YEARS {Glee/Klaine} ✓

Chapter Twenty Six

Blaine

The way my lips spread into the cold, weak smile felt horribly fake; I almost couldn't manage it long enough for Burt to pull out of my driveway in the familiar old red truck and roll down the street with his friendly wave. But even if he had seen me falter on the very last moment before driving around the corner of the street, I no longer had any reason to keep it together anymore.

I released a long, shaky breath before reaching a hand down to grasp my suite case's handle. Dragging it behind me to the front porch now felt like I was close to collapsing underneath the weight of a thousand pounds.

The house was silent, as I could tell by standing on the other side and peering into the door's embellished glass window. It had dawned on me that Mom had notified me earlier this week that Dad had needed to escape to a business trip to some coastal city, and she had just felt the desire to tag along for the next few days. What was left was just an empty home.

Once I had let myself into the house, it took a few more deep breaths to feel the motivation to do much else. I wasn't ready to unpack the suite case up in my room, but I did go into the kitchen to get myself a glass of water that I soon brought into the downstairs bathroom.

I reached into the medicine cabinet and grabbed the aspirin. It was not a prescription by any means, but I had a pounding headache that the small dose could help. When I looked into the mirror, I wasn't pleased. There were dark circles under my eyes, circles that nobody had mentioned all the way from the take off to the touch down of the morning's flight. My hair was dirty, and I needed a shower.

The aspirin was swallowed with a quick gulp of water.

Afterwards, I had gotten undressed and into the shower from my impromptu decision. I quickly lost track of time as I stood under the pouring of the steaming water, hot enough to fog up the entire bathroom. Sill, my headache persisted.

It wasn't a regular headache; it wasn't like the pains I had gotten used to so frequently having. It was what was left of a hangover. A damn hangover.

"Ugh!" I nearly yelled as the side of my fist pounded on the shower wall, shaking the bottles of shampoo and soap. I turned off the running water and sat down in the tub with my face buried in my hands.

For the first time that day, I cried.

I cried the ugly, gasping, hiccuping cry. I cried until my body had almost completely dried from the shower, and the only water left was the drops that fell from my curly hair on my forehead, mixing with the tears on my cheeks.

After that, I simply stood up and used a towel for anything that was left. By the time I had left the bathroom, it was like nothing had happened at all.

I needed new clothes after that. I no longer wanted to be in the old, wrinkled ones that I had previously worn through a plane ride- one that had begun somewhere far away...

Reluctantly, I dragged my suitecase upstairs to my room and changed into an old McKinley tee shirt and a pair of ill-fitting sweatpants that had been passed down from my older brother Cooper when he was fifteen. My room looked like it normally did, with the exception of the still-packed suitecase in the middle of the floor.

There were texts upon texts on my phone, and missed calls, too. They had come from various friends from school- Sam and Tina, primarily. Each message had been read though, yet none of them received a reply. The last that Sam had heard from me was a drunk-ish text stating "he's gone" around one in the morning.

Last night had been quite a scene. I carelessly threw my phone somewhere on my bed, but quickly followed by diving into the pillows. Maybe a bit of rest would get rid of this nasty headache...