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When Sam entered the room, Marley wouldn’t look at him and Unique and Kitty were stifling giggles. From experience, Sam knew that was a terrible combination. His eyes traveled around the room until he found Artie sitting at his computer, pretending to be innocent. Yeah, this wasn’t good at all.
“What did you show them this time?” Sam asked, rolling his eyes. Honestly, he couldn’t help but be a little amused.
“Just some art pieces,” Artie told him with a little smile. This time Kitty at least was unable to stay silent. She let out a potentially embarrassing bark of laughter. Unique started laughing in response and even Marley looked a little amused.
“Fan art?” Sam guessed.
“Yeah,” Artie nodded, taking a sip of his coffee before offering a grin. “Do you want to see?”
Sam took a seat near Marley. “No way. Last time it was a Blesse thing and I was scarred. Scarred let me tell you. I did not need to see that much of Jesse. Even if based on someone’s imagination.”
“You act like you’ve never seen Blaine and Jesse together on the show,” Kitty rolled her eyes, finally managing to contain herself.
“I’m guessing you didn’t see the picture Artie showed me,” Sam responded mock-defensively.
“Don’t be so dramatic,” Unique said. “Speaking of nice visuals, where is your boyfriend this week?”
“Did you call me boyfriend a nice visual?”
“He is nice to look at,” Marley pointed out.
“When he’s not show choir nazi,” Kitty added.
“One day, he will live that one week in high school down,” Unique proposed. “Anyway, you didn’t answer the question.”
“Boston,” Sam answered. At everyone’s unimpressed looks, he realized he must be whining again. While Blaine and he technically lived together, these days it was a little more long distance than normal. Sam had a modelling campaign that had him in Miami for a month and Blaine had spent the month after it on a press tour for ‘Spring Awakening’. The producers on ‘Stardom’ had adjusted the filming schedule so that he would have the time to do the press for his movie. So Sam and Blaine’s careers were doing incredible. Which was great. Really. Except Sam hadn’t seen Blaine in person for almost three months.
“One more week,” Marley offered encouragingly. “It’s the View after Boston and then he’s home.”
“And filming starts again,” Sam countered, glaring at Artie like he could do something about it.
Kitty raised her bottle of water as if toasting. “To success,” she said dryly.
Sam tossed one of the couch pillows at her.
********************
“So you’ve been busy,” Sherri Shephard said. “I hear we’re your last stop before ‘Spring Awakening’ premiers on April 23rd.”
Blaine Anderson, wearing a tight pair of khakis and a red cardigan, nods along. “Yes, last stop. Then I go back to filming ‘Stardom’. I’ve been pretty busy. I think busier than I have ever been, including my senior year in high school when I was in 23 clubs.”
“Twenty-three clubs,” Jenny McCarthy repeats. “Did you sleep?”
“Well I didn’t go to every meeting of every club,” Anderson insisted. He shrugs, offering a smile. “And I’m an avid coffee drinker. Which considering how much of high school I spent in coffee shops may explain the height,” he gestures down to himself.
Jenny and Sherry laugh while Whoopi Goldberg makes him stand up. “Jenny stand next to him,” she directs.
“Oh, that’s not fair,” Jenny tells her, standing anyway. “These are like four inch heels.” Anderson and Jenny stand side by side. He looks pointedly at her shoes as she towers over him. Everyone gets a laugh out of it.
“Okay, okay,” Sherri motions for them to sit. “We’re supposed to be talking about Blaine’s new movie.” The two sit and Sherri shifts to face Anderson better. “So in ‘Spring Awakening’ you play Moritz, the nervous and troubled best friend of the male lead Melchoir. Can you tell us what drew you to this project? To the character?”
“Well, I love the musical. It takes this story from the late 1800s that somehow can still ring true and modernizes it only through the music. So we’re playing teenagers from over one hundred years ago while rocking out to a modern score. The juxtaposition is just a lot of fun,” Anderson pauses. “As for Moritz, I think it was his songs that really drew him to me. Just the sheer amount of emotion and power in his solos always hit me.”
“I understand before you left to do Stardom, you were training for musical theater,” Jenny states.
“It was nice to kind of get back to my roots,” Anderson admits. “Admittedly without the stage. It’s a whole different thing to just break out into song on set as if that is something that just happens in real life as opposed to singing on set in fake recording studios or concert scenarios. Actually it reminded me of glee club, only I got to do the same performances take after take.”
“There were reports when you were filming that the director got a real kick out of you,” Whoopi puts in. “That they gave you a space that you were allowed to operate in without screwing up shots and just let you go with it.”
Anderson looks a little embarrassed. “There may have been a lot of furniture jumping. Which I’m sure all my friends will absolutely love to point out to me incessantly.”
Sherri looks down at her notes real quick. “Is it very different from doing TV?”
“In a lot of ways it is so similar, especially because I’ve chosen projects that involve a lot of music. Filming, recording, performing as if I’m on stage. But it’s really the time line that’s different. For TV, you really only have maybe two weeks to film 45 minutes worth of material. You have more time for movies. That being said, we really were on a tight schedule for my scenes to get me back in time to start filming the next season of Stardom.”
“Are you looking forward to going back to your regular filming?” Whoopi asks.
“Not to sound like a sap but I can’t wait to go back to LA. It’s hard being away from friends, significant others. Filming ‘Stardom’ at this point is home, so is LA,” Anderson tells her.
“Significant others, huh?” Jenny leans forward. “Like one Sam Evans. Your model boyfriend.”
Anderson laughs. “Yeah, I can’t wait to get home. He was on location for one month before I left so it’s been a while since we’ve seen each other. I think it’s the most time a part we’ve spent since before we became friends 5 or 6 years ago.”
“You both have very busy careers,” Sherri points out. “Does it make a relationship hard?”
“I don’t think it makes the relationship hard. Not exactly,” Anderson says. “I mean I’ve done long distance before, temporarily, and it was hard. But Sam and I—I’m not really worried about our relationship. Our biggest road bump was right before we got together and we weren’t communicating right. So it’s not the relationship that is hard, it’s the missing him and not seeing him. I don’t even know if that makes sense. I know when I see him tomorrow nothing will have suffered but it’s hard being a part from him for so long.”
Whoopi peers at him. “I think that’s the least eloquent I have ever heard you.” Anderson looks down as if embarrassed. “It’s a little endearing.”
“It’s a lot endearing,” Jenny insists. “Look at that adorable smile. How do you end up playing these sad or troubled characters anyway?”
Anderson seems glad to move on past his bumbling. “Everyone has their sad and troubled times. As an actor you just have to tap into that. You have to tap into your miserable times at your happiest and your happy times at your most miserable. But it’s already there.”
“Can we talk a little bit about that interview Sam gave that came out yesterday?” Whoopi asks. “He says a lot about his experience at coming to terms with being bisexual and suggests it’s what made it so difficult for you two in the beginning. There’s been some backlash and we’ve had a lot of fans asking us to bring it up with you.”
“I think it was a good interview,” Anderson shrugs. “I know some people haven’t reacted great to it but as someone who knows Sam, any slights they think he made weren’t actually there. And can people really pretend there isn’t this stigma specifically targeted at bisexuals? I mean this isn’t the time or place for me to go into it, but it’s there.”
“It looks like we’re out of time anyway,” Whoopi nods. She turns to face the cameras. “Blaine Anderson everyone. Stardom appears on NBC Thursdays at 9 and Spring Awakening will be hitting theaters April 23rd.”
****************************
OL = Interviewer; SE = Sam Evans
OL: Thank you for doing the interview with us. We’ve been trying to get you on our pages for a while.
SE: Yeah, no problem man. Finally worked up my nerve for the questions I know you’re going to ask.
OL: The bisexual ones? Or the Blaine Anderson ones?
SE: The bisexual ones.
OL: Well, let’s get started again. I guess the best place to start is, when did you realize you were bisexual?
SE: It wasn’t so much a realization, like a light bulb moment, you know? I always appreciated other guys’ looks and I might have even crushed on a few when I was younger, but back then it was easy to think of it as like a man crush or something. I spent most of high school with or chasing after girls anyway. My first year in New York though, I hooked up with a guy, while drunk. I barely remember it but the morning after the guy kind of advised me to figure it out. Lots of thinking and steadily more sober hook-ups later and I figured bi was the only explanation. Because I definitely liked girls and I kept finding myself sleeping with guys. That sounds terrible, I know. But that’s how I figured it out.
OL: Even back then you and Blaine were close?
SE: [nods] Sure. Best friends. Which is funny because there was a point where I figured I couldn’t be into dudes because if I wasn’t into Blaine, I clearly had to be straight. Back in high school, when he had a crush on me I even turned him down gently. Didn’t even consider acting on anything. And that was the last time he was single anyway. He was engaged for like three and a half years.
OL: You look like there is a but there…
SE: Maybe I touched Blaine more than necessary starting those days. Not like bad touch but you know arm around the shoulder, shoving each other around. I didn’t exactly do that with other guys. And my friends are convinced I was into Blaine back in our New York days because of all these signs. I don’t know. I can’t even pinpoint when I fell for him. Just one day in LA our friend Kitty told me I was and I realized much to my shock that I was.
OL: You’re on record as trying to keep your bisexuality to yourself, even from your friends. Can you talk a little about that?
SE: You mean my reasons? I don’t know. I was so mixed up in my own head. I kept thinking about all those things that are said about bi guys or girls and I was convinced that was what my friends were going to think.
OL: But you had some gay friends…
SE: And they were the ones I had heard say some not so great things about the whole thing. I mean we never really talked about it later on when I came out but they’ve never treated me any differently. I guess sometimes words are just words or it’s different when it’s one of your friends. I don’t know.
OL: Was Blaine one of those people who said something?
SE: No, no. Definitely not. Except we had never really talked either way about it and I was a little paranoid about it. And when he accidentally told me that he knew, he made it clear that no one gets to tell me how I feel.
OL: Is that when you got together?
SE: No. I think at that point Blaine was still engaged. Actually, yeah, it was. But even after he was single, things didn’t magically happen because Blaine said bi is okay. Even when you have people around you supporting you, the world still gets to your head and you think maybe what other people say is true. I had never considered being in a relationship with a guy. I figured I could just make sure I ended up with a girl and maybe my feelings for Blaine would pass. I’d even get annoyed when my friends tried to include me in their queer identity circle thing—even Blaine. Because I never felt like that was me. I know it’s weird.
OL: So you don’t think of yourself as LGB?
SE: It’s still a little bit of a weird association for me because I look at Blaine or my other gay friends, even my transgendered friend and I feel like I don’t have that same experience as them. The same issues. But maybe everyone’s experience really is different. That’s what Blaine says anyway.
OL: With all this inner turmoil, how did the two of you ever even end up together? It sounds like you never intended to let yourself be in a relationship with a guy.
SE: Blaine was always different. I always thought that. If there was one guy, it would be Blaine. Though now that I’m in a relationship with a guy, even if it is Blaine, I don’t know why I was so scared.
OL: But how did you get together?
SE: Even though Blaine told me I can answer the question I was hoping not to. I don’t want people to look at Blaine any differently. Not that they should, but people are weird. [Sighs. Bites his lips and pauses] Blaine and I were hooking up for a while before we became serious. It wasn’t long after his engagement ended. He didn’t have any romantic feelings for me because he was still in love with his ex. He didn’t know I was into him either but we knew we were best friends and we were totally hot for each other. From there? The problem with being with your best friend like that is you talk about your insecurities but you are also trying to hide that you’re into them. So he saw all of my bi freak outs and not wanting to be with a guy. Except I never told him it was him I wanted to be with. Anyway, Blaine was just working up the courage to say something to me about getting serious when a whole lot of misunderstanding happened. I hurt him. He hurt me. It was a disaster. But somehow through the meddling of all of our friends, and even Blaine’s ex we worked it out. Cleared the air.
OL: Wow, that is not a romantic story.
SE: Not really, no. But since then? God I love every minute of it. I mean Blaine was a little too much with trying not to rush things and let the relationship take a normal trajectory, or whatever he meant about that. The thing is though we’ve been best friends since we were seventeen. We lived together since we graduated high school. There was no moving in together step in our relationship. Blaine being the weird guy he is just made me keep a separate room that I never used.
OL: How do you think the public has reacted?
SE: Some people seem to be like really invested in our relationship which is a little weird, but I guess nice? I know some people think he should be with Jesse but considering Jesse’s straight, I think they might have to take that up with Jesse.
OL: How about in regards to your sexuality?
SE: I mean there have been some really supportive comments. Maybe a little too supportive. Seriously, I may just kill Artie the next time he shows me something like that. Then there are the people who just want me to admit I’m gay. Like I’m in a relationship with a guy, that makes me gay. But then what was I when I was dating me ex-girlfriends? Straight? In denial? Then there are people that think I’m going to get tired of Blaine or something. So many people have an opinion about me without knowing me. It’s just weird.
OL: How are you dealing with that?
SE: [shrugs] Most days I brush it off. Sometimes I get upset and Blaine talks me down. Some days Blaine gets really upset and I have to calm him down. It’s kind of funnier when everyone is getting upset on our behalf and we’re both all calm and Artie or Kitty just looks at us suspiciously and decides we’ve been screwing or something…can I say screwing? But I think most of the time we don’t even pay attention.
OL: Because your friends have been so accepting? At least that’s what it seems like.
SE: A lot of my friends apparently already knew I was bi, some guessed about Blaine. But a lot of friends I hadn’t seen in a while were kind of surprised about the bi thing. Even more of them were surprised about me and Blaine. It’s funny because Blam has been a thing for so long but those of us that haven’t been around us a lot since we were like juniors...well for some of them it just didn’t compute. All my exes, once they knew I was like okay or whatever, were okay about it. Blaine’s ex…well they almost got married. He’s okay with it but there are still moments.
OL: You haven’t really spoken about your family in all this.
SE: Part of me didn’t want to talk about it. I mean they gave me permission but I don’t want anyone to…okay. Well my dad was okay with it. He asked to make sure I wasn’t just gay but he kind of rolled with it. My mom struggled. Besides dealing with myself, that was the hardest. She tried but at one point or another I’ve heard almost anything someone can say about bi people from her. She always taught me to be accepting and it threw me when she wasn’t as accepting as I thought. Like, Blaine calls it casual homophobia. He says prejudice is just ignorance. I think that’s kind of what’s the word? Ide…when someone sees the best?
OL: Idealistic?
SE: Yeah, idealistic. But for my mom? Yeah, it kind of was. And she came around. She kind of educated herself and talked to Blaine about it.
OL: Blaine Anderson gay counselor?
SE: Blaine likes to help [rolls his eyes]. Seriously, he likes to play mentor. I think he tried it with me. Anyway it helped so whatever. Things are pretty good these days. Not perfect but we’re working on it. I mean Blaine comes to all the holidays now.
OL: You have younger siblings too? How did it go with them?
SE: I don’t even think my sister thought it was any big deal. She was just excited I was dating Blaine.
OL: She didn’t find your sexuality confusing?
SE: She’s been sneaking in episodes of ‘Stardom’ for a while. Representation does wonders, huh? My brother is a little older so I had to explain things to him. But once I did he couldn’t care less. At least that’s what I thought. I think he actually liked that I was dating Blaine? Like he preferred that over Blaine being my best friend. I don’t know if I get it.
OL: What did you mean that’s what you thought though? He wasn’t as accepting as you thought?
SE: It wasn’t him. The last thing you want, especially as an older brother, is for your brother to have to deal with your s***. And he’s that age where kids are bullies. Kids have said stuff to him, picked on him as if me being bi has something to do with him. There’s been a few fights.
OL: Does he blame you?
SE: No. But I blame me. I think after everything that happened with my mom, that’s the worst thing. Because I’m not just bi, my boyfriend is famous so everyone knows everything. Or at least they think they do. So nothing is really private anymore.
OL: You did that reality show. Privacy couldn’t be that big of an issue for you.
SE: Well, we had rules. We weren’t doing multiple seasons and a shut door meant no cameras. So yeah we did a reality show because, well, we kind of grew up on them right? It was hard to resist. But we kept those boundaries.
OL: Still, the show revealed some private things. And you signed on for it.
SE: I guess we did. And we got some crap for it at times. But I don’t know. Was it embarrassing looking back on it to have cameras catch me trying to lose weight for a gig by not eating enough and working out too much? Definitely. But watching it kind of showed me how messed up it was. Maybe other people saw it too and will get help.
OL: Blaine didn’t handle it too well, did he? Just walking out.
SE: [scoffs] That’s what everyone focuses on. Not him coming back a couple of hours later, calmer and ready to deal.
OL: Do you think you’ll do another reality show?
SE: Right now, probably not. Everyone’s already always watching. I don’t need it in my own home. But who knows what I’ll think later on.
OL: Well, thanks for the interview. It’s been enlightening.
SE: Yeah, no problem. Hopefully it clears the air and, you know, maybe helps someone like me. You never know.
***********************
Sam fiddled with the sign as he checked the crowd coming from baggage, hoping to spot Blaine. He wasn’t the only one. There were a few guys with cameras off to the side, but so far they were minding their own business. Hopefully this batch would just take pictures from afar.
Finally, he spotted Blaine. Resisting the urge to wave, he stood up straight, holding his sign very seriously and watching as Blaine looked for him. He could tell the moment Blaine’s eyes landed on him because his face broke out in a grin and he sped up his walk.
Blaine came to a stop in front of him, rocking for a moment on the balls of his feet as he read the sign. “Nighbird, huh?” Blaine asked, smiling wider.
“Well, I can’t put Blaine Anderson now can I?” Sam teased.
“I think I recognize my own boyfriend,” Blaine pushed the sign out of the way, stepping closer.
“There are cameras,” Sam pointed out, nodding towards the paparazzi without tearing his eyes from Blaine. Two months.
“Not caring,” Blaine pulled Sam down into a soft kiss. It wasn’t passionate or crazy. It didn’t communicate the two months of missing each other. But it was short, sweet, and comfortable. Passion would come later. When the cameras weren’t watching.
“So I took the next month off,” Sam offered casually, grabbing Blaine’s carry on so that he only had the one luggage. Blaine took his other hand and they started through the airport, Blaine offering the cameras one little smile before turning to face Sam.
“I still have shooting,” Blaine told him, but his eyes seemed interested.
“I can hang out on set. Like the old days,” Sam shrugged.
Blaine rolled his eyes. “The old days? You know you don’t have to right?”
“Sure. But you’re taking a break for the summer hiatus. So we’re even. Plus I always miss you more than I miss work.”
Blaine laughed. “I’d hope so. Otherwise I’d worry about what you got up to at work.”
“God, I missed you,” Sam said.
“Yeah, me too,” Blaine smiled, pulling him along and towards the car Sam had waiting. “But we have the next month, don’t we?”