To say Kurt's bedroom was overcrowded would be an understatement. The floor had disappeared under the mass of sleeping bags, pillows and duvets. Kurt's bed had been pushed against the wall, and his mattress was on the floor amongst the chaos. The room was filled with people – there were eighteen of them altogether, including Kurt and Blaine. Burt had ordered several pizzas for them all to share and, as expected with a group of teenagers, there were some disagreements.

"Hey, I said I was going to have the last slice of that!"

"Too bad Warbler; you snooze, you lose!" Puck said, winking at Nick.

"Brittany, your water bottle is leaking on me!"

"Maybe it needs to pee," replied Brittany with a sigh. "Even bottles need to pee Mercedes."

"Rachel, shut up about regionals, please. We're all here for Blaine and you're going to have to accept that the Warblers are here as well."

"I can't, they're our competition."

"You do realise that no one is bothered about us being here except for you?" Jeff said quietly, not looking up from braiding Quinn's hair.

"Yeah," said Quinn. "I even trust a Warbler with my hair, it's so scary."

"There's no need for sarcasm," Rachel sniffed. "I just don't think that it's good that we're doing this so close to the competition. It's in a month!"

"Rachel," Kurt said quietly. "Please shut up about regionals, just for tonight."

She rolled her eyes, but didn't say any more on the subject.

Once everyone had finished eating, Kurt stacked all the boxes in the corner of the room, Finn watching him closely.

"Now what are we going to do?" He asked. "I thought we were going to eat all night."

Kurt rolled his eyes. "You're such a pig Finn Hudson. Honestly, you eat like a horse."

"I'm a growing boy," he said laughing.

"Oh my god, don't grow anymore," said Blaine from his seat beside Brittany. "It hurts my neck just to talk to you."

"That's because you're a Hobbit," said Thad, throwing a pillow at Blaine. He caught it before it hit him and threw it back.

"Shut up! Don't get them started with that!"

"Well you are pretty short," Santana said. "So I guess you are a Hobbit."

"Great, thanks a lot Thad."

"I don't think he's a Hobbit," Brittany said, frowning. "I think he's a dolphin."

"I… I'm a what?" Blaine asked, frowning.

"A dolphin," she repeated. "Well, everyone knows dolphins are just gay sharks, right? And you haven't been able to keep your eyes off Kurt all night. So I'd say you're a dolphin."

Blaine flushed. There was a few seconds of awkward silence. Then he nodded.

"You're a dolphin?" Mercedes repeated, jaw dropping. "I mean, you're gay?" Again, he nodded. "And you're with Kurt? Aw, boo!"

"Boo?" Blaine repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, you're my boo now, okay?" She said, moving next to him. "I'm happy for you. Kurt, you'd better treat him right."

"Oh, he'll treat him right – into the mattress that is," Puck said without looking up. Kurt rolled his eyes and threw a pillow at his face. "Sorry, sorry!"

"Kurt, can I talk to you?" Jeff said before he could hit Puck again. He frowned, but nodded and they moved into a corner, talking in hushed voices. No one really paid them much attention except Blaine. He watched as his boyfriend's face darkened. Whatever Jeff was saying, Kurt didn't like it. Eventually though, he nodded and walked back over to the group. Kurt sat behind Blaine and slipped his arms around his waist.

"I need to ask you something, and it's personal… Is that okay?" Blaine nodded warily. "Jeff told me about the 'full disclosure circles' you used to do at Dalton and he thinks it'll help you now. I know you've never spoken about everything you've been through before," he said when Blaine opened his mouth to speak. "But he thinks this will help. I do as well, if I'm going to be honest. You need to remember that you're with friends. I won't force you to do it if you don't want to, but the offer's there."

"What about everyone else?"

"I think they'll do it. I'm going to as well."

"Kurt…" Blaine began, sitting up. "You don't have to do this-"

"I know I don't, but I want to. There's a lot you don't know about me, Blaine. I think it's about time I got it out in the open."

He just nodded, knowing he couldn't convince him otherwise. Kurt shouted at everyone to be quiet and nodded at Jeff, who stood up and explained what his idea was.

"Wait, wait, wait… you want us to share every shitty thing that's happened to us, with everyone here?" Jeff nodded. "Why? Doesn't that seem, I don't know, personal?" Puck said angrily.

"Of course it's personal," David said from beside Thad. "But it helps build trust. We did it whenever someone needed help at Dalton. It's what friends are for – it's how we helped each other. You're going to feel really vulnerable, believe me, and it hurts. But it's better in the long run. My advice is to grab something cosy and get comfortable."

"It helped me when my brother… well, you'll find out."

"I think it's a good idea," said Mike. "I mean, everyone has secrets, right? Well, we can get help. I'll go first if you want?"

There was a murmur of agreement and everyone moved to sit in a circle. Kurt sat beside Blaine and wrapped a blanket around them both. Blaine snuggled into Kurt's chest. He tried to remain calm, but he was dreading what was to come.

"Hey guys," Mike said with a nervous smile. "Now, I think you all know me… but I haven't spoken to all of the Warblers yet – I'm Mike Chang. I'm a senior at McKinley, and I really want to be a dancer. I've been told I'm good at it-"

"Good? Mike, are you kidding me? You're amazing!"

He blushed slightly at Tina's words but grinned. "Um… well my dad doesn't think that it's good enough. He wants me to be a doctor. I got an A minus on one of my tests and he was so disappointed at me. I… I can't follow my dreams because of my dad."

"You should still be able to follow your dreams," Thad said quietly. "Don't let your dad stop you from doing what you do best."

Mike gave an appreciative smile, signalling that he was finished. It was Jeff that spoke next.

"So… I've always known I was gay; it was never a question for me. But I never told anyone – I even slept with girls so I looked straight. It haunted me, because I knew there were homophobic people in the world. I'll be honest, that terrified me. So I hid it, and pretty well if I say so myself. When I started at Dalton, I was so afraid – I thought everyone would hate me. But then I met a few gay guys and they were so lovely. So, of course, I began to think about coming out. It was so fucking scary, I tell you. The first person I actually told was Blaine," he gave his best friend a warm smile, which was returned. "And even then, that was frightening. I kept thinking that he'd reject me, that he wouldn't want to be my friend, in case I turned him or something. But he was so supportive. I was so happy that he didn't care – he said I was stupid for not telling him sooner and for being afraid, because he was always going to love me. He said I was his brother and the Warblers were his family, which we are. So, after Blaine, I came out to the other guys, and they took it just as cool as Blaine. I still didn't say anything to my family though."

"Why not, dude?" Sam Evans asked his eyes wide.

"I was afraid. You've all seen the shit on TV about 'gay conversion camps'. There was no way I was going there, so I hid it and I stayed at Dalton. I only came out to my family last year, and I barely realised I did it. I was home for Christmas and my dad was in a rant about some small-time actor who had been found with gay porn on his computer. But he was saying that it wasn't a big deal and if the guy wanted to be gay, then why the fuck shouldn't he. I barely realised what I was hearing. I literally blurted it out. And then he laughed. At first, I thought he was laughing at how pathetic I was. Then he said to me that I was stupid for not telling him earlier. He was laughing from relief – he'd seen how stressed I was from living a lie. To be honest, I think he was glad I wasn't doing drugs or in a gang or something." Jeff shrugged. "My parents are cool with me being gay. My granddad hasn't spoken to me since, but it doesn't matter; I didn't really know him."

He fell silent. No one seemed to want to go next. Eventually, Santana spoke.

"Hell, everyone here knows what I'm like. I'm mad for Brittany, and I've shown it."

"Yeah you have!" Brittany said, smiling. "Like last night, she-"

"Britt, I don't think they want to know about our sex lives! Anyway," she said quickly. "I'm not going to talk to you about being gay. Everyone at McKinley knows about it, and I don't think it's important, not compared to what I will share. I hated my figure. I still do."

"But you're so… confident," Nick said, frowning.

"I know that – it's called putting on a mask. I did some seriously stupid shit when I was younger. I got bullied and teased a lot in middle school because I was chubby. I was never fat, but it would have been easier if I was. People would bully me no matter what I did – eat or not eat. I got called so many names, and it hurt. It actually damaged me. They used to throw cakes and candy at me, and they'd tell me to get fatter so they could roll me down the hallways. I got so fed up with being bullied. I knew deep down I could change it, but I wasn't sure how. Anyway, one day, I was sat in the cafeteria. A boy was flirting with me, and he was cute. I felt flattered – no one had ever complimented me before, yet here he was. Anyway, the bullies ran up behind me and threw rotting meat over me. The boy laughed and I realised he was in on it. I ran from the cafeteria, into the toilets and threw up. It wasn't because I was trying to, but because of how disgusting it was."

"Oh, Santana," Brittany said tearfully, throwing her arms around her. Santana gave her a small smile, but continued talking. She looked lost and helpless.

"After that day, I kept doing it."

"D-Doing what?"

"Throwing up – I barely ate and when I did, I'd throw it up almost immediately. My weight dropped so much after a few weeks, but I kept thinking it wasn't enough and I needed to lose more. I wanted to look like the Victoria's Secret models. Despite everything, the name calling didn't stop. They said I was trying to fit in and no one would ever want to be with me. They kept teasing me, saying I was obviously making myself sick. I hated it. I hated that they knew it all and that they were right, but I still did it. My parents knew something was up, but I refused to tell them. I was too good at it to get caught. I even started working out to explain where my weight was going."

She took a deep breath. It was obvious to everyone watching that she was on the verge of tears.

"My friend had a birthday party. I ate two slices of pizza and a piece of cake. Then I remembered everything and I threw up everywhere. I did it so much I passed out. I woke up and I was in a hospital – the doctors figured out what had happened and told me that if I carried on doing it, I would die. That scared me so much, I stopped. Slowly, I recovered. I managed to keep most of the weight off, but… well, looking back on it; I'm not that much different than I was before – I just filled out in all the right places."

"Oh San, I'm so sorry!" Brittany wailed, squeezing her. Santana kissed the top of her head and smiled. She looked around expectantly.

After Santana, Nick spoke. He told them about his younger brother, Ben, who had hung himself because he was being bullied.

"He was only bullied because our family was different. He was only bullied because my mom worked and my dad stayed at home and looked after us. But they were relentless. They beat the shit out of him because of it. I had no idea what was going on – I was at Dalton for fuck sake. I kept thinking that if I'd stayed in public schools, Ben would still be here. He was going to move to Dalton! I told my parents about their strict non-bullying policy, and they said it was perfect. B-But Ben wasn't convinced. He thought that, because it's a private school, the bullying would be worse. I think the idea of boarding scared him the most. B-B-But I came home, ready to show him around the place, and I found him hanging from the ceiling. I called an ambulance, got him down and tried to save him, but it was t-t-too late. I think I knew it in my heart, but it didn't stop me from trying. Ben would have loved Dalton, I know he would. But I've always blamed myself for not being there for him when he needed me. I only knew about the bullying because he wrote a god-damn note to me. He wanted to say goodbye, but couldn't do it in person."

Nick's voice broke and he fell silent, his tears finally spilling over. After he'd finished speaking, the rest of them shared their stories. Puck told them how his dad had never been there for them, Tina said she felt like she was ignored by everyone, Mercedes told them about her insecurities about her body, Artie explained what it was like not to be able to walk, Rachel told them how insecure she actually was about certain things, and she wanted to fit in with people, despite her talent. Finn told the others about his lack of confidence when it came to singing and dancing, Sam explained to the group in a hushed voice about him being a stripper so his family could earn money, Quinn managed to say, through her tears, about her daughter, Beth, and how much she loved and missed her.

"Okay, so it's my turn," Brittany said quietly. "I actually get sad when people call me stupid. I mean, I know I'm not smart, but being called stupid is mean. It makes me cry, and every time I cry, a unicorn dies. This is why there aren't many unicorns left in the world. I don't want to be sad and I don't want them to die."

The group was silent at her words. In a way, it was adorable – after all, Brittany wasn't the brightest person, but her words had meaning. She was insecure about her intelligence. After Brittany, David told them how he'd tried to make the memories of witnessing a murder from his childhood disappear by drinking, Thad explained that, where he had so many brothers and sisters, he was often overlooked at home and felt like he had to do big things to stick out. Trent was the next to speak. He said that he tried to kill himself when he was thirteen.

"Why did you do that?" Jeff asked, obviously shocked.

He shrugged. "I guess I just wanted out. It's a pathetic reason to be honest, but I didn't see the point in living – so I took an overdose. My sister found me and took me to the hospital. I'm glad she did now, because otherwise I wouldn't be here."

"I can't believe you tried to kill yourself, Trent."

"Sometimes, the darkness in us is too intense and it consumes us," Kurt whispered. Everyone turned to stare at him. He opened his eyes and sighed. "Don't think I've 'gone soft' just because I said that. Oh, I suppose it's my turn, is it?" He sighed and sat up a little straighter. He heard Blaine whimper in his arms and gave his hand a gentle squeeze. "I'm right here, I promise."

"You don't have to do this if you don't want to."

"Shut up Blaine. I told you, there's a lot you don't know about me. No one knows what I'm about to say… so I guess it's just one of those things. It's about time I told someone."