The boy never did stop daydreaming in Kurt's direction, and it annoyed him to no end. The rest of his group decided to meet at Mercedes' house after school every Wednesday, without Kurt's contribution.

The minute the bell rang, Kurt hopped up from his seat and made it his mission to be the first to leave the room. Despite his rush from the room, he also made it his mission to be the last to arrive for his next period. Maths.

What he didn't expect, as he entered the classroom 10 minutes late, was to be sat next to that boy again.

“Long time, no see.” The boy giggled to himself as he jotted down the equation on the whiteboard.

“You're hilarious.” Kurt retorted.

“Some find me charming.”

“I find you annoying.”

“I'm Blaine.”

“I don't care.”

“We're meant to be working in silence!” Mr Smith glared at the two boys from his desk.

Kurt made his way through the equation in record time, and felt a sense of satisfaction as he noted the rest of the class was still hard at work.

The lesson went by fairly quickly for Kurt, he kept his head down and ignored the looks Blaine directed at him. He was not about to fall for his so-called charm.

Kurt was difficult, but Blaine found it endearing. He got home that night thinking of what had gone down between Kurt and Rachel, trying to fit all of the pieces together. All he knew was that Kurt was somehow hurt, and Rachel blamed it on herself. He didn't know why he was so content on figuring it all out, he barely knew either of them. It was really none of his business.

But, still, as he collapsed onto the sofa in his lounge that night, all he could think of was that Kurt didn't used to be so difficult. He was a different person, apparently, so whatever happened to him it must have been bad.

“Blaine, honey!” his mom called from the kitchen, interrupting his train of thought.

“What?” he yelled back, not bothering to move.

“I just spoke to your dad on the phone, he said your car is ready to pick up from the garage a couple of blocks away.” She explained. This instantly caught his attention and he almost jumped straight up from the couch.

He entered the kitchen, beaming. “Is it really ready?”

“Aha.” His mom smiled, looking completely empathetic for him.

“But… I don't have the money.”

“Your dad paid on the spot when he took it in to get fixed up, all you have to do is show up and drive it back home. The owner has the keys.”

“Oh my God,” Blaine almost jumped up and down on the spot, but instead just ran towards the front door shouting “see you later!” to his mom as he left the house.

The walk to the garage was easy, it was 4 blocks away from his own house, but with all the excitement bubbling up inside of him it felt like he'd only been walking 5 seconds before he was stood outside of ‘Hummel's Tires and Lube'.

He took a deep breath and entered through one of the open garage doors, to see a burly looking man wearing a checked shirt and a baseball cap.

“Hey, how can I help you?” he asked, his voice deep.

“I'm here to pick up my car.” He grinned at the words, his car.

“You the Anderson boy?” the man asked, laughing at Blaine's obvious excitement.  

“Yes, sir!”

“Dad, I need some money.” A third voice came from deeper in the garage, Blaine knew that voice.

“I'm dealing with a customer right now, Kurt.” The man replied, but Blaine barely heard him. Kurt. Kurt was here, without meaning to Blaine started fixing up his clothes and running a hand over the top of his gel covered hair.

“I'll be gone in a minute, I just need – “Kurt walked out from the office in the back of the garage. “You.” He spat with conviction, upon noticing Kurt.

Blaine only smiled meekly.

“Are you stalking me or something?” Kurt ordered, the man's eyes flicked between the two boys.

“Do you know my son?” The man asked, trying to sound polite, but protective.

“I just joined McKinley today. We had a few classes together.” Blaine tried to explain.

“Try every class, and in every one of them I was sat next to or on the same table as him.” Kurt folded his arms in disgust.

“It's not my fault, you were late to them all and no one wants to sit with the new kid so you had to…” Blaine tried to defend himself, but didn't hide the hurt in his eyes.

“Late to class?” Burt looked at Kurt sternly, and then back to Blaine, he dug a set of keys out of his pocket and passed them to him. “If anything is still funny with your car, give me a call. Your dad filled out all the paperwork so you're good to go, kid.”

“Late to every class, Kurt?!” Burt Hummel screamed at his son after dinner that night.

“Only by a few minutes.” Kurt mumbled.

“Well, if that kid managed to get to them all on time so should you! What's your excuse for that one?!” Burt was pacing across the living room, as Kurt sat on the disgustingly green sofa, staring at his shoes.

The minute that Blaine had mentioned him being late Kurt knew he was in trouble, he had managed to hide so much from his dad about his changed personality and he wasn't planning on him catching on anytime soon, but he had come to realise he was out of luck. Too much had changed to go completely unnoticed.

He looked around the poorly decorated room, with the dirt brown carpet and off-white wallpaper looking as out of place in the room as he felt.

“This is because of what happened isn't it?” Burt rubbed at his eyes, and adjusted his baseball cap on his head as he spoke. “It has affected you, I should have known as soon as you dyed your hair. As soon as you left Mercedes, Tina and Rachel for that girl.”

“That girl, is my best friend. She is the only friend that was there for me, don't you remember?” Kurt snapped, and began chewing on his bottom lip.

“She's a bad influence on you, Kurt!” Burt pointed his finger right into his sons face. “Just because of what happened doesn't mean you have to start acting tough.”

“I'm not acting tough because of what happened, it wasn't even that bad!”

“Wasn't even that bad?” Burt almost laughed. “Do I need to remind you that you were comatose for two weeks, Kurt?”

“Well, I don't remember anything. I don't remember the pain, or even what happened.”

“Yes you do, I hear you screaming in your sleep, Kurt! You remember it.” Burt's eyes were tearing up, but Kurt just looked sullen and annoyed. “And even if you don't, you sure as Hell remember the fact you that they were just about to bag you up in the morgue when you did wake up! We thought you were dead, they couldn't get a pulse or anything out of you, you were so close to it! So, of course you're acting out because you're scared… We understand that Kurt, we do, but they're gone now. The bad guys are gone.”

“Bad guys?” Kurt scoffed, and jumped to his feet. “I'm not 6 anymore, I'm not stupid, so stop acting so patronising towards me! No matter where I am, dad, there will be people who will hate me and who I am – I will never escape it! Never! So, if I feel like dying my hair, wearing leather and smoking will scare them away. So be it.”

“You smoke?” Burt's jaw dropped, and Kurt laughed at the disappointment and hurt on his father's face.

“Sometimes I forget if it was you or me who got shot, because you sure act like it's all about you. Like it was you who someone tried to fucking murder. And even though you act like it's you whose life is in danger, you don't seem to get what I have to do to protect myself.”

And with that Kurt stormed up to his room, leaving his father in a state of shock.