Stranger: Courage

Your conversational partnerhas disconnected

Kurt smiled at the word on the screen then heard the sound of front door and heavy footsteps. He ran downstairs to greet his dad and all thoughts of his new friend left his mind.

A few hours later he returned to his room with freshly laundered clothes in his hand. He put them away with care and returned to his computer. After nudging his mouse the screen came back to life. There on his MSN screen was a popup, someone was trying to add him. He frowned at the unfamiliar email address before remembering his conversation earlier with the guy who said his name was Blaine.

He hovered the cursor over the confirm button but didn't click. He'd never added someone to his msn that he didn't know in real life. He looked at his display picture, it was a picture of Kurt and Mercedes giving their 'Diva' poses. He clicked on the picture and changed it to one of the default msn display pictures before finally clicking 'accept', figuring that he could always block him if he didn't want to talk to him anymore.

A second later a notification appeared in the bottom right of his screen "Blaine says: Hey!".

Kurt: Hello again

Blaine: I was starting to think that you might have given me a fake email

Kurt: I thought about it ;)

Blaine: :o

Kurt: I don't normally give my email to people I don't actually know

Blaine: That's probably a good idea. But there's no harm in just talking. No personal information need be exchanged :)

Kurt: I guess

Blaine: And I promise I'm not a 40 year old man pretending to be a high school student

Kurt: If you were, that is exactly what you would say. You're grooming me, aren't you?

Blaine: Oh no, you've uncovered my secret plan!

Kurt: lol so what grade are you?

Blaine: I'm a sophomore, you?

Kurt: Junior

Blaine: Hm, maybe it's me that should be worried ;)

Blaine: BRB

Kurt giggled and waited for Blaine to return.

Blaine: Ok! So I think we've established that neither of us are sexual predators?

Kurt: I think so

Blaine: So what are you doing?

Kurt: I'm talking to you aren't I?

Blaine: Nothing else? I'm so honoured!

Kurt: Well what are you doing?

Blaine: Listening to music and getting some homework done

Kurt: You're quite the multi-tasker.

Blaine: Well I'm more staring at my homework then actually doing it

Kurt: Don't let me distract you from your work

Blaine: It's okay, I'm way ahead anyway

The conversation went silent when Kurt wasn't sure what to say next. He figured that Blaine was probably doing his homework, then he remembered that he'd told Blaine all he was doing was chatting to him. Blaine must think he was just sitting here trying to think of something to say. Which was true but there was no need for Blaine to know that. Kurt shook his head. He was definately over thinking this

Kurt: Sorry, I have to go

Blaine: Ok, talk to you tomorrow?

Kurt: Sure

Blaine: Night Kurt

Kurt: Night

Kurt looked at the time, he hadn't realised how late it was. He shut down his computer and started on his skin moisturizing routine.

For the next few days Kurt talked to Blaine every night after school. They never mentioned what they had talked about during their first conversation. Kurt was happy to just chat about less serious things like homework and TV.

He still thought about what Blaine had said. 'Courage'. That was why the next time he was slammed into a locker, instead of shrugging it off and pretending to be okay, he ran after the Neanderthal responsible. He confronted him in the locker room and demanded to know what the guys problem was. The answer, of course, was his sexuality.

For the first time, against his better judgement, Kurt refused to back down. Even when it looked like Karofsky was about to punch him in the face. In that split second he knew he'd rather take then hit then give this bully the satisfaction of having the last word.

"You're nothing but a scared little boy who can't handle how extraordinarily ordinary he is"

...

He was very quiet on the ride home. He couldn't stop thinking about what happened in the locker room.

"Are you okay Kurt?" asked Finn, Kurt's step-brother.

"I'm fine," he lied.

Finn occasionally took his eyes off the road to glance at Kurt.

"I know you wanted to perform with the girls today..." Finn stopped talking because he realised that Kurt was scowling at him. Yes, Kurt had wanted originally wanted to sing with the girls but he watched them perform their mash-up today and thought they were amazing. Did Finn really think that was the cause of Kurt's misery? Not the constant teasing and harassment? The rest of the journey was silent. Kurt wasn't sure if he was annoyed or relieved about that.

Jumping out of the car he stormed past Finn and into the house. Less than a minute later he was lying face down in his bed. He needed to talk to someone about this. He wished he could talk his dad but he'd just got out of the hospital and he didn't need the stress. Mercedes was his best friend, maybe he could tell her. 'But tell her what?' he thought. About the bullying? Everyone already knew about that. They'd seen him walking with ice cold slushy soaking into his clothes and being shoved into lockers. This wasn't news to anyone, but the kiss...

Kurt wasn't sure what that even meant. Was Karofsky messing with him? No, Kurt remembered the look on his face, he wasn't joking around. Did this mean Karofsky was gay? He had no idea what he was supposed to do with that information. He both hated and was scared of Karofsky but he couldn't 'out' him. He knew what it was like to struggle against your sexuality, to be scared that people would find out. He couldn't do that, even to Karofsky. Maybe he wasn't even gay, just confused. There was so many different thoughts running through Kurt's mind, he just wanted to be able to talk it over with someone.

He salt bolt upright and looked over his computer. There was someone he could talk to.