C H A P T E R T W O

The posters were hard to miss. The obnoxious neon yellow lettering brought tears to your eyes and the fact that they were literally everywhere didn't help, either. Even when he was hiding in the toilets, Blaine was being visually abused as they'd actually put the posters inside the cubicles.

WATERFORD HIGH SCHOOL
presents
SADIE HAWKINS DANCE
Next week, tickets available at Student Administration

'So are you going?'

Blaine looked up from his lunch to see one of the few people at Waterford High he actually liked: his friend Ethan. Wide-clothed and grinning as broad as ever, Ethan sat down across from Blaine.

Blaine snorted. 'What do you think? After my coming out being the biggest Waterford newsflash since Linday Lohan's latest arrest, I don't think any girl's going to ask me to a dance, so I might as well stay away. Probably better for everyone.'

Ethan shrugged and took a bite of his peanut butter sandwich. 'It might be fun though.'

'Yeah. Or they might verbally abuse me some more. I don't know, I think I'll let this one slide.' Blaine stared at the remains of the apple he was eating. 'What about you? Going to pretend to be straight for an evening?'

'If someone asks me, I'll go,' Ethan said, smiling.

'Even if it's a girl?'

'Even if it's a girl.'

Blaine chortled and shook his head. 'You are the bravest guy I know.'

Another reason high school was definitely something to get through as fast as possible, Blaine thought disgruntled whilst struggling through his Calculus homework that evening. How could one subject be so boringly unchanging yet unfathomably unpredictable at the same time? He almost fell off of his chair when his phone suddenly started vibrating. He frowned. A text. Ethan always called because he's too lazy to type something into his cell, plus he was at home so it couldn't be his parents.

How are you? Hope school's not treating you too rough. – K

Blaine smiled and considered a reply before simply dialing Kurt's number. All that dance drama would be too long for one text anyway.

'Hello?'

Blaine laughed softly. 'Hi.'

'What's so funny?'

'You actually do sound like a woman. I'm sorry, I shouldn't've said that.'

'That's okay, I've heard it too many times for it to actually be offensive,' Kurt replied, and Blaine could hear the smile in his voice. 'So, to repeat my earlier inquiry: how are you?'

'I'm… actually pretty good,' Blaine answered. He told Kurt all about the Sadie Hawkins dance and about his decision not to go.

'Hmmm.'

'What's that?' Blaine asked.

'I don't know, I think your friend Ethan is right, actually.'

'You mean I should go with a girl?'

'No no no, of course not, I mean that it could be kind of fun.'

'And how exactly do you fathom that?' Blaine asked, frowning. 'Because going to a dance party where pretty much all of the other people there are as afraid of two guys holding hands as they are of a terrorist attack isn't really my idea of fun.'

'Well, you could see the whole thing as a big screw you and go with a guy,' Kurt said tentatively.

Blaine was quiet for a couple of seconds. He hadn't thought about that. Then, he frowned. 'I don't have anyone to go with, and besides, they'd probably kick our asses before we even enter the gym.'

'I'm sure Ethan would love to join you,' Kurt said. 'But are the bullies really that bad? I thought they only shouted stuff?'

'They do,' Blaine said softly. 'But I'm pretty sure they wouldn't mind taking it to the next level if they got the chance.'

'There'll be a lot of teachers present though, won't there?'

Blaine nodded. 'I guess so.'

'Look, if you don't want to go, I really don't want to be the one to pressure you into going anyway, but I think you should stand up for yourself,' Kurt said encouragingly. 'Show them that their words don't mean anything.'

'I'll think about it,' Blaine said, meaning every word.

'Good. Hey, we're doing this amazing Lady Gaga song in glee club this week, d'you wanna hear?'

'Are you serious? I thought you weren't going!'

Blaine, sitting in the huge red chair in the corner of Ethan's room, grinned a little sheepishly. 'Yeah. But I thought about it and, well, if you're up for it I think this could actually be fun.'

Ethan chuckled. 'I expected to be asked by a girl but hey, if you grow your hair out before the dance nobody will see the difference.' Blaine snorted. 'But just to get things clear,' Ethan added, 'we'll be going as friends, right?'

Blaine smiled. 'Yeah. Don't worry, I'm not developing some mad crush or something. Just friends.'

'Well, let's go color-coordinate our outfits then!' Ethan said in a spot-on impression of Tim Gunn's voice, dragging Blaine along to his oversized closet.

Blaine took a deep breath. He'd borrowed a tux from his father and although it was a little too wide around the shoulders, it didn't look half bad on him. Of course, he'd had to lie to his father to get it – if he'd told him he'd be going with Ethan all hell would've broken loose in the Anderson household. But as Blaine and Ethan had agreed to arrive seperately and Ethan's father would take him home at an hour where his father would be asleep for quite some time, he'd never know.

Standing in front of the entrance of the gym, Blaine could hear the dimmed sounds of what was going on inside. Some local band was playing and it sounded like half the students were already drunk at this point. Which was weird, because there wasn't even any alcohol allowed in there.

'Although I would've liked seeing you coming down the stairs and handing you your corsage myself, I must say you look like quite a catch in the dreary glow of the streetlights.'

Blaine laughed and turned around to see Ethan grinning at him.

'How incredibly romantic.'

'You know me, I can't help being the incarnation of Romeo Montague himself. So, looks like the party has started without us. Wanna go inside?'

'Sure.'

It was hot and crowded in the gym. Everyone was either dancing to the fast music the band was producing or hanging around the bar.

'You want something to drink?' Ethan shouted in Blaine's ear. Blaine nodded and Ethan darted away through the crowd. Blaine shrunk back against one of the walls, close to the exit. Having nothing better to do and not wanting to look around to find the faces of his class mates, he got out his phone and started browsing through his texts. Then, he suddenly found himself wishing Kurt was there. The thought confused him for a second.

'Here you go!'

Blaine looked up, quickly put his phone back in his pocket and accepted a plastic cup from Ethan, who looked like he'd just ran a marathon. He took a sip and almost choked.

'What is this stuff?' he asked Ethan a little hoarsely.

Ethan grinned as broad as ever. 'Oh, apparently someone spiked the punch.'

Blaine raised an eyebrow. 'Right. Someone.' Ethan tapped one of his pant pockets, where Blaine saw the outline of a medium-sized bottle. 'You're unbelievable.'

They stood there for a while, drinking their spiked punch, watching people dance. The evening progressed slowly, and Blaine didn't get what the big deal was about these kind of things. Just as he wanted to ask Ethan whether they could go home early, he got a text.

Having fun? – K

Blaine smiled and was about to text Kurt back, when the band started playing a slow song and suddenly, Ethan was standing in front of him.

'May I have this dance?'

He even bowed. Blaine laughed, put his phone away and took Ethan's hand. 'Maybe this isn't such a good idea,' he muttered, when Ethan pulled him onto the dance floor and Blaine recognized some faces in the crowd, their eyes following the tuxedoed twosome, frowning and judging.

'Probably not but I've had too much to drink to care,' Ethan said.

And soon enough, they were twirling around, surrounded by other dance couples. The song seemed to last forever and Blaine got increasingly uncomfortable. It wasn't Ethan (despite, or maybe thanks to the amount of alcohol he had consumed, he danced like a true gentleman) or even the fact that he hadn't been able to think of pretty much anything else but Kurt all night, but the atmosphere just wasn't right.

Finally, the song ended, and Blaine pulled Ethan along, off of the dancefloor.

'Let's go.'

Ethan, sensing there was no arguing Blaine, nodded and opened the door for him. The air was cool outside.

'I'm sorry,' Blaine said, breathing in deeply.

'That's okay. Are you allright?' Ethan sat down on the pavement, gesturing for Blaine to sit down next to him. As he did so, Blaine nodded. 'We'll just wait here until my dad comes to get us.' He stared into the dark street for a while. 'That was okay though, wasn't it? We didn't even get yelled at or anything.'

Blaine smiled a little. 'Yeah. I guess it was okay.'

The band started playing a hard rock song.

'So who texted you earlier?'

Blaine looked up, surprised. 'What do you mean?'

'Right before I asked you to dance, you were smiling at your phone. Secret lover?' Ethan asked, grinning widely.

'Just a friend. I think,' Blaine said, smiling a little.

Ethan raised his eyebrows. 'Oooooh, that definitely sounds promising. He is gay, I presume?'

'Yes.'

'Good. Do I know him?'

'No.'

'Name? Age? Height? Hair? Eyes? Does he have a handsome brother?' Ethan rambled.

Blaine laughed, but before he could answer, he heard the door of the gym open. He looked up and saw a group of their class mates coming outside. They were talking excitedly, but their tone alarmed him. When Blaine saw one of the girls point them out to the guys he knew were on the football team and looked like they'd had way too much punch, he knew he had to get out of there immediately.

Kurt's phone rang. He sang along to his Katy Perry ringtone for a couple of seconds before answering. He didn't recognize the voice on the other side but after listening to the message it delivered it didn't matter – the only thing that mattered right now was that he got to Waterford as fast as possible.