A/N:

Before you get bored and skip through this entire thing, just know that this is a short prologue on Kurt because I couldn't think of any other way to start this. Okay, continue.

The night of June 30th, 2017, I had a dream.

Not like some Martin Luther King speech, a literal dream. I dreamt the big climax of this story, which happens around the middle, and talked about this dream on my social media the next day. People went crazy, telling me I needed to turn this into a fanfiction, and I then spent that entire day freaking out whenever little plot ideas came to my head. So, I have my subconscious to thank.

There are a lot of time jumps for this story, and I will let you know when they happen just in case it isn't clear enough. Also, there's not really any smut in this, so if that's what you were looking for, I apologize. Most of the severe topic matters in this, which are touched throughout the entire story are written based of my own personal experiences, or research.

I had a few people help me with editing this story, but then decided to be my own editor after the first few chapters. Big thanks to Rowan, Izzy, Savannah, and Cami anyways.

Speaking of, I'd like to dedicate this story to you. You as in anybody who's reading this, because the fact that the vague summary I gave you was interesting enough for you to even consider reading my story means the world to me, so thank you.

Disclaimer because I see everyone doing them so I think it's necessary or something: RIB have much better things to do than write fanfiction about their show that ended two years ago, so obviously, I don't own most of the characters or locations in this story.

For Kurt Hummel, his junior year was a blur.

It all started when his father had an unexpected heart attack, and he spent over a month in a cold, dingy hospital, trying every wild treatment to get his father to wake up. When Burt Hummel's impending release finally arrived, Kurt found himself spending countless hours a day making sure his father was staying healthy and following doctor's orders. He remembers how relentless the bullying got after that, and how he'd come home from school with bruised shoulders and sliced knuckles, but that could never compare with how rapidly his mental health was deteriorating. He can remember feeling completely and utterly alone, suffering through an OCD flare up, performing precise rituals at different hours of the day. If anybody caught on, they never pointed it out. He can remember how, when an opportunity arose to go spy on the New Direction's sectionals rival, the Dalton Academy Warblers, he volunteered to go right away, hoping he'd somehow get noticed for once, that somebody would realize he's not okay.

Kurt Hummel remembers throwing on the most blazer-like article from his vast wardrobe, and how anxious he was on the two-hour drive to Westerville, Ohio. He can remember how beautiful that school was, feeling like he'd entered some kind of castle, how his breath caught in his throat and he forgot how to think when he first laid eyes on the teen at the bottom of those stairs with syrup coloured brown hair and an almost cunning look in his eyes.

"Excuse me, um hi, can I ask you a question? I'm new here."

"My name's Sebastian" the boy replied.

He remembers how it felt when his hand first made contact with the other boy's, how it felt to run down that hallway and be practically serenaded with Billy Joel's Uptown Girl, and how quickly he fell for Sebastian Smythe. He needed somebody to finally pay attention to him, to see what Kurt was going through, and that's exactly what this boy did.

Their relationship at first, was near perfect. Although Kurt had to sing backup for Sebastian whilst he sung a medley of 2000's pop songs, he couldn't really complain because of how beautiful this boy he was crushing on, hard, sounded doing it. Sebastian finally made the first move though, by singing to Kurt during his daily shift of his part time job at the gap on Valentine's Day confessing his feelings for him soon after. Kurt gladly admitted he felt the exact same for the other Warbler and then suddenly found himself with his first ever boyfriend.

When Regionals rolled around and Sebastian proposed a duet, causing mayhem throughout the entire Warbler committee, especially when he chose Kurt to sing it with, the newest and most unexperienced member in the group, is when things started to go downhill. Kurt was incredibly uncomfortable by how he was suddenly treated by the rest of the group, and although Dalton had a zero-tolerance bullying policy, his fellow Warblers seemed to find ways to evade actually breaking this rule. The junior had suddenly become left out from any extracurricular Warbler activities, even things as simple as going out for coffee, or a group sleepover, feeling utterly betrayed when Sebastian barely turned a blind eye. Kurt could feel how everybody would stiffen up whenever he entered rehearsal, blatantly muttering things to themselves about how undeserving Kurt was, and how he had next to no talent. Each time he asked his boyfriend to just give his part to somebody else, Sebastian would become incredibly adamant that Kurt needed to shut up and practice his solo.

Since Kurt had boarded at Dalton, he barely ever went home, so it wasn't like he could talk to his dad about this, because in a way, he felt like he was overreacting about this whole situation. Kurt was far too scared of telling his McKinley friends about how he was getting treated, in fear of what they would do, or what they wouldn't do, if their reaction to him getting bullied was any indication. Transferring back home was completely out of the picture, not only because of Karofsky's return to McKinley, but because his dad gave up his entire honeymoon savings with Carole just so Kurt could finally find peace at his new school.

If Kurt thought how he felt about everything before Regionals was bad, the moment he went on that stage to sing this song with his boyfriend and accidentally sang his last note a beat too late, everything turned to hell. To this day, he is positive none of the actual judges heard his small mistake, and that the New Directions just had an all-around better performance, but the Warblers ended up losing Regionals "all because of him". Sebastian ended up being right in the center of countless harassments, because the Warblers decided to turn their previous mumbles into full blown insults, Kurt received on a day to day basis based on everything from the way he looked to the way he sang; the two things Kurt was the proudest of being different for. He wanted to break up with Sebastian, he really did, because it was obvious Kurt was only being used at this point; but, just like in any other situation, found himself far too terrified of the consequences and what Sebastian would do. All Kurt could do was just hold onto the hope that one day his boyfriend would get bored of him, call if off for good and pursue some innocent freshman or something.

Everything reached its peak when his boyfriend of 3 months laid his hands on Kurt. He doesn't remember much, but he can remember a lot of yelling and how he yelped in pain when he was thrown into the wall of his dorm room. Kurt can remember immediately mustering up some kind of courage from god knows where, and calling it quits with Sebastian, as he laid trembling on the carpeted floor. The aftermath involved calling his dad, and finally telling him everything, and how Kurt had begged not to have to take things to the school board again and he'd just come back to Lima for the summer, returning to McKinley for the impending school year. By this time, his junior year only had a few weeks left, and any form of transferring would've been pointless, so Kurt had to just wait it out until the end of May came about.

All he had wanted that year was to be noticed, but when it finally happened, all he had wanted to do was disappear back into the shadows. The cruel irony of everything had wrecked Kurt. He found himself slowly deteriorating, turning in on himself, closing off from the rest of the world, a shell of the boy everyone knew.

Kurt Hummel's junior year may have been a blur, but what came after ended up being anything but.