The school year was finally over, Summer vacation had begun, which means no more Junior High ever again. Both Kurt and Blaine are so happy to be out of the place where the grown ups put kids while they make the awkward transition from a child to a teenager. But it also means that once Summer is over it's off to High School and both boys are terrified because after all everyone knows it's where all the pain starts, you're no longer a kid anymore so all the coddling from the teachers stops and you're left to face the world alone. Not to mention the fact that the weak get picked on, though it's not as if Kurt and Blaine haven't had to deal with taunts and teasing almost every day of their school life anyways.
Eight long weeks of doing nothing. Well that's not entirely true, Kurt will probably end up spending most of summer break hanging out with his best friend or at the garage with his Dad. Burt owns his own tire shop and ever since they lost Elizabeth, Kurt has helped out during holidays, on weekends and after school, mainly because there was never always someone who could look after Kurt for a few hours. But Kurt doesn't mind, it's nice to be able to spend time with his Dad because he misses him a lot during the days. They don't really get to see too much of each other during the week because of school and work and then Kurt's evenings are either spent at Blaine's house doing homework or at the garage doing odd jobs and even though his Dad is there with him its not quite the same, and by the night time Burt is usually too tired to do much more than make them dinner. After dinner he usually lays on the sofa watching some TV and because he misses his son just as much as the young boy misses him he lets Kurt snuggle up to him for a bit before bedtime. Only to repeat everything all over again the following day.
It's one of the reasons Burt tries not to work on the weekends unless he really really has too because that's his time to spend with his son. The two do everything together on the weekends, when Kurt was younger they consisted of staying in and watching Disney movies, having pretend tea parties out under the sun or Burt teaching his son how to ride his bike. But as he got older they began doing other things such as visits to the museums, going to adventure parks, mini camping trips and one time Burt thought it would be a good idea to teach Kurt how to fish, but that hadn't ended well, a squeamish Kurt had squealed at the little worms they were using as bait refusing to touch them, afraid of the little teeth. And instead of just throwing the line, Kurt had flung the whole fishing rod into the river. Safe to say that Burt crossed fishing straight off their list of activities after that.
But not even two weeks into Summer break and Kurt wanted it over with as soon as possible. It had been truly awful so far. Something wasn't right, that Kurt was sure about but he didn't know what to do about it. Blaine had been acting oddly, his smile was off and he was unnaturally quiet. Kurt hated not knowing what was up with the dark haired boy because they always told each other everything, always had done ever since they could first talk, even all the really embarrassing stuff, so why not this time? Kurt is nothing but persistent and had tried several times to find out what was wrong but to no avail. He's pretty sure that Blaine is keeping something secret from him and that makes him feel angry and betrayed because they've never kept secrets from each other before. Ever. It's rule number one of their friendship.
That's why a few afternoons later Kurt found himself sitting opposite Blaine, in a busy diner while Cooper ordered them food, carefully studying his friend. Determined to figure out what was really going on between them so that he could voice his worries, because really how do say something when you haven't got the slightest idea what might be happening? How do you go about telling your best friend that you're worried about them when all you have to go on is the fact that they haven't spoke to you as much as they usually do or that they didn't give you their usual bright smile or because they didn't roll their eyes with you at someone's silly comment on the TV.
Watching Blaine today though he didn't really have any reason to suspect that anything was wrong, he had his goofy grin in place and the happy gleam in his eyes as he laughed and joked with his older brother. The older boy had stuck around longer than planned after showing up for their birthday the previous month, that was something else that seemed strange.
Kurt felt scared that Blaine didn't want to be best friends anymore. Maybe he was worried about what the other kids are gonna say when they start High School, because even Kurt knows that not everyone will be so accepting about two boys being as close as they are but that's just the way life works. Kurt thinks that maybe Blaine is distancing himself now and using their summer as a practice to get him used to not being his friend. No. Of course Blaine wouldn't do something like that. Kurt shook his head to clear his thoughts, he had to stop getting carried away, he just wished Blaine would talk to him about whatever was going on.
Later, after Cooper had dropped him back off at home, he sat alone in the living room resting his elbows on his knees and his chin on his fists. Kurt let out a sigh, letting his eyes roam round the room hoping the answer would just jump out at him. Staring at an old smiling photo of his Mom that still sat above the fireplace he spoke into the quiet room.
"I bet you'd know what to do if you were still here. You always did." He sighed "I can practically hear what you'd say in my head now" he let out a short laugh and raised the pitch of his voice slightly "Oh Kurty, you and that crazy imagination of yours, the stubbornness wasn't the only thing you got from your Dad. Just give the boy his space"
And there he goes again, making up scenarios in his head that don't provide him with the real reason of why Blaine has been avoiding him. It did provide him with something though, it was time to take a long overdue trip to visit his Mom, he needed to talk to her, and although she couldn't reply it still usually helped him a lot to just be able to get everything out. He knew his Dad would be willing to listen to him and even try his best to provide him with the advice he needed but this was one of those times where he just needed his Mom. It had been awful when Elizabeth died because she had always been the first person that Kurt looked up too the most, that one person he could tell all his troubles to and know that she'd someone make them okay, in short she was his hero. He'd found it really difficult adjusting to life with just his Dad around and Burt hadn't exactly known how to properly comfort his son when he was upset, but together they figured it out. Burt learnt how to be that one person for Kurt, he became the hero that Kurt could look up to.
So telling his Dad that he was going for a little ride on his bike to get some fresh air after being cooped up inside the garage all week he rode down the rows and rows of streets and past the forest towards the graveyard. He didn't mean to fib to his Dad but he knew the older man would insist on going with him and he really wanted to be alone for a while, Kurt didn't understand why but Burt was always telling him he wasn't to go to the cemetery alone, but what was going to happen in the middle of the afternoon?
Passing through the tall iron gates he followed the long and winding paths, the white and black headstones all standing out greatly against the bright green of the grass. Slowly making his way further into the cemetery he stopped by the big old oak tree, which in the hot July sun was casting a shadow over the corner of grass in which his Mom lay beneath.
"Hey Mom" he said speaking quietly as he cleared fallen leaves and long bits of grass away from her headstone before sitting cross legged in front of it. Carefully rearranging the flowers that had moved in the light wind he gathered his thoughts.
"Sorry I haven't been to visit you for a while." He said running his fingers over the words that had been engraved onto the thick stone.
"Dad doesn't know I'm here, so i can't really stop too long, you know how he worries" Kurt looked down fiddling with the long blades of grass beneath him putting off what he'd really came to tell his Mom.
"Loads has happened since I was last here with Dad and I could spend hours telling you all about them but what's the point?" He sighed. "Because if it's true what Dad keeps telling me then you're up there somewhere watching down on me every single day so I suppose you'll already know all of it won't you?" As he spoke Kurt tilted his head up to look at the white fluffy clouds, moving slowly across the blue sky above him, as though he'd be able to see Elizabeth sat on one them just waving down at him with a smile on her face.
"I do need to talk to you about something though. That's why I'm here because I know no matter where you are you'll know what I need to do." Placing his open palms on the grass behind him he lent back and got comfy before speaking about everything that had been clogging up his mind for weeks.
"Blaine has been acting really strange these past few weeks and I've barely saw him at all. I've had to stay cooped up at the garage with Dad all through the start of the Summer, and honestly I don't mind it too much because I hardly ever get to spend time with Dad during the days but Blaine always seems to be too busy or just can't be bothered to hang out, and that's really not like him, it's like he's trying to avoid me and I don't understand why. And I can't tell Dad why because I don't even know the answer myself."
"Dad thinks Blaine and I have had a disagreement about something and that we'll fix things soon. I really wish that was the case because Blaine and I don't really ever fight often but when we do we make up right away because it's just so awful not speaking to him. But I really don't know what to do because this isn't just one of our silly fights. This is Blaine keeping secrets. I know you would know what to do if you were here. You always did give the best advice. I've tried asking Blaine what's wrong but he just brushes me off with an 'I'm fine' which I know isn't true but he won't talk to me about it. And we've never ever kept secrets from each other Mom, you know that but that's what this feels like, like he knows something that I don't. And if this is another one of those 'It's too keep you safe' things then I don't want to be safe!" Kurt let out a sigh and took a deep breath to calm himself back down.
He plucked a daisy from the grass and slowly twirled it between his fingers before speaking again.
"I'm sorry, I just want everything to be okay again. Things will be okay won't they Mom? We'll figure it out right?" Kurt had ended up sitting alone in the sun just speaking almost to himself about anything and everything for over an hour before he found the will to leave. But it had been really nice to just talk and talk and to just let everything out. Even if no one was really listening. He at least felt slightly lighter inside.
"Well I should probably get going, you know what Dad's like. He'll worry that I've been gone too long." Rolling his eyes with a small grin, Kurt stood up and brushed the grass off his jeans with his hands, shaking his stiff legs out.
"I promise to come back again soon, I won't leave it so long next time" Kissing the ends of his fingertips he pressed them to the engraved name. Elizabeth Rose Hummel.
Going to grab his bike from where it was resting against the tree he noticed a large white feather, that hadn't been there before, laying on top the grass by the front wheel. Smiling Kurt picked it up and repeated the short poem Grandma used to tell Blaine and him whenever they found bright white feathers at the park.
"Feathers appear when angels are near." He whispered, running his index finger over the soft edges.
Carefully he slipped it into the pocket of his jeans. It was going straight into his scrapbook when he got home "Thank you Mom" he smiled, it was her way of answering him, he could feel it deep within his chest. Everything was going to be okay, Blaine and he would sort things out soon enough. He just knew it.
"Hey Loser. Visiting our dead Mommy are we?" Kurt stiffened hearing the cruel laughter behind him, turning he found himself face to face with the two biggest bullies from school. Chad and his sidekick Charlotte, or Charlie, as she preferred to have everyone know her as. The two brunette haired twins teased everyone at school, whether it was about their height, clothes, looks or hobbies, they found something to tease you about. Since the first day of school they'd teased Kurt and Blaine about being best friends, forever telling them how girly it was and just last year they'd started calling them 'Faggot' neither were sure what it meant at first and Kurt had tried asking his Dad but he had gotten really angry and said it was an awful word. He was furious when he found out that it's what they call Blaine and him. It was Cooper who had finally been the one to tell them what it meant.
"At least I know where mine is!" Kurt all but growled back knowing he was being rather mean and that he was pushing his luck more than he should when there was no one around to help him. But everyone knew that their mother was in and out of jail more times than he even dared to count.
"What did you say you little brat?!" Chad growled cracking his knuckles threateningly
"You heard" Kurt sniped "Or would you prefer me to draw some little pictures for you?" He sneered not knowing why he was getting them worked up further or what he would even do if they really went after him. But he'd had enough of always being walked all over and it wasn't as if he could rely on Blaine to stick up for him all the time. It was time to stand on his own two feet.
"You looking for a beating? 'Cause I'll give you one." Charlie yelled stepping forward, rolling the sleeves of her shirt up
"I'm not scared of either you" Kurt called out. He was really, but he wasn't about to let them know that. Chad was so much bigger than him and Charlie may be a girl but she's a tomboy and she's tough, she's not afraid to get into fist fights. And against both of them Kurt knew he'd probably stand no chance of surviving but he couldn't cave now. Instead he converted his anger at Blaine keeping secrets and his fear at facing up to the bullies into courage and stood up tall.
"You should be. Consider this a warning Hummel because I'm gonna crush your bones the next time you get smart with me" Chad grunted stepping closer still to Kurt. Suddenly he found himself pressed against the tree, his shirt gripped tightly in Charlies fist, holding in his whimper he held his breath, closing his eyes tightly as he waited to be hit.
"And I ever hear you saying things about our Mom like that again and I'll tell everyone how we saw 'ittle Kurtie bawling like a baby over his mommy's grave. How you actually wet yourself in fear when you saw us. How you begged us to leave you alone and made us promise not to say anything. Got it?" She threatened instead, Kurt barely had time to nod before they both took off. Taking a deep breath to calm himself down he got back onto his bike and rode home, faster than he ever had before. Making sure to check behind him every few minutes in case they had changed their minds and were coming back to finish what they'd started.