"…so then the guy, who'd just happened to be the director for the musical rendition of Avatar just happened to be there, and he came up to me after the show and asked me to come to his party, and guess who was at that party, Kurt? Only Park Jae-Sang! Do you remember him? The guy who sang that Korean number, Gangnam Style, back when we were in high school?"

Kurt nodded, a plastic smile plastered across his face. He'd been sitting across from Rachel Berry in the coffee house, which their apartment was situated above, listening to her drone on about her fabulous life as a Broadway superstar. It wasn't that he was jealous of her, apart from the fact that he totally was, it was just that she'd become this new, pretentious, self-involved person who didn't care about the lowly life of her former best friend.

"Oh, by the way, Brody is throwing a little gathering next week and I asked him to invite you, 'cause I know you don't get out much-"

Kurt raised his eyebrows.

"You know, because of your job and you have to feed Finn and Puck and baby-sit Beth," Rachel said hurriedly while Kurt fought the urge to roll his eyes at how pathetic she made his life sound.

"How is Quinn by the way? I've not seen her around in a while," Rachel said reaching into her bag for her mascara stick.

Kurt cleared his throat, it had turned dry from lack of use, "Well actually, it seems that she's been charging a hundred bucks an hour to perform her extra curricular activities, if you know what I mean."

Rachel turned her head sharply, poking herself in the eye with the mascara wand as she did so.

"No freakin' way." She squawked, her lips curling into a smile. Kurt shook his head disapprovingly.

"It's not funny, Rachel, this is a serious, illegal matter," he said.

Rachel snorted, "Who'd have thought it, leader of the celibacy club turned hooker."

Kurt couldn't help but let out a little giggle.

"So, what does Puck have to say on the matter?" Rachel asked, the smile still stretched across her face.

"He's upstairs yelling at her right now."

They carried on discussing the rest of the group for the next half hour. It was nice, Kurt thought, it reminded him of the old times, when he, Rachel and their friend, Mercedes, would stay up to the early hours of the morning, bitching about the rest of the glee club. And Rachel seemed to relax a little and Kurt could see traces of the high school girl who'd once asked him for a makeover in order to seduce his step brother. He shuddered.

"What?" Rachel asked, interrupting her own story as she took notice of Kurt's expression.

"I was just thinking of the time I botched your makeover because I was in love with my brother." Kurt said. The old woman at the table next to them, turned and gave Kurt a disgusted glare that set the two of them off into a fit of giggles for the next ten minutes.

"Hey look, there's the happy family," Kurt said, indicating as Quinn and Puck walked into the café with Beth inbetween them. Puck's jaw was set and his eyes were narrowed in a permanent glare, Quinn's eyes were red as if she'd been crying but she looked ready to slaughter the next person who glanced her way.

Beth noticed Kurt and Rachel sitting at the little table in the corner and lead her parents over to them.

"Hello Quinn," said Rachel smugly, "Been up to much lately? Or should I say, on to much lately?"

"Oh Rachel, I didn't see you under the fifteen inches of make-up you're wearing." Quinn growled, "Honestly, you're dressed up like a stolen car, you look like a whore."

Rachel blinked innocently, "Look like?" She said and turned to Kurt, "You hear that, Kurt, she said I look like a whore, unlike her, who actually-"

Kurt held up his hands, and looked worriedly at Beth who was watching the conversation with her mouth slightly agape, "Ladies please. Try to keep your intense dislike for each other to an absolute minimum while you're in the company of, you know, anyone."

Quinn clicked her tongue impatiently and turned to Puck, "Well, you said you were gonna get me off the drink, are you gonna get me a coffee, or what?"

Puck grumbled then stalked off towards the counter while Quinn took a seat, pulling a bewildered Beth onto her lap. Then she turned to Kurt, who was a little taken aback at the sorrowful expression on her face.

"I'm so sorry Kurt," she said, and held up a hand as he tried to respond to this rare apology, "Please just listen to me." Kurt nodded slowly and she continued, "I know I've done a lot of bad stuff in my life and never a day passes without me thinking of the look on Shelby's face as she lost the custody to Beth. It haunts me you know. But she's the only good thing in my life and I needed to get her back. I thought she'd fill the empty feeling in my heart but, I don't know. With all these men, I just wanted to feel… something, and, at first, that's all I was doing. The money came afterwards, I don't know how it happened, it just did, and Kurt, I'm so, so sorry. You really don't deserve me as a roommate, you deserve someone good, like Rachel."

She stopped suddenly as her voice broke and the tears began to pour silently down her face.

"Quinn?" Kurt said uncertainly, she glanced up at him, "Please just try at least, try to stop."

She nodded and Kurt leaned over to hug her, the two of them crying.

"I can't believe you said I was a good roommate," came Rachel's voice, a little emotional. Quinn laughed and pulled Rachel over to the join the hug and the three of them began to laugh through their tears.

"Well!" Said Puck, triumphantly as he brought over the coffees.

"Oh shut up and hand me that espresso," said Quinn, wiping her eyes and smiling. Kurt didn't miss the slight smirk on his face as he turned away.

"What time is Finn getting here?" Kurt asked Puck as he sat down.

"Um," said Puck glancing at his watch, "he should be here now."

"Wait, Finn's coming?" Rachel said in an alarmed voice.

"Yeah, Dad and Carole are coming over for dinner tonight and he's supposed to be buying the groceries." Kurt said, rolling his eyes at the probability that Finn had forgotten to get them. Burt and Carole lived in the suburbs of New York, after Burt retired from his job at the tyre shop, the pair realised that Lima held nothing for them now that their sons had moved away. So they sold the tyre shop and bought a little bungalow on a quiet suburban street. It was near to the hospital too, which was handy.

"Oh, how is your dad doing, Kurt?" Rachel asked with a sympathetic expression.

Kurt sighed, the struggle with cancer had been a long and tiresome journey, "Um, the doctors are being pretty optimistic and he's off the chemo now, but I don't know, he still doesn't seem like the lively, spirited man who danced to Beyonce for my graduation present."

They all laughed as Kurt turned back to Rachel, "But why did you not want Finn to be here?"

Rachel groaned, "Okay, I did something stupid-"

At that exact moment, Finn bursting through the coffee house doors. Everyone looked up in surprise as he charged straight at Kurt.

"Kurt! Kurt! You'll never guess who I just saw running up the street just now!" Finn practically yelled in Kurt's face. Kurt opened his mouth to ask who but his voice lost its way on the journey to his throat as he saw a dark figure standing in the doorway silhouetted against the darkness outside. Rain lashed against the window panes and bounced off the curly hair that Kurt knew only too well. He felt something sharp pierce into his heart as he met the hazel brown eyes and he turned away. There was a reason, he thought, that he hadn't let himself think about Blaine Anderson in five years.