Chapter 20

Kurt strolled into the choir room. It had been a long day, but a pleasant one nonetheless.

All of the ladies were huddled in group, shunning the guys so they could have a little girl time. Kurt glanced between the two groups and when he saw Tina throw her head back in laughter, he decided that the girls were probably having more fun.

Kurt sat in an open chair and placed his bag on the ground, but before he could even ask what they were talking about, Quinn turned to him with a knowing smile on her face.

"So…Kurt. You have a boyfriend?"

Any and all excitement Kurt may have held before immediately fell off his face. He turned to Mercedes and Rachel's mischievous smiles, giving them his most annoyed bitch face.

"Seriously?"

The whole group began to giggle, loving the reaction Kurt was giving them. Rachel's distinct voice piped up through the noise, a smile still gleaming on her face.

"Well, since you simply refuse to tell us who it is-"

Tina jumped in, eager to help in frustrating Kurt.

"We thought we'd take the liberty of trying to guess and we called in some reinforcements."

Santana and Quinn gave him a devious smile; Brittany was too occupied with her phone to look up. After a few seconds Kurt let out a frustrated sigh.

"God I'm afraid to ask. Alright, what insane theories have you come up with?"

Rachel practically leaped out of her seat as she leaned forward to swiftly start explaining what they had been discussing for the past ten minutes.

"Well, Santana suggested Blaine. But I think we all know it isn't him because he and I have undeniable chemistry."

Santana and Kurt rolled their eyes, nearly in sync. Kurt couldn't help to feel a small sense of worry at her guess, but he figured he was over thinking it; Santana was hardly a threat.

Brittany spoke up, her eyes still glued to her extreme game of angry birds.

"I thought it might be Mr. Tickles, the janitor."

She continued looking down at her phone, only glancing up when everyone had been silent for a good thirty seconds or so.

"He was totally checking you out the other day."

They all sat there and stared, unsure what to make of what she said and desperately wanting to block it out of their memories. Kurt just looked disturbed, unable to think of a response as he tried to repress the urge to vomit from the mental image that had just been thrown at him. Santana gave Brittany a small pat on the shoulder and a sad, slightly confused, smile; all of them practically elated when Tina had the good sense to change the subject.

"So, um, do we know him?"

Kurt pursed his lips and then slowly brought his hand up to examine his nails, taking his time before he responded.

"Maybe."

Rachel gasped and her whole entire face lit up.

"I knew it-"

"Maybe not."

Kurt quickly cut her off, laughing a bit when her face scrunched up and she crossed her arms with a pout. The girls continued to chat, throwing more strange conclusions into the mix. Rachel, for once, was silent and deep in thought. Her face suddenly lit up.

"Wait!"

Her hands flew up, signaling everyone to turn their attention to her.

The group went silent and they looked at her, all of them unsure why they were so interested in what Rachel had to say. But, by the look on her face, this had to be good.

With the proper audience built up, she faced Kurt. Her eyes were wide, almost riddled with insanity and Kurt found himself actually terrified.

"Is it…"

She paused. The group leaned in a little closer, staring at her in anticipation. She quickly glanced around, as if saying the name on her mind was some sort of taboo. She turned her gaze back on Kurt, her voice dropping low as she shared her revelation.

"Finn?"

Everyone groaned in unison, all of them knowing that they shouldn't have expected anything less from the one, the only, Rachel Berry.

Mercedes deadpanned; this was definitely a new low point.

"Seriously Rachel?"

Santana leaned back in her chair, folding her arms across her chest, completely astounded.

"I…I have no words."

Tina just shook her head slowly.

"Wow Rachel…just…wow."

Then Finn, who up until now had been innocently messing around on the drum set, poked his head up, curious when his name was mentioned.

"Huh?"

Kurt looked over at Finn and found himself at a loss for words.

"I…nothing, Finn."

Kurt waved him away and, with a shrug, he turned back to his drums. Mercedes caught sight of Mr. Schuester entering the room and a devilish smile came over her face.

"It's okay. At least we won't have to wait too long to at least know how Kurt feels about his Mystery Man."

Kurt immediately went stiff, suspicious of what Mercedes was saying as he glanced between her and Mr. Schue.

"Wait, what? What do you mean?"

But Mercedes just held a smirk, Mr. Schuester's energetic voice calling everyone to attention.

"Alright everybody! Take a seat!"

Kurt, rather nervous, pivoted sharply in his chair to face towards the front of the room, his look of uncertainty growing by the second.

"Regionals is coming up in a couple months, so I want to start preparing you guys. We have a lot of tough competition this year."

Mr. Schuester made his was over to the board, swiftly writing down the beginnings of a word.

"Now I wanted to save this for Valentine's Day, but Mercedes and Rachel insisted I make this week's assignment…"

Oh god no.

"…Romance!"

Kurt's eyes went wide and he began to slowly shake his head back and forth, desperately trying to convince himself that this wasn't happening.

"So Kurt, I hear you already have something prepared. You wanna start us off?"

Kurt lifted a hand to gesture to himself.

"Me? I…"

He turned around when he heard the sounds of the girls desperately trying to conceal their laughter, throwing a dirty look at them before taking a deep breath and whipping his head back around to face Mr. Schue.

"Sure."

The girls stopped laughing; excited and unbelieving that Kurt was actually going to go through with this.

He stood, smoothed out his shirt and walked silent, calculated steps down to the piano. He kindly asked Brad to leave and then, with a dramatic flourish, took his place at the keys.

One by one, he placed his fingers lightly on the piano, and then snapped his gaze over to the girls.

"I'd like to take a moment to dedicate this song to Rachel and Mercedes."

With one last sneer, Kurt slammed his fingers down on the keys, and thus began the most monotone, passive aggressive rendition of 'You Are My Sunshine' the world has ever known.

The girls were practically dying as they tried to conceal their laughter; everyone else in the room left utterly confused as to what was going on as the inside joke flew completely over their heads.

Kurt finished with one last bang on the keys and the girls suddenly burst into a roar of laughter. A few random claps could be heard here and there from the guys as Mr. Schuester stood up from his chair, all of them unsure what to make of the performance.

"That…uh…that was great…Kurt…very...unique."

Kurt stood and swiftly walked back to his seat, showing a slight snarky smile when Tina gave him a thumbs up.

Blaine was sitting on the center of his bed, picking at the pink paint streaked across his Letterman jacket when his phone lit up with an incoming call. The chorus of Animal began to play and he smiled brightly, the sounds signifying that it was Kurt who was calling.

"Hey!"

Blaine shoved his jacket to the side, the stain momentarily forgotten as he listened to the sound of Kurt's voice.

"Hey Blaine. How are you?"

"I'm alright. What's up?"

Kurt laid down on his bed and snuggled up to one of the pillows.

"Nothing. Just missing you."

"Aww. You're so sweet. God, I miss you too. Are we still on for our study date tomorrow?"

"Of course!"

"Awesome."

"So, what are you up to?"

Blaine glanced over at the mix of pink and red.

"Nothing really. Hey, you wouldn't happen to know how to get paint out of polyester, would you?"

"Um…hmm….you could try rubbing ice on it? It might make it easier to peel off. Why? What happened?"

"Nothing. I was stupid the other day and leaned against a wet wall. My Letterman got all messed up."

"Blaine."

"Yeah?"

"I know you well enough to know when you're lying."

"What? I…"

Blaine paused to take a breath.

"I didn't want to worry you. It's not a big deal."

"Blaine-"

"Karofsky's just…he's getting worse. Honestly, I'm not sure how much more I can handle. I…Can we change the subject? Please? How was your day?"

Kurt wanted to say more, but he also didn't want to ruin their conversation so he just moved on, recalling the day's past events.

"It-it was good."

He couldn't help but laugh when he remembered the looks on everyone's faces.

"I actually have a really funny story to tell you."

"I could use a good laugh. What happened?"

"Well, I went to glee rehearsal today. Apparently Rachel and Mercedes decided to tell all of the girls about my 'mystery man'. They were having a field day. Then Mr. Schue came in and told us that by special request, via Mercedes and Rachel, this week's assignment is 'Romance'."

Blaine had a huge smile on his face.

"Oh no!"

"Oh yes. And it gets worse."

"How?!"

"Apparently they told Mr. Schue that I already had a song prepared."

Blaine was practically dying of laughter when he heard that.

"That's hilarious! What did you sing?"

"Only the most passively hostile performance of 'You Are My Sunshine' the world has ever had the misfortune to witness, complete with threatening glares and pounding piano notes."

By this point Blaine was almost in tears he was laughing so hard and Kurt couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"I'm glad you're so amused."

"You have to sing that for me one day!"

"We'll see. I don't think there can be more than one of that performance in a life time."

Kurt smiled and after a bit their hilarity had died down, the both of them quiet when Blaine spoke up.

"So what would you have sung?"

"Hmm?"

"You know, if you were actually going to sing a song about how you feel about me. What would you sing?"

"Well let's see, there's 'Single Ladies' by Beyoncé…"

"Kurt."

"And 'Heartbreaker' by Mariah Carey…"

"Kuuurt."

"Oh! 'Rude Boy' by Rihanna!-"

"Kurt!"

There was a pause as Blaine felt a bit of guilt wash over him and when he spoke again his voice was small.

"Are…are you really that unhappy?"

"Blaine, if I didn't want to be with you I wouldn't be. I'm just messing around. You're a great boyfriend-"

"No I'm not."

"Yes, you are. You're perfect."

Blaine let out a dull, unconvinced chuckle.

"I mean it. Our circumstances are just tough. But like you said, we'll get through it. Now no more of this 'bad boyfriend' stuff, okay?"

"Okay. So what would you sing? Really?"

Kurt smiled, a bit curious about the answer now that Blaine asked him.

"I really don't know. I'd have to think about it."

"Fair enough."

Blaine yawned involuntarily and grabbed his comforter, pulling it up to his chin and kicking his Letterman jacket off the bed.

"We should probably get to sleep."

Kurt yawned too and reached for his iPod.

"Agreed."

"Goodnight, Kurt."

"Goodnight, Blaine."

While Blaine drifted off to sleep, Kurt was busily scrolling through his music and after only a few short hours, Blaine woke up to the sound of his phone ringing once again.

His voice was full of sleep as he blinked at the bright screen in the darkness.

"Hello?"

"Hey Blaine."

"Kurt? What time is it?"

Blaine reached over to his alarm clock, trying to decipher the numbers on it.

"Around two in the morning. But I thought of the song I wanted to sing to you."

"Right now?"

"Yes right now."

"'Kay, hold on."

Blaine pushed himself up into a sitting position and rubbed at his eyes with the back of his hand, trying to wake himself up so he could listen.

"Okay. What is it?"

"'Til There Was You' from The Music Man, but I'm going with The Beatles version."

Blaine blinked when he heard the title, still sleepy and unable to think of the song he was talking about. Kurt's nervous breath muffled in his ear and he began to sing. Blaine's face instantly lit up in a smile as he recognized the melody. Kurt's voice was soft and breathy, trying to be loud enough to hear, but not wanting to wake anyone up. Blaine felt his eyes droop, the tender notes soothing him back into his previous slumber. He fought off his urge to just let Kurt serenade him to sleep, not wanting to miss a single second of his song.

Kurt finished singing and as his notes died down Blaine realized that he was wearing the laziest, happiest smile he had ever had on his face.

"That was…beautiful, Kurt. Thank you."

Blaine could almost feel Kurt's warm smile on the other end.

"Goodnight, Blaine."

"Sweet Dreams, Kurt."

The whole football team was in a huddle out on the field, and even with the sun shining high above their heads, there was still a slight nip in the air. Blaine rubbed his hands together once again and shifted his weight back and forth between his feet, eager to get started on the workout.

Beiste made her way over to the group, clip board in hand as she called out to the team.

"Alright boys! That game we've been preppin' for is right around the corner and bearin' down on us like steer in a milk factory."

Excited for the upcoming game, and ignoring the last part of the Coach's sentence, a few of the guys cheered.

"Now we've played good in the past couple months, but in order to beat Jefferson High we gotta be great! I've got a few new plays that we're gonna be practicing today, so I'll be splittin' you up into two teams and I don't want to hear any complaining! Is that clear?"

There were only a couple mumbles in response to her question.

"I said 'is that clear'?!"

"Yes Coach!"

The guys called out, their voices now loud and a bit more enthused. Beiste looked down at her clipboard and began to read off the names of the guys in the first team.

"…Hudson, Duhamel, Anderson, and Karofsky. If I haven't called your name, you're on the other team. Now-"

Karofsky's brutish voice shot out, interrupting her sentence.

"Excuse me, Coach?"

She seemed aggravated at his disruption and practically glared at him, the rest of the team suddenly paying attention to what was going on.

"What is it, Karofsky?"

David glanced over at Blaine, making sure to catch his eye before speaking.

"I'm not comfortable having Blaine on my team."

Beiste took a step forward, astonished by the blatant disrespect and a murmur went out through the crowd.

"Excuse me?!"

Karofsky lifted his arms, gesturing to the rest of the team as he spoke.

"None of us guys are."

Puck nearly leapt forward, not wanting to be lumped in with the rest of the group and a few other guys followed his lead.

"Speak for yourself!"

Karofsky glared at Puck before turning his attention back on Beiste.

"Oh I'm sorry. None us guys except the rest of Blaine's gay brigade!"

Beiste looked directly at Karofsky, unwavering in her decision.

"Anderson is one of the damn best running backs I have, so like it or not he's on the team and he's staying on. However, if you, or any one for that matter, are so uncomfortable, then you sure as hell can get your sorry ass out of here!"

The field was dead silent as everyone waited for someone to make a move, but every single person stood still.

"That's what I thought. Now cut the crap. We've got work to do."

The teams split up and headed to their own areas of the field, Finn leading one, Sam leading the other. Finn's group huddled up and he began to explain the play on the clipboard that Beiste had given him.

"And Blaine, you're going to be going straight down the field to-"

"Please, he's so gay he can't even run straight"

A couple of the guys laughed at Karofsky's comment but Mike was less than amused.

"Do you ever stop?"

Finn looked over at Karofsky, trying to be a leader, his voice firm and unarguable as he spoke.

"Seriously, man. This has got to stop. We've got a game to win."

Azimio almost seemed angry as he glared over at Blaine.

"Yeah. Like we're gonna win with you pussies on the team!"

A few other guys laughed once again and Finn just clenched his jaw, for once understanding that there was no use in trying to fight back this time. He glanced over at Beiste just as she signaled to the teams and the huddle broke, the group going over to get into formation.

The whistle blew and the scrimmage began, the other team easily scoring when Karofsky didn't even bother trying. He seemed unfazed though, not even blinking when Finn glared at him.

"What the hell, man?"

David just shrugged, a smug grin coming over his face as they once again lined up. He glanced over at Blaine and waited for the whistle to blow, the team became a blur of movement; except for Karofsky. He moved slowly, lethargically, watching as the linebacker he was supposed to block plowed into Blaine. The both of them toppled over, Blaine's head smashing against the ground when they fell.

There was shouting as Beiste blew her whistle, the Cheerios taking notice of the sudden commotion while a few players ran over to Blaine.

Sam was the closest and he made it to him before anyone else.

"Yo man, you okay?"

Kurt felt his breath leave his body, watching in horror as Blaine torn off his helmet clutched his skull, almost curling into a fetal position. It took every last bit of his willpower not to run over there and take him into his arms.

Beiste was currently charging over towards Karofsky, anger written all over her face.

"What the hell happened!?"

David shrugged, looking very proud of himself for hurting Blaine without even laying a finger on him.

"I didn't see him."

Finn reached out an arm and Blaine grabbed on, standing up with shaky legs.

"It's fine. I'm alright."

Beiste immediately pulled a thin flashlight out of her pocket, flashing it in Blaine's eyes to check for the proper dilation of his pupils. When she was satisfied with his reaction she turned off the light and Blaine quickly glanced over to meet Kurt's worried gaze, giving him a nearly imperceptible nod. Beiste was stern but much calmer when she turned back to Karofsky.

"You're lucky he didn't get a concussion."

Karofsky's arm flew up as he gestured at Blaine, almost as if he was just brushing off the incident.

"It's not my fault if he's too queer to take a hit!"

Blaine walked forwards, steady on his feet and in his gaze as he glared at David.

"I am so tired of your shit! You marching around here, calling everyone gay, it's getting old."

Karofsky just rolled his eyes.

"Whatever."

Blaine felt a sense of calm come over him when Karofsky tried to blow off the subject; something suddenly dawning on him. It was a rough blow, just low enough for Blaine to get down to Karofsky's level, but it still would give him the upper hand.

"What are you hiding? 'Cause you know, I don't think I ever seen a girl even look at you, not to mention date you. But maybe that's just 'cause girls aren't really your type."

Blaine's gaze never left Karofsky, a smile staying pronounced on his face as a large majority of the jocks letting out a quiet 'Oooooh'. Out of instinct, Karofsky began to lunge toward Blaine, ready to give him a black eye, but Beiste was one step ahead, already holding him back and roughly shoving him away.

"Cut it out! If you guys don't suck it up and start acting like a team we will lose next week's game! Practice is over! Go home and cool off! And if I see anymore of this baby crap, I will start kicking people off!"

The football team slowly began to disperse, Karofsky standing there a moment before finally trudging away. Blaine laughed quietly, feeling proud of himself as he walked over to grab his helmet where he had thrown it off earlier. As he bent down to grab it, he heard a voice behind him.

"Wow Anderson, didn't think you had it in you."

He stood abruptly, surprised to see the Cheerio that was standing there.

"Oh, uh, thanks Santana."

She wasn't shy in the slightest as she let her eyes slowly rake up and down in his body before finally settling her gaze on his.

"We should talk."

Blaine was a bit confused, watching with a befuddled look on his face as Santana sauntered away.

"Um…alright…"

He began to head towards the locker rooms when one of the more popular guys on the football team ran up beside him.

"Hey man!"

"Oh hey."

The guy slowed his pace to match Blaine's as he pointed his thumb back to where everything had happened.

"Pretty badass what you said back there."

Blaine smiled a bit.

"Thanks."

"Most guys wouldn't even try Karofsky but you did…twice! I mean we're all thinking it, but you actually said it!"

"Yeah I guess I did, huh?"

The guy gave Blaine a friendly clap on the shoulder.

"Hey, you know, me and a couple buds were thinking about heading back to my place and chillin'. Wanna hang? I mean, if you don't have other plans-"

Blaine was a bit taken back by the offer, surprised that anyone who wasn't inside his immediate group of friends was inviting him to hang out.

"No! Sure! Definitely!"

"Cool man."

The guy flashed him one last smile before heading over to his other friends, leaving Blaine to grin to himself as he hurried over to the locker room.

Kurt was tucked away in the corner of the library's almost empty second floor. He sat at a table, alone, tapping his pencil and impatiently glancing down at his phone every few seconds.

Where is he?

The clock on his screen finally hit 7:30.

He's a half an hour late. That's it. I'm calling him.

He held the phone up to his ear, his pencil tapping even faster.

Please no voicemail. Please no voicemail. Please no voicemail-

"Hello?"

Thank god.

"Blaine?"

"Yeah what's up?"

"Where are you?"

"Friend's house. Why?"

His pencil tapping stopped cold.

"Friend's house? So you're not on your way?"

"On my way? Oh! Shit. The study…thing. Right. I'm so sorry. Everything happened really fast and…huh? Oh no one, it's nothing. I'll be off in a sec-"

"Who else is with you? Blaine?"

"Huh? Hey I gotta go. But look, I promise I'll make it up to you, okay?"

"Blaine!"

"What?!"

"Are you freaking kidding me?!"

"Why are you yelling at me? It's not that big a deal. I told you I'd make it up to you."

"Not that big a-?!…No Blaine! You're right! Go have fun with you're stupid friends! They're obviously more important!"

"Kurt-"

Kurt hung up on him before he had the chance to finish talking.

He began shoving his notes back into his bag, not caring what got crumpled in his haste to get out of there. He stood and slammed his chair against the table and before he knew where his feet were taking him, he found himself out in the courtyard.

It was still winter, not quite spring yet and there were small patches of snow everywhere. He threw his bag on the ground, not caring if it got dirty or scratched and sat down on the bench.

He looked down at the old wooden seat and remembered the night he had shared with Blaine in that very spot. Memories overcame him, thoughts of sweet words and soft kisses, and he angrily wiped away the few tears that had begun to fall.

His felt his phone vibrate and he swiftly answered it without checking the name, assuming Blaine was calling to apologize.

"Hello?!"

"Heeeeyyy Kuuurtt."

"Wh-who is this?"

There was a small chuckle on the other line.

"You're so cute, Kurt."

"K-…Karofsky?! Wh-…Are you drunk?!"

"Pfft…Tipsyyy."

"How did you get my number?"

"You can do better than Blainnnee. He's such a fagg."

Karofsky snorted a bit, laughing at his insult.

"You-you should do me. Weee should go ouuuttt. "

"E-excuse me?"

"You…you're so hot in your faggy outfits…your cheerleading uniforrrmm. And you smile so nice. I…I wanna kiss you again. I wanna kiss you so baddd."

Kurt was frozen in place, hand clenched onto his phone in panic.

"Jusss…juss go out with me Kurrt. Pleeeaase? I….I want you-"

Kurt desperately tapped the end call button, the courtyard now falling completely silent as he stared at his phone in horror. It fell from his hand, dropping down onto the bench with a hollow thud. Kurt's breathing stuttered as he slowly wrapped his arms around himself and lowered his head, not even trying to stop the tears from falling this time.