Tag: reallyintense

A new day, a new life.  Blaine could barely sleep a wink the night before.  Fresh from his second tour of the Academy and he could barely contain how excited and terrified he was.  Excited for the fresh start.  Terrified for reasons ranging from the standard will they like me to the notion that maybe nothing would change.  That the promises and policies of the school his brother worked tirelessly towards getting him into mid-semester was full of it.  That nothing would change because this was Ohio and how many open minds can you force to stay open by rules that were supposedly unbreakable? Hope won out in the end as he drifted off.  And faith and trust in Cooper that things were going to be okay.  Because Cooper promised.

The morning, however?  Totally different story.  His hands were shaking so bad that he couldn’t finish tying his tie.  His brand new blazer hung from one hand as he stared up at Cooper who patiently cocked his head to the side and finished the job he couldn’t.  Then gripped his shoulder and gently turned him around to face the mirror as he slid the jacket that would soon be the sign he was looking for to be able to heal again.  Past the faint scab on his bottom lip and eyebrow that would be gone within a week.  Just like the greenish blue mark underneath his eye.  A far cry from how it looked in the beginning.  Fading hues and reassuring squeezes to his shoulders.  All symbols that everything was going to be okay.  Like Cooper said.

‘You heard me, right?  I wouldn’t be letting this happen if I thought it was going to turn out bad.  You gotta trust me.  This is gonna be beyond great.  Beyond me levels of amazing.  You can do this, Squirt.  They’re going to love you.’

“Don’tcallmethat,” a mumble and he curled his fingers towards the pressed cuff edges of his sleeve, “What if I don’t fit in?  What if they look at me and they think I’m a stereotypical rich kid problem child?”  His brows shoved together and lifted above panicked hazel eyes, their colors darkened by anxiety and his voice wobbling.

‘You know that’s your favorite.  Don’t roll your eyes.  Okay, roll them.  Made you smile.  Caught you doing it. Just live in the moment, Blaine. How many times have I told you that if you worry too much about the future?  You’re going to get forehead wrinkles?  Then it’s botox by twenty-five and you’re never going back.’  

Cooper’s wide-eyed omen warning was greeted with the first real laughter Blaine felt since the day before when his brother compared the group of boys singing in the gardens to ‘every boy band that ever existed in one ensemble only good’.  Steadier fingers finished the last button on his jacket and he turned to face Cooper, stepping back and swinging his arms outwards, fingers fanned from one another.

“Well?  What do you think?”  His heart pounded in his ears.

‘I think you look ready.  Are you?’

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

‘Good.  Let’s get you to your first day.  Dalton Academy?!”  Cooper thumbed over his shoulder towards the exit of Blaine’s room before pressing his palms against one another and rubbing them together.  “Here comes Blaine Anderson.  Place isn’t even gonna know what hit it.’

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Blaine sat curled into the corner of the sofa.  In the background–he could hear his father and Cooper ‘talking’.   His foggy brain couldn’t keep up with their conversation–muffled and far off as it was by distance alone–the warm numb moving through his veins kept his attention moving from the fire dancing inside the fireplace to the television he’d turned down to the point of muting it all together and back towards the sound of their conversation.  Barely picking up words now and then, he’d gone to the end closest to the hallway to try and hear better.  In spite of his efforts, he had no such luck.  Judging by the way his mother abruptly excused herself a half an hour ago?  No doubt it was about him and what happened.  

A couple of days earlier was still in the hospital and–his father was home for less than that before business called and he planned to leave again. Blaine would be hard pressed to say it was all that bad that his father was leaving in the first place.  Because Cooper was suddenly there–out of the blue to Blaine because he had no idea he was coming–to take his place.  A much better option considering how his father was taking the entire situation.  Unable to tell if he was more angry at the kids who did what they did.  Or that Blaine went against his wishes and had asked the boy to make a statement with him that couldn’t be ignored.  That they should be proud of who they are.  Have the courage to stand up to the stares, face the school together.  To say his father was opposed was an understatement. 

They went anyway.  The end result was…this.

He waited until there was silence until he heard the clicking of the door to his father’s office and footsteps coming toward the living room. Blaine lift his head and peered over the top of the couch from underneath a mop of loose curls that shadowed some of the cuts and bruises on their way to healing but the worst over his bottom lip and by his eye were the worse when he screwed his face up and pouted thoughtfully trying to ready himself for whatever happened. Seeing his brother–he slumped back down into his spot and his breath left him in one full woosh of deflating air. “I’m sorry, Coop.  Are you okay?  What did he say to you?”