After Martin and Johnny left, Art stepped out of the room and brought in Nick and Jeff, who were sweating it out across the hallway in an even smaller room. They came in and sat down, still looking very downcast and contrite. Art returned their phones to them.
Nick was the first to speak. "I'm really sorry. I know that I already apologized, but I've been thinking about it all afternoon. We're really so self-centered. We talked about it earlier this afternoon. We didn't think through our actions at all. We've really gotten caught up in the asshole rich frat boy lifestyle. It's so far from who I was a couple of years ago. I've literally de-matured or whatever the word would be. I came here with a goal of doing well and making my family proud and I'm sitting in a grimy police station avoiding prosecution only because Sebastian isn't pressing charges."
Jeff said, "We also realized that it's only because Sebastian has a family as rich as ours that he had the means to find out that it was us. Other people have worse things like this happen to them and they never get justice. I thought about how angry I would be if someone had played this same prank on my sister, Jessica, who is two years old than me. I would want to kick the crap out of anyone who set her up to get kissed against her will repeatedly – all in the name of a stupid prank. I'm really sorry. I think both of us needed a dose of reality. We're seriously considering whether being in a fraternity is a good idea."
Art returned Nick's and Jeff's phones to them. "Here's a dose of reality for you." Without naming names, Art told them the reasons that the three guys had answered the ad. "Out of the four of you, only Kurt has any idea how average people live. Only he has any idea how a small problem becomes a huge problem very quickly from a lack of a very small amount of money. Not because someone doesn't have $50,000 to buy the expensive car they want, but because they lost a $20 bill they had, and now they have no money to buy their kid diapers for the week. So, they spend $20 of the money they needed to pay their water bill to buy the diapers. Then, they end up paying a $10 late fee for not paying their water on time. Add another late fee onto that, and they're in trouble. One lost $20 bill results in fines on fines and they just sink deeper. Hospital bills for $5000 actually push people into filing bankruptcy, which affects their lives for a decade." He stopped and regrouped. "What's done is done. The question is whether you two are going to learn from your mistakes."
Jeff nodded. "Like we said, we're seriously considering dropping out of rush right now. I've considered telling my father that I feel like I need another year of focusing on my schoolwork. I'm not even sure that I want to rush at all, but my father expects me to."
"Mine too."
"What you two may not realize is that I went to Dalton with your fathers. I attended Columbia and also joined the same fraternity. Most of the guys from Dalton did. I am not pleased with the non-hazing hazing. I think if you explain to your fathers that you are displeased with this behavior and that you don't want to be part of it that you'll find that your fathers will be more open to you dropping out of rush or waiting until next year after these issues are dealt with."
"You might be right," Jeff said. "It's just really hard."
"I know it is," Art said. "But that's why I was willing to agree to not telling them myself. I wanted you two to have time to thing about the ramifications of your actions. The kind of prank you pulled seemed harmless while you were drunk and even afterwards because you didn't think through your actions. But now you're being given another chance to do what you should have done to start with. You should have gone to your fathers and told them that you were being coerced into breaking the rules for rushing."
Jeff nodded. He took a deep breath. "I'll call my dad."
"Me too," Nick said.
They left together after getting Kurt's and Sebastian's phone numbers.
Art, Sebastian, and Kurt said their goodbyes and Art took a taxi back to the airport to return to Ohio. After the taxi pulled away, Kurt reached for Sebastian's hand and squeezed. They walked to the nearest subway station and took the train to meet back up with Nick and Jeff as they had requested by text right after they left the police station.
Kurt didn't let go of Sebastian's hand during the whole trip. When they got to their destination, Kurt was surprised by the caliber of the restaurant, although he quickly realized that he shouldn't have been. He assumed it was part of their apology. He pulled Sebastian back from the entrance a bit.
"I can't eat here," Kurt quietly enough that on Sebastian could hear him.
"Why not? Have you heard something bad about it?"
"The exact opposite actually. It's one of those places where the prices aren't even printed on the menu."
"I still don't see why you don't want to eat here."
"It's just the principle of it. Rich people impress other rich people by their lavish dinners and events. This feels too much like being paid off, like they're buying our forgiveness. I can't do it. If they want to talk to us, we need to eat somewhere that I can afford to pay for my own dinner."
"Alright, but I don't think we can change anything now. They're already here by now. They left before we did."
"We don't have time to do the full 3-course dinner or whatever."
"That's true." Sebastian pulled out his phone and texted Nick.
-We're here, but we can't join you. I'm sorry. We have don't have time to eat at a place like this tonight.
-We didn't consider that. Come in and have an appetizer or two and then go do whatever you already had planned.
Sebastian showed Kurt Nick's message.
He pulled Sebastian even farther from the door, away from the people going in. "All of the therapy and learning to respect myself and believing that I am worthy of other people's respect – all of that means that I can't just walk in, sit down, and act like nothing is wrong." He squeezed Sebastian's hand. "l love you so much, Sebastian, and I can't kiss you because of their stupidity."
"I understand that, but you offered me grace when I didn't deserve it. You taught me that this was the right way to treat people who didn't set out to cause serious harm." He pulled Kurt into a hug.
Kurt took a deep breath. "It was a lot easier to forgive when I was the intended target. I don't want you hurt."
Sebastian's heart fluttered and he blushed, but the pink from the wind on his cheeks covered it. "I love you too. You know that. Let's go in and eat something before we run out of time and have to go hungry."
"I want to kiss you so badly." he buried his face into Sebastian's shoulder, inside his collar. "You smell good."
Sebastian smiled and squeezed Kurt. "Thank you, but no more stalling." He loosened his hold on Kurt and stepped back a bit. "Let's get inside – unless you'd rather me go on my own. You can go eat somewhere else if you'd prefer. I won't be angry. I won't ask you to go against your own decision."
Kurt took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "I appreciate that. I'm fine. I'm just prickly about people throwing money around."
"I know."
"But I need to get over myself because people who have money have every right to spend it any way they want to. It's not my place to decide how people spend their money any more than it is for someone to tell me how to spend mine. I need to check my rich-frat-boy prejudice."
Sebastian laughed. "I get it. People our age with more money than sense irritate you."
"People with more money than sense of any age irritate me. I don't discriminate based on age." He raised his eyebrow and smirked.
"I see. Come on. If you keep stalling, I'm going to be hungry for a long time."
"I could never make you go hungry. Let's go." Kurt pulled Sebastian to the entrance and opened the door for him. "After you, sir," he said using his best British butler accent.
Sebastian rolled his eyes and chuckled. That's better.
After they checked their coats and bags, they were led to Nick and Jeff's table. They had barely sat down before the server stopped and asked their drink orders. Johnny looked like a deer in headlights when he saw who was seated at the table.
Sebastian looked at him kindly. "I'd like iced tea."
Kurt said, "I'll have the same. Thank you."
A few minutes later, Johnny returned with their drinks, immediately followed by six appetizers. He left a stack of small plates and checked whether they needed anything else before he walked away.
"That's a lot of food," Kurt said. He took the plate that Sebastian handed him and helped himself to a couple of scallops wrapped in bacon.
Everyone else began to take selections off the platters and they began to eat.
"So, just so you know, this isn't an apology dinner," Nick said. "This is what we should have done the first week we were here. We were friendly with Sebastian and we spent time together socially at Dalton. We dropped the ball and became self-absorbed frat boys. The waiter was none to thrilled for us to be seated in his section, but he was clearly surprised to see the two of you. I won't ask. I'll just say that we've been here before with guys from school and several of them behaved quite badly. They weren't loud or disruptive, but they were dismissive and disrespectful."
Sebastian said, "You can leave him a $100 tip in addition to whatever would be suitable for the bill. That should make up a little bit for whatever your frat brothers did."
Jeff nodded. "Yeah. We can do that. What your dad said before we left really made us think. We talked about it on the ride over here. We blow through money like it's nothing, but in truth, we earn more money our our trust funds each month than we spend, so we never considered the implications of anything. The thought that losing $20 could cause someone so many problems just never occurred to us."
Kurt stopped eating for a moment. "This is part of why I kept to myself when I was at Dalton. I participated in class and studied hard, but I didn't attempt to make any friends. None of you understood what it was like to be me. And that was three years ago. You were even less mature than you are now. It was easier to say that I had more assignments to work on that it was to explain why I couldn't go out to the movies and dinner on a Saturday evening with everyone. Your evening out would have set me back $30, which was enough for me to drive home and back. It was also about two hours of work after taxes. And that was with me making more than double minimum wage. Restaurants like this get used for meetings and social gatherings. People sit and talk for a long time, so the servers have a limited number of tables to serve in an hour. Plus, people with money expect to be checked up on frequently or to have their server nearby at all times to fulfill their every whim."
Sebastian spoke up and told them about his own epiphany of the working class that he had when he calculated what servers made.
"Okay, wait," Jeff said. "So every place we go to eat where we order at a table, those servers are making next to nothing?" He repeated what he had understood of what Sebastian had explained.
"Yep. That's right," Kurt said. He also explained how he had been held financially responsible for the bill when customers walked out without paying.
Nick said, "Well, I'm going to look into this more because you've got me curious, but how about we switch topics to the two of you and ourselves since I know you're short on time."
They'd been talking for about a half-hour when Kurt had his own epiphany. "The frat boy behavior. It's a three to four year period where you get to go wild wth little to no repercussions. It's a tradition. Each father makes his son join the fraternity. The son gets to be wild for the length of time he's there, but the day you graduate, you have to be respectable, uptight conservative men like your fathers."
"Pretty much." Jeff nodded.
Nick responded. "That's exactly it. In high school, we have to be in a ton of clubs, make straight As, take AP classes, keep our noses clean, and play a sport so that we can get into the Ivy League school our family has chosen for us. There's not really a lot of time to have fun or be silly because we're under so much pressure to be high-achieving students. We get into college and we go crazy at our first taste of freedom, but since our fathers had to do the same thing, they forgive our crazy behavior so long as we still make really good grades and we don't actually do anything that lands us in jail or in legal trouble. It's our 'boys will be boys' phase. We didn't want your dad to tell our dads because what we did crossed the line of stupid and immature into criminal."
"We did text them on the way over here and asked to speak with them. We're going to call and talk to them after we get back to our room."
Kurt asked, "Are you at least studying something you're interested in?"
"I'm not." Nick shook his head. "I'm expected to join Duval Family Law. As is my sister. My older brother is already working for my dad."
Kurt chuckled. "I'm sorry. It's just funny to think of someone having kids so that they can expand their law firm."
Nick sighed. "Well, in all fairness, my brother and sister wanted to be lawyers. I'm the odd one out."
"I had free choice about what to study, so long as it fell into the 'useful' category. I couldn't be a performer or an artist or something. I could have studied business, law, or even to be a teacher, so long as I agreed to get a doctorate so that I could teach at the university level. I actually chose to study biomedical engineering like I told you I was earlier."
"All of this has made me realize that I'm not enjoying much of anything about my life and I've turned to childish pranks for some laughs, but laughing at other people's expense isn't as fun as it seemed like it would be since I didn't think about anything besides the prank aspect. Over winter break, I'm going to talk to my dad about a lot of things. It's my own fault for never actually talking to him about whether I could study something else. It's always just been the expectation, and I never gave him any impression that I wasn't okay with it."
Kurt pulled his phone out to check the time. "I'd love to talk more, but we're going to be late. Thank you for the food. It was delicious. If you want to get together again sometime, just let us know. You have our numbers now." He stood up and pushed his chair in. "I'll go grab our coats."
Sebastian stayed seated for a moment. "I'm not holding this against you. I've been where you are. Just don't hurt someone else."
"We won't," Jeff said.
"Thanks for the food," he said as he stood up.
"You're welcome."
Thursday, mid-morning, an Oberlin police officer accompanied Blaine into an interrogation room where Art, Burt, Sebastian, and Kurt were already waiting. He sat at the head of the table where the officer indicated. The police officer stood against the wall behind him. No one said anything. A couple of minutes later, Cooper and Mr. Anderson entered the room, looking quite stoic and a bit pompous. They sat across from the other four.
Cooper looked at Blaine for just a moment, but Kurt caught the 'what-in-the-hell' look that crossed Cooper's face at lightning speed before he resumed the poised look that Mr. Anderson had plastered on his face.
"Am I to assume that you have opted not to bring an attorney?" Art asked Mr. Anderson.
"As you well know, I am an attorney."
"As you wish." He slid the folder in front of him across the table to Mr. Anderson.
He pulled it towards himself and opened it. Cooper tugged at the corner of the folder enough to slide it to where he could read the contents as well.
After looking through everything, Mr. Anderson looked at Blaine with his eyes narrowed before looking back at the papers. He busied himself looking through the sheets of paper again, seemingly stalling for time.
"Is there something amiss or that you'd like me to explain?" Art asked.
"No, no. I'm just looking through everything once more."
He reached out and pressed record on a digital recorder. "Present are myself, Arthur Smythe, Ohio Attorney General." He pointed to Sebastian.
"Sebastian Smythe, Columbia University student."
"Kurt Hummel, CCNY student."
"Burt Hummel, Ohio 4th District US Congressman, owner of Hummel Tires and Lube."
"Blaine Anderson, Oberlin College student."
"Cooper Anderson, actor."
"Regis Anderson, partner in Anderson, Livingston, and Beckenridge Law Firm."
Art nodded. "We're here today to discuss the pending charges of harassment, stalking, reckless endangerment, false advertising, computer crimes, solicitation, aiding and abetting to commit sexual assault, conspiracy, and sexual assault against Blaine Anderson, age 19, currently residing in the dormitories at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. He is currently being held on a 24-hour hold for harassment and stalking. Should we be unable to reach an agreement, I will file all of the charges based on the evidence you've seen in that folder."
Cooper's eyes widened at each added charge. He turned to Blaine. "What the hell, Blaine. I thought you said you were seeing the therapist and that you were doing better?"
Blaine didn't answer.
Mr. Anderson looked at Cooper. "You knew about this?" He turned back to Art. "I'd like a recess to confer with my client."
Art reached over and pressed stop on the recorder.
"May we have some privacy?" He asked.
"No," Kurt said quite abruptly. "This has gone on for over a year. We're here to put a stop to it. You know what happened in March."
Mr. Anderson turned to Cooper and spoke quietly. "You knew this was still going on?"
"He begged me not to tell you, and he promised to see a therapist. He's 19 and lovesick. I thought he'd get over it eventually."
Mr. Anderson looked at Blaine. "Do you deny any of these charges?"
"I don't even know what half of them mean. Conspiracy? I definitely deny the sexual assault charges. I haven't been in New York since four weeks ago."
Mr. Anderson explained the charges."Harassment – targeting someone with behavior that is meant to alarm, annoy, torment, or terrorize them. Stalking – the unwanted pursuit of another person, such as following a person, appearing at a person's home or place of business. Reckless endangerment – an act that creates a substantial risk of serious physical injury, without regard to whether the accused intended to harm the person while acting in a way that shows a disregard for the foreseeable consequences of the actions. This charge is being used in regards to potential STIs."
Blaine rolled his eyes. "STIs from kissing?"
Mr. Anderson ignored him and continued with his explanation of the charges. "False advertising and computer crimes – these all have to do with the Craigslist ad that was placed with misleading information about the nature of the arrangements. Solicitation – requesting, encouraging, or demanding someone to engage in criminal conduct. This refers you and the other two accused hiring the alleged assailants to kiss Sebastian, which is the alleged sexual assault. Aiding and abetting to commit sexual assault, conspiracy, and sexual assault – these combined are referring to the non-consensual kissing and the fact that you allegedly conspired with two others to advertise and allegedly hire four men to commit the crime."
Kurt spoke up. "The other two are not allegedly involved. They signed confessions. They're names are not included because that was part of the agreement. And the three assailants that were successful have also confessed."
"I see," Mr. Anderson said. "So, back to my question, Blaine. Are you denying these charges?"
"I deny that kissing someone is sexual assault."
"That is not for you to decide. The law has already decided what can and cannot be considered sexual assault. Do you deny conspiring with two other people, who have already confessed, to hire four individuals to follow Sebastian around and kiss him against his will?"
"It was a joke. A prank. This is all being blown out of proportion. Sebastian's kissed tons of guys. This is ridiculous."
"What's ridiculous is you," Kurt uttered in his most icy tone, which changed to seething rage as he spoke. "I told you to stop contacting me ages ago. My father asked you to leave me alone. Sebastian was a witness that day. Cooper agreed to help get you into therapy. I know what this was about. The day I agreed to speak with you with Cooper and Isabelle Wright present – before we left, you asked if you could speak to me alone. You asked me if I would take Sebastian back if he cheated on me, and I told you no. You concocted this scheme and used the other two people involved to set Sebastian up to get 'proof' that he was cheating on me so that I would break up with him. The evidence proves that you downloaded the images to your own laptop, which would not have been needed for the other two people to prove that they had pulled off the prank."
Sebastian defended himself. "I have not, as you said, 'kissed tons of guys'. Stop making false allegations. You have never seen me kiss anyone. You have no proof of what you're saying. Just stop."
Mr. Anderson glared at Blaine. "From your lack of saying anything to the contrary, what I'm hearing is that you're guilty of all of these charges. Don't answer that." He turned back to Art. "You can turn the recording back on."
Art pressed the button. "I filed for a no-contact restraining order against Blaine Anderson on behalf of Kurt Hummel and Sebastian Smythe, which was granted this morning." He slid a copy of the restraining order across the table. "If Blaine violates the restraining order, I will use the evidence that I have collected and file the appropriate charges, which the defendant's counsel has seen." He held out his hand indicating for Mr. Anderson to return the file to him. "With the signed confessions of his co-conspirators, a conviction will not be difficult to procure. In, Ohio, the statute of limitations for sexual assault is 20 years."
Blaine said, "Twenty years?"
"Yes," Art responded resolutely. He slid another paper towards Mr. Anderson. "Blaine will also cover one-third of the cost of the STI testing for all five individuals involved, as well as any treatments needed by any of the individuals who contracted an STI from one of the other assailants. He will also cover the cost of the lost income, plane tickets, taxi fare, and other fees listed which were incurred by having to pursue these charges since he broke his spoken agreement with Kurt, which was witnessed by both Cooper Anderson and Isabelle Wright."
Mr. Anderson looked it over and passed it down to Blaine, who picked up the pen and signed reluctantly.
Art continued. "This no-contact final restraining order is valid for two years, but can be extended. It states that there shall be no direct or indirect interaction between Blaine Anderson and Kurt Hummel or Sebastian Smythe, including contact by mail, telephone, email, voice mail, text messaging, or other electronic means. Blaine shall not come within 50 feet of Kurt Hummel or Sebastian Smythe. In any situation in which all three parties must attend, Blaine shall remain as far as physically possible from them for the duration of the required attendance. Blaine Anderson shall stay away Kurt Hummel and Sebastian Smythe's residence in New York City and their parents' residences, as well as their places of work, school, and known frequently-visited locations, such as the karaoke place Vibes where he harassed them approximately a month ago."
As Art had explained the details of the order, Sebastian's fiery gaze could have set Blaine's hair on fire. The instant Art paused, Sebastian said. "This is over. I gave you the benefit of the doubt when Kurt went to talk with you with my aunt and your brother as mediators. He came back and said that you had agreed, in front of witness, to leave us alone. Your word is obviously worthless. But you will abide by this court order."
Art added, "Violating this no-contact restraining order is a crime and carries the potential of a jail term, plus a criminal record." His eyes narrowed. "Do you understand?"
"Yes," Blaine said with a completely flat affect.
Kurt looked at Art, who nodded, so he reached out and stopped the recording. He turned his death glare on to Blaine. "This was not the outcome I had hoped for. I gave you numerous chances for us to be friends. People date, break up, and go back to being just friends. It happens. Sam and Mercedes. Santana and Brittany. Artie and Tina. It's not impossible. There is no us. You and I are nothing now."
Burt looked at Blaine, and then at Mr. Anderson. "Heed their warnings. There will be no more leniency. The only reason Art isn't throwing the book at Blaine is because Kurt is kinder than 99% of the population. He won't be the deciding factor if there is a next time. I will make sure of that. Am I understood?"
"Yes, Congressman Hummel," Mr. Anderson replied. "We're grateful for Kurt and Sebastian's willingness to let us deal with this issue as a family. And rest assured, Blaine will not be bothering either of your sons again."
Sebastian's snark came back out. "I hope not. I'm sure that Blaine's musical future won't look as bright if the headlines read 'Blaine Anderson in jail for violating protective order issued against Congressman's son'."
"Leave us alone," Kurt reiterated.
"He will," Mr. Anderson assured him.
Kurt stood up. "I think we're finished here. We have to fly back to New York this afternoon. We have finals next week and I have final presentations this week, including one this afternoon." He put his coat on and pushed his chair in.
Sebastian stood up quickly, grabbing his coat as well. He took Kurt's hand and they left the room, leaving the rest of the legal issues to be dealt with by their fathers as they headed back to the airport.