A/N: Next chapter! AHHHHH! I'm so glad that I'm making progress on this story. Really guys, you don't even understand. I'm actually very happy at where this story is headed. But I'll quit talking and let you get to the story. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Glee, or anything else that seems familiar.

Enjoy!

"Hi, my name is Blaine Anderson, and I'm calling about ahh, Kurt Hummel."

"Hello? Um, did you know anyone by the name of Kurt Hummel?"

"Kurt Hummel? Know him?"

Clicks. Every single time he tried to get close to solving the mystery of Kurt by calling some of his "friends" it was a dead end. No one was talking. And Blaine was getting discouraged. He flopped down on his bed and tossed his phone down. Why all the secrets? Yes, Blaine was discouraged, but he wasn't giving up. His lifeline came that night, when his phone suddenly rang with an unknown number on the caller ID. Blaine shrugged and answered.

"Hello?"

"Hi. I'm looking for a Blaine Anderson?" It was a girl, high school age Blaine guessed.

"This is him."

"Hi Blaine. My name is Mercedes. Mercedes Jones. Word on the street is that you're digging into the Kurt Hummel file. Word to the wise, don't." Blaine's heart skipped a few beats, stopped, then started again with an aggressive pace.

"Oh. Uh, hi Mercedes. You knew Kurt?"

"Yes. I did. We were best friends. Or well, I thought we were." Blaine could hear the hurt and confusion that still leaked through her voice.

"Mercedes? I know this sounds really strange and off the wall and like it doesn't make any sense, and honestly it doesn't make any sense to me either and I'm not really sure where it all falls into place but-"

"Blaine?" Mercedes interrupted. "You want to hear about Kurt? Right?"

"Yes. I don't know how, but we're connected. I can't get him out of my mind. I just, I want to know him. I want to know about his life, and his death. Can you tell me about him?" He heard Mercedes sigh.

"Well, I just feel like I should warn you. It isn't pretty. The ending isn't some fairy tale where everybody lives a happily ever after. My boy Kurt never had it easy."

"Please Mercedes?"

"Okay. What do you wanna know?"

"Everything. Start from the beginning."

And that was how Blaine spent that night, and the next several after it. He heard the ins and outs of Kurt's life growing up. He laughed at Kurt's sense of humor, and cried when Mercedes described the constant everyday bullying. She was right; it wasn't pretty. She told him of the late night conversations she and Kurt had.

"He would call me, crying, telling me that there was no way he could ever tell his parents, that there was no way they would ever understand. I'd cry with him, then he'd tell me that he had hurt himself again. It was almost as if he knew I didn't approve, because he would start apologizing and crying even harder. Lots of time I would just drive over to his house and hold him until he would stop. He was never happy. It was very rare to see him happy. But it did happen on occasion. You would see a glimpse of a smile, the passing of a chuckle, and you just knew that the real Kurt was underneath there somewhere. There was hope."

It was the third night of phone calls when they reached the end. Blaine felt as if he already knew what happened. But he needed to hear it from Mercedes.

"It wasn't sudden. I mean, it was, but all the same, it wasn't. Kurt had shut himself off from everyone. Well, as you know, everyone meant his family, and me. He didn't talk, he stopped dressing so… Kurt-like, and started dressing more plain. T-shirts and jeans every day. He stopped taking as much time and care into his appearance. I was worried. But every time I tried speaking to him he closed off again, and ran off. One Wednesday I noticed he was especially distant. I kept trying to talk to him, but he avoided me like the plague. That night he was really on my mind. I prayed for him, and then picked up the phone to call him. He actually answered, which was surprising to me. We chatted for a few minutes, then he told me that he had to go, that he had a few things to take care of before the morning. But before we hung up, he told me that he loved me. He thanked me for being the best friend he could have ever asked for. Then we hung up. If I had known that would be the last time we'd talk, I would have held on longer. I would have begged for just a few more minutes. I would have listened to his voice, memorizing it in my mind. But I didn't. I let him go, and I went to sleep.

"It was a Thursday. I always hated Thursdays. I arrived at school and everyone was quiet. Usually, I mean, you know how high school is, loud and chaotic, but that day it wasn't. I knew something was off. I kept asking, what's going on? What happened? Why is it so quiet? But no one would answer me. They just stared at the ground. Several girls were crying. I ran all the way to the choir room to find our Glee Club coach, Mr. Shue. He was sitting at the piano, his shoulders shaking as he cried. I asked him what was going on, and why everyone was so sad. He just stared at me with a look of pity on his face and told me that Kurt was gone, that he had killed himself that morning." Blaine heard Mercedes stop and breathe in deeply a few times, trying to regain her composure. Blaine was patient. He knew it was hard for her, reliving that day.

"It's okay Mercedes. Just go on whenever you can." A few more sniffles were heard, then she spoke again.

"Thanks Blaine. Uhm, well, after he told me I just kinda lost it. I ran out of the school. I left. Ran straight to the playground and fell to the ground, screaming. It wasn't fair, what happened to him. I didn't learn all the details until later. Blaine, Kurt was a self-harmer. I told you that. Well, it led to his death. Kurt didn't just cut. He etched the names of all the people who had let him down onto his body. When they found him, all the cuts were still bleeding. He had overdosed after finishing all the names. They told me this later. My parents watched me really closely after it happened. I guess they were scared of what it might do to me. The pain in my heart, was just unbearable. I didn't go back to school for a few weeks. When I did, it was different. Everything had changed; my best friend was gone."

That night, after discussing with Mercedes all the events surrounding Kurt's death, they hung up. But Blaine couldn't sleep. He couldn't think. He paced back and forth, he tossed and turned, and before he had a chance to think twice about it, Blaine was in his car on the way to Lima. What he was going to do when he got there, he wasn't sure. He just knew he needed to go.

It was a long trip to Lima. Blaine rode the entire way in silence, letting his thoughts fill the empty spaces. It was almost as if he was on an information overload. He had heard and learned so much about a person who had been a total mystery just days before. It was late, and Blaine knew that he'd be facing hell when he went back home. Whenever that was.

It was early morning when Blaine reached the Lima city limits. He had driven through the night, his adrenaline and anger keeping him awake. The sun was beginning to peak over the horizon. Blaine didn't know where exactly he was headed. He hadn't been here in years, but he trusted his instinct to lead him wherever he needed to be.

Turned out that it was the cemetery. Blaine parked his car and began to walk. The Lima cemetery was not a large one, so it didn't take long at all for Blaine to find the lone stone marked Hummel. Blaine knelt in front of it and slowly traced his fingers over the letters one by one. Underneath the name and dates was a small word, in script writing. It stated simply, Courage. And that was all it took for Blaine to burst into tears. He cried and cried for the boy he had never known. Or, for the boy he had no memory of ever knowing. That seemed to be all he could do anymore was cry. But after a little bit, Blaine's tears dried. He thought back on his life, and compared it to Kurt's life. Yes, Blaine had been lucky enough to have enough courage in his heart to be honest with himself and who he really was, but he and Kurt were actually very similar. What if Blaine had come out to all of his friends in Lima and had been shunned as Kurt had? Would he have had the same fate? Blaine realized now more than ever just how lucky he truly was. And how a simple chance had separated the fates of him and one Kurt Hummel.

After too long Blaine figured he should head home and face whatever was coming his way from his parents. As he was driving, he began to talk. Maybe to God, maybe to himself, he wasn't really sure. But he just said out loud everything he was feeling and thinking, hoping that maybe it would began to make sense, or that some divine source would send him the message, tell him exactly what it was that he was meant to do with his knowledge of Kurt.

"It could have been me. I could have easily been the one humiliated and tortured every single day. But I wasn't. For whatever reason I was the lucky one. But I just don't know what to do now. I just know that there's got to be more than this. There's got to be some greater purpose to life than simply living, making money, then dying. There's gotta be something else. Something bigger than just me." And that was when it hit him, and Blaine knew exactly what it was that he was meant to do.

Yeah. So Blaine's starting to get closer to the answers... that'll come in the next few chapters. I hope you are enjoying following Blaine on his journey as much as I am!

Please review and let me know what this story means to you. Does it bring up a painful memory, make you want to do something about a problem you see? I hope so. because in my mind, if this story touches just one person, it will have served its purpose. I want to hear from you. I love hearing responce about my writing, or just making new friends through common experiences. So be bold. Leave a review. Message me. Just stand up and speak out.

I love you all bunches! :)

Until next time,

Always Remember to Smile!

Olivia