Chapter Thirteen

Blaine looked down at his phone where there was a text from Jeff telling him to be a man or he was going to kick his ass. It was familiar to things he had been sent by his father, he was always telling Blaine to man-up, but the text from Jeff really was for his own good. And of course Jeff understood that he was freaking out. He took a deep breath and looked towards the school that he'd been avoiding for two weeks. He wondered if his world would ever be the same again.

Inside that building was Kurt. Blaine knew he was in there because Kurt always arrived ridiculously early to avoid the jocks and because his car was in the parking lot. He was worried about seeing Kurt again. He didn't know what it was going to do to him. What emotions would it bring up? He couldn't show weakness in front of the idiots that were walking down those halls but he knew he had to show Kurt how he felt and that still scared him. Ugh, Blaine was so tired of being afraid!

He took another deep breath before making his way inside. He wanted to see Kurt before lessons started. He needed to talk to him, even just touch him, just to prove he was really there. God, he hoped he had a chance.

His eyes rested on Kurt as soon as he walked into the door and what he saw shocked him. So much so that he let out an audible gasp and stopped just inside the door. Kurt was not how Blaine had seen him last. His appearance was grey, he looked seriously ill. His clothes were hanging off of him, a sight Blaine never thought he would see. He looked like he would literally pass out in a minute. Blaine didn't want to be presumptuous but he knew that this was his fault. He'd done this to Kurt. Guilt coursed through him.

Timidly he walked over to Kurt. He could do this; it wasn't like he could back out now.

"Kurt..." He breathed out as he stood next to him.

Kurt tilted his head then looked round at him with his eyes widening. He shifted slightly away from Blaine, crossing his skinny arms across his chest, shutting Blaine out. That hurt Blaine but he knew he deserved it. At the moment his strongest feeling was that of concern. Kurt shouldn't have lost that amount of weight in two weeks. It wasn't natural at all.

"Kurt, what's wrong? Are you ill?" Blaine asked his voice still quiet.

XXXX

Kurt's stomach was churning angrily and he felt like he was going to be sick, though he hadn't eaten anything to throw up. He could taste the acid forcing its way up from his stomach, burning the back of his throat. He knew if he opened his mouth, he was likely to lose his stomach right there in the hallway in front of everyone and probably all over Blaine. So he kept his mouth tightly closed. It wasn't like he knew what he'd say to Blaine anyway. Desperately he tried to will away the nausea, he had to stay frozen until it passed.

There stood Blaine. He looked a little worse for wear, like he hadn't slept properly (well he could join the club) but otherwise okay. He didn't even have bruises littering his skin like normal. Kurt wanted to hate him for looking like he was surviving when it was so obvious that he himself, was not but, damn it, he still loved Blaine.

He still loved that boy so much that his heart wanted to leap out of his chest while at the same time, it wanted to shatter into a million more pieces than it had done already.

When Blaine asked if he was ill he'd wanted to laugh and he would have done if the sick feeling wasn't still there. And he didn't want to look like a crazy person.

"Kurt, please..." Blaine pleaded.

A spark of anger rippled through Blaine. Why should he be so concerned now when he obviously wasn't before? Kurt took a deep breath making sure he'd be able to speak without losing his stomach.

"Why do you care?" He asked.

His voice was raw and croaky and he sounded pathetic when he'd been hoping to sound at least some-what put together. He'd been planning for that tiny bit of anger to be evident at least somewhere in his voice but instead it came out pitifully.

"Kurt... I still... feel for you." Blaine said.

Kurt's frame shook at his words.

XXXX

Damn it! Blaine hadn't meant to say that. He had meant to tell Kurt that he still loved him. That he'd always love him. Instead it had come out sounding all wrong.

He'd seen Kurt shiver after he said it and he knew that Kurt had taken badly. Internally he yelled at himself.

"Kurt, please let me explain! I was scared... I didn't mean to..." Blaine started, his words tumbling out of his mouth messily.

But Kurt was already turning away from him hurriedly. Blaine stretched out his hand to capture Kurt's wrist. Shocked at how bony it had become he let it go again, allowing Kurt to move quickly away from him. He had practically run away.

Any hope Blaine had had was gone.

XXXX

"Was I out of line? Did I say something way too honest? Did you run and hide, like a scared little boy?"

Kurt ran to the nearest bathroom and barely made it into a cubicle before he was losing his stomach. Tears pooled from his eyes as his stomach gave another extremely painful lurch. Kurt sobbed. His throat was stinging and his stomach was aching. He placed his hands on his stomach trying to will the pain away.

He didn't understand why he was feeling so ill. He could understand the broken heart but he couldn't understand why he was vomiting nearly constantly. He was well aware that he wasn't eating anything so he didn't understand why his body was reacting this way.

Finally he stopped being sick but cautiously, he stayed next to the toilet just in case. He rested his chin on the edge, not caring about the germs that were most definitely there. The toilet was cool against his clammy skin. His sobbing had stopped but tears were still slipping down his face silently.

A hand touched his shoulder, softly and Kurt's heart leapt in surprise. He fell backwards out of the toilet cubicle and into the legs of the person who'd tapped him. He thought he had been alone. He hadn't heard anybody come in and he hadn't seen if anyone was in the room. Humiliation swept through him as he realised that someone had seen him at practically his weakest point. As if things couldn't get any worse, right?

Gazing upwards, Kurt saw that the person who had touched him and who he was now consequently leaning against was Karofsky. He trembled when he realised who it was.

At the same time as he discovered who it was, his mind connected it to the fact that when he had been with Blaine he'd been protected from the towering jock. Now he didn't have that protection and Kurt couldn't be more vulnerable, being literally at the bully's feet.

Kurt scrambled to his feet, ignoring the complaints from his stomach. He tried to put as much distance between himself and the other boy as possible. He wasn't safe anymore, without Blaine to protect him he knew Karofsky would try to hurt him again.

As soon as Kurt had found his balance on his feet, he fled the bathroom. His heart was pounding in his chest, his head throbbing with a dull ache and his stomach felt like he had just taken a ride on a really fast and loopy roller-coaster.

As soon as he had high-tailed it out of the bathroom he smacked into someone. Shrinking away from whoever he had hit, he prepared for some jock to beat the crap out of him or at least assault him verbally. Kurt squeezed his eyes closed, waiting for the out pour of hate.

"Kurt? Are you alright? You don't look so well." The voice was full of concern, the opposite of what Kurt had been expecting.

Slowly he opened his eyes. Mr Schuester was stood in front of him, his eyes worried. Kurt let out a breath and stood a little straighter.

"Kurt, I think you'd better go home. You haven't been feeling well for a while now. It'd probably be best if you re-cooperated at home for a day or two."

Kurt gave it a thought. He didn't really want to miss any school but it would mean he could avoid Blaine, just as the other boy had previously avoided him. At least Kurt would have a proper excuse for it. It would also get him away from Karofsky. Besides, he really was feeling like rubbish.

Kurt nodded.

"Good. I'll call your dad and sort it out at the reception. You just get yourself home. Do you feel okay to drive?"

Again Kurt nodded.

"Alright. But be careful, if you start feeling bad while driving, stop and call someone. We don't want you having an accident." Mr Schuester said.

"I'll be careful, Mr Schu." Kurt croaked out.

Kurt headed out to the car park and got into the Navigator. He gave himself a minute to relax and to shoot a text off to Mercedes explaining his absence before he started driving home.

XXXX

Blaine gets a little worried when it looks as if Kurt has magically disappeared from school. After his first two lessons, which he had actually gone to (he wanted to prove to Kurt that he could be better), he'd rushed to meet Kurt outside of his lessons, he'd already long ago memorised his schedule, only to find that Kurt wasn't in them. Blaine had even waited until he was sure that the last person had come out of the room. Kurt had ditched his first two lessons.

Blaine didn't try meeting him outside lessons after that. He still went to his own lessons. He even shocked many of the teachers by asking for catch-up work that he'd missed. He only did that when he was sure that everyone had left the room, he still had an image to protect.

When lunchtime arrived instead of going to the bleachers he headed to the locker room. He knew that Finn was in there and it wouldn't hurt to ask him if he knew where his step-brother had disappeared to. He knew it wasn't the best idea he had ever had but he had to try.

Walking into the locker room he saw Finn and Puck sat on one of the benches, chatting. Blaine cleared his throat loudly making them turn their heads quickly towards him.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Puck asked angrily, standing up.

"I know you probably hate me but I need to know where Kurt is. Do either of you know where he's gone?"

"Oh so you actually care about him now, do you?" Finn asked, raising himself up to his full height, towering over Blaine.

"I don't want any trouble. Just please..."

"If you didn't want any trouble then you wouldn't have dumped my brother the way you did. He told me what you did." Finn said angrily.

"I think it's time we how him what happens when you mess with one of the glee kids." Puck said, cracking his knuckles.

He advanced on Blaine and the shorter boy knew exactly what was coming. He knew he'd probably be able to beat both of the boys within a inch of their life without breaking too much of a sweat. But he didn't.

All Blaine did was raise his arms up to defend himself. He didn't counter any attack that they made at him. It wasn't like he wasn't used to a beating. But he knew that if he retaliated then there would be no hope. Kurt would never forgive him for hurting someone that he loved. And Blaine couldn't risk it. He was already worried that Kurt wouldn't take him back and he was going to continue to work on it forever, if that was what it took. But Kurt was fiercely protective of his friends, much like they were of him, minus the physical protection. So Blaine would just accept whatever beating was coming his way. It wasn't like he didn't deserve it. He truly deserved it for hurting Kurt.

When they had succeeded in knocking him to the ground they stopped their attacks. Well except for the kick in the side that Puck gave him as they left the locker room.

Blaine laid there for a few minutes. They'd winded him pretty badly but he knew that nothing was broken. He was just going to be a bit more battered and bruised for a while. Nothing new.

XXXX

Kurt blinked as sunlight came over his face. At first he wondered why he was looking up at the sky. He couldn't think of a situation where he would be doing that. But then the smell of rotting food filled his nostrils and he remembered what had happened. He must have blacked out in the dumpster after Azimio and his buddies had tossed him in. Though he had never pass-out before, so that was a little worrying. Instead of getting out Kurt allowed himself to just lay there. He had very little energy and he knew he'd need a lot to be able to swing him self over and out of this smelly dumpster. He'd just rest until he had the strength to move.

But that plan went out of the window when he felt himself being hauled out of the dumpster and dropped messily on the ground. The motion stirred up his stomach and he began to feel sick again. His head was spinning like he had just taken a ride on the world's most loopy roller-coaster.

"Now that I've saved you from the dumpster I think you should pay me back, don't you?"

The person speaking sounded muffled and Kurt blearily looked up to see why and who was speaking. His stomach gave a horrible lurch when he saw that it was Karofsky. This couldn't be good.

Kurt opened his mouth to say something but no sound came out so he quickly closed it again. He cursed his head for being so muddled and for his vision for being so blurry. It felt like he was going to pass out again. That wouldn't be good.

Karofsky knelt down next to Kurt and stared at him intently. Kurt wanted to shift away or do something but its like his limbs were no longer connected to his brain and his commands went unnoticed. He was pretty much limp and lifeless like some kind of puppet without its master.

"That's it. You don't need to say anything. Let me take care of you."

His fingers hooked under the hem of Kurt's shirt and Kurt trembled as Karofsky's rough skinned fingertips splayed over his stomach. Fear flooded through Kurt. Was Karofsky going to rape him? No, he had to stop him.

Kurt opened his mouth to tell him to get away but instead of words coming out of his mouth, bile erupted and he was sick all over Karofsky, who looked furious. Kurt shrunk back, terrified as Karofsky raised his fist in the air, ready to slam it down on Kurt. Kurt closed his eyes tightly, waiting for the impact.

But it didn't come.

Kurt squinted his eyes to see what was happening. Blaine had his hand around Karofsky's wrist, stopping him from bringing his fist down. He was all bruised again, looking like he'd been thought he ringer and back again and for a second Kurt was ecstatic to see him. Until he remembered.

"If you lay one hand on him then I will tell the entire school that you're a closet case. And you wouldn't want that would you?" Blaine asked, his voice low and dangerous.

Karofsky wrenched his arm out of Blaine's grip and climbed to his feet before sprinting away. Blaine watched him go before turning to Kurt.

"Are you alright? Do you want me to take you to the nurses office?" Blaine asked.

"I'm fine." Kurt said, attempting to get up.

Just as he was about to stand up straight he stumbled and almost fell back to the ground but Blaine slid a hand around his waist quickly and helped him stand. Ignoring Kurt's complaints he helped him to the nurses office. The nurse gave Kurt a glass of water and called his dad to come and pick him up.

Kurt side-eyed Blaine who was leaning against the wall in the office. Kurt wondered why he was still there. Surely he didn't care that much. Or maybe he just felt guilty. He stayed in the room until Burt came and got him. As Burt was helping Kurt out of the office, Blaine looked longingly at him.

"Feel better soon, Kurt." He whispered his voice sounding pained.

Kurt met his eyes for a brief second. The pain he had heard was reiterated on his face and Kurt felt his heart break just a little more.