Author's Note: Wow, guys, I can only say that I've been completely taken aback by the overwhelming responses I've gotten to this story. Hopefully, you'll stick around for more because there's lots more to come. I will warn you that the next couple chapters are largely set-up without a ton of action but stick with me here! Thanks for reading!

Chapter Two

The next morning when his alarm went off, Kurt woke up far more tired than he had been expecting. Despite having just woken up, he already had a headache and the incessant beeping of his alarm clock was not helping. It was when he reached over to slap the snooze button on the alarm that he caught sight of his phone out of the corner of his eye—and remembered what had happened the night before.

Groaning, Kurt rolled over and buried his head into his pillow. He felt like crawling back under his covers and not reemerging for about a week, longer if it took more time for everybody to forget what had happened. With a pang, he realized that might not even be necessary; he off-handedly wondered if he would be the only one who did remember. Blaine had certainly been drunk enough that it was possible for him to have forgotten. Kurt would kill him if that happened. The only thing worse than facing Blaine and talking about what had happened the night before would have been attempting to talk to Blaine and having him not remember any of it. And Dave... well, he hadn't seemed that drunk; in some respects, he had seemed to have more presence of mind than Kurt last night, despite the fact that he had been drinking and Kurt had not.

When his alarm went off again, signaling that his ten minutes snooze period was officially over, Kurt had to restrain the impulse to chuck the thing across the room and go back to sleep. He could tell his father that he had the flu or bronchitis or perhaps polio. But, then he remembered that he had a French test and a calculus quiz that he couldn't make up. And tonight was the opening—

Oh God. On top of everything else, tonight was the opening for West Side Story. Why did that have to be today? It crossed Kurt's mind to be incredibly unhappy about the fact that something he had been looking forward to for weeks was going to be ruined by the events of the night before. But the thought was fleeting. He was quickly distracted by the thought that today was not the day for attempting to make amends for everything that had happened. If he disrupted Blaine's mental focus, the other boy was sure to blame him for it for the rest of the year, if not longer. And even though a not-particularly-small part of him absolutely hated Blaine at the moment, he didn't want to cause that much trouble.

"Kurt?"

Finn's voice interrupted his thoughts suddenly and Kurt frowned, his face still buried in his pillow.

"What?" he snapped, feeling only slightly guilty at taking out his frustration on Finn. When he turned his head to look at the boy standing at the top of the stairs, he could tell that Finn had not been expected the harsh response and he sighed, already feeling a bit worse, if that was possible. Finn stuttered slightly as he responded, looking unsure of what type of response he was going to get back from the boy still sulking in bed.

"U-um, my mom was just wondering what you wanted for breakfast, since you're running late." Finn bit his lower lip and fidgeted as he waited for a response from Kurt, who merely turned his face back into his pillow.

"I'm not hungry," he mumbled into the pillow, not bothering to speak up.

"What?" Finn asked.

Kurt sighed, rolled his eyes dramatically even though nobody could see it and pushed himself away from the warm fabric of his bed so that he was propped up, facing the wall behind him. "I said, just some cereal would be fine. Thanks."

Finn exited the room in a hurry—Kurt saw him trip over the edge of the doorframe in his haste to leave the room. Figuring that this was his cue to start what was bound to be a day of hell, Kurt dragged himself out of bed, stumbling slightly to the vanity sitting across the room from his bed. Plopping himself into the stool in front, he worked up the courage to look at his reflection.

He looked like he had been run over by a bus repeatedly in his sleep; he couldn't remember the last time his eyes had had such dark circles underneath them, the last time his eyes themselves had been so bloodshot or when his hair had been quite such a mess. When he remembered that he hadn't had the opportunity to shower the night before either… Kurt groaned, running his hands over his face. It was going to be a long day.

A half-hour later, he was sitting in the back seat of Finn's truck as they drove to school, Rachel having claimed the passenger seat as usual and Kurt having not put up a fight—also as usual. He tuned out her incessant babbling and focused on consuming the bagel in his hand. Despite his protests that he hadn't been hungry, Carole had forced it into his hand as he had left that house this morning. He had managed to escape the lecture on growing bodies and proper nutrition that he had been sure would have been forthcoming had he stuck around to hear it by pointing out that Finn was, for once, actually on time. Of course, had he known that it was because Rachel (once again) needed a ride, he might have suffered through the lecture to avoid the far worse pain of having to share a cramped space with the girl this early in the morning.

"...you think, Kurt?"

"What?" Kurt snapped his attention back onto Rachel, who had apparently asked him a question that he had just as apparently not heard.

"I said, what do you think?"

"About what?"

"About my portrayal of Maria's first encounter with Tony! It's one of the pivotal points of the musical and I just don't think that I'm doing it justice right now. Or at least, Artie doesn't think I am."

"You're doing it fine," Kurt replied, gazing out the window.

"Well, I agree but... Kurt!" Kurt turned his head to see that Rachel had spun around in her seat and was staring at him intently. "Are you okay? You're acting really strange this morning."

"I'm fine. I just didn't get a lot of sleep."

"Are you sure? Because I can understand if you're stressed about the musical. I mean, you have a minor role but opening nights can still—"

"I said I'm fine, Rachel," Kurt said snappishly.

Looking hurt, Rachel pulled back a bit in surprise. Her eyebrows furrowed slightly but all she said was, "If you say so."

She turned back to Finn, who had been nervously tapping his steering wheel during their exchange and restarted her badgering, this time mercifully leaving Kurt out of it. He resumed his blank stare out the window until he felt his phone vibrating in his pocket. Without bothering to check the name of who sent it, he flipped it open and saw that it was from Blaine. Resisting the urge to shove the phone back into his pocket without reading the message, he instead glanced down at what it said.

"In case you didn't get this from the other messages and voicemail I left you, I'm sorry. We should talk."

Kurt rolled his eyes. Blaine was damn right that he was sorry, as he should have been. Kurt hovered his thumbs over the keypad of his phone, trying to decide what to respond. About a dozen ideas came to mind immediately, but even in his frustrated state, he realized that none of them would do anything to relieve his stress over the long run—even if they had that impact in the short term. Instead, he simply wrote,

"Okay. Where are you? I'm almost at school."

Within seconds, there was a response waiting.

"In the choir room. Come when you get here."

Kurt was reluctant to immediately agree to meet him in the choir room. After all, he had really hoped to keep this conversation absolutely private; as far as he was concerned, the fewer people who knew about the previous night's incident, the better. And this time of morning, various members of the Glee Club tended to filter in and out— the room was quite central to the high school and thus made a great meeting spot in the morning before everybody had to disperse to their various classes. So, he responded,

"Can we meet in the auditorium instead? Less noise."

After his lightning-fast response moments before, it worried Kurt slightly when Blaine didn't immediately respond. Just as Finn was pulling his truck into the school parking lot though, he finally got a terse response.

"Fine."

Sighing in slight relief, Kurt stowed away his phone in his pocket and waited slightly impatiently for Rachel to let him out of the backseat. As soon as he was free, he grabbed his backpack and started to make his way toward the auditorium. Checking the time on a clock as he hurried by, he realized that there were only fifteen minutes until the start of the first period. Maybe this wasn't the right time to have this conversation. Maybe he should postpone it until lunch, when they would have a little more time to actually talk.

But as soon as he arrived in the auditorium and saw Blaine leaning against the back wall, this thought evaporated. It was clear just from his body language that the other boy did not intend to put off this conversation and no amount of attempted persuasion by Kurt was going to change his mind. So Kurt went and stood next to him. He didn't speak, waiting for Blaine to initiate the conversation. After all, he was the one who had something to apologize for; Kurt was just here to accept that apology, so long as he thought he meant it. However, Blaine didn't speak and after a minute had evaporated, Kurt finally broke the silence, remembering that they were slightly pressed for time. "Well?"

"Well..." Blaine turned to face him, expression unreadable. "Okay, I'm sorry for last night, Kurt. I was drunk and I was stupid and you didn't deserve that."

"That's a good start," Kurt informed him, before he had a chance to realize what he was saying. When he processed his response thought, he bit his bottom lip. Maybe that hadn't been the best way to start a conciliatory talk. If Blaine had been put off by it though, he put on a good front of not showing it and continued anyways, his eyes slowly grooming Kurt's face for a reaction.

"I... I was stupid, okay? I was thinking about everything you said as I walked home last night and it all made sense. You were right that I shouldn't have been dancing with Sebastian and that it wasn't the right time but I was just upset."

"You— you were upset?" Kurt choked out, wondering if he'd heard him correctly. Surely he had misheard and Blaine had actually said something about understanding exactly why Kurt had been upset with him? But his initial suspicion was confirmed as Blaine threw his hands up.

"Yes, I was upset! How do you think I felt watching you over at the bar talking to your bully as if it was nothing instead of dancing with me?"

"My bully? Instead of dancing with you?" Kurt asked with a mixture of indignity and incredulousness, his temper starting to rise. This had not been the conversation he had been expecting and the fact that Blaine wasn't owning up to his actions irked him greatly—sure, Kurt had made mistakes in the relationship, but at least he had been mature enough to take responsibility for his actions. "What about if you had come and asked me to dance instead, like a proper gentleman? No, instead, you were over getting down with Sebastian!"

"Please, Kurt, don't try to justify yourself by blaming that on me. If you'd come over earlier, I would have danced with you earlier. If you noticed, as soon as you came over, you were the only one I had any attention for."

"As soon as I came over?" Kurt replied, his voice taking on a hard edge as he felt himself beginning to flush in anger. "You should have come to me first! It's not my job to babysit you and make you pay attention to me. I was paying attention to you, so why couldn't you return the favor?"

Blaine's face was also growing red and Kurt could see him starting to visibly tense up. Blaine took a step closer to Kurt, pushing a finger lightly into his chest. "I shouldn't have had to ask you to come over. You should have wanted to spend time with me instead of that obnoxious bully who was trying to distract you."

"Obnoxious bully? Dave? I'll have you know that last night Dave—"

"Dave?" Blaine asked, a tone of derision entering his voice.

"Yes, Dave!" Kurt responded, practically shouting. He planted his hands firmly in Blaine's chest and pushed him away, not wanting to have anything to do with him. "Dave did a whole lot more for me than you last night. And until you realize this was not my fault, I don't think I can continue this conversation."

As if on cue, the bell signaling three minutes before the start of class rang. Kurt picked up his bag from the floor and angrily threw it over his shoulder, not even bothering to look back at Blaine as he stalked out of the auditorium, fuming. He couldn't believe Blaine! Sure, he hadn't expected flowers and chocolates and lots of apology kisses but he had expected a lot more than that load of bullshit!

He stormed down the hallway to his first class, wanting desperately to kick something but refraining, as the only suitable options were a bunch of freshman loitering near the entrance to one of their classes. He dropped into his seat in his first period biology class, not making eye contact with anybody. When the teacher began to take attendance, he merely raised his hand to demonstrate his presence, a far cry from the friendly greeting that he usually offered the teacher to begin the class.

The teacher barely noticed though and as he continued down the roster, Kurt pulled his phone out of his pocket and scrolled rapidly through his inbox. Pounding down the keys with a vigor that was unfair to his phone, he quickly typed out a message and sent it, making sure that he was done before the teacher finished attendance and the announcements had come over the intercom—the last thing he needed to make this morning even worse was to get in trouble for texting in class.

"Remind me to thank you next time I see you for not being a total asshole."

By the time the class was over, Kurt had finally calmed down some, though he was still probably the worst lab partner in the room that day. He had been able to take out some of his anger on the fetal pig they were dissecting this week; while it wasn't a particularly productive way of taking out his anger and he had been given a warning by his teacher not to cut the skin with such force, it had still be cathartic. When the bell rang signaling the end of class, he had collected his stuff and left without bothering to write down the homework for the night; he could always get it from Mercedes or Tina later. He was maneuvering between groups of students in the hallway, taking the long way to his French course to avoid having to see Blaine, when he felt a buzz in his pocket. Whipping out his phone, he couldn't help but smile when he saw Dave's name in his inbox again... part of him had expected the other boy to never talk to him again, last night having been the extent of their friendly interactions for a long time to come.

"Thanks, I guess? And does this mean that you actually want to see me 'a next time'?"

Despite fully recognizing that Dave's text was not in any manner a come-on, Kurt stilled blushed slightly. He had been in such an impulsive mood when he had sent his first text that he hadn't bothered to proofread it or think about what it said at all. Had he even really meant what he had said? On one hand, he didn't think so. As had been proven by Blaine's little outburst earlier, his life was probably far easier without Dave in it. He didn't have to worry about what people were thinking when they saw the pair of them talking in the hall, he didn't have to deal with Blaine's dislike of the other boy on a regular basis and he didn't have to constantly reassure people that Dave was no longer harassing him. No, life was a lot simpler without Dave Karofsky in it. And yet...

He was surprised to find how happy he had been to see Dave last night. And not just see him but to realize that he was starting to sort his life out and come to terms with himself. Kurt couldn't help but feel as though he had had some role in that, as the only person who had known about Dave's sexuality before he had started going to the gay bar—besides Blaine, anyhow, and Kurt didn't really want to count him since he didn't like Dave and refused to give him a chance. Kurt didn't know if he was ready to voluntarily remove himself from a place where he could continue to interact with Dave, even if it was only once in a blue moon.

Rereading the text, he was slightly surprised by Dave's forwardness in responding though, even despite his errors in checking the content of his initial text (or the error of sending it at all). After all, he had never been a particularly eloquent guy in his McKinley days and Kurt doubted he had ever heard him be as blunt as he had been while harassing him. He had always equated that straight-forwardness with the bully in Dave but maybe it crept over into the rest of his personality as well. Shaking off these thoughts, he typed in a quick message before his second class began and he had to take his test,

"I think so? Is that a good enough answer? And yes, it really was a compliment."

Kurt found it hard to focus on his French test with everything that had happened in the past twenty-four hours. He had to stop himself more than once from making a very elementary mistake in conjugation or translation. It didn't help that the paragraphs that they were supposed to be reading all centered around a couple in love— if he had ever thought that the people who wrote these things had a wicked sense of irony, now was that time. It didn't help that he was in this class with Quinn. He could tell from the instant that he had walked in that she had heard something about he and Blaine's fight that morning. She kept trying to make eye contact with him as the teacher was handing out the tests and even when they were working on them, he could tell that she wasn't fully focused either. He had hoped to sneak out at the end of the period and avoid having to actually talk to her, but he wasn't that lucky. Their French teacher was a very organized woman; they handed in their papers in alphabetical order, which meant that Quinn was finished before him and was able to intercept him as he left the room.

"Kurt, stop." Her quiet tone successfully halted him, despite his intentions to blow by her no matter what she said. Kurt looked at the blonde questioningly, wondering why she seemed so calm compared to the tense state that she had seemed to be perpetually living in since returning to Glee.

"What do you want, Quinn?" he asked, trying to keep the frustration out of his voice. After all, she was just an innocent bystander and no matter how much he wanted to just snap at everybody right now, it wouldn't have been fair to her.

"I know you and Blaine had a fight this morning," she started. When Kurt opened his mouth to protest and cut her off with some explanation, she lightly put her hands over his mouth and gave him such an understanding look that he was unable to form the words he had been about to string together. "I was in the auditorium with Artie, working on some last-minute stuff for the play tonight and I caught the end of it when I was getting ready to go to English."

"What is it with the whole world suddenly having to intrude on everything that Blaine and I do?" Kurt asked exasperatedly. Quinn laughed quietly.

"I know exactly what it's like to have everybody trying to pry into the details of your relationship with somebody and trust me, unless you're secretly having his baby, you really don't know just what that's like." She pushed a strand of hair out her face, tucking it behind her ear. Her gaze was fairly intense and Kurt could feel her trying to analyze him. "Look, I know that lately everybody has been talking to Blaine and trying to see if he's ready for tonight but… Kurt?"

She paused and didn't continue until he looked up, finally meeting her gaze. "I know how hard you've been working and how hard it is to watch somebody else shine. Again, I've been there." She laughed slightly hollowly. "And it's no fun watching somebody else succeed, especially if you know that you should be happy for them. So I just wanted to make sure that you're okay."

"What?" Kurt asked quietly, completely taken-aback by Quinn's words. She smiled lightly, reaching out and touching him softly on the arm.

"Are you okay? I know that everybody's treating Blaine like he's the hottest commodity but that's what always happens. It was the same on the Cheerios. Some new girl comes in and is wildly successful at first… and everybody thinks she's amazing and should have all the main stunts. But after a while, the novelty wears off and we're back to where we started. So hold in there. Okay?"

With a reassuring smile, she squeezed his arm lightly and disappeared into the mess of people wandering through the hall. Kurt found himself nodding, answering her despite the fact that she had already left. He wasn't sure if Quinn had made him feel any better but he certainly didn't feel any worse—and that was more than anybody else had said to him throughout the process of putting on West Side Story. It was certainly better than being laughed at when he had tried to demonstrate his ability to play the "tough, straight male" that the directors had apparently been looking for.

So he smiled lightly, the edges of his mouth working up despite the fact that he still felt pretty terrible. As he started to wander through the halls again, he pulled his phone out of his backpack, where he had tucked it away to prevent any temptation during class. He saw that he had a message from Blaine but he ignored it; if he really wanted to talk, he could come find him—Kurt was done trying to be the bigger person. Instead, he tapped down one more name in his inbox, his smile becoming more genuine as he saw another text waiting.

"As long as it works for you, it works for me."

There was another message, more recent than that one, as though Dave had been worried about the fact that Kurt hadn't responded and had thought that he had maybe said the wrong thing.

"When?"

Kurt smiled. Maybe there were still some things left to smile about in the day.