Nothing Normal

They had gone and played mini golf. Vivian won, and in the process emotionally crushed Justin. It didn’t last long however because Vivian got a call from one of the couple’s she baby-sitted for, while they were strolling downtown. They needed her to come babysit on last minute and Justin enthusiastically offered to take her and help out.

Kelsey watched as her friend walked off hand in hand with Justin, turning back slightly to bite her lip excitedly.

Kelsey smiled as Blaine leaned close to her ear from behind as she watched Vivian and Justin. “I wanna show you something.” Kelsey turned around and smiled at him sweetly, tilting her head questioningly. He flashed a smile, “You’ll see, come on.”

Blaine grabbed her hand and continued to lead her down the street. “So, I’m starting to notice a pattern,” Kelsey said.

“What’s that?” Blaine laughed.

“Whenever we do anything, you never tell me what until we get there. It’s like you’re trying to keep me on my toes about everything.”

Blaine smiled down at the ground, “Well, I guess... I like to keep things interesting.” They walked a few more steps, "Sorry I get on your nerves doing this stuff."

Kelsey's laughter filled the air. "Blaine, are you kidding? It is stuff like that that makes me love being around you.”

Blaine smiled and noticed her shiver. “Oh, here,” he slid his jacket off and over her shoulders before she could protest.

“Thanks,” she meekly said as he rubbed her arms now in the jacket sleeves. “Don’t mention it,” he took her hand and continued down the sidewalk.

After a few more minutes Blaine leaned over, “Now you have to close your eyes, I want it to be a surprise.”

Kelsey giggled as she covered her eyes, careful to not mess up her makeup. “If you make me run into anything, I will kill you.”

Blaine laughed as he took her by the shoulders and began to lead her. “Is that a threat or a promise?”

“I guess you’ll have to find out.” Blaine led her to a building and then through a maze of stairs, doors,
and hallways. Until he released her shoulders and she heard him walk around in front of her, and rush around for a few minutes.

Kelsey smiled to herself, What on earth am I doing? This isn’t normal. You barely know him and you’re following him around blindly.

As much as she tried to talk herself into the fact that none of this was logical, she couldn’t shake the feeling that all of this felt completely normal. She felt at complete ease here with Blaine as he continued to surprise her. “How much longer until I can open my eyes?”

“I’m almost ready. I promise.”

“You promised that a minute ago.”

“Yes, but now I really mean it.”

“Ok. Ok. Just hurry you’re making me nervous.”

He hurried around for a few more moments. “Ok. I’m ready you can open your eyes.” Kelsey slowly removed her hands giving her eyes a second to adjust to the light. She was on a stage in front of thousands of empty seats and in front of her stood Blaine smiling next to a blanket laid out with food on it.

“What’s this?”

He took her hand, “It’s a picnic. The other day you mentioned that one of your favorite things to do was go on picnics. So I decided I wanted to take you on one and considering it is too cold outside. I decided to kill two birds with one stone. Do your favorite thing while showing you my favorite place.”
Blaine took her jacket and his from Kelsey as she took a seat on the blanket. Kelsey looked in front of her there were plenty of snacks. “I hope you like the food. I had no idea what to get. So I got one of my friend’s to help out. She picked out foods girls like.”

Kelsey smiled, “It’s great... and unexpected.” He rubbed the back of his neck, suddenly nervous.

“Yeah, I had worked it out with Justin to figure out a way for me and you to get to come here. Then
Vivian got called off and it was perfect. I didn’t even have to work it out.”

“Well I’m glad it worked out. This is great. Now I don’t have to push back the want to have a picnic anymore. No more waiting for it to warm up.”

They sat in silence as they each nibbled on their snacks, until Kelsey stood up. “Why here?”

“What?” Blaine had been distracted watching her soft, dark curls bounce as she looked around and her face as it registered an attractive look of curiosity.

Kelsey twirled around in a circle with her arms out, “You said this was your favorite place, why is it your favorite?”

Blaine stretched out, propping his head up on his arm and watching her as she twirled in circles.

“Well...um...” He hadn’t thought this part through most girls acted weird when he said what he was about to say. They always seemed to lose interest. He stammered on, “Well...I...uh.” What am I doing? She isn’t like all those other girls. Blaine swallowed hard, “I’m a...uh...theater guy. You know musicals and that.” Blaine ran his hand through his hair and rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

“Oh my gosh, really?” Kelsey responded and Blaine grimaced. “That is soooo cool. So are you like an actor or are you like backstage and what not?”

Blaine smiled she actually sounded excited. “I’m an actor, singer, stuff like that.”

“That’s so cool I always wanted to try stuff like that. You know...in high school.” Kelsey stopped spinning, “but I was never brave enough.”

“Yeah? So you like stuff like that?”

“Yeah, of course. Who wouldn’t?” Kelsey asked smiling.

“You’d be surprised. I was kind of worried to tell you.”

“Why?”

“Well most girls I’ve hung out with have kinda all but told me I’m a loser for liking the theater.”

“Really?” Kelsey asked, surprised, and continued, “Well that’s just stupid. This is to cool.”

Blaine laughed. “I agree.”

Kelsey laughed and spun away from him, “You know what they are the ones who are the losers.” She turned back quickly and pointed at him, “Right?” Blaine nodded. “Right,” she stated matter of factly.

Blaine stood up and helped her steady herself after spinning too much. Kelsey’s laughter filled the air.

“Thanks,” she whispered. Their faces were inches apart as he held his hands tight around her as she still stumbled dizzily. She pulled away awkwardly. “So, you play baseball, you are a big theater guy, you like surprising people,” she counted them off on her hands, “anything else I should know?”

Blaine smiled at the floor, “Um...I don’t know.”

Kelsey quickly took a seat on the blanket again, picking up a chocolate-covered strawberry. “Ok, so let’s play no boundaries.”

Blaine took a seat across from her, “How do you play that?”

“Well, I guess it’s not so much a game as it is an interview. Someone did it with me once and I have done it with everyone since. You can ask the other person whatever you want no boundaries, and they have to answer. You do get one free pass where you don’t have to answer but if you use it you are officially no fun.”

Blaine nodded, “Ok. You go first.”

“What’s your favorite color?”

“Blue. What’s yours?”

“Purple. Um...” Kelsey paused. “What’s your favorite song?”

Blaine looked up trying to think. He squinted, “Do I have to pick just one. They are all so good, but to give you something to go off the song I can’t get out of my head right now is Animal by Neon Trees.”

“Oh, good one.”

Blaine smiled, “What are three words you would choose to describe yourself?”

Kelsey thought about it, “Crazy, Can’t-shut-up, and yes that is one word for the sake of this answer, and passionate. That’s a good question. How about you?”

“Adventurous, loud, and... dorky, well at least at heart.”

Kelsey laughed, “Oh trust me we all know how dorky you are.”

“Hey!” Blaine exclaimed in mock hurt, “So moving past that insult, what is something that makes you unique?”

Kelsey didn’t even have to think, “I’m colorblind.”

He tilted his head, “Really?”

“Yeah. Not bad, I didn’t find out until I was twelve and our teacher gave us that dot test thing for fun. I failed...horribly. But I like it, it makes me different.” She paused, “What’s something that really embarrasses you?”

Blaine laughed, “I can’t dance...like at all. It’s pretty bad. I’m really spastic when I try, but I refuse to let that get me down. If I’m at a party with dancing, I’m definitely going to dance, spasing and all because dancing is not about if it looks good it’s about if you are having fun with it. That’s what matters.”

“Oh, so that’s the secret?”

“Well, not anymore, you know now.” Kelsey laughed. “So it’s my turn?” Blaine asked, she nodded. “If you could be anything in the world what would you be?”

Kelsey laid down on her stomach facing him, she pursed her lips. “A mom,” she said thoughtfully.

Blaine looked at her and smiled as she looked away. She would be a great mom, Blaine thought.

Kelsey turned back to face him. Her warm brown eyes met his own hazel eyes, that appeared green right now and she smiled softly. She looked away embarrassed and brushed the hair out of her face.

“I’m trying to become a doctor because it’s practical but...when everyone was little and dreaming about their futures I always just dreamed about being a mom and having a family. That’s it.”

Blaine smiled and broke the silence after several quiet moments. “It’s your turn.”

“Oh, yeah give me a second to think.” Kelsey pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on her knees. “This one is kind of unusual, but I always love hearing people’s response to it.”

“Go ahead I don’t mind.”

“If you had a second chance to meet me for the first time, what would you do differently?” Kelsey tilted her head and started examining his face.

His short curly hair was unruly on top of his head and his hazel eyes scanned the floor as if looking for an answer. He closed his eyes tight and bit his lip as if he was debating something. Blaine apparently decided and looked up sheepishly, “I wouldn’t have taken so long to talk to you, I would have stepped forward and introduced myself sooner like I had wanted and not chickened out. When you blushed after saying you were embarrassed, I would have raised your chin and told you how beautiful you looked right then.” Blaine swallowed hard, as Kelsey looked on, surprised. He laughed to himself slightly and rose his eyes up to meet hers, before looking away again, quickly, “and I probably would have listened a little more while you talked over breakfast, I was just too distracted by how smart and charming you were...about everything. And I would have told you how much I loved you already after that first breakfast...and even more now.” Blaine looked up again and flushed.

Kelsey was sitting with her mouth open staring at him. She looked completely taken off guard.
Sudden embarrassment coursed through his body and he quickly got to his feet and made for the stage door that he knew led to a hallway that led outside if you followed it right. Why did I say that? I totally just freaked her out. I don’t blame her though I would be freaked out too if someone had said that to me after only knowing me for three days.

Blaine hurried to the door and shook his head to himself. It just felt so natural to tell her like it was the right thing to do -- but no it wasn’t it was too soon it was too weird. You’re such an idiot -- three days, that’s how long you’ve known her and you didn’t expect her to react like this?

“Blaine.” The sound of his name coming from Kelsey’s lips stopped him dead in his tracks. He turned to face the girl he had just completely ruined his chances with, Why couldn’t I have just kept my mouth shut?

He raised his face from the floor to meet her face, she opened her mouth to speak, but she stopped when Blaine began to talk over her. “Can we just pretend I never said any of that? I’m really sorry I should have kept that to myself. It’s just sometimes I get caught up in the moment and I just start talking, not thinking about if it’s appropriate or not. I just really like you and I wasn’t thinking. I just started talking.” Blaine began to ramble on.

“Blaine?”

He continued, “I’m really sorry I wasn’t thinking.”

“Blaine?”

“It won’t ever happen again you don’t have to worry about that.”

“Blaine!” Kelsey raised her voice and he stopped. He looked up as another smile spread across her face. He blushed.

Kelsey laughed and took a stepped forward, “I really like you too and you don’t have to ever be embarrassed to say something around me. Because the things we find embarrassing are just the things people need to tell about. It tells a lot more about someone than the things they are confident in.” Blaine kept his eyes on the ground.

Kelsey continued, “But that’s not what’s important. I really like you too Blaine. Actually I’ve liked you since that first breakfast too. But I was too nervous to say anything.”

Blaine looked up at her as she continued to speak. She had begun to ramble too, trying to make him feel better. He took a step toward her and closed the gap between them and kissed her lightly on the cheek causing her to stop talking. He gave her another peck on her cheek and pulled away.

Blaine smiled and she smiled back. “Come on; let’s get out of here, now that we’ve settled that.” He grabbed his jacket that he was letting Kelsey use and held it out as Kelsey slipped her arms in it. He quickly shoved the rest of their picnic in the basket and stuck the basket backstage.

Blaine led the way until they were out on the sidewalk outside. He stuck his arm out and Kelsey looped hers in it. They walked just as they had the whole time, in silence, until finally Kelsey’s sheepish voice cut through the silence, “So what does this mean? For you know...us?”

Blaine smiled to himself and continued walking before responding with, “I don’t know...I guess to keep course with the rest of the relationship like how we met -- something new and nothing normal.”

Kelsey smiled to herself, Just the way I like it.