surmised.

"Yeah," Kurt confirmed. "Blaine agreed to do it for me and to save Dave's feelings from getting hurt, but now it's all getting so complicated."

"I'm guessing that kiss last night at the party has something to do with complicating things," Mercedes laughed, but Kurt knew she wasn't teasing him. She was just understanding everything that Kurt was saying and the stuff he wasn't explicitly saying either. "You've still got that crush on him, then?"

"It never went away."

"What about Alex?" she asked, still no tease or judgment in her tone.

"I don't know. He was nice, but…"

"But he wasn't Blaine?"

"He wasn't Blaine," Kurt agreed. The pair of them sat there in silence for a moment, that realization feeling heavy for them both.

After a moment, Mercedes spoke. "That's how I felt when I was dating Shane. He was such a nice guy, and I don't know why I couldn't just forget about everything else and enjoy our relationship. But no matter how hard I tried to do that, he just wasn't…"

"Sam," Kurt finished, because Mercedes had trailed off and was looking sadly down at their hands, still holding on to each other.

"Yeah," Mercedes nodded. "I shouldn't have gotten so upset last night. It just hurt to know you'd been pretending all this time, and I didn't know."

"I'm so sorry, Mercedes, truly. What can I do to make it up to you?"

But she just smiled and shook her head. "Nothing, silly. It's okay. But… From now on, let's not keep secrets from each other. Deal?"

"Deal," Kurt grinned.

Even though he still needed to talk to Dave and there were definitely things he needed to unpack about Blaine, he felt a huge weight lift off his shoulders when Mercedes squeezed his hands and proceeded to sit and chat to him for the next hour like nothing had changed. It felt incredible to have someone know about what was going on, about his feelings for Blaine, and who he knew would never tell anyone.

He sunk into his chair and listened to Mercedes chat on and on about all of her silly and crazy and funny anecdotes from the party last night and reveled in this feeling of peace. He knew it wasn't going to last forever.

Notes from GleefulDarrenCrissFan: A giant shoutout to Teddyhoney, who finished editing this a few days ago. Therefore, I'm going to start publishing three times a week until it's finished. The next chapter, by HoneySucklePink, will be posted Tuesday. After that, I will post again on Thursday, and again on Sunday. Usually, it'll be Saturday, but I'll be out of town and I have a new story to post for the Klaine Prompt 321 Bang debuting as well. Please don't forget to leave a comment.