Tina looked at Artie, panicked. They remembered fully the rock-salt slushie incident...Blaine pushing Kurt out of the way...his screams...

Oh God, his screams...

Just as terrifying as they were now.

"Tina take him to the bathroom to clean up -- no, go!" Artie fought to make himself heard over his panicked friend. "I'll handle this!" he removed his glasses and clumsily shook the purple muck from them. "and call Kurt!"

Tina carefully grabbed Blaine's wrist.

"Blaine?" she said quietly," Blaine we should go get you cleaned up -- I know Kurt filled you in on how badly the blue raspberry can stain."

Blaine nodded shakily. He was panting slightly, and she worried that he might be on the verge of a panic attack.

"Did you bring a change of clothes with you?" Tina asked him. "If not I have an old hoodie of Mike's in my locker -- I don't think he'd mind if you borrow it."

"No thanks, Tina...I've got something in my locker, can you...?"

"Hang on -- Sam!" Tina managed to flag Sam Evans down as he was heading to lunch. "Can you get into Blaine's locker while I get him to the bathroom?"

Sam winced, noticing the bright blue slush that coated Blaine's face, bits of his hair, and his shirt and pants.

"Yeah go help him with that -- Quinn told me it could seep through and stain your boxers. Dunno how she knew that."

"Yes you do -- Puck. Or Finn. Hell, who knows?" said Tina, shaking her head slightly. "Just -- can you get Blaine's extra clothes out of his locker for me?"

"Just give me the combo," Sam shot Blaine a sympathetic look.

Once Blaine gave him the numbers Tina pulled him into the bathroom.

As he was rinsing his hair of both gel and slushie, she sent a text to Kurt.To: Kurt
Call me ASAP

His response was immediate.

From: Kurt
Blaine?

To: Kurt
Azimio, Strando and the jocks came at him, Artie and I with slushies.

Surprisingly, her phone went right off moments after sending the text. She quickly answered the incoming call.

"Kurt?"

Is he okay?

"He's fine now, he's washing blue raspberry syrup out of his hair."

That's not what I meant, T.

"Do you want to talk to him really fast?" she asked, slightly annoyed. "We're supposed to be in History, and you know Adams will fry us if we're more than ten minutes late."

Blaine spluttered and reached for the paper towels to dry his face as she handed him her phone.

"Kurt?" he said shakily, "No, I'm alright -- Kurt, I'm fine. Yes I have another set of clothes in my locker, Sam went to get them for me." he paused. "Look I -- I'll call you when I get home later alright? I'm not shutting you out, I'm telling you we'll talk about it later!" he closed his eyes, trying to stay calm. "Yeah. I love you too. 'Bye."

He hung up just as Sam walked in with Blaine's clean clothing in his arms. Without a word, the shorter boy snatched them from him and disappeared into an empty stall to change.

---

"Slushie?"

Blaine frowned at Lita, not comprehending what she was trying to get at.

"I'm sorry?"

She pointed at his neck, just above his collar. Bright blue syrup had dried on his skin, and now that he was aware of it, it felt extremely uncomfortable.

"How'd you know?" he asked. "I didn't say anything about --"

"Blaine I graduated from McKinley. I know what the jocks use the slushie machine for, and it's not for the drinks."

His eyes went wide.

"You?"

She smiled a little.

"Band Geek. Hit so many times with 'em I lost my taste for raspberry." she propped her notebook up on her lap. "Looks like that's what they got you with."

He just nodded.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No."

"Blaine."

"I almost had a panic attack, okay?" he snapped. "It's not something --"

"Blaine, don't start okay?" she reached for her coffee mug and took a drink from it. "Cooper said you had a nightmare last night -- it's why he called me and arranged this."He could feel anger begin to boil in his stomach, and clenched his hands into fists.

"He shouldn't have arranged this in the first place." he muttered. "I wanted to talk to him, not you."

"He's only doing -- Blaine stop!" she cried when he got to his feet and made his way to the door.

"No. I'm done. I'm out of here."

Within seconds he'd thrown the door open and had run from the room.

Lita sighed and picked up the phone.

Cooper's going to kill me. she thought.

---

"Blaine?"

He looked up to see Sebastian walking toward his bench. Oddly, the Warbler wasn't wearing his Dalton uniform.

"I shouldn't be seen talking to you, Seb. New Directions will flip, think I'm 'leaking information'."

Sebastian snorted and flopped onto the bench next to him.

"Shit, they know we're friends...well, not exactly friends, I guess..." he ammended. "but whatever. You okay? Looks like you've been crying."

"So what?" Blaine stared at the sidewalk, then at the jungle gym of the park they were currently at. "Am I weak for doing it?"

"I didn't say you were...but you're not."

"Gee thanks."

"I meant that to be sincere by the way."

"I'll mail you a thank you card."

Silence.

Blaine turned his head to look at the other teen. Bright blue-ish purple marks were visible on his neck, and disappeared under the collar of the green button down he was wearing.

"He hit you again?"

Sebastian said nothing for what seemed like an eternity.

"No." he said finally. "Dad hasn't hit me in ages. I told you that."

"Seb --"

"Blaine, it's not him."

The dark haired boy felt his stomach flip over, and next moment he was emptying his stomach out onto the sidewalk.

"Blaine!" he felt a warm hand on his back, heard the panic in Sebastian's voice. "Are you okay? Do you --?"

Oh God...not her...God please, not this again...

"It's her, isn't it?" he whispered, turning to face Sebastian. "Your mom. She's hurting you."

Sebastian didn't have to say anything. The look on his face said it all.

Blaine felt sick again.

When he vomitted this time, it was all over Sebastian's shirt.