The Break-Up
Blaine and Artie have taken over tutoring him since Quinn clearly isn't an option anymore, and the kids in the tutoring club always make him feel stupid for being dyslexic. He knows he's not a moron that people often think he is, he just needs extra help with the classes that require heavy reading, he's actually really good at math subjects.
He's in the library at lunch attempting to finish a book report for English with Blaine when Blaine's phone keeps going off. Blaine had gone to the washroom and must have forgotten his phone. He assumes it's Kurt and flips Blaine's phone over to tell Kurt he's just in the washroom because he knows time is precious between the two of them since Kurt's internship at vogue had started.
But it's not Kurt. It's some guy named Eli with a profile picture of a lighthouse. His eyes skim over the messages before he can stop himself, are we still on for tonight sexy?
He can't believe his eyes. Blaine is planning to cheat on Kurt? After all that stuff about Chandler last year? This is way worse than that situation. He's disappointed in Blaine, and he feels a little betrayed. He, Tina, and Blaine have become super close this year because all of their partners have graduated (even if Quinn isn't his anymore), they confided in each other, told each other things about themselves no one else really knows. And he had told them about how badly it had broken him when Quinn had cheated on him with Finn, and now Blaine turns around and does this? He's shocked.
He jumps a little when Blaine comes back and asks him, "hey, what's up? Did Kurt call?" He hadn't realized he had been so invested in Blaine's phone.
"Who's Eli?" He asks Blaine, holding up his phone.
Blaine's face falls and he reaches forward to take his phone from him, but Sam just moves his arm to hold it out of Blaine's reach.
Blaine sighs, clearly frustrated, and crosses his arms. "This is none of your business Sam. I can't believe you would snoop through my phone."
He laughs because this is ridiculous. He catches Blaine attempting to cheat on Kurt and he's the bad guy? What world are they living in for that to make any sense. "What the fuck do you think you're doing trying to cheat on Kurt? Especially after that whole Chandler shit last year."
Blaine lets out a breath and tilts his head towards the ceiling and Sam knows that he's doing it just so he doesn't let any tears escape his eyes. "I miss him okay? But he doesn't have any time for me anymore."
Sam rolls his eyes, not buying Blaine's excuse to not make him look like an awful boyfriend right now. "So go visit him, don't fucking cheat on him. You think that's going to solve whatever problems the two of you are having right now?"
Blaine sighs and takes a seat next to him, dropping his head in his arms. "I seriously don't know what to do Sam."
Sam pats his head and starts looking up flights on Blaine's computer. "Cancel your plans with that guy tonight, and go visit Kurt this weekend." He suggests and feels better about the whole situation when Blaine looks up at him and smiles.
She gets a Skype call at four in the afternoon on a Thursday from Kurt and furrows her brow in confusion, isn't Kurt supposed to be at Vogue?
She accepts the call anyways because she is in desperate need of a break from the paper she's been working on for the past six hours. "Hey Kurt, what's up? I thought you would be at Vogue?" She asks him, fishing on through the drawer in her bedside table for her headphones.
"Hey Quinn, I called in sick today." She hears him greet her, sniffling. She forgets about her headphones and whips her attention back to her computer. Is Kurt crying?
"Are you crying? What happened? Did something happen to Rachel?"
He laughs at her panicking state, but can he blame her? He knows that she would do anything for her friends. "No no, nothing like that. Blaine and I just broke up."
She's not surprised, long distance rarely works between anyone, and as much as she loves Kurt and Blaine together, she definitely saw this one coming. "Oh no Kurt, I'm so sorry. What happened?"
"Well he came to visit me in New York and things were awesome and everything, but then I kept thinking about how things would be once he went back to Lima. And he confessed to me that he had also cheated on me so I decided that maybe we should just break up for a year until he comes to New York."
"I'm sorry to hear that Kurt. Is there anything I can do?" She asks him because as much as she saw this coming, she still wants to take some of his hurt away.
"Actually there is one thing, I need some advice. How did you get through it after you broke up with Sam? Because this seriously feels like someone is grabbing a shovel and is digging into my chest so they can rip my heart out."
She giggles at his description and tells him, "it gets easier" even though it's a lie. She knows the truth will crush him, especially right now, so she lies. She can't tell him that it never really does.
He doesn't know why he joins this stupid club, but Blaine had suggested when school had first started to join as many extra-cirriculars he can because maybe it will help him take his mind of Quinn. Spoiler alert, it doesn't. Nothing does.
But he's always loved football, and being quarterback again is awesome, so that cancels out his pain for a little bit. He doesn't mind being vice principal or whatever his title is, he just agrees with whatever Tina and Blaine suggest in their student council meetings. The superhero club they all joined is his second favourite, but the left behind club? He doesn't know what he was thinking joining that one.
He goes with Joe to every meeting at Breadstix and tries to convince himself that this isn't a complete waste of time every week as he listens to Kitty go on and on every week about some new bullshit she thinks is real.
He's surprised to see Marley here this week. She smiles shyly at him and stands in front of the table he and Joe are sitting at. "Is it cool if I sit here?" She asks him.
"Yeah of course." He tells her, moving to the edge of the booth so she can take a seat next to her.
"What is this club even about?" She asks the two of them, but right before he's about to answer her, something else catches his attention. In walks Santana Lopez wrapped around Brittnay's hand. If she's here does that mean Quinn could be too? Joe must notice he no longer cares about the conversation they're all having, so he fills Marley in.
He looks at the door for a few minutes, even after Kitty has begun talking, but she never walks in, so he looks away, disappointed.
As he grabs his things for the fake rapture he tells himself that this seriously will be the last time he's doing this, he's going to quit this stupid club.
He spends most of his morning with Tina comforting Blaine over his breakup with Kurt, so he doesn't even notice that Finn is back in town. He moved out of Burt and Carole's a week and a half ago, thanking them for everything they had done for him.
He's not annoyed that Blaine forgot to tell him that Finn had not completely fallen off the face of the earth. He's shocked when he sees Finn sitting in one of the plastic chairs in the choir room, but he is so glad to see him. "Finn! Dude, what's up?" He asks him while walking over to give him a hug.
"I'm just passing through, visiting my mom and Burt, and Mr. Schue said I could come by if I wanted. But how are you? How's Quinn?" He tells Finn that he's doing fine, and reluctantly tells him that he and Quinn had broken up because he hates talking about it, but thankfully he doesn't have too because before Finn can start asking him about it the other New Direction members start rolling in and greeting Finn.
He overhears Marley and Jake ask each other who Finn is so he takes it upon himself to introduce everyone to Finn. "Listen up! For all of you guys who don't know, this is Finn Hudson right here."
Tina whispers to him that Finn and Rachel had broken up and she thinks that's why he's back. Interesting he thinks to himself. Maybe Finn can help him distract himself from Quinn as much as he can help Finn distract him from Rachel.
She gets a call from Santana as she's walking back to her dorm from the cafe that she's been working at. "Hey San, what's up?" She asks, thinking Santana is probably just calling her to rant to her about how much of a bitch her head captain is.
"Which dorm number is yours again? I think Lady Hummel gave me the wrong one."
She stops walking, frozen in surprise at the idea of Santana driving twelve hours just to visit her on a Tuesday, especially when she's supposed to be in Louisville attending her classes.
She jumps when a biker rings her bell at her, annoyed that she's just standing still in the middle of the sidewalk.
"I'm heading back from work right now. Santana, what are you doing here?" She asks her, confused.
"Brittnay and I broke up." She tells her and Quinn immediately understands.
"I'm on my way."
She finds Santana with her back leaned against the door when she walks into the hallway.
"Hey." She says to the latina slowly. She knows Santana will only want to talk about her feelings if she brings them up herself. Santana gets up as she unlocks the door, and she lets Santana inside first before she closes the door behind them.
"You're really living the university life huh? This is a cute look for you, I especially like the apron." Santana tells her, playing with the end of her black apron she has tied around her yellow short-sleeved dress.
She swats Santana's hands away, dragging her to her room because she's unsure of whether or not her roommate is home. She was a zombie when the two of them spoke over coffee this morning, so she doesn't remember what her roommates schedule is for today.
"So, how are things between you and Trouty?" Santana asks her, picking up a framed picture she has the two of them as she unties her apron and throws it on top of her desk. She peers over Santana's shoulder to see what picture she's looking at, she had forgotten she had that picture sitting on her dresser. It's the picture of them in the choir room while they were celebrating their nationals win. She had thought Tina had been the only one to take a picture of them, blurry but still one of her favourites, but Blaine had also snapped a similar one.
The two pictures are almost identical, with Sam's arms wrapped around her waist from behind, her laughing her head off trying to escape him and keep herself dry. Except this one is clear, and Sam is looking at her in this one. You can see how he's feeling by just looking at his eyes. He looks happy, carefree, and so completely and utterly in love with her.
"We're not doing that." She tells Santana sternly. Just how Santana doesn't want to talk about her breakup with Brittnay, she doesn't want to talk about Sam. "Why are you here San?" She asks her, forcing Santana to put the picture down and grabbing her hand and leading her to Quinn's bed so they can sit and talk.
"I don't want to think about it. I didn't want to do it, but it had to be done. It just wasn't working between us anymore. So I came here because I missed my best friend and needed someone to help me forget for a while until I'm ready to deal with it."
"Okay." She tells Santana, grabbing her hand. "I can do that."
The Role You Were Born To Play
Blaine texts him that Tina's having an emergency and to meet him in the classroom where they have the student council meetings. The sight he sees when he walks into the classroom surprises him, Tina is sobbing her heart out and Blaine is attempting to comfort her by soothingly rubbing her back.
"Tina?! What's wrong?" He asks her, rushing to her side.
"Mike broke up with me!" She tells him in between sobs. He's a little shocked that Mike didn't tell him himself. He and Mike don't talk as often as they used too, but they still make it a tradition to play Call of Duty tournaments with Artie, Puck, and Finn every other night.
"Look Tina, I know it hurts right now but it will get better." Blaine tells her, and Sam nods supportively.
"Oh don't give me that crap Blaine, you have been miserable ever since you came back from your New York trip where Kurt broke up with you." Blaine glares at Tina and he changes the subject before the two of them start arguing.
"Well hey! At least we have the musical to look forward to. You'd be amazing playing any of the female leads Tina."
She sniffles loudly and wipes the tears from her eyes while nodding her head. "That's a perfect distraction, I'm going to go find an audition song." She tells them before gathering her things and storming out of the room. He and Blaine stare at each other, unsure of what to do.
"I guess we should go sign up." He tells Blaine, pulling Blaine down the hallway and towards the signup sheet. "As president and vice president, we can pretty much decree whichever parts we want, right?" He asks Blaine.
"I'm not sure I'm gonna do the musical this year. I'm not in the right headspace to do a project like Grease. Since Kurt and I broke up, I haven't slept, I've lost my appetite, I don't even gel on weekends." Sam has no idea what that last part even means, but he also knows that out of the three of them, he is the best at hiding the fact that he also feels like dying over his breakup the best. This musical is exactly what Blaine needs, a good distraction from his heartache.
"So this is pretty serious then." Sam sighs, although he is partially joking because all of that sounds ridiculous.
"Sam, Kurt was my soulmate. We talked about sending the rest of our lives together. About retiring in Provincetown and buying a lighthouse and starting an artists' colony. And now he won't even return my calls. He won't text me. He's gone. Maybe forever."
He refrains himself from telling Blaine that he's pretty sure that is Kurt's intention. That's the whole point of a breakup, no more connection between the two of you, but he knows that won't help. "Dude, I get it, except for the lighthouse part. But look, everybody's been there. You'll get through it." He tells Blaine, giving him a supportive punch to the shoulder as the bell rings. "Shoot I gotta go, if I'm late to English one more time I'm getting a detention, but everything's going to be fine."
He auditions with Sandy but tells Finn and Artie he wants to play Kenickie. He's not surprised he gets the part, but he still thanks Artie and Finn and pulls out his phone to tell Kurt so he can forward the message onto Quinn. Kurt congratulates him. He never tells him what Quinn's responses are, usually Kurt wouldn't need to since she would text him herself, but she has now gotten the hint and has stopped contacting him, so he never knows, and he doesn't have the heart to ask Kurt and find out.
He also tells Kurt that Blaine doesn't know if he wants to try out at all, not knowing if Kurt expects him to return the favour or not, but he assumes he doesn't because Kurt reads his message and doesn't reply.
"Tina, why haven't you auditioned yet?" He asks her while cornering her in the hallway. "The deadline is almost over."
"Did you know?" She asks him, slamming her locker closed causing him to jump.
"I didn't do anything!" He says defensively, throwing his hands up in surrender.
"Why didn't you tell me that Mike was back Sam! You know I would have told you if Quinn was coming back, so why couldn't you have done the same for me?" She asks him angrily, tears appearing in her eyes and she moves to storm away from him.
"Tina," he says, stopping her, grabbing her arm. "I didn't know. He didn't tell me."
"Well it doesn't matter, I'm not auditioning." She tells him, ripping her arm out of his grasp and walking away.
He goes with the rest of the glee club to see the final cast list for the musical even though he already knows he's been cast as Kenickie, Finn never has been good at keeping secrets.
He wraps an arm around Tina when she returns to his side after seeing she's been cast as Jan, promising her he won't let her out of his sight for most of rehearsals and she smiles up at him. "She's coming back to watch the musical with Santana." She whispers to him. He knows why she's telling him this, she wants him to know she'll return the favour for him when the time comes.
His smile drops from his face and he wonders if it's too late to drop out.