Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Kurt was standing at the steps in front of the Arts building at NYU, waiting for Adam to come out so they could go to lunch. The campus was abuz with students. Adam told him that the school was in the midst of getting ready for their last half of the summer semester, which is when a lot of incoming freshman come to start classes early or come for orientation. As a graduate student, he’d graduated from NYADA in the spring, Adam is required to teach at least one lower level class in the summer and two each semester.
Kurt watched the students go by him, almost wishing Santana was there so he’d have someone to listen to his commentary on the requisite hipster beanies he’s seen on several heads, even in the heat of summer. He gives Adam a hard enough time about it, he doesn’t need to harass perfect strangers about it too, he’s proud that he’s managed to restrain himself. He has been standing there for a few minutes when he hears a familiar voice from his left, trying to get his attention.
“Kurt?”
Kurt turned at his name and the familiar voice.
“Sebastian.”
He saw Sebastian slow as he got closer and Kurt studied him, sizing up this person that knew but at the same time he hadn’t known him at all. Not really. But who’d had more of an impact on his life than he really liked to think about. He was leaner than Kurt remembered, and lacking the popped collar he’d worn the only time Kurt saw him out of his Dalton uniform. He wore tight fitting, but not skinny, designer jeans. A messenger bag was strapped across his chest, the bag resting loosely at his back. Under the bag’s strap, Kurt could see a light blue button down, untucked, sleeves rolled up to his elbows and worn over a dark blue tshirt. The top few buttons were undone and Kurt could see Sebastian’s undershirt probably wasn’t an undershirt at all, it had fading writing on it from too many washings. Kurt couldn’t tell what it said, but it looked like a band shirt and was obviously well worn. He had black framed, round glasses on his face, a look so far away from his frat boy look that Kurt had just assumed was his normal attire. The familiar smirk was firmly in place as he noticed Kurt’s deliberate perusal.
“What are you doing here, Kurt? Don’t you go to NYADA or something?”
“What am I doing here? What are you doing here? And yes. I do go to NYADA. How did you…? You know what, never mind.” Kurt shook his head and waived his hand in front of his face, batting away the question.
Sebastian’s smile only widened, no doubt, Kurt thought, at the pleasure of catching Kurt off guard and out of sorts.
“I go here. Or, I’m starting this fall. I’m here for orientation and I’ve been in New York this summer, working for a family friend at his law firm. As I’m sure you know, NYU is a top school and Smythes are always on top.”
Kurt rolled his eyes and was ready to offer a quick scoff and response, but he felt a hand at his elbow.
“Hey, Kurt. Sorry I’m late. Got held up. Who’s your friend?” Adam asked.
“Oh, Adam. That’s okay. Ugh, this is Sebastian. Smythe. He, I, we, um I knew Sebastian in high school?” He gestured between the two. “Sebastian, this is my friend, Adam.”
“Right, then. Lovely to meet you.”
“Ah, you too. Kurt’s friend Adam.”
“Well, ex-boyfriend Adam. But who wants to argue semantics. We’d better go Kurt, if we’re going to go to lunch.”
Adam turned to smile over at Kurt, who he saw was still gazing over at Sebastian with obvious interest, but that was clouded with apprehension.
“Right. Well, I’ll see you Sebastian.” Sebastian nodded as Kurt did a half-wave and allowed Adam to steer him away by his elbow. He briefly turned back to see Sebastian still standing there, staring after him, arm lifted to run his fingers through his hair, and quickly turned back.
He could feel Adam looking at him and turned to see a teasing smile on Adam’s face.
“So, ‘he, I, we knew each other in high school’, huh?”
“Shut up.”
Adam laughed, “No, come on, Kurt. He’s obviously someone you have a history with. You deliberately refrained from calling him a friend, and yet you seemed awfully familiar with him and he with you. So, come on. Spill.”
“It isn’t really that much of a history. He went to Dalton, I told you I went there briefly. Blaine met him when he went back to invite some of the Warblers to our play. I saw him a few more times after that, including the Glee club competition, and that’s it.”
There was obviously more to the story, but Adam let it go for the time being. If there was one thing he learned from their brief relationship, it’s that nothing can get Kurt to talk when he doesn’t want to. And obviously, whoever this Sebastian fellow was to Kurt, Kurt wasn’t ready to talk about it.

Chapter Text

A week later Kurt was at the coffee shop near the LIM campus, after his first day of classes. Just one day and he’s already got so much to think about. His morning class was intense. Three hours of foundations of fashion styling, something he thought would be relatively simple. It’s a foundations class, after all, and he’s been working at Vogue.com for months now. He has been sitting in on meetings and helping to come up with concepts and ideas when Isabelle lets him. Not to mention his own wardrobe creation. But this is a lot more intense than he had anticipated. And his afternoon class was even harder, Public Relations for the Fashion Industry. He knew these classes would be hard, especially since he is a non-fashion major taking these classes, but the next two weeks were going to be tough. And then the two weeks after that, who knew what those classes will be like.
He’s glad that Isabelle is allowing him to come in after his classes are over for the next four weeks. The editorial staff never leaves until late anyways, so there is always something that needs to be done. Luckily after being there for more than eight months, Isabelle was able to turn his internship into a paid position. It’s entry level, of course, basically doing the same things he was doing as an intern, but now he is getting paid a little more for it. Not a lot, mind you, but it is in one of the fields his is interested in, and at least he doesn’t have to work at the diner like Santana or at the campus bookstore like he was planning to. And since he is a paid employee now, vogue is paying for his fashion classes for the next four weeks as part of their grant and education program. Since they are fashion related they are covered. He is so grateful, because he doesn’t know that he would have been able to afford it otherwise.
He looks around the coffee shop and sees it’s starting to get busy, realizing this must be an afternoon rush. He’ll have to remember that if he ever gets out of class late. Luckily Isabelle is letting him take today off so he can get situated after his classes, figure out his commute and his work load. So he can let her know if there needs to be an adjustment in his schedule. He sees surprisingly few of his classmates or other fashion students in the coffee shop, he wonders if he missed the memo about where all they all hang out. No matter. He’s got a large latte, add the whip cream thank you, its been a stressful day, and a tasty, warmed up turkey sandwich.
He’s pouring over the materials he got in class and the extra book that was recommended, working through his ideas for the mock fashion event he was going to have to conceptualize and plan and ‘promote’ for his public relations class. The coffee shop had some alt rock playing through the speakers, not usually his kind of music, but it was growing on him. This song had a harder, faster beat to it that was really getting his brain juices flowing. He was thinking about seeing if the ambient noise would be too much for the app on his phone to be able to pick out what song was playing when he saw someone approaching his table out of the corner of his eye. Looking up he was less surprised than he thought he should be, to see Sebastian’s smirking face as he was walking toward Kurt. The jeans are tighter today, and the tshirt, fitted and again, well worn. Kurt could see the dark brown, and again, expensive, designer belt where his tshirt had ridden up.
“Hey, Kurt. I wouldn’t think this would be your scene. Shouldn’t you be at the cafe around the corner where all the anorexic fashion people go to pretend they’re eating something?”
“You’re disgusting, Sebastian. Just as horrible as ever, I see. And no. I don’t know, actually. I don’t know any other places around here. This is the first place I found when I got out of class. There should have been a sign posted, ‘Smirky, meerkat, douches frequent here. Enter at your own risk’”
“Oh, there’s the Kurt we know and love. Still as feisty as ever I see. Simmer down. Anyway, I was only joking about the anorexic fashion majors. Mostly.” He shrugged his shoulders a bit and put his drink down on the table. Putting his bag in the extra chair and sitting down across from Kurt. He reached out to snatch the books Kurt had sitting at his elbow.
Kurt leaned forward to try to grab them back, but he wasn’t quick enough as Sebastian lifted them out of Kurt’s reach.
“The PR Courture Guide to Breaking Into Fashion, The Fashion Book, and The Sartorialist.” He read the titles out loud and then frowned down at the books and looked back up at Kurt. “What the hell is a Sartorialist? What’s with the fashion books, Kurt? Don’t you go to school for musical theatre or some crap like that?”
“Give them back, Sebastian. Seriously, don’t you have anything better to do with your day than to harass me?”
Sebastian set the books back down on the table. “That hurts my feelings, Kurt. I’m not harassing you. I merely catching up with an old high school friend I haven’t seen in a year. Well, except for last week.” He had his hand on his chest and an expression of feigned hurt on his face. He couldn’t hold it for very long, it quickly evolved into the mocking smirk that Kurt was beginning to think was Sebastian’s default expression.
“No, but really. What is a sartorialist? And whats with the fashion PR books?”
“Ugh, whatever. Yes, I am at NYADA for musical theatre, but I have a job at vogue and I’m doing a four week intensive program this summer at LIM college, it’s a fashion merchandising school. What are you doing here anyway? You go to NYU, that’s more than twenty blocks away.”
“There’s such a thing as a fashion intensive program? Huh. Yeah, I go to NYU but I’m interning at the office of one of my Dad’s friends and his office is only two blocks away. And I live in an apartment in midtown.”
“You’re a college student, how in the hell can you afford that?”
“I don’t, my dad pays for it. But it’s only for the summer. I’ve got an apartment lined up closer to campus for when the semester officially starts that I’m going to share with Hunter. This one is my family’s apartment. Kinda sucks, it’s far away from the college and away from all the action, but at least I don’t have to deal with the dorms. And at least I’ll know my future roommate and I won’t get stuck with some random weirdo, so there’s that. Why? Where do you live? Are there crazy, dramatic sing offs in the bathrooms at the NYADA dorms?”
“I wouldn’t know. I don’t live in the dorms. I live in Bushwhack with Rachel and Santana.”
“That’s, seriously? Is that safe?”
“It’s affordable. I’ll say that.”
“You live with Rachel and Santana? Rachel’s the Streisand wannabe, right? I definitely remember who Santana is.”
“Yeah, that’s Rachel. You remember Santana, huh? I guess one doesn’t forget a threat to go all Lima Heights, huh?”
Laughing, Sebastian said, “No, I guess not.”
“Well, as enlightening as this has been Sebastian, I’ve got to go. Dinner at the loft with the girls and Adam. So.”
“You’re really going to leave me hanging?”
“What?”
“No, really. What is a Sartorialist? What does it have to do with fashion?”
“Oh.” Kurt laughed. “That’s literally what sartorial means, Sebastian, of or relating to fashion and the tailoring of clothing. You could have found that in the dictionary. This is a book of fashion, street fashion and the fashion of actual people. He has a blog too.”
“Right. Yeah, that’s definitely not a blog I’ll be checking out. Well, go have dinner with your Adam and your girls. Don’t want to keep you.”
Standing, Kurt stuffed his books into his bag and slung it over his shoulder. “I’ll see you, Sebastian.”
Sebastian lifted his hand in a half wave and was already digging not his pocket for his cell phone. Kurt pushed open the door of the coffee shop, shaking his head slightly as he headed up the street towards the subway stop.

Chapter Text

A few hours later, Kurt was in his apartment laughing and drinking a glass of wine from a bottle that Adam had picked up on the way over. The girls were laughing at something Adam had just said. He has no idea what though, as he’d lost the thread of the conversation a few minutes ago. He noticed Adam looking with a curious expression on his face. 

“You’re noticeably quiet, Kurt. Did something happen today? Nothing happened after your classes today before you came home?”

“No, nothing happened. I stopped and got a coffee and a half  of a sandwich at a coffee shop and studied for awhile before I came home. That’s it.”

“Oh, really. Right then. So you didn’t run into that cute fellow from the other day again?” Grinning, Adam lifted his glass and took a sip of wine.

“What? You met a cute guy, Kurt, and you didn’t tell me?”

“Yeah, lady Hummel, are you holding out on us?”

“Oh, Kurt didn’t just meet him the other day. We ran into him that day, but Kurt said he knew him in high school. Sebastian something.”

Kurt glared daggers at Adam over the top of his glass and winced at the shriek Rachel let out.

“What? Sebastian? Does he mean Sebastian Smythe?”

“You ran into prepschool and you didn’t tell us?”

“Yes, it was Sebastian Smythe. It’s not a big deal. I saw him, or more accurately he saw me at the NYU campus last week when I was there to meet Adam for lunch. Look, it doesn’t even matter. We talked for less than five minutes, if you want to call snarking talking, and then Adam came up to us and we left. Nothing crazy happened.” Kurt sighed and gulped down the rest of his wine.

“Are you planning to see him again?” Adam asked.

“No. I told you, he is someone I knew in high school and not even very well, I might add. Before last week, the last time I’d seen him was at regionals senior year. I never saw him any of the times I went back to Lima, not even a Lima Bean sighting. This is a big city. It is highly unlikely that I’ll run into him again.”

“You know, Kurt, if I keep running into you on the NYU campus I’m going to start believing you’re stalking me. This is the second time this week.”

Kurt turned from where is was leaning against a pillar in the theatre building, to see Sebastian standing behind him, one hand clutching the strap across his chest, the other casually resting in his right pocket. Kurt eyes narrowed.

“If anyone is stalking anyone, Sebastian, it would be you. This is the arts building. Shouldn’t you be in one of the buildings across campus with the other humorless business majors or wannabe lawyers, losing whats left of your humanity?”

“Ouch, Kurt. That really hurts me. Here.” He says, flattening his left hand against his chest in feigned hurt.

“What, you’re hurt that I said you were losing your humanity? I thought we’d already established that there isn’t much left to lose?”

“No, I don’t care about that. I’m hurt that you think I’m humorless. Clearly I’m more funny than you. You’re only funny because your clothes are ridiculously hilarious.”

“Oh, with the fashion insults. I’m so hurt by that, you have no idea. You really need to get a new line Sebastian. That one’s not working for you anymore. Well, not that it ever did. Puerto Rican Pride float? Really?”

“I’m touched you remember. It’s so nice to know our talks mean that much to you.” Sebastian smirks at Kurt, a little too proud of his own sense of humor.

Kurt rolls his eyes. “Seriously, don’t you have anywhere else you’re supposed to be?”

“Nope. I’m right where I’m supposed to be. Hunter has a meeting with his advisor, whose office is in the building next to this one. I told him I’d wait here for him since it is air conditioned and has a nice cushy seating area,” he says, pointing behind him. There’s an area of couches and chairs off to the side of the main great room. Kurt can see a couple of students sitting with laptops resting on crossed legs and earbuds plugged in.

“Hunter. Why does that name sound familiar? Did he go to Dalton?”

“Yep. But after you graduated. Blaine probably mentioned him.”

“Oh, right. I think Sam told me something about that. How he tried to get Blaine to go back to Dalton last fall. And something about steroids, but I don’t really remember.”

“Yeah, well. We all make stupid mistakes. He used to go to military school. I think that messed him up for awhile.” He winces, like he’s afraid he said too much and Kurt gives him a small smile. Hoping it conveys whatever it needs to to tell Sebastian he won’t say anything. Kurt, more than anyone, knows that some school experiences can leave such deep wounds that you’re still dealing with the messy clean up for months, or even years, later.

“What about you? At least I go to this school, shouldn’t you be out searching for the perfect fabric swatch with all the other calorie deprived Tim Gunn wannabes?”

“Nope. I did that at lunch.” Sebastian barked out a surprised laugh in response. “I’m waiting for Adam to finish teaching his class. He’s going with me to a vogue.com event.”

Sebastian crossed his arms and smirked at Kurt, going into that overly relaxed lean he seems to like and Kurt remembers from their run-ins at the Lima Bean. But before he could say anything, Sebastian seems to notice something behind Kurt, just as Kurt noticed a cute guy coming through the side door and started sauntering their way. The guy’s smile seemed to widen as he got closer looking at Kurt from around Sebastian’s shoulder. He’s tall, almost as tall as Sebastian. Muscular, and his neat, well pressed clothes did nothing to hide the fact that his body is well taken care of. Kurt is a little envious, if he’s being completely honest with himself. Despite Sebastian’s claims to the contrary, he isn’t anything close to calorie deprived. Actually, his love of all things sweet and carb filled, only make him have to work out harder to keep the thin frame he cultivated in high school. When he shot up half a foot before junior year in high school, he lost most of his baby fat. Luckily the dancing and working out in his room and running, on a treadmill of course, kept him in the skinny jeans he loves oh so much. But he is never going to be one of those naturally athletically built guys like Sebastian and Adam and even Mike Chang. Guys who lifted weights and played sports and didn’t really have to think about things like calories or watching their figure. He was a chubby kid growing up and he didn’t want to go back to that. He didn’t deprive himself, but he ate smartly so he could indulge when he needed to and worked off the rest. He knew Sebastian played lacrosse in high school, and Adam told him he played rugby, whatever that is. And judging from the muscular arms, and lean, athletic frame of the guy coming his way that he presumed is Hunter, he definitely plays sports or works out in some way. The military school probably made him do some sort of PT like they do in the actual military. The slinky walk he has is clearly something he takes pride in. It’s more of a strut, really. Confident, no hesitation in his steps at all. Like a model walking down a runway, showing all of his best assets off.

Sebastian noticed Kurt looking over his shoulder and turned to see what had captured Kurt’s attention.

“Hey, man. Now I see why you wanted to meet in this building.” He looked at Sebastian with a grin on his face. He held his hand out to Kurt once he reached them. “Hunter. You must be Kurt.”

Kurt took Hunter’s hand in his, grasping the warm, calloused hand in his briefly before letting go. “Well, I don’t know if I must be Kurt, but nevertheless I am. You’re Sebastian’s friend from school.” It wasn’t so much a question as a confirmation.

Kurt felt a hand on the back of his shoulder as he saw Sebastian stiffen briefly before visibly forcing himself to relax. He turned to his left to smile at Adam and then back to the boys in front of him. He gestured between them. “Adam, Hunter. And you’ve met Sebastian. Hunter also went to Dalton.”

Adam took his hand off Kurt’s shoulder to give a sort of half wave to both guys. “Kurt, don’t we need to go if we’re going to get to the event on time?”

“Right. We should get going. It was nice to meet you, Hunter. Sebastian, pleasure as always.”

“You too.”

“Yes. We wouldn’t want Cinderella to be late to the ball.”

“Princess jokes, Sebastian? Isn’t that beneath even you?” Kurt rolled his eyes. He saw Hunter break into an even bigger smile than before, bringing his hand up to his face as he tried to cover up his laugh with a cough.

Sebastian stood up straighter, accepting the challenge. “Oh, Kurt. I had no idea you were interested in what’s underneath me.”

Kurt rolled his eyes, not even going to dignify that with a response. He and Adam turned and started walking away, Kurt looked back and saw Sebastian watching him walk away, smile widening when he saw Kurt look back at him. Kurt fought to  hold his own smile in as he turned back forward. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Adam watching him with a knowing look on his face.

Chapter Text

A few days later he is back at that same coffee shop, exhausted and inhaling his coffee and hot sandwich before he has to get back to vogue for a few hours of work. Grateful that Isabell is working around his schedule so much that she lets him work on proofs and other things for the website in the evening instead of manning the phones, and attending meetings during the day like he used to. The new intern she’d hired is working out great. He knew the fashion program was going to be hard, but he is working harder than he ever had before. They didn’t call the program an intensive for nothing apparently. This is the last week of this set of classes the next session starts in a week and those are going to be even harder. He had a seminar this morning for his fashion PR class on top of the main assignments he has for the class, and planning and promoting a mock event; luckily for him he has been to fashion events for vogue so he knows a lot about what works and what doesn’t work, but his professors know that he has that experience too and he really needs to blow them away. He wants to impress them not just for himself, but also as a positive reflection on vogue. Isabelle did write him a recommendation after all, and he doesn’t want to disappoint her.

He needs to finish reading the book for his foundations class too, they have a discussion tomorrow and he has a paper due the last class on Friday. He had no idea that he would be writing a paper for a fashion class, but this class is really ore about concepts and discussions than he thought it would be. He had a paper to write on the things they’d been learning in class and he also had to write a paper about the evolution of his personal style, his connections and influences from known fashion icons, and his fashion mission statement, which is the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard. Nevertheless, he was mostly finished with that paper, thank god, because he had a lot of work cut out for him with that other paper and he hadn’t even started it.

Kurt heard a chair scraping nearby and his table rattled a little as someone set their stuff down on it. Kurt looked up from the book he’d been reading to see Sebastian sitting in the chair across from him. There was and iced coffee now sitting on a napkin to Kurt’s left and Sebastian was digging in his bag and pulling out a book and a pad of paper. Sebastian looked up and saw Kurt staring at him and grinned.

“Hey, Kurt.”

“‘Hey, Kurt?’ Really? Look Sebastian, I don’t really have time to go through our witty back and forth today or whatever you were planning, okay? I’ve got a lot of reading to get through, a paper to write, and I’ve got to be at the office later. I know you don’t talk fashion seriously, but this is a lot of work for me,” Kurt could have sworn he saw a flash of hurt on Sebastian’s face before it quickly hid safely away behind his signature smirk that Kurt was so familiar with. He must have been seeing things.

“You ‘don’t have time for our witty back and forth?’ Who talks like that? Look, I’m honestly not here to mess with you. I have to study too, and this place is packed. I’d rather sit with someone that I know than a perfect stranger, okay?”

Kurt looked around the coffee shop and saw that it had really picked up since he first came in. All of the tables were taken and the lone free chair was over in the corner near the bar where people pick up their drinks and the guy sitting at that table that, from where Kurt was sitting at least, seemed to take the concept of personal hygiene as a mere suggestion.

“Yeah, okay. Just don’t bother me and be quiet.”

Sebastian smiled at Kurt before unravelling the earbuds in his hand and plugging them into his phone to start listening to, what Kurt assumed, was some kind of metal or rock music, from what he could hear. Kurt dragged his macbook out of his bag and decided to work on his paper. They worked in a surprisingly companionable silence for close to an hour when Hunter walked into the coffee shop. Kurt saw him walk in the door with a bag over his shoulder and a big grin on his face when he spotted Kurt. Kurt watched him walk over to the counter to get his drink. He looked away and back across the table at Sebastian who was still reading and diligently taking notes. Kurt wondered if he should say anything to Sebastian about Hunter, but before he could decide that Sebastian would find out soon enough, Hunter had made it to their table and was yanking the earbud out of Sebastian’s left ear.

“What the fuck?” Sebastian looked up and saw Hunter grinning back down at him. “What are you doing here, Hunt?”

“Getting a coffee, same as you. Well, not quite the same as you since I didn’t come here for a secret date with Kurt.” Hunter smiled triumphantly at Sebastian’s incredulous expression.

“You’re ridiculous. You know that, right?”

“And yet I don’t hear you denying it.”

“Because it’s so ridiculous it isn’t worth the effort.”

“Whatever. Can I join you? I’ve got shit I need to go over for my meeting tomorrow.”

Kurt looked back and forth between the two friends, trying to figure them out. He decided that would take longer than the time he had here.

“Actually, you can have my seat. I’ve got to get to work, I probably should have left already anyways.”

“Don’t run off on my account. I won’t interfere with whatever you both have going on here,” Hunter said. Looking and smiling in Sebastian’s direction like he had something on him.

“No, really. You aren’t running me off. I really do have to go. Anyways, it was, ugh, nice to see you again?” Kurt stuffed his books into his bag with his macbook and pushed his chair back, making room for Hunter to step around him and take his place. He nodded in Hunter’s direction and he smirked, “See ya, Kurt.”

Kurt turned to his right and looked at the boy he’d just been sitting across from for the past hour or so. “Sebastian.” Sebastian was picking up his earbuds from when Hunter had yanked them out of his ears, getting ready to put them back in. He looked at Kurt for a moment, with an expression Kurt couldn’t read, before giving him his usual smirk and a half wave. “Kurt.”

He hitched his bag further on his shoulder and with one last wave in their general direction he turned and walked to the door of the coffee shop, hearing Hunter exclaim, “Dude” at Sebastian. Kurt didn’t wait to hear what was said in response, he pushed open the glass door in front of him and walked out into the afternoon sunlight. Taking the sunglasses from the outside pocket of his bag, he slipped them on his face and turned towards the vogue offices. Walking down the sidewalk he tried to think of the work ahead of him and was trying not to think about the rough day he’d had at school or the surprisingly relaxing time he’d just spent with Sebastian.

Kurt knew that every time he went into a coffee shop and looked around, he wasn’t just looking for an empty table, he was looking for Sebastian, too. The last couple of times he’d run into Sebastian told him that he spent way too much time at coffee shops drinking coffee and he should probably cut back. Also, they’d been almost exactly like their run-ins at the Lima Bean. But unlike those times, he was no longer uptight about Blaine or trying to mark his territory. And if he was being completely honest with himself, he enjoyed their encounters more than he probably should have, even then. The only other person that goes toe to toe with him like that is Santana. He’s never really had any friends he could truly let his inner bitch out with. His inner diva, yes. Rachel , Mercedes and the others were all about diva behavior and who is better than whom. He could never really just let it all loose, damn the consequences. He was always on edge, always trying to be the perfect diva he’d let them believe he was. Don’t get him wrong, his inner diva was there and thriving, just not as much as the act he put on would lead people to believe. And it also wasn’t like he didn’t keep his guard up with Sebastian, but it was different. It wasn’t preserving his image and friendship like with the others. It was more like he was trying to have the upper hand and it was fun. Back then he was also trying to keep his boyfriend so there was a little more of an edge to it. He didn’t like to think about the Blaine of it all. He realized now that if he felt threatened by Sebastian with Blaine, then there was probably a good reason for it. And that wasn’t really Sebastian’s fault. He hadn’t been the one in the relationship. Not that he thinks anything happened, but he has no doubt in his mind that their texts were anything family friendly like Blaine tried to say they were. But none of that matters now anyway. Blaine still cheated on him, just with a different guy. He lives on the opposite coast now and Kurt is not sure the they’ll ever be friends again or even if he really wants that. And he and Sebastian seem to have something of a truce going. He doesn’t even want to strangle Sebastian with his bare hands when he sees him now. He actually looks forward to running into him. Not that Kurt would ever admit that out loud. 

Looking around he realized that Sebastian wasn’t in the coffee shop and after paying for and picking up his latte, he took a seat by the window. Hoping that he’d be able to concentrate better here than at the school. Kurt doesn’t know what he was thinking, taking all of these fashion classes. The pace is so fast in the condensed format classes. The other students are so intense. He thought theatre majors were intense, but they didn’t have anything on fashion students.

He’d finished his first set of classes with a greater understanding of what it takes to be a fashion student and a respect for the work his fellow students put in. They worked hard and were super competitive, but he’d made a few good friends and if the first day of classes for the second session is any indication, he’s going to need those friends.