Chapter 2
"Mr Scheue, we really want to do Brittany. Please?" Tina begged.
"No, I'm sorry guys but I don't think she's a good role model." Mr Scheue snapped.
"Oh for the love of God!" Ashley burst out. "He's not gonna let up so just lay off!" He snapped. "Jesus." He sighed.
"What's got you so uptight?" Santana snapped. Everyone looked at him.
"Dunno. Just not in the mood for people moaning." Ashley shrugged. "But, Britany's actually quite a good role model because she had a melt down and came back stronger than ever." He pointed out.
"Exactly Mr Scheue! If we do anything like we normally do we won't get any new members." Kurt argued.
"No guys, I'm sorry but that's it." Mr Scheue snapped. He went to write something up on the board. Ashley's phone rang really loud so everyone glanced at him. He looked at it quickly.
"Mr Scheue, I need to take this, can I go outside?" He asked. Mr Scheue nodded.
"Yello...? No sorry… I can't now. Well you can't just… fine. ASAP I get it." He sighed hanging up and entering the room again.
"Who was that?" Mercedes asked.
"An old friend who wants to meet up." Ashley explained. "He needs to get home soon so I'll probably go over this weekend." He muttered.
"Oh, just a friend is it?" Santana asked in a knowing tone. Ashley looked confused.
"Yeah, we met in the foster home but he got fostered a couple years ago. Which, meant all my mates were then girls so I got me ass in gear and started to become more sociably, rather than just planning choreography for no reason." He laughed at himself.
"Oh please." Santana snapped. "We all know you're as gay as Hummel here. Why don't you just admit it?" She hissed.
"Um, I am gay, but why would I have to admit it? As if it's a bad thing." He snapped back. She seemed shocked at his out and proud attitude.
"Just lay off him Santana." Finn said as she went to say something else.
"So our assignment is…" They spent the rest of the lesson moaning about the assignment. Even after Kurt got sent to the principal's office for his behaviour.
"So who is this friend you're meeting?" Rachel asked as they were driving home.
"Ok, we did date for a few weeks but we decided it was best for us to just be friends, ok?" He said. She looked at him for a second then back to the road. "His name's Ted. He's got a girlfriend now cause he's bi. But that don't bother me. We've both moved on." He stated, watching a car overtake. "Well he did, but I just didn't care in the first place so…" He shrugged after a moment.
"You can't move on from something you weren't on in the first place." She said.
"Exactly." He said, chipperly hitting the wheel in a dandy tune. "Oh, I got into the hockey team." He said.
"Despite the homophobes? Well done." She beamed. He smiled.
"It means Kurt should be safe from Karofsky for the time being." He shrugged.
"Yeah, he's being strangely harder on him than the rest of the glee kids." She thought out loud. "Why would that be?" She asked.
"Duh, homophobe." He scoffed. "But… I don't know… there's something more to it… he wouldn't just pick on Kurt. He'd find some guy and accuse him of being with Kurt… as in an insult…" He thought. She nodded thinking hard too.
"Wait does he pick on you?" She asked after a moment of silence. Ashley had a look of realisation on his face.
"No, he doesn't. He's pointed it out to me a couple times, but never like he does to Kurt." He said. "Hey, I just need to talk to Finn for a second." She looks at him confused. "I've had an idea but I don't wanna say it until I have more evidence." He said.
"That's totally understandable. You don't wanna start rumours." She nudged him. He looked at her confused for a moment and then shook it. "I tell Finn not to talk to me about it." She said.
"Actually if we can keep it between just the football guys in glee then we'd be ok." He explained.
"Why is this something to do with football?" She asked. He nodded.
"They'd be the only ones to know, or notice even." He smiled deviously. "Would Brittany keep record of guys and who'd they've been out with?" He asked.
"Yeah. I think so… why?" She asked. He shrugged as he pulled into their house.
"Just more evidence… just to make sure…" He smirked. She laughed.
"Hey, Finn…" Ashley was on his phone in his room. "Have you ever noticed Karofsky acting odd in the changing room?" He asked.
"Um… he's always quite aware of who's watching him as he changes… He snapped at me for glancing when he came and stood next to me…" Finn answered on the other side of the line.
"Why did you look?" Ashley furrowed his brows.
"Just to see who it was… I didn't linger." He answered.
"Oh right. Thanks." Ashley said.
"Wait, why?" Finn asked before Ashley could hang up.
"Um… well I had a theory. If you could just not talk to Rachel… I love her but she might ruin the whole idea of this being a secret." Ashley asked.
"Yeah sure man… I won't be a secret for always will it though?" He asked dopily.
"No… just until I prove my theory wrong or right." He said. "Bye!" He said hanging up.
Ashley and Finn strolled down the hall talking about how the first football practice went. Then Karofsky suddenly shoved Kurt hard against the locker. He went to walk past Finn and Ashley but they were obviously having none of it. "Hey! Karofsky! What d'you think you're doing?!" Ashley yelled. Finn was shocked at how easily Ashley found it to square up to people almost double his size.
"Shut up fagot." Karofsky snapped. At this point everyone in the corridor was staring at the scene going down in front of them.
"You what? Wanna say that a bit louder?" Ashley snapped. Karofsky stood his ground.
"I called you a fagot." He said loudly. Ashley laughed sarcastically. He harshly shoved the football player against the locker by the shoulders.
"You better not touch him again or you'll get your ass beaten!" The smaller boy yelled. At that point Karofsky had shoved him off and went for a left jack to the smaller boys face. Ashley took the hit and smacked him back harder before Finn and Mr Scheue (Who'd come along the corridor at one point) pulled then apart. Finn had a strong hold on Ashley from behind and Mr Scheue was holding Karofsky back from in front.
"What's going on here?!" The teacher yelled. Ashley shook Finn off and answered the question before Karofsky could say anything.
"This twat's going and pickin' on Kurt for no other reason than the fact he's a homophobe!" He yelled pointing to Karofsky.
"Yeah well, being gay's wrong." Karofsky countered.
"And? Take it out on someone like me who'll fight back rather than on someone like Kurt! Instead of being such a pussy and taking it out on someone who wouldn't hurt a fly." Ashley snapped.
"And it's not wrong." Kurt added. Which Ashley nodded to.
"Principal's office!" The teacher snapped looking around. "All four of you." He continued. Kurt and Finn seemed shocked as it was the other two who kicked off but they followed anyway.
The four boys sat in the office with the two pairs of accusing eyes. "You can't suspend Karofsky. He only hit me in self-defence. I started on him." Ashley said calmly. Kurt tried to object as well as the other two boys surprisingly. "No, it's ok. My dads will understand why I did it." Ashley stated calmly. "Even though homophobia is illegal, I'll take the fall." He then muttered to Dave. Dave seemed shocked.
"Well, since you've admitted. Finn, David and Kurt, you can go, but I'll need to talk to you all soon. Just to get a detailed report." Principal Figgins said. The three boys nodded and filed out the room. Once they left the two teachers turned to Ashley.
"Mr Berry, you'll be suspended for two weeks, starting as of now. We'll contact your parents and you can't be on school grounds unless collecting work but we'll arrange for Rachel to pick that up for you." He said. Ashley nodded.
"Thanks." He said standing to leave. Mr Scheue sat him back down with a confused look.
"Thanks?" He said. "You've just been suspended." He said.
"Yeah, but the last school I went to, they suspended me for a whole month when I punched someone." He explained. "Mind you it was a teacher…" He thought to himself. "He insulted gays so I kinda snapped." He informed them.
"Ok, so… just not allowed on school grounds ok?" Mr Scheue said. Ashley left rather chipperly.
Kurt walked up to the Berry household slowly. He noticed how neat everything looked in the house. He walked up to the door and rang the doorbell. A figure appeared. They opened the door and Kurt smiled as LeRoy opened the door. "Hi Mr Berry. I was hoping to talk to Ashley, because the whole situation happened when he stood up to Karofsky for me." Kurt stuttered. The man smiled politely.
"Of course. It's nice that you'd want to thank him for it. Though he simply wanted to punch someone in my opinion." He beamed. Kurt nodded as he let him in. "He's just upstairs, with Rachel." Kurt hadn't been there in a while but he could still sort of remember where everything was.
"Thank you sir." He said politely before trotting upstairs.
He heard Rachel laughing and went into the room he believed it to come from. With a stroke of luck it was the right room. Ashley and Rachel were sitting on Ashley's floor laughing at something they were talking about. He decided to knock on the open door. They looked up. "Hey Kurt!" Rachel beamed as Ashley stood up to greet him. His expression had changed totally and was now unreadable.
"Hey. You ok?" He asked. He was very close to Kurt and was pretty much breathing onto the smaller boy's lips. "He didn't hurt you did he?" Ashley continued, resting a reassuring hand on Kurt's shoulder.
Kurt was feeling uncomfortable. He hadn't been too close to a guy before who he wasn't related to or totally aware they were straight. He hadn't really been around anyone gay either. He had watched gay love stories and TV shows, but never a real flesh and bone person who he could physically touch, like the other boy was doing so now. "I'm fine. He does it all the time; you didn't have to do that. Or take the fall for him." He replied shyly. Ashley stood still staring directly into his eyes. "What about you though? You took quite a hit." Kurt tried to sound a bit more lively but just ended up sounding sarcastic.
"I've got the most offensive word to gays tattooed on the top of my neck. I've taken much more than a punch over the years." He laughed.
"Show me?" Rachel asked. Ashley turned round. He took off his shirt and pointed to somewhere on the back of his neck. Sure enough the word 'Fagot' was in roman times on the back of his neck, just under his hair line. "Did that not hurt?" She asked. "And why that if you're gay?" She added.
"It was a dare. And, no joke, I cried." He laughed. Kurt was still trying to concentrate on the tattoo but, he had perfect abs with a perfect tan and about four other tattoos. "That one probably hurt worse though." He pointed to the one Kurt was staring at.
"Who's Joshua?" Kurt asked. Ashley went red.
"He asked me to get it. I didn't want to because I knew he was gonna break up with me, but I hoped it would make him stay." He looked at the tattoo across his chest. He seemed lost in thought for a second. "It didn't work. He left me two weeks later." He sniffed. As he turned to pick up his shirt Kurt noticed something wasn't right. One of his rib cages was uneven to the other, looking very disfigured. And all down the same side on the hip were scars that appeared to be claw marks. "Please don't ask. I actually beg you. Don't ask me why it's like that." He sighed. He as deadly serious though so Kurt and Rachel did as he said.
"So what were you laughing about?" Kurt asked. The siblings looked at each other.
"Um, Dave tried to apologise, but he stacked it and I ended up catching him. His face was classic. I swear he looked so embarrassed." He laughed. Kurt and Rachel joined in.
Leave your thoughts! – KAMShark!