Chapter 19

Kurt rereads the texts from Finn, trying to pull extra meaning from them, but it's still the same cryptic words. He tried calling, but Finn won't pick up and Kurt's mind is racing with possibility. What if his dad had another heart attack? What if he was in a car accident? What if… He just can't let himself think of the most final of what ifs. So he goes back to staring at his phone.

After his eyes begin to blur from the harsh glare of the screen in the darkened car, he notices he has 3 unread text messages and a new email. All from Blaine.

He can't read them, though, not yet. There's just too much to think about. And now, of course, he's thinking about Blaine.

"Can I ask you something, Sebastian?" Kurt asks quietly.

"Sure," he replies, glancing over his shoulder as he changes lanes.

"How do you know Blaine?"

Sebastian shifts uncomfortably in his seat, giving Kurt a sideways glance.

"We go to school together."

"I know that," Kurt says with a roll of his eyes, "but is there a story there? Like did you date or something?"

Sebastian takes a deep breath and opens his mouth. He closes it as if he's changed his mind and then starts again.

"Not exactly," Sebastian replies with harsher tone to his voice than he's had all night.

Kurt furrows his brow and glares at Sebastian, even though he knows the other boy can't see him.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Kurt asks. Now he's getting annoyed that Sebastian is dodging a fairly simple question about the nature of his relationship with Blaine.

"I think it means it's none of your fucking business, gay face!"

Kurt sputters briefly before Sebastian slams his foot down on the gas pedal and the car accelerates, throwing Kurt back into his seat. He flinches as his bare skin hits the chilled lining of his coat. Now that his buzz has begun to wear off, he's feeling embarrassed that he had been dancing shirtless and making out with Sebastian. And why had he left his shirt in the club?

"Fine. Forget I asked."

Kurt turns away from Sebastian to look out the window, tears welling up in his eyes. He doesn't mention the speed limit this time because he's dying to get back to Lima and away from Sebastian, and even more importantly to find out what's going on with his dad. He fights back the tears burning in his eyes. He'll be damned if he'll let this self-righteous bastard see him cry.

"Rachel, you lied to Kurt," Finn protests when he reads the text exchange between them on his phone.

"No, I didn't," she says, smiling sweetly at Finn.

"You told him something was wrong with his dad. Not cool."

"No, I told him to come home. He jumped to that conclusion on his own. I just didn't say anything to correct his faulty assumption. It's a truth lie, like a lie of omission."

"Still sounds like a lie to me," Finn says with a shrug.

"That's because you're far more honorable than me. Everyone knows I'm ruthless, and Kurt wouldn't have believed that text coming from me. But you? You he trusts."

"Trust? I'll be lucky if he doesn't kill me after that," Finn says as he begins to pace.

"Oh, don't worry," Rachel says beaming. "I've got a plan. And if it falls apart, I'll take the blame."

Rachel grabs Kurt's laptop, pulls up Blaine's email and clicks reply.

Blaine didn't expect an immediate reply to his email, but now he's starting to get worried. Kurt hasn't replied to any of his texts, and even if he's angry, Blaine had at least hoped for a "buzz off" or "I hate you." But nothing. Not even a "stop texting me."

Sure the email was a last resort, but he figured the medium was far more unexpected and thus, much more likely to get Kurt's attention. Also, Blaine's always been better at expressing himself in writing…well that, and singing. But he'd need to see Kurt in person for that. So email it is.

After he sent the message, he'd spent the evening cleaning his room, doing homework and anything really to distract himself from thinking about Kurt. None of it works.

Blaine had gotten a new smartphone from his parents for his birthday, but hadn't really customized it yet, beyond a few photos for his contacts. Email was an afterthought because he hardly used it, preferring to text or call someone. So he sets up his phone to receive email notifications. He sets it to vibrate so he won't be awakened overnight at erratic intervals by junk mail from Brooks Brothers and forwards of tired memes from Cooper.

Around 10:30, Blaine resigns himself to not hearing from Kurt that night and settles into bed with his iPod and headphones. Music always relaxes him, so he puts his most soothing playlist on shuffle and closes his eyes.

He is jolted awake an hour later when his phone vibrates in his pocket. For all his thinking ahead, he'd forgotten to place it on the nightstand. As his eyes adjust to the light, he squints trying to read the screen.

"New email from Kurt Hummel" it reads.

Blaine sits upright so quickly he yanks the earbuds from his ears and nearly flings his iPod across the room. Trying to open the message, he fatfingers the screen and accidentally opens Facebook instead of his email.

"Fuck."

He finally gets the email open and his jaw drops.

To: blainewarbler@daltonacademy.edu
From: kurtisthegreateststar@gmail.com

Subject: Re: Please don't delete this … please

Message sent 11:27 p.m., Wednesday:
I'd rather talk about this in person. Can you come over?

He doesn't even bother to reply before slipping on a pair of jeans and the closest pair of shoes. He's out the door in less than five minutes.

Finn and Rachel just barely beat Blaine to the Hummel-Hudson house. In fact, he pulls into the driveway just as Rachel is reaching into the backseat for Kurt's laptop.

When she looks up to see Blaine stepping out of his car, she nearly drops the computer in the driveway. If she wasn't still wearing her ridiculous sunglasses, Blaine might have seen the guilty look on her face.

"Rachel?" he asks incredulously. "What are you doing here?"

"Um, well…I," she starts. "Finn and I, were just getting back from a date and I was returning Kurt's laptop. As I'm sure you know, I plan on being on Broadway some day, but my back up plan is to go viral on the internet. Kurt helps me post clips of me singing to YouTube and he left this at my house the other day."

Finn just stares at Rachel as she rambles. When she stops talking, he looks back at the guy standing in his driveway, and it occurs to him that he has no clue who this small dude is.

"Rachel, who is this?" he asks.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Blaine says. "Blaine Anderson." He offers his right hand to Finn.

Finn looks at Blaine's hand and then at Rachel and back at Blaine, who by now is shifting uncomfortably and starting to pull his hand away.

"You must be Finn," he says tentatively. "Kurt's told me a lot about you."

Finn's face is screwed up in confusion as he stares down at this kid with wide eyes and what once might have been neatly styled hair, but is now in messy clumps of curls and gel.

"Oh," he says, a look of sudden realization on his face. "Blaine from the e…ow!"

Rachel elbows him in the side.

"What did you do that for?" he asks, rubbing his ribs.

She gives Finn a stern look, which he either understands or recognizes as her "stop talking before I hurt you" look. Either way, he doesn't finish his sentence because Rachel has started speaking again.

"Are you here to see Kurt?" she asks sweetly.

Blaine nods. "I think he's finally willing to talk to me."

"He should be here any minute," Rachel says, looking pointedly at Finn. "He said he had a surprise and you should wait."

"He's not here? And a surprise? Rachel, it's after midnight." Blaine narrows his eyes. "What's going on?"

"You should just come inside, Blaine. It's kind of cold out here, and you're not wearing any socks."

She nearly skips up to the front door. Finn and Blaine follow tentatively behind, sharing confused looks.

"Just go with it, dude," Finn suggests. "It's easier if you just learn to go with it."

Blaine offers a weak smile and follows him into the house.

Rachel is taking off her coat and hanging it in the hall closet when Blaine notices how dark and quiet the rest of the house is.

"Are your parents home?" he asks Finn.

"Yeah, but they're probably asleep."

"Don't you think they'll be upset if they find out we're all here so late on a school night?"

"Nah," Finn says, shrugging it off. "They're used to it. As long as we keep it down."

"We're not animals, Finn," Rachel interjects. She's taken off her sunglasses and her coat and is standing next to Blaine smiling broadly. "Should we sit down and have a chat while we wait for Kurt? Finn, why don't you get us something to drink, and I'll pick Blaine's Warbler brain about ideas for our setlist for nationals."

Finn only makes it halfway to the kitchen before they hear a car pull up and two doors slam, followed by hurried footsteps and the front door opening and then closing.

"Dad? Finn?" Kurt shouts from the entryway.

Blaine's breath catches in his throat when he sees Kurt and he audibly gasps at how Kurt is dressed. His wool coat is open to reveal a bare chest and skin-tight jeans. Kurt's hair is wild and what is visible of his torso through the opening of his coat is covered in a light dusting of glitter. Blaine is speechless.

And then he sees Sebastian.

Kurt turns to face the living room and when his eyes fall on his brother, his best friend, and his maybe boyfriend all sitting around staring at him, his eyes go wide.

"What are you doing here?" he shouts at Blaine.

"What's he doing here?" Blaine shouts back, pointing at Sebastian, who doesn't skip a beat. He walks up to Kurt and threads an arm around his shoulders.

"We were on a date," he says. "Dalton here was showing me some of his best dance moves, weren't you sweetheart?"

"Get off me," Kurt grunts, shoving Sebastian's arm away from his shoulders.

"Don't touch him you asshole!" Blaine shouts, lunging forward and being held back slightly by Finn.

"Who's Dalton?" Finn asks, raising his voice to catch someone's, anyone's, attention.

"N-now everyone, just calm down," Rachel says in a stage voice, straining to be heard over the din of the boys arguing. "I can explain…"

"Hey. HEY! What's all this shouting for?"

Everyone stops midsentence and Kurt's head whips around to see his dad standing in the doorway to the kitchen in his pajamas, a dingy bath robe hanging loosely on his shoulders. He's never been so relieved to be yelled at in his entire life.

"Dad, you're alright," Kurt says, throwing himself into his dad's arms. "I was so worried!"

"Of course I'm alright," Burt replies, pulling back and giving his son a confused look. "Care to tell me what's going on?"

"Well, Finn sent me a text saying I needed to get home quickly and he almost never texts me, and I thought something had happened to you so I came straight home…"

Kurt trails off as he looks at Finn, a question forming on his lips. Finn mouths like a fish for a moment before looking over to Rachel. She looks like she's about to cry and says, "Mr. Hummel, this is all my fault."

"Rachel, what on earth are all these kids doing in my living room at one in the morning shouting at each other? And Kurt, not that I ever claim to know what the hell is in fashion, but would you explain to me why you're not wearing a shirt and are covered in sparkles like a goddamned fairy princess?"

Everyone starts talking at once again and Burt can only make out a few words here and there: dancing, Kurt's job, blackmail, Blaine, NYADA.

"Hey!" he shouts over the noise, and everyone falls silent again. "One at a time."

Rachel starts to speak, "Mr. Hummel…"

"No, Rachel, that's enough," Kurt says. "It's time for me to come clean."

"Kiddo, what are you talking about?" Burt asks.

"Dad, I've been working as an exotic dancer … I'm a stripper," Kurt says.