It started to become clear to Blaine that his foolish pining after Sam was only hurting him. And what was worse it was threatening their friendship. Controlling his temper around Sam was becoming harder and harder. He had nearly made a big scene about the spin the bottle incident, how weird was that? You can't be angry with your friends for not wanting to kiss you. But he had kissed him though. The feeling of Sam's lips on his haunted Blaine. And it was growing near impossible for him to act normal around Sam. He had to take control of this.

Blaine was tired of failing at love. But as he forced himself to disregard his feelings for Sam, he felt something else awakening inside him. He started noticing something that he had probably known all along; that Kurt was actually really pretty, beautiful even with his huge blue eyes. They always had a good time together. But this wouldn't just be going on a date to see where things lead, it would be a commitment. And failure wasn't an option this time, the last thing he wanted to do was hurt his friend. So he had to be sure.

It was something that temp Holly had said. And it was strange because of course Sam already knew that people could be into both girls and guys, but he had never thought that was what this was. What he felt for Blaine. At first he had just found it so great to be around Blaine. But then he had started having these thoughts about kissing him. And he had felt so bad about Blaine being with Jeremiah, and even Rachel. And Kurt as well he remembered now, at Artie's party it had felt so awkward seeing Blaine with Kurt. So he wanted to spend all his time with Blaine, he felt like being close to him, touching him all the time and he really didn't like the idea that Blaine might be interested in someone else. Thinking the thought through to its inevitable conclusion: He was in love with Blaine. Oh my god, he was in love with Blaine!

It wasn't until that day when Pavarotti had died and Kurt sang in front of all the warblers that Blaine knew. Kurt was so vulnerable and he was singing so beautifully. And it just felt so right. He was right there in front of him, like he had been for months. And he was willing to love Blaine and Blaine wanted so much to love him back.

During the following week Sam spent almost all his waking time thinking about Blaine. His stomach was tingling, sometimes to the point that he almost felt sick. He couldn't concentrate on whatever he was supposed to be doing. But he was also trying really hard to figure out what to do about his feelings, other than what he was already doing when he was alone in his room or sometimes in the shower even though it made him feel really guilty like he was going behind his friend's back, well other than that he had no idea what to do.

Because what could he do? If it would have been a girl he'd known what to do. He'd go after her; flirt with her and ask her out. It was easy because what did he have to lose? But this was so different. Sam had been in love before. But not like this. This was so much more. Now he felt like he had everything to lose. Blaine was his best friend. They had so much fun together. Not just fun, Blaine made everything seem brighter, simpler, like he could do anything... He was the best friend Sam could ever have imagined having.

He knew that Blaine liked hanging out with him. He had never really thought about why though and now that he did he couldn't find an answer.

He ached to see Blaine, but he couldn't imagine how to be with him now that he knew. But determined to not make the mistake of avoiding Blaine until he got mad again he finally worked up the courage to call his friend. As the signals went through Sam was nervously pacing the floor of his bedroom, absentmindedly picking up a comic book from his desk and studied it's cover.

"Hey Sam! What's up?" Sam's heart pounded at the sound of Blaine's voice. He dropped the book on the bed and rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand.

"Hey B. Nothing much. You?"

"I actually have some really big news, Sam."

Sam was on the floor. He wasn't aware of how long he had been lying there. He wasn't aware of how he'd gotten there. He was only aware of the paralyzing pain that was tearing him up inside. He was desperately grasping for something to hold on to as he fell apart. He had never felt anything like this before, he had no way of pulling himself out of it. The one person he needed was the one he couldn't turn to.

But there was one more person who could help him. He didn't hear her knocking or entering the room, but when his mom wrapped her arms around him and held him tight he was finally able to calm down. Eventually he stopped crying. "Do you want to talk about it, honey?" Sam shook his head. "Let's get you into bed, sweetheart." She sat at his side gently stroking his shoulder until he fell asleep.

The days until regionals passed in a haze. Sam really couldn't care less about the competition or rehearsals, but at least it was something to keep his mind off the other stuff. The assignment Mr Shue gave them to write their own songs turned out to be a good distraction if you could call it that. Sam spent countless hours in his room with his guitar working on it. But of course he was too dumb to come up with something good, everything he managed was just silly, sad love songs. What was the big deal anyway? He had already known that Blaine wouldn't go for a guy like him. But fuck it hurt!

Blaine noticed that the Evans' car wasn't on the driveway. This was so stupid, he really should have called first. He felt a little nervous as he rang the doorbell. He was never nervous around Sam, but now it felt strangely like so much had changed. Nothing happened for a few minutes and he pressed the button again, twice for good measure. As he turned to leave the door opened. "Blaine! Hey!" Sam looked a bit surprised but he was smiling, and he had apparently run to the door, because he was slightly out of breath.

"Hi, Sam!"

"Um, what are you doing here?" Blaine chuckled at that.

"It's nice to see you too, Sammy."

"Oh, right come in!" Sam stepped back to let him in and shut the door behind him. "Hey," Sam hugged him, that way only Sam could, pulling him so tight making him feel so, so...

"Um, I was in the neighborhood, and I thought I'd drop by." In the neighborhood wasn't really truthful he guessed, but he just couldn't bring himself to say at Kurt's. "What are you up to? Am I interrupting something?" With an unspoken agreement they had started walking up the stairs to Sam's room. When they entered the room Blaine immediately noticed Sam's guitar on the bed. "Were you playing? Would you play something for me?" What was with him, could he shut up for five seconds? And by the way what was up with Sam? He was uncharacteristically quiet.

"So how's Kurt?" Blaine wasn't expecting that. He broke eye contact.

"Oh, Kurt's great." It felt so weird talking about Kurt with Sam, what was he supposed to say? "I mean, you know, he's great. How's Santana?"

"Well, you know I don't really know. She doesn't seem to be that interested anymore. I don't blame her though..." Sam shrugged.

"What are you talking about, why not?"

"No, I just mean that I'm not sure I care that much anyway."

"Oh, so is there someone else now?" Okay, he was definitely not nailing the not-acting-weird-around-Sam thing yet.

"No! I'm just saying it's not like we're soul mates or anything."

"Right. Sorry." Blaine ventured a smile, and to his relief Sam didn't seem annoyed anymore, but smiled back at him. "Hey, what about my song?"

"Alright then" Sam looked down at his hands and the faintest, most adorable blush appeared on his cheeks "this is actually something I wrote, or came up with or whatever..."

Sam playing his guitar, his beautiful voice and those blond bangs falling down in his eyes. He shouldn't be noticing these things anymore. But that song – wow! So intense and sad and... Blaine didn't really understand. "Is it about Quinn?"

"I don't know. Um, I guess sorta, or you know it's just something I wrote for glee."

"It was beautiful, Sam. You're so good!"

"No, not really... But speaking of good, you were so awesome at regionals! I can't believe you didn't win."

"Thanks Sam, but you guys were amazing too."

"Just, one question though. Candles? It's a bit sad for a romantic duet with your new boyfriend isn't it?" Blaine knew it was only playful teasing, but the truth was that he hadn't been thinking of Kurt when he picked that song. Not that he could tell Sam that.

"I didn't come here to talk about how I botched the song selection and cost us regionals." Blaine flashed Sam a small smile to make sure he knew he wasn't really upset. But with a completely serious face Sam then asked

"So why did you come here?" looking him right in the eye. It took Blaine a few moments to pull himself together, then he answered lightly

"To play video games obviously." But the smile that appeared on Sam's face was not amused - it was sad.

"I had to pawn it." Sam stood up and walked over to his bookcase. "Probably these will be next," he ran a finger along his collection of comic books. "And the guitar." Blaine didn't know what to say he just walked over to him and they stood there side by side just staring at the books, Blaine stroking Sam's back. "Perhaps we won't even be able to keep the house." Blaine turned to Sam and grabbed his hands.

"Oh, my god, Sam. That's... I'm so sorry. Why haven't you told me about it?" Sam pulled back his hands and slid them in his pockets before he answered.

"Well nothing is definite yet, so I figured it wasn't worth having a melt-down over just yet." He actually smiled. Blaine was glad to see that he was able to joke about it, but he was still heartbroken for Sam. Today had felt like a new beginning, and now he realized why. He was finally ready to be what Sam needed: his best friend.

A/N: I'm so sorry that this isn't a happy chapter. But remember this isn't the end!