Chapter 20

"Fine Noah, I will agree if it will get you to shut up!" Puck grinned in satisfaction. He knew that Kurt didn't really like parties but, with the added element of his Blaine's interest, he was able to convince him and Finn to have one tomorrow night, thanks to the absence of their parents."But if anything bad happens I'm blaming you, and you have to help clear up before my dad and Carole get back."

"Sure, sure," he said, dismissing Kurt's rules with a wave of his hand. "Whatever, I'll bring drink and protection," he flicked his eyebrows suggestively.

"Does he mean like a bodyguard?" Brittany asked from a chair behind them but Santana put her hand on her shoulder and shook her head.

The glee club were waiting in the choir room for the class to start. Mr Shue had rushed in at the beginning, had hurriedly said something relating to Miss Pillsbury and dashed out again. The teenagers just shrugged and continued their own conversations. Mr Shue and Miss Pillsbury had been on and off so many times it was like Ross and Rachel, so no-one really cared anymore. "Ok losers, listen up" Puck stood on his chair and clapped his hands to get everyone's attention as he addressed them. "Party at the Hudson-Hummel house on Friday night at seven and it's just for glee kids so don't go inviting people or Hummel will have a hissy fit."

Blaine mad his late-as-always appearance at that point, wandering in aimlessly and swinging down into the empty chair beside Kurt. "What did I miss?" He asked the collective, taking in Puck's announcement stance as he slid his chair up so it was pretty much connected with Kurt's. "Your boyfriend has agreed to have a party tomorrow where you can get drunk and laid and you won't have to pay," Puck grinned.

"I don't normally pay for sex, it comes naturally," Blaine assured the group, running his hand up the inside of Kurt's top to rest his it on the small of his back.

Before anyone could say anything, Mr Shue re-appeared and Puck dropped back down into his chair as the practice began. "Alright guy, sectionals is coming up and we need to start preparing," he said beaming at the teenagers.

At the end of the day, Kurt convinced Blaine that they should go back to his own house tonight because he needed clean clothes for tomorrow. "So you having clean clothes is more important than me having clean clothes?" Blaine asked as they drove toward the Hudson-Hummel residence. "Yes it is, you don't complain about wearing the same clothes twice in a row as much as I do." Blaine nodded in defeated agreement at this. They sat in silence for a while as Blaine drove towards the house. It wasn't until they had just rounded the last corner that Kurt plucked up the courage to ask the question that had been bugging him.

"Blaine, y'know how we're like dating now... well I was hoping that you could like tell me about your like past and stuff, cuz, cuz I feel like I don't really know you..." he trailed off, not looking at the boy as he waited to be shot down. Blaine let out a sigh to his right. "Yer, I suppose you're right actually," Kurt turned his head to look at him, thinking he'd misheard, but Blaine was nodding.

They got out of the car and Blaine locked it behind him as Kurt opened to front door. They took off their shoes and went into the kitchen. "Do you want some coffee?" Kurt asked, filling up the kettle. "No thanks, do you have any beer?" Kurt just looked at him to say 'you already know the answer' and turned back to the get a mug out of the cupboard. "There's diet coke in the fridge it you want that," and passed him a can before pulling out the milk.

After they had got a drink each, Blaine followed Kurt upstairs to his bedroom. Kurt knew that Finn was having Rachel over tonight so he thought it best to stay in his room and not have to walk in on the making out of the couch again. They both sat crossed legged on the bed facing each other, waiting for the other to speak. When he realised it wasn't going anywhere, Kurt started.

"So, where did you go before McKinley?" he asked, sipping his coffee. Blaine leant back on the headboard as he replied. "Alletone International School in France," he said and Kurt did a double take. "In France?" Blaine nodded.

"I moved there with my parents when I was fourteen, and then moved back to Lima at the beginning of this summer."

"So you lived here before you moved to France?"

"Yer."

"Why did you move?"

"My mother got offered a better job with more money," he shrugged.

"So why did you move back? Did you not like it out there or something?"

"No, no I loved it there," Blaine replied and Kurt's forehead creased as he tried to understand.

"Then why did you move back to this dump?"

Blaine took a moment before answering; he fiddled with the bed sheet between his fingers, not looking at Kurt. "My, er, my parents, they sent me back," he said the most timid voice Kurt had ever heard him use. "But why?" Kurt pushed, he didn't know how far he would get with his questions but he just felt weird being in a relationship with someone and knowing so little about them.

Blaine shut his eyes briefly and let out a sigh. "I realised I was gay at the beginning of 8th grade. I was 13 and I didn't tell my parents, I didn't tell anyone because I knew by then that Ohio wasn't the most accepting environment. I kept it to myself and didn't act on it, until we moved to France." He took a quick glance up at Kurt who nodded as if to say go on. "My parents and I move the summer before I was due to start high school. I hadn't done any French at Elementary or Middle School so they put me in an International English speaking school. There were only about 10 people around my age so I made friends with some of them and I met a boy called Jack." Blaine took a deep breath before continuing. "Jack was my best friend while I was there. He was 15 and came from England when his parents moved with work, like mine did.

I was better friends with him than I was with any of my old friends back here. I started to crush on him but made myself hide my feeling because I didn't want to tell him and freak him out and lose my best friend. And then when he was 17, we were talking one day and he told me he was gay. He told me that he liked me and he started dating in secret because neither of us had come out to our parents yet. We dated for a while and as it got more serious we started fooling around and stuff.

When I had just turned 17, one day, we were having sex in my room and my parents walked in on us. Apparently they wanted to know what all the noise was about and they caught us in a... compromising position. I tried to explain to them that I was gay and had known for years but never told them but they were having none of it. They said I was going through a phase and that I couldn't see Jack anymore. I protested and they pulled me out of school and sent me back here to 'straighten me out'. They said that I would never live up to my brother if I was a queer". Blaine still didn't look up and Kurt wanted to reach out and hold him but he just sat still, waiting for Blaine to continue.

"That summer, I moved back to Lima. I think they thought that making me live in such a closed environment would somehow make me attracted to women." He laughed bitterly. "They didn't come with me and when I got here in the summer I was so frustrated that I started sleeping around as if to try and get back at them in some way. I changed my look so people who had gone to lower school with me didn't recognise me, and if they did, they didn't talk to me. I was meant to start McKinley at the beginning of this year but I didn't and my parents found out and kinda guilt tricked me into going. They had always made me feel second rate to my brother and they knew that they could use him to force me to go. So I went."

They sat in silence for a whole minute before it was broken by Kurt. "Does your brother still live in France then?"

"No, he was killed in a car accident."

"Oh Blaine," Kurt shuffled up the bed to wrap his arms around him and the other boy leaned into his chest. He had never seen Blaine so vulnerable; he was normally so cocky and self assured.

"He was eighteen and I was two so I don't really remember him. My parents would always compare me to him. They acted like I was his replacement, but I was never as good as him, never good enough for them. That's why the code to my house is 1993, the year he died."

Blaine looked as if he was about to cry but he didn't. Kurt gently tilted his head up to look him in the eyes and placed a soft kiss on his lips. "Thank you for telling me." Blaine just nodded.

They sat still for a while longer, arms around each other, leaning again the headboard of Kurt's bed. "I'm hungry," Blaine suddenly announced and Kurt had to laugh at how easily his mood changed at the thought of food. "Ok, come on, I'll make dinner." He said tapping Blaine's leg as he lifted himself off the bed.