It's Hard To Be The One Who Stays [Kurtbastian]

The Teenage Landmark (June, 2011)

Kurt spends an inordinate amount of time with Sebastian now. There's no point in denying it.

He's become used to the sight of Sebastian's dorm room, which is precisely like it should be, filled to the brim but organized within the clutter, smelling of Sebastian's cologne and his reeking lacrosse stuff, as he passes by to grab Sebastian for food or to hang out there before practices or after practices. Sometimes the other Warblers join him, sometimes they don't.

He even goes to Sebastian's lacrosse games, because Sebastian is always a bitch after a loss, and this way he can at least have some prior notice. He spends the time split between texting his friends and family (who still can't quite manage to hide their disappointment about his decision to stay at Dalton, even if Kurt feels in his guts that it's the right choice), slathering on sunscreen, and trying to figure out if there's some sort of point to the fucking violence of lacrosse. And he thought football was bad.

Sebastian always ignores his presence, except for the end. If it ends well, he'll turn to where Kurt's sitting, and he'll grin, easy and confident, and sometimes Kurt gets dragged along to an after party with far too much alcohol and girls from God knows where. If it doesn't end well, Sebastian will glare, and they'll eventually end up at some fast food restaurant, and Sebastian will bitch about this or that player, and Kurt will pretend to understand.

Regardless, they head back together, so Kurt keeps on going.

They go to Scandals together again exactly once, on Kurt's birthday at Kurt's request for an "adventure". The other Warblers, even Hunter, who Kurt swears had the best time of them all there last time, joined them for dinner and cake early in the evening but beg off the trip to Scandals.

Thirty minutes into the night, the cops decide to do a surprise sweep.

They almost manage to sneak out, but unfortunately Sebastian's stupidly tall head and noticeable hair along with his alcohol intake get them caught with their fake IDs. Kurt's almost in hysterics thinking about what his dad's reaction is going to be by the time that Sebastian remembers he has a state attorney for a dad.

They leave the station after a call and a perfunctory warning in the back of Mr. Smythe's car, the fake IDs confiscated and Sebastian forbidden by his dad (sitting silent in the front passenger seat, while his driver... well, drives) from entering Scandals again.

It's definitely an adventure, if not the type Kurt was thinking of.

Kurt expects Sebastian to have a new fake ID the very next day. But he surprises Kurt, yet again.

Instead, he follows his dad's rules, sticks to the school's social scene, and Kurt's bewildered but not complaining, because Sebastian spends even more time with Kurt afterwards. They've always seen each other at least once every two days, since they share the Warblers as a social circle, but now it's every day, with stupid text conversations and even more inane real-life conversations to break up the day's tedium.

Kurt chalks it up to boredom and not having anything better to do and leaves it alone.

Finals come and go, and Kurt thanks God (and Sebastian, who made a surprisingly efficient tutor in basically every subject) for letting him survive it. Spring melds into summer, school ends, and he moves back home.

He practically gives himself an anxiety attack thinking about the way the summer would unravel his newfound friendships with the other Warblers (and particularly Sebastian, an annoying voice in the back of his head whispers).

But as it turns out, he should've told himself to stop being a drama queen, because even if he doesn't see them as often as during school, he sees them plenty.