A/N: You see, this is what happens when I have a constructive day – I finish my work early and have time to sit down and write a chapter. Huzzah!

Thank you once again to my lovely reviewers. I'm sorry to leave you on a cliffhanger and I'm sorry to say I won't be resolving that this time round because this is a kind of angsty Dave POV chapter. If it's any consolation though, the next chapter will be a kind of angsty Kurt POV chapter and, of course, Kurt's reasoning will be revealed. And after that, who knows...? I might even let them kiss!

Shuga34 and a few others have mentioned the fact I occasionally slip into Brit-speak by saying things like "ring" instead of "call." While I'm not going to Americanise all my spellings (my spell-check would probably shoot me for one thing) I am trying to use American-speak rather than Brit-speak as much as possible. It's just I occasionally go on auto-pilot and forget and then don't notice it on the read-throughs because it's so natural to me. So I am sorry, please forgive me and be glad I'm not making all the characters speak with Scouse accents or you'd end up with Glee in Beatles-speak! ;)

Eep! Long author's note there... Sorry! So anyway, angsty Dave POV chapter here I come! Not a long chapter because there's only so much angst I can do, but size isn't everything!

Not His Type?

Chapter Seven

More than a week had gone by since Dave had last spoken to Kurt and the jock was having some serious problems coping. It was Saturday night and, rather than partying with Azimio (who seemed to be taking an if-I-ignore-it-I-can-pretend-it's-not-happening approach to Dave's involvement with Glee) he was curled up on his bed, sobbing down the phone to Santana.

"And then he just ran out and now he won't speak to me or look at me. He asked one of the other Bully Whips to walk him to class and I don't know what I did wrong!"

Santana had called after barely seeing Dave all week, except for in Glee where he had been strangely quiet considering his epic performance the previous week. She had said she was worried about him and that she knew something was up because he had been sporting a face like a puppy dog that had just been kicked. Dave had managed to pretend nothing was wrong for a heroic seven seconds before it had all come pouring out and now Santana was making soothing "shush" noises down the phone while being completely flummoxed by Kurt's behaviour herself. "I just don't get it," she said, sounding like she'd like nothing more than to give Kurt a short, sharp slap. "I thought he really liked you. I mean, you were friends... And you had that super-sexy-not-a-kiss the other week. And the way he was looking at you in Glee when you sang... I thought he was going to jump you and take you right there. And you're sure he was going to kiss you before he ran?"

"I dunno. I mean, it looked like that but then... I thought I knew him... Thought he liked me. But now..."

Santana stayed on the phone until Dave calmed down and stopped crying, but she had somewhere she needed to be. "Lady Face doesn't deserve you, ass bandit," she said as she ended the call. Dave smiled despite himself. While never actually being what you could call "nice," Santana always seemed to say the right thing and he loved her for it, not that he would ever tell her that. The closest he'd ever got was, "You know... You're alright, Lopez."

But he had more pressing things on his mind right now. He had gone over that night so many times in his head he could probably replay it word-for-word. After Kurt's sudden departure, Dave had gone up to his room and sent a text:

If I came on 2 strong and scared u, am sorry. Please 4get it. Please. Just want to be friends. D.

He'd even left off the kiss – which had become standard recently – to reinforce his point. It was the only thing he could think of. His epic declaration of Kurt's sexiness had scared the boy. It had been just too much. He waited up for hours but Kurt didn't reply. The next day, he sent another message.

I don't know what I did. Please tell me so I can say sorry. D.

Again, no response.

He had gone through the school week like a zombie. Every time he saw Kurt, the other boy just hurried past him, not making eye contact, or surrounded himself with friends so that Dave couldn't approach him. Dave hadn't been able to concentrate in lessons and he hadn't done any homework all week. His teachers were already badgering him about the importance of senior year and how if he ever expected to get a hockey scholarship he'd have to keep his grades high. Hockey and football practice had been disasters. His mind was elsewhere and he had managed to cause fairly serious accidents in both teams. Glee Club had been hell. After his performance the previous week, almost all of the girls had wanted to duet with him but he'd refused them all, in the end blaming a headache. All he could concentrate on was Kurt, who was making a heroic effort to not register the presence of the jock. Dave had cried himself to sleep that night. At home, he had barely left his room. His parents had tried to talk to him but he'd just told them he wasn't feeling well. In reality he was going over and over the evening obsessively in his head, trying desperately to figure out what was going on.

After he had told Kurt how amazing he was, Dave was sure the other boy had been going to kiss him. He'd lunged towards Dave, fire in his eyes, but then he'd just... stopped. He'd stared intently at Dave and seemed to be considering something before he'd ran for the hills. So if Dave had scared him with his "sexy address" as Santana had labelled it, why had he gone to kiss him before he ran? Why hadn't he just gone? No, Dave was pretty sure now that it wasn't fear caused by him coming on too strong that had led to Kurt's swift departure. That thought, though, was depressing. He could at least apologise for coming on too strong, but if that wasn't the reason then it left two other options, neither of which Dave could really do anything about.

The first was that, despite their friendship, despite Kurt saying he forgave Dave for the bullying, Kurt still couldn't trust Dave – especially not enough for a relationship.

Dave had tried to imagine Kurt's thought process. The boy had probably been flattered by Dave's impassioned affirmation of his beauty and Dave knew Kurt was a sucker for the romantic stuff so he'd probably been temporarily swept up in the moment and had leaned in to kiss him. But then all of a sudden he'd been struck by something – maybe he'd caught Dave's eye – and he'd realised that this was Dave Karofsky, the loser who'd bullied him and made his life hell, the guy who he'd only been friends with for a few weeks. What did he really know about him? He certainly couldn't trust him. He definitely couldn't be his boyfriend. And, like a trapped animal, he'd bolted. And now he wasn't answering any of Dave's messages because he couldn't find a way to say that he was still terrified of him deep down.

Dave sighed, fighting back more tears. If this was the case then what was the whole summer about? Kurt could trust him enough to be his friend but nothing more? He was OK with teasing him with not-quite-kisses but couldn't bring himself to do the real thing? It was so infuriating to think that while Dave believed they'd been making progress, it hadn't meant nearly as much to Kurt. But maybe that wasn't the case at all. That was only one of his two possibilities, after all.

The other, although it was perhaps the more superficial of the two, was the worst as far as Dave was concerned. Option One was something he could perhaps work on. Option Two was something he had no power over. Option Two was simply that Kurt found him completely physically repulsive.

Dave again imagined Kurt's thought process. Swept away by Dave's words he had been caught up in the moment and had leaned in to kiss him. All of a sudden though, it had dawned on him that this was Dave Karofsky. Dave Karofsky who was chubby, sweaty and who was going to be bald by the time he was thirty. Extraordinarily ordinary Dave Karofsky who was most definitely not his type. And Kurt hadn't been able to think of a way to stop the kiss so he had fled and had then refused to respond to Dave's messages simply because there was no nice way to say, "You just don't do it for me."

Dave thought that this was the most likely scenario, mainly because Kurt's words from that day in the locker room had haunted him for months. Dave had always thought of himself as a good looking guy, a bit on the big side but not in a bad way, but since that day when Kurt had called him all those things and then pushed him away, he had thought of himself only as ugly. That's why he hadn't cared when he had to wear that stupid jacket and beret for the Bully Whips – he had reasoned it couldn't make him look much worse than he already did. But over the last few weeks, as Kurt and he had grown closer and Kurt had started to show signs of attraction, Dave had started to feel better about himself, like maybe he wasn't completely repulsive. Now, though, he was back to Square One. Pudgy, ugly and not Kurt's type.

This thought terrified him. If, by some miracle, he ever got over Kurt and tried to start dating, would anyone ever be attracted to him? Did all gay men crush on pretty boys like Kurt and Hair Gel? Was Dave just some kind of freak of nature who no one would ever want to kiss, touch or do anything else with? Of course, that was a moot point. He didn't think he would ever get over Kurt. The unrequited love that had come so close to being requited before disappearing with no explanation...

"I don't know about bald, but I'll be in therapy by the time I'm thirty," Dave muttered.

Dave knew it sounded soppy and girly and completely lame but Kurt Hummel had broken his heart. It made him sad to realise this but also angry. Angry because he didn't know what he had done to deserve it. Kurt was the one in the wrong here and he was going to get a piece of Dave's mind.

Dave had sworn he wouldn't ring Kurt but so what? If Kurt didn't respect him enough to give him an explanation, why should Dave respect Kurt enough to keep his distance? He dialled Kurt's number. The phone rang out and rang out until eventually:

"Hi, this is Kurt. I'm not available right now so please leave a message after the tone and I'll call you back."

Dave drew a deep breath and let rip. "Kurt, this is Dave. I don't know what the hell I did wrong but I do know I don't deserve to be left hanging without a freakin' explanation. I'm not the one in the wrong here. You obviously want nothing to do with me and, you know what? You got it. We could've been so amazing but now you'll never know. Understand? You've blown it."

As soon as he'd hung up, Dave regretted each and every single word but there was nothing he could do about it now. That was it, he thought as the tears overwhelmed him. Game over.