Rachel was laying on her bed, flipping through a New York City travel guide when her phone finally buzzed. Lunging for the device, she quickly brought up her new messages and saw that Kurt had replied to her earlier text.
What's going on? Is it Finn, because I swear—brother or not—I will punch that boy if he's dating Quinn again.
Rachel laughed, before replying, setting her book aside. She could tell Kurt about some of the smaller, experimental theatres later.
It's about Karofsky.
There was a long pause before she received a reply.
Rachel, he transferred. I'm pretty sure he's not some creepy stalker who's still out to get me like everyone seems to think.
Who thinks that? I was actually going to say that I ran into him at Carmel today and we got to talking.
You went to Carmel? Again? What if you had been seen? And what in the world could you possibly have to talk about with Dave Karofsky?
Rachel couldn't stand it anymore. She had been hoping Kurt would sound a little more excited to talk about something he probably hadn't a lot, but he just sounded annoyed. It would be best to just get to the point and sacrifice a little dramatic build-up.
Jesse tried to get him to join Vocal Adrenaline using something he overheard you and Karofsky say to one another at Prom. Something about Karofsky's sexual orientation (which I've since learned). I happened to be in the auditorium when this happened so I stepped in to stop Jesse.
Almost immediately, Rachel's phone began blasting "Popular," the ringtone she'd assigned to Kurt.
"Kurt?" she asked out of habit upon answering, even though she knew full well who it was.
"I can't believe that asshole!" Kurt shouted into the phone, leaving Rachel in shock, "Doesn't he know better than that? I mean, I hated him when he was playing you, and I hated him more when he was judging me! He just finds new ways to top himself, doesn't he?"
"Calm down, Kurt. Like I said, I took care of Jesse. As long as he wants to win—and trust me, he does—then he won't touch David."
"It's just, how can he think he has the right? You saw what happened to Santana! Why do straight people think they can just go around outing people like it's nothing?"
"I don't know, Kurt. My dads were livid when Salazar's ad played a couple months ago. It's just awful what happened to her—and Finn couldn't even be in a room when the commercial played. He'd turn red and say he had to use the restroom. It was really awful."
"And I take it Dave isn't taking this too well? I mean, the whole reason he transferred was to avoid being found out."
"He was scared, that's for sure," Rachel began, thinking back to the Lima Bean, "But he also seemed grateful for the opportunity to talk about it in depth with someone. I don't really know how close you guys are, because the Glee Club always thought you hated his guts, but he told me his whole side of the story."
"That's... wow, that's actually quite a bit of progress for him. I don't know what our relationship is, to be honest. He's not a threat anymore, and hasn't been for a while. He's actually really witty underneath all of that typical jock exterior, but I don't know if I want to call him a friend. I don't think he'd feel okay enough with our past for that label. We're okay... good, even. But who knows apart from that?"
"I can see that. Even today, he was really very reserved about everything at first, like he didn't think I would care enough about what he had to say. I think when he saw I was really listening that he let himself go."
"That's really good. I'm proud of him."
"You probably should be. He seems a lot better than when he was shoving you into the lockers and when you were at Dalton."
"Yeah..." there was a pause, and Kurt continued, "So, did you get to hear him sing? If Jesse thinks he's good, then there's a chance he actually is. Then again, after last year, I find Jesse's taste to be... misguided... on occasion, not that you didn't kill your audition song or anything. I just wish he'd realized how much work Santana, Mercedes, and I put into ours."
"No, but I let David know that I'd like to hear him sing. Not as blackmail or anything, but if he feels like it after the extremely nice thing I did for him."
"You did not give Dave Karofsky Jewish guilt, did you?"
"Maybe a little..."
"Rachel Berry! ...give me all the details or a recording when you he caves and I might think about forgiving you."
Rachel laughed. "Is that a threat?"
"You bet it is." The soprano could practically see Kurt's wink on the other side of the line. Suddenly, Kurt gasped, "Hey, wait a second. I have an idea! Have you ever heard of Scandals? It's a somewhat local gay bar that has karaoke on Mondays, and is 18+ those nights. We could totally go! Would you mind if I invited Blaine, even though Finn wouldn't be able to go with Karofsky being there?"
"Of course not! You know I love Blaine and it sounds like it could be really fun. But do you really think Karofsky would go to a place like that? He didn't sound all that confident when I was talking to him before..."
"He's already been. I saw him there once, and that's how I found out all about why he had gone to Carmel for senior year. He's actually a pretty different person there. It's like the fact that he can be himself just radiates off of him, and he just grins. Wow. That sounded pretty gay."
"Hey, luckily you have the right," Rachel replied, "Oh, I'm really getting excited about this. What if he's good and we can convince him to come back to McKinley and join New Directions? I could just see the look on Jesse's face if we ended up using his secret weapon against him!"
"One thing at a time, Rachel. Let's just see if we can get David to agree. How about next Monday?"
"Sounds good. You go invite Blaine and I'll try to convince David to come. I'll grab his number from Finn's phone and see if he wants to meet for coffee again."
"Great." Kurt hummed into the phone for a moment before continuing with a much firmer tone, "And Rachel? I don't need to tell you not to tell anyone, do I? Even Finn, Rachel. I've been able to keep it from my folks and Finn and everyone this entire time—please don't go ruining his life before he gets it in order."
"Come on, Kurt, this is me you're talking about!"
"Exactly!"
Rachel gasped, "I resent that!"
"But you know it's true."
Rachel grinned, "...maybe a little." she admitted. "I swear I'll be good, though."
"Good. Have a good night, Rachel."
"Good night, Kurt."
Rachel hung up and placed the phone onto the charger on her bedside table. She wondered what kinds of songs David liked to sing—his voice was a little deeper than most in Glee, after all. And would he really just be okay with taking the stage in a gay bar? There were so many things that Rachel just didn't know about this new David, one she hadn't the slightest idea existed before today. And Kurt had seemed unusually protective of this David, as if he feared the idea of the jock coming out almost as much as David himself did.
And Kurt had basically admitted that Blaine knew Karofsky's secret as well. How many did that make, with her and Jesse now included in the mix? Six? Seven? More? It was no wonder that Karofsky looked so nervous when he had been found out again: each new person made the dynamic exponentially harder to predict.
Why had Karofsky not even mentioned Blaine as someone who knew his secret? Kurt wouldn't have invited him if he hadn't known, gay or not—so Karofsky must have intentionally omitted the curly haired boy from his tale.
The more Rachel thought about the entire situation and her conversations with the two very different gay boys during the day, the more confused she became. It may have just been residual shock from the need to recategorize the jock from homophobic to a formerly homophobic homosexual, but Rachel had this gut instinct that something didn't quite add up. Seeing that she could be a little psychic at times, this probably meant that one or both boys weren't being completely honest about the situation, and it was up to her to figure out just how. The singer took this as a sign that she would just have to get to know David a bit better in the days to come. She would learn about his likes and dislikes. She would connect with him. And then she would convince him to join New Directions, but only if he was sufficiently talented.
Rachel smiled as she drifted off into sleep, dreaming of a towering Nationals trophy she held aloft as the assembled members of New Directions, including David Karofsky, applauded her perfect solo that had given their team the edge.