xXx
Kurt turned over onto his side. He wasn't a big fan of laying on a metal table, half naked, waiting for some woman to stick a giant needle in his back, but he didn't exactly have much of a choice. No matter how many times the lady told him that it wouldn't hurt too much, he was still pretty sure it would be agonizing.
"I just injected pain killer so the extraction site should numb up soon." She said as if that would makke him feel any better.
"I think I'm going to feel a giant needle going into my spine." Kurt glared at the wall. He knew it wasn't her fault that this had to happen, but he had the right to be upset.
"Don't worry, sweety." The lady said reassuringly.
By now Kurt was pretty sure he had Leukemia, but apparently the monthly complete blood counts or whatever, weren't accurate enough. They had to put the biggest needle he had ever seen, in his spine and take some bone marrow, then, in a couple days he would have his fears confirmed once again and go back to being sad all over again. He only felt bad that his father and Carole seemed so hopeful that there could have been some kind of mix up and he knew that they would go back to being sad again.
Kurt clasped his wrist tightly in his opposite hand, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. He was right, bone marrow extractions do hurt. A lot.
When it was over, the woman told Kurt to stay still for at least ten minutes.
"What the hell kind of pain medication was that?" Kurt snapped.
The woman chuckled, "I was hoping it was the kind that makes you fall asleep. I almost considered popping some heavy duty sleeping pills in your mouth with all your wiggling."
"I'm not a big fan of needles that go through bones." Kurt shivered at the thought of what had just happened.
"Well," The woman replied, "Hopefully the bone piercing needle can bring us some good news."
"I doubt it." Kurt sighed. "I've come to terms with this."
"You should always have hope." The woman answered.
"Why?" Kurt wanted to roll over to look at her, but he couldn't. "I know what's going to happen."
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah." Kurt nodded, "I'm going to suffer for a long time then die."
"That's pretty negative." The woman finally came into his line of vision and pulled a chair up next to the examination table. "How do you know?"
"I saw it happen to my mother." Kurt said. "She wouldn't admit it, but I knew that she was suffering. I was a smart kid."
"Oh." The woman lowered her eyes to her lap then back up to Kurt. "Well, it really depends on who you have to get you through it." She gave him a pat on the shoulder then got up and disappeared out the door. A few minutes later Burt and Carole entered the room.
"Hey kiddo." Burt smiled at him.
"How's it going honey?" Carole asked.
"I'm fine." Kurt said, "But could you ask for some heavy duty pain medication?"
Burt chuckled, "It couldn't hurt that bad."
"Actually," Kurt admitted, "I was going to sell it to fuel my skinny jean addiction."
"Is that where my Vikodin is disappearing to?" Carole asked suspiciously.
"Well," Burt checked his watch, "Finn is going to be upset that I probably can't make it to that movie with him."
"I'll text him." Carole offered. She had just learned how to text and used far too many emoticons and acronyms so it might take Finn a while to figure it out.
"You should have stayed home." Kurt told Burt (A/N: Oh my god, their names rhyme!), "I'm sixteen, I can drive."
"Not just after getting pain killer." Carole pointed out.
"Plus," Burt added, "I wouldn't want to miss your first bone marrow examination."
"Wow," Kurt said sarcatically, "what a great first."
"Kurt," Burt sat down in the chair that the nurse had pulled up and took one of Kurt's hands in his. Kurt wondered why he was smmiling like that. "I know you'll be okay."
Kurt's heart sank at the look of hope on his father's face, "What?"
"I know," Burt said, "I know you'll be fine. They make mistakes all the time I'll bet. I have good karma." Kurt had told his father all about karma one day and he seemed to have taken it to heart. He always donated to the salvation army Santa Clauses at Christmas time and he only yelled at people as a last resort, resolving conflicts peacfully. Now he thought... "I've been a good person. You've been a good person. This can't..."
Kurt realized that he had stopped because Kurt had started to cry. He didn't think he could stand to have his dad's hopes crushed again. "Dad," Kurt choked out, "there's a big chance that they got it right. It's hereditary, we can't change that."
Burt was, once again, close to tears. "Your mother had you while she was in remission." He said.
Kurt shook his head. "That doesn't matter."
Burt and Carole were both silent for the last few minutes. The nurse rushed in and told Kurt that he could go now.
When Kurt went to sit up, he felt pain where he had been stabbed with by the needle-happy nurse. "I never want to have another needle that big stabbed in me again." Kurt groaned. "I'll just say 'no thanks, I'll tough it out' and be on my merry little way."
Carole gave him a small smile but Burt wouldn't look at him.
xXx
When they all got back home, Finn was upset. "Where were you all without me?" He asked. He had that kicked puppy dog face that Kurt once found adorable, now it was just irritating.
"Nowhere honey." Carole told him.
Kurt's back was still sore. The nurse had told him that it would probably hurt for the next couple of days. The next couple of days were going to suck.
"Sorry about the movie, buddy." Burt appologized.
"It's okay." Kurt heard Finn mutter under his breath, "I know you were too busy being 'nowhere'." Which was odd. Finn normally didn't get upset about those things.
"Are you PMS-ing or something?" Kurt hissed quietly as Burt and Carol left the room.
Finn glared at him, which was also pretty un-Finn-like unless they had been fighting and Kurt could feel a brother fight coming on after his comment. Finn opened his mouth, probably to give a poorly thought out reply but then he seemed to change his mind, "Why are you walking funny?"
Kurt hadn't realized that he had his back held as straight as possible and it must have looked funny when he walked. "No reason." Kurt tried to resume his normal perfect posture, but his lower back began to hurt again and he quickly went back into his awkward straight-backed posture.
An evil smile crept across Finn's face. He knew that Kurt's back hurt which was totally bad because whenever Finn and Kurt got into a physical fight, Finn always won and now he had another advantage. "Poor Kurt." Finn said and patted him on the back only a few inches above where the needle had gone in.
Kurt squeaked and jumped which just increased the pain even more. "Finn, that is not funny!" Kurt growled as Finn burst into laughter. Kurt would have hit him back, but it hurt to move. "Why are you so upset today anyway?"
Finn crossed his arms defensively, "What makes you think that I'm upset?"
"Stop avoiding the subject." Kurt said.
"Like mom avoided telling me where you were and you avoided telling me what happened to your back?" Finn challenged.
"If you're so ever curious," Kurt retorted, "I fell down and hurt myself and so they took me to the hospital to make sure I didn't break anything. Now, I am going to bed."
Kurt turned and headed towards the hallway. Behind him, he heard Finn mutter, "Good luck with the stairs then."
xXx
Monday had finally arrived and Kurt had found his cell phone under his bed when he woke up to the sound of Teenage Dream, a song that he now despised. Blaine had insisted that it be his ringtone, but after so many texts, it got old.
Kurt grabbed his phone and found that he had thirty-two texts. Twenty-four were from Blaine, five were from various glee girls, asking what shirt looked better, two were from random numbers telling him to kill himself, and the last one was from David.
Kurt read David's first after deleting the two from the random numbers and blocking them.
'So how about I become a three night stand and we hang out after school. We could go to the library and send angry e-mails to other people we hate.' Kurt smiled and texted back: 'Whoever discovered Lima and Colonel Sanders? I'm in!'. He read through the texts from his girls and sent answers to those who required them then erased the messages from Blaine. No matter how much he wanted to read them, Kurt wouldn't dare to open them.
Kurt got a reply from David while he was getting dressed and quickly looked ot it. 'What do you have against KFC? D:' Kurt laughed and texted back, 'They fired me for critisizing a woman's outfit. I still can't go within one mile of them legally because of the tantrum I threw.' A few minutes later he got back, 'That somehow doesn't surprise me, but don't blame the colonal!'.
Kurt finally got dressed. He had to be careful not to move around too much because his back was very sore.
Kurt made sure to check what Burt was eating for breakfast before he headed towards the door, warning Finn to hurry up before he left him.
Finn spooned his cereal into his mouth as fast as he could. Burt asked Kurt three times if he wanted to stay home from school because he looked sick.
"Thank you dad," Kurt said sarcastically, "for making me feel oh so confident in my appearence, I appreciate it."
"No problem." His dad called out.
Finn finally finished his cereal and thrust the bowl into the sink (which is why they used Carole's plastic bowls instead of the really nice glass plates that were passed down in Kurt's mother's side of the family).
While Kurt was at his locker he felt a tap on his shoulder. He was hoping to see Dave when he turned around, but instead, Blaine was standing there smiling as if nothing had happened that weekend. Blaine must not have gotten the e-mail or something, because only a few seconds after Kurt turned around, he was pushed back into the lockers by a very unexpected, and surprisingly forceful, kiss.
Kurt shoved Blaine back, using his anger, frustration, and now an extreme pain in his back, to generate enough power to push him back if only a few inches.
"What-"
"What the hell do you think you're doing, Blaine?" Kurt yelled at him. Just when he thought that his back pain was residing, too.
Blaine looked thoroughly confused, "We kiss every morning." He explained.
Kurt crossed his arms and gave Blaine the most infuriated look that he could muster. "Don't you get it, Blaine? There was a reason that I wrote that e-mail and ignored your texts, can't you take a hint?"
"Kurt," Blaine shook his head, "you're still mad about Saturday?"
"What do you mean 'still'?" Kurt asked, "It was two days ago!"
"Trust me, babe," Blaine put took Kurt's hands in his, but Kurt yanked his away. "you're just overreacting. I talked to Sebastion and explained that you're the one I love, he's just... sex."
Actually, Blaine and Sebastion's conversation went a little like:
'Now he's out of the way and we can be together.'
'Shut up Sebastion.'
'Why are you acting like you care?'
'I do care, you freaking idiot!'
'Why? Screw him, you have me.'
'I don't want you, you're annoying.'
'I think you have your boyfriends mixed up.'
'No. I have one boyfriend, and it's definately not you.'
'But-'
'You agreed, this is just sex. I. Love. Kurt.'
'I thought we-'
'I swear to god, if you say bonded I am going to laugh my ass off.'
'Blaine-'
'Just leave, Sebastion.'
'Call me when you stop being a bitch, Blaine.'
"That's disgusting." Kurt glared.
"What?" Blaine asked.
"Who knows who that- Sebastion has slept with before you." Kurt pointed out. "He's a slut." Kurt tried to remind himself that Sebastion wasn't the one he hated, it was Blaine. It felt an awful lot like he just hated Sebastion though.
Blaine chuckled, "Jealous are we?"
Kurt had never seen Blaine act like such a jerk. Why was everyone getting mean all of a sudden? He was diagnosed with cancer and you don't see him kicking puppies! Oh yeah, he just called Sebastion a slut.
"Just leave me alone." Kurt growled.
"Where's David to enforce your little rule, anyways?" Blaine smirked.
Kurt couldn't take any more of it. He tucked his head and hurried away to his first class.
xXx
David's fists were clenched at his sides. He was practically shaking with rage at a text that Kurt had sent him that morning. He didn't even remember walking to the chior room after school, just punching Anderson in his smug-ass, rich little face.
"Learn to keep your fucking hands to yourself." He yelled at the much shorter boy who was holding his face.
He knew that the glee boys would come after him with Kurt not there yet to defend him. He decided to let them, it was totally worth it.