WATCH ME BLEED...
With all the force of a hurricane, Mercedes burst through the doors to the Choir Room, flimsy wood just bouncing back off the walls with a faint, but resounding, near-super-sonic boom.
"How, DARE You!" she screamed, her voice reaching a dangerous and deadly height, every word laced with menace...
Even Mr Schue froze at the tone, Quinn, Brittany and Santana went rigid, eyes wide as they turned -as ever in formation- to face the fury that was Mercedes...only to sigh in relief as they realized it was not aimed at them...
Left in suspended animation, Rachel's big mouth hung open like an inviting Venus Fly-trap, half-way through arguing some point about -most likely- just how wonderful she was and why she deserved the lead in the up-coming performance...which had been given to Tina.
Tina, for her part, had been in vicious argument with the loud-mouth, backed up by both Arty and Mike; none willing to back down.
At least...they hadn't been, until a rather dramatic entrance was made by a certain powerful and charismatic singer who made her way directly to the huddle of guys at the other end of the room, one visibly shrinking behind the other two...
"How, DARE You?" she screamed again, arms flung upwards in an effort to express the rage within in a non-verbal manner, Sam ducked as if he expected a blow and even Noah 'Puck' Puckerman -bad-ass himself!- looked on with wide-eyed fright at the menacing figure of Mercedes.
And yet it was Finn who seemed to be attracting the center of her ire, she turned on her full-fury face and vented the wrath directly on the Quarterback...
"How DARE You? I've just seen Kurt, how COULD You?" Finn was unable to keep the look of outrage from his face, whilst simultaneously keeping an eye [or two] on her tightly-clenched fist, waving about in the air with intent to harm...him!
Ever the diplomatic personality, Mr Schue strode over purposefully and stood slightly off center of being between the two, to Finn's obvious relief.
"Alright, Mercedes, I'm sure we'd ALL like to know exactly WHAT is going on Here?" he tried in a kind voice, but she wasn't looking at him...oh no, she had her bore-a-hole-in-your-head glare fixed completely on a certain, smugly-grinning jock...
"Why don't you ask HIM?" Mercedes answered with a slight jerk of the head to indicate Finn, who crossed his arms over his chest, donning a petulant expression and...Oh, my Gaga! Was he...Pouting?
Mr Schue, sensing something was going to explode if he didn't put a stop to it shortly, raised a restraining hand in a placatory gesture, Mercedes huffed but continued to glare even as she took a seat a meter or so away.
"So...what happened to Kurt?" asked Brittany, completely oblivious to the general animosity radiating around the room, as she tugged on her blond hair absently...Santana smacked tugging hand away and whispered something in the other Cheerio's ear, causing Brittany to tilt her head to the side and look puzzled.
Quinn was frowning at Finn, eyes [and general head movement] jerking back and forth between him and Mercedes, watching her at it was almost painful...like watching a tennis-match in fast-forward.
Amazingly, but not surprisingly, Rachel began to vehemently defend her case over why she should get the lead in the new number...until Tina and Mike forcibly shut her mouth with their hands, that girl's ego was so large...it needed it's own post code!
Never one known for subtlty, Puck elbowed Finn in the side hard and made an emphatic gesture with his hand that could have been taken to mean, 'Get on with it!' as he said, "Well, dude? What did you do...?"
"Oh I'll TELL You What he did!" Mercedes yelled again, not so much rising from her seat as leaping upright and making her way towards the Quarterback with great speed, Finn shrank back in his seat with surprising speed as well. Obviously Terrified, but pleased as Hell with something...
"What gives you the right to go to HIS home and do that?" she shrieked, completely inscenced on her best-friend's behalf, whereas Finn's face darkened, anger clouding the normally soft and joyful features.
"Hey! It's not MY fault I have to be there, I don't even WANT to be there!" he stood up, leaning in so he was almost nose-to-nose with Mercedes, arms waving emphatically and expressing the frustration words couldn't.
"How would YOU feel if one day your mum up and decides you're going to move in with her new boyfriend, AND guess what? You'll be sharing a room with his son! His GAY Son! Clear enough for you?" he yelled back, everyone was taken aback, even Santana failed to find a snappy comeback.
He could have stopped there, but Oh no, he was on a roll!
"And you know what? He was given the chance to re-decorate our- the room, and what does he do?" Red-faced, with clenched fists, Finn was rapidly loosing control of himself, a frightening aspect to himself and others.
"He puts all this...Stuff...in there! I don't even know what half of it is, and he gets this near see-through privacy par- uh, partition! Like that's going to make me change in front of him and everything, so I told him there's no way in hell I'm going to!"
Quinn seemed to be cracking her petite knuckles rather menacingly, at this point...
"And he screamed back, 'It's just a room Finn, we can re-decorate if you want!', he just didn't GET IT! I mean, Come ON! So I told exactly what I thought of his gay paradise, with all the faggy tables and faggy lamps, and whatever that thing that looked like a twisted golf-club with beads was supposed to be -apart from faggy, and he started to cry!" Finn was beginning to look a little scary, kind of lost, desperate, angry and in need of comfort all in one.
"Then he acted like I had hurt him in all this, and...it kind of pissed me off, so when he moved closer to forgive me or something girly, I got him first..." Finn trailed off, almost relieved that his time in the spotlight had ended. Mercedes looked like she was going to rip him a new one...or twenty...and the other girls, well, not even a global lack of chocolate could make a bunch of girls look that grave and murderous on their worst day...
Several of the other guys seemed to be closing the gap between him an the door, not actively taking part, but content to watch their female counter-parts get a few shots in, in their own form of justice.
Mr Schue felt himself rapidly losing control of the situation, emotions were spilling and tumbling in great crashing waves from all the students within the room, and they were reaching into primal zones that he dare not even think about.
It was as if...Will shook his head, clearing all wayward thoughts from his mind, raising his arms and his voice he stepped in the center of the circle with Finn and tried to calm the atmosphere.
Just then, a rather loud, generally obnoxious voice called out, "Hey! Hair-gel! Is this yours?" With that, the top half of Sue Sylvester popped around the door-frame and allowed her entire form to be taken in, whilst encased in a very uniquely shaded purple tracksuit...
She seemed to almost gently drag a student into the room after her, a shorter slender figure who was trying desperately to keep their ace in shadow...
As swiftly as that, the atmosphere changed, anger replaced by concern; Mercedes was at the forefront of the girls as they moved to him, "Kurt," she cooed, "Kurt show them what he did to you...let them see."
Hesitantly, the countertenor turned slowly, so he was no longer looking over his right shoulder, revealing a large, horrific looking bruise that danced along his cheek-bone, extending up and down the furthest reaches of his right side.
His eyes were wide with fear, he flinched when he saw Finn standing there, only to be surrounded again, a hand patted him on the back softly, and he was surprised to see it was none other than Coach Sylvester herself!
Horrified eyes gazed at the bruise, many wondering how someone could mar such soft, delicate features...?
Then Puck turned to Finn, grabbing him by the collar of his new jacket and shook him forcibly, "Hey, man, even I know that's not cool!"
Quinn began to crack her knuckles again, Mr Schue snapped out of his daze and walked over to Kurt, completely ignoring Puck and Finn's 'little interaction', he extended a trembling hand and the countertenor suffered to have his favourite teacher brush lightly over the wound. Not light enough to stop him from wincing, however...
A sharp, echoing slap resounded through the air as Santana's hand flung back, leaving her mark on the Quarterback's cheek, the hand-print nearly the size and shape of Kurt's bruise.
Kurt mewled lightly, "No...don't, he doesn't..."
"What? Doesn't deserve it?" snapped Santana angrily, far too inscenced for the countertenor's welfare to care about subtlty, she stepped back so Brittany would have a better swing and said, "Look at what he did to you! Look! How can you forgive him?" Kurt looked away, mouth parted to speak to him, but closed again. Abruptly.
Finn saw the hurt in his soon-to-be-brother-whether-he-liked-it-or-not's eyes and felt something flicker within his breast, remorse? He hoped so...the pain in those eyes...
Something changed in the Quarterback's demeanour, and they thought he had seen...but then the expression changed to one of pure hatred, seeming to blame the victim in the situation in a glance...Finn spat, the globule landing near Kurt's feet...
Puck put him down, only to raise a fist...Mr Schue grabbed his arm and yanked him away, muttering about Juvenile Hall or something, much to a frustrated Puck...
"I take it he's the one who gave you the shiner?" Sue whispered dramatically into the counter-tenor's ear, she felt more than saw the boy nod almost imperceptibly.
There were some days, she loved her job...they were few and far between; she strode forwards with purpose, Gleeks scattering right and left.
Three steps later she was a foot out from the boy, years of practice brought her arm up and fist out with the efficiency of a cobra strike; he flew back and slide across the garish linoleum a few feet.
She glared for a second, as if daring him to move ,before turning and taking the countertenor by the arm, she paused.
"You didn't see that...?" Almost a Rhetorical question...but not quite.
Mercedes beamed at her, almost maliciously, "We didn't see a thing, miss..."
Sue Sylvester turned, and lead Kurt away with a smile on her face...this was one of those good days...
THE END