"Rutherford. Wait up."
Matt closed his eyes and debated if he could pretend he hadn't heard Sam's call to him. After all there the usual rush between classes was in full force, so it was entire probable he hadn't heard him. If he wasn't standing no more than five feet from him, it might have worked. His other option was to fake being late to a meeting with Mr. Schue or Miss Pillsburry and then just try to outrun Sam. Of course with his luck, Swim Freak Anderson was probably also a secret track star and could run a mile in under three minutes or something equally ridiculous. Was the best plan really to stop and see what Sam wanted, Matt wondered. When exactly did his life become a seventh circle of hell again?
Oh that's right. When he fell for a guy who already had a boyfriend and thought he was straight, Matt reminded himself. He would be willing to bet somewhere on the OSU campus, Leah was smirking and laughing at being proven right yet again.
Sam slid next to him and adjusted his backpack on his shoulder. "You're a hard man to catch. I've been looking for you all day."
"Been here." Matt shrugged, trying to keep curiosity out of his voice. Sam had been looking for him? The last time they talked, it hadn't exactly been friendly or even particularly nice. Since that awkward after swim meet trip to Gino's, Matt had taken special care to stay clear of Sam. "Guess our classes are on opposite ends or something."
"Or something." Sam nodded as he fell into easy step with Matt's long stride. Casting a side-long glance at Sam, Matt couldn't help but notice that even though Sam was slightly shorter than him, clearly he would be able to keep up if say Matt decided to spontaneously run to Algebra II or something. Hey these things happened, he reasoned. It was always good to be prepared for all situations.
They past the next few classrooms in silence, an odd choice given that Sam had flagged him down. Nearing the end of the hallway, Matt finally gave up pretending to not care about why he was walking down the hall with the guy he wished would just evaporate off the face of the Earth. "Is there a particular reason you were looking for me or you just wanted my fine conversational skills?"
"Kurt's been on edge lately and I think you know why." Sam said simply, crossing his arms across his chest.
"I have no idea what's going on with him." Matt assured him honestly. Outside of their shared classes, he hadn't seen Kurt since he slipped out Sunday morning. Yes he had noticed Kurt seemed a little more wired than usual, but that could be attributed to any number of factors. A new diet Coach Sylvester had the Cheerios on. The Invitational this weekend. Someone replaced his decaf coffee with espresso. Finn had borrowed Puck's nun chucks and was practicing with them at home. "Haven't had a chance to talk to him."
"See that's what I find strange." Sam said slowly, shaking his head. "You two have been practically joined at the hip lately and today you don't talk."
"It's Monday. A little busy."
"And there's the fact he practically jumped a foot when I asked him if the two of you were practicing tonight. Any idea what that's about?"
"You have to talk to Kurt." Matt said simply. If Kurt hadn't told Sam yet about their accidental sleepover, then Matt wasn't about to. Not that anything happened but Sam would clearly not be pleased in the least. "He's your boyfriend after all."
"And yet the only thing he doesn't talk with me about is what the two of you do together. For some reason that's off limits." Sam mused.
"Again you have to talk to Kurt. I don't know what's going on with him today." He had a good guess but he wasn't about to start that fight. Well not unless he was pretty sure he was going to win and right now that was up in the air. "We're friends and we mainly watch movies and practice for glee if that's what you're so curious about. Boring basically."
It sounded boring at least, Matt amended to himself. It was a lot more fun than he could actually explain to anyone, let alone Sam. There were more than a few practice sessions where they had been sidelined by something so ridiculous he couldn't even remember it the next day. And still he would say he had a good time.
"Boring. Yeah boring is always off limits." Sam said softly.
The warning bell sounded causing the couples making out against the lockers to break apart with a quick glance at the clock. "Look I told you. I don't know what's going on with Kurt. You'll have to talk to him. I'm going to be late for class."
"You know I think we should talk more often, especially since you and Kurt are so close." Sam noted with a tilt of his head.
"Yeah. Call me some time. We'll hang." Matt nodded. He'd just make sure Karosky and Azimio were with him at the same time.
This was the very definition of a bad idea. The school's weight room was not for the likes of him, unless he held a deep-seeded desire to be used as barbell. Which while somewhere on the internet there was probably an entire community for that specific fantasy, Kurt allowed, it wasn't his. The key to his survival was avoiding places where jocks hung out, typically surrounded by other jocks. At least avoiding them when he wasn't surrounded by the few jocks that liked him.
Unfortunately for him, one of those very people was apparently behind those red double doors. When he had asked Mike where Matt was, the lanky dancer had pointed to the weight room before slinging an arm over Mercedes's shoulder and walking down the hall. He was choosing to not remember the warning look Mercedes had shot him before looking up at Mike. Yes this flew in the face of his very plan to stop this ridiculous beginning of a hopeless crush but he had to do this.
Because it was his entire fault. He was the one acting like a freak and avoiding simple questions his boyfriend had asked him. He was the one who was still obsessing over one night that clearly hadn't affected Matt at all. He was the one acting, as Tina put it, like Rachel hooked on those vitamin D pills the former Mrs. Schue had given them. And because he was the one acting like a head case, apparently Sam had cornered Matt in the hallway and all but accused him of being the cause of this. Which technically was true, but still, not the point. Kurt was the one acting like a loon and Sam had no right to bring Matt into it. Even if, unknown to both of them, he was the cause of it.
Kurt took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. He could do this. He could walk in there, apologize to Matt for his boyfriend's insane behavior today and still be able to walk out without taking a trip to the dumpster. Surely Mike would have mentioned if some of the least liked members of the Titan athletic community were in there. At least he was relatively sure Mike would tell him. If Mike wanted his help in the future if he ever screwed up with Mercedes, he would have told him. It was probably just Matt and possibly one or two other football players. That was it. The entire team was not waiting behind that door to pounce on his skinny ass.
Walking through the door, he steeled himself with a deep breath. After all he was the reason the football team won a game this past season. He was a Cheerio. He had every right to go in here. Looking around the room, he did let a little sigh of relief escape as he noticed Matt was apparently the only one in the room.
Which was rather unfortunate since he had no choice but to focus on Matt, sitting on the bench in a black tank top, his arms flexing as he pulled the weight up and down in a steady pace. Oh this was beyond a bad idea. This quite possibly was the worst idea he had ever had. Now he had a whole set of images to try to keep out of his head.
He should just turn and walk right back out the door. Clearly he could and should talk to Matt tomorrow. Tomorrow after he had a long talk with himself where he remembered things like he had a boyfriend and Matt was straight and crushes on straight guys never worked out, which he knew very well.
"Kurt?" Matt caught his eye in the mirror. "What are you doing here? Isn't this your worst nightmare?"
"Would you believe me if I said aversion therapy?"
"No." Matt stood up; wiping his brow with a towel he had thrown over his shoulder. Kurt tried very hard to look at anything else. "And I don't take you as someone with a death wish."
"Normally I don't but I needed to talk to you." Kurt admitted with a sigh. "I don't want to interrupt."
"Nah. I'm done." Matt shrugged. "Can't really do much more without Mike here to spot me. What did you need to talk to me about?"
"Sam told me he talked with you today." Kurt admitted, looking into Matt's eyes.
"That. Yeah it was interesting." Matt allowed, shaking his head. "He was worried and had this idea that I might know what was going on."
"I'm sorry if he jumped down your throat. He should have talked to me instead of dragging you into this."
"He was worried about you. I understand that."
"What?"
"I mean…I...I understand the whole being worried about someone you're dating thing." Matt rushed out. Was that a blush Kurt was detecting on Matt's cheeks or was it just uncomfortably warm in here? Gaga knew he was feeling a little flushed himself right now.
"Right. But still he shouldn't have brought you into this. "
"Don't worry about it. I think he just thought I might know something because of our extra glee practices."
Kurt snapped his fingers. "That's the other reason I had to find you. Mr. Schue stopped me after my last class. Apparently Brad heard Puck bragging about how he and Artie were going to use fireworks and swords in their performance, so now Mr. Schue wants to approve everything before we present to the whole group. He wants to meet with us on Thursday. Work for you?"
Matt tilted his head to the side, closing his eyes trying to visualize his schedule. "Yeah that will work. Guess we'll need to practice some beforehand right?"
"Wouldn't hurt." Kurt allowed.
"Any plans tonight? I'm done. We can go to your house and work on it now if you want." Matt offered.
"No. No plans." Kurt smiled. "You get changed and I'll meet you there."
"Sounds good."
Kurt walked towards the door, closing his eyes tightly. Mercedes was so going to kick his ass for this.