AN: In case anyone is wondering about the dates in this story, it started on Saturday April 28th and is now Thursday, May 3rd. Prom is set for May 12th. I attempted to come up with a timeline that fit with the major events in season 3 and also the air dates of the episodes (it was difficult). Basically, I started with "Dance With Somebody," where someone (Santana?) mentions there being 42 days left of school. So. I'm a stickler for continuity. Also, having a timeline helps me plot.
Also: I'm such a broken record on this, but thank you guys so much for all of your support (even though I repeatedly break your hearts).
A little bit of a shorter chapter, but it felt like a good stopping point. I'll try to write more on it tonight so I can get ch. 11 up sooner.
Chapter 10- Kitchen Table
The first thing that Kurt hears when he walks in the door is his dad's voice. "You want to tell me what you were doing out so late?"
The only positive thing that Kurt gleans from this is that if his dad is asking where he was, it means that Carole hasn't told him yet.
Burt is seated at the kitchen table with a newspaper when Kurt slowly approaches him, still clutching the soggy mass of denim that is Dave's coat.
"I was with a friend."
Burt raises his eyebrows and closes the newspaper. "'With a friend'?" he repeats, incredulous. "Until almost 11:30 on a school night."
"Apparently," Kurt says, dreading where this conversation is headed.
"What're you holding?"
"Oh, this?" Kurt fakes a laugh. "Isn't it, um. Stylish?"
Burt doesn't laugh.
Kurt sighs. "He left his coat outside on accident and I salvaged it for him."
Burt pushes out the chair opposite him with his foot, a clear indication for Kurt to join him at the table.
Kurt reluctantly sits down, wadded up jacket and all.
"You want to tell me which 'he' you were with tonight? Because I know that it wasn't Sam, and Finn was consoling Rachel over her NYADA audition. Now they've got some overnight thing helping Puck study for a geography test."
Kurt opens his mouth to interrupt, but Burt keeps talking. "It also wasn't Blaine, because you would've told me straight up if that's who you were with. "
Kurt folds the jacket in his lap, staring down at the table. "Dad, please don't freak out."
"Why would I freak out? Because you're going to tell me that you spent the last several hours with Dave Karofsky and you think that might upset me?"
"If you already knew then why ask me about it in the first place?" Carole told him after all. It's not that big of a surprise.
"Because I wanted to see if you would admit to it. Kurt, I don't think I need to explain to you how I feel about this."
"Then don't explain it," Kurt says, rising from the table and trying to make his escape.
Everyone is against Dave and Kurt can't really blame them for that. But Dave is in a dark place and yeah, sometimes he still acts like a douchebag, but what happened to giving someone a chance? What happened to helping someone through an awful time, with the assumption that they will come out of it a better, stronger person?
Is no one else willing to take that risk? Maybe if Dave had called other people and not just Kurt, then it would be different. More people would feel inclined to help. Even if it's selfish. Even if it's so they don't have to worry about getting that call again.
Just because something starts out selfish, doesn't mean that it can't turn selfless eventually.
Kurt is determined to feel good about helping Dave. No one—not even his dad, who he loves and respects, is going to take that away from him.
"Sit down. We're not done." Burt is eerily calm. He's surpassed yelling entirely, which is never a good sign.
Kurt sits, because he's had a long day and it's a lot easier than fighting.
"I think it's great that you're trying to be there for this guy. But you should not be the one to do this. He's dangerous."
"To himself," Kurt counters.
"And to you. Do I need to remind you what he did to you? What he did to our family? How you had to transfer away from your friends to an expensive private school?"
Kurt crosses his arms around the jacket. He waits for more.
"He has extremely violent tendencies, towards you and towards himself."
"I think I know him a little bit better than you do."
"I recognize that you're trying to do the right thing here, but you shouldn't be the one that has to do it."
People really need to stop telling him that.
"You haven't told me anything new. I'm aware of all of that."
"You need to turn down the attitude. I'm trying to do my job as a parent, here."
There's no good way for Kurt to "turn down the attitude." Not when it comes to this. Not when it comes to Dave.
"Dad, I remember everything that Dave did to me. Vividly. Doesn't that say something about what I'm trying to do now? How much he's changed and how disheartening it is that out of everyone, I'm the one who's trying to get him through this?"
Burt let's that sink in. He's not a man who likes to admit to defeat, but he's a mostly reasonable person when given the proper amount of time to mull things over.
Unless it's something that concerns his son, and then he holds grudges like nobody's business.
"Dad," Kurt pleads, "I remember the talk we had after we found out about Dave's suicide attempt, and how worried you were that I might have ever considered something like that."
"Yeah, well," Burt says, gruff like he gets when he's trying not to be emotional.
"You have made it clear to me on many occasions that my sexual orientation makes no difference to you."
Burt mutters something that sounds like "any reasonable parent."
"David—he doesn't have that. His dad seemed like a decent man when we met him, but he doesn't talk to David the way you talk to me. I don't think he's ever told David that he's OK the way he is. That there isn't anything wrong with him." Kurt wrings the jacket in his arms as he feels a lump twisting inside his throat while he breathes. He tries to swallow it down, but it refuses to budge. "And his mom wants him to get reorientation therapy and none of his friends want anything to do with him." The tears start falling again and Kurt wipes them away angrily, because he's trying to explain to his dad why this is so important and crying isn't going to make that any easier.
"And David feels so awful about everything that he's done, and he won't stop beating himself up over it—"
He wants to be done crying over this. He wants it to be just a bad memory. Something that he will always look back on with a tightness in his heart, but nothing more than that.
But the bad memories of this whole experience keep happening and everything is too fresh.
"Kurt," Burt cuts in, but Kurt doesn't listen.
"And my friends were trying to be helpful and I know a lot of them visited Dave in the hospital, and they meant well, but to Dave it's like, it's easy to act like you care, but to actually care—"
"Kurt," Burt says again, when Kurt can't wipe all of his tears away fast enough. "OK, I'll do it."
Kurt sniffs. "Do what?"
"I'll try to talk some sense into his parents. Or his dad, if his mom isn't willing to listen."
"I didn't ask you—"
"You shouldn't have to."
"Dad," Kurt says, grinning as best as he can around the tears, "thank you. I know this whole thing isn't fair."
"Life isn't fair. And for what it's worth, you're welcome. But I shouldn't have to tell you that."
Kurt rises up from this chair and collapses against his dad's chest. "I missed you. I mean, I miss you. All the time. Even now. Is that stupid?"
Burt squeezes him hard. "I miss you too, kiddo."
Kurt vanishes to his room, where his tears quietly subside. He texts Dave, I have your jacket. If I hadn't rescued it for you, who knows how long it would've sat marinating in that puddle? Although, I'm not fully convinced that would have been a bad thing. It might've forced you to buy a decent fitting jacket, for once.
That was a totally inappropriate way to talk to Dave, considering how they left things. Kurt texts him a second time, That was rude. What I meant to say was that I'm holding onto it for you and I will wash it tomorrow. I doubt you'll care if I iron it. Or be able to tell the difference.
OK, not much better. Is there an "off" switch for his bitchiness?
He tries a third time. David, I'm sorry about the last two messages. And I'm sorry about the way we left things. I know that doesn't fix anything and it probably doesn't help very much, but I really do think you're a good person, whether you see it or not. You're so much more than just the worst parts of your parents.
Dave writes back maybe fifteen minutes later, after Kurt has given up waiting for a response: I guess my mom left sometime after I did and she still isnt back
There's a second message, a short one. This one reads: I dont know if shes coming back
And finally, Kurt go to sleep. If ironing gets you off then whatever I dont care.
Kurt wishes that he could write back to Dave and tell him that he's sure that Dave's mom will come to her senses and realize everything she's leaving behind.
He's not that naïve. Maybe he was once upon a time, but that boy is long gone, locked away in a closet and pining after a quarterback that he will never have.
Eventually he falls asleep, still clutching his phone in case Dave texts him that his mom has come home.
Not necessarily that Dave would text him right away if that happened, but Kurt still hopes.
In the morning, he surfs through his texts in case he has a missed one from Dave, updating him on Dave's home life and his situation with his mom.
There's nothing new from Dave. There are a couple texts that he had forgotten about in the excitement of last night. A text from Chandler asking how his audition had gone, and a text from Blaine asking for an apology.
He sends a quick text off to Chandler, My audition went really well, thanks for asking. My friend was not so lucky.
He's not sure what to say to Blaine, so he doesn't bother replying. He'll come up with something when he sees him at school.
Burt and Carole are sitting at the kitchen table with cups of coffee when Kurt comes downstairs.
He pours his own cup of coffee (usually he prefers his non-fat mochas, but drip will have to do) and grabs an apple out of the fruit bowl on the table.
"You have to tell me about this audition of yours," Burt says while Carole smiles and nods. "Haven't heard much, with Finn being at Rachel's all the time."
Kurt takes a deep drink of his coffee, buying himself time. "It went… really well." He sighs. "Sorry I'm not more excited about it. I was, I was thrilled, but Rachel forgot all the words to her song and I feel like I'm being a bad friend if I dismiss that in favor of my own excitement."
"Sweetie," Carole says, reaching out and resting her hand on his arm, "if you allow the disappointment of others to take away your own happiness, then you're going to lead a very sad life."
"I know, Carole. I'm trying to feel good about my audition." He turns his apple over in his hands, studies the way the light reflects off the red peel.
"There something else you want to tell us?" Burt asks, eyebrows raised in concern.
"I had another stupid fight with Blaine."
Kurt tells them about the parking lot after his audition, omitting the part where Blaine basically tried to get in his pants right then and there. He told them that after over a year of dating, it felt like Blaine was seeing him for the first time. Like Blaine had just been going through the motions and now he had discovered something about Kurt that was worth being attracted to.
He told them that Blaine was expecting him to apologize.
The only solution that they could come up with is "talk to him about it and if you want to you can invite him over for dinner."
Kurt has to leave for school after that.
He's no better off than he was this morning.
When Kurt gets to school, Blaine is waiting close enough to Kurt's locker to not be subtle, but far enough away that if Kurt doesn't approach him, he can make a dramatic exit that only Kurt would notice.
Kurt rolls his eyes, shuts his locker and thinks, I may as well get this over with.
He makes solid eye contact with Blaine and waits to see if Blaine will come to him first.
Blaine doesn't move.
Kurt despises the way that Blaine leans so aggressively against the lockers with his arms crossed, and the way that he watches Kurt stalk up to him with a small amount of satisfaction buried in his eyes. Like he knew Kurt would come up to him eventually.
"I'm not going to apologize for anything," is the first thing Kurt says.
"You're not going to apologize for the incredibly rude way you spoke to me yesterday, after I took time out of my day to watch you perform and then told you how great I thought you were."
"No, Blaine. I'm not going to apologize for you taking time out of your day to support your boyfriend in one of the most important moments of his life or for you 'telling me how great you thought I was' when you said it like you expected me to be awful."
Blaine straightens up, new anger flashing in his eyes. He steps closer to Kurt. "I realize that it's a big moment in your life. But to me, it reminds me that I'm losing you. So listening to a representative from a New York university tell you how great you were, wasn't exactly easy for me to hear."
Kurt opens his mouth to cut in, but Blaine holds up a hand to stop him, and continues talking before Kurt can get started. "Second, I don't know where you got this idea that I think you can't sing, but it's too preposterous for me to even begin to express and—I've got to go to class."
Blaine turns around without even batting an eye and before Kurt's brain has time to form any kind of coherent, rightfully spiteful thought, Blaine is out of eyesight.
Blaine eats lunch with Puck, Sam, Finn and Rachel over at the jock table. Kurt's own table with Mercedes, Tina and Mike feels empty without Blaine to fill in the missing space.
Kurt checks his phone for messages from Dave, but there's still nothing. He sends a message that he hopes is sincere and doesn't sound too overly polite, I wish you a quiet and easy day today, where you can find time to appreciate something that might make you smile.
It's a bland, impersonal hallmark message, but he never knows when it's OK for him to be personal with Dave. Becoming too personal seems to upset him, but Dave needs people who are willing to get close to him.
Maybe what Dave really needs is a break from Kurt. They've spent an awfully large amount of time together in the past week, especially for people who never really talked for the entire time that they've known each other.
Dave writes back, fuck that.
Kurt spends the rest of his lunch telling himself not to read too much into Dave's comment, and that if Dave had wanted Kurt to know what was going on, that Dave would have told him.
He's giving Dave space, for a little while. Still, he dwells on those two words like some great life force depends on it. He barely registers Mercedes chit-chatting to Tina about Sam, something dull that would probably answer the lingering question of whether or not Sam and Mercedes are together.
Right now, Kurt couldn't care about anything less. He can only think one single phrase, fuck that.
Glee that day is all about Prom. Prom, coming up a week from tomorrow, who's going to wear what, who's going to sing what song, who's running for prom court and causing disturbances with the current couples in the club.
Blaine doesn't sit next to him, and acts so casual about sitting next to Mike that it's hard to tell if anyone notices that it's weird that Kurt is sitting by himself.
Normally, someone might notice. Rachel or Mercedes or Tina. But everyone is upset about one thing or another, people running for prom court with ex-girlfriends or stupid dinosaur themed proms (Santana, Artie and Sam defend Brittany for her prom theme like they've never heard an idea so brilliant) or bans on hair gel, which Blaine takes a personal offense to.
Blaine's taking a personal offense to a lot of things.
Glee gets over quickly, far too quickly for anything remotely productive to happen, especially for a group that is competing at Nationals in a little less than three weeks.
Everyone seems particularly short-tempered; Puck doesn't say a single thing the entire time and sits belligerently in a corner by himself, the way he used to when he was new to the club.
Everyone has deep shadows under their eyes. Rachel probably cried all night over her failed audition and it sounds like the rest of the guys were up all night helping Puck study.
No one bothers asking him how his test or whatever went, but from the looks of it, it wasn't good. Kurt can't ask him though, because Puck comes over to his house fairly often and sometimes they talk, but they aren't really friends. Besides, Kurt has enough problems without having a former tormentor bite his head off.
The club disassembles. Mr. Shue can't gain any sort of control over them and everyone is so exhausted that what they seem to need most is a break from each other, and there's no way to obtain that while they're stuck in the choir room.
When Chandler texts Kurt that his Chem tutoring was cut short, and asks if Kurt wants to meet him at the Lima bean for coffee, Kurt says yes without hesitating. He doesn't give a second thought to what Blaine or anyone else might think.
He needs some kind of refuge outside of Glee and the suicidal boy that Glee has forgotten.