Kurt woke up, immediately sitting up in his bed. A sharp pain shot up his arm; he rubbed it gently as he turned to his clock. It was 8:30; he was late to school! As he sprinted over to his closet to pick out an outfit, Kurt saw a note stuck to the door knob.

Kurt-
Go back to sleep. I called in and told them you were sick. Don't worry, I'm staying home from work too. I just want to spend the day with my son.
-Dad

Kurt groaned in relief, dragging himself back to his bed. He bounced back on his bed, crawling under the warm sheets and digging his head into his pillow. As he closed his eyes, however, all he saw was Karfosky coming at him like a shark, his face closing in on Kurt's-

No!Kurt's mind protested, but the damage was done: Kurt was reliving the moment he never wanted to think about again. He could feel Karfosky's rough lips on his again, attacking them with an unsuppressed fervor that Kurt could hardly handle. He could feel his hands pinning his arms on the locker, his warm, disgusting breath on his cheek...

That was my first kiss, Kurt realized, opening his eyes and staring at the ceiling. It was definitely not how he had expected it to go. He never thought he'd receive it unwillingly, from a boy who endlessly harassed and bullied him. It made Kurt feel nauseous, having to live the rest of his life carrying that burden.

Why did Karfosky kiss me?Kurt wondered, bringing his hands up to his chest.Is he gay?

What other explanation can there be? Why would a straight guy kiss me!Kurt reasoned.He must be in the closet.Kurt couldn't believe it, but he actually began to feel bad for Karfosky.

If he wants to come out, it's up to him, Kurt thought abrubtly, and turned over, trying to fall back asleep. After five minutes of trying, he gave up: his mind just wouldn't shut up.

"Morning, Kurt," Burt called out from behind a newspaper. Kurt walked into the kitchen; his father was already sitting at the table. "I got bagels, is that alright?"

"Well, they're not the healthiest, but they'll do," Kurt replied, taking the seat across from him. He grabbed a bagel from a plate in the middle of the table, taking a small bite. He wasn't that hungry after the thoughts he was having earlier.

"So, how do you feel?" Burt queried, setting the paper down.

"Fine. Pretty good. It's a little sore, but I'm okay." He looked down at his bagel. It was a little white lie; Burt was only asking about his physical state, not his actual emotions...

"If you need an aspirin or something, they're over there on the counter, next to the stove." They sat in silence for a while; Burt read the paper while Kurt looked down at his bagel.

"Tell me, Kurt," Burt's low voice broke the quiet; he didn't even look up from the newspaper.

"Tell you what?" Kurt asked, but he had a small feeling that he knew what Burt was going to ask.

"Have these sort of things happened to you before? Just...people treating you awfully because you're...different."

"Sometimes," Kurt mumbled. "It's nothing I can't deal with, though," he recovered quickly, "except for this one incident-"

"Small incident?! You call this a small incident?!" Burt raged, poking his red face from out behind the newspaper.

"No, no, Dad, calm down. A woman was acting a bit homophobic at the mall when I went with Rachel a few weeks ago, but it's no big deal-"

"Yes, it is a big deal." Burt sighed, setting the newspaper down to look at his son. "Kurt, I knew that this would be difficult, this whole...situation. I never thought that it would land you in the hospital, or that it would cause a scene at the mall or whatever...my point is, I never wanted you to get hurt, but you did. You kept it inside, too, all of this hurt, I know you did. I thought you would tell me everything after you came out, but evidently, you are just keeping more secrets. And did you think that I'd be okay with you conversing with astranger, BGA or whatever? He could be forty years old for all we know!"

"Dad, you heard Mrs. Devon! We can trust her. I trust him, BDA, as well. He's the only person that understands me...you don't. I love you so much, and you mean the world to me...but with these kinds of things, I just can't talk to you about them. I know that it was wrong of me to not talk to you about the mall and the bullying and BDA. I'm sorry about that." Kurt put as much enthusiasm as he could in his apology. He knew that he hurt his dad badly, and it killed him to see Burt upset.

"It's okay, Kurt, I do understand. I know that we're not exactly going to understand each other, but I still love you. Now, what do you want to do about this whole...fiasco?"

Kurt was silent; he began subconsciously picking apart his bagel. "I don't know. I'm not sure if he's going to do it again. I can deal with the occasional shove, which is what I normally get."

"I don't think this is just going to go away, Kurt. I think we need to actually do something about this-"

The phone began to ring; Kurt sprang up to get it. He walked over to the counter, where the phone was blaring, and picked up.

"Hello, you've reached the Hummels, Kurt speaking," he answered.

"Hey, Kurt, this is Ms. Pillsbury"Oh crap, Kurt thought,ohcrapohcrapohcrap. "Can I speak with your parents?"

"Well, my mom is dead, but you can talk to my dad," Kurt said dryly. He could hardly hear her apologies as he passed the phone to his father. "It's the school," he told Burt.

"Hello, this is Burt Hummel. Okay, he's not sick...oh, oh my God. So all of my tax dollars for those video cameras did come to good use!"That's right, Kurt thought. They had installed cameras at McKinley over the summer. "Yes...yes, he actually had to go to the hospital, that's partially why he isn't at school...yes...okay, how about in an hour, is that good? All right, great. Thanks so much. Bye." Burt hung up the phone, rubbing his face with his hands for a few seconds. "Kurt, go get dressed. We're leaving in forty minutes. Apparently they got nearly everything on video."

"Everything?" Kurt couldn't seem to find his voice. 'I'm going to kill you, I'm going to kill you, I'm going to kill you,' Karfosky's voice repeated in Kurt's head; he trembled for a second. Finally, he gathered enough strength to rise up from his seat and dragged himself to the top of the staircase to his room.

"Kurt," Burt called out. Kurt turned around; Burt was reading the paper again. "It's going to be okay."

Kurt felt his eyes begin to water, his stomach churning painfully. Burt didn't even know half of it, but Kurt still felt a little better from his father's words. Burt was not the most articulate father, but that one sentence was the only thing Kurt could hold on to at that point.

Suddenly, Kurt felt his phone buzz in the pocket of his pajamas. He had a text message from an unknown contact; he opened it:

I know I'm kind of breaking the rules by doing this, but last night my grandmother told me what happened.

It's going to be okay. It can only get better from here.

"Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light" –Albus Dumbledore (I know that's not really from the book, but it's relevant)

-BDA