The cold ice slapped at Kurt's face, stinging his cheeks and dripping down his shirt. The jocks laughed, high fiving each other as they walked away. He heard laughter behind him and quickly rubbed the slushy out of his eyes. Karofsky was walking toward him, grinning.

"Just can't stay off your knees, can you, fag?" Karofsky mocked him.

Kurt, who hadn't remembered falling, stood up and tried to walk away. Karofsky walked past him, shoving Kurt into the lockers as he went. Kurt knew this was Karofsky's way of assuring him that nothing would change, even if they were partners in English.

Kurt trudged into the nearest bathroom. Nobody was there- the bell must have rung while he was being humiliated. He began pulling ice out of his hair. He hadn't had a chance to replace the spare clothes he kept in his locker, so he had nothing to change into. When he had cleaned himself up as best he could, he left and walked slowly to his Chemistry class. When he opened the door, everybody looked at him. Mr. Winston took in his appearance and gave him a sympathetic smile, gesturing for Kurt to take his seat.

Kurt walked to his chair, eyes trained on the floor, refusing to look at anyone. When he sat down, Mr. Winston began talking again. Kurt could feel Blaine's eyes on him but he didn't look up. Shame, anger and hurt mixed together in his stomach. A hand touched his shoulder and he instinctively jerked away. He looked up to see Blaine drawing his hand back, sadness and remorse in his eyes.

"I'm sorry," Blaine told him.

Kurt looked at him for a moment, incredulous. He was sorry? Well that made everything better. Now they could go back to laughing over coffee. He turned to the front of the room and ignored Blaine for the rest of the period.  When the bell rang, he got up and left, still refusing to look at Blaine.

"Kurt, wait!" he heard Blaine call out. He kept walking, not even glancing back. Suddenly, Blaine was jumping in front of him, holding his unzipped backpack with both hands to keep the contents from spilling out.

"What do you want, Blaine?" he asked crossly.

"I just wanted to make sure that you- that you were ok," Blaine stuttered. Kurt was livid.

"Do I look like I'm ok?" he exploded.  "I just got a slushy facial from your brand new besties. My clothes are ruined. I'm sticky and my skin will probably break out from the red dye. And I'm pissed because I thought you were different from them."

"Kurt, you don't understand," Blaine tried to reason. "They aren't my friends. But I don't want to piss them off because-"

"Oh right. I have no idea what it's like to be bullied. Please enlighten me," Kurt interrupted. Blaine looked chastised and Kurt walked around him, continuing to Glee. When he walked in, Tina and Mercedes hurried over to him.

"Kurt, we are so sorry we weren't with you," Mercedes told him.

"By the time we heard about it, class had already started," Tina added.

"It's ok, guys," Kurt told them, trying to smile. "You couldn't have stopped them."

Tina looked like she was going to say something else, but she was interrupted by Finn walking over.

"Hey, bro, how are you?" he asked Kurt, concerned.

"I'm just peachy, Finn," Kurt said sarcastically.

"I've got some gym clothes in my locker that are clean if you want them," Finn offered, looking at Kurt's ruined outfit. Kurt quickly accepted, knowing his father would ask questions if he came home in his current state. His dad knew he was picked on but he didn't know how bad it really was. Kurt intended to keep it that way. Although Finn didn't always agree with this decision, he understood that it was Kurt's choice.

The rest of Glee was spent looking for song choices for Regionals, which was coming up soon. At the end of class, Finn went and got the clothes for Kurt, bringing along a small shower kit, towel included.

"Thank you," Kurt said, touched by the gesture. He headed to the locker rooms. It was after school on a Friday, so it was unlikely that anyone would be there. Kurt allowed himself to relax completely when he entered and saw that the room was, indeed, empty. He started one of the showers and began to peel his clothes off. This was no easy task, as the dried slushy made his shirt stick to his body. He winced when he got his undershirt off and looked to see the dark beginnings of a large bruise from where he'd been shoved into the lockers.

Kurt threw his clothes in a pile and got in the shower, enjoying the hot water. He opened Finn's shower kit and pulled out the soap. He scrubbed his body, the water at his feet turning red as he got the slushy off his skin. He pulled the shampoo out- there was no conditioner, Kurt really needed to talk to Finn about how important that was- and washed his hair. He stayed under the hot water for a few extra minutes, letting it wash away the memories of the day, before shutting the water off and wrapping the towel around his waist.

Suddenly, Kurt heard something. It wasn't loud, but it was steady- a constant thump, thump, thump. It sounded like it was coming from a small room at the back of the locker room. Kurt had never been in there. There was only a punching bag and a few free weights, nothing Kurt was interested in. He pulled up Finn's sweatpants, which were swimming on him, and walked back to the room. Looking in the window on the door, he saw somebody with boxing gloves hitting the bag. Somebody wearing a wife beater and sweatpants that fit him perfectly. Somebody with dark, curly hair.

Holy shit, Blaine Anderson was in that room.Kurt gasped and jerked away from the window, but the movement caught Blaine's eye.

"Who's there?" he called out, walking toward the door. Kurt, knowing he'd been caught, opened it and stepped inside.

"It's just me, " he said.

"Kurt? What are you doing here?" Blaine asked, surprised.

"I was, um, taking a shower," Kurt said, blushing slightly. "Why are you here?"

"Oh, I was, uh, working out my frustrations," Blaine replied, confidant that Kurt wasn't going to start yelling again. "Kurt I really am sorry about today."

Kurt nodded. " I know. I'm sorry too. You didn't do anything. I just don't understand why you think you need protection. It's not like the jocks will suddenly start beating you up if you don't sit with them."

"You don't understand, Kurt," Blaine said, looking down and shaking his head.

"You keep saying that. What, Blaine? What don't I understand?" Kurt was getting frustrated.

"They will beat me up," Blaine finally looked up and met his eyes. "They'll beat me up because... Because I'm gay, too.