Chapter 5 - Lunch

As we approached the senior common room I suddenly began to feel butterflies building in my stomach, flitting around like my increasing heartbeat. When Scott noticed where we were heading he let out a long whistle.

"You're friend's a senior? Go Kurt." We reached the entrance and I almost paused by the doorway, the feeling that we were entering hallowed ground slightly disconcerting, but gave my shoulders a quick shake and stepped inside. The common room was similar to most of the other rooms in the building, but the huge floor length windows filled the area with light and somehow added another dimension of class to it. You had to be powerful to belong in this room. Looking briefly behind to check if Scott was still following I began my avid search for Blaine, scanning the well dressed boys with an embarrassing urgency. When I finally spotted him, sitting in a wing-backed chair talking to another student my heart leapt and I quickly began to walk over. I was going to call out or do something equally lame, but was suddenly halted by a hand on my arm.

"Wait, you're friends with Blaine Anderson?" Scott's expression was incredulous. I nodded, confusion on my face.

"Yeah – how do you know him?"

"Wordsworth." His hands swept across his torso outlining the slight difference in our ties that I hadn't noticed before, but before I could comment the sound of another voice snapped my attention back round.

"Kurt!" Blaine had stood up, his eyes filled with happiness and I practically bounded over, not really caring if Scott was following. By the time I reached him Blaine's arms were already open and I fell into the embrace gratefully, still marvelling at how the feeling of his warm body against mine knocked me for six every time.

"Hey Blaine," I muttered into his shoulder, making him laugh. We pulled apart and for a second our eyes held contact in a way that made me melt, but the magic quickly evaporated as he glanced upwards.

"Wassup Blainey-oh?" Scott had appeared, the grin back on his face and the way he addressed his Head Boy almost made me laugh again.

"Um, Blaine, this is-"

"-I know. Afternoon Scott." The expression on Blaine's face had been replaced with one of annoyance, something that my new friend either didn't notice or didn't care about.

"You and Kurt eh? Well this is a turn-up for the books." As he sat down I felt my face flush bright red and shot Scott a warning glance. "How do you two know each other?"

"Kurt tried to spy on the Warblers when he was at his old school, but we became friends after that." Far from the happy and somewhat proud way he normally told the story, the tone in Blaine's voice sounded rather like he was speaking to a ten year old. Scott's eyebrows raised.

"Kurt? A spy?"

"I was awful – I'm not surprised I got caught." I interrupted, trying to alleviate the mood. Blaine and I both sat down, avoiding Scott's feet, which were now resting on the antique looking coffee table our chairs were placed round and I gave him an apologetic smile, which he thankfully returned.

"Where are Wes and David?" I asked, eager to change the topic of conversation. Blaine leant back into his chair.

"Um, Wes is off having some emergency phone call with Carmen and David…David's probably telling him what to say." We both smiled, but our moment was interrupted once again by a loud sigh.

"Girls eh…?" Turning to Scott we both flashed him incredulous glances. For a second he stared back confused, before the realisation finally hit.

"Wait – you're gay too?" I wondered whether the question even deserved a response.

"Couldn't you tell?" Waving my hand around my face pointedly I heard Blaine laugh behind me. Scott shrugged.

"Nah – I just thought you were a cool guy. Now I guess you're just a cool gay guy." A quiet noise of surprise escaped from my lips. I suppose that reaction was what I wanted. It was probably the calmest one I'd ever had.

"So, how have your first few days gone?" Switching my attention back to Blaine, who had crossed his legs to reveal gorgeous argyle socks beneath his smart grey trousers, I cocked my head to the side, thinking.

"I'd say they've gone very well. I'm not too far behind in my lessons and I've made a few friends," briefly my hand waved in the direction of Scott, prompting a noise of acknowledgement that almost ruined my calm expression, "I met everyone in Wilde at the house gathering too-"

"-Oh yeah! You're in Wilde – I'm such a dumbass I totally forgot. We're gonna have W socials together oh awesome." Without warning Scott suddenly burst into conversation, catching both Blaine and me off guard. "Your Head Boy's Nathanial right?"

"Er-"

"-Yeah he is, oh god that guy is such a weirdo, always trying to organise everything and get us all to work together against the Ds, and I heard he just sits in his study room all day just listening out for somebody to walk too loudly down the corridor or something, but I guess all Head Boys are like that really. No offence." I didn't dare to look at the expression on Blaine's face, instead staring intently at Scott's apologetically raised hand and trying not to shake with silent laughter.

"Hey can I get a drink or something I'm bloody parched?" Without saying anything Blaine pointed to a table on the other side of the room and Scott jumped up, loosening his tie as he waltzed over.

As soon as he was a safe distance away Blaine grabbed my arm and yanked me to face him.

"You're friends with Scott Macleod? Are you out of your freakin mind?" I let out the laughter I'd been trying to contain, which didn't go down very well.

"He's fun."

"Fun? The guy is totally nuts! He's broken his collarbone like eight times running into walls or something." The sight of Blaine's concern only made me laugh harder, but I put my hand on his arm to show I understood. Wow, thinking of Scott actually made it a lot easier to cope with my infactuation.

"I like him. I know he's a bit different-" I ignored the sarcastic look sent my way "-but he's been really nice to me and he doesn't judge. He's actually my first ever straight guy friend." At this Blaine pulled away, shaking his head.

"Well that's not true – you have loads of guy friends."

"I know. But apart from you, Scott is the only guy that's ever chosen to hang out with me over somebody else." Blaine didn't respond. I glanced at his face and saw him concentrating deeply, staring intently at the coffee table but not actually focusing on it. His hand had moved unconsciously towards mine – the urge to reach out and stroke it nearly overcoming me completely. What was he thinking? I would have given anything to know. Frustrated, I switched my gaze to his neatly styled hair, picking out the individual strands and marvelling at how they changed colour depending on how the light hit them, how they swooped gracefully over his head until they disappeared behind his cute little ears. Really, it was unfair that Blaine was so beautiful. Unfair that I hung around him constantly, thinking almost entirely about that beauty – but that I could never say anything about it. Or say anything without risking my total and utter humiliation.

"You know…" Suddenly I was snapped back to reality – my hand shot up towards my lap and I scratched behind my ear nervously, hoping Blaine hadn't noticed my daydreaming. Thankfully he looked my way seconds after, his expression filled with an intensity that made me catch my breath. "I hope now, here at Dalton, you realise you will always have friends, really good friends. And they will always put you first." For a second I was lost in warm brown eyes. I couldn't even think, my thoughts swirling around in my brain so they clouded everything rational and normal. Man I wanted to kiss him. I wanted to kiss him so bad. But I couldn't.

"Thanks." With an aching in my heart I broke eye contact, faking a smile as I looked down at my knees. As if on cue Scott suddenly reappeared, his hands grasping at least four neatly cut crustless sandwiches.

"Dude, you did not tell me you get sandwiches here! They're so good!" He sat back down showing one into his mouth whole so my eyes widened. "Bloody hell this is awesome." He murmured whilst chewing and I shook my head in disbelief. For once, I was glad he had interrupted.

Before long an hour had passed and our lunchtime was over. I looked up at the clock with a mixture of feelings – half of me wishing it could go slower and the other half needing to get away for my body's sake. As we said goodbye I could tell Blaine was disappointed too, but we didn't linger with our hug and I was out of the senior common room door as quickly as I had entered.

"So…" Scott said as we slowly made our way down the corridor, me with my head drooped down, staring at my feet, "you like Blaine right?" Instantly I snapped upright.

"What? Um, well, yeah, as a friend…"

"Dude," He laughed, "it was so freakin obvious I could see it from across the room." My cheeks flushed scarlet before I had a chance to stop them.

"Don't worry – I won't tell anyone. Unless you want me to. Like, for example, Blaine…" I watched Scott crash into the wall as I shoved him violently, the thunking noise his head made against it and the curse he uttered afterwards making us both laugh.

Brushing down the ruffles that had been created in my blazer from the movement, I glanced down the corridor again. Other lessons had finished now so it was beginning to fill up – I scanned the figures of the passing boys absentmindedly, but with a start suddenly spied somebody I recognised.

"Hey!" Leaving Scott behind I sprinted across the wooden floor, pushing past people and reaching my hand out to grab the arm of my subject, who either hadn't heard my shout or was choosing to ignore it.

"Excuse me." I said again, causing him to finally turn round. The boy's eyes were a murky grey colour, one of them almost completely hidden behind locks of long mousy brown hair that came down past his chin. When they met mine I saw the pupils dilate in shock and he went to step back. I kept my hand on his arm.

"I know you." The boy didn't respond. His expression stayed exactly the same. "You were staring at me at the Wilde gathering." With this I smiled sympathetically, hoping to elicit some kind of reply, or even an explanation, but it only seemed to scare him more. After a long pause I decided to try another approach.

"Um, I'm Kurt." Moving to hold out my hand, I momentarily let go of the boy's arm and like a flash he was off, mumbling

"I have to go," under his breath. I shouted after him but he carried on, almost sprinting round the corner until he disappeared completely from view.

"What on earth…?" I didn't really know what to do next. I had just been totally blanked, teenage girl style, in the middle of a busy corridor. Feeling a hand on my shoulder I turned to look at Scott, who had an expression on his face that was almost as confused as mine.

"Who was that?" I asked. He smiled, patting me knowingly.

"That my friend, was Gabriel Fosston."

When I finally made it back to Wilde I was completely exhausted. History had been fun – I'd sat with Steven, Connor and Wade and had helped them win a heated debate with another group on the innocence of Albert Speer – but after the lesson our teacher Mr Graham had asked us to help him carry some textbooks over to another part of the building. My weak arms had barely been able to manage it and they hung limply by my sides like there was still something holding them down. Climbing the stairs slowly I noticed darkness was already beginning to descend on the campus. I'd always hated how quickly the day ended in winter, somehow it made everything more daunting and scary. Some of the still open windows of the main building glowed with the classroom lights like hundreds of little tiny eyes and ant like students mingled with the shadows cast across the gardens as they walked through them.

When I finally reached my door I went to pick out my key from my bag, but was stopped by the message pinned on my door.

Hello Kurt.

I have gone too fence practice. See you later.

From Artem

I smiled, noticing how my roommate's accent even stood out in his writing. Seeing that the message continued, I wondered if he'd forgotten something, but the handwriting underneath was different, more fluent and very neat.

Sorry to hijack your message – I came to see you but Artem said you were still in class. Remember you have your Warbler audition tomorrow so if you want to go through song choices then I'll be in my study room. We should make our lunch date a regular thing, but maybe without Scott next time :D See you soon.

Blaine

Oh Gaga, I'd totally forgotten about my audition and I had no idea what I wanted to do. The temptation to turn around and walk straight to Wordsworth was tantalisingly strong, but I shoved my key into the lock and walked straight towards my bed, flopping face down on it and groaning into my pillow. Darn it.