Here's the next chapter! I'm posting a bit later than usual, but I hope you guys still enjoy it! Also, thanks again for all of the wonderful reviews; your support means a lot :D anyways, enjoy:

Senior Year; A Kurtofsky Chronicle

Chapter 12: Trouble

It had been three weeks since they'd last spoken. Kurt froze when he saw the name of the caller while his cell continued to bleat out Katy Perry's 'Teenage Dream'. Three… Four… Five… Kurt slowly counted the seconds and at the last possible second, he grabbed the phone and pushed answer.

"H-hello," he blurted out nervously.

"Kurt…" spoke the silky voice of Blaine Anderson from the other end. "I-it's been a while…"

"Yeah," Kurt hesitated.

"Look, I know this may be awkward or whatever," the Warbler said, "but I think we should really talk. We haven't spoken for weeks and I think it's about time we did. Agreed?"

Kurt was silent for a long time, half of him pondering what he would say to the Dalton boy, the other half wanting to make the boy sweat. Even if he'd been the one to chase Blaine, he still knew the buttons he could push to get a reaction out of the Warbler; to move him and one way was to not seem desperately interested.

Kurt had figured out that Blaine thrived on and craved adoration. The boy was so used to being admired that it was hard for him to take being ignored. Kurt had irked him many times by playing bored.

"Kurt?" came Blaine's voice, "Are you still there?" There it was: the telling tone of Blaine's voice told Kurt that the Warbler was becoming anxious.

"Yes…" Kurt said evenly. "I'm thinking about it." He tried to keep the smugness out of his voice, but inside he was smiling. It felt good to hear this Blaine; the vulnerable one; the not-quite-so-put-together Blaine. Kurt heard the other boy give a soft sigh.

"Please?" Blaine asked.

Kurt smiled. Now it was Blaine's turn to chase him; to make a try for Kurt's attention. He knew that it was evil and spiteful, but he'd been hurt too and it felt only right that he return the favor a bit.

"Fine," Kurt said finally. "I suppose I could use a little closure."

"Thank you," said Blaine.

"You have five minutes though. I'm going with Finn and David to the movies at 7:30 and I have to get ready," Kurt said nonchalantly.

"Actually," Blaine said, "I thought we should meet."

Kurt's heart skipped a beat. He wasn't expecting that. He wasn't ready for that. For all of his talk, he still felt sentimental about the Warbler and it really did hurt him to think about the boy, let alone see him. Talking on the phone like this was OK. Somehow it felt safer; like Blaine's words were being filtered through the phone so that they came out with a lot less impact.

"I-I can't, Blaine" Kurt said. "I'm going to be busy all weekend and next week I have some very important tests and papers due," he lied.

"Kurt, you've used that excuse on me before. I think you're running out of them," Blaine said calmly. "I just ask for a little bit of your time, one on one… for closure. That's what you wanted right?"

Kurt was quiet for a long time before answering. He chose his words carefully, making sure that he would be the one who was in control.

"Fine, I'll meet with you, but on a few conditions," he said.

"Kurt, I just want to talk. I'm not going to hold you hostage or anything," Blaine replied.

"Well, you should have no problem accepting my terms then," Kurt said stiffly.

Blaine sighed, but he agreed and Kurt listed off his conditions. Before hanging up, Blaine said one last thing:

"Kurt… I'm sorry we couldn't stay together. I don't know what you see in Karofsky, but I hope he doesn't disappoint you. You're a good person to still believe in him after everything he put you through. You deserve to be happy, so I hope patching things up with him will bring you that."

Then Kurt heard the dial tone and pressed end, still staring at his phone even as he heard footsteps on the stairs to his room.

"Kurt, you ready?" came Finn's voice.

"Yeah," Kurt replied, regaining his calm. When Finn was half way down the stairs, Kurt grabbed a light jacket and checked his hair in the vanity.

"Hurry up," Finn said.

"Finn, how many times have I told you?" Kurt said, pushing the recent conversation out of his mind and regaining his diva attitude. "You can't rush perfection."

Finn rolled his eyes, but grinned. "Yes, your royal highness, but the thing is I left D upstairs alone with your father."

Kurt snapped around, his eyes widening.

"So unless you want to be cleaning up Davey boy's remains, I suggest you get your butt up there and fast." And with that Finn turned around and walked back up the stairs. Kurt glanced once more at his reflection in the vanity before rushing after his step brother, taking two steps at a time.

Dave sat stiffly on the edge of the couch, watching his feet. He could feel Burt's eyes on him, boring into his soul. The air was so thick with tension and the only sound to be heard was the faint rumble of cars outside.

"So…" Mr. Hummel started. "You've suddenly become friends with my kid huh?"

"No, sir," Dave sputtered, "I-I mean yes. No, I mean… um… yes, we're friends, but it wasn't suddenly…" Shit! Pull yourself together! Dave thought. His legs were screaming for him to run. What the hell is Kurt doing down there, and why the fuck did Hudson leave me here?

"Finn tells me you've joined the Glee club too," Burt continued without a change in his tone. He kept his voice even, not betraying his true emotions. Dave guessed it might have been because of his heart.

"Y-yes, sir," Dave answered. He knew he had to choose his words carefully lest he say something that brought out the older man's hostility. "I joined a couple of weeks ago."

"And what was Kurt's reaction?" Burt asked. Dave noticed the slight twitch in the older man's knuckles. He gulped and opened his mouth to answer.

"I was surprised," Kurt said walking into the room. The singer stood in the doorway, leaning a bit on the frame, Finn could be heard rummaging for something in the back. "David said he'd had some surprises for me that week, but I had no clue one included having such a great voice, let alone him joining the New Directions."

"Kurt," Dave said, getting up.

The older Hummel looked over at his son and sat up too. Kurt smirked as Dave's eyes looked him up and down admiringly. Kurt was wearing a form-fitting white V-neck pullover that had half sleeves and a pair of red skinny jeans. He pulled on his tan jacket and walked further into the room.

"So I take it he hasn't been causing you trouble then," Burt said.

"On the contrary," said Kurt contently, "David's been positively great. We've reached an understanding. And he's been to every PFFLAG meeting to date. You came to support me in our first and you probably have your opinions on the little incident with the lemonade, but I can assure you, David's been making huge progress."

Kurt looked at Dave and smiled then to his father. "Dad, David has changed and I believe it's genuine. Just give him a chance will you?"

Mr. Hummel considered it for a moment before throwing up his hands. "Fine," said Burt. "I'm glad things are going well, but let me tell you I haven't forgotten what you've done," he said pointing at David.

"I don't expect you to sir," Dave said. He'd gained confidence from Kurt's words and relaxed a little. "I know none of us will ever forget the horrible things I did, but I hope you can forgive me."

Burt looked a little caught off guard by Dave's comment, but regained his composure and nodded stiffly. "I've still got my eyes on you," he said, but let it go at that, grabbing the remote and turning on the TV.

At that moment Finn walked in carrying some snacks and passing them out to the other two. "The food's pretty overpriced so I thought we'd better come prepared," he said grinning. Dave grabbed a snickers bar and a few mini bags of chips while he saw the singer go for the granola bars and a Hershey's bar.

The boys headed towards the door and Dave waited outside with Finn while Kurt said goodbye to his dad, making sure to lecture him on not eating junk just because he wasn't watching him and Carol was at work.

"Don't worry," said Finn, putting a hand on Dave's shoulder, "Burt will get used to you. He's just being protective and you can't really blame him. Kurt's forgiven you though, so I'm sure he'll be fine soon too."

Dave grinned. "Yeah… I hope so." Finn still didn't know about Dave and Kurt's romantic encounters and in the back of his mind he wondered if they would react like Mercedes had. Kurt had told him to watch out for her, but when she did approach him, she seemed to have gotten the whole story from Kurt. She'd said that she still had her doubts, but that she now understood some of why he did the things he did. For that Dave was grateful. Kurt soon joined them and they all climbed into Dave's truck.

Kurt seemed to be doing well hiding his anxiety. Neither of the boys had noticed anything off in his mood. Thank god Finn has the emotional intuition of a football helmet… and I don't want to worry David. He seems so happy right now. Kurt looked over to his left at the jock who was laughing with Finn as they talked about some sports show. Dave looked like he hadn't really laughed in years. Suddenly the jock glanced over and caught him looking. Their eyes locked for a minute before both looked away, blushing slightly. Kurt looked in the rearview mirror and was relieved to see that Finn was fiddling with his phone and hadn't noticed.

They soon pulled into the parking lot of the movie theater and found it quite crowded. Dave let them out in front of the theater so that they could buy the tickets while he found a spot. Kurt and Finn went inside and after buying the tickets Kurt went back outside to look for Dave. He saw the car pulling into a space on the far end of the car lot and decided to wait by the door. As Dave came into view, and saw Kurt his face lit up in a smile sending a shiver up and down the soprano's spine. Wow… Kurt breathed. He didn't remember the last time Blaine had elicited that kind of response from him.

"Might be a long walk back," Dave said as he approached Kurt.

"Well, I've been sitting in the house all day, so I won't mind," Kurt replied smiling.

The two made their way into the theater to look for Finn. Dave spotted him near the bathrooms and they went over to meet him.

"Actually," said Kurt, "I'll meet you guys in there, I need to use the washroom too."

Dave and Finn headed towards the cinemas while Kurt entered the bathroom heading straight for the mirrors and taking out a small bottle of moisturizing cream. As he was finishing up in the mirror he heard the door open and close, but didn't see them until they'd stopped behind him in the mirror.

"Well, well," said a malicious voice, "What do we have here boys?" He heard two more voices snickering as the first one spoke again. "Looks like we've gone and caught ourselves a fairy tonight."

Kurt turned around, his heart pounding in his ears as he saw three boys looking at him with hateful eyes and malicious grins. One of them was at least a foot shorter than Kurt, but he was wide with broad shoulders. The other two might have been closer to Dave's height and towered over him. He looked to the door, but the three barred his only means of escape and he didn't think these three would simply let him walk out. He vaguely caught the scent of alcohol and noticed their bloodshot eyes; they were drunk.

"I'm warning you," he said, making a conscious attempt at deepening his voice to sound more intimidating, "I'm here with friends and they'll be looking for me. So I suggest you bigots just leave me alone."

"What'd you say faggot?" asked the short one.

Kurt realized it had been him that spoke first. The boy's eyes flashed as Kurt winced at the slur. The boys took a step towards him and the short boy pushed Kurt into the sinks, making him hit the small of his back hard against the porcelain. Kurt crumpled to the ground, grabbing at the spot in his back as a jolt of pain ran through his body. The other boys guffawed wildly reminding him of some kind of ridiculous gorillas.

"We saw your boyfriend walking with you outside, making googley eyes at each other," sneered the short attacker. "It's sickening," he spat.

"Yeah, we saw your little friends, you cock-sucker," one of the goons taunted. "He don't look so tough."

The short boy made to rush at Kurt again, but was interrupted by someone grabbing him from behind and slamming him into the wall.

"That so?" growled Dave, cracking his knuckles. "Then why don't you fuckers come at me!" he roared.

Dave to the rescue! But can he beat these three goons and protect Kurt? I guess we'll just have to see. XOXO

~Jay