Chapter 19

Kurt entered the cafeteria and made a beeline for the Cheerios table. Too excited to see Blaine, he didn't even bother to make small talk with anyone in the room. Kurt took his usual seat at the table, right next to Brittany, pulled a small thing of salad out of his bag and silently cursed himself when he realized he had forgotten a fork.

He glanced up, just in time to smile at Blaine before he turned and took a seat at the jocks table; further away from Kurt than usual.

It's for the best, right?

Kurt felt a bit snubbed, but he just shook it off, turning his attention to the current lack of eating utensils at his disposal.

After deciding that getting up to go actually grab a fork from the lunch line would take far too much effort he tried to find one currently not in use, immediately spotting a pristine plastic fork sitting right next to Blaine's lunch tray.

"Blaine. Hey, Blaine."

He looked over at Kurt, a slight smile coming over his face at the sound of Kurt's voice.

"Can I use your fork? I forgot mine."

Blaine's face scrunched a bit and all he got out was a small,

"Uhh, I-"

Before Puck had smacked him on the arm to get him back in the conversation. A scowl came over Kurt's face and he took a deep breath.

"Blaine."

His head whipped around once again and he lifted his eyebrows in question.

"Your fork?"

Blaine mumbled something along the lines of,

"There's more in the lunch line."

And then once again turned to Puck, not even noticing Kurt's,

"But you're not using yours."

Blaine didn't even look back this time, Kurt's question falling on deaf ears.

Are you freaking kidding me?

Kurt looked down at the salad, frowning at the leafy greens when he felt Brittany tap him on the shoulder.

"Do you need a fork?"

Kurt looked up and smiled, nodding at the sweet, blonde girl. She reached into her bag and handed Kurt a nice, clean fork.

"I always have an extra fork in my bag just in case I, you know, find a plate of spaghetti or need to comb my hair or something."

Kurt grinned lightly and laughed a little as he said thanks; enjoying the smile that Brittany always seemed to bring him.

He started in on his salad, eating in peace until he overheard Blaine and Puck's conversation.

"Dude, I still can't believe you did that!"

"I was so high; I don't even remember doing that!"

Kurt rolled his eyes and felt his anger bubble up. If hearing about Blaine getting high when it first happened didn't make him upset enough, hearing him gab about it like it was some 'awesome' thing just made him even more irate.

Finn shoved a bite of cheeseburger in his mouth, not even bothering to finish chewing before he spoke.

"Dude, we need to do that again sometime."

Blaine gave a small chuckle, and glanced over at Kurt, who seemed to be completely focused on his salad.

"I would but uh…my uh, my parents found out last time."

Finn nodded a bit, his cheeks still stuffed with food.

"Aw man! Bummer."

Kurt didn't hear Blaine's lie, though. By this point he was staring off into space, absentmindedly throwing sharp stabs into his salad; feeling no mercy as he doled out his rage on the innocent container full of greens. His fork probably would have snapped had Santana not spoken up.

"Hey, uh, Ghostface. Wanna take it a little easy there on the salad?"

Kurt momentarily stopped the vicious murder of his lunch to glare at her. He stood suddenly, quietly murmuring to himself about his loss of appetite before tossing away his half-eaten meal and leaving the cafeteria.

Over the course of the day, his thoughts began to swell.

I only asked him for a fork, not a kidney.

It's not like he can't even talk to me, there's nothing wrong with that.

He's taking this too far.

And then he has to go and talk about that stuff? He knows how upset I was about that stupid 'escapade' of theirs!

Everything finally seemed to get a bit better during cheer practice.

Coach Sue hadn't shown up yet, something about getting hyaluronic acid injections, so all of the Cheerios were gossiping away as they started on their own warm-ups.

"And so I see them together and I know they're talking about me."

"Wow. What a slut!"

"I know, right?!"

Kurt turned to her and put a caring hand on her shoulder.

"Hun, you can do better. Besides, that girl has nasty cankles."

"That. Is. Disgusting."

Another girl piped in.

"It's true. I saw them last weekend. She was at the mall and thought she could get away with wearing crocs."

"Ohmygod! Crocs! No way!"

He couldn't hold his comment back, this was too much.

"Dear god! Why would anyone wear those? That's a sin against fashion. So unnatural."

Kurt smiled a bit when he heard a few girls laugh at his comment. Then a freshman stuck her arm out to point at the mass of football players on the field.

"You know what else is unnatural? Him!"

Kurt perked up a bit, immediately glancing out at the boys.

"Who?"

Another girl joined in, sighing a bit when she said his name.

"Blaine."

You have got to be kidding me.

The second Kurt heard Blaine's name he plunged right back into his sour mood from earlier. He couldn't help but roll his eyes when one of the freshmen began to giggle.

"He talked to me today. He talked to me. Can you believe it?"

Someone else chimed in.

"Omg, that's nothing. Yesterday I went to get a drink from the water fountain, and when I bent down he accidentally bumped into me!"

A few girls actually began to fan themselves as she continued on.

"No, but that's not all. Then, he said 'Sorry' and I was like, 'It's okay.' And he smiled and said, 'Cool.' He said cool!"

About half of the Cheerios were squealing and Kurt couldn't help but make a snide comment.

"Oh, that's fascinating."

Then a freshman turned to Quinn, practically pleading,

"Don't you think he's cute? He's so cute, right?"

She laughed and nodded.

"Yeah, he's pretty cute."

Santana shrugged, giving her own unique approval.

"I'd sleep with him"

Quinn raised an eyebrow at her.

"Which isn't saying much..."

Kurt snorted a bit, happy to get some enjoyment out of this whole fiasco.

But then another Cheerio had some story about how Blaine had 'gazed into my eyes' and how he 'touched my arm', each and every word tipping Kurt closer to the edge.

When some girl explained how they were 'made for each other', Kurt didn't hold back.

"Oh, trust me, honey. You're not his type."

One of the snottier sophomores threw him a fierce glare.

"And how would you know Blaine's type?"

It took Kurt every single ounce of self control to keep himself from ripping the girl to shreds right then and there. Luckily, Santana spoke up, eager to get in her own two cents.

"Leave the boy cheer wonder alone. He's just upset because even if Blaine is gay he's totally a power bottom."

Kurt rolled his eyes; it seemed to be becoming a habit.

"Hardly."

"There's no way he's gay. Have you seen the way he looks at me? I bet he's awesome in bed."

Santana laughed a bit at that.

"Oh please, that boy screams virgin."

Well…she's not wrong…

"You never know. He's so mysterious. It's so hot. It's amazing no one has snatched him up yet."

Kurt grimaced when he heard that. He dug his thumb nail into the side of his index finger, using all his strength to keep from marking his territory.

"Maybe he's just not the relationship type."

"Ohmygod! That's so hot!"

And then Kurt lost it.

"Oh my god, stop! He's not even that cute!"

All of the girls immediately hushed, the whole group taken aback by his outburst. This was just gossip and they had no idea why he was getting so worked up about it.

"I find myself forgetting that Dalmatians exist…"

As if by some movie level coordination, everyone turned their heads at the same time to gape at Brittany, who had been stretching in her own little world, completely oblivious to everything around her. No one had a reply to that statement and no one was really sure what to make of it, so they just stared.

The silence broke to the shrill sound of Sue's loud whistle, her arrival finally calling the girls over to practice and ending what could have been a murderous rampage on Kurt's part.

Football practice was wrapping up and Blaine couldn't have been happier for it. The last two hours had consisted of Karofsky making annoying comments that Blaine was too distracted to think of a decent reply for; his thoughts completely consumed by Kurt. How much he missed him, how horrible he felt for brushing him off, how much he wanted to just be with him.

So when practice ended, Blaine stayed behind, tying and retying his shoes while watching Kurt out of the corner of his eye. Kurt was the last cheerleader out on the field, the rest of the Cheerios having already cleared out as it was his turn to gather up the pom-poms.

Kurt dumped the last arm full of pom-poms into a bucket just as Blaine came up behind him.

"Hey, Kurt I-"

"I have to go change."

He didn't even bother looking at Blaine as he turned and began walking towards the girl's locker room. Blaine's face dropped as he watched Kurt walk away from him, not completely sure exactly how to respond.

"Oh, yeah of course. Are you, um, are you still coming over today?"

Kurt kept moving, tossing a careless

"Sure."

Over his shoulder as he got further and further away.

Blaine had no idea what to do or what to say, he just wanted Kurt to be happy but right now it was obvious that wasn't going to happen. With head hung low, Blaine made his way over to the boy's locker room, stripping off his jersey and pads and leaving his undershirt as he walked so he could get in and out of there as fast as possible.

He entered the room, fully expecting to hear Karofsky shout something at him, yet again, but he never could have guessed what was actually waiting for him inside.

As the door shut behind him, he realized that the room was dead silent. Blaine froze in his tracks when he saw the crowd of football players surrounding his locker.

It felt so surreal, everyone's eyes were on him and he knew, as if almost by animal instinct, that they had done something horrible. Blaine felt the blood rushing in his ears, the tension mounting as everyone stared.

A single voice broke the silence.

"Fag."

It was like that one word had opened up the flood gates. Laughter rang out, bouncing off metal and echoing in Blaine's ears. More obscenities were thrown his way, but at this point everything just sounded like thunderous noise.

His pads and jersey fell from his grasp and he began to walk forwards slowly, trying to block out their words, but he couldn't. Blaine felt the beginnings of panic just as he made eye contact with Finn.

"Dude, we're so sorry. We tried to stop him but-"

Blaine just kept pushing through the jocks until he got to his locker. He froze, staring up in horror at what was on display.

His Letterman jacket was strung up against the metal for all to see, hot pink spray paint spelling out 'GAY' across the back.

The laughter got louder as Blaine whipped around, anger etched in every movement, and when he spotted Karofsky leaving with a gigantic, cocky smirk on his face, he felt a new sense of wrath crash through him. He reached out and tore the jacket down, fury overcoming rational thinking.

"You son of a bitch!"

Puck knew what was about to happen and he jumped forwards, grabbing onto Blaine's arms to keep him from attacking Karofsky, but it was no use. Blaine tore himself free and charged towards the jock.

"What the hell is your problem?!"

Blaine hurled the jacket to the floor in between their feet and Karofsky just smiled condescendingly.

"What? You don't like it? I thought you gays love cutting-edge fashion?"

"For crying out loud Karofsky, I'm not gay!"

Karofsky laughed, because he knew Blaine was lying through his teeth. He looked like he was about to say something, but then decided to just smile before beginning to turn away and it pissed Blaine off more than it should have.

"What?!"

Karofsky turned just enough so he could look Blaine straight in the eye.

"Nothing."

It almost felt like a challenge, like he was daring Blaine to do something.

"Would you cut the crap?! I'm sick of this! You have something to say?! Say it to my face!"

Karofsky grinned; it was just what he had wanted to hear. By now the locker room had gone silent, everyone watching the heated exchange. David took the few steps forwards until he was right up in Blaine's face, and he was still smirking slightly, but there was fire behind his eyes. Blaine's face held only pure rage, nothing more as he glared at the jock. You could hear a pin drop, nobody made a sound as they all waited for one of them to snap and throw a punch.

Suddenly Karofsky was laughing and before Blaine even time to react to the sound of the ball shaking in the can of paint, Karofsky had sprayed a bright pink line right across his chest.

A few people cheered, some shouted, others were laughing loudly, but Blaine was in a stunned silence. He wasn't able to do anything as Karofsky simply turned and left the room, the door slamming behind him.

Blaine reached up to his shirt, hand touching the still-wet paint. He blinked, slowly, and took a deep breath.

This is so not over.

Kurt pulled into Blaine's driveway and took the key out of the ignition. He sat there, in the silence of his car, beginning to regret coming over. He should have been happy. After all, this was the only time they had to spend together, but he was really beginning to hate being ignored at school. After a few minutes of silent contemplation, he got out of his car and walked up to the door.

Is it too late to turn around? I mean, I haven't rung the doorbell yet- No, I can't do that to him, I can't just stand him up like that.

Kurt pressed doorbell and immediately decided that he had to tell Blaine how he felt. This needed to be settled, regardless of it ruining their time together. The doorknob turned and Kurt prepared himself to let Blaine have it.

The door opened and before Kurt could even say "We need to talk." Blaine had practically jumped onto him, nearly knocking him over as he pulled Kurt as close as he possibly could. He gave Kurt a quick kiss on the lips and then one on the cheek before pulling him back into the hug, nuzzling his head into Kurt's collar with a contented sigh.

"God I'm so glad you're here, I've missed you so much!"

It took Kurt a few seconds to react to the sudden hug attack, but he finally wrapped his arms around Blaine, his heart involuntarily melting as Blaine's cologne filled his noise.

"I missed you too."

There was a smile in Kurt's voice as he took a few steps forward, walking the pair of them into the house and shutting the door.

Blaine gave him a tight squeeze and another kiss on the cheek before pulling away.

"C'mon! I have a ton of stuff planned!"

Blaine grabbed Kurt by the hand before he had a chance to speak and began to lead him upstairs, talking and glancing back at Kurt with a happy smile on his face.

"This is gonna be so much fun! My parents are at some event out of town and Cooper is out bar hopping, so it's just you and me! We have a movie room and everything, well not really a 'movie room', but it's the old playroom that my parents redecorated with a flat screen and stuff."

They reached the top of the stairs and Blaine turned them down a hall leading to a single door. They entered the room and Blaine launched into another mini monologue.

"Okay, so I know you don't really like junk food so I only bought sugar free candy and for popcorn I actually found my mom's popcorn machine. Did you know not all popcorn is microwaved? Crazy, right? And over here is the couch and we can cuddle and stuff and I brought some blankets and I ran them through the dryer to make sure they were nice and warm and I fluffed up all the pillows and I got Notting Hill. Is that okay? That's okay, right? I love that movie so much."

Kurt smiled and laughed a bit; trying to cover up the fact that he was actually worried for Blaine. He was just too happy, as if he was overcompensating in his cheerfulness to try and hide something else.

"Yeah, Notting Hill is fine."

Blaine looked relieved.

"Okay, awesome."

While Blaine went over to put the movie in, Kurt took a seat on the couch and grabbed a handful of popcorn. He took a few bites and began to silently gag; the bitter, dried out, over-cooked popcorn filling his taste buds.

Blaine turned around with remote in hand and walked over to the couch.

"How's the popcorn? It was my first time making it that way, but I think it came out pretty good!"

Blaine looked so proud that Kurt couldn't find it in himself to be rude, so he just gave a thumbs up and a painful smile as he gulped it down.

Blaine grinned and then snuggled up next to him, pulling Kurt's arm around his shoulders as he draped the blanket over their laps. He hit play on the movie and Kurt couldn't help but smile at how adorable he was, all cuddled up, so calm and happy. Just content to watch a movie with Kurt, to be there with him, nothing more.

Over the course of the movie though, Kurt began to feel more and more spiteful. Normally he loved these kinds of movies, he lived for them, but now, with all of this drama in his own relationship, the movie didn't seem so appealing. And when Blaine began quoting, his lips moving perfectly along with the leading lady as she said,

"After all... I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her."

Kurt couldn't help but snort and Blaine immediately pawed at him.

"Shut up, this is beautiful."

"Oh please, it's so unrealistic. You don't think things like this actually happen, do you?"

Blaine wasn't really paying attention when he replied.

"All the time."

Kurt looked down at his messy mop of curls and the smile on his face, then sighed, because he was about to get rid of that smile. But it had to be done, so Kurt reached over to grab the remote and paused the movie.

"Hey! I was watching that, they were just about to-"

"Blaine."

He sat up straight when he heard the very serious tone of Kurt's voice, suddenly looking worried.

"What?"

"We need to talk."

Blaine's eyes went wide and he looked like a small child, a hand reaching over to play with the fringe on the edge of the blanket.

"O-okay. 'bout what?"

Kurt watched his fingers as they twirled and pulled on the fringe.

"About us. About how you treat me at school."

Blaine's head lowered in guilt as Kurt continued on.

"I know that you're scared and I know that you don't want a repeat of your old school but you can't act like you don't even know me. You're my boyfriend, and you won't say more than two words unless we're the only people within a two hundred foot radius."

Blaine looked up at him from underneath dark eyelashes.

"I'm sorry it's just, these rumors, they're everywhere."

Kurt stilled Blaine's fingers as he took hold of his hand.

"I know, but everything's going to be okay, we'll get through this. Just don't make me feel so ignored at school, it's okay if we talk sometimes, or if we text…or if you lend me a fork."

Blaine laughed a bit and smiled.

"I promise that if you ever forget a fork again then I will most definitely give you mine."

Kurt grinned and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, making him smile brightly now that he was forgiven.

"Good to know."

They gazed at each other for a second when Blaine suddenly looked a bit uncomfortable.

"What?"

Blaine seemed almost embarrassed.

"What is it, Blaine?"

"Can…Can we finish the movie now?"

Kurt grinned and rolled his eyes before grabbing the remote to press play and then wrapping an arm around Blaine's waist to pull him closer. He kinda hoped they would address the girl issue but he supposed, for now at least, it was best to just let it go.

Blaine curled up, allowing his head to rest on Kurt's shoulder. He focused all of his thoughts on the movie and just relaxing with Kurt, not daring to think about the words that had been churning in his head or the soiled Letterman jacket shoved in the back of his closet.

None of that mattered, not so long as he had Kurt.