“Blaine, why would you do that?”
In 1932 America is still in the grips of the Great Depression and Blaine Anderson is fed up with his bland life in Lima, Ohio. When he decides to head to New York City in search of adventure he meets a performer named Kurt Hummel at an illegal speakeasy, and gets more excitement than he ever dreamed possible at The Oasis.
part one: The Old-Fashioned / The Manhattan / ao3
The Bee’s Knees
Stretched out on his bed, hands resting folded on his stomach, Blaine tries to think. Mostly he broods and sighs and chastises himself, just a bit. Finally, he sits up and sets his jaw and starts a letter on some of Rachel’s fancy pink flowered stationary, scribbles a few doodles and pointless squiggles, then balls it up and throws it away.
Makes himself go into the living room and pick up the phone and even gets as far as the operator asking him for the number he’s trying to reach before he hangs up.
He’s trying to reasonable, and the reasonable thing to do would be to call his parents, apologize for taking off like a thief in the dead of night and ask for money to get home. He could help out at the grocer or the bus factory for the summer to pay them back, then go to college in the fall.
And Blaine is a reasonable person, he is. Class president Blaine Anderson. Honor Roll student. Polite and well mannered and voted “Kindest Smile” and “Most Conscientious” for the Senior Superlatives.
That, of course, is exactly why he doesn’t do it.