This story was formerly known as "The Big Vent". But I decided to change the title. "The Big Vent" had literally NO meaning, and "My Love Is Like A Star" does. You'll see what meaning the new title has in a later chapter. For now, I just hope you enjoy this one.

Blaine Anderson opened his locker and looked in the mirror. Damn, his hair was undulated. He grabbed a huge tube of hair-gel from inside his locker to work on his curls.

The senior ran to his locker between most lessons to apply hair-gel, since he hated his hair becoming uneven. It always meant a lot of rushing, since McKinley High school was huge, and his locker was often far away from the classroom he had to go next. But to him it was worth it, as long as he could gel.

"Hey Blaine." He heard a deep voice greet him.

"Hey Jake." He kept gelling, but reacted a little surprised. Himself and Jake had always gotten along, but they had never been particularly close, either. He couldn't imagine why his fellow glee-club member would come to see him outside of practice.

"You're looking pretty cute today. I like the bow tie, and your hair." The half-black teen paid him a compliment.

Blaine was perplex. "Er, thank you?" He wasn't sure what to make of the flattery. Blaine knew better, but was Jake flirting with him?

"You're welcome." Jake was sporting a smile. "Well Blaine, I figure this will come across as awkward no matter what, so I'll get right to the point." The older boy raised an eyebrow. "Blaine, will you go out with me?"

"WHAT?!" Blaine was shocked. He was sure Jake was making fun of him now. Loudly he exclaimed: "Okay Jake, I get that you're trying to mock me. But no thanks, I really don't need this right now."

He attempted to walk off, but Jake got a hold of his arm. "No, I swear I'm not mocking you, please let me explain." As Blaine came to a stop, Jake confessed: "I'm a hot brother, too."

Blaine was reluctant to believe him. "That can't be, Jake. We've all seen you sleeping your way around the entire school. And you're dating, or have been dating Marley, haven't you?"

"Technically, I have. But there's a lot more to it. Do you have a couple of minutes for me to tell you the whole story?"

Blaine nodded, and Jake began recounting how he had fallen in love with Ryder the year before, how he had then tried to sleep with a lot of girls to prove to himself he was straight (without success), how Marley had then agreed to be his beard, and how he had ended up pretending to be a girl online just to get close to Ryder.

"So that's what brought you apart?" Blaine concluded. "We've been wondering why you're not best friends like you used to be, anymore. But to be honest, we all thought Marley had cheated on you with Ryder, or something."

"No, it's all my fault." Jake sighed. "Gosh, I hated myself so badly for weeks, but I didn't know what else to do. I really love that dude."

Blaine attempted to caress him. "Don't worry. I'm not the one who'll condemn you for it. I mean, it definitely wasn't a cool thing to do, but I get how hard it can be to have feelings for a straight guy. I myself have had the hots for Sam all year."

"We hadn't noticed." The younger boy joked.

"But at least you see your mistake, that's the main thing."

Jake sighed once more. "It's still so damn hard." He lamented.

"I know it is." The senior assured him. "But the best thing to do is to not be hung up on it, and to try and move on."

"That's what Puck told me." Jake beamed. "Which is why I thought I'd ask you out."

Remembering why he had initially approached Blaine, the half-black boy then stood before him with raised shoulders, and looked him directly in the eye. "So now that we've clarified that, may I ask you again? Blaine, please go out with me!"

Blaine suddenly looked uncomfortable again. "Jake..." He attempted to say something, but the words just wouldn't come out. But the sophomore kept staring at him expectantly, making Blaine feel pressured to answer. "Jake, I'm sorry, but I really can't."

"Oh..." Jake seemed gutted.

When Blaine noticed the boys disappointment, he quickly tried to explain. "Look, don't get me wrong, I really think you're awesome and hot and everything. It's just... I'm really hung up on someone else."

"Your ex-boyfriend?" Jake questioned.

"Yes. Kurt is his name. I still love him deeply, and I'm hoping that once I graduate we'll live in the same city again, and that we'll be able to be boyfriends again. So sorry, Jake. I'd seriously consider it if things were different, but they're just this way."

"It's okay, I understand." What Blaine had told him seemed to have mildened his disappointment reasonably. "Thank you for listening to me anyway."

"You're welcome." They leaned in to give each other a friendly hug.

Ryder wasn't having the best day at school. He hadn't slept much the night before, and the problem was that his dyslexia was at its worst when he was sleep-deprived. He sure hoped no teacher would be writing a surprise test today.

The brunette tore his hair. Why were thoughts of his former best friend keeping him awake at night? The only things the teen had busied himself with lately had been Jake cat fishing him, Jake lying to him, and Jake taking the piss out of him. And each time anger boiled up inside him.

"Hello." He suddenly heard a female voice next to him. Ryder, who had been lost in thoughts, turned his head around. A cheerleader, who was wearing a neck brace, had walked past him, and was smiling.

"Hey." Ryder replied with an effort.

The cheerleader, Celeste was her name, if he remembered correctly, wiggled her fingers flirtatiously, and batted her eye lashes. She then walked on, and disappeared around the next corner. She was a girl who always greeted him when they met in the hallways. His friends said she had a crush on him, but Ryder didn't find her particularly attractive. He continued his way down the hall.

After a couple of minutes, he happened to just run into the person his thoughts were circling around. Jake was not alone, though. He was talking to Blaine Anderson, the other gay student who was in glee-club with them. They seemed to be talking about something personal. After a couple of seconds, they hugged.

From what Ryder could see, Jake was clearly picking Blaine up. "This can't be happening." He furiously thought. Feeling the need to interject, he hastily approached the duo.

"Having fun, huh?" Ryder snarled at Jake.

"What?" The two of them were puzzled by Ryder's unexpected approach.

"You're still playing with people, aren't you?" he snubbed.

"What? No, I wasn't playing..." The half-black boy attempted to contradict, but Ryder wouldn't give him a chance.

"Blaine, listen. This bleeding gilt here is trying to damage you. He was playing with my feeling for weeks, and I saw him with a completely different guy only yesterday. All he's doing is playing with your feelings."

Jake was astonished. "Wait a minute. How do you know about Sebastian?"

"Sebastian?" Blaine was surprised. Jake had failed to mention that he had hooked up with the former captain of the Warblers, whom he only knew too well.

Ryder ignored it. "Look Blaine, I'm only trying to protect you. Please stay away from him. I just don't want you to feel as miserable as I am right now."

Blaine had been quite annoyed by the way Ryder had interrupted their conversation, but now he was at the end of his tether. "Okay Ryder, I think it's time for you to listen. Jake sure wasn't trying to play with me. All we were doing is talking. He was mainly telling me about how much he loves you, and how bad he's feeling for what he did."

"Seriously?" The brunette shook his head.

"And I'll admit, he did ask me out..."

"I knew it." Ryder interjected, but Blaine wouldn't let himself be cut short.

"...But I told him that I couldn't, and he was quite understanding. Not like someone who just wanted to hump and dump me, don't you think?"

Ryder was still leery. "But he told me he loved me only two weeks ago. Why else would he hitting on someone new already?"

"Well, I think you should realize that Jake's a free man, and can ask out anyone he wants." Blaine jeered.

Jake had silently listened to the exchange of blows between Ryder and Blaine (Ryder's sudden approach had intimidated him), but felt that it was his turn to handle things from here. "That's enough, thanks Blaine." He made a gesture to his friend, asking him to leave. Blaine understood, and walked off.

"I wasn't lying when I told you that I loved you. To be honest, I still love you to the extreme." Jake began explaining, but was soon interrupted.

"Then why are you asking all these other guys, out?"

"Because I've accepted that you'll never be able to love me back." Jake proceeded. "So I'm trying my best to move on from you. That's the only reason I asked Blaine out, not because I wouldn't much rather be with you. I don't want to spend more time hung up on a straight guy. I'd have treated Blaine well in any case, though, just so you know." He then hesitated for an instance, before continuing. "And I also hope that if I manage to fall out of love with you, we might be able to become friends again someday."

Ryder felt like a complete moron after what Jake had told him. "Just forget it, okay?" He inquired. Aggrieved and ashamed of himself, he walked off. He regretted getting involved in whatever Blaine and Jake had been doing in the first place.

He left behind a dejected Jake, who was looking after the brunette with a longing stare. This encounter had reawakened part of his grief, and Jake again felt like he had a couple of days ago, before talking to Puck.

"What was that about?" Ryder heard someone ask from behind.

He turned around to see who was talking to him. It was Marley. She seemed to have observed him bellowing at Jake.

"Leave me alone please." The guy hissed.

"No, first I want to know why you're having random goes at Jake." She insisted. Ryder noticed that she seemed somewhat enraged, which was not something that happened often with Marley.

"Leave me alone please." His hands were clenched. "It was a misunderstanding, nothing more. No need for you to make a big deal out of it."

"Ryder, are you jealous?"

Ryder would have expected Marley to say a lot of things in that situation, but he hadn't expected her to say something like that. "What? No!" He bellowed. "Why are you asking such crap?"

"The way you just thundered there made it seem that way." She fumed while rolling her eyes.

"I'm not gay, Marley." The tall boy insisted. He wasn't really lying there. Yet, if he was being honest with himself, he had questioned several times these past days why his thoughts kept circling around Jake. And in brief moments, when he wasn't raging with anger, he realized he did enjoy being desired by someone.

Marley however didn't question his sexuality any further. "I still want an explanation as to why you have a problem with him asking out other guys." She inquired.

"I wanted to keep him from breaking Blaine's heart the same way he broke mine, is it that hard to understand?" The tall boy grunted.

"Well, listen to me Ryder." The girl commanded. "Whatever problem you have with the things Jake does, just because he hurt you doesn't mean he'll hurt everyone he ever meets. He was simply struggling with coming to terms with himself, but that's over now. What he does is none of your business anymore." She turned around, and huffily walked off.

"Why don't you kiss my behind, Marley?" Ryder called after her. Red in his face, he spent another couple of seconds in the hallway trying to process all that had just happened. Still slightly irritated, he then headed for the classroom he had his next lesson in.