"Okay, you dragged my ass down to this weird little watering-hole. What do you want? Date night was last night," Santana said as she sat down at Dave's table at the coffee shop where he had asked to meet her.
"I'm coming out," said Dave simply, grinning slightly at the look of confusion on Santana's face.
"Have you lost the plot? The only reason we're pretending to be going out is to not come out of the closet. Now you're telling me that you want that?"
"Look, Santana," said Dave, "I'm sick of lying to myself. I'm sick of being that homophobe who forced Hummel out of McKinley. I need to be who I am. And I'm not going to force you to do the same, but I think that if your boyfriend turns out to be gay, they might put two and two together."
"But, think about the humiliation, Karofsky. God, you saw how you treated Kurt. You might be able to live under the constant threat of being shoved into lockers, but I can't."
"I know it's not going to be easy. Hell, I know it's going to be the most difficult year of my life. But it will be worth it if it means I can have Kurt. Wouldn't you be willing to go through hell for Brittany?"
"That's not fair, Karofsky," Santana said, standing up angrily. "You don't know anything about me and Brittany. If you want to go ahead and admit that you're a proud mofo to everybody, be my guest. I'll take my chances in the closet."
Without another word, she stormed out of the coffee shop. Dave leaned back in his seat stirring his coffee slowly. He knew that he had to do it and he knew now that he could take whatever came afterwards, but he was worried about Santana. He didn't want her to get hurt. She had been the best friend that he had had for a long time and the thought of her being targeted because of him scared him.
He looked up and jumped when he saw Kurt walk in with his Dalton boyfriend. He hastily asked the guy at the table next to him if he could borrow his newspaper and hid himself behind it.
"Aw, Kurt, someone's got our table," he heard Dalton say.
"It's not the end of the world, Blaine. The table in front of it is open," replied Kurt. Peering over the top of his newspaper, Dave could see that Kurt was facing him and his boyfriend had his back to him. They stirred their coffee and took their first sips in silence. It was just getting to the awkward stage when Dalton spoke up.
"So what's up? You said you needed to tell me something."
Kurt cleared his throat and then said, "You remember on Friday when I told you about Karofsky's letter?"
"Hard to forget," replied Dalton flatly.
"Well," continued Kurt, "I was pretty upset and I was reading the letter in the gymnasium after school. The long and the short of it is that Karofsky saw me reading it, admitted to my face that he's in love with me and then he kissed me."
"You didn't kiss back though?" asked Dalton. Dave peered over the top of his paper to catch Kurt's expression. He had never seen such a guilty face. "Oh God, Kurt. Please tell me that you didn't kiss him back?"
"I can't," he said, shakily.
"So where does that leave us? Do you have feelings for him now?"
"I don't know, Blaine. I wish I knew, but I don't," said Kurt softly.
"Well that's just great isn't it?" said Dalton sarcastically. "You know, I really thought you were something special. I thought that you were someone I could actually trust. What is he anyway? He beat the crap out of you almost every day and now you're going to tell me that you have feelings for him?"
"I don't understand it either, Blaine. I just know you can't help it," said Kurt.
"You're right; you can't. And right now my biggest regret is that I ever fell in love with you. It's over, Kurt. I can't trust you anymore."
"Blaine –" Kurt began, but Dalton had already stormed past him. Kurt began to silently cry and all Dave wanted to do was hold him and tell him it would be ok, but he couldn't because the last thing he wanted was for Kurt to know that he had overheard something so personal.
He knew exactly what he was going to do and he was willing to risk everything for it.
Kurt didn't even want to come to school that Monday, but the prospect of singing a heartbroken ballad at glee club after his breakup managed to drag him out of bed. The day was slow and he found it impossible to concentrate. The intercom midway through his French lesson was therefore a welcome distraction.
"Attention McKinley High," rang Principal Figgins' voice through the severely bored classroom. "The following is a special announcement from the 'Bully-whip Club'."
"Hi McKinley, Dave Karofsky here and I want to speak to you about bullying."
Most of the students lost interest at this point, but Kurt sat up more in his seat, interested to hear where this was going.
"I know a lot of you might think that it's weird for me to speak about this, seeing as how I've acted this past year, but I want to give you my experience of it. In most cases at this school, you seem to bully because that's what your friends do. That's how it started with me. Slushies in the faces of kids less popular than you. It seems funny and some of the kids who you slushie actually take it pretty well, but the truth is that you don't know what's going on in the life of the kid you slushie and you don't know what kind of damage you're doing to them.
"But the things I've done are worse than that. Sometimes there are things going on in your life and you can't explain them or speak about them. That was me and that was why I acted the way I did to some of you. I was jealous that you could be so open about who you were and that you weren't afraid to be who you wanted to be. Well, I'm finally ready to be that person too."
Many of the kids in the class began to pay more attention at this point, sensing something important was about to be said. Kurt's heart raced. Was he actually going to do it?
"You see the truth is," Karofsky began, then faltered.
"Come on, David, you can do it," Kurt whispered under his breath.
"I'm gay," he said. Many students gasped. Kurt felt tears prickling behind his eyes and his heart swell. He almost forgot to listen to the rest, but luckily he did. "I have been my whole life. I hurt other people because I thought that it would make me feel better about who I was but all it did was nearly get me expelled, force someone who is a valuable asset to McKinley to transfer and forced me further into a shell.
"I wanted to make this announcement today to let you know that if you've got crap going on in your life, taking it out on other people is not going to help. You're just going to end up unnecessarily ruining lives, including your own. There's someone that I really like that I might never have a chance with because of the way I've treated him. It's to him that I want to apologise the most.
"I apologise to everyone I ever slushied, including the AV club and the glee club. It can't be great to have to wash out your clothes in a school bathroom every day. I hope that nothing was permanently damaged. But Most of all, I apologise to Kurt Hummel. The things I said to you and did to you are things that no person should have to be put through. I treated you like crap for no reason. I mean, you're one of the nicest people I know. Even when you found out that I was gay, you didn't tell anyone, even though I made your life a living hell. You didn't deserve anything I did to you and that's something I'm going to have to live with for the rest of my life.
"But I really like you, Kurt and though I don't expect you to, if you could bring yourself to feel the same way, I'd like to invite you to the auditorium after school to ask you something important."
Kurt's heart was hammering. This was the last lesson of the day and it was almost over.
"Basically, guys, don't bully. It's not cool. Thank you."
The class was dead quiet and everyone, including the teacher, was staring at Kurt. He could understand why, but at the same time he wished that he had been in a deserted classroom; it would have been far less awkward.
He almost missed the ringing of the bell and only realised it was time to leave when he saw students throwing books into their bags in a hurry to leave the class. Kurt did the same and made his way to the auditorium, a nervous feeling at the pit of his stomach. He knew he would be missing glee club, but he couldn't miss whatever this was. It was too important.
It took a while but before long he noticed that most of the students were heading in the same direction as him. Clearly, they were as curious as he was. Part of him enjoyed the fact that he was a part of a school-wide drama, but most of him wished that they would all just go home.
In what felt like no time, he found himself in the crowded auditorium. Karofsky stood centre-stage in front of a microphone stand. Behind him stood, Finn, Sam and Puck who were clearly going to be doing back-up vocals. When he saw Kurt enter, he motioned to the band who began to play a soft rock intro.
"This is for you, Kurt," he said, stepping closer to the mic. He began to sing.
I'm not a perfect person
There's many things I wish I didn't do
But I continue learning
I never meant to do those things to you
And so I have to say before I go
That I just want you to know
Kurt found himself making his way closer to the stage. People in the audience seemed taken aback by Karofsky's singing. Clearly they had never expected anything like this from him. As Kurt made his way down the stairs, he felt eyes watching him from every direction. Instead of acknowledging this, he concentrated on the words of the song all the harder.
I've found a reason for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
And the reason is you
I'm sorry that I hurt you
It's something I must live with every day
And all the pain I put you through
I wish that I could take it all away
And be the one who catches all your tears
That's why I need you to hear
I've found a reason for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
And the reason is you
And the reason is you
The old Karofsky he had known had been completely replaced with this honest, sincere person who was serenading him.
And the reason is you
He let the song wash over him. The voice that told him that falling for Karofsky would be a bad idea seemed to be completely drowned out by what was happening at that moment.
And the reason is you
Kurt felt the tears fall shamelessly down his face. This was the most beautiful moment of his life. Never in a million years would he have expected something like this from Karofsky and the fact that it was for him made it even more amazing.
I'm not a perfect person
I never meant to do those things to you
And so I have to say before I go
That I just want you to know
I've found a reason for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
And the reason is you
I've found a reason to show
A side of me you didn't know
A reason for all that I do
And the reason is you
As the song finished, everyone in the auditorium stood up and began clapping wildly. Kurt had never seen anything like it. It took them a full three minutes before it was quiet enough for Karofsky to speak again.
"Kurt, I know I can't ask anything from you, but you would make me the happiest person on Earth if you would be my date to the prom."
The auditorium had become deathly quiet again and Kurt was aware that every single eye in the room was on him. Trying to stop crying enough to reply wasn't easy. A really sweet girl who was sitting in the seat closest to him handed him a Kleenex. He made his way to the stage and when he was directly in front of Karofsky he whispered, "I'd love to."
Karofsky pulled him onto the stage and without warning pressed his lips firmly to Kurt's. This time Kurt didn't hesitate. Distantly they could hear a few jeers and an overwhelming majority of cheering, but neither of them cared. They were both too lost in each other. It was the most perfect moment of Kurt's life.
They broke apart to find the glee club still cheering. Santana and Brittany were hugging and jumping up and down. Suddenly they stopped.
"Screw this. Britt, be my date to the prom," said Santana loudly.
"Yes!" squealed Brittany and they began hugging and jumping again. Neither of them had ever looked happier.
"Thank you," Kurt said, resting his head on Karofsky's shoulder, watching everyone crowd around the now crying girls.
"No, Kurt, thank you," Karofsky replied, putting an arm around him, feeling the happiest he had ever felt in his life.
A/N: A big thank you to everyone who read and reviewed this! You were all so kind :) My first fic, lol. I feel so accomplished.
Ok, just wanted to say that I know that this story isn't reeeeeally canon, but whatever. That's the beauty of fanfiction.
Also, I hope that Kurt never has to cry as much as I made him cry in this fic.
Oh and the song in my previous chapter is Unfaithful by Rihanna. The song in this chapter is The Reason by Hoobastank.
Thanks again! You guys are absolutely awesome :)