Once again, I do not own Glee, Blaine, Kurt or any character. : P
"We usually have to be in our dorms by ten and in bed by midnight." Nick explains, as we made our way to our room.
"Classes start at eight, breakfast at seven. Lunch is at noon and classes end at three. I won't be able to meet you after school, because I have Warbler practice at three-fifteen, Monday through Friday and at three on Saturdays, though the Saturday practices aren't mandatory."
I nod, taking in the new information.
"After lunch, you have an hour of study hall; usually I spend it in the commons room. Since you don't start classes until Monday, you can do whatever. Since its Saturday, I'm not doing anything until three. Do you have anything you have to do today?"
I shake my head.
"Would you like to come with me to the Warblers practice? It should only be about twenty minutes wince only a couple of us will be attending. We'll probably just go over our set list and a couple of other things."
The Warblers. That could be fun.
I nod and a smile appears on Nick's face.
"Cool. You already met Wes and Jeff. David is gone for a while, but you can meet Thad and Trent. You'll like them."
I smile, excited to meet new people, but my smile leaves as soon as it appears.
"They won't judge you. I promise." Nick says, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Why don't we watch a movie before we go? Do you like Harry Potter?"
When we enter the Warbler's Practice room, I realize that this is where I ran to earlier. I quickly find the piano in the corner.
"Hey, Blaine!"
I look away to find Jeff talking to me.
"Do you want to join the Warblers? That would be so cool! Have you met Trent yet? You'll like him. He's really sassy, kind of like Kurt. Oh! Have you met Kurt? He's awesome."
I grin at his enthusiasm. His hyper attitude is kind of contagious.
I take out my book from my shoulder bag and take my pen out of my pocket.
Nice to see you again, Jeff. No I haven't met Trent. Would you introduce me to him? Yes, I met Kurt earlier today. He is awesome. No, I'm not joining the Warblers. I don't talk, remember?
As Jeff reads over my shoulder, I hear someone say my name. I look around to find Kurt walking towards us, a grin on his face and a skip in his step.
"Hey, Blaine." He says, finally reaching me and Jeff. "Hey, Jeff."
"Hey, Kurt! I heard you met Blaine already. I was just about to introduce him to Trent."
"Oh, Trent is out of town with his parents for the weekend, gone to Wyoming to visit family, or something. He should be back by Monday though."
Jeff's smile fell for a second, but it came back quickly.
"Well, I guess Blaine will just have to meet him then. Blaine isn't joining, by the way. He's just here to make new friends. Right, Blaine?"
I nod, wondering how he could talk so fast.
"Too bad Blaine doesn't play any instruments, and then he could join." Jeff continued, Kurt shot me a look. "It would be so cool, Blaine would be able to hang out with us after school every day, and go to competition. You don't play any instruments, do you Blaine?"
I hesitated. Do I lie and protect my secret, that only Cooper, and now Kurt, knows about, or do I tell them and risk them taunting me, like at my old school?
"Hey, fairies. Where you running off to? Going to go cry to your mommies?"
Memories from that night start flooding back to me, causing me to get dizzy, real fast.
"Come on, we only want to have a little fun."
I begin to get a headache, and I move to sit down, finding no chairs nearby.
"Hey, Blaine? You okay, man?" I vaguely hear Jeff say through the clouded fog.
I shake my head.
"Why don't you guys try to be normal? That way, we wouldn't have to make you be."
I feel an arm go around my waist, and soon, I am walking out of the room.
Someone pushes me into a bench that sits in the hallway, and puts a hand on my shoulder.
"Blaine? What's wrong?" Nick says, as I begin to focus once again.
I shake my head, not wanting to tell him.
I hear Nick sigh and he pats my back.
"Well, if you ever want or need to talk, well, I guess write, to someone, you can talk to me." Nick smiles.
He begins to stand up, but I grab his wrist, stopping him. He looks at me confused, and I motion that I need my book, with my hands. He looks more confused for a second, but nods and goes inside the practice rooms.
While he's in there, trying to find my book, and filling everybody in no doubt, I try to collect myself.
After a couple of minutes, Nick comes back out with my book and a shy grin on his face.
"Here you go." He hands me my book and sits down, looking at the floor.
I take my pen back out of my pocket and I write:
If I tell you, you have to promise that you won't tell anyone.
I bump Nick with my shoulder, nodding towards my book when he looks up.
He reads it and nods, urging me to go on.
I take a deep breath, and slowly begin to write.
About four months ago, I decided it was time for me to come out; I pause and look up to see Nick's reaction. He has a look of surprise, but he looks at me with a smile, and pulls me into a somewhat awkward hug.
"I won't judge you, I promise. I would be kind of a hypocrite if I did." He laughs.
Now it was my turn to be surprised. I look at him, questioning. He nods, shooting me a grin, and I find myself smiling in return.
Maybe it won't be bad here after all.
I return my focus to what I was saying, and I continue to write.
I came out to my brother first. He accepted me of course. When I told my parents, they acted like they accepted me, but I could tell they really didn't. They started staying away from home longer, making excuses for not coming to my baseball games, or school events. I haven't seen them for three months, it's just been me and Cooper.
A week or so after my parents found out, a boy at school asked me to the schools Sadie Hawkins Dance. His name was Jason. He was really shy and he was really cute. I, of course, said yes. I spent two hours getting ready. I was so excited for my first date.
Jason and his dad picked me up and we went to the school. The theme was Under the Stars. The gym was decorated with shiny paper stars hanging from the ceiling, and on the walls, there were planets and clouds, rockets and space ships.
At first, Jason and I just stood in a corner, drinking punch, talking. As the night went on, Jason got more affectionate. He'd hold my hand, bump my shoulder, and eventually, he asked me to dance.
He took me over to the dance floor, during a slow song and he held me close. I remember thinking that it was the most magical night of my life. Halfway through the song, Jason put his forehead against mine. He leant further down, to reach me, and that's when I had my first kiss.
I got tired before the dance was over and we called Jason's dad to pick us back up. Jason got a little overwhelmed by the crowd, so we went outside to wait for our ride. We heard some footsteps following us on our way, but we ignored them. Soon the footsteps had voices to go along with them.
The voices started calling us names, horrible names. When I turned around, I saw five of the football players following us. Jason noticed that I stopped, and he grabbed my wrist, trying to get me to keep walking, but I didn't. I was too scared. Soon, we were surrounded. Jason pushed me behind him, grasping my hand like a life line.
One of the guys got toe-to-toe with Jason and spat on his face. Jason was unphased by this, and the guy noticed. He grabbed the back of Jason's head and shoved him to the ground, his head hitting the concrete when he fell, with a gut wrenching thud. He laid there for a while, slowly trying to get up, and I tried to get to him, but one of the other guys, a guy with a hat, grabbed me and dragged me away from my date.
I couldn't really see what was happening because I was too far away and the other four guys were in my view, but I could hear Jason screaming, and I could see one of the guys kicking him, while another one beat his face. I heard a sickening crunching noise, and I felt the urge to vomit.
By the time they moved away from Jason, I was sobbing. It took me awhile to realize that the guys were moving away from him and walking towards me. I felt fear rise up in me, and I tried to fight my way out of the hat guy's grasp. He was a lot bigger than me, so it was a lost cause.
That's when the hitting started. First to my stomach ribs, causing me to double over, gasping for air, and wincing in pain. Soon I became slack and the guy dropped me from his hold, and I fell to the ground. They beat me until I didn't feel it anymore, and blood was everywhere.
I vaguely saw Jason on the ground to my right, head cracked open, leg bent at a weird angle. When I noticed he wasn't breathing, I saw a knife, and I went black.
I look up at Nick, who was reading over my shoulder, to see his shocked expression.
After a moment, he pulls me into a hug, and I feel safe for the first time since the incident.
We pull apart and I realize that I have tears streaming down my face. I quickly wipe them off, and try to compose myself.
"What else happened?" Nick asks, cautiously.
I up to see him looking at me with intense eyes.
I shake my head and write down:
All in good time.
Nick nods, understanding.
"Want to go back to our room?" He asks, standing up and looking down at me.
I nod and stand with him.
As we make our way over I notice that for once, I don't feel alone.
The next couple of weeks were fairly uneventful. Started classes, met the rest of the Warblers, tried out for the fencing team. And since I'm a year behind, the homework was easier than expected.
It wasn't until my third weekend at Dalton that I felt at home.
"Hey, Blaine?" Nick asks, as we were finishing up our various school work. He's sitting on his bed, up against the headboard, French book in his lap.
I look over at him and tilt my head to the side, as if to say "yes?"
"I just want to let you know that I know how you feel." He pats his bed, silently telling me to sit by him. Over my few weeks here, Nick and I've grown close. He didn't seem to mind the one sided conversations, the silence, my inability to sleep without a light on. He became my best friend.
I make my way over and plant myself next to him. It isn't until I look at him, that he continues.
"I haven't always gone to Dalton either. I use to live in Arizona, went to a normal school in a small town with my brother. My parents were never home, so we took care of each other. It wasn't until I realized that I was gay that it all fell apart. I immediately told my little brother, Hunter. He accepted me without hesitation. We were always close; us being 2 years apart didn't really help the matter. I told my parents shortly after and they were okay with it as well. I thought everything was great. My family accepted me, I was doing well in school, I was the star of the soccer team. It wasn't until one of my neighbors' son's heard me talking to Hunter about my fascination with a boy at school."
Nick took a breath and started messing with a bracelet on his left wrist.
"He told all his friends and it spread like wild fire. I began to get picked on, name calling, jokes cut in class about me, shoves into lockers. I quit the soccer team, my grades dropped, and hunter got tormented too, though I had yet to realize it at the time. He got the worst of it, locked into rooms for hours; beat up behind the school, threats. I never asked how he was holding up, caught up in my own self pity."
Nick paused, looking up at me, his face wet.
"One night when my parents were on a business trip, I decided to go to the library and try to salvage my grades. That day was really hard for Hunter, and I could tell something was up, but I ignored it, thought he was just being a teenager. He ended up," Nick broke off with a sob. "He l-left me, all alone."
I was speechless. My heart ached for my friend. I pulled him towards me and let him cry into my shoulder, my own tears free falling down my face. We sat there for a long time in silence, just crying and thinking. After a while, Nick moved away from me and sniffed. We wiped our tears away and slowly, Nick spoke again.
"I miss him every day. It feels like a part of me is missing." He explains, as I rub my hand around his back, copying what Cooper does when I need comfort. Slowly, Nick seems to relax more, eventually leaning against my side, head on my shoulder.
"He was so full of energy, like a puppy, or a kid on a playground, kind of like Jeff." He closes his eyes. "Jeff reminds me of him so much it hurts. Maybe that's why I like him so much."
I nod, still rubbing his back. That's when I get an idea. I get up, slowly so Nick wouldn't fall over because of the sudden movement, and go over to my bed. I pull out my guitar case from underneath it, removing the picture taped to the inside of the top.
Quickly, I sit back down next to Nick and hand him the picture. He shoots me a curious glance, but looks at it anyway.
He studies it for a while.
"I don't get it." He finally says.
I reach over and turn the picture around.
On the back, written in my handwriting was:
Jason (1994-2009)