Chapter Text
The end of the school day will always be Sam Evans' favorite part of the day.
Even better when it's on a Friday. He doesn't have to worry about school until Monday, and he gets to spend the whole rest of the weekend hanging out with his best friend Blaine Anderson. Sometimes he even gets to sleep over at Blaine's house, but even when he doesn't, they walk over to each other's houses in the morning and spend the whole day together.
Tonight, all they have planned is to go to Blaine's house and watch movies, eat Chinese food, and maybe get a head start on their homework if Blaine can convince him to. But who is he kidding? Blaine can always convince him of anything. Before any of that can happen though, Sam has to tell Blaine about the weird thing that happened after home ec today.
"So, you know how the Sadie Hawkins dance is coming up at the end of the month?" Sam points out as they walk toward the door side by side.
There's a weird beat of hope in Blaine's eyes as he turns to look at Sam. He nods. "Yeah. I think they're making it either casual or semiformal," he explains. "Why?"
"Andrea Cohen asked me to go with her," says Sam, turning to look at Blaine with his brows knit together in confusion. "Which is kinda weird. Like, I didn't think she even knew who I was. She didn't even use my first name. She just came up to me after home ec, and was like 'Hey Evans do you want to go to the dance with me?'"
He raises his voice an octave to sound like a girl, but it sounds pretty stupid. He's still working on his impressions. It manages to get a laugh out of Blaine, though… so he calls it a success.
Blaine looks back at him with his brows raised. "Well, first of all, that's impossible," he replies with a playful smile. "I don't think there's anyone here who doesn't know who you are, Sammy."
Warmth blooms across Sam's cheeks, but he ignores it and adjusts his book bag on his shoulder. "You're just saying that because you're my best friend, Bee."
All Blaine does is shrug as he walks down the final flight of stairs to get to the front doors of West Akron Junior High. "Or I really think it," he replies.
Sam doesn't know how Blaine can always say nice stuff like that, but he really likes it. It makes him feel special. Noticed. Like Blaine really does think he's cool and not just a dork like everyone else says he is.
"I don't really care if the rest of them know who I am," Sam responds. "'Long as you do."
Blaine breathes out quickly. "Same here," he agrees, his voice suddenly a little squeaky. He clears his throat, and when he speaks again, it's back to normal. "As long as you know who I am, the rest of them don't matter."
Butterflies float in Sam's stomach at the sound of Blaine's words. He tries his best to ignore them, but he can't help but smile.
Sam pushes the front doors open. It's getting warmer outside as the end of the school year gets closer, and Sam can't wait for summer vacation. He and Blaine made the plan to spend the whole summer together getting ready for the transition to Carmel High School next year.
All the TV shows and advice columns in magazines Blaine reads say that high school is when friendships start breaking up, but he and Blaine made the promise that they wouldn't. It's a relief. Sam doesn't know how he's expected to survive high school in general. Without Blaine, he thinks it'd be impossible.
He's not as smart as Blaine, and the way Blaine helps him with his homework is the only way that really helps him understand it.
Sometimes Sam gets his letters mixed up, and his numbers and rights and lefts, but Blaine has these little things he uses that make Sam understand better.
He does this thing where he lines words up so that the first letters make another word. He translates Sam's word problems into actual math problems for him and helps him figure out the words to translate them himself. He helps Sam spell better and even helps him with his penmanship.
Sam thinks Blaine is a genius. Or at least the smartest person in their school.
It's not just Sam helping Blaine, either. At least that's what Blaine always says. Sam sticks up for Blaine when people in school push him around for being different, or being gay, or liking music, comics, and dancing better than sports. Blaine likes sports too, Sam knows because he always goes to Sam's basketball games, and he knows enough about basketball to talk to Sam about it and help him practice.
Sam likes sports, but he thinks he might like singing and dancing and comics and playing guitar better too. Even more when he's doing it with Blaine.
And Blaine is a great singer, too.
He and Sam are the male leads of the middle school chorus and the school band, after Jesse St. James graduated and moved on to Carmel High last year. The real star is Blaine, but he always tells Sam not to forget himself too.
Giselle and Andrea are the female leads, but they always talk about how Blaine and Sam have no chance of getting into Vocal Adrenaline as long as Jesse is around. Sam thinks that's total crap. If anyone in this whole stupid school is talented enough to lead, it's Blaine. Next year, Blaine is gonna show them.
It's a big part of Sam's plan to make sure they stay best friends even after junior high. If they're in the same show choir, then there's no chance they'll stop hanging out.
"So, you're gonna go with her, then?" Blaine finally asks, stuffing his hands deep into the pockets of his gray jeans.
Sam shakes his head. "Nah."
It looks like Blaine's hazel eyes are about to pop out of his head. "Why not?" he questions, watching Sam's face closely. "You said you were worried that no one was going to ask you, but Andrea did."
With a shrug, Sam looks ahead as they walk across the playground to take the forest path to get to Blaine's house. "I just don't want to go with Andrea. She's popular and everything, but I don't like her. She's kinda boring, and she talks about the other girls behind their backs too much. And she makes fun of my mouth."
Plus, she's really mean to Blaine.
Sam won't say it, because he doesn't want to make Blaine upset, but he thinks she only invited Sam to hurt Blaine's feelings somehow. Maybe Sam's too. Sam and Blaine spend their time together on school dance nights, at Blaine's house. She probably wanted to make Blaine sad by forcing him to spend the night alone or set Sam up for some kind of prank.
People like Andrea and her friend Giselle see Blaine as a threat because he's such a good singer and dancer, and because he's basically a shoo-in to get onto Vocal Adrenaline next year. They try to cut Blaine down, but Sam just works twice as hard to remind him how cool he is.
If that means not going to a dance with a mean girl? It's the easiest decision Sam's ever had to make.
"Oh. I hate when people make fun of your mouth," Blaine replies, turning his head to look straight ahead.
"It doesn't bother me," Sam insists with a shrug.
Blaine frowns. "It bothers me," he counters. "I like your mouth. It's different. It's you."
Heat floods Sam's cheeks and he turns to look away from Blaine. "Thanks."
"You said you don't like Andrea or Giselle," Blaine reasons. "But we've never really talked about who you do like. I bet I could ask her out for you if you want me to."
Sam bites his lip.
He's been thinking a lot about this lately, but he doesn't know if he can just… say it. There are a lot of girls in their school. He's pretty sure about half the school is made up of girls, and they're all pretty enough. A few of them are nice, and a couple of them aren't boring, but…
If he has to pick a girl that he likes, he doesn't think he can. Everything he's seen about liking girls and getting crushes on them says that he should get fluttery feelings around them. That he should always want to be around them and get jealous when they get attention from other people.
None of the girls he knows really fit that for him. But that doesn't mean no one does. When he thinks about all those things… the only one who comes to mind is—
Sam glances at Blaine.
"Hey, Bee."
"Sammy?"
"Can I tell you a secret?"
Blaine nods, looking up at Sam in concern. He's a lot shorter and a little skinnier than Sam, but sometimes Sam thinks that all his strength comes from his personality. Blaine is the strongest person Sam has ever met.
He stares, like he's trying to memorize every detail on Sam's face. "Yeah, of course," he promises. "You can tell me anything."
Eyes turned to the ground, Sam shrugs as they step onto the forest path that leads past the stream and comes out a block away from Blaine's house. He puts his hands in his pants pockets, fiddling nervously with a wrapped piece of gum in one pocket and his lip balm in the other.
"Can we go to the stream and sit?" Sam pleads, gesturing off the beaten path to where their favorite summer hangout place is.
Nodding, Blaine walks to the edge of the path. "I think that big tree fell down last time it rained," he tells Sam. "So we don't have to sit on the ground this time."
Sam can't help but smile as he and Blaine walk through the woods. He also can't help but feel nervous, because he's never actually told someone he likes them before. He's never actually liked someone before… but this is Blaine. They've been best friends since fifth grade, and they hang out every day.
Blaine likes all his dumb jokes, sneaks him into the Anderson house to stay the night when Stacey won't stop crying and Sam can't sleep, and actually thinks he's cool.
Even if Blaine doesn't like him back, he doesn't think it'll ruin their friendship.
Still, when they get to the riverbank, Sam can hear his heart pounding in his ears. He looks at Blaine, who stands in front of the fallen down tree and pulls his backpack from his shoulders, letting it hang from a sharp spike on the trunk of the tree. Sam approaches the tree and shrugs his backpack onto the ground on the way.
He leaves it there and sits on the tree. Blaine sits a few feet away.
Then, he thinks about all the movies he's seen where people confess a crush. Usually it's a boy confessing a crush on a girl. Is it different when it's a boy confessing to a boy?
Sam glances at Blaine, who watches him with curious eyes. It makes sense. Blaine is pretty curious about everything, so of course he'd be curious when Sam hinted toward who he liked but didn't finish explaining. He turns to look back down at the stream as the water crashes toward the river in the middle of town.
He was so ready to say it a few minutes ago, but now he's scared.
"Are you okay, Sammy?" asks Blaine, snapping Sam from his thoughts.
Sam swallows nervously and forces himself to turn and look at Blaine again. He nods. "Ye-yeah," he stammers. "I'm—I'm okay. I just… I'm a little scared."
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, Sam," Blaine reassures him. "If you're scared—"
Shaking his head quickly, Sam turns to look at his shoes. "No, I have to," he tells Blaine. "I have to tell you."
The moment the words come out, he realizes that they're actually true. He does have to tell Blaine. Blaine, of all people, has to understand what he's going through right now. Blaine was honest about liking boys last year, and Sam was the first person he told.
Actually, maybe Sam is the only person he's told. Sam doesn't even know if he's told his mom and dad yet.
"Have you told your mom and dad about you yet?" Sam creaks out.
Blaine's face screws up in a kinda funny-looking confusion. His eyebrows crinkle and his nose scrunches up, and he turns to look at Sam like he has two heads. "What about me?"
The question makes Sam tense, but he bites down hard on his lip and then forces himself to answer. "That you… like boys."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
"My mom knows, I think. But I haven't told her yet."
"Oh."
"Ye-yeah," Blaine stammers. "Mostly because I don't know how. Plus, I don't think there are any boys around here that like me, so I don't think I have to anyway. All I'd really do is start a fight that doesn't need to start."
"You're wrong," Sam's mouth shoots off without his brain's permission.
Blaine blinks. "Huh?" he mumbles squeakily. "No. My dad's… he's not… my dad isn't really good with stuff like that. Every time he sees a gay guy or girl or anyone in public that shows support for… for that… he gets really grossed out and tries to rush me away like he's afraid it's gonna make me gay. He says all kinds of mean things about them, and—"
Sam flinches and shakes his head. "No, I—I don't mean that," he admits. "You're right about that. Your dad's kinda lame."
A sad smile pulls up the corner of Blaine's lips. "Yeah," he agrees.
"I meant… that no boys like you," Sam confesses. His voice is so quiet that the river almost drowns it out. "That's what you're wrong about."
The funny confused look is back on Blaine's face. He looks at Sam closely and studies his face like he's searching for a hidden meaning in Sam's words. He blinks, then lifts his finger and chews on the tip of his nail without biting it. It's something Sam has seen him do when he's confused or nervous.
He flicks his eyes back to Sam. "You know someone who likes me? A boy?"
Sam nods.
"Who?"
It feels like Sam's stomach is tying itself into actual knots. "We-well… I mean it could be anyone, really. It should be everyone. You're, like… the raddest person in school, Bee. You're smart and cool, and you're really good at singing and dancing and basketball and you're the best piano player I've ever heard. Like, I think you're even better than Miss Corcoran," he rambles. "Everyone should have a crush on you, I think."
When he dares to look at Blaine again, he sees a dark dusting of red on Blaine's cheeks. "O-oh," he whispers. "Thank you."
Sam nods sharply. "It's true, so."
"But… who, though?" Blaine repeats. "If you know a boy who likes me, tell me!"
It feels like Sam's heart is trying to beat out of his chest. His hands feel clammy, and he feels like he can't sit still. He taps his toes on the ground to music he can't hear, his foot making noises on last year's dead leaves on the ground. His fingers tap on his knees, and he tries to make himself talk.
But he's scared.
His nerves make his lips chapped, and he reaches into his pants pocket for his chapstick, which he quickly rubs across his lips. As he smears the balm across his skin, he tries to think of the best way to tell Blaine the truth.
This is one of those things that he can't take back once he says it. What if Blaine is just like, "I like boys, but I don't like you, Sam," and doesn't even want to be Sam's friend anymore? He really doesn't want to lose Blaine, but… if Blaine really does think that no boys in school like him, Sam thinks he needs to know how wrong he is.
So, Sam turns to look at Blaine and tries to smile. He's pretty sure he doesn't succeed.
"It—it's um…" His voice cracks like ice. He clears his throat, trying to dispel the cracks, and turns to look at the stream. "It's me."
Blaine's eyes shoot open and red burns across his freckled face like a coat of spray paint. "Re-really?"
Sam nods quickly, feeling heat burn across his own cheeks. "Uh… ye-yeah," he admits. "I like you."
"As in… like a friend?" Blaine asks, his voice cracking like a pane of glass.
"No." Sam pauses, then nods. "I mean… yeah. You're my friend. You're, like… my best friend and I totally like you like a friend too but I also really, really like you. Like… like-like you. Because you're cool and smart and funny and nice and all that other stuff I said. And you have a nice smile and really nice eyes and I like your curly hair, too. You're basically like… the best person. In the world. Ever."
Blaine stares at Sam like he's just said the craziest thing in the world. "I-I didn't know—" His voice cracks briefly, and he grunts in frustration before he starts trying again. "I-I, um… I didn't know you liked boys…"
Heat floods Sam's face, the nape of his neck, and his spine. "I… I don't think it's boys," he admits, looking down at his shoes. "Or girls or whatever. I think it's just you. I don't… I don't get this, like… feeling with anyone else."
Warmth brushes against the top of Sam's hand, and when he turns his head back to look, he sees Blaine's hand touching his knuckles. His touch is gentle and soft, but rough where his fingers hold his pencil. He looks unsure, like he's worried about whether Sam is okay with it, but Sam quickly turns his hand around and touches their fingertips together.
Then, he slides his fingers in between Blaine's and looks up at Blaine's face with a nervous smile.
Sam starts, "Do you—"
"Yeah!" Blaine replies, his voice rising an octave. He closes his fingers around Sam's hand. "Ye-yeah. I like you too. Like… a lot. I really… I thought I was too obvious about it, actually."
Sam can feel the smile growing on his face. Blaine's palm feels just as sweaty as Sam's own. Was he nervous too? Honestly, Sam finds it hard to imagine him being nervous about anything, but… maybe that's just another thing Sam likes about him. He's so confident all the time, but he's still shy, just like a normal person.
The coolest person, but he's still a person.
"Will you go to the Sadie Hawkins dance with me?" Sam's mouth goes off without his head's permission again. "If you want, we can tell our parents that we're just going without dates because I don't think I want to tell mine either. My mom's also kinda lame about… stuff like this, you know? Like your dad. I don't know about my dad because he's always busy with work so I don't get to see him much, but I bet he's just as bad. So I won't tell them, but we'll still go, and when we get there we can just… be like everyone else."
Blaine smiles with his whole face, and Sam doesn't think he's ever seen anything so… perfect. His curly hair falls down into his eyes from the wild, unruly style he keeps it in, but he looks so happy.
"Like a date?" he asks.
Sam nods. "If you… if you want it to be," he adds.
Nodding so fast it looks like it should make him dizzy, Blaine squeezes Sam's hand and replies, "Yeah! I won't even ask you to dance with me, because I know it's like… people will talk. We can just hang out and—"
"No, I—" Sam shakes his head. "I want to dance with you. If you want to dance with me, I mean. I'm not scared of the jerks in this school."
Right then, Sam thinks that whatever comes their way is worth it as long as he gets to see Blaine smiling like that. He looks so happy, like the human equivalent of the sunlight. He slides closer to Sam on the tree stump, and Sam slides their hands apart to reach out and drape his arm over Blaine's shoulders.
Blaine smiles and rests his head against Sam's shoulder. "I do want to dance with you."
"Does this mean…" Sam starts, but embarrassment gets the better of him and he trails off. "Um—ne-never mind."
"What?" Blaine asks.
Sam's cheeks feel like they're on fire. "Are you my boyfriend?"
With a quiet gasp, Blaine turns to him with hazel eyes wide, "Do—do you want me to be?"
All Sam can manage in reply is a nod. He presses his balm-slicked lips together, then dares himself to turn and look back at Blaine with a hopeful smile.
"Then… yeah. I want to be, too," Blaine replies.
Sam smiles brightly. "Cool." He takes Blaine's hand in his again, then meets his eyes and asks, "Want to go to the arcade? We should probably get our first date out of the way before the dance, so we're less nervous when the dance comes, right?"
Nodding excitedly, Blaine reaches for his backpack where it hangs on the tree. "Yeah! I think they got the DDR machines fixed, so we should see if we can beat our high score!"
"We totally can," Sam agrees.
They stand up together, and Sam notices that neither of them has let go of each other's hand. That's totally fine with Sam. If he has his way, he'll never let go of Blaine's hand as long as they're both alive.
For now though… he won't let go until Blaine wants him to.