This chapter wins the award for shortest ever at 795 words. I kept trying to add to it, but nothing seemed to fit.

Kurt: Change

It had only been a week and a half. Kurt hadn't expected Burt and Carol to have a house for him to visit within only a week and a half. Hell, it hadn't even been long enough that Quinn spoke to him again after... after he admitted to her what he did to Puck. Time enough or not, Burt had just stopped the car in front of a two-story duplex. Fuck, but Kurt was not living in a duplex.

"I hate it. Can we go?" He crossed his arms.

"Just look at it Kurt. I know it's not perfect, but it has a nice interior and a two-car garage." The boy's father got out of the car and opened Kurt's door. "Come on. Just look at it. You only get to veto if you've seen the whole house."

Kurt unbuckled his seatbelt and joined his father on the sidewalk. "It's not even a house. It's half of a house, and some strangers will be in the other half." Kurt didn't want to deal with neighbors. It'd only be worse if they had to share a building with someone. If Kurt had his way, he would live in the middle of nowhere where no one could reach him.

The place actually had nice carpet. It looked new. The kitchen might have been large enough to hold half of one of Finn's arms. The living room would fit the entire glee club plus a few others. All of the bedrooms were on the second floor and had atrocious paint jobs. He could hear music coming through the walls from the other side of the duplex. The garage was a thing of beauty. There were only one and a half restrooms.

"I've seen it. I still hate it. Let's go."

Most of the time, Kurt barely even wanted to live where he did now. He didn't want to know what fit of delusions had convinced Burt and Carol that he might want to live here. It wasn't the right house for them anyway, but there was more. There were people here. He'd known their current neighbors for years and still avoided them. What was he supposed to do living around complete strangers? Listening to them whisper about how they saw him on the news. Watching them stare at the scar on his neck and jaw.

Kurt rubbed at the scar as he buckled his seatbelt. He could hide the others, but not this one. Even his scarves and high collars never reached quite far enough to cover it entirely. He'd had a scar on his neck for a long time, leftover from throat surgery when he was younger, but hardly anyone had ever noticed that one. It was small and light. Most days, Kurt didn't even think about or notice it. Not so with the new one. It was long, twisting, and dark. It stood out, screaming against his pale skin. He noticed it daily. People noticed it. It demanded their attention. It refused to let him hide.

He wanted to hide.

As Burt drove home, Kurt leaned his head against the glass, uncaring that it would mess up his hair. The Hummel-Hudsons already had a perfectly decent house. Why did they have to move? (Because the house was too small for all four of them.) And why would anyone bring him to a shitty duplex? (He'd seen them watching him but didn't want to admit to himself it was a test because he doubted he had passed.) Kurt didn't want to move. He wanted to stay. Enough had already changed, and he found himself clutching desperately at thoughts of a house that he knew Finn could stand only so much longer. Whose needs were more important then? His or Finn's?

But he didn't need it. He didn't need the bloodstain on the carpet or the hiding places for any sharp object he could get his hands on. He didn't need the sound of people stomping about upstairs when he had to run down to his room to escape the way everyone had to always look at him. He didn't need the lock on the wrong side of his door. He didn't need the place where Finn had called him 'faggy' or the place where Kurt tried to rape the guy who had become his closest friend.

He just didn't want anything else to change. So much already had. So much had been forced on him. Kurt just wanted something that would be the same. Something that could never change. His house clearly wasn't it. His life wasn't it. Kurt wasn't it. Through the rest of the ride back to the house he clung to even though he'd just realized he hated it, Kurt tried not to think.

~.x.~

I lived in a duplex once and never had trouble with the neighbors, btw.

Next time: Santana pov! :D

I know there's not a lot here, but it'd still be awesome if you could review!