"Courage –Blaine"

This was one of the many messages Kurt had received from Blaine, reminding him to be strong. This one had come yesterday at school though. It helped a bit, but Kurt was still having trouble at school. McKinley was different to Dalton, he was beginning to think he would never be accepted for who he was when Mercedes appeared.

"Hey Kurt, haven't seen much of you recently. How are you?" she asked him. She was one of the few people at McKinley who actually seemed to care about him and Kurt was really glad to haver her as a friend.

"I'm fine. Really." Kurt replied, not wanting her to think otherwise.

"So who's the guy then?" she asked, as she peered over his shoulder and saw the picture of Blaine in the back of his locker.

"No-one" he answered. Blaine was just a friend, he told himself. Blaine wouldn't like someone like him anyway. He was young and inexperienced and went to McKinley High, yet Blaine went to Dalton and was the lead singer in the Glee club and was really popular. He was nothing compared to Blaine. Absolutely nothing.

"No way do you have a picture of no-one in your locker. Who is he? We never talk about stuff anymore. You've been so distant lately. Are you sure you're ok?" Mercedes didn't give in. She never did. For some reason Kurt didn't want to talk about Blaine. Kurt usually told Mercedes things like this, but he was scared if he said anything then it wouldn't happen. Not that anything would happen he thought. He had only ever liked straight guys. Until now.

"He's a friend, ok. From Dalton." Kurt added, hoping that would be enough to satisfy Mercedes, though doubting it would be.

"Is he, you know, gay?" she asked, clearly wanting to know details.

"It doesn't matter. We're just friends." Kurt replied, wanting this conversation to end as soon as possible. "I have to get to class. See you in Glee at lunch." he finished the conversation and walked off. He just wanted to be alone. His phone buzzed again, for the first time that day. He took out his iPhone from his pocket and read the message.

"Remember, courage. -Blaine"

So maybe he didn't want to be quite alone.

Kurt was early to Glee, so sat in a chair in the corner. He got out his phone in order to text Blaine back. Then he got to the problem of what to say. How do you reply to courage? Thank you? That sounded too formal. Mercedes waved to him and made her way over, causing Kurt to give up and put his phone back into his pocket.

"Hey, Kurt, listen. I'm sorry about earlier, I didn't mean to come off so... Well, I'm sorry, ok. I just want you to be happy, you know that right?" she apologized to Kurt.

"It's cool, really. I'm in a weird mood today." he replied, forgiving her. He had always found it hard to stay mad at Mercedes anyway. He smiled at her.

Kurt headed to his car in the car park. He had spent the last hour in the library doing homework. He never usually did this, but Finn had had football practise and he had promised his dad he would give Finn a lift home from school. Finn wasn't there though, as Kurt had expected. Training often seemed to overrun. At least with Bieste they were actually training properly though, as opposed to Tenaka who was completely useless, or so the others had told him in the past.

His phone then began to ring. It was Blaine. He hadn't called him before. They had texted, but they hadn't actually spoken on the phone at all. They hadn't even met up after the incident with Karofsky.

"Hello?" Kurt answered, nervously.

"Hey...it's Blaine." Blaine stated the obvious. "So...what are you up to?" he continued, after an awkward pause.

"Standing in the parking lot waiting for Finn. Football must have overrun. Again." Kurt replied, keeping the conversation reasonably light.

"I'm not up to much either. Was practising with the Warblers but we're taking a break at the moment." he added, "How has school been going?" Blaine asked, hoping Kurt wasn't doing too badly, given the situation.

"Same as always. Karofsky, the hockey player, as been giving me a hard time but I guess I'm just getting used to it now." Kurt told him, not wanting to go into too much detail. He didn't like talking about Karofsky.

"Just have courage, Kurt. I know you're brave and you can get through this." Blaine told him. "And if you ever need anything, just say the word and I'll be there. Anything, anytime. Ok?"

"Ok." Kurt agreed, wondering why Blaine was doing so much for him. "Oh Finn is here, I better go. Talk later." he quickly said as he saw Finn approaching him, not wanting to have to explain to Finn about Blaine.

"Bye then. See you around." Blaine ended the conversation, though he waited for Kurt to hang up on him. Kurt took a few seconds to hang up, though as Finn came towards him he had no choice.

"Hey, sorry I'm late. Who were you talking to?" Finn asked him.

"Oh, no-one I mean, it was just Mercedes." Kurt lied to Finn, not wanting another inquisition that day. "Let's go."