Just wanted to send out a quick HAPPY FATHERS DAY to all the dads or future dads out there :)
Chapter 7
"Fuck you! I'm leaving and I'm never coming back!" he yelled at his parents, red faced and throwing clothes in a duffel bag.
"Cooper Anderson, you stop that this instant." His father demanded.
"No!" The teenage boy stubbornly yelled.
"Cooper, please. You're upsetting Blaine and Abby." His mother said softly.
"Yeah? Is that all that matters anymore? Blaine and Abby, because they haven't grown up enough to prove they're just big disappointments, just like me? No. Fuck no. I won't stand for this. I know I'm not who I want you to be, and I've accepted that I'll never make you happy no matter what. So I'm going to give up trying, and make myself happy."
"Oh Coop, you're being insanely selfish right now." The woman said again.
"Don't 'Oh Coop,' me. I'm leaving. Don't try to find me. I don't give a shit about you anymore."
Four year old Abby had just started crying. "Shhh," Blaine, now fifteen, whispered in her ear. "Come on, honey. Let's go to your room and play with your dolls, okay?"
"But why can't they just love each other?" the little girl sobbed once the siblings reached her room.
"They do, sweetheart. They just don't know how to show it sometimes." Just then the door slammed and another 'I'm never coming back!' was heard.
"Does he mean it?" Abby whispered, nuzzling her face against her brother's chest.
"Mean what?" Blaine asked absentmindedly.
She sighed. "That he's never coming back."
Blaine squeezed her hand. "I don't know, honey."
After a long pause, she spoke up again. "Blaine?"
"Yeah?"
"Promise you'll never leave me, okay?"
Blaine kissed the top of her head. "Never."
Monday morning, Blaine stumbled into work exhausted. Since he'd stayed up so late watching that movie with Carrie Saturday night, he'd slept in Sunday morning. Suprisingly enough, so had Rose. And because he'd slept so late, Blaine couldn't sleep Sunday night, and then had to get up early Monday morning.
Getting Rose up was nearly as hard as getting himself up. She had trouble sleeping the night before, too. "I think I'm sick, daddy." She told him
Blaine felt her forehead and took her temperature. She didn't have a fever, and claimed her head didn't hurt and neither did her stomach. "I think you're just tired, princess." Blaine said.
Rose sighed. "Yeah, you're probably right. I'm so sleepy."
Blaine laughed and the two got ready for school. He took his daughter's hand and took her to the door of her classroom before heading to his own. When he got there, his students were patiently sitting in their desks.
"Good morning everybody!" He called, and Blaine went on with his day as normal.
As usual, around lunch Blaine walked across the street to the preschool to give his daughter a quick kiss before heading to the high school side of campus. He got a few "Hey, Mr. A's while walking to his office. He smiled and said hello back to his students.
He walked in and taught his class normally. His US history class had projects over the War of 1812 due, so all he had to do was sit back and watch them present. He was surprised when the phone in his office rang. He asked the student presenting to wait a minute while he took the call. It was the school secretary. "Blaine?" she asked.
"Yes?" Blaine replied.
"There's someone here to see you. He said his name is Cooper?"
Blaine's jaw dropped. What was he… What the hell? "Um, yeah sure. This period is almost over, send him over."
"Alright. I'll give him his visitors pass and he'll be right over."
"Thanks." Blaine said, hanging up his phone in a daze. He walked back out to his classroom and motioned for the student to continue with her presentation. She did, but he didn't hear any of it. As soon as she was finished, the bell rang and the students filed out. Blaine opened the door to his classroom to see his brother, looking significantly older than he had ten years ago, on the other side of the door.
"Blaine?" the man asked.
"Cooper?" Blaine replied. And then, with no warning, the two men launched themselves at each other in a tight embrace, both with tears threatening to fall out of excitement of seeing each other after so long. Some students were giving them curious looks, but no one payed them too much attention. "It's my prep period." Blaine explained, "so if you want to come in and talk…"
Cooper nodded enthusiastically and the two walked into Blaine's office and sat down. "Is Abby around here somewhere? I mean, it'd only make sense that mom and dad would send her to the school you teach at. It'd be pretty cool to see her. She's what? Fourteen now?"
Blaine's face fell. "You haven't heard?"
Cooper shook his head slowly. "Heard what?"
Just then there was a knock on Blaine's door. He looked out the window and groaned. Motioning to his brother that he'd just be a minute, he exited the office. "Kurt, what are you doing here."
"Look." Kurt said, "I'm really bad at this kind of thing, and I know that I don't deserve it, but I'd really like it if you'd… You know… Go out with me sometime. To like, coffee or dinner or something. Just the two of us. Like, on a date." Kurt blushed and glanced at his hands before glancing up at Blaine shyly.
"Kurt," Blaine started, "That's really sweet and all, but I'm kinda in the middle of something right now. I can't really talk."
"I can call you later." Kurt offered.
Blaine sighed. He was not ready to do this again. "Look, Kurt. No. I'm not looking to date someone right now. I'm still trying to stand on my own two feet with Rose and all, and I really am out of shape with the relationship thing. I can't. Not right now; not with you." He hadn't meant to say the last part out loud, but he didn't entirely regret it coming out.
"Oh." Kurt said. "I… I guess I understand. No, I don't guess. I do understand. I treated you badly, and I'm sorry." He took a deep breath. "But I would like to be friends, still. I mean, I'm stuck in Lima for a couple months, and I'd really like someone to talk to and do things with. So, will you and Rose do me the honor of being my friends?"
Blaine looked at the floor nervously. He couldn't set himself up for this. Not again. Not when he still wasn't over him. "I'm sorry." Blaine said, "I can't."
Kurt nodded his head in understanding. "Okay. I'm sorry for even asking. It was selfish of me." He sent Blaine a hopeful smile. "Maybe I'll see you around?"
Blaine let his face turn stony. "I wouldn't plan on it." He tried not to let Kurt's heartbroken face affect him, but he knew it was a lost cause.
Blaine headed back into his office. "Who's this?" Cooper asked, pointing to a picture of Rose and Blaine that he kept on his desk.
"My daughter, Rose." Blaine said. When Cooper looked confused, Blaine told the whole story.
"Wow, man." Cooper said, stunned. "I'm sorry about your best friend."
Blaine shrugged. "Yeah, so am I. But it's in the past, I guess, and I've had a few years to accept it. And Rosie and I get along just the two of us just fine, so I guess everything's okay."
Cooper looked around the room awkwardly "So were you going to tell me before your friend came by?"
"Oh." Blaine whispered, trying to muster the courage to tell his brother. 'It's not like it'd be that big of a deal to him. He's been gone for ten years.' Blaine rationalized. "They, well, mom, dad, and Abby, and mom's parents, that is. They were in an accident. Seven years ago they were flying back from a trip to Europe to come to my high school graduation and the plane crashed. None," Blaine held back his tears. "None of them survived."
Cooper's face was unreadable. Blaine saw anger and sadness mixed on his older brother's face. Blaine had anticipated this much; of course he'd be upset. Whether he'd seen them recently or not, they were still family. After a few minutes of the two brothers trying to comfort each other, Cooper spoke up.
"I," Cooper paused, trying to control his own emotion, "It was so stupid of me to hold a grudge that long. Look at all I missed, and all that I'll never get back. I can't believe I let myself hold a grudge on mom and dad for ten years. Especially now that I know they've been gone for seven of those ten."
Blaine shrug-nodded. "I mean, I get it. Mom and dad never really accepted you. Then wanted you to be a mini-dad and they weren't okay with it when you weren't. I would've been mad, too."
"But for ten years?" Cooper asked.
Blaine had to admit he had a point. "Okay, maybe not. But I don't blame you."
"Because of my anger," Cooper said, "I never got to see my baby sister again. She was four when I left." He looked up at his brother. "Four, Blaine. And I'll never know what she was like when she was five, or six, or seven. I wasted her last years being mad at mom and dad."
Blaine shrugged. "Don't beat yourself up too bad for it. Yeah, it's terrible, and yeah, it sucks. But it's over, and there's nothing you can do about it now except forgive mom and dad for the way they treated you, and trust me when I say that they forgave you for running away."
Cooper looked up at Blaine, hope in his eyes. "Did they really?"
Blaine nodded, and he knew it was true. "They were more mad at themselves for the way they treated you than anything else. They forgave you the second they realized you weren't coming back."
Cooper smiled and tried to laugh through his tears. "Yeah? And how long did that take?"
Blaine laughed too. "Well, I'm pretty sure the 'I'm leaving and I'm never coming back!' comment you made gave them a clue."
Cooper laughed and accepted the box of tissues Blaine held out to him. Then he agreed to wait in his office until Blaine's last class was over so they could head back to Blaine's house and talk more. Blaine's last two classes went quickly and soon enough he and Cooper were heading across the street to the preschool to pick Rose up from school. Blaine walked in while Cooper waited outside. "Honey," Blaine said to Rose, "I have a surprise for you."
Rose's eyes widened. "Really, daddy? What is it?"
Blaine smiled. "You know how Riley's mommy has a brother, who's her uncle?" Rose nodded. "Well I have a brother, and he's your uncle. He lives in Europe, but he's here for a surprise visit, and he's really excited to meet you."
"Really!" Rose exclaimed. She grabbed Blaine's hand and practically dragged him outside.
"Rosie, this is your Uncle Cooper. Coop, this is Miss Rosie-talks-a-lot." Blaine introduced.
Rose shot her father a playful glare. "I do not talk a lot, daddy. It's nice to meet you Uncle Cooper."
"You too, Rose." He said. Cooper was only a little bit surprised when Rose pulled him in for a hug.
"How old are you?" She asked, but continued without waiting for a response as they walked out to the parking lot, "I'm five, and daddy's twenty-five. Miss Carrie my babysitter is twenty I think, and Miss Stephanie my teacher is somewhere in her forties, but I'm not sure where. But I think you look older than me and daddy and Miss Carrie, but you look younger than Miss Stephanie. So I think you're somewhere in your thirties."
Cooper laughed. "Smart little girl, aren't you? I'm thirty-one."
Rose grinned and kept talking until they reached the cars. After all, she and her uncle had a lot of catching up to do. She kept fairly quiet on the ride home, but once she and her Uncle Cooper were out of their cars and into the house, the chatterbox started up again.
Blaine let her talk as long as Cooper didn't seem to mind it, and he started on dinner. Dinner and a viewing of Tangled later, Rose was fast asleep in her bed.
"You weren't kidding when you said she talks a lot, were you?" Cooper laughed.
Blaine laughed too. "Nope, not at all. She'll even talk to her pet rock if she thinks I'm not listening." The brothers laughed for a moment while collecting their thoughts. "So what have you been up to the past ten years, Coop?"
Cooper shrugged. "Nothing much. Working odds and ends jobs in Europe, playing a couple shows a week with my band. We're not that famous or big, but we make enough to live fairly comfortably, as long as we keep our day jobs."
Blaine laughed. "Is it nice? To just live a life where your only responsibility is youself?"
Cooper sighed. "Sometimes it is, but usually it's not. I see how someone like you would want that. You've been taking care of people your whole life, it's who you are. When we were young, you'd take care of me. When Abs was born, you took care of her. You were always mothering your friends in school, and I'd assume in high school as well. Once you got to college and met your best friend, you got Rose and now you're taking care of her."
Blaine nodded. His brother basically just hit the nail on the head. Blaine mothered people, it was true and he couldn't deny it. And maybe that was why he craved Rose's company so often, and why he'd wanted to become an educator. Blaine put those thoughts aside for later speculation.
"That's why I'm sure you're such a good teacher, though. Because you genuinely care about people. Me though, I don't really care about much but where I'm playing next and what I'm eating for lunch tomorrow. It's not as great as it sounds. I'd rather be you half the time." Cooper explained.
Blaine nodded again. That made sense. While he enjoyed his music nights at the café, taking care of Rose and teaching his students is what kept him going each day. "But it's good for you, probably more than my job would be." Blaine reasoned.
Cooper nodded. "Yeah, it is." They both stayed quiet. "I should probably go soon." Cooper sighed. "I only came for the day. To see you and Abs. But I guess you and Rose now. I'm catching a red eye back to London—I have a show tomorrow night."
Blaine nodded. "Alright. Well drive safe and have a good flight. And remember that you're always welcome here." Blaine wrote down his home phone number, cell phone number, email address, and mailing address to give to his brother. "Never hesitate to contact me, ever."
Cooper smiled and kissed his brother on the cheek in good bye. "Never. Good bye Blaine. I'll talk to you soon?"
Blaine smiled. "Definitely." Cooper had been gone for about five minutes when Blaine remembered his words earlier that day.
It was so stupid of me to hold a grudge that long. Look at all I missed, and all that I'll never get back.
Blaine knew what he had to do. He couldn't risk ending up like Cooper, lost in his own misery because he held a grudge for no reason. He picked up his phone and dialed the a number.
"Hello?" Asked the musical voice on the other end.
"Hey, Kurt. It's Blaine."