“Some girl saw you two in the parking lot and put it on the internet,” Julie replied, closing the laptop with a snap and placing it back on the desk. “TMZ contacted her and asked her if she had more pictures, and offered her a shit load of money for them, I’m sure.”

“This is bad,” Blaine said, standing up. The panic was back, vibrating under his skin and making him unable to stand still. “This is really, really bad.”

“We’re going to have to do some damage control,” Julie replied. “What happened?”

“We went out, a bunch of us from the cast, and I wasn’t having any fun so I decided to leave,” Blaine told her. “He followed me out to my car, kissed me against my will, and then kept pressing me to… well, he didn’t get the response he wanted from me, so he went back inside, and I left.”

“Shit,” Julie muttered. “That’s not what the articles are saying.”

“What articles?” Blaine’s mouth went dry. He hadn’t thought this could get worse, but apparently he’d been wrong.

“Everyone’s picked up this story, Blaine,” Julie spoke quietly. “You’re one of TV’s most famous faces on top of the fact that you’re gay – everyone has been dying for you to start dating someone. Then add in the fact that they found a witness willing to go on record that you and Sebastian were all over each other, and then you left together.”

Blaine buried his face in his hands. He was going to kill Sebastian, and then sue everyone he could think of.

“We’re going to have to make a statement,” she continued. “I’ve been fielding calls all day.” Julie gave him a hard stare. “What do you want me to say?”

*

Kurt finally crawled out of bed around dinner time, mostly because his bladder would not be denied any longer. He felt like a wrung out sponge – dried out and mangled. He’d lost track of how many tears he’d cried, in between bouts of restless sleep.

He could hear his dad and Carole and Finn laughing downstairs, and he wished he could feel as carefree as they did right now. Kurt staggered back into his room and flopped down on the bed. Any minute now, his father would be sure to come up and make him come downstairs to eat. His cell phone caught his eye where it sat next to his alarm clock on the nightstand. He picked it up with shaking fingers and held it tightly in his hand.

He pressed the button to light up the display. He’d missed a few calls and texts while he’d been sleeping. With the phone on silent, he’d been able to ignore everyone.

Kurt scrolled through his missed calls – Rachel, Mercedes, even Santana. He saw several messages, and sighed. He’d listen to them later. He checked his texts next, seeing a few from the girls, a couple from the boys of glee club (including Puck, which, whoa), and three from Blaine.

Blaine - who didn’t appear to know that he’d been caught, given the nature of his texts.

Kurt bit his lip, and then deleted them. The only way he could deal with this would be by letting Blaine go. It was obvious from the pictures that Blaine and Sebastian definitely had something between them. Kurt knew Sebastian would be a much better boyfriend for Blaine than he could ever be.

Just as he went to put the phone back down, the display lit up in his hands. Fresh tears (how did he have any left?) pricked at the corners of his eyes as he stared at the lit up display. Blaine was calling.

“Kiddo?” Kurt looked up from his phone to see his dad standing in the doorway of his room.
“You coming down for dinner?” Kurt stared at his dad for a second, then back at his phone which was still showing Blaine’s name on the display. He bit his lip, hit the ignore button, and turned his phone off.

“Yeah,” he said, putting the phone down and wiping at his eyes. “I’ll be down in a second.”

*

It dawned on Blaine in the middle of deciding what to say that Kurt had probably seen the pictures.

The thought had made him jump for his phone, freaking out Julie, who he’d cut off in mid-sentence. He pressed his button for Kurt and prayed that his boyfriend would answer.

“Come on, come on, come on,” he begged aloud while the phone rang. Julie arched an eyebrow at him, clearly wondering who he was calling. “Damn it!” he shouted as Kurt’s voicemail message kicked on.

You’ve reached Kurt. I can’t get to my phone right now, so leave me a message.

“Kurt, it’s Blaine,” he said the moment the beep sounded. “I know you saw the pictures but Kurt, it’s not what you think. I swear, I can explain. Please, please, please call me.” He paused. “I love you.”

“Son of a bitch!” he swore, tossing his phone onto the sofa. Julie jumped, and then gave him a sympathetic smile.

“He’ll call you, Blaine,” she said. “But in the meantime, we need to deal with this.” Blaine nodded after a moment and then sank back down next to her on the couch.

“What do you suggest?”

*

“How’re you holding up, sweetie?” Carole asked as they sat around the table. She’d made some kind of baked fish and salad, and Kurt would have normally been digging in, but it seemed his appetite was gone. He poked at his plate with his fork.

“I’m… I don’t really know,” he finally told her.

“It really sucks,” Finn replied. “What Blaine-" Kurt flinched at the sound of Blaine’s name and Finn stopped talking.

“If he…” Kurt started, his voice gravelly. He cleared his throat and tried again. “If he calls here, I don’t want to speak with him.”

“Are you sure, Kurt?” Carole spoke gently. He nodded.

“I’m sorry, I’m not hungry,” he excused himself, getting up. “I’m going to bed.”

“School in the morning,” Burt replied, and Kurt glanced at him before nodding.

“Night,” he said, heading back to his room.