Blaine had a hard time concentrating. He kept stealing glances at Kurt. A half hour into rehearsal, Blaine realized that Kurt was sitting next to Zach. When did that happen? he thought, then immediately felt a combination of guilt and jealousy. They looked so comfortable next to each other like they'd spent a lot of time that close together.

"He's straight, you know," James whispered from behind Blaine.

Blaine turned around and looked at James, not knowing how he was supposed to be feeling about James talking to him. "When I met him, he said he wasn't gay."

Blaine turned his eyes down and looked forward. I don't have a right to be jealous anyway.

The New Directions were invited to perform the first of their two numbers before the halfway break.

The Warblers moved the furniture around to make room as a stage for the New Directions and they took their places.

The fourteen boys and girls started off facing backwards when the music started. When a line came, the singer turned around and stood front in center, the front of the stage accumulating sings as the beginning of the song went by.

Mercedes: Someone once told me that you have to choose

What you win or lose, you can't have everything

Rachel: Don't you take chances, you might feel the pain

Don't you love in vain 'cause love won't set you free

Kurt: I could stand by the side and watch this life pass me by

So unhappy, but safe as could be

Santana: So what if it hurts me?

So what if I break down?

So what if this world just throws me off the edge

My feet run out of ground?

Mercedes: I gotta find my place, I wanna hear my sound

Don't care about all the pain in front of me

'Cause I'm just trying to be happy,

Rachel: Just wanna be happy,

Finn: Holding on tightly, just can't let it go

Just trying to play my role, slowly disappear, oh

Zach: But all these days, they feel like they're the same

Just different faces, different names, get me out of here

Sam: But I can't stand by your side, oh no

And watch this life pass me by, pass me by

Puck: So what if it hurts me?

So what if I break down?

So what if this world just throws me off the edge

My feet run out of ground?

Rachel: I gotta find my place,

Mercedes: I wanna hear my sound

Kurt: Don't care about all the pain in front of me

Cause I'm just trying to be happy, oh, happy, oh

Artie: So any turns that I can't see

Like I'm a stranger on this road

But don't say victim, don't say anything

Kurt: So what if it hurts me?

So what if I break down?

So what if this world just throws me off the edge

My feet run out of ground?

Mercedes: I gotta find my place, I wanna hear my sound

Don't care about all the pain in front of me

I just wanna be happy,

Rachel: happy,

Santana: happy

Artie: I just wanna be, oh, I just wanna be happy

Kurt: Oh, happy

Kurt had locked eyes with Blaine at the last note of the song and everyone was dismissed for a ten minute break. Mercedes, Kurt, and Tina went out into the hallway.

After a few minutes, Nick walked up to the three teens and reached out to hug Kurt. Kurt accepted the hug and patted him on the back in a manly fashion.

"How are you holding up?" Nick asked, putting a hand on Kurt's shoulder.

"I'm just- you know," Kurt responded, trying to sound like he was doing more than just surviving.

"Yeah… I know." Nick put his hands in his pockets and looked down at the floor, shuffling his feet awkwardly. "You know," he paused. "I really hope that you don't stop talking to the rest of us because Blaine was an idiot." Nick knew nothing about James and Blaine, only that he very meanly, and publicly broke Kurt's heart.

Kurt gave him a half smile. "I won't. We've still got a benefit to put on, right? You'll see me around."

"Yes, but I mean after. You and I aren't close, but I'd like to think that we're friends."

"Me too."

Nick smiled. "Okay. Good. Then you won't make strangers out of us?"

Kurt chuckled slightly. "No." He heard his phone ring in his pocket. He had a text message. "I won't be a stranger." Kurt pulled his phone out of his pocket and listened to Nick change the subject to Quinn while he saw that the text was from Thad. He opened up the text. It was a video. Strange, he thought. He looked up at Nick while the video loaded itself to let Nick know he was still listening. It began playing before he looked back down at the screen. Kurt's attention was averted when he began hearing pornographic breathing and moans. He stared into the screen and froze when he saw who the subject of the video was.

It was like a train wreck. He couldn't stop staring despite seeing his entire world crash down deeper than he thought it already had.

"What is that?" Mercedes asked, moving to look over Kurt's shoulder. He didn't make any motion to move and she saw what Kurt saw.

Tina moved in to look. "Oh my god!" She saw too. James was sucking Blaine's dick while Blaine writhed in pleasure.

Something in Kurt snapped. He was shaking. Now he knew why Blaine broke up with him: because he cheated… with James. He tapped the screen to stop or pause the video. He didn't care which one. He plowed past Nick and left the two girls standing in the hallway with gaping mouths.

Kurt stormed into the practice room and up to Blaine who was standing with Wes and David by the council table. Blaine saw him coming and his mind went blank, not knowing why Kurt was walking up to him and why he looked so angry, when only minutes ago Kurt looked so strong. Kurt raised his hand quickly and slapped Blaine across the face hard, leaving a bright red mark in its wake. "Why?" he screamed.

The room went silent and all eyes went looking around the room for the noise and then to Kurt and Blaine, when they quickly found its source.

In that one action, Blaine knew. Kurt knows. His face twisted in pain. This was why he broke up with Kurt, so that he'd never know. So that Kurt would never have to look at him that way he is now. Blaine didn't know what to say. He didn't cover his face, though it hurt, or retaliate, or doing anything. He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out and he closed it again. What do you say for something like this? he thought.

"You said he repulsed you!" he yelled, refusing to let the tears well up in his eyes.

"Kurt, what's going on?" Mr. Sheuster asked sternly, approaching the boys.

Kurt ignored him and went to run from the room. "Kurt, wait!" Blaine finally called and caught him by the arm at the door. "I'm sorry," he begged.

"Sorry?" Kurt screamed, flinching and flailing himself away from Blaine's touch. He tapped the screen of his phone that was still in his left hand and held it up in front of Blaine's face. "This doesn't look like sorry!"

Kurt tried to run again, but Blaine caught him once more before he reached the door. "Please, let me explain!"

Without pausing, Kurt whipped himself out of Blaine's grasp and with a clenched fist, punched Blaine, connecting his knuckles perfectly with Blaine's cheek bone.

Blaine stumbled back a couple steps, but was on such an adrenaline rush he was able to ignore the pain and attempt to go after Kurt again. What seemed to be out of no where, Puck stood in his way and shoved him backwards, guiding him to a couch. "Sit!" he commanded. "Stay." A group of people: Wes, David, Puck, Sam, and bunch of other Warblers stood guard to make sure Blaine didn't move. No one knew what was happening, but they were all on whatever side it was to give Kurt space.

Blaine wasn't looking, but he could feel James' eyes on him, a few yards to his right, on the other side of the wall of people. He could feel Thad smiling from the back of the room, practically hear him screeching "I won" in his head.

Finn ran out into the hallway after Kurt. He caught up with him pacing a little ways down the hall, just outside the practice room doors. "Kurt," Finn said. "You've got a wicked right hook, but what the hell happened?"

"He fucking hooked up with James! He cheated on me with that fucking creep show, Collin Ferrell, wannabe!" Kurt's hand flew up and gestured back toward to doors.

If there was one thing that Finn knew about and hated the most, it was cheating. He'd been cheated on by the only two girlfriends he'd ever had. "Seriously?" Kurt tossed his phone at Finn. Not knowing what he was supposed to be looking at, he heard the moans and then he made out the figures on the screen. He dropped the phone, and let it fall to the floor, repulsed by what he was seeing. He didn't say anything to Kurt before running back into the room.

Blaine stood up when he saw the abnormally tall teen and prayed that Finn was planning on hitting him. That's all he wanted. He wanted to be beaten until he couldn't see or feel anymore. Mr. Sheuster saw the look on Finn's face and moved to stand near the group of boys. Instead of going for Blaine, Finn waltzed up to James who was still sitting in a chair and he dragged him out of it by his blazer.

This caught James by surprise, but none more than when Finn straddled him and began repeatedly punching him in the face. It felt like when Finn did the same thing to Puck for knocking up Quinn. "What gives you the right?" Punch. "He didn't belong to you." Punch. "Fucking." Punch. "Asshole." Punch. Finn felt hands dragging him up and out the back door. James was pulled up and sat down, his face a bloody mess.

Blaine sat back down, his head in his hands. This is my fault. I did this. I'm nothing. I deserve nothing. Nothing good. Ever.

Outside the practice room after Finn ran back inside

"Kurt." Thad was standing a few feet from Kurt, watching him pace. "Kurt, he was drunk. They all were."

"Don't!" Kurt shouted. "Of all the people in that room to tell me that alcohol is to blame, I'd believe it least coming from you. People still have consciences when their drunk. They just care about consequences less." He continued pacing and then suddenly stopped. "And why the fuck do you care? You're the one who sent the video to me."

"You had a right to know what kind of guy you were pining for."

"Wait. In order for you to send it to me, you had to have had a copy of it on your phone. How many people have seen this?"

"Other than Blaine and James, just me and you."

"How'd you get it?"

"I filmed it."

"What?"

"I filmed it."

"I heard you! I meant why? You whip out your camera and start recording instead of stopping it? Why would you do that?"

"I told you already."

"What? Told me what already? We haven't spoken in a very long time."

"At the party after sectional's. I told you that I would do anything to lick you from head to toe."

"And THIS is how to go about that?"

"It got Blaine out of the picture."

"So, getting me to hate Blaine would make me jump in bed with you?"

"It was worth a shot. Hey, I didn't put the two of them together. Me filming what I saw doesn't make what Blaine did any less real. He knew what he was doing and as you can see, he did nothing to stop himself. In fact, it looks like he enjoyed himself. I only sent you a fraction of what actually happened. The whole video is actually forty five minutes long. Just think of all the things that two people can do in that amount of time."

"Ugh. I think I'm going to be sick." Kurt ran as fast as he could to the nearest bathroom, which happened to be two corridors away and busted through a stall to get to the toilet. He dropped to his knees immediately and vomited the entire contents of his stomach into the toilet bowl.

Kurt coughed and hiccupped; he gasped for breath as he clutched his chest; he could feel his heart beating hard as if it would escape through his ribs; he was feeling dizzy and couldn't stop himself from slamming the back of his head against the wall of the bathroom stall. "God damn it!" he yelled as loud as he could. "Fuck." It came out sounding broken as he began to sob.

He felt a pair of hands drag him out of the stall and cradle him inside long arms. Kurt opened his eyes and through blurry tears, he saw Finn. "Let it out," Finn soothed. Kurt was shaking and cried harder into his brother's shoulder as he gripped him tighter. "Why? Fuck. Why?" Finn wanted to cry himself, but held it back because he was supposed to be strong. His heart broke for his brother. "What did I do?"

"You didn't do anything. None of this is your fault."

"Then why? Why couldn't I be happy? We were so god damn happy, Finn. Why?" Kurt was gasping for air again and he coughed out more sobs. He was getting Finn's shoulder drenched with his tears and maybe even some of the snot he was trying to keep from running out of his nose, but Finn didn't budge. He wasn't going to let go for anything.

A half hour went by of this before Kurt was sitting against the bathroom wall with his brother by his side. They weren't talking, just sitting together and staring into nothing. Mr. Sheuster came in shortly afterward and broke them from their unhappy reverie.

"Guys, I don't know all the details of what happened or what caused this, but I do know that the both of you are the luckiest kids on the planet."

Kurt looked up at his favorite teacher angrily. How dare he call him lucky after his entire world just fell through a gaping hole. "Especially you, Finn. That James kid's nose may not be broken, but you definitely did enough damage to get put in the back of a cop car and Blaine convinced him to leave it alone." The sound of Blaine's name stung as it traveled in Kurt's ears and he winced.

"So, what happens?" Finn asked.

"Nothing. I'll hear back from their counsel on a couple days to see if we're still invited to sing with them at their benefit, but you two are getting off scot-free. Frankly, I'm quite stunned and stuck because I'm supposed to report you to Principal Figgins and you'd both get suspended for fighting, but I know I can't do that and still be able to have the numbers to take us to Nationals. And Blaine begged me not to do anything about it. He said it was his fault."

He's right. It is his fault, Kurt thought.

"So, if you two are ready, we're going to get going."

Finn looked to Kurt for a ready signal. "Yeah. I want to go home."

The three men walked out of the bathroom together and made their way to the exit with Mr. Sheuster in the lead. Kurt and Finn walked closely side by side.

"Kurt, keep looking straight," Finn commanded.

Kurt regretted not listening, but saying something like that is like saying "don't touch the red button;" it only makes you want to touch it more, so he looked. Blaine was standing outside the Warbler rehearsal room looking ahead at Kurt. For a moment, they locked eyes and Kurt saw the bruise forming on his cheek. He saw the dark red circles rimmed around Blaine's eyes and he sees how pale his skin looks. He hasn't been sleeping, he he remembered he wasn't supposed to feel bad for the curly haired boy and let Finn shove him out the door. The last thing he saw was Blaine mouthing the words, "I'm sorry."