The past two weeks were the best Kurt could recall ever having. Despite Karofsky growing more volatile towards him and the other members of New Directions, Kurt wouldn't change anything for the world. It was all because of Blaine. He was falling fast for the older Dalton student, who never failed to be anything short of amazing. The only word he could use to describe Blaine was dapper. His manners were always impeccable and he dressed as though he just walked off a photo shoot.

He met the Warbler any time he was able, and if not, the Warbler would text him continuously. He also kept Kurt's mind off the bullying situation. It was a nice reprieve. Unfortunately, Kurt woke up to a text that Monday morning that put a damper on his new, bright outlook on life.

(5:22 AM)

From: Blaine

Hey, sorry this is such short notice, but I've got to do this family thing that my parents conveniently forgot to mention until late last night. I probably won't be able to text much, but call me if you need anything. And have a good week at school, Kurt.

Things went downhill from there. He met up with Mercedes and Rachel in the parking lot. They began talking excitedly about Sectionals as they made their way into the school.

"You get any dirt on the Warblers that might help us beat them at sectionals?" Rachel asked. She was determined to win at any cost. She'd throw Finn under the proverbial bus if it meant getting her big break, and everyone knew it.

"Sorry, Rach, we don't talk about Glee."

"What do you talk-" Rachel started to ask.

Suddenly each of them had the freezing cold slushies being thrown right in their faces. Kurt wiped the cold mixture off out of his stinging eyes just in time to watch Rachel storm down the hallway. Sighing, he followed her into the nearest girl's bathroom. He wasn't overly fond of having to go in there, but it beat trying to rinse the slush out of his hair by himself. Plus he was completely safe from the Neanderthals' in the one place they couldn't enter.

"You would think they'd get tired of giving us slushy facials," Tina said

"They're too stupid to come up with anything better," Kurt said.

He pulled out his emergency face wash, which stayed in his satchel, then began scrubbing the ice, dye, and sugar off his face.

"At least they aren't throwing eggs at us," Rachel said with a shudder. The Jesse St. James fiasco had scared her for life.

Once each of them had changed into their backup outfits, they went their separate ways. Kurt was fifteen minutes late to his first period. Thankfully once the teacher took in his slightly damp hair, and excused him. All the teachers knew about the slushy facials, and gave the glee kids free passes when they were late because of it.

The next incident came during lunch. Everyone was oddly subdued thanks to Coach Sylvester, who was acting as principal, banning junk food. Mercedes talked his ear off about how she wasn't a baby bird, and that she needed her tots. She was his best friend, but since he met Blaine, their friendship had become slightly strained.

Just as he finished telling her about the football player he was setting her up with, his eyes caught Karofsky's. A jolt of fear ran through him. This was the first time he'd actually seen the football player since the incident with Blaine. It seemed like the jock was actively avoiding him. At least he was when not surrounded by his other homophobic friends and tossing slushies in the glee club's faces.

"Sup homo?" he said with a wink. The jock's tone was menacing.

Of course, Kurt hardly had time to be scared because moments later, Mercedes incited a riot over the tots.

It was after fifth period before something else happened that contributed to Kurt's terrible day. After noticing a guilty look on Mercedes's face, he turned to her. The girl pulled a Tupperware container full of tots out of a paper bag.

"Are you out of your mind?" he asked, firmly believing his best friend had finally gone mad. "After what you did to Sue's La Car?"

"Well, if I go to prison, at least they have tots there," She said enthusiastically.

He decided to address the elephant in the room, and dissolve some of the tension that had settled over the two of them in the past few weeks.

"I'm not breaking it off with Blaine," he said after a few moments of silence. "I really like him. You are substituting food for lover, Mercedes. More importantly, you're substituting me for a boyfriend."

She looked down at the floor, eyes starting to tear up.

"Look at me," he said softly. "A few weeks ago I thought there was no way I'd ever find someone like Blaine. You're going to find someone."

The diva smiled sadly at him, "You're right. I-I've got to go." She put the tots back in her locker and walked off.

Not even a couple of seconds later, Karofsky walked up to him in the quickly emptying hallway. Kurt had turned to watch Mercedes walk way, so he didn't see the jock.

"Question for you," the football player said harshly. He grabbed Kurt's shoulder hard enough to bruise and spun him around until they faced one another.

The words and movement startled Kurt, making him jump and his eyes widen with fear.

"You tell anyone else what happened?" The bigger boy then stumbled over the next words, saying them quietly and unsurely, "How you k-kissed me?"

"You kissed me, Karofsky," Kurt said firmly. It only took a few second for him to recover from the shock. Blaine's words and encouragement helped give him the strength not to falter under the closeted boy.

"Shhh," Karofsky said trying to hush him and looking around nervously.

Kurt ignored the boy's paranoia and continued on. "And I understand how hard this is for you to deal with, so no, I haven't told anyone."

"Good. Keep it that way." Karofsky paused for a moment, then added, "'Cause if you do, I'm. Gonna. Kill. You."

Just like that, everything Blaine had said about standing up to the bullies and making everything better was gone. All Kurt could do was stand there stunned and terrified as the jock walked away. It was a good five minutes after the late bell before he was even able to move again.

The next couple of days passed in a blur. Kurt dreaded going to school, hated getting up in the mornings. He knew he should tell someone about what Karofsky said, about what he was doing, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Explaining why he was being threatened by the jock would ultimately out him. It didn't matter how awful he was treated, he could never do that to anyone. It wasn't right, and Karofsky may not have deserved Kurt's sympathy, but he'd still receive it.

He didn't call Blaine, who was the only person that knew the extent of the situation, either. Whatever family event the Dalton student was at, Kurt didn't want to ruin it. Kurt would keep his mouth shut about Karofsky's secret and no one would get hurt. It was really that simple, his mind rationalized.

School became something he dreaded with every ounce of his being. No matter how hard he tried to control the feelings, he couldn't. This time it was so much worse than before he met Blaine, not that Kurt blamed the curly haired boy. Everything with Karofsky's just hadn't come to light, nor escalated this far. It was inevitable that this would be the end result though.

Kurt scurried from class to class, making sure he wasn't in the hallway any longer than necessary. Or at least he tried to. Finn, his stepbrother, cornered him at his locker Thursday morning, effectively keeping Kurt from heading to his second period English class.

Finn was in their aunt's wedding that weekend, and she wanted the bridal party to dance. It was a horrifying fault, since Finn couldn't dance without everyone around being in serious danger. As the wedding planner, Kurt had previously offered to help the taller boy with the dance so he didn't look like a complete idiot.

The countertenor assured the other boy that they would go over the routine more over the next few days once glee rehearsals were over.

After Finn walked off, Kurt sighed and grabbed the cake topper out of his locker. Karofsky was standing there, staring at him when he closed the locker. It was unnerving, and after the threat from the other day, the singer couldn't help but to shrink back some. Karofsky took a step closer and unconsciously Kurt took a step back.

When he realized this, Kurt stopped moving and said, "I don't want you near me." He thanked every god he had ever heard of that the words came out steady and clear.

The jock didn't say anything, but his eyes darkened. He took a step closer to the smaller boy, jabbing two of his fingers into Kurt's shoulder and forcing his back against the lockers. It took everything in Kurt not to start crying right then.

Feeling the cold metal on his back, Kurt lost every bit of resolve he'd ever had. Trapped. He was trapped. His mind was screaming at him to run, to move, to do anything! He couldn't though, the deranged football player had him trapped against the cold metal. For a second, Kurt thought, this is it, I'm going to die here in this hallway.

The football player snatched the cake topper out of his hand, and after a second said, "Can I have this?"

The only thing Kurt could do was nod weakly.

"Thanks." Karofsky was gone then, walking off and shoving the item into the pocket of his letterman jacket.

It was all Kurt could do not to collapse to the floor in tears. He couldn't breathe, couldn't think about anything but the paralyzing fear. His heart was pounding so loudly he couldn't hear the remaining students in the hall despite their loudness.

"Are you alright?" Mr. Schue's voice said, cutting through the fog.

His glass eyes focused on the Spanish teacher standing directly in front of him. As he slowly shook his head no, tears finally started to make their way down his face.

"Let's get you to the principal," he said. The man placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, causing the boy to flinch, and then led him down the hallway away from the staring students.

Upon entering the office, Sue in a rare show of compassion settled him into the chair across from her desk. Mr. Schue took a seat beside him as she leaned against the desk looking at him.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"He had a run in with David Karofsky," Mr. Schue explained.

Anger flashed through Sue's eyes, which surprised Kurt. She focused on him and asked, "Did he physically hurt you?"

Kurt took a deep breath. "No."

"You said he shoved you into the lockers before," Mr. Schue said, his voice growing concerned.

"I can't expel a kid for shoving. He'll just say, 'I didn't mean to shove that kid. I tripped.' Excuse works like a charm, I use it all the time."

"He didn't shove me this time. He just…" Kurt shook his head and paused trying to find the right word to describe how he felt. "Terrified me," he finally finished. It was a poor choice of words. They barely even scratched the surface of how he felt.

"Porcelain," the Cheerios' coach paused. "I can't suspend him because he scares you. High school is a dry run for the rest of your life. It's rough. People can be mean." The woman was finally speaking like she normally did.

Then she and the choir director bantered back and forth about the situation. Listening to the two teachers helped, oddly enough. Inside the office, Karofsky couldn't come near him. Not that Kurt wanted to spend the day in either teachers' presence.

"It's the fear that's the worst," Kurt admitted. "I don't know when it's coming. I can't concentrate. I don't feel like I'm part of this school at all. I feel like I'm in a horror movie where this creature follows me around, terrorizing me. And there's nothing I can do about it? I mean, you don't know what's going on in this kid's head. You don't know what he's capable of." He'd given away too much, and the tears were welling up in his eyes again. If he told what was happening, why it was happening, Karofsky would hunt him down. Nowhere would be safe.

"What does that mean?" Mr. Schue said moving to lean against the desk.

Sue who had sat down in her chair leaned forward, "Porcelain, this kid lays a finger on you, you come straight to me and I will expel him faster than a Thai takeout place can repack an order. But, until that happens, and I'm genuinely sorry to say this, but there's nothing legally I or the school board can do."

"Come on Kurt, we're gonna be late for rehearsal."

He grabbed his bag and began following his teacher out the door.

"Porcelain," Sue called out to him.

He paused and turned to face her. "I'll have some of the Cheerio's watch your back. You were one of us."

"Thank you, Coach Sylvester."

When he finally made it to rehearsal, the room was already full, of chatter and the New Directions. He shot Mercedes a curious look, but the diva just shrugged. He apparently wasn't the only one out of the loop on things. The hurt feeling only lasted a few seconds though.

"Dude was a wild animal," Mike said. Tina was massaging his shoulder, every couple of seconds he would wince though.

"A Manimal," Artie corrected.

"I'm so turned on by you right now," Brittany said and leaned closer to him.

Quinn was pressing a bag of ice to Sam's face. He looked the worst, with a split lip and a black eye. The blonde boy's knuckles were bruised and bloody too.

"How bad does it look?" Sam asked her.

"Pretty hot actually," Quinn said and removed the ice from his face to inspect the bruising around his eye.

"You have no idea how hard it was for me not to jump into that beat down!" Indeed, Puck looked as though he was going to launch himself out of the room and finish it.

"Where were you, Finn?" Santana asked sarcastically, turning towards the Quarterback with a mean look.

"I was still out on the field," he said defensively. Too defensively. "I totally would've given him the beat down, if I'd have been there."

So that explained it. The Glee guy's went after Karofsky for Kurt. It touched him. The fact that Finn his brother wasn't there didn't surprise him though.

Rachel nodded in agreement.

Also explained why the two self-proclaimed leaders were sitting away from the group.

"Fact is, it shouldn't have gone down without you, Finn," Mercedes reprimanded. "You should've been leading the charge."

With a sight, Kurt finally spoke up. "Lay off Finn, everyone. It isn't his problem." Despite agreeing with his friends, he had to stick up for his brother. "It isn't his problem. It's none of your problems actually." They couldn't get involved more; things would come to light if they did. He would be in even more danger if that happened. "But thank you for what you did, especially Sam."

He was grateful, but he needed to fight his own battles. Plus, he wanted to break down and tell them everything. He couldn't though.

The moment practice was over he sped home and locked himself in his room. The next day was Friday, and then he would have a break from him for two days. One he desperately needed.

(7:51)

To: Blaine

When do you get back?

(8:14)

From: Blaine

Tomorrow sometime, why? Miss me already?

(8:17)

To: Blaine

I just really need to talk to someone, and you're the only person that will understand.

(8:18)

From: Blaine

Call me, now. If you need to.

(8:19)

To:Blaine

I need to say it face to face.

(8:21)

From: Blaine

I'll be there to pick you up from school. We can go somewhere and talk about what's bothering you. Promise.

(8:22)

To: Blaine

Thank you, really. :) I'm going to sleep now.

(8:23)

From: Blaine

You don't have to thank me, Kurt. And bed already? It's so early.

(8:24)

To: Blaine

It's been a long day. Good night, Blaine.

(8:26)

From: Blaine

Good night, Kurt XX

For the first time in four days, a smile finally graced Kurt's lips. He fell asleep thinking about seeing the dapper private school student.