“…W-what?” Brandon asks, completely confused.

Kurt swallows around the giant lump in his throat.

“I’m – I’m cheating on you,” he says again.

Brandon stands there in front of him, his gigantic smile completely wiped clean, and looks completely baffled.

“What?” he asks once more.

“I said I’m cheat-”

“I heard what you said!” Brandon shouts, an action that attracts the attention of every single person in the hall.

Shrinking in on himself, Kurt is still shocked that those words actually came out of his mouth. What the fuck happened to his brain to mouth filter? Did it get lost somewhere during the sex he had with Blaine last night before they fell asleep? Why the hell did he say that? He’s completely ruined everything now.

“I’m so sorry,” Kurt says because he honestly doesn’t know what else to say. What do you say after you admit something like that?

“Oh you’re so – you’re sorry? That’s fucking great,” Brandon says with a shot of sarcasm. “What the hell, Kurt? How long have you been ch – cheating?”

“Over two months,” Kurt admits. Oh okay, just tell him everything. Yeah. Sure. Why the hell not?

“Over two – are you fucking serious? You’ve been cheating on me for over two months and you just…I tell you that I love you, it’s the last day of school, I don’t know when I’m gonna see you again and you just decide to tell me all of this now?”

Everyone in the corridor has gone completely silent, soaking in all of this new information, and they stare at the couple in the middle of the hall with wide eyes and some have their hands over their mouths in shock.

“I couldn’t – I couldn’t say it back. I couldn’t lie to you like that,” Kurt says miserably, trying not to cry because he really has ruined everything. Everyone knows now. Those not present in the hallway will surely be told by everyone present. This is a complete disaster.

“Oh, you couldn’t lie and say you loved me back, but you could lie to me every single day for the past two months?” Brandon asks in disbelief. “Very nice, Kurt.”

“I’m sorry,” Kurt says again for lack of a better rebuttal.

“With who?”

“What?”

“Who have you been cheating on me with? I think I deserve to know, especially after all of this. Look around, Kurt! You’ve turned our relationship into some kind of circus!” Brandon yells, throwing his arms out to his side to gesture to the growing crowd of students and teachers.

It seems like even the teachers are too shocked to stop the inevitable fight.

Kurt’s gaze darts around, taking in the shocked faces of his classmates and he wants to die. He wants to crawl in a hole a die rather than deal with all of this. He shoves his hand into his pocket, feeling the cool, solid outer surface of Blaine’s pocket watch in his hand as if its presence will somehow shield him from this onslaught.

“So who was it? Who made your dick so fucking hard, who was worth all of this? Do tell, because I’m dying to hear,” Brandon presses.

“It – it doesn’t matter,” Kurt says, attempting to keep some semblance of secrecy. “It’s happened and – and that’s that.”

Appearing from the crowd, almost as if he materialized at Kurt’s side, Thomas steps up with a drawn expression and knowing eyes.

“It was Blaine, wasn’t it?” Thomas speaks softly.

Kurt swallows and begins to tremble, eyes darting back and forth between Thomas and Brandon.

“N-no, he – Blaine has nothing to do with this. I never said-”

“You didn’t have to say anything,” Thomas says. “I saw it.”

“Wha-”

“The pocket watch,” Thomas nods to Kurt’s hand in his trouser pocket. “It’s Blaine’s. I saw it on his desk once and he told me how his grandfather told him to give it to someone he really cared about.”

“I don’t-”

“You’re holding onto it now, aren’t you?” Thomas accuses. “I saw you with it in the library and I couldn’t – I didn’t understand. I thought maybe you just had one similar but it isn’t similar, is it? It’s the one his grandfather gave him.”

“Thomas, please don’t-”

“Why shouldn’t I?” Thomas asks. The scary part of this comes from the fact that Thomas’ voice is soft, even, and not very angry at all. It’s like when your parents tell you they’re terribly disappointed in you rather than just yelling at you outright. It makes you feel ten times worse and Kurt’s insides twist with guilt, deceit, and terror. “Why shouldn’t I call you out on it all? Your boyfriend deserves to know. Just like I deserved to know. But Blaine didn’t tell me he was involved with someone else, no, he just said he didn’t feel the same way anymore. Look what you’ve done, Kurt. Look at what you’ve both done.”

God it was like a nightmare, Kurt’s mind yells at him. He’s simply waiting for people to point and laugh or maybe for Brandon to toss him into the crowd like he’s dinner for a pack of hungry wolves. None of this comes. Everyone just keeps staring. Kurt wraps his arms around himself in the middle of the hallway, ducking his head and doing his fucking best to not shed a single tear.

“Is he telling the truth?” Brandon asks calmly. “Was it Blaine?”

The guilt eats away at Kurt’s intestines, clawing up his esophagus and spilling onto his tongue.

He can’t lie anymore.

“Yes,” Kurt admits.

Several gasps ring out through the hallway and somewhere behind Kurt, there’s a bustling commotion among the crowd. A dark head of gelled curls appears near the front and then there’s Blaine, looking around at everything and trying to understand the situation at first glance.

“No,” Kurt whispers miserably when he turns and sees him. He can’t let him be here, he can’t let Blaine get caught in this horrendous spectacle. “Blaine, go back-”

“You ASSHOLE!”

Brandon’s voice echoes in the hallway and then, quite abruptly, he’s storming over to Blaine who remains frozen in alarm.

“Brandon, stop!” Kurt yells, but he realizes too late to stop what’s about to happen.

SMACK!

The entirety of Brandon’s hand collides with Blaine’s cheek and Blaine drops on the spot, falling to the floor from the power of the forceful slap.

“Blaine!” Kurt shouts, rushing over to his side, prying Blaine’s hand from his face to inspect the damage. Luckily there doesn’t seem to be any blood. He just looks quite dazed and there’s a red mark appearing on his skin.

“What the hell was that for?” Blaine asks loudly, cradling his jaw in pain.

“You’ve been fucking my boyfriend!”

The teachers still aren’t doing anything, Kurt realizes. They’re just standing around like a bunch of buffoons even though one of their students was just slapped in the middle of a hallway. Wasn’t this supposed to be a safe school? Weren’t they supposed to be protected from violence, from harassment?

“So you hit me?” Blaine asks, still dazed.

“So you don’t deny it,” Brandon points out. “You don’t even deny it.”

“Well after that, I figure you have some pretty convincing evidence otherwise you wouldn’t have slapped me in the face,” Blaine snaps, making sure his jaw is still attached. “What happened to waiting until summer?”

“Oh god,” Kurt groans in horror.

“I’m sorry. Until summer?” Brandon asks in bewilderment. “I don’t believe you actually mentioned anything about summer, Kurt. Do explain.”

“Oh shit,” Blaine realizes. “You didn’t say anything about the plan to-”

“What plan?” Thomas pipes up.

“What happened to the whole secret affair thing?” Blaine asks Kurt, remarkably calm for having just been slapped in front of the entire student body and staff. “I mean, I thought the secret part of that phrase meant we weren’t exactly going to tell the whole school.” He blinks. “Or…anyone.”

“Affair?” Thomas shrieks. “What affair?”

“I should probably just stop talking, huh?” Blaine nods to himself.

“I think that might be best,” Brandon remarks. “Unless you want me to actually take your jaw off next time.”

“Duly noted,” Blaine squeaks out.

Brandon turns his eyes back to Kurt, who stands warily in front of Blaine as if he can protect him from another blow should it ever come.

“Okay, listen. It doesn’t matter,” Kurt tries to reason. “It’s over. Obviously. We don’t have to-”

“Oh no. I want all the details,” Brandon says, cutting Kurt off midsentence.

“I think I’d like them too,” Thomas pipes up.

“Come on, Kurt. Tell me all the dirty details of your secret, torrid love affair. Tell me! Just tell me!”

“Fine!” Kurt snaps, throwing up his hands in defeat. “Fine. I’ll tell you.”

“Please do,” Brandon says, waving his hand in front of him to signal Kurt to continue.

“We just – we slept together. Once. After the Warbler party earlier in the semester. We thought that was it, thought we got it out of our system.”

“Dude I totally knew something was up with that,” Nick comments from the sidelines. David nudges him in the ribs.

“But it just didn’t end,” Kurt continues, ignoring Nick’s comment. “We were still…attracted to each other. Things kind of snowballed and we started – started seeing each other.”

“While you were dating us,” Thomas attempts to clarify.

“Yes,” Kurt admits heavily. “While we were involved with you. And now there are feelings that we’re only just starting to understand but we didn’t want to hurt either of you.” Kurt looks over to Thomas. “Blaine broke up with you and he lied because he really did care about you and didn’t want to cause you any pain.” He looks back to Brandon. “And I – I had decided to wait until summer to break things off with you. I just thought it would be easier with the distance and you wouldn’t have to deal with any of this but-”

“But I do have to deal with it. Now, at least.”

“Obviously,” Blaine snorts. Kurt glares at him. Blaine looks back down at the floor. “Sorry.”

“So it was just one big lie?” Brandon concludes. “How in the fucking hell did either of you even think this would be a good idea? Why didn’t you just break up with us once you slept together? Don’t you think that, just maybe, that would have worked a little better than having a fucking affair? Jesus Christ, Kurt! What the hell-”

“What the hell, do you always have to dig through a sea of blazers to get to one freaking room?”

The voice that cuts through Brandon’s tirade is both foreign and familiar.

Foreign to the rest of the crowd.

Familiar to Kurt.

“Kurt? What’s going on, buddy? Are you singin’ something?”

“Dad, oh my god, what are you doing here?”

“Well…last I checked I was supposed to come help you pack,” Burt Hummel says, eyeing the massive group of boys and Blaine on the ground with confusion.

“What’s Blaine doing on the ground?” another voice asks.

“Finn, what the hell?” Kurt guffaws.

“Oh my god, this is even better than Days of Our Lives. And General Hospital. Combined,” boozy Jeff comments from his front row spot amidst the crowd.

“Oh for the love of god, Jeff, shut up, you’re so drunk,” Wes says with a roll of his eyes and a shove to Jeff’s shoulder.

“Drunk?” Burt asks, completely puzzled.

“Oh, so you’re Kurt’s dad,” Brandon drawls, stepping forward to shake Burt Hummel’s hand. “I’m Kurt’s boyfriend.”

“Oh nice to meet you,” Burt says with a genuine smile, returning the hand shake.

“Actually, I was Kurt’s boyfriend. You see-”

“Brandon, please don’t-”

But Kurt isn’t quick enough and Brandon is determined to make Kurt as miserable as possible.

“- your son has actually just admitted to having an affair with Blaine, here. So I hope you’re proud, sir. Proud that you raised a fucking whore.”

“What the fuck, Brandon?!” Kurt’s voice is shrill in the middle of the hallway.

“Since when do you swear?” Finn asks, mouth wide open in shock.

“Oh fuck off, Finn!” Kurt snaps at once.

“Whoa!” Burt shouts, spreading his arms out wide as if to stop a physical fight.

There’s a long pause where every single eye is focused on Burt Hummel, but Burt just looks around with a seriously suspicious expression before speaking.

“What in the god damn hell goes on at this school?” he roars.

At that, Brandon begins shouting at Burt, Thomas is yelling as loud as he can at Blaine on the ground, Finn’s yelling back at Brandon for the horrible accusations against his step brother and Kurt’s just kind of standing there, watching it all go down. This is absolutely out of control, Kurt concludes. Everyone’s voices are so loud and sound is echoing off the pristine marble floors and wow, his dad looks livid. Burt’s suddenly starts yelling at one of the teachers nearby, some middle-aged woman who scampers away and gets purposefully lost in the crowd. Finn looks like he’s about to throttle Brandon and Thomas appears to be one of those people who start crying really hard when he gets angry. Blaine’s just on the ground, trying desperately to not cling to Kurt’s leg too hard even though he’s yelling back at Thomas just as loudly and that’s when Kurt decides that he has had enough.

“SHUT. UP!” Kurt shouts, loud enough to be heard over the cacophony of angry voices in the corridor. “Just stop!”

Brandon turns all of his ire upon Kurt in that split second.

“Why the hell would you do this, Kurt? Why?” he yells.

“Because I’m in love with Blaine!” Kurt admits loudly.

Everyone falls silent and they stare at Kurt with this type of outrageous intensity. Kurt’s feels like he’s under a microscope and that’s when he realizes exactly what he just said. Terrified, he looks down at Blaine, who has loosened his grip on Kurt’s leg and stares up with glossy eyes.

“K-Kurt-”

“I’m sorry,” Kurt apologizes, crouching down to be on Blaine’s level. “I didn’t mean for it to – I just…it’s true. It’s so true. I love you. I love you and I didn’t even understand but all of this,” he gestures to the zoo that has become Dalton Academy, “was never what I wanted. You don’t deserve any of this. I’m so sorry, Blaine, I’m so sorry.”

“I love you, too,” Blaine says instantly, just loud enough to be heard by those nearest the front of the crowd.

Oh god, Kurt’s heart just grew in size right there in his chest. Blaine’s eyes are shimmering with tears and he looks so beautiful despite the situation and maybe this is what was meant to happen; maybe, after all the secrecy, after all the lying, after all the sneaking around, all the five minute rendezvous in the supply closets, maybe this is how it was meant to be. They spent so long in secrecy that maybe they were supposed to admit it like this. Maybe it was supposed to be all out in the open just like this, for the world to hear.

That’s the very moment when Kurt realizes that none of this matters. The yelling doesn’t matter, the stares don’t faze him, Brandon’s heartbreak comes second to this boy, this gorgeous, loving, just-as-scared-as-he-is boy. Blaine is what matters. Kurt and Blaine are the important ones. Everything else comes after. Maybe it isn’t right because their actions hurt people but Kurt…Kurt is absolutely positive Brandon and Thomas will heal. Their hearts will mend and in the end, only Kurt and Blaine are left. It took a catastrophe and open humiliation, it took all that secrecy, it took the affair, it took something drastic and awful and maybe immoral to get here, to get to this very point.

“I reached down in the pit of my soul, i found things that I didn’t wanna know.”

This, Kurt thinks, this is where we went right.

Even if we were completely wrong about everything else.

All that’s left is to pick up the pieces and continue with their heads held high, even if Brandon and Thomas want to knock them down.

Kurt stands, pulling Blaine to his feet as well. He turns to his father.

“We should probably go back to the room and pack,” Kurt says calmly, Blaine’s hand warm in his and Blaine’s pocket watch heavy in his trousers.

“And talk,” Burt says sternly.

Kurt and Blaine lead the way. The crowd parts for them and the whispers begin. But they hold their heads high, their hands remain clasped, and Burt and Finn trail after them as they head for the privacy of their dorm room.