Chapter 9 - Muggle
The room was deathly silent. I stared down at my test paper, my peripheral vision catching the flying of pens as the rest of the students scribbled down their answers. As if one pop quiz wasn't enough, Conners had decided to spring another 'refresher' test on us all – everyone was blaming it on Scott for saying that the last one had been 'easy'. He'd been placed on the other side of the room and for once I missed the sound of his foot tapping rapidly against the table leg. Looking back at the first question, I pondered it for a second, before starting to slowly write.
Blaine and I had arranged to have a movie night tonight – something I'd been subtly trying to suggest for weeks. Apparently he was going to 'destroy' me with his Harry Potter knowledge. I knew Scott was a big fan, so had quizzed him incessantly and he had plied me with facts, but at the moment they were merging with my Trig formulas to create a very messy picture in my head. Things with Blaine had become fairly platonic – he was no longer trying to coach me about being gay and standing up for myself, and I counted him and Scott to be my best friends. But the feelings I had for him were still there, perhaps stronger than ever. I knew it wasn't a date, but I hoped our night together might give me a few more pointers as to how he felt. If he felt anything at all.
When the clock finally hit half twelve and we handed in our tests, I sadly found myself counting the number of hours until five pm. Four and a half.
"Freakin Conners, who does he think he is? Jumping that on us…" Scott was mumbling curses as we left the room, like he normally did at the end of Trig.
"Do you think maybe if you didn't make comments while he spoke he might like you a little bit more?" I said, humour in my tone. He shot me a warning glance.
"I could be top student and he'd still hate my guts. I seem to have that effect with most teachers."
"Well you don't with the students." Another look. "Most students…" As we turned the corner of the corridor I suddenly caught a glance of Gabriel coming out of another classroom, carrying a stack of precariously balanced books. When he saw me looking he immediately went to move sharply away, but bumped into another student and went flying.
"Oh!" Running over I saw him flailing to get up, getting in the way of the student that was trying to help him.
"Gabriel. Gabriel, calm down." I put my hand on his shoulder to stop him moving and grey eyes stared up at me like a rabbit in headlights. With my other hand I began picking up books and seconds later they were all neatly collected again. Gabriel shot up, dusting down his blazer nervously and he grabbed the books quickly from me.
"Th-thank you." He mumbled, speaking properly to me for the first time since we'd met. I smiled in response and he rushed off, leaving me confused once again.
"What is with that guy?" I asked Scott as he caught up with me, glancing back at Gabriel's rapidly disappearing figure. Scott scratched the back of his head.
"Well, I didn't want to be the one to tell you this but…"
"But what?" I stepped forward, urging him to continue. His face creased awkwardly.
"Some of the Wilde boys were talking about it at football practice – they said somebody went into Gabriel's room and there were drawings of you everywhere." My eyes widened.
"You mean that…?"
"Somebody's got a serious crush." My mouth dropped open. What. He couldn't be serious. Who would ever have a crush on me?
"Well, you're not exactly shabby to the average gay guy." I hadn't realised I'd spoken the last part out loud – Scott was grinning as he spoke. "And Blaine obviously likes you so-" His words were cut off by a shout as I slapped him on the shoulder. I'd banned all conversations about Blaine for the day – it made me too nervous.
"What do I do about it?" Returning to our original topic, Scott shrugged.
"I suppose there's nothing you can do. Just don't lead him on I guess." Staring down the corridor once again, I shook my head in disbelief.
"Hello?" Instantly my heart warmed on hearing the familiar gravely voice. He always sounded so concerned when he answered the telephone.
"Hi Dad." I was sat back in my room, trying desperately to while away the half hour of waiting time I had left, my phone pressed tightly to my ear. Dad sounded happy to hear from me.
"Oh hi son – are you ok? Is something wrong?"
"No, nothing's wrong. I just wanted to talk."
"Erm…"
"I mean generally talk. Chat." I laughed at Dad's sigh of relief. I think he was always expecting me to drop another gay bomb on him at any moment.
"Well that's great. How's Dalton?"
"It's great. I really love it here, I've made loads of friends."
"Yeah, Carole told me about Scott and Steven. They seem like great guys. She asks how Nathaniel is." I laughed, glad Dad couldn't see my blush through the phone. I was never going to be able to escape from this.
"Nathaniel's good – he's always really busy with organising stuff so I don't get to hang out with him a lot."
"And Blaine? Have you been seeing a lot of him?" I could sense the change of tone in Dad's voice – like he was interested but scared at the same time. I paused slightly before answering, wondering how to phrase it.
"Um, yeah, Blaine and I hang out. But he's really busy too. We're actually going to watch Harry Potter tonight."
"Just the two of you?"
"Um, no, probably Scott too." I felt bad for lying but I didn't want to give Dad too many ideas – especially when there was probably no truth to them anyway. It was just a friendly night in.
"Oh, that's great, have fun." I could tell he was relived, something that saddened me, but I suppose it would have been stupid for me to expect him to accept everything so quickly. If I'd been straight he would probably have acted the same.
"I will." At that moment Artem entered the room, still decked out in his fencing gear. He went to say hi but saw I was on the phone and halted his greeting.
"Oh, by the way Kurt, some of your friends came over and-"
"-Um, Dad, I've gotta go now, Artem is back and I have to get ready. Tell Finn and Carole I say hi. Love you." Signing off quickly before Dad had time to say anything else I shut my phone and moved to let Artem reach his bed.
"How was practice?" I asked.
"Tiring." Flopping onto the mattress he splayed his legs out in an ungainly fashion and I laughed. "Oh!" Suddenly he seemed to remember something, sitting up and rummaging around in his bag until he pulled out his dated mobile phone. "Look!" Holding it out to me I took it from him and stared at the screen, which was showing a text that read.
I had fun today. Want to meet up for coffee next week?"
"It's from St Jade!" Artem said excitedly, pointing back at the screen. For a couple of seconds I was confused, before the realisation finally hit.
"Oh! Your dance partner!" Artem nodded enthusiastically.
"American girl." Looking back at the text again I smiled. It seemed I hadn't been the only one to notice my roommate's dance moves.
"Are you going to go?" I asked. Artem looked embarrassed.
"Will you come too?"
"I don't think that's the point of a date. But if you really want me to, I will." A huge grin spread across his face – he leant back onto his bed, arms resting casually behind his head and I laughed, picking up my bag.
"I'm going to Blaine's now, I'll see you later."
"Byeee."
As I entered Wordsworth the butterflies in my stomach accelerated and made me hiccup. I don't know why I always acted like this – it wasn't as if Blaine and I were going to be totally alone – people came into his room all the time to ask questions. Climbing the stairs I stared out at the nearly black sky, it was crazy how fast winter was approaching. By the time Sectionals came along it was going to be late November. I reached Blaine's door, reading the nameplate as I always did, took a deep breath and rapped sharply three times. Almost immediately, it was opened.
Blaine was out of his uniform, something that surprised me. Even without his blazer he usually dressed smartly, but now he looked like he was almost in pyjamas. He was in pyjamas. Before I was going to ask what occasion had brought upon this drastic change of attire (and sent me into a whole new world of fantasies involving elastic and thin cotton) I noticed the t-shirt design and smiled. They were Harry Potter pyjamas.
"Greetings muggle!" Blaine exclaimed, holding up a red vine like a wand. "What's the password?" I floundered.
"Er…expelliarmus?" Blaine nodded in approval.
"That's good enough. Entrée!" He swept his arm upwards to let me pass and I silently thanked Scott for getting me over the first hurdle.
Entering the enormous room I noticed that it had been transformed into a Harry Potter shrine, with various bit of memorabilia that I had never seen before scattered about on surfaces and furniture.
"Welcome to the Gryffindor common room!" Blaine bounded inside, grabbing hold of a hat that was balanced on the arm of the sofa and plonking it on his head. Gaga – if this evening was going to be filled with obscure references I was supposed to know, I was going to have a very confusing time.
"You do realise I've only watched Harry Potter once?" I said, deciding to come clean. Blaine stopped dead and turned to face me, his expression shocked.
"What?"
"I was always a 'Powerpuff Girl' kinda boy." I remembered going to the cinema with Dad to watch the first Harry Potter film – he'd bought me the whole costume in a vain hope that I'd find my manly streak through casting spells and riding broomsticks, but I'd simply fashioned my robe in a dress and strutted down the cinema isles like a model instead. I smiled apologetically at Blaine but he didn't seem too peeved.
"Well, now you are in the Blaine domain, be prepared to fall in love." He held up the DVD, grinning and I smiled back, wondering if he knew his words were all too true.
As I sat down on the sofa Blaine bent down to place the DVD in the player, his t-shirt riding up to reveal a considerable part of skin so I looked away blushing. Turning around he motioned for me to scoot up and sandwiched himself between my body and the arm of the sofa, stretching out his legs and resting one of his arms on the back of the sofa. This was the most relaxed I'd ever seen him – it was incredibly sexy.
"Are you ready?" He said with a grin, a grin that made my heart begin to race uncontrollably.
"I'm ready." He pressed play and then immediately began to sing along with the opening theme, making me laugh.
If there was one thing I absolutely adored about Blaine, it was that he was the comfiest headrest ever. I spent a decent part of the film building up the courage to rest my head back onto his shoulder, before he suddenly reached out to grab another red vine and knocked me so I fell into the position completely by chance. I waited to see if he would object, but he made no complaint, so I snuggled in and listened to the sound of him eating. Every so often he would lean down to tell me some random fact about the shooting or something they had missed out from the book – most of them I didn't understand, but I still asked questions so I could smell the sweetness of his breath over and over again. Really I was only doing myself damage – desperately trying to cling on to something I couldn't have, but at that moment I couldn't care less.
"This scene should have been longer, but they had to cut bits out because it didn't fit with the rest of the film." I nodded, trying to look as interested as possible as Blaine told me yet another fact and reached forward to grab a handful of popcorn from the bowl that was balanced precariously between us.
"Oh," As I returned to my position Blaine stopped, shifting himself further upright, "you have something in your hair." He motioned for me to tip my head forward and I felt his fingers probe around for the alien object, rubbing against my scalp in a way that almost had me sighing with pleasure.
"Got it." He plucked out a small popcorn kernel, throwing it behind the sofa, but his hand stayed near my head, slowly stroking the tips of my hair. Oh Marc Jacobs…
Suddenly there were three loud knocks on the door. Both Blaine and I jumped, sending the bowl of popcorn flying and we immediately moved apart, much to my immense disappointment.
"Who the hell is that?" Blaine asked roughly, springing up and marching to the door. When he opened it I heard a familiar voice.
"Wassup Blainey-oh?" Scott let himself into the room, starting to ask him a question about showers, when he noticed me and the TV.
"Kurt! Hey! Oh…" Suddenly it all came back. He'd obviously totally forgotten about our movie night.
"Hi Scott." I had never wanted my friend to leave the room more than I did right now. What had Blaine been about to do?
"How's your movie night going? Has Kurt been telling you all the stuff I taught him?" For Prada's sake. Not only had I told Scott not to mention that he knew anything about our plans, he'd also revealed that I'd asked for coaching. That I'd been trying to impress Blaine.
"Um…" Blaine looked confused. I was livid.
"Scott!"
"I totally love Harry Potter. Hermione is fit as."
"Do you want to join us?" At this, everybody stopped. What? Blaine seemed confused himself by his words – that he was actually requesting that he spend time with a boy he claimed to dislike. Even Scott looked shocked.
"Um…?" I saw him look towards me, obviously checking for approval. I couldn't rightly say no now – it was Blaine's room after all, and it would look too weird. But why had he asked?
"Yeah, watch with us Scott." Still slightly on edge Scott walked over and perched himself down beside me. When Blaine sat down it wasn't with the casual edge he'd had before – his Head Boy persona kicking in so he sat up straight and didn't touch me. My heart sank, but I tried not to let it show. Damn.
At first the atmosphere was so tense you could cut it with a knife, everybody staring silently at the screen, but gradually Scott lost his inhibitions and began to comment – mainly about Hermione. I noticed Blaine fidgeting, moving his head sometimes so it looked like he was having a heated conversation with himself. Towards the end of the film I went to ask Scott a question but he suddenly jumped up, pointing at something on the screen.
"Look! This is the bit that really grinds my gears!" He exclaimed. "Ron and Hermione!" I stared at the screen, not getting his point. The two figures didn't seem to be doing anything controversial – just talking to each other.
"It is so bleeding obvious that Ron likes Hermione and Hermione likes Ron – why do they drag it out so much? I hate it when people do that!"
"Maybe Ron has a legitimate reason for dragging it out." Suddenly Blaine joined in the conversation for the first time in a while, so we both stopped to look at him. His tone seemed defensive and Scott caught up on it.
"Why? What reason could he have?"
"Maybe Ron wants to be absolutely sure of his feelings for Hermione before he takes that next step, maybe Ron doesn't want to rush into things and ruin it all. I mean Hermione's been hurt by Victor Krum before and she might just be throwing herself onto another guy for the sake of it – maybe Ron doesn't want to take advantage of that!" For a second everyone was silent, shocked by Blaine's sudden outburst. He looked enraged, his face pink and his whole posture leant towards Scott in a way I would normally have found extremely manly and attractive. Scott was in the same riled state.
"Ok, ok guys, are we still talking about the film or have we moved onto something else?" I asked, waving my hands in an ending movement between them. At the sound of my voice both boys relaxed but the bristling tension was still there. Prada almighty…
I was about to say something else when the sound of a door knock filled the room once more. Blaine sprang up and marched over to the door, wrenching it open and barking a
"What?" at the poor unsuspecting Wordsworth.
"Er, is Kurt there?" Instantly I sat up, recognising the voice.
"Nathaniel?" Getting up and joining Blaine I saw my Head Boy standing in the hallway, looking rather nervous.
"What's wrong?"
"I think you'd better come back to Wilde. Now."