It was just one of those days for Blaine; he had just walked out of the cinema at the mall when he saw a face he'd hoped to never see again. It was Calvin Nicks aka the ringleader of the group that had beat him up after the Sadie Hawkins dance; with him was a blonde girl Blaine didn't recognize. Blaine pulled his hoodie on and kept walking, hoping not to get noticed.

            “Blaine Anderson, how's it goin'?” A loud voice asked. Blaine mentally cursed himself, put on a fake smile, and turned to face his former tormentor.

            “Hey, Calvin,” Blaine said, trying to hold back on the memories going through his head. “It's going good. I'm at a new school and I have new friends.”

            “You still gay?” Calvin asked; the girl next to him giggled.

            “Yes, yes, I am.” Blaine took a deep breath. “Why? Are you still a jerk? Wait, I can answer that: yes, yes, you are.” He mentally cursed himself again. Calvin raised an eyebrow and smirked.

            “Blaine Anderson, still the dapper young man we loved in middle school,” he said, putting a hand on Blaine's shoulder. Blaine pushed the taller boy away and turned to leave when he saw Kurt watching them.

            “Blaine, what's going on?” he asked, a hand on his hip.

            “Nothing, Kurt, let's just go,” Blaine said, taking Kurt's hand and walking away.

            “Hey, Anderson, that your boyfriend? He looks faggier than you,” Calvin called. Kurt froze and turned to face Calvin.

            “Kurt, please don't,” Blaine begged. “No, please, please don't.” Kurt ignored the pleadings and walked over to the grinning brunet.

            “What are you gonna do?” Calvin challenged. Kurt seemed to look the boy up and down, and before Blaine could blink, Calvin was on the ground, holding his nose and yelling. The blonde girl was bent down next to him, tending to him. She looked at Kurt in shock; Kurt simply smiled and walked back to Blaine, who was both stunned and impressed. He knew Kurt had a strict nonviolent policy, and only broke it when push came to shove.

            “Let's go home, Blaine,” he said, linking his arm around Blaine's waist and walking away.

!

            Even though Kurt had hurt Calvin, Blaine, despite feeling really good that he had a protective boyfriend, couldn't fight the memories running through his mind, especially one in particular, one just a few days prior to the Sadie Hawkins dance.

            Blaine left his classroom for lunch period and saw Calvin and his usual group of five or six hanging out outside the library. He slouched down and headed for the library; he still heard the catcalls of "Faggot" and "Queer" from the group of boys, but ignored it. Blaine stood in the stacks, looking through the Fantasy section for a new read when he was shoved against the bookcase. Blaine slumped against the case and turned to see a small video camera being shoved in his face and then he felt blows landing on his chest and back.

            “Hey!” a voice called. Blaine knew it was the librarian and thanked whatever God up above for her. The librarian shooed Calvin and two of his friends out of the library and returned to her desk. Blaine sat with his back against the bookshelf and tried not to cry. The bell rang and Blaine slowly walked to his fifth period class. The rest of the day ran by smoothly, at least until he got home and got onto MySpace. What he saw was a video of him getting beaten up in the library.

            “Blaine!” His father's voice yelled up the stairs. “Get down here!” Blaine went to the stairs and found his mom's laptop and the video being played on it.

            “What is this, Blaine?” his mother asked. “What happened at school?” Blaine swallowed and went into his mother's arms.

            “They ambushed me and beat me up. I couldn't fight back, there were three of them. I wanted to, but I couldn't,” he explained through the tears. Leslie Anderson stroked her son's back as he sobbed into her shoulder.

            “It's going to be okay, Blaine, we'll get the video down, promise,” Leslie assured him. She looked at her husband, who sighed and went to call the police. The video was flagged and Calvin's parents were told that if the video was not taken down by the next day, the Andersons would press charges. The video was removed, but it was just the beginning for Blaine.

            The next day at school, everyone just laughed at Blaine. They had all seen the video and no one cared. The vice-principal told Blaine to ignore them and it would go away, but Blaine knew it wasn't true. It was almost the end of the year so the teachers didn't bother to cease the bullying in class. Blaine went home that day to find no one home and a note from his parents explaining that they went to visit some friends in Chicago. Blaine heard a car door shut from outside and knew: Cooper had come home for the summer. He ran outside and into his big brother's arms.

            “Blainers, what-what's going on? You're never this clingy,” Cooper said, prying his younger brother off of him. Blaine pulled out his phone and showed Cooper the video.

            “Oh. My. God,” Cooper gasped. “Who did this to you? Was it Nicks again?” Blaine nodded and Cooper moved to go inside. “We're going inside now before I do something I will end up regretting.”

            Cooper had helped Blaine feel better, but it didn't help when Blaine ended up in the hospital after the Sadie Hawkins dance. Blaine wiped his eyes on his sleeve as he went through the yearbook for that year. No one signed it, not even Mr. Walters, his English teacher, as well as his favorite teacher.

            “Blaine?” He turned to see Kurt standing in the doorway. “Who was that guy?”

            “This is him.” Blaine pointed to the picture in the yearbook. “Calvin Nicks, he was the guy who led in the Sadie Hawkins incident.” Kurt saw the tears coming to his boyfriend's eyes and knelt down next to him. “He also put this video online of him and his friends beating me up in the school library. That's why this yearbook is worthless; no one wanted to sign the freaky gay kid's.” Blaine had started to sob and Kurt wrapped his arms around Blaine.

            “You're not a freak, Blaine. You're perfect to me and that's what matters,” Kurt whispered. “I'm not leaving when you're like this. Come on, let's get you laid down.” Blaine choked back a couple sobs as Kurt stroked his curls back and pressed a kiss to his forehead. “You're here now with me. You never have to go through that again.”

            “I love you, Kurt,” Blaine said before closing his eyes.

            “I love you too,” Kurt said.