Usually Blaine tried to not stop during his trips to Lima and back. The drive was super annoying as it was and stops made it feel at least ten times longer. There really wasn't anything interesting to look at along the way and so he always ended up turning on his music and sing a long so loud he would almost be hoarse by the time he made it to his destination.
This time though, his head pounded and every inch of his body was tired and hurting. He couldn't even make himself turn the radio on. The cough he had suppressed all day came back in full force and left him breathless a few times.
He stopped at least twice at gas stations, never really needing anything but getting something anyways to feel less like wasting time by only sitting around. He must have looked the way he felt, because the cashier at one of the stations gave him a sympathetic look and commented:
"Rough day, huh, kiddo? We have some good flu stuff over there at the end of row one. Could help you while you're traveling."
"Thank you, sir. But I'm alright. Almost made it home too. But thanks for caring."
"Sure thing. You just take care now. Drive safe."
Once back in his car Blaine slumped in his seat and took a big gulp of the Gatorade he had bought. The bottle was nice and cold and so he held it to his forehead, trying to relax.
He only had 30 more minutes to go the he could fall into his bed and sleep until classes on Monday morning. He didn't have any important meetings or people counting on him to be somewhere. The only thing he would neglect was his homework and he could just work a bit harder next week to get caught up again.
His body was longing for rest and it was increasingly hard to bring himself upright and alert enough to resume driving.
This had just been a damn cold yesterday. It had gotten so much worse in such a short time. He wasn't sure he ever felt this tired, not even after surviving a long day of classes followed by an all nighter and even more school the day after.
Just as he was about to start the car, his body was shaken up by yet another coughing fit. He felt pain deep in his chest and his fist clenched over his shirt where the pain radiated from.
Blaine shifted in his seat, trying to find a position that would ease the pain or make it easier to breathe, while still coughing up a storm. His eyes started to water and his hands were shaking, until he finally could breathe again. This was bad. Like not only a cold bad – and Blaine knew it.
He also knew that he probably should find a doctor and get some real medication, not only that over-the-counter crap he had been taken and what apparently hadn't done anything for him. At the same time though, he also knew that he hated seeing doctors, especially when there was a chance he could just recuperate by himself. He didn't like to look weak or needy. And so he just kept telling himself that he could handle everything himself – with lots of fluids and rest.
45 minutes later, after another stop and more coughing and sweating, he reached Dalton's parking lot. Not wanting to burden himself with anything more than absolutely necessary, he even left his new sweater on the backseat and only took his cell phone from the passenger seat. It took him a minute to find his balance once he had gotten out of his car and he slowly walked towards the dorms, hoping not to see anyone he would have to have a conversation with.
He was lucky until he made it to the big staircase he had to pass on his way; someone was calling his name from above, but Blaine just didn't have the energy or awareness really to look up and figure out who it was.
He didn't immediately recognize the voice, so he decided whatever the guy needed would have to wait.
Liam, who sat in several of Blaine's classes had spotted the other boy and remembered that he still had to return the notes that he had borrowed a few days ago.- (8am classes just weren't his friends)
He knew that they both had to finish an assignment for the class and that Blaine probably would want all his notes together. When he came close, Liam was slightly shocked to see in what shape Blaine seemed to be.
The usually very dapper and 'together' Blaine looked like he had stepped out of bed a minute ago. His hair was a mess and his clothes wrinkled. Quite frankly – he didn't look good. Judging from his sweaty face, he could have been out exercising, but his clothes didn't fit that assumption at all.
Blaine didn't even look up when he walked down the stairs and proceeded to ignore him even after he had called out for him. Blaine just continued to make his way to the dorms. Liam was a bit worried, since this was all very "un-Blaine", but he knew that David had cancelled his weekend plans to spend time with Blaine and that the boys were roommates. He would be well taken care of. Everyone knew what a big mother hen David could be – and from the looks of it, Blaine could use just that.
Kurt had an awesome weekend.
He got to spend time with his dad and most of his old friends. It was tough not being able to see Mercedes and the other girls almost every day and so the weekends were a must for Kurt. While they were pretty tiring most of the times, they also reenergized him for dull classes and disciplined Warblers meetings.
The weather was nice and his mood even better and so he decided to leave a bit earlier than usual, so he could spend some time with the boys maybe going out to dinner or doing something else.
He made it through traffic fairly quickly and was standing in front of the impressive Dalton buildings. Obviously he wasn't as stunned by it as he was when he first got here, but still – Dalton was huge and really beautiful.
It was midday and Kurt was starving. He never liked overly big breakfasts and there was no way he would ever get one of those disgusting gas station sandwiches.
He dropped his bags in his room and carefully put away his clothes before walking over to Blaine's room.
He had gotten a very short text the night before and knew that Blaine was spending the day in school. But since then he hadn't heard from him, although he had probably texted him ten times enquiring about his plans for the day and asking to go to dinner together.
Kurt rolled his eyes when he thought about, where he would probably find him.
Somewhere in the deserted library, by himself, engrossed in a million textbooks or sheet music, not able to hear a thing because he was listening music so loud over his headphones that he might possibly be deaf by the age of 19.
Kurt went to check his room first – just to be on the safe side.
His knock went unanswered; even though he was sure he had heard something or someone inside. Was he ignoring him? Did he, in the end, not enjoy the day they had spent together?
Kurt knocked again, a little louder this time and again he thought he heard some movements from inside. He went for the doorknob, just trying to see if it was locked and was surprised to see it open. Ignoring someone usually went with locking the door and so he didn't feel bad, when he cautiously stepped into the room.
The blinds were shut and the lights were off, so Kurt couldn't see a whole lot for a few moments. When his eyes had finally adjusted he looked around the room until he heard movement again. He spun around and faced Blaine's bed.
There he was – in his bed under, what looked like, a million blankets. He was moving around, seemingly trying to find a comfortable position…. and failing.
Kurt checked the time on his cell phone; it wasn't hat late already, right?
Just after 4:30pm. Well that was weird.
He quietly stepped over to the bed and almost whispered:
"Blaine? Hey Blaine!"
No answer; not even a tiny movement. This wasn't very surprising though. Blaine was always super hard to wake up and Kurt had gotten a lot of experience trying to wake him up.
He tried again a little louder:
"Blaine! Can you hear me? It's almost 5 in the afternoon. I think you should get up for a while otherwise you won't be able to fall asleep later tonight."
Again no reaction.
Kurt stepped a little closer, reaching out to uncover Blaine's head from his blanket.
He hesitated for a moment and looked around. The room was hot, like really hot and Blaine was under several blankets – strange… and probably not really healthy. He started to peel away some of the layers and noticed how, the closer he got to those that actually came closer to the body, were kinda clammy.
"Hey Blaine…come on wake up."
When he finally got to see Blaine's face, Kurt was shocked. The other boy was pale and he seemed to trembling.
Trembling like he would be cold, but the sweat on his face told another story. He tried to call his name again, but again there was no reaction. Kurt was getting worried now – this was not good.
He gently patted his forehead checking for what he already knew. Blaine had a fever and quite a bad one too. Kurt threw back all of the layers until only a sheet was covering the shaking body.
Kurt didn't know what to do. He didn't know what the hell had happened. He was fine the day before and now he couldn't even wake him up. He started to shake his shoulder repeatedly calling out his name and asking him to wake up.
Blaine only moaned randomly and mumbled some incoherent words, which didn't help to calm down Kurt even a bit.
Suddenly he was startled by a loud knock and David's riled up voice from outside the door.
"Blaine! Open up! Come on Blaine, open the door!"
Before Kurt could even stand up to answer the door, let alone just call out to him, he had already opened the door and stepped inside. Kurt could see him and, what he assumed was Wes, barging in and standing in the middle of the door.
"Kurt? What the hell is going on?"
A/N: ~Oh poor Blaine !~
Hello again, I just loooove opening my email account and being blown away by your responses. Hope you liked this chapter. let me if you did (or didn't). There should be about 3 or 4 more chapters to come for now.
Hope you're having a great weekend :)