Kurt Hummel's life wasn't exactly what he hoped it would be. Well, to be quite fair, it was far from it.

His life sucked.

Well, at least he had glee club. And Mercedes. He still wasn't sure if he should consider Rachel a friend, since he still wanted to shove a sock down her throat every single time she opened her mouth to say something completely oblivious. Regionals was coming up too, which made her go even more obnoxious than she already was. Well, he had to admit, the complete horror in Finn's eyes every now and then, when she started one of her rants against some if not all of the glee club members (which usually consisted of bulging eyes, dramatic hand gestures, shrill voice peaks and insults which Kurt not even knew that they existed) was quite enjoyable.

But, other than that, nothing was really able to make Kurt Hummel smile. At least for now.

Chapter 3

One medium drip and a non fat mocha

'so, this afternoon, eh?' Mercedes softly jabbed her elbow in Kurt's upper arm. 'you and the Warbler sir.'

'his name is Blaine, Mercedes,' Kurt corrected her sharply. 'and yes, I haven't been this excited in literally forever.'

'yeah, I can see that,' Mercedes smiled. 'you're totally glowing, it's good to see you this way.'

'I'm kind of nervous though,' Kurt sighed and rubbed his upper legs awkwardly. 'like, what am I supposed to talk about? What will he think of me? Why does he even find me remotely interesting?'

'hey now, don't worry so much about it, Kurt,' Mercedes rubbed Kurt's back in a comforting way. 'have you actually seen him watching you with those big brown diamonds? This is totally going to be okay.'

'if you say so,' Kurt smiled cautiously and reserved. 'I'll text you right after I leave the Lima Bean. Give you all the gossip and such.'

'that's a promise I'm going to keep you on,' Mercedes smiled, getting into her big SUV. 'I'll hear everything tonight.'

'promised.' Kurt waved her goodbye from the McKinley parking lot. The sun was shining bright, casting enchanting rays of light through the trees, which were mostly all colored in shades of red and orange since autumn was at her peak at that very moment. Kurt tightened his scarf a little more into his neck and started walking against the wind in the direction of the Lima Bean. Though the wind was sharp, cold and really tough, he kept a steady pace. He and Blaine were supposed to meet in fifteen minutes.

Though being a little fashionably late wouldn't be a problem to Kurt. And hopefully, it wouldn't be a problem to Blaine either.

It turned out Blaine was going to be the one being fashionably late. Kurt understood that though, Blaine had to come from Westerville, which was all the way on the other side of town. Kurt sat down at one of the small round tables set up in the small café, checking his cell phone almost every other second. The five minutes he waited slowly got sucked up by the loudly ticking clock on the wall behind him. Until then, finally, Blaine walked in. Kurt shrunk a little in his seat, but immediately forced himself to sit straight up and wave. Blaine flashed that warm, genuine smile again and came walking to Kurt, keeping his gaze fixated on the taller boy's eyes. Kurt got out of the chair, a thousand words racing through his mind.

'what do I do now? Do I hug him? Shake his hand? Smile? Wha..' Kurt's thoughts didn't even get to finish, because sooner than he imagined he was wrapped up in a short embrace.

'hi.' Blaine's voice vibrated in his chest against Kurt's shoulders, which made Kurt's stomach flip over a few times.

'hi.' Kurt released Blaine from their hug and smiled. 'what do I say now? Mother help me.

Think fast, Kurt, think fast.' But he couldn't. He just couldn't. When he normally was so fast with snapping insults back at Rachel's, his vocal chords seemed to be on a complete lockdown right now.

'so do you want to get coffee right away?' Blaine smiled at Kurt. 'I'm pretty thirsty after that long drive here.'

'how long is the drive, exactly?' Kurt asked. 'I've never been to Westerville.'

'it's about one and a half hour.' Blaine answered. 'I'll have one medium drip and.. what do you drink?'

'one and a half hour?' Kurt's mouth fell open in astonishment. 'I'll have a non fat mocha, please.'

'yes, one and a half hour.'

'are you mad?' Kurt smiled at Blaine, eyes twinkling. 'you wasted so much gas on someone you hardly know?'

'wasted?' Blaine looked at him in confusion. 'if I'm "wasting" it on you, I think I might be content with it.'

'stop throwing compliments at me,' Kurt smiled bashfully. 'I'm not that great.'

'well, you just might be,' Blaine threw him a playful smile. 'I don't know. Yet.'

'is that a casually hidden 'tell me something about yourself?' Kurt grinned.

'yeah, ofcourse, this is a first..' Blaine hesistated. 'meet-up. Ofcourse I would like to get to know you.'

'well, you go first. You asked me to come with you, I want to know who you are.'

'well,' Blaine stared into the distance, thinking, before speaking up. 'I'm Blaine. I'm addicted to bowties and not afraid to admit it, though I don't get to wear one very often because I'm practically always in my Dalton Uniform.'

'can I ask you a question?' Kurt looked up. 'why are you at Dalton and not at a.. "normal" school?'

Blaine fell silent. 'do you really want to know?'

'gee, that sounds like it's a heavy story,' Kurt said. 'but that's okay, Blaine. Tell me about it.'

'well,' Blaine said. 'it has been a while. It was at the Sadie Hawkins dance of my school, in my freshman year. Me and a friend were both openly gay, and we were also the only ones at our school that were actually out of the closet. Me, naïve as I was, decided that nobody should even consider caring about the fact that we were gay. So, even though as friends, we went to the Sadie Hawkins together. I asked him to come with me. And so we went. But on our way back to our houses, we bumped into a bunch of jocks.' Blaine paused for a second to look at Kurt, who was still actively listening. 'they uhm.. beat the living crap out of us, to say lightly. My friend even fell unconscious at some point and I was there, all alone, in the middle of the night, with nobody to help us. It took a while for him to wake up, I think it was four o'clock in the morning before him and me were able to head back home. So.. I was so afraid to go back to that school that.. instead of standing up to them.. I fleed. I transferred to Dalton. I never saw my friend again.'

Silence fell over the two boys. Blaine gazed up at Kurt with big, bashful shining eyes, awaiting a reaction.

'all I can say is,' Kurt swallowed. 'I know how you feel. I'm the only openly gay guy at McKinley. You don't want to know how many times I have seen the inside of a dumpster on the McKinley parking lot. All of my jackets dying a painful death because of me getting thrown on a pile of old spaghetti from the cafeteria, yes.. school sure is nice.' Kurt smiled a little. 'one jacket survived though. My stepbrother, who wasn't my stepbrother yet at the time, still allowed them to throw me in the dumpster, but he did put my jacket aside before they did. I'm still not sure whether to thank him for that or not, because he still let them throw me in smelly garbage.' Kurt took a sip from his coffee, delightfully watching Blaine getting a little bit back out of the gloomy mood of the conversation. Yes, Kurt's past had been hard, but this sarcastic joking about it was a way for Kurt to process it, and it seemed to light Blaine up.

'I guess it's my turn now?' Kurt smiled.

'yeah, I'm really curious.'

'well, after high school, I want to go to New York,' Kurt's entire face lit up. 'I'm not sure what I'm going to do there yet. Maybe fashion, maybe Broadway.. maybe both? They probably have costume designers walking all over the place in there. I'm – obviously – in my school's glee club, which is why I get slushied almost once a week..'

'what's getting slushied?' Blaine asked. Kurt grinned at Blaine's unknowingness of a "normal" school.

'oh, you don't know? Bless you,' Kurt chuckled sarcastically. 'it's pretty painful. You do know what a slushie is, right?'

'yeah, ofcourse I do.'

'well, that. Thrown. In your face. At least once a week. Think about that.'

'ouch, that must be afwul,' Blaine pulled off a grim look. 'especially for you, considering your commitment to your probably very diverging wardrobe.'

'well, you're good at getting to know people,' Kurt grinned. 'or is it just that I'm so predictable?'

'no, not at all,' Blaine smiled. 'though your gazes at regionals kind of gave a lot away.'

'I'm sorry about that, did it creep you out?' Kurt frowned. He was actually worried about that.

'am I sitting at the other side of the table with you now?' Blaine smirked.

'yes,' Kurt gave him a questioning look. 'why?'

'well, because that obviously means you didn't creep me out, otherwise we wouldn't be sitting here.'

Kurt grinned. 'you're mercurial.'

'that's me.' Blaine smiled.

Kurt checked his watch, finding that he and Blaine had been sitting there for two hours already. The conversation was still flowing, and although Kurt didn't want to say goodbye yet, he had lots and lots of homework left to do.

'I hate to be boring, but I have lots and lots of homework waiting for me at home,' Kurt, bored by the thought of this homework, pulled up his upper lip in disappointment. 'I'm sorry, I would've loved to be sitting here with you for another hour.'

'oh, that's fine,' Blaine smiled genuinely. 'I also have a big test coming up in two days, so I have to study too.'

'well, that's fortunate then.' Kurt smiled awkwardly, not knowing what to do next. Blaine, being the slightly more spontaneous one, gestured Kurt to get up, and got up himself.

'I loved being around you for the last few hours,' he pulled Kurt in for a hug, which made the slightly taller boy blush and completely warm on the inside. 'I will text you. We'll meet up again sometime soon.. right?'

'ofcourse,' Kurt rubbed Blaine's back. 'ofcourse we will. I loved being around you too, Blaine. You're amazing.'

They both pulled back from the hug and Blaine caught Kurt's distraught, shimmering eyes with his own. 'do you need a ride home?'

'my car is outside,' Kurt answered. 'you could walk me there if you want to.'

And so Blaine did. Kurt got in his car, a thousand different thoughts flying through his mind. 'so..' he sighed, looking up from his hands, with which he was fumbling in his lap. 'I'll text you.'

'not if I text you first,' Blaine smiled and winked. 'thanks, Kurt.'

'thank you too, Blaine.' Kurt smiled. 'the next time, I'm paying.'

'we'll see about that.'

Kurt started his car and backed up out of his parking spot. Blaine remained in place, standing there bashfully, the wind blowing his coat and scarf loose. Kurt waved at him with a small smile on his face, trying not to appear too enthousiastic.

But the thing was, when he drove around the corner, his smile cracked open from ear to ear, revealing his small, uneven arranged teeth. He turned up the radio and Katy Perry's Teenage Dream blurted out of his speakers. Kurt smiled to the song, because he never thought he, out of all people, could relate to the slightly superficial lyrics of a Katy Perry song.

But, he had to admit. For the first time in his life, Kurt felt completely worriless.