Burt left for the shop with Finn in tow as Kurt was cleaning up the kitchen. Kurt brought up the pride march with Burt over lunch and got the reaction he expected. After answering at least twenty questions and listening to all the reasons why it was a bad idea, Kurt finally heard what he wanted to hear. "I'm not going to stop you from marching," Burt said with an air of resignation, "but I want to talk to both you and Blaine about it before you go." Kurt restrained himself from bouncing in his seat and clapping his hands. "Okay, dad," he conceded, "Blaine will probably be here tomorrow and we can get together then."

Over the past couple of days Kurt had texted Karofsky several times. As he wiped down the counter and sink, he decided he would just go ahead and try to call Dave. Before he could lose his nerve he grabbed his phone and found Dave's number in his recent contacts. The call went right to voicemail.

"This is Dave. You know what to do." beep.

Oh damn. Kurt rolled his eyes. He left a rather bitchy message ending with "I am not going away, David."

Kurt started to put his phone back into his pocket, and then he had a brainstorm. Blaine and he had been the only two as far as Kurt knew that had a clue about Dave. But back in Figgin's office that day Dave said Santana had threatened to out him. What had happened while Kurt was at Dalton? Maybe Santana had some intel on Dave. It was worth a shot.

Santana answered right away.

"Queen gay boy!"

Pause. Kurt decided to overlook it. "Hi Santana, how are you?"

"Smokin' hot, gay boy. �Cu�l es contigo?"

"I was thinking about prom-"

Kurt heard ice clinking in a glass. Santana swallowed hard. "Sore subject, gay boy."

"It's Kurt, please. And believe me it is a sore subject, for both of us. I would gladly give up the honor to you one thousand times over. But I have a question… "

"Okay-?"

"How did you get Dave Karofsky to go along with your campaign to become Prom King and Queen?"

"Whoa. Well… I've always kind of had a thing for jocks and Dave obviously had a boner for me-"

"Santana, please."

"I just hated that you were so mistreated that you had to leave your own-"

Kurt was pissed now. "Spare me the bullshit, okay? I know you were trying to clear a path for me to come back to McKinley so New Directions would have a better chance of winning Nationals. I already know that."

Santana was unmoved by Kurt's tone. "Nationals? Another sore subject, ga-Kurt. Fuck, you are two for two." Her voice was even huskier than usual.

Kurt wanted to reach through the phone and slap her. "What I am asking you is, what did you do to Dave to get him to go along with you? How did you get him to do the whole 'making amends' thing? Start the Bullywhips with you?" Kurt was yelling into the phone at this point. "Santana, how did you get him to wear a fricking red beret?"

Santana howled. "Well, I do look damn hot in red, don't you think? Remember that prom dress-de puta madre. And to answer your question: it was easy, Kurt. I just made him believe that I would out him to the whole school. Had that closet case running scared. Yep, my big jock of a partner was pussy whipped unos - dos – tres."

"So, Kurt, why all the questions?" She drew a quick breath. "Is he bothering you? If he has so much as looked at you wrong Voy a patear el culo and his balls are mine-"

"No, I haven't seen Dave." Kurt said quickly. "But how did you know that Dave was gay in the first place?"

"Me encantan a las mujeres, Kurt. Oh, god, did I say that? I'm cut off for the rest of the day!" She giggled.

"I study French, not Spanish," Kurt stated dryly.

Well, let's just say I figured it out with my amazing powers of observation. You may recall that I saved your asses when Dave accosted you and Blaine in the hall. I overheard you guys saying something about Dave "fooling everyone." Then I actually saw 'duke stud' checking out trouty mouth's pretty ass, can you believe it? So I called him on it."

She finally took a breath. "You aren't telling me I got it wrong are you?"

Kurt wondered what more he should tell her. It had just occurred to him when Santana laughed about Dave being pussy whipped that she had also done her share of bullying and name calling. She could go ballistic at a moment's notice. What did that say about Santana? Yeah, she was from Lima Heights and had to learn how to defend herself. But still… it occurred to him that she was in some ways like a female version of Dave. He disregarded her question in favor of one of his own.

"I did not see much of you while I was at Dalton. What has been going on with you?"

Kurt could sense Santana's guard going up. "Listen, I just got a tweet from Brit- Santa Madre, who all did she send this to—fuck me! Can I call you back? "

"Okay. I can tell you are busy. Maybe we can catch up some other time."

"Yeah. But sweetie?" He heard Santana swallow. She said quietly, "It's probably not a phone conversation, okay?" There was uncertainty in her voice and Kurt heard the vulnerability there.

"Are you okay?" The question was out before Kurt even thought about it. He really did not know much about Santana or her family.

Santana pulled herself together. "Life can be a bitch, Kurt. And then you die. So don't waste your time talking to me when you could be sexing up your luscious man. And tell him Santana says, 'Buenas.'" Santana laughed and hung up.

As it turns out Kurt also had a tweet from Brittany. My house at 7 prom dress but no underwear.

It was about thirty minutes later when Kurt's phone rang.

"Hi Dave. I'm glad you finally called me."

"Yeah, sure. What's going on?"

"Well, I just wanted to talk to you about a couple of things. Did your dad let you know I might call?"

"No, I haven't really been hanging out with my dad, you know?"

"Well, he brought his car in my dad's shop for a tune-up. I ran him in to his office-"

Dave interrupted. "Okay, yeah. I guess I was supposed to do that…sorry."

"It's not important, Dave."

"Why are you calling me?" Then, "What did you talk about with my dad?" There was some suspicion in his voice.

"Nothing really that personal, you know?" Kurt found himself wanting to reassure Dave. "Listen Dave, I did not out you. I did tell him that you agreed to help me start a PFLAG group at school."

"Did my old man even know what that was?"

"He does now. I told him I needed to call you so we could start working on it this summer."

"What the fuck, Kurt?"

"Well, we need to research how to start a group. There is probably paperwork, you know? And we need to strategize getting Figgin's permission. Maybe even talk to the school board, who knows?"

Dave groaned. "Jesus, just go ahead and screw with me, why don't you?"

Kurt persisted. "Blaine and I are going to pride in Columbus this Saturday –"

"Going to what?"

"Pride, Dave. The pride march? When gay people and their supporters all come out to celebrate the progress that gay people have made?" Kurt felt like he was explaining current events to a 12 year old. "I believe this year will be the 30th anniversary for the march in Columbus."

"Okay-?"

"I know there will be PFLAG people there marching and passing out literature. I thought we could get as much information—"

"WE!" Dave sounded panicky.

"I meant Blaine and me…"

"Thank god. Okay, so you are going to pick up stuff…"

"Yes, and I would like for the two of us –you and me—to get together sometime next week to look everything over and make a plan of attack, so to speak."

"Okay… I guess… I guess I can do that." The jocks deep voice faltered.

"We may even want to check out the closest PFLAG meeting. I'll find out where that is and -"

"Go to a meeting? You and me?" Dave sounded doubtful.

"Don't overwhelm me with your enthusiasm, Dave." It was bitchy Kurt.

Silence.

"Dave?" Kurt decided he had pushed him hard enough.

"Yeah?"

"We'll work it out. Um…I was wondering…how have you been this summer? I mean really."

Silence.

"Dave?"

"How've I been…really?" It was almost a whisper.

"Yes, really."

"Well, Kurt, I'm fucked. That is how I've been." Dave sounded like he was talking from the bottom of a well. Desperate, and underneath it all, afraid.

The tone of his voice made Kurt shiver. "Dave, I had a feeling that you were having a rough time. I'm…I'm kind of…concerned about you. "

Silence. Then, "Why would you give a shit?"

"Because you are a human being in pain? Because I understand what you are going through?" The empathy in Kurt's voice was real.

"Kurt, I was really cruel to you…" Dave's voice cracked.

"Yes, what you did to me was wrong. And I won't pretend otherwise. But it helps me to know why you were doing it. You bullied me because you did not want to face something about yourself. Something I reminded you of every time you saw me. Am I right?"

Silence.

"Am I right, Dave?" Kurt asked again. Then he waited.

Dave breath came out in a sob, "More than you know, Kurt."

"Are you confiding in anyone else about this yet?"

"No! Who would I talk to?"

"Well, you can always talk to me. Or Blaine. "

"Yeah, well I'm not too sure about that…"

"Well, we do care about what happens to you. I don't want to be mean about this but if I have it right, there are only three people who know what is going on with you: Santana, Blaine and me. My guess is you may not be excited about the prospect of confiding in Santana. From the sounds of it she manipulated you into helping her by threatening to out you."

"Yeah, she did beat up on me. That is how she got me to agree to help her, but once we got the Bullywhips going, I started to believe in what we were doing." Dave's voice had more energy than before. "It felt like I was making up a little bit for all the shitty ways I used to treat people. Especially you."

Kurt listened with interest. "Well, the Bullywhips are helping students at McKinley stay safe. I think PFLAG can accomplish a lot, too."

"Yeah, maybe... Hey, maybe Santana will want to work on this, too." Dave's voice took on an edge of wonder, "Wow, Kurt, I knew she and Brittany messed around sometimes, but I always thought they were doing it to turn us guys on. At least that is how I always took it before."

Kurt's ears perked up. "Before what?"

"Before she told me that she was a lesbian."

Kurt had the mental sensation of puzzle pieces moving together…Click. Click. Click. Now some parts of the conversation he just had with Santana made more sense. Now Santana's actions in the hallway when she threatened Dave made sense. Gods, he fumed, screw Santana's 'amazing powers of observation.' Could he expect his own gaydar to become operational any time soon?

Dave continued. "I know she doesn't want to come out to the whole school yet, but like you told me before, PFLAG is made up of everyone who wants to help. Do you think we should call her?"

Kurt hesitated. He was glad that Dave was thinking about others who could get involved. "Well, Dave, maybe you could call her…because Santana really hasn't come out to me yet."

"But you must have known she was gay!"

"Uhhh… No, I can't say that I did."

"So you can't tell who is gay?"

Hmmm. Where to start? "Well, some people may appear more gay than others, like me, but of course it is never safe to assume and no, gay people don't all recognize each other, For example, I really didn't have a clue about you, Dave."

Dave groaned."Damn. So Santana is probably going to kick my ass for telling you. Now I have that to look forward to."

"Well, she won't hear about it from me, Dave. Gay etiquette suggests that one always waits for the other person to say something first. I won't be outing her or saying anything directly to her. Hopefully, she'll share it eventually." And with Brittany around that may be sooner rather than later, thought Kurt.

Kurt brought the conversation back to the matters at hand. "You really need to start trusting someone. Holding everything in is going to eat you up. I'm worried about you."

Dave's tears flowed down his cheeks.

Kurt continued "Anyway let's plan to get together next week. We can talk more then and I'll let you know more about PFLAG. I work in the morning, but I'm free by 1 or 2. Blaine and I usually spend time together when he has the evening off. What do you have going on?"

"Not much. I put in some job applications but nothing has happened so far. Maybe I could come over to your house?"

"Sure. How about I text you when Blaine gets his schedule for next week?"

"Okay."

Kurt wanted to say something reassuring. "I know things are hard for you right now, Dave. You are kind of depressed. Take it from me Dave, I know what that is like. But try to hang in there." He could hear Dave breathing hard on the other end. Finally he said, "It gets better, Dave. Talk to you later."

"Later."

Dave threw his phone down on the bed and watched it bounce once then hit the carpeted floor of his unkempt room. He wiped the hot tears from his face for the fourth or fifth time in the last few minutes. Dave had promised himself that he would get his act together before he had to face Kurt when school started again. Now Kurt was insisting that they get together over the summer. This was torture. But Dave could not refuse. He could not deny that boy anything. How could he?

Dave leaned over and reached blindly for his phone. He finally found it where it had landed under the bed. He had to talk to someone. Maybe Santana would understand.

-To be continued-