Blaine had never had conflicting feelings about his sexuality; he had been raised by his two dads in a loving and open environment. He did, however, realize that it was a death sentence for a person like him at McKinley High. Unlike some of his fellow classmates, Blaine had never really been bullied, sure there were the shouts of “nerd” and “poindexter” in the hallway every now and then, but it had never really caught on. He was more than content to fly under the radar, besides, he spent the majority of his time studying, as it were. So, Blaine was biding his time, until he was out of this high school and on to his real life. He hadn’t wanted to give the jocks a reason to torment him, so he’d compromised with himself. He wasn’t going to tell people that he was gay, but, if they asked, he wasn’t exactly planning on denying it. This had worked out fairly well for him since his freshman year. He had become fairly good friends with Mike Chang and Artie Abrams, who were also in the mathletes, he was doing well in his classes, and he was counting down the days until graduation, without any setbacks.

This all changed at the beginning of Blaine’s sophomore year. For some reason, the taunting of his freshman year had escalated, and while he had yet to be locked in a random locker or be thrown into a dumpster, the random shoves in the hall accompanied by a snarled “dork” were enough to scare him. Blaine was a small guy, short and lean, and the football team was, well, huge, for lack of a better word. Blaine knew he didn’t stand a chance against them. He had tried to approach his teachers when the taunting had first become a problem, but most of them waved it off, muttering something about how “kids will be kids,” and Blaine would leave angry that no one cared. He could go to his dads, but he hadn’t wanted to give them any cause to worry and Rachel was too caught up in being Rachel Anderberry and dating Finn Hudson to care what happened to little baby Blaine. So, Blaine had been on his own, he would simply gather his things when they fell from his arms after a particularly hard shove and shake off the comments as best he could, not willing to give them the satisfaction of his anger or pain.

~

Most recently, Blaine had experienced his first slushy facial. He, Mike, and Artie were on their way to history, which they all had together, when they were stopped in an empty hallway by Karofsky and his group of equally large Neanderthals. The bullies blocked their escape and, after making a rude comment about the glee club, promptly covered them in the flavored ice beverage. Blaine had never been so cold. He wasn’t even sure if the slushy had been meant for him, or if he had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Then he heard one of them, probably Azimio, shout “And we don’t need any faggy nerds hanging out in the hallways either!” at him. Blaine had stared after them with wide eyes as Mike and Artie had ushered him to the bathroom.

Blaine was in shock. He wasn’t sure if the bullies thought that he was actually gay or if it was just something mean to say. Either way, Blaine had just had his first personal experience with homophobia. Sure, he had witnessed it before, while out with his dads or watching TV, but it had never happened to him personally, and it was more painful than he could’ve imagined. “Dude! Snap out of it!” Artie said, waving his arm in front of Blaine’s face and bringing him out of his thoughts and into the present.

“Sorry, I was just… I didn’t think they knew.” Blaine replied before realizing that he had never actually specified his sexual orientation to Artie and Mike. It wasn’t that he thought it would matter, just that he had figured the less people who knew at school, the less of a problem it would be.

“Knew what? That you’re a total nerd? Because I’m pretty sure they knew.” Artie said with a laugh, elbowing Blaine in his side. Blaine gave him a small smile.
“No, that I’m, y’know, gay.” Blaine looked away, unable to face the expressions on his closest friend’s faces. Mike and Artie looked at him, something like confusion written on their faces. Finally, Mike spoke up, “ I’m sure they were just using the word in general. They wouldn’t know unless you had told them.”
Blaine looked at his friend’s with relief. “Oh, yeah. You’re probably right, I’ve just, no one’s ever said that to me before and it hit me pretty hard.” Blaine, finally able to breathe again, heaved a sigh of relief and leaned into the sink.

“You’re like, totally covered in slushy, you should probably clean yourself off before it dries. That shit’s nasty.” Artie said with a frown, changing the subject and lightening the mood. Blaine laughed as he looked in the mirror and saw the purple that was beginning to stain his face; he quickly turned on the faucet and proceeded to get rid of the evidence of his first slushy facial. Once he was clean he smiled to himself in the mirror, glad that there had been no one around to witness his humiliation in the hallway.

~

Little did he know that there had been one person in the hallway at the time. Someone he hadn’t noticed as they had watched from the safety of their Cheerio’s uniform. Kurt Hummel had seen the entire thing, he had watched with curious eyes as Blaine’s reacted to the offensive slur directed at him. He had watched as Artie and Mike had led a nearly comatose Blaine to the bathroom, and he had listened at the door when Blaine had told his friends that he was gay. Kurt had drawn in his breath at Blaine’s words, something like sympathy swelled in his chest, and a thought quickly passed through his mind. He, Kurt Hummel, resident gay at McKinley High, was not alone.