"Okay, guys, from the top!"
Kurt and the other members of the Adam's Apples ran through the dance moves again for Thrift Shop. Adam's Apples was sort of like NYADA's version of the New Directions. Most people thought it was a joke, but Kurt loved it. He really hadn't realized how much he missed glee club during the past few months when he'd been working for Vogue.
Kurt did another pirouette and tried not to laugh. It made no sense to him that they were translating songs like Thrift Shop into show choir, but it was definitely amusing. Adam walked around and corrected the members who were doing the moves wrong. He sent Kurt a smile and a thumb's up after Kurt completed another flawless pirouette. Kurt smirked. Suck on that, Mr. Shue, who needs booty camp now?
Having perfected the number, Kurt turned around to chat with Joey. While Kurt still spent most of his time with Rachel and Adam, Rachel was often busy with Brody and Adam… well, he had been running off a lot lately to do Gaga knows what. So Kurt had made friends with a few of his fellow glee club members. All of the glee clubbers were kind to Kurt, but Joey was one of the few who Kurt had really clicked with.
They had just gotten into a debate over which Harry Potter book was the best when the rest of the club was finally ready to move onto adding vocals to their latest number. A half an hour, one or two nasty falls and an even nastier cat fight between Kathy and Jill later; Adam ended practice a bit early.
Kurt could tell that it was taking every ounce of self control Adam had not to kick a chair over, so Kurt offered to buy them coffee.
"No, I'm fine. I think I'd rather just watch a movie. Do you think we could go back to your apartment?" Adam asked hopefully. Kurt nodded and they walked hand in hand across the NYADA campus.
Kurt smiled and squeezed Adam's hand tightly. At first Kurt had been hesitant about jumping into a new relationship when the end of his old relationship still seemed so fresh in his mind. He'd been calling Adam his boyfriend for a week now, though, and he had quickly adjusted to the development. Adam really was a great guy; he was sweet, hot, he sang, and he had a cool accent. Over the past week, Kurt had done a lot of thinking; he couldn't keep wasting his time thinking about Blaine. So now the countertenor was focusing on moving forward with his life, and it felt totally awesome.
Kurt was pulled out of his musings when Adam came to a halt in the middle of the sidewalk and his hand became almost uncomfortably tight around Kurt's. He then noticed the presence of his two least favorite people at NYADA: Colin and Patrick.
Aside from Kurt, who was obviously the head bitch in charge, Colin and Patrick were the two bitchiest people in the academy. They gossiped about everyone and couldn't think for themselves, hence why they always followed other students around like lost puppies. The duo had tried to befriend Kurt after the Midnight Madness incident, but he turned them down. Kurt didn't need a bunch of mindless followers who would drop him as soon as another diva came along and won a singing competition.
"Hey Adam, still putting on mediocre performances with the Adam's Apples?" Colin sneered.
"You and your little glee club are so pathetic; you'll never be worthy of being on Broadway. Sometime I wonder how you even got accepted into NYADA." Patrick added.
Kurt felt Adam tense next to him and his blood boiled. How dare these arrogant assholes talk to his boyfriend like that! It looked like Adam wasn't about to say anything-actually, he'd been kind of frozen since they started talking, which was worrisome- so Kurt took matters into his own hands.
"I wouldn't talk if I were you, since the two of you can't even walk down the hallway without leaching onto somebody like a parasitic bug trying to feed off of their talent. You both are just jealous because neither of you have the leadership abilities or the skill to lead a choir, or lead anything else for that matter. Face it, the only thing either of you could ever amount to on Broadway is dancing in the ensemble. Now if you'll excuse us, my boyfriend and I are late for a Dance Moms marathon. Oh, and Colin? That scarf is out of season."
With that, Kurt brushed passed them while pulling on Adam's hand. He looked back to see Patrick looking like he was in a self-induced coma with his eyes the size of dinner plates, and Colin self consciously tugging at his scarf. Serves them right. Kurt smirked in satisfaction.
When we were on the subway Kurt finally noticed that something was off with Adam. He glanced at him and was worried-and though he'd never admit it, a bit frightened-at what he saw.
His arms were shaking uncontrollably, right down from his tense shoulders to his tightly fisted hands. His jaw was clenched and his lips were pursed in a tight line. But what really freaked Kurt out was the cold, deadly look in his eyes. Adam's clear blue eyes were filled with rage and looked, well, murderous.
"Hey," Kurt said gently and pulled Adam into a hug. Gradually, Kurt felt the young man relax into the embrace. They stayed like that until they reached their stop and had to get off the subway.
When the couple got back to Kurt's apartment, they curled up on the couch with a bowl of popcorn and turned on Dance Moms. Adam slowly got back to his normal self as Kurt commented on how big of a bitch Abby Lee was.
They didn't talk about what happened after rehearsal. Kurt kind of wished that Adam would open up to him and tell him why it had bothered him so much this time, but he wasn't about to push the subject. Kurt knew how awful bullying could be from his own experiences at McKinley. Of course, that had been mostly homophobic bullying and general harassment just for being different. Kurt had always dreamed that once he got to the city of his dreams, that would be behind him and everyone would respect him. He knew now that that was incredibly naïve of him to think, but it still sucked to know that the bullying never ended, no matter where you lived.
Rachel, Brody, and Santana all came wandering in at different times, and before long Adam announced that he had to head home. Kurt walked to the door and kissed him goodbye. Adam smiled down at him, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. Kurt was left outside his apartment door feeling uneasy, and he wasn't sure why.
As soon as Kurt got to his morning class, which was Music Theory on Wednesdays, he knew something was off. He could feel the tension in the air when he walked through the hallway. Looking around, he noticed that everyone was split off into pairs or small groups, all of them whispering. Everyone seemed to be tense or upset, a few of them even looked anguished. So whatever they were all gossiping about, it must not be good news.
Either way, one thing was for certain, some shit had gone down in the past twenty four hours. And Kurt, the natural gossip queen that he was, needed to find out what it was.
Kurt's eyes quickly scanned the hallway for somebody he knew, who could give him all of the juicy details. But everyone already seemed to already be deeply involved in conversation and he wasn't really close with any of them anyway. Kurt furrowed his eyebrows. His friends had to be floating around here somewhere…Oh!
Kurt jogged up to Joey, who was walking by himself toward the stage managing class. While Joey was an exceptional singer, he really had a knack for the backstage side of theater, like building sets and managing props. Kurt wouldn't be surprised if he ended up building Broadway sets one day.
"Hey Joey, do you know what's going on around here?" Kurt decided to get straight to the point; he really didn't have time for small talk if he wanted to get to class on time.
"Everybody is so gossipy today. Do you have any idea what they may be talking about?"
Joey frowned a bit, but otherwise just looked confused. "Hmm, I don't know, Kurt. I was actually just wondering about that. I'll let you know if I find out anything, okay?"
Kurt nodded and they parted ways for their respective morning classes. He had to admit, he was a bit disappointed in Joey's answer. But then again, he did have Music Theory with Rachel and she would more likely than not have the inside scoop.
Upon entering the classroom, Kurt saw Rachel already seated and practically sprinted to the empty seat next to her. As soon as their professor had started class and Kurt knew for sure he was too far into his lecture to notice anything, Kurt turned on Rachel and looked at her expectantly.
"Okay, what's the deal? Everyone is acting strange today and people keep whispering about something. If you have any clue what's going on, feel free to interrupt me right about now."
Rachel looked around to see if anyone was listening, then leaned toward Kurt so she could whisper. "It happened again, the same thing that happened to Mandy." My eyes widened as I let that sink in.
"Who was it this time?" I asked, although I wasn't sure I wanted to know the answer.
"It was two people this time, Colin and Patrick. It was just like last time; they were out shopping with Leann and Bobby-you know, from acting class?-and they went into one store to look at a jacket. They decided to meet up at the food court by Auntie Anne's pretzels, but they never showed up and they're not answering their phones. It's still a bit early to be too worried and the police are looking into it, but what if this and Mandy's disappearance are related? Mandy has been missing since last Monday, so it's officially acceptable to go into panic mode"
Kurt nodded along with what she said, but Rachel and her loud mouth weren't done yet.
"What if somebody is targeting NYADA students specifically? I mean, it makes sense, whoever it is probably is just jealous of o0ur impeccable talent…"
And that's when Kurt tuned her out. He was too deep in thought about this whole debacle. Kurt shuddered as the image of Mandy's, Colin's and Patrick's dead bodies piled in a closet flashed in his mind. He hadn't been close to any of them by any means, in fact he disliked all of three of them, but that didn't mean he wanted anything bad to happen to them. Well, nothing too bad anyway. Like, he wouldn't mind if they messed up a solo or something, but he didn't want them dead. And what if Rachel was right and these disappearances weren't random? One thing was for sure, Kurt didn't plan on walking into dark alleys or accepting drinks from strangers anytime soon.