This time, Kurt accepted the earplugs before stripping down and putting on a scratchy hospital gown. He slept through the MRI and woke up to see a nurse smiling reassuingly at him as she helped him up.
Kurt and Carole sat through the excrutiating wait once more in a hospital room. Kurt knew exactly what the sympathetic look on the doctor's face meant as he entered the room.
"You do seem to have a bit of a tumor." The man said, "It's a small malignant tumor in your chest, almost small enough to miss. We can start you on radiation therapy on Monday and we might be able to get rid of it before it gets any bigger."
Kurt's heart sank. He had made the plan to avoid treatment as long as possible, but he knew that it was just a matter of time before he had to have it. "Okay." He whispered, staring down at his lap.
Carole wrapped a comforting arm around her step-son and he rested his head on her shoulder. How was he going to tell his dad even more bad news? He couldn't stand the stress that he was already putting on him now.
xXx
On Sunday, Rachel was turning seventeen and had invited all of the glee kids to her house for a pool party. Kurt had went a little crazy looking for the right outfit. He wasn't planning on swimming, he wasn't going to mess up his hair like that. Also, embarassingly enough, he really couldn't swim.
"Kurt," Mercedes tilted her head as she watched Kurt's clothes freak out unfold in front of her. Kurt had invited her over to help him pick out an outfit and so far she had just sat on his bed and watched him closely. "you seem stressed out, what's up?"
"Nothing." Kurt said a little snippier than he was going for, "I just... can't find an outfit." He tossed a Marc Jacobs shirt to the side.
"I know you would never chuck a Marc Jacobs on the floor." Mercedes recovered the abused article of clothing from the floor. "I want answers."
Kurt sighed and stopped digging through his closet. "I'm just upset about some stuff." He chose to be vague, "Finn and Blaine are acting really weird, too."
"I noticed that, too. What kind of stuff?" Mercedes interrogated.
"I haven't been feeling well lately is all." Kurt admitted. He was seriously terrified of getting radiation therapy. It was supposedly painless, but Kurt was still scared. The only things Kurt knew about radiation was that it was bad and either made you grow extra limbs or gave you super powers.
"I thought that you looked a little sick." Mercedes nodded. "Maybe you should get more sleep, you stay up way too late."
Kurt rolled his eyes, "You keep me up with your constant texts and making plans to hang out in the wee hours of the night."
"Well, I'm sorry that I like hanging out with my bestest friend." Mercedes crossed her arms and stuck up her nose. "Just pick an outfit already, it's just Rachel, we are going to be late."
Kurt sighed and picked out one of his favorite outfits and made Mercedes turn around while he changed.
"Make sure to grab your SPF five-billion or whatever before we go." Mercedes reminded him.
"It's SPF seventy-five." Kurt corrected her.
"Whatever you say, Kurty." Mercedes joked.
Rachel's house was only a few houses down (Unfortunately for Kurt) so they walked over to the party. Finn was there helping one of Rachel's dads hang a banner that said, 'Happy Birthday to Our Shining Star!'. Tina, Mike, Brittany, Artie, Rory, Sam, Puck, and Quinn were hanging around the pool. Quinn was gazing longingly at the blue water, Kurt felt a little bad that she couldn't swim by herself but he knew someone would offer to carry her. Kurt almost gagged at the color scheme but held it back because he was actually already nauseous and if he puked on Rachel again she might faint.
"Hello, Mercedes, Kurt." Rachel skipped over to them then gazed behind Kurt as if she was looking for someone, "I see you didn't bring Karofsky."
"He told me that it wouldn't end well." Kurt shrugged.
"I can't say that he was wrong." Rachel linked one of her arms through Mercedes' and the other through Kurt's and dragged them over to the others.
"Hey guys." Mercedes greeted her friends.
The gleeks gave the newcomers assorted hellos.
"Okay," Rachel clapped her hands together, "I'm guessing that Sugar and Santana will not be joining us today. You can all swim now, food and cake in thirty minutes."
There were a few cheers as the gleeks bordering the pool jumped in. It was lucky that Rachel had such a big pool or else none of them would be able to swim. Puck let Artie wrap his arms around his kneck so that he could swim and Mercedes did the same for Quinn.
Rachel had disappeared inside to talk to the parents that had come along with their kids and thank them for coming. Kurt decided to just sit on one of the patio chairs near the pool and watch his friends splash around.
Kurt felt his phone vibrate and looked down to see that he had a text from David, 'Whatcha doin?' He smiled down at his phone and replied, 'Whatching celebratory functions take place in the form of a gleek filled swimming pool.'
'Ummmmmm... what?' Kurt chuckled at Dave's puzzled response.
'I can't swim so I'm watching everyone else swim.' Kurt tapped. 'Oh, I'll have to teach you how sometime. It's fun.' Dave replied. 'Okay thanks, I was kinda terrified of water until I turned fifteen.' Kurt admitted. 'That's bad. And by the way I have one rule when I teach you how to swim...'.
Kurt raised an eyebrow, 'And that is...?'
'No clothes ;D' Kurt slapped a hand over his mouth and felt a blush creep onto his face.
'This is where the conversation ends. Bye Dave.' Kurt typed quickly then shoved his phone into his pocket.
Kurt knew he was probably thinking too much into the text, but he kept wondering if Dave would get upset if he told him that he was abstinant. He didn't want Dave to break up with him but... Dave had needs didn't he?
"Finn," Rachel squealed, "what is wrong with you?"
Kurt snapped his head over to see Finn looking extremely upset and Blaine out of the pool, staring at the quarreling couple as in he were ready to get involved.
"What has gotten into you lately?" Rachel stomped a foot.
"None of your buisness." Finn shoved Rachel backwards and she fell down onto the hard concrete. Kurt was in front of him, pushing him away from Rachel, in a matter of seconds.
"Hey!" Kurt never thought that his brother would ever lay a hand on Rachel.
Someone pulled Kurt away from Finn, "Just back off, Kurt." He heard Blaine's voice.
The glee kids were staring as if they didn't know what to do except for Mercedes and Puck who had set Quinn and Artie down and were making their way towards the scene.
"Let go of me." Kurt snapped at Blaine as he wiggled free. He knelt beside his fallen friend, "Rachel, are you okay?" She nodded and Kurt glared back up at Finn, "You have to stop this behavior Finn, I want to know what's going on right now!"
Blaine pulled Kurt to his feet, "I said, back off, Kurt." He shoved Kurt away with more strength than Kurt knew he had. Kurt gasped as he felt himself tumble over the edge of the pool and into the water.
Kurt began to panic, he didn't like not being able to breathe. He thrashed around until he was above water again then flailed his arms in a desperate attempt to stay afloat. He heard Mercedes yelling at Finn and Blaine over the sounds of his frantic splashing.
"Oh," He heard Sam's voice, "he can't swim." Someone's arms wrapped around him and held him above the treacherous water.
"Th-thank you." Kurt gasped then looked over at the Finn/Blaine situation where the two boys were cooling down. They both ended up leaving, still a bit upset.
He pulled himself out of the pool and pulled out his ruined cell phone. His father was going to have a cow.
Kurt wasn't messing around anymore. He was going to figure out what was going on if it was the last thing he did.
xXx
A/N: Soooo what do you think is going on? Any guesses? You might find out next chapter or the chapter after that, who knows? I guess the plot has thickened! Ooooh... Reviews are nice therefore, you are nice if you review! It's simple logic :) Happy Mother's Day btw! My mamma spent part of her's getting an EKG, poor her!