Saturday morning, Kurt opened the door to let Sam in. He hugged Kurt as soon as he stepped through the door. When he let go, he put his backpack down and stepped into the kitchen. "That's coming along nicely."

Sebastian came around the end of the wall, and started opening the can of pan he was going to start with.

"Thanks," Kurt said.

Sam nodded. "Hey."

Sebastian nodded in return.

"Are you ready to help us work on more of it?" Kurt asked.

"Yep. It's hard to believe that I'm going to start to get to go to art shows. I bet the one you went to where you saw Dana Gordon's work was awesome."

"It really was. When we were first talking about painting this wall, we talked about doing something Art Deco inspired, but when we really looked at a lot of the things we liked, we knew that we didn't have the skill to do it at all, but then I remembered going to the exhibit at the Sideshow Gallery in Brooklyn. Honestly, I had kind of forgotten about it because I went right before I went back to Lima for spring break. I had seen a flyer for it at NYADA and snapped a photo of it a few weeks before it opened and I had forgotten about it, but I left the loft when Rachel and Santana got into it early on a Saturday morning. I was sitting in the park looking through photos on my phone to see if there were any that might be good to send to my dad and I saw the photo of the flyer that I had taken. I left the park to go see the exhibit. It was really cool. The paintings were huge. I still had the photo of the flyer, so we looked the artist up and did our own variation on his style."

Sebastian said, "We painted Wednesday night, so we were able to move the tape and start on the second half of the single-colored squares. We think we can finish the rest of the single-colored squares before lunch and then tackle the 2-colored squares later this afternoon."

"Sounds like a plan."

"We used a pencil to lightly write the numbers in the squares. You can use that eraser over there right before you paint a square. We have the printout that is our map over next to the eraser."

"Got it."

Kurt and Sam grabbed a different color of paint and got started painting the squares.

After about 20 minutes of painting, Kurt left Sebastian and Sam to continue to paint while he worked on the quilt in their room. He wanted to work on the quilt, but his actual ulterior motive was to give Sebastian and Sam time to get to know each other without feeling like Kurt was there to mediate.

X-X-X-X-X

They worked in silence for about ten minutes before Sam spoke. "I know he's left us out here so we can work through whatever issues we have with each other on our own."

"I'm sure. I'll just go first. You and Blaine turning us all in for taking drugs caused a lot of us a lot of problems that could have been avoided by going to the school, so that the school could have handled the issue rather than the Show Choir Board. I do understand that you wanted to continue to compete. Kurt explained it to me – about the club being disbanded for the year if you didn't win. But in all honesty, the New Directions had been disqualified, so the Menonite choir should have been sent on to Regionals. And if they couldn't travel that far, then the spot should have just been left empty. You wanted the rules to apply to us, but not to you. It came across as very self-serving. It's like pointing out that the kid across the room has a crib sheet up his sleeve, and then using the time the teacher is focused on that to copy off of the kid sitting next to you so that you end up with an A on a test."

"You're right. None of us considered that. It's hard to explain. Most everyone tried joining something else after Glee Club was disbanded, but we were all unhappy. I'm not saying that we were justified." He grabbed a different color paint and went back to painting.

"Go on. I would like to understand, even if you're not offering the explanation as an excuse."

"I was so lonely. I should have graduated with Kurt, but due to a lot of things I won't go into that weren't my fault, obviously I didn't. I stupidly trusted the adults who were supposed to be guiding me, but I didn't check into things. That's on me. My parents agreed to let me go to Lima in November of Kurt's senior year to finish out the year and graduate with my friends. I hated the school I went to in Kentucky. I went back to Lima. I lived with Kurt's family. When I didn't graduate, my choices were to go back to Kentucky where I hated it or stay at McKinley for another year. I went back to Kentucky for the summer. It was super hard to be there. I felt like such a loser. If I had just stayed there, I would have graduated. It would have been like six more months of hating it, but it would have been over and done. I was 18 by then and after a lot of consideration, I went back to Lima to start a second senior year. I didn't want to go to a fourth high school and I didn't want to spend a whole school year in Kentucky. Since Kurt didn't get into NYADA, I thought he'd be in Lima all year, working at the shop, saving up, and reapplying to schools. But then like three weeks into th Kurt left, I was home alone a lot of the time. Carole went with Burt to DC a lot. Finn was just gone until October. And when he came back, he started to run Glee Club and that change in status – from teammate to leader put a distance between us, and he and I weren't super close to start with. Kurt was gone. Everyone I was friends with had graduated. And losing Glee Club just made me no one. I wasn't in any classes with Tina and Artie, or anyone I really knew. Football season was over. And losing Glee Club just made me no one. And I didn't really want to rejoin the synchronized swimming team because that didn't help anything the year before."

Sebastian chuckled. "I didn't even know there were high school synchronized swimming teams."

"Yeah, me neither until I was told it was the only sport that had openings when I went back to LIma the first time. Anyway, there are no reasons that justify us getting the Warblers that hadn't taken the steroids in trouble. I would love to say that if I were in the same position that I would make a different choice, but that would by lying. It was selfish. At the time, I admit that I was focused on my unhappiness and the unhappiness of my friends. I wasn't thinking about anyone outside that small group. I can't make it up to you and I can't truly say that I'm sorry because apologizing means that I wouldn't do it again. And I can't say that because that would be a lie. In hindsight, if I knew then what I know now, I would do a lot of things differently. But with what I knew then and how I was feeling, I know I would do it all over again. When Mr. Schue reported you for hurting Blaine, nothing happened. Blaine said if we went to the school, nothing would happen again. You may not know, but I'm really into health stuff, exercising, eating healthy, not doing things like smoking and taking drugs. And I really did feel bad for the Warblers that were being pressured into taking drugs. That could have really hurt them."

"I get it, Sam. I do. I made stupid choices too. You at least made choices based on some people's well-being, both the Warblers that were taking drugs and the New Directions who lost their ability to compete because of helping their teammate that passed out on stage." He turned and looked at Sam. "That was an absolutely stupid rule. If people leave for a medical reason, they should be able to choose whether to start again without the person or let their performance to the point of the problem be judged as their full set list. You absolutely should have gone to Marley. You all did the right thing and were punished for it. I did the wrong thing - and to your knowledge I faced no consequences for my actions. I can see why you would have felt it would be useless to go to the school again."

They changed colors of paint and went back to painting in the squares in silence for a few minutes.

Sebastian broke the silence. "I think you probably know, but in case you don't, Marley is my cousin's Jillian's best friend now. They met in Columbus at the beginning of the summer and became fast friends."

"I did know. Kurt told me. And I'm glad for her. The end of the year was really rough for her. Jake was awful. Mr. Schue was awful. I was awful. We all were."

"Wait. Were you somehow part of her getting in trouble for not wearing a bikini when she has an eating disorder?"

"Yeah. I was a screwed up mess. It was absolutely awful. I need to talk to her too. She was really mature about it."

"You should. I'd suggest leaving the eating disorder part of it out, but it was really sexist. I'd go with that as your lead."

Sam nodded. "Sue rounded up the returning New Directions after graduation and told them that they no longer attended McKinley. I have no idea how she did it. Unique went back to Akron to live with her parents. She had been living with her aunt and uncle to be able to go to McKinley. I knew Marley had moved to Columbus. The others told me where they had been transferred to, but I don't remember. And what did you mean 'to my knowledge' about you getting punished?"

"Oh, that you were right that nothing happened last year, but we got a new headmaster this year and Hunter's parting gift to me was to tell him about the slushie incident. I was confined to campus for six weeks and my father made me get a job to repay the Andersons for Blaine's medical bills. Going to work was the only time I could leave for six weeks."

"I guess that's reasonable, but I still have a hard time understanding why Kurt is with you. The two of you weren't exactly friendly."

"And I'm not quite sure why he accepted your simple apology for being an ass of a best friend for most of the school year. Why would anyone's best friend think that getting back together with someone who cheated on said best friend would be a good idea. Why did you become the cheater's bestie, as Kurt called you? You turned on Kurt. He was never anything but amazing to you from what I've heard."

"I'm sure Kurt didn't tell you that. He never really says much of anything nice about himself."

"Santana. We're friends now."

Sam quit painting. "Wait. What? And you think I might be trying to mess with Kurt by apologizing and trying to be a decent person again?"

"Well, Santana and I have worked through our issues. She's still on Kurt's short list of people from Lima that he's let back into his life after Finn died."

"Me, Santana, and?"

"Marley, well she doesn't count I guess since she never did anything to hurt him. Unique came back when Rachel had her Fourth of July party, but I haven't really heard him talk about her since then. Oh, and Brittany, but again, I don't think either of them ever did anything to hurt Kurt either."

Sam sighed. "Brittany did actually. Senior year. She ran for class president against him. She promised things like going topless and protecting the school from tornadoes, and she handed out those giant Pixie Stix to anyone who would agree to vote for her."

"Oh."

"Rachel stuffed the ballot box with ballots with his name marked and he was accused of cheating. Even after Rachel confessed, Principal Figgins wouldn't redo the election. Brittany ended up as class president. I still miss her. I know it's been, like five months, but–." He paused. "She left for MIT five months ago. Seeing her at Rachel's party was hard."

"I didn't know that you two were close."

"We were both so alone. Santana broke up with her the same week that Blaine came here – back in early October. She and I started dating after that – after Sectionals actually. I fell in love with her. I know we only dated for about four months, so it's dumb that I'm still hung up on her five months later, but here I am anyway. I need to move on. I'm not pining for her, like planning to try to get her back. I don't think she and I are endgame or anything. She was easy and fun to date, not like Quinn or Santana. Mercedes was sweet, but she wants to be a solo headliner, touring the country like Beyonce or Taylor Swift. I don't want that lifestyle. I like to just chill out way too much to live on a tour bus and in hotels most of the time."

"I wouldn't like that either. I love to travel, but that type of travel doesn't really leave you time to see much or relax. I didn't know you had dated Santana."

"I think that's probably an exaggerated use of the word. Santana was insistent. And she's really hard to say no to."

"She didn't…?"

"Oh, no. I wasn't ready back then and I just told her no. I was willing to go along with her charade, but only because I was already near rock bottom. It was easier to go along with her than to deal with her if she didn't get what she wanted. You obviously know that she's gay, and by then, she wasn't really putting any actual effort into getting me to have sex with her. Anyway, Britt was just fun and easygoing. She laughed at my jokes and liked my impressions. She was like this reminder that I was young and life was supposed to be fun. That's why I was in Lima – to be a teenager for just a little longer. That's part of what contributed to the absolute stupidity of last school year. I just wanted to have fun. I was only a few credits short of graduating and they were mostly ones I took in the fall. When I came back after living in Kentucky the first time, I didn't transfer back until November. I failed a few classes that fall. It was stupid. If I had told Kurt I was struggling, I know he would have helped me, but thought I had it under control. But at the last minute, it was decided that I had to take the same final exams as everyone else."

"That seems unreasonable."

'I thought so too, but arguing with the teachers there is impossible and I didn't want to bother Carole to get her to come to talk to Principal Figgins. I figured that since Carole isn't my mom that he wouldn't listen anyway. I thought I could just retake the classes in the spring and still graduate, but then I was told that the classes I had failed were only offered in the fall. I ended up taking three arts classes this past spring because I passed my senior classes the spring before since I had started the semester with everyone else."

Kurt stepped around the corner. "Oh, Sam. I wish you had told me. I would have helped you."

"I know. But honestly, Kurt, I was 17. No offense, but I didn't want any more help. I was relying on the generosity of your parents to have a place to live. You might have missed the part where I said the decision was made last-minute. You could have pulled out every trick you could think of and it wouldn't have helped. There was no way I could learn nearly three months worth of stuff in two weeks, which was when they informed me – two weeks before finals. Not long after Sectionals. You know I'm dyslexic. I read super slow. I could never have read everything from the whole semester in two weeks. And like I said, I thought I could retake them in the spring if I didn't pass. I did take Government again in the spring, but the other two I couldn't."

Kurt just nodded, feeling really bad about how dirty McKinley had done a lot of them. "The wall's looking good."

"Thanks," Sam said. "Look, I feel really bad about just dropping our friendship. I can't make that up to you, but I can make sure to never do it again. I'm sure you heard the part where I said that I just wanted to have fun. Junior year was so awful. New school. Quinn cheating. My parents losing the house. Living in the motel. Making new friends, only to have to move to Kentucky. My gig as an exotic dancer. I decided that If I was being forced to be a senior a second time, I should have as much fun as possible. Blaine was at rock bottom too.

Kurt held his tongue to point out that Blaine's situation was of his own making.

"So was Tina after Mike broke up with her. We formed this little clique. And when I was dating Brittany, it was so much less depressing every day. I just got lost in the ridiculousness of it all. It helped me put one foot in front of the other. It was all just an elaborate way to distract myself. I also actually thought that if Blaine was busy being ridiculous with me that he would have less time to bother you. When he started being crazy and fun, I lost sight of what an ass Blaine had been to me the year before. He was into superheroes, Stars Wars, and D&D. It wasn't until you and I started talking again after Regionals that I realized that he had never been into any of that stuff before last fall. We were all sorts of messed up. I've come to my senses, but in my wake, there's a trail of destruction. You two are amongst the casualties. I'm hoping I can prove that I'm not that guy anymore. That I can gradually earn your trust again, Kurt. And yours too, Sebastian, even though I'm sure it's unlikely. And I wouldn't blame you."

"You're here now," Kurt said. "Let's just start from a clean slate. As you said, nothing is gained by continually apologizing or by self-recrimination. So, understanding usually comes from knowledge and experience and in this case, the two of you don't know each other at all."

Sebastian sighed. "I think Kurt has a point. We both hurt him and he's forgiven both of us. But you and I don't know each other. How about we give each other a 5-minute summary about ourselves? I'll go first." Sebastian gave Sam a brief rundown about his life, focusing in on his sophomore year, going to France, and then Dalton, including having to repeat his junior year.

Sam went next and briefly talked about Tennessee, his family, and his foray into exotic dancing since those were things he hadn't already talked about.

When Sam finished, Sebastian asked him, "Given what you just said, how did you even end up applying for college here?"

"It wasn't me. I mean I didn't think of it. Coach Beiste approached me in the locker room when I was working out during the time we would have normally been rehearsing. She asked me what my plans were for after graduation. I didn't have a plan. I figured I'd end up going back to Kentucky and start stripping again. I didn't say that though. I just shrugged. She asked me what I liked to do in my free time besides work out and I showed her the sketch book I had in my bag. We spent some time talking. I went back the next afternoon and talked to her again. She helped me look for schools that might be willing to overlook my terrible SAT scores and barely average GPA in New York City, which was where it seemed that most everyone was going." He shrugged. "We found the scholarship when we were looking through Hunter College's website's financial aid page. She helped me fill out the forms and looked over my essay. I figured it was a million-to-one shot, but why not? The scholarship was going to go to someone. Why not me? It didn't cost anything to apply, so I did. I figured that she and my art teacher must have written some humdinger reference letters."

Kurt rolled his eyes, "While that may be true, the school would not have given you the scholarship if they didn't think you had the skill, talent, and perseverance to work hard and succeed." He sighed thinking back. "I'm sure Mr. Schue's letter didn't extol my talents or praise my work ethic." He shrugged. "It doesn't matter now. You're here. You've got your chance."

"That I do." He grabbed another color. "So, I've heard that you, unlike Blaine, actually have a lifelong interest in superheroes."

"That's true. And I like sci fi, but I confess that I have never played D&D."

"Two out of three isn't bad," Sam teased. "To be honest, I had played a few times back my freshman year at the all-boys school I went to, but it was Blaine who convinced me to join the D&D Club. My lack of skill prevented me from realizing that he didn't have any experience. He was just really good at reading the books and remembering what he read, which made him really knowledgeable and better at it than me because those books are complicated to read and I had actual schoolwork to do in the fall that was more important than memorizing complex spell-casting rules. I dropped out of the club after Regionals anyway. I took on more hours to start saving in case I did get into school here."

Kurt looked at the wall. "I think that's it. I think we've gotten all of the solid-colored squares painted. Who's ready for lunch and grocery shopping?"

"Sure," Sam said. "I could eat." He rinsed the paint brush he had been using and then washed his hands. "Oh, before I forget. I brought Finn's PS3 with me. When I moved out in June, Carole let me take it and the games with me. But I don't own a TV. And if I did, I wouldn't put a gaming system in my dorm room. I thought maybe you might be willing to keep it here, and once in a while we could play."

"Sure. We've got room in the lower section of the large wood unit in the living room. We can keep it in there." Kurt washed his paintbrush and hands when Sam stepped away from the sink.

"Great. Mind if I put it there now? That way I can use my bag to buy some snacks to take back with me to my dorm later."

"That's fine." Kurt dried his hands. "You'll need to help me move the sectional a little in order to slide the doors open.

A few minutes later, everything was back in place. While they were working, Sebastian had capped the paints and pulled their shopping bags out.

Two and a half hours later, they returned with their bags full of groceries. Once they had put them all away, they tested the square they had painted that morning and they seemed dry enough to move on to the next stage. They used the paints they had been using, but mixed them together to make new colors and used them to paint the curved portions that divided the 2-colored squares. They all had steady hands, which helped tremendously. Sebastian sat down on the floor and worked on the lower third. Kurt took the middle third. Sam used their step stool to do the top third. They each worked on a third of the wall vertically and changed positions until they had finished the whole wall.

Kurt cleaned the brushes while the other two packed up the paint. He turned around once he'd finished. "I really like it."

"Me too," Sebastian said. "It's really colorful and livens up the space a lot. This area was far too narrow to ever use the space for storage. I think this a perfect use of the space. I actually think it would be fun to do the alcove wall between the bedrooms too. We put that coat rack on the wall, so we can't hang any artwork there easily."

"We can think of a design. We have enough paint left to do that wall easily. It's a good idea. It would make an interesting focal point. And it's a small space. We could probably get it done tonight and tomorrow." He went to grab a sketch pad and sat down at the table. He gave Sam and Sebastian a piece of paper and a pencil."

A few minutes later, Sebastian said, "Circles."

"Okay," Kurt said. "Circles in what way?"

"Well, I'm looking at the coat rack. In here we did squares. What if we did something with the rectangles and then added circles somehow?"

"That wall is four feet across." He got up and returned with a sheet of grid paper. "This is how we did this wall." He drew the area to scale.

The three of them continued to work on it. Once they had settled on a pattern, they taped off the area and painted the first layers.

Later that night, after Sam had gone back to his dorm, Kurt and Sebastian were snuggled up on the couch with Kurt running his fingers through Sebastian's still-damp hair, only half-watching the movie that was playing. Kurt had avoided the topic since Same left, but he reached over and turned the volume down even lower. "So?"

"So, I appreciate that he told the truth. He didn't make excuses. He seems like he genuinely wants to move on and put the past behind him and not make the same kinds of self-centered choices. That's really all we can ask of people who are our age, right? I mean it's not like he was 35 when he was doing that stuff. I made bad choices. You said you made choices that you wish you hadn't. I'm willing to let it slide. But if it becomes clear that he's more like Rachel who never changed, I have the right to stop being friends with him and so do you. Only time will tell."

They stayed cuddled up in comfortable silence for a while, with the only movement being Kurt running his fingers through Sebastian's hair and massaging his head.

Kurt broke the silence. "I think both walls look really good. Since we're going to finish painting the alcove in the morning, by the time we get back from going to the flea markets and meeting up with Isabelle, it should be dry."

Sebastian didn't respond.

Kurt looked down and saw that Sebastian's eyes were closed. He kissed him on the top of the head. "Sweetie, we need to go get in bed, if you're ready to sleep."

"Hmm? Oh. I didn't mean to fall asleep. You're comfy." He stretched and sat up. "You can pet me in bed."

Kurt just smiled at his sleepy words. He stood up, wrapped his arms around Sebastian, and kissed him gently. "You seem pretty certain that I'll keep petting you."

"I am."

"Turn around and walk to our room, you sassy sleepyhead."

Before he moved, he kissed Kurt on the forehead. "But I'm your sassy sleepyhead."

"You are." He kissed him. "Go on. I'll be right there. I'm going to turn everything off."