Kurt knew that he still had tones of work, he knew that he would still feel overwhelmed at times, but somehow it all felt a little bit more manageable. He grab his clothes to make his way to the bathroom to get ready. What he wasn’t expecting when he entered the common room, was to see Nick and Blaine sitting at the table.

Kurt’s hand instantly went to his hair, trying to smooth down the inevitable bed head as he exclaimed, “Blaine, what are you doing here so early?”

Blaine tried to quiet his laugh at Kurt’s shock, “It is after ten Kurt, I wouldn’t call this early.”

“Oh…” Kurt sheepishly replied before adding, “I’m just going to hop in the shower.” He quickly went into the bathroom, hoping that the bit of embarrassment he felt would wash away in his shower. By the time he got out, he felt better about the unexpected early morning encounter.

When Kurt emerged from the bathroom, Jeff was walking in carrying four cups of coffee from downstairs. Kurt and Blaine tried to ignore the inquisitive glances from the other two. Finally Nick spoke, “Okay, are either of you going to tell us what happened yesterday?”

Kurt looked to Blaine, silently hoping he would answer. After a moment, Blaine said slowly as if speaking to a child, “Kurt and I went out on a date yesterday, Nick.”

“Two actually,” Kurt added with a grin.

“I stand corrected,” the smile was returned, “Kurt and I went on two dates yesterday. And sorry boys if you want details, you are going to be disappointed.” His friends looked indignantly at Blaine. He ignored them and turned to Kurt, “I was going to find and kooky local coffee house to work on some homework Kurt, would you care to join me?”

Kurt tried to steady his breathe and not reveal just how excited he was, “That sounds great, just let me gather my things, give me five minutes?”

Ten minutes later as the two boys walked through the streets of New York, looking for a place to study, Blaine nervously looked over at his companion, “This isn’t moving too fast for you is it?”

Kurt quirked him a bemused smile, “What do you mean?”

“I mean, we crammed two dates in one day, then I show up at your dorm the next taking you out again. I really don’t know what I am doing here, I’m not good at romance. I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t coming on too strong.” Blaine told him, trying to look him in the eye while navigating the busy sidewalk.

“For someone who claims not to be good a romance, you have done wonderfully so far.” Kurt said smiling. “Honestly, I don’t know what I am doing either. All I can tell you is that, this feels… right. And it’s not like we didn’t spend a lot of time together before. Now it’s just the two of us instead of with Nick and Jeff.”

Blaine chuckled, “ I guess you are right, I just… I just don’t want to screw this up Kurt.”

“How about we just do what comes naturally. Don’t worry about anything else, if one of us feels uncomfortable with something, we talk about it. Does that sound fair?” Kurt asked. Sounds great.

They finally found a small coffee shop, with miss matched furniture and local art for sale on the walls. The true test was if the coffee was good. As they walked up to the counter and ordered, Kurt insisted on paying, giving Blaine a stern look when he tried to refuse. At the first sip of their orders, they knew they had found their coffee shop.

The day was spent finishing their homework, occasionally taking breaks to chat. It was nice, and the pair fell into a sort of rhythm as the day progressed. By the time they finished their homework, the sky outside was darkening, and the light lunch they had at the coffee shop was wearing off. Almost as if by a silent signal the two packed up their things to head out.

“Do you want to get something to eat? They’ve stopped serving in Hayden, but Brittany should still be open or we could stop for food on the way back.” Kurt asked as he grabbed Blaine’s hand.

In the end they decided to grab Chinese food and take it back to Kurt’s dorm. They were good friends and grabbed enough for Nick and Jeff as well. The reception they received when they entered the suite with food was priceless. Apparently the other boys hadn’t stopped studying long enough for more than a bag of chips from the vending machine.

They sat around passing cartons of various foods talking. Everything was light and cheerful until Jeff asked, “Hey Kurt, why did you leave school early?”

Kurt’s grin slid almost instantly off his face. Jeff quickly tried to make amends but Kurt waved him off. “No, it’s okay. I should have probably told you by now. I mean, we’ve lived together for six weeks.” He took a deep calming breath. “Can you just give me a minute?”

Kurt stood and made his way into his room, not bothering to close the door behind him. He sat on his bed for a moment trying to gather his thoughts. He faintly heard Blaine reprimanding Jeff for upsetting him, bringing a smile to Kurt’s face. Finally, he grabbed a framed picture off his desk and returned to the common room.

He held the picture to his chest as he looked at the others. “Okay, first of all, I am going to warn you, I may cry, I tend to be over emotional, so be warned. Also, please just hear me out before you judge me, alright?”

They all nodded so Kurt took another soothing breath to continue. Before he could start speaking though, Blaine grabbed his hand. Kurt took this as an anchor, something to give him strength. He laid the picture down for the boys to see, “This is the last picture I had taken with the New Directions. This was about two or three weeks before I dropped out.” He paused seeing Jeff and Nick exchange glances. “These people were actually the only friends I ever had… ever.”

Kurt pointed to a boy with a mohawk. “This is Puck, before Glee club he used to throw me in the dumpster every morning. This is before I came out. I was always picked on, because I am different.” He took a deep breath, trying to focus his thoughts. By the end of my freshman year, everything seemed okay, because while I was still bullied every day, I had my friends. Then last year, you see if it would have been the same kind of bullying, I could have handled it, I would have pushed through and dealt with it. But they was this one guy from the football team, he was always the worst. He started harassing me, any opportunity he had, he used it to torment me. One day I snapped, I followed him into the locker room and man was I letting him have it, yelling at him, finally standing up for myself. I was ready for him just to hit me, just to beat the shit out of me. What he did was in some ways worse.”

Kurt couldn’t go on for a minute as tears sprang to his eyes. Blaine softly whispered, “Kurt, you don’t have to do this.”

Kurt gave Blaine a watery smile, But I do, I really just do, I can’t keep this inside anymore. As I was screaming at him, he kissed me. It was my first kiss, I mean, my first real kiss, I kissed her,” he said pointing to a pretty blind girl, “when I was trying to be straight for my dad, but that was my first boy kiss. It was awful, and he tried again. I fought him off, but after that, he got worse. Finally a teacher noticed,” Kurt pointed again to the adult in the picture. “Mr. Shue took me to the principal, but they couldn’t do anything, I didn’t tell them about the kiss. I guess, because I knew what it was like to be in the closet and scared. Anyway, I guess he was scared I was going to out him, and he threatened to kill me. I tried to pretend like everything was fine. The other boys in glee tried to get him to stop, but that didn’t help. One day, my dad saw him making fun of me, Finn was there and he made me tell my dad what was happening. I can’t lie to my dad, he always seems to know when I am keeping something from him. I ended up telling him about the death threat. Coach Sylvester, she was principal, expelled him. I really thought things would be okay. The school board let him back in, it was my word against his. I tried to just be strong, to not let it bother me, I still hadn’t told about the kiss, I even lied about it. The glee guys made sure there was someone with me at all times to help protect me.”

He had to pause, the others were shooting concerned looks at each other, Kurt tried not to notice. Swallowing the lump in his throat, Kurt continued, “And then I made a stupid mistake, I was in the middle of French class, and I excused myself to the bathroom,” a soft chuckle arose from Kurt, “I mean it felt stupid having the guys accompany me to the bathroom like a toddler. I thought I would be safe, I thought he would be in class. I was wrong, I didn’t even make it to the bathroom before the cornered me. He was smart enough not to hurt me. He knew that would just end with him being expelled or sent to juvie. Not he pushed me against a locker his face right up against mine and whispered all things he was going to do to me, exactly how he was going to kill me and get away with it. Damn Coach Sylvester for being so loud, she was yelling at some student for being in the halls. He heard her and ran away. Coach found me bawling in the middle of the hall. If she would have just seen him, heard him, he would have been gone and I would be a Junior in high school. After that, I knew if I was going to survive I had to leave, so I did.”

Jeff was the first to speak, “But there are private school, at Dalton, you would have been safe.”

Kurt chuckled through the tears streaming his face, “My dad is a mechanic, my step mom is a nurse, I doubt Dalton is a place they could have afforded.” Kurt felt more than saw Blaine move his chair closer, then Blaine’s arms were wrapped around him. “I took the test for my GED, took my SAT’s and applied here. At least if I was pursuing my dreams, I wasn’t letting him win.”

“Wow Kurt, I can’t believe you had to go through all that.” Nick said, trying to wrap his head around everything Kurt had told them.

“You know, aside from the actual bullying, the hardest thing was watching my friends get to have the normal high school experience, while I was working away at my dad’s shop.” A real laugh emitted from Kurt, “ Of course now, I think I have the better deal. I mean look at me, I am in New York, I’m working towards my dreams, I have found more here than I ever would have found in Ohio,” he chanced a look over at Blaine who flashed him a smile. “my friends are actually jealous of me now. I may not be glad that the bullying happened, or that got as bad as it did… but I truly am happy here.”

Blaine smiled at Kurt again, “I hate that you had to deal with all that, but in the end… I’m glad you aren’t just some junior in high school.”

The other boys heartily agreed, and Kurt was surprised to find himself in the middle of a group hug.

Once Nick and Jeff returned to their seats, Jeff spoke, “I’m sorry that I asked you about it Kurt, but I’m glad you told us.”

Kurt wiped the last tears from his eyes, “Yeah, me too. I’m sorry that I didn’t open up to you sooner, you deserve a lot more. I just have a hard time, really trusting people with my problems sometimes. Part of me wanted to leave all this in Lima, but you know it is a part of me. Anyway, someone else have any horror stories they want to share?” He asked with a laugh.

The other boys began telling stories from high school, nothing as awful as Kurt’s, mainly ridiculous pranks gone wrong and the like. It wasn’t long before Jeff and Nick excused themselves to go to bed. Blaine turned to Kurt saying, “You know if circumstances had been different, the same thing could have happened to me. I ended up at Dalton because of bullying too.” He looked over at the doors the others exited to, “They know my story already, I couldn’t really hide it, I showed up at Dalton in a cast with bruises all over me. Everything escalated when I went to a dance with a friend of mine; we were both out and proud. These jocks beat us up, to show how little the approved of that. They were never caught and I ended up at Dalton. I understand Kurt, just know I understand.” He punctuated the point with a sweet kiss. “We should probably go to bed too; those eight o’clock classes come pretty early.”