Blaine walked into the choir room with Kurt that day, not expecting anything special, even if it was his birthday. However, to his surprise, when he walked into the choir room, everyone wished him a happy birthday.

"Happy birthday, Blaine," Rachel said. "It must feel good to finally be seventeen."

"Uh, actually, I'm eighteen, but thank you, Rachel" Blaine said, not realizing how big of a deal that one statement was going to be.

"But you're a junior," Rachel said.

"I know," Blaine said, wishing that everyone would just drop it. However, Blaine knew the members of New Directions, and the chances of them just dropping the subject were about as likely as Mr. Shuster getting rid of his sweater vests and skinny ties.

"But if you're eighteen, why are you a junior? Shouldn't you be a senior like Kurt?" Artie asked.

"Look guys, can we just drop it?" Blaine asked.

"Wait," Puck said. "Were you held back?"

"Just drop it," Blaine repeated.

"Oh my god," Santana laughed. "Gel boy washeld back."

"But you were at Dalton," Tina said. "And they're a lot harder than here."

"Dude, you're smart. What, did you like, fail kindergarten or something?" Finn as he started to laugh.

"Just stop!" Blaine yelled. He just couldn't take it anymore. Everyone in the room stopped talking and laughing and looked at Blaine. They had never seen him have an outburst like that before. Ever. Blaine was always quiet and cheerful, even when other members of the club were yelling about the latest drama, but now he was yelling at everyone to just be quiet. And he looked like he was on the verge of tears. "Just stop."

"Seriously, man," Puck said. "Just calm down."

"Just calm down?" Blaine asked, incredulously. "You guys just don't get it, do you?"

"Get what?" Rachel asked. Blaine didn't miss the accusatory tone in her voice.

"That maybe there is a good reason why I'm eighteen and a junior and all of you just start jumping to your own absurd conclusions. That maybe I would have told you when I was ready to tell you guys. That maybe it's just really none of your business why I'm an eighteen year old junior," Blaine explained with anger. What he needed right now is a long go at a punching bag.

"So why don't you just tell us?" Rachel asked.

Blaine closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Did Rachel Berry seriously believe that she had to know everything about everyone?

Sometime during all of this, Kurt came up behind Blaine and put a hand on his shoulder. "You don't have to tell them anything," he said.

"Yes he does," Rachel insisted.

"Why should he have to tell you guys anything? You've all treated him like crap, especially today. It's his business, not yours," Kurt said angrily.

"It's ok, Kurt," Blaine said softly. "I can tell them."

"You really don't have to if you don't want to."

Blaine sighed. "I know, but they would have found out eventually anyway."

"Ok," Kurt whispered, slightly nervous. When Blaine had told Kurt about everything, Blaine had completely broken down in tears. Kurt really didn't want the same thing to happen again. "Do you want me to stay here or…?"

"Stay," Blaine answered. "Please."

"Ok."

Blaine closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Here goes nothing, Blaine thought. "Before I went to Dalton, I was at the public school in Westerville. When I was a freshman, there was a Sadie Hawkins dance and I – I asked the only other out gay guy at school if he wanted to go with me. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Just two guys going as friends. I didn't really think anything of it and didn't really think that anyone else would have any problems with it either."

Blaine paused and took another deep breath, knowing that he still had the worst part of his story to tell. "The dance went fine. It wasn't really anything special, but then my date and I decided to leave. We were in the parking lot, waiting for his dad to pick us up when –when three guys came up and – and they – they beat the living crap out of us."

Blaine had tears in his eyes that were threatening to fall, but he had to finish his story. He just couldn't stop. "I don't really remember much after that. I was in a coma for a month and in the hospital even longer. I missed a ton of school because of that. So, when I finally did go back to school, I was so far behind that it didn't even bother to try to catch up. I knew that I was going to fail anyway. After that, I convinced my parents to let me go to Dalton, but after failing my freshman year at Westerville, I had to redo it at Dalton."

A few tears had escaped Blaine's eyes at some point during the story, but he really didn't pay attention to it. He was too far lost in his own memories for him to pay attention to tears falling. A strong squeeze on his hand by Kurt brought Blaine back to the present. His face felt wet and immediately he brought his free hand up to wipe off his face.

Blaine glanced around the room and looked at the faces of the rest of the members of New Directions. All of them were wearing expressions of shock and disbelief. A few of the girls had tears in their eyes.

"Blaine…" Tina started but she trailed off, clearly unsure of what exactly she should say.

Then Rachel spoke up and said, "Blaine we had no idea."

"Well, now you know. It's not something I generally talk about and I'm sure now you all realize why that is," Blaine said.

"Blaine, we're really sorry," Tina said, apologizing for the whole group.

"Look, you guys didn't know. But right now, I think I really just need some time," Blaine said.

"Blaine turned to Kurt who immediately gave Blaine a hug. "I love you so much," Kurt said.

"I love you, too. I'll see you later," Blaine said.

"Ok," Kurt responded, knowing full well that Blaine had every intention of going to the gym to beat a punching bag for the next hour.

Blaine left the room without another word.

"Dude, did you know?" Finn asked.

"About his attack? Yes. He told me last year before Prom," Kurt said.

"That would explain why he seemed so nervous last year. I thought he just didn't like the school," Santana said.

Kurt was just silent.

"Was it because he's gay?" Brittany asked.

Kurt looked over at Brittany and said, "Yes."

"Whoa. Because he's gay?" Puck asked. "That's so not cool."

"It's life," Kurt said. "Karofsky bullied me enough to make me transfer schools because I was gay."

"Yeah, but he didn't beat the living crap out of you and make you go to a hospital," Finn reasoned.

"And that makes it ok?" Kurt asked. "I had to transfer schools. Blaine got beat up and put in a hospital. Either way, it's not right, but it's life and it's really not fair."

"But, Kurt," Finn tried again, but Kurt cut him off.

"But what Finn? Life isn't fair. It sucks, but there's nothing we can do about it."

"Kurt's right," Rachel said. "We can't do anything about that. But we can practice so we can win at Regionals."

Everyone got up from their chairs so they could start rehearsal.

"Wait, that's it? You guys are just going to move on and rehearse? After everything that Blaine just told you?" Kurt asked in disbelief.

"You just got done saying that there's nothing we could do," Santana said.

Kurt shook his head and groaned. "I meant there's nothing we could do to change the past. Blaine is still dealing with this stuff and needs his friends. And Blaine's not even here. How is rehearsing now going to help anything?"

"Blaine doesn't want us right now. He wanted to be alone," Quinn reminded Kurt.

Yeah, but doesn't this group usually find a song to sing to show their support or something, Kurt thought. Or maybe it's just different because it's Blaine.

"You know what? Fine. Rehearse. I'll see you guys tomorrow," Kurt said before going to grab his and Blaine's bags.

The rest of the group tried to get Kurt's attention but he didn't even care anymore. They had never treated Blaine like a member of the group. Why should now be any different?

Kurt walked out to his car to wait for Blaine to be done. He knew it would be a while, but it didn't really matter. After about an hour of waiting, Kurt saw Blaine walk out of the school and toward his car, which was conveniently parked next to Kurt's.

Kurt got out of his car and walked over to Blaine.

Blaine looked surprised. "What are you still doing here?"

"What, I couldn't wait for you to be done? Besides, you left your bag in the choir room," Kurt said, handing over Blaine's bag.

"Thank you. But why are you still here?"

"I just wanted to make sure that you are doing ok."

"I'm fine. Boxing really helps."

"I'm glad you're feeling better," Kurt said.

"Kurt, why do I get the feeling that something's going on?" Blaine asked hesitantly.

Kurt took a deep breath. "It's nothing. I just had a little something with the rest of the group and long story short, I skipped rehearsal today."

"What happened?" Blaine asked.

"It's not important."

"What happened?" Blaine asked again.

"Look, we just talked about what you said after you left and then they decided to continue with rehearsal."

Kurt watched Blaine fit the pieces together in their mind. "So they just went on about their business as usual?"

Kurt sighed. "Yeah."

"Look, I don't expect them to change their lives because of what happened to me, Kurt. I really don't," Blaine explained.

"But, still, after everything that you just told them. They should have done something."

"Like what, Kurt? What could they have done?"

"I don't know, Blaine. But they are just going about their daily lives like it doesn't matter."

"Kurt, you can't expect them to just drop everything."

"But, they should do something."

"I guess, but I would want them to do it because they want to, not because they feel obligated to do something. And if they don't see it as a big deal, that's their decision, I guess."

"But—"

"Kurt, could we please not talk about it anymore. If they do something, great. But if they don't, I wouldn't be surprised. However, was I expecting them to do something? Maybe. I mean they always seem to do things to cheer up the group, but if they choose not to do it for me, I guess that's just how it is."

Kurt sighed, knowing there really was no point in continuing to argue about it with Blaine. And really, Kurt knew that Blaine had a point. If they were going to do something, they would do it and if they weren't planning on doing something, that's just how it was going to be.

"So do you want to come over to my house?" Kurt asked. "We could watch some movies or something."

"That sounds awesome," Blaine said. Maybe this birthday would turn out all right. After all, he couldn't really complain about cuddling with Kurt on the couch while watching movies, could he?

Author's Note:

So this is pretty much an 'I'm sorry for being late with the previous chapter'. Anyway, here's the next one, which was one of my favorites to write. Also, as far as an update schedule goes, I'm still trying to figure out how exactly I'm going to do it because of the posting with these last two. Either way, the next chapter will be up in a week for sure.

Please consider leaving a review. I really value your feedback, positive or negative. Thanks for reading.