“Hey boo, what’s wrong?” Mercedes asked with concern, putting her hands on Kurt's shoulders, and squeezing in a comforting manner.

“’Cedes, he, he tried to kiss me.” Kurt almost wailed, his eyes glistening with unshed tears.

Mercedes released Kurt from her vice-like grip, holding onto his shoulders from arm’s length, “he did what?!” she asked, dumbfounded, her eyes focused steadily on Kurt's face. He could almost feel the anger building inside of her radiating out.

“He tried to kiss me, but I ran away. It’s okay.” Kurt repeated, sounding hollow, empty, and not daring to meet Mercedes’ eyes.

Kurt had never told anyone about the kiss with Karofsky after he had threatened Kurt’s life. Kurt had never been more scared in his life at that moment but with Blaine it was different. Karofsky was very clearly closeted, frustrated, and confused. However, Blaine did not appear to be any of those things. Blaine didn’t directly bully Kurt in the way Karofsky had and certainly had never physically hurt Kurt. Blaine’s bullying came in a different form, a form Kurt did not fully understand, the intimacy that appeared played, but this game was too much for Kurt and he was sure he was about to break.

Blaine hadn’t tried to kiss Kurt because he was gay, or because he was frustrated about Kurt’s openness, but Kurt couldn’t figure Blaine’s reasoning out. He needed Mercedes to understand that, because Kurt felt so alone in all of this.

Figuring out Karofsky’s methods behind the madness was simple, but Blaine definitely wasn’t simple and Kurt was intrigued.

Mercedes just seemed angry. She wasn’t interested in figuring Blaine out, and she looked as if she wanted to hit someone, that someone specifically being Blaine.

“Kurt! This is not okay! First flirting with you without a care in the world, making you completely uncomfortable, I don’t even know if he was just pretending or not but then trying to kiss you! I don’t know, or care what he is playing at but this is crossing a line, Kurt. He probably got kicked out of his posh-boy private school for trying to make out with a teacher or something… Not for setting stuff on fire!” Mercedes ranted in hushed tones, barely taking a breath the whole time she spoke.

Kurt just looked at his best friend helplessly.
“We have got to do something about him!” she shouted after a moment, making the people walking past them in the corridor look curiously at the pair, when usually they would be ignored.

Kurt took a chance, looking up into Mercedes’ rage-filled face, with a pleading look in his eyes, almost scared.

“No Mercedes, please, you can’t do anything. I don’t want trouble and you know what kind of reputation he has, you’ve heard all the stories that I’ve heard. He could hurt you!”

But Mercedes cut across him “Look, Kurt, don’t worry, that’s all they are; stories.”

“We don’t know what he’s capable of.” Kurt countered. “They are stories and we don’t know which ones are true. What if he really did beat up that teacher just for giving him an A- on that pop-quiz? What if he did stab that Freshman, Cedes? He could do something like that to you!” The fear rose in Kurt's voice. “The next time it could be you, Mercedes… Please, promise you won’t do anything that might get you hurt…” his voice faded out, and his face clouded with sadness.

Kurt couldn’t imagine losing anyone else. He remembered vividly the pain he felt as an 8-year-old boy and his dad told him that his mommy wasn’t coming home and that God had taken her to heaven. Kurt also remembered the day Mr Schue pulled Kurt out of his French class to tell him his dad had suffered a heart attack. Kurt Hummel knew he couldn’t take any more pain. He couldn’t face losing his best friend whom he cared for so dearly.

Mercedes saw the sadness in Kurt's eyes and slowly nodded. She remembered how broken Kurt had been for so long after his mother’s death and when his father got sick she saw all of the progress Kurt had made just disappear like the flick of a switch inside of him. “Okay,” she promised with a nod, pulling him into a bone crushing hug once more.

Mercedes knew it was time to mobilise the New Directions. She had been holding off on confronting Blaine, waiting to see how things would progress, but now he had crossed the line and Mercedes knew she could not let her best friend be treated like this any longer. She had promised, of course, that she wouldn’t do anything that might get her hurt by Blaine but she knew Blaine wouldn’t dare to take on all of the New Directions at once. She was confident that Blaine wouldn’t stand a chance at hurting her if she was surrounded by Puck, Finn, Mike, Sam, and all of the New Directions girls standing right there beside the guys.

As Mercedes and Kurt walked to their next class together Kurt tried to correct his appearance. He could tell that his clothes were ruffled and his face was still flushed and swollen from crying. Kurt Hummel always looked perfect; never a hair out of place or a crease in sight. They passed Sam in the corridor on the way to his own class and Mercedes stopped to kiss his cheek and they each continued on their own path to class. Kurt didn’t think anything was out of the ordinary about this gesture as it was fairly obvious to anyone who paid the slightest bit of attention that the two were secretly dating. But Kurt did not hear the one simple word Mercedes whispered into Sam’s ear. “Tonight.”

The rest of Kurt's day passed without incident, although he was quieter than usual which his friends didn’t fail to notice but thankfully Mercedes managed to distract them with talk of their latest Glee Club project; iconic songs. The boys all wanted to do a Michael Jackson number, but the girls were divided; Rachel wanted to do a Barbara Streisand number, and Mercedes something soulful; this of course caused an argument between the two biggest divas Kurt had ever met, apart from himself, though he wasn’t in the mood for a diva-off right now, but was glad the attention had been drawn away from him.

Kurt was glad when the end of the day came and he said goodbye to his friends and they went their separate ways.

But Mercedes and the other members of the Glee Club did not drive home. The boys were at football practice and the girls hung back in the library. Sam had passed the message around after Mercedes had told him they would be executing their plan that night. Sam had discovered through Puck that Blaine had a detention with Figgins tonight that would end at the same time as the boys’ football practice and they would catch him then. All the girls had to do was wait.

4:25 pm finally arrived and Mercedes, Rachel, Tina, Quinn, Santana, and Brittany headed to the boys locker room, waiting outside for the guys as planned. To the surprise of the Glee girls they heard footsteps echoing down the empty hallways of McKinley high, right towards them. This wasn’t part of the plan. Blaine Anderson was walking straight towards them. Maybe he’d overheard their plan and was coming to stop them in their tracks. But Blaine ignored the presence of the girls and headed straight into the locker room. Mercedes and Rachel exchanged worried glances and had to half hold back Santana.

Rachel pulled out her cell phone and called Finn who answered and both activated the speaker phone. Finn slid his phone into his pocket.

“What are you guys doing in here?” came Blaine’s irritated and almost bored voice.

“Well, this is our locker room.” Finn replied harshly.

“We could ask the same of you.” Sam interjected.

“Well when I come in at this time you are all usually still out on the field where the rest of your team appear to be…” Blaine growled, though his tone quickly changed into a mocking laugh, “what happened? Did you get your sorry loser asses kicked off by some real men?” Blaine laughed sarcastically.

The girls heard a scuffle then Artie’s voice “No, Puck,” and the noise stopped. The girls collectively let a breath that none of them were aware that they were holding in.

Mikes voice began now. “Say what you want about us, but stop picking on Kurt!” A proud look lit up in Tina’s eyes.

“Ever since you got here you’ve hurt him. Maybe you haven’t touched him yet like the jocks but we won’t let it get to that.” Sam continued in a strong and sure voice.
“Lay off my boy.” Puck added in a threatening tone.

Blaine interrupted them. “What the hell have I done to any of you? Hummel just needs to lighten up a bit and…” But whatever Blaine was about to say next was cut off by a sickening thud as what sounded like a fist connected with a face. There were sounds of scrabbling and scuffling and muffled voices before the line went dead.

The girls all shared the same look of fear and none of them held Santana back this time as she marched forcefully into the boys’ locker room, but she was shoved out of the way by Blaine who was sporting a bloody nose and a red and swollen eye. Blaine stumbled past the rest of the Glee girls not saying a word and the boys emerged right behind him looking triumphant, Sam and Puck patting each other on the backs, Puck grinning a little too much.

Rachel gave the two boys a quizzical look before moving over to stand by Finn who put an arm around her shoulders. Puck took this as his moment to explain since Sam was looking a little sheepishly at Mercedes who had emphasised Kurt's wish of “nothing that could get anyone hurt” and starting a fight with Anderson could definitely get them hurt.

“We couldn’t stand there and watch his smarmy little meerkat face any longer, right Sam? I went in with the nose then when he went to hit me back Sam here stepped in with a nice right-hoot getting him in the eye.” Puck explained with a cocky and almost amused tone. He was clearly proud of himself, and Sam.

“I don’t think he’ll be coming back for more. He must have decided he couldn’t take on all of us and ran.” Sam added with a small laugh.